continue yet so as to pinion him with Two of their own sort that might out-vote him upon occasion The Administration of Justice and the Laws being in such hands it was no wonder that the poor Protestants in Ireland wish'd rather to have had no Laws at all and be left to their Natural Defence than be cheated into the necessity of submitting to Laws that were executed only to punish and not to protect them Under such Judges the Roman-Catholicks had a glorious time and be their Cause never so unjust they were sure to carry it When the Lord Chancellor did not stick on all occasions and sometimes upon the Bench to declare That the Protestants were all Rogues and that among Forty thousand of them there was not one that was not a Traytor a Rebel and a Villain The Supreme Courts being thus fill'd up it was but reasonable all other Courts should keep pace with them In the Year 1687. there was not a Protestant Sheriff in the whole Kingdom except one and he put in by mistake for another of the same Name that was a Roman-Catholick Some few Protestants were continued in the Commission of the Peace but they were render'd useless and insignificant being over-power'd in every thing by the greater Number of Papists join'd in Commission with them and those for the most part of the very Scum of the People and a great many whose Fathers had been executed for Theft Robbery or Murther The Privy-Council of Ireland is a great part of the Constitution and has considerable Privileges and Power annex'd to it This was likewise so modell'd that the Papists made the Majority and those few that were Protestants chose for the most part to decline appearing at the Board since they could do those of their Religion no service The great Barrier of the Peoples Liberties both in England and Ireland being their Right to chuse their own Representatives in Parliament The Regulating the Corporations in Ireland which being once taken away they become Slaves to the Will of their Prince The Protestants in Ireland finding a necessity of securing this Right in their own hands had procur'd many Corporations to be founded and had built many Corporate Towns upon their own Charges from all which the Roman Catholicks were by their Charters excluded This Barrier was broken through at one stroke by dissolving all the Corporations in the Kingdom upon Quo Warranto's brought into the Exchequer Court and that without so much as the least shadow of Law Hereupon New Charters were granted and fillâ—d up chiefly with Papists and men of desperate or no Fortunes And a Clause was inserted in every one of them which subjected them to the Absolute Will of the King by which it was put in the Power of the chief Governor to turn out and put in whom he pleas'd without showing a Reason or any formal Trial at Law The Protestant Clergy felt upon all occasions the weight of Tyrconnel's Wrath. The Severities against the Protestant Clergy The Priests began to declare openly That the Tythes belong'd to them and forbad their people under the pain of Damnation to pay them to the Protestant Incumbents This past afterwards into an Act of Parliament by which not only all Tythes payable by Papists were given to their own Priests but likewise a way was found out to make the Popish Clergy capable of enjoying the Protestants Tythes Which was thus If a Protestant happen'd to be possess'd of a Bishoprick a Dignity or other Living he might not by this new Act demand any Tythes or Ecclesiastical Dues from any Roman-Catholick and as soon as his Preferment became void by Death Cession or Absence a Popish Bishop or Clergy-man was put into his Place And the Act was so express that there needed no more to oblige all men to repute and deem a man to be a Roman-Catholick Bishop or Dean of any place but the King 's signifying him to be so under his Privy Signet or Sign Manual As soon as any one came to be thus entitled to a Bishoprick Deanry or Living immediately all the Tythes as well of Protestants as Papists became due to him with all the Glebes and Ecclesiastical Dues The only great Nursery of Learning in Ireland 〈…〉 is the Vniversity of Dublin consisting of a Provost Seven Senior and Nine Junior Fellows and Seventy Scholars who are partly maintain'd by a Yearly Salary out of the Exchequer This Salary the Earl of Tyrconnel stopt merely for their not admitting into a vacant Fellowship contrary to their Statutes and Oaths a Vicious Ignorant Person who was a New Convert Nor could he be prevail'd with by any Intercession or Intreaty to remove the Stop by which in effect he dissolv'd the Foundation and shut up the Fountain of Learning and Religion This appear'd more plainly afterwards to have been his Design for it was not thought enough upon King Iames's Arrival to take away their Maintenance but they were further prâ—ceeded against and the Vicepresident 〈◊〉 and Scholars all turn'd out their Furniture Library and Commuâ—â—on-Plate seiz'd and every thing that belong'd to the College and to the private Fellows and Scholars taken away All this was done notwithstanding that when they waited upon King Iames at his first Arrival at Dublin he was pleas'd to promise them That he would preserve them in their Liberties and Properties and rather augment than diminish the Privileges and Immunities that had been granted them by his Predecessors In the House they plac'd a Garison and turn'd the Chappel into a Magazine and the Chambers into Prisons for the Protestants One More a Popish