Lord Sheffeild very differing from all that went before it being left out that they should enquire per sacramentum bonorum legalium hominum and to heare and determine secundum leges Angliae Relation being had only to the instructions which were the first instructions we can finde were sent thither though I told your Lordships there were some mentions of some In 1. Jac. I shall not trouble your Lordships with these Instructions nor with the other that followed in 14. Jacobi to the same man nor in 16 Jacobi when a new Commission was granted to my Lord Sunderland nor indeed with any till we come to these present Instructions and Commissions under which that part of the Kingdome groans and languisheth My Lord of Strafford came to that government in Decemb 4. Caroli and since the Commission hath been three severall times removed in the fist year in March in the eighth in Novemb. in the thirteenth year of his Majesties reigne into that Commission of 8. and 13. a new clause served in for the granting sequestring and establishing Possessions according to instructions crowded in a Masse of new exorbitant and intolerable power though our complaint be against this Commission it selfe and against the whole body of those instructions I shall not mispend your Lordships pretious time in desiring to have the whole read but shall presume to trouble your Lordships only with five or six of the instructions that by the vast irregularity of those your Lordships may judge how insupportable the whole burthen is I shall not trouble your Lordships with the nineth Instruction though it be but short which introduceth that miseram servitutem ubi jus est vagum incognitum by requiring an obedience to such ordinances and determinations as be or shall be made by the Councell Table or high Commission Court A grievance my Lords howsoever consuetudo peccantum claritas nobilitaverit hanc culpam of so transcendent a nature that your Lordships noble Justice will provide a remedy for it with no lesse care then you would rescue the life and blood of the Common-wealth Read the 19.22 23 24.29 and 30 I will not trouble your Lordships with reading more there being among them in the whole 58. Instructions scarce one that is not against or besides the Law Whether His Majesty may caution out a part of his Kingdome to be tryed by Commission though according to the rules of Law since the whole Kingdome is under the Laws and government of the Courts established at Westminster and by this reason the severall parts of the kingdome may be deprived of that priviledge will not be now the question that his Majesty cannot by Commission erect a new Court of Chancery or aproceeding according to the rules of the Star-chamber is most cleare to all who have read Magna Charta which allowed no proceedings nisiper legale judicium Parium per legem terrae for our Court of Chancery here by long usage and proscription is grown to be as it were lex terrae But my Lords the thircieth Instruction goes further and erects such an Empire such a Dominion as shall be lyable to no contrary The Courts of Westminster my Lords have superintendences over all inferiours Courts to regulate their jurisdictions if they exceed their limits As to hold Plea of greater value or the like in his exercise of Jurisdiction the Judges are sworn to grant and send prohibitions and to stop the granting of these prohibitions or to neglect them when they are granted is the greatest and boldest scorn of the Law and the Law-makers that can be imagined The Kings Courts at Westminster having been alwaies of that awfull and reverent esteem with inferiour Judges that the instances of such contempts against them are very rare and exemplary in the punishment The Bishop of Norwich in Trinity Term in the twentieth year of Edward the third in Rot. 289. in the common Pleas in Hilary Terme 21. in the Kings Bench was attached for disobeying a Prohibition at the suit of Stracill upon full and solemne dissension of the whole matter the Court resolved that the proceedings of the Bishop were inobedientiam diminutionem Domini potestatis Regiae authoritatis suae lectionem coronae suae exhereditationem manifestam c. As the words of the Records are and therefore adjudged the temporall tyes of the Bishop to be seised into the Kings hand and great very great dammages to be paid to Plaintiffes And whosoever gave directions for these stout Instructions might have remembred that no longer since then Michaelmas in the seventh year of Eliz. Rot. 31. an Attachment was granted against the Archbishop of Yorke then President of that Councell for forbidding the Goaler of Yorke to deliver one Lambert his Prisoner who was sent for by a habeas corpus from the Kings Bench and if they would have believed the resolution of all the Judges in England in Trinity Term in the 6 yeare of King James they would have known how unfit it had been to enlarge that Jurisdiction since most of their proceedings being of an inferiour nature to what they are now grown were then declared to be illegall and inconsistent with the liberty of the Subject And can such a Court as this my Lords deserve to live what a compendious abridgement hath Yorke gotten of all the Courts in Westminster Hall whatsoever sals within the cognizance or jurisdiction of either Courts here is compleatly determinable within that one Court at York besides the power it hath with the Ecclesiasticall and high Commission Courts What hath the good Northern people done that they only must be disfranchised of all their priviledges by Magna Charta and the Petition of Right for to what purpose serve these Statutes if they may be fined and imprisoned without Law according to the discretion of the commissioners what have they done that they and they alone of all the people of this happy Iland must be disinherited of their birth-right of their Inheritance For prohibitions writs of Habeas Corpus writs of errour are the birth-right the inheritance of the Subjects And 't is here worth your Lordships observation that to those many prohibitions which have been granted from above for till of late the court of Yorke had not the courage to dispose prohibitions nor indeed till our Courts here had not the courage to grant them T was never known that Court pleaded the Jurisdiction of their Councell which without doubt they would have done upon the advantage of many great persons in whose protection they have alwayes been had they not known the Law could not be misinterpreted enough to allow it Your Lordships remember the directions I mentioned of Magna Charta that all proceedings shall be per legale Judicium Parium per legem terrae now these Jurisdictions tell you you shall proceed according to your discretion that is you shall doe what you please onely that we may not suspect this discretion will be
which time the sayd Iustice Seate was called by adjournment the sayd Iohn Lord Finch then Lord Chiefe Iustice of his Majesties Court of Common Pleas and was one of the Iudges assistants for them he continued by further unlawfull and unjust practices to maintaine and confirme the said verdict and did then and there being assistant to the Iustice in Eyre advise the refusal of the traverse offered by the County and all their evidences but onely what they should verbally deliver which was refused accordingly IV. That hee about the Moneth of November 1635. hee being then Lord Chiefe Iustice of the Common Pleas and having taken an oath for the due administration of Iustice to his Majesties Liege people according to the Lawes and statutes of the Realme contrived in opinion in haec verba when the good and safety c. and did subscribe his name to that opinion and by perswasions threats and false suggestions did solicite and procure Sir Iohn Bramstone Knight then and now Lord Chiefe Iustice of England Sir Humfrey Davenport Knight Lord chiefe Baron of his Majesties Court of Exchequer Sir Richard Hutton Knight late one of the Iustices of his Majesties Court of Common Pleas Sir Iohn Denham Knight late one of the Barons of his Majesties Court of Exchequer Sir William lones Knight late one of the Iustices of the said Court of Kings Bench Sir George Crock then and now one of the Iudges of the said Court of Kings Bench Sir Thomas Trevor Knight then and now one of the Barons of the Exchequer Sir George Vernon Knight late one of the Iustices of the said Court of Common Pleas Sir Robert Barkley Knight then and now one of the Iustices of the said Court of Kings Bench Sir Francis Crawly Knight then and now one of the Justices of the said Court of Common Pleas Sir Richard Weston Knight then and now one of the Barons of the said Court of Exchequer some or one of them to subscribe with their names the said opinion presently and enjoyned them severally some or one of them secresâ— upon their allegeance V. That he the fifth day of Iune then being Lord Chiefe Iustice of the said Court of Common Pleas subscribed an extrajudiciall opinion in answer to questions in a letter from his Majesty in haec verba c. And that he contrived the said questions and procured the said Letter from his Majesty and whereas the said Iustice Hutton and Iustice Crook declared to him their opinions to the contrary yet hee required and pressed them to subscribe upon his promise that hee would let his Majesty know the truth of their opinions notwithstanding such subscriptions which neverthelesse he did not make knowne to his Majestie but delivered the same to his Majesty as the opinion of all the Iudges VI. That hee being Lord Chiefe Iustice of the said Court of Common Pleas delivered his opinion in the Chequer Chamber against Master Hampden in the case of Ship-money that hee the said Master Hampdâ—n upon the matter and substance of the case was chargeable with the money then in question a Coppy of which proceedings the Commons will deliver to your Lordships and did solicite and threaten the said sudges some or one of them to deliver their opinions in like manner against Master Hampden and after the said Baron Denham had delivered his opinion for Master Hampden the said Lord Finch repaired purposely to the said Baron Denhams Chamber in Serjeants Inne in Fleetstreet and after the said Master Baron Denham had declared and expressed his opinion urged him to retract the said opinion which hee refusing was threatned by the said Lord Finch because hee refused VII That hee then being Lord chiefe Justice of the Court of Common Pleas declared and published in the Exchequer Chamber and westerne circuit where he went Judge that the Kings right to Ship-money as aforesaid was so inherent a right to the Crowne as an Act of Parliament could not take it away and with divers malicious speeches inveighed against and threatned all such as refused to pay Ship-money all which opinions contained in the foure five sixth Articles are against the Law of the Realme the Subjects right of property and contrary to former resolutions in Parliament and to the petition of right which said resolutions and petition of right were well knowne to him and resolved and enacted in Parliament when he was Speaker of the Commons house of Parliament VIII That hee being Lord chiefe Justice of the Court of Common Pleas did take the generall practice of that Court to his private Chamber and that hee sent warrants into all or many shires of England to severall men as to Francis Giles of the County of Devon Rebert Renson of the County of Yorke Attorneys of that Court and to divers others to release all persons arrested on any utlawry about 40. shillings fees whereas none by Law so arrested can be bailed or released without Supersedeas under seale or reversall IX That hee being Lord Chiefe Iustice of the Court of Common pleas upon a pretended suit begun in Michaelmas Terme in the 11. yeare of his Majesties Reigne although there was no plaint or Declaration against him did notoriously and contrary to all Law and Iustice by threats menaces and imprisonment compell Thomas Laurence an Executor to pay 19 pound 12 shillings and likewise caused Richard Bernard being onely over-seer of the last Will of that Testator to bee arrested for the payment of the said Money contrary to the advice of the rest of the Iudges of that Court and against thâ— knâ—wne and ordinary course of Iustice and his said Oath and knowledge and denyed his Majesties Subjects the common and ordinary Iustice of this Realme as to Mr. Liâ—â—rick and others and for his private benefit endammaged and ruined the estates of very many of his Majesties Subjects contrary to his oath and knowledge X. That hee being Lord Keeper of the great Seale of England and sworne one of his Majesties Privie Counsell did by false and malicious slanders labour to incense his Majestie against Parliaments and did frame and advise the publishing the Declaration after the dissolution of the last Parliament All which Treasons and misdemeanors above mentioned were done and committed by the said Iohn Lord Finch Baron of Fordwich Lord Keeper of the great Seale of England and thereby he the aforesaid Finch hath trayterously and contrary to his allegiance laboured to lay Imputations and Scandalls upon his Majesties government and to alienate the hearts of his Majesties liege people from his Majestie and to set a division betweene them and to ruine and destroy his Majesties Realme of England for which they doe impeach him the said Lord Finch Baron of Fordwich Lord Keeper of the Great Seale of England of high Treason against our Soveraigne Lord the King his Crowne and Dignity of the misdemeanours above mentioned And the said Commons by Protestation saving to themselves the libertie of exhibiting at any time
Majesties government and intending the subversion of the fundamental Lawes and setled governement of that Realme and the distraction of his Majesties liege people there did upon the 30. day of September in the ninth yeare of his now Majesties Reigne in the Citie of Dublin the chiefe Citie of that Kingdome where his Majesties privie Counsell and Courts of Iustice doe ordinarily reside and whither the Nobility and Gentry of that Realme doe usually resort for Iustice in a publikâ— Speech before divers of the Nâ—bility and Gentry and before the Major Aldermen and Recorder and many Citizens of Dublin and other his Majesties Liege people declare and publish that Ireland was a conquered Nation and that the King might doe with them what he pleased and speaking of the Charters of the former Kings of England made to that Citie he further said that their Charters were nothing worth and did binde the King no further then hee pleased 4. That Richard Earle of Corke having sued out processe in course of Law for recovery of his possessions from which he was put by colour of an order made by the said Earle of Strafford and the Counsell Table of the said Realme of Ireland The said Earle of Strafford upon a paper petition without legall proceeding did the 20 day of February in the 11. yeare of his nâ—w Majesties Reigne threaten the said Earle of Corke beeing then a Peere of the said Realme to imprison him unlesse he would surcease his suit and said That he would have neither Law nor Lawyers dispute or question any of his orders And the 20. dâ—y of March in the said 11. year of the said Earle of Strafford speaking of an order of the said Counsell Table of that Realme in the time of King James which concerned a Lease which the said Earle of Corke claimed in certaine rectories or tithes which the said Earle of Cork alleaged to be of no force said That he would make the said Earle and all Ireland know so long as hee had the government there any Act of State there made or to bee made should bee as binding to the Subjects of that Kingdome as an Act of Parliament And did question the said Earle of Corke in the Castle Chamber upon pretence of the breach of the said order of Counsell Table and did sundry other times and upon sundry other occasions by his words and speeches arrogate to himselfe a power above the fundementall Lawes and established Government of that Kingdome and scorned the said Lawes and established government 5 That according to such his Declarations and Speeches the said Earls of S r ffoâ—d did use and exercise a power above â—nd against and to the subversion of the said fundame tall Laws and established government of the said Realme of Ireland exâ—ending such his power to the goods free holds inheritances liberties and lives of his Majesties Subjects in the said Realme viz. The said Earle of Sirâ—fford the twelfth day of December Anno Domini 1635. in the time of full peace did in the said Realme of Ireland give and procure to bee given against the Lord Mount Norris then and yet a Peere of Ireland and then Vice-Treasurer and receiver generall of the Realme of Ireland and one of the principall Secretaries of State and Keeper of the privy Signet of the said Kingdome a sentence of death by a Councell of warre called together by the said Earle of Strafford without any warrant or authority of Law or offence deserving any such punishment And hee the said Earle did also at Dublin within the said Realm of Ireland in the Month of March in the fourteenth yeare of his Majesties Reigne without any legall or due proceedings or tryall give or cause to bee given a sentence of death against one other of his Majesties Subjects whose name is yet unknowne and caused him to be put to death in execution of the said sentence 6 That the said Earle of Strafford without any legall proceedings and upon a paper Petition of Richard Ralstone did cause the said Lord Mount-Norris to be disseized and put out of possession of his free-hold and inheritance of his Mannor and Tymore in the Countrey of Armagh in the Kingdome of Ireland the said Lord Mount-Norris having beene two yeares before in quiet possession thereof 7 That the said Earle of Strafford in the Termâ— of holy Trinity in the thirteenth yeare of his now Majesties Reigne did cause a case commonly called the case of Tenures upon defective Titles to be made and drawne up without any juâ—y or tryall or other legall processe and without the consent of parties and did then procure the ludges of the said Realme of Ireland to deliver their opinions and resolutions to that case and by colour of such opinion did without any legal proceeding cause Thâ—mas Lord Dillon a Peeâ—e of the said Realme of Ireland to be put out of possession of divers Lands and Tenements being his free-hold in the Countrey of Mago and Rosecomen in the said Kingdome and divers other of his Majesties Subjects to be also put out of possession disseized of their free hold by colour of the same resolution without legall proceedings whereby many hundreds of his Majesties subjects were undone and their families utterly ruinated 8 That the said Earle of Strafford upon a Petition of Sir Iohn Gifford Knight the first day of February in the said thirteenth yeare of his Majesties reigne without any regall Processe made a Decree or Order against Adam Viscount Lofts of Elie a Peere of the said Realme of Ireland and L Chancellor of Ireland did cause the said Viscount to bee imprisoned and kept close prisoner on pretence of disobedience to the said Decree or order And the said Earle without any authority and contrary to his Commission required and commanded the said Lord Viscount to yeeld unto him the great Seale of the Realme of Ireland which was then in his custody by his Majesties command and imprisoned the said Chancellour for not obeying such his command And without any legall proceedings did in the same thirteenth yeare imprison George Earle of Kildare a Peere of Ireland against Law thereby to enforce him to submit his Title to the Mannor and Lordship of Castle Leigh in the Queens County being of great yearely value to the said Earle of Straffords will and pleasure and kept him a yeare prisoner for the said cause two moneths whereof hee kept him close prisosoner and refused to enlarge him notwithstanding his Majesties Letters for his enlargement to the said Earle of Strafford directed And upon a Petition exhibited in October 1635. by Thomas Hibbots against dame Mary Hibbots widdow to him the said Earle of Strafford the said Earle of Strafford recommended the said Petition to the Counsell Table of Ireland where the most part of the Counsell gave their vote and opinion for the said Ladie but the said Earle finding fault herewith caused an order to be entred against the said Lady and threatned her
Ratcliffe was not the man alone but others joyned with him in that Assembly and I am sure my Lord of Strafford moved it for the breach of Parliament I shall addresse myselfe to the body of his answere Now give me leave my Lords that I may open the nature of this great offence My Lords it is a charge of Treason which is a Treason not ended or expired by one single Act but a trade enured by this Lord of Strafford ever since the Kings favor hath been bestowed upon him My Lords it hath two parts to deprive us that which was good And secondly to bring in a Tyrannicall government it takes away the Lawes of the Land and it hath an arbitrary government bounded by no law but what my Lord of Strafford pleaseth It is the law my Lords which we reverence and cheerefully render to our gracious Soveraigne The Law as it is the ground of our libertie so it is the distribution of Iustice My Lords in all this my Lord of Strafford hath endeavoured to make them uncapable of any benefit it is true my Lords that Treason against the person of a Prince is high Treason and the highest Treason that can be to man but it falls short of this Treason against the State When blessed King Iames was taken to heaven he commended the lawes to his sonne our gracious Soveraigne But my Lords if such a design as this should take effect that the law of Iustice shouldbe taken from the Throne we are without hope of ever seeing happy dayes power is not so easily laid downe unlesse it be by so good and just a Prince as we have My Lord of Straffords accusation is conveyed into twenty eight Articles and I shall but touch the heads that wee shall insist upon and I thinke the best way to this is to consider what he did before he went into Ireland what then and what since He hath encroached jurisdiction where none was taking upon him a power to repell the lawes and to make new lawes and in domineering over the lives and goods and what ever else was the subjects My Lords this he hath not done onely upon the meaner sort but upon the Peeres and auncient Nobilitie and what may your Lordships expect but the same measure at his hands here as they have found there when he committed any to prison if a Habeas Corpus were granted the Officers must not obey and if any Fine were put upon the Officer for refusing them there was a command that he should bee discharged so that he did not onely take power to himselfe but the Scepter of Iustice out of the Kings hand When he was a member of the house of Commons it was his owne motion all Ministers of state should serve the King according to the lawes which he hath broken himselfe He doth as much as say that Fines shall not be payed by Officers if in this they fulfill his commands but those that release a prisoner upon a Habeas Corpus shall finde his displeasure My Lords if this had been a single Act we should not have accused him of high Treason but this hath beene his common course and this we present to your Lordships consideration The next thing is that in the North the people attending for Iustice you shall see what a dishonour he flung upon the sacred Majestie of the King that did advance him some of the Iustices saith he are all for Law but they shall finde that the Kings little fingers is heavier then the Loynes of the Law My Lords what a sad speech was this and what sad Accidents happened upon it you all know and he said in a solemne speech That Ireland was a conquered Nation and that the King might do with them what he would their Charters were nothing worth they did binde the King no longer then he pleased Surely you may see what hee would do if he had power but we hope never such counsell shall have acceptation in so gracious an Eare as our Soveraignes and he doth not stay in words but proceeds to Actions when a Peere of the Kingdome was expelled the Kingdome for suing at Law for recovering of his Right he saith he would have Ireland know that neither Law nor Lawyers should question any thing that he ordered My Lords he goes higher for when there was an occasion to speake of an Act of State he said it should bee as binding as an Act of Parliament My Lords he cannot goe higher then this hee tells them in Parliament they were a Conquered Nation and they must expect the usage of a Conquered Nation The Lord Mountnorris for a few words that fell from his mouth spoken privately at his Table had a Counsell of warre called against him and was judged to death My Lords it is no marvaile that he saie That the Kings little finger should be so heavie when his little too was so heavie to tread downe a Peere under his foote My Lords he makes Lawes of himselfe and hee makes a difference in matters of Iustice betweene the poore and the rich but when he hath executed his power upon the poore he will fall upon the rich My Lords he hath made that which was worth but five shillings to the value of twenty and my Lords by this he doth in effect take away what ere this commoditie is worth he saith he doth it for the Kings gaine but we shall make it appeare that the Crowne hath lost and he hath gained And for the Commodity of Flax my Lords it is but a Womans Commodity but yet it is the staple Commodity of Ireland Now my Lords this Commondity he hath gotten wholly into his owne hands for he made such a Proclamation that it should be used in such wayes as the Women could not doe it and if it were not used in such ways that it should bee seised upon no he doth not onely put impositions upon the Subject but take away the goods too and thus he hath levyed warre against the Kings Subjects and this is his course that if a Decree were made by him and not obeyed there issued a warrant to Souldiers that they should make Garrison and that they should goe to the houses of those that were pretended to be disobedient My Lords they have killed their sheep and their Oxen and bound their horses and took them Captives till they have rendered obedience which is expressely contrary to Law for it saith If any man set horse or foot upon the Kings Subject in a Military way it is high Treason My Lords it doth not onely oppresse them in their estates but provoke and incite his Majesty to lay downe his mercy and goodnesse and to fall into an offensive war against his Subjects and to say they are Rebels and Traytors He tels his Counsell that the Parliament having forsaken the King and the King having tryed the Parliament hee might use other wayes to procure money to supply his necessities My Lords the same day
submit it to your Lordships wisdome and goodnesse and seeing there is no malignity in it nor prejudice to the state That your Lordship would vouchsafe me your favour and protection and preserve me from perishing Callis January 11. 1640. Your Lordships most humble and faithfull though much distressed servant Fran. Windebanck The Lord Andevers speech concerning the pacification the 6 of March. My Lords I Did lately move your Lordships that the breach of the pacification might be speedily reviewed as the â—num necessarium and truly my opinion at that time is yet nothing altered although upon better thoughts me thinks it would first be known who did actually engage us in these fruitles dissentions and so derive the mischiefe from some originall For my Lords the kingdome cannot now long stant at gaze or undergoe new burthens Wherefore what is to be done if you intend it should prosper must presently receive life from the whole people otherwise we shall expire in a dream and when the successe differs from expectation it is not enough to cry quod non put ar am My Lords the wiseman saies there is a proper season for all things under the Sun and we often finde the experiment in naturall bodies which are voluntarily weakned to recover strength yet with a restriction to such bounds and limits as the Physitian prescribes himself and truly I think it is your Lordships case at this point either to consider what should further be done then is already or else how to get out of those labyrinths we now are in lest the words of the Psalmist come home to our selves Vendidisti populum sinepretio My Lords I am confident the House of Commons doth throughly see both into the prejudice and vast expence that these two armies lay upon the land and undoubtedly so many Gentlemen of worth as sit there will have tender eyes upon the Commonweale It will therefore become your Lordships to second them in your way and whilest they apply to publique wounds the care of this house may search the intestines for if they be not cleansed it will be but a superficiall Cure and break out againe My Lords it seems the Earle of Strafford and the Archbishop of Cant. have gone the high waies of iniquity and every one knows how to trace them but Mines under ground are most considerable which unlesse they be likewise found out may at any time spring and supplant the whole fabrick of all our labours Let us then examine this fantastick warre ab initio lest as the Duke of Burgundy made a few Sheepskins the cause of his quarrel so we shall find those sheets of paper sent under the name of a Liturgy and book of Canons were but the Mopsas of the story to divert our eyes from the main designe Therefore my humble motion shall be for a selected Committee of no great number who may have power from the House to begin ab origne mali revise every mans negotiations who was either an Actor or Counsellor since the first appearance of those troubles in Scotland and that they may examine the Scottish Counsell upon such Articles as the heavy pressure of this Kingdome shall upon common fame administer unto them By the Major The Order of the House of Commons to the Lord Major for the due observing the Sabbath day IT is this day ordered by the House of Commons the Aldermen and Citizens that serve for the City of London shall intimate to the Lord Major from this House that the Statutes for the due observing of the Sabbath be put in execution And it is further ordered that the like intimation from this House be made to the Justices of Peace in all the Counties of England and Wales And the Knights of the Shire of the severall Counties are to take care that the Copies of this Order be accordingly sent to the Justices of Peace in the severall Counties FOasmuch as the Lords Day commonly called Sunday is of late much broken and prophaned by a disorderly sort of People in frequenting Taverns Ale-houses and the like and putting to sale victuall and other things and exercising unlawfull games and pastimes to the great dishonor of God and reproach of Religion whereof the House of Commons now assembled hath been pleased to take notice and by their order intimation hath been given unto me that the Statutes for the due observing of the Sabbath be put in execution These are therefore in his Majesties name to will and require you forthwith upon the sight hereof that you give strict charge and command unto all and every the Churchwardens and Constables within your Ward that from henceforth they doe not permit or suffer any person or persons in the time of divine service or at any other time upon the Sunday to be drinking or playing in any Tavern Inne Tobacco-shop Ale-house or other victualling house whatsoever nor suffer any Fruiterer Milkwoman or Hearbwomen to stand with fruit milk herbs or any other Victuall or Wares in any the streets lanes or allies within your ward or any other wayes to put those things or any other to sale upon the Sunday at any time of the day or in the evening not to permit or suffer any Person or Persons to use or exercise upon that day any unlawfull exercises and Pastimes within your ward and that expresse charge be given to every keeper of any Tavern Inne Cookshouse Tobaccohouse Alehouse or any other tipler or victualler whatsoever within your ward that hereafter they receive not or suffer to remain any person or persons whatsoever as their guests or customers to tiple eate drinke or take Tobacco in their houses upon any Sunday other then that Inholders may receive their ordinary guests or Travellers and such like who come to remain for a time in their Inne for dispatch of their necessary businesse And if any person or persons shall be found offending in the premisses that then they be brought before me the Lord Major or some other of his Majesties Justices of Peace to the end they may receive such punishment as to justice shall appertaine And hereof not to faile as you will answer the contrary at your perill This thirteenth of Aprill 1641. Occasionall Speeches made in the House of Commons this Parliament 1641. Concerning Religion Novemb. 12. 1640. Mr. SPEAKER IT was well observed by my Lord Keeper that a multiplying Glasse may deceive but the right English Glasse of the Common-wealth never In which I discern so comely and active a Motion that out of all question some great work is here to be done some thing extraordinary is here to be decreed or else God and the King beyond all our expectations at the last breath would never so soon have cemented us again to meet in in this great Councell Mr. Speaker What an happy sight will it be to see the King and his People accord A threefold cord is not easily broken and I hope King Charles his threefold Kingdomes shall never
God had endowed the Church of England with which God himself hath given by his Law unto the universall Church and in that which the Kings of England by their Charter have bequeathed to the particular Church of England and this we doubt not was the cause that moved Hen. 8. so effectually and powerfully to bend himselfe against the Popes Supremacy usurped at that time over the Church of England for saith the King we will with hazard of life and losse of our Crown uphold and defend in our Realms whatsoever we shall know to be the will of God The Church of God then in England not being free according to the great Charter but in bondage and servitude to the See of Rome contrary to the Law of God the King judged it to stand highly with honour and his Oath to reform redresse and amend the abuses of the same See If then it might please our gracious Soveraign Lord King Charles that now is in Imitation of that his noble Progenitor to vouchsafe an abolishment of all Lordly Primacy executed by Archepiscopall and Episcopall authority over the Ministers of Christ his Highnesse in so doing could no more rightly be charged with the violation of the great Charter then might King Henry the eight with the banishment of the Popish Supremacy or then our late Soveraign Lady Q. Elizabeth could be justly burdened with the breach of her Oath by the Establishment of the Gospell Now if the Kings of England by reason of their Oath were so straitly tied to the words of the great Charter that they might not in any sort have disanulled any supposed Rights or Liberties of the Church used and confirmed by the said Charter unto the Church that then was supposed to be the Church of God in England then be like King Henry 8. might be attainted to have gone against the great Charter and against his Oath when by the overthrow of Abbeys and Monasteries he took away the Rights and Liberties of the Abbots Priers for by expresse words of the great Charter Abbots and Priers had as large and ample a Patent for their Rights and Liberties as our Archbishops and Bishops can at this day challenge for their Primacy If then the Rights and Liberties of the one as being against the Law of God be duely and lawfully taken away notwithstanding any matter clause or sentence contained in the great Charter the other having but little reason by colour of the great Charter to stand upon their pantofles and to contend for their painted sheaves for this is a Rule and Maxime in Gods laws that In omni Juramento semper excipitur authoritas majoris Unlesse then they be able to justifie by the holy scriptures that such Rights and Liberties as they pretend for their spirituall Primacy over the Ministers of Christ be in Deed and Truth inferred unto them by the holy law of God I suppose the Kings Highnesse as successor to Hen. 8. and as most just inheritour of the Crown of England by the words of the great Charter and by his Oath is bound utterly to abolish all Lordly Primacy as hitherto upheld and defended partly by ignorance and partly by an unreasonable and evill Custome My Lord DIGBIES Speech in Parliament 1640. Master Speaker THis happie meeting is to bemoane and redresse the unhappie State of this Common-wealth Let me have I beseech you your leave to give you in a word a short view of our griefes then see whence they flow Our Lawes our liberties our lives and which is the life of all our Religion all which have been by the endeavours of so many Ages secured and made so much our owne can scarce be called ours Our Lawes the only finews and ligeaments of our estates which should run in an even streame are now made to disdaine their bancks and to overflow and drown their fields which they should gently redresse our liberties the very spirit and essence of our weale which should differ us from slaves and speake us English-men are held away by them that even whiles they take them from us cannot but confesse they are our proper dues Are not our lives in danger when an enemy disguised like a friend provoked is as it were suffered because indirectly and in vaine resisted to come almost into our bosomes to rifle some of their goods others of their loyalty which perhaps they could not neither would have touched might we with united force have resisted And lastly which is the soule of all our grievances our Religion which should have beene our Cordiall in all our distempers like a forced Virgin laments ever that her pure innocencie is taken from her and sure all these effects must have their causes That we have just and wise Lawes we may thanke those good Kings that made them the settled exposition of just circumscribed Lawes to binde and defend the Subject That they are so well framed and usefud and to containe enough to make a good King and people be perfect be safe and happie What do we owe to these grave Councellors who sate here before us and that they out-live the malice of some unbounded spirits we are beholding to them that Reprieved them from ruine with their lives and fortunes we call them ours because we are freely born to them as to the Ayre we breath in we claime them and should possesse them under the Protection of our gracious King who is their great Patron and disposes them not inconsiderately but by the advice of those learned expositors of the Lawes the Judges and those whom he trusts to be his great and faithfull Councellors If those pervert the ground and meaning of the Law and contract â—he power of it or make it speake lowder or softer as they themselves are tuned for it the blame should deservedly fall on those mistrusted ministers who are the base betrayers of his Majesties honor and his Peoples right to vindicate which necessitie hath here assembled you Mr. Speaker Is not this offence and m lice as great who should undermine my Tenour and surruptiously deprive me of my evidence by which I held my Inheritance as he who by violence should wrest it from me The Scots we have heard branded as Traytors because they have contrary to the law of Nations and their loyaltie invaded our Kingdome in Arms what other title have they merited who have invaded our Lawes and liberties the precious evidence by which we should freely enjoy our selves and our estates The first we may resist and drive forth by united force and it will be called pietie to the King and Countrie if force be lay'd against the other it will be stiled Rebellion What now remaines but that we should use the Law which because it hath beene inverted and turned against us contrary to its owne naturall and plaine disposition should now right us and it self against our Adversaries Surely the Law is not so weak and improvident to take care for others and never provide
