and old Entayles would be set on Foot and by that means the later Purchaser avoided by which means there was a great loss and prejudice to the King in his Wards which by these Laws are setled and the Laws of Ireland brought much nearer the Laws of England than before And in this point I conceive I am not absolutely gainsayed but only conditionally that is that notwithstanding this I have set up another Government Arbitrary and Tyrannical To which I shall not now trouble your Lordships with an Answer that being in the particulars of my Charge And thus I think the first to be fairly and clearly Answered Then that there were more Parliaments in the time of my Government than in 50 years before There were two in my time and if I might call Witnesses it would appear that there were not so many within that time before but being not material to my Defence or Condemnation I will not trouble your Lordships with proof unless you will require it I having them here that I think can make it good And whereas in my Answer I deny that I ever had hand in any Project or Monopoly and that I did prevent divers that otherwise would have passed I said that under favour with all duty and confidence I must still affirm it That I never had hand or share in any manner of Monopoly or Project whatsoever unless the Tobacco-business were a Monopoly which under favour I shall clear not to be but that being part of my Charge I think it impertinent now to give Answer unto it but will satisfie your Lordships in that behalf in proper time and place But more then that of Tobacco I say absolutely and directly I never had my hand or share in any Monopoly or Project nay I did as much as I could Oppose all of them particularly the Monopoly of Iron-Pots for which I reserve my self to Answer as part of my Charge And a new Book of Rates whereby it was proposed That the Rates of the King's Customs might be encreased And this I did Oppose and Disavow albeit I was a sharer in the Farm and consequently should have had the Benefit and Advantage of it for my proportion and by the King 's Gracious Goodness when His Majesty came to be more fully and clearly informed of it it was stopped and never went on And this I will make appear in that point of the Articles that concern the Customs The Fourth is That I have not had any greater Power or larger Commission than my Predecessors in that Government have had which I conceive under favour is not controverted but granted and therefore stands good to me or if it wer econtroverted I am able to make it appear that I have brought in nothing more than was formerly accustomed in the point of the Deputies Commission The next thing in my Answer is That the Revenue of Ireland was never able to Support it self before my coming thither and that I say still with all Humility and Duty is most true And I trust to make it apparently true presently if Your Lordships will give me leave to call for and examine my Witnesses It being the Proofs Your Lordships will look to and not to what was only alledged by that Worthy Gentleman And further than Your Lordships shall find proved I desire not to be believed The proof offered against me is by Sir Edward Warder and Sir Robert Pye who testified That from the Year 1621. nothing went out of the King's Exchequer to supply the Irish Affairs saving only for the Maritime occasions And this I believe to be true for they be Gentlemen of Credit that speak it and I will believe them on their Words much more on their Oaths But under favour there was for Eight Years together before my coming a Contribution of 20000 l. a Year paid by the Country which was no part of the King's Revenue nor as I conceive ever came into Accompt nor was paid into the Exchequer as will appear on the Fifteenth Article but was a Gift of the Country and applyed to the King's Occasions and that determined the Revenue fell short 20000 l. of the Charge Besides when I came into Ireland the Crown was extreamly indebted above as I think not to stand on particular Sums and Pence 100000 l. Sterling And by the Gentleman 's own saying when I came out of Ireland I left 100000 l. in the King's Coffers And if any ask where the Accompt for the Subsidies is There is 100000 l. Debt paid 100000 l. left in the King's Coffers For it appears by Sir Adam Loftus that there was 100000 l. in the Exchequer when I came from thence There was 15000 l. employed for buying Land that yields the King 2000 l. a Year And so much of my Lord of Ormond as yields 2500 l. a Year So that the Accompts will shew the bestowing of the Subsidies with as much Advantage as might be for the King's Service That the Revenue was short I could make appear clearly The occasion that no Money came out of the Exchequer was accidental by a Contribution of the Country no Revenue of the Kings And if that had not been supplyed there had been no possibility of defraying the Ordinary Charges of the Crown out of the Revenue and that is the Point wherein I differ from the Gentleman his meaning being That the ordinary Revenue of the Kingdom could not bear the ordinary Charge of the Kingdom And I desire that Sir Adam Loftus and Sir Robert Dillom may be examined upon such questions as shall be propounded in this point And whereas it is said I was short in the Shipping I affirm that under favour I was not It is true that in the time of the late Justices my Lord of Corke and my Lord Loftus the last years Charge of the Shipping was paid forth of Ireland But it is as true that when the Kingdom underwent the Charge they lessened the Charge of the King's Army by striking 500 off from the Army and transferred the Charge of their pay to the easing of the King's Revenue on the Navy But that Charge being now increased again and brought to the former certainty I conceive I might truly say There was in my time an ease to the Crown of England all things considered which formerly it had not It being not with the prejudice of the King's Service elsewhere or lessening the standing Army which in all times hath been the strongest support of the King's Justice and Ministers there and which it deeply concerns the Crown of England to keep in such a Condition that they may be responsible to the King for the Services he shall Command So that though the Shipping Charge was paid the last year yet so paid that the King's Army was weakened 500 Foot whereas now it is paid and the King's Army raised to a certainty again and a Change is made to the better for instead of 500 Foot there is 600 Horse And that I say
my Lord of Corke remembers very well there being Letters of his That Sir Pierce Crosby his Regiment should be put off and the money for maintenance thereof should go to defray the Charge of the King's Ships for guard of the Coast And yet the Charge is much more now than it was for the Charge was then only two Whelps as my Lord Mountnorris said And now there be three Ships The Swallow a Ship of the Third Rank and two lesser Vessels so that I concieve my Answer in my sense was true For the matter of having money out of the Exchequer I conceive my Answer to contain no matter of Untruth for I had out of the Exchequer only 15000 l. and for that the King will be answered 2000 l. a year good Fee-farm Rent in lieu of it which he thought was no ill bargain It is true I say the money spoken of by Sir Adam Loftus was borrowed on my own and Sir George Ratcliff's Bond to be paid upon sight At that time I praise God I had Credit for 20000 l. and at this time I thank God for that too I have not Credit for 20 d. Gods Will be done I obey it But this money is honestly and justly paid Where is the Crime then might not I borrow of a Gentleman that would trust me with money but it must be an Offence Is it true it was of the King's money but the King had no use for it at that time Had not I made use of it it must otherwise have lain in the Exchequer and yeilded no profit and besides I borrowed it of one that was Accomptable for it But since I am put to it I will shew that which will clear it from being a Crime indeed which according to the Duty I owe unto His Majesty my Master his Command hitherto have I kept private to my self And that is the King's Warrant being all of His own Hand-writing Sir Adam Loftus being then Vice-Treasurer and now demanded the question Whether that Warrant was produced to him at the borrowing of the money confessed Witness that my Lord of Strafford never told him of the Warrant The Warrant was read Kings Warrant read containing a Licence to make use of 40000 l. of His Majesties Treasure now in the hands of His Majesties Vice-Treasurer for three years Provided that for Security there be always left in the hands of the Comptrollers a Stock of Tobacco amounting to 40000 l. at the least with a direction to conceal this particular favour to him that it might not be brought into precedent then his Lordship proceeded There was accordingly so much Tobacco left But by what Law I know not The Magazines are seized on by Order from the Commons House of Parliament my Goods possessed and given over to others to sell at their own prices my People imprisoned as if they had been Traytors Goods and as if an Inquisition had been found upon me as a Traytor And this is my Misfortune to be very hardly dealt withal by the Commons House there to say no more And whereas by the Kings Goodness I had liberty to take 40000 l. I took but 24000 l. And where I had liberty to take it for three years which expires not till Michaelmas next I paid it in long before the time And by this one particular I hope it will appear to Your Lordships and the Gentlemen of the House of Commons how Noble it will be to believe Charitably of me till they hear all can be said for I trust in the whole course of this Trial to appear an honest man And whereas I said I never had but 15000 l. out of the Exchequer and yet had 24000 l. borrowed as aforesaid The King Commanded me I should not