thither at that Season from Lord Chancellor Elsmore's House and the very brave Attendance of the Lord Privy-Seal the lately confirm'd Chancellor of the University divers others attended the Elder Brother of the Act. Sir Charles Stanhop Knight of the Bath only Son and Heir to John Lord Stanhop of Harington a comely Gentleman that took his Degree of Master and well deserv'd it as much by the Proficiency of his Learning as by the Title of his Blood These Gallants must be Feasted by the Proctor and there was no Want I would there had been no Superfluity These Costly and Luxurious Meals are the Lard of our Commencements thrust in among the better Banquets of Scholastical Exercises The Proctors Table was more Sumptuous I understand my Comparison for the time then useth to be at a Mayoralty in London I do not reckon it among his clean and unblemish'd Praises But if I may presume to sit Judge over his Thoughts I believe He took Parsimony to be most uncivil Behaviour The Prevaricator made me smile when he gave him this Character to his Face Titus Largius primus Dictator Romanorum To express my self a little further These Messes of good Chear ought to be frankly set out at the times of such Genial and Gaudy Days It were a wise World if they could be kept within Moderation The wise and well-governing Heathen Romans had Leges Cibarias as old thrifty Cato term'd them Leges sumptum comprimentes in the Style of Tertullian in his Apology I take it from A. Gellius lib. 2. c. 24. that the Sum of 300 Sestertii and no more were permitted to be spent in feriis Solennibus which comes to about 40 Shillings or a little under as I cast it up with my Counters Yet Liberal Julius Caesar indulg'd on such Occasions the Expence of 1000 his Nephew Augustus bounded it up to 2000 which comes not altogether to 15 Pounds of our Money Ut his saltem finibus Luxuriae effervescentis aestus coercerctur And this was granted only to Senators the Princes of the World and not to Scholars and that neither but in Nuptiis Repotiis at the Feast of the Bride and the Repotations of the Bridegroom I want not Commission to spend this little Ink and it is but very little upon this Subject For the Holy Scriptures speak of Salomon's Feasts as well as of Salomon's Wisdom Howsoever these Junquets and the mention are quickly taken away with a Voider The Feasts of his Learning and Eloquence demonstrated in the Theatre of the Commencement that was the open House-keeping were far more delicious and sweet to the Ear then Meats could be to the Belly All his Speeches were damask'd quite over with most pleasant Allusions out of Greek and Latin Authors This was the last Scene acted on the Stage of that one Year's Office and it had the loudest Plaudite Indeed this was the Vintage when more then ever before he press'd out the ripe Grapes of his Elegancies Virgil. Georg. Tumidisbumasta racemis These were his Olympic Wrestlings wherein he got the Mastery in all sorts of Exercises As Laertius says of Democritus lib. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So this Champion got the best at all the Weapons of Philosophy Selected Questions were disputed and fit for the greatest Celebrity of the Year extracted out of the Politics Natural Theorems and the Metaphysics he became Victor in every Duel And so he shut up his Proctorship as to the Learned Trial of it here it ended with that General Testimony of his Praise Ut puderet virum altius extollere as Pollio says of Valerianus that neither we could give nor he with modesty receive a greater Commendation 31. These Performances being so well over he left Cambridge and made a happy Remove as a Consul well approved in the Year of his Magistracy was transposed into a Proconsulat or Charge of a Province to testifie the good liking of the People to his precedent Office By this Province I mean his Chaplain-Attendance in the House of Lord Chancellor Egerton a Nest for an Eagle From that Step in the House of Lord Chancellor Hatton Dr. Bancroft began to rise higher till he came to be Metropolitan of all England By the like Service in the House of Lord Keeper Puckering Dr. Vaughan first made his Abilities known and afterward got his Prince's Favour to sit in the See of London Now the Disciple whom these two great Prelates loved so well performing that Trust with Lord Egerton which they had done with his Lordship's Predecessors was their Match at least in Dispatch and Judgment and by God's Providence their Equal in Prosperity Yet before I settle him for good and all in this Honourable Family which will best be done in an whole Piece without disjoyning it I must bring him to Cambridge again by an Act of Revocation A fond Mother that dotes upon her dear Son whom she hath sent abroad to be Manner'd and Disciplin'd will pick many Occasions after a little absence to recal him But the Expedient and not the Fondness which made the University borrow him of the Lord Chancellor his Master after he had been 7 months away was this The King 's only Daughter the Glorious Princess Elizabeth was married at Whitehall to Frederick Prince Palatine and Chief Elector of the Empire at Shrovetide Nothing could be devised to Honour a Royal Solemnity with Bravery Tiltings Barriers Masques and all sorts of Triumphs which was not used and presented The Gallantry of the Court having had deservedly the first Place in Celebrating these Nuptials it was Resolved by the King's Majesty That His Son-in-Law the Elector with the Strangers of the Platz should be received for a Conclusion with an Academical Entertainment at Cambridge The Warning coming to Dr. Carew the Vice-Chancellor a Prudent Courtly Man and very fit for the Service Matters were put in a short time into Order and Readiness The Earl of Northampton our Chancellor was expected for Tradition Immemorial required him at such a season but the frugal old Man appeared not The Charge of great Fare and Feasting was not more Costly then Welcom to the brave Mind of Dr. Nevile Master of Trinity College who never had his like in that Orb I believe for a splendid courteous and bountiful Gentleman His Table was Graced with the Company of Prince Charles Prince Elector Frederick the Bridegroom Count Henry of Nassaw Lodwick Duke of Lenox with a most comely Concourse of Nobles and Gentlemen both of the German and English Nations In two distinct Nights a Comick and a Pastoral Fable both in Latin were Acted before their Highnesses and other Spectators by the Students of the same College This was Play the rest was Work The Scholastical Dissertations were the Work of the Day the Church of St. Mary being Scaffolded for that use 32. The Vice-Chancellor with the Sages of the Consistory concluded there should be a kind of Commencement extraordinary to Congratulate these Potentates and
For read him what he was indeed out of the Description which Tacitus gives lib. 16. Annal. circa finem to P. Egnatius Client to Soranus the famous Senator Cliens hic Sorani autoritatem Stoicae sectae praeferebat habitu ore ad exprimendam imaginem honesti exercitus caeterùm animo perfidiosus subdolus Yet this Stoical Gravity did not long conceal him but that his needless Vexations of harmless People his cutting Fees his Briberies and other Muck of the same Dunghil made an out-cry and put the King 's good People to seek a Remedy by preferring Articles against him at the Assizes where he was charg'd home with an Alphabet of Misdemeanors He pleaded to the general that he was so much despited because he had look'd more narrowly into the Disobedience of the Paritans then formerly had been used My Opinion is that such Physicians of no value Job 13.4 may cast the Water of such sick Distempers but will never heal them Infamous Judges may correct them they will never rectifie them For he that is fallen into a Moral Turpitude is soon convinc'd in his own Mind but he that is misguided by darkness of Understanding thinks that he doth right to his own Conscience by going wrong and is never so well reclaim'd as when he is mildly rebuk'd by them whose open Integrity and Pity justifie them that they walk as Children of the Light But for the Particulars which laid down so many Oppressions at the Official's door they were not Dust which would be brush'd away with the Fox Tail but Dirt that stuck to him till the Dean his Mediator obtain'd from the Judges a Reference to himself and some others for further Examination By which sly Diversion some of his Charges were laid aside by Composition all of them by delay and delusion After this what should be the End of it I know not without it were to make him look big and superciliously upon his Prosecutors the Dean engaged his Friends at Cambridge my self was one that was solicited from him to sublimate the Official with the Degree of a Doctor wherein he had one Repulse in the Regent-House such an ill relish his Name had but he was carried out in a second day's Scrutiny But for all his Doctorship he was not out of the Brakes he was but Tapisht as Hunters call it The stirring Spirits of the the subtle Air of Northamptonshire prefer'd their Articles afresh against him to the House of Commons assembled in Parliament an 1620. Wedges enough to cleave a bigger Log then Dr. Lamb and yet he was no little one but Saginati corporis bellua as Curtius says of Dioxippus the Pugil Well nay indeed ill his Friend that was too sure to such a branded Man now become the Dean of a College near to the Parliament finds the Articles in the hand of the Chair-man of the Committee appointed to sift the Complaints it was Sir Edward Sackvil afterward the brave-spoken Earl of Dorset with whom he wrought to abortive the Bill before it came to the Birth and so he set Dagon upon his Feet again who was fallen with his face upon the ground 1 Sam. 5.4 but the palms of his Hands were never cut off for so long as he lived he could take a Bribe I blush to remember that the Dean did not only set him up again as well as ever he stood before but raised him higher For he wrote to a great Lord in Court the Letter is among my Papers to procure him the Honour of Knighthood which was obtained And when his Enemies laboured to cut his Comb he got the Spurs 'T was pleasantly spoken by Sir Ed. Montagu since that Pious and Loyal Lord Montagu of Boughton when a cluster came about him to ask Counsel and Assistance for a third Petition against Sir John Lamb says Sir Edward If we tamper the third time his great Friend that hath already made him a Doctor and a Knight I fear will make him a Baron I have thus much to say for the Dean his friend whose very Entrails I knew that he was strongly espoused to love where he had loved and 't was hard to remove his Affections when good Pretences had gained them Chiefly he was of a most compassionate Tenderness and could not endure to see any Man's Ruine if he could help it And though Offences were as legible as a Dominical Letter he would excuse any thing that was capable of an Excuse as far as Wit and Mercy could contrive it But if a little Confession were wrung out it cut down many Faults to make him see as it were a Glade of Repentance in a Grove of Sins and did ever hope for better Fruits upon easie and formal Promises Let Quintilian help me out a little more in his sixth Declam Si angustus saltem detur accessus per quem intrare humanit as possit vera clementia occasione contenta est Yet David's Rule is better then all this Be not merciful to them that offend of malicious wickedness Psal 59.5 And our God is so merciful that whosoever adds a dram beyond his Pattern it must be reckoned for foolish and hurtful Lenity Certainly God was not pleased that the Dean would save a Man whom He meant to destroy 1 King 20.42 And though it slept Unpunished about 12 Years yet in the end the Lord awaken'd it with a Mischief through the treachery of that Man whom himself had protected 45. That which I have hitherto pass'd over was but his low and shrubbish Fortune compared with that Access which the Providence of God in short time after did cast upon him Which Providence is Religiously appeal'd to in all things yet without any check to Reason and Experience to trace it in its Manifestations The Omni-regency of Divine Providence is the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden of the World the Strings of whose Root are secretly interwoven with all Works and Motions But the Sons of Adam are not content unless they taste of the Tree of Knowledge and have a Lust as far as Curiosity can pry to learn how God doth put the Issue of his Wisdom into outward and Instrumental Causes I am ready therefore to shew what Men will seek the Occasions which were in the way and who was Lord of the Ascendant when God did raise up this his Servant that he might set him with Princes even with the Princes of his People Psal 113.8 His Abilities were worthy of a great Place none so Emulous or so Envious that denied it Neither was there any Church-man in his time so likely to purchase a great Place with those Abilities He that will will read Budaeus his Epistle to his Notations upon the Pandects shall find this Character of Mons Peganay Chancellor of France Cujus ea vis fuisse ingenii at que animi cernitur ut quocunque loco natus esset in quodcunque tempus incidisset fortunam ipse sibi facturus videretur A Word as fit
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 Marquesâ—s 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. Châ—ysostom 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 Fâ—esh 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
same Trust to him for this and he shall not fail After he had parted from the King so deeply Charm'd to bestir his Wits in this Negotiation he was as Active as one could be that had little to work upon The Prince and his Paranymphus the Marquess had wrote some Letters upon the way how far they had proceeded in their Journey But the Buen Message that they were come to the Cape of Good-Hope in the City of Madrid was not yet brought to the City of London where the conflux at this time was very populous their Errand being to hearken after News And the particulars they long'd to hear of were these Whether His Highness were Arrived at the Court in Spain When he would return again their Honest Affections ran too fast to look for that so soon Whether he were not Tamper'd withal to alter his Religion And some were so reasonable and well pleas'd some were not to ask Whether he were Married and would bring his Bride with him for hope of Future Issue As much Satisfaction was given to these Scruples from the Lord Marquess by the First Post that Arrived here as could be expected in so short a time as he had spent abroad Of which more in due time But before his Lordship 's came the Lord Keeper wrote again and again unto him to Assist the main business and to pour in such Counsels into his Lordship's Breast as keeping close unto them he might promise himself more Grace with the King and Commendation with the Subject Philosophers who wrote the Practices of a Good life agree That unfeigned Love doth Justifie it self in three Probations or in either of them when it is Faithful to a dead Friend who shall never know it or to a Friend undone in misery who cannot requite it or to an Absent Friend who doth not perceive it As none that have Faith and Candor will wish to declare their sincerity in the two former Experiments so neither will they fail in the opportunity of the latter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Antient Thales in Laertius Remember your Friends as well far of as near you And in Rome says Lil. Giraldus These two Adverbs were Written under the Image of Friendship Longe Prope Be as Officious nay more to your Friend remote from you as when you are hand in hand together I have drawn out the Lord Keeper's Observance to his Raiser my Lord of Buckingham with this Pensil of Morality It would be tedious to fill up Leaves with those copious and punctual Relations which he wrote to his Lordship of all Agitations in the Court of Suits preferred to the King and how far he went about to stop them all till his Pleasure was signified in the next Return That which comes to the Institute I handle was thus Endicted bearing Date Marth 31. My most Noble Lord I Do humbly thank your Lordship for your Letter and all other your loving Remembrances of me by the last Packet It hath much revived me to hear of your Lordship's good Speed so far I was Yesterday with His Majesty the first time I saw his Face since your Lordship's Departure to know his Opinion of this Letter to the Count Gondamar which I send enclosed to stir him up to consummate the Marriage His Majesty lik'd it exceeding well yet I have sent it opened that if your Lordship and my Lord of Bristow who are upon the Place shall not allow thereof it may be suppressed Truly the Reasons are no Colours but very real that if new and tart Propositions sent from Rome occasioned by the Possession they have of his Highness's Person should protract this Marriage the Prince is in great danger to suffer exceedingly in the Hearts and Affections of the People here at Home and your Lordship sure enough to share in the Obloquies Better Service I cannot do the Prince and your Lordship than to thrust on the Ministers of the King of Spain with the best Enforcements of my Judgment who if they dead this Business with a Calm it is almost as bad as a cross Gale But my Lord I will not fail to continue as faithful to your Lordship as to mine own Soul Which to do at this time is not thanks-worthy his Majesty being so constant or rather so augmented in his Affections towards you as all your Servants are extraordinarily comforted therewith and the rest struck dumb and silenced But if any Storm which God will keep off had appeared your Lordship should have found a Difference between a Church-man and others who hath nothing to regard in this World but to serve God and to be constant to his Friend all the rest being but Trash to him who can confine his utmost Desires to a Book and a little Chamber But God Almighty never imparted unto you a greater Share of his Majesty's Affections that at this Time 131. This went by Sir J. Epsley After whom within three days Sir George Goring followed who was stay'd till April the 3d the next day after the joyful Packet came that his Highness saw Madrid by the 7th of March in our Stile and came thither in Health and good Plight after so much Travel by Day and Night so much hard Lodging such slender Fare in base Village-Osteria's Away went Sir George I said with Alacrity the next Day and carried these Lines to my Lord of Buckingham from the Lord Keeper My most Noble Lord IN Obedience to your Commands which I humbly thank your Lordship for I do write by this Bearer yet no more than what I have have written lately by Sir John Epsley All things stand here very firmly and well which may concern your Lordship only the Great Seal walks somewhat faster than usual which is an Argument that it was not my Lord of Buckingham only that set it a going We hear the Affairs proceed well where your Lordship is And here is conceived generally Great Joy and Acclamation for the brave Entertainment that the Prince hath received which the People did yester-night very chearfully express by Bon-fires and Bells only the Consummation of the Matrimony is wanting to consummate our Joys Yet the People spread it abroad upon sight of the Bonfires that all is perfected As they do also speak of your Lordship's Dukedom a Title which will well become both your Person and Employment The Patent whereof I believe the King will shortly send to you to testifie his Joy and to gratifie your Service But my Lord I am still against the Opinion of many wiser Men averse to your Lordship's Return hither as desirous as I am to enjoy your Lordships Presence untill you either see the Prince ready for his Return or that you may bring him along with you I have sent another Letter to my Lord Gondamar to be delivered or suppressed as your Lordship shall please to let him know by my Expostulations falling so thick upon him what is behoveful to be done If they make us stay their leisure
Quarrel between his Ministers in Spain which did so much disturb the Match Sir John Hipsley and such as he the Duke could pass them over for rash Writers but he would never forgive it to the Lord Keeper who invited him to see his Errors But like old Galesus in Virgil Aen. 7. who was knocked down while he went betwen the Latins and Trojans to reconcile them Dum paci medium se offert justissimus unus Qui fuit So it hapned to him that pleaded in this Mediation to be offered upon the Sacrifice and Service of making Love 159. Nevertheless to draw out the Thread of Favour to more length which the Duke had with the King and that the Destinies might not cut it off the Lord Keeper wrote to his Majesty upon Sir John Hipsley's Arrival in the midst of August That he had heard more of the Duke's most laudable Diligence in Spain from Sir John than ever he could learn before that Malice it self could not but commend his Zeal and that Humanity could not but pity the Toil he had to reduce that intricate and untoward Business of the Palatinate to some good Success He might well call them intricate and untoward for the Spanish Motions were circular Nothings much about and nothing to the Point Most true it is that the Articles anent the Marriage were drawn up and restricted to some Heads and Numbers though not perfected three years before the Emperor had entred into the Palz with any Hostility Therefore the Spaniards disputed thus Bring not the motion of it into this Treaty as a thing born out of due time What were it else but as the Proverb says Extra chorum saltare to Dance well but quite out of the measure of the Mascarata We answered if things had been as they are now at the beginning this had then been a principal Capitulation Nor had we honerated the Articles with a new Proposition unless themselves that is the House of Austria had cast us into the Gulph of a new Extremity Reduce the King and his Posterity to the same Peace they were in when we began to treat and we ask no more But as Seneca says Lib. 4. de ben c. 35. Omnia esse debent eadem quae fuerant cum promitterem ut promittentis fidem teneas But upon so great a Change there is neither Inconstancy nor Encroachment to fall into new Consultations For all this though nothing but Pertinacy durst stand the Breath of so much Truth the others came no nearer to us but kept further off affirming as it is in the Report made at St. James's that they conceived our King expected no Restitution at all for his Son and Daughter and that they supposed his Majesty had already digested that bitter Potion We told them they must not dissemble before us as if they knew not the Contrary For his Majesty never intermitted to rouse up their Embassadors to give him a fair Answer about it and had stopt the Treaty of the Match if they had not opened the Way by Protestation made in the Faith of their King that the Palatinate should be rendred up with Peaceable Possession What Shape could Olivarez put on now none but his own a stately Impudency For he told us in the broad Day-light that all former Promises spoken before the Prince's Coming whether by Embassadors to our King or by Count Gondamar to my Lord of Bristol and others were but Palabras de cumplimiento Gratifications of fine Words but no more to be taken hold of than the Fables and Fictions of Greece before the Wars of Theseus The Prince came over him at this with a blunt Anger that if there were no more Assurance in their Word it was past the Wit of Man to know what they meant but he would tell them really his Father's and his own Meaning That without his Sister 's and her Husband's Inheritance restored they neither intended Marriage nor Friendship When King Philip had heard with what Courage and Determination his Highness had spoken like Caesar in Velleius Se virtute suâ non magnitudine hostium metiens it put that King and his Counsel to a middle-way as they called it To treat upon the old Articles and no other as falling perpendicularly on the Marriage but to take into a concurrent Deliberation the Restitution of the Prince Elector's Country Let Metaphysical States-men scratch their Heads and find a real Distinction if they can between these Formalities Yet Sir Walter Aston followed them in that Way and paid them in the same Coin with this Distinction Cab. P. 38. That the King his Master prest for the Restitution of the Palatinate and Electoral Dignity to the Prince his Son-in-Law not as a Condition of the Marriage but to be setled together with the Marriage And again Not as a Condition but as a Fruit and Blessing of the Alliance And to make the Coming of the Excellent Princess the Infanta of more Esteem to his Subjects bringing with her beside the Glory of her own Virtue and Worth the Security of a perpetual Peace and Amity These were Punctilio's in Honour but just Nothings in Wisdom the Cause of the Palatinate must not be tempered at the same Forge but apart not a Rush was gotten by it and time wasted for our Ministers were resolved to conclude neither unless they perfected both 160. The Sennor Duca Olivarez made such Work upon this Theme and turn'd it into so many Forms that it makes him ridiculous in the History Vertumnis quotquot sunt natus iniquis Horat. And so disastrous a Counsellor through his Variableness that it was his Fault that caused a Distrust in the main as wise Spotswood says Pag. 544. The Prince conceived there was nothing really intended on the King of Spain's Part but that the Treaty was entertained only till he and the House of Austria had reduced Germany into their Power which might be suspected without Injury by looking upon this Vertumnus in all his Changings Seven Months before the Prince took his Journey and came to cast the Die upon the whole Stake to win or loose all Mr. End Porter was sent to Spain and spake with the great Conde who snapt him up and gave him this unkind Welcome in a Chase That they neither meant the Match nor the Restitution of the Palatinate Presently the Earl of Bristol gave him a Visit and a Discourse about it In a trice he winds himself out of his former Fury and vows he would do his best to further both The next Discovery breaks out by Mr. Sanderson's Diligence Pag. 540. in a Letter of the Conde's to King Philip Novemb. 8. 1622. That the King of Great Brittain affected the Marriage of his Son with the Infanta and was more engaged for the Palatinate And as a Maxim I hold these two Engagements in him to be inseparable For us though we make the Marriage we must fail in the other Then you will be forced to a War with England with
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. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