whole matter of my Lord of Stafford Mr. St. Johns Argvment The KINGS Majesties First Speech in Parliament the third of November 1640. My Lords THe knowledge I had of the desires of my Scottish Subjects was the cause of my calling the last Assembly of Parliament wherein had I beene beleeved I sincerely thinke that things had not fallen out as now we see But it is no wonder that men are so slow to beleeve that so great a sedition should be raised on so little ground But now my Lords and Gentlemen the honour and safety of this Kingdome lying so neerely at the stake I am resolved to put my self freely and cleerly on the love and affections of my English Subjects as these of my Lords that did wait on me at York very well remember I there declared Therefore my Lords I shall not mention mine own interest or that support I might justly expect from you till the common safety be secured though I must tell you I am not ashamed to say those charges I have been at have been meerly for the securing and good of this Kingdome though the successe hath not been answerable to my desires Therefore I shall only desire you to consider the best way both for the safety and security of this Kingdome wherein their are two parts chiefly considerable First the chastifing out of the Rebells And secondly that other in satisfying your just grievances wherein I shall promise you to concurre so heartily and cleerely with you that all the World may see my intâ—ntions have ever beene and shall be to make this a glorious and flourishing Kingdome There are only two things that I shall mention to you First the one is to tell you that the Loane of money which I lately had from the City of London wherein the Lords that waited on me at Yorke assisted me will only maintain my Armie for two moneâ—hs from the beginning of that time it was granted Now my Lords and Gentlemen I leave it to your considerations what dishonour and mischiefe it might be in case for want of money my Armie be disbanded before the Rebells be put out of this Kingdome Secondly the securing the calamities the Northern people endure at this time and so long as the treaty is on foot And in this I may say not only they but all this Kingdome will suffer the harme therefore I leave this also to your consideration for the ordering of these great affairs whereof you are to treat at this time I am so confident of your love to me and that your care is for the honour and safety of the Kingdome that I shâ—ll freely and willingly leave to you where to begin only this that you may the better know the state of all the Affairs I have commanded my Lord Keeper to give you a short and free accompt of these things that have happened in this interim wiâ—h this Protestation thaâ— if this accompt be not satisfactory as it ought to be I shall whensoever you desire give you a full and perfect accompt of every particular One thing more I desire of you as one of the greatest means to make this a happy Parliament That you on your parts as I on Mine lay aside all suspition one of another as I promised my Lords at Yorke It shall not be my fault if this be not a happie and good Parliament The Kings speech in Parliament the fift of November 1640. My Lords I do expect that you will hastily make relation to the House of Commons of those great affairs for which I have called you hither at this time and for the trust I have reposed in them and how freely I put my selfe on their love and affections at that time and that you may know the better how to do so I shall explaine my selfe concerning one thing I spake the last day I told you the Rebells must be put out of this Kingdome it 's true I must needs call them so so long as they have an Armie that do invade us and although I am under treaty with them and I under my great Seale do call them Subjects and so they are too but the state of my Affairs in short is this It 's true I did expect when I did will my Lords and great ones at Yorke to have given a gracious answer to all your grievances for I was in good hope by their wisedomes and assistances to have made an end of that businesse but I must tell you that my Subjects of Scotland did so delay them that it was not possible to end there Therefore I can no wayes blame my Lords that were at Rippon that the treaty was not ended but must thanke them for their pains and industry and certainly had they as much power as affections I should by that time have brought these distempers to a happy period so that now the treaty is transported from Rippon to London where I shall conclude nothing without your knowledge and I doubt not but by your approbation for I do not desire to have this great work done in a corner for I shall lay open all the steps of this mis-understanding and causes of the great differences between Me and my Subjects of Scotland And I doubt not but by your assistance to make them know their duty and also by your assistance to make them return whether they will or no. The Kings Speech to both the Houses Ianuary 25. 1640. My Lords THe Knights Citizens Burgesses The principall cause of my comming here at this time is by reason of the slow proceedings in Parliament touching which is a great deale of inconvenience Therefore I think it very necessary to lay before you the state of my affairs as now they stand therby to hasten not interrupt your proceedings First I must remember you that there are two Armies in the Kingdome in a manner maintained by you the very naming of which doth more cleerly shew the inconvenience thereof then a better tongue then mine can expresse Therfore in the first place I shall recommend unto you the quick dispatch of that businesse assuring you that it cannot rest upon me In the next place I must recommend unto you the State of my Navie and Forts the condition of both which is so well known unto you that I need not tell you the particulars only thus much they are the Walls and defence of this Kingdome which if out of order all men may easily judge what incouragement it will be to Our enemies and what disheartning to our friends Last of all and not of the least to be considered I must lay before you the distractions that are at this present occasioned through the cause of Parliament for there are some men that more maliciously than ignorantly will put no difference betweene Reformation and alteration of government Hence it commech that divine Service is irreverently interrupted and Petitions in an ill way given in neither disputed nor denied But I will enter into no more particulars
Reprieve him till Satterday May 11th 1641. THis Letter all written with the Kings own hand the Peers this day received in Parliament delivered by the hand of the Prince It was twice read in the House and after serious and sad consideration the House resolved presently to send 12. of the Peers Messengers to the King humbly to signifie that neither of the two intentions expressed in the Letter could with duty in them or without danger to himselfe his dearest Consort the Queene and all the young Princes their Children possibly be advised With all which being done accordingly the reasons shewed to his Maiesty He suffered no more words to come from them but out of the fulnesse of his heart to the observance of Justice and for the contentment of his people told them that what he intended by his Letter was with an if if it may be done without discontentment of his People if that cannot be I say againe the same that I writ fiat justitia My other intention proceeding out of charity for a few dayes respite was upon certain information that his Estate was so distracted that it necessarily required some few dayes for setlement thereof Whereunto the Lords answered their purpose was to be Suitors to his Maiesty for favour to be shewed to his innocent Children and if himselfe had made any provision for them that the same might hold This was well liking to his Maiesty who thereupon departed from the Lords at his Maiesties parting they offered up into his hands the Letter it selfe which he had sent but He was pleased to say my Lords what I have written to you I shall content it be Registred by you in your House In it you see my minde I hope you will use it to my honor This upon returne of the Lords from the King was presently reported to the House by the Lord Privy Seal and ordered that these Lines should go out with the Kings Letter if any copy of the Letter were dispersed THAT BISHOPS ought not to have Votes in PARLIAMENT 1 BEcause it is a very great hinderance to the exercise of their Ministeriall Function 2 Because they doe vow and undertake at their Ordination when they enter into holy Orders that they will give themselves wholly to that Vocation 3. 4 Because Counsells and Canons in severall Ages do forbid them to meddle with secular affairs because 24 Bishops have dependancie on the two Archbishops and because of their Canonicall obedience to them 5 Because they are but for their lives and therefore are not fit to have legislative power over the honors inheritance persons and liberties of others 6 Because of Bishops dependancie and expecting translations to places of great profit 7 That severall Bishops have of late much incroached upon the consciēnces and liberties of the Subjects and they and their Successors will be much incouraged still to incroach and the Subjects will be much discouraged from complaining against such incouragements if 26 of that Order be to be Judges of those complaints the same reason extends to their legislative power in any Bill to passe for the regulation of their power upon any emergent inconveniencie by it 8 Because the whole number of them is interessed to maintaine the jurisdiction of Bishops which hath beene found so grievous to the three Kingdomes that Scotland hath utterly abolished it and multitudes in England and Ireland have petitioned against it 9 Because Bishops being Lords of Parliament it setteth too great a distance betweene them and the rest of their Brethren in the Ministry which occasioneth pride in them discontent in others and disquiet in the Church To their having Votes a long time Answ If inconvenient Time and usage are not to be considered with Law-makers some Abbots voted as anciently in Parliament as Bishops yet are taken away Therefore the Bishops Certificate to plenary of Benefice and loyalty of Marriage the Bill extends not to them For the secular Jurisdictions of the Deane of Westminster the Bishops of Durbam and Ely and the Archbishop of Yorke which they are to execute in their owne persons the former reasons shew the inconveniencies therein For their Temporall Courts and Jurisdictions which are executed by their Temporall Officers the Bill doth not concerne them The Lord Keepers Speech in the Upper House of Parliament Novemb. 3. 1640. My Lords ANd you the Knights Cittizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons you have been summoned by His Majesties Gracious Writ under the great Seal of England and you are here this day assembled for the holding of a Parliament The Writ tels you t is to treat and consult of the High Great and weighty affairs that concern the estate and safety of the Kingdom It tels you true that since the Conquest never was there a time that did more require and pray for the best advice and affection of the English people It is ill viewing of objects by viewing them in multiplying Glasse and it is almost as mischievous in the speech of such a broken Glasse which represents but to the half The onely and the perfect way is to look in a true Mirror I will not take upon me to be a good looker in it I will onely hold it to you to make use of it The Kingdom of England is this multiplying Glasse you may there see a State which hath flourished for divers hundred yeers famous for time of peace and warre glorious at home and ever considerable abroad A Nation to whom never yet any Conqueror gave new Laws nor abolished the old nor would this Nation ever suffer a Conqueror to meddle with their Laws no not the Romanes who yet when as they subdued all the people made it part of the Conquest to leave their Laws in triumph with them For the Saxons Danes and the Normans if this were a time to travell into such particulars it were an easie task to make it appear that it never changed the old established Lawes of England nor ever brought in any new so as you have the frame and constitution of a Common-wealth made glorious by antiquity And it is with States as with persons and families certainly an interrupted pedigree doth give lustre It is glorious in the whole frame wortth your looking upon long and your consideration in every part The King is the head of the Common-wealth the Fountain of Justice the life of the Law He is anima deliciae legis Behold Him in His glorious Ancestors that have so swayed the Scepter of the Kingdome Behold Him in the high attributes and the great prerogatives which so ancient and unalterable Laws have given and invested him with Behold Him in the happy times that we have so long lived under His Monarchiall government For His excellent Majesty that now is our most Gratious Soveraign you had need wipe the Glasse and wipe your eyes and then you shall truely behold him a King of exemplary Pietie and Justice and a King of rare endowments and
abilities of nature and what he hath got by acquisition depth of judgement quicknesse of apprehension unparaleld moderation in great Councels and great affaires such as you my Lords that had the happinesse to attend Him at the Councell of the Peeres at York to your great joy and comfort can witnesse and after ages will remember to His eternall honour and same For His just and pious Government I dare boldly say that if any under Him as our Instrument have had the distributing of justice to His people have not done as they ought the fault is their own and they have done contrary to the Royall Nature and expresse Command of our Gratious Soveraign from whom I have often learned this golden Rule and Maxim he serves me best that serves me with honesty and integrity Behold Him in another part of Himself in His dearest comfort our Gracious Queen the mirror of Vertue from whom since Her happy arrivall here now above three lustres of yeetes never any Subject record other then gratious and benigne Influence and I dare a vow as She is neerest and dearest to our Soveraign so there is none whose affections and endeavours His Majesty onely excepted hath or doth or can cooperate more to the happy successe of this Parliament and the never to be equalled joy and comfort of a right understanding between the King and His people Behold Him in His best image our excellent young Prince and the rest of the Royall and lively Progeny in whom we cannot but promise to our selves to have our happinesse perpetuated From the Throne turn your eyes upon the two supporters of it on the one side the Stemne of honour the Nobility and Clergy on the other side the Gentry and Commons Where was there or is there in any part of the world a nobility so numerous so magnanimous and yet with such a temper that they neither ecclipse the throne nor overtop the people but keep in a distance fit for the greatnesse of the Throne Where was there a Common-wealth so free and the ballance so equally held as here And certainly so long as the beam is so held it cannot be otherwise in right Anglis if you turn the line never so little it groweth quickly accute or obdure and so in States the least deviation makes a great change But His Majesties great wisedome and goodnesse and the assistance of the Honourable Assembly I do not doubt will be a means to make us stear between the Teophick of moderation that there be no declension from the poole of severity I am by His Maiesties Command to relate to you some proceedings since the last Assembly here You may remember the Summer preceding this last His Majesty went with an Army into the North ingaged in honour so to do by reason of the câ—urses that were taken by divers of the Subjects in Scotland in the prejudice of Monarchy and rendring lesse glorious this Kingdom I know not under what pretence but all that time they came very neer England with an Army so neer that it was believed they would have then entred and invaded the Kingdome They did professe the contrary neither did they want remonstrations and declarations to infuse this opinion into the hearts of His Majesties people before it would by the effects What their intentions from the beginning were His Maiestie by His goodnesse and wisedome settled a Peace and made a pacification at Barwick upon which both Armies were disbanded which pacification and every Article of it His Maiesty for His part hath been so far from violating that whensoever any question shall be made of it shall plainly and clearly appear it was His care to see it in all things performed On the contrary those Subiects of His not contented with that grace which His Maiesty then gave them in those Articles of pacification they have strained them beyond the bounds and limits of the intention and meaning but they over and above attempted and acted divers things so prejudiciall to Monarchy and contrary and repugnant to the Law and settled constitution and usage of that Kingdome that His Maiesty could not in honour continue at it This being made known unto His Maiesty and to His Privy Councell by those who best knew the State and affairs of that Kingdom and that were most trusted and imployed by His Maiesty His Maiesty by the unaminous consent of His Privy Councell resolved to raise an army to reduce them to their modest and iust condition of true obedience and subiection to defend this Kingdome from all damage and danger that by their means how specious soever they shaddow their pretences they might fall upon it His Maiesty then foresaw and foretold that the raising of an Army at this time was but to stand upon their own defence as they professed and they had an intention to enter this Kingdome and to seize upon some place of importance and eminency and His Maiesty in particular named Newcastle Had His Maiesty then had means and money aswell as he had certain knowledge of their intentions I do beleeve that these calamities that have fallen upon that Town and the Counties adioyning had been prevented Perhaps the misinterpretation of His Maiesties intentions and the misunderstanding of His actions and I am a fraid the two benigne interpretation of the attempts actions and professions of the Subiects in Scotland added sâ—me impediment to that which the most of us I hope have lived to repent of His Maiesty howsoever wâ—nt in Person to the North to see His Army ordered and to take care for the safety and defence of this Kingdom asmuch as he possible could He had not long been there but that which he foresaw and foretold fell out for the Scots passed with their Army the Rivers Tweed and Tine and seized upon Newcastle which of what importance it is you all know And that they force contribution of the Counties of Noâ—thumberland and the Bishoprick of Durbâ—m besides many other spoiles and distructions that were committed His Maiesty well considering of what weight and importance this was and then having neither time nor place to call this assembly of Parliament He did resolve as had been frequently used to summon a great Councell of all the Peeres that by their advice and assistance there might be some interruption given to the calamity that was likely to spread over the whole Kingdome And commanded Writs to issue accordingly That was not done to prevent but to prepare for a Parliament It was not to clash or entor fire with this assembly by acting or ordering any thing which belongeth to this high and supream jurisdiction but onely to give their assistance for the present to render things more fit for this great assembly That His Maiesties intention was so it is cleer for before ever any petition was delivered or ever any speech of petition for a Parliament His Maiesty had resolved to call one The Lords understood It so will plainly appear by the
proceedings of the Assembly of which if those that were Officers and Ministers there had been come to Town upon whose help I rested for my particular instruction I should have been better able to have given you an accompt And His Maiesty was pleased to let you know that when there was an occasion of any particular you may be satisfied in it According to His Maiesties command 24. of September all the Peeres were summoned all except some few did meet where His Maiesty was In the first place pleased to declare unto us His resolution to call a Parliament and to all our ioyes and contents as he hath now done it to yours and ours declared that there was nothing he did more desire then to be rightly understood of His people And whosoever he be that shall go about effect it I am sure he cannot to attempt or indeavour to alter this gracious declaration and resolution of His Maiesty or whosoever shall go about to poyson the hearts of His good Subiects with an opinion that it can be so or lesson the affection of His loving Subiects for certainly never Subiects of the world better loved their King then the English nor ever did ever English-men better love a King then now if I say there be any sucâ— may acurse and punishment fall up 〈◊〉 But â—et the Royall Throne be for ever Hâ—â— Majesty was then pleased to tell us the cause for which 〈◊〉 had called us together In the first place it was touching an answer to a petition that had bâ—en since his coming to York And before His assembly sent unto him from those His Subiects of Scotland that were at Newcastle The first thing that His Maiesty desired their advice in was â—â—e answer to that petition The next thing His Maiesty conceived And all that were there were of one opinion with one voyce and consent that it was not fit His Maiesty should disband His Army so long as the Scotch Army was on foot And His Maiesty wished them to take into their consideration what way to have maintenance for His Army in the mean time His Maiesty having opened the cause of calling them together was pleased to expresse himself that He would leave to the Lords their freedom of Debate and himself was ready to have been gone from the Councell but at the humble suite of the Lords he stayed And I am perswaded that nothing was of that ioy to them as His Maiesties presence with such freedome of discourse did every man deliver himself with such grace and sweetnesse did his Maiesty hear them and such content did they take in His moderating guiding and directing those Councells My Lords as holding it most necessary took the latter of those two considerations propounded by His Maiesty to their thoughts and that was the supplying and supporting His Maiesties Army till this Parliament might take some course in it His Maiesty and my Lords did declare themselves as before I have opened unto you that they could never attempt nor have the least thought to make by any Act or Order any thing tending to the Subiect but that it might be left wholly to the supream Jurisdiction And therefore not seeing any other way they resolved by letter to addresse themselves to the City of London And with their letters they sent half a dozen of my Lords My Lord Privy Seal my Lord of Clare who was appointed to go but his urgent occasions prevenâ—ed him Viscount Cambden Lord Coventry Lord Goring and _____ And these Lords they did expresse the joy and content they took in the Kings grace and confidence they had of His gracious assistance was such that they did freely offer themselves and as I dare say there is none but is yet ready to enter into security with His Maieâ—ty And the City gave an answer fit for the Chamber of the King and part of the money is already lent and will be ready I assure my self to supply the rest For the other part the first thing propounded by His Majesty was touching the answer that was to be given to that petition and to the demands of the Subjects in Scotland upon which occasion His Majesty was pleased by those great Officers and Ministers of His that knew best and understood the laws and usages of that Kingdome to expound their demands particularly and to make appear unto their Lordships upon every one wherein they had expounded the Articles of pacification which His Majesty ever desired might be the Square and Rule of the treaty with them My Lords tooke into consideration what was fit to be done for his Majesty then professed as he did oft and as he hath done it during the time of that Councell to be wholy ruled guided and directed by their advice f r the honor of this Nation and safâ—ty of it he did leave it to their wisedomes and considerations against whose advice and without whose judgements and advice he would do nothing My Lords howsoever they had received this information and explanation upon every particular of their demands yet in justice they thought it was fit to hear what could be said on the other side how the objection might be answered and what objection might be made by them against that which seemed to be plain enough For this purpose they were all of opinion and his Majesty was pleased to be of the same opinion that some Lords selected and trusted by that great Councell should Treate with those Subjects of Scotland upon all those particulars to the end that they might see what they did cleerly intend to the end that if a firm peace which was most desired from us might be had or a just Warre to be begun My Lords of the great Councell that were appointed for that purpose were the Earles of Bedford Hertford Essex Salisbury Warwick Bristow Holland and Barkeshire The Barons were the Lords Wharton Paget Rimbolton Brooke Pawlet Howard of Esaich Savile and Dunsmore After which choice some generall insurrections proceeding from the debate and discourses in that great Councell a Commission under the great Seale was given unto them to enable them to treate and conclude as they in their wisedomes and Judgements should thinke fit The place appointed for this treaty was at Rippon where the Lords Commissioners wanted the happinesse of that that they and we had at Yorke of his Maiesties presence And that might be the occasion that more time was spent in it then otherwise would have been yet my Lords omitted not their parts but were desirous to look into the depth to see the utmost extent of their demands But before those of Scotland could come to the maine treaty to explaine themselves touching their demands they made a preparatory demand of maintenance for their Armie and did go so high as to demand Forty thousand Pounds a moneth My Lords that were very unwilling to do any Act or make any order whatsoever as I have opened unto you for the sustenance maintenance and
keeping a foot his Maiesties Armie without this great Assembly which yet they all held fit should not be disbanded were much startled at the demand of maintenance for an Armie that was not the Kings and which they did wish could not continue But my Lords as under that name they could not hear it yet they tooke into consideration the miserable condition of Northumberland the Bishopricke of Durbam and Newcastle They tooke into consideration too the Counties of Cumberland and Westmerland which if the Scottish Armie should enter were scarce able at this time to defend it selfe and it were inconvenient to bring the Kings Armie thither Nay their Lords were satisfied that the County of Yorke was in danger and that not to be prevented but by a battell if the Scots came on with an Armie and my Lords were loath where there were such ods so many twenties to one that a battell should be adventured And if the County of Yorke should be in danger we might quickly foresee how the danger might run over the whole Kingdome And my Lords as well as those that remained at Yorke as those at Rippon having received complaints from the Bishop of Durbam Northumberland and Newcastle and the Maior of Newcastle being imprisoned and some of his Brethren as was represented unto them kept without fire or candle and of divers wastes and spoyles done in the Countrey My Lords did thinke fit that since the Counties of Northumberland the Bishoprick of Durbam and Newcastle had already made a composition and agreement that they would at last ratifie and confirm the composition and agreement so as there might be a cessation of Arms and acts of hostility and that they which had fled from their dwellings in those Counties might returne in safety My Lords for these reasons thought it fit for the present to give way unto them rather than to bazard so great calamitie and affliction that would have fallen on those Counties hereupon they did conclude for 850. pound by day and this to continue for two moneths if the treaty before tooke not effect the two Moneths to begin from the 16th of October then they took Articles for cessation of Arms. So as now the state and condition of things as they were acted I have shortly and summarily delivered to you I dare not adventure upon too many particulars least my memory should faile and if I have not done his Maiesties command I beg his Maiesties pardon And my Lords of what weight and importance this is to the whole Kingdome what deepe consideration it requires in our affections what unsuspected and insuspected affections had we need bring with us is easie to judge It is his Maiesties pleasure that you of the House of Commons repaire to your owne House to chuse your Speaker whom his Maiesty expects you will present to him on Thursday next at two of the clock in the afternoone Mr. SPEAKER his Speech to his Maiesty in the High Court of Parliament the fifth of November 1640. Most gracious and dread Soveraigne IN all submissive humblenesse the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the house of Commons are here assembled who taking along with them your gracious inclination have according to their ancient liberties designed me their Speaker Whereas I cannot but lament to thinke how great a mist may overcast the hopes of this sessions yet a note of favour to mee who cannot but judge my selfe unfit for so great imployment which so appeares to the whole World Many there bee of deepe judgement and sad experience that might have added lustre to this action an expedition to the worke if they had pleased to have left me in that meane condition they found me Non mihitacuisse nocet Nocet esse locutum And then might your Sacred and pious intentions have had their full advancement But is it yet too late may I not appeale to Cesar Yes I may and in the lowest posture of humilitie I humbly beseech your sacred Majesty to interpose your royall authority to command a review of the house for there were never more then now fitted for such imployments My Lord Keeper approves of him by his Majesties direction Then he goes on It pleaseth not your Sacred Majestie to vouchsafe a change Actions of Kings are not to bee by mee reasoned Therefore beeing imboldened by this gracious approbation give me leave a little Dread Soveraigne to expresse my owne thoughts unto our gracious Lord the King I see before my eyes with admiration the Majestie of great Brittaine the Glory of times The History of honour CHARLES the first in his forefront placed by dâ—scent of antiquitie Kings setled by a long succession and continued to us by a pious and peacefull government On the one side the Monument of Glory the Progenie of valiant and puissant Princes the Queenes most Excellent Majestie On the other side the hopes of posterity and joy of this Nation those Oliva branches set round your tables Emblems of peace to posterity Here shine those Lights and Lamps placed in a Mount which attend your sacred Majesty as supreame head and borrow from you the Splendor of their government There the true state of Nobility figures of prowesse and Magnanimity fitted by their long contracted honour in their blood for the Counsell of Princes In the midst of those the Reverend Iudges whither both parties as to the Oracles of Iudgment and Iustice may resort Cisternes that hold faire waters wherein each deviation each wrinkle is discernable and from thence as from the Center each crooked line ought to be levelled The footstoole of your Throne is fixed there which renders you glorious to all posteritie Here wee the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons house at your royall feete contracted from all parts of your Kingdome Ensignes of obedience and humility all these united by the law equally distributed which cements this great body to the obedience of your sacred Majesty And compells aswell the hearts as the hands to contribute for the preservation of your Majestie and the Common interest Dissipates the Invaders of the Church and common wealth and discovers the Impostures but give me leave dread Soveraigne knits the Crowne to the Sacred Temples and frees Majesty from the Interpretation of misdoing Amongst these this great Counsell is most soveraigne against the distempers of this Nation Were they infested at Sea troubled at home or invaded from abroad here was the Sanctuary of refuge hither was the resort and no other way found for a foundation of peace It is reported of Constantine the great that he accompted his Subjects purse his Exchequer and so it is Subtile inventions may pick the purse but nothing can open it but a Parliament which lets in the eye of Soveraignty upon the publicke maladies of the State and vigilancy for the preservation of our ancient Liberties for this wee neede not search into Antiquity looke but a little backe there wee shall see our just liberties graciously confirmed by
read and then He proceeded thus My Lords I AM now to discover the root of Mr. Smarts Persecution Your Lordships have heard of a great Designe to bring in Popery you have heard of Armies of Souldiers and particularly of the Popish Irish Armie the burthen and Complaint of the Commons But there is another Army not so much spoken of and that is an Army of Priests for since Altars came in so they delight to be called it is a saying of Gregory the Great that when Antichrist comes Preparatus est exercitus Sacerdotum There is an Armie of Priests ready to receive him this is fulfilled in our time for certainty this Army of Priests doth many wayes advance the designe and plot of Popery A first is by the subversion of our Lawes and Government our Lawes and Popery cannot stand together but either Popery must overthrow our Lawes or our Lawes must over throw Popery but to overthrow our Lawes they must overthrow Parliaments and to overthrow Parliaments they must overthrow property thy must bring the Subjects goods to be arbitrarily disposed that so there may bee no need of Parliament this hath bind done by Dr. Maynwaring whom we finde wanting yet not in the seats but in the Bar of the Lords house and the like by Dr. Beale and I think it was the intention of the late Canons A second way by which this Army of Priests advanceth the Popish Designe is the way of Treatie This hath bind acted both by writings conference Sancta Clara himselfe saith Doctâ—ssimi eorum quibusounque egi so it seems they have had conferences together And Sancta Clara on his part labours to bring the Articles of our Church to Popery and some of our side strive to meete him in that way we have a testimony that the great Arch-Priest himselfe hath said It were no hard matter to make a reconciliation if a wise man had the handling of it But I verily beleeve that as the state of Papacie stands a farre wise man than bee cannot reconcile Us without the losse of our Religion For the Pope being fastned to his Errors even by his Chaire of Inerrability hee sits still unmoved and so wee cannot meete except we come wholly to him A man standing in a Boat tyed to a Rocke when he drawes the Rope doth not draw the Rocke to the Boat but the Boat to the Rock And Sancta Clara doth in this somewhat honestly confesse it for he saith he dealt in this way of Treatie not to draw the Church to the Protestants but the Protestants to the Church A third way is a way of violence this violence they exercise partly by Secular Armes and partly by Priestly Armes which they call Spirituall for Secular Armes we have their owne confession that the late warre was Bellum Episcopale and we have the Papists confession that it was Bellum Papale for in their motives they say That the warre concernes them not onely as subjects but as Catholikes for so they falsely call themselves and if it be so then Bellum Episcopale is also Bellum Papale in the Episcopall Warre the Papall cause is advanced For the Spirituall Armes thus they come to execution When a great Man is comming his Sumpters his Furniture his Provisions goe before the Popes Furniture Altars and Copes Pictures and Images are come before and if wee beleeve Dr. Cossens the very substance of the Masse a certaine signe that the Pope was not farre off Now these fore-tunners being come if any man resist them Fire comes out of the Brambles and devoures the Cedars of Lebanon the Army of the Priests falls upon him with their Armes of Suspension Sequestration Excommunication Degradation and Deprivation And by these Armes hath Mr. Smart beene oppressed and undone Hee falls upon their Superstitions and Innovations and they fall upon him with their Armes they beate him down yea they pull him up by the rootes taking away all his meanes of maintenance and living yet they leave him life to feele his miseries Ita feriunt ut diu se sentiat mori there is no cruelty to Priesty cruelty these are they that did put our very Saviour to death the Calling is Reverend but the Corruption of it most pernicious Corruptio optimi pessima I know no reason of this change except it be that of the Apostle Because when they knew God they did not worship him as God but made a God of the World placing the excellency of Priesthood in worldly pompe and greatnesse and gave the glory of the invisible God to Pictures Images and Altars therefore God gave them up to vile affections to be implacable unmercifull and without naturall affection But whatsoever the cause is of their Corruption certainly their Armes have fallen heavily upon Mr. Smart and Priestly cruelty hath cast him into a long misery from which he could get no release by any Priestly mercy And now it is prayed that as these Delinquents by the cruell oppressions of Mr. Smart have advanced the Cause of Popery so they may in such a degree of Iustice bee punished that in them Priestly cruelty and the very cause of Popery may appeare to be punished and suppressed and that Mr. Smart suffering for the Cause of Protestancy may bee so repaired that in him pious Constancy and the very Cause of Protestancy may appeare to be righted and repaired A second Speech of the Honorable NATHANAEL FIENNES second Son to the right Honourable the Lord Say touching the Subjects Liberty against the late Canons and the new Oath Mr. Speaker NOW that we are about to brand these Canons in respect of the matter contained in them it is the proper time to open the foulenesse thereof and though much of this hath beene anticipated in the generall debate yet if any thing hath beene omitted or if any thing may bee farther cleared in that kinde it is for the service of the House that it should now be done Sir I conceive these Canons doe containe sundry matters which are not onely contrary to the Lawes of this Land but also destructive of the very principall and fundamentall Lawes of this Kingdome I shall begin with the first Canon wherein the framers of these Canons have assumed unto themselves a Parliamentary power and that too in a very high degree for they have taken upon them to define what is the power of the King what the liberty of the Subjects and what propriety hee hath in his goods If this bee not proper to a Parliament I know not what is Nay it is the highest matter that can fall under the consideration of a Parliament and such a poynt as wherein they would have walked with more tendernesse and circumspection than these bold Divines have done And surely as this was an act of such presumption as no age can parallell so is it of such dangerous consequence as nothing can be more For they doe not onely take upon them to determine matters of this nature but also
