After they had continued at York till Octob. 28. the King and the Lords returned and the Parliament sate down Novemb. 3. Great Heats appear'd in the very beginning On Wednesday Novemb. 10. Tho. L. 〈◊〉 Earl of Strafford was accused by the House of Commons of High Treason and Committed by the Lords to Mr. James Maxwell the Officer of the House And upon general Articles sent up He was upon Wednesday Novemb. 25. committed to the Tower It is thought and upon good Grounds that the Earl of Strafford had got Knowledge of the Treason of some Men and that he was preparing to accuse them And this Fear both hastned and heated the proceedings against him And upon Dec. 4. being Friday his Majesty at the great Importunity of some Lords of his Council gave way that his Council should be examined upon Oath in the Earl of Strafford's Case and I with others was examined that very Day There were great Thoughts of Heart upon this Business and somewhat vapoured out at Mens Tongues but the thing was done Now at and after the breaking up of the late Parliament Sir Hen. Vane at the private Committee concerning the Scotch Affairs before mentioned instead of setting down the Heads of the several Businesses then Treated of Writ down what every Man said at the Committee though it were but Matter of deliberation and debate Afterwards by a cunning conveyance between his Son who had been Governour in New-England and himself this Paper or a Copy of it was delivered to some Members of the House of Commons and in all probability was the Ground of that which was after done against the Lord Strafford my self and others and the Cause why the King was so hard pressed to have the Lords and others of his Council examined was that so Sir Henry Vane might upon Oath avow the Paper which his Son had seen and shewed and others be brought to witness as much had Truth and their Memories been able to say as much as his Paper After the examination of me and others concerning these Particulars there arose great and violent Debates in the House of Commons against the Bishops and particularly their Votes in Parliament After that Decemb. 16. 1640. they Voted against the late Canons as containing in them many Matters contrary to the fundamental Laws and Statutes of the Realm to the Rights of Parliaments to the Property and Liberty of the Subject and matters tending to Sedition and of dangerous Consequences I was made the Author of all and presently a Committee put upon me to inquire into my Actions and prepare a Charge The same Morning in the Upper-House I was Named as an Incendiary in an Accusation put in by the Scottish Commissioners For now by this Time they were come to that Article of the Treaty which reflected upon me And this was done with great noise to bring me yet further into Hatred with the People especially the Londoners who approved too well the Proceedings of their Brethren the Scots and debased the Bishops and the Church Government in England The Articles which the Scots put into the Upper House by the Hands of their Lords Commissioners against me Decemb. 15. were read there Decemb. 16. I took out a true Copy as it follows here And though I was to make no answer then till the House of Commons had digested them and taken as much out of them as as they pleased to fill my intended Charge withall yet because I after found that the House of Commons insisted upon very few of these particulars if any I thought my self bound to vindicate my Innocency even in these Particulars which shall now appear in their full strength against me if they have any in Wise and Learned Mens Judgments CAP. III THe Novations in Religion which are universally acknowledged to be the main Cause of Commotions in Kingdoms and States and are known to be the true Cause of our present Troubles were many and great besides the Books of Ordination and Homilies First some particular alterations in matters of Religion pressed upon us without Order and against Law contrary to the Form established in our Kirk Secondly a new Book of Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical Thirdly a Liturgy or Book of Common-Prayer which did also carry with them many dangerous Errours in matters of Doctrine Of all these we challenge the Prelate of Canterbury as the prime Cause on Earth I shall easily grant that Novations in Religion are a main Cause of Distempers in Commonwealths And I hope it will be as easily granted to me I am sure it should that when great Distempers fall into Kingdoms and Common-wealths the only way to ingage at home and get Credit abroad is to pretend Religion which in all Ages hath been a Cloak large enough to cover at least from the Eyes of the Many even Treasons themselves And For the present Troubles in Scotland Novations in Religion are so far from being known to be the true Cause as that it is manifest to any Man that will look upon it with a single Eye that Temporal Discontents and several Ambitions of the great Men which had been long a working were the true cause of these Troubles And that Religion was call'd in upon the bye to gain the Clergy and by them the Multitude For besides that which was openly spoken by the right Honourable James then Earl of Carlile that somewhat was a brewing in Scotland among some discontented there which wou'd break out to the Trouble of this Kingdom 't is most apparent there were many discontents among them Some whereof had no relation at all to Religion and were far antienter than the Troubles now began and were all Legally proved against the Lord Balmerino who was condemned of high Treason before any of these Stirs began For there were Grievances as they said propounded in the Convention Anno 1628. about Coyning and their black Money which they say were slighted again in the Parliament held 1633. Murmuring also there was as if the Articles and Parliament were not free Great Clamour likewise was there against the Bishops Power in choosing the Lords of the Articles though that Power belonged unto them by the fundamental Laws of that Kingdom As much against the Act of Revocation and the Taxations which yet were voluntarily offer'd and miscalled on purpose to edge the People As also for Applying as they said these Taxations to wrong uses With all which and more Religion had nothing to do Nay this discontented Party grew so High and so Bold that a very Base and Dishonourable Libel was made and spread against the King Anno 1633. by these and the like Pretences to alienate the Hearts of the People from him Of this Libel if one Hagg were the Authour Balmerino was the Divulger and so prov'd And though it be true that then also some things were to be done against the Church-government yet their
Obeyed And hereof in any wise fail you not Jan. 19. 1634. Comput Angl. A Memorial of the Arch-Bishop's Annual Account to the King's Majesty of his Province for the Year 1635. Ex Registro Laud fol 241. WHereas his Majesty in his late Instructions to the Lords the Bishops hath amongst other things commanded that every Bishop respectively should give an Account in Writing to his Metropolitan of all those Instructions or so many of them as may concern him at or before the Tenth day of December yearly And likewise that the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury his Grace do make out of them a Brief of his whole Province and present it to his Sacred Majesty every year by the second day of January following My Lord Arch-Bishop in Obedience to the said Commands did present an Account in Writing to his Majesty how those Prudent and Pious Instructions for the Good and Welfare of the Church of Christ in this Kingdom have been obeyed and performed by the several Bishops within his Province of Canterbury for the Year of our Lord God 1634. Which Account by his Grace's Command is Registred amongst the other Acts of his Province by his principal Register And that in farther Obedience to the said Instructions his Grace delivered another Brief in Writing of his said Province for this present Year of our Lord God 1635. unto Sir John Cooke Knight one of the Principal Secretaries of State to be presented to his Majesty by the time aforesaid but by Reason of his the said Secretary's Sickness it is mislaid or lost and so hath not been presented to his Majesty nor any Observation by the King put upon it which loss notwithstanding the Lord Arch-Bishop commanded instead of Registring the Brief it self that this Memorial of the loss of it should be Registred Martij 14. 1635. W Cant. W. S. A. C. NOtwithstanding this Memorial the Arch-Bishop's Account for the Year 1635. is very happily come to my Hand after this manner My very Worthy Friend Sir Will. Cooke of Broom in Norfolk sent me a Letter dated Nov 6 1681. that being Executor to an Uncle of his then lately Deceased in Suffolk he found in his Study a Bundle of Original Papers of Arch-Bishop Laud which are the Annual Accounts here following from 1632. to 1639. with a Letter to me in the Words following May it please your Grace c. vide infra The Writer of this Letter Mr Thomas Raymond a very Ingenious Gentleman was as Sir Will C tells me bred up under Sir Will. Boswell Embassadour in Holland and was after Governour to the present Earl of Peterborough in his Travels And was after his Return as I have heard one of the Clerks of his Majesty's Privy Council possibly under Sir Jo Cooke Principal Secretary by which Means these Papers might come into his Hands The Originals are all Signed by the Arch-Bishop that of 1632. by G. Cant. being Abbot's last and the rest W Cant. being Arch-Bishop Lauds all which are Apostilled in the Margin with the King 's own Hand except only that of 1635. which it seems by Secretary Cook 's default never came to the King's view I found also among Arch-Bishop Laud's Papers Duplicates of the Accounts for 1634 6 7 8 and 9. with the King's Notes also Copied in the Margin And 3 of them scil the 3 last are Registred in Registr Laud f. 215. 254. 289. Mr. Raymond's Letter to my Lord Arch-Bishop Sancroft concerning the following Papers May it please your Grace THE inclosed Papers being of Ecclesiastick Concern and true and mighty Evidences of the abundant Love and Care of a Blessed King for the good of the Church as well as that of a most Pious and Learned Prelate your Grace's Predecessor I thought my self bound both in Duty and Prudence to Transmit them to your Grace as to their proper place both for use and safety And this I have endeavoured to do in the carefullest manner I could and do implore your Grace's Pardon for this intrusion beseeching most humbly Almighty God to grant your Grace multos annos in all Health and Prosperity so much conducing to the good of his Church amongst us And withdrawing my self unto my wonted Solitude do crave the great Honour to be esteemed as I am ready to approve my self Della mia povera Capanna 18 di Novembre 78. Your GRACE's Most Humble and Most Faithful Servant THO. RAYMOND Arch-Bishop Laud's Account of his Province sent to the King for the Year 1633. with the King 's Apostills in the Margin May it please Your most Sacred Majesty ACcording to Your Royal Commands I do here upon the Second of January 1633. Comput Aglic present my Accompt of both the Diocess and Province of Canterbury concerning all those Church Affairs which are contained within your Majesty's most gracious Declaration and Instructions Published out of your most Princely and Religious Care to preserve Unity in Orthodox Doctrine and Conformity to Government in this your Church of England And First for my own Diocess of Canterbury I hear of many things amiss but as yet my time hath been so short that I have had no certain knowledge of any thing fit to certifie save only that some of my Peculiars in London are Extreamly out of order For the Bishoprick of London it is certified that my Lord the now Bishop hath not received complaint against any of his Clergy since his coming to that See which was since Michaelmas last For all the former part of this First Year I must give your Majesty Accompt for my self being then Bishop there And First having heretofore after long patience and often conference proceeded against Nathaniel Ward Parson of Stondon in Essex to Excommunication and Deprivation for refusing to subscribe to the Articles established by the Canon of the Church of which I certified the last Year I have now left him still under the Censure of Excommunication I did likewise convent Mr John Beedle Rector of Barnstone in Essex for omitting some parts of Divine Service and refusing Conformity But upon his submission and promise of reformation I dismissed him with a Canonical Admonition only Since my return out of Scotland Mr John Davenport Vicar of St Stephens in Coleman-street whom I used with all Moderation and about Two Years since thought I had setled his Judgment having him then at advantage enough to have put extremity upon him but forbare it hath now resigned his Vicarage declared his Judgment against Conformity with the Church of England and is since gone as I hear to Amsterdam For Bath and Wells I find that the Lord Bishop hath in his late Visitation taken a great deal of pains to see all your Majesty's Instructions observed And particularly hath put down divers Lecturers in Market-Towns which were Beneficed Men in other Bishops Diocesses Because he found that when they had Preached Factious and Disorderly Sermons they retired into other Countries where his Jurisdiction would not reach to punish them
so many innocent Souls from imminent Danger To whose monitions he willingly consented and delivered the following things to be put in Writing out of which the Articles not long since tendered to your Grace may be clearly explicated and demonstrated 1. First of all that the Hinge of the Business may be rightly discerned it is to be known that all those Factions with which all Christendom is at this Day shaken do arise from the Jesuitical Off-spring of Cham of which four Orders abound throughout the World Of the First Order are Ecclesiasticks whose Office it is to take care of things promoting Religion Of the second Order are Politicians whose Office it is by any means to shake trouble reform the State of Kingdoms and Republicks Of the Third Order are Seculars whose property it is to obtrude themselves into Offices with Kings and Princes to insinuate and immix themselves in Court Businesses bargains and sales and to be busied in Civil Affairs Of the Fourth Order are Intelligencers or Spies Men of Inferiour condition who submit themselves to the services of great Men Princes Barons Noblemen Citizens to deceive or corrupt the Minds of their Masters 2. A Society of so many Orders the Kingdom of England nourisheth For scarce all Spain France and Italy can yield so great a multitude of Jesuits as London alone where are found more than Fifty Scottish Jesuits There the said Society hath elected to it self a seat of Iniquity and hath conspired against the King and the most faithful to the King especially the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and likewise against both Kingdoms 3. For it is more certain than certainty it self that the forenamed Society hath determined to effect an universal Reformation of the Kingdom of England and Scotland Therefore the determination of the end necessarily infers a determination of means to the end 4. Therefore to promote the undertaken Villany the said Society dubbed it self with the Title of The Congregation of propagating the Faith which acknowledgeth the Pope of Rome the Head of the College and Cardinal Barbarino his Substitute and Executor 5. The chief Patron of the Society at London is the Popes Legat who takes care of the business into whose Bosom these Dregs of Traytors weekly deposite all their Intelligences Now the Residence of this Legation was obtained at London in the name of the Roman Pontif by whose mediation it might be lawful for Cardinal Barbarino to work so much the more easily and safely upon the King and Kingdom For none else could so freely circumvent the King as he who should be palliated with the Pope's Authority 6. Master Cuneus did at that time enjoy the Office of the Pope's Legat an universal Instrument of the conjured Society and a serious promoter of the business whose secrets as likewise those of all the other Intelligencers the present good Man the Communicator of all these things did receive and expedite whither the business required Cuneus set upon the chief Men of the Kingdom and left nothing unattempted by what means he might corrupt them all and incline them to the Pontifician Party He inticed many with various Incitements yea he sought to delude the King himself with gifts of Pictures Antiquities Idols and of other Vanities brought from Rome which yet would prevail nothing with the King Having entred familiarity with the King he is often requested at Hamptoncourt likewise at London to undertake the cause of the Palatine and that he would interpose his Authority and by his Intercession persuade the Legat of Colen that the Palatine in the next Diet to treat of Peace might be inserted into the Conditions which verily he promised but performed the contrary He writ indeed that he had been so desired by the King concerning such things yet he advised not that they should be consented to lest peradventure it might be said by the Spaniard that the Pope of Rome had patronized an heretical Prince In the mean time Cuncus smelling from the Arch-Bishop most trusty to the King that the King's Mind was wholly pendulous or doubtful resolved That he would move every Stone and apply his Forces that he might gain him to his party Certainly considing that he had a means prepared For he had a command to offer a Cardinal's Cap to the Lord Archbishop in the Name of the Pope of Rome and that he should allure him also with higher Promises that he might corrupt his sincere Mind Yet a sitting ocasion was never given whereby he might insinuate himself into the Lord Arch-Bishop for the Scorpion sought an Egg Free access was to be impetrated by the Earl and Countess of Arundel likewise by Secretary Windebank The intercession of all which being neglected he did fly the Company or familiarity of Cuneus worse than the Plague He was likewise perswaded by others of no mean rank well known to him neither yet was he moved 7. Another also was assayed who hindred access to the detestable wickedness Secretary Cook he was a most bitter hater of the Jesuits from whom he intercepted access to the King he entertained many of them according to their deserts he diligently enquired into their Factions by which means every incitement breathing a Magnetical attractive power to the Popish Party was ineffectual with him for nothing was so dear unto him that might incline him to wickedness Hereupon being made odious to the Patrons of the Conspiracy he was endangered to be discharged from his Office it was laboured for three Years space and at last obtained Yet notwithstanding there remained on the King's part a knot hard to be untied for the Lord Arch-Bishop by his constancy interposed himself as a most hard Rock When Cuneus had understood from the Lord Arch-Bishop's part that he had laboured in vain his Malice and the whole Societies waxed boyling hot Soon after Ambushes began to be prepared wherewith the Lord Arch-Bishop together with the King should be taken Likewise a Sentence is passed against the King for whose sake all this business is disposed because nothing is hoped from him which might seem to promote the Popish Religion but especially when he had opened his Mind that he was of this Opinion that every one might be saved in his own Religion so as he be an honest and pious Man 8. To perpetrate the Treason undertaken the Criminal execution at Westminster caused by some Writings of Puritans gave occasion of the first Fire Which thing was so much exasperated and exaggerated by the Papists to the Puritans that if it remained unrevenged it would be thought a blemish to their Religion the Flames of which Fire the subsequent book of Prayers increases 9. In this heat a certain Scottish-Earl called Maxfield if I mistake not was expedited to the Scots by the Popish party with whom two other Scottish Earls Papists held correspondency He ought to stir up the People
me in my Sleep having been dead two Years before at least He seemed to me in very good plight and merry enough I told him what I had done for his Widow and Children He after a little thought answered That the Executor had satisfied him for those Legacies while he was yet alive And presently looking upon some Papers in his Study adjoyning he added that it was so He moreover whispering in my Ear told me that I was the Cause why the Bishop of Lincoln was not again admitted into Favour and to Court Apr. 4. Wednesday When his Majesty King Charles forgave to Doctor Donne certain slips in a Sermon Preached on Sunday Apr. 1. what he then most graciously said unto me I have wrote in my Heart with 〈◊〉 Characters and great 〈◊〉 to God and the King Apr. 7. Saturday Going to Court to wait upon the King at Supper in going out of the Coach my foot stumbling I fell headlong I never had a more dangerous fall but by God's mercy I escaped with a light bruise of my Hip only Apr. 24. Tuesday There were then first sent to me the Exceptitions which the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had Exhibited against Doctor Sibthorp's Sermon and what followed April 29. Sunday I was made Privy-Councellour to his Majesty King Charles God grant it may conduce to his Honour and to the good of the Kingdom and the Church May 13. Whitsunday I Preached before the King c. Junij 7 8. I attended King Charles from London to Southwick by Portsmouth Junij 11. His Majesty dined a-board the Triumph where I attended him June 17. The Bishoprick of London was granted me at Southwick June 22. We came to London June 24. I was commanded to go all the Progress June 27. The Duke of Buckingham set forwards towards the Isle of Ree June 30. The Progress began to Oatlands July 4. The King lost a Jewel in Hunting of a 1000 l. value That day the Message was sent by the King for the Sequestring of A. B. C. July 7. Saturday-night I dreamed that I had lost two Teeth The Duke of Buckingham took the Isle of Ree July 26. I attended the King and Queen at Wellingburrough July 29. The first News came from my Lord Duke of his Success Sunday August 12. The second News came from my Lord Duke to Windsor Sunday August 26. The third News came from my Lord Duke to Aldershot Sunday September News came from my Lord Duke to Theobalds The first fear of ill Success News from my Lord Duke to Hampton-Court I went to my Lord of Rochester to consider about A. B. C. and returned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Court 〈◊〉 King's Speech to me in the withdrawing Chamber That if any did c. I c. before any thing should sink c. The business of Doctor Bargar Dean of Canterbury began about the Vicaridge of Lidd October The Commission to the Bishops of London Durham Rochester Oxford and my self then Bath and Wells to Execute Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction during the Sequestration of my Lord's Grace of Canterbury The Dean of Canterbury's Speech that the business could not go well in the Isle of Ree There must be a Parliament some must be Sacrificed that I was as like as any Spoken to Doctor W. The same Speech after spoken to the same Man by Sir Dudlye Diggs I told it when I heard it doubled Let me desire you not to trouble your self with any Reports till you see me forsake my other Friends c. Ita Ch. R. The Retreat out of the Isle of Ree November My Lord Duke's return to Court The Countess of Purbeck censured in the High Commission for Adultery December 25. I Preached to the King at White-Hall January 29. Tuesday A resolution at the Council Table for a Parliament to begin March 17. if the Shires go on with levying Money for the Navy c. January 30. Wednesday My Lord Duke of Buckingham's Son was Born the Lord George New Moon die 26. February 5. Tuesday The straining of the back sinew of my right Leg as I went with his Majesty to Hampton-Court I kept in till I Preached at the opening of the Parliament March 17. but I continued lame long after saving that Februar 14. Thursday Saint Valentine's-day I made a shift to go and Christen my Lord Duke's Son the Lord George at Wallingford-House March 17. I Preached at the opening of the Parliament but had much ado to stand it was Munday Anno 1628. June 1. Whitsunday I Preached at White-Hall June 11. My Lord Duke of Buckingham Voted in the House of Commons to be the Cause or Causes of all Grievances in the Kingdom June 12. Thursday I was complained of by the House of Commons for warranting Doctor Manwaring's Sermons to the Press June 13. Dr. Manwaring answered for himself before the Lords and the next day June 14. Being Saturday was Censured After his Censure my Cause was called to the Report And by God's Goodness towards me I was fully cleared in the House The same day the House of Commons were making their Remonstrance to the King One Head was Innovation of Religion Therein they Named my Lord the Bishop of Winchester and my self One in the House stood up and said Now we have Named these Persons let us think of some Causes why we did it Sir Edw. Cooke answered Have we not Named my Lord of Buckingham without shewing a Cause and may we not be as bold with them June 17. This Remonstrance was delivered to the King on Tuesday June 26. Thursday The Session of Parliament ended and was Prorogued to October 20. July 11. Tuesday My Conge-deslier was Signed by the King for the Bishoprick of London July 15. Tuesday St. Swithin and fair with us I was Translated to the Bishoprick of London The same day the Lord Weston was made Lord Treasurer August 9. Saturday A terrible salt Rheum in my left Eye had almost put me into a Fever August 12. Tuesday My Lord Duke of Buckingham went towards Portsmouth to go for Rochell August 23. Saturday St Bartholomew's Eve the Duke of Buckingham slain at Portsmouth by one Lieutenant Felton about Nine in the Morning August 24. The News of his Death came to Croydon where it found my self and the Bishops of Winchester Ely and Carlile at the Consecration of Bishop Montague for Chichester with my Lord's Grace August 27. Wednesday Mr. Elphinston brought me a very Gracious Message from his Majesty upon my Lord Duke's Death August 30. As I was going out to meet the Corps of the Duke which that Night was brought to London Sir W Fleetwood brought me very Gracious Letters from the King's Majesty written with his own Hand September 9. Tuesday The first time that I went to Court after the Death of the Duke of Buckingham my dear Lord The Gracious Speech which that Night the King was pleased to use to me September 27. Saturday I fell Sick and came Sick from Hampton-Court Tuesday Septemb. ult I was sore
found him with his Mother sitting in the Room It was a fair Chamber he went away and I went after but missed him and after tyred my self extreamly but neither could I find him nor so much as the House again Anno 1637 March 30. Thursday I Christened the Lady Princess Ann King Charles his third Daughter She was born on Friday March 17. Junij 10. My Book of the Records in the Tower which concerned the Clergy and which I caused to be Collected and Written in Vellam was brought me finished 'T is ab Ann. 20. Ed. 1. ad Ann. 14. Ed. 4. Junij 14. This Day Jo Bastwick Dr of Physick Hen Burton Batch of Divinity and Will Prynne Barrister at Law were Censured for their Libells against the Hierarchy of the Church c. Junij 26. The Speech I then spake in the Star-Chamber was commanded by the King to be Printed And it came out Junij the 25. Junij 26. This Day Munday The Prince Elector and his Brother Prince Rupert began their Journey toward the Sea Side to return for Holland Junij 30. Friday the above named three Libellers lost their Ears Julij 7. Friday A Note was brought to me of a Short Libel pasted on the Cross in Cheapside that the Arch-Wolf of Cant. had his Hand in persecuting the Saints and shedding the Blood of the Martyrs Memento for the last of June Julij 11. Tuesday Dr. Williams Lord Bishop of Lincoln was Censured in the Star-Chamber for tampering and corrupting of Wit in the King's Cause Julij 24. Being Munday He was suspended by the High Commission c. Aug. 3. Thursday I Married James Duke of Lenox to the Lady Mary Villars sole Daughter to the Lord Duke of Buckingham The Marriage was in my Chappel at Lambeth the Day very Rainy the King present Aug. 23. Wednesday My Lord Mayor sent me a Libel found by the Watch at the South Gate of St. Pauls That the Devil had lett that House to me c. Aug. 25. Friday Another Libel brought me by an Officer of the High Commission fastned to the North Gate of St. Pauls That the Government of the Church of England is a Candle in the Snuff going out in a Stench Aug. 25. The same Day at Night my Lord Mayor sent me another Libel hanged upon the Standard in Cheapside My Speech in the Star-Chamber set in a kind of Pillory c. Aug. 29. Tuesday Another short Libel against me in Verse Octob. 22. Sunday A great Noise about the perverting of the Lady Newport Speech of it at the Council My free Speech there to the King concerning the increasing of the Roman Party the Freedom at Denmark-house the Carriage of Mr. Wal. Montague and Sir Toby Matthews The Queen acquainted with all I said that very Night and highly displeased with me and so continues Novemb. 22. Wednesday The extream and unnatural hot Winter Weather began and continued till Decemb. 8. Decemb. 12. Tuesday I had Speech with the Queen a good space and all about the Business of Mr. Montague but we parted fair Anno 1638. April 29. The Tumults in Scotland about the Service-Book offered to be brought in began July 23. 1637. and continued increasing by fits and hath now brought that Kingdom in danger No question but there is a great Concurrence between them and the Puritan Party in England A great aim there to destroy me in the King's Opinion c. Maij 26. Saturday James Lord Marquess Hamilton set forth as the King's Commissioner to appease the Tumults in Scotland God prosper him for God and the King It was a very Rainy Day June My Visitation then began of Merton Coll. in Oxford by my Visitors was Adjourned to my own Hearing against and upon Octob. 2. Octob. 2. 3. 4. I sate upon this Business these Three Days and Adjourned it to July 1. inter Horas primam tertiam Lambeth The Warden appeared very foul Octob. 19. Friday News was brought to us as we sate in the Star-Chamber That the Queen-Mother of France was Landed at Harwich many and great Apprehensions upon this Business Extream Windy and Wet Weather a Week before and after the Water-men called it Q Mother Weather Octob. 26. Friday A most Extream Tempest upon the Thames I was in it going from the Star-Chamber Home between six and seven at Night I was never upon the Water in the like Storm And was in great Danger at my Landing at Lambeth Bridge Octob. 31. Wednesday The Q Mother came into London and so to St James's Novemb. 13. Tuesday The Agreement between me and Ab. S. c. Novemb. 21. Wednesday The General Assembly in Scotland began to Sit. Novemb. 29. Thursday The Proclamation issued out for dissolving the General Assembly in Scotland under pain of Treason Decemb. 20. They sate notwithstanding and made many strange Acts till Decemb. 20. which was Thursday and then they rose But have indicted another Assembly against July next Januar. 14. Munday About 5. at Night a most grievous Tempest of Wind Thunder Lightning and Rain Feb. 10. My Book against Fisher the Jesuit was Printed and this day being Sunday I delivered a Copy to his Majesty Feb. 12. Tuesday-night I dreamed that K. C. was to be Married to a Minister's Widow And that I was called upon to do it No Service-Book could be found and in my own Book which I had I could not find the Order for Marriage Anno 1639. March 27. Wednesday Coronation-day King Charles took his Journey Northward against the Scottish Covenanting Rebels God of his infinite Mercy bless him with Health and Success March 29. Friday An extream Fire in St. Olaves Parish Southwark forty Houses burnt down April 3. Wednesday Before the King 's going I setled with him a great business for the Queen which I understood she would never move for her self The Queen gave me great Thanks And this day I waited purposely on her to give her Thanks for her gracious acceptance She was pleased to be very free with me and to promise me freedom April 29. Munday This day the King went from York toward New-Castle but stayeth at Durham for a week at least Maij 28. His Majesty incamped two Miles West from Barwick by Tweed Junij 4. Whitson-Tuesday As I was going to do my duty to the Queen an Officer of the Lord Mayor's met me and delivered to me two very Seditious Papers the one to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen the other to excite the Apprentices c. Both Subscribed by John Lilburn a Prisoner in the Fleet Sentenced in the Star-Chamber c. Junij 5. Wednesday I delivered both these to the Lords of the Council Junij 15 17. Saturday and Munday The Peace concluded between the King and the Scottish Rebels God make it safe and Honourable to the King and Kingdom Junij 28. Friday I sent the remainder of my Manuscripts to Oxford being in number 576. And about an Hundred of them were Hebrew Arabick and Persian