diligence it was registred among other Complaints when he could get no more The Instructions follow 1. Upon the Ninth of May 1645. Sir J. Owen Governour of Conway about Seven of the Clock in the Evening before the Night-guard was sent unto the Castle the possession whereof was placed by the King in the Archbishop of York and his Assigns upon great and valuable considerations by his gracious Letters and under his Majesty's Hand and Signet bearing date at Oxford August 1. 1643. did with bars of iron and armed men break the Locks and Doors and enter into the said Castle and seize upon the Place the Victuals Powder Arms and Ammunition laid in by the said Archbishop at his own charge without the least contribution from the King or the Country for the defence of the place and the Service of the King and the said Country 2. That being demanded by the said Archbishop to suffer two of the said Archbishop's men to be there with his rabble of Grooms and beggerly People to see the Goods of the Country preserv'd from filching and the Victuals and Ammunition from wasting and purloyning Sir John in a furious manner utterly refused it though all the Company cried upon him to do so for his own discharge yet would he not listen to any reason but promised the next day to suffer all things to be inventoried and the Lord Archbishop to take away what the would Sir John acknowledging all the Goods and Ammunition to be his 3. The next day he receded again from all this would not permit at the entreaty of the Bishop of St. Asaph his own Cousin-German any of the Archbishop's men to go and look to the Goods nor suffer his servants to fetch forth for his Grace's use who hath linger'd long under a great sickness and weakness either a little Wine to make him some Cawdles or so much as a little of his own stale Beer to make him Possets which all the Country conceive to be very barbarous 4. The said Sir John continueth rambling from place to place and detaineth still all the Goods of the Country laid up in this Castle as conceived to be owned by the Archbishop who was like to be responsal for them and had duly returned them in other years and threatens to seize upon the Plate and all things else of Value to his own use Than which no Rebel or Enemy could deal more outragiously 5. The Archbishop desires his Majesty would repossess him of the right of this Castle according to his Majesty's Grant made upon valuable consideration And that if his Majesty's pleasure be that Sir Jo. Owen or any other Man of more moderation and less precipitancy should be there he come under the Archbishop his Assignment as right requires and as Colonel Ellis and Mr. Chichely were content to do and did To the which the Archbishop as Colonel Ellis and Sir Will. Legg can witness was ever willing to give way 6. That howsoever the Archbishop may have all his Goods and Chattels all his Cannon Arms Ammunition Powder Provision in Beef Beer Wine Cheese Butter Oatmeal and Corn presently restored to him And what is wasted and made away may be answer'd to him by Sir John As also that all the Inhabitants of this and the Neighbour Countries may have their Goods presently out of the Castle before they be pilfered and imbezeled 7. Or otherwise that his Majesty and Prince Rupert his Lieutenant will graciously permit and suffer with their gracious favour the said Archbishop and Inhabitants of the Country to repair with their Complaints to the Assembly at Oxford and the Committee there against these and many other Outrages and Concussions of the said Sir Jo. Owen under colour of being Governour and Sheriff of this Town not warranted by any of his Commissions Every Line of this Remonstrance is just humble pathetical yet came to nothing The time was protracted from week to week and at last an Answer like to a Denial is given to Capt. Martin That it should be consider'd at more leisure One Hector a phrase at that time for a daring Russian had the ear of great ones sooner than five strict men that served the King unblameably before God and all his People But when the Messenger return'd to Wales and brought not the least satisfaction not a complemental Excuse to pacifie the Archbishop he said nothing lest he should have said too much But as Livy notes upon Fabius the Consul when Papirius Cursor was made Dictator over his head Apparuit insignem dolorem ingenti animo comprimi A great Spirit was chased with a great Indignity 204. Fifteen Months were run out after the Archbishop received this baffle to be postponed to Sir J. Owen the time is truly digited and a year of darkness and gloominess came upon this miserable Land Nasby Fight was struck the Lord Jacob Astly defeated the Western strong Holds reduced to Fairfax Chester surrendred Oxford it self begirt as Mindarus wrote to Sparta in his short Country Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that was good was undone Chester being possest by Col. Milton the Door into North-Wales he full of Animosity against the Royal Cause marcheth over Dee through Flint and Denbyshires unto the Town of Conway where the Conawians would as soon fight for a May-poll as for Sir J. Owen The amazed People turn to the Archbishop look upon his strong wisdom and grey hairs to stop the cruelty of the Conquerour and to lighten the yoke of their Misery And an aged Counseller is a Soveraign help at such a pinch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Long time of Life which robs us of all things else pays us the Principal again with Use in Knowledge and Wisdom The Archbishop's Grace calls some few to Counsel with him who agree to parly with Milton one that understood his own strength and their weakness The Welsh made some high Demands which were not heard patiently They perceived Milton's mind was at the Castle where the Archbishop's Wealth and of divers far and near was deposited which was ready to come every jot into the Colonels power whom they perceived to be rather haughty than covetous and they closed by insinuations with him relating how Sir J. Owen had surprized the Castle detained their Goods and insulted over them who had born Arms in the same Cause therefore they offer'd to joyn with him to put him into the Castle with condition that every Proprietary might obtain what he could prove by the Archbishops Inventory to belong to him and for the Overplus let it fall to the Colonels Mercy whose Consent the Archbishop's Art and fair Language drew on And not the least time being spent in delay the Soldiers entred the Castle both by Scalada and by forcing the Gates assisted by the Archbishop's Kindred and other Welch and Milton kept the Castle and kept his Word to let the Owners divide the Goods among themselves to which they laid
taught to know him by that Name and his Stile at every Word was his Excellency The Duke was singularly Learned for one of that Eminency and Illustrious Blood Therefore it was thought meet to receive him in the Publick Schools with a disputation in Philosophy performed by the most expert Professors of it who were ready we were sure at the shortest warning I must do him Right to him that was the first Opponent that he charged the Repondent bravely with Arguments of the best Artillery It was Mr. Wrâ—n of Pembrooke-Hall now the Reverend and Afflicted Bishop of Ely whose Enemies God hath punisht with such hardness of Heart that he being never yet brought to Answer to the Objections of his Persecutors after Ejection out of all his Estate and after Twelve years of Imprisonment in the Tower he continues still in that cruel Durance But I look back to my own Matter Mr. Prectour Williams was the President or Moderator at this Learned Act who by discretion as well as other sufficiency outstript them all For as the Apostle of the Gentiles says He was made all things to all Men so the Proctor manag'd his part before this Prince alla Tudesea to Dutch-men he became a Dutch Philospher for all his Conceptions he confirm'd by Quotations out of Julius Pacius Gâ—â—lâ—â—ius Keckerman and others that had been Professors within the Districts of the Gorman Principalities which was so unexpressibly acceptable to the Duke of Wittenberg and his Retinue that they kept him in their Company so long as they stay'd in Cambridge and would never part with him and in fine carried him in their Caroaches to Nowmarket and acquainted the King what Credit he had done to their Country Philosophers 28. The next Passage is of another frame and tried his Judgment not his Learning The Earl of Salisbury that famous Lord-Treasurer had Govern'd our University as Chancellor from the Year 1600 with good liking to all Uxit dum vixit bene He lest this World May 24. 1612. In the Election of a Successor the Regent-House in whom the Choice was were improvidently divided The greater Number gave their Voices for Henry Earl of Northampton Lord Privy-Seal sometimes a Gremial of our Body superlatively Learned a Writer of Books in Queen Elizabeth's days that especially against Judicial Astrology is of as elegant Contexture as any that are written in more Sunny Climates Beside he was very Rich and a Batchelor a Founder already of a charitable and handsom Pile of Building at Greenwich Therefore such as devised all good ways to attract the Benevolence of Liberal and Wealthy Men unto us hoped he would be very beneficial to Cambridge his Mother which now cast her self into the Arms of his Governance and Patronage So far the adverse Part could not dislike him One and the only thing to them of ill digestion was that Vox populi not the Jealousie but the Clamour of Court and Country was that he was no better then a Church-Papist That certainly his Heart was more with the Consistory of Rome then of Cambridge These with whom this Objection stuck were close Students plain and honest Men the least of all others acquainted with the World abroad Therefore they run blindfold upon a desperate way and to discountenance or discourage the Lord Privy-Seal they put one far better then himself in balance against him the King 's second Son Charles Duke of York his Highness though then but in the 12th Year of his Age. The Lord Privy-Seal had far more Votes in the Scrutiny for his Election and so it was in all Post-haste signified unto him But he took on with all Impatience to be so Abus'd to be made Competitor with the King's Son and to prevail in the Election And the King was more Wroth with the Simplicity or rather Presumption of those silly Clerks that durst Nominate his Dear and Tender Son the Duke to any Place or Office before they had beg'd Leave in all Humility for the Royal Assent A few of these received a great Check for it at the Council-Table and were a while under the Custody of Pursuivants For their Error the whole University was under as black a Cloud of Displeasure as ever I knew it in all my time and floated like a Ship in a great Storm that knew not where to Anchor The King exclaimed at them for Heady Inconsiderate swayed by Puritanical Factions The Lord Privy-Seal the Elect Chancellor shrunk up his Shoulders and made an Answer of fine Words and well set together ' That he was not worthy to have the Primacy or Pilotship ' over the Argonauts of such an Argosie But in Rude English it was no better then that He scorn'd their Proffer The Lords of the Council told them plainly They deserv'd no Chancellor among the Peerage who had so spitefully confronted an Earl of that Eminency The Vice-Chancellor Dr. Gouch with the Sophies of the Consistory Resolved That this was not a Sore that would heal with delay therefore they dispatch Proctor Williams with their Letters to offer himself before the King though the Storm blew stiff against him So he came to the Court at Greenwich and casting himself upon his Knees before the King with his Letters in his hand the King with no pleased Countenance ask'd him what he would have Sir says he my self and they who sent me crave Justice of Your Majesty in the behalf of Your University of Cambridge which suffers under Your Displeasure in that sort as I believe never any of Your Subjects did before that nineteen Parts of a great Incorporation should be Condomn'd for the Frowardness and that unpreventable by all the Power we had of the twentieth Part and they the meanest of us all We beseech You Gratiâ—us Sovereign to Name a Chancellor to preside over us or suffer us to come to Your Majesty upon all Occasions as unto our Chancellor not made so by the suffrage of poor Scholars You are far above that but in the sublime Title of Your Kingly Office by which You are obliged to Protect all Your People that are Unprotected This confident Speech was enough to hint to so wise a King that this was not the Style of Guiltiness so Justice being even the Girdle of his Loins and Mercy dropping easily from his Lips like an Honey-comb without streining he gave the Petitioner his Hand to kiss and bad him bid those that sent him to take Courage in looking well to their Charge in the University All Errors lately committed were struck off They should have Power to choose their Chancellor for he would not take their Right of Free Election from them His further Pleasure should be declared in his Letters which would be at Cambridge before him if he made not haste home And indeed the Proctor and the Letters came thither both in a day which being opened signified to the Vice-Chancellor and the Heads assisting That they should forthwith call a Congregation and resume an Election for a
working in the Must Every day this Sufficiency grew with him more and more till he became the only Jewel which the Lord Chancellor hung in his Ear. Yet in four months after he fell to this Trade his best Customer fail'd him the Court of the Prince being Dissolv'd by the Death of Prince Henry Nov. 6. 1612. with whom so much Light was extinguish'd that a thick Darkness next to that of Hell is upon our Land at this day O matchless Worthy live in everlasting Fame with the Elogy given by that quaint Historian Velleius to Pub. Rutilius Non seculi sui sed omnis aevi optimus The third Step of Felicity upon which he clim'd Eis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is Athanasius his Metaphor into the Bosom of his Master's Soul was That he had pick'd up in a short space some Gleanings in his own modest words in the knowledge of the Common Laws of the Realm but indeed full Sheaves if his Acquaintance may be believ'd He remitted not the Studies of his own Science and Profession but having read the Tenures the Doctor and Student and somewhat else like unto them at hours of Relaxation he furnish'd himself with no little quantity of that Learning by Discourse and Conference and enquiring after some cases how they sped in the Courts of Justice When he was at a non-plus he respited that Difficulty till he met with Sir John Walker afterward Lord Chief Baron whose Judgment was most agreeable to his Genius This was his Practise not now but all along to gather up more at the Interspaces of Leisure then others do at their Study Which was the Contrivance of Scipio Aemilianus the Sir Philip Sidney of the Old Romans Neque quisquam Scipione elegantius intervalla negotiorum otio dispunxit says the Character of the Author lately cited 35. Here I will provide a little to set my Shoulder against the Justle of an Objection Perhaps some will say What did the Study of our Laws belong to him The Dainties of the Scriptures were his daily Diet prescrib'd him by his Calling Why did he seed upon those coarse Coleworts And who could spare any of the Time of this short Life when the Work of a Divine is more then this Life can dispatch so that the Remainder must be learnt in Life Eternal Somewhat to that purpose is pithily express'd by Seneca Quae dementia est in tantâ temporis egestate supervacua discere Ep. 48. And what say you to the Judgment of Pope Honorius the Third who sat an 1216. who forbad all Clerks to study Physick or the Pandects of the Laws Or to the Emperor Justin the elder who lived 600 years before Honorius c. leg 41. Opprobrium est si Ecclesiastici peritos se velint ostendere legum forensium I say those Laws must be weighed with Grains of Temper and Charity Whom Nature hath made docile it is injurious to prohibit him from learning any thing that is docible Marie he that forsakes his holy Calling and lists himself in another Warfare that gives himself up wholly to scrape a Livelihood from curing Diseases or fogging in Secular Causes is a Renegado and must be brought back again to his Colours with the Infamy of a Fugitive But far is he from being guilty of this Fault who serves Christ Jesus faithfully in the Labour of the Gospel and can do it the better by poizing Humane Laws and trying how consonant they are to God's Justice and by searching the Virtue of Plants and other Creatures can find out how wonderful the Almighty is in all his Works The Collation between Moses and the Imperial Laws which Paulus Modestinus and others of his Robe have made why may not a Minister peruse it with as much profit as an Advocate It were a Tyranny more then barbarous to confine a Wit that hath a Plummet to found the depth of every Well that the Arts have digged or to clip his Wings that he may not fly into every Bush as freely as the Fowls of the Air. Padre Paulo the Frier the brightest Star in the Hemisphere of Italy was second to none in Divinity while he liv'd equal with the best Doctors in Rome or Siena in explicating Canon or Civil Laws and above all the Practisers of Padua or in the World in understanding the Aesculapian Art says Fulgentius Albericus Gentilis spoke it to do Honour to the Industry of Dr. Reynolds of Corpus-Christi College that he thought that great 〈◊〉 had read as much in the Civil Law as himself Wherein then consists the difference Why might not Mr. Williams examine the Cases Reports and Maxims of our Municipal Laws to be expert in them Both being egg'd on into it by the Happiness of his Attendance in the Pretorian Court where he might learn much and labour little for it and making it the Recreation not the Intermission of his proper Studies Therefore out of Charity give him leave to gather Stubble where he would since he fulfil'd his Task of Brick Exod. 5.18 The Lord Chancellor did highly countenance him in it and was so taken with his Pregnancy that at his leisure-times both for his own solace and his Chaplain's furtherance he would impart to him the Narration of some famous Causes that had been debated in Chancery or Star-Chamber What could not such a Master teach What could not such a Scholar learn Socrates says in Plato of Alcibiades that he Gloried in nothing so much as that he was Ward to Pericles and brought up under him Neither had this Chaplain a more graceful Ornament to shew in the Eyes of the World then that he was Disciple to the Lord Egerton That great Senator the most judicious Judge and Counsellor of his Age would not have disparaged himself to give a young Divine so great a Place in his Affections but that he had founded him and discover'd him to be a person of rare Abilities By this favour to which he had attained though he was not in the place of one of the Secretaries yet he became to be like a Master of Requests especially in weightier Petitions he could prevail more then any other Minister which was not to be presisted by the other Officers He had a Mind full of worth and full of warmth and no place became him so well as the foremost as Pliny says of Cocks lib. 10. c. 21. Imperitant suo generi regnum in quâcunque sunt domo exercent None of his Fellows had cause to repent that he rode upon the Fore-Horse For he was courteous and ready to mediate in any Cause and as bountiful as might be wish'd for he left all Fees and Veils of Profit to those to whom they did belong By this in a little while they that would have kept him back at first did their utmost to put him forward which did not need For the Lookers on did mark that his Lord did not only use him in his most principal Employments but delighted to confer with him
done out of a narrow Revenue Salmasius O what a Miracle of Judgment and Learning wrote bountifully and liv'd bountifully as I have heard These are his words Lib. de Usur p. 392. Quomodo liberalis esse potest qui nihil plus acquireret quà m quod sibi ad victum necessarium sufficere queat They that talk of possessing no more then to content Nature must live with such as know no other People but themselves else it is impossible but they will depart from that Primitive Simplicity And truly I have known but few perhaps none that would not be content to have had all the Chaplain's Portion or more if they had liv'd in as good a way of getting I do not excuse him therefore it need not that he got sufficient Wealth and bestow'd it Charitably and Honourably as will be manifested Whither it be Tully or Panaetius that says it or both it is well said as I learnt it in my Lessons of Puerility Lib. 1. de Off. Neque rei familiaris amplificatio vituperanda est nemine nocens sed fugienda semper injuria Riches that are augmented out of Niggardice or by Cheating Extortion or doing unworthy Offices carry their Curse along with them those that are well gotten are the Blessing of God The Adjection of Wealth then was not to be refus'd by one that serv'd not such an Idol but made it serve him for worthy Purposes Neither did his franc and generous Nature esteem such Things to be the Recompence of five years Service but this rather to be brought up at the Feet of the most prudent Counsellor that lived in the King's Service and that he got his Favour so early and held it so strongly till Death which came on apace An. 1616. in October this aged Patriarch began to languish and droop Therefore to recreate him and to put an after-spring into his decaying Spirits the Prince with due Solemnity being created Prince of Wales Nov 4. the Lord Chancellor was created Viscount Brackley on the 7th of the same This Honour was a Token that the King held him Precious yet it work'd not inward Who did ever see that the Sand in an Hour-Glass did run the flower because the Case in which it was put was guilded For all this Viscountship his Feebleness was more and more sensible the Eyes that look'd out of the Windows were darkned and he grew thick of Hearing From thence that is about January he delighted not in any Talk unless his Chaplain spoke to him All his Business with his Great and Royal Master the King he sent by him to be deliver'd with Trust and Prudence Upon which Messages the King took great notice that the Chaplain was Principled by his Master to be a Statesman and a Pillar of the Kingdom And even hard upon the day of his Death which was Mart. 15. the Chancellor call'd him to him and told him If he wanted Money he would leave him such a Legacy in his Will as should furnish him to begin the World like a Gentleman Sir says the Chaplain I kiss your hands you have fill'd my Cup full I am far from Want unless it be of your Lordships Directions how to live in the World if I survive you Well says the Chancellor I know you are an expert Workman take these Tools to work with they are the best I have And he gave him some Books and Papers written all with his own hand These were as Valuable as the Sibylline Prophesies They were that old Sage's Collections for the well ordering the High Court of Parliament the Court of Chancery the Star-Chamber and the Council-Board An inestimable Gift being made over to the true Heir Apparent of his Wisdom Let every one wear the Garland he deserves For my part I attribute so much to the Lord Egerton that I believe the Master's Papers were the Marrow of Mr. Williams his Prudence and subtle Judgment in all his Negotiations These Notes I have seen but are lost as it is to be feared in unlucky and devouring Times So died that Peerless Senator the Mirror of a Lord Chancellor having left that Blessing to his Chaplain and dear Servant that bewailed him long after with the mourning of a Dove and attended his Body to Cheshire and said the Office of Burial over him in a Chapel where he was entomb'd with his Ancestors Whose surviving Name a Grave cannot cover and a Tomb is too little to preserve it You may measure him in much by these two Spans Queen Elizabeth says Mr. Cambden was a Lady that never Chose amiss in the Preferment of an Officer when she was left to her own Judgment She made him her Solicitor Attorney-General Master of the Rolls and Lord-Keeper She tried him in every Place of Trust the former meriting the latter till he possess'd the highest King James did more not because he gave him the splendid Name of Lord-Chancellor or enobled him with the Titles of a Baron and a Viscount but because in the open Court of Star-Chamber he bless'd him with his Prayers and the Speech wherein he made the Prayer is Printed with his Works That as he had long held that Place so God would continue him longer in it To know him altogether I will borrow the Character of Aemilianus and engrave it into the green Saphir of his Memory which will ever keep green Qui nihil in vitâ nisi laudandum aut fecit aut dixit aut sensit 38. While the Obsequies for the Entertainment of this deceased Lord were preparing at London the Successor unto the Office of the great Seal was Sir Francis Bacon very Learned in the judgment of all European Scholars especially best known at home that his Soul was a Cabinet replenish'd with the greatest Jewels of Wit and in all our Kingdom none did ever set them forth with purer Language He hearing that Mr. Williams had chested up his Books and had furnish'd himself every way for an House-keeper to remove to his Cure of Walgrave he made him an offer of great Civility to continue with him in that place wherein he had serv'd the Lord Egerton which he declined but with so graceful a compliment that they parted great Friends and Sir Francis willing to mark him with some cognizance of his Love of his own accord made him Justice of Peace and of the Quorum in the County of Northampton an Office fitter for none than a Scholar and a Gentleman Yet he could hot leave London so God had provided without a calling into a new Service but it was in Caesars houshold His faithful and fast Friend Dr. James Montagu now Bishop of Winton sent for him and brought him to the King who received him with consolatory Words and extraordinary Grace and commanded he should be Sworn his Chaplain forthwith whereupon he Attended at the Court yearly in the Month of February appointed him also to wait on him in his great Northern progress into Scotland now hard at hand to begin in
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