the learnedst of the Reformed Churches abroad and lastly a government under which till these late yeares this Church hath so flourished so fructified that such a government such a function should at the fagge end of 1640. yeares bee found to have such a close Devill in it as no power can Exercise no Law Restraine appeares Sir to mee a thing very improbable I professe I am deceived Sir if Trienniall Parliaments will not be a Circle able to keep many a worse Devill in order For the second I know not the strength of other mens fancies but I will confesse unto you ingenuously the weaknesse of my faith in the poynt that I doe not beleeve there can any other government bee proposed but will in time bee subject to as great or greater inconveniences than Episcopacy I meane Episcopacy so ordered reduced and limitted as I suppose it may bee by firme and solid Boundaries T is true Sir we cannot so well judge before-hand of future inconveniences for the knowledge of the faults and mischiefes of Episcopall government resulting from fresh and bleeding experience And the insight into dangers of any new way that shall be proposed being to rise onely from speculation the apprehension of the one is likely to be much more operative than of the other though perhâ—ps in just reason it ought to bee the weaker with us it is hard in such cases for us to preserve an equall and unpropense judgement since being in things of this world so much too hard for faith and contemplation yet as Divine as our inspection is into things not experimented if wee hearken to those that would quite extirpate Episcopacy I am confident that in stead of every Bishops wee put downe in a Diocesse wee shall set up a Pope in every Pariâ—h Lastly Mr. Speaker whether the subversion of Episcopacy and the introducing of another kinde of Government be practiceable I leave it to those to judge who have considered the Connexion and Interweaving of the Church Government with the Common Law to those who heard the Kings Speech to us the other day or who have looked into reason of state For my part though no Statesman I will speake my minde freely in this I doe not thinke a King can put downe Bishops totally with safety to Monarchy not that there is any such allyance as men talk of 'twixt the Myter and the Crowne but from this reason that upon the putting downe of Bishops the Government of Assemblies is likely to succeed it That to bee effectuall must draw to it selfe the supremacy of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction that consequently the power of Excommunicating Kings as well as any other brother in Christ and if a King chance to be delivered over to Sathan judge whether men are likely to care much what becomes of him next These things considered M. Speaker let us lay aside all thoughts of such dangerous such fundamentall such unaccomplished Alterations and all thought of countenancing those thoughts in others let us all resolve upon that course wherein with union wee may probably promise our selves successe happinesse and security that is in a through Reformation To that no mans vote shall be given with more zeale with more heartinesse than mine Let us not destroy Bishops but make Bishops such as they were in the Primitive times Doe their large Terriories their large Revenues offend let them be retrencht the good Bishops of Hippo had but a narrow Diocesse Doe their Courts and subordinates offend let them be brought to governe as in the Primitive times by Assemblies of their Clergy Doth their intermedling in secular affaires offend exclude them from the capacity it is no more than what Reason and all Antiquity hath interdicted them That all this may bee the better effected M. Speaker my mottion is that First we may appoynt a Committee to collect all grievances springing from the misgovernment of the Church to which the Ministers head of Government will bee sufficient without countenancing this Petition by a Commitment and to represent it to this house in a Body And in the next place that wee may if it stand with the order of Parliaments desire that there may bee a standing Committee of certain members of both Houses who with a number of such learned Ministers as the Houses shall nominate for Assistants may take into consideration all these grievances and advise of the best way to settle peace and satisfaction in the Government of the Church to the comfort of all good Christians and all good Common-wealths Men. The Accusation and Impeachment of John LORD Finch Baron of Fordwich Lord Keeper of the Great Seale of England by the House of COMMONS IMprimis That the said Iohn Lord Finch Baron of Fordwich Lord Keeper c. hath traiterously and wickedly endeavoured to subvert the fundamentall Lawes and established Government of the Realme of England and in stead thereof to introduce an arbitrary tyrannâ—call government against Law which hee hath declared by trayterous and wicked words counsells opinions judgements practices and actions II. That in pursuance of those his trayterous and wicked purposes hee did in the third and fourth yeare of his Majesties reigne or one of them being then Speaker of the Commons House of Parliament contrary to the commands of the House then assembled and sitting denyed and hindred the reading of some things which the said House of Commons required to bee read for the safety of the King and Kingdome preservation of the Religion of this Realme and did forbid all the members of the house to speake and said that if any did offer to speake he would rise and goe away and said nothing should bee then done in the house and did offer to rise and goe away and did thereby and otherwise in as much as in him lay endeavour to subvert the ancient and undeubted rights and course of Parliaments III. That he being of his Majesties Councell at the Iustice seate held for the County of Essex in the moneth of October in the tenth yeare of his now Majesties reigne at Strafford Langton in the same County being then of his Majesties Councell in that Service did practise by unlawfull meanes to enlarge the Forrest of that County many Miles beyond the knowne bounds thereof as they had beene enjoyed neere 300 yeares contrary to the Law and to the Charter of the liberties of the Forest and other Charters and divers Acts of Parliament and for effecting the same did unlawfully cause and procure undue returnes to be made of Iurors and great numbers of other persons who were unsworne to be joyned to them of the Iury and threatned and awed the sayd Iurors to give a Verdict for the King and by unlawfull means did surprise the County that they might not make Defence and did use severall menacing wicked Speeches and Actions to the Iury and others for obtayning his unjust purpose aforesaid and after a Verdict obtained for the King in the Moneth of April following at
hereafter any other accusation or impeachmens against the said Lord Finch and also of replying to the answer that the said Iohn Lord Finch shall make unto the said Articles or to any of them and of affering proofe of the premisses or any of their impeachments or accusations that shall be exhibited by them as the case shall according to the course of Parliaments require doe pray that the said Iohn Lord Finch Baron of Ford wich Lord Keeper of the Great Seale of England may be put to answer to all and every of the premisses and such proceedings examinations tryalls and judgements as may be upon every of them bad and used as is agreeable to Law and Iustice. The Lord FAULKLANDS second Speech Made the 14. of January after the reading of the Articles against the Lord FINCH THese Articles against my Lord Finch being read I may bee bold to apply that of the Poet Nil refert tales versus qua voce legantur and I doubt not but your Lordships must be of the same opinion of which the House of Commons appeares to have beene by the choyce they have made of me that the charge I have brought is such as needs no assistance from the bringer leaving not so much as the colour of a colour for any defence including all possible evidence and all possible aggravation that addition alone excepted which he alone could make and hath made I meane his Confession Included in his flight Here are many and mighty Crimes Crimes of Supererogation So that high Treason is but a part of his Charge pursuing him fervently in every severall condition being a silent Speaker an unjust Iudge and an unconscionable Keeper That his life appeares a perpetuall Warfare by Mines and by Battery by Batteil and by Stratagem against our fundamentall Lawes which by his own confession severall Conquests had left untoucht against the excellent constitution of this Kingdome which hath made it appeare unto strangers rather an Idea than a reall Common-wealth and produced the honour and happinesse of this to be a wonder of every other Nation and this wiâ—h unfortunate successe that as he alwayes intended to make our Ruines a ground of his advancement so his advancement the meanes of our further ruine After that contrary to the further end of his place and the end of that meeting in which he held his place hee had as it were gagg'd the Common-Wealth taking away to his power all power of Speech from that body of which he ought to have beene the Mouth and which alone can perfectly represent the condition of the people whom that onely represent which if he had not done in all probability what so grave and judicious an Assembly might have offered to the consideration of so gracious and just a Prince had occasioned the redresse of the grievances they then suffered and prevented those which we have since endured according to the ancient Maxime of Odisse quos laeferis he pursued this offence towards the Parliament by inveighing against the Members by scandalizing their proceedings by trampling upon their Acts and Declarations by usurping and devolving the right by diminishing abrogating the power both of that other Parliaments making them as much as in him say both uselesse and odious to his Majesty and pursued his hatred to this fountain of Iustice by corrupting the streames of it the Lawes and perverting the Conduit Pipes the Iudges He practiced the annibilating of Ancient and Notorious perambulations of particular Forrests the better to prepare himselfe to annihilate the Ancient and Notorious perambulation of the whole Kingdome the meeres and bounders betweene the liberties of the Subject and Soveraigne power he endeauoured to have all tenures in durante bene placito to bring all Law from his Majesties Courts into his Majesties brest he gave our goods to the King our lands to the Deere our liberties to his Sheriffes so that there was no way by which wee had not beene opprest and destroyed if the power of this person had beene equall with his will Or that the will of his Majestie had beene equall to his power He not onely by this meanes made us lyable to all the effect of an Invasion from within and by destruction of our Liberties which included the destruction of our propriety which included the destruction of our Industry made us lyable to the terriblest of all Invasions that of want and poverty So that if what hee plotted had taken Root and he made it as sure as his Declaration could make it what himselfe was not Parliament proofe in this wealthy and happy Kingdome there could have beene left no aboundance but of grievances and discontentment no satisfaction but amongst the guilty It is generally observed of the plague that the infection of others is an earnest and constant desire of all that are seized by it and as this designe resembles that disease in the ruine destruction and desolation it would have wrought so it seemes no lesse like it in this effect he having so laboured to make others share in that guilt that his solicitation was not onely his action but his workes making use both of his Authority his Interest and Importunity to perswade and in his Majesties Name whose Piety is knowne to give that Excellent prerogative to his person that the Law gives to his place not to be able to doe wrong to threaten the rest of the Iudges to signe opinions contrary to Law to assigne answers contrary to their opinions to give Iudgement which they ought not to have given and to recant Iudgement when they had given as they ought so that whosoever considers his care of and concernment both in the growth and the immortality of this project cannot but by the same way by which the wisest judgment found the true mother of the Child discover him not onely to have beene the Fosterer but the Father of this most pernicious and envious designe I shall not need to observe that this was plotted and pursued by an English man against England which encreaseth the Crime in no lesse degree than parricide is beyond Murther that this was done in the greatest matter joyned to the greatest Bond being against the generall liberty and publike propriety by a sworne Iudge and if that salt it selfe because unsavory the Gospell it selfe hath design'd whither it must be cast that he poysoned our very Antidotes and turned our Guard into a destruction making Law the ground of illegalitie that he used this Law not onely against us but against it selfe making it as I may say Felo de se making the pretence for I can scarce say the appearance of it so to contribute the utter ruine of it selfe I shall not need to say that either this or more can be of the highest kinde and in the highest degree of Parliamentary Treason a Treason which need not a computation of many severall actions which alone were not Treason to prove a Treason altogether and by
that demonstration of the intention to make that formality Treason which were materially but a misdemeanor a Treason as well against the King as against the Kingdome for whatsoever is against the whole is undoubtedly against the head which takes from his Majesty the ground of his Rule the Lawes for if foundations bee destroyed the Pinnacles are most endangered which takes from his Majesty the principal honour of his Rule the Ruling over Free-men a power as much Nobler then over villaines as that is that 's over beasts which endevoured to take from his Majesty the principall support of his Rule their hearts and affections over whom he rules a better and surer strength and wall to the King than the Sea is to the Kingdome and by begetting a mutuall distrust and by that a mutuall disaffection between them to hazard the danger even of the destruction of both My Lords I shall the lesse need to presse this because as it were unreasonable in any case to suspect your Iustice so here especially where your interest so nearly unites you your great share in possessions giving you an equall concernment in propriety the care and paines used by your Noble Ancestors in the founding and asserting of our conmon Liberties rendring the just defence of them your most proper and peculiar inheritance and both exciting to oppose and extirpate all such designes as did introduce and would have set led an Arbitrary that is an intollerable forme of Government and have made even your Lordships and your posterity but Right Honourarable slaves My Lords I will spend no more words Luctando cum larva in accusing the Ghost of a departed person whom his Crimes accuse more than I can doe and his absence accuseth no lesse than his Crime Neither will I excuse the length of what I have said because I cannot adde to an Excuse without adding to the Fault or my owne imperfections either in the matter or manner of it which I know must appeare the greater by being compared with that learned Gentlemans great abilitie who hath precoded me at this time I will onely desire by the Command and in the behalfe of the House of Commons that these proceedings against the Lord Finch may be put in so speedy away of dispatch as in such cases the course of Parliament will allow The first Speech made by Sir Edward Deering in the house of Commons Mr. Speaker YEsterday the affaires of this House did borrow all the time allotted to the great Committee of Religion I am sorry that having but halfe a day in a whole week we have lost that Mr. Speaker The sufferings that wee have undergone are reduceable to two heads The first concerning the Church The second belonging to the Common-wealth The first of these must have the first fruites of the Parliament as being the first in weight and worth and more immediately to the honour of God and his Glory every dramme whereof is worth the whole weight of a Kingdome The Common-wealth it is true is ful of apparent dangers the Sword is come home unto us and two Twinned Nations united together under one regall Head Brethren together in the Bowels and Bosome of the same Island and which is above all is imbanded together in the same Religion I say in the same Religion by a divellish Machination like to be fatally imbrewed in each others blood ready to digge each others Graves Quantillum abfuit For other grievances also the poore dis-hearted Suject sadly grieves not able to distinguish betweene Power and Law and with a weeping heart no question hath long prayed for this houre in hope to be relieved and to know hereafter whether any thing hee hath besidâ—s his poore part and portion of the common Aire hee breatheth may be truly called his owne These Mr. Speaker and many other doe deserve and must shortly have our deepe regards but suo gradis Now in the first place there is a unum necessarium above all our worldly sufferings and dangers Religion the immediate Service due unto Almighty God and herein let us all be confident that all our consultations wil be unprosperous if wee put any determination before that of Religion For my part let the Sword reach from the North to the South and a generall perdition of all our remaining rights threaten us in an open view it shall bee so farre from making mee to decline the first setling of Religion that I shall ever argue and rather conclude it thus That the more great and eminent our perils of this World are the stronger and quicker ought our care to be for the glory of God and the pure Law of our Soules If then Mr. Speaker it may passe with full allowance that all our cares may give way unto the Treaty of Religion I will reduce that also unto two heads First of Ecclesiasticall persons Then of Ecclesiasticall Causes Let no man start or be affrighted at the imagined length of this Consultation it will not it cannot take up so much Time as it is worth This is God and the Kings God and the Kingdomes nay this is God and the two Kingdomes cause And therefore Mr. Speaker my humble motion is that wee may all of us seriously speedily and heartily enter upon this the best and the greatest and the most important cause wee can treate on Now Mr. Speaker in pursuite of mine owne motion and to make a little entrance into these great Affaires I will present unto you the Petition of a poore distressed Minister in the Couâ—ty of Kent a man conformable in his practice Orthodoxe in his Doctrine laborious in his Ministery as any wee have or I doe know He is now a sufferer as all good men are under the generall obloquy of a Puritan as with other things was admirably delivered by that silver Trumpet at the Bar the Pursevant watched his doore and divides him and his Cure asunder to both their griefes for it is not with him as perhaps with some that set the Pursevant at worke glad of an excuse to be out of thâ— Pulpit it is his delight to Preach About a week since I went over to Lambeth to moove that great Bishop too great indeede to take this danger from off this Minister and recall the Pursevant And withall did undertake for Mr. Wilson for so is your Petitioner called that hee should answere his Accusers in any of the Kings Courts aâ— Westminster The Bishop made me this answere in His verbis I am sure that hee will not absent from his Cure a Twelve-moneth together and then I doubt not but once in a yeare wee shall have him This was all that I could obtaine but I hope by the helpe of this House before this yeare of threats-be runne out his Grace will eyther have more Grace or no Grace at all For our griefes are manifold and doe fill a mighty and vast Circumference yet so that from every part our lines of sorrow doe lead unto him and
holy Church and of his grace and bounty he will confirme all those liberties priviledges and rights granted and given by him and his noble Progenitors to the Church by their Charters which plainly sheweth that they have their Episcopall Jurisdiction from the Kings of England and not Iure divino by divine right and this likewise is acknowledged by themselves in the Statute of 37. H. 8. cap. 17. that they have their Episcopall jurisdiction and all other Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction whatsoever solely and onely by from and under the King The second thing that is trenching upon the Crowne is this that it is holden at this day that Episcopacy is inseparable to the Crowne of England and therefore it is commonly now said No Bishop no King no Miter no Scepter which I utterly deny for it is plaine and apparant that the Kings of England were long before Bishops and have a subsistance without them and have done and may still depose them The third is likewise considerable as trenching upon the Crowne which is that was said under the Gallery that Episcopacy was a third estate in Parliament and therefore the King and Parliament could not be without them This I utterly deny for there are three estates without them as namely the King who is the first estate the Lords Temporall the second and the Commons the third and I know no fourth estate Besides the Kings of England have had many Parliaments wherein there have beene no Bishops at all as for example Ed. 1.24 of his reigne held his Parliament at Edmundbury excluso Clero and in the Parliament 7. R. 2. c. 3. 7. R. 2. c. 12. it doth appeare that they were enacted by the King with the assent and agreement of the Lords Temporall and Commons where the estates of Parliamen are mentioned and not the Clergie Divers other statutes might likewise be named to this purpose which I omit The fourth and last thing is of the Bishops holding of the Ecclesiasticall Courts in their owne names and not in the name of the King nor by Commission from him contrary to the Statute of 1 Edw. 6. cap. 2. and contrary to the practice of Bishop Ridley Coverdale and Ponnet who tooke Commissions from the KING for holding their Ecclesiasticall Courts as may be seene at this day in the Rolles And although it will be objected that by a late Proclamation in the yeare of our Lord God 1637. wherein the opinion of the Iudges mentioned it is declared upon their opinion that the act of 1 Edw. 6. was repealed and that Bishops may now keep Courts in their owne names and send processe under their owne Seales yet it is well knowne that the Statute of 1 Q. Mary which repealed the Statute of 1 Ed. 6. was it selfe repealed by the Statute of 1 Iac. cap 25. Whereupon it was holden upon a full debate of this poynt in Parliament 7 Iac. which I have seene that upon consideration of the Statutes of 1 Iac. and 1. Eliz. cap 1. and 8 Eliz. cap. 1. that the Statute of 1 Ed. 6. was revived and that Bishops ought not to keepe Courts in their owne names So that for these reasons so nearely concerning the right of the Crowne of England in the poynt of Episcopacy I am against the proposall of that question and am for the retaining of the London Petition and for a thorow Reformation of all abuses and grievances of Episcopacy mentioned in the Ministers Remonstrance which Reformation may perhaps serve the turne without alteration of the Government of England into a forme of Presbytery as it is in other Kingdomes of Scotland France Genâ—va and the Low Countries which for mine owne part had I lived in these Kingdomes I should have bin of the opinion of the Protestant party in point of Presbytery because those Kingdomes are governed by the Civill Law which maintaines the jurisdiction of the Pope and Papall Episcopacy which the ancient Lawes of England condemne being likewise in themselves opposite to the Civill and Canon Lawes And if notwithstanding all the Reformation that can be made by the Lawes of this Land a better forme of government may evidently appeare to us concerning which there is no forme now before us it is to be taken by us into consideration according to that imperiall Constitution in these words In rebus nobis constituendis evidens utilitas esse debet ut ab eo jure recedatur quod diu aequum visum est And so Mr. Speaker I shortly conclude that for these Reasons omitting divers more the London Petition is to be retained The Speeches of Sir Benjamin Rudyer in the High Court of Parliament Mr. Speaker WEe are here assembled to doe Gods businesse and the Kings in which our owne is included as wee are Christians as wee are Subjects Let us first feare GOD then shall wee honour the King the more for I am afrayd wee have beene the lesse prosperous in Parliaments because wee have preferred other matters before Him Let Religion be our Primum Quarite for all things else are but Etcaetera's to it yet we may have them too sooner and surer if wee give God his precedence We well know what disturbance hath been brought upon the Church for vain petty trifles How the whole Church the whole Kingdome hath beene troubled where to place a Metaphor an Altar Wee have seene Ministers their Wives Children and Families undone against Law against Conscience against all Bowells of Compassion about not dancing upon Sundayes What doe these sort of men think will become of themselves when the Master of the house shall come and finde them thus beating their fellow servants These Inventions were but Sives made of purpose to winnow the best men and that 's the Devills occupation They have a minde to worry preaching for I never yet heard of any but diligent preachers that were vext with these and the like devices They despise prophesie and as one said They would faine be at something were like the Masse that will not bite A muzzl'd Religion They would evaporate and dis-spirit the power and vigour of Religion by drawing it out into solemne specious formalities into obsolete antiquated Ceremonies new furbish'd up And this belike is the good worke in hand which Dr. Heylin hath so often celebrated in his bold Pamphlets All their Acts and actions are so full of mixtures involutions and complications as nothing is cleare nothing sincere in any of their proceedings Let them not say that these are the perverse suspitious malicious interpretations of some few factious Spirits amongst us when a Romanist hath bragged and congratulated in print That the face of our Church begins to alter the Language of our Religion to change And Sancta Clara hath published That if a Synod were held Non intermixtis Puritanis setting Puritanes aside our Articles and their Religion would soone be agreed They have so brought it to passe that under the name of Puritans all our Religion is branded and under
their office then is to governe But in my opinion they governe worse than they Preach though they preach not at all for wee see to what passe their government hath brought us In conformity to themselves They silence others also though Hierom in one of his Epistles saith that even a Bishop let him be of never so blamelesse a life yet he doth more hurt by by his licence then he can doe good by his example Mr. Speaker It now behooves us to restraine the Bishops to the duties of their Function as they may never more hanker after heterogeneous extravagant employments Not be so absolute so single and solitary in actions of Moment as Excommunication Absolution Ordination and the like but to joyne some of the Ministry with them and further to regulate them according to the usage of Ancient Churches in the best times that by a well-temper'd Government they may not have power hereafter to corrupt the Church to undoe the Kingdome When they are thus circumscribed and the publique secur'd from their Eruptions then shall not I grudge them a liberall plentifull subsistence else I am sure they can nevâ—â— be given to Hospitality Although the calling of the Clergie be all glorious within yet if they have not a large considerable outward support they cannot be freed from vulgar Contempt It will alwaies be fit that the flourishing of the Church should hold proportion with the flourishing of the Common-wealth wherein it is If we dwell in houses of Ceaar why should they dwell in skins And I hope I shall never see a good Bishop left worse than a Parson without a Gleab Certainly Sir this superintendencie of eminent men Bishops over divers Churches is the most Primitive the most spreading the most lasting Government of the Church Wherefore whilest we are earnest to take away Innovations let us beware wee bring not in the greatest Innovation that ever was in England I doe very well know what very many doe very servently desire But let us well bethinke our selves whether a popular Democraticall Government of the Church though fit for other places will be either sutable or acceptable to a Regall Monarchicall Government of the State Every man can say It is so common and knowne a Truth that suddaine and great changes both in naturall and Politick bodies have dangerous opperations and give mee leave to say that we cannot presently see to the end of such a consequence especially in so great a Kingdome as this and where Episcopacie is so wrap'd and involv'd in the Lawes of it Wherefore Mr. Speaker my humble Motion is that we may punish the present offenders reduce and preserve the Calling for better men hereafter Let us remember with fresh thankfulnesse to God those glorious Martyr-Bishops who were burn'd for our Religion in the times of Popery who by their learning zeale and constancy upheld and convey'd it downe to us We have some good Bishops still who doe Preach every Lords Day and are therefore worthy of double honour they have suffered enough already in the Disease I shall bee sorry we should make them suffer more in the Remedy 〈…〉 A message delivered from the Commons to the Lords of the Vpper House in Parliament by Mr. Pym Novemb. 11. 1640. My Lords THe Knights Citizens and Burgesses now assembled for the Commons in Parliament have received information of divers traiterous designes and practices of a great Peere of this House and by vertue of a command from them I doe here in the name of the Commons now assembled in Parliament and in the name of all the Commons of England accuse Thomas Earle of Strafford Lo. Lieutenant of Ireland of high Treason and they have commanded me further to desire your Lordships that he may be sequestred from Parliament and forthwith committed to prison They have further commanded mee to let you know that they will within a very few dayes resort to your Lordships with the particular Articles and grounds of this accusation And they doe further desire that your Lordships will thinke upon some convenient and fit way that the passage betwixt England and Ireland for his Majesties subjects of both Kingdomes may be free notwithstanding any restraint to the contrarie The Lord Lieutenant being required to withdraw and after a debate thereof called in kneeled at the Bar and after standing up the L. Keeper spake as followeth My Lord of Strafford THe House of Commons in their owne name and in the name of the whole Commons of England have this day accused your Lordship to the Lords of the Higher House of Parliament of high treason The articles they will within a very few dayes produce In the meane time they have desired of my Lords and may Lords have accordingly resolved that your Lordship shall be committed to safe custody to the Gentleman Vsher and be sequestred from the House till your Lordship shall cleare your selfe of the accusations that shall be laid against you Articles of the Commons assembled in Parliament against Thomas Earle of Strafford in maintenance of his accusation whereby he stands charged of High Treason 1. THat he the said Thomas Earle of Strafford hath traiterously endevoured to subvert the fundamentall Lawes and government of the Realmes of England and Ireland and in stead thereof to introduce on Arbitrary and Tyrannicall Government against Law which hee hath declared by traiterous words counsels and actions and by giving his Majestie advice by force of Armes to compell his loyall Subjects to submit thereunto 2. That hee hath traiterously assumed to himselfe Regall power over the lives liberties persons lands and goods of his Majesties Subjectâ— in England and Ireland and hath exercised the same tyrannically to the subversion and undoing of many both of Peeres and others of his Majesties Liege people 3. That the better to enrich and enable himselfe to goe thorow with his traiterous designes hee hath detained a great part of his Majesties revenue without giving legall account and hath taken great summes out of the Exchequer converting them to his owne use when his Majestie was necessitated for his owne urgent occasions and his Army had beene a long time unpaid 4. That he hath traiterously abused the power and authoritie of his government to the encreasing countenancing and encouraging of Papists that so hee might settle a mutuall dependance and confidence betwixt himselfe and that partie and by their help prosecute and accomplish his malicious and tyrannicall designes 5. That hee hath maliciously endevoured to stir up enmitie and hostilitie between his Majesties subjects of England and those of Scotland 6. That he hath traiterously broken the great trust reposed in him by his Majestie of Lieutenant Generall of his Army by wilfully betraying divers of his Majesties Subjects to death his Army to a dishonourable defeat by the Scots at Newborn and the Towne of New-Castle into their hands to the end that by the effusion of bloud by dishonour and so great a losse of New-Castle his Majesties
Realme of England might be engaged in a Nationall and irreconciliable quarrell with the Scots 7. That to preserve himselfe from being questioned for those and other his traiterous courses hee laboured to subvert the right of Parliaments and the ancient course of Parliamentarie proceedings and by false and malicious slanders to incense his Majestie against Parliaments By which words counsels and actions hee hath traiterously and contrary to his allegiance laboured to alienate the hearts of the Kings Liege people from his Majestie to set a division betweene them and to ruine and destroy his Majesties Kingdomes for which they impeach him of high Treason against our Soveraigne Lord the King his Crown and dignitie 8. And he the said Earle of Strafford was Lord Deputie of Ireland and Lieutenant Generall of the Army there viz. His most excellent Majestie for his Kingdomes both of England and Ireland and the L. President of the North during the time that all and everie the crimes and offences before set forth were done and committed and hee the said Earle was Lieutenant Generall of all his Majesties army in the North parts of England during the time that the crimes and offences in the fifth and sixth articles set forth were done and committed 9. And the said Commons by protestations saving to themselves the libertie of exhibiting at any time here after any other accusation or impeachment against the said Earle and also of replying to the answers that hee the said Earle shall make unto the said articles or to any of them and of offering proves also of the premisses or any of them or any other impeachment or accusation that shall be exhibited by them as the cause shall according to the course of Parliaments require doe pray that the said Earle may be put to answer for all and every the premisses that such proceedings examinations trials and judgements may be upon everie of them had and used as is agreeable to Law and Iustice The further impeachment of Thomas Earle of Strafford by the Commons assembled in Parliament 1640 WHereas the said Commons have already exhibited Articles against the said Earle formerly expressed c. Now the said Commons doe further impeach the said Earle as followeth c. 1. That he the said Earle of Strafford the 21. day of March in the 8. yeare of his now Majesties Reigne was president of the Kings Counsell in the Northerne parts of England That the said Earle being president of the said Counsell on the 21. day of March a Commission under the great Seal of England with certaine Schedules of instructions thereunto annexed was directed to the said Earle or others the Commissioners therein named wherby amongst other things power and authority is limited to the said Earle and others the Commissioners therein named to heare and determine all offences and misdemeanors suits debates controversies and demaunds causes things and matters whatsoever therein contained and within certaine precincts in the said Northerne parts therein specified and in such manner as by the said Schedule is limited and appointed That amongst other things in the said instructions it is directed that the said President and others therein appointed shall heare and determine according to the course of proceedings in the Court of Starchamber divers offences deceits and falsities therein mentioned whether the same be provided for by the Acts of Parliament or not so that the Fines imposed be not lesse then by Act or Acts of Parliament provided for by those offences is appointed That also amongst other things in the said instructions it is diâ—ected that the said president and others therein appointed have power to examine heare and determine according to the course of proceedings in the Court of Chancery al manner of complaints for any matter within the said precincts as well concerning lands tenements and hereditaments either free-hold customary or coppy-holde as Leases and oter things therein mentioned and to stay proceedings in the Court of Common Law by Injunction or otherwise by all wayes and meanes as is used in the Court of Chancery And although the former Presidents of the said Counsell had never put in practise such Instructions nor haâ— they any such Instructions yet the said Earle in the moreth of May in the said 8. yeare and divers years following did put in practise exercise and use and caused to be used and put in practise the said Commission and Instructions and did direct and exercise an exorbitant and unlawfull power and jurisdiction on the persons and estates of his Majesties subjects in those parts and did disin-herit divers of his Majesties subjects in those parts of their inheritances sequestred their possessions and did fine ransome punish and imprison them and caused them to be fined ransomed punished and imprisoned to their ruine and destruction and namely Sir Conier Darcy Sir Iohn Bourcher and divers others against the Lawes and in subversion of the same And the said Commission and Instructions were procured and issued by the advice of the said Earle And he the said Earle to the intent that such illegall unjust power might be exercised with the greater licence and will did advise Counsell procure further directions in and by the said instructions to be given tha nâ— prohibition he granted at all but in cases where the said Counsell shall exceed the limits of the said instructions And that if any Writ of Habeas Corpus be granted the party be not discharged till the party performe the Decree and Order of the said Counsell And the said Earle in the 13. yeare of his now Majesties Reigne did procure a new Commission to himselfe and others therein appointed with the said Instructions and other unlawfull additions That the said Commission and Instructions were procured by the solicitation and advice of the said Earle of Strafford 2. That shortly after the obtaining of the said Commission dated the 21 of March in the 8 yeare of his now Majesties Reigne to wit the last day of August then next following he the said Earle to bring his Majesties liege people into a dislike of his Majestie and of his Governement and to terrifie the Iustices of the Peace from executing of the Lawes He the said Earle beeing then President as aforesaid and a Iustice of Peace did publiquely at the Assises held for the County of Yorke in the City of Yorke in and upon the said last day of August declare and publish before the people there attending for the administration of Iustice according to the Law in the presence of the Iustices sitting That some of the Justices were all for Law but they should finde that the Kings little finger should be heavier then the loynes of the Law 3. That the Realme of Ireland having been time out of minde anne xed to the Imperiall Crowne of England and governed by the same Lawes The said Earle being Lord Deputy of that Realme to bring his Majesties liege people of that Kingdome likewise into distike of his
