SCRINIA RESERATA A MEMORIAL Offer'd to the Great Deservings OF John Williams D.D. Who some time held the Places of L d Keeper of the Great Seal of England L d Bishop of Lincoln and L d Archbishop of York CONTAINING A SERIES OF THE Most Remarkable Occurrences and Transactions of his LIFE in Relation both to CHURCH and STATE Written by JOHN HACKET Late Lord Bishop of LITCHFIELD and COVENTRY ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Nazianz. de laudibus Athanasii Vita mortuorum in memoriâ vivorum est posita Cicero Philip. nonâ IMPRIMATUR Nov. 27. 1692. JO. Cant. In the SAVOY Printed by Edw. Jones for Samuel Lowndes over against Exeter-Exchange in the Strand M. DC XC III. THE PROEM READER Paragr 1. BOOKS are sown so thick in all Countries of Europe that a new one which one adds more to the former Gross had need of an Apology The easie Dispatch of so many Sheets in a day by the readiness of Printing hath found the World a great deal more Work then needs Many that love Knowledge both Industrious and of sound Judgment are not nice to say that Repletion of Authors hath begat Loathing Which is a Reason likewise or a Pretence that divers who are Learned and full Men contain their Liquor in their Vessels and never broach it in the Press to make it Publick because they think it is Folly to contribute to Waste and Excess I am one of those I confess that wish it were possible that a Moses could be raised up to restrain us from bringing more either of our Pamphlets or Volumes to the Work of the Tabernacle For the Stuff already is sufficient for all the Work to make it and too much Exod. 36.7 2. How shall I answer it therefore Or how shall I defend that I am constant to mine own Judgment in this Design that I thrust my Labours into the World What Warrant can I plead that I build a new Cottage upon the Waste I conceive that it will stand for satisfaction that I set forth an History of Things not travers'd before but of memorable Passages running through the Channel of one Man's Life in our present Age. It is a Debt owed to Posterity to furnish them with the true Knowledge of sore-gone Occurrences worthy to be Registred as I believe these ensuing are A Tradition must be kept of famous Exploits especially moving upon the Stage of turbulent Times For when it is skilfully drawn through the Acts of famous Men it will rouze up our Children by Emulation as much as by Precept and give them double advantage to seek Virtue and Glory But better it will be to have it coarse spun then quite omitted For such will serve for Cork to keep a Net from sinking 3. This Century of our Account from Christ's Birth wherein we live now wasting beyond the middle hath been happy in this That it hath brought forth in our Kingdom of England many of great Renown Wise and Eloquent deep in Learning and sage in Counsels in a word to be praised as much as the best of their Forefathers yet granting to all both former and latter an Allowance for some Grains of Frailties It were pity their Memorial should perish with them Caesar was a large seeker of Glory yet grudge no Man a share in Glory as testifies that little which remains of his Oration for the Bithynians saying It is a Duty required from the surviving Generation to keep them alive in their good Name who deserv'd it and can endure the Censure of the World for ever I listen to his Encouragement yet measuring my Strength by mine own Meet-wand I task my self to set up a Pillar but for one Man's Memory The Event will clear me that I stint not my self to this one Theme to do but little But First Because there is so much Kernel in one Shell I must set forth a great Bishop a great Judge a great Counsellor in all these Capacities most active in most active Times Such a Mill will not go with a little Water Beside the Turnings and Returnings of his Fortune multiformous Changeableness rather Prodigious then Strange by Honour and Dishonour by Evil Report and good Report 2 Cor. 6.8 Which will draw considerate Thoughts for no little time to this one Center As Pliny writes of the Emperor Augustus his Life interwoven with much Glory Lib. 7. Nat. Hist c. 45. and much Misfortune Si diligenter aestimentur sancta magna sortis humanae reperiantur volumina So it is highly remarkable that in this one Piece a diligent Eye may discern all the Colours of human Inconstancy and Instability 4. Secondly I spend all my little Skill upon this Subject for I can draw no Picture so like because I knew none so well I noted his Ways and Worth in the University when I was but young I observ'd him in his earliest Preferments when he came first sledge out of the Nest I was taken into his Houshold Service as soon as he ascended to his highest Office And commencing from that time till thirty Years expired with his Life I trespass not against Modesly if I say I knew his Courses as much and saw them at as near a distance as any Man beside I have as much Intelligence from an Eye-witness Information and from his familiar Conference with me as can be expected from any Writer of the Memorials of a great Statist Qui audiunt audita dicunt qui vident planè sciunt says Plautusvery well He that reports but what he hears must confess he is at uncertainty he that sees a Thing done can relate it perfectly Pliny hath cast down a great deal of that which he built up in the seventh Book of his Natural History with this Passage in his Proem Nec in plerÃsque corum obstringam sidem meam potiúsque ad autores relegabo He would make Faith for little of that which he wrote but turns his Reader over to such Authors as himself did not trust in I am far from such Prevarication I drew the knowledge of those things of most moment which I shall deliver from the Spring-Head And I trust in God that I have incorporated them into this Frame with Integrity This then is my confidence to make this Compilement that my Tools were whetted at home I need not repair to the Allophyli or Philistins to sharpen my Axe at their Grind-stone 5. Thirdly I am full of willingness to be the Father of this Child And nothing is apter for a Man to undergo then that which is agreeable to his Delight I profess it is not the least of my drifts to sweeten my Master's Memory with a strong composed Perfume and to carve him out in a commendable but a true Figure Suffer me to put one Day to his Life after his Decease When a worthy Man's Fame survives him through their help that light a Candle for that use that others in succession of Ages may perfectly behold him it is
and out of those their Treatises wherein especially they handled the Cause for which he Appealed unto them And Thirdly When he had fixed what was prime and principal Truth in any Debate with great Meekness and Sweetness he gave copious Latitude to his Auditors how far they might dissent keeping the Foundation sure without breach of Charity These were the Constellations whose fortunate Aspect did shine upon this Neophytus in the Orb of Cambridge and being under the Influence of such Luminaries a judicious Academian might Prognostic how much he would prosper without a judicious Astrologer But for all that he posted so speedily through the broad Way of the best Tracts of Knowledge yet he found a little leisure to call in as he went at the attaining of some Skill in Musick Instrumental and Vocal not as a Siren to catch him but as a Delight to solace him Nay though he set his Face to the end of a great Journey yet in transiââ he took Acquaintance of the French Tongue to make himself able to read the choice Pieces of that acute Nation which flow'd in easily and apace into him having the Pipes of the Latin Tongue ready cast to convey it What shall we say to him that took in hand such a long Sorites of Sciences and Tongues together But that such Blood and Spirits did boil in his Veins as Tully felt when he spake so high Mihi satis est si omnia consequi possim Nothing was enough till he got all 14. The Gamester was the freer to throw at all because he was like to draw a good Stake Preferment already holding its Hand half open For âfâcâbi 2º his Patron and tenderly-loving Kinsman Dr. Vaughan was Removed from the Bishoprick of Chester to the See of London The young Eaglets are quickly taken up upon the Wings of the old one But the good Bishop within three Years after he had ascended to that Dignity ended his days greatly lamented of all and lived not till his young Cousin was adult for Promotion This only was much to his Benefit that every Year the Bishop sent for him to spend a few Weeks in his Palace of London a great help to his Breeding to let him see the course of Church-Government managed by the Piety and Wisdom of so grave a Prelate who had much of a Gentleman much of a Scholar and most of a Christian During his abode in the Reverend Bishop's Palace he had the opportunity to tender his Duty to that noble-minded and ancient Baron John Lord Lumley who received him with equal Courtesie and Bounty as his Kinsman That Lord having given his Sister in Marriage to Mr. Humfry Llyd of Nor. h. Wales a most industrious Antiquary as appears in Ortelius and Adjutant to Mr. Cambden in his great Work This Lord Lumley did pursue Recondite Learning as much as any of his Honourable Rank in those Times and was owner of a most precious Library the Search and Collection of Mr. Humsry Llyd Out of this Magazine that great Peer bestowed many excellent Pieces printed and Manuscript upon Mr. Williams for Alliance sake a Treasure above all Presents most welcom to him Yet the noble-hearted Lord a free Mccaenas gave with both hands and never sent his young Kinsman away from him without a Donative of ten Pieces The first Gift of Books he kept better then Gold for the Gold went from him again as magnificently as if he had been no less then the Lord Lumley himself But that he had received those noble Favours I heard him remember with great and grateful Expressions in the Chancel of the Parish-Church of Cheam near to Nânââcâ in Surrey whereof my self have been Rector now above 30 Years coming on a day to view the Burial-place of the Lord Lumley where his Body lies under a comely Monument 15. It fell out luckily to Mr. Williams to keep him from incurring great Debts that he had such an Ophir or Golden Trade to drive with the Lord Lumley's Puâse who supplied him with a Bounty that grudg'd him nothing till the Year 1ââ9 for then that aged Baron died Four Years before the loss of that dear Friend An. 1605 he took his Degree of Master of Arts and he Feasted his Friends at the Commencement as if it had been his Wedding having more in Cash at command by the full Presents of many Benefactors then is usual with such young Graduates His Merits being known brought him in a great Revenue long before he had a certain Livelihood A Master of Arts is a Title of honest Provocation rightly considered Nomina insignia onerosa sunt says the Emperor Alexander Mammaens But they are scarce so many as a few that are warm'd with the remembrance of that Honour which the Regent-House conferr'd upon them worthy to be taxed in parodie with that Increpation Heb. 5.12 Cum deberetis Magistri esse propter tempus rursum indigetis ut vos doceamini When for the time ye eught to be Masters you have need one teach you again Whose Reproach hath this and no other use that they are a pitiful Foil to their Betters I am sure I explain a Man who added as much Grace to the Name as any his Ancestors of those that came after he that was the best was but second in the Order Every day borrowing much of the Night advanced his Knowledge He hired himself to labour under all Arts and sorts of Learning The more he toil'd the more he perceiv'd that nothing in this Earth had such Amplitude as the extent of Sciences He saw it was a Prospect which had no Horizon a Man can never say he sees the utmost bound of the Coast Therefore he was continually drawing his Bow because he was sure he could never shoot home No Man fishes to get all the Fish in the Sea yet since the Sea contains so much he is slothful that labours but for a little Our Student began now to fall close to the deep and spacious Studies of Divinity I deliver from his own mouth what he would relate sometimes in his riper Years That he began to read all the Scriptures with the choicest and most literal and as he found it fit with the briefest Commentators so that all his Superstructure might knit close to that Foundation He compared the common places of P. Martyr Chemnitius and Musculus Calvin and Zanchie being in at all with the Sacred Text and found that Harmony in them all with the Oracles of God's Word that he perceived he might with a good Conscience as he would answer it to Christ Jesus defend the Integrity of the Reformed Religion taking it not upon Trust but upon Judgment and Examination But an Artist knoweth not what he hath got by all his Diligence till he useth it neither can a Scholar understand what Tast is in the Waters of his own ãâã till he draws some quantity out Therefore he disclosed himself both in his own Terms and for his Friends in common Places and
the most Guilty of their own Ruine that ever was heard of in any History And now let a Man of more Authority Judgment and Experience than the Observator speak upon the Wisdom of my Lord the King It is the most Reverend Spotswood in his last Page He was the Solomon of his Age admired for his wise Government and for his Knowledge of all manner of Learning for his Wisdom Moderation Love of Justice for his Patience and Piety which shined above all his other Vertues and is witnessed in his Learned Works he left to Posterity his Name shall never be forgotten but remain in Honour so long as the World indureth We that have had the Honour and Happiness many times to hear him discourse of the most weighty Matters as well of Policy as of Divinity now that he is gone must comfort our selves with the Remembrance of those Excellencies and reckon it not the least Part of our Happiness to have lived in his Days It is well that King James passeth for a Solomon with that Holy Bishop and wise Counsellor Now that I may decline an over-weening Opinion of any mortal Man Nazianzen minds me very well Orat. in laud. Athenas that among God's Worthies he commends ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Solomon in some things not in all No Man ruled the least Principality so well much less three Kingdoms with Isles adjacent and remote but the Modest and Impartial might have required somewhat to be amended in the Administration for it is true what Pliny says in his Paneg. Nemo extitit cujus virtutes nullo vitiorum confinio laederâmur If small Motes be discerned by piercing Eyes yet such Minutes are easily covered over with egregious and heroical Vertues And the hard Heart of Sir An. W. softned into this Confession at last Take him all together and not in pieces such a King I wish this Kingdom have never any worse on the Condition not any better 234. I have borrowed thus much Room to set up a little Obelisk for King James out of that which is only intended to the Memorials of his Lord Keeper which Servant of that King's ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã if he had any Sense of it would be willing to lend that and more to his good Master With whose Death the Day of the Servant's Prosperity shut up and a Night of long and troublesome Adversity followed Which if I can compass in my Old Age and decay'd Health to bring into a Frame for the Reader to behold he may say as Socrates did of Antisthenes in Laertius ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that two Athenians would not make up one so Noble as Antisthenes And two Men would never have discharged those two Parts so well as this one Man performed them Which Representation may meet with some perchance that will not be favourable to it whom I wish to take heed of the Character which Theophrastus gives of an impure Man ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I will lengthen it thus he acts his own Part ill that Hisseth at him that deserves to be applauded FINIS A MEMORIAL Offer'd to the Great Deservings OF JOHN WILLIAMS D.D. Who sometimes Held the PLACES of LORD-KEEPER of the GREAT-SEAL OF ENGLAND Lord Bishop of LINCOLN AND Lord Arch Bishop of YORK Written by JOHN HACKETT Late Lord Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield PART II. Isocrates ad Evagoram pag. 80. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Salust de Caio Caesari In te praeter caeteras artem unam egregiè mirabilem comperi semper tibi majorem in adversis quà m in secundis rebus auimum esse pag. 171. LONDON Printed for Samuel Lowndes over-against the Exchange in the Strand MDCXCIII A MEMORIAL Offer'd to the Great Deservings OF JOHN WILLIAMS D.D. Who sometimes Held the Places of the LORD-KEEPER of the GREAT-SEAL of England c. PART II. CAmerarius Writing the Life of Melanchthon Paragraph 1. the Darling of the Champions of the Reformed Religion divided his Work into two Parts and gave no reason for it but because he would make his Web of a new piece after the Death of Luther It is the Pattern which I set before me to make a new Exordium as he did upon the Subject which I handle after the Death of King James Especially since I must take his Shadow whom my Pens draws forth no more by a Noon-tide Light but by an Evening declension Manilias His Prosperity or shall I say his Honours and Court-Favours were now in their Tropick Cum lucem vincere noctes incipiunt But Vertue is not Fortune's Servant He rose with great Light and he set with as great Brightness as he rose And as Paterculus writes of Mithridates I may refer it to him Aliâuando fortunâ semper animo maximus He was once high in Fortune but always strong in Courage and great in Worth 'T is common to see a Stock ingrafted with two forts of Fruits The Almighty Planter shews greater differences when he pleaseth in Moral than in Natural Plantations As he ordain'd the Noble Williams to become two contrary Parts as well as any Man had perform'd them in five Ages before him keeping the golden Mean in the Tryals of the Right-hand and of the Lest being neither corrupted with the Advancements nor the Persecutions of the Times As Paul and Barnabas were neither transported with the Honours which the Lycaonians did intend nor deterr'd with the Stones which they cast at them Acts 14. But the latter is most to be remarked For if this Lord-keeper had not drest himself with Vertue when he was clad in Honour nor rendred a sweet Air in every Close when the Diapason of Peace Wealth and the King's Love were all in tune he had abus'd Fortune which had given him his pay in hand Nec tam meruit gloriam quà m effugit flagitium as Pliny hath it But to stand upright when he was dismounted to cross his Crosses with Generosity and Patience to pass through a hot Furnace of Afflictions which was heated with all kind of Malice and no smell of Fire to remain upon him Dan. 3. v. 27. this deserves to be Canonized and will keep green in the Memory of more Ages than one From the Forty third Year of his Life to the full term of his Sixty eighth Year trouble upon trouble mischief after mischief had him in chase and yet the Huntsmen those Salvaggi could never blow the Death of this well-breath'd Hart. Fifteen Years the pursuit came from them that made use of the Frown of the King When they were a fault But when were they otherwise One Woe was past but there came two Woes or rather a thousand after it Apoc. 9.12 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Parliament of Destruction or of absolute Reprobation Sine praeviso peccato which spared none supprest him opprest him and he was under that Sufferance ten Years Was not the Ship well built Were not the Ribs of it heart of Oak which endured a Storm of twenty five Years and in that
what he perform'd in St. Maries in Cambridg rather than in a sorry Vicarage I can tell them among others that were present that he publisht himself a most rare Preacher in a Sermon made before the University anno 1610. upon this Text Luc. 16.22 It came to pass That the Beggar died and was carried by the Angels into Abrahams Bosom He handled the points of the Souls Immortality of the present Blessed âss of them that dye in Gods Mercy of their Reception into Heaven of the Ministry of Angels whether particularly Guardian or rather in general to all Christians there he discours'd with that depth of Learning yet liquidating that depth with such facility of opening it beside with that Energy and Vigour of Voice and Sides that his Auditory granted him to be a loud Cymbal and a well-Tuned Cymbal About Eight Mouths after being Listed into the Combination of the choicest Preachers He was call'd to do that Duty before K. James and Prince Henry at Royston whereupon the King spake much good of him but the Prince taking great notice of him as an Honour to Wales was not satisfied to give him encouragement of praise but gave him his Princely Word that He would Reward him after the weight of his Worth But the Father bestowed that preferment on him which the Prince taken away by early Death for our Sins intended I heard of this Sermon Six Weeks after and by a merry Token for having occasion to come to that hunting Court at Royston I received Hospitality at a Table full of good Company where I was askt over and over especially by the old Brittains what Place and Dignity Mr. Williams had in Cambridge every one of them could tell me he made a most Excellent Sermon before the King but for their parts they had been such attentive Hearers that among them all I could not Learn the Text. The Fame of our accomplisht Preacher who had taken the University and the Court so far with his Merits as none more spread far And he wanted not Friends in the Lord Chancellour Egertons Family to acquaint his Lordship with it who instantly preferr'd him before all Competitors and said no more but Send for him and let me have him This was at Midsummer anno 16â1 That Lord Chancellour was a great Patron to Divines but then they must be of many degrees above Mediocrity and those whom he pickt out for the Service of his House were of the first and as it were Seraphical Order And such indeed were Dr. Richard Feild Dr. King Bishop of London Dr. Carew Bp. of Exon and as one of that stamp he was pleased to entertain Mr. Williams But when he came to London to be Approved for that Service after great and humble acknowledgment of his Thankfulness he prayed the Lord Chancellour he might continue a year or the greatest part of it at Cambridg before he came to wait constantly in his Lordships Honourable Family because at Michaelmass following he was to enter upon the Proctor-ship of his University a place of Credit and some Emolument And may you not fulfil that place by a Deputy says the Chancellor My Lord says the Chaplain I must take an Oath upon my admission into that Office to oversee the Government entrusted to me not in general Terms only of Faith and Diligence but for the due Provision of many particular Branches of the Statutes and I dare not trust my Oath with another mans Conscience To so fair a Plea he got a gentle concession where I must shew him in his Honour of Proctorship before he return again to my Lord Egerton I have more to say than to tell the World he was Junior Proctor of Cambridge So have many been who did nothing but that which deserves to be forgotten like Consuls that acted nothing and were useful for nothing but to have the Fasti known by their Names His was ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or a a procuration indeed so it is Translated out of Xenophon which he filled up with as much real Worth and Value with as much Profit and Dignity to the University as could be dispatcht in the Orb of that Government The first place wherein Epaminondas appear'd publickly among the Citizens of Thebes was the Surveyorship of the High-ways and no better Et muneri Dignitatem addidit says Valerius lib. 3. c. 4. He gave Lustre by his management to that petty Function It holds as right as possibly an Example can match a thing in this instance It is well known our Proctor came into this Magistracy burthened with great expectation which measure he filled up and exceeded it He rose with great Light and set with more Brightness than he rose Happy were those times that heard his Plinian Orations for his Style had that Savour that heard his Aristotelian disputations that enjoyed the Fruit to hear him moderate at the Morning Exercises between a Master and a Batchelor Methinks yet I do hear him inveighing as I did once against the Sloth of the Batchelors for degenerating from themselves and the Ancient Customs of the Schools as of a fearful Metamorphâis with those Words Nam vos mutastis illas He was an assiduous Overseer and Interlocutor at the Afternoon Disputations of the Under Graduates Some of the most hopeful he enflamed with his Praise Not a few Tasted of his Bounty and in no meaner Mettle than Gold I know a man whom he took Notice of at those Acts who is the better for his good liking to this day It was greatly commendable in him that he disdain'd not to be President himself at these ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã but attended at them and acted in them vivâ voce and did not put off the Work to Journey-men The Night-watches indeed he committed sometimes to Deputies as the manner is to compel the Looser sort from their Haunts of Inns and Taverns and Houses of ill Fame But when he held the Staff in his own hand he perceiv'd he prevail'd most And it was sensible to the Eye That he reclaimed many from disorder not that in all the year he damnified any one by censure that I could hear of Neither did he use to make a crackling Noise with contumelies and Threatnings But won Regard to his Place by Sweetness by Affableness by Perswasions as dealing with Scholars not with Peasants with Freemen and not with Servants This I am sure of by his Prudence and Vigilancy Scandals of corrupted behaviour abated but increased not And what any of his Successors of the sowrest Rigor could do more I know not 27. In this Procuratorian year it is as due as any thing to be Remembred how he behaved himself in three weighty occurrencies Soon after Christmass the Kings Majesty Commanded the Heads of the University to give entertainment such as might be prepared of a sudden to a German Prince and his Train It was the Duke of Wittenberg I cannot err in that I suppose for we of the younger fort were
their Followers Dr. Richardson the King's Professor in Divinity to manage the chief Place in the Chair Dr. Davenant to moderate in the Theological Disputation and Mr. Collins to answer upon three Questions The next Care was for Opponents And Mr. Williams was so high in the Opinion of all the Learned Doctors that he was thought upon in his absence as a most Select Antagonist for this Conflict and Letters of Entreaty were directed to him to come and fulfil that part which upon Assurance of his Sufficiency was imposed on him There was no leisure for a Demur the straitness of Time said either do it or deny it But he submitted yet humbly protesting against himself from one point of Incapacity that though he had compleat time from the Midsummer elapsed for the Degree of Batchelor of Divinity yet he had not taken it And without that Title it was not usual or decent to shew himself in the luster of such an Auditory Well says Dr. Richardson you speak Reason yet we will not want you at this needful time for I will teach you how to fill up that empty Circumstance It will be a fortnight yet before our Royal Guests the Princes will come to us Prefer your two Questions Pro Gradu this night or to morrow to me I know your readiness that you need take no more time In five days after I will meet you in the Schools Incontinently your Degree shall be confer'd upon you Pro More or by special Grace He obey'd And the Theses which upon allowance of such short time he maintain'd were these 1. Peccata semel remissa ãâã redeunt 2. Qui sacres ordines susecperunt samulari possunt magnatious ut fructus Ecclestasticos percipiant Dr. Richardion who received from him these Tââses as it were the Chartel of Challenge met him in the Schools He was a profound Divine as famous in the Pulpit as in the Chair which is not usual a great Linguist noted for a kind of Omnisciency in Church Antiquities of pure Language yet used not his Pen to Compose his Lectures but brought his Memory with him and dictated his Mind with great Authority We that frequented at his Polemical Exercises observ'd That if the Respondent that stood before him were not a lusty Game-Cock but of a Craven kind he would shake him a little but never cast him on his back But if he were one of the right Brood that would strike Spur for Spur he would be sure to make him feel the weight of a Professor's Learning before they parted Therefore he did not dally with Mr. Williams at this time but laid at him with all his Puissance Nothing could be more delightful for two long hours and better to us that were the Lookers on In ventilating the first Question we judged that the Doctor of the Chair had twice duck'd the Respondent under Water but he quickly appeared again at the top Once was upon the Objection That Original Sin is remuted in Baptism and yet some Baptized become Reprobates and are for ever Tormented Even so says the Answerer for their Actual Rebellions but not upon the score of Original which was wiped out The second Shock was upon that Scripture Matth. 18.32 where the Lord tells the Unmerciful Servant that He had forgiven to him the Debt which he desired but since he had no compassion of his Fellow he should be kept in Prison till he had paid all which was due Though I might decline the Instance says the Respondent because it is Parabolical yet to encounter the Text more directly I say that the Debt was not cancell'd to that rigid and hard Servant for if he had his Apâcha or Quietance to speak after the manner of Men he were free from all insequent Demands But I forgave thee in that Verse is as much as I forbear thee I did not pross thee or exact upon thee Though the Tally was not struck yet no Suit was commenc'd and a Temporary Forbearance is a kind of Forgiveness The Professor was satisfied and drove his Wedge no further into that Knot Upon the second Question I remember the grave Doctor gave the Onset somewhat frowningly But the Pith of his Obligation was That the Vocation to Sacred Orders Ministerium est non mercatura Piscatores sumus hominum non venatores munerum that is Our holy Profession is a Ministry not a Merchandise that we are made Fishers of Men and not of Livings The Retorsion to this had Strength and Sweetness like Iron that is gilded Alius est finis artis alius artificis The end of Theology is to gain Souls the end of the Theologue subordinate to the first and Architectonical end is for an honest Maintenance and Sustentation As the end of Art Medicinal is to cure a Sick Man but the end of the Physician is to live well upon his Profession This agrees with the mind of Seneca lib. 3. De Benef. That the end of Phidias his Art was to carve a Statue with likeness concinnity and due proportion Finis artificis fecisse cum sructu The Artificer's end was to take Money for his Work A Distinction that cuts by an even Thread which with all that was deliver'd beside received great Congratulation from the Professor and Auditors 33. From henceforth he was a Licemiate as the Transmarines call it as we a Batchelor in Divinity A Relation to beautifie his Profession or rather a mere Scabbard to put in the sharp-edg'd Weapon of his Learning out of which he drew it forth upon a fair Quarrel which was decided before a glorious Auditory Mar. 3. 1612. That was the day wherein the Princes with the Attendance of mighty Peers and one Bishop Dr. James Montagu Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells vouchsafed to give a most Gracious Hearing to a public Disputation held between some of our chief Divines The Place was filled with the most Judicious of this whole Island and some of the Attendants of the Palsgrave so Learned that One might stand for many Plato alone for Ten Thousand One Abraham Scultetus a Worthy greatly look'd upon was able to awake the Diligence of them that had been Drowsie But they that were set forth for this Encounter had Metal enough and needed no Provocation but their own Virtue Dr. Richardson Agmen agens Lausus magnique ipse agminis instar began first with his grave Nestorean Eloquence and having saluted Prince Charles the great expectation of our future Happiness ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as G. Nyssen calls Isaac the Branch of Succession and having blessed his Serenity the Prince Elector the Bridegroom with Solemn Votes and Wishes to be added to his Hymeneal Joys then he called forth the Son of his right hand Mr. Samuel Collins created Doctor at this Commencement to stand in the gap and to maintain the Truth in three Theses against all Assailants He was a firm Bank of Earth able to receive the Shot of the greatest Artillery His Works in print against
Vows on them and their Posterity These were the Deans Instructions which the Lord Marquess received with as much Thankfulness as he could express and requited his Adviser with this Complement that he would use no other Counsellor hereafter to pluck him out of his plunges for he had delivered him from Fear and Folly and had Restor'd him both to a light Heart and a safe Conscience To the King they go together forthwith with these Notes of honest Settlement whom they found accompanied in his Chamber with the Prince and in serious Discourse together upon the same perplexities Buckingham craves leave That the Dean might be heard upon those particulars which he had brought in Writing which the King Mark'd with Patience and Pleasure And whatsoever seem'd contentious or doubtful to the King 's piercing Wit the Dean improved it to the greater liking by the Solidity of his Answers Whereupon the King resolv'd to keep close to every Syllable of those Directions Sir Edward Villiars was sent abroad and return'd not till September following Michel and Mompesson received their censure with a Salvo that Mompesson's Lady not guilty of his Crimes should be preserv'd in her Honour And before the Month of March expir'd Thirty seven Monopolies with other sharking Prouleries were decry'd in one Proclamation which return'd a Thousand praises and Ten Thousand good prayers upon the Sovereign Out of this Bud the Deans Advancement very shortly spread out into a blown Flower For the King upon this Tryal of his Wisdom either call'd him to him or call'd for his Judgment in Writing in all that he deliberated to Act or permit in this Session of Parliament in his most private and closest consultations The more he founded his Judgment the deeper it appear'd so that his Worth was Valued at no less than to be taken nearer to be a Counsellor upon all Occasions The Parliament wearied with long sittings and great pains was content against the Feast of Easter to take Relaxation and was Prorogued from the 27 of March to the 18 of April The Marquess had an Eye in it upon the Lord Chancellor to try if time would mitigate the displeasure which in both Houses was strong against him But the leisure of three Weeks multiplied a pile of New Suggestions against him and nothing was presaged more certain than his downfal which came to Ripeness on the third of May. On that day the Patent of his Office with the Great Seal was taken from him which Seal was deliver'd to Four Commissioners the Lord Treasurer Mountagu Duke of Lenox Lord Steward of the King's Houshold William Earl of Pembroke Lord Chamberlain to the King and Thomas Earl of Arundel and Surry with whom it rested till the 10th of July following In the mean time Sir James Leigh Lord Chief Justice of the King's-Bench was Commissioned to be Speaker in the Upper House and Sir Julius Caesar Master of the Rolls was Authorized with certain Judges in equal power with him to hear dispatch and decree all Causes in the Court of Chancery 62 The Competitors for the Office of the Great Seal were many Sir James Leigh before mention'd a Widower and upon Marriage with a Lady of the Buckingham Family Sir Henry Hobart Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas Chancellor to the Prince a Step to the Higher Chancellorship and as fit as any man for his Learning and Integrity which of these it was uncertain but one of these was expected And verily a fitter Choice could not be made than out of the pre-eminent Professors of the Common Laws but that all Kings affect to do somewhat which is extraordinary to shew the liberty of their power The Earl of Arundel was thought upon a Master of Reason and of a great Fortune For it was remembred upon the Death of Lord Chancellor Bromly anno 1587 That Queen Elizabeth designed a Peer of the Realm for his Successor Edward Earl of Rutland whose Merit for such a place is favour'd by Mr. Cambden because he was Juris scientiâ omni politiori literaturâ ornatissimus and if his Death much bewailed had not prevented the Great Seal had been born before him But the likeliest to get up and I may say he had his Foot in the Stirrup was Sir Lionel Cranfield Married in the kindred that brought Dignity to their Husbands a man of no vulgar head-piece yet scarce sprinkled with the Latin Tongue He was then Master of the Court of Wards and did speak to the Causes that were brought before him quaintly and evenly There seemed to be no Let to put him in Possession of the great vacant Office but that the Lord Marquess set on by the King was upon enquiry how profitable in a just way it might be to the Dignitary and whether certain Branches of Emolument were natural to it which by the endeavour of no small ones were near to Lopping Sir Lionel besought the Marquess to be sudden and to Advise upon those things with the Dean of Westminster a found man and a ready who did not wont to clap the Shackles of delay upon a business He being spoken to to draw up in Writing what he thought of those Cases return'd an Answer speedily on the Tenth of May with the best advantage he could foresee to the promotion of the Master of the Wards Yet it fell out cross unto him that the Dean woing for another utterly beyond expectation sped for himself The Paper which he sent to the Marquess hath his own Words as they follow My most Noble Lord ALthó the more I Examine my self the more unable I am made to my own Judgment to wade through any part of that great Employment which your Honour vouchsafed to confer with me about yet because I was bred under the place and that I am credibly inform'd my True and Noble Friend the Master of the Wards is willing to accept it and if it be so I hope your Lordship will incline that way I do crave leave to acquaint your Honour by way of prevention with secret underminings which will utterly overthrow all that Office and make it beggerly and contemptible The lawful Revenue of that Office stands thus or not much above at any time In Fines certain 1300 l. per annum or thereabout In Fines Casual 1250 l. or thereabout In greater Writs 140 l. for impost of Wine 100 l. in all 2790. and these are all the true means of that great Office Now I am credibly inform'd that the Lord Treasurer begins to Entitle the King to to the casual Fines and the greater Writs which is a full Moiety of the profits of the place not so much to Enrich the King as to draw Grist to his own Mill and to wind from the Chancellor the donation of the Cursitors places The preventing the Lord Treasurers in these Cases made Queen Elizabeth ever Resolve suddenly upon the disposing of the Great Seal Likewise they are very busie in the House of Commons and I saw a Bill which
which he had in a Monastery called Becc in Normandy and that Hospitality kept him when he fled out of England and all the Revenues of his Mitre failed him Stephen Gardner Bishop of Winton and Lord-Chancellor held the Mastership of Trinity-hall to his Dying-day and though he gave forty better Preferments to others he would never leave his Interest in it and did not conceal the Cause but said often If all his Palaces were blown down by Iniquity he would creep honestly into that Shell They that will not be wise by these Examples Ia Teâ I will send them to School to a Fable in Plautus Cogitato mus pusillus quà m sit sapiens bestia AEtatem qui uni cubili nunquam committit suam Qui si unum ostium obsideatur aliud perfagium quaerit So in the upshot he said Walgrave was but a Mouse-hole yet it would be a pretty Fortification to Entertain him if he had no other Home to resort to He was not the only Prophet of that which is fallen out in these dismal Days many such Divinations flash'd from others who saw the Hills of the Robbers afar off who have now devoured the Heritage of Jacob and say they are not Guilty and they that have sold us and bought us say Blessed be the Lord for we are rich Zech. 11.5 74. Whom I leave to a Day of Account having an Account to give my self how Prosperous the Lord-Keeper was in the King's Affections at this time to whom His Majesty measured out his accumulated Gifts not by the Bushel or by the Coome but by the Barn-full It was much he had compacted his own Portion to such advantage but it was not all for being warm in Favour he got the Royal Grant for the Advancement of four more who are worthy to be named He spake and sped for Dr. Davenant to be made Bishop of Salisbury who had plowed that I may allude to Elisha 1 King 19.19 with twelve yoke of Oxen and was now with the twelfth when this Mantle was cast upon him Twelve years he had been Public Reader in Divinity in Cambridge and had adorn'd the Place with much Learning as no Professor in Europe did better deserve to receive the Labourer's Peny at the twelfth Hour of the Day Beside what a Pillar he was in the Synod of Dort is to be read in the Judgment of the Britain Divines inserted among the public Acts his Part being the best in that Work and that Work being far the best in the Compilements of that Synod The Bishopric of Exon being also then void it came into the Lord-Keeper's head to gratifie a brace of worthy Divines if he could attain it his old Friends who had been both bred in the House of Wisdom with the Lord-Chancellor Egerton Dr. Carew who had been his Chaplain a man of great Reason and polish'd Eloquence and Dr. Dunn who had been his Secretary a Laureat Wit neither was it possible that a vulgar Soul should dwell in such promising Features The Success was quickly decided for these two prevailed by the Lord-Keeper's Commendation against all Pretenders the Bishopric of Exeter was conferred upon Dr. Carew and Dr. Dunn succeeded him in his Deanery of St. Paul's The See of St. David's did then want a Bishop but not Competitors The Principal was Dr. Laud a Learned Man and a Lover of Learning He had fasten'd on the Lord Marquess to be his Mediator whom he had made sure by great Observances But the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had so opposed him and represented him with suspicion in my judgment improbably grounded of Unsoundness in Religion that the Lord Marquess was at a stand and could not get the Royal Assent to that Promotion His Lordship as his Intimates know was not wont to let a Suit fall which he had undertaken in this he was the stiffer because the Arch-Bishop's Contest in the King's Presence was sour and supercilious Therefore he resolved to play his Game in another hand and conjures the Lord-Keeper to commend Dr. Laud strenuously and importunately to the King 's good Opinion to fear no Offence neither to desist for a little Storm Accordingly he watch'd when the King's Assections were most still and pacisicous and besought His Majesty to think considerately of his Chaplain the Doctor who had deserved well when he was a young Man in his Zeal against the Millenary Petition And for his incorruption in Religion let his Sermons plead for him in the Royal Hearing of which no Man could judge better then so great a Scholar as His Majesty 75. Well says the King I perceive whose Attorney you are Stenny hath set you on You have pleaded the Man a good Protestant and I believe it Neither did that stick in my Breast when I stopt his Promotion But was there not a certain Lady that forsook her Husband and married a Lord that was her Paramour Who knit that Knot Shall I make a man a Prelate one of the Angels of my Church who hath a flagrant Crime upon him Sir says the Lord-Keeper very boldly you are a good Master but who dare serve you if you will not pardon one Fault though of a scandalous Size to him that is heartily Penitent for it I pawn my Faith to you that he is heartily Penitent and there is no other Blot that hath fullied his good Name Vellcius said enough to justifie Murena that had committed but one Fault Sine hòc facinore potuit videri probus You press well says the King and I hear you with patience neither will I revive a Trespass any more which Repentance hath mortified and buried And because I see I shall not be rid of you unless I tell you my unpublish'd Cogitations the plain Truth is that I keep Laud back from all Place of Rule and Authority because I find he hath a restless Spirit and cannot see when Matters are well but loves to toss and change and to bring Things to a pitch of Reformation stoating in his own Brain which may endanger the steadfastness of that which is in a good pass God be praised I speak not at random he hath made himself known to me to be such a one For when three years since I had obtained of the Assembly of Perth to consent to Five Articles of Order and Decency in correspondence with this Church of England I gave them Promise by Attestation of Faith made that I would try their Obedience no further anent Ecclesiastic Affairs nor put them cut of their own way which Custom had made pleasing unto them with any new Encroachments Spotswood p. 543. Marquess Hamilton the King's Commissioner in the last Parliament that ever he kept in Scotland having Ratified the Five Articles of Perth by Aââ of Parliament assured the People that His Majesty in his days should not press any more Change on Alterations in matters of that kind without their Consent Yet this man hâth pressed me to invite them to a nearer conjunction with the
or improper to him and his Calling he is to be Acquitted by a formal Pardan as an Innocent but if he were acting in Indebitâ materia when he did it then it is to be gathered that God did give him up to that mischance that he might be disciplined for his Extravagancy by the Censure of the Church Now take the Illation That the Arch-Bishop fell into this Misfortune being unduly employed many Synods having prohobited Hunting to all Species of the Ministry Maldonatus lib. 2. de Sacr. p. 254. Quod nonnulli dicum irregularom esse Saccrdotom qui dâns operam ânationi juod illi non licebat homimm intersecit putans se feram intersicere falsum esi Sir H. Martin answered That Employment in undue matter is to be understood of Evil simply in it self Non de malo quia prohibitum not in a thing clearly lawful if it were not prohibited Are Clerks restrained from Hunting No wonder So they are by some Synodical Rules from playing at Tennis What mean such austere Coercions Nothing but to keep them from excess of Pleasure and Idieness which turn to be Avocations of their Studies and Attendance on the Church of Christ That in particular Hunting is no Unpriestly Sport by the Laws of England may thus be proved For every Peer in the higher House of Parliament as well Lords Spiritual as Temporal hath Permission by the Charta de Forcstà when after Sunmons he is in his Journey to the Parliament and not else to cause an Horn to be sounded when he travels through any of the King's Forests and to kill a brace of Bucks signification being given of his Intent to the Verdurers 78. The King had persect knowledge how these Things were discuss'd He saw that whether the Person of the Arch-Bishop were tainted by this Fact or not yet his Metropolitical Function was unsettled in many men's Opinions he heard that the Acts of Spiritual Courts were unsped and came to no end till Sentence were pronounced one way or other by the Supreme Authority Therefore a Commission was directed from His Majesty to ten Persons to meet together for this purpose about the beginning of October These were the Lord-Keeper the Bishops of London Winton and Rochester the Elects of Exeter and St. Davids Sir Harry Hâbart Lord-Chief-Justice of the Common-Pleas Sir John Dodderidge one of the Justices of the Kings-Bench Sir H. Martin Dean of the Arches and Dr. Steward esteemed the Papinian of Doctors-Commons These began to lay their Heads together upon the Third of October and then Conser'd upon the manner of their Proceeding The Lord Hobart and Sir H. Martin affecting that his Grace should send Counsel to Plead before them from which the rest dissented First Because no such Privilege was allowed him in the King's Letters directed to the Commissioners Secondly Because the Honour of the King and the Seandal of the Church which as yet made the adverse Party have no Counsel on their side Thirdly Because His Majesty required Information from those ten upon the nature of this Fact relying upon their Knowledge Learning and Judgments but not referring the Matter to their final Decision and Determination Indeed their Work to prevent Excursions was laid out in three Questions which they were commanded to Resolve and to Act no further And those were Debated till the 27th of that Month and in the end Decided with great Disagreement of Opinions The first Question Whether the Arch-Bishop were Irregular by the Fact of Involuntary Homicide The two Judges and the two Civilians did agree That he was not Irregular and the Bishop of Winton who was a strong Upholder of Incontaminate Antiquity coming to the same sense said He could not conclude him so The other five held He was Irregular The second Question Whether that Act might tend to a Scandal in a Church-man The Bishop of Winton the Lord Hobart and Dr. Steward doubted All the rest Subscribed That there might arise from such an Accident Scandalum acceptum non datum a Scandal taken but not given The third Question How my Lord's Grace should be restored in case the King should follow the Decision of those Commissioners who had found him Irregular All agreed it could no otherwise be done then by a Restitution from the King In the manner they varied The Bishop of Wiâchâsâer Lord Hobart Dr. Steward were of one mind to have it done immediately from the King and from him alone in the same Patent with the Pardon The Lord-Keeper Bishops of London Rochester Exon and St. Davids to be directed to some Bishops by a Commission from the King to be transacted in a foâmal Absolution Church-wise Manu Clericali Judge Dodderidge and Sir Harry Maââin were willing to have it done both ways for abundant Caution The whole Business was submitted to His Majesty to determine it who took the shortest course to shew Mercy Sprevit caelestis animus humana consilia as Velleius said of C. Caeâar So by his Broad-Seal He assoiled the Arch-Bishop from all Irregularity Scandal or Infamation pronouncing him to be capable to use all Metropolitical Authority as if that sinistrous Contigency in spilling Blood had never been done A Princely Clemency and the more to be Extoll'd because that Arch-Bishop was wont to dissent from the King as often as any man at the Council-Board It seems he loved him the better for his Courage and Sincerity For it was he that said to Jo. Spotswood Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews telling His Majesty That if he wrote an History of the Church of Scotland to which Labour he was appointed he could not approve of his Mother in all things that she did Well says the King speak the Truth and spare not Words after Salomon's Praise which are Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver 79. But because when our Arch-Bishop's Unfortunateness was recent it appeared far worse to some scrupulous Ecclesiastics then it did in process of time therefore the Lord-Keeper with the two other Elects cast themselves at His Majesties Feet and besought Him That since they had declared before God and the World what they thought in that dubious Case they might not be compel'd by wounding their Consciences to be Consecrated by him but be permitted to receive that Solemnity from some other Bishops which was warrantable by His Majesties Laws This was easily granted and the Lord-Keeper was Consecrated in the Chappel of King Henry the Seventh at Westminster on the 11th day of November following by the Bishops of London Worcester Ely Oxford Landaff And the Elects of Sarum Exeter St. Davids in the Chappel of the Bishop of London's Palace Nov. 18. by the same Reverend Fathers From hencesorth the suspicion of the Irregularity was brought asleep and never waken'd more Mr. H. L. is quite mistaken pag. 71. of his History ' It is true the Arch-Bishop an 1627. was Commanded from his Palaces of Lambeth and Croydon and sent to a Moorish House in Kent called Foord but not as he conceives