is put up to that Effect to settle the Custodes Rotulorum and the Clerks of the Peace for Term of Life upon the Persons who now possess them which as it is inconvenient so it is very prejudicial and derogating from the next Lord Chancellor Finally the Under-Officers do also Petition unto the Lords not without Encouragement to have some Collops out of the Lord Chancellors Fees and New Devices will daily spring up if the disposing be delayed any longer Now I hope when your Lordship shall use this Information to let the King see it that you will excuse me for the boldness that I am put upon by your great Commands The Lord Marquess being not a little Ambitious to present the King with Works of the Brain strongly wrought and well carded offered this Paper to his Majesty from the Dean of Westminster when the Ink was scarce dry which caused this unlook'd for saying from the King You Name divers to me to be my Chancellor Queen Elizabeth after the Death of Sir Christopher Hatton was inclined in her own Judgment that the good man Arch-Bishop Whitgift should take the place who modestly refus'd it because of his great Age and the whole multitude of Ecclesiastical Affairs lying upon his Shoulders Yet Whitgift knew not the half that this Man doth in Reference to this Office The Lord Marquess the less he look'd for those Words the more he lik'd them and Replied extempore Sir I am a Suitor for none but for him that is so capable of the Place in your great judgment Be you satisfied then says the King I think I shall seek no further The Lord Marquess impotent to contain his Gladness sent a blind Message to the Dean immediately That the King had a Preferment in the Deck for him He nothing aware of what the King had spoken in design to the Dignity of keeping the Great-Seal mistook the Message to be meant of the Bishopric of London now wanting a sit Prelate by the Death of him that was most fit while he lived Dr. King whose Soul Heaven received Mar. 30. In prospect whereof the Dean was a Suitor before But it hapned to him as Velleius said of Scipio AEmilianus AEdilitatem petens Consul creatus est He sued for the Edileship and because that was too little he was made a Consul This is the very manner as faithfully digested as any History can be contexed how this Preeminency dropt upon him that never dreamt of it It is not like to some mistaken Report that then went about and may yet be believed by some But thus much is copiously disclosed for their sakes that had rather be Disciples of Truth then Masters of Error 63. Such a Reader is invited to a further Collation engaging upon peril of offending God not to clam his Taste with the smallest Collection of Flattery The Chancellorship or a Title equivalent to that Office is a Supreme Dignity in the Empire of Germany and in all Christian Kingdoms and States and further then Christendom executed by the Grand Visier of the Port at Constantinople Only the Chief Pontiff of the See of Rome styles the Prelate of his Palace who presides in that Employment his Vice-Chancellor and no more And why Because says Gomesius in his Proem to the Rules of that Court Vices agit Cancellarii Dei quia Papa est Dei Cancellarius He can be but a Vice for the Pope himself is God's Chancellor Let him be as Liberal as he will to himself by his own Assumption I am certain he is not such by God's Nomination Leaving the Pontifical Court to its own Platform elsewhere the Chancellor is the Chief Magistrate under the Supreme Power of the King that sets him up To which purpose Budaeus in his Notes upon the Pandects p. 325. Cancellariatus summum est hodie honorum fastigium quasi quoddam summa quaeque ambientis animi solstitium This was it then which was marvel'd and look'd upon as a Rarity that the King should prefer the Dean of Westminster though very richly qualified in a Churchman's condition to the Estival Solstice of Honour as Budaeus calls it at one step who had never pass'd through the lower Ascendant Signs of the Zodiac of the Law But that great Master of Wisdom did never repent him that He had trusted such a Servant so far never gave the least sign of Displeasure to the day of his Death that He would Remove him never tax'd him that he had gone awry in any thing either as a public or private Person Which good Opinion he kept so constantly that after two years Probation in his Office I find these Lines in a Letter which he send to the Lord of Buckingham to Madrid May 11. 1623. The King's Grace to me is such that I profess before God I never received ill Word or clouded Aspect from him since the first day I served him in this great Place His Majesty would many times speak of him that He never met with a better States-man for a clear and far-reaching Judgment His Knowledge was a Political Circle that comprehended all things in it Bring any Matter unto him his Reason was never shallow nor at Low-Water He studied Foreign Courts as much as this at home and cared not what he paid to expert Ministers Strangers or Native to be acquainted with the Secrets of their Masters The best to whom he may be similized herein is Frier Paul the Servite of whom it is written When any News were bruited he seldom was mistaken in his Opinion whether they were true or false and nothing could be propounded to him to which he did not suddenly give an Answer and with that Solidity as if he had meditated much upon those Answers which were conceived presently under the Question Such an Eminency of Intellectual Parts opened the broad Gate for this Dean to enter into the Royal Favour As among Plants it is the property of the Palm-Tree says Philo lib. 1. de Vit. Mos that the Vital Virtue thereof is not in the Root which is under the Earth but in the top of the Trunk as in the Head which is next to Heaven And Pliny lib. 13. c. 4. accords well unto it Dulci medulla earum in cacumine quod cerebrum vocant The sweet and succulent Marrow in the top is the Brain and Life of the Palm So to them that enquire how Dean Williams shot up so soon to this Palm of Honour I will point to the top of the Tree even to the Marrow of his Brain Dulcis medulla in cacumine quod cerebrum vocant 64. Withal he was most Industrious and that not by fits but every day did conclude its Work as if he were not to live till to morrow No Cammel did bear more burden then he did when he first entred to sit in the Seat of Lord-Keeper or travel'd further with so little Food and less rest which he suffer'd the better because he was weary of Ease and loved Labour
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 Aâ—â— 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 hâ—th 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 dâ—ns operam â—nationi 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 Hâ—bart 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 Wiâ—châ—sâ—er 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 foâ—mal Absolution Church-wise Manu Clericali Judge Dodderidge and Sir Harry Maâ—â—in 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. Caeâ—ar 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
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 Jeâ—t and turn him about with a Trick of Facetiousness I
〈…〉 unsel being present keeping my Intention from my Chancellor himself from whom I never kept any of my weightiest Business Because if I had made him of my Counsel in that purpose he had been blamed for putting the same into my Head which had not been his Duty For it becometh no Subject to give his Prince Advice in such Matters In this Story it appears that the Father-King trod the way to his Son to undergo such an Audacious Journey in the pursuance of his Love Quid non effraeno captus amore Audeat Ovid. Then that he Persisted in his Principles of Secrecy for a generous End that he might not draw his Chief and Best Servants whom he loved most into a Snare of Guiltiness 127. Let Provision be made to the most that could be for the safety of all others yet Sir Ant. W. in his Court and Character of K. James hath one Exception That the King set this Wheel on Running to destroy Buckingham for the hatred which he had long bore him and would not think it ill to loose his Son so Buckingham might be lost also Pag. 149. O Horrid But the best is the Foundation is Rotten For Buckingham as all Men about the King would Testifie was in as high Favour at that time as any Subject was ever with his Sovereign But when Sir A. to make out the Proof he lays it upon Sir H. Yelverton displaced from the Office of Attorney General to the King and committed to the Tower 't was he that assured the Marquess that the King hated him more than any man Living pag. 159. Sir Harry was Unfortunate but too honest a Man to sow Discord between the King and his principal Peer and Attendant Now mark upon what Bottom the Contriver of this Tale doth wind his Forgery Sir W. Balfore at the time of his Lieutenancy of the Tower brought the Marquess at Midnight to Sir H. Yelverton's Chamber being then his close Prisoner Where Sir William heard those Passages and a great deal more between them And by one or other who came to the knowledge of it but this Sir Anthony O Wicked Servant to thy good Master O fowl Bird that defilest the Nest wherein thâ—u wert hatch'd and well fledg'd Thou art catch'd in thine own Lime for thou never couldst have Conserence with Sir W. Balfore or Sir H. Yelverton about such a matter For Learned Yelverton was never Prisoner to Valiant Balfore Sir Allen Apsley was Lieutenant all the time of that worthy man's restraint And Sir W. Balfore was not preferr'd to that Office of great Trust in more than four years after Sir Harry had obtain'd his Liberty when Knaves will turn Fools it is not amiss to be merry with them And I will fit Sir Anthony with a Jest out of Illustrius the Pythagorean p. 23. One Daphidas came to the Pythian Deity to beseech his Oracleship to tell him when he should find a Gelding of his that was gone astray You shall find him very shortly says Apollo's Minister I thank you for your good News says Daphidas but I have neither lost a Horse nor have a Horse to loose So I turn Sir Anthony over to the Committee of Oracles and proceed After the Princes Out Leap the King lingred at New-market till the time was nigh that every day Tidings were expected of his safe Arrival in Spain that he might shew himself to the Lords at White-hall with better Confidence which he did March 30. being the first day that the Lord Keeper spake with the King about his dear Sons Planetary Absence No sooner had he made most humble sign of his Majesties Welcome by Kissing his Hand but the King Laugh'd out this Question to him Whether he thought this Knight-Errant Pilgrimage would be lucky to win the Spanish Lady and to convey her shortly into England Sir says the Lord Keeper If my Lord Marquess will give Honour to Conde Duke Olivares and Remember he is the Favourite of Spain Or if Olivares will shew Honourable Civility to my Lord Marquess Remembring he is a Favourite of England the Woing may be Prosperous But if my Lord Marquess should forget where he is and not stoop to Olivares or if Olivares forgetting what Guest he hath Received with the Prince bear himself haughtily and like a Castilian Grandee to my Lord Marquess the Provocation may be Dangerous to Cross your Majesties good Intentions And I pray God that either one or both of them do not run into that Errour The King drew a Smile at the Answer but bit his Lip at the presage Discourse being Enlarg'd between them the King perceiv'd that his Counsellor had other Fears and that his Brain teemed with Jealousies of very hard Encounters which he knock'd upon softly that his Majesty might discern them and not seem to apprehend them Only thus far the King proceeded to ask him If he had wrote to his Son and to the Lord Marquess clearly and upon what Guard they should stand Yes Sir says he for that purpose I have dispatch'd some Packets Then continue says the King to help me and themin those difficulties with your best Powers and Abilities and serve me faithfully in this motion which like the highest Orbe carries all my Raccolta's my Counsels at the present and my prospects upon the Future with it and I will never part with you The Cause which made His Majesty so solicitous made the Lord Keeper need no Provocation to diligence He was before hand And upon the 25 of February by a Currier that was at Madrid almost as soon as the Prince he wrote two Letters following to his Highness and to the Lord Marquess A Letter to the Prince May it please your Highness 128 ALthough Prayer is all the Service That at this time either I the most obliged or any other the wisest of your Servants can perform unto you yet I Humbly beseech your Higness to pardon true Affections that cannot stay there but will be expressing of it self though peradventure neither wisely nor discreetly The Comick Writer held these two scarce competent Amare sapere And to exclude all shew of discretion I presume to write this First Letter of mine to your Highness without so much as excribing or taking a Copy of the same this opportunity admitting no leisure at all to do the one or the other Your Journey is generally reputed the depth of your danger which in my Fears and Representations your Arrival should be You are in a strange State for ought we know uninvited business being scarce prepared subject to be staid upon many and contrary pretenses made a Plot for all the Wisdom of Spain and Rome for all the contemplations of that State and that Religion to work upon And peradventure the detaining of Your Highness his Person may serve their turn as amply as their Marriage at least wise for this time and the Exploits of the ensuing Summer I write not this to fright you who have Testified to all the
that his Lordship should be offered up to Justice as a publick Sacrifice But they that contest for his Innocency observe that he was let loose to depart in Quiet when he should have been brought to the Horns of the Altar And when the Bill drawn up against him was put into Sir Robert Philip's Hand an active and a gracious Member of the House to manage it to his Ruine Sir Robert writes to the Duke Cab. P. 265. If Bristol frame a probable satisfactory Answer to any Charge will it not rather serve to declare his Innocency than to prepare his Condemnation Your Grace may consult with your self whither you may not desist with Honour upon having him further questioned Afterward when his Master King James was dead and when he was at the Stake I may say like to be worried in Parliament by his Accusers he writes thus confidently to the Lord Conway Cab. P. 20. As for the Pardon Jacob. 21. I should renounce it but that I know the justest and most cautious Man living may through Ignorance or Omission offend the Laws So that as a Subject I shall not disclaim any Benefit which cometh in general as it doth usually to all other Subjects in the Kingdom But as for any Crime in particular that may entrench upon my Employments in point of Loyalty and Fidelity I know my Innocency to be such that I am confident I shall not need that Pardon A. Gallius li. 12. c. 7. Take the Earl's Case Pro and Con it is very dubious therefore I will deal with it as the manner of the Areopagites was in such Perplexities adjourn it to be heard an hundred Years hence I say not He but They were the Proprophets of Baal that troubled our Israel Our Corner-miching Priests with the Bloomesberry-Birds their Disciples and other hot spirited Recusants cut out the Way with the Complaints of their no-grievous Sufferings which involved us in Distractions Rome and Madrid were full of them and they conjured Pope Gregory and the Catholick King to wind in their Safety and Immunity in the Articles of the Match as behoved a Father and a Friend If they had sate still and let the Business go adrist with the Tide it had been better for them They that force their Fruits to be Ripe do but hast them to be rotten Qui spretis quae tarda cum securitate prematura vel cum exitio properant Tacit. Annal. lib. 3. The Word of the King and Prince would not serve them that they would be gracious to all of their Sect that lived modestly and inoffensively to deserve their Clemency But they must have publick Instruments for it and Acts of Parliament if they could be gotten to debauch his Majesty in the Love of his People For as the Lord Keeper writes very prudently to the Duke Cab. P. 105. The Bent of the English Catholicks is not to procure Ease and Quietness to themselves but Scandals against their neighbouring Protestants and Discontents against the King and State Rhetorical Campian avows it in an Oration made at Doway Note this Apostrophe of his to our Kingdom As far as it concerns our Society we all dispersed in great Numbers through the World have made a League and Holy Solemn Oath that as long as any of us are alive all our Care and Industry all our Deliberations and Councils shall never cease to trouble your Calm and Safety Yet when our pragmatical Bosom-Enemies had wearied themselves with Solicitations the Earl of Nitsdale a main Prop of their Cause confest It may be Assurance sufficient to all Catholicks who have the Sense to consider that it must be our Master's and the Prince's gracious Disposition that must be our Safety more than either Word or Writ Thus he to the Duke Cab. P. 250. But while the Recusant Petitioners had caused all Affairs with us and Abroad to be obnoxious to Inflammation the Lord Keeper like a right Lapidary cuts a Diamond with a Diamond and useth Sir Tobâ— Mâ— is it not a Paradox the busiest Agent in that Cause to Manifest both in the Palace at Rome and in the Court at Madrid that the Petitioners grasp at more Favours than they could hold either with the Peace of this Kingdom or with the Laws of it which would endanger them to forfeit all that Connivance which they had gained before Give him his Due he rode with great Celerity to those remote Places and did his Work to the Proof and to his great Praise Sâ—stus est at mihi infidelis non est As Plautus in Trinummo The Lord Keeper failed not to put Gold in his Pocket but he paid him chiefly out of his Father's Purse That most Reverend Arch-Bishop of York his Father being highly distasted with Sir Toby's Revolt from the Protestant Religion made a Vow to Dis-inherit him and to leave him nothing The Lord Keeper plied the Arch-Bishop with sweet and pleasant Letters which he loved and with some Mediators in Yorkshire not to infringe his Vow for he did not ask him so much as to name him in his last Wiâ—l and Testament but to furnish him with Three thousand Pounds while he lived and the Sum was paid to his Son to a Peny How Sir Toby beâ— himself in the wisest Counsel which I think was given to the King of Spain may be read Cab. P. 25â— importuning his Majesty not to entangle the Prince with the Voâ—o of the Theologos to which he could not submit himself with Honour but to accept of those large Conditions for Catholicks which my Lord the King and the Prince have condescended to that so the Prince may have some foot of Ground upon which he may stand without Breach of Honour to comply with the incomparable Affection which he beareth to the Infanta This is sure that Sir Toby's Industry was well taken because he did what he could And he that employed him held him ever after to be a Person of Trust in any thing which he promised to do 145. Very consonant to the grand Particulars of the Praemises are the Contents of two Letters both dispatcht in June from the Lord Keeper to the Duke's Grace That which bears the former Date June 15 and yet unpublished lays out Errors advisedly and mannerly under the Heads of trivial Reports and furnisheth the Duke with Counsel for all Exigencies of Advantage especially diseloseth the King's Opinion if the Worst should come It is long but I could not pare it and not mar it Thus it is May it please your Grace IF ever I had as God knoweth I never had any extraordinary Contentment in the Fortunes of this World I have now good Cause offered me to redouble the same by that exceeding Love and Affection which every Man in his private Letter to others doth take Notice that your Grace doth bear and continually express to your poor Servant Nor is your Love incentred to me only in your own Breast but full of Operation having procured to me a good
he desired Leave from his Father that he might assay to depart from Madrid as secretly as he came thither Quando optima Dido Nesciat tantos rumpi non speret amores Aeneid 4. The Lord Keeper indeed had emboldned the Prince in February before to that Course but the King thought the Motion was not so seasonable at that time For his Highness was attended in Spain with a great Houshold of Followers and God knows whither the Sheep would be scattered or into what Pin-sold they should be thrust if the shepherd were gone And his Majesty still dreamt of of winning the Game and profest he saw no such Difficulties but that Patience after a while would overcome Perversness Howsoever it would be inglorious for the Prince of Wales to run away from the Frown of the Spaniards But least the Safety of so dear a Person should seem to be slighted or his Welcome Home retarded the Lord Keeper besought the King upon his Knees that his Majesty would write his Fatherly and Affectionate Letters to require his Son's Return giving them no Date but leaving that to be inserted when Business was crown'd with Opportunity This Counsel hit the Pin right and was followed and by God's Will who hath the Hearts of Kings and Princes in his Hand it pleased on this side and beyound the Seas 147. Great was the Expectation what the Month of July would bring forth as well in England as in Spain My Lord Duke had thrust himself into the greatest Employment that was in Europe when at first he had no Ground now no Mind to accomplish it A sorry Apprehension taken from Mr. Endi Porter carried him forth in all hast to make up the Match but there were others who desired his Grace to gratifie them with Concealment for their Good-will that sent Instructions into Spain to adjure him to do his utmost to prevent the Espousals Their Reasons were the two principal Places of Divine and Humane Wisdom God's Glory and his own Safety For God's Sake to keep our Orthodox Religion from the Admixture of that Superstition which threatned against the Soundness of it And no Corrosive so good to eat out the Corruption of Romish Rottenness creeping on as to give the Spaniard the Dodg and to leave the Daughter of Spain behind To his own Safety this Counsel was contributed These who made it their Study and were appointed to it to maintain the Grandeur of his Lordship met frequently at Wallingford-house to promote the Work Who had observed that some Impressions were gotten into the King's Mind and they knew by whom that his Majesty was resolved to be a Lover of Parliaments that he would close very graciously with the next that was called nor was there Likelihood that any private Man's Incolumity though it were his Grace himself should cause an unkind Breach between him and his People Therefore the Cabinet-men at Wallingford-House set upon it to consider what Exploit this Lord should commence to be the Darling of the Commons and as it were to re-publicate his Lordship and to be precious to those who had the Vogue to be the chief Lovers of their Country Between the Flint and the Steel this Spark was struck out that all other Attempts would be in vain unless the Treaty for the great Marriage were quasht and that the Breach of it should fall notoriously upon the Lord Buckingham's Industry For it was not to the Tast of the English if you will number them and not weigh them fearing some Incommodation to the Protestant Religion These Jonadabs 2 Sam. 13.3 the Subtle Friends of beauteous Absalom drew the Duke out of the King's High-way into the By-path of Popularity The Spaniards also stir'd up his Fire to struggle and appear against them For as the Earl of Bristol writes Cab. P. 20. He was very little beholding to them for their good Opinion Withal he was so head-strong that all the Ministers of our King that were joyned with him could not hold him in He had too much Superiority to think them his Fellow Servants that were so indeed And having nothing in his Tast but the Pickle of those new Counsels which his Governing Friends in England insus'd into him he pluckt down in a few Weeks which the other Part had been raising up in eight Years Centum doctúm hominum concilia sola devincit Dea Fortuna Plaut Pseud Act. 2. This unfortunate Accident did both contravene and over-match the Counsels of a hundred wise Men. A fatal thing it hath been always to Monarchs to be most deceived where they have trusted most Nay If they had all the Eyes of Argos their chiefest Confidents are able to abuse them on the blind Side Therefore the Observator is most injurious that puts a low Esteem upon King James's Wisdom P. 14. That he was over-witted and made use of to other Mens ends by almost all that undertook him So he may put the Fool upon Solomon who was cousen'd in Jeroboam whom he made Ruler over all the Charge of the House of Joseph 1 King 11.28 A Solomon may be mistaken in a Jeroboam and like his seeming Faithfulness and Sufficiency to the Undoing of his Posterity Little did the old King expect that the Man of his Right-hand whom he had made so strong for his own Service upon all Occasions would forget the Trust of his Gracious Master and listen to the Voice of Hirelings Which of the Members of my Partition will make the Duke excusable in point of Honour and Conscience Did he do it for the best to the King Did he think the Spanish Alliance would be fruitful in nothing but Miseries and that it would be a thankful Office to lurch the King in his Expectation of it Evil befall such double Diligence Perhaps it may be shifted off with the Name of a good Intent when it tampers with a Branch or Circumstance of an Injoyment but when it raiseth up the very Body of Instructions 't is no more competent with Obedience than Light with Darkness The Heathen would not brook it that had a grain of Philosophy in their Disposition that a Minister should alter the Mandates of his Superior upon Supposes to the better Ne benè consulta Religione mandati soluta corrumperentur Gell. lib. 1. c. 13. They thought that those Services which wanted the Religion of Obedience let their Aim be never so honest would prove improsperous Or did this great Lord do it for the best to himself I believe it If the Hope of the Match died away he lookt to get the Love of the most in England but if it were made up he lookt for many Enemies for he had lost the Love of the best in Spain Sir Wal. Aston foresaw wisely that there was no fear but that the Princely Lovers might joyn Hands in Sacred Wedlock if that Fear of the Duke could be removed So he writes Cab. P. 32. Would your Grace would commit it to my Charge to inform the
had signified his further pleasure and that when the Princessa had been Six Months in England this Favour should be confirmed to her further Content The like was not yielded in the business Agitated with the Duke of Anjoy but a strict Exception was put in Ut nulla Occasio Anglis ad leges constitut as violandas praeberetur It was an ill time for the Embassadors to ask such things when not only seditious Spirits but the best of Protestants who had nothing in them of the peevish and refractory were sick of an ill Digestion of Jealousies It was a hard seeming work to overcome for the Ravens Croak'd and the Doves mourned at it Yet it was a worse time to deny them when the Pledge of our Future Happiness stuck fast in a Foreign Kingdom and nothing could Conduct him home with such Celerity and Safety as some drops of Grace Distilling from the Prerogative Royal to stay the longing of the Pontifician Faction They are beguiled that think Marquess Inoihosa or 〈◊〉 Carlos de Colonna pluck'd us over our Line to get a Wife for the Prince it was to get him home Jam non de Gloriâ sed de Salate pugnandum est Curt. lib. 4. Let his Highness look to it in Spain to come home with a Glorious Bride but all Loyal Hearts look earnestly for him whether single or double was not the Chief Point And the Anxiety of his Majesty was What shall I do for my Son 1 Sam. 10.2 This was the Compass that guided the Lords of the Councel in their condescension to bring their young Master out of Peril though it were with the Ransom of too much Mercy to them who were not the best that deserv'd it But who it was that set the Edge of the Razor upon the Hoane who it was that surpass'd himself in this Negotiation that cut off difficulties smoothly leaving no Raggedness to be seen in the Clest of his distinctions will appear in the ensuing dispatch of the Lord Keepers to the Prince whose goodness will satisfie for the Prolixity May it please your Highness 150. IF I shall touch upon any Service which I may seem to have performed towards Your Higness I humbly beseech your Highness to conceive I do it not to pick Thanks and much less to put any acknowledgment upon your Highness but only to discharge my self of that part of Duty which all the World knoweth I do above all Men in the World owe unto your Highness Before I did imagine that his Majesty would take any Opinion of mine in the Signing and Swearing of this Treaty Sir Fr. Cottington your most worthy Servant had acquainted me with all the dispatch and permitted me to Read the Papers over Upon Saturday last the 12 of July the Council formerly warned to attend his Majesty the next day at Wansted were discharged and some hour after my self commanded to attend Suspecting thereupon I might be questioned to that Effect I sent for your Highness Secretary and heard from him it would be so indeed and that His Majesty was much troubled and perplex'd about his Oaths Presently Town-Reports were Raised of great Opposition among the Lords against this Swearing In so much as the shameless people had made two Orations the one to be of mine for the Oaths and the other of my Lord of Canterbury's against the same which they supposed prevailed with the King and the whole Councel when neither of us had heard or spoken one word in that Theme I spent in a manner all that Night in debating with my self the Streights that your Highness was unto and at the last fell upon this Resolution contained in this Letter which I deliver'd upon Sunday Morning in private to his Majesty with an excuse for my Boldness therein His Majesty accepted thereof very well and Read it over three or four times that day and seemed to me at that time to approve thereof in all Points and put off further Discourse till the Afternoon I was so far emboldned therewith that after Dinner because I found some whispring among the Lords present I stept again to His Majesty and deliver'd him an Opinion that for the Oath of the Lords his Majesty should not leave it to their Disputation but command them to take 〈◊〉 there being no matter of scruple or moment in the same as indeed there is not This his Majesty well approved of and put in practise afterward with good success The Council being met whereof some were there by Reason of their Attendance as my Lord Chamberlain Earl of Carlisle Lord Fenton and Mr. Treasurer others warned as the Duke Lord Treasurer Lord Marshal my self Sir R. Weston and the two Secretaries his Majesty made a Speech unto us full of perplexity because of your Highness's Streits and his own Remorse of Conscience Chiefly he insisted it would be frivolous to be put upon it to move the next Parliament to abrogate the Laws already Establish'd against Recusants which would not be Heard much less Granted and that in point of Conscience and Religion he could not promise that no Laws hereafter should be made against them This his Majesty having utter'd with much Passion and earnestness left us to hear all the Papers Read and having Commanded us very passionately to give him our best Advice retired into his Chamber and left us together for two hours After the End of the Reading many odd and extravagant Propositions were made of Advice to be given to his Majesty how to get your Person home again wherein I durst not say one word finding none of my Opinion unless it were Secretary Calvert nor my self to concur with any of theirs At the last pressed thereunto I said that I conceiv'd upon the Discourse of his Majesty we could not deliver any Advice or Opinion at all For if his Majesty made a Conscience of taking the Oaths and had already Framed unto himself this Conclusion the immoveable Rule in this Case is Quod dubitas ne feceris nor there was no more in Policy or Divinity to be said therein On the other side if His Majesty would otherwise declare himself that he was not moved in Conscience or Religion but only in Honour and Safety to Refuse those Oaths I did hope no Lord in this Company would Advise his Majesty to desert his only Son and to desert him in this manner in the Face of all Christiandom For to pretend an excuse to fetch him home to bâ—lpâ—his Majesty to facilitate these Affairs would never repair his Credit who had subscribed that which his Father would not make good nor was he himself any way able to accomplish Beside that I made it a Question Whether the King of Spain after all this wooing would so easily be deceived in Licensing him to depart At the last his Majesty Returning and calling upon us for our Advice all the Lords Assented to this last Opinion and told his Majesty they durst not Advise him any thing until he express'd himself
