revilings of malicious people had no power to move him or sharpen him into any discontent or shew of passion would needes put in and try what he could do with his spunge and vinegar and stepping to him neare the block asked him with such a purpose as the Scribes and Pharisees used to propose questions to our Lord and Saviour not to learne by him but to tempt him or to expose him to some disadvantage with the standers by what was the comfortablest saying which a dying man could have in his mouth To which he meekely made this answer Cupio dissolvi esse cum Christo i. e. I desire to bee dissolv'd and to bee with Christ Being asked againe what was the fittest speech a man could use to expresse his confidence and assurance he answered with the same spirit of meeknesse that such assurance was to be found within and that no words were able to expresse it rightly Which when it would not satisfie the troublesome and impertinent man who aimed at something else then such satisfaction unlesse hee gave some word or place of Scripture whereupon such assurance might bee truely founded hee used some words to this effect that it was the Word of God concerning CHRIST and his dying for us And so without expecting any further questions for hee perceived by the manner of Sir Iohn's proceedings that there would bee no end of his interruptions if he hearkned any longer to him he turned towards his Executioner the gentler and discreeter man of the two and gave him mony saying without the least distemper or change of countenance here honest freind God forgive thee and doe thy office upon mee with mercy and having given a signe when the blow should come he kneeled down upon his knees and prayed as followeth The Lord Arch-bishops Prayer as hee kneeled by the Blocke Lord I am comming as fast as I can I know I must passe through the shadow of death before I can come to see thee But it is but umbra mortis a meere shadow of death a little darknesse upon nature but thou by thy merits and passion hast broke through the jawes of death So Lord receive my Soule and have mercy upon mee and blesse this Kingdome with Peace and Plenty and with brotherly love and charity that there may not bee this effusion of Christian blood amongst them for JESUS CHRIST'S sake if it bee thy will Then laying his head upon the Blocke and praying silently to himselfe he said aloud Lord receive my Soule which was the signall given to the Executioner who very dextrously did his office and tooke it off at a blow his soule ascending on the wings of Angels into Abrahams bosome and leaving his Body on the Scaffold to the care of men A spectacle so unpleasing unto most of those who had desired his death with much heat and passion that many who came with greedy eyes to see him suffer went backe with weeping eyes when they saw him dead their consciences perhaps bearing witnesse to them as you know whose did that they had sinned in being guilty of such innocent blood Of those whom onely curiosity and desire of novelty brought thither to behold that unusuall sight many had not the patience to attend the issue but went away assoon as the speech was ended others returned much altered in the opinion which before they had of him and bettered in their resolutions towards the King and the Church whose honour and religious purposes they saw so clearely vindicated by this glorious Martyr And for the rest the most considerable though perhaps the smallest part of that great assembly as they came thither with no other intentiō then to assist him with their prayers to imbalme his body with their teares and to lay up his dying speeches in their hearts and memories so when they had performed those offices of Christian duty they comforted themselves with this that as his life was honourable so his death was glorious the pains whereof were short and momentany to himselfe the benefit like to be perpetuall unto them and others who were resolved to live and dye in the Communion of the Church of England But to proceed for I have some few things to note it was observed that whereas other men when they come to the Blocke use to looke pale and wan and ghastly and are even dead before the blow he on the contrary seemed more fresh and cheerfull then he had done any part of the day before a cleare and gallant spirit being like the Sunne which shews greatest alwayes at the setting And as the Scripture telleth us of Saint Stephen the Proto Martyr that whilst he spake his last Oration before the chiefe Priests and Elders of the Iewes they of the Counsell looking stedfastly upon him saw his face as it had beene the face of an Angell so was it generally observed not without astonishment that all the while our Martyr prayed upon the Blocke the Sunne which had not showne it selfe all the day till then did shine directly on his face which made him looke most comfortably that I say not gloriously but presently as soone as the Blow was given withdrew behinde a cloud againe and appeared no more as we are credibly advertised by good hands from London though it be otherwise reported in their weekly Pamphlets And if the bodies of us men be capable of any happinesse in the grave he had as great a share therein as he could desire or any of his friends expect his body being accompanied to the earth with great multitudes of people whom love or curiosity or