would now quiet his eager Spirit but to put it to the question whether the Lordships were not content to open their Doors wide and to let all the Bishops out if they would The Lord Keeper Replied with a prudent Animosity That if he were Commanded he would put it to the Question but to the King and not to the House of Peers For their Lordships as well Spiritual as Temporal were call'd by the King 's Writ to sit and abide there till the same Power dissolv'd them And for my Lords Temporal they had no Power to License themselves much less to Authorize others to depart from the Parliament With which Words of irrefragable Wisdom that Spirit was conjur'd down as soon as it was rais'd But when the House was swept and made clean it returned again in our dismal Days with seven other Spirits worse than it self The Motion was then in the Infancy and we heard no more of it till it was grown to be a Giant and dispossessed our Reverend Fathers of their ancient Possession and Primigenious Right by Club-Law Let my Apostrophe plead with our Nobles in no Man's Words but Cicero's to Cataline In vastitate omnium tuas possessiones sacrosanctas futuras putas Could your Lordships imagine to limit Gun-Powder and Wild-Fire to blow up one half of the Foundation and to spair the other half When the Pillars of the Church were pluckt down could the Pillars of the State be strong enough to support the Roof of their own Dignity They should have thought upon it when they pill'd the Bark off the Tree that the Tree would flourish no more but quickly come to that Sentence Cut it down Why cumbereth it the Ground 92. Our Forefathers when they met in Parliament were wont to auspicate their great Counsels with some remarkable Favour of Priviledge or Liberality conferr'd upon the Church And because the Prelates and their Clergy were more concern'd than any in the Benefit of the Statutes made before the Art of Printing was found out they were committed to the Custody of their Religious Mansions The Reward of those Patriots was like their Work and God did shew he was in the midst of them They began in Piety they proceeded in Prudence they acted marvelously to the Maintainance of the Publick Weal and they Concluded in Joy and Concord But since Parliaments of latter Editions have gone quite another way to hearken to Tribunitial Orators that defamed the Ministry to encourage Projectors that would disseize them of their Patrimony when the Nobles from whom better was expected wax'd weary of them who were Twins born in the same Political Administration Samnium in Samnio We may look for England in England and find nothing but New England How are we fallen from our ancient Happiness How Diseased are we grown with the Running Gout of Factions How often have those great Assemblies been cut off unkindly on both sides before their Consultations were mellow and fit for Digestion We look for much and it came to little Was it not because the Lord did blow it away Hag. 1.9 It is not good to be busie in the Search of Uncertainties that are not pleasing yet they that will not trouble themselves to consider this Reason may find divers Irritations to Jars in the Causes below but I believe they will not reduce them better to the Cause of Causes from above From hence came Fierceness and Trouble upon this Session and God sent evil Angels among them Psal 78.49 For the House of Commons seem'd to the King to step out of their Way from the Bills they were preparing into the Closet of his Majesty's Counsels which put him to make Answer to them in a Stile that became his Soveraignty The King's Son-in-Law taking upon him the Title of King of Bohemia sore against the Father-in Law 's Mind the Emperor being in lawful Possession of that Kingdom over-run the greatest part of the Palatinate with some Regiments of Old Soldiers whereof the most were Spanish under the Conduct of Marquess Spinola Our King received the Injury no less than as a deep Wound gash'd into his own Body And all true English Hearts which did not smell of the Roman Wash were greatly provoked with the Indignity Prince and People were alike affected to maintain the Palsgrave in his Inheritance but several Ways They that are of one Mind are not always of one Passion The King assay'd to stop the Fury of the Imperialists by Treaty The Votes of the bigger Number of the House of Commons propounds nothing but War with Spain and this they could not do but in Civility they must first break off the Treaty of Marriage then in Proposition between the King 's dearest Son and the Infanta Maria. Neither of which pleased his Majesty in the Matter and but little in the Form that his Subjects should meddle in those high Points which he esteemed no less than the Jewels of his Crown before he had commended them to be malleated upon their Anvil The Matter that the Match with the Spanish Princess should be intended no more was dis-relishable because he esteemed her Nation above any other to be full of Honour in their Friendship and their Friendship very profitable for the enriching of Trade The Lady her self was highly famed for Virtue Wisdom and Beauty The Noble House of which she came had ever afforded fortunate Wives to the Kings of this Land and gracious with the People Her Retinue of her own Natives should be small and her Portion greater than ever was given with a Daughter of Spain And in the League that should run along with it the Redintegration of the Prince Elector in the Emperors Favor whom he had offended should be included Therefore his Majesty wrote thus to the Parliament We are so far engaged in the Match that we cannot in Honour go back except the King of Spain perform not such things as we expect at his Hands Some were not satisfied of which more in a larger Process that our Prince should marry a Wise of the Pontifician Religion For as Man's Soul contracts Sin as soon as it toucheth the Body so their severe and suspicious Thoughts were as consident as if they had been the Lustre of Prophetick Light that a Protestant could not but be corrupted with a Popish Wedlock Therefore the King took in hand to cure that Melancholy Fit of Superstitious Fear with this Passage that he sent in his Message at the same time If the Match shall not prove a Furtherance to Religion I am not worthy to be your King A well-spirited Clause and agreeable to Holy Assurance that Truth is more like to win than lose Could the Light of such a Gospel as we profess be eclips'd with the Interposition of a single Marriage A faint hearted Soldier coming near in his March to an Ambush unawares Plut vit Pelop. Cry'd out to his Leader Pelopidas Incidimus in hostes We are fallen among the Enemy No Man says his
find by his own Confession remaining in some Schedules that he was beholding to Lord Egerton's Directions to fill up the Worth of that Place which were these First To open his sincere and intimate Mind in all Advice which is indeed to give Counsel and not Words For he that speaks against his Conscience to please the King gives him a dry Flower to smell to Secondly Whatsoever was propos'd to examine primarily if it were just For he that dare make bold with God for Reasons of State is not to be trusted by Man There can be no Reason against Right Velleius says that Cato the Heathen was of that Opinion Cui id solum visum est rationem habere quod haberet justitiam 2. If it were for the Honour of the King for Crown-wisdom must not be soil'd with the Dust of Baseness but aim at Glory 3. If it were profitable as well for the Ages to come as for the present Use for present Occasions are mortal but a Kingdom is immortal If it hit not every Joynt of Just Honourable and Profitable he voted to lay it aside He kept other Rules at the Table but more dispensable As to mature great Matters with slow Deliberation at least to give them a second Hearing after himself and his Colleagues had laid their Heads upon their Pillows Next he called upon the King to follow the beaten Tract of former Precedents For new ways are visibly the Reproach of ancient Wisdom and run the Hazard of Repentance New Stars have appeard and vanish'd the ancient Asterisms remain there 's not an old Star missing Likewise it was his modest but frequent Motion that Counsels should not be whispered by one or two in a Corner but delivered openly at the Board by the sworn Ministers For what avails it when a Globe of Senators have press'd sound Judgment if some for their own Ends shall overthrow it who have made Blastus their Friend in Agrippa's Chamber Act. 12. The Lord Cooke's Jurisdiction of Courts Pag. 57. gives it for a special Note of his own Observation when he was a Privy Counselsellor that when a thing upon Debate and Deliberation is well resolv'd at the Council-Table the Change thereof upon some private Information is neither safe nor honourable As Seneca says Lib. 2. de Benif Vota homines parciùs faccrent si palam facienda essint If all Prayers were made in the Hearing of a publick Assembly many that are mumbled in Private wou'd be omitted for Shame So if all Counsels offer'd to Princes were spread out before many Witnesses Ear-Wiggs that buzz what they think fit in the retir'd Closet durst not infect the Royal Audience with pernicious Glozing for fear of Scandal or Punishment Well did the Best of our Poets of this Century decipher a Corrupt Court in his Under-woods Pag. 227 When scarce we hear a publick Voice alive But whisper'd Counsels and these only thrive Lastly He deprecated continually and obtained that private Causes should be distinguished from Publick that Actions of Meum and Tuum should be repulsed from the Council-Board and kept within the Channel of the Common-Law But to run along with the Complacemia of the Multitude with that which was most cry'd up in the Town by our Gallants at Taverns and Ordinaries he defy'd it utterly Populo super â—canea est calliditas says Salust The Peoples Heads are not lin'd with the Knowledge of the Kingdoms Government 't is above their Perimeter When they obey they are in their Wits when they prescribe they are mad Excellently King James in one of his Speeches Who can have Wisdom to judge of things of that Nature arcana imperii but such as are daily acquainted with the Particulars of Treaties and the variable and fixed Connexion of Affairs of State together with the Knowledge of the secret Ways Ends and Intention of Princes in their several Negotiations Otherwise small Mistakings in Matters of this Nature may produce worse Effects than can be imagined He gave this Warning very sagely to his People what Warning he received from his faithful Servant the Lord Keeper shall be the Close of this Subject His Majesty being careful to set his House within himself in good Order against he came to the Holy Communion on the Eve before he sent for this Bishop as his Chaplain to confer with him about Sacred Preparation for that Heavenly Feast who took Opportunity when the King's Conscience was most tender and humble to shew him the way of a good King as well as of a good Christian in these Points First To call Parliaments often to affect them to accord with them To which Proposal he fully won his Majesty's Heart Secondly To allow his Subjects the Liberty and Right of the Laws without entrenching by his Prerogative which he attended to with much Patience and repented he had not lookt into that Counsel sooner Thirdly To contract his great Expences and to give with that Moderation that the Prince his Son and his succeeding Posterity might give as well as He. In short to contrive how to live upon his own Revenue or very near it that he might ask but little by way of Subsidy and he should be sure to have the more given him But of all the three Motions there was the least Hope to make him hear of that Ear. For though he would talk of Parsimony as much as any yet he was lavish and could keep no Bounds in Spending As Paterculus observes of an Emperor that wrote to the Senate Triumphum appararent quà m minimo sumtu sed quantus alias nunquam fuisset To be a great Saver and a great Spender is hard to be reconciled for it toucheth the Hem of a Contradiction But since the Benefit of that Counsel would not rest upon the Head of the King the Honesty of it returned again to him that gave it 98. Who had the Abilities of two Men in one Breast and filled up the Industry of two Persons in one Body He satisfied the King's Affairs in the Civil Theatre and performed the Bishops Part in the Church of Christ As 〈◊〉 and Jehojada were great Judges in the Land and ministred before the Lord to their Linnen Ephods The Custody of the Great Seal would not admit him so long as he kept it to visit his Diocess himself but though he was not upon the Soil of the Vineyard he was in the Tower of it to over-look the Vine-Dressors Though he was absent in his Body he was present in the Care and Watchfulness of his Spirit and as our Saviour said of the Woman that poured her precious Spikenard upon him Quod potuit fecit Marc. 14.8 So I doubt not but God did accept it from him that he did what he could He heard often from those whom he had surrogated and appointed in Office to give him Information and was so assiduous to enquire after all Occurrences in those many Parochial Towns that were under his Pastoral Power that he would be very
and known to Thousands Nam lux altissima fati-occultum nihil essesinit Claud. Paneg. 4. Honor. What Spight is this to be silent in that which was certainly so and to engrave with a Pen of Steel that which was ignominous uncertain nay a falsity which hath travelled hither out of the Mountains 200 Miles So Jos Scaliger revealed his Disdain against some Criticks in his Notes upon Manil. p. 175. Ubi reprehendendi sumus tunc nominis nostri frequens mentio alià s mirum silentium I need no Pardon that I could not hold in to leave this Admonition behind at the last Stage of his Episcopal Work his general Visitation which was applauded much by all except two sorts of men Some that had not done their Duty and were mulcted Quid tristes querimoniae si non supplicio culpa reciditur Horat. Od. 24. lib. 3. such could not escape Censure who suffer'd with moderation by one that appeared in his temperate Judicature rather to be above the Faults than above the Men. Two others and of the Ministry were sullen because they did not speed in their Presentments according to their mind the reason was the Complainants were found to be rugged and contentious not giving good Example of Yielding and Peace 62. Let me cast in a small handful of other things fit to be remark'd In adject is mensura non quaeritur The Bishop of Lincoln is a Visitor of some Colleges by their local Statutes in both Universities This Bishop visited Kings-College in Cambridge upon the Petition of the Fellows thereof anno 1628. when he shew'd himself to be a great Civilian and Canonist before those learned Hearers but the Cause went for the right worthy Provost Dr. Collins in whose Government the Bishop could perceive neither Carelesness nor Covetousness The most that appeared was That the Doctor had pelted some of the active Fellows with Slings of Wit At which the Visitor laugh'd heartily and past them by knowing that the Provost's Tongue could never be worm'd to spare his Jests who was the readiest alive to gird whom he would with innocent and facetious Urbanity The Provost of Orial-College in Oxford Dr. Tâ—lson with others of his Society visited the Bishop at his Palace of Bugdâ— with a Signification to the Bishop that they might eject one of the Members of their Foundation Mr. Tailour The Bishop saw there was small reason to raise such a Dust out of a few indiscreet words yet he satisfied Dr. Tolâ—on that Mr. Taâ—our should depart so it were with a farewel of Credit and he liked Mr. Tadour so well that he took him into his own House till he had provided the Living of Hempsted for him As 〈◊〉 said of his own Brother in Erasm Epist p. 417. Illius mores tales sunt ut omnibus possint congruere A benevolent Nature will agree with all men and please the Adversaries of both sides Those of young and tender years were much in his Care as appeared that he seldom travelled but Notice being given before he staid at some Town or Village to confirm such as were but even past children to lay his Hands on them and to bless them and did it ostener than the 60 Canon requires An ancient and an admirable Order when such were presented as were before made ready by being exactly catechized And for Childrens sakes he listen'd much what good Schoolmasters he had in his Diocess that bare the irksome and tedious Burden to rear up a good Seminary for Church and State such he valued and thought their Place was better than is usually given them in the World They are the tertia that make up a happy Corporation as Charles the Fifth thought who entring into any Imperial City or Burough was wont to ask the Recorder that did congraturate him Have you a good Magistrate Have you a good Pastor Have you a good Schoolmaster If he said Yes Then all must be well among you said the Emperor Our Bishop had the opportunity to consecrate Churches new re-edisied and Chappels erected which he perform'd with much Magnificence and Ceremony that the Houses of God his Houses of Prayer might be had in a venerable regard Nothing was more observ'd in that Performance than that at the hallowing of a Chappel belonging to the Mansion-place of Sir Gostwick in Bedfordshire the Knight's Son and Heir being born deaf and dumb and continuing in that defect no sooner did the Bishop alight and come into the House but the young Gentleman kneeled down and made signs to the Bishop that he craved his Blessing and had it with a passionate Embrace of Love A sweet Creature he was and is of rare Perspicacity of Nature rather of rare Illumination from God whose Behaviour Gestures and zealous Signs have procur'd and allow'd him admittance to Sermons to Prayers to the Lord's Supper and to the Marriage of a Lady of a great and prudent Family his Understanding speaking as much in all his motions as if his Tongue could articulately deliver his Mind Nor was any of the Prelacy of England more frequented than this Lord for two things First by such as made Suit unto him to compound their Differences that they might not come to the chargeable and irksome attendance of the Courts of Law Aversos solitus componere amicos Horat. Serm. 5. And so many Causes were referred to him and by no mean ones that he continued like a petty Chancellor to arbitrate Contentions Secondly Sundry did appeal to his Judgment for Resolution of Cases of Consciences and most in Matrimonial Scruples and of intricate Points of Faith as about Justisication and Predestination in which when he thought the doubting Person would not be contented with Discourse he gave them his Resolutions very long and laborious in Writing which gathered together and as I have seen them digested would have made an handsome Tractate but the worst Visitor that ever came to a Bishop's House seized on them and never restored them This was Kilvert a vexatious Prosecutor of many in the Court of Star-chamber for the King whose Lineaments are drawn out in the Ninth Book of Apul. Metam Omnia prorsus ut in quandam comorum latrinam in ejus animum vitia consluxerunt Every Beast hath some ill Property this Beastly Fellow had all He stands too near so good a Subject as is in hand for this is the lively Image of a renowned Bishop the Image but of one though the good Parts of many may be concentred in this one as the Agrigentine Painter made Juno by the Pattern of five well-favour'd Virgins All that I have drawn up of his Pastoral Behaviour was seen in the Day-light therefore as St. Paul said of the Corinthians whom he had commended so I may with Modesty apply it to my Subject If I have boasted any thing of him to you I am not ashamed 2 Cor. 7.14 Nor is this all of him in that Holy Charge not by a great deal but so much as is preserved in
illa quibus conciliatur plebis animus cò usque ne differantur donec ea praestare cogi videantur Passing right is Sir J. Haward's Hist of H. IV. p. 4. says he The Multitude are more strongly drawn by unprofitable Courtesies than by churlish Benefits Among those that argued for this Petition de Droit I shall remember what past from two eminent Prelates Archbishop Abbot offer'd his own Case to be consider'd banish'd from his own Houses of Croydon and Lambeth confin'd to a moorish Mansion-place of Foord to kill him debarr'd from the management of his Jurisdiction and no cause given for it to that time harder measure than ever was done to him in his Pedagogy for no Scholar was ever corrected till his Fault was told him But he had fuller'd the Lash in a Message brought by the Secretary and no cause pretended for it And what Light of Safety could be seen under such dark Justice The Bishop of Lincoln likewise promoted the Petition but he was a great Stickler for an Addition that it might come to the King's Hands with a mannerly Clause That as they desir'd to preserve their own Liberties so they had regard to leave entire that Power wherewith His Majesty was entrusted for the Protection of his People which the Commons disrelish'd and caused to be cancell'd This caused the Bishop to be suspected at first as if he had been sprinkled with some Court-holy-water which was nothing so but a due Consideration flowing from his own Breast that somewhat might be inserted to bear witness to the Grandeur of Majesty A Passage in Xenophon commends such unbespoken Service lib. 8. Cyrip says he Hystaspus would do all that Cyrus bade but Chrysantus would do all which he thought was good for Cyrus before he bade him 77. In the Debate of this great matter among the Lords this Bishop hath left under his own Pen what he deliver'd partly in glossing upon a Letter which His Majesty under the Signet sent to the House May the 12th partly in contesting with the chief Speakers that quarrel'd at the Petition As to the former First the King says That his Predecessors had never given Leave to the free Debates of the highest Points of Prerogative Royal. The Bishop answered The Prerogative Royal should not be debated at all otherwise than it is every Term in Westminster-hall Secondly the Letter objects What if some Discovery nearly concerning Matters of State and Government be made May not the King and his Council commit the Party in question without cause shewn For then Detection will dangerously come forth before due time Resp No matter of State or Government would be destroyed or defeated if the Cause be exprest in general terms And no danger can likely ensue if in three Terms the Matter be prepared to be brought to Trial. Ob. 3. May not some Cause be such as the Judges have no Capacity of Judicature or Rules of Law to direct or guide their Judgment Resp What can those things be which neither the Kings-bench nor Star-chamber can meet them Obj. 4. Is it not enough that we declare our Royal Will and Resolution to be which God willing we will constantly keep not to go beyond a just Rule and Moderation in any thing which shall be contrary to our Laws and Customs And that neither we nor our Council shall or will at any time hereafter commit or command to Prison for any other cause than doth concern the State the Publick Good and Safety of our People Resp Not the Council-Table but the appointed Judges must determine what are Laws and Customs and what is contrary to them And this gracious Concession is too indefinite to make us depend upon that broad Expression of Just Rule and Moderation Especially be it mark'd That all the Causes in the Kingdom may be said to concern either the State the Publick Good or the Safety of the King and People This under Favour is abundantly irresolute and signifies nothing obtain'd Obj. 5. In all Causes hereafter of this nature which shall happen we shall upon the humble Petition of the Party or Signification of our Judges unto us readily and really express the true cause of the Commitment so as with Conveniency and Safety it be fit to be disolosed And that in all Causes of ordinary Jurisdiction our Judges shall proceed to the delivery or bailment of the Prisoner according to the known and ordinary Rules of this Land and according to the Statutes of Magna Charta and those six Statutes insisted on which we intend not to abrogate or weaken according to the true intention thereof Resp To disclose the cause of Imprisonment except Conveniency and Safety do hinder are ambiguous words and may suffice to hold a man fast for coming forth And if all Causes be not of ordinary Jurisdiction as I hope they are who shall judge which be the extraordinary Causes We are lost again in that Uncertainty So likewise for the Intention of Magna Charta and the six Statutes who shall judge of the true Intention of them That being arbitrary we are still in nubibus for any assurance of legal Liberty So the Concessions of His Majesty's Letter were waved as unsatisfactory 78. And the Bishop went on to shew that the Contents of the Petition were suitable to the ancient Laws of the Realm ever claimed and pleaded expedient for the Subject and no less honourable for the King which made him a King of Men and not of Beasts of brave-spirited Freemen and not of broken-hearted Peasants The Statute in 28 Edw. 3. is as clear for it as the day at Noon-tide That no man of what state or condition soever shall be put out of his Lands or Tenements nor taken nor imprison'd nor disinherited nor put to death without being brought to answer by due process of Law I know one Lord replied to this lately That the Law was wholsom for the good of private men and sometime it might be as wholsom for the Publick Weal that the Soveraign Power should commit to Custody some private man the cause not being shew'd in Law upon more beneficial occasion than a private man's legal Liberty And though the Hand of Power should seem to be hard upon that one person a Benefit might redound to many First be it consider'd if no Law shall be fixt and inviolable but that which will prevent all Inconveniencies we must take Laws from God alone and not from men Then be it observ'd that to bring the exception of a Soveraign Power beside the Laws in Cases determined in the Laws takes away all Laws when the King is pleas'd to use and put forth this Soveraign Power wherewith he is trusted and makes the Government purely arbitrary and at the Will of the King So shall this Reason of State eat up and devour the Reason of Laws Shew me he that can how the affirmation of a Soveraign Power working beside the Law insisted upon shall not bring our Goods and our
Lives to be liable and disposable by this Soveraign Power and not turn England into the case of Turky And if you affirm that a man may be taken and imprison'd by a Soveraign Power wherewith a King is trusted beside the Law exprest in the Statute why should you not grant as well the Law being one and the same that a man may be put out of his Lands and Tenements disinherited and put to death by this Soveraign Power without being brought to answer by due process of Law I conceive this Reason may be more fortified but will never be answer'd and satisfied Bore one hole into this Law and all the good thereof will run out of it Next I shew that nothing was ever attempted against the Magna Charta without great Envy and Grudging Now since a man's Liberty is a thing that Nature most desires and which the Law doth exceedingly favour the 29th Chapter of that Charter says Nullus liber homo imprisonetur nisi per legem terrae What word can there be against these words Why it was said here with Resolution and Confidence That Lex terrae is to be expounded of Actions of the King 's Privy Council done at the Council-Table without further Process of Law But did ever any Judge of this Land give that interpretation of Lex terrae in Magnâ Chartâ Indeed a great learned Lord in this House did openly say That all Courts of Jurisdiction in this Land establish'd and authorised by the King may be said to be Lex terrae Which is granted by me although it was denied by implication by the resolution of the House of Commons But then the Question still remains whether the Council-Table at Whitehall be a forum contentiosum a Court of Jurisdiction I ever granted they may commit to Prison juxta legem terrae as they are Justices of Peace and of other legal Capacities And I grant it also that they may do it praeter legem terrae as they are great Counsellors of State and so to provide where the Laws are defective ne quid detrimenti respub capiat Secondly It was much prest that my L. Egerton did expound this Lex terrae to be Lex regis which must mean somewhat in his Post-nati pag. 33. I have read the Book and it is palpably mistaken That great Lord saith only this That the Common-Law hath many Names secundùm subjectam materiam according to the variety of Objects it handles When it respects the Church it is called Lex Ecclesiae Anglicanae When it respects the Crown Lex Coronae and sometime Lex Regia When it respects the common Subject it is called Lex Terrae Is not this his plain meaning It must be so by his instance p. 36. That the cases of the Crown are the Female to inherit the eldest Son to be preferr'd no respect of Half-blood no disability of the King's Person by Infancy If his Lordship should mean otherwise his Authorities would fail him Regist fol. 61. the word Lex Regia is not nam'd that 's my Lord's Inference but the Title is Ad jura Regia that is certain Briefs concerning the King's Kights opposite to Jura Papalia or Canonica all of them in matters ecclesiastical as Advousons Presentations Quare-impedits c. all pleaded in Westminster-hall things never heard of in the King 's dwelling Court since the fixing of the Courts of Justice Thus much for the Authorities Now the reason offer'd out of them which will never be answer'd is this By the Lex Terrae in Magna Charta a man may be not only imprison'd but withal outlaw'd destroy'd try'd and condemn'd but a man cannot be outlaw'd destroy'd try'd and condemn'd by any Order of the Lords of the Council therefore the Orders of the Lords of the Council are not Lex Terrae At this and upon other occasions the Bishop spake to this matter till the Petition was most graciously consented to by the King in all the Branches of it and was more attended to upon the Experience of his Knowledge and Wisdom than at least any of his Order And as Theocritus says of his principal Shepherd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From that day Daphnis was accounted the Chief of his Calling which filled the Court with the Report But some men are in danger to be traduced with too much Praise 79. One thing struck in unhappily which made this Session rise without a good close in the shutting up it was a Remonstrance presented to the King by the House of Commons of many Complaints the most offensive being those that were personal against two Bishops that were about the King and against the L. Duke That his excessive Power and abuse of that Power was the cause of all Evils and Dangers among us Though this came very cross to the King's Affections yet the worst word that he gave to the Remonstrance was That no wise man would justifie it How many Kings of England had treated both Houses more sharply upon less provocation Yet now the chief Tribunes spake their Discontents aloud That they had given a bountiful Levy of five Subsidies and were called Fools for their labour The Gift was large the Manner the Allegiance the Willingness were better than the Gift yet might not His Majesty touch mildly upon a Fault without such a scandalous Paraphrase The Galatians would have pulled out their own Eyes to do Paul good yet he spared them not for it but upon Errors crept into the Doctrine of their Faith he called them foolish Galatians The sowrest Leaven not seen in the Remonstrance but hid in the House was That some seditious Tongues did blab their meaning to cut off the payment of Tonnage and Poundage by the concession of the Petition of Right against which His Majesty spake and declar'd That his Predecessors had quietly enjoy'd those Payments by the Royal Prerogative which both Houses did protest to leave inviolable That the Grant of the Petition did meet with Grievances said to entrench upon the Liberty and Property of the People to give them assurance of quiet from paying Taxes or Loans without Order of Parliament To go further it was not his Meaning nor their Demand The Bishop of Lincoln appeared very much to concur with the King's Interpretation and was very zealous to have had an Act past for it before the Parliament was prorogued Nay he forbore not to chide his Friends in the lower House whose Metal he found to be churlish and hard to be wrought upon Ut erat generosae indolis nihil frigidè nihil languidè agebat as Clementius says of renowned Salmasius in his Life p. 61. But the Bishop's Motion was laid by and with no good meaning Yet since it was seen that his Endeavours were real to have wound up the Bottom at that time without that scurvy knot in it he had the Favour to kiss the King's Hand and to have Words both with His Majesty and with the Duke in private O hard Destiny this he had
6. And therefore he says in his Sermon at the Fast p. 56. We have a knowing learned and right venerable Clergy the busie Meddling of some few in matters of no moment excepted for though it is not about so small a thing as a strife of Words yet it is so great a thing as no Words could ever determine Even Knot the Jesuite writes so to Dr. Potter upon those Questions eagerly contended in between the Dominicans and his Order Who hath assured you that the Point wherein these learned men differ is Revealed Truth and capable of a decision Or is it not rather by plain Scripture indeterminable Or by any Rule of Faith There came out an Order from the King and every one knew who suggested it to suppress all Preaching or Reading in the Universities upon the Questions decided at Dort which was straightway parallel'd with an History in Baronius A. 648. N. 12. That Paul Patriarch of Constantinople seeing his Opinion of a Monothelite decried every where he perswaded the Emperor to set out an Edict to silence the disputing on either side This Direction of His Majesty 's our Bishop obeyed but with a foresight that such a Restraint would make Zealots of each Opinion be more importunate to advance their Doctrin and that every Spark would kindle another and spread apace to a general Combustion We are told by Camerarius Mel. 6. p. 270. that Charles the First had Melancthon most in Jealousie for declining his Interim though he said nothing So my L. of Lincoln was most suspected for a Gain-sayer of the King's Order though none did keep it with stricter Duty Neither did it make him innocent to sit quiet since he did not appear to favour it He that did not tune his Mind as well as his outward Carriage to the present Harmony was censur'd to be out of Tune and not fit for the Quire So it was contriv'd that this Prelate no meddler that way must be knock'd down as the Supporter of the Adherents to the Dort Synod and others for fear would veil their Top-fails Like to Agelaeus's Speech in Homer to his Fellows the Suitors of Penelope Let us throw all our Darts together at Ulysses and kill him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Odyss X. No matter for the rest if he were fallen Whereas the way to keep him from all opposition had been to grant him his Peace as a Top goes down of it self when it is no longer scourged Or as Charmides said in Plautus Nunquam aedipol temerò tinniit tintinnabulum nisi quos illud tractat aut movet mutum est tacet If you will not hear the sound of a Bell let it alone and do not pull the Rope These are the true Disclosures wherefore Bishop Laud took the other Bishop not to be a man after his own Heart and thrust him out of Favour out of Power out of House and Home and out of all he had I find more pag. 10. of Mr. Prinn's Breviate that the potent Bishop shew'd Reasons to the King for printing the Papers of Bishop Andrews Cujus memoriâ recreor concerning that Bishops are jure divino contrary to that which the Bishop of Lincoln miserably and to the great detriment of the Church signified to the King Which is a great mistake for Lincoln ever defended the divine Right of his Order that it was necessary in a Church rightly constituted that it was a main defect in them that had not that Presidency among them but the less if they did desire it and could not enjoy it Yet he would not unchurch those Christians but wisht them a better Mind that had set up another Discipline If Bishop Laud was more rigid he did worthily incur the Rebuke of Dr. Holland in Oxford anno 1604. for maintaining there could be no true Church vera non verax without Diocesan Bishops These being all the Incentives of his displeasure against this Brother and Advances what little Grains they be what small Occasions and the Evil he brought upon him being so great and prosecuted so many years how indefensible is such Anger His ablest and best Friends did wish it had never been If among many whom he preferred and obliged some will dress it with Extenuations and Excuses I do not condemn their Ingenuity for as Xenophon writes lib. 7. hist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Commonly men would have those appear to be good who were their Patrons and Benefactors But I conclude it as Seneca did upon the Praises of Alexander the Great when you have said all you can for him Calisthenem intersccit 86. After our Bishop was cut off from all Place in the State and wither'd away in a happy Retirement he that watch'd him aâ—l the harm he could assisted many and they were many to pelt him with slight and bald Complaints like the Clowns about Virgil's Ash-tree Crebrisque bipennibus instant certatim eruere agricolae With all their hewing they got not a Chip from the Defendant but had their Wages from him that was the Setter as Fulgentius says in the Life of Fryar Paul Many shewed Hatred against the innocent Father looking to get Favour for it from the Court of Rome It was hard and yet not strange for ours that being vext with many Suits he could not obtain Orders or not so full as his Causes did merit for Archbishop Abbot his Copartner in Sufferings cries out in his Manuscript That his own Suit for the Privileges of his Church against the Townsmen of Canterbury was slopt and wanted that Justice which was not to be denied to any Subject Had he good man such a Sentiment of one Wrong How then did Lincoln take so many The Heathens say That Constancy in Suffering wears out the Cruelty of the Gods I will not compare a polisht Statue that hath no life with a living Man yet the Heathen presum'd of better things from their Image-gods than he could find among the living gods that sit in the Congregation of Princes Psal 82. Is it worth it to take his Wrongs in a general sum Expect them He could not censure a Misdemeanour in his Ecclesiastical Courts but he was called in question for it by Reference Petition or Appeal and yet the Appellants very Rake-hells upon Fame and Proof But as we say of ill Cloaths they are good enough for the Dirt so these could not be too bad to be taken into the Service for which they were used And yet Xenophon did esteem it a Baseness in the Athenians lib. Abb. Resp 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they would cherish those that were sit and helpful to them though they were Knaves He could not institute a Clerk to a Benefice of value but a Quarrel was raised by one Scholar or more that pretended to it knowing it would be well lookt upon by no little body What an Unease it was to be troubled with the humming of so many Gnatts Pliny relates it for a marvellous Story That Cato major answer'd against
to be done and being dozzled with fear thinks every man wiser than himself Lincoln spake what was fit for Comfort and did what he was able for Redress He lookt like the Lanthorn in the Admiral by which the rest of the Fleet did steer their Course And as Synesius gives a Precept to a Bishop Ep. 105. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To do as much work as all his Clergy beside So this Man bestirred himself and ran before the most diligent in this Chase When he was a Courtier he had ever declined Acquaintance with James Marquess of Hamilton now he made him his most Intimate waited on him at his Lodgings went in hand with him to the King tried him every way what Counsel he had in his Breast to breed Loyalty in the Scottish Army that the Contagion might not breed the same Rudeness in the English and would give an even poise to such uneven Humors The Bishop knew not what to make of this Marquess Incertum Lar sit an larva whether he were a good or a bad Genius Only he said he found every thing in him contrary to the Vulgar Opinion which esteemed him cunning and false For he took him to be no false one had will enough to help the King neither did he find any great Cunning in him but rather that he wanted a Head-piece So he laid him and aside but used him sparingly because he could not frame things of any great concernment from him Then he gets acquaintance with Mr Alexander Henderson and some of his Disciples in Commission with him presents them feasts them offered good pay to them and the Heads of their Faction as much as the King could spare which was the only Bait to catch his Country-men who were needy and ravenous for Prey Which is well set out in Salust p. 187. Feras omnis generis quò magis sunt attenuatae penuriâ cò magis praecipites â—ffraenatas ruere in perniciem videmus All Beasts will venture their Lives to devour what they can get when they are hungry The Bishop was sure he dealt with such as were bare and necessitous from the Orcades to Berwick and that it was part of their Errand into England to carry away Gold and to get Pensions But the House of Commons that knew their half famisht Fortunes as well as the Bishop voted such a Mass of Money to them by a word which coâ—t England dear called Brotherly Assistance that the King with all his Exchequer and perhaps his Credit was not able to raise it far less to out-bid it Yet Lincoln gave not over to perswade their headstrong Party to have no quarrel with the Church of England to draw no hatred upon themselves by reaching at the Subversion of the Episcopal Dignity which was never wanting here since the Nation received the Gospel of Christ Bade them remember what Vows their Kirk had made and printed them in their Common-Prayers never to unquiet the Peace of this Land since Queen Elizabeth Anno 3. of her Reign did beat the French out of Leith and compelled their Forces to return home conducted under the best Souldiers of France whose purpose it was to drown the Protestant Religion in the Blood of their Lords of the Congregation Hereupon some of Henderson's Assistants stagger'd and bade leave our Church to its own staple Order when at the same time in their private meetings they began to forsake this moderation They saw how their Debt of Brotherly Assistance would be paid the better if the Revenues of the Prelates were confiscated They look'd upon their own Work that they had dethron'd Bishops in Scotland and so long as England kept up that Dignity it cried Shame upon their Confusion And if Bishops lived at Durham and Carliste so near to their Borders they suspected the like would creep in again at Glascow and Edenburg And their intention was to shape our Church as ill as their own to make us as odious to the King as themselves that both our Offences might grow higher than the hope of a Pardon could fly unto So in fine our Bishop perceived that he dealt with men that made no scruple to shift from Promise and to break Faith Diodorus lib. 3. tells of strange men in the Island of Taproban Divisam linguam habentes eodem tempore duobus hominibus perfecrè loquntur I would such double Tongue had lived as far off as Taproban that we had never known them The end of this Conflict was when Entellus could not overcome Vastos quatit aeger anhelitus artus Aen. lib. 5. 136. No sooner had the Northern Carles begun their Hunts-up but the Presbyterians flock'd to London from all quarters and were like Hounds ready to be entred They had struggled in the days of Q. Elizabeth and K. James to set up their Discipline Patriae communis Erynnis but in vain After twenty Repulses they began afresh Tantus novelli dogmatis regnat furor Prud. de Coron and though their Liquor was stale and sowre as dead Wine they broach'd it now again to set out Teeth on edge The Stings of Wasps once lost are never repaired but these were like Staggs that had cast their Horns often but new ones sprouted up The Independants the same Creature with the Brownists but had shed their upper Coats and look'd smoother these had not yet a Name And as Alexander spoke neglectfully of the Cadusians Quod ignoti sunt ignobiles sunt nunquam ignorari viros fortes Curt. lib. 4. so these were of no reckoning in the first sally of the tumultuous times and such Ignotes were not courted but pass'd over as a Pawn at Chess that stood out all of Play The wise Bishop turned his Skill upon the Presbyterians being less distastful to them in his Person than any that wore a Rochet He laid down his Reasons to them in many Conferences with such prudence such softness and lenity that they confess'd for his part he deserv'd a great Place of Pre-eminence And some of the chief Lords of that Knot made him such Offers of Honour and Wealth for his share if he would give way to their Alterations that they would buy him if his Faith had been salaeble with any Price The worst Requital that could be propounded to an honest man and of the narrowest to scantle their Blessing to him alone that labour'd for a Publick Good As Ben. Johnson hath put it finely into his Underwoods p. 117. I wish the Sun should shine On all mens Fruits and Flowers as well as mine When they saw he was not selfish it is a word of their own new Mint some of their Ministers that were softened with the dewy drops of his Tongue eased their Stomachs with Complaints against the Courts Ecclesiastical and the rugged Carriage of certain Prelates Lincoln knew their Censures had somewhat of Truth and much of Malice but seemed to give them great attention in all for he had rather bring them over to the King than
refuse to concurr with the Parliament nay if he took more time to deliberate upon it it would be worse for the Earl and he would come to a more unhappy Death for an Hellish Contrivance was resolved upon just as in St. Paul's case Acts 23.15 the Zealots that had vowed Paul's death laid the Plot with the Priests and Elders to signisie to the Captain to bring him down to enquire somewhat more perfectly concerning him and ere ever he came near they would fall upon him The condemn'd Earl when he heard of this was no longer fond of Lise but sent word to the King that he was well prepared for his End and would not his gracious Majest y should disquiet himself to save a ruin'd Vessel that must sink A valiant Message and sit for so great a Spirit Loginus notes acutely that when Ajax was to combat with Hector he begg'd some things of such Gods as he call'd upon but to escape with life was not in his Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was beneath a Graecian Heroe to desire Life It being therefore to no purpose to dispute what was the best Remedy to save this Lord when there was none at all the House of Lords nominate four Prelates to go to His Majesty to propound how the Tenderness of his Conscience might safely wade through this insuperable dissiculty these were L. Primate Usher with the Bishops Morton Williams Potter There was none of those four but would have gone through Fire and Water as we say to save the Party which being now a thing beyond Wit and Power they state the Question thus to the King sure I am of the Truth because I had it from the three former Whether as His Majesty refers his own Judgment to his Judges in whose Person they act in Court of Oyer Kings-bench Assize and in Cause of Life and Death and it lies on them if an innocent man suffer so why may not His Majesty satisfie his Conscience in the present matter that since competent Judges in Law had awarded that they found Guilt of Treason in the Earl that he may susser that Judgment to stand though in his private mind he was not satisfied that the Lord Strafford was criminous for that juggling and corrupt dealing which he suspected in the Proofs at the Tryal and let the Blame lye upon them who sate upon the Tribunal of Life and Death The four Bishops were all for the ashrmative and the Earl took it so little in ill part that Reverend Armagh pray'd with him preach'd to him gave him his last Viaticum and was with him on the Scassoid as a Ghostly Father till his Head was severed from his Body 154. Indeed His Majesty in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth seem to represent it as if he did not approve what he received from the four Bishops at that Consultation And I will leave such good men to his Censure rather than contradict any thing in that most pious most ravishing Book which deserves as much as Tully said of Crassus in his Brutus Ipsum melius potuisse scribere alium ut arbitror neminem Perhaps the King could have wrote better but I think no man else in the three Kingdoms What a venomous Spirit is in that Serpent Milton that black-mouth'd Zoilus that blows his Vipers Breath upon those immortal Devotions from the beginning to the end This is he that wrote with all Irreverence against the Fathers of our Church and shew'd as little Duty to his Father that begat him The same that wrote for the Pharisees That it was lawful for a man to put away his Wife for every cause and against Christ for not allowing Divorces The same O horrid that desended the lawfulness of the greatest Crime that ever was committed to put our thrice-excellent King to death A petty School-boy Scribler that durst graple in such a Cause with the Prince of the learned men of his Age Salmasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eunapius says of Ammonius Plutarch's Scholar in Aegypt the Delight the Musick of all Knowledge who would have scorn'd to drop a Pen-full of Ink against so base an Adversary but to maintain the Honour of so good a King whose Merit he adorns with this Praise p. 237. Con. Milt De quo si quis dixerit omnia bona vix pro suis meritis satis illum ornaret Get thee behind me Milton thou savourest not the things that be of Truth and Loyalty but of Pride Bitterness and Falshood There will be a time though such a Shimei a dead Dog in Abishai's Phrase escape for a while yet he and the Enemies of my Lord the King will fall into the Hands of the Avenger of Blood And that Book the Picture of King Charles's innocent Soul which he hath blemish'd with vile Reproaches will be the Vade Mecum of godly persons and be always about them like a Guardian Angel It is no marvel if this Canker-worm Milton is more lavish in his Writings than any man to justifie the beheading of Strafford whom good men pray'd for alive and pitied him dead So did the four Bishops that I may digress no longer who pour'd the best Oyl they could into the King's Conscience to give him Peace within himself when the main Cause was desperate and common Fury would compel him in the end to sacrifice this Earl to the Parliament Things will give better Counsel to men than men to things But a Collector of Notes W. Sa. hath a sling at the Bishop of Lincoln his quill hits him but hurts him no more than if it were a Shuttle-cock with four Feathers Forsooth when those four Bishops were parting from the King he put a Paper into His Majesty's Hand and that could be nothing else but an Inflammatory of Reasons more than were heard in publick left the King should cool and not set his Hand to the fatal Warrant This Author was once in the right p. 154. of his own Book That it becomes an Historian in dubious Relations to admit the most Christian and Charitable Pessumè it is optimè herclè dicitis Plaut in Pen. But this Case needs no Favour The Paper which that Bishop put into the King's Hands as he told me the next morning was an humble Advice to His Majesty why he should not give the Parliament an indesinite time to sit till both Houses consented to their own dissolution Was not this faithful Counsel For what could the King see in them who had been so outragious already to stand out the trial of their wavering Faith Trust should make men true Says Livy lib. 22. Vult sibi quisque credi habita fides ipsam plerumque fidem obligat But a number of these men cared not for moral Principles they were all for the Scriptures and they read them by new Lights The King had too much Faith and they had no Good Works What magnanimous Prince would bow so low to give the Keys of Government to so many Male-contents
the body v. 20. but now are they many Members yet but one Body v. 21. And the eye cannot say unto the hand I have no need of thee nor again the head unto the feet I have no need of you So far our brave Speaker and all this is exscribed faithfully out of his own Copy Let another take his room and let him that is wisest perform it better The Success was that he laid the Bill asleep for five months for I confess that by over-sight I have not kept the just order of time for it should have been referred to the middle of May before the King went into Scotland and was in a trance by the charm of this Eloquence till November after which shews how like he was to Athanasius Nazian in Orat. pro codem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanasius was an Adamant not to be broken with violent blows and a Load-stone to draw them to him that were of a contrary Opinion Now mark the Partiality upon which the Speaker much insisted That the Lords would grant Interest to noble Persons in Holy Orders to act in Secular Affairs but to none beside As Grotius fits it with a passage Annal. p. 5. Castellani quantumcunque usurpent ipsi libertatem in aliis non serunt The Castilians are great encroachers upon liberty for themselves but will not tollerate it in any beside To the main Cause I yield that that was easie to be defended on the Clergies part as learned Saravia shews de Christian Obed. p. 169. not only from Moses's Law but from the Custom general of the most orderly among the Heathen Gaulish Druids Persian Magi Egyptian Heirophants and so forth by induction from all places to make it amount even to a natural Law that Priests were no where excluded from honourable Imployments in Secular Affairs I will appose two Quotations for it and very remarkable The first from the Judgment of the Scottish Presbytery R. Spotswood Hist p. 299. 449. That they contended for that Priviledge that some Ministers should give Voice in Parliament in the behalf of the Church And some to assist the King in Parliament in Council and out of Council Doth the Wind blow so from the North The other taken from Ludo. Molin Paraen c 4. And he no well-willer to our Hierarchy in that Book least of all to their Consistories Deus Pastori Evangelico non detrahit jus potestatem Magistraturae nec magistratum prohibet ministerio si ad utrumque factus comparatus est But this Bill that went no further when it was first set on foot in May began to enlarge its strides and mend its Pace in the end of Autumn Either because this fiery Parliament saw that Confusion begun must be carried on with acting greater or because the King was suspected that he tamper'd with the Scots and they framed an Injury from his Neglect to leave them so long or how it was that their thoughts were whiâ—'d about with the Wheel of swift Perswasions themselves knew best but their Spleen began to shew it self with stronger fits than ever against the Clergy who were never safe so long as the Bill we have heard of was not cancell'd For the Spanish Proverb tells us That Apple is in great danger that sticks upon the prickles of an Hedge-hogg But if the Sum of the Bill had been right cast the now most noble Marquess of Dorchester and more noble because most learned told his Peers May 21. Which of your Lordships can say he shall continue a Member of this House when at one blow six and twenty are cut off This was sooth nay Sooth-saying and Prophesying but it was not attended 167. When all ways had been tried to pass this Bill of Dishonour upon the Clergy chiefly the Bishops and it hung in the House of the Lords the event methinks is like that which we read I Kings 22. v. 21. There came forth a Spirit and stood before the Lord and said I will perswade them And the Lord said Wherewith And he said I will go forth and I will be a Spirit of clamour and tumult in the mouth of all the People And the Lord said Thou shalt perswade them and prevail also Go forth and do so There had been an unruly and obsteperous concourse of the People in the Earl of Strafford's Case But a Sedition broke forth about Christmas that was ten times more mad Ludum jocumque dices fuisse illum alterum prout hujus rabies quae dabit Terent. Eunuch which took heat upon this occasion The King came to the House of Commons to demand five of their Members to Justice upon impeachment of Treason His Majesty it seems was too forward to threaten such persons with the Sword of Justice when he wanted the Buckler of Safety How far those five were guilty I have nothing to say because plain Force would not let them come to a Tryal But if they were innocent why did they not suffer their Practices to see the Light It had been more to their Honour to be cleared by the Law than to be protected against the Law And that Cause must needs be suspected which could not put on a good outside I am sure the King suffer'd extreamly for their sakes All Sectaries and desperate Varlets in City and Suburbs flock'd by thousands to the Parliament Diogenes was ask'd What was to be seen at the Olympick Sports where he had been Says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laert. in Vit. Much People but few Men. But here were no Men but all Beasts who promised one another Impunity by their full body of Rebels and where there is no fear of Revenge there is little Conscience of Offence Quicquid multis peccatur inultum est Lucan The Rake-hells were chaffed to so high a degree of Acrimony that they pressed through the Court-gates and their Tongues were so lavish that they talk'd Treason so loud that the King and Queen did hear them Let the five Members be as honest as they would make them I am certain these were Traytors that begirt the King's House where his Person was with Hostility by Land and Water He that speaks of them without detestation allows them and makes way for the like Sometimes they called out for Religion sometimes for Justice Ex isto ore religionis verbum excidere aut clabi potest as Tully of Clodius pro Dom. Was the sacred term of Religion sit to come out of their Mouths Did it become them to speak of Justice Sarah cried out to Abraham The Lord judge between me and thee when her self was in the fault Gen. 16.5 Every Tinker and Tapster call'd for Justice and would let the King have none who is the Fountain of it What did the great Parliament in the mean while Give Freedom to their Rage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Odyss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their Friends in their ragged rows were too many to be childden they were more afraid of them than of the
Ruin of a Kingdom as little Children are more afraid of a Vizard than of the Fire therefore they stroke them with fair words when they meet them O Indignity An quae Turpia cerdoni Volesos Brutumque decebunt Juven Sat. 8. That which was base in Coblers was it not worse in Lords and Knights and Squires and such as assumed to be the Princes of the Land No Senators that intended to rule a People did ever endure the like Let M. AEmilius the Consul speak for the State of Rome Livy lib. 39. Majores nostri ne vos quidem nisi cum aut vexillo in arce posito comitiorum causâ exercitus positus esset aut plebi Concilium tribuni edixissent aut aliqui ex magistratibus and concionem vocassent temerè coire voluerint ubi legitimum rectorem multitudini censerent esse debere They that boulster up such Insurrections as these their own Guards upon a new Quarrel may knock them on the Head Cum tot populis stipatus eas in tot populis vix una fides Sen Hercul furens But these Wat Tylers and Round-Robins being driven or persuaded out of White-hall there was a buzz among them to take their way to Westminster-Abby some said Let us pluck down the Organs Some cried Let us deface the Monuments that is prophane the Tombs and Burying-places of Kings and Queens This was carried with all speed to the Archbishop the Dean who made fast the Doors whi◠they found shut against them and when they would have forced them they were beaten off with Stones from the top of the Leads the Archbishop all this while maintaining the Abby in his own person with a few more for fear they should seize upon the Regalia which were in that place under his Custody The Spight of the Mutineers was most against him yet his Followers could not entreat him to go aside as the Disciples restrained Paul from rushing into an Uproar Act. 19.30 but he stood to it as Cesius Quintius in Livy lib. 3. Unus impetus tribunitios popularesque procellas sustinebat After an hours dispute when the Multitude had been well pelted from aloft a few of the Archbishops Train opened a Door and rush'd out with Swords drawn and drove them before them like fearful Hares They were already past their Duty but short of their Malice and every day made Battery on all the Bishops as they came to Parliament forcing their Coaches back tearing their Garments menacing if they came any more What Times could be worse None says Tully upon M. Antony's Violence upon the Senate Phil. Or. 13. Caesare dominante venicbamus in Senatum si non liberè tamen tutò What Aid did the Lords afford to quell these Affronts Why let Softhenes be beaten before the Judgment-seat Gallio cares for none of these things Act. 18.17 The Bishops were God's Ministers and let him defend them as Tyberius to that way in Tacitus Deorum injuriae Diis curae sunt The remissness of our Parliament Lords Optimates non Optimi shewed the same Indifferency O ye religious Kings that would govern with Peace how are ye able These foul and unremediable Uproars tell you that the only Imperatorian Art is to be furnish'd with a good Army and to know how to order it 168. So great a Hurry continuing wherein all things were turned the wrong side upward there was such an apparent Mischief co-incident that whatsoever did pass in the Lords House during their constrained absence was null and invalid for if any one person in either House be repelled by force and be denied Freedom to give his Vote that Nicety is a Bar to the whole Proceeding of the Parliament as some write that comment subtilly upon Parliamentary Privileges Not as if the Speaker did ever sit in his Chair when none were absent or that one Vote is like to sway a Cause yet sometimes it comes to so near a scrutiny but this Judgment is made of it That it may so fall out and doth often that one Member put the case the person forced out may propose such Reasons to the House as that all resolve into his Opinion This great Prejudice concurring by repelling the Bishops tumultuously from taking their Places in the Lords House York called his Brethren together to set their Hands to a Petition and Protestation made to His Majesty and the Lords Temporal and put it into the L. Keeper Littleton's Hand yet not to be read till His Majesty by the Bishop's Invitation should fit with the Peers in the House and then to read it in the King and the Lords audience and not before The L. Keeper unadvisedly I hope it was no worse produceth the Petition c. before the King was made acquainted with it which made a Project well contrived break out into a Thunder-clap of Mischief which rash or bad dealing in the Lord-Keeper York could not suspect And he that drives much business shall be cross'd in some for want of Luck though he be never so prudent Nulli fortuna tam dedita est ut multa tentanti ubique respondeat Sen. lib. 1. de irâ c. 3. That Protestation follows here whose like and almost same York had found in the Records of the Tower which he studied there till his Eye-sight was much the worse for it To the KING 's Most Excellent Majesty and the Lords and Peers now assembled in Parliament The humble Petition and Protestation of all the Bishops and Prelates now called by His Majesty's Writs to attend the Parliament and now present about London and Westminster for that Service THat whereas the Petitioners are called up by several and respective Writs and under great Penalties to attend in Parliament and have a clear and indubitate Right to vote in Bills and other matters whatsoever debateable in Parliament by the ancient Customs Laws and Statutes of this Realm and ought to be protected by Your Majesty quietly to attend and prosecute that great Service They humbly remonstrate and protest before God Your Majesty and the noble Lords and Peers now assembled in Parliament that as they have an indubitate Right to Sit and Vote in the House of the Lords so are they if they may be protected from Force and Violence most ready and willing to perform their Duties accordingly And that they do abominate all Actions or Opinions tending to Popery and the maintenance thereof as also all Propension and Inclination to any malignant Party or any other Side or Party whatsoever to the which their own Reasons and Consciences shall not move them to adhere But whereas they have been at several times violently menaced affronted and assaulted by multitudes of People in their coming to perform their Services in that Honourable House and lately chased away and put in danger of their Lives and can find no Redress or Protection upon sundry Complaints made to both Houses in these particulars They likewise humbly protest before your Majesty and the noble House of Peers