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
came thither privily out of Love he scorn'd to steal away privily out of Fear But when he heard that some were set in ambush to interrupt his Return he bore it Heroically and without strife of Passion because he knew no Remedy to help it and wrote to the King his Father to be couragious in the sufferance with these Lines That if his Majesty should receive any Intelligence that he was deteined in that State as a Prisoner he would be pleased for his sake never to think of him more as a Son but to reflect with all Royal Thoughts upon the good of his Sister and the safety of his own Kingdoms That Family and those Children with whom King Philip held less Amity than with the English secur'd us afterwards from those fears But for other things the Grandees of the Consulto till their heat had vapoured out stood upon such Terms as had no Equity or Moderation For when Sir Fr. Cottington return'd with our Kings Oath plighted to the annexed Conditions for the ease of the Roman Catholicks the Spaniards made no Remonstrance of Joy says the Prince in his Report or of an ordinary liking to it Therefore the Lord Keeper observing that they had an insatiate and hydropical Malady that the more they gulpt down the more they thirsted he tried if they would take this Julip as he prepared it in his Letter to the Duke of Buckingham July 21. May it please your Grace I Have Received yours of the 8 of Julyby the Lord Andover and heartily thank your Grace for the News though not so compleatly good as we desir'd yet better then for many days together I expected beside the hope I retain it may still be better His Majesty and the Lords have taken the Oaths and the Laws against the Roman Catholicks are actually suspended as upon my Credit and Honesty they were a good while before Now July August September and a piece of October are left for a further Probation This being so what good will it do that Wise and Great Estate to Publish to all Christiandom their diffidence of so just a Prince especially being Sworn and Deposed Your Grace knoweth very well I would the State of Spain knew as much that all our Proceedings against Recusants is at our Assises which are holden at this instant and do not return again till after the first of March So as all the probate of the suspension of the Laws against them betwixt this and the first of March will be seen and discerned by the last of our August For between that and the first of March there can be no Trial at all I know if this were understood in that place it were unanswerable For the Proceedings in the King's-Bench which only can be objected are altogether depending upon Indictments at the Assises so that the Spring once stopt as now it is these Rivers grow Dry and run no more This will mollifie all Stubborness which is Resolv'd to stoop to Reason c. Here 's a Remonstrance then which nothing could be more placid or more solid upon which I look as upon Thaboren in Parthia as Justin describes it lib. 41. Cuius loci ea conditio est ut neque munitius quicquam neque amoenius esse possit Just at this time the Days of Trouble look'd darker and darker in Spain The Prince disgusted to Treat with a People that ask'd much and granted little and Wire-drew Counsels into Vexatious length resolv'd to take his leave and shew'd the King of Spain his Fathers Royal and Indispensable Pleasure that no Proffer should interpose but that he should hasten him for which his Navy did attend him upon the Coast of Biscay That it was no fault of his that he must depart when the Treaty was so imperfect but in them that made it a Justitium or Intermission of all Proceedings because upon the Death of the Pope the Court of Rome was not open Olivarez to divert his Highness made Two Propositions First That the Prince would come in to the Conditions as they came formerly from Rome or to stay till new ones might be agreed upon and Ratified at Rome Hoc illud cornucopiae est ubi in est quicquid volo says Pseudolus in Plautus Grant the Conde to make his Reference to Rome and you grant him all That 's the Goats-Horn or Jugglers Box out of which he can fetch any thing with a sleight The Prince answer'd him very gravely for one so young as he made the Report at St. James's The first motion he had declin'd before neither had he chang'd his Judgment nor should they find him a Shechem to pass over into a New Religion for a Wife Gen. 34. The other Motion he accepted this way He would go for England to perfect the Articles there and let them do the like at Rome Olivarez admired at his Reply but took it up with this Answer That to be gone so soon and nothing Model'd to the Content of any side would be a Breach therefore he humbly besought his Highness to stay but Twenty Days and he swore by all the Saints of Heaven then he was sure it would be a Marriage The Duke of Buckingham standing by said It is well but it might have been as well Seven years ago Which put the Conde to a great Anger and in his Anger made him Fome out a Secret That there was no Match intended Seven Months ago and says he I will fetch that out of my Desk that shall assure you of it So he produced a Letter written to one Don Baltasar with King Philip III. his own Hand as he Vowed The Prince was allowed to Read it then as much as he would but not to take a Copy all this was declared to the next Parliament in the Banquetting-House His Highness with Sir Wal. Aston better Skill'd in the Castilian Language Translated the Letter as their Memories would bear it away and kept it for a Monument This is the Letter which I think Mr. Prinn was the first that divulged out of the Lord Cottington's Papers which he had Ransack'd Whether it were a true Letter of King Philip's lies upon Olivarez Credit it never came out of his Custody or whether the Prince and Sir W. Aston mist nothing of the right Sense of it through Frailty of Memory when they came to Recollect the Sum of it in private is not yet decided Salomon alluding to the Contradictions that are in some Mens Parables says They are like the Legs of the Lame that are not equal Prov. 26.7 Let the best Bone-setter in the Hundred set these Legs even if he can An Authentical Notary in Spain Conde Olivarez shews it under Black and White that Philip the Father of the Infanta who died Anno 1621 held our King in Hopes but never intended to give his Daughter to the Prince of Wales Hear the Evidence of the other side His Highness Remembred the Parliament That Sir Wal. Aston was struck Mute at the Reading of
the Letter for upon the Death of the late King of Spain being sent from his Master our Soveraign to the King of Spain that now is to understand his Mind upon the Treaty of Marriage he receiv'd this Chearful Answer That he was sorry he had not the Honour to begin it but now he would pursue it with all Alacrity The Earl of Bristol is another Witness Cab. p. 27. I insisted that Two Millions for the Portion were by the last King settled and agreed with me That this King had undertaken to pursue the Business as it was left by his Father and to make Good whatsoever he had promised Thereupon I desired that the Original Papers and Consultoes of the last King might be seen which very honestly by the Secretary Cirica were produced and appeared to be such that I dare say there was not any Man that saw them that doubteth of the last Kings real Intention of making the Match So I leave these Contradictions to blush at the sight of one another But to me Olivarez his Fidelity is the Leg that halts For as Tully said of Roscius the Comoedians Adversary Quod sibi probare non possit id persuadere alteri conatur he could never persuade that vigorously to another which he disbelieved himself It is a tedious thing to be tied to Treat with one that cares not for his own Honour nor regards his Modesty with whom he Treats I mean that same Person that Bashaw of King Philip the Conde Duke who entramel'd as many Devices as his Pate could bring together to raise a Dust and made Demands meerly to satisfie his own Pride that he might boast he had ask'd them though his discretion taught him that he could never obtain them When Sir Fr. Cottington return'd to Madrid with the great Article procur'd to suspend the Penal Statutes of England in favour of Recusants he presented it to the Conde and expected as the Casttlian Phrase is Las Albricias a reward for bringing of good News the Conde stoop'd not so low as to give Thanks but having perused the Paper told Sir Francis it would be expected the Prince should Negotiate a plain Toleration for the Protestants that endured that which was in his Hand would patiently endure more Sir Francis Answered him with the Old Simile That his Lordship was no good Musician for he would peg the Minikin so high till it crack'd Concerning his Attemptings upon the Prince my supply is out of private Letters that came from Friend to Friend The Conde had Oblig'd his Honour to his Highness when he came First to the Court of Spain never to meddle with him about his Religion He kept not his promise but solicited his Highness that as he lov'd his Soul he would return to England a Catholic in his Sense Well my Lord says the Prince You have broken your Word with me but I will not break my Faith with God Another time he besought his Highness to afford his Company at a Solemn Mass No Sir says the Prince I will do no ill nor the suspicion of it Once more this Idern told his Highness that he would accomplish all that he could desire from the Crown of Spain if he would profess himself a Son of the Roman Church he should not only carry home the bravest Lady for Beauty Birth and Vertue that was but be made as great a King in Riches and Power as was in Europe But as the Prophet says Isa 63.5 Excandiscentia mea fulcivit me my Fury it upheld me so the Prince was heated at the Offer and gave this provocation to him that had provok'd him that it was such a another Rhadomontade as the Devil made to Christ All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and Worship me Next to matters of Religion the stiffest thing that was tugg'd for in this Month was about the Restitution of the Palatinate The Secretary of the Elector came to Madrid with Letters to the Duke about it which were not first imparted to the King his Father-in-Law But all that shall be drawn up into one Process in the Transactions of August 155. But in all Disputes for Sacred or secular Matters the Ministers of our King were the more Naked and Unarm'd when they came to the push of the Spanish Subtleties because they kept not the correspondence with themselves If my Lord of Buckingham could have fashion'd his mind to draw the same yoke with the Earl of Bristol who was most conversant upon the place and best knew the Arts of that Nation success had been more Fortunate But those Civil Discords were the Cause of many disorders and incivilities Therefore the King imposed on the Lord Keeper to use his Pen once more to reconcile them which he did not fail to do the very next day which was his Majesties Remove to begin the Western Progress July 22. May it please your Grace I would not be troublesom with this Second Letter but chiefly to let your Grace know that you never stood in your Life more uprightly in his Majesties Favour then at this instant and that I shall need to pour out no other Prayers unto God but for the continuation of the same For Gods sake Write to my Lord Hamilton and acquaint his Lordship with some Passages of your Affairs For my self I shall be content to Rove and guess at them And I hope your Grace will be pleased to pardon this Excursion that is my running this second or third time into business which I am told but cannot by any means believe it hath already drawn your Grace's Offence against me It is a most Humble Zealous and earnest Petition to your Grace to Seal up and really confirm that agreement and reconciliation which to the great Contentment of all your Friends but the Regret of some among us you have made with the Earl of Bristol What I wrote formerly might be ill placed and offend your Grace but all proceeded from as true and sincere a Heart unto your Grace as you left behind you in all this Kingdom But the renewing of it now again hath a Root from a higher Power who hath observ'd your Grace his Favour so abounding towards me and my acknowledgments so far as my poor ability permitteth so returned to your Grace that he was pleased to say unto me this Morning upon this Theme That he knew you would regard any Representation that I should recommend unto you In good Faith his Majesty is more then Zealous not only of fair Terms of Friendship but of a near Alliance formerly spoken of between your Grace and that Earl Of whose Sufficiencies and Abilities I perceive His Majesty to retein an extraordinary good Opinion which in all Humility I thus leave to your Lordships Wisdom and Consideration The Earl of Bristol had heard how the Lord Keeper had ventur'd to make this Pacification and writes to him Cab. p. 20. That the Friendship of the Duke was a thing he did
any prudent Man oblige himself to all those Errours which may be committed And if the Count Palatine had followed the Counsel of the most Excellent King of Great Britain many of those things which have succeeded had been prevented and the Grace of the Emperor had been better disposed than now it is Beside that much hath been spent and that they have seen him so obstinate stirring up against the Emperor both the Turk and Bethlem Gabor and as many others as he hath been able I say not this to the end that we should forbear to do whatsoever in this World we should be able to accommodate the Palatine and to do in this behalf that which the King of Great Britain doth shew that he desireth But to say that which is certain his Majesty of Great Britain doth by no means find himself in this Business any other ways engaged than he shall find that Engagement to be justifiable God keep you as I desire From Madrid 31 Octob. 1623. Postscript If my Lord the King did not mean to bring this Business to a final Conclusion with much Gust to the King of Great Britain we might sufficiently with that which my Lords the Ambassadors desire by offering and really interposing our Intercession with his Cesareal Majesty And we might also have excused the Writing of this long Letter which is full of Good will and of this I can assure you 163. This long riddling non-concluding Letter such another as Tiberius the Emperor wrote from Capree to the Senate for the Tryal of Sejanus is not endorsed I conceive it was sent to Mr. Edward Clerke who was sent from the Prince on Shipboard to the Earl of Bristol to stop the Powers he had for the dispatch of the expected Desposories this was put into his Hand against he return'd for England But what is it worth if it were to be sold Scarce two of their Maravedies and we requited them with that which came to as little as one of our Farthings We had look'd after the Re-possession of the Palatinate till our Eyes aked and to feed them with a taste of their own Provender a long-breath'd Delay we made their Ambassadors in London tarry for the Indulgences which their Clients in Religion hoped for till their Hearts aked It is opened sufficiently before that his Majesties End in subscribing to the Articles in favour of the Papists his Subjects was to second his Son in that which he had begun in Spain to bring him out of the Briars from thence The Ambassadors plied the Concession of the Articles very diligently that their Party might enjoy the sweetness of the Benefit For better is the sight of the Eyes than the wandring of the Desire Eccles 6.9 It fell out well that the King never intermitting a Summers Progress was out of the way So the Management of the Business fell upon the Lord Keeper not by Usurpation but by Merit and by Necessity too For whatsoever his Majesty pretended he gave the Keeper a secret Rule to go no faster than needs and to do no more prejudice than was unavoidable A Regiment of Plots would hardly be enough to be drawn up together to win that Enterprise though a good Sconce overcame all Propertius Mens bona si qua Dea es tua me in sacraria dona says a Heathen As all costly Oyntments have Oyl mixed with them so Wisdom persumes all Undertakings as this under the File will demonstrate The Ambassador used their Counsel Learned in our Laws to draw up the effect of that they had obtained as near as could be to his Majesties Mind Which was brought to the Lord Keeper who told them The Papers were unsatisfactory they had proceeded indeed by the Articles signed in the private Lodgings at Whitehal but the private Articles shew only the extent of his Majesties Grace and Favour in the substance not at all the Manner and Form how they shall be conveyed which must be chalked out by a new and immediate Warrant from his Majesty This held dispute till the 10th of August his Majesty being at Salisbury where Directions past to liquidate the Doubts how the Kings Grants should be applied call'd from that place the Articles of Salisbury For which the Agents of the Ambassadors were to resort to the Earl of Carlile and Mr. Secretary Conway attending in the Progress and the Patents to be filled up with them by the Discretion of the Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer Mr. Secretary Calvert Sir Richard Weston Chancellor of the Exchequer Mr. Atturney-General Sir Th. Coventry attending who were to sit at Whitehal for the more easie Expedition Time is given to draw up Copies of new Draughts Interea aliquid fiet spero says the Comick In these Intervals who could tell but somewhat might fall out to cross all On the 18th of August the Lord Keeper sends the Form of the Pardon drawn up to the King at Beawlie to save the Recusants from all Advantages the Laws might take for the time past and a Dispensation to keep them indemnified from the same for the time to come But an Item was given to bring the Dispensation lame back that his Majesty should signifie his Royal Will That the Pardon should go under the Great Seal the Dispensation under the Privy Seal This from Beawlie Aug. 21. And there was a Colour for it out of the Agreements of Salisbury subtilly drawn up For the second Article says That a Legal Authentical Pardon shall be past under the Great Seal And in the seventh Article There shall be a present Suspension of his Majesties Laws under his Seal The word Great was wilfully omitted to puzzle the Transaction But after the Spanish part had debated with the Lord Keeper in Reason he writes to Secretary Conway at Tichburn Aug. 25. That he confest a Dispensation from the Poenal Statutes could not be pleaded but under the Great Seal The Business got off in that Point but it hung upon another Tentar He writes again to Mr. Secretary then at Broad-lands Aug. 27. That it troubled him much he was enforced to such often Replies but the Weight of the Business would excuse it He says He was not instructed from the Articles of Salisbury from what Day the Dispensation was to begin and how far it was to be limited in time to come from what time those are to be excluded that do not lay hold of it To which answer was given but always the Dial stood Once again he demurr'd upon the Dispensation which says That the Papists Convict shall not pay their Forfeiture for not coming to Church nor be Indicted for not taking the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance whether it was not fit to divide these in several Styles and Expressions It was return'd and dictated from the Kings Lips The first Breach of the Laws should be signified to be absolutely pardoned The latter should go in another Form that it should not be questioned and Mr. Atturney to provide accordingly
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
c. to forbear any Moleslation of his said Subjects in respect of their Religion To send them forth with as much speed as conveniently may be that his Majesty may be freed from the Complaints of the Ambassadors Thrice again he was charg'd with the same Command To all which he answer'd He could do nothing without a private Warrant for it and that it was not possible to be agreed upon till he spake with his Majesty On the 6th of September the same Secretary writes again That an Exemplification of the Pardon should be deliver'd to the Ambassadors under the Great Seal That 's not hard to be done But upon what Limits and Conditions So the Lord Keeper rejoyns Sir G. Calvert is troubled again to satisfie that Scruple That no Copy of it should go out to any of the Roman Catholicks nor any of them be permitted to sue out their Pardons until his Majesties Pleasure be further known This came Sept. 8. The Lord Keeper held back yet till he knew what Assurance he should have from the Ambassadors to keep those Conditions Which held a Contest till Sept. 19. When Mr. Secretary Conway writes from Theobalds His Majesties Pleasure is That you deliver unto the Marquiss Inoiosa an Exemplification of the Pardon and Dispensation And his Majesty would not that you should press him for a Note of his Hand for Secresie and Stanchness for giving of Copies of the Pardon or Dispensation but only by Word to refresh his Memory of the faithful Promises he hath made in that Point to the King upon which his Majesty will relie Indeed it was order'd at Windsor Sept. 7. as appears in a Letter of Secretary Conways that when Marquiss Iniosa had the Exemplication all the Crast was in Catching that he should communicate them to none nor give Copies of them till we had knowledge from Spain of the Marriage or Desponsories There was nothing about these days that mitigated the Embassador more than a Trick that in sine did him least good Properly and without Levity it may be called a Flop with a Fox-Tail The Lord Keeper closed in with him not to be so hasty for Exemplifications which the Clerks of the Crown must write over soft and fairly A Matter of more weight should presently be set on foot not of Words but of real Benefit and Performance to his Party and to the Choice of them a Pardon for the Romish Priests that were imprisoned about which there had been struggling and yet nothing effected As the Lord Keeper seemed forward so to see the ill Luck it was cramp'd by a Letter from Sir Edward Conway Sept. 6. Dat. Windsor Right Honorable HIS Majesty hath signed the Warrant that was sent for the enlarging of the Priests out of Prison that he may shew the Reality of Performance on his Part in all that is to be done Yet his Majesty commits the Warrant to your Keeping without further Use to be made save only to pass the Great Seal which you may be pleased to expedite till important Considerations be provided for and satisfied As First That his Majesty receive Advertisement of the Marriage or Desposories Secondly That Provision be taken for these Priests that have expressed their Duties to the King either in Writing in his Defence or in taking the Oaths whose Protection his Majesty holds himself bound to continue and not to suffer them to incur any Danger for that their Conformity Thirdly That Order be taken that such Priests enlarged be not left at Liberty to execute their Functions publickly or at their Pleasure but only under such Limitations and Restraints as by the Pardon and Dispensations are provided 166. Of these three Caveats entred to modifie the Liberty which was Petitioned for and promised to the Priests the middlemost was a brave one wherein the Lord Keeper revenged himself on Inoiosa for all his Forwardness It aimed at one man Mr. Preston a Secular Priest Honest and rarely Learned The Author of the Works under the Name of Roger Widrington for the Oath of Allegiance The Author of that solid Piece called The last Rejoynder to T. Fitzherbert Bellarmine's Sculckenius and Lessius his Singleton upon that Subject Printed An. 1619. This Man for his own Preservation lay quiet in the Marshalsea his Death being threatned by the rigid Papalins This was he that was set forth as the only Evidence of his Majesty's Royal Mercy toward those that were in Holy Orders of that Religion the present Pattern of his keeping Promise according to the Articles But such a Priest as that if Marq. Inoiosa had been consulted for his Release perhaps he would have cried out Not him but Barabbas Preston had Leave that Summer twice or thrice to come to the Lord Keeper at Nonsuch where I saw them together discoursing as long as Leisure and Business would permit That Interview procured the Warrant for his Pardon from the King as followeth James Rex TO the Reverend Father in God Our Right Trusty and Right Well-beloved Counsellor Jo. Lord Bishop of Lincoln Lord Keeper of Our Great Seal of England Right Trusty and Right Well-beloved Counsellor We Greet you well These are to will and require to pass one Pardon and Dispensation according unto the Warrant directed unto you concerning the Roman Catholicks of this Kingdom in general for the Use and Benefit of Preston a Secular Priest now a Prisoner in our Prison of the Marshalsea And delivering unto the Spanish Embassador an Exemplification of the same Pardon under the Great Seal to keep the Original so Sealed under your own Custody untill you shall receive from Us some further Order Given at Our Court at Windsor Sept. 8. c. The Releasment of Preston was accordingly dispatched the first Fruits of the Common Grace expected by others sent as a Present to Don Inoiosa nay a Precedent for consequent Releasments So Secretary Conway to the Lord Keeper Sep. 17. His Majesty's Order to your Lordship was That the Pardon for this one Man should be exemplified as the Limitation and Rule to the Form of all the rest So as without Dispute or Controversie that was a present Possâ—ssion an Act performed by the King to be executed alike to each one to whom it appertains at the Time and upon the Conditions before specified the Sight whereof might give the Embassador Contentment But it was far from that Don John the Marquiss durst not say he was mocked but he fum'd like Lime that is slack'd with Water to see of all the Priesthood that man only enlarged whom above all he most hated Therefore his Violence augmented press'd the King so far that his Majesty caused the same Secretary to write again very roundly the next day to the Lord Keeper Right Honorable HIS Majest hath received from the Spanish Embassador a large Declaration of his Grievance by the great Delays he finds from your Lordship in point of the Pardon and Dispensation an Exemplification of which your Lordship hath Order to deliver
