his holy Angels take it 〈…〉 death that I never endeavoured the subversion of Law or Relâ—gion and I desire you all to remember this Protest of mine for my in 〈…〉 this and from all Treasons whatsoever I have been accused 〈…〉 an Enemy to Parliaments No I understood them and the benefit that comes by them too well to be so But I did mislike the 〈◊〉 governments of some Parliaments many waies and I had good Reason for it For Corruptio optimi est Pessima there is no Corruption iâ— thâ— World so bad as that which is of the best thing within it self Fâ—r the better the thing is in nature the worse it is corrupted And that being the Highest Court over which no other hath Iurisdiction when it is misinformed or misgoverned the Subject is left without all remedy â—ut I have done I forgive all the the World all and every of these 〈◊〉 Enemies which have persecuted me and humbly desire to be forgâ—vâ—n of God first and then of every man whether I have offended him or not if he do but conceive that I have Lord do thou forgive me and I beg forgiveness of him And so I heartily desire you to joyn in Prayer with me Which said with a distinct and audible voice he prayed as followeth O Eternal God and Merciful Father look down upon me in mercy in the Riches and Fulness of all thy mercies look down upon me but not till thou hast nailed my sins to the Cross of Christ not till thou hast bathed me in the blood of Christ not till I have hid my self in the wounds of Christs that so the punishment due unto my sins may pass over me And since thou art pleased to try me to the utmost I humbly beseech thee give me now in this great instant full Patience Proportionable Comfort and a heart ready to die for thine Honour the Kings Happiness and this Churches preservation And my Zeal to this far from Arrogancy be it spoken is all the sin humane Frailty excepted and all the incidents thereunto which is yet known to me in this particular for which I now come to suffer I say in this particular of Treason but otherwise my sins are many and great Lord pardon them all and those especially what ever they are which have drawn down this present Iudgement upon me and when thou hast given me strength to bear it do with me as seems best in thine own Eyes and carry me through death that I may look upon it in what visage soever it shall appear to me Amen And that there may be a stop of this Issue of blood in this more then miserable Kingdom I shall desire that I may pray for the people too as well as for my self O Lord I beseech thee give grace of Repentance to all blood-thirsty people but if they will not Repent O Lord confound all their devices Defeat and frustrate all their designs and endeavours upon them which are or shall be contrary to the Glory of thy Great name the truth and sincerity of Religion the establishment of the King and his Posterity after him in their just Rights and Priviledges the Honour and Conservation of Parliaments in their just power the preservation of this poor Church in her truth peace and Patrimony and the settlement of this Distracted and distressed People under their Ancient Laws and in their Native Liberty And when thou hast done all this in meer mercy to them O Lord fill their hearts with thankfulness and with Religious Dutiful obedience to thee and thy Commandments all their days Amen Lord Iesu Amen and receive my soul into thy Bosom Amen Our Father which art in Heaven c. The Speech and Prayers being ended â—e gave the Paper which he Read into 〈◊〉 hands oâ— Sterne his Chaplain permitted to attend him in his last extremity whom he desired to Communicate it to his other Chaplains that they might see in what manner â—e leâ—t this world and so prayed God to shew his blessings and mercies on them And taking notice that one Hind had imployed himselâ— in writing tâ—e words of his Speech as it came from his mouth he dâ—sired him not to do him wrong in publishing a false or imperfect Copy This done he next applyed himself to the fatal Block as to the Hâ—ven of his Rest But finding the way full of people who had placed themselves upon the Theatre to behold the Tragedy he desired â—e might have room to die beseeching them to let him have an end of his miseries which he had endured very long All which he did with so Serene and calm a mind as if he rather had been taking Order for a Noble Mans Funeral then making way for his own Being come neer the block he put oâ— his Doublet and used some words to this 〈◊〉 Gods will be done I am willing to go out of this world none can â—e â—â—re willing to send me And seeing through the Chink of the â—oards that some people were got under the Scaffold about the very place where the block was seated he called to the Officer for some dust to stop them or to remove the people thence saying it was â—o part of his desires that his blood should fall upon the heads of the people Never did man put off mortality with a better courage nor look upon his bloody and malicious Enemies with more Christian Charity And thus far he was on his way toward Paradise with such a Primitive Magnanimity as equalled if not exceeded the example of the Ancient Martyrs when he was somewhat interrupted by one of those who had placed himself on the Scaâ—â—old not otherwise worthy to be named but as a Fire-brand brought from Ireland to inflame this Kingdom Who finding that the mockings and revilings of malicious people had no power to move him or shaâ—pen him into any discontent or shew of passion would needs put in and try what he could do with his Spunge and Vinegar and Stâ—pping to him neer the Block he would needs propound unto him some Impertinent questions not so much out of a desire to learn any thing of him but with the same purpose as was found in the Sâ—ribes and Pharisees in propounding questions to our Saviour tâ—at is to say either to intrap him in his Answers or otherwise to â—â—pose him to some disadvantage with the standers by Two of the quâ—stions he made answer to withal Christian meekness The first question was What was the Comfortablest saying which a dying man would have in his mouth to which he meekly made answer Cupio 〈◊〉 esse cum Christo being asked again what was the fittest Speech a man could use to express his Confidence and Assurancâ— he answâ—â—ed with the same Spirit of meekness That such Assâ—â—ancâ— was to be found within and that no words were able 〈…〉 But tâ—is not satisfying this busie man wâ—o aimed at something else as is probable then such satisfaction unless he gave some Word or
pass'd two Acts in the Assembly held at Aberdeen Anno 1616. the one for making one Uniform Order or Form of Worship to be prepared by some Bishops and other Learned men amongst them by them to be presented to the King and being by the King approved to be by him commended to the use of that Kirk The other for consulting the Registry of their formeâ— Assemblys and extracting out of them such Canons as being ratified by the stamp of Royal Authority might pass for currant in the same To speed this business and strike the Iron whilst it was hot his Majesty made that chargeable Journey into Scotland which before we spake of with an intent to press them personally to the receiving of some few of the English Ceremonies which had been offered to the consideration of the late Assembly the better to advance his hopes of introducing by degrees the Liturgy of the Church of England Which Ceremonies being reduced to five Articles and propounded to them at his being there found such success and put the King upon such Councels as have been formerly declared But what he could not compass in the year foregoing he obtained in this those Articles being passed in an Assembly held at Perth in the Month of August and are these that follow 1. That for the more reverend Receiving of the Holy Communion the same should be celebrated to the People thereafter kneeling and not sitting as had been the Custom since the Reformation of Religion 2. If any good Christian visited with sickness which was taken to be deadly should desire to receive the Communion at home in his house the same should not be denied to him lawful warning being given to the Minister the night before and three or four of good Religion and Conversation being present to Communicate with him 3. That in case of necessity tried and known to the Minister it should be lawful to Administer Baptism in private Houses the same being always Ministred after the form in which it should have been in the Congregation A publick Declaration of it to be made the next Sunday after 4. That the days of the Birth Passion Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour Christ and of the coming down of the Holy Ghost in regard of those inestimable Benefits which the Church of God had received on them should be publickly Solemnized in the Congregation the Ministers making choice of fit Texts of Scripture agreeable to the Occasions for their several Sermons 5. That the Minister in every Parish having Catechized all Children above eight years of age according to the short Catechism used in the Church and taught them to repeat by heart the Lords Prayer the Creed and the Ten Commandments should present them to their Bishops in their Visitations by them to be blessed with Prayers for the increase of Grace and continuance of Gods heavenly Gifts upon them And this indeed was a great step to the work of Uniformity so much desired which had it been pursued as vigorously by the Bishops of Scotland as by the King it had been piously begun the Service which was sent into that Kirk almost twenty years afteâ— had been better welcom'd by the Scots and drawn less danger upon Laud who was then Archbishop for his pious Actings in the same But on the other side the condemning of the five Arminian Articles as they commonly called them at the Synod of Dort was altogether as much unpleasing as the others had been grateful to him for well he saw the great dangers which might thence ensue to the Church of England whose Doctrines were openly confronted and her Discipline secretly undermined by the Decisions and Determinations of that Synodical Assembly In which regard it will not be unnecessary to make a brief Relation of those stirs and differences which hapned in the Belgick Churches from the time that Doctor Iacob van Harmine was made one of the Divinity Professors in the University of Leyden Concerning which we are first to know That at the Alteration of Religion in those Provinces the French who were most active in it brought with them Calvin's Platform both for Doctrine and Discipline as commonly the one makes way to bring in the other according unto which the Belgick Confession was drawn up in the year 1567. Which notwithstanding such of their Ministers as better liked the Melancthonian Doctrines in the points of Predestination Grace Free-will c. than they did the other spared not to publish their Opinions as they saw occasion as well before as after the establishing of the said Confession and did it without check or censure Amongst which we may first reckon Anastasius Veluanus in a Book of his entituled Odegus Laicorum or the Lay-mans Guide published in the year 1554. and much commended by Henricus Antonides the Divinity Reader in the University of Franeker after whom followed in the same Opinions Iohannes Isbrandi who openly profess'd himself an Anti-Calvinian Clemens Martini who took his Principles from Hardinbergius one of the first Reformers of the Church of Embden Gellius Sueranus in West-Friesland who looked upon those of the other Perswasion as Innovators in that Church Holmanus the Divinity Reader in Leyden Cornelius Menardi a man of good esteem amongst them and generally all the Ministers successively in the Province of Vtrecht some of which had maintained these Doctrines before the birth of Iacob van Harmine better known in these later times by the name of Arminius and all of them before such time as any publick notice had been taken of him by which it seems that these Doctrines were of a long standing and had took deep rooting in these Churches though they had not gained such a large and general spreading over them as they after did For in the year 1603. the Learned Iunius one of the Professors for Divinity in the University of Leyden being then deceased the Curators or Overseers of that University made choice of this Van Harmine the Pastor as they phrase it of the Church of Amsterdam to succeed in his place But the Inhabitants of that Town amongst whom he had served in the Ministry for the space of 15. years and moâ—â— were so affected to the man that they would by no means yield unto his departure till over-ruled by the intreaties of some and the power of others A matter very unpleasing to the Rigid Calvinians informing against him to the State for several Heterodoxies repugnant to the received Doctrine of those Churches Arminius for six years before had by exchange of Letters betwixt him and Iunius maintained the Melancthonian Doctrines in those points of Controversie before remembred which Papers being dispersed abroad in several Copies but not published till after his death and then published by the name of Amica Collatio c. gave the Calvinians some fair Colour for their information But the business being heard at the Hague he was acquitted by his Judges dispatch'd for Leyden and there confirmed in his place