their Generation Sir J. Davies Sir Ron. Crâw Sir T. Coventry Sir R. Hâath Sir J. Walter Serjeant Fânch Serjeant Richardson Serjeant Astly Sir Hân Finch Mr. T. Crew Mr. W. Nââ Mr. A. Pânâ Mr. J. Glanvil Mr. J. Finch Mr. E. Littleton Mr. D. Jenkyn Mr. J. Baâkes Mr. E. Hârbârt Mr. T. Gardner Mr. T. Hâdly Mr. Egr. Thin Mr. R. Mason The Chief among them that did deserve to Fight next the Standard my Memory perhaps is not Trusty enough after the space of 30 years to remember all those Worthies are fill'd in the Margent like a Row of Cedars and are set down in those Titles which they carried then which most of them by their Deserts did far out-grow But these contributed all they could to his Credit with as much Observance with as great Reverence with as full Applause and Praise as could be required from ingenious Gentlemen towards one that was a Stranger to their Studies whose acceptance no doubt was a Whetstone to his Industry In the first Term that he came abroad into Westminster-Hall a Parliament sate in it's second Session wherein by Command from the King he spake to both Houses Of which Speech thus my Lord of Buckingham in a Letter to him dated Novemb. 24. I know not how the Upper House of Parliament approve your Lordships Speech But I am sure he that call d them together and as I think can best judge of it is so taken with it that he saith it is the best that ever he heard in Parliament and the nearest to his Majesties meaning which beside the contentment it hath given to his Majesty hath much comforted me in his choice of your Lordship who in all things doth so well Answer his expectation This is laid aside by some negligence the more is the pity that it cannot he found But here are two credible Witnesses how well he could open the great Affairs of the Kingdom for the best of Orators gave this Rule to Brutus Nâm disertus esse potest in eo quod nesciat no man can speak well to that which he doth not understand At this time I find in safe Records how advisedly he carried himself in the House of Peers upon the starting of two particulars The Priviledg of the Nobility was discuss'd and ready to be determin'd finally by the more Active part that they should take no Oath save only by their Honour which through his Intercession was laid aside for these Reasons That the Word of God allows of no Swearing for the finding out of Truths and deciding of Controversies but by an Invocation of the Name of God Quod confirmatur per cortius confirmatur and it is God's Glory that his Name and no other should be accounted more certain then any thing in the World In all Controversies the last Appeal is to him and to none beside because there is none above him The last Appeal is ever to the highest therefore we make no further Inquisition for Truth after our furthest provocation to the Lord in Heaven In Assertory Oaths we Swear That thereby we may put an End to contentious Causes And it is not Man's but God's Honour to end them who is the God of Peace and that maketh men to be of one mind Moreover our best consulting Divines collect that the Ground of an Oath builds upon his holy Name because He is most True and cannot Deceive likewise because he is Omniscient and cannot be ignorant and therefore to be the only due Witness for all contentious matters where there is no other Witness The Honour of the Peerage is a very Estimable Prerogative but a Creature to Swear is to put our Soul upon a Religious Action And shall a Creature be the Object of Religious Worship God forbid shall a Creature be brought in as the Witness of all Truth Or shall it be Raised up as the Judge which avengeth all falsehood There is none but God that is privy to all Truth And Vengeance belongs to none but him that can cast both Body and Soul into Everlasting Fire He added that singularities are ever to be suspected and challeng'd any man to shew the contrary that no other Oath but In the Name of God was used in Solemn Tryals at that day in any part of Christendom And he bad them look to themselves at home how prejudicial it would prove to all Courts of Justice and how unwillingly the Gentry and lower condition'd people of the Land would be brought unto it How loth they would be to refer their Free-hold their Meum and Tuum to the protestation of Honour ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã If it be stood upon that in the highest Criminal Causes of Life and Death their Lordships vouched their Honour only to Guilty or not Guilty it might receive this Satisfaction If a Peer be produced as a Witness against another Peer before the Lord High Steward he lays his hand upon the Book and takes his Oath No man can be cast by the deposition of a Witness that is not Sworn But when the Peers bring their Verdict into the same Court against a Peer they lay not their Hand upon the Book but upon their Breast which is a Sign that their vouchment by their Honour in that Tryal is not an Oath Indeed it is not For their Lordships utter it not Via juramenti but Via Comparationis That is they do not Swear by their Honour but pronounce comparatively that as sure as they are Honourable they find the Prisoner Guilty or not Guilty Like to that frequent expression in Scripture As thy Soul Liveth it is thus and thus The living Soul comes not in as an Oath but as a Comparison As who should say As sure as your Soul lives or as sure as Pharaoh lives I affirm the Truth Thus far he contended and to general Satisfaction It was much that in his Novitiatship in that house he durst contradict such mighty ones in so tender a Cause But a Wise man commends the Wisest of Heathen men Socrates for that Gallant Freedom 1 Tusâul adhibuit liberam contumaciam à magnitudine animi inductam non à Superbiâ 'T is Pride that makes men obstinate in their Errors But magnanimity makes them confident in the Truth 91. In the same morning while this Debate continued very long he had another Pass with a Master-Fencer For the question being canvas'd throughly concerning Oaths an Aged Bishop very infirm in health excus'd himself if he could not stay so long whereupon some Lords who bore a grudge to that Apostolical Order cried out they might all go home if they would and not contented with that Vilipendency grew higher in their demand and would have this contempt against the Prelates inserted in their Journal Book The Earl of Essex press'd it more passionately then the rest who wanted Theological Advice about the strict Obligation of Oaths as much as any Christian which appear'd by his Attempts and Practice about twenty years after But nothing
would now quiet his eager Spirit but to put it to the question whether the Lordships were not content to open their Doors wide and to let all the Bishops out if they would The Lord Keeper Replied with a prudent Animosity That if he were Commanded he would put it to the Question but to the King and not to the House of Peers For their Lordships as well Spiritual as Temporal were call'd by the King 's Writ to sit and abide there till the same Power dissolv'd them And for my Lords Temporal they had no Power to License themselves much less to Authorize others to depart from the Parliament With which Words of irrefragable Wisdom that Spirit was conjur'd down as soon as it was rais'd But when the House was swept and made clean it returned again in our dismal Days with seven other Spirits worse than it self The Motion was then in the Infancy and we heard no more of it till it was grown to be a Giant and dispossessed our Reverend Fathers of their ancient Possession and Primigenious Right by Club-Law Let my Apostrophe plead with our Nobles in no Man's Words but Cicero's to Cataline In vastitate omnium tuas possessiones sacrosanctas futuras putas Could your Lordships imagine to limit Gun-Powder and Wild-Fire to blow up one half of the Foundation and to spair the other half When the Pillars of the Church were pluckt down could the Pillars of the State be strong enough to support the Roof of their own Dignity They should have thought upon it when they pill'd the Bark off the Tree that the Tree would flourish no more but quickly come to that Sentence Cut it down Why cumbereth it the Ground 92. Our Forefathers when they met in Parliament were wont to auspicate their great Counsels with some remarkable Favour of Priviledge or Liberality conferr'd upon the Church And because the Prelates and their Clergy were more concern'd than any in the Benefit of the Statutes made before the Art of Printing was found out they were committed to the Custody of their Religious Mansions The Reward of those Patriots was like their Work and God did shew he was in the midst of them They began in Piety they proceeded in Prudence they acted marvelously to the Maintainance of the Publick Weal and they Concluded in Joy and Concord But since Parliaments of latter Editions have gone quite another way to hearken to Tribunitial Orators that defamed the Ministry to encourage Projectors that would disseize them of their Patrimony when the Nobles from whom better was expected wax'd weary of them who were Twins born in the same Political Administration Samnium in Samnio We may look for England in England and find nothing but New England How are we fallen from our ancient Happiness How Diseased are we grown with the Running Gout of Factions How often have those great Assemblies been cut off unkindly on both sides before their Consultations were mellow and fit for Digestion We look for much and it came to little Was it not because the Lord did blow it away Hag. 1.9 It is not good to be busie in the Search of Uncertainties that are not pleasing yet they that will not trouble themselves to consider this Reason may find divers Irritations to Jars in the Causes below but I believe they will not reduce them better to the Cause of Causes from above From hence came Fierceness and Trouble upon this Session and God sent evil Angels among them Psal 78.49 For the House of Commons seem'd to the King to step out of their Way from the Bills they were preparing into the Closet of his Majesty's Counsels which put him to make Answer to them in a Stile that became his Soveraignty The King's Son-in-Law taking upon him the Title of King of Bohemia sore against the Father-in Law 's Mind the Emperor being in lawful Possession of that Kingdom over-run the greatest part of the Palatinate with some Regiments of Old Soldiers whereof the most were Spanish under the Conduct of Marquess Spinola Our King received the Injury no less than as a deep Wound gash'd into his own Body And all true English Hearts which did not smell of the Roman Wash were greatly provoked with the Indignity Prince and People were alike affected to maintain the Palsgrave in his Inheritance but several Ways They that are of one Mind are not always of one Passion The King assay'd to stop the Fury of the Imperialists by Treaty The Votes of the bigger Number of the House of Commons propounds nothing but War with Spain and this they could not do but in Civility they must first break off the Treaty of Marriage then in Proposition between the King 's dearest Son and the Infanta Maria. Neither of which pleased his Majesty in the Matter and but little in the Form that his Subjects should meddle in those high Points which he esteemed no less than the Jewels of his Crown before he had commended them to be malleated upon their Anvil The Matter that the Match with the Spanish Princess should be intended no more was dis-relishable because he esteemed her Nation above any other to be full of Honour in their Friendship and their Friendship very profitable for the enriching of Trade The Lady her self was highly famed for Virtue Wisdom and Beauty The Noble House of which she came had ever afforded fortunate Wives to the Kings of this Land and gracious with the People Her Retinue of her own Natives should be small and her Portion greater than ever was given with a Daughter of Spain And in the League that should run along with it the Redintegration of the Prince Elector in the Emperors Favor whom he had offended should be included Therefore his Majesty wrote thus to the Parliament We are so far engaged in the Match that we cannot in Honour go back except the King of Spain perform not such things as we expect at his Hands Some were not satisfied of which more in a larger Process that our Prince should marry a Wise of the Pontifician Religion For as Man's Soul contracts Sin as soon as it toucheth the Body so their severe and suspicious Thoughts were as consident as if they had been the Lustre of Prophetick Light that a Protestant could not but be corrupted with a Popish Wedlock Therefore the King took in hand to cure that Melancholy Fit of Superstitious Fear with this Passage that he sent in his Message at the same time If the Match shall not prove a Furtherance to Religion I am not worthy to be your King A well-spirited Clause and agreeable to Holy Assurance that Truth is more like to win than lose Could the Light of such a Gospel as we profess be eclips'd with the Interposition of a single Marriage A faint hearted Soldier coming near in his March to an Ambush unawares Plut vit Pelop. Cry'd out to his Leader Pelopidas Incidimus in hostes We are fallen among the Enemy No Man says his
Excellent persons Among other passages of his Reviling Throat it was proved against him that he had said that our Bishops were no Bishops but were Lay-men and Usurpers of that Title Floud says the Lord Keeper Since I am no Bishop in your Opinion I will be no Bishop to you I concur with my Lords the like I never did before in your Corporal punishment Secondly in inflicting pecuniary Mulcts upon him that was found Guilty he was almost never heard but to concur with the smallest Sum. I would this had been imitated chiefly by them of the Hierarchy who managed the judgments of that Court after he retir'd I would that favour which was wont never to be denied to any had not been forgotten to take away such a part of an Offenders Estate by Fine that still he might have Honestum Continementum an Honest Provision to live upon according to his Place and Dignity It was never intended to prune away the Loppings and to cut down the Trunk too Nothing could be more harsh to tender Ears and Hearts then such a Torrent of censure as came from Q. Furius against Dolabella 11. Philip. of Tully he had loaded him with all the severity he could think of Dixit tamen si quis eorum qui post se rogati essent graviorem sententiam dixisset in eam se iturum But he may get a fall himself that in the undoing of a Man Gallops to Ride as fast as the Fore-Horse Thirdly the Lord Keeper's Indulgence was not satisfied to set the lowest Fine but labour'd for as much mitigation as could be granted at the end of the Term. The Officers that are yet alive will say as much and make me a true Man that the Fines of the Court were never shorn down so near before And after the Period of his Presidency it is too well known how far the Enhancements were stretch'd But the wringing of the Nose hringeth forth Blood Prov. 30.33 The Lord Treasurer Cranfeild a good Husband for the Entrates of the Exchequer complain'd against him to the King how Delinquents by his Abatements were so slightly punish'd in their Purse that the Fees that came to His Majesties Enrichment would not give the Lords a Dinner once a Week as the Custom had been nay hardly once a Term. Behold now a Man that was Lenissimus sine dispendio Disciplinae as Ausonius says of Gratian as full of Lenity as could be saving the Correction of evil Manners But it will be said he was liberal to spare men out of the King's Stock And no whit less as I will shew it out of his own Sir Francis Inglefeild a prisoner in the Fleet upon a contempt of a Decree in Chancery was much overseen not once nor twice in bitter Words against the Lord Keeper which he vented so rashly that they were certified home Well says the Lord Keeper Let him Bark on but he shall never bite his Chain asunder till he submit to mine Order But there came a Complaint by the Information of Sir J. Bennet that Sir Francis had not spared to say before sufficient Witness That he could prove this Holy Bishop Judge had been Bribed by some that far'd well in their Causes As the Old Adagy goes he might as easily have proved that Hercules was a Coward But this contumely could not be pass'd over There was a necessity to purge it or to fall under it in a public hearing After time given to Sir Francis to make good his Words in Star-Chamber the Lord Keeper withdrawing himself for that day he could prove nothing of Corruption against him no not to the Value of a Doit. So a Large Fine of many thousand pounds was inflicted on Sir Francis to be paid to the King and to his Minister whom he had Slander'd The Lord Keeper in a few days following sent for the woful Gentleman and told him he would refute his soul Aspersions and prove upon him that he scorn'd the Pelf of the World or to exact or make lucre of any man For for his own part he forgave him every peny of his Fine and would crave the same Mercy towards him from the King Sir Francis bless'd himself to find such Mercy from one whom he had so grievously provok'd acknowledg'd the Crime of his Defamation and was received afterward into some Degree of Acquaintance and Friendship Many have been undone by those whom they took to be their Friends But it is a rare chance to be seen as in this instance for a man to be preserv'd by him whom he had made his Enemy Let this suffice to declare that the Star-Chamber by this Lord's Prudence was the Court of Astraea 97. Being to take his Picture from Head to Foot it is pertinent to consider him in the Office of a Privy-Councellor It was his first Honour wherein the King call'd him to serve the Crown being Sworn to sit at that Board Three Weeks before he was entrusted with the Great Seal Many things and the best of his Abilities in that place I believe are un-publishable for the most of that Work is secret and done behind the Curtain He that sits in that Employment had need to have the whole Common-Wealth in his Head So says an exact Senator 2 De Orato Ad Consilum de Repub. dandum caput est nosse Rempublicam Many may spit Sentences upon such great matters and speak little as worthy Doctor Gauden says like sealed Pigeons The less they see the higher they Fly But blessed be his Name that gives all good Gifts he was furnish'd with strong intellectuals to discern into the means that concern the Honour Safety Defence and Profit of the Realm Yet it is not enough to have a piercing Eye unless there be an Heart to affect the public good Tully began well but Pontanus makes up the rest in Extolling the Venetian Government Senatoribus mira in consentiendo integritas atque erga patriam amor incredibilis And his Lordship was as true an Englishman as ever gave Counsel in the Royal Palace Therefore he was more employ'd by his Majesty then all the rest to negotiate with Embassadors being most Circumspect and tender to yield to nothing that was not advantagious to our own common Welfare Neither did the Courts of France and Spain and the States of Holland with whom we Acted most upon Tryal how he sisted their Leagues expect any other from him He had the most sudden Representation of Reason to confirm that which he defended of any Man alive None could abound above him in that Faculty which made his great Master value him at that weight that the thrice Noble Lodwick Duke of Richmond told him in my hearing That the King listned to his Judgment rather than to any Minister of State Which took the oftner because if his Majesty were moody and not inclin'd to his Propositions he would fetch him out of that Sullen with a pleasant Jeât and turn him about with a Trick of Facetiousness I
find by his own Confession remaining in some Schedules that he was beholding to Lord Egerton's Directions to fill up the Worth of that Place which were these First To open his sincere and intimate Mind in all Advice which is indeed to give Counsel and not Words For he that speaks against his Conscience to please the King gives him a dry Flower to smell to Secondly Whatsoever was propos'd to examine primarily if it were just For he that dare make bold with God for Reasons of State is not to be trusted by Man There can be no Reason against Right Velleius says that Cato the Heathen was of that Opinion Cui id solum visum est rationem habere quod haberet justitiam 2. If it were for the Honour of the King for Crown-wisdom must not be soil'd with the Dust of Baseness but aim at Glory 3. If it were profitable as well for the Ages to come as for the present Use for present Occasions are mortal but a Kingdom is immortal If it hit not every Joynt of Just Honourable and Profitable he voted to lay it aside He kept other Rules at the Table but more dispensable As to mature great Matters with slow Deliberation at least to give them a second Hearing after himself and his Colleagues had laid their Heads upon their Pillows Next he called upon the King to follow the beaten Tract of former Precedents For new ways are visibly the Reproach of ancient Wisdom and run the Hazard of Repentance New Stars have appeard and vanish'd the ancient Asterisms remain there 's not an old Star missing Likewise it was his modest but frequent Motion that Counsels should not be whispered by one or two in a Corner but delivered openly at the Board by the sworn Ministers For what avails it when a Globe of Senators have press'd sound Judgment if some for their own Ends shall overthrow it who have made Blastus their Friend in Agrippa's Chamber Act. 12. The Lord Cooke's Jurisdiction of Courts Pag. 57. gives it for a special Note of his own Observation when he was a Privy Counselsellor that when a thing upon Debate and Deliberation is well resolv'd at the Council-Table the Change thereof upon some private Information is neither safe nor honourable As Seneca says Lib. 2. de Benif Vota homines parciùs faccrent si palam facienda essint If all Prayers were made in the Hearing of a publick Assembly many that are mumbled in Private wou'd be omitted for Shame So if all Counsels offer'd to Princes were spread out before many Witnesses Ear-Wiggs that buzz what they think fit in the retir'd Closet durst not infect the Royal Audience with pernicious Glozing for fear of Scandal or Punishment Well did the Best of our Poets of this Century decipher a Corrupt Court in his Under-woods Pag. 227 When scarce we hear a publick Voice alive But whisper'd Counsels and these only thrive Lastly He deprecated continually and obtained that private Causes should be distinguished from Publick that Actions of Meum and Tuum should be repulsed from the Council-Board and kept within the Channel of the Common-Law But to run along with the Complacemia of the Multitude with that which was most cry'd up in the Town by our Gallants at Taverns and Ordinaries he defy'd it utterly Populo super âcanea est calliditas says Salust The Peoples Heads are not lin'd with the Knowledge of the Kingdoms Government 't is above their Perimeter When they obey they are in their Wits when they prescribe they are mad Excellently King James in one of his Speeches Who can have Wisdom to judge of things of that Nature arcana imperii but such as are daily acquainted with the Particulars of Treaties and the variable and fixed Connexion of Affairs of State together with the Knowledge of the secret Ways Ends and Intention of Princes in their several Negotiations Otherwise small Mistakings in Matters of this Nature may produce worse Effects than can be imagined He gave this Warning very sagely to his People what Warning he received from his faithful Servant the Lord Keeper shall be the Close of this Subject His Majesty being careful to set his House within himself in good Order against he came to the Holy Communion on the Eve before he sent for this Bishop as his Chaplain to confer with him about Sacred Preparation for that Heavenly Feast who took Opportunity when the King's Conscience was most tender and humble to shew him the way of a good King as well as of a good Christian in these Points First To call Parliaments often to affect them to accord with them To which Proposal he fully won his Majesty's Heart Secondly To allow his Subjects the Liberty and Right of the Laws without entrenching by his Prerogative which he attended to with much Patience and repented he had not lookt into that Counsel sooner Thirdly To contract his great Expences and to give with that Moderation that the Prince his Son and his succeeding Posterity might give as well as He. In short to contrive how to live upon his own Revenue or very near it that he might ask but little by way of Subsidy and he should be sure to have the more given him But of all the three Motions there was the least Hope to make him hear of that Ear. For though he would talk of Parsimony as much as any yet he was lavish and could keep no Bounds in Spending As Paterculus observes of an Emperor that wrote to the Senate Triumphum appararent quà m minimo sumtu sed quantus alias nunquam fuisset To be a great Saver and a great Spender is hard to be reconciled for it toucheth the Hem of a Contradiction But since the Benefit of that Counsel would not rest upon the Head of the King the Honesty of it returned again to him that gave it 98. Who had the Abilities of two Men in one Breast and filled up the Industry of two Persons in one Body He satisfied the King's Affairs in the Civil Theatre and performed the Bishops Part in the Church of Christ As ãâã and Jehojada were great Judges in the Land and ministred before the Lord to their Linnen Ephods The Custody of the Great Seal would not admit him so long as he kept it to visit his Diocess himself but though he was not upon the Soil of the Vineyard he was in the Tower of it to over-look the Vine-Dressors Though he was absent in his Body he was present in the Care and Watchfulness of his Spirit and as our Saviour said of the Woman that poured her precious Spikenard upon him Quod potuit fecit Marc. 14.8 So I doubt not but God did accept it from him that he did what he could He heard often from those whom he had surrogated and appointed in Office to give him Information and was so assiduous to enquire after all Occurrences in those many Parochial Towns that were under his Pastoral Power that he would be very
Clergy of England as being neither Parsons Vicars nor Curates be Licenced henceforward in the Court of Faculties only with a Fiat from the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and a Confirmation under the Great Seal of England And that such as transgress any one of these Directions be suspended by the Lord Bishop of the Diocess or in his Default by the Lord Arch-Bishop of the Province Ab officio beneficio for a Year and a Day untill his Majesty by the Advice of the next Convocation shall prescribe some further Punishment 102. These Orders were well brought fourth but Success was the Step-Mother Destinata salubriter omni ratione potentior fortuna discussit Curtius lib. 5o. Crossness and Sturdiness took best with the Vulgar and he was counted but a Cockney that stood in awe of his Rulers No marvel if some were brought to no State of Health or toward any Temper of Convalesence with these Mandates Nothing is so hardly bridled as the Tongue saith St. James especially of a mis-guided Conscience when their Bladder if full of Wind the least Prick of a Thorn will give it eruption A Fool traveleth with a Word as a Woman in Labour of a Child Ecclus. 19.11 Restraint is not a Medicine to cure epidemical Diseases for Sin becomes more sinful by the Occasion of the Law Diliguntur immodice sola quae non licent says one of the Exteriors Quintil. decl 1a. The less we should the more we would Curb Cholerical Humours and you press out Bitterness as it is incident to those that are strait-lac'd to have sower Breaths The Scottish Brethren were acquainted by common Intercourse with these Directions that had netled the aggrieved Pulpitarians And they says Reverend Spotswood P. 543. accuse them to be a Discharge of Preaching at least a Confining of Preachers to certain Points of Doctrine which they call Limiting of the Spirit of God But the Wiser Sort judged them both necessary and profitable considering the Indiscretion of divers of that sort who to make Ostentation of their Learning or to gain the Applause of the Popular would be medling with Controversies they scarce understood and with Matters exceeding the Capacity of the People But what a Pudder does some make for not stinting the Spirit or Liberty of Prophecying as others call it They know not what they ask Such an indefinite Licence is like the Philosopher's Materia Prima a monstrous Passive Subject without Form A Quid libet which is next to nothing Indeed it is a large Charter to pluck down and never to build up Every Man may sling a Stone where he will and let it light as Luck carries it But how can the House of God be built unless the Builders be appointed to set up the Frame with Order and Agreement among themselves according to the Pattern which was shewn in the Mount Try it first in Humane Affairs and see how it will sadge with them before we proceed to Heavenly Dissolve the publick Mint let every Man Coin what Money he will and observe if ever we can make a Marchandable Payment Their Confusion is as like to this as a Cherry to a Cherry Give their Spirit as much Scope as they ask Let them Coin what Doctrine they will with the Minting-Irons of their own Brain They may pay themselves with their own Money but will it pass with others for Starling Will it go for current Divinity To meet them home Suppose this Priviledge were allow'd yet every good Spirit will limit it self to lawful Subjection Yet these would not Then what Remedy in earnest none was try'd It is the height of Infelicity to be incurable As Pliny in his Natural History said of Laws made against Luxury in Rome which would not be kept down therefore the Senators left to make Laws against it Frustra interdicta quae vetucrant cernentes nullas potiùs quam irritas esse Leges maluerunt 103. Neither were uncharitable Suspicions like to mend For the Unsatisfied that sung so far out of Tune had another Ditty for their Prick-Song The King's Letters were directed to the Lord Keeper to be Copy'd out and sent forth to the Judges and Justices to afford some Relaxation of our Penal Laws to some but not all Popish Recusants Which made sundry Ministers interpose very harshly and in the Prophet Malachy's Stile Chap. 2. Ver. 13. To cover the Altar of God with Tears and Weeping and Crying but the Lord regarded not the Offering neither received it with Good-will at their Hands What could this mean as they conjectured but the highest Umbrage to the Reformed Religion and âat Toerâion of Popery Leave it at that cross way that they knew not whither this Project will turn Nay Should they not hope for the best Event of the Meaning A King is like to have an ill Audit when every one that walks in the Streets will reckon upon his Councels with their own casting Counters It is fit in sundry Occurrences for a Prince to disguise his Actions and not to discover the way in which he treads But many times the Wisdom of our Rulers betrays them to more Hatred than their Follies because Idiots presume that their own Follies are Wisdom Plaurus displays these impertinent Inquisitors very well in Trinummo Quod quisque habet in animo aut habiturus est sciunt Quod in aurem Rex Reginae dixerit sciunt Quae neque futura neque facta sunt illi sciunt Yet these Fault-sinders were not jear'd out of their Melancholly though they deserv'd no better but were gravely admonished by his Majesty Vivâ voce in these Words I understand that I am blamed for not executing the Laws made against the Papists But ye should know that a King and his Laws are not unfuly compared to a Rider and his Horse The Spur is sometime to be used but not always The Bridle is sometime to be held in at other times to be let loose as the Rider finds Cause Just so a King is not at all times to put in Execution the Rigor of his Laws but he must for a time and upon just Grounds dispense with the same As I protest to have done in the present Case and to have conniv'd only for a time upon just Cause howbeit not known to ãâã If a Man for the Favour shew'd to a Priest or Papist will judge me to be inclining that way he wrongs me exceedingly My Words and Writings and Actions have sufficiently ãâã what my Resolution is in all Matters of Religion That Cause not known to ãâ¦ã in part unfolded by that grave Father Spotswood where I quoted him ãâã Says he The Better and Wiser Sort of his Country-men who considered ãâ¦ã Estate of things gave a far other Judgment thereof than the Discontented ãâ¦ã then our King was treating with the French King for Peace to the Protestants of France and with the King of Spain for withdrawing his Forces from the Palatinate At which time it was no way fitting that
and to raise divisions So they dealt now For they put a Paper into my Lord of Buckingham's hands to assist them for the Erection of Titulary Popish Praelates in this Kingdom A most Natural superfaetation with the motion whereof the Lord Marquess being amuzed he sent to the Lord Keeper for advice who damned the Project with these Reasons ensuing First it will set all the Kingdom on Fire and make his Majesty unable to continue those Favours and Connivencies to peaceable Recusants which he now most Graciously affords them Secondly It takes away from his Majesty an Hereditary Branch of the Crown which the Kings of this Land have ever enjoy'd even before the Conquest and hath never since the days of King John been so much as Challeng'd by any Pope to Wit the Investitures of Bishops Thirdly It is a far greater mischief in a State I mean in regard of the Temporal but not of the Spiritual good thereof then an absolute Toleration For a Toleration as we see in France doth so divide and distinguish Towns and Parishes that no place makes above one payment to their Church-men But this invisible Consistory shall be confusedly diffused over all the Kingdom that many of the Subjects shall to the intolerable exhausting of the Wealth of the Realm pay double Tithes double Offerings and double Fees in regard of their double Consistory And if Ireland be so poor as it is suggested I hold under Correction that this invisible Consistory is the principal cause of the exhausting thereof Fourthly If the Princes Match should go on this New Erected Consistory will put the the ensuing Parliament into such a Jealousie and Suspition that it is to be feared that they will shew themselves very untractable upon all propositions Fifthly For the Pope to place a Bishop in this Kingdom is against the Fundamental Law of the Land and the King will be held unjust and injurious to his Successors if to his utmost power he should not resist and punish This Draught was brought to the King who was glad such Pills were prepared to purge away the redundancy of the Catholic Encroachments And his Majesty gave Order to him who had confected them so well to Administer them with his best skill to the Spanish Embassador That they might work gently with him the Lord Keeper at his Visit made shew that he was startled at a heady motion that came from Savoy as he thought taking no notice of any Spanish Agent that had his Finger in it And besought his Excellency to send for the Savoyan and to wish him to throw aside his Advice for Titulary Bishops least it should hinder the King of Spain's desire in accomodating the Catholics with those Courtesies which had been granted which took so well with the Spanish Embassador his own indiscretion being not Taxt but the Folly laid at another Door that the motion sunk in the Mud and was seen no more I will add but one thing how distastful it was to him that the Papists should have so much as the shadow of a governing Church in this Realm taken out of a Letter Cabal pag. 81. Written to my Lord of Buckingham being then at Madrid dated Aug. 30. 1623. Doctor Bishop the New Bishop of Chalcedon is come to London privately and I am much troubled at it not knowing what to Advise his Majesty as things stand at this present If you were Shipped with the Infanta the only Counsel were to let the Judges proceed with him presently Hang him out of the way and the King to blame my Lord of Caterbury or my self for it Surely this doth not favour of addiction to the Purple-Hat or the Purple-Harlot Ovid. Nunquid ei hoe fallax Creta negare potes Nay it was a Pang rather then a Passion to the welfare of this Church which forc'd sentence of Blood out of his sweet and mi'ky Nature 106. Yet well fare those good Fellows that did not defame him for a Papist Much otherwise they charg'd him with a loud Slander and a long Breach for it continued in his days of Sorrow that he was a Puritan of what Colour Siâs Blew or Black Both these might he false so they were both could not be True David says of God's Servants whom he Tried as Silver is Tried in the Fire that they went through Fire and through Water Miseâies of Repugnant Natures So Sometimes they pass through Defamations inconsistent and as contrary one to another as Fire and Water The Old Non conformists were call'd by the Nick Name of Puritans in Queen Elizabeth's days I know not who impos'd it first whether Parsons the Jesuit or some such Franion I know it grew not up like Wild Oats without Sowing But some Supercilious Divines a few years before the End of K. James his Reign began to Survey the Narrow way of the Church of England with no Eyes but their own and measuring a Right Protestant with their streight line discriminated as they thought fit sound from unsound so that scarce ten among a Thousand but were Noted to carry some Disguise of a Puritan The very Prelates were not free from it but Tantum non ni âpiscopatu Puritani became an Obloquy At the Session which these Arislarchusses held near to the Court in the Strand the Lord Keeper the most Circumspect of any Man alive to provide for Uniformity and to countenance it was scratch'd with their Obeliske that he favour'd Puritans and that sundây of them had Protection through his Connivency or Clemency All the Quarrel in good Sooth was that their Eye was Evil because his was Good Such whom the Aemulous repin'd at as he cast it out himself were of two Ranks Some were of a very strict Life and a great deal more laborious in their Cure then their Obtrectators Far be it from him to love these the worse because they were Stigmatiz'd to the Offence of Religious and Just-men with a by word of Contumely Pacatus the Orator inveighed against it for a Rank impiety in his Panâg Quod Clarevati Matrorae objicicbatur atque ãâã exprobrabatur mulieri vi luae nimia Religio diligentius culta Divinitas I will lay it open in one particular The Lord Bishop of Norwich Dr. Harsnet a learned Prelate and a Wise Governour bate him perhaps a little roughness began to proceed in his Consistory against Mr. Samuel Ward a Famous Preacher in Ipswich who Appealed from the Bishop to the King And the King committed the Articles exhibited against him to be Examined by the Lord Keeper and by him to be Reported to his Majesty The Lord Keeper found Mr. Ward to be not altogether blameless but a Man to be won easily with fair dealing So he perswaded Bishop Harsnet to take his Submission and to continue him in his Lecture at Ipswich The Truth is he found so much Candor in Mr. Ward so much readiness to serve the Church of England in its present Establishment and made it so clearly appear that he had
gained divers Beneficed Men to conform who had stumbled at that Straw that the Lord Keeper could do no less then compound the Troubles of so Learned and Industrious a Divine And I aver it upon the Faith of a good Witness that after this Bishop Harsnet acknowledged that he was as useful a man to assist him in his Government as was in all his Diocese Another Rank for whose sake the Lord Keeper suffer'd were scarce an handful not above three or four in all the wide Bishoprick of Lincoln who did not oppose but by ill Education seldom used the appointed Ceremonies Of whom when he was certified by his Commissaries and Officials he sent for them and confer'd with them with much Meekness sometime remitted them to argue with his Chaplain If all this stirred them not he commended them to his Old Collegiate Dr. Sibbs or Dr. Gouch Who knew the scruples of these mens Hearts and how to bring them about the best of any about the City of London If all these labour'd in vain he protracted the hearing of their Causes de die in diem that time might mollisie their refractory Apprehensions But had it not been better said some ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to stop the mouth of the unruly Tit. 1.11 I Answer Their mouth was slept in St. Paul's meaning Estius hath begun the distinction and it is easily made up Alind est silontium indicere quod est imperamis Alind ad metas saciturnitatis reduccre quod est docte redarguentis They were not imperiously commanded to be silent but enough was spoken wifely to their Face to put their Folly to silence Men that are found in their Morals and in Minutes imperfect in their Intellectuals are best reclaimed when they are mignarized and strok'd gently Seldom any thing but severity will make them Anti-practise For then they grow desperate Facundus Dominus quosdam aâfugam cogit quosdam ad mortem says Seneca And they are like to convert more with their sufferings then with their Doctrine He that is openly punish'd whatsoever he hath done he shall find Condolement But I will spend no more Words to wipe away this stur of Puritanism it needs not a laborious Apology ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as the Proverb is in Athenaeus Let Lubbars Talk of it over a Winter Fire when they Droll out Tales 107. Yet I want not matter how to wash out this spot of Jealousie by great Actions In this year 1622 he began to expend a great Sum upon St. John's College the Nurse of his hopeful breeding A right stampt Puritan is not a Founder but a Demolisher of good Works He laid the platform of his Beneficence on this Wife Four Scholars he Added to the 40 Alumni in the College of Westminster For their Advancement he provided and endowed four Scholarships in St. John's College upon their Maturity and Vacancy of those places to be Translated to them Two Fellowships he Newly Erected in that House into which only out of those four the best were to be chosen Withal he purchas'd the Patronage of four Rich Benefices to receive those Scholars and Fellows of his Foundation upon the Death or other Cessation of the Incumbents But the Chief Minerval which he bestowed upon that Society was the Structure of a most goodly Library the best in that kind in all Cambridge And as he had pick'd up the best Authors in all Learning and in all plenty for his own use so he bequeathed them all to this fair Repository This was Episcopal indeed to issue out his Wealth as the Lord brought it in in such ways This is the Purse that Mr. H. L. says he Ran away withal after he had departed with the Great Seal wherein we see how far the Portion of over-flowing wast which ãâã from Great Ones and is spilt if it were sav'd and well bestow'd would ãâã the Land with all sort of Monumental Bravery What a good Steward he was for his Master Christ Jesus's Houshold and how provident to put none into part of the Care but such as were Obedient to Civil and Sacred Rulers appears most in his happy choice of those upon whom he confer'd the livings that fell into his Patronage They were ever pick'd out of the best Learned the best Qualified the most Cordially affected to our most Godly Liturgy and to the Government of the Prelates Within these Apostatizing times wherein so many have departed from them without Cause I cannot remember any of his preferring but kept their Traces and to their best Power never run out of the Ring I have a short Story to tell and then I leave this Subject Among the poor distressed Protestants in Bohemia many of them were Braziers by their Occupation These sent sent some messengers from them with a Petition to his Majesty that they might Transplant a Colony into England London especially Men Wives Children and their full Families Signifying that they would bring with them to the Value of two hundred Thousand Pounds in Coin and Materials of their Trade That their Substance and Labour should be subject to all Customs and Taxes for the King's profit They desired to live in a Body of their own Nation and to serve Christ Jesus in that Church Discipline which they brought with them from Bohemia Though they had inclin'd his Majesty to admit them being a great Swarm of People and bringing Wax and Honey along yet the Lord Keeper diverted it from the Example of the Dutch and French that were setled among us These brought commodious Manufacture into the Realm but they brought a Discipline with it according to the Allowance of their Patent which was a Suffocation to the Temperate Crisis of our own Church Government Which Peril of Distemper would be increased by the Access of the Bohemick Congregation A great Forecast to keep our Hierarchy found from the Contagion of Foreigners and he was more Religious to keep the Church of England in its Sabbath and Holy Rest than to help out the Neighbours Ox that was fallen into the Pit Yet I have somewhat to alledge in the Behalf of the Bohemians I have in my little Library a Book printed 1633 eleven years after the Lord Keeper appear'd against their Petition called Ratio Disciplinae ordinisque Ecclesiastici in unitate sratrum Bohemorum Their Platform in that Piece comes so near to the old Protestant Church of England above all the Reformed that for my part I wish we had had their Company This is sufficient I am sure against those Opposite and Self-overthrowing Aspersions Let them do their worst there is one Metal that will never be the worse for them of whose Property this Lord partak'd It is Gold of which Pliny writes Lib. 33. N. H. c. 3. that nothing makes it more precious Quam contra salis aceti succos domitores rerum constantia The Spirits of Salt and Vinegar the most biting and sowrest Reproaches cannot hurt it with their Tartness That which corrodes all
notoriously known to all the World Yet have I most willingly observed in all Orders upon Petitions these Cautions following which I received from Your Majesty First To order nothing in this kind without Notice given to the adverse Part and Oath made thereof Secondly To reverse correct or alter no one Syllable of any Decree or Order pronounced in Court upon Counsel heard on both Sides Thirdly To alter no Possession unless it be in pursuance to a former Decree or Order pronunced in open Court or to save by a Sequestration to indifferent Hands some Bona peritura which commonly be a Tithe or a Crop of Hay or Corn which are ready to be carried away by force by unresponsal Men and will not stay for a Decree in Court Now I humbly crave Your Majesty's Opinion whither I may go on this way as ancient as the Court for easing Your Majesty's Subjects with these Cautions and Limitations the Clamor of the Lawyers and Ignorance of some Men Qui me per ornamenta feriunt notwithstanding For although no Party grieved doth or indeed can complain against these Dispatches and that in the corruptest Times it was never heard that any Bribes have been taken for Answers upon Petitions Yet what Reason have I to over-toil my self in easing the Purse of the Subjects if it be objected as a Crime against me and be not a Service acceptable to Your Majesty and the Realms I have eased my self there three days in this kind but am so oppressed with the Clamor of poor People who come for ordinary Dispatches that I am enforced to prevent their Complaint by this humble Repraesentation unto Your Majesty I most humbly therefore crave Your Majesty's Directions deny'd to none of Your Servants that desire them to be signified unto me by the Lord Admiral at his Lordship's best Conveniency 117. Thus much perhaps is too much but that as Alexander said in Curtius Satius est purgatos esse quà m suspectos 'T is better to clear an Error imputed than to be suspected The King stood to him as he did always and sent him a gracious Message It was his Conscience he dispenced in that Court and he had his Approbation in all he had heard of Truly I believe his Majesty's Love wrought that Ableness in him to make him more than else he would have been Neither did the Lord Marquess see any Reason but to justifie his Integrity and Diligence Yet before Michaelmas Term was spent An. 1622 that great Lord dropt some Words that he was not altogether pleas'd with the Lord Keeper's Observance and look'd upon him with a stranger Countenance than before so as from that time the Lord Keeper failed but with an half Wind in that mighty Lord's Favour which he hid most prudently and shew'd not the least appearance that he was faln into that dislike As Macrobius commends Pisistratus Lib. 7. c. 1. whose Children secretly made Head against him Yet Pisistratus dissembled strangely that all was well between them that the City of Athens might not practise upon their Enmity So it was covered as artificially from Court and City that these two Luminaries were near to Opposition The first Man that was like to know it from the Lord Marquess was the Bishop of St. Davids for about this time he stiles himself Confessor to his Lordship in Mr. Prinn's Publications And within the compass of this Time he says he dreamt that the Lord Keeper was dead that he went by and saw his Grave a making And how doth he expound this Vision which he saw in his Sleep but that he was dead in my Lord of Buckingham's Affections Some are like to ask what it was that did the ill Office to shake the Stedfastness of their Friendship That will break out hereafter But the Quarrel began that some Decrees had been made in Chancery for whose better Speed my Lord Marquess had undertaken An Undertaker he was without Confinement of Importunity There was not a Cause of moment but as soon as it came to Publication one of the Parties brought Letters from this mighty Peer and the Lord Keeper's Patron For the Lord Marquess was of a kind Mature in Courtesie more luxuriant than was fit in his Place not willing to deny a Suit but prone to gratifie all Strangers chiefly if any of his Kindred brought them in their Hand and was far more apt to believe them that askt him a Favour than those that would perswade him it was not to be granted These that haunted him without shame to have their Suits recommended to great Officers made him quickly weary of his faithful Ministers that could not justly satisfie him I had mentioned none but that I am beholding to the Cabal to fall upon one the worst of twenty Sir John Michel P. 84. of whose Unreasonableness the Lord Keeper writes thus God is my Wuness I have never deny'd cither Justice or Favour which was to be justified to this man or any other that had the least Relation to your good and most Noble Mother And I hope your Lordship is perswaded thereof Budaeus P. 67. Upon the Pandects writes offensively upon the medling of such Lady Advocates Why may not Women be our Magistrates and govern us if they think to govern them that are our Magistrates But he complains with more Impatience against the Courtiers of Paris P. 188. Quotusquisque est qui modo in aulâ interiore sit alicujus nominis qui non se dignum censeat propter quem leges constitutiones quamvis gravi sanctione munitae violari debeant which makes the Place of a Judge a Burthen that cannot be supported For as no Artist can make the Year run even by the Course of Sun and Moon so no Justice can run even between the imperious Directions of a Favourite and the Conscience of a just Man The Lord Marquess had used his Power to assist the Lord Keeper in his Lifting up but good Turns are not to be counted a Servile Bond to impose as much as shall be obtruded to be done with a Blind-fold Readiness For no man in Earth is all in all a Servant but to God Gratitude may exact much but Innocency is free from paying a Tribute And 't is pity they should ever have the Ability to do Benefits who over-lay their good Turns and would not have those to whom they have been gracious persevere in Integrity Yet many do so far value their own Kindness that they think for their good Works Sake they have bought God's Part in us which if it be substracted none are so ready to dismount a Man as they that did promote him It is observ'd before me by Aurelius Victor in the Lite of Nerva Qui cum se merreri omnia praesumant si quicquam non extorserint atrociores sunt ipsis hostibus Therefore let a private Man be content and take sweet Sleeps He holds his Conscience in no Tenure but of God He that is out of great Place is out
of great Tentation Tuta me mediâ vehat vita decurrens viâ Sence in Ad. 118. I have touch'd upon the very Thread where the Lord Marquesâs Friendship began to unravel I have shewn how blameless the Lord Keeper was and that the Offence on his Part was undeclinable Yet I will not smother with partiality what I have heard the Countess Mother say upon it That the Lord Keeper had great Cause sometimes to recede from those Courses which her Son propounded that she never heard him different but that his Counsels were wise and well-grounded ever tending to the Marquess's Honour Safety and Prosperity but that he stirr'd her Son to Offence with Reprehensions that were too bold and vehement I heed this the more because it was usual with the Lord Keeper to be very angry with his best Friends when they would not hearken to their own Good Pardon him that Fault and it will be hard to find another in him as Onuphrius says of P. Pius the Fifth for his Cholerick Moods Hoc uno excepto vitio non erat in illo quod quisquam possit reprehendere And if the Testimony of that Lady be true it is but one and a most domestick Witness I do not shuffle it over as if his Meanor to the Lord Marquess were not a little culpable It was not enough to have Justice of his Side without Discretion Good Counsel is Friendly but it must be mannerly St. Châysostom though a Free and a very hot man himself preach'd thus at Antioch Hom. 27. That some Inflammation will not be touch'd no not with a soft Finger ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Words as soft as Lint must be us'd to some Ears who disdain to be dealt withal as Equals Let me joyn Ric. Victor to him enforcing the like from David's Playing on the Harp when Saul was moved When stubborn Opposition will vex some great Men into Fury Dignum est ut elocutionis nostrae tranquilitate quasi citharae dulcedine ad salutem revocentur Use them tenderly and play as it were a Lesson upon the Harp to flatter them into Attention and Tranquility This is enough to reprehend a few stout Words but the Lord Keeper for all the Frown of the Lord Marquess staid upon him carry'd as true a Heart toward him and all his Allies as exuberant in Gratitude as ever liv'd in Fâesh He never wrote to him no not when he was quite forsaken but he refresh'd the Benefits he had receiv'd from him in his Memory He never commanded him but he obeyed in all which was to be justified No Danger impending over his Lordship but he was ready to run an honest Hazard with him even to the laying down of his Life In his Absence when a Friend is best tried when his Lordship was in Spain far from the King and giving no little Distast there by his Bearing then he smooth'd his Errors to his Majesty and kept him from Precipitation knowing that he had threatned to bring about his own Ruine Yet in strict Justice a Founder loseth his Right of Interest that would destroy or debauch his Foundation As Amber and Pearl are turned to mean Druggs and Dust when the Chymists hath drawn their Elixir out of them At this stop I can resolve one Question which many have ask'd me whence the Occasion sprung which transformed Bishop Laud from a Person so much obliged Eighteen Months before to the Lord Keeper to the sharpest Enemy As soon as ever the Bishop saw his Advancer was under the Anger of the Lord Marquess he would never acknowledge him more but shunn'd him as the old Romans in their Superstition walk'd a loof from that Soil which was blasted with Thunder It was an Opportunity snatch'd to pluck him back that was got so far before him Hold him down that he might not rise and then he promised himself the best Preeminence in the Church for he saw no other Rival As Velleius says of Pompey That he was very quiet till he suspected some Senator that thrust up to be his Equal Civis in tagá nisi ubi ' vereretur ne quem haberet parem modestissimus But will a good Christian say did so much Hatred grow up from no other Seed From no other that ever appear'd and look upon the World and marvel not at it for it is frequently seen that those Enemies which are most causless are most implacable which our Divines draw out of this that no Reason is express'd by Moses why the Devil tempted our first Parents and sought their Fall The like was noted by the gravest Counsellor of our Kingdom the Lord Burleigh who condoled when he heard the Condemnation of Sir John Perrot with these Words Odium quo injustius eò acrius Ill Will is most vehement when it is most unjust Cambden Eliz. An. 1592. But when himself was not harm'd a jot would he be so unkind to his Benefactor Phoed. Act. 1. Se. 3. What says a long Tongu'd Fellow In Plautus mortuus est qui suit qui vivus est He that was was lost He dreamt his Benefactor was defunct there was Life in my Lord of Buckingham and it was good Cunning to jog along with his Motions I am confident to give this Satisfaction to the Question above For the Lord Keeper did often protest upon his Hope in Christ that he knew no other Reason of their Parting Reader say nothing to it but hear what Solomon says Proverbs 18. ver â according to the Septuagint and the Vulgar Latin ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Occasiones querit qui vult recedere ab amico omni tempore erit exprobrabilis 119. These Enmies were blowing at the Forge three years well nigh before the Ingeneers could frame a Bar to lift him off the Hinges of his Dignity for he was fast lock'd and bolted into the Royal Favour He bore up with that Authority that he could not be check'd with Violence and Occasions grew fast upon his Majesty to use his Sufficiency and Fidelity For though he was a King of profound Art yet he was not so fortunate in that Advice which he took to send his dear Son the Prince with the Lord Marquess into Spain Feb. 17 1022. So soon as those Travellers had left the King with his little Court at New-Market the King found himself at more Leisure and Freedom in the Absence of the Lord Marquess to study the Calling of a Comfortable and Concordious Parliament wherein the Subject might reap Justice and the Crown Honour And Occasion concluded for it that since the Prince like a Resolute and Noble Wooer had trusted himself to the King of Spain's Faith in the Court of Madrid whether his Adventure sped or not sped he must be welcomed Home with a Parliament The King prepared for the Conception of that Publick Meeting that it might fall to its proper Work without Diversions He conceiv'd there was no Error more fatal to good Dispatch than that some Members took