unto him He complains further of want of Expedition in the Letters to be written by your Lordship to those principal Officers to whom it pertains for the Suspension of all Trouble and Molestation to the Roman Catholicks his Majesty's Subjects in matter of their Conscience His Majesty marvails not a little that the Pardon and Dispensation are so long delayed before they be delivered and the Letters so long before they are written His Majesty being troubled and offended that Cause should be taken upon these Delays by the Embassador to call into Jealousie his Majesty's Roundness and Integrity in Proceeding In all which Points his Majesty now prays you to give all possible Expedition that his Majesty may be no more soiled with the Jealousies and Suspitions of the Embassador nor importuned with their Requests for those things so entirely resolved on Albeit this Letter is so strict and mandatory the Lord Keeper presumed on the King's Goodness to write a Remonstrance to Mr. Secretary Conway flat against the Mandate with sundry Reasons to shew the high Expedience that the Instruments demanded should not yet be delivered To the which on the 9th of September Mr. Secretary sends back word Right Honorable I Have represented yours of the 18th to his Majesty who interprets your Intentions very well and cannot but think it good Counsel and a discreet Course had the State of the Business been now entire But as Promises have been past the Truth of a King must be preferred before all other Circumstances and within three Days you must not fail to deliver the Exemplification of the Pardon and Dispensation with the Coppy of the Letters c. Two Days after see the Hand of God September 21 a Post brought Intelligence that the Prince was departed with fair Correspondencies from the Court of Spain was certainly long before that time on Shipboard and would weigh Anchor as soon as Wind and Weather served him So in good Manners all Solicitations were hush'd and attended his Highness's Pleasure against he came into England These are the Performances of the Lord Keeper upon the Immunities which the Papists contended for to be derived to them by the Prince's Marriage with the Daughter of Spain Whither any States-man could have contrived them better I leave it to be considered by the Senators of the Colledge of Wisdom in my Lord Bacon's new Atlantis If it be possible for any to disprove these excellent Excogitations of Prudence with his Censure he will force me to say in this Lord's Behalf what Tully did for the Pontiss of old Rome Orat. pro resp Aurus Satis superque prudentes sunt qui illorum prudentiam non dicam assâ—qui sed quanta fuerit perspicere possint The Collection of all the precedent Passages were gathered by that Lord himself and stitched up into one Book every Leaf being signed with the Hands of Sir George Calvert and Sir Edward Conway principal Secretaries to his Majesty If it be asked to what end was that provided it was to shew he had a Brest-Plate as well as an Head-Piece It was to defend his Integrity against any Storm that dark Days might raise about the Spanish Matters It was a gathering thick when my Lord of Buckingham caused Mr. Packer his Secretary to write a Letter of Defiance to him Cab. P. 87. wherein every Penful of Ink is stronger than a Drop of Vicriol Take a Line of it That in the Spanish Negotiation he had been dangerous to his Country prejudicious to the Cause of Religion which he above all others should have laboured to uphold But rip up all his Actions turn the Linings outward shew any Stain-Spot in his Fidelity in his Innocency chiefly in his Maintainance of the Reformed Religion Therefore he met the Lord Duke couragiously Pag. 89. I do not in the least beg or desire from your Grace any Defence of me if it shall appear I betray'd my King or my Religion in Favour of the Papist or did them any real Respect at all beside ordinary Complement Therefore I appeal to all Posterity who shall read this Memorial how a Minister in his Office and intrusted with the whole weight of such a ticklish Negotiation could come off better with more Honour with lâ—ss Prejudice Photius in his Biblioth says of Saluslius the Cynick that he was a worthy Man but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He had listed himself into that Sect of Philosophy which was carved out or exposed to Reproach and Contumiâ—y So this noble Councellor was as Harmless as he was Wise as Honest as he was Active But the Business which he underwent for his great Master and the Prince was Planet-struck with an ill Opinion of many and could look for no Thanks but from a few that were the Wisest 167. Especially most circumspect and diligent Endeavours if superior Providence hath decreed to make them barren shall not be pitied as they deserve but be insulted upon because they cannot reach their End The best Angler that is we commonly think he fish'd ill if he catch'd nothing Inde plaerumque eadâ—m sacta modò diligentiae modò vanitatis modò libertatis modò furor is nomen accipiunt Plin. lib. 6. Ep. Lucky Success makes a Fool seem wise and a wise man that is unfortunate shall be called a Fool. It is a hard Task to dig into the Mines of Poâ—icy when Event shall be the Measure both of Reward and Praise Yet all this must be endured after his Highness took his Leave of Spain the Donna Hâ—rmesa left behind the Stock of Love spent and in a while the Credit of it protested Our King was not ill disposed to the News that is Son made preparation to come Home The People began to be churlish that he staid so long And his Majesty look'd for no Good from that Part of the World while our Duke was in it He found that so long as he was so remote from his Tutorship he was heady a Novice in carrying Business and very offensive to the Crown of Spain The Prince was desirous to make haste from them that would make no better haste and could no longer endure the Pace of a dull Spanish Mule As a weary Traveiler's Inn seems still to go further from him so his Highness had attended long for a sweet Repose in Wedlock till it made him impatient and think that every Consuito cast him further back from the Fruition of his Joys The Junto of the Spanish States-men were very magisterial and would not bate an Inch but that every thing should be timed to a day as they designed it These were the Links of the Chain by which they pluck all Power to themselves First A Disposorios or Contract must go before the Marriage For that 's a Rule from which their Church doth never vary unless good Order be broken by clandestine Marriages To the Contract they could not go on in this Case till the Dispensation from the new Pope gave Authority for it That came to
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 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 Tâ—rm 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
good the time So he spent four hours in Repetition without Halt with such Assurance such Gesture such Carving and Gilding that he might wonder at himself what Spirit was in him that day All that took the height of his Report by a skilful Parallax concluded that he had striven with his former Peices and had outgone himself Yet the fourth Part will suffice to be remembred because the Flower of it is anticipated in the Spanish Transactions after a monthly Method Beside I cannot help the Reader to that which I never saw the several Letters which were read to the stronger Confirmation of every Particular Business the Contents of them must be supplied by him that is Wise to make Conjecture and not by my Pen. For though it be not according to Nature yet it is agreeing to Honesty Vacuum potius relinquere quà m verum to leave a void Space rather than to fill it up with a Fable as Barrenness is incomparably to be less blamed than Adultery So I go on to make such Room as is fit for the Heads of that long Report which should not seem to be unsavory Coleworts sod too often for their Tast to whom they are well known already Debet enim talibus in rebus excitare animos non cognitio solum rerum sed recordatio as Tully speaks Philip 2. 186. The Lord Keeper plotted his Conceptions into that Order wherein the Duke of Buckingham the Discoverer had gone before him beginning from Michaelmas 1622 when the King sitting close with his Council at Hampton-Court the Dispatches of Sir Richard Weston his Majesty's Ambassador at Brussels were scanned before them Sir Richard being a Man in whose Election to that Place the Spanish Ministers were greatly pleased and commended the King's Wisdom that he did light upon him Yet Sir Richard sent Packet upon Packet that he found nothing from the Arch-Dutchess but inconstant and false Dealing For though she acknowledged she had Power from the Emperor to cause Cessation of Arms in the Palatinate and undertook to put that Power forth yet with the same Breath she blew hot and cold For at that Instant when no Excuse could be made for the Cheat Tilly fell to it spightfully to besiege Heidelburg when the War was now between the Emperor and our King for they had no body to invade but his Majesty's Subjects and Servants that kept it And what spark of Patience could be left us when by every Post we received comfortable Words from Spain and contrary Effects from Brussels Hereupon Mr. Porter was sent to Madrid and commanded to stay in that Court but ten Days for an Answer The Letters that he carried with him were to signifie that this should be the last Sending if no less would serve the Emperor's Revenge but the utter Extermination of his Majesty's Children both in Honour and Inheritance That the Neighbour Kings and States of Christendom did malign the Match between the Prince and the Insanta and laboured to stop that Conjunction which would make England and Spain formidable to them But they should not need to contrive a way to prevent it This unsufferable Unkindness would bring it to pass to their hand For what Comfort could the Prince have in such a Wife the nearest of whose Blood had utterly ruined his Sister and her Progeny The Messenger carried this Arrand with him to the President of all Affairs in that Kingdom Conde Olivarez one that may justly be censured to have more of Will than of Wit one that play'd foul with us and could not hide it Sometimes he would run back from our Propositions as if he would never come near us sometimes he would run into our Arms as if his Heart and all his Powers did grow unto us Nec constans in side nec constans in persidiâ Mr. Porter came back from him with a half-sac'd Satisfaction but withal the King of Spain's Letters which were there read contained a Talent of Hope but we found not a Grain of Reality Upon this Journey Porter did so well remember somewhat that sell carelestly from the Conde Duke wishing the Prince himself were there to see how ready the King his Master was to fasten an indissoluble Knot of Amity and embrace Alliance with him that his Excellent Highness I speak in his Presence what he knows hearing it with more Attention than was imagined put on that heroick and undauntable Boldness craved Leave of his Father that he might visit the great Ingeneers at their own Forge to see what they were working and how they would receive him and as we use to say Either win the Horse or loose the Saddle Here again says the Reporter my Lord Duke acquainted us how acceptable at the first the Arrival of the Prince did seem to Olivarez who in the Enterview in the Garden assured with great Oaths that all should be dispatched with sudden Resolution and that his Highness should be pressed to nothing that was not agreeable to Conscience and Honour and stood not with the Love of the People of England Then it was related That King Philip seemed most sensible of the Courtesie that such a Guest had visited him and that he would permit all to his own Asking as he did express it at their Meeting in the Prado The Lord Duke was very copious upon all the Negotiations in Spain from his Highness's Arrival to his Parting and the Lord Keeper mist not one Particular but beautified all and gave it Lustre which may here be spared in Repetition because nothing was added in Substance to that which is methodized upon it in the Months of the former Summer Much of the Day was spent to shew how deceitful Conde Olivarez was who like a crafty Marchant he gave a Tast of one Wine and upon the Bargain would sell of another Swear us often into the Possession of the Palatinate and yet embroiled us at the same Instant more and more with an Army Waved all Differences of Religion between us and them at the first and presently turned the Wheel from the Top to the Bottom and fell into insolent Propositions that the Prince could not make a fit Husband for their Lady unless he would become a Papist Sometimes he would aggravate how far we differed from the Catholick Confession of Faith as if the Gulph reach'd from Heaven to Hell Sometimes he colleagued as if we were near upon a Point and but a little Stride between us Et Stoica dogmata tantùm A cynicis tunicâ distantia Juvenal Then the Articles for the Marriage were brought in play and with what a number of new ones his Highness's Commissioners were surcharged and how irrespectively they stuffed the Book with strange and undisputed Additions and commonly the last which they presented were the worst Verres secum ipse certat id agit ut semper superius suum facinus novo scelere vincat Tul. Act. 7. in Verrem But our Ministers rejected those bastard Slips and all that Conscience English
else the Treasurer had been rescued by the Power and Justice of his Royal Master His Majesty perceived that the Actions of this unfortunate Man rack'd with the strictest Enquiries were not Sins going over the Head scarce reaching to the Ankles and why should he suffer him to sink under the Waves of Envy Therefore he sent for the Lord Keeper to Greenwich and gave him his Sense That he would not make his Treasurer a publick Sacrifice Sir says the Lord Keeper I have attempted among my surest Friends to bring him off fairly All shrink and refuse me only the stout and prudent Lord Hollis adventured upon the Frowns of the Prince and Duke and gave his Reasons why Middlesex to him appeared an Innocent I were mad if for my part I should not wish him to escape this Tempest and be safe under the Harbor of Your Majesty's Clemency Suam quisque fortunam in consilio habet quando de alienâ deliberat Curt. lib. 5. When I deliberate upon him I think of my self 'T is his Fortune to day 't is mine to morrow The Arrow that hits him is within an Handful of me Yet Sir I must deal faithfully Your Son the Prince is the main Champion that encounters the Treasurer whom if you save you foil your Son For though Matters are carried by the whole Vote of Parliament and are driven on by the Duke yet they that walk in Westminster-Hall call this the Prince's Undertaking whom you will blast in his Bud to the Opinion of all your Subjects if you suffer not your old and perhaps innocent Servant to be pluck'd from the Sanctuary of Your Mercy Necessity must excuse you from Inconstancy or Cruelty In the Close of this Speech the Kings Reason was convinced that he must use this Counsel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iliad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Treasurer suffered the Dishonour or rather the Calamity of a Censure Himself was so comforted to his dying Hour as the engraved Posie spake his Thoughts in his great Chamber at Copt-Hall in Essex Quae venit immeritò paena dolenda venit And I spake with few when it was recent that were contented with it except the Members of the House who would not dislike their own Action 196. Popular Favor continued a while with the Duke and now he was St. George on Horseback let the Dragon take heed that stood in his Way The Earl of Middlesex was removed and he that presided over the great Accounts did now stand for a Cipher The Lord Keeper perceived his turn was next although he wanted not fair Words and fair Semblance from the Contriver But an Ambush is more dangerous than a pitch'd Battel because it is hid unless the Leader look about him in his March and search every Hedge by Vant-curriers as he did A vigilant Man will not sleep with both Eyes when he suspects Danger Cauto circumspectu vita quae variis casibus subjacet est munienda Apul. instam lib. 11. The Keeper knew he had deserved no ill yet he trusted not to that for he knew likewise how a Judge that hears many Causes must condemn many and offend many And if Justice should shrink in to decline Offences what were it so like unto as to one in the Fable that would feed upon nothing but Spoon-meat because he would not wear out his Teeth He was not ignorant of the laudable or at least the durable Custom of the Commons to countenance all Prosecutors and to file the Medly of all Complaints Therefore this Prometheus kept a careful Watch to repulse Embroilments as much as he could for though he had a sound Bark yet none but a phrantick Pilate would be willing to be toss'd in a Storm And he had been an ill Keeper if he had not been wary to keep himself to which I may fitly apply the Orators Words Philip 12. Qui mulâ—â—rum Custodem se profitetur eum sapientes sui primum capitis aiunt Custodem esse oportere He had made the Prince his fast Friend before who was so ingenious that when he had promised Fidelity there was no fear that he would start chiefly because he sought to lay hold on his Highness upon no other Conditions than to mortifie those spiteful accusations if any such hapned with his Frown that durst not stand the Breath of Truth Concerning the Duke he was not so silly to look any longer upon himself as growing on the former Root of his Favour yet he was not so rude to expostulate with him according to the Merit of his Unkindness and provoke him further but as it occurs Cab. P. 80. He tells his Lordship That Suspicions of his Displeasure transported him not a Jot further than to look about him how to defend himself that he begg'd Assurance of his Grace's former Love yet not in the least desire to crave the Patronage of any corrupt or unjust act of his that should be objected against him in Parliament nor to take Refuge to him in any Cause or Clamor otherwise than according to Justice and fair Proceeding A sufficient Number of other Friends were made already to him by his Wisdom and Deservings whom he never requested as he had no need of it to make a Side for him but to be intentive to disclose such Winding Insinuations which are apt to twine about some weak Understandings This Forecast made him stand unmoveable and unaffrighted when Petitions and Remonstrances of Perdue-Causes were entred against him They came about him like Bees and were extinct like Fire among the Thorns And what were they that made a Noise with their Grievances Itane nihil fortunam puduit si minus accusatae innocentiae at accusantium wilitatis Boeth de consol 'T is a shame that Innocency should be accused but what Remedy shall it have against base and beggerly Accusers against the very Kennel of the Fleet and other Goals against such whose Suits would admit of no good Order and their Forwardness of no bad I knew a Plaintif and Desendant Morgan and Bouglar that complained one as much as the other of the same Decree to the Parliament and at the Hearing of the Cause one of the Counsel protested that Two hundred and twelve Commissions References and Orders had past upon it After a while a Bundle of those frivolous Objections being read and examined were cast out of Doors and the House in the Afternoon being put into a general Committee Seven and thirty of those Paper-Kites slew away that same day and were never heard of more Some of the Members would have repaired the Lord Keeper and asked him what he would have done to his Adversaries Nothing says he for by this time they have all fretted themselves into Patience and some of them perhaps into Repentance Which proved even so For many of them came privily to be admitted to his Favour condemned their own scandalous Petitions and laid it upon a great Name that they were encouraged to bring them in whom he
cast off as a Man would do a besmeered Dog that desiles him with his Fawning Some I know will say Why did he not bring those Caitives to Submission or to some open Disgrace Because he had a stately Mind and as Craterus said to Alexander Cito gloria obsolescit in sordidis hostibus An Eagle will not stoop to such Quarry The better Reason is that he was un-revengeful content to get the Better and no longer displeased with those he overcame Yes but they would not have serv'd him so very likely but the Folly of brutish Men is not to be imitated but contemned 197. There are two that impleaded him for wand of Justice who are more remarkable than others There was one Morley a Woodmonger that kept a Warf in Fleet-Street an Oppressor of the Court of Chancery with Bills of all sorts for many Years If any ask how long he had been in Law I answer as the Father in the Gospel answered our Saviour How long the evil Spirit had haunted his Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Child Mark 9.41 Morley observing that Seven and thirty Venturers had lost their Labour in the House of Commons printed his Case and preferred it to the Lords wherein he did not spare to defame the Lord Keeper The Grave and Learned Bishop of Oxon Doctor H. was busie in dispersing these Petitions The Bishop had commenced a Suit against Sir H. Martin for some Demesus lying in Bray Parish in the County of Berks wherein he had not Satisfaction to his Desire by this Man's Decree which wrought upon his Anger to do this Office not befitting one Bishop against another but as Nazian deplores it Orat. ad 150 Episc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prelates prove Anti-prelates one to another sometimes upon small Occasions But Morley was past Redemption for his Impudency and was Condemned by the upper House to an infamous Punishment For whose Pardon the Lord Keeper sued but with no Success their Lordships telling him plainly That they would not be entreated in such a Varlets Behalf Crates as Laertius relates it was wounded in the Face by Nicodromus a Fidler To divulge the Injury Crates clapt a Paper upon his own Forehead like a Plaister and wrote upon it in great Letters haec fecit Nicodromus Nicodromus had given him that Mark. A most hair-brain'd Revenge for a serious Philosopher to take But the Keeper made slight of the scratch that Morley had given him and interceded for the Delinquent that his Forehead might not carry a White-Paper upon it in the Pillory But he was one of a hard Destiny and the Shame could not be shunned Of which Grief Morley died within a Year after and on his Death-bed protested to a Reverend Divine by what mighty Authority he was set on Which took with all Mens Belief that heard it except this Lord who was most concern'd 198. All these Assays did more good than harm For Innocency will stand its Ground the better when it hath wrestled with Antagonists Linum Orchomenium semper injuriâ fit melius says Pliny l. 19. N. H. The Flax growing in some Fields of Baeotia the worse you use it the better it thrives So the Lord Keeper had as much Success in these Combats as he could wish for all gave him Honour by the Invalidity of their Opposition There was one more that hunted him close Sed tergo decut it hastas Aen. li. 10. It was a Lady but a Virago And Abimelech would be loth to have it said that he perisht by the Hand of a Woman Jud. 9.54 It was the Lady Darcies Charge which was the most dangerous that aemulous Power could raise against him For it was upon the stopping of an Original Writ which is every Mans Inheritance and the only way by which the Subjects wrongs are to be redressed and these of course are issued out of the Court of Chancery which gives occasion to that Maxim in the Law Nemo recedit à Cancellariâ sine remedio The Case came to this Head The Rectory of Sutton in the County of Surry was void by the Death of the Incumbent The Right of Donation was in Mr. Ed. Darcy but under Age and the Kings Ward The Lord Keeper presents to the Rectory in the Kings Title Jure minoris Aetatis and his Clerk had Institution and Induction before ever the Lady Darcy Mother to Mr. Edward and Mr. George Wilmore Guardians for the Minor brought their Claim The Lady Mother for Mr. Wilmore stirr'd not allegeth that she had compounded for the Wardship of her Son and had procured in her Composition the Donation of that Living which neither was so nor ought to have been granted both to the prejudice of the Lord Keeper and the Master of the Wards She tries to enforce her Right by way of Quare impedit which was the right way to Commence her Suit and to try her Title The Lord Keeper Commands the Officer not to issue forth the Writ it being so appointed under the Kings Signet as it followeth To Our Trusty and Well-Beloved Counsellor the Lord Keeper c. WHereas Our Chaplain Dr. Grant is presented by Us to the Rectory of Sutton by Reason of the Minority of E. Darcy our Ward and is threatned to be Molested by a Suit at Law by Reason of a Title derived also from Us and Our Court of Wards by the same Right These are to Will and Require you that to avoid all Causeless Molestations of Our said Chaplain and all Clashing of Jurisdictions between these Our two Courts you stay any Quare impedit that shall be Sued forth in this kind And this shall be your Warrant so to do c. Sept. 6. 1621. When these Proceedings were Canvass'd in the House of Commons the Lord Keeper makes Answer First That the Lady Darcy had no Injury done to her in her Title Nor Secondly Any Injury by the Quare impedit And Thirdly Though it bad a shew of Injury the Court of Chancery was bound to proceed so least it should do it self a greater Injury To the former he declares That the Lady Darcy and G. Wilmore Ex. Committees of the Kings Ward took a Lease from the King of the Wards Lands under the Seal of the Court of Wards And by other Indentures of the same date Covenanted with the King as followeth That if any Spiritual Promotion belonging to the said Heir happen to be Void before he come and be of his full Age of Twenty one years that then the said Committees or their Assigns shall within one Month next after Knowledge by them had of any such Discent or Vacation give knowledge thereof to the said Master and Council of the Court of Wards so as the Kings most Gracious Pleasure may be known for the just Order and Disposition of the same And there is another Proviso in the Lease to the like Effect with some Alteration that the Allowance of the Master and Council of the Court of Wards be had for a