ruine and destruction of the Kingdome of England and of his Majesties Subjects and of altering and subverting of the fundamentall Laws of this Kingdome And shortly after the said Earle of Strafford returned into England and to sundry persons declared his opinion to be that his Majesty should first try the Parliament here and if that did not supply him according to his occasions he might use then his Prerogative as he pleased to levie what he needed and that he should bee acquitted both of God and man hee tooke some other courses to supply himselfe though it were against the will of his Subjects 23. That upon the thirteenth day of Aprill last the Parliament of England met and the Commons house then being the representative Body of all the Commons in the Kingdome did according to the trust reposed in them enter into debate and consideration of the great grievances of of this Kingdome both in respect of Religion and the publike libertie of the Kingdome and his Majestie referring chiefly to the Earle of Strafford and the Archbishop of Canterbury the ordering and disposing of all matters concerning the Parliament He the said Earle of Strafford with the asistance of the said Archbishop did procure his Majesty by sundry speeches and messages to urge the said Commons house to enter into some resolution for his Majesties supply for maintenance of his warre against his Subjects of Scotlaâ—d before any course was taken for the reliefe of the great and pressing grievances wherewith this Kingdome was then afflicted Whereupon a demand was then made from his Majesty of 12. Subsidies for the release of ship-money onely and while the said Commons then assembled with expressions of great affection to his Majestie and his service were in debate and consideration of some supply before resolution by them made he the said Earle of Strafford with the helpe and assistance of the said Archbishop did procure his Majesty to dissolve the last Parliament upon the 5. day of May last and upon the same day the said Earle of Strafford did treacherously falsely and maliciously endeavour to incense his Majesty against his loving faithfull Subjects who had been members of the said house of Commons by telling his Majesty they had denyed to supply him And afterward upon the same did treacherously and wickedly counsell and advise his Majesty to this effects viz. that having tryed the affections of his people he was loose and absolved from all rules of government and was to doe every thing that power would admit and that his Majesty had tryed all ways and was refused and should be acquitted both of God and man that he had an Army in Ireland meaning the Army above mentioned consisting of Papists his dependants as is aforesaid which he might imploy to reduce this Kingdome to obedience 24 That in the same month of May he the said Earl of Strafford falsly treacherously and maliciously published and declared before others of his Majesties Privie Counsell that the Parliament of England had forsaken the King and that in denying to supply the King they had given him the advantage to supply himselfe by other wayes and divers other times he did maliciously wickedly and falsely publish and declare that seeing the Parliament had refused to supply his Majesty in the ordinary and usuall way the King might provide for the Kingdome in such waies as he should hold fit and that he was not to suffer himselfe to be mastered by the frowardnesse of the people And having so maliciously slandered the said house of Commons he did with the helpe and advice of the said Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Finch late Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England cause to be printed and published in his Majesties name a false and scandalous book entituled his Majesties Declaration of the causes that mooved him to dissolve the last Parliament full of bitter and malicious invectives and false and scandalous aspersions against the said house of Commons 25 That not long after the dissolution of the said last Parliament viz. In the moneths of May and Iune he the Earle of Strafford did advise the King to goe on rigorously in leavying the Ship-money and did procure the Sheriffes of severall Countries to be sent for for not leavying the Ship-money divers of which were threatned by him to be sued in the Starre-Chamber and afterwards by his advice were sued in the Star-chamber for not leavying the same and divers of his Majesties loving Subjects were sent for and imprisoned by his advice about that and other illegall payments And a great loane of a hundred thousand pounds was demanded of the City of London and the Lord Major and the Aldermen and the Sheriffes of the said City were often sent for by his advice to the Councell Table to give an account of their proceedings in raising of Ship-money and furthering of that loane and were required to certifie the names of such Inhabitants of the said City as were fit to lend which they with much humility refusing to doe he the said Earle of Strafford did use these or the like speeches viz. That they deserved to be put to Fine and Ransom and that no good would be done with them till an example were made of them and they were laid by the heeles and some of the Aldermen hanged up 26 That the said Earle of Strafford by his wicked Counsell having brought his Majesty into excessive charges without any just cause he did in the month of Iuly last for the support of the said great charges counsell and approve two dangerous and wicked Projects viz. To seize upon the Bullion and the money in the Mint And to imbase his Majesties Coyne with the mixtures of Brasse And accordingly we procured one hundred and thirty thousand pounds which was then in the Mint and belonging to divers Merchants Strangers and others to bee seized on and stayed to his Majesties use And when divert Merchans of London owners of the said Bullion came to his house to let him understand the great mischiefe that course would produce here and in other parts what prejudice it would bee to the Kingdome by discrediting the Mint and hindring the importation of Ballion hee the said Earle told them that the City of London dealt undutifully and unthankfully with his Majesty and that they were more ready to helpe the Rebell than to helpe his Majesty and that if any hurt came to them they may thank themselves and that it was the course of other Princes to make use of such monies to serve their occasions And when in the same Moneth of Iuly the Officers of his Majesties Mint came to him and gave him divers reasons against the imbasing the said money hee told them that the French King did use to send Commissaries of Horse with Commission to search into mens estates and to peruse their accounts so that they may know what to levie of them by force which they did accordingly leavie and turning
to the Lord Conttington then present said That this was a poynt worthy his Lordships consideration 27 That in or about the Moneth of August last he was made Lieutenant Generall of all his Majesties Forces in the Northerne parts against the Scots and being at York did in the Moneth of September by his owne authority and without any lawfull warrant impose a Taxe on his Majesties Subjects in the County of Yorke of eight pence perâ—iem for maintenance of every Souldier of the Trayned bands of that County which Summes of money hee caused to bee leavied by force And to the end to compell his Majesties Subjects out of feare and terrour to yeeld to the payment of the same He did declare that hee would commit them that refused the payment thereof and the Souldiers should be satisfied out of their estates and they that refused it were in very little better condition than of High Treason 28 That in the Moneth of September and October last he the said Earle of Strafford being certesild of the Scottish Army comming into the Kingdome and hee the said Earle of Strafford being Lieutenant Generall of his Majesties Armie did not provide to the defence of the Towne of New-Castle as he ought to have done but suffred the same to be lost that so hee might the more incence the English against the Scots And for the same wicked purpose and out of a malicious desire to ingage the Kings kingdoms of England and Scotland in a Nationall and bloody Warre he did write to the Lord Conway the Generall of the Horse and under the said Earles command that hee should fight with the Scottish Army at the passage over the Tyne whatsoever should follow notwithstanding that the said Lord Conway had formerly by Letters informed him the said Earle that his Majesties Armie then under his command was not of force sufficient to encounter the Scots by which advice of his hee did contrary to the duty of his place betray his Majesties Armie then under his command to apparent danger and losse All and every which Words Counsells and Actions of the said Earle of Strafford traiterously and contrary to his allegeance to our Soveraigne Lord the King and with an intention and endeavour to alienate and withdraw the hearts and affections of the Kings Liege people of all his Realmes from his Majesty and to set a division betweene them and to ruine and destroy his Majesties said Kingdomes For which they doe further impeach him the said Thomas Earle of Strafford of High Treason against our Soveraigne Lord the King his Crowne and Dignity The Earle of Bristowes Speech the 7th of Decemb. 1640. MAY this dayes Resolution be as happy as the Proposition which now moves me to rise seasonable and necessary for whether wee shall looke upon the King or the people it did never more behoove us the great Physitian the Parliament to effect a true consent towards all parts than now This debate carries with it a double aspect towards the Soveraigne and towards the Subject though both innocent both injured both to be cured In the representation of Injuries I shall crave your attention In the Cures I shall beseech your equall cares and better Iudgements surely in the greatest humility I speake it their illegall wayes are works and punishments of indignation The raising of Leavies strengthened by Commission with un-heard of instructions the billiting of Souldiers and by Lieutenants and their Deputies without leave have beene as if they would have perswaded Princes nay worlds the right of Empire had beene had to take away what they please by strong hands and they have endeavoured as farre as it was possible for them to doe it This hath not beene done by the King under the pleasing shade of whose Crowne I hope we shall ever gather the fruits of Iustice but the Projectors have extended the Prerogative of the King beyond the limits which mars that sweete harmony They have rent from us the light of our eyes enforced Companies of guests upon us worse than the Ordinary of France vitiated of wives and daughters before our faces brought the Crowne to greater want than ever it was by anticipating the Revenue And can the shepheard be thus smitten and the sheepe not scattered They have introduced a Privie Councell ravishing at once the spheares of all ancient government imprisoning without Bayle or Bond. They have taken from us what shall I say indeed what have they left us All meanes of supplying the King and ingratiating our selves with him taking the rootes of all propriety which if it be seasonably set into the ground by his owne hand we shall have instead of beauty baldnesse To the making of them whole I shall apply my selfe and propound a remedy to all these diseasis by one and the same thing Hath King and People beene hurt and by one and the same thing must they be cured to vindicate what new things no our ancient sober vitall libertie by reinforming our ancient Lawes made by our Ancestors by setting such a Charter upon them as no licentious spirits should dare hereafter to enter upon them And shall wee thinke that a way to breake a Parliament no our desires are modest and just I speake truely both for the interest of the King and people if we enjoy not this it will bee impossible to relieve him Therefore let us feare they shall not bee accepted by his goodnesse Therefore I shall discend unto my motions which consists of foure parts two of which have relation to the persons two to the properties of goods For the persons the freedome of them from imprisonment and from imployment abroad contrary to the ancient customes for our goods that no leavies be made but in Parliament Secondly no billiting of Souldiers It is most necessary that these be resolved that the subject be secured in both Then the manner in the second place be fit to det-ermine it by a grand Committee Mr. MAINARDS Speech before both Houses in Parliament on Wednesday 24 th of March in reply upon the Earle of Straffords answer to his Articles at the Barre My Lords I Shall repeat little of that which hath beene said onely this That whereas my Lord of Strafford did answer to many particulars yet hee did not answer to that which was particularly objected against him that is that you were to heare the complaints of the whole Kingdome now the particular of our aime is to take off the vizard which my Lord hath put on wherein the truth and honour which is due to his Majestie he would attribute to himselfe My Lords there is one thing which I desire your Lordships to remember it being the maine of our complaints The alteration of the face of government and tradacing of his owne Lawes and this is the burthen upon all the Lords and Commons of Ireland Concerning the breach of Parliament he would put it on Sir George Ratcliffe but iâ—me sure he cannot put off himselfe for Sir George
fully planted in this Kingdome againe and so they are encouraged to persist therein and to practice the same openly in divers places to the high dishonour of God and contrary to the Lawes of the Realme II. Secondly the discouragement and destruction of all good Subjects of whom all Multitudes both Ciothiers Marchants and others being deprived of their Ministers and overburthen'd with these pressures have departed the Kingdome to Holland and other parts and have drawn with them a great part of manufacture of Cloth and Trading out of the Land into other places where they reside whereby Wooll the great staple of the Kingdome is become of small value and vends not Trading is decayed many poore people want work Sea-men lose imployment and the whole Land much impoverished to the great dishonour of this Kingdome and blemishment to the government thereof III. The present warres and Commotions happened betweene his Majesty and his Subjects of Scotland wherein his Majesty and all his Kingdome are indangered and suffer greatly and are like to become a prey to the common Enemy in case the warres goe on which we exceedingly feare will not onely goe on but also encrease to an utter Ruine of all unlesse the Prelates with their dependancies be removed out of England and also they and their practices who as we under your Honours favour doe verily beleeve and conceive have occasioned the Quarrell All which wee humbly referre to the consideration of this Honourable Assembly desiring the Lord of Heaven to direct you in the right way to redresse all these evills FINIS The Resolution of the House of Commons touching the six Demands of the Scots for restitution of their Losses and Dammages THis House thinks fit that a friendly Assistance and reliefe be given towards supply of the losses and necessities of the Scots and in due time this House wil take consideration both of the manner and measure of it The Scottish Commissioners Answer to the resolution of the Parliament AS wee doe with all thankfulnesse receive the friendly and kindly resolution of the Parliament concerning our Demands wee doe therein acknowledge your Lordships noble dealing for which we may assure that the whole Kingdome of Scotland will at all occasions expresse themselves on all respect and kindnesse so doe we entreat your Lordships to present unto the Parliament our earnest desire that they may be pleased howsoever their conveniencie may serve to consider of the proportion wishing still that as wee expect from our friends the testimonies of their kindnesse friendly Assistance so the Justice of the Parliament may be declared in making the burthen more sensible to the Prelates and Papists our Enemies and Authors of all our evills then to others who never have wronged us which will not onely give unto us and the whole Kingdome of Scotland the greater satisfaction but will also as wee can conceive conduce much to the honour of the Kings Majestie and Parliament Wee doe also expect that your Lordships will be pleased to report unto us the Answer of the Parliament that wee may in this as in the former Articles give Account to those who sent us The Peeres Demands upon the aforesaid Answer VVEe desire to understand since as we conceive the particulars are like to require much time whether we may not from you let the Parliament know that whilest they are debating of the proportion and the wayes how they finde assistance may be raised you will proceed to the agreeing to the Articles of a firme and durable peace that thereby both time may be saved and both sides proceed mutually with the more cheerefulnesse and alacrity The Scottish Commissioners Answer to the Peeres Demands AS wee desire a firme Peace so is it our desire that this Peace may be with all mutuall Alacrity speedily concluded and therefore let 's entreat you all to shew the Parliament from us that how soon they shall be pleased to make the proportion knowne to us that wee may satisfie the expectation of those who have instructed us which wee doe conceive may be done in a short time since they are already acquainted with all the particulars of our Demands wee shall stay no longer upon the manner and wayes of raising the assistance which may require a longer time and yet we trust it will be with such conveniencie as may serve for our two moneths reliefe but remitting the manner and wayes to the oportunity of the Parliament shall most willingly proceed to the considerations of the following Articles especially to that which wee most of all desire a firme and setled Peace 26. Ian. 1640. FINIS Articles of the House of Commons in Parliament against Secretary WINDEBANKE INprimis Seventy foure Letters of grace to Recusants within this foure yeares signed with Secretary Windebankes owne hand 2 Sixty foure Priests in the Gate-house within this foure yeares discharged for the most part by Secretary Windebanke 3 Twenty nine discharged by a verball warrant of Secretarie Windebanke 4 A warrant to protect one Muffon a condemned Priest and all the houses he frequented 5 One committed by the Kings owne hand and discharged by Secretarie Windebanke without signification of the Kings pleasure therein 6 A Petition of Saint Giles in the Fields neere London to the King of the encrease of Popery in their Parish wherein twenty one persons were seduced and turned by two Priests the which Priests were both discharged by Secretary Windebanke Die Lunae 21. Decembris 1640. A Speech made by John Lord Finch Lord Keeper of the great Seale of England in the Commons house of Parliament Master Speaker I Do first present my most humble thanks to this Honourable Assembly for this favour vouchsafed me in granting me admittance to their presence and doe humbly beseech them to beleeve it is no desire to preserve my selfe or my fortune but to deserve the good opinions of those that have drawne mee hither I do professe in the presence of him that knoweth all hearts that I had rather go from dore to dore and crave Da obulum Belizario c. with the good opinion of this Assembly then live and enjoy all the honours and fortunes I am capable of I doe not come hither with an intention to justifie my words my actions or my opinions but to make a plaine and cleare narration for my selfe and then humbly to submit to the wisedome and justice of this House my selfe and all that concernes me I doe well understand Master Speaker with what disadvantage any man can speake in his owne cause and if I could have told how to have transmitted my thoughts and actions by a clearer representation of another I doe so much defie my owne judgement in working and my wayes in expressing that I should have beene a most humble suiter another might have done it But this House wil not take words but with cleare and ingennous dealing and therefore I shall beseech them to think I come not hither with a set or
the East-Indies and may erect a Company of the West-Indies for the golden fleece which shall bee prepared for you whensoever you are ready for so great a Consultation The right way to nourish these Northâ—â—â—e Trades is by his Majesties favour to presse the King of Denmarke to Justice not to come as his intolerable Taxes newly imposed upon Trade in the passage of the Sound in Examples whereof the Elector of Brandenburgh joyning with the King of Poland hath likewise more then trebled the ancient and capitulated Duties which if that they shall continue I pronounce all the Commerce of the Baltique Sea so over-burthened That the East-land Company cannot subsist nor without them and the Muscovie Company the Navigation but that the materials for shipping will be doubled which will eat out all Trades I have given you but Essayes and strooke little sparkes of fire before you My intention is but to provoke the wit and ability of others I have drawn you a Map wherein you cannot see things clearely and distinctly onely I introduce matter before you and now I have done when I have shewed you the way how to enlarge and bring every particular thing into debate To which end my motion and desire is this That we may send to every severall Company of Merchants trading in Companies and under Government and Priviledges and to aske of them what is their Grievances in their generall Trade not to rake into private Complaints what are the causes of decay or abuses in their Trades and of the want of money which is visible and of the great losses both to the Kingdome and to every particular by the late high exchanges and to desire every one of these Companies to set downe their judgement in writing to the Committee by a day appointed and having from them all the generall state of the complaints severally we shall make some judgements of these relations one to another this done I desire to require all the same severall Companies upon their owne papers to propose to us in writing the Remedies appliable in their judgement which materials having all together and comparing one with another we shall discover that truth which we seeke that is whether Trade and Money decay or not and how to remedy it But I have one request more and so I will ease you of my losse of your time That when from all these Merchants we shall have before us so much matter and without such variety and perhaps not without private and partiall ends that then you will give me leave to represent to you the names of some generall and others dis-interessed and wel experienced in many particulars who may assist our judgements in all the premisses particularly in moneys and exchanges and give us great light to prepare our result and resolution to bee by the whole House of Commons represented to his Majesty and for expedition that a sub-Committee may be named to direct this Information from the Merchants THE LORD FAUKLAND His SPEECH Concerning EPISCOPACY MASTER SPEAKER he is a great stranger in Israel who knowes not that this Kingdome hath long laboured under many and great oppressions both in religion and liberty and his acquaintance here is not great or his ingenuity lesse who doth not both know and acknowledge that a great if not a principall cause of both these have beene some Bishops and their adherents Master Speaker a little search will serve to find them to have beene the destruction of unitie under pretence of uniformity to have brought in superstition and scandall under the titles of reverence and decency to have defil'd our Church by adorning our Churches to have slackned the strictnesse of that union which was formerly betweene us and those of our religion beyond the sea an action as unpoliticke as ungodly Master Speaker wee shall finde them to have Tith'd Mint and Anise and have left undone the weightier works of the Law to have been lesse eager upon those who damne our Church then upon those who upon weake conscience and perhaps as weake reasons the dislike of some commanded garment or some uncommanded posture onely abstained from it Nay it hath been more dangerous for men to goe to some neighbours Parish when they had no sermon in their owne then to be obstinate and perpetuall Recusants while Masses have been said in security a conventicle hath beene a crime and which is yet more the conforming to ceremonies hath beene more exacted then the conforming to Christianity and whilest men for scruples have beene undone for attempts upon Sodomie they have onely beene admonished Master Speaker we shall find them to have beene like the hen in Esop which laying every day an egge upon such a proportion of barly her Mistresse increasing her proportion in hope shee would encrease her egges shee grew so fat upon that addition that shee never laid more so though at first their preaching were the occasion of their preferment they after made their preferment the occasion of their not preaching Master Speaker we shall find them to have resembled another fable the dog in the manger to have neither preached themselves nor employ'd those that should nor suffered those that would to have brought in catechising only to thrust out preaching cryed downe Lectures by the name of Factions either because their industry in that duty appeared a reproofe to their neglect of it not unlike to that we read of him who in Nero's time and Tacitus his story was accused because by his vertue he did appeare Exprobrare vitia Principis or with intention to have brought in darknesse that they might the easier sow their tares while it was night and by that introduction of ignorance introduce the better that Religion which accompts it the Mother of devotion Master Speaker in this they have abused his Majesty as well as his people for when they had with great wisedome since usually the children of darknesse are wiser in their generation then the children of light I may guesse not without some eye upon the most politicke action of the most politicke Church silenced on both parts those opinions which have often tormented the Church and have and will alway trouble the schooles they made use of this declaration to tye up one side and let the other loose whereas they ought either in discretion to have beene equally restrained or in justice to have beene equally tolerated And it is observable that that party to which they gave this licence was that whose doctrine though it were not contrary to law was contrary to custome and for a long while in this Kingdome was no oftner preached then recanted The truth is Master Speaker that as some ill Ministers in our state first tooke away our mony from us and after indeavoured to make our mony not worth the taking by turning it into brasse by a kind of Antiphilosophers-stone so these men used us in the point of preaching first depressing it to their power and next labouring to
have conduc'd in nothing to our late innovations but in their silence some who in an unexpected and mighty place and power have expressed an equall moderation and humility being neither ambitious before nor proud after either of the Crosiers staffe or white staffe some who have beene learned opposers of Popery and zealous opposers of Arminianisme betweene whom and their inferiour Clergy in frequency of preaching hath been no distinction whose lives are untouched not onely by guilt but by malice scarce to be equall'd by those of any condition or to be excell'd by those in any Calendar I doubt not I say but if wee consider this this consideration will bring forth this conclusion That Bishops may be good men and let us give but good men good rules we shall have both good governours and good times Master Speaker I am content to take away all those things from them which to any considerable degree of probability may againe beget the like mischiefes if they be not taken away If their temporall titles power and employment appeare likely to distract them from the care of or make them looke downe with contempt upon their Spirituall duty and that the too great distance betweene them and those they governe will hinder the free and fit recourse of their inferiours to them and occasion insolence from them to their inferiours let that be considered and car'd for I am sure neither their Lordships their judging of tythes wills and marriages no nor their voyces in Parliaments are Jure divino and I am as sure that these titles and this power are not necessary to their authority as appeares by the little they have had with us by them and the much that others have had without them If their revenew shall appeare likely to produce the same effects for it hath beene anciently observ'd that Religio peperit divitias Filia devoravit matrem let so much of that as was in all probability intended for an attendant upon their temporall dignities wait upon them out of the doors Let us onely take care to leave them such proportions as may serve in some good degree to the dignity of learning and the encouragement of students and let us not invert that of Jeroboam and as he made the meanest of the people Priests make the highest of the Priests the meanest of the people If it be feared that they will againe employ some of our Lawes with a severity beyond the intention of those Lawes against some of their weaker Brethren that we may be sure to take away that power let us take away those Lawes and let no ceremonies which any number counts unlawfull and no man counts necessary against the rules of Policy and Saint Paul be imposed upon them Let us consider that part of the rule they have hitherto gone by that is such Canons of their owne making as are not confirm'd by Parliament have beene or no doubt shortly will bee by Parliament taken away that the other part of the rule such Canons as were here received before the reformation and not contrary to any law is too doubtfull to be a fit rule exacting an exact knowledge of the Canon-law of the Common-law of the Statute-law knowledges which those who are thus to governe have not and it is scarce fit they should have Since therefore wee are to make new rules and shall no doubt make those new rules strict rules and bee infallibly certaine of a trienniall Parliament to see those rules observ'd as strictly as they are made and to encrease or change them upon all occasions wee shall have no reason to feare any innovation from their tyranny or to doubt any defect in the discharge of their duty I am confident they will not dare either ordaine suspend silence excommunicate or deprive otherwise then we would have them And if this be beleeved I am as confident we shall not think it fit to abolish upon a few dayes debate an Order which hath lasted as appeares by story in most Churches these sixteene hundred yeares and in all from Christ to Calvin or in an instant change the whole face of the Church like the scene of a Maske Master Speakeâ— I doe not beleeve them to be Jure divino nay I beleeve them not to be Jure divino but neither doe I beleeve them to be Injuriâ humariâ I neither consider them as necessary nor as unlawfull but as convenient or inconvenient but since all great mutations in government are dangerous even where what is introduc'd by that mutation is such as would have beene very profitable upon a primary foundation and since the greatest danger of mutations is that all the dangers and inconveniences they may bring are not to be foreseene and since no wise man will undergoe great danger but for great necessity my opinion is that we should not root up this ancient tree as dead as it appeares till we have tryed whether by this or the like lopping of the branches the sap which was unable to feed the whole may not serve to make what is left both grow and flourish And certainely if we may at once take away both the inconveniences of Bishops and the inconvenience of no Bishops that is of an almost universall mutation this course can onely bee opposed by those who love mutation for mutations sake Master Speaker to be short as I have reason to be after having bin so long that this triall may be suddenly made let us commit as much of the Ministers remonstrance as we have read that those heads both of abuses and grievances which are there fully collected may be marshal'd and ordered for our debate if upon that debate it shall appeare that those may be taken away and yet the Order stand wee shall not need to commit the London Petition at all for the cause of it will be ended if it shall appeare that the abolition of the one cannot be but by the destruction of the other then let us not commit the London Petition but let us grant it Mr. PYM His SPEECH After the Articles of the Charge against the Earle of STRAFFORD were read My LORDS THese Articles have exprest the Character of a great and dangerous Treason such a one as is advanced to the highest degree of malice and of mischiefe It is enlarged beyond the limits of any description or definition it is so hainous in it selfe as that it is capable of no aggravation a Treason against God betraying his Truth and Worship against the King obscuring the glory and weakning the foundation of his Throne against the Common-wealth by destroying the principles of Safetie and Prosperitie Other Treasons are against the Rule of the Law this is against the beeing of the Law It is the Law that uâ—â—es the King and his People and the Author of this Treason hath endeavoured to dissolve that Union even to breake the mutuall irreversall indissoluble band of protection and Allegiance whereby they are and I hope ever will
bee bound together If this Treason had taken effect our Soules had been inthralled to the Spirituall Tyranny of Sathan our Consciences to the Ecclesiasticall Tyranny of the Pope our Lives our Persons and Estates to the Civill Tyranny of an arbitrary unlimited confused Government Treason in the least degree is an odious and a horrid Crime other Treasons are particular if a Fort bee betrayed or an Army or any other treasonable fact committed the Kingdome may out-live any of these this Treason would have dissolved the frame and beeing of the Common-wealth it is an Universall a Catholike Treason the venome and malignity of all other Treasons are abstracted digested sublimated into this The Law of this Kingdome makes the King to be the fountaine of Justice of Peace of Protection therefore we say the Kings Courts the Kings Judges the Kings Lawes The Royall Power and Majestie shines upon us in every publique blessing and benefit wee enjoy but the Author of this Treason would make him the fountaine of Injustice of Confusion of publike misery and calamitie The Gentiles by the light of Nature had some obscure apprehensions of the Deity of which they made this expression that hee was Deus optimus maximus an infinite goodnesse and an infinite greatnesse All soveraigne Princes have some Characters of Divinity imprinted on them they are set up in their dominions to bee Optimi Maximi that they should exercise a goodnesse proportionable to their greatnesse That Law terme Laesa Majestas whereby they expresse that which wee call Treason was never more thorowly fulfilled then now there cannot bee a greater laesion or diminution of Majestie then to bereave a King of the glory of his goodnesse It is goodnesse My Lords that can produce not onely to his people but likewise to himself honour and happiness There are Principalities Thrones and Dominions amongst the Divels greatness enough but being uncapable of goodness they are made uncapable both of honour and happinesse The Lawes of this Kingdome have invested the Royall Crowne with power sufficient for the manifestation of his goodness and of his greatness if more bee required it is like to have no other effects but povertie weaknesse and miserie whereof of late wee have had very wofull experience It is farre from the Commons to desire any abridgement of those great Prerogatives which belong to the King they know that their own Liberty Peace are preserved and secured by his Prerogative they will alwayes be ready to support and supply his Majesty with their lives and fortunes for the maintenance of his just and lawfull Power This My Mords is in all our thoughts in our prayers and I hope will so be manifested in our indeavours that if the proceedings of this Parliament bee not interrupted as others have beene the King may within a few moneths bee put into a cleare way of as much greatnesse plenty and glory as any of his Royall Ancestors have enjoyed A King and his People make one Body the inferiour parts conferre nourishment and strength the superiour sense and motion If there be an interruption of this necessary intercourse of bloud and spirits the whole Body must needs bee subject to decay and distemper therefore obstructions are first to bee removed before restoratives can be applyed This My Lords is the end of this Accusation whereby the Commons seeke to remove this person whom they conceive to have beene a great cause of the obstructions betwixt his Majesty and his People for the effecting whereof they have commanded mee to desire your Lordships that their proceedings against him may bee put into as speedy a way of dispatch as the courses of Parliaments will allow First that hee may bee called to answer and they may have liberty to reply that there may bee a quick and secret examination of witnesses and they may from time to time bee acquainted with the depositions that so when the cause shall bee ripe for Judgement they may collect the severall Examinations and represent to your Lordships in one entire Body the state of the Proofes as now by mee they have presented to you the state of the Charge Mr. PYM his SPEECH After the Articles of the Charge against Sr. GEORGE RATCLIFFE were read My LORDS BY hearing this Charge your Lordships may perceive what neere conjunction there is betweene this Cause and the Earle of STRAFFORDS the materials are for the most part the same in both the offences of the Earle moving from an higher Orb are more comprehensive they extend both to England and Ireland these except in one particular of reducing of England by the Irish Army are confined within one Kingdome the Earle is charged as an Authour Sir GEORGE RATCLIFFE as an Instrument and subordinate Actor The influences of superiour Planets are often augmented and inforced but seldome mitigated by the concurrence of the inferiour where merit doth arise not from well-doing but from ill the officiousnesse of ministers will rather adde to the malignity of their Instructions then diminish it that so they may more fully ingratiate themselves with those upon whom they depend In the crimes committed by the Earle there appears more haughtinesse and fiercenesse being acted by his owne principles those motions are ever strongest which are neerest the Primum mobile But in those of Sir GEORGE RATCLIFFE there seemes to be more basenesse and servility having resigned and subjected himselfe to bee acted by the corrupt will of onother The Earle of STRAFFORD hath not beene bred in the study and practice of the Law and having stronger lusts and passions to incite and lesse knowledge to restraine him might more easily be transported from the Rule Sir GEORGE RATCLIFFE in his naturall temper and disposition more moderate and by his education and profession better acquainted with the grounds and directions of the Law was carried into his offences by a more immediate Concurrence of will and a more corrupt suppression of his owne Reason and Judgement My Lords as both these have beene partners in offending so it is the desire of the Commons they may bee put under such tryall and examination and other proceedings of justice as may bring them to partake in a deserved punishment for the safety and good of both Kingdomes Mr SPEAKERS SPEECH At the presenting of these three BILLS viz. An Act For the shortning of Michaelmas Terme For the pressing of Mariners for the Kings Ships For the remainder of the six entire Subsidies May it please your most excellent Majesty THE great security of the Kingdome rests in the happy concurrence of the King and people in the unity of their hearts These joyned safety and plenty attends the Scepter but divided distraction and confusion as Bryers and Thorns overspreads and makes the Land barren No peace to the King No prosperity to the people The duties and affections of your subjects are most transparent most cleare in the cheerfull and most liberall contributions given to knit fast this union with
My Lord Keeper did first let us know that his Majesty had commanded the Lords Commissioners of the great Councell to give an account of their Treaties at Yorke and Rippon to both Houses and of his Majesties gracious intentions in a businesse so much importing the honour and safety of the Kingdome that there might be made a faithfull relation with all candor and clearnesse which was the summe of his Majesties instructions His Lordship declaring that my Lords of the upper House for the saving of time had thought fit to give this account to a Committee of both Houses which hath occasioned the meeting at this Conference and election being made of the Earle of Bristoll by the Lords Commissioners he began his Narration directed to the Lords of the upper House and to the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the house of Commons and thus the Earle of Bristoll began That the Lords Commissioners intended not to looke further back into the businesse then the Acts of their own imployments They did intend to give no account of the pacification interrupted nor war renewed no account how the Armies in England Ireland and by Sea were designed nor of any occasion They purposed not to lay fault upon any man nor to enquire into the cause why the Scots as they pretended from necessity were drawne to enter this Kingdome nor why the Kings Army when service was to be done was out of the way But that those through whose hands these have passed might hereafter give their own account His Lordship told us that his Majesty was pleased to call his great Councell at Yorke to whom he made two propositions The first was how his Army which seemed to be in distresse for want of pay should be relieved and maintained To this to shew their duties to the King the Lords resolved to ingage themselves and to that purpose to send chosen Deputies to London to negotiate a supply The second proposition was that after the Scots had passed Northumberland taken Newcastle and possessed the Bishopricke of Duresme they sent a Petition to his Majesty which containeth in generall termes a desire to have their grievances taken into consideration Which Petition and Answer thereunto was read unto us A. N. A. and presented for our clearer understanding Upon receipt of his Majesties Answer the Scotish Lords sent his Majesty a second Petition directed in a Letter to the Earle of Lanrick K. Q. in which they made their particular demands and declared that according to his Majesties command they would advance no further and this Petition was also read and delivered unto us of which his Lordship desired that great Assembly to take especiall notice for that much of the future discourse would depend upon it The businesse thus stated at the great Councell the second proposition was what Answer should be made to that Petionary Letter and in what manner it should be carried In which his Majesty required their Councell Whereupon the Lords replyed that it was impossible for them to give any well grounded advice unlesse the true state of his affaires and the Condition of his Army were laid before them Whereupon his Majesty commanded the Earle of Traquaire N. L. to make the Narration of the Scotish businesse and their late Acts of Parliament and the Lord Lievtenant generall to give an account in what condition the Army stood and what was answered by my Lord Lievtenant was read in his owne words Besides this declaration the Earle of Bristoll delivered upon a further enquiry how the state of the businesse then stood That the Scots Army had passed Northumberland without resistance that they had disputed the passage of the River of Tyne at Newburne where our horse retyred in disorder that his Majesties foot Army consisting of twelve or fourteene thousand men in Newcastle likewise retired to Yorke whereby the Towne of Newcastle a place of great consideration was without one stroke strucken fallen into the Scots hands and the Bishopricke of Duresme drawn under Contribution That in this state the Gentry of the Bishopricke repayred to Master Treasurer who carryed them to his Majesty from whom they were referred to my Lord Lievtenant of the Army who gave them this answer positively That they could looke for no help nor protection from the King and therefore they might use the best meanes they could to preserve their lives and estates Whereby those distressed Provinces the ancient Bulwarks of this Kingdome full of brave and valiant men being now fallen into the power of an Army which of necessity must live were forced to consent to a contribution by Treaty and a very heavy one though such without which the Scotish Army could not subsist The agreement was 350. l. a day for the Bishopricke of Duresme 300. l. a day for Northumberland 200. a day for the Towne of Newcastle in all 850. l. a day which should it continue would amount unto 300000. l. for one yeare These Gentlemen much lamented their estates that the Scots should be irritated as they call it by being proclaimed Traytors His Lordship made a little digression and asked leave to speake truth in such language as the Scots had presented their state unto them That having proclamation made against them being threatned with a great Army of thirty or forty thousand men another of ten thousand out of Ireland and by Parliament declared Traytors and Rebels and having heard of another Army providing of eight or ten thousand by shipping to hinder their Trade at least their Commerce with England that they were drawne together by necessity as they pretended of defence further alledging that it was a common discourse of which they had seene papers that they should bee reduced into a Province which would be but one Summers worke and therefore they having drawne their power together as any Nation would doe and being assembled and their Country being poore taking advantage of the time and that all those Armies that should oppose them were out of the way and those unfortunate Provinces left like a list of Cloath they were forced to enter in England that thus they had lamented and thus the state stood before the Lords when it was examined in the great Councell Thus their Lordships found that the Scots had increased their confines neere fourescore miles in England and had passed the Rivers of Tweed and Tyne and that the River of Tees the boundary of Yorkeshire Duresme being possessed was not to be defended being foordable in many places by forty horse a front that if the Scots should passe that River there was no possibility to hinder them from comming to Yorke or to any part of England without hazarding a Battell which my Lord Lievtenant had declared unto them he would not advise for though the Kings Army consisted of seventeene or eighteene thousand good bodies of men yet being untrained and unused to Armes he would be loath to hazzard such an Adventure upon them but if they
