paid for that purpose all which amounted to three thousand two hundred forty seven pound sixteen shillings two pence half-peny The Clergy of England within the Province of Canterbury freely contributed the fortieth part of all such Church Livings as were charged with First-fruits and the thirtieth part of all their Benefices not so charged those of London only excepted who besides the thirtieth part of such as paid First-fruits gave the twentieth part of all the rest Which Contribution of the Clergy amounted to one thousand four hundred sixty one pound thirteen shillings and eleven pence whereunto was added by the benevolence of the Bishop of London at several times coming in all to nine hundred five pound one shilling and eleven pence By the Dean and Chapter one hundred thirty six pound thirteen shillings and four pence and made of the surplusage of Timber one hundred nineteen pound three shillings and nine pence Given by the Justices and Officers of the Common Pleas thirty four pound five shillings and by those of the Kings Bench seventeen pound sixteen shillings eight pence All which together made no more than six thousand seven hundred and two pound thirteen shillings and four pence And yet with this small Sum such was the cheapness of those Times the Work was carried on so prosperously that before the Month of April 1566. all the Roofs of Timber whereof those large ones of the East and West framed in Yorkshire and brought by Sea were perfectly finished and covered with Lead the adding of a new Steeple being thought unnecessary because too chargeable though divers Models have been made and presented of it The whole Roof being thus Repaired the Stone-work of it stood as before it did sensibly decaying day by day by reason of the corroding quality of the Sea-coal smoke which on every side annoyed it Which being observed by one Henry Farley about the middle of the Reign of King Iames he never left solliciting the King by several Petitions and Addresses to take the Ruinous Estate thereof into his Princely Consideration till at last it was resolved on by the King And to create the greater Veneration to so good a Work he bestowed that magnificent Visit on it described at large in the first Book of this History Anno 1620. The product and result whereof was the issuing out a Commission under the Great Seal of England bearing date the sixteenth day of November then next following directed to Sir Francis Iones Knight then Lord Mayor of London George Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Francis Lord Verulam then Lord Chancellor of England and divers others to the number of sixty Persons and upwards Which Commission importing That this Church being the greatest and most eminent as also one of the principal Ornaments of the Realm and in much decay any six or more of these Commissioners whereof three to be of the said Kings Privy-Council should meet to make Particulars of the decay and likewise what Houses Cellars c. had been built near it either to the annoyance of it or the Church-yard And moreover to Inquire what Lands Rents c. had been given towards its Repair or Sums of Money collected to that purpose and not accordingly employed And further to consider of the most fit and proper means to raise money to carry on the said Repair And lastly to appoint Surveyors and other Officers of their Work and to make Certificate of their Proceedings therein into the Chancery Upon the Meeting of which Commissioners and diligent search made into the Particulars afore-mentioned it was acknowledged that the Bishop of London had the whole care of the Body of that Church and the Dean and Chapter of the Choires But that which each of them enjoyed to this purpose was so little that they yearly expended double as much upon the Roof and other parts decayed to preserve them from present ruine Which being made evident to the Commissioners as also that in former times even from the very first foundation thereof it had been supported partly out of the large Oblations of those that visited the Shrines and Oratories therein and partly from Publick Contributions in all parts of the Kingdom It was concluded to proceed in the same way now as had been done formerly And that it might proceed the better the King himself and many of the principal Nobility and Gentry declared by their Superscriptions for the encouragement of others to so good a Work what Sums they resolved to give in pursuance of it Doctor Iohn King then Bishop of London subscribing for 100 l. per Annum as long as he should continue in that See Mountain who succeeded not long after in that Bishoprick procured with great charge and trouble some huge massie Stones to be brought from Portland for the beginning of the Work But money coming slowly in and he being a man of small activity though of good affecâ—ions the heat of this great business cooled by little and little and so came to nothing But Laud succeeding him in the See of London and having deservedly attained unto great Authority with his Majesty no sooner saw his Office settled both at home and abroad but he possessed him with a Loyal and Religious Zeal to persue that Work which King Iames had so piously designed though it went not much further than the bare design Few words might serve to animate the King to a Work so pious who aimed at nothing more than the Glory of God in the Advancement of the Peace and Happiness of the Church of England And therefore following the example oâ— his Royal Father he bestowed the like Visit on St. Pauls whither he was attended with the like Magnificence and entertained at the first entrance into the Church with the like Solemnity The Divine Service being done and the Sermon ended which tended principally unto the promoting of a Work so honourable both to his Majesties Person and the English Nation his Majesty took a view of the Decays of that Church and there Religiously promised not to be wanting in the Piety of his best Endeavours to the Repair of those Ruines which Age the Casualties of Weather or any other Accidents had brought upon it In order whereunto in the beginning oâ— this year he issued out his Royal Commission under the Great Seal of England bearing date the tenth of April in the seventh year of his Reign directed to Sir Robert Ducy Lord Mayor of the City of Londan George Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Lord Coventry Lord Keeper of the Great Seal c. William Lord Bishop of London Richard Lord Bishop of Winton Iohn Lord Bishop of Ely c. Nicholas Rainton Ralph Freeman Rowland Heylyn c. Aldermen of the City of London Edward Waymack and Robert Bateman Chamberlain of the said City of London In which Commission the said King taking notice of this Cathedral as the goodliest Monument and most ancient Church of his whole Dominions as also that it was the principal
their own distaste or smoothing up of those idle fancies which in this blessed time of so long a Peace doth boil in the brains of an unadvised People That many of their Sermons were full of rude and undecent railings not only against the Doctrines but even against the persons of Papists and Puritans And finally that the People never being instructed in the Catechism and fundamental Grounds of Religion for all these aiery novellisms which they received from such Preachers were but like new Table-books ready to be filled up either with the Manuals and Catechisms of the Popish Priests or the Papers and Pamphlets of Anabaptists Brownists and other Puritans His Majesty thereupon taking the Premises into his Princely Consideration which had been represented to him by sundry grave and reverend Prelates of this Church thought it expedient to cause some certain Limitations and Cautions concerning Preachers and Preaching to be carefully digested and drawn up in Writing Which done so done as Laud appears to have a hand in the doing of it and being very well approved by the King he caused them to be directed to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York by them to be communicated to the Bishops of their several Provinces and by those Bishops to be put in execution in their several Diocesses Which Directions bearing date of the fourth of August 1622. being the 20th year of his Majesties Reign I have thought convenient to subjoin and are these that follow viz. I. That no Preacher under the Degree and Calling of a Bishop or Dean of a Cathedral or Collegiate Church and they upon the Kings days only and set Festivals do take occasion by the Expounding of any Text of Scripture whatsoever to fall into any set course or common place otherwise than by opening the coherence and division of his Text which shall not be comprehended and warranted in essence substance effect or natural inference within some one of the Articles of Religion set forth 1562. or in some one of the Homilies set forth by Authority in the Church of England not only for a help of non-preaching but withal as a pattern as it were for the Preaching Ministers and for their further instruction for the performance thereof that they forthwith read over and peruse diligently the said Book of Articles and the two Books of Homilies II. That no Parson Vicar Curate or Lecturer shall Preach any Sermon or Collation hereafter upon Sundays and Holy-days in the Afternoons in any Cathedral or Parish Church throughout this Kingdom but upon some part of the Catechism or some Text taken â—ut of the Creed or Commandments or the Lords Prayer Funeral Sermons only excepted and that those Preachers be most encouraged and approved of who spend their Afternoons Exercise in the Examination of Children in their Catechisms which is the most ancient and laudable Custom of Teaching in the Church of England III. That no Preacher of what Title soever under the degree of a Bishop or Dean at the least do from henceforth presume to Preach in any popular Auditory the deep Points of Predestination Election Reprobation or of the universality efficacity resistibility or irresistibility of Gods Grace but rather leave those Themes to be handled by Learned Men and that modestly and moderately by Vse and Application rather than by way of positive Doctrine as being fitter for Schools and Vniversities than for simple Auditories IV. That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever shall presume from henceforth in any Auditory within this Kingdom to declare limit or bound out by way of positive Doctrine in any Lecture or Sermon the Power Prerogative Iurisdiction Authority or Duty of Sovereign Princes or therein meddle with matters of State and reference between Princes and People than as they are instructed in the Homily of Obedience and in the rest of the Homilies and Articles of Religion set forth as before is mentioned by Publick Authority but rather confine themselves wholly to these two Heads of Faith and Good Life which are all the subject of the ancient Sermons and Homilies V. That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever shall causelesly and without any invitation from the Text fall into any bitter Invectives and undecent railing Speeches against the Papists or Puritans but wisely and gravely when they are occasioned thereunto by the Text of Scripture free both the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England from the aspersions of either adversary especially when the Auditory is suspected to be tainted with the one or the other infection VI. Lastly That the Archbishops and Bishops of the Kingdom whom his Majesty hath good cause to blame for their former remisseness be more wary and choice in Licencing of Preachers and Verbal Grants made to any Chancellor Officiall or Commissary to pass Licence in this Kingdom And that all the Lecturers throughout the Kingdom a new body severed from the ancient Clergy of England as being neither Parson Vicar or Curate be licensed henceforward in the Court of Faculties only upon recommendation of the party from the Bishop of the Diocess under his hand and seal with a Fiat from the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and a confirmation under the Great Seal of England and that such as transgress any of his directions be suspended by the Bishop of the Diocess or in his default by the Lord Archbishop of that Province Ab officio beneficio for a year and a day untill his Majesty by the advice of the next Convocation prescribe for some further punishment No sooner were these Instructions published but strange it was to hear the several descants and discourses which were made upon them How much they were misreported amongst the People and misinterpreted in themselves those very men who saw no just reason to condemn the Action being howsoever sure to misconstrue the end For though they were so discreetly ordered that no good and godly man could otherwise than acknowledge that they tended very much to Edification Yet such Interpretations were put upon them as neither could consist with his Majesties meaning nor the true sense of the Expressions therein used By some it was given out that those Instructions did tend to the restraint of Preaching at the lest as to some necessary and material points by others that they did abate the number of Sermons by which the People were to be instructed in the Christian Faith by all the Preachers of that Party that they did but open a gap for Ignorance and Superstition to break in by degrees upon the People Which coming to his Majesties Ears it brought him under the necessity of making an Apology for himself and his actions in it And to this end having summed up the reasons which induced him to it he required the Archbishop of Canterbury to communicate them to his Brother of York by both to be imparted to their several Suffragans the inferiour Clergy and to all others whosoever whom it might concern which notwithstanding it
That there was no design in the King or Prince or in any of the Court or Court-Bishops of what name soever to alter the Religion here by Law established or that the Prince was posted into Spain of purpose that he might be perverted or debauched from it But the best is that he which gave the Wound hath made the Plaister and such a Plaister as may assuredly heal the Sore without troubling any other Chyrurgeon It is affirmed by him who published the Breviate of our Bishops Life That he was not only privy to this Journey of the Prince and Buckingham into Spain but that the Journey was purposely plotted to pervert him in his Religion and reconcile him to Rome And this he makes apparent by the following Prayer found amongst others in the Bishops Manual of Devotions than which there can be nothing more repugnant to the Propositions â—or proof of which it is so luckily produced Now the said Prayer 〈◊〉 thus verbatim viz. O Most merciful God and gracious Father the Prince hath put himself to a great Adventure I humbly beseech thee make clear the way before him give thine Angels charge over him be with him thy self in Mercy Power and Protection in every step of his Iourney in every moment of his Time in every Consultation and Address for Action till thou bring him back with Safety Honour and Contentment to do thee service in this place Bless his most truly and faithful Servant the Lord Duke of Buckingham that he may be diligent in Service provident in Business wise and happy in Counsel for the honour of thy Name the good of the Church the preservation of the Prince the contentment of the King the satisfaction of the State Preserve him I humbly beseech thee from all Envy that attends him and bless him that his eyes may see the Prince safely delivered to the King and State and after it to live long in happiness to do thee and them service through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen And with this Prayer so plainly destructive of the purpose for which it was published I shut up the Transactions of this present year We will begin the next with the dismission of the Archbishop of Spalato a man defamed by the Italians at his coming hither and as much reproached by the English at his going hence His name was Marcus Antonius de Dominis Archbishop of Spalato in Fact and Primate of Dalmatia in Title Such anciently and of right those Archbishops were till the Bishop of Venice being made a Patriarch by Pope Eugenius the Fourth Anno 1450. assumed that Title to himself together with a Superintendency over all the Churches of that Country as subordinate to him He had been long conversant with the Fathers and Ancient Councils By this Light he discerned the Darkness of the Church of Rome and the blind Title which the Popes had for their Supremacy Inclining to the Protestant Religion he began to fear that his own Country would prove too hot for him at the last and therefore after he had sate in the See of Spalato about fourteen years he quitted his Preferments there and betook himself for Sanctuary to the Church of England Anno 1616. Extremely honoured at his first coming by all sorts of people entertained in both Universities with solemn Speeches presented complemented feasted by the great Lords about the Court the Bishops and some principal Persons about the City Happy was he that could be honoured with his Company and satisfied with beholding his comely presence though they understood not his Discourses Commended by King Iames at first for a constant Sojourner and Guest to Archbishop Abbot in whose Chappel at Lambeth he assisted at the Consecration of some English Bishops Made afterwards by the King the Master of the Savoy and Dean of Windsor and by himself made Rector of West-Illesby in the County of Berks A Revenue not so great as to bring him under the suspicion of coming hither out of Covetousness for the sake of filthy Lucre nor so contemptible but that he might have lived plentifully and contentedly on it During his stay here he published his learned and elaborate Book entituled De Republica Ecclesiastica never yet answered by the Papists and perhaps unanswerable He had given great trouble to the Pope by his defection from that Church and no small countenance to the Doctrine of the Protestant Churches by his coming over unto ours The foundring of so great a Pillar seemed to prognosticate that the Fabrick of that Church was not like to stand And yet he gave greater blows to them by his Pen than by the defection of his person the wound so given being conceived to be incurable In these respects those of that Church bestirred themselves to disgrace his person devising many other causes by which he might be moved or forced to forsake those parts wherein he durst no longer tarry but finding little credit given to their libellous Pamphlets they began to work upon him by more secret practises insinuating That he had neither that Respect nor those Advancements which might encourage him to stay That the new Pope Gregory the Fifteenth was his special Friend That he might chuse his own Preferments and make his own Conditions if he would return And on the other side they cunningly wrought him out of credit with King Iames by the Arts of Gundamore Embassadour at that time from the King of Spain and lessened his esteem amongst the Clergy by some other Artifices So that the poor man being in a manner lost on both sides was forced to a necessity of swallowing that accursed bait by which he was hooked over to his own destruction For having sollicited King Iames by several Letters the last of them bearing date on the third of February to licence his departure home he was by the King disdainfully turned over to the High-Commission or rather to a special Commission directed to Archbishop Abbot the Lord Keeper Lincoln the Bishops of London Durham and Winchester with certain of the Lords of the Privy Council These Lords assembling at Lambeth on the 30th of March and having first heard all his Excuses and Defences commanded him to depart the Realm within twenty days or otherwise to expect such punishment as by the Laws of the Land might be laid upon him for holding Intelligence by Letters Messages c. with the Popes of Rome To this Sentence he sorrowfully submitted protesting openly That he would never speak reproachfully of the Church of England the Articles whereof he acknowledged to be sound and profitable and none of them to be Heretical as appears by a Book entituled SPALATO's Shiftings in Religion published as it was conceived by Laud's especial Friend the Lord Bishop of Durham How well or rather how ill he performed this promise and what became of him after his return to Rome is not now my business The man is banished out of England and my History leads me next into Spain not Italy The
for Religion had Work enough more than they knew how to turn their hands to But before they could bring any thing to perfection his Majesty was so exasperated by their rigorous Proceedings against the Farmers of his Customs the Imprisoning of Acton Sheriff of London their Voting down his Right to Tonnage and Poundage and their threatning Speeches against the Lord Treasurer Weston whom he highly favoured That on the second of March he Adjourned the House and on the tenth of the same Month Dissolved the Parliament At which Adjournment some of the Members carried themselves in such an undutiful I must not say a seditious manner that they locked up the Doors of the House put the Keys into one of their Pockets excluded the Kings Messenger from coming in to deliver his Errand compelled the Speaker to return to his Chair and held him there by strong hand till they had thundred out their Anathema's not only against such as should dare to Levy the Tonnage and Poundage but those also who should willingly pay it before it had been granted by Act of Parliament for which Contempts and Disobediencies the principal Sticklers were convented by the Lords of the Council and after brought before the Justices of his Majesties Bench by whom they were not only fined but committed unto several Prisons notwithstanding all they could pretend or plead from the Petition of Right which they so much stood on So hard a thing it is to finde a cord so strong as to bind the Prerogative when Kings have either Power or Will to make use thereof During this last Parliament Leighton a Scot by birth a Doctor of Physick by Profession a fiery Puritan in Faction dedicated a most pestilent Book unto them called Sions Plea In this Book he incited them to kill all the Bishops and to smite them under the fifth Rib inveighing also against the Queen whom he branded by the name of an Idolatress a Canaanite and the Daughter of Heth. And that this general Doctrine might not be Preached without a particular Application a Paper was cast into the yard belonging to the House of the Dean of St. Pauls March 2. to this effect viz. Laud look to thy self be assured thy Life is sought as thou art the fauterer of all Wickedness Repent thee repent thee of thy monstrous sins before thou be taken out of the World c. And assure thy self neither God nor the World can indure such a vile Counsellor to live or such a Whisperer Another was found at the same time and place against the Lord Treasurer who now is made the Scape-Goat to bear all those faults in Civil Matters which formerly had been imputed to the Duke of Buckingham It was no need to bid them have a care of themselves after two such Warnings Leighton is therefore brought into the Star-Chamber as soon as he could be apprehended where he was Sentenced to have his Ears cropp'd his Nose slit his Forehead stigmatized and to be whipped But between the Sentence and Execution he made his escape out of the Fleet though by better hap to the Warden than to himself he was retaken in Bedfordshire and underwent the punishment appointed for him but this hapned not till November 29. 1630. The rest of this Year in reference to our present Story was of little Action Laud falling into a burning Fever on the fourteenth of August at the House of Windebank his old Friend by which he was brought to such a low and weak estate that he was not able to reach to his own House till October 20. nor to put himself into the Service of his Place till the end of March Yet such was the Activeness of his Spirit that though his Body was infirm yet his Thoughts were working He saw the Church decaying both in Power and Patrimony Her Patrimony dilapidated by the Avarice of several Bishops in making havock of their Woods to enrich themselves and more than so in filling up their Grants and Leases to the utmost term after they had been nominated to some other Bishoprick to the great wrong of their Successors Her Power he found diminished partly by the Bishops themselves in leaving their Diocesses unregarded and living altogether about Westminster to be in a more ready way for the next Preferment partly by the great increase of Chaplains in the Houses of many private Gentlemen but chiefly by the multitude of Irregular Lecturers both in City and Country whose work it was to undermine as well the Doctrine as the Government of it For the preventing of such mischiefs as might hence ensue some Conference had passed betwixt him and Harsnet who lately had succeeded Mountain before he had half warmed his Chair in the See of York and certain Considerations were resolved upon to be propounded to the King for the peace and well-ordering of the Church which being reduced into form and by Laud presented to his Majesty were first signed by his Majesties Royal Hand and published in December following by the Title of His Majesties Instructions to the most Reverend Father in God George Lord Archbishop of Canterbury containing certain Orders to be observed and put in execution by the several Bishops in his Province Which said Instructions were as â—olloweth CHARLES REX I. That the Lords the Bishops be commanded to their several Sees there to keep Residence excepting those which are at necessary Attendance at Court II. That none of them Reside upon his Land or Lease that he hath Purchased nor on his Commendam if he hold any but in one of his Episcopal Houses if he have any such And that he waste not the Woods where any are left III. That they give Charge in their Triennial Visitations and at other convenient times both by themselves and their Arch-Deacons That the Declaration for settling all Questions in difference be strictly observed by all Parties IV. That there be a special Care taken by them all That their Ordinations be Solemn and not of unworthy Persons V. That they take great Care concerning the Lecturers in their several Diocesses for whom We give these Special Directions following 1. That in all Parishes the afternoon Sermons be turned into Catechising by Question and Answer where and whensoever there is not some great cause apparent to break this ancient and profitable Order 2 That every Bishop Ordain in his Diocess That every Lecturer do read Divine Service according to the Liturgy Printed by Authority in his Surplice and before the Lecture 3. That where a Lecture is set up in a Market-Town it may be Read by a Company of Grave and Orthodox Divines near adjoining and in the same Diocess and that they Preach in Gowns and not in Cloaks as too many do use 4. That if a Corporation do maintain a single Lecturer he be not suffered to Preach till he profess his willingness to take upon him a Living with Cure of souls within that incorporation and that he do actually take such Benefice or
Preoccupate the most Reverend Archbishop Whitgift with most sad complaints touching the Rupture made by Baroe in that Vniversity For remedy whereof the Archbishop calls unto him Fletcher the Lord Elect of London Vaughan the Lord Elect of Bangor Tyndal Dean of Ely and such Divines as came from Cambridge who meeting at his house in Lambeth on the twenty sixth day of November Anno 1595. did then and there conclude upon certain Articles for regulating disputations in those points of Controversie Which Articles being nine in number are these that follow I. God from all eternity hath predestinated certain men unto life certain men he hath reprobated II. The moving or efficient cause of Predestination unto life is not the foresight of Faith or of perseverance or of God-works or of any thing that is in the person predestinated but only the good will and pleasure of God III. There is predetermined a certain number of the Predestinate which can either be augmented or diminished IV. Those who are not predestinated to salvation shall be necessarily damned for their sins V. A true living and justifying faith and the Spirit of God justifying is not extinguished falleth not away it vanisheth not away in the Act either finally or totally VI. A man truly faithful that is such a one who is enduced with a justifying Faith is certain with the full assurance of faith of the remission of his sins and of his everlasting salvation by Christ. VII Saving grace is not given is not granted is not communicated to all men by which they may be saved if they will VIII No man can come unto Christ unless it shall be given unto him and unless the Father shall draw him and all men are not drawn by the Father that they may come to the Son IX It is not in the will or power of every one to be saved These Articles being brought to Cambridge so discouraged Baroe that when the ordinary time of his publick readings was expired he forsook that place and not many years after died in London His Funerall being attended by order from Bishop Bancroft by most of the Eminent Divines about that City which shews that both the Bishop and the most eminent Divines of London were either inclinable to his opinions or not so averse from them as not to give a solemn attendance at the time of his Funeral The news of which proceedings being brought to the Queen she was excâ—edingly offended conceiving it a deep intrenchment upon her Prerogative that any such Declaration should be made in matter of Religion without her Authority Once was she at a point to have them all indited of a Praemunire but the high esteem she had of Whitgift whom she commonly called her black husband reprieved all the rest from the danger of it Howsoever such a strict course was taken for suppressing the said Articles that a Copy of them was not to be found in Cambridge for a long time aâ—ter though after the Queens death they began to peep abroad again and became more publick Nor was King Iames better conceited of them than Queen Elizabeth was for when it was moved by Dr Reynolds at Hampton Court that the nine Orthodoxal Assertions as he pleased to call them which were concluded on at Lambeth might be admitted into the confession of the Church of England the King so much disliked the motion that it was presently rejected without more ado But that which the Calvinians could not get in England they effected at the last in Ireland where the true and genuine Doctrines of the Church of England had been less looked after than at home For in the year 1615. a Parliament and Convocation being holden in Dublin it was resolved on by the Archbishop Bishops and the rest of the Clergy then assembled that a Book of Articles should be framed to be the Publick Confession of that Church for succeeding times the drawing up whereof was committed to Doctor Iames Vsher afterwards Archbishop of Armagh and Lord Primate of Ireland a Rigid Calvinist but otherwise the ablest Scholar of that Nation And he accordingly fashioning the Doctrine for that Church by his own Conceptions inserted into the said Book of Articles the nine Conclusions made at Lambeth to be the standing Rule as he thought and hoped of that Church for ever And yet they did not stay there neither The Sabbatarian Doctrines had been broached by Bownd in the same year wherein the nine Articles had been made at Lambeth Which being opposed by Archbishop Whitgift and never admitted in this Church were by the cunning of that Faction and the zeal or diligence of this man incorporated into the Body of the Articles for the Church of Ireland in which it is declared for a Doctrinal Point That the first day of the Week which is the Lords-day is wholly to be dedicated to the Service of God and therefore we are Bound therein to rest from our common and daily Business and to bestow that leisure upon holy Exercises both Publick and Private And because he concluded in himself that the Pope was Antichrist that also must be made an Article of this Confession in which we find it in these words viz. The Bishop of Rome is so far from being the Supream Head of the Vniversal Church that his Works and Doctrines do plainly discover him to be the Man of Sin foretold in the Holy Scripture whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth and abolish with the brightness of his coming And hereunto That the Plantation of the Scots in Vlster unhappily projected in the time of King Iames brought in so much Puritanism such a contempt of Bishops such a neglect of the Publick Liturgie and other Divine Offices of this Church that there was nothing less to be found amongst them than the Doctrine Government and Forms of Worship established in the Church of England The Papists in the mean time encreasing more and more grew at the last to so great a confidence by the clashings here in England betwixt the King and his Parliaments that they gave themselves great hope of a Toleration And possibly enough they might have obtained somewhat like it if the Irish Bishops had not joined together in a Protestation to the contrary and caused it to be published in the Pulpit by the Bishop of Derry with infinite Acclamations of the Protestant Hearers Howsoever the lost hopes had so far emboldened them that they set up some Religious Houses even in Dublin it self shewed themselves openly in their Friars Habits and publickly affronted not only the Mayor but the Archbishop of that City This coming to his Majesties knowledge he caused his pleasure to be signified to the Lords of his Council That Order should be taken there That the House where the said Seminary Friars appeared in their Habits and wherein the Reverend Archbishop and the Mayor of Dublin received their first Affront be speedily demolished and be the Mark of Terrour to
Noble Houses which made them the more insolent and uncontrollable That the Pope had erected an University in Dublin to confront his Majesties Colledge there and breed up the Youth of the Kingdom to his Devotion one Harris being Dean thereof who had dispersed a Scandalous Pamphlet against the Lord Primates Sermon preach'd at Wansteed one of the best Pieces that ever came from him Anno 1629. That since the Dissolving of their new Frieries in the City of Dublin they had Erected them in the Country and had brought the People to such a sottish negligence that they cared not to learn the Commandments as God spake and left them but flocked in Multitudes to the hearing of such Superstitious Doctrines as some of their own Priests were ashamed of That a Synodical Meeting of their Clergy had been held lately at Drogheda in the Province of Vlster in which it was decreed That it was not lawful to take the Oath of Allegiance And therefore That in such a conjuncture of Affairs to think that the bridle of the Army might be taken away must be the thought not of a Brain-sick but of a Brainless man which whosoever did endeavour not only would oppose his Majesties Service but expose his own neck to the Skeanes of those Irish cut-throats All which he humbly refers to his Lordships seasonable Care and Consideration Upon this Information the Deputy obtains his Majesties leave to hold a Parliament in that Kingdom which he managed with such notable dexterity that he made himself Master of a Power sufficient to suppress the Insolencies of the Papists and yet exceedingly prevailed upon their Affections From which time forwards the Popish Recusants in that Kingdom were kept in stricter duty and held closer to loyal Obedience for fear of irritating so severe a Magistrate than ever they had been by any of his Predecessors This Parliament brought with it a Convocation as a thing of course and in that somewhat must be done to check the spreading of Calvinism in all parts of that Church The Articles of Religion agreed upon in Convocation Anno 1615. were so contrived by Vsher the now Lord Primate That all the Sabbatarian and Calvinian Rigours were declared therein to be the Doctrines of that Church Most grievous Torments immediately in his Soul affirmed to be endured by Christ which Calvin makes to be the same with his descent into Hell The abstenencies from eating Flesh upon certain days declared not to be Religious Fasts but to be grounded only upon Politick Ends and Considerations All Ministers adjudged to be Lawfully called who are called unto the Work of the Ministry by those that have Publick Authority given them in the Church but whether they be Bishops or not it makes no matter so that he be Authorized unto it by their several Churches The Sacerdotal Power of Absolution made declarative only and consequently quite subverted No Power ascribed unto the Church in Ordaining Canons or censuring any of those who either carelesly or maliciously do infringe the same the Pope made Antichrist according to the like Determination of the French Hugonots made at Gappe in Dolphine And finally such a silence concerning the Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops expresly justified and avowed in the English Book as if there were not a different Order from the Common Presbyters All which being Vsher's own Opinions were dispersed in several places of these Articles for the Church of Ireland approved of in that Convocation and finally confirmed by the Lord Deputy Chichester in the Name of King Iames. By means whereof these two great mischiefs did ensue First A great matter of division which it caused to the Priests and Papists of the Realm that in three Kingdoms under the Obedience of one Sovereign Prince there should be three distinct and contrary Professions and yet pretending every one to the same Religion And secondly Whensoever the Points were agitated here in England against the Sabbatarian and Calvinian Rigours the Disputants were forthwith choaked by the Authority of these Articles and the infallible Judgment of King Iames who confirmed the same If therefore the Archbishop meant to have Peace in England the Church of Ireland must be won to desert those Articles and receive ours in England in the place thereof This to effect it was not thought expedient by such as had the managing of that design to propose any abrogation or repealing of the former Articles which had so many Friends and Patrons in that Convocation that it was moved severally both in the House of the Bishops and in that of the Clergy to have them ratified and confirmed in the present Meeting And questionless it had been carried in that way if it had not seasonably been diverted by telling the Promoters of it That those Articles had already received as much Authority as that Church could give them and that by seeking to procure any such Confirmation they would weaken the Original Power by which they stood This blow being thus handsomly broken their next work was to move the Primate That for the avoiding of such scandal which was given the Papists and to declare the Unity in Judgment and Affections between the Churches a Canon might be passed in approbation of the Articles of the Church of England To this the Prelate being gained the Canon was drawn up and presented to him and being by him propounded was accordingly passed one only man dissenting when it came to the Vote who had pierced deeper into the bottom of the Project than the others did It was desired also by Bramhall not long before the Lord Deputies Chaplain but then Bishop of Derrie That the whole Body of Canons made in the year 1603. might be admitted in that Church But the Primate was ever so afraid of bowing at the Name of IESVS and some other Reverences required in them which he neither practised nor approved that he would by no means hearken to it which bred some heats between him and Bramhall ending at last in this Temperament That some select Canons should be taken out of that Book and intermingled with some others of their own composing But for the Canon which approved and received the Articles of the Church of England it was this that followeth viz. Of the Agreement of the Church of England and Ireland in the Profession of the same Christian Faith FOr the manifestation of our Agreement with the Church of England in the Confession of the same Christian Faith and Doctrine of the Sacraments We do receive and approve the Book of Articles of Religion agreed upon by the Archbishops and Bishops and the whole Clergie in whole Convocation holden at London Anno Dom. 1562. for the avoiding of diversities of Opinions and for the establishing of Consent touching true Religion And therefore if any hereafter shall affirm That any of those Articles are in any part Superstitious and Erroneous or such as he may not with a good Conscience Subscribe unto Let him be Excommunicated