remorse of conscience had drawne together purposely to performe that office and decently interred in the Church of All hallowes Barking a Church of his owne Patronage and Jurisdiction according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England In which it may be noted as a thing remarkable that being whilst he lived the greatest Champion of the Common-Prayer-Booke here by Law established he had the honour being dead to be buried in the forme therein prescribed after it had beene long disused and reprobated in most Churches of London Nor need posterity take care to provide his Monument Hee built one for himselfe whilst he was alive it being well observed by Sir Edw. Dering one of his most malicious enemies and hee who threw the first stone at him in the beginning of this Parliament that Saint Pauls Church will be his perpetuall Monument and his owne Booke against the Iesuite his lasting Epitaph Thus dyed this most Reverend Renowned and Religiour Prelate when he had lived 71 yeares 13 weekes 4 dayes if at the least he may be properly said to dye the great example of whose vertue shall continue alwaies not only in the mindes of men but in the Annals of succeeding Ages with Renowne and Fame But how he lived what excellent parts he was composed of and how industriously he imployed those parts for the advancement of Gods
abundautly felt Now at last I am accused of High Treason in Parliament a Crime which my soule ever abhorred this Treason was charged to consist of these two parts An endeavouor to subvert the Lawes of the Land and a like Endeavur to overthrow the 〈◊〉 Protestant Religion Established by Law Besides my answers to the severall Charges I protested my Innocency in both Houses It was said Prisoners protestations at the Barre must not be taken I can bring no witnesse of my heart and the intentions thereof threfore I must come to my Protestation not at the Barre but my Protestation at this houre and instant of my death in which I hope all men will be such charitable Christians as not to thinke I would dye and dissemble being iustantly to give God an accompt for the truth of it I doe therefore here in the presence of God and his holy Angels take it upon my death That I never endeavoured the subversion either of Law or Religion and I desire you all to remember this Protest of mine for my Innocency in these and from all Treasons what soever I have beene accused likewise as an Enemy to Parliaments No I understand them and the benifit that comes by them too well to be so But I did mislike the misgovernments of some Parliaments many waies and I had good reason for it For Corruptio optimi est pessima there is no corruption in the world so bad as that which is of the best thing in it selfe for the better the thing is in nature the worse it is corrupted And that being the highest Court over which no other have Iurisdiction when 't is mis-informed or misgoverned the Subject is left without all remedy But I have done I forgive all the World all and every of those bitter Enemies which have persecuted me and humbly desire to be forgiven of God first and then of every man whether I have offended him or not if he doe but conceive that I have Lord doe thou forgive me and I begge forgivenesse of him And so I heartily desire you to joyne in Prayer with me O Eternall God and mercifull Father looke downe upon me in mercy in the Riches and fullnesse of all thy mercies look upon me but not till thou hast nailed my sinnes to the Crosse of Christ not till thou hast bathed me in the bloud of Christ not till I have hid my selfe in the wounds of Christ that so the punishment due unto my sinnes may passe over me And since thou art pleased to try me to the uttermost I humbly beseech thee give me now in this great instant full Patience proportionable Comfort and a heart ready to dye for thy Honour the King's happinesse and this Churches preservation And my zeale to these farre from Arrogancy be it spoken is all the sinne humane frailty excepted and all incidents thereto which is yet knowne to me in this particular for which I now come to suffer I say in this particular of Treason but otherwise my sinnes are many and great Lord pardon them all and those especially what ever they are which have drawne downe this present judgement upon me and when thou hast given me strength to beare it doe with me as seems best in thine owne eyes and carry me through death that I may looke upon it in what visage soever it shall appeare to me Amen And that there may be a stop of this issue of bloud in this more then miserable Kingdom I shall desire that I may pray for the people too aswell as for my selfe O Lord I beseech the give grace of Repentance to all Bloud-thirsty people but if they will not repent O Lord confound all their devices Defeat and Frustrate all their Designes and Endeavors upon them which are or shall be contrary to the Glory of thy great Name the truth and sincerity of Religion the establishment of the King and His Posterity after Him in their just Rights and Priviledges the Honour and Conservation of Parliaments in their just power the Preservation of this Poore Church in her Truth Peace and Patrimony and the settlement of this distracted and distressed People under their ancient Lawes and in their native Liberties And when thou hast done all this in meere mercy