those who adhered unto him to fly the Country but intercepted his Revenues seazed on all his Forts and Castles and put themselves into a Posture of open War And that they might be able to manage it with the greater credit they called home some of their Commanders out of Germany and some which served under the Pay of the States General so far prevailing with those States as to continue such Commanders in their Pay and Places as long as they remained in the Service of the Scottish Covenanters A favour which his Majesty could not get at their hands nor had he so much reason to expect it as the others had iâ— considered rightly It had been once their own case and they conceived they had good reason to maintain it in others It may deservedly be a matter of no small amazement that this poor and unprovided Nation should dare to put such baffles and affronts upon their Lawful King the King being backt by the united Forces of England and Ireland obeyed at home and rendred formidable unto all his Neighbours by a puissant Navy they must have some assurances more than ordinary which might enflame them to this height and what they were it may not be amiss to enquire into First then they had the King for their natural Country-man born in that Air preserving a good affection for them to the very laâ—t and who by giving them the Title of his Ancient and Native Kingdom as he did most commonly gave them some reason to believe that he valued them above the English They had in the next place such a strong Party of Scots about him that he could neither stir or speak scarce so much as think but they were made acquainted with it In the Bed-Chamber they had an equal number of Gentlemen and seven Grooms for one in the Presence-Chamber more than an equal number amongst the Gentlemen Ushers Quarter-Waiters c. In the Privy-Chamber besides the Carvers and Cup-bearers such disproportion of the Gentlemen belonging to it that once at a full Table of Waiters each of them having a Servant or two to attend upon him I and my man were the only English in all the Company By which the King was so obsâ—rved and betrayed withal that as far as they could find his meaning by Words by Signs and Circumstances or the silent language of a shrug it was posted presently into Scotland some of his Bed-Chamber being grown so bold and saucy that they used to Ransack his Pockets when he was in bed to transcribe such Letters as they found and send the Copies to their Countrymen in the way of intelligence A thing so well known about the Court that the Archbishop of Canterbury in one of his Letters gave him this memento that he should not trust his Pockets with it For Offices of trust and credit they wâ—re as well accomodated as with those of service Hamilton Master of the Horse who stocked the Stables with that People The Earl of Morton Captain of his Majesties Guard The Earl of Ancram Keeper of the Privy Purse The Duke of Lenox Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover Castle Balfore Lieutenant of the Tower the Fortress of most power and command in England And Wemmys the Master Gunner of his Majesties Navy who had the issuing of the Stores and Ammunition designed unto it Look on them in the Church and we shall find so many of that Nation beneficed and preferred in all parts of this Country that their Ecclesiastical Revenues could not but amount to more then all the yearly Rents of the Kirk of Scotland and of all these scarce one in ten who did not cordially espouse and promote their Cause amongst the People They had beside no less assurance of the English Puritans than they had of their own those in Court of which there was no very small number being headed by the Earl of Holland those in the Country by his Brother the Earl of Warwick The fâ—rst being aptly called in a Letter of the Lord Conways to the Lord Archbishop The spiritual and invisible head the other The visible and temporal head of the Puritan Faction And which was more than all the rest they had the Marquiss of Hamilton for their Lord and Patron of so great power about the King such Authority in the Court of England such a powerful influence on the Council of Scotland and such a general Command over all that Nation that his pleasure amongst them past for Law and his words for Oracles all matters of Grace and Favour ascribed to him matters of harshness or distate to the King or Canterbury To speak the matter in a word he was grown King of Scots in Fact though not in Title His Majesty being looked on by them as a Cypher only in the Arithmetick of State But notwithstanding their confidence in all these Items taking in the Imprimis too they might have reckoned without their Host in the Summa Tetalis the English Nation being generally disaffected to them and passionately affecting the Kings quarrel against them The sense and apprehension of so many indignities prevailed upon the King at last to unsheath the Sword more justly in it self and more justifiably in the sight of others the Rebels having rejected all 〈◊〉 oâ—â—ers of Grace and Favour and growing the more insolent by his Condescensions So that resolved or rather forced upon the War he must bethink himself of means to go thorow with it To which end Burrows the Principal King of Arms is commanded to search into the Records of the Tower and to return an Extract of what he found relating to the War of Scotland which he presented to the Archbishop in the end of December to this effect viz. 1. That such Lords and others as had Lands and Livings upon the Borders were commanded to reside there with their Retinue and those that had Castles there were enjoined to Fortifie them 2. That the Lords of the Kingdom were Summoned by Writ to attend the Kings Army with Horse and Armour at a certain time and place according to their Service due to the King or repair to the Exchequer before that day and make Fine for their Service As also were all Widows Dowagers of such Lords as were deceased and so were all Bishops and Ecclesiastical Persons 3. That Proclamations were likewise made by Sheriffs in every County That all men holding of the King by Knights-Service or Sergeancy should come to the Kings Army or make Fines as aforesaid with a strict command That none should conceal their Service under a great Penalty 4. As also That all men having 40 l. Land per Annum should come to the Kings Army with Horse and Armour of which if any failed to come or to make Fine their Lands Tenements Goods and Chattels were distrained by the Sheriâ—f upon Summons out of the Exchequer 5. That Commissions should be issued out for Levying of Men in every County and bringing them to the Kings
CYPRIANUS ANGLICUS OR THE HISTORY OF THE Life and Death OF The most Reverend and Renowned PRELATE WILLIAM By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all ENGLAND and Metropolitan Chancellor of the Universities of Oxon. and Dublin and one of the Lords of the Privy Council to His late most SACRED MAJESTY King CHARLES the First Second MONARCH of Great Britain CONTAINING ALSO The Ecclesiastical History of the Three Kingdoms of ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND from His first rising till His Death By P. Heylyn D. D. and Chaplain to Charles the first and Charles the second Monarchs of Great Britain ECCLUS 44. VERS 1 3. 1. Let us now praise Famous Men and our Fathers that begat Vs. 3. Such as did bear Rule in their Kingdoms Men Renowned for their Power giving Counsel by their Vnderstanding and Declaring Prophesies LONDON Printed for A. Seile MDCLXVIII To the Honourable Sir IOHN ROBINSON Kt. and Baronet HIS MAJESTIES Lieutenant of the Tower of London SIR YOV have here before you the History of an Eminent Prelate and Patriot a Person who lived the honour and died a Martyr of the English Church and State for it was his sad Fate to be crusht betwixt Popery and Schism and having against both defended the Protestant Cause with his Pen he after chearfully proceeded to Seal that Faith with his Bloud Together with the Story of this Great Man you have likewise that of the Age he lived in especially so far as concerned the Church wherein you will find recorded many notable Agitations and Contrivances which it were pity should be lost in silence and pass away unregarded These Considerations towards a Gentleman of your worth Curiosity and loyalty are warrant enough to justifie me in this Dedication And yet I must not conceal that it belongs to you by another right that is to say the Care of recommending this VVork to the Publick was committed to a Gentleman who himself had presented it to your hand if God had not taken him away just upon the point of putting his purpose in execution So that it seems in me as well matter of Conscience as of Respect to deliver it wholly up to your Patronage and Protection since in exposing it to the world I do but perform the will of my dead Father and in addressing it to your self together with my own I also gratifie that of my deceased Friend The value of the VVork it self I do not pretend to judge of my duty and interest for the Author forbids it but for the Industry Integrity and good meaning of the Historian I dare become answerable And in truth I hope well of the rest without which I should not have made bold with Sir John Robinson's Name in the Front of it who being so nearly related both in bloud and affection to that Incomparable and Zealous Minister of God and his Prince cannot besides a Natural but upon an Honourable Impression concern himself in the glories or blemishes of this Character defective in nothing but that it could not be as ample as his worth And now having discharged my trust and duty as I could do no less so I have little more to add for my self but that I am SIR Your most humble and obedient Servant HENRY HEYLYN A Necessary INTRODUCTION To the following HISTORY BEFORE we come unto the History of this Famous Prelate it will not be amiss to see upon what Principles and Positions the Reformation of this Church did first proceed that so we may the better Judge of those Innovations which afterwards were thrust upon her and those Endeavours which were used in the latter times to bring her back again to her first Condition 1. Know therefore that King Henry viii having obtained of the Bishops and Clergie in their Convocation Anno 1530. to be acknowledged the Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England did about three years after in the 26 of his Reign confirm the said Supremacy to Himself his Heirs and Successors with all the Priviledges and Preheminencies thereunto belonging by Act of Parliament And having procured the said Bishops and Clergie in another of their Convocations held in the year 1532. to promise in verbo Sacerdotii not to assemble from thenceforth in any Convocation or Synodical Meeting but as they should be called by his Majesties Writ nor to make any Canons or Constitutions Synodal or Provincial without his Leave and Licence thereunto obtained nor finally to put the same in Execution till they were Ratified and Confirmed under the Great Seal of England Procured also an Act of Parliament to bind the Clergie to their promise Which Act called commonly The Act of the Submission of the Clergie doth bear this name in Poulton's Abridgment viz. That the Clergie in their Convocation should Enact no Constitutions without the Kings assent Anno 25. Henry viii c. 19. Which Grounds so laid he caused this Question to be debated in both Universities and all the Famous Monasteries of the Kingdom viz. An aliquid auâ—horitatis in hoc Regno Angliae Pontifici Romano de jure competat plusquam alii cuicumque Episcopo extero Which Question being concluded in the Negative and that Conclusion ratified and confirmed in the Convocation Anno 1534. there past an Act of Parliament about two years after Intituled An Act Extinguishing the Authority of the Bishops of Rome In which there was an Oath prescribed for abjuring the Popes Authority within this Realm The refusing whereof was made High-Treason Anno 28. H. viii c. 10. 2. But this Exclusion of the Pope as it did no way prejudice the Clergy in their power of making Canons Constitutions and other Synodical Acts but only brought them to a dependance upon the King for the better ordering of the same so neither did it create any diminution of the Power and Priviledges of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops in the free exercise of that Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which anciently belonged to them For in the Act of Submission before-mentioned there passed a Clause that all former Constitutions Synodal or Provincial which were not contrary to the Word of God the Kings Prerogative Royal or the Laws and Statutes of this Realm should remain in force until they were reviewed and fitted for the use of the Church by 32 Commissioners to be nominated by the King for that end and purpose Which re-view being never made in the time of that King nor any thing done in it by K. Edw. vi though he had an Act of Parliament to the same effect the said Old Canons and Constitutions remained in force as before they were By means whereof all causes Testamentary Matrimonial and Suits for Tythes all matters of Incontinency and other notorious Crimes which gave publick Scandal all wilful absence from Divine Service Irreverence and other Misdemeanours in the Church not punishable by the Laws of the Land were still reserved unto the Ecclesiastical Courts Those Ancient Canons and Constitutions remaining also for the perpetual standing Rule
by which the proceedings in those Courts were to be regulated and directed so as it doth appear most clearly that it was not the purpose of that King either to diminish the Authority or to interrupt the Succession of Bishops which had continued in this Church from the first Plantation of the Gospel to that very time but only to discharge them from depending on the Popes of Rome or owing any thing at all to their Bulls and Faculties which had been so chargeable to themselves and exhausted so great a part of the Treasure of the Kingdom from one year to another 3. Upon this ground he past an Act of Parliament in the 25. year of his Reign for the Electing and Consecrating of Archbishops and Bishops In which it was Enacted that on the Vacancy of every Bishoprick within his Realm his Majesty should issue out his Writ of Conge d' eslire to the Dean and Chapter of the Church so Vacant thereby enabling them to proceed to the Election of another Bishop that the Election being returned by the Dean and Chapter and ratified by the Royal Assent his Majesty should issue out his Writ to the Metropolitan of the Province to proceed unto the Confirmation of the Party Elected and that if the Party so Confirmed had not before been Consecrated Bishop of some other Church that then the Metropolitan taking to himself two other Bishops at the least should proceed unto the Consecration in such form and manner as was then practised by the Church so that as to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Consecration there was no alteration made at all Those which were Consecrated after the passing of this Statute were generally acknowledged for true and lawful Bishops by the Papists themselves or otherwise Dr. Thomas Thurlby Bishop of Westminster had never been admitted to have been one of those who assisted at the Consecrating of Cardinal Pool when he was made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury on the death of Cranmer All which recited Statutes with every thing depending on them being abrogated by Act of Parliament in the time of Queen Mary were revived in the first Year of Queen Elizabeth and so still continue But so it was not with another alteration made in the form of exercising their jurisdiction by King Edw. 6. In the first Parliament of whose Reign it was enacted that all process out of the Ecclesiastical Courts should from thence forth be issued in the Kings Name only and under the Kings Seal of Arms contrary to the usage of the former times Which Statute being repealed by Queen Mary and not revived by Queen Elizabeth the Bishops and their subordinate Ministers have ever since exercised all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in their own Names and under the distinct Seals of their several Offices 4. In Doctrinals and forms of Worship there was no alteration made in the Reign of K. Hen. 8. though there were many preparations and previous dispositions to it the edge of Ecclesiastical Affairs being somewhat blunted and the people indulged a greater Liberty in consulting with the Holy Scriptures and reading many Books of Evangelical Piety then they had been formerly which having left the way more open to Arch-Bishop Cranmer and divers other learned and Religious Prelates in K. Edwards time seconded by the Lord Protector and other great ones of the Court who had their ends apart by themselves they proceeded carefully and vigorously to a Reformation In the managing of which great business they took the Scripture for their ground according to the general explication of the ancient Fathers the practise of the Primitive times for their Rule and Pattern as it was expressed to them in approved Authors No regard had to Luther or Calvin in the procedure of their work but only to the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles Christ Iesus being the Corner-stone of that excellent Structure Melancthons coming was expected Regiis Literis in Angliam vocatus as he affirms in an Epistle to Camerarius but he came not over And Calvin made an offer of his service to Arch-Bishop Cranmer Si quis mei usus esset if any use might be made of him to promote the work but the Arch-Bishop knew the man and refused the other so that it cannot be affirmed that the Reformation of this Church was either Lutheran or Calvinian in its first original And yet it cannot be denied but that the first Reformers of it did look with more respectful eyes upon the Doctrinals Government and Forms of Worship in the Lutheran Churches then upon those of Calvins platform because the Lutherans in their Doctrines Government and Forms of Worship approach't more near the Primitive Patterns than the other did and working according to this rule they retain'd many of those ancient Rites and Ceremonies which had been practised and almost all the Holy Dayes or Annual Feasts which had been generally observed in the Church of Rome Nothing that was Apostolick or accounted Primitive did fare the worse for being Popish I mean for having been made use of in times of Popery it being none of their designs to create a new Church but reform the old Such Superstitions and Corruptions as had been contracted in that Church by long tract of time being pared away that which was good and commendable did remain as formerly It was not their intent to dig up a foundation of such precious stones because some superstructures of Straw and Stubble had been raised upon it A moderation much applauded by King Iames in the Conference at Hampton-Court whose golden Aphorisme it was That no Church ought further to separate it self from the Church of Rome either in Doctrine or Ceremony then she had departed from her self when she was in her flourishing and best estate p. 77. 