this set others on work both in the Western and the Northern Parts Till at last by the practice of the Faction there was suddenly a great alteration and nothing so much cryed down as the Canons The comfort is Christ himself had his Osanna turned into a Crucifige in far less Time By this means the Malice of the Time took another occasion to whet it self against me The Synod thus ended and the Canons having this Success but especially the Parliament ending so unhappily The King was very hardly put to it and sought all other means as well as he could to get supply against the Scots But all that he could get proved too little or came too late for that service For the averse party in the late Parliament or by and by after before they parted ordered things so and filled Mens Minds with such strange Jealousies that the King 's good People were almost generally possest that his Majesty had a purpose to alter the ancient Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom and to bring in Slavery upon his People A thing which for ought I know his Majesty never intended But the Parliament-men which would not relieve the King by their meeting in that Assembly came to understand and inform one another and at their return were able to possess their several Countries with the Apprehensions themselves had and so they did Upon this some Lords and others who had by this time made an underhand solemn Confederacy with a strong faction of the Scots brought an Army of them into the Kingdom For all Men know and it hath been in a manner confessed that the Scots durst not have come into England at that Time if they had not been sure of a Party here and a strong one and that the King should be betrayed on all hands as shall after appear By these and the like means the King being not assisted by his Parliament nor having Means enough to proceed with his Forces in due Time the Scots were brought in as is aforesaid upon both King and Kingdom They under the Conduct of Sir Alexander Leshley their General passed the Tyne at Newborne Aug. .... 1640. and took New-castle the next Day after And all this gross Treason though it had no other end than to Confirm a Parliament in Scotland and to make the King call another in England that so they might in a way of Power extort from him what they pleased in both Kingdoms yet Religion was made almost all the pretence both here and there and so in pursuance of that pretence Hatred spread and increased against me for the Service-Book The King hearing that the Scots were moving Posted away to York Aug. 20. being Thursday There he soon found in what Straights he was and thereupon called his Great Council of all his Lords and Prelates to York to be there by September 24. But in regard the Summons was short and suddain he was Graciously pleased to dispense with the Absence of divers both Lords and Bishops and with mine among the rest How things in Particular succeeded there I know not nor belongs it much to the Scope of this short History intended only for my self But the Result of all was a present Nomination of some Lords Commissioners to treat at Rippon about this Great Affair with other Commissioners from the Scotch Army But before this Treaty at Rippon one Melborne or Meldrum Secretary to general Leshly as he was commonly said to be at the Shire-House in Durham when the Country-Gentlemen met with the chief of the Scottish Army about a composition to be made for Payment of Three Hundred and Fifty Pounds a Day for that County expressed himself in this Manner Septemb. 10. 1640. I wonder that you are so Ignorant that you cannot see what is good for your selves For they in the South are sensible of the good that will ensue and that we came not unsent for and that oftner than once or twice by your own Great Ones There being a Doubt made at these words Great Ones He reply'd your own Lords with farther Discourse These Words were complained of during the Treaty at Rippon to the English Lords Commissioners by two Gentlemen of the Bishoprick of Durham to whom the Words were spoken by Meldrum The Gentlemen were Mr. John Killinghall and Mr. Nicholas Chaytor and they offer'd to Testify the Words upon Oath But the Lords required them only to Write down those Words and set their Hands to them which they did very readily The Lords acquainted the Scotch Commissioners with the Words They sent to Newcastle to make them known to General Leshly He called his Secretary before him questioned him about the Words Meldrum denyed them was that enough against two such Witnesses This Denyal was put in Writing and sent to Rippon Hereupon some of the English Lords Commissioners required that the two Gentlemen should go to Newcastle to the Scotch Camp and there give in their Testimony before General Leshly The two Gentlemen replyed as they had great reason to do that they had rather testify it in any Court of England and could do it with more safety Yet they would go and testify it there so they might have a safe Conduct from the Scottish Commissioners there being as yet no Cessation of Arms. Answer was made by some English Lords that they should have a safe Conduct Hereupon one of the Kings Messengers attendant there was sent to the Scotch Commissioners for a safe Conduct for the Two Gentlemen He brought back Word from the Earl of Dumfermling to whom it was directed that the Two Gentlemen were unwise if they went to give such Testimony at the Camp And then speaking with the Lord Lowdon he came again to the Messenger and told him that such a safe Conduct could not be granted and that he would satisfy the Earl that sent for it who was Francis Earl of Bedford The Messenger returning with this Answer the Gentlemen were dismissed So the business dyed it being not for somebody's safety that this Examination should have proceeded for it is well enough known since that many had their hands in this Treason for Gross Treason it was by the express Words of the Statute of 25 Edw. 3. c. 2. The Truth of all this will be sworn to by both the Gentlemen yet living and by a very honest grave Divine who was present at all these Passages at Rippon and gave them to me in Writing In this Great Council while the Treaty was proceeding slowly enough it was agreed on that a Parliament should begin at London Nov. 3. following And thither the Commissioners and the Treaty were to follow and they did so After this how things proceeded in Parliament and how long the Scotch Army was continued and at how great a charge to the Kingdom appears olsewhere upon Record for I shall hasten to my own particular and take in no more of the Publick than Necessity shall inforce me to make my sad Story hang together
possess their Religion in Peace especially being against no worse Devices or no greater Novations than they have quarelled at in these Books Yet for all this I shall after make it appear that I kindled no War against them but kept it off from them as much and as long as I could And as themselves confess I was not the Sole so neither they nor any man else shall ever be able to prove I was the Principal Agent or Adviser of that War Yea but When by the Pacification at Barwick both Kingdoms looked for Peace and Quietness he spared not openly in the hearing of many often before the King and privately at the Council-Table and the Privy Junto to speak of us as of Rebels and Traytors and to speak against the Pacification as dishonourable and meet to be broke Neither did his malignancy and bitterness ever suffer him to rest till a new War was entred upon and all things prepared for our destruction This Article about the breach of the Pacification the Parliament of England have thought fit to make a part of their Charge against me And therefore I shall put off the main of my Answer till I come to those Articles In the mean time thus much in brief I shall say to some circumstantial things in this Charge And first I do not think that any thing can be said to be Privately spoken at the Council-Table that is openly delivered there in the hearing of his Majesty and all the Lords present And so was all which I spake there Secondly they say I did openly and often speak of them the Scots as of Rebels and Traytors That indeed is true I did so And I spake as I then thought and as I think still For it was as desperate a plotted Treason as ever was in any Nation And if they did not think so themselves what needed their Act of Oblivion in Scotland or the like in England to secure their Abetters here Thirdly For the Pacification at Barwick whatever I said touching the Dishonour of it as shall after appear yet no Man can truly Charge me that I said it was meet to be broken Fourthly I had no Malignity answerable to their bitterness against the Church of England nor did the entring upon a new War proceed from my Counsels nor did I give farther way to it than all the Lords of the Junto did Lastly it is manifest here how truly the King was dealt with on all Hands For here ye see they take on them to know not only what was done at the Council-Table but what was said also at the private Junto When in all that time his Majesty could get no information of any thing that proceeded in Scotland But they proceed yet farther against me By him was it that our Covenant approven by National Assemblies Subscribed by his Majesty's Commissioner and by the Lords of his Majesty's Council and by them commanded to be Subscribed by all the Subjects of the Kingdom as a Testimony of our Duty to God and the King By him was it still called Ungodly Damnable Treasonable By him were Oaths invented and pressed upon divers of our poor Countrymen upon the pain of Imprisonment and many other Miserie 's which were unwarranted by Law and contrary to their National Oath This their Covenant indeed as it was made at first without at least if not against the King I did utterly dislike And if I did say it was Vngodly Damnable and Treasonable I said no more than it deserved Nor was it any thing the better but much the worse if as it was so made at first it were approved by National Assemblies For that was but the greater sign that the Rebellious Faction grew stronger But I never found fault with their Covenant after they were pleased to take in the King and by his Authority signified by the Subscription of his Commissioner to do what was fit to be done Nor was there any Oath invented or pressed by me upon their Countrymen unwarrantable by Law for I neither invented nor pressed any But whatsoever was done in this kind was done by Publick Authority at the Council Table And if any Oath tendred to them there were contrary to their National Oath I doubt it will easily be found that their National Oath if such it be was contrary to their due and Natural Allegiance But what 's next Why this When our Commissioners did appear to render the Reasons of our demands he spared not in the presence of the King and the Committee to rail against our National Assembly as not daring to appear before the World and Kirks abroad where himself and his Actions were able to indure tryal And against our just and necessary Defence as the most malicious and treasonable Contempt of Monarchical Government that any by-gone Age had heard of His hand also was at the Warrant of Restraint and Imprisonment of our Commissioners sent from the Parliament warranted by the King and seeking the Peace of the Kingdom There are divers things in this part of the Charge And the first is that I railed at their National Assembly in the presence of the King and the Committee But that under favour is not so Nor is it my fashion to rail at any body much less in such a Presence I was then openly taxed and by Name by the L. Lowdon one of the Commissioners and that which I said in answer to him was in my own defence And it was to this effect That whatsoever their Assembly had concluded did not much move me For I did assure my self nothing they could say or do could sink my Credit in Christendom going upon grounds which would every where abide tryal And I somewhat doubted whether the Acts of their Assembly would do so since even at home not the Bishops only but the Learned Divines of Aberdeen opposed divers of them This was not railing against their Assembly And if it shall be thought too much to be spoken by though for my self I humbly desire the Christian Reader to remember That even S. Paul was forced to commend himself when false Brethren accused him 2 Cor. 12. Next they say I spake against their just and necessary defence Truly not I That which I spake was against their defence as being neither Just nor Necessary And if I then said speaking of things as they stood then that they were Treasonable Contempts of Monarchical Government then being such their defence of them could neither be Just nor Necessary And truly as they stood then I held them very desperate against the Honour and just Power of the King I say as they stood then For since his Majesty hath referred them to Honourable Commissioners of both Nations and out of his Clemency and Goodness hath admitted all or most of them which I believe few Kings would have done I have spoken nothing of them but in Prayer that God will graciously be pleased to turn all these things to the Good and
reduce them to the Heresies in Doctrine the Superstition and Idolatry in Worship and the Tyranny in Government which are in that See and for which the Reformed Kirks did separate from it and came forth of Babel From him certainly hath issued all this Deluge which almost hath overturned all What not the Pope himself now surely he could do little then For as I told you in the very last Passage I never intended more to the Reformed Churches than to wish them in Doctrine and Discipline like the Church of England And I hope that was neither to Negotiate for Rome nor to reduce them to Heresie in Doctrine nor to Superstition and Idolatry in Worship no nor to Tyranny in Government All which are here most wrongfully imputed to me And this comparing of me with the Pope himself I could bear with more ease had I not Written more against Popish Superstition than any Presbyter in Scotland hath done And for my part I wou'd be contented to lay down my Life to Morrow upon Condition the Pope and Church of Rome would admit and confirm that Service-Book which hath been here so eagerly charged against me For were that done it would give a greater blow to Popery which is but the Corruption of the Church of Rome than any hath yet been given And that they know full well And whereas they say that for these things the Reformed Churches did separate from it and came forth of Babel That is true that they did separate and for these things But not till for the maintaining of the contrary to these things they were Excommunicated and Thrust out Then indeed they separated but not till they were forced by a double necessity of Truth from which they might not depart and of that Punishment which would not suffer them to enter And yet the Reformed Churches all and every of them had need look well to themselves For if they came out of Babel to run down into Egypt they 'll get little by the Bargain Now they end in Confidence We are therefore confident that your Lordships this they speak to the English Commissioners who were to deliver this their Charge against me into the Lords House will by your means deal effectually with the Parliament that this great Fire-brand may be presently removed from his Majesties Presence and that he may be put to Tryal and have his deserved Censure according to the Laws of the Kingdom Which shall be good Service to God Honour to the King and Parliament Terror to the Wicked and Comfort to all good Men and to us in special who by his means principally have been put to so many and grievous Afflictions wherein we had Perished if God had not been with us Decemb. 14. 1640. Ad. Blayer They were and they might well be confident upon their Lordships For all or some chief of that Committee were in league with them And some of them the principal Men which brought the Scots in to have their ends upon the King And they did deal effectually with the Parliament For as appears by the Date this Charge was delivered to the English Commissioners Decemb. 14. It was Read in the upper House and transmitted to the House of Commons and such haste made of it there that they though they had no Articles drawn yet came up in haste and accused me to the Lords of High Treason desiring my Commitment and Promising the bringing up of their Articles and Proof against me in convenient time So upon this Accusation only I was upon Decemb. 18. committed to Mr. James Maxwell the Officer of the House and so removed from his Majesty's Presence which was the great aim against me For they conceiv'd I wou'd speak my Conscience if I came near him And they could not with any Colour of Justice take me from him but by an Accusation of High Treason of which I would not for all the World be as Guilty as some of them are which Accused me This was their desire for my Commitment Their next desire was That I might be brought to Tryal and receive my Censure according to the Laws And this hath been and yet is my desire as well as theirs For I long for nothing more than a Tryal and I can fear no Censure that is according to Law and am as free from the Breach of any Law that can make me guilty of Treason as I was when my Mother bare me into the World And when I was thus far on upon my Answer I had remained at Mr. Maxwell's and in the Tower Eleven Months so many it was when I writ this But before I came to my Hearing I had been Thirteen Months in Prison and neither brought to Tryal no nor so much as a Particular Charge brought up against me that I might prepare for an Answer in so heavy a Business And I am somewhat farther of my Accusers Mind That to bring me to a just Tryal according to Law would be good Service to God Honour to the King and the Parliament who cannot but suffer in the Judgment of Moderate Men for laying a Man of my Place and Calling so long in Prison a thing without all Precedent and yet charging me with no particular Nay and I think in a good Sense too it would be a Terrour to the Wicked to see an Innocent Man brought to such a Tryal Yea and yet a Comfort to all Good Men too when they see that an Innocent Man shall not be let lye and languish to Death in Prison which may be my Case for ought I see but that in some time they may hope for Tryal Yea and to them the Scots in special For this Bold and most true Word I 'll speak The Scottish Nation in general the City of Edinburgh in special and very many particular Men of good Worth and some Men of Honour besides Clergy-men of all sorts during the time I had Interest in Court have been more beholding to me than to any ten English Subjects of what rank and condition soever And this his Majesty knows and I dare say will Witness And for their present Afflictions which they speak of the Current of this Discourse will shew to the indifferent Reader what a Principal means I have been of them In the mean time I little deserved from them the Name of This great Firebrand for many of them have warmed themselves at me but yet I never Fired any of them Nor can I make any doubt but that God will deliver me out of the midst of this Fire which he knows I kindled not Howsoever letthem take heed for as sure as they now make themselves in the Conjuncture of a great Party in which one Wave seconds and keeps up another yet though these Waves of the Sea are mighty and rage horribly the Lord that dwelleth on High is Mightier And under him I rest and I hope shall till their Waves be broken against some Rock or other
maintained and Practised in all other Reformed Churches unless these Men be so strait Laced as not to admit the Churches of Sweden and Denmark and indeed all or most of the Lutherans to be Reformed Churches For in Sweden they retain both the Thing and the Name and the Governours of their Churches are and are called Bishops And among the other Lutherans the Thing is retained though not the Name For instead of Bishops they are called Superintendents and instead of Archbishops General Superintendents And yet even here too these Names differ more in sound than in sense For Bishop is the same in Greek that Superintendent is in Latin Nor is this change very well liked by the Learned Howsoever Luther since he would change the Name did yet very wisely that he would leave the Thing and make choice of such a name as was not altogether unknown to the Ancient Church For St. Augustine mentions it as plainly and as fully as any of these As for the Eminency which they say their Kirk of Scotland had amongst them I envy it not but God bless it so that it may deserve Eminence and have it And now we are come to the close of all in which their desire is expressed This also we represent to your Lordships most serious Consideration That not only the Fire-brands may be removed but the Fire may be provided against that there be no more Combustion afterwards Decemb. 15. 1640. Ad. Blayer Their request is That not only the Bishops whom they are pleased to call the Fire-brands which indeed themselves and their Adherents are but the Office or Episcopacy it self which they call the Fire may be provided against That there may be no combustion after This I as heartily wish as any Man can but see as little cause to hope for For what hope can there be against after-Combustion while the Fire which they themselves have kindled while they call other Men Incendiaries burns on still and is like to fasten upon the very Foundations to the eating of them out Yet I desire here that the Justice and the Indifferency of these Men may be well considered and that in two things The one in the Cause it self For Episcopacy is settled by Law here Nay it is many ways woven into the Laws and Customs of this Realm And their great Complaint is that their Presbyteries which they say are established by their Law were offer'd to be supprest So they are angry that their Presbyteries should be touch'd against their Law but Episcopacy must be destroyed though it be never so much against our Law The other piece of their Justice is Personal to me For here at one and the same time and in this one and the same Charge they do by Consequences lay load on me as if I had invaded their Laws while they invade ours avowedly and dare present this their Invasion as well as that by Arms in full and open Parliament of England to have their Will in the one and their Reward for the other Now if these two Forms of Ecclesiastical Government by Episcopacy and by Presbyteries be inconsistent under one Monarch as they themselves here confess then I were I at liberty would humbly beseech the Lords to consider First whether these men have any shew or colour of Justice in this their demand Secondly whether that Form of Church-Government which hath come down from the Apostles continued to this Day is established by the Laws and usage of this Kingdom ever since it was Christian be not fitter for them to embrace and settle than that Form which is but of Yesterday and hath no acquaintance at all with our Laws nor is agreeable with Monarchy And lastly when the Bishops are taken away and a Parity the Mother of confusion made in the Church and the Church-Lands Sacrilegiously made a Prey which I have long feared is not the least Aim of too many whether then the Temporal Lords shall not follow after And whether their Honour will not then soon appear too great and their Means too full till a Lex Agraria will pass upon them and lay them level with them whom some of them Favour too much And when these things are considered God Bless them whom it most concerns to lay it to Heart betimes if Time be not slipped already Here having answer'd to all which the Scots have laid in against me I would have the Scotch Service inserted and Printed The Book lyes by me very exactly translated into Latin And so I hope this Tract shall be CAP. V. AND now having answered and I hope sufficiently to all the Particulars in the Charge of the Scots against me I must return to the History again as I left it Where I told you the House of Commons were very angry with the late Canons and joyning this Accusation of the Scots to such Articles as they in their Committee had framed against me upon Decemb. 18. 1640. they accused me of High Treason †as is before expressed and I was committed to Custody to Mr. James Maxwell the Officer of the Vpper House When they had lodg'd me here I was follow'd with sharpness in both Houses upon all Occasions of any Complaint made against the proceedings at Council-Table Star-Chamber High-Commission or any place or thing in which I had ought to do Nothing omitted by some cunning Agents which might increase the Rage and Hatred of the People against me The chief Instruments herein were the Brownists and they which adhered unto them who were highly offended with me because I hindred and Punished as by Law I might their Conventicles and Separation from the Church of England And though I pitied them as God knows from my very Heart yet because necessity of Government forc'd me to some Punishment their Malignity never gave me over Among and above the rest there were three Men Mr. Henry Burton a Minister Benificed in Friday-street in London Dr. John Bastwick a Phisician and Mr. William Pryn a Common Lawyer who were censured Junii 14. 1637. in the Star-Chamber for notorious Libels Printed and Published by them against the Hierarchy of the Church They were then and there Sentenced to stand in the Pillory and lose their Ears and because they should not stay farther to infect London they were sent away by Order of that Court Mr. Burton to Garnsey Dr. Bastwick to Silly and Mr. Pryn to Jersy In the giving of this Sentence I spake my Conscience and was after commanded to Print my Speech But I gave no Vote because they had fallen so personally upon me that I doubted many Men might think Spleen and not Justice led me to it Nor was it my Counsel that advised their sending into those remote Parts The Brownists and the preciser Part of the Kingdom were netled at this and the Anger turned upon me tho' I were the Patient all along For they had published most venomous Libels against me and I did but shew such as came