should advance to Yorke hee might make good that Citie This being the case as it was presented my Lords advised his Majesty that they conceived the fittest way was that the Scots and their grievances might bee heard And whereas their maine Complaint had beene that their Petitions to his Majesty had beene conveyed by Conduits of an evill rellish that there might be chosen such Lords Commissioners of whose integrity they could not doubt Whereupon his Majesty was pleased to referre the choyce of the Commissioners to the great Councell who made the election with the assent of his Majesty The Commissioners names N. B. to whom power was given under the great seale of England to heare whatsoever the Scots would lay before them and to enter into Treatie with them and to give safe conducts and to do all things preparatory to a Treaty The first place of meeting was appointed at North-Allerton but some inconveniences being found it was by consent transferred to Rippon For the inducement of this meeting N. B. a Letter of the Lord Lanricks to the Scots Commissioners was read and given unto us The Treaty thus settled the Lords to be imployed receiving instructions from his Majesty by the consent of the great Councell it was agreed they should treat upon the whole businesse propounded by the Scots and left to their discretion to treate of a Cessation of Arms as the ordinary fore-runner of all Treaties of Peace When their Lordships came to Rippon the Cessation of Armes was the first proposed but being entered upon it the Scots Commissioners did let their Lordships know that there was something necessary first to be done that the Countreys where they lay were become poore that they could not thinke as their affaires stood of returning home that his Majesty had restrayned them from passing further so that a Treaty in this Exigent was worse then a Warre unlesse meanes might be thought upon how they might subsist and hereupon they did propound that if it were expected that they made no further progresse therein obeying his Majesties command which nothing but invincible necessity should force them to transgresse by plundring the Countreys they must have maintenance for their Army This motion seemed very strange to their Lordships that it should be demanded to provide a maintenance for the Scots when the Kings owne Army was in great distresse yet the necessity seemed to be such on both sides that the Lords appointed some of their Company to repaire to the King at Yorke to acquaint his Majesty with the Scots demand Upon debate of the businesse though it were of hard digestion to his Majesty the Lords and the whole Kingdome that they whose Ancestors had been called to advise upon the Ransome of Kings should now come to consult how to maintaine an Army got into our owne bowels Therefore their Lordships would not proceed without the knowledge of his Majesty and the great Councell where it was found necessary not for maintaining the Scots Armies for they might easily supply their owne wants by plundring in which course they might get a million whereas five thousand pounds would serve but for two months but to preserve the Countreys from utter ruine and the Scots from further advancing to give to their Lordships Commission to treate for a competency of maintenance during the Treaty The first demand was forty thousand pounds a moneth which by Treaty was reduced thus That instead of giving them any allowance they should bee left to their proportion of that contribution already agreed upon by the Counties as lesse dishonourable then to assigne them maintenance This point being thus settled N. D. E. their Lordships proceeded to the Treaty of Sessions and both were agreed and concluded his Lordship proposing the Articles themselves to bee read for more satisfaction His Lordship proceeded that these preparatives being settled at Rippon twenty miles from Yorke and the time far spent and the Parliament approaching their Lordships resolved to bee humble suitors to his Majesty that the generall Treaty might be transferred to London by consent of both parties thereunto agreeing Here his Lordship proposed the reading of a Letter whereby this translation of the Treaty was moved which was done and delivered unto us To this Letter his Majesty made a gracious answer and consented to transferre the Treaty to London where some of the Scots Commissioners are already arrived and the rest within a day or two expected Their Lordships having proceeded in the Treaty as far as they could goe repaired to Yorke and both Articles concluded were read in his Majesties presence and that they declared that they had in all things punctually observed their Instructions whereupon his Majesty required them to give their counsell whether he should ratifie and signe these Articles or not To which the Lords made answer that they had served his Majesty in quality of Commissioners Ambassadours and had duly observed their Instructions but now He being pleased to aske their advice they would bee glad to serve him according to their consciences and therefore besought his Majesty for leave to retire themselves and consult of the businesse to which his Majesty was graciously pleased to consent Upon resolution considering the great strait into which his Majesties affaires were reduced they concluded to advise his Majesty to signe and craved leave to present unto his Majesty a declaration of their reasons which were accepted and read in the great Councell And their Lordships held it necessary to bee read againe in that great Assembly N. G. as the rest of their Councell These reasons being read his Majesty was pleased to ratifie the Articles in expresse words also read unto us His Lordship concluded this Narrative as the full account of the Treaty N. D. and proceeding in it to his Majesties ratification and craved leave in the next place to present the hard and wofull condition in which his Majesties affaires then stood in the North First that by consent a contribution of 850. l. a day was agreed That there was already some doubt that the Countries were not able to beare it On the other side it was objected by the Scots that it was impossible if the payment should faile to keepe their promise or to obey his Majesty but that they should be necessitated against their will to plunder the Country These doubts considered it was declared by my Lord Lievtenant that the Counties of Cumberland and Westmerland being at pleasure under the Scots power it was reasonable that in subsidium they should contribute some helpe to their Neighbours But hee declared since their Lordships coming away the Commissioners left at Duresme had written that it was impossible for them to proceed in the agreement which if it were broken on their part the Scots would alledge an impossibility to consent to starve so that if some meanes were not found by which those Counties engaged might bee relieved hee was affraid all their labour and Treaty
This it was Master Speaker His advising the King to employ the Army of Ireland to reduce England This I was assured would be proved before I gave my consent to his accusation I was confirmed in the same beliefe during the prosecution and fortified in it most of all since Sir Henry Vaines preparatory examinations by the assurances which that worthy member Mr. Pymme gave me that his Testimony would be made convincing by some notes of what passed at the Junto concurrent with it which I ever understanding to be of some other Counsellour you see now prove but a Copie of the same Secretaries notes discover'd and produc't in the manner you have heard and those Such disioynted fragments of the venemous part of discourses no results no conclusions of Counsels which are the onely things that Secretaries should register there being no use at all of the other but to accuse and to bring men into danger But Sir this is not that which overthrowes the evidence with mee concerning the Army of Ireland nor yet that all the rest of the Iunto upon their oathes remember nothing of it But this Sir which I shall tell you is that which works with mee under favour to an utter overthrow of his evidence as unto that of the Army of Ireland Before whil'st I was a prosecutor and under tye of Secrecie I might not discover any weakenesse of the cause which now as a Judge I must Master Secretary was examined thrice upon Oath at the preparatory Committee The first time he was questioned to all the Interrogatories and to that part of the seventh which concernes the Army of Ireland he said positively in these words I cannot charge him with that But for the rest he desires time to recollect himselfe which was granted him Some dayes after he was examined a second time and then deposes these words concerning the Kings being absolved from rules of government and so forth very clearely But being prest to that part concerning the Irish Army againe can say nothing to that Here wee thought wee had done with him till divers weeks after my Lord of Northumberland and all others of the Junto denying to have heard any thing concerning those words of reducing England by the Irish Army it was thought fit to examine the Secretary once more and then he deposes these words to have beene said by the Earle of Strafford to his Majestie You have an Army in Ireland which you may imploy here to reduce or some word to that sence this Kingdome Mr. Speaker these are the circumstances which I confesse with my Conscience thrust quite out of dores that grand Article of our charge concerning his desperate advice to the King of employing the Irish Army here Let not this I beseech you be driven to an aspersion upon Master Secretary as if he should have sworn otherwise then he knew or beleeved hee is too worthy to doe that onely let thus much be inferr'd from it that hee who twice upon Oath with time of recollection could not remember any thing of such a businesse might well a third time misremember somewhat and in this businesse the difference of one Letter here for there or that for this quite alters the case the latter also being the more probable since it is confest of all hands that the debate then was concerning a warre with Scotland and you may remember that at the Bar he once said to employ there And thus Mr. Speaker I have faithfully given you an account what it is that hath blunted the edge of the Hatchet or Bill with me towards my Lord of Strafford This was that whereupon I accused him with a free heart prosecuted him with earnestnesse and had it to my understanding beene proved should have condemned him with innocence Whereas now I cannot satisfie my conscience to doe it I professe I can have no notion of any bodies intent to subvert the Lawes treasonably or by force and this designe of force not appearing all his other wicked practises cannot amount so high with me I can finde a more easie and more naturall spring from whence to derive all his other Crimes then from an intent to bring in Tyrannie and to make his owne posterity as well as us Slaves as from revenge from Pride from Avarice from Passion and insolence of Nature But had this of the Irish Army been proved it would have diffused a complexion of Treason over all it would have beene a With indeed to bind all those other scattered and lesser branches as it were into a Faggot of Treason I doe not say but the rest may represent him a man as worthy to dye and perhaps worthier then many a Traytor I doe not say but they may justly direct us to Enact that they shall be Treason for the future But God keepe mee from giving judgement of death on any Man and of ruine to his innocent Posterity upon a Law made â posteriori Let the mark be set on the dore where the Plague is and then let him that will enter dye I know Master Speaker there is in Parliament a double power of life and death by Bill a judiciall power and a Legislative the measure of the one is what 's Legally just of the other what is prudentially and politickly fit for the good and preservation of the whole But those two under favour are not to be confounded in Judgement Wee must not peece up want of Legality with matter of convenience nor the defailance of prudentiall fitnesse with a pretence of legall Justice To condemne my Lord of Strafford judicially as for Treason my conscience is not assured that the matter will bear it And to doe it by the Legislative power my reason consultively cannot agree to that since I am perswaded neither the Lords nor the King will passe the Bill and consequently that our passing it will be a cause of great divisions and combustions in the State And therefore my humble advice is that laying aside this Bill of Attainder we may think of another saving only life such as may secure the State from my Lord of Strafford without endangering it as much by division concerning his punishment as he hath endangered it by his practices If this may not be hearkned unto let me conclude in saying that unto you all which I have throughly inculcated to mine owne conscience upon this occasion Let every man lay his hand upon his heart and sadly consider what we are going to doe with a breath either justice or murther justice on the one side or murther heightned and aggravated to its supreamest extent For as the Casuists say that he who lyes with his sister commits incest but he that marries his sister sinnes higher by applying Gods Ordinance to his crime So doubtlesse he that commits murther with the sword of Justice heightens that crime to the utmost The danger being so great and the case so doubtfull that I see the best Lawyers in diametrall opposition concerning it
him with a kinde of compulsion the hearts of the multitude But that was the least part of my study which now makes me call to minde that the greater the persons are in authority the sooner they are catcht in any delinquency and their smallest crimes are striven to be made capitall the smallest spot seems great in the finest linnen and the least flaw is soonest found in the richest Diamond But high and noble spirits finding themselves wounded grieve not so much at their own pain and perplexity as at the deriding and scoffing of their enemy but for mine own part though I might have many in my life I hope to finde none in my death Amongst other things which pollute and contaminate the mindes of great spirits there is none more haynous than Ambition which is seldome unaccompanied without A varice Such to possesse their ends care not to violate the Laws of Religion and Reason and to break the bonds of modesty and equity which the neerest tyes of Consanguinity and Amity of which as I have been guilty so I crave at Gods hands forgivenesse It is a Maxime in Philosophy that ambitious men can be never good Counsellors to Princes the desire of having more is common to great Lords and a desire of Rule a great cause of their Ruine My Lords I am now the hopelesse President may I be to you all an huppy example For Ambition devoureth gold and drinketh blood and climbeth so high by other mens heads that at the length in the fall it breaketh its own neck therefore it is better to live in humble content than in high care and trouble For more precious is want with honesty than wealth with infamy For what are we but meer vapours which in a serene Element ascend high and upon an instant like smoke vanish into nothing or like Ships without Pilots â—ost up and down upon the Seas by contrary windes and tempests But the good husbandman thinks better of those ears of Corn which bow down and grow crooked than those which are straight and upright because he is assured to finde more store of grain in the one than in the other This all men know yet of this how few make use The defect whereof must be now my pain may my suffering prove to others profit For what hath now the favour of my Prince the familiarity with my Peers the volubility of a tongue the strength of my memory my learning or knowledge my honours or Offices my power and potency my riches and treasure all these especiall gifts both of Nature and Fortune what have all these profitted me Blessings I acknowledge though by God bestowed upon man yet not all of them together upon many yet by the Divine providence the most of them met in me of which had I made happy use I might still have flourish't who now am forc'd immaturely to fall I now could wish but that utinam is too late that God with his outward goodnesse towards me had so commixed his inward grace that I had chused the Medium path neither inclining to the right hand nor deviating to the left but like Icarus with my waxen wings fearing by too low a flight to moisten them with the Waves I soared too high and too neer the Sun by which they being melted I ayming at the highest am precipitated to the lowest and am made a wretched prey to the Waters But I who before built my house upon the sand have now setled my hopes upon the Rock my Saviour by whose onely merits my sole trust is that whatsoever becomes of my body yet in this bosome my soul may be Sanctuaried Nintrod would have built a Tower to reach up to heaven and call'd it Babel but God turned it to the confusion of Languages and dissipation of the people Pharaoh kept the Children of Israel in bondage and after having freed them in his great pride would have made them his prey but God gave them a dry and miraculous passage and Pharaoh and his boast a watry Sepulcher Belshazzer feasted his Princes and Prostitutes who drunk healths in the Vessels taken from the Temple but the hand of God writ upon the wall Mene Tekel Phoras and that night before morning was both his Kingdom and life taken from him Thus God lets men go on a great while in their own devices but in the end it prove their own ruine and destruction never suffering them to effect their desired purposes therefore let none presume upon his power glory in his greatnesse or be too confident in his riches These things were written for our Instruction of which the living may make use the dying cannot but wit and unfruitfull wisedome are the next neighbours to folly There can be no greater vanity in the world than to esteem the world which regardeth no man and to make slight account of God who greatly respecteth all men and there can be no greater folly in man than by much Travell to increase his goods and pamper his body and in the interim with vain delights and pleasures to lose his soul It is a great folly in any man to attempt a bad beginning in hope of a good ending and to make that proper to one which was before common to all is meer indiscretion and the beginning of discord which I positively wish may enâ— in this my punishment O how small a proportion of earth will contain my body when my high minde could not be confined within the spacious compasse of two Kingdoms But my hour draweth on and I conclude with the Psalmist not ayming at any one man in particular but speaking for all in generall How long will you Judges be corrupted how long will ye cease to give true judgement c. Blessed is the man that doth not walk in the Councell of the wicked nor stand in the way of sinners nor sâ—t in the seat of the scornfall therefore they shall not stand in the Judgement nor sinners in the Assembly of the righteous c. About the hours of 10 and 11 a Clock the foresaid Lord of Strafford was conveyed to the Scaffold on Tower-Hill where was a Court of Guard made by the severall Companies of Souldiers of the City of London and the Hamlets of the Tower on each side as he passed to the Scaffold before marched the Marshals men to make way then the Sheriffs of Londons Officers with their Halberds after them the Kings Guard or Warders of the Tower Next came one of his Gentlemen bare hâ—aded in mourning Habit the Lord Strafford following him clad in black cloth with divers others in the same habit which were his attenâ—â—â—ts then the Lord Bishop of Armagh and other good Divines with the Sheriffs of London and divers honorable personages When he came upon the Scaffold he there shewed himself on each side to all the people and made this short speech with as much alacrity of Spirit as could be expressed Viz. The Lord Wentworths speech on the Scaffold
MY Lord Primate of Ireland and my Lords and the rest of these noble Gentlemen It is a great comfort to me to have your Lordships by me this day because I have been known to yours long time and I now desire to be heard a few words I come here my Lords to pay my last debt to sin which is death and through the mercies of God to rise again in eternall glory My Lords if I may use a few words I shall take it as a great curtesie from you I am come here my Lords to submit to the judgement that is passed against me I do it with a very quiet and contented minde I do freely forgive all the world a forgivenesse not from the teeth outwards as they say but from my heart I speak it in the presence of Almighty God before whom I stand that there is not a displeasing thought that arifeth in me against any man I thank God I say truely my conscience bears me witnesse that in all the honour I had to serve his Majesty I had not any intention in my heart but did aime at the joynt and individuall prosperity of the King and his people although it be my ill hap to be misconstrued I am not the first man that hath suffered in this kinde it is a common portion that befalls men in this life righteous judgement shall be hereafter here we are subject to errors and misiudging one another One thing I desire that I might be heard and do hope that for Christian charities sake I shall be beleeved That I was so farre from being against Parliaments that I alwayes did think Parliaments in England to be the happy constitutions of the Kingdome and Nation and the best means under God to make the King and his people happy As for my death I do hear acquit all the world and beseech God to forgive them In particular I am very glad his Majesty conceives me not meriting so severe and heavy a punishment as the utmost execution of this sentence I do infinitely rejoyce in it and in the mercy of his and do beseech God to return to him the same that he may finde mercy when he hath most need of it I wish this Kingdom all prosperity and happinesse in the world I did it living and now dying it is my wish And I professe heartily and do humbly recommend it to you and wish that every man would lay his hand on his heart and consider seriously whether the beginning of the peoples happinesse should be written in letters of bloud I fear they are in a wrong way I desire Almighty God that no one drop of my bloud rise up in judgement against them I have but one word more and that is for my Religion My Lord of Armagh I do professe my self seriously faithfully and truly to be an obedient sonne of the Church of England in that Church I was borne and bred in that Religion I have lived and now in that I dye prosperity and happinesse be ever to it It hath been said I was inclined to Popery if it be an obiection worth the answering let me say truly from my heart that since the time that I was 21. yeers of age unto this day going on 49. yeers I never had thought or doubt of the truth of this Religion nor had ever any the boldnesse to suggest to me the contrary to my best remembrance and so being reconciled to the mercies of Christ Jesus my Saviour into whose bosome I hope shortly to be gathered to enioy eternall happinesse which shall never have end I desire heartily to be forgiven of every man if any rash or unadvised words or deeds hath passed and desire all your prayers and so my Lord farewell and farewell all things in this world The Lord strengthen my faith and give me confidence and assurance in the merits of Christ Jesus I trust in God we shall all meete to live eternally in Heaven and receive the accomplishment of all happinesse where every fear shall be wiped from our eyes and sad thought from our hearts And so God blesse this Kingdome and Jesus have meroy on my soul Then turning himself about he saluted all the Noblemen and took a solemne leave of all considerable persons on the Scaffold giving them his hand And after that he said Gentlemen I would say my prayers and I intreat you all to pray with me and for me then his Chaplain laid the book of Common-prayer upon the chair before him as he kneeled down on which he praied almost a quarter of an houre then he prayed as long or longer without a book and ended with the Lords prayer then standing up he spies his brother Sir George Wentworth and cals him to him and saith brother we must part remember me to my sister and to my wife and carry my blessing to my eldâ—st sonne and charge him from me that he fear God and continue an obedient sonne of the Church of England and that he should approve himself a faithfull subject to the King and tell him that he should not have any private grudge or revenge towards any concerning me and bid him beware that he medle not with Church livings for that will prove a moth and canker to him in his estate and wish him to content himself to be a servant to his Country as a Justice of peace in his County and not aiming at higher preferments carry my blessing also to my daughters Anne and Arrabella charge them to fear and serve God and he will blesse them not forgetting my little Infant that yet knowes neither good nor evill and cannot speak for it self God speak for it and blesse it then sayd he now I have nigh done one stroke will make my wife husbandlesse my dear children fatherles and my poore servants master lesse and seperate me from my dear brother and all my friends but let God be to you and them all in all After that going to take off his doublet and to make himselfe unready he sayd I thank God I am no more afraid of death nor daunted with any discouragements rising from any fears but do as cheerfully put off my doublet at this time or ever I did when I went to bed Then he put off his doublet and wound up his hair with his hands and put on a white cap. Then he called where is the man that should do this last office meaning the Executioner call him to me When he came and askt him forgivenesse he told him he forgave him and all the World Then kneeling down by the block he went to prayer again himself the Bishop of Armagh kneeling on the one side and the Minister on other to the which Minister after prayer he turned himself and spoke some few words softly having his hands lifted up this Minister closed his hands with his then bowing himself to the earth to lay his head on the blocke he told the Executioner that he would first lay down his hâ—ad to
offences were contrived committed perpetrated and done at such time as the said Sir Richard Bolton Sir Gerard Lowther and Sir George Radcliffe Knights were privy Counsellors of State within this Kingdom and against their and every of their oathes of the same at such times as the said Sir R. Bolton Kt. was Lord Chancellor of Ireland or chief Baron of his Majesties Court of Exchequer within this Kingdom and Sir Gerard Lowther Knight was Lord chief Justice of the said Court of Common Pleas and against their Oathes of the same and at such time as the said John L. Bishop of Derry was actuall Bishop of Derry within this Kingdom and were done and speciated contrary to their and every of their allegiance severall and respective oathes taken in that behalf IV. For which the said Knights Citizens and Burgesses do impeach the said Sir Richard Bolton Lord Chancellor of Ireland Iohn L. B. of Derry Sir Gerard Lowther Kt. L. chief Justice of his Majesties said Court of Common Pleas and Sir George Radcliffe Kt. aforesaid and every of them of high Treason against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity The said Knights Citizens and Burgesses by Protestation saving to themselves the liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any accusation or impeachment against the said Sir Rich. Bolton Iohn L. Bishop of Derry Sir Gerard Lowther and Sir George Radcliffe aforesaid and every of them and also of replying to them and every of their answers which they and every of them shall make to the said Articles or any of them and of offering proof also of the premisses or of any other impeachment or accusation as shall be by them exhibited as the case shall according to the course of Parliament require And the said Knights Citizens and Burgesses do pray that the said Sir Richard Bolton Knight Lord Chancellor of Ireland Iohn Lord Bishop of Derry Sir Gerard Lowther Knight Lord chief Justice of his Majesties said Court of Common Pleas and Sir George Radcliffe Knight and every of them be put to answer to all and every of the premisses and that all such Proceedings Examinations Triall and Iudgement may be upon them and every of them had and used as is agreeable to Law and Justice Copia vera Signed PHILIP PHERNESLY Cler. Parliamenti Sir Thomas Wentworths speech XXij d. Martij 1627. MAy this dayes resolution be as happy as I conceive the proposition which now moves me to rise is seasonable and necessary for whether we shall look upon the King or the people it did never more behove this great Physitian the Parliament to effect a true consent towards the parties then now This debate carryes with it a double aspect towards the Soveraign towards the Subject though both innocent both injured both to be cured In the representation of injuries I shall crave your attention in the Cures I shall beseech your equall cares and better judgements surely in the greatest humility I speak it these illegall waies are marks and punishments of indignation The raising of Leavies strengthned by Commission with unheard of instructions the billetting of Souldiers by Lievetenants without leave have been as if they could have perswaded Christian Princes nay Worlds the right of Empire had been to take a way by strong hand and they have endeavoured as far as was possible for them to do it This hath not been done by the King under the pleasing shade of whose Crown I hope we shall ever gather the fruits of Justice but by Projectors They have extended the prerogative of the King beyond the just Center which was the sweet harmony of the whole They have rent from us the light of our eyes inforced a company of Guests worse than the Ordinaries of France vitiated our wives and daughters before our faces brought the Crown to greater want than ever it was by anticipating the Revenue and can the Shephard be thus smitten and the flock not scattered They have introduced a Privie Counsell ravishing at once the Spheers of all ancient government imprisoning us without Bail or Bond. They have taken from us what shall I say indeed what have â—hey left us all mean of supplying the King and ingratiating our selves with him taking up the roots of all propriety which if it be not seasonably set into the ground by his Maiesties hand we shâ—ll have instead of beauty baldnesse To the making of them whole I shall apply my self and propound a remedy to all these diseases by one and the same thing hath the King and people been hurt and by the same must they be cured to vindicate what New things No. Our ancient sober vitall liberties by reinforcing of the ancient Lawes made by our Ancestors by setting such a Character upon them as no licentious spirit shall dare hereafter to enter upon them And shall we thinke this away to break a Parliament Nâ— Our desires are modest and iust I speak truly both for the interest of the King and People If we enjoy not those it will be impossible to relieve him Therefore let us never fear that they shall not be accepted by his goodnesse Wherefore I shall descend to my motions which conconsists of four parts two of which have relation to the persons two to the propriety of goods for the persons the freedome of them from imprisoning Secondly from employments abroad contrary to the ancient customes for our goods that no leavies may be made but in Parliament Secondly no billetting of Souldiers It is most necessary that these be resolved that the Subiects may be secured in both Then for the manner in the second place it will be fit to determine it by a Grand Committee Sir Thomas Wentworths Speech 21. of Aprill Anno 1628. Right wise Right worthy TOo many instigations importune the sequell of my words First the equitie of your proceedings Secondly the honesty of my request for I behold in all your intendments a singularity grounded upon discretion and goodnesse and your consultations steered as well by Charity as extremity of justice This order and method I say of your procedings together with the importunity offered of the Subject in hand have emboldned me to solicite an extension of the late granted protections in generall The lawfulnesse and honesty of the propositions depends upon these two particulars I. The present troubles of the parties protected having run themselves into a further and almost irrecoverable hazards by presuming upon and feeding themselves with the hopes of a long continuing Parliament II. Let the second be this consequence That that which is prejudiciall to most ought to minister matter of advantage to the rest sith then our interpellations and disturbances amongst our selves are displeasing almost to all if any benefit may be collected let it fall upon those for I think the breach of our Session can befriend none but such nor such neither but by means of the grant before hand And because it is probable that his Majesty may cause a Remeeting
the making of this Act and as if this Act had never been had or made Saving alwayes unto all and singular persons and bodies politique and corporall their Heirs and Successors others than the said Earl and his heirs and such as claim by from or under him all such right title and interest of in and to all and singular such of the said Lands Tenements and Hereditaments as he they or any of them had before the first day of this present Parliament any thing herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding Provided that the passing of this present Act and his Maiesties assent thereunto shall not be any determination of this present Sessions of Parliament but that this present Sessions of Parliament and all Bills and matters whatsoever depending in Parliament and not fully enacted or determined And all Statutes and Acts of Parliament which have their continuance untill the end of this present Session of Parliament shall remain continue and be in full force as if this Act had not been The first Speech concerning the the right of Bishops to sit in Parliament May 21. 1641. My Lords I Shall take the boldnesse to speak a word or two upon this subject first as it is in it self then as it is in the consequence For the former I think he is a great stranger in Antiquity that is not well acquainted with that of their sitting here they have done thus and in this manner almost since the conquest and by the same power and the same right the other Peers did and your Lordships now do and to be put from this their due so much their due by so many hundred yeers strengthned and confirmed and that without any offence nay pretence of any seems to me to be very severe if it be jus I dare boldly say it is summum That this hinders their Ecclefiasticall vocation an argument I heare much of hath in my apprehension more of shadow then in substance in it if this be a reason sure I am it might have been one six hundred yeers ago A Bishop my Lords is not so circumscribed within the circumference of his Diocesse that his sometimes absence can be termed not in the most strict sense a neglect or hindrance of his duty no more than that of a Zievetenant from his Count y they both have their subordinate Ministers upon which their influences fall though the distance be remote Besides my Lords the lesser must yeeld to the greater good to make wholesome and good Lawes for the happy and well regulating of the Church and Common-wealth is certainly more advantagious to both then the want of the personall execution of their office and that but once in three years and then peradventure but a moneth or two can be prejudiciall to either I will go no further to this which experience hath done so fully so demonstratively And now my Lords by your Lordships good leave I shall speak to the consequence as it reflects both on your Lordships and my Lords the Bishops Dangers and inconveniencies are ever best prevented è longinquo this president comes neer to your Lordships and such a one mutato nomine de vobis Pretences are never wanting nay sometimes the greatest evils appeare in the most faire and specious out-sides witnesse the Shipmony the most abominable the most illegall thing that ever was and yet this was painted over with colour of the Law what Bench is secure if to alleage be to convine and which of your Lordships can say then he shall continue a member of this House when at one blow twenty six are cut off It then behoves the Neighbour to look about him cum proximus ardet Vcalegon And for the Bishops my Lords in what condition will you leave them The House of Commons represents the meanest person so did the Master his slave but they have none to do so much for them and what justice can tie them to the observation of those Lawes to whose constitution they give no consent the wisdome of former times gave proxies unto this House meerly upon this ground that every one might have a hand in the making of that which he had an obligation to obey This House could not represent therefore proxies in roome of persons were most justly allowed And now my Lords before I conclude I beseech your Lordships to cast your eyes upon the Church which I know is most dear and tender to your Lordships you will see her suffer in her principall members and deprived of that honor which here and throughout all the Christian World ever since Christianity she constantly hath enjoyed for what Nation or Kingdome is there in whose great and publike assemblies and that from her beginning she had not some of hers if I may not say as essentiall I am sure I may say as integrall parts thereof and truly my Lords Christianity cannot alone boast of this or challenge it only as hers even Heathenisme claims an equall share I never read of any of them Civill or Barbarous that gave not thus much to their Religion so that it seems to me to have no other originall to flow from no other spring than Nature it selfe But I have done and will trouble your Lordships no longer how it may stand with honor and justice of this House to passe this Bill I most humbly submit unto your Lordships the most proper and only Juges of them both The second Speech about the lawfulnesse and convenieny of their intermedling in Temorall Affaires My Lords I Shall not speake to the Preamble of the Bill that Bishops and Clergie men ought not to intermeddle in temporall offairs For truly my Lords I cannot bring it under any respect to be spoken of Ought is a word of relation and must either refer to humane or divine Law to prove the lawfulnesse of their intermedling by the former would be to no more purpose than to labour to convince that by reason which is evident to sense It is by all acknowledged The unlawfulnesse by the latter the bill by no means admits of for it excepts Universities and such persons as shall have honour descend upon them And your Lordships know that circumstance and chance alter not the nature and essence of a thing nor can except any particular from an universall proposition by God himself delivered I will therefore take these two as granted first that they ought by our Law to intermeddle in temporall affairs secondly that from doing so they are not inhibited by the Law of God it leaves it at least as a thing indifferent And now my Lords to apply my self to the businesse of the day I shall consider the conveniency and that in the severall habitudes thereof but very briefly first in that which it hath to them meerly as men qua tales then as parts of the Common-wealth Thirdly from the bâ—st manner of constituting laws and lastly from the practice of all times both Christian and Heathen Homo sum nihil humanum