gave them some hope of finding more relief from the Court of Exchequer than they could expect from the Lord Mayor who being at the first made Judge in the business for the ease of the Clergy carried himself rather like a party concerned in it than an equal Umpire But there was no contending with the Purse of the City For though the proceedings of the City Landlords were declared to be unjust and Sacrilegious under the hands of many Bishops and most of the Heads of Houses in both Universities Anno 1620. yet the business going on from bad to worse they were necessitated to cast themselves at the feet of King Charles and to petition for a remedy of these growing mischiefs which otherwise in some tract of time might become insupportable Which Petition being taken into consideration by his Sacred Majesty he was graciously pleased to refer the same to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury the Lord Keeper Coventry the Earl Marshal the Lord Bishop of London the Lord Cottington Mr. Secretary Windebank and Chief Justice Richardson or any five or three of them of which the Lord Archbishop to be alwaies one requiring and thereby authorizing to call before them all parties concerned in the business and after a full hearing and examination thereof to end if they could or otherwise to report to his Majesty where the Impediment lay that so his Majesty might take such further order therein as in his Princely wisdom he should think most meet Which reference being made the fifteenth of May of this present year was carried on with such equality and moderation that the rich Landlords had no reason to complain of any obliquity or partiality in the conduct of it But having been accustomed to â—eed on the Churches Bread and to have the poor Clergie obnoxious them they could with no patience entertain the thoughts of relinquishing their former dyet or suffer a deserving Clergy to enjoy their own Nothing more feared than that the Clergy by this means would grow too rich They who conceived two thousand pound of yearly Rent not enough for an Alderman think one hundred pound per annum as was affirmed by one of that number to be too much for a Minister And should the Clergy once grow rich they would become more absolute and independent not so obsequious to them as they had been formerly and consequently more apt to cross them in their opposition or neglect of establisht Orders And in this state the business stood when Iuxon the Bishop of London was advanced to the Treasurers Staff in the end of March 1635. which much encreast the hopes of the one and the fears the other Some of the Clergie had the hap to better their condition and improve their Benefices by the appearing of so many powerful persons in their behalf and possible enough it is that some expedient would have been resolved on by the Referâ—ees to the general content of both parties his Grace of Canterbury being very sollicitous in behalf of the Clergy if the troubles which brake out soon after in Scâ—tland and the preparations for the War which ensued upon it had not put the business to a stand and perswaded both the King and Council to an improfitable compliance with that stubborn City from which he reapt nothing in conclusion but neglect and scorn So frequently have the best designs been overthrown not so much by the puissance and might of the adverse party as through defect of Constancy and Resolution to go through with them Mention was made in the Narrative of our Archbishops late proceeding against the Congregations of the French and Dutch of somewhat which was done in order to it in the Metropolitical Visitation of the Province of Canterbury Concerning which we are to know that in the beginning of the year 1634. he resolved upon that Visitation And having some distrust of Brent his Vicar General he prâ—pared one of his Confidents to be a joynt Commissioner with him that he might do no hurt if he did no good But afterwards being more assured of Brent than before he was he resolved to trust him with himself and not to fetter him with any such constant Overseer to attend his actings The Articles for his Visitation Printed for the use of Churchwardens and Sides-men in their several Parishes had little in them more than ordinary But he had given directions to his Vicar General to enquire into the observation of his Majesties Instructions of the year 1629. to command the said Churchwardens to place the Communion Table under the Eastern Wall of the Chancel where formerly the Altar stood to set a decent Raile before it to avoid profaneness and at the Raile the Communicants to receive the blessed Sacrament It had been signified to the Archbishop that a Dog in one place or other but I remember not the name had run away with the Bread appointed for the holy Communion and that the Communion Wine had been brought unto the Table in many places in Pint-pots and Bottles and so distributed to the people The placing of a Raile before the Table would prevent all infamies of the first sort and he hoped the Ministers would take order to reform abuses of the last Williams at that time Bishop of Lincoln had placed the Table of his own Chappel in the state of an Altar and â—urnisâ—ed it with Plate and other costly Utensils beyond most others in the Kingdom The Table stood in the same posture in the Cathedral Church of Lincoln of which he was both Bishop and Residentiary and in the Collegiate Church of Westminster whereof he was Dean The Chancel of St. Martins Câ—urch in the Town of Leicester had been made a Library which he when he was in his good humours perswaded the people to remove to trim and prepare the said Choire with Railes and such other Ornaments as were fitting for it and then to place therein their Communion Table all whicn they accordingly performed But understanding of the Order of the third of November made by his Majesty and the Lords of his Council in the Case of St. Gregories he untwisteth all this Line again For a Certificate being presented to him by the Vicar Church-wardens and some others of the Parish That the place where the Table stood before was far more fit by reason of the more capacity to receive the Communicants and the more audibleness of the Ministers voice and the Proximity of it to the place where Morning and Evening Prayer had been appointed to be read than the Chancel was he gave them leave to remove the Communion Table to the place where it formerly stood especially at such times as they received the Communion All which by his Letters of the nineteenth of December 1633. he signifies to Burden one of Lambs Surrogates in the Archdeaconry of Leicester requiring him not to be troublesome or molestfull to the said parties in any thing concerning the Premises Which Letter Burden sends to Lamb and Lamb
communicates to his Grace of Canterbury who thereupon resolves to make that Diocess the Scene of his first Visitation The Diocess of Lincoln was anciently larger than it is the Bishoprick of Ely being taken out of it in the Reign of King Henry the First Anno 1109. and those of Oxon. and Peterborough by King Henry the Eighth Anno 1541. But as it is it is the largest of the Kingdom both for the quantity of ground and the number of Parishes containing in it the whole Counties of Lincoln Leicester Buckingham Bedford Huntington and that part of Hertfordshire which belonged to the Kingdom of Mercia In which Counties are contained 1255 Parishes divided though not equally between six Archdeacons that is to say the Archdeacons of Lincoln How Leicester Buckingham Bedford and Huntingdon each of them having his several Commissaries and every Commissary one or more Surrogates to officiate under him in times of necessary absence Within this great Diocess he begins first laying a Suspension on the Bishop and the six Archdeacons by which they were inhibited from the exercise of their Jurisdiction as long as that Visitation lasted And after sending out a Citation to all the Ministers and Churchwardens of that Diocess he required them to appear at certain times and places before his Vicar General and the rest of the Commissioners authorized for the several Archdeaconries of the same But the Bishop was too stout to yield at the first assault pretending an exemption from such Visitations by old Papall Bulls The Archbishop being herewith startled was not long after very well satisfied in that particular by a Paper which was tendred to him asserting his Metropolitan Right against those Pretences collected out of Histories and old Records Which being compared with the Originals and found to contain nothing but undoubted truths the Bishop is commanded to appear before the Lords of the Council where his Papal Bulls were so well baited by the Archbishop and his Counsel that not being able to hold any long play they ran out of the Field leaving the Bishop to shift for himself as well as he could This Bar removed the Vicar-General proceeds to the Visitation and in all places gives command to the Church-wardens not only to return their Presentments according to the Articles of the Visitation but to transpose the Communion Table to the East end of the Chancel and to â—ence it with a decent Rail to avoid prophaneness according unto such Directions as he had received from the Lord Archbishop He further signified That they were to take especial care of certifying the names of all the Lecturers in their several and respective Parishes as also Whether the said Lecturers and all other Preaching Ministers within that Diocess did carefully observe his Majesties Instructions published in the year 1629. Their knowledge in which Particulars with a Certificate of their doings about the removing of the Communion Table together with their Presentments to the several Articles which were given them in charge to be returned unto him by a time appointed Which Charge thus given and the Visitation carried to another Diocess he leaves the prosecution of it as afterwards in all other places to the care of the Bishop But the Bishop having other designs of his own was no sooner discharged of that Suspension which was laid upon him but he resolves to visit his Diocess in person to shew himself to those of his Clergy and gain the good affections of those especially who adhered to Calvin and Geneva Insomuch that meeting in the Archdeaconry of Buckingham with one Doctor Bret a very grave and reverend man but one who was supposed to incline that way he embraced him in his Episcopal Arms with these words of St. Augustine viz. Quamvis Episcopus major est Presbytero Augustinus tamen minor est Hieronymo Intimating thereby to the great commendation of his modesty amongst those of that Faction That the said Bret was as much greater than Williams as the Bishop was above a Priest And in compliance with that Party he gave command for Railing in the Communion Table as appears by the Extract of his Proceedings in the Archdeaconry of Leicester not placed at the East end of the Chancel with a Rail before it but in the middle thereof as it stood before with a Rail about it And by that kind of half-compliance as he retracted nothing from his own Opinion in his Letter to the Vicar of Grantham so he conceived That he had finely frustrated the design of his Metropolitan and yet not openly proceeded against his Injunction The Visitation thus begun was carried on from year to year till it had gone over all the Diocesses in the Province of Canterbury In the prosecution whereof the Vicar-General having given the Charge and allowed time to the Church-wardens to return a Certificate of their doings in pursuance of it the further execution of it was left to the Bishops in their several Diocesses in which it went forwards more or less as the Bishops were of spirit and affection to advance the Work either in reference to the transposing of the Table or the observation of his Majesties Instructions above-mentioned which had not the least place in the business of this Visitation Wright Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield having given order by his Chancellor for the transposing of the Tables in most parts of his Diocess began at last to cast his eyes on the Churches of the Holy Trinity and St. Michael the Archangel in the City of Coventry concerning which he prescribed these Orders 1. That the Ground at the upper end of the Chancells be handsomly raised by three steps that the Celebration of the Sacrament may be conspicuous to all the Church 2. That the Ground so raised at both Churches the Communion-Table should be removed close to the East-wall of the Chancels 3. That in both Churches all new Additions of Seats in the Chancels be taken away and the Pâ—ws there reduced as near as may be to the ancient form But the Citizens of Coventry found a way to take off his edge notwithstanding that he had received not only his Majesties Command but encouragements also in pursuance of it his Majesty spending at the least a fortnight in that Diocess in the year 1636. at such time as the Bishop came to wait upon him in Tutbury Castle For they so far prevailed upon him at his being in Coventry that in the presence of the Mayor and some others of the Fraternity he appointed That the Communion-Table should be removed from its ascent of three Steps unto the Body of the Chancel during the Administration of the Blessed Sacrament commanding Bird who had the Officiality of the place not to trouble them in it Bird not being well pleased with so much levity in the Bishop gives notice of it unto Latham the Bishops Register in Lichfield by whom it was signified to Lamb by Lamb to the Archbishop and by him to the King from whom
consent in the times foregoing so were they now upon the point of having those old Rules broken on them by the King in making Canons and putting Laws and Orders on them for their future Government to which they never had consented And therefore though his Majesty had taken so much care as himself observed for facilitating and conveniencing their obedience by furthering their knowledge in those points which before they knew not yet they did generally behold it and exclaimed against it as one of the most grievous burthens that ever had been laid upon them More clamour but on weaker grounds was made against the Book of Common Prayer when it first came out which was not till the year 1637. and then we shall hear further of it Mean while we will return to England and see what our Archbishop doth as a chief Counsellor and States-man in his Civil Actings It was about four or five years since Anno 1631 that he first discovered how ill his Majesties Treasury had been managed between some principal Officers of his Revenue to the enriching of themselves to the impoverishing of their Master and the no small amazement of all good Subjects But the abuses being too great to be long concealed his Majesty is made acquainted with all particulars who thereupon did much estrange his countenance from the principal of them For which good service to the King none was so much suspected by them as the Archbishop of Canterbury against whom they began to practise endeavouring all they could to remove him from his Majesties ear or at the least to lessen the esteem and reputation which his fidelity and upright dealing had procured of him Factions are heightned in the Court Private ends followed to the prejudice of Publick Service and every mouth talkt openly against his proceedings But still he kept his ground and prevailed at last appointed by his Majesty on the fifth of February 1634. to be one of the great Committee for Trade and the Kings Revenue and seeing Wesâ—ons Glories set under a cloud within few weeks after Weston being dead it pleased his Majesty to commit the managing of the Treasury by Letters Patents under the Broad Seal bearing date on the fourteenth day of March to the Lord Archbishop Cottington Chancellor of the Exchequer Cooke and Windebank principal Secretaries and certain others who with no small envy looked upon him as if he had been set over them for a Supervisor Within two daies after his being nominated for this Commission his Majesty brought him also into the Foreign Committee which rendred him as considerable abroad as he was at home This as it added to his power so it encreased the stomach which was borne against him The year 1635. was but new began when clashing began to grow between him and Cottington about executing the Commission for the Treasury And that his grief and trouble might be the greater his old Friend Windebank who had received his preferment from him forsook him in the open field and joyned himself with Cottington and the rest of that Party This could not chuse but put him to the exercise of a great deal of Patience considering how necessary a friend he had lost in whose bosome he had lodged a great part of his Counsels and on whose Activity he relied for the carrying on of his designs at the Council Table But for all this â—e carries on 〈◊〉 Commâ—â—â—ion the whole year about acquaints himself with the Mysteries and secrets of it the honest advantages which the Lord Treasurers had for enriching themselves to the value of seven tâ—ousand pound a year and upwards as I have heard from his own mouth without defrauding the King or abusing the Subject He had observed that divers Treasurers of late years had raised themselves from very mean and private Fortunes to the Titles and Estates oâ— Earls which he conceived could not be done without wrong to both and therefore he resolves to commend such a man to his Majesty for the next Lord Treasurer who having no Family to raise no Wife and Children to provide for might better manage the Incomes of the Treasury to the Kings advantage than they had been formerly And who more like to come into his eye for that preferment than Iuxon his old and trusty Friend then Bishop of London a man of such a well tempered disposition as gave exceeding great content both to Prince and People and one whom he knew capable of as much instruction as by a whole years experience in the Commission for the Treasury he was able to give him It was much wondred at when first the Staff was put into this mans hand in doing whereof the Archbishop was generally conceived neither to have consulted his own present peace nor his future safety Had he studied his own present peace he should have given Cottington leave to put in for it who being Chancellor of the Exchequer pretended himself to be the next in that Ascendent the Lord Treasurers Associate while he lived and the presumptive heir to that office after his decease And had he studied his own safety and preservation for the times to come he might have made use of the power by recommending the Staff to the Earles of Bedford Hartford Essex the Lord Say or some such man of Popular Nobility by whom he might have been reciprocated by their strength and interess with the People in the change of times But he preferred his Majesties Advantages before his particular concernments the safety of the Publick before his own Nor did he want some seasonable considerations in it for the good of the Church The peace and quiet of the Church depended much on the conformity of the City of London and London did as much depend in their trade and payments upon the Love and Justice of the Lord Treasurer of England This therefore was the more likely way to conform the Citizens to the directions of their Bishop and the whole Kingdom unto them No small encouragement being thereby given to the London Clergy for the improving of their Tythes For with what confidence could any of the old Cheats adventure on a publick Examination in the Court of Exchequer the proper Court for suits and grievances of that nature when a Lord Bishop of London sate therein as the principal Judge Upon thâ—se Counsels he proceeds and obtains the Staff which was delivered to the Bishop of London on Sunday March 6. sworn on the same day Privy Counsellor and on the first of the next Term conducted in great state from London House to Westminster Hall the Archbishop of Canterbury riding by him and most of the Lords and Bishops about the Town with many Gentlemen of chief note and quality following by two and two to make up the Pomp. It was much feared by some and hoped by others that the new Treasurer would have sunk under the burden of that place as Williams did under the custody of the Seal but he deceived them both
they commonly called it But then he must have crost the proceedings of the House of Commons in the last Parliament wherein he was so great a stickler voting down under a kind of Anathema the Kings pretensions of right to all help from the Subject either in Tunnage or Poundage or any other way whatsoever the Parliament not cooperating and contributing towards it Howsoever the Service was as grateful as the Author acceptable from henceforth both a frequent and a welcome guest at Lambeth house where he was grown into such esteem with the Archbishop that he might have chose his own preferment in the Court as it was then generally believed had he not undervalued all other employments in respect of his Studies But possibly there might be some other reason for his declining such imployments as the Court might offer He had not yet forgotten the affronts which were put upon him about his History of Tythes for in the notion of affronts he behâ—ld them alwaies and therefore did but make fair weather for the time till he could have an opportunity to revenge himself on the Church and Church-men the King being took into the reckoning For no sooner did the Bishop begin to sink in power and credit under the first pressures of the late Long Parliament but he published a book in Greek and Latine by the name Futâ—chius with some Notes upon it In which he made it his chief business to prove that Bishops did no otherwise differ from the rest of the Presbyters than doth a Master of a Colledge from the rest of the Fellows by consequents that they differed only in degree not order And afterwards when his Majesty began to decline in the love of the Parliament and that the heats grew strong between them he was affirmed to have written the Answer to his Majesties Declaration about the Commission of Array Which in effect proved a plain putting of the Sword into the hands of the People So hard it is for any one to discerne the hearts of men by their outward actions but the God that made them Thus leaving England for a time we must go for Scotland in which we find the Canons finished and the Bishops busie and intent on a publick Liturgie It was his Majesties first intent to introduce the English Liturgie amongst them and to that end had ordered that it should be daily read in his Chappel Royal of that Kingdom as before was said But Ballentine the Bishop of Dumblaine and Dean of the Chappel to whom the care thereof had been recommended was so negligent in it that the Archbishop found it necessary to remove him to some other Bishoprick on the next avoydance The See of Aberdeen proving vacant he procured his translation thither and preferred Wederbourne a Scot by birth but bread in Cambridge beneficed in Hampshire and made one of the Prebends of â—ly by the learned Andrews to be his Successor in those places By this new Dean his Majesties design was followed with more care than ever and possibly might have took effect if the rest of the Scottish Bishops had been pleased therewith as well as this But the Scottish Bishops having prevailed with his Majesty as before was noted to have a distinct Liturgie of their own His Majesty commanded the Archbishop of Canterbury to give them the best assistance he could in that way and work which notwithstanding he delayed as long as he could in hope to bring them in the end to a better perswasion But finding them so resolved upon it that they could not be altered he contributes his assistance to it humbly intreated so to do by some Letters brought unto him by Maxwell not long before made Bishop of Ross bearing date April 2. 1635. and subscribed by the Archbishops of St. Andrews and Glascow the Bishops of Murrey Dumblaine and Brechine The Book being first hammered and prepared in Scotland and from thence transmitted to the Court his Majesty referred it to the consideration of the Archbishop of Canterbury the Lord Treasurer Iuxon Bishop of London and Wren Bishop of Norwich But the Lord Treasurer being taken up with other imployments the burden of the work remained on the other two They found on the perusal of it that Wederbourne had followed such instructions as he had carried with him about the making of that book if it must be made in keeping so much in it of the English Liturgie and they found also certain notes which he had sent together with it to the end that as many of them as his Majesty liked might be made use of in that book Thus authorised and instructed they proceed unto the making of such Alterations as were offered to them consisting for the most part in these Particulars First That the Magnificat and the rest of the Hymns together with the Epistles and Gospels should be printed according to the last Translation in the time of King James conform therein to such Directions as they had received for Printing the Psalms of David in the last Translation Secondly That for the better singing of those Psalms to the Organ a Colon should be made in the middle of every Verse as it was in the English Thirdly That they could not agree to any more Emendations in the Creed of St. Athanasius than they had noted in that Book Fourthly That though the Bishops there desired some time to consider further of the Holydays yet it was never otherwise meant but that the Office appointed for every of them should be kept in the Liturgie the Practice and Observation of them being respited for a time to their further thoughts Fifthly That though they admitted of all the Sentences which they found in the Offertory yet they wished that some which were in the English Book might be added also Sixthly That every Prayer or Action through the whole Communion should be named in the Rubrick before it that it might be known to the People what it is as they should find done to their hands in the Prayer of Consecration and the Memorial of Oblation next after following Seventhly That the Invitation Confession Absolution Sentences Prefaces and Doxologie should be retained in the same place and order which they had in the Liturgie of England and that the Prayer of humble Access to the Holy Table would stand very well as they conceived before the very Act af Participation Eighthly and finally That in the Margin of the Prayer of Consecration they should add some Note directing him that Celebrates at what words he should take the Patin with the Bread on it and the Chalice with the Wine in it into his hands according to the Practise of the Church of England These Alterations being not only made by his Majesties Warrant and approved by him in a Memorial under his Hand bearing date the nineteenth day of April in this present year but confirmed also with the like Royal Signature as they stood in the Book Of which Particulars and some others the Bishop
of particular Churches and of some Times only And 3. It in Points of Doctrine Whether such Points have been determined oâ— before in a General Council or in Particular Councils universally received and countenanced or are to be defined de novo on emergent Controversies And these Distinctions being thus laid I shall Answer briefly 1. If the things to be reformed be either Corruptions in Manners or neglect of Publick Duties to Almighty God Abuses either in Government or the Parties governing the King may do it of himself by his sole Authority The Clergy are beholden to him if he takes any of them along with him when he goes about it And if the Times should be so bad that either the whole body of the Clergy or any though the greatest part thereof should oppose him in it he may go forwards notwithstanding punishing such as shall gainsay him in so good a Work and compelling others And this I look on as a Power annexed to the Regal Diadem and so inseparably annexed that Kings could be no longer Kings iâ— it were denied them And on the other side if the Reformation be in Points oâ— Doctrine and in such Points of Doctrine as have not been before defined or not defined in form and manner as before laid down the King only with a few of his Bishops and Learned Clergy though never so well studied in the Point disputed can do nothing in it That belongs only to the whole body of the Clergy in their Convocation rightly called and constituted whose Acts being Ratified by the King bind not alone the rest of the Clergy in whose name they Voted but all the residue of the Subjects of what sort soever who are to acquiesce in their Resolutions But if the thing to be Reformed be a matter practical we are to look into the usage of the Primitive Times And if the Practice prove to have been both ancient and universally received over all the Church though intermitted for a Time and by Time corrupted the King consulting with so many of his Bishops and others of his most able Clergy as he thinks â—it to call unto him and having their Consent and Direction in it may in the case of intermission revive such Practice and in the case of corruption and degeneration restore it to its Primitive and Original Lustre Now that there should be Liturgies for the use of the Church And that those Liturgies should be Celebrated in a Language understood by the People That in those Liturgies there should be some prescribed Forms for Giving the Communion in both Kinds for Baptizing Infants for the reverent Celebration of Marriage performing the 〈◊〉 Office to the Sick and the decent Burial of the Dead as also for set Fasts and appointed Festivals hath been a thing of Primitive and General Practice in the best times of the Church And being such though intermitted and corrupted as before is said the King advising with his Bishops and other Church-men though not in a Synodical way may cause the same to be revised and revived and having fitted them to Edification and encrease of Piety either commend them to the Church by his sole Authority or else impose them on the People under certain Penalties by his Power in Parliament The Kingdom of Heaven said the Reverend Isidore of Sevil doth many times receive increase from these Earthly Kingdoms in nothing more than by regulating and well ordering of Gods Publick Worship Add hereunto what was before alledged for passing the Canons in the same way and then we have the sum of that which was and probably might have been pleaded in defence hereof The prosecution of this Liturgie on the one side and the exaction of those Publick Orders on the other kindled such fires in the breasts of some of the Puritan Faction that presently they brake out into open Flames For first the Scots scattered abroad a virulent and seditioâ—s Libel in the year 1634. wherein the King was not only charged with altering the Government of that Kingdom but traduced for very strong inclinations to the Religion of the Church of Rome The chief Abettor whereof for the Author was not to be found was the Lord Balmerino for which he was Legally convicted and condemned of Treason but pardoned by the Kings great Goodness and by that Pardon kept alive for the mischiefs following And as the English had Scotized in all their Practises by railing threatning and stirring up of Sedition for bringing in the Genevian Discipline in Queen Elizabeths Time so they resolve to follow their Example now Bastwick a Doctor of Physick the second part of Leighton first leads the Dance beginning with a Pestilent Pamphlet called Flagellum Episcoporum Latialium maliciously venomous against the Bishops their Function Actions and Proceedings But this not being likely to do much hurt amongst the People because writ in Latine he seconds it with another which he called his Litany in the English Tongue A Piece so silly and contemptible that nothing but the Sin and Malice which appeared in every line thereof could possibly have preserved it from being ridiculous Prynne follows next and publisheth two Books at once or one immediately on the other one of these called The Quench-Coal in answer unto that called A Coal from the Altar against placing the Communion-Table Altar-wise The other named The Vnbishoping of Timothy and Titus against the Apostolical Institution of Diocesan Bishops But that which was entituled to him by the name of a Libel was The News from Ipswich intended chiefly against Wren then Bishop of Norwich who had taken up his dwelling in that Town as before is said but falling as scandalously foul on the Archbishop himself and some of the other Bishops also and such as acted under them in the present Service For there he descants very trimly as he conceived on the Archbishop himself with his Arch-Piety Arch-Charity Arch-Agent for the Devil that Beelzebub himself had been Archbishop and the like to those a most triumphant Arch indeed to adorn his victories With like reproach he falls on the Bishops generally calling them Luciferian Lord Bishops execrable Traitors devouring Wolves with many other odious names not fit to be used by a Christian and more particularly on Wren telling us That in all Queen Maries times no such havock was made in so short a time of the faithful Ministers of God in any part nay in the whole Land than had been made in his Diocess And then he adds with equal Charity and Truth That Corbet Chancellor to this Bishop had threatned one or two godly Ministers with pistolling and hanging and I know not what because they had refused to read his Majesties Declaration about lawful Sports More of this dish I could have carved but that this may serve sufficiently for a taste of the whole But the great Master-piece of mischief was set out by Burton so often mentioned before who preaching on the fifth of November in his own Parish
a base and Libellous Answer without the name of any Author Place or Printer or any Bookseller according to the unusual Custom where and of whom it might be bought I shall not trouble my self any more about it than by a Transcript of the Title which was this that followeth viz. DIVINE and POLITICK OBSERVATIONS newly translated out of the Dutch Language wherein they were lately divulged upon some lines in the Speech of the Archbishop of Canterbury pronounced in the STAR-CHAMBER the fourteenth of June 1637. VERY expedient for preventing all prejudice which as well through ignorance as through malice and flattery may be incident to the judgment which men make thereby either of his Graces power over the Church and with the King or of the Equity Iustice and Wisdom of his ENDS in his said Speech and of the reasons used by him for attaining to his said ENDS And though he took great care and pains concerning that supposed additional clause to the 20th Article so much as might satisfie any man not extremely partial yet find I a late Writer so unsatisfied in it that he leaves it to the State-Arithmeticians to decide the Controversie whether the Bishops were more faulty in the addition than the opposites in their substraction of it One other Charge there was and a great one too which I find not touched at in this Speech and that is that the Prelates neither had nor sought to have the Kings Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England for their keeping Courts and Visitations c. but did all in their own Names and under their own Seals contrary to the Law in that behalf Concerning which we are to know that by a Statute made in the first year of King Edward the Sixth it was Enacted That all Summons Citations and other Process Ecclesiastical in all Suites and causes of Instance and all causes of Correction and all causes of Bastardy or Bigamy or De jure Patronatus Probates of Testaments and Commissions of Administrations of persons deceased be made in the name and with the Style of the King as it is in Writs Original or Iudicial at the Common Law c. As also that no matter of person or persons who hath the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction use any other Seal of Jurisdiction but wherein his Majesties Arms be engraven c. on pain of incurring his Majesties indignation and suffering imprisonment at his will and pleasure Which Statute and every branch thereof being repealed by Queen Mary and not revived by Queen Elizabeth in all her Reign the Bishops of her time were safe enough from any danger on that side But in the first Parliament of King Iames there passed an Act for continuing and reviving of divers Statutes and for repealing of some others 1 Iac. c. 25. Into the Body whereof a Clause was cunningly conveyed his Majesties Council learned not considering or fraudulently conniving at it for the repealing of that Statute of the Reign of Queen Mary by which King Edwards stood repealed of which no notice being taken for some while by those whom it chiefly did concern it was now discovered and made use of as a Rod to affright the Prelates from exercising their Jurisdiction over obstinate and incorrigible Non-conformists as formerly they had been accustomed For remedy whereof and for encouraging the Bishops to perform their duties iâ— was declared by the Judges with an unanimous consent and so delivered by the Lords Chief Justices in the Star-Chamber the fourteenth of May in this present year That the said Act of Repeal 1 of Queen Mary did still stand in force as unto that particular Statute by them so much pressed This was sufficient for the present but the Archbishop would not trust to it for the time to come and thereupon in in his Epistle to the King before remembred He humbly desired his Majesty in the Churches name That it might be resolved by all the Reverend Judges of England and then published by his Majesty that the Bishops keeping of their Courts and issuing Processes in their own names and the like exceptions formerly taken and now renued were not against the Laws of this Realm that so the Church Governours might go on chearfully in their duty and the peoples minds be quieted by this assurance that neither their Law nor their Liberty as Subjects was thereby infringed A motion favourably heard and graciously granted his Majesty issuing out his Royal Proclamation on the eighteenth day oâ— August then next following For declaring that the proceedings of his Ecclesiastical Câ—urts and Ministers were according to Law The Tenour of which Proclamation or Declaration was as followeth By the King WHereas in some of the Libellous Books and Pamphlets lately published the most Reverend Fathers in God the Lord Archbishops and Bishops of the Realm are said to have usurped upon his Majesties Prerogative Royal and to have proceeded in the High Commission and other Ecclesiastical Courts contrary to the Laws and Statutes of the Realm It was Ordered by his Majesties High Court of Star-Chamber the twelfth of June last that the Opinion of the two Lords Chief Justices the Lord Chief Baron and the rest of the Judges and Barons should be had and certified in these particulars viz. whether Processes may not issue out of the Ecclesiastical Courts in the names of the Bishops Whether a Patent under the Great Seal be necessary for the keeping of the Ecclesiastical Courts and enabling Citations Suspensions Excommunications and other Censures of the Church And whether the Citations ought to be in the Kings Name and under his Seal of Arms and the like for Institutions and Inductions to Benefices and correction of Ecclesiastical offences And whether Bishops Archdeacons and other Ecclesiastical persons may or ought to keep any Visitation at any time unless they have express Commission or Patent under the great Seal of England to do it and that as his Majesty Visitors only and in his name and right alone Whereupon his Majesties said Judges having taken the same into their sâ—rious consideration did unanimously agree and concur in opinion and the first day of Iuly last certified under their hands as followeth That Processes may issue out of Ecclesiastical Courts in the name of the Bihops and that a Patent under the Great Seal is not necessary for the keeping of the said Ecclesiastical Courts or for the enabling of Citations Suspensions Excommunications and other Censures of the Church And that it is not necessary that Summons Citations or other Processes Ecclesiastical in the said Courts or Institutions and Inductions to benefices or correction of Ecclesiastical offences by Censure in those Courts be in the Kings name or with the Style of the King or with the Kings Seal or the Seals of the Office have in them the Kings Arms And that the Statute 1 Edw. 6. c. 2. which enacted the contrary is not now in force And that the Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons and other Ecclesiastical