5. The succession of Bishops continued as it did before but fitted in the form and manner of their Consecrations according to the Rules laid down with the fourth Council of Carthage celebrated Anno 407. or thereabouts and generally received in all the Provinces of the Western Church as appears by the Book of Consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops c. Approved first by the Book of Articles and confirmed in Parliament Anno 5.6 Edw. VI. as afterwards justified by the Articles of Religion agreed upon in Convocation in Queen Elizabeths time Anno 1562. And by an Act of Parliament in the 8th Year of her Reign accounted of as part of our Publick Liturgies And by that book it will appear that Bishops were then looked upon as a distinct Order of themselves and not as a different degree only amongst the rest of the Presbyters For in the Preface to that Book it is said expresly That it is evident to all men diligently reading Holy Scripture and Ancient Authors that from the Apostles time there have been these Orders of Ministers in the Church of Christ Bishops Priests and Deacons Not long after which it followeth thus viz. And therefore to the intent these Orders should be continued
and reverently used and esteemed in the Church of England it is requisite that no man not being at this present Bishop Priest or Deacon shall execute any of them except he be Called Tryed and Examined according to the form hereafter following But because perhaps it will be said that the Preface is no part of the Book which stands approved by the Articles of the Church and established by the Laws of the Land let us next look into the Body of the Book it self where in the Form of Consecrating of Arch-Bishops or Bishops we finde a Prayer in these words viz. Almighty God giver of all good things who hast appointed divers Orders of Ministers in thy Church Mercifully behold this thy Servant now called to the Work and Ministry of a Bishop and replenish him so with the truth of Doctrine and Innocency of Life that both by word and deed he may faithfully serve thee in this Office c. Here we have three Orders of Ministers Bishops Priests and Deacons the Bishop differing as much in Order from the Priest as the Priest differs in Order from the Deacon which might be further made apparent in the different Forms used in Ordering of the Priests and Deacons and the form prescribed for the Consecration of an Arch-Bishop or Bishop were not this sufficient 6. But though the Presbyters or Priests were both in Order and Degree beneath the Bishops and consequently not enabled to exercise any publick Jurisdiction in Foro judicii in the Courts of Judicature yet they retained their native and original power in Foro Conscientiae in the Court of Conscience by hearing the confession of a sorrowful and afflicted Penitent and giving him the comfort of Absolution a power conferred upon them in their Ordination in the Form whereof it is prescribed that the Bishop and the assisting Presbyters shall lay their Hands upon the Head of the Party who is to be Ordained Priest the Bishop only saying these words viz. Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins thou doest forgive they are forgiven and whose sins thou doest retain they are retained In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen Which words had been impertinently and unsignificantly used if the Priest received nor thereby power to absolve a sinner upon the sense of his sincere and true repentance manifested in Confession or in any other way whatsoever And this appears yet further by the direction of the Church in point of Practice For first it is advised in the end of the second Exhortation before the receiving of the Communion that if any of the people cannot otherwise quiet his own Conscience he should repair unto his Curate or some other discreet and learned Minister of Gods Word and open his grief that he may receive such Ghostly counsel and advice and comforts as his Conscience may be relieved and that by the Ministry of Gods Word he may receive comfort and the benefit of Absolution to the quieting of his Conscience and avoiding all scruple and doubtfulness Agreeable whereunto is that memorable saying of St. Augustine viz. Qui confiteri vult ut inveniat gratiam quâ—erat sacerdotem Secondly It is prescribed in the Visitation of the Sick That the Sick person shall make a special Confession if he feel his Conscience troubled with any weighty matter and that the Priest shall thereupon Absolve him in this manner following Our Lord Jesus Christ who hath left power to his Church to Absolve all Sinners which truly repent and believe in him of his great Mercy forgive thee thy Offences and by his Authority committed to me I Absolve thee from all thy Sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen Which form of Absolution is plainly Authoritative and not Declarative only such as that is which follows the General Confession in the beginning of the Morning and Evening Prayer as some men would have it 7. Now that the Penitent as well in the time of Health as in extremity of Sickness may pour his Sins into the Bosom of the Priest with the more security it is especially provided by the 113 Canon of the Year 1603. That if any man Confess his secret and hidden sins to the Minister for the unburthening of his Conscience and to receive spiritual Consolation and ease of Minde from him we do not any way binde the said Minister by this our Constitution but do streightly charge and admonish him that he do not at any time reveal and make known to any person whatsoever any Crime or Offence so committed to his secresie except they be such Crimes as by the Laws of this Realm his own Life may be called in question for concealing the same under the pain of Irregularity And by incurring the condition of Irregularity the party offending doth not only forfeit all the Ecclesiastical Preferments which he hath at the present but renders himself uncapable of receiving any other for the time to come Confession made upon such security will be as saving to the Fame of the Penitent as the Absolution to his Soul In which respect it was neither untruly nor unfitly said by a learned Writer Dominus sequitur servum c. Heaven saith he waits and expects the Priests Sentence here on Earth for the Priest sits Judge on Earth the Lord follows the Servant and what the Servant bindes or looseth here on Earth Clave non errante that the Lord confirms in Heaven 8. The like Authority is vested in the Priest or Presbyter at his Ordination for officiating the Divine Service of the Church offering the Peoples Prayers to God Preaching the Word and Ministring the Holy Sacraments in the Congregation Which Offices though they may be performed by the Bishops as well as the Presbyters yet they perform them not as Bishops but as Presbyters only And this appears plainly by the Form of their Ordination in which it is prescribed that the Bishops putting the Bible into their hands shall pronounce these words Take thou authority to preach the Word and Minister the Holy Sacraments in the Congregation where thou shalt be so appointed In the officiating of which Acts of Gods Divine Service the Priest or Presbyter is enjoyned to wear a Surplice of white Linnen Cloath to testifie the purity of Doctrine and innocency of Life and Conversation which ought to be in one of that Holy Profession And this St. Ierome tells us in the general Religionem Divinam alterum habitum habere in ministerio alterum in usu vitaque communi that is to say that in the Act of Ministration they used a different habit from what they use to wear at ordinary times and what this different habit was he tells us more particularly in his reply against Pelagius who it seems dislik't it and askt him what offence he thought it could be to God that Bishops Priests and Deacons or those of any inferiour Order in Administratione sacrificiorum candida veste
that every man that could pronounce well was not found able to endite and every man that could endite not being to be trusted in a business of such weight and moment it seemed good in the Wisdom of the first Reformers to compile some good and profitable Sermons called by the name of Homilies to be read carefully and distinctly on the Sundayes and Holy dayes for the instruction of the people 11. Such course was taken for the peace and edification of the Church by the first Reformers not only in the choice of the men to whom they gave Licences to preach but in supplying the defect and want of such preaching by the Book of Homilies and they had as great a care too for the keeping the people in good stomach not cloying them with continual Preaching or Homilizing but limiting them to once a day as appears by the Rubrick after the Nicene or rather the Constantinopolitan Creed One Sermon or Homily in the mornings of Sundayes and other Holy dayes for the edification of the â—lder and Catechizing by way of question and answer in the afternoon for the instruction of the younger was esteemed sufficient Lectures upon the week dayes were not raised upon this foundation but were brought in afterwards borrowed by Travers and the â—est toward the latter end of Queen Elizabeths Reign from the new fashions of Geneva the Lecturer being super-added to the Parson or Vicar as the Doctor was unto the Pastor in some forreign Churches Nor were they raised so much out of care and conscience for training up the people in the wayes of Faith and Piety as to advance a Faction and to alienate the peoples mindes from the Government and Forms of Worship here by Law established For these Lecturers having no dependance upon the Bishops nor taking the Oath of Canonical Obedience to them nor subscribing to the doctrine and establisht Ceremonies made it their work to please those Patrons on whose arbitrary maintenance they were planted and consequently to carry on the Puritan interest which their Patron drove at A generation of men neither Lay nor Clergy having no place at all in the Prayers of the Church where we finde mention only of Bishops Pastors and Curates nor being taken notice of in the terms of Law as being neither Parsons nor Vicars or to speak them in the vulgar proverb neither flesh nor fish nor good red herring No creature in the world so like them as the Bats or Reremice being neither Birds nor Beasts and yet both together Had these men been looked upon in time before their numbers were increased and their power grown formidable before the people went a madding after new inventions most of the mischiefs which have thence ensued might have been prevented And had there been more reading of Homilies in which the Reader speaks the sense of the Church and not so much of Sermonizing in which the Preacher many times speaks his own factious and erronâ—ous sense the people might have been trained up in no less knowledge but in much more obedience then they have been in these latrer times 12. As for the Sacraments which were advanced to the number of seven in the Church of Rome this Church hath brought them back to two as generally necessary to salvation Baptisme and the Holy Supper Four of the rest that is to say Marriage Orders Confirmation and the Visitation though not the Extream Vnction of the Sick being retained under the name of Sacramentals in our publick Liturgy Of which the Book of Consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops c. is by the Act of Parliament 8 Eliz. c. 1. affirmed to be a Supplement or Additional only added put to and annexed as the words do vary to the said Book of Common-Prayer And of these four two are reserved unto the Bishop that is to say Confirmation and the giving of Orders the other two viz. Marriage and the Visitation of the Sick being common to both alike though executed in the most part by the Presbyter only Of those reserved unto the Bishop the one is so reserved ad necessitatem operis because it cannot be done without him the other ad honorem sacerdotii as the Schools distinguish because it cannot be well done but by him Touching the first we have the general consent of all ancient Writers and the example of Coluthus who took upon him the ordaining of Presbyters contrary to the Rules of the Church and the Canons of thâ— most famous Councils But when the business came to be examined his Ordinations were declared to be null and void because he was a Presbyter only and not a Bishop as is affirmed by Athanasius in Apol. 2. The other grounded on the 8th Chapter of the Acts as St Cyprian in his 73. Epistle tells us where Peter and Iohn are said to have laid hands on them in Samaria which had been before Baptized in the Name of the Lord Iesus that they might receive the Holy Ghost and that by laying on of their hands they did receive the Holy Ghost accordingly verse 16 17. Quod nunc quoque apud nos geritur c. Which is also done saith St. Cyprian and Cyprian flourisht in the middle of the third Century amongst our selves when they which be already Baptized are brought unto the Prelates of the Church Praepositis Ecclesiae offeruntur that by our Prayer and Imposition of our hands they may receive the Holy Ghost and be strengthened by the Seal of the Lord. Upon which grounds beâ—iâ—â—â—â—he great antiquity of it it was retained by the first Reformers as in the Rubrick before Confirmation in the Common-Prayer-Book And â—ad it been as diligently practised by the Bishops in the declining times of this Church as it was piously and religiously retained by them it would have much conduced to their saâ—e standing in the Church and procured a greater veneration to their Persons also The other two viz. Marriage and the Visitation of the Sick together with the Burial of the Dead and the Churching of Women after Child-birth are left to the officiating of the Priest or Parochial Minister unless the Bishop please to take that work upon himself in some certain cases 13. But as for Penance one of the seven Sacraments in the Church of Rome we must look upon in a double capacity First As it was solemnly performed on Ashwednesday as a preparative to the approaching Feast of Easter the people humbling themselves before the Lord in Sackcloth and Ashes whence it had the name And secondly As imposed on such particular persons as lay under the censures of the Church Touching the first it is related in the beginning of the Commination that in the Primitive Church there was a godly Discipline That at the beginning of Lent such persons as were notorious sinners were put to open Penance and punished in this world that their Souls might be saved in the day of the Lord and that others admonished by their example might be the more afraid to