à me alienum puto was indeed the saying of the Comedian but it might well have becom'd the mouth of the greatest Philosopher We allow to sense all the works and operations of sense and shall we restrain reason must onely man be hindered from his proper actions They are most fit to do reasonable things that are most reasonable For Science commonly is accompanied with conscience So is not ignorance they seldome or never meet And why should we take that capacity from them which God and nature have so liberally bestowed My Lords the politike body of the Common-wealth is analogicall to the body naturall every member in that contributes something to the contribution of the whole the superfluity or defect which hinders the performance of that duty your Lordships know what the Philosopher calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Natures sin And truely my Lords to be part of the other body and do nothing beneficiall thereunto cannot fall under a milder term The common-wealth subsists by laws and their execution and they that have neither head in the making nor hand in the executing of them conferre not any thing to the being or well being thereof And can such be called members unlesse most unprofitable ones onely fruges consumere nati Me thinks it springs from nature it self or the very depths of Justice that none should be tied by other Laws than himself makes for what more naturall or just than to be bound onely by his own consent to be ruled by anothers will is meerly tyrannicall Nature there suffers violence and man degenerates into beast The most flourishing Estates were ever governed by Laws of an universall constitution witnesse this our Kingdom witnesse Senatus populusque Romanus the most glorious Common-wealth that ever was and those many others in Greece and elsewhere of eternall memory Some things my Lords are so evident in themselves that they are difficult in their proofs Amongst them I reckon this inconveniency I have spoken of I will therefore use but a word or two more in this way The long experience that all Christendom hath had hereof for these 1300 yeers is certainly argumentum ad bominem Nay my Lords I will go further for the same reason runs thorow all Religions never was there any Nation that employed not their religious men in the greatest affairs But to come to the businesse that lies now before your Lordships Bishops have voted here ever since Parliaments began and long before were imployed in the publike The good they have done your Lordships all well know and at this day enjoy for this I hope ye will not put them out nor for the evill they may do which yet your Lordships do not know and I am confident never shal suffer A position ought not to be destroyed by a supposition à posse ad esse non valet consequentia My Lords I have done with proving of this positively I shall now by your good favours do it negatively in answering some inconveniences that may seem to arise Object 1 For the Text No man that warres intangles himself with the affairs of this life which is the full sense of the word both in Greek and Latine it makes not at all against them except to intermeddle and intangle be tearms equivalent Besides my Lords though this was directed to a Church-man yet it is of a generall nature and reaches to all Clergy and Laity as the most learned and best expositors unanimously do agree To end this Argumentum symbolicum non est argumentativum Object 2 It may be said that it is inconsistent with a spirituall vocation truely my Lords Grace and Nature are in some respects incompossible but in some others most harmoniously agree it perfects nature and raises it to a heighth above the common altitude and makes it most fit for those great works of God himself to make Laws to do Iustice There is then no inconsistency between themselves it must arise out of Scripture I am confident it doth not formally out of any place there nor did I ever meet with any learned Writer of these or other times that so expounded any Text. Object 3 But though in strict tearms this be not inconsistent yet it may peradventure hinder the duty of their other calling My Lords there is not any that sits here more for preaching than I am I know it is the ordinary means to salvation yet I likewise know there is not that full necessity of it as was in the primitive times God defend that 1600 yeers acquaintance should make the Gospel of Christ no better known unto us Neither my Lords doth their office meerly and wholly consist in preaching but partly in that partly in praying and administring the blessed Sacraments in a godly and exemplary life in wholsome admonitions in exhortations to vertue dehortations from vice and partly in easing the burdened conscience These my Lords compleat the office of a Church-man Nor are they altogether tied to time or place though I confesse they are most properly exercised within their own verge except upon good occasion nor then the omission of some can be tearmed the breach of them all I must adde one more an essentiall one the very form of Episcopacy that distinguisheth it from the inferiour Ministry the orderly and good government of the Church and how many of these I am sure not the last my Lords is interrupted by their sitting here once in 3 yeers and then peradventure but a very short time and can there be a greater occasion than the common good of the Church and State I will tell your Lordships what the great and good Emperour Constantine did in his expedition against the Persians he had his Bishops with him whom he consulted with about his military affairs as Eusebius has it in his life lib. 4. c. 56. Object 4 Reward and punishment are the great negotiators in all worldly businesses these may be said to make the Bishops swim against the stream of their consciences and may not the same be said of the Laity Have these no operations but onely upon them Has the King neither frown honour nor offices but onely for Bishops Is there is nothing that answers their translations Indeed my Lords I must needs say that in charity it is a supposition not to be supposed no nor in reason that they will go against the light of their understanding The holinesse of their calling their knowledge their freedoms from passions and affections to which youth is very obnoxious their vicinity to the gates of death which though not shut to any yet alwayes stand wide open to old age these my Lords will surely make them steer aright But of matter of fact there is no disputation some of them have done ill Crimine ab uno disce omnes is a poeticall not a logicall argument Some of the Judges have done so some of the Magistrates and Officers and shall there be therefore neither Iudge Magistrate nor Officer more A personall
upon Bill or information and Cite such parties to appeare as stand accused of any misdemeanour and this was the Infancy of the Starchamber but afterwards the Starchamber was by Cardinall Woolsey 8 H. 8. raised to mans Estate from whence being now altogether unlimited it is grown a Monster and will hourely produce worse effects unlesse it be reduced by that hand which laid the foundation for the Statutes that are ratified by Parliament admit of no other than a repeale Therefore I offer humbly unto your Lordships these ensuing Reasons why it should be repealed First the very words of the Statute cleerly shew that it was a needlesse institution for it sayes they who are to Judge can proceed with no delinquent otherwise then if he were convicted of the same crime by due proces of Law And doe your Lordships holdth is a rationall Court that sends us to the Law and calls us to the Law and calls us back from it againe Secondly divers Judicatories confound one another in pessima republica plurimae Leges The second reason is from circumstance or rather à Consuetudine and of this there are many examples both domestique and forain but more particularly by the Parliaments of France abbreviated into a standing Committee by Philip the King and continued according to his Institution untill Lewis the eleventh came to the Crown who being a subtill Prince buried the volume in the Epitome for to this day when ever the three Estates are called either at the death of the old King or to Crown the new It is a common Proverb Allons voire Le van des Estates My Lords Arbitrary judgements destroy the Common Laws and in them the two great Charters of the Kingdome which being once lost we have nothing left but the name of liberty Then the last reason is though it was the first cause of my standing up the great Eclipse it hath ever been to the whole Nobility For who are so frequently vexed there as Peers and Noblemen and notwithstanding their appeale to this Assembly is ever good whilst that famous Law of the 4 Ed. 3. remaines in force for the holding of a Parliament once a year or more if occasion require yet who durst a year ago mention such a Statute without the incurring the danger of M. Kilverts persecution Therefore I shall humbly move your Lordships that a select Commitee of a few may be named to consider of the act of Parliament it selfe and if they shall thinke it of as great prejudice as I doe that then the house of Commons in the most usuall manner may be made acquainted with it either by Bill or conference who also happily thinke it a burthen to the Subject and so when the whole body of Parliament shall joyne in one supplication I am confident his Majestie will desire that nothing shall remaine in force which his people doe not willingly obey Lunae the 10. of May 1641. IT is this day ordered by the House of Commons now assembled in Parliament that the Lord Maior of London the Justices of Peace of Midlesex Westminster and the Liberties of the Dutchie of Lancaster and those of Surrey that are for the Burrough of Southwarke and the place adjoyning doe imploy their best endeavors to prevent that none of the Kings Subjects doe frequent the houses of any the Embassadors Somerset-house or St. James to heare Masse And that they give an accompt to this House of the Execution of this Order at all such times as by the said House they shall be required My Lord Finch his Letter to my Lord CHAMBERLAINE My most welbeloved Lord THe Interest your Lordship hath ever had in the best of my fortunes and affections gives me the Priviledges of troubling your Lordship with these few lines from one that hath now nothing left to serve you withall but his Prayers Those your Lordship shall never faile with an heart as full of true affection to your Lordship as ever any was My Lord it was not the losse of my place and with that of my fortunes nor being exiled from my deare Countrey and friends though many of them were cause of sorrow that afflicts but that which I most suffer under is that displeasure of the House of Commons conceived against me I know a true heart I have ever borne towards them and your Lordship can witnesse in part what wayes I have gone in but Silence and patience best becomes me with which I must leave my selfe and my Actions to the favourable construction of my Noble Friends in which number your Lordship hath a prime place I am now at the Hague where I arrived on Thursday the last of the last moneth where I purpose to live in a fashion agreeable to the poorenesse of my fortunes for my humbling in this world I have utterly cast off the thoughts of it and my aime shall be to learne to number my daies that I may apply my heart unto wisdome that wisdome that shall wipe all teares from mine eyes and heart and lead me by the hand to true happinesse which can never be taken from me I pray God of heaven blesse this Parliament with a happy both progresse and conclusion if my ruine may conduce but the least to it I shall not repine at it I truly pray for your Lordship and your Noble Family that God would give an increase of all worldly blessings and in the fulnesse of dayes to receive you to his glory if I were capable of serving any body I would tell your Lordship that no man should be readier to make knowne his devotion and true gratitude to your Lordship then Your Lordships most humble and affectionate poore kinsman and servant J.F. Hague Jan. 3. 1640. The Lord KEEPERS Speech TO HIS MAJESTIE at the Banquetting-house at White-hall in the name of both Houses May it please Your Majestie I Am to give your Majestie most humble and heartie thanks in the name of both houses of Parliament and this whole Kingdome for the speedy and gracious Royall assent unto the Bill Entitled An act for preventing of inconveniences happening by the long intermission of Parliaments which as it is of singular comfort and securitie for all your Subjects for the present so they are confident it will be of infinite honor and setlement of Your Majesties Royall Crowne and dignitie as well as comfort to their postiritie The Declaration of the Scots Commissioners to the House of Parliament touching the maintenance of their Army March the 16th 1640. IN the midst of other matters necessitie constraineth us to shew your Lordships that fourescore thousand pounds and above of the Moneys appointed for reliefe of the Northerne Countreys there is no more paid but 18000 l. the Country people of those Countreys have trusted the souldiers so long as they are become weary and unable to furnish them their cattell and victuall being so farre exhausted and wasted as it is scarce able to entertain themselves The Markets are decayed
called them that have been the Authors of those Evils and the Troublers of our Israel doe go unpunished it will never be better with us for now during Parliament like frozen Snakes their poyson dryes up but let the Parliament dissolve and then their poyson melts and scatters abroad and doth more hurt then ever What then must be done Why what the Playster cannot doe must be done by the Law Ense recidendum est ne pars sincera trahatur I can not better English it then in the words of a King Let them be cut of in their wickednesse that have framed mischiefe as a Law My conclusion Mr. Speaker is this Let the wofull violation of the State of Monopolies and the Petition of Right be made Felony or Premunire at the least but yet in the interim let them be made examples of punishment who have been the Authors of all those miseries according to the Counsell of Salomon Take away the wicked from before the King and his Throne shall be Established in Righteousnesse To the right Honorable the Lords Spirituall and Temporall in the high Court of Parliament assembled The humble Petition of Thomas Earle of Strafford his Majesties Lievtenant Generall of Ireland Most humbly sheweth THat in obedience to your Lordships order and in due respect and acknowledgment of your noble justice you vouchsafed this your Petitioner the other day he now expresseth in writing that humble request that he then made concerning the examining of witnesses which with your Lordships favor was this 1 That there might be no admission of any examination of witnesses in the cause till your Petitioner hath put in his answer to the charge of Treason exhibited against him 2 That after answer no witnesses should be examined before your Petitioner had the names of such witnesses delivered unto him by your Lordships order to the intent as by his Councell he should be advised he might either except against such witnesses or crosse-examine them 3 That before either of these two points should be over-ruled against your Petitioners your Lordships would be honorably pleased to heare him by his Councell at the Barre to shew cause why he humbly conceives his desires herein to be just and reasonable Finally your Petitioner humbly craves your Lordships remission if his Petition be not so formall as it ought and might be had he the help of Councell And shall ever with all expression of duty and thankfulnesse retaine in full memory your Lordships most honourable Justice and noble respects to your Petitioner the other day and pay your Lordships the duties of this whole life for the same and alwayes and unfainedly pray for your most noble Lordships increase of all everlasting honour and happinesse Concerning the Prices of Wine c. Die Mercurii Maii 26. 1641. UPon the whole matter of the Report It was resolved upon the question 1 That the Patent for the payment of 40 shillings per Tun on the Wines by the Merchants is illegall in the creation and a grievance 2 That the imposition of a penny on a quart on French Wines and two pence on a quart on Spanish Wines is a grievance 3 That the Patent of the imposition of 40 shillings per Tun is a grievance in the execution 4 That Alderman Abel and Master Richard Kilvert are the principall Projectors both in the creation and execution of this illegall imposition of 40 shill per Tun. Resolved upon the question That there shal be a Bill prepared declaring the offences of Alderman Abel and Richard Kilvert to the end they may be made exemplary Resolved c That a select Committee be named to examine who were the Referrers Advisers Sharers Complotters and Contractors and those that have received any bribe or benefit by this Patent and who drew the Patent Resolved c. That the Proclamation dated the 15th of July in the 14th yeare of the King prohibiting the Wine-Coopere to buy and sell Wine is illegall and against the liberty of the Subject Resolved c. That the Decree-made in the Star-chamber in December 1633. prohibiting retailing Vintners to dresse meat in their own houses to sell againe to guests is illegall and against the liberty of the Subject Sir Thomas Rowe his Speech at the Councell Table touching Brasse-Mony or against Brasse-Money with many notable observations thereupon July 1640. MY Lords since it hath pleased this Honorable table to command amongst others my poore opinion concerning this waighty proposition of money I must humbly crave pardon if with that freedome that becometh my duty to my good and gracious Master and my obedience to your great commands I deliver it so I cannot my Lords but assuredly conceive this intended project of infeobling the Coyn will trench very far both into the honor of Justice and profit of my Royall Master All estates do stand Magis faâ—â—a quam vi as Tacitus saith of Rome And wealth in every Kingdome is one of the essentiall marks of their greatnesse and is best expressed in the measures and purity of their moneys Hence it was that so long as the Romane Empire a pattern of the best Government held up their glory or greatnesse they ever maintained with little or no change the standard of their Coyn but after the loose time of Commodus had led in need by excesse and so by that shift of changing the standard the Majesty of that Empire fell by degrees And as Vopiscus saith the steps by which that State descended were visible most by the generall alteration of their Coynes and there is no surer simptomes of consumption in State then the corruption of the Money What Renowne is left to the Posterity of Edw. 1. in amending the standard both in puritie and weight from that of elder and barbarous times it must needs stick as a blemish upon Princes that do the contrary Thus we see it was with Hen. 6. who after he had begun with abaiting the measures he afterwards fell to abasing the matter and grâ—nted Commission to Missend and others to practise Alcamie to serve his Mint The extremity the State in generall felt by this agrievance besides the dishonor it layd upon the person of the King was not the least disadvantage his disloyall kinsman tooke to ingrace himselfe into the peoples favours to his Soveraigns Reign When Hen. the 8th had gained as much of power and glory abroad of love and obedience at home as ever any he suffered a losse by this Rock When his Daughter Queene Elizabeth came to the Crowne she was happier in Councell to amend that error of her Father for in a memoriall of the Lord Treasurer Burleighs his hand I finde that he and Sir Thomas Smith a grave and learned man advised the Queen that it was the Crown and the true wealth of her selfe and people to reduce the standard to the antient party and purity of her great Grandfather Edward the 4th and that it was not the short end of wits nor starting holes
of many a 14th in the silver and a 25th part in all the gold they after shall receive so shall the Nobilitie Gentry and all other landed men in all their former setled Rents Annuities Pensions and sums of money the like will fall upon the labourers and workemen in their statute wages And as their receipts are lessened hereby so are their issues increased either by improving all prices or disfurnishing the Market which must necessarily follow for in the 5th of Edw. 6th 3º Mary 4 to Eliz. as appeareth by their Proclamations That a Rumour only of alteration caused such effects punishing the author of such reports with Imprisonment and Pillory It cannot be doubted but the proiecting of such a change must be of far greater consequence and danger to the State and would be wished that the Actors and authors of such disturbances in the Common-wealth at all times hereafter might undergo a punishment proportionable It cannot be held I presume an advise of best iudgement that layeth the losse upon our selves and the gain upon our enemies for who are like to be in this the greatest thrivers is not visible that the strangers who support or money for bullion our own Gold-smiths who are their Brokers and the Hedgminters of the Netherlands who tearmed them well will have a fresh and full trade by this abasements And we do not the Spanish King our greatest enemy a greater favour than by his who being Lord of these commodities by his West-Indies we shall so advance them to our impoverishment for it is not in the power of any State to raise of the price of their own but the value that their neighbours set upon them experience hath taught us that the enfoebling of Coyn is but a shift for a while as drinke to one in a dropsie to make him swell the more but the state was never thorowly cured as we saw in Henry the Eighths time and the late Queens untill the Coyn was made rich again I cannot but then conclude my honorable Lords that if the proportion of Gold and Silver to each other be wrought to that purity by the advice of the Artists that neither may be too rich for the other that the Mintage may be reduced to some proportion of neighbour parts and that the issue of native commodities may be brought to over-ballance the entrance of the forraigne we need not seek any shift but shall again see our trade to flourish the Mint as the pulse of the Common-wealth again to bear and our Materialls by Industry to be Mynes of Gold and Silver which we all wish and work for supported unto us and the honor of Justice and Profit of his Maiesty Certain general Rules collected concerning Money and Bullion out of the late Consultation at Court GOld and silver hath a two fold estimation in the extrinsique as they are moneys and Princes measures given to his people and this is a Prerogative of Kings in the Intrinsique they are commodities valewing each other according to the plenty or scarcity and so all other commodities by them and that is the sole power of Trade The measure in a Kingdome ought to be constant It is the Justice and honor of the King for if they be altered all men at that time are deceived in the precedent contracts either for lands or moneys and the King most of all for no man knoweth either what he hath or what he oweth This made the Lord Treasurer Burleigh in Anno 1573. when some Projectors had set on foot a matter of that nature to tell them that they were worthy to suffer death for attempting to put so great a dishonor upon the Queen and detriment and discontent on the people for to alter this publike measure is to leave all the Markets of the Kingdome unfurnished and what will be the mischiefe the Proclamation of 5. and 6. 3o. Mary and 4th of Eliz. will manifest when but a rumor produced that effect so farre that besides the faith of the Princes to the contrary delivered in their Edicts they were inforced to cause the Magistrates in every Shire respectively to constrain the people to furnish the Market to prevent a mutiny To thinke then this measure at this time short is to raise all prices or to turn the measure or money now current into disuse and Bullion for who will depart with any when it is by seven more in the hundred in the masse then the now moneys and yet of no more value in the Market Hence the necessitie of it will follow that there will not of a long time be Minted of the new to drive the exchange of the Kingdome and so all trade at one instance at a stand and in meane time the Markets unfurnished and thus far as money is a measure Now as it is a commoditie it is respected and valued by the intrinsique qualitie and first the one mettall to the other All commodities are priced by plenty or scarcity by dearenesse or cheapnesse the one to the other If then we desire our silver to buy gold as it hath lately been we must let it it be the cheaper and lesse in proportion valued and so contrary for one equivalent proportion in both will bring in neither we see the profit there of the unusuall quantitie of gold brought lately to the Mint by reason of the price we rate it at above all other Countries and gold may be bought too dear to furnish then this way the Mint with both is impossible And at this time it was apparantly proved both by the best Artists and marchants most acquainted with the Exchange in both the examples of the Mint-masters in the Rix-dolor and Royall of Eight that silver here is of equall valew and gold above with forreine parts in the intrinsique but that the fallacie presented to the Lords by the Mint-masters is only in the nomination of extrinsique qualitie But if we desire both it is not the raysing the valew that doth it but the balancing the Trade for we buy more then we sell of all other commodities be the money never so high priced we must part with it to make the disproportion even if we sell more then the contrary will follow And this is plain in Spanish necessities for should that King advance to a double his Royall of Eight yet needing it by reason of the barrennesse of his Country more of forreign wares then can countervaile by exchange with his wares he must then part with his money and gain the more by enhaunsing his coyn but he payeth a higher price for the commodities he buyeth if this work of raysing be his own But if we shall make improvement of gold and silver being the Staple-commodities of this Kingdome we then advancing the the price of his abase to him our own commodities To shape this kingdome to the fashion of the Netherlands were to frame a Royall Monarchie by a society of Marchants their Country is a continuall Faire and so
work and businesse of this House of Commons which was never small or mean and now like to be exceeding weighty It is a learned age wherein we live under your Majesties most peacefull government and your House of Commons is not only the representative body but the abstracted quintessence of the whol Communalty of this your noble Realme I most humbly therefore beseech your Majestie as the father of the Commonwealth and hope of the whole nation to whom the care of all our welfares appertains to have respect to your own interest have regard to your House of Commons have compassion upon me the unworthiest member of that body ready to faint with fear before the burthen lights on me I have only a hearty affection to serve you and your people little abilities for performance In the fulnesse therefore of your Royall power your piety goodnesse be gratiously pleased to command the House of Commons to deliberate upon a better choice who may be worthy of their choosing and your Majesties acceptations My Lord Keeper having by his Majesties direction confirmed him as Speaker he addrest himselfe to his Majesty as followeth Most gratious Soveraigne My profession hath taught me that from the highest Judge there lies no writ of error no appeale what then remains but that I first beseech Almighty God the author and finisher of all good works to enable me to discharge honestly and effectually so great a taske so great a trust and in the next place humbly to acknowledge your Majesties favor Some enemies I might feare the common enemy of such services expectation and jealousy I am unworthy the former and I contemn the latter Time the touchstone of truth shall teach the babling world I am and will be found an equall freeman zealous to serve my Soveraign zealous to serve my dearest Country Monarchy Royall of all governments the most illustrious and excellent whether we regard the glory wealth or safety of the governours or people I hope none of this Nation are of Antimonarchicall spirits nor friends to such if there be I wish no greater honour to this Parliament then to discover them and to assist your Majesty to suppresse and confound them To behold your Majesty in peace and safety affords compleat joy to all Loyall Subjects who cannot but conclude with me in this desire Serus in caelum redeas diúque Laetus intersis Populo Britanno England is your seat of residency Scotland is your native place and herein hath the advantage Ireland imitates England by a great and quick progression in civility and conversation in improvement of the soile and plantation France is still attendant on your Royall stile A Kings Prerogative is as needfull as great without which he should want that Majesty which ought to be inseparable from his Crown nor can any danger result thereby to subjects liberties so long as both admit the temperament of Law and Justice specially under such a Prince who to your immortall Honor hath published this to the whole world for your maxime that the peoples liberties strengthen the Kings Prerogative and the Kings Prerogative is to defend the peoples liberties Apples of gold in pictures of silver Kings as Kings are never said to Erre only the best may be abused by misinformation this the highest point of Prerogative that the King can doe no wrong if then by the subtilty of misinformers by the specious false pretences of publique good by a cunning and close contrivance of their waies to seduce the Sacred Royall Person it be surprized and overwrought to command contrary to law and be executed accordingly these commands will be void and this King innocent even in his very person and the authors of such misinformations the actors of such abuses stand exposed to just censure having nothing to defend themselves but the colour of a void command made void by just Prerogative and the fundamentall reasons of state Touching justice there is not a more certain signe of an upright Judge then by his patience to be well informed before sentence given and I may boldly say all the Judges in your Kingdome may take example by your Majesty and learn their duties by your practise my selfe have often been a witnesse thereof to my no little admiration From your patience please you give me leave to presse to your righteous judgement and exemplifie it but in one instance When your Lords and people in your last Parliament presented your Majesty a Petition concerning their rights and liberties the Petition being of no small weight your Majesty after mature deliberation in few but most effectuall words soit droict faict come est desire made such an answer as shall renown you for just Judgement to all posterity Let us heartily pray that this Parliament may be famous for the advancement of Sacred Religion and to that end that the most Reverend Prelates sitting on the right hand of your Kingly side be most forward therein to whom it is most proper That the Nobles girt with their swords in their creation and most especially rewarded and honored for actions military call to minde the most renowned Acts of their Ancestors whose lands and honours they inherite and how renowned this Land hath been through the whole World for Art and Armes and labor to restore it to its ancient splendor The best way to preserve peace is to be well fitted for War But were this Nation never so valiant or wealthy if Unity be not among us what good will riches doe us or your Majesty but inrich the conqueror he that commands all hearts by love he onely commands assuredly greatnesse without goodnesse can at best but command bodies It shall therefore be my hearty prayer That such a knot of love may be knit betwixt the Head and members that like Gordius knot it never be loosed That all Jesuited forrain States who look asquint upon our Hierusalem may see themselves defeated of all their subtill plots and combinations of all their wicked hopes and expectations to render us if their mischiefe might take effect a people inconsiderable at home and contemptible abroad Religion hath taught us Si Deus nobiscum quis contra nos and experience I trust will teach us Si sumus inseparabiles sumus insuperabiles It was found and I hope it still shall and will be the Tenet of the House of Commons That the King and peoples good cannot be severed And cursed be every one that goes about to divide them Secretarie Windebankes Letter to my Lord Chamberlain from Callis January 11. MY Lord I ow my selfe to your Lordship for your late favors and therefore much more the account of my self though the debt in either respect be of little consideration and the calling of both may be of greater advantage to you then to continue be Obligation This account had been presented to your Lordship at my first arrivall here with my first dispatches but I was so mortified with my hazardous passage in an open shallop
be so divided as to breake in peeces Mr. Speaker God knows the divisions of great Brittain have halfe untwisted our long Union and I feare that God is angry with our Nationall lukewarme temper The zeale of his house hath not kindled that flame in our hearts which our seeming good actions have blown abroad much like the walking of a Ghost or livelesse body which affrights many but pleaseth no beholder Omnia honesta opera voluntas inchoat It is the heart or will which gives the beginning to every good action and I hope our constant resolutions will be to settle religion in his splendor and purity by pulling Dagon from the Altar and whipping the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple Pars prima bonitatis est velle fieribonum The first part of goodnesse is to have the will of being good God knows all our hearts and takes notice of our inward resolutions and for what ends we come hither if to propagate and advance his glory and Gospel blessed shall this Parliament and Nation be and then most happy we whose God is the Lord all things shall work together for our good For Mr. Speaker he that turns the hearts of Kings like the rivers of waters will make the King and his kingdomes all of one mind Long live King Charles the Great and his numerous Royall Issue to defend the true faith which will protect and keep him and his safe in his fathers Throne Never King gave more full content to his people than his Majesty now hath done and I hope never subjects came with better hearts and affections to their King and Countrey then we doe let it then appeare M. Speaker by our outward actions and practise that our inward obedience both of heart and hand is true loyall and currant coyn not false nor counterfeit for Nemo veraciter dicit volo qui non facit illud quod potest no man truly saies I am in will and heart resolved unlesse according to his ability he endeavor to perform his resolution which to speak the hearts of us all in this renowned Senate I am confident is fully fixed upon the true reformation of all disorders innovations in Church or religion and upon the well uniting and close rejonting of the now dis-located great Brittaine For let me tell you Mr. Speaker that God be thanked it is but out of joynt and may be yet well set by the skilfull Chirurgions of this Honorable House to whose loving and Christian care and to whose tender and upright hands I leave it onely with this Aviso let brotherly love continue and be constant and of good courage for the keeper of Israel who neither slumbers nor sleeps who delivered us from Romes November powder-blast will no doubt still preserve his Annoynted our gracious King and us his loyall Subjects from all dangers of fire or sword For Si Deus nobiscum quis contra nos Upon the Scotch Treaty January 21. 1640. Mr. Speaker THere is no malady more destructive to the naturall or politick body than the mal Caduque or falling sicknesse nor is there any Physitian or compound more to be esteemed than that which can cure it in either M. Speaker this unknown remedy if we be wise to apply it and take the receipt with all the ingredients without any scruple of distast I am confident the recovery will be perfect and the whole body of great Britaine safe and sound Mr. Speaker the happy Union of Scotland and England hath thus long ever since flourished in interchangeable blessings of plenty and mutuall love and friendship But of late by what fatall disasters and dark underminings we are divided and severed into Scotish and English Armies let their well composed preambles speake for mee which I wish were printed as an excellent embleme of brotherly love that discovers who hath wounded us both and how each should strive to help the other in distresse seeing their and our Religion and Lawes lie both at stake together Thinke of it what you will Noble Senate their subsistence is ours we live or die rise or fall together Let us then finde out the Boutefaux of this Prelaticall warr and make them to pay the shot for their labour who no doubt long for nothing more than that we should breake with them who worship but one God and serve but one Master with us Nor need we feare that they intend to dispossesse the English of their inheritance or freehold being ready to withdraw their forces upon reasonable terms referring their demands of reparation for losses to the justice and courtesie of this House which I assure my self will give both a bountifull cheerfull and speedy supply in this case of necessity for Bis dat qui citò dat is the best motto or motion at this time Upon the Impeachment of the Lord Strafford and Canterbury c. February 26. 1640. Mr. Speaker I Take it we have now sate in this great Councell 15. or 16. weeks a longer time than any Parliament hath done these many yeers God hath given us a faire and blessed opportunity if we lay hold of it and call to minde the best Motto for a Parliament which is Non quam diu sed quà m benè Mr. Speaker We have had thus long under our Feathers many Estriges Egges which as some observe are longest in hatching but once hatched can digest Iron and we have many Irons in the fire and have hammered some upon the anvill of justice into nayles but we have not struck one stroak with the right hammer nor riveted one nayle to the head Mr. Speaker God forbid we should be cruell or vindicative to any but let us take heed we be not so to our selves and them the sent us if we doe not mend our pace and so run as we may obtaine Mr. Speaker I hope we shall make good the work we have undertaken and win that prize and goale we aime at else if we faile in this our pursuit of justice it is time to look about us for then I feare that we our selves shall hardly scape scot-free It will not be our fixe Subsidies that will help us unlesse we be good husbands and cut off all superfluous charges disband all needlesse Armies and dis-arme all Papists and banish all Priests and Jesuits and then we shall thrive and prosper Provided alwayes that we deny our selves and trust not too much in the arme of flesh but be carefull to preserve brotherly love and concord lest discord and faction break divide and ruine us but I hope God will make us all of one minde and one publick spirit that as we are descended from that ancient and noble English quiver we may prove our selves a right sheafe of English Arrows well united well feathered and sharply piled for publick use stoutly to defend and preserve the publick good and safety of this famous Iland of great Britaine and that is my humble prayer and motion Upon the Straffordian knot March 10.