for them O Lord fill their hearts with thankefulnesse and with Religious dutifull obedience to thee and thy Commandements all their daies So Amen Lord Iesus Amen and receive my Soule into thy Bosome Amen Our Father which art c. The Speech and Prayers being ended he gave the Paper which he read unto Doctor Sterne desiring him to shew it to his other Chaplaines that they might know how he departed out of this world and so prayed God to shew his mercies and blessings on them And noting how one Hinde had employed himselfe in taking a Copy of his Speech as it came from his mouth he desired him not to doe him wrong in publishing a false or imperfect Copy Which as Hinde promised him to be carefull of calling for punishment from above if he should doe otherwise so hath he reasonably well performed his promise the Alterations or Additions which occurre therein being perhaps the worke of those who perused his Papers and were to Authorise them to the publicke view to fit it more unto the palat of the City faction and make it more consistent with the credit of those guilty men who had voted to his condemnation This done he next applied himselfe to the fatall Blocke as to the Haven of his rest But finding the way full of people who had placed themselves upon the Theatre to behold the Tragedy he desired he might have roome to dye beseeching them to let him have an end of his miseries which he had endured very long All which hee did with so serene and calme a minde as if he had beene rather taking order for another mans funerall then making way unto his owne Being come neare the Blocke he put off his doublet and used some words to this effect Gods will be done I am willing to goe out of this world no man can be more willing to send me out of it And seeing through the chinkes of the boards that some people were got under the Scaffold about the very place where the Blocke was seated he called on the Officers for some dust to stop them or to remove the people thence saying it was no part of his desires that his bloud should fall upon the heads of the People Never did man put off mortality with a brave courage nor looke upon his bloudy and malicious enemies with more Christian charity And thus farre he was gone in his way towards Paradise with such a Primitive magnanimity as equalled if not exceeded the example of ancient martyrs When he was somwhat interrupted in his quiet passage by one Sir Iohn Clotworthy a fire-brand brought from Ireland by the Earle of Warwicke to increase the Combustions in this Kingdome Who finding that the mockings and
A BRIEFE RELATION OF THE DEATH AND SVFFERINGS OF THE MOST REVEREND AND RENOWNED PRELATE THE L. ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBVRY With A more perfect Copy of his Speech and other passages on the Scaffold than hath beene hitherto imprinted JEREM. 26. 14 15. 14. As for mee behold I am in your hands do with mee as seemeth good and meete unto you 15. But know ye for certaine that if yee put mee to death ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon your selves and upon this City and upon the Inhabitants thereof c. OXFORD Printed in the Yeare 1644. A BRIEFE RELATION OF THE DEATH AND sufferings of the most Reverend and Renowned Prelate the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury c. IT is a preposterous kinde of writing to beginne the story of a great mans life at the houre of his death a most strange way of setting forth a solemne Tragedie to keepe the principall Actor in the tyring-house till the Play be done and then to bring him on the Stage onely to speake the Epilogue and receive the Plaudites Yet this must bee the scope and method of these following papers To write the whole life of the most Reverend and Renowned Prelate the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury would require more time then publique expectation can endure to heare of Those that can judge as all wise men may of the brightnesse and glories of the Sunne in his highest altitude by the clearenesse of his going downe or that can Ortum Solis in occasu quaerere discerne the rising of the Sunne as once Straton did by the reflection of his beames in a Westerne cloud may by the glorious manner of his death and sufferings presented in these short Remembrances conjecture at the splendour of those rare endowments both of Grace and Nature wherewith his former life was adorned and beautifyed The ordinary and unsatisfied Reader may for his farther satisfaction repaire to Master Prynn's Breviate of his life and actions though publish'd of purpose to defame him and render him more odious to the common people Concerning which the Reader may observe in breife that all which Mr. Prynn's industrious malice hath accused him of in those Collections is that hee was a man of such eminent vertues such an exemplary piety towards God such an unwearied fidelity to his gracious Soveraigne of such a publique soule towards Church and State so fixt a constancy in Freindship and one so little biassed by his private interesses that this Age affords not many Equalls And it would trouble Plutarch if he were alive to finde out a fit Parallell with whom to match him All therefore I shall doe at the present time and 't is the last publique Office I shall do him is to lay downe the story of his death and sufferings together with a view