pertaining to true Religion c. Neither is it to be thought that there is any certain times or definite number of dayes prescribed in Holy Scripture but the appointment both of the time and also of the number of dayes is left by the Authority of Gods Word unto the Liberty of Christs Church to be determined and assigned orderly in every Countrey by the discretion of the Rulers and Ministers thereof as they shall judge most expedient to the setting forth of Gods Glory and the edification of their people Now for the number and particularities of those dayes which were required to be kept holy to the Lord they are thus specified and enumerated in the Common-Prayer-Book confirmed by Parliament in that year These to be kept Holy Dayes and no other that is to say all Sundayes in the Year the Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord and Saviour the Feast of the Epiphany c. Which specification and enumeration is made also in the aforesaid Statute 17. As for the observation of those dayes there was no difference made between them by the first Reformers the same Divine Offices prescribed for both the diligent attendance of the people required in both the penalties upon such as wilfully and frequently did absent themselves were the same for both and finally the works of necessary labour no more restrained upon the one then upon the other For first it is declared in the foresaid Homily that Christian People are not tyed so streightly to observe and keep the other Ceremonies of the Sabbath day as were the Iews as touching the forbearing of the work and labour in time of great necessity c. Secondly and more particularly in the Statute before-mentioned we finde it thus viz. That it shall be lawful for every Husband-man Fisher-man and to all and every other person or persons of what Estate Degree or Condition he or they be upon the Holy Dayes aforesaid of which the Lords Day is there reckoned for one in Harvest or at any other times in the Year when necessity shall so require to Labour Ride Fish or Work any kinde of Work at their own will and pleasure Thirdly It is ordered in the Injunctions of the said King Edw. vi that it shall be lawful for the people in time of Harvest to labour upon Holy and Festival Dayes and save that thing which God hath sent and that scrupulosity to abstain from working on those dayes doth grievously offend God Fourthly We finde the like in the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth published with the advice of her Council Anno 1559. Being the first year of her Reign viz. That all persons Vicars Curates shall teach and declare unto their Parishioners that they may with a safe and quiet conscience after Common-Prayer in the time of Harvest labour upon the Holy and Festival Dayes and save that thing which God hath sent And if for any scrupulosity or grudge of Conscience men shall superstitiously abstain from working on those dayes that then they should grievously offend and displease God And as for the practice of the Court it was ordered by the said King Edward That the Lords of the Council should upon Sunday attend the publick affairs of the Realm and dispatch answers to Letters for the good order of the State and make full dispatches of all things concluded in the Week before Provided that they be present at Common-Prayers and that on every Sunday night the Kings Secretary should deliver him a memorial of such things as were to be debated in the Privy Council the week ensuing Which course of meeting in the Council on Sunday in the afternoon hath been continued in the Court from the time of the said King Edward the vi to the death of King Charles without dislike or interruption If then the Country people in some times and cases were permitted to employ themselves in bodily labour on the Sundayes and other Holy Dayes and if the Lords of the Council did meet together on those dayes to consult about affairs of State as we see they did there is no question to be made but that all man-like exercises all lawful Recreations and honest Pastimes were allowed of also 18. As for the duties of the people in those times and places it was expected at their hands that due and lowly reverence should be made at their first entrance into the Church the place on which they stood being by Consecration made Holy Ground and the business which they came about being holy business For this there was no Rule nor Rubrick made by the first Reformers and it was not necessary that there should the practice of Gods people in that kinde being so universal Vi Catholicae consuetudinis by vertue of a general and continual usage that there was no need of any Canon to enjoyn them to it Nothing more frequent in the Writings of the ancient Fathers then Adoration toward the East which drew the Primitive Christians into some suspicion of being Worshippers of the Sun Inde suspicio quod innotuerit nos versus orientis regionem praecari as Tertullian hath it And though this pious custom began to be disused and was almost discontinued yet there remains some footsteps of it to this very day For first It was observed by the Knights of the most noble Order of the Garter who I am sure hate nothing more then Superstitious Vanities at their approaches toward the Altar in all the Solemnities of that Order Secondly In the Offerings or Oblations made by the Vice-Chancellor the Proctors and all Proceeders in the Arts and Faculties at the Act at Oxon. And thirdly By most Countrey Women who in the time of my first remembrance and a long time after made their obeysance toward the East before they betook themselves to their Seats though it was then taken or mistaken rather for a Courtesie made unto the Minister revived more generally in these latter times especially amongst the Clergy by the Learned and Reverend Bishop Andrews a man as much verst in Primitive Antiquity and as abhorrent from any thing which was meerly Popish as the greatest Precisian in the Pack Which point I finde exceedingly well applyed and prest in the Speech made by this Arch-Bishop at the Censure of Dr. Bastwick Mr. Burton on Iune 26. 1637. Who speaking to such of the Lords as were Knights of the Garter he accosts them thus And you saith he my Honourable Lords of the Garter in your great solemnities you do reverence and to Almighty God I doubt not but yet it is versus Altare toward the Altar c. And this your reverence you do when you enter the Chappel and when you approach nearer to offer c. And Idolatry it is not to worship God toward his Holy Table for if it had been Idolatry I presume Queen Elizabeth and King Iames would not have practised it no not in this great Solemnity And being not Idolatry but true Divine Worship you will I hope give a poor Priest
1571. by the power and prevalency of some of the Genevian Faction the Articles were reprinted and this Clause left out But the times bettering and the Governors of the Church taking just notice of the danger which lay lurking under that omission there was care taken that the said clause should be restored unto its place in all following impressions of that Book as it hath ever since continued Nor was this part of the Article a matter of speculation only and not reducible to practice or if reducible to practice not fit to be enforced upon such as gain-said the same For in the 34. Article it is thus declared That whosoever through his private judgement willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant unto the word of God and be ordained and approved by common Authority ought to be rebuked openly that others may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common order of the Church and hurteth the the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of the weak Brethren More power then this as the See of Rome did never challenge so less then this was not reserved unto it self by the Church of England And as for the Authority of the Church in controversies of Faith the very Articles by which they declared that power seconded by the rest of the points which are there determined is a sufficient Argument that they used and exercised that power which was there declared And because some objection had been made both by the Papists and those of the Genevian party that a Papal power was granted as at first to King Henry viii under the name of Supream Head so afterwards to Queen Elizabeth and her Successors it was thought expedient by the Church to stop that clamour at the first and thereupon it was declared in the Convocation of the Prelates and Clergy who make the representative Body of the Church of England in the 37. Article of the year 1562. That whereas they had attributed to the Queens Majesty the chief Government of all the Estates of this Realm whether Ecclesiastical or Civil in all cases they did not give unto their Princes the ministring either of Gods Word or of the Sacraments but that only Prerogative which was known to have been given alwayes to all godly Princes in Holy Scripture by God himself that is to say that they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers Less Power then this as good Subjects could not give unto their King so more then this hath there not been exercised or desired by the Kings of England Such power as was by God vouchsafed to the godly Kings and Princes in Holy Scripture may serve abundantly to satisfie even the unlimited desires of the mightiest Monarch were they as boundless as the Popes 22. Next to the point of the Supremacy esteemed the Principal Article of Religion in the Church of Rome primus praecipuus Romanensis fidei Articulus as is affirmed in the History of the Council of Trent the most material differences betwixt them and us relate to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and the natural efficacy of good works in which the differences betwixt them and the first Reformers seem to be at the greatest though even in those they came as near to them as might stand with Piety The Sacrament of the Lords Supper they called the Sacrament of the Altar as appears plainly by the Statute 1 Edward vi entituled An Act against such as speak unreverently against the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ commonly called the Sacrament of the ALTAR For which consult the Body of the Act it self Or secondly by Bishop Ridley one of the chief Compilers of the Common-Prayer-Book who doth not only call it the Sacrament of the Altar affirming thus that in the Sacrament of the Altar is the natural Body and Blood of Christ c. But in his Reply to an Argument of the Bishop of Lincoln's taken out of St. Cyril he doth resolve it thus viz. The word Altar in the Scripture signifieth as well the Altar whereon the Jews were wont to oder their Burnt Sacrifice as the Table of the Lords Supper and that St. Cyril meaneth by this word Altar not the Iewish Altar but the Table of the Lord c. Acts and Mon. part 3. p. 492. and 497. Thirdly By Bishop Latimer his fellow Martyr who plainly grants That the Lords Table may be called an Altar and that the Doctors called it so in many places though there be no propitiatory Sacrifice but only Christ part 2. p. 85. Fourthly By the several affirmations of Iohn Lambert and Iohn Philpot two Learned and Religious men whereof the one suffered death for Religion under Henry viii the other in the fiery time of Queen Mary This Sacrament being called by both the Sacrament of the Altar in their several times for which consult the Acts and Monuments commonly called the Book of Martyrs And that this Sacrament might the longer preserve that name and the Lords Supper be administred with the more solemnity it was ordained in the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth no Altar should be taken down but by the over-sight of the Curate of the Church and the Church-Wardens or one of them at least and that the Holy Table in every Church be decently made and set up in the place where the Altar stood and there commonly covered as thereto belongeth It is besides declared in the Book of Orders Anno 1561. published about two years after the said Injunction That in the place where the Steps were the Communion Table should stand and that there shall be fixed on the Wall over the Communion Board the Tables of Gods Precepts imprinted for the same purpose The like occurs in the Advertisements published by the Metropolitan and others the High Commissioners 1565. In which it is ordered That the Parish shall provide a decent Table standing on a frame for the Communion Table which they shall decently cover with a Carpet of Silk or other decent covering and with a white Linâ—en Cloath in the time of the administration and shall set the Ten Commandments upon the East-Wall over the said Table All which being laid together amounts to this that the Communion-Table was to stand above the steps and under the Commandments therefore all along the Wall on which the Ten Commandments were appointed to be placed which was directly where the Altar had stood before Now that the Holy Table in what posture soever it be plac't should not be thought unuseful at all other times but only at the time of the Ministration it was appointed by the Church in its first Reformation that the Communion-Service commonly called the Second Service upon all Sundayes and Holy-dayes should be read only at the Holy Table For first in the last