take notice of His gracious Favour and therefore I conceive that in Duty to my Master I ought not to have taken notice of it otherwise my Answer should have clearly and plainly exprest it I never having Disobeyed his Majesty nor by the Grace of God never will For the 7000 l. for the Guard of the Irish Coast that was mentioned already and I shall not need to Answer it further To the point of restoring the Possessions of the Church in a great measure I say there was not only a Restitution but a Preservation by an Act of Parliament for preserving the Possessions of the Church from being mis-used by the present Incumbent to the prejudice of the Successors which Act I wish were in England But that I conceive not to be Controverted but granted me But it is said The Possessions of the Church were restored in an Illegal way to please my Lord of Canterbury To which I Answer The Gentleman indeed spake it but there is no proof of it neither hath he offered any proof and till it be proved I conceive it not fit to trouble Your Lordships with Answering it I have done nothing in Church or Common-wealth but Justly and Uprightly Albeit I conceive it a hard case that having the Honour to be the Kings Deputy sitting in Council where there be Twenty who Voted as well as my self That I should be noted to Answer for them all though I did constantly submit my self to the Major part And as to my Lord of Canterbury I beseech Your Lordships to think That what I have done for the Church of Ireland was out of a faithful Conscience to God Almighty out of a desire to increase the Religion I Profess and which I will witness with my Blood by the blessing of Almighty God if there should be occasion And when I have done it with respect to that Piety of His Gracious Majesty which I would faithfully pay Him I desire it may not be put upon me as done in an respect only to my Lord of Canterbury where no such thing is proved No I did it out of Conscience my Duty to God to the King and to the People that they might be instructed in the way to Eternal Life And I beseech Your Lordships to believe I have a Heart a little greater than to do any such thing to please any man living with Modesty be it spoken For the Building of Churches I confess I built not any and in my Answer I say no more but that Churches were built which the Worthy Gentleman acknowledged in some part I confess they were not Built by me or at my particular Charge nor do I say otherwise in my Answer And it had been a vain thing to have said it though I had done it my self But it is said the Answer is not right in saying there be divers Worthy Church-men preferred and three are instanced in Bishop Atherton the Bishop of D. and one Gwyn To this I beseech Your Lordships that I may be bold to let the Gentlemen know That Bishopricks not in the gift of the Deputy but of the King and that he is not Responsible for what the King doth But not desiring to deny any thing that is
for a Prohibition to stay Proceedings in the Court Christian at Norwich and delivered into the said Court of Kings-Bench his Suggestions that the said Cause in the said Court Christian was for Tythes for Rents of Houses in Norwich which was determinable by the Common Law only yet he the said Sir John Brampston being Chief Justice of the said Court of Kings-Bench and sitting the said Court deferred to grant a Prohibition to the said Court Christian in the said Cause although the Councel did move in the said Court several Times and several Terms for a Prohibition And he the said Sir John Brampston deferred to grant His Majesties Writs of Prohibition to several Courts on the Motions of divers others of His Majesties Subjects where the same by Laws of this Realm ought to have been granted contrary to the Laws of this Realm and his own knowledg And the said Commons by Protestation saving to themselves only the Liberties of Exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Accusation or Impeachment against the said Sir John Brampston and also of replying to the Answer that he the said Sir John Brampston shall make unto the said Articles or any of them or of offering Proofs of the Premisses or any of their Impeachments or Accusations that shall be exhibited by them as the Case shall according to the Course of Parliament require do pray that the said Sir John Brampston Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Kings-Bench may be put to answer to all and every the Premisses and that such Proceedings Examinations Tryals and Judgments may be upon every of them had and used as is agreeable to Law and Justice Mr. Hollis also according to the Order of the House of Commons at this Conference made application to their Lordships in the behalf of Sir Randal Crew in this manner My Lords THese Gentlemen have represented unto your Lordships the sad object of Justice perverted Liberty oppressed Mr. Denzil Hollis his Speech about Sir Randal Crew July 6. 1641. of Judgment turned into Worm-wood the Laws which should be the Bars of our Gates to protect us keep us and all that is ours in safety made weak and impotent to betray us unto the hands of violence instead of Props to support us become broken Reeds to deceive us and run into our sides when we lean upon them even so many snares to entrap and entangle us And all this by the perfidiousness of those who are entrusted with our Laws who call themselves the Guardians and the Interpreters of the Law but by their accursed Glosses have confounded the Text and made it speak another Language and another Sense than ever our Ancestors the Law-makers intended Our Ancestors made Laws to keep themselves their posterity after them in the possession of their Estates these Judges could make the Law it self rob us and despoil us of our Estates Were we invaded and persecuted at any time for pretended Crimes or rather because they were free from Crime And did we put our selves upon a legal defence and shelter our selves under the Buckler of the Law use those Lawful Weapons which Justice and Truth and the Common Right of the Subject did put into our hands would this avail us No these Judges would make the Law wrest our Weapons from us disarm us take away all our defence expunge our Answers even bind us hand and foot and so expose us naked and bound to the mercilesness of our Oppressors were our Persons forced and imprisoned by an Act of Power would the Law relieve us when we appealed unto it No it would joyn hands with violence and add bitterness to our sorrow these Judges would not hear us when we did cry no importunity could get a Habeas Corpus Nay our cryes would displease them and they would beat us for crying and over-do the unjust Judge in the Gospel with whom yet importunity could prevail My Lords The Commons of England finding themselves in this lamentable condition by the wickedness of these Judges It is no wonder that we complain of them it is no wonder if the Knights Citizens and Burgesses Assembled in Parliament have sent up some of their Members to stand upon Mount Ebal to Curse these Judges to denounce a Curse upon them who have removed our Land-marks have taken away the Bound-stones of the Propriety of the Subject have left no Meum Tuum but he that had most might had most right and the Law was sure to be on his side It hath been the part of these Gentlemen who have spoken before me to pray for justice upon those men who would not do justice to others My Lords I come upon another Errand and yet for justice too for there is justice upon Mount Gerezim as well as upon Mount Ebal It is as great a point of justice to give a blessing a reward where it is due as punishment where punishment is due For reward and punishment Praemium poena be the two legs that Justice walks on and reward is her right leg the more noble and the more glorius Supporter of that Sacred and Divine Body that which God himself the Foundation of Justice doth more delight in Tradior ad poenas Deus est ad praemia velox Punishment is good as Physick in the Consequence Reward as wholesome and nourishing Food in the Essence the one we do because we must do it as necessary the other because we love to do it as being pleasing and delightful Your Lordships then I doubt not will as willingly joyn with the Commons in doing good to a good Judge as in punishing of the bad My Lords We honour them and reckon them Martyrs for the Common-wealth who suffer any thing by defending the Common Right of the Subject when they will not part with their own Goods contrary to Law when indeed their private interest goes along with it or rather before it and the publick Concernment seems to come but in a second place such were those many whom these Judges have oppressed yet these Men we magnifie and judge worthy of Praise and Reward But what honour then is he worthy of who meerly for the publick hath suffered himself to be divested and deprived of his particular such a Judge as would lose his place rather than do that which his Conscience told him was prejudicial to the Common-wealth Is not he worthy of double honour And this did that Worthy Reverend Judge the chief Judge of England at that time Sir Randol Crew because he would not by subscribing countenance the Loan in the first year of the King contrary to his Oath and Conscience he drew upon himself the displeasure of some great Persons about his Majesty who put on that project which was afterwards condemned by the Petition of Right in the Parliament of Tertio as unjust and unlawful and by that means he lost his place of Chief Justice of the King's-Bench and hath these fourteen years by keeping his innocency lost the