of those plots and practises which were set on foote to pluck a few yeares from a weake old man and bring him to an unnaturall calamitous end For though that maxime in Philosophy is most true and certaine that corruptio est in instanti that death comes to us in a moment or in the twinkling of an eye as the Scriptures phrase is yet are there many previous dispositions which make way unto it all which are comprehended in the name of death And in that latitude of expression doe we take the word in laying downe the story of his death before you which being writ out of an honest zeale to truth and a sincere affection to his name and memory shall either bee approved of or at least excused It was the practice and position of the antient Donatists the Predecessours and Progenitors of the modern Puritan occidere quemcunque qui contraeos fecerit to kill and make away whoever durst oppose their doings or was conceived to be an hinderance to their growing faction And by this Card their followers in these Kingdomes have beene steered of late imprisoning and destroying all who have stood against them It is long since they entertained such desperate purposes against the life and person of the Lord Arch-Bishop threatning his death in scattered Libels telling him that his life was sought for that neither God nor man could endure so vile a Counsellour to live any longer This was about the end of March 1629. and was the Prologue to those libels full of threats and scandals which yeare by yeare exasperated and inflamed the people till they had made them ripe for mischeife and readily prepared to execute whatever their grand Directours should suggest unto them Saint Paul did never fight more frequent and more terrible combats with the beasts of Ephesus for the promotion of the Gospell then he with these untractable and fiery spirits who most seditiously opposed his religious purposes of setling unity and uniformity in this Church of England And in this state things stood till the yeare 1640. in which not onely many factious and seditious people in and about the City of London made an assault by night on his house at Lambeth with an intent to murther him had they found him there but the whole faction of the Scots declared in a Remonstrance to the English Nation that one of the cheife causes which induced them to invade this Realme was to remove him from his Majesty and bring him to the punishment which he had deserved The manner of their comming hither and the great entertainment given them by the faction here shewed plainely that they were not like to bee sent away without their Errand and makes it evident that his ruine was resolved on in their secret Counsells before the Parliament was called or that they had declared so much by their will revealed The Parliament had not long continued but he is named for an Incendiary by the Scottish Commissioners and thereupon accused of Treason by the House of Commons And although no particular Charge was brought against him but onely a bare promise to prepare it in convenient time yet was he presently committed to the custody of the Gentleman Vsher and by him kept in duresse till the end of February being full tenne weeks about which time his charge was brought unto the Lords but in generals only and longer time required for particular instances And yet upon this Lydford law by which they used to hang men first and endite them afterwards was he committed to the Tower being followed almost all the way by the Rascall multitude who barbarously pursued him with reproach and clamours to the very gates and there detained contrary to all law and justice almost foure yeares longer This was the first great breach which was made by Parliament in the liberties of the English Subject save that their like proceedings with the Earle of Strafford was a preparative unto it and was indeed the very gappe at which the slavery and oppression under which this miserable Nation doth now pine and languish did breake in upon them What right could meaner persons looke for when as so great
the same day the fourth of Ianuary in which they passed this bloudy Ordinance as if therein they would cry quittance with His Sacred Majesty who on the same accused the six guilt Members they passed another for establishing their new Directory which in effect is nothing but a totall abolition of the Common-prayer-booke and thereby shewed unto the world how little hopes they had of setling their new forme of worship if the foundation of it were not laid in bloud The Bill being thus dispatched in the House of Lords if still they may be called the Lords which are so over-loaded by the Common people there wanted yet the Kings Assent to give life to it which they so far contemned they had more reason to despare of it that they never sought it They had screwed up their Ordinances to so high a pitch that never Act of Parliament was of more authority and having found the subjects so obedient as to yeild unto them in matters which concerned them in their goods and liberties it was but one step more to make triall of them whether they would submit their lives to the selfe same tyranny And this they made the first experiment in this kind both of their own power and the peoples patience he being the first man as himselfe noted in his speech which words are purposely omitted in