Priest was made Provost and one Mackarty also a Priest was made Library-keeper and the whole design'd for them and their Fraternity One Archbishoprick and several Bishopricks and a great many-other Dignities and Livings of the Church were designedly kept vacant and the Revenues first paid into the Exchequer and afterwards dispos'd of to Titular Bishops and Priests while in the mean time the Cures lay neglected so that it appear'd plainly that the Design was to destroy the Succession of Protestant Clergymen At length things came to that height after King Iames was in Ireland that most of the Churches in and about Dublin were seiz'd upon by the Government and at last Lutterell Governor of Dublin issued out his Order Appendix Numb 22. mention'd in the Appendix Forbidding more than Five Protestants to meet together under pain of Death Being ask'd whether this was design'd to hinder meeting in Churches He answer'd It was design'd to hinder their meeting there as well as in other places And accordingly all the Churches were shut up and all Religious Assemblies through the whole Kingdom forbidden under the pain of Death It were endless to enumerate all the Miseries that Reverend Author mentions The Act of Attainder in Ireland which the Protestants of Ireland suffer'd in the Reign of King Iames But to give a decisive Blow there was an Act of
Mitred Head that had got an Ascendant over his Master's Conscience and Counsels that both the Monarchy and Hierarchy ow'd afterwards their Fall The Division betwixt Archbishop Abboâ— and Bishop Laud. To trace this matter a little higher there arose in the preceding Reign two opposite Parties in the Church which became now more than ever exasperated against each other the one headed by Archbishop Abbot and the other by Bishop Laud. Abbot was a Person of wonderful Temper and Moderation and in all his Conduct shew'd an unwillingness to stretch the Act of Vniformity beyond what was absolutely necessary for the Peace of the Church or the Prerogative of the Crown any further than conduc'd to the good of the State Being not well turn'd for a Court though otherwise of considerable Learning and Gentile Education he either could not or would not stoop to the Humour of the Times and now and then by an unseasonable Stiffness gave occasion to his Enemies to represent him as not well-inclin'd to the Prerogative or too much addicted to a Popular Interest and therefore not fit to be employ'd in Matters of Government Upon the other hand Bishop Laud as he was a Man of greater Learning and yet greater Ambition and Natural Parts so he understood nicely the Art of pleasing a Court and finding no surer way to raise himself to the first Dignitices of the Church than by acting a quite contrary part to that of Archbishop Abbot he went into every thing that seem'd to favour the Prerogative of the Crown or enforce an Absolute Obedience upon the Subject The King 's urgent Necessities and the backwardness of the Parliament to supply them had forc'd him upon unwarrantable Methods of raising Money and the readiness the Roman-Catholicks express'd to assist him in his Wants did beget in him at first a Tenderness towards them and afterwards a Trust and Confidence in them which was unhappily mistaken by his other Subjects as if he inclin'd to their Religion Among other means of raising Money that of Loan was fallen upon which met with great difficulties and was generally taken to be illegal One Sibthorp an obscure Person in a Sermon preach'd at the Assizes at Northampton would make his Court by asserting not only the Lawfulness of this way of imposing Money by Loan but that it was the indispensible Duty of the Subject to comply with it At the same time Dr. Manwaring another Divine preach'd two Sermons before the King at Whitehall in which he advanc'd these Doctrines viz. That the King is not bound to observe the Laws of the Realm concerning the Subjects Rights and Liberties but that his Royal Word and Command in imposing Loans and Taxes without Consent of Parliament does oblige the Subject's Conscience upon pain of eternal Damnation That those who refus'd to pay this Loan did offend against the Law of God and became guilty of Impiety Disloyalty and Rebellion And that the Authority of Parliaments is not necessary for raising of Aids and Subsidies Every body knew Abbot was averse to such Doctrines And to seek an advantage against him Sibthorp's Sermon with a Dedication to the King was sent him by Order of his Majesty to License Abbot refus'd and gave his Reasons in writing which Bishop Laud answer'd and with his own hand Licens'd both Sibthorp's and Manwaring's Sermons Upon this Archbishop Abbot was confin'd to his Countrey-House and suspended from his Function the Administration of which was committed to Bishop Laud and some others of his Recommendation Archbishop Abbot died in disgrace and was succeeded in the See of Canterbury by Bishop Laud while in the mean time things went on from bad to worse and hasten'd to a Crisis The two first Parliaments King Charles had call'd pressing him hard for Redress of Grievances and pushing on the Resentments begun in the preceding Reign he was prevail'd with not only to dissolve them but to leave the Nation without Parliaments for Twelve Years together and all this contrary to the Advice of some of the best and wisest men about him who foresaw the ill consequences that might follow if ever any unlucky Iuncture of Affairs should necessitate him to