do for Kilvert against their Master The Story whereof desireth the Readers further patience though it come somewhat out of time and is briefly this Osbaldston the late Schoolmaster and then Prebend of Westminster a profess'd Creature of the Bishops and much imployed by him in his greatest businesses had written a Letter to him about Christmas in the year 1635. touching some Heats which hapned in that cold Season betwixt the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Treasurer Weston Osbaldston conceiving this to be a fit opportunity for the Bishop to close in with Weston and by his means to extricate himself out of those Perplexities in which this Star-Chamber Suit had so long intangled him This Intelligence he disguised in these expressions viz. The little Vermin the Vrchin and Hocus Pocus is this stormy Christmas at true and real variance with the great Leviathan And this conceit the Bishop out of too much jollity makes known to others by whom at last it came to Kilvert who laying hold on the Advantage exhibits a new Bill against him for divulging Scandalous Libels against Privy Counsellors there being good proof to be produced That by the names of Little Vermin Vrchin and Hocus Pocus the writer of that Letter designed no other than the Archbishop and the Lord Treasurer Weston by the Great Leviathan Both being made Parties to the Bill Osbaldston answers for himself That by Leviathan he intended Chief Justice Richardson and Spicer a Doctor of Laws by the other Character The differing statures of the men seeming to make good this Construction which the Grammar of the Text might bear as well as the other The Bishop pleaded for his part That he remembred not the receiving of any such Letter and that if any such Letter had come unto him it could not be brought within the compass of a Libel because not written in such plain and significant terms as might apparently decypher and set forth the Person intended in it But all this proved to be but shifts on either side for Kilvert had a Letter ready which Walker was supposed to have put into his hands to make sure work of it a Letter which the Bishop had writ to the said Walker being then his Secretary at the time of that falling out betwixt Laud and Weston Here is a strange thing saith that Letter Mr. Osbaldston importunes me to contribute to my Lord Treasurers use some Charges upon the Little Great Man and assures me they are mortally out I have utterly refused to meddle in this business and I pray you learn from Mr. S. and Mr. H. if any such falling out be or whether somebody hath not gulled the Schoolmaster in these three last Letters and keep it unto your self what I write unto you If my Lord Treasurer would be served by me he must use a more neer solid and trusty Messenger and free me from the Bonds of the Star-Chamber else let them fight it out for me This Secret thus discovered and the Mystery opened it was not long before the Cause was brought to Censure For the two Letters being compared with the Time and Circumstances it was no hard matter to the Lords who had their own Concerment in it to conclude both of them to be guilty of the Crime called Scandalum Magnatum a Libelling and defaming the Great Men of the Realm proâ—ibited and punishable by the Laws of the Land So that no Buckler being â—ound to bear off the Blow a Fine of another 8000 l. was imposed on the Bishop Osbaldston fined 5000 l. to be deprived of all his Ecclesiastical Preferments his Ears to be tack'd to the Pillory in the Palace-yard and Dammages or Costs of Suit to be paid by both to the Archbishop of Canterbury A Censure greater than the Crime as most men conceived in respect of Osbaldston whose Indiscretion might have been corrected with far less severity and less severity was intended then the Sentence intimated For though Osbaldston at that time conceived the Archbishop to be his greatest Enemy yet the Archbishop was resolved to shew himself his greatest Friend assuring the Author of this History before any thing was known of his supposed flight that he would cast himself at the Kings feet for obtaining a discharge of that corporal punishment unto which he was Sentenced Which may obtain the greater credit first in regard that no course was taken to stop his flight no search made after him nor any thing done in order to his Apprehension And secondly By Osbaldstons readiness to do the Archbishop all good Offices in the time of his Troubles upon the knowledge which was given him at his coming back of such good intentions For Osbaldston not hoping for so much favour and fearing more the shame of the Punishment than the loss of Preferment had seasonably withdrawn himself to a Friendâ— House in London where he lay concealed causing a noise to be spread abroad of his going beyond Sea and signifying by a Paper which he left in his Study That he was gone beyond Canterbury But this hapned not till the latter end of the year next following though I have laid it here together because of the coherence which it hath with the former Story To look back therefore where we left The Bishop of Lincoln was no sooner Suspended by the High-Commission that part of the Sentence being executed Iuly 24. but all the Profits of his Preferments in the Church were Sequestred to the Use of the King A Privy Seal is sent to the Sub-Dean and Prebends of the Church of Westminster requiring them to set apart all the Profits certain and uncertain which of right accrued unto that Dean and to pay the same from time to time into the Receipt of the Exchequer And that his Majesties Profits might not suffer any diminution nor the Prebends of that Church be punished for the fault of their Dean a Commission was issued under the Great Seal of England inabling them to Let and Set to Renew Leases keep Courts and make Grants of Offices and finally to act and do all manner of things which concerned the Government of that Church in as ample manner as if the Dean himself had been present at the doing of them The like course also taken in gathering in the Profits of his other Promotions those of the Bishoprick of Lincoln naturally flowing into the Exchequer as in times of Vacancy And as for his Episcopal Iurisdiction that fell as naturally to the Archbishop of the Province as the Temporal Revenue to the King the Archbishop of Canterbury exercising all kind of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction throughout the Diocess of Lincoln not only as Ordinary of that Diocess but as Visitor of all those Colledges which had any dependence on that See Amongst which Colledges as that of Eaton was the chief so there was somewhat in it which was thought to want a present Remedy some Information being given That they had diminished the number of their Fellows from Ten to Seven
private Laird to be a Peer of that Realm made him first Treasurer Depute Chancellor of the Exchequer we should call him in England afterwards Lord Treasurer and Privy Counsellor of that Kingdom This man he wrought himself so far into Lauds good liking when he was Bishop of London only that he looked upon him as the fittest Minister to promote the Service of that Church taking him into his nearest thoughts communicating to him all his Counsels committed to his care the conduct of the whole Affair and giving order to the Archbishops and Bishops of Scotland not to do any thing without his privity and direction But being an Hamiltonian Scot either originally such or brought over at last he treacherously betrayed the cause communicated his Instructions to the opposite Faction from one time to another and conscious of the plot for the next daies tumult withdrew himself to the Earl of Mortons house of Dalkeith to expect the issue And possible it is that by his advice the executing of the Liturgy was put off from Easter at what time the reading of it was designed by his Majesty as appears by the Proclamation of December 20. which confirmed the Book By which improvident delay he gave the Presbyterian Faction the longer time to confederate themselves against it and to possess the people with Fears and Jealousies that by admitting of that book they should lose the Purity of their Religion and be brought back unto the Superstitions and Idolatries of the Church of Rome And by this means the People were inflamed into that Sedition which probably might have been prevented by a quicker prosecution of the Cause at the time appointed there being nothing more destructive of all publick Counsels than to let them take wind amongst the People cooled by delaies and finally blown up like a strong Fortress undermined by some subtle practice And there were some miscarriages also amongst the Prelates of the Kirk in not communicating the design with the Lords of the Council and other great men of the Realm whose Countenance both in Court and Country might have sped the business Canterbury had directed the contrary in his Letters to them when the first draughts of the Liturgy were in preparation and seems not well pleased in another of his to the Archbishop of St. Andrews bearing date September 4. that his advice in it was not followed nor the whole body of the Council made acquainted with their Resolutions or their advice taken or their power called in for their assistance till it was too late It was complained of also by some of the Bishops that they were made strangers to the business who in all Reason ought to have been trusted with the knowledge of that intention which could not otherwise than by their diligence and endeavours amongst their Clergy be brought to a happy execution Nor was there any care taken to adulce the Ministers to gain them to the Cause by fair hopes and promises and thereby to take off the edge of such Leading men as had an influence on the rest as if the work were able to carry on it self or have so much Divine assistance as countervailed the want of all helps from man And which perhaps conduced as much to the destruction of the Service as all the rest a publick intimation must be made in all their Churches on the Sunday before that the Liturgie should be read on the Lords day following of purpose as it were to unite all such as were not well affected to it to disturb the same And there were some miscarriages also which may be looked on as Accessories after the Fact by which the mischief grew remediless and the malady almost incurable For first the Archbishops and Bishops most concerned in it when they saw what hapned consulted by themselves apart and sent up to the King without calling a Council or joyning the Lay Lords with them whereas all had been little enough in a business of that nature and so much opposed by such Factious persons as gathered themselves on purpose together at Edenborough to disturb the Service A particular in which the Lay Lords could not be engaged too far if they had been treated as they ought But having run upon this error they committed a worse in leaving Edenborough to it self and retiring every one to his own Diocess except those of Galloway and Dumblaine For certainly they must needs think as Canterbury writes in one of his Letters to Traquaire that the Adverse party would make use of the present time to put further difficulties upon the work and therefore that they should have been as careful to uphold it the Bishop of Ross especially whose hand had been as much in it as the most But possibly the Bishops might conceive the place to be unsecure and therefore could not stay with safety neither the Lords of the Council nor the Magistrates of the City having taken any course to bring the chief Ringleaders of the Tumult to the Bar of Justice which must needs animate all disaffected and seditious persons and almost break the hearts of those who were well enclined And such indeed was the neglect of the Civil Magistrate that we hear of no man punished scarce so much as questioned for so great a Riot as was not to be expiated but by the death or some proportionable punishment of the chief offenders Which had it been inflicted on some three or four for a terror to others it might have kept that City quiet and the whole Kingdom in obedience for the time to come to the saving of the lives of many thousands some hundreds of thousands at the least in all the three Kingdoms most miserably lost in those long and cruel Wars which ensued upon it But the Lords of Scotland were so far from looking before them that they took care only for the present and instead of executing Justice on the Malefactors suspended the Liturgie it self as the cause of the Tumult conceiving it a safer way to calm the differences than to encrease the storm by a more rigorous and strict proceeding All that they did in order to his Majesties Service or the Churches peace was the calling in of a scandalous Pamphlet entituled A dispute against the English Popish Ceremonies obtruded on the Kirk of Scotland which not being done till October 20 following rather declared their willingness to suffer the said Book to be first dispersed and set abroad then to be called in and suppressed Nor seemed the business to be much taken to heart in the Court of England from whom the Scots expected to receive Directions Nor Order given them for unsheathing the Sword of Justice to cut off such unsound and putrified Members which might have saved the whole Body from a Gangreen the drawing of some Blood in the Body Politick by the punishment of Malefactors being like letting Blood in the Body Natural which in some strong Distempers doth preserve the whole Or granting that the Tumult
Army That the like be done for Mustering and Arraying the Clergy throughout England or otherwise to furnish the King with a proportion of Armed Men for the present Service 6. That Writs be issued out into all Counties for certifying the King what number of Horse and Foot every County could afford him in his Wars with Scotland 7. The like also to the Borders requiring them to come unto the Kings Army well armed Commissions to be made for punishing such as refused 8. That the Sheriffs of the Counties were commanded by Writ to make Provisions of Corn and Victuals for the Kings Army and to cause them to be carried to the place appointed The like Command sent to the Merchants in the Port-Towns of England and Ireland and the Ships of the Subject taken to Transport such Provisions to the place assigned 9. Several Sums of Money raised by Subsidies and Fifteens from the English Subject and Aid of Money given and lent by the Merchant-Strangers toward the Maintenance of the War 10. That the King used to suspend the payment of his Debts for a certain time in regard of the great occasions he had to use Money in the Wars of Scotland Other Memorials were returned to the same effect but these the principal According to these Instructions his Majesty directs his Letters to the Temporal Lords his Writs to the High-Sheriffs his Orders to the Lord-Lieutenants and Deputy-Lieutenants in their several Counties his Proclamations generally to all his Subjects Requiring of them all such Aids and Services in his present Wars as either by Laws oâ— Ancient Customs of the Land they were bound to give him He caused an Order also to be made by the Lords of the Council directed to the two Archbishops Ianuary 29. by which they were Required and Commanded To write their several and â—espâ—ctive Letters to all the Lords Bishops in their several Provinces respectively forthwith to convene before them all the Clergy oâ— Ability in their Diocesses and to incite them by such ways and means as shall be thought best by their Lordships to aid and assist his Majesty with their speedy and liberal Contributions and otherwise for defence of his Royal Person and of this Kingdom And that the same be sent to the Lord Treasurer of England with all diliâ—ence Subscribed by the Lord Keeper Coventry the Bishop of London Lord Treasurer the Earl of Manchester Lord Privy Seal tâ—â— Duke of Lenox the Earl of Lindsey Lord Great Chamberlain tâ—â— Earl of Arundel Earl-Marshal the Earl of Dorset Lord Chamberlain to the Queen the Earl oâ— Pembroke Lord Chamberlain to the King the Earl of Holland Chancellor of Cambridge Cottington Maâ—ter of the Wards Vane Treasurer of the Houshold Cooke and Winâ—â—bank the two Principal Secretaries Which Warrant whether it proceeded from the Kings own motion or was procured by the Archbishop himself to promote the Service is not much material Certain I am that he conformed himself unto it with a chearful diligence and did accordingly direct his Letters to his Suffragan Bishops in this â—ollowing â—orm My very good Lord I Have received an Order from the Lords of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council giving me notice of the great Preparations made by sâ—me of Scotland both of Arms and all other Necessaries for War And that this can have no other end than to invade or annoy this his Majesties Kingdom of England For his Majesty having a good while since most graciously â—ielded to their Demands for securing the Religion by Law established amongst them hath made it appear to the World That it is not Religion but Sedition that stirs in them and fills them with this most irreligious Disobedience which at last breaks forth into a high degree of Treason against their Lawful Sovereign In this Case of so great danger both to the State and Church of England your Lordships I doubt not and your Clergie under you will not only be vigilant against the close Workings of any Pretenders in that kind but very free also to your Power and Proportion of Means leâ—t to the Church to contribute toward the raising of such an Army as by Gods Blâ—ssing and his Majesties Care may secure this Church and Kingdom from all intended Violence And according to the Order sent unto me by the Lords a Copy whereof you shall herewith receive these are to pray your Lordship to give a good Example in your own Person and with all convenient speed to call your Clergie and the abler Schoolmasters as well those which are in Peculiars as others and excite them by your self and such Commissioners as you will answer for to contribute to this Great and Necessary Service in which if they give not a good Example they will be much to blame But you are to call no poor Curates nor Stipendaries but such as in other Legal ways of Payment have been and are by Order of Law bound to pay The Proportion I know not well how to prescribe you but I hope they of your Clergie whom God hath blessed with better Estates than Ordinary will give freely and thereby help the want of Means in others And I hope also your Lordship will so order it as that every man will at the least give after the Proportion of 3 s. 10 d. in the Pound of the valuation of his Living or other Preferment in the Kings Books And this I thought fit to lâ—â— you further know That if any man have double Benefices or a Benefice and a Prebend or the like in divers Diocesses yet your Lordship must call upon them only for such Preferments as they have within your Diocess and leave them to pay for any other which they hold to the Bishop in whose Diocess their Preferments are As for the time your Lordship must use all the diligence you can and send up the Moneys if it be possible by the first of May next And for your Indempnity the Lord Treasurer is to give you such discharge by striking a Tally or Tallies upon your several Payments into the Exchequer as shall be fit to sâ—cure you without your Charge Your Lordship must further be pleased to send up a List of the Names of such as refuse this Service within their Diocess but I hope none will put you to that trouble It is further expected That your Lordship and every other Bishop express by it self and not in the general Sum of his Clergie that which himself gives And of this Service you must not fail So to Gods blessed Protection I leave you and rest Your Lordships very Loving Friend and Brother WILL. CANT Lambeth Ian. ult 1638. On the receiving of these Letters the Clergy were Convented in their several Diocesses encouraged by their several Ordinaries not to be wanting to his Majesty in the Present Service and divers Preparations used beforehand to dispose them to it which wrougâ—t so powerfully and effectually on the greatest part of them those which wish'd well unto the Scots seeming
also with higher promises that he might corrupt his sincere mind yet a fitting occasion was never offered whereby he might insinuate himself into the Lord Archbishop to whom free access was to be impetrated by the Earl and Countess of Arundel as also by Secretary Windebank all whose intercessions he neglected and did shun as it were the Plague the company or Familiarity of Con. He was also sollicited by others of no mean Rank well known to him and yet he continued unmovable And whereas some found a way to help at last by making Windebank the Internuncio betwixt him and them that only serves to make the matter rather worse than better there being a great strangeness grown betwixt him and Windebank not only before Con's coming into the Realm but before Panzani had settled any course of intelligence in the Court of England As for his favours towards those of the Catholick Party and his connivence of their Practices which is next objected as he had good reason for the one so there could be no reason to object the other He had good reason for the one viz. That by shewing favours to the Papists here they might obtain the like favours for such Protestants as lived in the Dominion of Popish Princes Upon which ground King Iames extended many favours to them in his time as opinions as that Writer makes them appears first by the Testimony of the Archbishop of Spalato declaring in the High Commission a little beâ—ore â—iâ—â—oing hence that he acknowledged the Articles of the Church to be true or profitable at the least and none of them to be Heretical It appears secondly by a Tractate of Franciscus a Sancta Clara as he calls himself in which he pâ—tteth such a gloss upon the 39 Articles of the Church of England as rendreth them not inconsistent with the Doctrines of the Church of Rome And iâ— without prejudice to the truth the controversies might have been composed it is most probable that other Protestant Churches would have suâ—d by their Agents to be included in the Peace if not the Church of England had lost nothing by it as being hated by the Calvinists and not loved by the Lutherans Admitting then that such a Reconciliation was endeavoured betwixt the Agents for both Churches Let us next see what our great States-men have discoursed upon that particular upon what terms the Agreement was to have been made and how far they proceeded in it And first the book entituled the Popes Nuncio affirmed to have been written by a Venetian Ambassador at his being in England doth discourse it tâ—us As to a Reconciliation saith he between the Churches of England and Rome there were made some general Propositions and overtures by the Archbishops Agents they assuring that his Grace was very much disposed thereunto and that if it was not accomplisht in his life time it would prove a work of more difficulty after his death that in very truth for the last three years the Archbishop had introduced some Innovations approaching â—ear the Rites and Forms of Rome that the Bishop of Chichester a great Confident of his Grace the Lord Treasurer and eight other Bishops of his Graces party did most passionately desire a Reconciliation with the Church of Rome that they did day by day receed from their Ancient Tenents to accommodate with the Church of Rome that therefore the Pope on his part ought to make some steps to meet them and the Court of Romeâ—â—mit â—â—mit something of its Rigor in Doctrine or otherwise no accord would be The composition on both sides in so good a forwardness before Panzam leâ—t the Kingdom that the Archbishop and and Bishop of Chichester had often said that there were but two sorts of People likely to impede and hinder the Reconciliation to wit the Puritans amongst the Protestants and the Iesuites amongst the Catholicks Let us next see the judgement and Relation of another Author in a gloss or Comment on the Former intituled the English Pope Printed at London in the same year 1643. And he will tells us that after Con had undertook the managing of the affairs matters began to grow toward some agreement The King required saith he such a dispensation from the then Pope as that his Catholick Subjects might resort to the Protestant Churches and to take the oaths of Supremacy and Fidelity and that the Popes Jurisdiction here should be declared to be but of humane Right And so far had the Pope consented that whatsoever did concern the King therein should have been really performed so far forth as other Catholick Princes usually enjoy and expect as their due and so far as the Bishops were to be Independent both from King and Pope there was no fear of breach on the Popes part So that upon the point the Pope was to content himself amongst us in England with a Priority instead of a Superiority over other Bishops and with a Primacy in stead of a Supremacy in thâ—se parts of Christendom which I conceive no man of Learning and Sobriety would have grudged to grant him It was also condescended to in the name of the Pope that marriage might be permitted to Priests that the Communion might be Administred sub utraque specie and that the Liturgy might be officiated in the English tongue And though the Author adds not long after that it was to be suspected That so far as the inferiour Clergy and the people were concerned the after-performance was to be leâ—t to the Popes Discretion yet this was but his own suspicion without ground at all And to obtain a Reconciliation upon these Advantages the Archbishop had all the Reason in the world to do as he did in ordering the Lords Table to be placed where the Altar stood and making the accustomed Reverence in all approaches towards it and accesses to it in beautifying and adorning Churches and celebrating the Divine Service with all due Solemnities in taking care that all offensive and exasperating passages should be expunged out of such Books as were brought to the Press and for reducing the extravagancy of some opinions to an evener temper His Majesty had the like Reason also for tolerating Lawful Recreations on the Sundays and Holy-days The rigorous Restraint whereof made some Papists think those most especially of the vulgar sort whom it most concerned that all honest Pastime were incompetible with our Religion And if he approved Auricular Confession and shewed himself willing to introduce it into the use of the Church as both our Authors say he did it is no more then what the Liturgy Commends to the care of the Penitent though we find not the word Auricular in it or what the Canons have provided for in the point of security for such as shall be willing to confess themselves But whereas we are told by one of our Authors that the King should say he would use force to make it be received were it not for fear of Sedition
Observation of all Rites and Ceremonies then established or from thenceforth to be established by the Kings Authority saying that he would prosecute all Repugners of them to the very Blood The Rest of the Articles relating unto Civil matters I omit of purpose as neither being pertinent or proper to my Present History observing only in this place that for the better carrying on of their charge against him they had gained two points more necessary to be craved than fit to be granted The first was which they carried in the House of Lords by a Major Vote that no Bishop should be of that Committee for the Preparatory Examinations in the present case under colour that they were excluded from acting in it by some Ancient Canons as in Causa sangiums or the cause of blood concerning which a brief discourse entituled De jure Paritatis Episcoporum was presented to his Grace of Canterbury and some other Bishops for asserting all their Rights of Peerage and this of being of that Committe amongst the rest which either by Law or Ancient Custom did belong unto them The second was that the Lords of the Council should be examined upon Oath for anything which was said or done by the Earl of Strafford at the Council Table Which being yielded by the King though tending visibly to the Derogation of his Power and the discouragement of all such as either were or should be of his Privy Council the Archbishop was accordingly Examined on December 4th being the next day after the said Condescention Nor was it long before the like Oath was required and obtained by them against the Archbishop himself being the next man whom the Scots and their Confederates in both houses had an eye upon He knew there was some danger coming toward him by the said combination but thought not at the first it would reach so far as to touch his Life The most he looked for as he told the Author of these Collections on the second or third day after the beginning of the Parliament was to be sequestred from his Majesties Councils and confin'd to his Diocess to which he profest himself as willing as any of his Enemies were desirous of it And as it seems his Enemies at the first had no further thoughts For it appeareth by a passage in his Diary that on Thursday Decemb. 24th four Earls of Great Power in the Upper House declared unto a Parliament man that they were resolved to Sequester him only from the Kings Council and deprive him of the Archiepiscopal dignity and no more then so which though it were too much and savoured of too little Justice to be so resolved before any particular charge was brought against him yet I consider it as an Argument of their first intentions that they aimed not at his Life but at his removal In Order whereunto it was thought expedient that his Majesty should be moved to release the Bishop of Lincoln from his long imprisonment and to restore him to his place in the house of â—â—â—rs knowing full well how Active an Instrument they were sure to find him by reason of some former grudges not only against the Archbishop but the Earl of Stafford Which motion being made and granted he was conducted into the Abby Church by six of the Bishops and there officiated it being a day of Humiliation as Dean of Westminster more honoured at the first by the Lords and Commons then ever any of his Order his person looked upon as Sacred his words deemed as Oracles And be contiâ—â—â—d in tâ—is height tâ—ll having served their turn against the Archâ—isâ—op and the Lord Lieutenant he began sensibly to decline and grew at last to be generally the most hated man of all the Hierarchy Orders are also made by the House of Commons for releasing such as were Imprisoned by the Star-Chamber Council-Table or High-Commission and more particularly for the remanding of Bastwick Prynne and Burton from the several Islands to which they were before confined Upon which general Goal-delivery Burton and Prynne had so contrived it as to come together met on their way as far as Brainford by some thousands of the Puritan Faction out of London and South-wark and by them silently conducted with Bays and Rosemary in their hands to their several Houses to the intolerable affront of the Courts of Justice and his Majesties Government his Majestie conniving at the insolency or not daring to punish it Not well reposed after the toil and trouble of so long a journey Prynne joyns himself with Bagshaw before remembred and both together are admitted to a private conference with the Bishop of Lincoln in the beginning of December which boded no great good to the Church or State or any who had formerly appeared in defence of either These preparations being made the Project was carried on a main For on the 16 â—h of that month the Canons made in the late Convocation were condemned in the House of Commons as being against the Kings Prerogative the Fundamental Laws of the Realm the Liberty and Property of the Subject and containing divers other things tending to Sedition and of dangerous Consequence A Vote was also past for making Canterbury the Principal Author of the said Canons for a Committee to be nominated to enquire into all his former Actions and for preparing a Bill against all those of the said Convocation by whom these Canons were subscribed but the sorrows of that day did not end there neither For on the same a charge was laid against him in the house of Peers by the Scots Commissioners that being the day in which they had accused the Earl of Strafford for doing ill offices and being an Incendiary between the Nations And in pursuance of the plot on Fryday the 18 â—h of the same Moneth he was Impeacht by Hollis in the name of all the Commons of England of no less then Treason and thereupon without any particular charge against him he was committed to the custody of the Gentleman Usher leave only being granted him to repair to his house at Lambeth for the Collecting of such Papers as were necessary for his Justification At Maxwells house for so was the Usher of the Black-Rod called he remained ten weeks before so much as any General charge against him was brought up to the Lords During which time he gained so much on the good opinion of the Gentle-woman of the House that she reported him to some of her Gossips to be one of the goodest mâ—n and most Pious Souls but with all one of the sillest fellows to hold talk with a Lady that ever she met with in all her life On the 26 â—h of February This charge was brought up to the Lords â—y â—ane the younger consisting of fourteen General Articles which Generals he craved time to prove in particular and thereupon a Vote was passed for transmitting the Prisoner to the Tower with leave however to remain at Maxwell's till the Munday following Which day being
second Chaplain of long time to the Archbishop of Canterbury This last had Licenced two of Pocklington's Books the one being a Sermon Preached at a Visitation before the Bishop of Lincoln the other a Discourse of Altars and the most proper situation of the Lords Table in which were many Passages against that Bishop To pacifie which oâ—fended Deity Pocklington must be sacrificed on his own Altar deprived of all his Preferments at the present and made uncapable of receiving others for the time to come Bray being enjoined to Preach a Recantation-Sermon in St. Margarets Church and 〈◊〉 to retract one and thirty Articles which the Bishop had collected out of those Books Heylyn had been Petitioned against by Pryâ—â—â— at his first coming home as a subservient Instrument under the Archbishop himself of all his Sufferings and was kept four days in Examination but finally dismiss'd without shame or censure Cosens informed against by Smart who had been deprived for his factious Inconformity of some good Preferments in the Bishopâ—ick and Church of Durham was under a great Storm at first but being one that would not shrink in the wetting he stood stoutly to it and in conclusion was dismissed without any other loss but of Time and Charges The like happened also unto Heywood Vicar of St. Giles's in the Fields Squire of St. Leonard's in Shoreditch and Finch of Christchurch The Articles against which four and some others more being for the most part of the same nature and effect as namely Railing in the Communion-Table Adoration toward it Calling up the Parishioners to the Rail to receive the Sacrament Reading the Second Service at the Table so placed Preaching in Surplices and Hoods Administring the Sacrament in Copes Beautifying and Adorning Churches with Painted Glass and others of the like condition which either were to be hâ—ld for Crimes in the Clergy generally or else accounted none in them And though the Informations were so slight and inconsiderable that none of those who were impeach'd could legally be made obnoxious to any Punishment and that the credit of the Informers not proved by Oath which the Commons had no power to give was the chief ground oâ— their Procâ—edings yet that these poor men might appear more monstrous in the eye of the World the Articles against Pocklington Cosens Heywood Squâ—â—e Finch c. were ordered to be put in Print without care taken whether they were true or not They knew full well that when dirt was once thrown upon any man some of it must needs stick upon him or about his Garments how careful soever he might be to wipe it of This course they also held with the Bishop of Ely impeaching him of many pretended Misdemeanours in the See of Norwich viz. That he deprived or banished within the space of two years fifty godly learned painful Ministers His placing the Communion Table Altar-wise and causing a Rail to be set before it The practicing of Superstition in his own Person his bowing toward it Consecrating the Bread and Wine at the West side of the Table with his back toward the People and elevating the same above his head that the People might see it which last Points as they made most noise so they found least proof causing the Seats in all places to be so contrived that the people must of necessity kneel toward the East according to the pious Custom of the Primitive Times Turning all afternoons Sermons into Catechisings by Question and Answer according to the Kings Instructions Appointing no Prayer to be used by Preachers before their Sermons but that prescribed by the Canon and that the Bells should give no other warning for Sermons than they did for Prayers that the People might resort unto the Church at all times alike as by the Laws and Statutes of the Realm they were bound to do In consideratiâ—â— whereof it was resolved upon the Question to be the Opinion oâ— that House That the said Bishop was unfit to hold or 〈◊〉 Office or Divinity in the Church or Commonwealth and that a Message should be sent to the Lords desiring them to joyn with tâ—â— Commons in Petitioning his Majesty to remove him botâ— from his Person and Service By which this wise Prelate understood that his neerness to the Kings Person was his greatest Crime and thereupon in imitation of the Castor having first obtained his Majesties consent thereto he discontinued that attendance which might occasion more danger to him than it brought in profit Which Prosecutions of the Clergy but this last especially have brought me unto the year 1641. Which brought more trouble to the Country Clergy than the last year had done to those which lived in London The Committee Authorised by the House of Commons for Affairs of Religion finding their work begin to fail them and that Informations came not up so last as had been expected dispatched Instructions 〈◊〉 all parts of the Kingdom for an enquiry to be made into the 〈◊〉 and Aâ—tions of the Clergy in their several Parishes And that the Inquisition might be made with the greater diligence not only 〈◊〉 as were in Authority but every ingenious Person was required to 〈◊〉 Active in improving the present opportunity by giving true Inâ—â—â—mation of all the Parishes in their several Counties I know it was pretended by the said Instructions that enquiry should be made into Pluralities and defect of maintenance as well as into scandalous and â—â—preaching Ministers yet the main business was to bring the Clergy on the Stage and find some matter of complaint against them Quite contrary in this to the Emperour Trajan who in the midst of the Persecutions which he had raised against the Church commanded by his Imperial Edict That no strict Inquisition should be made of those who did profess the Faith of Christ but only that they should be punished if accidentally or by the voice of Common Fame they should be offered unto judgment What mischief hereupon ensued in animating the Parishioners against their Minister seducing Servants to accuse and betray their Masters alienating the affections of the Clergy from one another and by that means subjecting them to that dissipation which soon after followed shall be shewn hereafter so far forth as it coms within the compass of this present History But whilâ— these clouds were gathering together in the Country â—s great a tempest seemed to be brewing in the City which threatned no less danger to the Church it self than those proceedings to the Clergy For in the beginning of this year we find some Divines of name and note convened in the Dean of Westminsters Lodgings to consult about matters of the Church the occasion this The Convocation was then sitting but not impowered by his Majesties Commission to act in any thing of concernment It was therefore ordered by the Peers March 21. that a Committee of ten Earls ten Bishops and ten Barons should be nominated in the name of the rest for settling the aâ—fairs
CYPRIANUS ANGLICUS OR THE HISTORY OF THE Life and Death OF The most Reverend and Renowned PRELATE WILLIAM By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all ENGLAND and Metropolitan Chancellor of the Universities of Oxon. and Dublin and one of the Lords of the Privy Council to His late most SACRED MAJESTY King CHARLES the First Second MONARCH of Great Britain CONTAINING ALSO The Ecclesiastical History of the Three Kingdoms of ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND from His first rising till His Death By P. Heylyn D. D. and Chaplain to Charles the first and Charles the second Monarchs of Great Britain ECCLUS 44. VERS 1 3. 1. Let us now praise Famous Men and our Fathers that begat Vs. 3. Such as did bear Rule in their Kingdoms Men Renowned for their Power giving Counsel by their Vnderstanding and Declaring Prophesies LONDON Printed for A. Seile MDCLXVIII To the Honourable Sir IOHN ROBINSON Kt. and Baronet HIS MAJESTIES Lieutenant of the Tower of London SIR YOV have here before you the History of an Eminent Prelate and Patriot a Person who lived the honour and died a Martyr of the English Church and State for it was his sad Fate to be crusht betwixt Popery and Schism and having against both defended the Protestant Cause with his Pen he after chearfully proceeded to Seal that Faith with his Bloud Together with the Story of this Great Man you have likewise that of the Age he lived in especially so far as concerned the Church wherein you will find recorded many notable Agitations and Contrivances which it were pity should be lost in silence and pass away unregarded These Considerations towards a Gentleman of your worth Curiosity and loyalty are warrant enough to justifie me in this Dedication And yet I must not conceal that it belongs to you by another right that is to say the Care of recommending this VVork to the Publick was committed to a Gentleman who himself had presented it to your hand if God had not taken him away just upon the point of putting his purpose in execution So that it seems in me as well matter of Conscience as of Respect to deliver it wholly up to your Patronage and Protection since in exposing it to the world I do but perform the will of my dead Father and in addressing it to your self together with my own I also gratifie that of my deceased Friend The value of the VVork it self I do not pretend to judge of my duty and interest for the Author forbids it but for the Industry Integrity and good meaning of the Historian I dare become answerable And in truth I hope well of the rest without which I should not have made bold with Sir John Robinson's Name in the Front of it who being so nearly related both in bloud and affection to that Incomparable and Zealous Minister of God and his Prince cannot besides a Natural but upon an Honourable Impression concern himself in the glories or blemishes of this Character defective in nothing but that it could not be as ample as his worth And now having discharged my trust and duty as I could do no less so I have little more to add for my self but that I am SIR Your most humble and obedient Servant HENRY HEYLYN A Necessary INTRODUCTION To the following HISTORY BEFORE we come unto the History of this Famous Prelate it will not be amiss to see upon what Principles and Positions the Reformation of this Church did first proceed that so we may the better Judge of those Innovations which afterwards were thrust upon her and those Endeavours which were used in the latter times to bring her back again to her first Condition 1. Know therefore that King Henry viii having obtained of the Bishops and Clergie in their Convocation Anno 1530. to be acknowledged the Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England did about three years after in the 26 of his Reign confirm the said Supremacy to Himself his Heirs and Successors with all the Priviledges and Preheminencies thereunto belonging by Act of Parliament And having procured the said Bishops and Clergie in another of their Convocations held in the year 1532. to promise in verbo Sacerdotii not to assemble from thenceforth in any Convocation or Synodical Meeting but as they should be called by his Majesties Writ nor to make any Canons or Constitutions Synodal or Provincial without his Leave and Licence thereunto obtained nor finally to put the same in Execution till they were Ratified and Confirmed under the Great Seal of England Procured also an Act of Parliament to bind the Clergie to their promise Which Act called commonly The Act of the Submission of the Clergie doth bear this name in Poulton's Abridgment viz. That the Clergie in their Convocation should Enact no Constitutions without the Kings assent Anno 25. Henry viii c. 19. Which Grounds so laid he caused this Question to be debated in both Universities and all the Famous Monasteries of the Kingdom viz. An aliquid auâ—horitatis in hoc Regno Angliae Pontifici Romano de jure competat plusquam alii cuicumque Episcopo extero Which Question being concluded in the Negative and that Conclusion ratified and confirmed in the Convocation Anno 1534. there past an Act of Parliament about two years after Intituled An Act Extinguishing the Authority of the Bishops of Rome In which there was an Oath prescribed for abjuring the Popes Authority within this Realm The refusing whereof was made High-Treason Anno 28. H. viii c. 10. 2. But this Exclusion of the Pope as it did no way prejudice the Clergy in their power of making Canons Constitutions and other Synodical Acts but only brought them to a dependance upon the King for the better ordering of the same so neither did it create any diminution of the Power and Priviledges of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops in the free exercise of that Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which anciently belonged to them For in the Act of Submission before-mentioned there passed a Clause that all former Constitutions Synodal or Provincial which were not contrary to the Word of God the Kings Prerogative Royal or the Laws and Statutes of this Realm should remain in force until they were reviewed and fitted for the use of the Church by 32 Commissioners to be nominated by the King for that end and purpose Which re-view being never made in the time of that King nor any thing done in it by K. Edw. vi though he had an Act of Parliament to the same effect the said Old Canons and Constitutions remained in force as before they were By means whereof all causes Testamentary Matrimonial and Suits for Tythes all matters of Incontinency and other notorious Crimes which gave publick Scandal all wilful absence from Divine Service Irreverence and other Misdemeanours in the Church not punishable by the Laws of the Land were still reserved unto the Ecclesiastical Courts Those Ancient Canons and Constitutions remaining also for the perpetual standing Rule