up the greatest part of the Time in speaking to the Redress of petty Grievances like Spaniels that rett after Larks and Sparrows in the Field and pass over the best Game Therefore his Majesty to loose no time drew up a Proclamation with his own Pen Feb. 20 to this end that certain of the Lords of the Privy Council should have Power and special Commission to receive the Complaints of all the good People of this Land which should be brought before them concerning any Exorbitances Vexations Oppressions and Illegalities and either by their own Authority if it would reach to it to see them corrected or to give Orders to cut them off by the keenest Edge of the Laws That Complainants should be encouraged to present their Grievances as well by the Invitement of the Proclamation as by the Signification of the Judges to the Country and Grand Juries in their respective Circuits The Draught of this the Features of his Majesty's own Brain came by Post to pass the Great Seal Yet for all that Hast the Lord Keeper took time to scan it and sent it back with Advice that the Project would be sweeter if it were double refined presuming therefore that his Majesty would not be unwilling to stop a little at the Bar of good Counsel he wrote this ensuing Letter to the Court Feb. 22. May it please Your most Excellent Majesty 120. I Do humbly crave Your Majesties Pardon that I forbear for two or three days to seal Your Proclamation for Grievances until I have presented to Your Majesty this little Remonstrance which would come too late after the Sealing and Divulging the Proclamation First As it is now coming forth it is generally misconstrued and a little sadly look'd upon by all men as somewhat restreining rather than enlarging Your Majesties former Care and Providence over Your Subjects For whereas before they had a standing Committee of all the Council-Table to repair unto they are now streitned to four or five only Most of which number are not likely to have any leisure to attend the Service Secondly I did conceive Your Majesty upon Your first Royal Expression of Your Grace in this kind in a Resolution to have mingled with some few Lords of Your Privy-Council some other Barons of Your Kingdom Homines as Pliny said of Virginius Rufus innoxiè Populares Whose Ears had been so opened to the like Grievances in the time of Parliament as their Tongues notwithstanding kept themselves within the compass of Duty and due Respect to Your Majesty as the Earls of Dorset and Warwick the Lord Houghton Dr. Morton the Lord Dennie the Lord Russel the Lord North. And among the Lords Spiritual the Bishops of Lichfield Rochester and Ely and especially unless Tour Majesty in Your deep Wisdom have some Reasons of the Omission Dr. Buckeridge the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury This mixture would produce the these Effects ensuing First An Intimation of Your Majesties Sincerity and Reality in this Proclamation Dr. Felton Secondly A more free and general Intimation to Parties Aggrieved who will repair soonear to these private Peers then to the great Lords of Your Majesties Council Thirdly The making of these Lords and the like Witnesses of Your Majesties Justice and good Government against the next ensuing Parliament and the stopping of their Ears against such supposed Grievances at that time as shall never be heard of in their Sitting upon this Commission Fourthly and Lastly The gaining of these Temporal Lords to side with the State being formerly much wrought upon by the Factious and Discontented If Your Majesty shall approve of these Reasons it is but to Command Your Secretary to interline these or some of these Names in the Commission which in all other respects is already wisely and exceeding well penn'd with two short Clauses only First That these Lords shall attend very carefully and constantly in Term-time when they are occasion'd to be at London Secondly That they be instructed to receive all Complaints with much Civility and Encouragement giving them full Content and Redress according to the merit of their Grievances For nothing will sooner break the Heart of a People or make them lose their Patience than when hopes of Justice are frustrated after the Royal Word is engaged But if Your Majesty in Your high Wisdom will overpass these Particulars which I have dutifully presented upon the return of the Proclamation as it is it shall be sealed and divulged with all expedition But these Reasons were not overpass'd Both the Proclamation and private Orders to the Lords Commissioners were reformed by the Contents of that weighty Letter His Majesty greatly inclining to the Lord-Keeper's Readiness and espying Judgment in all Consultations For as Laertius in Zeno's Life said of a famous Musician ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That Ismenias could play well upon all Instruments So this was another Ismenias who had the Felicity to make all Deliberations pleasing and tuneable especially he had that way above all that I knew to make sweet Descant upon any plain Song that was prick'd before him It will be to the Profit of the Reader if I rub his memory with one Passage of the Letter for it is but one though it come in twice which presseth the King to Sincerity and Reality to fix his Word like the Center of Justice that cannot be moved Righteous Lips are the delight of Kings Prov. 16.23 And a King of Righteous Lips is most delightful Since the coercitive part of the Law doth not reach him upon what Nail shall those Millions that stand before his Throne hang their Hopes if his Word do not bind him A People that cannot give Faith to their Sovereign will never pay him Love It seems that the ancient Latin Kings did profess to use Crookedness and Windings of Dissimulation in their Polity therefore their Scepter was called Lituus because it bent in toward the upper end But the Scepter of thy Kingdom says David of GOD is a right Scepter A right one indeed For Contracts and Promises bind God to Man much more must they oblige the King to his People An Author of our own Dr. Duck in his very Learned Treatise De usu Juris Civilis p. 44. hath well delivered this Morality Princeps ad contractum tenetur uti privatus nec potest contractum suum rescindere ex plenitudine potestatis cum maximè in eo requiratur bena sides Falshood is Shop-keepers Language or worse but 't is beneath Majesty 121. A Parliament being not far of either in the King's Purpose or in Prospect of Likelihood Serj Crooke Cvew Finch Damport Bramston Bridgman Crawly Headly Thin ãâã ãâã Authurst Blng. Dây the Lord Keeper was provident that the Worthies of the Law should be well entreated Their Learning being most comprehensive of Civil Causes and Affairs they had ever a great Stroke in that Honorable Council Therefore he wrought with his Majesty to sign a Writ for the Advancement of some
more fully in the point of Conscience His Majesty turning to me whom he said he had made for this time his Counsellor and Confessor affirmed his Conscience to stand as he had said before but that he was willing to hear any thing that might move him to alter the same To the which as far as I can remember I spake in this manner SIR 151. IT is not for me upon a sudden to offer my Reasons unto your Majesty to alter a Conclusion of Conscience once Resolved on by your Majesty considering how Guilty I am both of mine own Greenness and Interruptions in these Studies and of your Majesties deep Learning in that part of Divinity especially But because I do conceive that your Majesties doubting in this kind is an absolute Condemnation of the Prince who hath already Subscribed and Presented these Oaths in their Perfection and Formalities to be taken by your Majesty and yet continueth my Soul for his as Zealous a Protestant as any Lives in the World which his Majesty by a short Interruption did with Tears acknowledge I would presume to say somewhat in defence of his Highness in this Case tho I dare not be so bold as to apply or refer it to your Majesty Two things appear unto me considerable in this Case the advancing of the True Religion and the suppressing of the Adverse within this Kingdom The former is a matter directly of Conscience and your Majesty is bound in Conscience to take care of the same to the uttermost of your Power And if your Son had suffered as he hath not one Syllable to be inserted into the Oaths or Articles derogating from the Religion Established he was worthily therein to be deserted and God to be by your Majesty preferred before him The suppressing of the Adverse within this Kingdom is to be consider'd in two degrees First Ita ut non praesit Secondly Ita ut non sit For the first I think his Highness doth make it a matter of Religion and Conscience that Popery do not praeesse prove so predominant in your Kingdoms as that the Religion Establish'd be thereby disgraced or dejected For certain he makes it a Conscience not to Erect Altare contra altare For as for the Leave he promiseth for Strangers to be present at Divine Offices with the Family of the Infanta it is per conniventiam and as his Highness shall approve thereof For the second Degree Ita ut non sit that the Popish Religion should be quite extirpated or the Penal Statutes for the suppressing the same be strictly Executed His Highness dares not make this a matter of Conscience and Religion but a matter of State only If the Prince should make this a matter of Conscience he should not only conclude the French King to be a false Catholic for not suppressing the Protestants and the Estates of the Low-Countries to be false Protestants for not suppressing the Papists at Amsterdam Rotterdam and Utricht especially but should conclude your Sacred Majesty to have often offended against your Conscience an horrible thought from such a Son to such a Father because your Papists are not suppressed and your Penal Statutes have been so often intended and remitted These things you may well do this Point continuing but a matter of State but you may not do it without committing a vash Sin if now you should strein it up to a matter of Conscience and Religion against the Opinion of all moderate Divines and the Practice of most States in Christiandom I conclude therefore that his Highness having admitted nothing in these Oaths or Articles either to the prejudice of the true or the Equalizing or Authorizing of the other Religion but contained himself wholly within the Limits of Penal Statutes and connivences wherein the Estate hath ever Challenged and Usurped a directing Power hath Subscribed no one Paper of all these against his own nor I profess it openly against the Dictamen of my Conscience As soon as I had ended the King spake Largely and Chearfully That in Conscience he was satisfied To which the Lords likewise as generally gave their Applause So the rest of the Counsel were Summon'd against the next Sunday the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Marquess Hamilton the Earl of Worcester the Bishop of Winton Viscount Grandison the Lord Cary the Lord Belfast with others whom I may have forgot And all was dispatch'd before the Embassadors as I need not to relate because Sir Fr. Cottington can best do it And if this Service may conduce to bring your Highness with Speed and Safety to all faithful ones that desire it with their earnest Prayers I shall be the Happiest among Your Highness's Most Humble Servants c. 152. So powerful and perspicuous was the Lord Keeper's Theology that all the Worthies of David his Majesties Secret Counsel concurr'd in the Confirmation Among whom was Bishop Andrews the Torturer of the best Roman Champion with his mighty Learning Another was Archbishop Abbots about whom Mr. Sanderson is most negligently mistaken to write thus Pag. 550. That he was then suspended from his Function and from coming to the Council-Table He sat that Day with the Lords and was the first that subscribed in the Catalogue as himself observes It may be Mr. Sanderson could not reconcile nor I neither how he should sign to the Ratification and undertake a long Letter to King James to disprove it with many Flourishes Cab. p. 13. The same Fountain cannot send forth salt Water and fresh Jam. 3.12 Therefore I deny the Letter I believe justly to have been written by him Such Frauds are committed daily to set Credit to spurious Writings under a borrowed Name A. Gell. picks out a fit Merchant for such Ware Sertorius a brave Commander but a great Impostor Literas Compositas pro veris legebat Lib. 15. Cap. 22. But I will prove my Conjecture strongly First So wise a Man would not shame himself with Inconstancy Act one thing to Day with his Sovereign Lord and pluck it down to Morrow Secondly The Letter crept out of Darkness Thirty Years after the Prince came out of Spain and Twenty Years after the supposed Authors Death A large time to hatch a Fable Thirdly The Lord Keeper vide supra certified the Prince that before the Lords came together to consult about the ease of the Oaths two Speeches were in many Hands rise in London The one for the Negative under the Archbishop's Name The other for the Affirmative under the Lord Keepers Name when no Colloquy had been begun about it Was it not as easie for the same Author or such another to forge a Letter as well as a Speech Fourthly The Archbishop was so stout in the Pulpit at Whitehal as to deplore the Prince's absence and his departure out of the Kingdom The ill relish of that passage I know it by the Papers under my Hand was sent abroad as far as Spain by Sir Edw. Villiers And I dare say the Tydings of that
for Legal Notions When the Lord Keeper had done with the Living he began with the Dead and scrupled how their Dead should be Interr'd so as to give no offence nor be obnoxious to be offended The Resolution was brought to him that sent it That their Burials should be in their private Houses as secret as might be and without any sign of Manifestation but Notice to be given to the Parish-Clerk of their departure 164. Never was Man so entangled in an Els-lock all this while that could not be unravell'd as Marquiss Inoiosa till he publish'd his Choler in all sorts of Impatiency The Reader may take in so small a matter by the way that the Writer of these Passages said to the Lord Keeper That the Marquiss was the most surly unpleasing Man that ever came to his House His Lordship answer'd They were his Manners by Nature But he had been so vain to profess That he came an Enemy to us into England and for this Dowty Cause His Father was a Page to King Philip the Second while he lived here with Queen Mary and was discourteously used in our Court perhaps by the Pages Which was a Quarrel of Seventy Years old and bearing date before the Marquiss was born Which will cause a Passage of Dionysius the Tyrant of Sicily to be remembred who had robb'd and spoil'd some of the Islands under the Protection of Athens and when the Injury was expostulated he told them Their Countryman Ulysses had used the Sicilians worse 700 Years before as he believ'd it to be very true in Homer This Ambassador was a restless Man and held the Lord Keeper so close to turn and plow up the fallow of this Business that he would not give him the Jubilee of a Day to rest Yet the time do what he could had run at waste from the 20th of July to the end of August Then and no sooner the Frames of the Pardon and Dispensation were contriv'd and dispatch'd Yet the Mill would not go with this Water The Ambassadors call'd for more That two general Commands should be issued forth under the Great Seal the first to all the Judges and Justices of Peace the other to all Bishops Chancellors and Commissaries not to execute any Statute made against the Papists Hereupon the Spanish Faction was suspected that they had no hopes to bring some secret Drifts to pass but by raising a general hatred against our Government The Lord Keeper repulsed the Motion and wrote to the King being at Aldershot That whatsoever Instance the Ambassador makes to the contrary there was no reason why his Majesties Wisdom should give place to them He propounded That a private Warrant might be directed to himself to will him to write to the respective Magistrates fore-nam'd to acquaint them with the Graces which his Majesty had past for Recusants in that Exigence and to suspend their Proceeding till they heard further For as the Civilians say Cessant extraordinaria ubi ordinariis est locus Thus he contriv'd it that the King as much as might be should escape the Offence and let the Rumour light upon his private Letters For which he never put the King to stand between the People and his Errour nor besought him to excuse it to the next Parliament But as Mamertinus in Paneg. said of his own Consulship Non modò nullum popularium deprecatus sum sed ne te quidem Imperator quem orare praeclarum cui preces adhibere plenissimum dignitatis est Yet lest the Ambassador should complain of him to the Prince in Spain he writes to the Duke Cab. P. 8. Aug. 30. THat he had prevailed with the Lords to stop that vast and general Prohibition and gave in three Days Conference such Reasons to the two Ambassadors although it is no easie matter to satisfie the Capriciousness of the latter of them that they were both content it should rest till the Infanta had been six Months in England For to forbid Judges against their Oath and Justices of Peace sworn likewise not to execute the Law of the Land is a thing unprecedented in this Kingdom Durus sermo a harsh and bitter Pill to be digested upon a suddain and without some Preparation But to grant a Pardon even for a thing that is malum in se and a Dispensation with Poenal Statutes in the profit whereof the King only is interested is usual full of Precedents and Examples And yet this latter only serves to the Safety the former but to the Glory and Insolency of the Papists and the magnifying the service of the Ambassadors too dearly purchas'd with the endangering of a Tumult in three Kingdoms His Majesty useth to speak to his Judges and Justices of Peace by his Chancellor or Keeper as your Grace well knoweth And I can signifie his Majesties Pleasure unto them with less Noise and Danger which I mean to do hereafter if the Ambassador shall press it to that effect unless your Grace shall from his Highness or your own Judgment direct otherwise That whereas his Majesty being at this time to Mediate for Favour to many Protestants in Foreign Parts with the Princes of another Religion and to sweeten the Entertainment of the Princess into this Kingdom who is yet a Roman Catholick doth hold the Mitigation of the Rigour of those Laws made against Recusants to be a necessary Inducement to both those Purposes and hath therefore issued forth some Pardons of Grace and Favour to such Roman Catholicks of whose Fidelity to the State he rests assur'd That therefore you the Lord Bishops Judges and Justices each of those to be written to by themselves do take Notice of his Majesties Pardon and Dispensation with all such Poenal Laws and demean your selves accordingly This is the lively Character of him that wrote it Policy mixt with Innocency ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says Nazianzen Cunning enough yet not divided from Conscience For Wit when it is not sheathed as it were in the fear of God will cut like a sharp Razor 165. All his Art would be requir'd to reconcile two things That the Ambassador should be put off no longer for so the King had now commanded by Dispatches from both the Secretaries And that he would finish nothing till he had heard either his Highness or the Duke's Opinion upon the Proceeding The general Pardon and the Dispensation were both sealed So he began But kept them by him and would not open the least Window to let either Dove or Raven fly abroad The King being return'd to Windsor signification was given that none of the Lords should come to him till he sent for them and was ready for Matters of moment No Superstructure could go on very fast when that Stone was laid From Windsor Sept. 5. Sir G. Calvert writes to him My very good Lord His Majesty being resolv'd to extend his Gracious Favour to the Roman Catholicks signifies his Pleasure That your Lordship should direct your Letter to the Bishops Judges
came in place of it was most Happy in a thrice Noble Progeny All beside was Flat and Unfortunate Not an Inch of the Palatinate the better for us and we the worse for our Wars in all Countries I say no more but as Q. Curtius doth Optime Miserias forunt qui abscondunt They that hide their Miseries bear them best The Observator upon H. L. I will abet him writes no more then many have Whisper'd That the Ruin of P. Charles by the Spanish Match might have been prevented the Spaniard being for the most part a more steady Friend then the wavering French I am not skilful in them to make Comparisons thus far I will adventure positively The French are as brave a people as be under the Sun Yet for my part I think we might better want them then the Spaniard The Spanish Ladies Married to the Royal Seed among us have been Vertuous Mild Thrifty beloved of all Not such a one as Harry the Sixth had from the other Nation of whom Mr. Fuller says well in his Eccles History That the King's parts seemed the lower being overtop'd by such a High Spirited Queen The Spaniards are for the most generously bountiful where Service hath deserv'd it the best Neighbours in the World for Trades Increase A Friend to his Friend with his Treasure and with his Sword But withal Refractory in his own Religion and a Hater of ours and very False where he can take occasion to enlarge his Dominions wherein we had no Cause to fear him But if the Daughter of Spain had landed upon our Shore I believe we should have had more Cause to love him 172. Which was not to be look'd for after the Prince put off from the Coast of Biscay From whence he made such haste home as the Wind would suffer and he had it in Poop till he came to the Islands of Silly the remotest Ground of the British Dominion in the West whether some Delinquents were deported of old by the Roman Emperors Here the Navy was compelled to rest because the Winds were contrary From thence the Courtiers brought home a Discourse about an old Miller who was with long Experience Weather-Wise to Admiration For he told them exactly how long they should continue there and named the Hour when after one day and a half the North-West would blow and serve their turn The Seamen who had resorted thither before knew him so well and how his Prognosticks came to pass that they prepared to Launch against that opportunity which fail'd not and attain'd Portsmouth on the Fifth of October ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Odduss ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Though our Noble Traveller left the Lady behind that should have been his Penelope yet he came well home to his own Ithaca and to the Wise Laertes his Father His Highness left Portsmouth and came to York-House at Charing-Cross an Hour after Midnight early in the Morning Octob. 6. Praises were given to God for him in divers Churches at Morning Prayer The Lord Keeper composed an excellent Prayer for that Occasion which was used in the Chappel of Henry the VII and in the Collegiate Church at the accustomed Hours in that Place Bells and Bonfires began early and continued till Night Alms and all kind of Comfort were dispensed bountifully to the Poor and many poor Prisoners their Debts being discharg'd were Released But too often as St. Austin complain'd Publicum gaudium celebratur per publicum dedecus So Bacchanals of Drunken Riot were kept too much in London and Westminster which offended many that the Thanks due only to God should be paid to the Devil The Prince after a little rest took Coach with the Duke for Royston to attend the King his Father where the Joy at the enterview was such as surpasseth the Relation His Majesty in a short while retir'd and shut all out but his Son and the Duke with whom he held Conference till it was four Hours in the Night They that attended at the Door sometime heard a still Voice and then a loud sometime they Laught and sometime they Chased and noted such variety as they could not guess what the close might prove But it broke out at Supper that the King appear'd to take all well that no more was effected in the Voyage because the Profters for the Restitution of his Son-in-Law were no better stated by the Spanish And then that Sentence fell from him which is in Memory to this Hour That He lik'd not to Marry His Son with a Portion of His Daughters Tears His Majesty saw there was no Remedy in this Case but to go Hand in Hand with the Prince and his now prepotent Favorite Ducunt volentem fata nolentem trabuns Sen. Trag. It is easier to be led then drawn Presently it was obtain'd that is Octob. 8. That his Majesty should send an Express to the Earl of Bristol with his High Command to defer the Procuration entrusted with him and to make no use of it till Christmas whereas indeed the Power of it expired at Christmas for so it was limited in the Instrument which his Highness Signed at St. Lorenzo And by the next Post the Duke acquaints Sir W. Aston That the King himself had dictated the Letter then wrote unto him Cab. p. 36. which contain'd That His Majesty desir'd to be assur'd of the Restitution of the Palatinate before the Deposorium was made seeing he would be sorry to welcome home one Daughter with a Smiling Cheer and have his own only Daughter at the same time Weeping and Disconsolate My Lord of Buckingham had his Advisers about him yet he need not now be set on to prevent with all his Wit that the Prince might never have a Wife out of Spain ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã As soon should a Wolf Wed a Lamb. Aristoph Com. de pace But the King had such Esteem of the Spanish Wisdom that he did verily look that his Letters I mean these last sent to his Ambassador Resident there would quicken them to a short and real Satisfaction for the Prince Palatine's Distress and that the Treaty would sprout again which was wither'd with that obstacle 173. Our Dispatches at Court went all together that way so he that is diligent may Trace them to the end of January Some of the Letters of Mr. Secretary Conway at least somewhat out of them are useful to be produced which will also confirm the good course that the Lord Keeper took with the Spanish Ambassadors that he reserv d the Pardon and Dispensation from them to the end against all Contests of Importunity Nor suffered the Letters to the Lord Bishops and Judges to go abroad for the Suspension of some Penal Statutes whereupon the Fat of the Project of the Papists dript insensibly away at a slow Fire After the Prince had rested at Roiston but one Night his Majesty caused Directions to be sent to the Lord Keeper for the Enlargement of the Roman Priests
the first Day shut up And Saturday following the 21st of that Month was but a day of Formality to the Parliament yet material to this History because the Lord Keeper had the greatest share about the Work of it who is my Scope and this Parliament no further then as he is concern'd in the Actions and Occurrencies of it On that day the King Sitting under his State in the Lords House incircled with the Senatorian Worthies of the higher and lower Order the Commons Presented Sir Tho. Crew Serjeant at Law for their Speaker As the Knights and Burgesses were Chosen for the publick Service out of the best of the Kingdom so this Gentleman was Chosen for this Place out of the best of them He was warm in the Care of Religion and a Chief among them that were popular in the Defence of it A great lover of the Laws of the Land and the Liberties of the People Of a stay'd Temper sound in Judgment ready in Language And though every Man it is suppos'd hath some equals in his good Parts he had few or no Superiors This was the Character which the Lord Keeper gave of him to the King whereupon he was pointed out to this Honorable Task Yet with all this Furnishment out of a Custom which Modesty had observ'd Sir Thomas Deprecated the Burthen as Moses did when the was to be sent to Pharoah O my Lord I am not Eloquent send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send Exod. 4.13 And he humbly besought the Royal Favour to Command a new and a better Choice for so weighty a Charge Whereupon the Lord Keeper going from his Seat to His Majesty and Conferring with Him upon his Knee after a short time returned to his Place and spake as followeth Mr. Speaker I Am Charg'd to deliver unto you that no Man is to be excus'd from this Service that can make so good an Excuse as you have done His Majesty doth observe that in you which Gorgias the Philosopher did in Plato Quod in Oratoribus irridendis ipse esse Orator summus videbatur That in Discoursing against Orators he shewed himself the greatest Orator of them all So fares it in this Appeal of yours unto the Throne of His Sacred Majesty Descendis ut Ascendas te ad sidera tollit humus By falling down in your own Conceipt you are mounted higher in the Opinion of all others By your own excusing to be a Speaker you shew what a Worthy Speaker you are like to be The Truth is His Majesty doth not only approve but highly Commend the Judgment of the House of Commons in your Election And Quod felix faustumque sit for an Omen and good luck to all the ensuing Proceedings of that Honorable Assembly he doth Crown this first Action of theirs with that Exivit verbum ex ore Regis that old Parliamentary Approbation Le Roy le Veult Then Sir Thomas Crew Bowing down to the Supream Pleasure which could not be declin'd offred up his first Fruits for about the time of half an Hour in a way between Remonstrance and Petition smoothly and submissively yet with that Freedom and Fair-Dealing as became the Trust committed to him He could not wish more Attention than he had from the King who heard him favorably to the end For the Dispatch of that Work presently the Lord Keeper went to His Majesty who Conferr'd together secretly that none else heard and after a quarter of an hour or better the L. Keeper return'd to his Place and answer'd the Speakers Peroration in His Majesties Name Which Answer will enough supply what was said by them both for it contains all the solid parts of Mr. Speakers Harangues Mr. Speaker 182. HIs Majesty hath heard your Speech with no more Patience then Approbation You have not cast up the same to any General Heads no more will I. And it were pity to pull down a Frame that peradventure cannot be set up again in so fair a Symmetry and Proportion Yet as the Mathematicians teach that in the most flowing and continued Line a Man may imagine continual Stops and Points so in this round and voluble Body of your Speech I may observe for Methods sake some distinct and articulated Members Somewhat you have said concerning your self somewhat concerning the King somewhat concerning Acts of Parliament whereof some are yet to be framed in the Womb and others ready to drop into their Graves somewhat of the Aberrations of former Assemblies somewhat of the Common Laws in general somewhat of the ordinary supply of Princes somewhat and very worthily for the increase of True Religion somewhat of the regaining of that of our Allies somewhat of preserving our own Estate and somewhat of the never sufficiently commended Reformation of Ireland These I observed for your material Heads The formal were those Four usual Petitions For Privileges to come unto the House For liberty of Speech when you are in the House For Access to His Majesty for the informing of the House And for a fair Interpretation of your Proceedings when you shall leave the House I shall from His Majesty make Answer to these Things ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã step by step as they lie in order First For your self the King hath not only stretched out His Scepter but lifted up his Voice with Ahasuerus Quae est Petitiae tua dabitur tibi He hath granted all that you have desired and assureth you by me of His Special Grace and Favour from the beginning to the end of your present Employment Secondly Concerning the King it may not be doubted but Gods Blessing of us and our Blessing of God for his Royal Generation his quiet Coronation his peaceable Administration his Miraculous Preservation in this very Place and this our most comfortable Pledge of his future Succession ibunt in saecula shall flow unto Posterity and be the Hymns and Anthems of Ages to come Thirdly For those Statutes of Learning which were here framed 32 Henr. 8. which you call Parliamentum Doctum And those Statutes of Charity 39 of the late Queen which you Term Parliamentum Pium The Devout Parliament And those Statutes of Grace digested and prepared in the last Convention which His Majesty would have had been Gratiosum Parliamentum The Gracious Parliament And ãâã That large Pardon you expect this time which may make this Assembly Munificum Parliamentum The Bountiful Parliament The King gives you full Assurance of His Princely Resolution to do what shall be fitting and convenient to keep Life in the one and to bring Life to the other so as you do scitè obstetricari play the Midwives in them both as you ought to do Fourthly For the Abortion of some late Parliaments from the which His Majesty is most free a Parliament Nullity as you Târm it is a strange Chimaera a word of a Monstrous Compesition I never heard of the like in all my Life unless it be once in the new Creed Credo
sit and apt Clerk to be preferred to the same Hence it plainly appears by the said Covenant and Proviso that the said Committees as to the Advouson of the Church of Sutton belonging to the said Ward are but Lessees in Trust to present such a Clerk to the same as the King or the Master and Council of the Court of Wards for the King shall Name or Appoint Then it is Pregnant That the Clerk being refused whom the Lady offered to the Rectory without the Kings Consent c. no Injustice is offered 199. He rejoyns to the Second That the said Church being become Void the Lord Keeper by Virtue of his Place as time out of mind hath been used presented Dr. Grant the Kings Chaplain in his Majesties Name The Master of the Wards presented likewise Dr. Wilson in the Kings Name to the same Church But Dr. Grant was first presented admitted and Dr. Wilson gave way After both these the Committees present their Clerk in their own Name and pray a Quare Impedu to remove the Kings Clerk and to have their own Clerk admitted in his room This Quare Impedit by the Kings Commandment to the Lord Keeper was denied them For which much is alledged Lands in Question in Chancery were Decreed by the Lord Ellsmore to Peacock in Equity against Revell who had a good Title in Law Revell would have had an Original Writ of Assise against Peacock to have recover'd the Lands from him by Law The Writ was denied him by the Lord Ellsmore If Revell would have made a Lease or a Feoffment to any Friend in trust which Friend would have sued for an Original Writ to have recover'd the Land the Writ might as well be denied to him as to Revell himself So the Master of the Wards presented a Clerk to the Church of Sutton in the Kings Name before the Lord Darcy presented If that Clerk would have sued for a Quare Impedit in the Kings Name the Lord Keeper by the Kings Appointment might have denied the Writ And by the same Reason may he in like manner deny the Writ to the Lady Darcy who as to the Advouson is but a Lessee in trust to present such a Clerk as the Master of the Wards for the King shall name As by the Covenant and Proviso in the Lease doth appear If Lands in Question in the Chancery be by Order of the Court by both Parties conveyed to one of the Six Clerks in trust that he shall convey the same as the Court shall Order upon the hearing of the Cause who refuseth to convey the Land according to the trust and prayeth a Writ of Assise to recover the Land from him to whom the Court hath order'd the same for the trust appears as plainly to the Court as in the Case of a Decree This Writ may be denied So the Lady Darcy being a Lessee of the Advouson in trust to present such a Clerk as the King or the Court of Wards shall name or allow of if she will present a Clerk of her own contrary to the trust reposed in her and sue for a Quare Impedit to remove the Clerk presented by the King and to put in her own choice this Writ by the Kings Appointment may be denied her for the trust appears of Record So if Bonds be taken of a Defendant in Chancery in the Name of a Master of the Chancery with Condition to perform the Order or Decree of the Court The Court Decrees Money to be paid by the Defendant to the Plaintiff at a Day who pays the same the next Day after which the Plaintiff accepts and the Court allows of If the Master of Chancery will pray an Original Writ of Debt upon this Bond to recover the Money to his own use this Writ may be denied him The Lord Ellsmore presented a Clerk in the Kings Name Ratione Minoris AEtatis The Lady Mordant pretended Title to present and having four Feoffees in trust of the Mannor or Lands to which the Advouson did belong as she pretended would have had four Writs of Quare Impedit against the Kings Clerk in the Names of her four Feoffees severally The Lord Ellsmore denied them all There are many more Precedents to be shewed in like Cases where Original Writs have been denied 200. Yet since it is to be done with great Tenderness and Discretion and seldom or never but when it appears that one Injury must be prevented necessarily with another he declares Thirdly That the Lady Darcy's Proceedings thrust in so dangerously between two great Courts that ordinary Justice could not but be denied her for fear an extraordinary Difference should be raised between the said Courts being thus laid open When the Lord Ellsmore was Lord Chancellor and Robert Earl of Salisbury Master of the Wards there fell out a Contestation between these two Potent Lords whose Right it was to present to the Wards Livings which were under Value of 20 l. in the First-Fruit-Office And the Contention grew so insoluble that King James with all his Pacificous Wisdom could not readily light upon a way to reconcile it Yet at the last it was compounded thus That which soever of those two Officers should first present to such a Benefice his Presentation should be Valid for the Possession of the Living If both Presentations should come together to the Bishop which perhaps would not happen in an Age then there was Casus pro amico on the Bishop's behalf as the Canonists speak This Agreement had continued amicably to that very Day and was then in danger to be infring'd For if a Suit had commenced as the Lady desired the Lord Keeper could not avoid to charge the Court of Wards with Fraudulency in passing away the Donations of Livings in the Compositions for Wards which was a pre-occupating or rather plain deluding of the Patronage which was in the Lord Keeper by the Agreement Wherefore he waves the strong and full defence he had made upon the stopping of an Original Writ and deprecates all offence by that Maxim of the Law which admits of a mischief rather than an inconvenience Which was as much as to say That he thought it a far less Evil to do the Lady the probability of an Injury in her own sense than to suffer those two Courts to clash together again and fall into a new Dispute about their Jurisdiction which might have produc'd a publick inconvenience which is most carefully to be avoided This Plea satisfied the House and cleared him in the general Opinion or as some Interpreted excus'd him rather for his other good Parts then absolutely cleared in this intricate Point as Livie li. 1. says Horatius escaped Sentence by the Voice of the people because they loved his Person rather then lik'd the Fact upon which he was question'd Absolveruntque admiratione magis virtutis quam jure Causae Yet it goes strongly to justifie the Lord Keeper in the Fact that all the Lawyers in the House did unanimously
Curses That Generation of male-contents to whose Love an Evil Counsellor woed him was ever false and untrusty not suspected but known ever since the Faction was first rock'd in the Cradle to be tied by no Benefits Importunate Suitors and ever craving And having sped think their Cause and their Deservings have paid Thanks sufficient to their Patron And look what Colours the King our Master hath laid upon them and they are in Oyl which will not be got out in his Instructions to his Prince Henry where upon bitter Experience he tells him That he was more faithfully served by the Highlanders Then what a Merchant have you got of this spiteful Minister who would have you to commit your Stock to their Managing who would bring you Hatred for Love and Infamy for Honour But if your Grace conceive that I am hitherto rather upon the Invective than the Proof I will step into another Point and clear it against all Contradiction That if your Grace appear in distracting the Church-Lands from their holy and rightful use your Endeavours shall be cried down in Parliament not to terrifie you that your Adversaries will increase and batter you with this great Shot that you attempted to dissolve the Settlement of Church and Laws You lose your self says the Duke in Generalities Make it out to me in particular if you can with all your Cunning what should lead you to say That the Motion you pick at should find repulse and baffle in the House of Commons I know not how you Bishops may struggle but I am much deluded if a great part of the Knights and Burgesses would not be glad to see this Alteration The Lord Keeper had a List of their Names in readiness a Scrowle which he always carried about with him which he pluck'd out and pray'd his Grace he might give him a Cypher of the Inclinations either of the most or of the Bell-weathers And having entred a little into that tedious Work the Duke snatch'd the Scrowle out of his Hand and running it over with his Eye said no more but I find abundance of Lawyers among them Yes Sir says the Keeper most of them Men of Learning and Renown in their Profession I think by my continual Negotiating with them I know their Addictions in Religion whether they stand right or which way they bend I will not prejudge the Speaker and one or two more God knows their Hearts But for the rest I know they will be strong for the supportance of the Cathedral Chapters Is it so said his Grace And what do you think of Sir Edward Coke Marry says the Keeper no Friend to an old Friend In the 39 of Queen Elizabeth when he was Atturney-General he Damm'd a Patent surreptitiously gotten before his time by those Lime-Hounds employ'd for Concealments by which they went far to swallow up the greatest part of the Demeasns of the Bishop of Norwich revived the Right of those Religious Possessions by his own Industry and Prosecution and for the most part at his own Charge and rested not till for more Security after the Patent was overthrown he had confirm'd those Lands to the Bishop by an Act of Parliament Therefore I would we had no worse Strings to our Bow than Sir Edward Coke But whom doth your Grace name next Nay says the Duke you are come to me my Lord in a lucky Hour I was never further than in an Equipoise about this Project Now I have done with it 'T is still-born and let it be interr'd without Christian Burial My Good Lord says the Lord Keeper I thank God for it And I would all the Kingdom knew as well as I do how soon your good Nature is brought to a right Understanding 212. Both did well The one prest his Doctrine home the other caught it up quickly like a good Disciple The best refuge to come out of an Errour is undelaying Repentance And as Curtius speaks for Alexander Lib. 10. Bona ejus Naturae sunt vitia temporum So I am sure the times put the Duke upon these Shifts and not his own Inclination If he had not been cleansed from those pernicious Infusions what a Sin had he drawn upon himself What Folly Worse then Ahab's that would cut down a poor Neighbors Vineyard to set Pot-Herbs But this were to root up God's Vineyard to succour a War that is to set Thorns and Thistles in the Room They that care not to be good will think how to be wife Yet did they ever think of that that make away the Inheritance of God's Holy Tribe in an Out-sale 'T is an unthrifty Sin And in Twenty Years or in half the time the Sacrilegious themselves will find that the common Purse of the State is the poorer by the Bargain ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says an Heathen and to the purpose Athenae Lib. 6. Cap. 20. Prudent Men will continue the Oblations of their Forefathers Piety They were ever readier to supply the publick need in the Custody of the Church than in the Maws of Cormorants But where was he that taught the Duke so well VVhere was he you will say in the hour of darkness when the Thief came in and the Troop of Robbers spoiled without Hos Chap. 7. Vers 8. VVhen all that had been given to God in a Thousand Years by them that had the Godliest and the largest Hearts melted like Wax before the Fire of Hell To the Friends of Sion and to them that lament her waste places I return thus to them and to their Question Every one that wore a Mitre and a Linnen Ephod before the Lord was driven out of that place where Wickedness was Enacted as a Law He that was Couragious among the the Mighty did flee away naked in that Day Amos 2.16 But what if he had been in the Throng He might as well have commended a Beauty to a Blind Man or the smell of Nard to him that hath no Nostril as to have contested with them not to divide the Prey whose Ears God had not opened Multum refert in quae cujusque tempora Virtus inciderit Plin. N.H. Lib. 7. Cap. 28. Virtue is beholding to Good Times to act its part in as well as Good Times are beholding to Virtue Our most Laureat Poet Spenser Lib. 1. Cant. 3. tells of a sturdy Thief Kirkrapine Who all he got he did bestow To the Daughter of Corcea blind and slow And fed her fat with Feasts of Off'rings And Plenty which in all the Land did grow To meet with him and give him his hire Una had a fierce Servant for her Guard that attended her a Lyon who tore the Church-robber to pieces And what is meant by Una's Lyon That 's not hard to guess at But rather what 's become of Una's Lyon The Poet says afterward that Sans-Loy a Paynim-Knight had slain him Belike none is left now to defie Kirkrapine 213. Also some Care is to be taken against them that are unworthily promoted in the Church
hopeful Marriage When the Eyes of all our ãâã were set upon the Infanta of Spain he took into his House as it is formerly remembred a Spaniard by Birth and a Scholar John Taxeda by whose Conversation he grew expert in the Spanish Grammar in the Castilian Pronunciation and in the Knowledge of those Authors that in Ten Weeks he could not only understand the most difficult Writers of that Nation but was able to Entreat with the Ambassadors without an Interpreter How much will Fruit upon in one Mans Intellectuals before anothers who hath the advantage of so much Sun and Warmth in his Brains Now when the Glorious Nuptial Torch was in Election to be lighted from the Neighbour Kingdom of France he endeavour'd to make himself expert in that quaint and voluble Language and by parling often with a Servant whom he had listed into the Check of his House for that purpose a Frenchman that was continually at his Elbow in Three Months he was as ready at it to Read Write or Speak as he that had lyen Liegier Three years for it at Paris And to Evidence that he had a publick Soul in every thing where he put his Finger as he had caused a Translation of our Liturgy out of Latin into Spanish to be finish'd by Taxeda and Printed it at his own Costs so to go no less in his Preparations for this French Association he encourag'd a most able Divine Mr. Delaun Minister of the French Church in Norwich to turn that Excellent Liturgy into his Country Language which was effected and the accurate Translator greatly both Commended and Rewarded Hereupon how it hapned that our Liturgy now made legible to the French did clear the Church of England even to the Conscience of its Enemies especially from the gross Slanders of Fugitives that had gone out from us is a passage that may challenge Publication with the Attendance of its Circumstances 216. His Majesty having in the behalf of his Son begun the woing part to Madam Henrietta Maria with due Ceremony of State The Queen Mother Moderatrix of this and all other Solemn Negotiations in France at that time bethought seriously to have this Happiness and high Honour setled upon her Daughter And her First prudential forecast was not to loiter out time with a Spanish Pause nor to endanger the forfeiture of a Bond of such Royal Love for want of payment of Courtesie at the due day Therefore she dispatch'd Marquess Fiatte afterward the great Financer and Monsieur Villoclare one of the principal Secretaries Embassadors extraordinary into England to remove all Obstructions by their Commission and wise management of it and to entwine the Rose and Lilly upon one Matrimonial Stem When they Landed the King had removed himself from New-Market to Trinity College in Cambridge where he gave Audience to those Embassadors providing to their welcom this Grace more then ordinary That he receiv'd them where his choicest Darlings the liberal Arts were round about him Now that the Conferences about this Marriage were gone so far and seemed as it were to be over the last Fire and sit for Projection his Majesty would have the Lord Keeper taken into the Cabinet and to make him known by a Mark of some good Address to the French Gallants upon the return of the Embassadors to London he sent a Message to him to signifie that it was his pleasure that his Lordship should give an Entertainment to the Embassadors and their Train upon Wednesday following it being Christmass-Day with them according to the Gregorian Prae-occupation of ten days before our Account The King's Will signified the invitement at a Supper was given and taken Which was provided in the College of Westminster in the Room Named Hierusalem Chamber but for that Night it might have been call'd Lucullus his Apollo But the Ante-past was kept in the Abby as it it went before the Feast so it was beyond it being purely an Episcopal Collation The Embassadors with the Nobles and Gentletlemen in their Company were brought in at the North-Gate of the Abby which was stuck with Flambeaux every where both within and without the Quire that strangers might cast their Eyes upon the slateliness of the Church At the Door of the Quire the Lord Keeper besought their Lordships to go in and to take their Seats there for a while promising in the Word of a Bishop that nothing of ill Rellish should be offered before them which they accepted and at their Entrance the Organ was touch'd by the best Finger of that Age Mr. Orlando Gibbons While a Verse was plaid the Lord Keeper presented the Embassadors and the rest of the Noblest Quality of their Nation with our Liturgy as it spake to them in their own Language and in the Delivery of it used those few Words but pithy That their Lordships at Leisure might Read in that Book in what Form of Holiness our Prince Worshipp'd God wherein he durst say nothing savour'd of any Corruption of Doctrine much less of Heresie which he hoped would be so reported to the Lady Princess Henrietta The Lord Embassadors and their Great Train took up all the Stalls where they continued about half an Hour while the Quire-men Vested in their Rich Copes with their Choristers sung three several Anthems with most exquisite Voices before them The most honourable and the meanest persons of the French Attended all that time uncover'd with great Reverence except that Secretary Villoclare alone kept on his Hat And when all others carried away the Looks of Common Prayer commended to them he only lest his in the Stall of the Quire where he had sate which was not brought after him Ne Margarita c. as if had forgot it 217. At the same time among those Persons of Gallantry that came into England to make up the Splendor of the Embassage and were present at this Feast d'Amours as some of themselves call'd it there was an Abbat but a Gentleman that held his Abbacy âlla mode de France in a lay Capacity He had receiv'd the Gift of our Service Book and to requite the Doner having much of a Scholar and of ingenuous Breeding he laid aside all other business to read it over Like a Vowed Person to another Profession he was not hasty to praise it but suspended his Sentence till he might come in Place to see the practice of it It was well thought of by him that the Tryal of the soundness in Religion consists not all together in the Draught of a Book but in the motion likewise and Exercise of it The Abbat made his mind known to the Lord Keeper by Sir George Goring now Earl of Norwich that he would gladly be present in the Abby of Westminster upon our Christmass Day in the morning to behold and hear how that great Feast was solemnized in our Congregations which heard very ill beyond the Seas for Profaneness Whereas the Book for Uniformity of Publick Prayer which he had receiv'd though
