if time be unnecessarily lost 5. Now for the fallaciousness of my Argument to my knowledge it was never My practice nor do I confess to have begun now For if the Practice of the Primitive Church and the universal consent of the Fathers be not a convincing Argument when the interpretation of Scripture is doubtful I know nothing For if this be not then of necessity the Interpretation of private Spirits must be admitted the which contradicts St. Peter 2 Pet. 1. 20. is the Mother of all Sects and will if not prevented bring these Kingdoms into confusion And to say that an Argument is ill because the Papists use it or that such a thing is good because it is the Custom of some of the Reformed Churches cannot weigh with Me until you prove these to be infallible or that to maintain no Truth And how Diotrephes Ambition who directly opposed the Apostle St John can be an Argument against Episcopacy I do not understand 6. When I am made a Judge over the Reformed Churches then and not before will I censure their Actions as you must prove before I confess it that Presbyters without a Bishop may lawfully ordain other Presbyters And as for the Administration of Baptism as I think none will say that a Woman can lawfully or duely administer it though when done it be valid so none ought to do it but a lawful Presbyter whom you cannot deny but to be absolutely necessary for the Sacrament of the Eucharist 7. You make a learned succinct discourse of Oaths in general and their several Obligations to which I fully agree intending in the particular now in question to be guided by your own Rule which is when any Oath hath a special reference to the Benefit of those to whom I make the Promise if we have their desire or consent the Obligation ceaseth Now it must be known to whom this Oath hath reference and to whose benefit The Answer is clear Only to the Church of England as by the Record will be plainly made appear And you much mistake in alledging that the two Houses of Parliament especially as they are now constituted can have this Disobligatory power for besides that they are not named in it I am confident to make it clearly appear to you that this Church never did submit nor was subordinate to them and that it was only the King and Clergy who made the Reformation the Parliament merely serving to help to give the Civil Sanction All this being proved of which I make no question it must necessarily follow that it is only the Church of England in whose favour I took this Oath that can release Me from it wherefore when the Church of England being lawfully assembled shall declare that I am free then and not before I shall esteem My self so 8. To your last concerning the King My Father of Happy and Famous Memory both for his Piety and Learning I must tell you that I had the Happiness to know Him much better than you wherefore I desire you not to be too confident in the knowledge of His Opinions for I dare say should his Ghost now speak He would tell you that a bloody Reformation was never lawful as not warranted by God's Word and that Preces lachrymae sunt Arma Ecclesiae 9. To conclude having replied to all your Paper I cannot but observe to you that you have given Me no Answer to my last Quaere It may be you are as Chaucer says like the People of England What they not like they never understand but in earnest that question is so pertinent to the Purpose in hand that it will much serve for My satisfaction and besides it may be useful for other things C. R. Newcastle June 6. 1646. IV. Mr. Alexander Henderson's Second Paper For His MAJESTY SIR THE smaller the encouragements be in relation to the success which how small they are Your Majesty well knows the more apparent and I hope the more acceptable will my obedience be in that which in all humility I now go about at Your Majesty's command yet while I consider that the way of man is not in himself nor is it in man that walketh to direct his own steps and when I remember how many supplications with strong crying and tears have been openly and in secret offered up in Your Majesty's behalf unto God that heareth prayer I have no reason to despair of a blessed success 1. I have been averse from a disputation of Divines 1. For saving of time which the present exigence and extremity of affairs make more than ordinarily pretious While Archimedes at Syracuse was drawing his figures and circlings in the sand Marcellus interrupted his Demonstration 2. Because the common result of Disputes of this kind answerable to the prejudicate opinions of the Parties is rather Victory than Verity while tanquam tentativi Dialectici they study more to overcome their adverse Party than to be overcome of Truth although this be the most glorious Victory 3. When I was commanded to come hither no such thing was proposed to me nor expected by me I never judged so meanly of the Cause nor so highly of my self as to venture it upon such weakness Much more might be spoken to this purpose but I forbear 2. I will not further trouble Your Majesty with that which is contained in the second Section hoping that Your Majesty will no more insist upon Education Prescription of time c. which are sufficient to prevent Admiration but which Your Majesty acknowledges must give place to Reason and are no sure ground of resolution of our Faith in any point to be believed although it be true that the most part of men make these and the like to be the ground and rule of their Faith an Evidence that their Faith is not a Divine Faith but an humane Credulity 3. Concerning Reformation of Religion in the third Section I had need have a Preface to so thorny a Theme as your Majesty hath brought me upon 1. For the Reforming power it is conceived when a General Defection like a Deluge hath covered the whole face of the Church so that scarcely the tops of the Mountains do appear a General Council is necessary but because that can hardly be obtained several Kingdoms which we see was done at the time of the Reformation are to Reform themselves and that by the Authority of their Prince and Magistrates if the Prince or supreme Magistrate be unwilling then may the inferior Magistrate and the People being before rightly informed in the grounds of Religion lawfully Reform within their own sphere and if the light shine upon all or the major part they may after all other means assayed make a publick Reformation This before this time I never wrote or spoke yet the Maintainers of this Doctrine conceive that they are able to make it good But Sir were I worthy to give advice to Your Majesty or to the Kings and supreme Powers on Earth
intention to continue this War any longer or to make any Division between His two Kingdoms but to give such contentment to both as by the blessing of God He might see a happy and well-grounded Peace thereby to bring Prosperity to these Kingdoms answerable to the best times of His Progenitors And since the setling of Religion ought to be the chiefest care of all Counsels His Majesty most earnestly and heartily recommends to His two Houses of Parliament all the ways and means possible for speedy finishing this pious and necessary work and particularly that they take the advice of the Divines of both Kingdoms assembled at Westminster Likewise concerning the Militia of England for securing His People against all pretensions of Danger His Majesty is pleased to have it setled as was offered at the Treaty at Vxbridge all the persons being to be named for the trust by the two Houses of the Parliament of England for the space of seven years and after the expiring of that term that it be regulated as shall be agreed upon by His Majesty and His two Houses of Parliament And the like for the Kingdom of Scotland Concerning the Wars in Ireland His Majesty will do whatsoever is possible for Him to give full satisfaction therein And if these be not satisfactory His Majesty then desires that all such of the Propositions as are already agreed upon by both Kingdoms may be speedily sent unto Him His Majesty being resolved to comply with His Parliament in every thing that shall be for the Happiness of His Subjects and for the removing of all unhappy Differences which have produced so many sad effects His Majesty having made these offers he will neither question the thankful acceptation of them nor doth He doubt but that His two Kingdoms will be careful to maintain Him in His Honour and in His just and lawful Rights which is the only way to make a happy composure of these unnatural Divisions and likewise will think upon a solid way of conserving the Peace between the two Kingdoms for the time to come and will take a speedy course for easing and quieting His afflicted People by satisfying the publick Debts by disbanding of all Armies and whatsoever else shall be judged conducible to that end that so all hindrances being removed He may return to His Parliament with mutual comfort Southwell May 18. 1646. POSTSCRIPT HIS Majesty being desirous to shun the further effusion of Blood and to evidence His real intentions to Peace is willing that His Forces in and about Oxford be disbanded and the Fortifications of the City dismantled they receiving honorable Conditions Which being granted to the Town and Forces there His Majesty will give the like Order to the rest of the Garrisons XXIV From NEW CASTLE Jun. 10. MDCXLVI For Propositions for Peace and a Personal Treaty For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. HIS Majesty looking with grief of heart upon the sad sufferings of His People in His three Kingdoms for some years past and being afflicted with their distresses and unquiet conditions through the distractions about Religion the keeping of Forces on foot in the Fields and Garrisons the not satisfying of publick Debts and the fears of the further effusion of blood by the continuance of an unnatural War in any of these Kingdoms or by rending and dividing these Kingdoms so happily united and having sent a gracious Message unto both Houses of Parliament and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland expressing the necessary causes of His coming from Oxford unto the Scotish Army without any intention to make a Division where He is in freedom and right capacity to settle a true Peace and containing such offers as He conceived would have been accepted with a general clause of complying with their desires and being impatient of delays and not acquainted with the particulars which may give contentment to them His Majesty doth earnestly desire That the Propositions of Peace so often promised and so much expected may be speedily sent unto Him that upon consideration of them He may apply Himself to give such satisfaction as may be the foundation of a firm Peace And for the better and more speedy attaining thereunto His Majesty doth further propound That He may come to London with Safety Freedom and Honour where He resolves to comply with His Houses of Parliament in every thing which may be most for the good of His Subjects and perfect what remains for setling both Kingdoms and People in a happy condition being likewise most confident that they according to their reiterated Declarations and solemn Protestations will be zealous in the maintenance of His Honour and just and lawful Rights And as His Majesty desires the Houses of Parliament to disburthen the Kingdom of all Forces and Garrisons in their power except such as before these unhappy times have been maintained for the necessary defence and safety of this Kingdom so He is willing forthwith to disband all His Forces and Garrisons within the same as the inclosed Order herewith sent will evidence And if upon these offers His Majesty shall have such satisfaction as He may be confident a firm Peace shall ensue thereon His Majesty will then give order for His Son the Prince his present return Newcastle the tenth of June 1646. To Our Trusty and Well-beloved Sir Thomas Glenham Sir Thomas Tildesley Col. H. Washington Col. Thomas Blagge Governours of Our Cities and Towns of Oxford Lichfield Worcester and Wallingford and all other Commanders of any Towns Castles and Forts in Our Kingdom of England CHARLES R. HAving resolved to comply with the desires of Our Parliament in every thing which may be for the good of Our Subjects and leave no means unassayed for removing all Differences amongst us therefore We have thought fit the more to evidence the reality of Our intentions of setling a happy and firm Peace to require you upon honourable terms to quit those Towns Castles and Forts intrusted to you by Vs and to disband all the Forces under your several Commands Newcastle the tenth of June 1646. XXV From NEWCASTLE Aug. 1. MDCXLVI For a Personal Treaty upon the Propositions sent Him To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. THE Propositions tendered to His Majesty by the Commissioners from the Lords and Commons of the Parliament of England assembled at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland to which the Houses of Parliament have taken twice so many months for deliberation as they have assigned days for His Majesties Answer do import so great alterations in Government both in Church and Kingdom as it is very difficult to return a particular and positive Answer before a full
If the time spent in this Parliament be considered in relation backward to the long growth and deep root of those Grievances which we have removed to the powerful supports of those Delinquents which we have pursued to the great necessities and other charges of the Commonwealth for which we have provided or if it be considered in relation forward to many advantages which not only the present but future ages are like to reap by the good Laws and other proceedings in this Parliament we doubt not but it will be thought by all indifferent judgments that our time hath been much better imployed then in a far greater proportion of time in many former Parliaments put together and the charges which have been laid upon the Subjects and the other inconveniences which they have born will seem very light in respect of the benefit they have and may receive And for the matter of Protections the Parliament is so sensible of it that therein they intend to give them whatsoever ease may stand with Honour and Justice and are in a way of passing a Bill to give them satisfaction They have sought by many subtle practices to cause jealousies and divisions betwixt us and our brethren of Scotland by slandering their proceedings and intentions towards us and by secret endeavours to instigate and incense them and us one against another They have had such a party of Bishops and Popish Lords in the House of Peers as hath caused much opposition and delay in the prosecution of Delinquents hindered the proceedings of divers good Bills passed in the Commons House concerning the reformation of sundry great abuses and corruptions both in Church and State They have laboured to seduce and corrupt some of the Commons House to draw them into Conspiracies and Combinations against the Liberty of the Parliament and by their Instruments and agents they have attempted to disaffect and discontent His Majesties Army and to engage it for the maintenance of their wicked and traiterous designs the keeping up of Bishops in their Votes and Functions and by force to compel the Parliament to order limit and dispose their proceedings in such manner as might best concur with the intentions of this dangerous and potent faction And when one mischievous design and attempt of theirs to bring on the Army against the Parliament and the City of London had been discovered and prevented they presently undertook another of the same damnable nature with this addition to it to endeavour to make the Scotish Army neutral whilst the English Army which they had laboured to corrupt and invenome against us by their false and slanderous suggestions should execute their malice to the subversion of our Religion and the dissolution of our Government Thus they have been continually practising to disturb the Peace and plotting the destruction even of all the Kings dominions and have employed their Emissaries and Agents in them all for the promoting of their devilish designs which the vigilancy of those who were well-affected hath still discovered and defeated before they were ripe for execution in England and Scotland only in Ireland which was farther off they have had time and opportunity to mould and prepare their work and had brought it to that perfection that they had possessed themselves of that whole Kingdom totally subverted the Government of it rooted out Religion and destroyed all the Protestants whom the conscience of their duty to God their King and Countrey would not have permitted to joyn with them if by God's wonderful providence their main enterprise upon the City and Castle of Dublin had not been detected and prevented upon the very Eve before it should have been executed Notwithstanding they have in other parts of that Kingdom broken out into open Rebellion surprized Towns and Castles committed murders rapes and other villanies and shaken off all bonds of Obedience to His Majesty and the Laws of the Realm and in general have kindled such a fire as nothing but God's infinite blessing upon the wisdom and endeavours of this State will be able to quench it And certainly had not God in his great mercy unto this Land discovered and confounded their former designs we had been the Prologue to this Tragedy in Ireland and had by this time been made the lamentable spectacle of misery and confusion And now what hope have we but in God when as the only means of our subsistence and power of Reformation is under Him in the Parliament But what can we the Commons without the conjunction of the House of Lords and what conjunction can we expect there when the Bishops and Recusant Lords are so numerous and prevalent that they are able to cross and interrupt our best endeavours for Reformation and by that means give advantage to this malignant party to traduce our proceedings They infuse into the People that we mean to abolish all Church-government and leave every man to his own fancy for the Service and Worship of God absolving him of that Obedience which he owes under God unto His Majesty whom we know to be entrusted with the Ecclesiastical Law as well as with the Temporal to regulate all the members of the Church of England by such rules of order and discipline as are established by Parliament which is his great Council in all affairs both of Church and State We confess our intention is and our endeavours have been to reduce within bounds that exorbitant power which the Prelates have assumed unto themselves so contrary both to the Word of God and to the Laws of the Land to which end we past the Bill for the removing them from their Temporal power and employments that so the better they might with meekness apply themselves to the discharge of their functions Which Bill themselves opposed and were the principal instruments of crossing it And we do here declare that it is far from our purpose or desire to let loose the golden reins of Discipline and Government in the Church to leave private persons or particular Congregations to take up what form of Divine Service they please for we hold it requisite that there should be throughout the whole Realm a Conformity to that Order which the Laws enjoyn according to the Word of God and we desire to unburthen the Consciences of men of needless and superstitious Ceremonies suppress innovations and take away the monuments of Idolatry And the better to effect the intended Reformation we desire there may be a general Synod of the most grave pious learned and judicious Divines of this Island assisted with some from foreign parts professing the same Religion with us who may consider of all things necessary for the peace and good Government of the Church and represent the results of their consultations unto the Parliament to be there allowed of and confirmed and receive the stamp of Authority thereby to find passage and obedience throughout the Kingdom They have malitiously charged us that we intend to destroy and discourage
satisfie their own private Ends and Ambition for themselves know what overtures have been made by them and with what importunity for Offices and Preferments what great Services should have been done for Us and what other undertakings were even to have saved the Life of the Earl of Strafford if We would confer such Offices upon them We were sure We could make such particular proofs against them of a solemn Combination entred into by them for altering the Government of the Church and State of their designing Offices to themselves and other Men of their solliciting and drawing down the Tumults to Westminster and of their bidding the People in the height of their rage and fury to go to White-Hall of their scornful and odious mention of Our Person and their design of getting Our Son the Prince into their hands of their treating with Foreign Power to assist them if they should fail in their enterprises Yet we saw too that their Interest and reputation was so great with many of both Houses of Parliament their Power so absolute with a multitude of Brownists Anabaptists and other Sectaries about London who were ready to appear in a body at their command that it would be a hard matter to proceed against them In this streight We resolved to do Our part in both to give Our People a clear satisfaction of Our upright Intentions to the publick whereby they should find their Happiness did not at all depend on such Instruments and to proceed against the Persons of the other in a legal way that all the world might see what Ambition Malice and Sedition had been had under the Vizour of Conscience and Religion Hereupon We prepared an Answer to the Remonstrance the House of Commons had before published to the People of the State of the Kingdom wherein without taking notice of the uncomely Language in and the Circumstances of that Remonstrance We declared with as gracious and full Expressions as We could make Our earnest Resolutions for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion the Liberty and Property of the Subject and the Law of the Land and made no less gracious offers to consent to any Act that should be offered for the ease of tender Consciences in matters indifferent and very earnestly desired that the same might be provided and whatever else should be thought necessary for the Peace and Security of Our People And then that We might likewise manifest the Actions of that Malignant Party which had done so much mischief and intended so much more We resolved to accuse the Lord Kimbolton Master Hollis Master Pym Master Hampden and Master Stroud who had so maliciously contrived the Ruine of Our Self and the established Government of this Church and Kingdom and Sir Arthur Hesilrigge who had been made their Instrument to obey and execute their bold and wild designs of High Treason as We had great reason to do hoping that their Duty due to Us and the Obligations We had put upon Our People this Parliament would never suffer the Interest and reputation of these Men to be laid in the scale and to over-weigh Our Regal Authority and the Law of the Land but that We should have found a way open to a fair and Legal Trial of them which was all We desired How our proceeding was in that business and Our managery of it We have truly and at large set forth in Our Answer to the Declaration of both Houses of the nineteenth of May That what We did first in acquainting the House of Commons with Our Accusation by Our Serjeant at Arms was in Correspondence and out of regard to that House that We might rather have them delivered to the hands of Justice by them than apprehend them by an ordinary Minister of Justice which We were and are assured whatever Doctrine is preached to the contrary We might well have done in the case of Treason otherwise that Maxime in the Law acknowledged in a Petition of both Houses to Us in the beginning of Our Reign in the Case of the Earl of Arundel That in case of Treason Felony and breach of Peace Priviledge of Parliament doth not extend is of no signification The words are They find it an undoubted Right and constant Priviledge of Parliament That no Member of Parliament sitting the Parliament or within the usual times of Priviledge of Parliament is to be imprisoned or restrained without Sentence or Order of the House unless it be for Treason Felony or for refusing to give Sureties for the Peace In those Cases 't was then thought a Member of either House was not to be distinguished from another Subject and why We might not as well have expected that upon Our Articles not so general as a meer verbal Accusation of High Treason either House would have committed their several Members as they had done so many this Parliament and about that time Twelve together upon a confessed ground which every Man there who knew what Treason was knew that fact to be none meerly because they were accused and as the House of Peers had formerly done a Member of that House the Earl of Bristol accused in the same manner most of the good Lords being then Judges We neither could then nor can yet understand That Our own coming to the House was to prevent that shedding of blood which in all possibility was likely to follow that Order made the night before for resisting all such Officers who endeavoured upon how legal Warrant soever to arrest any Members of either House an Order much more unjustifiable by any Rule of Law and Justice by which Orders or Acts are to be examined than any thing We have done or any body by Our Authority That Our purpose was no other but to acquaint that House with the matter of Our Accusation to desire their Persons might be secured and without any thought of the least violation of their Priviledges This is that which We did Examine now their part and their progress since and then judge whose Priviledges have been invaded and with how good a mind to the Common-wealth they have proceeded We were no sooner gone but the House adjourned it self with some unusual expressions of offence and We were speedily informed that some Reports and Scandals were raised against Us in Our City of London That We had offered Violence to Our House of Commons come thither with force to murther several Members and used threatning Speeches there against Our Parliament and that this was but a Preface to an attempt We meant to make against and upon the City Whereupon We resolved the next day to go to the Guild-Hall and to shew the great Confidence We had in the affections of Our said City which We expected should have begot a proportionable Confidence from them in Us We went attended with very few of Our own Servants and then in the presence of the Lord Mayor the Aldermen and a very great assembly of the chief Citizens and others We made
is prejudicial to the Civil State which we have often desired from you Lordships without effect and which are the Grounds upon which your Lordships propose the abolishing Episcopacy And we shall be very willing and are desirous to receive your Lordships Reasons in these particulars And how short soever the time allotted is for the Treaty for which we cannot be answerable being not bound up in point of time by His Majesty as your Lordships say you are by your Instructions and we should be glad that the same might be enlarged proportionably to the importance of the things to be Treated on we should be wanting to the great Trust reposed in us if we should consent to those Demands as they are proposed to us by your Lordships otherwise than as they are agreeable to our Consciences and Understandings And such an Answer your Lordships shall receive from us to your Demands concerning Religion upon which we hope a safe and well-grounded Peace by the blessing of God may be established Their Paper 13. Feb. WE did assure our selves that after so many days debate concerning Religion and our removal of whatever Objections have been offered by your Lordships and our making it appear how great a hinderance Episcopal Government is and hath been to a perfect Reformation to the growth of Religion and prejudicial to the Civil State that your Lordships would have been ready to have answered our expectation with the Grant of our Demands But if still your Lordships remain unsatisfied we conceive it cannot with any Justice be imputed unto us and therefore we again desire your Lordships full and clear Answer to what we have delivered unto you concerning Religion Upon this last Paper and after the several Debates between the Commissioners and Arguments by the Divines and consideration had of all that had been delivered concerning Religion His Majesty's Commissioners gave in these Four Papers following 13. February WE are not yet satisfied that the Bill insisted on by your Lordships which remains in His Majesty's hands for the utter abolishing of Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans and Chapters c. ought to be enacted believing it not to be agreeable to Conscience and Justice to alienate the Lands therein mentioned to Lay-uses and not understanding that the alienation thereof is necessary at all to the Reformation of Religion Besides that there is no certain provision made for any of those who are now legally vested in those possessions whereby they and their Families shall be in evident danger of want of bread And it appearing by your Lordships Propositions which relate to the Articles of the late Treaty of the date at Edenburgh 29. of Novemb. 1643. and the joynt Declaration of both Kingdoms to which you require our Assent as well as to the Bill that part of the Church-land may be after the passing this Bill assign'd to other uses than is exprest in the said Bill Upon these considerations and upon your Debate which hath passed between us upon this Bill whereby it hath appeared that there would be so great an Alteration in the Civil State by this Bill being enacted in the failure of Justice at the Common Law and otherwise in many several particulars of great importance to the Subjects of this Kingdom which for ought appears to us is not yet provided for and that by a particular Clause in the Bill His Majesty's ancient and undoubted power of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is wholly taken away besides it may be very considerable what inconveniencies would ensue by the passing this Bill now which looks back and is to begin from November was twelve-month whereby all those Acts of Jurisdiction exercised by Bishops since that time are already void which would produce great inconveniences and mischiefs touching the probates of Wills and Administrations throughout the Kingdom not to speak of the doubts which may arise in many consciencious Men who have been ordained by Bishops since that time which may seem to be likewise declared void by this Bill and so at least to discountenance all Acts which have insued by virtue of that Ordination and thereby many Questions may arise in Law concerning Marriages Legitimations and Descents of Inheritance and for many other reasons exprest in our Conference and Debate we conceive that your Lordships may be satisfied that this individual Bill ought not to pass For the matter then of the said Bill the Extirpation of Episcopacy we desire your Lordships to consider That it is evident and we conceive consented to on all parts that it hath continued even from the Apostles times by continual Succession in the Church of Christ till within these few years without intermission or interruption and then how perilous a thing it must be and prejudicial to the publick Peace to remove and destroy a Form of Government so long exercised in this Kingdom and under which we have enjoyed as great a measure of Happiness to say no more as any Nation in Christendom and which your Lordships have not pretended to be unlawful before we particularly see the Model of that Government and Jurisdiction which is to be established in the place thereof that thereby we may be assured that it be such to which as well those who like as all those who dislike the present Government will submit otherwise Peace which is the main end and pretence for Alterations cannot be established And therefore we very earnestly beseech your Lordships to consider and weigh whether without shaking Foundations it be not much better and more agreeable to Christian Prudence and Charity to remove those particulars from the present Government and make such Alterations therein as may most probably give satisfaction to all persons seriously disturbed or afflicted in their Consciences than by destroying the whole to give just Offence and Scandal to very many Pious and Religious Persons Under these Considerations and for the uniting and reconciling all Differences between us in the matter of Religion and procuring a blessed Peace we are willing That Freedom be left to all Persons of what Opinion soever in matters of Ceremony and that all the Penalties of the Laws and Customs which enjoyn those Ceremonies be suspended That the Bishop shall exercise no Act of Jurisdiction or Ordination without the consent and counsel of the Presbyters who shall be chosen by the Clergy of each Diocess out of the learned stand gravest Ministers of that Diocess That the Bishop keep his constant residence in his Diocess except when he shall be required by His Majesty to attend him on any occasion and that if he be not hindred by the infirmities of old Age or Sickness he Preach every Sunday in some Church within his Diocess That the Ordination of Ministers shall be always in a publick and solemn manner and very strict Rules observed concerning the Sufficiency and other Qualifications of those Men who shall be received into Holy Orders and the Bishop shall not receive any into Holy Orders without the
at Our Court at Tavestock the 8 th of September 1644. The Bill for Abolishing Episcopacy VVHereas the Government of the Church of England by Arch-bishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons and other Ecclesiastical Officers depending upon the Hierarchy hath by long experience been found to be a great impediment to the perfect Reformation and growth of Religion and very prejudicial to the Civil State and Government of the Kingdom Be it therefore Enacted by the King 's most Excellent Majesty and the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That from and after the fifth day of November in the year of our Lord One Thousand Six Hundred Forty and Three there shall be no Arch-bishop Bishop Chancellor or Commissary of any Arch-Bishop or Bishop nor any Dean Sub-dean Dean and Chapter or Arch deacon nor any Chancellor Chaunter Treasurer Sub-treasurer Succentor or Sacrist of any Cathedral or Collegiate Church nor any Prebendary Canon Canon-Residentiary Petty-Canon Vicar-Choral Choristers old Vicars or new Vicars of or within any Cathedral or Collegiate Church or any other their Officers within this Church of England or Dominion of Wales and that from and afrer the said fifth day of November the Name Title Dignity Jurisdiction Office and Function of Arch bishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Sub-deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons Canons and Prebendaries and all Chaunters Chancellors Treasurers Sub-treasurers Succentors and Sacrists and all Vicars-Choral and Choristers old Vicars and new Vicars and every of them and likewise the having using or exercising of any Power Jurisdiction Office or Authority by reason or colour of any such Name Title Dignity Office or Function within this Realm of England or Dominion of Wales shall thenceforth cease determine and become absolutely void and shall be abolished out of this Realm and the Dominion of Wales any Usage Law or Statute to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And that from and after the said fifth day of November no Person or Persons whatsoever by Virtue of any Letters-Patents Commission or other Authority derived from the King's Majesty His Heirs or Successors shall use or exercise any Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical within this Realm or Dominion of Wales but such and in such manner as shall be appointed and established by Act of Parliament And that all Counties Palatine Mannors Lordships Castles Granges Messuages Mills Lands Tenements Meadows Leasues Pastures Woods Rents Reversions Services Parks Annuities Franchises Liberties Priviledges Immunities Rights Rights of Action and of Entry Interests Titles of Entry Conditions Commons Courts-Leet and Courts-Baron and all other Possessions and Hereditaments whatsoever of what nature or quality soever they be or wheresoever they lie or be other than Impropriations Parsonages appropriate Tithes Oblations Obventions Pensions Portions of Tithes Parsonages Vicarages Churches Chappels Advowsons Nominations Collations Rights of Patronage and Presentation which now are or lately were of or belonging unto any Arch-bishop Bishop Arch-bishoprick or Bishoprick or any of them or which they or any of them held or injoyed in right of their said Arch-bishoprick or Bishoprick respectively shall by the Authority of Parliament be vested adjudged and deemed to be and shall be in the very real and actual possession and seisin of the King's Majesty His Heirs and Successors and He shall have hold possess and enjoy the same to Him His Heirs and Successors without any Entry or other Act whatsoever and that the King's Majesty His Heirs and Successors His and their Lessees Farmers and Tenants shall hold and enjoy the same discharged and acquitted of payment of Tithes as freely and in as large ample and beneficial means to all intents and purposes as any Arch-bishop or Bishop at any time or times within the space of two years last past held or enjoyed or of right ought to have held or enjoyed the same Provided nevertheless and be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all Leases Grants Gifts Letters-Patents Conveyances Assurances or Estates whatsoever hereafter to be made by the King's Majesty His Heirs or Successors of any the Mannors Lands Tenements Hereditaments which in or by this Act shall come or be limited or disposed of unto His Majesty His Heirs or Successors other than for the Term of One and Twenty years or Three Lives or some other Term of years determinable upon One Two or Three Lives and not above from the time as any such Lease or Grant shall be made or granted whereupon the accustomed yearly Rent or more shall be reserved and payable yearly during the said Term and whereof any former Lease is in being not to be expired surrendred or ended within three years after the making of any such new Lease shall be utterly void and of none effect to all intents constructions and purposes any clause or words of non obstante to be put in any such Patent Grant Conveyance or Assurance and any Law Usage Custom or any thing in this Act to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And be it further Enacted and Ordained That all Impropriations Parsonages appropriate Tithes Oblations Obventions Portions of Tithes Parsonages Vicarages Churches Chappels Advowsons Nominations Collations Rights of Patronage and Presentation which now are or lately were belonging unto any Arch-bishop or Bishop Arch-bishoprick or Bishoprick and all Mannors Castles Lordships Granges Messuages Mills Lands Tenements Meadows Pastures Woods Rents Reversions Services Parsonages appropriate Tithes Oblations Obventions Pensions Portions of Tithes Parsonages Vicarages Churches Chappels Advowsons Nominations Rights of Patronage and Presentation Parks Annuities Franchises Liberties Priviledges Immunities Rights Rights of Action and of Entry Interests Titles of Entry Conditions Commons Courts-Leet and Courts-Baron and all other Possessions and Hereditaments whatsoever of what nature or quality soever they be or wheresoever they lie or be which now are or lately were of or belonging to any Sub-dean Dean Dean and Chapter Arch-deacon Chaunter Chancellor Treasurer Sub-treasurer Succentor Sacrist Prebendary Canon Canon-Residentiary Petty-Canon Vicars Choral Choristers old Vicars and new Vicars or any of them or any of the Officers of them or any of them which they held or enjoyed in right of their said Dignities Churches Corporations Offices or Places respectively shall by Authority of this present Parliament be vested adjudged and deemed to be and shall be in the very real and actual possession and seisin of Sir VVilliam Roberts Knight Thomas Atkins Sir John VVollaston John VVarner John Towes Aldermen of the City of London John Packer Esquire Peter Malbourne Esquire and they shall have hold possess and enjoy the same to them their Heirs and Assigns without any Entry or other Act whatsoever and that for themselves their Lessees Farmers and Tenants discharged and acquitted of payment of Tithes as freely and in as large ample and beneficial manner to all intents and purposes as any of the Persons or Corporations whose Offices or Places are taken away by this Act at