by which the proceedings in those Courts were to be regulated and directed so as it doth appear most clearly that it was not the purpose of that King either to diminish the Authority or to interrupt the Succession of Bishops which had continued in this Church from the first Plantation of the Gospel to that very time but only to discharge them from depending on the Popes of Rome or owing any thing at all to their Bulls and Faculties which had been so chargeable to themselves and exhausted so great a part of the Treasure of the Kingdom from one year to another 3. Upon this ground he past an Act of Parliament in the 25. year of his Reign for the Electing and Consecrating of Archbishops and Bishops In which it was Enacted that on the Vacancy of every Bishoprick within his Realm his Majesty should issue out his Writ of Conge d' eslire to the Dean and Chapter of the Church so Vacant thereby enabling them to proceed to the Election of another Bishop that the Election being returned by the Dean and Chapter and ratified by the Royal Assent his Majesty should issue out his Writ to the Metropolitan of the Province to proceed unto the Confirmation of the Party Elected and that if the Party so Confirmed had not before been Consecrated Bishop of some other Church that then the Metropolitan taking to himself two other Bishops at the least should proceed unto the Consecration in such form and manner as was then practised by the Church so that as to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Consecration there was no alteration made at all Those which were Consecrated after the passing of this Statute were generally acknowledged for true and lawful Bishops by the Papists themselves or otherwise Dr. Thomas Thurlby Bishop of Westminster had never been admitted to have been one of those who assisted at the Consecrating of Cardinal Pool when he was made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury on the death of Cranmer All which recited Statutes with every thing depending on them being abrogated by Act of Parliament in the time of Queen Mary were revived in the first Year of Queen Elizabeth and so still continue But so it was not with another alteration made in the form of exercising their jurisdiction by King Edw. 6. In the first Parliament of whose Reign it was enacted that all process out of the Ecclesiastical Courts should from thence forth be issued in the Kings Name only and under the Kings Seal of Arms contrary to the usage of the former times Which Statute being repealed by Queen Mary and not revived by Queen Elizabeth the Bishops and their subordinate Ministers have ever since exercised all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in their own Names and under the distinct Seals of their several Offices 4. In Doctrinals and forms of Worship there was no alteration made in the Reign of K. Hen. 8. though there were many preparations and previous dispositions to it the edge of Ecclesiastical Affairs being somewhat blunted and the people indulged a greater Liberty in consulting with the Holy Scriptures and reading many Books of Evangelical Piety then they had been formerly which having left the way more open to Arch-Bishop Cranmer and divers other learned and Religious Prelates in K. Edwards time seconded by the Lord Protector and other great ones of the Court who had their ends apart by themselves they proceeded carefully and vigorously to a Reformation In the managing of which great business they took the Scripture for their ground according to the general explication of the ancient Fathers the practise of the Primitive times for their Rule and Pattern as it was expressed to them in approved Authors No regard had to Luther or Calvin in the procedure of their work but only to the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles Christ Iesus being the Corner-stone of that excellent Structure Melancthons coming was expected Regiis Literis in Angliam vocatus as he affirms in an Epistle to Camerarius but he came not over And Calvin made an offer of his service to Arch-Bishop Cranmer Si quis mei usus esset if any use might be made of him to promote the work but the Arch-Bishop knew the man and refused the other so that it cannot be affirmed that the Reformation of this Church was either Lutheran or Calvinian in its first original And yet it cannot be denied but that the first Reformers of it did look with more respectful eyes upon the Doctrinals Government and Forms of Worship in the Lutheran Churches then upon those of Calvins platform because the Lutherans in their Doctrines Government and Forms of Worship approach't more near the Primitive Patterns than the other did and working according to this rule they retain'd many of those ancient Rites and Ceremonies which had been practised and almost all the Holy Dayes or Annual Feasts which had been generally observed in the Church of Rome Nothing that was Apostolick or accounted Primitive did fare the worse for being Popish I mean for having been made use of in times of Popery it being none of their designs to create a new Church but reform the old Such Superstitions and Corruptions as had been contracted in that Church by long tract of time being pared away that which was good and commendable did remain as formerly It was not their intent to dig up a foundation of such precious stones because some superstructures of Straw and Stubble had been raised upon it A moderation much applauded by King Iames in the Conference at Hampton-Court whose golden Aphorisme it was That no Church ought further to separate it self from the Church of Rome either in Doctrine or Ceremony then she had departed from her self when she was in her flourishing and best estate p. 77. 5. The succession of Bishops continued as it did before but fitted in the form and manner of their Consecrations according to the Rules laid down with the fourth Council of Carthage celebrated Anno 407. or thereabouts and generally received in all the Provinces of the Western Church as appears by the Book of Consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops c. Approved first by the Book of Articles and confirmed in Parliament Anno 5.6 Edw. VI. as afterwards justified by the Articles of Religion agreed upon in Convocation in Queen Elizabeths time Anno 1562. And by an Act of Parliament in the 8th Year of her Reign accounted of as part of our Publick Liturgies And by that book it will appear that Bishops were then looked upon as a distinct Order of themselves and not as a different degree only amongst the rest of the Presbyters For in the Preface to that Book it is said expresly That it is evident to all men diligently reading Holy Scripture and Ancient Authors that from the Apostles time there have been these Orders of Ministers in the Church of Christ Bishops Priests and Deacons Not long after which it followeth thus viz. And therefore to the intent these Orders should be continued
pertaining to true Religion c. Neither is it to be thought that there is any certain times or definite number of dayes prescribed in Holy Scripture but the appointment both of the time and also of the number of dayes is left by the Authority of Gods Word unto the Liberty of Christs Church to be determined and assigned orderly in every Countrey by the discretion of the Rulers and Ministers thereof as they shall judge most expedient to the setting forth of Gods Glory and the edification of their people Now for the number and particularities of those dayes which were required to be kept holy to the Lord they are thus specified and enumerated in the Common-Prayer-Book confirmed by Parliament in that year These to be kept Holy Dayes and no other that is to say all Sundayes in the Year the Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord and Saviour the Feast of the Epiphany c. Which specification and enumeration is made also in the aforesaid Statute 17. As for the observation of those dayes there was no difference made between them by the first Reformers the same Divine Offices prescribed for both the diligent attendance of the people required in both the penalties upon such as wilfully and frequently did absent themselves were the same for both and finally the works of necessary labour no more restrained upon the one then upon the other For first it is declared in the foresaid Homily that Christian People are not tyed so streightly to observe and keep the other Ceremonies of the Sabbath day as were the Iews as touching the forbearing of the work and labour in time of great necessity c. Secondly and more particularly in the Statute before-mentioned we finde it thus viz. That it shall be lawful for every Husband-man Fisher-man and to all and every other person or persons of what Estate Degree or Condition he or they be upon the Holy Dayes aforesaid of which the Lords Day is there reckoned for one in Harvest or at any other times in the Year when necessity shall so require to Labour Ride Fish or Work any kinde of Work at their own will and pleasure Thirdly It is ordered in the Injunctions of the said King Edw. vi that it shall be lawful for the people in time of Harvest to labour upon Holy and Festival Dayes and save that thing which God hath sent and that scrupulosity to abstain from working on those dayes doth grievously offend God Fourthly We finde the like in the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth published with the advice of her Council Anno 1559. Being the first year of her Reign viz. That all persons Vicars Curates shall teach and declare unto their Parishioners that they may with a safe and quiet conscience after Common-Prayer in the time of Harvest labour upon the Holy and Festival Dayes and save that thing which God hath sent And if for any scrupulosity or grudge of Conscience men shall superstitiously abstain from working on those dayes that then they should grievously offend and displease God And as for the practice of the Court it was ordered by the said King Edward That the Lords of the Council should upon Sunday attend the publick affairs of the Realm and dispatch answers to Letters for the good order of the State and make full dispatches of all things concluded in the Week before Provided that they be present at Common-Prayers and that on every Sunday night the Kings Secretary should deliver him a memorial of such things as were to be debated in the Privy Council the week ensuing Which course of meeting in the Council on Sunday in the afternoon hath been continued in the Court from the time of the said King Edward the vi to the death of King Charles without dislike or interruption If then the Country people in some times and cases were permitted to employ themselves in bodily labour on the Sundayes and other Holy Dayes and if the Lords of the Council did meet together on those dayes to consult about affairs of State as we see they did there is no question to be made but that all man-like exercises all lawful Recreations and honest Pastimes were allowed of also 18. As for the duties of the people in those times and places it was expected at their hands that due and lowly reverence should be made at their first entrance into the Church the place on which they stood being by Consecration made Holy Ground and the business which they came about being holy business For this there was no Rule nor Rubrick made by the first Reformers and it was not necessary that there should the practice of Gods people in that kinde being so universal Vi Catholicae consuetudinis by vertue of a general and continual usage that there was no need of any Canon to enjoyn them to it Nothing more frequent in the Writings of the ancient Fathers then Adoration toward the East which drew the Primitive Christians into some suspicion of being Worshippers of the Sun Inde suspicio quod innotuerit nos versus orientis regionem praecari as Tertullian hath it And though this pious custom began to be disused and was almost discontinued yet there remains some footsteps of it to this very day For first It was observed by the Knights of the most noble Order of the Garter who I am sure hate nothing more then Superstitious Vanities at their approaches toward the Altar in all the Solemnities of that Order Secondly In the Offerings or Oblations made by the Vice-Chancellor the Proctors and all Proceeders in the Arts and Faculties at the Act at Oxon. And thirdly By most Countrey Women who in the time of my first remembrance and a long time after made their obeysance toward the East before they betook themselves to their Seats though it was then taken or mistaken rather for a Courtesie made unto the Minister revived more generally in these latter times especially amongst the Clergy by the Learned and Reverend Bishop Andrews a man as much verst in Primitive Antiquity and as abhorrent from any thing which was meerly Popish as the greatest Precisian in the Pack Which point I finde exceedingly well applyed and prest in the Speech made by this Arch-Bishop at the Censure of Dr. Bastwick Mr. Burton on Iune 26. 1637. Who speaking to such of the Lords as were Knights of the Garter he accosts them thus And you saith he my Honourable Lords of the Garter in your great solemnities you do reverence and to Almighty God I doubt not but yet it is versus Altare toward the Altar c. And this your reverence you do when you enter the Chappel and when you approach nearer to offer c. And Idolatry it is not to worship God toward his Holy Table for if it had been Idolatry I presume Queen Elizabeth and King Iames would not have practised it no not in this great Solemnity And being not Idolatry but true Divine Worship you will I hope give a poor Priest
1571. by the power and prevalency of some of the Genevian Faction the Articles were reprinted and this Clause left out But the times bettering and the Governors of the Church taking just notice of the danger which lay lurking under that omission there was care taken that the said clause should be restored unto its place in all following impressions of that Book as it hath ever since continued Nor was this part of the Article a matter of speculation only and not reducible to practice or if reducible to practice not fit to be enforced upon such as gain-said the same For in the 34. Article it is thus declared That whosoever through his private judgement willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant unto the word of God and be ordained and approved by common Authority ought to be rebuked openly that others may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common order of the Church and hurteth the the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of the weak Brethren More power then this as the See of Rome did never challenge so less then this was not reserved unto it self by the Church of England And as for the Authority of the Church in controversies of Faith the very Articles by which they declared that power seconded by the rest of the points which are there determined is a sufficient Argument that they used and exercised that power which was there declared And because some objection had been made both by the Papists and those of the Genevian party that a Papal power was granted as at first to King Henry viii under the name of Supream Head so afterwards to Queen Elizabeth and her Successors it was thought expedient by the Church to stop that clamour at the first and thereupon it was declared in the Convocation of the Prelates and Clergy who make the representative Body of the Church of England in the 37. Article of the year 1562. That whereas they had attributed to the Queens Majesty the chief Government of all the Estates of this Realm whether Ecclesiastical or Civil in all cases they did not give unto their Princes the ministring either of Gods Word or of the Sacraments but that only Prerogative which was known to have been given alwayes to all godly Princes in Holy Scripture by God himself that is to say that they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers Less Power then this as good Subjects could not give unto their King so more then this hath there not been exercised or desired by the Kings of England Such power as was by God vouchsafed to the godly Kings and Princes in Holy Scripture may serve abundantly to satisfie even the unlimited desires of the mightiest Monarch were they as boundless as the Popes 22. Next to the point of the Supremacy esteemed the Principal Article of Religion in the Church of Rome primus praecipuus Romanensis fidei Articulus as is affirmed in the History of the Council of Trent the most material differences betwixt them and us relate to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and the natural efficacy of good works in which the differences betwixt them and the first Reformers seem to be at the greatest though even in those they came as near to them as might stand with Piety The Sacrament of the Lords Supper they called the Sacrament of the Altar as appears plainly by the Statute 1 Edward vi entituled An Act against such as speak unreverently against the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ commonly called the Sacrament of the ALTAR For which consult the Body of the Act it self Or secondly by Bishop Ridley one of the chief Compilers of the Common-Prayer-Book who doth not only call it the Sacrament of the Altar affirming thus that in the Sacrament of the Altar is the natural Body and Blood of Christ c. But in his Reply to an Argument of the Bishop of Lincoln's taken out of St. Cyril he doth resolve it thus viz. The word Altar in the Scripture signifieth as well the Altar whereon the Jews were wont to oder their Burnt Sacrifice as the Table of the Lords Supper and that St. Cyril meaneth by this word Altar not the Iewish Altar but the Table of the Lord c. Acts and Mon. part 3. p. 492. and 497. Thirdly By Bishop Latimer his fellow Martyr who plainly grants That the Lords Table may be called an Altar and that the Doctors called it so in many places though there be no propitiatory Sacrifice but only Christ part 2. p. 85. Fourthly By the several affirmations of Iohn Lambert and Iohn Philpot two Learned and Religious men whereof the one suffered death for Religion under Henry viii the other in the fiery time of Queen Mary This Sacrament being called by both the Sacrament of the Altar in their several times for which consult the Acts and Monuments commonly called the Book of Martyrs And that this Sacrament might the longer preserve that name and the Lords Supper be administred with the more solemnity it was ordained in the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth no Altar should be taken down but by the over-sight of the Curate of the Church and the Church-Wardens or one of them at least and that the Holy Table in every Church be decently made and set up in the place where the Altar stood and there commonly covered as thereto belongeth It is besides declared in the Book of Orders Anno 1561. published about two years after the said Injunction That in the place where the Steps were the Communion Table should stand and that there shall be fixed on the Wall over the Communion Board the Tables of Gods Precepts imprinted for the same purpose The like occurs in the Advertisements published by the Metropolitan and others the High Commissioners 1565. In which it is ordered That the Parish shall provide a decent Table standing on a frame for the Communion Table which they shall decently cover with a Carpet of Silk or other decent covering and with a white Linâ—en Cloath in the time of the administration and shall set the Ten Commandments upon the East-Wall over the said Table All which being laid together amounts to this that the Communion-Table was to stand above the steps and under the Commandments therefore all along the Wall on which the Ten Commandments were appointed to be placed which was directly where the Altar had stood before Now that the Holy Table in what posture soever it be plac't should not be thought unuseful at all other times but only at the time of the Ministration it was appointed by the Church in its first Reformation that the Communion-Service commonly called the Second Service upon all Sundayes and Holy-dayes should be read only at the Holy Table For first in the last
understood no otherwise then as it is before laid down appears by this Gloss of Bishop Hooper on that Text of St. Iohn viz. No man cometh to me except my Father draw him chap. 6.44 Many saith he understand the words in a wrong sense as if God required no more in a reasonable man than in a dead post and marke not the words which follow Every man that heareth and learneth of my Father cometh to me God draweth with his word and the Holy Ghost but mans duty is to hear and learn that is to say to receive the grace offered consent to the promise and not repugn the God that calleth The like occurs in Bishop Latimers Sermon on the Sunday commonly called Septuagesima in which we find That seeing the preaching of the Gospel is universal it appeareth that God would have all mankinde saved and that the fault is not in him if they be damned for it is written thus Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri God would have all men be saved but we are so wicked of our selves that we refuse the same and will not take notice when it is offered to us It cannot be denyed but that the same Doctrine is maintained by the Arminians as they call them and that it is the very same with that of the Church of Rome as appears by the Council of Trent cap. De fructu justificationis merito bonorum operum Can. 3.4 But then it must be granted also that it is the Doctrine of the Melanctonian Divines or Moderate Lutherans as was confessed by Andreas vega one of the chief sticklers in the Council of Trent who on the agitating of the point did confess ingenuously that there was no difference betwixt the Lutherans and that Church touching that particular And then it must be granted also that it was the Doctrine of St. Augustine according to that divine saying of his Sine gratia Dei praeveniente ut volimus subsequente ne frustra volimus ad pietatis opera nil valemus so that if the Church of England must be Arminian and the Arminians must be Papist because they agree together in this particular the Melanctonian Divines among the Protestants yea and St. Augustine himself must be Papist also 37. Such being the freedom of the will in laying or not laying hold upon those means which are offered by Almighty God for our Salvation 〈◊〉 cannot be denyed but that there is a freedom also of the will in standing unto Grace received or departing from it Certain I am that it is so resolved by the Church of England in the 16th Article for Confession in which it is declared That after we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from Grace given and fall into sin and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives which is the very same with that of the 14th Article in King Edward's Book of the year 1557. where plainly the Church teacheth a possibility of falling or departing from the grace of the Holy Ghost which is given unto us and that our rising again and the amending of our lives upon such a rising is a matter of contingency only and no way necessary on Gods part to assure us of Conform to which we finde Bishop Hooper thus discoursing in the said Preface to his exposition of the Ten Commandments The cause of Rejection or Damnation saith he is sin in man which will not hear neither receive the promise of the Gospel or else after he hath received it by accustomed doing of ill falleth either into a contempt of the Gospel and will not study to live thereafter or else hateth the Gospel because it condemneth his ungodly life And we finde Bishop Latimer discoursing thus in his eighth Sermon in Lincolnshire Those persons saith he that be not come yet to Christ or if they were come to Christ be fallen again from him and so lost their Iustification as there be many of us when we fall willingly into sin against Conscience we lose the favour of God our Salvation and finally the Holy Ghost And before c. 6. thus But you will say saith he How shall I know that I am in the Book of Life How shall I try my self to be the Elect of God to everlasting life I answer First We may know that we may be one time in the Book and another time come out again as it appeareth by David who was written in the Book of Life but when he sinned he at that time was out of the Book of the favour of God until he repented and was sorry for his faults so that we may be in the Book one time and afterwards when we forget God and his Word and do wickedly we come out of the Book that is out of Christ who is the Book Which makes the point so clear and evident on the Churches part that when it was moved by Doctor Reynolds at Hampton-Court that the words Nec tolaliter nec finaliter might be added into the Clause of that Article the motion was generally rejected and the Article left standing in the same terms in which it then stood By which we may the better judge of some strange expressions amongst the most Rigid sort of the Contra-Remonstrants especially of that of Roger Dontelock by whom it is affirmed that if it were possible for any one man to commit all the sins over again which have been acted in the world it would neither frustrate his Election nor alienate him from the love and favour of Almighty God for which consult the Appendix to the Presseor Declaratio Sententiae Remonstrantium Printed at Leyden Anno 1616. 38. Such is the Doctrine of this Church and such the Judgement of those Reverend Bishops and right godly Martyrs in the Predestinarian Controversies before remembred And though I have insisted on those two alone yet in theirs I include the Judgement of Cranmer Ridley and the rest of those learned men who laboured in the great work of the Reformation Some difference there had been betwixt Cranmer and Ridley on the one side and Hooper only on the other in matter of Ceremony in which Hooper at the last submitted to the other two But in all the Doctrinal truths of their Religion there was a full consent between them which appears plainly in this passage of a Letter sent from Ridley to Hooper when they were both prisoners for the same cause though in several places But now my dear Brother saith he for as much as I understand by your works which I have but superâ—icially seen that we throughly agree and wholly consent together in those things which are the grounds and substantial points of our Religion against which the world so rageth in these our dayes Howsoever in times past in certain by-matters and circumstances of Religion your Wisdom and my simplicity I grant have a little jarred each of us following the aboundance of his own sense and Iudgement Now I say be you
Doctrine or to the establisht Government and Forms of Worship of the Church of England they are not for so doing to be branded by the name of Papists or their writings to be censured and condemned for Popish because perhaps they differ in those matters from the Churches of Calvins Platform Veritas a quocunque est est a spiritu sancto as divinely Ambrose Truth is no more restrained to the Schools of Calvin then to those of Rome some truths being to be found in each but not all in either And certainly in this the first Reformers did exceeding wisely in not tying up the judgements of learned men where they might be freed but leaving them a sufficient scope to exercise their wits and Pens as they saw occasion Had they done otherwise and condemned every thing for Popish which was either taught or used in the times of Popery they must then have condemned the Doctrine of the Trinity it self as was well observed by King Iames in the Conference at Hampton-Court And then said he You Dr. Reynolds must go barefoot because they wore hose and shooes in times of Popery p. 75. Besides which inconvenience it must needs have followed that by a general renouncing of all such things as have been taught and used by the Church of Rome the Confession of the Church of England must have been like that both in condition and effect which Mr. Craig composed for the Kirk of Scotland of which King Iames tells us p. 39. that with his I renounce and I abhor his Detestations and Protestations he did so amaze the simple people that they not able to conceive all those things utterly gave over all falling back to Popery or still remaining in their former ignorance 41. Such was the Moderation which was used by our first Reformers and on such Principles and Positions did they ground this Church Which I have laid down here at large that so we may the better Judge of those Deviations which afterwards were made by Factious and unquiet men as also of the Piety of their endeavours who aimed at the Reduction of her to her first condition If the great Prelate whom I write of did either labour to subvert the Doctrine or innovate any thing either in the Publick Government or Formes of Worship here by Law Established contrary to the Principles and Positions before expressed his Adversaries had the better Reason to clamor against him whilst he lived and to persue their clamors till the very last But on the other side if neither in his own person or by the diligence and activity of his subservient Ministers he acted or suffered any thing to be justified in point of Practice or allowed any thing to be Preached or Prayed or hindred any thing from being Published or Preached but what may be made good by the Rules of the Church and the complexion of the times in which he lived those foul Reproaches which so unjustly and uncharitably have been laid upon him must return back upon the Authors from whom they came as stones thrown up against the Heavens do many times fall upon the heads of those that threw them But whither side deserved the blame for innovating in the Doctrine Rites and Ceremonies of the Anglican Church according to the first Principles and Positions of it will best appear by the course of the ensuing History Relation being had to this Introduction which I have here placed in the front as a Lamp or Candle such as we find commonly in the Porches of Great Mens houses to light the way to such as are desirous to go into them that they may enter with delight converse therein with pleasure and return with safety CYPRIANUS ANGLICUS OR THE HISTORY OF THE Life and Death OF The most Reverend and Renowned PRELATE WILLIAM By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all ENGLAND and Metropolitan Chancellor of the Universities of Oxon. and Dublin and one of the Lords of the Privy Council to His late most SACRED MAJESTY King CHARLES Second MONARCH of Great-Brittain PART I. Containing the History of his Life and Actions from the day of his Birth Octob. 7. 1573. to the day of his Nomination to the See of Canterbury August 6. 1633. LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for A. Seile 1668. THE LIFE OF The most Reverend FATHER in GOD WILLIAM Lord Archbishop of Canterbury LIB I. Extending from the time of his Birth till his being made Bishop of St. Davids TO Recommend unto Posterity the Lives and Actions of eminent and famous Persons hath alwayes been esteemed a work becoming the most able Pens Nothing so much enobleth Plutarch as his committing unto memory the Actions and Achievements of the most renowned Greeks and Romans or added more unto the fame of Diogenes Laertius than that which he hath left us of the Lives and Apophthegms of the old Philosophers Some pains have fortunately been taken in this kind by Paulus Iavius Bishop of Como and by Matthew Parker Archbishop of Canterbury in the dayes of our Fathers Nor can we be so little studdied in the World as not to know that even particular persons I speak not here of Kings and Princes have had their own particular and distinct Historians by whom their Parts and Piety their Military Exploits or Civil Prudence have been transmitted to the knowledge of succeeding ages So that adventuring on the Life of this famous Prelate I cannot be without Examples though without Encouragements For what Encouragements can there be to such a work in which there is an impossibility of pleasing all more than an ordinary probability of offending many no expectation of Reward nor certainty of any thing but misconstructions and Detractings if not dangers also Howsoever I shall give my self the satisfaction of doing my last duty to the memory of a man so Famous of such a Publick Spirit in all his actions so eminently deserving of the Church of England With which profession of my Piety and Ingenuity I shall not be altogether out of hope but that my Labours in this Piece may obtain a pardon if they shall not reach to an Applause William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury was born on the 7th day of October An. 1573. A year remarkable for the buslings of the Puritan Faction who before they had served an Apprentiship in the Trade of Sedition began to set up for themselves and seeing they could not have the countenance of Authority to justifie the advancing of their Holy Discipline resolved to introduce it by little and little as opportunity should be given them which they did accordingly His Birth place Reading the principal Town of Berks for Wealth and Beauty remarkable heretofore for a stately and magnificent Abby founded and liberally Endowed by King Henry I. and no less eminent in these last Ages for the Trade of Clothing the Seminary of some Families of Gentry within that County And of this Trade his Father was who kept not only many Lomes in his
house but many Weavers Spinners and Fullers at continual work living in good Esteem and Reputation amongst his Neighbours to the very last His Mother Lucy Webb was Sister to Sir William Webb Lord Maior of London Anno 1591. the Grand-Father of Sir William Webb not long since deceased She was first Marryed to Iohn Robinson a Clothier of the same Town also but a Man of so good Wealth and Credit that he Marryed one of his Daughters to Dr. Cotsford and another unto Dr. Layfield men of parts and worth and left his youngest Son called William in so good a way that he came to be Doctor of Divinity Prebend of Westminster and Archdeacon of Nottingham beside some other preferments which he dyed possest of Having buryed her Husband Iohn Robinson she was Re-marryed unto Laud this Archbishops Father to whom she brought no other child than this Son alone as if she had satisfied that duty which was owing to her second Marriage bed by bringing forth a Son who was to be the Patriarch in a manner of the British Islands He was not born therefore of such Poor and obscure Parents as the Publisher of his Breviat makes him much less E faece Plebis of the dregs of the People as both he and all the rest of the Bishops were affirmed to be by the late Lord Brook who of all others had least Reason to upbraid them with it in a book of his touching the nature of that Episcopacy which had been exercised in England But granting that he had been born of as poor and obscure Parents as those Authors make him yet must it needs add to the commendation of his Parts and Industry who from so mean and low a Birth had raised himself into such an eminent height of Power and Glory that no Bishop or Archbishop since the Reformation had attained the like The greatest Rivers many times have the smallest Fountains such as can hardly be found out and being found out as hardly quit the cost of the discovery and yet by long running and holding on a constant and continual course they become large navigable and of great benefit unto the Publick Whereas some Families may be compared to the Pyramides of AEgypt which being built on great Foundations grow narrower and narrower by degrees until at last they end in a small Conus in a point in nothing For if we look into the Stories of the Times foregoing we shall find that poor and obscure Cottages have bred Commanders to the Camp Judges unto the Seats of Justice Counsellors to the State Peers to the Realm and Kings themselves unto the Throne as well as Prelates to the Church When such as do pretend to a Nobler Birth do many times consume themselves in effeminate Luxuries and waste their Fortunes in a Prodigal and Libidinous Course Which brings into my mind the Answer made by Mr. Pace one of the Secretaries to King Hen. viii to a Nobleman about the Court For when the said Nobleman had told him in contempt of Learning That it was enough for Noblemens Sons to wind their Horn and carry their Hawk fair and to leave Study and Learning to the Children of mean men Mr. Pace thereunto replied Then his Lordship and the rest of the Noblemen must be content to leave unto the Sons of meaner Persons the managing of Affairs of Estate when their own Children please themselves with winding their Horns and managing their Hawks and other Follies of the Country But yet notwithstanding such was the envy of the Times that he was frequently upbraided in the days of his Greatness as well in common Speech a scattered Libells with the mean condition of his Birth And I remember that I found him once in his Garden at Lambeth with more than ordinary Trouble in his Countenance of which not having confidence enough to enquire the Reason he shewed me a Paper in his hand and told me it was a printed Sheet of a Scandalous Libel which had been stopp'd at the Press in which he found himself reproach'd with so base a Parentage as if he had been raked out of the Dunghil adding withal That though he had not the good fortune to be born a Gentleman yet he thank'd God he had been born of honest Parents who lived in a plentiful condition employed many poor People in their way and left a good report behind them And thereupon beginning to clear up his Countenance I told him as presently as I durst That Pope Sixtus the Fifth as stout a Pope as ever wore the Triple Crown but a poor mans Son did use familiarly to say in contempt of such Libells as frequently were made against him That he was Domo natus Illustri because the Sun-beams passing through the broken Walls and ragged Roof illustrated every corner of that homely Cottage in which he was born with which facetiousness of that Pope so applicable to the present occasion he seemed very well pleased But to go forwards with our Story Having escaped a dangerous Sickness in his Childhood he was trained up as soon as he was sitted for it in the Free Grammar-School of Reading in which he profited so well and came on so fast that before he was sixteen years of age which was very early for those times he was sent to Oxon and entred a Commoner in St. Iohn's Colledge and there committed to the tuition of Mr. Buckeridge one of the Fellows of that Colledge and afterwards the worthy President of it It proved no ordinary happiness to the Scholar to be principled under such a Tutor who knew as well as any other of his time how to employ the two-edged Sword of Holy Scripture of which he made good proof in the times succeeding brandishing it on the one side against the Papists and on the other against the Puritans or Nonconformists In reference to the first it is said of him in the general by Bishop Godwin That he endeavoured most industriously both by Preaching and Writing to defend and propagate the True Religion here by Law established Which appears plainly by his Learned and Laborious Piece entituled De potestate Papae in Temporalibus Printed at London Anno 1614. in which he hath so shaken the Foundation of the Papal Monarchy and the pretended Superiority of that See over Kings and Princes that none of the Learned men of that Party did ever undertake a Reply unto it With like success but with less pains unto himself he managed the Controversie concerning Kneeling at the Lords Supper against those of the Puritan Faction the Piety and Antiquity of which Religious Posture in that Holy Action he asserted with such solid Reasons and such clear Authorities in a Treatise by him published Anno 1618. that he came off without the least opposition by that Party also But before the publishing of these Books or either of them his eminent Abilities in the Pulpit had brought him into great credit with King Iames insomuch that