to my Hands to the State and there left them to do what they pleased in it But that for which they were Sentenced was a Book Written by Mr. Burton and Printed and sent by himself to the Lords sitting in Council and a Letany and other Scandalous things scattered and avowed by Dr. 〈◊〉 and things of like nature by Mr. Pryn. And he was thought to deserve less Favour than the rest because he had been censured before in that great Court for gross abuses of the Queens Gracious Majesty and the Government in his Book Intituled Histriomastix This Censure being past upon these Men though I did no more than is before mentioned yet they and that Faction continued all manner of Malice against me And I had Libel upon Libel scattered in the Streets and pasted upon Posts And upon Friday July 7. 1637. a Note was brought to me of a short Libel pasted on the Cross in Cheapside that the Arch-Wolf of Canterbury had his Hand in persecuting the Saints and shedding the Blood of the Martyrs Now what kind of Saints and Martyrs these were may appear by their Libellous Writings Courses with which Saints and Martyrs were never acquainted And most certain it is that howsoever the Times went then or go now yet in Queen Elizabeth's Time Penry was Hanged and Vdal Condemned and Dyed in Prison for less than is contained in Mr. Burton's Book as will be evident to any Man that compares their Writings together And these Saints would have lost their Lives had they done that against any other State Christian which they did against this And I have yet one of the desperatest Libels by me that hath ordinarily been seen which was sealed up in form of a Letter and sent to me by Mr. Pryn with his Name to it And but that it is exceeding long and from the present business I would here have inserted it To return then The Faction of the Brownists and these three Saints with their Adherents for they were now set at Liberty by the House of Commons and brought into London in great Triumph filled the Press almost Daily with Ballads and Libels full of all manner of Scurrility and more Untruth both against my Person and my Calling These were cried about London-streets and brought many of them to Westminster and given into divers Lords Hands and into the Hands of the Gentlemen of the House of Commons And yet no Order taken by either House to suppress the Printing of such known and shameless Lyes as most of them contained A thing which many sober Men found much fault withall and which I believe hath hardly been seen or suffered in any Civil Common-wealth Christian or other But when I saw the Houses of Parliament so regardless of their own Honour to suffer these base and Barbarous Courses against an Innocent Man and as then not so much as Charged in general I thought fit to arm my self with Patience and endure that which I could not help And by God's Blessing I did so though it grieved me much more for my Calling than for my Person And this spreading of Libellous Base Pamphlets continues to this Day without controul and how long it will continue to the Shame of the Nation I cannot tell While I was thus committed to Mr. Maxwell I found I was by the course of the House to pay in Fees for my Dyet and Custody Twenty Nobles a day This grew very heavy For I was stayed there full ten weeks before so much as any General Charge was brought up by the House of Commons against me which in that time came to Four Hundred Sixty Six Pound Thirteen Shillings and Four Pence And Mr. Maxwell had it all without any Abatement In the mean time on Munday December 21. upon a Petition of Sir Robert Howard I was Condemned to pay Five Hundred Pounds unto him for false Imprisonment And the Lords Order was so strict that I was commanded to pay him the Money presently or give Security to pay it in a very short time I payed it to satisfie the Command of the House but was not therein so well advised as I might have been being Committed for Treason Now the Cause of Sir Robert Howard was this He fell in League with the Lady Viscountess Purbeck The Lord Viscount Purbeck being in some weakness and distemper the Lady used him at her pleasure and betook her self in a manner wholly to Sir Robert Howard and had a Son by him She was delivered of this Child in a Clandestine way under the Name of Mistress Wright These things came to be known and she was brought into the High-Commission and there after a Legal Proceeding was found guilty of Adultery and Sentenced to do Pennance Many of the great Lords of the Kingdom being present in Court and agreeing in the Sentence Upon this Sentence she withdrew her self to avoid the Penance This Sentence passed at London-House in Bishop Mountain's time Novemb. 19. An. Dom. 1627. I was then present as Bishop of Bath and Wells After this when the Storm was somewhat over Sir Robert Howard conveyed her to his House at ....... in Shropshire where she Lived avowedly with him some Years and had by him ... Children At last they grew to that open boldness that he brought her up to London and lodged her in Westminster This was so near the Court and in so open view that the King and the Lords took notice of it as a thing full of Impudence that they should so publickly adventure to outface the Justice of the Realm in so fowl a business And one day as I came of course to wait on his Majesty he took me aside and told me of it being then Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and added that it was a great Reproach to the Church and Nation and that I neglected my Duty in case I did not take order for it I made answer she was the Wife of a Peer of the Realm and that without his leave I could not attach her but that now I knew his Majesty's pleasure I would do my best to have her taken and brought to Penance according to the Sentence against her The next day I had the good hap to apprehend both Her and Sir Robert and by Order of the High-Commission-Court Imprisoned her in the Gate-House and him in the Fleet. This was as far as I remember upon a Wednesday and the Sunday sevennight after was thought upon her to bring to Penance She was much troubled at it and so was he And therefore in the middle of the week following Sir Robert dealt with some of his Friends and among the rest with one Sir ....... of Hampshire who with Mony corrupted the Turn-Key of the Prison so they call him and conveyed the Lady forth and after that into France in Man's Apparel as that Knight himself hath since made his boast This was told me the Morning after the escape And you must think the good Fellowship of the Town was
serve turns and to be carried about with every wind of vain Doctrine to serve and please other Mens Fancies and not a Man 's own either Understanding or Conscience Seventhly I think the greatest Enemies I have are of Opinion that if I would have turned to the Roman Party especially if I would have been such an active Instrument for them as this Article would make me I might have been welcome to them and should have been rewarded by them at least that I should have been made able to live in Credit if not in Honour And this being granted I would fain know what could stay me here save only my Conscience in and to the Truth Surely not any care of Wife and Children for I have them not And as this Storm drives upon me I most humbly and heartily bless God for it that I have not any of these Clogs to hang about me Not the Greatness of my Place For if in this present Tumble any thing be put either upon it or me that a knowing Conscience ought to check at the World shall soon see how little I value Canterbury in regard of Conscience Not the Honour of my place neither For if I stood upon that I cannot but see how Malice hath laid that in the Dust or lower if it may be And can any Man think then that I would indure so much hatred and so many base Libels as have filled the Streets against me and such bitter revilings of me in Print as the Gall of some Pens have cast upon me when I might go live elsewhere with Content and Reputation Sure nothing but Conscience could stay me here in such a Condition Not the Wealth to be gotten in my place For the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury is far short of the value put upon it according as I have given a faithful Account to his Majesty And if it were of never so great a value I have made it manifest to the World that Wealth is not my aim For whatsoever benefit hath accrewed to me over and above my necessary and decent Expences I have refunded back upon the Poor or the Publick or the Church from whence I had it as in better times Church-Men were wont to do So there could be no external motive to work upon me to make me stay here if my Conscience went along with Rome And my Conscience being not that way set as most certainly it is not no Man can so much as probably think I should with hazard of my Life and Honour and all things practise the Change of Religion and that against my Conscience Eighthly This scandalous false Report that I should Negotiate with the Pope and with Rome for the Change of Religion in this Kingdom was first spread by the Scots who shamelesly Printed it in these words Canterbury did Negotiate with Rome about the frame of our Service-Book and Canons c. Now if this be false why did they Print it And if it be true why do they desert it It comes a great deal more home than double all else they have said against me And yet it seems when they had considered better of it and found they could not make it good they left it quite out of those Articles which they preferred into the Parliament of England against me And I presume they would never have left that out which they had published in Print to the World could they have gotten any shew of Proof Immediately upon the arrival of this Pamphlet in England Court City and Country grew presently full of it that the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had Negotiated with Rome about the alteration of Religion And since they have thus Defamed me and that in Print I do challenge Mr. Alexander Henderson who doubtless was either sole Author of that Remonstrance or had a great hand in it either to make it good against me or by like Publick acknowledgment of it in Print give me satisfaction for so foul a Calumny or to answer me when I shall not fail to challenge him for it at the Bar of Christ. Lastly I received Information out of Holland when his Majesty was last in the North that there was a Plot laid of a dangerous Treason against his Majesty's Life That this Treason was plotted here in England by Signior Con and his Complices and that these Contrivers took a deep dislike against me because they could not get within me nor make me pliable to their Projects about Religion and that they were so angry with me for it as that they resolved my Life must be first taken away before they could hope to get their Will of the King This Advertisement came to me from one that professed he was in the Bosom of Con and knew all the Secrets of his Imployments hither This business was first made known under an Oath of 〈◊〉 as I remember to Sir William Boswell his Majesty's Agent in Holland and it was ordered between them that his Papers should be sent over sealed to me as they were and that by an Express and a Charge to deliver them to no Hand but mine as he tendred the King's safety in regard so many Great Men were as he said in the Treason I sent away these Letters and Papers to his Majesty's own Hands and received direction what Answer I should give to Sir William Boswell At his Majesty's return at the beginning of this Parliament he named a Committee of Lords to hear this business and commanded me to bring the Papers thither This I did and they were all Read before his Majesty and the Committee Sir William Boswell's Letters and the other Papers are yet all in my Hands but it seems the Particulars could not all be got out Now this is a hard straight into which I am cast The Pope's Agent as 't is said plots my Death on the one side because I will not be wrought upon to help to bring in the Roman Superstition and the Parliament on the other side Articles to overthrow me out of a Jealousie that I go about to bring it in So that I am in the Prophet David's Case Ps. 31. For I also have heard the Blasphemy of the Multitude and fear is on every side while they conspire together against me and take their Counsel to take away my Life But my hope hath been and is in thee O Lord. And for the latter part of this Article it is utterly untrue that ever I either permitted or countenanced any Popish Hierarchy or Ecclesiastical Government to be Established in this Kingdom And if any such be Established it is more than I know to this Instant But this I am sure of and can prove that when the Queen's Almoner was to be made a Bishop I laboured as much against it as I could Whereupon he delayed the taking of his Bishoprick upon him for a good time And when divers Offers were made on his behalf and the Queen grew earnest for his Preferment I was called again
I ever pressed the Argument alike against both as I can prove by good Witness if need be And I pray God this Faction too little feared and too much nourished among us have not now found the Opportunity waited for 3. That they live here and enjoy all freedom and yet for the most part scorn so much as to learn the Language or to converse with any more than for advantage of Bargaining And will take no Englishman to be their Apprentice nor teach them any of their Manufactures which I did then and do still think most unreasonable 4. That for Religion if after so many descents of their Children born in the Land and so Native Subjects these Children of theirs should refuse to Pray and Communicate with the Church of England into whose bosom their Parents fled at first for succour I thought then and do still that no State could with safety or would in Wisdom endure it And this concerning their Children was all that was desired by me As appears by the Act which my Vicar General made concerning those Churches at Canterbury Sandwitch and Maidstone in my Diocess and the Publication of this Act in their Congregations by their own Ministers in this Form following I am commanded to signifie unto you that it is not his Majesty's intent nor of the Council of State to dissolve our Congregations And to that end his Majesty is content to permit the Natives of the first degree to continue Members of our Congregations as before But the Natives in this Church after the first descent are injoyned to obey my Lord Arch-Bishop his Injunction which is to conform themselves to the English Discipline and Liturgy every one in his Parish without inhibiting them notwithstanding from resorting sometimes to our Assemblies And my Lord Arch-Bishop of 〈◊〉 means notwithstanding that the said Natives shall continue to contribute to the Maintenance of the Ministry and Poor of this Church for the better subsisting thereof And promiseth to obtain an Order from the Council if need be and they require it to maintain them in their Manufactures against those which would trouble them by Informations Now that which I injoyned the French and Dutch Churches was to a syllable all one with this in all parts of my Province where these Churches resided As at South-hampton and Norwich And I have a Letter to shew full of thanks from the Ministers and Elders of the French and Walloon-Churches at Norwich All which is far from an endeavour to suppress any just Priviledges and Immunities which these Churches had in England or ought to have in any well-governed Kingdom And since this time I have not only seen but gotten the very Original Letter of Queen Elizabeth of Happy Memory written to the Lord Treasurer Pawlet specifying what Order she would should be taken with and for these Churches The Letter is Signed with her Majesty 's own Hand and Signet and gives them not half so much Liberty I do not say as they take but as I have been ever most content to give them For the Queen in these Letters allows them nothing contrary to her Laws and therefore nothing but our Liturgy in their own Language not another Form of Divine Service and Discipline much different from it This was the Wisdom of those times which I pray God we may follow The Queen's Letter follows in these words Elizabeth RIght Trusty and right well-beloved Cozen we greet you well Whereas in the time of our Brother and Sister also the Church of the late Augustine Fryars was appointed to the use of all the Strangers reparing to the City of London for to have therein Divine Service considering that by an Universal Order all the rest of the Churches have the Divine Service in the English Tongue for the better edifying of the People which the Strangers Born understand not Our Pleasure is that you shall Assign and Deliver the said Church and all things thereto belonging to the Reverend Father in God the Bishop of London to be appointed to such Curates and Ministers as he shall think good to serve from time to time in the same Churches both for daily Divine Service and for Administration of the Sacraments and Preaching of the Gospel so as no Rite nor Use be therein observed contrary or derogatory to our Laws And these our Letters shall be your sufficient Warrant and Discharge in that behalf Given under Our Signet at Our Palace of Westminster the ...... of February the Second Year of our Reign To our Trusty and right well beloved Cousin and Counsellor the Marquess of Winchester High Treasurer of England 13. He hath maliciously and Trayterously Plotted and endeavoured to stir up War and Enmity betwixt his Majesty's two Kingdoms of England and Scotland and to that purpose hath laboured to introduce into the Kingdom of Scotland divers Innovations both in Religion and Government all or the most part tending to Popery and Superstition to the great Grievance and Discontent of his Majesty's Subjects of that Nation And for their refusing to submit to such Innovations he did trayterously Advise his Majesty to Subdue them by Force of Arms And by his own Authority and Power contrary to Law did procure sundry of his Majesty's Subjects and inforced the Clergy of this Kingdom to contribute toward the Maintenance of that War And when his Majesty with much Wisdom and Justice had made a Pacification betwixt the two Kingdoms the said Arch-Bishop did presumptuously censure that Pacification as Dishonourable to his Majesty and by his Counsel and Endeavours so incensed his Majesty against his said Subjects of Scotland that he did thereupon by Advice of the said Arch-Bishop enter into an offensive War against them to the great 〈◊〉 of his Majesty's Person and his Subjects of both Kingdoms I did not Endeavour to stir up War between his Majesty's two Kingdoms of England and Scotland but my Counsels were for Peace As may appear by the Counsel which I gave at Theobalds in the beginning of these unhappy Differences For there my Counsel only put a stay upon the Business in hope his Majesty might have a better Issue without than with a War And if I were mistaken in this Counsel yet it agreed well with my Profession and with the Cause which was differences in Religion which I conceived might better be composed by Ink than by Blood And I think it cannot easily be forgotten that I gave this Counsel For my Lord the Earl of Arundel opposed me openly at the Table then and said my Grounds would deceive me And my Lord the Earl of Holland came to me so soon as we were risen from Counsel and was pleased to say to me that I had done my self and my Calling a great deal of Right and the King my Master the best Service that ever I did him in my Life And Mr. Patrick Male of his Majesty's Bed-chamber when he heard what I had done came and gave me
a great deal of Thanks in the Name of that Nation Nor did I labour to introduce into the Kingdom of Scotland any Innovations in Religion or Government Neither do all or the most part or indeed any of those pretended Innovations tend to Popery or Superstition as hath before been sufficiently proved Neither did I upon their refusal to submit to these Advise his Majesty to Subdue them by force of Arms but the Counsels which I gave were open either at the Committee or the Council-Table Neither did I by my own Power and Authority contrary to Law procure any of his Majesty's Subjects or inforce the Clergy of England to contribute to the maintenance of that War But the Subsidies which were given to his Majesty at that time were given freely and in open Convocation and without any practice of my self or any other as appears by what I have formerly laid down But because so much noise hath been made against me both in the Scottish Charge before answered and in this Article about Popish Innovations in that Service-Book and that I laboured the introducing both of it and them I think it fit if not necessary to set down briefly the Story what was done and what I did and by what Command in all that Business And it follows Dr. John Maxwel the late Bishop of Ross came to me from his Majesty it was during the time of a great and dangerous Fever under which I then laboured It was in the Year 1629. in August or September which come that time is Thirteen Years since The Cause of his coming was to speak with me about a Liturgy for Scotland At his coming I was so extream Ill that I saw him not And had Death which I then expected daily as did my Friends and Physicians also seized on me I had not seen this heavy time After this when I was able to sit up he came to me again and told me it was his Majesty's Pleasure that I should receive Instructions from some Bishops of Scotland concerning a Liturgy for that Church and that he was imployed from my Lord the Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews and other Prelates there about it I told him I was clear of Opinion that if his Majesty would have a Liturgy setled there it were best to take the English Liturgy without any variation that so the same Service-Book might be established in all his Majesty's Dominions Which I did then and do still think would have been a great Happiness to this State and a great Honour and Safety to Religion To this he replyed that he was of a contrary Opinion and that not he only but the Bishops of that Kingdom thought their Country-men would be much better satisfied it a Liturgy were framed by their own Clergy than to have the English Liturgy put upon them yet he added that it might be according to the Form of our English Service-Book I answered to this that if this were the Resolution of my Brethren the Bishops of Scotland I would not entertain so much as Thoughts about it till I might by God's Blessing have Health and Opportunity to wait upon his Majesty and receive his farther directions from himself When I was able to go abroad I came to his Majesty and represented all that had passed His Majesty avowed the sending of Dr. Maxwell to me and the Message sent by him But then he inclined to my Opinion to have the English Service without any alteration to be established there And in this Condition I held that Business for two if not three Years at least Afterwards the Scottish Bishops still pressing his Majesty that a Liturgy Framed by themselves and in some few things different from ours would relish better with their Countrymen They at last prevailed with his Majesty to have it so and carried it against me notwithstanding all I could say or do to the contrary Then his Majesty Commanded me to give the Bishops of Scotland my best Assistance in this Way and Work I delayed as much as I could with my Obedience and when nothing would serve but it must go on I confess I was then very serious and gave them the best help I could But wheresoever I had any doubt I did not only acquaint his Majesty with it but Writ down most of the Amendments or Alterations in his Majesty's Presence And I do verily believe there is no one thing in that Book which may not stand with the Conscience of a right Good Protestant Sure I am his Majesty approved them all and I have his Warrant under his Royal Hand for all that I did about that Book And to the end the Book may be extant and come to the view of the Christian World and their Judgment of it be known I have caused it to be exactly Translated into Latin and if right be done it shall be Printed with this History This was that which I did concerning the Matter and Substance of this Service-Book As for the way of Introducing it I ever advised the Bishops both in his Majesty's Presence and at other times both by Word and by Writing that they would look carefully to it and be sure to do nothing about it but what should be agreeable to the Laws of that Kingdom And that they should at all times be sure to take the Advice of the Lords of his Majesty's Council in that Kingdom and govern themselves and their Proceedings accordingly Which Course if they have not followed that can no way reflect upon me who have both in this and all things else been as careful of their Laws as any Man who is a Stranger to them could be And in a Letter of mine after my last coming out of Scotland thus I wrote to the late Reverend Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews Septemb. 30. 1633. concerning the Liturgy That whether that of England or another were resolved on yet 〈◊〉 should proceed Circumspectly Because his Majesty had no intendment to do any thing but that which was according to Honour and Justice and the Laws of that Kingdom And a Copy of this Letter I have yet by me to shew And for the truth of this Narration I know His Majesty and my Lord of Ross himself will avow it And here I take leave to acquaint the Reader That this was no new Conceit of His Majesty to have a Liturgy framed and Canons made for the Church of Scotland For he followed his Royal Father King James his Example and Care therein who took Order for both at the Assembly of Perth An. 1618. And now to return again to the Article There is one Charge more in it and that 's concerning the Pacification made the 〈◊〉 Year The Article says I did Censure it as Dishonourable and Advise for a new War But I did neither That which I spake was openly at the Council-Table and in His Majesty's presence And it was this There arose a debate at the Table about these Affairs and the Pacification and I
Religion to let you know that their said Lordships have assigned and appointed you to attend on them as Assistant in that Committee And to let you know in general that their Lordships do intend to examine all Innovations in Doctrine or Discipline introduced into the Church without Law since the Reformation and if their Lordships shall in their Judgments find it behoveful for the good of the Church and State to Examine after that the degrees and perfection of the Reformation it self Which I am directed to intimate unto you that you may prepare your Thoughts Studies and Meditations accordingly Expecting their Lordships pleasure for the particular points as they shall arise and giving you to understand that their Lordships next sitting is upon Friday next in the Afternoon I recommend you to God's protection being Your very loving Friend and Brother Jo. Lincoln West Coll. 12 Martij 1640. To my very loving Friends and Brethren Dr. Brownrig Mr. Shute Dr. Featly Mr. Calamy Dr. Hacket Mr. White Dr. Westfield Mr. Marshal Dr. Burges What use will be made of this Committee for the present I shall expect but what it shall produce in future I dare not prophesie But it may be it will prove in time superiour to the National Synods of England And what that may work in this Church and State God knows I setled my self in my Lodging in the Tower where I yet am and pass my weary time as well as I can On Saturday Mar. 13. Divers Lords dined with the Lord Herbert Son to the Earl of Worcester at his new House by Fox-Hall in Lambeth As they came back after Dinner three young Lords were in a Boat together and St. Paul's Church was in their Eye Hereupon one of them said he was sorry for my Commitment if it were but for the building of St. Pauls which would go but slowly on there-while The Lord Brook who was one of the three replyed I hope one of us shall live to see no one stone left upon another of that building This was told and avowed by one of the Lords present And when I heard it I said now the Lord forbid and bless his poor Church in this Kingdom CAP. IX ON Munday Mar. 22. the Earl of Strafford's Tryal began in Westminster-Hall And it continued with some few Intermissions till the end of April The Earl got all the time a great deal of Reputation by his Patient yet Stout and clear Answers and changed many Understanding Mens Minds concerning him Insomuch that the great Lawyers of his Council affirmed there openly That there was no Treason appearing to them by any Law Upon this the House of Commons who were all the while present in a Body left the Hall and instead of leaving the whole Cause to the Judgment of the Lords in the ordinary Way of Parliaments betook themselves to their Legislative Power and so passed a Bill of Attainder against him and having none made a Law to take away his Life This Bill was denyed by two or three and fifty as able Men as any in the House of Commons But the Faction grew so hot that all their Names were Pasted up at the Exchange under the Title of Straffordians thereby to increase the Hatred of the People both against him and them and the Libels multiplyed This Bill went on with great haste and earnestness which the King observing and loth to lose so great and good a Servant his Majesty came into the House of Lords and there upon Saturday Maii 1. Declared unto both Houses how carefully he had heard and observed all the Charge against the Earl of Strafford for he was present at every Days Hearing and found that his Fault whatever it were could not amount to Treason And added That if they meant to proceed by Bill it must pass by him and that he could not in his Conscience find him guilty nor would ever wrong his Honour or his Conscience so far as to pass such a Bill or to that Effect But advised them to proceed by way of Misdemeanour and he would concur with them in any Sentence This displeased mightily and I verily think it hastened the Earl's Death And indeed to what end should the King come voluntarily to say this and there unless he would have abode by it whatever came And it had been far more Regal to reject the Bill when it had been brought to him his Conscience standing so as his Majesty openly professed it did than to make this Honourable Preface and let the Bill pass after The House of Commons and some Lords too it seems eagerly bent against the Earl of Strafford seeing by this the King 's bent grew more sharp and pursued the Bill the more violently In so much that within two or three Days after some Citizens of London and Prentices came down in Multitudes to the Parliament called there for Justice and pretended all Trade was stopp'd till Justice was done upon the Earl of Strafford Who brought on the People to this way I would not tell you if I did certainly know but wise Men see that plain enough without telling These People press upon the Lords in a way unknown in the English Government yea or in any setled Government in Christendom In conclusion they are taught to threaten the King and his Court in a strange Manner if they may not have speedy Justice The Bill comes up to the Lords when the House was none of the fullest but what made so many absent I know not and there it past And upon Sunday May 9. the King was so laid at and so frighted with these Bugbears that if Justice were not done and the Bill Passed for the Earl of Strafford's Execution the Multitude would come the Next Day and pull down White-Hall and God knows what might become of the King himself that these fears prevailing his Majesty gave way and the Bill passed and that Night late Sir Dudly Carlton one of the Clerks of the Council was sent to the Tower to give the Earl warning that he must prepare to Dye the Wednesday Morning following The Earl of Strafford received the Message of Death with great Courage yet Sweetness as Sir Dudly himself after told me On Munday Morning the Earl sent for the Lord Primate of Armagh to come to him He came and the same Day visited me and gave me very high Testimony of the Earl's Sufficiency and Resolution And among the rest this That he never knew any Lay-man in all his Life that so well and fully understood Matters of Divinity as the Earl did and that his Resolutions were as firm and as good In this Interim before the Day of his Death he made by his Friends two Suits to his Majesty The one that he might Dye privately within the Tower the other That his Death might be Respited till the Saturday that he might have a little more time to settle his Estate His Majesty sent these Requests to the Houses