Houses to accept thereof Obj. 3. They desire the King to command the Clerk of the House of Peers to enter this their Petition and Protestation among his Records which derogates from the Rights of Parliament As though the King could be his Command make a Record of Parliament 〈◊〉 It is to be conceived that the Bishops never intended that this Petition as may appear by the Directory thereof should be preferred to the King in any other place but in the Upper House of Parliament And it will appear among the Records of that most Honourable House 11 Rich. II. num 9. that the King in that House hath commanded the like Protestation of the Bishops to be enrolled which made the Bishops use that Phrase Howbeit beside the King's Command the Assent of the Peers and Commons have still concurred and the Bishops never conceived it otherwise which made them presume that no matter of their Protestation could possibly amount to any higher Crime than that of Error or Mistake considering that it was still to be admitted or rejected by the King with the Assent of the Peers and Commons Here the Answer ends in this brief compass Let all the Council in the Land plead against it and shew where it is not sound and satisfactory Yet the Bishops desire no other reparation for their false Imprisonment but Liberty and Safety to Vote in that House to which they were called by the King 's Writ Sidonius speaks in pity of Eutropia lib. 6. ep 2. Victoriam computat si post dammum non litiget And these innocent men would not hold it for Justice done unto them if after so much Wrong sustained the Contention might be ended 170. Every subsequent Action of that Parliament did castrate their Hope Day utter'd unto Day how they meant to dissolve that Primitive and Apostolick Order piece by piece And what shall we have next The very Kingdom of Christ set up in the Church if you will believe them As Pisistratus would perswade the Athenians that he changed not their Laws but reduced them to those that were in Solon's time by which Trick he made them his Slaves Laert. in Vit. Sol. Is it possible that men could have the face to pretend more ancient Rulers in Christ's Church than Bishops The method of Sacrilege was first to pluck the Spiritual Lords out of the House and to disable all the Clergy from intermedling in Secular Affairs The Bill is read and easily pass'd now the Bishops were not in place to hear it and dispute it The Plaintiff pleads the Cause at Westminster what can the Defendant say to it in the Tower Proceed my good Lords he that runs alone by himself must needs be foremost This was worse than if a young Heir were sent to travel by his Guardian and the Guardian pulls down his House fells his Woods leaseth out his Lands when he is not in the way to look to it But where were those Earls and Barons that sided with the Bishops before Shrunk absent or silent They that are wise Leave falling Buildings fly to them that rise Or as Plautus in Stych as neat in his Comick Phrase as Johnson Si labant res lassae itidem amici collabascunt But the King's part is yet to come The Parliament makes ready a Bill the King only makes it a Law So he did this and it was the last I think that ever he signed Why he did it is a thing not well known and wants more manifestation Necessity was in it say they that would look no further Nulla necessitas excusat quae potest non esse necessitas Tertul. Exh. ad Cast c. 7. The most said That nothing was more plausible than this to get the Peoples Favour Or that the Houses had sate long like to continue longer and must have Wages for their Work because they are no Hirelings they will chuse and take and this Boon they will have or the King shall have no Help from them It would ill become a Royal Spirit to plead he was compelled by Fear else His Majesty might have revoked this Act upon that Challenge As Sir Nic. Throgmorton surpassing most of his Age for Wit and Experience assured Mary Queen of Scots shut up in the hold of Loquelevin Cessionem in carcere extortam qui justus est metus planè irritam esse Cambd. Eliz. ann 1569. Yet Fear had not so much stroke in this as the Perswasions of one whom His Majesty loved above all the World The King foresaw he was not like to get any thing from this Parliament but a Civil War he would not begin it but on their part he heard their Hammers already at the Forge Et clandestinis turgentia fraudibus arma Manil. lib. 1. He being most tender to provide for the Safety of his Queen went with her to Dover to convey her into France not that she desired to turn her Back to Danger or refused to partake of all Hazards with her Lord and Husband for she was resolute in that as Theogena the Wife of Agathocles Justin lib. 20. Nubendo ei non prosperae tantùm fed omnis fortunae iniisse societatem But because His Majesty knew himself that he should be more couragious if his dear Consort were out of the reach of his Enemies Being at Dover the Queen would not part with the King to Ship-board till he signed this Bill being brought to believe by all protestation of Faith from Sir John Culpepper who attended there for that Dispatch that the Lords and Commons would press His Majesty to no more Bills of that unpleasing nature So the King snatch'd greedily at a Flower of a fair Offer and though he trusted few of the men at Westminster yet in outward shew he would seem to trust them all the more because the Queen had such Confidence in them How Culpepper instilled this into the Queen and how she prevailed York is my Author and could not deceive me for he told me in the Tower That the King had sacrificed the Clergy to this Parliament by the Artifices contrived at Dover a day before the News were brought to London Then they fell to Bells and Bonfires and prophaned the Name of God that He had heard them whose Glory was not in their Thoughts from the beginning to the end A Day-labourer lifts up his Ax towards Heaven but strikes his Mattock into the Earth And all the Evil that the Earth breeds was in their Mind when they seemed to look up to God That which is of God must have its Foundation in Humility its binding fast in Obedience its rising in Justice and its continuance in Peace So begins the Misery and Fall of the Bishops Synesius hath lent us words fit to express jump in the same Case Ep. 70. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is the Bishops were expulsed meerly by Slander nothing being demonstrated to lay any Crimes against them And verily God was gracious to them What should they have done as it
Eudaemon and Fitz-Herbert Sons of Anak among the Jesuits do noise him far and wide But they that heard him speak would most admire him No Flood can be compared to the Spring-Tide of his Language and Eloquence but the milky River of Nilus with his seven Mouths all at one disemboguing into the Sea O how voluble how quick how facetious he was What a Vertumnus when he pleas'd to Argue on the right side and on the contrary These Things will be living in the memory of the longest Survivor that ever heard him In this Trial wherein he stood now to be judged by so many Attic and Exquisite Wits he striv'd to exceed himself and shew'd his Cunning marvelously that he could invalidate every Argument brought against him with variety of Answers It was well for all sides that the best Divine in my Judgment that ever was in that place Dr. Davenant held the Rains of the Disputation he kept him within the even Boundals of the Cause he charm'd him with the Caducaean Wand of Dialectical Prudence he order'd him to give just Weight and no more Horat. l. 1. Od. 3. Quo non Arbiter Adriae major tollere seu ponere vult freta Such an Arbiter as he was now such he was and no less year by year in all Comitial Disputations wherein whosoever did well yet conslantly he had the greatest Acclamation To the close of all this Exercise I come The grave elder Opponents having had their courses Mr. Williams a new admitted Batchelor of Divinity came to his Turn last of all Presently there was a Smile in the Face of every one that knew them both and a prejudging that between these two there would be a Fray indeed Both jealous of their Credit both great Masters of Wit and as much was expected from the one as from the other So they fell to it with all quickness and pertinency yet thank the Moderator with all candor like Fabius and Marcellus the one was the Buckler the other the Sword of that Learned Exercise No Greyhound did ever give a Hare more Turns upon Newmarket Heath then the Replier with his Subtleties gave to the Respondent A Subject fit for the Verse of Mr. Abraham Hartwel in his Regina Literata as he extols Dr. Pern's Arguments made before Queen Elizabeth Quis sulmine tanto tela jacet tanto fulmine nemo jacet But when they had both done their best with equal Prowess the Marshal of the Field Dr. Davenant cast down his Warder between them and parted them A Fable comes into my Memory That Vulcan to despite Diana made a Dog which should catch every thing he hunted called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Diana to despite Vulcan made a Fox which could never be catch'd in Hunting called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And all the Gods and Goddesses could never reconcile the Contradiction till upon one Chase both the Dog and the Fox ran themselves to death which Ovid compriseth in a little Lib. 3. Metamor Scilicet invictos ambo certamine cursus Esse Deus Voluit The Moral in a great part may suit well with these two unvanquish'd Disputants The Bishop of Bath and Wells Dr. Montagu gave great demonstration of Affection to Mr. Williams ever after his Negotiation in this Act. As Velleius says Nulla festinatio hujus viri mentionem debet transgredi That Bishop was a Reverend and Learned Father in the Church a most loving Son to his Mother the University he was full of good Works as Bath and Farnham and Winchester-house in Southwark could testifie if these impious and overthrowing Times had let them stand and many more recited by Bishop Godwin in his Catalogue of Bishops This was the good Man who from henceforth was the truest Friend to Mr. Williams of all that did wear a Rochet to his Last Day who after these two sublime Performances of the Responsion for Batchelorship of Divinity and Opponent's Place in the Great-Day before the most Illustrious Princes retired to his Home for so I must now call the Lord Chancellor's Family 34. He was now in the House of Obed-Edom where every thing prosper'd and all that pertain'd to him The Chaplain understood the Soil on which he had set his Foot that it was rich and fertile able with good Tendance to yield a Crop after the largest Dimensions of his Desires To be well then was but to be well now His fore-casting Mind thought of the future how to stock himself with Experience with Wisdom with Friends in greatest Grace with other Viaticum for the longest Journey of his ensuing Life Let me use the Phrase correctedly He lived not for half a Time but for a Time and Times He never liv'd Ex tempore but upon premeditation to day what to do long after As a wise Man says Non disponet singula nisi cui jam vitae summa propesita est Sen. Ep. 71. Particular Actions will be kept in method when Providence hath affected the Sum and End of them As at Chess the Idea of the Game must be in the Head of the Gamester then the Remove of every Chess-man promotes it The Chaplain began his part as any wise Man would to demerit his Lord with all due Offices and prudent bearing and he got it faster then he fought it He pleas'd him with his Sermons He took him mainly with his sharp and solid Answers to such Questions as were cast forth at Table to prove his Learning His Fashion and Garb to the Ladies of the Family who were of great Blood and many was more Courtly a great deal then was expected from a Scholar He receiv'd Strangers with courtesie and labour'd for their satisfaction He Interposed gravely as became a Divine against the Disorders of the lowest Servants And unto all these plausible Practises the Back-bone was continual diligence Other Things that commended him no less or perhaps more were these My Lord Elsmore was at that time Chancellor of the University of Oxford whose References and Petitions when they were brought before that great Judge the Chaplain newly come from the Sister-Corporation understood them more suddenly then all that were about his Master and was cunning at the first Opening to propound how to bring them into the just Academical way to be determin'd And the Opinion which he gave did so constantly Arbitrate all those Complaints that the truly admired Bishop of London Dr. King would sometimes call him pleasantly The Chancellor of Oxford The second Part of his Industry to make his Acceptance so gracious was That he was stored with Friends in the Courts of the King and Prince from whence he gather'd Intelligence fit for the Hearing of his Master Not blind Rumours or the frothy Talk of the Lobbies but weighty Passages carried in a Mist before they came to Light Clouds that at the first rising were scarce so big as an hand yet portending mighty Tempests when they fell For he had a Palate to taste their Court-Wine when it was
done out of a narrow Revenue Salmasius O what a Miracle of Judgment and Learning wrote bountifully and liv'd bountifully as I have heard These are his words Lib. de Usur p. 392. Quomodo liberalis esse potest qui nihil plus acquireret quà m quod sibi ad victum necessarium sufficere queat They that talk of possessing no more then to content Nature must live with such as know no other People but themselves else it is impossible but they will depart from that Primitive Simplicity And truly I have known but few perhaps none that would not be content to have had all the Chaplain's Portion or more if they had liv'd in as good a way of getting I do not excuse him therefore it need not that he got sufficient Wealth and bestow'd it Charitably and Honourably as will be manifested Whither it be Tully or Panaetius that says it or both it is well said as I learnt it in my Lessons of Puerility Lib. 1. de Off. Neque rei familiaris amplificatio vituperanda est nemine nocens sed fugienda semper injuria Riches that are augmented out of Niggardice or by Cheating Extortion or doing unworthy Offices carry their Curse along with them those that are well gotten are the Blessing of God The Adjection of Wealth then was not to be refus'd by one that serv'd not such an Idol but made it serve him for worthy Purposes Neither did his franc and generous Nature esteem such Things to be the Recompence of five years Service but this rather to be brought up at the Feet of the most prudent Counsellor that lived in the King's Service and that he got his Favour so early and held it so strongly till Death which came on apace An. 1616. in October this aged Patriarch began to languish and droop Therefore to recreate him and to put an after-spring into his decaying Spirits the Prince with due Solemnity being created Prince of Wales Nov 4. the Lord Chancellor was created Viscount Brackley on the 7th of the same This Honour was a Token that the King held him Precious yet it work'd not inward Who did ever see that the Sand in an Hour-Glass did run the flower because the Case in which it was put was guilded For all this Viscountship his Feebleness was more and more sensible the Eyes that look'd out of the Windows were darkned and he grew thick of Hearing From thence that is about January he delighted not in any Talk unless his Chaplain spoke to him All his Business with his Great and Royal Master the King he sent by him to be deliver'd with Trust and Prudence Upon which Messages the King took great notice that the Chaplain was Principled by his Master to be a Statesman and a Pillar of the Kingdom And even hard upon the day of his Death which was Mart. 15. the Chancellor call'd him to him and told him If he wanted Money he would leave him such a Legacy in his Will as should furnish him to begin the World like a Gentleman Sir says the Chaplain I kiss your hands you have fill'd my Cup full I am far from Want unless it be of your Lordships Directions how to live in the World if I survive you Well says the Chancellor I know you are an expert Workman take these Tools to work with they are the best I have And he gave him some Books and Papers written all with his own hand These were as Valuable as the Sibylline Prophesies They were that old Sage's Collections for the well ordering the High Court of Parliament the Court of Chancery the Star-Chamber and the Council-Board An inestimable Gift being made over to the true Heir Apparent of his Wisdom Let every one wear the Garland he deserves For my part I attribute so much to the Lord Egerton that I believe the Master's Papers were the Marrow of Mr. Williams his Prudence and subtle Judgment in all his Negotiations These Notes I have seen but are lost as it is to be feared in unlucky and devouring Times So died that Peerless Senator the Mirror of a Lord Chancellor having left that Blessing to his Chaplain and dear Servant that bewailed him long after with the mourning of a Dove and attended his Body to Cheshire and said the Office of Burial over him in a Chapel where he was entomb'd with his Ancestors Whose surviving Name a Grave cannot cover and a Tomb is too little to preserve it You may measure him in much by these two Spans Queen Elizabeth says Mr. Cambden was a Lady that never Chose amiss in the Preferment of an Officer when she was left to her own Judgment She made him her Solicitor Attorney-General Master of the Rolls and Lord-Keeper She tried him in every Place of Trust the former meriting the latter till he possess'd the highest King James did more not because he gave him the splendid Name of Lord-Chancellor or enobled him with the Titles of a Baron and a Viscount but because in the open Court of Star-Chamber he bless'd him with his Prayers and the Speech wherein he made the Prayer is Printed with his Works That as he had long held that Place so God would continue him longer in it To know him altogether I will borrow the Character of Aemilianus and engrave it into the green Saphir of his Memory which will ever keep green Qui nihil in vitâ nisi laudandum aut fecit aut dixit aut sensit 38. While the Obsequies for the Entertainment of this deceased Lord were preparing at London the Successor unto the Office of the great Seal was Sir Francis Bacon very Learned in the judgment of all European Scholars especially best known at home that his Soul was a Cabinet replenish'd with the greatest Jewels of Wit and in all our Kingdom none did ever set them forth with purer Language He hearing that Mr. Williams had chested up his Books and had furnish'd himself every way for an House-keeper to remove to his Cure of Walgrave he made him an offer of great Civility to continue with him in that place wherein he had serv'd the Lord Egerton which he declined but with so graceful a compliment that they parted great Friends and Sir Francis willing to mark him with some cognizance of his Love of his own accord made him Justice of Peace and of the Quorum in the County of Northampton an Office fitter for none than a Scholar and a Gentleman Yet he could hot leave London so God had provided without a calling into a new Service but it was in Caesars houshold His faithful and fast Friend Dr. James Montagu now Bishop of Winton sent for him and brought him to the King who received him with consolatory Words and extraordinary Grace and commanded he should be Sworn his Chaplain forthwith whereupon he Attended at the Court yearly in the Month of February appointed him also to wait on him in his great Northern progress into Scotland now hard at hand to begin in
have conquer'd the Love of the Flesh but if you will be wise Virgins you must conquer Covetousness and the Love of the World Will you know the way to it Fill your Vessels with Oyl That 's your Wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And what Vessels are so fit to receive your Oyl as the Bellies of the Poor Many of these dry Lamps he succour'd and the Lord anointed him again with fresh Oyl and made his Olive-yard encrease He that hath pity on the Poor lendeth unto God and what he hath given he will pay him again Prov. 19.17 For at this time one rich Sheaf was added to his Store by a valuable Legacy bequeathed to him a great Wind-fall as we commonly say from his Kinsman Mr. John Panton Servant with him to the Lord Chancellor Egerton who by his Last Will appointed him to be Guardian to his Children and with due discharge of that great Trust he bred them virtuously and bestow'd them happily No sooner had he gather'd up this Income but another Dole of Fortune fell into his Lap and much more unlook'd for then the other While the King was in his Summer-Progress in the West the Deanery of Salisbury became void by the Death of Dr. Gordon straightway many Eagles were about that Carcass and the Marquess of Buckingham struck in for one of the Competitors a deserving Scholar But the King gave him a Denial and sent for Dr. Williams a Man that could not be heard of in a fortnight as it fell out till he was found at Lincoln most remote from the Court upon the Duty of his Residency This was the first Step of his Dignity to which no Hand help'd to raise him but the King 's He was bereft of his dear Friend Dr. James Moutagu Bishop of Winton who died on the 19th of July in the same Summer if my Notes do not err Beside him he had dependance on none about His Majesty Yet God moved the King's Heart to confer this Favour upon him when he did not so much as stand in His Gracious Sight But it was better that he was in His Heart The old Romans were churlish or rather unjust in bestowing their Honours because none in their Republic might be advanced to an Office but such as courted the People and fauned on them for their Suffrages Their Decree runs thus In honoribus conferendis nullius absentis habeatur ratio Alex. ab Alexandro lib. 8. c. 3. Whereas Baseness and Ambition are better prevented when Places of Pre-eminence are cast upon them that stir not in the Suit neither aspire to Promotion Being so suddenly admitted into this Deanery which is as rich as any in the Land except four yet he lived not much in that Place His Predecessor Dr. Gordon a Stranger and unacquainted with our Customs remitted the Care of the Church wholly to the management of the Residentiaries grave Men but subtle and attentive to their own Emolument who contended to keep up the Power they had long enjoyed when one more knowing and active came into Dr. Gordon's room Though their Claim were wrong yet the new Dean to step out of the way of Contention appear'd but seldom in their Chapter but reposed himself in the Tranquility of Northamptonshire till a better Advancement within the space of two Years released him from those Wranglers 43. As yet then he made his Abode most commonly at Walgrave The place was healthful for no Air is so wholsom to a Man as where he is generally beloved Of which Love his share was the greater by his Place which he held among them of a Justice of the Peace He was as expert in weilding that Office as any that sate upon the Bench not excepting those that wore the Coif For vouching of Statutes he needed no Man to prompt him or to compare Old and New or to interpret them to their fair meaning He loved his Country and was the forwardest of any Patriot to defend the public against private Engrosments He was stout and never turn'd his back to opposition chiefly when the Oppressions of the poor Clergy did modestly call upon him to maintain them in their just Rights It is their hard hap in every place to be trampled upon not only by such as Gallio that care not for the Things of Christ but by such whose Zeal is compounded of contrary Elements they love the Harvest of the Gospel if you will believe them and hate the Labourers But in that County while Dean Williams was present they did eluctate out of their Injuries with credit to themselves and damage to their Adversaries So much did his Countenance conduce to their Profit and their Peace If private Wranglings were brought before him he seldom granted to those Parties his Warrant to proceed but counsel'd them and preach'd them out of their Litigious Humours saying That it was for Christ's Servant to Suffer twice before he Complain'd once that Religion was unspirited without Love and that Love was a blank without Forgiveness that Variances when all Charges are cast up make the Purse light and the Soul heavy With these and such words some did melt into meekness and shook hands the rather being Reconciled in his Buttry or his Cellar But if they did not Edifie with such Homilies many times he took another and a surer course to pay the Damages all or in part which one Neighbour alledged for the matter of his Quarrel against the other till after Experience dear bought he perceived he was cheated and that some would seem to be Foes because he used to be at cost to make them friends 44. I would he had done himself no greater wrong as a Justiciary But there was a Miscarriage which I cannot pass over a great deal of it was Error but somewhat in it hath the wilfulness of a Fault I am not wanton like the Ladies that lodge about the Piazza in Covent-Garden to lay a black Patch upon a fair Cheek where it need not No my scope is to make his Over-sight a caution to others For I intend in all that I write I appeal to God who knows it rather to Profit many then to Praise him Plainly thus it was Mr. Lamb whom succeeding times knew to be Dean of the Arches came by holding fast to Fortune's middle Finger from a School-master that taught Petties to a Proctor in Christian Courts and so to an Official An Official as Petrus Blasensis says of such another not from the Noun Ossicium but from Officio the Verb. The Dean of Salisbury had occasion to employ him thrice or oftner in those Spiritual Courts to untangle some distressed Ministers that sought unto him who were catch'd by the Horns in those Thickets The Official did his work trustily and pleas'd the Dean with as great obsequiousness as could be express'd knowing that he had many long Feathers in his Wing and was like to fly high I do not accuse the Dean that this Instrument was not yet detected to him
of Salisbury The Deanery to be vacated had many that longed for it a fortunate Seat and near the Court Like the Office over the King of Persia's Garden at Babylon which was stored with his most delicious Fruits Hortus ille nunquam nisi dominantis in Aulâ fuit says Pliny lib. 1◠c. 4. He that was trusted with that Garden was the Lord of the Palace This Preferment had ever been confer'd by the nomination of him that was Steward of the College and City of Westminster The Lord Treasurer Burleigh the Earl of Salisbury his Son the Earl of Somerset and the Lord Marquess bearing the Office at the present had been the constant Patrons of it Therefore it was requisite it being now to be confer'd to take it from his Lordship's hand Whom the Doctor solicited with no more then this short Letter Dated March 12. 1619. My most Noble Lord I Am an humble Suitor first to be acknowledged your Servant and then that I may be nearer and better able to perform my Desires to be by your happy Hand transplanted from Salisbury to Westminster if that Deanery shall prove vacant I trouble not your Honour for Profit but only for Conveniency for being Unmarried and inclining so to continue I do find that Westminster is fitter by much for that disposition And mine own nothing inferior in value will be at His Majesties Collation If your Honour be not bent upon an ancienter Servant I beseech you think upon me I am true and so reputed by my former and by the grace of God will prove no otherwise to my second Master God in Heaven bless you as he hath began He prays it who is Your Honour 's poor Beadsman already ever bound J. W. I observe out of these Lines a Precedent for Suitors and Candidates of Ecclesiastical Promotions that he neither extorted his Place by Importunity nor invaded it by Impudency nor lick'd it out of the Dust by Flattery nor bargain'd for it by Simony or the mollifying Term of Gratuity in a word he did not dishonest himself for it with any Indignity He carried it as he wish'd not being griple of Profit as he confessed but fond of Convenience He was Vir palmavius And Pliny says of the Palm-Trees Gaudent mutatione sedis they take Liking to be removed from Soil to Soil The Righteous carry branches of Palm before the Lamb Rev. 7.9 And their good Works do follow them Rev. 14.13 I trust and do verily believe that he is among those Palmers now in the Church Triumphant who did so many worthy Things for that Religious Foundation precious in the Eyes of the Lord. For my own part I take no little Joy to recount that this College was so happy in such a Man and the Liberty of that City in such a Governor It was the Soil of my Birth and my Breeding There I serv'd this good Master when I came out of the University first into the World there he paid me my Wages my Livelihood which with God's Blessing I owe to him alone A lucky spot of Ground to me I crave leave to set up this little Pillar in the place where God appeared so Gracious to me and to pour Oyl of Benediction on the top of it as Jacob did at Rethel Gen. 28.18 I do not aim at all to crowd in a Legend of my self as Phidias did insert his own Picture in the Shield which he made for the Statue of Minerva But I will speak of him whose Memory deserves to be refresh'd for the imprints of his Goodness in all sorts and for the Braveries of his Mind which he left behind him in that Orb. 54. His Predecessors whose Names and Actions are not forgotten were Men of good Report Two above all because none were comparable to them he cast in his Head to imitate Abbat Islip and Dr. Andrews Dr. Andrews for advancing Learning in the School Abbat Islip for his Cost expended upon the Fabric of the Minster and the Dean's place I dispose it so to mention first what a Foster-Father he was to the Scholars because himself proceeded to greater Designments by that Order He had heard much what Pains Dr. Andrews did take both day and night to train up the Youth bred in the public School chiefly the Alumni of the College so called For more certain Information he called me from Cambridge in the May before he was Installed to the House of his dear Cousin Mr. Elwis Winn in Chancery-Lane a Clerk of the Petty-Bag a Man of the most general and gracious Acquaintance with all the great Ones of the Land that ever I knew There he moved his Questions to me about the Discipline of Dr. Andrews I told him how strict that excellent Man was to charge our Masters that they should give us Lessons out of none but the most Classical Authors that he did often supply the Place both of Head School-master and Usher for the space of an whole week together and gave us not an hour of Loitering time from morning to night How he caused our Exercises in Prose and Verse to be brought to him to examine our Style and Proficiency That he never walk'd to Cheswick for his Recreation without a brace of this young Fry and in that way-faring Leisure had a singular dexterity to fill those narrow Vessels with a Funnel And which was the greatest burden of his Toil sometimes thrice in a week sometimes oftner he sent for the uppermost Scholars to his Lodgings at night and kept them with him from eight till eleven unfolding to them the best Rudiments of the Greek Tongue and the Elements of the Hebrew Grammar and all this he did to Boys without any compulsion of Correction nay I never heard him utter so much as a word of Austerity among us Alas this is but an Ivy-Leaf crept into the Laurel of his Immortal Garland This is that Andrews the Ointment of whose Name is sweeter then all Spices Cam. 4.10 This is that celebrated Bishop of Winton whose Learning King James admired above all his Chaplains and that King being of most excellent Parts himself could the better discover what was Eminent in another Indeed he was the most Apostolical and Primitive-like Divine in my Opinion that wore a Rochet in his Age of a most venerable Gravity and yet most sweet in all Commerce the most Devout that ever I saw when he appeared before God of such a Growth in all kind of Learning that very able Clerks were of a low Stature to him Colossus inter icunculas full of Alms and Charity of which none knew but his Father in secret A certain Patron to Scholars of Fame and Ability and chiefly to those that never expected it In the Pulpit an Homer among Preachers and may fitly be set forth in Quintilian's Judgment of Homer Nonne humani ingenii modum excessit Ut magni sit viri virtutes ejus non aemulaticne quod fieri non potest sed intellectu sequi I am
transported even as in a Rapture to make this Digression For who could come near the Shrine of such a Saint and not offer up a few Grains of Glory upon it Or how durst I omit it For he was the first that planted me in my tender Studies and water'd them continually with his Bounty The Occasion that brings in this was the new Dean's addition to his Pattern that looking into such a Mirror he might keep up the Learning of that happy Plantation that it might never hear worse then as Mr. Camden testifies for it Felix eruditorum in Ecclesiam Rempublicam proventus Eliz. p. 61. Fol. In his Zeal to this Work as soon as he was possess'd of the Deanery he was assiduous in the School and miss'd not sometimes every week if he were resident in the College both to dictate Lectures to the several Classes and to take account of them The choicest Wits had never such Encouragement for Praise and Reward He was very Bountiful in both and they went always together scattering Money as if it had been but Dung to manure their Industry And seldom he did fail no not when he kept the Great-Seal to call forth some of them to stand before him at his Table that in those intervals of best Opportunity he might have account of their Towardliness which ripen'd them so fast made them so Prompt and Ingenuous that the number of the Promoted to the Universities which swarm'd out of that Stock was double for the most part to those that were Transplanted in the foregoing Elections 55. These were the first Fruits of his Care In tenut labor at tenuts non glovia Virg. Georg. 4. The Buildings of Abbat Islip Monuments of a great worth were the next Object of his Emulation That wife and holy Man was the Lord Abbat over the Benedictine Monks who profess'd their Vows within those Cloysfers in the Glorious Reign of King Henry the Seventh The Abbat was a Privy-Counsellor and for his Fidelity and Prudence was one of the Executors to the King his Master by his Last Will and Testament The Structure of the Abby was left imperfect from the Reign of King Henry the Third who had been very Sumptuous in advancing the Workmanship from the Altar to the lower-end of the Quire From his Death that stately Pile of Building had look'd for some to help and there was none that pitied it This Abbat a devout Servant of Christ and of a wakeful Conscience considered the Office he bore how he was the Chief who had that House of God in possession Therefore he enlarged the length of the Church at his own Cost from the entring in of the Quire or thereabout to the West-Gate that looks towards Tuttle-street and contrived the Lodgings with strength and handsomness at the South-end which after the Change made in King Henry the Eighth's Reign received the Dean and his Retinue But Eternal Fame doth best shine upon his Memory in the Rising-Sun or upon the Eastern part There this Abbat and John Fisher Bishop of Rochester the Executor to King Henry the Seventh joyned with him laid out such Sums of Money as that King had appointed for the Noble Enterring of his own Body and his Queens with the Stems of their Royal Line and none other These two like men of faithful and large Minds built the Chappel next behind the Chappel of Edward the Confessor called by King Henry the Seventh's Name which nothing can surmount for Cost and Curiosity There they set up his Monument in a Brazen Impalement which looks like the Work not of our Moderns but of Bezaleel Now though not the Soul yet the Piety and Liberality of the Abbat to this Domo came into Dr. Williams by Transmigration who in his entrance to that place found the Church in such decay that all that passed by and loved the Honour of God's House shook their Heads at the Stones that drop'd down from the Pinacles Therefore that the Ruines of it might be no more a Reproach this Godly Jehoiada took care for the Temple of the Lord to repair it to set it in his state and to strengthen it a Chren 4.3 He began at the South-east part which looked the more deformed with decay because it coupled with a latter Building I mean the Chappel of King Henry the Seventh which was tight and fresh The North-west part also which looks to the great Sanctuary was far gone in Dilapidations The great Buttresses were almost crumbled to Dust with the Injuries of the Weather which he re-edified with durable Materials and beautified with elegant Statues among whom Abbat Islip had a place so that 4500 Pounds were spent in a trice upon the Workmanship All this was his own Cost Neither would he Impatronize his Name to the Credit of that Work which should be raised up by other men's collatitious Liberality like Laonicus in Castilio his Courier Lib. 4. Vide quà m liberalis sit qui non sua solùm sed etiam aliena largiatur I do not expect that the Sacrilegious of our Times should commend him for disbursing so much upon a Building of Sacred Use who either make no difference between Holy and Prophane or Tender Prophane and Common Things before the Holy Never in the days of old was so much spent in private Buildings Enough is Erected upon new Foundations in the Skirts of London to make two large and beautiful Cities Yet we suffer all our Cathedrals of egregious Piety and stupendious Bravery to run to a general Decay which is all one as to put hands to their Demolishment What Christians would not tremble to see their Rubbish rise up in Judgment against them I appeal to found Judgment whether in an Heathenish but a Civil Republic the Aedils of Rome would not have saved such Structures from Ruine at the public Charge But I am indifferent to appeal to any man sound or corrupt against Art Will. in his History p. 191. who nibbles at the good Name of the magnificent Dean upon his magnificent Church-works because he could not bite it For this is his Censure These Works were Arguments of a great Mind but how far from Ostentation in this frail body of Flesh cannot be determined Such suspicious and ungrounded Glances discover more Rancor then direct Contumelies for which Macrobius hath a pretty Simile Lib. 7. c. 3. Hami angulosi quam directi mucrones tenacius infiguntur Ill-favoured Suspicion is like a crooked Hook where it enters it will stick in the Flesh though it make but a little wound But thus he serves King James and all his Courtiers of both Sexes of all Professions pelts them all along with rotten Surmises or palpable Untruths I will fit him with Spalatensis his Judgment upon Baronius the great Annalist who was Squint-eyed Omnia regum facta non rectis sed contortis oculis intuetur Lib. 7. c. 9. In all his Volumes he squinted at the famous Actions of Kings and Princes 56. For their further
it was happy for him when five years after Lime-Hounds were laid close to his foot-steps to hunt him and every corner searched to find a little of that Dust behind his door Eut it proved a dry scent to the Inquisitors for to his Glory and the Shame of his Enemies it could never appear that the least Bird-lime of Corruption did stick to his Fingers And now I have shewn what was the rich Portion which he brought when he was wedded to the Office of the Great-Seal these are convictive and day-light Evidences To one or two Writers of late that have gone another way I have nothing to answer because in those things wherein they calumniate they address not themselves to prove any thing Enough to give them up to the censure of that Infamy which they merit Qui notitiam viri non ex bonis gestis dictisque sed ex minus probabilibus fieri volunt quo quid nequius says the Author called Zeno of Verona When such candid Authors as Sir T. Moore Sir J. Hayward S. Daniel and Renowned Camden wrote the Lives of Princes they drew the Characters of Men by their Actions and Speeches not out of Obloquies and Suspicions the Brats of rotten Fame that have no Father But in Sick or rather Pestilentious Times when no Wares are set forth so much as Untruths and Malice too many are not more bold to Lie then confident to be Believed Never with no People under the Sun did Veracity suffer so much as by the Pen of Sir A. Wel. whose Pamphlet is Perpetuus Rhotacismus one snarling Dogs-Letter all over which I condemn therefore as Philoxenus the Poet censured Dionysius the Syracusan's Tragedy A fronte ad calcem unâ liturâ circumduxit Correct it with one Scratch or Score from the beginning to the end 66. Such as he are not in my way why then should I loiter one Line to jostle them out Yet since discreet Persons and they that extol'd the Dean and confess'd that his Soul carried a great freight of Worth did think their Exceptions weighty against his undergoing that great Office I will not dissemble as if I were a Stranger to them The Words of the Wise are as Nails fastned by the Masters of Assemblies Eccles 12.11 Yet some Nails are not so fast in but they may be wrench'd out Many alledged that he had Dedicated himself to the Church in an holy Calling Why should he take his hand from his own Plow to preside in Secular Affairs Indeed when the Harvest was great and the Labourers few it was the Summum bonum of a Labourer to ply that Harvest for nothing could be better then to Plant the Gospel among those that had not believed But where an whole Nation is gained so far as to believe in Christ and the Message of Salvation known to all that Church is preserved unto Christ by other means beside Preaching They that attend their Charge in Prayer Exhortation and dispensing the Sacraments in all Quarters of the Land had need to have some of their own Coat in Places of Power and Dignity to preserve their Maintenance from Sacrilege and their Persons from being trodden down with dirty Feet Such as God hath bless'd to go in Rank with the Chiefest to help their Brethren whether in public Office or in Attendance on their Sovereign in his Chappel Closet Eleemosynary Trust or the like they are as much in the Harvest as they that labour in the Pulpit St. Ambrose in his sundry Embassages for his Lord the Emperor the Father of Gr. Nazianzen a Bishop of whom his Son says in his Epitaph that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 employed in Pre-eminency and Honour and Government Euseb de vit Constanti l. 4. c. 27. Sozom. l. 1. c. 9. mention the Rescript of Constantine to Ablavius the Praetorian Praefect Ut pro Sanctis semper venerabilibus habeatur quicquid Episcoporum fuerit sententiâ terminatum idque in cansis omnibus quae vel Praetorio vel civili jure tractantur Which large Concession of Constanstine was restrained indeed by Gratian and Valentiman an 376 Ad causas quae ad Religionis observantiam pertinebant All the Prelates to whom the Emp. Constantine the Great referred the Hearing of Causes by Appeals which they discharged to the gaining of great Love and Praise these were not out of their Sphere but served the Church when they did that which ingratiated the Church and made the Christian Name to be venerable Some never speak of Secular Policy but as of a Prophane thing whereas a worthy Man may manage a Civil Tribunal with that maintenance of Virtue with that galling of Vice and evil Manners so as many good Pulpit-Orators put together might give God thanks if their Success were equal Councils it is true may be produced as to be brief the Quin-Sext in Trullo can 11 which forbids Priests and Deacons it names not Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to handle worldly Principalities I am struck with Reverence to the Council but not Convicted by its Reason which is fetch'd out of one Scripture that no Man can serve two Masters Tell this to the Ecclesiastics of Rome who are wholly buried in Things not only different but contrary to the Ministry Instituted by Christ Opposite Masters cannot be served by one faithful Servant subordinate may for we may love both and hate neither The King's Service in a Righteous way is not opposite to Christ's Evangelical Administrations but co-incident And a Supreme Governor doth not lose his Right in a Subject that is made a Priest or Bishop but may employ him under him as he pleaseth since the compacture of the whole Commonwealth together is but one Christian Oeconomy ABP Spotswood p. 299. In the Articles proponed to the Parliament at Sterling by Mr. Andrew Melvin an 1578. this is the 17th of the 11th Cap. We deny not that Ministers may and should assist their Princes when they are required in all things agreeable to the Word of God whether it be in Council or Parliament or out of Council providing always that they neither neglect their own Charges nor through flattery of Princes hurt the public State of the Church A Caution that their own Charges be not neglected is most Pious otherwise the Indulgence is very indefinite Many Zealots are as kind to themselves in England to serve their own turn I never saw any of our Ministry more abstracted from their Studies continually progging at the Parliament-Door and in Westminster-Hall for many years together having no Calling but that of an Evil Spirit to raise Sedition then those that were most offended at a Bishop for bestowing some part of his Time in a Secular Place And yet a considerate Judge will not say that the Lord-Keepership is an Employment merely Secular To mitigate the strict Cases of the Law with the Conscience of the King in whose Place he sits is it not as fully Ecclesiastical as a Consistory of teaching and ruling Elders
Majesty was the Chariot and Horsemen of our Israel that now he would be pleased to double the Spirit of Elias upon his Servant Elisha whom Your Majesty hath thus invested with his Robe and Mantle And for my especial direction I will take up that Counsel which Pliny gave his Friend Maximus Newly Elected Praetor for Achaia Meminisse oportet Officii Titulum I will never forget my Office and Title I am design'd to be a Probationer in this Place and as a Probationer by God's Grace I will demeane my self I will take up together with this Seal that Industry Integrity and Modesty Non ut me Consulem sed ut consulatus candidatum putem That is I will not Esteem my self a Keeper but a Suitor only for the Great Seal And if I feel the burden too heavy which I mightily fear and suspect I will choose rather desinere quà m deficere to slip it off willingly to some stronger Shoulder than to be crush'd in pieces with the poise of the same And I humbly beseech your Majesty also to Remember I am no more than a meer Probationer If I prove Raw at the first I must have my time to Learn The best of them all have craved no less and I will desire no more For if after the full weighing of my Strength I shall still find my self unable for this Service I will say unto Your Majesty as Jacob said unto Pharaoh Pastor ovium est servus tuus whatsoever You are pleas'd Sir to make me I am but a Keeper of Sheep in that Calling Your Majesty found me and to that Calling I shall ever be ready to appropriate my self again In the mean time I beseech Your Majesty to protect this Court of Justice wherein You have plac'd me that the Strength and Power of that body be nothing impaired through the weakness of the Head Nemo Adolescentiam meam contemnat Let not my Fellows of an other Profession cry out with him in the Psalm There there so would we have it neither let them say We have Devoured him And so I end with my Prayer unto God That Your Majesty may Live long and my self no longer than I may be serviceable to Your Majesty 73. The King heard him very Graciously to the end and used no more then these few Words in Answer That he was pleas'd in his Settlement as in any whom he had prefer'd and was perswaded he would not deceive his Judgment Neither did the good liking of the most stick at any thing but that the Worthies of the Lay and chiefly of the Law were pretermitted But his Majesty rather regarded the fitness of a Man then the Custom of a Tribe As he that takes a Lodging in the City never Examines which are the best Rooms by Squares of Architecture but likes that for the best Chamber which hath â—the best Furniture At the same time the Lord Keeper by super-impregnation of favour was made a Bishop and Reap'd no less than two Harvests in one Month. It was K. James his wont to give like a King for the most part to keep one Act of Liberality warm with the covering of another A meaner Man then a King could say it is Pliny lib. 2. Epist beneficia mea tueri nullo modo melius possum quam ut augeam He that hath plac'd a benefit well let him imitate himself and do another that 's the sure way of obliging The Bishopric of Lincoln was bestowed on him by the Royal Congè d'Elire the Largest Diocess in the Land because this New Elect had the Largest Wisdom to super-intend so great a Circuit Yet in as much as the Revenue of it was not great it was well piec'd out with a Grant to hold the Deanery of Westminster into which he shut himself fast with as strong Bars and Bolts as the Law could make Else when the Changes began to Ring in the Fifth year after he had been sure to be thrust out of Doors in a storm when he had most need of a Covering Yet some Suitors were so importunate to compass this Deanery upon his expected leaving that he was put to it to plead hard for that Commenda before he carried it The King was in his Progress and the Lord Marquess with him to whom he writes to present his Reasons to the King which were that the Port of the Lord Keeper's Place though he would strike Sail more than any that preceded him must be maintain'd in some convenient manner Here he was handsomly housed which if he quitted he must trust to the King to provide one for him as His Majesty and his Predecessors have ever done to their Chancellors Here he had some Supplies to his House-keeping from the Colledge in Bread and Beer Corn and Fuel of which if he should be depriv'd he must be forc'd to call for a Diet which would cost the King 1600 l. per annum or crave for some addition in lieu thereof out of the King 's own means as all his Foregoers in that Office had done In that Colledge he needed to entertain no Under-Servants or Petty-Officers who were already provided to his Hand Beside the Very Name and Countenance thereof would take away all expectation of extraordinary Entertainments And it was but a step from thence into Westminsterhall where his business lay and 't was a Lodging which afforded him marvelous quietness to turn over his Papers and to serve the King He might have added for it was in the bottom of his Breast he was loath to stir from that Seat where he had the Command of such exquisite Music A Request laid out in such Remonstrance was not nay could not be refus'd by so Gracious a Prince who granted twenty Suits to one that he denied Magnarum largitor opum largitor honorum pronus which singularly fits King James though Claudian made it for Honorius Likewise by the Indulgence of his Commenda he reserv'd the Rectory of Walgrave to himself a Trifle not worthy to be Remembred but his Reason is not unworthy to be detected Take it as he Read this Lecture to me upon it That in the instability of humane things every man must look for a Dissolution of his Fortunes as well as for the Dissolution of his Body the latter of sure Things is most sure the former of usual Things is most usual Common Men are in doubtful Places great Men in slippery Places but Sacrilege being a Raven that continually croaks over the Church-Patrimony Clergy-men were in most obnoxious Places Many have paid dear for this Experience That Fortune will fly quite away when she is well fledge Then let such as are upon the highest Stairs of those Preferments have this Forecast To keep a little Room behind their Back-door to which they may retreat When there was no place for Elijah in Jezreel he took his Commons in an obscure Village to which God sent him with the Widow of Zarephath Anselm Arch-Bishop of Canterbury kept his Right to a poor Cell
which he had in a Monastery called Becc in Normandy and that Hospitality kept him when he fled out of England and all the Revenues of his Mitre failed him Stephen Gardner Bishop of Winton and Lord-Chancellor held the Mastership of Trinity-hall to his Dying-day and though he gave forty better Preferments to others he would never leave his Interest in it and did not conceal the Cause but said often If all his Palaces were blown down by Iniquity he would creep honestly into that Shell They that will not be wise by these Examples Ia Teâ— I will send them to School to a Fable in Plautus Cogitato mus pusillus quà m sit sapiens bestia AEtatem qui uni cubili nunquam committit suam Qui si unum ostium obsideatur aliud perfagium quaerit So in the upshot he said Walgrave was but a Mouse-hole yet it would be a pretty Fortification to Entertain him if he had no other Home to resort to He was not the only Prophet of that which is fallen out in these dismal Days many such Divinations flash'd from others who saw the Hills of the Robbers afar off who have now devoured the Heritage of Jacob and say they are not Guilty and they that have sold us and bought us say Blessed be the Lord for we are rich Zech. 11.5 74. Whom I leave to a Day of Account having an Account to give my self how Prosperous the Lord-Keeper was in the King's Affections at this time to whom His Majesty measured out his accumulated Gifts not by the Bushel or by the Coome but by the Barn-full It was much he had compacted his own Portion to such advantage but it was not all for being warm in Favour he got the Royal Grant for the Advancement of four more who are worthy to be named He spake and sped for Dr. Davenant to be made Bishop of Salisbury who had plowed that I may allude to Elisha 1 King 19.19 with twelve yoke of Oxen and was now with the twelfth when this Mantle was cast upon him Twelve years he had been Public Reader in Divinity in Cambridge and had adorn'd the Place with much Learning as no Professor in Europe did better deserve to receive the Labourer's Peny at the twelfth Hour of the Day Beside what a Pillar he was in the Synod of Dort is to be read in the Judgment of the Britain Divines inserted among the public Acts his Part being the best in that Work and that Work being far the best in the Compilements of that Synod The Bishopric of Exon being also then void it came into the Lord-Keeper's head to gratifie a brace of worthy Divines if he could attain it his old Friends who had been both bred in the House of Wisdom with the Lord-Chancellor Egerton Dr. Carew who had been his Chaplain a man of great Reason and polish'd Eloquence and Dr. Dunn who had been his Secretary a Laureat Wit neither was it possible that a vulgar Soul should dwell in such promising Features The Success was quickly decided for these two prevailed by the Lord-Keeper's Commendation against all Pretenders the Bishopric of Exeter was conferred upon Dr. Carew and Dr. Dunn succeeded him in his Deanery of St. Paul's The See of St. David's did then want a Bishop but not Competitors The Principal was Dr. Laud a Learned Man and a Lover of Learning He had fasten'd on the Lord Marquess to be his Mediator whom he had made sure by great Observances But the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had so opposed him and represented him with suspicion in my judgment improbably grounded of Unsoundness in Religion that the Lord Marquess was at a stand and could not get the Royal Assent to that Promotion His Lordship as his Intimates know was not wont to let a Suit fall which he had undertaken in this he was the stiffer because the Arch-Bishop's Contest in the King's Presence was sour and supercilious Therefore he resolved to play his Game in another hand and conjures the Lord-Keeper to commend Dr. Laud strenuously and importunately to the King 's good Opinion to fear no Offence neither to desist for a little Storm Accordingly he watch'd when the King's Assections were most still and pacisicous and besought His Majesty to think considerately of his Chaplain the Doctor who had deserved well when he was a young Man in his Zeal against the Millenary Petition And for his incorruption in Religion let his Sermons plead for him in the Royal Hearing of which no Man could judge better then so great a Scholar as His Majesty 75. Well says the King I perceive whose Attorney you are Stenny hath set you on You have pleaded the Man a good Protestant and I believe it Neither did that stick in my Breast when I stopt his Promotion But was there not a certain Lady that forsook her Husband and married a Lord that was her Paramour Who knit that Knot Shall I make a man a Prelate one of the Angels of my Church who hath a flagrant Crime upon him Sir says the Lord-Keeper very boldly you are a good Master but who dare serve you if you will not pardon one Fault though of a scandalous Size to him that is heartily Penitent for it I pawn my Faith to you that he is heartily Penitent and there is no other Blot that hath fullied his good Name Vellcius said enough to justifie Murena that had committed but one Fault Sine hòc facinore potuit videri probus You press well says the King and I hear you with patience neither will I revive a Trespass any more which Repentance hath mortified and buried And because I see I shall not be rid of you unless I tell you my unpublish'd Cogitations the plain Truth is that I keep Laud back from all Place of Rule and Authority because I find he hath a restless Spirit and cannot see when Matters are well but loves to toss and change and to bring Things to a pitch of Reformation stoating in his own Brain which may endanger the steadfastness of that which is in a good pass God be praised I speak not at random he hath made himself known to me to be such a one For when three years since I had obtained of the Assembly of Perth to consent to Five Articles of Order and Decency in correspondence with this Church of England I gave them Promise by Attestation of Faith made that I would try their Obedience no further anent Ecclesiastic Affairs nor put them cut of their own way which Custom had made pleasing unto them with any new Encroachments Spotswood p. 543. Marquess Hamilton the King's Commissioner in the last Parliament that ever he kept in Scotland having Ratified the Five Articles of Perth by Aâ—â— of Parliament assured the People that His Majesty in his days should not press any more Change on Alterations in matters of that kind without their Consent Yet this man hâ—th pressed me to invite them to a nearer conjunction with the
Liturgy and Canons of this â—â—tion but I sent him back again with the frivâ—lous Draught he had drawn It seems I remembred St. Austin ' s Rule better then he Ipsa mutatio consuetudinis ctiam quae adjuvat utilitate novitate perturbat Ep. 118. For all this he feared not mine Anger but assaulted me again with another illfangled Platform to make that slubborn Kirk stoop more to the English Pattern But I durst not play fast and loose with my Word He knows not the Stomach of that People but I ken the Story of my Grandmother the Queen Regent That after she was inveigled to break her Promise made to some Mutineers at a Perth Meeting she never saw good day but 〈◊〉 thence being much beloved before was despised of all the People And now your 〈◊〉 hath compel'd me to shrive my self thus unto you I think you are at your furthest and have no more to say for your Client May it please you Sir says the Lord-Keeper I will speak but this once You have indeed convicted your Chaplain of an Attempt very Audacious and very Unbeseeming my Judgment goes quite against his C. Gracâ—â—hus mended nothing but lost himself in his Tribuneship Qui nihil 〈◊〉 nihil tranquillum nihil quietum nihil denique in côdom staturelinquebat I am assured he that makes new work in a Church begets new Quarrels for Scriblers and new Jealousies in tender Consciences Yet I submit this to Your Sacred Judgment That Dr Laud is of a great and a tractable Wit He did not well see how he came into this Error but he will presently see the way how to come out of it Some Diseases which are very acute are quickly cured And is there no whee but you musl carry it says the King Then take him to you but on my Soul you will repent it And so went away in Anger using other fierce and ominous Words which were divulged in the Court and are too tart to be repeated So the Lord-Keeper procured to Dr. Laud his first Rochet and retained him in his Prebend of 〈◊〉 a Kindness which then he mightily valued and gave him about a year after a Living of about 120 l. per annum in the Diocese of St. David's to help his Revenue Which being unsought and brought to him at Durham-House by Mr. William Winn his Expression was Mr. Winn my Life will be too short to require your Lord's Goodness But how those Scores were paid is known at home and abroad Which he that will excuse hath no way but to shift it upon an Adagie Unum arbustum nen capit erithecos duos He that would be Great alone cares not whom he depresseth that would be as Great as himself 76. More cannot be required to shew how great the Lord-Keeper's Credit was with the King then that four Bishopricks were bestowed at once to three others with himself for which he interposed All three did then observe him with Congratulation as their Raiser Salisbury and Exeter were Men of faithful Acknowledgment in all their Life Est tanti ut gratum invenias experiri vel ingratos says Seneca He that finds two faithful Men among three is well requited Our Saviour found but one among Ten Luke 17.15 This Quaternion making ready for their Consecration a Calamity fell out which put them all to their Studies that they knew not which way to turn The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury making a Summer Journey into Hampshire was welcom'd by the Lord Zeâ—nch and invited to some Hunting-Sports in Bramshill-Park about St. James-tide The Arch-Bishop pretending to be a Wood-man took a Cross-bow to make a shot at a Buck. One of the Keepers did his Office to wind-less up the Deer to his stand who too suddenly shot at a fair-headed Buck in the Herd But his Arrow meeting with a small Bought in the way was cast a little from the mark and by an unhappy Glance wounded the Keeper in the Arm. It was but a Flesh-wound and a slight one yet being under the Cure of an heedless Surgeon the Fellow died of it the next day The like had never happen'd in our Church nor in any other in the Person of a Bishop and a Metropolitan which made work for Learned Men to turn over their Books Councils and Canon-Laws and Proviso's of Casuists were ransack'd whose Resolutions were unfavourable and greatly to the prejudice of the Fact It was clear in our Common-Law that his Personal Estate was forfeited to the King though it were Homicidium involuntarium But he was quickly comforted that he should not Suffer in that For upon the first Tidings His Majesty who had the Bowels of a Lamb censured the Mischance with these words of melting Clemency That an Angel might have miscarried in that sort The Arch-Bishop was an happy man in this Unhappiness that many Hearts condoled with him and many precious Stones were in the Breast-Plate which he wore that Pleaded for him He was Painful Stout Severe against bad Manners of a Grave and a Voluble Eloquence very Hospital Fervent against the Roman Church and no less against the Arminians which in those days was very Popular he had built and endowed a beautiful Eleemosynary Mansion at Guilford where he was born he sent all the Succors he could spare to the Queen of Bohemia the King 's only Daughter was a most stirring Counsellor for the Defence of the Palatinate was very acceptable to the Nobility and to the People both of this Realm and of Scotland where he had preach'd often 14 years before when he was in the Train of the Earl of Dunbar All those Flowers in his Garland were considered severally and mixtly when this gloomy day of Misfortune bedarken'd him And you may be sure our Sovereign Lord thought it the more Pardonable because it was an Hunting Casualty and was very Humane to those Harms beyond prevention which fell out in that Sport wherein he greatly delighted Therefore His Majesty Resolved and gave it him in a Consolatory Letter under his Hand That He would not add Affliction to his Sorrow nor take one Farthing from his Chattels and Moveables which were Confiscated by our Civil Penalties 77. But it cost more Labour to get out of the Ecclesiastical Brias for many of our best advised Churchmen took it sore to heart and lamented for it not without bitter Tears for the Scandal which was fallen upon our Church in his Person who in the Eye of General Councils and Canon-Laws was wonderfully Tainted and made Uncapable to all Sacred Functions performing Therefore to come home to the case they said God forbid those Hands should Consecrate Biships and Ordain Priests or Administer the Sacraments of Christ which God out of his secret Judgments had thus permitted to be embrued in Human Blood And some of the Prelacy profess'd If they had fallen into the like mischance they would never have despaired of God's Mercy for the other Life but from this World they would have retired and besoughts