Protestant Religion here by Law established than to be so perswaded of him he had not else preferred him to the service of Bishop Neile or recommended him to the Colledge as the fittest man to succeed him in the Presidents place when he himself was at the point of his preferment to the See of Rochester So also had the whole Body of the University when they conferred upon him his Degrees in Divinity which certainly they had never done if either they had believed him to have been a Papist or at the least so Popishly affected as the Faction made him Neither could he have taken those Degrees had it been so with him without a most perfidious dissimulation before God and Man because in taking those Degrees he must both take the Oath of Supremacy and subscribe to the three Articles contained in the 36 Canon of the year 1603. In the first of which he was to have abjured the Popes Authority and in the next to have declared his approbation of the Doctrine Government and Forms of Worship established in the Church of England Which may sufficiently serve to over-balance the Depositions of Sir Nath. Brent and Doctor Featly the first of which deposed at his Tryal That whilst the Archbishop remained in Oxon he was generally reputed to be Popishly affected the other Not only that the Archbishop was generally reported to be Popish when he lived in Oxon but that both he and others conceived so of him But both these men were Abbot's Creatures and had received their Offices and Preferments from him I need say no more For had he either been a Papist or so strongly biassed on that side what should have hindred him from making an open Declaration of it or stop him from a reconciliation with the Church of Rome His Fellowship was not so considerable but that he might presume of a larger Maintenance beyond the Seas Nor was he of such common parts but that he might have looked for a better welcom and far more civil usage there than he found at home Preferments in the Church he had none at the present nor any strong presumptions of it for the time to come which might be a temptation to him to continue here against the clear light of his Understanding And this may be a further Argument not only of his unfeigned sincerity but of his constancy and stedfastness in the Religion here established that he kept his station that notwithstanding all those clamours under which he suffered he was resolved to ride out the storm and neither to desert the Barque in which he sailed nor run her upon any of the Roman Shores In this of a far better Temper than Tertullian was though as much provok'd of whom it is reported by Beatus Rhenamus That at first he only seemed to favour Montanus or at the least not to be displeased with his proceedings But afterwards being continually tormented by the tongues and pens of the Roman Clergy he fell off from the obedience of the Church and became at last a downright Montanist All which together make it plain that it was not his design to desert the Church but to preserve her rather from being deserted to vindicate her by degrees from those Innovations which by long tract of time and the cunning practises of some men had been thrust upon her And being once resolved on this the blustring winds which so raged against him did rather fix him at the root than either shake his resolution or force him to desist from his purpose in it And therefore it was well resolved by Sir Edw. Dering though his greatest enemy That he was always one and the same man that beginning with him at Oxon. and so going on to Canterbury he was unmoved and unchanged that he never complied with the times but kept his own stand until the times came up to him as they after did Such was the man and such the purpose of the man whom his good friends in Oxon. out of pure zeal no doubt we must take it so had declared a Papist During these Agitations and Concussions in the Vniversity there hapned an accident at Wansteed in the County of Essex which made as great a noise as his being a Papist but such a noise as might have freed him from that Accusation if considered rightly In the year 1605. he had been made Chaplain to Charles Lord Mountjoy Earl of Devonshire a man in great favour with King Iames for his fortunate Victory at Kinsale in Ireland by which he reduced that Realm to the obedience of this Crown broke the whole Forces of the Rebells and brought the Earl of Tir-owen a Prisoner into England with him For which great Services he was by King Iames made Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom and one of the Lords of his Privy Council created Earl of Devonshire and one of the Knights of the most Noble Order of the Garter This Gentleman being a younger Brother of William Lord Mountjoy and known only by the name of Sir Charles Blunt while his Brother lived had bore a strong and dear affection to the Lady Penelope Daughter of Walter Earl of Essex a Lady in whom lodged all attractive Graces of Beauty Wit and sweetness of Behaviour which might render her the absolute Mistress of all Eyes and Hearts And she so far reciprocated with him in the like affection being a compleat and gallant man that some assurances past between them of a future Marriage But her friends looking on him as a younger Brother considerable only in his depending at the Court chose rather to dispose her in Marriage to Robert Lord Rich a man of an independent Fortune and a known Estate but otherwise of an uncourtly disposition unsociable austere and of no very agreeable conversation to her Against this Blunt had nothing to plead in Bar the promises which passed between them being made in private no Witnesses to attest unto it and therefore not amounting to a pre-Contract in due form of Law But long she had not lived in the Bed of Rich when the old flames of her affection unto Blunt began again to kindle in her and if the Sonet in the Arcadia A Neighbour mine not long ago there was c. be not too generally misconstrued she made her Husband the sole instrument to acquaint him with it But whether it were so or not certain it is that having first had their private meetings they afterwards converst more openly and familiarly with one another than might stand with honour unto either especially when by the death of his elder Brother the Title of Lord Mountjoy and the Estate remaining to it had accrued unto him As if the alteration of his Fortune could either lessen the offence or suppress the fame Finding her at his coming back from the Wars of Ireland to be free from Rich legally freed by a Divorce and not a voluntary separation only a toro mensa as they call it he thought himself obliged
not engaged upon either side might succeed in their places But notwithstanding all this care the Faction still held up against him the younger fry inclining to the same side which had been taken by their Tutors But whiles these things were in agitation there hapned a great alteration in the Church of England by the death of the most Reverend Archbishop Bancroft who died on the second of November 1610. and with whom died the Vniformity of the Church of England A man he was of eminent parts and of a most undaunted spirit one who well knew his work and did it When Chaplain only to the Lord Chancellor Hatton he piec'd himself with Doctor Whitgift not long after his first coming to the See of Canterbury to whom he proved a great support in gaining the Lord Chancellor for him by whose assistance he was enabled to hold out against the over-ruling Power of the Earl of Leicester the Patron-General of the Faction In the year 1588. he Preached a Sermon at St. Paul's Cross and therein made an open Declaration of those manifold Dangers which the prevalency of that Faction would bring upon the Church and State if they might be suffered which blow he followed in a Book entituled Dangerous Positions and Proceedings published and practised within this Island of Britain under pretence of Reformation and for the Presbyterial Discipline And in that Book he made such a perfect discovery of their Plots and Practises and so anatomized them in every part that he made them odious unto those who before had been their greatest Patrons In the year 1593. he published another Treatise entituled A Survey of the Pretended holy Discipline in which he so dissected the whole Body of Calvin's Presbyterial Platform shewing the incoherencies of it in it self and the inconsistencies thereof with Monarchical Government that he took off the edge of many and those Great ones too who had not only seemed to like it but had longed for it The Plot was so laid down by Whitgift that at the same time there should come out two other Books the one written by Doctor Thomas Bilson Warden of the Colledge neer Winton for proof of the Antiquity and perpetual Government of the Church by Bishops the other by Doctor Richard Cosens a right Learned Civilian in justification of the Proceedings in the Ecclesiastical Courts By which four Books the Puritan Faction was so muzled that they were not able to bark in a long time after Nor do they want their several and just Rewards for such good performances Bilson being first made Bishop of Worcester and not long after Bishop of Winton Bancroft advanced to the See of London and Doctor Cosens Vicar-general and Dean of the Arches within few years after being consecrated Bishop of London on the eighth of May 1597. he kept such a watchfull eye over it and held so strict a hand upon it that from a receptactle and retreat of the Grandees of the Puritan party it became almost as free from Faction as any other in the Kingdom And knowing how much the Peace of this Church did depend upon it he managed a secret Corespondency with King Iames in Scotland insinuating unto him the necessity of conforming the Churches of both Kingdoms in Government and Forms of Worship and laying down a plot for restoring Episcopacy to that Kirk without noise or trouble Which counsel being advisedly followed by King Iames before his coming into England was afterwards so well pursued though not without some violent strugling of the Presbyterians of that Kingdom that on the 21. day of October in the year 1609. the designed Bishops of Glascow Brechen and Gallo-Way received Episcopal Consecration in the Chappel of London-house by the hands of Doctor George Abbot then Bishop of London Doctor Lancelot Andrews Bishop of Ely Doctor Iames Montague Bishop of Bath and Wells and Doctor Richard Neile then Bishop of Rochester Bancroft himself forbearing to lay hands upon them for the avoiding of all scruples amongst the Scots as if he pretended any Jurisdiction or Authority over them In the mean time Anno 1603. he carried a chief hand in the Conference at Hampton Court and had the sole management of the Convocation of the same year also in which he passed that excellent body of Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical to serve for a perpetual standing Rule to the Church of England Succeeding Whitgift in the See of Canterbury Anno 1604. he resolved to put the Canons into execution and press'd it with so stout a courage that few had confidence enough to stand out against him Some of them did and those he either depriv'd or silenc'd and thereby terrified the rest to an open Conformity They saw too plainly that they must not dally with his patience as they did with Whitgifts and that he was resolved to break them if they would not bow And they did wisely in so bowing for who could stand against a man of such a spirit armed with Authority having the Law on his side and the King to friend who had declared publickly in the Conference at Hampton Court That if they would not conform he would either hurry them out of the Kingdom or else do worse In the year 1608. he was chosen Chancellor at Oxon. and questionless would have set all things right in that University if Sickness and the stroke of Death had not prevented his intendments But die he must and being dead there was a Consultation amongst some of the Bishops and other Great men of the Court whom to commend unto King Iames for his Successor in that See They knew that Mountague and Abbot would be venturing at it but they had not confidence enough in either of them both of them being extremely popular and such as would ingratiate themselves with the Puritan Faction how dearly soever the Church paid for it And thereupon it was resolved to fix on Andrews for the man a man as one says very well of him of Primitive Antiquity in whom was to be found whatever is desirable in a Bishop even to admiration to whom they found the King to be well affected for taking up the Bucklers for him against Cardinal Bellarmine The Motion was no sooner made but it was embraced and they departed from the King with as good assurance as if the business had been done and Andrews fully setled in the Throne of Canterbury In confidence whereof some of them retired to their Country Houses and others lessened their accustomed diligence about the King and thereby gave an opportunity to the Earl of Dunbar a powerful Minister of State to put in for Abbot who had attended him in some Negotiations which he had with the Scots and he put in so powerfully in his behalf that at last he carried it and had the Kings Hand to the passing of the publick Instruments before the other Bishops ever heard of the Plot But when they heard of it there was no Remedy but Patience but it was
Patience perforce as the Proverb hath it For much they feared that Abbot would unravel all the Web which Bancroft with such pains had weaved and that he was as the same Author well observes better qualified with Merit for the Dignity than with a spirit answering the Function Follow his Character to the end and you shall be told That in the exercising of his Function he was conceived too facil and yielding His extraordinary Remisness in not exacting strict Conformity to the prescribed Orders of the Church in point of Ceremonie seemed to resolve those Legal Determinations to their first Principle of Indifferency and led in such an habit of Inconformity as the future Reduction of those tender Conscienced men to long discontinued Obedience was at the last interpreted an Innovation If Andrews had succeeded Bancroft and Laud followed Andrews the Church would have been setled to sure on a Foundation that it could not easily have been shaken to the preventing of those deplorable Miseries which the Remiss Government of that Popular Prelate did so unfortunately bring both on the Church and State But to go forward where we left Laud was no sooner setled in the Presidentship of his Colledge but he conceived himself advanced one step at the least towards a Precedency in the Church and therefore thought it was high time to cast an eye upon the Court His good Friend and Patron Bishop Neile then being of Rochester had procured him a Turn before the King at Theobalds on the 17th of September 1609. and by the power and favour of the same man being then translated unto Litchfield he was sworn one of his Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary on the third of November Anno 1611. yet so that he continued his dependencies on his former Lord to whom he was as dear and necessary as before he was injoying freely all the accomodations of his House whensoever his occasions brought him to London Having thus set foot within the Court he promised himself great hopes of some present preferment but those hopes deceived him Nothing is more uncertain than Court Preferments Some have them suddenly at the first and then continue at a stand without farther Additions as in the case of Doctor Young Dean of Winchester Some attend long and get nothing as in the case of Mr. Arthur Terringham and many others and some are in the same case with the Apostles in St. Iohn when they went a fishing of whom it is said That having caught nothing all the night they cast their net the next morning on the right side of the Ship and then they were not able to draw it for the multitude of Fishes And so it was with this new Chaplain many Preserments fell but none fell to him For whensoever any opportunity was offered for his Advancement Archbishop Abbot who had before defamed him to the Lord Chancellor Egerton and by his mouth unto the King would be sure to cast