division I allow of that is Treason by Statute-Law as he terms it though it be Treason by the Common-Law and constructive Treason And upon that method he hath recited the evidence produced on either part Give me leave to follow and trace him a little and afterwards to discharge my own duty in taking my own course and representing the evidence as it appears truly and I will avoid as much as I can to fall into my Lord of Strafford's error in mis-reciting a Particle if I do it shall be against my will He begins with the Fifteenth Article and pretends that that is not proved The ground and foundation of that Article was a Warrant issued out by himself to a Serjeant at Arms one Savill which gave directions and power to that Serjeant to lay Soldiers on any person that should contemn the Process of the Council-board in Ireland that was the effect Now says he this Warrant is not produced and adds That the Judges will tell your Lordships that if a man be charged with any thing under Hand and Seal the Deed must be produced and proved or else no credit is to be given to it Truly my Lords it is true if it had been a Bond or a Deed where those that Seal it use to call their neighbours to testify and be Witnesses to it perhaps it might be a colourable answer that because we do not produce the Deed and prove it by Witnesses you can therefore give no credit to it But my Lords in case of authority to commit High Treason I suppose my Lord of Strafford nor any other did call witnesses to prove the Signing Sealing and Delivering of the Warrant for execution of High Treason and therefore it is a new way and invention found out by his Lordship for ought I see to commit High Treason and to give authority for it and it is but taking away the original Warrant and he shall never be touched for any Treason But I beseech your Lordships patience till I come to open that Article and your Lordships will find the Warrant though it be not produced proved by three or four Witnesses and his Hand and Seal proved too And whereas he pretends the Serjeant at Arms is no competent Witness because he excuses himself my Lord mistakes himself for I take it to be no excuse to prove a Warrant from any person whatsoever if it be to commit High Treason and therfore Savil's testimony is the more strong being so far from excusing that he doth accuse himself And though he is charged with laying of Soldiers upon the King's People contrary to an express Act of Parliament made in 18 H. 6. yet my Lord is pleased I know not how to term it whether it be merrily or otherwise to use his Retorick Here is a great levying of War when there is not above four Musquetiers or six at most laid upon any one man My Lords it is a plain levying of War and without all question and in all sense it is as much mischievous to me to be surprized by four or six Musquetiers to enforce me to any thing they would have as if there were an Army of Forty thousand brought upon me for if that strength will but over-master me it is all one to me whether I be mastered by four or by four thousand And therefore let not this be a rule that to send four or six or ten Musquetiers up and down is not considerable because of the smalness of the number the danger is the same yet this is no levying of War because they goe not in Troops of greater number as it pleases my Lord of Strafford to affirm My Lords Your Lordships remember what the effect of the Warrant is sworn to be that howsoever the Serjeant at Arms and his Ministers that executed it brought but four or six or ten yet the Serjeant might have brought all the Army of Ireland for there was authority so to do And admitting the matter of Fact proved he mentions an Act of Parliament made 11 Eliz. whereby a penalty is laid upon men that shall lay Soldiers on the King's Subjects and yet as my Lord observes it must now be Treason in the Deputy My Lords The very casting of an eye upon that Act shews it to be as vainly objected as if he had said nothing for in truth it is no other than as if he should say The King hath given me the Command of an Army in Ireland and therefore I may turn them upon the bowels of the King's Subjects It is no more in effect Your Lordships heard him the other day mentioning two Acts of Repeal and I expected he would have insisted upon them but it seems he hath been better advised and thinks them not worthy repetition nor indeed are they And if the matter of Fact be proved upon the Fifteenth Article I am confident he will find the Statute of 18 H. 6. to be of full force My Lords I am very sorry to hear that when levying of War upon the King's Subjects is in agitation and he charged with High Treason he should make mention of the Yorkshire men and the Army now on foot whereby he would insinuate that if he be charged with High Treason then they must be likewise though they lye quartered and have meat and drink with the assent of the people which may breed ill blood for ought I know From the Fifteenth Article he descends to the Three and twentieth and that is the Article whereby he stands charged with speaking of Words and giving of Counsel to His Majesty to incense him against His Parliament pretending a Necessity and telling him He is loose and absolved from all Rules of Government That he had an Army in Ireland which he might make use of to reduce this Kingdom In this he is pleased to begin with the Testimony of my Lord Ranelagh conceiving an apprehension and fear in him that the Army should go over to England which my Lord says is no more but his saying and Mr. Treasurer Vane ' s. I pray God my Lord Ranelagh had not much cause to fear but by the same rule he may lay a charge of unwarrantable fear upon all the Commons for sure the the Commons of England did fear it else they would not make an Article of it but my Lord Ranelagh's fear did not arise from a slight cause and he shewed himself a good Common-wealths man in expressing it and he is to be commended for it howsoever it be apprehended by my Lord of Strafford For his observation of the single Testimony of Mr. Treasurer Vane give me leave to take the same latitude as his Lordship did for he shews to three or four Articles what he could have proved as to the Article concerning the Army he could have proved the design of it by Sir John Burlacy and some others if they had been here But by this rule and liberty he hath taken to alledge what he could have shown give me
for though it cost him his life he that is in possession thinks it as well worth the keeping John Sparhank in King Henry the Fourth's time meeting two men upon the way amongst other talk said That the King was no rightful King but the Earl of March and that the Pope would grant Indulgencies to all that could assist the Earl's Title and that within half a year there would be no Liveries nor Cognizances of the King that the King had not kept promise with the People but had laid Taxes upon them In Easter-Term in the third year of Henry the Fourth in the Kings Bench Rot. 12. this adjudged Treason this denying the Title with Motives though not implyedly of Action against it adjudged Treason this is a compassing the Kings death How this was a compassing of the Kings Death is declared in the Reasons of the Judgment that the words were spoken with an intent to withdraw the affections of the people from the King and to excite them against him that in the end they might rise up against him in mortem destructionem of the King My Lords in this Judgment and others which I shall cite to your Lordships it appears that it is a compassing the Kings death by Words to endeavour to draw the Peoples hearts from the King to set discord between the King and them whereby the People should leave the King should rise up against him to the death and destruction of the King The Cases that I shall cite prove not only that it is Treason but what is sufficient Evidence to make this good Upon a Commission held the 18th year of Ed. 4. in Kent before the Marquess of Dorset and others an Indictment was preferred against John Awater of High-Treason in the Form before-mentioned for Words which are entred in the Indictment Sub hac forma That he had been servant to the Earl of Warwick that though he were dead the Earl of Oxford was alive and should have the Government of part of that Country That Edward whom you call King of England was a false Man and had by Art and Subtilty slain the Earl of Warwick and the Duke of Clare his Brother without any cause who before had been both of them attainted of High-Treason My Lords This Indictment was Returned into the Kings-Bench in Trinity Term in the Eighteenth year of Edward the Fourth and in Easter-Term the Two and twentieth of Edward the Fourth he was outlawed by the stay of the outlawry so long as it seems the Judges had well advised before whether it were Treason or not At the same Session Thomas Heber was Indicted of Treason for these words That the last Parliament was the most simple and insufficient Parliament that ever had been in England That the King was gone to live in Kent because that for the present he had not the love of the Citizens of London nor should he have it for the future That if the Bishop of Bath and Wells were dead the Archbishop of Canterbury being Cardinal of England would immediately lose his head This Indictment was returned into the Kings-Bench in Trinity-Term in the 18th year of Edward the 4th afterwards there came a Privy-Seal to the Judge to respit the Proceedings which as it should seem was to the intent the Judges might advise of the Case for afterwards he is outlawed of High-Treason upon this Indictment These words are thought sufficient evidence to prove these several Indictments that they were spoken to withdraw the Peoples Affections from the King to excite them against him to cause Risings against him by the People in mortem destructionem of the King Your Lordships are pleased to consider That in all these Cases the Treason was for words only words by private Persons and in a more private manner but once spoken and no more only amongst the People to excite them against the King My Lords here are Words Counsels more then Words and Actions too not only to disaffect the people to the King but the King likewise