Answer was returned to the first That the People would not besatisfied nor believe he was Dead unless they saw him Dye publickly And to the second That time enough was given already and that if any farther delay were used the People would think Justice should not be done at all and resort thither again in Multitudes to the hazzard of Publick Peace The Earl made these two Suits and in the mean time one Offer was made to him It was this That if he would employ his Power and Credit with the King for the taking of Episcopacy out of the Church he should yet have his Life His Christian Answer was very Heroical Namely That he would not buy his Life at so dear a rate The Man that sent him this Message was his Brother-in-Law Mr. Denzill Hollis one of the great Leading Men in the House of Commons And my Lord Primate of Armagh avowed this from the Earl of Strafford's own Mouth And as he was of too Generous a Spirit to lye basely so being in preparing of himself to leave the World it cannot be thought he would with a Dying-Mouth bely his Brother These Answers being returned the Earl prepared himself And upon Wednesday Morning about Ten of the Clock being May the Twelfth he was Beheaded on the Tower-Hill many Thousands beholding him The Speech which he made at his End was a great Testimony of his Religion and Piety and was then Printed And in their Judgment who were Men of Worth and some upon some near the Scaffold and saw him Dye he made a Patient and Pious and Couragious end insomuch that some doubted whether his Death had more of the Roman or the Christian in it it was so full of both And notwithstanding this hard Fate which fell upon him he is dead with more Honour than any of them will gain who hunted after his Life Thus ended the Wiseest the Stoutest and every way the Ablest Subject that this Nation hath bred these many Years The only Imperfections which he had that were known to me were his want of Bodily Health and a Carelesness or rather Roughness not to oblige any And his Mishaps in this last Action were that he groan'd under the Publick Envy of the Nobles served a Mild and a Gracious Prince who knew not how to be or be made great and trusted false perfidious and cowardly Men in the Northern Imployment though he had many Doubts put to him about it This Day was after called by divers Homicidium Comitis Straffordiae the Day of the Murder of Strafford Because when Malice it self could find no Law to put him to Death they made a Law of purpose for it God forgive all and be Merciful The Earl being thus laid low and his great Services done in Ireland made part of his Accusation I cannot but observe two things The one That upon Sunday Morning before Francis Earl of Bedford having about a Month before lost his second Son in whom he most Joyed Dyed the Small Pox striking up into his Brain This Lord was one of the Main Plotters of Strafford's Death And I know where he with other Lords before the Parliament Sat down resolved to have his Blood But God would not let him Live to take Joy therein but cut him off in the Morning whereas the Bill for the Earl of Strafford's Death was not Signed till Night The other is That at this time the Parliament tender'd two and but two Bills to the King to Sign This to cut off Strafford's Head was one and the other was that this Parliament should neither be Dissolved nor Adjourned but by the consent of both Houses in which what he cut off from himself Time will better shew than I can God Bless the King and his Royal Issue I told you before the People came in a Tumultuous Way to call for Justice And half an Eye may see how and by whom they were set on In the mean time let me tell you farther that this Art being once begun without Consideration of the Danger or Care of the Dishonour of such Proceedings whensoever there was any thing proposed in the House of Commons which it was thought the Lords would stick at or the King not grant by and by the Rabble came about the Houses and called for this and that Justice as they were prompted God Bless the Government of this Kingdom or all is lost I must tell you farther that from the time that the Earl of Strafford was first brought to his Answer in Westminster-Hall the bitter and fierce Libels of the factious People came daily out to keep up and increase the Peoples Hate against him And though they were full of most notorious Untruths yet coming from that Party were swallowed and believed by the most Among divers others they spread one in which they delivered to the World that the Earl of Strafford drawing near to his End when he saw no Remedy but he must Dye fell into great and passionate Expressions against me That I and my Counsels had been the Ruine of him and his House and that he cursed me bitterly Now as this is most false in it self so am I most able to make it appear so For his Lordship being to Suffer on the Wednesday Morning did upon Tuesday in the Afternoon desire the Lord Primate of Armagh then with him to come to me and desire me that I would not fail to be in my Chamber Window at the open Casement the next Morning when he was to pass by it as he went to Execution that though he might not speak with me yet he might see me and take his last leave of me I sent him word I would and did so And the next Morning as he passed by he turned towards me and took the Solemnest leave that I think was ever by any at distance taken one of another and this in the sight of the Earl of Newport then Lord Constable of the Tower the Lord Primate of Armagh the Earl of Cleveland the Lieutenant of the Tower and divers other Knights and Gentlemen of Worth Besides though during the time of both our Restraints and the nearness of our Lodgings we held no Intercourse each with other yet Sir William Balfore then Lieutenant of the Tower told me often what frequent and great expressions of Love the Earl made to me Which cannot stand with that base Slander which the lewd Libel vented But I leave that Honourable Person in his Grave and while I live shall Honour his Memory But must here a little go back For May the first after the King had declared his Conscience and his Judgment concerning the Earl of Strafford's Offences to both Houses as is before set down and was gone away a Letter was read in the Vpper House from the Scots in which their Army did earnestly desire to be gone It was moved to have a present Conference with the Commons about it and the Debate was very short many Lords being desirous
to lay hold of that Opportunity to be rid of the Scots But so good and so quick was the Intelligence from some of the Lords that the House of Commons was risen before the Messengers from the Lords could get thither and so the Conference was not only prevented but things so ordered that the Scots stayed in England till the middle of August following at a marvellous great Charge to the Kingdom and with what Wrong and Dishonour to King and Kingdom let Posterity Judge Before the Death of the Earl of Strafford the Libels came out thick and very Malitious against him And all this to whet the Malice that was against him and make the People more greedy for his Death But no sooner was he gone into his Rest but the Libellers which during that time reviled him fell on me and no question but to the same end And the Libels and Ballads against me were frequently spread through the City and sung up and down the Streets And I thank God for it they were as full of Falshood as Gall. Besides they made base Pictures of me putting me into a Cage and fastning me to a Post by a Chain at my Shoulder and the like And divers of these Libels made Men sport in Taverns and Alehouses where too many were as Drunk with Malice as with the Liquor they sucked in Against which my only Comfort was that I was fallen but into the same Case with the Prophet David Psal. 69. For they that sat in the Gate spake against me and I was the Song of the Drunkards About this time I fell into a Tertian Ague which was Comfortless in a Prison But I humbly Praise God for it after seven or eight Fits he restored me to my Health the only Comfort which I have under him in this time of my Affliction CAP. X. UPon Wednesday June 23. I acquainted His Majesty by my Lord of London that now I had answered all Complaints come against me concerning the Vniversity of Oxford I thought it requisite for me to Resign the Chancellorship of that place And I gave His Majesty such Reasons as he approved for my so doing And the truth is I suffered much by the Clamours of the Earl of Pembroke who thought it long till he had that place which he had long gaped for And after the Cloud was once spread over me spared me in no Company though I had in all the time of my Prosperity observed him in Court more than ever he had deserved of me And I had reason notwithstanding all his causless Heat to keep the place till I had justified my self against the Towns-Mens Petition to the Lords wherein they Charged me with no less than Treason for setting out a Proclamation about Regulating the Market in my own Name But I made it appear to the Lords that I did no more therein than the Earl of Leicester in Queen Elizabeth's time or the Earl of Dorset in King James his time did before me when they were Chancellors of that Vniversity And I was able to shew the Lords and did so the Copies of both their several Proclamations in Print in their own Names And farther I made appear by the Vniversity Records that the Chancellors for the time being had frequently done it ever since the time of King Edward 3 And that the Lord Mayor of London and other Mayors having the Clark-ship of the Market as the Chancellors of Oxford have and not the Mayor do it daily So this great and most Malicious Complaint of the City of Oxford vanished when they and some body else for them had shewed their Teeth but could not bite But having ended this Business and my Vice-Chancellor whom I was not willing to Expose to anothers hand had finished his Year and that according to Duty I had given His Majesty an Account of the Business I pursued my Resolution And upon Friday June the 25th I sent down my Resignation of the Chancellorship of Oxford to be Published in Convocation which was done accordingly and the Earl of Pembroke had his desires and was chosen into it God bless the Vniversity there-while and grant they may never have need of me now unable to help them On Tuesday August 10. His Majesty rode away Post into Scotland the Parliaments Sitting in both Kingdoms and the Armies not yet dissolved There was great Scanning about this Journey And the House of Commons sent some Commissioners thither as the Scots had some here Among the Scotch Commissioners the Prime Man was the Earl of Róthes who also was one of the greatest and most Zealous Leaders of the Scottish Rebellion under the pretence of Religion and a deadly Enemy to the Earl of Strafford and was heard to say more than once they would have his Head And they had it But much about this time Rothes his Zeal was so hot among the Ladies and the Citizens Wives that he fell very foully into the Pox And divers of his Friends as they told me themselves going to visit him were not admitted to see him and at last he was conveyed from London to Richmond by his Aunt the Lady Roxborough where he dyed But this base and dishonourable End of his in Rottenness they concealed as much as they could What the King did in Scotland hath no Relation for ought I yet hear to this poor Story of mine And the Parliament here made a Recess Aug. ... till Octob. ..... leaving a considerable Committee Sitting to prepare Business against the House met again During this Recess there was all silence concerning me And as is conceived upon this Ground Because before the Recess the Committee appointed for that Business failed in some Proofs which they well hoped should have reached me home in Matters of Religion and thereupon have done little since And the Libels since that time have neither been so frequent nor so Malicious against me God quiet this Storm though I praise God I know not why it was raised so high against me On Thursday September 23 1641. Mr Adam Torless my Ancient Loving and Faithful Servant and then my Steward after he had served me full Forty and Two Years dyed to my great both loss and grief For all my Accounts since my Commitment were in his Hands and had he not been a very Honest and Careful Man I must have suffered much more than I did yet I suffered enough besides the loss of his Person who was now become almost the only Comfort of my Affliction and my Age. So true it is that Afflictions seldom come single CAP. XI DUring the Recess of the Parliament Sir Hen Martyn dyed and I made Dr Merricke Judge of the Prerogative Dr Duck missing his hopes of this Office by his own absence and default and finding me under this thick Cloud hoped to have wrested this Office out of my Hands and his to whom I had given it This was one of the basest and most ungrateful parts that
Gifts were great but that I perverted them all And that I was guilty of Treason in the highest Altitude These were the Liveries which he liberally gave me but I had no mind to wear them And yet I might not desire him to wear this Cloth himself considering where I then stood and in what Condition This Treason in the Altitude he said was in my Endeavour to alter the Religion established by Law and to subvert the Laws themselves And that to effect these I left no way unattempted For Religion he told the Lords That I laboured a Reconciliation with Rome That I maintained Popish and Arminian Opinions That I suffered Transubstantiation Justification by Merits Purgatory and what not to be openly Preached all over the Kingdom That I induced Superstitious Ceremonies as Consecrations of Churches and Chalices and Pictures of Christ in Glass-Windows That I gave liberty to the Prophanation of the Lords-day That I held Intelligence with Cardinals and Priests and endeavoured to ascend to Papal Dignity Offers being made me to be a Cardinal And for the Laws he was altogether as Wild in his Assertions as he was before for Religion And if he have no more true sense of Religion than he hath knowledge in the Law though it be his Profession I think he may offer both long enough to Sale before he find a Chapman for either And here he told the Lords That I held the same Method for this which I did for Religion And surely that was to uphold both had the Kingdom been so happy as to believe me But he affirmed with great Confidence That I caused Sermons to be Preached in Court to set the Kings Prerogative above the Law and Books to be Printed to the same effect That my Actions were according to these Then he fell upon the Canons and discharged them upon me Then that I might be guilty enough if his bare Word could make me so he Charged upon me the Benevolence the Loan the Ship-money the Illegal pulling down of Buildings Inclosures saying that as Antichrist sets himself above all that is called God so I laboured to set the King above all that is called Law And after a tedious stir he concluded his Speech with this That I was like Naaman the Syrian a great Person he confessed but a Leper So ended this Noble Celeustes I was much troubled to see my self in such an Honourable Assembly made so vile Yet seeing all Mens Eyes upon me I recollected my self and humbly desired of the Lords two things One that they would expect Proof before they give up their Belief to these loud but loose Assertions Especially since it is an easie thing for Men so resolved to Conviciate instead of Accusing when as the Rule given by Optatus holds firm Quum intenditur Crimen when a Crime is objected especially so high a Crime as this Charged on me 't is necessary that the Proof be manifest which yet against me is none at all The other that their Lordships would give me leave not to Answer this Gentleman's Particulars for that I shall defer till I hear his Proofs but to speak some few things concerning my self and this grievous Impeachment brought up against me Which being yielded unto me I then spake as follows My Lords my being in this Place and in this Condition recalls to my memory that which I long since read in Seneca Tormentum est etiamsi absolutus quis fuerit Causam dixisse 'T is not a grief only no 't is no less than a Torment for an ingenuous Man to plead Criminally much more Capitally at such a Bar as this yea though it should so fall out that he be absolved The great truth of this I find at present in my self And so much the more because I am a Christian And not that only but in Holy Orders And not so only but by Gods Grace and Goodness preferred to the greatest Place this Church affords and yet now brought Causam dicere to Plead and for no less than Life at this Great Bar. And whatsoever the World thinks of me and they have been taught to think more ill than I humbly thank Christ for it I was ever acquainted with Yet my Lords this I find Tormentum est 't is no less than Torment to me to appear in this Place to such an Accusation Nay my Lords give me leave I beseech you to speak plain Truth No Sentence that can justly pass upon me and other I will never fear from your Lordships can go so near me as Causam dixisse to have pleaded for my self upon this occasion and in this Place For as for the Sentence I thank God for it I am at St. Paul's Ward If I have committed any thing worthy of death I refuse not to die For I bless God I have so spent my time as that I am neither ashamed to live nor afraid to die Nor can the World be more weary of me than I am of it For seeing the Malignity which hath been raised against me by some Men I have carried my Life in my Hands these divers years past But yet my Lords if none of these things whereof these Men accuse me merit Death by Law though I may not in this Case and from this Bar appeal unto Caesar yet to your Lordships Justice and Integrity I both may and do Appeal not doubting but that God of his Goodness will preserve my Innocency And as Job in the midst of his Affliction said to his mistaken Friends so shall I to my Accusers God forbid I should justifie you till I Dye I will not remove my Integrity from me I will hold it fast and not let it go my Heart shall not reproach me as long as I live My Lords I see by the Articles and have now heard from this Gentleman that the Charge against me is divided into two main Heads the Laws of the Land and the Religion by those Laws established For the Laws first I think I may safely say I have been to my Understanding as strict an Observer of them all the Days of my Life so far as they concern me as any Man hath and since I came into Place I have followed them and been as much guided by them as any Man that sat where I had the Honour to sit And for this I am sorry I have lost the Witness of the Lord Keeper Coventry and of some other Persons of Honour since Dead And the Learned Councel at Law which attended frequently at the Council Table can Witness some of them that in References to that Board and in Debates arising at the Board I was usually for that part of the Cause where I found Law to be And if the Councel desired to have their Clyents Cause referred to the Law well I might move in some Cases for Charity or Conscience to have admittance but to the Law I left them if thither they would go And
hated it perhaps it might have been better with me for worldly safety than now it is But it can no way become a Christian Bishop to halt with God Lastly If I had any purpose to blast the True Religion Established in the Church of England and to introduce Popery sure I took a very wrong way to it For my Lords I have stayed as many that were going to Rome and reduced as many that were already gone as I believe any Bishop or other Minister in this Kingdom hath done and some of them Men of great Abilities and some of them Persons of great Place And is this the way my Lords to introduce Popery I beseech your Lordships consider it well For surely if I had blemished the True Protestant Religion I could not have setled such Men in it And if I had purposed to introduce Popery I would never have reduced such Men from it And though it please the Author of the Popish Royal Favourite to say That scarce one of the swaying Lord Prelats is able to say that ever he Converted one Papist to our Religion yet how void of Charity this Speech of his is and how full of Falshood shall appear by the number of those Persons whom by Gods Blessing upon my Labours I have setled in the True Protestant Religion Established in England And with your Lordships leave I shall Name them that you may see both their Number and their Condition though I cannot set them down in that order of time in which I either Converted or Setled them 1. And first Hen Birk-head of Trinity Coll. in Oxford was seduced by a Jesuit and brought up to London to be conveyed beyond the Seas His Friends complained to me I had the happiness to find him out and the blessing from God to settle his Conscience So he returned to Oxford and there continued 2. 3. Two Daughters of Sir Rich Lechford in Surrey were sent to Sea to be carried to a Nunnery I heard of it and caused them to be brought back before they were got out of the Thames I setled their Consciences and both of them sent me great thanks since I was a Prisoner in the Tower 4. 5. Two Scholars of St John's Coll. in Cambridge Topping and Ashton had slipped away from the College and here at London had got the French Embassadour's Pass I have the Pass to shew I found means to get them to me and I thank God setled both their Minds sent them back to their College Afterwards hearing of Topping's Wants I allowed him Means till I procured him a Fellowship And he is at this time a very hopeful Young Man as most of his time in that University a Minister and Chaplain in House at this Present to the Right Honourable the Earl of Westmerland 6. 7. 8. Sir William Web my Kinsman and two of his Daughters and the better to secure them in Religion I was at the Charge their Father being utterly decayed to Marry them to two Religious Protestants and they both continued very constant And his Eldest Son I took from him placed him with a careful Divine maintained him divers Years and then setled him with a Gentleman of Good Worth 10. 11. The next in my remembrance was the Lord Maio of Ireland who with another Gentleman whose name I cannot recal was brought to me to Fulham by Mr. Jefford a Servant of his Majesty's and well known to divers of your Lordships 12. The Right Honourable the Lord Duke of Buckingham was almost lost from the Church of England between the continual cunning Labours of Fisher the Jesuit and the Perswasions of the Lady his Mother After some Miscarriages King James of ever Blessed Memory Commanded me to that Service I had God's Blessing upon me so far as to settle my Lord Duke to his Death And I brought the Lady his Mother to the Church again but she was not so happy as to continue with us 14. The Lady Marchioness Hamilton was much solicited by some Priests and much troubled in Mind about it My Lord spake with me of it and though at that present I was so overlaid with Business that I could not as I much desired wait upon that Honourable Person my self yet I told my Lord I would send one to his Lordship that should diligently attend that Service and that I would give him the best direction I could And this I did and God be thanked she dyed very quietly and very Religiously and a good Protestant And my Lord Marquess told me he had acknowledged this Service of mine to an Honourable Lord whom I now see present 15. Mr. Chillingworth's Learning and Abilities are sufficiently known to all your Lordships He was gone and setled at Dowaye My Letters brought him back and he Lived and Dyed a Defender of the Church of England And that this is so your Lordships cannot but know For Mr. Pryn took away my Letters and all the Papers which concerned him and they were Examined at the Committee 16. 17. Mr. Digby was a Priest and Mr. James Gentleman a School-master in a Recusant's House This latter was brought to me by a Minister as far as I remember in Buckinghamshire I converted both of them and they remain setled 18. Dr. Hart a Civilian Son to a Neighbour of mine at Fulham He was so far gone that he had written part of his Motives which wrought as he said that Change in him I got sight of them shewed him wherein he was deceived had God's Blessing to settle his Conscience and then caused an able Divine to Answer his Motives and give him the Copy 19. There were beside these Mr. Christopher Seburne a Gentleman of an Ancient Family in Hereford-shire and Sir William Spencer of Yarnton in Oxfordshire The Sons and Heirs of Mr. Wintchome and Mr. Williscot whom I sent with their Friends good liking to Wadham-College in Oxford and I received a Certificate Anno 1638. of their continuing in conformity to the Church of England Nor did ever any of these relapse again to Rome but only the Old Countess of Buckingham and Sir William Spencer that ever I heard of And if any of your Lordships doubt of the Truth of any of these Particulars I am able and ready to bring full proof of them all And by this time I hope it appears that one of the swaying Prelats of the time is able to say he hath Converted one Papist to the Protestant Religion And let any Clergy Man of England come forth and give a better account of his Zeal to this present Church And now my Lords with my most humble Thanks for your Lordships favour and patience in hearing me I shall cease to be farther troublesom for the present not doubting but I shall be able to Answer whatever shall be particularly objected against me After I had ended this Speech I was commanded to withdraw As I went from
to give an easie Account for this But whereas I said the Repair of St. Pauls was a strange piece of Treason And they presently Replyed that they did not Charge the Repair upon me but the Manner of doing it by demolishing of Mens Houses To that I Answered as follows with this first that the Work hath cost me above One Thousand and two Hundred Pounds out of my own Purse besides all my Care and Pains and now this heavy Charge to boot No one Man offering to prove that I have Mis-spent or diverted to other use any one Penny given to that work or that I have done any thing about it without the Knowledge Approbation and Order of his Majesty or the Lords of the Council or both To the Particulars then For the three Orders taken out of the Council-Books I shall not need to repeat them But what is the Mystery that these Orders are reckoned backward the last first Is it to aggravate as if it rose by steps That cannot well be because the first Order is the Sourest if I conceive it right Besides here was real Composition allotted for them and that by a Committee named by the Lords not by me And I think it was very real for it Cost Eight or Nine Thousand Pounds as appears upon the Accounts meerly to take down the Houses which had no Right to stand there before we could come at the Church to Repair it And if any thing should be amiss in any of these which is more than I either know or believe they were the Council's Orders not mine And shall that be urged as Treason against me which is not Imputed to them so much as a Misdemeanour Besides the Lords of the Council are in the ancient Constitution of this Kingdom one Body and whatsoever the Major Part of them concludes is reputed the Act of the whole not any one Man's And this I must often Inculcate because I see such Publick Acts like to be heaped upon my Particular 1. The first Witness about this Business of St. Pauls is Mich. Burton and 't is charged that his House was pulled down in King James's time That he was Promised relief but had none That hereupon he got a Reference from his Majesty that now is and came with it to the Council and was referred to the Committee That Sir Hen. Martin told him that the Arch-Bishop was his hinderance That he resorted to me and that I bid him go to King James for his Recompence To this my Answer was That this House which he says was his was as is confessed by himself taken down in King James's Time when an attempt was made about the Repair of this Cathedral but nothing done If he desired satisfaction he was to seek it of them who took down his House not of me If his Majesty that now is gave him a Reference he was by the Lords of the Council or by me if to me it were Referred to be sent to the Sub-Committee because Satisfaction for each House was to be Ordered by them Nor had I any Reason to take it on my Care which was done so long before He says that Sir Henry Martin told him that I hindred him But that 's no Proof that Sir Hen Martin told him so For 't is but his Report of Sir Henry Martin's Speech And I hope Sir Henry neither did nor would do me such apparent Wrong He was the third Man to whom I brake my Intentions touching the Repair and the Difficulties which I foresaw I was to meet with And he gave me all Encouragement And it may be when nothing would satisfie the eager Old Man I might bid him go to King James for Recompence but 't is more than I remember if I did so And this Man is single and in his own Case and where lyes the Treason that is in it Besides least Consideration was due to this House For not many Years before the Demolishing of it it was Built at the West End of St. Pauls for a Lottery it was said to be the House of one Wheatly and after the Lottery ended finished up into a Dwelling-House to the great annoyance of that Church The Bishop and Dean and Chapter being asleep while it was done 2. The next Charge about St. Pauls was Witnessed by Mary Berry That her Husband was fain to set up his Trade elsewhere and that every Man reported the Bishop was the Cause of it Her Husband was forced by this Remove to set up his Trade elsewhere so she says And perhaps in a better Place and with Satisfaction sufficient to make him a better Stock Where 's the Wrong Beside she is single and in her own Cause and no Proof but that every Man reported the Bishop was the means to remove him And it is Observable that in King James his Time when the Commission issued out for the demolishing of these very Houses the Work was highly applauded and yet no Care taken for Satisfaction of any Private Mans Interest That now great Care hath been taken and great Sums of Money Expended about it yet I must be a Traytor and no less for doing it This makes me think some Party of Men were heartily angry at the Repair it self though for very Shame it be turned off upon the demolishing of the Houses 3. The next that came in was Tho Wheeler He says that his House was pulled down by the Committee by my Direction above Eleven Years ago And that Word was brought him of it His House was pulled down but himself confesses it was by the Committee It was he says above eleven Years ago and the time limited in that Article is Six Years He says that Word was brought him that I was the Cause or gave the Direction Word was brought him but he Names not by whom nor from whom so all this Proof is a single Hearsay of he knows not whom Whereas I had the Broad-Seal of England for all that was done It was replyed here That for demolishing of these Houses the King's Commission was no full and legal Warrant I should have procured Authority from Parliament I replyed to this Interruption That Houses more remote from the Church of St. Pauls were pulled down by the King's Commission only in K. Ed. 3. time and humbly desired a Salvo might be entered for me till I might bring the †Record which was granted 4. The last Instance for this Charge of St. Pauls was the House of W Wakern who Witnessed that he had a Hundred Pound recompence for his House but then was after Fined in the High-Commission-Court 100 l. for Prophanation of which he paid 30 l. To this I gave this Answer That his Charge is true and that after he had received 100 l. Composition the Cry of the Prophanation brought him into the High-Commission It was thus The Skulls of Dead-Men perhaps better than himself were tumbled out of their Graves into his Draught and part of the Foundation of the