call one Such a Iuncture fell out The Rise of King Charles's Troubles and the worst that could be the manner thus The Scots had been of a long time sowr'd by the Encroachments they said were made upon their Rights and Liberties and particularly in the matter of Church-Government Archbishop Laud's Zeal for an Vniformity between the two Nations in point of Liturgy prov'd the fatal Torch that put the Two Kingdoms into a flame And it was the sooner kindled there being so much Fuel laid up for many Years that the least Spark was enough to set fire to the Pile In the Year 1637. The Scotch Troubles the Scots had not only in a Tumultuous manner refus'd the Liturgy that was sent them from England of Archbishop Laud's composing but had afterwards assum'd to themselves the Liberty and Power of holding a General Assembly of their Church and in it to abolish Episcopacy and do several other things that were judg'd inconsistent with the Duty of Subjects Upon which they were declar'd Rebels and King Charles thought his Honour was concern'd to reduce them to Obedience by the Sword Instead of venturing to call a Parliament to enable him to prosecute this Design he was necessitated to levy Money another way Great Sums were rais'd by Loan and Benevolence to which the Roman Catholicks and the Clergy of Laud's Faction contributed most The King thus supplied march'd to the North with a Gallant Army and the Scots came as far as the Borders in a posture of Defence To prevent matters coming to extremity the Scots presented his Majesty with their humble Supplication and Remonstrance setting forth their inviolable Fidelity to the Crown and that they desir'd nothing more but the peaceable enjoyment of their Religion and Liberties and that all things may be determin'd and settled by a Free Parliament and General Assembly At length through the Intercession of the Moderate Party about the King and some of the highest Rank in both Kingdoms his Majesty was plea'd to comply with the desires of the Scots by a solemn Pacification sign'd in view of both Armies near Berwick in Iune 1638. This Treaty was but short-liv'd and but ill observ'd on either side The same men that counsell'd the King to the first push'd him on to a second War against the Scots Parliaments had been now discontinu'd for some Years together and there appear'd no great Inclination in the King to call any more if this emergent occasion had not fallen out But his pressing Necessities and this new War oblig'd him once more to try the Affections of his People in a Parliamentary way Accordingly a Parliament meets in April 1640. at the opening of which the King acquainted them with the Affronts he had receiv'd from the Scots and demanded a Supply to reduce
me and having formerly serv'd me on several Occasions and always approv'd the Loyalty of their Principles by their Practices I think them now fit to be Employ'd under me and will deal plainly with you That after having had the benefit of their Services in such time of need and danger I will neither expose them to Disgrace nor my self to the Want of them if there should be another Rebellion to make them necessary to me And at last he tells them That he was afraid some may hope that a difference might happen betwixt Him and his Parliament on that occasion which he cannot apprehend can befal him or that any thing can shake them in their Loyalty to him who will ever make all returns of kindness and protection and venture his Life in the Defence of the true Interest of the Nation It was no wonder That this Speech surpriz'd a people who valu'd themselves so much upon their Liberties and thought themselves secure of them both from the Constitution of their Government and the solemn repeated promises of their Prince They found too late that their fears in the former Reign of a Popish Successor were too well grounded and how inconsistent a Roman Catholick King is with a Protestant Kingdom The Parliament did in humble manner represent the inconvenience that might attend such Measures The Parliaments Address to K. Iames upon that Speech at least to render him inexcusable for what might Ensue And that they might not be wanting to themselves and their Posterity they Voted an Address wherein they told him That they had with all duty and readiness taken into Consideration His Majesty's Gracious Speech And as to that part of it relating to the Officers of the Army not qualified for their Employment according to the Act of Parliament they did out of their bounden duty humbly Represent to His Majesty That these Officers could not by Law be capable of their Employments and that the Incapacities they bring upon themselves that way could no ways be taken off but by an Act of Parliament Therefore out of that great Reverence and Duty they ow'd to His Majesty they were preparing a Bill to indemnify them from the inconveniences they had now incurr'd And because the continuing them in their Employments may be taken to be a dispensing with Law without an Act of Parliament the consequence of which was of the greatest concern to the Rights of all his Subjects and to all the Laws made for the security of their Religion Therefore they most humbly beseech His Majesty That he would be graciously pleas'd to give such Directions therein that no Apprehensions or Iealousies might remain in the hearts of his Subjects Over and above what was contain'd in this Address the House of Commons were willing to capacitate by an Act of Parliament