towards the People not once but often not in private but in places most Publick not by a private person but by a Counsellor of State a Lord-Lieutenant a Lord-President a Lord-Deputy of Ireland 1. To His Majesty that the Parliament had denyed to supply Him a Slander upon all the Commons of England in their Affections to the King and Kingdom in refusing to yield timely supply for the necessities of the King and Kingdom 2. From thence that the King was loose and absolved from Rules of Government and was to do every thing that Power would admit My Lords more cannot be said they cannot be aggravated whatever I should say would be in Diminution 3. Thence you have an Army in Ireland you may employ to reduce this Kingdom To Counsel a King not to Love His People is very Unnatural it goes higher to hate them to Malice them in his heart the highest expressions of Malice to destroy them by War These Coals they were cast upon his Majesty they were blown they could not kindle in that Breast Thence my Lords having done the utmost to the King he goes to the people At York the Country being met together for Justice at the Open Assises upon the Bench he tells them speaking of the Justices of the Peace that they were all for Law nothing but Law but they should find that the Kings Little Finger should be heavier then the Loyns of the Law as they shall find My Lords Who speaks this to the People a Privy-Counsellor this must be either to traduce His Majesty to the People as spoken from him or from himself who was Lord-Lieutenant of the County and President intrusted with the Forces and Justice of those parts that he would Employ both this way Add my Lords to his Words there the Exercising of an Arbitrary and Vast Jurisdiction before he had so much as Instructions or Colour of Warrant Thence we carry him into Ireland there he Represented by his place the Sacred Person of his Majesty First There at Dublin the Principal City of that Kingdom whither the Subjects of that Country came for Justice in an Assembly of Peers and others of greatest Rank upon occasion of a Speech of the Recorder of that City touching their Franchises and Regal Rights he tells them That Ireland was a Conquered Nation and that the King might do with them what he pleased Secondly Not long after in the Parliament 10 Car. in the Chair of State in full Parliament again That they were a Conquer'd Nation and that they were to expect Laws as from a Conqueror before the King might do with them what he would now they were to expect it that he would put this Power of a Conqueror in Execution The Circumstances are very Considerable in full Parliament from himself in Cathedra to the Representative Body of the whole Kingdom The Occasion adds much when they desir'd the Benefit of the Laws and that their Causes and Suits
rather what was safe than what seemed just preferring the outward peace of my Kingdoms with men before that inward exactness of Conscience before God And indeed I am so far from excusing or denying that complyance on my part for plenary consent it was not to his destruction whom in my judgment I thought not by any clear Law guilty of death that I never did bear any touch of Conscience with greater regret which as a sign of my repentance I have often with sorrow confessed both to God and Men as an Act of so sinful frailty that it discovered more a fear of man than of God whose Name and Place on Earth no man is worthy to bear who will avoid inconveniencies of State by Acts of so high injustice as no publick convenience can expiate or compensate I see it a bad exchange to wound a mans own Conscience thereby to salve State sores to calm the storms of popular discontents by stirring up a Tempest in a mans own bosom Nor hath Gods Justice failed in the event and sad consequences to shew the World the fallacy of that Maxim Better one man perish though unjustly than the people be displeased or destroyed For in all likelihood I could never have suffered with my people greater calamities yet with greater comfort had I vindicated Strafford's innocency at least by denying to Sign that destructive Bill according to that Justice which my Conscience suggested to me then I have done since I gratified some mens unthankful importunities with so cruel a favour and I have observed that those who counsell'd me to Sign that Bill have been so far from receiving the rewards of such ingratiatings with the People that no men have been harassed and crushed more than they he only hath been least vexed by them who counselled me not to consent against the Vote of my own Conscience I hope God hath forgiven me and them the sinful rashness of that business To which being in my Soul so fully Conscious those Judgments God hath pleased to send upon me are so much the more welcome as a means I hope which his mercy hath sanctified so to me as to make me repent of that unjust Act for so it was to me and for the future to teach me that the best rule of policy is to prefer the doing of Justice before all enjoyments and the peace of my Conscience before the preservation of my Kingdoms Nor hath any thing more fortified my resolutions against all those violent importunities which since have sought to gain a like consent from me to Acts wherein my Conscience is unsatisfied than the sharp touches I have had for what passed me in my Lord of Straffords business Not that I resolved to have employed him in my affairs against the advice of my Parliament but I would not have had any hand in his death of whose guiltiness I was better assured than any man living could be Nor were the crimes objected against him so clear as after a long and fair hearing to give convincing satisfaction to the major part of both Houses especially that of the Lords of whom scarce a third part were present when the Bill passed that House And for the House of Commons many Gentlemen disposed enough to diminish my Lord of Strafford 's Greatness and Power yet unsatisfied of his Guilt in Law durst not condemn him to dye who for their integrity in their Votes were by posting their Names exposed to the popular Calumny Hatred and Fury which grew then so exorbitant in their clamors for Justice That is to have both my self and the Two Houses Vote and do as they would have us that many 't is thought were rather terrified to concur with the condemning party than satisfied that of right they ought so to do And that after Act vacating the Authority of the precedent for future imitation sufficiently tells the world that some remorse touched even his most implacable Enemies as knowing he had very hard measure and such as they would be very loath should be repeated to themselves This tenderness and regret I find in my Soul for having had any hand and that very unwillingly God knows in the shedding one mans Blood unjustly though under the colour of the Formalities of Justice and pretences of avoiding publick Mischiefs which may I hope be some Evidence before God and Man to all Posterity that I am far from bearing justly the vast load and guilt of all that blood which hath been shed in this unhappy War which some men will needs charge upon me to ease their own Souls who am and ever shall be more afraid to take away any mans life unjustly than to lose my own Nor was this all for besides what he said at his own Death he acquainted Doctor Shelden afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury with his Resolution if ever he was in a Condition to perform his Vows of which this was one To do publick Pennance for the injustice he had suffered to be done to the Earl of Strafford as may be large be seen in his Life written by Dr. Perinchief fol. 119. Nothing was sounded in the Kings Ears but Fears Terrors and Threatnings of Worse and Worse Tumults and Rebellions from every quarter of the City and every corner of the Kingdom and indeed the King who had seen the effects of them both in Scotland and England could not but have very terrible apprehensions of them At last having wrastled him breathless he was vanquished by Importunity and necessity and yielded to the Passing of these two Fatal Bills by Commission the one for the Earl's and the other as it proved in the Event for his own Execution Upon Monday May the 10th Monday May 10. Bill of Attainder passed by Commission Mr. Maxwell Gentleman-Usher to the Lords came to acquaint the Commons with the good news that His Majesties Assent to the two Bills was to be given by Commission and that their Lordships did expect Mr. Speaker and the House of Commons to come up It seems the Gentleman was something transported as sure all the world was out of their wits for he came without the Black Rod and entred without being called in at which there was Exceptions taken but the News he brought was so agreeable that the transport of it did him the favour to take off the Resentments of the House who at another time would not have pocketted up such an affront with silence The Commission was granted under the Great-Seal of England directed unto the Lord Privy-Seal Lord Great Chamberlain Lord Steward The manner of passing Bills by Commission or any two of them for passing the Royal Assent to two Bills the one intituled An Act of Attainder of Thomas Earl of Strafford of High-Treason the other An Act to prevent the Inconveniencies which may happen by the untimely Adjourning Proroguing or Dissolving of this present Parliament The Lords being all in their Robes and the Commissioners sate upon a Form standing across the House