Wherein the Lord Keeper interceded with the Duke to the incurring a mighty Anger as may be seen by the Letters of Decem. 24. and Jan. 4. Cab. p. 99. If Threatings had been mortal Shot he had Perisht for he never had such a Chiding before but he kept his Ground because he held the fairer side of the Quarrel Dr. Meriton the Dean of York was lately Dead and much Deplor'd For he was an Ornament to the Church My Lord Duke entreated by great ones named a Successor that had no Seasoning or Tast of Matter in him one Dr. Scot But a Doctor Inter Doctores Bullatos for he never stood in the Commencement to approve himself beside too many Faults to be ript up I have known a Scholar in Cambridge so bad a Rider that no Man for Love or Price would furnish him with a Horse I would have thought no Man would have furnisht such a Scholar as this with a Deanery chiefly of York It came about strangely Scot was a Prodigal Gamster and had lost upon the Ticket to a Noble Person far more then he was worth Which Debt his Creditor knew not how to recover but by Thrusting him aided with my Lord Dukes Power into this Rich Preferment The Casuists among all the Species of Simony never Dream'd of this which may be called Simonia Aleatoria when a Gamester is Installed into a goodly Dignity to make him capable to pay the Scores of that which he had lost with a bad Hand And yet the Man Died in the Kings-Bench and was not Solvent The Lord Keeper intending to put of Dr. Scot from this place besought for the remove of those most worthy Divines Dr. White or Dr. Hall or to Collate it upon Dr. Warner the most Charitable and very Prudent Bishop of Rochester But he was so terrified for giving this good Counsel that he writes now he knew his Graces Resolution he would alter his Opinion and would be careful in giving the least Cause of Jealousie in that kind again Yet it is a received Maxime Defuturos eos qui suaderent si suasisse sit periculum Curt. l. 3. Certainly with others this might work to his Esteem but nothing to his Prejudice And I dare confidently avouch what I knowingly speak that I may use the Words of my industrious Friend Mr. T. F. in his Church History That the Solicitation for Dr. Theodore Price about Two Months after was not the first motive of a Breach between the Keeper and the Duke the day-light clears that without dusky conjectures no nor any Process to more unkindness then was before which was indeed grown too high The Case is quickly Unfolded Dr. Price was Country Man Kinsman and great Acquaintance of the Lord Keepers By whose procurement he was sent a Commissioner into Ireland two years before with Mr. Justice Jones Sir T. Crew Sir James Perrot and others to rectifie Grievances in Church and Civil State that were complain'd In Executing which Commission he came of with Praise and with Encouragement from His Majesty that he should not fail of Recompence for his Well-doing Much about the time that the Prince return'd out of Spain the Bishoprick of Asaph soll void the County of Merioneth where Dr. Price was Born being in the Diocess The Lord Keeper attempted to get that Bishoprick for Dr. Price But the Prince since the time that by his Patent he was styled Prince of Wales had Claimed the Bishopricks of that Principality for his own Chaplains So Dr. Melburn and Dr. Carlton were preferr'd to St. Davids and Landaff And Asaph was now Conferr'd upon Dr. Hanmer his Highness's Chaplain that well deserv'd it A little before King James's Death Dr. Hampton Primate of Armach as stout a Prelate and as good a Governor as the See had ever enjoy'd Died in a good old Age. Whereupon the Keeper interposed for Dr. Price to Succeed him But the Eminent Learning of Dr. Usher for who could match him all in all in Europe carried it from his Rival Dr. Price was very Rational and a Divine among those of the first Note according to the small skill of my Perceivance And his Hearers did testifie as much that were present at his Latin Sermon and his Lectures pro gradu in Oxford But because he had never Preach'd so much as one Sermon before the King and had left to do his calling in the Pulpit for many years it would not be admitted that he should Ascend to the Primacy of Armach no nor so much as succeed Dr. Usher in the Bishoprick of Meth. To which Objection his Kinsman that stickled for his Preferment could give no good Answer and drew of with so much ease upon it that the Reverend Dr. Usher had no cause to Regret at the Lord Keeper for an Adversary Neither did Dr. Price ever shew him Love after that day and the Church of England then or sooner lost the Doctors Heart 214. It is certain that all Grants at the Court went with the Current of my Lord Dukes Favour None had Power to oppose it nor the King the Will For he Rul'd all his Majesties Designs I may not say his Affections Yet the L. Keeper declin'd him sometimes in the Dispatches of his Office upon great and just Cause Whereupon the King would say in his pleasant Manners That he was a stout Man that durst do more than himself For since his Highness's return out of Spain if any Offices were procur'd in State of Reversion or any Advouzons of Church Dignities he interpos'd and stopt the Patents as Injurious to the Prince to whose Donation they ought to belong in just time and preserv'd them for him that all such Rewards might come entire and undefloured to his Patronage Wherein his Highness maintain'd his Stiffness for that foresight did procure that his own Beneficence should be unprevented And he carried that Respect to the Dukes Honour nay to his Safety for notice was taken of it that he would not admit his Messages in the Hearing of Causes no not when his chief Servants attended openly in Court to Countenance those Messages to carry him a-wry and to oppress the Poorest and whose Faces he had never seen with the least wrong Judicii tenax suit neque aliis potiùs quà m sibi credidit as Capitolinus makes it a good Note of Maximus He would believe his own Judgment and his own Ears what they heard out of Depositions and not the Representation of his best Friends that came from partial Suggestions Such Demands as are too heavy to ascend let them fall down in pieces or they will break him at the last that gives them his Hand to lift them up In this only he would not stoop to his Grace but pleas'd himself that he did displease him And being threatned his best Mitigation was That perhaps it was not safe for him to deny so great a Lord yet it was safest for his Lordship to be Denied It was well return'd For no Arrand was so privily conveyed
hopeful Marriage When the Eyes of all our 〈◊〉 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 â—lla 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
sate at the Helm of the most Dignified Churches and steered the Conclusions of Divine Truth were more rigid upon this Theme than they that hold the same Sees in these Days They were so literal in the sense of those words Job 6.53 Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood you have no Life in you that an Infant Baptized was presently admitted to the Sumption of the Sacred Elements That believing People in danger to be separated from their Pastors in time of Persecution were suffered to reserve the Consecrated Bread and to eat it reverently at Home These Customs are utterly melted away into disuse and the latter overthrown by a Curse in the first Council of Toledo At this Day your Canons enjoyn no more But that every faithful Man and Woman partake of Christs Body once a Year at Easter And how gentle are your Casuists in their Copious Relaxations upon the Obligation to this Canon You shall hear but one speak Navarr Enchirid. Cap. 21. Every Notorious Cause excuseth those that receive not once a Year And it is allowed to be a Notorious Cause if danger to lose Life or Hmour or Fortunes doth distein a Christian Therefore a Woman that hath a Child at her Breast is dispens'd with for the Sucklings sake And a Widow in some places who keeps the fashion to mourn a twelve-month at Home before she appears in publick Nay Caution is made to absolve them that are raggedly or meanly apparell'd and would be ashamed to have the Eyes of some cast upon them in their homely Garments You cannot go lower unless you could throw less than one Ace upon a Dye Excuses you see are cheap because that Sacrament is not rated so dear as if it were taken or not taken upon the price of Salvation 225. And now that your Lordship may undergo no longer Penance to hear me upon this Subject I will dispatch with the Consideration of your Sacrament of Penance For whose use and necessity the Priests contend more than the People And if we of the Reformed Clergy had not set before our Eyes the Naked Simplicity of the Gospel rather than our own Interests and Emolument we would never have ridden that stiff-headed Beast the Multitude without this Bridle The Power of the Keys do you call it And so ye may For the Locks of all Secrets fly open before it and every Mans Coffers are at the Command of the Confesson Confession of all Sin especially the most to be blush'd at though lodged in the darkest Cellar of the Heart is a heavy Burden Yet any wise Man will resolve not to be shame-faced but to endure that which he must bear by a rigid and peremptory Law If there be no remedy as the Confessors say but either reveal your Sin even to all their Minutes and Circumstances and obtein Sacerdotal Absolution or never look Christ in the Face I cannot then blame your Brethren to say Give us Ghostly Fathers or else we die But hold there I will spread your own Doctrine impartially before you Your severest Writers say That Confession of wasting and mortal Sins is to be made to a Priest upon the Commandment of Christ Such a Law they have fixed partly by Consequences partly by their Exposition of the Text. Now it is fit to hear what may be said upon this Law when the Case is removed into a Court of Equity I move then in the behalf of a Sinner Is he bound as soon as he hath committed a mortal Sin with all competent Celerity to confess that he may be absolv'd Not so says the Chancery of Divinity Let him prostrate himself before the Knees of the Poenitentiary once a Year and rehearse his Crimes Is that resolved Scripture Is Confession once a Year of Divine Right No says old Navarr there is no Divine express Word that chargeth the Penitent when and how often to come to that Sacrament but by Human Authority all Offenders are obliged thereunto once a Year I move once more at the Bar of Favour Is that Canon as inflexible as the Laws of the Medes and Persians Or will it admit of Relaxation Why not says Azorius Lib. 7. Moral Cap. 40. Quod quisque fidelium semel quotannis confiteatur Ecclesia Imperavit Et Autoritate Pontificiâ potest quis eximi à lege annuae Confessionis One Exception by all Votes is admitted That a Person born dumb shall not have his Sins reteined for want of Confession Cajet Sacerd. Lib. 3. Cap. 6. And are not their Mouths stopt as if they were dumb-born in whose Vicinage nay in whose Country none of Holy Orders out of that Tribe ought to be found by the Laws to take their Confession Or will it come to one effect if they put down such faults as they call to mind they have committed in writing And so send this blotting Paper to them that have the Tutelage over them in such Cases This Trick wants not those that applaud it Especially among the Jesuits who I think would teach Pigeons to carry such Messages to and fro since they would have all the Work in their own Hands and cannot be in all places But your sounder Divines condemn that Device Either because the Circumstances of Sins which alter Cases exceedingly cannot be Interrogated so well in conveyance of Letters Or least the Offendor while his Letter is under the Messengers dispatch should relapse into his former Sin and abuse the Grace of Absolution Or principally because that which is under a Mans Hand is permanent and if it miscarry it may be produc'd afterwards to his sorrow and vexation by the Secular Power Therefore this Rule must be the Coronis of all this Dispute That he that hath not a Competent External Judge to confess his Sins unto may quiet his Conscience when he confesseth them to none but GOD. 226. What say you now my Lord Doth Salvation necessarily depend upon your Septemfluous Sacraments Or do they depend all upon the Administration of the Priests O Sir King David was cosen'd for believing his Son Amnon who pretended he could eat nothing unless his Sister Tamar dress'd it But somewhat about Sacramental Confessions hangs yet in my Teeth and I shall not speak it but spit it out It is so reasonable that I bespeak you not to be offended He that takes it ill it is at his own adventure Salus populi suprema Lex esto We must first look to common safety And they that think to build upon the Ruines of it will find a false Foundation I hope Court us not suffer Confessors to creep into Corners among us For they profess they will not discover Treason plotted against the King and Kingdom if it be disclosed under that Privy Seal Nay it hath appeared by Examinations by Witnesses by Letter under their own Hands by all sorts of Proofs that they did not reveal it when they knew the fatal Hour was at Hand to blow up our Sovereign the
Prince his Heir and the whole Flower of the Realm with that Infernal Powder-Plot Not reveal it said I Yes more it was hatch'd in their Brain and confirm'd with their Blessing If Clanculary Confession was cast out of the Church of Constantinople for one Mans Lust What just cause have we to gagg it for forty Mens Treason I would have him hang'd for his Wit that should invent a way to discharge a Pistol that might give no Report Now let me forfeit my Credit if wise Men will not say That Conspiracies buzzed into the Ear and imposed never to be detected upon the deepest Obligations of Faith Church-Love Merit c. are far more dangerous than Powder and Shot that kill and crack not Would you in good earnest have us Repeal our Laws of Correction against such dangerous Flambeaux Were not that to break down our Walls and to let in the fatal Horse with his Belly-full of Enemies If they plead that there is no such danger in them now Let them tell it to deaf Men. We know and can demonstrate that the most of Contrivances against our State have been whetted upon the Grind-stone of Confession Our Sages that made the Laws to blow away the Locusts into their own Red-Sea have given us a taste of their Malice in the Preface of the Statute Eliz. 27. That they came into the Land to work the Ruine Desolation and Destruction of the whole Realm Therefore marvel not if some have lost their Lives that have tempted the Rigour of those Laws Neither doth it move us that our Fugitives thereupon have sprinkled their Calenders with new Martyrs What if Jeroboam's Priests had pass'd their own Bounds and come to Jerusalem where it is likely they would have been cut off for Enemies and Rebels should their Names have been crowded into the Catalogue of the good Prophets that were stoned by Tyrants Beshrew your Superiours beyond Seas that Conjure up such Spirits to come into our Circle It grieves us God knows our Hearts to Execute our Laws upon one ot two in Seven Years for a Terror to others But Prudence is a safer Virtue then Pity And it is far better our Adversaries should be obnoxious to our Tribunal then we to theirs by the Thraldom of our Nation which is the drift of those unnatural Emissaries And if the Venetians that are under the Obedience of your Church have banish'd some of that Stamp and irrevocably out of their Territories Nay if your selves in France did sometimes Expel the same Faction accept it favorably from us who will never be under that Obedience if we Banish all 227. Hold out your Great Courtesie my Lord to a few Words more The Answering of an Objection or two will not stay you long And before I conclude I will deal you a good Game to make your Lordship a Saver if you will follow Suit You please your self Sir because you ask no more Liberty for your sacrifical Priests in our Land then the Reformed Ministers enjoy with you in France But the Comparison doth not consist of equal Terms The Protestants receive a benefit of some Toleration in your Realm to stop the mischief of Civil Wars and to settle a firm Peace among your selves It is the Reason which your Wisest and most candid Historian Thuanus doth often give and Mounsieur Bodin before him p. 588. Reip. Ferenda ea Religio est quam sine interitu reip auferre non potest If you did not so you would pull up much of your own Wheat with that which you call Tares But such a Toleration in this Kingdom would not only disturb Peace but with great Probability dissolve it In the next place you urge that such a memorable Favour might be done to gratifie the sweet Madam our intended Princess upon the Marriage O my Lord you are driven by Blind Mariners upon a Rock If this could be Granted by the King which you contend for and wereeffected Sweet Lady she would be brought in the Curses of this Nation and would Repent the day that she drew the Offence of the whole Land upon her Head Let me say on the Husbands Part what your Country-man Ausonius says for the Wife Saepe in conjugiis fit noxia si nimia est dos If the Prince should make a Joynter to his Wife out of the Tears and Sorrows of the People it were the worst bargain that ever he made His Majesties Consort of Happy Memory Queen Ann did not altogether concord with our Church Indeed the Diversity between us and the Lutherans among whom she was bred is as little as between Scarlet and Crimson The Colours are almost of the same Dip. But she carried it so prudently that she gave no notice of any dissention Neither ever did demand to have a Chaplain about her of the Lutheran Ordination This were a Precedent for the most Illustrious Madam to follow rather to procure the love of the generality then of a few Male-contents from whom you your self my Lord will have Cause to draw off when I tell you all They deal not with your Lordship sincerely They thrust your whole hand into the Fire and will not touch a Coal with one of their own Fingers They that incite and stir these Motions behind the Curtain dare not upon pain of their Lives ask it in Parliament where they know the Power Rests and no where beside to ratifie the Grant And when they Solicite your Lordship to obtain these indulgences for them in the Court they know you beat the wrong Bush Upon my Faith the Bird is not there Noli amabo verberare Lapidem ne perdas manum Plaut in Curcul Knock not your Fingers against a Stone to Grate them Perchance my Lord you think I have pinch'd you all this while with a streit Boot which you can neither get on nor off Your Lordship shall not depart from me with little Ease if Truth and plain dealing will purchase me to be called your Friend None can Repeal our Laws but his Majesty with the Votes of the three Estates as you term them the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the people And to dispense with the Execution of a Law absolutely and unrestreinedly is as much as to Repeal it which if the King should assay it were null in Law and in Revenge of it in the next Parliament it would be faster bound and perchance the Rigour of it increased But Favour and Mercy may be shewn Praeter sententiam legis in some exempted Cases and to some particular persons Clemency against the Capital Sentence of the Laws is the Kings Prerogative the Life of his Subject when it is forfeit to him he may choose whether he will take the forfeiture Every Varlet says Seneca may kill a Citizen against the Law but then he turns to the Emperor Servare nemo praeter te c. None but the Supreme Majesty can save a Life against the Law Work upon that my Lord and it were a good days work to
extract advantage out of it But wherein lies the way You shall have better Heads then mine to help you if you please to be directed by me None can furnish you with the right Art of it but some of our sage Counsellors of our Common Laws I wish you therefore my Lord to proceed with the special knowledg of the Roman Catholicks that stir most in this Project Let them cull out some of the Learnedest Practisers together Let the King's Attorney General make one for my sake For the rest let your Clients pick out as they like An hundred Crowns among them that is a Fee of five pounds a Man will not be ill bestowed upon them Let them lay their Heads together And I will lose all I am worth if you do not thank me for having referred you to those who will fetch out by their Skill so much to be Granted that you will never be put to Contestation hereafter that you obtain'd much of the King and are never the nearer The Courtiers with whom alone you have had to do to this time have Complemented with your Lordship So could I do likewise give you Large concessions in Words and in Wax but in effect nothing Like Galley Pots Entitled with the Name of Cordials but have Cob-Webs in them and no more My Lord all that I have to say is no more but this will you be lead by me or will you wander still Sir says the Embassador Use me honestly I am a Stranger and while I am in England I will surrender up self to your Directions Nay I will possess our Virtuous and Illustrious Madam that you are a clear dealing Man and of good Faith and most worthy of her Trust when she comes into a strange Land And after a very civil Farewel at the present Mounsieur Villoclare made use of those Instructions For though he Climbed not so High as he looked yet he Climbed better for he stood sure where he could not fall 228. Which Papers came to the King with more satisfaction as he was pleas'd to say then he could have expected Not any Line of Wisdom or Learning could be lost to him who saw as far and as soon as any Man into the Intellectuals of another For as the Lord Bacon wrote his Majesty had a light of Nature which had such readiness to take Flame and blaze from the least occasion presented on the least spark of anothers knowledg deliver'd as was to be admir'd And this was the last present in that kind that the Lord Keeper sent to the King who finding some indisposition of Health retired for fresh Air and quietness to his Mannor of Theobalds VVhere Jacob gather'd up his Feet into the Bed and yielded up the Ghost Gen. 49.33 The Lord Keeper on March 22. being Tuesday receiv'd a Letter from the Court that it was feared his Majesties Sickness was dangerous to Death which Fear was the more confirm'd for he dispatching away in all haste met with Dr. Harvey in the Road who told him That the King us'd to have a Beneficial Evacuation of Nature a sweating in his left Arm as helpful to him as any Fontinel could be which of late had failed And that argued that the former Vigour of Nature was low and spent This Symptome of the Kings Weakness I never heard from any else Yet I believe it upon so learned a Doctors Observation And this might well cause a Tertian Ague and a Mortal when the Spring had Entred so far able to make a commotion in the Humours of the Body and not to expel them with accustom'd vaporation After the L. Keeper had presented himself before his Lord the King he moved him unto chearful Discourse but it would not be He continued til Midnight at his Bed-side and perceiv'd no Comfort but was out of all Comfort upon the consultation that the Physicians held together in the Morning Presently he besought the Prince that he might acquaint his Father with his Feeble Estate and like a faithful Chaplain mind him both of his Mortality and Immortality which was allowed and committed to him as the principal Instrument of that Holy and necessary Service So he went into the Chamber of the King again upon that Commission and Kneeling at his Palat told his Majesty He knew he should neither Displease him nor discourage him if he brought Isaiahs Message to Hezekiah to set his House in Order for he thought his Days to come would be but few in this World but the best remained for the next World I am satisfied says the Sick King and I pray you assist me to make me ready to go away hence to Christ whose Mercies I call for and I hope to find them After this the Keeper now of his Majesties Soul kept about him with as much Diligence as a Body of Flesh could endure He was ever at hand helpful not only in Sacred but in every kind of Duty never from that time put off his Cloaths to go to Bed till his Master had put off his Tabernacle which appear'd in his Looks on Sunday Night when he return'd to VVestminster employed himself Night and Day unless the Physicians did compose his Majesty to rest in Praying in Reading most of all in Discoursing about Repentance Faith Remission of Sins Resurrection and Eternal Life To which the King made Answer sometimes in Latin always with Patience and full of Heavenly Seasoning which Hallowed Works were performed between them on VVednesday as a Preparation to the Passover on Thursday the Fortifying of his Majesties Soul against the Terrors of Death with the lively Remembrance of Christ's Death and Passion in the Holy Communion At which the King made most humble Consession of his Sins craved Absolution rendred the Confession of his Faith before many Witnesses Profess'd he Died in the Bosom of the Church of England whose Doctrine he had defended with his Pen being perswaded it was according to the mind of Christ as he should shortly Answer it before him 229. All this while God did lend him such Strength to utter himself how well he Relish'd that Sacred Banquet of Christ's Body and Blood and how comfortably the Joy of the Holy Ghost did flow into his Soul as if he had been in a way of Recovery And his mournful Servants that saw and heard it rejoyced greatly that unto that time Sickness did not compress his Understanding nor slop his Speech nor Debilitate his Senses and submitted more willingly to God to have their Master taken from their Head because they believed the Lord was ready to receive him into Glory The next day his Soul began to Retreat more inward and so by degrees to take less and less Notice of external things His Custos Angelus as I may call him his Devoted Chaplain stirr'd very little out of the Chamber of Sorrow both to give an Far to every Word the King spake in that extream condition and to give it him again with the Use of some Divine
long time never enjoy'd a calm Sea He was made for such a Tryal which was sanctified by Gospel-Promises giving unto just Men assurance of vigour to endure them Every one pittieth himself everyone covets Ease and Prosperity which is more Childish than Manly And a Design that is commonly mistaken Adversity out of doubt is best for us all because we would not carve it out to our selves but God chooseth it for us and he chooseth better for us than we can for ourselves By his Providence some Mens Sorrows are greater than others and few had a deeper Cup to drink than this Prelate But every Man's Calamity is fittest for himself trust the Divine appointment for that And if all Adversities of several Men were laid in several heaps a wise Man would take up his own and carry them home upon his Shoulders Hâ—rmolaus Barbarus in an Epistle to Maximilian King of the Romans Polit. Epis p. 447. distinguisheth between Happiness and Greatness Secundae res felicem Magnum faciunt adversae But if he that is beset round with distresses bear them to the Estimation of good Men to appear great in them then is he happy as well as great Which is to be demonstrated in the Subject that I write of as followeth 2. King Charles began his Reign Mart. 27. 1625. The next day he sent for the Lord-Keeper to his Court at St. James's who found his Majesty and the Lord-Duke busied in many Cares The King spake first of setling his Houshold among whom the Keeper commended two out of his own Family to be preserr'd but it was past over without an Answer only his Domestick Chaplain was taken into ordinary Service for whom he had made no suit But to begin the well-ordering of the new Court he was appointed to give the Oath to the Lords of the Privy-Council Sir Humphrey May taken into the Number a very wise States man and no more of a new Call Then likewise order was given for the Funerals of the deceased King and the Keeper chosen to Preach on the occasion of which enough is said already by a convenient Anticipation The Coronation was spoken of though the time was not determin'd Yet the King told the Keeper he must provide a Sermon for that likewise but he that bespoke him was of another mind before the Day of the Solemnization was ripe That which was much insisted upon at this Consult was a Parliament His Majesty being so forward to have it sit that he did both propound and dispute it to have no Writs go forth to call a new one but to continue the same which had met in one Session in his blessed Father's days and prorogued to another against that Spring The Lord-Keeper shewed That the old Parliament determined with his death that call'd it in his own Name and gave it Authority to meet Since necessity requir'd a new Choice the King's Will was That Writs should be dispatcht from the Chancery forthwith and not a day to be lost The Keeper craved to be heard and said it was usual in times before that the King's Servants and trustiest Friends did deal with the Countries Cities and Boroughs where they were known to procure a Promise for their Elections before the precise time of an insequent Parliament was publisht and that the same Forecast would be good at that time which would not speed if the Summons were divulged before they lookt about them The King answer'd It was high time to have Subsidies granted for the maintaining of a War with the King of Spain and the Fleet must go forth for that purpose in the Summer The Keeper said little again lest Fidelity should endanger a Suspicion of Malice and he little dreamt that the Almanack of the new Year or new Reign was so soon calculated for the Longitude of a War and the Latitude of vast Sums of Money to pay the Service Yet he replied in a few words but with so cold a consent that the King turned away and gave him leave to be gone He that was not chearful to say good Luck have you with that Expedition was not thought worthy to have an Oar in the great Barque which was launching out and making ready for the King's Marriage with the sweet Lady of France Yet who but he to treat with Embassadors of that Nation and on that Score in his old Master's time Among all the Cares that came into Consideration that day in the sulness of business this had the start and was hastned the same Morning with Posts and Pacquets Cupid's Wings could not possibly fly faster Yet his Majesty spake nothing of it to this able Counsellor although the Rumor of it in a Week was heard from Thames to Twede And the Duke began to hold no Conference with him neither from that day did he call for this Abiathar and say Bring hither the Ephod to ask Counsel of the Lord. Evident Tokens to make any Man see what would come after that was far less than a Prophet Which this wife Man past over and seem'd to observe nothing that was ominous or unfriendly But as Lord Mornay says in his Answer about the Conference at Fountain-bleau when Henry of France the 4th forbad him coming to the Louver Specto eclipsin expecto intrepidus securus quid illa secum vehat So the Lord-Keeper was better acquainted with Heaven than to be troubled at an Eclipse which is an accident prodigious to none but to a Fool but familiar to a Philosopher And he had learnt in the Morals by heart that the way to lose Honour is to be too careful to keep it 3. While the great Assairs did run thus the Keeper went close to his Book as much as publick business would allow to frame a Sermon against the Obsequies of blessed James He did not conceive that the Counsels which he gave to the King on the second day of his Reign were so ill taken as he heard not long after He that speaks with the trust of a Counsellor and which is more with the Tongue of a Bishop should be priviledged to be plain and faithful without offence As St. Ambrose mindeth Theodosius Ep. 29. Non est imperiale libertatem dicendi negare neque sacerdotale quid sentias non dicere But News knockt at his Study-door two days after that my Lord-Duke threatned before many that attended to turn him out of his Office And the French Ambassadors were not the last that gave him warning of it These Rumors he lookt upon with his Eyes open and saw the approaching of a Downfal and so little dissembled it that he warn'd some of his Followers secretly who were in best account with him to procure dependance upon some other Master for his Service e're long would not be worthy of them It were to small purpose to enquire why the Duke's Grace did so hastily press the Ruine of one that had been his old Friend and Creature It was his game and he lov'd it I