not engaged upon either side might succeed in their places But notwithstanding all this care the Faction still held up against him the younger fry inclining to the same side which had been taken by their Tutors But whiles these things were in agitation there hapned a great alteration in the Church of England by the death of the most Reverend Archbishop Bancroft who died on the second of November 1610. and with whom died the Vniformity of the Church of England A man he was of eminent parts and of a most undaunted spirit one who well knew his work and did it When Chaplain only to the Lord Chancellor Hatton he piec'd himself with Doctor Whitgift not long after his first coming to the See of Canterbury to whom he proved a great support in gaining the Lord Chancellor for him by whose assistance he was enabled to hold out against the over-ruling Power of the Earl of Leicester the Patron-General of the Faction In the year 1588. he Preached a Sermon at St. Paul's Cross and therein made an open Declaration of those manifold Dangers which the prevalency of that Faction would bring upon the Church and State if they might be suffered which blow he followed in a Book entituled Dangerous Positions and Proceedings published and practised within this Island of Britain under pretence of Reformation and for the Presbyterial Discipline And in that Book he made such a perfect discovery of their Plots and Practises and so anatomized them in every part that he made them odious unto those who before had been their greatest Patrons In the year 1593. he published another Treatise entituled A Survey of the Pretended holy Discipline in which he so dissected the whole Body of Calvin's Presbyterial Platform shewing the incoherencies of it in it self and the inconsistencies thereof with Monarchical Government that he took off the edge of many and those Great ones too who had not only seemed to like it but had longed for it The Plot was so laid down by Whitgift that at the same time there should come out two other Books the one written by Doctor Thomas Bilson Warden of the Colledge neer Winton for proof of the Antiquity and perpetual Government of the Church by Bishops the other by Doctor Richard Cosens a right Learned Civilian in justification of the Proceedings in the Ecclesiastical Courts By which four Books the Puritan Faction was so muzled that they were not able to bark in a long time after Nor do they want their several and just Rewards for such good performances Bilson being first made Bishop of Worcester and not long after Bishop of Winton Bancroft advanced to the See of London and Doctor Cosens Vicar-general and Dean of the Arches within few years after being consecrated Bishop of London on the eighth of May 1597. he kept such a watchfull eye over it and held so strict a hand upon it that from a receptactle and retreat of the Grandees of the Puritan party it became almost as free from Faction as any other in the Kingdom And knowing how much the Peace of this Church did depend upon it he managed a secret Corespondency with King Iames in Scotland insinuating unto him the necessity of conforming the Churches of both Kingdoms in Government and Forms of Worship and laying down a plot for restoring Episcopacy to that Kirk without noise or trouble Which counsel being advisedly followed by King Iames before his coming into England was afterwards so well pursued though not without some violent strugling of the Presbyterians of that Kingdom that on the 21. day of October in the year 1609. the designed Bishops of Glascow Brechen and Gallo-Way received Episcopal Consecration in the Chappel of London-house by the hands of Doctor George Abbot then Bishop of London Doctor Lancelot Andrews Bishop of Ely Doctor Iames Montague Bishop of Bath and Wells and Doctor Richard Neile then Bishop of Rochester Bancroft himself forbearing to lay hands upon them for the avoiding of all scruples amongst the Scots as if he pretended any Jurisdiction or Authority over them In the mean time Anno 1603. he carried a chief hand in the Conference at Hampton Court and had the sole management of the Convocation of the same year also in which he passed that excellent body of Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical to serve for a perpetual standing Rule to the Church of England Succeeding Whitgift in the See of Canterbury Anno 1604. he resolved to put the Canons into execution and press'd it with so stout a courage that few had confidence enough to stand out against him Some of them did and those he either depriv'd or silenc'd and thereby terrified the rest to an open Conformity They saw too plainly that they must not dally with his patience as they did with Whitgifts and that he was resolved to break them if they would not bow And they did wisely in so bowing for who could stand against a man of such a spirit armed with Authority having the Law on his side and the King to friend who had declared publickly in the Conference at Hampton Court That if they would not conform he would either hurry them out of the Kingdom or else do worse In the year 1608. he was chosen Chancellor at Oxon. and questionless would have set all things right in that University if Sickness and the stroke of Death had not prevented his intendments But die he must and being dead there was a Consultation amongst some of the Bishops and other Great men of the Court whom to commend unto King Iames for his Successor in that See They knew that Mountague and Abbot would be venturing at it but they had not confidence enough in either of them both of them being extremely popular and such as would ingratiate themselves with the Puritan Faction how dearly soever the Church paid for it And thereupon it was resolved to fix on Andrews for the man a man as one says very well of him of Primitive Antiquity in whom was to be found whatever is desirable in a Bishop even to admiration to whom they found the King to be well affected for taking up the Bucklers for him against Cardinal Bellarmine The Motion was no sooner made but it was embraced and they departed from the King with as good assurance as if the business had been done and Andrews fully setled in the Throne of Canterbury In confidence whereof some of them retired to their Country Houses and others lessened their accustomed diligence about the King and thereby gave an opportunity to the Earl of Dunbar a powerful Minister of State to put in for Abbot who had attended him in some Negotiations which he had with the Scots and he put in so powerfully in his behalf that at last he carried it and had the Kings Hand to the passing of the publick Instruments before the other Bishops ever heard of the Plot But when they heard of it there was no Remedy but Patience but it was
Patience perforce as the Proverb hath it For much they feared that Abbot would unravel all the Web which Bancroft with such pains had weaved and that he was as the same Author well observes better qualified with Merit for the Dignity than with a spirit answering the Function Follow his Character to the end and you shall be told That in the exercising of his Function he was conceived too facil and yielding His extraordinary Remisness in not exacting strict Conformity to the prescribed Orders of the Church in point of Ceremonie seemed to resolve those Legal Determinations to their first Principle of Indifferency and led in such an habit of Inconformity as the future Reduction of those tender Conscienced men to long discontinued Obedience was at the last interpreted an Innovation If Andrews had succeeded Bancroft and Laud followed Andrews the Church would have been setled to sure on a Foundation that it could not easily have been shaken to the preventing of those deplorable Miseries which the Remiss Government of that Popular Prelate did so unfortunately bring both on the Church and State But to go forward where we left Laud was no sooner setled in the Presidentship of his Colledge but he conceived himself advanced one step at the least towards a Precedency in the Church and therefore thought it was high time to cast an eye upon the Court His good Friend and Patron Bishop Neile then being of Rochester had procured him a Turn before the King at Theobalds on the 17th of September 1609. and by the power and favour of the same man being then translated unto Litchfield he was sworn one of his Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary on the third of November Anno 1611. yet so that he continued his dependencies on his former Lord to whom he was as dear and necessary as before he was injoying freely all the accomodations of his House whensoever his occasions brought him to London Having thus set foot within the Court he promised himself great hopes of some present preferment but those hopes deceived him Nothing is more uncertain than Court Preferments Some have them suddenly at the first and then continue at a stand without farther Additions as in the case of Doctor Young Dean of Winchester Some attend long and get nothing as in the case of Mr. Arthur Terringham and many others and some are in the same case with the Apostles in St. Iohn when they went a fishing of whom it is said That having caught nothing all the night they cast their net the next morning on the right side of the Ship and then they were not able to draw it for the multitude of Fishes And so it was with this new Chaplain many Preserments fell but none fell to him For whensoever any opportunity was offered for his Advancement Archbishop Abbot who had before defamed him to the Lord Chancellor Egerton and by his mouth unto the King would be sure to cast somewhat in his dish sometimes inculcating to him all his actings at Oxon. and sometimes rubbing up the old sore of his unfortunate business with the Earl of Devonshire These Artifices so estranged the Kings Countenance from him that having waited four years and seeing his hopes more desperate than at the first he was upon the point of leaving the Court and retiring wholly into his Colledge But first he thought it not amiss to acquaint his dear Friend and Patron Bishop Neile both with his resolution and the reasons of it But Neile was not to be told what he knew before and therefore answered That he was very sensible of those many neglects which were put upon him and saw too clearly that he had been too long under a cloud but howsoever advised him to stay one year longer and that if he had no better encouragement within that year he would consent to his retirement In the mean time to keep him up in heart and spirit as he had given him the Prebendary of Bugden belonging to the Church of Lincoln to which See he had been translated Anno 1613. but the year before so in the year of his complaint which was 1615. he conferred upon him also the Archdeaconry of Huntington It had pleased God so to dispose of his Affairs that before the year of expectation was fully ended his Majesty began to take him into his better thoughts and for a testimony thereof bestowed upon him the Deanry of Glocester void by the death of the Reverend Right Learned Doctor Feild whose excellent Works will keep his Name alive to succeeding Ages A Deanry of no very great value but such as kept him up in reputation and made men see he was not so contemptible in the eyes of the King as it was generally imagined But before we follow him to Glocester we must take Oxon. in our way in which had hapned no small alteration since we left it laâ—t Doctor Henry Holland Rector of Exceter Colledge and his Majesties Professor for Divinity having left this Life in the end of the year 1611. it seemed good to Archbishop Abbot to make use of his Power and Favour with King Iames for preferring to that place his elder Brother Doctor Robert Abbot being then Master of Baliol Colledge and Rector of Bingham in the County of Nottingham He had before been Fellow of it and Doctor Lilly dying so opportunely for the furtherance of his Preferment in the University he succeeded Master in his place March 9. 1609. being the next Month after his Brother had been advanced to the See of London A man he was of eminent Learning as his Works declare and a more moderate Calvinian than either of his Predecessors which he expressed by countenancing the Sublapsarian way of Predestination by means whereof he incurred the high displeasure of the Supralapsarians who until then had carried all before them without gaining any thing on those who liked well of neither But depending altogether on the will of his Brother he thought he could not gratifie and oblige him more than in pursuing his old quarrels against Laud and others whom he knew to be disrellished by him which he thus pursued It hapned that Laud preaching on Shrove-Sundar Anno. 1614. insisted on some points which might indifferently be imputed either to Popery or Arminianism as about that time they began to call it though in themselves they were no other than the true and genuine Doctrines of the Church of England And having occasion in that Sermon to touch upon the Presbyterians and their Proceedings he used some words to this effect viz. That the Presbyterians were as bad as the Papists Which being so directly contrary to the Judgment and Opinion of this Doctor Abbot and knowing how much Laud had been distasted by his Brother when he lived in Oxon. conceived he could not better satisfie himself and oblige his Brother the Archbishop than by exposing him on the next occasion both to shame and censure which he did accordingly For being Vice-chancellor
above mentioned to the Bishop of Lincoln and in that Letter he desired his Lordship having first moved that the High Commission would be pleased to take some speedy order in it to let him have his lawful assistance to the end that so long as he did nothing but what was established and practised in the Church of England he might not be brought into contempt by turbulent Spirits at his first entrance on that place and so be disinabled to do that good service which he owed to the Church of Christ withall propounding to his Lordship that if it stood with his good liking his Majesty might be made acquainted with the first success of his endeavors for reforming such things as he found most amiss in that Church c. Whilst these things were thus agitated in the Reformation of the Church of Glocester there were other Actings in the Court touching the Reformation of some things in the Vniversity of Oxon. Laud had before informed the Bishop of Lincoln concerning the course usage which he had from Dr. Abbot as before was said Which being represented to his Majesty it was withall insinuated to him what dangers would proceed by the training up of young Students in the Grounds of Calvinism if some directions were not issued from his Majesty for the course of their studies that there was no readier way to advance the Presbyterial Government in this Kingdom than by suffering young Scholars to be seasoned with Calvinian Doctrines that it was very hard to say whether of the two either the Puritan or the Papist were more destructive of Monarchical Government and finally that for want of subscription to the three Articles contained in the 36. Canon not only Lecturers but divers other Preachers in and about the University positively maintained such points of Doctrine as were not maintained or allowed by the Church of England Which matter his Majesty having taken into consideration by the advice of such Bishops and others of the Clergy as were then about him upon the eighteenth of Ianuary he dispatcht these Directions following to the Vice Chancellor the Heads of Colledges and Halls the two Professors and the two Proctors of the University to be carefully and speedily put in execution JAMES REX 1. That it was his Majesties pleasure that he would have all that take any degree in Schools to subscribe to the three Articles in the 36th Canon 2. That no Preacher be allowed to preach in the Town but such as are every way conformable both by subscription and every other way 3. That all Students do resort to the Sermons in St. Maries and be restrained from going to any other Church in the time of St. Maries Sermons and that provision be made that the Sermons in St. Maries be diligently made and performed both before-noon and afternoon 4. That the ordinary Divinity Act be constantly kept with three Replicants 5. That there be a greater Restraint of Schollars haunting Town-houses especially in the night 6. That all Scholars both at the Chappels and at the Schools keep their Scholastical Habits 7. That young Students in Divinity be directed to study such books as be most agreeable in Doctrine and Discipline to the Church of England and encited to bestow their times in the Fathers and Councils School-men Histories and Controversies and not to insist too long upon Compendiums and Abreviatures making them the Grounds of their study in Divinity 8. That no man either in Pulpit or Schools be suffered to maintain Dogmatically any point of Doctrine that is not allowed by the Church of England 9. That Mr. Vice-Chancellor and the two Professors or two of the Heads of Houses do at such time as his Majesty resorts into those parts wait upon his Majesty and give his Majesty a just account how these his Majesties Instructions are observed 10. Let no man presume of what condition or degree soever not to yield his obedience to these his Majesty Directions lest he incur such censures as the Statutes of this Vniversity may justly inflict upon such transgressors This was the first step toward the suppressing of that Reputation which Calvin and his Writings had attained unto in that University and a good step it might have been if Dr Goodwin Dean of Christ Church who was then Vice-Chancellor had not been Father-in-law to Prideaux or rather if Prideaux himself had approved the Articles or that Dr. Benfield of Corpus Christi the other Professor for Divinity a grave but sedentary man had been active in it But howsoever being published though it went no farther it gave such a general Alarm to the Puritan Faction that the terrour of it could not be forgotten in 20. years after Certain I am that in the year 1636. it was charged by H. Burton of Fryday-street for an Innovation one of the many Innovations introduced by Laud and others of the Prelatical party to subvert Religion But leaving them to the folly of their own affrightments let us look back unto the King who being confident that he had left the University in a ready way for coming to an Vnity in matters of Doctrine prepared for his Journey into Scotland with a like confidence of effecting an Vniformity in Forms of Worship A matter of consequence and weight and therefore to be managed by able Ministers such as knew how to winde and turn the Presbyterians of that Kingdom if matters should proceed to a Disputation The known Abilities of Laud mark'd him out for one which though it were like to bring a great Charge upon him yet he preferred the Reputation before the Charge and chearfully embrac'd the Service Nor was it more welcom unto him than grateful to the Bishop of Lincoln assured thereby not only of a trusty Friend but of a sociable Companion for that tedious Journey His Majesty having filled up the List of his Attendants on the 14th day of March began his Journey accompanied by the Queen and Prince as far as Theobalds and from thence went forward with his Train before appointed By the way he called in at the City of Lincoln where it is not to be doubted but that the Bishop gave him as magnificent an Entertainment as the Place and Country would afford And from this place it was that he dated his Instructions of the 14th of April to the Lord Iohn Digby then going Embassador into Spain to Treat upon and Conclude a Marriage between Prince Charles and the Infanta Maria the Second Daughter of that King one of which Articles was to this effect That the Espousals being made in Spain according to the Order of the Councel of Trent the Marriage should be solemnized in England where there should be such a Solemnization as by the Laws of this Realm should make the Marriage valid and take away all scruple touching the Legitimation of the Issue Which temperament seems to me to have very much in it of Laud's hand and spirit In the beginning of May 1617. his Majesty was come as far
long experience with his great abilities his constancy courage and dexterity for managing affairs of moment And thereupon entring into speech with him in the beginning of Iune he was pleased to take notice of the long and unrewarded service which he had done him telling him that he looked on the Deanry of Glocester but as a Shell without a Kernel This gave him the first hopes of his growing Fortunes On Sunday the nineteenth of that Month he preached before the King at Wansteed that being the first of those Sermons which are now in Print And on St. Peters day next following there was a general expectation about the Court that he should have been made Dean of Westminster in the place of Williams who having been sworn Privy-Counsellor on the tenth of that Month and nominated to the See of Lincoln was on the tenth of Iuly honoured with the Custody of the great Seal of England upon the Deprivation of the Lord Chancellor St. Albans which before we spake of but Williams so prevailed at Court that when he was made Bishop of Lincoln he retained this Deanry in Commendam together with such other Preferments as he held at that time That is to say A Prebend and Residentiary place in the Cathedral Church at Lincoln and the Rectory of Walgrave in Northampton-shire so that he was a perfect Diocess within himself as being Bishop Dean Prebend Residentiary and Parson and all these at once But though Laud could not get the Deanry yet he lost nothing by the example which he made use of in retaining not only his Prebends place in the same Church of Westminster and his Benefices in the Country that being an ordinary indulgence to such as were preferred to the smaller Bishopsricks but also the Presidentship of his Colledge in Oxon which he valued more than all the Rest. For that his own expectation might not be made as frustrate as was that of the Court his Majesty nominated him the same day to the See of St. Davids in former times the Metropolitan City of the Welsh or Brittish But though he was nominated then he could not receive the Episcopal Character till five Months after the stay was long but the necessity unavoydable by reason of a deplorable misfortune which had befallen Archbishop Abbot and was briefly this The Archbishop had long held a dear and entire Friendship with Edward Lord Zouch a person of an eminent and known Nobility On whom he pleased to bestow a visit in his house at Bramshall invited to see a Deer hunted that he might take the fresh air and revive his Spirits a Cross-bow was put into his hand to shoot one of the Deer but his hand most unhappily swerving or the Keeper as unfortunately coming in his way it so pleased God the Disposer of Humane Affairs that he missed the Beast and shot the Man On which sad accident being utterly uncapable of consolation he retired himself to Guilford the place of his birth there to expect the Issue of his wofull Fortunes in an Hospital of his own Foundation The news of this wretched misadventure as ill news flies far came the same day to the Lord Keeper Williams and he as hastily dispatches this Advertisement of it to the Marquess of Buckingham My most Noble Lord AN unfortunate occasion of my Lords Grace his killing of a man casually as it is here constantly reported is the cause of my seconding of my yesterdays Letter unto your Lordship His Grace upon this Accident is by the Common Law of England to forfeit all his Estate unto his Majesty and by the Canon Law which is in force with us irregular ipso facto and so suspended from all Ecclesiastical Function until he be again restored by his Superiour which I take it is the Kings Majesty in this Rank and Order of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction If you send for Doctor Lamb he will acquaint your Lordship with the distinct Penalties in this kind I wish withal my heart his Majesty would be as merciful as ever he was in all his life but yet I held it my duty to let his Majesty know by your Lordship that his Majesty is fallen upon a matter of great Advice and Deliberation To add affliction unto the afflicted as no doubt he is in mind is against the Kings Nature To leave virum sanguinum or a man of blood Primate and Patriarch of all his Churches is a thing that sounds very harsh in the old Councils and Canons of the Church The Papists will not spare to descant upon one and the other I leave the knot to his Majesties deep Wisdom to advise and resolve upon A rheum fallen into mine eye c. Which Letter bearing date Iuly 27. 1621. points us directly to the time of this woful Accident Being thus pre-judged and pre-condemned the miserable man must needs have had a hard bout of it if his cause had been referred to an hearing in Chancery But King Iames was as compassionate as just and as regardful of the Church as he was compassionate to the man Advising therefore with his Council and some chief Clergy-men about him though more with his own gracious disposition he after issued a Commission to the Lord Keeper Williams the Bishops of London Winchester St. Davids and Exon as also unto Hubbert and Dodderidge two of the Justices of the Courts at Westminster-hall Martin and Steward Doctors of the Civil Laws men of great Eminence and Abilities in their several Studies to make Inquiry into the Fact And having made Inquiry into the Fact they were to give their Resolution unto His Majesty whether the Archbishop had been made irregular by that sad accident as it was commonly reported In the managing of which great Cause there was much variety of Opinions amongst the Delegates some making him obnoxious to Irregularity and others as much labouring to acquit him of it Amongst these last were Doctor Andrews then Bishop of Winchester and Sir Henry Martin then Dean of the Arches and not long after Judge of the Prerogative Court to whose Authority and Judgment the rest of the Commissioners did in time conform Martin for his part had received his Offices and Preferments from him and therefore in an honest Gratitude thought himself obliged to bend the Law as much as possibly he could to his best Advantage But Andrews had no such impulsives there being between them some disgust which might have rather prevailed with him to have been his Enemy First therefore he was willing not to stand too rigidly upon the strictness of the Canons for fear lest others of the Bishops and himself amongst them either through ignorance or incogitancy might commit some acts which without a fair and mild construction might render them as uncanonical as that poor man was And then he saw that if the Archbishop at that time had been pronounced irregular and the See made void Williams being then Lord Keeper and in great favour with his Majesty and the Marquis too would
persons as were either Papists or suspected to be Papists or had not received the Communion within the space of one whole year or whose Wives or any of their Servants were Recusants or suspected to be so might be removed from all Commissions of charge and trust from being Justices of the Peace or bearing any Office in the Common Wealth But this Petition was not made ready for the Lords till the twentieth of May next following and being then reported to them by the Archbishop of Canterbury they did proceed no further in it The Commons in the mean time had been wholly busied in the Prosecution of the Lord Treasurer Cranfield whom at last they brought unto his Sentence A Gentleman he was by birth but had his breeding in the City from whence by his own wit and industry he preferred himself into the Court where he was first made Master of the Wardrobe afterward Master of the Wards and finally advanced by the power and favour of the Duke one of whose Kinswomen he had married to the office of Lord Treasurer and the honour of being made the first Earl of Middlesex In this Office he had disobliged the Prince when he was in Spain by disswading and diverting those Large Supplies which were required for the maintaining of his Port in a Forraign Kingdom And he had disobliged the Duke by joyning in some secret practises to make him grow less and less in his Majesties Favour They had both served the turn of the Commons in drawing the King by their continual importunities to dissolve the Treatie And the Commons must now serve their turn in prosecuting this man to his final destruction Which they pursued so effectually that in the end he was sentenced in the House of Lords to be deprived of the Office of Lord High Treasurer of England to be fined fifty thousand Pounds and remain a Prisoner in the Tower during his Majesties will and pleasure It was moved also to degrade him from all Titles of honour but in that the Bishops stood his Friends and dasht the motion So Cranfield sell and Williams did not stand long after Laud was now brought into an higher degree of credit with the Duke of Buckingham than he was before by means whereof he came to be of great power and authority with him Insomuch that when the Duke fell sick of an Ague in the beginning of May he was extreme impatient in his Fits till Laud came to visit him by whom he was so charmed and sweetned that at first he endured his Fits with patience and by that patience did so break their heats and violences that at last they left him From this time forwards he was not used only as a Confessor but a Counsellor also imployed by him in considering and advising whether the great endowments belonging to the Hospitals founded in the dissolved house of Carthusian Monks commonly but corruptly called the Charter-House might not be inverted to the maintenance of an Army for the present Wars as well for his Majesties advantage as the case of the Subject And to this Proposition as it seems he returned a Negative for I find not that the business advanced any further He liked not any inversions or alienations of that nature lest being drawn into example the Lands of Colledges or Cathedral Churches might in like manner be imployed unto secular uses Besides he could not choose but know that a project had been set on foot about ten years before for the Entituling of the King to all Sutton's Lands which probably might have succeeded if Coke then being Lord Chief Justice and one of the Trustees for erecting the Hospital had not stood stoutly to his trust By which though he got the Kings displeasure yet amongst others he preserved the reputation of an honest man And Laud might very well conclude that he who durst oppose the King when he was in his favour would be found more intractable at this time when he was in disgrace which rendred him the less sollicitous to appear in a business not otherwise approved of by him But in another point which was more to his liking and lay within the spheare of his activity he gave him as much satisfaction as he had desired This was the giving him the heads of Doctrinal Puritanism that is to say the Heads of such Doctrines as were maintained by those of the Puritan Faction though not maintained by them as Puritans but as Calvinists only The Duke had a desire to know them and he served him in it I must needs say the name of Doctrinal Puritanism is not very ancient but whether first taken up by the Archbishop of Spalato at his being here I am not able to say Nor am I of opinion that Puritan and Calvinian are terms convertible For though all Puritans are Calvinians both in doctrine and practise yet all Calvinians are not to be counted as Puritans also whose practises many of them abhor and whose inconformities they detest though by the errour of their Education or ill direction in the Course of their Studies they may and do agree with them in some points of Doctrine But I must take the word as it stands in the Breviate and so let it go These Doctrinal heads being ten in number related to the indispâ—nsible morality of the Lords-day-Sabbath the indiscrimination of Bishops and Presbyters the Power of Soveraign Princes in Ecclesiastical matters the Doctrine of Confession and Sacerdotal Absolution and the five Points so much disputed about Predestination and the Concomitants thereof Which last Points having been hotly agitated for twenty years last past in the Belgick Churches did now begin to exercise the Church of England upon this occasion The Priests and Jesuites having been very busie of late in gaining Proselites and sowing their erronious Doctrines had got a haunt in a Village of the County of Essex called Stanford-Rivers The Rector of that Church was Richard Montague Batchelor of Divinity Prebend of Windsor and one of the Fellows of Eaton Colledge a man exceedingly well versed in all the Learning of Greeks and Romans and as well studied in the Fathers Councils and all other ancient Monuments of the Christian Church Desirous to free his Parish from this haunt he left some Propositions at the house of one of his Neighbours which had been frequently visited with these Night-Spirits with this Declaration thereunto that if any of those which ranged that walk could convince him in any of the same he would immediately subscribe and be a Papist After long expectation instead of answering to his queries one of them leaves a short Pamphlet for him entituled A new Gag for the Old Gospell in which it was pretended that the Doctrine of the Protestants should be confuted out of the very words of their own English Bibles This book he was required to answer and found it no such knotty piece but that it might be cleft in sunder without Beetle or Wedges But in perusing of that
against him certain Articles in the House of Peers in which he accused him of the like Crime in reference to his Actings in the Spanish business This made good sport amongst the Commons for a time but at last sâ—aring either the Weakness of Bristol's Charge or the insufficiency of his Proofs they resolved to follow their own way and to that end a large Impeachment was drawn up against him and presented to the Lords on the eighth of May managed by six of the ablest Lawyers in the House that is to say Glanvile Herbert Selden Pym Wansford and Sherland the Prologue made by Sir Dudly Diggs and the Epilogue by Sir Iohn Eliot The principal Branches of this Impeachment related to his engrossing of Offices his buying the Places of Lord Admiral and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports His not guarding the Seas His stay of a Ship called the St. Peter of Newhaven and of the East-India Fleet Lending his Majesties Ship called the Vantgard to the French King which the French King employed against Rochel His selling of Honours and Offices procuring Honours for his Kindred His diminishing the Revenues of the Crown and his applying Physick to King Iames in the time of his Sickness To every one of these there was returned in Writing a particular Answer by the Duke himself And then addressing his Discourse unto the Peers he humbly referred it to their Judgment how full of danger and prejudice it was to give too ready an ear and too easie a belief unto a Report or Testimony without Oath which are not of weight enough to condemn any With like humility he acknowledged how easie a thing it was for him in his younger years and unexperienced to fall into thousands of Errors in thâ—se ten years wherein he had the honour to serve so great and so open-hearted a Sovereign Master But still he hoped the fear of God his sincerity in the true Religion established in the Church of England though accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections which he is not ashamed humbly and heartily to confess his carefulness not willingly to offend so good and gracious a Master and his love and duty to his Country had restrained and preserved him from running into any hainous misdemeanours and crimes Which said and having craved the benefit of two several Pardons the one granted in the last Parliament of King Iames the other at the Coronation of King Charles he added That he could not chuse but hope so much in their Lordships Justice and Honour that they would acquit him of and from those Misdemeanours Offences Misprisions and Crimes wherewith he had bee charged and for his own part he both hoped and would daily pray That for the future he might so watch over all his Actions both publick and private as not to give cause of just offence to any person Of these Proceedings his Majesty was exceeding sensible He saw himself wounded through the Dukes sides That his Fathers Favours and his own were the greatest Crimes of which the Duke had been impeached and That their Regal Authority in bestowing Offices and Honours on whom they pleased was not only questioned but controlled With which disturbances being very much perplex'd and troubled he receives a Letter written to him from an unknown Person in which he first met with a Recital of the several Interests and Affections which were united in this Prosecution against the Duke and after that this Application to himself and his own Concernments viz. These men saith the Writer of the Letter either cannot or will not remember That never any noble man in favour with his Sovereign was questioned in Parliament except by the King himself in case of Treason or unless it were in the nonage and tumultuary times of Richard the Second Henry vi or Edward vi which hapned to the destruction both of King and Kingdom And that not to exceed our own and Fathers Memory in King Henry viii his time Wolseys exorbitant Power and Pride and Cromwels contempt of the Nobility and the Laws were not yet permitted to be discussed in Parliament though they were most odious and grievous to all the Kingdom And that Leicesters undeserved Favour and Faults Hattons insufficiency and Releighs Insolencies far exceed what yet hath been objected against the Duke yet no Lawyer durst abet nor any man else begin any Invectives against them in Parliament And then he adds some other Passages intervening That it behoves his Majesty to uphold the Duke against them who if he be but discourted it will be the Corner stone on which the demolishing of his Monarchy will be builded For if they prevail with this they have hatched a thousand other Demands to pull the Feathers of the Royalty they will appoint him Counsellors Servants Alliances Limits of his Expences Accounts of his Revenue chiefly if they can as they mainly desire they will now dazle him in the beginning of his Reign How true a Prophet this man proved the event hath shewed and the King saw it well enough and therefore since he could not divert them from that pursuit on the 15th of Iune he dissolved the Parliament I have been the more punctual and particular in relating these Proceedings of the Commons against the Duke by reason of that Influence which Laud either had or is reported to have had in managing his Cause against them For first it is affirmed by the Publisher of this Bishops Breviate That the Copy of the Kings Speech made in behalf of the Duke March 29. was of Lauds enditing and That the Original Copy thereof under his own hand was given in evidence against him at the time of Trial. Secondly That he likewise penned the Kings Speech to the House of Peers touching the Duke and the Commitment of the Earl of Arundel May the 11th In which he spake concerning the preservation of the Honour of Noblemen against the vile and detestable Calumnies of those of the Lower House by whom the Duke had been accused as before was said Most grievous Crimes indeed if they had been true for a Subject to assist his Prince and a Servant to be aiding to his Master in penning a short Speech or two when either the pressure of Affairs or perplexities of minde might require it of him But for the truth of this there is no proof offered but that the Copies of both Speeches the Original Copies as he calls them were found in the Archbishops Study as probably they might have been in the Studies of many other men if they had been searched For who can rationally suppose That his Majesty who was the Master of such a pure and elegant Style as he declared himself to be in his Discourse with Henderson at Newcastle and his Divine Essays made in Prison when he could have no other helps but what he found in himself should stand in need of the Expressions of another man in matters of so great concernment Or if it be to be