unto the Kingdom of England by the Kingdom of Scotland upon the first Monthly allowance which shall grow due to the Scotish Army from the time they shall make their first entrance into the Kingdom of England 7. That the Kingdom of Scotland to manifest their willingness to their utmost ability to be helpful to their Brethren of England in this common Cause will give the Publick Faith of the Kingdom of Scotland to be joyntly made use of with the Publick Faith of the Kingdom of England for the present taking up of Two hundred thousand Pounds sterling in the Kingdom of England or elsewhere for the speedy procuring of the said Hundred thousand Pounds sterling as aforesaid as also a considerable sum for the satisfying in good proportion the Arrears of the Scotish Army in Ireland 8. That no Cessation nor any Pacification or Agreement for Peace whatsoever shall be made by either Kingdom or the Armies of either Kingdom without the mutual Advice and Consent of both Kingdoms or their Committees in that behalf appointed who are to have full Power for the same in case the Houses of the Parliament of England or the Parliament or Convention of Estates of Scotland shall not sit 9. That the Publick Faith of the Kingdom of Scotland shall be given to their Brethren of England that neither their entrance into nor their continuance in the Kingdom of England shall be made use of to any other ends then are expressed in the Covenant and in the Articles of this Treaty and that all matters of difference that shall happen to arise between the Subjects of the two Nations shall be resolved and determined by the mutual Advice and Consent of both Kingdoms or by such Committees as for this purpose shall be by them appointed with the same Power as in the precedent Article 10. That in the same manner and upon the same conditions as the Kingdom of Scotland is now willing to aid and assist their Brethren of England the Kingdom of England doth oblige themselves to aid and assist the Kingdom of Scotland in the same or like cases of streights and extremities 11. Lastly it is agreed and concluded that during the time that the Scotish Army shall be imployed as aforesaid for the defence of the Kingdom of England there shall be fitted out as Men of War eight Ships whereof six shall be of Burthen betwixt One hundred and Twenty and two hundred Tun the other between three and four hundred Tun whereof two shall be in lieu of the two Ships appointed by the Irish Treaty all which shall be maintained at the charge of the Kingdom of England to be imployed for the defence of the Coast of Scotland under such Commanders as the Earl of Warwick for the time of his being Admiral shall nominate with the approbation of the Committees of both Kingdoms which Commanders shall receive from the said Earl general Instructions that they do from time to time observe the Directions of the Committees of both Kingdoms The Ordinance for calling the Assembly of Divines An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons in Parliament for the calling of an Assembly of Learned and Godly Divines and others to be consulted with by the Parliament for the settling of the Government and Liturgy of the Church of England and for vindicating and clearing of the Doctrine of the said Church from false Aspersions and Interpretations WHereas amongst the infinite Blessings of Almighty God upon this Nation none is or can be more dear unto us than the purity of our Religion and for that as yet many things remain in the Liturgy Discipline and Government of the Church which do necessarily require a further and more perfect Reformation than as yet hath been attained and whereas it hath been declared and resolved by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament that the present church-Church-government by Arch-bishops Bishops their Chancellours Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons and other Ecclesiastical Officers depending upon the Hierarchy is evil and justly offensive and burthensom to the Kingdom a great impediment to Reformation and growth of Religion and very prejudicial to the State and Government of this Kingdom and that therefore they are resolved that the same shall be taken away and that such a Government shall be settled in the Church as may be most agreeable to Gods Holy Word and most apt to procure and preserve the Peace of the Church at home and nearer agreement with the Church of Scotland and other reformed Churches abroad and for the better effecting hereof and for the vindicating and clearing of the Doctrine of the Church of England from all false Calumnies and Aspersions it is thought fit and necessary to call an Assembly of Learned Godly and Judicious Divines who together with some Members of both the Houses of Parliament are to consult and advise of such matters and things touching the Premisses as shall be proposed unto them by both or either of the Houses of Parliament and to give their Advice and Counsel therein to both or either of the said Houses when and as often as they shall be thereunto required Be it therefore ordained by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled That all and every the Persons hereafter in this present Ordinance named that is to say Algernon Earl of Northumberland William Earl of Bedford Philip Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery William Earl of Salisbury Henry Earl of Holland Edward Earl of Manchester William Lord Viscount Say and Seal Edward Lord Viscount Conway Philip Lord VVharton Edward Lord Howard of Escr John Selden Esquire Francis Rous Esquire Edmund Prideaux Esquire Sir Henry Vane Knight senior John Glyn Esquire Recorder of London John VVhite Esquire Bulstrode VVhitelock Esquire Humphry Salway Esquire Mr. Serjeant VVild Oliver Saint-John Esquire His Majesties Sollicitor Sir Benjamin Rudyard Knight John Pym Esquire Sir John Clotworthy Knight John Maynard Esquire Sir Henry Vane Knight junior VVilliam Pierrepont Esquire William VVheeler Esquire Sir Thomas Barrington Knight VValter Young Esquire Sir John Evelin Knight Herbert Palmer of Ashwel Batchelor in Divinity Oliver Bowles of Sutton Batchelor in Divinity Henry VVilkinson of VVaddesdon Batchelor in Divinity Thomas Valentine of Chalfont-Giles Batchelor in Divinity Doctor VVilliam Twisse of Newbury VVilliam Raynor of Egham Master Hannibal Gammon of Maugan Mr. Jasper Hicks of Lawrick D. Joshua Hoyle late of Dublin in Ireland VVilliam Bridges of Yarmouth Thomas VVincop of Ellesworth Doctor in Divinity Thomas Goodwin of London Batchelor in Divinity John Ley of Budworth in Cheshire Thomas Case of London John Pyne of Bereferrers Master VVhidden of Mooreton D. Richard Love of Ekington D. VVilliam Gouge of Blackfriers London D. Ralph Brownrigge Bishop of Exceter D. Samuel Ward Master of Sidney Colledge John White of Dorchester Edward Peal of Compton Stephen Marshall of Finchingfield Batchelor in Divinity Obadiah Sedgewick of Cogshall Batchelor in Divinity M. Carter Peter Clark of Carnaby William Mew of Estington Batchelor in Divinity
other things under any Great Seal of England in any time heretofore were or have been and that for time to come the said Great Seal now remaining in custody of the said Commissioners continue and be used for the Great Seal of England and that all Grants Commissions Presentations Writs Process Proceedings and other things whatsoever passed under or by authority of any other Great Seal since the two and twentieth day of May Anno Dom. 1642. or hereafter to be passed be invalid and of no effect to all intents and purposes except such Writs Process and Commissions as being passed under any other Great Seal than the said Great Seal in the Custody of the Commissioners aforesaid on or after the said two and twentieth day of May and before the 28. day of November Anno Dom. 1643. were afterward proceeded upon returned into or put in ure in any the Kings Courts at VVestminster and except the Grant to Master Justice Bacon to be one of the Justices of the Kings Bench and except all Acts and Proceedings by virtue of any such Commissions of Gaol-delivery Assize and Nisi prius or Oyer and Terminer passed under any other Great Seal than the Seal aforesaid in custody of the said Commissioners before the first of October 1642. And that all Grants of Offices Lands Tenements or Hereditaments made or passed under the Great Seal of Ireland unto any Person or Persons Bodies Politick or Corporate since the Cessation made in Ireland the fifteenth day of September 1643. shall be null and void and that all Honours and Titles conferred upon any Person or Persons in the said Kingdom of Ireland since the said Cessation shall be null and void His MAJESTIES Answer to the Propositions of both Houses Newcastle Aug. 1. 1646. To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster CHARLES R. THE Propositions tendered to his Majesty by the Commissioners from the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at VVestminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland to which the Houses of Parliament have taken twice so many Months for deliberation as they have assigned Days for his Majesties Answer do import so great Alterations in Government both in the Church and Kingdom as it is very difficult to return a particular and positive Answer before a full Debate wherein these Propositions and the necessary Explanations true sense and Reasons thereof be rightly weighed and understood and that his Majesty upon a full view of the whole Propositions may know what is left as well as what is taken away and changed In all which he finds upon discourse with the said Commissioners that they are so bound up from any capacity either to give Reasons for the Demands they bring or to give ear to such Desires as his Majesty is to propound as it is impossible for him to give such a present judgment of and Answer to these Propositions whereby he can answer to God that a safe and well-grounded Peace will ensue which is evident to all the World can never be unless the just Power of the Crown as well as the Freedom and Propriety of the Subject with the just Liberty and Priviledges of the Parliament be likewise setled To which end his Majesty desires and proposeth to come to London or any of his Houses thereabouts upon the Publick Faith and security of the two Houses of Parliament and the Scotch Commissioners That he shall be there with Freedom Honour and Safety where by his Personal Presence he may not only raise a mutual Confidence betwixt him and his People but also have these Doubts cleared and these Difficulties explained unto him which he now conceives to be destructive to his just Regal Power if he shall give a full Consent to these Propositions as they now stand As likewise that he may make known to them such his reasonable Demands as he is most assured will be very much conducible to that Peace which all good men desire and pray for by the settling of Religion the just Priviledges of Parliament with the Freedom and Propriety of the Subject and his Majesty assures them that as he can never condescend unto what is absolutely destructive to that just Power which by the Laws of God and the Land he is born unto so he will chearfully grant and give his Assent unto all such Bills at the desire of his two Houses or reasonable Demands for Scotland which shall be really for the good and peace of his People not having regard to his own particular much less of any body 's else in respect of the Happiness of these Kingdoms Wherefore his Majesty conjures them as Christians as Subjects and as men who desire to leave a good name behind them that they will so receive and make use of this Answer that all issues of Blood may be stopped and these unhappy Distractions peaceably setled Newcastle August 1. 1646. POST-SCRIPT Upon assurance of a happy Agreement his Majesty will immediately send for the Prince his Son absolutely expecting his perfect Obedience to return into this Kingdom His MAJESTIES Message to both Houses from Newcastle Dec. 20. 1646. To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the Lords and Commons of the Parliament of England assembled at Westminster and to the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland at London CHALLES R. HIS Majesties thoughts being always sincerely bent to the Peace of his Kingdoms was and will be ever desirous to take all ways which might the most clearly make appear the Candor of his Intentions to his People and to this end could find no better way than to propose a Personal free Debate with his two Houses of Parliament upon all the present Differences yet finding very much against his expectations that this Offer was lay'd aside his Majesty bent all his thoughts to make his Intentions fully known by a particular Answer to the Propositions delivered to him in the name of both Kingdoms 24. July last But the more he endeavoured it he more plainly saw that any Answer he could make would be subject to misinformations and mis-constructions which upon his own Paraphrases and Explanations he is most confident will give so good satisfaction as would doubtless cause a happy and lasting Peace Lest therefore that good Intentions may produce ill Effects His Majesty again proposeth and desires again to come to London or any of his Houses thereabouts upon the Publick Faith and Security of his two Houses of Parliament and the Scotch Commissioners that he shall be there with Honour Freedom and Safety where by his Personal Presence he may not only raise a mutual Confidence betwixt him and his People but also have those Doubts cleared and those Difficulties explained to him without which he cannot but with the aforesaid mischievous Inconveniencies give a particular Answer to the Propositions and with which he doubts not but so
religious Reformations by the Sword as to polish them by fair and equal Disputations among those that are most concerned in the Differences whom not Force but Reason ought to convince But their design now seemed rather to cut off all Disputation here than to procure a fair and equal one For it was concluded there that the English Clergy must conform to the Scots pattern before ever they could be heard what they could say for themselves or against the others Way I could have wished fairer proceedings both for their credits who urge things with such Violence and for other mens Consciences too who can receive little satisfaction in these Points which are maintained rather by Soldiers fighting in the Field than Scholars disputing in free and learned Synods Sure in matters of Religion those Truths gain most on mens Judgments and Consciences which are least urged with secular Violence which weakens Truth with Prejudices and is unreasonable to be used till such means of rational Conviction have been applied as leaving no excuse for Ignorance condemns mens Obstinacy to deserved penalties Which no Charity will easily suspect of so many Learned and Pious Church-men in England who being always bred up and conformable to the Government of Episcopacy cannot so soon renounce both their former Opinion and practice only because that Party of the Scots will needs by Force assist a like Party here either to drive all Ministers as sheep into the common fold of Presbytery or destroy them at least fleece them by depriving them of the benefit of their Flocks If the Scotch sole Presbytery were proved to be the only institution of Jesus Christ for all Churches Government yet I believe it would be hard to prove that Christ had given those Scots or any other of My Subjects Commission by the Sword to set it up in any of My Kingdoms without My consent What respect and obedience Christ and his Apostles pay'd to the chief Governors of States where they lived is very clear in the Gospel but that he or they ever commanded to set up such a Parity of Presbyters and in such a way as those Scots endeavour I think is not very disputable If Presbytery in such a supremacy be an institution of Christ sure it differs from all others and is the first and only Point of Christianity that was to be planted and watered with so much Christian blood whose effusions run in a stream so contrary to that of the Primitive Planters both of Christianity and Episcopacy which was with patient shedding of their own blood not violent drawing other mens Sure there is too much of Man in it to have much of Christ none of whose institutions were carried on or begun with the temptations of Covetousness or Ambition of both which this is vehemently suspected Yet was there never any thing upon the point which those Scots had by Army or Commissioners to move Me with by their many solemn Obtestations and pious Threatnings but only this To represent to Me the wonderful necessity of setting up their Presbytery in England to avoid the further miseries of a War which some men chiefly on this design at first had begun and now further engaged themselves to continue What hinders that any Sects Schisms or Heresies if they can get but numbers strength and opportunity may not according to this opinion and pattern set up their ways by the like methods of violence All which Presbytery seeks to suppress and render odious under those Names when Wise and Learned men think that nothing hath more marks of Schism and Sectarism than this Presbyterian way both as to the Ancient and still most Universal way of the Church-Government and specially as to the particular Laws and Constitutions of this English Church which are not yet repealed nor are like to be for Me till I see more Rational and Religious motives than Soldiers use to carry in their Knapsacks But we must leave the success of all to God who hath many ways having first taken us off from the folly of our Opinions and fury of our Passion to teach us those Rules of true Reason and peaceable Wisdom which is from above tending most to Gods glory and his Churches good which I think My self so much the more bound in Conscience to attend with the most judicious zeal and care by how much I esteem the Church above the State the glory of Christ above Mine own and the Salvation of mens Souls above the Preservation of their Bodies and Estates Nor may any men I think without sin and presumption forcibly endeavour to cast the Churches under My care and tuition into the moulds they have fancied and fashioned to their designs till they have first gained My consent and resolved both My own and other mens Consciences by the strength of their Reasons Other violent motions which are neither Manly Christian nor Loyal shall never either shake or settle My Religion nor any mans else who knows what Religion means and how far it is removed from all Faction whose proper engine is Force the Arbitrator of Beasts not of reasonable Men much less of humble Christians and loyal Subjects in matters of Religion But men are prone to have such high conceits of themselves that they care not what cost they lay out upon their Opinions especially those that have some temptations of Gain to recompence their losses and hazards Yet I was not more scandalized at the Scots Armies coming in against my will and their forfeiture of so many Obligations of Duty and Gratitude to Me than I wondred how those here could so much distrust Gods assistance who so much pretended Gods Cause to the People as if they had the certainty of some Divine Revelation considering they were more than competently furnished with My Subjects Arms and Ammunition My Navy by Sea My Forts Castles and Cities by Land But I find that men jealous of the justifiableness of their doings and designs before God never think they have humane strength enough to carry their work on seem it never so plausible to the People What cannot be justified in Law or Religion had need be fortified with Power And yet such is the inconstancy that attends all minds engaged in violent motion that whom some of them one while earnestly invite to come in to their Assistance others of them soon after are weary of and with nauseating cast them out what one Party thought to rivet to a setledness by the strength and influence of the Scots that the other rejects and contemns at once despising the Kirk-Government and Discipline of the Scots and frustrating the Success of so chargeable more than charitable Assistance For sure the Church of England might have purchased at a far cheaper rate the Truth and Happiness of Reformed Government and Discipline if it had been wanting tho it had entertained the best Divines of Christendom for their Advice in a full and free Synod which I was ever willing to and desirous of
from the effects of blind Zeal and over-bold Devotion XVII Of the Differences between the KING and the Two Houses in point of CHURCH-GOVERNMENT TOuching the Government of the Church by Bishops the common Jealousie hath been that I am earnest and resolute to maintain it not so much out of Piety as Policy and reason of State Wherein so far indeed reason of State doth induce Me to approve that Government above any other as I find it impossible for a Prince to preserve the State in quiet unless he hath such an influence upon Church-men and they such a dependance on Him as may best restrain the seditious exorbitancies of Ministers tongues who with the Keys of Heaven have so far the Keys of the Peoples Hearts as they prevail much by their Oratory to let in or shut out both Peace and Loyalty So that I being as KING intrusted by God and the Laws with the good both of Church and State I see no reason I should give up or weaken by any change that power and influence which in right and reason I ought to have over both The removing Bishops out of the House of Peers of which I have elsewhere given an account was sufficient to take off any suspicion that I encline to them for any use to be made of their Votes in State-affairs Tho indeed I never thought any Bishop worthy to sit in that House who would not Vote according to his Conscience I must now in Charity be thought desirous to preserve that Government in its right constitution as a matter of Religion wherein both my Judgment is fully satisfied that it hath of all other the fullest Scripture grounds and also the constant Practice of all Christian Churches till of late years the Tumultuariness of people or the Factiousness and Pride of Presbyters or the Covetousness of some States and Princes gave occasion to some mens wits to invent new models and propose them under the specious titles of Christs Government Scepter and Kingdom the better to serve their turns to whom the change was beneficial They must give Me leave having none of their temptations to invite Me to alter the Government of Bishops that I may have a title to their Estates not to believe their pretended grounds to any new ways contrary to the full and constant testimony of all Histories sufficiently convincing unbiassed men that as the Primitive Churches were undoubtedly governed by the Apostles and their immediate Successors the first and best Bishops so it cannot in Reason or Charity be supposed that all Churches in the world should either be ignorant of the Rule by them prescribed or so soon deviate from their Divine and Holy Pattern That since the first Age for fifteen hundred years not one Example can be produced of any setled Church wherein were many Ministers and Congregations which had not some Bishop above them under whose Jurisdiction and Government they were Whose constant and universal practice agreeing with so large and evident Scripture-Directions and Examples as are set down in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus for the setling of that Government not in the Persons only of Timothy and Titus but in the Succession the want of Government being that which the Church can no more dispense with in point of well-being than the want of the Word and Sacraments in point of being I wonder how men came to look with so envious an eye upon Bishops power and authority as to oversee both the Ecclesiastical use of them and Apostolical constitution which to Me seems no less evidently set forth as to the main scope and design of those Epistles for the setling of a peculiar Office Power and Authority in them as President-Bishops above others in point of Ordination Censures and other acts of Ecclesiastical Discipline than those shorter characters of the qualities and duties of Presbyter-Bishops and Deacons are described in some parts of the same Epistles who in the latitude and community of the name were then and may now not improperly be call'd Bishops as to the oversight and care of single Congregations committed to them by the Apostles or those Apostolical Bishops who as Timothy and Titus succeeded them in that ordinary power there assigned over larger divisions in which were many Presbyters The Humility of those first Bishops avoiding the eminent title of Apostles as a name in the Churches style appropriated from its common notion of a Messenger or one sent to that special Dignity which had extraordinary Call Mission Gifts and Power immediately from Christ they contented themselves with the ordinary titles of Bishops and Presbyters until use the great arbitrator of words and master of language finding reason to distinguish by a peculiar name those Persons whose Power and Office were indeed distinct from and above all other in the Church as succeeding the Apostles in the ordinary and constant power of governing the Churches the honour of whose name they moderately yet commendably declined all Christian Churches submitting to that special authority appropriated also the name of Bishop without any suspicion or reproach of arrogancy to those who were by Apostolical propagation rightly descended and invested into that highest and largest power of governing even the most pure and Primitive Churches which without all doubt had many such holy Bishops after the pattern of Timothy and Titus whose special power is not more clearly set down in those Epistles the chief grounds and limits of all Episcopal claim as from Divine Right than are the characters of these perilous times and those men that make them such who not enduring sound Doctrine and clear testimonies of all Churches practice are most perverse Disputers and proud Usurpers against true Episcopacy who if they be not Traitors and Boasters yet they seem to be very covetous heady high-minded inordinate and fierce lovers of themselves having much of the Form little of the power of Godliness Who by popular heaps of weak light and unlearned Teachers seek to over-lay and smother the pregnancy and authority of that power of Episcopal Government which beyond all equivocation and vulgar fallacy of names is most convincingly set forth both by Scripture and all after-Histories of the Church This I write rather like a Divine than a Prince that Posterity may see if ever these Papers be publick that I had fair grounds both from Scripture-Canons and Ecclesiastical Examples whereon my Judgment was stated for Episcopal Government Nor was it any Policy of State or obstinacy of Will or partiality of Affection either to the men or their Function which fixed Me who cannot in point of worldly respects be so considerable to Me as to recompence the injuries and losses I and My dearest Relations with My Kingdoms have sustained and hazarded chiefly at first upon this quarrel And not only in Religion of which Scripture is the best rule and the Churches Universal Practice the best commentary but also in right Reason and the true nature of Government it cannot be thought
that an orderly Subordination among Presbyters or Ministers should be any more against Christianity than it is in all secular and Civil Governments where Parity breeds Confusion and Faction I can no more believe that such Order is inconsistent with true Religion than good Features are with Beauty or Numbers with Harmony Nor is it likely that God who appointed several orders and a Prelacy in the Government of his Church among the Jewish Priests should abhor or forbid them among Christian Ministers who have as much of the Principles of Schism and Division as other men for preventing and suppressing of which the Apostolical Wisdom which was divine after that Christians were multiplied to many Congregations and Presbyters with them appointed this way of Government which might best preserve Order and Union with Authority So that I conceive it was not the Favour of Princes or Ambition of Presbyters but the Wisdom and Piety of the Apostles that first setled Bishops in the Church which Authority they constantly used and enjoyed in those times which were purest for Religion tho sharpest for Persecution Not that I am against the managing of this Presidency and Authority in one man by the joynt counsel and consent of many Presbyters I have offered to restore that as a fit means to avoid those Errors Corruptions and Partialities which are incident to any one man also to avoid Tyranny which becomes no Christians least of all Church-men besides it will be a means to take away that burthen and odium of affairs which may lie too heavy on one mans shoulders as indeed I think it formerly did on the Bishops here Nor can I see what can be more agreeable both to Reason and Religion than such a frame of Government which is Paternal not Magisterial and wherein not only the necessity of avoiding Faction and Confusion Emulations and Contempts which are prone to arise among equals in Power and Function but also the differences of some Ministers gifts and aptitudes for Government above others doth invite to employ them in reference to those Abilities wherein they are eminent Nor is this Judgment of Mine touching Episcopacy any pre-occupation of Opinion which will not admit any oppositions against it It is well known I have endeavoured to satisfie My self in what the chief Patrons for other ways can say against this or for theirs And I find as they have far less of Scripture grounds and of Reason so for Examples and Practice of the Church or testimonies of Histories they are wholly destitute wherein the whole stream runs so for Episcopacy that there is not the least rivulet for any others As for those obtruded Examples of some late Reformed Churches for many retain Bishops still whom necessity of times and affairs rather excuseth than commendeth for their Inconformity to all Antiquity I could never see any reason why Churches orderly reformed and governed by Bishops should be forced to conform to those few rather than to the Catholick example of all Ancient Churches which needed no Reformation and to those Churches at this day who governed by Bishops in all the Christian world are many more than Presbyterians or Independents can pretend to be All whom the Churches in My Three Kingdoms lately governed by Bishops would equalize I think if not exceed Nor is it any point of Wisdom or Charity where Christians differ as many do in some points there to widen the differences and at once to give all the Christian world except a handful of some Protestants so great a scandal in point of Church-Government whom tho you may convince of their Errors in some points of Doctrine yet you shall never perswade them that to compleat their Reformation they must necessarily desert and wholly cast off that Government which they and all before them have ever owned as Catholick Primitive and Apostolical so far that never Schismaticks nor Hereticks except those Aerians have strayed from the Unity and Conformity of the Church in that point ever having Bishops above Presbyters Besides the late general Approbation and Submission to this Government of Bishops by the Clergy as well as the Laity of these Kingdoms is a great confirmation of My Judgment and their Inconstancy is a great prejudice against their Novelty I cannot in charity so far doubt of their Learning or Integrity as if they understood not what heretofore they did or that they did conform contrary to their Consciences So that their facility and Levity is never to be excused who before ever the point of church-Church-government had any free and impartial debate contrary to their former Oaths and Practice against their obedience to the Laws in force and against My Consent have not only quite cried down the Government by Bishops but have approved and encouraged the violent and most illegal stripping all the Bishops and many other Church-men of all their due Authority and Revenues even to the selling away and utter alienation of those Church-lands from any Eclesiastical uses So great a power hath the stream of Times and the prevalency of Parties over some mens Judgments of whose so sudden and so total change little reason can be given besides the Scots Army coming into England But the Folly of these men will at last punish it self and the Desertors of Episcopacy will appear the greatest Enemies to and Betrayers of their own Interest for Presbytery is never so considerable or effectual as when it is joined to and crowned with Episcopacy All Ministers will find as great a difference in point of thriving between the favour of the People and of Princes as Plants do between being watered by hand or by the sweet and liberal dews of Heaven The tenuity and contempt of Clergy-men will soon let them see what a poor Carcass they are when parted from the influence of that Head to whose Supremacy they have been sworn A little Moderation might have prevented great mischiefs I am firm to Primitive Episcopacy not to have it extirpated if I can hinder it Discretion without Passion might easily reform whatever the rust of Times or indulgence of Laws or corruption of Manners have brough upon it It being a gross vulgar Error to impute to or revenge upon the Function the faults of Times or Persons which Seditious and popular Principle and Practice all wise men abhor For those Secular additaments and ornaments of Authority Civil Honour and Estate which My Predecessors and Christian Princes in all Countries have annexed to Bishops and Church-men I look upon them but as just Rewards of their Learning and Piety who are fit to be in any degree of Church-Government also enablements to works of Charity and Hospitality meet strengthenings of their Authority in point of Respect and Observance which in peaceful times is hardly payed to any Governors by the measure of their Virtues so much as by that of their Estates poverty and meanness exposing them and their Authority to the contempt of licentious minds and manners which persecuting
Times much restrained I would have such men Bishops as are most worthy of those encouragements and best able to use them If at any time My Judgment of men failed My good Intention made my error venial And some Bishops I am sure I had whose Learning Gravity and Piety no men of any worth or forehead can deny But of all men I would have Church-men especially the Governors to be redeemed from that vulgar Neglect which besides an innate principle of vicious opposition which is in all men against those that seem to reprove or restrain them will necessarily follow both the Presbyterian Parity which makes all Ministers equal and the Independent Inferiority which sets their Pastors below the People This for my Judgment touching Episcopacy wherein God knows I do not gratifie any design or Passion with the least perverting of Truth And now I appeal to God above and all the Christian World whether it be just for Subjects or pious for Christians by Violence and infinite Indignities with servile restraints to seek to force Me their KING and Soveraign as some men have endeavoured to do against all these grounds of My Judgment to consent to their weak and divided Novelties The greatest Pretender of them desires not more than I do that the Church should be governed as Christ hath appointed in true Reason and in Scripture of which I could never see any probable shew for any other ways who either content themselves with the examples of some Churches in their infancy and solitude when one Presbyter might serve one Congregation in a City or Countrey or else they deny these most evident Truths That the Apostles were Bishops over those Presbyters they ordained as well as over the Churches they planted and That Government being necessary for the Churches well-being when multiplied and sociated must also necessarily descend from the Apostles to others after the example of that power and superiority they had above others which could not end with their Persons since the use and Ends of such Government still continue It is most sure that the purest Primitive and best Churches flourished under Episcopacy and may so still if Ignorance Superstition Avarice Revenge and other disorderly and disloyal Passions had not so blown up some mens minds against it that what they want of Reasons or Primitive Patterns they supply with Violence and Oppression wherein some mens zeal for Bishops Lands Houses and Revenues hath set them on work to eat up Episcopacy which however other men esteem to Me is no less sin than Sacriledg or a Robbery of God the giver of all we have of that portion which devout minds have thankfully given again to him in giving it to his Church and Prophets through whose hands he graciously accepts even a cup of cold water as a libation offered to himself Furtheâ—more as to My particular engagement above other men by an Oath agreeable to my Judgment I am solemnly obliged to preserve that Government and the Rights of the Church Were I convinced of the Unlawfulness of the Function as Antichristian which some men boldly but weakly calumniate I could soon with Judgment break that Oath which erroneously was taken by Me. But being daily by the best disquisition of Truth more confirmed in the Reason and Religion of that to which I am sworn how can any man that wisheth not my Damnation perswade Me at once to so notorious and combined sins of Sacriledg and Perjury besides the many personal Injustices I must do to many worthy men who are as legally invested in their Estates as any who seek to deprive them and they have by no Law been convicted of those Crimes which might forfeit their Estates and Livelihoods I have oft wondred how men pretending to Tenderness of Conscience and Reformation can at once tell Me that My Coronation-Oath binds Me to consent to whatsoever they shall propound to Me which they urge with such Violence tho contrary to all that Rational and Religious Freedom which every man ought to preserve and of which they seem so tender in their own Votes yet at the same time these men will needs perswade Me that I must and ought to dispense with and roundly break that part of My Oath which binds Me agreeable to the best light of Reason and Religion I have to maintain the Government and legal Rights of the Church 'T is strange My Oath should be valid in that part which both My self and all men in their own case esteem injurious and unreasonable as being against the very natural and essential liberty of our Souls yet it should be invalid and to be broken in another clause wherein I think My self justly obliged both to God and Man Yet upon this Rack chiefly have I been held so long by some mens ambitious Covetousness and Sacrilegious Cruelty torturing with Me both Church and State in Civil dissentions till I shall be forced to consent and declare that I do approve what God knows I utterly dislike and in my Soul abhor as many ways highly against Reason Justice and Religion and whereto if I should shamefully and dishonourably give my Consent yet should I not by so doing satisfie the divided Interests and Opinions of those Parties which contend with each other as well as both against Me and Episcopacy Nor can My late condescending to the Scots in point of Church-Government be rightly objected against Me as an inducement for Me to consent to the like in my other Kingdoms for it should be considered that Episcopacy was not so rooted and setled there as 't is here nor I in that respect so strictly bound to continue it in that Kingdom as in this for what I think in my Judgment best I may not think so absolutely necessary for all places and at all times If any shall impute My yielding to them as My Failing and Sin I can easily acknowledg it but that is no argument to do so again or much worse I being now more convinced in that point nor indeed hath My yielding to them been so happy and succesful as to encourage Me to grant the like to others Did I see any thing more of Christ as to Meekness Justice Order Charity and Loyalty in those that pretend to other modes of Government I might suspect My Judgment to be biassed or forestalled with some Prejudice and wontedness of Opinion but I have hitherto so much cause to suspect the contrary in the Manners of many of those men that I cannot from them gain the least reputation for their new ways of Government Nor can I find that in any Reformed Churches whose patterns are so cried up and obtruded upon the Churches under my Dominion either Learning or Religion works of Piety or Charity have so flourished beyond what they have done in My Kingdoms by Gods blessing which might make Me believe either Presbytery or Independency have a more benign influence upon the Church and mens hearts and lives than Episcopacy in its right
the Ministers in the several Churches in London and in those parts of the Kingdom where His danger was known were very earnest in their Prayers to God for His Diliverance and Spiritual Assistance Some of them in their Sermons declared the horrour of that sin that was about to be committed detested the Impiety of the Parricides and denounced the heavy Judgments which such a sinful Nation polluted with their Prince's blood were to expect The Congregations were dissolved into Tears Some bewailed the sad Condition of the King as the effect of the Sins of the Nation Others cursed their damnable Credulity of the Slanders of that Just man and the promises of Liberty by their Impostors And another sort wept because their Fears did prognosticate those Miseries which the Issue of His blood would let in upon them And every one found matter of grief fear and indignation in the loss of so Excellent a Prince All countenances were full of sadness and astonishment there was no Tumults nor any Quiet every one listning and hearkning either as impatient to know the greatness of their Misery or greedy to receive some hopes of Comfort in their Sovereign's Safety otherwise there was a stilness like that which too strong Passions effect and might be thought a Stupidity rather than a Calmness The next day being Jan. 29. the King was permitted the sight of His Children His conference and words with them was taken in writing and communicated to the World by the Lady Elizabeth His Daughter a Lady of most eminent Endowments who though born in the supremest Fortune yet lived in continual Tears the passages of her Life being spent in beholding the Ruines of her Family and the Murther of her dear Father whom she not long survived but died in that Confinement to which they had cheated His Majesty in Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight While these things were done in publick the Conspirators meet in private in a Committee to appoint every one their part in this Tragedy determine what Gestures they were to affect what Words they were to use as also for the manner place and time of the Murther In which Consultations both now and before the Sentence each one according to the bloodiness of his temperament or servilely to flatter Cromwell by their Cruelty to Him that did obstruct his Ambition did propose several ways either of contempt or hatred in killing their sentenced yet anointed Sovereign Some would have His Head and Quarters fastned upon Poles as it is usual with Traitors that the marks of their Curelty might out-last His Death Others would have Him hanged as they punished Thieves and Murtherers Others gave their Vote that He should suffer in His Royal Habiliments with His Crown and in His Robes that it might be a Triumph of the Peoples power over Kings At last they think it sufficient that He should lose His Head by the stroak of an Ax on a Scaffold near White-Hall Gates before the Banqueting-House that so from thence where He used to sit on His Throne and shew the Splendour of Majesty He might pass to His Grave there parting with the Ensigns of Royalty and laying them down as Spoils where He had before used them as the Ornaments of Empire Thus did they endeavour to make their Malice ingenious and provided Triumphs for their revenge And because they suspected or were informed that as the King had not owned their Authority so He would not submit to their Execution not willingly stoop to the Block they caused to be fastned in it some Iron Staples and Rings that by them with Cords they might draw Him down if He would not comply But His prudent Meekness prevented this Inhumanity and He died disowning their Authority though He could not escape their Power In the midst of these Preparations they cause some Souldiers to offer to His Majesty certain Articles and Conditions to which if He would subscribe they promise Life and the continuance of a precarious Empire either out of a Terrour and Fear of the consequents of their Impieties for the confidence of contriving great Crimes is often turned into a sollicitude when they come to be acted or out of Design to ruine His Conscience and Honour together with His mortal Life if He should consent But when one or two of them had been read to Him He refused to hear any more saying I will suffer a thousand deaths ere I will so prostitute my Honour or betray the Liberties of my People Thus mindful of Justice He would not deface the Splendor of His former Vertues with a too impotent desire of Life At last that Fatal Day Jan. 30. approached and that morning a little before His Death the Conspirators ordered some of their Ministers viz. Marshall Nye Caryl Salway and Dell to pray with Him as they said in order to His passage out of this Life but when these sent to let Him know the end of their coming He returned answer that He was busie they sent a second time and He replied that He was at His Devotions they importunately sent a third time and my Lord of London then desiring to know what answer he should give to satisfie them His Majesty then as unconcerned in their Ministery said My Lord you may give them what answer you please but I am resolved that they who have so often and so causelesly prayed against Me shall not in this My Agony pray with Me they may pray for Me if they please Therefore the King arming Himself with His own Devotions in the Offices of the Church of England in them found an unexpected Comfort for the Gospel for that Day being the History of the Passion of our Saviour did by that Example strengthen the King to follow Jesus and to take up His Cross and His Majesty was thankful for that Pattern Being thus confirmed by the Blood for He took the Sacrament that Morning and Sufferings of His LORD whose Vicegerent He was together with His own Innocency against the Terrors of Death He was brought from St James's through the Park to White-Hall walking very fast and with as chearful a Countenance as if He were going to Hunting a Recreation He was much pleased with often advising His slow guards to move faster adding I now go before you to strive for an Heavenly Crown with less sollicitude than I formerly have led My Souldiers for an Earthly Diadem And being come to the end of the Park He with much Alacrity went up the Stairs leading to the long Gallery in White-Hall and so into the Cabinet-Chamber where He continued some time in Devotion while they were fitting the Theatre of His Murther While these things were acting the Lord Fairfax who had always forborn any publick appearance in the practices of this Murther had taken up as is credibly reported some Resolutions either in abhorrency of the Crime or by the Solicitations of others with his own Regiment though none else should follow him to hinder the