Disloyalties I will omit and passing by as well particular Bishops and Prelates as Stephen Arch-Deacon of Norwich and others as also of them in general I will only relate one villanous passage of Trayterous Disloyalty whereof as good Authors deliver the Archbishops and Prelates were principal Abettors and Conspirers The King being at Oxford the Bishops and Barons came thither with armed Multitudes without number and forced him to yield that the Government should be swayed by 25 Selected Peers Paris Thus one of the greatest Soveraigns was but the Six and twentieth petty King in his own Dominions c. To him Succeeded his Son K. H. 3. who being at Clerkenwel in the House of the Prior of Saint John's was told by him no less sawcily than disloyally if I may not say traiterously That he should be no longer King than he did Right to the Prelates Whereto he answered What do you mean to deprive me of my Kingdom and afterward Murther me as you did my Father And indeed they performed little less as shall hereafter appear But now to take the particular passages in order In this King's Reign Stephen then Archbishop of Canterbury as we read was the Ring-Leader of Disorders both in Church and State and no better was Peter Bishop of Winchester But not to speak of them in particular but of them all in general and that in Parliament at Oxford saith Matth. Paris and Matth. Westm came the Seditious Earls and Barons with whom the Bishops Pontifices ne dicam Pharisei those were his words had taken Counsel against the King the Lord 's Anointed who sternly propounded to the King sundry traiteterous Articles to which they required his Assent but not to reckon all the Points you shall hear what the same Authors deliver of their Intent I will repeat the words as I find them These turbulent Nobles saith M. West had yet a further Plot than all this which was first hatched by the Disloyal Bishops which was That four and twenty Persons should there be Chosen to have the whole Administration of the King and State and yearly appointment of all great Officers reserving only to the King the highest Place at Meetings Primus Accubitus in Coenis and Salutations of Honour in Publick Places To which they forced him and his Son Prince Edward to Swear for fear as mine Author saith of Perpetual Imprisonment if not worse for the Traiterous Lords had by an Edict threatned Death to all that resisted And the Perfidious and wicked Archbishop and Bishops Cursing all that should rebel against it Which impudent and Traiterous Disloyalty saith Matth. Paris and Matth. Westm the Monks did detest asking With what fore-heads the Priests durst thus impair the Kingly Majesty expresly against their sworn Fidelity to him Here we see the Monks more Loyal and Honest than the Lord Bishops we have Cashiered the poor Monks and are we afraid of the Bishops Lordliness that they must continue and sit in Parliament to the Prejudice of the King and People And so we may observe That this * This which he accounts Treason in the Bishops was no more than this Man and his fellow-Members would have imposed upon the King in the 19 Propositions Traiterous Bishop did make this King as the former had done his Father meerly Titular From him I pass to his Son Edward the First In his Reign Boniface was Archbishop of Canterbury and Brother to the Queen what he and the rest of the Prelates did in prejudice to the Regal Authority and Weal Publick I will pass over the rather for that they declare themselves in his Son's Reign so wicked and disloyal that no Age can Parallel of which thus in brief Doth not Thomas de la More call the Bishop of Hereford Arch-Plotter of Treason Omnis mali Architectum and not to speak of his contriving the Death of the late Chancellor and other particular Villanies he is Branded together with Winchester then Chancellor and Norwich Lord Treasurer to occasion the dethroning of this Prince Nay after long Imprisonment his very Life taken away by Bishop Thorlton's Aenigmatical Verse though he after denied it Edwardum Occidere nolite timere bonum est But this Adam de Orleton alias Torleton and his fellow Bishops in this King's Reign I may not slightly pass over Therefore I desire we may take a further view of them First of this Adam Bishop of Hereford we find that he was stript of all his Temporalties for supporting the Mortimers in the Barons Quarrel He being saith Thomas de la More a Man of most subtil Wit and in all wordly Policies profound daring to do great Things and Factious withal who made against King Edward the Second a great secret Party To which Henry Burwash Bishop of Lincoln for like Causes deprived of his Temporalties joyned himself as also Ely and others Walter Stapleton Bishop of Exeter a Turn-Coat left the Queen and came to England to inform the King of his Queens too great familiarity with Mortimer which afterward cost him his Head Perhaps some now as Thomas de la More will say he was therein a good Man yet I will take leave to think not do I fear to speak it This was no part of Episcopal Function But I will pass him by not concluding him either good or bad every Man may think as he pleaseth I will declare the Traiterous and Disloyal Actions of the other Bishop formerly mentioned This Bishop of Hereford whom I find called the Queens bosom Councellor Preaching at Oxford took for the Text My Head my Head aketh 2 Kings 4.19 concluding more like a Butcher than a Divine that an Aking and Sick Head of a Kingdom was of necessity to be taken off and not to be tampered with by any other Physick whereby it is probable that he was the Author of that Aenigmatical Verse formerly recited Edwardum occidere c. And well may we believe it for we find that he caused Roger Baldock Bishop of Norwich the late Lord Chancellor to die miserably in Newgate Not much better were Ely Lincoln Winchester and other Bishops that adhered to the Queen Mortimer and others of her part Nor can I commend those Bishops that were for the King and the Spencers The Archbishop of Canterbury and his Suffragans decreeing the Revocation of those Pestilent Peers the Judgment given against them judged as Erronious Thus these Lord Bishops as all in a manner both before and after instead of Feeding the Flock of Christ only Plotted dismal Wars Death and Destruction of Christians I might tell you how in this King's Reign as in others * Certainly this was made a President for such were the Pretences and Practises of this Man and his Associates they perswaded the Lords and Peers of the Realm that they had Power and Right not only to reform the King's House and Council and to place and displace all great Officers at their Pleasure but even a joynt Interest in
25th of the same King upon the Clergies own submissive Petition And the Bishops themselves in the Prosecution of this Act 1603. in the beginning of King James his Reign did decree the same and pronounce Excommunication ipso facto upon all or any that should Ordain or Execute the same without Royal Assent Now you have seen their Demeanour in Parliament for Three or Four Hundred years or thereabouts The delivery hereof hath taken up much time and perhaps thereby most are satisfied that they have been hurtful and therefore that it is not convenient they should longer continue Members of that Honorable House where they have done such Mischief to King and Common-wealth yet in regard of my Promise and Undertaking to declare them Prejudicial from the First Parliament to this present by Testimony of Credible Authors in each King's Reign as also to meet with an Objection which I conceive will be offered to make all that hath been proved as Extravagant so invalid That those Actions Practises Plots Conspiracies or Treasons were done and perpetrated in time of Popery and that it was done by Papal Command I will deliver their Actions no less detestable nay rather more heinous after the Reformation than before In the several Reigns of King Edward the Sixth Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth King James of Blessed Memory and our present Sovereign whom God long Preserve But I desire I may be rightly understood that when I charge these Reverend Bishops that were very good Men Chief Pillars of the Church great Lights of Learning and Charge them to have those things as Bishops which I believe they would not have done as Private Ministers If I say I declare that they to hold their Bishopricks and in expectance of great Preferment and to please great Lords and Princes Kings and Emperors have not only yielded to but perswaded to introduce Idolatry to disinherit the Right Heirs of Kingdoms and force good Princes to do Acts Unnatural and Unjust Let me not be thought to speak in Depravation or Detraction I do not intend their Infamy and so desire to be understood their Memory ought to be dear to us all and it ever hath been and is precious in my Esteem but I thereby insinuate that Corrupt Lordly Episcopacy hath an Infection in it tainting the purest and godliest Ministers I pray you misconceive me not I am not against Episcopacy truly understood or a Church-Government rightly used but I conceive and therefore under Correction say That it hath with Theseus Ship received so many new Pieces and Additions to the first Building that it doth justly occasion a Dispute whether it be the same little or nothing of the first Substance and Materials remaining So that we have Episcopal Government in Name but want the Substance Vox proeterea nihil with Ixion we embrace but a Cloud instead of Juno or at best but a Blear-eyed Leah instead of a Beautiful Rachel This Tree I say is almost rotten this Salt somewhat unsavory this Light very dim this Building scarce sound or sure which if propping will help I would not have demolished till a Model of a better be agreed upon In King Edward's Reign did not the Reverend Bishop O Grief to hear faith my Author perswade Ed. 6. Fox Acts and Mon. and subscribe to the disinheriting of the two Daughters of H. 8. the Sisters of his King contrary to the Statute of 35 H. 8. as also in prejudice of the Right of Scotland Margaret being eldest Sister to Mary Grandmother to Jane on whose Head they would settle the Crown which Plot I think I may say wicked and disloyal if it had taken effect in all likelyhood the blessed Union of both Kingdoms had not ensued which as I said before was hindred by Betton