their fears in that were groundless so their conjectures were no better grounded than their fears there never being a greater Patron of the Episcopal order than he lived and died but whether there might not be some presage in it in reference to the Archbishops person the diminution of his Dignity and fall of his Power may be best judged by this suspension and the consequents which followed on it And though he lived not long under the disgrace yet in the interval of time he saw so much of his Authority devolved on Laud that he grew more and more discontented and was ready in a manner to have made himself the head of the Puritan Faction It is related by a late Writer That towards his death he was not only discontented himself but that his house was the Rendezvouz of all the Malecontents in Church and State that he turned Midnight to Noonday-by constant keeping of Candles lighted in his Chamber and Study as also that such Visitants as repaired unto him called themselves Nicodemites because of their secret coming to him by night I know how much that Author hath been mistaken in other things but I see nothing in this which may not be consistent with the truth of History Certain I am his Chaplains were successively declared Calvinians his Secretary a professed Patron of the Puritan Faction his doors continually open to the Chiefs of that party and such as stickled in that cause and amongst others to him by whose Suggestion if we may take his own report the Historical Narration was called in for the great danger which it threatned to the grounds of Calvinism For his compliance with the Gentry against the Clergie this reason is alledged from his own mouth That he was so severe to the Clergy on purpose to rescue them from the severity of others and to prevent the punishment of them by lay Iudges to their greater shames which leaves the poor Clergy under a greater obloquy than any which their enemies had laid upon them But the truer reason of it was that having never been Parson Vicar nor Curate he was altogether ignorant of those afflictions which the Clergy do too often suffer by the pride of some and the Avarice of others of their Country Neighbours and consequently shewed the least compassion towards them when any of them had the hard fortune to be brought before him And for his compliance with the Puritans against the Church this reason is alledged by others viz. That he shewed the greater favour to them to keep the ballance even betwixt them and the Papists as Laud was thought to be indulgent to the Papists the better to keep down the pride and prevalency of the Puritan Faction But the truer reason of it was That he had been alwaies inclinable to them from his first beginnings insomuch that when he went Chaplain into Scotland with the Earl of Dunbar imployed by King Iames in some negotiation about that Church he was upon the point of betraying the cause if Hodgskins afterwards one of the Residentiaries of York who went Chaplain with him had not preacquainted the Earl with his tergiversation And as he laboured to be Popular upon both accounts so he endeavoured a more particular correspondence with the Gentry of Kent but most especially of his own Diocess It had been formerly the custom of his Predecessors to spend the greaâ—est part of the long vacations in the Palace of Canterbury met at the first entrance into the Diocess with a body of five hundred horse conducting them to Canterbury with great love and duty feasting the Gentry relieving the poor City entertaining their Tenants and by them liberally furnished on the other side with all sorts of provisions Abbot affected not this way and therefore never bestowed any such visit upon his Diocess but when he was confined to his house at Ford by the Kings appointment and yet resolved upon a course which carried some equivalence with it towards his design For once or twice in every year and sometimes oftner at the end of the term he would cause enquiry to be made in Westminster Hall the common Rendezvouz in St. Pauls Church and the Royal Exchange for all such Gentlemen of his Diocess as lodged in and about the City of London dispersing several Tickets from one to another by which they were invited to a general entertainment at his house in Lambeth the next day after the end of the present term where he feasted them with great bounty and familiarity A course as acceptable to the Kentish Gentry as if he had kept open Hospitality in his Palace at Canterbury because it saved them both the trouble of attending on him and the charge of sending Presents to him both which had been expected if he had spent any part of the year amongst them But this he discontinued also for three or four years or more before his death fearing as his affairs then stood that it might render him obnoxious to some misconstructions which he was willing to avoid To bring his Story to an end I shall say no more but that he had his Birth at Guilford the chief Town of Surrey and the best part of his breeding in Baliol Colledge in Oxon. whereof he was Fellow and from thence preferred to be Master of Vniversity Colledge and Dean of Winton Other preferments he had none till he came to Lichfield of which he was consecrated Bishop on the third of December Anno 1609. from thence translated unto London within few Months after and within twelve Months after that to the See of Canterbury Marks of his Benefaction we find none in places of his Breeding and Preferments but a fair Hospital well built and liberally endowed in the place of his Birth To which the woful man retired in the first extremity of those afflictions which his misfortune at Bramzill had drawn upon him and to this place he designed his body whensoever it should please God to translate him out of the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant which hapned on the fourth of August as before was said The End of the First Part. CYPRIANUS ANGLICUS OR THE HISTORY OF THE Life and Death OF The most Reverend and Renowned PRELATE WILLIAM By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all ENGLAND and Metropolitan Chancellor of the Universities of Oxon. and Dublin and one of the Lords of the Privy Council to His late most SACRED MAJESTY King CHARLES Second MONARCH of Great-Brittain PART II. Carrying on the History from his Nomination to the Metropolitical See of Canterbury August 6. 1633. to the day of his Death and Burial Jan. 10. 1644. LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for A. Seile 1668. THE LIFE OF The most Reverend FATHER in GOD WILLIAM Lord Archbishop of Canterbury LIB IV. Extending from his being made Archbishop of Canterbury to the end of the Parliament and Convocation Anno 1640. CANTERBVRY was anciently the principal City of the Kingdom and afterwards of the
without Mayors Bayliffs Constables and other Officers to take notice and to see observed as they tender Our displeasure And We further Will That Publication of this Our Commmand be made by Order from the Bishops thorow all the Parish Churches of their several Diocesses respectively Given at our Palace at Westminster Oct. 18. in the ninth year of Our Reign 1633. His Majesty had scarce dried his Pen when he dipt it in the Ink again upon this occasion The Parishioners of St. Gregories in St. Pauls Church-yard had bestowed much cost in beautifying and adorning their Parish Church and having prepared a decent and convenient Table for the holy Sacrament were ordered by the Dean and Chapter of St. Pauls as being Ordinaries of the place to dispose of it in such a Posture in the East end of the Chancel as anciently it had stood and did then stand in the Mother Cathedral Against this some of the Parishioners not above five in number appeal unto the Dean of the Arches and the Dean and Chapter to the King The third day of November is appointed for debating the Point in controversie before the Lords of the Council his Majesty sitting as chief Judge accompanied with Laud Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Keeper Lord Archbishop of Yorke Lord Treasurer Lord Privy Seal Lord Duke of Lenox Lord High Chamberlaine Earle Marshal Lord Chamberlaine Earle of Bridgewater Earle of Carlisle Lord Cottington Mr. Treasurer Mr. Comptroller Mr. Secretary Cooke Mr. Secretary Windebanke The cause being heard and all the Allegations on both sides exactly pondered his Majesty first declared his dislike of all Innovations and receding from ancient Constitutions grounded upon just and warrantable reasons c. And afterwards gave Sentence in behalf of the Dean and Chapter But because this Order of his Majesty in the case of St. Gregories was made the Rule by which all other Ordinaries did proceed in causing the Communion Table to be placed Altarwise in the Churches of their several and respective Diocesses I will subjoyn it here verbatim as it lies before me At Whitehall Novem. 3. 1633. This day was debated before his Majesty sitting in Council the question and difference which grew about the removing of the Communion Table in St. Gregories Church near the Cathedral Church of St. Paul from the middle of the Chancel to the upper end and there placed Altarwise in such manner as it standeth in the said Cathedral and Mother-Church as also in other Cathedrals and in his Majesties own Chappel and as is consonant to the practice of approved Antiquity which removing and placing of it in that sort was done by order of the Dean and Chapter of St. Pauls who are Ordinaries thereof as was avowed before his Majesty by Doctor King and Doctor Montfort two of the Prebends there Yet some few of the Parishioners being but five in number did complain of this act by appeal to the Court of Arches pretending that the Book of Common Prayer and the 82 Canon do give permission to place the Communion Table where it may stand with most fitness and convenience Now his Majesty having heard a particular relation made by the Counsell of both parties of all the carriage and proceedings in this cause was pleased to declare his dislike of all innovation and receding from ancient Constitutions grounded upon just and warrantable reasons especially in matters concerning Ecclesiastical Orders and Government knowing how easily men are drawn to affect Novelties and how soon weak Iudgments in such cases may be overtaken and abused And he was also pleased to observe that if those few Parishioners might have their wills the difference thereby from the foresaid Cathedral Mother-Church by which all other Churches depending thereon ought to be guided would be the more notorious and give more subject of discours and disputes that might be spared by reason of the nearness of St. Gregories standing close to the Wall thereof And likewise for so much as concerns the Liberty by the said Common Book or Canon for placing the Communion Table in any Church or Chappel with most conveniency that liberty is not so to be understood as if it were ever left to the discretion of the Parish much less to the particular fancy of any humorous person but to the judgment of the Ordinary to whose place and Function it doth properly belong to give direction in that point both for the thing it self and for the time when and how long as he may find cause Vpon which consideration his Majesty declared himself that he well approved and confirmed the Act of the said Ordinary and also gave commandment that if those few Parishioners before mentioned do proceed in their said Appeal then the Dean of the Arches who was then attending at the hearing of the cause should confirm the said Order of the aforesaid Dean and Chapter Of this last Declaration there was no great notice took at first the danger being remote the case particular and no necessity imposed of conforming to it But the other was no sooner published then it was followed and pursued with such loud outcries as either the Tongues or Pens of the Sabbatarians could raise against it Some fell directly on the King and could find out no better names for this Declaration than a Profane Edict a maintaining of his own honour and a Sacrilegious robbing of God A Toleration for prophaning the Lords day Affirming That it was impossible that a spot of so deep a dye should be emblanched though somewhat might be urged to qualifie and alleviate the blame thereof Others and those the greatest part impute the Republishing of this Declaration to the new Archbishop and make it the first remarkable thing which was done presently after he took possession of his Graceship as Burton doth pretend to wit it in his Pulpit Libell And though these Books came not out in Print till some years after yet was the clamour raised on both at the very first encreasing every day more and more as the reading of it in their Churches had been pressed upon them To stop the current of these clamours till some better course might be devised one who wisht well both to the Parties and the Cause fell on a fancy of Translating into the English Tongue a Lecture or Oration made by Dr. Prideaux at the Act in Oxon. Anno 1622. In which he solidly discoursed both of the Sabbath and Sunday according to the judgment of the ancient Fathers and the most approved Writers of the Protestant and Reformed Churches This Lecture thus translated was ushered also with a Preface In which there was proof offered in these three Propositions First That the keeping holy of one day of seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment Secondly That the alteration of the day is only an humane and Ecclesiastical Constitution Thirdly That still the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other Which as they are the general Tendries of the
the Archbishop thought it a more noble Act to remit the crime than to trouble the Court or any of his Majesties Ministers in the prosecution But herein Prynne sped better than some others who had before been snarling at him and laboured to expose him both to scorn and danger No sooner had he mounted the Chair of Canterbury but one Boyer who not long before had broke prison to which he had been committed for felony most grosly abused him to his face accusing him of no less than High Treason For which being brought into the Star-Chamber the next Michaelmas Term he was there censured by their Lordships as the Crime deserved And presently on the neck of this one Greene a poor decayed Printer for whom his Grace then Bishop of London had procured a Pension of five pound per Annum to be paid by the Company of Stationers yearly as long as he lived adventured into the Court of St. Iames's with a great Sword by his side desperately swearing That it the King did not do him Justice against the Archbishop he would take another course with him For this committed unto Newgate but how long he staid there and what other Punishment he suffered or whether he suffered any other or not let them seek that list And that the other Sex might whet their tongues upon him also the Lady Davies the Widow of Sir Iohn Davies Atturney-General for King Iames in the Realm of Ireland scatters a Prophesie against him This Lady had before spoken something unluckily of the Duke of Buckingham importing that he should not live till the end of August which raised her to the Reputation of a Cunning Woman amongst the ignorant people and now she Prophesies of the new Archbishop That he should live but few days after the fifth of November for which and other Prophesies of a more mischievous nature she was after brought into the Court of High-Commission the Woman being grown so mad that she phancied the Spirit of the Prophet Daniel to have been infused into her Body And this she grounded on an Anagram which she made of her Name viz. ELEANOR DAVIES REVEAL O DANIEL And though the Anagram had too much by an L and too little by an S yet she found Daniel and Reveal in it and that served her turn Much pains was taken by the Court to dispossess her of this Spirit but all would not do till Lamb then Dean of the Arches shot her through and through with an Arrow borrowed from her own Quiver For whilst the Bishops and Divines were reasoning the Point with her out of Holy Scripture he took a Pen into his hand and at last hit upon this excellent Anagram viz. DAME ELEANOR DAVIES NEVER SO MAD A LADIE Which having proved to be true by the Rules of Art Madam said he I see you build much on Anagrams and I have found out one which I hope will fit you This said and reading it aloud he put it into her â—ands in Writing which happy Phansie brought that grave Court into such a laughter and the poor Woman thereupon into such a confusion that afterwards she grew either wiser or was less regarded This ended as succesfully as he could desire but he sped worse with another of his Female Adversaries The Lady Purbeck Wiâ—e of Iohn Villers Viscount Purbeck the elder Brother by the same Venter to the Duke of Buckingham had been brought into the High-Commission Anno 1627. for living openly in Adultery with Sir Robert Howard one of the younger Sons of Thomas the first Earl of Suffolk of that Family Sentenced among other things to do Penance at St. Paul's Cross she â—scaped her Keepers took Sanctuary in the Savoy and was from thence conveyed away by the French Embassador The Duke being dead all further prosecution against her died also with him which notwithstanding the proud woman being more terrified with the fear of the Punishment than the sense of the Sin vented her malice and displeasure against the Archbishop who had been very severe against her at the time of her Trial when he was come unto his Greatness spending her tongue upon him in words so full of deep disgrace and reproach unto him that he could do no less than cause her to be laid in the Gatehouse But being not long after delivered thence by the Practise of Howard afore-mentioned Howard was seised upon and laid up in her place which Punishment though it was the least that could be looked for he so highly stomach'd that as soon as the Archbishop was impeach'd by the House of Commons and committed to Custody by the Lords which hapned on Fryday December 18. 1640. he petitioned for Relief against the Archbishop and some other of the High Commissioners by whom the Warrant had been signed The Lords upon the reading of it imposed a Fine of 500 l. on the Archbishop himself and 250 l. apiece upon Lamb and Duck and pressed it with such cruel rigour that they forced him to sell his Plate to make payment of it the Fine being set on Munday the 21. of December and ordered to be paid on the Wednesday after But these Particulars have carried me beyond my year I return therefore back again and having shewed what Actings had been set on foot both in England and Scotland must now cross over into Ireland where we find Wentworth made Lord Deputy in the place of Faulkland We told you formerly of some dearness which was growing between him and Laud then Bishop of London at his first Admission to the place of a Privy-Counsellor Toward the latter end of Ianuary Anno 1630. Wentworth being then Lord President of the Council established for the Northern Parts bestowed a Visit on him at London-House where they had some private Conference touching the better Settlement of Affairs both in England and Ireland of which Kingdom Wentworth not long after was Created Lord Deputy He staid somewhat longer from his Charge than he would have done to be present at the Censure of Williams Bishop of Lincoln informed against in the Star-Chamber by his Majesties Atturney-General for some dangerous and disgraceful words which he was reported to have spoken of his Majesties Government and revealing some Secrets which his Majesty had formerly committed to his Trust as a Privy-Counsellor But Williams found so many shifts to put off the Trial that the Deputy was fain to leave him in the same estate in which he found him and hoised Sail for Ireland Scarce was he setled in his Power but he began to reform some things which he beheld as blemishes in the face of that Church In the Chappel of the Castle of Dublin the chief Seat of his Residence he found a fair large Pue at the end of the Choire erected for the use of his Predecessors in that place the Communion-Table in the mean time being thrust out of doors This Pue he commands to be taken down and the Holy Table to be restored to its ancient
Archbishop knew full well how small a Progress he should make in his Reformation for reducing the French and Dutch to a Communion with the Church of England and the Church of England to it self if London were not brought to some Conformity Which City having a strong influence on all parts of the Kingdom was generally looked on as the Compass by which the lesser Towns and Corporations were to steer their Course the practice of it being pleaded upon all occasions for Vestries Lectures and some other Innovations in the State of the Church And to this nothing more concurred than that the Beneficed Clergy being but meanly provided for were forced to undertake some Lectures or otherwise to connive at many things contrary to their own Judgment and the Rules of the Church in hope that gaining the good will thereby of the Chief of their Parishes they might be gratified by them with Entertainments Presents and some other helps to mend their Maintenance The Lecturers in the mean time as being Creatures of the People and depending wholly on the Purse of the wealthier Citizens not only overtopped them in point of Power and Reputation but generally of Profit and Revenue also Not that these Lecturers were maintained so much by the Zeal and Bounty of their Patrons as by a general Fraud which for many years last past had been put upon the Regular Clergy by the diminishing of whose just Dues in Tythes and Offerings such Lecturers and Trencher-Chaplains had been fed and cherished For the better understanding whereof we are to know That in the year 1228. Roger Niger Bishop of London ordained by a Synodical Constitution That the Citizens should pay of every pounds Rent by the year of all Houses Shops c. the Sum of 3 s. 5 d. as time out of mind had formerly been paid Which 3 s. 5 d. did arise from the Offerings upon every Sunday and thirty of the principal Holydays in the same year after the Rate of one halspeny for every twenty shillings Rent of their Houses Shops c. This Order of Roger Niger remaining in force till the year 1397. and the Câ—â—â—gy being kept to such Rates for the Rents of Houses as at the first making of the same it was decreed by Thomas Arundell then Bishop of Canterbury That as the Rent increased so the Offerings or Tythes should increase also That the said Order should be read in every Parish-Church four times in the year and a Curse laid upon all those who should not obey it Confirmed by Pope Innocent vii and Nicholas v. with a Proviso That the said Oblations should be paid according to the true yearly value of the Shops and Houses It so remained until the twenty fifth year of Henry viii at what time many of the former Holydays being abrogated by the Kings Authority the yearly Profit of the Clergy found a great abatement the greater in regard of the variances which arose betwixt them and their Parishioners about the payment of their Dues the People taking the advantage of some Disorders which the Clergy at that present had been brought unto by acknowledging the King for the Supream Head of the Church of England Upon this variance a Complaint is made unto the King who refers the whole matter to Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Audley Lord Chancellor Gardiner Bishop of Winton Cromwell Chief Secretary of Estate Fitz-Iames and Norwich Chief Justices of the several Benches by whom it was concluded That from thenceforth 2 s. 9 d. only should be paid out of every pound for the Rents of Houses Shops c. And to this Order the Citizens did not only consent as they had good reason but bound themselves by an Act of Common Council to perform the same the said Decree confirmed by Act of Parliament in the twenty seventh and afterwards in the thirty seventh of that King with a power given to the Lord Mayor to commit to Prison every person whatsoever who should not pay his Tythes and Dues according to that Proportion But contrary to the true intent and meaning of the said Decrees and the several Acts of Parliament which confirmed the same the covetous and unconscionable Landlords who had the Fee-simple or some long Leases at the least of such shops and houses devised many base and fraudulent waies to put a cheat upon the Law and abuse the Clergie reserving some small sum in the name of a Rent and covenanting for other greater Sums to be paid quarterly or half yearly in the name of Fines Annuities Pensions Incomes Interest money c. Finding these Payments so conditioned and agreed upon to be too visible a cheat some were so wise as to take their Fines in gross when they sealed their Leases some inconsiderable Rent being charged upon them others so cunning as to have two Leases on foot at the same time one at a low contemptible Rent to gull the Incumbent of his dues the other with a Rent four or five times as great to keep down the Tenant and some by a more cleanly kind of conveyance reserving a small Rent as others did caused their Tenants to enter into several bonds for the payment of so much money yearly with reference to the term which they had in their Leases By which Devises and deceits the house-Rents were reduced to so low a value that some Aldermen who do not use to dwell in Sheds and Cottages could be charged with no more than twenty shillings for a whole years Tythe the Rent reserved amounts after that proportion but to seven pounds yearly The Clergie by the Alteration of Religion had lost those great advantages which had before accrued unto them by Obits Mortuaries Obventions to the Shrines and Images of some special Saints Church Lands and personal Tythes according to mens honest gain which last was thought to have amounted to more than the Tythe of houses Being deprived of the one and abused in the other they were forced in the sixteenth of King Iames Anno 1618. to have recourse to the Court of Exchequer by the Barons whereof it was declared that according to the true intent of the said Acts the Inhabitants of London and the Liberties thereof ought to pay the Tythe of their houses shops c. after the rate of two shillings nine pence in the pound proportionable to the true yearly value of the Rent thereof In order whereunto it was then ordered by the Court that a Shed which had been built and made a convenient dwelling house should pay twenty four shillings nine pence yearly in the name of a Tythe as was afterwards awarded by Sir Henry Yelverton upon a reference made unto him that one Rawlins who paid forty shillings yearly to his Landlord in the name of a Rent and twelve pound by the name of a fine should from thenceforth pay his Tythe to the Incumbent of the Parish in which he dwelt after the rate of fourteen pound yearly This and the like Arbitrements about that time
Canonry in Christ-Church to be annexed for ever to the Orators place whose yearly Pension till that time was but twenty Nobles Injoyed first by Dr. William Strode admitted thereunto on the first of Iuly Anno 1638. and after his decease by Dr. Henry Hammond Anno 1644. Such were the benefits which the University received from him in this present year And that he might both do himself and the University some honour in the eye of the Kingdom he invites the King the Queen the Prince Elector and his Brother to an Academical entertainment on the twenty ninth day of August then next following being the Anniversary day on which the Presidentship of St. Iohns Colledge was adjudged to him by King Iames. The time being come and the University put into a posture for that Royal visit their Majesties were first received with an eloquent Speech as he passed by the house being directly in his way betwixt Woodstock and Christ-Church not without great honour to the Colledge that the Lord Archbishop the Lord Treasurer the Chancellor the Vice-Chancellor and one of the Proctors should be at that time of the same foundation At Christ-Church his Majesty was entertained with another Oration by Strode the University Oratour the University presenting his Majesty with a fair and costly pair of Gloves as their custome was the Queen with a fair English Bible the Prince Elector with Hookers Books of Ecclesiastical Politie his Brother Rupert with Caesars Commentaries in English illustrated by the learned Explanations and Discourses of Sir Clement Edmonds His Majesty was lodged in Christ-Church in the great Hall whereof one of the goodliest in the World he was entertained together with the Queen the two Princes and the rest of the Court with an English Comedy but such as had more of the Philosopher than the Poet in it called Passions Calmed or the settling of the Floating Islands On the morrow morning being Tuesday he began with a Sermon preacht before him in that Cathedral on these words of St. Luke viz. Blessed is the King that cometh in the name of the Lord peace in heaven and glory in the highest Luk. 19.38 The Sermon being ended the Archbishop as Chancellor of the University calls a Convocation in which he admits the Prince Elector his Brother Prince Rupert and many of the chief Nobility to the degree of Masters of Art and that being done attends the King and Queen to St. Iohns Colledge Where in the new Gallery of his own building he entertains the King and Queen the two Princes with all the Lords and Ladies of the Court at a stately and magnificent Dinner the King and Queen sitting at one Table at the South end of the Room the two Princes with the Lords and Ladies at a long Table reaching almost from one end to the other at which all the Gallantry and beauties of the Kingdom seemed to meet Nor did he make Provision only for those two Tables but every Office in the Court had their several diets disposed of in convenient places for their reception with great variety of Achates not only sufficient for contentment but for admiration After dinner he entertains his principal Guests with a pleasant Comedy presented in the publick Hall and that being done attends them back again to Christ-Church where they were feasted after Supper with another Comedy called The Royal Slave the Enterludes represented with as much variety of Scenes and motions as the great wit of Inigo Iones Surveyor General of his Majesties Works and excellently well skilled in setting out a Court Masque to the best advantage could extend unto It was the day of St. Felix as himself observeth and all things went happily On Wednesday the next morning the Court removed his Majesty going that same night to Winchester and the Archbishop the same day entertaining all the Heads of Houses at a solemn Feast order being given at his departure that the three Comedies should be acted again for the content and satisfaction of the University in the same manner as before but only with the Alteration of the Prologues and Epilogues But to return unto the publick On the same day in which the new Statutes were received at Oxon. he procured a Supplement to be added to the old Statutes of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches touching the letting of their Lands Some Informations had been given that the Deans and Prebends of those Churches had enricht themselves their Wives and Children by taking great Fines for turning leases of twenty one years into leases for lives leaving their Successors destitute of that growing means which otherwise might come in to help them This was the outside of the business but the chief motive to it was that the Gentry and Yeomanry and some of the Nobility also holding Lands of those Churches might have a greater respect to the Church and Church-men when they must depend upon them from time to time for renewing of their said Estates at the end of every ten or twelve years at the most For though it be a like lawful by the Law of the Land 13 Eliz. c. 20. to make Leases of three lives or one and twenty years at the pleasure of the Dean and Chapter yet the difference is so great between them that once a Tenant to my knowledge after a Lease for three lives had continued 29 years in being chose rather to give a Fine for the change of one life than to take a new Lease of 21 years without paying any thing All which his Majesty taking into his Princely consideration he caused Letters under his Royal Signature to be sent to all the Deans and Chapters of this Kingdom respectively Calling and commanding them upon pain of his utmost displeasure that they presumed not to let any Lease belonging to their Church into lives which was not in lives already and further that when any fair opportunity was offered if any such be they fail not to reduce such as are in lives into years requiring further that those his Majesties said Letters should be exemplified in the Register-books of the said Churches and preâ—erved in the Registries of the Bishops of their several Diocess to the end that the said Bishop might take notice of their doing therein and give his Majesty and his Successors notice thereof if any presumed to disobey And in regard that some of the Deans of the said Cathedrals were a Corporation of themselves and held their Lands distinct from the rest of their Chapters a clause was added to those Letters to preserve those Lands for the benefit of their Successors as formerly in his Majesties Instructions for ordering and disposing the Lands of Bishops on the like occasions His Majesty therefore first declares That he had taken order by his late Instructions that no Bishop should let any Lease after they had been named to a better Bishoprick but had not therein named the Deans as he therein intended And therefore secondly that no Dean should presume from thenceforth
gives an account to Wederbourne by his Letters of the twentieth of April being the morrow after his Majesty had Signed the said Memorial It seems that Wederbourne had given our Archbishop notice of some defects which he had found in the Book of Consecration of Archbishops Bishops c. as it was then used amongst the Scots viz. 1. That the Order of Deacons was made but a Lay-Office at the best as by that Book might be understood And 2. That in the Admission to the Priesthood the very essential Words of conferring Orders were left out With which the King being made acquainted he gave command to the Archbishop to make known unto them That he would have them either to admit the English Book or else to rectifie their own in those two great oversights After which taking the whole business of that Church into his consideration it pleased him to direct his Further Instructions to the Archbishops and Bishops of it bearing date on the eighteenth of October following In which he requires them to take care That the Proclamation to be made for Authorising the Service-Book should not derogate in any thing from his Royal Prerogative 2. That in their Kalendar they should keep such Catholick Saints as were in the English such of the Saints as were most peculiar to that Kingdom especially those which were of the Royal Blood and some of the most holy Bishops being added to them but that in no case St. George and St. Patrick be omitted 3. That in their Book of Ordination in giving Orders to Presbyters they should keep the words of the English Book without change Receive the Holy Ghost c. 4. That they should insert among the Lessons ordinarily to be read in the Service out of the Book of Wisdom the first second third fourth fifth and sixth Chapters and out of the Book of Ecclesiasticus the first second fifth eighth thirty fifth and forty ninth Chapters 5. That every Bishop within his Family twice a day cause the Service to be read and that all Archbishops and Bishops make all Universities and Colledges within their Diocesies to use daily twice a day the Service 6. That the Preface to the Book of Common Prayer Signed by his Majesties Hand and the Proclamation for Authorising the same should be Printed and inserted in the Book of Common-Prayer According to which Instructions and the Corrections above-mentioned this Liturgie at the last after it had been twenty years in consideration was fully finished and concluded and being thus finished and concluded was Ratified and Confirmed by his Majesties Royal Edict as followeth viz. CHARLES By the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To Our Lovits Messengers Our Sheriffs in that part conjunctly and severally specially constitute Greeting Forasmuch as We ever since Our entry to the Imperial Crown of this Our ancient Kingdom of Scotland especially since Our late being here in the same have divers times recommended to the Archbishops and Bishops there the publishing of a Publick Form of Service in the Worship of God which We would have uniformly observed therein and the same being now condescended unto Although We doubt not but all our Subjects both Clergie and others will receive the said Publick Form of Service yet thinking it necessary to make Our Pleasure known touching the Authority thereof Our Will is and We straightly command That incontinent these Our Letters seen you pass and in Our Name and Authority command and charge all our Subjects both Ecclesiastical and Civil by open Proclamation at the Market-Crosses of the Head Burroughs of this Our Kingdom and other Places needful to conform themselves to the said Publick Form of Worship which is the only Form which We having taken the Counsel of Our Clergie think fit to be used in Gods Publick Worship in this Our Kingdom Commanding also all Archbishops and Bishops and other Presbyters and Church-men to take a special care that the same be duly obeyed and observed and the Contraveners condignly censured and punished and to have special care that every Parish betwixt this and Pasche next procure unto themselves two at the least of the said Books of Common-Prayer for the use of the Parish The which to do We commit to you conjunctly and severally Our full Power by these Our Letters Patents delivering the same to be by you duly executed and endorsed again to be delivered to the Bearer Given under Our Signet at Edenborough 20 December in the Twelfth year of Our Reign 1636. Such was the form of Passing and Confirming the Scottish Liturgie never presented to that Kirk nor tendred to the Approbation of any General Assembly as in the Restitution of Episcopal Government and Introduction of the five Articles of Perth had been done before And this is that at which the Scottish Presbyters did seem to be most offended sufficiently displeased with any Liturgie at all but more in having such an one as either was so near the English or so different from it Which fault if any fault it were is rather to to be charged upon the Scottish than the English Prelates For when the way of introducing it was in agitation our Archbishop ever advised them as well in his Majesties presence as elsewhere To look carefully to it and to be sure to do nothing in it but what should be agreeable to the Laws of the Kingdom and not to fail of taking the Advice of the Lords of the Council and governing themselves according to it But as it seems those Bishops durst not trust their Clergy or venture the reception or refusal of it to the Vote of a General Assembly from which they could not promise themselves any good success So that the Case seems to be much like that of King Edward vi when the first Liturgie was Composed by some few of the Bishops and other Learned men not above thirteen in number especially thereto Authorised Or unto that of Queen Elizabeth when the second Liturgie of that King was fitted and corrected by her appointment Neither of which durst trust their Clergy but acted Sovereignly therein of their own Authority not venturing either of the said Books to their Convocations but only giving them the strength of an Act of Parliament and then the Point in issue will be briefly this viz. Whether the King consulting with a lesser part of the Bishops and Clergie and having their consent therein may conclude any thing in the way of a Reformation the residue and greatest part not advised withal nor yielding their consent in a formal way Now for my Answer that it may be built upon the surer grounds it is to be considered 1. Whether the Reformation be in corruption of Manners or abuses in Government Whether in matters Practical or in points of Doctrine 2. It in matters Practical Whether such Practice have the Character of Antiquity Vniversality and Consent imprinted on it or that it be the Practice