1640. Mr. Speaker IN this great and waighty cause we ought seriously to consider First what we our selves have done already in the accusation and impeachment of this great Earle of high Treason Secondly let us remember what we now are not only Parliament men but publick men and English-men As Parliament men let us follow the steps of our ancestours and be constant to that rule of Law which was their guide and should be ours As publick men forget not whom we here represent and by how many chosen and trusted As English men let us call to minde the undanted spirits stout hearts of those ancient Heroes from whom we are descended how free they were from Pusillanimity and how they scorned all Flattery and Slavery let us then now or never Mr. Speaker shew the same blood runs in our veines Thirdly let us be well advised what to doe if in case we shall be denied justice in this particular upon which depends not only the happinesse but the safety of this Parliament of this Kingdome of our selves and of our Posterities and this is my Aviso Upon the same Subject Aprill 9. 1641. Mr. Speaker TRuth is the daughter of time and experience the best Schoolmaster who hath long since taught many men and estates the sad and woefull effects of an half-done worke those convulsions and renting paines which the body of great Britain now feels shews us that the ill humours and obstructions are not yet fully purged nor dissolved Mr. Speaker God will have a through work done if in stead of redressing evils we think to transact all by removing of persons and not things well may we hush our troubles for a season but they will returne with a greater violence For believe it Mr. Speaker let us flatter our selves as we please a dim sighted eye may see that although we thinke we have now passed the equinoctiall of the Straffordian line and seem to have gone beyond Canterbury yet their faction and undermining agents of all Religions grow daily more and more powerfull and no doubt doe labour an extirpation of all Parliaments and men that will not think say and swear to their opinions and practice Have we not then Mr. Speaker a wolfe by the cares is there any way to goe Scot-free or wolfe-free but one then let us take and not forsake that old English Parliamentary Road which is Via tuta and will bring us safely to our journeys end that is my humble motion A seasonable motion for a loyall Covenant May 3. 1641. Mr. Speaker IF ever we intend to perfect and finish the great works we have begun and come to our journeys end let us take and sollow the right way which is Via tuta and that is in a word to become holy Pilgrims not Popish and to endeavour to be loyall Covenanters with God and the King first binding our selves by a Parliamentary and Nationall Oath not a Straffordian nor a Prelaticall one to preserve our Religion emire and pure without the least compound of Superstition or Idolatry next to defend the defender of the Faith his Royall person Crown and dignity and maintain our Soveraigne in his glory and splendor which can never be Eclipsed if the ballance of justice goe right and his laws be duly executed Thus doing Mr. Speaker and making Jerusalem our chiefest joy we shall be a blessed Nation and a happy People But if we shall let goe our Christian hold and lose our Parliament proofe and old English well-tempered mettle Let us take heed that our Buckler break not our Parliaments melt not and our golden Candlestick be not removed which let me never live to see nor England to feele the want of that is my prayer conclude my former motion Mr. Hides Argument before the the Lords in the upper House of Parliament April 1641. MY Lords I am commanded by the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons to present to your Lordships a great and crying grievance which though it be complained of in the present pressures but by the Northern parts yet by the Logick and Consequence of it it is the grievance of the whole Kingdome The Court of the Presidents and Councell of the North or as it is more usually called the Courts of York which by the spirit and ambition of the Ministers trusted there or by the naturall inclination of Courts to enlarge their own power and jurisdiction hath so prodigiously broken down the bankes of the first Councell in which it ran hath almost overwhelmed that Countrey under the Sea of Arbitrary power and involved the people in a Labyrinth of distemper oppression and poverty Your Lordships will give me leave not with presumption to informe your great understandings but that you may know what moved the House of Commons to their resolutions to remember your Lordships of the foundation and erecting this Court and of the progresse and growth of it Your Lordships well know that upon the suppression of all religious houses to such a value in the 27. yeere of H. 8. from that time to the thirtieth yeare of that Kings raigne many not fewer than six Insurrections and Rebellions were made in the Northern parts under pretence of that quarrell most of thē under the cōmand of some eminent person of that country the which being quieted before the end of the 13. year that great King well knowing his own minde and what he meant to doe with the great Houses of Religion in the year following for prevention of any inconvenience that might ensue to him upon such distemper in the 31. year of his reign granted a Commission to the Bishop of Landaffe the first President and others for the quiet government of the County of Yorke Northumberland Cumberland and Westmoreland the Bishoprick of Durham the County of the Cities of Yorke Kingston upon Hull and New-Castle upon Tyne But my Lords this Commission was no other then a Commission of Oyre and Terminer only it had a clause at the end of it for the hearing of all causes reall and person quando ambae partes vel altera pars sit gravata paupertate fuerit quod quomodo vis suum secundum legem Regni nostri aliter persequi non possit which clause how illegall soever for that it is illegall and void in Law little doubt can be made yet whether they exercise that part of the Commission at all or so sparingly exercised it that poore people found ease and benefit by it I know not but at that time I finde no complaint against it till the comming in of King James the Commission continued still the same and that in the first year of his Reigne to the Lord Sheffeild varied no otherwise from the former same onely it had reference to Instructors which should be sent though any new sent or no is uncertaine but we can finde none In June in the seventh yeare of the Reigne of King James a new Commission was granted to the same man the
inclining and returning to Popery and the Religion of Antichirst as hath most cleerly appeared even in our daies as well as before since the restoring of Religion I shall for this time instance onely in three places of the Rubrick corrupted by Bishops In the Rubrick confirmed by act of Parliament in the beginning of it It is directed that prayer shall be in such place of the Church or Chancell and the Minister shall so turne him as the people may best heare In the Rubrick as it is now Printed prayer shall be used in the accustomed place c. except it shall be otherwise determined by the Ordinary Whereby they have introduced the Popish practice of reading Prayers at the upper end of the Chancell at their Altar where few in the Church can see them and fewer heare them and turning their faces to the East and their backs to the people in reading in the Desk and colour all with the determination of the Ordinary Secondly in the Letany there are these words in the book of Common prayer confirmed by the Statutes of 5. and 6. Ed. 6. and of 1 Eliz. From the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities good Lord deliver us and that the Bishops in the latter books have caused to be left out wholly Thirdly in the Rubrick concerning the administration of the Lords Supper as it stands now altered an excellent declaration of the reason why kneeling at this Sacrament was left in the reformation and a renunciation of Transubstantiation Consubstantiation adoration of the bread and wine as abhominable Idolatries are wholly obliterate and left out that the use of that gesture there might be rendred the more suspicious and superstitious and a more clear way might be made to induce the Popish superstitious innovations that have been since obtruded upon us concerning the Table Altar supreminent presence of God almighty there cringings Altar-worship and the like And I conceive alterations were made by the Bishops as appeares unto me by the Proclamation they procured to be set forth 5. Martii 1. Jac. concerning the booke of Common prayer And how can things prosper better in the hands of the Episcopacy when Gods blessing alone giveth out prosperity and the Lord disposeth his blessing in his owne way only and not in any other And this being no plant planted by God in his Church how can it be expected it should yeeld us any better fruits then we have received from it Againe if I be not much deceived the Episcopacy in whatsoever it exceeds the Presbyters office in which sense only I speak of it is abranch of the Hierarchy of Rome and of the Antichrist and of that consider what is prophesied Revel 14.11 They shall not have any rest day nor night that receive any print of the name of the Beast and examine the former and present times whether the same hath not been verified among us and in all such places where that Hierarchy hath been entertained whether the most troubles and miseries of the Churches and in great part also of the Common-wealth have not sprung from the said Episcopacy and the fruites thereof Therefore let us proceed to the perfecting of the Reformation of our Church and to the gathering out of it every stone that offends even whatsoever is not according to God and the standard of his word and reduce every thing in the government to the rule and walke in it in Gods way which is the sure way to have his presence with us and blessing upon us and ours for ever It hath ever been a point of higher honour from God and of greater acceptance and esteem with him to advance the reformation of his Church and worship 2 Cro. 17.6 3. iIâ— 1 Kings 15.14 2 Kings 12.3 1 Cron. 28.16 Zac. 4.7 and was ever will be a reproach from him and blot upon such as have left any thing not agreeable to his word unreformed and not taken away Up then let us be doing and the Lord will goe before us and make plain all mountains that may occurre in our way and give a blessed issue and successe To the honorable Houses of Parliament now assembled The humble Petition of many of the Inhabitants within his Majesties County of Kent Most humbly shewing THat by sad experience we doe daily finde the Government of the Church of England by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons with their Courts Jurisdictions and Administrations by them and their inferiour Officers to be very dangerous both to Church and Commonwealth to be the occasions of manifold Grievances unto his Majesties Subjects in their Consciences Liberties and Estates and likely to be fatall unto us in the continuance thereof the dangerous effects of which Lordly power in them have often appeared in these particulars following 1 They doe with a hard hand over-rule all other Ministers subjecting them to their cruell Authority 2 They doe suspend and deprive many godly Religious and painfull Ministers upon sleight and upon no grounds whilest in the mean time few of them preach the Word of God themselves and that but seldome but they doe restrain the painfull preaching of others both for Lectures and for afternoon Sermons on the Sabbath day 3 They doe countenance and have of late encouraged Papist Priests and Arminian books and persons 4 They hinder good and godly books yet they doe license to be published many Popish and Arminian and other dangerous Books and Tenents 5 They have deformed our Churches with Popish Pictures and seated them with Romish Altars 6 They have of late extolled and commended much the Church of Rome denying the Pope to be Antichrist affirming the Church of Rome to be a true Church in Fundamentals 7 They have practised and enforced antiquated and obsolete Ceremonies as standing at all Hymns and at Gloria patri turning to the East at severall parts of the Divine Service Bowing at the Altar which they term the place of Gods Refidence upon earth the reading of a second Service at the Altar and denying the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist to such as have not come up to the new set rayl before the Altar 8 They have made and confirmed new illegall Canons and Constitutions and framed a most pernitious and desperate Oath an Oath of covenant and confederacy for their own Hierarchicall greatnesse besides many other very dangerous and pernitious passages in the said Canons 9 They doe dispense with pluralities of Benefices they doe both prohibit and grant Marriages neither of them by the rule of Law or Conscience but doe prohibit that they may grant and grant that they may have money 10 They have procured a licentious liberty for the Lords day and have pressed the strict observation of the Saints Holydayes and doe punish suspend and deprive godly Ministers for not publishing that book for liberty of sports on the Sabbath day 11 They doe generally abuse the great Ordinance of Excommunication making a great gain of it
sometimes to the great discomfort of many poore soules who for want of money can get no absolution 12 They claim their Office and Jurisdiction to be jure divino and doe exercise the same contrary to Law in their own names and under their own Seals 13 They receive and take upon them temporall Honours Dignities Places and Offices in the Common wealth as if it were lawfull for them to use both swords 14 They cognizance in their Courts and elswhere of matters determinable at the Common Law 15 They put Ministers upon Parishes without the Patrons and without the peoples consent 16 They doe yearly impose Oaths upon Churchwardens to the most apparent danger of filling the land with perjuries 17 They doe exercise Oaths Ex Officio in the Nature of an inquisition even unto the thoughts of mens 18 They have apprehended men by Pursevants without ciration or missives first sent they break up mens houses and studies taking away what they please 19 They doe aw the Judges of the Land with their greatnesse to the inhibiting of prohibition and hindering of Habeas Corpus when it is due 20 They are strongly suspected to be confederated with the Roman party in this Land and with them to be Authors Contrivers or Consenters to the present Commotions in the North and the rather because of a Contribution by the Clergy and by the Papists in the last year 1639. and because of an ill-named benevolence of six Subfidies granted or intended to be granted this yeare 1640. thereby and with these monies to ingage as much as in them lay the two Nations into blood It is therefore our humble and earnest prayer that all this Hierarchicall power may be totally abrogated if the wisdome of this Honourable House shall finde that it cannot be maintained by Gods word and to his glory And your Petitioners shall ever pray c. The Petition of the Citizens of London to both house of Parliament wherein is a Demonstration of their grievances together with their desires for Justice to be excuted upon the Earle of Strafford and other DELINQUENTS To the most Honorable Assembly of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament The humble Petition of divers Citizens of London SHeweth that notwithstanding his Majesties gracious Answer to the humble Petition of his Loyall Subjects in summoning this Parliament with the great care and endeavoured pains taken by both Houses for the removing the heavy Grievances in Church and Commonwealth whereof the Petitioners have already received some fruit for which they desire to return their most humble and utmost thanks yet neverthelesse they are inforced with all Humility to represent to this most Honourable assemblly some of these Obstructions which doe still hinder that freedome and fulnesse of Trade in this City they have formerly had which considering the numerous Multitude thereupon depending they conceive it not able comfortably to subsist As the unsetled Condition of the Kingdome even since the troubles in Scotland hath caused both strangers and also of our own who did furnish great summs of money to Use to call it in and remit much of it by Exchange unto Forraine pars and stands now in Expectation of what the issue of things may be The stopping money in the Mint which till then was accompted the safest place and surest staple in these parts in the world still doth hinder the importation of Bullyon the Scots now disabled to pay such debts as they owe to the Petitioners and others in the City and by reason of the oppressions exercised in Ireland their debts also are detained there The English Trade by reason of our generall distractions and fears is so much decayed that Country tradesmen can not pay their debts in London as formerly The great summs of money unduly taken by his Majesties Officers and Farmers for impositions upon Merchandize exported and imported and the want of reliefe in Courts of Justice against them The drawing out from the City great summs of money which is the life and spirit of Trade for his Majesties service in the North and being there imployed is not yet returned Besides all which from what strong and secret opposition the Petitioners know not they have not received what so much time and pains might give and cause to hope but still incendiaries of the Kingdoms and other notorious offenders remain unpunished the affaires of the Church notwithstanding many Petitions concerning it and long debate about it remains unsettled the Papists still armed the Laws against them not executed some of the most active of them still at Court Priests and Jesnits not yet banished the Irish Popish army not yet disbanded Courts of Justice not yet reformed and the Earle of Strafford who as now appears hath counselled the plundering of this City and putting it to fine ransome and said it would never be well till some of the Aldermen were banged up because they would not yeeld to illegall levies of moneys hath so drawn out and spent his time in his businesse to the very great charge of the whol Kingdome and his endeavour to obtain yet more all which makes us fear there may be practices now in hand to hinder the birth of your great endeavours and that we lie under some more dangerous plot then we can discover All which premisses with their fears and distractions growing there-from and from things of the like nature the Petitioners humbly offer to the most grave consideration of this most honorable assembly as being the true causes of decay of Trade discouragement of Tradesmen and of the great scarcity of monies with the consequences they labour under And do humbly pray that their said grievances may be redressed the causes of their fears removed Justice executed upon the said Earle and other incendiaries and offenders the rather in regard till then the Petitioners humbly conceive neither Religion nor their lives liberties or estates can besecured And as in duty bound they shall ever pray c. Subscribed to this Petition 20000. all men of good ranke and quality Sir John Wrayes Speech concerning Bishops 1641. THE first challenge for Lordly Primacy hath of old been grounded out of the great Charter by which they hold an Episcopall Primacy or Jurisdiction to be long to their state of Prelacy this is their temporall soundation and main object Here I demand of them unto what Church this great Charter was granted and whether it were not granted unto the Church of GOD in England Let the words of the Magna Charta decide this which are these Concessimus Deo proâ—nobis in perpetuum quod Ecclesia Anglicana libera sit habeat omnia Jura sua iutegra libertates suas illaesas Now by this Charter if it be rightly interpreted there is first provision made that honour and worship be yeelded unto God as truly and indeed belong unto him Secondly that not only such Rights and Liberties as the King and his Progenitors but also that such as
for its owne defence against those be they Peeres or people that have abused it If we examine the Law well it will tell us what hath beene the reward of such ambitious men as have Monopolized and abused the Kings Authoritie what have beene the punishment of such as have betrayed the well meaning Subject to the Kings displeasure and his Princes Councell to his enemies what doe they deserve who have raised mountaines of Monopolies heapes of impositions oceans of grievances what have been the punishment of such as have belied Justice and their conscience and have made truth and honesty our of fashion And lastly If no penaltie be found for these sure there is some for such as have so disguised Religion in fantasticke dresses that Heaven andearth cannot be but angrie to see it and in their politique pride have beene so long moulding a new State and a new old Church for their owne advantage till they have by their too much order put all out of frame and made us objects of pitie and themselves of hate What if for these innovations we innovate an examplary punishment These are the ground-works of our miseries and surely Mr. Speaker there are too many of all these sorts which like envious clouds hinders us from â—he gracious shine our Sun intends us therefore for his great r lustre and our more assured comfort let us endeavour to remove these interposers that he may more freely see into his peoples bosomes and reade in their hearts firme characters of loyaltie and glad obedience which the practices of these later times have endeavoured to obliterate but in vaine I shall not dare to borrow one minute of you more but I shall alreadie end though I have just now begun If we consider the just extent of our grievances the deep search of which wound I leave to you better abilities and I beseech you think not that I sigh out these complaints undertaking to instruct the grave Councell of this great Assembly my infant advice presumes not to reach so high It is but to let you see how much the slightest parts of this abused Common-wealth is not only made sensible of our wrongs but what we feele is farre exceeded by the numberlesse number of our just feares which should have before this time utterly distracted us had not our great Phisition now at length applied his soveraigne remedie to keep up our fainting hopes by which we must either stand or fall Master Pyms Speech in PARLIAMENT 1640. THe distempers of this Kingdome are well knowne they need not repetition For though we have good Lawes yet they want their execution or if they are executed it is in a wrong sence I shall endeavour to apply a remedie to the breaches that are made and to that end I shall discover first the qualitie of the disease First There is a designe to alter Law and Religion the parties that effect this are Papists who are obliged by a maxime in their doctrine that they are not onely bound to maintaine their Religion but also to extirpate all others The second is their Hierarchie which cannot amount to the height they ayme at without a breach of our Law To which their Religion necessarily ioynes that if the one stands the other must fall Thirdly Agents and Pensioners to forraigne States who see we cannot comply to them if we maintaine our Religion established which is contrary to theirs here they intend chiefly the Spanish white gold works which are of most effect Fourthly Favourites such as for promotion prize not conscience and such are our Judges spirituall and temporall such are also some of our Councellors of State All these though severed yet in their contrivements they ayme at one end and to this they walke on four feet First discountenancing of Preachers and vertuous men they persecute under the law of purity Secondly Countenancing of Preachers of contrary dispositions Thirdly The negotiating with the faction of Rome by Preaching and to instructions to Preach of the absolute Monarchie of Kings Here follow severall Heads First The politicall interpretation of the Law to serve their turnes and thus to impose taxes with a colour of Law a Judge sayd it when a babe is corpus was payd for Secondly By keeping the King in continuall want that he may seeke to their counsells for r liefe to this purpose to keepe the Parliaments in distaste that their counsells may be taken The King by them is brought to this as a woman that used her selfe to poyson could not live with good meate Search the Chronicles and we see no King that ever used Parliaments was brought to this want Thirdly Arbitrary proceedings in Courts of Justice we have all Law left to the conscience of a single man All Courts are now Courts of conscience without conscience Fourthly Plotters to inforce a war between Scotland and us that when we had well wearied one another we might be both brought to what scorn they pleased The pertition wall is only unity Fiftly The suddaine dissolving of Parliaments and punishing of Parliament men all to affright us from speaking what we thinke One was committed for not delivering up the Petitions of the House then a declaration which slandered our Proceedings as full of lyes as leaves who would have the first ground to be our example And Papists are under appearance to the King his best Subjects for they contibute money to the War which the Protestants will not do Sixthly Another is Military by getting places of importance into the Papists hands as who are Commanders in the last Armie but they none more strong in Armes then they to whom their Armour is delivered contrary to the Statute Their endeavour is to bring in strangers to be Billited upon us we have had no accompt of the Spanish Navie and now our fear is from Ireland Lastly The next is Papisticall that proceeds of Agents here in London by whose desires many Monasteries and Nunneries here in London were erected Sir Thomas Baringtons Speech in Parliament 1640. My Lords WE have of late entred into consideration of the Petition of Right and the relation of it and upon good reason for it concernes our goods liberties and lives But there is a Right of higher nature that preserved for us farre greater things eternall life our soules yea our God himselfe a Religion derived to us from the King of Kings conferred to us by the Kings of this Kingdome enacted by Lawes in this place treading downe to us in the bloud of the Martyes and witnessed from Heaven by miracles even miraculous deliverances And this Right in the name of this Nation I this day require and claime that there may be a deepe and serious consideration of the relations of it I desire first that it may be considered what new paintings are layd on the old face of the Whore of Babylon to make the more lovely and to draw so many Suitors to her I desire that it may be considered how the Sea
manifold and grosse superstitions and idolatries and to be repugnant to the Doctrine Discipline and order of our Reformation to the confession of faith constitutions of generall Assemblies and Acts of Parliament establishing the true Religion that this also was Canterburies worke we make manifest By the memoirs and instructions sent unto him from our Prelates wherein they gave a speciall account of the diligence they had used to do all which herein they were enjoyned by the approbation of the Service booke sent to them and of all the marginall corrections wherein it varieth from the English book shewing their desire to have some few things changed in it which notwithstanding was not granted This we finde written by Saint Androis own hand and subscribed by him and nine other of our Prelates By Canterburies owne letters witnesses of his joy when the booke was readie for the Presse of his prayers that God would speed the worke of the hope to see that Service set up in Scotland of his diligence to send for the Printer and directing him to prepare a black letter and to send it to his servants at Edinburgh for printing this booke Of his approbation of his proofes sent from the Presse Of his feare of delay in bringing the worke speedily to an end for the great good not of that Church but of the Church Of his encouraging Rosse who was entrusted with the Presse to go on in this peece of service without feare of enemies All which may be seen in the Autographs and by letters sent from the Prelate of London to Rosse wherein as he rejoyceth at the sight of the Scottish Canons which although they should make some noise at the beginning yet they would be more for the good of the Kirk than the Canons of Edinburgh for the good of the Kingdom So concerning the Leiturgy he sheweth that Rosse had sent to him to have an explanation from Canterbury of some passage of the Service booke and that the Presse behoved to stand till the explanation come to Edinburgh which therefore he had in haste obtained from his Grace and sent the dispatch away by Canterburies own conveyance But the booke it selfe as it standeth interlined margined and patcht up is much more than all that is expressed in his letters and the changes and supplements themselves taken from the Masse-booke and other Romish Ritualls by which he maketh it to vary from the Booke of England are more pregnant testimonies of his popish spirit and wicked intentions which he would have put in execution upon us then can be denied The large declaration professeth that all the variation of our booke from the booke of England that ever the King understood was in such things as the Scottish humour would better comply with than with that which stood in the English Service These popish innovations therefore have been surreptitiously inserted by him without the Kings knowledge and against his purpose Our Scottish Prelates do petition that something may be abated of the English ceremonies as the Crosse in Baptisme the Ring in Marriage and some other things But Canterbury will not only have these kept but a great many more and worse superadded which was nothing else but the adding of fewell to the fire To expresse and discover all would require a whole booke we shall only touch some few in the matter of the Communion This book inverteth the ordor of the Communion in the book of England as may be seen by the numbers setting down the orders of this new Communion 1.5.2.6.7.3.4.8.9.10.15 Of the divers secret reasons of this change we mention one only in joyning the spirituall praise and thanksgiving which is in the book of England pertinently after the Communion with the prayer of Consecration before the Communion and that under the name of memorable or oblation for no other end but that the memoriall and sacrifice of praise mentioned in it may be understood according to the popish meaning Bellar. de Missae lib. 2. cap. 21. Not of the spirituall sacrifice but of the oblation of the body of the Lord. It seemeth to be no great matter that without warrant of the book of England the Presbter going from the North end of the Tabls shall stand during the time of Consecration at such a part of the Table where he may with the more ease and decencie use both hands yet being tryed it importeth much as that he must stand with his hinder parts to the people representing sayth Durand that which the Lord sayd of Moses Thou shalt see my hinder parts He must have the use of both his hands not for any thing he hath to do about the bread and wine for that may be done at the North end of the Table and be better seen of the people but as we are taught by the Rationalists that he may be stretching forth his arms to represent the extension of Christ on the Crosse and that he may the more conveniently lift up the bread and wine above his head to be seen and adored of the people who in the Rubrick of the generall Confession a little before are directed to kneel humbly on their knees that the Priests elevation so magnified in the Masse and the peoples adoration may go together That in this posture speaking with a low voyce and muttering for sometimes he is commanded to speak with a lowd voyce and distinctly he be not heard by the people which is no lesse a mocking of God and his people then if the words were spoken in an unknown language As there is no word of all this in the English Service so doth the booke in King Ed. time give to every Presbyter his liberty of gesture which yet gave such offence to Bucer the censurer of the book and even in Cassanders own judgement a man of great moderation in matters of this kinde that he calleth them Nunquam satis execrandos Misse gestus and would have them to be abhorred because they confirm to the simple and superstitious ter impiam exitialem Misse fiduciam The corporall presence of Christs body in the Sacrament is also to be found here for the words of the Mass-book serving to this purpose which are sharply censured by Bucer in King Ed. Leiturgy and are not to be found in the book of England are taken in here Almighty God is incalled that of his Almighty goodnesse he may vouchsafe so to blesse and sanctifie with his Word and Spirit these gifts of bread and wine that they may be unto us the body and bloud of Christ The change here is made the worke of Gods omnipotencie the words of the Masse ut fiant nobis are translated in King Edwards booke That they may be unto us which are againe turned into Latine by Alesius ut fiant nohis On the other part the expressions of the booke of England at the delivery of the Elements of feeding on Christ by faith and of eating and drinking in remembrance that Christ dyed for
and Liberties were of late more pressing than we were able to bear That our Complaints and Supplications for redresse were answered at last with the terrors of an Army That after a pacification greater preparations were made for war whereby many Acts of Hostility were done against us both by Sea and Land The Kingdome wanted administration of Justice and we constrained to take Arms for our defence That we were brought to this extreme and intolerable necessity either to maintain divers Armies upon our Borders against Invasion from England or Ireland still to be deprived of the benefit of all the Courts of Justice and not onely to maintain so many thousands as were spoyled of their ships and goods but to want all Commerce by Sea to the undoing of Merchants of Saylors and many other who lived by Fishing and whose Callings are upholden from hand to mouth by Sea trade Any one of which evils is able in a short time to bring the most potent Kingdome to Confusion Ruine and Desolation how much more all the three at one time combined to bring the Kingdome of Scotland to be no more a Kingdome Yet all these behoved We either to endure and under no other hope than of the perfect slavery of our selves and our posterity in our souls Lives and means Or to resolve to come into England not to make any Invasion or with any purpose to fight except we were forced God is our Judge our actions are our witnesses and England doth now acknowledge the truth against all suspicions to the contrary and against the impudent lies of our enemies but for our relief defence and preservation which we could finde by no other means when we had essayed all means and had at large expressed our pungent and pressing necessities to the Kingdome and Parliament of England Since therefore the war on our part which is no other but our coming into England with a Guard is defensive and all men do acknowledge that in common equity the defendant should not be suffered to perish in his just and necessary defence but that the persuer whether by way of Legall processe in the time of Peace or by way of violence and unjust invasion in the time of war ought to bear the charges of the defendant We trust that your Lordships will think that it is not against reason for us to demand some reparation of this kinde and that the Parliament of England by whose wisedome and justice we have expected the redresse of our wrongs will take such course as both may in reason give us satisfaction and may in the notable demonstration of their Justice serve most for their own honour Our earnestnesse in following this our Demand doth not so far wrong our fight and make us so undiscerning as not to make a difference between the Kingdome and Parliament of England which did neither discerne nor set forward a Warre against us And that prevalent faction of Prelates and Papists who have moved every stone against us and used all sorts of means not onely their Counsells Subsidies and Forces but their Church Canons and Prayers for our utter ruine which maketh them obnoxious to our just accusations and guilty of all the losses and wrongs which this time past we have sustained Yet this we desire your Lordships to consider That the States of the Kingdome of Scotland being assembled did endeavour by their Declarations Informations and Remonstrances and by the proceedings of their Commissioners to make known unto the Councell Kingdome and Parliament of England and to forewarn them of the mischief intended against both Kingdomes in their Religion and Liberties by the Prelates and papists to the end that our Invasion from England might have been prevented if by the prevalency of the faction it had been possible And therefore we may now with the greater reason and confidence presse our Demand that your Lordships the Parliament the Kingdome and the King himself may see us repaired in our losses at the cost of that faction by whose means we have sustained so much dammage And which except they repent we finde sorrow recompenced for our grief torments for our toyl and an infinite greater losse for the Temporall losses they have brought upon a whole Kingdome which was dwelling by them in peace All the devices and doings of our common enemies were to bear down the truth of Religion and the just liberties of the Subjects in both Kingdomes They were confident to bring this about one of two wayes Either by blocking us up by Sea and Land to constrain us to admit their will for a law both in Church and Policy and thus to make us a precedent for the like misery in England or by their Invasion of our Kingdome to compell us furiously and without order to break into England That the two Nations once entred into a bloody Warre they might fish in our troubled waters and catch their desired prey But as we declared before our coming We trusted that God would turn their wisedome into foolishnesse and bring their devices upon their own pares by our Intentions and Resolutions to come into England as among our Brethren in the most peaceable way that could stand with our safety in respect of our common enemies to present our petitions for setling our peace by a Parliament in England wherein the intentions and actions both of our adversaries and ours might be brought to light The Kings Majesty and the Kingdome right informed The Authors and Instruments of our divisions and troubles punished All the mischiefs of a Nationall and doubtfull warre prevented and Religion and Liberty with greater peace and amity than ever before established against all the craft and violence of our enemies This was our Declaration before we set our England from which our deportments since have not varied And it hath been the Lords wonderfull doing by the wise counsels and just proceedings of the Parliament to bring it in a great part to passe and to give us lively hopes of a happy conclusion And therefore we will never doubt but that the Parliament in their wisedom and iustice will provide that a proportionable part of the cost and charges of a work so great and so comfortable to both Nations be born by the Delinquents there that with the better conscience the good people of England may sit under their own Vines and Fig-trees refreshing themselves although upon our great pains and hazard yet not altogether upon our cost and charges which we are not able to bear The Kingdome of England doth know and confesse that the innovation of religion and liberties in Scotland were not the principall designe of our common enemies but that both in the intention of the workers whose zeal was hottest for setling their devices at home and in the condition so the work making us whom they conceived to be the weaker for opposition to be nothing else but a leading case for England And that although by the power of God which