or improper to him and his Calling he is to be Acquitted by a formal Pardan as an Innocent but if he were acting in Indebitâ materia when he did it then it is to be gathered that God did give him up to that mischance that he might be disciplined for his Extravagancy by the Censure of the Church Now take the Illation That the Arch-Bishop fell into this Misfortune being unduly employed many Synods having prohobited Hunting to all Species of the Ministry Maldonatus lib. 2. de Sacr. p. 254. Quod nonnulli dicum irregularom esse Saccrdotom qui dâ—ns operam â—nationi juod illi non licebat homimm intersecit putans se feram intersicere falsum esi Sir H. Martin answered That Employment in undue matter is to be understood of Evil simply in it self Non de malo quia prohibitum not in a thing clearly lawful if it were not prohibited Are Clerks restrained from Hunting No wonder So they are by some Synodical Rules from playing at Tennis What mean such austere Coercions Nothing but to keep them from excess of Pleasure and Idieness which turn to be Avocations of their Studies and Attendance on the Church of Christ That in particular Hunting is no Unpriestly Sport by the Laws of England may thus be proved For every Peer in the higher House of Parliament as well Lords Spiritual as Temporal hath Permission by the Charta de Forcstà when after Sunmons he is in his Journey to the Parliament and not else to cause an Horn to be sounded when he travels through any of the King's Forests and to kill a brace of Bucks signification being given of his Intent to the Verdurers 78. The King had persect knowledge how these Things were discuss'd He saw that whether the Person of the Arch-Bishop were tainted by this Fact or not yet his Metropolitical Function was unsettled in many men's Opinions he heard that the Acts of Spiritual Courts were unsped and came to no end till Sentence were pronounced one way or other by the Supreme Authority Therefore a Commission was directed from His Majesty to ten Persons to meet together for this purpose about the beginning of October These were the Lord-Keeper the Bishops of London Winton and Rochester the Elects of Exeter and St. Davids Sir Harry Hâ—bart Lord-Chief-Justice of the Common-Pleas Sir John Dodderidge one of the Justices of the Kings-Bench Sir H. Martin Dean of the Arches and Dr. Steward esteemed the Papinian of Doctors-Commons These began to lay their Heads together upon the Third of October and then Conser'd upon the manner of their Proceeding The Lord Hobart and Sir H. Martin affecting that his Grace should send Counsel to Plead before them from which the rest dissented First Because no such Privilege was allowed him in the King's Letters directed to the Commissioners Secondly Because the Honour of the King and the Seandal of the Church which as yet made the adverse Party have no Counsel on their side Thirdly Because His Majesty required Information from those ten upon the nature of this Fact relying upon their Knowledge Learning and Judgments but not referring the Matter to their final Decision and Determination Indeed their Work to prevent Excursions was laid out in three Questions which they were commanded to Resolve and to Act no further And those were Debated till the 27th of that Month and in the end Decided with great Disagreement of Opinions The first Question Whether the Arch-Bishop were Irregular by the Fact of Involuntary Homicide The two Judges and the two Civilians did agree That he was not Irregular and the Bishop of Winton who was a strong Upholder of Incontaminate Antiquity coming to the same sense said He could not conclude him so The other five held He was Irregular The second Question Whether that Act might tend to a Scandal in a Church-man The Bishop of Winton the Lord Hobart and Dr. Steward doubted All the rest Subscribed That there might arise from such an Accident Scandalum acceptum non datum a Scandal taken but not given The third Question How my Lord's Grace should be restored in case the King should follow the Decision of those Commissioners who had found him Irregular All agreed it could no otherwise be done then by a Restitution from the King In the manner they varied The Bishop of Wiâ—châ—sâ—er Lord Hobart Dr. Steward were of one mind to have it done immediately from the King and from him alone in the same Patent with the Pardon The Lord-Keeper Bishops of London Rochester Exon and St. Davids to be directed to some Bishops by a Commission from the King to be transacted in a foâ—mal Absolution Church-wise Manu Clericali Judge Dodderidge and Sir Harry Maâ—â—in were willing to have it done both ways for abundant Caution The whole Business was submitted to His Majesty to determine it who took the shortest course to shew Mercy Sprevit caelestis animus humana consilia as Velleius said of C. Caeâ—ar So by his Broad-Seal He assoiled the Arch-Bishop from all Irregularity Scandal or Infamation pronouncing him to be capable to use all Metropolitical Authority as if that sinistrous Contigency in spilling Blood had never been done A Princely Clemency and the more to be Extoll'd because that Arch-Bishop was wont to dissent from the King as often as any man at the Council-Board It seems he loved him the better for his Courage and Sincerity For it was he that said to Jo. Spotswood Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews telling His Majesty That if he wrote an History of the Church of Scotland to which Labour he was appointed he could not approve of his Mother in all things that she did Well says the King speak the Truth and spare not Words after Salomon's Praise which are Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver 79. But because when our Arch-Bishop's Unfortunateness was recent it appeared far worse to some scrupulous Ecclesiastics then it did in process of time therefore the Lord-Keeper with the two other Elects cast themselves at His Majesties Feet and besought Him That since they had declared before God and the World what they thought in that dubious Case they might not be compel'd by wounding their Consciences to be Consecrated by him but be permitted to receive that Solemnity from some other Bishops which was warrantable by His Majesties Laws This was easily granted and the Lord-Keeper was Consecrated in the Chappel of King Henry the Seventh at Westminster on the 11th day of November following by the Bishops of London Worcester Ely Oxford Landaff And the Elects of Sarum Exeter St. Davids in the Chappel of the Bishop of London's Palace Nov. 18. by the same Reverend Fathers From hencesorth the suspicion of the Irregularity was brought asleep and never waken'd more Mr. H. L. is quite mistaken pag. 71. of his History ' It is true the Arch-Bishop an 1627. was Commanded from his Palaces of Lambeth and Croydon and sent to a Moorish House in Kent called Foord but not as he conceives
than the Lecturer of St. Martins in the Fields a great Opiniator who was committed to the Gate-House and having scarce kiss'd the Jayl was restored to go abroad and to Preach again at the Lord Keeper's humble Suit Who gave him grave Advice to take some other Theme to treat of before his Auditors than the King's Counsels and Intentions And what doth your Lordship prescribe me to Preach upon says this Frampul Man What else and that you know your self says he But Jesus Christ and him Crucified The next Sunday the Lecturer restor'd to his Place takes for his Text 1 Cor. 2. V. 2. I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him Crucified And withal told the People That a Bishop and a great Statesman had restrain'd him to Preach of that only and no other Scripture Of which Indignity when Sir George Calvert the Principal Secretary had brought him News he laugh'd heartily and said no more But let him alone Sir George he hath vented his Crotchet His Notes will not let him continue long on that Subject He delights in Quarrels but he shall never be question'd for my sake if he will not trouble the King So he dealt with him as Leo says he us'd Anatasius Ep. 57. Benigniores circa ipsum quam justiores esse volumus A Magistrate is in a great strait that deals with such a Head-strong Piece Whether he be summon'd to answer before Authority or pass'd over in Connivence his Heart is as fat as Brawn and hath no feeling of the Publick Peace Dicere si tentes aliquid tacitus ve recedas Tantundem est feriunt pariter Juven Sat. 3. Yet perhaps when they are left to themselves they will be soonest weary of themselves And every Dunghil smells ill but worst when it is stirr'd 100. A few things more subjunctive to the former were thought meet to be Castigated in Preachers at that time It jarr'd in the Ears of the Discreet to hear some that exercis'd in the Church battle out they knew not what about Regal Authority and limit which were the Enclosures of Subjection and which were not To Be subject to the Higher Powers is a constant and a general Rule and Reason can discern that the Supreme Majesty which unquestionably is in our King is inviolable For omnis motus est super quietem That all Penalties against them that offend may move orderly there must be a Power Quiescent and exempted from that Motion not subject to Penalty by Man He that maintains not this Principle leaps wilfully into Confusion and will never get out of it But for Active Obedience to Laws and Edicts 't is local and therefore various Every Nation know their own way best to what they are tied as we know ours He is a Busie-body that trasheth this in a Pulpit A Minister is pur-blind of that side and cannot tell how far the Eagle may fly For it comes not under the Divine's Cap but under the Judges Coif A Scholar of Broad-Gates in Oxford Mr. Knight that had newly taken Orders broke a Sermon against this Rock in April 1022. out of Paraeus his Aphorisms on the 13th Chap. ad Rom. how far forth he understood him I contend not he deliver'd that which derogated much from the safety of Regal Majesty Dr. Pierce the Vicechancellor a Learned Governor found the Crime too great for the Cognizance of his Consistory But inform'd Bishop Laud of all Passages and the Bishop the King Presently the Floods lift up their Voice Ruine is thundred against Knight who had set such a Beacon on Fire in the Face of the University To the Gate-House he was committed a close Prisoner till a Charge were drawn up against him to Impeach him of Treasonable Doctrine All other Passages I pretermit And how the Charge came not in shall be told by and by But this weak Predicant that run blindfold into Error and Destruction lay in Limbo a great while macerated with fear and want and hard Lodging Dr. White he who purchas'd Sion-College for the Clergy of London and conferr'd other Beneficence on the place had like to have kept Knight Company He Preach'd a Sermon at St. Paul's Church London in his Residentiaries Course though very Aged and was better able to discharge it Forty Years before There were among those that heard him some that wrested his Words to a bad meaning as if he had prick'd the Court in the Basilick or Liver-Vein Though his Doctrine was harmless in good Construction yet a Tale was told to the King to the contrary for he was very Rich. That was the Carrion after which the Crows cawed Though he was Orthodox his Money was Heterodox and the Informers look'd to part it among them To avoid this Peril Dr. White fled to the Lord Keeper's Sweetness and Civility who assured him he would do him the best Office he could He thought upon the Doctor and forgot not Mr. Knight but rubb'd his Fore-head to find a Stratagem how to hunt two Hares at one Course The next time he came into the King's Presence he fell upon it how to amaze his Majesty with a Paradox Some Instructions were appointed to be drawn up by his Discretion and Stile for the Performance of useful and Orderly Preaching Which being under his Hand to dispatch he besought his Majesty that one Proviso might pass among the rest that none of Holy Calling might Preach before the Age of thirty years compleat nor after threescore On my Soul says the King the Devil or some Fit of Madness is in the Motion For I have many great Wits and of clear Distillation that have Preach'd before me at Royston and New-Market to my great Liking that are under Thirty And my Prelates and Chaplains that are far stricken in Age are the best Masters in that Faculty that Europe affords I agree to all this says the Lord Keeper and since Your Majesty will allow both Young and Old to go up into the Pulpit it is but Justice that you shew Indulgence to the Young Ones if they run into Errors before their Wits be settled for every Apprentice is allow'd to mar some Work before he be cunning in the Mystery of his Trade and Pity to the Old Ones if some of them fall into Dotage when their Brains grow dry Will Your Majesty conceive Displeasure and not lay it down if the former set your Teeth on edge sometimes before they are mellow-wise and if the Doctrine of the latter be touch'd with a Blemish when they begin to be rotten and to drop from the Tree This is not unfit for Consideration says the King But what do you drive at Sir says he First to beg your Pardon for mine own Boldness Then to remember you that Knight is a Beardless Boy from whom Exactness of Judgment could not be expected And that White is a decrepit spent Man who had not a Fee-Simple but a Lease of Reason and it is expir'd Both these that have been
and to raise divisions So they dealt now For they put a Paper into my Lord of Buckingham's hands to assist them for the Erection of Titulary Popish Praelates in this Kingdom A most Natural superfaetation with the motion whereof the Lord Marquess being amuzed he sent to the Lord Keeper for advice who damned the Project with these Reasons ensuing First it will set all the Kingdom on Fire and make his Majesty unable to continue those Favours and Connivencies to peaceable Recusants which he now most Graciously affords them Secondly It takes away from his Majesty an Hereditary Branch of the Crown which the Kings of this Land have ever enjoy'd even before the Conquest and hath never since the days of King John been so much as Challeng'd by any Pope to Wit the Investitures of Bishops Thirdly It is a far greater mischief in a State I mean in regard of the Temporal but not of the Spiritual good thereof then an absolute Toleration For a Toleration as we see in France doth so divide and distinguish Towns and Parishes that no place makes above one payment to their Church-men But this invisible Consistory shall be confusedly diffused over all the Kingdom that many of the Subjects shall to the intolerable exhausting of the Wealth of the Realm pay double Tithes double Offerings and double Fees in regard of their double Consistory And if Ireland be so poor as it is suggested I hold under Correction that this invisible Consistory is the principal cause of the exhausting thereof Fourthly If the Princes Match should go on this New Erected Consistory will put the the ensuing Parliament into such a Jealousie and Suspition that it is to be feared that they will shew themselves very untractable upon all propositions Fifthly For the Pope to place a Bishop in this Kingdom is against the Fundamental Law of the Land and the King will be held unjust and injurious to his Successors if to his utmost power he should not resist and punish This Draught was brought to the King who was glad such Pills were prepared to purge away the redundancy of the Catholic Encroachments And his Majesty gave Order to him who had confected them so well to Administer them with his best skill to the Spanish Embassador That they might work gently with him the Lord Keeper at his Visit made shew that he was startled at a heady motion that came from Savoy as he thought taking no notice of any Spanish Agent that had his Finger in it And besought his Excellency to send for the Savoyan and to wish him to throw aside his Advice for Titulary Bishops least it should hinder the King of Spain's desire in accomodating the Catholics with those Courtesies which had been granted which took so well with the Spanish Embassador his own indiscretion being not Taxt but the Folly laid at another Door that the motion sunk in the Mud and was seen no more I will add but one thing how distastful it was to him that the Papists should have so much as the shadow of a governing Church in this Realm taken out of a Letter Cabal pag. 81. Written to my Lord of Buckingham being then at Madrid dated Aug. 30. 1623. Doctor Bishop the New Bishop of Chalcedon is come to London privately and I am much troubled at it not knowing what to Advise his Majesty as things stand at this present If you were Shipped with the Infanta the only Counsel were to let the Judges proceed with him presently Hang him out of the way and the King to blame my Lord of Caterbury or my self for it Surely this doth not favour of addiction to the Purple-Hat or the Purple-Harlot Ovid. Nunquid ei hoe fallax Creta negare potes Nay it was a Pang rather then a Passion to the welfare of this Church which forc'd sentence of Blood out of his sweet and mi'ky Nature 106. Yet well fare those good Fellows that did not defame him for a Papist Much otherwise they charg'd him with a loud Slander and a long Breach for it continued in his days of Sorrow that he was a Puritan of what Colour Siâ—s Blew or Black Both these might he false so they were both could not be True David says of God's Servants whom he Tried as Silver is Tried in the Fire that they went through Fire and through Water Miseâ—ies of Repugnant Natures So Sometimes they pass through Defamations inconsistent and as contrary one to another as Fire and Water The Old Non conformists were call'd by the Nick Name of Puritans in Queen Elizabeth's days I know not who impos'd it first whether Parsons the Jesuit or some such Franion I know it grew not up like Wild Oats without Sowing But some Supercilious Divines a few years before the End of K. James his Reign began to Survey the Narrow way of the Church of England with no Eyes but their own and measuring a Right Protestant with their streight line discriminated as they thought fit sound from unsound so that scarce ten among a Thousand but were Noted to carry some Disguise of a Puritan The very Prelates were not free from it but Tantum non ni â—piscopatu Puritani became an Obloquy At the Session which these Arislarchusses held near to the Court in the Strand the Lord Keeper the most Circumspect of any Man alive to provide for Uniformity and to countenance it was scratch'd with their Obeliske that he favour'd Puritans and that sundâ—y of them had Protection through his Connivency or Clemency All the Quarrel in good Sooth was that their Eye was Evil because his was Good Such whom the Aemulous repin'd at as he cast it out himself were of two Ranks Some were of a very strict Life and a great deal more laborious in their Cure then their Obtrectators Far be it from him to love these the worse because they were Stigmatiz'd to the Offence of Religious and Just-men with a by word of Contumely Pacatus the Orator inveighed against it for a Rank impiety in his Panâ—g Quod Clarevati Matrorae objicicbatur atque 〈◊〉 exprobrabatur mulieri vi luae nimia Religio diligentius culta Divinitas I will lay it open in one particular The Lord Bishop of Norwich Dr. Harsnet a learned Prelate and a Wise Governour bate him perhaps a little roughness began to proceed in his Consistory against Mr. Samuel Ward a Famous Preacher in Ipswich who Appealed from the Bishop to the King And the King committed the Articles exhibited against him to be Examined by the Lord Keeper and by him to be Reported to his Majesty The Lord Keeper found Mr. Ward to be not altogether blameless but a Man to be won easily with fair dealing So he perswaded Bishop Harsnet to take his Submission and to continue him in his Lecture at Ipswich The Truth is he found so much Candor in Mr. Ward so much readiness to serve the Church of England in its present Establishment and made it so clearly appear that he had
other Bodies cannot dissolve the Constancy of Gold 108. How faithfully and with what Courage like himself he adventur'd to maintain Orthodox Religion against old Corruptions and new Fanglements will be a Labour to unfold hereafter One thing remains that is purely of Episcopal Discharge which I will salute and so go by it before I look again upon his Forensive or Political Transactions When he was Dean of Westminster he had a Voice in the High Commission Court and so forth when he was in higher Degrees For as Nazianzen commends Athanasius pag. 24. Encom he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 skiiful in all the various Arts of Government He appear'd but once at Lambeth when that Court sat while he was Dean A sign that he had no Maw to it For he would say that the Institution of the Court was good without all Exception That is to Impower the Kings of England and their Successors by Statute to issue out that Authority under the Great Seal which was annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm to assign some as often and to so long time as the King should think fit to be Judges for the Reformation of great Abuses and Enormities But that this Power should be committed from the Kings and Queens of this Realm to any Person or Persons being Natural born Subjects to their Majesties to overlook all Ecclesiastical Causes correct punish deprive whether one or more whether Lay or Clergy whether of the vilest as well as the noblest nay whether Papist as well as Protestant as no harm was to be feared from good Princes albeit they have this Liberty by the Tenure of the Act 1 Eliz. Cap. 1. So if God should give us a King in his Anger who would oppress us till our cry went up like the Smoke out of a Furnace this Statute would enable them to enact Wickedness by a Law This was a Flaw to his seeming in the Corps of the Statute which gave Vigour to the High Commission But in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and her two blessed Successors God be praised we were never the worse for it Better Commissioners than were appointed in their Days need not be wish'd What ail'd this wise Church-man then to be so reserv'd and to give so little Attendance in that Court He was not satisfied in two things Neither in the Multiplicity of Causes that were pluck'd into it nor in the Severity of Censures It is incident to Supream Courts chiefly when Appeals fly unto them to be sick of this Timpany to swell with Causes They defraud the lower Audiences of their Work and Profit which comes home to them with Hatred What a Clamor doth Spalat make Lib. 5. Eccl. Reip. c. 2. ar 28. That the Judicatories at Rome lurch'd all the Bishops under that Supremacy of all Complaints that were promoted to their Consistories Eò lites omnes cò dispensationes trahuntur Fluviorum omnium tractus ad suam derivat molam nobis quod sugamus nihil relinquitur The Affairs of all Ecclesiastical Tribunes were little enough to drive that Mill So the Consistories of all the Suffragans in the Province of Canterbury became in a manner Despicable because the Matters belonging to every Diocess were followed before the High Commission That it might be said to the neglected Praelates at Home Are ye unworthy to Judge the smallest Matters 1 Cor. c. 2. It seems ill Manners increas'd apace For I heard it from one that liv'd by the Practice of that High Court An. 1635 That whereas in the last Year of Arch-Bishop Whitgift eight Causes were left to be discuss'd in Easter-Term there were no less than a Thousand depending at that time This was one of his Exceptions That the High Court drew too much into its Cognizance The other Reason which made him stand a loof from it was That it punish'd too much Arch-Bishop Abbot was rigorously Just which made him shew less Pity to Delinquents Sentences of great Correction or rather of Destruction have their Epocha from his Predominancy in that Court. And after him it mended like sowre Ale in Summer It was not so in his Predecessor Bancroft's Days who would Chide stoutly but Censure mildly He considered that he sate there rather as a Father than a Judge Et pro peccato magno paululum supplicii satis est patris He knew that a Pastoral Staff was made to reduce a wandering Sheep not to knock it down He look'd upon St. Peter in whom the Power of the Keys was given to the Unity of all the Officers of the Church who incurr'd a great Offence in the Hall of the High Priest let the Place be somewhat consider'd but his Action most Ut mitior esset delinquentibus grandis delinquens Saith St. Austin It being the most indubitate Course of that Commission to deprive a Minister of his Spiritual Endowments that is of all he had if Drunkenness or Incontinency were prov'd against him I have heard the Lord Keeper who was no Advocate for Sin but for Grace and Compassion to Offenders dis-relish that way for this Reason That a Rector or Vicar had not only an Office in the Church but a Free-hold for Life by the Common Law in his Benefice If a Gentleman or Citizen had been Convicted upon an Article of Scandal in his Life was it ever heard that he did Confiscate a Mannor or a Tenement Nay What Officer in the Rolls in the Pipe in the Custom-house was ever displac'd for the like Under St Cyprian's Discipline and the Rigor of the Eliberitan Canons the Lay were obnoxious to Censures as much as the Clergy But above all said he there is nothing of Brotherhood nor of Humanity in this when we have cast a Presbyter cut of Doors and left him no Shelter to cover his Head that we make no Provision for him out of his own for Term of Life to keep him from the Extremities of Starving or Begging those Deformed Miseries 109. These Reasons prevailing with him to be no ordinary Frequenter of that Court yet an Occasion was offered which required his Presence Mart. 30. 1622 which will draw on a Story large and memorable M. Amonius de Deminis Arch Bishop of Spalato made an Escape out of Dalmatia an English Gentleman being his Conductor he posted through Germany and came safe into England in the end of the Year 1616. The King gave him Princely Welcome Many of the Religious Peers and Chief Bishops furnished him with Gold that he lack'd for nothing He seem'd then for all this Plenty brought in to be covetous of none of these things but was heard to say That the Provision of an ordinary Minister of our Church would suffice him For in the end of June as he was brought on his Way to the Commencement at Cambridge a Worthy and a Bountiful Divine Dr. John Mountfort receiv'd him for a Night in his Parsonage-House of Ansty Where Spalat noting that Dr. Mountfort had all things about him orderly and handsome like
Cause It is the Author of the Observations upon H. L. his History of the Reign of King Charles pag. 137. He hath not bestowed his Name upon his Reader but he hath a Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Homer Odyss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I ought not to put him to the first Question of our Catechism Quo nomine vocaris For good Writers nay Sacred Pen-Men do not always Inscribe their Names upon their Books Scholars do invariably Father the Work and some of them say they have it from the Printer upon one that hath Wrote and Publish'd much favoring of Industry and Learning And they give Reasons which will come into the Sequel though a great while deferr'd why he blotts the good Name of King James Why he grates so often upon the mild Nature and matchless Patience of King Charles And if Fame have taken the right Sow by the Ear it is one that had provok'd the then Bishop of Lincoln in Print with great Acrimony Twenty years ago and that Anger flames out in him now as hot as ever Panthera domari nescia non semper saeuit Yet when that Bishop came out of the Tower and this Adversary sought him for Peace and Love because the Bishop was then able to do him a Displeasure he found him easie to be Reconciled What should move this Man to forget that Pacification so truly observ'd on the Bishops part who was the greater and the offended Party Naturale est odisse quem laeseris And Malice is like one of the Tour Things Prov. 30.15 That never say it is enough 'T is Degenerous for the Living to Trample upon the Dead but very Impious that he that was once a Christian nay a Christian Priest should never cease to be an Enemy The Words with which he wounds the Spanish Match through his side though otherwise he is one that witheth it had succeeded are these That that Bishop being in Power and Place at C◠the time of King James made himself the Head of the Popish Faction because he thought the Match with Spain which was then in Treaty would bring not only a Connivance to that Religion but a Toleration of it And who more like to be in Favour if that Match went on than such as were most zealous in doing Good Offices to the Catholick Cause Here 's a Knot of Catter-Pillars wrapt in a thin Cobweb so easie it will be to sweep them of The accused Person was always free of Conference Let any now living say that heard him often Discourse of the adverse Church if he did not constantly open himself not for a Gainsayer only but for a Stiff Defier of their Corrupt Doctrines although he was ever pitiful for Relaxation of their Penalties And would that Party cleave unto him for their greatest Encourager Encouragement was the least their Head could give them Beside the Thing is a Chimaera I never knew any Head of the Popish Faction in this Kingdom Others and Bishops in Rank above him have been traduced in that Name but who durst own that Office especially in the end of King James his Reign when every year almost was begirt with a Parliament and every Parliament procreated an inquisitive Committee for Matters of Religion What Mist did he walk in that neither Parliament nor Committees did detect him for Head or Patron or Undertaker call it what you will of the Pseudo-Catholick Cause could nothing but the goggle Eye of Malice discover him 135. Perhaps the Contemplation of the Spanish Match might embolden him so this Author would have us think It could not it did not take a little in the highest Topicks to both It could not For as the Anteceding Parliament was much taken with King James's Words That if the Match should not prove a fartherance to our Religion he were not Worthy to be our King so this his Majesties near Counsellor knew his meaning of which he often discours'd that when the Holy-Days of the Great Wedding were over his Majesty would deceive the Jealousies of his Subjects and be a more vigorous Defender of the Cause of the True Faith than ever And Judge the Bishop by his own Words in his Sermon Preach'd at the Funerals of that Good King that his Majesty charg'd his Son though he Married the Person of that Kings Sister never to Marry her Religion I said likewise he did not Look back to the first Letters he dispatch'd into Spain but much more let every Reader enjoy the Feature of his own Piety and Wisdom which he put into the Kings Hand to have his liking while his Majesties Dear Son was in Spain to Cure popular Discontents and sickly Suspicions which had come forth with Authority in October following if the long Treaty had not Set in a Cloud The Original Draught of his Contrivances yet remaining is thus Verbation That when the Marriage was Consummated and the Royal Bride received in England His Majesty should Publish his Gracious Declaration as followeth First To assure his Subjects throughout his three Kingdoms that there is not one word in all the Treaty of the Marriage in prejudice of our own Religion Secondly To Engage himself upon his Kingly Word to do no more for the Roman-Catholics upon the Marriage than already he did sometime voluntarily Grant out of Mercy and Goodness and uncontroulably may do in disposing of his own Mulcts and Penalties Thirdly That our Religion will be much Honoured in the Opinion of the World that the Catholic King is content to match with us nor can he Persecute with Fire and Sword such as profess no other Religion than his Brother-in-Law doth Fourthly That His Majesty shall forthwith advance strict Rules for the Confirmation of our Religion both in Heart and in the outward Profession 1. Common-Prayer to be duly performed in all Churches and Chappels Wednesdays and Fridays and two of every Family required to be present 2. Every Saturday after Common-Prayer Catechising of Children to be constantly observed 3. Confirmation called Bishopping to be carefully executed by the Bishop both in the General Visitations of his Diocese and every Six months in his own House or Palace 4. That Private Prayers shall no Day be omitted in the Family of him that is of the Degree of an Esquire else not to be so named or reputed 5. All Ladies and all Women in general to be Exhorted to bestow two hours at the least every Day in Prayer and Devotion 6. All our Churches to be Repaired and outwardly well Adorned and comely Plate to be bought for the Communion-Table 7. Dispensations for Pluralities of Livings to be granted to none upon any Qualification but Doctors and Batchelors in Divinity at the least and of them to such as are very Learned Men. 8. Bishops to encourage Public Lectures in Market-Towns of such Neighbouring Ministers as be Learned and Conformable 9. A Library of Divinity-Books to be Erected in every Shire-Town for the help of the poorer Ministers and Leave shall be
for Legal Notions When the Lord Keeper had done with the Living he began with the Dead and scrupled how their Dead should be Interr'd so as to give no offence nor be obnoxious to be offended The Resolution was brought to him that sent it That their Burials should be in their private Houses as secret as might be and without any sign of Manifestation but Notice to be given to the Parish-Clerk of their departure 164. Never was Man so entangled in an Els-lock all this while that could not be unravell'd as Marquiss Inoiosa till he publish'd his Choler in all sorts of Impatiency The Reader may take in so small a matter by the way that the Writer of these Passages said to the Lord Keeper That the Marquiss was the most surly unpleasing Man that ever came to his House His Lordship answer'd They were his Manners by Nature But he had been so vain to profess That he came an Enemy to us into England and for this Dowty Cause His Father was a Page to King Philip the Second while he lived here with Queen Mary and was discourteously used in our Court perhaps by the Pages Which was a Quarrel of Seventy Years old and bearing date before the Marquiss was born Which will cause a Passage of Dionysius the Tyrant of Sicily to be remembred who had robb'd and spoil'd some of the Islands under the Protection of Athens and when the Injury was expostulated he told them Their Countryman Ulysses had used the Sicilians worse 700 Years before as he believ'd it to be very true in Homer This Ambassador was a restless Man and held the Lord Keeper so close to turn and plow up the fallow of this Business that he would not give him the Jubilee of a Day to rest Yet the time do what he could had run at waste from the 20th of July to the end of August Then and no sooner the Frames of the Pardon and Dispensation were contriv'd and dispatch'd Yet the Mill would not go with this Water The Ambassadors call'd for more That two general Commands should be issued forth under the Great Seal the first to all the Judges and Justices of Peace the other to all Bishops Chancellors and Commissaries not to execute any Statute made against the Papists Hereupon the Spanish Faction was suspected that they had no hopes to bring some secret Drifts to pass but by raising a general hatred against our Government The Lord Keeper repulsed the Motion and wrote to the King being at Aldershot That whatsoever Instance the Ambassador makes to the contrary there was no reason why his Majesties Wisdom should give place to them He propounded That a private Warrant might be directed to himself to will him to write to the respective Magistrates fore-nam'd to acquaint them with the Graces which his Majesty had past for Recusants in that Exigence and to suspend their Proceeding till they heard further For as the Civilians say Cessant extraordinaria ubi ordinariis est locus Thus he contriv'd it that the King as much as might be should escape the Offence and let the Rumour light upon his private Letters For which he never put the King to stand between the People and his Errour nor besought him to excuse it to the next Parliament But as Mamertinus in Paneg. said of his own Consulship Non modò nullum popularium deprecatus sum sed ne te quidem Imperator quem orare praeclarum cui preces adhibere plenissimum dignitatis est Yet lest the Ambassador should complain of him to the Prince in Spain he writes to the Duke Cab. P. 8. Aug. 30. THat he had prevailed with the Lords to stop that vast and general Prohibition and gave in three Days Conference such Reasons to the two Ambassadors although it is no easie matter to satisfie the Capriciousness of the latter of them that they were both content it should rest till the Infanta had been six Months in England For to forbid Judges against their Oath and Justices of Peace sworn likewise not to execute the Law of the Land is a thing unprecedented in this Kingdom Durus sermo a harsh and bitter Pill to be digested upon a suddain and without some Preparation But to grant a Pardon even for a thing that is malum in se and a Dispensation with Poenal Statutes in the profit whereof the King only is interested is usual full of Precedents and Examples And yet this latter only serves to the Safety the former but to the Glory and Insolency of the Papists and the magnifying the service of the Ambassadors too dearly purchas'd with the endangering of a Tumult in three Kingdoms His Majesty useth to speak to his Judges and Justices of Peace by his Chancellor or Keeper as your Grace well knoweth And I can signifie his Majesties Pleasure unto them with less Noise and Danger which I mean to do hereafter if the Ambassador shall press it to that effect unless your Grace shall from his Highness or your own Judgment direct otherwise That whereas his Majesty being at this time to Mediate for Favour to many Protestants in Foreign Parts with the Princes of another Religion and to sweeten the Entertainment of the Princess into this Kingdom who is yet a Roman Catholick doth hold the Mitigation of the Rigour of those Laws made against Recusants to be a necessary Inducement to both those Purposes and hath therefore issued forth some Pardons of Grace and Favour to such Roman Catholicks of whose Fidelity to the State he rests assur'd That therefore you the Lord Bishops Judges and Justices each of those to be written to by themselves do take Notice of his Majesties Pardon and Dispensation with all such Poenal Laws and demean your selves accordingly This is the lively Character of him that wrote it Policy mixt with Innocency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Nazianzen Cunning enough yet not divided from Conscience For Wit when it is not sheathed as it were in the fear of God will cut like a sharp Razor 165. All his Art would be requir'd to reconcile two things That the Ambassador should be put off no longer for so the King had now commanded by Dispatches from both the Secretaries And that he would finish nothing till he had heard either his Highness or the Duke's Opinion upon the Proceeding The general Pardon and the Dispensation were both sealed So he began But kept them by him and would not open the least Window to let either Dove or Raven fly abroad The King being return'd to Windsor signification was given that none of the Lords should come to him till he sent for them and was ready for Matters of moment No Superstructure could go on very fast when that Stone was laid From Windsor Sept. 5. Sir G. Calvert writes to him My very good Lord His Majesty being resolv'd to extend his Gracious Favour to the Roman Catholicks signifies his Pleasure That your Lordship should direct your Letter to the Bishops Judges
being Eleven of them in the Tower Wisheech Newgate and no more This Favour had many Reasons to speak for it First To let all those who were inquisitive about the Event of his Highness Journey take notice that there was yet life in the Treaty by the motion of this Pulse Secondly To gratifie the most obnoxious of that Religion for requital of the Entertainment his Highness had among them Thirdly In Retaliation for the Prisoners that were set at Liberty in Spain to Congratulate the Princes welcom Fourthly That his Highness might keep his Word with those of that way who had done him good Offices abroad to whom he had said Cab. p. 251. That though the Marriage were broken his Catholick Subjects should not fare the worse for it Therefore hear what Mr. Secretary Conway Writes to the Lord Keeper October 7. Right Honorable HIs Majesty calling to Mind His promise to the Spanish Ambassadors for giving Liberty to the Priests requires your Lordship to prepare the Ordinance for their Liberty and to put it in Execution the rest of the Pardons being suspended till the Solemnizing the Marriage And His Majesty would that you should signifie so much to the Ambassadors in your own Person to acquaint them with His Mindfulness And then that your Lordship will be pleased to move the Ambassadors as giving them a good opportunity to do an acceptable Work that they would move for the Releasement of Dr. Whiting from Imprisonment who for his Sermon Preach'd at Hampton-Court stands committed but His Majesty will have him remain suspended from Preaching untill His further Pleasure be known Now for the Letters which his Majesty was made to believe were dispersed to the Magistrates Spiritual and Temporal about the Suspension of the Laws because his Majesty was disobeyed in it the Lord Keeper after he had seen the Inclination of the Court in three or four days wrote to the Secretary who knew all the Passages to put the Duke upon it to acquaint the King with the Naked Truth and fore-speak Displeasure Upon which Mr. Secretary Conway returns this Octob. 11. from Royston Right Honorable SO soon as I received your Letter with the like Observation that I will use in all your Command I took the Duke of Buckingham just as he was going to the King and had no more time with him but to tell him that Point touching your Wise and Moderate Retention of the Letters to the Bishops and Justices The Duke prepared the King so well as His Majesty gave me order to signifie to you that those Letters should still be retained unless some Complaints should make change of Counsels or the Accomplishment on the other side equal that of ours and occasion another step forward That Wise and Moderate way of your Lordships will ever get you Estimation and Ease I am glad to see how brave a Friend you have of the Duke And I know your Lordship will give me leave to make you as glad as my self that absence hath made no change towards my Lord Duke in the Kings Favour but his return if it be possible hath multiplied it And the Prince and He are for Communications of Counsels Deliberations and Resolutions as if they were but One. The King requir'd but one Thing more of the Lord Keeper that as he had addulced all Things very well to his Mind so the Ministers of the King of Spain might not Grudge that their Teeth were set on Edge with sower Grapes which he did effect most Artificially albeit the Ambassadors by his means had lost many Suits and more Labour as the Secretary was willed to acknowledge from Hinchingbrooke Octob. 25. Right Honorable I Delivered to his Majesty the good Temper you left the Embassadors in which gave his Majesty Contentment and moved his Thanks to you Your Humane and Noble Usage you may be sure will best beseem your Lordship and please others And when there is any Cause for you to take another Form on you be confident you shall have seasonable Knowledge For my Lord Duke hath as well a Noble Care of you as Confidence in you and Affection to you of which I am assured though a mean Witness So much was contrived and a great deal more to keep the Treaty from an utter dissociation till the next Parliament sate For the Coppy of the Memorials given January 19 by Sir Wal. Aston to the King of Spain professeth That because the Faculty for the Use of the Procuration expired at Christmas the King my Master that you may know the sound Intentions of his Proceedings with the good End to which it aims hath renewed the Powers and deferred the delivery of them only to give time for the Accomplishment and setling that which hath been promised for the satisfying his Expectations Cab. P. 39. Neither did the Spaniards return the Jewels which the Prince had presented at the Shrine of Love till the end of February at which Surrendry and not before the golden Cord was broken Nothing is more sure than that the Prince's Heart was removed from the Desire of that Marriage after the Duke had brought him away from the Object of that Delightful and Ravishing Beauty But all the while the King had his Head full of Thoughts brooding upon two things like the Twins that struggled in the Womb of Rebeckah the Consummation of the Marriage and the Patrimony of his Son-in-Law to be regained with the Dignity Electoral His Wisdom hovered between them both like the Sun at his Noonday Height Metâ distans aequalis utraque He knew he should be disvalued to the wounding of all Good Opinion if he did not engrast that Alliance into his Stem which he had sought with so much Expence of Time and Cost to strengthen and aggrandize his Posterity And he knew he should loose Honour with all the Potentates of Europe beside other Mischiefs if nothing were done for re-possessing the Palatinate Yet in sine he sate down and it cleast his Heart that he affected neither As a Canker eats quickly into soft and sappy Wood so an Error was gotten into his gentle Nature the same that Spartianus says had crept into Didius Julianus Reprehensus in eo praecipue quos regere authoritate sud debuit regendae reipub praesules sibi ipse fecit He submitted himself to be ruled by some whom he should have awed with Authority but he wanted Courage to bow them to his own Bent. A Prince that preserves not the Rights of his Dignity and the Majesty of his Throne is a Servant to some but therein a Friend to none least of all to himself 174. But he did so little bear up with an Imperatorian Resolution against the Method of their Ways who thrust his Counsels out of Doors that the Flies suck'd him where he was gall'd and he never rub'd them off He continued at Newmarket as in an Infirmary for he forgot his Recreations of Hunting and Hawking yet could not be drawn to keep the Feasts of
Choler in his Complexion Yet that it could not appear but that the Marriage on King Philip's part was very sincerely meant in all the Treaty most clearly when his Highness took his Farewell most openly since his Departure Wherein the Earl of Bristol had much wronged that great Monarch giving him a Bastle insupportable For when the Power of Revocation or rather Repression of the Proxy was peremptorily in his Lordship's hand he did not acquaint the King of Spain to stop him from erecting a Gallery turned by the Earl's Negligence into a Gullery in the open Streets covered with the richest Tapestry and set forth with all other Circumstances of Wealth and State to conduct the Infanta in open View and with most magnificent Solemnity to the Deposorios when by the Instruments and Commissions the Earl had lately received he knew these augustious Preparations would be ridiculously disappointed which was a Despight that a Gentleman not to say an Embassador should have prevented For the Disgrace was so far blown abroad with Derision that it was the News of Gazette's over all Europe The Intention of that Nation to give the Infanta in Marriage to the Prince being not controverted Yet his Highness protesting on his part that he was free unless the Palatinate were surrendred they were all satisfy'd with it his Word was Justice to them and that which was in his own Breast must alone direct him how to use his Freedom This Question dispatched was upon a blown Rose the next was upon a Bramble The Lord Duke was so zealous say it was for the Palsgrave's Sake that he voted the King of Spain to be desied with open War till amends were made to the illustrious Prince Elector for the Wrongs he sustained The Lords appointed for the Conference that apprehended it otherwise were the Keeper Treasurer Duke of Richmond Marquess Hamilton Earl of Arundâ—l Lord Carow Lord Belfast who could not say that the King of Spain had done the part of a Friend for the Recovery of the Palatinate as he had profess'd nor yet could they find that he had acted the Part of an Enemy declaredly as was objected Their Judgment was the Girts of Peace were slack but not broken This is couched in the Admonitions of an Ignote unto King James Cab. p. 278. The Conference or Treaty about the Palatinate was taken from the Council of State a Society of most prudent Men only for this Cause that almost every one of them had with one Consent approved the Propositions of the most Catholick King and did not find in it any Cause of dissolving the Treaty And a little beneath The Duke fled from the Council of State and disclaimed it for a Parliament by way of an Appeal Most true that scarce any in all the Consulto did vote to my Lord Duke's Satissaction which made him rise up and chase against them from Room to Room as a Hen that hath lost her Brood and clucks up and down when she hath none to follow her The next time he saw the Lord Belfast he asked him with Disdain Are you turned too and so flung from him Cab. p. 243. To which the Lord Belfast answered honestly in a short Letter That he would conform himself in all things to the Will and good Pleasure of the King his Master The greatest Grudge was against the Lord Keeper who seldom spake but all Opinions ran into his one as they did at this time and the Duke presumed that his Sentence should never vary from his own Mind An hard Injunction and all the Favour on Earth is too dear to be bought at such a Price But he declared that he saw no Expediency for War upon the Grounds communicated For upon whom should we fall says he either upon the Emperor or the King of Spain The Emperor had in a fort offered our King his Son-in-Law's Country again for a great Sum in Recompence of Disbursments but where was the Money to be had Yet it might be cheaper bought than conquered before a War were ended For the King of Spain he saw no Cause to assault him with Arms He had held us indeed in a long Treaty to our Loss but he held nothing from us and was more likely to continue the State of things in a possibility of Accommodation because he disliked the Duke of Bavaria's Ambition and had rather stop the Enlargement of his Territories The King was glad that some maintained his Judgment and would not consent wantonly to raise him from the Down Bed of his long admired Peace Neither did he refrain to speak very hardly of that Servant whom he loved best that agitated to compel him to draw the Sword one of the great Plagues of God His Censure upon him was bitter Cab. P. 92. but fit to be cast over-board in silence 176. A King of Peace is not only sittest to build Temples but is the Temple of God Such a one doth foresee how long how far how dangerously the Fire of War will burn before he put a Torch to kindle it And as every Bishop ought to have a care of the Universal Church so every King ought to have a care of all Humane Society It is not such a thing to raise War in these Days as it was in Abraham's Muster his Servants in one Day and rescue Lot from his Enemies the next Nor such as it was with the old Romans make a Summers Laâ—rt in Vit. before he laid down his Office The Charge in our Age which usually for many Years doth oppress the People will hardly countervail if GOD should send it the Gladness of a Victory Nor is all fear over when a War is ended But as Solon says Lacrt. in Vit. Great Commanders when they have done their Work abroad and are return'd with Honour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do more Mischief by their Factions to their Country than they did against their Enemies And whosever scape well the poor Church is like to suffer two ways First as Camden says Eliz. Ann. 1583. Schismatica pravitas semper bello ardente maxime luxuriat Schismatical Pravity will grow up under the Licentiousness of War Some profane Buff-Coats will Authorize such Incendiaries Secondly For some Hundreds of Years by-past in Christendom I cannot find but where Wars have been protracted the Churchman's Revenue hath been in danger to pay the Soldiers If this affect not those that will not think that there is such a Sin as Sacrilege yet all acknowledge that there is such a Virtue as Humane Compassion Then they that would awake drouzy Peace as they call it with the Noise of the Drum and the prancing of Horses in the Street let them before they design their War describe before their Consciences the heaps of slaughter'd Carkasses which will come after That the Land which is before tâ—en shaâ—I look like the Garden of the Lord and that which is behind them like Burning and Brimstone For all this will they tempt God and be the Foes of
Commanders Or if he came to be tried in the Furnace of the next Session of Parliament he had need to make the Refiners to be his Friends 210. Here steps in Dr. Preston a good Crow to smell Carion and brought Conditions with him to make his Grace malleable upon the great Anvil and never break This Politick Man that he might feel the Pulse of the Court had preferr'd himself to be Chaplain to the Prince and wanted not the Intelligence of all dark Mysteries through the Scotch especially of his Highness's Bedchamber These gave him countenance more than others because he prosecuted the Endeavours of their Countrymen Knox. To the Duke he repairs And be assured he had more Skill than boisterously to propound to him the Extirpation of the Bishops remembring what King James had said in the Conference at Hampton-Court Anno 1. No Bishop No King Therefore he began to dig further off and to heave at the Dissolution of Cathedral Churches with their Deans and Chapters the Seminary from whence the ablest Scholars were removed to Bishopricks At his Audience with the Duke he told him He was sorry his Grace's Actions were not so well interpreted abroad as Godly Men thought they deserved That such Murmurings as were but Vapours in common Talk might prove to be Tempests when a Parliament met That his safest way was to Anchor himself upon the Love of the People And let him perswade himself he should not sail to be Master of that Atchievement if he would profess himself not among those that are Protestants at large and never look inward to the Center of Religion but become a warm and zealous Christian that would employ his best help strenuously to lop off from this half-reformed Church the superfluous Branches of Romish Superstition that much disfigured it Then he named the Quire-Service of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches with the Appennages which were maintained with vast Wealth and Lands of excessive Commodity to feed fat lazy and unprofitable Drones And yet all that Chanting and Pomp hindred the Heavenly Power and Simplicity of Prayer And furthered not the Preaching of the Gospel And now says he let your Grace observe all the ensuing Emoluments if you will lean to this Counsel God's Glory shall be better set forth that 's ever the Quail-Pipe to bring Worldings into the Snares of Sacrilege The Lands of those Chapters escheating to the Crown by the Dissolution of their Foundations will pay the King's Debts Your Grace hath many Alliances of Kindred all sucking from you and the Milk of those Breasts will serve them all and nourish them up to great Growth with the best Seats in the Nation Lastly Your Grace shall not only surmount Envy but turn the Darling of the Commonwealth and be reverenced by the best Operators in Parliament as a Father of a Family And if a Crum stick in the Throat of any considerable Man that attempts to make a contrary part it will be easie to wash it down with Mannors Woods Royalties Tythes c. the large Provent of those Superstitious Plantations Thus far the Doctor and to these Heads as the Duke in a good Mind reveal'd it The most crafty and clawing Piece of all was That the Destruction of these Sacred Foundations would make a Booty for a Number of Gentlemen And as the Greeks say proverbially 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When a great Oak falls every Neighbour may scuffle for a Faggot You may be sure the Duke sent this Doctor away with great Thanks and bad him watch the best times of leisure and come to him often who did not lose the Privilege of that Liberty but thrust into his Bedchamber at least thrice a Week with a sly Audacity The Lord Keeper heard of it and wondred what occasion'd their private and frequent Meetings Nor could he knock off the Bar of the Secret with his Golden Hammer till it was revealed to him by some of the nearest about his Majesty For the Duke had cast forth the Project in a dark imperfect Form before the King and the King muffling his true Face that it could not be seen heard him with a dissembled Patience because he was pleas'd to have him nibble upon this Bait that he might divert the Yonker as long as he could from forcing him to undertake a War which was a violent Caustick that seared up the Comfort of his Majesties Heart All this was conveyed to the Lord Keeper and being feeble and scarce upon his Legs again it wrought upon his sick Spirits with great Anxiety He was sure his Majesty had no Stomach to devour such an unsanctified Morsel Yet against that assurance he objected to himself That the Duke was wont to overturn all Obstacles that stood in his way And that the Imperial Eagle of Necessity would stoop to any Prey Then he took Chear again that he had never Noted in the Lord Duke a Displicency against the Prosperity of the Church Again his Comfort was rebated that Self-Preservation will make a Saint a Libertine and that Nice Points of Religion are not usually admitted to give Law against it Howsoever he resolv'd to hazard all to crush this Cockatrice in the Egg. Causa jubet superes mâ—lior sperare secundos He that stickles for Gods Cause sails by the Cape of Good Hope 211. At the first Onset he had small Encouragement For he came to Wallingford-House to break with the Duke upon this matter who was then shut up with Dr. Preston in close Consultation where the Great Seal and the Keeper of it waited two Hours in the Anti-Camera and was sent Home without the Civility of Admission Next Day he got Speech with Dr. Preston by Friends employ'd to bring him to Westminster And after much Pro and Con in their Discourse supposing the want of Preserment had disgusted the Doctor he offer'd to him if he would busie himself no more in contriving the Ruine of the Church that he would the next Day resign the Deanery of Westminster to him But the wily Doctor did not believe him For he came to cheat and not to be cheated So they parted unkindly The Lord Keeper saw now that this Nail was driven in far Yet he did not despair to pluck it out with his Wit And thus he went into the Adventure He obtain'd an Opportune Conference with the Duke and in the Defence of the Church he could never be taken unprovided He pray'd his Grace to believe That no Man wish'd his Safety more cordially than himself by whose Hand he was lifted up to that Place of Pre-eminence wherein he sate Therefore it was his Duty to admonish him timely that he was building that Safety upon hollow Ground He had spoken with Preston who had offer'd his Grace flitten Milk out of which he should churn nothing There were other ways to level Envy than by offending God And if he meant to gather Moneys for War let him Wage it with the Prayers of the Clergy and not with their
excluded the Kingdom of Heaven for want of that Ordinance This shift is vulgarly approved among you in all places of the World Then let that content Catholick Parents in England which is so general a remedy among your own Devotees in case of necessity And this Bush will stop the first Gap Next If the Baptized die without Confirmation none ever made it a Salvation-hazard Especially that Ceremony being not stubbornly rejected but privatively intercepted because the proper Instrument is not in the way to act it For how many Biscainers have never heard of it In whose Craggy Mountains I am told a Bishop appears as seldom as a black Swan I presume your Lordship is a Mainteiner of the Canonical Privileges of Episcopacy and you know without a Bishop's shop 's Hand the Blessing of Confirmation hand no Validity by the Canons and perhaps no Entity in the Doctrine of the best Antiquity Now if this Sacrament which comes limping after Baptism must have a Bishop's Crosier to stay it up I know not whether our Romish Male contents demand that Then here 's a Tale of new Tidings comes to my Ears that to integrate Sacred Offices they would have the Presence of a Bishop as well as of a Priest and then these Adonijahs fly so high to ask for Abishag that they may ask the Kingdom also The Ministers of the King of Spain upon such an Occasion as your Lordship is employed in offered at such a thing in their Propositions to my Royal Master's Commissioners It pleaseth the Castilian Mouth to speak big and ask high but we checkt them with repulse and disdeign And good Cause for it A Bishop will think his Wings pinion'd if he have not a Consistory for Jurisdiction Vexations of Jurisdictive Power will provoke Appeals to the Court of Rome And then my Masters People should crouch for Justice to a Foreign Potentate But that Beast shall never get the Head to run a Wild-Goose-Chase where it lists while he holds the Bridle in his Hand My Lord Ambassador There is nothing discoverable though the wideness of the British Ocean flow still between us and your Bishops that their absence should cross their Party that is among us from entering into Eternal Life Which makes the Sacrament of Order not to belong to our Argument But Marriage doth it is Gods Ordinance who joyned Man and Woman together in Paradise and is fittest to be celebrated among Christians in the Paradise of the Church-Assembly And to be blessed by those Servants of God his Priests who are to bless his People in all things especially in so great a Mystery The Question is Whether a Man should scruple not to Wed a Woman unless she were joyned to him by the Priests of his own Communion My Lord Let me set the shape of it before you in another Glass If a Roman born and bred made choice of a Greekish Woman for his Wife among Greeks in Morea or Thessalonica would the Wedlock be esteemed ineffectual if a Priest of the Ordination of the Greek Church did tie the Knot The Ordination of our Clergy is nearer to you than the Greeks Indeed I never heard but a good Wife and a rich Portion would be welcom to a Recusant though a Minister made by Imposition of Hands in this Kingdom did joyn them And I never heard that such Married Ones as departed out of our Church to yours were question'd among you upon the Truth of their Matrimony which they brought with them from hence And 't is well done of you lest we should require Exceptions and make the Issue of the most of the Roman Catholiques in the Land Illegitimate It is in our Power to do so because they are not scrupulously Married by that Form which our Laws have provided and with an even Obedience to every tittle of our Prescriptions But many things are lawful which are not expedient 224. The Annoiting of the Sick may come in next or in what Order you will my Lord. I know it is called Extreme Unction in some Writers sense because it is the Extreme Sacrament when the Soul is about to take its leave of all Sacraments As soon as I have named it I am ready to shake Hands and part with it What if some in the infirmity of their Sickness desire it because the Tradition of the Church hath commended it Yet none is so superstitious to think that Comfort cannot be infused into them that are at the point of Death sufficiently without it St. Stephen departed without Extreme Unction and yet the Lord Jesus receiv'd his Spirit Men condemn'd by the Law and led to Execution but well prepar'd for a better Life by their Ghostly Fathers neither have it nor crave it But they that are most impotent most affected with Languor are subject to a most disorder'd Appetite Why suppose then one that is sick should have this Pica and long to be Annoiled Why might not a Lay-Friend Annoil as well as Baptize Eckius would have us believe that the blessed Virgin and your peculiar Saint St. Genouefa have Anointed many that were sick and they have recover'd Yet lest it should be evaded that these were Persons of miraculous Endowments hear the Words of Pope Innocent the First that are as large as can be and allowed to be his speaking of this sick Man's Salve Omnibus uti Christianis licet in suâ aut suorum necessitate inungendo Which Papal Sentence our Countryman Bede quotes and makes it full on this wise not only Presbyters but any Christians may Anoint the Infirm in case of necessity Will you have the Judgment of some that are latter than Innocent and Bede Hear one but a sound Card Bonaventure upon the Sentences Potest dispensari in casu necessitatis à non Sacerdotibus For the Sacrament of the Altar my Lord as you speak in your Dialect it is necessary Necessitate Praecepti non Medii say both your Divines and ours That is in a longer Paraphrase the Commandment to Take and Eat I and to Drink too must necessarily be obeyed by them that can keep it But it hath not such a strict tie with the Covenant of Salvation That all they shall fail of final Mercy who are impeded to partake without any fault of theirs Infants lack the taste of that Heavenly Food and are not prejudiced For our Saviour requir'd it of none but of such as could actually believe that he died for the Sins of the World Is not the same Indulgence intended towards them and far rather who believe in Christ's Death and would enjoy the Sacrament that Annuntiates his Death but cannot Your Gravest Authors do please themselves in the Words of Rupertus and they are grown to be the trivial Quotation upon this Case Non judicatur apud Deum non manducare nisi qui manducare noluit qui non curavit qui neglexit The desire of the Heart supplies the defect of actual Manducation Time was more than 1300 Years ago when those that