and not follow it in his own Name himself confesses was made in open Court by Mr. Bierly and that from me he had no Instructions at all 2. The second Witness is Adams in his own Cause To the place of Scripture I have spoken already And the next that he says is That Sir Nath. Brent in my Visitation commanded the setting of the Communion Table at the upper end of the Chancel That upon his not blotting out the passage of Scripture he had an Action and that his Solicitor was Committed by J. Jones till he relinquished his Suit In all this there is not one word of any thing that I did And for that which Sir Nath. Brent did about placing the Communion Table 't is answered before He says also that when he saw that he must Prosecute his Suit against Commissary Dade in his own Name he left the Kingdom And surely my Lords if he would leave the Kingdom rather than Prosecute his Cause in his own Name 't is more than a sign that his Cause was not very good 3. The third Witness was Mr. Cockshot one of Mr. Attorney Banks his Servants He says that Adams moved him and he Mr. Attorney and that thereupon Mr. Attorney gave his Warrant against Dade By which your Lordships may see how active Mr. Cockshot was against a Church-Officer and in so foul a Scandal He says also that Mr. Dade came to Mr. Attorney and told him that I did not think it fit a Prosecution in such a Cause should be followed in Mr. Attorney's Name First 't is true I did not think it fit nor did Mr. Attorney himself when upon Mr. Bierlye's Motion he fully understood it Secondly the Cause being so scandalous to a Church-Officer I conceive I might so say to Mr. Dade or any other without offence But then thirdly here 's not one word that I sent Mr. Dade to Mr. Attorney about it He came and used my Name so Mr. Cockshot says but not one word that I sent him Lastly he says That Mr. Attorney told him that I blamed him for the business and that thereupon he chid this Witness and sent him to me and that I rebuked him for it but he particularly remembers not what I said Nor truly my Lords do I remember any of this But if I did blame Mr. Attorney for lending his Name in such a Scandalous Cause as this I did as I conceive what became me And if he chid his Man he did what became him And if I rebuked Mr. Cockshot when he was sent to me sure he deserved it and it seems it was with no great sharpness that he cannot remember any thing of it And so I answer'd Mr. Browne when he instanced in this 4. The last Witness was Mr. Pryn who says no Appeal was left him But that under Favour cannot be For if my Courts refused him which is more than I know he might have Appealed to the Delegats He says That he advised Adams to an Action of the Case that he blamed Lechford for deserting the Suit and that he advised him to go to Mr. Attorney So here 's no assistance wanting to Adams but the Church-Officer Mr. Dade must have none Yet I blame not Mr. Pryn because he says he did it as his Councel He says farther That when Adams was put to prefer his Bill in his owne Name that then the Excommunication was pleaded in Bar But he doth not say it was pleaded by me or my Advice nor do I hear him say it was unjustly pleaded And had not Adams been wilful he might have taken off the Excommunication and then proceeded as it had pleased him Then the Charge went on against me about the stop of Mr. Bagshawe the Reader of the Middle-Temple The Witnesses are two Lawyers which accompanied Mr. Bagshawe to Lambeth Mr. White and Mr. Pepys They say that Mr. Bagshawe insisted upon these two points First that a Parliament might be held without Bishops and Secondly that Bishops might not meddle in Civil affairs My Lords these things are now setled by an Act of this Parliament but then they were not And I conceive under Favour that Mr. Bagshawe the Crasiness of these Times considered might have bestowed his time better upon some other Argument And sure no Man can think that either my self or any Church-Governour could approve his Judgment in that Particular And whereas they say that the Lord Keeper Finch and the Lord Privy Seal told them that I was the Man that complained of it to the King and the Lords 'T is most true I did so and I think I had been much to blame if I had not done it And if when they came over to Lambeth about it they heard me tell Mr. Bagshawe as they also say they did that he should answer it in the High-Commission Court next Term I humbly conceive this no great Offence but out of all Question no Treason to threaten the High-Commission to a Reader of the Inns of Court The last Charge of this Day was concerning the Lord Chief Justice Richardson and what he suffered for putting down Wakes and other disorderly Meetings in Sommersetshire at the Assises there holden The single Witness to this is Edward Richardson a Kinsman of the Judges as I suppose He says That Complaints were made to the Judge of Wakes and Feasts of Dedication that his Majesty writ Letters about it to Sir Robert Philips and others They Certify a Command comes by the Lord Keeper to revoke the Order next Assises First 't is not done Then by Command from the Lords of the Council the Judge upon that second Command revokes it but as 't is Certified not fitly In all this here 's not one Word that concerns me Then he says That upon this last Certificate the business was referred to the Lord Marshal and my self and the Judge put from that Circuit I cannot now remember what Report we made But what e're it was the Lord Marshal agreed to it as well as I. Then a Letter of mine was produced of Octob. 4. 1633. But the Letter being openly read nothing was found amiss in it And under your Lordships Favour I am still of Opinion that there is no Reason the Feasts should be taken away for some Abuses in them and those such as every Justice of Peace is able by Law to remedy if he will do his Duty Else by this kind of proceeding we may go back to the old Cure and Remedy Drunkenness by rooting out all the Vines the Wine of whose Fruit causes it As for the Pretences which this Witness spake of they were none of mine as appears Evidently by the Letter it self As an Appendix to these was added a Letter of my Secretary Mr. Dell to Sir John Bridgman Chief Justice of Chester in a Cause of one Ed. Morris It was as I think it appears upon an Incroachment made in the Marches Court upon the Church In which Case I conceive by my Place
King 's Learned Councel that his Lordship well knew what had passed and that being so used as I had been by the Townsmen I would trouble my self with no more References to Lawyers or to that effect And I appeal to the Honour of my Lord whether this be not a true Relation The Sixth Instance concerns the putting of one Mr. Grant out of his Right He says but he is single and in his own Cause That Mr. Bridges was presented to an Impropriation and that suing for Tythe He the said Grant got a Prohibition and Mr. Bridges a Reference to the then Lord Keeper Coventry and my self that we referred them to the Law and that there Grant was Non-Suited and so outed of his Right First in all this there 's nothing said to be done by me alone Secondly the Lord Keeper who well understood the Law thought it fittest to refer them to the Law and so we did If he were there Non-Suited first and outed after it was the Law that put him out not we Yet your Lordships see here was a Prohibition granted in a Case which the Law it self after rejected Then follows the Instance that I had a purpose to Abolish all Impropriations The first Proof alledged was a passage out of Bishop Mountague's Book p. 210. That Tythes were due by Divine Right and then no Impropriations might stand And Mr. Pryn witnessed very carefully That this Book was found in my own Study and given me by Bishop Mountague And what of this Doth any Bishop Print a Book and not give the Arch-Bishop one of them Or must I answer for every Proposition that is in every Book that is in my Study Or that any Author gives me And if Bishop Mountague be of Opinion that Tythes are due by Divine Right what is that to me Your Lordships know many Men are of different Opinions in that difficulty and I am confident you will not determin the Controversie by an Act of Parliament They were nibling at my Diary in this to shew that it was one of my Projects to fetch in Impropriations but it was not fit for their purpose For 't is expressed That if I Lived to see the Repair of St. Paul's near an end I would move his Majesty for the like Grant for the buying in of Impropriations And to buy them from the Owners is neither against Law nor against any thing else that is good nor is it any Usurpation of Papal Power 2. The Second Proof was my procuring from the King such Impropriations in Ireland as were in the King's Power to the Church of Ireland Which Mr. Nicolas in his gentle Language calls Robbing of the Crown My Lords the Case was this The Lord Primate of Armagh writ unto me how ill Conditioned the State of that Church was for want of Means and besought me that I would move his Majesty to give the Impropriations there which yet remained in the Crown for the Maintenance and Incouragement of able Ministers to Live among the People and Instruct them Assuring me they were daily one by one begged away by Private Men to the great prejudice both of Crown and Church And the Truth of this the Lord Primate is now in this Kingdom and will witness I acquainted the King's great Officers the Lord Treasurer and the Chancellor of the Exchequer with it And after long deliberation the King was pleased at my humble Suit to grant them in the way which I proposed Which was that when they came into the Clergies Hands they should pay all the Rents respectively to the King and some consideration for the several Renewings And the Truth of this appears in the Deeds So here was no Robbing of the Crown For the King had all his set Rents reserved to a Penny and Consideration for his Casualties beside And my Lords the increase of Popery is complained of in Ireland Is there a better way to hinder this growth than to place an Able Clergy among the Inhabitants Can an Able Clergy be had without Means Is any Means fitter than Impropriations restored My Lords I did this as holding it the best Means to keep down Popery and to advance the Protestant Religion And I wish with all my Heart I had been able to do it sooner before so many Impropriations were gotten from the Crown into Private Hands Next I was Charged with another Project in my Diary which was to settle some fixed Commendams upon all the smaller Bishopricks For this I said their own Means were too small to live and keep any Hospitality little exceeding Four or Five Hundred Pound a Year I consider'd that the Commendams taken at large and far distant caused a great dislike and murmur among many Men. That they were in some Cases Materia Odiosa and justly complained of And hereupon I thought it a good Church-work to settle some Temporal Lease or some Benefice Sine Cura upon the lesser Bishopricks but nothing but such as was in their own Right and Patronage That so no other Man's Patronage might receive prejudice by the Bishop's Commendam Which was not the least Rock of Offence against which Commendams indanger'd themselves And that this was my intent and endeavour is expressed in my Diary And I cannot be sorry for it Then I was Accused for setting Old Popish Canons above the Laws Mr. Burton is the sole Witness He says it was in a Case about a Pew in which those Canons did weigh down an Act of Parliament I did never think till now Mr. Burton would have made any Canons Pew-Fellows with an Act of Parliament But seriously should not Mr. 〈◊〉 Testimony for this have been produced at the second Instance of this day For in the end of that is just such another Charge and the Answer there given will satisfie this and that by Act of Parliament too After this came a Charge with a great out-cry that since my coming to be Arch-Bishop I had renewed the High-Commission and put in many Illegal and Exorbitant Clauses which were not in the former Both the Commissions were produced Upon this I humbly desired that the Dockett might be Read by which their Lordships might see all those Particulars which were added in the New Commission and so be able to Judge how fit or unfit they were to be added The Dockett was Read And there was no Particular found but such as highly deserved Punishment and were of Ecclesiastical Cognizance as Blasphemy Schism and two or three more of like Nature 1. In this Charge the first Exorbitant Clause they insisted on as added to the new Commission was the Power given in locis Exemptis non Exemptis as if it were thereby intended to destroy all Priviledges No not to destroy any Priviledge but not to suffer Enormous Sins to have any Priviledge Besides this Clause hath ever been in all Commissions that ever were Granted And I then shewed it to the Lords in the Old Commission
there present p. 28 32 35 42. Nay more this proceeding tam in locis Exemptis quam non Exemptis is allowed to the Governours of the Church in the Exercise of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Act of Parliament in Queen Elizabeth's Time which would never have been allowed had it then been thought such a dangerous Business as 't is now made against me 2. The Second Clause was Power to Censure by Fine and Imprisonment This also I shewed in the old Commission Fol. 37. and is as I conceive in plain pursuance of the Act of Parliament upon which the High-Commission is grounded For the King says there Fol. 13. And so 't is in the new That he grants this Power by Vertue of his Supream Authority and Prerogative Royal and of the said Act. Nay farther 't is added in this latter Commission and by our Authority Ecclesiastical which is not expressed in the former And sure I would never have caused Authority Ecclesiastical to be added had I any Plot as 't is urged either to exalt the Clergy above the Laity or to usurp Papal Power which all Men know is far enough from ascribing Ecclesiastical Authority to the King And as for Fine and Imprisonment if that Power be not according to Law why was it first admitted and after continued in all former Commissions 3. The Third Clause was the Non Obstante which he said was against all Law and of such a boundless Extent as was never found in Commission or other Grant in England And he here desired the Lords that he might read it which he did with great Assurance of a Triumph But after all this Noise which Mr. Nicolas had made I shewed the same Non Obstante in the Old Commission 〈◊〉 62. Word for Word which I humbly desired might be read and compared It was so The Lords looked strangely upon it Mr. Nicolas was so startled that he had not Patience to stay till his Reply which he saw impossible to be made but interrupted me and had the Face to say in that Honourable Assembly that I need not stand upon that for he did but name that without much regarding it And yet at the giving of the Charge he insisted principally upon that Clause and in higher and louder Terms than are before expressed Had such an Advantage been found against me I should have been accounted extreamly Negligent if I compared not the Commissions together or Extreamly Impudent if I did 4. The Fourth Exception was That by this Commission I took greater Power than ever any Court had because both Temporal and Ecclesiastical First whatsoever Power the High-Commission had was not taken by them till given by his Majesty and that according to Use and Statue for ought hath been yet declared Secondly they have not Power of Life or Limb therefore not so great Power as other Courts have Thirdly they may have more various Power in some respects but that cannot make it greater As for the Expression in which 't is said I took this Power that is put most unworthily and unjustly too to derive the Envy as much as he could upon my Person only For he could not hold from comparing me to Pope Boniface 8. and saying that I took on me the Power of both Swords But this was only ad Faciendum Populum For he knows well enough that to take both the Swords as the Pope takes them is to challenge them Originally as due to him and his Place Not to take both as under the Prince and given by his Authority and so not I alone but all the Commissioners take theirs 5. Fifthly To prove that this vast Commission as it was called was put in execution Mr. Burton is produced He says that when he was called into the High-Commission he appealed to the King and pleaded his Appeal and that thereupon I and the Bishop of London Writ to the King to have him submit to the Court He confesses he was dismissed upon his Appeal till his Majesty's Pleasure was farther known And it was our Duty considering what a Breach this would make upon the Jurisdiction of the Court to inform his Majesty of it and we did so The King declared that he should submit to the Court as is confessed by himself Then he says because he would not submit to the Court he was Censured notwithstanding his Appeal And he well deserved it that would not be ruled by his Majesty to whom he had appealed And the Commission had Power to do what they did Besides himself confesses all this was done by the High-Commission not by me Nor doth he urge any Threat Promise or Solicitation of mine any way to particularize the Act upon me and farther he is single and in his own Cause Then followed the last Charge of this Day which was the Patent granted for the Fines in the High-Commission for Finishing the West End of St Pauls cryed out upon as Illegal and Extorted from the King and such as took all Power from him for the space of the Ten Years for which time it was granted This is the Fourth time that St Pauls is struck at My Lords let it come as often as it will my Project and Endeavour in that Work was Honest and Honourable to both Church and Kingdom of England No Man in all this Search and Pursuit hath been able to charge me with the turning of any one Penny or Pennyworth to other use than was limited to me I took a great deal of Care and Pains about the Work and cannot repent of any thing I did in that Service but of Humane Frailty And whereas 't is said this Patent was extorted from his Majesty as there is no Proof offered for it so is there no truth in it For his Majesty's Piety was so forward that nothing needed to be extorted from him Thus went I on Bonâ Fide and took the Prime Direction of the Kingdom for drawing the Patent The Lord Keeper Coventry Mr. Noy and Sir Henry Martin And therefore if any thing be found against Law in it it cannot be imputed to me who took all the care I could to have it beyond exception And I marvel what security any Man shall have that adventures upon any great and publick Work in this Kingdom if such Councel cannot be trusted for drawing up of his Warrant And whereas it was said this Patent for the Ten Years space took away both Justice and Mercy from the King That 's nothing so For whatever the Words be to enable me the better for that Work yet these being inseparable from him may be used by him notwithstanding this or any other Patent And if these be inseparable as 't is granted they are no inseparable thing can be taken away or if it be taken 't is void in Law and the King is where he was in the Exercise of his Right both for Justice and Mercy And so I answered Mr. Brown's summary Charge against me and as for that
I wrought cunningly to introduce that Religion by Inches And that they Prayed for me First my Lords the Opinion of Enemies is no Proof at all that I am such as they think me And secondly this is a Notable and no unusual piece of Cunning for an Enemy to destroy by commending For this was the ready way and I doubt not but it hath been Practised to raise a Jealousie against me at home thereby either to work the Ruin of my Person or utterly to weaken and disable me from doing harm to them or good for the Church of England Besides if the Commendation of Enemies may in this kind go for Proof it shall be in the power of two or three Practising Jesuits to destroy any Bishop or other Church-Man of England when they please At last he told a Story of one Father John a Benedictin that he asked him how Church-Livings were disposed in England and whether I had not the disposing of those which were in the King's Gift And concluded that he was not out of hope to see England reduced to Rome Why my Lords this is not Father John's hope alone for there is no Roman-Catholick but hath some hope alive in him to see this day And were it not for that hope there would not have been so many some desperate all dangerous Practices upon this Kingdom to Effect it both in Queen Elizabeth's time and since But if this I know not what Father John hope so what is that to me 3. The third Witness was Mr. Anthony Mildmaye A Man not thought on for a Witness till I called for his Brother Sir Henry But now he comes laden with his Brother's Language He says just as Sir Henry did before that there were two Factions in Rome the Jesuits and they abhorred me but the other the Secular Priests they wished me well as he was informed First this is so one and the same Testimony that any Man that will may see that either he informed his Brother or his Brother him Secondly here 's nothing affirmed for it is but as he was informed And he doth not tell you by whom It may be my Lords it was by his Brother Then he says This was to make my self Great and tells a Tale of Father Fitton as much to the purpose as that which Mr. Challoner told of Father John But whatsoever either of these Fathers said it was but their own Opinion of me or Hearsay neither of which can prove me guilty of any thing Thus much Mr. Anthony made a shift to say by Five of the Clock at Afternoon when I came to make my Answer And this as I have sufficient Cause to think only to help to shoar up his Brother's Testimony But in the Morning when he should have come as his Brother did he was by Nine in the Morning so Drunk that he was not able to come to the Bar nor to speak Common Sense had he been brought thither Nobile par Fratrum The Second Charge was the Consecration of two Churches in London St Catharin Cree-Church and St Giles in the Fields The Witnesses two 1. The first Witness was one Mr Willingham And he says 〈◊〉 I came to these Churches in a Pompous manner But all the Pomp that he mentions is that Sir Henry Martin Dr Duck and some other of the Arches attended me as they usually do their Diocesans in such Solemnities He says he did curiously observe what was done thinking it would one Day be called to an Account as now it is So this Man himself being Judge looked upon that Work with Malevolent Eye and God preserve him from being a malitious Witness He says That at my approach to the Church Door was read Lift up your Heads O ye Gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting Doors and the King of Glory shall come in Psal 24. And this was urged over and over as a jeer upon my Person But this Place of Scripture hath been anciently used in Consecrations And it relates not to the Bishop but to God Almighty the true King of Glory who at the Dedication enters by his Servant to take Possession of the House then to be made his He says that I kneeled down at my coming in and after used many Bowings and Cringings For my kneeling down at my entranee to begin with Prayer and after to proceed with Reverence I did but my Duty in that let him scoffingly call it Cringing or Ducking or what he please He says farther That at the beginning I took up Dust and threw it in the Air and after used divers Curses And here Mr Pryn put Mr Nicolas in mind to add that Spargere Cinerem is in the Form of Consecration used in the Pontifical And Mr Brown in his summary Account of my Charge laid the very Consecration of these Churches as a Crime upon me and insisted on this particular But here my answer to all was the same That this Witness had need look well to his Oath for there was no throwing up of Dust no Curses used throughout the whole Action Nor did I follow the Pontifical but a Copy of Learned and Reverend Bishop Andrews by which he Consecrated divers Churches in his time and that this is so I have the Copy by me to Witness and offered them to shew it Nor can this howsoever savour any way of Treason No said Mr Brown but the Treason is To seek by these Ceremonies to overthrow the Religion Established Nor was that ever sought by me And God of his Mercy Preserve the true Protestant Religion amongst us till the Consecration of Churches and Reverence in the Church can overthrow it and then I doubt not but by God's Blessing it shall continue safe to the Worlds End He says also That I did pronounce the Place Holy I did so And that was in the Solemn Act it self of the Consecration according to the usual Form in that behalf And no Man will deny but that there is a Derivative and a Relative Holiness in Places as well as in Vessels and other Things Dedicated to the Honour and Service of God Nor is any thing more common in the Old Testament and 't is express in the New both for Place and Things 1 Cor 9. Then it was urged at the Bar That a Prayer which I used was like one that is in the Pontifical So in the Missal are many Prayers like to the Collects used in our English Liturgy so like that some are the very same Translated only into English and yet these confirmed by Law And for that of Psal. 95. Venite Procidamus c. then also excepted against that hath been of very ancient use in the Liturgies of the Church From which Rejecimus Paleam numquid Grana We have separated the Chaff shall we cast away the Corn too If it come to that let us take heed we fall not upon the Devil 's Winnowing who labours to beat down the Corn 't is not the Chaff
is Dead and cannot answer for himself Thus far I can for him without medling with any his Opinions He was very Honest and very Learned and at those Years he was of might deserve more than a Poor Benefice 16. Here Mr Pryn came in again and Testified very boldly that I gave many Benefices which were in the Gift of the Master of the Wards And all Preferments only to such Men as were for Ceremonies Popery and Arminianism For the First of these two the Business was thus There arose a Difference between the then Lord Keeper Coventry and the Lord Cottington then Master of the Wards about the disposing of those Benefices It grew somewhat high and came to Hearing by the King himself His Majesty upon Hearing gave the right of Sealing to the Lord Keeper but for the time till more might appear reserved the Giving to himself that he might have some of those lesser Preferments to bestow on such Ministers as attended upon his Navy then at Sea I never gave any one of these Benefices in my Life And that this Story is of Truth the Lord Cottington is yet living and can Witness it And this very Answer I gave to Mr. Brown who in summing up the Charge laid this also upon me and without mentioning what Answer I gave to it For the Second that I preferred none but such Men. 'T is known I preferred Bishop Hall to Exeter Dr. Potter to Carlile Dr. Cook to Bristol first and then to Hereford That I gave Dr. Westfield the Archdeaconry of S. Albans that I was Dr. Fells means for Christ-Church and Dr. Higgs his for the Deanery of Litchfield that I setled Dr. Downing at Hackney and Mr. Herrick at Manchester when the Broad Seal formerly given him was questioned That I gave two of my own Benefices to Mr. Palmer and Mr. Taylor two of the now Synod an Hospital to Dr Jackson of Canterbury and a Benefice to his Son in Law at his Suit I could not Name all these upon the sudden yet some I did and no one of them guilty of this Charge in the least Mr. Brown in his Summary said I could name but one or two And when in my Answer made in the House of Commons I specified more among which Mr Palmer was one Mr. Brown said in his Reply that Mr Palmer had indeed his Benesice of my giving so himself told him but it was at the Entreaty of a great Noble-Man Say it were Mr. Palmer was then a stranger to me Some body must speak and assure me of his Wants and Worth or I cannot give But if upon this I give it freely is it worth no thanks from him because a Noble-Man spake to me Let Mr. Palmer rank this Gratitude among his other Vertues 17. From hence they stepped over into Ireland and objected my preferring of Dr Chappel to be Master of the College at Dublin Here the first Witness is Mr. Walker He says that all his Scholars were Arminians This is a great sign but not full Proof He says that Dr. Chappel was at First fierce against them but afterward changed his Mind Dr. Featly said the like of Dr. Potter Some say Arminius himself was at first Zealous against those Opinions but studying hard to confute them changed his own Mind Take heed Mr. Walker do not Study these Points too hard For my own part Dr. Chappel was a Cambridge Man altogether unknown to me save that I received from thence great Testimony of his Abilities and fitness for Government which that College then extreamly wanted And no Man ever complained to me that he favoured Arminianism The other Witness was Dr. Hoyle a Fellow of the College in Dublin He says that the Doctor did maintain in that College Justification by Works and in Christ-Church Arminianism In this he is single But if it be true why did not the Lord Primate of Armagh Punish him for he says he knew it That he opposed some things in the Synod And it may be there was just Cause for it Lastly he says the late Lord Deputy liked not the Irish Articles but gave them an Honourable Burial as he says the Lord Primate himself confessed I am a stranger to all this nor doth Dr. Hoyle charge any thing against me but says that they which did this were supposed to have some Friend in England And surely their Carriage was very ill if they had none 18. Then were Letters read of my Lord Primate's to me in which is Testified my Care of the Patrimony of that Church And then a Paper of Instructions given by me to the Lord Deputy at his first going into that Kingdom For the First though it be thrust in here among matters of Religion yet I pray your Lordships to consider 't is about the Patrimony of that Church only And I thank them heartily for producing it For in this Letter is a full confession of my Lord Primate's that the motion of getting the Impropriations from his Majesty formerly objected against me proceeded from him as I then pleaded And the Letter was read For the Second my Lord Deputy a little before his first going into Ireland asked me what Service I would command him for the Church there I humbly thanked him as I had reason and told him I would bethink my self and give him my Thoughts in Writing These are they which are called Instructions They are only for the good of that poor Church as your Lordships have heard them This was all and herein my Lord shewed his Honour and I did but my Duty Though I very well understand why this Paper is produced against me After this they proceeded to the Eleventh Original Article which follows in haec Verba 11. He in his own Person and his Suffragans Visitors Surrogates Chancellors or other Officers by his Command have caused divers Learned Pious and Orthodox Preachers of God's Word to be Silenced Suspended Deprived Degraded Excommunicated or otherwise Grieved and Vexed without any just and lawful Cause whereby and by divers other means he hath hindred the Preaching of God's Word caused divers of his Majesty's Loyal Subjects to forsake the Kingdom and Increased and Cherished Ignorance and Prophaneness among the People that so he might the better facilitate the way to the effecting of his own Wicked and Traiterous Design of Altering and Corrupting the true Religion here Established 1. The First Instance to make good this Article was a Repetition of some Lecturers before-named But when they thought they had made Noise enough they referred the Lords to their Notes and so did I to my former Answers 2. The Second Instance was out of some Articles of Bishop Mountague and Bishop Wrenn and their Account given to me Bishop Wrenn Art 16 Speaks of the Afternoon Sermons being turned into Catechising And Art 5 of his Account I take it that no Lecture in his Diocess after c. It was made plain to the Lords that this was spoken of some single and factious