This being a matter easily to be proved they were required to make up their number according to their first Foundation by King Henry vi But against this the Fellows pleaded That out of an hatred to their Founder a great part of their Lands had been taken from them by King Edward iv conferred by him upon the Abby of Westminster and the Church of Windsor and by them enjoyed until this day and that they hoped his Grace would not tye them to maintain the whole number of their Fellows with little more than half their Lands To which so reasonable a desire upon full proof made of the Suggestion his Grace did readily consent and left them in the same state in which he found them The noise of these Proceedings in England in the Iune and Iuly of this year being quickly posted to the Scots became a principal Incentive of those Combustions which not long after inflamed that Kingdom For it could be no hard matter for the Presbyterians there to possess the People with the sense of the like smart Sufferings by the Pride and Tyranny of their Bishops if they permitted them to grow great and powerful and did not cast about in time to prevent the mischief And to exasperate them the more the Superstitions of the Liturgie now at the point of being put in execution were presented to them which if once settled amongst them as was then intended would in short time reduce them under the Obedience of the Church of Rome They could not but confess That many things which were found fault with in the English Liturgie were in this altered unto the better the name of Priest so odious unto them of the Puritan Faction changed to that of Presbyter no fewer than sixty Chapters or thereabouts taken out of the Apocrypha appointed to be read by the Church in the English Book reduced to two and those two to be read only on the Feast of All-Saints The new Translation Authorised by King Iames being used in the Psalms Epistles Gospels Hymns and Sentences instead of the old Translation so much complained of in their Books and Conferences But what was this compared with those Superstitions those horrible Corruptions and Idolatries now ready to be thrust upon them in which this Liturgy as much exceeded that of England as that of England had departed from the simplicity and purity of the holier Churches Now therefore somewhat must be done to oppose the entrance of the Popish superstitious Service-Book either now or never But the Presbyterian Ministers who had gone thus far did not alone bring fewel to feed this flame to which some men of all degrees and qualities did contribute with them The Lords and Gentry of the Realm who feared nothing so much as the Commission of surrendries above mentioned laid hold on this occasion also and they being seconded by some male-contented Spirits of that Nation who had not found the King to be as prodigal of his bounties to them as his Father had been before endeavoured to possess them with Fears and Jealousies that Scotland was to be reduced to the Form of a Province and governed by a Deputy or Lord Lieutenant as Ireland was The like done also by some Lords of secret Counsel who before had governed as they listed and thought their power diminished and their persons under some neglect by the placing of a Lord President over them to direct in Chief So that the People generally being fooled into this opinion that both their Christian and Civil Liberty was in no small danger became capable of any impression which the Presbyterian Faction could imprint upon them nor did they want incouragements from the Faction in England to whom the Publication of the Book for Sports the transposing of the holy Table the suppressing of so many Lecturers and Afternoon Sermons and the inhibiting of Preaching Writing Printing in defence of Calvinism were as distasteful and offensive as the new Liturgie with all the supposed superstitions of it was to those of Scotland This Combination made and the ground thus laid it is no wonder if the people brake out into those distempers which soon after followed Sunday the 23 of Iuly was the day appointed for the first reading of the New Liturgy in all the Churches of that Kingdom and how it sped at Edenborough which was to be exemplary to all the rest shall be told by another who hath done it to my hand already Iuly 23. being Sunday the Dean of Edenborough began to read the Book in St. Giles his Church the chief of that City but he had no sooner entred on it than the inferiour multitude began in a tumultuous manner to fill the Church with uprore whereupon the Bishop of Edenborough stept into the Pulpit and hoping to appease them by minding them of the Sanctity of the place they were the more enraged throwing at him Cudgels Stools and what was in the way of Fury unto the very endangering of his life Upon this the Archbishop of St. Andrews Lord Chancellor was enforced to call down from the Gallery the Provost Bailiffs and other Magistrates of the City to their assistance who with much ado at length thrust the unruly Rabble out of the Church and made fast the doors This done the Dean proceeded in reading the Book the multitude in the mean while rapping at the doors pelting the Windows with stones and endeavouring what in them lay to disturb the Sacred Exercise but notwithstanding all this clamour the Service was ended but not the peoples rage who waiting the Bishops retiring to his Lodging so assaulted him as had he not been rescued by a strong hand he had probably perisht by their violence Nor was S. Giles his Church thus only pestered and profaned but in other Churches also though not in so high a measure the peoples disorders were agreeable The Morning thus past the Lord Chancellor and Council assembled to prevent the like darings in the Afternoon which they so effected as the Liturgy was read without any disturbance Only the Bishop of Edenborough was in his return to his Lodging rudely treated by the people the Earl of Roxboroughs Coach in which he passed serving for no protection to him though Roxborough himself was highly favoured of the People and not without some cause suspected to have had a hand in the Commotions of that day The business having thus miscarried in Edenborough stood at a stand in all other Churches of that Kingdom and therefore it will not be amiss to enquire in this place into the causes and occasions of it it seeming very strange to all knowing and discerning men that the Child that had so long lain in the Womb perfectly formed and now made ready for the birth should not have strength enough to be delivered Amongst which causes if disposed into ranke and order that which appears first is the confidence which Canterbury had in the Earl of Traquaire whom he had raised from the condition of a
had been grown so high and so strongly backed that Justice could not safely have been done upon them a way might have been found to have cooled the Fever without loss of Blood by bringing the whole Corporation under the danger of a forfeiture of their Lands and Liberties in a Legal way which course proved so successful unto King IAMES on the like occasion Anno 1597. Or finally supposing that the Cause admitted not such a long delay if then his Majesty had but sent a Squadron of the Royal Navy which he had at Sea to block up their Haven he had soon brought the Edenburghers unto his devotion and consequently kept all the rest of the Kingdom in a safe Obedience This was the way to keep them under and of this course the People of the City were more afraid than of any other Somewhat they are to do which might make his Majesty hope better of them than they had deserved and nothing they could do which might better please him than to express their chearfulness in admitting the Liturgie To this end they addressed their Letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury as more concerned in this Affair than any other of the Lords which were neer his Majesty expressing in the same their great dislike of the late Tumult for their Innocency therein they refer themselves to his Majesties Council in that Kingdom declaring further their concurrence with the Bishops which remained in the City and the Ministry of the same for settling the Service-Book and offering Means above their Power to such as should undertake the Reading of it and finally desiring his Grace to make known to his Majesty how ready they were at all points to advance the Service which they promised to accept as an accumulation of his Graces Favours unto them and their City And that this Letter of theirs which bears date the nineteenth of August might bear the greater credit with him they did not only seem industrious for the apprehending of some and the inquiring after others of the Principal Actors but bound themselves by an Obligatory Act of the Common-Council both for the Indempnity and Maintenance of such as should read the Book the Ministers of Edenborough refusing to do their parts in it without such Encouragements But the danger was no sooner over by the coming home of the Fleet but they Petitioned the Lords of the Council to put them into the same condition with the rest of the Subjects and that the Service-Book should be no further pressed on them than it had been in all the other parts of the Kingdom To which they were encouraged by a general confluence of all sorts of People such most especially as had most shewn their disaffection to the work in hand For the Harvest was no sooner in and the People at more leisure than before to pursue that Quarrel but the City swarmed with throngs of People from all parts even to a formidable number which moved the Lords to publish two Proclamations on the seventeenth of October The first commanding all of them to repair to their Dwellings except such as should shew sufficient reason for their stay and continuance there The second for Adjourning the Sessions from Edenborough to the Town of Linlithgow But this served rather like the powring on of Oyl to encrease the Flame than of Water to quench it For the next day the Bishop of Galloway being to Sit with the Lord Chief Justice upon some especial Business in the Council-House he was pursued all along the Street with bitter Railings to the very Door and being drawn in from the rage of the People they immediately beset the House demanding the delivery of him and threatning his destruction The Earl of Traquair being advertised of the Bishops danger who formerly had been his Tutor came to his Relief and with much ado forced an Entrance thorow the Press But being got in he was in no better plight than the Bishop the Clamour still encreasing more and more and encompassing the Council-House with terrible Menaces Hereupon the Provost and City-Council was called to raise the Siege but they returned answer That their condition was the same for they were surrounded with the like Multitude who had enforced them for fear of their Lives to sign a Paper importing First That they should adhere to them in opposition to the Service-Book Secondly To restore to their Places Ramsey and Rollock two Silenced Ministers and one Henderson a Silenced Reader No better Answer being returned the Lord Treasurer with the Earl of Wigton went in Person to the Town-Council-House where they found the heat of the fury somewhat abated because the Magistrates had signed the Paper and returned with some hope that the Magistrates would calm the Disorders about the Council-House so as the Bishop might be preserved But they no sooner presented themselves to the Great Street than they were most boysterously assaulted the Throng being so furious as they pulled down the Lord Treasurer took away his Hat Cloack and White Staff and so haled him to the Council-House The Lords seeing themselves in so great danger at length pitch upon the best expedient for their safety and sent to some of the Noblemen and Gentry who were disaffected to the Service-Book to come to their Aid These Lords and Gentlemen came as was desired and offered both their Persons and Power to protect them which the Lords and the Council-House readily embraced and so were quietly guarded to Holy-Rood-House and the Bishop to his Lodging The Lords of the Council not thinking themselves to be secure published a Proclamation the same day in the afternoon for repressing such Disorders for the time to come But they found slender Obedience yielded to it Commissioners being sent unto them from the Citizens in an insolent manner for demanding the Restitution of their Ministers to their Place and Function and performing all such Matters as had been agreed on at the Pacification These Riots and Seditions might have served sufficiently in another Reign to have drawn a present War upon them before they were provided in the least degree to make any resistance But the Edenburghers knew well enough what they were to do what Friends they had about the King and what a Party they had got among the Lords of his Council which Governed the Affairs of that Kingdom And they were apt enough to hope by the unpunishing of the first Tumult on Iuly 23. That the King might rather have patience enough to bear such Indignities than Resolution to revenge them so that he came at last to that perplexity which a good Author speaks of That he must either out-go his Nature or fore-go his Authority For instead of using his just Power to correct their Insolencies he courts them with his Gracious Proclamation of the seventh of December in which he lets them know How unwilling he was that his Loyal and Faithful Subjects should be possessed with groundless and unnecessary doubts and fears touching
those who adhered unto him to fly the Country but intercepted his Revenues seazed on all his Forts and Castles and put themselves into a Posture of open War And that they might be able to manage it with the greater credit they called home some of their Commanders out of Germany and some which served under the Pay of the States General so far prevailing with those States as to continue such Commanders in their Pay and Places as long as they remained in the Service of the Scottish Covenanters A favour which his Majesty could not get at their hands nor had he so much reason to expect it as the others had iâ— considered rightly It had been once their own case and they conceived they had good reason to maintain it in others It may deservedly be a matter of no small amazement that this poor and unprovided Nation should dare to put such baffles and affronts upon their Lawful King the King being backt by the united Forces of England and Ireland obeyed at home and rendred formidable unto all his Neighbours by a puissant Navy they must have some assurances more than ordinary which might enflame them to this height and what they were it may not be amiss to enquire into First then they had the King for their natural Country-man born in that Air preserving a good affection for them to the very laâ—t and who by giving them the Title of his Ancient and Native Kingdom as he did most commonly gave them some reason to believe that he valued them above the English They had in the next place such a strong Party of Scots about him that he could neither stir or speak scarce so much as think but they were made acquainted with it In the Bed-Chamber they had an equal number of Gentlemen and seven Grooms for one in the Presence-Chamber more than an equal number amongst the Gentlemen Ushers Quarter-Waiters c. In the Privy-Chamber besides the Carvers and Cup-bearers such disproportion of the Gentlemen belonging to it that once at a full Table of Waiters each of them having a Servant or two to attend upon him I and my man were the only English in all the Company By which the King was so obsâ—rved and betrayed withal that as far as they could find his meaning by Words by Signs and Circumstances or the silent language of a shrug it was posted presently into Scotland some of his Bed-Chamber being grown so bold and saucy that they used to Ransack his Pockets when he was in bed to transcribe such Letters as they found and send the Copies to their Countrymen in the way of intelligence A thing so well known about the Court that the Archbishop of Canterbury in one of his Letters gave him this memento that he should not trust his Pockets with it For Offices of trust and credit they wâ—re as well accomodated as with those of service Hamilton Master of the Horse who stocked the Stables with that People The Earl of Morton Captain of his Majesties Guard The Earl of Ancram Keeper of the Privy Purse The Duke of Lenox Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover Castle Balfore Lieutenant of the Tower the Fortress of most power and command in England And Wemmys the Master Gunner of his Majesties Navy who had the issuing of the Stores and Ammunition designed unto it Look on them in the Church and we shall find so many of that Nation beneficed and preferred in all parts of this Country that their Ecclesiastical Revenues could not but amount to more then all the yearly Rents of the Kirk of Scotland and of all these scarce one in ten who did not cordially espouse and promote their Cause amongst the People They had beside no less assurance of the English Puritans than they had of their own those in Court of which there was no very small number being headed by the Earl of Holland those in the Country by his Brother the Earl of Warwick The fâ—rst being aptly called in a Letter of the Lord Conways to the Lord Archbishop The spiritual and invisible head the other The visible and temporal head of the Puritan Faction And which was more than all the rest they had the Marquiss of Hamilton for their Lord and Patron of so great power about the King such Authority in the Court of England such a powerful influence on the Council of Scotland and such a general Command over all that Nation that his pleasure amongst them past for Law and his words for Oracles all matters of Grace and Favour ascribed to him matters of harshness or distate to the King or Canterbury To speak the matter in a word he was grown King of Scots in Fact though not in Title His Majesty being looked on by them as a Cypher only in the Arithmetick of State But notwithstanding their confidence in all these Items taking in the Imprimis too they might have reckoned without their Host in the Summa Tetalis the English Nation being generally disaffected to them and passionately affecting the Kings quarrel against them The sense and apprehension of so many indignities prevailed upon the King at last to unsheath the Sword more justly in it self and more justifiably in the sight of others the Rebels having rejected all 〈◊〉 oâ—â—ers of Grace and Favour and growing the more insolent by his Condescensions So that resolved or rather forced upon the War he must bethink himself of means to go thorow with it To which end Burrows the Principal King of Arms is commanded to search into the Records of the Tower and to return an Extract of what he found relating to the War of Scotland which he presented to the Archbishop in the end of December to this effect viz. 1. That such Lords and others as had Lands and Livings upon the Borders were commanded to reside there with their Retinue and those that had Castles there were enjoined to Fortifie them 2. That the Lords of the Kingdom were Summoned by Writ to attend the Kings Army with Horse and Armour at a certain time and place according to their Service due to the King or repair to the Exchequer before that day and make Fine for their Service As also were all Widows Dowagers of such Lords as were deceased and so were all Bishops and Ecclesiastical Persons 3. That Proclamations were likewise made by Sheriffs in every County That all men holding of the King by Knights-Service or Sergeancy should come to the Kings Army or make Fines as aforesaid with a strict command That none should conceal their Service under a great Penalty 4. As also That all men having 40 l. Land per Annum should come to the Kings Army with Horse and Armour of which if any failed to come or to make Fine their Lands Tenements Goods and Chattels were distrained by the Sheriâ—f upon Summons out of the Exchequer 5. That Commissions should be issued out for Levying of Men in every County and bringing them to the Kings
as forward in it as any other that their Contributions mounted higher than was expected The Benevolence of the Diocess of Norwich only aâ—ounting to 2016 l. 16 s. 5 d. The Archdâ—acorry of Winchester only to the sum of 1305 l. 5 s. 8 d. And though we may not conclude of all the rest by the greatness of thâ—se yet may it be very safely said that they did all exceeding bountifully in their several proportions with reference to the extent of their Diocesses and the ability of their Estates Nor were the Judges of the several Benches of the Courts at Westminster and the great Officers under them Protonotaries Secondaries and the like deficient in expressing their good aâ—â—ections to this general cause in which the safety of the Realm was as much concerned as his Majesties honour And for the Doctors of the Laws Chancellors Commissaries Officials and other Officers belonging to the Ecclesiastical Courts they were spurred on to follow the example of the Secular Judges as having a more particular concernment in it by a Letter sent from the Archbishop to the Dean of the Arches on February 11. and by him communicated to the rest By which Free-will offerings on the one side some commanded duties on the other and the well-husbanding of his Majesties Revenue by the Lord Treasurer Iuxon he was put into such a good condition that he was able both to raise and maintain an Army with no charge to the Common Subject but only a little Coat and Conduct money at their first setting out These preparations were sufficient to give notice of a War approaching without any further denouncing of it by a publick Herald and yet there was another accident which seemed as much to fore-signifie it as those preparations Mary de Medices the Widow of King Henry iâ— of France and Mother to the Queens of England and Spain arrived at Harwich on October 19. and on the last of the same was with great State conducted through the Streets of London to his Majesties Palace of St. Iames. A Lady which for many years had not lived out of the smell of Powder and a guard of Muskets at her door embroyled in wars and troubles when she lived in France and drew them after her into Flanders where they have ever since continued So that most men were able to presage a Tempest as Mariâ—eâ—s by the appearing of some Fish or the flying of some Birds about their ships can foresee a storm His Majesty had took great care to prevent her comming knowing â—ull well how chargeable a guest she would prove to him and how unwelcome to the Subject To which end â—eswel was commanded to use all his wits for perswading her to stay in Holland whither she had retired from Flanders in the year precedent But she was wedded to her will and possibly had received such invitations from her Daughter here that nothing but everlasting foul weather at Sea and a perpetual cross-wind could have kept her there All things provided for the War his Majesty thought sit to satisfie his good Subjects of both Kingdoms not only of the Justice which appeared in this Action but in the unavoydable necessity which enforced him to it To which end he acquaints them by his Proclamation of the 20 of February How traiterously some of the Scottish Nation had practiced to pervert his Loyal Subjects of this Realm by scattering abroad their Libellous and Seditious Pamphlets mingling themselves at their publick meetings and reproaching both his Person and Government That he had never any intention to alter their Religion or Laws but had condescended unto more for defence thereof than they had reason to expect That they had rejected the Band and Covenant which themselves had prest upon the people because it was commended to them by his Authority and having made a Covenant against God and him and made such Hostile preparations as if he were their sworn Enemy and not their King That many of them were men of broken Fortunes who because they could not well be worse hoped by engaging in this War to make themselves better That they had assumed unto themselves the power of the Press one of the chief markes of the Regal Authority prohibiting to Print what he commanded and commanding to Print what he prohibited and dismiâ—â—ng the Printer whom he had established in that Kingdom That they had raised Arms blockt up and besieged his Castles laid Impositions and Taxes upon his people threatned such as continued under Loyalty with force and violence That they had contemned the Authority of the Council Table and set up Tables of their own from which they send their Edâ—cts throughout all parts of the Kingdom contrary to the Laws therein established pretending in the mean time that the Laws were violated by himself That the question was not now whether the Service-Book should be received or not or whether Episcopacy should continue or not but whether he were King or not That many of them had denied the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance for which some of them had been committed as inconsistent and incompatible with their holy Covenant That being brought under a necessity of taking Arms he had been traduced in some of their writings for committing the Arms he had then raised into the hands of professed Papists a thing not only dishonourable to himself and the said noble persons but false and odious in it self That some of power in the Hierarchy had been defamed for being the cause of his taking Arms to invade that Kingdom who on the contrary had been only Counsellors of peace and the chief perswaders as much as in them lay of the undeserved moderation wherewith he had hitherto proceeded toward so great Offenders That he had no intent by commending the Service-Book unto them to innovate any thing at all in their Religion but only to create a conformity between the Churches of both Kingdoms and not to infringe any of their Liberties which were according to the Laws That therefore he required all his loving Subjects not to receive any more of the said seditious Pamphlets but to deliver such of them as they had received into the hands of the next Justice of the Peace by him to be sent to one of his Majesties principal Secretaries And finally That this his Proclamation and Declaration be read in time of Divine Service in every Church within the Kingdom that all his People to the meanest might see the notorious carriages of these men and likewise the Justice and Mercy of all his proceedings And now his Majesty is for Action beginning his Journey towards the North March 27. being the Anniversary day of his Inauguration His Army was advanced before the best for quality of the Persons compleatness of Arms number of serviceable Horse and necessary Provision of all sorts that ever waited on a King of England to a War with Scotland Most of the Nobility attended on him in their Persons and such as were to be
for him in such a place and amongst people so enraged notwithstanding his great clemency shewed unto them in the Pacification His Majesty was now at leisure to repent the loss of those Advantages which God had put into his hands He found the Scots so unprovided not having above 3000. compleat Arms amongst them that he might have scattered them like the dust before the wind at the very first onset By making this agreement with them he put them into such a stock of Reputation that within the compass of that year they furnished themselves out of Holland with Cannon Arms and Ammunition upon days of Payment without disbursing any money which he knew they had not He came unto the borders with a gallant Army which might assure him under God of a very cheap and easie victory an Army governed by Colonels and other Officers of approved Valour and mingled with the choicest of the English Gentry who stood as much upon his honour as upon their own This Army he disbanded wiâ—â—out doing any thing which might give satisfaction to the world himsâ—lf or them Had he retired it only to a further distance he had done as much as he was bound to by the Capitulations But he disbanded it before he had seen the least performance on their parts of the points agreed on before he had seen the issue and success of the two Conventions in which he did expect a settling of his peace and happiness which had he done he had in all reasonable probabilities preserved his honour in the eye of Foraign Nations secured himself from any danger from that people and crusht those Practices at home which afterwards undermined his Peace and destroyed his Glories But doing it in this form and manner without effecting any thing which he seemed to Arm for he animated the Scots to commit new Insolencies the Dutch to affront him in his own Shores by fighting and destroying the Spanish Navy lying under his protection and which was worst of all gave no small discontentment to the English Gentry Who having with great charge engaged themselves in this Expedition out of hope of getting honour to the King their Country and themselves by their faithful service were suddenly dismissed not only without the honour which they aimed at but without any acknowledgment of their Love and Loyalty A matter so unpleasing to them that few of them appeared 〈◊〉 the next years Army many of them turned against him in the following troubles the greatest part looking on his Successes with a careless eye as unconcerned in his Affairs whether good or bad In this condition of Affairs he returned toward London in the end of Iuly leaving the Scots to play their own Game as they listed having first nominated Traquaire as his High Commissioner for managing both the Assembly and the following Parliament In the first meeting of the two they acted over all the parts they had plaid at Glasco to the utter abolition of Episcopacy and the destruction of all those which adhered unto it their Actings in it being confirmed in his name by the High Commission In the Parliament they altered the old form of chusing the Lords of the Articles erected a third Estate out of Lairds and Barons instead of the Bishops invaded the Soveraign power of Coynage Resolved upon an Act for abrogating all former Statutes concerning the Judicature of the Exchequer for making of Proxies and governing the Estates of Wards and finally conceived the King to be much in their debt by yielding to a prorogation till a further time The news whereof reduced the King to such a stand that he was forced to send for Wentworth out of Ireland where he had acted things in settling the Estate of that broken Kingdom beyond expectation or belief This charged on Canterbury as a project and crime of his and both together branded for it in a Speech made by the Lord Faulkland in the first year of the Long Parliament where speaking first of the Bishops generally he tells the Speaker That they had both kindled and blown the fire in both Nations and more particularly that they had both sent and maintained that book of which the Author hath no doubt long since wished with Nero Vtinam nescissem Literas And of which more than one Kingdom hath cause to wish that he who writ it had rather burned a Library though of the value of Ptolemies And then he adds We shall see then saith he who have been the first and principal cause of the breach I will not say of but since the Pacification at Berwick We shall find them to have been the almost sole Abettors of my Lord of Strafford whilst he was practicing upon another Kingdom that manner of Government which he intended to settle in this where he committed so many so mighty and so manifest enormities as the like have not been committed by any Governour in any Government since Veires left Sicily And after they had called him over from being Deputy of Ireland to be in manner Deputy of England all things here being governed by a Iuntillo and that Iuntillo governed by him to have assisted him in the giving of such Counsels and the pursuing of such courses as it is a hard and measuring cast whether they were more unwise more unjust or more unfortunate and which had infallibly been our destruction if by the grace of God their share had not been as small in the subtilty of Serpents as in the innocence of Doves But these were only the Evaporations of some Discontents which that noble Orator had contracted of which more elsewhere Wentworth being called unto this Service was presently made Lord Leiutenant of Ireland and not long after with great solemnity Created Earl of Strafford in the County of York As Lord Lieutenant he had Power to appoint a Deputy that so he might the better attend the Service here without any prejudice to that Kingdom which Office he committed to Wansford a Yorkshire Gentleman and an especial Confident of his whom he had took along with him into Ireland at his first going thither And because great Counsels are carried with most faith and secrecy when they are entrusted but to few his Majesty was pleased to commit the Conduct of the Scottish Businesses to a Iuncto of three that is to say the Archbishop of Canterbury the new Lord Lieutenant and the Marquis of Hamilton which last the other two knew not how to trust and therefore communicated no more of their Counsels to him than such as they cared or feared not to make known to others By these three joyned in Consultations it was conceived expedient to move his Majesty to try his fortune once more in calling a Parliament and in the mean time to command some of the Principal Covenanters to attend his Pleasure at the Court and render an account of their late Proceedings In order to the first they had no sooner signified what they thought fit for his Majesties Service but
should not be bound to repair with other of their Neighbours to their Parish Churches it might create a further mischief then the present Scandal and come up close at last to formal Schism His Order had been published in all the Congregations of strangers within his Province as before is said but Executed more or less as the Minister and Church-wardens stood affected to those Congregations And therefore that the Church-wardens might more punctually proceed in doing their duty It was thought fit that certain Articles should be framed and commended to them for their future direction The Reformation being pursued in his own Diocess and the Metropolitical City first it was to be presumed that those in other places would gladly follow the Example Of laying taxes on those strangers in their several Parishes for repairing of and adorning their several Parish-Churches and providing Ornaments for the same they were in all places careful enough because their own profit was concerned in it And for their proceedings in the rest they were directed by these Orders to inquire of all such strangers as lived amongst them the names of all married persons in their Congregations as of the second descent in their several Parishes to the end that order might be taken for decent seats for them according to their Estates and qualities that they should return the names and ages of those unmarried of the second descent and whose children and servants they were to the end that the like care might be taken of their due resort to the Church there to be Catechised and Communicate according to their ages that those at sixteen years and upwards that had not already Communicated should prepare themselves to receive the blessed Sacrament in their Parish Church at the next Communion and from thence forward thrice in the year afterwards as the Canons of the Church require as they would avoid presentment to their Ordinary for their neglect therein that such as were Parents and Masters of Families of the first and second descent did thenceforth every Lords day half an hour after Evening Prayer send all such their Children and Servants as were under sixteen to their Parish Church there to be Catechised according to the Orders of the Church as they themselves upon presentment would answer the Contrary These Articles being given in the middle of April were Executed for the rest of the year more punctually then in any of those before But it held not much longer then the rest of that year The troubles which the Archbishop fell into in the year next following dissolving all his Orders and Injunctions of this kind as if never made With equal constancy he governed his Counsels in all other particulars Some informations had been given him of certain misdemeanours and corruptions in Merton Colledge of which he was the Ordinary and immediate Visitor in the Right of his See and in that Right he resolves upon a Visitation both in Head and Members To this employment he deputes his Right Trusty Friend and Assured Servant The Dean of the Arches who entring on his charge in the year foregoing 1638. made this Enquiry amongst others viz. Whither they made due Reverence by bowing towards the Altar or Communion Table when they came into the Chappel And finding by a return to this enquiry that Corbet and Cheynel two of the Fellows not only had neglected but refused to make any such Reverence he tryed all fair and plausible perswasions by himself and others to induce them too it But not prevailing either way he certified the Archbishop of his Proceedings who thereupon caused some Injunctions to be sent to the Colledge for their future Governance Amongst which I find this for one that they use due and lowly Reverence towards the Lords Table at their first entrance into the Quire Upon the coming whereof there was no more dispute about it those Reverences being made by most and constantly continued by them till the Parliament of Novem. 3. In matters which concerned the Warden it was thought fit by Lamb the Chief Commissioner to do nothing without further direction but only to acquaint the Archbishop in what State he found them who thereupon recalled the business to himself The parties to appear before him Octob. following at which time he spent three days in hearing and examining the Points in difference between Brent the Warden and such of the Fellows of the Colledge as complained against him But for determining the Cause the Warden appearing very foul as himself acknowledgeth he took time till the first of Iuly in this present year that Brent might have the better opportunities to content his Fellows for the Errors of his Government in the times precedent and give them some assurance of a Reformation for the time to come Which noble Favour notwithstanding and that he went off with no other Censure than a fair and Fatherly Admonition yet Brent unmindful of so great a moderation toward him expres'd more readiness in contributing towards his Condemnation in the time of his Trial than any of those who did most eagerly desire his Ruine The course and method of my business having brought me to Oxon I cannot depart thence without taking notice of his further Bounty and Munificence to that University He had before entertained some thoughts of clearing the great Square betwixt St. Maries and the Schools intending to have raised aâ—fair and capacious Room advanced on Pillars the upper part to serve for Convocations and Congregations which till that time were held in the Church it self the lower for a Walk or place of Conference in which Students of all sorts might confer together at their repairing to the Schools the Library or any other business which concerned the Publick But finding the Owners of those Houses not so willing to part with them as he had probably presumed he was fain to shift the Scene though he held his purpose which fell out very happily for that University For being resolved to free St. Maries Church from those Inconveniencies which the continual keeping of the Publick Convocations and Congregations must of necessity carry with it he erected a stately and most elegant Pile at the West end of the Divinity School and Publick Library The lower part whereof was fitted and accommodated for the Convocations and other Publick Meetings of that Famous Body The upper part opening into the Bodleian Library he trimmed with all the Curiosities of Art and Cost to serve as a Repository for such Learned Writings as the Piety of ensuing Times might confer upon it And that it might not be reported that he had given them nothing but an empty Box â—e furnished it with no fewer than 1276 Manuscripts in several Languages 700 whereof had been sent before at divers times when this beautiful Structure was in raising The rest were sent on Iune 28. in this present year 100 of these last being in the Hebrew Greek Arabick and Persian Tongues And that he might make some
Worship of God his design to bring in Popery by the back-door of Arminianism and his endeavouring of a Reconciliation betwixt us and Rome And first as touching such Innovations in the Worship of God he makes a general purgation of himself in his Speech made in the Star-Chamber the sum and substance whereof you have seen before Out of which I shall only take this short and pithy Declaration which he makes of himself in relation to this part of his charge viz. I can say it clearly and truly as in the presence of God that I have done nothing as a Prelate to the utmost of what I am conscious but with a single heart and with a sincere intention for the good Government and honour of the Church and the maintenance of the Orthodox truth and Religion of Christ professed established and maintained in the Church of England For my care of this Church the reducing it to Order the upholding of the External Worship of God in it and the settling of the Rules of its first Reformation are the cause and the sole cause whatsoever is pretended of this malicious storm that hath lowred so black upon me and some of my Brethren The like Declaration he also makes in his first Speech to the Lords at the time of his tryal where we find it thus Ever since I came into place saith he I have laboured nothing more than that the External Worship of God so much slighted in divers parts of this Kingdom might be preserved and that with as much Decency and Uniformity as might be For I evidently saw that the publick neglect of Gods Service in the outward face of it and the nasty lying of many places dedicated to that Service had almost cast a damp upon the true and inward Worship of God which while we live in the body needs External helps and all little enough to keep it in any vigour And this I did to the utmost of my knowledge according both to Law and Canon and with the consent and liking of the People nor did any Command issue out from me against the one or the other And finally we shall find the like Declaration made by him on the Scaâ—fold at the time of his death in which sad hour there was no dissembling and I conceive all charitable men will believe so of it before God or man But because it relates also to the next particular we shall there meet with it And for the next particular concerning the designing to bring in â—â—pery it hath been further aggravated by his correspondency with tâ—e Popes Ministers here in England and his indulgence to that Party upon all occasions But of this he cleansed himself sufficiently in the 〈◊〉 Chamiber Speech before remembred in which he publickly avowed First That he knew of no plot or purpose of altering the Religion established Secondly That he had never been far from attempting any thing that may truly be said to tend that way in the least degree And thirdly having offered his Oath for the other two that it the King had a mind to change Religion which he knew he had not his Majesty must seek for other Instruments how basely soever those men had conceived of him The like 〈…〉 gives also in the last hour of his life when he was goâ—â—â— to tender an account of all his Actions before Gods Tribunal â—here is a Clamour that I would have brought in Popery but I was 〈◊〉 and baptized saith he in the bosome of the Church of England established by Law in that profession I have ever since lived and in that I come now to dye This is no time to dissemble with God least of all in matters of Religion and therefore I 〈◊〉 it may be remembred I have alwaies lived in the Protestant Religion established in England and in that I come now to die And then he adds with reference to the point before What Clamours and slanders I have endured for labouring to keep an Uniformity in the External Service of God according to the Doctrine and Discipline of this Church all men know and I have abundantly 〈◊〉 His Conference with Fisher the Iesuite in the year 1622. and 〈…〉 of that Conference Anno 1637. with Derings attestation 〈…〉 before we had do most abundantly evince this truth at he approved not the Doctrine of the Church of Rome And as 〈◊〉 approveâ— not of their Doctrines so he as much disliked their 〈◊〉 for gaining Proselytes or multiplying their followers in all 〈…〉 the Kingdom concerning which he tells his Majesty That 〈…〉 never had advised a persecution of the Papists in any 〈◊〉 yet God forbid saith he that your Majesty should let born Laws and Discipline sleep for fear of a Persecution and in the mean time let Mr. Fisher and his Fellows Angle in all parts of your Dominions for your Subjects If in your Grace and Goodness you will spare their persons yet I humbly beseech you to see to it that they be not suffered to lay either their Weels or bait their Hâ—oks or cast their Nets in every stream least the Temptation grow both too general and too strong So he in the Epistle Dedicatory to his Large Relation of the Conference between him and Fisher published in the end of the year forgoing Assuredly it must needs seem extremely ridiculous to others and contradictory to it self to confute the chief Doctrines of the Papists and oppose their practicings if he â—ad had any such design to bring in Popery And being thus averse from them in point of Doctrine he declined all correspondence and acquaintance with them whereby he might come under the suspicion of some secret Practice I hold it probable enough that the better to oblige the Queen unto him of whose Prevalency in the Kings affections he could not be ignorant he might consent to Con's coming hither over from the Pope to be assistant to her in such affairs as the nature of her Religion might occasion with the Sea of Rome But he kept himself at such a distance that neither Con nor Panzani before him who acted for a time in the same capacity could fasten any acquaintance on him The Pamphlet called The Popes Nuncio Printed in the year 1643. hath told us That Panzani at his being here did desire a Conference with the Archbishop of Canterbury but was put of and procrastinated therein from day to day That at the last he departed the Kingdom without any Speech with him The like we find in the discovery of Andreas ab Habernfield who tells us of this Con That finding the Kings Judgment to depend much on the Archbishop of Canterbury his faithful Servant he resolved to move every stone and bend all his strength to gain him to his side being confident he had prepared the means For he had a command to make offer of a Cardinals Cap to the Lord Archbishop in the name of the Pope of Rome and that he should allure him