Meditation as also to Repulse those who crept much about the Chamber Door he was sure for no good Nay and into the Chamber They were of the most addicted to the Church of Rome whom he controuled for their Sawciness and commanded them as a Privy Counsellor further off Impostors that are accustom'd to bestow Rubrick Lies upon the best Saints of God and whom they cannot pervert living to challenge for theirs when they are Dead So being rid of these Locusts he was continually in Prayer while the King linger'd on and at last shut his Eyes with his own Hand when his Soul departed Whatsoever belong'd to Church Offices about the Royal Exequies fell to his part afterward He perform'd the Order of Burial when the Body was reposed in the Vault of King Henry the Sevenths Chappel appointed only for that famous King's Posterity and their Conforts He Preach'd the Sermon at the Magnificent Funeral out of the 2 Chron. c. 9. v. 29.30 and part of the 31. Now the rest of the Acts of Solomon First and Last are they not written in the Rock of Nathan the Prophet and in the Prophesie of Ahijah the Shilonite and in the Visions of Iddo the Seer against Jeroboam the Son of Nebat And Solomon Reigned in Jerusalem over Israel Fourty Years And Solomon slept with his Fathers and was Buried in the City of David his Father and no further Out of which Text he fetch'd two Solomons and Match'd them well together And I conceive he never Studied any thing with more care to deliver his mind apud honores exactly to the Truth and Honour of the King He enquired after the Sermon which Bishop Fisher made at the Funeral of King Henry the Seventh and procur'd it likewise for the Oration which Cardinal Peron made for King Henry the Fourth of France and had it by the means of Dr. Peter Moulin the Father These he laid before him to work by and no common Patterns 'T is useless to Blazon this Sermon in the Quarters take it altogether and I know not who could mend it It is in the Libraries of Scholars that are able to judg of it And such as Read it shall wrong King Charles his Son if they conceive any Passage Reflects upon him because Eloquence in the Body of the Sermon and in the Margent is commended in King James and Extoll'd to be very useful in Government Doth this derogate from the Honour of the Succeslor Chrisippus non dicet idem nec mite Thaletis ingenium Juvenal Sat. For King Charles might be allowed for an Elegant Speaker and choice in his matter if he had not stood so near to his Fathers Example 230. To whose Memory I stand so near having been carried on to Record his Happy Departure that I am prest in Conscience to do some right to his Worthiness He was a King in his Cradle Aequaevâ eum Majestate Creatus Nullaque privatae passus contagia sortis As Claudian of Honorius Paneg. l. 7. As he was born almost with a Scepter in his Hand so he had studied long to use it which made him much contest to keep Regal Majesty intemerated which was as good for us as for him Summum dominium est Spiritus vitalis quem tot millia Civium trahunt says Grotius out of Seneca de Ju. B. P. l. 2. c. 9. con 3. Which will Expound that Phrase in the Book of Lamentations That Josiah is call'd the Breath of the Jews Nostrils Some thought that the good King studied to Enthral the people far from his mind God wot But his speculation was that Northern Nations love not a Yoke upon their Necks and are prone to Anarchy that they will ruin themselves if they be not held down to a good temper of Obedience and that by too much Liberty Liberty it self will Perish It is is an Excellent Speech which Artabanus makes to Themistocles in Plutarch We hear of you Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that you love Liberty and Parity but among many good Laws this is the Chief in Persia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. To Honour our King and to Worship him as the Image of God And I trow the Persian Monarchs have lasted longer then the Burgo-Masters of Greece The Grast will have no Cause to Repent that it is bound close to the Stock it will grow the better But as King James did rather talk much of free Monarchy then execute it So no people did ever live more prosperously then we did under him and he made no ostentation of it If all were not turn'd upside downward of late I might declame out of the Paneg. to Constantine Quis non dico reminiscitur sed quis non adhuc quodam modò videt quantis ille rebus auxerit ornaritque rempub To what an immense Riches in his time did the Merchandize of England rise to above former Ages What Buildings What Sumptuousness What Feastings What gorgeous Attire What Massy Plate and Jewels What Prodigal Marriage Portions were grown in fashion among the Nobility and Gentry as if the Skies had Rained Plenty The Courts of Laws Civil and Common never had such practise nor the Offices belonging to them such Receipts upon their Books The Schools in the Universities and the Pulpits with Wits of all Arts and Faculties never flourish'd so before over all the Land Let Zion and the Clergy be joyful in the Remembrance of their King God bestowed with him upon the Land the Gift which Homer says Jupiter promised to Ulysses his Reign in Iâ—haca 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Odyss a. Enough of Wealth and Peace And they that suck at those two Breasts and are forward they know not what is good for them and are insensible of a Benefit Let them keep silence with shame enough that Ball aloud we were corrupted by them whose Fault was that Therefore God hath taken them away from us and will give them to a people that will use them better Neque jugi pace aut longo otio absoluta ingenia corrumpis says Capitol of M. Antonius A Soul of good Metal will never Rust in the Scabbard of Peace O with what mony would we be content to buy so many years of Peace again now Wars have trodden us under foot like Dirt If there be a Milky Circle upon Earth a Condensation of many comfortable and propitious stars it is Peace which this Peace-maker preserv'd at home and pursued it for his contemporary Potentates abroad till his Son-in-Law made an Attempt upon Bohemia unfortunate to himself and to all Christiandom But what says Ar. Wil. to this p. 160. His maintaining of Peace howsoever the World did believe it was out of a Religious Ground yet it was no other but a Cowardly disposition that durst not adventure Like as when L. Opimius had supprest C. Gracchus with the rascal Rabble that follow'd him and Opimius having pacified the uproar Dedicated a Temple to Concord The Seditious flouted it with this Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. in vit Grach Opus vaecordiae Templum concordiae facit So if such a Monument had been Raised by this King the Temple of Peace and Unity had been with the Malicious the Temple of Sloth and Vanity 'T is a Buff Coat Objection that his Majesty consum'd as much in Embassies to settle differences by accord and did no good as would have maintain'd a Noble War and made him sure of his Demands Nay hold Sirs assurance is only in the Power of God And the Die of VVar says the Proverb casts an uncertain Chance Howsoever was it not more Christian to buy a Childs Portion with Mony then with Blood Gallantry hath made Embassages very chargeable but they devour not like War I shall make some Smile to tell them that Aeschines accus'd Demosthenes for putting the Common-Wealth to the Expence of two Servants to carry his Sumpter when he went Embassador And in the time of C. Gracchus lately spoken of the Romans says Plutarch allowed Nine Obols or Fifteen Pence a day to him that was sent Abroad upon a publick Treaty A Parsimony as bad as our Prodigality But attend to the Opinion of our King Harry the Eighth as I take it from Lord Cherbury's History Pag. 171. The Maintaining of a sure Peace at Home was almost as costly as to make War Abroad Yet he had rather spend his own Treasure that way than to expose his People to Slaughter and to Miseries that are worse than Slaughter 231. But our King James did not weigh which was cheapest or dearest Peace or War but which was more answerable to times of Grace and the Aeconomy of the Gospel For Thrist and Saving he could never be brought to think of them I have heard that he never loved a Servant till he had given him enough for a Livelihood and suspected those that were modest and did not ask as if they loved not him It might rightly be said of his Exchequer what Salmasius notes upon Lampridius Diadumenns Praefectus aerarii comes largitionum vocatur quasi ad nullam aliam rem princeps aerarium haberet quà m ad largiendum The chief Treasurer was called the Count of Largess as if the Prince's Revenue served only for Bounty and Largess But as wise Spotswood says upon Malcolm the Second Necessity is the Companion of immoderate Largition and forceth to unlawful Shifts Therefore it is better for a Prince to proportion Gists to his own Revenews than to the Expectation of publick Supplies Thus far King James may be magnified he spent to please his Mind in gratifying and obliging many not to please his Body His Cloaths were thristy and of better Example than his Courtiers would follow He was temperate in his Diet says Sir An. W. and to be believed because in every thing almost he is an affected Defamer but this he knew well for he was Clerk of the Kitchin and waited at the Table Where as an eye Witness he adds that he was temperate also in his Drinking drinking often but very often not above one or two Spoonfuls at once which Strangers observing and not knowing the small quantity he sip'd carried away an Error with them which grew into a false Fame But I never spake with that Man that saw him overtaken Take him for a Scholar and he had gathered Knowledge to astonishment and was so expert to use it that had he been born in a private Fortune he might have deserved to be a Bishop of the highest Promotion Let the Learnedest of the Nobility the Lord Bacon speak for the Learnedest of Monarchs There hath not been since Christ's Time any King which hath been so Learned in all Literature and Erudition Divine and Humane And let him win and wear that in Auson Paneg. which cannot be denied him Quid aliud es quà m ex omni bonarum artium ingenio collecta perfectio Piety is the Basis of all Vertue and the Basis of Piety in corrupted Nature is rather Repentance than Innocency When this King called to mind in his Retiring-Chamber or in his Bed that he had been that Day overtaken with Passion As he that offends not in Word the same is a per-Man Jam. 3.2 he used to send for Bishop Montague the only Prelate that ever was sworn of his Bed-Chamber or for Dr. Young the Dean of Winton whom he would exhort to Pray with him for the Forgiveness of his Sins He was infinitely given to Prayer says Sir Ant. W. but more out of Fear than Conscience That 's Satan's Gloss upon a good Text. What Fear should move him to Prayer but that which is the beginning of Wisdom Few dye Saints that live Libertines God would not have impowered him to express such good Effects of Religion at his parting out of this Life if he had not been his faithful Servant in his Life before To trumpet these and many more Triumphs of Praise Fame will wake for him now he is faln asleep And the more Ages to come that will study him the more they will renown him I have read it quoted out of Galen that the Surentine Wine is never mellow for the Taste till it be seventy years old and because few will keep it so long the Goodness is little known So the longer the World keeps this King's Memory it will be the sweeter Perhaps it is yet harsh to some malevolous and unthankful 232. It is the Virulency of wrathful Writers that the Dead that should be spared are most traduced by them They cannot bite again when they are bitten as Budaeus said of Portius Lib. 5. de Asse Fol. 169. That Portius would not write against him while he was living Placabiliùs homo peritus actum iri meis cum manibus a sese quà m mecum intelligebar And the miserable Condition of Kings deceased is above others especially if their Posterity be not in a Condition to do them right they are most like to be wounded in their Honour by all those who must be many that have been offended in their own Persons and Suits or in the Injuries as they interpret them of their Friends and Relations Especially it is to be deplored and defied that some are so touchy upon the nicest Points of Religion that they will not spare the Good Name no not of the Lord 's Anointed if he have distasted them with Opposition of Opinions if he not dogmatize with them in all abstruse and intricate Problems of almost unsearchable Truths For which they that sue their Adversaries hotly and as it were go to Law for every Quirk and knotty Point are no better than common Barretters in Divinity This was King James's hard Fortune to be blotted with the Inks of Parsons Schioppius Scribanius furious Papists and as many more of them as would sill Justice-Hall in New-gate by the Precise that were alienated from the Ceremonies and Discipline of the well framed Protestant Church as Wdden Wilson Payton and a Sanhedrim of Scots that contended against the Articles of Perth
And what Plot could I have against his Grace in the Meeting at Oxford when I oppos'd it at Hampton-Court and Ricot and would have had it put off at Woodstock That I am as mere a Stranger as any Lord that serves your Majesty to all those disaffected Persons that appear'd so opposite to your Royal ends in the House of Commons That I never spake in all my Life with any of them excepting one and at one time only and that by Order and Commission concerning any Parliamentary-business whatsoever That I am content if at any time admitted to my Answer I shall be sufficiently convicted in any of these Premises or any other Particular included under any of these to renounce your Majesty's Favour as long as I live and which is the only Hell upon Earth to me never look on your face again But if all these Informations against a poor Bishop that so served your Father in his Life and at his Death be grounded only upon Suspicion Malice or Misapprehension and be cried down as they needs must be by all the Members of the one and the other House pity me dread Sovereign and let me retire with the comfortable Assurance of your Majesty's Favour that I may spend my days quietly in the Service of my God in serving whom as I resolve to do I shall never fail to serve your Majesty whom God Almighty prosper with all Success in this World and with all Happiness and eternal Glory in that to come 28. The Letter being read He was call'd for to the King immediately and had access to make his Petitions His Requests were just modest and suitable to his Condition and the King's Answers Princely and Prudent The Petitioner ask'd first for his Majesty's Grace and Favour in general His Majesty granted it and gave him twice his Hand to kiss 2. The Petitioner humbly thanking his Majesty for his gracious Promise to take away none of his Church-Preferments till he had given better in lieu thereof besought his Majesty to keep the same benevolent Mind towards him The King said It was his Intention 3. The Petitioner besought his Majesty to remember his Father's Promise made before all the Lords that whensoever he took away the Seal he would place me in as good a Bishoprick or Arch-Bishoprick as he could a Promise not only seconded but drawn from your Father first by your Majesty The King said There was no such Place yet void when any fell then it would be time to make this Request unto him 4. The Petitioner besought that his Majesty would dismiss him freely and absolutely without any Command from the Table but to leave it to his discretion to forbear The King said He ever intended it so and never said a word to the contrary but expected he would not offend by voluntary Intrusion 5. The Petitioner besought that his Majesty would declare unto the Lords that he had willingly and readily yielded to his Majesty's Pleasure and that I part in your Favour and good Opinion and am still your Servant The King said He would but says he I look that no Petitions be made for you by any Man at that time but only for my Favour in general 6. The Petitioner besought that his Majesty in his good time would make his Atonement with my Lord-Duke either upon or without Examination of those Informations which the Lord-Duke had receiv'd against him The King said It became not him a King to take up the Quarrels between his Subjects And that the Duke had never exprest any such Enmity against him before his Majesty The Petitioner thank'd his Majesty for the last part of the Answer which revived him not a little as did a short Letter lately received from the Countess his Grace's Mother which he besought the King to read and 't was this Noble Lord I Must not forget my Promise to your Lordship I have had large Conference with my Son about you And he tells me that the King is determin'd to put another into your Place But for his own part he 〈◊〉 he is in Love and Charity with your Lordship And that he thinks your Lordship 〈◊〉 leave the Place better than you found it and that you have done the King good 〈◊〉 in it For the rest I shall give you better Satisfaction when I see you next than I 〈◊〉 do by Letter In the mean time I am sorry there should be any unkindness betwixt your Lordship and him that is so near to me and that wisheth you both so well Mar. Buckingham Burleigh Octob. 12. The Petitioner went on and besought that whereas by the King his Father's direction he had bought a Pension no new one but the fame that was paid to Viscount Wallingford of 2000 Marks per Annum and had disbursed 3000 l. down for it with which his Majesty was acquainted and lik'd it that his Majesty would be pleased either to buy the Pension of him for the Sum laid out and extinguish it or to assign it to be paid him out of the Tenths and Subsidies of the Bishoprick as before he had appointment to receive it out of the Hamper The King said Assignments were naught but he would take order with his Treasurer either to pay it or buy it as should be found most convenient 8. The Petitioner besought that his Majesty would please to bestow the next Prebend in Westminster that was void upon his Library-keeper as his Father had promis'd or to let him resume his Books again The King said it was full of Reason 9. The Petitioner besought that his Majesty would please to ratifie a Grant made by his Father of four Advousons to St. John's Colledge in Cambridge whereof two he had bought with his Money and two the King gave him for the good of that Society The King said He would ratifie the Grant and give way to amend any Errors in the Form or in the Passing 10. The Petitioner besought that he might have leave to retire to a little Lodge lent to him by the Lord Sandys where my Lord Conway may receive the Seal when his Majesty commanded it in his Journey towards Windsor The King granted it Lastly The Petitioner besought that the King would not be offended at him if upon his discharge reports were made that he was discontented which he protested he was not giving over so comfortably in his Majesty's Favour The King said He would do him that Justice and that he little valued Reports And with a sweet Countenance gave him his Hand to kiss with a gracious Valediction 29. Poets use to have quaint Allusions in their Fictions as when they tell us that Pallas struck Tiresias blind but gave him a Staff to walk with Quo veluti duce vestigiis inoffensis graderetur Politia Miscel p. 80. So the King had set the Keeper but a Week's Period to keep his Office but gave him good words to carry him merrily home And certainly his Majesty meant real Performance of all
publick and the further it extends it gives the greater Lustre Whereof the Candle put upon the Hill that could not be hid was his own Example directing his Clergy to their Duty by his own often Preaching Injunctions Articles Orders Advertisements and the like I have heard wise Men say expire with the Prince's Life that appointed them saving that their Prudence and Equity do never expire But Canons oblige till they be lawfully repeal'd The first Canon among us that I know past by Convocation and confirm'd by Royal Authority is that of 1571. That all Bishops should diligently teach the Gospel not only in their Cathedral Churches which they govern but also in all the Churches of their Diocess where they shall think it most needful And principally they shall exhort their People to the Reading and Hearing of the Holy Scripture c. Which Canon this Bishop did awake in his frequent Practice He had good Gifts to preach withal and good Gifts are given to prosit others None of God's Talents must be hid in a Napkin nor in a Rochet And who doth hide them Qui percepto dono sub otio torporis abscondit says Gregory Past cu. Lib. 1. c. 9. Which Sin had been the greater in this great Divine who was so apt to teach so able by found Doctrine to exhort and to convince Gainsayers Who excell'd his Brethren in that Faculty as much as he did transcend them in Dignity It is not to set him forth at an Hyperbolical rate but that this Testimony may be given him that the best that were famous in the Pulpit might learn Method and Perspicuity from him He had not his fellow in that Point of Art And he spake as one that deliver'd the Oracles of God 1 Pet. 4.11 His Notions were not vulgar but found and weighty smelling of Pains and of Piety Many a Sabbath-days Journey he took to the adjacent Towns to let them see and hear their Diocesan not omitting the Punctilio of the Canon to stir them up to the Reading and Hearing of Holy Scriptures but taught it with much variety from Luk. 16. v. 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead The sound of Aaron's bells were to be heard when he went into the holy place and when he came out that he died not Exod. 28.35 Iram judicii exigit si sine sonitu praedicationis incedit says Gregory again Lib. 2. c. 3. Be it that place be eminently meant of Christ our High Priest who was heard of God in his Mediation and of the People in his Instruction Yet it belongs by way of Pattern to all them whom Christ hath sent as his Father sent him Sweet is the Sound of their Golden Bells Gold doth not give a shrill noise like sounding Brass or tinkling Cymbals but it is rich and precious The Multitude by ill custom look for Clamour strong Lungs and weak Doctrine But happy are those Auditors that can try which is a golden Bell upon the Touch-stone of their Understanding and run not giddy after them whose words are hot in the Mouth and cold in digestion Those Ages did afford the best Disciples that learnt their Principles from the gravest Fathers And the People did profit most where the Bishops preacht most As St. Austin says that so long as he staid at Millain every Sunday he heard the great Doctor St. Ambrose Millain or any other City Bethany or any Hamlet would forsake others to hear them It was so with us in England to the brink of our great Change High and low of all sorts and degrees came with their greatest Attention to hear the Sermon of a Bishop Their very Habit which set them forth with Comeliness did affect some the Authority of their high Calling did move others the Contemplation of their Learning and Wisdom which had advanc'd them did work more their painfulness in their Duty did please all Upon which of these hinges the Delight of the People did turn I dispute not It is enough that it was apparent that the Message of God was heard with most reverence when it was deliver'd by one that look'd like an extraordinary Embassador Above all those chief Pastors were the best Trumpets to sound a Retreat from Innovations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As I take it from Longinus p. 10. New-fangledness makes us giddy at first and in time mad and none were so powerful as the good Prelates to warn the People of them Experience and Age and Knowledge did plead on their side that they best knew the Tradition of the Fathers 42. Nor could it but have sped well if it had been consider'd that constant or at least frequent Preaching would have made our Bishops been rightly understood that their Judgments adhered to the Doctrine of the Church of England as it is settled in opposition to Popery Some of our Reverend Fathers that stated our Controversies moderately and with no more than due distance which is an infinite advantage to a Disputant were had in Jealousie for almost Apostates by those that shot wider from the Mark which both aimed to hit A Jealouâ—ie which some Diligence in the Pulpit had prevented For when did you hear of a Lecturer suspected for it But this is the Imperfection of mortal Affairs that when one inconvenience is removed another will rise up in the room For the good Office of Preaching perform'd often by a Bishop was call'd Puritanism by some in those times that fomented such a Faction that made the Name of Puritan the very Inquisition of England Not using it as formerly to preserve the good Order and Discipline of the Church but to cast any Man out of Favour that was so innocent as not to be able to be charged with any thing else Thrust a worthy Man between the first and second Censure and how hard did we make it by such uncharitable Traducings to live evenly in the indivisible Point of Protestantism This Bishop being not indiligent to preach the Gospel for which St. Paul and our own Canons had provided was decipher'd to the King for an upholder of Non-conformitants Neque sapere Principi potest quod his praegustatoribus non ante placitum sit probatum Bud. Pand. Lib. 2. c. 14. The King's Tasters had disrelish'd him to his Majesty with that unsavory report that he could not be believ'd with proof sufficient made against the prejudice Which made no alteration in him but that he would follow the Plough to which he had put his Hand Like the Resolution of Alexander Curt. Lib. 9. that would not be deterr'd with Rumors from finishing his Expedition in Asia for says he Fugissemus ex Asiâ si nos fabulae debellare potuissent So stout Lincoln would give no ground to Scandals taken but mistaken No Discouragements could remove him from great Designs from two especially The former that he began and purpos'd to go on to write a Comment in Latia upon
Authority of the Pastoral Staff was broken that the Tribunals of Bishops stretch'd themselves beyond their measure that many were troubled for not obeying new Articles In the Third Parliament of King Charles in a Petition of Grievances two Bishops were nam'd for offering at Innovations and others escap'd the Imputation by Luck But all that loved not Asperity took it well that none of this blustering was heard of in the Diocess of Lincoln Which was malign'd then and observ'd lately to disparage the Bishop by such as feed on him and his corrupt part like Worms now he is dead It was never in his Thoughts to sooth the Humour of the People but to please them for their good He had no word more common in his Mouth That it was not sit for a Subject but only for a King to be popular That was not the Reason why he gave no countenance to the new Wine which other Prelates broach'd or call it their Pregnancy to revive old things which had long lain still But because he saw that Bancrost Abbot Mathew King Bilson Andrews Morton Overal Lake Felton Davenant and many such gave great content and receiv'd great content from their Colleges and Bishopricks which they govern'd respectively by keeping them in that Obedience wherein they found them Says Augustus in Dion Things that have continued well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is settled by Custom though it be not so good it is fitter than that which would alter it into another mode and to try experience upon the Body of a Church which was crazy was Mala 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dangerous Endeavour For the rest of the Charge the Bill is confest the Bishop was a very slack Punisher using the Power which God had given him to edification and not to destruction 2 Cor. 13.10 God says his Covenant with Levi was to walk in Peace and Equity and to turn many from iniquity Mal. 2.6 And every High Priest must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. 5.2 Be moderately affected toward the ignorant and them that are out of the way So did this worthy Person who would chide aloud like Thunder against Malefactors but without the Bolt of Censure which tears the Tree and rends the Stock in pieces The Spirit of Humanity hath its angry Sallies and Emotions and he was to his dispraise in that very obnoxious to them Huic uni forsan poterat succumbere culpae Aen. Lib. 4. But Heat and a great Wit were never parted And though Man have most reason of any living thing yet Choler abounds in him because he hath most Fancy and most Will. Water is a common Element to all Beasts none strike fire and use it but Man That 's a Priviledge belonging to the noblest Creature Herein the Bishop's Anger was as pardonable as anger could be that it left no more impression against the Person that moved him than if he had never been angry As Budaeus says of Guido Rochfort Chancellor of France Lib. 3. de as Fol. 105. Minimè omnium iracundorum malitiosam habuit iracundiam Cursed be their Wrath which is cruel Gen. 49.7 Cursed be the Anger that is malicious For Anger is a Mote Malice is a Beam in the Eye They are the Plagues of Mankind who once heated with Displeasure will never cool neither with the sweet Air fann'd out of the Lord's Prayer engaging them so deeply to forgive nor with the Blood in his Sacrament which quencheth not the Fire of a revengeful Mind and yet is able to quench the Fire of Hell What shall be given them but hot Coals of Juniper Psal 120.4 Prunae juniperi per annum integrum ignem servant modo cinere cooperiantur says Pliny Lib. 13. c. 22. Juniper Coals will keep Fire a Year if they be cover'd with Ashes Therefore they that cover Wrath and keep it warm with long and profound dissembling shall be rewarded with Fire like Coals of Juniper that never goes out Clemens in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. hath divinely resolv'd one of the Riddles of Pythagoras That when a Pot is taken off the Fire no print of it must be seen in the Ashes So meaning says Clemens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To let no print of Anger remain to blot out the Characters of it that Revenge may never read them So the Bishop's Anger would sometimes break out too fast but Words were Wind and Clemency blew away his Threatnings beyond the River of Oblivion If one of the Extreams should be laid to his charge it must be that of too much Mercy Which Camerarius could not deny to be in Melanchthon p. 109. Facility Remisness in correction of Faults a Spirit promiscuously indifferent to gratifie deserving and undeserving But as St. Chrysos says upon that of the High Priest Hebr. 5. apt to pass over the Ignorance and Errors of others Non ne satius est propter misericordiam rationem reddere quà m propter severitatem Is it not more comfortable to the Conscience to answer unto God for a dram too much of Mercy than for a Stone weight too much of Rigour and Severity Yet I have heard it said and read it If Discipline had been observ'd by all the Bishops as strictly and without connivance to any as it was by some the Contumacy of that Faction had not got the Head which opprest us all The smart of the Wound may incline them to that Judgment Yet others have consider'd that the Opposition of the disorderly part was in an appearance so little that their Contradiction was rather in their Heart than in their Practice suspected for no fast Friends to our Weal and Ceremonies but not declar'd for Enemies Who should understand them better than King Charles in his last and heavenly Letter to the Prince The Presbyterian Faction was great neither in Church or State to Mens Judgments says he There was enough beheld in them to make our Rulers vigilant but not violent For nothing is worse than to take too high a strain to trample upon that which is not yet exalted The Lord is angry at Priests that are too hard and imperious Ezek. 34.4 With force and cruelty have ye ruled them And St. Hierom applied it to some rigid Overseers of his own Age by this Note upon it Quod propriè ad supercilium Episcoporum pertinet Charity suffereth long and is kind 1 Cor. 13.4 Suffering of those that err is but a part of Duty the disaffected must be won with kindness To suffer is praise-worthy before Men to be kind also is praise-worthy before God It is a Point that may be argued plausibly on both sides Justice will say Dum immoderatè custoditur virtus humanitatis solvuntur jura regiminis Greg. Past Cu. Lib. 2. c. 6. A Bit must be put into the Mouth of the Head-strong Superiors shall have less trouble with Schismaticks if they hold a strait hand over them And he that sheweth them too much Favour teacheth Innocents to offend Mildness will say Woe to
them that turn aside the way of the Meek Amos 2.7 They that are compell'd may cease to be contumacious and will begin to be Hypocrites Terror may make them stoop but gentleness will sooner make them yield Says Seneca Iracundus Dominus quosdam ad fugam cogit quosdam ad mortem A cruel Lord makes them desperate that are under him but another shall gain their Persons if not their Consciences by the benefit of Facility Certainly God directs the Magistrate that keeps the golden Mean Qualem nequeo monstare sentio tantùm Juven Sat. 7. 48. Episcopal vigilance hath the Object best before it in Visitations Which were chargeable indeed to the poor Parsons and Vicars in Linwood's days as appears in his Provincial by such a sweeping Train as quarter'd upon them for Hospitality But our Bishops in their Triennials taking but a slight and inconsiderable Procuration for Homage eas'd them of the Burthen and continued the Benefit They came to visit and to water the Earth Psal 65.9 not to dry up but to moisten the Furrows with the River of God or as Symmachus translates it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bring all to Maturity which was sown by the Labours of their Brethren The like unto it was very ancient For such were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the oldest Canons as the Word is taken for Circumspection not for Circumvention Such as were commissioned to perambulate the Countries where Churches were gather'd together to behold their Order and stedfastness of Faith Coloss 2.5 Upon that Head I will give account what Bishop Williams did in particular Cases two and no more Then his Discharge in the general Meetings shall bound and shut it up The former was the Discovery of a Mischief and the killing of it in the Birth in April 1629. with which Jane Hawkins teemed a Prophetess for she would go for no less in the Parish of St. Ives in Hunting donshire Who took her Bed for a Sickness and was in perfect Health and in that sickness had her Extasies as it was bruited and in those Extasies utter'd Verses in Rythm full of Detraction and Injury to the Authority of the Bishops to the Church-way of England in the Liturgy and not sparing some Occurrences of the Civil Government This was a Cheat like that of Mr. R. Hadocks in Oxford in the beginning of King James's Reign Who was a learned Impostor preaching Latin Sermons of a very elegant Stile in his sleep as the cunning Man would have it believ'd as if those Enthusiasms were vented by his Tongue but he had no Sense of them in his Mind And this tended to make his Auditors conceive that God caused him like Balaam's dumb Beast to teach another Discipline than that which was establish'd But this Woman though taught her Lesson by some more knowing than her self utter'd such Brainless Verses as might justifie the common Ballads of the City and was as bad at an English Verse as the old Monks were at a Latin stufft with such frigid Jests as were able to cool the Bath Ut propriùs spectes lacrymosa poemata Puppi Horat. Ep. 1. Yet the more vile and plain they lik'd the better with the rural Hobs and would have spread into Fairs and Markets and been sung by Fidlers Boys if it had not been prevented The Extasie or Inspiration believ'd by some was the offence like to do harm Which the Bishop perceiving to be a devised Villany disguised himself in his Face and Habit and obtain'd to thrust in with two more among the Crew at such a time as they came to watch for Oracles from the Mouth of this Poetress Blind Guides are fittest for them that would wander When the Fit was upon her one of her Intimates took her Vapourings as they came from her Et jungere carmina curat Virgil. Aen. lest they should be lost like those of Virgil's Beldame Which the Bishop taking out of his Hand found them alter'd for the better and at that juncture reveal'd himself to their Amazement and made it evident to them that were present that all their Feats were stark Juggling that they took God's Name in vain as if those Notions came from God which came from Fraud and from Satan false in much bitter without Charity bold and rude not savouring of the Stile of God nor of any wise Man but Mr. Wise the Curate And although their Conditions would excuse all that could be done to them in Severity yet the Bishop required no more but that Mr. Tooky the Vicar upon pain of Suspension should read the Contents of a Paper sent to him the next Sunday April 29. after the first Lesson in the Parish Church then his Suspension to be staid otherwise to be declar'd Which Contents are these In those Sayings uttered by Jane Hawkins of this Parish either of late or heretofore in her Sickness which seemed for the Manner strange and extraordinary and expressed in Verse or Rhyme I do not conceive any Miracle at all or for that manner in Verse or Rhyme any Inspiration of the Holy Ghost added over and above the Gifts and Parts of Nature Nor would I have any Man or Woman of this Parish to have a higher Opinion or Conceit of any Saying so utter'd by the said Jane Hawkins And whereas my self Mr. Wise my Curate and my Son have taken and excerpted many of these Sayings in Verse from the Mouth of the said Jane in the Presence of many Men and Women in this Parish and put the same in Writing which is conceiv'd to be an Act that may prove scandalous to the Church and State I do promise not to do so again and am truly sorry that this Act of mine is any way liable to such Construction and will be grieved at the Heart if by occasion of the same the least Scandal or Aspersion may fall upon this flourishing Church or State wherein I live which I voluntarily profess in this open Assembly This was read and the Offence was past over with this gentleness But the Vicar fell either into this Error again or some other Contumacy For in fine he was deprived as I find it in the Bishop's Papers Their own tatling and venting their Malice by a talkative Woman brought all this shame upon them They might have been as wise as the wild Geese that fly over the Mountain Taurus who carry a Stone in their Bills to keep them from gaggling lest the Eagle should hear them and seize upon them 49. It is a slight occasion yet an occasion to consider in a little the Sibylls and their Predictions from hence because I have started a Feminine Versifier and a Prophetess yea what else among her Copes-mates To come to a short Tryal I lay nothing forth of the Fatidical Books which Tarquin bought of his resolute Chap-woman They were consum'd to Ashes in the Social War and not a Fragment saved Nor of those Pieces which Tully quotes Lib. 2. de Divin and Virgil Ecl.
to this Visitation And those are either my Brethren of the Clergy or my good Friends and Neighbours of the Laity When I have spoken somewhat to either of these in general and recommended to the Clergy a particular I have in charge I shall trouble you no longer but go on to the business of the day 54. The Visitation of Bishops is no Jonas gourd no filia noctâ—s started up in a Night of Popery but a Tree set by the Apostles themselves and water'd from time to time by the Canons of general Councils in the fairest Springs of the Primitive Church For so I find Protestants of no mean Esteem to wit the Four Writers of the Centuries to retrieve the Root hereof from Acts cap. 14. And if you will observe the Place there is scarce one particular prescrib'd by the Canon Law as essential to a Visitation but you shall find it put in Execution in that Chapter you have them first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 22. they that confirm'd the Souls of all the Disciples must among them confirm Children Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 laying hands on Priests and Deacons v. 23. Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 24. Peragrantes saith Beza a Word used for a Bishop's Visitation in the Council of Chalons under Charles the Great Fourthly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 25. making their Sermons or Collations And Lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 returning back to Antioch from whence they came v. 26. Nor are we now forced to such a leap as Dr. Mocket out of Gratian would put upon us for the Visitations of Bishops To wit from these Acts of the Apostles to the Synodus Tarraconensis or the fourth Council of Toledo which is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a huge wide Gulf of more than Five Hundred Years but are able to trace them all along in that interim of time in most Authentical Authors and Histories For to say nothing of those Books of Clemons Romanus call'd by the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Circuits of St. Peter because they were abused by old Hereticks as Epiphanius and Athanasius often tell us that is most certain that many Years after the Epocha of the Acts of the Apostles St. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where you have the Word of art used to this day did often visit Pontus and Bithynia says Epiphan in his 27 Heresie which is that of the Carpocratians And about the Year One hundred after the Death of the Emperor Domitian Eusebius reports out of Clemens Romanus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Tale and no Tale but an unquestion'd History that St. John leaving Pathmos went up and down Asia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 setting Churches in order Lib. 3. Hist c. 23. From hence indeed I must transport you to the 57 Canon of the 3 Counc of Carthage that you may hear Aurelius and his Brethren excuse themselves for not visiting Mauritania and those other Provinces But you must not dwell upon this Council being by the Canon it self turn'd back again for four or five Years to that famous Council of Hippo which opened to St. Austin as yet a Priest Famae januam the first Gate and Entrance as it were to his Fame and Glory For in this great Council at Hippo saith that other Council of Carthage it had been expresly determin'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that every Province or Diocess should be visited in the very time of holding the Synod Which Words are to be well observ'd For the Canon doth not say they were to be visited at the Synod or the Synod sitting For the Law doth not admit of that Quia multùm operatur persona The Person of the Prelate bears a special part in this kind of Visitation But a general Synod was first call'd and therein the manner of the Reformation was settled and agreed upon Presently after that the Fathers did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sever themselves as Zonaras writes upon that Canon and fall in hand with their peculiar Visitations And here I have brought you without all question to the Fountain and Well head of our Canon Law which requires according to this Revisement of the Council of Hippo that a Synod of the Diocess or Province be first called before they begin the Episcopal Visitation And however the Synods themselves be much out of use in this Kingdom especially where none can be held but by leave of the Prince yet may you still find upon your Accompts some few Splinters and Remainders of the same when you do not pay your Procurations only but your Cathedraticals and Synodals also From this Third Council of Carthage the righting of these Visitation was taken up by the Synodus Tarraconensis by the Council of Bracara by the Fourth Council of Toledo and divers others in their Ages From these Councils they were fetch'd by Gratian into his Decrees from the Decrees by the Popes into their Epistles and Decretals and so continue to this day our Jus Commune our ordinary Law in that behalf Nor were these Visitations of Bishops sooner enjoyn'd by the several Popes in their Laws and Decretals but as things of sovereign and principal use they were taken up and incorporated into the Municipal Laws of all our chief and best order'd Monarchies Hence we find them commanded the Prelates of Spain in the first Partida of King of Alfonso's Laws Title 22. Hence likewise enjoyn'd the Bishops of France by Charles the Ninth Henry the Third and Fourth in those general Estates of Orleance Bloise and Paris Hence also Visitations were to have been erected here in England by our Statute Laws if those Thirty two Persons had ever met as appears by those preparations made by Arch-bishop Cranmer and others Titulo de Visitationibus Lastly Upon the beginning of the Reformation in Saxony they kept a Visitation by the Super-intendents An. 1527. much approved of by the Lutherans of those times Osiander and Bucholzerus And therefore we may not conceive of these Visitations as of some imperfect and equivocal Creatures begotten but the other day ex fimo limo out of the Dregs and Corruptions of the Church of Rome but as of things of a more noble and ancient Descent begun by Paul and Barnabas when they were Apostles continued by St. Peter and St. John as great Bishops settled and righted in the Council at Hippo Anno. 393. From thence transcrib'd into the Third Council of Carthage Anno. 397. From thence revived at Tarraco under Hormisda An. 517 From thence received into the Council of Braccara Anno. 602. From thence into the Fourth of Toledo Anno. 633. From those Councils they were taken in by Gratian into his Decrees So into the Decretals and from the Decretals and their Glosses infused into the municipal or common Laws of all the chiefest Christian Monarchies So much of a Visitation in general 55. In the second place I am to make a short Exhortation unto you my Brethren of the Clergy The Effect whereof shall be
be done to in my Temptations what you will not admit I should do to another as in the Case of Fornication or Adultery shall I do in that case what I desire to be done to me And therefore the Rule is not so safe as it is represented Yea but then if you will any thing as this Rule would have you to will you must will voluntate rationali discretà saith Alexander Ales with a rational and discreet will and then you shall not miscarry Or you must do as you would have Men do homines non bruta as you would have Men and not Beasts do unto you saith Albertus magnus But those that will do unto you any such filthiness as you speak of are as St. Paul calls them Men after the manner of Beasts And therefore in all your Actions whatsoever remember still this little Sentence as you desire to avoid those other Sentences some in this Life and some in the Life to come Which is all I shall say unto you my good Friends and Neighbours of the Laity 60. Now that particular thing which I am to recommend to you my Brethren of the Clergy not falling properly within the Limits of a Visitation but put off by my self for a Year or two in hope of this or the like opportunity is Subsidium charitativum which so as it tend to a publick and no private end Bishops by Law may move unto their Clergy It is a charitable Benevolence or Contribution for St. Paul's Cathedral Church seated in London which as you know is our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he said he of Athens our England of England and our Landskip and Representation of the whole Island For here strangers no sooner arrive but they first take unto themselves and then vent abroad unto others a Scantling and Platform of the British Government as well in Matters concerning the Church as in those that touch upon the State and Commonwealth Here if God's worship be decently perform'd his Word learnedly Preach'd his Sacraments reverently administred his material Houses polish'd and repaired especially this great and huge Fabrick the City as it were of the City it self and a place of continual resort both to our own and other Nations then presently omnes omnia bona dicere the Mouth of Detraction is quite stopped the Priests and Jesuites are blank and silenc'd the Government in Church and State is generally approved And which is more considerable than all the rest God himself is magnified and glorified for giving a Nation Eighty years of Peace and Plenty which had the Heart to return some little Share somewhat at the least unto him again But should this Minster still remain as of late it did a great heap of mouldering Stones or rather a little Mountain of Dust and Rubbish were our Churches in the inner places of this Isle never so repaired as I doubt it much yet would Strangers out of Error and Seminaries out of Rancour possess the World That since the Reformation God's Houses in England are become the Habitations of Dragons and a Court for Owls that Satyrs do dance in them and Beasts of the Field do roar in them Lastly That when Pater Noster had reared them up to touch the Heavens Our Father hath pull'd them down to the Dust of the Earth And is it nothing thus to become a Reproach and Proverb in all places Nothing that God's Glory should be thus impaired Nothing that his Gospel should be thus blasphemed God forbid but we should all be sensible of it And thus it must needs be unless these great Fabricks reared at the first for the main of the Work by Indulgences and Superstition be repaired again by the bountiful Devotion of King and People But the Misery of it is this that People in all Ages are sound to be People that is far more easily noosed and cheated than taught enlighten'd or perswaded Whereas the Case God be thanked is otherwise with you my Brethren of the Clergy whose advantage of Breeding makes you better understand a Motion from your King so vigilant and attentive to any Motion of yours especially when it comes upon you as this doth backed and accompanied with all the Reasons and Demonstrations of Piety and Policy Beside that the Care of our Metropolitan hath been such that your Contribution may without offence be so minced and distributed to Years and Half-years as that it shall become very easie and portable doing good abroad without hurting at home or impairing in any sensible measure your private States or Fortunes I will leave it thus unto your own Considerations without accumulating more Reasons or Motives left I might seem to doubt of your Affections to any reasonable Proposition whom I have found for these Fourteen years as loving a Clergy to any Motion of mine as I have been unto you by reason of some Misfortunes an unuseful and unprofitable yet a most affectionate Bishop 61. Thus he ended and thus was the Visitation perfumed with the sweet Gums of his Eloquence Perhaps the Smell is too strong for them that lov'd him not and whose contumelious Writings and bitter Words eat into his Credit like Quicksilver They will be wiser when Truth and Charity meet together in them which Graces they had need to pray for Envy like a Kite sits upon the top of the tallest Tree in the Wood. A drowsie Bishop that had bestirred himself in nothing to be known to Posterity no better than a silly Consul that served for nothing but to know the Fasti by his Name this man should have scap'd the Lash it may be had the good word of our common Jeerers but offer another unto them that hath lived in Action and Renown as our Prelate did they will pull him out of his Grave as one Pope served another to censure him How ready have they been either to raise or take up Reports to wound him Reports spread far and wide by the King 's unfortunate Regiments that reveli'd it with all kind of Insolency round about him in Wales whose ungovern'd looseness the Bishop could not endure but oppos'd them stifly wherein it may be he lost his Judgment considering their Strength and Rudeness He loved the King's Cause but not his Army whose debauched Carriage and little Hope of Success methinks I read in Tully's Epistles lib. 7. epist 3. to M. Marius concerning Pompey's Sword-men Extra Ducem paucosque praeterea de Principibus loquor reliqui primùm in bello rapaces deinde in oratione it a crudeles ut ipsam victoriam horrerem Maximum aes alienum amplissimorum virorum Quid quaeris nihil boni praeter causam These are they that brought up Tales and Tidings of the Bishop in their Knapsacks to London and on such Stuff our History-men Ecclesiastical and Civil are pleas'd to insist Why did they pretermit the noble parts of his Episcopal Government digested in this Work in so many Paragraphs which are so unquestionable that they were seen
Philip the Son of Demetrius very much and anon dispraises him but reconciles it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is necessary for a true Reporter one while to extol in another case to discommend the same person Take one Advice beside No man that hath read God's own Judgment upon the Trial of Job will censure him for the greatest Sinner that hath been the greatest Sufferer To take up the Cross had not been an inseparable Accident with receiving the Faith of the Gospel unless it were rather a Badge of Favour than of Punishment He is happy if he knows it whose Faults enter their Action against him in this Life he is a Prisoner of Hope Zech. 9.11 and his Heart is blind if he do not seek Mercy and sind it Afflictions are Fetters for a Fool and Bracelets for them that know how to wear them And it is finely said in the Essay That the good things belonging to Prosperity are to be wish'd but the good things belonging to Adversity are to be admired This being a true and a divine Sentence That Sin and nothing else makes the Stock of every man's Comfort to dye in the Ground as Job loves to speak it hangs well together that God knows best in what manner to punish every man's Sin who gave this Prelate great Favour with King James but took King Charles's Affection from him The Lord H. Howard in his Book against Judicious Astrology turns these Turnings into this use Change of Princes breeds change of Favourites but they that are once dear to God are ever dear to him I protest to the Reader that Bishop Williams could not be brought to believe that the King bad any Willingness in his own Heart to afflict and bruise him but that such things came from the Infusion of those that had too much of His Majesty's Ear and by Importunity transported him from the lenity of his own Judgment And when the greatest Sorrows compass'd him about he desired only to be brought to the King with the advantage of half an hour to declare his Injuries and Innocency so much he perswaded himself that he was right in his gracious Opinion He knew him to be a Prince Pious and Just He presum'd his Noble Soul would never forget with what Success his Counsel and Contrivance removed all Obstructions to bring him as safe out of Spain as he desir'd He had received a Promise of everlasting Love and Kindness for tracing the Jugglings of Inoihosa and bringing them to light whereby the dangerous Jealousies of the old King were removed and His Highness received sweetly into his Father's Bosom An honest man could not be suspicious that the memory of such faithful Service was lost But standers-by thought they saw more than the Bishop did who might soonest be mistaken in the Crisis of his own Disease because flattering Hope is but a waking Dream If the King had not been pleased in his Sufferings why did he let them swell so far As his Royal Name was used in all so his Good liking went to all or after so many Bruisings Gentleness had not been forgotten The Instruments next to be nam'd were most guilty of the Violence yet the highest Power did more than permit and look on As it is the Sun that scorcheth in July and not the Dog-Star it is a popular Error which conceives as if that Star when it rose did cause the heat of the Weather Yet still the Bishop would not think his Case was in that extremity that the King's Anger was in it For as it is spoken of Padre-Paulo in his Life That he was less sensible of Fear than ordinarily men use to be so this man would affright himself with nothing least of all with that which was close and uncertain and would often say in a Frolick That Miseries are like the Plague if you fear them you draw them to you But which will give great light to the Subject now handled once he was startled at a word which fell suddenly from the King in a few weeks after the death of his Father one told him that came from the French Court as it is in the Cabal p. 203. That the Spanish Ambassador spake openly there when the Marriage with the Princess Mary was to be finish'd That he could not have two Wives for their Infanta was surely his To which the King replied There are some English as well as Spaniards that are of that Opinion Which being carried from the King's Mouth to this Bishop he said with a low Voice I know no such but if he mean me it will be the worse for me while I live From which let a wise man find out what he can so he find no more than he should Either this or some such hard Conceit lay hid in the King's Stomach against a most deserving Church-man And every Age had some such Example at which it was astonish'd No History speaks any ill of the Empress Eudoxia but that she could not agree with Chrysostom Harry the Seventh one of our best Kings was very iniquous to Lord Stanly one of his best Subjects Not a better Lady than Q. Elizabeth nor a better Peer than the Duke of Norfolk yet Statesmen thought that neither were safe while the other lived The Hand of the Just may be heavy against the Just by woful Experience The greatest Claw-backs of the Pope confess Though he cannot err say they in an Opinion of Faith he may err in the mistake of a Person as to canonize a wrong Saint and excommunicate a right one Which shews that my Conscience is in no such streight to derogate from the Glory of a most blessed King because his Displeasure darken'd by human Error lighted upon a Mephibosheth a faultless person 65. The Duke of Buck. Who knows it not was the Bishop's strong and protested Enemy who vowed that of all he had given him but with as much good liking of K. James as of his Lordship he would leave him nothing who when he threatned an ill turn had Power to do it and did not often forget it Which made the Bishop shelter himself under the King's Grace and Benevolence of which he did never cease to have a strong Perswasion begging as it is Cabal p. 109 for God's sake and for his blessed Father's sake that His Majesty would allay the Duke's causeless Displeasure who was so little satisfied with any thing that he could do or suffer that he had no means left to appease his Anger but Prayers to God and his Sacred Majesty In the mean time that one Foe made the distressed Party get many Friends like Rabirius's Fortune in Tully Nihil aeque ac judicis accrbitas profurt who had nothing to help him so much as that Caesar did hunt after his Ruin with so much violence Now that which made the Duke's Defiances grow fiercer day by day was not the Bishop's stoutness to which he was sufficiently prone for he had sought him with all Submission which
was on this side of despicable Baseness But because being sent to for his Opinion both by his Grace's Mother and his mostsollicitous Friends he had faithfully express That he did not like the ways wherein he magnified himself to serve the King Who did not foresee the Envy that his Magniloquence bred ranting it sometimes That he would make His Majesty the greatest Monarch in Europe I doubt not but his Head did work about it and was so noble that he would have died to effect it And some that fawned upon him with all obsequiousness did seem to admire him in it as the Earl of Holland among others such are the Contents of his Letters Cab. p. 297. I hope nothing shall light upon your Lordship but what you deserve the which to my knowledge is of more Value and Esteem than any man in the World could or ever can merit from this Kingdom The Bishop that would not concur to destroy him by misguidance of Flattery who had been Copartner with King James in his Preferments sung quite to another Tune He liked not his Preparations against Cales but presaged a dishonourable Return and prest that Maxim home to divert him from it That a King must make himself sure in the Love of his own People at home before he bid War abroad to such a rich and mighty Nation Next the second Parliament being summoned and this Bishop demanded what was best for the Duke's abearing in it he resolv'd it to those Friends that ask'd it His best way will be not to come near it for it will be impossible for him to close with this Parliament who contrary to my Advice offended the former and broke it up Let him remove himself by some great Embassage till the first Session be ended into Germany if he will as far as Vienna if he dare trust the King of Spain's greatest Friend and nearest Ally This was disrelish'd for they of E. Buck. Counsel rather than send him so far from the King would hazard him in the Parliament in which they thought they were strong enough by the Party they had made to keep him from all Offence as well in his Honour as in his Person The Bishop persisted to remove them from their Confidence for nothing is more fallacious than such Expectation Many that are bespoken and promise fair are quite alter'd when they are mingled with their fellow-Judges in the House As Matchiavel says it was a Florentine Proverb Populus alurm animum in foro alium in Senatu habet De Rep. lib. 1. c. 47. All that he said followed as right as ever Lucas Guaricus drew up a Scheme of Predictions for that Parliament discharged such a Volley of Complaints against his Lordship that the Votes of the Declinators could not be heard for the noise And his Grace pluck'd hard for Peace and Popularity with the Commons but could not encounter them But what a struggling he kept with his hard Destiny to be enflamed the more against the much abused Bishop because his Predictions were so prophetical A good Chaplain would have told him that God's Wisdom is seen by his Fore-warnings and his Goodness in giving them Nor was it Justice to account him a Foe because he was wiser than an ordinary Friend But who had the worst of it in the end Or rather who had the worst of it from the very beginning Miserior est qui suscipit in se scelus quà m qui alterius facinus subire cogitur Tul. Phil. II. He is more miserable that doth a Wrong than he that suffers it Yet by the Mediation of wise men the Duke continued not full two years more in this Uncharitableness for he promised at a secret Meeting two months before he died to repossess the Bishop in Favour and design'd a time for the open profession of it so that the Sun of his Life did not go down in Wrath And God did appear in it who will not always chide neither will he keep his anger for ever Psal 103. v 9. 66. Of all men Bishop Laud was the Party whose Enmity was most tedious and most spightful against his great Benefactor Lincoln He batter'd him with old and new Contrivances fifteen years His very Dreams were not without them as they are enrolled in his Memorials drawn out with his own Hand I will touch that Fault that great Fault with a gentle Hand because of that Good which was in him because in other things I believe for my part he was better than he was commonly thought because his Death did extinguish a great deal of Envy I meet with him in his worst Action that ever he did and cannot shun it If I should draw him in purposely to defame him now he is at rest I were more sacrilegious than if I rob'd his Tomb. Qui cineres atque ossa perempti insequitur Virg. Let it be the Character of a Miscreant But his Part is in every Act and Scene of a Tragical Persecution of 15 years Hoc etiam ipsi culpabunt mali Plautus in Bacchid Perhaps it began from an Emulation to keep him back who was only like to be Bishop Laud's Competitor for the greatest Place of our Church Had it gone no further it might be cenfur'd moderately for a common Temptation No wonder if the Seal and the Sword-fish never swim quietly in the same Channel But to discontinue Brotherly Love upon that score to throw it aside to further all pernicious means tending to the Infamy and Ruin of his imagin'd Rival it is past Excuse and can bear no Apology O how many are in Safety of Conscience that should not be so For he that loveth not his Brother much more he that hateth him abideth in death 1 Joh. 3.14 That opinion which my self and many have of his Sincerity appearing not in a little and the Proofs of his Bitterness being so evident in this Cause it deserves a little Direction to take away suspense of Judgment Experience one of the plainest Teachers doth demonstrate that some Drift or Delight may creep so far into the Heart of him that fears God that he will not look upon the Deformity of it as he should to think it a Sin Which I take to be the reason of Polygamy in the Patriarchs and the best Kings of Juda. Most of all an evil thing may soon be attempted when we think we may do it without hazarding our Salvation and we dare yet do more when we have no Fear to be answerable to the Justice of Men. Spalat says lib. 4. Ecc. Reip c. 7. par 13. That John Bishop of Constantinople that assumed to himself the Title of Universal Bishop or Patriarch was a good man given greatly to Alms and Fasting but too much addicted to advance the Title of his See which made a plausible Prelate seem to be Antichrist to Gregory the Great Pick out of this to the present Subject what a Provocation it was to the ambitious Spirit of Bishop Laud a man of many