were brought up against me My very Pockets searched and my Diary nay my very Prayer-Book taken from me and after used against me And that in some Cases not to prove but to make a Charge Yet I am thus far glad even for this sad Accident For by my Diary your Lordships have seen the Passages of my Life And by my Prayer-Book the greatest Secrets between God and my Soul So that you may be sure you have me at the very bottom Yet blessed be God no Disloyalty is found in the one no Popery in the other 3 That all Books of Council-Table Star-Chamber High-Commission Signet-Office my own Registeries and the Registeries of Oxford and Cambridge have been most exquisitely searched for matter against me and kept from me and my use and so affording me no help towards my Defence 4. I humbly desire your Lordships to remember in the Fourth Place That the things wherein I took great Pains and all for the Publick Good and Honour of this Kingdom and Church without any the least Eye to my own Particular nay with my own great and large Expences have been objected against me as Crimes As namely the Repair of S. Pauls and the Setling of the Statutes of the Vniversity of Oxford 1 For S. Pauls not the Repair it self they say no for very shame they dare not say that though that be it which Galls the Faction but the Demolishing of the Houses which stood about it Yea but without taking down of these Houses it was not possible to come at the Church to repair it which is a known Truth And they were taken down by Commission under the Broad Seal And the Tenants had Valuable Consideration for their several Interests according to the number of their Years remaining And according to the Judgment of Commissioners named for that purpose and named by his Majesty and the Lords not by me Nor did I ever so much as sit with them about this Business And if the Commission it self were any way Illegal as they urge it is that must reflect upon them whose Office was to Draw and Seal it not on me who understood not the Legality or Illegality of such Commissions nor did I desire that any one circumstance against Law should be put into it nor is any such thing so much as offered in Proof against me And because it was pressed that these Houses could not be pulled down but by Order of Parliament and not by the King's Commission alone I did here first read in part and afterwards according to a Salvo granted me deliver into the Court Three Records two in Ed. 1. Time and one in Ed. 3. Time in which are these Words Authoritate nostra Regali prout opus fuerit cessantibus quibuscunque Appellationum Reclamationum diffugiis Juris Scripti aut Patriae strepitu procedatis Nova AEdificia quae c. amoveri divelli penitus faciatis c. And a little after Quousque per nos cum deliberatione avisamento nostri Consilii super hoc aliter fuerit Ordinatum c. Here 's no staying for a Parliament here 's no Recompence given here 's Barring of all Appeal nay all remedy of Law though written And all this by the King 's own Authority with the Advice of his Council And is a far more moderate way taken by me yet under the same Authority and for the removal of far greater Abuses and for a more noble End become Treason 2 As for the Statutes of Oxford the Circumstances charged against me are many and therefore I craved leave to refer my self to what I had already answered therein 5. Fifthly Many of the Witnesses brought against me in this Business are more than suspected Sectaries and Separatists from the Church which by my place I was to punish and that exasperated them against me whereas by Law no Schismatick ought to be received against his Bishop And many of these are Witnesses in their own Causes and pre-examined before they come in Court At which pre-examination I was not present nor any for me to cross-interrogate Nay many Causes which took up divers Days of Hearing in Star-Chamber High-Commission and at Council-Table are now upon the sudden easily overthrown by the Depositions of the Parties themselves And upon what Law this is grounded I humbly submit to your Lordships And such as these are the Causes of Mr. Pryn Mr. Burton Mr. Wilson Alderman Chambers Mr. Vassal Mr. Waker Mr. Huntly Mr. Foxlye and many other Where I humbly represent also how impossible it is for any Man that sits as a Judge to give an account of all the several Motives which directed his Conscience in so divers Causes and so many Years past as these have been and where so many Witnesses have been Examined as have been here produced against me My Lords above a Hundred and Fifty Witnesses and some of them Three Four Six Times over and Mr. Pryn I know not how often Whereas the Civil Law says expresly that the Judges should moderate things so that no Man should be oppressed by the multitude of Witnesses which is a kind of Proof too that they which so do distrust the truth and goodness of their Cause Besides my Lords in all matters which came before me I have done nothing to the uttermost of my Understanding but what might conduce to the Peace and Welfare of this Kingdom and the maintenance of the Doctrine and Discipline of this Church established by Law and under which God hath blessed this State with so great Peace and Plenty as other Neighbouring Nations have looked upon with Admiration And what Miserie 's the overthrow of it which God in Mercy forbid may produce he alone knows 6. Sixthly my Lords there have been many and different Charges laid upon me about Words But many of them if spoken were only passionate and hasty And such upon what occasion soever drawn from me and I have had all manner of Provocations put upon me may among humane Errours be pardoned unto me if so it please your Lordships But for such as may seem to be of a higher Nature as those witnessed by Sir Henry Vane the Elder I gave my Answer again now fully to the Lords but shall not need to repeat it here 7. Then my Lords for my Actions not only my own but other Mens have been heavily Charged against me in many Particulars and that Criminally and I hope your Lordships will think Illegally As Secretary Windebank's Bishop Montague's my Chaplains Dr. Heilyn's Dr. Cosens Dr. Pocklinton's Dr. Dove's Mr. Shelford's and divers others And many of these Charges look back into many Years past Whereas the Act made this present Parliament takes no notice of nor punishes any Man for any thing done and past at the Council-Table Sar-Chamber or High-Commission much less doth it make any thing Treason And out of this Act I am no way Excepted Besides as I have often Pleaded all Acts done in in the Star-Chamber
a Monster in Nature in Morality and in Law and if it be nourished will devour all the Safety of the Subject of England which now stands so well fenced by the known Law of the Land And therefore I humbly desire your Lordships not for mine but for the Publick's sake to weigh this Business well before this Gap be made so wide as there will hardly be Power left again to shut it 2. My Second Reason is joined to the Answer of an Objection For when this Result was spoken of it was added That the Particulars charged against me are of the same kind and do all tend to the Subversion of Law and Religion and so become Treason But first suppose that all the Particulars charged do tend to the subversion of Law yet that cannot make them to be all of one kind For all Crimes tend more or less to the Overthrow of Vertue yet no Man can say that all Crimes are of the same kind Secondly be they of the same or different kinds yet neither all nor any of these charged against me do tend to the subversion of the Law For 't is one thing to break dislike or speak against some particular Laws and quite another to labour the Subversion of the whole Body of the Law and the Frame of Government And that I have done this by Conspiracy or Force or any overt Action is not so much as offered in proof And for the breach of any particular Law if I be guilty I am to be punished by the Sanction of that Law which I have broken 3. Thirdly Whereas it hath been said That many Actions of the same kind make a Habit. That 's true But what then For first the Actions urged against me are not of the same kind but exceeding different Secondly if the Habit be Treasonable then all those particular Actions which bred that Habit must be several Treasons as well as the Result or Habit it self whereas it hath been granted all along that my particular Actions are not Treasons And thirdly a Habit in it self neither is nor can be Treason for all Treason is either Thought Word or Overt Act but no Habit is either of these Therefore not Treason For a Habit is that in the Soul which enclines the Powers of it and makes a Man apt and ready to think speak or do that to which he is habituated So an ill Habit against Soveraign Power may make a Man apt and forward to fall into Treason but Treason it is not 4. Fourthly Nor can this Result be Treason at the Common Law by which alone I conceive there is no Treason at all at this day in England For the main end of that excellent Statute of 25 Edw. 3. was for the Safety of the Subject against the manifold Treasons which variously fell upon them by the Common Law and bounded all Treasons and limited them to the things expressed to be Treason in and by that Statute And in all times of difficulty since recourse hath still been had to that Statute And to that Statute I refer my self with this That this Result must be something within this Statute or some other known Statute or else it cannot be Treason And no Proof at all hath been so much as offered that this Result is Treason by any Law My Lords I do with all humble submission desire That when the Reply is made to this matter of Fact a Day may be assigned for my Councel to be heard in matter of Law in all and every Particular which they shall find necessary for my just Defence And now my Lords I do in all Humility lay my self low at God's Mercy-seat to do with me as he pleases and under God I shall rely upon your Lordships Justice Honour and Clemency of which I cannot doubt And without being farther tedious to your Lordships who have with very Honourable Patience heard me through this long and tedious Tryal I shall conclude with that which St. Augustine said to Romanianus a Man that had tryed both Fortunes as well as I If the Providence of God reaches down to us as most certain it doth Sic tecum agi oportet sicut agitur It must so be done with thee and so with me also as it is done And under that Providence which will I doubt not work to the best to my Soul that loves God I repose my self Here ended my Recapitulation and with it the Work of that Day And I was ordered to appear again the Saturday following to hear Mr Brown Sum up the whole Charge against me But upon Tuesday Septemb 3 this was put off to give Mr Brown more time to Wednesday Septemb 11. On Wednesday Septemb 4. as I was washing my Face my Nose bled and something plentifully which it had not done to my remembrance in forty Years before save only once and that was just the same Day and Hour when my most Honourable Friend the Lord Duke of Buckingham was killed at Portsmouth my self being then at Westminster And upon Friday as I was washing after Dinner my Nose bled again I thank God I make no superstitious Observation of this or any thing else yet I have ever used to mark what and how any thing of note falls to me And here I after came to know that upon both these Days in which I bled there was great agitation in the House of Commons to have me Sentenced by Ordinance but both times put off in regard very few of that House had heard either my Charge or Defence CAP. XLIV ON Wednesday September 11. Mr. Brown made in the Lords House a Summ or Brief of the Charge which was brought against me and touched by the way at some things in my Recapitulation But in regard I might not Answer him I took no perfect Notes but stood still and possessed my Soul in Patience yet wondring at the bold free frequent and most false Swearing that had been against me When Mr. Brown had ended I humbly desired again that my Councel might be heard in Point of Law And they were hereupon Ordered to deliver in Writing under their Hands what Points of Law they would insist upon and that by Saturday September 14. This day my Councel according as they were Ordered delivered into the Lords House these two Points following by way of Question First Whether in all or any the Articles charged against me there be contained any Treason by the Established Laws of this Kingdom Secondly Whether the Charge of the said Impeachment and Articles did contain such Certainty and Particularity as is required by Law in a Case where Treason is charged This day I Petitioned the Lords that my Councel might have access to and take Copies of all such Records as they thought necessary for my Defence which was Granted and Order'd accordingly My Councel's Quaeries having been formerly sent down to the House of Commons they were there referred to a Committee of Lawyers to
consider of and on September 27. Friday they were earnestly called upon to hasten their Report And on Friday Octob. 4. Mr. Nicolas made a great noise about me in the House and would have had me presently Censured in the House and no less would serve his turn but that I must be Hanged and was at Sus. per Coll. till upon the Reasons before given that if they went on this way they must Condemn me unheard this violent Clamour ceased for that time And a Message was sent up to the Lords for my Councel to be heard as touching the first Question concerning Treason but not concerning any Exception that they shall take against the Articles in point of certainty This Message the Lords took into present Consideration and Order'd it accordingly And appointed the Friday following being Octob. 11. for my Councel to be Heard and my Self to be present This day according to this Order of the Lords I and my Councel attended My Councel were Mr. Hern and Mr. Hales of Lincolns-Inn and Mr. Gerrard of Grays-Inn When we were called into the House and the Lords setled in their places Mr. John Hern who was the Man that spake what all had resolved on delivered his Argument very freely and stoutly proving that nothing which I have either said or done according to this Charge is Treason by any known Established Law of this Kingdom The Argument follows in these words according to the Copy which Mr. Hern himself delivered me My Lords THE Work of this Day we humbly conceive is in many respects of very great and high Concernment 1. In that it concerns Matter of Life a Thing of the highest Consequence 2. The Life of an Arch-Bishop a Person who had attained the highest Dignity conferred in the Church of England 3. Those Happy Laws many Years since Enacted and Confirmed by several Parliaments to be the Boundaries what was Treason a Crime before so various as it had no Bounds and so Odious that the punishment of it was an Infamous Death a total Confiscation with a Brand of Infamy to all Posterity 4. In that the Charge against him moves from no less a Body than the whole Commons of England which presents him now a Prisoner at this Bar before your Lordships in the High and Supream Court of Judicature in Parliament And if any thing shall fall from us subject to any doubtful Construction we shall humbly crave your Lordships Pardon and Leave to make our Explication For as there is upon us a Duty to be wary not to offer any thing which may minister just Offence so neither may we be unfaithful to omit what may justly tend to our Client's Defence The Charge against him we find to be made up of two several parcels of Articles Exhibited by the Honourable House of Commons 1. The First in Maintenance of their Accusation whereby he stands charged with High Treason 2. The latter Intituled farther Articles of Impeachment of High Treason and divers high Crimes and Misdemeanours for all which Matters and Things they have Impeached him of High Treason and other high Crimes and Misdemeanours tending to the Subversion of Religion Laws and Liberties and to the utter Ruine of this Church and Common-wealth Concerning this Charge and the Arch-Bishop's Defence he hitherto made before your Lordships we by your Lordships Command Assigned his Councel neither have nor could by Reason of the mixt Charge without distinguishing what was thereby intended to be a Charge of Treason and what of Misdemeanour only be farther useful to him than to Advise the Form of his Plea and Answer which we received from him as to all the Matters of Fact to be a Not Guilty We have not in all or any the Facts Charged or Evidenced against him in any sort intermedled But the same how proved and how appliable to the Charges without mention of any of them shall wholly leave to your Lordships Notes and Memories What Defence he hath offered hitherto hath been wholly his own He without us in that and we without consulting him in the work of this day Wherein having received your Lordships Commands we did present in writing the Points in Law we then humbly conceived fit for us to insist upon I. Whether in all or any the Articles charged against him there was contained any Treason by the Established Laws of this Kingdom II. Whether the Charge of the said Impeachment and Articles did contain such certainty and particularity as is required by Law in a Case where Treason is charged But being enjoyned by your Honourable Order to speak only to the former We shall as in Duty becomes conform thereunto For our Method herein shall follow the course holden in the Reply made upon the whole Articles whereby we conceived the Charges contained in them were reduced to these three Generals 1. A Trayterous Endeavour to Subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Realm and instead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government against Law contained in the first Original and first Additional Articles 2. Secondly A Trayterous Endeavour to Subvert God's True Religion by Law Established and instead thereof to set up Popish Superstition and Idolatry this contained in the seventh Original and seventh Additional Articles 3. Thirdly That he laboured to Subvert the Rights of Parliament and the Ancient course of Parliamentary Proceedings and by False and Malicious Slanders to incense his Majesty against Parliaments And this contained in the fourteenth Original and tenth Additional Articles All other the Articles we humbly conceive to be but Instances conducing and applied to some of those Generals Concerning those three General Heads of the Charge we shall crave leave to propose two Questions to be debated 1. Whether there be at this day any other Treason than what is Declared by the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. Cap. 2. or Enacted by some subsequent particular Statute which we humbly conceive and shall endeavour to satisfie your Lordships there is not any 2. Whether any the Matters in any of the Articles charged contain any of the Treasons declared by that Law or Enacted by any subsequent Law which we likewise conceive they do not And for the clearing of both these shall humbly insist That 1. An endeavour to Subvert the Laws An endeavour to Subvert Religion A labouring to Subvert the Rights of Parliaments Are not Treasons either within the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. or by any other particular Statute 2. That not any of the Particulars instanced in any other the Articles is a Treason within the Statute 25 Ed. 3. or any other Statute And to make good our Tenet upon our first Question shall humbly offer That before this Statute of 25 Ed. 3. Treasons at the Common Law were so general and uncertain that almost any Crime by Inferences and Constructions might be and was often extended to be a Treason in so much as we find in 22o. of the
within it for the Reasons formerly alledged 2. Because an Endeavour to subvert Laws is of so great a Latitude and Uncertainty that every Action not Warranted by Law may be thereby extended to be a Treason In the Sixth Report in Mildmays Case Fol. 42. where a Conveyance was made in Tail with a Proviso if he did go about or attempt to discontinue the Entail the same should be void It was resolved the Proviso was void and the principal Reason was that these Words attempt or go about are Words uncertain and void in Law And the Words of the Book are very observable viz. God defend that Inheritances and Estates of Men should depend upon such incertainties for that Misera est Servitus ubi Jus est vagum quod non definitur in Jure quid fit conatus and therefore the Rule of the Law doth decide this point Non efficit conatus nisi sequitur effectus and the Law doth reject Conations and goings about as things uncertain which cannot be put in issue These are the Words of the Book And if so considerable in Estates your Lordships we conceive will hold it far more considerable in a Case of Life which is of highest Consequence And if it should be said this Law of 25. Ed. 3. takes notice of Compassing and Imagining We answer it is in a Particular declared by that Law to be Treason in Compassing the death of the King But this of Endeavouring to subvert Laws not declared by that or any other Law to be a Treason And if it should be granted that this Law might in any Case admit any other Fact to be Treason by Inference or Construction other than is therein particularly declared which we conceive it cannot Yet it is not Imaginable that a Law introduced purposely to limit and ascertain Crimes of so high Consequence should by Construction or Inference be subject to a Construction of admitting so uncertain and indefinite a thing as an endeavour to subvert the Law is it being not comprised within the Letter of that Law 3. That the Subversion of the Law is an impossible thing therefore an Endeavour to do an act which cannot be effected cannot be Treason 4. That in all times the Endeavouring to subvert the Laws hath been conceived no determinate Crime but rather an Aggravation only of a Crime than otherwise And therefore hath been usually joyned as an Aggravation or result of Crimes below Treason As appears in the Parliament Roll 28 H. 6. num 28. to num 47. in the Case of the Duke of Suffolk where the Commons having in Parliament preferred Articles of Treason against him did not make that any part of their Charge Yet in the same Parliament and within few Days after the First being in February the latter in March Exhibiting other Articles against him they therein Charged all the Misprisions Offences and Deeds therein mentioned to have been the cause of the Subversion of Laws and Justice and the Execution thereof and nigh likely to tend to the Destruction of the Realm So as it appears it was then conceived an Offence of another Nature and not a Treason And it appears as well by the Articles exhibited in Parliament 21 H. 8. against Cardinal Woolsey as by Indictment in the Kings Bench against Ligham 23 H. 8. Rot. 25. That the Cardinal did Endeavour to subvert Antiquissimas Leges hujus Regni Vniversumque hoc Regnum Angliae Legibus Imperialibus Subjugare which although it be a Charge of subverting the ancient Laws of the Kingdom and to introduce new and Arbitrary Laws yet neither upon the Articles or Indictment was the same imputed to be Treason but ended in a Charge of a Premunire And if it shall be said that Empson 1 H. 8. had Judgment and Died for it upon an Indictment in London We answer 1. This was not the Substance of the Indictment but only an Aggravation 2. And if Charged it is with an actual subverting not with an Endeavour to subvert the Laws and is joyned with divers other Offences 3. Which is a full Answer The Indictment upon which he was Tryed was Paschae 2 H. 8. at Northampton and was for Levying War against the King a Treason declared by the Law of 25 Ed. 3. upon which he was Convicted and Suffered and no proceeding upon the other Indictment ever had And as to the second General Charge of Endeavouring to subvert Religion This no more than that former of subverting the Laws is any Treason within any Law established in this Kingdom And herein as to the Charge of the Endeavour we shall rely upon what hath been already said upon the former With this further That until that happy Reformation begun in the time of King Edward VI. there was another Frame of Religion established by Law which was conceived until then to have been the True Religion and any Endeavour to Change or Alter it prosecuted with great Extremities Yet was not any Attempt to alter it conceived to be a Treason but several especial Acts of Parliaments were made for particular Punishments against Persons who should attempt the Alteration thereof Witness the Statute of 5 R. 2. Cap. 5. and 2 H. 5. Cap. 7. In which latter although mention is made of endeavouring to destroy and subvert the Christian Faith yet was not the Offence made or declared to be Treason And at this day Heresie of what kind soever is not punishable but according to the old course of the Law And we may add the Statute of 1 Edw. 6. Cap. 12. that of 1 Mariae 12. which makes it but Felony to attempt an Alteration of Religion by force The worst kind of Attempt certainly To the third and last general Charge Labouring to subvert the Rights of Parliaments To the Labouring to do it we shall add nothing to what hath been said to the Charge of Endeavour in the two former only thus much we shall observe That in the Parliament of 11 R. 2. amongst the many Articles preferred against the Duke of Ireland and others the 14th Article contains a Charge much of this Nature viz. That when the Lords and others in divers Parliaments had moved to have a good Government in the Realm they had so far incensed the King that he caused divers to depart from his Parliament so that they durst not for fear of Death advise for the good of the Kingdom Yet when the Lords came to single out the Articles what was or was not Treason That although a Charge transcending this was none of the Articles by them declared to be Treason My Lords Having done with these Generals it remains only that we apply our selves to those other Articles which we conceive were insisted upon as Instances conducing and applied to some of the Generals we have handled Wherein if the Generals be not Treason the Particular Instances cannot be and on the other side if the Instances fall
short of Treasons the application to those Generals cannot make them Treasons We shall only single out Two Particulars and in those be very brief in that most which hath been said to the former Generals is appliable to them inasmuch as none of them is declared to be a Treason by the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. or by any other Law enacted 1. The first of these in the 10th Original Article viz. That he hath Traiterously endeavoured to reconcile the Church of England with the Church of Rome Which if it be any Treason must be a Treason within the Statute of 5 Jac. Cap. 4. whereby is provided That if any Man shall put in practice to Reconcile any of his Majesty's Subjects to the Pope or See of Rome the same is enacted to be Treason which we conceive clearly is none of this Charge 1. First For that here only is Charged an Endeavour there a Putting in Practice 2. Here a Reconciling of the Church of England with the Church of Rome there a Reconciling some of his Majesty's Subjects to the See of Rome And a Reconciling with may as well be a Reducing of that of Rome to England as England to Rome The Second in the 7th additional Article for wittingly and willingly Receiving and Harbouring divers Popish Priests and Jesuits namely Sancta Clara and Monsieur St. Gyles Which Offence as to the Harbouring Priests and Jesuits born within his Majesty's Dominions by the Statute of 27 Eliz. Cap. 2. is made Felony not Treason and extends only to Priests English born which these are not charged to be My Lords We have now gone through those Articles wherein we conceive the Treasons Charged were intended and have endeavoured to make it appear That none of the Matters in any of the Articles Charged are Treason within the Letter of any Law And if not so then they cannot by Inference or Parity of Reason be heightned to a Treason It is true the Crimes as they are laid in the Charge are great and many Yet if the Laws of this Realm which have distinguished Crimes and accordingly given them several Names and inflicted Punishments raise none of these to a Treason That we humbly conceive will be worthy of your Lordships Consideration in this Case and that their Number cannot make them exceed their Nature And if they be but Crimes and Misdemeanours apart below Treason or Felony they cannot make a Treason by putting them together Otherwise the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. which we have so much insisted upon had been fruitless and vain if after all that exactness any Number of Misdemeanours in themselves no Treason should by complication produce a Treason and yet no mention made of it in that Law much less any Determination thereby that any Number or what Number and of what Nature of Crimes below Treason should make a Treason It is true my Lords That by the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. there is a Clause in these Words It is accorded That if any other Case supposed Treason which is not therein specified doth happen before any Justices the Justices shall tarry without any going to Judgment of the Treason until the Cause be shewed and declared before the King and his Parliament Whether it ought to be judged Treason or Felony And that hereby might seem to be inferred That there should be some other Treasons than are mentioned in that Law which may be declared in Parliament But my Lords we shall observe 1. If such Declaration look only forward then the Law making it Treason preceeds the Offence and is no more than an Enacting Law If it look backward to the Offence past then it appears by the very Clause it self of 25 Edw. 3. it should be at the least a Felony at the Common Law and that a Crime or Crimes below a Felony were never intended to be by this Law to be declared or to be heightned to a Treason And we find not any Crime declared Treason with a Retrospect unless it were a Felony before And in the late Case of the Earl of Strafford Attainted by Bill there is a Treason within this Law charged and declared by the Bill of his Attainder to have been proved 2. Secondly We are not now in case of a Declaration of a Treason but before your Lordships only upon an Impeachment and in such case we humbly conceive the Law already established as it hath been so it will be the Rule Thus my Lords we have gone through that Part which belongs to us directed us by your Lordships viz. Whether in all or any the Articles exhibited before your Lordships there is contained any Treason by any established Law of this Kingdom without medling at all with the Facts or Proof made of them which together with our weak Endeavours we humbly submit to your Lordships great Judgment And for any Authorities cited by us are ready if so Commanded to produce them Here this Day ended and I had a few Days rest But on Tuesday October 22. being a Day made Solemn for Humiliation my Chamber at the Tower was searched again for Letters and Papers But nothing found After this there went up and down all about London and the Suburbs a Petition for the bringing of Delinquents to Justice and some Preachers exhorted the People to be zealous in it telling them it was for the Glory of God and the Good of the Church By this means they got many Hands of Men which little thought what they went about In this Petition none were named but my self and the Bishop of Ely so their Drift was known to none but their own Party and was undoubtedly set on foot to do me mischief Whose Design this was God knows but I have cause to suspect Mr. Pryn's Hand in it This barbarous way of the Peoples clamouring upon great Courts of Justice as if they knew not how to govern themselves and the Causes brought before them is a most unchristian Course and not to be endured in any well-governed State This Petition with a Multitude of Hands to it was delivered to the House of Commons on Munday Octob. 28. Concerning which I shall observe this That neither the Lord Mayor nor the Sheriffs made any stop of this Illegal and Blood-thirsty Course though it were publickly known and the People exhorted to set Hands to it in the Parish-Churches What this and such-like Courses as these may bring upon this City God alone knows whom I humbly pray to shew it Mercy CAP. XLV THis Day being All-hallan-day a Warrant came to the Lieutenant from the House of Commons to bring me to their Barr to hear the Evidence formerly summed up and given against me in the Lords House I knew no Law nor Custom for this for though our Votes by a late Act of Parliament be taken away yet our Baronies are not And so long as we remain Barons we belong to the Lords House and