of Horse Foot and Artillery His plenty of Ammunition which some men lately might conceive He wanted is so well known and understood that it must be confessed that nothing but the Tenderness and Love to His people and those Christian Impressions which always have and He hopes always shall dwell in His heart could move Him once more to hazard a refusal And he requires them as they will answer to God to Himself and all the World that they will no longer suffer their fellow-Subjects to welter in each others bloud that they will remember by whose Authority and to what end they met in that Council and send such an Answer to His Majesty as may open a door to let in a firm Peace and Security to the whole Kingdom If His Majesty shall again be disappointed of His intentions herein the Bloud Rapine and Distraction which must follow in England and Ireland will be cast upon the account of those who are deaf to the motion of Peace and Accommodation IX From OXFORD Mar. 3. MDCXLIII IV. For a Treaty To the Lords and Commons of Parliament Assembled at Westminster C. R. OUT of Our most tender and pious sense of the sad and bleeding condition of this Our Kingdom and Our unwearied desires to apply all remedies which by the blessing of Almighry God may recover it from an utter Ruine by the Advice of the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Oxford We do propound and desire That a convenient number of fit Persons may be appointed and authorized by you to meet with all convenient speed at such Place as you shall nominate with an equal number of fit Persons whom We shall appoint and authorize to Treat of the ways and means to settle the present Distractions of this Our Kingdom and to procure a happy Peace And particularly how all the Members of both Houses may securely meet in a full and free Convention of Parliament there to Treat Consult and Agree upon such things as may conduce to the maintenance and defence of the true Reformed Protestant Religion with due consideration to all just and reasonable ease of tender Consciences to the settling and maintaining of Our just Rights and Priviledges of the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament the Laws of the Land the Liberty and Property of the Subject and all other Expedients that may conduce to that blessed end of a firm and lasting Peace both in Church and State and a perfect understanding betwixt Us and Our People wherein no endeavour or concurrency of Ours shall be wanting And God direct your hearts in the ways of Peace Given at Our Court at Oxford the third day of March 1643. X. From EVESHOLME July 4. MDCXLIV After the Defeat of Waller at Cropredy Bridge To the Lords and Commons of Parliament Assembled at Westminster C. R. WE being deeply sensible of the Miseries and Calamities of this Our Kingdom and of the grievous Sufferings of Our poor Subjects do most earnestly desire that some Expedient may be found out which by the blessing of God may prevent the further effusion of blood and restore the Nation to Peace from the earnest and constant endeavouring of which as no discouragement given Us on the Contrary part shall make Us cease so no success on Ours shall ever divert Us. For the effecting whereof We are most ready and willing to condescend to all that shall be for the good of Us and Our People whether by way of confirmation of what We have already granted or of such further concession as shall be requisite to the giving a full assurance of the performance of all Our most real professions concerning the maintenance of the true Reformed Protestant Religion established in this Kingdom with due regard to the ease of tender Consciences the just Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberty and Propriety of the Subject according to the Laws of the Land as also by granting a general Pardon without or with exceptions as shall be thought fit In order to which blessed Peace We do desire and propound to the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Westminster That they appoint such and so many persons as they shall think fit sufficiently authorized by them to attend Us at Our Army upon safe conduct to come and return which We do hereby grant and conclude with Us how the Premisses and all other things in question betwixt Us and them may be fully settled whereby all unhappy mistakings betwixt Us and Our People being removed there may be a present Cessation of Arms and as soon as may be a total disbanding of all Armies the Subject have his due and We be restored to Our Rights Wherein if this Our offer shall be accepted there shall be nothing wanting on Our part which may make Our People secure and happy Given at our Court at Evesholm the fourth of July 1644. XI From TAVESTOCK Sept. 8. MDCXLIV After the Defeat of the Earl of ESSEX in Cornwal To the Lords and Commons of Parliament Assembled at Westminster CHARLES R. IT having pleased God in so eminent a manner lately to bless Our Armies in these parts with success We do not so much joy in that blessing for any other consideration as for the hopes We have that it may be a means to make others lay to heart as We do the miseries brought and continued upon Our Kingdom by this unnatural War and that it may open your ears and dispose your minds to embrace those offers of Peace and Reconciliation which have been so often and so earnestly made unto you by Us and from the constant and fervent endeavours of which We are resolved never to desist In pursuance whereof We do upon this occasion conjure you to take into consideration Our too-long-neglected Message of the fourth of July from Evesholm which We again renew unto you and that you will speedily send Us such an Answer thereunto as may shew unto Our poor Subjects some light of a deliverance from their present Calamities by a happy Accommodation toward which We do here engage the word of a King to make good all those things which We have therein promised and really to endeavour a happy conclusion of this Treaty And so God direct you in the ways of Peace Given at our Court at Tavestock the eighth of September 1644. From OXFORD Dec. 13. MDCXLIV For a Treaty by Commissioners By the Duke of Richmond and Earl of Southampton HIS Majesty hath seriously considered your Propositions and finds it very difficult in respect they import so great an alteration in Government both in Church and State to return a particular and positive Answer before a full debate wherein those Propositions and all necessary Explanations and Reasons for assenting dissenting or qualifying and all inconveniences and mischiefs which may ensue and cannot otherwise be so well foreseen may be discussed and weighed His Majesty therefore proposeth and desireth as the best expedient for Peace That you will appoint such a number of Persons
Advocate Rives and D. Duck. And afterward in a Letter of one of the Commissioners for the two Houses He sent inclosed this Note Nov. 2. C. R. The Bishop of Armagh the Bishop of Excester the Bishop of Rochester the Bishop of Worcester Dr. Ferne Dr. Morley XXXVIII From NEWPORT Sept. 29. MDCXLVIII Containing His Concessions HIS Majesty did use many earnest endeavours for a Personal Treaty which He hoped might have been obtained at Westminster between Him and His two Houses of Parliament immediately yet they having made choice of this way by you their Commissioners His Majesty did gladly and chearfully accept thereof in this place as a fit means to begin a Treaty for Peace which might put an end to His own sad condition and the Miseries of His Kingdom For an entrance whereunto His Majesty hath already expressed His consent to the First Proposition But finding you are limited by Instructions which you have no warrant to communicate unto Him and having cause by your Paper of the twentieth of this present to believe that you have no power to omit or alter any thing though He shall give you such reasons as may satisfie you so to do without transmitting the Papers to the two Houses at a far distance where His Majesties reasons expressions and offers upon debate cannot be fully represented and from whence their Answers cannot be returned without much waste of the time allotted for the Treaty here and having lately received another Paper concerning the Church containing in it self many particulars of great importance and referring to divers Ordinances Articles of Religion and other things eleven or twelve in number of great length and some of them very new and never before presented to His Majesty the due consideration whereof will take up much time and require His Majesties presence with His two Houses before a full resolution can well be had in matters of so high consequence To the end therefore that the good Work now in hand may by God's blessing proceed more speedily and effectually to an happy conclusion and that His two Houses of Parliament may at present have further security and an earnest of future satisfaction His Majesty upon consideration had of yours makes these Propositions following Concerning the Church His Majesty will consent that the calling and sitting of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster be confirmed for three years by Act of Parliament And will by Act of Parliament confirm for three years the Directory for the publick Worship of God in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales And will likewise confirm for three years by Act of Parliament the Form of Church-Government which ye have presented to Him to be used for the Churches of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales Provided that His Majesty and those of His Judgment or any others who cannot in Conscience submit thereunto be not in the mean time obliged to comply with the same Government or Form of Worship but have free practice of their own profession And that a free consultation and debate be had with the Assembly of Divines at Westminster in the mean time twenty of His Majesties nomination being added unto them whereby it may be determined by His Majesty and His two Houses of Parliament how the said Church-Government and Form of Publick Worship after the said time may be setled or sooner if Differences may be agreed and how also Reformation of Religion may be setled within the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Dominion of Wales And the Articles of Christian Religion now delivered to Him may in like manner be then considered of and determined and care taken for the ease of tender Consciences And concerning the Bishops Lands and Revenues His Majesty considering that during these troublesom times divers of His Subjects have made contracts and purchaces and divers have disbursed great summs of moneys upon security and engagement of those Lands His Majesty for their satisfaction will consent to an Act or Acts of Parliament whereby legal estates for lives or for years at their choice not exceeding 99 years shall be made of those Lands towards the satisfaction of the said Purchasers Contractors and others to whom they are engaged at the old Rents or some other moderate Rent whereby they may receive satisfaction And in case such Leases shall not satisfie His Majesty will propound and consent to some other way for their further satisfaction Provided that the propriety and inheritance of those Lands may still remain and continue to the Church and Church-men respectively according to the pious intentions of the Donors and Founders thereof and the rent that shall be reserved to be for their maintenance His Majesty will give his Royal assent for the better observation of the Lord's day for suppressing of Innovations in Churches and Chappels in and about the Worship of God and for the better advancement of the Preaching of God's Holy Word in all parts of this Kingdom and to an Act against enjoying pluralities of Benefices by Spiritual persons and Non-residency and to an Act for regulating and Reforming both Universities and the Colledges of Westminster Winchester and Eaton His Majesty will consent to an Act for the better discovery and speedy conviction of Popish Recusants as is desired in your Propositions and also to an Act for the education of the children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion As also to an Act for the true levying of the penalties against Papists to be levied and disposed in such manner as both Houses shall agree on and as is proposed on His Majesties behalf As also to an Act to prevent the practices of Papists against the State and for putting the Laws in Execution and for a stricter course to prevent hearing and saying of Mass But as to the Covenant His Majesty is not yet therein satisfied that He can either sign or swear it or consent to impose it on the Consciences of others nor doth He conceive it proper or useful at this time to be insisted on Touching the Militia His Majesty conceives that your Proposition demands a far larger power over the persons and estates of His Subjects than hath ever hitherto been warranted by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm Yet considering the present Distractions require more and trusting in His two Houses of Parliament that they will make no further use of the power therein mentioned after the present Distempers setled than shall be agreeable to the legal exercise thereof in times past or just necessity shall require His Majesty will consent to an Act of Parliament That the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England now assembled or hereafter to be assembled or such as they shall appoint during the space of ten years shall arm train and discipline or cause to be armed trained or disciplined all the Forces of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernesey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick
upon Tweed already raised both for Sea and Land service and shall from time to time during the space of ten years raise levy arm train and discipline or cause to be raised levied armed trained and disciplined any other Forces for Land and Sea service in the Kingdoms Dominions and places aforesaid as in their judgments they shall from time to time during the said spaceof ten years think fit to appoint and that neither the King His Heirs or Successors or any other but such as shall Act by the Authority or approbation of the said Lords and Commons shall during the said space of ten years exercise any of the powers aforesaid That Monies be raised and levied for the maintenance and use of the said Forces for Land-service and of the Navy and Forces for Sea-service in such sort and by such ways and means as the said Lords and Commons shall from time to time during the said space of ten years think fit and appoint and not otherwise That all the said Forces both for Land and Sea-service so raised or levied or to be raised or levied and also the Admiralty and Navy shall from time to time during the said space of ten years be imployed managed ordered and disposed by the Lords and Commons in such sort and by such ways and means as they shall think fit and appoint and not otherwise And the said Lords and Commons or such as they shall appoint during the said space of ten years shall have power 1. To suppress all Forces raised or to be raised without authority and consent of the said Lords and Commons to the disturbance of the publick Peace of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernesey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any of them 2. To suppress any foreign Forces who shall invade or indeavour to invade the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernesey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any of them And after the expiration of the said ten years neither the King His Heirs or Successors or any person or persons by colour or pretence of any Commission power deputation or authority to be derived from the King His Heirs or Successors or any of them shall without the consent of the said Lords and Commons raise arm train discipline imploy order manage disband or dispose any the Forces by Sea or Land of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland the Dominion of Wales Isles of Gernesey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed nor exercise any of the said powers or authorities herein before-mentioned and expressed to be during the space of ten years in the said Lords and Commons nor do any act or any thing concerning the execution of the said powers or authorities or any of them without the consent of the said Lords and Commons first had and obtained And with the same Provisoes for saving the ordinary legal power of Officers of Justice not being Military Officers as is set down in your Propositions and with a Declaration That if any persons shall be gathered and assembled together in a warlike manner or otherwise to the number of thirty persons and shall not forthwith disperse themselves being required thereto by the said Lords and Commons or command from them or any by them especially authorized for that purpose then such person or persons not so dispersing themselves shall be guilty and incur the pains of high Treason being first declared guilty of such offence by the said Lords and Commons any Commission under the Great Seal or other Warrant to the contrary notwithstanding and he or they that shall so offend herein to be uncapable of any pardon from His Majesty His Heirs or Successors And likewise that it be provided that the City of London shall have and enjoy all their Rights Liberties c. in raising and imploying the Forces of that City in such sort as is mentioned in the said Proposition With these Provisoes following to be inserted in the said Act. First That none be compelled to serve in the War against their Wills but in case of coming in of strange Enemies into this Kingdom And that the powers above-mentioned as concerning the Land-Forces other than for keeping up and maintenance of Forts and Garrisons and the keeping up maintaining and pay of this present Army so long as it shall be thought fit by both Houses of Parliament be exercised to no other purposes than for the suppressing of Forces raised or to be raised without authority and consent of the said Lords and Commons as aforesaid or for suppressing of any Foreign Forces which shall invade or endeavour to invade the Kingdoms Dominions or places aforesaid And that the Monies be raised by general and equal Taxations saving that Tunnage and Poundage and such Imposts as have been applyed to the Navy be raised as hath been usual And that all Patents Commissions and other Acts concerning the premisses be made and acted in His Majesties name by Warrant signified by the Lords and Commons or such others as they shall authorize for that purpose If it shall be more satisfactory to His two Houses to have the Militia and powers thereupon depending during the whole time of His Majesty's Reign rather than for the space of ten years His Majesty gives them the election Touching Ireland His Majesty having in the two preceding Propositions given His consent concerning the Church and the Militia there in all things as in England as to all other matters relating to that Kingdom after advice with His two Houses He will leave it to their determination and give His consent accordingly as is herein hereafter expressed Touching publick Debts His Majesty will give His consent to such an Act for raising of Monies by general and equal Taxations for the payment and satisfying the Arrears of the Army publick Debts and engagements of the Kingdom as shall be agreed on by both Houses of Parliament and shall be audited and ascertained by them or such persons as they shall appoint within the space of twelve Months after the passing of an Act for the same His Majesty will consent to an Act that during the said space of ten years the Lord Chancellour or Lord Keeper Commissioners of the Great Seal or Treasury Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports Chancellour of the Exchequer and Dutchy Secretaries of State Master of the Rolls Judges of both Benches and Barons of the Exchequer of England be nominated by both Houses of the Parliament of England to continue quam diu se bene gesserint and in the intervals of Parliament by such others as they shall authorize for that purpose His Majesty will consent that the Militia of the City of London and Liberties thereof during the space of ten years may be in the ordering and Government of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons in the Common Council assembled or such as they shall from time to
KING A Proclamation about the dissolving of the Parliament WHereas We for the general good of Our Kingdom caused Our High Court of Parliament to assemble and meet by Prorogation the twentieth day of January last past sithence which time the same hath been continued and although in this time by the malevolent dispositions of some ill-affected persons of the House of Commons We have had sundry just causes of offence and dislike of their proceedings yet We resolved with patience to try the uttermost which We the rather did for that We found in that House a great number of sober and grave persons well affected to Religion and Government and desirous to preserve Unity and Peace in all parts of Our Kingdom and therefore having on the five and twentieth day of February last by the uniform Advice of Our Privy Council caused both Houses to be adjourned until this present day hoping in the mean time that a better and more right understanding might be begotten between Us and the Members of that House whereby this Parliament might have an happy end and issue and for the same intent We did again this day command the like Adjournment to be made until the tenth day of this month It hath so happened by the disobedient and seditious carriage of those said ill-affected persons of the House of Commons that We and Our Regal authority and Commandment have been so highly contemned as Our Kingly Office cannot bear nor any former Age can parallel And therefore it is Our full and absolute resolution to dissolve the same Parliament whereof We thought good to give notice unto all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and to the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of this present Parliament and to all others whom it may concern that they may depart about their needful affairs without attending any longer here Nevertheless We will that they and all others should take notice that We do and ever will distinguish between those who have shewed good affection to Religion and Government and those that have given themselves over to Faction and to work disturbance to the Peace and good order of our Kingdom Given at Our Court at White-hall this second day of March in the fourth year of Our Reign of Great Britain France and Ireland God save the KING His MAJESTIE's Speech at the Dissolving of the Parliament My Lords I Never came here upon so unpleasant an occasion it being the Dissolution of a Parliment Therefore men may have some cause to wonder why I should not rather chuse to do this by Commission it being a general Maxim of Kings to leave harsh commands to their Ministers Themselves only executing pleasing things Yet considering that Justice as well consists in reward and praise of Vertue as punishing of Vice I thought it necessary to come here to day to declare to you and all the world that it was meerly the undutiful and seditious carriage in the lower House that hath made the Dissolution of this Parliament And you my Lords are so far from being causes of it that I take as much comfort in your dutiful demeanors as I am justly distasted with their proceedings Yet to avoid mistakings let me tell you that it is so far from me to adjudge all the House alike guilty that I know that there are many there as dutiful Subjects as any in the world it being but some few Vipers amongst them that did cast this mist of undutifulness over most of their eyes yet to say truth there was a good number there that could not be infected with this contagion insomuch that some did express their duties in speaking which was the general fault of the House the last day To conclude as these Vipers must look for their reward of punishment so you my Lords may justly expect from Me that favour and protection that a good King oweth to His loving and dutiful Nobility And now my Lord Keeper do what I have commanded you His MAJESTIE's Declaration to all His loving Subjects of the Causes which moved Him to Dissolve the Parliament HOwsoever Princes are not bound to give account of their Actions but to God alone yet for the satisfaction of the minds and affections of Our loving Subjects We have thought good to set down thus much by way of Declaration that We may appear to the world in the truth and sincerity of Our own Actions and not in those colours in which We know some turbulent and ill-affected Spirits to masque and disguise their own wicked intentions dangerous to the State would represent Us to the publick view We assembled Our Parliament the seventeenth day of March in the third year of Our Reign for the safety of Religion for securing Our Kingdoms and Subjects at home and Our Friends and Allies abroad and therefore at the first sitting down of it We declared the miserable afflicted estate of those of the Reformed Religion in Germany France and other parts of Christendom the distressed extremities of Our dearest Uncle the King of Denmark chased out of a great part of his Dominions the strength of that party which was united against Us that besides the Pope and house of Austria and their ancient Confederates the French King professed the rooting out of the Protestant Religion that of the Princes and States on Our party some were over run others diverted and some disabled to give assistance For which and other important motives We propounded a speedy supply of Treasure answerable to the necessities of the Cause These things in the beginning were well resented by the House of Commons and with much alacrity and readiness they agreed to grant a liberal aid But before it was brought to any perfection they were diverted by a multitude of questions raised amongst them concerning their Liberties and Priviledges and by other long disputes that the Bill did not pass in a long time and by that delay Our affairs were put into far worse case than at the first Our forein actions then in hand being thereby disgraced and ruined for want of timely help In this as We are not willing to derogate from the merit and good intentions of those wise and moderate men of that House to whose forwardness We attribute it that it was propounded and resolved so soon so We must needs say that the delay of passing it when it was resolved occasioned by causless jealousies stirred up by men of another temper did much lessen both the reputation and reality of that supply and their spirit infused into many of the Commissioners and Assessors in the Country hath returned up the Subsidies in such a scanty proportion as is infinitely short not only of Our great Occasions but of the precedents of former Subsidies and of the intentions of all well-affected men in that House In those large disputes as We permitted many of Our high Prerogatives to be debated which in the best times of Our Predecessors had never been questioned without punishment or sharp reproof so We
and Innovations as might make them apt to joyn with England in that great Change which was intended Whereupon new Canons and a new Liturgy were prest upon them and when they refused to admit of them an Army was raised to force them to it towards which the Clergy and the Papists were very forward in their Contribution The Scots likewise raised an Army for their defence and when both Armies were come together and ready for a bloody encounter His Majesties own Gracious Disposition and the Counsel of the English Nobility and Dutiful submission of the Scots did so far prevail against the evil Counsel of others that a Pacification was made and His Majesty returned with Peace and much Honour to London The unexpected Reconciliation was most acceptable to all the Kingdom except to the malignant party whereof the Archbishop and the Earl of Strafford being heads they and their faction begun to inveigh against the Peace and to aggravate the proceeding of the States which so incensed His Majesty that He forthwith prepared again for War And such was their confidence that having corrupted and distempered the whole frame and Government of the Kingdom they did now hope to corrupt that which was the only means to restore all to a right frame and temper again To which end they perswaded His Majesty to call a Parliament not to seek counsel and advice of them but to draw countenance and Supply from them and engage the whole Kingdom in their Quarrel and in the mean time continued all their unjust Levies of Money resolving either to make the Parliament pliant to their Will and to establish mischief by a Law or else to brake it and with more colour to go on by violence to take what they could not obtain by consent The ground alledged for the justification of this War was this That the undutiful Demands of the Parliaments of Scotland was a sufficient reason for His Majesty to take Arms against them without hearing the Reason of those Demands And thereupon a new Army was prepared against them their Ships were seized in all Ports both of England and Ireland and at Sea their Petitions rejected their Commissioners refused Audience this whole Kingdom most miserably distempered with Levies of Men and Money and Imprisonments of those who denied to submit to those Levies The Earl of Strafford past into Ireland caused the Parliament there to declare against the Scots to give four Subsidies towards that War and to ingage themselves their Lives and Fortunes for the prosecution of it and gave directions for an Army of eight thousand foot and one thousand horse to be levied there which were for the most part Papists The Parliament met upon the thirteenth of April one thousand six hundred and forty The Earl of Strafford and Archbishop of Canterbury with their Party so prevailed with His Majesty that the House of Commons was prest to yield to a Supply for maintenance of the War with Scotland before they had provided any relief for the great and pressing Grievances of the people which being against the fundamental Privilege and proceeding of Parliament was yet in humble respect to His Majesty so far admitted as that they agreed to take the matter of Supply into consideration and two several days it was debated Twelve Subsidies were demanded for the release of Ship-money alone A third day was appointed for conclusion when the Heads of that Party begun to fear the people might close with the King in satisfying his desire of money but that withal they were like to blast their malicious designs against Scotland finding them very much indisposed to give any countenance to that War Thereupon they wickedly advised the King to break off the Parliament and to return to the ways of Confusion in which their own evil intentions were most like to prosper and succeed After the Parliament ended the fifth of May 1640. this Party grew so bold as to counsel the King to supply Himself out of his Subjects states by His own Power at His own will without their consent The very next day some Members of both Houses had their studies and cabinets yea their pockets searched another of them not long after was committed close prisoner for not delivering some Petitions which he received by authority of that House And if harsher courses were intended as was reported it is very probable that the sickness of the Earl of Strafford and the tumultuous rising in Southwark and about Lambeth were the causes that such violent intentions were not brought to execution A false and scandalous Declaration against the House of Commons was published in his Majesties Name which yet wrought little effect with the people but only to manifest the impudence of those who were Authors of it A forced Loan of money was attempted in the City of London The Lord Mayor and Aldermen in their several Wards enjoyned to bring in a list of the names of such persons as they judged fit to lend and of the summ they should lend And such Aldermen as refused so to do were committed to prison The Archbishop and the other Bishops and Clergy continued the Convocation and by a new Commission turned it to a Provincial Synod in which by an unheard of presumption they made Canons that contain in them many matters contrary to the Kings Prerogative to the fundamental Laws and Statutes of the Realm to the Right of Parliaments to the Property and Liberty of the Subject and matters tending to Sedition and of dangerous consequence thereby establishing their own Usurpations justifying their Altar-worship and those other superstitious Innovations which they formerly introduced without warrant of Law They imposed a new Oath upon divers of his Majesties Subjects both Ecclesiastical and Lay for maintenance of their own Tyranny and laid a great tax upon the Clergy for supply of his Majesty and generally they shewed themselves very affectionate to the War with Scotland which was by some of them styled Bellum Episcopale and a Prayer composed and enjoyned to be read in all Churches calling the Scots Rebels to put the two Nations into blood and make them irreconcilable All those pretended Canons and Constitutions were armed with the several Censures of Suspension Excommunication Deprivation by which they would have thrust out all the good Ministers and most of the well affected people of the Kingdom and left an easie passage to their own design of reconciliation with Rome The Popish party enjoyned such exemptions from the Penal Laws as amounted to a Toleration besides many other encouragements and Court-favours They had a Secretary of State Sir Francis Windebank a powerful Agent for the speeding of all their desires a Pope's Nuntio residing here to act and govern them according to such influences as he received from Rome and to intercede for them with the most powerful concurrence of the foreign Princes of that Religion By his authority the Papists of all sorts Nobility Gentry and Clergy were convocated after the
Learning whereas it is our chiefest care and desire to advance it and to provide a competent maintenance for conscionable and preaching Ministers throughout the Kingdom which will be a great encouragement to Scholars and a certain means whereby the want meanness and ignorance to which a great part of the Clergy is now subject will be prevented And we intend likewise to reform and purge the fountains of Learning the two Universities that the streams flowing from thence may be clear and pure and an honour and comfort to the whole Land They have strained to blast our proceedings in Parliament by wresting the interpretation of our Orders from their genuine intention They tell the people that our medling with the power of Episcopacy hath caused Sectaries and Conventicles when Idolatry and Popish Ceremonies introduced in the Church by the command of the Bishops have not only debarred the people from thence but expelled them from the Kingdom Thus with El ah we are called by this malignant party the Troublers of the State and still while we endeavour to reform their abuses they make us the Authors of those mischiefs we study to prevent For the perfecting of the Work begun and removing all future impediments we conceive these courses will be very effectual seeing the Religion of the Papists hath such Principles as do certainly tend to the destruction and extirpation of all Protestants when they shall have opportunity to effect it It is necessary in the first place to keep them in such a condition as that they may not be able to do us any hurt And for avoiding of such connivence and favour as hath heretofore been shewed unto them that His Majesty be pleased to grant a standing Commission to some choice men named in Parliament who may take notice of their encrease their counsels and proceedings and use all due means by execution of the Laws to prevent all mischievous designs against the Peace and Safety of this Kingdom That some good course be taken to discover the counterfeit and false conformity of Papists to the Church by colour whereof persons very much disaffected to the true Religion have been admitted into place of greatest authority and trust in the Kingdom For the better preservation of the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom that all illegal Grievances and Exactions be presented and punished at the Sessions and Assizes and that Judges and Justices be very careful to give this in charge to the Grand-Jury and both the Sheriff and Justices to be sworn to the due execution of the Petition of Right and other Laws That His Majesty be humbly petitioned by both Houses to employ such Counsellours Ambassadours and other Ministers in managing His business at home and abroad as the Parliament may have cause to confide in without which we cannot give His Majesty such Supplies for support of His own estate nor such assistance to the Protestant party beyond the Sea as is desired It may often fall out that the Commons may have just cause to take exceptions at some men for being Counsellors and yet not charge those men with crimes for there be grounds of diffidence which lye not in proof there are others which though they may be proved yet are not legally criminal To be a known favourer of Papists or to have been very forward in defending or countenancing some great Offendors questioned in Parliament or to speak contemptuously of either House of Parliament or Parliamentary proceedings or such as are Factours or Agents for any foreign Prince of another Religion such are justly suspect to get Counsellours places or any other of trust concerning publick employment for money For all these and divers others we may have great reason to be earnest with His Majesty not to put His great affairs into such hands though we may be unwilling to proceed against them in any legal way of charge or impeachment That all Counsellours of State may be sworn to observe those Laws which concern the Subject in his Liberty That they may likewise take an Oath not to receive or give reward or pension from any foreign Prince but such as they shall within some reasonable time discover to the Lords of His Majesties Council And although they should wickedly forswear themselves yet it may herein do good to make them known to be false and perjured to those who employ them and thereby bring them into as little credit with them as with us That His Majesty may have cause to be in love with good counsel and good men by shewing Him in an humble and dutiful manner how full of advantage it would be to Himself to see His own estate settled in a plentiful condition to support His Honour to see His people united in ways of Duty to Him and endeavours of the publick good to see Happiness Wealth Peace and Safety derived to His own Kingdom and procured to His Allies by the Influence of His own Power and Government That all good courses may be taken to unite the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland to be mutually aiding and assisting of one another for the common good of the Island and honour of both To take away all differences amongst our selves for matters indifferent in their own nature concerning Religion and to unite our selves against the common enemies which are the better enabled by our Divisions to destroy us all as they hope and have often endeavoured To labour by all offices of friendship to unite the foreign Churches with us in the same Cause and to seek their liberty safety and prosperity as bound thereunto both by charity to them and by wisdom for our own good For by this means our own strength shall be encreased and by a mutual concurrence to the same common End we shall be enabled to procure the good of the whole body of the Protestant profession If these things may be observed we doubt not but God will crown this Parliament with such success as shall be the beginning and foundation of more Honour and Happiness to His Majesty then ever yet was enjoyed by any of His Royal Predecessours Die Mercurii 15. Decemb. 1641. It is this day resolved upon the Question by the House of Commons that Order shall be now given for the Printing of this REMONSTRANCE of the State of the Kingdom H. Elsinge Cler. Parl. D. Com. His MAJESTIES Answer to the Petition which accompanied the Declaration presented to him at Hampton-Court 1 December 1641. WE having received from you soon after Our return out of Scotland a long Petition consisting of many desires of great moment together with a Declaration of a very unusual nature annexed thereunto We had taken some time to consider of it as befitted Us in a matter of that consequence being confident that your own reason and regard to Us as well as Our express intimation by Our Comptroller to that purpose would have restrained you from the publishing of it till such time as you should have received Our Answer