somewhat in his dish sometimes inculcating to him all his actings at Oxon. and sometimes rubbing up the old sore of his unfortunate business with the Earl of Devonshire These Artifices so estranged the Kings Countenance from him that having waited four years and seeing his hopes more desperate than at the first he was upon the point of leaving the Court and retiring wholly into his Colledge But first he thought it not amiss to acquaint his dear Friend and Patron Bishop Neile both with his resolution and the reasons of it But Neile was not to be told what he knew before and therefore answered That he was very sensible of those many neglects which were put upon him and saw too clearly that he had been too long under a cloud but howsoever advised him to stay one year longer and that if he had no better encouragement within that year he would consent to his retirement In the mean time to keep him up in heart and spirit as he had given him the Prebendary of Bugden belonging to the Church of Lincoln to which See he had been translated Anno 1613. but the year before so in the year of his complaint which was 1615. he conferred upon him also the Archdeaconry of Huntington It had pleased God so to dispose of his Affairs that before the year of expectation was fully ended his Majesty began to take him into his better thoughts and for a testimony thereof bestowed upon him the Deanry of Glocester void by the death of the Reverend Right Learned Doctor Feild whose excellent Works will keep his Name alive to succeeding Ages A Deanry of no very great value but such as kept him up in reputation and made men see he was not so contemptible in the eyes of the King as it was generally imagined But before we follow him to Glocester we must take Oxon. in our way in which had hapned no small alteration since we left it laâ—t Doctor Henry Holland Rector of Exceter Colledge and his Majesties Professor for Divinity having left this Life in the end of the year 1611. it seemed good to Archbishop Abbot to make use of his Power and Favour with King Iames for preferring to that place his elder Brother Doctor Robert Abbot being then Master of Baliol Colledge and Rector of Bingham in the County of Nottingham He had before been Fellow of it and Doctor Lilly dying so opportunely for the furtherance of his Preferment in the University he succeeded Master in his place March 9. 1609. being the next Month after his Brother had been advanced to the See of London A man he was of eminent Learning as his Works declare and a more moderate Calvinian than either of his Predecessors which he expressed by countenancing the Sublapsarian way of Predestination by means whereof he incurred the high displeasure of the Supralapsarians who until then had carried all before them without gaining any thing on those who liked well of neither But depending altogether on the will of his Brother he thought he could not gratifie and oblige him more than in pursuing his old quarrels against Laud and others whom he knew to be disrellished by him which he thus pursued It hapned that Laud preaching on Shrove-Sundar Anno. 1614. insisted on some points which might indifferently be imputed either to Popery or Arminianism as about that time they began to call it though in themselves they were no other than the true and genuine Doctrines of the Church of England And having occasion in that Sermon to touch upon the Presbyterians and their Proceedings he used some words to this effect viz. That the Presbyterians were as bad as the Papists Which being so directly contrary to the Judgment and Opinion of this Doctor Abbot and knowing how much Laud had been distasted by his Brother when he lived in Oxon. conceived he could not better satisfie himself and oblige his Brother the Archbishop than by exposing him on the next occasion both to shame and censure which he did accordingly For being Vice-chancellor
towards which the Testimonial Letters sent from the Church of Amsterdam did not help a little in which Letters he stands commended for a man of unblamable life sound Doctrine and fair behaviour as may be seen at large in the Oration which was made at his Funeral in the Divinity Schools of Leyden on the 22. of October Anno 1609. During his sitting in that Chair he drew unto him a great part of that University who by the Piety of the man his powerful Arguments his extreme diligence in the place and the clear light of Reason which appeared in all his Discourses were so wedded unto his Opinions that no time nor trouble could divorce them For Arminius dying in the year 1609. as before was said the heats betwixt his Scholars and those of the contrary perswasion were rather increased than abated the more increased for want of such a prudent Moderator as had before saved and preserved these Churches from a publick Rupture The Breach between them growing wider each side thought fit to seek the Countenance of the State and they did accordingly For in the year 1610. the Followers of Arminius address their Remonstrance containing the Antiquity of their Doctrines and the substance of them to the States of Holland which was encountred presently by a Contra-Remonstrance exhibited by those of Calvins Party From hence the names of Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants so frequent in their Books and Writings till the Remonstrants were condemned in the Synod of Dort and either forced to yield the cause or quit their Country each Party in the mean time had the opportunity to disperse their Doctrines in which the Remonstrants gained exceedingly upon their Adversaries For the whole Controversie being reduced to these five Points viz. the Method of Predestination the Efficacie of Christs Death the operations of Grace both before and after mans Conversion and perseverance in the same the Parties were admitted to a publick Conference at the Hague in the year 1611. in which the Remonstrants were conceived to have had much the better of the day But these Tongue-Combates did produce a further mischief than was suspected at the first For the Calvinians hoping to regain by Power what they lost by Argument put themselves under the Protection of Maurice van Nassaw Prince of Orange Commander General of the Forces of the United Provinces both by Sea and Land The Remonstrants on the other side applied themselves unto Iohn Olden Barnevelt a principal Counsellor of State and of great Authority in his Country Who fearing the Greatness of the Prince and having or thinking that he had some cause to doubt that he aimed at an absolute Soverainty over those Estates did chearfully entertain the offer in hope to form such a Party by them as with the help of some other good Patriots might make a sufficient Counter-ballance against that design But Barnevelts projects being discovered he was first seized on by the Prince together with Grotius Liedenburgius and others of his chief Adherents and that being done he shewed himself with his Forces before such Towns and Cities as had declared in favour of them Reducing them under his Command changing their Magistrates and putting new Garrisons into them Next followed the Arraignment and death of Barnevelt contrary to the Fundamentall Laws both of his native Country and the common Union whose death occasioned a general dejection as well it might amongst those of the Remonstrant Party and their dejection animated the Calvinians to refer their differences to a National Council which thereupon was intimated to be held at Dort one of the principle Towns of Holland This Council being thus resolved on their next care was to invite to their assistance some Divines out of all the Churches of Calvins Platform and none else which did sufficiently declare that they intended to be both Parties and Judges as in fine it proved For unto this Convention assembled the most Rigid Calvinists not only of the United Provinces but also of all the Churches of High Germany and amongst the Switz and from the City of Geneva whom it most concerned From France came none because the King upon good Reason of State had commanded the contrary and the Scots much complained that they were not suffered by King Iames to send their Commissioners thither with the rest of the Churches For though King Iames had nominated Balcanquel to that imployment in the name of the Kirk yet that could give them no contentment From England the King sent Dr. George Carleton Bishop of Landaff Dr. Ios. Hall Dean of Worcester Dr. Iohn Davenant Master of Queens Colledge and Lady Margarets Professor in Cambridge and Dr. Sam. Ward Master of Sydney Colledge in the same University And this he did that by the Countenance of his power and by the Presence of his Divines he might support the Party of the Prince of Orange and suppress his Adversaries On the third of November they began the Synod But things were carried there with such inequality that such of the Remonstrants as were like to be elected by their several Classes were cited and commanded to appear as Criminals only and being come could not be suffered to proceed to a Disputation unless they would subscribe to such conditions as they conceived to be destructive to their Cause and their Conscience too Which being refused they were expelled the House by Bogerman who sate President there in a most fierce and bitter Oration condemned without answering for themselves and finally for not subscribing to their own condemnation compelled to forsake their native Country with their Wives and Children and to beg their bread even in desolate places What influence those quarrells had amongst our selves and what effects that Synod did produce in the Church of England we shall see hereafter when the same Points come to be agitated and debated on this side of the Seas His Majesty having thus made himself the Master of his Designs both at home and abroad and being recovered from a dangerous sickness which had fallen upon him at New-Market in the year 1619. resolved on such a work of Magnificent Piety as might preserve his name and memory of succeeding Ages To which end upon Midlent Sunday Anno 1620. accompanied by the Prince attended by the Marquiss of Buckingham the Bishops Lords and most of the principal Gentlemen about the Court he intended to visit St. Pauls From Temple-bar he was conducted in most solomn manner by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London and at his entrance into the Church received under a Canopy by the Dean and Canons attired in rich Copes and other Ecclesiastical Habits Being by them brought into the Quire he heard with very great Reverence and Devotion the Divine Service of the day most solemnly performed with Organs Cornets and Sagbuts accompanied and intermingled with such excellent voices that seemed rather to enchant than chant The Divine Service being done he went unto a place prepared where he heard the Sermon
long experience with his great abilities his constancy courage and dexterity for managing affairs of moment And thereupon entring into speech with him in the beginning of Iune he was pleased to take notice of the long and unrewarded service which he had done him telling him that he looked on the Deanry of Glocester but as a Shell without a Kernel This gave him the first hopes of his growing Fortunes On Sunday the nineteenth of that Month he preached before the King at Wansteed that being the first of those Sermons which are now in Print And on St. Peters day next following there was a general expectation about the Court that he should have been made Dean of Westminster in the place of Williams who having been sworn Privy-Counsellor on the tenth of that Month and nominated to the See of Lincoln was on the tenth of Iuly honoured with the Custody of the great Seal of England upon the Deprivation of the Lord Chancellor St. Albans which before we spake of but Williams so prevailed at Court that when he was made Bishop of Lincoln he retained this Deanry in Commendam together with such other Preferments as he held at that time That is to say A Prebend and Residentiary place in the Cathedral Church at Lincoln and the Rectory of Walgrave in Northampton-shire so that he was a perfect Diocess within himself as being Bishop Dean Prebend Residentiary and Parson and all these at once But though Laud could not get the Deanry yet he lost nothing by the example which he made use of in retaining not only his Prebends place in the same Church of Westminster and his Benefices in the Country that being an ordinary indulgence to such as were preferred to the smaller Bishopsricks but also the Presidentship of his Colledge in Oxon which he valued more than all the Rest. For that his own expectation might not be made as frustrate as was that of the Court his Majesty nominated him the same day to the See of St. Davids in former times the Metropolitan City of the Welsh or Brittish But though he was nominated then he could not receive the Episcopal Character till five Months after the stay was long but the necessity unavoydable by reason of a deplorable misfortune which had befallen Archbishop Abbot and was briefly this The Archbishop had long held a dear and entire Friendship with Edward Lord Zouch a person of an eminent and known Nobility On whom he pleased to bestow a visit in his house at Bramshall invited to see a Deer hunted that he might take the fresh air and revive his Spirits a Cross-bow was put into his hand to shoot one of the Deer but his hand most unhappily swerving or the Keeper as unfortunately coming in his way it so pleased God the Disposer of Humane Affairs that he missed the Beast and shot the Man On which sad accident being utterly uncapable of consolation he retired himself to Guilford the place of his birth there to expect the Issue of his wofull Fortunes in an Hospital of his own Foundation The news of this wretched misadventure as ill news flies far came the same day to the Lord Keeper Williams and he as hastily dispatches this Advertisement of it to the Marquess of Buckingham My most Noble Lord AN unfortunate occasion of my Lords Grace his killing of a man casually as it is here constantly reported is the cause of my seconding of my yesterdays Letter unto your Lordship His Grace upon this Accident is by the Common Law of England to forfeit all his Estate unto his Majesty and by the Canon Law which is in force with us irregular ipso facto and so suspended from all Ecclesiastical Function until he be again restored by his Superiour which I take it is the Kings Majesty in this Rank and Order of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction If you send for Doctor Lamb he will acquaint your Lordship with the distinct Penalties in this kind I wish withal my heart his Majesty would be as merciful as ever he was in all his life but yet I held it my duty to let his Majesty know by your Lordship that his Majesty is fallen upon a matter of great Advice and Deliberation To add affliction unto the afflicted as no doubt he is in mind is against the Kings Nature To leave virum sanguinum or a man of blood Primate and Patriarch of all his Churches is a thing that sounds very harsh in the old Councils and Canons of the Church The Papists will not spare to descant upon one and the other I leave the knot to his Majesties deep Wisdom to advise and resolve upon A rheum fallen into mine eye c. Which Letter bearing date Iuly 27. 1621. points us directly to the time of this woful Accident Being thus pre-judged and pre-condemned the miserable man must needs have had a hard bout of it if his cause had been referred to an hearing in Chancery But King Iames was as compassionate as just and as regardful of the Church as he was compassionate to the man Advising therefore with his Council and some chief Clergy-men about him though more with his own gracious disposition he after issued a Commission to the Lord Keeper Williams the Bishops of London Winchester St. Davids and Exon as also unto Hubbert and Dodderidge two of the Justices of the Courts at Westminster-hall Martin and Steward Doctors of the Civil Laws men of great Eminence and Abilities in their several Studies to make Inquiry into the Fact And having made Inquiry into the Fact they were to give their Resolution unto His Majesty whether the Archbishop had been made irregular by that sad accident as it was commonly reported In the managing of which great Cause there was much variety of Opinions amongst the Delegates some making him obnoxious to Irregularity and others as much labouring to acquit him of it Amongst these last were Doctor Andrews then Bishop of Winchester and Sir Henry Martin then Dean of the Arches and not long after Judge of the Prerogative Court to whose Authority and Judgment the rest of the Commissioners did in time conform Martin for his part had received his Offices and Preferments from him and therefore in an honest Gratitude thought himself obliged to bend the Law as much as possibly he could to his best Advantage But Andrews had no such impulsives there being between them some disgust which might have rather prevailed with him to have been his Enemy First therefore he was willing not to stand too rigidly upon the strictness of the Canons for fear lest others of the Bishops and himself amongst them either through ignorance or incogitancy might commit some acts which without a fair and mild construction might render them as uncanonical as that poor man was And then he saw that if the Archbishop at that time had been pronounced irregular and the See made void Williams being then Lord Keeper and in great favour with his Majesty and the Marquis too would