Yet not forgetting what Ordinance you told me was drawn up against me If that which I have now said may any way satisfie this Honourable House to make stay of it or to mitigate it I shall bless God and you for it And I humbly desire you to take into consideration my Calling my Age my former Life my Fall my Imprisonment long and strict That these Considerations may move with you In my Prosperity I bless God for it I was never puffed up into Vanity whatever the World may think of me And in these last full four Years durance I thank the same God Gravem Fortunam constanter tuli I have with decent Constancy born the weight of a pressing Fortune And I hope God will strengthen me unto and in the end of it Mr. Speaker I am very aged considering the Turmoils of my Life and I daily find in my self more Decays than I make shew of and the Period of my Life in the Course of Nature cannot be far off It cannot but be a great Grief unto me to stand at these Years thus Charged before ye Yet give me leave to say thus much without Offence Whatsoever Errours or Faults I may have committed by the way in any my Proceedings through Human Infirmity as who is He that hath not offended and broken some Statute-Laws too by Ignorance or Misapprehension or Forgetfulness at some sudden time of Action Yet if God Bless me with so much Memory I will die with these Words in my Mouth That I never intended much less endeavoured the subversion of the Laws of the Kingdom nor the bringing in of Popish Superstition upon the true Protestant Religion Established by Law in this Kingdom And now Mr. Speaker having done with the Fact I have but this one thing to put to the Consideration of this Honourable House My Charge hath been repeated I confess by a very worthy and a very able Gentleman But Ability is not absolute in any The Evidence given against me before the Lords was as by the Law it ought to be given in upon Oath But the Evidence now summed up and presented to this Honourable House is but upon the Collection and Judgment of one Man how able or intire soever and what he conceived is proved against me is but according to his Judgment and Memory which perhaps may differ much from the Opinion and Judgment of the Judges themselves who heard the Evidence at large Nor was this Gentleman himself present every Day of my Hearing and then for those Days in which he was absent he can report no more here than what others have reported to him So for so much his Repetition here is but a Report of a Report of Evidence given And at the best but a Report of Evidence and not upon Oath And I suppose never any Jurors who are Tryers of the Fact in any Case Civil or Criminal did ever ground their Verdict upon an Evidence only Reported before them and which themselves heard not And if this manner of Proceeding shall be thought less considerable in my Person yet I humbly desire it may be thoroughly weighed in the prudent Judgment of this Honourable House the great Preserver of the Laws and Liberties of the Subject of England how far it doth or may trench upon these in future Consequences if these great Boundaries be laid loose and open And because my Infirmities are many and great which Age and Grief have added to those which are naturally in me I most humbly desire again That my Councel may be heard for point of Law according to the former Concession of this Honourable House For I assure my self upon that which hath been pleaded to the Lords That no one nor all of the things together which are charged against me if proved which I conceive they are not can make me guilty of High Treason by any known Established Law of this Kingdom The Sum of all is this Upon an Impeachment arising from this House I have pleaded Not Guilty Thereupon Issue hath been joined and Evidence given in upon Oath And now I must humbly leave it to you your Wisdom and Justice Whether it shall be thought Fit and Just and Honourable to Judge me here only upon a Report or a Hearsay and that not upon Oath CAP. XLVI HEre ended the heavy Business of this Day I was exceeding faint with speaking so long and I had great pain and soreness in my Breast for almost a Fortnight after then I thank God it wore away I was commanded to withdraw and to attend the House again on Wednesday Novemb. 13. which I did Then Mr. Brown made a Reply to my Answer The Reply had some great Mistakes in it but else was for the most part but a more earnest Affirming of what he had delivered And I conceived I was not to Answer to his Reply but that he was to have the last Speech For so it was always carried during my Hearing in the Lords House Therefore being dismissed I went away And I was no sooner gone but the House called for the Ordinance which was drawn up against me and without Hearing my Councel or any more ado Voted me Guilty of High Treason And yet when I came that Day to the House all Men and many of the House themselves did much magnifie my Answer before given I will forbear to set down in what Language because it was high and as no time can be fit for Vanity so least of all was this time for me And Vain I must needs be thought should I here relate what was told me from many and good Hands But it seems the Clamour prevailed against me On Saturday Novemb. 16. this Ordinance was passed the House of Commons suddenly and with so great deliberation as you have heard was transmitted to the Lords and by them the Debate concerning it put off to Friday Novemb. 22. Then the Earl of Pembroke began more fully to shew his canker'd Humour against me how provoked I protest I know not unless by my serving him far beyond his Desert There among other course Language he bestowed as I am informed the Rascal and the Villain upon me And told the Lords they would put off giving their Consent to the Ordinance till the Citizens would come down and call for Justice as they did in my Lord Strafford's Case Was there not Justice and Wisdom in this Speech Hereupon the Business was put off to Saturday Novemb. 23. and then to Friday Novemb. 29. But then upon Thursday Novemb. 28. Mr. Strowd came up with a Message from the Commons to quicken the Lords in this Business And at the end of his Message he let fall That they should do well to agree to the Ordinance or else the Multitude would come down and force them to it At this some Lords very honourably took Exception and Mr. Strowd durst not bide it that this was any part of the Message delivered him by the House of Commons
I humbly beseech thee give me now in this great Instant full Patience proportionable Comfort and a Heart ready to Die for thine Honour the King's Happiness and the Churches Preservation And my Zeal to this far from Arrogancy be it spoken is all the Sin Humane Frailty excepted and all the Incidents thereunto which is yet known to me in this Particular for which I now come to suffer I say in this Particular of Treason But otherwise my Sins are many and great Lord Pardon them all and those especially whatever they are which have drawn down this present Judgment upon me And when thou hast given me strength to bear it do with me as seems best in thine own Eyes And carry me through Death that I may look upon it in what Visage soever it shall appear to me Amen And that there may be a stop of this Issue of Blood in this more than miserable Kingdom I shall desire that I may Pray for the People too as well as for my self O Lord I beseech thee give Grace of Repentance to all Blood-Thirsty People but if they will not Repent O Lord confound all their Devices defeat and frustrate all their Designs and Endeavours upon them which are or shall be contrary to the Glory of thy Great Name the Truth and Sincerity of Religion the Establishment of the King and his Posterity after him in their just Rights and Priviledges the Honour and Conservation of Parliaments in their just Power the Preservation of this poor Church in her Truth Peace and Patrimony and the settlement of this distracted and distressed People under their Ancient Laws and in their Native Liberty And when thou hast done all this in meer Mercy to them O Lord fill their Hearts with Thankfulness and with Religious Dutiful Obedience to thee and thy Commandments all their Days Amen Lord Jesu Amen And receive my Soul into thy Bosom Amen Our Father which art in Heaven c. The Speech and Prayer being ended he gave the Paper which he read into the Hands of Stern his Chaplain permitted to Attend him in his last Extremity Whom he desired to Communicate it to his other Chaplains that they might see in what manner he left this World and so Prayed God to shew his Blessings and Mercies on them And taking notice that one Hind had employed himself in writing the Words of his Speech as it came from his Mouth he desired him not to do him wrong in Publishing a False or Imperfect Copy This done he next applied himself to the Fatal Block as to the Haven of his Rest. But finding the way full of People who had placed themselves upon the Theatre to behold the Tragedy he desired he might have room to Die beseeching them to let him have an end of his Miseries which he had endured very long All which he did with so serene and calm a Mind as if he rather had been taking order for a Noble-Man's Funeral than making way for his own Being come near the Block he put off his Doublet and used some Words to this Effect God's Will be done I am willing to go out of this World none can be more willing to send me And seeing through the Chinks of the Boards that some People were got under the Scaffold about the very Place where the Block was seated he called to the Officer for some Dust to stop them or to remove the People thence saying It was no part of his Desires that his Blood should fall upon the Heads of the People Never did Man put off Mortality with a Better Courage nor look upon his Bloody and Malicious Enemies with more Christian Charity And thus far he was on his way toward Paradise with such a Primitive Magnanimity as Equalled if not Exceeded the Example of the Ancient Martyrs when he was somewhat interrupted by one of those who had placed himself on the Scaffold not otherwise worthy to be Named but as a Firebrand brought from Ireland to inflame this Kingdom Who finding that the Mockings and Revilings of Malicious People had no power to move him or sharpen him into any discontent or shew of Passion would needs put in and try what he could do with his Spunge and Vinegar and stepping to him near the Block he would needs propound unto him some impertinent Questions not so much out of a desire to learn any thing of him but with the same purpose as was found in the Scribes and Pharisees in propounding Questions to our Saviour that is to say either to intrap him in his Answers or otherwise to expose him to some disadvantage with the standers by Two of the Questions he made Answer to with all Christian Meekness The first Question was What was the Comfortablest Saying which a Dying Man would have in his Mouth To which he Meekly made Answer Cupio dissolvi esse cum Christo. Being asked again What was the fittest Speech a Man could use to express his Confidence and Assurance He answered with the same Spirit of Meekness That such Assurance was to be found within and that no words were able to express it rightly But this not satisfying this Busie Man who aimed at something else as is probable than such satisfaction unless he gave some Word or Place of Scripture whereupon such Assurance might be truly founded he used some words to this effect That it was the Word of God concerning Christ and his dying for us But then finding that there was like to be no end of the Troublesom Gentleman he turned away from him applying himself directly to the Executioner as the Gentler and Discreeter Person Putting some Money into his Hand he said unto him without the least distemper or change of Countenance Here Honest Friend God forgive thee and I do and do thy Office upon me with Mercy And having given him a Sign when the Blow should come he kneeled down upon his Knees and Prayed as followeth viz. Lord I am coming as fast as I can I know I must pass through the shadow of Death before I can come to see thee but it is but Umbra Mortis a meer shadow of Death a little darkness upon Nature but thou by thy Merits and Passion hast broke through the Jaws of Death The Lord receive my Soul and have Mercy upon me and bless this Kingdom with Peace and Plenty and with Brotherly Love and Charity that there may not be this effusion of Christian Blood amongst them for Jesus Christ his sake if it be thy will Then laying his Head upon the Block and praying silently to himself he said aloud Lord receive my Soul which was the Signal given to the Executioner who very dexterously did his Office and took off his Head at a blow his Soul ascending on the Wings of Angels into Abraham's Bosom and leaving his Body on the Scaffold to the care of Men. And if the Bodies of us Men be capable of any Happiness in the Grave he had as great a
Witness I laboured nothing but the Settlement of the Decent External Worship of God among us which whatever some other Men think I know was sunk very low and if in labouring this I did err in any Circumstance for in matter of Substance I am sure I did not that may be forgiven me for Humanity sake which cannot free it self from Error But that which brought all these Distractions both upon Church and State was the bringing in of the Scots and the keeping of them here at a vast charge only to serve Turns and those very base ones And to the debasing and dishonour of this whole Nation as well as the King And how far this Lord had his Hand or his Head in this Treacherous Business he best knows Sure I am his Lordship is thought one of the chief Moulders of this Leaven of the Pharisees But my Lord thinks himself safe enough so he can cry me up among the Rabble to be the Author of all And not content with this he insults farther upon me as follows Yet to magnifie his Moderation presently after the breaking of the last Parliament he told a Lord who sits now in my sight that if he had been a Violent Man he wanted no occasion to shew it For he observed that the Lord Say never came to Prayers and added that I was in his knowledge as great a Separatist as any was in England What ever it was I said was not to magnifie my Moderation Nor do I remember that ever I spake these words Yet First if any Lord will say upon his Honour that I did say these very Words I will bear him and the Peerage of the Realm that Honour as that I will submit and believe his Testimony against my own Old now and Weak Memory Next upon enquiry made by some Friends of mine I find that the Words I should speak are said to be these that if I listed to take any advantage against this Honourable Lord I had as much exception to him as to any Separatist in England These Words are neither so Bold nor so Vncivil as those in the Charge and perhaps I might speak these though I remember it not For during the last Parliament not so few as Ten or a Dozen several Lords came to me of themselves as I sat there and complained grievously of this Lord's absenting himself from the Prayers of the Church and some of them wondred he was not questioned for the Scandal he gave by it And if any of them would be so mean as to urge me to speak by speaking Broad themselves and then carry the Tale to this Noble Lord he did that who ever he were which I hope was not the Noblest of his Actions and if I did say these latter Words of this great Lord I must and do say them again and I heartily beseech God that this Sin be not laid to my Charge that I questioned him not when the Times were calmer For had I done that I had done my Duty and if I had not cured him perhaps I might have prevented so much common danger to this Church as his Lordship hath procured since that time both by his Example his Counsel and his Countenance And for the Words I doubt not but he himself will be found to have made them good before I have done examining this Speech of his Lordship In the mean time my Lord proceeds My Lords how far he hath spit this Venom of his against me I am not certain but I may well fear where it might do me greatest Prejudice I shall therefore intreat your Lordships Favour and Patience that I may give you in these things which so nearly concern me a true account of my self which I shall do with Ingenuity and Clearness and so as that if I satisfie not all Men yet I hope I shall make it appear I am not such a one as this Waspish Man was willing to make the World believe I have spit no Venom against his Lordship much less have I spit any thing far For this Report which is here called Venom is common through the Kingdom And I have already told you what divers Lords said to me during the last Parliament And that is no more than hath been avowed unto me by very many others and some of very good Quality so the spreading was to me not from me But yet my Lord fears I spread it where it might do him greatest Prejudice I know not what my Lord means by this unless it be that I should spread it to his Majesty And if that be his meaning I will tell his Lordship truth what I know therein I was present when I heard some Lords more than once tell the King that the Lord Say was a Separatist from the Church of England and would not come at her Common-Prayers And one of these Lords afterwards told me he did conceive it was a great danger to this Kingdom when Noblemen should begin to separate in Religion and that his Majesty had need look to it To this last which was spoken to me in private but I will depose the Truth of it I could not but assent And to the former I then said I had heard as much as was then told his Majesty but I was not certain of it And I doubt not but these Lords sit in his Lordship's sight as well as that Lord who told him the other of me And not in his Sight only but in his Affections also as things go now But however they carry it with him now this they said of him then Nor will I here pick a Thanks to tell this Lord what Service I did him to his Majesty when he was thought to be in danger enough though I was chidden by a Great one that stood by for my Labour I shall therefore intreat the Christian Reader 's Favour and Patience that having hitherto given him a most true and clear Account of that which my Lord charges me with and doth nearly concern me So I may proceed to the rest which I do with all Ingenuity and Truth And so as that if I satisfie not all Men yet I hope I shall make it appear that I am not such a Waspish Man as my Lord would fain render me to the World But if I have been a Wasp in any Court wherein I have had the Honour to sit yet his Lordship should not have called me so considering what a Hornet all men say he is in the Court of Wards and in other Places of Business Where he pinches so deep that discreet Men are in a doubt whether his Aim be to sting the Wards or the Court it self to Death first For no Man can believe 't is for the good of the King And if I fail in this endeavour of mine to clear my self I must desire the Courteous Reader to ascribe it not to my Cause which is very good against his Lordship but to the narrowness of my Comprehensions and my Weakness compared with his
Sermons and Homilies and in such Cases they might very lawfully be heard But if some Men upon pretence to prevent Extravagant Preaching should take upon them to set forth a Book of Publick Common Sermons fit for all Times and Occasions and should enjoyn Ministers to conform to these and use no other Preaching at all but the Reading of those Common Sermons or Homilies so devised for Publick Worship this would make it utterly Vnlawful and to be Professed against as that which were the bringing in of a Humane Device and Injunction in the place and instead of God's Ordinance to the Exclusion thereof As the Pharisees to establish Traditions of their own made void the Commandments of God I hope my Lord will have no better success with this Instance under the Gospel than he had with that under the Law And yet whatsoever is Truth in his Instance I shall most willingly grant And therefore I do acknowledge that in the time of the Gospel God appointed the foolishness of Preaching 1 Cor. 1. to be a Means but not to be The Means if it be meant the only Means by which he will save those that believe I likewise confess that in the World's Account 't is made the Foolishness of Preaching And I would to God some Men much magnified in these Times did not give too often very just Cause to the World to account it not only the Foolishness but the Madness of Preaching such Preaching as is far from being a Means of Salvation I conceive also as well as my Lord that where there are no Gifts enabling Men to Preach as it falls out in too many Parishes in England and the true Cause is the smallness of the Living unable to Feed and Cloath Men and therefore cannot expect Men of Parts there not only might be but is a lawful and profitable use of Reading of Printed Sermons and Homilies and that in such Cases yes and in other Cases too they may very lawfully be heard And I think farther that if some Men not upon their own private Authority but lawfully meeting in a Synod or Convocation shall not upon pretence but truly to prevent Extravagant Preaching such as of late hath been and is too common in England should take upon them to set forth a Book of common Sermons such as might be fit for all Times and all Occasions which is not impossible to be done and should enjoyn Ministers to conform to these and use no other Preaching at all but the Reading of these common Sermons or Homilies so devised for publick Worship I must needs say it were a Cure not to be used but in Extremity to bar all other Preaching for the Abuse of some be it never so gross Yet if the Distempers of the Pulpit should grow in any National Church so high so Seditious so Heretical and Blasphemous so Schismatical and Outragious as many of them have been of late in this distracted Church of ours I say if such a Book of Sermons should be so set out by the Church direction and published by the Authority of King and Parliament as the Book of Common Prayer is When the Comparison is made thus even and my Lords Instance so brought home I do then think such a Book not devised for publick Worship but for publick Instruction for Sermons are not properly the Worship of God but as to teach us Faith and Obedience and how we are to pray and give Worship to him might be used with great profit yea and with far more than many Sermons of the present time which do in a manner teach nothing but Disobedience to Princes and all Authority under a false pretence of Obedience to God And for the Injunction which sticks so much with my Lord certainly in Cases of such Extremity as is above-mentioned and when nothing else will serve I conceive it might well and profitably be laid upon the Ministers and yet that such an Imposition would be far from making it utterly unlawful and to be professed against as that which were the bringing in of a Humane Device in the place and instead of God's Ordinance to the Exclusion thereof For 't is probable these Sermons my Lord speaks of would be Preached before they were Printed And the end of their being Preached was to publish Christ and his Gospel to the World And that also was or ought to be the end of Publishing the same Sermons in Print that the benefit of them might reach the farther and be of longer continuance So that upon the Matter the Printing of Sermons is but a large and more open Preaching of them still And then if Preaching be God's Ordinance Printing of Sermons is the publishing of God's Ordinance And therefore if there were an Injunction for a Book of Sermons as is mentioned it were but a more publick and durable divulging of God's Ordinance and not the bringing in of a Humane Device instead of it and to the Exclusion thereof As for that which follows that this is like the Pharisees who to establish Traditions of their own made void the Commandments of God This is but a Simile and is Answered in the former And you see that should any Necessity force the making of such an Injunction which God forbid it did help to publish God's Ordinance and not make void his Commandments Howsoever my Lord may take this along with him That that Party which he governs in this Kingdom are as well seen in this Art of the Pharisees as any Men in Christendom and will if they be let alone make void all the Service of God to bring in their Dreams against all Reason Religion and lawful Authority And this is most true whatever they think of themselves But my Lord desires farther consideration of his Instance Let it be considered what difference can be found between these but only this Vse and Custom hath inured us to that of Prayer not so in this of Preaching and therefore the Evil of it would easily appear unto us if so enjoined It is fit my Lord should have his desire in this that it be considered what difference can be found between these And out of all doubt my Lord acknowledges that some difference there is And were it this only as his Lordship would have it That Vse and Custom hath inured us to that of Prayer and not so in this of Preaching that might be Reason enough to continue our publick set Form of Prayer For if the Service have not fault in it but that 't is enjoyned And if the enjoyning of a good Service of God Almighty in which Christian People may consent and unanimously and uniformly worship him be no fault at all as most certain it is not 'T is neither wisdom nor safety to cast off such a Custom or Vsage and leave every Minister and perhaps other Men too to make what Prayers they please in the Congregation which doubtless would be many times such as no good understanding Christian could