and beget eternal Factions and Dissentions as destructive to publick Happiness as War both in the chosen and the Houses that chuse them and the People who chuse the Chusers since so new a Power will undoubtedly intoxicate persons who were not born to it and beget not only Divisions among them as Equals but in them contempt of Us as become an Equal to them and Insolence and Injustice towards Our People as now so much their Inferiors which will be the more grievous unto them as suffering from those who were so lately of a nearer degree to themselves and being to have redress only from those that placed them and fearing they may be inclined to preserve what they have made both out of kindness and policy since all great Changes are extremely inconvenient and almost infallibly beget yet greater Changes which beget yet greater Inconveniences since as great an one in the Church must follow this of the Kingdom since the Second Estate would in all probability follow the Fate of the Frst and by some of the same turbulent spirits Jealousies would be soon raised against them and the like Propositions for reconciliation of Differences would be then sent to them as they now have joyned to send to Us till all Power being vested in the House of Commons and their number making them incapable of transacting Affairs of State with the necessary Secrecy and Expedition those being re-trusted to some close Committee at last the Common people who in the mean time must be flattered and to whom Licence must be given in all their wilde humours how contrary soever to established Law or their own real Good discovering this Arcanum Imperii That all this was done by them but not for them grow weary of Journey-work and set up for themselves call Parity and Independence Liberty devour that Estate which had devoured the rest destroy all Rights and Proprieties all distinctions of Families and Merit and by this means this splendid and excellently distinguished form of Government end in a dark equal Chaos of Confusion and the long Line of Our many noble Ancestors in a Jack Cade or a Wat Tyler For all these Reasons to all these Demands Our Answer is Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari But this We promise that We will be as careful of preserving the Laws in what is supposed to concern wholly Our Subjects as in what most concerns Our Self For indeed We profess to believe that the preservation of every Law concerns Us those of Obedience being not secure when those of Protection are violated and We being most of any injured in the least violation of that by which We enjoy the highest Rights and greatest Benefits and are therefore obliged to defend no less by Our Interest then by Our Duty and hope that no Jealousies to the contrary shall be any longer nourished in any of Our good People by the subtle insinuations and secret practices of men who for private ends are disaffected to Our Honour and Safety and the Peace and Prosperity of Our People And to shew you that no just indignation at so reproachful offers shall make Us refuse to grant what is probable to conduce to the good of Our good People because of the ill company it comes in We will search carefully in this heap of unreasonable Demands for so much as We may complying with Our Conscience and the Duty of Our Trust assent unto and shall accordingly agree to it In pursuance of which Search in the Fourth Proposition under a Demand which would take from Us that Trust which God Nature and the Laws of the Land have placed in Us and of which none of you could endure to be deprived We find something to which We give this Answer That We have committed the principal places about Our Children to persons of Quality Integrity and Piety with special regard that their tender years might be so seasoned with the Principles of the true Protestant Religion as by the blessing of God upon this Our Care this whole Kingdom may in due time reap the fruit thereof And as We have likewise been very careful in the choice of Servants about them that none of them may be such as by ill Principles or by ill Examples to cross Our endeavours for their Pious and Vertuous Education so if there shall be found for all Our care to prevent it any person about Our Children or about Us which is more then you ask against whom both Houses shall make appear to Us any just exception We shall not only remove them but thank you for the Information Only We shall expect that you shall be likewise careful that there be no under-hand dealing by any to seek faults to make room for others to Succeed in their places For the Fifth Demand As We will not suffer any to share with Us in our power of Treaties which are most improper for Parliaments and least in those Treaties in which We are nearliest concerned not only as a King but as a Father yet We do such is Our desire to give all reasonable satisfaction assure you by the word of a King that We shall never propose or entertain any Treaty whatsoever for the Marriage of any of Our Children without due regard to the true Protestant Profession the good of Our Kingdoms and the Honour of Our Family For the Sixth Demand concerning the Laws in force against Jesuits Priests and Popish Recusants We have by many of Our Messages to you by Our voluntary promise to you so solemnly made never to pardon any Popish Priest by Our strict Proclamations lately published in this point and by the Publick Examples which We have made in that case since Our Residence at York and before at London sufficiently expressed Our zeal herein Why do you then ask that in which Our own Inclination hath prevented you And if you can yet find any more effectual Course to disable them from disturbing the State or eluding the Law by trusts or otherwise We shall willingly give Our Consent to it For the Seventh concerning the Votes of popish Lords We understand that they in discretion have withdrawn themselves from the Service of the House of Peers and had done so when use was publickly made of their Names to asperse the Votes of that House which was then counted as Malignant as those who are called Our unknown and Vnsworn Counsellors are now Neither do We conceive that such a Positive Law against the Votes of any whose blood gives them that Right is so proper in regard of the Privilege of Parliament but are content that so long as they shall not be conformable to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England they shall not be admitted to sit in the House of Peers but only to give their Proxies to such Protestant Lords as they shall chuse who are to dispose of them as they themselves shall think fit without any reference at all to the giver As to the desires for a Bill for
they shall neglect this Our Grace and Favour now extended unto them and persist in any acts of Hostility against Us or not disband upon notice of this Our Proclamation We shall esteem of them as Rebells and Traitors to Us and to Our Crown and as publick Enemies to the happy Peace of this Kingdom and that from thence We shall proceed against them and deal with them as Rebels and Traitours and by the blessing of God in whom We put Our confidence and by the assistance of Our faithful and good Subjects upon whose Fidelity and Affections We rely We doubt not but We shall so prevail against all their Traitorous Conspiracies and Rebellious Machinations as shall vindicate Our Honour and the Honour of Our Crown preserve Our good and loyal Subjects from their Malice and Fury and restore and settle the Peace of this Kingdom and make the Delinquents so exemplary as shall deterr others from ever attempting the like Insolencies And We hereby require and command all Our Commissioners of Array Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants Sheriffs Justices of Peace Mayors and all other Our Officers Ministers and loving Subjects that they and every of them in their several places do there best and uttermost endeavours to resist and subdue the said Earl and his Adherents and those who shall assist them or any of them and to apprehend or otherwise to destroy them and every of them that so they may receive condigne punishment for their Disloyalty and that they be ready according to their Duties and Allegiance to assist Us and those Our good Subjects who do adhere unto Us according to Our just Commands in or concerning the Premisses And more particularly We require and command Our Commissioners of Array Lords Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants Captains and Officers of Our Trained Bands of or in Our Counties of Southampton Sussex and Surrey that so many of them as to that purpose Colonel Goring shall call to his aid as he shall see cause shall with such Forces as are under their command repair unto Our said Town of Portsmouth to assist the said Colonel George Goring Our Captain and Governour of the said Town for the defence of the said Town and to Oppose Resist and Destroy all those who under the command of the said Earl of Essex or any other shall attempt any Violence against the said Town And We do further require and command Our Right Trusty and Right Well-beloved Couzin and Counsellor William Marquess Hartford that with all speed he raise all the Forces he can within all or any the Counties contained within that Commission We have given unto him whereby he is made Our Lieutenant General of all Our Forces within Our Counties of Devon Cornwal Somerset Dorset Wilts Southampton Gloucester Berks Oxford Hereford Monmouth Radnor Brecknock Glamorgan Carmarthen Pembroke Cardigan Our Cities of Excester Bristol Gloucester Oxford Bath and Wells new Salisbury and Hereford and the Counties of the same the Towns of Pool and Southampton and Haverford-West and the Counties of the same and with the Trained Bands of those Counties and others who shall voluntarily offer their Service to march against the said Earl or any others under his command or under the command of any others not authorized by Us and them to Resist Oppose and Subdue and especially for the defence of the said Town of Portsmouth and for the Isle of Wight in Our County of Southampton as there shall be occasion And We do hereby desire and require Our loyal and loving Subjects of and within the said Counties being of the Trained Bands or voluntary Levies within the said Commission to repair with their Horse and Foot well Armed Arrayed and Furnished to such place or places as the said Marquess shall appoint and that they and all other Our good and loving Subjects within this Realm shall according to such Directions as We shall give to that purpose repair to Us at such place where We shall pitch and set up Our Royal Standard and where We purpose in Our own Person to be present and there and in such places whither We shall conduct them or cause them to be conducted to serve Us for the Defence of Us and of Our Kingdom and of the true Protestant Religion and the known Laws of the Land and the just Liberties of Our Subjects and the just Privileges of Parliament and to suppress the notorious and insolent Rebellion of the said Earl and his Adherents and reduce them to their due Obedience and for re-setling of the happy Peace of this Kingdom And in this time of urgent Necessity which so much importeth the Safety and even the very Subsistence of Us and Our Good People We shall take it as an acceptable Service to Us and much conducing to the Peace of Our Kingdom if Our loving and well-affected Subjects within Our said Counties contained within Our Commission granted to the said Marquess do and will chearfully and voluntarily contribute unto Us and give unto Us such assistance in Money or Plate as they shall think fit by loan or otherwise to be delivered to the hands of the said Marquess or of the Commissioners of Array for those several Counties respectively to be disposed of to this publick use and not otherwise and that Our loving and well-affected Subjects of all other the Counties of this Kingdom will to the same use and not otherwise contribute unto and assist Us in like manner such Contribution and assistance to be paid and delivered to Our use into the hands of Our Commissioners of Array for those other Counties respectively or to such of them as they shall nominate and appoint to that purpose And lastly in all these Our just and necessary Commands We require that ready Obedience from all Our Commissioners Sheriffs Justices of Peace Mayors Constables and other Officers and loving Subjects in their several and respective places which appertaineth to their several Duties as they tender Our Honour and Safety and the Honour Safety Peace and Prosperity of the Church and Kingdom of England and as they will answer their neglects at their uttermost perils Given at Our Court at York the ninth day of August in the eighteenth year of Our Reign 1642. By the KING A Proclamation by His MAJESTY requiring the Aid and Assistance of all His Subjects on the North side Trent and within twenty Miles Southward thereof for the suppressing of the Rebels now marching against Him WHereas divers Persons bearing an inward Hatred and Malice against Our Person and Government and ambitious of Rule and places of Preferment and Command have raised an Army and are now Traitorously and Rebelliously though under the specious pretence of Our Royal Name and Authority and of the defence of Our Person and Parliament marching in battel-array against Us their Liege-Lord and Sovereign contrary to their Duty and Allegiance whereby the common Peace is like to be wholly destroyed and this flourishing Kingdom in danger to perish under the miseries of a Civil War
be Treason are so accused and others warned from involving themselves in their Guilt and except We will take down Our Standard that Our good Subjects may not repair to Us for Our Defence when so many Armies are raised against Us in several parts of the Kingdom and ready to destroy Us and such of Our good Subjects who dare continue loyal to Us and except We will return to London from whence with Violence We have been driven We must not be treated with or receive any Answer to so gracious a Message It can no longer be doubted by any Man who hath not wilfully forsaken his Understanding that it is no more a Quarrel undertaken by the Parliament but contrived and somented by the persons We have named and now continued solely in their defence to whose Ambition Faction and Malice the true Reformed Protestant Religion the just Right Honour Safety and Life of Us and Our Posterity the Law of the Land which hath so long preserved this Nation Happy the Liberty of the Subject established by that Law and the glorious Frame and Constitution of this Kingdom must be sacrificed But as We have hitherto left no Action unperformed which in Honour Justice and Conscience We were obliged to do or in Christian Policy and Prudence We could conceive might probably prevent these Calamities so We thank God he hath given Us a full Courage and Resolution to run the utmost hazard of Our Life for the suppression of this Horrible Rebellion in the which no disproportion of Power Arms or Money shall discourage Us. And We hope that all Our good Subjects besides by the common Duty of Allegiance will be stirred up for their own sakes for the preservation of the blessed Protestant Religion and for the upholding this whole admirable Frame of Government which being dissolved all their private and particular Rights and Interests must be immediately confounded to bring in their utmost power and Assistance unto Us in this desperate Exigent And We do declare that whosoever shall lose his life in this Service for Our defence the Wardship of his Heir shall be granted by Us without Rent or Fine to his own use and We shall hold Our Self obliged to take all possible care for the support relief and protection of all their Wives and Children who shall have the hard fortune to dye in this Service CHARLES R. Our express pleasure is That this Our Declaration be published in all Churches and Chappels within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales by the Parsons Vicars or Curates of the same MDCXLII His MAJESTY's Declaration to all His loving Subjects after His late Victory against the Rebels on Sunday the 23. of October AS We must wholly attribute the Preservation of Us and Our Children in the late bloody Battel with the Rebels to the Mercy and Goodness of Almighty God who best knowing the Justice of Our Cause and the Uprightness of Our Heart to his Service and to the good and welfare of Our People would not suffer Us and this whole Kingdom to be made a Prey to those desperate Persons so We hold it Our Duty still to use all possible means to remove that Jealousie and Mis-understanding from Our good Subjects which by the Industry and Subtilty of that Malignant Party which hath brought this Mischiefand Confusion upon the Kingdom hath been infused into them and to that purpose thugh even those Scandals are sufficiently answered by many of Our Declarations and Messages and by Our late Protestation made in the head of Our Army which We shall always by the help of God stedfastly and solemnly observe We shall take notice of those subtile Insinuations by which at this present according to that observation We can make and Information We can receive they endeavour to poyson the hearts and corrupt the Allegiance of such of Our good Subjects who cannot so clearly discern their Malice and Impostures First by urging and pressing that false groundless Imputation of Our favouring Popery and Our imploying many of that Religion now in Our Army secondly by seducing Our good People to believe that this Army raised and kept for Our necessary Defence and without which in all probability the Malice of these Men had before this taken Our Life from Us is to fight against and subdue the Parliament to take away the Privileges thereof and thereby to root out Parliaments If either of which were true We should not have the courage with an Army much greater than Ours to hope for success For the First for Our Affection to that Religion Our continual Practice Our constant Profession and several Protestations will satisfie all the World against which Malice and Treason it self cannot find the least probable Objection We wish from Our heart the zeal and affection of these Men to the true Protestant Religion were as apparent as Ours For the imploying Men of that Religion in Our present Service in the Army whosoever considers the hardness and streights the Malice and Fury of these Men have driven Us to their stopping all passages and ways that neither Men nor money might come to Us their declaring all such to be Traitours who shall assist Us their entertaining Men of all Countries all Religions to serve against Us would not wonder if We had been very well contented to have received the service and assistance of any of Our good Subjects who had Loyalty enough whatsoever their Religion is to bring them to Our Succour All Men know the great number of Papists which serve in their Army Commanders and others the great Industry they have used to corrupt the Loyalty and Affection of all Our Subjects of that Religion the private Promises and Undertakings they have made to them that if they would assist them against Us all the Laws made in their prejudice should be repealed yet neither the weakness of Our own condition nor the other Arts used against Us could prevail with Us to invite those of that Religion to come to Our succour or to recal Our Proclamation which forbad them to do so And We are confident though We know of some few whose eminent Abilities in Command and Conduct and moderate and unfactious Dispositions hath moved Us in this great Necessity to imploy them in this Service that a far greater number of that Religion is in the Army of the Rebels than in Our own And We do assure Our good Subjects though We shall always remember the particular services which particular Men have or shall in this Exigent of Ours perform to Us with that Grace and Bounty which becomes a just Prince yet We shall be so far from ever giving the least countenance or encouragement to that Religion that We shall always use Our utmost endeavour to suppress it by the execution of those good and wholsome Laws already in force against Papists and concurring in such further Remedies as the care and wisdom of Us and both Houses of Parliament shall think most necessary for the
Advancement of God's Service For the Second of Our Intention to make War upon Our Parliament and so to root out Parliaments the Scandal is so senseless when Our Accusation of a few particular Persons for particular Crimes notoriously committed adjudged by the known Laws of the Land to be Treason is evident that no Man can be moved with it who doth not believe a dozen or twenty Factious Seditious Persons to be the High Court of Parliament which consists of KING Lords and Commons And for the Privileges of it whoever doth not believe that to raise an Army to murther and depose the King to alter the whole frame of Government and established Laws of the Land by extemporary extravagant Votes and Resolutions of either or both Houses to force and compel the Members to submit to the Faction and Treason of a few and to take away the Liberty and Freedom of consultation from them be the Privileges of Parliament must confess that the Army now raised by Us is no less for the Vindication and Preservation of Parliaments than for Our own necessary Defence We have often said and We still say that We believe many Inconveniences have grown upon this Kingdom by the too long intermission of Parliaments that Parliaments are the only necessary sovereign Remedies of the growing Mischiefs which Time and Accidents have and will always beget in this Kingdom that without Parliaments the Happiness cannot be lasting to King or People We have prepared for the frequent assembling of Parliaments and will be always as careful of their just Privileges as of Our Life Honour or Interest But that those Privileges should extend so far as hath been lately declared that it should not be lawful for Us to apprehend the Lord Saint-John Captain Wingate or Captain Walton when they came to destroy Us because they were Members of Parliament without the consent of that House of which they were Members is so ridiculous that there need no more to be said in this Argument than the giving these instances In a word as whoever knows in what Danger Our Person was on Sunday the 23. of October can never believe that the Army which gave Us Battel was raised for Our Defence and Preservation so when they consider how much the Liberty of the Subject is invaded by their Rapine and Imprisoning and that four parts at the least of five of the Members of both Houses are by Violence driven from being present in that Council that the Book of Common-Prayer is rejected and no countenance given but to Anabaptists and Brownists they will easily find the pretences of care of the Protestant Religion the Liberty of the Subject and of the Privilege of Parliament to be as vain and pretended as those which refer to the Safety of Our Person and preservation of Our Posterity We cannot omit the great pains and endeavours these great pretenders to Peace and Charity have taken to raise an implacable Malice and Hatred between the Gentry and Commonalty of the Kingdom by rendring all Persons of Honour Courage and Reputation odious to the Common People under the style of Cavaliers insomuch as the High-ways and Villages have not been safe for Gentlemen to pass through without Violence or Affronts and by infusing into them that there was an intention by the Commission of Array to take away a part of their Estates from them a Scandal so senseless and impossible that the Contrivers of it well know that they might with equal Ingenuity have charged Us with a purpose of introducing Turcisme or Judaisme amongst them and We hope when Our good Subjects have well weighed the continual Practices of these Men to reject all offers of Treaty and to suppress Truth and to mislead them by bold and monstrous Falsehoods they will not think such arts and ways to lead to Peace and Unity And We desire Our good Subjects of all Conditions to believe that We hold Our Self bound no less to defend and protect the meanest of Our People who are born equally free and to whom the Law of the Land is an equal Inheritance than the greatest Subject and that as the Wealth and Strength of this Kingdom consists in the Number and Happiness of Our People which is made up of Men of all Conditions so We shall to the utmost of Our Power endeavour without distinction to give every one of them that Justice and Protection which is due to them and We do exhort them all to that charitable and brotherly Affection one towards another that they may be reconciled in a just Duty and Loyalty to Us which may enable Us for that Protection To conclude We would have all the World know that We shall never forget the Protestations and Vows We have made to Almighty God in Our several Declarations and Messages to both Our Houses of Parliament And We are too much a Christian to believe that We can break those Promises and avoid the Justice of Heaven CHARLES R. Our express pleasure is That this Our Declaration be published in all Churches and Chappels within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales by the Parsons Vicars or Curates of the same DECLARATIONS and PAPERS Concerning the TREATY of PEACE AT OXFORD MDCXLII III. MDCXLII Novemb. His MAJESTY's Declaration to all His loving Subjects of His true Intentions in advancing lately to Brainceford THough Our Reputation be most dear to Us and especially in those cases wherein the truth of Our most solemn Professions and by consequence of Our Christianity is questioned yet it is not only for the Vindication of that and to clear Our self from such Aspersions but withal to preserve Our Subjects in their just Esteem of and Duty to Us and from being engaged into Crimes and Dangers by those malicious Reports so spightfully framed and cunningly spread against Us concerning Our late advancing to Brainceford that We have resolved to publish this Our following Declaration AT Colebrook on Friday the 11. of November We received a Petition from both Our Houses of Parliament by the Earl of Northumberland the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery the Lord Wenman Master Pierrepont and Sir John Hippesly And indeed We were well pleased to see it so much liker a Petition than the other Papers We had often of late received under that name and return'd to it the next day so gracious an Answer that We assure Our selves could not but be very satisfactory to all that were truly lovers of Peace The Copies of both do here follow To the KING 's most Excellent MAJESTY The humble Petition of the Lords and Commons now assembled in Parliament WE Your Majesty's most loyal Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled being affected with a deep and piercing sense of the Miseries of this Kingdom and of the Dangers to Your Majesty's Person as the present Affairs now stand and much quickned therein with the sad consideration of the great effusion of Blood at the late Battel and of the loss of so
by Your Letters Patents to make Sir John Brampston Chief Justice of Your Court of Kings Bench William Lenthal Esquire the now Speaker of the Commons House Master of the Rolls and to continue the Lord Chief Justice Banks Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and likewise to make Master Serjeant Wilde Chief Baron of Your Court of Exchequer and that Master Justice Bacon may be continued and Master Serjeant Rolls and Master Serjeant Atkins made Justices of the Kings Bench that Master Justice Reeves and Master Justice Foster may be continued and Master Serjeant Phesant made one of Your Justices of Your Court of Common Pleas that Master Serjeant Creswel Master Samuel Brown and Master John Puleston may be Barons of the Exchequer and that all these and all the Judges of the same Courts for the time to come may hold their places by Letters Patents under the great great Seal quamdiu se bene gesserint and that the several persons not before named that do hold any of these places before mentioned may be removed IX That all such persons as have been put out of the Commissions of Peace or Oyer and Terminer or from being Custodes Rotulorum since the first day of April 1642. other than such as were put out by desire of both or either of the Houses of Parliament may again be put into those Commissions and Offices and such that persons may be put out of those Commissions and Offices as shall be excepted against by both Houses of Parliament X. That Your Majesty will be pleased to pass the Bill now presented to Your Majesty to vindicate and secure the Privileges of Parliament from the ill consequence of the late Precedent in the Charge and Proceeding against the Lord Kimbolton now Earl of Manchester and the five Members of the House of Commons XI That Your Majesty's Royal Assent may be given unto such Acts as shall be advised by both Houses of Parliament for the satisfying and paying the Debts and Damages wherein the two Houses of Parliament have ingaged the Publick Faith of the Kingdom XII That Your Majesty will be pleased according to a Gracious Answer heretofore received from You to enter into a more strict Alliance with the States of the United Provinces and other Neighbour Princes and States of the Protestant Religion for the defence and maintenance thereof against all designs and attempts of the Popish and Jesuitical Faction to subvert and suppress it whereby Your Subjects may hope to be free from the mischiefs which this Kingdom hath endured through the power which some of that Party have had in Your Counsels and will be much encouraged in a Parliamentary way for Your Aid and Assistance in restoring Your Royal Sister and the Prince Elector to those Dignities and Dominions which belong unto them and relieving the other distressed Protestant Princes who have suffered in the same Cause XIII That in the General Pardon which Your Majesty hath been pleased to offer to Your Subjects all Offences and Misdemeanours committed before the tenth of January 1641. which have been or shall be questioned or proceeded against in Parliament upon complaint in the House of Commons before the tenth of January 1643. shall be excepted which offences and misdemeanours shall never the less be taken and adjudged to be fully discharged against all other inferiour Courts That likewise there shall be an exception of all Offences committed by any person or Persons which hath or have had any hand or practice in the Rebellion of Ireland which hath or have given any counsel assistance or encouragement to the Rebels there for the maintenance of that Rebellion as likewise an exception of William Earl of Newcastle and George Lord Digby XIV That Your Majesty will be pleased to restore such Members of either House of Parliament to their several places of Services and Imployment out of which they have been put since the beginning of this Parliament that they may receive satisfaction and reparation for those places and for the profits which they have lost by such removals upon the Petition of both Houses of Parliament and that all others may be restored to their Offices and Imployments who have been put out of the same upon any displeasure conceived against them for any Assistance given to both Houses of Parliament or obeying their Commands or forbearing to leave their Attendance upon the Parliament without licence or for any other occasion arising from these unhappy Differences betwixt Your Majesty and both Houses of Parliament upon the like Petition of both Houses These things being granted and performed as it hath always been our hearty Prayer so shall we be enabled to make it our hopeful Endeavour That Your Majesty and Your People may enjoy the blessings of Peace Truth and Justice the Royalty and Greatness of Your Throne may be supported by the Loyal and bountiful Affections of Your People their Liberties and Privileges maintained by Your Majesty's Protection and Justice and this publick Honour and Happiness of Your Majesty and all Your Dominions communicated to other Churches and States of Your Alliance and derived to Your Royal Posterity and the future Generations in this Kingdom for ever H. Elsinge Cler. Parl. D. Com. His MAJESTY'S Answer to the Desires and Propositions of both Houses February the third 1642. Received at a Conference with the Lords February the sixth 1642. IF His Majesty had not given up all the faculties of His Soul to an earnest endeavour of a Peace and Reconciliation with His People or if He would suffer Himself by any Provocation to be drawn to a sharpness of Language at a time when there seems somewhat like an Overture of Accommodation He could not but resent the heavy charges upon Him in the Preamble of these Propositions and would not suffer Himself to be reproached with protecting of Delinquents by force from Justice His Majesty's desire having always been that all Men should be tryed by the known Law and having been refused it with raising an Army against His Parliament and to be told that Arms have been taken up against Him for the defence of Religion Laws Liberties Privileges of Parliament and for the sitting of the Parliament in safety with many other Particulars in that Preamble so often and so fully answered by His Majesty without remembring the world of the time and circumstances of raising those Arms against Him when His Majesty was so far from being in a condition to invade other mens Rights that He was not able to maintain and defend His own from violence and without telling His good Subjects that their Religion the true Protestant Religion in which His Majesty was born hath faithfully lived and to which He will die a willing Sacrifice their Laws Liberties Priviledges and safety of Parliament were so amply settled and established or offered to be so by His Majesty before any Army was raised against Him and long before any raised by Him for His defence that if nothing had
the way thereunto were not such as were reasonable and necessary for them to make and just and honourable for His Majesty to grant and whether His Majesty's Answers to these Propositions are satisfactory or correspondent to His Expression to have given up all the faculties of His Soul to an earnest endeavour of a Peace and Reconciliation with His People But they must confess that they had just cause to suspect that this would be the happy issue of the Treaty for the prevalency of the enemies thereof who like that evil Spirit do most rage when they think they must be cast out was such that they would not proceed therein one step without some attempt or provocation laid in the way to interrupt and break it off for after they had resolved to present their humble Desires and Propositions to His Majesty their Committee must not without a special safe Conduct and Protection from Him have access to Him a liberty incident to them not only as they are Members of the Parliament and employed by both Houses but as they were free-born Subjects and yet when they passed over this His Majesty refused a safe Conduct to the Lord Viscount Say and Seal being one of the Committee appointed by both Houses to be employed upon that occasion such a breach of Priviledge that they believe is not to be parallel'd by the example of former times and yet their desire was such to obtain the end they drive at that is a happy and lasting Peace that they resolved not to interrupt the Treaty for that time by insisting upon it And then they had no sooner entred upon the Treaty but a Proclamation dated at Oxon the 16 of February 1642. entituled His Majesty's Proclamation forbidding all His loving Subjects and the Counties of Kent Surrey Sussex and Hampshire to raise any Forces c. and another Proclamation dated the 8 of February forbidding the assessing and payment of all Taxes by vertue of an Ordinance of both Houses and all entring into Associations were published in His Majesty's Name containing most bitter invectives and scandals against the proceedings of both Houses by styling them and such as obeyed them Traitors and Rebels charging them under the name of Brownists Anabaptists and Atheists to endeavour to take away the Kings Life and to destroy His Posterity the Protestant Religion and the Laws of the Kingdoms with many other such scandals and aspersions and even at this time were many designs practising against the Parliament which in all probability were the grounds and reasons of His Majesty's confidence and denial of their just desire Insomuch that His Majesty in a Letter sent from Him to the Queen and read in the House of Commons did declare That He had so many fine designs laid open to Him that He knew not which first to undertake One whereof probably was the most bloody and barbarous design upon Bristol attempted though by God's infinite mercy prevented during the Treaty And whether that of Sir Hugh Cholmley's in betraying of Scarborough Castle wherewith he was entrusted by the Parliament to the Queens hands and acted likewise during the Treaty and that of Killingworth Castle which should have been likewise betrayed and a design discovered by a Letter found in the Earl of Northampton's pocket slain near Stafford written to Him from Prince Rupert were some of the other designs mentioned in His Majesty's Letter they cannot certainly affirm but conjecture And when these collateral provocations and attempts could not prevail to make them desert the Treaty then comes in His Majesty's Message of the fourth of April which they have mentioned before charging them to abuse the people with imaginary Dangers and pretended Fears to use Force and Rapines upon His good Subjects with publishing new doctrines That it is unlawful for the King to do any thing and lawful to do any thing against Him with Malice and Subtilty to abuse the People that their Pleasure is all their bounds with many other such bitter expressions that no Man could think such an Answer could be any part of a Treaty or at least to proceed from a heart that desired a happy issue thereunto Notwithstanding all which the Lords and Commons were so resolutely fixed to prosecute that Treaty and if possibly they could to bring it to a blessed and happy conclusion that they were content to lie under all these Scandals and endure all these wounds so they might make up the breaches of the Commonwealth and therefore they did forbear the returning of an Answer to any of these provocations And then when the Malignant and Popish party too-too prevalent with his Majesty perceived their constancy not to be provoked to break that Treaty of their part they found it necessary to seduce His Majesty to refuse His Consent to their most necessary and just Desires and to propound such things as could not with the peace and safety of the Church and State be yielded to and so effected their own desires All which the Lords and Commons thought it their duty to publish to the Kingdom to the end that they may see that what hath been long endeavoured by subtile and secret practices is now resolved to be effected by open Violence and Hostility that is the destruction of our Laws and the Protestant Religion and introducing of Popery and Superstition and that there is little or no hope by any endeavour of a Treaty to procure the Peace of this Church and Kingdom unless both be exposed to the will and pleasure of the Popish party until the Army and Forces now raised and continued by them be first destroyed or suppressed And therefore the Lords and Commons do hope that not only such as are already convinced of their Design and Malice but even those that by their subtile and false pretences have been ignorantly seduced to joyn with them that love their Liberty and the Protestant Religion will now with one heart and mind unite together to preserve their Religion and Liberty in the defence whereof the Lords and Commons are resolved to offer up themselves their lives and fortunes a willing Sacrifice Die Sabbati 6 May 1643. A Declaration upon the Result of the Treaty brought in with some Amendments was this day read in the House of Commons and ordered to be delivered unto the Lords at a Conference And it is further Ordered by this House That this Declaration shall be Printed and Master Glyn do take care for the Printing of it and that none shall Print or re-print it but such as Master Glyn shall appoint to the end that by his care the Records may be rightly cited and the Letters and other matters Ordered to be Printed with it be carefully Printed H. Elsinge Cler. Parliament D. Com. His MAJESTY's Declaration to all His Loving Subjects in Answer to a Declaration of the Lords and Commons upon the Proceedings of the late Treaty of Peace and several Intercepted Letters of His MAJESTY to the QUEEN and of