that refuse to serve God with the King and his liege People either already they know a better way or they do not If they do Why do they complain as if they were brought to the utmost Extremity of Perishing for want of Instructions If they do not Why do they choose a contrariant Religion blindfold Christians commonly thirst for Knowledge not perceiving that the chief thing they want is Obedience This Itch hath descended from our Blood Royal from the Top of our Kindred in Paradise I amplifie my self further that I may not give Scandal as if I did not magnifie Knowledge and how shall they know and hear without a Preacher Rom. 10.14 I do subscribe it is the Powerful Ordinance to beget Children unto Christ to enliven them that are dead in their Sins and to keep them to the Motions of Sanctity that are raised up to Newness of Life Whosoever may enjoy that Blessing and out of Pride contemns it or out of Sloath difuseth it it will beget in him an erroneous Understanding a decaying Faith and a corrupt Life And where the holding out of that Light is withdrawn from a Church by Darkness of Persecution it is God's Curse upon a Nation And where it begins to clear up again after the Interposition of a Total or a partial Eclipse God call it his great Mercy Thy Teachers shall not be removed into a Corner any more but thine Eyes shall see thy Teachers Isa 30.20 But where Christians know the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ both for Faith and Holiness yet are restrained by Laws whether Just or unjust is all one to this Argument from Church Officers to be among them do they look to be believed when they say they are quite starved because none are among them in their Sense lawfully sent to feed them with the Bread of the Gospel Is there no way to preserve that which is committed to them by Meditation by Conference by Reading We exact severely upon them as they cry out because we permit them not the Tongues of some Men to edifie them But who are more hard-hearted Who are they that in such a Case of Destitution will not allow them the Reading of the Scriptures that is the Voice of God to speak to them As the Rock of which the Israelites drank is said to go along with them in the Wilderness And the Rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 So the Essence of a Church goes every where with them that nourish the Tradition of the true Faith in their Heart I say the Church and Christ ruling in it is with such wheresoever they live wheresoever they wander though it be not Organized as a complete Church should be with Bishops and Teachers Our English Merchants Trade many Years together at Sevile Madrid Alicant and in other places wanting the Angels of those Churches to whose Trumpets only they will hearken Yet whether they live or die many of the most Virtuous are well prepared for the Lord because they carry his true Church with them He may go along in the strength of the Spiritual Food which he hath eaten who was fed like Elijah by an Angel sent from Heaven Let the Plant that is newly set be staked to prop it up let it be water'd every Day Doth a grown Tree require such Tendance and Labour So a People that have lived always in Gentilism and Idolatry but have given admittance to Evangelists newly to enter in among them let them be swift to hear And those happy Messengers that bring the Glad-tydings of Salvation into those Regions of Darkness let them be as swift to speak Who would not blow hard to make green Wood kindle If I were in their Room that came to lay the Foundation of Faith where no Builder had been before I should allow my self no intermission of Preaching but for small Repast and necessary Rest If I were in such a City as Athens that worshipp'd an unknown God I hope I should do as St. Paul did at the same Athens Acts 17.17 He Preach'd not only to the Jews and deveut Persons in their Synagogues but in the Market daily with those that met with him But to be instant with that Importunity where a People is sufficiently enrich'd already in all Knowledge some perhaps would apply the old Proverb unto it That it were to bring Owls to Athens I thank your Lordship with all humbleness for your Patience and Attention And I am sure your Lordship understands that it is not to be expected that a Nation should disorder the frame of their Laws to heap Teachers for every Sect in Religion 223. But the finest slight to make the restraint of Priests odious is upon the necessary use of their Hand to confer the Sacraments And they that are contented with no less than seven will pretend sooner to miss their Administration than we that give God thanks for two My Lord I will give no offence to your Lordship upon any thing that is controverted Dogmatically between us and you nor maintain a vexatious Problem in your hearing I leave you to the management of your Sacraments in France and Italy as they are constituted in such Nations by the Laws of Holy Church Sail in what Vessels you will in your own Seas I consider now I have done it often before and with the joint advice of most judicious Scholars whether those Disciples of the Roman Church that live upon our Soil are so streitned in the use of their own Religion in this Land that they should account themselves to be violently and as it were sacrilegiously kept from the Kingdom of Heaven as in those words some of them have complain'd and your Lordship seems to think no less except that some of the Order of Priesthood be permitted to be Conveyors of the Sacraments of Grace unto them Which I conceive is not suitable to the Provisions of Cases exempt and milder Concessions of their own Doctrine The Lord Ambassador had been offer'd a Chair before and refused it But the Point coming as it were to the Cuspis or Horoscope of Fortune he accepted it and said My Lord Keeper your smooth Wit hath search'd far into many Scruples but this Knot will not be unloosed with a gentle Hand but with Violence which is foul Play to be used to the strictest Bonds of Eternal Life To which I return'd I fear no prejudice where so much Reason fits Judge as your Lordship brings with you So I went on That Sacrament which is the Introduction into Membership of the Church of Christ is Baptism The Apostles and their Successors were appointed Stewards of it by Christ to impart it to all Nations which were call'd first to be his Disciples This is the direct way Yet it is agreed in your Schools That if any Christian Man or Woman Baptize an Infant with the Element of Water in the right form that is in the Confession of the Holy Trinity the Child is sufficiently Baptized and is not
ãâã ãâã Plut. in vit Grach Opus vaecordiae Templum concordiae facit So if such a Monument had been Raised by this King the Temple of Peace and Unity had been with the Malicious the Temple of Sloth and Vanity 'T is a Buff Coat Objection that his Majesty consum'd as much in Embassies to settle differences by accord and did no good as would have maintain'd a Noble War and made him sure of his Demands Nay hold Sirs assurance is only in the Power of God And the Die of VVar says the Proverb casts an uncertain Chance Howsoever was it not more Christian to buy a Childs Portion with Mony then with Blood Gallantry hath made Embassages very chargeable but they devour not like War I shall make some Smile to tell them that Aeschines accus'd Demosthenes for putting the Common-Wealth to the Expence of two Servants to carry his Sumpter when he went Embassador And in the time of C. Gracchus lately spoken of the Romans says Plutarch allowed Nine Obols or Fifteen Pence a day to him that was sent Abroad upon a publick Treaty A Parsimony as bad as our Prodigality But attend to the Opinion of our King Harry the Eighth as I take it from Lord Cherbury's History Pag. 171. The Maintaining of a sure Peace at Home was almost as costly as to make War Abroad Yet he had rather spend his own Treasure that way than to expose his People to Slaughter and to Miseries that are worse than Slaughter 231. But our King James did not weigh which was cheapest or dearest Peace or War but which was more answerable to times of Grace and the Aeconomy of the Gospel For Thrist and Saving he could never be brought to think of them I have heard that he never loved a Servant till he had given him enough for a Livelihood and suspected those that were modest and did not ask as if they loved not him It might rightly be said of his Exchequer what Salmasius notes upon Lampridius Diadumenns Praefectus aerarii comes largitionum vocatur quasi ad nullam aliam rem princeps aerarium haberet quà m ad largiendum The chief Treasurer was called the Count of Largess as if the Prince's Revenue served only for Bounty and Largess But as wise Spotswood says upon Malcolm the Second Necessity is the Companion of immoderate Largition and forceth to unlawful Shifts Therefore it is better for a Prince to proportion Gists to his own Revenews than to the Expectation of publick Supplies Thus far King James may be magnified he spent to please his Mind in gratifying and obliging many not to please his Body His Cloaths were thristy and of better Example than his Courtiers would follow He was temperate in his Diet says Sir An. W. and to be believed because in every thing almost he is an affected Defamer but this he knew well for he was Clerk of the Kitchin and waited at the Table Where as an eye Witness he adds that he was temperate also in his Drinking drinking often but very often not above one or two Spoonfuls at once which Strangers observing and not knowing the small quantity he sip'd carried away an Error with them which grew into a false Fame But I never spake with that Man that saw him overtaken Take him for a Scholar and he had gathered Knowledge to astonishment and was so expert to use it that had he been born in a private Fortune he might have deserved to be a Bishop of the highest Promotion Let the Learnedest of the Nobility the Lord Bacon speak for the Learnedest of Monarchs There hath not been since Christ's Time any King which hath been so Learned in all Literature and Erudition Divine and Humane And let him win and wear that in Auson Paneg. which cannot be denied him Quid aliud es quà m ex omni bonarum artium ingenio collecta perfectio Piety is the Basis of all Vertue and the Basis of Piety in corrupted Nature is rather Repentance than Innocency When this King called to mind in his Retiring-Chamber or in his Bed that he had been that Day overtaken with Passion As he that offends not in Word the same is a per-Man Jam. 3.2 he used to send for Bishop Montague the only Prelate that ever was sworn of his Bed-Chamber or for Dr. Young the Dean of Winton whom he would exhort to Pray with him for the Forgiveness of his Sins He was infinitely given to Prayer says Sir Ant. W. but more out of Fear than Conscience That 's Satan's Gloss upon a good Text. What Fear should move him to Prayer but that which is the beginning of Wisdom Few dye Saints that live Libertines God would not have impowered him to express such good Effects of Religion at his parting out of this Life if he had not been his faithful Servant in his Life before To trumpet these and many more Triumphs of Praise Fame will wake for him now he is faln asleep And the more Ages to come that will study him the more they will renown him I have read it quoted out of Galen that the Surentine Wine is never mellow for the Taste till it be seventy years old and because few will keep it so long the Goodness is little known So the longer the World keeps this King's Memory it will be the sweeter Perhaps it is yet harsh to some malevolous and unthankful 232. It is the Virulency of wrathful Writers that the Dead that should be spared are most traduced by them They cannot bite again when they are bitten as Budaeus said of Portius Lib. 5. de Asse Fol. 169. That Portius would not write against him while he was living Placabiliùs homo peritus actum iri meis cum manibus a sese quà m mecum intelligebar And the miserable Condition of Kings deceased is above others especially if their Posterity be not in a Condition to do them right they are most like to be wounded in their Honour by all those who must be many that have been offended in their own Persons and Suits or in the Injuries as they interpret them of their Friends and Relations Especially it is to be deplored and defied that some are so touchy upon the nicest Points of Religion that they will not spare the Good Name no not of the Lord 's Anointed if he have distasted them with Opposition of Opinions if he not dogmatize with them in all abstruse and intricate Problems of almost unsearchable Truths For which they that sue their Adversaries hotly and as it were go to Law for every Quirk and knotty Point are no better than common Barretters in Divinity This was King James's hard Fortune to be blotted with the Inks of Parsons Schioppius Scribanius furious Papists and as many more of them as would sill Justice-Hall in New-gate by the Precise that were alienated from the Ceremonies and Discipline of the well framed Protestant Church as Wdden Wilson Payton and a Sanhedrim of Scots that contended against the Articles of Perth
that he might not faint The most that was disliked in the Letter was that it warn'd the Secretary that he was like to hear himself nam'd among the Grievances of the ensuing Parliament Wherein he did not fail It was no hard thing to Prognostick such a Tempest from the hollow murmuring of the Winds abroad There was not such a Watch-man about the Court as the Keeper was to espy Discontents in the dark nor any one that had so many Eyes abroad in every corner of the Realm What hurt was it Nay Why was it not call'd a Courtesie to awaken a Friend pursued by danger out of prudent Collections Says a wise Senator Tul. Act. 7. in Verrem Judex esse bonus non potest qui suspicione certâ non movetur He is no sound judge of Rumors that gleans not up a certain Conclusion out of strong Suspicions 6. To speak forward After the Queen had been receiv'd with much lustre of Pomp and Courtship which had been more if a very pestilentious Season in London and far and wide had not frown'd upon publick Resorts and full Solemnities a Parliament began Stay a while and hear that in a little which concerns much that followed This is the highest and supereminent Court of our Kings The University of the whole Realm where the Graduates of Honour the Learned in the Laws and the best Practicers of Knowledge and Experience in the Land do meet Horreum sapientiae or the full Chorus where the Minds of many are gather'd into one Wisdom And yet in five Parliaments which this King call'd there was distance and disorder in them all between him and his People Amabile est praeesse civibus sed placere difficile as Symmachus to his Lord Theodosius Our Sovereign had not the Art to please or rather his Subjects had not the Will to be pleased And we all see by the Event that God was displeas'd upon it If he had won them or they had won him neither had been losers Pliny's Fable or Story of the Two Goats Lib. 8. c. 50. Suits the Case The Two Goats met upona narrow Bridge the one laid down his Body for the other to go over him or both had been thrust into the River In the Application who had done best to have yielded is too mysterious to determine Both or either had done well But now we see and shall feel it I believe it is not Love nor Sweetness nor Sufferance that keeps a Nation within the straits of due Obedience it must be Power that needs not to entreat The Scepter can no more than propound the Sword will carry it This Truth was once little worn but now it is upon our backs and we are like to wear it so long till we are all Thread-bare Thucyd. lib. 2. says of Theseus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Theseus govern'd Athens being as potent as wise His Wisdom taught the Athenians to keep a good pace but Awe and Potency did bridle and compel them to suffer their Rider or else they would have thrown him King Charles knew how to govern as well as Theseus But he was not so stout I am sure not so strong His Condition in the present stood thus When he was Prince he was the Messenger and the Mediator from the Parliament to extort a War against Spain from his Father Of which Design he was but the Lieutenant before is now become the Captain He sets the Action on foot and calls for Contribution to raise and pay an Army Instead of satisfaction in Subsidies two alone granted towards the charge of the great Funeral past and the Coronation to come they call for Reformation in Government One lifts up a Grievance and another a Grievance and still the Cry continues and multiplies As they spake with many Tongues so I would they could have taken up Serpents and felt no harm The plain Sense of it is those subtile Men of the lower House put the young King upon the push of Necessity and then took advantage of the Time and that Necessity They had cast his Affairs into want of Money and he must yield all that they demanded or else get no Money without which the War could not go on Here was the Foundation laid of all the Discontents that followed A capite primùm computrescit piscis says the Proverb If they had answer'd with that Confidence and Love as was invited from them England had not sat in sorrow as at this day And I will as soon die as retract these words that all Affairs might have been in a most flourishing Estate if the People in that or in any Parliament had been as good as the King Optimos gubernatores hand mediocriter etiam manus remigum juvat Symmach p. 128. The Pilot spends his breath in vain if the Oar-men will not strike a stroke A good Head can do nothing without their Hands If I should hold yet that this King was to be blam'd in nothing I should speak too highly of Humane Nature They that pass through much business cannot choose but incur Errors which will fall under Censure yet it were better under Pardon The most that aggrieved the Council of Parliament was that the King's Concessions for the good of the People came not off chearfully He wanted a way indeed to give a Gift and to make it thank-worthy in the manner of bestowing A small Exception when one grave Sentence from his Mouth did mean more reality than a great deal of Volubility with sweetness and smiling to which I confess they had been fortunately used But when all is done as the Poets say The Muses sing sweeter than the Syrens and a sullen something is better than a gracious nothing 7. And these are instead of Contents For the Chapter that is the business of the Capitol follows The Parliament began and the whole Assembly stood before the King So there was a day when the Sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord Job 1.6 but there was another thrust in among them What his Majesty spake than is printed more then once It was not much but enough it was not long but there wanted nothing Good Seed it was yet it came not up well although it was water'd with two showers of Eloquence by the Lord-Keeper the first directed to the Lords and Commons the other to Sir Thomas Crew the Speaker Which will tell the Reader more Truth than is yet come abroad whom I would have to remember Baronius's Caution in his Epistle to the first Tome of his Annals Nihil periculosius est in historiâ quà m cuivis scribeââ in quâcunqae re fidem habere But hear what the King willed to be publish'd to his Parliament by the Mouth of his great Officer My Lords and Gentlemen all YOU have heard his Majesty's Speech though short yet Full and Princely and rightly Imperatorious as Tacitus said of Galbas Neither must we account that Speaker to be short Qui materiae immoratur that keeps himself
most Friends And that 's a Friend that will incur Anger rather than leave his Friend to sooth himself in a Mischief It had been well for the Duke if his bold Friend had perswaded him to take that Counsel which Christopher Thuanus gave to the Cardinal of Lorain being in great Favour with Henry the 2d of France Si potentiam suam diuturnam cuperet moderatè eâ uteretur in politicá administratione leges regni conservaret alioqui fore ut publicae invidiae impar Procerum regni Nobilitatis contra se concitato odio aliquando succumberet Aug. Thua An. 1568. Secondly Some of the Lords of the Council were willing to spare the Keeper for that having a mighty standing Wardrobe of Reason likely he bore down that side which he oppos'd Why would not Plato endure Homer in his Utopia because he was too great a Citizen for his City And Aristotle lib. 3. Polit. c. 4. Says the Argonautes were weary of Hercules and dismist him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã his main strength at the Oar was above his Fellows his parts were unequal in supere minence Nor did his Majesty like it well that he would never give over till he was Conqueror in the Argument that he held and he ever held him to be too nimble and versatile in his Discourses For the Taste of that good King's Mind was much like to his Palate he never loved Sauce with his Meat nor Sharpness in his Counsels He desired to see all his way before him and not to be led through Windings and Allies Another King was of that Conceit says Thua lib. 11. Franciscus magna ingenia suspect a habere coepit Thirdly The blaff that help'd to blow down this Cedar was the Breath of Obtreclators and Tale bearers Who are too much about great Men as it may be said by Allusion from the 66 Psal v. 3. After the vulgar Latin For the Greatness of thy Power shall the People be found Lyars unto thee These were too thick about the Duke and cherish'd with his Countenance and Liberality For Reward not Minstrils and you shall be sure to be rid of them If any are loth to put Bishop Laud in this Number I must either reform their Knowledge or write against mine own They are yet living that have heard it confest by the Lord Buckingham's Mother And these words are in the Manuscript remembred before Penn'd by Arch-Bishop Abbot That the Countess of Buckingham told the Bishop of Lincoln that St. Davids was the Man that did undermine him with her Son and would underwork any Man in the World that himself might rise St. Davids saw no Man in the prospect of likelihood but this one to carry the highest Miter from him Interna crevit Roma Albae ruinis as Livy says Fourthly my Lord-Duke was soon satiated with their Greatness whom he had advanc'd It was the inglorious Mark of those Thirteen Years of his Power to remove Officers Which was like a sweeping Floud that at every Spring-tide takes from one Land and casts it upon another In two Years of King Charles's Reign Williams Lee Conway Suckling Crow Walter had their Top-sails pull'd down by him and if Sir Henry Yelverton had liv'd not only Sir A. Welden writes it but common Rumour nois'd it that he had been promoted to the Place of the Lord Coventry Which was very prejudicious to the true Discharge of those Dignities As Theophrastus complains in Tully Men were so short liv'd that by the time they began to know the World Death snatch'd them out of it So a Magistrate can yield no great Fruit that 's pluck'd up before he be well rooted Antonnius call'd the Philosopher provided better for that as Capitolinus hath it as he was wise in all his Government 21. Still the Plot was busie against the Lord-Keeper to displace him with some colour of Charge And the King being come to Salisbury in September with a full Court it came to a Catastrophe He that was hunted after was at harbour at a House of the Lord Sand's in Barkshire five Miles from Windsor call'd Foxly Where he was surely inform'd that after much sifting spent after all that ever he did since his high Promotion the old Matter was renewed how he stirred up those that lifted at the Duke at Oxford which was urg'd with strange and punctual Confidence and was the weakest and least grounded Surmise that ever was hammer'd Therefore it was supplied with another Objection That at the same time and place he had abus'd the King with ill Counsel advising him to vail his absolute Sovereignty too much to a social Communication with his Subjects Which being divulg'd got him that was accus'd a strong Gale of popular Favour did his Majesty no right and cast the Duke upon such a Shelf as no High-tide could bring him off while he liv'd The Keeper hearing every day what Cavillations were fomented and heard to put him to blame and shame found it in vain to coast the Season any longer to have the Great-Seal tarry with him Only resolv'd on the 21st of September to prepare his way by his Pen before he went to Salisbury to salute the King's Ear with softness and to shew that he did not despond but that he was ready for a Justification if he were call'd to answer Which for all his Labour would hardly be believ'd For all Treasure hid in the Ground is the Kings But how will he find it So all truth that concerns his Justice and Prosperity is his But how will he know it This Man is not the first that made it true which Sidon Apoll. observes Lib. 3. Ep. 3. That it is dangerous serving of Kings in a near place who are compar'd by him to fire Qui sicut paululum à se remota illuminat ita satis sibi admota comburit It is a good Element or light and warmth to those that stand aloof but singeth that which comes too near it Yet nothing venture nothing have One Arrow must be shot after another though both be grast and never found again In aequo est amissio rei timor amittendi says Seneca Nay he loseth more quiet of Mind that looks every day to lose that which he loves than in the Minute when he is deprived of it One says When the Brunt is over the Heart will recover Time and long day will mitigate sad Accidents 't is a slow Medicine but a sure one 22. Now let the Letter to his Majesty be observ'd which was his Harbinger Most gracious Sovereign and my dear Master WHile I spare my self at home for a few days to be quite rid of an Ague which I brought from Southampton I do humbly crave your Majesty's Pardon to make my Address in these Lines which I will contract to so narrow a room as the Matter will possibly give me leave First as touching the Information of the Access I should give at Oxford to those dangerous Persons of the House of
upon Thistles as well as Wheat so a frank Spirit will not be over-curious to examine into whose hands it puts a little Dust Let it fall on the right-side or on the left let God look to that who knows the Heart This the Bishop believed and knew that what he receiv'd from the Church was not given for the Interest of one Man to lay it up for himself St. Ambrose tells us so Ep. 2. ad Valentini Nihil ecclesia sibi nisi fidem possidet possessio ecclesiae sumptus est egenorum 37. Let me proceed a little further and the Readers will wonder out of what Mine the Bishop digg'd the Wealth to expend so much It was never observ'd by those about him that he gather'd much in his great Office He was provident indeed and let nothing run waste and honest Thrist will help to save a few Spoonfuls but not so much as to fill a Cistern I can refer it no better I am certain than to the unknown Blessing of God who multiplied his Substance the more because he gave it chearfully For in the midst of his Profuseness he fell upon Works of great Munificence which could not come into a narrow Mind nor be finish'd by a narrow Fortune ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says Plutarch out of Menander Happy is he that hath a good Inheritance and a good Will to use it He look'd first upon the Palace at Lincoln built for none but the ancient Bishops of the See that had Four and Thirty rich Mannors belonging to them which were alienated in Dr. Holbech his time though not by his fault and were never recover'd beside a vast Jurisdiction of great Profit derived into other Channels This Palace fit for the Pomp of those great Potentates was formidable to their poor Successors that could not keep it warm with the Rents that remain'd But it was come into the Possession of one that did not stick at such Considerations For although it did seem irreparable in the Dilapidations and Workmen did ask so much as the Neighbours of the Close did think it would deter the Master of it yet in three Years he brought it on and up to as much strength and comliness as when it was first inhabited And because he found a decay of Learning in those remore Parts for want of good Books he design'd it among his good Deeds to provide a Remedy another Store-house for Authors of all Arts and Sciences like those of Westminster and St. John's in Cambridge ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Athenaeus calls the Alexandrian Biblotheque Lib. 1. c. 9. The Flasket or coffer to put in the Jewels of the Muses Presently he bought the Library and caus'd it to be conveighed to Lincoln belonging to Dr. Day sometimes Rector of St. Faith 's in London whom the Stationers his Parishioners had furnish'd with a full Study fitting for such a Scholar that knew how to use so great a Magazine Timber was hewn out and dispos'd in the Yard to make a capacious Room to hold these Books Other Benefactors were ready to garnish it with their Oblations But unkind Troubles that came thick upon the main Founder stopp'd the advance of it so long that the Timber came into the Hands of Souldiers to make Fortifications and the Books became a Prey to every Vultur that could catch them A Work of better success shall compleat this Paragraph A great Wit and one that made this Bishop his Executor in his last Will the Lord Bacon says well in his Essay of Parents That none have such care of Posterity as they that have no Posterity Which appears in this Prelate who added to the rest of his famous Deeds the repairing of one side of Lincoln Colledge in Oxford especially the Building of a most elegant Chappel which it had not before The Form of it was Costly Reverend and Church-wise The sacred Acts and Mysteries of our Saviour while he was on Earth neatly colour'd in the Glass-windows The Traverse and lining of the Walls was of Cedar-Wood The Copes the Plate the Books and all sort of Furniture for the Holy Table rich and suitable All which he did with the greater Willingness because the Society flourish'd at that time with Men of rare and extraordinary Learning These so many costly pieces of Charity and Magnificence are not Opuscula but Opera great Matters to be perform'd by one Man in the compass of Seven Years And it being as I may say in the Words of Amos Cap. 7.1 the latter growth of his Estate after the King 's Mowing Such Works a Bishop should aim at because therefore God gave him his high degree says St. Jerom Lib. 1. Con. Jovin In majore ordine conslitutus possit si velit occasionem exercendarum habere virtutum Let our Bishops of old times have their due praise they were great Benefactors to Churches and Colleges I say more they did well and left a Pattern to their younger Brethren that rose up in their places to do well by their Copy And as Symmachus says p. 205. Autor est bonorum sequentium qui reliquit exemplum They are a kind of Co-founders with the good Men of after Ages that gave them an Example to imitate their Fore fathers But be it consider'd without disparagement to their Piety that their Wealth was great they were at Cost upon the Houses of God when their Wings were cover'd with Silver and their Feathers were of Gold But this Man had but a Scanâling of their ample Fortunes Others we know larded all over with the Fat of the Earth who are not Competitors with the Bishop in this Glory Such as by Profession of the Law or Traffick by Seas have gather'd up Gold like the Stones of the Streets and leave it all to their own House Qui usque ad centesimum nepotem se animi obstinatione propagant as Budaeus tells them de Ass p. 105. Who reckon that all they have is little enough to bequeath to their Seeds seed for an hundred Generations And yet are no better than Persian Eunuchs full of Honour and Riches and leave no Memory behind them And if they give one Sheaf out of a full Barn they have not the Heart to do it with their own Hand and see it well employ'd with their own Eyes but commend it by their Will to the Execution of their Survivors Whereas one Sacrifice of Alms done for God's sake offer'd up in our own Life paid down in our own Person and not by Proxy is more acceptable than five Legacies of posthumous Liberality But I will stop and will say no more of the Bishop's pious Benignity than a Word out of Tertullian's Apology Quantiscunque sumptibus constet lucrum est quicquid pietatis nomine fit He shall receive more than he gave for Godliness is great Gain 38. It was free for him to do what he would with his own to be or not be a great Benefactor or a great Giver but it was his Duty to be a good
the whole Bible Are there some that will not believe it stay and take the Proof and it will be the better it was not believ'd As St. Austin says de Vit. Cler. Serm. 2. Beatus homo qui tam bonum opus fecit ut non crederetur Happy is the Man that did so good a Work that the World would not imagine it And wherefore should it be thought that he would not go in hand with a Work of so great Learning and Labour Even for that reason which Tully gives Hoc usu plerumque venit ut in rebus diversis eundem praecellere nolint homines It is the Malignancy of Men that will not conceive it possible for one Man to excel in many Endowments because themselves fall short of all But for satisfaction not to be controul'd he did not only discourse sometimes that he would dedicate his Industry and his Wealth to compile so excellent and voluminous a Piece but he left much of the Materials behind him Much of the Wool was ready yet not spun out for the Garment intended because his Loom was broken To speak it out distinctly Mr. Richard Gouland Keeper of the Library of the College of Westminster till Men of good Parts in all kinds himself not the least were deprived he hath in his Custody the Bible in three Parts in a large Folio with the Translation of Jun. and Tremell bound together wherein are Notes upon all the Scriptures except the Apocaclyps which is untouch'd written with the Bishop's own Hand in which are drawn out of all kind of Authors of the first middle and chiefly the latter Age and out of all Languages as the prime of Hebrew Greek and Latin with the modern of Italian Spanish and French whatsoever is the Choice and Flower of their Commentations All this I have seen and turn'd over and observ'd so much Judgment in the Extraction so much Industry in the Mass of it that I admir'd one Man could compass so much but more astonish'd that he could find leisure for any business or time for any Study beside All is not barren Land that lies fallow Nor all Scholars idle that have not discover'd their precious Treasures in Print But the increase of this Knowledge increas'd his Sorrow with the great Declension of his Health As the Poet says Attenuant juvenum vigilatae corpora noctes Ovid. His Lamp burnt many Nights till Morning the constant time of his Study before he had gather'd in this rich Harvest Yet neither Colick nor Catarrhs nor the Stone the sharpest of Pains could stay him from his main purpose The Count Mirandulan in Politian writes of Marianus a Divine whom he valued above all Corpus habet invictum infatigabile ut non aliunde magis reparare vires quà m de laboribus ipsis videatur So the more feeble the Bishop was the more he toil'd as if he thought to repair his Strength by Watching and assiduity of Labour Yet he knew that to expound the whole Scripture learnedly was above the Powers and Parts of one Man Therefore he reserv'd both the filling and finishing of it to the assistance of Twelve or more of the ablest Scholars in the Land whom he had in his Eye and Thoughts and purpos'd the Recompence of a great Stipend For he hath said it to his Friends that he would not stick at the Sum of Twelve no nor of Twenty thousand Pounds to perfect that Master-piece of Divinity But this young Feature like an imperfect Embryo was mortified in the Womb by Star-Chamber Vexations A Letter from King Ataxerxes caused Ezra and the Builders with him to cease from working Yet so much of the Stuff as was made ready with his own Pen in Three Volumes if it be not deposited in the Library at Westminster the Author will be wrong'd in his Fame and Posterity in the Profit His invincible Mind was not satisfied with this Task alone But as Pliny spake to Trajan Paneg. p. 57. Inter refectiones existimas mutationem laboris So to pass from one Study to another was not a new Labour but the Bishop's Recreation Therefore he laid out for the Works of his Predecessor Robert Grost head made Scrutiny for them in all Libraries of England and in France where he had Credit and his Friends could furnish him Bishop Grost head living in the Reign of Henry the Third was a good Linguist a famous Philosopher a Divinity reader an assiduous Preacher a painful Writer of Two Hundred Books says Bale wherein the Ambition and Covetousness of the Church of Rome were his chief Subject These being in Manuscript and many obscur'd in blind Corners this Bishop collected digested them had wrote Arguments upon divers parts of them which others have read as well as my self expected daily more and more of the same Author that all that could be got might be printed fairly together And as Symmachus writes Lib. 2. Ep. Quodam modo societatem laudis affectat qui aliena benè gesta primus enuntiat He that is the first that publisheth the worthy Acts of another Man is a Sharer in his Praise But by his Eclipse Bishop Grost head 's Works remain'd in darkness The Success was unfortunate but he that set it on had a publick Soul and a studious Head There is not a better Pattern of a noble and industrious Spirit or of worse proof in the Up-shot Fortunam ex aliis says Aeneas in Virgil. Whose Fault was that 43. Such of whom as a Bishop he had most right to say they were his Work in the Lord 1 Cor. 9.1 were they upon whom he conferr'd Holy Orders by Imposition of Hands Those blessed days did not last long when the Apostles themselves appointed some over the Houshold of Christ to give them their Portion of Meat in due season They could discern by the Gifts of the Spirit who were sit for that high Calling Such as Timothy that was set apart according to the prophesies that went before upon him 1 Tim. 1.18 And Mich. Syncellus follow'd the Tradition that Dionysius was made Bishop of Athens ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Lookt into by the Eyes of St. Paul who could see him through and through After which tryal by Illumination it was fit that the want of that Spirit should be supplied by the testimony of many and by as much heed and diligence as could reasonably be taken by those that laid their Hands upon them that were vouchsafed to be Stewards of the manifold Graces of Christ Wherein I rejoyce in the truth he that is before us was as strict an examiner of Novices as any of his Order Some that were not admitted by him in his first Ordinations because they were found Light upon the Weight saved him much work afterward Divinity is a deep and a copious Science wherein he that fear'd he could not answer his expectation would not venture upon his repulse For he was so constant and regular that they knew what to trust to before they
and known to Thousands Nam lux altissima fati-occultum nihil essesinit Claud. Paneg. 4. Honor. What Spight is this to be silent in that which was certainly so and to engrave with a Pen of Steel that which was ignominous uncertain nay a falsity which hath travelled hither out of the Mountains 200 Miles So Jos Scaliger revealed his Disdain against some Criticks in his Notes upon Manil. p. 175. Ubi reprehendendi sumus tunc nominis nostri frequens mentio alià s mirum silentium I need no Pardon that I could not hold in to leave this Admonition behind at the last Stage of his Episcopal Work his general Visitation which was applauded much by all except two sorts of men Some that had not done their Duty and were mulcted Quid tristes querimoniae si non supplicio culpa reciditur Horat. Od. 24. lib. 3. such could not escape Censure who suffer'd with moderation by one that appeared in his temperate Judicature rather to be above the Faults than above the Men. Two others and of the Ministry were sullen because they did not speed in their Presentments according to their mind the reason was the Complainants were found to be rugged and contentious not giving good Example of Yielding and Peace 62. Let me cast in a small handful of other things fit to be remark'd In adject is mensura non quaeritur The Bishop of Lincoln is a Visitor of some Colleges by their local Statutes in both Universities This Bishop visited Kings-College in Cambridge upon the Petition of the Fellows thereof anno 1628. when he shew'd himself to be a great Civilian and Canonist before those learned Hearers but the Cause went for the right worthy Provost Dr. Collins in whose Government the Bishop could perceive neither Carelesness nor Covetousness The most that appeared was That the Doctor had pelted some of the active Fellows with Slings of Wit At which the Visitor laugh'd heartily and past them by knowing that the Provost's Tongue could never be worm'd to spare his Jests who was the readiest alive to gird whom he would with innocent and facetious Urbanity The Provost of Orial-College in Oxford Dr. Tâlson with others of his Society visited the Bishop at his Palace of Bugdâ with a Signification to the Bishop that they might eject one of the Members of their Foundation Mr. Tailour The Bishop saw there was small reason to raise such a Dust out of a few indiscreet words yet he satisfied Dr. Tolâon that Mr. Taâour should depart so it were with a farewel of Credit and he liked Mr. Tadour so well that he took him into his own House till he had provided the Living of Hempsted for him As ãâã said of his own Brother in Erasm Epist p. 417. Illius mores tales sunt ut omnibus possint congruere A benevolent Nature will agree with all men and please the Adversaries of both sides Those of young and tender years were much in his Care as appeared that he seldom travelled but Notice being given before he staid at some Town or Village to confirm such as were but even past children to lay his Hands on them and to bless them and did it ostener than the 60 Canon requires An ancient and an admirable Order when such were presented as were before made ready by being exactly catechized And for Childrens sakes he listen'd much what good Schoolmasters he had in his Diocess that bare the irksome and tedious Burden to rear up a good Seminary for Church and State such he valued and thought their Place was better than is usually given them in the World They are the tertia that make up a happy Corporation as Charles the Fifth thought who entring into any Imperial City or Burough was wont to ask the Recorder that did congraturate him Have you a good Magistrate Have you a good Pastor Have you a good Schoolmaster If he said Yes Then all must be well among you said the Emperor Our Bishop had the opportunity to consecrate Churches new re-edisied and Chappels erected which he perform'd with much Magnificence and Ceremony that the Houses of God his Houses of Prayer might be had in a venerable regard Nothing was more observ'd in that Performance than that at the hallowing of a Chappel belonging to the Mansion-place of Sir Gostwick in Bedfordshire the Knight's Son and Heir being born deaf and dumb and continuing in that defect no sooner did the Bishop alight and come into the House but the young Gentleman kneeled down and made signs to the Bishop that he craved his Blessing and had it with a passionate Embrace of Love A sweet Creature he was and is of rare Perspicacity of Nature rather of rare Illumination from God whose Behaviour Gestures and zealous Signs have procur'd and allow'd him admittance to Sermons to Prayers to the Lord's Supper and to the Marriage of a Lady of a great and prudent Family his Understanding speaking as much in all his motions as if his Tongue could articulately deliver his Mind Nor was any of the Prelacy of England more frequented than this Lord for two things First by such as made Suit unto him to compound their Differences that they might not come to the chargeable and irksome attendance of the Courts of Law Aversos solitus componere amicos Horat. Serm. 5. And so many Causes were referred to him and by no mean ones that he continued like a petty Chancellor to arbitrate Contentions Secondly Sundry did appeal to his Judgment for Resolution of Cases of Consciences and most in Matrimonial Scruples and of intricate Points of Faith as about Justisication and Predestination in which when he thought the doubting Person would not be contented with Discourse he gave them his Resolutions very long and laborious in Writing which gathered together and as I have seen them digested would have made an handsome Tractate but the worst Visitor that ever came to a Bishop's House seized on them and never restored them This was Kilvert a vexatious Prosecutor of many in the Court of Star-chamber for the King whose Lineaments are drawn out in the Ninth Book of Apul. Metam Omnia prorsus ut in quandam comorum latrinam in ejus animum vitia consluxerunt Every Beast hath some ill Property this Beastly Fellow had all He stands too near so good a Subject as is in hand for this is the lively Image of a renowned Bishop the Image but of one though the good Parts of many may be concentred in this one as the Agrigentine Painter made Juno by the Pattern of five well-favour'd Virgins All that I have drawn up of his Pastoral Behaviour was seen in the Day-light therefore as St. Paul said of the Corinthians whom he had commended so I may with Modesty apply it to my Subject If I have boasted any thing of him to you I am not ashamed 2 Cor. 7.14 Nor is this all of him in that Holy Charge not by a great deal but so much as is preserved in
Good Works to blow out his Light that in common Opinion did outshine him Which I may allude to in way of Parody from the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.10 He that was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth And what a Temptation it was to follow his Thrust when he was perswaded that the removing of one suspected would be the bottom of his Safety Therefore according to the Prudence and Charity that God hath given me I will neither altogether shake off the good Esteem I had of him nor think too highly and absolutely of human Infirmity And this is inserted to do him Justice who was the chiefest cause under God's Providence and Permission of all the Injustice and Troubles that did light upon Lincoln It is an old Rule in Gregorius Thaumat in Orat. Paneg. ad Originem ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I think it not fit to praise one man with the reproach of others for it implies a Contradiction to think to do Right to one by doing Wrong to another Which is enough to bring off the mention of the Causes that dealt not well with an innocent man And though for all he suffer'd he had no reason to thank his Enemies I may chearfully write it he had reason to thank God for his Enemies 67. The Particulars at which the person aggrieved took Unkindness are now to be remembred keeping near to the Shore at first before we launch into the Deep And had the Bishop's humble Petition been heard which he made to His Majesty Cabal p. 118. that deep had never been sounded I Beseech your Majesty for Christ Jesus sake not to believe News or Accusations against me concerning my Carriage past present or to come while I stand thus enjoyned from your Royal Presence before you shall have heard my Answer and Defence to the Particulars They that inform your Majesty may God knoweth be oftentimes misinformed It was time for him to supplicate for this Justice for he knew that his Name was abused in the King's Bed-chamber with continual Scandals Lyes that were untraceable in their ground and original And he had reason to suspect that of such Stuff there was more than came to his Knowledge But Jealousies had better sigh themselves away than crave Redress from Princes against such secret Stingings there 's no prevention but great Fear for they that go a Batt-fowling in the dark to seek matter of Crimination and inject mistrustful and uncharitable Reports day by day to undermine the man they aim at fetch that about by many Fly-blowings which they cannot do at once As a little Sand gathers into a body by many Tydes and in time becomes a Shelf and at last a Bar or Quick-sand able to drown the best Frigat It is fit that Kings should have Intelligence but upon the Peril of him that brings not a Truth It is fit they should know their Subjects but not in a false Glass He that abuseth a Kings Ears robs not from the Sheaf or from the Stack but from the Seed-corn which is treble Thievery A man that spreads Libels corrupts the People A Delator that whispers invented Tales into his Soveraign is worse for he corrupts him that is worth Ten thousand of the People Bishop Hall's sweet Passage is worth the learning That it is good to be Led not to be Carried by the Ears That is it is good to use the Ear not to trust to it These Blob-tales when they could find no other News to keep their Tongues in motion laid open our Bishop for a Malignant because he gave Entertainment at his Board to such as carried a Grudge to the Lord Duke's Prosperity who if such came in their course to his House upon old acquaintance but upon no factious design that ever was proved Hard was the Condition of Archbishop Abbot as he complains in his Manuscript That he was accused for Sir Tho. Wentworth's resorting to him who had been with him but once in three quarters of a Year and then to consult about Sir George Savile's Son and Heir to whom jointly they were both Guardians This Superintendency to watch every man that goes in and out in a great Family is too mean for the Care and too base for the Fear of a Generous Ruler Listen to Caesar's Mind as Mutius reports it to Cicero in the familiar Epistles Caesar nunquam interpellavit quin quibus vellem atque etiam quos ipse non diligebat tamen uterer Admit there was no Harm for there was none in the Society that this Bishop kept yet the Case is alter'd when a man is despighted and when Grievances are blown out to their utmost wideness by the Hatred carried against him Yet well-fare Circumspection and Innocency that these privy Suggestions went out one by one like Sparks that fall upon dank and unprepared matter More Harm was expected to come from a Commission of Thirteen who had Order from the Duke to meet together to sift into every part and passage of the Bishop's Transactions and to collect what was culpable and would bear Censure in the Kings-bench Star-chamber or High Court of Parliament The chiefest of the Thirteen in Place was Sir Rob. Heath Attorny-General but an honest man and a fair dealer This was carried with that little noise that for a good space the vigilant Bishop was not awaked with it till some of his old Officers broke it to him who were called and interrogated upon some of his Decrees and Dispatches Sir Anth. Welden I borrow the Testimony of an Enemy expresseth it thus p. 174. His Rum was determin'd not upon any known Crime but upon Circumstances and Examinations to pick out Faults committed in his whole Life-time And as it were to confront the Tribunal of this unusual Inquisition the Bishop writes to His Majesty just at the time when it sate That no use might be made of his Sacred Name to wound him but that he craved no Protection against any other Accuser or Accusation whatsoever Cab. p. 118. See the stoutness of a clear Conscience He knew how the Bushes were beaten and how the Beagle ranged the Field for Game He heard the Cry of the Blood-hounds that nosed the Ground where he trod Qui si non cecidit potuit cecidisse videri Metam lib. 2. But all was well that Commission ended at Labour in vain not as the old Emblem is to go about to make a Black-moor white but to make him that was White to appear like a Black-moor That Inquisition could find no Fault in him but it is easie to find Fault with that Inquisition A Magistrate must try him that is accused for a Delinquent because he is a Judge but he must not try how he may make a Delinquent because he is a Father There was nothing good in that privy Search but that the Patient was no Patient and that his Enemies lookt far into him and found nothing which they fought for Like them that delve
into the bottom of the Sea and fetch up Sponges so The Righteous shall hold on his way and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger Job 17.9 68. Neither did it deject the Bishop to be made a Gazing-stock by Disparagements The King's Coronation and his second Parliament began together at Candlemas and he was warned by Letter to serve at neither A Coronation being usually accompanied with a General Pardon should have cast a Frown upon none Yet his Place was not granted him to do his Homage among the Spiritual Lords nor to assist the Archbishop at the Sacred Parts of that high Solemnity as Dean of Westminster It is arbitrary and at the King's Pleasure to range that Royal Ceremony as he likes best to follow former Presidents or wave them to intrust what Ministers he likes in the Management except some Tenure or old Charter give admittance to some persons without exception Otherwise in the very principal performance says venerable Saravia De Christ Obed. p. 139. Ab Episcopo traditur corona quod potest furi à proceribus But the Dean of the Collegiate Church of Westminster did attend as a specal Officer at the Coronation of K. James after the manner of Deacon to the Archbishop of Canterbury it was Dr. Andrews which could not be granted him by Prescription for there was no Dean nor any such Dignity in the Church at the Coronation of Q. Elizabeth But upon the new Foundation Anno 3. of that Queen the Dean was intrusted with the Custody of K. Edward's Crown and the other Regalia and Decorum was kept thereupon to give him a great Employment of Assistance on that day Yet the Regalia were kept in a strong place of that Church long before For I find in Baron anno 1060. par II. That Pope Nicholas the Second gave a Charter to that Abby Ut sit repositorium regalium insignium What a busie Fisher was this that would have an Oar or a Net rather in every Boat Could not the Kings of England without him appoint the fittest place for the Custody of the Ornaments of their Imperial Majesties He that was so kind to dispose who should keep the Crown did mean That the King should not wear it without his Leave and Courtesie And let it be his Fault to be impertinent and to meddle with the keeping of Royal Treasure that did not concern him What is their Crime that have carried them quite away both Crown and Scepter and Robes from their ancient Sacrary I would that had been all This was wont to be the Mark of him that opposeth and exalts himself above all that is called GOD Dixi Dii est is 2 Thess 2.4 But what 's the matter that I have almost lost my self in this Loss I was about to tell that Bishop Williams must not wait in the Honourable Place of the Dean at the Coronation but in a Complement he was sent to Name one of the Twelve Prebendaries to serve in his room This was devised to fret him and to catch a Wasp in a Water-trap Bishop Laud was a Prebendary at this time and the Substitute intended at Court to act in the Coronation If Lincoln should Name him he had been laugh'd at for preferring the man that thrust himself by And if he did not Name him and no other he had been check'd for inscribing one of a lesser Order in the Church before a Bishop to so great a Service But his Wit saved him from either Inconvenience He sent the Names of his Twelve Brethren to the King resigning it up to His Majesty to elect whom he pleased A Submission which Climacus would call Sepulchrum voluntatis a dead Obedience without a sensible Concurrence And he stirred no more either by Challenge or Petition to do that eminent Office of the Deanery in his own Person but says in his Letter to the King That he submitted to that Sequestration for so he calls it It is wise to sit down when a man can trouble no Body but himself if he moves Especially I affect the Lesson which Erasmus gives in an Epistle p. 222. Pulchrius est aliquando modestia quam cansâ superare It is handsomer sometimes to excel in Modesty than to win a Cause 69. Other Reasons sway'd this circumspect man to carry it with no such Indifferency that he was not called to the Parliament But to do Honour to the King and to save his own Right nay the common Right of Peers he took a middle way between Crouching and Contumacy He call'd it His Majesty's Gracious Pleasure and was in earnest that he esteem'd it so to spare his Presence at the Parliament but he expostulated to have a Writ of Summons denied to no Prisoners no nor condemned Peers in the late Reign of his blessed Father Cab. p. 118. that accordingly he might make a Proxy which he could not do the Writ not receiv'd And he struggled till he had it in his own way and entrusted it with the Lord Andrews Bishop of Winchester it being the last Parliament wherein that famous Servant of God sate and the last year of his Life But the Mr. W. Sanders tells us p. 143. of his Annals of King Charles That Lincoln at this time continued not a Peer but a Prelate in Parliament Res memoranda novis Annalibus atque recenti historiâ Juven Sat. 2. This is a pitiful matter for what Bishop of Lincoln could be a Prelate in those days and not a Peer Is it his meaning that he did not sit among the Peers Nor did he sit among the Prelates in Convocation but by Proxy he sate in both places as Peer and Prelate A Letter sent from him to the King and dated March 12. will clear this matter and greater things or else it had not been publish'd 'T is large and confident searing the Duke's Greatness no more than the Statuary Work of a vast Colossus But as Portius Latro says in Sallust Gravissimi sunt morsus irritatae necessitat is 'T is no marvel if Necessity break good Manners which will break through Stone Walls says the Proverb And much Provocations attends not much whom it displeaseth The Letter follows Most Mighty and Dread Soveraign IT becometh me of all the rest of your Subjects having been so infinitely obliged to Your Majesty to cast my self down at your Feet and oppose no Interpretation Your Majesty shall be pleased to make of any of my Actions whatsoever Howbeit before the receipt of my Lord Keeper's Letter that I had carried my absence from the Parliament with as much Humility and Respect to Your Majesty as ever Subject of England did towards his Soveraign The delivery of my Proxy to the first Bishop Your Majesty named I excused mannerly to Your Majesty but with a private Reason to my Lord Keeper not to be replied against The second Lord Bishop is directly uncapable of that part of my Proxy which concerneth the House of Convocation These two Lords now named