he hath made stay of that they may be reduced into Years for the good of that See which abundantly needs it My Lord Bishop of Winchester Certifies that there is all Peace and Order in his Diocess and that himself and his Clergy have duly Obeyed your Majesty's Instructions But he Informs that in the Parish of Avington in Hampshire one Vnguyon an Esquire is Presented for a new Recusant as also Three others whereof Two are in Southwark These Three Bishops for their several Diocesses respectively make return that all Obedience is yielded to every of your Majesty's Instructions The late Bishop of St Davids now of Hereford hath in his time of Residence taken a great deal of pains in that See and hath caused Two to be questioned in the High Commission and Suspended one Roberts a Lecturer for Inconformity Three or four others which were Suspended he hath released upon hope given of their Obedience to the Church and hath absolutely deprived Two for their exceeding Scandalous Life He complains much and surely with cause enough that there are few Ministers in those poor and remote places that are able to Preach and Instruct the People My Lord the Bishop informs that that County is very full of Impropriations which makes the Ministers poor and their Poverty makes them fall upon Popular and Factious courses I doubt this is too true but it is a Mischief hard to cure in this Kingdom yet I have taken all the care I can and shall continue so to do From the rest of the Bishops of my Province I have received no Certificat this Year viz. Covent and Litchfield Worcester Bangor So I humbly submit this my Certificat W. CANT The Arch-Bishop's Accounts of his Province to the King for the Year 1636. May it please your Sacred Majesty ACcording to your Royal Commands expressed in your late Instructions for the good of the Church I do here most humbly present my Yearly Account for my Diocess and Province of Canterbury for this last Year ending at Christmass 1636. And First for my own Diocess I have every Year acquainted your Majesty and so must do now that there are still about Ashford and Egerton divers Brownists and other Separatists But they are so very mean and poor People that we know not what to do with them They are said to be the Disciples of one Turner and Fennar who were long since apprehended and imprisoned by Order of your Majesty's High Commission Court But how this part came to be so infected with such a Humour of Separation I know not unless it were by too much connivence at their first beginning Neither do I see any Remedy like to be unless some of their chief Seducers be driven to Abjure the Kingdom which must be 〈◊〉 by the Judges at the Common Law but is not in our power I have received Information from my Officers that the Walloons and other Strangers in my Diocess especially at Canterbury do come orderly to their Parish Churches and there receive the Sacraments and Marry c. according to my Injunctions with that limitation which your Majesty allowed There have been heretofore many in Canterbury that were not conformable to Church Discipline and would not kneel at the Communion but they are all now very Conformable as I hear expresly by my Officers and that there is no falling away of any to Recusancy There hath been a Custom that some Ministers thereabouts have under divers pretences lived for the most part at Canterbury and gone seldom to their Benefices which hath given a double Scandal both by their absence from their several Cures and by keeping too much Company and that not in the best manner I have seen this remedied in all save only one Man and if he do not presently Conform I have taken order for his Suspension In the Diocess of London I find that my Lord the Bishop there now by your Majesty's Grace and Favour Lord High Treasurer of England hath very carefully observed those Instructions which belong to his own Person And for the Diocess his Lordship Informs me of three great Misdemeanours The one committed by Dr Cornelius Burges who in a Latin Sermon before the Clergy of London uttered divers insolent passages against the Bishops and Government of the Church and refused to give his Lordship a Copy of the Sermon so there was a necessity of calling him into the High Commission Court which is done The second Misdemeanour is of one Mr Wharton a Minister in Essex who in a Sermon at Chelmesford uttered many unfit and some scurrilous things But for this he hath been Convented and received a Canonical Admonition And upon his sorrow and submission any farther Censure is forborn The third Misdemeanour which my Lord complains of is the late spreading and dispersing of some Factious and Malicious Pamphlets against the Bishops and Government of the Church of England And my Lord farther Certifies that he hath reasonable ground to perswade him that those Libellous Pamphlets have been Contrived or Abetted and dispersed by some of the Clergy of his Diocess and therefore desires me to use the Authority of the High Commission for the further discovery of this Notorious practice to prevent the Mischiefs which will otherwise ensue upon the Government of the Church This God willing I shall see performed But if the High Commission shall not have Power enough because one of those Libels contains Seditious Matter in it and that which is very little 〈◊〉 of Treason if any thing at all then I humbly crave leave to add this to my Lord Treasurer's Motion and humbly to desire that your Majesty will call it into a higher Court if you find Cause since I see no likelyhood but that these Troubles in the Church if they be permitted will break out into some Sedition in the Common-wealth My Visitation is yet depending for this Diocess and by reason of the Sickness I could not with safety hold it nor think it fit to gather so much People together but God willing I shall perform that Duty so soon as conveniently I may and then Certifie your Majesty at the next return what shall come under mine own view In this Diocess I find by my Lord's Report from his Officers that there are divers Recusants in several parts of the Country and that some of them have been seduced away from the Church of England within these two or three Years For all things else I receive no complaint thence save only of three or four Ministers that are negligent in Catechising and observe it not at all or but in the Lent only But I shall call upon the Bishop to see this remedied and to be as vigilant as he can against any farther increase of Recusants From Bath and Wells I have received a very good and happy Certificat both that all your Majesty's Instructions have been exactly performed throughout that whole Diocess And
within their several Diocesses And so with my Prayers for your Majesty's long Life and happy Reign I humbly submit this my Account for the Year last past being 1638. January 2d 〈◊〉 W. Cant. The Arch-Bishop's Account of his Province to the King for the Year 1639. In Dei Nomine Amen May it Please your most Sacred Majesty ACcording to your Royal Commands expressed in your Instructions for the good of the Church I here most humbly Present this my Account for the Year finished now at Christmas 1639. And First to begin with my own Diocess The great thing which is amiss there and beyond my Power to remedy is the stiffness of divers Anabaptists and Separatists from the Church of England especially in and about the Parts near Ashford And I do not find either by my own Experience or by any Advice from my Officers that this is like to be remedied unless the Statute concerning Abjuration of your Kingdom or some other way by the Power of the Temporal Law or State be thought upon But how fit that may be to be done for the present especially in these broken Times I humbly submit to your Majesty's Wisdom having often complained of this before Many that were brought to good Order for receiving of the Holy Communion where the Rails stand before the Table are now of late fallen off and refuse to come up thither to receive But this God willing I shall take care of and order as well as I can and with as much speed And the same is now commonly fallen out in divers other Diocesses There was about half a Year since one that pretended himself a Minister who got many Followers in Sandwich and some Neighbouring Parishes but at last was found to have gone under three Names Enoch Swann and Grey and in as several Habits of a Minister an ordinary Lay-Man and a Royster. And this being discovered he fled the Country before any of my Officers could lay hold on him Upon this occasion I have commanded my Commissary and Arch-Deacon to give Charge in my Name to all Parsons and Vicars of my Diocess that they suffer no Man to preach in their Cures but such as for whom they will Answer as well otherwise as for the point of Conformity which I hope will prevent the like abuse hereafter In this Diocess the last Year there was some heat struck by opposite Preaching in the Pulpit between one Mr Goodwin Vicar of St Stevens in Coleman-street and some other Ministers in the City concerning the Act of Believing and the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in the Justification of a Sinner And the Peoples Minds were much perplexed hereabouts This business was quieted by my Lord the Bishop and his Chancellour and a Promise of Forbearance made Yet now lately Mr Goodwin hath preached again in the same way and the same Perplexity is like to be caused again thereby in the City Yet my Lord the Bishop is in hopes to settle this also quietly wherein he shall have the best Assistance I can give him The Arch-Deacons in this Diocess and others are too negligent in giving their Bishops due Information of such things as are committed to their Charge Mr Joseph Simonds Rector of St Martin's Ironmonger-lane is utterly fallen from the Church of England and hath abandoned his Benefice and gone beyond the Seas and so was deprived in September last past Mr Daniel Votyer Rector of St Peter's in Westcheap hath been likewise convented for divers Inconformities and promised Reformation as Mr Simonds also did but being now called into the High Commission Order is taken for the Officiating of his Cure till it shall appear whether he will desert it or no for he also is gone beyond the Seas Mr George Seaton Rector of Bushy in the County of Hertford is charged with continual Non-residency and other Misdemeanours little beseeming a Clergy-man But of this neither my Lord nor my self can say more to your Majesty till we see what will rise in Proof against him My Lord the Bishop of this Diocess gives me a very fair Account of all things regular therein saving that the Popish Recusants which he saith are many in that Diocess do yearly increase there and that this may appear by the Bills of Presentment in his Annual Inquisitions My Lord the Bishop informs me that he hath been very careful in point of Ordination as being a Bishop near the University and to whom many resort for Holy Orders at times appointed by the Church But he complains that having refused to give Orders to Twenty or Thirty at an Ordination most of them have addressed themselves to other Bishops and of them received Orders not only without Letters Dimissory but without such Qualification as the Canon requires In this Case I would humbly advise your Majesty That my Lord the Bishop may enquire and certifie by what Bishops these Parties so refused by him were Admitted into Holy Orders that so they may be admonished to be more careful for the future and that this Abuse may not find Encouragement and increase For Popish Recusants they have been proceeded against in this Diocess according to Law saving only such of them as have pleaded and shewed your Majesty's Exemption under your Great Seal from being question'd in any Ecclesisiastical Court for matters concerning their Religion I find by the Bishop's Certificate that he hath constantly resided upon his Episcopal Houses but saith that he cannot have his Health at Eccleshall and hath therefore since resided in his Palace at Lichfield but with very little Comfort by reason of Inmates left as his Lordship saith upon the Church's Possession His Lordship adds That he hath an ancient Palace at Coventry in Lease but with reservation of the Use thereof in case the Bishop shall at any time come to live there Here he means to reside for a time if it stand with your Majesty's good liking For Popish Recusants his Lordship saith they are presented and prosecuted according to the Law This Diocess my Lord the Bishop assures me is as quiet uniform and conformable as any in the Kingdom if not more And doth avow it that all which stood out in Suffolk as well as Norfolk at his coming to that See are come in and have now legally subscribed and professed all Conformity and for ought he can learn observe it accordingly Yet his Lordship confesseth that some of the Vulgar sort in Suffolk are not conformable enough especially in coming up to Receive at the Steps of the Chancel where the Rails are set But he hopes by fair means he shall be able to work upon them in time His Lordship adds That some have Indicted a Minister because he would not come down from the Communion Table to give them the Sacrament in their Seats But this your Majesty hath been formerly acquainted with by the Minister's Petition which you were graciously pleased to command me to underwrite
to Commotion and rub over the injury afresh that he might inflame their Minds precipitate them to Arms by which the hurtful Disturber of the Scottish Liberty might be slain 10. There by one Labour Snares are prepared for the King for this purpose the present business was so ordered that very many of the English should adhere to the Scots That the King should remain inferiour in Arms who thereupon should be compelled to crave assistance from the Papists which yet he should not obtain unless he would descend into Conditions by which he should permit †Universal liberty of the exercise of the Popish Religion for so the affairs of the Papists would succeed according to their desire To which consent if he should shew himself more difficult there should be a present remedy at hand For the King's Son growing now very fast to his youthful age who is educated from his tender age that he might accustom himself to the Popish Party the King is to be dispatched For an Indian Nut stuffed with most sharp Poyson is kept in the Society which Cuneus at that time shewed often to me in a boasting manner wherein a Poyson was prepared for the King after the Example of his Father 11. In this Scottish Commotion the Marquess of Hamelton often dispatched to the Scots in the name of the King to interpose the Royal Authority whereby the heat of minds might be mitigated returned notwithstanding as often without Fruit and without ending the business His Chaplain at that time repaired to us who communicated some things secretly with Cuneus Being demanded of me in Jest Whether also the Jews agreed with the Samaritans Cuneus thereunto answered Would to God all Ministers were such as he What you will may be hence conjectured 12. Things standing thus there arrived at London from Cardinal Richelieu Mr. Thomas Chamberlain his Chaplain and Almoner a Scot by Nation who ought to assist the College of the Confederated Society and seriously to set forward the business to leave nothing unattempted whereby the first heat might be exasperated For which service he was promised the Reward of a Bishoprick He cohabited with the Society four Months space neither was it lawful for him first to depart until things succeeding according to his wish he might be able to return back again with good News 13. Sir Toby Matthew a Jesuited Priest of the Order of Politicians a most vigilant Man of the chief Heads to whom a Bed was never so dear that he would rest his Head thereon refreshing his Body with Sleep in a Chair for an Hour or two neither Day nor Night spared his Machinations a Man principally noxious and himself the Plague of the King and Kingdom of England a most impudent Man who flies to all Banquets and Feasts called or not called never quiet always in action and perpetual motion thrusting himself into all Conversations of Superiours he urgeth Conferences familiarly that he may fish out the Minds of Men whatever he observeth thence which may bring any Commodity or Discommodity to the Part of the Conspirators he communicates to the Pope's Legat the more secret things he himself writes to the Pope or to Cardinal Barbarino In sum he adjoins himself to any Man's Company no Word can be spoken that he will not lay hold on and accommodate to his Party In the mean time whatever he hath sished out he reduceth into a Catalogue and every Summer carrieth it to the General Consistory of the Jesuits Politicks which secretly meets together in the Province of Wales where he is an acceptable Guest There Councils are secretly hammer'd which are most meet for the Convulsion of the Ecclesiastick and Politick Estate of both Kingdoms 14. Captain Read a Scot dwelling in Longacre-street near the Angel-Tavern a Secular Jesuit who for his detestable Office performed whereby he had perverted a certain Minister of the Church with secret Incitements to the Popish Religion with all his Family taking his Daughter to Wife for a Recompence obtained a Rent or Impost upon Butter which the Country People are bound to render to him procured for him from the King by some chief Men of the Society who never want a Spur whereby he may be constantly detained in his Office In his House the Business of the whole Plot is concluded where the Society which hath conspired against the King the Lord Archbishop and both Kingdoms meet together for the most part every Day But on the Day of the Carriers or Posts dispatch which is ordinarily Friday they meet in greater numbers for then all the Intilligencers assemble and confer in common what things every of them hath fished out that Week who that they may be without suspicion send their Secrets by Toby Matthew or Read himself to the Pope's Legat he transmits the compacted Pacquet which he hath purchased from the Intelligencers to Rome With the same Read the Letters brought from Rome are deposited under feigned Titles and Names who by him are delivered to all to whom they appertain for all and every of their Names are known to him Vpon the very same occasion Letters also are brought hither under the covert of Father Philip he notwithstanding being ignorant of things from whom they are distributed to the Conspirators There is in that very House a publick Chapel wherein an ordinary Jesuit consecrates and dwells there In the said Chapel Masses are daily celebrated by the Jesuits and it serves for the Baptizing of the Children of the House and of some of the Conspirators Those who assemble in the forenamed House come frequently in Coaches or on Horse-back in Lay-mens Habit and with a great Train wherewith they are disguised that they may not be known yet they are Jesuits and conjured Members of the Society 15. All the Papists of England contribute to this Assembly lest any thing should be wanting to promote the undertaken Design Vpon whose Treasury one Widow owner of the Houses wherein Secretary Windebank now dwelleth dead above three Years since bestowed four hundred thousand English Pounds so likewise others contribute above their Abilities so as the Business may be promoted unto its desired End 16. Besides the foresaid Houses there are Conventicles also kept in other more secret places of which verily they confide not even among themseves for fear lest they should be discovered First every of them are called to certain Inns one not knowing of the other hence they are severally led by Spies to the place where they ought to meet otherwise ignorant where they ought to assemble le st peradventure they should be surprised at unawares 17. The Countess of Arundel a strenuous She-Champion of the Popish Religion bends all her Nerves to the universal Reformation whatsoever she hears at the Kings Court that is done secretly or openly in Words or Deeds she presently imparts to the Popes Legat with
whom she meets thrice a Day sometimes in Arundel-House now at the Court or at Tarthal He scarce sucks such things by the Claw The Earl himself called now about three Years since this Year ought to go to Rome without doubt to consult there of serious things concerning the Design With gifts and Speeches the Jesuits watch diligently to their Masses At Greenwich at the Earl's costs a Feminine School is maintained which otherwise is a Monastery of Nuns for the young Girls therein are sent forth hither and thither into foreign Monasteries beyond the Seas 18. Mr. Porter of the King's Bed-Chamber most addicted to the Popish Religion is a bitter Enemy of the King he reveals all his greatest Secrets to the Popes Legat although he very rarely meets with him yet his Wife meets him so much the oftner who being informed by her Husband conveighs secrets to the Legat. In all his Actions he is nothing inferiour to Toby Matthew it cannot be uttered how diligently he watcheth on the Business His Sons are secretly instructed in the Popish Religion openly they profess the Reformed The Eldest is now to receive his Father's Office under the King which shall be A Cardinals Hat is provided for the other if the Design shall succeed well Above three Years past the said Mr. Porter was to be sent away by the King to Morocco But he was prohibited by the Society lest the Business should suffer delay thereby He is a Patron of the Jesuits for whom for the exercise of Religion he provides Chappels both at home and abroad 19. Secretary Windebank a most sierce Papist is the most unfaithful to the King of all Men who not only betrays and reveals even the King 's greatest Secrets but likewise communicates Counsels by which the Design may be best advanced He at least thrice every Week converseth with the Legat in Nocturnal Conventicles and reveals those things which he thinks fit to be known for which end he hired a House near to the Legat's House whom he often resorts to through the Garden-door for by this vicinity the Meeting is facilitated The said Secretary is bribed with Gifts to the Party of that conjured Society by whom he is sustained that he may the more seriously execute his Office He sent his 〈◊〉 expresly to Rome who ought to insinuate himself into the Roman Pontif. 20. Sir Digby Sir Winter Mr. Mountague the younger who hath been at Rome my Lord Sterling a Cousin of the Earl of Arundel's a Knight the Countess of Neuport the Dutchess of Buckingham and many others who have sworn into this Conspiracy are all most vigilant in the Design Some of these are inticed with the hope of Court others of Political Offices others attend to the sixteen Cardinals Caps that are vacant which are therefore detained idle for some years that they may impose a vain hope on those who expect them 21. The President of the aforesaid Society was my Lord Gage a Jesuit Priest dead above three years since He had a Palace adorned with lascivious Pictures which counterfeited Prophaneness in the House but with them was palliated a Monastery wherein forty Nuns were maintained hid in so great a Palace It is situated in Queen-street which the Statue of a golden Queen adorns The Secular Jesuits have bought all this Street and have reduced it into a Quadrangle where a Jesuitical College is tacitly built with this hope that it might be openly finished as soon as the universal Reformation was begun The Pope's Legat useth a threefold Character or Cypher one wherewith he communicates with all Nuncios another other with Cardinal Barbarino only a third wherewith he covers some great Secrets to be communicated Whatever things he either receiveth from the Society or other Spies those he packs up together in one Bundle dedicated under this Inscription To Monsieur Stravio Arch-Deacon of Cambray from whom at last they are promoted to Rome These things being thus ordered if every thing be laid to the balance it will satisfie in special all the Articles propounded WHEREIN 1. THe Conspiracy against the King and Lord Arch-Bishop is detected and the means whereby ruin is threatned to both demonstrated 2. The imminent Dangers to both Kingdoms are rehearsed 3. The rise and progress of that Scottish Fire is related 4. Means whereby the Scottish Troubles may be appeased are suggested for after the Scots shall know by whom and to what end their Minds are incensed they will speedily look to themselves neither will they suffer the Forces of both Parts to be subdued lest a middle Party interpose which seeks the ruin of both 5. With what Sword the King's Throat is assaulted even when these Stirs shall be ended Cuneus his Confession and a visible Demonstration sheweth 6. The Place of the Assembly in the House of Captain Read is nominated 7. The day of the eight days dispatch by Read and the Legat is prescribed 8. How the Names of the Conspirators may be known 9. Where this whole Congregation may be circumvented 10. Some of the principal unfaithful ones of the King's Party are notified by name many of whose Names occur not yet their Habitations are known their Names may be easily extorted from Read If these things be warily proceeded in the strength of the whole Business will be brought to light so the Arrow being foreseen the Danger shall be avoided which that it may prosperously succeed the Omnipotent Creator grant The Arch-Bishop's Indorsement with his own Hand Rece Octob. 14. 1640. The Narration of the great Treason concerning which he promised to Sir William Boswell to discover against the King and State Illustrissime ac Reverendissime Domine ACcepta suae Regiae Majestati simulac Reverentiae Tuae fuisse offerta nostra lubentes ex animo percepimus Adesse vobis benignitatem Numinis hoc unicum nobis Index est quo stimulus datur ut tantò alacrius liberaliusque illa quibus vitae discrimen utriusque statusque Regni Angliae tum Scotiae eximiae Majestatis sede deturbatio intendatur effundamus detegamus Ne autem ambagibus superfluis dilatetur Oratio nonnulla quae tantum ad rem necessaria praemittemus Sciant primò bonum istum virum per quem sequentia deteguntur in pulvere isto Pontificio esse natum educatum qui in dignitatibus Ecclesiasticis aetates consumpsit Tandem praesentis Negotii expeditioni par inventus Consilio Mandato Domini Cardinalis Barbarini ad auxilium Domino Cuneo adjunctus est penes quem in officio ita diligens ac sedulus inventus ut spes magnae promotionis ipsi data fuerit Ipse verò boni Spiritus ductus instinctu ut dulcia promissa contempsit agnitisque Religionis Pontificiae vanitatibus quarum alias defensor fuerat severissimus malitia etiam sub vexillo Papali militantium notata gravari Conscientiam suam senserat quod Onus ut deponeret ad Orthodoxam
enim quod nemo nostrum quando apprehenditur reluctatur nec adversus injustam violentiam vestram quamvis nimius copiosus noster sit Populus ulciseitur Cyprian Epistola ad Demetrianum Quum tam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ne verbe quidem reluctamur sed Deo 〈◊〉 ultionem Lactant. L. 5. Divin Instit. c. 22. Neque tunc Civitas Christi quanquam haberet 〈◊〉 magnorum agmina Populorum adversùs impios persecutores pro temporali salute pugnavit Sed 〈◊〉 ut obtineret 〈◊〉 non repugnavit S. Aug. Lib. 22. de Civitat Dei c. 6. a Nec singulis civibus nec universis fas est summi Principls vitam famam aut fortunas in discrimen 〈◊〉 si omnium scelerum c. Poenis acerbissimis statuendum est in eos qui 〈◊〉 scriptis subditos in Principes armare consueverunt Bodin L. 2. de Repub. c. 5. p. 210 212. b Temporibus Locis nimium servientes c. Nec hoc locum habet in privatis tantum sed nec Magistratibus inferioribus hoc licet c. Grotius L. 1. de Jure belli pacis c. 4. n. 6. c Ibid. n. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. d Rebellem propriè strictè dici qui contra Imperatorem vel ejus officiales resistit in pertinentibus ad statum Imperij Asserit Lancelot Conradus L. 1. de praestantia potestate Imperat. n. 12. * Greg. Turonens L. 5. Hist. n. 18. e Aristoteles citat apud Grotium L. 1. de Jure 〈◊〉 c. 4. n. 2. f Seneca Epist. 73. g Tacitus L. 4. Histor. h Nec 〈◊〉 nec licitum Regis 〈◊〉 manus 〈◊〉 Plutarch In vit Agidis Cleomen Boni expetendi qualescunque tolerandi k 〈◊〉 L. 1. Epist Fam. Epist. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nec patriae vim offerri oportere Jerem. 38. 5. * Procured Rushw. Pryn. * p. 9. †Worse Rushw. Pryn. * Conjunction †〈◊〉 Rushw. Pryn. * By 〈◊〉 Rushw. Pryn. †It 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 * Superstitions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Desunt 〈◊〉 in Rushw. †put to Rush Pryn. Who was Register or Secretary to the Scotch Commissioners Decemb. 14. 1640. Decemb. 18. 1640. Ecclus. 51. 〈◊〉 †Conjunction Psal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Decemb 15. 1640. * Profess Rushw. Pryn. †The Scottish 〈◊〉 The Survey of the Discipline * Thereafter Pryn Rushw. †Skill †Ceased Rush. * Brought Rushw. * 〈◊〉 in Platinae Hyginum Vide autem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dissert 1. 4. 2. W S. A. C. Rom. 1. 8. a Jewell's Reply to Dr. Harding * United Rushw Pryn. †The same is added from Pryn and Rush. * Jan. 22. 1641. * 〈◊〉 habens Lutherus rem sine Ecclesiae pernicie abrogari non posse quod unum potuit nomen sustulit 〈◊〉 puriore vocabulo Graeco parum Latinum supposuit pro Episcopis Superintendentes pro Archiepiscopis Generales Superintendentes appellans Tilenus 〈◊〉 ad Scotos c. 6. And he well knew the state of his Neighbour Churches Saravia similiter Praefat. L. de diversis Ministrorum Evangelii gradibus Zanchius de Relig. Observat. c. 25. n. 10 11. Jacob. Haerbrand Lutheranus In 〈◊〉 Commun p. 699. Saving that he dislikes not the Alteration of the Name a S. Aug. L. 19. de Civ Des c. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latinè superintendere possumus dicere quod ille qui 〈◊〉 eis quibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sc. 〈◊〉 * Recombustion after this Rushw. Pryn. See Rushw. par 3. vol. 2. pag. 135. 152 153 154. 174. 183 184 187. 193 194 c. 207. 235. c. 282 c. See the Petitions of these three Men presented to the House of Commons against the Arch-Bishop apud Rushworth par 3. vol. 1. p. 74 c. * It was 〈◊〉 Libel indeed in strictness of Law having the Author's Name set to it but it is called a Libel for the scurrilous and soul Language of it H. W. †Jan. 26. 1641. Dec. 21. 1640. * There were present and concurring in the Sentence Sir The. Coventry Lord Keeper of the Great Seal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Manchester Lord President of the Council W. Earl of Pembroke Lord Steward Philip 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Lord Chamberlain Edw. Earl of 〈◊〉 Oliver Lord Viscount Grandison George Lord Bishop of London Rich. Lord Bishop of Duresme Sam. Lord Bishop of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord Bishop of Rochester William Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells Sir 〈◊〉 Coke Secretary Sir Hen. Martin Jo. 〈◊〉 Dean of St. Pauls Walt. 〈◊〉 Dean of Rochester Tho. 〈◊〉 Doctor of Divinity Edm. Pope and Hugh Barker Doctors of Law and Sir Charles 〈◊〉 who only desired to be spared and so gave no Sentence * Close Prisoner from the High-Commission-Court was not to shut him up in his Chamber but only not 〈◊〉 suffer him to go out of the Prison W. C. †Jan. 28. 1641. †Jan. 21. 1640. Feb. 26. 1640. Rushworth saith they were carried up by Mr. Pym Mr. Hampden and Mr. Maynard and inserteth Pym's Speech made at the 〈◊〉 of them to the Lords Par. 3. Vol. p. 195. 199. c. So also Pryn pag. 24 25 28. who also Exhibits p. 23 24. the Preliminary Votes and Orders of the 〈◊〉 made Febr. 22 23 24 26. for the framing and carrying up the Articles to the Lords H. W. * 'T is Article 10. There are Printed also in Rushworth par 3 vol 1. p. 196. c. 〈◊〉 Compl. Hist. p. 25 c. †Rushw. * This Kingdom of England Rush. Pryn. Ad 〈◊〉 * Arist. L 3. Polit. c. 11. Ad Secundum †〈◊〉 King Ad Tertium Rushw. Pryn. Desunt in Rushw. Pryn. Ad Quartum All this about Stone is afterward more perfectly related and so this to be omitted here according to the Arch-Bishop's Direction p. 159. Only compare them first together W. S. A. C. The Account being short I thought it better to let it stand here than 〈◊〉 the History for the sake of one single Repetition H. W. Desunt in 〈◊〉 Pryu Ad Quintum * Rush. 〈◊〉 Ad Sextum * Rushw. 〈◊〉 Ad Septim * Other Rushw. Pryn. †Commendation Rushw. Pryn. Ad Octavum * Pryn Rushworth Ad 〈◊〉 Ad 〈◊〉 †Arift l 2. Rhetor. c. 5. Arift Rhet. l. 2. c. 7. §. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 | Non omnis 〈◊〉 perficit 〈◊〉 boni sed solùm illa à quâ dependet esse perfectum 〈◊〉 Tho. 1. 2. q. 36. Art 3. ad quint I would not adventure to 〈◊〉 and disjoint the History The Reader if he so pleaseth may 〈◊〉 by such Repetitions H. W. * I find that some things in my general Answer to the Articles are repeated again in the beginning of my particular Answers when my Tryal came on I desire for I had no time to do it my self that to avoid tediousness all those may be left out of the first Answer that are perfected in the 2d W. 〈◊〉 2. 3. 4. 2 Cor. 13. 8. 5. 6. 7. 〈◊〉 *