such a Number of the Roman Catholick Officers as King Iames should give a List of But both this Offer and the Address was highly resented and notwithstanding that they were preparing a Bill for a considerable Supply to Answer his extraordinary Occasions and had sent to the Tower one of their Members for speaking indecently of his Speech King Iames was influenc'd to part with this his first and only Parliament in displeasure upon the Fourth day after they presented the Address As his former Speeches to his Council and Parliament had put a Foreign Court to a Stand what to think of him so this last put them out of pain and convinc'd them he was intirely Theirs Their sense of it can hardly be better express'd than in a Letter from Abroad contain'd in the Appendix Appendix Numb 17. which by its Stile though in another Hand seems to be from the same Minister that writ the two former In which he tells the Ambassador here That he needed not a surer Character of King James and his Intentions than this last Speech to the Parliament by which they were convinc'd of his former Resolution to throw off the Fetters which Hereticks would impose upon him and to act for the time to come En Maistre as Master A word till then altogether Foreign to the English Constitution What other Effects this Speech had upon the Minds of People at Home and Abroad may be easily guess'd from the different Interests they had in it Nor is it to be pass'd over without some Remark That the Revocation of the Edict of Nants which probably had been some time under Consideration before was now put in Execution to the Astonishment of all Europe The Parliament being dissolv'd and no visible means left to retrieve the Liberties of England King Iames made haste to accomplish the Grand Design which a head strong Party about him push'd on as the certain way in their opinion to Eternize his Name in this World and to merit an Eternal Crown in the other They foresaw that this was the Critical Iuncture and the only one that happen'd since the days of Queen Mary to Restore their Religion in England And if they were wanting to themselves in making use of it the prospect of a Protestant Successor would infallibly prevent their having any such opportunity for the future King Iames was pretty far advanc'd in years and what was to be done requir'd Expedition for all their labour would be lost if he should die before the accomplishment If he had been Younger or the next presumptive Heir had not been a Protestant there had been no such absolute necessity for Dispatch But the Uncertainty of the King's Life call'd for more than ordinary diligence in a Design that depended meerly upon it The Party being resolv'd for these Reasons to bring about in the Compass of one Single Life and that already far spent what seem'd to be the Work of a whole Age they made large steps towards it Roman-Catholicks were not only Employ'd in the Army but brought into Places of greatest Trust in the State The Earl of Clarendon was forthwith remov'd from the Office of Privy-Seal and the Government of Ireland to make room for the Earl of Tyrconel in the one and the Lord Arundel in the other Father Peters a Iesuit was sworn of the Privy Council And though by the Laws it was High-Treason for any to assume the Character of the Pope's Nuncio A Pope's Nuncio in England yet these were become too slender Cobwebs to hinder a Roman Prelate to appear publickly at London in that Quality Duke of Somerset and one of the greatest Peers of England was disgrac'd for not paying him that Respect which the Laws of the Land made Criminal To bear the Publick Character of Ambassador to the Pope An Ambâ—ssador sent to Rome was likewise an open Violation of the Laws But so fond was the governing Party about King Iames to show their new-acquir'd Trophies at Rome that the Earl of Castlemain was dispatch'd thither Extraordinary Ambassador with a Magnificent Train and a most Sumptuous Equipage What his Secret Instructions were may be
Multitudes were called to the Council-Table who were tired with long attendances there for refusing illegal Payments The Prisons were filled with their Commitments many of the Sheriffs summoned into the Star Chamber and some imprisoned for not being quick enough in levying the Ship-money the People languished under grief and fear no visible hope being left but in desperation The Nobility began to be weary of their silence and patience and sensible of the Duty and Trust which belongs to them and thereupon some of the most eminent of them did petition his Majesty at such a time when Evil Counsels were so strong that they had reason to expect more hazard to themselves than redress of those publick Evils for which they interceded Whilst the Kingdom was in this agitation and distemper the Scots restrained in their Trades impoverished by the loss of many of their Ships bereaved of all possibility of satisfying his Majesty by any naked Supplication entred with a powerful Army into the Kingdom and without any hostile Act or Spoil in the Countrey as they passed more than forcing a Passage over the Tyne at Newborne near Newcastle possessed themselves of Newcastle and had a fair opportunity to press on further upon the King's Army but Duty and Reverence to his Majesty and Brotherly Love to the English Nation made them stay there whereby the King had leisure to entertain better Counsels wherein God so blessed and directed him that he summoned the Great Council of Peers to