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 scribeâ—â— 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
enough to make a good Salad 14. Yet the hardest Remedy had been the best Patience For by the second Week in July the Plague was in its rage about London and Westminster The Members of both Houses were half slunk home and they that staid it out wisht every hour the Session were ended The King was in a mervellous strait neither knew how to hold them nor to let them go His mind was much upon it to try them though not there yet some where else for an augmentation of Supply Whose excuse was the same which the Queen of Carthage made to Aeneas Lib. 1. Aen. Res dura novitas regni me talia cogunt Moliri His Majesty thought change of Air would do good and proposed to some of his Council at Hampton-Court July 10. to adjourn to Oxford against the first of August A Proposition mainly favour'd by the Lord-Duke so that he grinn'd at the Lord-Keeper all the while he disswaded it But take away liberty from Speech and take away Bitterness from Wormwood nay take away Spirit from Wine Yet he went on and spake to these two Heads that it was not another place but another time that must speed the Work First the Infection of the Pestilence had overspread the whole Land that no Man that travell'd from his own home knew where to lodge in safety that the Lords and Gentlemen would be so distasted to be carried abroad in such a Mortal time that it is likely when they came together they would Vote out of discontent and displeasure that his Majesty was ill counsell'd to give Offences though small ones in the bud of his Reign Quae nulli magis evitandae sunt quà m juveni Principi cujus gratia cum aetate debet adolescere as Symmachus Lib. 1. Ep. writes to his Master Theodosius Secondly the Parliament hath given two Subsidies at Westminster though they remove to Oxford it is yet the same Session and if they alledge it is not the use of the House to give twice in a Session though I wish heartily they would yet how shall we plead them out of their Custom if they be so stiff to maintain it It is not fit for the Reputation of the King to fall upon a probable hazard of a denial The Duke who had heard this with impatience said That publick Necessity might sway more than one Man's Jealousie Hereupon the Keeper besought that he might commit a few words to the King's Ear in private which was granted And he acquainted his Majesty That the Lord-Duke had Enemies in the House of Commons who had contrived Complaints had made them ready to be preferr'd and would spend the time at Oxford about them And what folly it were to continue a Session that had no other aim but to bring the Duke upon the Stage But if your Majesty think that this is like a Hectick quickly known but hardly cur'd My humble Motion is that this Malady or Malice call it which you will may sleep till after Christmas There is no time lost in whetting the Sythe well For I hope to give such account by that time by undertaking with the chief Sticklers that they shall supersede from their Bitterness against your great Servant and that Passage to your weighty Councils shall be made smooth and peaceable And why do you conceal this from Buckingham says the King Good Lord Sir says the Keeper fain I would begin at that end but he will not hear me with moderation Which was rightly foreseen Erasmus in an Epistle to one Gonel asks How a good turn can be worse bestowed than upon ungrateful Men Yes says he Magis perit quod praestatur non intelligentibus 'T is worse placed upon them that will not understand Because it was the mishap of this Man to give the first notice of that Storm that was a gathering the Duke as in defiance bid him and his Confederates do their worst and besought that the Parliament might be continued to confront that Faction though he lookt upon himself in that innocency that he presum'd they durst not question him Here began the Downfall of the Lord-Keeper mistrusted to set that Wheel a going whose Motion he discover'd and offer'd to put a Spoke into it But Truth faileth And he that departeth from Evil maketh himself a Prey Isa 59.15 And here began the Troubles of mighty Buckingham who would not gain six Months time which might have made Mischiefs mellow and rot But to shew the Greatness of his Power he made haste to destroy himself being in one Character too like to Pope Julius the Second Nunquam ab eo ad quod ingenio feroci impellebatur recedendum putavit He would never retreat from that to which the Violence of his Passions hurried him 16. He had his Will and August the 1st the Session continued at Oxford Of which place it may be said as Cassiodor did of Athens Aëris puritate peruncta lucidissimos sensus ad contemplationem felici largitate praeparavit But it appears by experience it hath been more renown'd for good Wits than for good Parliaments The Commons sat in the Divinity-School who for the most part begin with a Grievance about increase of Popery And on the first Morning no sooner had the Speaker taken his place but a Western Knight enlargeth the Sense of his Sorrow that he had seen a Pardon for six Priests bearing Test July 12. Whereas but the day before it when they were to part from Westminster the Lord-Keeper had promis'd in the King's Name before them all that the Rigor of the Laws against Priests should not be deluded Many of the Members were sore offended and veyed who should blame it most What! their Hope 's blasted in one Night What the King 's Promise so early broken Nunquam major spes est quà m in bonorum Principum sponsione Symmachus Ep. to Theodos Lib. 1. But for a Lord-Keeper that brought the King's Message and knew it best and for a Bishop to set the Seal to such a Warrant for him to do that wrong to Religion it was enormous But for his part he was secure enough Indeed it was a Pit-fall set to crush him but it fell upon another God had given him Wisdom to know the Violence of Winds and the Reasonings of Men Wisd 7.20 The Warrant was twice brought to him but he would not pass it Mr. Bembo a Servant to the Clerk of the Crown confest before the House that he brought the Writ to be sealed but it was stopt Mr. Devike Servant to Sir Edward Conway confest he brought it from his Master but it could not speed It was my Lord Buckingham's hard Hap to move the King to command the Warrant to be Sealed in his sight at Hampton-Court the Sunday following which being evidenced the Vote of the Commons turn'd about to clear the Keeper and to commend him which did him hurt at Woodstock the Court was there to please the Parliament which had not pleas'd the King
An Error like to that of Adrians in Spartianus Non admisit Terentium Gentianum est eò vehementiùs quod à Senatu diligi eum videret But the Commons while they were in heat ask'd a Conference with the Lords Afternoon in Christ's-Church-Hall where Sir Edward Coke opened the Complaint sharply against Secretary Conway and like an Orator did slide away with a short Animadversion upon the Duke It was not so well for his Grace that the noise of the Grievance had entred into both Houses Arcus cum sunt duplices pluviam nuntiant says Pliny Lib. 2. N. H. c. 59. If our Rain-bow multiply another by its Reflection it prognosticks a Shower And the Storm burst out in the lower Region when he was rather declam'd against as I would call it than accus'd because the Gentlemen that did prosecute contain'd themselves in generals The most upon which insistance was made was that he held the most and the most important Offices of Trust and Honour by Sea and Land Though it was foolish and superstitious in the Heathen Romans to think it was not for the Majesty of their Common-wealth to serve but one God Majestatem imperii non decuisse ut unus tantùm Deus colatur Tull. Orat. pro Flacco Yet it were to be desir'd if it might be dutifully obtain'd that one Subject should not possess all those Places which require the Sufficiency of many to discharge them Much to this purpose is that of the Lord Herbert Harry 8. p. 318. That it was a great Error that such a multitude of Offices was invested in Woolsey as it drew Envy upon the Cardinal so it derogated not a little from the Regal Authority while one Man alone seems to comprehend all The King may be satisfied to settle the Choice of his high Promotions in one Minion so will never the People And the Advanced is sure to be shaken for his height and to be malign'd for over-dropping He that sees a Stone-wall swelling looks every day when it will fall And one Stalk is not strong enough to hold a cluster of Titles hanging at it Salmasius hath a Note upon the first Book of Solinus That if a Man grow so fast that it exceeds the usual way of Nature he will fall into sickness His Instance is in the Son of Euthymenes that grew three Cubits in three Years Et immoderatis aegritudinum suppliciis compensasse praecipitem incrementi celeritatem But what Grandee will believe this Because there is more in our corrupt Nature that will obey Ambition than Wisdom 16. Yet to speak to the other side Might not this have been forborn to be objected by the Parliament to this great Lord at this time When his Head and his Hands were wholly taken up to prepare that War which was their own Creature He was at their Plough he was under their Yoke if it were well remembred Now Grotius marks well from the old Law Deut. 21.3 That Beasts that had been put to labour might not be sacrificed Elisha's Act was hasty and singular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he quotes it out of Chaeremon They were priviledged by the Work in which they had been profitable Nay could it be objected as a Fault at any time I say as a Fault for I plead not for the Convenience What Pharisee would be so corrupt to ask Master who sinned This Man or his Parent that he was made a Duke as Lord Admiral a Master of the Horse c. No Inch of Sin is in ten Cubits of Honour that are lawfully conferr'd But there is a Fault for which Budaeus knew no direct Name Lib. 2. Pandec fol. 10. Cum milites Imperatori infensi vincere nolunt Let it be termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says he when Souldiers will lose a Victory wilfully because they are discontented at their General All was tending much this way at Oxford The great Expedition in hand and the Fleet ready at Plimouth lost its season the Souldiers and Sailors dishearten'd for want of Pay yet not the Supply of a Subsidy could be drawn to give courage to the Onset because the Generalissimo that manag'd the Voyage had lost their Favour Numbers there were some Friends some Flatterers that brought Fuel to the Fire to enflame the Duke against these Dealings The Lord-Keeper was not sought to Yet came and offer'd himself to confer about it And certainly all that knew him would say no Man could pluck the Grass better to know where the Wind sat no Man could spie sooner from whence a Mischief did rise I 'll begin thus My Lord I come to you unsent for and I fear to displease you Yet because your Grace made me I must and will serve you though you are one that will destroy that which you made Let me perish Yet I deserv'd to perish ten times if I were not as earnest as any Friend your Grace hath to save you from perishing The Sword is the Cause of a Wound but the Buckler is in fault if it do not defend the Body You have brought the Two Houses hither my Lord against my Counsel My Suspicion is confirm'd that your Grace would suffer for it What 's now to be done but wind up a Session quickly The occasion is for you because two Colledges in the University and eight Houses in the City are visited with the Plague Let the Members be promis'd fairly and friendly that they shall meet again after Christmas Requite their Injuries done unto you with benefits and not revenge For no Man that is wise will shew himself angry with the People of England I have more to say but no more than I have said to your Grace above a Year past at White-hall Confer one or two of your great Places upon your fastest Friends so shall you go less in Envy and not less in Power Great Necessities will excuse hard Proposals and horrid Counsels St. Austin says it was a Punick Proverb in his Country Ut habeas quietum tempus perde aliquid At the Close of this Session declare your self to be the forwardst to serve the King and Common-wealth and to give the Parliament satisfaction Fear them not when they meet again in the same Body whose ill Affections I expect to mitigate but if they proceed trust me with your Cause when it is transmitted to the House of Lords and I will lay my Life upon it to preserve you from Sentence or the least Dishonour This is my Advice my Lord. If you like it not Truth in the end will find an Advocate to defend it The Duke replied no more but I will look whom I trust to and flung out of the Chamber with Minaces in his Countenance Yet the other did not think he had play'd the Game ill though he lost his Stake by it Dangerous Faithfulness is honester than cunning Silence And once more he was bold to wrestle with this Potentate in high Favour before he fell The Commons of this Parliament was censur'd at Woodstock
Employment by and from your excellent Majesty First your Majesty knoweth I was threatned before your Majesty to be complained of in Parliament on the third Day of your Reign And though your Majesty most graciously promis'd to do me Justice therein Yet was I left under that Minacy and the Minacer for ought I know left to his course against me 2. My Lord-Duke confest he knew the Complaints and Complainants and gave me leave to suspect his Grace which indeed I had cause to do if within three days and three days he should not acquaint me with the Names of the Parties Which I desir'd to know not to expostulate but to watch and provide to defend my innocency His Grace failed me in his promise herein I employed Sir Charles Glemham and Mr. Sackvile Crowe to press him for an Answer which was such as they durst not in modesty return unto me 3. Sir Francis Seymore a Knight whom I know not by sight told many of that House who imparted it unto me that upon his first coming to Oxford he was dealt with by a Creature of my Lord-Dukes whom I can name to set upon the Lord-Keeper and they should be backed by the greatest Men in the Kingdom Who gave this Answer That he found nothing against the Lord-Keeper but the Malice of those great Men. 4. Sir John Eliot the only Member that began to thrust in a Complaint against me the Lord-Viscount Saye who took upon him to name Sir Thomas Crew to succeed in my Place Sir William Stroud and Sir Nathanael Rich whom my Friends most noted to malice me were never out of my Lord-Duke's Chamber and Bosom 5. Noble-men of good Place and near your Majesty gave me often intelligence that his Grace's Agents stirred all their Powers to set the Commons upon me 6. I told the Lord-Duke in my Garden that having been much reprehended by your Majesty and his Grace in the Earl of Middlesex's Tryal for thanking the last King at Greenwich for promising to protect his Servants and great Officers against the People and Parliament I durst not be so active and stirring by my Friends in that House as otherwise I should be unless your Majesty by his Grace's means would be pleas'd to encourage me with your Royal Promise to defend and protect me in your Service If I might hear your Majesty say so much I would venture then my Credit and my Life to manage what should be entrusted to me to the uttermost After which he never brought me to your Majesty nor any Message from you Standing therefore upon these doubtful terms unemploy'd in the Duties of my Place which were now assign'd over to my Lord Conway and Sir J. Cooke and left out of all Committees among the Lords of the Council which I know was never done by the direction of your Majesty who ever conceiv'd of me far above my Merit and consequently fallen much in the Power and Reputation due to my place I durst not at this time with any Safety busie my self in the House of Commons with any other than that measure of Zeal which was exprest by the rest of the Lords of the Privy-Council Gracious and dread Sovereign if this be not enough to clear me let me perish 19. The King was a Judge of Reason and of Righteousness and found so much in that Paper that he dismist him that presented it graciously for that time his Destiny being removed two Months further off though it was strongly urg'd not to delay it for a day But in St. Cyprian's words Nemo diu tutus est periculo proximus About a Fortnight after at Holdbery in New-forrest the Duke unfast'ned him utterly from the good Opinion of his Majesty and at Plimouth in the midst of September obtain'd an irrevocable Sentence to deprive him of his Office If the Queen could have stopt this Anger he had not been remov'd with whom he had no little Favour by the Credit he had got with the chief Servants of her Nation and by a Speech which took her Majesty very much which he made unto her in May upon her coming to White-hall and in such French as he had studied when he presented his Brethren the Bishops and their Homage to her Majesty His Friends of that Nation shew'd themselves so far that Pere Berule the Queen's Confessor and not long after a Cardinal was the first that advertis'd him how my Lord-Duke had lifted him out of his Seat 'T is custom to Toll a little before a Passing-bell ring out and that shall be done in a Moral strode as Chaucer calls it Such as would know the true Impulsion unto this Change shall err if they draw it from any thing but the Spanish Negotiation Not as if the Lord-Keeper had done any one much less many ill Services to the Duke as one mistakes For I take the Observator to be so just that he would have done as much himself if he had been in place King James was sick'till that Marriage was consummated and died because he committed it to the Skill of an Emperick The Keeper serv'd the King's directions rather than the cross ways of the Duke which was never forgiven Though the late Parliament had wrought wonders to the King 's Content as it gave him none this innocent Person had receiv'd the Blow which was aimed at him before the Parliament sat He bestirr'd him in the former King's Reign to check the encroaching of the Commons about impeaching the great Peers and Officers of the Realm which the Duke fomented in the Earl of Middlesex's Case Since that House began to be filled with some that were like the turbulent Athenians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meursius Ath. Attic. p. 79. It grieved him at the Heart that more time was spent by far to pluck up an honest Magistrate than to plant good Laws There was no Sin I think that he hated more than that Epidemick violence which he saw was come about that the People extoll'd them most as it was once in the Days of Marius that endeavour'd to thrust down the most noble Patricians This is the right Abstract what was and what was not the Cause of this Mutation 20. There were yet other things that did concur to precipitate his Downfall First My Lord of Buckingham's honest Servants would say that he gave their Master constantly the best Counsel but that he was too robustious in pressing it Vim temperatam Dii quoque provehunt in majus Horat. lib. 3. Od. Well I do not deny it But the more stout in that Point the more true and cordial He that loses such a one that comes to prop him up who had rather offend him than not save him Navem perforat in quâ ipse navigat Cicer. pro Milone he sinks the Bark wherein himself fails The Scythians were esteemed barbarous but this is wise and civil in them as Lucian reports in his Toxaris They have no wealth but he is counted the richest Man that hath
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
Philip the Son of Demetrius very much and anon dispraises him but reconciles it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is necessary for a true Reporter one while to extol in another case to discommend the same person Take one Advice beside No man that hath read God's own Judgment upon the Trial of Job will censure him for the greatest Sinner that hath been the greatest Sufferer To take up the Cross had not been an inseparable Accident with receiving the Faith of the Gospel unless it were rather a Badge of Favour than of Punishment He is happy if he knows it whose Faults enter their Action against him in this Life he is a Prisoner of Hope Zech. 9.11 and his Heart is blind if he do not seek Mercy and sind it Afflictions are Fetters for a Fool and Bracelets for them that know how to wear them And it is finely said in the Essay That the good things belonging to Prosperity are to be wish'd but the good things belonging to Adversity are to be admired This being a true and a divine Sentence That Sin and nothing else makes the Stock of every man's Comfort to dye in the Ground as Job loves to speak it hangs well together that God knows best in what manner to punish every man's Sin who gave this Prelate great Favour with King James but took King Charles's Affection from him The Lord H. Howard in his Book against Judicious Astrology turns these Turnings into this use Change of Princes breeds change of Favourites but they that are once dear to God are ever dear to him I protest to the Reader that Bishop Williams could not be brought to believe that the King bad any Willingness in his own Heart to afflict and bruise him but that such things came from the Infusion of those that had too much of His Majesty's Ear and by Importunity transported him from the lenity of his own Judgment And when the greatest Sorrows compass'd him about he desired only to be brought to the King with the advantage of half an hour to declare his Injuries and Innocency so much he perswaded himself that he was right in his gracious Opinion He knew him to be a Prince Pious and Just He presum'd his Noble Soul would never forget with what Success his Counsel and Contrivance removed all Obstructions to bring him as safe out of Spain as he desir'd He had received a Promise of everlasting Love and Kindness for tracing the Jugglings of Inoihosa and bringing them to light whereby the dangerous Jealousies of the old King were removed and His Highness received sweetly into his Father's Bosom An honest man could not be suspicious that the memory of such faithful Service was lost But standers-by thought they saw more than the Bishop did who might soonest be mistaken in the Crisis of his own Disease because flattering Hope is but a waking Dream If the King had not been pleased in his Sufferings why did he let them swell so far As his Royal Name was used in all so his Good liking went to all or after so many Bruisings Gentleness had not been forgotten The Instruments next to be nam'd were most guilty of the Violence yet the highest Power did more than permit and look on As it is the Sun that scorcheth in July and not the Dog-Star it is a popular Error which conceives as if that Star when it rose did cause the heat of the Weather Yet still the Bishop would not think his Case was in that extremity that the King's Anger was in it For as it is spoken of Padre-Paulo in his Life That he was less sensible of Fear than ordinarily men use to be so this man would affright himself with nothing least of all with that which was close and uncertain and would often say in a Frolick That Miseries are like the Plague if you fear them you draw them to you But which will give great light to the Subject now handled once he was startled at a word which fell suddenly from the King in a few weeks after the death of his Father one told him that came from the French Court as it is in the Cabal p. 203. That the Spanish Ambassador spake openly there when the Marriage with the Princess Mary was to be finish'd That he could not have two Wives for their Infanta was surely his To which the King replied There are some English as well as Spaniards that are of that Opinion Which being carried from the King's Mouth to this Bishop he said with a low Voice I know no such but if he mean me it will be the worse for me while I live From which let a wise man find out what he can so he find no more than he should Either this or some such hard Conceit lay hid in the King's Stomach against a most deserving Church-man And every Age had some such Example at which it was astonish'd No History speaks any ill of the Empress Eudoxia but that she could not agree with Chrysostom Harry the Seventh one of our best Kings was very iniquous to Lord Stanly one of his best Subjects Not a better Lady than Q. Elizabeth nor a better Peer than the Duke of Norfolk yet Statesmen thought that neither were safe while the other lived The Hand of the Just may be heavy against the Just by woful Experience The greatest Claw-backs of the Pope confess Though he cannot err say they in an Opinion of Faith he may err in the mistake of a Person as to canonize a wrong Saint and excommunicate a right one Which shews that my Conscience is in no such streight to derogate from the Glory of a most blessed King because his Displeasure darken'd by human Error lighted upon a Mephibosheth a faultless person 65. The Duke of Buck. Who knows it not was the Bishop's strong and protested Enemy who vowed that of all he had given him but with as much good liking of K. James as of his Lordship he would leave him nothing who when he threatned an ill turn had Power to do it and did not often forget it Which made the Bishop shelter himself under the King's Grace and Benevolence of which he did never cease to have a strong Perswasion begging as it is Cabal p. 109 for God's sake and for his blessed Father's sake that His Majesty would allay the Duke's causeless Displeasure who was so little satisfied with any thing that he could do or suffer that he had no means left to appease his Anger but Prayers to God and his Sacred Majesty In the mean time that one Foe made the distressed Party get many Friends like Rabirius's Fortune in Tully Nihil aeque ac judicis accrbitas profurt who had nothing to help him so much as that Caesar did hunt after his Ruin with so much violence Now that which made the Duke's Defiances grow fiercer day by day was not the Bishop's stoutness to which he was sufficiently prone for he had sought him with all Submission which