under the Command of Robert Earl of Essex which Army hath not only endeavoured to take Our Life from Us in a set Battel but the same and other Forces raised by the like means have committed all the Acts of Outrage Robbery and Murther upon Our good Subjects throughout the Kingdom and still continue to do the same And though in truth a very small part of that great Councel remain there together yet under pretence of having the countenance of Our two Houses of Parliament some Seditious Persons assume to themselves with the assistance of those Rebellious Armies and of divers mutinous and desperate Brownists Anabaptists and other ill-affected Persons in Our City of London by whose means they awe such Members of both Houses who yet continue amongst them a power to do things absolutely contrary to the Laws of the Land and destructive to Our Rights and to the Liberty and Property of the Subject and to alter the whole frame and Government of this Kingdom disposing of the Lives and Fortunes of Us and Our good Subjects according to their discretion subjecting both to their own unlimited Arbitrary Power and Government We have only accused some particular Persons whom We well knew to be the Authors and Contrivers of these desperate Counsels and Actions and have forborn to censure or charge the whole number of the Members remaining by whose Orders and Authority the evils have been pretended to be done well hoping that the Sense of the miserable Distractions of the Kingdom would at length have brought them to discern where they had erred and Our often Messages and Complaints of the Violence offered to Us and to the Members of both Houses would have procured Justice and Redress and that the Power and Reputation of such amongst them who wished well to the Peace of the Kingdom and Honour and Dignity of Parliaments would at last have so far prevâ—â—â—ed that a right understanding might have been begotten between Us and Our People and all shew of Force and Violence so taken away and suppressed that We might in a full and peaceable Convention of Parliament with the Advice of that Our great Council have so setled the present Distempers that there might be no fear left of the like for the future But finding to Our great grief that the Power of those Seditious Persons who first contrived these desperate and bloody Distractions continues so great That as they have driven and now keep Us and the much greater part of both Houses from being present at that Council so they so far awe those who remain there that they cannot with freedom give their Votes and Resolutions according to their Consciences and the Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom That the Members of both Houses have been compelled to make Protestations to live and die with the Earl of Essex the General of the Rebellious Army and other unlawful and Treasonable Protestations and that such who have refused to take the said Protestations have been expelled and imprisoned for such their refusal That the great Affairs of the Kingdom are managed â—nd concluded by a private Committee without being ever reported to the Houses contrary to the Laws and Rules of Parliament That the Common-councel of London most of them being Persons factiously chosen out of Brownists Anabaptists and such who oppose the regular wholesome Government of that City and have promised themselves the destruction of the Church are grown the Superintendants over both Houses and obtrude upon them what Conclusions and Resolutions they please That they take upon them to justifie this Rebellion against Us and have presumed under pretence of the Order of both Houses to invite Foreign Forces to invade this Kingdom to send Agents to Foreign Princes to negotiate and treat with them in their own Names to imprison Our good Subjects contrary to Law prohibiting Our Judges to grant Habeas corpus according to Law to introduce a new Clergy throughout the Kingdom by displacing Godly Learned Divines without the least colour of Law or judicial Proceedings and putting ignorant Seditious Preachers in their Places to poison the hearts of the People to countenance the vilifying of the Book of Common-Prayer established by the Law of the Land to seize levy and take away what they please of the Estates and Fortunes of Our Subjects by disposing of the Twentieth Part of their Estates by exhausting them with insupportable Weekly Taxes for the maintainance of their Rebellious Army and by endeavouring to lay odious Excises upon Victuals Goods and Merchandize of Our People for the same purpose whilst they suffer Our poor Protestant Subjects of Our Kingdom of Ireland whose defence was undertaken by Our two Houses and that Army raised for the suppressing that horrid Rebellion to be starved and in danger of disbanding or necessitated to desert that Kingdom for want of Money Victual and such other necessaries as were to be provided for them by Act of Parliament out of those Moneys which they have spent to destroy Us and this Kingdom by exacting from Merchants Tonnage and Poundage and other Impositions upon Merchandizes as well Native as Foreign contrary to an Act made this present Parliament with a penalty of Praemunire on those who shall pay or receive it it And lastly that they have after the breaking of the late Treaty by a peremptory recalling the Committee who in truth during their abode with Us had no Power to Treat by reason of their strict Limitation so far rejected all possible means and Overtures of Treaty and Accommodation that instead of answering our gracious Messages the House of Commons hath imprisoned Our Messenger sent by Us to them to invite both Houses to an Accommodation and especially to move them to take such a course for the freedom of Parliament that We might safely advise with that Our great Council for the setling those miserable Distempers and have maliciously and in contempt of Us and after an attempt to Murther Her at Burlington-Road the place of Her Landing impeached Our Royal Consort of High Treason for assisting Us with Arms and Ammunition to defend Us from this Rebellion 'T is time now to let Our good Subjects know that they may no longer look upon the Votes and Actions of the Persons now remaining as upon Our two Houses of Parliament Freedom and Liberty to be present and of Opinion and Debate there being essential to a Parliament which Freedom and Liberty all Men must confess to be taken away from this Assembly when they remember the great Tumults brought down to awe and terrifie both Houses and that they were then brought down when any great Debate was in either House and not like to be so carried as some Seditious Persons who governed those Tumults did desire that in the greatest heat and fury of those Tumults the principal Governors amongst them directed the unruly People to go to White-hall where Our own Person then was and designed by Force to have surprised the Person of Our
and Baronet Sir Arthur Hesilrigge Baronet Sir Henry Ludlow Sir Edward Hungerford Sir Francis Popham Knights Nathanael Fiennes John Hampden John Pym William Stroude Henry Martin and Alexander Popham Esquires Isaak Pennington Alderman of London and Captain Venne who being the principal Authors of these present Calamities have sacrificed the Peace and Prosperity of their Country to their own Pride Malice and Ambition and against whom We shall proceed as against Persons guilty of High Treason by the known Laws of the Land and shall in the proceeding be most careful to preserve all Privileges in the fullest manner that by the Law or the usage of former times is due to them if they shall within Ten days after the publishing this Our Proclamation return to their Duty and Allegiance to Us. And lastly We further enjoyn and command all Our Subjects upon their Allegiance to Us as they will answer the contrary to Almighty God and as they desire that they and their Posterity should be free from the foul Taint of High Treason and as they tender the Peace of this Kingdom that they presume not to give any Assistance to the before-mentioned Rebellious Armies in their Persons or Estates in any sort whatsoever but joyn with Us according to their Duty and the Laws of the Land to suppress this horrid Rebellion And Our Pleasure and Command is That this Our Proclamation be read in all Churches and Chapels within this Our Kingdom Given at Our Court at Oxford the twentieth Day of June in the Nineteenth Year of Our Reign God save the King A DECLARATION CONCERNING THE CESSATION IN IRELAND ALSO DECLARATIONS and PASSAGES of the PARLIAMENT at OXFORD MDCXLIII Octob. 19. The Grounds and Motives inducing His MAJESTY to agree to a Cessation of Arms for one Year with the Roman Catholicks of IRELAND AS there hath been no Argument with which the Minds and Affections of Our People have with more Subtilty and Malice been infected and corrupted by the great Authors and Contrivers of this unnatural and odious Rebellion in England than with the gross and senseless Imputations of Our neglect of Our poor Protestant Subjects in Ireland so there is no Calumny of theirs against which We can with more Confidence Clearness and Integrity justifie Our Self and all Our Actions before God and Man We will not now trouble Our Self with the remembring Our several Messages and Importunities to Our two Houses of Parliament in that business Our offer to engage Our own Royal Person in that War and the scornful rejection of that offer Our consenting to all Propositions and Acts proposed to Us for the raising of Men or providing of Money for that Service till it was evident that Men and Money being raised under pretence of quenching the Rebellion there were both imployed in kindling and maintaining the Rebellion here Our granting a Commission to Persons named by themselves for the managing the Affairs of that Kingdom according to Instructions drawn by themselves not one of which have been observed by them We shall have occasion of publishing all these particulars in a full and clear Narration to the World that all Our good Subjects may see that the same Men and only they who have brought all these Miseries and Calamities upon them here have been the Promoters if not the Contrivers of the Miseries of their Brethren in Ireland by preventing those Remedies and diverting that Assistance which being seasonably applyed might have eased that poor People of many of those Calamities they have since endured But for the present We shall only being to publish the Articles of Cessation agreed on Our behalf by the Persons trusted by Us in that Kingdom let Our good Subjects briesty know the Grounds and Circumstances of that Treaty and Conclusion About the Month of November last after We had been advertised as well by Our Council-board of that Kingdom as several Petitions and Remonstrances of all the principal Commanders and Officers of Our Army of the miserable condition of Our Forces there by the extream want of Money Victuals and Ammunition of which they were so far from being like to receive supply from Our two Houses here who had undertaken to defray those Charges that We had had too sad experience that both the Money raised by Act of Parliament and the Men raised by Our own Commission for that purpose were imployed against Us in that Rebellious Army which not long before had given Us Battle a short Petition was sent to Us by the Lords Justices and Council of that Kingdom which they had received in the name of the Roman Catholicks of Our Kingdom of Ireland directed to Us in which nothing was desired of Us but that We would appoint some Persons to hear what they could say for themselves with many expressions of Duty and Submission to Us. Shortly after in the end of that Month or beginning of December the Committee for Ireland attended Us at Oxford and set forth by their Petition That all passages by which Comfort and Life should be conveyed unto that gasping Kingdom seemed totally to be obstructed and that unless timely Relief were afforded Our Loyal Subjects there must yield their Fortunes a prey their Lives a sacrifice and their Religion a scorn to the merciless Rebels Hereupon We granted a Commission to some Persons of Honour and Trust to meet and confer with such Persons as the Rebels should imploy but without power to conclude any thing or with other Authority than only to receive such Propositions as they should make and to derive the same to Us. The meeting upon this Commission produced little effect in so much that the Lieutenant-General of Our Army there whom We trusted principally in that Commission being unsatisfied with the Cavils and Proceedings of the Rebels in February marched out with 2500. Foot and 500. Horse to force Victual and Provision from them for the subsistance of Our Army in which Expedition he performed those good services which are known to most men so that all men may observe the discourse or expectation of a Treaty caused Us not to omit any opportunity which was offered for Our advantage No success of Our Army there though God blessed it then with a very great Victory could supply those extreme wants they suffered by not having received any Relief either of Money or Victual in above four Months from hence and therefore the Lords Justices and Council by their Letter of the 16 th of March signified unto Us That the State and Army there were in very terrible want of means to support a War and that unless supplies of Money Munition Arms Cloaths and other Abiliments of War were speedily sent thither there was little hope to escape utter Destruction and Loss of the Kingdom And by their Letter of the 4 th of July after mentioning how often and how much in vain they had recommending their condition to the Two Houses they told Us plainly that unless the supplies then mentioned in their
We are to receive Advice for the Preservation of the Religion Laws and Safety of the Kingdom and as far as in Us lyes to restore it to its former Peace and Security Our chief and only end from those whom they have trusted though We cannot receive it in the place where We appointed And for the better encouragement of those Members of either House to resort to Us who may be conscious to themselves of having justly incurred Our Displeasure by submitting to or concurring in unlawful Actions and that all the World may see how willing and desirous We are to forget the Injuries and Indignities offered to Us and by an Union of English Hearts to prevent the lasting Miseries which this Foreign Invasion must bring upon this Kingdom We do offer a free and General Pardon to all the Members of either House who shall at or before the said twenty second day of January appear at Our City of Oxford and desire the same without Exceptions which considering the manifest Treasons committed against Us and the Condition We are now in improved by God's wonderful blessing to a better degree than We have enjoyed at any time since these Distractions is the greatest instance of Princely and Fatherly Care of Our People that can be expressed and which malice it self cannot suggest to proceed from any other Ground And therefore We hope and are confident that all such who upon this our gracious Invitation will not return to their Duty and Allegiance shall be no more thought Promoters of the Religion laws and liberty of the Kingdom which this way may be without doubt setled and secured but Persons engaged from the beginning out of their own Pride Malice and Ambition to bring Confusion and Desolation upon their Country and to that purpose having long since contrived the Design to invite and joyn with a Foreign Nation to ruine and extinguish their own and shall accordingly be pursued as the most desperate and malicious Enemies of the Kingdom And Our pleasure is That this Our Proclamation be read in all Churches and Chapels within this Our Kingdom and Dominion of Wales Given at Our Court at Oxford the two and twentieth day of December in the Nineteenth year of Our Reign 1643. God Save the KING MDCXLIII IV. A Letter from the Lords at Oxford and other Lords whose Names are subscribed to the Lords of the Privy-Council and the Conservators of the Peace of the Kingdom of Scotland Our very good Lords IF for no other Reason yet that Posterity may know we have done our Duties and not sate still while our Brethren of Scotland were transported with a dangerous and fatal mis-understanding that the Resolution now taken among them for an Expedition into England is agreeable to their obligation by the late Treaty and to the Wishes and Desires of this Kingdom expressed by the two Houses of Parliament we have thought it necessary to let your Lordships know That if we had dissented from that Act it could never have been made a Law And when you have examined and considered the Names of us who subscribe this Letter who we hope are too well known to your Lordships and to both Kingdoms to be suspected to want Affection to Religion or to the Laws and Liberties of our Country for the Defence and maintenance of which we shall always hold our Lives a cheap Sacrifice and when you are informed that the Earls of Arundel and Thanet and the Lords Stafford Stanhope Coventry Goring and Craven are in the parts beyond the Seas and the Earl of Chesterfield Westmorland and the Lord Mountague of Boughton under restraint at London for their Loyalty and Duty to His Majesty and the Kingdom your Lordships will easily conclude how very few now make up the Peers at Westminster there being in truth not above five and twenty Lords present or privy to those Councils or being absent consenting or concurring with them whereas the House of Peers consist of above one hundred besides Minors and Recusant Lords neither of which keep us company in this Address to your Lordships How we and the major part of the House of Commons come to be absent from thence is so notorious to all the World that we believe your Lordships cannot be strangers to it How several times during our sitting there Multitudes of the meanest sort of People with weapons not agreeing with their condition or custom in a manner very contrary and destructive to the privilege of Parliament fill'd up the way between both Houses offering Injuries both by words and actions to and laying violent hands upon several Members and crying out many Hours together against the established Laws in a most tumultuous and menacing way How no remedy would be submitted to for preventing those Tumults After which and other unlawful and unparliamentary Actions many things rejected and setled upon solemn debate in the House of Peers were again after many Threats and Menaces resumed altered and determined contrary to the Custom and Laws of Parliaments and so many of us withdrew ourselves from thence where we could not Sit Speak and Vote with Honour Freedom and Safety and are now kept from thence for our Duty and Loyalty to our Sovereign And we must therefore protest against any Invitation which hath been made to our Brethren of Scotland to enter this Kingdom with an Army the same being as much against the Desires as against the Duty of the Lords and Commons of England And we do conjure your Lordships by our common Allegiance and Subjection under one gracious Sovereign by the Amity and Affection between the two Nations by the Treaty of Pacification which by any such Act is absolutely dissolved and by all Obligations both Divine and Humane which can preserve Peace upon earth to use your utmost endeavours to prevent the effusion of so much Christian blood and the Confusion and Desolation which must follow the unjust Invasions of this Kingdom which we and we are confident all true English men must interpret as a Design of Conquest and to impose new Laws upon us And therefore your Lordships may be assured we shall not so far forget our own Interests and the Honour of our Nation as not to expose our Lives and Fortunes in the just and necessary defence of the Kingdom But if your Lordships in truth have any doubts or apprehensions that there now is or hereafter may be a purpose to infringe your Laws or Liberties from any Attempt of this Kingdom we do engage our Honours to your Lordships to be our selves most religious observers of the Act of Pacification and if the Breach and violation do not first begin within that Kingdom we are most confident you shall never have cause to complain of this And having thus far expressed Our selves to your Lordships we hope to receive such an Answer from you as may be a means to preserve a right understanding between the two Nations and lay an Obligation upon us to continue Your Lordships
a yielding and submission we know not what is left to Treat upon These things are too apparent to every ordinary understanding And yet we are not forward to apprehend the Scorn of that Letter or take it for a Denial of a Treaty but being still sollicitous for that happy Peace which alone could redeem this Kingdom from Ruine we resolved to try another way and for avoiding Delay or Cavil about Names or Titles or descants upon words to forbear writing and humbly besought His Majesty to send Messengers with Instructions to desire a Treaty for Peace Who was pleased to name Mr. Richard Fanshaw and Mr. Thomas Offly Gentlemen of clear Repute and Integrity and to avoid their danger in repairing to Westminster at our desire commanded the Earl of Forth His General to write to theirs for a safe Conduct for those two Messengers for such is our Condition at present that a free-born Subject sent upon the Kings Message cannot but with such leave repair to London or Westminster without danger of his Life The Letter for the safe Conduct was as followeth My Lord I Cannot so willingly write to you in any business as in that of Peace the Endeavour thereof being the principal Duty of those who are trusted in places of our Commands especially when the Blood that is spilt is of persons under the same Allegiance of the same Country and Religion His Majesty continuing constant in His pious and fervent desires of a happy end to these bloody Distractions I do hereby desire your Lordship to send me a safe Conduct to and from Westminster for Mr. Richard Fanshaw and Mr. Tho Offly to be sent by His Majesty concerning a Treaty for Peace I rest Your Lordships humble Servant Forth To this was returned a Letter directed to the Earl of Forth in these words viz. My Lord YOV shew your Nobleness in declaring your willingness to write to me in any business as of that of Peace and I joyn with you in the same opinion that it ought to be a principal Duty of those who are trusted in places of our Command and therefore whensoever I shall receive any directions to those who have intrusted me I shall use my best endeavours and when you shall send for a safe Conduct for those Gentlemen mentioned in your Letter from His Majesty to the Houses of Parliament I shall with all cheerfulness shew my willingness to further any way that may produce that Happiness that all honest Men pray for which is a true understanding between His Majesty and His faithful and only Council the Parliament Your Lordships humble Servant Essex Essex-House 19. Feb. 1643. That this doth neither grant a safe Conduct nor give any direct Answer to the Earl of Forth 's Request every ordinary Eye may see and yet such Requests amongst Generals are rarely denied and we may easily thereby discern how fearful they at Westminster are lest the poor distressed People of this Kingdom should by the advantage of a Treaty and free debate of the present Difference see how grossly they had been deceived and misled and so obtain an end of their Miseries for otherwise who could have believed that when these Differences arose and were continued for want of a free Convention in Parliament and that a main end of the Treaty was to resolve how we according to Our Duty and the Trust reposed in us by our Countries might with them freely debate and advise His Majesty in those things that concerned the maintenance of our Religion Parliament-Privileges the Kings Rights and the Subjects Liberty and Property that this Letter should tell us that the Party we are to Treat withal is the Kings only Council excluding all others not only our selves called by the same Authority to Council as they were but His Privy-Council also and Council at Law so that we could have no hopes of a Treaty unless we should first agree that they are the Parliament and the Kings only Council whereby they that are parties would bccome the only Judges of all things in question which would be a Submission and not a Treaty Having received these frivolous delays which we might have interpreted absolute denials of any Treaty of Peace we yet resolved not to give over our endeavours for that which so much concerned the good of our Country and the welfare of all Professors of the true Protestant Religion but by our humble and earnest desires to his Majesty prevailed with Him to write His Royal Letters and once more desire a Treaty for Peace though it had been so often formerly rejected and to avoid all colour of Exception to direct it To the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Westminster which was done and enclosed in a Letter from the Earl of Forth to their General A Copy of both which Letters hereafter follows My Lord I Have received your Letter of the 19 th of this Month which according to my Duty I shewed to His Majesty Who observing in it your expressions concerning Peace that whensoever you shall receive any directions to those that have entrusted you you shall use your best endeavours is graciously pleased to send this enclosed which is desired may be delivered according to the directions Directed to the Earl of Essex Subscribed by the Earl of Forth C. R. OVT of Our most tender and pious sense of the sad and bleeding condition of this Our Kingdom and Our unwearied desires to apply all Remedies which by the blessing of Almighty God may recover it from an utter Ruine by the Advice of the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Oxford We do propound and desire That a convenient number of fit Person may be appointed and authorized by you to meet with all convenient speed at such Place as you shall nominate with an equal number of fit Persons whom We shall appoint and authorize to Treat of the ways and means to settle the present Distractions of this Our Kingdom and to procure a happy Peace and particularly how all the Members of both Houses may securely meet in a full and free Convention of Parliament there to Treat consult and agree upon such things as may conduce to the maintenance and defence of the true Reformed Protestant Religion with due consideration to all just and reasonable ease of tender Consciences to the settling and maintaining of Our just Rights and Privileges of the Rights and Privileges of Parliament the Laws of the Land the Liberty and Property of the Subject and all other Expedients that may conduce to that blessed end of a firm and lasting Peace both in Church and State and a perfect understanding betwixt Vs and Our People wherein no Endeavours or Concurrence of Ours shall be wanting And God direct your hearts in the ways of Peace Given at Our Court at Oxford the third day of March 1643. Superscribed To the Lords and Commons of Parliament Assembled at Westminster We now appeal to all the World what could more have been done
D. in Physick Will. Constantine Esq Hen. Killegrew Esq Ric. King Esq John Dutton Esq Hen. Bret Esq Will. Chadwel Esq Sir Theobald Gorges John George Esq Sir Tho. Fanshaw Humf. Conningesby Esq Ri. Seaborne Esq Arth. Lord Ranelaugh Tho. Tomkins Esq Sir Sampson Evers Sir John Culpeper Jeffrey Palmer Esq Sir John Harrison Tho. Fanshaw Esq Sir Rog. Palmer Sir Orlando Bridgman Will. Watkins Esq John Smith Esq Sir Tho. Bludder Sir Ed. Littleton Sir Harvy Bagot Sir Ri. Leveson Sir Ri. Cave Ri. Weston Esq Sir Ri. Lee. Sir Tho. Whitmore Sir Ed. Acton C. Baldwin Esq R. Goodwin Esq Tho. Howard Esq Tho. Littleton Esq Sir Ro. Howard Sir John Meux Matthew Davis Esq Sir F. Cornwallis Tho. Jermyn Esq John Taylor Esq William Basset Esq Sir William Portman Sir Edw. Rodney Tho. Hanham Esq Ed. Phelips Esq John Digby Esq Ed. Kirton Esq Christ. Leuknor Esq Sir Edw. Alford John White Esq John Ashburnham Esq Will. Smith Esq Tho. Leedes Esq Sir Ja. Thynne W. Pleydell Esq Ro. Hyde Serjeant at Law Sir Ed. Griffin Sir Walter Smith Geo. Lawe Esq Ric. Harding Esq Sir Hen. Herbert End Porter Esq Sam. Sandys Esq John Bodvill Esq Will. Morgan Esq Will. Thomas Esq Jo. Mostyn Esq Hen. Bellasis Esq Sir Geo. Wentworth Will. Mallory Esq Ri. Aldburgh Esq John Salisbury Esq Will. Herbert Esq William Price Esq Sir John Price Sir Ri. Herbert Charles Price Esq Phil. Warwick Esq Tho. Cooke Esq Sir Rob. Crooke Herb. Price Esq John Whistler Esq These Peers following being disabled by several accidents to appear sooner have since attended the Service and concurred with us Viscount Cambden Lord Abergavenny Lord Arundell Lord Capell Lord Newport Peers imployed in His Majesty's Service or absent with leave Marquess of Winchester Marquess of Worcester Marquess of New-castle Earl of Darby Earl of Huntingdon Earl of Clare Earl of Marleborough V. Falconbridge L. Morly L. Darcy and Coniers L. Stourton L. Evers L. Daincourt L. Pawlet L. Brudenel L. Powys L. Herbert of Cherbury L. Hopton L. Loughborough L. Byron L. Vaughan L. Widderington Peers absent in the parts beyond the Seas Earl of Arundell Earl of St. Albans L. Viscount Montague L. Viscount Stafford L. Stanhope L. Coventry L. Goring L. Craven of Hamsted L. Craven of Ryton Peers in Prison for their Loyalty to His Majesty Earl of Chesterfield L. Mountague of Boughton Whoever views these numbers and considers how many Peers are at this time under Age will quickly know who and how many are privy or consenting to the Counsels at Westminster These Members of the Commons House following being disabled by several accidents to appear sooner have since attended the Service and concurred with us Peter Venables Esquire Sir John Pawlet Edward Bagshaw Esq Sir John Burlasey Francis Newport Esquire Anthony Hungerford Esq John Russel Esquire Thomas Chichley Esquire Earl of Cork Sir Gervase Clifton Sir Guy Palmes Robert Sutton Esquire Gervase Hollis Esquire Sir Patricius Curwen Sir Henry Bellingham Sir George Dalston Sir Thomas Sandford Sir William Dalston Michael Wharton Esquire Sir Robert Hatton James Scudamore Esq Sir John Brooke Sir John Stepney Imployed in His Majesty's Service or absent with leave or by Sickness Sir John Fenwick Hugh Potter Esquire Walter Kirle Esquire William Stanhope Esquire Sir William Carnaby Sir Thomas Danby John Fenwick Esquire Ralph Sneade Esquire Sir William Ogle Sir Thomas Jermyn Sir John Stowell Sir Robert Strickland Sir Philip Musgrave John Cowcher Esquire John Coventry Esquire Sir Henry Slingsby Sir John Mallory John Bellassis Esquire Sir Thomas Ingram Lord Mansfield Thomas Heblethwayte Esquire Sir Hugh Cholmely Sir George Wentworth Sir Walter Lloyd Sir Henry Vaughan Francis Lloyd John Vaughan Esquire Richard Ferrers Esq George Hartnoll Esq Sir William Vdall Robert Hunt Esquire Thomas May Esquire Sir Thomas Bowyer Sir Thomas Roe Whoever now considers how many have retired themselves unto several Counties and so are absent from Westminster and yet cannot through the danger of Travelling be present at Oxford how many have withdrawn themselves into the parts beyond the Seas how many of their own principal Instruments are Voted out of the House by themselves as Sir John Hotham and his Son Sir Alexander Carew Mr. Martin Mr. Fiennes and many others and how many now are Imprisoned by them how many Members from the beginning have been factiously kept from the House upon questions of Election and how many without any colour are kept in by not suffering their Elections to be reported and that there are Thirty five Members dead into whose rooms no new Persons are chosen how many since are become Barons by descent or Creation will easily conclude how small the number is which remains and of those how few in truth have Right in sit there CHARLES R. March 19. 1643. Our express Pleasure is That this Declaration of the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Oxford be read by the Parson Vicar or Curate in every Church and Chapel within Our Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales The Declaration of the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Oxford according to His MAJESTY'S Proclamation Concerning their Endeavours since they came thither for the Peace of the Kingdom and the Reasons enforcing their Abscence from Westminster VVE the Lords and Commons of Parliament being upon just and important reasons absent from the City of Westminster whither we were Legally called or sent by the Power and Authority of His Majesty's Writ when He summoned His Parliament and being by His gracious Proclamation of the two and twentieth day of December convened at Oxford with full liberty to present our humble Advice to His Majesty for the preservation of the Religion Laws and Safety of the Kingdom thought it most agreeable to our Duty to God our zeal and tenderness of His Majesty's Honour and Safety and our Affection and Compassion of the bleeding condition of our miserable Country to use our utmost and earliest endeavours to prevent the effusion of more Christian English Blood and to close those Wounds through which this Kingdom is in danger in a short time to languish even to Desolation And finding the ill success which had attended all the Overtures of Treaty and Accommodation made by His Majesty His Majesty's most gracious Message from Nottingham being with so much contempt rejected which being sent by Members of both Houses those Messengers were not suffered to deliver it as Members or to sit in the House whilst the same was debated contrary to the Privilege of Parliament and that to the two last Messages sent by Him of the twelfth of April and nineteenth of May in both which are most gracious expressions of His Princely and passionate inclinations to Peace as may appear by those Messages herewith again re-printed there hath not been the least Answer returned to His Majesty but on the contrary His Messenger imprisoned and to this day detained and an Order that on pain of Death none should presume to come thither from His Majesty upon
Parliament as they had upon the first of January 1641. the same of right belonging unto them by their Birth-rights and the free Election of those that sent them and having been Voted from them for adhering to His Majesty in these Distractions His Majesty not intending that this should extend either to the Bishops whose Votes have been taken away by Bill or to such in whose places upon new Writs new Elections have been made 3. As soon as His Majesty and both Houses may be secured from such tumultuous Assemblies as to the great breach of the Privileges and the high Dishonour of Parliaments have formerly assembled about both Houses and awed the Members of the same and occasioned two several complaints from the Lords House and two several desires of that House to the House of Commons to joyn in a Declaration against them the complying with which desire might have prevented all these miserable Distractions which have ensued which Security His Majesty conceives can be only settled by Adjourning the Parliament to some other place at the least twenty Miles from London the choice of which His Majesty leaves to both Houses His Majesty will most chearfully and readily consent that both Armies be immediately disbanded and give a present meeting to both His Houses of Parliament at the time and place at and to which the Parliament shall be agreed to be Adjourned His Majesty being most confident that the Law will then recover the due credit and estimation and that upon a free debate in a full and peaceable Convention of Parliament such Provisions will be made against Seditious Preaching and Printing against His Majesty and the established Laws which hath been one of the chief causes of the present Distractions and such care will be taken concerning the Legal and known Rights of His Majesty and the Property and Liberty of His Subjects that whatsoever hath been published or done in or by colour of any illegal Declaration Ordinance or Order of one or both Houses or any Committee of either of them and particularly the Power to raise Arms without His Majesty's Consent will be in such manner recalled disclaimed and provided against that no seed will remain for the like to spring out of for the future to disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and to endanger the very Being of it And in such a Convention His Majesty is resolved by His readiness to consent to whatsoever shall be proposed to Him by Bill for the Real good of His Subjects and particularly for the better discovery and speedier conviction of Recusants for the Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion for the prevention of practices of Papists against the State and the due execution of the Laws and true levying of the Penalties against them to make known to all the World how causeless those fears and jealousies have been which have been raised against Him and by that so distracted this miserable Kingdom And if this Offer of His Majesty be not consented to in which He asks nothing for which there is not apparent Justice on His side and in which He defers many things highly concerning both Himself and People till a full and peaceable Convention of Parliament which in Justice He might now require His Majesty is confident that it will then appear to all the World not only who is most desirous of Peace and whose fault it is that both Armies are not now disbanded but who have been the true and first cause that this Peace was ever interrupted or these Armies raised and the beginning or continuance of the War and the Destruction and Desolation of this poor Kingdom which is too likely to ensue will not by the most interessed passionate or prejudicate Person be imputed to His Majesty His MAJESTY'S Message to both Houses May 19. in pursuance of the foregoing Message SInce His Majesty's Message of the twelfth of April in which he conceived He had made such an Overture for the immediate Disbanding of all Armies and Composure of these present miserable Distractions by a full and free Convention in Parliament that a perfect and settled Peace would have ensued hath in all this time above a full Month procured no Answer from both Houses His Majesty might well believe Himself absolved before God and Man from the least possible Charge of not having used His utmost endeavour for Peace Yet when He considers that the Scene of all this Calamity is in the Bowels of His own Kingdom that all the Blood which is spilt is of His own Subjects and that what Victory soever it shall please God to give Him must be over those who ought not to have lifted up their hands against Him when He considers that these desperate civil Dissentions may encourage and invite a Foreign Enemy to make a Prey of the whole Nation that Ireland is in present danger to be totally lost that the heavy Judgments of God Plague Pestilence and Famine will be the inevitable Attendants of this unnatural Contention and that in a short time there will be so general a habit of uncharitableness and Cruelty contracted throughout the Kingdom that even Peace it self will not restore His People to their old Temper and Security His Majesty cannot but again call for an Answer to that His Message which gives so fair a Rise to end these unnatural Distractions And His Majesty doth this with the more earnestness because He doubts not the condition of His Armies in several parts His strength of Horse Foot and Artillery His plenty of Ammunition which some Men lately might conceive He wanted is so well known and understood that it must be confessed that nothing but the Tenderness and Love to His People and those Christian Impressions which always have and He hopes always shall dwell in His heart could move Him once more to hazard a Refusal And He requires them as they will answer to God to Himself and all the World That they will no longer suffer their fellow-Subjects to welter in each others Blood that they will remember by whose Authority and to what end they met in that Council and send such an Answer to His Majesty as may open a door to let in a firm Peace and Security to the whole Kingdom If His Majesty shall again be disappointed of His Intentions herein the Blood Rapine and Distraction which must follow in England and Ireland will be cast upon the Account of those who are deaf to the motion of Peace and Accommodation CHARLES R. May 19. 1643. OUR express Pleasure is That this Declaration of the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Oxford be read by the Parson Vicar or Curate in every Church and Chapel within Our Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales MDCXLIV April 15. The Petition of the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Oxford Presented to His MAJESTY the day before the Recess And His MAJESTY'S Gracious Answer to the same To the Kings most excellent
the composing and ending of those unhappy Differences and Distractions about which so much blood hath been already spilt which Treaty may by the blessing of God who is the disposer of all mens hearts and of all events be a means to produce a Peace and whereas it is the Duty and hath been the practice of Christians under Affliction to set apart some time for publick and solemn Humiliation and Prayer for removing of God's Judgments and particularly for a Blessing and good Success to the means conducing to their Deliverance We do therefore by this Our Praclamation appoint and streightly charge and command that on Wednesday being the 5. of February next ensuing a solemn Fast be kept in all places within Our Dominions whither the notice of this Our Proclamation shall or may come before that time that both Prince and People may then joyn together in a true Humiliation and Devout and earnest Prayers to God that He would be pleased so to bless and prosper this intended Treaty that it may produce a happy Peace in all Our Dominions such as may be for his Honour and the good of His Church and of Us and all Our Subjects And We do hereby charge and require all Our Subjects of what degree or condition soever they be which shall have notice of this Our Proclamation That they do religiously prepare and apply themselves to a due observation of the same by Fasting Humiliation and Prayer on that day and in hearing of God's Word as they will answer to God their neglect of this Christian Duty and as will Answer to Us their neglect of this Our just and necessary Command And for the better and more orderly observation of this Fast We do hereby appoint that the Form of Prayer and Service of God set forth in the Book heretofore published for the Monthly Fast with such Alterations and Additions as shall be prepared and fitted for this present purpose and published in Print before the said day shall be used in all Churches and Chapels where this Fast shall be kept Given at Our Court at Oxford this 27. day of January in the Twentieth year of Our Reign 1644. God Save the KING HIS Majesty having received an Account from His Commissioners of their proceedings in the late Treaty at Vxbridge to the end that all His People may be fully satisfied of His earnest and constant endeavours to procure the publick Peace whereby to put an end to these present Miseries hath commanded this full and plain Narrative of all the Passages concerning that Treaty to be made and published AFter His Majesty's Message from Evesham of the 4. of July last desiring and propounding a Treaty for Peace and His second Message from Tavestock of the 8. of September last renewing that desire at length on the 23. day of November last past the Earl of Denbigh and others repaired to His Majesty at Oxford with Propositions in these words following VVE Your Majesty's Loyal Subjects assembled in the Parliaments of both Your Kingdoms from the sense of that Duty we owe unto Your Majesty and of the deep Sufferings and many Miseries under which Your People of all Your Kingdoms lie bleeding in this unnatural War after long and serious consultation about the best ways and means of their Preservation and for settling Your Majesty's Throne and Your Subjects in Peace and Security have with common consent resolved upon these Propositions which we do humbly tender unto Your Majesty The humble Desires and Propositions for a safe and well-grounded Peace agreed upon by the mutual Advice and Consent of the Parliaments of both Kingdoms united by solemn League and Covenant to be presented to His Majesty I. That by Act of Parliament in each Kingdom respectively all Oaths Declarations and Proclamations against both or either of the Houses of the Parliament of England and the late Convention of Estates in Scotland or Committees flowing from the Parliament or Convention in Scotland or their Ordinances and Proceedings or against any for adhering unto them and all Indictments Outlawries and Attainders against any for the said Causes be declared Null suppressed and forbidden and that this be publickly intimated in all parish-Parish-Churches within His Majesty's Dominions and all other places needful II. That His Majesty according to the laudable Example of His Royal Father of happy memory may be pleased to swear and sign the late solemn League and Covenant and that an Act of Parliament be passed in both Kingdoms respectively for enjoyning the taking thereof by all the Subjects of the three Kingdoms and the Ordinances concerning the manner of taking the same in both Kingdoms be confirmed by Acts of Parliaments respectively with such Penalties as by mutual Advice of both Kingdoms shall be agreed upon III. That the Bill be passed for the utter abolishing and taking away of all Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans and Sub-deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons Canons and Prebendaries and all Chaunters Chancellours Treasurers Sub-treasurers Succentors and Sacrists and all Vicars Choral and Choristers old Vicars and new Vicars of any Cathedral or Collegiate Church and all other their under-Officers out of the Church of England and Dominion of Wales and out of the Church of Ireland with such Alterations concerning the Estates of Prelates as shall agree with the Articles of the late Treaty of the Date at Edenborough 29 of Novemb. 1643. and joint Declaration of both Kingdoms IV. That the Ordinance concerning the Calling and sitting of the Assembly of Divines be confirmed by Act of Parliament V. That Reformation of Religion according to the Covenant be settled by Act of Parliament in such manner as both Houses shall agree upon after Consultation had with the Assembly of Divines And for as much as both Kingdoms are mutually obliged by the same Covenant to endeavour the nearest Conjunction and Uniforminy in matters of Religion that such Unity and Uniformity in Religion according to the Covenant as after Consultation had with the Divines of both Kingdoms now assembled shall be joyntly agreed upon by both Houses of the Parliament of England and by the Church and Kingdom of Scotland be confirmed by Acts of Parliament of both Kingdoms respectively VI. That for the more effectual disabling Jesuits Priests Papists and Popish Recusants from disturbing the State and deluding the Laws and for the better discovering and speedy conviction of Recusants an Oath be established by Act of Parliament to be administred to them wherein they shall abjure and renounce the Popes Supremacy the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Purgatory worshipping of the consecrated Host Crucifixes and Images and all other Popish Superstitions and Errors and refusing the said Oath being tendred in such manner as shall be appointed by the said Act to be sufficient conviction in Law of Recusancy VII An Act of Parliament for Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion VIII An Act for the true levying of the Penalties against them