into the bottom of the Sea and fetch up Sponges so The Righteous shall hold on his way and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger Job 17.9 68. Neither did it deject the Bishop to be made a Gazing-stock by Disparagements The King's Coronation and his second Parliament began together at Candlemas and he was warned by Letter to serve at neither A Coronation being usually accompanied with a General Pardon should have cast a Frown upon none Yet his Place was not granted him to do his Homage among the Spiritual Lords nor to assist the Archbishop at the Sacred Parts of that high Solemnity as Dean of Westminster It is arbitrary and at the King's Pleasure to range that Royal Ceremony as he likes best to follow former Presidents or wave them to intrust what Ministers he likes in the Management except some Tenure or old Charter give admittance to some persons without exception Otherwise in the very principal performance says venerable Saravia De Christ Obed. p. 139. Ab Episcopo traditur corona quod potest furi à proceribus But the Dean of the Collegiate Church of Westminster did attend as a specal Officer at the Coronation of K. James after the manner of Deacon to the Archbishop of Canterbury it was Dr. Andrews which could not be granted him by Prescription for there was no Dean nor any such Dignity in the Church at the Coronation of Q. Elizabeth But upon the new Foundation Anno 3. of that Queen the Dean was intrusted with the Custody of K. Edward's Crown and the other Regalia and Decorum was kept thereupon to give him a great Employment of Assistance on that day Yet the Regalia were kept in a strong place of that Church long before For I find in Baron anno 1060. par II. That Pope Nicholas the Second gave a Charter to that Abby Ut sit repositorium regalium insignium What a busie Fisher was this that would have an Oar or a Net rather in every Boat Could not the Kings of England without him appoint the fittest place for the Custody of the Ornaments of their Imperial Majesties He that was so kind to dispose who should keep the Crown did mean That the King should not wear it without his Leave and Courtesie And let it be his Fault to be impertinent and to meddle with the keeping of Royal Treasure that did not concern him What is their Crime that have carried them quite away both Crown and Scepter and Robes from their ancient Sacrary I would that had been all This was wont to be the Mark of him that opposeth and exalts himself above all that is called GOD Dixi Dii est is 2 Thess 2.4 But what 's the matter that I have almost lost my self in this Loss I was about to tell that Bishop Williams must not wait in the Honourable Place of the Dean at the Coronation but in a Complement he was sent to Name one of the Twelve Prebendaries to serve in his room This was devised to fret him and to catch a Wasp in a Water-trap Bishop Laud was a Prebendary at this time and the Substitute intended at Court to act in the Coronation If Lincoln should Name him he had been laugh'd at for preferring the man that thrust himself by And if he did not Name him and no other he had been check'd for inscribing one of a lesser Order in the Church before a Bishop to so great a Service But his Wit saved him from either Inconvenience He sent the Names of his Twelve Brethren to the King resigning it up to His Majesty to elect whom he pleased A Submission which Climacus would call Sepulchrum voluntatis a dead Obedience without a sensible Concurrence And he stirred no more either by Challenge or Petition to do that eminent Office of the Deanery in his own Person but says in his Letter to the King That he submitted to that Sequestration for so he calls it It is wise to sit down when a man can trouble no Body but himself if he moves Especially I affect the Lesson which Erasmus gives in an Epistle p. 222. Pulchrius est aliquando modestia quam cansâ superare It is handsomer sometimes to excel in Modesty than to win a Cause 69. Other Reasons sway'd this circumspect man to carry it with no such Indifferency that he was not called to the Parliament But to do Honour to the King and to save his own Right nay the common Right of Peers he took a middle way between Crouching and Contumacy He call'd it His Majesty's Gracious Pleasure and was in earnest that he esteem'd it so to spare his Presence at the Parliament but he expostulated to have a Writ of Summons denied to no Prisoners no nor condemned Peers in the late Reign of his blessed Father Cab. p. 118. that accordingly he might make a Proxy which he could not do the Writ not receiv'd And he struggled till he had it in his own way and entrusted it with the Lord Andrews Bishop of Winchester it being the last Parliament wherein that famous Servant of God sate and the last year of his Life But the Mr. W. Sanders tells us p. 143. of his Annals of King Charles That Lincoln at this time continued not a Peer but a Prelate in Parliament Res memoranda novis Annalibus atque recenti historiâ Juven Sat. 2. This is a pitiful matter for what Bishop of Lincoln could be a Prelate in those days and not a Peer Is it his meaning that he did not sit among the Peers Nor did he sit among the Prelates in Convocation but by Proxy he sate in both places as Peer and Prelate A Letter sent from him to the King and dated March 12. will clear this matter and greater things or else it had not been publish'd 'T is large and confident searing the Duke's Greatness no more than the Statuary Work of a vast Colossus But as Portius Latro says in Sallust Gravissimi sunt morsus irritatae necessitat is 'T is no marvel if Necessity break good Manners which will break through Stone Walls says the Proverb And much Provocations attends not much whom it displeaseth The Letter follows Most Mighty and Dread Soveraign IT becometh me of all the rest of your Subjects having been so infinitely obliged to Your Majesty to cast my self down at your Feet and oppose no Interpretation Your Majesty shall be pleased to make of any of my Actions whatsoever Howbeit before the receipt of my Lord Keeper's Letter that I had carried my absence from the Parliament with as much Humility and Respect to Your Majesty as ever Subject of England did towards his Soveraign The delivery of my Proxy to the first Bishop Your Majesty named I excused mannerly to Your Majesty but with a private Reason to my Lord Keeper not to be replied against The second Lord Bishop is directly uncapable of that part of my Proxy which concerneth the House of Convocation These two Lords now named
Parliament and had stood up to defend him where there was openly such defiance of Enmity between them he had been censur'd by all Judgment for double-mindedness or sawning And as Lanfrank charged one of his Predecessors Remigius Bishop of Lincoln Quod officio emerat Episcopatum So the World would have censur'd this Prelate that he kept his Place by Service Simony as Mr. Fuller calls it And with what Safety and Liberty he could appear let one Passage demonstrate The Duke demanded that the Attorney-General might plead for him in the House of Peers against the Charge transmitted by the Commons which was opposed because the Attorney was one of the King 's Learned Council and sworn to plead in Causes concerning the King and not against them And the King is supposed to be ever present in the noble Senate of the Lords It was rejoyn'd That His Majesty would dispense with the Attorney's Oath It came to be a Case of Conscience and was referr'd to the Bishop's Learning Some of them judged for the Duke that this was not an Assertory-Oath which admits no alteration but a Promissory-Oath from which Promise the King if he pleas'd might release his Learned Counsel Bishop Felton a devout man and one that feared God very learned and a most Apostolical Overseer of the Clergy whom he governed argued That some Promissory-Oaths indeed might be relaxed if great cause did occur yet not without great cause lest the Obligation of so sacred a thing as an Oath should be wantonly slighted And in this Oath which the Attorney had taken it was dangerous to absolve him from it lest bad Example should be given to dispense with any Subject that had sworn faithful Service to the Crown for which plain Honesty he was wounded with a sharp Rebuke And the reverend Author told me this with Tears Yet the Archb. Abbot said as much and went farther for whom Budaeus would stand up a great Scholar and a Statesman De Asse lib. 3. fol. 102. Neque turpe esse credo cos homines observare quibus apud Principem gratiâ slagrare contigit si non cosdem apud populum ordines infamiâ invidiâ slagrare videamus As who would say it is Duty to love a Favourite for the King's sake and it is Duty to desert him when he becomes a publick Scandal For no man will be happy to stick to him who is so unhappy to become a common Hatred All that Parliament was a long Discontent of eighteen weeks and brought forth nothing but a Tympany of swelling Faction and abrupt Dissolution whereby the King saved that great Lord who lost His Majesty in some expeditions Honour abroad and the love of his People at home This was another Fire-brand kindled after the former at Oxford to burn down the Royal House and the most piously composed Church of England For a wife Oratour says it is Isocr Orat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 243. The cause of an Evil must not be ascribed to things that concur just at the breaking out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to the forerunning Mischiefs which were soaking long to ripen the Distempers Well was it for Lincoln that he had no hand in this Fray for as the Voyagers to Greenland say When the Whale-fishing begins it is better to be on the Shore and look on E terrâ magnum alterius spectare laborem than to be employed in the Ships to strike them and hale them to Land 71. Say then that he neither did harm nor receive any by being shut out of this turbulent Parliament Yet his Advice had been worth the asking because of the Plunges that His Majesty was put to upon the Dissolution but he heard of no Call to such a purpose For no man looks on a Dyal in a cloudy day when the Sun shines not on it God's Mercy was in it for he sate safer at home than he could have done at the Council-Board at this time where much Wisdom was tryed to help the King's Necessities out of the Peoples Purses by a Commandatory Loan and with the least Scandal that might be for not to run into some Offence was unavoidable Pindar the Poet was call'd out of his House to speak with some Friend in the Street Castor and Pollux says the Tale-teller searce was his Foot over the Threshold when the Building sunk and all that were within perish'd Thus upon a time the least Shelter gave the most Safety as did the lesser Honour procure this man the more Peace But as Camillus in Livy thrust out of Rome and retired to Ardea prayed that they that had cashier'd him might have no need of him so this forlorn Statesman would have been satisfied to have his place at the Council-Table supplied by others if the King's Affairs had not wanted him at this instant when he suddenly slid down from his former value in the love of this People The Bishops most likely it came from them advised His Majesty first to fly to God and to bid a publick Fast first at Court then over all the Land about the fifth of July Bish Laud whose Sermon was printed preach'd before the King upon the 21st Verse of the 17th Chapter of St. Matthew This kind goeth not out but by Prayer and Fasting The Preface of the Book and the Exhortation publish'd to the observing that solemn Fast stirred up all good Christians to entreat God not to take Vengeance on the Murmurings of the People to keep their Spirits in Unity to divert the plague of immoderate Rain like to corrupt the Fruits of the Harvest and chiefly to preserve us from the Bloody Wars that Spain intended against us Intended says the Book for depredation of Merchants Ships was the worst they had done us Let the Reader gather this by the way That a publick Fast had not been indicted before by the Supreme Authority upon the Alarums of our Enemies Preparations In Eighty eight an Order came out call'd A Form of Prayer necessary for the present Time and State to be used on Wednesdays and Fridays that is certain Collects to be added to the Common Prayer Yet no Fast was bidden saving thus far That Preachers in their Sermons and Exhortations should move the People to Abstinence and Moderation in their Dyet to the end they might be more able to relieve the Poor c. The first Form to be used in Common Prayer with an Order of publick Fast for every Wednesday in the week for a time was set out by Queen Elizabeths special Command in Aug. 1563. when the Plague called The Plague of New-haven was rise in London In which Book is a passage to illustrate our Common-Prayer-Book for the first Rubrick prefixt to the Order for the Holy Communion That so many as intend to be Partakers of the Holy Communion should signifie their Names to the Curate over night or else in the morning either before the beginning of Common Prayer or immediately after That immediately after means that in
Bishop is censured for over-doing his part in Popularity yet only by such as will calumniate all that act not according to their mind Some things were offer'd at him which might have transported him to that excess for the Van-curriers of my L. Duke's Militia had prepar'd Petitions to disorder him in a light Skirmish but were never preferr'd Since no Fault could be charg'd upon him when he delivered up the Seal to the King Malignants had small encouragement to slander his Footsteps before a Parliament To borrow Pliny's Similitude lib. 28. c. 2. A scorpione aliquando percussi nunquam postea à crabronibus vespis apibusque feriuntur He that happens to be stung of a Scorpion and escapes it the smaller Insecta of Hornets Wasps and Bees will never trouble him Beside in Equity they could not have blamed him to be sure to himself since that Lord that preferr'd him and that Bishop whom himself had preferr'd did push with all their Violence against him Yet his Good bearing between the King's Power and the Subjects Rights the great Transaction of the high Court at this time needed no such Answers Though he was earnest yet he was advised in all his Actions and constant as any man living to his general Maxims Tua omnia gest a inter se congruunt omnia sunt uná forma percussa says Casaubon to K. Henry the Fourth before his Edition of Polybius So the Bishop never varied whether in favour or out of favour in his Counsels to the King to hang the Quarrel even upon the Beam of Justice between him and the Common-wealth As it was his Saying to K. James so he went on with the like to K. Charles Rule by your Laws and you are a Compleat Monarch your People are both sensibly and willingly beneath you If you start aside from your Laws they will be as sawcy with your Actions as if they were above you The Fence of the great Charter was lately thrown down by taking a Loan by Commissioners without a Statute to authorize it And says the Remonstrance of Decemb. 15 1641. Divers Gentlemen were imprisoned for refusing to pay it whereby many of them contracted such Sicknesses as cost them their Lives p. 10. When the Body of the Lords and Commons were at work to redintegrate the empailment of the Laws if the Bishop had not appeared that the King would return to walk upon the known and trodden Cawsey of the Laws he had forsaken himself and left the nearest way to do him Service His care was that no Dishonour should be cast upon His Majesty's Government nor Censure upon the Commissioners of the Loan his Ministers and yet to remove the publick Evils of the State To mend them would bring a Reformation to be blush'd at not to mend them a continued Confusion to be griev'd at The Bishop had the Praise from the Wisest that his Dexterity was eminent above any of the Peers to please all parties that would be pleas'd with Reason He distinguish'd the Marches of the two great Claims the Prerogatives of the Crown and the Liberties of the People and pleaded for the King to make him gracious to all as it is in his Sermon on the Fast p. 55. That he was a man as like Vertue it self as could be pattern'd in Flesh and Blood and justified him for good Intentions in all his Proceedings The Errors that were to come to pass he named them to be Errors for what Government was ever so streight that had no crookedness With this Cunning Demetrius appeared for his Father Philip of Macedon before the Roman Senate Justin lib. 32. The Senate accused his Father for violation of the last Articles of Peace to which Demetrius said nothing but blush'd Et veniam patri Philippo non jure defensionis sed patrocinio pudoris obtinuit And how unreasonable was it that the emulous Bishop who did upon all occasions derogate from this man blamed this person to the King for doing no more good to his Cause whereas himself did him no good at all Like to Critias in Xenophon and his Dealings against Theramenes lib. 2. Hist says Theramenes I labour to reconcile divided Factions and he calls me a Slipper to fit the right Foot and the left because I set my self to please all sides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What shall I call him that pleaseth no side that can do a pleasure to no side They that were present at all Debates did discern that no Service could be done to the Crown without a mixture of Moderation A dram of such Wisdom was worth a pound of Flattery For as one says wittily A besmeared Dog doth but dirty him upon whom he fawns 74. When the Commons fell roundly to sist the exacting of the Loan the Ill-will gotten by it touch'd none so near as the Clergy So ill was it taken that their Pulpits had advanc'd it and that some had preach'd a great deal of Crown Divinity as they call'd it And they were not long to seek for one that should be made an Example for it But to make that which was like to be by consequent less offensive they unanimously voted a Gist of five Subsidies before the King's Servants had spoke a word unto it A Taste of Loyalty and Generosity that willing Supplies should rather come from a sense of the King's Wants than be begged Straitway they called Dr. Maynwaring the King's Chaplain before them for preaching but rather for printing two Sermons deliver'd before the King the one at Oatland's the other at Alderton in the Progress in July neither of them at St. Giles in the Fields as Mr. W. S. might have found in the Title Page of them both These being in print no Witnesses needed to be deposed the Doctrine was above the Deck sufficiently discover'd The Sermons both preach'd upon one Text Eccles 8.2 are confessedly learned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein Art and Wit have gone about to make true Principles beget false Conclusions It was not well done to hazard the dangerous Doctrine in them for the Learning sake to the view of the World for not the Seeds of a good Melon but the good Seeds of a Melon should be preserved to be planted No notice was taken of the King 's Special Command to publish these Tractates but severing the Author by himself he is design'd to be censur'd as Keepers beat Whelps before their Lions to make them gentler And the Charge is brought up to the Lords That the Sermons were scandalous feditious and against the good Government of this Kingdom The Reverend Bishops one and all left him undefended Yet that was not enough to correct the Envy which the Clergy did undergo upon it so the Bishop of Lincoln stood up and gave reprehension to some Points of both his Sermons in this manner In the former of these Sermons pag. 2. Dr. Maynwaring begins his Work upon the Loom with these Threads That of all Relations the first and original is between the
of God and because all that he is and hath is God's cannot render what he owes unto God in equality of Justice And all that he speaks of a Father in regard of his Children between whom Justice in one Acception doth not intercede he borrows out of Suarez Suarez out of Cajetan Cajetan out of Aquinas 2 vol. qu. 57. art 4. not art 8. as he misquotes him But he adds The King out of his own Brain who is but a metaphorical Father Benevolentiâ animo pater est naturâ rex pater non est says Saravia lib. 2. c. 12. without the Authority of his Authors nay flatly contrary to Aquinas in that place for he allows that Justice and Law may be stated between Father and Son Says he As the Son is somewhat of the Father and the Servant of the Master Justum non est inter illos per commensurationem ad Alterum sed in quantum uterque est homo aliquo modo est inter eos justitia He goes on That beside Father and Son Master and Servant there are other degrees and diversities of Persons to be sound in an Estate as Priests Citizens Souldiers c. that have an immediate relation to the Common-wealth and Prince thereof and therefore towards these Justum est secundum perfectam rationem justitiae So Suarez lib. 5. de leg c. 18. Some will say that Tribute is not due by way of Justice but by way of Obedience Hoc planè falsum est contra omnes Doctores qui satentur hanc obligationem solvendi tributa ubi intervenit esse justuiám And which is more than the Judgment of meer Man it is St. Paul's Rom. 13.7 For this cause pay your tribute render therefore to every man that which is his due Redditio sui cuique is the very definition of Justice And he makes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justice to intercede between Fathers and their Children Ephes 6.1 Children obey your Parents in the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for this is just This is the first Observation how he falsifieth his Learning The next is this That his end to bring us to the case of Creatures and Children towards the King is to take away all Propriety as it appears clearly by what he must draw out of his own Authors Suarez ubi supra Man cannot render to God his due by way of Justice Quia quicquid est vel habet totum est Dei Apply it with Dr. Maynwaring to the King Whatsoever the Subject is or hath is all the King 's by way of Property Aquinas in the place before Quod est filii est patris ideo non est propriè justitia patris ad filium Apply it to the King Justice doth not interceed between the King and his People because what is the Peoples is the King 's This is the Venom of this new Doctrine that by making us the King's Creatures and in the state of Minors or Children to take away all our Propriety Which would leave us nothing of our own and lead us but that God hath given us just and gracious Princes into Slavery As when the Jews were under a meer Vassalage their Levites their Churchmen complain to God The Kings of Assyria have dominion over our bodies and over our cattel at their pleasure Nehem. 9.37 Thus far the Bishop making very even parts between all that were concern'd in the Question And because the Chaplain's Doctrine had drawn up a Flood-gate through which a Deluge of Anger and Mischief gush'd out His Majesty left him to the Censure of his Judges No Wonder if one of the best of Kings did that Honour to his Senate which one of the worst of Emperors did to that at Rome Magistratibus liberam jurisdictionem sine interpellatione concessit says Suetonius of Caligula Neither had it been Wisdom to save one Delinquent with the loss of a Parliament Lurentius Medices gave better Counsel than so to his Son Peter Magis universitatis quà m seorsùm cujusque rationem habeto Polit. lib. 4. Ep. p. 162. Yet Dr. Maynwaring lost nothing at this lift his Liberty was presently granted him by the King his Fine remitted the Income of one Benefice sequestred for three years put all into his own Purse and was received in all his ordinary attendance again at Court with the Preferments of the Deanry of Worcester and after of the Bishoprick of St. Davids so willing was the King to forget that Clause in his Sentence past by the Lords which did forbid it 76. No man else suffering for so common a Grievance it made a glad Court at Whitehall The Parliament used their best Counsels and Discretions at the same time to secure their Lives Livelihoods and Liberties from such arbitrary Thraldom thereafter Nunquam fida est potentia ubi nimia est We must live under the Powers which God hath set over us but are loth that any man should have too much Power Sir Ed. Coke made the motion which will keep his noble Memory alive to sue to the King by Petition the most ancient and humble Address of Parliaments that His Majesty would give his People Assurance of their Rights by Assent in Parliament as he useth to pass other Acts viz. That none should be compell'd to any charge of Tax or Benevolence without agreement of Lords and Commons nor any Freeman be imprison'd but by the Law of the Land with some such other-like which are enter'd into many Authors The Duke of Buck. was forward to stop this Petition in the House where he sate for which the Commons having not yet meddled with him resolved to give him an ill Farewel before their parting Neither did he recover his old Lustre nor carry any great sway among the Peers since his dishonourable Expedition to Rhe for evil Successes are not easily forgotten though prosperous ones vanish in the warmth of their Fruition And not only that Duke and the Lord Privy-Seal with other great and able Officers did repulse this motion with all main but the King 's learned Council were admitted to plead their Exceptions against it Six weeks were spent in these Delays and Hope deserred made their hearts sick Prov. 13.12 and their Heads jealous who follow'd the cause that there was no good meaning to relieve their Oppressions At last the difficulty was overcome the Petitioners had one Answer from the King and look'd for a fuller and had it in the end So much sooner had been so much better as our Poet Johnson writes to Sir E. Sackvile of some mens Good-turns They are so long a coming and so hard When any Deed is forc'd the Grace is marr'd The Subjects ask'd for nothing now which was not their own but for Assurance to keep their own which had it been done with a Smile benignly and cheerfully and without any casting about to evade it it had been done Princely It is not impossible to find an honest Rule in Matchiavel for this is his Beneficia
long sought and now the Words which past between the King and him in Conference were the Seed of all his Troubles in the Star-Chamber for the King conjuring him to deliver his Opinion how he might win the Love of the Commons and be popular among them the Bishop answered readily That the Puritans were many and main Sticklers if His Majesty would please to direct his Ministers by his secret Appointment to shew some Connivance and Indulgence to their Party he might possibly mollifie them and bend their Stubbornness though he did not promise that they would be trusty very long to any Government The King said He must needs like the Counsel for he had thought of it before and would use it Two months after the Bishop regulated his own Courts at Leicester with some such Condescentions and told Sir J. Lamb and Dr. Sibthorp the reason that it was not only his own but the Royal Pleasure These two Pick-thanks carried these words to Bishop Laud and he to the King being then at Bisham The Resolution was That upon the Depositions of these two no Saints in my Almanack a Bill should be drawn up in the Star-chamber against the Bishop for revealing the King's Counsels being a sworn Counsellor But that he was sentenc'd because his Tongue betrayed him into Speeches that entrencht upon Loyalty as the Historian H. L. says p. 152. upon whose Trust W. S. writes the same is utterly mistaken upon the word of Holy Faith and let all Ear-witnesses of the Cause and Eye-witnesses of the Records judge between us Nor do I say that the Bill of disclosing the King's Counsels held Water for it was laid aside There the Troubles began and did run through Motions Meanders and Alterations till ending at last in tampering with Witnesses as will be shewn in due place 80. To make this seem a Jubilee to our Bishop wherein all Bonds of Malevolence should be cancell'd he had a very courteous Interview with the L. Duke nothing of Unkindness repeated between them his Grace had the Bishop's Consent with a little asking that he would be his Grace's faithful Servant in the next Session of Parliament and was allow'd to hold up a seeming Enmity and his own Popular Estimation that he might the sooner do the Work Blessed be God that they parted then in perfect Charity for they never met again the horrid Assassine J. Felton frustrated whatever might have followed a mean despicable unsuspected Enemy Sed nihil tam firmum est cui non sit periculum ab invalido says Curtius lib. 7. What Strength is there in a Cedar since every weak Arm can cut it down And though I am perswaded none but the Devil and this melancholy Miscreant were in the Plot yet in foro Dei many were guilty of this Blood that rejoiced it was spilt Tully confest of himself that he was as much a Murderer of Caesar as Brutus and Cassius 2 Philip. Quid interest utrum voluerim fieri an gaudeam factum So did God see that Thousands were guilty of this Sin which made the whole Land Nocent for the violent death of an Innocent for every one is innocent in right of his Life till the Law hath tryed him Felton's Impulsive was impious from the allegation of the late Remonstrance that the Duke was the principal cause of our Evils and Dangers As the Commons had no power to take his life away so they never intended it but to remove him from the King if it were possible I will be bold to censure the Romans that many things were uncivil in their Laws barbarous in their Valour and odious in their Justice Let this be the Instance out of Budaeus lib. 2. Pandec c. 28. Si quis eum qui plebiscito sacer sit occiderit homicida non est As if every man had the power of a Magistrate to cut off him whom the People had devoved A Maxim for the Sons of Cadmus or for the Sons of Romulus not for the Sons of God Be they Jesuites Anabaptists or of whatsoever Race of new Zealots they have not learnt so much good Divinity as is in Aristotle 3 Erh. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No Pretence can justifie Manslaughter no End or Intention can excuse it Was it so lately enacted in Parliament that no Freeman should be imprison'd without due course of Law and did Hell break loose at the other end to make it meritorious or popular to kill without Law For such another Outrage had pass'd but two months before upon the Body of one Lamb in the day-light and in the Skirts of the City beaten cruelly to Death by a scum of Vagabonds being no Conjurer for certain though the Fry fell upon him for that suspicion but a notorious Impostor a Fortune-teller and an employ'd Bawd two Qualities that commonly make up one pair of Scissors to cut Purses as was evident by his Books Papers Schemes Pictures Figures Glasses the Utensils of his Trade found in his Lodgings near the Horse-ferry in Westminster But that he was a Creature of the Duke's and commended to him by Bishop Williams the Historian is strangely out again It is possible an Ear-dropper might hear such things talk'd at Cock-pits and Dancing-schools miserable Intelligence to thrust into an History This Lamb living in the Verge of the Deanry was once admitted to speak with this Bishop and as soon as he began to impeach some of the Bishop's Acquaintance for Falshood he was bidden be gone for a meddling Knave and a Sower of Dissentions and had Warning to come near him no more And for the Duke his domestick Creatures have avowed to me that Lamb was so little their Lord's Creature that they were ready to take an Oath of Credulity that the Duke never saw him I would all the Tales that got his Grace Ill will had been as false as this That which did undo him was chiefly that which made him the immoderate Favour of two Kings and not moderately used as many a Ship is lost that 's overset with too much Sail. After Thirteen years triumphing in Grace and Gallantry one Stab dispatch'd him So Symmachus speaks of the sad Catastrophe of such a mighty man Fortunae diu lenocinantis perfidus finis quem ultimâ sui parte ut scorpius percussit lib. 2. ep 13. Great Felicities not seldom go out suddenly in a Flash like a Silk-worm that dyes in three months after it is quicken'd God would have us look after better things when we behold the sudden and prodigious Eclipses of Human Glory and brought to pass like Buckingham's by vile and wicked Instruments A foreign Writer gives very hard words to our whole Nation upon it that we are savage and frentick in our Fury And will he say as ill of the Kingdom of Israel for Joab's sake that murder'd Abner It might be replied to him That the Loyalty of his Nation is besmeared with the Blood of two Kings of France deadly wounded with a Knife But that we have
worse to answer for I will depart with this mournful matter adding only that the Duke being taken away our Bishop never desisted to do Observance and such Help as he could to his desolate Kindred and Family which the Countess of Denby his Sister would often confess to me and speak of it to his great honour At this time presently upon the dismal Tydings he dispatch'd a most melting Letter to the Countess his Grace's Mother whose Answer to his begins thus My Lord IT is true Nobleness that makes you remember so distressed a Creature as I am and to continue a true Friend in harder Fortunes You give me many Reasons of Comfort for which I kindly thank you for I have need of them all The rest is long and very choicely endited under her own Hand which I pass over more willingly because her Ladiships revolting to the Romish Religion was none of the least causes that brought her Unfortunate Son into the distaste of the People Pace tuâ fari haec liceat Rhamnusia Diva Catullus 81. The Duke being now at rest in his Grave it was conceived this Good at least would come of it that the next Session of Parliament would be very quiet which began on the 20th of January Yet they that thought the Ship was lightned of Jonas saw the Storm encreased Let them that will know the occasion of a wide Breach read it in the Histories and Life of King Charles especially in His Majesty's Declaration to all his loving Subjects printed 1628. wherein the intelligent shall find that the Commons were rather stubborn than stiff rather violent than eager against the King's Affairs and that the King was so provok'd with the heat of one morning that he would not allow a day nor an hour to let them cool again but dismist them with Menaces and thrust them away from him with such displeasure that in twelve years he sent out no Writs to call another Parliament It is too late to wish it had been better then it is not too late to give Warning that it may be better hereafter Who did best or worst many will take the liberty to determine as their addictions carry them to loyal Duty or popular Liberty I judge neither so high above me in their potential Orbs but relate what the Prudent did observe upon their Passages This was the Bishop of Lincoln's Opinion who wept the ruine of the State and was able to see through the present to the future that it was ill in the People to offend so good a King and unhappy for the King to close again no sooner with a bad People The open face of both these shall be seen The Commons were no sooner come together but like Ajax's Rhetorick in the Poet Proh Jupiter inquit they were as hot as an Oven in their exordium and spake loudly That the Petition of Right was not maintain'd because Tonnage and Poundage were taken and Merchants Goods distrein'd for non-payment a Revenue not due to the Crown till pass'd by Bill The King's Council shew'd Presidents that it had been taken in a provisional way before the Parliament had granted it but that His Majesty did desire to receive it by the Grant of his People and pray'd a Bill might confirm it to remove this Block out of the way in which all Controversies would be sopited Hereupon it was promis'd it should be considered and the framing of a Bill be referr'd to a Committee yet they drew back their Hand till they had gather'd a Particular of things distasted in the Ecclesiastical and Civil Government An Affectation which Appius Claudius discover'd in the Tribunes Liv. dec 1. lib. 5. Qui semper aegri aliquid in Rep. esse volunt ut sit ad cujus curationem à vobis adhibeantur Which the King hath put into English Declar. p. 25. Like Empericks that strive to make new Work and to have some Diseases on foot to keep themselves in request Their Inspections about Religion were not only troublesome to make the Bill stick in the Committee the only means to keep all quiet but so inauspicious that I fear God was not near Arminianism was complained of that it was openly maintain'd not suiting with the Articles of the Churches of England and Ireland A strange Spell which raised up the Spirit that it would conjure down As they that mark the encrease of Nile can tell at what day it will begin to overflow so they that watcht the encrease of Arminianism say considently that from this year the Tyde of it began to come in Then they complain'd that the Bishops of London and Winton prevail'd to advance those to great Preferments that spread those Errors while the orthodox part was deprest and under inglorious disdain Never was this verified by a clear and notorious distinction till this Challenge was made That all Preferments were cast on that side Then it began to be palpable that there was no other way to fly over other mens Heads in the Church but with those Wings And here the forlorn part might say to the Parliament as Balak said to Balaam What hast then done unto me I took thee to curse mine Enemies and behold thou hast blest them all together Numb 23.11 Thirdly They did regret at the obtruding of some Ceremonies which waxed in more request and authority upon that opposition as some Flowers open the more when the Wind blows strongest upon them I believe such Remorse as was in Joseph's Brethren would make some of them say We saw the arguish of the King when he besought us and would not hear therefore this Distress is come upon us that all our Counsels are improsperous The prosecution of Civil Grievances miscarried as much and as wise men guess'd because Sir John Ellict stood up to manage them Few lead on to remove the publick Evils of a State without some special feelings and ends of their own Nor was it any better now so far as an action may be known by vulgar passes and every bodies Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Menander High Probability is the second degree of Truth Sir J. Elliot of the West and Sir Tho. Wentworth of the North both in the prime of their Age and Wits both conspicuous for able Speakers clasht so often in the House and cudgel'd one another with such strong Contradictions that it grew from an Emulation between them to an Enmity The L. Treasurer Weston pick'd out the Northern Cock Sir Thomas to make him the King's Creature and set him upon the first step of his rising which was Wormwood in the taste of Elliot who revenged himself upon the King in the Bill of Tonnage and then fell upon the Treasurer and declaimed against him That he was the Author of all the Evils under which the Kingdom was opprest Some body must bear that Burden as the Duke had done yet this Lord was not like to be the man who had been in his great Place but about six months
unless he could conjure and work Miracles in a trice The Bishop of Lincoln who had Spies abroad in many private Conferences inform'd the L. Weston before who was his Adversary what Coals he was blowing at the Forge and proffer'd himself to bring Sir J. Elliot to him to be reconciled and to be his Servant for which Sir T. Wentworth spleen'd the Bishop for offering to bring his Rival into favour but L. Weston took it as a Courtesie as long as he lived and bade the Bishop look for more Favour from the King than it was his luck to find for the Treasurer was noted to be a Servant to his Master of great use and diligence but a Friend to his Friends of small assistance Now when great Affairs did run upon the Wheels of these private Grudges what was like to become of the Publick Weal To be overturn'd in the hurry 82. For such a Dust was rais'd about the Bill of Tonnage c. that the way could not be seen for that Cloud to come to a quiet end Long Speeches full of hydropical swellings took up the time to delay it Of which Aristotle gives warning to all Political Governments Polit. lib. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that nothing overthrows them so soon as the petulancy of their Orators Let impartial Posterity sit in the Chair of Judgment and examine these things The Lords unanimously dissented from the Commons lookt sadly at the slowing of the Bill at the quarrels against the Accomptants of the Custom-house Insomuch that the King told their Lordships That he took as much content in their dutiful demeanour as he was justly distasted with the proceeding of the others And what bred all this Anger was it a new Project alas no but an ancient Supply of some hundred years old never grudg'd at but cheerfully granted for the Safety of the narrow Seas Quod à principio beneficium suit usu atque aetate fit debitum says Sym. ep p. 58. That which was free Gift at first being constantly given Custom makes it a Debt The King's Actions were strongly warranted with the wisdom of former Ages for the Subsidy of Tonnage and Poundage was not granted to Edward the Fourth by Parliament till the end of the third year of his Reign yet answer'd to him from the first year And to say more all Kings and Queens enjoy'd it from the day of the precedent Princes Death before ever a Parliament sat and the legitimate receiving it was never question'd And yet now the Commons pleaded That until the King would put himself out of all the Right of it the Subject stood not in sit case to grant it Decl. p. 28. That is shut himself out of Doors and stay till God knows when they let him in again And wherefore was the Petition objected which was granted to secure all men in their Property for the Subject's Right not for the King 's wrong They that were reasonable and thankful men will allow him to interpret his own meaning which was not to take from his Liege people what he should not but not to give from himself what he would not As eloquent Lysias says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The mind of them that judge by a Law must be the same with his mind that made the Law 'T is all the right in the World His Majesty was willing to take this Payment as the Gift of the Parliament would thankfully embrace it with that Formality But it were folly to let them polish his Revenue and file away the best part of it They knew he could not want this Stock as well to guard the Kingdom as to support his own Dignity Take heed they thrust not upon that Necessity which loving Compliance might avoid Omnia quae reipub salutaria sunt legitima justa habentur Tull. Philip. 12. To render good for evil and to bring them all within one Circle of Love and Clemency a gracious and general Pardon was appointed by the King to be drawn up which past the House of Lords but the Gentlemen beneath did not so much as read it Yet no Innocency is so safe which may not desire to be lookt upon with the Eye of Mercy Some of the Members did want it after their Dissolution Which straightway follow'd upon shutting their Door against the King's Messengers and holding the Speaker by violence from obeying his Majesty's Order to leave the House So dying Lamps expire with enlarged Flames This was unwonted and no honour to so wise a Senate if the Rule of the Orators be true Quae potest esse homini major poena à Diis immortalibus furore dementiâ Dehosparus Our Bishop was wont to say That Queen Elizabeth 's Parliaments were most tractable which sate but a short time ended before they were acquainted with one another Interests and had not learned to Combine Which makes me allude it to Theophrastus Date Tree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The young Trees bare Dates without Stones but the older they grow so much the harder is the Stone that is in them Wo is to us this Rupture was not a Date-stone but a Mill-stone whose Consequences have grounded us to Dust Which the King 's troubled Spirit did divine Will you hear the Swan sing his own Dirge Cantator funeris ipse su◠Declar. p. 41. All this is done to abate the powers of our Crown and to bring our Government to obloquy that in the end all things may be over-whelmed with Anarchy and Confusion Prophetical or rather Oraculous for Miseries are sometimes foreseen never prevented by the Dictates of Oracles 83. Look now in the procedure upon the way that the King chose to go in with an Eye of Reverence but with an Eye of Reason The Bishop of Lincoln moved the Lord Weston to carry his mind to the King much after this sort That the Parliament might meet again for all this and that there might be a Conference between them and the Lords to debate upon Differences He hoped that their own House would give a check if not a censure to some that had exceeded in such a rude and unparliamentary uprore that they would in no long space of time be ashamed of their own work and make amends with submission Neat that run about as if they were mad in the Pastures stroke them and they will come of themselves to the Milk pale Fury wasteth as Patience lasteth He would not pray for them if their sin were a sin unto death whereof they could not repent Pliny can tell us of an Image in Chios Cuyus vultum intrantes tristem exeuntes exhilaratum vident Lib. 3. Nat. Hist cap. 5. It seem'd to frown on those that came in to behold it and to smile upon them when they departed To shew what variety may fall out in the first and last Experiment of Human Affairs God alone knows what the event of this Counsel might have been The King would not know it for he would not use it Kings have
Indictments four and forty times lib. 7. c. 21. Compare him with this Lord and he escaped well whose Suits hung upon him like Fruits on the Citron Tree as Servius says upon Virgil's Ecloges Omni tempore plena est pomis quae in eâ partim matura partim acerba partim in store sunt It bore some ripe ones and some sour ones some in the Knot and some in the Blossom altogether No matter though the Bishop came off without a Scratch in Credit it was enough that he was impoverish'd for Costs he could get none And it was held to be a Shred of Policy to make him spend away his Substance for by taking away as much Earth as they could about the Tree it would cool the Root The Bishop looking into the Throng and variety of such bad Humors and Dispositions was ashamed to see so many in holy Calling brought up in Faction and Flattery Qui pro hierophant is sycophantae esse decreverunt as Erasmus writes to Bovillus Ep. p. 61. Yet further he could let no Lease chiefly if it were devolved to him by expiration of Years or Lives but that the Tenants or their Heirs sought to enforce him to their own Conditions before His Majesty and Privy Council Who ever saw such a thing in the face of former times A Gentlewoman by the Interest of a Daughter match'd to one of a mean Place in the Presence-Chamber pursued him many years to enforce his agreement to her own asking and never prevailing had leave to take out her Penniworths in ill words Like the Poet's Frogs lib. 6. Metamor Quamvis sint sub aquâ sub aquâ maledicere tentant But of all Attempts those Suspicions plied him on the weak side that chased him upon the wrong scent of Corruption and taking Rewards He had undergone as strict an Inquisition as ever was of Thirteen Commissioners to search if he had taken but one Bribe while he kept the Seal and they broke up with a Non-inventus yet is now impeach'd for taking the Gratuity of a Saddle a piddling Trifle for all that the Enquiry about it cost more than a good Stable of Horses with all their Furniture and when all came to all it was found the Prosecutor importun'd the Steward of the House to receive it who laid it by and never presented it to his Lordship because it was too gaudy for his use The Complainant was a Doctor preferred by this Patron to a good Parsonage thro' the intercession of Sir W. Powel the Bishop's Brother-in-Law For the rest I leave the man in Obscurity without a Name as St. Hierom said to Heliodor Grown into note by defending an Heresie Quis te oro ante hanc blasphemiam noverat So let this Party sink in Forgetfulness that his Memory may not be preserv'd by the advantage of his Vice If Homer had spared a few Verses Thersites had never been known Any one may gather now out of the Premisses that when one single person was beset on every side it was not an ordinary Fortitude nor an ordinary Wisdom that broke all their Ranks But was it not a craven Spirit that turned loose so many Mirmydons against him Honour is least where Odds appear the most says our great Poet Spencer Lib. 2. Cant. 8. He had no Favour but Innocency to bear him out as those places under the Poles have no Light in Winter but from the whiteness of the Snow upon their own Ground not the least â—eam of the Sun shining upon them And which is eminent charitable and generous he never shew'd himself offended against any of these Adversaries when the Brunt was over An Observator as he calls himself the Wolf that howls against this Bishop both living and dead remembers what pleasant and courteous words he had with him anon after he came out of the Tower Upon which I will compare him once again with Melancthon according to Camerarius p. 57. Nullum dictum aut factum alicujus tam duriter unquam accepit ut ab illius benevolentia ac familiar itate recederet And my L. Bacon tells us well what a Gallantry it is For in taking Revenge a man is but even with his Enemies in passing them over he is superiour Had this Example been follow'd by Churchmen and by Theophilus Churchman our Foes had not enter'd in upon us at those Gaps which our selves did cause Bishops driving out Bishops was that which the Devil watch'd for says Euseb lib. 8. Praep. Evan. cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the Jars and Jostlings and ambitious Contentions of the chief Fathers among themselves their Inheritance was given to Strangers 87. Our Bishop being Storm-beaten without intermission he requested the Lord Cottington to inform him what he should do to get his Peace and such ordinary Favours as other Bishops had from His Majesty this noble Lord returned him answer in two Points First the Lustre wherein he lived the great Company that resorted to him and his profuse Hospitality were objected that it was not the King 's Meaning that one whom he had pluck'd down should live so high Secondly His Majesty did not like that he should be so near a Neighbour to Whitehall but would be better contented if he would part with his Deanry In the first he took him out a Lesson which he would never learn to live in a dark and Miser-like fashion The Italians have had a meeting of Academicks at Rome called Compagna della Lesina the thrifty Congregation of which Profession he could never have been a Member Nor did he abate from living in Decorum and Liberality in the worst Times as Mr. A. Cowly writes to him in his Miscellanies p. 13. You put Ill Fortune in so good a Dress That it out-shines other mens Happiness Yet this was no ill Counsel if it had been follow'd for Princes will dislike it must not be call'd Envy if any live fortunately under their Punishment As both Dion lib. 58. and Tacitus An. lib. 6. have made it known in the Case of Junius Gallio that being banish'd he was brought back to Rome and confin'd Quia incusabatur facilè toleraturus exilium delectâ insulâ Lesbo nobili amaenâ As to the other touch to relinquish his Deanry he was utterly deaf unto it whosoever ask'd it was a hard Chapman but he did not stand so much in need of his Ware to grant him his Price St. Austin it may be would teach him otherwise out of a Punick Proverb which was used he says where he lived Ut habeas quietum tempus perde aliquid And they tell us from the Caravans that travel in Arabia if they meet a Lion they leave him one living Creature for a Prey and then they may go on their Journey without Fear But this man thought otherwise of a most wakeful Eye and able Observation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oduss w. Mnestorides that saw behind him and before him For says he what Health can come from such a Remedy
Am I like to be beholden to them for a setled Tranquility that practise upon the ruine of my Estate and the thrall of my Honour If I forfeit one Preferment for fear will it not encourage them to tear me piecemeal hereafter Memet ipse non deseram was well resolv'd of Philotus in Curtius Nor will I set so great a Mulct upon mine own Head What hurt can my Neighbourhood do to the Court and being so seldom in Town No greatness of Power when it would extreamly abuse it self which is not glad to think of Means how to avoid the note of Injustice In this there is not one syllable to accuse me much less to make me guilty It is not my case alone but every mans even his that is the prompter and puts it into the King's Head to ask it If the Law cannot maintain my Right it can maintain no mans This was his Constancy Nor did he let go his fast-hold in this Deanry till the King received it from him in Oxford anno 1644. As Livy says of Spain Hispania primò tentata est à Romanis sed postremò subacta It was the first Kingdom the Romans invaded and the last they conquered So this was the first of Lincoln's Preferment set upon and the last which he delivered up Since he would not be forced out of it it was carried with a Stratagem to keep him from it for in four years he was not admitted to preach a Sermon in Lent before the King the course for his Place being usually on Good-Friday and three years together when he came to the Chapters or to the Election to see it fairly carried for the choice of the best Scholars he could not rest above a day in the College but Secretary Coke either viva voce or by his Letters which are yet saved commanded him from the King to return to his Bishoprick As terrible a Prophet as Elisha was to the Noble-man of Samaria upon the Plenty of Corn predicted Thou shalt see it with thine eyes but thou shalt not eat of it 2 Kin. 7.2 This might fret the Bishop but not affright him And he ask'd the Secretary so stoutly what Law he brought with him to command him from his Freehold that the good old man was sensible that he had done an Injury In fine the chief Agitant saw that this Tryal upon so firm a Courage was uneffectual and ridiculous Neither was it a little Breath that could shake him from his Stalk like a Douny Blow-ball 88. Yet the more he did thrust off this Importunity the more it did follow him and a finer shift was thought of to esloign him from Westminster Archbishop Abbot had Directions from the King to press him to Residency upon his Bishoprick by the Statute the Archbishop of the Province having the oversight of the said Statute to see it put in execution And some words were dropt in the Archbishop's Letter to signifie that it was presumed that being in the Place of Lord Keeper he had pass'd a Dispensation under the Great Seal for himself to enjoy the Commenda of the Deanry for his better accommodation in that Office His Answer hereunto as followeth is his own in every word Most Reverend c. TO that Apostyle touching my Dispensation to reside upon the Deanry of Westminster the said Deanry being as all Commenda's are in the Eye of the Law united for the time of my Incumbency upon this poor Bishoprick I can say no more than what your Grace knoweth as well as I that I use the said Dispensation very modestly and sparingly and that I am resolved in this and every thing else to give His Majesty all Satisfaction in a due and reasonable order to his Royal Orders which no Bishop doth yield more exactly than myself He breaks no Law who pleads a Privilege nor doth that Subject transgress in Order who produceth a just and lawful Dispensation to exempt him from the same as your Grace by daily experience well knoweth For other matters that proceed from wrong and sinister Informations I do intend to procure one or other of my good Lords of the Council to let His Majesty understand how these things are misconcerved as soon as I can As first to represent unto His Majesty that no L. Keeper can issue forth a Dispensation of this nature nor any other person whosoever but either His Majesty immediately by his Regal Right and Eminency of Power or your Grace by the Act of Parliament So as my being Lord Keeper did contribute no more to this Patent than it did to all others that is to say Wax and Impression Your Grace may call to mind we were four Governours of several Colleges made Bishops at one time and two of these had their Colleges put into their Commenda's as well as myself And in your Graces Memory also in the most exact times of Ecclesiastical Government when those Promotions were manag'd with the Advice of that great and wise Prelate the Lord Bancroft a Bishop of Bristol kept the Deanry of York together and a Bishop of Rochester this of Westminster during his Incumbency with many others the like Neither did the then L. Keeper procure the Faculty to hold this Deanry for the late King my dear Master of Blessed Memory was not about London but at Rutford in Nottingham-shire when he granted me this gracious Favour Nor to deal ingenuously with your Grace was it gained by mine own Power or Interest with His Majesty but by the Mediation of His Majesty now reigning and by the Duke of Buck. together with some inducement of the deceased King not unknown to some yet living and howbeit my Faculty is without distinction of Time yet am I no chaser of mine own Time but do confine my self to those particular seasons which the local Statutes of the Colledge and my express Oath to perform the said Statutes do enjoyn me That is to say the two Chapters and the great Festivals All which space of time doth not being taken in the disjunct spaces make a Bishop a Non-resident by any Law I know of nor consequently infringe his Majesties Instructions though a man had no Dispensation which Instructions require only that Bishops should reside but we presume that it is no part of his Majesties gracious intention that they should be confined or as it were imprisoned in their Bishopricks I hope to procure a fair representation of these particulars to his Majesty and thereby to obtain his gracious approbation of as much residence as I intend to make in the Deanry Where as your Grace knoweth as well as I in regard of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical and Temporal of preventing Ruins and Dilapidations of Hospitality of Suits in Law of the Church the School the Colledge and the like I have no less necessity of abiding sometimes then upon my Bishoprick and somewhat more because of my Oath So most humbly c. This was enough to satisfie both Statute and Reason Unto which it may
makes of his Master's Court. That it was a Divine Priviledge of the Kings of France that they had the gift of healing and could cure the Stromosi by the touch of their hand Si dedisset providentia ut consilia publica auspicatò inirentur and if they could thrust away flattery and false clamours with their hand it would be the happiest Government in Europe Lib. 2. Pandec fol. 36. This Commission sitting the Bishop of Lincoln's Adversaries thought they had him sure and had found his Laire presuming they could ripen some Trespasses of his in that kind for a Sentence in the Star-Chamber Jungant ur tum gryphes equis c. that had been strange to catch him in an over-sight about the Mammon of Iniquity For the Elogy which Grotius gives Lib. 1. Hist Belg. to William of Nassau was as much this Bishop's as it was that great Prince's Crudelitas avaritia nullo ab ingenio longiùs abfuere But what cannot great Men bring about when there are no Parliaments to overlook them As Tully says of Brutus Philip. 12. Multis in rebus ipse sibi Senatus suit All must be as Brutus will if Brutus will be as absolute as if himself were a Parliament Who but Mr. Ratcliff the King's Attorney for York and we know the Orestes to whom this Pylades was so dear was instructed to prepare a Bill to be put into the Star-Chamber against the Bishop who had laid his ear to the ground to hark after the digging of the Mine and knew the Substance of it before the Draught was fully penn'd Such as are so fortunate in their Discoveries and have intelligence of all Practices against them are the Moral of those fabulous People that are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek Tongue some of a strange plantation that could cover all their body with their Ears The charges upon which mr Ratcliff was devising an Information were two the one about the Fees of the Clerk of the Hamper which is according to Sir H. Spelman's Glossary Sport a grandior cui inferuntur pecuniae è sigillatione diplomatum brevium chartarum regiarum proveniâ—ntes which were as good as fixt before he came to be Lord Keeper The other was about Fees in the Episcopal Registry at Lincoln presented for undue in the persons of some Officers but without reflection on the Bishop whom one thing puzzled for he knew not whether there were a Mystery or Madness in it A Prelate or twain were consulted about this Bill of extorted Fees and they bid it good speed which was no less than to pull an old House upon their own heads for the Sums according to the Tables of their own Registries were the same or greater Did they think he would not plead it Communis culpae cur reus unus agor Proper l. 2. el. 10. Did they conceive but he would declare his Cause was theirs and theirs was his Or would they blow up themselves upon their own Deck to blow up him As Justin shews how desperate the Boeotians were in their malice against the Phocians lib. 8. Baeotii tanto odio Phocensium ardentes ut perire ipsi quà m non perdere eos praeoptarent Better had it been for the Reverend Fathers of Holy Orders rather to strengthen than to weaken one another for the Kite might come O holy Lord he came to soon who would make but one Morsel of them altogether 92. But before any Suit could begin the Bishop represented the Case in a Letter to the King May it please your most excellent Majesty BEing much wounded by a pinching and uneven Report drawn up by some Officer of your Majesties Commissioners for the Fees and presented unto your Majesty Jul. 1630. though but very lately come to my knowledge without any touch of the full and satisfying Answer which I had given some three weeks before unto the Lords Commissioners and to others in that behalf Although I am content as Men of My Calling ought to be to pass with the rest of the World through good report and bad yet I am not able to endure that impression which the said Relation may peradventure have wrought in your Majesties breast against me a Bishop that hath serv'd your Father in so near a place while be lived and closed his Eyes when he died and remains still in the number of your poor Chaplains free from the least suspicion of such sordid Avarice as might cause him to spot his Rocheâ— with the exaction of so mean a Sum as 20 l. a year which is the utmost of that pretended Extorsion The Charges prest upon me with many Words but no Matter at all are two The first concerning an Order for Increasing the Clerk of the Hamper's Fees 19 Jac. The second about Fees for Institutions and Resignations taken by the Bishop of Lincoln My Answer for the Clerk of the Hampers Fees consists of these Heads 1. That the King may justly and legally increase the Fees of all Offices in his own immediate donation not limited by Act of Parliament and hath ever been done so which was granted by all the Lords 2. His late Majesty before my coming to the Seal had referr'd the suggestions of the Clerk of the Hamper for this increase of Fees unto those four great Lords who had the Seal in their custody and that their Lordships by their report did allow the same and returned a Certificate unto his Majesty of all the Species wherein the Fees were to be increased which was confessed by two of their Lordships then present 3. This Certificate was recommended to me both by word of mouth from his Majesty and by direction upon a Petition subscribed to my Remembrance by the Secretary of State which Petition the Commissioners might call for from the Clerk of the Hamper who had it for the instructing of his Council and fortifying his Evidence 4. Upon my doubting of the form how this might be done by Law and President the King's Council learned to wit the Attorny and Sergeant did not in the Clerk of the Hanpers only but in the King's behalf satisfie the Court fully in both those particulars which is express in the Order 5. That thereupon the Court being assisted with one or two Judges without examining the Suggestions which the Court supposed to be sufficiently done by the former Referrees the Order was made which Order for the ease of the Subjects doth retrench and cut short very much of the Fees allowed by the former Certificate 6. For Orders made in the High Court of Chancery the Judge for that time being doth not conceive that he is responsable to any Power under Heaven beside the King himself And this was the effect of my Answer concerning that Order for encreasing the Fees of the Clerk of the Hanper My Answer concerning the Fees in the Diocess of Lincolnis wholly omitted in the Report as though I had been only called before the Commissioners but for form and it was to this effect
1. That the Certificate from the Country layeth nothing to my charge 2. That I never gave Direction for receiving of any Fees but took those only which were deliver'd to me by the Register 3. That I conceived the Fees of Lincoln Diocess to be much lower than of any other in England which the L. Wentworth seemed to confess to be so 4. That if the Register did receive 23 s. 4 d. of every Clerk instituted for the Bishop's Fee it was no more than the Table allow'd 5. That the Fees question'd were received by my four immediate Predecessors Bishops Mountain Neale Barlow Chaderton Which four Bishops take up a space of time which extends beyond the Table of Fees And the L. Wentworth said he believed as much and promised to report it 6. My L. of Winchester is able to assure as much that these are the ancient Fees of the Diocess and that I believe my â—â— of London who was beneficed and dignified in this Diocess and hath twice or thrice paid the said Fees in his own person can and I doubt not will be ready to testifie as much 7. That for mine own part and mine own time I was ready to lay all my Fees being God wot a most contemptible Sum at your Majesties Feet to be disposed of as your Majesty pleased Nor had I ever in my Life toucht one Penny of the same but given it away from time to time to mend my Servants Entertainment 8. That the 135 th Canon mentioned by the Commissioners refers the examination of all Fees in question not settled by Acts of Parliament to the Archbishop only and the Cognizance ecclesiastical who is the only proper Judge of these Questions Therefore I humbly beseech your Majesty that I may not be drawn to contest with my Soveraign in a Suit of Law of so mean and miserable a Charge as this is but rather if those two reverend Prelates shall not be able to satisfie your Majesty you will be pleased to hear me your self or transmit the Cause to the Lords of the Council or where it is only proper to be heard to the Archbishop of the Province and that Mr. Attorny-General may stay the Prosecution elsewhere which I shall embrace with all humble Duty and Thankfulness c. Which reference to the Archbishop was granted who did authorize the receiving of those Fees for the present De benè esse only And after Sir H. Martin and others had examin'd the Tables Registries and Witnesses of Credit and Experience for the Antiquity of the same upon their Report the several Fees were ascertain'd by his Grace's Subscription for the time to come So true is that of Euripides in Supplic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that was low in Favour got the better of him that was great in Power in a good Cause 93. Remember that in this petitionary Letter the Bishop calls himself the King's Chaplain but not his Counsellor for about a year by-gone the King had commanded that his Name should be expunged and not remain in the Catalogue of those honourable persons And who is so faithful among all thy servants as David 1 Sam. 22.24 Yet so it was decreed he must not challenge the Privilege nor keep the Ceremony of the Name and more he had not in four years before No worse an Author than Sir E. Coke tells us in Jurisd of Courts p. 54. By force of his Oath and Custom of the Realm he that is a Privy Councillor is still so without any Patent or Grant during the life of the King that made choice of him But before whom can this be tryed And who shall decide it It will scarce come within the Law and when a King will hold the Conclusion he will be too hard for any man in Logick Let the Masters of the Republick contend about it whose Counsellors have changed as fast as the quarters of the year Surely His Majesty shewed himself much offended in this action yet it is better for a King not to give than to take away which Xenophon put into Cyrus's Mouth lib. 7. C. Paid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It imprints more Offence in a man's Mind to be deprived of that he had than to be pretermitted in some Kindness which he never had Since it was no better the Bishop thought he might ask a noble Friend in Good-manners it was the Earl of Holland what had kindled the King's Anger that he would not allow him the empty Title of a Counsellor The Earl answer'd him home and ingenuously That he must expect worse than this because he was such a Champion for the Petition of Right and that there was no room at the Table for those that would abide it Which was like the Fortune oâ— Poplicola Honoris sui culmen insregit ut libertatem civitatis crigeret Symma p. 3. He forfeited his Honour to maintain the Laws which being not maintained the People are not only Losers but a Kingdom will look like a Tabernacle taken down whose Pins are unfastened and the Cords of it broken To gall our Bishop with assiduous recurrent Umbrages for Pismires wear out Flints with passing to and fro upon them the Christening of Prince Charles being celebrated in the Chappel of St. James's House Jun. 27. 1630. and all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal about London being invited thither to make the Splendour eminent the Bishop of Lincoln only was left out and not admitted to joyn in Prayer and Joy with that Noble Congregation The more sharp Diseases suffer not the lesser to be perceived yet this Omission light as it might seem did twinge him even to outward demonstrance of Dejectedness that in so good a day wherein the Clemency of the King should have run at waste to all men that then he should be separated from his Countenance and this Solemnity But says he in one respect it was well for I would not have said Amen to Bishop Laud 's Prayer which he conceived for the Royal Infant and was commended to all Parish-Churches in that passage Double his Father's Graces O Lord upon him if it be possible No Supplication could be better than to crave encrease of Grace for that Noble Branch for when a Prince is very good God is a Guest in a human Body But to put in a Supposal whether the Holy Ghost could double those Gifts to the Child which he had given to his Father and to confine the Goodness and Almightiness of the Lord it was three-piled Flattery and loathsome Divinity Let Cartwright and all his Part shew such an Exception against any line in our Common-Prayer and I will confess they have some Excuse for their Non-subscription To carry on mine own Work When it was known what small esteem His Majesty had of this Bishop it raised him up the more Adversaries who catcht at every thing that was next and turn'd it to a Weapon to strike him of which Sir Robert Osborn High-Sheriff of Huntingtonshire