Bishop of St. Andrews in H. 8th's time I have not yet spoke any thing as to the Point of Idolatry the most wicked and highest degree of Treasons being against the King of Kings did not the Arch-Bishop Cranmer and Bishop Ridley perswade John Spede nay earnestly press King Edw. 6. that the Lady Mary might have Mass said in her House and that to be done without all prejudice of Law the Greatness of her Person being the immediate Successor and the Might of Charles the Emperor moved those Bishops too forward and so far urged this to the King and from Divines becoming Politicians alledged the Danger in breach of Amity with the Emperor and when he convincing by Scripture and told them he would rather hazard his Life than grant that which was not agreeable to Truth They alledge the Bonds of Nature At last tell him they would not be said nay This they offered and thus far they pressed althô they could not prevail with this Pious Prince These were not the Baits that Peter angled with to catch Souls or the Weapons that St. Paul fought with when he professed they were not Carnal but mighty through God to cast down Holds they propose not Honor and Security to Christ's Disciples but Hazard and Baseness A most godly Speech of a good Christian Prince the like whereto I read that King James uttered in his Protestation made to Watson as he after confessed to the Earl of Northampton upon some occasion offered All the Crowns and Kingdoms in this World saith he shall not induce me to change one jot of my Profession which is the pasture of my Soul and earnest of my Eternal Inheritance A Pious Speech of a Magnanimous King whose Memory shall ever be justly Blessed and I doubt not but our Gracious Sovereign as he holdeth his Kingdoms so possesseth the like Religious Courage and Constancy But to return to our former Bishops viz. Cranmer Ridley c. did they repent them of this upon better Consideration and upon the Death of this good King advance the Title of the Right Heir Nothing so Queen Maries Letter to the Bishops and L. from Keningall 9 July 1553. for when Queen Mary hearing that Jane her Cousin was to be Proclaimed Queen Writ her Letter to the Lords declaring her own Right and marvelling that they so unjustly attempted to put her from it contrary to their Loyalty Allegiance and the Statute which had formerly setled the Crown upon her They I mean the Bishops as well as the Lords for I find Canterbury and Ely to have Subscribed told her That she had no Right thereto but Jane must be Queen and she must submit her self to her as her Soveraign And what they Writ did Ridley Bishop of London Preach And thô this was not done or spoken in Parliament yet no man doubteth but if it had been effected they would have Pleaded in Justification thereof and confirmed it as Rightful in the next Parliament that should have been Called Now I have declared them disloyal Traitors and most unjust and ungodly in these Passages To pass from this Queen to the next I find that in the First year of good Queen Elizabeth there was a
hear my Lord Orrery's Account of it in his forementioned Book p. 10 11. where he saith E. of Orrery's Answer to Peter Walsh The Wisest of Men thought the Irish Papists fastned to his Majestie in the Year 1641 by the best of Governments and to the English Protestants by the strictest ties of Interest Friendship Marriage and which is more in their Esteem Gossipping and Fostering to the Publique Peace by their as flourishing so free Condition and to all by those Royal Graces which his Sacred Majesty at that time indulged their Commissioners such as themselves desired 't was but then ask and have Yet all this Honey was turned into Gall for at that very time wherein the King was Exercising such high Acts of Grace to them the Irish Papists plotted and soon after perpetrated the Worst of Rebellion the Worst Extensivè Exulcerating generally and Intensivè breaking forth with more Persidie Barbarism and Cruelty than can be parallel'd in any History The great motive at least in pretence was Religion For whereas Dr. Borlase in his Preface saith It is Evident they never had so free Exercise of their Religion as when the Rebellion began It is Evident that he is mistaken even by the Testimony of the Person of whose Book he saith p. 7th of his Hist Sir John Temple Irish Reb. P. 26.27 in the Margin It was a Piece of that Integrity few can Equal none Exceed who could have informed him that this free Exercise of Religion was only clancular and in private But they evidently saw that the Calumnies cast upon the late King as a Favourer of Popery was one of the principal Engines by which the Factious part of the Parliament of England alienated the affections of all his Majesties English and Scotch Protestant Subjects from him besides the Severities which the Parliament provoked the King upon his peril to inflict upon the Papists in England and Scotland was made Use of by the Popish Clergy to drive them into a Rebellion by insinuating That if the Parliament could bring the King under their Government there was nothing to be Expected but the total suppression of their Religion and the Eradication of their Nation In confirmation whereof it was confidently averr'd to them That a * Sir John Clotworthy Member of Parliament concern'd in Ireland did in the House of Commons declare in a Speech That the Conversion of the Papists in Ireland was only to be Effected by the Bible in one hand and the Sword in the other And I have been told by a Person of Honour and Worth that Mr. Pym gave out That they would not leave a Priest in Ireland Nor could their Committees who were here be ignorant of these Passages or being many of them Papists not communicate it to the Irish Papists Another Encouragement to this Rebellion was the Example of Scotland as appears plainly by Connelly's Deposition who was told by Mac-Mahon that they did this to imitate Scotland who got a Priviledg by that Course And the Confession of the Lord Mac-guire which the Reader shall presently see does not obscurely hint That the Earl of Argyle the Head of the Covenanting Rebellious Scotch Presbyterians was under-hand working the Irish into some Conspiracy against the King probably that his hands being full they might procure better Terms for themselves and divert the Storm of the English Arms which then were impending upon them Nor was the taking off the Earl of Strafford that Great Wise and Valiant Man a little contributing to this Irish Tragedy for besides that it is visible that the Irish Committees who were many of them Papists were highly instrumental in furnishing the English Parliament with matters of Complaint and Accusation against that Noble Lord for which they were mightily at that time thô known Papists caressed by the Earl's Enemies in the Commons House so it is no less Visible that this Design of theirs though it had been long contriving advanced more in half a Year after his Vigilant Eye was taken off their Actions and his Hand from the Reins of the Government then it had in all the time before as will plainly appear by Mac-guire's Confession And in Confirmation of this I think it a Debt due to the Illustrious Memory of that Great Man the Earl of Strafford whom I cannot name without and Pity Wonder to insert part of a Letter of his to his Dear and Intimate Friend Mr. Wandesford then Master of the Rolls and one of the Lords Justices in 1636 wherein he acquaints him with the account which he had given in to the King and Council of the state of Affairs in Ireland which he doth in these Words I Informed them That the Army was well Clad reasonably well Armed The State of the Army in the Earl of Strafford's Time 1636. but should be better well Exercised and well Paid which they had never been before That I had visited the whole Army seen every single man my self as well in his own person as in his Exercising where other Generals that had continued that Charge longer then my self had not taken a view so much as of one Company that in the Removes and Marches of the Army they pay'd justly for what they took and passed along with Civility and Modesty as other Subjects without Burden to the Country through which they went whereas formerly they took the Victuals and paid nothing for it as if it had been in an Enemies Country whence it was that the Soldier was now welcom in every place where before they were in abomination to the Inhabitants That by this means the Army in true account might be said to be double the Strength as it had been That this was so apprehended by the ill-disposed as there is neither Courage nor Hope left for opposition the good Subjects secured the bad kept in humility and fear by it That they were worthy of the Kings Entertainment and when they shall be seen will appear with a Company of gallant Gentlemen their Officers fit to serve a Great and Wise King whereas not much of this before but rather quite the Contrary That for my self I had a dead Stock in Horses Furniture and Arms for my Troop that stood me in 6000 l that so I was in readiness upon an hours warning to march nor did I this out of Vanity but really in regard I did conceive it became me not to represent so great a Monarch as his Majesty meanly in the sight of that People and that it was of mighty Reputation to the Service of the Crown when they saw me in such a Posture that I was upon an hours Warning able to put my self on Horseback and that the Soldiers should see I would not Exact so much duty from any private Captain as I did impose upon my self being their General Lastly it was my humble Advice That the Army as of absolute Necessity to the Government was rather to be reinforced then at all diminished as being an