the first settling of our Church in the Queens days Morning Prayer stopt at the end of the three Collects after the Apostle's Creed then the People had leisure before the Litany began either to retire or to betake them to private Prayers In this Interspace some Communicants had time to give in their Names to the Curate this is plain in that first Order for a publick Fast anno 5 Eliz. the words are After the Morning Prayer ended the Minister shall exhort the People assembled to give themselves in their private Prayers and Meditations for which purpose a Pause shall be made of one quarter of an hour and more by the discretion of the Curate during which time as good silence shall be kept as may be That done the Lâtany is to be read c. Now after the pause of scarce a minute made by this digression let the main scope of the King 's Fast indicted in July be remembred that great Humiliation with Fasting and extraordinary Prayer should be joyn'd together to avert the Peril of a Spanish Invasion therefore that we on the defensive should be ready with our Bodies and Purses to avert the Fury of our Enemies Though the Land was admonish'd of this in a religious way yet they condescended to part with Money very hardly They did only hear of an Enemy but they saw their Coyn collected from them Well did Tully write lib. 3. Ep. 24. Nulla remedia tam saciunt dolorem quae vulneribus adhibentur quà m quae maximè salutarta Say it was a Wound to our great Charter to call for Contribution without a Parliamentary way yet it was not the worse for the Wound that the Injection was sharp that cur'd it What we lost in the Privilege of Liberty it was presum'd we got in Safety 72. But the most did want that charitable Presumption and paid the irregular Levy with their Hand and not with their Heart A Prince that grieves his Subjects with a sconcing Tribute takes up Moneys at a dear Interest who should not live extempore but upon premeditation to act to day what shall be safe and honourable for ever Grotius is very political in a Passage to be found in his Proleg De jure belli pacis Qui jus civile pervertit utilitatis praesentis causâ id convellit quo ipsius posteritatis suae perpetuae utilitates continentur The People are unpleas'd upon this Levy and the Ink of a Remonstrance could not kill the Tettar A third Parliament is called to justifie the King's Act from Necessity in the face of the Kingdom It was determin'd by some about His Majesty that our Bishop should not sit in it The great Favourite knew his Discontents were encreased the Bishoprick of Winchester had been void and conferr'd upon another Archbishop Abbot removed for some months to Ford in Kent is brought to Lambeth to the Court to the Parliament Lincoln not only wanted these Sweetnings but was tir'd with defailance of Promises and defied with Threatnings so it was thought best to keep him out of the Parliament against all Right rather than suffer one with the Powers of his Parts to argue and vote against exorbitant Persons and Causes The Bishop stood upon his Place as a Spiritual Lord and resolv'd to let his Right be infring'd no longer Utrumne est tempus aliquod quo in Senatum venire turpe sit says Cicero pro domo ad Pontif. It can be no shame to come into the Senate it is a Disgrace to be kept out Therefore yielding all Obedience to Soveraignty unto the utmost of that which was due he disputed the Right of his Order so stoutly that he came to the House and continued in it to the last which he obtained the more resolutely because he look'd upon the King's Affairs with a desire to help him The L. K. Coventry had order to stop him by a Letter if he could which the other answered in these words R. H. and my very good Lord I Have received your Lordships Letter of the 17. of February but this day being the 25. of the same and although I could not desire more comfortable News from your Lordship than Leave of Absence from that Parliament in which my presence may be suspecled either by the King which my Innocency will not suffer me to believe or by any other near unto His Majesty yet being the Right of a Peer in this Kingdom that never convicled imprison'd or question'd for any Offence is not withstanding now against a second Parliament kept from his lawful and indubitable Right of sitting in that House and may be for any Comfort he doth receive from your Lordship intended to be debarr'd for ever from the same I must crave some time to resolve by the best Counsels God shall give me whether I shall obey your Lordship's Letter though mentioning His Majesty's Pleasure before mine own Right which by the Law of GOD and Man I may in all Humility maintain Especially His Majesty's Writ and Royal Proclamation of a far later date do either of them imply as your Lordship best knoweth an authentical Command I do know that of my Obedience to my Gracious Soveraign as of late I have found small acceptance so could I never find any limit or bottom And therefore I beseech your Lordship to make this no Question of the Act but of this Object only of my Duty and Submission But if I find I may without prejudice absent my self I will deal clearly with you my noble Lord in the second point I do refuse with all humble Duty and Vassalage unto His Majesty reserv'd to appoint for my Proctor the Bishop proposed And so I humbly take my leave The Courtiers knew not what would follow upon this Answer but a Course was follow'd by the Bishop as in the like Case before to cut a way between two Extreams Inter abruptam contumaciam deforme obsequium For the Parliament newly sitting the L. Keeper being demanded by John Earl of Clare whether this Bishop had a Writ sent to him and that being affirm'd the Peers call'd for his Assistance and without more ado the Parliament beginning March 17. he came to it before the end of that Month breaking the Restraint upon him not by attempt of his own Will but because it was the Pleasure of the Lords and as soon as he came he was quickly set a work for the upper House appointing to meet together at the Holy Communion Apr. 6. 1628. he preach'd the Sermon at that Solemn Occasion the Text being Gal. 6.14 and at the next Session he preacht again by their Lordship's order at a Fast kept on Ash-Wednesday Feb. 18. 1628. in the same Church upon Job 42.12 entituled Perseverantia Sanctorum Both these Sermons were printed by their Lordships direction two pieces so full of Learning and Piety that they were fitter for a longer perusal than for the short time wherein they were utter'd 73. At this great and high Assembly our
long sought and now the Words which past between the King and him in Conference were the Seed of all his Troubles in the Star-Chamber for the King conjuring him to deliver his Opinion how he might win the Love of the Commons and be popular among them the Bishop answered readily That the Puritans were many and main Sticklers if His Majesty would please to direct his Ministers by his secret Appointment to shew some Connivance and Indulgence to their Party he might possibly mollifie them and bend their Stubbornness though he did not promise that they would be trusty very long to any Government The King said He must needs like the Counsel for he had thought of it before and would use it Two months after the Bishop regulated his own Courts at Leicester with some such Condescentions and told Sir J. Lamb and Dr. Sibthorp the reason that it was not only his own but the Royal Pleasure These two Pick-thanks carried these words to Bishop Laud and he to the King being then at Bisham The Resolution was That upon the Depositions of these two no Saints in my Almanack a Bill should be drawn up in the Star-chamber against the Bishop for revealing the King's Counsels being a sworn Counsellor But that he was sentenc'd because his Tongue betrayed him into Speeches that entrencht upon Loyalty as the Historian H. L. says p. 152. upon whose Trust W. S. writes the same is utterly mistaken upon the word of Holy Faith and let all Ear-witnesses of the Cause and Eye-witnesses of the Records judge between us Nor do I say that the Bill of disclosing the King's Counsels held Water for it was laid aside There the Troubles began and did run through Motions Meanders and Alterations till ending at last in tampering with Witnesses as will be shewn in due place 80. To make this seem a Jubilee to our Bishop wherein all Bonds of Malevolence should be cancell'd he had a very courteous Interview with the L. Duke nothing of Unkindness repeated between them his Grace had the Bishop's Consent with a little asking that he would be his Grace's faithful Servant in the next Session of Parliament and was allow'd to hold up a seeming Enmity and his own Popular Estimation that he might the sooner do the Work Blessed be God that they parted then in perfect Charity for they never met again the horrid Assassine J. Felton frustrated whatever might have followed a mean despicable unsuspected Enemy Sed nihil tam firmum est cui non sit periculum ab invalido says Curtius lib. 7. What Strength is there in a Cedar since every weak Arm can cut it down And though I am perswaded none but the Devil and this melancholy Miscreant were in the Plot yet in foro Dei many were guilty of this Blood that rejoiced it was spilt Tully confest of himself that he was as much a Murderer of Caesar as Brutus and Cassius 2 Philip. Quid interest utrum voluerim fieri an gaudeam factum So did God see that Thousands were guilty of this Sin which made the whole Land Nocent for the violent death of an Innocent for every one is innocent in right of his Life till the Law hath tryed him Felton's Impulsive was impious from the allegation of the late Remonstrance that the Duke was the principal cause of our Evils and Dangers As the Commons had no power to take his life away so they never intended it but to remove him from the King if it were possible I will be bold to censure the Romans that many things were uncivil in their Laws barbarous in their Valour and odious in their Justice Let this be the Instance out of Budaeus lib. 2. Pandec c. 28. Si quis eum qui plebiscito sacer sit occiderit homicida non est As if every man had the power of a Magistrate to cut off him whom the People had devoved A Maxim for the Sons of Cadmus or for the Sons of Romulus not for the Sons of God Be they Jesuites Anabaptists or of whatsoever Race of new Zealots they have not learnt so much good Divinity as is in Aristotle 3 Erh. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã No Pretence can justifie Manslaughter no End or Intention can excuse it Was it so lately enacted in Parliament that no Freeman should be imprison'd without due course of Law and did Hell break loose at the other end to make it meritorious or popular to kill without Law For such another Outrage had pass'd but two months before upon the Body of one Lamb in the day-light and in the Skirts of the City beaten cruelly to Death by a scum of Vagabonds being no Conjurer for certain though the Fry fell upon him for that suspicion but a notorious Impostor a Fortune-teller and an employ'd Bawd two Qualities that commonly make up one pair of Scissors to cut Purses as was evident by his Books Papers Schemes Pictures Figures Glasses the Utensils of his Trade found in his Lodgings near the Horse-ferry in Westminster But that he was a Creature of the Duke's and commended to him by Bishop Williams the Historian is strangely out again It is possible an Ear-dropper might hear such things talk'd at Cock-pits and Dancing-schools miserable Intelligence to thrust into an History This Lamb living in the Verge of the Deanry was once admitted to speak with this Bishop and as soon as he began to impeach some of the Bishop's Acquaintance for Falshood he was bidden be gone for a meddling Knave and a Sower of Dissentions and had Warning to come near him no more And for the Duke his domestick Creatures have avowed to me that Lamb was so little their Lord's Creature that they were ready to take an Oath of Credulity that the Duke never saw him I would all the Tales that got his Grace Ill will had been as false as this That which did undo him was chiefly that which made him the immoderate Favour of two Kings and not moderately used as many a Ship is lost that 's overset with too much Sail. After Thirteen years triumphing in Grace and Gallantry one Stab dispatch'd him So Symmachus speaks of the sad Catastrophe of such a mighty man Fortunae diu lenocinantis perfidus finis quem ultimâ sui parte ut scorpius percussit lib. 2. ep 13. Great Felicities not seldom go out suddenly in a Flash like a Silk-worm that dyes in three months after it is quicken'd God would have us look after better things when we behold the sudden and prodigious Eclipses of Human Glory and brought to pass like Buckingham's by vile and wicked Instruments A foreign Writer gives very hard words to our whole Nation upon it that we are savage and frentick in our Fury And will he say as ill of the Kingdom of Israel for Joab's sake that murder'd Abner It might be replied to him That the Loyalty of his Nation is besmeared with the Blood of two Kings of France deadly wounded with a Knife But that we have
unless he could conjure and work Miracles in a trice The Bishop of Lincoln who had Spies abroad in many private Conferences inform'd the L. Weston before who was his Adversary what Coals he was blowing at the Forge and proffer'd himself to bring Sir J. Elliot to him to be reconciled and to be his Servant for which Sir T. Wentworth spleen'd the Bishop for offering to bring his Rival into favour but L. Weston took it as a Courtesie as long as he lived and bade the Bishop look for more Favour from the King than it was his luck to find for the Treasurer was noted to be a Servant to his Master of great use and diligence but a Friend to his Friends of small assistance Now when great Affairs did run upon the Wheels of these private Grudges what was like to become of the Publick Weal To be overturn'd in the hurry 82. For such a Dust was rais'd about the Bill of Tonnage c. that the way could not be seen for that Cloud to come to a quiet end Long Speeches full of hydropical swellings took up the time to delay it Of which Aristotle gives warning to all Political Governments Polit. lib. 5. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that nothing overthrows them so soon as the petulancy of their Orators Let impartial Posterity sit in the Chair of Judgment and examine these things The Lords unanimously dissented from the Commons lookt sadly at the slowing of the Bill at the quarrels against the Accomptants of the Custom-house Insomuch that the King told their Lordships That he took as much content in their dutiful demeanour as he was justly distasted with the proceeding of the others And what bred all this Anger was it a new Project alas no but an ancient Supply of some hundred years old never grudg'd at but cheerfully granted for the Safety of the narrow Seas Quod à principio beneficium suit usu atque aetate fit debitum says Sym. ep p. 58. That which was free Gift at first being constantly given Custom makes it a Debt The King's Actions were strongly warranted with the wisdom of former Ages for the Subsidy of Tonnage and Poundage was not granted to Edward the Fourth by Parliament till the end of the third year of his Reign yet answer'd to him from the first year And to say more all Kings and Queens enjoy'd it from the day of the precedent Princes Death before ever a Parliament sat and the legitimate receiving it was never question'd And yet now the Commons pleaded That until the King would put himself out of all the Right of it the Subject stood not in sit case to grant it Decl. p. 28. That is shut himself out of Doors and stay till God knows when they let him in again And wherefore was the Petition objected which was granted to secure all men in their Property for the Subject's Right not for the King 's wrong They that were reasonable and thankful men will allow him to interpret his own meaning which was not to take from his Liege people what he should not but not to give from himself what he would not As eloquent Lysias says ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The mind of them that judge by a Law must be the same with his mind that made the Law 'T is all the right in the World His Majesty was willing to take this Payment as the Gift of the Parliament would thankfully embrace it with that Formality But it were folly to let them polish his Revenue and file away the best part of it They knew he could not want this Stock as well to guard the Kingdom as to support his own Dignity Take heed they thrust not upon that Necessity which loving Compliance might avoid Omnia quae reipub salutaria sunt legitima justa habentur Tull. Philip. 12. To render good for evil and to bring them all within one Circle of Love and Clemency a gracious and general Pardon was appointed by the King to be drawn up which past the House of Lords but the Gentlemen beneath did not so much as read it Yet no Innocency is so safe which may not desire to be lookt upon with the Eye of Mercy Some of the Members did want it after their Dissolution Which straightway follow'd upon shutting their Door against the King's Messengers and holding the Speaker by violence from obeying his Majesty's Order to leave the House So dying Lamps expire with enlarged Flames This was unwonted and no honour to so wise a Senate if the Rule of the Orators be true Quae potest esse homini major poena à Diis immortalibus furore dementiâ Dehosparus Our Bishop was wont to say That Queen Elizabeth 's Parliaments were most tractable which sate but a short time ended before they were acquainted with one another Interests and had not learned to Combine Which makes me allude it to Theophrastus Date Tree ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The young Trees bare Dates without Stones but the older they grow so much the harder is the Stone that is in them Wo is to us this Rupture was not a Date-stone but a Mill-stone whose Consequences have grounded us to Dust Which the King 's troubled Spirit did divine Will you hear the Swan sing his own Dirge Cantator funeris ipse suâ Declar. p. 41. All this is done to abate the powers of our Crown and to bring our Government to obloquy that in the end all things may be over-whelmed with Anarchy and Confusion Prophetical or rather Oraculous for Miseries are sometimes foreseen never prevented by the Dictates of Oracles 83. Look now in the procedure upon the way that the King chose to go in with an Eye of Reverence but with an Eye of Reason The Bishop of Lincoln moved the Lord Weston to carry his mind to the King much after this sort That the Parliament might meet again for all this and that there might be a Conference between them and the Lords to debate upon Differences He hoped that their own House would give a check if not a censure to some that had exceeded in such a rude and unparliamentary uprore that they would in no long space of time be ashamed of their own work and make amends with submission Neat that run about as if they were mad in the Pastures stroke them and they will come of themselves to the Milk pale Fury wasteth as Patience lasteth He would not pray for them if their sin were a sin unto death whereof they could not repent Pliny can tell us of an Image in Chios Cuyus vultum intrantes tristem exeuntes exhilaratum vident Lib. 3. Nat. Hist cap. 5. It seem'd to frown on those that came in to behold it and to smile upon them when they departed To shew what variety may fall out in the first and last Experiment of Human Affairs God alone knows what the event of this Counsel might have been The King would not know it for he would not use it Kings have
Indictments four and forty times lib. 7. c. 21. Compare him with this Lord and he escaped well whose Suits hung upon him like Fruits on the Citron Tree as Servius says upon Virgil's Ecloges Omni tempore plena est pomis quae in eâ partim matura partim acerba partim in store sunt It bore some ripe ones and some sour ones some in the Knot and some in the Blossom altogether No matter though the Bishop came off without a Scratch in Credit it was enough that he was impoverish'd for Costs he could get none And it was held to be a Shred of Policy to make him spend away his Substance for by taking away as much Earth as they could about the Tree it would cool the Root The Bishop looking into the Throng and variety of such bad Humors and Dispositions was ashamed to see so many in holy Calling brought up in Faction and Flattery Qui pro hierophant is sycophantae esse decreverunt as Erasmus writes to Bovillus Ep. p. 61. Yet further he could let no Lease chiefly if it were devolved to him by expiration of Years or Lives but that the Tenants or their Heirs sought to enforce him to their own Conditions before His Majesty and Privy Council Who ever saw such a thing in the face of former times A Gentlewoman by the Interest of a Daughter match'd to one of a mean Place in the Presence-Chamber pursued him many years to enforce his agreement to her own asking and never prevailing had leave to take out her Penniworths in ill words Like the Poet's Frogs lib. 6. Metamor Quamvis sint sub aquâ sub aquâ maledicere tentant But of all Attempts those Suspicions plied him on the weak side that chased him upon the wrong scent of Corruption and taking Rewards He had undergone as strict an Inquisition as ever was of Thirteen Commissioners to search if he had taken but one Bribe while he kept the Seal and they broke up with a Non-inventus yet is now impeach'd for taking the Gratuity of a Saddle a piddling Trifle for all that the Enquiry about it cost more than a good Stable of Horses with all their Furniture and when all came to all it was found the Prosecutor importun'd the Steward of the House to receive it who laid it by and never presented it to his Lordship because it was too gaudy for his use The Complainant was a Doctor preferred by this Patron to a good Parsonage thro' the intercession of Sir W. Powel the Bishop's Brother-in-Law For the rest I leave the man in Obscurity without a Name as St. Hierom said to Heliodor Grown into note by defending an Heresie Quis te oro ante hanc blasphemiam noverat So let this Party sink in Forgetfulness that his Memory may not be preserv'd by the advantage of his Vice If Homer had spared a few Verses Thersites had never been known Any one may gather now out of the Premisses that when one single person was beset on every side it was not an ordinary Fortitude nor an ordinary Wisdom that broke all their Ranks But was it not a craven Spirit that turned loose so many Mirmydons against him Honour is least where Odds appear the most says our great Poet Spencer Lib. 2. Cant. 8. He had no Favour but Innocency to bear him out as those places under the Poles have no Light in Winter but from the whiteness of the Snow upon their own Ground not the least âeam of the Sun shining upon them And which is eminent charitable and generous he never shew'd himself offended against any of these Adversaries when the Brunt was over An Observator as he calls himself the Wolf that howls against this Bishop both living and dead remembers what pleasant and courteous words he had with him anon after he came out of the Tower Upon which I will compare him once again with Melancthon according to Camerarius p. 57. Nullum dictum aut factum alicujus tam duriter unquam accepit ut ab illius benevolentia ac familiar itate recederet And my L. Bacon tells us well what a Gallantry it is For in taking Revenge a man is but even with his Enemies in passing them over he is superiour Had this Example been follow'd by Churchmen and by Theophilus Churchman our Foes had not enter'd in upon us at those Gaps which our selves did cause Bishops driving out Bishops was that which the Devil watch'd for says Euseb lib. 8. Praep. Evan. cap. 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã By the Jars and Jostlings and ambitious Contentions of the chief Fathers among themselves their Inheritance was given to Strangers 87. Our Bishop being Storm-beaten without intermission he requested the Lord Cottington to inform him what he should do to get his Peace and such ordinary Favours as other Bishops had from His Majesty this noble Lord returned him answer in two Points First the Lustre wherein he lived the great Company that resorted to him and his profuse Hospitality were objected that it was not the King 's Meaning that one whom he had pluck'd down should live so high Secondly His Majesty did not like that he should be so near a Neighbour to Whitehall but would be better contented if he would part with his Deanry In the first he took him out a Lesson which he would never learn to live in a dark and Miser-like fashion The Italians have had a meeting of Academicks at Rome called Compagna della Lesina the thrifty Congregation of which Profession he could never have been a Member Nor did he abate from living in Decorum and Liberality in the worst Times as Mr. A. Cowly writes to him in his Miscellanies p. 13. You put Ill Fortune in so good a Dress That it out-shines other mens Happiness Yet this was no ill Counsel if it had been follow'd for Princes will dislike it must not be call'd Envy if any live fortunately under their Punishment As both Dion lib. 58. and Tacitus An. lib. 6. have made it known in the Case of Junius Gallio that being banish'd he was brought back to Rome and confin'd Quia incusabatur facilè toleraturus exilium delectâ insulâ Lesbo nobili amaenâ As to the other touch to relinquish his Deanry he was utterly deaf unto it whosoever ask'd it was a hard Chapman but he did not stand so much in need of his Ware to grant him his Price St. Austin it may be would teach him otherwise out of a Punick Proverb which was used he says where he lived Ut habeas quietum tempus perde aliquid And they tell us from the Caravans that travel in Arabia if they meet a Lion they leave him one living Creature for a Prey and then they may go on their Journey without Fear But this man thought otherwise of a most wakeful Eye and able Observation ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Oduss w. Mnestorides that saw behind him and before him For says he what Health can come from such a Remedy
Am I like to be beholden to them for a setled Tranquility that practise upon the ruine of my Estate and the thrall of my Honour If I forfeit one Preferment for fear will it not encourage them to tear me piecemeal hereafter Memet ipse non deseram was well resolv'd of Philotus in Curtius Nor will I set so great a Mulct upon mine own Head What hurt can my Neighbourhood do to the Court and being so seldom in Town No greatness of Power when it would extreamly abuse it self which is not glad to think of Means how to avoid the note of Injustice In this there is not one syllable to accuse me much less to make me guilty It is not my case alone but every mans even his that is the prompter and puts it into the King's Head to ask it If the Law cannot maintain my Right it can maintain no mans This was his Constancy Nor did he let go his fast-hold in this Deanry till the King received it from him in Oxford anno 1644. As Livy says of Spain Hispania primò tentata est à Romanis sed postremò subacta It was the first Kingdom the Romans invaded and the last they conquered So this was the first of Lincoln's Preferment set upon and the last which he delivered up Since he would not be forced out of it it was carried with a Stratagem to keep him from it for in four years he was not admitted to preach a Sermon in Lent before the King the course for his Place being usually on Good-Friday and three years together when he came to the Chapters or to the Election to see it fairly carried for the choice of the best Scholars he could not rest above a day in the College but Secretary Coke either viva voce or by his Letters which are yet saved commanded him from the King to return to his Bishoprick As terrible a Prophet as Elisha was to the Noble-man of Samaria upon the Plenty of Corn predicted Thou shalt see it with thine eyes but thou shalt not eat of it 2 Kin. 7.2 This might fret the Bishop but not affright him And he ask'd the Secretary so stoutly what Law he brought with him to command him from his Freehold that the good old man was sensible that he had done an Injury In fine the chief Agitant saw that this Tryal upon so firm a Courage was uneffectual and ridiculous Neither was it a little Breath that could shake him from his Stalk like a Douny Blow-ball 88. Yet the more he did thrust off this Importunity the more it did follow him and a finer shift was thought of to esloign him from Westminster Archbishop Abbot had Directions from the King to press him to Residency upon his Bishoprick by the Statute the Archbishop of the Province having the oversight of the said Statute to see it put in execution And some words were dropt in the Archbishop's Letter to signifie that it was presumed that being in the Place of Lord Keeper he had pass'd a Dispensation under the Great Seal for himself to enjoy the Commenda of the Deanry for his better accommodation in that Office His Answer hereunto as followeth is his own in every word Most Reverend c. TO that Apostyle touching my Dispensation to reside upon the Deanry of Westminster the said Deanry being as all Commenda's are in the Eye of the Law united for the time of my Incumbency upon this poor Bishoprick I can say no more than what your Grace knoweth as well as I that I use the said Dispensation very modestly and sparingly and that I am resolved in this and every thing else to give His Majesty all Satisfaction in a due and reasonable order to his Royal Orders which no Bishop doth yield more exactly than myself He breaks no Law who pleads a Privilege nor doth that Subject transgress in Order who produceth a just and lawful Dispensation to exempt him from the same as your Grace by daily experience well knoweth For other matters that proceed from wrong and sinister Informations I do intend to procure one or other of my good Lords of the Council to let His Majesty understand how these things are misconcerved as soon as I can As first to represent unto His Majesty that no L. Keeper can issue forth a Dispensation of this nature nor any other person whosoever but either His Majesty immediately by his Regal Right and Eminency of Power or your Grace by the Act of Parliament So as my being Lord Keeper did contribute no more to this Patent than it did to all others that is to say Wax and Impression Your Grace may call to mind we were four Governours of several Colleges made Bishops at one time and two of these had their Colleges put into their Commenda's as well as myself And in your Graces Memory also in the most exact times of Ecclesiastical Government when those Promotions were manag'd with the Advice of that great and wise Prelate the Lord Bancroft a Bishop of Bristol kept the Deanry of York together and a Bishop of Rochester this of Westminster during his Incumbency with many others the like Neither did the then L. Keeper procure the Faculty to hold this Deanry for the late King my dear Master of Blessed Memory was not about London but at Rutford in Nottingham-shire when he granted me this gracious Favour Nor to deal ingenuously with your Grace was it gained by mine own Power or Interest with His Majesty but by the Mediation of His Majesty now reigning and by the Duke of Buck. together with some inducement of the deceased King not unknown to some yet living and howbeit my Faculty is without distinction of Time yet am I no chaser of mine own Time but do confine my self to those particular seasons which the local Statutes of the Colledge and my express Oath to perform the said Statutes do enjoyn me That is to say the two Chapters and the great Festivals All which space of time doth not being taken in the disjunct spaces make a Bishop a Non-resident by any Law I know of nor consequently infringe his Majesties Instructions though a man had no Dispensation which Instructions require only that Bishops should reside but we presume that it is no part of his Majesties gracious intention that they should be confined or as it were imprisoned in their Bishopricks I hope to procure a fair representation of these particulars to his Majesty and thereby to obtain his gracious approbation of as much residence as I intend to make in the Deanry Where as your Grace knoweth as well as I in regard of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical and Temporal of preventing Ruins and Dilapidations of Hospitality of Suits in Law of the Church the School the Colledge and the like I have no less necessity of abiding sometimes then upon my Bishoprick and somewhat more because of my Oath So most humbly c. This was enough to satisfie both Statute and Reason Unto which it may
be said as Politian wrote to Herm. Barbarus of a Question wherein he had pleaded for himself Ita argutum ut defendendi ita defensum ut arguendi non sit locus Ep. p. 260. 89. Can he that hath run over these Passages imagine but that such as encamped against the Bishop would beat up his Quarters no more to make him fly his Deanery It is the worst of Miseries to be incurable the heighth of Malice to be implacable The stubborn Spartans had a Proverb says Plutarch Vit. Agis Cleom. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Though they were in a wrong pursuit it was base to give Ground For this work was never like to be given over but was shifted after a few years into new hands These were a few of the Prebendaries of the later Instalment Volucres ad jussa paratae winged Posts that would fly as far as they were sent who may as well be known by Character as by their Names ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Aeschylus would say no more of a Fool but that he was his self-undoing Another whom I have heard call'd General Wrangler the Challenger that undertakes all Modern Writers of as much ingenuity as Tertullian's Hermogenes Maledicere singulis officium bonae conscientiae judicat These prefer'd Articles to his Majesty and the Lords of the Council against their Dean for ãâã government three dozen of Articles yet none to the vantage that their number might supply the nothingness of their weight a few Auger-holes are of too small a bore for a Nest of Wasps to breed in add these Alledgments though Archbishop Laud did manage them at the hearing were of no tack to hold yet sharpned against all Modesty with Insultations and Revilings Some of great magnanimity have been heart-broken that they were drawn to contest for their Honour with a Faction of Grooms or a Conspiracy of more honourable Impeachers To begin with Scipio says Quintil. lib. 11. Prior Affricanus Patrià cedere quà m cum tribuno plebis humillimo contendere de innocentiâ suâ malluit He would retire and leave his Country rather than contend with a Plebeian L. Philip Chabot Admiral of France took such grief says Thuanus at the unkindness of Francis the First to let his Chancellor Poet sift him for Trespasses committed in his Office who had ever been most noble and faithful that he sickned and died It is no longer since than the Twentieth of King James says Archbishop Spotswood Hist p. 541. that Information being put on by the Lord Ochiltry against Sir Gideon Murray Treasurer-Deputy and remitted to the Trial of certain Counsellors Sir Gideon having ever given great proof of his Integrity contracted so deep a Melancholy as neither Comfort nor Counsel could reclaim him and in a few days he departed this Life the King sorrowing that ever he had given ear to such Delations Aemilius Scaurus sped better with his Judges in the Roman Senate that let him say nothing but cast a Scorn upon his Adversary Varius and acquitted him Varii Sucronensis atrocissimam calumniam Aem. Scaurus summâ gravitate contempsit solo contemptu refutavit which Jo. Camero opposeth in his own behalf against one Elias an Advocate of Paris Oper. p. 855. Our Bishop did not look for the Priviledge of Scaurus but was held to his Answer which did no more disquiet his Spirit then to say the Pater-noster nor one grey hair grew on his head the sooner but made himself merry with the Conceit how easie it was to stride over such Urchin Articles No Man would find leisure to read the whole 36 they are so frivolous Taste them all in these First They complain that he came not always in his Habit and came late to Divine Service Answer sometimes both not always 2. He stays Singing-men with him at Bugden He did not invite them and they came with the Sub-deans leave 4. He is not resident often The Charge in former days was that he resided there too much 5. He did not preach in propria personá because he was frown'd at if he were there in propriá personâ The 15th The Dean and Treasurer did not ride progress to keep Courts who was not to ride otherwise by Statute than si velit 23. He made Dr. Hacket his Vicar in the Election 1632. The three Electors may choose their Vicar whom they will at their own pleasure 24. Verses were not hung up in the Hall upon the King's day Anno 1634. The Scholars were corrected for the Fault 26. He calls the Schoolmaster often away keeps him many weeks in the Country and imploys him in his great Affairs to the neglect of his Scholars He never staid with the Bishop above two nights at a time his great business he doth is to buy a Book or to convey a Letter and the School by his Attendance is in an excellent case The daring Courage of Mr. Osbalston troubled the Bishops ill-willers more then all his Friends beside that did negotiate for him For as my Lord Bacon observes A bold person may serve for great use at the direction of a wiser man All the rest of the Articles were goll-sheaves that went out in a suddain blaze and the Bishops triumph was Adversis rerum immersabilis undis Hoart ep l. 1. But because there is nothing new under the Sun I will pluck for a parallel to this in the Life of Padre Paulo Soto and Archangelo his profest Enemies objected against him to Cardinal Severino the Grand Inquisitor First That sometime he kept Company with Hereticks 2. That he wore a Cap upon his head 3. That he wore Slippers after the French fashion 4. That he did not recite Salve Regina at the end of the Mass Flea-bites like the former of which you can see no mark in an hour But says St. Austin Serm. ãâã de diver Quid refert utrum te plumbum premat an arenâ Nay with good leave it is not all one The Lead will not be removed so soon as the Wind may blow the Sind into their faces that laid it To stay no more upon this the Articles flew away over the Abby like a flock of Wild-geese if you cast but one stone among them yet the Promoters were not one whit dismaid they had laid their Betrs so sure that they would get whether the Game were won or lost If their Articles succeeded they got the day if otherwise it would be worth a Hen and her Chickens to bid defiance to their Dean For every one of his Adversaries had a Recompence given them like a Coral to rub their Gums and make their Teeth come the faster 90. Readers impartial must judge of these things and will be tried at the great Assize of common Discretion whether he that had been so liberal to the structure of the Church and Library had erected some Scholarships their number being a great deal short of the Foundations of Eaton and Winchester whether he deserv'd that they should fly at his Throat
1. That the Certificate from the Country layeth nothing to my charge 2. That I never gave Direction for receiving of any Fees but took those only which were deliver'd to me by the Register 3. That I conceived the Fees of Lincoln Diocess to be much lower than of any other in England which the L. Wentworth seemed to confess to be so 4. That if the Register did receive 23 s. 4 d. of every Clerk instituted for the Bishop's Fee it was no more than the Table allow'd 5. That the Fees question'd were received by my four immediate Predecessors Bishops Mountain Neale Barlow Chaderton Which four Bishops take up a space of time which extends beyond the Table of Fees And the L. Wentworth said he believed as much and promised to report it 6. My L. of Winchester is able to assure as much that these are the ancient Fees of the Diocess and that I believe my ââ of London who was beneficed and dignified in this Diocess and hath twice or thrice paid the said Fees in his own person can and I doubt not will be ready to testifie as much 7. That for mine own part and mine own time I was ready to lay all my Fees being God wot a most contemptible Sum at your Majesties Feet to be disposed of as your Majesty pleased Nor had I ever in my Life toucht one Penny of the same but given it away from time to time to mend my Servants Entertainment 8. That the 135 th Canon mentioned by the Commissioners refers the examination of all Fees in question not settled by Acts of Parliament to the Archbishop only and the Cognizance ecclesiastical who is the only proper Judge of these Questions Therefore I humbly beseech your Majesty that I may not be drawn to contest with my Soveraign in a Suit of Law of so mean and miserable a Charge as this is but rather if those two reverend Prelates shall not be able to satisfie your Majesty you will be pleased to hear me your self or transmit the Cause to the Lords of the Council or where it is only proper to be heard to the Archbishop of the Province and that Mr. Attorny-General may stay the Prosecution elsewhere which I shall embrace with all humble Duty and Thankfulness c. Which reference to the Archbishop was granted who did authorize the receiving of those Fees for the present De benè esse only And after Sir H. Martin and others had examin'd the Tables Registries and Witnesses of Credit and Experience for the Antiquity of the same upon their Report the several Fees were ascertain'd by his Grace's Subscription for the time to come So true is that of Euripides in Supplic ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã He that was low in Favour got the better of him that was great in Power in a good Cause 93. Remember that in this petitionary Letter the Bishop calls himself the King's Chaplain but not his Counsellor for about a year by-gone the King had commanded that his Name should be expunged and not remain in the Catalogue of those honourable persons And who is so faithful among all thy servants as David 1 Sam. 22.24 Yet so it was decreed he must not challenge the Privilege nor keep the Ceremony of the Name and more he had not in four years before No worse an Author than Sir E. Coke tells us in Jurisd of Courts p. 54. By force of his Oath and Custom of the Realm he that is a Privy Councillor is still so without any Patent or Grant during the life of the King that made choice of him But before whom can this be tryed And who shall decide it It will scarce come within the Law and when a King will hold the Conclusion he will be too hard for any man in Logick Let the Masters of the Republick contend about it whose Counsellors have changed as fast as the quarters of the year Surely His Majesty shewed himself much offended in this action yet it is better for a King not to give than to take away which Xenophon put into Cyrus's Mouth lib. 7. C. Paid ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It imprints more Offence in a man's Mind to be deprived of that he had than to be pretermitted in some Kindness which he never had Since it was no better the Bishop thought he might ask a noble Friend in Good-manners it was the Earl of Holland what had kindled the King's Anger that he would not allow him the empty Title of a Counsellor The Earl answer'd him home and ingenuously That he must expect worse than this because he was such a Champion for the Petition of Right and that there was no room at the Table for those that would abide it Which was like the Fortune oâ Poplicola Honoris sui culmen insregit ut libertatem civitatis crigeret Symma p. 3. He forfeited his Honour to maintain the Laws which being not maintained the People are not only Losers but a Kingdom will look like a Tabernacle taken down whose Pins are unfastened and the Cords of it broken To gall our Bishop with assiduous recurrent Umbrages for Pismires wear out Flints with passing to and fro upon them the Christening of Prince Charles being celebrated in the Chappel of St. James's House Jun. 27. 1630. and all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal about London being invited thither to make the Splendour eminent the Bishop of Lincoln only was left out and not admitted to joyn in Prayer and Joy with that Noble Congregation The more sharp Diseases suffer not the lesser to be perceived yet this Omission light as it might seem did twinge him even to outward demonstrance of Dejectedness that in so good a day wherein the Clemency of the King should have run at waste to all men that then he should be separated from his Countenance and this Solemnity But says he in one respect it was well for I would not have said Amen to Bishop Laud 's Prayer which he conceived for the Royal Infant and was commended to all Parish-Churches in that passage Double his Father's Graces O Lord upon him if it be possible No Supplication could be better than to crave encrease of Grace for that Noble Branch for when a Prince is very good God is a Guest in a human Body But to put in a Supposal whether the Holy Ghost could double those Gifts to the Child which he had given to his Father and to confine the Goodness and Almightiness of the Lord it was three-piled Flattery and loathsome Divinity Let Cartwright and all his Part shew such an Exception against any line in our Common-Prayer and I will confess they have some Excuse for their Non-subscription To carry on mine own Work When it was known what small esteem His Majesty had of this Bishop it raised him up the more Adversaries who catcht at every thing that was next and turn'd it to a Weapon to strike him of which Sir Robert Osborn High-Sheriff of Huntingtonshire
was aware It was upon a nice point the Levy of Ship-money wherein the L. of Lincoln was very provident to do nothing to displease for the Adagy could tell him Verendum est dormienti in ripâ ne cadat He that sits upon the Cliff of the Sea had best take heed he do not nodd and tumble down The King 's Streights did compel him to levy this Impost of Ship-money for the defence of the narrow Seas being startled with a Motto newly devised by Cardinal Richilieu Florebunt lilia ponto The Exchequer would not supply the rigging of a Navy though never better husbanded than at that time by Dr. Juxon Bishop of London held by all to be a good man wherefore I cannot pass him by without a word out of Sidon Apol. lib. 4. ep 4. Cum vir bonus ab omnibus censeatur non est homo pejor si non sit optimus The French Hangers on in the Court devoured so much that all his Thrift which ammassed much was gulp'd down by those insatiable Sharks None but they made K. Charles a poor King These are the Gallants that disdain every thing that is English but our Gold and Silver Alexander Ad Alex. lib. 3. c. 23. tells us a Wonder But shall we believe him That from P. Aemylius's Triumph to the Consulship of Hirtius and Pansa a full 130 years the People of Rome paid no Tribute What a Revenue Parsimony can both preserve and gather But if that frugal Senate had maintained a French Court the Quaestors would soon have found a vacuum in their Coffers Now see what Sir R. O. did hammer out to despight his Bishop upon this Impost He laid a very unequal Levy upon the Hundred wherein Bugden stood the Bishop wrote courteously to him to review and rectifie the Levy and he and his Neighbors were ready to see it collected and paid Sir Robert rides up to the Court and complains bitterly that the Bishop had utterly refused the Payment of Ship-money and animated the Hundred to follow him Being easily convinced before the Lords of the Council that the Bishop had carried himself dutifully and discreetly in the matter yet Sir R. O. had no Check the Bishop no Reparation the Levy no Reformation Why the worst Men the worst of Infidels the worst of our Enemies have a Communion of Natural Right with others to receive no Injury to be satisfied upon them that do them wrong and damage What a pickle was a poor Prelate in that was not so considered that was laid naked to every Slander and Oppression still he look'd for better and would never lay aside his Privy-Coat of Trust and Confidence in God He that will learn that sanctified Art from an Emblem which is a Riddle in a Picture let him take it out of Pliny lib. II. Nat. Hist c. 24. Incremento omnium futuro telas suas araneae altius tollunt The Spiders that have made their Webs in Trees upon a Bank side remove them higher when the Spring-Tydes come in That is lift up the Soul and advance it higher to God and his Protection when the Floods of Oppression rage and threaten to overwhelm us 94. One Quarrel commenc'd upon no ground continued to this day by the Animadverter on the Church-History of Britain and elder than the Troubles with Sir R. O. was thus Anno 1632. in the declining of November Dr. Theodore Price Sub-dean of Westminster College was cut to be cured of the Torment of the Stone his Wound growing dry his Present-death was presaged Mr. James Molins his Chyrurgion gave intelligence that his Patient did discover to some Visitants of the Romish Faction when he thought Mr. Molins did not hear him his Affection and Devotion to their Church That a Table was prepared covered Plate set on with a Wax Light and a piece of Gold laid by it this is his punctual Relation all being dismist and none remaining in the Room but Dr. Floyd a very skilful Physician and a Papist who is yet living and a little old man seen there but once before who continued together about an hour The Bishop being at Bugden informed of all this came in the depth of Winter in all haste to Town and when he had lighted before he would go to his own Lodgings he went to the Sub-dean whom he found in sad plight not like to continue so without more ado he offer'd to pray with him at the Bed's-side and was spoken to by the Doctor to forbear Says the Bishop Cousin you have need of holy Assistance will you entertain any of the Prebendaries or some other Church-man to do this Godly Office for you belonging to the Sick He stifly refused them all The Bishop propounded that his weak state might be remembred to God at the Evening Prayers in the Abby No says the other I do not desire them Will you have no communion with us of the Church of England says the Bishop Not any says the Sub-dean God give you a better mind says the Bishop But Cousin will you have any thing with me before we part Only my Lord says he that you will be no more a Trouble to me and that you will take my poor Servant being unprovided into your Care and Family Which was not forgot for the Bish received his Servant whom afterward he preferr'd in Means and Marriage in the City of Lincoln for he was more careful of the Children Alliances and Relations of his Friends when they were dead than of themselves when they were living The E. of Pembrook L. Chamb. to the King being Steward of the College and City of Westm the Bishop made him acquainted with every word that had pass'd between him and Dr. Price how at his last gasp he had disclaimed the Church of England and the L. Steward related it to the King which was then interpreted and the Scandal is lately renewed as if the Bishop had feigned all this yet it pass'd before Witnesses to wound Bishop Laud who endeavour'd to make the Revolter Bishop of Asaph There had been little Salt in that Stratagem for Lincoln himself had sent this Price Commissioner for the King into Ireland moved to obtain for him the same Dignity of Asaph in the former vacancy when Dr. Hanmer stept in before him sticked passionately to advance him before renowned Usher to the Primacy of Armagh upon the death of Dr. Hampton Reader you will say the Bishop was much deceived in his Cousin neither do I defend him he did more than once miss in his Judgment in some whom he preferr'd Humanum est And it was a ranting Speech which Salmasius ascribes to Asclepiades in his Preface to Solinus That he would not be held a Physician if he were ever sick To deliver thus much in the behalf of both the Bishops Dr. Price's Patrons that would have been the man was of untainted Life learned in Scholastical Controversies of a reverend Presence liberal courteous and prudent above many and seemed very fit to
make a Governour But as our Cambridge term is he was staid with Nescio's He was not known in Court nor City for he had not shewn himself in a Pulpit in 20 years He that says no credit is to be given to the Information that he died a Papist I would he had proved it for as Cortesius writes to Politian p. 242. Plus de invento vero gaudeo quà m de victoriâ I had rather it were true than get the Victory But Wishes will not bring it about Nemo facit optando ut verum sit quod verum non est says St. Austin Ep. 28. By what colour or appearance can he be vindicated to dye a Protestant May we not as soon light a Candle by a Glow-worm In what did he seem to be a Son of our Reformed Church I do not mean as an Ape is like to a Man but as a Child is like to his Mother Hypocrisie dwells next door to Orthodox Doctrine but it never comes in to her Neighbour So the Upshot will bear it that the Bishop of Lincoln did justly discover his Kinsinan and Friend's Apostacy though his own blame did depend upon it Which will leave him the Praise that Erasmus gives to a L. Montjoy Ep. p. 162. Haec est tua n obilit as ut mentiri nescias si velis nec velis si scias 95. There would be no end to repeat with how many Quarrels this unfortunate Bishop was provok'd yet his Adversaries did but dry-ditch their matters and digged in vain though they still cast up Earth who were no better than the Arrians of whom Athanasius writes Lib. ad Sol. Vit. Agen. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã They fretted if they had spent a day wherein they could not do a Mischief And it will do the Sufferer no right to tell how he threw all day and cast not one good Chance but was worsted in all his just Appeals Quis enim suâ praelia victus Commemorare velit Metam l. 9. Yet I will insist in that noble Contest he had with the Archbishop of Canterbury about his metropolitical Visitation that hereafter when God shall send the like occasion as I trust he will the Diocesans of Lincoln may know what their stout Predecessor did alledge for their exemption This may come to pass But as the unknown Oratour said to Constantine in his Panegyrick p. 246. Ista felicitas viderit utrum adhuc meae aetati debeatur Archbishop Land enterprizing to visit his whole Province found opposition only from the Universities from Cambridge I am sure and from the Bishop of Lincoln whom next to the substance of the Cause one circumstance displeased that Sir John Lamb was commissioned to be the metropolitan Vicar to visit his Diocess Sir John had been very officious about him for many years I let it go with that of Tully to Atticus Pompeius Scauro studet sed utrum fronte an mente dubitatur And the Bishop had done as much for Sir John as he could have done for the Worthiest of all his Profession 'T is amplified enough before and makes another instance That so wise a man was not always circumspect in his Patronage Lamb was crafty and of much experience but in the running of some years he was hated of all men and much complained of that he was ravenous in taking Fees Like as one says of the Pope's drawing in Moneys from all Parties That he was a Participle that took from Clergy and Laity When he perceived these things distasted Bishop Williams and that he had not Encouragement from him as before and dreaming of Golden Mountains from another hand he turn'd the falsest man and the greatest Enemy to him in the World Archbishop Laud he 'd worm him quite from adhering to Lincoln and much good do him with him Whereupon I remember what Plutarch tells merrily of a goutish man that had his Slippers stolen from him says the man full of Pain I wish the Thief no more harm but that my Slippers were fit for him Well the Visitation being design'd and to be carried on by Lieutenant Lamb our Bishop wrote to my Lord of Canterbury as followeth 96. Most Reverend c. UPon the Message which I received from Mr. Sherman of your Graces intention to visit my Diocess this year being the year of mine own Triennial Visitation and the certain News I heard of Sir J. Lamb's collecting of Presidents to induce your Officers to stir up your Grace thereunto I have both by my self and others made some enquiry into the Records and several Registries of the Diocess and do find clearly that in Grosthead's time anno 1235. this Diocess had never been metropolitically visited and that ever since that time until now no Archbishop of Canterbury did visit this Diocess otherwise than in vacancy of the See but by the vertue and power of some particular Bull procured from the Pope or Letter of Assistance from the King's Majesty since the Supremacy was reassumed in this Realm And I find the several Bishops in these several Ages to have assented to these Visitations as they were Papal and Regal only not forbearing notwithstanding to exercise all manner of Act or Acts belonging to their Jurisdiction Episcopal not only in the times but in and on the very days of these Archiepiscopal Visitations and refusing to pay any Procurations or other Fees by vertue of a special exemption granted unto this See and some others by Pope Innocent the Fourth by the procurement of Bishop Grosthead deposited in this Registry and never waved by the Bishops of this See however some other of your Graces Suffragans have omitted peradventure as having not the custody thereof to implead the same Yet do I differ may it please your Grace in this particular from all my Predecessors in this See that I do believe your Grace may visit even by your own metropolitical Power all this Diocess unless this great Prescription of an hundred years may debarr the same but truly I do under Favour conceive that your Grace ought not to inhibit my ordinary Jurisdiction nor do any acts to impeach the same Nor can I find any word sounding that way in any one of all the Visitations kept as before is rehearsed by your Grace's Predecessors excepting only in Archbishop Cranmer's the last Archbishop who above one hundred years since visited this Diocess and yet Longland then Bishop of Lincoln did not only execute all parts of his Jurisdiction pendente visitatione metropoliticâ but the Dean of the Arches Archbishop Cranmers and the King 's chief Commissioner for that Service did freely and voluntarily of himself set all the Bishop's Officers at full liberty to exercise all their Jurisdictions after the first day of his Visitation reserving his Detections only to his own cognizance Now since this Visitation of Archbishop Cranmer which was more Regal than Metropolitical as appears by the Instructions given to the Commissioners at that time no Archbishop of Canterbury hath ever offer'd