which Penalties to be levied and disposed in such manner as both Houses shall agree on wherein to be provided that His Majesty shall have no loss IX That an Act be passed in Parliament whereby the practices of Papists against the State may be prevented and the Laws against them duly executed and a stricter course taken to prevent the saying or hearing of Mass in the Court or any other part of this Kingdom X. The like for the Kingdom of Scotland concerning the four last preceding Propositions in such manner as the Estates of Parliament there shall think fit XI That the King do give His Royal Assent To an Act for the due Observation of the Lords day And to the Bill for the suppression of Innovations in Churches and Chappels in and about the Worship of God and for the better advancement of the Preaching of God's holy Word in all parts of this Kingdom And to the Bill against the enjoying of Pluralities of Benefices by Spiritual Persons and non-Residency And to an Act to be framed and agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament for the reforming and regulating of both Universities of the Colleges of Westminster Winchester and Eaton And to an Act in like manner to be agreed upon for the suppression of Interludes and Stage-playes this Act to be perpetual And to an Act for the taking the Accompts of the Kingdom And to an Act to be made for relief of sick and maimed Souldiers and of poor Widows and Children of Soldiers And to such Act or Acts for raising of Moneys for the payment and satisfying of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom and other publick uses as shall hereafter be agreed on by both Houses of Parliament And to an Act or Acts of Parliament for taking away the Court of Wards and Liveries and all Wardships Liveries Primer seisins and Ouster le maines and all other charges incident or arising for or by reason of Wardship Livery Primer seisin or Ouster le main And for the taking away of all Tenures by Homage and all Fines Licences Seisures and Pardons for Alienation and all other charges incident thereunto and for turning of all Tenures by Knights service either of His Majesty or others or by Knights service or soccage in Capite of His Majesty into free and common Soccage and that His Majesty will please to accept in recompence hereof 100000 pounds per annum And give Assurance of His consenting in the Parliament of Scotland to an Act ratifying the Acts of Convention of the Estates of Scotland called by the Council and Conservatory of Peace and the Commissioners for the common Burthens and assembled the 22 day of June 1643. and several times continued since in such manner and with such additions and other Acts as the Estates convened in this present Parliament shall think convenient XII That an Act be passed in the Parliament of both Kingdoms respectively for confirmation of the Treaties passed betwixt the two Kingdom viz. the large Treaties the late Treaty for the coming of the Scots Army into England and the settling of the Garrison of Berwick of the 29. of November 1643. and the Treaty concerning Ireland of the 6. of August 1642. with all other Ordinances and Proceedings passed betwixt the two Kingdoms in pursuance of the said Treaties XIII That an Act of Parliament be passed to make void the Cessation of Ireland and all Treaties with the Rebels without consent of both Houses of Parliament and to settle the prosecution of the War of Ireland in both Houses of Parliament to be managed by the joynt advice of both Kingdoms and the King to assist and to do no Act to discountenance or molest them therein XIV That an Act be passed in the Parliament of both Kingdoms respectively for establishing the joynt Declaration of both Kingdoms bearing date the 30. of January 1643. in England and 1644. in Scotland with the Qualifications ensuing 1. That the Persons who shall expect no Pardon be only these following RUPERT and MAURICE Count Palatines of the Rhene James Earl of Derby John Earl of Bristol William Earl of Newcastle Francis Lord Cottington John Lord Pawlet George Lord Digby Edward Lord Littleton William Laud Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Matthew Wren Bishop of Ely Sir Robert Heath Knight Doctor Bramhall Bishop of Dery Sir John Biron Knight William Widdrington Colonel George Goring Henry Jermin Esq Sir Ralph Hopton Sir Francis Doddington M. Endymion Porter Sir George Ratcliffe Sir Marmaduke Langdale Sir John Hotham Captain John Hotham his Son Sir Henr Vaughan Sir Francis Windebanke Sir Richard Greenvile Master Edward Hyde Sir John Marley Sir Nicholas Cole Sir Thomas Riddel Junior Colonel ..... Ware Sir John Strangwaies Sir John Culpeper Sir Richard Floyd John Bodvile Esq Mr. David Jenkins Sir George Strode Sir Alexander Carew Marquiss of Huntley Earl of Montross Earl of Niddisdale Earl of Traquaire Earl of Carnewath Viscount of Aubayne Lord Ogilby Lord Rae Lord Harris Lodwick Lindsey sometime Earl of Crawford Patrick Ruthen sometime Earl of Forth James King sometime Lord Ethyn Irving younger of Drunim Gordon younger of Gight Lesly of Auchintoule Sir Robert Spotswood of Dumipace Colonel John Cockram Master John Maxwel sometime pretended Bishop of Ross Master Walter Balcanquall and all such others as being processed by the Estates for Treason shall be condemned before the Act of Oblivion be passed 2. All Papists and Popish Recusants who have been now are or shall be actually in Arms or voluntarily assisting against the Parliaments or Estates of either Kingdom 3. All persons who have had any hand in the plotting designing or assisting the Rebellion in Ireland 4. That Humphry Bennet Esq Sir Edward Ford Sir John Penruddock Sir George Vaughan Sir John Weld Sir Robert Lee Sir John Pate John Ackland Edmund Windham Esquires Sir John Fitz-herbert Sir Edward Laurence Sir Ralph Dutton Henry Lingen Esq Sir William Russel of Worcestershire Thomas Lee of Adlington Esq Sir John Girlington Sir Paul Neale Sir William Thorold Sir Edward Hussey Sir Thomas Lyddel Senior Sir Philip Musgrave Sir John Digby of Nottingh Sir Henry Fletcher Sir Richard Minshal Laurence Halsteed John Denham Esquires Sir Edmund Fortescue Peter St. Hill Esq Sir Tho. Tildesly Sir Hen. Griffith Michael Wharton Esq Sir Hen. Spiller Sir George Benion Sir Edward Nicholas Sir Edward Walgrove Sir Edward Bishop Sir Robert Owsly Sir John Maney Lord Cholmely Sir Thomas Aston Sir Lewis Dives Sir Peter Osborn Samuel Thorneton Esq Sir John Lucas John Blomey Esq Sir Thomas Chedle Sir Nicholas Kemish and Hugh Lloyd Esq and all such of the Scotish Nation as have concurred in the Votes at Oxford against the Kingdom of Scotland and their Proceedings or have sworn or subscribed the Declaration against the Convention and Covenant and all such as have assisted the Rebellion in the North or the Invasion in the South of the said Kingdom of Scotland or the late Invasion made there by the Irish and their Adherents and that the
we have offered so weighty Doubts and Considerations to your Lordships in this days Debate concerning several parts in the Bill for abolishing of Episcopacy your Lordships having confined and limited our Debate to that individual Bill as it is now penn'd not the consideration of abolishing Episcopacy in general that your Lordships cannot expect a positive Answer from us now being after eleven a clock at night touching that Bill But we shall be ready by the next day assigned for the Treaty upon this Argument to deliver our Opinions to your Lordships the which we shall be then the better able to do when we have found by the progress in our other Debates how far a blessed and a happy Peace is like to be advanced by our endeavouring to give your Lordships satisfaction in this particular This being the last of the three first days assigned for the Treaty upon Religion that Subject was again taken up the 11 th of February being the first of the second three days appointed for Religion And their Commissioners delivered this Paper 11. Feb. HAving received no satisfaction in the first three days appointed to Treat upon the Propositions for Religion we do now desire your Lordships clear and full Answer to our former Demand on this Subject that no farther time may be lost in a matter which doth so much concern the Glory of God the Honour of the King and the Peace and Happiness of His Kingdoms The King's Commissioners Answer 11. Feb. VVE gave your Lordships as much satisfaction in the first three days appointed to Treat upon the Propositions for Religion as in so short a time and upon so little information from your Lordships could reasonably be expected in a matter of so great and high importance And as we have given your Lordships already many Reasons concerning the Injustice and Inconveniency which would follow upon passing the Bill for abolishing Episcopacy according to your first Proposition so we are now ready by Conference to satisfie your Lordships why we conceive that the said Bill is not for the Glory of God or the Honour of the King and consequently cannot be for the Peace and Happiness of His Kingdoms And if your Lordships Reasons shall convince us in those particulars we shall willingly consent to what you desire if otherwise we shall offer to your Lordships our Consent to such other Alterations as we conceive may better contribute to the Reformation intended and such as may stand with the Glory of God and in truth be for the Honour of the King and the Peace and Happiness of His Kingdoms Their Reply 11. Feb. VVE have received no satisfaction from your Lordships concerning the Propositions delivered in by us for Religion in the name of the Parliaments of both Kingdoms not have you made appear unto us any Injustice or Inconveniency in the passing of the Bill for abolishing of Episcopacy And as it cannot be denied but the settling of Religion is a matter which doth highly concern the Glory of God the Honour of the King and the Peace and Happiness of his Kingdoms so do we desire your Lordships will grant those Demands which have been made unto you by us to that end and we are ready by present Conference to receive what your Lordships will offer upon any of those Propositions and to return that which may give your Lordships just satisfaction The King's Commissioners Answer 11. Feb. YOUR Lordships having expressed in your Paper of the first of February that there are other things touching Religion to be propounded by your Lordships to us we presume that by this time you may be enabled by your Instructions to propose the same and therefore we desire to receive them from your Lordships Which we hope your Lordships will think very reasonable when you consider how incongruous a thing it will appear to most Men to consent to real and substantial Alterations in the matter of Religion without having a view of the whole Alterations intended when at the same time there is mention of other Alterations Their Answer thereunto 11. Feb. WE shall deliver in very speedily that which remains with us touching Religion to be propounded unto your Lordships But we do desire as before your Lordships Answers unto our Demands in the same order that we have proposed them not conceiving it reasonable there should be any time spent in Debates or Answers upon what we shall hereafter offer till we have received satisfaction in our former Propositions which we desire may be speedily done lest otherwise the Treaty be retarded and the Expectation of both Kingdoms altogether frustrated Notwithstanding this they delivered in this further Answer 11. Feb. IN Answer to your Lordships Paper this day delivered to us we desire that His Majesty do give His Royal Assent to an Act of Parliament for the due Observation of the Lords Day and to the Bill for suppressing of Innovations in Churches and Chapels in and about the Worship of God c. and for the better advancement of the Preaching of God's Holy Word in all parts of this Kingdom and to the Bill against enjoying of Pluralities of Benefices by Spiritual persons and non-Residency And we shall in due time give in to your Lordships our Demands concerning Papists contained in the sixth seventh eighth ninth and tenth Propositions and for His Majesty's Assenting to an Act to be framed and agreed upon in both Houses of Parliament for the regulating and reforming of both Universities of the Colleges of Westminster Winchester and Eaton and for the Education and Marriage of His Majesty's Children and the Children of His Heirs and Successors in the true Protestant Religion as in the 21 Proposition Some part of the 11th and most part of the 12th of February was spent in Argument by Divines touching Episcopacy and the Presbyterial Government Afterwards their Commissioners gave in this Paper 12. Feb. THere having now been several days spent in debate upon the Propositions for Religion and all Objections alledged to the contrary either from Conscience Law or Reason being fully answered and the time allotted for that so important a part of the Treaty almost elapsed we should be wanting to the Trust reposed in us if we should not press and Expect as we now do a clear and positive Answer to those Demands concerning Religion which we have offered unto your Lordships from the Parliaments of both Kingdoms as most necessary for the settling of a safe and well-grounded Peace in all His Majesty's Dominions The King's Commissioners Answer 12. Feb. WE deny that the Objections alledged by us against the passing the for abolishing Episcopacy from Conscience Law or Reason have been fully answered by your Lordships or that indeed we have received any satisfaction from your Lordships in these particulars We have received no Information from your Lordships to satisfie us that Episcopacy is or hath been an impediment to a perfect Reformation to the growth of Religion or that it
individual Bill is not agreeable to Conscience and Justice and that it would be very prejudicial to the Civil State and to the Peace of the Kingdom neither have the Reasons and Objections given by us against it first in Debate and since in Writing been answered in Debate by your Lordships And therefore we know no reason why your Lordships may not give an Answer to those Objections in Writing For as it is not agreeable to the usage of Parliaments for the two Houses to give His Majesty Reasons why he should pass any Bill presented by them so it is no more agreeable to the same usage for His Majesty to give Reasons why He doth not pass Bills so presented But we desire your Lordships to consider that we are now in a Treaty and we conceive the proper business thereof to be for your Lordships to give us Reasons why His Majesty should consent to the Propositions made by you or for us to give Reasons to your Lordships why we cannot consent to those Propositions otherwise it would be only a Demand on your Lordships part and no Argument of Treaty between us And we must profess to your Lordships that as we conceived in our former Paper the Succession of Episcopacy by Succession from the Apostles time was consented to on all parts so we cannot remember that the contrary thereof was so much as alledged much less that the Unlawfulness thereof was proved the Question of the Lawfulness thereof having never yet come in debate And we shall be very ready to receive any assertion from your Lordships to that purpose not doubting but we shall give your Lordships full satisfaction in that point And we conceive the Alterations proposed by us to your Lordships to be a very proper Answer to your Lordships Propositions and most agreeable to the end for which those Propositions seem to be made And that since it appears that the utter abolishing of Episcopacy in the manner proposed is visibly inconvenient and may be mischievous the Regulating of Episcopacy being most consonant to the Primitive Institution will produce all these good effects towards Peace and Unity which Regulated Episcopacy is the sum of our former Paper we desire your Lordships to consent to the same And we again offer to your Lordships that if you shall insist upon any other things necessary for Reformation we will apply our selves to the consideration thereof Their Answer to the Second 13. Feb. VVE conceive your Lordships second Paper this day delivered to us is a Denial of our Demands that the Ordinance for the Calling and Sitting of the Assembly of Divines be confirmed by Act of Parliament and that His Majesty take the solemn League and Covenant and the Covenant be enjoyned to be taken according to the Second Proposition Wherein if we mis-conceive your Lordships intention we desire you would explain the meanings and accordingly shall make our reports to the Parliaments of both Kingdom The King's Commissioners Reply 13. Feb. COncerning the Ordinances for the Calling and Sitting of the Assembly of Divines and the taking the Covenant we can give no farther Answer than we have done in our second Paper delivered to your Lordships this day Their Answer to the Third 13. Feb. VVE do conceive your Lordships third Paper is a Denial of our Demands concerning the Directory for publick Worship and the Proposition for Church-Government against which your Lordships have made no Objection and your Queries are already satisfied by Conference And we shall accordingly make our reports to the Parliaments of both Kingdoms The King's Commissioners Reply 13. Feb. OUR expressions in our Answer to your Lordships Demands concerning the Directory for publick Worship import only what we as yet conceive concerning that matter there having hitherto been no debate touching the same or concerning the Common-Prayer-Book now established by Law and thereby intended to be abolished And therefore we did in that Paper and do still desire to receive your Lordships Objections against the Book of Common-Prayer and your Reasons for introducing the Directory Neither can our Answer to the Propositions for Church-Government annexed to your first Paper be otherwise taken than as our desire to receive information how that Government should be constituted in particular and what Jurisdiction should be established by whom granted and upon whom it should depend which Queries were not satisfied by any Conference your Lordships as we conceive having declared your selves that the particular form or model of that Government mentioned in those Propositions only in General were not then particularly agreed on and we have since desired and expect to receive it and therefore your Lordships cannot conceive we have denied that which we have not yet seen nor been informed of Their Answer to the Fourth 13. Feb. TO your Lordships Fourth Paper we Answer The Bill for suppressing of Innovations in Churches and Chapels in and about the Worship of God c. and for the better advancement of the Preaching of God's holy Word in all parts of this Kingdom and against the enjoying of Pluralities of Benefices by Spiritual Persons and Non-residency were heretofore presented to His Majesty and remain with him and we herewith deliver to your Lordships the Ordinance for the due observation of the Lord's day and we insist on our former Demands concerning them And when your Lordships have given us your full Answers to our desires already with you concerning Religion we then shall deliver unto your Lordships our Demands concerning Papists the regulating the Universities the Education and Marriage of His Majesty's Children in the true Protestant Religion contained in our Paper of the 11. of this instant February The King's Commissioners Reply 13. Feb. VVE have not the Bills here which we desired of your Lordships in our Fourth Paper to see and which you now say were heretofore presented to His Majesty But we shall take speedy care to have those Bills if they remain with His Majesty and in the mean time desire your Lordships to give us Copies of them and we shall give your Lordships a speedy Answer as we shall to the Ordinance for the due observation of the Lord's Day which we received from your Lordships this night and had never before seen and we shall be ready to receive your Lordships Demands concerning Papists the regulating the Universities the Education and Marriage of His Majesty's Children and shall return our Answers accordingly This last Paper concluded the six days appointed for the Treaty upon Religion according to the Order prescribed for disposing the first 18. days of the 20. for the Treaty In the end of which 18. days after some Papers mutually delivered concerning the manner how the two last days should be disposed this Subject of Religion with the two others were again resumed and their Papers following were then delivered in concerning Religion Their Paper 21. Feb. VVHereas your Lordships in your last Paper of Feb. 13. were pleased to say that as
not given full and satisfactory Answers concerning Religion the Militia and Ireland you cannot for the Reasons above mentioned expect an addition of time neither have we received any Instructions to continue this Treaty longer than the twenty days of which this is the last And as for your Lordships Safe-Conduct we conceive the Three Sundays last past being not accounted any days of the Treaty so this next Sunday is not to be esteemed one of the two days allowed after the Treaty in your Lordships Safe-Conduct but your Lordships are to have two days besides this next Lords day The King's Commissioners Reply 22. February WE cannot express the great sadness of our hearts that all our earnest endeavours to give your Lordships satisfaction in all particulars of this Treaty have produced no better effects towards a blessed Peace which his Majesty and we who are trusted by him do so heartily pray for and that so many and great Offers made by us to your Lordships in the particulars we have Treated upon should not be thought a good progress on our part in the said Treaty as we find by your Lordships last Paper to our great grief they are not and therefore that this must be the last day of the Treaty We desire your Lordships to consider that we being intrusted by his Majesty to Treat with your Lordships for a safe and well grounded Peace have upon the matter of your Lordships Propositions consented to so many particulars and alterations of very great importance and that your Lordships who were to Treat with us have not abated one tittle of the most severe and rigorous of your Propositions saving what you were pleased the last Night to propose in the point of Time concerning the Militia which though it seems to be limited to seven years in truth leaves it as unlimited as it was before in your-Propositions for at the end of seven years it must not be exercised otherwise than shall be settled by his Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament so that all the Legal Power now in his Majesty is taken away and not restored after the seven years expired Neither is there a full consent to that limitation offered by your Lordships the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland Nor have your Lordships offered to us any prospect towards Peace other than by submitting totally to those Propositions the which if we should do we should consent to such Alterations as by Constructions and Consequences may dissolve the whole frame of the present Government both Ecclesiastical and Civil in this Kingdom And though the particulars proposed by your Lordships have by Debate appeared not only evidently unreasonable but literally considered to comprehend things to be extended to Powers not intended by your selves yet your Lordships have not been pleased either to restrain or interpret any particular in any other manner than as is set forth in the said Propositions In the matter of Religion we have offered all such Alterations as we conceive may give satisfaction to any Objections that have been or can be made against that Government and have given your Lordships Reasons not onely why we cannot consent to your Lordships Propositions but that even those Propositions if consented to could not be in order to a Reformation or to the procuring the publick Peace And we must desire your Lordships to remember that though you do not onely in your Covenant which you require may be taken by his Majesty and enjoyned to be taken by all his Subjects undertake the Reformation in point of Government but even in point of Doctrine too thereby laying an imputation upon the Religion it self so long professed in this Kingdom with the general approbation of all Reformed Churches yet your Lordship have not given us the least Argument nor so much as intimated in your Debate the least Prejudice to the Doctrine of the Church of England against which we presume you cannot make any colourable Objection nor have you given us the view in particular of the Government you desire should be submitted to in the place of that you propose to be abolished and therefore we propose to your Lordships if the Alterations proposed by us do not give your Lordships satisfaction that so great an Alteration as the total Abolition of a Government established by Law may for the Importance of it and any Reformation in Doctrine for the Scandal of it be suspended till after the Disbanding of all Armies his Majesty may be present with the Two Houses of Parliament and calling a National Synod may receive such Advice both from the one and the other as in a matter of so high concernment is necessary and we are most confident that his Majesty will then follow the Advice which shall be given him And as any Reformation thus regularly and calmly made must needs prove for the singular Benefit and Honour of the Kingdom so we must appeal to your Lordships whether the contrary that is an Alteration even to things though in themselves good can by the Principles of Christian Religion be enforced upon the King or Kingdom In the business of the Militia though your Lordships do not deny that the Jealousies and apprehensions of Danger are mutual and that the chief end of depositing the Militia in the hands of certain Persons is for security against those Jealousies and possible Dangers yet your Lordships insist That all those Persons to be entrusted shall be nominated by the Two Houses of Parliament in England and the Estates of the Parliament in Scotland and that the time for that great general and unheard-of Trust shall be in such manner that though it seem to be limited to seven years yet in truth by declaring that after those seven years it shall not be otherwise exercised than His Majesty and the Two Houses of Parliament shall agree His Majesty may thereby be totally and for ever devested of the power of the Sword without which He can neither defend Himself against Foreign Invasions nor Domestick Insurrections nor execute His Kingly Office in the behalf of His Subjects to whom He is sworn to give protection And to both these your Lordships add the introducing a Neighbour-Nation governed by distinct and different Laws though united under one Sovereign to a great share in the Government of this Kingdom In stead of consenting to these Changes we have offered and proposed to your Lordships That the Persons to be trusted with the Militia of the Kingdom may be nominated between us or if that were refused that an equal number shall be named by you and the other number by his Majesty and that half the Forts and places of Strength within the Kingdom shall be in the Custody of those whom you think fit to be trusted therewith and the other half in such hands as his Majesty pleases to commit the same to and all persons as well those nominated by your Lordships as by his Majesty to take an Oath for the due discharge
any time or times within the space of two years now last past held or enjoyed or of right ought to have held or enjoyed the same In trust and confidence nevertheless and to the intent and purpose that they the said Sir VVilliam Roberts Knight Thomas Atkins Sir John VVollaston John VVarner John Towes Aldermen of the City of London John Packer Esquire Peter Malbourne Esquire and the Survivors and Survivor of them his and their Heirs and Assigns shall satisfie and pay unto all and every Arch-bishop Bishop Dean Sub-dean Arch-deacon Chaunter Chancellor Treasurer Sub-treasurer Succentor Sacrist Prebendary Canon Canon-Residentiary Petty-Canon Vicars Choral Choristers old Vicars and new Vicars and other Officers and persons belonging unto or now imployed in or about the said Cathedral or Collegiate Churches such yearly Stipends and Pensions for so long time and in such manner as by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled shall be ordered directed and appointed and shall dispose of all and singular the aforesaid Mannors Lands Tithes Appropriations Advowsons Tenements Hereditaments and other the Premisses and of every part and parcel thereof and of the Revenues Rents Issues and Profits thereof to the uses intents and purposes above and hereafter expressed that is to say for a competent maintenance for the support of such a number of Preaching Ministers for the service of every Cathedral and Collegiate Church and His Majesties free Chappel of Windsor as by the Lords and Commons shall be ordered and appointed and likewise for the maintenance of Preaching Ministers throughout the Kingdom of England Dominion of VVales and Town of Barwick in such places where such maintenance is wanting and for a proportionable allowance for and towards the reparation of the said Cathedral and Collegiate Churches in such manner and form and to such persons and for such other good uses to the advancement of true Religion and the maintenance of Piety and Learning as by this or any other Act or Acts of Parliament now or hereafter to be made shall be set down or declared And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all Leases Gifts Grants Conveyances Assurances and Estates whatsoever hereafter to be made by the said Sir VVilliam Roberts Knight Thomas Atkins Sir John VVollaston John VVarner John Towes Aldermen of the City of London John Packer Esquire Peter Mabourne Esquire the Survivors and Survivor of them or the greater part of them his and their Heirs and Assigns of any the Mannors Lands Tenements or Hereditaments which in or by this Act shall come or be limited or disposed of unto the said Sir VVilliam Roberts Knight Thomas Atkins Sir John VVollaston John VVarner John Towes Aldermen of the City of London John Packer Esquire Peter Malbourne Esquire other than for the Term of One and Twenty years or Three Lives or some other Term of years determinable upon One Two or Three Lives and not above from the time as any such Lease or Grant shall be made or granted whereupon the accustomed yearly Rent or more shall be reserved and payable yearly during the said Term whereof any former Lease is in being and not to be expired surrendred or ended within Three years after the making of such Lease shall be utterly void and of none effect to all intents constructions and purposes any thing in this Act to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding Provided nevertheless where no Lease hath been heretofore made nor any such Rent hath been reserved or payable of any the Lands Tenements or Hereditaments in this Act limited or disposed of unto the said Sir VVilliam Roberts Knight Thomas Atkins Sir John VVollaston John VVarner John Towes Aldermen of the City of London John Packer Esquire Peter Malbourne Esquire that in such case it shall be lawful for the said Sir William Roberts Knight Thomas Atkins Sir John Wollaston John Warner John Towes Aldermen of the City of London John Packer Esquire Peter Malbourne Esquire the Survivors and Survivor of them or the greater part of them his and their Heirs to make any Lease or Estate for the Term of One and Twenty years or Three Lives or some other Term of years determinable upon One Two or Three Lives and not above taking such Fine as they in their Judgments shall conceive indifferent and reserving a reasonable Rent not being under the Third part of the clear yearly value of the Lands Tenements or Hereditaments contained in such Lease And it is further Declared to be the true intent and meaning of this Act That all and every the Lessees Farmers and Tenants of all and every the said Persons and Corporations whose Offices or Places are taken away by this Statute now having holding or enjoying any Estate Term or Interest in possession by himself his under-Tenants or Assigns of or in any Mannors Lands Tenements Appropriations or other Hereditaments whatsoever shall and may be preferred in the taking and renewing of any Estates Leases or Grants of any such Mannors Lands Tenements or Hereditaments before any other Person the said Lessees Farmers or Tenants or other Parties interessed as aforesaid desiring the same and giving such Fines Rents and other considerations for the same as by the said Sir VVilliam Roberts Knight Thomas Atkins Sir John VVollaston John VVarner John Towes Aldermen of the City of London John Packer Peter Malbourne Esquires or the Survivors or Survivor of them or the major part of them his or their Heirs or Assigns shall be thought and held just and reasonable Provided also and be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all and singular Revenues Rents Issues Fees Profits Sums of Money and Allowances whatsoever as have heretofore been and now ought to be paid disposed or allowed unto or for the maintenance of any Grammar-School or Scholars or for or towards the Reparation of any Church Chappel High-way Causey Bridge School-house Alms-house or other charitable use payable by any the Corporations or Persons whose Offices or Places are taken away by this Act or which are chargeable upon or ought to issue out of or be paid for or in respect of the said Premisses or any of them shall be and continue to be paid disposed and allowed as they were and have been heretofore any thing in this present Act to the contrary thereof notwithstanding And to the intent and purpose the Parliament may be certainly and clearly informed of the Premisses to the end the same may be distributed applied and imployed to and for such pious and godly uses and purposes as is intended and herein declared Be it Ordained and Enacted That the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England for the time being shall by virtue of this Act have full Power and Authority and is hereby required to award and issue forth several Commissions under the Great Seal of England into all and every the Counties and Cities within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of VVales to be directed unto such and so many persons as by the
Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled shall be nominated assigned and appointed thereby authorizing and requiring them or any five or more of them and giving them full Power and Authority by the Oaths of good and lawful men as by all other good and lawful ways and means to enquire and find out what Mannors Castles Lordships Granges Messuages Lands Tenements Meadows Leasues Pastures Woods Rents Reversions Services Parsonages appropriate Tithes Oblations Obventions Pensions Portions of Tithes Vicarages Churches Chappels Advowsons Nominations Presentations Rights of Patronage Parks Annuities and other Possessions and Hereditaments whatsoever of what nature or quality soever they be lying and being within every such County or City not hereby limited or disposed of unto His Majesty do belong or appertain unto all every or any such Arch-bishop Bishop Dean Sub-dean Dean and Chapter Arch-deacon Chaunter Chancellor Treasurer Sub-Treasurer Succentor Sacrist Prebendary Canon Canon Residentiary Petty-Canon Vicar-Choral Chorister old Vicar or new Vicar in right of their said Dignities Churches Corporations Offices or Places respectively and what and how much of the same is in possession and the true yearly Value thereof and what and how much thereof is out in Lease and for what Estate and when and how determinable and what Rents Services and other Duties are reserved and payable during such Estate and also the true yearly Value of the same as they are now worth in possession as also what Rents Pensions or other Charges or other Sums of Money are issuing due or payable out of any the Mannors Lands or Premisses and to make an exact and particular Survey thereof and to take and direct and settle such course for the safe custody and keeping of all Charters Evidences Court-Rolls and Writings whatsoever belonging unto all or any the Persons Dignities Churches Corporations Offices and Places or concerning any the Mannors Lands Tenements Hereditaments or other Premisses before mentioned as in their discretion shall be thought meet and convenient and of all and singular their doings and proceedings herein fairly written and ingross'd in Parchment to make Return and Certificate into the Court of Chancery And to this further intent and purpose that speedy care and course may be taken for providing of a competent maintenance for supply and encouragement of Preaching Ministers in the several Parishes within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of VVales Be it likewise Ordained and Enacted That the same Commissioners and Persons authorized as above-said shall have full Power and Authority by the Oaths of good and lawful men as by all other good ways and lawful means to enquire and find out the true yearly Value of all Parsonages and Vicarages presentative and all other Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Benefices and Livings unto which any Cure of Souls is annexed lying and being within such Counties and Cities and of all such particularly to enquire and certifie into the Court of Chancery what each of them are truly and really worth by the year and who are the present Incumbents or Possessors of them and what and how many Chappels belonging unto Parish-Churches are within the limits of such Counties and Cities within which they are directed and authorized to enquire and how the several Churches and Chappels are supplied by Preaching Ministers that so course may be taken for providing both for Preaching and of maintenance where the same shall be found to be needful and necessary Provided always that this Act or any thing therein contained shall not extend to any Colledge Church Corporation Foundation or House of Learning in either of the Vniversities within this Kingdom And the said Sir VVilliam Roberts Thomas Atkins Sir John VVollaston John VVarner John Towes Aldermen of the City of London John Packer and Peter Malbourne Esquires and the Survivors and Survivor of them or the greater part of them his and their Heirs and Assigns are hereby directed and authorized to give and allow unto such Officers as by them shall be thought fitting and necessary for keeping of Courts collecting of Rents Surveying of Lands and all other necessary imployments in and about the Premisses and unto the Commissioners authorized by this Act and such others as shall be necessarily imployed by them all such reasonable Fees Stipends Salaries and Sums of Money as in their discretion shall be thought just and convenient And the said Sir VVilliam Roberts Knight Thomas Atkins Sir John VVollaston John VVarner John Towes Aldermen of the City of London John Packer and Peter Malbourne Esquires the Survivors and Survivor of them his and their Heirs and Assigns of their several Receipts Imployments Actions and Proceedings shall give an accompt and be accomptable unto the Lords and Commons in Parliament or such Person or Persons as from time to time by both Houses of Parliament shall be nominated and appointed in such manner and with such Power Priviledge and Jurisdiction to hear and determine all matters concerning such Accompts as by both Houses of Parliament shall from time to time be thought necessary to be given them and not elsewhere nor otherwise Saving to all and every Person and Persons Bodies Politick and Corporate their Heirs and Successors and the Heirs and Successors of them and every of them other than such Person or Persons Bodies Politick and Corporate whose Offices Functions and Authorities are taken away and abolished by this Act as to any Estate Right Title or Interest which they or any of them claim to have or hold in right of their said Churches Dignities Functions Offices or Places and other then the Kings Majesty His Heirs and Successors as Patrons Founders or Donors and all and every other Person and Persons Bodies Politick and Corporate as may claim any thing as Patrons Founders or Donors all such Right Title Interest Possession Rents Charge-Rent Service Annuities Offices Pensions Portions Commons Fees Profits Claims and Demands either in Law or Equity whatsoever and all and singular such Leases for Years Life or Lives as were before the twentieth day of January in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty two made unto them or any of them by any the Persons or Corporations above named acccording to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm and warranted by the same and all such Leases and Estates as having been heretofore made have been established or settled by any Judgement or Decree in any of the Courts at Westminster and have been accordingly enjoyed and all Duties and Profits whatsoever which they or any of them have or may claim or of right ought to have of in to or out of any the said Mannors Lands or Premisses whatsoever or any part or parcel thereof in such sort manner form and condition to all intents constructions and purposes as if this Act had never been made MDCXLIII IV. The Articles of the late Treaty of the Date Edenburgh the 29. of November 1643. Die Mercurii 3. Januarii 1643-44 Articles of the Treaty agreed upon betwixt the Commissioners of