Time The Parliament indeed had one sent over from the Lords Justices in Ireland and I find in the Journal of the Lords that it was read in their House but in regard though it had some Scandalous Reflections upon the King as being willing to favour their Religion which in due time we shall prove utterly false and that in this common Calumny they agreed with the English Rebels yet in regard it seemed and that not without great probability to charge the Rebellion upon the Parliament and their present Proceedings and future Intentions the thing was at that time smothered for it is neither Entred in the Journal as usually Papers of that Importance were wont to be nor can I find any Order for the Printing or Publishing of it or for any Answer to take off the Charge of the Rebels against the Parliament Take it however as I find it in Print The Remonstrance of the Rebels in Ireland WHEREAS we the Roman Catholicks of this Kingdom of Ireland The Remonstrance of the Irish Rebels Oct. 23. 1641. have been continual Loving and Faithful Subjects to his Sacred Majesty and notwithstanding the General and Hard Oppressions suffered by Subordinate Governors to the Ruine of our Lives Honors and Estates Yet having some Liberty of Religion from his Majesty out of the Effluence of his Princely Love unto Vs We weighing no Corporal Loss in respect of that great Immunity of the Soul are inviolably resolved to infix our Selves in an immutable and pure Allegiance for ever to his said Royal Majesty and his Successors Now so it is That the Parliament of England Maligning and Envying any Graces received from his Majesty by our Nation and knowing none so desired by us as that of Religion And likewise perceiving his Majesty to be inclining to give us the Liberty of the same drew his Majesties Prerogative out of his Hands thereby largely pretending the General Good of his Majesties Kingdoms But We the said Catholicks and Loyal Subjects to his Majesty do probably find as well by some Acts to pass by them the said Parliament touching our Religion in which the Catholicks of England and Scotland did suffer as also by Threat to send over the Scottish Army with the Sword and Bible in Hand against us that this whole and studied Plot was and is not only to extinguish Religion by which we altogether live Happy but likewise to supplant us and raze the Name of Catholick Irish out of the whole Kingdom And seeing this Surprize so dangerous tending absolutely to the overthrow of the Liberty of our Consciences and Country and also our Gracious King's Power forced from him in which and in whose prudent Care over us our sole Quiet and Comfort consisted and without the which the Fear of our present Ruines did prescribe the Opinion and premonish us to save our Selves We therefore as well to regain his Excellent Majesties said Prerogative being only due to him and his Successors and being the Essence and Life of Monarchy hoping thereby to Confirme a Strong and Invincible Vnity between his Royal and ever happy Love unto us and our faithful Duty and Loyalty to his incomparable Majesty have taken Arms and possessed our Selves of the best and strongest Forts of this Kingdom to enable us to serve his Majesty and defend us from the Tyrannous Resolutions of our Enemies Thus our Consciences as we wish the Peace of the same to our selves and our Posterity is the Pretence and true Cause of our present Rising in Arms by which we are resolved to perfect the Advancement of the Truth and the Safety of our King and Country Thus much we thought in General fitting to publish unto the World to set forth our Innocent and just Cause the particular whereof shall be speedily declared Dated 23 October 1641. We do declare unto God and the World That what we do or have done is for the Maintenance of the Kings and our Religion and for fear these our Doings should be misconstrued We thought good to make known unto the World by this our Declaration and Remonstrance 1 The several private Meetings of Factious and Ill-disposed People unto our Government and Common-Wealth at several Places Plotting and Devising our utter Ruine and the Extirpation of our Religion 2 Several Men imployed by them with Instruments ready drawn for to get Hands thereunto to be preferred to the Parliament of England whereby they would have the Papists as they call them and the Protestant Bishops of the Kingdom whom they joyn with the Papists and hate as they hate the Papists the Bishops to be deposed and the Papists banished or otherwise rooted out of this Kingdom 3 The Government of this Kingdom successively put into the hands of so many Needy and Poor Ministers who for raising of themselves have by scruing Inventions Poll'd the Gentry and Commons of this Kingdom that no Man was secured of any thing he had 4 We saw his Majesty to whom we thought to Address our selves was so oppressed by the Arrogancy of such Faithless and Disloyal Subjects and as it were cut off from all Prerogative that we could not expect any Redress as long as they ruled in his Kingdom as now they do All which we taking into our serious Consideration did fear we should be circumvented on the suddain and for our Security did think fit to arm our Selves for our own Defence and Safety of his Majesty from such wicked Perturbers of all Common-Wealths where they get any Superiority that they will not admit either of the Kings or Bishops as well Witness Germany and for the Places we have taken we will yield them up when his Majesty pleaseth to Command us and takes a Course for Securing of us and the Protestants of this Kingdom who are only his true and obedient Subjects against such Factious and Seditious Puritanes the Disturbers of all States as had brought the like Misery on Queen Elizabeth and King James had they not been by them and their wise Councels prevented which we thought fit to intimate unto the good Subjects that they may the more willingly assist us until we be at better leisure to make our great Grievances known unto his Majesty and he have more power to relieve us And because they nor any others shall have any reason to accuse me with Partiality I here present the Reader with a Narrative which I find Printed in P. W.'s Answer to the Lord Orrery as follows THey therefore meaning the English Nation and the whole World A Narrative of some things done in the beginning of the Rebellion which Irish Papists plead in mitigation of their taking Arms. may be pleased to know That We speaking of the Irish are so far from justifying any horrid Actions perpetrated at that time when but a few of any Quality raised a Rebellion in the North as we have and still make it our request That those Crimes and all Massacres and Murthers then or after committed whoever shall be
in England shall be dissolved Concerning the sending of the Capuchins out of the Kingdom The Votes of the Lords upon these Eight Propositions this House will suspend giving any Resolution therein until a List of the Queens Priests and Servants is brought in Resolved upon the Question That the Ambassadors be desired from the Parliament to dismiss out of their Houses such Priests as are the Kings Native born Subjects and in case they shall hereafter be found abroad they shall not have any protection but be proceeded in according to the Laws of this Kingdom Resolved c. That the Lord Chamberlain of the Queen shall bring in a List of the Queens Priests and Servants and the Lord Chamberlain of his Majesties Houshold shall bring in a List of the Names of the Servants belonging to the King Prince and the rest of the King's Children 4. To the Fourth It is Ordered That this House agrees to this Resolution but do refer the manner of issuing out the Proclamation until the Commission given to the Lords of the Councel for issuing out Proclamations be perused 6. Concerning the sequestring of the Isle of Wight into another Hand this House thought fit to return this Answer to the House of Commons That in regard they have offered no Reasons for the same their Lordships know not how to give an Answer But when they shall shew their Lordships Reasons for so doing they will take the business into Consideration 7. Concerning the securing the persons of Recusants It is Ordered To be debated on Monday Morning next 8. Concerning the Earl of Essex 's having Power over the Trained Bands this House defers their Resolutions concerning it until the Commission of the Earl of Essex for Captain General of the South be brought into this House and perused which is to be done on Munday next In the Commons House It was Ordered Connelly Ordered to have 500 l. paid presently That whereas Owen O Connelly who discovered the Treason in Ireland had 500 l. appointed him in part of Recompence that Sir Robert Pye and Mr. Wheeler the Treasurers for the Poll-money of Westminster do forthwith pay unto the said Connelly the said 500 l. The greatest part of the Morning was spent in preparing the Heads for the fore-mentioned Conference with the Lords But among all these great Affairs which were before them the Faction in the House was still at Leisure to fall upon the Loyal and Orthodox Clergy against whom they had a most irreconcileable Animosity For upon a Complaint and Information given in to the House by some of the Zealots without Doors who made it a great part of their Religion to Inform and Article against the Loyal and Orthodox Clergy It was this day Ordered That Dr. Fuller Dr. Fuller Dean of Ely sent for as a Delinquent for his Sermons Dean of Ely shall be sent for as a Delinquent for divers dangerous and scandalous matters delivered by him in several Sermons Thus did these persons who would not permit the Clergy to intermeddle in Secular Affairs boldly thrust their Sickle into the harvest of Spiritual Matters though by the Confession of One of their own Members in a Speech he saith he intended to have spoken as this day to arraign the Order of the 8th of September they were not Idonei Competentes Judices This day it seems was fixed for the Debating the Validity of that Order but by the intervening of other business it was put off and so lay sine die however I think it is not fit to let the Speech sleep so too which it may be was the best that Unfortunate Gentleman ever made or intended to speak in that place where swimming down the rapid Torrent of General Accusations of Fears and Jealousies he so far lost himself that when he would have done something to the stopping the Breaches in the Banks of the Government which he had helped to cut he found it as many others did out of his power to Effect and was himself in danger of being presently drowned in the Deluge which he had helped to raise with the Wind of Popular breath The Speech as I find it in his own Collections pag. 37. was in these Words Master Speaker ME thinks A Speech of Sir Edward Deering's about the Order of the Commons of Sept. 8. 