were living But though they are all under Earth Faith forbid that their Names should be abused to a wrong Report To keep History uncorrupt from such baseness 't is daintily observ'd out of the Poets by Salmasius Clymac p. 819. Apud orcum defunctae animae jurare dicuntur ne quid suos quos in vitâ reliquerint contra fas adjuvent The Souls departed take an Oath not to help their surviving Friends against Justice But no such Protestation needs in this Cause There is a Petition to be produced written with the Hand of Dr. Walker a Gentleman living and well known wherein His Majesty is minded that he had cancell'd this Complaint and had given his Royal Hand to confirm it What could be more sure Yet it turn'd to nothing the Wound was never suffer'd to heal by the daily Whispering of Bishop Laud diligent in the King's Ear. You may read of one in Suetonius's Caligula Cui ad insaniam Caius favebat So the King suffer'd this Prelate in excess of Power to turn and return Causes as he would and was obnoxious by the bewitching of his Tongue to facility of Perswasions to grant and retract as he possest him Which was seen too late in this excellent Passage of His Majesty in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I wish I had not suffer'd mine own Judgment to be overborn in some things more by others Importunities than their Arguments As Erasmus wrote honestly to a mighty Monarch Harry the Eighth Ep. p. 74. Eximia quaedam inter mortales res est Monarcha sed homo tamen And with much liberty our Poet Johnson in his Forrest p. 815. I am at feud With that is ill tho' with a Throne endu'd The Faults of the Blessed Charles were small yet some he had who having assured Lincoln he should never be question'd again about the matter brought against him by Lamb and Sibthorp yet remitted it to the Star-chamber The Defendant conceived it would spend like a Snail or the untimely Fruit of a Woman but when he found himself deceiv'd and that the Cause was glowing hot in Prosecution he sought the King's Clemency Quaedam enim meliùs fugiuntur quà m superantur it is in Erasm Ep. p. 18. He thought it better to fly the Trial than to get the Cause and he put up this which follows into the Hands of His Majesty The Humble Petition and Submission of John Bishop of Lincoln c. THAT although he is innocent from any Crime committed against your Majesty in thought word or deed yet abhorring as he finds by Presidents all other Bishops of this Realm have done Placitare cum Domino rege to have any Suit with his Sovereign Lord Master and Patron he casts himself in all humility at Your Majesties Feet and implores your Royal Mercy and Clemency Non intrare in judicium cum servo tuo coveting to ascribe his Deliverance to Your Majesties Clemency And whereas your most Excellent Majesty having in the fourth year of your happy Reign received the Opinion of the four Lords Committees concerning these very self-same Charges did in your Majesties Gallery at Whitehall admit this Defendant brought in by the Right Honourable the Lord Treasurer one of the said Committees to kiss your Majesties Hand and did use unto him this Defendant in the presence and hearing of the said Right Honourable Lord these gracious words That your Majesty was pleased to forgive all that was past and would esteem of this Defendant according as he should deserve by his Service for the time to come He most humbly beseecheth your most Excellent Majesty that according to that so gracious Remission and Absolution no further Prosecution at your Majesties Suit may be used against him concerning the said Charges all which he doth the rather hope for from your Majesty because he is a Bishop that hath endeavoured not to live scandalously in his Calling and hath formerly had the Favour from Almighty God with his own Hands to close your Majesties Father's Eyes and to have written and drawn up that Commission and Contract for your Majesties Marriage whereupon ensued to this Kingdom a most unvaluable Blessing and heartily prayeth that God who hath delivered your Majesty from your late Sickness may bless you in all Health Happiness and Prosperity So far the Petition I will not teach the Reader what Sallads to pick out of it but only the Herb of Grace that the Bishop kist the King's Hand upon the assurance of his Peace that the Offence which was taken was buried and should never rise up in Judgment more Nihil periculi Soloni à Pisistrato Diog. Laert. Now who ever liked Julian the Cardinal that made Ladislaus K. of Polonia break his League with the Turk And who will defend B. L. that made his Soveraign break his word with his Subject It was he and none else that put in an unseasonable Bar to hinder Lincoln the fulness of the Benefit I know none that had the nearest part in B. L's Favour that can deny it And let them turn it about as they will is it possible they should excuse it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It is Theodoret's Ep. 2. Children see no uncomeliness in their Parents But although they will see no ill in the Person they must in the Fact For what a Trespass is this in Justice to punish that which was forgiven Let the King do Righteous Judgment like God in whose Throne he sits before whom this holds inviolable Peccata dimissa nunquam redeunt No not original Sin when remitted in Baptism it shall not be imputed to them any more that are damned for actual Crimes whereof they did not repent So Grotius cites it out of Prosper in Matth. c. 18. v. 34. Extinctam semel obligationem non reviviscere sed propter postrema crimina affici The most that seems to be against this Rule but falls in with it is this That when former Sins are forgiven and new ones are superadded the latter shall be punish'd the more for the ungratefulness of the Sinner Non quod jam remissa puniantur sed quod sequens peccatum minùs graviter punâretur si priora remissa non fuissent says Maldonat My Sentence is at the last of all with Syracides c. 29.3 Keep thy word and deal faithfully revoke not your Kindness pluck not up the Seeds of a Benefit which you had sown with your own Hand It is worse to turn Mercy than Justice into Wormwood 111. Destiny is unavoidable A Bill is filed in the Star-Chamber and prosecuted for the King for Revealing his Councils The Defendant made him ready for his Answer and plyed the King with Petitions together in Parody like Virgil's Aeneas Et se collegit in arma Poplite subsidens At first he tried Bishop Laud if he would be so generous as to heal the Wound that he had made and anointed him with the Weapon-Salve of remembrance of Friendship past and protestation of the like for ever he courted him to
on whose silent consent the Bishop had not to awaken the King that he would look upon these Courses that cried abroad to the amazement of his Subjects All wish it done and the Bishop did not fear to do it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It is Theodorets stout Divinity Ep. 21. Under the hand of God there is no remedy but patience suffering under the hand of Man the best Remedy is Courage So he stept forward to his Majesty with the confidence of this Petition To the King 's most Excellent Majesty c. THat if your Majesty be not pleased to accept as yet of his humble Submission for his Peace your Majesty would graciously vouchsafe not to interrupt but to permit the Petitioner to proceed according to the ordinary Rules and Course of the Court of Star-Chamber against Kilvert the Sollicitor for his manifold Falshoods and Injuries in the Prosecution of this Cause particularly first for menacing and frighting your Petitioners Witnesses 2. For publickly defaming this Petitioner to be your Enemy averring that neither he nor any of his did know what the name of a King meant 3. For offering to sell the Prosecution of your Majesties Cause against this Petitioner for Money and because this Petitioner refused to tamper with him in that kind for procuring base People to make false and aspersing Affidavits to incense your Majesty and that Court against your Petitioner 4. For menacing the Judges that should report and certifie any thing for your Petitioner 5. For not sparing to tax most falsly your most Sacred Majesty with pressing upon the Lords the Sentencing of your Petitioner All which the Petitioner will clearly prove and pray to God c. So strong an Accusation upon such foul Heads was fit to be sifted especially upon the last Branch For grant it was a lye here 's a false Report raised against the King's Honour If it were true what more criminal than to impart such Secrets of his Majesty 's to his Gossips at a Tavern where they flew abroad But some may more safely steal a Horse than others look over the Hedge The Bishop could get no leave to call this shameless Mate to an answer From that day Kilvert was free from Righteousness and might do any thing Ipse sibi Lex est quà fert cunque voluntas Praecipitat vires Manil. lib. 5. He that hath no Conscience and need to fear nothing will turn a Monster So true is that of Livy Dec. 1. lib. 4. Hominem improbum non accusari tutius est quà m absolvi 'T is safer to have a nocent Person never accus'd than to have him discharg'd for an Innocent 113. For all this the Defendant thought he had said so much against the Prosecutor that he should never appear in Court again But as Calvin said of Bucer Ep. 30. Qui sibi est optimè conscius securior est quam utile sit Yet he proved against him as foul a prank as ever was committed That he got Warren the Examiner to the Fountain Tavern near to Shoe-Lane Kilvert's daily Rendezvouz from whence the Bishop got continual and sure intelligence and fetch 't out of him contrary to his express Oath the Depositions which the Defendants Witnesses had made an heinous wrong to be done before Publication which coming to light Warren fled away from his Office and never appeared more But whether could he run from God's Vengeance Omnia quidem Deo plena sunt nec ullus perfidis tutus est locus Sym. p. 54. Kilvert stood to it as if the sin were not his that drew the Examiner to Perjury and no notice was taken of that constant Rule which the Casuists took from Tertullian de Bapt. c. 11. Semper is dicitur facere cui praemmistratur The Sin was Ahab's that purchast a Field of Blood by the Oath of the Sons of Belial Let Religion look to this for that Court would not nothing would lace it in it was so wide in the waste From this exorbitancy from this and nothing else sprung the Iliad of wrongs which the Bishop endured for Kilvert finding by Warren's disclosures that the Depositions for the Defendant were material and some of the Witnesses to be Learned men that had deposed upon Notes and Remembrances he turned himself into all shapes to crack their Credit At first he made an Affidavit of slight pretended Abuses which were over-ruled against him Whereupon he vapour'd in the hearing of the Register and divers others That he cared not what Orders the Lords made in Court for he would go to Greenwich and cause them all to be changed It was the most scornful Defiance that ever was given to the Honour and Justice of the Star-Chamber as the Bishop's Counsel prest it home Every one expected the Ruin of the Prosecutor yet the Lords perceiving up-upon the Archbishop's Motion that it was not safe to punish him it past over with a slight Submission One presaged the Ruin of the Athenian State because Rats had eaten up the Books of Plato's Commonwealth And might not a man that had no more Prophecy than Prudence foresee the Ruin of this Court when such a Rat-catcher did despise their Authority telling them he could fetch Orders to sweep away theirs from such Powers Quae nec tutò narrantur nec tutò audiuntur Seneca de Tranquil Sir Robert Heath Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas was but one of the Lords Assessors yet as just and sufficient as any of his order and the Indignity done to him was as if done to all Who made his own Complaint That Kilvert threatned to procure him to be turn'd out of his place for his forwardness Yet this also was slubber'd over with a little acknowledgment of Rashness So much were those honourable Persons now no longer themselves fearing that Severity which they perceived impending upon them As Pliny bewails the Roman Senate in his Panegyrick Vidimus curiam sed curiam trepidam elinguem cum dicere quid velles periculosum quod nolles miserum esset It was become like Ezekiel's Vine-tree c. 15. v. 3. you could not make a Pin out of it to hang a good Order upon it that was equal and generous Beshrew the Varlet that kept his word which he was not wont to do for Sir Robert Heath was displaced and for no Misdemeanour proved But it was to bring in a Successor who was more forward to undo Lincoln than ever the Lord Heath was to preserve him A man of choice parts which yet he shewed not in this Cause which cannot be smother'd without defacing the truth which Posterity must not want Desipiunt qui faeces ob vâni nobilitatem absorbent The Dregs of the best Wine are but Dregs and must be spit out as distastful his Lordship's part cannot be spared in this Tragedy yet it shall be short because I will leave him to those Figures that live in the House of Memory 114. The main Bill against the Defendant being not like to
hold the quarrel broke out into a collateral Point the weighing of the Credit of Jo. Pregion a man that had enjoyed two Oâlices of great account for divers years and was never questioned before this time in his Reputation So the Siege of Troy was forgot and the Battel was drawn out on both sides to get or to recover the Body of Patroclus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Il. Ï. The Bishop could not defend his first Cause without the Testimony of Pregion which made him diligent to keep his good Name from being stained and the Adversaries were as resolute to Impeach him looking to spring up a new Information from the Defence of the old Matter This tugg held eighteen Months to the Bishop's Vexation and Cost having spent as much upon it as would have founded an Hospital to keep twenty poor People The Archbishop took occasion upon the spinning out of so much time to blame the Defendant for Traverses and Delays a Course which the wisdom of Treasurer Weston had put into him and if it were bad to fly with his Grace's leave was it not worse to Persecute Baronius justifies the Christians that made escape from Heathen Tyrants with a good reason An. 205. p. 12. Qui non fugit cum potest adjuvat ejus iniquitatem qui persequitur The Exceptions against Pregion were referred to the Lord Chief Justice Richardson and Lord Chief Baron Damport which charged Pregion that he endeavour'd to lay a Bastard-Child of his own begetting upon another The two Judge having heard all that could be alledged pro and con disallowed the Exception and an order being drawn up for it when the Lord Richardson was about to sign it Kilvert most imperiously charg'd him not to do it till he had heard from the King The Judge whose Coat had been sing'd at the Court before stopt his Hand but delivered a Copy of the Certificate to the Bishop's Sollicitor and avowing he would maintain it that is to say if he durst but fear shook his Conscience out of him The Lord Damport would not vary from himself and charg'd his Brother Richardson freely with Inconstancy Of which Disagreement the Star-Chamber having notice added to these three more the Lord Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas Judge Jones and Judge Vernon These sitting together in the Lord Richardson's Lodgings Kilvert brought in Secretary Windebank among them though neither Referree nor Witness nor Party in the Cause who argued the Business an hour and half against the Bishop's Witness and perform'd it weakly for all men are not call'd to knowledge with their places as Isâcrates would have us believe in his Areopag Oration that the Office of an Areopagite transform'd a man Ut tanquam loci genio afflatus ex ingenio suo migraret Budaeus in 1. lib. Pand. p. 283. The Secretary having done his part and shewn what was expected from White-hall departed The five Judges drew up a Certificate signed it and assured the Bishop all in general and one by one it should not be changed So said the L. F. among the rest but he sup't a Promise into his mouth and spit it out again This predominant Judge like a Falcon upon her stretches took home the Certificate with him and the Bishop with him who staid at his House till almost midnight because the Lord F. would not give him the Order till Kilvert had carried it to the Court to shew it to some body This was not fair for to be just and honest is so forcible that it should be done extempore not an hour should be borrowed to advise upon it Yet the Judge solemnly protested That he would dye rather than recede from it it being the sense and under the Hand of all his Brethren The Bishop being in a withdrawing Chamber read over the Order so often that by the benefit of a good memory he got it by heart verbatim and so departed to Bugden against Christmas-day About the midst of the Holy-days he heard by a good Hand that the Certificate was alter'd and all that Matter inserted which had been rejected by the Judges He came up in all haste to London and finding Judge Jones ask't him if these things were so Yes says he 't is true all is chang'd from white to black and your Friend the L. F. hath done all this A Friend he might call him if merit might have purchast him for whom the Bishop had done more than for any pleader in England when he was in great place Quae potest esse jucunditas sublatis amicitiis quae porrò amicitia potest esse inter ingratos The Bishop charging this Alteration upon the Judge to his Face he replyed Quod scripsi scripsi and would not hear Mr. Herbert the Defendant's Counsel who told the Judge with some passion That there was more matter for Examination of Witnesses couched in the new Certificate than was in all the Cause But the Bishop demanded calmly of that Lord that had alter'd all What he meant to use an old Acquaintance in that unheard of manner He answer'd and said the same to others He had been soundly chidden by his Majesty and would not destroy himself for any man's sake This Judge was worthy of greater Honours and did affect them Haud sanè aequo animo in secundo se sustinens gradu Curt. lib. 4. and not long after he got the Garland by being the most active of all his Rank to bring about the King's Undertakings chiefly against this forlorn Defendant but held not the place one full year From whence a Scholar may Contemplate upon those two Verses of Homer Il. Ï. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Whom God doth honour if with him you war The quarrel 's Gods your ruin is not far 115. By this time Kilvert put in Courage with these Stratagems is ready to proceed to examination of Witnesses Let me shew how he is armed like Pliny's Ichneumon lib. 8. Nat. Hist Mergit se limo saepiùs siccatque sole mox ubi plurimis eodem modo se coriis loricavit in dimicationem pergit He dips himself often in Mudd and every time crusts it hard in the Sun and being covered with this dirty Harnass he falls to fight with his Enemy All will run even in the application The Bishop is forced at an intolerable expence to tumble in person with his Lawyers and Sollicitors from place to place over six or seven Counties of the Kingdom The first Abuse done unto him in this course was to deny him several Commissions to dispatch his Troubles about the Witnesses which was never denied to any Subject before and to force him to take an Examiner of the Court whether he would or no. 2ly Every Defendant being allow'd to chuse which Examiner he likes best by the practice of that Court the Bishop pitch'd upon an ancient and experienc'd Clerk yet could not enjoy him for in conference with Kilvert he had said That in this Service he must be an indifferent
Commenda's For the Money says the Bishop I am low in Cash but will make a shift to pay it To part with the Deanry will make an open Scar and no fair one Beside the Money is useful for the King's Revenue the Deanry is no Profit to His Majesty to take it from my hand and to put it into another and what the World hath given me I am willing to give it back again but what His Majesty's Father did give me and by the Mediation of His Majesty being Prince I can take no comfort in my Life if I be stript of it That Lord return'd again with a Message to leave him his Deanry and Commenda's but to raise up the Sum of Composition to 8000 l. The Bishop held up his Hands to Heaven in amazement at it But you will lift your Hands at a greater Wonder says L. Cottington if you do not pay it Well I will satisfie the King says Lincoln and I will sell some Land for it The Match is struck done 'tis and the Bishop as good as undone by it He delighted to do charitable Works but this would sear the Vein that it could run no more It was a sweet Apophthegm which I heard come from him when all was exhausted I care not for Poverty but I shall not be able to requite a Benefit God grant every good King a better way than this was to enrich him Fiscus bonorum Principum non sacerdotum damnis sed hostium spoliis angeatur I commend thee Symmachus for it p. 56. But on goes the Game the Bishop is dealing in London to take up a Cart-load of Money and that right worthy Attorney Sir J. Blanks was sedulous to draw up a full Pardon so absolute that it included more than the Bishop desired as this Letter to the L. Keeper will declare My very good Lord MR. Attorney hath once or twice sent unto me by my Man some imperfect Propositions about the manner of a Pardon which His Most Excellent Majesty should grant unto me which Propositions not speaking with Mr. Attorney himself I do not well understand for as it is delivered to me His Majesty's Offer's more than ever I desired by naming a general Pardon to wit to pardon all Offences contained in the two Informations and any other Offence or Misdemeanor I should desire particularly to be freedfrom which if it be so is as gracious a Favour from His Majesty as any reasonable man can expect But my good Lord I know nothing by my self that should of necessity be so solemnly pardon'd Yet hearing His Majesty's Inclinations to grant unto others in the condition that I stand general Abolitions and being not so wise as the last Parliament to refuse the benefit of a general Pardon I confess I fell in my Parley with your Lordship upon that way propounded unto me by my Counsel Learned But hearing of late it is construed by others as a kind of Capitulation with my Soveraign I beseech your Lordship I may wave it altogether and that your Lordship would represent me kneeling at His Majesty's Feet craving that his Goodness and Mercy only without any thing in Writing together with my Industry in his Service for the time to come may be the substance and extent of all my Pardon and this but for such things as by Informations or Petitions I have been though undeservedly presented as an Offender against His Most Excellent Majesty and desir'd to be proceeded against by His Majesty's immediate Directions If any other private Subject hath ought to say against me for any Trespass or Misdemeanour committed against himself and not His Majesty I desire no Protection but those of His Majesty's Courts of Justice against any such person whosoever c. December 11th 1635. From December it hung as it were between Heaven and Earth it will and it will not be done till the King had occasion to go to Windsor and the Bishop had order to lye at Eaton expecting to be sent for to kiss the King's Hand But who comes thither that was not look'd for it being the middle of the week but the Archbishop who malleated the King's Gentleness into stronger Metal When Lincoln had laboured for Peace from thenceforth it was as far set back as if it had never been in Treaty How was his good Soul toss'd about between Friends and Foes between Mercy and Frowns and now in the last Attempt put to Job's note c. 16. v. 11. God hath deliver'd me to the ungodly and turn'd me over to the hands of the wicked I was at ease but he hath broken me asunder and shaken me to pieces and set me up for a mark Intempestiva benevolentia nihil à simultate differt Polit. Ep. p. 26. A constant Enmity is more generous than to interrupt it with Offers of never-intended or never-composed Agreements Now the Archbishop look'd for the day when he should trample upon this Bishop in a Censure Azorius the Jesuite shall apply it for me Moral tom 1. lib. 13. c. 6. When the Order of the Knights Templars was plotted to be overthrown in a Council at Vienna in Dauphine says Pope Clement V. Etsi non per viam justitiae potest destrui destruatur per viam expedientiae ne scandalizetur filius noster rex Franciae If they cannot fall by Justice they must fall for convenience sake But here 's the difference in the Story There a Bishop did gratifie the King here the King did gratifie a Bishop 117. Proceed then to another Information since it must be so The first Cause being mortified a new one took life from it as Gorgias Leontinus his Mother was deliver'd of him when she was dead Viva fuit sterilis mortua facta parens as Dr. Alabaster writes in his Epigram upon it They are but ill Examples in the New Testament when an Accusation is turn'd into a new Species The Jews impleaded our Saviour at first that he said he would destroy the Temple c. and chang'd it before Pilate into another Charge that he made himself a King Paul was Indicted by the same Nation that he brought a Greek into the Temple to pollute it but it was turn'd into another matter Revilest thou God's High-Priest They that will not stand to their own Bill are more set upon Destruction than Justice Kilvert onerated the Bishop with Ten Charges together the use of the Court being as Judge Popham had regulated it to admit but Four at once But chiefly he was active to grime the Defendant with one foul fault Subornation of Witness that is to foment Perjury But the King's Counsel perusing the Depositions waved it and gave it another form Seducing of Witnesses a manifest injury to the attestation of Truth and for contraction in a new phrase Tampering with Witnesses as my Lord of Canterbury called it in his Sentence Perhaps it is not Subornation of Perjury but it is Tampering The Defendant thought to help himself with a Demur upon four Heads
First That it was utterly against the Practice of the Court from the Foundation of it to fall upon a new Charge started out of a former before the first had been heard 2. That advantage was taken to undo any man living to gather new Impeachments out of the Books after the publication of the precedent Cause 3. That for all that was offer'd to the Court complaint had been openly made by Counsel and not disproved That it rose from the Prosecutors mis-leading and menacing of Witnesses whom Terrour and Imprisonment would not suffer to be constant to themselves Like as Eusebius reports lib. 6. Praepar Ervang c. 1. that when one importun'd the Oracle for an Answer and threatned if he staid any longer the Oracle told him Retine vim istam falsa enim dicam si coges Use no violence for I must tell a lye if you do Lastly The Bishop pleaded with Animosity quid enim loqueretur Achilles Ovid. Met. 13. that their Lordships ought to take such a Charge into Cognisance for Tampering had never been noted for Criminal Action before any Judgment in the Land which is not a Colour but a Maxime of Law which appears by that which is since publish 't by the Lord Cook in Jurisdiction of Courts c. 5. How that Court dealeth not with any offence which is not Malum in se against the Common Law or Malum prohibitum against some Statute And that Novelties without warrant of Praesidents are not to be allowed Assume now out of the Premises that no Example could be found that the censorious magnificence of the Star-Chamber had ever tamper'd with such a peccatulum as tampering Alteration in the forms of a Court beget the Corruption of the Substance Who ever read that a Bench of Honourable Judges came into hatred so long as it kept close to the ways of their wise and venerable Predecessors But says Symmachus in Ep. p. 14. Si adjiciantur insolita forsan consueta cessabunt When the People are over-lay'd with new Discipline perhaps the old Seats of Justice may crack in pieces The Lord Keeper knew Justice and loved it and did not obscurely signifie that he thought the Demur was reasonable which had almost removed him And he found by one occurrence that the Bishop's Case was to be severed from other mens For whereas a Proclamation came forth in October 1636. that because a Plague was begun in London and Westminster therefore all Pleas and Suits in Law should be suspended till Hillary Term was opened and the Bishop claimed the Priviledge that all things might be respited about his Cause branched out into ten Heads till that season The Proclamation indeed is full and clear on your side says the Lord Keeper but I have special directions that you shall have no benefit thereof And I tell you as a Friend if you rely upon the Proclamation your imprisonment is aimed at As if there were one Rule of Justice for all the Subjects in the Land and another for this Bishop who took his qu. from this Caveat to attend his Business and he did it with the more confidence that in seven years his Adversaries had got no ground of him as Grotius writes of the Spaniards siege at Haârlem being seven months about it Annal. Belg. p. 42. Visi sunt vinci posse qui tam lentè vicerant 118. Of which none that look't into the Cause despair'd till the Scale was overturn'd by the weight of a most rigorous Censure The Charge in debate without any favour to the Defendant is thus comprised Anno 1634. when Kilvert wanted Water to turn his Mill Sir John Mounson and Dr. Farmery Chancellour of Lincoln offer'd themselves to debauch the Credit of Pregion the Bishop's Witness who both expected to have gained and did gain almost as much as Kilvert by the Avenues of the Cause To bring their Contrivance about a Bastard is laid to Pregion to be begotten of the Body of Elizabeth Hodgson and that he bribed her to lay it upon another Father The Bishop was to defend the Credit of his Witness and had to do with Matters and Persons in this Point wherein himself was altogether a Stranger He suspected ill dealing from Sir J. Mounson the great Stickler because he knew he hated Pregion for casting a Scandal upon his Lady as vertuous a Gentlewoman as the Country had in which Cause the Bishop had caused Pregion to give Satisfaction long before Then he had more assurance of Pregions Innocency because he was clear'd of this Bastard in a Sessions held at Lincoln in May Car. 9. and whereas it came again into debate at the Sessions 3 Octob. following and it was given out that an Order was past to find Pregion guilty the Bishop was certified that the Order was not drawn up in open Court and that it was inserted in many places with Farmeries hand And Thomas Lund being present at the Sessions asserted That it was not consented to by the Justices but drawn out of Sir J. Mounson's pocket He had Letters from Knights of far greater Estates than Sir John who likewise testified the same and from Mr. Richardson the Clerk of the Peace who refused to enter that Order and that it was excepted against in open Sessions by Mr. Sanderson a Counsellor of the Laws and by the greater part of the Bench as utterly illegal So that afterward being tried at the King's Bench for the illegality of it it was damned by all the four Judges Yet more to detect the Corruption of that Order at the next Sessions held in May the Justices discharged Pregion and laid the base Child upon one Booth a Recusant a Kinsman of Sir J. Mounson's which Judgment was so inerrable that it was proved by three Witnesses That upon the very day that the Bishop was sentenced Booth himself confest in the hearing of those Witnesses that Pregion had nothing to do with that baggage Woman but that he the said Booth at such a time and place did get her with Child and that Kilvert whom he cursed bitterly had promised him half the Fine to charge the Child upon Pregion and had not performed it and did vainly brag that Kilvert had brought him to kiss the King's hand This was detected when the sad day was over Et instaurant dolorem sera solatia Sym. p. 86. But the Objection lay not only upon the getting of the Child but how that Pregion or rather the Bishop had carried themselves to entangle the Witnesses that had sworn against Pregion which was the main Charge of the Information and the colour for the heavy Sentence The Bishop being authorized from the Star-Chamber to uphold the Credit of his Witness he found the Depositions of Lund Wetheral Alice Smith and Anne Tubb to press upon Pregion Grande doloris Ingenium est miserisque venit solertia rebus Metam lib. 6. So he did light upon a course which was inoffensive to extricate Pregion for his own safety ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã
to decline that Extremity the most of the Lords who endeavour'd to do all the Favour that they durst shew concluded upon a Fine of 10000 l. Imprisonment in the Tower during Pleasure which had been but short as they were assured before if the King had been but left to his own gracious Gentleness and to be suspended during Pleasure in the High-Commission-Court from all his Jurisdiction Which Suspension pass'd in that Commission July 23. And it would not be pass'd over that Sir Ed. Littleton then L. Chief-Justice of the Common-Pleas Anno 1640. in the Month of July brought Lincoln to Lambeth face to face with the L. of Canterbury when Lincoln told his Grace That the Commission under the Great Seal had not a word in it to enable him to suspend either Bishop or Priest by direction from a Sentence of Star-chamber but only for Offences specified in the Commission and that the Fact which His Grace had done had brought him and the Commissioners into a Praemunire To which the Archbishop answered That he had never read the Commission A learned Satisfaction Was it not when he had censur'd so many by the Power of that Commission which he confest he had never read But consider now as Isocrates pleaded it well ad Plat. p. 456. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Whether it be right to inflict such unjust and grievous Penalties upon such petty pretended Misdemeanors Or did not the Latin Orator provide better against it Cic. 1. de Off. Cavendum ne major poena quà m culpa sit ne iisdem de causis alii plectantur alii ne appellentur quidem And let those who meet with this Narration be acquainted that albeit the Compact was in the Inner Chamber that the Lords should speak all the same in their Judgment yet a little Vanity slipt from some few to ease their Stomach The L. Finch said That if it had liked others he would have laid some Ignominy on the Bishop's person Promptum ad asperura ingenium Tac. An. lib. 1. So this Lord look'd on the Bishop's Cause not only with a blear'd but with a blood-shotten Eye for it was conceived he meant the cutting off his Ears who had never sate a Judge in all likelihood if this Bishop being then L. Keeper had not prevented him from leaving his Calling and travelling beyond Seas from which courses he kept him by fair Promises to provide for him and he made them good I will name the time and place Aug. 1621 and the Earl of Exeter's House in St. John's Close Mr. Secretary Winnebanke said It was his desire if it might have seemed good to others to have the Bishop degraded Hold Sir Francis and learn the Canons of the Church it is not in the Power of Laymen to degrade Bishops at their discretion and as little can a Knight depose a Peer of the upper House of Parliament for he that can thrust a Bishop out of that House why not as well an Earl or a Duke But Sir Francis shewed his Good will as the Athenians did to Philip the Son of Demetrius in Livy Additum est decreto ut si quid postea quod ad noxam ignominiamque Philippi pertineret adderetur id omne populum Atheniensium jussurum Dec. 4. lib. 1. Then comes in the Archbishop with a Trick to hoise up the Bishop with some Praise that it might push him in pieces with a greater Censure That when he thought upon this Delinquent's Learning Wisdom Agility in Dispatch Memory and Experience that accompanied him with all these Endowments he wondred at his Follies and Sins in this Cause O Sins by all means for by dioptrical Glasses some find Blemishes in the Sun Telescopia fabri facimus ut in sole maculas quaeramus says Alex. More in his Preface to Strangius's learned Book So upon this matter his Grace took up no less than a full Hour to declaim against the horrid Sin of Perjury and in this Cause he might as well have spoken against the horrid Sin of Piracy So he lays all his Censure upon that Charge Spirat inexhaustum flagranti pectore sulphur as Claudian of Enceladus The Auditors thought he would never have made an end till at last he pleaded for more Right to be done Sir J. Mounson The Lords let me say it freely and truly had overshot themselves to fine the Bishop to pay Sir John a Thousand Marks for saying that his Charge against Pregion was a Pocket-Order It is confess'd the Bishop said so and said the Truth But beside the Bishop pleaded that he heard it of T. Lund Lund stands to it that he told it the Bishop yet the Bishop is censur'd and Lund that took it upon himself is not question'd But the L. of Canterbury who did ever mount highest in all Censures said He was sorry the Fine was not a Thousand pounds 120. This is the shutting up of the Censure grievous to the Bishop's Purse and Liberty but not a whit to his Honour and Good Name which was so esteem'd by almost all that heard the actings of that day and shook their Heads at them As Cicero says in pro Plancio Opimii calamitas turpitudo Po. Ro. non judicium putandum est I that write this was chosen to bring the relation of this Censure to the Bishop then hard at his Study which he received with no change at all of his Countenance or Voice but only said Now the Work is over my Heart is at rest so is not many of theirs that have censured me And here began the way to Episcopal Disgrace and Declension It was his turn now it was Canterbury's not long after Howl Fir-tree for the Cedar is fallen Zech. 11.3 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as Salmasius of the Elephant and Dragon in Solinum p. 307. The Vanquish'd was cast down and the Conqueror fell likewise When such a Pillar of the Church was demolish'd with Prosecutions so uncover'd to every Eye so transparent that you might see the Blush of Injustice quite through them how ominous was it to the higher and lower Dignities of the Clergy As Mr. Morice says in his Coena ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã p. 354. Perhaps it may be with them as with Staddels in a Wood which scarce ever prosper when their fellows are cut down and themselves left naked And what became in three years or little more of that Honourable Court of Star-chamber of which the L. Coke says That in the right institution and the ancient Orders of it being observ'd it keeps all England in quiet But in some late Causes it grew distasteful even to wonder as in that of the Soap-boilers and that of London Derry that of Mr. Osbolston nay in that of Prynn Bastwick and Burton men not to be favour'd in the matter of their seditious Writings but for their Qualities and Places sake to be pitied for the Indignity done to their Persons which I receive from a wise Hand Bodin de Rep. l. 6. c. 6. Legibus
Archbishop and if all that read it do not condemn it I am not in my Senses For I will Appeal in those words of Job c. 17. v. 8. Upright men shall be astonied at this and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite Mark how the Game was plaid by a black Bishop and two Rooks and how the white Bishop was taken by discovery Dr. Walker our Bishop's Secretary hardly escap'd in the second Bill and Kilvert's anger did still hang over him Cadwallader Powel his Steward was then fined at 300 l. and Imprisonment yet was never toucht in his person nor a peny of the Fine exacted of him For which Favours he is dealt with to espy what he could to crush his Lord with some fresh Oppression Who raking in every Corner to find out somewhat that might answer his Undertaking he produceth two Letters of Mr. Osbolstons the head School-master of the King's School at Westminster The Bishop to whom they are written will not own them that he did ever receive them Powel says he found them in his Chamber And it is possible there was such heedlessness for I knew the House well and have seen some careless oversights in that kind A fault incident to Melanctthon says Camerarius in vit p. 37. Litterae quae afferebantur quotidie omnium oculis manibus expositae ex quibus subtractum plurimum esse constat A negligence not to be cover'd with the excuse of the greatest and gravest studies But it was made highly probable that these Letters were neither found scatter'd at random nor pick't out of a Desk or Hamper of Papers both which for certain Powel broke open but Powel received them immediately from the Carrier and never deliver'd them to his Lord and Master So it was confirm'd by many Oaths in Court nay confest by Powel That when his Lord was in remoter parts he had order to open all Letters directed to his Lordship to look into them if they had any matter concerning the Suits so hotly prosecuted against him and to send them as he thought fit to the Secretary to London The Contents of these two Letters being glost upon by Powel to be dangerous to the Archbishop and lap'd up in dark folds to give a greater affright it founds likely that he reserved them to himself and kept them in lavender for such a day wherein they might stand him in stead For more confirmation the Bishop takes his Oath He did not remember that ever he received such Letters and Osbolston swears point blank He never had an answer to them which makes a strong presumption that this trusty Steward did pocket them up Of whom Kilvert received them which is not denied And he presents them to his Grace and if his Grace had been the Master of a brave Spirit we would have thrown them into the sire That had been generous to abhor a Servant that betray'd his Master and to borrow no Office of Villany from him That had been noble not to rake for Secrets and Advantages in the Letters of his Adversary So did Caesar when Scipio's Cabinet was brought to him found at Thapsus so he did with Pompey's Papers seized on at Pharsalia which he would not look into but burnt them Illa suit vera incomparabilis animi sublimitas captis apud Pharsaliam Pompeii magni sertniis Epistolarum concremasse eas optima ãâã aâque non legisse Plin. lib. 7. Nat. Hist c. 15. Such Gallantry had better become a Primate of all England than the Dictator of Rome and all the World This had been way to have got him a great Name to give Lincoln such an Eslay of his Civility Nihil laudabilius nihil magno praeclaro viro dignius ãâã clemântiâ Tul. 2. l. Of. But to look for such things from a revengful mind is as unlikely as to make the brisâly skin of a Hedghog smooth And when all the Stuff in the Letters are scann'd what Fadoodles are brought to light First Osbolston is charg'd to write libellous matter against his Grace in That he call'd him Vermin little Urchin medling Hocas Pocas and the Lord Treasurer deceased Great Leviathan 2. To contain false News and tales in this passage That the little Urchin and great Leviathan are become at great distance in earnest 3. To contain a Conspiracy to destroy his Grace because one Letter enquires when Lincoln would come to Westminster to look after this Gear On the Bishop's part a Note scribled hastily but no Letter is produced sent to Walker in these Words MR. Osbolston importunes me to contribute to my Lord Treasurer 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. Selden and Mr. Herbert if any such falling out be And keep it to your self what I write unto you If my Lord Treasurer would be served by me he must use a more solid and sufficient Messenger and free me from the Bonds of the Star Chamber Else let them fight it out for me What a Spider's Thread is here to pull a Man into the Star Chamber by itâ So Fulgentius tells us of Padre Paulo that he wrote a Letter in Cypher to Gabriel Collison touching at the Court of Rome as if some came to Dignities by evil Services which Collison revealed to St. Severmo Cardinal and Head of the Office of Inquisition for which Paul was trounced with continual disturbance And our Inquisitor St. Severo did now make use of the like or rather less opportunity 125. To slide this Cause with the most sly advantage into a hearing Lincoln is kept in close Imprisonment from All-hollantide till the end of Christmas for what Cause will appear in order that he might be surprized and neither trouble the King with Petitions nor the Court of Star-Chamber with motions He chaft at it extreamly and could do no less ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã says Aristotle Eth. 4. c. 5. They that are not angry upon meet occasion are Foo's But the day is set and come without any respect had to his due preparation according to Rules and Customs At the hearing Mr. Osbolston pleads That the great Prelate had no reason to take those nick-names to himself that he neither named him nor thought of him He swears it and proves it strongly That the Hocas Pocas was one Dr. Spicer who was vulgarly abused with that by-word and that Judge Richardson was the great Leviathan who had committed Spicer at that time no less than five years before to Newgate What reason was there but he should expound his own Riddle Now here 's a forked Dilemma let the Bishop or any man living escape one horn of it if it be possible For if he receive such Letters and not complain of them if it come to light distortions of Phrases shall endanger him to be guilty of smothering a Libel If he take the other course and reveal them to
a Justice of Peace and say he takes the Arch-bishop to be meant by Vermin Urchin Hocas Pocas since the Writer did swear the contrary he had evidently made himself the Author of a libellous Exposition But the Bishop pleads he never received such Letters to his remembrance and to make it likely Osbolston swears he never had an Answer of them Powel will not swear but says he found them in a Band-box in the Bishop's Chamber They were like the Cup in Benjamin's Sack no body but Joseph and the Steward that plotted it could tell how it came there Dr. Walker believes but dares not swear that his Lordship receiv'd them yet adds he could not be assured that he understood them for upon his knowledge the Bishop was often to seek to understand Mr. Osbalston 's gibrish and was fain to send to him for his Cypher which in this matter he did not That which the King's Counsel urged was from the Papers that Dr. Walker brought in under his Lords hand which tuned somewhat like to a Replication to the two Letters The Secretary was pelted with many hard words that day from divers Lords for doing that ill Oâlice to his Master I have heard Dr. Walker protest deeply so have many besides That he would not have done it for all the world but that he knew it was a main witness of his Lord's Innocency and enough to clear him howsoever the Court did strangely misunderstand it I am bountiful to him if I think he did it for that good end and I will think so because I never saw any immorality or vice in the course of his life And he was right that the Paper is very candid and did deserve from the Archbishop that he should have cast away at least some unprofitable courtesies upon the Bishop for it And the proof was clear even ex parte Reg is in the Court that he refused to consent or agree to make one in a quarrel against the Archbishop but he holds close to his main Plea That the Letters excepted at did never come to his hands If the matter of them be worthy of a censure let it light upon his Steward and his Secretary who confess to have seen those Papers some years before and to know the ironical meaning and did conceal them He appeals also to the Laws of the Land that if such Letters had come to him like Merlin's Rhimes and Rosicrusian bumbast that no Law or Practice directs the Subject to bring such Gryphes and Oracles but plain litteral grammatical Notions of Libels to a Justice of Peace against a known and clearly decipher'd Magistrate That nothing were more ridiculous than to prefer a Complaint for canting and unintelligible Expressions It cannot be but so many wise Lords as sat in Judgment understood this Well might the Bishop say that all flesh had corrupted their way The Court in those days was rolled about with fear and were steered by imperious directions As Syncsius said of Athens in his days Ep. 235. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã There was nothing but the Hide left to shew what a fair Creature it was in times of Yore Let it not be thought rash to write thus of so noble a Senate How did a Commission of Lords use Queen Ann of Bullen and a greater Commission than that use Mary Queen of Scotland But Mr. Osbalston is sentenc'd out of all his Freehold was doom'd to an opprobrious branding who escap't it by concealing himself from the cruelty of the Tyger only the Earl of Holland voted that he saw no proof to bear a Sentence but cleared both Osbolston and the Bishop so did not the Lord Finch and Sir Fr. Windebank who listed up the Bishop's Fine to Ten thousand pounds Such as these made that Honourable Court insupportable to the Subject odious to the Parliament For whose sake I will change a word in a passage of Tullies Philip. 13. I st is locus si in hâc Curiâ fuerit ipsi Curiae non erit locus Sir J. Brampston Lord Chief Justice led the most Voices for 8000 l. Fine and Damages for receiving Libellous Letters Yet was so judicious not to call the Script sent privately to Dr. Walker a divulging of them as some others did nor did he tax him for not blaming the Indiscretions of Osbolston yet those were the Heads to which the most did refer the Contents of their dislike For all this the Bishop rested in peace of mind and piously wish't his Judges Mercy from God which Prayer I hope was heard for their persons but God was offended at the Court which over-drip't so many with its too far spreading Branches of Arbitrary and Irregular Power If the Excrescencies had been pruned away the rest might have serv'd for wholsome use When the Romans found the Carriage of their Censors to be insolent Mucronem sensorium mustis remediis retuderant Alexâab Alex. lib. 3. c. 23. They blunted the Edge but still kept the Sword in the Magistrates hand But God spared not to dig up this burdensome Tree by the root as Auson in Paneg. Quae mala adimis prospicis ne esse possint rediviva yet it may be the Stump is in the Earth though fetter'd to be kept under with a band of Iron and Brass Dan. 4.15 and may spring again in due season But this guilt among a hundred more upon it is that this Bishop being mulcted in eight thousand pounds for a pretence thinner than a Vapour a Trespass to mean for one Christian to ask forgiveness of it from another and never clap't upon him by the Evidence of any Proof yet not a doit was remitted of that vast Sum. And yet I look upon our Bishop as one that had a better hold in present comfort hope hereafter and glory for ever For it is better by far to suffer than to do an Injury Miserior est qui suscepit in se scelus quà m qui alterius facinus subire cogitur Cic. Philip. 11. 126. Lucilius a Centurion in Tacitus Annal. lib. 1. had a scornful name given him by the Military Dicacity of his own Company Cedo alteram Quta fractâ vite in terga militis alteram rursus alteram poscebat when he had broken a Bastonada of a tough Vine upon a Souldiers shouldiers he call'd for another and another after that Such an indeâinent Cruelty was exercised upon the person of this suffering Bishop when one Bill was heard and censur'd Cedo alteram rursus alteram was all the pity that he sound ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hesiod lib. 5. Fortune is not content with some mens miseries unless they be all over miserable A new Information is brought on with as much fury as if Jehu had march't with it and that the Desendant might be utterly ignorant of a Conspiracy that was hatching abroad he was shut up close upon colour that he was obstinate and had not answer'd to some Interrogatories as was expected They were Eighty in all To which