their own distaste or smoothing up of those idle fancies which in this blessed time of so long a Peace doth boil in the brains of an unadvised People That many of their Sermons were full of rude and undecent railings not only against the Doctrines but even against the persons of Papists and Puritans And finally that the People never being instructed in the Catechism and fundamental Grounds of Religion for all these aiery novellisms which they received from such Preachers were but like new Table-books ready to be filled up either with the Manuals and Catechisms of the Popish Priests or the Papers and Pamphlets of Anabaptists Brownists and other Puritans His Majesty thereupon taking the Premises into his Princely Consideration which had been represented to him by sundry grave and reverend Prelates of this Church thought it expedient to cause some certain Limitations and Cautions concerning Preachers and Preaching to be carefully digested and drawn up in Writing Which done so done as Laud appears to have a hand in the doing of it and being very well approved by the King he caused them to be directed to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York by them to be communicated to the Bishops of their several Provinces and by those Bishops to be put in execution in their several Diocesses Which Directions bearing date of the fourth of August 1622. being the 20th year of his Majesties Reign I have thought convenient to subjoin and are these that follow viz. I. That no Preacher under the Degree and Calling of a Bishop or Dean of a Cathedral or Collegiate Church and they upon the Kings days only and set Festivals do take occasion by the Expounding of any Text of Scripture whatsoever to fall into any set course or common place otherwise than by opening the coherence and division of his Text which shall not be comprehended and warranted in essence substance effect or natural inference within some one of the Articles of Religion set forth 1562. or in some one of the Homilies set forth by Authority in the Church of England not only for a help of non-preaching but withal as a pattern as it were for the Preaching Ministers and for their further instruction for the performance thereof that they forthwith read over and peruse diligently the said Book of Articles and the two Books of Homilies II. That no Parson Vicar Curate or Lecturer shall Preach any Sermon or Collation hereafter upon Sundays and Holy-days in the Afternoons in any Cathedral or Parish Church throughout this Kingdom but upon some part of the Catechism or some Text taken â—ut of the Creed or Commandments or the Lords Prayer Funeral Sermons only excepted and that those Preachers be most encouraged and approved of who spend their Afternoons Exercise in the Examination of Children in their Catechisms which is the most ancient and laudable Custom of Teaching in the Church of England III. That no Preacher of what Title soever under the degree of a Bishop or Dean at the least do from henceforth presume to Preach in any popular Auditory the deep Points of Predestination Election Reprobation or of the universality efficacity resistibility or irresistibility of Gods Grace but rather leave those Themes to be handled by Learned Men and that modestly and moderately by Vse and Application rather than by way of positive Doctrine as being fitter for Schools and Vniversities than for simple Auditories IV. That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever shall presume from henceforth in any Auditory within this Kingdom to declare limit or bound out by way of positive Doctrine in any Lecture or Sermon the Power Prerogative Iurisdiction Authority or Duty of Sovereign Princes or therein meddle with matters of State and reference between Princes and People than as they are instructed in the Homily of Obedience and in the rest of the Homilies and Articles of Religion set forth as before is mentioned by Publick Authority but rather confine themselves wholly to these two Heads of Faith and Good Life which are all the subject of the ancient Sermons and Homilies V. That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever shall causelesly and without any invitation from the Text fall into any bitter Invectives and undecent railing Speeches against the Papists or Puritans but wisely and gravely when they are occasioned thereunto by the Text of Scripture free both the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England from the aspersions of either adversary especially when the Auditory is suspected to be tainted with the one or the other infection VI. Lastly That the Archbishops and Bishops of the Kingdom whom his Majesty hath good cause to blame for their former remisseness be more wary and choice in Licencing of Preachers and Verbal Grants made to any Chancellor Officiall or Commissary to pass Licence in this Kingdom And that all the Lecturers throughout the Kingdom a new body severed from the ancient Clergy of England as being neither Parson Vicar or Curate be licensed henceforward in the Court of Faculties only upon recommendation of the party from the Bishop of the Diocess under his hand and seal with a Fiat from the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and a confirmation under the Great Seal of England and that such as transgress any of his directions be suspended by the Bishop of the Diocess or in his default by the Lord Archbishop of that Province Ab officio beneficio for a year and a day untill his Majesty by the advice of the next Convocation prescribe for some further punishment No sooner were these Instructions published but strange it was to hear the several descants and discourses which were made upon them How much they were misreported amongst the People and misinterpreted in themselves those very men who saw no just reason to condemn the Action being howsoever sure to misconstrue the end For though they were so discreetly ordered that no good and godly man could otherwise than acknowledge that they tended very much to Edification Yet such Interpretations were put upon them as neither could consist with his Majesties meaning nor the true sense of the Expressions therein used By some it was given out that those Instructions did tend to the restraint of Preaching at the lest as to some necessary and material points by others that they did abate the number of Sermons by which the People were to be instructed in the Christian Faith by all the Preachers of that Party that they did but open a gap for Ignorance and Superstition to break in by degrees upon the People Which coming to his Majesties Ears it brought him under the necessity of making an Apology for himself and his actions in it And to this end having summed up the reasons which induced him to it he required the Archbishop of Canterbury to communicate them to his Brother of York by both to be imparted to their several Suffragans the inferiour Clergy and to all others whosoever whom it might concern which notwithstanding it
Church of England had a great stock at that time to be driven in Spain and many of the Romish Factors were desirous to be trading in it No sooner was the Princes Train of Lords and Gentlemen come to the City of Madrid but the King of Spain assigned a day for his Reception A Reception so Magnificent so full of State and Royal Pomp that it redounded infinitely to the honour of the Spanish Court and the satisfaction of the Prince Never was King of Spain on the day of his inauguration received into that City with a more general concourse of all sorts of people and greater signs of Joy and Gallantry then the Prince was conducted through it to the Palace Royal. In which his Quarters being assigned him there wanted no allurements on their parts to win him to a fair esteem of their Religion and to put some high value also on their Court and Nation Nor was the Prince wanting for his part in all fit compliances by which he might both gain on them and preserve himself for by his Courtly Garb he won so much on the affections of the Lady Infanta and by his Grace and circumspect behaviour got so much ground upon that King and his Council that the Match went forward in good earnest A dispensation for the Marriage was procured from Gregory the fifteenth then sitting in the See of Rome The Articles of the Marriage with all the circumstances thereof were agreed upon and solemnly sworn to by both Kings Nothing remained to bring the whole business to a joyfull issue but the Consummation But before that could be obtained the Prince must try his fortunes in an harder Conflict than any he had learnt in the Schools of Love The change of his Religion was much hoped for by the Court of Spain at his first coming thither To perfect which he was plied from time to time with many perswasive Arguments by many persons of great Honour about that King And many of the most learned Priests and Jesuites made their Addresses to him with such Rhetorical Orations with such insinuating Artifices and subtle Practises as if they had a purpose rather to conquer him by kindness than by disputation Nor stop they there but dedicated many Books unto him to gain him fairly to their Party invited him to behold their solemn Processions to captivate his outward senses and carried him to the most Religious places famous for their magnificent Fabricks and pretended Miracles In which conjuncture of designs it is not to be thought but that the Pope bestirred himself in gaining to his Church a Prince of such parts and greatness For first he writes unto the Bishop of Conchen Inquisitor general of Spain not to be wanting to the opportunity which God had put into his hands The next day being the twentieth of April he addressed his lines unto the Prince extolling the piety of his Predecessors their Zeal unto the Catholick Church and to the head thereof the Pope inviting him by all the blandishments of Art to put himself upon the following of their brave examples Never had Prince a harder game to play than Prince Charles had now He found himself under the Power of the King of Spain and knew that the whole business did depend on the Popes dispensation with whom if he complied not in some handsome way his expectation might be frustrate and all the fruits of that long Treaty would be suddenly blasted He therefore writes unto the Pope in such general terms as seemed to give his Holiness some assurances of him but being reduced unto particulars signified nothing else but some civill complements mixt with some promises of his endeavours to make up the breaches in the Church and restore Christendom to an happy and desirable peace Which notwithstanding was after reckoned amongst his crimes by such as rather would not then did not know the necessity which lay upon him of keeping at that time a plausible correspondence with the Catholick party But these Temptations and Allurements these Artifices and Insinuations prevailed so little with the Prince that he still kept his stand and was found impregnable carrying himself with such a prudent Moderation in these Encounters that he came off alwaies without Envy but not without Glory And that it might appear on what grounds he stood it was thought fit to let them see that he professed no other Religion than what was agreeable to the Rules of Antiquity and not much abhorrent from the Forms then used in the Church Rome And to this end by the prudent care of the Lord Keeper Williams the English Liturgie was translated into Spanish so many Copies of the book then Printed being sent into Spain as gave great satisfaction both to the Court and Clergy The work performed by a converted Dominican who was gratified for his pains therein by a good Prebend and a Benefice as he well deserved And this I must needs say was very seasonably done For till that time the Spaniards had been made believe by their Priests and Jesuites that when the English had cast off the Pope they had cast off all Religion also That from thenceforth they became meer Atheists and that the name of God was never used amongst them but with a purpose to expose it to profanation An Argument whereof may be the extreme squeamishness of the Constable of Castile sent into England in the beginning of the Reign of King Iames to swear the peace between both Kings Who understanding that the business was to be performed in the Chappel where some Anthems were to be sung desired that whatsoever was sung Gods name might not be used in it and that being forborn he was content they should sing what they listed And when the Earl of Nottingham attended by many Gentlemen of worth and quality went into Spain to take the like Oath of the Catholick King it was reported by his followers at their coming back how much it was commiserated by the Vulgar Spaniards that so many goodly persons should be trained up in no other Religion than to worship the Devil But let us leave the Prince and return for England where the King had as hard a game to play For having left such a Pawn in Spain he was in a manner bound to his good behaviour and of necessity to gratifie the Popish Party in this Kingdom with more than ordinary Favours He knew no Marriage could be made without the Popes Dispensation and that the Popes Dispensation could not be obtained without indulging many graces to his Catholick Subjects To smooth his way therefore to the point desired he addresseth several Letters to the Pope and Cardinals in which he gives him the title of most holy Father and imploys Gage as his Agent in the Court of Rome to attend the business At home he dischargeth all such Priests and Iesuites as had been formerly imprisoned inhibiting all Processes and Superseding all proceedings against Recusants and in a word suspends