of his Majesties Privy-Council had any thing been contained in them derogatory to the Kings Prerogative or tendinâ— to Faction and Sedition So far they were from being liable to Condemnation in those respects that Justice Crook whose Argument in the Case of Ship-money was Printed afterwards by Order from the House of Commons is credibly affirmed to have lifted up his hands and to have given hearty Thanks to Almighty God that he had lived to see so good Effects of a Convocation On these Encouragements and such a solemn Approbation the Clergy were called up to the House of Bishops to be present at the subscribing oâ— them which was accordingly performed May 29. by the Bishops Deans and Archdeacons in their Seniority and promiscuoâ—sly by the rest of the Clergy till all the Members had Subscribed every mans heart going together with his hand as it is to be presumed from all men of that holy Profession Recusant there was none but the Bishop of Glocester suspected of some inclinations to the Romish Religion in the Times preceding which inclinations he declared more manifestly by this Refusal for which there could be no imaginable Reason to prevail upon him but the severity of the Canon for suppressing the Growth of Popery Some pains was taken with him in the way of perswasion and some Commands laid on him by his Metropolitan as President of the Convocation But when neither of the two Endeavours could remove him from his former obstinacy the Prolocutor and Clergy were required to return to their House again and to consider of the Penalty which he had incurred according to the Rules and Practice of the Catholick Church in National and Provincial Councils Which being done the Proloâ—â—tor had no sooner put the Question but the Clergy unanimously condemned him to a Suspension a Beneficio Officio and found at their return that the House of Bishops who had had some speech thereof before had pronounced the same Sentence against him also A Sentence which might have produced more dangerous effects on this obstinate Prelate if he had not prevented it in time by his submission For the Sentence being reduced into Writing subscribed by the Archbishops hand and publickly pronounced in 〈◊〉 Convocation his Majesty took such just offence at so great a scandal that he committed him to Prison where he staid not long 〈◊〉 on the tenth of Iuly he made acknowledgment of his fault before the Lords of the Council and took the Oath injoyned in the sixth Canon for preserving the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England against all Popish Doctrines which were thereunto repugnant Upon the doing whereof his Majesty was graciously pleased to restore him to his former Liberty though this Submission appeared within few years after to be made either with some mental Reservation or Jesuitical Equivocation which he came prepared with For in the time of his last Sickness he declared himself to be a Member of the Church of Rome and caused it so to be expressed in his last Will and Testament that the news thereof might spread the further and his Apostacy stand upon Record to all future Ages A Scandal so unseasonably given as if the Devil himself had watched an opportunity to despite this Church But these things hapned not till after The Sentence of Suspension was no sooner pronounced but the Archbishop giving great thanks to the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy for their pains and diligence in doing so much Work in so little time produced his Majesties Writ for dissolving the said Convocation which he accordingly executed and dissolved the same The Acts whereof being transmitted unto York were by the Convocation for that Province perused debated and approved without any disputing and so presented to his Majesty with their Names subscribed according to the ancient Custom There remained now nothing more to do for giving these Canons the Authority and Reputation of his Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws but the signifying of his Royal Assent and confirming them by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England And this his Majesty upon mature deliberation was graciously pleased to do commanding in the same That they should be diligently observed executed and equally kept by all his Subjects both within the Provinces of Canterbury and York respectively That for the better observation of them all Ministers should audibly and distinctly read all the said Canons in the Church or Chappel in which they Minister at the time of Divine Service The Book of the said Canons to be provided before Michaelmas at the charge of their Parishes And finally That all Archbishops and Bishops and others having Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction shall take special care that the said Canons and Ordinances be in all points duly observed not sparing to execute the Penalties in them severally mentioned upon any that shall wittingly or wilfully break or neglect to observe the same as they tendred the Honour of God the Peace of the Church the Tranquility of the Kingdom and their Duties and Service to his Majesty their King and Sovereign With which his Majesties Letters Patents bearing date on Iune 13. confirmatory of the Acts of the said Convocations I conclude the fourth and busiest part of this present History THE LIFE OF The most Reverend FATHER in GOD WILLIAM Lord Archbishop of Canterbury LIB V. Extending from the end of the Convocation Anno 1640. till the day of his Death Jan. 10 th 1644. THus have we brought this Renowned Prelate and with him the Church unto the very Battlement and Pinacle of External Glories But such is the vicissitude of humane affairs that being carried to the height they begin to fall it being no otherwise with the fortunes of States or Men then it is with Plants which have their times of taking Root their Growing Flourishing Maturity and then their Fading and decay And therefore it was very well observed by Paterculus an old Roman Historian that when either Emulation or natural Courage had given to any man an edge to ascend to the highest after they had attained that height they were according to the course of Nature to descend again and that it was no otherwise with States and Nations then with Private men It was just fourscore years from the beginning of the Reformation under Queen Eliz. to the Pacification made at Berwick when the King so unfortunately dismist his Forces and thereby left himself and his party in a worse condition then before the raising of his Army The Church till then might seem to be in the Ascendent in the point of Culminating and was then ready to decline which our Judicious Hooker had before presaged Who had assigned her fourscore years for her growth and flourishing and nothing afterwards but sorrow and disconsolation For taking notice of the inclination of the times to Sacriledge and Spoil and Rapine and finding nothing more frequent in the mouths of men then this that they which endowed Churches with Lands
of the Kingdom honoured him with the Order of the Garter and made him one of the Lords of his Privy Council so that no greater characters of Power and Favour could be imprinted on a Subject The Office of Lieutenant General he had committed unto the Earl of Strafford Lord Lieutenant of Ireland of whose Fidelity and Courage he could make no question And the Command of the Horse to Edward Lord Conway whose Father had been raised by King Iames from a private condition to be one of his principal Secretaries and a Peer of the Realm Of which three great Commanders it was observed that one had sufficient health but had no will to the business That another had a good will to it but wanted health and that a third had neither the one nor the other And yet as crasie and infirm as the Earl of Strafford found himself he chearfully undertook the charge of the Army in the Generals absâ—nce and signified by Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury that he durst venture upon the peril of his head to drive the Scots out of England but that he did not hold it Counsellable as the case then stood If any other of the Lords had advised the King to try his Fortune in a Battel he doubted not of sending them home in more haste than they came but the Scots had rendred him unfit to make the motion for fear it might be thought that he studied more his own Concernments than he did the Kings For these Invadors finding by whose Counsels his Majesty governed his Affairs resolved to draw them into discredit both with Prince and People And to that end it was declared in a Remonstrance publisht before their taking Arms That their Propositions and Desires so necessary and vital unto that Kingdom could find no access unto the ears of the gracious King by reason of the powerful Diversion of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Deputy of Ireland who strengthned with the high and mighty Faction of Papists near his Majesty did only side in all matters of Temporal and Spiritual affairs making the necessity of their Service to his Majesty to appear in being the only fit Instruments under the pretext of vindicating his Majesties Honour to oppress both the just Liberties of his Free Subjects and the true Reformed Religion in all his Kingdoms Seconding this Remonstrance with another Pamphlet called The Intention of the Army they signified therein to the good People of England that they had no design either to waste their Goods or spoyl their Country but only to become Petitioners to his Sacred Majesty to call a Parliament and to bring the said Archbishop and Lord Lieutenant to their condign Punishments In which those modest men express That as they desired the unworthy Authors of their trouble who had come out from themselves to be tried at home according to their own Laws so they would press no further Process against Canterbury and the Lieutenant of Ireland and the rest of those pernicious Counsellors in England whom they called the Authors of all the miseries of both Kingdoms than what their own Parliament should discern to be their just deserving And that the English might see the better whom they chiefly aimed at a book was published by the name of Laudensium Autocatacrisis or the Canterburians Self-conviction in which the Author of it did endeavour to prove out of the Books Speeches and Writings of the Archbishop himself as also of some Bishops and other learned men who had exercised their Pens in the late disputes That there was a strange design in hand for bringing in Superstition Popery and Arminianism to the subversion of the Gospel and of suppressing the Religion here by Law established But as these Reproaches moved not him so neither did their Remonstrance or any other of their Scribbles distract his Majesties Resolutions untill he found himself assaulted by a Petition from some Lords in the South which threatned more danger at his back than he had cause to fear from the Northern Tempest which blew directly in his teeth Complaint was made in this Petition of the many inconvenicences which had been drawn upon this Kingdom by his Majesties engagings against the Scots as also of the great encrease of Popery the pressing of the present payment of Ship-money the dissolving of former Parliaments Monopolies Innovations and some other grâ—evances amongst which the Canons which were made in the late Convocation could not be omitted For Remedy whereof his Majesty is desired to call a Parliament to bring the Authors of the said pretended grievances to a Legal Trial and to compose the present War without Bloudshed Subscribed by the Earls of Essex Hartford Rutland Bedford Exeter Warwick Moulgrave and Bullingbrooke the Lords Say Mandevil Brooke and Howard presented to the King at York on the third of September And seconded by another from the City of London to the same effect His Majesty being thus between two Milstones could find no better way to extricate himself out of these perplexities than to call the great Council of his Peers to whom at their first meeting on the 24 of the same month he signified his purpose to hold a Parliament in London on the third of November and by their Counsel entertained a Treaty with those of Scotland who building on the confidence which they had in some Lords of England had petitioned for it According unto which Advice a Commission is directed to eight Earls and as many Barons of the English Nation seven of which had subscribed the former Petition enabling them to treat with the Scots Commissioners to hear their Grievances and Demands and to report the same to his Majesty and the Lords of his Council These points being gained which the Puritan Faction in both Kingdoms had chiefly aimed at the Scots were insolent enough in their Proposals Requiring freedom of Commerce Reparation of their former Losses and most especially the maintenance of their Army at the charge of the English without which no Cessation would be harkned to Satisfaction being given them in their last Demand and good Assurances for the two first they decline York as being unsafe for their Commissioners and procure Rippon to be named for the place of the Treaty where the Lord Lieutenant was of less influence than he was at York and where being further from the King they might shuffle the Cards and play the Game to their best contentment The rest of October from the end of the first week of it when they excepted against York was drilled on in requiring that some persons of quality intrusted by the Scottish Nation might have more Offices than they had about his Majesty and the Queen and in the Court of the Prince That a Declaration might be made for naturalizing and settling the Capacities and mutual Priviledges of the Subjects in both Kingdoms but chiefly that there might be an Unity and Uniformity in Church-Government as a special means for conserving
signed with the same Penful of Ink for the continuance of the present Parliament during the pleasure of the Houses The Act thus past on Munday Morning the Earl was brought unto the Scaffold on the Wednesday following desiring earnestly but in vain to Exchange some words with the Archbishop before his Death Which gave occasion to a report that a little before his Death he had charged his misfortunes oversights and misdemeanours upon the Archbishop of Canterbury as the Prime Author of the same and had bitterly Curst the day of their first acquaintance Which being so scandalous and dishonourable to this great Prelate I shall lay down the whole truth in this particular as it came from the Archbishops own mouth in the presence of Balfore a Scot and then Lieutenant of the Tower who was required to attest to each period of it The Lord Strafford the night before the Execution sent for the Lieutenant of the Tower and asked him whether it were possible he might speak with the Archbishop The Lieutenant told him he might not do it without Order from the Parliament Whereupon the Earl replied You shall hear what passeth between us for it is not a time now either for him to plot Heresie or me to plot Treason The Lieutenant answered That he was limited and therefore desired his Lordship would Petition the Parliament for that Favour No said he I have gotten my dispatch from them and will trouble them no more I am now Petitioning an Higher Court wâ—ere neither partiality can be expected nor Error â—eared But my Lord said he turning to the Primate of Ireland whose company he had procured of the Houses in that fatal Exigent I will tell you what I should have spoken to my Lords Grace of Canterbury You shall desire the Archbishop to lend me his Prayers this night and to give me his Blessing when I do go abroad to morrow and to be in his Window that by my last Farewell I may give him thanks for this and all other his former Favours The Primate having delivered the Message without delay the Archbishop replied That in conscience he was bound to the first and in duty and obligation to the second but he feared his weakness and passion would not lend him eyes to behold his last Departure The next morning at his coming forth he drew near to the Archbishops Lodging and said to the Lieutenant Though I do not see the Archbishop yet give me leave I pray you to do my last observance towards his Rooms In the mean time the Archbishop advertised of his approach came out to the Window Then the Earl bowing himself to the ground My Lord said he your Prayers and your Blessing The Archbishop lift up his hands and bestowed both but overcome with grief fell to the ground in Animi deliquio The Earl bowing the second time said Farewell my Lord God protect your Innocency And because he feared that it might perhaps be thought an effeminacy or vnbecoming weakness in him to sink down in that manner he addâ—d That he hoped by Gods Assistance and his own Innocency that when he came to his own Execution which he daily longed for the World should perceive he had been more sensible of the Lord Strafford's Loss than of his own And good reason it should be so said he for the Gentleman was more serviceable to the Church he would not mention the State than either himself or any of all the Church-men had ever been A gallant Farewell to so eminent and beloved a Friend Thus march'd this Great Man to the Scaffold more like a General in the Head of an Army to breath out Victory than like a Condemned Man to undergo the Sentence of death The Lieutenant of the Tower desired him to take Coach for fear the People should rush in upon him and tear him in pieces No said he to the Lieutenant I dare look Death in the face and I hope the People too Have you a care that I do not escape and I care not how I die whether by the hand of the Executioner or the madness and fury of the People If that may give them better content it is all one to me In his last Speech upon the Scaâ—fold he declared That in all his Imployments since he had the honour to serve his Majesty he never had any thing in the purpose of his heart but what tended to the joynt and individual prosperity both of King and People That he was so far from being an Enemy to Parliaments which had been charged amongst his Crimes that he did always think the Parliaments of England to be the most happy Constitution that aâ—y Kingdom or Nation lived under and the best means under God to make the King and People happy That he acquitted all the World for his death heartily beseeching the God of Heaven to forgive all them that contrived it though in the intentions and purposes of his heart he was not guilty of the Oâ—fences which he was to die for That it was a great comfort to him that his Majesty conceived him not meriting so severe and heavy a Punishment as the utmost execution of this Sentence And finally after many other Expressions That he died a true Son of the Church of England in which he had been born and bred for the Peace and Prosperity whereof he most heartily prayed Turning his eyes unto his Brother Sir George Wentworth he desired him to charge his Son to fear God to continue an obedient Son to the Church of England and not to meddle with Church-Livings as that which would prove a Moth or Canker to him in his Estate And having several times recommended his prepared Soul to the Mercies of God he submiâ—ted his Neck with most Christian Magnanimity to the stroke of the 〈◊〉 which took his Head from him at one blow before he had filled up the number of fifty years A man on whom his Majesty looked as one whose great Abilities might rather make a Prince afraid than ashamed to employ him in the greatest Affairs of State â—or those were proâ—e to create in him great confidence of Undertakings and this was like enough to betray him to great Errors and many Enemies whereof he could not but contract good store while moving in so high a Sphere and with so vigorous a Lustre he must needs as the Sun raise many envious Exhalations which condensed by a Popular Odium were capable to cast a Cloud upon the highest Merit and Integrity So far he stood commended by the Pen of his sorrowful Sovereign who never could sufficiently â—â—waâ—l his own Infelicity in giving way unto an Act of such 〈…〉 justice as he calls it there of which he gives this Testimony in his Meditation on the Death of this unfortunate Earl That he wa◠〈◊〉 far from excusing or denying that Compliance on his part for plenary consent it was not to his destruction whom in his own judgment he thought not by any clear
point that he put himself into a Cock-boat with Stapleton and some others of his principal Friends and left his whole Army to his Majesties mercy His Horse taking the Advantage of a dark night made a shift to escape but the Commanders of the Foot came to this Capitulation with his Majesty that they should depart without their Arms which with their Cannon Baggage and Ammunition being of great Consideration were left wholly to his disposing Immediately after this success his Majesty dispatched a message from Tavestock to the two Houses of Parliament in which he laid before them the miserable Condition of the Kingdom remembring them of those many Messages which he had formerly sent unto them for an accommodation of the present differences and now desiring them to bethink themselves of some expedient by which this Issue of blood might be dried up the distraction of the Kingdom settled and the whole Nation put into an hope of Peace and Happiness To which message as to many others before they either gave no Answer or such an one as rather served to widen then close the breach falsly conceiving that all his Majesties offers of Grace and Favour proceeded either from an inability to hold out the War or from the weakness and irresolution of his Counsels But if instead of thâ—s Message from Tavestock his Majesty had gone on his own errand and marched directly toward London it was conceived in all probability that he might have made an end of the War secured the life of the Archbishop his most trusty Servant and put an end to those calamities which the continuance and conclusion of the War brought with it The Army of Essex being thus broken and that of Manchester not returned from the Northern Service He could not chuse but have observed in the course of that Action with what a Military Prudence Lesly had followed at the heels of the Marquis of Newcastle not stopping or diverting upon the by till he had brought his Army before York the gaining whereof as being the chief City of those parts brought in all the Rest. And certainly it hath been counted no dishonour in the greatest Souldiers to be instructed by their enemies in the feats of War But the King sitting down before Plymouth as before Glocester the last year and staying there to perfect an Association of the Western Counties he spent so much time that Essex was again in the head of his Army and being seconded by Manchester and Waller made a stand at Newbury where after a very sharp dispute the Enemy gained some of his Majesties Cannon which struck such a terrour into many of those about him that they advised him to withdraw his Person out of the danger of the Fight as he did accordingly But this he did so secretly and with so slender a Retinue that he was not mist His Army holding on the â—ight with a greater courage because they thought the safety of his Majesties Person did depend upon it whose departure if it had been known would questionless have created such a general dejection in the hearts of his Souldiers as would have rendred them to a cheap discomfiture But the Lost Cannon being regained and the fight continued with those of his Majesties party with greater advantage then before each Army drew of by degrees so that neither of them could find any great cause to boast of the victory This Summers Action being ended in which the Scots had done very good service to the Houses of Parliament it was thought necessary to proceed in the Tryal of the Archbishop of Canterbury which had taken up so much time already that it seemed ready for a sentence But there appeared more difficulty in it then at first was lookt for For being admitted to a Recapitulation of his whole defence before the Lords in the beginning of September it gave such a general satisfaction to all that heard it that the mustering up of all the evidence against him would not take it off To prove the first branch of the charge against him they had ript up the whole course of his Life from his first coming to Oxford till his Commitment to the Tower but could find no sufficient Proof of any design to bring in Popery or suppress the true Protestant Religion here by Law Established For want whereof they insisted upon such Reproches as were laid upon him when he lived in the University the beautifying of his Chappel Windows with Pictures and Images the Solemn Consecration of Churches and Chappels the Placing of the Communion Table Altar-wise and making Adoration in his Accesses to or Approches toward it Administring the Sacrament with some more Solemnities then in Ordinary Parochial Churches though constantly observed in his Majesties Chappels the care and diligence of his Chaplains in expunging some offensive passages out of such Books as were to be licenced for the Press and tâ—eir permitting of some passages to remain in others which were supposed to â—avor of Popery and Arminianism because they crost the sense of Calvin the preferring of many able men to his Majesties Service and to advancements in the Church who must the Stigmatized for Papists or Arminians because they had not sworn themselves into Calvins Faction his countenancing two or three Popish Priests for no more are named of whom good use was to be made in Order to the Peace and Happiness of the Church of England as had before been done by Bancroft and others of his Predeâ—â—ssors since the Reformation Such were the proofs of his designs to bring in Popery and yet his plots and purposes for suppressing tâ—e true Protestant Religion had less proofs then this Of which sort were His severe proceedings in the High Commission against some Factious Ministers and Seditious Lecturers the sentencing of Sherfield for defacing a Parish Church in Salisbury under colour of a Vestry-order in contempt of the Diocesan Bishop who then Lived in that City the pressing of his Majesties two Declarations the one for Lawful Sports the other for Silencing unnecessary though not unlawful Disputations His zeal in overthrowing the Corpoâ—ation of Feoffees which had no Legal Foundation to stand upon and seemed destructive to the Peace of the Church and State in the eyes of all that pierc'd into it and finally the Piety of his endeavours for uniting the French and Dutch Congregations to the Church of England in which he did nothing without Warrant or against the Law Such were the Crimes or Treasons rather which paint him out with such an ugly countenance in the Book called Canterburies Doom as if he were the Greatest Traytor and the most Execrable Person that ever had been bred in England And he is promised to be Painted out in such Lively Colours in the following Branches of his Charge as should for ever render him as Treasonable and as Arch a Malefactor as he was in the others and in both alike that promise never being performed in the space of a Dozen
greatest Battel with Darius the Persian he fell into so â—ound asleep 〈◊〉 his Princes â—ardly could awake him when the morning came And it was likewise certified of this Great Prelate That on the Evening before his Passover the night before the dismal Combate betwixt him and Death after he had refreshed his Spirits with a moderate Supper he betook himself unto his Rest and slept very soundly till the time came in which his Servants were appointed to attend his Rising A most assured sign of a Soul prepared The fatal morning being come he first applied himself to his private Prayers and so continued till Pennington and others of their Publick Officers came to conduct him to the Scaffold which he ascended with so brave a Courage such a chearful Countenance as if he had mounted rather to behold a Triumph than be made a Sacrifice and came not there to Die but to be Translated And though some rude and uncivil People reviled him as he pass'd along with opprobrious Language as loth to let him go to the Grave in Peace yet it never discomposed his Thoughts nor disturb'd his Patience For he had profited so well in the School of Christ that when he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed his cause to him that judgeth righteously And as he did not fear the Frowns so neither did he covet the Applause of the Vulgar Herd and therefore rather chose to read what he had to speak unto the People than to affect the ostentation either of Memory or Wit in that dreadful Agony whether with greater Magnanimity than Prudence I can hardly say As for the matter of his Speech besides what did concern himself and his own Purgation his great care was to cleer his Majesty and the Church of England from any inclination to Popery with a perswasion of the which the Authors of the then present Miseries had abused the People and made them take up Arms against their Sovereign A faithful Servant to the last By means whereof as it is said of Samson in the Book of Iudges That the men which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life So may it be affirmed of this famous Prelate That he gave a greater blow unto the Enemies of the Church and the King at the hour of his death than he had given them in his whole life before But this you will more clearly see by the Speech it self which followeth here according to the best and most perfect Copy delivered by his own hands unto one of his Chaplains and in his name presented to the King by the Lord Iohn Bellasis at the Court in Oxon. The Speech of the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury spoken at his Death upon the Scaffold on the Tower Hill Ian. 10. 1644. Good People THis is an uncomfortable time to preach yet I shall begin with a Text of Scripture Heb. 12.2 Let us run with Patience the Race which is set before us looking unto JESUS the Author and Finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him enâ—dured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God I have been long in my Race and how I have looked to JESUS the Author and finisher of my faith he best knows I am now to come to the end of my Race and here I find the Cross a death of shame but the shame must be despised or no coming to the right hand of God JESUS despised the shame for me and God forbid but that I should despise the shame for him I am going apace as you see towards the Red Sea and my feet are now upon the very brinke of it anâ— Argument I hope that God is bringing me into the Land of Promise for that was the way through which he led his people But before they came to it he instituted a Passeover for them a Lamb it was but it must be eaten with soure herbs I shall obey and labour to digest the soure herbs as well as the Lamb. And I shall remember it is the Lords Passeover I shall not think of the Herbs nor be angry with the hand which gathereth them but look up only to him who instituted that and governs these for men can have no more power over me than what is given them from above I am not in love with this passage through the Red Sea for I have the weakness and infirmities of flesh and bloud plentifully in me And I have prayed with my Saviour Ut transirâ—t Calix iste that this Cup of red wine might pass from me but if not Gods will not mine be done and I shall most willing drink of this Cup as deep as he pleases and enter in this Sea yea and pass through it in the way that he shall lead me But I would have it remembred Good People That when Gâ—â—â— Servants were in this boysterous Sea and Aaron amongst them the Egyptians which persecuted them and did in a manner drive them into that Sea were drowned in the same Waters while they were in pursuit of them I know my God whom I serve is as able to deliver me from the sea of bloud as he was to deliver the three Children from the Furnace and I humbly thank my Saviour for it my Resolution is now as theirs was then They would not worship the Image the King had set up nor will I the Imaginations which the People are setting up nor will I forsake the Temple and the truth of God to follow the bleating of Jeroboams Calves in Dan and Bethel And as for this People they are at this day miserably misled God of his mercy open their â—â—es that they may see the right way for at this day the blind lead the blind and if they go on both will certainly fall into the ditch For my self I am and I acknowledge it in all humility a most grievous sinâ—â— many waies by thought word and deed I cannot doubt but that 〈◊〉 hath mercy in store for me a poor Penitent as well as for other sinners I have now and upon this sad occasion ransacked every corner of my 〈◊〉 and yet I thank God I have not found among the many any 〈◊〉 sin which deserves death by any known Law of this Kingdom and yet hereby I charge nothing upon my Iudges for if they proceed upon proof by valuable witnesses I or any other innocent may be justly condemned And I thank God though the weight of my Sentence he heavy upon me I am as quiet within as ever I was in my life And though I am not only the first Archbishop but the first man that ever 〈◊〉 by an Ordinance in Parliament yet some of my Predecessors have gone this way though not by this means For Elphegus was hurried away and lost his head by the Danes and Simon Sudbury in the fury of Wat Tiler and his Fellows Before
and Satisfaction for the sins of the whole world both original and actual In both which Articles as well the Sacrifice as the effect and fruit thereof which is the Reconciliation of mankinde to God the Father is delivered in general terms without any Restriction put upon them Neither the Sacrifice nor the Reconciliation are by the Articles either restrained to this man or that or unto one part of the world only as for example Intra partem donati and not to another but extended to the whole world saith the 31. Article to mankinde or to men in general as it is in the second A clearer comment on which Text we cannot possibly have as to the understanding of the Churches meaning then that which may be found in the publick Liturgy For first in the authorized Catechism of the Church of England the party Catechized being asked what he doth learn in his belief makes answer as to this particular that he believes in God the Father who made him and all the world And secondly that he believes in God the Son who hath redeemed him and all mankinde c. It may be secondly proved in that clause in the Letany O God the Son Redeemer of the world have mercy upon us c. Thirdly By the Prayer of Consecration before the Communion viz. Almighty God our heavenly Father which of thy tender mercy didst give thy only Son Iesus Christ to suffer death upon the Cross for our Redemption who made there by his own Oblation of himself once offered a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD c. And fourthly By the Prayer or Thanksgiving after the Communion in which we do most humbly beseech the Lord to grant that by the Merits and Death of his Son Jesus Christ and through Faith in his Blood we and all thy whole Church may obtain remission of our Sins and all other benefits of his Passion Nor was it without some meaning this way that She selected those words of our Saviour in St. Iohns Gospel viz. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son c. to be used in the preparation of the Communion as She reiterated some others viz. O Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world c. incorporated into the Gloria in excelsis at the end thereof A truth so clear in the delivery of this Church that there needs no proof of it from the Writings of private men or if there did what could be more express than those words of Bishop Hooper viz. As the sins of Adam without priviledg or exception extended and appertained unto all Adam's and every of Adam's Posterity so did the promise of Grace generally appertain as well to every and singular of Adam's Posterity as to Adam himself as in the Preface above-mentioned or what can be more positive than that of Bishop Latimer in his first Sermon preached in Lincolnshire viz. The promises of Christ our Saviour are general they pertain to all mankinde He made a general proclamation saying Qui credit in me habet vitam aeternam Whosoever believeth in me hath everlasting life especially being seconded with that which before we had that Christ did shed as much Blood for Iudas as he did for Peter which puts the matter high enough without all exception 35. Touching Free-Will the powers of nature and the celestial inferences of the Grace of God in the conversion of a sinner the Church of England ran after a middle way between the Rigid Lutherans and the old Pelagians It was the Heresie of Pelagius to ascribe so much power to the will of man in laying hold upon the means of his Salvution Vt gratiam Dei necessariam non putaret that he thought the Grace of God to be unnecessary of no use at all And Luther on the other side ascribed so little thereunto that he published a Book entituled De servo Arbitrio touching the servitude of the will in which he held that there was no such thing as Free-Will that it was a meer fiction Et nomen sine re a thing only titular but of no existency in nature that a man is forcibly drawn to heaven Velut inanimatum quiddam No otherwise than a sensless stock or an unreasonable creature The like we finde to be declared by the Contra-Remonstrants in the Collatio Hagiensis by whom there was no more ascribed to the will of man in the work of his own Regeneration or in the raising of himself from the death of Sin to the life of Righteousness than they did ascribe unto him in his generation to the life of nature or in his Resurrection from the Dead to life eternal For thus they say Sicut ad nativitatem suam nemo de suo quicquam confert neque ad sui exitationem ex mortuis nemo quicquam confert de suo ita etiam ad conversionem suam nemo homo quicquam confert sed est purum putum opus ejus gratiae Dei in Christo quae in nobis operatur non tantum potentiam credendi sed etiam fidem ipsam Which monstrous Paradox of theirs was afterwards inserted in the Canons of the Synod of Dort against which that divine saying of St. Augustine may be fitly used Si non est gratia Dei quomodo salvat mundum Si non est liberum Arbitrium quomodo judicat mundum If there be no Grace of God saith he by what means can he save the world if there no Free-will in man with what equity can he condemn it Of the same temper is the Doctrine of the Church of England For first she thus declares against the Pelagians in the first clause of the 10th Article That the condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good Works to Faith and calling upon God And secondly she declares thus against Luther in the second clause of that Article viz That without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will we have no power to do good works which are pleasing and acceptable unto God and thereupon it must needs follow that by the freedom of mans will co-operating with grace preventing and by the subsequent Grace of God co-operating with the will of man we have a power of doing such works as may be acceptable and pleasing to our heavenly Father which may be further evidenced by this Collect after the Communion viz. Prevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorifie thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain life everlasting through Jesus Christ our Lord. 36. Now that both the last clause of the Article and the whole Collect in the Liturgy are to be