1641. I am now going to Walk upon the Ridge of a House a dangerous Praecipice on either Hand On the one side I must take heed that I speak neither more nor less than the inward Dictate of my own Conscience on the other Hand I shall be afraid to presume above your better Judgments My Path is narrow I must look to my Footing Dixi custodiam vias meas c. I said I will look to my Waies that I Offend not in my Tongue Thus I preface because I foreknow that I shall speak to the dislike of some Worthy Members of this Honorable House Sir Two Questions are before us First in General how far an Order of this House is binding de foris not upon our own Members here but upon the People the King's Subjects abroad Secondly the Validity and Invalidity of your particular Order of the Eighth and Declaration of the ninth of September last For the First I am clear in this Opinion That we may enforce any thing that is undoubtedly grounded upon the Law of the Land Shew me that Foundation and I will concur with you in any Resolution We may also declare against any Thing that is introduced contrary to our Laws Farther than this I know no Way unless it be by Bill and then I know no Limitation no bound Thus in brief for the General I come now to your particular Order Master Speaker I shall be afraid to arraign your Orders I have already been Controlled not for doing so but as if I had done so yet Sir I have often heard it in this House that We are Masters of our own Orders and then I think we may in this Place arraign them that is Question them Try them Approve Alter Reject or Condemn them Was not our Protestation more sacred than an Order yet that was revised and to stop some Objections new Senced by us And I take it lawful in this Place to arraign if that be the Word even an Act of Parliament and then a fortiori an Order of this House Surely Sir I shall speak reverently of all your Orders when I am abroad I have done so of this I am resolved that my Obedience shall therein be found good although my particular Reason be rebellant to your Conclusions This is my Duty abroad but here in this House within these Walls freedome is my Inheritance and give me lieve I pray at this time to use a part of my Birth-right The Seasonableness and the Equity of your Order both are controverted You all know that this is a dangerous time to make any determinations in Matter of Religion whether it be in the
Soams Alderman Pennington and Mr. Venn do repair to the Common-Council of the City of London when they are sitting and to acquaint them with the Information this House received what Practices have been used to the Inns of Court and those other Informations of the like Nature that have been given to this House of the Preparations of Armed Men about White-Hall and those other Preparations at the Tower And to inform them in what danger the Parliament the Kingdom and the City is in It was also Ordered That Mr. Whittaker Sir Robert Pye and Mr. Pury do presently repair to the House of the Marquess de Neuf-ville and see if his House be furnished with Warlike Ammunition as the House is informed Memorandum Mr. Hollis Mr. Pym Sir Arthur Haslerigg Mr. The 5 Members appearance Entred in the Journal Hampden and Mr. Strode appeared to day according to the Injunction of the House And I find among the Prints of that time a Speech of Mr. Hampden's upon the occasion of his Impeachment which confirms this Memorandum which was as followeth Mr. Speaker IT is a true Saying of the Wise Man That all things happen alike to all Men Mr. Hampden's Speech in Vindication of himself against his Impeachment Jan. 4. 1641. as well to the good Man as to the bad There is no state or condition whatsoever either of Prosperity or Adversity but all sorts of Men are sharers in the same no man can be discerned truly by the outward appearance whether he be a good Subject either to his God his Prince or his Country until he be tryed by the Touchstone of Loyalty Give me leave I beseech you to parallel the Lives of either sort that we may in some measure discern Truth from Falshood and in speaking I shall similize their Lives 1. In Religion towards God 2. In Loyalty and due Subjection to their Soveraign in their Affection towards the Safety of their Country 1. Concerning Religion the best means to discern between the True and False Religion is by searching the Sacred Writings of the Old and New Testament which is of it self pure indited by the Spirit of God and written by Holy Men unspotted in their Lives and Conversations and by this Sacred Word may we prove whether our Religion be of God or no and by looking in this Glass we may discern whether we are in the Right Way or no. And looking into the same I find that by this Truth of God that there is but one God one Christ one Faith one Religion which is the Gospel of Christ and the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles In these two Testaments is contained all things necessary to Salvation if that our Religion doth hang upon this Doctrine and no other secondary Means then it is true to which comes nearest the Protestant Religion which we profess as I really and verily believe and consequently that Religion which joyneth with this Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles the Traditions and Inventions of Men Prayers to the Virgin Mary Angels Saints that are Used in the Exercise of their Religion strange and Superstitious Worshipping cringing bowing creeping to the Altar using Pictures Dirges and such like cannot be true but Erroneous nay devillish and all this is used and maintained in the Church of Rome as necessary as the Scripture to Salvation therefore is a false and Erroneous Church both in Doctrine and Discipline and all other Sects and Schisms that leans not only on the Scripture though never so contrary to the Church of Rome is a false worshipping of God and not the true Religion And thus much concerning Religion to discern the truth and falshood thereof 2 I come now Mr. Speaker to the second thing intimated unto you which was how to discern in a state between good Subjects and bad by their Loyalty and due Subjection to their Lawful Sovereign in which I shall under favour observe two things 1. Lawful Subjection to a King in his own Person and the Commands Edicts and Proclamations of the Prince and his Privy Council 2. Lawful Obedience to the Laws Statutes and Ordinances made Enacted by the King and the Lords with the Free Consent of his Great Council of State assembled in Parliament For the First To deny a willing and dutiful Obedience to a Lawful Soveraign and his Privy Council for as Cambden truly saith The Commands of the Lords Privy Councellors and the Edicts of the Prince is all one for they are inseparable the one never without the other either to defend his Royal Person and Kingdoms against the Enemies of the same either publique or private or to defend the Antient Priviledges and Prerogatives of the King pertaining and belonging of Right to his Royal Crown and the maintenance of his Honor and Dignity or to defend and maintain true Religion Established in the Land according to the truth of God is one sign of an Evil and Bad Subject Secondly To yield Obedience to the Commands of a King if against the true Religion against the Ancient and Fundamental Laws of the Land is another sign of an ill Subject Thirdly To resist the Lawful Power of the King to raise Insurrection against the King admit him adverse in his Religion to Conspire against his Sacred Person or any wayes to Rebel thô Commanding things against our Consciences in Exercising Religion or against the Rights and Priviledges of the Subject is an absolute sign of a Disaffected and Trayterous Subject And now having given the Signs of discerning Evil and Disloyal Subjects I shall only give you in a word or two the Signs of discerning which are Loyal and Good Subjects only by turning these Three Signs already shewed on the contrary side 1. He that willingly and chearfully endeavoureth himself to obey his Soveraign's Commands for the Defence of his own Person and Kingdoms for the Defence of True Religion for the Defence of the Laws of his Country is a Loyal and good Subject 2. To deny Obedience to a King commanding any thing against Gods true Worship and Religion against the Ancient and Fundamental Laws of the Land in endeavouring to perform the same is a good Subject 3. Not to resist the Lawful and Royal Power of the King to raise Sedition or Insurrection against his Person or to set Division between the King and his good Subjects by Rebellion although commanding things against Conscience in the Exercise of Religion or against the Rights and Priviledges of the Subject but patiently for the same to undergo his Prince's Displeasure whether it be to his Imprisonment Confiscation of Goods Banishment or any other Punishment whatsoever without Murmuring Grudging or Reviling against his Soveraign or his Proceedings but submitting willingly and chearfully himself and his Cause to Almighty God is the only sign of an Obedient and Loyal Subject I come now to the Second Means to know the difference between a good Subject and a bad by their Obedience to the Laws Statutes and Ordinances made