agreed upon and every such Person or Persons so to be named shall have the like Power and Authority Freedom and acquital to all intents and purposes and also all such Wages and Allowances for the said service during the time of his or their Attendance as to any other of the said Persons in this Ordinance is by this Ordinance limited and appointed Provided always that this Ordinance or any thing therein contained shall not give unto the Persons aforesaid or any of them nor shall they in this Assembly assume to exercise any Jurisdiction Power or Authority Ecclesiastical whatsoever or any other Power than is herein particularly expressed The Votes or Orders delivered with it Die Mercurii 5. Julii 1643. ORdered by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled That it shall be propounded to the Assembly to morrow at their meeting to take into their Consideration the Ten first Articles of the 39. Articles of the Church of England to free and vindicate the Doctrine of them from all Aspersions and false Interpretations Jovis 6. Julii 1643. Some general Rules for the Assembly directed by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled 1. THat two Assessors be joyned to the Prolocutor to supply his place in case of Absence or Infirmity 2. Two Scribes to be appointed to set down all Proceedings and these to be Divines who are not Members of the Assembly viz. Mr. Henry Robrough and Mr. Adoniram Bifield 3. Every Member at his first entrance into the Assembly shall make a serious and solemn Protestation not to maintain any thing but what he believes to be Truth and to embrace Truth in sincerity when discovered to him 4. No Resolution to be given upon any Question on the same day wherein it is first Propounded 5. What any Man undertakes to prove as necessary he shall make good out of the Scriptures 6. No Man to proceed in any dispute after the Prolocutor hath enjoyned him silence unless the Assembly desire he may go on 7. No Man to be denied to enter his Dissent from the Assembly and his Reasons for it in any point after it hath first been debated in the Assembly and thence if the dissenting Party desire it to be sent to the Houses of Parliament by the Assembly not by any particular Man or Men in a private way when either House shall require it 8. All things agreed on and prepared for the Parliament to be openly read and allowed in the Assembly and then offered as the Judgement of the Assembly if the major part assent Provided that the Opinion of any Persons dissenting and the Reasons urged for it be annexed thereunto if the Dissenters require it together with the Solution if any were given in the Assembly to those Reasons Jovis 6. Julii 1643. I A. B. do seriously and solemnly in the presence of Almighty God that in this Assembly whereof I am a Member I will not maintain any thing in matters of Doctrine but what I think in my Conscience to be Truth or in point of Discipline but what I shall conceive to conduce most to the Glory of God and the good and Peace of his Church Veneris 15. Sept. 1643. ORdered by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled That it be referred to the Assembly of Divines to set forth a Declaration of the Reasons and Grounds that have induced the Assembly to give their Opinions that this Covenant may be taken in point of Conscience Eodem Die ORdered by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled That it be referred to the Committee formerly appointed to Treat with the Scotch Commissioners to Treat with them about the manner of taking the Covenant in both Kingdoms Mercurii 22. August 1643. ORdered by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled That it be propounded to the Assembly of Divines to consider of the Doctrine of the Nine next Articles of the 39 Articles of the Church of England to clear and vindicate the same from all Aspersions and false Interpretations The Articles of the sixth of August 1642. Articles of the Treaty concerning the Reducing of the Kingdom of Ireland to the Obedience of the Kings Majesty and Crown of England agreed upon between the Commissioners for Scotland authorized by his Majesty and the Parliament of that Kingdom and the Commissioners for England authorized by his Majesty and the Parliament of that Kingdom at Westminster the sixth day of August 1642. FIrst The Scotish Commissioners out of the sense of that Duty which the Kingdom of Scotland owes to His Majesty and the true Affection they bear towards the Kingdom of England being willing to contribute their best assistance for the speedy relief of those distressed parts in Ireland which lye nearest the Kingdom of Scotland have in the name of that Kingdom made offer of ten thousand Men to be imployed in that Service and for a further Testimony of their Zeal to His Majesties Service and Brotherly respect to the Kingdom of England have declared that the Kingdom of Scotland will upon their own Charge levy and transport these Men. Secondly Because the Kingdom of Scotland are to send over with their Army the number of Six thousand Muskets and Four thousand Pikes with such Cannon and Ammunition as shall be fitting for the service it is agreed that Four thousand Muskets and Two thousand Pikes shall be presently sent by the Kingdom of England into the Kingdom of Scotland and delivered at Leith as also that the residue of the said Ten thousand Arms and Ten thousand Swords and Belts shall be delivered there at the first of August next and that as many Cannon and Field-Pieces of the same Bore Weight and Metal shall be carried into Scotland upon their demand as they shall transport into Ireland for the service of that Kingdom and that the said whole Arms and Ammunition shall remain in Scotland until the return of the Scotish Army from Ireland at which time the same shall be restored to the Kingdom of England the Kingdom of Scotland receiving satisfaction for such of their Arms and Ammunition as shall be spent or lost in the service of Ireland As also that there shall be presently sent over from England and delivered to the Scotish Army in Ireland for the defence of the Province of Vlster six pieces of Demy-Cannon of the Ball of four and twenty pound weight with their Equipage Thirdly it is agreed That there shall be two Ships of War presently sent by the Kingdom of England to Lochryan Lamalach Port-Patrick or Air to guard and waft over the Scotish Soldiers and that the said Ships shall attend at the Ports in Ireland for serving the Scotish Army in going and returning betwixt the Coasts and keeping the Passages clear as they shall receive Orders from the chief Commanders of the Scotish Army for the time being according to Instructions received or to be received by the Master of these Ships from the Lord Admiral or Commissioners of the Admiralty for the time
Obedience to Our Commands We doubt not of your care in this wherein Our Service and the good of Our Protestant Subjects in Ireland is so much concerned From Newcastle June 11. 1646. The Propositions of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for a safe and well-grounded Peace Sent to His Majesty at Newcastle by the Right Honourable the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery the Earl of Suffolk Members of the House of Peers and Sir VValter Earle Sir John Hippesly Knights Robert Goodwyn Luke Robinson Esquires Members of the House of Commons Die Sabbathi 11. Julii 1646. The Propositions of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for a safe and well-grounded Peace May it please your Majesty WE the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England in the name and on the behalf of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland in the name and on the behalf of the Kingdom of Scotland do humbly present unto Your Majesty the humble Desires and Propositions for a safe and well-grounded Peace agreed upon by the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively unto which we do pray Your Majesties Assent and that they and all such Bills as shall be tendred to Your Majesty in pursuance of them or any of them may be Established and Enacted for Statutes and Acts of Parliament by Your Majesties Royal Assent in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively I. WHereas both Houses of the Parliament of England have been necessitated to undertake a War in their just and lawful defence and afterwards both Kingdoms of England and Scotland joyned in solemn League and Covenant were engaged to prosecute the same That by Act of Parliament in each Kingdom respectively all Oaths Declarations and Proclamations heretofore had or hereafter to be had against both or either of the Houses of the Parliament of England the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland and the late Convention of Estates in Scotland or Committees flowing from the Parliament or Convention in Scotland or their Ordinances and Proceedings or against any for adhering unto them or for doing or executing any Office Place or Charge by any Authority derived from them and all Judgments Indictments Outlawries Attainders and Inquisitions in any the said Causes and all Grants thereupon made or had or to be made or had be declared null suppressed and forbidden And that this be publickly intimated in all parish-Parish-Churches within His Majesties Dominions and all other places needful II. That His Majesty according to the laudable Example of His Royal Father of happy memory may be pleased to swear and sign the late solemn League and Covenant and that an Act of Parliament be passed in both Kingdoms respectively for enjoyning the taking thereof by all the Subjects of the Three Kingdoms and the Ordinances concerning the manner of taking the same in both Kingdoms be confirmed by Acts of Parliament respectively with such Penalties as by mutual advice of both Kingdoms shall be agreed upon III. That a Bill be passed for the utter abolishing and taking away of all Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans and Sub-deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Canons and Prebendaries and all Chaunters Chancellors Treasurers Subtreasurers Succentors and Sacrists and all Vicars Choral and Choristers old Vicars and new Vicars of any Cathedral or Collegiate Church and all other their under Officers out of the Church of England and Dominion of Wales and out of the Church of Ireland with such Alterations concerning the Estates of Prelates as shall agree with the Articles of the late Treaty of the Date at Edenburg 29. November 1643. and joynt Declaration of both Kingdoms IV. That the Ordinances concerning the Calling and sitting of the Assembly of Divines be confirmed by Act of Parliament V. That Reformation of Religion according to the Covenant be settled by Act of Parliament in such manner as both Houses have agreed or shall agree upon after Consultation had with the Assembly of Divines VI. Forasmuch as both Kingdoms are mutually obliged by the same Covenant to endeavour the nearest Conjunction and Uniformity in matters of Religion that such Unity and Uniformity in Religion according to the Covenant as after Consultation had with the Divines of both Kingdoms now assembled is or shall be joyntly agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament of England and by the Church and Kingdom of Scotland be confirmed by Acts of Parliament of both Kingdoms respectively VII That for the more effectual disabling Jesuits Priests Papists and Popish Recusants from disturbing the State and deluding the Laws and for the better discovering and speedy conviction of Recusants an Oath be established by Act of Parliament to be administred to them wherein they shall abjure and renounce the Popes Supremacy the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Purgatory Worshipping of the Consecrated Host Crucifixes and Images and all other Popish Superstitions and Errors and refusing the said Oath being tendred in such manner as shall be appointed by the said Act to be a sufficient Conviction of Recusancy VIII An Act of Parliament for Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion IX An Act for the true levy of the Penalties against them which Penalties to be levied and disposed in such manner as both Houses shall agree on wherein to be provided that His Majesty shall have no loss X. That an Act be passed in Parliament whereby the practices of Papists against the State may be prevented and the Laws against them duely executed and a stricter course taken to prevent the saying or hearing of Mass in the Court or any other part of this Kingdom XI The like for the Kingdom of Scotland concerning the four last preceding Propositions in such manner as the Estates of the Parliament there shall think fit XII That the King do give His Royal Assent to an Act for the due Observation of the Lords Day And to the Bill for the suppression of Innovations in Churches and Chappels in and about the Worship of God c. And for the better advancement of the Preaching of God's holy Word in all parts of this Kingdom And to the Bill against the enjoying of Pluralities of Benefices by Spiritual Persons and Non-Residency And to an Act to be framed and agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament for the reforming and regulating of both Universities of the Colledges of Westminster Winchester and Eaton And to such Act or Acts for raising of Moneys for the payment and satisfying of the Publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom and other Publick uses as shall hereafter be agreed on by both Houses of Parliament and that if the King do not give His Assent thereunto then it being done by both Houses of Parliament the same shall be as valid to all Intents and Purposes as if the Royal Assent had been given thereunto The like for the Kingdom of Scotland And that His Majesty give assurance of His consenting in the
Peers pro tempore and William Lenthal Speaker of the House of Commons My Lord and Mr. Speaker I Have received your Letter of the second of this Month containing the Names of those who are to Treat with Me and though they do not come at the time appointed I shall not wonder at first judging it too short in respect of My two Houses not of My self so that I did not imagine it could be kept as I then commanded Sir Peter Killegrew to tell you by word of Mouth and therefore it shall be far from Me to take Exceptions for their having elapsed the appointed time for God forbid that either my two Houses or I should carp at circumstances to give the least impediment to this Treaty much less to hinder the happy finishing of it I say this the rather because I know not how it is possible in this I shall wish to be deceived that in Forty days Treaty the many Distractions of these Kingdoms can be setled and if so it were more than strange that time enough should not be given for the perfecting of this most great and good Work which as I will not believe can be stuck on by the two Houses so I am sure it shall never be by Carisbrook 7. Sept. 1648. Your good Friend CHARLES R. I think fit to tell you because I believe in this Treaty there will be need of Civil Lawyers I have sent for My Advocate Rives and D. Duck. And afterward his Majesty desired the Persons named in this Note inclosed in a Letter of one of their Commissioners Novemb. 2. to be sent to Him C. R. The Bishop of Armagh the Bishop of Excester the Bishop of Rochester the Bishop of Worcester Dr. Fern Dr. Morley The Propositions of both Houses being the same which had been presented to his Majesty at Hampton-Court and little differing from those which had been largely discussed in the former Treaties at Oxford and Uxbridg for this reason as also because neither Party did publish the particulars of this Treaty we have thought fit to represent only what is Authentick and therefore shall add only His Majesties fair Offers in order to a Peace His MAJESTIES Propositions 29. Sept. 1648. HIS Majesty did use many earnest endeavours for a Personal Treaty which he hoped might have been obtained at Westminster between Him and His two Houses of Parliament immediately yet they having made choice of this way by you their Commissioners His Majesty did gladly and chearfully accept thereof in this place as a fit means to begin a Treaty for a Peace which might put an end to His own sad Condition and the Miseries of His Kingdom For an entrance whereunto His Majesty hath already expressed His Consent to the First Proposition But finding you are limited by Instructions which you have no Warrant to communicate unto Him and having cause by your Paper of the 20. of this present to believe that you have no power to omit or alter any thing though He shall give you such Reasons as may satisfie you so to do without transmitting the Papers to the two Houses at a far distance where His Majesties Reasons Expressions and Offers upon Debate cannot be fully represented and from whence their Answers cannot be returned without much wast of the time allotted for the Treaty here and having lately received another Paper concerning the Church containing in it self many particulars of great importance and referring to divers Ordinances Articles of Religion and other things eleven or twelve in number of great length and some of them very new and never before presented to His Majesty the due consideration whereof will take up much time and require His Majesties Presence with His two Houses before a full resolution can well be had in matters of so high consequence To the end therefore that the good work now in hand may by God's blessing proceed more speedily and effectually to an happy Conclusion and that His two Houses of Parliament may at present have further security and an earnest of future satisfaction His Majesty upon consideration had of yours makes these Propositions following Concerning the Church His Majesty will consent That the Calling and sitting of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster be confirmed for three years by Act of Parliament And will by Act of Parliament confirm for Three years the Directory for the Publick worship of God in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales And will likewise confirm for Three years by Act of Parliament the form of Church-Government which ye have presented to Him to be used for the Churches of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales Provided that His Majesty and those of His Judgement or any others who cannot in Conscience submit thereunto be not in the mean time obliged to comply with the same Government or form of Worship but have free practice of their own profession And that a free Consultation and debate be had with the Assembly of Divines at Westminster in the mean time Twenty of His Majesties Nomination being added unto them whereby it may be determined by His Majesty and His two Houses of Parliament how the said Church-Government and form of Publick Worship after the said time may be setled or sooner if Differences may be agreed and how also Reformation of Religion may be setled within the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales And the Articles of Christian Religion now delivered to Him may in like manner be then considered of and determined and care taken for the ease of tender Consciences And concerning the Bishops Lands and Revenues His Majesty considering that during these troublesome times divers of His Subjects have made Contracts and Purchases and divers have disbursed great Sums of Money upon security and engagement of those Lands His Majesty for their satisfaction will consent to an Act or Acts of Parliament whereby legal Estates for Lives or for Years at their choice not exceeding ninety nine years shall be made of those Lands towards the satisfaction of the said Purchasers Contractors and others to whom they are engaged at the old Rents or some other moderate Rent whereby they may receive satisfaction And in case such Lease shall not satisfie His Majesty will propound and consent to some other way for their further satisfaction Provided that the Propriety and Inheritance of those Lands may still remain and continue to the Church and Church-men respectively according to the pious intentions of the Donors and Founders thereof And the rest that shall be reserved to be for their maintenance His Majesty will give His Royal Assent for the better observation of the Lords day for suppressing of Innovations in Churches and Chappels in and about the Worship of God and for the better advancement of the Preaching of God's Holy Word in all parts of this Kingdom and to an Act against enjoying Pluralities of Benefices by Spiritual Persons and Non-residency and to an Act for Regulating and
such others as they shall authorise for that purpose If it shall be more satisfactory to His two Houses to have the Militia and Powers thereupon depending during the whole time of His Majesties Reign rather than for the space of ten years His Majesty gives them the Election Touching Ireland His Majesty having in the two preceding Propositions given His Consent concerning the Church and the Militia there in all things as in England as to all other matters relating to that Kingdom after advice with His two Houses He will leave it to their determination and give His Consent accordingly as is herein hereafter expressed Touching Publick Debts His Majesty will give His Consent to such an Act for raising of Monies by general and equal Taxations for the payment and satisfying the Arrears of the Army Publick Debts and Engagements of the Kingdom as shall be agreed on by both Houses of Parliament and shall be audited and ascertained by them or such persons as they shall appoint within the space of twelve Months after the passing of an Act for the same His Majesty will Consent to an Act that during the said space of ten years the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper Commissioners of the Great Seal or Treasury Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports Chancellor of Exchequer and Dutchy Secretaries of State Master of the Rolles and Judges of both Benches and Barons of the Exchequer of England be nominated by both Houses of the Parliament of England to continue quamdiu se bene gesserint and in the intervals of Parliament by such others as they shall authorise for that purpose His Majesty will Consent That the Militia of the City of London and Liberties thereof during the space of ten years may be in the Ordering and Government of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons in the Common-Councel assembled or such as they shall from time to time appoint whereof the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs for the time being to be three to be imployed and directed from time to time during the said space of ten years in such manner as shall be agreed upon and appointed by both Houses of Parliament And that no Citizen of the City of London nor any of the Officers of the said City shall be drawn forth or compelled to go out of the said City or Liberties thereof for Military service without their own free consent That an Act be passed for granting and confirming the Charters Customes Liberties and Franchises of the City of London notwithstanding any Nonuser Misuser or Abuser And that during the said ten years the Tower of London may be in the Government of the City of London and the Chief Officer and Governor from time to time during the said space to be nominated and removable by the Common-Council as are desired in your Propositions His Majesty having thus far expressed His Consent for the present satisfaction and security of His two Houses of Parliament and those that have adhered unto them touching your four first Propositions and other the particulars before specified as to all the rest of your Propositions delivered to Him at Hampton-Court not referring to those Heads and to that of the Court of Wards since delivered as also to the remaining Propositions concerning Ireland His Majesty desires only when He shall come to Westminster Personally to advise with His two Houses and to deliver His Opinion and the reasons of it which being done He will leave the whole matter of those remaining Propositions to the determination of His two Houses which shall prevail with Him for his Consent accordingly And His Majesty doth for His own particular only propose that He may have Liberty to repair forthwith to Westminster and be restored to a condition of absolute Freedom and Safety a thing which He shall never deny to any of His Subjects and to the possession of His Lands and Revenues and that an Act of Oblivion and Indemnity may pass to extend to all persons for all matters relating to the late unhappy Differences Which being agreed by His two Houses of Parliament His Majesty will be ready to make these His Concessions binding by giving them the force of Laws by His Royal Assent Votes concerning His MAJESTIES Propositions and Concessions Die Lunae Octobr. 2. 1648. Resolved by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled THat they are not satisfied in the Propositions made by His Majesty in His Letter And that a Letter be sent to the Commissioners in the Isle of Wight to acquaint them that the Houses do well approve of their proceedings and do give them thanks for their great care and pains in managing of this important and weighty business requiring them still to proceed and act punctually according to their Instructions But upon further Debate in the Treaty some things being yet further cleared and more fully granted by His Majesty out of His earnest desire of Peace they at last came so near to an Agreement that the Lower House after long consultation passed the following Vote Die Martis 5. Decembr 1648. Resolved upon the Question That the Answers of the King to the Propositions of both Houses are a Ground for the House to proceed upon for the Settlement of the Peace of the Kingdom The Chief Heads of the Remonstrance of the Army presented to the House of Commons Nov. 20. MDCXLVII To the Right Honourable the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament The humble Remonstrance of his Excellency the Lord General Fairfax and his General Council of Officers held at St. Albans Thursday the 16. of Novemb. 1648. The Remonstrance it self being very long and serving only to introduce their Propositions in the end we have thought fit to represent only the Propositions themselves as they are contracted in their own Abridgment FIrst That the Capital and grand Author of our Troubles the Person of the King by whose procurement and for whose Interest only of will and power all our Wars have been may be brought to Justice for the Treason Blood and Mischief he is therein guilty of Secondly That a timely day may be set for the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York to come in by which time if they do not that then they may be immediately declared incapable of any Government or Trust in this Kingdom or its Dominions and thence to stand exil'd for ever as Enemies and Traitors to dye without mercy if ever after found and taken therein Or if by the time limited they do render themselves that then the Prince be proceeded with as on his appearance he shall give satisfaction or not and the Duke as he shall give satisfaction may be considered as to future Trust or not But however that the Revenue of the Crown saving necessary allowances for the Children and for Servants and Creditors to the Crown be sequestred and the costly Pomp suspended for a good number of years and that this Revenue be for that time disposed toward publick Charges Debts and Damages for the easing of the
the Church of England as well by their personal Subscriptions as otherwise so attested and declared and which Himself in His Judgment and Conscience hath for so many years been and yet is perswaded to be at least of Apostolical Institution and Practice Truly His Majesty cannot but wonder what should be the reason of your great shiness and unwillingness to discover your minds in a matter of so great and necessary consequence and for a final conclusion of this whole Dispute which His Majesty thinketh fit to shut up with this Paper He must plainly tell you That your endeavours to have given Him satisfaction in the Questions proposed would have added much in His opinion to the reputation of your Ingenuity in the whole undertaking it being not probable you should work much upon His Judgment whilst you are fearful to declare your own nor possible to relieve His Conscience but by a free discharge of yours Nevertheless His Majesty liketh well of your Prayer in the close of your Paper and thinketh you should do very well to joyn therewith your utmost possible endeavours towards the settling of Truth and a happy Peace in this unsettled Church and Kingdom THE END ΕΙΚΩΠΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ THE POURTRAICTURE OF HIS SACRED MAJESTY IN HIS SOLITUDES and SUFFERINGS I. Vpon His MAJESTIES Calling this last PARLIAMENT THIS last Parliament I called not more by others advice and necessity of my Affairs than by my own choice and inclination who have always thought the right way of Parliaments most safe for my Crown as best pleasing to my People And altho I was not forgetful of those sparks which some mens distempers formerly studied to kindle in Parliaments which by forbearing to convene for some years I hoped to have extinguished yet resolving with My self to give all just satisfaction to modest and sober desires and to redress all publick Grievances in Church and State I hoped by my freedom and their moderation to prevent all misunderstandings and miscarriages in this In which as I feared affairs would meet with some Passion and Prejudice in other men so I resolved they should find least of them in My self not doubting but by the weight of Reason I should counterpoise the over-balancings of any Factions I was inded sorry to hear with what Partiality and Popular heat Elections were carried in many places yet hoping that the Gravity and Discretion of other Gentlemen would allay and fix the Commons to a due temperament guiding some mens well-meaning zeal by such rules of moderation as are best both to preserve and restore the health of all States and Kingdoms no man was better pleased with the convening of this Parliament than My self who knowing best the Largeness of my own Heart toward my Peoples good and just contentment pleased My self most in that good and firm understanding which would hence grow between Me and my People All Jealousies being laid aside My own and My Childrens Interests gave Me many obligations to seek and preserve the Love and welfare of my Subjects the only temporal Blessing that is left to the ambition of just Monarchs as their greatest Honour and Safety next Gods Protection I cared not to lessen My self in some things of my wonted Prerogative since I knew I could be no loser if I might gain but a recompence in my Subjects Affections I intended not only to oblige my Friends but mine Enemies also exceeding even the desires of those that were factiously discontented if they did but pretend to any modest and sober sense The Odium and offences which some mens Rigor or Remisness in Church and State had contracted upon my Government I resolved to have expiated by such Laws and regulations for the future as might not only rectify what was amiss in Practice but supply what was defective in the Constitution No man having a greater zeal to see Religion setled and preserved in Truth Unity and Order than My self whom it most concerns both in Piety and Policy as knowing that No flames of civil Dissentions are more dangerous than those which make Religious pretensions the grounds of Factions I resolved to reform what I should by free and full advice in Parliament be oonvinced of to be amiss and to grant whatever my Reason and Conscience told Me was fit to be desired I wish I had kept My self within those bounds and not suffered my own Judgment to have been overborn in some things more by others importunities than their Arguments My confidence had less betrayed My self and my Kingdomes to those advantages which some men sought for who wanted nothing but Power and Occasions to do mischief But our Sins being ripe there was no preventing of Gods Justice from reaping that Glory in our Calamities which we robb'd him of in our Prosperity For Thou O Lord hast made us see that Resolutions of future Reforming do not always satisfie thy Justice nor prevent thy Vengeance for former miscarriages Our Sins have overlaid our Hopes Thou hast taught us to depend on thy Mercies to forgive not on our purpose to amend When Thou hast vindicated thy Glory by thy Judgments and hast shewed us how unsafe it is to offend Thee upon presumptions afterwards to please Thee then I trust thy Mercies will restore those Blessings to us which we have so much abused as to force Thee to deprive us of them For want of timely Repentance of our sins Thou givest us cause to repent of those remedies we too late apply Yet I do not repent of my calling this last Parliament because O Lord I did it with an upright intention to thy Glory and my peoples good The Miseries which have ensued upon Me and My Kingdoms are the just effects of thy displeasure upon us and may be yet through thy mercy preparative of us to future Blessings and better hearts to enjoy them O Lord tho Thou hast deprived us of many former comforts yet grant Me and My people the benefit of our afflictions and thy chastisements that thy rod as well as thy staff may comfort us Then shall we dare to account them the strokes not of an Enemy but a Father when thou givest us those humble affections that measure of Patience in Repentance which becomes thy Children I shall have no cause to repent the Miseries this Parliament hath occasioned when by them thou hast brought Me and My people unfeignedly to repent of the Sins we have committed Thy Grace is infinitely better with our Sufferings than our Peace could be with our Sins O thou soveraign Goodness and Wisdom who over-rulest all our Counsels over-rule also all our hearts That the worse things we suffer by thy Justice the better we may be by thy Mercy As our Sins have turned our Antidotes into poyson so let thy Grace turn our poysons into Antidotes As the Sins of our Peace disposed us to this unhappy War so let this War prepare us for thy blessed Peace That although I have but troublesom Kingdoms here yet I may
learned to thirst the more by how much the more they drank whom no fountain of Royal Bounty was able to overcome so resolved they seemed either utterly to exhaust it or barbarously to obstruct it Sure it ceases to be Counsel when not Reason is used as to men to perswade but Force and Terror as to beasts to drive and compel men to assent to whatever tumultuary Patrons shall project He deserves to be a Slave without pity or redemption that is content to have the Rational soveraignty of his Soul and liberty of his Will and Words so captivated Nor do I think my Kingdoms so considerable as to preserve them with the forfeiture of that Freedom which cannot be denied Me as a King because it belongs to Me as a Man and a Christian owning the dictates of none but God to be above Me as obliging Me to consent Better for Me to die enjoying this Empire of my Soul which subjects Me only to God so far as by Reason or Religion he directs Me than live with the Title of a King if it should carry such a vassalage with it as not to suffer Me to use My Reason and Conscience in which I declare as a King to like or dislike So far am I from thinking the Majesty of the Crown of England to be bound by any Coronation-Oath in a blind and brutish formality to consent to whatever its Subjects in Parliament shall require as some men will needs infer while denying me any power of a Negative voice as King they are not ashamed to seek to deprive Me of the liberty of using My Reason with a good Conscience which themselves and all the Commons of England enjoy proportionable to their influence on the publick who would take it very ill to be urged not to deny whatever My self as King or the House of Peers with Me should not so much desire as enjoyn them to pass I think My Oath fully discharged in that point by my Governing only by such Laws as My People with the House of Peers have chosen and My self consented to I shall never think My self conscientiously tied to go as oft against My Conscience as I should consent to such new Proposals which My reason in Justice Honour and Religion bids Me deny Yet so tender I see some men are of their being subject to Arbitrary Government that is the Law of anothers will to which themselves give no consent that they care not with how much dishonour and absurdity they make their King the only man that must be subject to the will of others without having power left him to use his own Reason either in Person or by any Representation And if my dissentings at any time were as some have suspected and uncharitably avowed out of Error Opinionativeness Weakness or Wilfulness and what they call Obstinacy in Me which not true Judgment of things but some vehement Prejudice or Passion hath fixed on My Mind yet can no man think it other than the badg and method of Slavery by savage Rudeness and importunate obtrusions of Violence to have the mist of his Error and Passion dispelled which is a shadow of Reason and must serve those that are destitute of the substance Sure that man cannot be blameable to God or Man who seriously endeavours to see the best reason of things and faithfully follows what he takes for Reason The uprightness of his Intentions will excuse the possible failings of his Understanding If a Pilot at Sea cannot see the Pole-star it can be no fault in him to steer his course by such Stars as do best appear to him It argues rather those men to be conscious of their defects of Reason and convincing Arguments who call in the assistance of mere force to carry on the weakness of their Counsels and Proposals I may in the truth and uprightness of my Heart protest before God and Men that I never wilfully opposed or denied any thing that was in a fair way after full and free debates propounded to Me by the Two Houses further than I thought in good Reason I might and was bound to do Nor did any thing ever please Me more than when My Judgment so concurred with theirs that I might with good Conscience consent to them yea in many things where not absolute and moral necessity of Reason but temporary convenience on point of Honour was to be considered I chose rather to deny My self than them as preferring that which they thought necessary for My Peoples good before what I saw but convenient for My self For I can be content to recede much from My own Interests and Personal Rights of which I conceive My self to be Master but in what concerns Truth Justice the Rights of the Church and my Crown together with the general good of my Kingdoms all which I am bound to preserve as much as morally lies in Me here I am and ever shall be fixt and resolute nor shall any man gain my consent to that wherein my Heart gives my Tongue or Hand the Lye nor will I be brought to affirm that to Men which in my Conscience I denied before God I will rather chuse to wear a Crown of Thorns with My Saviour than to exchange that of Gold which is due to Me for one of Lead whose embased flexibleness shall be forced to bend and comply to the various and oft contrary dictates of any Factions when in stead of Reason and Publick Concernments they obtrude nothing but what makes for the interest of Parties and flows from the partialities of private Wills and Passions I know no resolutions more worthy a Christian King than to prefer his Conscience before his Kingdoms O my God preserve thy Servant in this Native Rational and Religious Freedom for this I believe is thy will that we should maintain who though Thou dost justly require us to submit our Vnderstandings and Wills to thine whose Wisdom and Goodness can neither err nor misguide us and so far to deny our carnal Reason in order to thy Sacred Mysteries and Commands that we should believe and obey rather than dispute them yet dost Thou expect from us only such a reasonable Service of Thee as not to do any thing for Thee against our Consciences and as to the desires of men enjoinest us to try all things by the touch-stone of Reason and Laws which are the Rules of Civil Justice and to declare our Consents to that only which our Judgments approve Thou knowest O Lord how unwilling I was to desert that place in which Thou hast set Me and whereto the Affairs of My Kingdoms at present do call Me. My People can witness how far I have been content for their good to deny My self in what Thou hast subjected to My disposal O let not the unthankful importunities and Tumultuary Violence of some mens Immoderate demands ever betray Me to that dangerous and unmanly slavery which should make Me strengthen them by my Consent in those things which I