that prosecutes for the King and so it was appointed to be taken out When this expunging was confirm'd and the Attorney General had made his Replication upon the Demur the Bishop knowing not how to wear the Yoke of a base Spirit any longer and full of the Courage that God had inspired into him Appeals from these intolerable Grievances to the High Court of Parliament in this Rejoynder That the Defendant doth and will ãâã maintain and justifie his Answers and all the matters and things therein contained to be true and certain and sufficient in the Law And that nothing thereof ought to be expunged which is necessary and pertinent to his Defence And in case any part so pertinent and necessary for his Defence under colour of scandal to a third person who may clear his Credit if he be innocent and be repaired with Costs be expunged and he and all others in the like case be left remediless in the Law The Defendant having no other Remedy left in a Defence against a Suit commenced against him in the King's Name doth humbly Appeal unto the High Court of Parliament when it shall be next Assembled humbly protesting against any Sentence as void and null which shall pass against him in the mean time for and because of the want of his just and necessary defence so taken away and expunged Much was added in this Appeal to defie Kilvert who had boasted to prosecute the Bishop to his degradation and the Bishop in the said Appeal disavows that the Court of Star-chamber had ever degraded or appointed to be degraded or ever will degrade or appoint to be degraded any Bishop or other Lord and Peer of the Parliament or take away their Freehold in point of Means Profit or Honour c. This Appeal was filed in the Office enter'd in the Clerks Books and Copies thereof were signed by the usual Officer although Sir William Pennyman Clerk of the Star-chamber took it off the File and blotted it out of the Books Sir William was ever of a laudable behaviour but durst not say them nay that thrust him upon this Rashness Who did not gaze at this Appeal as if it had been a Blazing-star Who did not discourse of it How did they who club together for News and trial of their Wits spend their Judgments upon it Some thought that excess of Wrongs done to the Bishop had distemper'd him to fall upon a course of Confusion to himself In plain words being bitten by so many mad Dogs they thought he bit again as if he had been mad Whereas he never did any thing with a more sober mind Insanire me âiunt ultro cum ipsi insaniant Plaut in Menaech Some replied Let the danger be what it will the President tended to a Publick Good Audendum est aliquid singulis aut pereundum universis For are we not all Passengers as well as he in the same bottom And may we not be swallowed up in the same Shipwrack if our Pilots look no better to their Duty They that were acquainted with the best Pleaders thought to have most Light from them and askt if the Act did not exceed the Duty of a Subject And would it not leave the Author to the fury of the Court to be torn in pieces with a Censure Nay surely said the Gown-men there is no violation of Duty to His Majesty in appealing to his Parliament for he submits to the King who is the Head of the Body Or at the most it is Provocatio à Philippo dormiente ad Philippum vigilantem from K. Charles misinformed in Star-chamber to K. Charles among his best Assistants the three States of the Nation And for the minacy of a Censure do if they dare A Parliament will repair him when it sits and canonize their own Martyr Both they that lik'd and dislik'd the Appeal confest that the corruption of his Judges compell'd him to it Should Kilvert notoriously detected be suffer'd to escape by cancelling all that brought his Conspiracies to light Infixo aculeo fugere in the Adagy Strike in his Sting and fly away like a Wasp Suffer this and at this one dealing of the Game the Bishop's whole state had been lost of Fortunes Liberty and Honour Neque enim levia aut ludicra petuntur Praemia sed Turni de vitâ sanguine certant Discretion was to give place to Courage in this case Baronius tells us of Theodoret. ann 446. n. 27. That being incensed at the Tyranny of a Shark in Office that had seized upon all he had Uranius Bishop of Emesa advised him to make no words of it but to sit still by the loss Theodoret answers him bravely Non solùm prudentia sed fortitudo virtus est Fortitude is a Virtue as well as Prudence and is as laudable in her own turn and occasion Put the case to a Physician when he thinks there is no hope of a Patient what will he do The ancient Rule was Nescio an in extremis aliquid tentare medicina sit certè nihil tentare perditio est To give the sick man Physic is against Art but to give him nothing is to cast him away wilfully Here is Lincoln's condition who being denied the Justice of that Court had nothing to fly to in that Extremity but this Appeal with which he did so hough the Sinews of the Bill that from that day forward it never hopt after him 128. Because some did not stick to say that the Bishop might thank himself for his incessant Troubles that he did not take Conditions of Peace that were offered to him it must be presented here that Conditions indeed were tender'd such as Naash offer'd the Israelites to thrust out their right Eyes 1 Sam. 11.2 or as the Samnites released Sp. Posthumious and a Roman Legion overthrown at Caudis with slavish Ignominy But these were worse Ultra Caudinas speravit vulnera furcas Luca. lib. 2. The Bishop lying in Prison and sustaining the heavy weight of the first Censure July 11. 1637. he press'd the L. Coventry to move His Majesty for some mitigation of the Fine and to stop the violent levying of it since it stood in no proportion with the Charges of the Bill or the Presidents of the Court. Hereupon His Majesty tells the L. Keeper he would admit of no such motion but by the Mediation of the Queen The Bishop is glad of the News and could call to mind that in greater matters than this Princely Ladies had the Honour to make the Accord which the greatest Statesmen had attempted in vain as Madam Lovise Mother of K. Francis the First and Madam Margaret Aunt to Charles the Fifth Regent of the Low Countries made up that Peace between the Emperor and the King which other Mediators had given over for desperate Our Queen endeavour'd a Message of Clemency but that Honour was denied her The Earl of Dorset writes in her Name to the Bishop That all she could obtain of the King
Incendiaries do promise us that they will never be better 138. Sir Fr. Walsingham an honourable Counsellor did not mistake them but he was mistaken that says ever he was a Puritan as this Letter will testifie written to Mons Crittoy Secretary of France and to be read in the Supplement of the Cabala of Letters p. 40. For those which named themselves Reformers and we commonly call Puritans this hath been the Proceeding towards them a great while when they inveighed against such Abuses in the Church as Pluralities Non-residence and the like their Zeal was not condemned only their Violence was sometimes censur'd When they refused the use of some Ceremonies and Rites as superstitious they were tolerated with much connivence and gentleness Yea when they call'd in question the superiority of Bishops and pretended to bring in a Democracy into the Church yet their Propositions were heard consider'd and by contrary Writings debated and discussed Yet all this while it was perceived that their course was dangerous and popular as because Papistry was odious it was ever in their Mouths That they sought to purge the Church from the Relicks of Popery a thing acceptable to the People who love ever to run from one Extream to another Because multitude of Rogues and Poverty were an Eye-sore and Dislike to every man therefore they put it into the Peoples Headâ That if Discipline were planted there should be no Beggars nor Vagabondâ A thing vâry plausible And in like manner they promise the People many other impossible Wonders of their Discipline Beside they opened the People a way to Government by their Consistory and Presbytery a thing in consequence no less prejudicial to the Liberties of private men than to the Soveraignty of Princes yet in the first shew very popular Nevertheless this except it were in some few that entred into extream contempt was born withal because they pretended but in dutiful manner to make Propositions and to leave it to the Providence of God and to the Authority of the Magistrate But now of late years when there issued from them a Colony of those that affirmed the Consent of the Magistrate was not to be attended when under pretence of a Confession to avoid Slanders and Imputations they combined themselves by Classes and Subscriptions when they descended into that vile and base means of defacing the Government of the Church by ridiculous Pasquils when they began to make many Subjects in doubt to take an Oath which is one of the fundamental points of Justice in this Land and in all places when they began both to vaunt of their Strength and Number of their Partizans and Followers and to use Comminations that their Cause would prevail though with Uproar and Violence then it appeared to be no more Zeal no more Conscience but meer Faction and Division And therefore though the State were compelled to hold somewhat a harder hand to restrain them than before yet it was with as great moderation as the Peace of the State and Church couââ permit Thus far Walsingham the Wise one of the Pillars of ãâ¦ã âis Generation It is not such Fire-Drakes as he writes of could not ãâã to threaten the Nation that they would prevail though with Uproar and Violence No worse man than Cartwright their Master is the Author of those Minaces as Dr. Bancroft quotes him and Scutliff against the Petition p. 72. The Author of the Demonstration saith That great Troubles were coming if they might not have their Will and That the Discipline should come by a way that would make all our Hearts ake And how right Sir Francis hits them That Presbytery was popular in the first Shew but odious in the Say As Solinus says of the River Hypanis c. 14. Qui in Principiis eum norunt praedicant qui in fine experti sunt non injuria execrantur They that welcome it in would be glad to open a Postern to let it out If it consisted in no more than contemplative Doctrine the trouble of it had chiefly fallen upon the Universities But it is as practick as the Wind of which we say Usque adeo agit ut nisi agat not sit It is a medling bysie-body that will let nothing be quiet In short it is bred in the Brain but like a Catarrh it falls upon the Heart 139. Had Secretary Walsingham tasted what Lincoln did from undermining Presbyterians Mons Crittoy had heard more and worse from him than he did in that honest Letter You shall have the Case as it follows No sooner did this Parliament open but Disquietness and Uproars began with it in many Churches to disturb the Holy Service The House of Commons were their Countenance therefore provided no Remedy to controul them That Impiety which was wont to be abhorr'd was brooded and cherish'd Yet the House of Lords appointed a Committee of their own Members to give Glory to God by driving Profaners out of his Temple and at the same time selected a Sub-Committee out of Divines of very contrary Opinions for Indifferency sake to propose unto them matters fit for their cognizance Bishop of Lincoln Primate of Armagh Bishop of Duâham Bishop of Norwich Dr. Ward D. Prideaux D. Sanderson Dr. Featly Dr. Brounrigg Dr. Holdsworth Dr. Hacket Dr. Twiss Dr. Burgess Mr. White Mr. Marshal Mr. Calamy Mr. H ⦠to prevent these Clamours odious in our Land and scandalous to other Nations The Bishop of Lincoln had the Chair both in the Committee and Sub-committee with Authority given him to call together those Assistants whom the Lords had named to consult for Peace and to stop the Breaches which Sedition had caused Those which were named for the Sub-committee were some few more than did meet but such as did constantly appear to lay their Heads together are recited in the Margin who were called by Lincoln's Letter to attend in these words I am commanded by the Lords of the Committee for Innovations in matters of Religion that you know that their said Lordships have assigned and appointed you to attend them as Assist ants in that Committee and to let you know in general that their Lordships do intend to examine all Innovations in Doctrine or Discipline introduced into the Church without Law since the Reformation And if their Lordships shall find it behoveful for the good of the Church and State to examine after that the Degrees and Perfection of the Reformation it self which I am directed to intimate unto you that you may prepare your Thoughts Studies and Meditations accordingly expecting their Lordships Pleasure for the particular points as they shall arise Dated Martis 12. 1640. The Bishop and as many as were of his Judgment found no way but to let them that seemed to be distasted with the Church for certain things have somewhat granted that they ask'd for to let Suspicions pass for Proofs and any Point of a dubious sence for a kind of Error As they that raise a Blister where there was none
a Belly-god From the first breaking out of the Plot against the Earl they committed him as a Traytor to the Black Rod who for any thing of Treason or like to Treason might go bare-fac'd through the World and never be asham'd For in the end of all long after his Commitment they had no proof towards that Crime but a Paper brought out of old Sir H. Vane's Cabinet by his naughty Son Crudelis pater est magis an puer improbus ille What were other Misdemeanors to Treason Sift any man that hath been long in a great Office and if his Enemies may be permitted to accuse him see if he can escape a black Bill which will found to his peril and disgrace amplified with the Rhetorick of Malice So Plutarch defends the gallant Roman Fabius Tò ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Not to offend at all in great matters is more than a man can do Let me speak of his Judges with reverence It was a Parliament which is more able to prepare Laws to pass where all are concern'd than to sit upon a Trial where one Subject is concern'd Wise and Weak have the same Right to Judge therefore Pliny the younger spared not to censure the Conscript-Fathers of the Roman Senate lib. 2. Ep. In publico concilio nihil est tam inaequale quam aequalitas quia cum sit impar prudentia par omnium jus est Those that are no Body when they are singled and stand alone must pass for Oracles when they vote with others in the House Like the Vanity of Astrologers as Salmasius taxeth them Chym. p. 795. Singula sidera vix pro numinibus habent Composita offigiata potentum numinum instar habere voluerunt The vertue of such and such a Star is not reckon'd in their Art but put it into a Constellation that Figure cast into a Globe of Stars they hold to be propitions in-flowing into the Life and Death of Men. There were some in this Parliament that out of their Birth and Education were carried to noble Attempts who would not concurr to the Ruin of great Wentworth but their Names were posted for it by Ruffians as Enemies to the State And this was never look'd into for a breach of Privilege An Indignity will never be forgotten till Truth hath left to breathe And it was to no purpose to reason it soberly with so violent Opposites Decernente ferocissimo quoque non sententiis sed clamore strepitu Liv. lib. 20. Their Blood was warmed with the greatness of their number and confidence in the People Beside says the rare Author in his Essay of Faction it is often seen that a few that are stiff will tire out a greater number that are more moderate What odds then was on their side that exceeded in quantity and stiffness Yet every thing that is stiff is not streight But here the bloody part were the Godly in their own Language they and no others All that came from them was pretended to be for Reformation and common Safety but as different in event as Numbers that are even and odd Hypocrisie dwells next door to Virtue but never comes into its Neighbor's House What Justice was that which was thrown by for ever which plaid its part so ill that the very Actors hiss'd it off the Stage and provided by their own Vote that it should be seen no more Quintil. lib. 7. hath this upon the Pleadings of his time Tot saeculis nullam repertam esse causam quae sit tota alterisimilis No Cause was ever pleaded that was the same with any that went before in all points and circumstances But how say you to this Cause when it was enacted by Statute That no Cause should be like it for the time to come Sir Rob. Dallington notes the Subtlety of the Pope in these words That he never challengeth a Power till he be able to maintain it no more did this High Court and then that he never approves a Mischief till it be done So did not this Court that would not approve their own Mischief when it was done They were not asham'd before and when they shed innocent Blood but after Quos cum nihil refert pudet ubi pudendum est deserit illos pudor Plaut in Bacch Finally no Evidence can have more light than this That they knew not how to make their Justice passable because before they began they found so many Knots and Scruples how to enter into a Trial. When they had resolved on a way the King would have crost them Discreet men were afraid lest Opposition should make them worse Lincoln is consulted approves the King's Zeal to use all expedient means to rescue his faithful Servant but thought it would do hurt to check what the Parliament had devised for a legal procedure He that seeks a thing the wrong way goes so far backward In all Contests of Power the King is ever thought to do wrong The King's Greatness made too much contemptible already must beware to take a foyl at this time Mary Queen of Scotland Mother to James the third who was deem'd worthy the Character of Livia the Empress Ulysses stolata Ulysses in a Petticoat Calig in Sueton. gave this Counfel to her Son on her Death-bed Suffer not your Prerogative to come in question but fore-seeing the danger rather give way to all that in reason is demanded of you Drum p. 79. With these Considerations the Bishop proceeds to deliver his Opinion as followeth to the Lords 143. The first Question which your Lordships have called upon me to resolve is Whether the House of Commons may examine some of the Members of their House before a Committee of your Lordships There is no question of the thing but of the time Regularly they ought not to do it yet but ought first to put in a Specifial Charge and the Reus or Defendant first be call'd to his Answer Then and not before Witnesses ought to be produced This is the regular Course If the Charge be not Specifial it may be demurred unto and need not be answer'd at all We have all this in the Acts of the Apostles cap. 25. Festus brought brought forth Paul to be examin'd before Agrippa that he might have ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã v. 27. some certain matter to lay to his charge so as he might not slip away from it Therefore a general and uncertain matter will not serve the turn For otherwise ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã v. 28. it seem'd to Festus void of all reason to send a Prisoner to Rome and no Charge go along with him They are call'd there ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã particular Criminations This is the regular way before your Witnesses are used The Star-Chamber goes a little further beside the Rule For in the King's Cause upon Affidavit of Sickness to prevent Mortality and as it were de benè esse some Witnesses have been admitted to Examination before any Answer put in or Issue joyned Though these Witnesses were
would witness against me for my Council-Table Opinion I would say to him as Gallus did to Tyberius Caesar Good Sir speak you first for I may mistake and you may witness against me for it in the next Parliament Some did make Laws with Ropes about their Necks What Must men give their Counsel as it were with Ropes about their Necks Solomon says When thou comest to a rich man's table put a knife to thy Throat But what 's here When we give Judgment as we are able among the Lords of the Council must we put an Ax to our Necks Beware of such Traps pittying the case of human Weakness 145. The fourth Question is thus comprized Whether some Members of the House of Commons may be present at the Examination Judicially they cannot the Judicature is in your Lordships but whether organically and ministerially is the Scruple to be satisfied I will be brief in my Conceptions what is against the claim of the House of Commons and what is for them This is not for them That 50 Edw. 3. one Love was a Witness in Lord John Nevile's Case Love denied what he had confest before two Knights Members of the Lower House The House of Commons send them to the Lords to confront Love which they did and Love was thereupon committed Now their being here was only to confront not to assist the Lords either judicially or ministerially Many things make for them why they may be there ministerially at least First Originally both Houses were together and so the Commons heard all Examinations Considerent inter se Modus ten Pl. and sate so till Anno 6 Edw. 3. by Mr. Elsing's Collections which are not over-authentick Secondly After that time they have all the House of Commons been present when Witnesses were sworn here Anno 5 Hen. IV. Rot. 11. swears his Fealty before the Lords and Commons and two or three days after by the same Oath and before the same persons clears the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of York from a Suspicion of Treason laid to their charge The Commons were by and heard all this The third Reason is Mr. Attorny-General if this Lord were arraigned of Treason as I pray God bless him from deserving it would be by and observe his Defence and such Witnesses as he should produce for himself and would no doubt bring Counter proofs Sur le Champ and upon the sudden against the same if he were able The House of Commons is in this case the King's Attorny who make and maintain the charge So far out of brief Notes for take them to be no other you have a strong Judgment pass'd upon four Questions Says Tully in his Brutus of Caesar's Eloquence Tabulam benè pictam collocat in bono lumine He draws his Picture well and hangs it out to be well seen So here 's a Piece well drawn and placed in the light of Perspicuity His next Argument is very long but of that use to the Reader that he shall not sind so much Learning in any Author on that Theme that I know a Scholar would not want it They that fostered deadly Enmities against E. Strafford laboured to remove the Bishops from the hearing of his Cause This Bishop and his Brethren minding to him all the Pity and Help they could shew him the Opposites began to vote them out of Doors and would not admit them in the Right of Peers in this Cause because it was upon Life and Blood Lincoln maintains that the Lords did them Injury and that Bishops in England may and ought to vote in causâ sanguinis That they were never inhibited by the Law of this Land never by the Peers of the Land before this time That their voluntary forbearance in some Centuries of the Ages before proceeded from their Fears of the Canons of the Court of Rome and by the special Leave of the King and both Houses who were graciously pleased to allow of their Protestations for their Indemnity as Church-men when the King and Parliament might have rejected their Protestations if they had pleas'd And much he insisted upon it that the opponent Lords grounded their Judgment upon the corrupt Canons of the Church of Rome Indeed I find in my own Papers that the Monks of Canterbury complain'd against Hubert their Archbishop to the Pope for sitting upon Tryals of Life and Blood They could not complain that he went against the Laws and Customs of England but their Appeal was to the Pope's Justice and it was more tolerable for Monks to rake in the Rubbish of the Roman Courts than for English Barons And say in sooth must not Divines of the Reformed Church meddle in Cause of Blood ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Amph. Would they be laugh'd at for this Hypocrisie or abhorr'd For who more forward to thrust into the Troops of the late War than the Ministers whom they countenanc'd Have I not seen them prance about the Streets in London with Pistols in their Holsters and Swords by their sides And so for Edg-hill and Newberry c. Could they rush into so many Fights and be clear from cause of Blood Nay the Pontisical part make but a Mockery of this Canon for anno 1633 a Book was printed in Paris sill'd with a Catalogue of Cardinals Bishops and Priests who had been brave Warriours most of them Leaders in the Field the Author a Sycophant aimed to please Cardinal Richlieu and a Fig for the Canons Reason Canons Parliamentary Privileges nay Religion are to corrupt men as they like them for their own ends Now hear how this Bishop did wage his Arguments for the affirmative 146. It is to be held for a good Cause against which nothing of moment can be alledg'd such is this concerning the Right of Bishops to vote in causâ sanguinis First It is not prohibitum quia malum not any way evil in it self no more than it is an evil thing in it self to do Justice Secondly It was in use from the Law of Nature when the eldest of the Family was King Priest and Prophet Thirdly It was in use under Moses's Law and so continued in the Priests and Levites down to Annas and Caiaphas and after Christ's death till the Temple was destroyed as appears by the scourging of the Apostles by the stoning of Stephen and commanding St. Paul to be smitten on the Mouth Fourthly It was in use in the persons of the Apostles themselves as in that Judgment given upon Ananias and Saphira in the delivery up to Satan as most of the ancient Fathers expound that Censure to be a corporal Vexation And generally in all the Word of God there is no one Text that literally inhibits Church-men more than Lay-men to use this kind of Judicature For that Precept to be no striker 1 Tim. 3.3 is no more to be appropriated to a Bishop distinct from the rest of Christian men than that which is added not to be given to Wine that is immoderately taken Proceed we
to Practice and Use in our own Country Why it was in use in this Island before the Romans entred the same when the Druids gave all the Sentences in Causes of Blood Si coedes facâe pâas constituunt Caesar Bel. Gai. li. 6. And see Mr. Selden's Epinomis c. 2. Nor is it like that the Romans when they were our Masters should forbid it in Priests whose Pontifical College after they had entertain'd the twelve Tables meddled in all matters of this kind Strabo Geogr. lib. 4. And it is as unlike that the Christian Religion excluded Bishops in this Island from Secular Judicatures since King Lucius is directed to take out his Laws for the regulating of his Kingdom by the Advice of his Council ex utráque pagina the Old and New Testament which could not be done in that Age without the help of his Bishops See Sir H. Spelman's Councils p. 34. Ann. Dom. 185. And how the great Prelates among the ancient Britains were wholly employ'd in these kind of secular agitations you may see in the Ecclesiastical Laws of Howel Dha set forth by Sir H. Spelman pag. 408. anno 940. And a little before this Howel Dha lived K. Aetheljtan in the second Chapter of whose Ecclesiastical Laws we have it peremptorily set down Hinc debent Episcopi cum Saeculi Judicibus interesse judiciis and particularly in all Judgments of the Ordeals which no man that understands the word can make any doubt to have been extended to Mutilation and Death Sir H. S. Counc p. 405. ann 928. And that the Bishops joyned alwaies with the secular Lords in all Judicatory Laws and Acts under the whole reign of the Saxons and Danes in this Island we may see by those Saxon-Danish Laws or rather Capitularies which among the French and Germans do signifie a mixture of Laws made by the Prince the Bishops and the Barons to rule both Church and Common-wealth set forth by Mr. Lambert anno 1568. See particularly the ninth Chapter of St. Edward's Laws De his qui ad judicium sorri vel aquae judicati sunt fol. 128. And thus it continued in this Kingdom long after the Conquest to wit in Henry Beu-clerk's time after whose Reign it began to be a little limited and restrained for at Clarendon anno 1164 8 Calend. Febr. 11 Henr. 21 a general Record is agreed upon by that King 's Special Command of all the Customs and Liberties of this Kingdom ever since Hen. the First the King's Grandfather as you may see in Matth. Paris p. 96 of the first Edition where among other Customs agreed upon this is one Archbishops and Bishops and all other persons of this Kingdom which hold of the King in capite are to enjoy their Possessions of the King as a Barony and by reason thereof are to answer before the Judges and Officers of the King and to observe and perform all the King's Customs And just as the rest of the Barons ought for it was a Duty required of them as the King now by his Summons doth from us to be present in the Judgments of the King's Courts together with the rest of the Barons until such time as they shall there proceed to the mangling of Members or Sentence of Death 147. Observe that there is a diversity of reading in the last words for Matth. Paris a young Monk that lived long after reads this Custom thus Quousque perveniatur ad diminutionem membrorum vel ad mortem Which may be wrested to the first agitation of any Charge tending that way but Quadrilogus a Book written in that very Age and the original Copy of the Articles of Clarendon which Becket sent to Rome extant at this day in the Vatican Library and out of which Baronius in his Annals anno 1164 transcribes it reads the Custom thus Usque perveniatur in judicio ad diminutionem membrorum c. which leaves the Bishops to sit there until the Judgment come to be pronounced amounting to Death or Mutilation of Members And as this was agreed to be the Custom so was it the Practice also after that 11th year to wit in the 15th year of Henry the Second at what time the Lay-Peers are so far from requiring the Bishops to withdraw that they endeavour to force them alone to hear and determine a matter of Treason in the person of Becket Stephanides is my Author for this who was a Chaplain and Follower of that Archbishop The Barons say saith that Author You Bishops ought to pronounce Sentence upon your selves we are Laicks you are Church-men as Becket is you are his fellow-Priests and fellow-fellow-Bishops To whom some one of the Bishops replied This belongs to you my Lords rather than to us for this is no ecclesiastical but a secular Judicature We sit not here as Bishops but as Barons Nos Barones vos Barones hic Pares sumus And in vain it is that you should labour to find any difference at all in our Order or Calling See this Manuscript cited by Mr. Selden Titles of Honour 2 Edit p. 705. And thus the Custom continued till the 21st year of the same King Henry II. at what time that Provincial Synod was kept at Westminster by the Archbishop of Canterbury and some few of his Suffragans which Roger Hoveden mentions in his History p. 543. And it seems Gervasius Dorobernensis which is a Manuscript I have not seen The quoting of this Monk in the Margin of that Collection of Privileges which Mr. Selden by command had made for the Upper House of Parliament is the only ground of stirring up this Question against the Bishops at this present intended by Mr. Selden for a Privilege to the Bishops not for a Privilege to the Lay Peers to be pressed against the Bishops The Canon runs thus It is not lawful for such as are constituted in Holy Orders Judicium sanguinis agitare to put in execution Judgment of Blood and therefore we forbid that they shall either in their own persons execute any such mutilation of Members or sentence them to be so acted by others And if any such person shall do any such thing he shall be deprived of the Office and Place of his Order and Function We do likewise sorbid under the peril of Excommunication that no Priest be a secular Sheriff or Provost Now this is no Canon made in England much less confirmed by Common Law or assented to by all the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury or by any one of the Province of York but transcribed as appears by Hovenden's Margin out of a Council of Toledo which in the time that Council is supposed to be held was the least Kingdom in Spain and not so big as York-shire and consequently improper to regulate all the World and especially this remote Kingdom of England Beside as this poor Monk sets it down it doth inhibit Church-men from being Hang-men rather than from being Judges to condemn men to be thus mutilated and mangled in their
Members an ordinary Punishment of the Goths and Vandals who then lived in Spain but never heard of here with us of many years before the Reign of Hen. II and therefore not sitly pressed to drive Bishops from sitting as Peers in the case of the Earl of Strafford who is not to be sentenc'd to any mutilation of Members True it is that in the Council it self being the Eleventh Council of Toledo Can. 6. they are forbidden Quod morte plectendum sit sententiâ propria judicare to sentence in any Cause that is to be punish'd with Death Whereas in the Fourth Council of Toledo Can. 31 under Sisinandus not long before held anno 633 it is said That the Kings do oftentimes commit to Priests and Bishops their Judicature Contra quoscunque Majestatis obnoxios against all Treasons howbeit they are directed not to obey their King in this particular unless they have him bound by Oath to pardon the Party in case they shall find reason to mediate for him And thus the Canon-Law went in Spain but no where else in Christendom in that Age. 148. But these Bishops at Westm travelled not so far as Toledo to fetch in this Canon into their Synod but took it out of Gratian then in vogue for he lived in the time of Hen. Beu-clerk Grandfather to this Hen. II. who in the second part of his Decrees Cap. de Clericis saith thus Clericis in sacris ordinibus constitutis ex concil Tolet. Judicium sanguinis agitaro non licet And so this Canon was fetch'd from Spain into these other parts of Europe above four hundred years after the first making thereof upon this occasion Pope Gregory the Seventh otherwise called Hildebrand who lived in the time of William the Conqueror having so many deadly Quarrels against Hen. IV. Emperor of Germany to make his part good and strong laid the first ground which his Successors in their Canons closely pursued to draw the Bishops and other great Prelates of Germany France England and Spain from their Lay-Soveraigns and leige-Leige-Lords to depend wholly upon him and so by colour and pretence of Ecclesiastical Immunities withdrew them from the Services of their Princes in War and in Peace and particularly from exercising all Places of Judicature in the Civil Courts of Princes to the which Offices they were by their Breeding and Education more enabled than the martial Lay-Lords of that rough Age and by their Fiefs and Baronies which they held from Kings and Emperors particularly bound and obliged And therefore you shall find that whereas the Bishops of this Island before the Conquest did still joyn with the Thanes Aldermen and lay-Lay-Lords in the making and executing of all Laws whatsoever touching deprivation of Life and mutilation of Members Yet soon after when the Norman and English Prelates Lanfrank Anselm Becket and the rest began to trade with Rome and as Legati nati to wed the Laws and Canons cried up in Rome and to plant them here in England they withdrew by little and little our Prelates from these Employments and Dependencies upon the Kings of England and under the colour of Exemptions and Church-Immunities erected in this Land an Ecclesiastical Estate and Monarchy depending wholly upon the Pope inhibiting them to exercise secular Employments or to sit with the rest of the Peers in Judicatures of Life and Members otherwise than as they list themselves and hence principally did arise those great heats between our Rufus and Anselm which Eadmer speaks of and those ancient Customs of this Kingdom which Hen. II. pressed upon Becket in the Articles of Clarendon that the Prelates ought to be present in the King's Courts c. Which Pope Alexander a notable Boutefeu of those times in the Church of God did tolerate though not approve of as he apostyles that Article with his own Hand to be shewn to this day in the M. S. extant in the Vatican Library And although I shall not deny but the Popes did plead Scripture for this Inhibition as they did for all things else and allude unto that place 2 Tim. 3.4 which they backed with one of the Canons of the Apostles as they call them the seventh in number Yet it is clear their main Authority is fetch'd from this obscure Synod of Toledo where eighteen Bishops only were convened under Bamba the Goth who of a Plowman was made a King and of a King a Cloyster'd Monk as you may see in the History of Rodericus Santius par 2. c. 32. This is all the goodly Ground that either Gratian in his Decrees or Innocent III in the Decretals or Roger Hoveden in his History alledges against the Ecclesiastical Peers their sitting as Judges in Causes of Blood to wit this famous Gothish Council of Toledo The first that planted this Canon here in England was Stephen Langton a Cardinal the Pope's Creature as his Holiness was pleased to stile him in his Bull and thrust upon the See of Canterbury by a Papal Provision where he continued in Rebellion against his Soveraign as long as King John lived This Archbishop under colour of Ecclesiastical Immunity for so this Canon is marshall'd by Linwood at Osney near Oxford did ordain Ne quis Clericus beneficiatus vol in sacris Ordinibus constitutus praesumat interesse ubi judicium sanguinis tractatur vel exerceatur And this is the first Canon broach'd in this Kingdom to this effect that of Othobone being subsequent in time and a meer Foreign or Legantine Constitution See it at large in Linwood Constit lib. 3. ad sinem And by vertue of a Branch of this very Constitution the now Archbishop two years since sined the Bishop of Gloucester in the High-Commission because he had given way in time of Pestilence only that a Sessions a Judgment of Blood might be kept in a sacred place which was likewise inhibited in this Canon But this admits of a multitude of Answers First 149. Quod haec dictio Clericus ex vi verbi non comprehendit Episcopum Linwood lib. 3. de locat is conductis Secondly the irregularity incurr'd by Judicature in Causes of Blood is only Jure positivo and therefore dispensable by the Pope saith Covarruvias in Clemen si furiosus p. 2. com 5. n. 1. and here in England is dispens'd with in Bishops by the King who in his Writs or Summons to the Parliament commands the Lords Spiritual without any exception of Causes of Blood to joyn in all Matters and Consultations whatsoever with the Temporal Peers of the Kingdom their Summons being unto them a sufficient Dispensation so to do And Othobon himself inhibiting other Clerks to use these Secular Judicatures hath a Salvo to preserve the Priviledges of our Lord the King whereby he may use any of their Services in that kind when he shall see cause Tit. ne Clerici Juris saec exerceant And Linwood upon that Text doth instance in the Clerks of the Chancery and others Nor are these Writs that summon the
Bishops Dispensations only but Mandates also And those Bishops have been fined at the Kings Bench and elsewhere that absented themselves from Councils in Parliament without the King 's special leave and licence first obtained Thirdly When they are forbidden interesse to be present the meaning is not in the very Canons themselves that they should go out of the room but only that they should not be present to add Authority Help and Advice to any Sentence pronounced against a particular or individual Person in cause of Blood or mutilation If he be present auctorizando consilium opem vel operam dando then he contracts an irregularity and no otherwise saith our Linwood out of Innocentius And the Canon reacheth no further than to him that shall pronounce Sentence of Death or Mutilation upon a particular Person For Prelates that are of Counsel with the King in Parliament or otherwise being demanded the Law in such and such a Case without naming any individuum may answer generaliter loquendo That Treason is to be punisht with Death and a Counterseiter of the King's Coin Hostien lib. 2. eap de fals monet allowed by John Montague de Collatione Parliamentorum In Tracta Doctor Vol. 10. p. 121. Fourthly These Canons are not in force in England to bind the King's Subjects for several Reasons First Because they are against his Majesty's Prerogative as you may see it clearly in the Articles of Clarendon and the Writ of Summons and therefore abolished 25 H. 8. c. 8. It is his Majesty's Prerogative declar'd at Clarendon that all such Ecclesiastical Peers as hold of him by Barony should assist in the King's Judicatures until the very actual pronouncing of a Sentence of Blood And this holds from Henry the First down to the latter end of Queen Elizabeth who imployed Archbishop Whitgist as a Commissioner upon the Life of the Earl of Essex to keep him in Custody and to examine him after that Commotion in London And to say that this Canon is confirm'd by Common Law is a merry Tale there being nothing in the Common Law that tends that way Secondly It hath been voted in the House of Commons in this very Session of Parliament That no Canons since the Conquest either introduced from Rome by Legatine Power or made in our Synods had in any Age nor yet have at this present any power to bind the Subjects of this Realm unless they be confirmed by Act of Parliament Now these Canons which inhibit the Presence of Church-men in Cause that concerns Life and Member were never confirm'd by any but seem to be impeach't by divers and sundry Acts of Parliament Thirdly The whole House of Peers have this very Session despised and set aside this Canon Law which some of the young Lords cry up again in the same Session and in the very same Cause to take away the Votes of the Bishops in the Case of the Earl of Strafford For by the same Canon Law that forbids Clergy-men to Sentence they of that Coat are more strictly inhibited to give no Testimony in Causes of Blood Nee ettam potest esse test is vel tabellio in causâ Sanguinis Linw. part 2. sol 146. For no Man co-operates more in a Sentence of Death than the Witnesses upon whose Attestation the Sentence is chiefly past Lopez pract crim c. 98. distl 21. and yet have the Lords admitted as Witnesses produced by the House of Commons against the Earl of Strafford the Archbishops of Canterbury and Armagh with the Bishop of London which Lords command now all Bishops to withdraw in the agitation of the self same Case Bishops it seems may be Witnesses to kill ont-right but may not sit in the Discussion of the Cause to help in case of Innocency a distressed Nobleman Whereas the very Gothish Bishops who first invented this Exclusion of Prelates from such Judicatures allow them to Vote as long as there is any hope left of clearing the Party or gaining of Pardon 4. Conc. Tol. Can. 31. And by the beginning of that Canon observe the use in Spain in that Age Anno 633. as touching this Doctrine Saepe principes contra quoslibet majestatis obnoxios Sacerdotibus negotia sua committunt Binnius 4. Tom. Can. Edit ult p. 592. Lastly In the Case of Archbishop Abbot all the great Civilians and Judges of the Land as Dr. Steward Sir H. Martin the Lord Chief Justice Hobart and Judge Doderidge which two last were very well versed in the Canon Law delivered positively when my self at first opposed them That all Irregularities introduced by Canons upon Ecclesiastical Persons concerning matters of Blood were taken away by the Reformation of the Church of England and were repugnant to the Statute 25 II. 8. as restraining the King 's most just Prerogative to imploy his own Subjects in such Functions and Offices as his Predecessors had done and to allow them those Priviledges and Recreations as by the Laws and Customs of this Realm they had formerly enjoy'd notwithstanding the Decree de Clerico venatore or the Constitution nae Clerici Saeculare c. or any other in that kind 150. The only Objection which appears upon any Learning or Record against the Clergies Voting in this Kingdom in Causes of Blood are two or three Protestations entred by the Bishops among the Records of the upper House of Parliament and some few Passages in the Law-Books relating thereunto The Protestation the Lords now principally stand upon is that of William Courtney Archbishop of Canterbury 11 Rich. 2. inserted in the Book of Priviledges which Mr. Selden collected for the Lords of the upper House In the Margin whereof that passage out of R. Hovenden about which we spake before about Clergy-mens agitation of Judgments of Blood is unluckily inserted and for want of due consideration and some suspicion of partial carriage in the Bishops in the case of the Earl of Strafford hath been eagerly pressed upon the Bishops by some of the Lords in such an unusual and unaccustomed manner that if I my self offering to speak to this Objection had not voluntarily withdrawn the rest of the Bishops and I had been without hearing voted out of the House in the agitation of a Splinter of that Cause of the Earl of Strafford's which came not near any matter of Blood An act never done before in that honourable House and ready to be executed suddenly without the least consideration of the merit of the Cause The only words insisted upon in the Protestation of Courtney's are these Because in this present Parliament certain matters are agitated whereat it is not lawsul for us according to the Prescript of holy Canons to be present And by and by after they say These matters are such in the which Nec possumus nec debemus interesse This is the Protestation most stood upon That of Archbishop Arundel 21 Rich. 2. is not so full and ample as this of Courtney's For the Bishops going forth left their Proxies with the
in the Records of the Tower can be produced to exclude the Lords Spiritual from sitting and voting in Causes of Blood Sometimes by the great Favour of the King Lords and Commons not otherwise they were permitted to absent themselves never before now commanded by the Lay-Lords to forbear their Votes in any Cause that was agitated in Parliament So our Law Books say That the Prelates by the Canon-Law may make a Procurator in Parliament when a Peer is to be tryed Which is enough to shew their Right thereunto This is to be seen 10 Edw. IV. f. 6. placit 17. And That it is only the Canon-Law that inhibits them to vote in Sanguinary Causes Stamford Pleas of the Crown f. 59. And saith Stamford the Canon-Law is a distinct and separated notion and not grown in his Age to any such Usance or Custom as made it Common-Law or the Law of the Land 152. Coming now to an end it moves me little what some object That many worthy Fathers of this Church-reformed and Bishop Andrews among the rest did forbear to vote in Causes of Blood and voluntarily retired out of the House if such things came in question nor did offer to enter any Protestation I do not doubt but they had pious Affections in it though they did not fully ponder what they did I have heard that a main Reason was that of the Record and Statute of 11 Rich. II. That it is the honesty of that Calling not to intermeddle in matters of Blood Now the French word Honesty signifies Decency and Comeliness As though it were a butcherly and a loathsom matter to be a Judge or to do Right upon a Malefactor to Death or loss of Members But this is an imaginary Decency never known in Nature or Scripture as I said before but begotten by Tradition in the dark Foggs and Mists of Popery Such an Honesty of the Clergy it was to have a shaven Crown to depend on the Pope to plead Exemptions and to resuse to answer for Felonies in the King's Courts All these were esteemed in those days the Honesty of the Clergy And such an Honesty it was in the Prelates of England in the loose Reign of Rich. II to absent themselves when they listed from the Aslembly of the Estate contrary to the King's Command in the Writ of Summons and to the Duties of their places as Peers of Parliament Yet they had more insight into what they did than some of our Bishops for they never offer'd to retire themselves in those days before their Protestation was benignly received and suffer'd to be enter'd upon the Parliament-Roll by the King the Lords and the House of Commons I know those excellent men that are with God proposed other Scruples to themselves they doubted not of the Legality or Comeliness for an Ecclesiastical Peer of the Kingdom of England to vote in a Judgment of Blood they did it continually in passing all Appeals and Attainders in Parliament but it startled them because it is not the practice of Prelates in other parts of the Christian Church so to do and thought it better to avoid Scandal and the Talk of other Nations That there being in the High Court of Parliament and Star-chamber Judges enough beside them they might without any prejudice to their King and Country forbear voting in those Judicatures somewhat the rather because all our Bishops in England are Divines and Preachers of the Gospel and consequently to be employ'd in Mercy rather than in Judgment who never touch upon the sharpness of the Law unless it be to prepare mens Hearts to relish and receive the comfort of the Gospel Let the Piety then and the Good-meaning of those grave Fathers be praised but I say they forgot their Duty to the Writ of the King's Summons and the use and weight of their Place And now to close I protest without vaunting I cannot perceive how this can be answer'd which I have digested together And if so many Bishops cannot obtain their Right which is so clear on their side God send the Earl of Strafford better Justice who is but a single Peer 153. Blame not my Book that there is so much of this Argument I hope the Ignorant will not read it at all but let a knowing man read it again and when he hath better observ'd it he will think it short Some History-spoilers have detracted from our Bishop that though he pleaded much in Parliament to his own Peril in the behalf of E. Strafford yet he wrought upon the King to consent to give way to his beheading Says our Arch-Poet Spencer lib. 3. Can. 1. st 10. Great hazard were it and Adventure fond To lose long-gotten Honour with one evil Hand But he shall lose no Honour in this for first as Nazian Or. 27 rejects them that had raised an ill Report of him whom he praised ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã can you prove that they were sound in their mind that said so if any will believe it from such authors a good man hath lost his thanks Ego quod bené fecâ malè feci quia amor mutavit locum Plautus That which was well done is ill done because it is not lovingly requited Hear all and judge equally Both the Houses of Lords and Commons by most Voices found the Earl guilty of Treason they made the greater Quire but those few that absolved him sung better The King interceded by himself by the Prince his Son to save him craved it with Cap in Hand Being founder'd in his Power he could go no further the Subjects denied their Soveraign the Life of one Man so Strafford must be cast away Opimii calamitas turpitudo Po. Rom. non judicium fuit Cic. pro Plancio Whose Calamity is the shame of English Justice His Majesty for divers days could not find in his Heart to set his Hand to the Warrant for Execution for Conscience dresseth it self by its own light And I would he had been as constant to his own Judgment in other things that we might remember it to his Honour as Capitolinus testifies for Maximus Non aliis potiùs quà m sibi credidit The fate of it was that the Parliament would not grant Mercy to the Earl and would have Justice from the King according to their Sentence whether he would or no They threaten and were as good as their Word to sit idle and do nothing for publick Safety and Settlement the whole Realm being in distraction till the Stroke was struck All the Palace-Yard and Hall were daily full of Mutineers and Outcries His Majesty's Person was in danger the roguy Off-scum in the Streets of Westminster talk'd so loud that there was cause to dread it Though there is nothing more formidable than to fear any thing more than God yet the most eminent Lords of the Council perswaded His Majesty to make no longer resistance Placeat quodcunque necesse est Lucan lib. 4. Not he but Necessity should be guilty of it If he did
adversum Salust p. 109. Sic est vulgus ex veritate pauca ex opinione multa judicat Cic. pro Dom. And Grotius proves out of the Caesarean Law in Matt. 27.23 That when Pilate enclined to hear the People who would have Christ condemned he acted contrary to Caesar's Law Vanas populi veces non audiendar Imperatores pronunciarunt O those of the right Heroical Race were dead and gone who would not have endured to be directed by the Off-scourings of their greatest Enemies Nec bellua tetrior ulla est Quam vulgi rabies in libera colla frement is Claud. in Eutrop. The other catch of the Pincers was their Lordships Legislative Vote and their odds in number above the Bishops if you counted men by Noses Power should be a divine thing this was only Strength as Aristotle says 2 Rhet. c. 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which Tully hath put in good sence and good words pro Quinc Arbitrantur sine injuriâ potentiam levem atque inopem esse Some think it is not Power unless they make us feel that it can do an Injury Now methinks their Lordships should have mark'd that their House was alter'd in its Visage very much when the Bishops sate no longer with them And Hippocrates says That sick man will not recover whose Face is so much changed that it is drawn into another fashion ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And did the Lay-Peers look to last long when the Aspect of their House was so metamorphos'd It is a vulgar Error If you pluck up a Mandrake you will dye at the Groan of it Though it be but a Fable let them remember it that are for Extirpation and ware them whose turn is next Take away one Leg from a Trevit it may make a scurvy Stool to sit on but it is no longer a Trevit And take away the third Estate of Bishops be it nominal or real a Convention it may be but I doubt whether it be a Parliament And as a bungling Painter said of a Beast he had not drawn well It would not make a good Lyon but he could turn it into a good Calf There was a time when the whole Academy of Philosophers was banish'd out of Athens but they were soon miss'd and he was well fined that was their Enemy Sequenti anno revocati multa 5 talentorum Sophocli Archonti indita Moeur fort Att. p. 65. But for them that thrust the Bishops out of their ancient Right the Injury avenged it self upon them for it was not long when the Commons served the Temporal Lords in the same kind Nec longum laetabere te quoque fata prospectant paria AEn lib. 10. They were not only thrust out but an Engagement like a Padlock clapt upon the Door to keep them out for ever and to their great dishonour the other House made to resemble the Peers of the Land Duxit Sacerdotes inglorios Optimates supplantat Mark their Sympathy in the words of the vulgar Latin Job 12.19 Which retribution measure for measure the Bishops did neither wish nor rejoice in but committed their Innocency to be justified by the Holy God Seek no other reason why they had so many Enemies but because Christianity was mightily faln among us both as to the credenda and the agenda A mighty part had a Religion I mean equivocally called so that was a Picture looking equally upon all Sects that pass'd by it and as indifferent as Gusman âs Father that being taken by the Pirates of Argiers for quietness sake and as one that had not the Spirit of Contradiction renounced Christ and turned Turk But when the Cause of the Bishops for other Immunities and to keep their undoubted Right and Place in the Lords House was in the hottest dispute Sentence ready to be call'd for and like the last bidding for a thing at the Port-sale York at a Committee of the Lords stands up for his Brethren Murique urbis sunt pectore in uno Sil. lib. 7 and delivers him in the long Harangue that follows 159. I shall desire as much Water or Time of your H. Lordships as your Lordships can well afford in a Committee because all I intend to speak in this business must be to your Lordships only as resolved for mine own part to make hereafter no Remonstrance at all to His most excellent Majesty for these several Reasons First That I have had occasion of late to know that our Soveraign whom God bless and preserve is I will not say above other Princes but above all Christian men that ever I knew or heard of a man of a most upright dainty and scrupulous Conscience and afraid to look upon some Actions which other Princes abroad do usually swallow up and devour I know for I have the Monuments in my own custody what Oath or rather Oaths His Majesty hath taken at his Coronation to preserve all the Rights and Liberties of the Church of England and you know very well that Churchmen are never sparing in their Rituals and Ceremonials to amplisie and swell out the Oaths of Princes in that kind Your Lordships then know right well that he is sworn at that time to observe punctually the Laws of King Edward the first Law whereof as you may see in Lambert's Saxon Laws is to preserve entirely the Peace the Possessions and the Rights and Privileges of the Church And truly I shall never put my Master's Conscience that I find resenting and punctilious when it is bound up with Oaths and Protestations to swallow such Gudgeons as to sill it self with these Doubts and Scruples My second Reason is That if His Majesty were free from all these Oaths and Protestations I duât not without some fair Invitation from himself advise His Majesty to run Shocks and Oppositions against the Votes of both these great Houses of Parliament Lastly If I were secretly invited to move His Majesty to advise upon the passing of this Bill yet speaking mine own Heart and Sence and not binding any of my Brethren in this Opinion if I found the major part of this House to pass this Bill without much qualification I should never have the boldness nor desire to sit any more in any judicial place in this most honourable House And therefore my H. Lordships here I have sixt my Areopagus and dernier Resort being not like to make any further Appeal which makes me humbly desire your Patience to speak for some longer time than I have accustomed in a Committee in which length notwithstanding I hope to use a great deal of brevity some length in the whole and much shortness in every particular Head which I mean so to distinguish and beat out that not only your Lordships but the Lords my Brethren may enlarge themselves upon all the particulars which neither my Abilities of Body can perform nor doth my Intention nor Purpose aim at at this time I will therefore cast this whole Bill into six several Heads wherein I