under great penalties forbid all Parsons Vicars Curates Readers in Divinity c. to speake any other wayes of them then as they had defined by which meanes having seized upon all the Conduites whereby knowledge is convayed to the people how easie would it bee for them in time to undermine the Kings Prerogative and to suppresse the subjects liberty or both And now Sir I beseech you to consider how they have defined this high and great poynt they have dealt with us in matter of Divinity as the Judges had done before in matter of Law they first tooke upon them to determine a matter that belonged not to their Judicature but onely to the Parliament and after by their judgement they overthrew our propriety and just so have these Divines dealt with us they tell us that Kings are an Ordinance of God of Divine Right and founded in the prime Lawes of Nature from whence it will follow that all other formes of government as Aristocracies and Democracies are wicked formes of government contrary to the Ordinance of God and the Prime Lawes of Nature which is such new Divinitie as never read in any Booke but in this new Booke of Canons Mr. Speaker We all know that Kings and States and Iudges and all Magistrates are the Ordinances of God but Sir give mee leave to say they were the Ordinances of men before they were the Ordinances of God I know I am upon a great and high poynt but I speake by as great and as high a warrant if St. Peters chaire cannot erre as St. Peters Epistles cannot thus he teacheth us Submit your selfe to-every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it bee to the King as supreame or to the Governour as to him that is sent by him c. Sir It is worthy noting that they are Ordinances of men but that they are to be submitted unto for the Lords sake and truely their power is as just and their subjects allegeance as due unto them though we suppose them to bee first ordinances of men and then confirmed and established by Gods Ordinance as if wee suppose them to bee immediate Ordinances of God and so received by men But there was somewhat in it that these Divines aimed at I suppose it was this If Kings were of Divine Right as the Office of a Pastor in the Church or founded in the prime Lawes of Nature as the power of a Father in a Family then it would certainly follow that they should receive the fashion and manner of their government onely from the Prescript of Gods Word or of the Lawes of Nature and consequently if there bee no Text neither of the Old nor New Testament nor yet any Law of Nature that Kings may not make Lawes without Parliaments they may make Lawes without Parliaments and if neither in the Scripture nor in the Law of Nature Kings be forbidden to lay taxes or any kind of impositions upon their people without consent in Parliament they may doe it out of Parliament and that this was their meaning they expresse it after in plaine termes for they say that Subsidies and taxes and all manner of ayds are due unto Kings by the Law of God and of Nature Sir if they bee due by the Law of God and of Nature they are due though there be no act of Parliament for them nay Sir if they bee due by such a right a hundred acts of Parliaments cannot take them away or make them undue And Sir that they meant it of Subsidies and aids taken without consent in Parliament is clearely that addition that they subjoyne unto it that this doth not take away from the Subject the propriety hee hath in his goods for had they spoken of Subsidies and aydes given by consent in Parliament this would have been a very ridiculous addition for who ever made any question whether the giving Subsidies in Parliament did take away from the Subject the propriety hee hath in his goods when as it doth evidently imply they have a propriety in their goods for they could not give unlesse they had something to give but because that was alledged as a chiefe reason against Ship-mens and other such illegall payments levied upon the people without their consent in Parliament that it did deprive them of their right of propriety which they have in their goods these Divines would seem to make some answer thereunto but in truth their answer is nothing else but the bare assertion of a contradiction and it is an easie thing to say a contradiction but impossible to reconcile it for certainely if it bee a true rule as it is most true quod meum est sine consensu meo non potest fieri alienum to take my goods without my consent must needes destroy my propriety Another thing in this first Canon wherein they have assumed unto themselves a Parliamentarie power is in that they take upon them to define what is Treason besides what is determined in the statute of Treasons They say to set up any coactive independent power is treasonable both against God and the King the question is not whether it bee true they say or no but whether they have power to say what is Treason and what not But now Sir that I am upon this point I would gladly know what kinde of power that is which is exercised by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deanes Arch-Deacons c. Coactive certainely it is all the Kingdome feeles the lash thereof and it must needs bee independant if it be jure Divine as they hold it for they doe not meane by an independant power such a power as doth not depend on GOD. Besides if their power be dependant of whom is it dependant not of the King for the Law acknowledgeth no way whereby Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction can bee derived from his Majestie but by his Commission under the great-Scale which as I am informed they have not I speake not of the High Commission but of that jurisdiction which they exercise in their Archiepiscopall Episcopall Archidaconall Courts c. and therefore if their owne sentence bee just wee know what they are and what they have pronounced against themselves But Sir it were worth knowing what they aimed at in that independent coactive power which they terme popular I will not take upon me to unfold their meaning but wee know Doctor Beale had a hand in the making of these Canons and if wee apply his Paraphrase to the Text it may give us some clearenesse I remember amongst other notes of his this was one that he did acknowledge the Kings Supremacy but would joyne unto him an assistant viz. the people meaning this House which being the representative body of the COMMONS of England and claiming as it is so a share in the Legislative power Doctor Beale calleth this a joyning of an assistant to the King in whom soly hee placeth the power of making Lawes and that it is but of grace that he assumeth either the Lords or Commons
for the making of Lawes with him Now Sir the Legislative power is the greatest power and therefore coactive and it is the highest power and therefore independent and if every Estate for the proportion it hath therein should not have such a power it should not have it of right as founded in the Fabricke and frame of the policy and government but of Grace or by Commission as Dr. Beale affirmeth I have done with the first Canon onely I shall adde this that considering the principles and positions that are laid downe therein and comparing them with a clause towards the end of the Canon that in no case imaginable it is lawfull for subjects to defend themselves we may judge how farre forth these Canons were to prepare mens mindes for the force that was to follow after if the accusation against my Lord of Strafford bee layed aright For the matter it selfe I hope there will never be any need to dispute that question and I doe beleeve they had as little need to have published that position had it not beene upon designe As for the second Canon therein also they have assumed to themselves a Parliamentary power in taking upon them to appoynt Holidayes whereas the statute saith in expresse words that such dayes shall bee onely kept as Holy-dayes as are named in the Statute and no other and therefore though the thing may be bonum yet it was not done bene because not ordained by Parliament notwithstanding what hath beene alledged to the contrary it seemeth to mee to bee the appoynting of an Holy-day to set a time a part for Divine service and to force menunder penalties to leave their labours and businesse and to be present at it And of the same nature is that other clause in the same Canon wherein they take upon them without Parliament to lay a charge upon the people enjoyning two Bookes at least for that day to be bought at the charge of the parish for by the same right that they may lay a penny on the Parish without Parliament they may lay a pound or any greater summe As to the third Canon I shall passe it over onely the observation that my neighbour of the long Robe made upon it seemes unto me so good as that it is worth the repeating that whereas in the Canon against Sectaries there is an especiall proviso that it shall not derogate from any Statute or Law made against them as if their Canons had any power to disanull an act of Parliament there is no such proviso in this Canon against Papists from whence it may bee probably conjectured that they might have drawne some colour of exemption from the penall Lawes established against them from this Canon because it might seeme hard that they should be doubly punished for the same thing as wee know in the poynt of absence from the Church the Law provideth that if any man be first punished by the Ordinary he shall not be punished againe by the Iustices For the fourth Canon against Socinianisme therein also these Canon-makers have assumed to themselves a Parliament power in determining an Heresie not determined by Law which is expressely reserved to the determination of a Parliament It is true they say it is a complication of many heresies condemned in the four first Councells but they doe not say what those Heresies are and it is not possible that Socinianisme should bee formally condâ—mned in these Councells for it is sprung up but of late Therefore they have taken upon them to determine and damne a Heresie and that so generally as that it may bee of very dangerous consequence for condemning Socinianisme for an heresie and not declaring what is Socinianisme it is left in their breasts whom they will judge and call a Socinian I would not have any thing that I have said to be interpreted as if I had spoken it in favour of Socinianisme which if it be such as I apprehend it to be is indeed a most vile and damnable heresie and therefore the framers of these Canons are the more to blame in the next Canon against Sectaries wherein besides that in the preamble thereof they lay it downe for a certaine ground which the holy Synod knew full well that other Sects which they extend not onely to Brownists and Separatists but also to all persons that for the space of a month doe absent themselves without a reasonable cause from their owne parish Churches doe equally endeavour the subversion of the Discipline and Doctrine of the Church of England with the Papists although the worst of them doe not beare any proportion in that respect to the Papists I say besides that they make them equall in crime and punishment to the Papists notwithstanding the great disproportion of their Tenents there is another passage in this Canon relative to that against Socinianisme which I shall especially offer to your consideration and that is this If a Gentleman comming from beyond Seas should happen to bring over with him a Booke contrary to the Discipline of the Church of England or should give such a Booke to his friend nay if any man should abett or maintaine an opinion contrary thereunto though it were but in Parliament if hee thought it fit to be altered by this Canon he is excommunicated ipso facto and lyeth under the same consideration and is lyable to the same punishment as if he had maintained an opinion against the Deity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost and of our Iustification by the satisfaction of Christ Sir if in things that are in their owne Nature indifferent if in things disputable it shall bee as hainous to abett or maintaine an opinion as in the most horrible and monstrous herefies that can be imagined what liberty is left to us as Christians What liberty is left to us as men I proceed to the sixt Canon wherein these Canonists have asumed to then selves a Parliamentary power and that in a very high degree in that they have taken upon them to impose new Oathes upon the Kings Subjects Sir under favour of what hath beene alleaged to the contrary to impose an Oath if it be not an higher power then to make a Law it is a power of making a Law of most high Nature and of higher and farther consequence then any other Law and I should much rather chuse that the Convocation should have a power to make Lawes to binde my person and my estate then that they should have a power to make Oathes to binde my Conscience a Law bindes me no longer than till another Law bee made to alter it but my Oath bindes mee as long as I live Againe a Law bindes me either to obedience or to undergoe the penalty inflicted by the Law but my Oath bindes mee absolutely to obedience And lastly a Law bindes me no longer than I am in the Land or at the farthest no longer than I am a member of the State wherein and whereby the Law is
Righteousnesse For the other Oath de parendo juri Ecclisiae stando mandatis Ecclesiae though it make lesse noyse than the other yet it is not of lesse dangerous consequence If I remember well the Storie this was the Oath that the Pope made King John to take and when hee had sworne stare mandatis Ecclesiae the Pope commandid him to resigne his Kingdome to him and truely bee hee Gentle man or Nobleman or what ever else when hee hath once put his necke into this nouse his Ghostly Fathers may drag him whither they will for they have the quantity and the quality of the penance in their owne breast and if they shal enjoyne him to give any summe towards the building of a Church or the adorning of a Chappell he must pay it or if they should enjoyne him any servile or base action as there are not wanting examples of that kinde in the time of Popery they are sworne stare mandatis Ecclesiae and so cannot recede but must performe it Nay I dare not warrant any man from the rods of Henry the second or of Raymond of Tholouze what hath beene done may bee done I am sure the power is the same And that other Oath also though more usuall in practise and more confirmed by these new Canons which is administred to Church-wardens would bee looked into For it is hardly possible for them that take it not to be forsworne being they sweare to so many particulars that they cannot minde and to some that they cannot understand as how many Church-wardens are there in England that understand what Socinianisme is in case they be sworne to present the offenders against that Canon which concernes that matter I shall only adde a word or two concerning two Canons more which seeme to be Canons of Reformation The first is concerning Excommunication to bee pronounced onely by a Divine wherein it is alledged for the framers of these Canons that if they have not more Law on their sides yet they may seeme to have more reason For my part as in all other things I thinke they have so mended the matter that they have made it far worse for before that which was found fault with was this that a Lay-man did that which the grave Divine should have done and now the grave Divine must doe what ever the Lay-man would have done for the cognisance of the cause and the power of Iudicâ—ture is wholly in the Lay-man onely the grave Divine is to be his servant to execute his sentences and hath such a kinde of managing the spiritual sword allowed onely unto him as the Papists in some cases were wont to afford unto the civill Magistrate in respect of the Temporalâ— sword â—or as if the Civill sword by an implicite Faith had been pinned to the Lawn-sleeves they condemned men of Heresie and then delivered them over to the Secular power but what to doe Not to have any cognisance of the cause nor to exercise any power of judicature but onely to be their executioners and to burne the Heretick whom they had condemned and so they judged men excommunicate and then the Civill power was to send out Writs de excommunicato capiendo against them but one said well that the sword without cognisance of the cause and judgement was like Polyphemus without his eye it became violence and fury But being accompanyed with the eye of judgement it is equity and justice and surely where the Spirituall or Civill Governour is called upon to strike hee must be allowed to see and judge whom and wherefore he strikes otherwise he will be able to give but an ill accompt to God of the managing of the sword wherewith he is instructed The other Canon is the last Canon against vexatious Citations wherein they seeme to have some sence of the great grievances that poore people lye under by occasion of vexatious citations and molestations in Ecclesiasticall Courts and I verily believe that there is not a greater oppression in the whole Kingdome upon the poorer sort of people then that which proceedeth out of these Courts But now Sir let us see what provision they have made against it by this Canon They say because great grievances may fall upon people by citations upon pretence onely of the breach of that Law without any presentment or any other just ground that no citations grounded onely as aforesaid shall issue out except it be under the hand and Seale of the Chancellour Commissarie Arch-Deacon or other competent Judge so that if there be any sence in these words though there be no presentment at all nor any other just ground yet a citation may issue out so it be under the hand and Seale of the Chancellour Commissary or other competent Judge and the partie shall not be discharged without paying his fees nor have any reliefe by this Canon But suppose the Citation be not under the hand and Seale of any competent Iudge and that there was neither presentment nor any just ground for it shall he then bee dismissed without paying any fees No unlesse first contrary to the Law of Nature there being no presentment nor just ground of accusation against him he shall by his Oath purge himselfe of pretended breaches of Law and then too hee shall onely have the fees of the Court remitted but shall have no satisfaction for his troublesome and chargeable journey and for the losse of his time and being drawne away from his affaires Nay lest they should seeme to have beene too liberall of their favour they adde a proviso in the close of the Canon that this grace of theirs shall not extend to any â—rievous crime as Schisme Incontinency misbehavious in the Church or obstinate inconformity And what do they call misbehaviour in the Church If a man doe not kneele at the Confession or have his hat on when the Lessons are reading In like manner what doe they call obstinate inconformity If a man will not thinke what they would have him thinke if a man will not say what they would have him say if a man will not sweare what they would have him sweare if a man will not read what they would have him read if a man wil not preach what they would have him preach if a man will not pray what they would have him pray In short if a man will not doe what ever they would have him doe then hee is an inconformist and after that they have duely admonished him primo secundo tertio all in one breath then hee is contumacious then he is an obstinate Inconformist Now Sir my humble motion is that in consideration of all the premisses and what besides hath beene well laid open by others wee should proceed to dam these Canons not onely as contrary to the Lawes of the Land but also as containing sundry matters destructive of the rights of Parliaments and of the fundamentall and other principall Lawes of this Kingdome and otherwise of very dangerous consequence
The Lord Digby's Speech to the House of Commons concerning Bishops and the City petition the 9. of February 1640. Mr. Speaker I Know it is a tender subject I am to speake of wherein I beleeve some within these Walls are engaged with earnestnesse in contrary opinions to mine and therefore it will be necessary that in the first place I beseech the patience of this House that they will bee pleased to heare mee without interruption though somewhat I say should chance to be displeasing I hope there will be somewhat from mee ere I conclude that may be of Service to this House Sir if I thought there were no further designe in the desires of some that this London Petition should be committed then meerely to make use of it as an Index of grievance I should winke at the faults of it and not much oppose it There is no man within these wals more sensible of the heavy grievance of Church government then my Selfe nor whose affections are keene to the clipping of those wings of the Prelates whereby they have mounted to such insolencies nor whose zeale is more ardent to the searing them as that they may never spring againe But having reason to beleeve that some aime at a totall extirpation of Bishops which is against my heart and that the committing of this Petition may give countenance to that Designe I cannot restraine my selfe from labouring to divert it or at least to set such notes upon it as may make it ineffectuall to that end Truely Sir when this Petition was first brought into the House I considered it in its nature in the manner of the delivery in the present conjuncture of affâ—â—es both Ecclesiasticall and Civill to bee a thing of the highest Consequence that any Age hath presented to a Parliament and the same thoughts I have of it still I professe I looked upon it then with terrour as upon a Comet or blazing starre raysed and kindled out of the stench out of the poysonous exhalation of a corrupted Hierarchy Mee thought the Commet had a terrible Tayle with it Sir and poynted to the North the same feares dwell with mee still concerning it and I beseech God they may not prove Propheticall I feare all the Prudence all the Fore-cast all the Vertue of this House how unitedly soever collected how vigorously applyed will have a hard worke of it Yet to hinder this Meteor from causing such Distempers and Combustions by its Influence as it then portended by its appearance what ever the Event bee I shall discharge my Conscience concerning it freely and uprightly as unbyast by popularity as by any Court respects Sir I could never flatter the sense of this House which I Reverence so much as to suppresse a single No that my heart dictated though I knew the venting of it might cast prejudices upon mee had my Fortune placâ—d mee neere a King I could not have flattered a King and I doe not intend now to flatter a multitude I shall desire those worthy Aldermen and the rest here of the City of London not to take any thing I shall say in the least way of disparagement or reflection on the City I looke not upon this Petition as a Petition from the City of London but from I know not what 15000. Londoners all that could be got to subscribe When this Petition was first presented there might bee more reason for the Commitment of it as being then the most comprehensive Catalogue wee had of Church grievance but now that the Ministers by their Remonstrance have given us so faire and full an Index of them without those mixtures of things contemptible irrationall and presumptuous wherewith this Petition abounds I do not know I professe to what good end it can be committed being full of contemptible things but first let me recall to your minde the manner of its delivery And I am confident there is no man of judgement that will thinke it fit for a Parliament under a Monarchy to give countenance to irregular and tumultuous assemblies of people be it for never so good an end Besides there is no man of the least insight into Nature or History but knowes the danger when eyther true or pretended stimulation of conscience hath once given a multitude agitation Contemptible things Sir swarme in the 8.13.14.15 16.17 Articles of this Petition Did ever any body thinke that the gaites of Ovid or Tom. Caryes muse should by 15000. have beene presented to a Parliament as a motive for the extirpation of Bishops the scandall of the Rochet the Lawne-sleeves the foure corner Cap the Cope the Surplesse the Tippet the Hood the Canonicall Coat c. may passe with arguments of the sune weight onely thus much let me observe upon it Mr. Speaker that one would sweare the penners of the Article had the pluming of some Bishops already they are so acquainted with every feather of them In a word I know not whether be more preposterous to inferre the extirpation of Bishops from such weake Arguments or to attribute as they doe to Church government all the civill grievance not a Patent not a Monopoly not the price of a commodity moditie raysed but these men make Bishops the cause of it For the irrationall part Mr. Speaker first they Petition us in a Method only allowable with those whose Iudgement or Iustice is suspected that is Iniquum petere ut aequum feras There is no Logick no reasoning in their demands It were want of Logick in mee to expect it from a multitude but I consider the multitude in this is led by implicite faith to that which hath beene digested and contrived but by a few and in them truely I cannot but wonder at the want of Reconciliation here A Petition Mr. Speaker ought in this to bee a kinde of Syllogisme that the Conclusion the Prayer ought to hold proportion with the premisses that is with the Allegations and Complaints and to beeasonably deduc't from them But what have we here a multitude of Allegations a multitude of instances of abuses and depravations of Church Government And what inferred from thence let the use be utterly abolisht for the abuses sake As if they should say that because Drunkennesse and Adultery are growne so epidemicall as is alledged in the Petition Let there be no more use of Wine nor of Women in the Land Christs Discipline hath beene adulterated 't is true the whole Church inebriated by the Prelates therefore infer our Petitioners let not so much as the chaste the sober use of them be suffered Give me leave to continue one of the Comparisons a little further should it be demonstrated unto us that Wine could not be made use of without Drunkennesse and withall some such Liquor presented as healthy and as nourishing from which no distemper could arise I should not blame any man for desiring to pluck up the Vine by the roots But for the moveable ills-sake to take away the solid good of a thing
Ego Rex meus Or if there shall be sound any cruell Bonners c. such I confesse I would not spare for they will spare none But in the counterballance if there may be found but one good Cranmer or one good Latimer or Ridley I would esteeme and prize them as such jewels to be set in the Kings own Cabinet for such I am sure will pray for the peace of Jerusalem and for the peace of King Charles and his three Kingdomes which God long preserve in concord and unity But Master Speaker we must also be Actors in the preservations of Religions concordance which wil never be safe nor well at quiet untill these heavy drossie Canons with all their base mettall be melted and dissolved let us then dismount them and destroy them which is my humble motion A SECOND SPEECH made by Sir John Wray in the Commons-House 24. November 1640. Mr. Speaker BY the report made from the Committee of Religion you may see to what exorbitant height Poperie is growne and yet how slowly we go on to suppresse it I feare God is displeased with us or else no disaster should have prevented the sealing of our Covenant when intended and I hope it shall be performed the next Sabbath Had our Fast beene accepted and our Humiliation Cordiall no blow should have distracted our preparation Master Speaker if we had taken the good Counsell of our Teachers at the Fast and beleeved their Report we had done well and by this time no doubt we might have found out Achan with his Wedge of Godl and Babilonish garment But we have spent our time onely in peeling of the Barke and snatching the boughes and branches of Poperie and that will doe us no good for they will prove and grow thicker and harder What must we do then Master Speaker to preserve our Religion safe and sound to us and to our Posterity that our Candlesticke be not removed The only way is to fall to our worke in earnest and lay the Axe to the Root to unloose the long and deepe fangs of Poperie and Superstition which being once done the bodie will soone fall downe Let us then Master Speaker endeavour a through Reformation for if it be imperfect it will prove the seed of dissolution if not dissolutions which God forbid and to prevent it I shall humbly move that the Groves and High-places of Idolatry may be removed and put down and then Gods wrath will be appeased and till then never Mr. GRIMSTONS SPEECH In the House of Commons IN PARLIAMENT CONCERNING EPISCOPACY In Feb. 1640. Mr. Speaker THese two honorable Lords Lord Digby Lord Faulkland that spake last have not only prevented me in much I intended to have spoken my self but they have likewise taught me much I knew not before Therefore it is not much you can expect from me All that I shall say at this time is rather to prepare the matter for the question which hath already been so learnedly debated by them than to speak any thing of the matter it self I must confesse when I look upon the Bishops or at least upon some of them and the way of their Government and the sufferings of the people under their Tyranny I wonder not at all at the multitude of Petitioners and Petitions that have this Parliament been preferred against them and that they all cry out Crucifie Crucifie or that they would have been up by the roots but it is necessary we should distinguish between the persons of the Bishops which are so obnoxious and their Functions and Offices for there is no more weight in the Argument that because the Bishops have done amisse therefore take away Episcopacy than there is in it because the Judges of the Common Law are in fault therefore take away Judges and take away the Common Law For my own part I conceive it an easier matter and safer for us Addere Inventis to reform what is amisse in them and their Government then Creare Novum to set up a new form of Goverment which we have had no experience of nor do we know how it should suit either with the humours of the people or with the Monarchiall Government And it may be the new Government which is so much desired if it be brought in upon the grounds and foundations that some would have it it will be out of our powers ever to minister it again Whereas on the other side the Government which is already established if the Governours exceed their bounds they may fall into a Premunire and other penalties which the Law hath provided in that Case and if that be not sufficient we have yet another hanck upon them for our Parliaments have continually a command over them Then Sir It may be demanded of me of their being so much amisse what is that I would have done Truely Sir I am of opinion that much must be done or else we had as good do nothing Therefore I come to the particulars Church Government may be compared to a Castle let a Castle be never so strong once in four-score yeers for so long it is since the first reformation it may need repair and it is not the Castle alone I mean the Government that needs repair but likewise the Governours themselves who most wickedly and trayterously have turned their Canons upon us which should have been used for our defence In the first place therefore I conceive it not onely convenient but of absolute necessity and the payring of their excrescences I mean their temporall Jurisdiction I must confesse I know not to what purpose they should sit upon our Benches at our Sessions of the Peace and Goal-Deliveries or in the Starre-Chamber for by wofull experience we finde that their Judgements are guided there more by their boundlesse wills and fiery transported passions than by reason and the rule of Law which ought to have been their director I conceive that of lesse use their sitting at the Councell boord to be there at the Helm to guide and steer the temporall affairs of the Common-wealth certainly that is not the Plough they ought to follow and by the neglecting of it that is the reason that so many briers brambles and stinking weeds are sprung up in Gods House the Church to the great destruction of all his Majesties Kingdoms here at home and the great wonder and amazement of all the reformed Churches abroad And I conceive it of the least use of all their sitting in Parliaments as powers to give their voices in the making of Laws and yet I would not utterly exclude them For I conceive it might be convenient that all or at least some of them might alway be present there as Assistants to give their advice in Spirituall matters when they are thereunto required by the Lords as the Justices do in Temporall In the next place I conceive it of as absolute necessity the robbing of the Jurisdiction of the high Commission Court or at least to limit and bound
it that it may quadrare with the great Charter of our liberties and the Laws of this Kingdom This Court hath for many yeers together ridden upon the back of the common Law Courts which ought to have been subservient to them Each river must be kept within its own bounds and it is unpossible to have two Suns shine together in one Firmament They have likewise many superfluous Courts which I conceive might very well be spared as their Officiall Courts and Commissary Courts Sir they are no better than cozening Lotteries where the Kings Subjects are detained of their moneyes and where their Judges and inferiour Officers do like Physitians that alway cure themselves though they destroy their patients I confesse I could willingly give my consent that they should keep their Chancellors Court and an Archdeacon Court if such limits and bounds were put upon them as by the wisedom of this House may easily be done The Chancellor is custos consciencie the Keeper of the Bishops conscience and the Archdeacon is oculus Episc the Bishops eye And as I would not take away their consciences or their eyes so I would not have them like Briarius have their finger in every businesse This Sir I have shortly presented you with my opinion that is that I am not willing it that should be referred to or committed upon the point of subversion but I am willing it should be referred upon the point of reformation And if the sence of the House shall run that way I doubt not but at the Commitree I shall make it manifest that my heart stands affected with as much zeal for the having a reformation as any man that sits within these walls DENSELL HOLLIS Esquior His speech at the deliverie of the Protestation to the LORDS May the fourth 1641. My Lords THe Kuights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons having taken into their consideration the present estate and condition of this Kingdome they finde it surrounded with variety of pernicious dangers and destructive designes practises and plots against the well being of it and some of those designes hatched within our owne bowells and Viper-like working our own destruction They finde Jesuits and Priests conspiring with ill ministers of State to destroy our Religion they finde ill ministers conioyn'd together to subvert the Lawes and liberties They finde obstructions of Justice which is the life-bloud of every State and having a free passage from the Soveraign power where it is as primarily seated as the life-bloud in the heart and there derived from the severall Judicatories or through so many veins into all the parts of this great collective Bodie doth give warmth and motion to every part and member which is nourished and inlivened by it But being once precluded stoppd and reared as the particular must of necessity faint and languish so must the whole frame of government be dissolved And consequently Soveraignty it selfe which as the heart in the body is primum movens ultimum moriens must dye and perish in the generall dissolution and all things as in the beginning in antiquum Chaos My Lords They finde the property of the Subject invaded and violated his estate rent from him by illegall taxations Monopolies and proiects almost upon every thing that is for the use of man not only upon superfluities but necessaries and that enrich the Vermine and Caterpillers of the Land and impoverishing good Subiects to take the meat from the Children and give it to Dogs My Lords if the Commons finde these things they conceive they must needs be ill counsels that have brought us into this condition These Counsels have put all into a combustion have discouraged the hearts of all true English men and brought two Armies into our bowels which is the Unlture upon Prometheus eats through and sucks and gnaws our very hearts out Hic Dolor sed ubi Medicina Heretofore Parliaments were the Catholicall the balm of Gilead which healed our wounds restored our spirits and made up the breaches of the Land But of late years they have been like the Fig-tree in the Gospel without effecacie without fruit onley destructive to their particular members who discharged their duties and consciences no way beneficiall to the Common-welth Nohis exitiale nec Reipublico profuturum As he saith in Tacitus being taken away still as Elias was with a whirle-wind never comming to any maturity or to their naturall end whereas they should be like the blessed old maâ— who dieth plenus dierâ—â—â— in a full ago after he had fought a good fight and overcomâ— all his enemies Or as the shâ—cke of wheat wâ—ich commeth in due season to fill our Garnaries with corn uphold our lives with the staffe of bread for Parliaments are our panis quotidianus our true bread all other waies are but Quelkachees which yeeld no true nourishment bread nor good blood The very Parliament which hath sate so long hath but beat the Ayre and strive against the streame I may truly say the wind and tyde hath still been against us The same ill counsell which first raised the storm and almost shipwrackt the Common-wealth they still continue they blow strong like the East wind that brought the Locusts over their Counsells crosse our designes cast difficulties in our way hinder our proceediâ—gs and make all that we do to be fruitlesse and ineffectuall They make us not masters of our busines and so not masters of many which have been the great busines of this Parliament that we might pay the Armies according to our promises and engagements For my Lords our not effecting of the good things which we have undertaken for the good of the Church and of the Common-wealth hath wounded our Reputation and taken off from our credit Is it not time then my Lords that we should unite and concentrate our selves in regard of this Anteparisiasis of hurtfull and malicious intentions and practises against us My Lords it is most agreeable to nature and I am sure most agreeable to reason in respect of the present coniuncture of our affairs for one main Engine by which our enemies work our mischief is by infusing an opinion and bâ—leiâ— into the world that we are not united among our selves But like Sampsons Foxes we draw severall wayes and tend to our severall ends To defeat the Counsels of these Achitophels which would involve us Our Religion our being our Lawes our liberties all that can be neere and deere unto an henest soule in one universall and generall desolation to defeat I say the Counsels of evill Achitophels the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons knowing themselves to be specially entrusted with the preservation of the whole and in their Conscience are perswaded that the dangers are so eminent as they will admit of no delay have thought fit to declare their united affections by entring into an assosciation amongst themselves and by making a solemne Protestation and vow unto their God that they will