was aware It was upon a nice point the Levy of Ship-money wherein the L. of Lincoln was very provident to do nothing to displease for the Adagy could tell him Verendum est dormienti in ripâ ne cadat He that sits upon the Cliff of the Sea had best take heed he do not nodd and tumble down The King 's Streights did compel him to levy this Impost of Ship-money for the defence of the narrow Seas being startled with a Motto newly devised by Cardinal Richilieu Florebunt lilia ponto The Exchequer would not supply the rigging of a Navy though never better husbanded than at that time by Dr. Juxon Bishop of London held by all to be a good man wherefore I cannot pass him by without a word out of Sidon Apol. lib. 4. ep 4. Cum vir bonus ab omnibus censeatur non est homo pejor si non sit optimus The French Hangers on in the Court devoured so much that all his Thrift which ammassed much was gulp'd down by those insatiable Sharks None but they made K. Charles a poor King These are the Gallants that disdain every thing that is English but our Gold and Silver Alexander Ad Alex. lib. 3. c. 23. tells us a Wonder But shall we believe him That from P. Aemylius's Triumph to the Consulship of Hirtius and Pansa a full 130 years the People of Rome paid no Tribute What a Revenue Parsimony can both preserve and gather But if that frugal Senate had maintained a French Court the Quaestors would soon have found a vacuum in their Coffers Now see what Sir R. O. did hammer out to despight his Bishop upon this Impost He laid a very unequal Levy upon the Hundred wherein Bugden stood the Bishop wrote courteously to him to review and rectifie the Levy and he and his Neighbors were ready to see it collected and paid Sir Robert rides up to the Court and complains bitterly that the Bishop had utterly refused the Payment of Ship-money and animated the Hundred to follow him Being easily convinced before the Lords of the Council that the Bishop had carried himself dutifully and discreetly in the matter yet Sir R. O. had no Check the Bishop no Reparation the Levy no Reformation Why the worst Men the worst of Infidels the worst of our Enemies have a Communion of Natural Right with others to receive no Injury to be satisfied upon them that do them wrong and damage What a pickle was a poor Prelate in that was not so considered that was laid naked to every Slander and Oppression still he look'd for better and would never lay aside his Privy-Coat of Trust and Confidence in God He that will learn that sanctified Art from an Emblem which is a Riddle in a Picture let him take it out of Pliny lib. II. Nat. Hist c. 24. Incremento omnium futuro telas suas araneae altius tollunt The Spiders that have made their Webs in Trees upon a Bank side remove them higher when the Spring-Tydes come in That is lift up the Soul and advance it higher to God and his Protection when the Floods of Oppression rage and threaten to overwhelm us 94. One Quarrel commenc'd upon no ground continued to this day by the Animadverter on the Church-History of Britain and elder than the Troubles with Sir R. O. was thus Anno 1632. in the declining of November Dr. Theodore Price Sub-dean of Westminster College was cut to be cured of the Torment of the Stone his Wound growing dry his Present-death was presaged Mr. James Molins his Chyrurgion gave intelligence that his Patient did discover to some Visitants of the Romish Faction when he thought Mr. Molins did not hear him his Affection and Devotion to their Church That a Table was prepared covered Plate set on with a Wax Light and a piece of Gold laid by it this is his punctual Relation all being dismist and none remaining in the Room but Dr. Floyd a very skilful Physician and a Papist who is yet living and a little old man seen there but once before who continued together about an hour The Bishop being at Bugden informed of all this came in the depth of Winter in all haste to Town and when he had lighted before he would go to his own Lodgings he went to the Sub-dean whom he found in sad plight not like to continue so without more ado he offer'd to pray with him at the Bed's-side and was spoken to by the Doctor to forbear Says the Bishop Cousin you have need of holy Assistance will you entertain any of the Prebendaries or some other Church-man to do this Godly Office for you belonging to the Sick He stifly refused them all The Bishop propounded that his weak state might be remembred to God at the Evening Prayers in the Abby No says the other I do not desire them Will you have no communion with us of the Church of England says the Bishop Not any says the Sub-dean God give you a better mind says the Bishop But Cousin will you have any thing with me before we part Only my Lord says he that you will be no more a Trouble to me and that you will take my poor Servant being unprovided into your Care and Family Which was not forgot for the Bish received his Servant whom afterward he preferr'd in Means and Marriage in the City of Lincoln for he was more careful of the Children Alliances and Relations of his Friends when they were dead than of themselves when they were living The E. of Pembrook L. Chamb. to the King being Steward of the College and City of Westm the Bishop made him acquainted with every word that had pass'd between him and Dr. Price how at his last gasp he had disclaimed the Church of England and the L. Steward related it to the King which was then interpreted and the Scandal is lately renewed as if the Bishop had feigned all this yet it pass'd before Witnesses to wound Bishop Laud who endeavour'd to make the Revolter Bishop of Asaph There had been little Salt in that Stratagem for Lincoln himself had sent this Price Commissioner for the King into Ireland moved to obtain for him the same Dignity of Asaph in the former vacancy when Dr. Hanmer stept in before him sticked passionately to advance him before renowned Usher to the Primacy of Armagh upon the death of Dr. Hampton Reader you will say the Bishop was much deceived in his Cousin neither do I defend him he did more than once miss in his Judgment in some whom he preferr'd Humanum est And it was a ranting Speech which Salmasius ascribes to Asclepiades in his Preface to Solinus That he would not be held a Physician if he were ever sick To deliver thus much in the behalf of both the Bishops Dr. Price's Patrons that would have been the man was of untainted Life learned in Scholastical Controversies of a reverend Presence liberal courteous and prudent above many and seemed very fit to
make a Governour But as our Cambridge term is he was staid with Nescio's He was not known in Court nor City for he had not shewn himself in a Pulpit in 20 years He that says no credit is to be given to the Information that he died a Papist I would he had proved it for as Cortesius writes to Politian p. 242. Plus de invento vero gaudeo quà m de victoriâ I had rather it were true than get the Victory But Wishes will not bring it about Nemo facit optando ut verum sit quod verum non est says St. Austin Ep. 28. By what colour or appearance can he be vindicated to dye a Protestant May we not as soon light a Candle by a Glow-worm In what did he seem to be a Son of our Reformed Church I do not mean as an Ape is like to a Man but as a Child is like to his Mother Hypocrisie dwells next door to Orthodox Doctrine but it never comes in to her Neighbour So the Upshot will bear it that the Bishop of Lincoln did justly discover his Kinsinan and Friend's Apostacy though his own blame did depend upon it Which will leave him the Praise that Erasmus gives to a L. Montjoy Ep. p. 162. Haec est tua n obilit as ut mentiri nescias si velis nec velis si scias 95. There would be no end to repeat with how many Quarrels this unfortunate Bishop was provok'd yet his Adversaries did but dry-ditch their matters and digged in vain though they still cast up Earth who were no better than the Arrians of whom Athanasius writes Lib. ad Sol. Vit. Agen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They fretted if they had spent a day wherein they could not do a Mischief And it will do the Sufferer no right to tell how he threw all day and cast not one good Chance but was worsted in all his just Appeals Quis enim suâ praelia victus Commemorare velit Metam l. 9. Yet I will insist in that noble Contest he had with the Archbishop of Canterbury about his metropolitical Visitation that hereafter when God shall send the like occasion as I trust he will the Diocesans of Lincoln may know what their stout Predecessor did alledge for their exemption This may come to pass But as the unknown Oratour said to Constantine in his Panegyrick p. 246. Ista felicitas viderit utrum adhuc meae aetati debeatur Archbishop Land enterprizing to visit his whole Province found opposition only from the Universities from Cambridge I am sure and from the Bishop of Lincoln whom next to the substance of the Cause one circumstance displeased that Sir John Lamb was commissioned to be the metropolitan Vicar to visit his Diocess Sir John had been very officious about him for many years I let it go with that of Tully to Atticus Pompeius Scauro studet sed utrum fronte an mente dubitatur And the Bishop had done as much for Sir John as he could have done for the Worthiest of all his Profession 'T is amplified enough before and makes another instance That so wise a man was not always circumspect in his Patronage Lamb was crafty and of much experience but in the running of some years he was hated of all men and much complained of that he was ravenous in taking Fees Like as one says of the Pope's drawing in Moneys from all Parties That he was a Participle that took from Clergy and Laity When he perceived these things distasted Bishop Williams and that he had not Encouragement from him as before and dreaming of Golden Mountains from another hand he turn'd the falsest man and the greatest Enemy to him in the World Archbishop Laud he 'd worm him quite from adhering to Lincoln and much good do him with him Whereupon I remember what Plutarch tells merrily of a goutish man that had his Slippers stolen from him says the man full of Pain I wish the Thief no more harm but that my Slippers were fit for him Well the Visitation being design'd and to be carried on by Lieutenant Lamb our Bishop wrote to my Lord of Canterbury as followeth 96. Most Reverend c. UPon the Message which I received from Mr. Sherman of your Graces intention to visit my Diocess this year being the year of mine own Triennial Visitation and the certain News I heard of Sir J. Lamb's collecting of Presidents to induce your Officers to stir up your Grace thereunto I have both by my self and others made some enquiry into the Records and several Registries of the Diocess and do find clearly that in Grosthead's time anno 1235. this Diocess had never been metropolitically visited and that ever since that time until now no Archbishop of Canterbury did visit this Diocess otherwise than in vacancy of the See but by the vertue and power of some particular Bull procured from the Pope or Letter of Assistance from the King's Majesty since the Supremacy was reassumed in this Realm And I find the several Bishops in these several Ages to have assented to these Visitations as they were Papal and Regal only not forbearing notwithstanding to exercise all manner of Act or Acts belonging to their Jurisdiction Episcopal not only in the times but in and on the very days of these Archiepiscopal Visitations and refusing to pay any Procurations or other Fees by vertue of a special exemption granted unto this See and some others by Pope Innocent the Fourth by the procurement of Bishop Grosthead deposited in this Registry and never waved by the Bishops of this See however some other of your Graces Suffragans have omitted peradventure as having not the custody thereof to implead the same Yet do I differ may it please your Grace in this particular from all my Predecessors in this See that I do believe your Grace may visit even by your own metropolitical Power all this Diocess unless this great Prescription of an hundred years may debarr the same but truly I do under Favour conceive that your Grace ought not to inhibit my ordinary Jurisdiction nor do any acts to impeach the same Nor can I find any word sounding that way in any one of all the Visitations kept as before is rehearsed by your Grace's Predecessors excepting only in Archbishop Cranmer's the last Archbishop who above one hundred years since visited this Diocess and yet Longland then Bishop of Lincoln did not only execute all parts of his Jurisdiction pendente visitatione metropoliticâ but the Dean of the Arches Archbishop Cranmers and the King 's chief Commissioner for that Service did freely and voluntarily of himself set all the Bishop's Officers at full liberty to exercise all their Jurisdictions after the first day of his Visitation reserving his Detections only to his own cognizance Now since this Visitation of Archbishop Cranmer which was more Regal than Metropolitical as appears by the Instructions given to the Commissioners at that time no Archbishop of Canterbury hath ever offer'd
to visit this Diocess as well for the Reasons premised as because all the means of Livelihood belonging to this See being taken away by the Duke of Somerset 2 Ed. 61. and a new airy and phantastical Corps being framed for the miserable Bishoprick consisting in great part of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction if your Grace should inhibit the exercise thereof and divert the Profits assigned therefrom for the Bishop's Maintenance he should not be able to eat or drink much less to pay unto his Majesty First-fruits Tenths and Subsidies charged upon this Bishoprick with relation to this last Endowment In the which last Difference this Bishoprick is for ought I know miserably distinguish'd from all others Thus I conceive the case to stand my gracious Lord and I hope unless your Grace will be pleased to permit me to go on with my Visitation for this year and take further time to consider thereof by our Lady-Eve to procure all those several pieces which confirm these Premisses to be transcribed out of our Records and Registries and sent by my Officers to attend your Grace's further Good-will and Pleasure c. How reasonable the Propositions of this Letter are I know not I know they did not prevail Sed ne querelae tum quidem gratae fuere cum forsitan erant necessariae says Livy in his Preface His Complaints were not well taken though they were necessary and good to stand upon Record to shew what was alledg'd for the benefit of his own See and the emolument of smaller Bishopricks In the end our Bishop let it go on the Archbishop's side without more contradiction having not forgotten that Philosophy in Seneca Acerbissimam partem servitutis effugit qui imperium libens excipit 97. All this and so many Quarrels piled one upon another were too little to bow the straightness of his Spirit yet there was enough to make his Foes audacious because a heavy Charge in Star chamber depended Seven years against him prosecuted for the King by the Attorny-General concurrent all along with the rehearsed Troubles Omne tulit secum Caesaris ira malum Ov. 3. Trist el. 12. God complains of the Rigour of the Heathen against Jerusalem I was but a little displeased and they helped forward the affliction Zech. 1.15 Beware to help Affliction forward Revenge is fierce when Misery cannot mitigate it It may be a Court-lesson it is not a Christian to thrust him down that is a falling Mark Reader that the Actors herein came into the hands of a Power or rather of a Tyranny that had no compassion of any Optima vindex insolentiae variet as humanae conditionis Valer. lib. 4. c. 7. The Wheel of Vicissitude turning many Sticklers that were at the top to the bottom is the Act and Motion of Providence to be the Scourge of Insolency Among all Devices to thrust him under Water that was sinking already none was hatcht of more Despight and Indignity than a Book publish'd by a Bluster-master ann 1636. call'd A Coal from the Altar to defame a Letter sent nine years before by the Bishop to some Divines of the Neighbourhood of Grantham in Lincolnshire to resolve a Doubt upon the Site of the Communion-Table or Altar as the Vicar of Grantham call'd it from whose Indiscretion the Contention began If ever any had a Wolf by the Ear the Bishop was in that quandary upon this provocation Gladly he would have made his Peace with the King to which he came near twice or thrice but at last utterly lost the sight of it It behoved him for his Safety not to make them his Enemies who were like to be his Judges chiefly not to trespass against the Likings of Archbishop Laud who could draw the King with one Hand farther than all the Lords in the Court with their whole Arm. From anno 1627 when the Letter was written in the Case of the Vicar of Grantham to anno 1636 there had been much done in Preaching and Practice to introduce some comelinesses in the Worship of God as they were stiled which had not been before The Archbishop set his Mind upon it which a late Writer calls his Pregnancy to revive ancient Ceremonies and another Book Antid Lincol. p. 85. No Metropolitan of this Church that more seriously endeavour'd to promote the Uniformity of Publick Order than his Grace now being The Clamours raised upon him are an Evidence of it The Compliance of many to curry Favour did out-run the Archbishop's Intentions if my Opinion deceive me not and made the Clamour the greater which meeting with other Discontents might have warned Wisdom to stop or go on slowly So well it is known to be dangerous to run against the Stream and Unwillingness of the People and no good Physician will try Experiments upon an accrased Pody An honest Mind is not enough to patronize that which is much condemâ—â—â— I would have none to suspect the Archbishop that he meant any Change in the Doctrine of our Church I would have none to tax his Reformation for Superstition but I will say as Polybius did in defence of the nice Observations of the old Roman Religion that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Excess of Piety Yet be not too bold against causeless Jealousies Grant it but I do not give it that the Clamours did rise from weak Judgments and pass over that Rule That the strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our solves Rom. 15.1 Policy ought to listen abroad to the Talk of the Streets and the Market-places for secular Policy is no prophane thing well used in the Service of God and not to despise Rumours when they are sharpened against the innovating of any Discipline These things appeared but Straws to stumble at to a resolved Stomach and a Champion comes out in print to gagg all popular murmuring against the placing of the Holy Table Altar-wise Ambustum Torrâ—m Corinaeus ab arâ corripit Aen. 12. one that would vent more I believe than the Masters of the Game would have done that put him into the Lists Athletâ—e suts ineitatoribus fortiores sunt says St. Hicrom in an Epistle to Julianus Yet the common Vogue was that this Author though learned was not the fittest to defend the Cause being not fortunate in the good opinion of the Times It was remembred that the Spartans would not pass that into a Decree which was good in it self which a scandalous Fellow oster'd to their Council but turned him by and set up a plain honest man to prefer it Sic bona sententia mansit turpis autor mutatus est Gel. lib. 18. c. 3. But if the Press must be set awork as the Pulpits Schools and Consistories had been to maintain this matter of no great moment God wot why must this Bishop and his Letter be the Block to fashion their Wit upon He was one that would carry no Coals they knew it A judicious Reply from him would make the Shadow return
incommoda si cui dolor major accesserit as Sidonius setcheth it out of Hippocrates p. 163. When such Wounds are made in our Body little Scratches should be insensible 104. The same Author hath listed up the Quarrel again which was fallen about the Place of the Holy Table I would it stood in any place of the House of God so it might be used but it is extreamly disused Was there ever such a negligence among Christians before Sometimes the Pope hath interdicted the Churches of a Nation for a year or more the greater was his Sin But I will make Affidavit that some Parishes among us have been interdicted from the Lord's Supper by the Hirelings that teach them from anno 1642. to anno 1659. and this Famine of the holy Bread is like to continue among them Is this a Season to renew what past anno 1637. between the Bishop and him how the Table should stand Deficilis est exitus veterum jurgiorum Sym. Ep. p. 17. I speak as well assured that the Dr. hath been often since that time prostrate at that sacred Banquet why then doth he break out into old Grudges for their Quidlibets First the Bishop did desire to satisfie his Reader where the holy Table should stand when the Communion Service was celebrated Secondly where it should continue when that pious work was over For the first he durst not decide it but as the Liturgy hath it To stand in the body of the Church or Chancel in the Communion-time where Morning and Evening-Prayer be appointed to be said And as the Advertisements state it That Common-Prayer the Communion being the supereminent part be said or sung decently and distinctly in such place as the Ordinary shall think meet for the largeness and straightness of the Church and Quire so that the People may be most edisied And as Canon 82 doth enjoyn When the Holy Communion is to be administred it shall be placed in so good sort within the Church or Chancel as thereby the Minister may be more conveniently heard of the Communicants in his Prayer and Ministration and that they may conveniently and in more number communicate with the Minister And therefore the Bishop sums it up Ep. p. 59. That this Liberty for a convenient place of Church or Chancel is left to the Judgment of the Ordinary and that the King in his Princely Order about St. Gregory's Church did leave it to the Law to the Communion book to the Canon and Diocesan The Law refers to Salus populi to the edifying of the People which was never respected under Popery for their Mass was mutter'd at high Altars far remote from the Auditory Which Harding maintains H. T. p. 204. That they never meant the People should understand any more than what they could guess by dumb Shews and outward Ceremonies In old Liturgies it appears that not only the Clerks but where a Church had no more than one Clerk to officiate the People made answer in Versicles and Suffrages an excellent way to keep them in godly action of which Privilege and Comfort they have been robb'd in corrupt times Erasmus says p. 216. of his Ep. That King Harry 8. defended that no Prayer was to be expected from the People Praeteream quae ment is cogitatione Deum alloquitur And that is it which is intended in Cardinal Pool's Articles of his Visitation anno 1556. Whether the People be contemplative in holy Prayer But we have not so learned Christ whose Communion is so order'd that all that are present may hear and be edisied every one say the Confession of Sins after him that pronounceth it every one professes as he is invited to lift up his Heart unto the Lord. Let the Table stand so commodiously for the benesit of Receivers when it is employ'd and it is not here or there whether the Minister stand at the North side as the Church in terminis directs it or at the North end as Altar-contrivers contend for it So we are told that the Table stands and unremovably under the East Window in the King's Chappel And says the Doctor Antid p. 41. That which is wisely and religiously done in the Chappel-Royal why should it not give Law to Parish-Churches The King's Chappel I should say was but my Heart will not let me is a sacred Oratory of great regard and ancient mention Constantine the Great had one portable with him in his Camp In Charles the Great 's time the Chappel of his Palace is samous Luitprandus King of the Lombards had one in his Palace Baron anno 744. p. 23. And in the Reign of our William Conquestor we read out of his Mouth Mea Dominica Capella Selden Eadm p. 165. Such Chapels if like to our King 's in all his Courts were of no great dimension the holy Board could not stand no where inconveniently in them but that all might hear therefore one constant site was most decent for it where it deserv'd the highest Room it being the Fabrick on which the principal Service Evangelical is solemniz'd The Bishop p. 182. remembers out of Suarez that Altars in Oratories and Chappels among them who are the Mint-masters of Ceremonies are not agreeable in situation to the Altars in Churches Therefore private Chappels nay even the Kings cannot be the Directories for all places because very often Parish Chancels being but a few strides broad and long cannot contain the multitude of all the People that come to take the Holy Mysteries And when the Belfrey is between the Chancel and the Nave of the Church as at Carshalton in Surrey the Minister can neither be heard nor seen unless he officiate in the Church where all may enjoy the Exhortations behold the Consecration and joyn in Prayer Therefore the Bishop answers prudently H. T. p. 34. It is not His Majesty's Chappel but his Laws Rubricks Canons Proclamations which we are to follow in outward Ceremonies 105. Neither can the Opponent appeal to Rubrick and Canons but he betakes him to an Order wherein the King's Majesty was present at the Council-Table Nov. 3. 1633. This is quoted at length Antid p. 62. and in some of his latter Works for approving the Table to be removed from the middle of the Chancel to the upper end and there to be placed Altar-wise If the King had intended that the like should be observed in all Parochial Churches the Question had been decided against the Bishop's Letter Nec turpe est ab eo vinci quem vincere esset nefas as Tigranes says of Pompey Velle lib. 1. The Bishop subscribes p. 163. That the addition of any more Ceremonies than are prescribed in our Book is referred to the person of the King by Act of Parliament The Contention remains whether that Order of His Majesty with his Council hath influence upon other places beside the particular of St. Gregory which occasion'd it The Dr. himself says no such matter directly but Antid p. 36. The King did not command but
had even his Books were seized and he deprived of his Library He could not fight without his Arms or how could the Bell ring out when they had stoln away the Clapper Baronius pitties Photius whom he could not abide for sustaining that hard usage an 871. p. 14. and brings him in complaining to his unkind Lord Basilius of whom he had deserved better Libris privati sumus novâ in nos excogitatâ poenâ librorum amissio non est poena in corpus sed in animam But hear himself speak Epist 97. of Bishop Montague's Edition that Constantine had censur'd some Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet he spoiled them not of their Goods nor deprived them of their Books But the Bishop of Lincoln found not that mercy because he might be indefensible and bear the Reproaches that fell thick upon him Even sorry Clerks came into the Lists when they knew they should not meet the Champion Children talk most when they can speak least sence Among these was a Doctor like Theophrastus's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ardelio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that will be a Guide to Travellers when he knew not a foot of the way He thrust out his Altare Christianum to revile his Master and his Patron for the Bishop in his great Office had protected him against a Justice of Peace who had served this Doctor with a Warrant for some Misdemeanors the then L. Keeper put the Justice out of Commission for it and made this Doctor a Justice in his place took him to be his Chaplain kept him often by some months together in his House bestowed on him a Prebend in Lincoln Church commended him to the L. Chamberlain to swear him the King's Chaplain in ordinary and prevailed Indeed the Dr. lost some favour with the Bishop at last because he was a Tell-tale and made needless Complaints against his Brethren In those black days when the Bishop was over-clouded this man strikes at him with all the force of his no-great Learning Want makes men busie and industrious the man wanted Preferment for he would not have been so fierce if he had been full The Puritans might sit still and look on when the King 's Chaplains were allowed and preferred for their forwardness to do disgrace against a Bishop There was a time when those factious Romans were most extolled that cried down their honourable Patricians Quae res Marii potentiam peperit reip ruinam Match Resp lib. 1. c. 5. Now if these two Doctors think they got the Garland because no Answer was made to their Books let them wear it if they desired work to write more and to get Mony by the Press like the diurnal Scribler they were disappointed And well did Camerarius content himself not to defend Melancthon against the Flaccians because it was in vain to meddle with them they had no Forehead to be ashamed if they were convicted Et ad unum probrum statim erant quae adjicerentur decem So far if not too far upon the Bishop's Letter and his Book The Holy Table to set some Ceremonies in order in the Church of Grantham and I will listen to Sidonius lib. 8. c. 1. Post mortem non opuscula sed opeea pensanda We are to consider after a good man's Death his Works of Bounty and Mercy rather than his Books of Controversie 107. It was not Art but Power it was not a Book but a Bill that crush'd our stout Prelate All other Billows even to the Rage of his Enemies lifted him up but this sunk him Now I must bring his Boat to the Tower-wharf the worst landing-place in all the River 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Court and Court-luck for Company from that day forward farewel he never more lookt for good from you Here 's as much occasion to open a wide Gate to let in Complaint and Sorrow as any case will afford upon the oppression and downfal of the most compleat Bishop that the Age afforded take him in the latitude of all his Abilities Yet Thankfulness was not sensible of the Good-turns he had done nor Honour of his Affronts nor Justice of his Wrongs nor Wrath of his Sufferings nor Charity of his Undoing If the Prosecution against him were fair and the Sentence righteous let him not be pitied nor the Blot wiped out from his Memory Se quisque ut vivit effert As he lived so let him hear well or ill being dead But he was so secure so ready to represent his Cause to the Judgment of the whole Kingdom that against a Parliament was call'd in April 1640. he drew up the whole matter of his Suits and Troubles in twenty sheets of Paper to offer it to that Honourable House for their severest Review And if his Remonstrance were a Clamour and not a just Complaint he invited his Judges to lay a new and a severer Censure upon him And it is fit that every Complainant should be devoved to that Court of Justice wherein he begins a Quarrel to suffer as much Penalty if he make not good his Bill as he would have those to undergo whom he challenged for his pretended Injuries Which was Roman Law in Symmachus's days Ep. p. 67. Provisum est ne quis temerè in alieni capitis crimen irrueret nisi se idem priùs poenae sponsione vinciret But it came not to that dint for this Parliament was bespoken four months before and was dissolved when it had met but three weeks A Duck could not hatch an Egg if she had sate no longer The opportunity therefore was prevented for the Plaintiff to make use of his Papers which were prepared for this Parliament Fortune had mock'd him if he had tryed her Courtesie at that time who is a true Handmaid to no Mistriss but Good-occasion Yet this Memorial of his Case which came not to their Hands but to mine so large so exact so fairly copied without expunction of a word without interlining or the least correction in the Margin is fortunately kept till now when so many noble Registries have been torn and embezzled in these consuming times to content both itching Curiosities and staid Judgments that would know the Truth out of which I will glean up faithfully a few handfuls and no more for these reasons First For the length it may pass for a Book and I affect not to make this Book swell with the incorporation of another Secondly The Press at London by hook or crook lights upon every man's Papers and doth license it self to publish them the more shame for them that are in power and do not mend it And to save me the pains Lincoln's Star-chamber-Trial will come ere long into the Fingers of some sharking Broker of Stationers-hall and be entred in there for his own Chattel as well as the Author's Prayers and Meditations made Anno 1621. for the use of L. M. B. which I glanced at in their due place which a bold fellow hath filed up in his
Hall to be printed to which he hath no more Right than Sir Ro. H had to Charing-cross Thirdly My Breviate shall only tell you and no more who they were in great Place that trod this man down by oppression and false ways whose Pictures are drawn out at length in the larger Frame 'T is too much the Recreation of the common man to stick longest in that Page wherein he reads Invectives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Demosth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So engrafted it is in us to listen unto Contumelies as unto Musick But I will not feed my Guests with such Acorns It is enough for a Warning to others that God did quickly bring the day which he had called and they were made like him Lam. 1.21 Or worse that opprest the Bishop for the abuse of Fiduciary Power will never pass long unpunish'd 108. Every Effect is best known in its Cause that 's the best ground for a beginning It is apparent that much Anger was seeded and thrust out of one bitter Root The chief Counsellors of K. James and of his Cabinet that devised with their Master how to compass the Spanish Match and took no joy in the Failing pleased their old Master but lost the Prince his Son alienated from them by Buckingham after he had returned home Richmond Hamilton Belfast lived not long after Middlesex and Bristol the first blown down the other shaken by Impeachments in Parliament and both laid aside Arundel sent to the Tower and there had continued but for the clamour of the Peers in the Upper House for nothing but for marrying his eldest Son to a Daughter of the House of Lenox How then could Lincoln escape who was K. James's right hand in all Dispatches about that Treaty Nothing was unassay'd to scourge him because he knew more Secrets than any man and shewed most Stomach to defend himself Sir A. Wel. beyond his wont tells Truth in this p. 174. That his Ruine was determined not upon any known Crime but upon Circumstances and upon Examinations to pick out Faults committed in his whole life-time And the blow was given after nine years had been spent upon one matter to frame a Censure out of it Majora animalia diutiùs visceribus parentum continentur Quint. lib. II. The Whelps and Cubbs of great Beasts are long in the Womb before they be brought forth It came about anno 1628. that the Bishop had suspended Burden and Allen the one a Surrogate to Sir J. Lamb the other a Proctor in his Court both of Leicestershire for doing Injustice and being vexatious both to Clergy and Laity Ut non Compositus meliùs cum Bytho Baccius They petition'd and clamour'd to be restored but as Budaeus says proverbially of a Land-leaper that makes himself a Cripple and cries out for help Tolleeum qui non novit De Asse p. 104. Let him pity him that doth not know him So Burden and Allen were too well known to get any Favour At last Sir J. Lamb a Creature of dark Practices and Dr. Sibthorp undertook for them and propounded it to the Bishop at his Table when their Hand was with him in the Dish But when they would ingratiate them for their good Parts as Mr. Hooker said of Ithacius that there was nothing commendable in him but his Zeal against the Priscillianists so these had nothing to brag of in their Brace of Greyhounds but that they were the swiftest of their kind to chase the Puritans The Bishop told them Dr. Morrison and Mr. Pregian Register of Lincoln and Leicester being present That men of erroneous but tender Consciences would never be reduced by such as were scandalous for Bribes and Taverns and other bad haunts how that Severity against that Party was not seasonable at that time for he had lately conferred with the King and that His Majesty had condescended to give them some forbearance though not openly profess'd to get his ends out of some Members of Parliament who were leading men and more easie to be brought about by holding a gentle hand over the Ministers of their Faction Here 's the sum of all This was the King's mind And how could it be follow'd but by being revealed to some that were in Office If there be any blame in this let him that said it cry out as Philotas did Curt. lib. 6. Fides veri consilii periculosa libertas vos me decepistis vos quae sentiebam ne reticerem impulistis Patt to the Bishop's case to a word This was carried to Bissham in the Progress where Bishop Laud attended and by him exaggerated to the King that his secret Counsels were abused The Historian Sanderson taking it out of another I suppose who wrote the Reign of K. Charles hath fancied an Accusation that was never dreamt of p. 220. That the Bishop's Wit and Will tempted him to talk disloyally of the King and a Bill put in against him for it A Woodcock 's Bill but no such Bill was put in Star-chamber Nullum decuit haec scribere nisi quem constat optasse Sym. Ep. p. 129. He that wrote so would have had it so Piety forbid that a Bishop should violate the sacred Honour of his Prince with a disloyal word Yet how moderately did Q. Elizabeth speak of Sir J. Perrott's Offence in that kind Camden anno 1592. quoting the Saying of Theodosius Si quis Imperatori maledixerit si ex levitate contemnendum si ex insaniá miserandum si ab injuriâ remittendum But Aurelian went further that he might not hear of such Complaints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sanxit ne audirentur qui deferebant malè locutos de principibus Carion l. 3. c. 61. It was a generosity in those heroical men which Shimei and Railers at Kings did not deserve but Lincoln was not touch'd with the lightest suspicion of this Fault O but His Majesty's Counsels were revealed and expiable Crime in the adverse Bishop's Construction Kings Counsels may be of that reach and choice that to blab them abroad may touch his Life that did it Upon such great points of State Bodin moves a Question De Repub. p. 386. An poena capitis statuenda sit iis qui principis arcana divulgant Augustus told a Secret to one of the â—abii that he would bring Agrippa home again from Mitylene Fabius told this to his Wife and she to Livia who disaffected Agrippa and it cost Fabius his Life as Salmasius enlargeth it in his Preface to Solinus Plutarch hath wrote more upon it Lib. de Cur. Aud. how dangerous it is to know the Privacies of Potentates lest they should be vented in rashness So that Philippides asking Lysimachus what he should give him says Lysimachus any thing but a Secret But the thing communicated to our Bishop was but petty in comparison and no Secret neither not imparted at the Council-Table but in Conference in the time of Parliament as to a Peer of the House lock'd up with no Seal of Silence but to
were living But though they are all under Earth Faith forbid that their Names should be abused to a wrong Report To keep History uncorrupt from such baseness 't is daintily observ'd out of the Poets by Salmasius Clymac p. 819. Apud orcum defunctae animae jurare dicuntur ne quid suos quos in vitâ reliquerint contra fas adjuvent The Souls departed take an Oath not to help their surviving Friends against Justice But no such Protestation needs in this Cause There is a Petition to be produced written with the Hand of Dr. Walker a Gentleman living and well known wherein His Majesty is minded that he had cancell'd this Complaint and had given his Royal Hand to confirm it What could be more sure Yet it turn'd to nothing the Wound was never suffer'd to heal by the daily Whispering of Bishop Laud diligent in the King's Ear. You may read of one in Suetonius's Caligula Cui ad insaniam Caius favebat So the King suffer'd this Prelate in excess of Power to turn and return Causes as he would and was obnoxious by the bewitching of his Tongue to facility of Perswasions to grant and retract as he possest him Which was seen too late in this excellent Passage of His Majesty in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I wish I had not suffer'd mine own Judgment to be overborn in some things more by others Importunities than their Arguments As Erasmus wrote honestly to a mighty Monarch Harry the Eighth Ep. p. 74. Eximia quaedam inter mortales res est Monarcha sed homo tamen And with much liberty our Poet Johnson in his Forrest p. 815. I am at feud With that is ill tho' with a Throne endu'd The Faults of the Blessed Charles were small yet some he had who having assured Lincoln he should never be question'd again about the matter brought against him by Lamb and Sibthorp yet remitted it to the Star-chamber The Defendant conceived it would spend like a Snail or the untimely Fruit of a Woman but when he found himself deceiv'd and that the Cause was glowing hot in Prosecution he sought the King's Clemency Quaedam enim meliùs fugiuntur quà m superantur it is in Erasm Ep. p. 18. He thought it better to fly the Trial than to get the Cause and he put up this which follows into the Hands of His Majesty The Humble Petition and Submission of John Bishop of Lincoln c. THAT although he is innocent from any Crime committed against your Majesty in thought word or deed yet abhorring as he finds by Presidents all other Bishops of this Realm have done Placitare cum Domino rege to have any Suit with his Sovereign Lord Master and Patron he casts himself in all humility at Your Majesties Feet and implores your Royal Mercy and Clemency Non intrare in judicium cum servo tuo coveting to ascribe his Deliverance to Your Majesties Clemency And whereas your most Excellent Majesty having in the fourth year of your happy Reign received the Opinion of the four Lords Committees concerning these very self-same Charges did in your Majesties Gallery at Whitehall admit this Defendant brought in by the Right Honourable the Lord Treasurer one of the said Committees to kiss your Majesties Hand and did use unto him this Defendant in the presence and hearing of the said Right Honourable Lord these gracious words That your Majesty was pleased to forgive all that was past and would esteem of this Defendant according as he should deserve by his Service for the time to come He most humbly beseecheth your most Excellent Majesty that according to that so gracious Remission and Absolution no further Prosecution at your Majesties Suit may be used against him concerning the said Charges all which he doth the rather hope for from your Majesty because he is a Bishop that hath endeavoured not to live scandalously in his Calling and hath formerly had the Favour from Almighty God with his own Hands to close your Majesties Father's Eyes and to have written and drawn up that Commission and Contract for your Majesties Marriage whereupon ensued to this Kingdom a most unvaluable Blessing and heartily prayeth that God who hath delivered your Majesty from your late Sickness may bless you in all Health Happiness and Prosperity So far the Petition I will not teach the Reader what Sallads to pick out of it but only the Herb of Grace that the Bishop kist the King's Hand upon the assurance of his Peace that the Offence which was taken was buried and should never rise up in Judgment more Nihil periculi Soloni à Pisistrato Diog. Laert. Now who ever liked Julian the Cardinal that made Ladislaus K. of Polonia break his League with the Turk And who will defend B. L. that made his Soveraign break his word with his Subject It was he and none else that put in an unseasonable Bar to hinder Lincoln the fulness of the Benefit I know none that had the nearest part in B. L's Favour that can deny it And let them turn it about as they will is it possible they should excuse it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Theodoret's Ep. 2. Children see no uncomeliness in their Parents But although they will see no ill in the Person they must in the Fact For what a Trespass is this in Justice to punish that which was forgiven Let the King do Righteous Judgment like God in whose Throne he sits before whom this holds inviolable Peccata dimissa nunquam redeunt No not original Sin when remitted in Baptism it shall not be imputed to them any more that are damned for actual Crimes whereof they did not repent So Grotius cites it out of Prosper in Matth. c. 18. v. 34. Extinctam semel obligationem non reviviscere sed propter postrema crimina affici The most that seems to be against this Rule but falls in with it is this That when former Sins are forgiven and new ones are superadded the latter shall be punish'd the more for the ungratefulness of the Sinner Non quod jam remissa puniantur sed quod sequens peccatum minùs graviter punâ—retur si priora remissa non fuissent says Maldonat My Sentence is at the last of all with Syracides c. 29.3 Keep thy word and deal faithfully revoke not your Kindness pluck not up the Seeds of a Benefit which you had sown with your own Hand It is worse to turn Mercy than Justice into Wormwood 111. Destiny is unavoidable A Bill is filed in the Star-Chamber and prosecuted for the King for Revealing his Councils The Defendant made him ready for his Answer and plyed the King with Petitions together in Parody like Virgil's Aeneas Et se collegit in arma Poplite subsidens At first he tried Bishop Laud if he would be so generous as to heal the Wound that he had made and anointed him with the Weapon-Salve of remembrance of Friendship past and protestation of the like for ever he courted him to
on whose silent consent the Bishop had not to awaken the King that he would look upon these Courses that cried abroad to the amazement of his Subjects All wish it done and the Bishop did not fear to do it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Theodorets stout Divinity Ep. 21. Under the hand of God there is no remedy but patience suffering under the hand of Man the best Remedy is Courage So he stept forward to his Majesty with the confidence of this Petition To the King 's most Excellent Majesty c. THat if your Majesty be not pleased to accept as yet of his humble Submission for his Peace your Majesty would graciously vouchsafe not to interrupt but to permit the Petitioner to proceed according to the ordinary Rules and Course of the Court of Star-Chamber against Kilvert the Sollicitor for his manifold Falshoods and Injuries in the Prosecution of this Cause particularly first for menacing and frighting your Petitioners Witnesses 2. For publickly defaming this Petitioner to be your Enemy averring that neither he nor any of his did know what the name of a King meant 3. For offering to sell the Prosecution of your Majesties Cause against this Petitioner for Money and because this Petitioner refused to tamper with him in that kind for procuring base People to make false and aspersing Affidavits to incense your Majesty and that Court against your Petitioner 4. For menacing the Judges that should report and certifie any thing for your Petitioner 5. For not sparing to tax most falsly your most Sacred Majesty with pressing upon the Lords the Sentencing of your Petitioner All which the Petitioner will clearly prove and pray to God c. So strong an Accusation upon such foul Heads was fit to be sifted especially upon the last Branch For grant it was a lye here 's a false Report raised against the King's Honour If it were true what more criminal than to impart such Secrets of his Majesty 's to his Gossips at a Tavern where they flew abroad But some may more safely steal a Horse than others look over the Hedge The Bishop could get no leave to call this shameless Mate to an answer From that day Kilvert was free from Righteousness and might do any thing Ipse sibi Lex est quà fert cunque voluntas Praecipitat vires Manil. lib. 5. He that hath no Conscience and need to fear nothing will turn a Monster So true is that of Livy Dec. 1. lib. 4. Hominem improbum non accusari tutius est quà m absolvi 'T is safer to have a nocent Person never accus'd than to have him discharg'd for an Innocent 113. For all this the Defendant thought he had said so much against the Prosecutor that he should never appear in Court again But as Calvin said of Bucer Ep. 30. Qui sibi est optimè conscius securior est quam utile sit Yet he proved against him as foul a prank as ever was committed That he got Warren the Examiner to the Fountain Tavern near to Shoe-Lane Kilvert's daily Rendezvouz from whence the Bishop got continual and sure intelligence and fetch 't out of him contrary to his express Oath the Depositions which the Defendants Witnesses had made an heinous wrong to be done before Publication which coming to light Warren fled away from his Office and never appeared more But whether could he run from God's Vengeance Omnia quidem Deo plena sunt nec ullus perfidis tutus est locus Sym. p. 54. Kilvert stood to it as if the sin were not his that drew the Examiner to Perjury and no notice was taken of that constant Rule which the Casuists took from Tertullian de Bapt. c. 11. Semper is dicitur facere cui praemmistratur The Sin was Ahab's that purchast a Field of Blood by the Oath of the Sons of Belial Let Religion look to this for that Court would not nothing would lace it in it was so wide in the waste From this exorbitancy from this and nothing else sprung the Iliad of wrongs which the Bishop endured for Kilvert finding by Warren's disclosures that the Depositions for the Defendant were material and some of the Witnesses to be Learned men that had deposed upon Notes and Remembrances he turned himself into all shapes to crack their Credit At first he made an Affidavit of slight pretended Abuses which were over-ruled against him Whereupon he vapour'd in the hearing of the Register and divers others That he cared not what Orders the Lords made in Court for he would go to Greenwich and cause them all to be changed It was the most scornful Defiance that ever was given to the Honour and Justice of the Star-Chamber as the Bishop's Counsel prest it home Every one expected the Ruin of the Prosecutor yet the Lords perceiving up-upon the Archbishop's Motion that it was not safe to punish him it past over with a slight Submission One presaged the Ruin of the Athenian State because Rats had eaten up the Books of Plato's Commonwealth And might not a man that had no more Prophecy than Prudence foresee the Ruin of this Court when such a Rat-catcher did despise their Authority telling them he could fetch Orders to sweep away theirs from such Powers Quae nec tutò narrantur nec tutò audiuntur Seneca de Tranquil Sir Robert Heath Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas was but one of the Lords Assessors yet as just and sufficient as any of his order and the Indignity done to him was as if done to all Who made his own Complaint That Kilvert threatned to procure him to be turn'd out of his place for his forwardness Yet this also was slubber'd over with a little acknowledgment of Rashness So much were those honourable Persons now no longer themselves fearing that Severity which they perceived impending upon them As Pliny bewails the Roman Senate in his Panegyrick Vidimus curiam sed curiam trepidam elinguem cum dicere quid velles periculosum quod nolles miserum esset It was become like Ezekiel's Vine-tree c. 15. v. 3. you could not make a Pin out of it to hang a good Order upon it that was equal and generous Beshrew the Varlet that kept his word which he was not wont to do for Sir Robert Heath was displaced and for no Misdemeanour proved But it was to bring in a Successor who was more forward to undo Lincoln than ever the Lord Heath was to preserve him A man of choice parts which yet he shewed not in this Cause which cannot be smother'd without defacing the truth which Posterity must not want Desipiunt qui faeces ob vâ—ni nobilitatem absorbent The Dregs of the best Wine are but Dregs and must be spit out as distastful his Lordship's part cannot be spared in this Tragedy yet it shall be short because I will leave him to those Figures that live in the House of Memory 114. The main Bill against the Defendant being not like to
man Whereupon Secretary Windebank commands the Clerk of the Court by a Letter under the Signet to stay the Commission so order'd and to appoint another Examiner whom Kilvert did nominate Thirdly The same Secretary directed one Peachy a Messenger of the Chamber start not at it Reader for 't is true to attend Kilvert in his Coat of Arms all along with the Commission to apprehend and close imprison such as Kilvert should appoint pretending Matters of State and of deep consequence against them And Peachy did apprehend and close imprison in the face of the Commission Philip Pregion George Walker and Thomas Lund Witnesses for the Bishop and chased away most of the rest that durst not be seen for fear Those three Prisoners were brought to London to the Secretary who told them he had nothing against them but bade them give Satisfaction to Kilvert who could get no Liberty by his Masterships Leave till they had confessed Crimes against the Bishop and themselves which afterward they revok'd upon Oath Nor would he permit George Walker's Wife to see her Husband close kept by the Messenger but for a base Courtesie not to be named Is not the Wand of Mercury like to charm Witnesses to say and swear what they would have them when such Snakes as Kilvert and Peachy are twined about it If all this be not true though incomparably vile Aut Thetidi aut Veneris largire marito either wash the Book away or throw it into the Fire I meet with a mighty Concussion of Justice in Sidon Apol. lib. 5. c. 7. yet nothing so bad as this yet take it because it is the nearest to it upon Record Deputant arbitros judicanda dictant dictata convellunt attrahunt litigaturos protrahunt audiendos The French Mercury hath related strange Presidents from the Parliament of Grenoble let him match this if he can But the Bishop coming home from his Progress with Kilvert and the Examiner having sped his Commission in all haste Publication must be granted and the Bishop is served for a Hearing so he came prepared with excellent Counsel to defend a Cause which he feared the more because neither he nor his Counsel could see in a matter so violently pursued any thing to be feared But the King's Counsel having perused the Books spied more than Kilvert could see and found that the imaginary false News and blazing the King's Counsels were the damnable Invention and Conspiracy of Lamb Sibthorp Allâ—n and Burden Much was urged to expunge all on the Bishop's part that laid a Combination of Villany to their charge because it did impeach the Credit of the King's Witnesses The L. F. prest it over and over which was but once and that fairly and modestly offer'd by the King's Counsel After a long Argument of five hours at the least the Court did all vote except the Archbishop and the L. F. that the Defence should remain undispunged for else an unavoidable Mischief would follow to all the King's Subjects that being accused by two desperate Witnesses they were remediless in that high Court if they may not be called in question by the Defendant for their Acts and Honesties The L. Coventry having gathered the Votes of the Court and being ready to pronounce the Order so much conducing to the good of all men the L. Finch desired their Lordships to take notice that his Opinion continued contrary to them all Quibusdam evenit ut quaedam scire se nesciant Sen. Ep. 7. Nay such Spleen was conceived at this just Order that though the L. Keeper had pronounced it the Register had drawn it up a Copy of it given to the Defendant yet so precious a Rule for the common Safety of all honest men durst never be enter'd into the Book to this day Yet this Order though smother'd and buried made an end of this first Cause for the Combination of the four Contrivers was not held meet to come abroad into pleading who would have fallen to pieces with a little shaking that thought to lay the dead Child in the Bishop's Bosom while he slept but their Patron had a care to keep them from Scandal and that they knew As Hegesippus says of Mariamne the Wife of Herod the Great Secura quod nihil ab eo exitii perpeti possit qui supra modum dilexit So these were the bolder to come off untouch'd under the shelter of that Favour that did never forsake them 116. Of a sudden by the perswasion of some noble Lords the King began to grow milder to the Bishop Et reserata viget vegetabilis aura Favoni Lucret. His Majesty hearkened to some Conditions to have all Bills against the Bishop cast out and to let him purchase his Peace with his Purse Some would disswade Lincoln from it because to buy a Pardon was to confess a Guiltiness A Nicety says Xenophon that cost Socrates his Life Apol. pro. Socr. who would pay no Fine to the Court of Athens nor suffer any to be paid in his Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He said To be acquit with a Ransom was to confess a Crime The like was told me by the Lady Eliz. Hotton That the Lord Cook was offered his Place in the Kings-bench from which he had been removed if he would bind himself in again with a Golden Chain But he stood upon a Rule made by his own Wisdom That a Judge must not take a Bribe nor pay a Bribe Our Bishop's Resolution stuck not in those Briers who saw that this Offer proceeded out of the streights of his Occasions Though no Evil were found in him yet if the King's Power contest who can stand upright And if Malice will take no satisfaction but Ruin the most innocent must fall The L. Keeper a good man was over-balanc'd the Star-chamber was become like the Tribunal of L. Cassius Scopulus reorum Tacit. Annal. l. 13. a Rock that split all Causes that lately came into it in pieces The Archbishop thought not himself absolute till this man was unprelated and cared not what he cast at him so he might hit him home As Grotius accuseth the Spaniards that they are so set upon Revenge Ut in hostem nihil turpe sit nihil illicitum An. Belg. p. 5. He feared the L. F. as much as any who in his private Chambers slasht and cut out from his Defences that which was most material to his Safety Et stylus non minùs agit cum delet says Quintilian He that puts out the Marrow of Defence is worse than he that puts in the Venom of an Accusation The Secretary was prepared for any Execution yet the Bishop gives him this Praise in his Notes That he was a modest and a virtuous Gentleman but in this Cause set on by his Maker Therefore the Bishop is content to satisfie the King's Demands that is to pitch and pay The first Condition brought to him by the L. Cottington was to part with 4000 l. with his Deanry and two inconsiderable
Commenda's For the Money says the Bishop I am low in Cash but will make a shift to pay it To part with the Deanry will make an open Scar and no fair one Beside the Money is useful for the King's Revenue the Deanry is no Profit to His Majesty to take it from my hand and to put it into another and what the World hath given me I am willing to give it back again but what His Majesty's Father did give me and by the Mediation of His Majesty being Prince I can take no comfort in my Life if I be stript of it That Lord return'd again with a Message to leave him his Deanry and Commenda's but to raise up the Sum of Composition to 8000 l. The Bishop held up his Hands to Heaven in amazement at it But you will lift your Hands at a greater Wonder says L. Cottington if you do not pay it Well I will satisfie the King says Lincoln and I will sell some Land for it The Match is struck done 'tis and the Bishop as good as undone by it He delighted to do charitable Works but this would sear the Vein that it could run no more It was a sweet Apophthegm which I heard come from him when all was exhausted I care not for Poverty but I shall not be able to requite a Benefit God grant every good King a better way than this was to enrich him Fiscus bonorum Principum non sacerdotum damnis sed hostium spoliis angeatur I commend thee Symmachus for it p. 56. But on goes the Game the Bishop is dealing in London to take up a Cart-load of Money and that right worthy Attorney Sir J. Blanks was sedulous to draw up a full Pardon so absolute that it included more than the Bishop desired as this Letter to the L. Keeper will declare My very good Lord MR. Attorney hath once or twice sent unto me by my Man some imperfect Propositions about the manner of a Pardon which His Most Excellent Majesty should grant unto me which Propositions not speaking with Mr. Attorney himself I do not well understand for as it is delivered to me His Majesty's Offer's more than ever I desired by naming a general Pardon to wit to pardon all Offences contained in the two Informations and any other Offence or Misdemeanor I should desire particularly to be freedfrom which if it be so is as gracious a Favour from His Majesty as any reasonable man can expect But my good Lord I know nothing by my self that should of necessity be so solemnly pardon'd Yet hearing His Majesty's Inclinations to grant unto others in the condition that I stand general Abolitions and being not so wise as the last Parliament to refuse the benefit of a general Pardon I confess I fell in my Parley with your Lordship upon that way propounded unto me by my Counsel Learned But hearing of late it is construed by others as a kind of Capitulation with my Soveraign I beseech your Lordship I may wave it altogether and that your Lordship would represent me kneeling at His Majesty's Feet craving that his Goodness and Mercy only without any thing in Writing together with my Industry in his Service for the time to come may be the substance and extent of all my Pardon and this but for such things as by Informations or Petitions I have been though undeservedly presented as an Offender against His Most Excellent Majesty and desir'd to be proceeded against by His Majesty's immediate Directions If any other private Subject hath ought to say against me for any Trespass or Misdemeanour committed against himself and not His Majesty I desire no Protection but those of His Majesty's Courts of Justice against any such person whosoever c. December 11th 1635. From December it hung as it were between Heaven and Earth it will and it will not be done till the King had occasion to go to Windsor and the Bishop had order to lye at Eaton expecting to be sent for to kiss the King's Hand But who comes thither that was not look'd for it being the middle of the week but the Archbishop who malleated the King's Gentleness into stronger Metal When Lincoln had laboured for Peace from thenceforth it was as far set back as if it had never been in Treaty How was his good Soul toss'd about between Friends and Foes between Mercy and Frowns and now in the last Attempt put to Job's note c. 16. v. 11. God hath deliver'd me to the ungodly and turn'd me over to the hands of the wicked I was at ease but he hath broken me asunder and shaken me to pieces and set me up for a mark Intempestiva benevolentia nihil à simultate differt Polit. Ep. p. 26. A constant Enmity is more generous than to interrupt it with Offers of never-intended or never-composed Agreements Now the Archbishop look'd for the day when he should trample upon this Bishop in a Censure Azorius the Jesuite shall apply it for me Moral tom 1. lib. 13. c. 6. When the Order of the Knights Templars was plotted to be overthrown in a Council at Vienna in Dauphine says Pope Clement V. Etsi non per viam justitiae potest destrui destruatur per viam expedientiae ne scandalizetur filius noster rex Franciae If they cannot fall by Justice they must fall for convenience sake But here 's the difference in the Story There a Bishop did gratifie the King here the King did gratifie a Bishop 117. Proceed then to another Information since it must be so The first Cause being mortified a new one took life from it as Gorgias Leontinus his Mother was deliver'd of him when she was dead Viva fuit sterilis mortua facta parens as Dr. Alabaster writes in his Epigram upon it They are but ill Examples in the New Testament when an Accusation is turn'd into a new Species The Jews impleaded our Saviour at first that he said he would destroy the Temple c. and chang'd it before Pilate into another Charge that he made himself a King Paul was Indicted by the same Nation that he brought a Greek into the Temple to pollute it but it was turn'd into another matter Revilest thou God's High-Priest They that will not stand to their own Bill are more set upon Destruction than Justice Kilvert onerated the Bishop with Ten Charges together the use of the Court being as Judge Popham had regulated it to admit but Four at once But chiefly he was active to grime the Defendant with one foul fault Subornation of Witness that is to foment Perjury But the King's Counsel perusing the Depositions waved it and gave it another form Seducing of Witnesses a manifest injury to the attestation of Truth and for contraction in a new phrase Tampering with Witnesses as my Lord of Canterbury called it in his Sentence Perhaps it is not Subornation of Perjury but it is Tampering The Defendant thought to help himself with a Demur upon four Heads