Garbage That is in plain English the Priest must no longer receive Obligations from either King or Lords but wholly depend upon his Holy Fathers the Pope of Rome and the Pope of Lambeth or at least wise pay him soundly for their Dispensations and Absolutions when they presume to do the contrary In the mean time here is not one word or shew of Reason to inform an understanding man that persons in Holy Orders ought not to terrisie the Bad and comfort the Good to repress Sin and chastise Sinners which is the summa totalis of the Civil Magistracy and consequently so far forth at the least to intermeddle with Secular Affairs And this is all that I shall say touching the Motive and Ground of this Bill and that persons in Holy Orders ought not to be inhibited from intermeddling in Secular Astairs either in point of Divinity or in point of Conveniency and Policy 163. The second Point consists of the Persons reflected upon in this Bill which are Archbishops Bishops Parsons Vicars and all others in Holy Orders of which point I shall say little only finding these Names huddled up in an Heap made me conceive at first that it might have some relation to Mr. ãâã Reading in the Middle Temple which I ever esteem'd to have been very inoffentively deliver'd by that learned Gentleman and with little discretion question'd by a great Ecclesiastick then in Place for all that he said was this That when the Temporal âords are more in Voices than the Spiritual they may pass a Bill without consent of the Bishops Which is an Assertion so clear in Reason and so often practis'd upon the Records and Rolls of Parliament that no man any way vers'd in either of these can make any doubt of it nor do I though I humbly conceive no Preâident will be ever sound that the Prelates were ever excluded otherwise than by their own Folly Fear or Headiness For the point of being Justices of Peace the Gentleman confesseth he never meddled with Archbishops nor Bishops nor with any Clergyman made a Justice by His Majesty's Commission In the Statute made 34 Edw. 3. c. 1. he finds Assignees for the keeping of the Peace one Lord three or four of the most valiant men of the County the troublesome times did then so require it And if God do not bless us with the riddance of these two Armies the like Provision will be now as necessary He finds these men included but he doth not find Churchmen excluded no not in the Statute 13 Rich. II. c. 7. that requires Justices of Peace to be made of Knights Esquires and Gentlemen of the Law of the most sufficient of each County In which words the Gentleman thinks Clerks were not included and I clearly say by his favour they are not excluded nor do the learned Sages of the Law conceive them to be excluded by that Statute If the King shall command the Lord Keeper to fill up the Commissions of each County with the most sufficient Knights Esquires and Gentlemen of the Law shall the Lord Keeper thereupon exclude the Noblemen and the Prelates I have often in my days received this Command but never heard of this Interpretation before this time So that I cannot conceive from what ground this general Sweepstake of Archbishops Bithops Parsons Vicars and all others in Holy Orders should proceed I have heard since the beginning of my Sickness that it hath been alledg'd in this House that the Clergy in the Sixth of Edw. 3. did disavow that the Custody of the Peace did belong to them at all and I believe that such a thing is to be sound among the Notes of the Privileges of this House but first you must remember that it was in a great Storm and when the Waters were much troubled and the wild People unapt to be kept in order by Miters and Crosier-staves But yet if that noble Lord shall be pleased to cast his Eye upon the Roll it self he shall find that this poor Excuse did not serve the Prelates turns for they were compelled with a witness to defend the preservation of the Peace of the Kingdom for their parts as well as the Noblemen and Gentry And you shall find the Ordinance to this effect set down upon that Roll. I conclude therefore with that noble Lord's favour that the sweeping of all the Clergy out of temporal Offices is a motion of the first impression and was never heard in the English Common-wealth before this Bill 164. I come in the third place to the main part of this Cause the things to be severed from all men in Holy Orders which are as I told you of three kinds 1. Matters of Free-hold as the Bishops Votes in Parliament and Legislative Power 2. Matters of Favour to be a Judge in Star-chamber to be a a Privy-Councillor to be a Justice of Peace or a Commissioner in any Temporal Affairs 3. Mixt Matters of Free-hold and Favour too as the Charters of some Bishops and many of the ancient Cathedrals of this Kingdom who allow them a Justice or two within themselves or their Close as they call it and exempt those grave and learned men from the Rudeness and Insolency of Tapsters Brewers Inn-keepers Taylors and Shoe-makers which do integrate and make up the Bodies of our Country-Cities and Incorporations And now is the Ax laid to the very Root of the Ecclesiastical Tree and without your Lordships Justice and Favour all the Branches are to be lopt off quite with those latter Clauses and the Stock and Root it self to be quite grubb'd and digged up by that first point of abolishing all Vote and Legislative Power in all Clergymen leaving them to be no longer any part of the People of Rome but meer Slaves and Bond-men to all intents and purposes and the Priests of England one degree interiour to the Priests of Jerâboam being to be accounted worse than the Tail of the People Now I hope no English-man will doubt but this Vote and Representation in Parliament is not only a Freehold but the greatest Freehold that any Subject in England or in all the Christian World can brag of at this day that we live under a King and are to be govern'd by his Laws that is not by his arbitrary Edicts or Rescripts but by such Laws confirmed by him and assented to by us either in our proper Persons or in our Assignees and Representations This is the very Soul and Genius of our Magna Charta and without this one Spirit that great Statute is little less than litera occidens a dead and useless piece of Paper You heard it most truly opened unto you by a wise and judicious Peer of this House that Legem patere quam ipse tuleris was a Motto wherein Alexander Severus had not more interest than every true-born Englishman No Forty-shillings-man in England but doth in person or representation enjoy his Freedom and Liberty The Prelates of this Kingdom as a Looking-glass
and Representation of the Clergy a third estate if we may speak either with Sir Edw. Coke or the ancient Acts of Parliament have been in possession hereof these Thousand years and upward The Princes of the Norman Race indeed for their own ends and to strengthen themselves with Men and Money erected the Bishopricks soon after the Conquest into Baronies and left them to sit in the House with their double Capacities about them the latter invented for the profit of the Prince not excluding the former remaining always from the beginning for the profit and concernment of the poor Clergy and the State Ecclesiastical which appears not only by the Saxon Laws set forth by Mr. Lambert and Sir H. Spelman but also by the Bishops Writs and Summons to Parliament in use to this very day We have many President upon the Rolls that in vacancy of Episcopal Sees the Guardian of the Spirituals though but a simple Priest hath been called to fit in this Honourable House by reason of the former Representation and such an Officer I was my self over that See whereof I am Bishop some 25 years ago and might then have been summoned by Writ to this Honourable House at that very time by reason of keeping the Spirituality of that Diocess which then as a simple Priest I did by vertue of the aforesaid Office represent And therefore most noble Lords look upon the Ark of God's Representative that at this time floats in great danger in this Deluge of Waters If there be any Cham or unclean Creature therein out with him and let every man bear his own Burden but save the Ark for God and Christ Jesus sake who hath built it in this Kingdom for saving of People And your Lordships are too wise to conceive that the Word and Sacraments the means of our Salvation will be ever effectually received from those Ministers whose Persons shall be so vilified and dejected as to be made no Parcels or Fragments of this Common-wealth No faith Gregory the last Trick the Devil had in this World was this that when he could not bring the Word and Sacraments into disgrace by Errors and Heretical Opintens he invented this Project and much applauded his Wit therein to cast Slight and Contempt upon the Preachers and Ministers And my noble Lords you are too wise to believe what the common people talk that we have a Vote in the election of Knights and Burgesses and consequently some Figure and Representation in the noble House of Commons They of the Ministry have no Vote in these Elections they have no Representation in that Honourable House and the contrary Assertions are so slight and groundless as I will not offer to give them any answer And therefore R. Hon. Lords have a special care of the Church of England your Mother in this point And as God hath made you the most noble of all the Peers of the Christian World so do not you give way that our Nobility shall be taught henceforth as the Romans were in the time of the first and second Punick Wars by their Slaves and Bond-men only and that the Church of God in this Island may come to be served by the most ignoble Ministers that have ever been seen in the Christian Church since the Passion of our Saviour And so much for the first thing which this Bill intends of sever from Persons in Holy Orders viz. Votes and Representations in Parliament The next thing to be severed from them by this Bill is of a meaner Mettal and Alloy sittings in Star-Chamber sittings at Council-Table sitting in the Commissions of Peace and other Commissions of Secular Affairs which are such Favours and Graces of Christian Princes as the Church may have a being and subsistence without them The Fartunes of our Greece do not depend upon these Spangles and the Soveraign Prince hath imparted and withdrawn these kind of Favours without the envy or regret of any wise Ecclesiaâical Persons But my noble Lords this is the Case our King hath by the Statute restored unto him the Headship of the Church of England and by the Word of God he is Custos utriusque tabulae And will your Lordships allow this Ecclesiastical Head no Ecclesiastical Senses at all No Ecclesiastical Person to be consulted withal not in any circumstance of Time and Place If Cranmer had been thus dealt withal in the minority of our young King Josias King Edward the Sixth of pious memory what had become of the great Work of our Reformation in this flourishing Church of England But I know before whom I speak I do not mean to Dine your Lordships with Coleworts the harsh Consequents of this Point your Lordships do understand as well as I. The last Robe that some Persons in Holy Orders are to be stript of hath a kind of Mixture of Freehold and Favour of the proper Right and Graces of the King which are certain old Charters that some few Bishops and many Ancient and Cathedral Churches have purchased and procured from the ancient Kings before and since the Conquest to inable them to live quiet in their own Precincts and close as they call it under a Justice or two of their own Body without being abandoned upon every slight occasion to the Injuries and Vexations of Mechanical Tradesmen of which your Lordships best know those Country Incorporations do most consist Now whether these sew Charters have their Foundation by Favour or by Right I should conceive under your Lordships savour it is neither Favour nor Right to take them away without some just Crime objected and proved For if they be abused in any particular Mr. Attorney-General can find an ordinary Remedy to repair the same by a Writ of Ad quod damnum without troubling the two Houses of Parliament And this is all I shall speak to this Point 165. And now I am come to the fourth part of this Bill which is the manner of Inhibition heavy every way heavy in the Penalty heavier a great deal in the Incapacity For the weighing of the Penalty will you consider I beseech you the small Wyres that is poor Causes that are to induce the same and then the heavy Lead that hangs upon those Wyres It is thus If a natural Subject of England interessed in the Magna Charta and Petition of Right as well as any other yet being a Person in Holy Orders shall happen unfortunately to Vote in Parliament to obey his Prince by way of Counsel or by way of a Commissioner be required thereunto then he is presently to lose and forfeit for his first offence all his means and livelyhood for one year and for the second to forfeit his Freehold in that kind for ever and ever And I do not believe that your Lordships ever saw such an heavy weight of Censure hang upon such thin Wyres of Reason in an Act of Parliament made heretofore This peradventure may move others most but it does not me It is not the Penalty
the body v. 20. but now are they many Members yet but one Body v. 21. And the eye cannot say unto the hand I have no need of thee nor again the head unto the feet I have no need of you So far our brave Speaker and all this is exscribed faithfully out of his own Copy Let another take his room and let him that is wisest perform it better The Success was that he laid the Bill asleep for five months for I confess that by over-sight I have not kept the just order of time for it should have been referred to the middle of May before the King went into Scotland and was in a trance by the charm of this Eloquence till November after which shews how like he was to Athanasius Nazian in Orat. pro codem ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Athanasius was an Adamant not to be broken with violent blows and a Load-stone to draw them to him that were of a contrary Opinion Now mark the Partiality upon which the Speaker much insisted That the Lords would grant Interest to noble Persons in Holy Orders to act in Secular Affairs but to none beside As Grotius fits it with a passage Annal. p. 5. Castellani quantumcunque usurpent ipsi libertatem in aliis non serunt The Castilians are great encroachers upon liberty for themselves but will not tollerate it in any beside To the main Cause I yield that that was easie to be defended on the Clergies part as learned Saravia shews de Christian Obed. p. 169. not only from Moses's Law but from the Custom general of the most orderly among the Heathen Gaulish Druids Persian Magi Egyptian Heirophants and so forth by induction from all places to make it amount even to a natural Law that Priests were no where excluded from honourable Imployments in Secular Affairs I will appose two Quotations for it and very remarkable The first from the Judgment of the Scottish Presbytery R. Spotswood Hist p. 299. 449. That they contended for that Priviledge that some Ministers should give Voice in Parliament in the behalf of the Church And some to assist the King in Parliament in Council and out of Council Doth the Wind blow so from the North The other taken from Ludo. Molin Paraen c 4. And he no well-willer to our Hierarchy in that Book least of all to their Consistories Deus Pastori Evangelico non detrahit jus potestatem Magistraturae nec magistratum prohibet ministerio si ad utrumque factus comparatus est But this Bill that went no further when it was first set on foot in May began to enlarge its strides and mend its Pace in the end of Autumn Either because this fiery Parliament saw that Confusion begun must be carried on with acting greater or because the King was suspected that he tamper'd with the Scots and they framed an Injury from his Neglect to leave them so long or how it was that their thoughts were whiâ'd about with the Wheel of swift Perswasions themselves knew best but their Spleen began to shew it self with stronger fits than ever against the Clergy who were never safe so long as the Bill we have heard of was not cancell'd For the Spanish Proverb tells us That Apple is in great danger that sticks upon the prickles of an Hedge-hogg But if the Sum of the Bill had been right cast the now most noble Marquess of Dorchester and more noble because most learned told his Peers May 21. Which of your Lordships can say he shall continue a Member of this House when at one blow six and twenty are cut off This was sooth nay Sooth-saying and Prophesying but it was not attended 167. When all ways had been tried to pass this Bill of Dishonour upon the Clergy chiefly the Bishops and it hung in the House of the Lords the event methinks is like that which we read I Kings 22. v. 21. There came forth a Spirit and stood before the Lord and said I will perswade them And the Lord said Wherewith And he said I will go forth and I will be a Spirit of clamour and tumult in the mouth of all the People And the Lord said Thou shalt perswade them and prevail also Go forth and do so There had been an unruly and obsteperous concourse of the People in the Earl of Strafford's Case But a Sedition broke forth about Christmas that was ten times more mad Ludum jocumque dices fuisse illum alterum prout hujus rabies quae dabit Terent. Eunuch which took heat upon this occasion The King came to the House of Commons to demand five of their Members to Justice upon impeachment of Treason His Majesty it seems was too forward to threaten such persons with the Sword of Justice when he wanted the Buckler of Safety How far those five were guilty I have nothing to say because plain Force would not let them come to a Tryal But if they were innocent why did they not suffer their Practices to see the Light It had been more to their Honour to be cleared by the Law than to be protected against the Law And that Cause must needs be suspected which could not put on a good outside I am sure the King suffer'd extreamly for their sakes All Sectaries and desperate Varlets in City and Suburbs flock'd by thousands to the Parliament Diogenes was ask'd What was to be seen at the Olympick Sports where he had been Says he ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Laert. in Vit. Much People but few Men. But here were no Men but all Beasts who promised one another Impunity by their full body of Rebels and where there is no fear of Revenge there is little Conscience of Offence Quicquid multis peccatur inultum est Lucan The Rake-hells were chaffed to so high a degree of Acrimony that they pressed through the Court-gates and their Tongues were so lavish that they talk'd Treason so loud that the King and Queen did hear them Let the five Members be as honest as they would make them I am certain these were Traytors that begirt the King's House where his Person was with Hostility by Land and Water He that speaks of them without detestation allows them and makes way for the like Sometimes they called out for Religion sometimes for Justice Ex isto ore religionis verbum excidere aut clabi potest as Tully of Clodius pro Dom. Was the sacred term of Religion sit to come out of their Mouths Did it become them to speak of Justice Sarah cried out to Abraham The Lord judge between me and thee when her self was in the fault Gen. 16.5 Every Tinker and Tapster call'd for Justice and would let the King have none who is the Fountain of it What did the great Parliament in the mean while Give Freedom to their Rage ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Odyss ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Their Friends in their ragged rows were too many to be childden they were more afraid of them than of the
Ruin of a Kingdom as little Children are more afraid of a Vizard than of the Fire therefore they stroke them with fair words when they meet them O Indignity An quae Turpia cerdoni Volesos Brutumque decebunt Juven Sat. 8. That which was base in Coblers was it not worse in Lords and Knights and Squires and such as assumed to be the Princes of the Land No Senators that intended to rule a People did ever endure the like Let M. AEmilius the Consul speak for the State of Rome Livy lib. 39. Majores nostri ne vos quidem nisi cum aut vexillo in arce posito comitiorum causâ exercitus positus esset aut plebi Concilium tribuni edixissent aut aliqui ex magistratibus and concionem vocassent temerè coire voluerint ubi legitimum rectorem multitudini censerent esse debere They that boulster up such Insurrections as these their own Guards upon a new Quarrel may knock them on the Head Cum tot populis stipatus eas in tot populis vix una fides Sen Hercul furens But these Wat Tylers and Round-Robins being driven or persuaded out of White-hall there was a buzz among them to take their way to Westminster-Abby some said Let us pluck down the Organs Some cried Let us deface the Monuments that is prophane the Tombs and Burying-places of Kings and Queens This was carried with all speed to the Archbishop the Dean who made fast the Doors whiâ they found shut against them and when they would have forced them they were beaten off with Stones from the top of the Leads the Archbishop all this while maintaining the Abby in his own person with a few more for fear they should seize upon the Regalia which were in that place under his Custody The Spight of the Mutineers was most against him yet his Followers could not entreat him to go aside as the Disciples restrained Paul from rushing into an Uproar Act. 19.30 but he stood to it as Cesius Quintius in Livy lib. 3. Unus impetus tribunitios popularesque procellas sustinebat After an hours dispute when the Multitude had been well pelted from aloft a few of the Archbishops Train opened a Door and rush'd out with Swords drawn and drove them before them like fearful Hares They were already past their Duty but short of their Malice and every day made Battery on all the Bishops as they came to Parliament forcing their Coaches back tearing their Garments menacing if they came any more What Times could be worse None says Tully upon M. Antony's Violence upon the Senate Phil. Or. 13. Caesare dominante venicbamus in Senatum si non liberè tamen tutò What Aid did the Lords afford to quell these Affronts Why let Softhenes be beaten before the Judgment-seat Gallio cares for none of these things Act. 18.17 The Bishops were God's Ministers and let him defend them as Tyberius to that way in Tacitus Deorum injuriae Diis curae sunt The remissness of our Parliament Lords Optimates non Optimi shewed the same Indifferency O ye religious Kings that would govern with Peace how are ye able These foul and unremediable Uproars tell you that the only Imperatorian Art is to be furnish'd with a good Army and to know how to order it 168. So great a Hurry continuing wherein all things were turned the wrong side upward there was such an apparent Mischief co-incident that whatsoever did pass in the Lords House during their constrained absence was null and invalid for if any one person in either House be repelled by force and be denied Freedom to give his Vote that Nicety is a Bar to the whole Proceeding of the Parliament as some write that comment subtilly upon Parliamentary Privileges Not as if the Speaker did ever sit in his Chair when none were absent or that one Vote is like to sway a Cause yet sometimes it comes to so near a scrutiny but this Judgment is made of it That it may so fall out and doth often that one Member put the case the person forced out may propose such Reasons to the House as that all resolve into his Opinion This great Prejudice concurring by repelling the Bishops tumultuously from taking their Places in the Lords House York called his Brethren together to set their Hands to a Petition and Protestation made to His Majesty and the Lords Temporal and put it into the L. Keeper Littleton's Hand yet not to be read till His Majesty by the Bishop's Invitation should fit with the Peers in the House and then to read it in the King and the Lords audience and not before The L. Keeper unadvisedly I hope it was no worse produceth the Petition c. before the King was made acquainted with it which made a Project well contrived break out into a Thunder-clap of Mischief which rash or bad dealing in the Lord-Keeper York could not suspect And he that drives much business shall be cross'd in some for want of Luck though he be never so prudent Nulli fortuna tam dedita est ut multa tentanti ubique respondeat Sen. lib. 1. de irâ c. 3. That Protestation follows here whose like and almost same York had found in the Records of the Tower which he studied there till his Eye-sight was much the worse for it To the KING 's Most Excellent Majesty and the Lords and Peers now assembled in Parliament The humble Petition and Protestation of all the Bishops and Prelates now called by His Majesty's Writs to attend the Parliament and now present about London and Westminster for that Service THat whereas the Petitioners are called up by several and respective Writs and under great Penalties to attend in Parliament and have a clear and indubitate Right to vote in Bills and other matters whatsoever debateable in Parliament by the ancient Customs Laws and Statutes of this Realm and ought to be protected by Your Majesty quietly to attend and prosecute that great Service They humbly remonstrate and protest before God Your Majesty and the noble Lords and Peers now assembled in Parliament that as they have an indubitate Right to Sit and Vote in the House of the Lords so are they if they may be protected from Force and Violence most ready and willing to perform their Duties accordingly And that they do abominate all Actions or Opinions tending to Popery and the maintenance thereof as also all Propension and Inclination to any malignant Party or any other Side or Party whatsoever to the which their own Reasons and Consciences shall not move them to adhere But whereas they have been at several times violently menaced affronted and assaulted by multitudes of People in their coming to perform their Services in that Honourable House and lately chased away and put in danger of their Lives and can find no Redress or Protection upon sundry Complaints made to both Houses in these particulars They likewise humbly protest before your Majesty and the noble House of Peers
that saving unto themselves all their Rights and Interests of Sitting and Voting in the House at other times they dare not Sit or Vote in the House of Peers until your Majesty shall further secure them from all Affronts Indignities and Dangers in the Premisses Lastly Whereas their Fears are not built upon Phantasies and Conceipts but upon such Grounds and Objects as may well terrifie men of good Resolutions and much Constancy They do in all duty and humility protest before your Majesty and the Peers of the most Honourable House of Parliament against all Laws Orders Votes Resolutions and Determinations as in themselves null and of none effect which in their absence since the 27th of this Instant-month of Decemb. 1641 have already passed As likewise against all such as shall hereafter pass in that most Honourable House during the time of their forced and violent absence from the said most Honourable House Not denying but if their absenting of themselves were wilful and voluntary that most Honourable House might proceed in all the Premisses their Absence or this Protestation notwithstanding And humbly beseeching your most Excellent Majesty to command the Clerk of that House of Peers to enter this Petition and Protestation amongst his Records They will ever pray to God to bless and preserve c. Subscribed by Joh. Eborac Tho. Dunelm Ro. Cov. and Lich. Jos Norwicen Joh. Asaphensis Gul. Bath Wellen. Geo. Hereford Rob. Oxen. Matth. Elien Godfr Glocestr Job Petroburg Maur. Landoven 169. Hear and admire ye Ages to come what became of this Protestation drawn up by as many Bishops as have often made a whole Provincial Council They were all call'd by the Temporal Lords to the Bar and from the Bar sent away to the Tower Nonne fuit satius tristes formidinis iras Atque superba pati fastidia A rude World when it was safer to do a Wrong than to complain of it The People commit the Trespass and the Sufferers are punish'd for their Fault ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Athen. lib. 9. A Proverb agreeing to the drunken Feasts of the Greeks If the Cook dress the Meat ill the Minstrils are beaten That day it broke forth that the largest part of the Lords were fermentated with an Anti-episcopal Sourness If they had loved that Order they would never have doomed them to a Prison and late at night in bitter Frost and Snow upon no other Charge but that they presented their Mind in a most humble Paper to go abroad in safety Ubi amor condimentum inerit quidvis placiturum spero Plaut in Casin Love hath a most gentle hand when it comes to touch where it loves Here was no sign of any silial respect to their Spiritual Fathers Nothing was offer'd to the Peers but the Substance was Reason the Style lowly the Practice ancient yet upon their pleasure without debate of the Cause the Bishops are pack'd away the same night to keep their Christmas in Durance and Sorrow And when this was blown abroad O how the Trunch-men of the Uproar did fleer and make merry with it But the Disciples of the Church of England took it very heavily not for any thing the good Bishops had done but for that they suffer'd for a Prisoner is not a Name of Infamy but Calamity Poena damnati non peccati Cic. pro Dom. Estque pati poenam quà m meruisse minùs Ovid. lib. 1. de Pont. Nothing can be more equal than to lay the Objections the Lords made and York's Answers for the Protestation together as they go from Hand to Hand to this day in Town and City And let the Children judge what their Fathers did if they read this hereafter Obj. 1. That the Petition is false the Lords did not sit in Fear as my Lord of Worcester Winchester London Nor was it the Petition of all the Bishops about London and Westminster not of Winchester London Rochester Worcester ãâã If this were true yet were it not Treason against any Canon or Statute-Law but the Fact is otherwise First the Fear complained against is not for the time of their Sitting in the House but for the time of their coming unto and going from the said House and it is easie to prove they were then in Fear Secondly They know best whether they were in Fear or no who subscribed or agreed to the Petition And my Lord of Winchester agreed in it as much as the rest and instanced in the cause of his Fear his chasing to Lambeth Thirdly For the other part of the Objection the Bishop of London was then at Fulham Rochester in Kent Worcester at Oxford nor doth the Title of the Petition comprehend them as not being about London and Westminster Winchester did agree thereunto and came thither to subscribe and it was resolved his Name should have been called for ere ever it was to be solemnly preferred to the King which was never intended to be but when the King sate in the Upper House of the Lords which the Bishops intended to pray His Majesty to do And this appears by the Superscription of the Petition Obj. 2. The nulling of all Laws to be made at this time that the Kingdom of Ireland was in jeopardy was a conspiring with the Rebels to destroy that Kingdom and so amounted to Treason or a high Misdemeanour ãâã 1. A Protestation annulleth no Law but so far as the Law shall extend to the Parties protesting Nor so far but in case that the Parties protesting shall afterward judicially prove their right to annull that Law So that it was impossible any Protestation of the Bishops should actually intend to hinder the Relief of Ireland 2 The Relief of Ireland by 10000 Scots and 10000 English was voted and concluded long before this Protestation and all the Particulars of that great business referr'd to a Committee of both Houses and the Bishops unanimously assented thereto So that the Relief of Ireland comes not within the Date and Circumscription of this Protestation And the Bishops call God to witness they never conceived one Thought that way 3. The Bishops protested against no Laws or Orders at all to be annulled absolutely and for all the time of this Session of Parliament simply but for that space of time only wherein they should be forcibly and violently kept from the said Parliament by those rude and unruly People So that as soon as the King and the Lords did quiet their passage unto Parliament which the Lords did do before this Petition was read in Parliament and that any of the Bishops were present there the Protestation was directly null and of none effect so as indeed the Protestation was void and dead in Law before the L. Keeper brought the Petition in question into the House because the Bishop of Winchester and some others had even then quiet access unto that Honourable House And the Bishops conceived the Protestation void in such a case and do most humbly wave and revoke the same and humbly desire both
Houses to accept thereof Obj. 3. They desire the King to command the Clerk of the House of Peers to enter this their Petition and Protestation among his Records which derogates from the Rights of Parliament As though the King could be his Command make a Record of Parliament ãâã It is to be conceived that the Bishops never intended that this Petition as may appear by the Directory thereof should be preferred to the King in any other place but in the Upper House of Parliament And it will appear among the Records of that most Honourable House 11 Rich. II. num 9. that the King in that House hath commanded the like Protestation of the Bishops to be enrolled which made the Bishops use that Phrase Howbeit beside the King's Command the Assent of the Peers and Commons have still concurred and the Bishops never conceived it otherwise which made them presume that no matter of their Protestation could possibly amount to any higher Crime than that of Error or Mistake considering that it was still to be admitted or rejected by the King with the Assent of the Peers and Commons Here the Answer ends in this brief compass Let all the Council in the Land plead against it and shew where it is not sound and satisfactory Yet the Bishops desire no other reparation for their false Imprisonment but Liberty and Safety to Vote in that House to which they were called by the King 's Writ Sidonius speaks in pity of Eutropia lib. 6. ep 2. Victoriam computat si post dammum non litiget And these innocent men would not hold it for Justice done unto them if after so much Wrong sustained the Contention might be ended 170. Every subsequent Action of that Parliament did castrate their Hope Day utter'd unto Day how they meant to dissolve that Primitive and Apostolick Order piece by piece And what shall we have next The very Kingdom of Christ set up in the Church if you will believe them As Pisistratus would perswade the Athenians that he changed not their Laws but reduced them to those that were in Solon's time by which Trick he made them his Slaves Laert. in Vit. Sol. Is it possible that men could have the face to pretend more ancient Rulers in Christ's Church than Bishops The method of Sacrilege was first to pluck the Spiritual Lords out of the House and to disable all the Clergy from intermedling in Secular Affairs The Bill is read and easily pass'd now the Bishops were not in place to hear it and dispute it The Plaintiff pleads the Cause at Westminster what can the Defendant say to it in the Tower Proceed my good Lords he that runs alone by himself must needs be foremost This was worse than if a young Heir were sent to travel by his Guardian and the Guardian pulls down his House fells his Woods leaseth out his Lands when he is not in the way to look to it But where were those Earls and Barons that sided with the Bishops before Shrunk absent or silent They that are wise Leave falling Buildings fly to them that rise Or as Plautus in Stych as neat in his Comick Phrase as Johnson Si labant res lassae itidem amici collabascunt But the King's part is yet to come The Parliament makes ready a Bill the King only makes it a Law So he did this and it was the last I think that ever he signed Why he did it is a thing not well known and wants more manifestation Necessity was in it say they that would look no further Nulla necessitas excusat quae potest non esse necessitas Tertul. Exh. ad Cast c. 7. The most said That nothing was more plausible than this to get the Peoples Favour Or that the Houses had sate long like to continue longer and must have Wages for their Work because they are no Hirelings they will chuse and take and this Boon they will have or the King shall have no Help from them It would ill become a Royal Spirit to plead he was compelled by Fear else His Majesty might have revoked this Act upon that Challenge As Sir Nic. Throgmorton surpassing most of his Age for Wit and Experience assured Mary Queen of Scots shut up in the hold of Loquelevin Cessionem in carcere extortam qui justus est metus planè irritam esse Cambd. Eliz. ann 1569. Yet Fear had not so much stroke in this as the Perswasions of one whom His Majesty loved above all the World The King foresaw he was not like to get any thing from this Parliament but a Civil War he would not begin it but on their part he heard their Hammers already at the Forge Et clandestinis turgentia fraudibus arma Manil. lib. 1. He being most tender to provide for the Safety of his Queen went with her to Dover to convey her into France not that she desired to turn her Back to Danger or refused to partake of all Hazards with her Lord and Husband for she was resolute in that as Theogena the Wife of Agathocles Justin lib. 20. Nubendo ei non prosperae tantùm fed omnis fortunae iniisse societatem But because His Majesty knew himself that he should be more couragious if his dear Consort were out of the reach of his Enemies Being at Dover the Queen would not part with the King to Ship-board till he signed this Bill being brought to believe by all protestation of Faith from Sir John Culpepper who attended there for that Dispatch that the Lords and Commons would press His Majesty to no more Bills of that unpleasing nature So the King snatch'd greedily at a Flower of a fair Offer and though he trusted few of the men at Westminster yet in outward shew he would seem to trust them all the more because the Queen had such Confidence in them How Culpepper instilled this into the Queen and how she prevailed York is my Author and could not deceive me for he told me in the Tower That the King had sacrificed the Clergy to this Parliament by the Artifices contrived at Dover a day before the News were brought to London Then they fell to Bells and Bonfires and prophaned the Name of God that He had heard them whose Glory was not in their Thoughts from the beginning to the end A Day-labourer lifts up his Ax towards Heaven but strikes his Mattock into the Earth And all the Evil that the Earth breeds was in their Mind when they seemed to look up to God That which is of God must have its Foundation in Humility its binding fast in Obedience its rising in Justice and its continuance in Peace So begins the Misery and Fall of the Bishops Synesius hath lent us words fit to express jump in the same Case Ep. 70. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã That is the Bishops were expulsed meerly by Slander nothing being demonstrated to lay any Crimes against them And verily God was gracious to them What should they have done as it
Xeno Ath. Resp 'T is pardonable for every man to help himself Nor was it an indirect way no not a jot for there was neither Perjury nor Contradiction found between the first and second Depositions of the Parties And what the Bishop did was by the advice of the best Counsel in England to draw up some few Interrogatories to be put to the four Witnesses only to interpret and not to vary from or to substract or contradict what they had deposed before For the words being ambiguous in themselves might be taken in one sense to Defame in another fence not at all to touch upon the credit of Pregion It was agreed that Pregion offer'd money to A. Tubb and Alice Smith to procure Eliz. Hodgson to lay the base Child upon another man this they had sworn this the Bishop never endeavoured to impeach But an interrogatory is drawn up and offer'd to them whether El. Hodgson was dealt with to lay it upon the right Father which was a just and lawful motion or upon some other whether he had been the Father or no. They both answer That Pregion sollicited her to lay it upon another that was the true Father And this variation is all the Offence that is none at all in that particular And in that right meaning Sir J. Wray Sir J. Bolls and Richardson the Clerk of the Peace did receive it in the Sessions This Practice so little as it is is the grand Objection all beside comes not to so much as a filip on the Forehead For instance one Ward swears that he heard a Servant of the Bishop C. Powel offer Alice Smith Monies to take an Oath of his framing but Alice swears directly it was not so Powel swears he offer'd and paid her Money to bear her Charges as a Witness which is fit and lawful Nec ist a benignitas adimenda est quae liberalitatem magis significat quà m largitionem Cic. pro Murenâ T. Lund takes his Oath That Pregion told him that he never had touch'd El Hodgson but twice Being demanded hereof more strictly in his examination in the Star-chamber he swears That Pregion did not say to him that he touch'd her carnally nor did he know what he meant by touching Is there either substraction or contradiction in this or any more than a plain interpretation Lastly Wetheral had deposed That he was entreated by Pregion not to be at the Sessions He stands to it but adds that he was not bound to be there nor summoned He had deposed That Pregion spake to him to swear to no more than the Court should ask him What harm was there in that Caution Being examined in Star-chamber he swears That Pregion tempted him to nothing by Bribes or Reward but that he told him if he were sworn to tell the whole Truth he would not conceal it Only one Witness George Walker layeth it on the Bishop how Powel and Richard Owen entreated him in the Bishop's Name to speak with Witheral upon these matters which though it include no ill yet Owen and Powel depose They were never employed by the Bishop to deal with G. Walker upon such an Errand So the Bishop is cleared in every Information by sufficient Oaths of such against whose Faith there was no exception How easie a Province had the Defendant's Counsel to crumble these Impeachments into Dust and to blow them into the Eyes of the Impeachers Verba innocenti reperire facilè est Curt. lib. 6. Yet the Oratory of the Court by pre-instructions did turn them into filthy Crimes As Irenaeus says in the beginning of his Work That out of the same Jewels which being handsomly put together make the Image of a Prince being taken asunder you may contrive them into the Shape of a Monster 119. Could it be expected that such Driblets or rather Phantoms of Under-dealing with Witnesses should hold the Court ten days hearing in the long Vacation after Trinity-Term What leisure was taken to bolt out to exaggerate to wrack to distort to make an Elephant of a Fly which I may justly pour forth in the words of Tully for his Client Quintius de fortunis omnibus deturbandus est Potentes diserti nobiles omnes advocandi Adhibenda vis est veritati minae intentantur pericula intenduntur formidines opponuntur But here were worse things which the Oratour had never cause to complain of under the Roman Laws All the Depositions of the main Witnesses for the Bishop were deleted not fairly by a Hearing in open Court where their Lordships might every one have consider'd of it but were spunged out by that Judge in his private Chamber who was the bane of the Cause from the beginning to the end and forsooth because they were impertinent Scandals against Kilvert and others that had deposed for the King Only the Bishop was allowed to put in a cross Bill when it was too late after he was first ruin'd in his Honour Fortunes and Liberty and then lest to seek a Remedy against a Companion not worth a Groat And who was ever used like this Defendant since the Star-chamber sate that when his Cause was so far proceeded as to be heard in three sittings that two new Affidavits should be brought in by Kilvert which struck to the very substance of the Cause to which no Answer could be given because they were new matters quite out of the Books obtruded long after publication yet from thenceforth produced every day which seduced divers of the noble Lords and no doubt many of the Hearers as though they had been Depositions in that Cause which were not so but Materials of another information and in their due time were fully cleared and disproved When was it known before that in every of the ten days that the Cause was in debate a Closet-meeting was held at Greenwich the Lords sent for to it one by one the Proofs there repeated to them and their Votes bespoken Which was no better than when Junius Marius in Tacitus bespake the Emperor Claudius to impart his private Commentaries unto him Per quos nosceret quisque quem accusandum poposcisset And between the full hearing and sentencing the Cause the Lords were well told a Passage That a noble Personage had offered Ten thousand pounds to compound for the Bishop's Peace which is true that the Duke of Richmond did it when he saw how the Game went in the Cabinet Which was the very reason that induced their Lordships to lay such an immense Fine upon a Fault conceiv'd that was never sentenc'd in any Kingdom or State before Yet all this did not suffice but in that morning of the day when the Cause was sentenc'd it was first debated in an inner Chamber so long till many hundreds waited for their coming forth till high noon wherein Agreement was concluded by all Parties before they sate There and then it was that the Archbishop press'd for the degradation of his Brother Bishop and his deportation God knows whither Now
lay-Lay-Lords and consequently continued present in Judicature in the eye and construction of the Law Therefore I apply my Answers to Courtney's Protestation principally which are divers and fit to be weighed and ponder'd First I do observe that Bishops did never protest or withdraw in Causes of Blood but only under the unsteddy Reign of Richard the Second Never before nor after the time of that unfortunate King to this present Parliament for ought appears in Record or History And that one Swallow should make us such a Spring and one Omission should create a Law or Custom against so many Actions of the English Prelates under so many Kings before so many Kings and Queens after that young Prince seems to me a strange Doctrine especially when I consider that by the Rules of the Civil and Common Law a Protestation dies with the death of him that makes it or is regularly vacated and disannulled Per contrarium actum subsequentem protestationem by any one subsequent act varying from the tenour of the said Protestation Regul Juris Bap. Nicol. part 2. Now that you may know how the Prelates carried themselves in this point and actually voted in Causes of Treason and sometimes to Blood before Richard the Second I refer me to what I cited before out of Mr. Selden and he out of Stephanides concerning Becket condemned by his Peers Ecclesiastical and Temporal 15 H. 2. Archbishop Stratford acquitted of High Treason in Parliament by four Prelates four Earls and four Barons under Edward the Third Antiq. Britan. p. 223. There was 4 Ed. 3. Roger de Mortimer Berisford Travers and others adjudged Traitors by Bishops as well as other Peers 16 Ed. 3. Thomas de Berkely was acquitted of Treason in pleno Parliamento And especially I refer my self to Roll 21 Rich. 2. Num. 10. which averrs That Judgments and Ordinances in the time of that King's Progenitors had been avoided by the absence of the Clergy which makes the Commons there to pray that the Prelates would make a Procurator by whom they might in all Judgments of Blood be at the least legally if they durst not be bodily present in such Judicatures And for the practice since the Reign of Rich. II. be it observed that in the fifth of Hen IV. the Commons thank the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for their good and rightful Judgment in freeing the Earl of Northumberland from Treason 3 Hen. 5. The Commons pray a Confirmation of the Judgment given upon the E. of Cambridge by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal 5 H. 5. Sir J. Oldcastle is attainted of Treason and Heresie by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal 28 H. 6. The Duke of Suffolk is charged with Treason before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal 31 H. 6. The Earl of Devon in like sort and so down to the Earl of Bristol's Case 22 Maii 1626. ten Bishops are joyned with ten Earls and ten Barons in the disquisition and agitation of that supposed Treason I leave it therefore to any indifferent Judgment Whether these Protestations made all under one Kings Reign dying with the Parties that made them can void a Right and Custom grounded on a continual Practice to the contrary in all other Tryals that have been since the Conquest to this present Parliament 151. Secondly It is fitting we know the nature of a Protestation which some may mistake Protestatio est animi nostri declaratio juris acquirendi vel conservandi vel damnum depellendi causâ facta saith Spiegle Calvin and all the Civilians No Protestation is made by any man in his Wits to destroy his own Right and much less another mans but to acquire or preserve some Right or to avoid and put off some Wrong that was like to happen to the Party or Parties that make the Protestation As here in Courtney's Protestation the Prelates in the first place conceive a Right and Power they had voluntarily to absent themselves while some matters were treated of at that time in the House of Lords which by the Canon-Law the Breach whereof the Popes of Rome did vindicate in those times with far more Severity than they did the Transgressions of the Law of God they were not suffer'd to be present at not for want of Right to be there in all Causes but for fear of Papal Censures In the next place they did preserve their former Right as Peers which they still had though voluntarily absenting themselves More solito interessendi considerandi tyactandi ordinandi definiendi all things without exception acted and executed in that Parliament And in the last place they protest against any loss of right of being or voting in Parliament that could befall them for this voluntary absenting of themselves at this time And where in all this Protestation is there one word to prejudice their Successors or to authorize any Peer to command his fellow-Peer called thither by the same Writ of Summons that himself is and by more ancient Prescription to withdraw and go out from this Common-Council of the Kingdom Thirdly We do not certainly know what these matters were whereat Archbishop Courtney conceived the Prelates neither could nor ought to be present These matters are left in loose and general words in that Protestation Some conceive indeed it was at the Condemnation of Tressilian Brambre L. Beauchamp and others Ant. Brit. p. 286. But the Notes of Privileges belonging to the Lords collected by Mr. Selden do with more reason a great deal assign this going forth of the Prelates to be occasion'd by certain Appeals of Treason preferred in that Parliament by the Duke of Gloucester against Alexander Archbishop of York whom the Popish Canons of those Times as you know exempted as a sacred person from the cognizance of King or Parliament and therefore the rest of the Bishops as the Squares went then neither could nor ought to be present and Parties to break the Exemptions Immunities and Privileges of that great Prelate But the Earl of Strafford is not the Archbishop but the President of York and to challenge any such Exemptions and Immunities at this time from the cognizance of King and Parliament amounts to little less than Treason Therefore this Protestation is very unseasonably urged to thrust out any Protestant Prelate from voting in Parliament Lastly In the Civil and Canon-Law for the Law of this Land knoweth it not a Protestation is but a Testation or witnessing before-hand of a man 's own Mind or Opinion whereby they that protest provide to save and presorve their own Right for the time to come It concludes no more bende themselves no Stranger to the Act no Successor but if it be admitted sticks as inherent in the singular and individual person until either the Party dyes or the Protestation be drawn and revoked Therefore what is a Protestation made by Will. Courtney to Will. Laud Or by Tho. Arundel to bind Tho. Morton And what one Rule in the Common-Law of the Land in the Journaâ-Books or