meet at York upon the 24 th of September and there declared a Parliament to begin the Third of November then following The Scots the first day of the Great Council presented an humble Petition to his Majesty whereupon the Treaty was appointed at Rippon a present Cessation of Arms agreed upon and the full Conclusion of all Differences referred to the Wisdom and Care of the Parliament At our first meeting all Oppositions seemed to vanish the mischiefs were so evident which those Evil Counsellors produced that no man durst stand up to defend them Yet the Work it self afforded Difficulty enough The multiplied Evils and Corruption of Sixteen Years strengthen'd by Custom and Authority and the concurrent Interest of many powerful Delinquents were now to be brought to Judgment and Reformation The King's Houshold was to be provided for they had brought him to that Want that he could not supply his ordinary and necessary Expences without the assistance of his People Two Armies were to be paid which amounted very near to Eighty thousand Pounds a Month the People were to be tenderly charged having been formerly exhausted with many burthensome Projects The difficulties seemed to be insuperable which by the Divine Providence we have overcome The Contrarieties incompatible which yet in a great measure we have reconciled Six Subsidies have been granted and a Bill of Poll-money which if it be duly levied may equal Six Subsidies more in all Six hundred thousand Pounds Besides we have contracted a Debt to the Scots of Two hundred and twenty thousand Pounds and yet God hath so blessed the Endeavours of this Parliament that the Kingdom is a great Gainer by all these Charges The Ship-money is abolished which cost the Kingdom above Two hundred thousand Pounds a Year The Coat and Conduct-money and other Military Charges are taken away which in many Counties amounted to little less than the Ship-money The Monopolies are all supprest whereof some few did prejudice the Subject above a Million Yearly The Soap an Hundred thousand Pounds the Wine Three hundred thousand Pounds the Leather must needs exceed both and Salt could be no less than that besides the inferior Monopolies which if they could be exactly computed would make up a great Sum. That which is more beneficial than all this is That the Root of these Evils is taken away which was The Arbitrary Power pretended to be in his Majesty of taxing the Subject or charging their Estates without Consent in Parliament which is now declared to be against Law by the Judgment of both Houses and likewise by an Act of Parliament Another Step of great advantage is this The living Grievances the Evil Counsellors and Actors of these Mischiefs have been so quell'd by the Justice done upon the Earl of Strafford the Flight of the Lord Finch and Secretary Windebank the Accusation and Imprisonment of the Archbishop of Canterbury of Judge Bartlet and the Impeachment of divers other Bishops and Judges that it is like not only to be an ease to the present Times but a preservation to the future The discontinuance of Parliaments is prevented by the Bill for a Triennial Parliament and the abrupt Dissolution of this Parliament by another Bill by which it is provided it shall not be dissolved or adjourned without the Consent of both Houses Which two Laws well considered may be thought more advantageous than all the former because they secure a full operation of the present Remedy and afford a perpetual Spring of Remedies for the future The Star-chamber the High-Commission the Courts of the President and Council in the North were so many forges of misery oppression and violence and are all taken away whereby men are more secured in their persons liberties and estates than they could be by any Law or Example for the regulation of those Courts or terror of the Judges The immoderate power of the Council-table and the excessive abuse of that power is so ordered and restrained that we may well hope that no such things as were frequently done by them to the prejudice of the publick liberty will appear in future times but only in stories to give us and our posterity more occasion to praise God for his Majesties goodness and the faithful endeavous of this Parliament The Canons and the power of Canon-making are blasted by the Vote of both Houses The exorbitant power of Bishops and their Courts are much abated by some provisions in the Bill against the High-Commission Court The Authors of the many Innovations in Doctrine and Ceremonies The Ministers that have been scandalous in their lives have been so terrified in just complaints and accusations that we may well hope they will be more modest for the time to come either inwardly convicted by the sight of their own folly or outwardly restrained by the fear of punishment The Forests are by a good Law reduced to their right bounds the encroachments and oppressions of the Stannery Courts The Extortions of the Clerk of the Market and the compulsion of the Subject to receive the Order of Knighthood against his will paying of Fines for not receiving it and the vexatious proceedings thereupon for levying of those Fines are by other beneficial Laws reformed and prevented Many excellent Laws and provisions are in preparation for removing the inordinate power vexation and usurpation of Bishops for reforming the pride and idleness of many of the Clergy for easing the people of unnecessary Ceremonies in Religion for censuring and removing unworthy and