Francorum ac Saliorum quamplurimae pro cujusque statu ac conditione poenae infliguntur Quin barbarissimi Indi qui ad occasum positi sunt cum de sceleribus conviclum nobilem ac plebeium tenerent nobili capillos aut brachialia truncabant plebeio nares auriculas praecidebant But I said that after the Censure of the forenamed Causes and that of this Bishop all much against the popular Judgment many great men did presage and the Commonalty did wish the extinction of that noble Court and it was overthrown by Vote in the first five months of the Long Parliament before the King had carried away his most considerable Friends to York This is the condition of mortal things says Pliny Ut à necessariis primùm cuncta venerint ad nimium Nat. Hist l. 26. Many Tribunals were of necessary institution at first and of necessary destruction when they run into Excess Indeed it is not the primitive Court that is pulled down but another when it waxeth quite unlike it self Non est eadem harmonia ubi è Phrygio in Doricum transit says Aristotle 5 Pol. The Musick is not the same which is altered from a shrill to a grave Note Yet better terms I hope may set it up in a better Constitution A Pot that boils over may be taken from the Fire and set on again Howsoever I am not so bold with holy Providences to determine why God caused or permitted this great Court to be shut up like an unclean place or why Divine Judgment was so severe against their persons especially that inflamed the Censure against our Bishop But I will cover his Case with St. Austin's Eloquence touching the Doom pass'd upon St. Cyprian Alia est Sella terrena aut Stella terrena aliud tribunal coelorum ab inferiore accepit sententiam à superiore coronam Ps 36. Conc. 3. And certainly Christ doth feel the Injuries done to an Innocent who was sentenc'd by unrighteous Judgment 121. My Pen must not now go with the Bishop my good Master to his Lodgings in the Tower whither in my Person I resorted to him weekly and if I said daily a lesser Figure than an Hyperbole would salve it excepting when he was confined to close Imprisonment which was not wont but upon the Discoveries or Jealousies of dangerous Treasons The Christians that were committed by idolatrous Emperors were in liberâ custodiâ their Deacons and Relievers of their Wants might resort unto them I have the Authority of Photius for it Ep. 97. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They that put the Martyrs to death hindered not their Friends to come and administer unto them But Christian Magistrates should be more observant of that Clemency else the Praise which our Saviour gives to the Charitable would be prevented I was in prison and ye came unto me Mat. 25.36 He that hath no more than the freedom of a Prison much more he that hath not so much is in a strait Captivity The Rabbins have a Saying That if Sea were Ink and the World Parchment it would never serve enough to contain the praises of Liberty But so good a Disciple as I write of did not believe the Jews that there was so much sweetness as they dreamt of in any temporal Prosperity And finding that the People on this side Tweed and beyond were provoked to Discontents and more discontented than they were provoked and hearing Presages of ill to come both from the Judicious and from every Mechanick's Mouth things were so bad without-doors that he saw no reason but to think that Malice had withered him away into no unhappy Retirement Upon which subject he made some Latin Poems especially when he took no good Rest I am of opinion it was so with Job c 35.10 God my maker giveth Songs in the night and after the vulgar Latin Qui dedit carmina in nocte To which Moral Gregory says Carmen in nocte est felicitas in tribulatione With such Diversions our Job compounded with his Sorrows to pay them not the half he owed them And whatsoever Face thy Fate puts on shrink not nor start not but be always one as Laureat Johnson sings it in his Underwoods Briefly Imprisonment to him was no worse than it is to a Flower put into an Earthen Pot streightned for spreading but every whit as sweet as in the open Beds of the Garden Yet he wanted not Tentatious to break his Heart if God had not kept it He lookt for Mercy from His Majesty now he had pluckt him down after a long chase with a Censure Neque Caesari quicquam ex victoriis ejus laetius fuit quà m servasse Corvinum as Vellicus hath immortalized the memory of Caesar Whereas three new Bills were allowed to be entred against this Bishop as I shall relate when I come again into that rugged way which was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Photius calls Basilius's Usage an unspeakable pickling a man in the Brine of Misery He lookt for some of the Nobles to mediate for his Enlargement as there were not a few that did lend him help before while there was Hope that he might recover but Kings like not that any should pity them whom they have undone So there was not one Ebedmelech in the Court that would tye a few Rags together to draw Jeremiah out of Prison How few there be that will co-part with any in their ruin'd Fortunes Miserorum non secus ac desunctorum obliviscuntur Plin. Ep. lib. 9. which we may translate into English out of the Psalm 31.12 I am a fear to mine acquaintance I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind The same measure that David found in Jury Thuanus confesseth was to be seen in France Hist lib. 23. That among all that Diana Valentina had preferred when she was their King's Mistress Nemo unus repertus qui fortunam jacentis à suis relictae sublevaret With the same Neglect Velleius chargeth the Aegyptians when Pompey their great Benefactor fled unto them and was deserted Quis in adversis beneficiorum servat memoriam Aut quis ullam calamitosis deberi putat gratiam Even they whose Spiritual Father Paul was whom he had begotten at Rome in Christ's Gospel they all forsook him and none stood to him when he was convented 2 Tim. 4.16 Some few also of this bountiful Lord's Servants stood afar off now and came not near him They were so well provided under him that they did not need him and they were so heartless and timorous that he did not need them Hirundines Thebas quod i. lius moenia saepiùs capta sint negantur subire Plin. N. H. lib. 10. c. 24. Thebes was so often sackt and taken that no Swallows would nest within it a Summer-bird and a subtle that will endure Winter and hard Seasons with no body Yet to give his honest Followers their due the greatest part of them shrunk not but did their best Service that they could afford to their forlorn
Master like Sear Leaves that hang upon an Oak in January tho' the Tree can give them no Sap they are loth to leave it 122. Another thing came so cross to the Bishop as nothing could be worse to a magnificent sumptuous mind and if he had been covetous it had done the Work which his Enemy lookt for it had killed him All that ever he had was seized nay rifled stormed plunder'd and what Enemy was ever so mad to batter a Town when they had taken it It was time for him to save somewhat if he could to keep him in a competency of Livelihood He was in Debt some Thousand pounds deep and he heard that the King was resolved not to abate a Denier of his Fine No man was more willing to unlatch the Door and to let out Wealth and Fortune if it would not stay Si celeres quatit pennas resigno quae dedit meâ virtute me involvo Hor. Od. lib. 3. penult Yet that he might not be stuck on Ground he petition'd that His Majesty would stall his Fine and take it up as his Estate would bear it by a Thousand Pounds a year which was never denied to any Subject and was granted till the Archbishop overcame to have it revok'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. Odyss How much better had it been to do a good turn than a bad But an Order is dispatch'd to gather up all that could be found and to import it into the Exchequer without any respite of Time Kilvert is commission'd to be the Publican to go down to Bugden and Lincoln with an Extent And the Devil could do no worse to Job when he was put into his Hands he seizeth upon all the Books he found Movables Goods Plate Furniture to the value of Ten thousand pounds of which he never made account but of Eight hundred pounds for the Thousand Marks allowed to Sir J. Mounson which Kilvert's Man told the Bishop that Sir John and his Master shared it between them He felled the Timber which our new Purchasers of Bishops Lands learned of that honest man He killed up the Deer of the Park settles in Bugden-House for three Summers with a Seraglia of Quaedam fells an Organ that cost 120 l. at 10 l. Pictures that cost 400 l. at 5 l. Books he filcht what he would and for four Cellars of Wine Syder Ale Beer with Wood Hay Corn and the like stored up for a year or two he gave not account of Six-pence but spent it upon Baggage and loose Franions as prodigally as if he had kept a Shrievalty Thus a brave Personal Estate flew away into Atoms and not a Tally struck to pay His Majesty though enough to have paid all if it had been justly husbanded The worst is behind The Bishop's Benefices Lands and Leases are offer'd to be rented at 4500 l. per annum with sufficient Security to pay the King This had satisfied the Fine in two years within a little But Kilvert brings a Letter with him from Secretary Windebank to direct or rather force the Juries to receive no Evidence against the King's Profit but to find the Particulars at half the rate and less which the Varlet enjoy'd at those Penniworths and made Benefit of the Overplus to waste it in Luxury Well might they allow the Bishop at this rate 500 l. per annum out of his own for his subsistence and yet of that the Fees of the Prison suck'd up a considerable proportion But Kilvert was a long-tongu'd fellow and if he were alive he would speak out and tell us That there were Sharers with him in these Prizes he had not all He and Powel were Sequestrators indeed to collect the Rents of Huntington shire but Farmery had those of Lincoln Sir J. Lamb the Parsonage of Walgrave the first Dog that lodg'd the Deer the Prebendaries of Westminster had his Deanry that breathed him so well in the Royal Visitation the Archbishop had the Jurisdiction of the Bishoprick against the Canon-Law which in vacancy or suspention was to be executed by a Custos Spiritualitatis who was to be one of the Residentiaries of the Minster But thus he was given up to be devoured as a Carrion by his Promoters and Accusers And what Conscience was there in the nomination of such partial Sequestrators Nor were they ashamed that the Eyes of the whole Land were open to see their Extortions Tanta dulcedo est ex alienis fortunis praedandi Liv. l. 1. dec 6. Neither did they consider that if they shall be cast upon God's left hand that did not give charitably of their own that their Condemnation shall be far greater that did rob from others Multi in hâc vitâ manducant quod apud inferos digerunt Aug. in Ps 49. But to return to the much injur'd Prisoner his Bark was pilled round about the Stock then must needs die Yet he kept honourable Hospitality in the Tower and maintain'd a Table furnisht for the Noon Meal no Cloth was spread again that day with as much Plenty and Decorum as any of the Prelates kept that had all their Rents and Incomes to themselves and yet this little Solace to draw Friends about him was repined at by the Archbishop for Sir Richard Winn the Bishop's Kinsman knowing that he did sensibly decay by the Sums of Moneys which he had lent him spake to Archbishop Laud That some Order might be taken for a better administration of his Estate that he might be fed and maintain'd like a Gentleman out of his own His Grace gave him this snappish Answer That he did not hear that his Kinsman lived like one that wanted That 's it then he would have heard There were very good things to be found in the L. Archbishop but his implacable spight against a Bishop his Raiser and now become a Spectacle of Pity was unpardonable Let him that weaves the Webb of his Life and Actions untangle this Knot in the silken Skeen of his Memory if he can But I think as Zenobius makes it an Adagy Cent. 4. Prov. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That to draw the Picture of Butas truly the best way was not to paint him from Head to Foot 123. Malevolence did impotently break forth and had no Vizard to hide its Face that the Archbishop was not satisfied to have his Fellow Bishop suspended in the High-Commission Court but he advanced to deprive him for the Book called The Holy Table Gregory the Ninth in his Epistles blames the English Clergy above any that they studied to undo one another O Angli hominum estis miserrimi quilibet vestrum alium corrodit ac studet depauperare He saw too much into the nature of our insulary Severity and not holding close together Uniti muniti They of the same Tribe if they be wise should not make a rent in their own piece 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Emperour Antoninus because they are woven into the same Loom and are supporters of the
a Justice of Peace and say he takes the Arch-bishop to be meant by Vermin Urchin Hocas Pocas since the Writer did swear the contrary he had evidently made himself the Author of a libellous Exposition But the Bishop pleads he never received such Letters to his remembrance and to make it likely Osbolston swears he never had an Answer of them Powel will not swear but says he found them in a Band-box in the Bishop's Chamber They were like the Cup in Benjamin's Sack no body but Joseph and the Steward that plotted it could tell how it came there Dr. Walker believes but dares not swear that his Lordship receiv'd them yet adds he could not be assured that he understood them for upon his knowledge the Bishop was often to seek to understand Mr. Osbalston 's gibrish and was fain to send to him for his Cypher which in this matter he did not That which the King's Counsel urged was from the Papers that Dr. Walker brought in under his Lords hand which tuned somewhat like to a Replication to the two Letters The Secretary was pelted with many hard words that day from divers Lords for doing that ill Oâ—lice to his Master I have heard Dr. Walker protest deeply so have many besides That he would not have done it for all the world but that he knew it was a main witness of his Lord's Innocency and enough to clear him howsoever the Court did strangely misunderstand it I am bountiful to him if I think he did it for that good end and I will think so because I never saw any immorality or vice in the course of his life And he was right that the Paper is very candid and did deserve from the Archbishop that he should have cast away at least some unprofitable courtesies upon the Bishop for it And the proof was clear even ex parte Reg is in the Court that he refused to consent or agree to make one in a quarrel against the Archbishop but he holds close to his main Plea That the Letters excepted at did never come to his hands If the matter of them be worthy of a censure let it light upon his Steward and his Secretary who confess to have seen those Papers some years before and to know the ironical meaning and did conceal them He appeals also to the Laws of the Land that if such Letters had come to him like Merlin's Rhimes and Rosicrusian bumbast that no Law or Practice directs the Subject to bring such Gryphes and Oracles but plain litteral grammatical Notions of Libels to a Justice of Peace against a known and clearly decipher'd Magistrate That nothing were more ridiculous than to prefer a Complaint for canting and unintelligible Expressions It cannot be but so many wise Lords as sat in Judgment understood this Well might the Bishop say that all flesh had corrupted their way The Court in those days was rolled about with fear and were steered by imperious directions As Syncsius said of Athens in his days Ep. 235. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There was nothing but the Hide left to shew what a fair Creature it was in times of Yore Let it not be thought rash to write thus of so noble a Senate How did a Commission of Lords use Queen Ann of Bullen and a greater Commission than that use Mary Queen of Scotland But Mr. Osbalston is sentenc'd out of all his Freehold was doom'd to an opprobrious branding who escap't it by concealing himself from the cruelty of the Tyger only the Earl of Holland voted that he saw no proof to bear a Sentence but cleared both Osbolston and the Bishop so did not the Lord Finch and Sir Fr. Windebank who listed up the Bishop's Fine to Ten thousand pounds Such as these made that Honourable Court insupportable to the Subject odious to the Parliament For whose sake I will change a word in a passage of Tullies Philip. 13. I st is locus si in hâc Curiâ fuerit ipsi Curiae non erit locus Sir J. Brampston Lord Chief Justice led the most Voices for 8000 l. Fine and Damages for receiving Libellous Letters Yet was so judicious not to call the Script sent privately to Dr. Walker a divulging of them as some others did nor did he tax him for not blaming the Indiscretions of Osbolston yet those were the Heads to which the most did refer the Contents of their dislike For all this the Bishop rested in peace of mind and piously wish't his Judges Mercy from God which Prayer I hope was heard for their persons but God was offended at the Court which over-drip't so many with its too far spreading Branches of Arbitrary and Irregular Power If the Excrescencies had been pruned away the rest might have serv'd for wholsome use When the Romans found the Carriage of their Censors to be insolent Mucronem sensorium mustis remediis retuderant Alexâ—ab Alex. lib. 3. c. 23. They blunted the Edge but still kept the Sword in the Magistrates hand But God spared not to dig up this burdensome Tree by the root as Auson in Paneg. Quae mala adimis prospicis ne esse possint rediviva yet it may be the Stump is in the Earth though fetter'd to be kept under with a band of Iron and Brass Dan. 4.15 and may spring again in due season But this guilt among a hundred more upon it is that this Bishop being mulcted in eight thousand pounds for a pretence thinner than a Vapour a Trespass to mean for one Christian to ask forgiveness of it from another and never clap't upon him by the Evidence of any Proof yet not a doit was remitted of that vast Sum. And yet I look upon our Bishop as one that had a better hold in present comfort hope hereafter and glory for ever For it is better by far to suffer than to do an Injury Miserior est qui suscepit in se scelus quà m qui alterius facinus subire cogitur Cic. Philip. 11. 126. Lucilius a Centurion in Tacitus Annal. lib. 1. had a scornful name given him by the Military Dicacity of his own Company Cedo alteram Quta fractâ vite in terga militis alteram rursus alteram poscebat when he had broken a Bastonada of a tough Vine upon a Souldiers shouldiers he call'd for another and another after that Such an indeâ—inent Cruelty was exercised upon the person of this suffering Bishop when one Bill was heard and censur'd Cedo alteram rursus alteram was all the pity that he sound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiod lib. 5. Fortune is not content with some mens miseries unless they be all over miserable A new Information is brought on with as much fury as if Jehu had march't with it and that the Desendant might be utterly ignorant of a Conspiracy that was hatching abroad he was shut up close upon colour that he was obstinate and had not answer'd to some Interrogatories as was expected They were Eighty in all To which
that prosecutes for the King and so it was appointed to be taken out When this expunging was confirm'd and the Attorney General had made his Replication upon the Demur the Bishop knowing not how to wear the Yoke of a base Spirit any longer and full of the Courage that God had inspired into him Appeals from these intolerable Grievances to the High Court of Parliament in this Rejoynder That the Defendant doth and will 〈◊〉 maintain and justifie his Answers and all the matters and things therein contained to be true and certain and sufficient in the Law And that nothing thereof ought to be expunged which is necessary and pertinent to his Defence And in case any part so pertinent and necessary for his Defence under colour of scandal to a third person who may clear his Credit if he be innocent and be repaired with Costs be expunged and he and all others in the like case be left remediless in the Law The Defendant having no other Remedy left in a Defence against a Suit commenced against him in the King's Name doth humbly Appeal unto the High Court of Parliament when it shall be next Assembled humbly protesting against any Sentence as void and null which shall pass against him in the mean time for and because of the want of his just and necessary defence so taken away and expunged Much was added in this Appeal to defie Kilvert who had boasted to prosecute the Bishop to his degradation and the Bishop in the said Appeal disavows that the Court of Star-chamber had ever degraded or appointed to be degraded or ever will degrade or appoint to be degraded any Bishop or other Lord and Peer of the Parliament or take away their Freehold in point of Means Profit or Honour c. This Appeal was filed in the Office enter'd in the Clerks Books and Copies thereof were signed by the usual Officer although Sir William Pennyman Clerk of the Star-chamber took it off the File and blotted it out of the Books Sir William was ever of a laudable behaviour but durst not say them nay that thrust him upon this Rashness Who did not gaze at this Appeal as if it had been a Blazing-star Who did not discourse of it How did they who club together for News and trial of their Wits spend their Judgments upon it Some thought that excess of Wrongs done to the Bishop had distemper'd him to fall upon a course of Confusion to himself In plain words being bitten by so many mad Dogs they thought he bit again as if he had been mad Whereas he never did any thing with a more sober mind Insanire me â—iunt ultro cum ipsi insaniant Plaut in Menaech Some replied Let the danger be what it will the President tended to a Publick Good Audendum est aliquid singulis aut pereundum universis For are we not all Passengers as well as he in the same bottom And may we not be swallowed up in the same Shipwrack if our Pilots look no better to their Duty They that were acquainted with the best Pleaders thought to have most Light from them and askt if the Act did not exceed the Duty of a Subject And would it not leave the Author to the fury of the Court to be torn in pieces with a Censure Nay surely said the Gown-men there is no violation of Duty to His Majesty in appealing to his Parliament for he submits to the King who is the Head of the Body Or at the most it is Provocatio à Philippo dormiente ad Philippum vigilantem from K. Charles misinformed in Star-chamber to K. Charles among his best Assistants the three States of the Nation And for the minacy of a Censure do if they dare A Parliament will repair him when it sits and canonize their own Martyr Both they that lik'd and dislik'd the Appeal confest that the corruption of his Judges compell'd him to it Should Kilvert notoriously detected be suffer'd to escape by cancelling all that brought his Conspiracies to light Infixo aculeo fugere in the Adagy Strike in his Sting and fly away like a Wasp Suffer this and at this one dealing of the Game the Bishop's whole state had been lost of Fortunes Liberty and Honour Neque enim levia aut ludicra petuntur Praemia sed Turni de vitâ sanguine certant Discretion was to give place to Courage in this case Baronius tells us of Theodoret. ann 446. n. 27. That being incensed at the Tyranny of a Shark in Office that had seized upon all he had Uranius Bishop of Emesa advised him to make no words of it but to sit still by the loss Theodoret answers him bravely Non solùm prudentia sed fortitudo virtus est Fortitude is a Virtue as well as Prudence and is as laudable in her own turn and occasion Put the case to a Physician when he thinks there is no hope of a Patient what will he do The ancient Rule was Nescio an in extremis aliquid tentare medicina sit certè nihil tentare perditio est To give the sick man Physic is against Art but to give him nothing is to cast him away wilfully Here is Lincoln's condition who being denied the Justice of that Court had nothing to fly to in that Extremity but this Appeal with which he did so hough the Sinews of the Bill that from that day forward it never hopt after him 128. Because some did not stick to say that the Bishop might thank himself for his incessant Troubles that he did not take Conditions of Peace that were offered to him it must be presented here that Conditions indeed were tender'd such as Naash offer'd the Israelites to thrust out their right Eyes 1 Sam. 11.2 or as the Samnites released Sp. Posthumious and a Roman Legion overthrown at Caudis with slavish Ignominy But these were worse Ultra Caudinas speravit vulnera furcas Luca. lib. 2. The Bishop lying in Prison and sustaining the heavy weight of the first Censure July 11. 1637. he press'd the L. Coventry to move His Majesty for some mitigation of the Fine and to stop the violent levying of it since it stood in no proportion with the Charges of the Bill or the Presidents of the Court. Hereupon His Majesty tells the L. Keeper he would admit of no such motion but by the Mediation of the Queen The Bishop is glad of the News and could call to mind that in greater matters than this Princely Ladies had the Honour to make the Accord which the greatest Statesmen had attempted in vain as Madam Lovise Mother of K. Francis the First and Madam Margaret Aunt to Charles the Fifth Regent of the Low Countries made up that Peace between the Emperor and the King which other Mediators had given over for desperate Our Queen endeavour'd a Message of Clemency but that Honour was denied her The Earl of Dorset writes in her Name to the Bishop That all she could obtain of the King
was that if he would be bandied no more in Star-chamber 1. He must leave his Bishoprick and Deanry and all his Commendams and take a Bishoprick in Ireland or Wales as His Majesty pleased 2. He must recant his Book 3. Secure all his Fine 4. Never question any that had been employed by His Majesty against him Strange Physick as ever was prescribed for it was a Pill as big as a Pumpion and whose Throat could swallow it down Non est pax sed servitutis pactio Tul. Philip. 12. The worst that all the Courts in England could do could not impose such Terms upon him Beside to yield thus far were to fly the Field and to receive an inglorious wound in his Back Then he falls upon other Thoughts that he would please the King by making an unparallel'd Submission to him And were it not best to be content with half a Ruine to prevent a whole He must be a loser yet a man spends nothing that buys that he hath need of So he wrote back to the same Earl that he would lay his Bishoprick and Deanry at His Majesty's Feet but excused his going into Ireland To the second That he could not recant his Book which contain'd no Doctrine that he was not ready to justifie To the third He would pay his Fine as he was able To the fourth he submitted Not this not all this was accepted The very L. Drusus in Paterculus Meliore in omnia ingenio animoque quà m fortunà usus His noble Wit and good Parts were still destituted by Fortune He received this Return from the Earl That His Majesty was not contented to receive his Bishoprick and Deanry from him his Residency in Lincoln and Rectory of Walgrave are requir'd to be voided and to Ireland or no Peace To the second No Doctrin should be recanted but Matters of Fact c. The Bishop wonders at this who look'd for Praise that he had stoop'd so low yet rather than contest with his Soveraign he resolves with David Adhuc ero vilior And the common Rule of Polybius was observ'd by all men lib. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of two good things chuse the greatest of two Evils chuse the least He offers to resign all he hath in the Church of England but still will live in England for the Book he pleaded so well for it that the King was satisfied with a conditional submission as If any thing contained in it offended His Majesty he was sorry But to the third about the Fine he found very imperfect and unsolid Proposals and No Ground that 's good is hollow Since he must be stript of all that he had in the Church he would know how much should be left him of his Lands and Leases to live upon that the King 's Fine-gatherers might not snatch up all And he craves an Answer whether that Pension of 2000 Marks per ann bought of the E. of Banbury by His Majesty's Direction and for his Service and Profit being then Prince of Wales and 24000 l. in Arâ—ears for the same should be consider'd towards the King's Payment The Rejoynder began at the latter Clause That Pensions are not paid to men in disfavour the E. of Bristol being the Example for it For the Proportion what he should have to live upon rising out of his own Estate he must know nothing till he had wholly submitted From that hour the false Glass wherein the Bishop saw a shadow of Peace was broken And he writes to the Earl in the Stile of a man That it were a tempting of God to part with all he had willingly and leave himself no assurance of a Livelihood That his Debts if he came out of the Prison of the Tower would cast him into another Prison no better provision being made for them than he saw appearance for That he would never hazard himself into a condition to beg his Bread Truly he had cause to look for better Offers and since they came not he would lay his Head upon the Pillow of Hope till he had slept his last He had not suffer'd as an Evil man his Conscience bore him witness whereby he was not obnoxious to Infamy Majore poenâ affectus quà m legibus statutum est non est infamis a Maxim of Reason and of Law in our Kingdom To surrender up all he had were to suffer as a Fool. Plato is made the Author of the Saying That he had rather leave somewhat to his Enemies when he died than stand in need of his Friends who might prove no Friends while he lived But this is surely Plato's in Apol. pro Socr. That when Socrates was ask'd how he felt himself affected when he was wrongfully condemn'd he said he could give no Answer till he met with Palamedes and Ajax 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till he had ask'd them how they took the Sentence of unrighteous Judges he was not fully provided to satisfie them Our bishop consulted day and night at his Study with Histories of Saints in by-past Ages and knew they had suffer'd more than he had done and was sorry for his human frailty if they could bear it better Now I am confident that the Prudent will collect that this Bishop was never deaf to Conditions of Agreement and that no man living could offer a greater Sacrifice than he did for a Peace-Offering unless he would have stript himself of all and not have left off his own two Mites in all the World to cast into the Corban 129. But if the Parly for Peace were nothing but Thunder and Thunder-bolt how will the Bishop endure it when it comes to strokes God be praised his Warfare in these Causes was at an end Flebile principium melior fortuna secuta est Metam lib. 7. The Chamber of Horror and its Star did not shine malignantly upon him again A time and times and half a time had pass'd over and these things were finisht Dan. 12.7 For three year and half he continued in the Tower and in that space lived as if he had drank of Homer's Cup Odyss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he had represented and not felt the part he acted For except that so many Suits interrupted his Studies he lack'd nothing that could be perceived of Health Solace and Alacrity Benè dormit qui non sentit quà m malè dormiat a Fragment of Publius Mimus He wanted not good Society for I must ever praise his constant Friend Dr. Alabaster who took up a Lodging in one of the Mint-master's Houses to be with him continually While he was so many months shut up from the action of the World he began to hear of some Occurrences abroad which made him not dread his chief Enemy at Lambeth at all The Archbishop had entangled himself in his own Webb nay the King and all England and Scotland with him In illa liturgiâ infelicissimè ad Scotos missâ says wise Mr. Selden de Syn. Jud. par 2. His Majesty's Expedition into the
North gave our Bishop a breathing time from his Troubles And when the Articles of Pacification made at Berwick were burnt in London true or uncorrupted I dispute not I that report this was the first that carried the Tidings to the Tower and I call God to witness the Bishop presently broke out into these words I am right sorry for the King who is like to be forsaken by his Subjects at home but far more by all Kings and Princes abroad who do not love him But for the Archbishop says he he had best not meddle with me for all the Friends he can make will be too few to save himself A fatal fore-sight of all impending and ensuing Mischiefs But do you not hope Sir said I that such Concussions as you fear to come to pass will give you your Peace and Liberty Possibly they will says he But no honest man shall be the better for a Scotch Reformation wherein the Hare-brains among us are engaged with them Which is like that of Rutilius deported in Banishment to Mytelene one comforted him with hope of Civil Wars and then all that were banish'd should return to Rome says Rutilius Quid tibi mali feci ut mibi pejorem reditum quà m exitum sperares That which did precipitate the common Fortune and made all things worse and worse was the King's very sudden dissolving the Parliament met in Apr. 1640. His Majesty had been forewarned by a worthy Counsellor and a dying man against that Error in the Christmas before Cujus mortem dolor omnium celebrem fecit Sym. Ep. p. 11. It was L. Keeper Coventry who made but one Request with his last Breath to the King and sent it by Mr. James Maxwel of the Bed-Chamber That His Majesty would take all Distasts from the Parliament summoned against April with patience and suffer it to sit without an unkind dissolution But the Barking of the living Dogs was sooner heard than the Groaning of a dying Lyon for that Parliament ended in a few days in its Infancy and in its Innocency but the Grief for it will never end The next came on Novemb. 3. with all Animosities that could be infused out of Scotch and English Distempers The Bishop of Lincoln Petitions the King by the Queens Mediation that he might be set at liberty and have his Writ as a Peer to sit in Parliament which was opposed by the L. Finch then Custos sigilli magni and Archbishop Laud as appears by a Letter written to Sir Richard Winn Octob. 3. in these words 130. Good Cousin WITH my hearty Thanks remembred for all your great however unfortunate care of me and my Affairs Though you would not let me know any thing that might be any Grief or Discomfort to me yet I hear it of other Hands That I am eternally bound to the Queens Majesty and bound to remain her Vassal as long as I live And that I owe much to some other great Lords of His Majâ—â—ty's Council And that his Grace by my Lord Keeper's bold and much-mistaken Information to His Majesty that the Parliament cannot examine Errors and Oppressions in such an arbitrary Court as the Star-chamber is doth keep off His Majesty from using his Clemency towards me or permitting me to employ my best Endeavours to serve him My Lords Grace and Secretary Windebank have good reason to wish me out of the Parliament and out of the World too if they conceive I have no other business there than to complain against them And so hath the Lord Keeper and Sir J. Lamb. If her gracious Majesty whom than willingly offend I will rather dye will be pleased to set aside the Relations those two Personages have towards Her Majesty and set her poor Servant at liberty to take his course for Redress for those intolerable Concussions they have used against him And that I do not speak herein beside my Books I pray you and your Friends to peruse the bundle of Papers I send you which I desire you to return to me c. Through the Perswasion of those about the King whom the Letter discovers Lincoln was like to lye by it and to be shut out of Mercy by an irreversible Decree But the Lords of the Upper House after they had look'd about them a while on Nov. 16. sent to the Lieutenant of the Tower to deliver him to then Officer of the Black Rod who conducted him to the Parliament and their Lordships gave him his Place among his Brethren in the Bishops-Bench The King did soon hear of his Carriage that he neither complain'd nor so much as glanced at his Persecutors As a true Lover of his Country said Cic. Ep. Fam. lib. 10. Non me impedient privatae offensiones quò minùs pro Reip salute etiam cura inimicis consentiam His Majesty heard more That he was his faithful Minister and Stable to stand for him in all motions and did not refrain to fall sharply upon those Lords to whom he owed his Releasement for not speaking dutifully of His Majesty and of his Actions with Reverence Upon it the King sent for him and had conference with him alone till after midnight and made him some amends for the Evils past by commanding all Orders filed and kept in any Court or Registry upon the former Hearings and Dependencies against him to be slighted cancell'd crazed that no Monument or Memorial of them might remain So Aâ—m Probus tells us what Reparation was made to Alcibiades after he was brought home to Athens from his Exile Pilae in quibus devotio scripta fuit contra Alcibiadem in mare praecipitatae post quà m à Spartá revocatus est To quote a nearer Example When Constantine let Athanasius return again to his See at Alexandria 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athan. ad Solit. Vit. p. 823. All that was engross'd against Athanasius he commanded the Memory of it to be rid out of the way and all of it to be blotted out Look for such another Instance in Symmachus Ep. p. 127. of him that was thrice honour'd in being reinvested in those Honours from which he was degraded Majus quiddam est honorem restituere quam dedisse c. For Fortune may confer but only Judgment restores to Honour I am come to the end of those Suits with which our Bishop was overwhelmed and still made Defendant against the King Let Posterity observe how he was censur'd and grievously but for two things tampering with Witnesses never known before to be a fault in the Realm of England and for being suspected to have received two Letters in Cyphers of a mystical sence and as slight regard Being accused for divulging the King's Counsels and for Subornation of Witnesses he broke the neck of those Bills Being questioned for his Book in the High-Commission Court he wound himself out of the Labyrinth of all their Articles From an Hodg-potch of new Informations in Star-chamber he deliver'd himself by adventuring to appeal from that Court to the
to Practice and Use in our own Country Why it was in use in this Island before the Romans entred the same when the Druids gave all the Sentences in Causes of Blood Si coedes facâ—e pâ—as constituunt Caesar Bel. Gai. li. 6. And see Mr. Selden's Epinomis c. 2. Nor is it like that the Romans when they were our Masters should forbid it in Priests whose Pontifical College after they had entertain'd the twelve Tables meddled in all matters of this kind Strabo Geogr. lib. 4. And it is as unlike that the Christian Religion excluded Bishops in this Island from Secular Judicatures since King Lucius is directed to take out his Laws for the regulating of his Kingdom by the Advice of his Council ex utráque pagina the Old and New Testament which could not be done in that Age without the help of his Bishops See Sir H. Spelman's Councils p. 34. Ann. Dom. 185. And how the great Prelates among the ancient Britains were wholly employ'd in these kind of secular agitations you may see in the Ecclesiastical Laws of Howel Dha set forth by Sir H. Spelman pag. 408. anno 940. And a little before this Howel Dha lived K. Aetheljtan in the second Chapter of whose Ecclesiastical Laws we have it peremptorily set down Hinc debent Episcopi cum Saeculi Judicibus interesse judiciis and particularly in all Judgments of the Ordeals which no man that understands the word can make any doubt to have been extended to Mutilation and Death Sir H. S. Counc p. 405. ann 928. And that the Bishops joyned alwaies with the secular Lords in all Judicatory Laws and Acts under the whole reign of the Saxons and Danes in this Island we may see by those Saxon-Danish Laws or rather Capitularies which among the French and Germans do signifie a mixture of Laws made by the Prince the Bishops and the Barons to rule both Church and Common-wealth set forth by Mr. Lambert anno 1568. See particularly the ninth Chapter of St. Edward's Laws De his qui ad judicium sorri vel aquae judicati sunt fol. 128. And thus it continued in this Kingdom long after the Conquest to wit in Henry Beu-clerk's time after whose Reign it began to be a little limited and restrained for at Clarendon anno 1164 8 Calend. Febr. 11 Henr. 21 a general Record is agreed upon by that King 's Special Command of all the Customs and Liberties of this Kingdom ever since Hen. the First the King's Grandfather as you may see in Matth. Paris p. 96 of the first Edition where among other Customs agreed upon this is one Archbishops and Bishops and all other persons of this Kingdom which hold of the King in capite are to enjoy their Possessions of the King as a Barony and by reason thereof are to answer before the Judges and Officers of the King and to observe and perform all the King's Customs And just as the rest of the Barons ought for it was a Duty required of them as the King now by his Summons doth from us to be present in the Judgments of the King's Courts together with the rest of the Barons until such time as they shall there proceed to the mangling of Members or Sentence of Death 147. Observe that there is a diversity of reading in the last words for Matth. Paris a young Monk that lived long after reads this Custom thus Quousque perveniatur ad diminutionem membrorum vel ad mortem Which may be wrested to the first agitation of any Charge tending that way but Quadrilogus a Book written in that very Age and the original Copy of the Articles of Clarendon which Becket sent to Rome extant at this day in the Vatican Library and out of which Baronius in his Annals anno 1164 transcribes it reads the Custom thus Usque perveniatur in judicio ad diminutionem membrorum c. which leaves the Bishops to sit there until the Judgment come to be pronounced amounting to Death or Mutilation of Members And as this was agreed to be the Custom so was it the Practice also after that 11th year to wit in the 15th year of Henry the Second at what time the Lay-Peers are so far from requiring the Bishops to withdraw that they endeavour to force them alone to hear and determine a matter of Treason in the person of Becket Stephanides is my Author for this who was a Chaplain and Follower of that Archbishop The Barons say saith that Author You Bishops ought to pronounce Sentence upon your selves we are Laicks you are Church-men as Becket is you are his fellow-Priests and fellow-Bishops To whom some one of the Bishops replied This belongs to you my Lords rather than to us for this is no ecclesiastical but a secular Judicature We sit not here as Bishops but as Barons Nos Barones vos Barones hic Pares sumus And in vain it is that you should labour to find any difference at all in our Order or Calling See this Manuscript cited by Mr. Selden Titles of Honour 2 Edit p. 705. And thus the Custom continued till the 21st year of the same King Henry II. at what time that Provincial Synod was kept at Westminster by the Archbishop of Canterbury and some few of his Suffragans which Roger Hoveden mentions in his History p. 543. And it seems Gervasius Dorobernensis which is a Manuscript I have not seen The quoting of this Monk in the Margin of that Collection of Privileges which Mr. Selden by command had made for the Upper House of Parliament is the only ground of stirring up this Question against the Bishops at this present intended by Mr. Selden for a Privilege to the Bishops not for a Privilege to the Lay Peers to be pressed against the Bishops The Canon runs thus It is not lawful for such as are constituted in Holy Orders Judicium sanguinis agitare to put in execution Judgment of Blood and therefore we forbid that they shall either in their own persons execute any such mutilation of Members or sentence them to be so acted by others And if any such person shall do any such thing he shall be deprived of the Office and Place of his Order and Function We do likewise sorbid under the peril of Excommunication that no Priest be a secular Sheriff or Provost Now this is no Canon made in England much less confirmed by Common Law or assented to by all the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury or by any one of the Province of York but transcribed as appears by Hovenden's Margin out of a Council of Toledo which in the time that Council is supposed to be held was the least Kingdom in Spain and not so big as York-shire and consequently improper to regulate all the World and especially this remote Kingdom of England Beside as this poor Monk sets it down it doth inhibit Church-men from being Hang-men rather than from being Judges to condemn men to be thus mutilated and mangled in their
Members an ordinary Punishment of the Goths and Vandals who then lived in Spain but never heard of here with us of many years before the Reign of Hen. II and therefore not sitly pressed to drive Bishops from sitting as Peers in the case of the Earl of Strafford who is not to be sentenc'd to any mutilation of Members True it is that in the Council it self being the Eleventh Council of Toledo Can. 6. they are forbidden Quod morte plectendum sit sententiâ propria judicare to sentence in any Cause that is to be punish'd with Death Whereas in the Fourth Council of Toledo Can. 31 under Sisinandus not long before held anno 633 it is said That the Kings do oftentimes commit to Priests and Bishops their Judicature Contra quoscunque Majestatis obnoxios against all Treasons howbeit they are directed not to obey their King in this particular unless they have him bound by Oath to pardon the Party in case they shall find reason to mediate for him And thus the Canon-Law went in Spain but no where else in Christendom in that Age. 148. But these Bishops at Westm travelled not so far as Toledo to fetch in this Canon into their Synod but took it out of Gratian then in vogue for he lived in the time of Hen. Beu-clerk Grandfather to this Hen. II. who in the second part of his Decrees Cap. de Clericis saith thus Clericis in sacris ordinibus constitutis ex concil Tolet. Judicium sanguinis agitaro non licet And so this Canon was fetch'd from Spain into these other parts of Europe above four hundred years after the first making thereof upon this occasion Pope Gregory the Seventh otherwise called Hildebrand who lived in the time of William the Conqueror having so many deadly Quarrels against Hen. IV. Emperor of Germany to make his part good and strong laid the first ground which his Successors in their Canons closely pursued to draw the Bishops and other great Prelates of Germany France England and Spain from their Lay-Soveraigns and Leige-Lords to depend wholly upon him and so by colour and pretence of Ecclesiastical Immunities withdrew them from the Services of their Princes in War and in Peace and particularly from exercising all Places of Judicature in the Civil Courts of Princes to the which Offices they were by their Breeding and Education more enabled than the martial Lay-Lords of that rough Age and by their Fiefs and Baronies which they held from Kings and Emperors particularly bound and obliged And therefore you shall find that whereas the Bishops of this Island before the Conquest did still joyn with the Thanes Aldermen and Lay-Lords in the making and executing of all Laws whatsoever touching deprivation of Life and mutilation of Members Yet soon after when the Norman and English Prelates Lanfrank Anselm Becket and the rest began to trade with Rome and as Legati nati to wed the Laws and Canons cried up in Rome and to plant them here in England they withdrew by little and little our Prelates from these Employments and Dependencies upon the Kings of England and under the colour of Exemptions and Church-Immunities erected in this Land an Ecclesiastical Estate and Monarchy depending wholly upon the Pope inhibiting them to exercise secular Employments or to sit with the rest of the Peers in Judicatures of Life and Members otherwise than as they list themselves and hence principally did arise those great heats between our Rufus and Anselm which Eadmer speaks of and those ancient Customs of this Kingdom which Hen. II. pressed upon Becket in the Articles of Clarendon that the Prelates ought to be present in the King's Courts c. Which Pope Alexander a notable Boutefeu of those times in the Church of God did tolerate though not approve of as he apostyles that Article with his own Hand to be shewn to this day in the M. S. extant in the Vatican Library And although I shall not deny but the Popes did plead Scripture for this Inhibition as they did for all things else and allude unto that place 2 Tim. 3.4 which they backed with one of the Canons of the Apostles as they call them the seventh in number Yet it is clear their main Authority is fetch'd from this obscure Synod of Toledo where eighteen Bishops only were convened under Bamba the Goth who of a Plowman was made a King and of a King a Cloyster'd Monk as you may see in the History of Rodericus Santius par 2. c. 32. This is all the goodly Ground that either Gratian in his Decrees or Innocent III in the Decretals or Roger Hoveden in his History alledges against the Ecclesiastical Peers their sitting as Judges in Causes of Blood to wit this famous Gothish Council of Toledo The first that planted this Canon here in England was Stephen Langton a Cardinal the Pope's Creature as his Holiness was pleased to stile him in his Bull and thrust upon the See of Canterbury by a Papal Provision where he continued in Rebellion against his Soveraign as long as King John lived This Archbishop under colour of Ecclesiastical Immunity for so this Canon is marshall'd by Linwood at Osney near Oxford did ordain Ne quis Clericus beneficiatus vol in sacris Ordinibus constitutus praesumat interesse ubi judicium sanguinis tractatur vel exerceatur And this is the first Canon broach'd in this Kingdom to this effect that of Othobone being subsequent in time and a meer Foreign or Legantine Constitution See it at large in Linwood Constit lib. 3. ad sinem And by vertue of a Branch of this very Constitution the now Archbishop two years since sined the Bishop of Gloucester in the High-Commission because he had given way in time of Pestilence only that a Sessions a Judgment of Blood might be kept in a sacred place which was likewise inhibited in this Canon But this admits of a multitude of Answers First 149. Quod haec dictio Clericus ex vi verbi non comprehendit Episcopum Linwood lib. 3. de locat is conductis Secondly the irregularity incurr'd by Judicature in Causes of Blood is only Jure positivo and therefore dispensable by the Pope saith Covarruvias in Clemen si furiosus p. 2. com 5. n. 1. and here in England is dispens'd with in Bishops by the King who in his Writs or Summons to the Parliament commands the Lords Spiritual without any exception of Causes of Blood to joyn in all Matters and Consultations whatsoever with the Temporal Peers of the Kingdom their Summons being unto them a sufficient Dispensation so to do And Othobon himself inhibiting other Clerks to use these Secular Judicatures hath a Salvo to preserve the Priviledges of our Lord the King whereby he may use any of their Services in that kind when he shall see cause Tit. ne Clerici Juris saec exerceant And Linwood upon that Text doth instance in the Clerks of the Chancery and others Nor are these Writs that summon the
Bishops Dispensations only but Mandates also And those Bishops have been fined at the Kings Bench and elsewhere that absented themselves from Councils in Parliament without the King 's special leave and licence first obtained Thirdly When they are forbidden interesse to be present the meaning is not in the very Canons themselves that they should go out of the room but only that they should not be present to add Authority Help and Advice to any Sentence pronounced against a particular or individual Person in cause of Blood or mutilation If he be present auctorizando consilium opem vel operam dando then he contracts an irregularity and no otherwise saith our Linwood out of Innocentius And the Canon reacheth no further than to him that shall pronounce Sentence of Death or Mutilation upon a particular Person For Prelates that are of Counsel with the King in Parliament or otherwise being demanded the Law in such and such a Case without naming any individuum may answer generaliter loquendo That Treason is to be punisht with Death and a Counterseiter of the King's Coin Hostien lib. 2. eap de fals monet allowed by John Montague de Collatione Parliamentorum In Tracta Doctor Vol. 10. p. 121. Fourthly These Canons are not in force in England to bind the King's Subjects for several Reasons First Because they are against his Majesty's Prerogative as you may see it clearly in the Articles of Clarendon and the Writ of Summons and therefore abolished 25 H. 8. c. 8. It is his Majesty's Prerogative declar'd at Clarendon that all such Ecclesiastical Peers as hold of him by Barony should assist in the King's Judicatures until the very actual pronouncing of a Sentence of Blood And this holds from Henry the First down to the latter end of Queen Elizabeth who imployed Archbishop Whitgist as a Commissioner upon the Life of the Earl of Essex to keep him in Custody and to examine him after that Commotion in London And to say that this Canon is confirm'd by Common Law is a merry Tale there being nothing in the Common Law that tends that way Secondly It hath been voted in the House of Commons in this very Session of Parliament That no Canons since the Conquest either introduced from Rome by Legatine Power or made in our Synods had in any Age nor yet have at this present any power to bind the Subjects of this Realm unless they be confirmed by Act of Parliament Now these Canons which inhibit the Presence of Church-men in Cause that concerns Life and Member were never confirm'd by any but seem to be impeach't by divers and sundry Acts of Parliament Thirdly The whole House of Peers have this very Session despised and set aside this Canon Law which some of the young Lords cry up again in the same Session and in the very same Cause to take away the Votes of the Bishops in the Case of the Earl of Strafford For by the same Canon Law that forbids Clergy-men to Sentence they of that Coat are more strictly inhibited to give no Testimony in Causes of Blood Nee ettam potest esse test is vel tabellio in causâ Sanguinis Linw. part 2. sol 146. For no Man co-operates more in a Sentence of Death than the Witnesses upon whose Attestation the Sentence is chiefly past Lopez pract crim c. 98. distl 21. and yet have the Lords admitted as Witnesses produced by the House of Commons against the Earl of Strafford the Archbishops of Canterbury and Armagh with the Bishop of London which Lords command now all Bishops to withdraw in the agitation of the self same Case Bishops it seems may be Witnesses to kill ont-right but may not sit in the Discussion of the Cause to help in case of Innocency a distressed Nobleman Whereas the very Gothish Bishops who first invented this Exclusion of Prelates from such Judicatures allow them to Vote as long as there is any hope left of clearing the Party or gaining of Pardon 4. Conc. Tol. Can. 31. And by the beginning of that Canon observe the use in Spain in that Age Anno 633. as touching this Doctrine Saepe principes contra quoslibet majestatis obnoxios Sacerdotibus negotia sua committunt Binnius 4. Tom. Can. Edit ult p. 592. Lastly In the Case of Archbishop Abbot all the great Civilians and Judges of the Land as Dr. Steward Sir H. Martin the Lord Chief Justice Hobart and Judge Doderidge which two last were very well versed in the Canon Law delivered positively when my self at first opposed them That all Irregularities introduced by Canons upon Ecclesiastical Persons concerning matters of Blood were taken away by the Reformation of the Church of England and were repugnant to the Statute 25 II. 8. as restraining the King 's most just Prerogative to imploy his own Subjects in such Functions and Offices as his Predecessors had done and to allow them those Priviledges and Recreations as by the Laws and Customs of this Realm they had formerly enjoy'd notwithstanding the Decree de Clerico venatore or the Constitution nae Clerici Saeculare c. or any other in that kind 150. The only Objection which appears upon any Learning or Record against the Clergies Voting in this Kingdom in Causes of Blood are two or three Protestations entred by the Bishops among the Records of the upper House of Parliament and some few Passages in the Law-Books relating thereunto The Protestation the Lords now principally stand upon is that of William Courtney Archbishop of Canterbury 11 Rich. 2. inserted in the Book of Priviledges which Mr. Selden collected for the Lords of the upper House In the Margin whereof that passage out of R. Hovenden about which we spake before about Clergy-mens agitation of Judgments of Blood is unluckily inserted and for want of due consideration and some suspicion of partial carriage in the Bishops in the case of the Earl of Strafford hath been eagerly pressed upon the Bishops by some of the Lords in such an unusual and unaccustomed manner that if I my self offering to speak to this Objection had not voluntarily withdrawn the rest of the Bishops and I had been without hearing voted out of the House in the agitation of a Splinter of that Cause of the Earl of Strafford's which came not near any matter of Blood An act never done before in that honourable House and ready to be executed suddenly without the least consideration of the merit of the Cause The only words insisted upon in the Protestation of Courtney's are these Because in this present Parliament certain matters are agitated whereat it is not lawsul for us according to the Prescript of holy Canons to be present And by and by after they say These matters are such in the which Nec possumus nec debemus interesse This is the Protestation most stood upon That of Archbishop Arundel 21 Rich. 2. is not so full and ample as this of Courtney's For the Bishops going forth left their Proxies with the
Lay-Lords and consequently continued present in Judicature in the eye and construction of the Law Therefore I apply my Answers to Courtney's Protestation principally which are divers and fit to be weighed and ponder'd First I do observe that Bishops did never protest or withdraw in Causes of Blood but only under the unsteddy Reign of Richard the Second Never before nor after the time of that unfortunate King to this present Parliament for ought appears in Record or History And that one Swallow should make us such a Spring and one Omission should create a Law or Custom against so many Actions of the English Prelates under so many Kings before so many Kings and Queens after that young Prince seems to me a strange Doctrine especially when I consider that by the Rules of the Civil and Common Law a Protestation dies with the death of him that makes it or is regularly vacated and disannulled Per contrarium actum subsequentem protestationem by any one subsequent act varying from the tenour of the said Protestation Regul Juris Bap. Nicol. part 2. Now that you may know how the Prelates carried themselves in this point and actually voted in Causes of Treason and sometimes to Blood before Richard the Second I refer me to what I cited before out of Mr. Selden and he out of Stephanides concerning Becket condemned by his Peers Ecclesiastical and Temporal 15 H. 2. Archbishop Stratford acquitted of High Treason in Parliament by four Prelates four Earls and four Barons under Edward the Third Antiq. Britan. p. 223. There was 4 Ed. 3. Roger de Mortimer Berisford Travers and others adjudged Traitors by Bishops as well as other Peers 16 Ed. 3. Thomas de Berkely was acquitted of Treason in pleno Parliamento And especially I refer my self to Roll 21 Rich. 2. Num. 10. which averrs That Judgments and Ordinances in the time of that King's Progenitors had been avoided by the absence of the Clergy which makes the Commons there to pray that the Prelates would make a Procurator by whom they might in all Judgments of Blood be at the least legally if they durst not be bodily present in such Judicatures And for the practice since the Reign of Rich. II. be it observed that in the fifth of Hen IV. the Commons thank the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for their good and rightful Judgment in freeing the Earl of Northumberland from Treason 3 Hen. 5. The Commons pray a Confirmation of the Judgment given upon the E. of Cambridge by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal 5 H. 5. Sir J. Oldcastle is attainted of Treason and Heresie by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal 28 H. 6. The Duke of Suffolk is charged with Treason before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal 31 H. 6. The Earl of Devon in like sort and so down to the Earl of Bristol's Case 22 Maii 1626. ten Bishops are joyned with ten Earls and ten Barons in the disquisition and agitation of that supposed Treason I leave it therefore to any indifferent Judgment Whether these Protestations made all under one Kings Reign dying with the Parties that made them can void a Right and Custom grounded on a continual Practice to the contrary in all other Tryals that have been since the Conquest to this present Parliament 151. Secondly It is fitting we know the nature of a Protestation which some may mistake Protestatio est animi nostri declaratio juris acquirendi vel conservandi vel damnum depellendi causâ facta saith Spiegle Calvin and all the Civilians No Protestation is made by any man in his Wits to destroy his own Right and much less another mans but to acquire or preserve some Right or to avoid and put off some Wrong that was like to happen to the Party or Parties that make the Protestation As here in Courtney's Protestation the Prelates in the first place conceive a Right and Power they had voluntarily to absent themselves while some matters were treated of at that time in the House of Lords which by the Canon-Law the Breach whereof the Popes of Rome did vindicate in those times with far more Severity than they did the Transgressions of the Law of God they were not suffer'd to be present at not for want of Right to be there in all Causes but for fear of Papal Censures In the next place they did preserve their former Right as Peers which they still had though voluntarily absenting themselves More solito interessendi considerandi tyactandi ordinandi definiendi all things without exception acted and executed in that Parliament And in the last place they protest against any loss of right of being or voting in Parliament that could befall them for this voluntary absenting of themselves at this time And where in all this Protestation is there one word to prejudice their Successors or to authorize any Peer to command his fellow-Peer called thither by the same Writ of Summons that himself is and by more ancient Prescription to withdraw and go out from this Common-Council of the Kingdom Thirdly We do not certainly know what these matters were whereat Archbishop Courtney conceived the Prelates neither could nor ought to be present These matters are left in loose and general words in that Protestation Some conceive indeed it was at the Condemnation of Tressilian Brambre L. Beauchamp and others Ant. Brit. p. 286. But the Notes of Privileges belonging to the Lords collected by Mr. Selden do with more reason a great deal assign this going forth of the Prelates to be occasion'd by certain Appeals of Treason preferred in that Parliament by the Duke of Gloucester against Alexander Archbishop of York whom the Popish Canons of those Times as you know exempted as a sacred person from the cognizance of King or Parliament and therefore the rest of the Bishops as the Squares went then neither could nor ought to be present and Parties to break the Exemptions Immunities and Privileges of that great Prelate But the Earl of Strafford is not the Archbishop but the President of York and to challenge any such Exemptions and Immunities at this time from the cognizance of King and Parliament amounts to little less than Treason Therefore this Protestation is very unseasonably urged to thrust out any Protestant Prelate from voting in Parliament Lastly In the Civil and Canon-Law for the Law of this Land knoweth it not a Protestation is but a Testation or witnessing before-hand of a man 's own Mind or Opinion whereby they that protest provide to save and presorve their own Right for the time to come It concludes no more bende themselves no Stranger to the Act no Successor but if it be admitted sticks as inherent in the singular and individual person until either the Party dyes or the Protestation be drawn and revoked Therefore what is a Protestation made by Will. Courtney to Will. Laud Or by Tho. Arundel to bind Tho. Morton And what one Rule in the Common-Law of the Land in the Journaâ—-Books or