Hindes Copy of it that was ever put to death by Ordinance in Parliament but whether he shall be the last further time will shew Certaine it is that by this Ordinance they have now made themselves the absolute masters of the Subjects life which they can call for at their pleasure as no doubt they will and left him nothing but his fetters he can call his owne Just as it was observed by our Gracious Soveraigne upon occasion of the Ordinance for the 20th part that the same power which robbed the Subject of the twentieth part of their Estates had by that only made a claime and entituled it selfe to the other nineteene whensoever it should be thought expedient to hasten on the generall ruine In which His Majesty hath proved but too true a Prophet And though perhaps some of the people were well pleased with this bloudy Ordinance and ran with joy to see it put in execution yet all wise men doe looke upon it as the last groane or gaspe of our dying liberty And let both them and those who passed it be assured of this that they who doe so gadly sell the bloud of their fellow Subjects seldome want Chapmen for their owne in an open Market And here as it was once observed that the predominant party of the Vnited Provinces to bring about their ends in the death of Barnevelt subverted all those fundamentall Lawes of the Belgick liberty for maintenance whereof they took up Arms against Philip the 2 so would I know which of those Fundamentall Lawes of the English Government have not beene violated by these men in their whole proceedings for preservation of which Lawes or rather under colour of such preservation they have bewitched the people unto this Rebellion It is a Fundamentall Law of the English Government and the first Article in the Magna Charta that the Church of England shall be free and shall have her whole Rights and Priviledges inviolable yet to make way unto the condemnation of this innocent man and other the like wicked and ungodly ends the Bishops must be Voted out of their place in Parliament which most of them have held farre longer in their Predecessors then any of our noble Families in their Progenitours And if the Lords refuse to give way unto it as at first they did the people must come downe to the House in multitudes and cry No Bishops no Bishops at the Parliament doores till by the terrour of their tumults they extort it from them It is a Fundamentall Law of the English liberty that no Free man shall be taken or imprisoned without cause shewne or be detained without being brought unto his Answer in due forme of Law yet heere wee see a Free-man imprisoned tenne whole weekes together brfore any Charge was brought against him and kept in prison three yeeres more before his generall Accusation was by them reduced into particulars and for a yeere almost detained close prisoner without being brought unto his answer as the Law requirer It is a Fundamentall Law of the English Government that no man be disseised of his Freehold or Liberties but by the knowne Lawes of the Land yet here wee see a man disseised of his Rents and Lands spoyled of his Goods deprived of his jurisdiction devested of his Right and Patronage and all this done when hee was so farre from being convicted by the Lawes of the Land that no particular charge was so much as thought of It is a Fundamentall Law of the English Liberty that no man shall be condemned or put to death but by lawfull judgement of his Peeres or by the Law of the Land i. e. in the ordinary way of a legall tryall and sure an Ordinance of both Houses without the Royall Assent is no part of the Law of England nor held an ordinary way of triall for the English subject or ever reckoned to be such in the former times And finally it is a Fundamentall Law in the English Government that if any other case then those recited in the Statute of King Edward 3. which is supposed to be Treason doe happen before any of His Majesties Justices the Justices shall tarry without giving judgement till the cause be shewne and declared before the King and His Parliament whether it ought to be judged Treason or not yet here wee have a new found Treason never knowne before nor declared such by any of His Majesties Iustices nor ever brought to be considered of by the King and His Parliament but onely voted to be such by some of those few Members which remaine at Westminster who were resolved to have it so for their private ends Put all which hath been said together and then tell me truly if there be any difference for I see not any betweene the ancient Roman slaves and the once Free-born Subject of the English Nation whose life and liberty whose goods and fortunes depend on the meere pleasure of their mighty Masters But to returne unto our Story the passing of the Ordinance being made knowne unto him he neither entertained the newes with a Stoicall Apathie nor wailed his Fate with weake and womanish lamentations to which extreames most men are carried in this case but heard it with so even and so smooth a temper as shewed he neither was afraid to live nor ashamed to die The time betweene the Sentence and the Execution he spent in prayers and applications to the Lord his God having obtained though not without some difficulty a Chaplaine of his owne to attend upon him and to assist him in the worke of his preparation though little preparation