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
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. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 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. 〈◊〉 de diver Quid refert utrum te plumbum premat an aren◠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
to worry him who had as much relation to the place as himself where these good Deeds were done But there is a Writer and not one year scapes him but that he publisheth somewhat to bespatter the Bishop of Lincoln's good Name Odimus accipitrem quia semper vivit in armis Ovid. Art Amand. he it is that would cover all the Monuments of his Bounty with one Blot if he could find Readers such as he wish't that would take all that he vents without examination Mr. Fuller in his Church History of Britain after he had given some unhandsome Scratches to this Bishop parts with him thus Envy it self could not deny but that whit hersoever he went he might be traced by the foot-steps of his Benefaction That he expended much in the repair of the Abby-Church of Westminster and that the Library was the effect of his Bounty This is truth and praise-worthy in the Historian and yet I say not the Bishop is beholding to him for it because it is truth That 's Politian's judgment in an Epistle to Baptista p. 197. Pro vâ—ris laudibus hoc est pro suis nemo cuiquam debet Quis enim pro suo debeat But what says one of the Swallows to it that built under the roof of the Abby Just like a Swallow carried all the filth he could pick up to his Nest But worse then a miry Swallow he resembles those obscene Birds that use to flutter about the Sepulchres of the Dead and insults extreamly over the Grave of the Deceased in his Animadversions upon the Church History p. 273. That Lincoln received so much out of the Rents of the Colledge in the time when he was Lord Keeper four years and more that the Surplusage of all that he paid out in several sums respectively amounted to more then he laid out upon the Church and Library 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Demost orat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the end The very Enemies of the dead cease to hate them when they are dead But as Anabaptists and Quakers say they are above Ordinances so it seems the Conscience of some Divines is above moral Niceties As to the Calumny squeeze it and in round Russian Language you shall wring out a great lye First before the Dean was Lord Keeper or dreamt of that honour that is before the Chapter had committed the Rents to his management he had repaired the great Ruins of the south side of the Church abutting upon the stately Chappel of Henry the Seventh If the Animadverter knew this why did he not separate it from that which was expended in those four years wherein he lays his Challengeâ— If he did not know it for it was done ten years before he was hatcht into a Prebend then when blind men throw stones whose head is not like to be broken For that which was laid out by the Lord Keeper to strengthen and beautifie the north side of the Abby to the end that the right Pay-master may be known and the mouth of all Detraction stopt the Chapter shall testifie in their Act as followeth Whereas there hath lately been divulged as we have heard an unjust report that the Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God the Lord-Bishop of Lincoln our Dean should have repair'd and new-built our Church on the north side of the same and south side of the Chappels belonging to it out of the Diet and Bellies of the Prebendaries and Revenues of our said Church and not out of his own Revenues We therefore the Prebendaries of the same with one consent do affirm That we verily believe the same to be a false and injurious Report And for our selves we do testifie every man under his own Protestation that we are neither the Authors nor Abettors of any such injurious Report untruly uttered by any mean man with intention to reflect upon his Lordship And this we do voluntarily record and witness by our Chapter Act dated this present Chapter Decemb. 8. 1628. Theo. Price Sub-Deacon Christopher Sutton George Darrel Gabriel Grant Jo. King Rob. Newell John Hâ—lt Gr. Williams Whether will we believe eight men in their right minds or one in his rage To slight the Bishops erecting such a beautiful Pile the Library of St. John's Colledge and put that of Westminster with it he is as froward as a Child that hath worms in his Stomach and tells us that it possibly cost him more Wit than Money many Books being daily sent unto him Vis dicam tibi veriora veris Martial It was not only possible but very true For what Library no not the Bodleian the choicest of England but grew up and doth grow by contributory Oblations as Athenaeus says Lib. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Symbols or Portions that many Friends bring in to furnish a publick work have good influence into it but the Founder is the Lord of the Ascendant A great deal of the like the Author hath crowded into a few Leaves I do not accuse it for want of Salt it is a whole Hogshead of Brine Wisely and mildly Melanchthou was wont to say Answer not Slanders but let them vanish Et si quid adhuc in hujus saeculi levitate quasi innat at brevi interiturum est cum autorum nominibus Camer p. 79. The worthy Works of the Bishop's excessive cost at Westminster and in both Universities will stand when Pamphlets shall be consum'd with moths The liberal deviseth liberal things and by liberal things he shall stand Isai 32.8 A fair Walnut-tree the more it bears the more it is beaten as it complains in the Greek Epigram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But such as yield the fruits of good works in this world shall become Trees of Life hereafter as I have read it from some good Pen He is well that is the better for others but he shall be happy for whom others are the better 91. Method hath digested the troubles about the Deanry altogether which is the reason why this Paragraph recoils five years back that is to 1630 to make a transition into the next disturbance A Commission was directed this year to very honourable and knowing persons the Lord Privy Seal Earl of Arundel Vicount Wimbleton Lord Wentworth Sir Hugh Middleton Sir W. Slingsby Sir Hen. Spelman Ed. Ascough Th. Brett Th. Bridgman to question the oppression of exacted Fees in all Courts and Offices Civil and Ecclesiastical throughout all England A noble Examination and full of Justice if due and convenient Fees thereupon had been straitned and appointed which was frustrated two ways First by indigent and craving Courtiers who enquired after such as were suspected for Delinquency and of great Wealth with whom they compounded to get them Indempnity though not a Doit of a Fee were abated Secondly By vexatious Prosecutions of abundance that were Innocent before Sub-committees where Promoters got a great livelyhood to themselves to redeem them from chargeable Attendance which deserves such a Complaint as Budaeus
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 â—â— 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
ex asseribus compositè junctam This is irrefragable unless one be refractory that he will not learn as Erasmus says of Poggius in his Epistles p. 262. Poggius hôc erat animo ut doctissimus haberi mallet quà m reddi doctior For if these were only Orders of Sufferance they were nothing but Canons are Church-Laws Convocations meet not to make Permissions but binding Canons to be obeyed by the Subjects and by all the Ordinaries of the Kingdom Hol. Tab. p. 205. Yet it was so forgotten by some that while this Bishop was in the Tower one of his own Clergy in Bedford-shire Dr. Jas Fisher a fair Marble Stone being digged up in his Chancel he set Workmen to smooth it and to erect it for an Altar till Troubles marr'd the Work and Impeachments of Articles broke the Heart of a modest able man He and the Vicar that would be Altar-builders might have spared their Stone for the Altar of Incense was made of Shittim-wood Exod. 30.1 or of Cedar 1 Kin. 6.20 and over-laid with Gold that the Wood might not catch Fire Or what if a Stone were set up It were not the further for that from being a Table H. T. p. 115. cites out of learned Gerard Cessante sacrificio altaria illa nihil sunt aliud quà m mensae lapideae Allowing no Sacrifice those Altars are nothing but Stone Tables Of Judea I can say nothing but in Rome about Christ's days on Earth the People did eat upon Tables not only of Limon and Maple wood but of Stone We have added and Decency commends it a fair white Linnen-Cloth to cover God's Board and our own at Meal-times which was not in use when our Saviour instituted the Sacrament as far as I can see into the convival Customs of those days for since the Waiters did wipe away at the end of Supper the Liquors which were spilt from Cups or Dishes with Sponges it will not hold that they had a Cloth spread upon the Table What will Novelists say to this that think we break the Second Command if we vary from Christ in any circumstance in the ordaining of the Holy Supper Some of them may perhaps be ready hereupon to take away the Linnen Cloth Why not since one Faction of them hath taken away the Table For says Bayly in his Disswasive of Errors p. 121. The Brownists at this day at Amsterdam have no Table at all but send the Elements from the Pulpit where the Minister preacheth and celebrateth the Sacrament by the Hands of the Deacon and adds that some Independents at London affect the like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nothing so dangerous to do all kind of Evil as an ignorant Rabble They that will not grant a Table to Christ's Servants to come to his Feast will not if they can prevail grant a Church or Chancel to place it in From which Madness and Sacrilege God deliver us Manil. lib. 5. Si forte accesser it impetus ausis Improbitas fiet virtus 102. From the matter of Stone the Dispute leads us into a Strise about the Name In the first Liturgy of Edw. 6. Altar is most in use In the second and from that day forward the word Table is altogether read In a year or two after the first of King Charles the word Altar per postliminium was much in the mouth of many Divines when it had been laid aside Observe Peace and Truth and call it either or both and it is all one But charge them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit says St. Paul 2 Tim. 2.4 For vanity and things wherein there is no profit are all one Jer. 2.23 Scholars will understand me by this Instance Altar for Table or Table put for Altar make no change in the sence with knowing men the Council at Syrmium turn'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Nicene Creed into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with no small Injury to our Lord Christ But a Bishop in Nicephorus instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Couch as it is Jo. c. 4. read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a Synonymum yet Spiridion a morose man rose up and spake against the Novelty Vitiosum est propter nominum mutationem contentionem intendere says the Author to Herennius They are as near as can be to be Friends that have nothing but two words of the same signification to part them Yet two things were to be cleared to stop mistakings First It must be yielded that our Mother-language our Church-canonical word is Table Altar is arbitrary at large Secondly for the right insight into the nature of the Sacrament Table is the proper word and Altar metaphorical The Bishop comprehends them both very well in these words H. T. p. 75 He doth not deny but the name Altar hath been long in the Church in a metaphorical usurpation nor would he have blamed the Vicar if he had in a Quotation from the Fathers or a Discourse in the Pulpit named it an Altar in this borrowed sence but to give the usual call of an Altar he says usual unto the Utensil which the Law that always speaks properly never calls otherwise than by the name of a Table is justly by him disliked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And again in that Page Where we have a Law and Canon to direct us how to call a thing we ought not to hunt after Reasons and Conceits to give it another Appellation It is apparent how the Liturgy confirmed Anno 1549. chooseth the word Altar which Liturgy is agreeable to God's Word and the Primitive Church yet since the alteration came in by the next Liturgy three years after the first Book doth not allow you to call it an Altar for the present your Tongue ought to speak as the present Book and Law speaks it to you and when men in their nomination of things do vary from the Law which is the quintessence of Reason they do it in a Humor which is the quintessence of Fancy Thus far he again p. 142. And it is truly said in Antid Lin. p. 96. Another Liturgy confirm'd by Act of Parliament made void the old Neither is it pretended out of any Law or Canon to be called Altar more than once Statute 1 Ed. 6. c. 1. The most comfortable Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ commonly called the Sacrament of the Altar and in Scripture the Supper and Table of the Lord the Communion and Partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ Says the Bishop to this H. T. p. 94. The holy Scripture should carry it quite away for the Name and Sacrament of the Altar is not the Name but the Nick-name and a Penal Statute as this is was to take notice of every Appellation it was at that time known by and discerned The last Reformation which is orderly as ours was is the best As St. Ambrose writing how Christianity came in after other Religions discourseth thus Ep. 32. Quis
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 Oâ—lice 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. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 Alexâ—ab 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 indeâ—inent 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 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 â—iunt 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
North gave our Bishop a breathing time from his Troubles And when the Articles of Pacification made at Berwick were burnt in London true or uncorrupted I dispute not I that report this was the first that carried the Tidings to the Tower and I call God to witness the Bishop presently broke out into these words I am right sorry for the King who is like to be forsaken by his Subjects at home but far more by all Kings and Princes abroad who do not love him But for the Archbishop says he he had best not meddle with me for all the Friends he can make will be too few to save himself A fatal fore-sight of all impending and ensuing Mischiefs But do you not hope Sir said I that such Concussions as you fear to come to pass will give you your Peace and Liberty Possibly they will says he But no honest man shall be the better for a Scotch Reformation wherein the Hare-brains among us are engaged with them Which is like that of Rutilius deported in Banishment to Mytelene one comforted him with hope of Civil Wars and then all that were banish'd should return to Rome says Rutilius Quid tibi mali feci ut mibi pejorem reditum quà m exitum sperares That which did precipitate the common Fortune and made all things worse and worse was the King's very sudden dissolving the Parliament met in Apr. 1640. His Majesty had been forewarned by a worthy Counsellor and a dying man against that Error in the Christmas before Cujus mortem dolor omnium celebrem fecit Sym. Ep. p. 11. It was L. Keeper Coventry who made but one Request with his last Breath to the King and sent it by Mr. James Maxwel of the Bed-Chamber That His Majesty would take all Distasts from the Parliament summoned against April with patience and suffer it to sit without an unkind dissolution But the Barking of the living Dogs was sooner heard than the Groaning of a dying Lyon for that Parliament ended in a few days in its Infancy and in its Innocency but the Grief for it will never end The next came on Novemb. 3. with all Animosities that could be infused out of Scotch and English Distempers The Bishop of Lincoln Petitions the King by the Queens Mediation that he might be set at liberty and have his Writ as a Peer to sit in Parliament which was opposed by the L. Finch then Custos sigilli magni and Archbishop Laud as appears by a Letter written to Sir Richard Winn Octob. 3. in these words 130. Good Cousin WITH my hearty Thanks remembred for all your great however unfortunate care of me and my Affairs Though you would not let me know any thing that might be any Grief or Discomfort to me yet I hear it of other Hands That I am eternally bound to the Queens Majesty and bound to remain her Vassal as long as I live And that I owe much to some other great Lords of His Majâ—â—ty's Council And that his Grace by my Lord Keeper's bold and much-mistaken Information to His Majesty that the Parliament cannot examine Errors and Oppressions in such an arbitrary Court as the Star-chamber is doth keep off His Majesty from using his Clemency towards me or permitting me to employ my best Endeavours to serve him My Lords Grace and Secretary Windebank have good reason to wish me out of the Parliament and out of the World too if they conceive I have no other business there than to complain against them And so hath the Lord Keeper and Sir J. Lamb. If her gracious Majesty whom than willingly offend I will rather dye will be pleased to set aside the Relations those two Personages have towards Her Majesty and set her poor Servant at liberty to take his course for Redress for those intolerable Concussions they have used against him And that I do not speak herein beside my Books I pray you and your Friends to peruse the bundle of Papers I send you which I desire you to return to me c. Through the Perswasion of those about the King whom the Letter discovers Lincoln was like to lye by it and to be shut out of Mercy by an irreversible Decree But the Lords of the Upper House after they had look'd about them a while on Nov. 16. sent to the Lieutenant of the Tower to deliver him to then Officer of the Black Rod who conducted him to the Parliament and their Lordships gave him his Place among his Brethren in the Bishops-Bench The King did soon hear of his Carriage that he neither complain'd nor so much as glanced at his Persecutors As a true Lover of his Country said Cic. Ep. Fam. lib. 10. Non me impedient privatae offensiones quò minùs pro Reip salute etiam cura inimicis consentiam His Majesty heard more That he was his faithful Minister and Stable to stand for him in all motions and did not refrain to fall sharply upon those Lords to whom he owed his Releasement for not speaking dutifully of His Majesty and of his Actions with Reverence Upon it the King sent for him and had conference with him alone till after midnight and made him some amends for the Evils past by commanding all Orders filed and kept in any Court or Registry upon the former Hearings and Dependencies against him to be slighted cancell'd crazed that no Monument or Memorial of them might remain So Aâ—m Probus tells us what Reparation was made to Alcibiades after he was brought home to Athens from his Exile Pilae in quibus devotio scripta fuit contra Alcibiadem in mare praecipitatae post quà m à Spartá revocatus est To quote a nearer Example When Constantine let Athanasius return again to his See at Alexandria 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athan. ad Solit. Vit. p. 823. All that was engross'd against Athanasius he commanded the Memory of it to be rid out of the way and all of it to be blotted out Look for such another Instance in Symmachus Ep. p. 127. of him that was thrice honour'd in being reinvested in those Honours from which he was degraded Majus quiddam est honorem restituere quam dedisse c. For Fortune may confer but only Judgment restores to Honour I am come to the end of those Suits with which our Bishop was overwhelmed and still made Defendant against the King Let Posterity observe how he was censur'd and grievously but for two things tampering with Witnesses never known before to be a fault in the Realm of England and for being suspected to have received two Letters in Cyphers of a mystical sence and as slight regard Being accused for divulging the King's Counsels and for Subornation of Witnesses he broke the neck of those Bills Being questioned for his Book in the High-Commission Court he wound himself out of the Labyrinth of all their Articles From an Hodg-potch of new Informations in Star-chamber he deliver'd himself by adventuring to appeal from that Court to the
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
Old Latium August and Sacred signified the same 'T were good if it would prove so now But it began with discontent on every side and never mended Our Wise King no longer smother'd his Passion but confess'd at sundry times a great fault in himself that he had been so improvident to send the Duke on this Errand with the Prince whose bearing in Spain was ill Reported by all that were not partial He put the bafful so affectedly upon the Earl of Bristol at every turn that those Propositions which his Majesty had long before approved with deep Wisdom and setled with the Word of Honour were struck out by my Lord of Buckingham only because Bristol had presented them Nay if the Prince began to qualifie the unreasonableness he would take the Tale out of his Highness's Mouth and over-rule it and with such youthful and capricious Gestures as became not the lowly Subjection due to so great a Person but least of all before Strangers It was an Eye-sore to the Spaniards above any people who speak not to their King and the Royal Stems of the Crown without the Complement of Reverence nor approach unto them without a kind of Adoration The more the Prince endur'd it the more was their judgment against it For every Mouth was fill'd with his Highness's Praise and nothing thought wanting in him to be absolutely good and Noble but to know his own Birth and Majesty better and to keep more distance from a Subject So the Earl of Bristol Writes Cab. p. 20. I protest as a Christian I never heard in all the time of his being here nor since any one Exception against him unless it were for being supposed to be too much guided by my Lord of Buckingham which was no Venial Sin in their censure For how much their gall Super-abounded against that Lord the same Earl could not hold to write it to the Lord Keeper bearing Date August 20. I know not how things may be Reconciled here before my Lord Duke's departure but at present they are in all Extremity ill betwixt this King his Ministers and the Duke And they stick not to profess that they will rather put the Infanta head-long into a Well then into his Hands One thing that fill'd up the Character of my Lord Duke before in this Work was that he had much of the brave Alcibiades in him In this they differ that Plutarch's Alcibiades suited himself so well to the Manners and Customs of all Courts where he came that he gave satisfaction to all Princes and they were best pleased with him that most enjoy'd him The great Lord Villiers was not so Fortunate for he thrived not in the Air of Madrid and he brook'd the Air of Paris as ill about two years after upon the like Occasion And no marvel For as Catulus said of Pompey in Paterculus Praeclarus vir Cn. Pompeius sed reipub liberae nimius So this Lord was a worthy Gentleman but too big to be one in a Free Treaty with other Ministers The Lord Keeper who was the Socrates to this Alcibiades had Noted his Lordships Errors and unbeseeming Pranks before For which he look'd for no better then he that rubs a Horse that is gaul'd Yet he resolv'd to shoot another Arrow the same way that the former went though the Duke had threatned to break his Bow as soon as he came Home But he was too prudent to be scared from doing Duty to so great a Friend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Aristotle He is neither Wise nor Faithful but a Flatterer that denies his Spirit ingenious Freedom And it is a Speech worthy of Sir Ph. Sidney which the Lord Brooke ascribes to him Pag. 42. of his Life That he never found Wisdom where he found not Courage Therefore the Lord Keeper writes to the Duke Aug. 3. of which this is the Moral to him that reads it intelligently That no Man living can keep Favour who keeps not Conditions that merit to perpetuate Favour May it please your Grace I Have no more to trouble your Grace at this time withal than the Expression of that Service and those Prayers which as I do truly owe so shall I ever as faithfully perform to your Grace New Comers may make more large and ample Promises but will in the end be found to fall short of your old Servants in Reality and Performances If your Grace hath by this time thought that I have been too bold and too near your Secrets in those Counsels I presumed upon in my last Letters I beseech you to remember how easie it was for me to have held my Peace how little Thanks I am like to receive from any other beside your Grace for the same how far I am in these Courses from any end of mine own beside your Prosperity and Security If your Grace would give me leave to deliver my Opinion upon the main though no Hunter after Court-News it is this Your Grace stands this Day in as great Favour with his Majesty as your Heart can desire And if I have any Judgment in far more Security of Continuance than ever you did if you remain as for ought I can perceive you do in the same State with the Prince in the same Terms as your Pains have deserved with the Princess and out of Quarrels and Recriminations which will but weaken both Parties and make way for a third with the rest of his Majesties Agents in this Negotiation I cannot but presume once more to put your Grace in mind that the nearer you are drawn to his Highness in Title the more you are with all Care and Observance to humble your self unto him in Speech Gesture Behaviour and all other Circumstances yea although his Highness should seem to require the Contrary This cannot be any way offensive to your own and is expected to the utmost Punto by that other Nation I do presume of Pardon for all my Follies in this kind and that whatsoever is wanting in my Discretion your Grace will be pleased to make up out of my Sincerity and Affection However your Grace and the Earl of Bristol shall conclude I hope your Grace will pardon my Zeal though peradventure not according to Knowledge aiming only at your Grace's Service the Amplitude and Continuance of your Greatness For whatsoever your Grace shall determine and conclude I do and shall implicitly yield unto the same Yet am still of Opinion the way of Peace to be the broad way to enlarge and perpetuate your Grace's Greatness and Favour with his Majesty c. This was bold but faithful and ingenious Dealing The Duke's last Messenger whom he sent into England before he arrived Sir J. Hipsley gave him a touch of the same Cab. P. 316. For God's-sake carry the Business with Patience betwixt my Lord of Bristol and you And again in the same For God's-sake make what hast you may Home for fear of the worst For the King's Face began to gather Clouds upon the