in the Records of the Tower can be produced to exclude the Lords Spiritual from sitting and voting in Causes of Blood Sometimes by the great Favour of the King Lords and Commons not otherwise they were permitted to absent themselves never before now commanded by the Lay-Lords to forbear their Votes in any Cause that was agitated in Parliament So our Law Books say That the Prelates by the Canon-Law may make a Procurator in Parliament when a Peer is to be tryed Which is enough to shew their Right thereunto This is to be seen 10 Edw. IV. f. 6. placit 17. And That it is only the Canon-Law that inhibits them to vote in Sanguinary Causes Stamford Pleas of the Crown f. 59. And saith Stamford the Canon-Law is a distinct and separated notion and not grown in his Age to any such Usance or Custom as made it Common-Law or the Law of the Land 152. Coming now to an end it moves me little what some object That many worthy Fathers of this Church-reformed and Bishop Andrews among the rest did forbear to vote in Causes of Blood and voluntarily retired out of the House if such things came in question nor did offer to enter any Protestation I do not doubt but they had pious Affections in it though they did not fully ponder what they did I have heard that a main Reason was that of the Record and Statute of 11 Rich. II. That it is the honesty of that Calling not to intermeddle in matters of Blood Now the French word Honesty signifies Decency and Comeliness As though it were a butcherly and a loathsom matter to be a Judge or to do Right upon a Malefactor to Death or loss of Members But this is an imaginary Decency never known in Nature or Scripture as I said before but begotten by Tradition in the dark Foggs and Mists of Popery Such an Honesty of the Clergy it was to have a shaven Crown to depend on the Pope to plead Exemptions and to resuse to answer for Felonies in the King's Courts All these were esteemed in those days the Honesty of the Clergy And such an Honesty it was in the Prelates of England in the loose Reign of Rich. II to absent themselves when they listed from the Aslembly of the Estate contrary to the King's Command in the Writ of Summons and to the Duties of their places as Peers of Parliament Yet they had more insight into what they did than some of our Bishops for they never offer'd to retire themselves in those days before their Protestation was benignly received and suffer'd to be enter'd upon the Parliament-Roll by the King the Lords and the House of Commons I know those excellent men that are with God proposed other Scruples to themselves they doubted not of the Legality or Comeliness for an Ecclesiastical Peer of the Kingdom of England to vote in a Judgment of Blood they did it continually in passing all Appeals and Attainders in Parliament but it startled them because it is not the practice of Prelates in other parts of the Christian Church so to do and thought it better to avoid Scandal and the Talk of other Nations That there being in the High Court of Parliament and Star-chamber Judges enough beside them they might without any prejudice to their King and Country forbear voting in those Judicatures somewhat the rather because all our Bishops in England are Divines and Preachers of the Gospel and consequently to be employ'd in Mercy rather than in Judgment who never touch upon the sharpness of the Law unless it be to prepare mens Hearts to relish and receive the comfort of the Gospel Let the Piety then and the Good-meaning of those grave Fathers be praised but I say they forgot their Duty to the Writ of the King's Summons and the use and weight of their Place And now to close I protest without vaunting I cannot perceive how this can be answer'd which I have digested together And if so many Bishops cannot obtain their Right which is so clear on their side God send the Earl of Strafford better Justice who is but a single Peer 153. Blame not my Book that there is so much of this Argument I hope the Ignorant will not read it at all but let a knowing man read it again and when he hath better observ'd it he will think it short Some History-spoilers have detracted from our Bishop that though he pleaded much in Parliament to his own Peril in the behalf of E. Strafford yet he wrought upon the King to consent to give way to his beheading Says our Arch-Poet Spencer lib. 3. Can. 1. st 10. Great hazard were it and Adventure fond To lose long-gotten Honour with one evil Hand But he shall lose no Honour in this for first as Nazian Or. 27 rejects them that had raised an ill Report of him whom he praised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can you prove that they were sound in their mind that said so if any will believe it from such authors a good man hath lost his thanks Ego quod bené fec◠malè feci quia amor mutavit locum Plautus That which was well done is ill done because it is not lovingly requited Hear all and judge equally Both the Houses of Lords and Commons by most Voices found the Earl guilty of Treason they made the greater Quire but those few that absolved him sung better The King interceded by himself by the Prince his Son to save him craved it with Cap in Hand Being founder'd in his Power he could go no further the Subjects denied their Soveraign the Life of one Man so Strafford must be cast away Opimii calamitas turpitudo Po. Rom. non judicium fuit Cic. pro Plancio Whose Calamity is the shame of English Justice His Majesty for divers days could not find in his Heart to set his Hand to the Warrant for Execution for Conscience dresseth it self by its own light And I would he had been as constant to his own Judgment in other things that we might remember it to his Honour as Capitolinus testifies for Maximus Non aliis potiùs quà m sibi credidit The fate of it was that the Parliament would not grant Mercy to the Earl and would have Justice from the King according to their Sentence whether he would or no They threaten and were as good as their Word to sit idle and do nothing for publick Safety and Settlement the whole Realm being in distraction till the Stroke was struck All the Palace-Yard and Hall were daily full of Mutineers and Outcries His Majesty's Person was in danger the roguy Off-scum in the Streets of Westminster talk'd so loud that there was cause to dread it Though there is nothing more formidable than to fear any thing more than God yet the most eminent Lords of the Council perswaded His Majesty to make no longer resistance Placeat quodcunque necesse est Lucan lib. 4. Not he but Necessity should be guilty of it If he did
and to stand to their Courtesie when they would resign them again Nec missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo Hor. Art Poet. It could be for no small time that they itch'd to hold the Reins and having govern'd so long they would never be brought to obey The Fox in the Fable crept into a Granary of Corn and staid till his Belly was so full that he could not get out It is a wise Note of Spartianus upon Did. Julianus Reprchensus in eo praecipuè quod ques rogere auctoritate suâ debuit praesules sibi ipse fecit When the prudent Augustus saw he could not shake off a standing Senate he saw no way but to divide the Provinces of the Empire between him and them and to take the worst half the remotest to himself But did the King think to escape so well with an indissoluble Parliament Balsack writes prophanely That the World ought not to end until the French King's Race should fail And it proved by this concession to continue the two Houses to sit as long as they would that the Glory of the Crown should fail before they would endure their old Stump to be rooted up When a Swarm of luxurious men that made love to Penelope wasted Ulysses's Substance in his absence Homer breaks out Odyss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no King henceforth be gracious and kind for he shall fare as ill as the worst So let no King suppose to oblige his Subjects with the greatest Trust that was ever committed to men for he shall speed the worse for his considence in them The Bishop of Lincoln but two days before ask'd the King If his wise Father would have suffer'd such a thing to be demanded much left have granted it And Whether it would be possible for his truest Lieges to do him Service any more So bold he was and ply'd his good Master to the last with new Motives to dehort him from it I know not what ill Star scouled upon so good a King to listen to no good Counsel in that point There was one that thrust him on whose Advices were more loving than lucky And on a Sunday May 9. he signed the indefinite continuance of the Parliament as it is commonly voiced and Strafford's Execution with the same drop of Ink. A sad Subject and as I found it so I leave it 155. Wisdom and Reason were not wanting in that noble King Fortune was Darius called Codomann was the best of all the Kings of the Porsian Race from Cyrus downward to himself yet under him the Persian Monarchy was ruined and fell to the Macedonians Destinatus sorti suae jam nullius salubris consilii patiens says the Historian Curt. lib. 5. It cuts my Heart to say that this agrees to a far better Monarch than himself King Charles makes ready in the Summer for a Journey into Scotland hoping to bring over the Seditious there to love him with Sweetness and Caresses by Bounties as he was able by Honours bestow'd on some by Promises and by the gracious Interview of his presence for we owe Affection naturally to them that offer us Love Or if all this wrought not he was so oversway'd with Disdain to be near to Westminster where his Person his Justice his Court or his Clergy were slander'd every hour that he would ride far enough from the strife of Tongues and not be near the Furnace where the steam was so hot I heard one of his Bed-chamber say That nothing made him remove so far from his Court and Council as the tediousness of Intelligence brought to him every minute with variety of Glosses and Opinions upon it As Adrian the Emperor said in his last Sickness that he had too many Physicians about him to be cured so our King thought he had too many Counsellors at London to take distinct Advice Walk in the Spring-Garden in May and what Bird can you listen to particularly when there is not a Bough but hath a Bird upon it that warbles his own Note There is pleasure in that But those that press'd so thick upon the King came with some ill Augury Seraque fatidici cecinerunt omnia vates AEn lib. 5. Howsoever Home is homely says the Country Adagy and this Journey to Scotland was not begun in a good day There was never any Parliament like it which now fate that bewrayed openly so many foolish Fears raked up in the cold Embers of Distrust and Guiltiness Quae pueri in tenebris pavitant sing untque futurâ Therefore a Jealousie was straightway in their Heads that this Journey could not be good for them Why What can a King do to be good for himself and pernicious to his People Well said the Persians Xen. lib. 8. Cyr. paed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cyrus can undertake nothing and make it good for himself alone and not for us But upon their Jealousie they resolve to give the King such a Welcome home as should offend him O Hypocrites that seem to be afraid of the King when none had more cause than he to be afraid of them Watchful Lincoln had dived into the Secrets of the Masters of the private Assembly Hannibali omnia hostium non secus ac sua nota sunt Liv. lib. 22. Every man knows his own mind a wise man like Hannibal will know his Enemies if he can The Bishop coming to the King besought His Majesty that for his sake he would put off his Scotch Journey to another season His written Notes in my keeping are long and impersect the sum is thus He besought His Majesty to consider that the Scotts were Sear-boughs not to be bent whatsoever he said to them they would reveal it to their Cronies at Westminster for there was a Trade and Exchange that ran currently among them Some of them and not the meanest make it a slight thing to be persidious and will laugh at it when they are derected They have distinctions for it from their Kirk which straddle so wide that flat Contraries Yea and Nay Truth and Lyes may run between them K. James the Fourth had the knack of such Devices who having made a strong League of Peace with Harry VIII and yet invaded England with an Army remember it was at Flodden-Field Drummond p 142. said He did not break his League with England but departed from it The Bishop pray'd the King to remember that those Lowns had been in Hubbubs and Covenants and Arms two years together could they be converted of a sudden without a Miracle Integrum non est ad virtutem semel reliclam remigrare Cic. Lelius It will be a long time before Rebels find their Fidelity again when they have lost it They have shew'd their Despight so lately that it is too soon to offer them Courtesie they know in what condition your Majesty is and they will not take it for Kindness but Fear Keep near to the Parliament all the Work is within those Walls win them man by man inch
by inch somewhat may be gotten out of small pieces of business nothing out of supervacaneous And Sir says he I would it were not true that I shall tell you Some of the Commons are preparing a Declaration to make the Actions of your Government odious if you gallop to Scotland they will post as fast to draw up this biting Remonstrance Stir not till you have mitigated the grand Contrivers with some Preferments But is this credible says the King Judge you of that Sir says the Bishop when a Servant of Pymm 's in whose Master 's House all this is moulded came to me to know of me in what terms I was contented to have mine own Case in Star-chamber exhibited among other Irregularities And I had much ado to keep my Name and what concerns me out of these Quotations but I obtain'd that of the fellow and a Promise to do me more Service to know all they have in contrivance with a few Sweetbreads that I gave him out of my Purse What is there in all that the Bishop said especially in the last touch that look'd not like sober Warning Yet nothing was heeded The King saw Scotland and I know not what he brought thence unless it were matter to charge the five Members of Treason who were priviledg'd from it with a Mischief His Majesty being returned to London Nov. 26. That which the Commons called The Remonstrance of the state of the Kingdom came forth by their Vote Decemb. 15. to besoil His Majesly's Reign with studied bitterness And this was a Night-work and held the Members Debate all Wednesday night and till three of the Clock in the Thursday morning Synesius spake his worst of Trypho's Tribunal Lib. de Prov. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did not administer justice in the day-time but in the night a time more proper for thieves to go to work and for the beasts of the forrest to come out of their dens and get their prey if the loyal part had staid it out who appeared the greater number in the beginning of the question they had cast it out for a vile desamation but the one half of that part had slunk away and were gone to bed as st Peter stood to his Master stoutly till midnight but railed him by the second crowing of the Cock If these had kept the wise Rules of the Roman Senate the one part had been frustrate in all they obtained in the dead of the night and long after Says Budaeus Senatus consultum ante exortum post occasum solis nullum fait lib. 1. in Pand. p. 231. And the other part had been fined for departing away Senatori qui non aderit aut causa aut culpa esto Cic. de Leg. But their Apology is That those were no Juridical hours either for a Roman or an English Senate Birds of Day keep not time with Screetch-owls But these Libertines had leave to sit as long as they would by night or day Magna sumendo majora praesumimus Sym. Ep. p. 9. Great Concessions are the cause of greater Presumptions 156. During some part of the time that the King was in the North Miseries came trooping all at once upon the Church The Reverend Fathers every day libelled and defamed in the Press durst not come in to help The Times did make it appear what Blood was about mens Hearts They that feared to diversifie from the received Doctrine and Discipline of the Church before dreading Ecclesiastical Consistories and the High-Commission Court encreased into so many Sects almost as there were Parishes in England And as Aventine said lib. 8. Annal. of the Schoolmen newly sprung up in his days Singulae sectae judicio multarum sectarum stultitiae cowvincuntur But what were we the better when every Spark kindled another to make a general Combustion Our Case in God's House was as bad as that of the Gauls in Caesar's time lib. 6. Bel. Gal. Non solùm in omnibus civitatibus atque in omnibus pag is partibusque sed in singulis domibus factiones sunt The Parliament which saw the Body of Christ wounded look'd on and passed by on the other side Luke 10.32 as if they did but smile at the variety of Throngs and Dispositions I think they durst net pour in Wine or Oyl to heal the Wounds of Religion for that reason which Dr. Owen gives Praef. to Vind. p. 36. For by adhering to one Sect professedly they should engage all the rest against them Only Lincoln for all this universal Contempt of Episcopacy visited his great Diocess in October not by his Chancellor but in his own person Naequid expectes amicos quod tute agere possies so cited out of Ennius Trust not to your Friends when you can do your Work your self A Bishop is lazy that doth his Duty by a Proxy Pontificium significat potestatem officium says a Critick Heral in Arnob. p. 115. The Etymology of a Pontificate imports Power and Office They are both Yoke-fellows Says another Critick and a good Judge indeed Salmas in Solin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Age of Christian Emperors were Visitors that went from Church to Church like Paul and Barnabas to set things in order who long before that were Physicians that were sent from Village to Village to cure the Sick This Labour our Bishop undertook personally to heal the Maladies of Brain-sick Distempers at Boston Lester Huntington Bedford Hitchin the last Visitation that was held in either Province to this day And God grant he might not say as Synesius did of his Diocess of Ptolomais when he and all the Bishops of Aegypt were ejected by a conquering Party 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O my Ptolomais am I the last Bishop that ever thou shalt have But I hope better things Hope is the common Revenue of the Distressed they have much of that who have nothing else I go on with our Bishop who so long as he was in Place and for a while that his Words were remembred brought those Counties to a handsom state of quietness Cocus magnum abenum quando fervet paulâ confutat truâ When a Cauldron of hot Liquor boils and is ready to run over a Cook stays it by casting in a Ladle of cold Water No man could comprize his Exhortations in better Harmony than this Oratour and set several Instruments in tune one to another and the Voice to them all Eloquium tot lumina clausit Meta. l. as Mercury lull'd Argos asleep with all his Eyes for says he much to this meaning Countrymen and Neighbors whither do you wander Here are your lawful Ministers present to whom of late you do not refort I hear but to Tub-preachers in Conventicles There is a Penalty for this and no Power can protect you against the Statutes in force which are not yet repealed but you are bound in Conscience to keep those Laws which are not Fetters upon your Hands but Bracelets they are the
Malt that cost most so you reckon their fitness to preach upon the score of their Gifts but Where is their Calling Where is their Ordination Cooks or Butchers have a Gift to dress a Beast yet God would admit none but Priests to make ready his Sacrifice And if you mean by Gifts Learning and Knowledge I am perswaded if these your Chaplains had them they would give them away again if they could Learning is that which they decry as a mark of the Beast Qui omnes sui similes esse cupiunt ut privata eâ—runt inscitia sub câ—mmuni delitescat says Erasmus I spend too much time to pull down a Sconce of Sand I have no more to answer to but to them that bid me speak well of these and pity them because they are ignorant and mean well I report that of Bernard to it Ut liberius peccent libenter ignorant They are willingly ignorant that they may be wilfully factious And through what Loop-hole doth their Good-meaning appear In Railings or Blasphemies I will never impute a Good meaning unto them so long as I see no such thing in their Fruits unless God shall say so at the last day God grant to this Parliament a Good-meaning to reform these Abuses and to act it with their Wisdom and Power for I have heard some say that Hell is full of them that had nothing but good purposes This which the Bishop did then deliver I may call his visiting of the Parliament and you have both what he acted in his Diocess and what he spake at a Conference of both Houfes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I may borrow it out of Nazian upon another Athanasius He exceeded the most eloquent in Eloquence and the most active in Practice For all this good Warning our great Commanders in the Belly of the Trojan Horse mended nothing Nay in about a year and half after this they sequestred the choicest Divines of the Kingdom from their Livings and many of these Mechanicks supplied their places At Wimbleton not far from me a Warrener propounded to Thomas Earl of Exeter That he should have a Burrough of Rabbets of what colour he pleased Let them be all white skinned says that good Earl The Undertaker killed up all the rest and fold them away but the white lair and left not enough to serve the Earl's Table The application runs full upon a worthy Clergy who were destroy'd to make room for white-skinn'd Pole-cats that came in with a strike and so will go out 158. But the King is come home again who could not work the Scots to his own plight or obtain any thing from that ungovern'd Nation Here he found his Bishops design'd to Undoing and the Parliament would sit his Patience out till it was effected An unlimited Concession Utinam promissa liceret non dare Metam lib. 2. forfeits the Giver himself to those that have received the Privilege from him The Houses stand not upon Reasons but Legislative Votes Reasons no God wot As Camerar says of sorry Writers in vt Melan. Miseri homines mendicant argumenta nam si mercarentur profectò meliora afferrent They beg the Cause for if they purchas'd it with Arguments they would bring better If they have no other Proofs there were many in the Pack that could fetch them from Inspiration Or obtrude a Point of Conscience and then there is no disputing for it cannot live no more than a longing Woman if it have not all it gapes for They ask it for a great-bellied Conscience to which in Humanity you must deny nothing His Majesty was mainly afflicted both that an unseasonable Bar was devising against all the Clergy to intermeddle in any secular Affairs especially that the Bishops Places of which they were so anciently possest in Parliament were heaved at which came near to the lessening or worse of his own Royalty He knew they were joyned in such a couplement as the removing of the one endanger'd the other Grotius says it was the Judgment of a wife and mighty Prince Charles the Fifth Caesari persuasum conculcatâ sacerdotum reverentiá ne ipsi quidem mansurum obsequium Annal. p. 11. What did persuade the Emperor to think so Not because his Clergies Revenues are at his devotion to help him more than other mens or that they were learned and able to dispute his Right and Title with his Enemies or that their Interest did legally keep his Throne from tottering but because commonly the King and the Prelates have the same Enemies and the Constitution of them both is much at one for he that thinks a Bishop is too much a Potentate over the Ministry is yellow with Disdain against Superiority and is prepared to conceive that a free Monarch is too glorious a Creature over the People The King therefore exprest his Patronage as much as he could to that Holy Order and exalted some worthy men to Bishopricks in vacant Places and among others translated the Bishop of Lincoln to be Archbishop of the Province of York This is that man whose Life was so full of Variety Quod consul toties exulque ex exule consul says Manilius of Marius He was advanced to great Honours very young half of his Pomps cut off within five years lay four years current in the Tower sequestred of all and very near to be deprived of all and of a sudden recovers his Liberty and a higher Place than ever That of Patercu upon the City of Capua is very like or the same Mirum est tam maturè tantam urbem crevisse floruisse â—ccidisse resurrexisse His Sufferings his great Name and Worth his Service done daily at that time for the King and Church did deservedly prefer him before divers that were of great merit So Synesius said of Antonius Ep. 68. that was chosen when many were in nomination for a Bishoprick and all worthy of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It gave him great Reputation to be accounted better than them that were very good And for a Surplusage the King granted him to hold the Deanry of Westminster in Commendam for three years that he might not be displaced out of his House while he attended at that great Meeting His Majesty expecting it would not live above three years but it had as many Lives as a Cat and lasted longer And York after twice three months never saw his Deanry more This Parliament meaning to sit till the Day of Doom wanted to their full Power and Pleasure to be rid of their Company whom they liked not which the Commons could not effect for their part till they held out the Gorgon's Head of the Covenant The Lords would not stay so long but prepared a Bill and read it to reject the Bishops from being Spiritual Peers of the Upper House But what Pincers will they pluck them out withal First with the Resorts Petitions and Ragings of the People What the People that seditious Beast Cupidum novarum rerum ctio quieti
and Representation of the Clergy a third estate if we may speak either with Sir Edw. Coke or the ancient Acts of Parliament have been in possession hereof these Thousand years and upward The Princes of the Norman Race indeed for their own ends and to strengthen themselves with Men and Money erected the Bishopricks soon after the Conquest into Baronies and left them to sit in the House with their double Capacities about them the latter invented for the profit of the Prince not excluding the former remaining always from the beginning for the profit and concernment of the poor Clergy and the State Ecclesiastical which appears not only by the Saxon Laws set forth by Mr. Lambert and Sir H. Spelman but also by the Bishops Writs and Summons to Parliament in use to this very day We have many President upon the Rolls that in vacancy of Episcopal Sees the Guardian of the Spirituals though but a simple Priest hath been called to fit in this Honourable House by reason of the former Representation and such an Officer I was my self over that See whereof I am Bishop some 25 years ago and might then have been summoned by Writ to this Honourable House at that very time by reason of keeping the Spirituality of that Diocess which then as a simple Priest I did by vertue of the aforesaid Office represent And therefore most noble Lords look upon the Ark of God's Representative that at this time floats in great danger in this Deluge of Waters If there be any Cham or unclean Creature therein out with him and let every man bear his own Burden but save the Ark for God and Christ Jesus sake who hath built it in this Kingdom for saving of People And your Lordships are too wise to conceive that the Word and Sacraments the means of our Salvation will be ever effectually received from those Ministers whose Persons shall be so vilified and dejected as to be made no Parcels or Fragments of this Common-wealth No faith Gregory the last Trick the Devil had in this World was this that when he could not bring the Word and Sacraments into disgrace by Errors and Heretical Opintens he invented this Project and much applauded his Wit therein to cast Slight and Contempt upon the Preachers and Ministers And my noble Lords you are too wise to believe what the common people talk that we have a Vote in the election of Knights and Burgesses and consequently some Figure and Representation in the noble House of Commons They of the Ministry have no Vote in these Elections they have no Representation in that Honourable House and the contrary Assertions are so slight and groundless as I will not offer to give them any answer And therefore R. Hon. Lords have a special care of the Church of England your Mother in this point And as God hath made you the most noble of all the Peers of the Christian World so do not you give way that our Nobility shall be taught henceforth as the Romans were in the time of the first and second Punick Wars by their Slaves and Bond-men only and that the Church of God in this Island may come to be served by the most ignoble Ministers that have ever been seen in the Christian Church since the Passion of our Saviour And so much for the first thing which this Bill intends of sever from Persons in Holy Orders viz. Votes and Representations in Parliament The next thing to be severed from them by this Bill is of a meaner Mettal and Alloy sittings in Star-Chamber sittings at Council-Table sitting in the Commissions of Peace and other Commissions of Secular Affairs which are such Favours and Graces of Christian Princes as the Church may have a being and subsistence without them The Fartunes of our Greece do not depend upon these Spangles and the Soveraign Prince hath imparted and withdrawn these kind of Favours without the envy or regret of any wise Ecclesiaâ—ical Persons But my noble Lords this is the Case our King hath by the Statute restored unto him the Headship of the Church of England and by the Word of God he is Custos utriusque tabulae And will your Lordships allow this Ecclesiastical Head no Ecclesiastical Senses at all No Ecclesiastical Person to be consulted withal not in any circumstance of Time and Place If Cranmer had been thus dealt withal in the minority of our young King Josias King Edward the Sixth of pious memory what had become of the great Work of our Reformation in this flourishing Church of England But I know before whom I speak I do not mean to Dine your Lordships with Coleworts the harsh Consequents of this Point your Lordships do understand as well as I. The last Robe that some Persons in Holy Orders are to be stript of hath a kind of Mixture of Freehold and Favour of the proper Right and Graces of the King which are certain old Charters that some few Bishops and many Ancient and Cathedral Churches have purchased and procured from the ancient Kings before and since the Conquest to inable them to live quiet in their own Precincts and close as they call it under a Justice or two of their own Body without being abandoned upon every slight occasion to the Injuries and Vexations of Mechanical Tradesmen of which your Lordships best know those Country Incorporations do most consist Now whether these sew Charters have their Foundation by Favour or by Right I should conceive under your Lordships savour it is neither Favour nor Right to take them away without some just Crime objected and proved For if they be abused in any particular Mr. Attorney-General can find an ordinary Remedy to repair the same by a Writ of Ad quod damnum without troubling the two Houses of Parliament And this is all I shall speak to this Point 165. And now I am come to the fourth part of this Bill which is the manner of Inhibition heavy every way heavy in the Penalty heavier a great deal in the Incapacity For the weighing of the Penalty will you consider I beseech you the small Wyres that is poor Causes that are to induce the same and then the heavy Lead that hangs upon those Wyres It is thus If a natural Subject of England interessed in the Magna Charta and Petition of Right as well as any other yet being a Person in Holy Orders shall happen unfortunately to Vote in Parliament to obey his Prince by way of Counsel or by way of a Commissioner be required thereunto then he is presently to lose and forfeit for his first offence all his means and livelyhood for one year and for the second to forfeit his Freehold in that kind for ever and ever And I do not believe that your Lordships ever saw such an heavy weight of Censure hang upon such thin Wyres of Reason in an Act of Parliament made heretofore This peradventure may move others most but it does not me It is not the Penalty
but the Incapacity and as the Philosopher would call it the Natural Impotency imposed by this Bill on Men in Holy Orders to serve the King or the State in this kind be they never so able never so willing never so vertuous Which makes me draw a kind of Timanthes vail over this Point and leave it without any amplification at all unto your Lordships wise and inward thoughts and considerations The fifth Point is the Salvo made for the two Universities to have Justices of Peace among them of their own Heads of Houses which I confess to be done upon mature and just consideration For otherwise the Scholars must have gone for Justice to those Parties to whom they send for Mustard and Vineger But yet under favour the Reasons and Inducements cannot be stronger than may be found out for other Ecclesiastical Persons as the Bishop of Durham who was ever since the days of K. John suffered by the Princes and Parliaments of England to exercise Justice upon the Parties in those Parts as being in truth the King's Subjects but the Bishops Tenants and therefore not likely to have their Causes more duly weighed than when the Balance is left in the hand of their own proper Landlord The Case of the Bishop of Ely for some parts of that Isle is not much different But if a little Partiality doth not herein cast some little Mist before mine eyes the Case of the Dean and City of Westminster wherein this Parliament is now sitting is far more considerable both in the Antiquity extent of Jurisdiction and the Warrants whereupon it is grounded than any one of those places before mentioned For there is a clear Statute made 27 Eliz. for the drawing all Westminster St. Clement and St. Martins le Grand London into a Corporation to be reigled by a Dean a Steward twelve Burgesses and twelve Assistants And if some Salve or Plaister shall not be applied to Westminster in this Point all that Government and Corporation is at an end But this I perceive since is taken into consideration by the Honourable House of Commons themselves I come now to the last Point and the second Salvo of this Bill which is for Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons or Peers of this Kingdom which is a Clause that looks with a kind of contrary glance upon Persons in Holy Orders it seems to favour some but so that thereby and in that very act it casts an aspersion of baseness and ignobility upon all the rest of that Holy Profession For if no Persons in Holy Orders ought to intermeddle in Secular Affairs how come those Nobles to be excepted out of the Universal Negative Is it because they are nobly born Then surely it must be granted that the rest must be excluded as being made of a worser and rougher piece of Clay For the second part of this Reason in the beginning of the Bill can never bear out this Salvo That the Office of the Ministry is of so great importance that it will take up the whole Man and all his best Endeavours Surely the Office of the Ministry is of no greater importance in a poor man than in a noble man nor doth it take up the whole Man in the one and but a piece of him in the other I cannot give you many Instances herein out of Scripture because you know that in those days Not many mighty not many noble were called 1 Cor. 1.26 But when any Noble were called I do not find but that they did put more of the whole Man and their best Endeavours upon the Ministry than other Men in Holy Orders are at the least in Holy Scripture noted to have done I puâ— your Lordships in mind of those Noble men of Beraea compared with thâ—se of Thessalonica Acts 17.11 So that this Salvo for the Nobility must needs be under your Lordships favour a secret wound unto the rest of the Ministry unless your Lordships by your great Wisdom will be willing to change it into a Panacaea or common Plaister both to the one and to the other And under your Lordships Favour I conceive it may be done under a very foâ—ing Argument The Office of the Ministry is of equal importance and takes up the whâ— Man and all his best Endeavours in the Noble born as well as in the mean born Bishop But it is lawful all this notwithstanding for the noble born Minister to intermeddle in Secular Affairs and therefore it is likewise lawful for the mean born so to do And so in may Conscience I speak it in the presence of God and great Noblemen it is most lawful for them to intermeddle with Secular Affairs so as they be not intangled as the Apostle calls it with this intermedling as to slight and neglect the Office of their Calling which no Minister noble or ignoble can do without grievously sinning against God and his own conscience It is lawful for Persons in Holy Orders to intermeddle it is without question or else they could not make provision of Meat and Drink as Beza interprets the place It is not lawful for them to be thus intangled and bound up with Secular Affairs which I humbly beseech your Lordships to consider not as a Distinction invented by me but clearly expressed by the Apostle himself 166. And thus my noble Lords I shall without any further molestation and with humble thanks for this great patience leave this great Cause of the Church to your Lordships wise and gracious consideration Here is my Mars-hill and further I shall never appeal for Justice Some assurance I have from the late solemn Vow and Protestation of both Houses for the maintaining and defending the Power and Priviledges of Parliament that if this Bill were now to be framed in the one House it would never be offered without much qualification and I perswade my self it will not be approved in the other Parliaments are indeed Omnipotent but no more Omnipotent than God himself who for all that cannot do every thing God cannot but perform what he hath promised A Parliament under favour cannot un-swear what it hath already vowed This is an old Maxim which I have learned of the Sages of the Law A Parliament cannot be Felo de se it cannot destroy or undo it self An Act of Parliament as that in the eleventh and another in the one and twentieth of Richard the Second made to be unrepealable in any subsequent Parliament was ipso facto void in the constitution Why because it took away the Power and Priviledges that is not the Plumes and Feathers the remote Accidents but the very specisial Form Essence and Being of a Parliament So if an Act should be made to take away the Votes of all the Commons or all the Lords it were absolutely a void Act. I will conclude with the first Ep. to the Corinthians c. 12. v. 15. If the soot shall say because I am not the hand I am not of the body is it therefore not of
that saving unto themselves all their Rights and Interests of Sitting and Voting in the House at other times they dare not Sit or Vote in the House of Peers until your Majesty shall further secure them from all Affronts Indignities and Dangers in the Premisses Lastly Whereas their Fears are not built upon Phantasies and Conceipts but upon such Grounds and Objects as may well terrifie men of good Resolutions and much Constancy They do in all duty and humility protest before your Majesty and the Peers of the most Honourable House of Parliament against all Laws Orders Votes Resolutions and Determinations as in themselves null and of none effect which in their absence since the 27th of this Instant-month of Decemb. 1641 have already passed As likewise against all such as shall hereafter pass in that most Honourable House during the time of their forced and violent absence from the said most Honourable House Not denying but if their absenting of themselves were wilful and voluntary that most Honourable House might proceed in all the Premisses their Absence or this Protestation notwithstanding And humbly beseeching your most Excellent Majesty to command the Clerk of that House of Peers to enter this Petition and Protestation amongst his Records They will ever pray to God to bless and preserve c. Subscribed by Joh. Eborac Tho. Dunelm Ro. Cov. and Lich. Jos Norwicen Joh. Asaphensis Gul. Bath Wellen. Geo. Hereford Rob. Oxen. Matth. Elien Godfr Glocestr Job Petroburg Maur. Landoven 169. Hear and admire ye Ages to come what became of this Protestation drawn up by as many Bishops as have often made a whole Provincial Council They were all call'd by the Temporal Lords to the Bar and from the Bar sent away to the Tower Nonne fuit satius tristes formidinis iras Atque superba pati fastidia A rude World when it was safer to do a Wrong than to complain of it The People commit the Trespass and the Sufferers are punish'd for their Fault 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athen. lib. 9. A Proverb agreeing to the drunken Feasts of the Greeks If the Cook dress the Meat ill the Minstrils are beaten That day it broke forth that the largest part of the Lords were fermentated with an Anti-episcopal Sourness If they had loved that Order they would never have doomed them to a Prison and late at night in bitter Frost and Snow upon no other Charge but that they presented their Mind in a most humble Paper to go abroad in safety Ubi amor condimentum inerit quidvis placiturum spero Plaut in Casin Love hath a most gentle hand when it comes to touch where it loves Here was no sign of any silial respect to their Spiritual Fathers Nothing was offer'd to the Peers but the Substance was Reason the Style lowly the Practice ancient yet upon their pleasure without debate of the Cause the Bishops are pack'd away the same night to keep their Christmas in Durance and Sorrow And when this was blown abroad O how the Trunch-men of the Uproar did fleer and make merry with it But the Disciples of the Church of England took it very heavily not for any thing the good Bishops had done but for that they suffer'd for a Prisoner is not a Name of Infamy but Calamity Poena damnati non peccati Cic. pro Dom. Estque pati poenam quà m meruisse minùs Ovid. lib. 1. de Pont. Nothing can be more equal than to lay the Objections the Lords made and York's Answers for the Protestation together as they go from Hand to Hand to this day in Town and City And let the Children judge what their Fathers did if they read this hereafter Obj. 1. That the Petition is false the Lords did not sit in Fear as my Lord of Worcester Winchester London Nor was it the Petition of all the Bishops about London and Westminster not of Winchester London Rochester Worcester 〈◊〉 If this were true yet were it not Treason against any Canon or Statute-Law but the Fact is otherwise First the Fear complained against is not for the time of their Sitting in the House but for the time of their coming unto and going from the said House and it is easie to prove they were then in Fear Secondly They know best whether they were in Fear or no who subscribed or agreed to the Petition And my Lord of Winchester agreed in it as much as the rest and instanced in the cause of his Fear his chasing to Lambeth Thirdly For the other part of the Objection the Bishop of London was then at Fulham Rochester in Kent Worcester at Oxford nor doth the Title of the Petition comprehend them as not being about London and Westminster Winchester did agree thereunto and came thither to subscribe and it was resolved his Name should have been called for ere ever it was to be solemnly preferred to the King which was never intended to be but when the King sate in the Upper House of the Lords which the Bishops intended to pray His Majesty to do And this appears by the Superscription of the Petition Obj. 2. The nulling of all Laws to be made at this time that the Kingdom of Ireland was in jeopardy was a conspiring with the Rebels to destroy that Kingdom and so amounted to Treason or a high Misdemeanour 〈◊〉 1. A Protestation annulleth no Law but so far as the Law shall extend to the Parties protesting Nor so far but in case that the Parties protesting shall afterward judicially prove their right to annull that Law So that it was impossible any Protestation of the Bishops should actually intend to hinder the Relief of Ireland 2 The Relief of Ireland by 10000 Scots and 10000 English was voted and concluded long before this Protestation and all the Particulars of that great business referr'd to a Committee of both Houses and the Bishops unanimously assented thereto So that the Relief of Ireland comes not within the Date and Circumscription of this Protestation And the Bishops call God to witness they never conceived one Thought that way 3. The Bishops protested against no Laws or Orders at all to be annulled absolutely and for all the time of this Session of Parliament simply but for that space of time only wherein they should be forcibly and violently kept from the said Parliament by those rude and unruly People So that as soon as the King and the Lords did quiet their passage unto Parliament which the Lords did do before this Petition was read in Parliament and that any of the Bishops were present there the Protestation was directly null and of none effect so as indeed the Protestation was void and dead in Law before the L. Keeper brought the Petition in question into the House because the Bishop of Winchester and some others had even then quiet access unto that Honourable House And the Bishops conceived the Protestation void in such a case and do most humbly wave and revoke the same and humbly desire both
turn'd to be in five months after Better be alone than ill accompanied And if that World last still they will never wear out the Disgrace by Repealing that infamous Bill I were wicked if I wisht it not otherwise but foolish if I did hope it I bewail not York more than I do the rest Nihil est praecipuè cuiquam dolendum in eo quod accidit universis Cic. lib. 6. Ep. ad Torquatum Now when the worst was done the merciful Judges in Parliament gave the Bishops their Liberty And most of those Grey-heads sled from London or were imprison'd in no long distance of time upon it In May after York went away privily to seek the King and never return'd again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diodor. Sic. lib. 13. Few men ever lived whose lives had more Paradoxes in them But from that day his Afflictions were constant to him and never lent him pause or intermission of Peace Qui per virtutem peritat pol non interit The Gail of Anguish is the Cup of Salvation to him that gives thanks unto the Name of the Lord. 171. London was no place to contain the Lords and Gentry that remembred they were sworn to be faithful to the Crown when it was known that the King had sat down in the City of York Many came seasonably thither many made ready for it and were stopt abundance sent their Purse the Poor and well-meaning sent their hearts who would have failed beyond the Cape of Neutrality and cast Anchor on the King's shore if their Company could have brought profit or service Our Archbishop of that Province came with the first being as restless as Tully was to leave Rome in the stirs of Pompey Hinc ipse evolare cupio ut aliquo perveniam ubi nec Pelopidarum nomen nec facta audiam Lib. ep fam He had been translated from Lincoln to this Dignity seven months before He that gives a Promotion to a worthy man obligeth all men and this was marvellously well taken by all the Clergy of the Diocess Until that day he had not seen the place from which he was entitled which he had proposed to be the Scene wherein he would do the part of an Archbishop in great splendor His Means were sufficient his Inclinations very hospital Provisions abundant in that Country the Gentry addicted to Liberality or rather Profuseness no man was ever so cut out to please them since Alex. Nevil's days for magnificence But God prevented it that he could never settle his Houshold in Yorkshire as he desired He found every thing looking with a face of Confusion the gallantry of the South poured into the North not to begin a War but ready for the defensive part as was expected There are Mischiefs approaching when common bodings misgive them which were not discerned soon enough through fatal Security before they were ripened As Budaeus writes of France upon the first breaking out of Wars at home That France wanted eyes and ears and which is strange they wanted a Nose Qui cladem adventantem odorari ante non potuimus quà m ab eâ oppressi Lib. 4. de Asse fol. 110. The Presbyterians those Scalda-banco's or hot Declamers had wrought a great distast in the Commons at the King and at all that had his ear and favour The Age growing Learned and Knowledge puffing up Scholars grew more impudent and malapert with us and in every state than did become their Function Our much Peace which had lasted almost two Jubilees was seeded with great Vice in our manners Young men lived idly which made them want and therefore were ready for Bustles and Commotions to boot-hale and consume they that proposed to themselves no laborious kind of Life expected Alterations and then to have enough to lavish And not a few of these were of good Houses decayed that as one says Had ancient Coats of all colours but lack't Argent and Ore Tempestuous weather was sit for their Harvest And when Wars broke out they crept out of their Cranies like the Cimici in the Houses of Italy not of rotten Bedsteds But the Parliament our continual Hectick did lend their Arm to all Mischief to usher it in They could not bow the King to all their Votes and abase him to be contented with a shadow of Soveraignty therefore they ranged every thing to a War as palpably as if their Drums and Colours had been in the Fields Bacchae Bacchanti si velis adversarier Insanam insaniorem facies feriet saepiùs Plauti Frag. Their Motions now were not Mutinies à mutiendo but Vociferations as lowd as an Herald could proclaim them But God will never suffer the abuse of fiduciary Power which a good but an improvident King had past away to go unpunisht in themselves or in their Children Perditissimi est hominis fallere eum qui laesus non esset nisi credidisset Cic. Off. l. 2. The King deserv'd the better from them that reposed upon their duty both his own honour and the weal of all his Subjects The more publick the Person is the more he must betake him to trust many Nay none so private no Action that comes abroad so mean but you must believe in the fidelity of some As Russinus very well upon the Creed Nihil est quod in vitâ geri possit si non credulitas ante praecesserit The City of London came in for a great share to encourage the drawing of the Sword provided that the War came not near their Lines of Communication This City the Epitome of England marr'd all England as S. Hierom plays upon the River Pactolus that it hath golden Sands but unwholesom water Ditior caeno quà m fluento that the Mud was the best part of their River Ep. ad Mar. Alex. So muddy Wealth was the best thing that the Chuffs of the City had much else was but Dish-water except some few of the old store Sir H. Garrway Sir Ri. Gurney and their like who were poured into the Kennel for their fidelity But the worst of them all durst never have been so stout if the Parliament had not held up their Spirit in their wickedness And there was a Nation that shall not scape me that whistled to the Jades that plowed up the Furrows of our Land and gave them Provendore I mean the French to whom yet I will ascribe what Magius the Patavine doth Gens bellicosissima honorisque appetontissima It hath a stock of very noble Gentry but sick of two faults they abhor the Spaniards hate the English and wish the Confusion of both which may turn upon themselves They object how we assaulted them at Rhee but forget what we did for them at Amiens and Calis They remember King Charles his Navy at Rochel but take no notice of Queen Elizabeth who advanced Harry the Fourth to the Crown in spite of the Leaguers These kindled the Brands that set their Neighbours House on fire which lyes sleeping under the Ashes of our
But the tidings came from the most interested in both Armies That none was more active than this great Prelate to keep Yorkshire in obedience to the King to reduce them that were perverted none more assiduous in the Consultations of War with the Gentry to raise Money Men and Horse for the Army This was hung up in Picture in the Hall and Change And let them do their worst in those peny Tables Sint modo carminibus non onerata malis as Passeratius deprecates all bad Epitaphs let them make good Verses to their Pictures or let their Poets hang up for Company But let this go together with his Loyalty that there was not one man that served him as Lord-Keeper or Bishop but either served or suffered in the King's Cause except a brace whom Kilvert had long before perverted They that were affected to the sin of the Parliament saw so much opposition in him and fierceness to bring them on their knees that the same unhappy ones vowed his death and were near to execution who first refisted his Majesty at Hull quae prima malorum Causa fuit belloque animos incendit agrestes Aen. l. 7. Which is worth a story to observe that these Professors of the new Discipline made no scruple to break down God's double Defence Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm 173. King Charles his coming to York was not a Progress of Delight but an Escape from his Palace of West minster for the Alarums of continual Mutinies which he could not stand out with safety As great a blemish to the Parliament that provided no better for him as the flight of Harry the Third of France was to the Guisians on the Sunday which is still called by them Dominica dolearis when they would have block't him up with Piles of Wine-Casks in the Louver to keep him fast for stirring His Majesty's first care was and ought to be to have some Hold of good Defence for Retreat if Blood-hounds sought him And happy was that Fortress of which he should make Election for so good a Service All places are patent to a Monarch that are under his Laws and Scepter though he were a Tyrant Then what inferiour Officer would not be glad to give the Keys of his Government upon his Knees to as great a Saint as Josiah Tribonius writes well to that matter in an Epistle to Tully of Caesar Lib. 12. Ep. Fam. Eum quem necesse erat diligere qualiscunque esset talem habemus ut libenter quoque diligamus And certainly he that should repulse the King in his first design must both be his first and his greatest Enemy Initia ferè dare formam negotiis Thuan. An. 1558. The first Success gives Spirit to an Army and Honour to their Chief Which the solid man Tacitus teacheth Hist lib. 2. Ut initia belli provenissent famam in caetero fore And if the first Expedition be unfortunate it is as ominous as a sinister hour at the birth of a Child when an Astrologer Calculates a Nativity So unauspicious it was that his Majesty did stumble I may say at the Threshold when he came out of Doors He goes to Hull where he had stowed up Shot Powder Arms in his Magazine The Gates are kept shut the Walls manned Sir John Hotham and his Son capitulate that they keep it for the Parliament Dirarum nidis domus opportuna volucrum Aen. 8. A strong Cage it was to keep these unclean Birds from the Royal Eagle Great Ordnance great Provision great Wealth were within No man would have sealed up a Box so fast if it had been empty Yet the Hothams were so kind that they offer'd Entrance to his Majesty's Person with a few of his unarmed Servants which was no better than to receive him to be their Prisoner Intempestiva benevolentia mhil à simultate differt says Politian Ep. p. 26. Nothing is more hateful than a malicious Courtesie But they look't to be born out in all they did by the strength of their great Masters and had cast it up that when Crimes are carried in a happy strain of Luck they lose their Infamy that shame seldom or never follows victory The Names of Delinquent or Traitor never scar'd them Haec acies victum factura nocentem est Silius He must be the Delinquent that is at the Conquerour's Mercy Unlucky Town of Hull for thy Commanders sakes Perhaps some other Garrisons would have been as bad as it if they had been tried Perhaps so But no Dunghil smells ill till you stir it Hull had the opportunity to be renown'd if it had yielded to be the King's Harbour Now her Infamy is like that of the Village of the Samaritans which would not receive the Lord Christ Luke 9.52 I do not condemn all that were within her Walls who could not help this Insolency but with groans and tears if they durst do that I will plead for such as I know there were such as Isocrates did for the Plataâ—ks forced by the Thebans to do unkindness to their Friends the Athentans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Theban constrained their Bodies but their Hearts were with you Their Lecturers were the Corrupters of that Corporation who had preach't the People from Charitable to Censorious from neighbourly Love to Faction from Subjects to Rebels from Sheep to Swine Quá magis viá irrepunt vitia quà m publicá Prin. l. 36. c. 2. If you would have some great harm done imploy those who are heard so often in publick and they shall do a mischief sooner than all the Brotherhood of the Guild beside Absalom sent Spies throughout all the Tribes of Ifrael saying as soon as ye hear the sound of the Trumpet ye shall say Absalom reigns in Hebron 1 Sam. 15.10 Spies says Grotius upon the place and in all the Tribes Some of these must be Levites for none but they dwelt among all the Tribes Genus hominum ad turbandas res maxime idoneum ubi suis indulgent affectibus These are they that will sooner rail against me for this observation then leave off their girdings at the Civil State and keep close to that matter only which Christ hath taught them in his Gospel Their bald Rhetorick sit for great Ears and gross Brainâ— made the King wait attendance two hours at their Gate and had his Commands nay his Prayers despised O that a King should give the stoop to such as these Meumque Objeci caput supplex ad limina veni Aen. 8. So great a heart in another Prince would not have turn'd away without Choler and Fire flashing upon them But he was a Soveraign over all his Passions and opened not his mouth Nullius hominis quà m sui simillimus as was said of Picus Mirandula He had no pattern of a meer Man before him and none that saw him for a Pattern was ever like him for Patience So let Cerberus that kept the Gates of Hull keep them still It is a greater honour
the Bishop doth thus remonstrate for himself That when a Defendant is examin'd upon Interrogatories in the Court and certified by a Judge to have answer'd insufficiently he is to pay twenty shillings costs the first time and to be re-examin'd If he be reported to fail the second time to pay forty shillings Costs The third time to be imprisoned but never in close Imprisonment These were ever the constant Rules of the ancient Lords that sate upon those Causes The Bishop being called to answer to these Eighty Interrogatories his Answers are certified to be imperfect to forty of them But the Judges did not point out wherein the Imperfection lay as it ought to be done But the Defendant is left in a mist and knows not how to direct his course to please them Yet goes them over again and answers so fully the second time that the Examiner thought his part was done and himself protests if he failed in any thing it was for want of direction from the Judges All that he had done and he had done to his best is not allow'd his Answers are again return'd to be insufficient yet not challeng'd in a word for such and such Omissions or Tergiversations for which an Amercement of 40 s. was the most that could be exacted by Rule That 's all one he is committed close Prisoner to his Chamber with order that neither Counsellor or Sollicitor should come near him or send to him The first night of his close restraint he perfected his Answer the third time to his best Abilities The Judges Jones and Berkeley are so awed that they refuse to certifie the sufficiency of this Answer till Kilvert will acknowledge it to be compleat So he continued in a melancholy Retirement from Allhollantide till the end of Christmas and then he finds a new Charge or rather no new one but the After-birth of the second Cause heard and censur'd before about Tampering A Course against the Fundamentals of Justice as Budaeus Tom. 2. in Pandec fol. 17. Senatus censuit ne quis ob idem crimen pluribus legibus reus fieret But in this latter Bill the Mystery of Mischief broke out by God's wondrous work and the detection of some Friends whom the Bishop had never sollicited to look after it Thus it runs Cad Powel George Walker T. Lund W. Wetherall in this new Charge are made Co-defendants with the Bishop these all were partly sentenced partly in durance before and must do some Service for their Freedom and Indempnity also with expectation of Reward that is they must couragiously accuse themselves in their Examination that they may be more forcible Witnesses against the Bishop but shall be as so many Coy-duks to cry a little in the ears of the World until the great Mallard be catch't in the Coy themselves then to be set free and to be fed with good Corn. The particulars of this Bill are branch't into Ten Heads For the greatest part they consisted of old matter That he had dictated Answers to Witnesses taught them cunning Evasions sent some Witnesses out of the way with addition that he had made Conveyances of his Lands and Leases to prevent the levying of the King 's Fine Nay lastly to sill it up that he did not allow competent Means to a Vicar from the Prebend of Asgaby I would their Lordships had sat upon such Reformations for seven years together if it did belong to their cognisance What a Task had the poor Bishop to fence with his Adversaries at all these Weapons As Isocrates extolls Evagoras 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was Master but of one City and no more when he waged War with all Asia But our forlorn Defendant had no shelter left under Heav'n but a Prison wherein he was mured to encounter Perjuries Conspiracies Malice Kilvert with all his Party and all the Rulers in high places that back't him only that promise of Christ remained good Matth. 10.19 Dabitur in illa horâ It shall be given you in that same hour what to speak And it did not fail him 127. First he demurs and pleads That five Charges chained together in this Information had been heard before and censur'd in the Charge upon Tampering with Witnesses To bring the same Fault again to trial that had been once punish't is contrary to the Justice of God and exceeds the cruelty of the worst men The Lord Popham ' s Rules were famous and registred in the Court That bounds should be set to the process of Causes that they might not be infinite If a fourth Bill be admitted to survey the management of a former Defence then a fifth may start up in the management of the fourth a sixth upon the fifth and prosecutions will be endless Then he produceth his main defence That he could prove that T. Lund and W. Wetherall were drawn by Kilvert with divers indirect means of Terrors and Promises to accuse themselves to have had under hand dealings with the Defendant to teach them to shift direct Answers and to evade Interrogatories with Collusions That they had assurance given them when the Bishop was wounded through their sides their wounds should be healed their fines remited and their good service gratified The Bishop had this Confession of Lund and Wetherall under the hands of credible Gentlemen who smelling that Villany had conferred with them and galled them with suspicions that they might thrust themselves into the Briars and be forsaken by Kilvert who was very false And what if he should drop away which might be look't for from a man of his daily Surfeits And let him do his best when they had confest Perjury against themselves with their own mouth he could never soder up their crack't Credit but the disgrace would cleave to them and render them despicable as long as they liv'd Which Terrours being spread before these Men they exclaim that they were circumvented and undone for ever This being inferred into the Bishop's Defence his Counsel came twice to the Bar to move for a Hearing and were put off His well willers which droopt before had a strong opinion of a good Issue So often we see there is life in an Apoplectick though he seem to be dead Kilvert curseth his Fortune that his Spells are disinchanted Et fragilâ— quaerâ—ns illidere dentem Insregâ— solido Horace The Bishop's Innocency was not so brittle as he thought to be torn in sunder but the Solidity of it did break his Teeth Howsoever Kilvert is grown gracious for his good parts I wiss and must not be forsaken in this plungâ— But upon a reference all this matter about Lund and Witherall is expung'd as scandalous to Kilvert's good name Scandalous to his good name Non entis nulla sunt attributa Nay but give us andience says the Bishop's Counsel Is not all this necessary to our Clients Defence That cannot be denied say the Judges Brampston and Berkeley it is the very body of his defence but reproachful to the Man