noise of my Evil Counsellors was another useful device for those who were impatient any mens counsels but their own should be followed in Church or State who were so eager in giving Me better counsel that they would not give Me leave to take it with Freedom as a Man or Honour as a King making their counsels more like a Drench that must be poured down than a Draught which might be fairly and leisurely drank if I liked it I will not justifie beyond humane errors and frailties My self or my Counsellors They might be subject to some Miscarriages yet such as were far more reparable by second and better thoughts than those enormous Extravagances wherewith some men have now even wildred and almost quite lost both Church and State The event of things at last will make it evident to my Subjects that had I followed the worst counsels that My worst Counsellors ever had the boldness to offer to Me or My self any inclination to use I could not so soon have brought both Church and State in Three flourishing Kingdoms to such a Chaos of Confusions and Hell of Miseries as some have done out of which they cannot or will not in the midst of their many great advantages redeem either Me or my Subjects No men were more willing to complain than I was to redress what I saw in Reason was either done or advised amiss and this I thought I had done even beyond the expectation of moderate men who were sorry to see Me prone even to injure My self out of a Zeal to relieve my Subjects But other mens insatiable desire of Revenge upon Me My Court and My Clergy hath wholly beguiled both Church and State of the benefit of all my either Retractations or Concessions and withal hath deprived all those now so zealous Persecutors both of the comfort and reward of their former pretended Persecutions wherein they so much gloried among the Vulgar and which indeed a truly-humble Christian will so highly prize as rather not to be relieved than be revenged so as to be bereaved of that Crown of Christian Patience which attends humble and injured Sufferers Another artifice used to withdraw My Peoples Affections from Me to their designs was The noise and ostentation of Liberty which men are not more prone to desire than unapt to bear in the Popular sense which is to do what every man liketh best If the divinest Liberty be to will what men should and to do what they so will according to Reason Laws and Religion I envy not my Subjects that Liberty which is all I desire to enjoy My self so far am I from the desire of oppressing theirs Nor were those Lords and Gentlemen which assisted Me so prodigal of their Liberties as with their Lives and Fortunes to help on the enslaving of Themselves and their Posterities As to Civil Immunities none but such as desire to drive on their Ambitious and Covetous Designs over the Ruines of Church and State Prince Peers and People will ever desire greater Freedoms than the Laws allow whose bounds good men count their Ornament and Protection others their Manacles and Oppression Nor is it just any man should expect the Reward and Benefit of the Law who despiseth its Rule and Direction losing justly his Safety while he seeks an unreasonable Liberty Time will best inform my Subjects that those are the best preservers of their true Liberties who allow themselves the least licentiousness against or beyond the Laws They will feel it at last to their cost that it is impossible those men should be really tender of their fellow-Subjects Liberties who have the hardiness to use their King with so severe restraints against all Laws both Divine and Humane under which yet I will rather perish than complain to those who want nothing to compleat their mirth and Triumph but such Musick In point of true Conscientious Tenderness attended with Humility and Meekness not with proud and arrogant activity which seeks to hatch every egg of different opinion to a Faction or Schism I have oft declared how little I desire my Laws and Scepter should intrench on Gods Soveraignty which is the only King of mens Consciences and yet He hath laid such restraints upon men as commands them to be subject for Conscience sake giving no men liberty to break the Law established further than with Meekness and Patience they are content to suffer the Penalties annexed rather than perturb the publick Peace The truth is some mens thirst after Novelties others despair to relieve the necessities of their Fortunes or satisfie their Ambition in Peaceable times distrusting Gods Providence as well as their own Merits were the secret but principal impulsives to these Popular Commotions by which Subjects have been perswaded to expend much of those plentiful Estates they got and enjoyed under My Government in peaceable times which yet must now be blasted with all the odious Reproaches which impotent Malice can invent and My self exposed to all those Contempts which may most diminish the Majesty of a King and encrease the ungrateful insolences of my People For mine Honour I am well assured that as mine Innocency is clear before God in point of any Calumnies they object so My Reputation shall like the Sun after Owls and Bats have had their freedom in the night and darker times rise and recover it self to such a degree of splendor as those feral Birds shall be grieved to behold and unable to bear For never were any Princes more glorious than those whom God hath suffer'd to be tried in the furnace of Afflictions by their injurious Subjects And who knows but the just and merciful God will do Me good for some mens hard false and evil speeches against Me Wherein they speak rather what they wish than what they believe or know Nor can I suffer so much in point of Honour by those rude and scandalous Pamphlets which like fire in great Conflagrations flie up and down to set all places on like flames as those men do who pretending to so much Piety are so forgetful of their duty to God and Me by no way ever vindicating the Majesty of their KING against any of those who contrary to the precept of God and precedent of Angels speak evil of dignities and bring railing accusations against those who are honoured with the name of Gods But 't is no wonder if men not fearing GOD should not Honour their KING They will easily contemn such shadows of God who reverence not that Supreme and adorable Majesty in comparison of whom all the Glory of Men and Angels is but obscurity yet hath he graven such Characters of Divine Authority and Sacred power upon Kings as none may without sin seek to blot them out Nor shall their black veils be able to hide the shining of My face while God gives Me a heart frequently and humbly to converse with him from whom alone are all the irradiations of true Glory and Majesty Thou O Lord knowest
Images they should form and set up If there had been as much of Christs Spirit for Meekness Wisdom and Charity in mens hearts as there was of his Name used in the pretensions to reform all to Christs Rule it would certainly have obtained more of God's Blessing and produced more of Christs Glory the Churches good the Honour of Religion and the Unity of Christians Publick Reformers had need first act in private and practise that on their own hearts which they purpose to try on others for Deformities within will soon betray the Pretenders of publick Reformation to such private Designs as must needs hinder the publick good I am sure the right methods of Reforming the Church cannot consist with that of perturbing the Civil State nor can Religion be justly advanced by depressing Loyalty which is one of the chiefest Ingredients and Ornaments of true Religion for next to Fear God is Honour the King I doubt not but Christs Kingdom may be set up without pulling down Mine nor will any men in impartial times appear good Christians that approve not themselves good Subjects Christ's Government will confirm Mine not overthrow it since as I own Mine from Him so I desire to Rule for his Glory and his Churches good Had some men truly intended Christ's Government or knew what it meant in their hearts they could never have been so ill governed in their words and actions both against Me and one another As good Ends cannot justifie evil Means so nor will evil Beginnings ever bring forth good Conclusions unless God by a miracle of Mercy create Light out of Darkness Order out of our Confusions and Peace out of our Passions Thou O Lord who only canst give us beauty for ashes and Truth for Hypocrisie suffer us not to be miserably deluded with Pharisaical washings in stead of Christian Reformings Our greatest Deformities are within make us the severest Censurers and first Reformers of our own Souls That we may in clearness of Judgment and Vprightness of heart be a means to reform what is indeed amiss in Church and State Create in us clean hearts O Lord and renew right spirits within-us that we may do all by thy directions to thy Glory and with thy Blessing Pity the Deformities which some rash and cruel Reformers have brought upon this Church and State quench the fires which Factions have kindled under the pretence of Reforming As thou hast shewed the world by their Divisions and Confusions what is the pravity of some mens Intentions and weakness of their Judgments so bring us at last more refined out of these fires by the methods of Christian and charitable Reformations wherein nothing of Ambition Revenge Covetousness or Sacrilege may have any influence upon their counsels whom thy Providence in just and lawful ways shall entrnst with so great good and now most necessary a work That I and My People may be so blest with inward Piety as may best teach us how to use the Blessing of outward Peace XXI Vpon His MAJESTIES Letters taken and divulged THE taking of My Letters was an opportunity which as the malice of Mine Enemies could hardly have expected so they knew not how with honour and civility to use it Nor do I think with sober and worthy minds any thing in them could tend so much to My Reproach as the odious divulging of them did to the infamy of the Divulgers The greatest experiments of Virtue and Nobleness being discovered in the greatest advantages against an Enemy and the greatest Obligations being those which are put upon us by them from whom we could least have expected them And such I should have esteemed the concealing of My Papers The freedom and secrecy of which commands a Civility from all men not wholly barbarous nor is there any thing more inhumane than to expose them to publick view Yet since Providence will have it so I am content so much of My Heart which I study to approve to Gods Omniscience should be discovered to the world without any of those dresses or popular captations which some men use in their Speeches and Expresses I wish my Subjects had yet a clearer sight into My most retired Thoughts Where they might discover how they are divided between the Love and Care I have not more to preserve My own Rights than to procure their Peace and Happiness and that extreme Grief to see them both deceived and destroyed Nor can any mens Malice be gratified further by My Letters than to see My Constancy to my Wife the Laws and Religion Bees will gather Honey where the Spider sucks Poyson That I endeavour to avoid the pressures of my Enemies by all fair and just Correspondencies no man can blame who loves Me or the Commonwealth since My Subjects can hardly be happy if I be miserable or enjoy their Peace and Liberty while I am oppressed The World may see how some Mens design like Absolom's is by enormous Actions to widen differences and exasperate all Sides to such distances as may make all Reconciliation desperate Yet I thank God I can not only with Patience bear this as other Indignities but with Charity forgive them The Integrity of My Intentions is not jealous of any injury My Expressions can do them for although the confidence of Privacy may admit greater freedom in Writing such Letters which may be liable to envious exceptions yet the Innocency of My chief Purposes cannot be so stained or mis-interpreted by them as not to let all men see that I wish nothing more than an happy composure of Differences with Justice and Honour not more to My own than My Peoples content who have any sparks of Love or Loyalty left in them who by those My Letters may be convinced that I can both mind and act My own and My Kingdoms Affairs so as becomes a Prince which Mine Enemies have always been very loth should be believed of Me as if I were wholly confined to the Dictates and Directions of others whom they please to brand with the name of Evil Counsellors It 's probable some men will now look upon Me as My own Counsellor and having none else to quarrel with under that notion they will hereafter confine their anger to My self Altho I know they are very unwilling I should enjoy the liberty of My own Thoughts or follow the light of My own Conscience which they labour to bring into an absolute captivity to themselves not allowing Me to think their Counsels to be other than good for Me which have so long maintained a War against Me. The Victory they obtained that day when My Letters became their prize had been enough to have satiated the most ambitious thirst of Popular glory among the Vulgar with whom Prosperity gains the greatest esteem and applause as Adversity exposeth to their greatest slighting and disrespect As if good fortune were always the shadow of Virtue and Justice and did not oftner attend Vicious and Injurious actions as to this world But
great offence of enacting any thing against my Conscience and especially from consenting to Sacrilegious Rapines and spoilings of thy Church If Thou wilt restore Me to a capacity to glorifie Thee in doing good both to the Church and State Then shall my Soul praise Thee and magnifie thy Name before my People Then shall thy Glory be dearer to Me than my Crowns and the advancement of true Religion both in purity and power be my chiefest care Then will I rule My People with Justice and My Kingdoms with Equity To thy more immediate hand shall I ever owe as the rightful Succession so the merciful Restauration of My Kingdoms and the glory of them If Thou wilt bring Me again with Peace Safety and Honour to my chiefest City and My Parliament If Thou wilt again put the Sword of Justice into My hand to punish and protect Then will I make all the world to see and my very Enemies to enjoy the benefit of this Vow and Resolution of Christian Charity which I now make unto Thee O Lord. As I do freely pardon for Christ's sake those that have offended Me in any kind so my hand shall never be against any man to revenge what is past in regard of any particular injury done to Me. We have been mutually punished in our unnatural Divisions for thy sake O Lord and for the love of my Redeemer have I purposed this in my heart That I will use all means in the ways of Amnestie and Indemnity which may most fully remove all Fears and bury all Jealousies in forgetfulness Let thy Mercies be toward Me and Mine as my resolutions of Truth and Peace are toward my People Hear my Prayer O Lord which goeth not out of feigned lips Blessed be God who hath not turned away my Prayer nor taken his Mercy from Me. O my Soul commit thy way to the Lord trust in him and he shall bring it to pass But if Thou wilt not restore Me and Mine what am I that I should charge Thee foolishly Thou O Lord hast given and thou hast taken Blessed be thy Name May my People and thy Church be happy if not by Me yet without Me. XXVI Vpon the Armies Surprizal of the KING at Holdenby and the ensuing Distractions in the Two Houses the Army and the City WHat part God will have Me now to act or suffer in this new and strange scene of affairs I am not much solicitous some little practice will serve that man who only seeks to represent a part of Honesty and Honour This surprize of Me tells the world that a KING cannot be so low but he is considerable adding weight to that Party where he appears This motion like others of the Times seems eccentrick and irregular yet not well to be resisted or quieted Better swim down such a stream than in vain to strive against it These are but the struglings of those Twins which lately one Womb enclosed the younger striving to prevail against the elder what the Presbyterians have hunted after the Independents now seek to catch for themselves So impossible is to for lines to be drawn from the Center and not to divide from each other so much the wider by how much they go farther from the point of union That the Builders of Babel should from Division fall fall to Confusion is no wonder but for those that pretend to build Jerusalem to divide their tongues and hands is but an ill omen and sounds too like the fury of those Zealots whose intestine bitterness and divisions were the greatest occasion of the last fatal destruction of that City Well may I change My Keepers and Prison but not my captive Condition only with this hope of bettering that those who are so much professed Patrons for the Peoples Liberties cannot be utterly against the Liberty of their KING What they demand for their own Consciences they cannot in reason deny to Mine In this they seem more ingenuous than the Presbyterian Rigor who sometimes complaining of exacting their conformity to Laws are become the greatest Exactors of other mens submission to their novel injunctions before they are stamped with the Authority of Laws which they cannot well have without My Consent 'T is a great argument that the Independents think themselves manumitted from their Rivals service in that they carry on a business of such consequence as the assuming My Person into the Armies custody without any Commission but that of their own Will and Power Such as will thus adventure on a KING must not be thought over-modest or timorous to carry on any design they have a mind to Their next motion menaces and scares both the Two Houses and the City which soon after acting over again that former part of tumultuary motions never questioned punished or repented must now suffer for both and see their former Sin in the glass of the present Terrors and Distractions No man is so blind as not to see herein the hand of Divine Justice they that by Tumults first occasioned the raising of Armies must now be chastened by their own Army for new Tumults So hardly can men be content with one sin but add sin to sin till the latter punish the former Such as were content to see Me and many Members of both Houses driven away by the first unsuppressed Tumults are now forced to fly to an Army or defend themselves against them But who can unfold the riddle of some mens Justice The Members of both Houses who at first withdrew as My self was forced to do from the rudeness of the Tumults were counted Desertors and outed of their Places in Parliament such as stayed then and enjoyed the benefit of the Tumults were asserted for the only Parliament-men Now the Fliers from and Forsakers of their Places carry the Parliamentary power along with them complain highly against the Tumults and vindicate themselves by an Army such as remained and kept their stations are looked upon as Abettors of tumultuary insolencies and betrayers of the freedom and honour of Parliament Thus is Power above all Rule Order and Law where men look more to present Advantages than their Consciences and the unchangeable rules of Justice while they are Judges of others they are forced to condemn themselves Now the Plea against Tumults holds good the Authors and Abettors of them are guilty of prodigious Insolencies whenas before they were counted as Friends and necessary Assistants I see Vengeance pursues and overtakes as the Mice and Rats are said to have done a Bishop in Germany them that thought to have escaped and fortified themselves most impregnably against it both by their Multitude and Compliance Whom the Laws cannot God will punish by their own Crimes and hands I cannot but observe this Divine Justice yet with sorrow and pity for I always wished so well to Parliament and City that I was sorry to see them do or suffer any thing unworthy such great and considerable Bodies in this Kingdom I was glad to
by the unparallel'd prosperity of Solomon's Court and so corrupted to the great diminution both for Peace Honour and Kingdom by those Flatteries which are as unseparable from prosperous Princes as Flies are from Fruit in Summer whom Adversity like cold weather drives away I had rather You should be Charles le Bon than le Grand Good than Great I hope God hath designed You to be both having so early put You into that exercise of his Graces and Gifts bestowed upon You which may best weed out all vicious inclinations and dispose You to those Princely Endowments and Employments which will most gain the love and intend the welfare of those over whom God shall place You. With God I would have You begin and end who is King of Kings the Soveraign Disposer of the Kingdoms of the world who pulleth down one and setteth up another The best Government and highest Soveraignty You can attain to is to be subject to Him that the Scepter of his Word and Spirit may rule in your Heart The true Glory of Princes consists in advancing God's Glory in the maintenance of true Religion and the Churches good also in the dispensation of Civil Power with Justice and Honour to the publick Peace Piety will make You prosperous at least it will keep You from being miserable nor is he much a loser that loseth all yet saveth his own Soul at last To which center of true Happiness God I trust hath and will graciously direct all these black lines of Affliction which he hath been pleased to draw on Me and by which he hath I hope drawn Me nearer to Himself You have already tasted of that Cup whereof I have liberally drank which I look upon as God's Physick having that in Healthfulness which it wants in Pleasure Above all I would have You as I hope You are already well grounded and setled in your Religion the best Profession of which I have ever esteemed that of the Church of England in which You have been educated Yet I would have your own Judgment and Reason now seal to that sacred Bond which Education hath written that it may be judiciously your own Religion and not other mens Custom or Tradition which You profess In this I charge You to persevere as coming nearest to God's Word for Doctrine and to the Primitive examples for Government with some little Amendment which I have other-where expressed and often offered tho in vain Your fixation in matters of Religion will not be more necessary for your Souls than your Kingdoms Peace when God shall bring You to them For I have observed that the Devil of Rebellion doth commonly turn himself into an Angel of Reformation and the old Serpent can pretend new Lights When some mens Consciences accuse them for Sedition and Faction they stop its mouth with the name and noise of Religion when Piety pleads for Peace and Patience they cry out Zeal So that unless in this point You be well setled You shall never want temptations to destroy You and Yours under pretensions of Reforming matters of Religion for that seems even to worst men as the best and most auspicious beginning of their worst Designs Where besides the Novelty which is taking enough with the Vulgar every one hath an affectation by seeming forward to an outward Reformation of Religion to be thought Zealous hoping to cover those Irreligious deformities whereto they are conscious by a severity of censuring other mens opinions or actions Take heed of abetting any Factions or applying to any publick Discriminations in matters of Religion contrary to what is in your Judgment and the Church well setled Your partial adhering as Head to any one side gains You not so great advantages in some men hearts who are prone to be of their King's Religion as it loseth You in others who think themselves and their profession first despised then persecuted by You. Take such a course as may either with Calmness and Charity quite remove the seeming differences and offences by impartiality or so order affairs in point of Power that You shall not need to fear or flatter any Faction For if ever You stand in need of them or must stand to their courtesie You are undone The Serpent will devour the Dove You may never expect less of Loyalty Justice or Humanity than from those who engage into Religious Rebellion Their Interest is always made God's under the colours of Piety ambitious Policies march not only with greatest security but applause as to the populacy You may hear from them Jacob's voice but You shall feel they have Esau's hands Nothing seemed less considerable than the Presbyterian Faction in England for many years so compliant they were to publick Order nor indeed was their Party great either in Church or State as to mens Judgments But as soon as Discontents drave men into Sidings as ill Humors fall to the disaffected part which causes Inflammations so did all at first who affected any Novelties adhere to that Side as the most remarkable and specious note of difference then in point of Religion All the lesser Factions at first were officious Servants to Presbytery their great Master till Time and Military success discovering to each their peculiar Advantages invited them to part stakes and leaving the joynt stock of Uniform Religion pretended each to drive for their Party the trade of Profits and Preferments to the breaking and undoing not only of the Church and State but even of Presbytery it self which seemed and hoped at first to have ingrossed all Let nothing seem little or despicable to You in matters which concern Religion and the Churches Peace so as to neglect a speedy reforming and effectual suppressing Errors and Schisms which seem at first but as a hand-breadth yet by Seditious Spirits as by strong winds are soon made to cover and darken the whole Heaven When You have done Justice to God Your own Soul and his Church in the profession and preservation both of Truth and Unity in Religion the next main hinge on which Your Prosperity will depend and move is that of Civil Justice wherein the setled Laws of these Kingdoms to which You are rightly Heir are the most excellent Rules You can Govern by which by an admirable temperament give very much to Subjects Industry Liberty and Happiness and yet reserve enough to the Majesty and Prerogative of any King who owns his People as Subjects not as Slaves whose Subjection as it preserves their Property Peace and Safety so it will never diminish Your Rights nor their ingenuous Liberties which consist in the enjoyment of the fruits of their Industry and the benefit of those Laws to which themselves have consented Never charge Your head with such a Crown as shall by its heaviness oppress the whole Body the weakness of whose parts cannot return any thing of strength honour or safety to the Head but a necessary debilitation and Ruin Your Prerogative is best shewed and exercised in remitting
rather than exacting the rigor of the Laws there being nothing worse than Legal Tyranny In these two points the preservation of established Religion and Laws I may without vanity turn the reproach of My Sufferings as to the worlds censure into the honour of a kind of Martyrdom as to the testimony of My own Conscience the Troublers of My Kingdoms having nothing else to object against Me but this That I prefer Religion and Laws establisht before those Alterations they propounded And so indeed I do and ever shall till I am convinced by better Arguments than what hitherto have been chiefly used towards Me Tumults Armies and Prisons I cannot yet learn that Lesson nor I hope ever will You That it is safe for a King to gratifie any Faction with the Perturbation of the Laws in which is wrap'd up the publick Interest and the good of the Community How God will deal with Me as to the removal of these Pressures and Indignities which his Justice by the very unjust hands of some of My Subjects hath been pleased to lay upon Me I cannot tell nor am I much solicitous what Wrong I suffer from men while I retain in My Soul what I believe is right before God I have offered all for Reformation and Safety that in Reason Honour and Conscience I can reserving only what I cannot consent unto without an irreparable injury to My own Soul the Church and My People and to You also as the next and undoubted Heir of My Kingdoms To which if the Divine Providence to whom no Difficulties are insuperable shall in his due time after My decease bring You as I hope he will My Counsel and Charge to You is that You seriously consider the former real or objected Miscarriages which might occasion My Troubles that You may avoid them Never repose so much upon any mans single Counsel Fidelity and Discretion in managing affairs of the first magnitude that is matters of Religion and Justice as to create in Your self or others a diffidence of Your own Judgment which is likely to be always more constant and impartial to the interests of Your Crown and Kingdom than any mans Next beware of exasperating any Factions by the crosness and asperity of some mens Passions Humors or private Opinions imployed by You grounded only upon the differences in lesser matters which are but the skirts and suburbs of Religion Wherein a charitable Connivence and Christian Toleration often dissipates their strength whom rougher opposition fortifies and puts the despised and oppressed Party into such Combinations as may most enable them to get a full revenge on those they count their Persecutors who are commonly assisted by that Vulgar commiseration which attends all that are said to suffer under the notion of Religion Provided the Differences amount not to an insolent opposition of Laws and Government or Religion established as to the essentials of them Such motions and minings are intolerable Always keep up solid Piety and those Fundamental Truths which mend both hearts and lives of men with impartial Favour and Justice Take heed that outward circumstances and formalities of Religion devour not all or the best incouragements of Learning Industry and Piety but with an equal eye and impartial hand distribute favours and rewards to all men as You find them for their real Goodness both in Abilities and Fidelity worthy and capable of them This will be sure to gain You the hearts of the best and the most too who tho they be not good themselves yet are glad to see the severer ways of Virtue at any time sweetned by temporal rewards I have You see conflicted with different and opposite Factions for so I must needs call and count all those that act not in any conformity to the Laws established in Church and State No sooner have they by force subdued what they counted their Common Enemy that is all those that adhered to the Laws and to Me and are secured from that fear but they are divided to so high a rivalty as sets them more at defiance against each other than against their first Antagonists Time will dissipate all Factions when once the rough horns of private mens covetous and ambitious designs shall discover themselves which were at first wrap'd up and hidden under the soft and smooth pretensions of Religion Reformation and Liberty As the Wolf is not less cruel so he will be more justly hated when he shall appear no better than a Wolf under Sheeps cloathing But as for the seduced Train of the Vulgar who in their simplicity follow those disguises My charge and counsel to You is That as You need no palliations for any designs as other men so that You study really to exceed in true and constant demonstrations of Goodness Piety and Virtue towards the People even all those men that make the greatest noise and ostentations of Religion so You shall neither fear any detection as they do who have but the face and mask of Goodness nor shall You frustrate the just expectations of Your People who cannot in reason promise themselves so much good from any Subjects Novelties as from the virtuous Constancy of their King When these mountains of congealed Factions shall by the Sunshine of God's Mercy and the splendor of Your Virtues be thawed and dissipated and the abused Vulgar shall have learned that none are greater Oppressors of their Estates Liberties and Consciences than those men that entitle themselves the Patrons and Vindicators of them only to usurp power over them let then no Passion betray You to any study of Revenge upon those whose own Sin and Folly will sufficiently punish them in due time But as soon as the forked arrow of factious Emulations is drawn out use all Princely arts and Clemency to heal the Wounds that the smart of the Cure may not equal the anguish of the Hurt I have offered Acts of Indemnity and Oblivion to so great a latitude as may include all that can but suspect themselves to be any way obnoxious to the Laws and which might serve to exclude all future Jealousies and Insecurities I would have You always propense to the same way whenever it shall be desired and accepted let it be granted not only as an Act of State-policy and Necessity but of Christian Charity and Choice It is all I have now left Me a power to forgive those that have deprived Me of all and I thank God I have a heart to do it and joy as much in this Grace which God hath given Me as in all my former enjoyments for this is a greater argument of God's love to Me than any Prosperity can be Be confident as I am that the most of all sides who have done amiss have done so not out of Malice but Mis-information or Mis-apprehension of things None will be more loyal and faithful to Me and You than those Subjects who sensible of their Errors and our Injuries will feel in their own Souls most vehement
intended do You perform when God shall give you Power Much Good I have offered more I purposed to Church and State if Times had been capable of it The deception will soon vanish and the Vizards will fall off apace This mask of Religion on the face of Rebellion for so it now plainly appears since My Restraint and cruel Usage that they fought not for Me as was pretended will not long serve to hide some mens Deformities Happy times I hope attend You wherein Your Subjects by their Miseries will have learned That Religion to their God and Loyalty to their King cannot be parted without both their Sin and their Infelicity I pray God bless You and establish Your Kingdoms in Righteousness Your Soul in true Religion and Your Honour in the Love of God and Your People And if God will have Disloyalty perfected by My Destruction let My Memory ever with My Name live in You as of Your Father that loves You and once a KING of Three flourishing Kingdoms whom God thought fit to honour not only with the Scepter and Government of them but also with the suffering many indignities and an untimely Death for them while I studied to preserve the rights of the Church the power of the Laws the Honour of My Crown the Priviledg of Parliaments the Liberties of My People and My own Conscience which I thank God is dearer to Me than a thousand Kingdoms I know God can I hope he yet will restore Me to My Rights I cannot despair either of his Mercy or of My Peoples Love and Pity At worst I trust I shall but go before You to a better Kingdom which God hath prepared for Me and Me for it through My Saviour Jesus Christ to whose Mercies I commend You and all Mine Farewell till We meet if not on Earth yet in Heaven XXVIII Meditations upon Death after the Votes of Non-addresses and His MAJESTIES closer Imprisonment in Carisbrook-Castle AS I have leisure enough so I have cause more than enough to meditate upon and prepare for my Death for I know there are but few steps between the Prisons and Graves of Princes It is God's Indulgence which gives Me the space but Man's Cruelty that gives Me the sad occasions for these thoughts For besides the common burthen of Mortality which lies upon Me as a Man I now bear the heavy load of other mens Ambitions Fears Jealousies and cruel Passions whose Envy or Enmity against Me makes their own lives seem deadly to them while I enjoy any part of Mine I thank God My Prosperity made Me not wholly a stranger to the contemplations of Mortality Those are never unseasonable since this is always uncertain Death being an Eclipse which oft happeneth as well in clear as cloudy days But My now long and sharp Adversity hath so reconciled in Me those natural Antipathies between Life and Death which are in all men that I thank God the common terrors of it are dispelled and the special horror of it as to My particular much allayed for altho My Death at present may justly be represented to Me with all those terrible aggravations which the policy of Cruel and Implacable enemies can put upon it affairs being drawn to the very dregs of Malice yet I bless God I can look upon all those stings as unpoisonous tho sharp since My Redeemer hath either pulled them out or given Me the Antidote of his Death against them which as to the Immaturity Unjustice Shame Scorn and Cruelty of it exceeded whatever I can fear Indeed I never did find so much the Life of Religion the Feast of a good Conscience and the brazen wall of a judicious Integrity and Constancy as since I came to these closer conflicts with the thoughts of Death I am not so old as to be weary of Life nor I hope so bad as to be either afraid to dye or ashamed to live true I am so afflicted as might make Me sometime even desire to dye if I did not consider that it is the greatest glory of a Christians life to die daily in conquering by a lively Faith and patient Hopes of a better life those partial and quotidian deaths which kill us as it were by piece-meals and make us overlive our own fates while we are deprived of Health Honour Liberty Power Credit Safety or Estate and those other Comforts of dearest relations which are as the Life of our lives Tho as a KING I think My self to live in nothing temporal so much as in the Love and good will of My People for which as I have suffered many deaths so I hope I am not in that point as yet wholly dead notwithstanding My Enemies have used all the poison of Falsity and violence of Hostility to destroy first the Love and Loyalty which is in my Subjects and then all that content of Life in Me which from these I chiefly enjoyed Indeed they have left Me but little of Life and only the husk and shell as it were which their further Malice and Cruelty can take from Me having bereaved Me of all those worldly Comforts for which Life it self seems desirable to men But O my Soul think not that life too long or tedious wherein God gives Thee any opportunities if not to do yet to suffer with such Christian Patience and Magnanimity in a good Cause as are the greatest Honour of our lives and the best improvement of our Deaths I knows that in point of true Christian Valour it argues Pusillanimity to desire to dye out of weariness of life and a want of that heroick greatness of spirit which becomes a Christian in the patient and generous sustaining those Afflictions which as shadows necessarily attend us while we are in this Body and which are lessened or enlarged as the Sun of our Prosperity moves higher or lower whose total absence is best recompenced with the dew of Heaven The assaults of Affliction may be terrible like Sampsom's Lion but they yield much sweetness to those that dare to encounter and overcome them who know how to overlive the witherings of their Gourds without discontent or peevishness while they may yet converse with God That I must dye as a man is certain that I may dye a King by the hands of my own Subjects a violent sudden and barbarous death in the strength of my years in the midst of my Kingdoms my Friends and loving Subjects being helpless Spectators my Enemies insolent Revilers and Triumphers over me living dying and dead is so probable in humane reason that God hath taught Me not to hope otherwise as to mans Cruelty however I despair not of God's infinite Mercy I know my Life is the object of the Devils and Wicked mens Malice but yet under God's sole custody and disposal whom I do not think to flatter for longer Life by seeming prepared to die but I humbly desire to depend upon him and to submit to his will both in life and death in what order soever he
is pleased to lay them out to Me. I confess it is not easie for Me to contend with those many horrors of Death wherewith God suffers Me to be tempted which are equally horrid either in the suddenness of a Barbarous Assassination or in those greater Formalities whereby my Enemies being more solemnly cruel will it may be seek to add as those did who crucified Christ the Mockery of Justice to the Cruelty of Malice That I may be destroyed as with greater Pomp and artifice so with less Pity it will be but a necessary policy to make my Death appear as an act of Justice done by Subjects upon their Soveraign who know that no Law of God or Man invests them with any power of Judicature without Me much less against Me and who being sworn and bound by all that is Sacred before God and Man to endeavour my preservation must pretend Justice to cover their Perjury It is indeed a sad fate for any man to have his Enemies to be his Accusers Parties and Judges but most desperate when this is acted by the insolence of Subjects against their Soveraign wherein those who have had the chiefest hand and are most guilty of contriving the publick Troubles must by shedding My Blood seem to wash their own hands of that innocent blood whereof they are now most evidently guilty before God and man and I believe in their own Consciences too while they carried on unreasonable demands first by tumults after by Armies Nothing makes mean spirits more cowardly-cruel in managing their usurped power against their lawful Superiors than this the Guilt of their unjust Vsurpation notwithstanding those specious and popular pretensions of Justice against Delinquents applied only to disguise at first the monstrousness of their designs who despaired indeed of possessing the power and profits of the Vineyard till the Heir whose right it is be cast out and slain With them my greatest Fault must be that I would not either destroy My self with the Church and State by my word or not suffer them to do it unresisted by the Sword whose covetous Ambition no Concessions of Mine could ever yet either satisfie or abate Nor is it likely they will ever think that Kingdom of Brambles which some men seek to erect at once weak sharp and fruitless either to God or man is like to thrive till watered with the Royal Blood of those whose right the Kingdom is Well God's will be done I doubt not but my innocency will find him both my Protector and my Advocate who is my onely Judge whom I own as King of Kings not onely for the eminency of his Power and Majesty above them but also for that singular Care and Protection which he hath over them who knows them to be exposed to as many Dangers being the greatest Patrons of Law Justice Order and Religion on Earth as there be either Men or Devils which love Confusion Nor will he suffer those men long to prosper in their Babel who build it with the Bones and cement it with the Blood of their KINGS I am confident they will find Avengers of my Death among themselves the Injuries I have sustained from them shall be first punished by them who agreed in nothing so much as in opposing Me. Their impatience to bear the loud cry of my Blood shall make them think no way better to expiate it then by Shedding theirs who with them most thirsted after Mine The sad Confusions following my Destruction are already presaged and confirmed to Me by those I have lived to see since my Troubles in which God alone who onely could hath many ways pleaded my Cause not suffering them to go unpunished whose confedaracy in Sin was their only Security who have cause to fear that God will both further divide and by mutual Vengeance afterward destroy them My greatest conquest of Death is from the Power and Love of Christ who hath swallow'd up Death in the Victory of his Resurrection and the glory of his Ascension My next Comfort is That he gives Me not only the Honour to imitate his Example in suffering for Righteousness sake though obscured by the foulest charges of Tyranny and Injustice but also that Charity which is the noblest Revenge upon and Victory over my Destroyers by which I thank God I can both forgive them and pray for them that God would not impute my Blood to them further than to convince them what need they have of Christs Blood to wash their Souls from the guilt of shedding Mine At present the Will of my Enemies seems to be their only rule their Power the measure and their Success the exactor of what they please to call Justice while they flatter themselves with the fancy of their own Safety by My Danger and the security of their Lives and Designs by My Death forgetting that as the greatest temptations to Sin are wrapped up in seeming Prosperities so the severest Vengeances of God are then most accomplished when men are suffered to compleat their wicked purposes I bless God I pray not so much that this bitter cup of a Violent Death may pass from Me as that of his Wrath may pass from all those whose hands by deserting Me are sprinkled or by acting and consenting to my Death are embrued with my Blood The will of God hath confined and concluded Mine I shall have the pleasure of dying without any pleasure of desired Vengeance This I think becomes a Christian toward his Enemies and a King toward his Subjects They cannot deprive Me of more than I am content to lose when God sees fit by their hands to take it from Me whose Mercy I believe will more than infinitely recompence whatever by mans Injustice he is pleased to deprive me of The glory attending my Death will far surpass all I could enjoy or conceive in Life I shall not want the heavy and envied Crowns of this world when my God hath mercifully crowned and consummated his Graces with Glory and exchanged the shadows of my Earthly Kingdoms among men for the substance of that Heavenly Kingdom with Himself For the censures of the world I know the sharp and necessary Tyranny of my Destroyers will sufficienly confute the Calumnies of Tyranny against Me I am perswaded I am happy in the judicious Love of the ablest and best of my Subjects who do not only pity and pray for Me but would be content even to die with Me or for Me. These know how to excuse my Failings as a man and yet to retain and pay their Duty to Me as their KING there being no Religious necessity binding any Subjects by pretending to punish infinitely to exceed the faults and errors of their Princes especially there where more than sufficient Satisfaction hath been made to the publick the enjoyment of which private Ambitions have hitherto frustrated Others I believe of softer tempers and less advantaged by My Ruin do already feel sharp Convictions and some remorse in their Consciences where they