the execution of such penal Laws as were made against them The People hereupon began to cry out generally of a Toleration and murmur in all places against the King as if he were resolved to grant it And that they might not seem to cry out for nothing a Letter is dispersed abroad under the name oâ— Archbishop Abbot In this Letter his Majesty is told That by granting any such Toleration he should set up the most damnable and Heretical Doctrine of the Church of Rome the whore of Babylon That it would be both hateful to God grievous to his good Subjects and contradictory to his former Writings in which he had declared their Doctrines to be Superstitious Idolatrous and detestable That no such toleration could be granted but by Parliament only unless it were his purpose to shew his people that he would throw down the Laws at his pleasure That by granting such a Toleration there must needs follow a discontinuance of the true Profession of the Gospel and what could follow thereupon but Gods heavy wrath and indignation both on himself and all the Kingdom That the Prince was not only the Son of his Flesh but the Son of his People also and therefore leaves him to consider what an errour he had run into by sending him into Spain without the privity of his Council and consent of his Subjects And finally That though the Princes return might be safe and prosperous yet they that drew him into that dangerous and desperate Action would not scape unpunished This was the substance of the Letter whosoever was the Writer of it For Abbot could not be so ill a Statesman having been long a Privy Councellour as not to know that he who sitteth at the Helm must stear his course according unto wind and weather And that there was a very great difference betwixt such personal indulgencies as the King had granted in that case to his Popish Subjects and any such Publick Exercise of their Superstitions as the word Toleration doth import and howsoever that it was a known Maxime in the Arts of Government that necessity over-rules the Law and that Princes many times must act for the publick good in the infringing of some personal and particular rights which the Subjects claim unto themselves Nor could he be so ignorant of the Kings affections as to believe that the King did really intend any such toleration though possibly he might be content on good reason of State that the people should be generally perswaded of it For well he knew that the King loved his Soveraignty too well to quit any part thereof to the Pope of Rome and consequently to part with that Supremacy in Ecclesiastical matters as needs he must have done by a Toleration which he esteemed the fairest Flower in the Royal Garland In which respect King Iames might seem to be made up of Caesar and Pompey as impatient of enduring an equal as of admitting a Superiour in his own Dominions Or had he been a greater stranger at the Court than can be imagined yet could he not be ignorant that it was the Kings chief interest to preserve Religion in the same state in which he found it and could not fear but that he would sufficiently provide for the safety of it Upon which Premises it may be rationally inferred that Abbot was only the reputed Author of this Bastard Letter and not the natural Parent of it Nor was the Toleration more feared by the English Protestants than hoped for by the Papists here and presumed by the Pope himself In confidence whereof he nominated certain Bishops to all the Episcopal Sees of England to exercise all manner of Jurisdiction in their several and respective Diocesses as his false and titular Bishops did in the Church of Ireland The intelligence whereof being given to the Jesuites here in England who feared nothing more than such a thing one of them who formerly had free access to the Lord Keeper Williams acquaints him with this mighty secret assuring him that he did it for no other reason but because he knew what a great exasperation it would give the King and consequently how much it would incense him against the Catholicks Away with this Intelligence goes the Lord Keeper to the King who took fire thereat as well as he and though it was somewhat late at night commanded to go to the Spanish Embassadour and to require him to send unto the King his Master to take some course that those proceedings might be stopt in the Court of Rome or otherwise that the Treaty of the Match should advance no further The Lord Keeper finds the Embassadour ready to send away his Pacquet who upon hearing of the news commanded his Currier to stay till he had represented the whole business in a Letter to the King his Master On the receiving of which Letter the King imparts the same to the Popes Nuncio in his Court Who presently sends his dispatches to the Pope acquainting him with the great inconveniences and unavoidable dangers of this new design which being stopt by this device and the Treaty of the Match ending in a rupture not long after the same Jesuite came again to the Lord Keepers Lodging and in a fair and facetious manner thanked him most humbly for the good office he had done for that Society for breaking and bearing off which blow all the friends they had in Rome could find no buckler Which Story as I heard from his Lordships own mouth with no small contentment so seemed he to be very well pleased with the handsomness of the trick which was put upon him Laud was not sleeping all this while It was not possible that a man of such an Active Spirit should be out of work and he had work enough to do in being the Dukes Agent at the Court The Marquiss was made Duke of Buckingham at his being in Spain to make him more considerable in the eye of that Court and this addition to his honours was an addition also to that envy which was borne against him Great Favourites have for the most part many enemies such as are carefully intent upon all occasions which may be made use of to supplant them Which point the Duke had so well studied that though he knew himself to be a very great Master of the Kings affections yet was he apprehensive of the disadvantages to which this long absence would expose him It therefoâ—e concerned him nearly to make choice of some intelligent and trusty friend whom he might confide in and he was grown more confident of Laud than of any other from whom he might receive advertisement of all occurrences and such advice as might be most agreeable to the complexion of affairs Nor did it happen otherwise than he expected for long he had not been in Spain when there were many fearings of him in the Court of England many strange whisperings into the ears of the King concerning the abuse of his Royal Favours the general
were weekly Fasts appointed to be kept by the Laws of the Land which if they did observe as they ought to do there would be no need of Solemn Fasts to begin their Parliaments The blame of which Answer in the Parliament immediately foregoing this was by the Puritan Faction cast upon the Bishops who at the same time had opposed some Proposition tending to some Restraints on the Lords day not imposed before as men whose Pride hindred all such Religious Humiliations and whose Profaneness made them Enemies to all Piety But the King having now cast himself into the arms of his People had brought himself to a necessity of yielding to their desire and thereby left a fair President both for them to crave and his Successor to grant the like So that from this time forward till the last of King Charles we shall see no Parliament nor Session of Parliament to begin without them though that King checked some times at the importunity So far his Majesty had gone along with them in yielding unto their desires but he must go a little further And therefore secondly They thought it not enough that his Majesty had made a Publick Declaration for the real and utter Dissolution of the said Treaties but it must be declared also by Act of Parliament That the said two Treaties were by his Majesty Dissolved Which gave them some colour of Pretence in the following Parliament to claim a share in managing the War which the Dissolving of these Treaties had occasioned and of being made acquainted with the Enterprize which was then in hand But for this time they were contented to have engaged the King for the future War toward the carrying on of which and more particularly as the Act expresseth for the Defence of this Realm of England the Securing of the Kingdom of Ireland the Assistance of his Majesties Neighbours the States of the Vnited Provinces and other his Majesties Friends and Allies and for the setting forth of his Royal Navy they granted to him three Subsidies together with three Fifteenths and Tenths to be paid before the tâ—nth of May which should be in the year 1625. Which though it be affirmed in the said Act to be the greatest Aid which ever was granted in Parliament to be levied in so short a time yet neither was the time so short as it was pretended there being almost fifteen Months between the dissolving of the Treaties and the last payment of the Monies Nor did the King get any thing by it how great soever the said Aid was supposed to be For thirdly before the King could obtain this Act he was fain to gratifie them with some others amongst which that entituled An Act for the general quiet of the Subject against all pretext of Concealments whatsoever was the most considerable An Act of such a grand Concernment to the Peace and Happiness of the Subject and of such Disprofit to the King in his Gifts and Graces to his Servants that it was affirmed by Justice Dodderidge at the Oxon. Assises next ensuing That his Majesty had bought those Fifteenths and Subsidies at ten years purchase Nor fourthly did one penny of this Money so dearly paid for accrew unto his Majesties particular use or was to come into his Coffers it being ordered in the Act aforesaid That the said Monies and every part and parcel of them should be paid to certain Commissioners therein nominated and that the said Commissioners should issue and dispose the same according as they should be warranted by George Lord Carew Foulk Lord Brooke and certain other Commissioners to the number of ten nominated and appointed for a Council of War by them to be expended in the Publick Service And albeit the Grant of the said Fifteenths Tenths and Subsidies might possibly be the greatest Aid which had been given in Parliament for so short a time yet did this greatness consist rather in tale than weight the Subsidy-Books being grown so low for those of the Fifteenths and Tenths do never vary that two entire Subsidies in the time of Queen Elizabeth came to more than all More nobly dealt the Clergy with him in their Convocation because it came into his own Coâ—lers and without Conditions For taking into consideration amongst other motives the great Expences at which his Majesty was then and was like to be hereafter as well for the support of his Royal Estate as for the necessary Defence of this Realm of England and other his Dominions whereby was like to grow the safety of Religion both at whom and abroad they granted to him four entire Subsidies after the rate of 4 s. in every Pound which was indeed the greatest Aid that was ever given by Convocation in so short a time the Subsidies of the Clergy being fixed and certain those of the Laity diminishing and decreasing daily A Burden which must needs fall exceeding heavy on many poor Vicars in the Country whose Benefices are for the most part of small yearly value and yet rated very high in the Kings Books according unto which they are to be Taxed Insomuch as I knew several Vicaridges not worth above 80 l. per Annum which were charged higher than the best Gentlemen in the Parish whose yearly Revenues have amounted unto many Hundreds Laud who had sometimes been Vicar of Stamford in Northamptonshire as before is said was very compassionate of the case of these poor men for whose case he devised a course in this present Session which being digested into form he communicated to the Duke of Buckingham who very readily promised to prepare both the King and Prince for the passing of it This done he imparted it also to the Lord Keeper Williams and the Bishop of Durham who look'd upon it as the best service which had been done for the Church many years before and advised him to acquaint the Archbishop with it But Abbot either disliking the Design for the Authors sake or being an enemy to all Counsels which had any Author but himself instead of favours returned him frowns asking him What he had to do to make any suit for the Church And telling him withall That never any Bishop attempted the like at any time and that no body would have done it but himself That he had given the Church such a wound in speaking to any Lord of the Layty about it as he could never make whole again And finally That if the Lord Duke did fully understand what he had done he would never endure him to come near him again St Davids replies very mildly That he thought he had done a very good office for the Church and so did his betters too That if his Grace thought otherwise he was sorry that he had offended But hoped that he had done it out of a good mind and for the support of many poor Vicars abroad in the Country who must needs sink under the payment of so many Subsidies and therefore that his error might be pardonable if
dies though his Munificence survive him It was then Midlent-Sunday and the Court-Sermon at Whitehall according to the ancient Custom in the after-noon At what time the sad News passing through London began to be rumored in the Court as Laud was going into the Pulpit to preach before the Lords of the Council the Officers of the Houshold and the rest of that great Concourse of all sorts of People which usually repaired thither at those Solemn Sermons Before he was come to the middle of it the certainty of the Kings death more generally known amongst them the confusion which he saw in the faces of all the Company his own griefs and the dolorous complaints made by the Duke of Buckingham occasioned him to leave the Pulpit and to bestow his pains and comforts where there was more need He did not think as I believe few wise men do that the carrying on of one particular Sermon was such a necessary part of Gods business as is not to be intermitted upon any occasion nor was this ever charged upon him amongst his crimes The sense of this great loss being somewhat abated he was requested by the Duke to draw up some Remembrances of the Life Reign and Government of the King Deceased which he accordingly performed and presented to him But they are but Remembrances or Memorials only like the first lines of a design or Picture which being polished and perfected by a skilâ—ul Workman might have presented us with the true and lively Pourtraiture of that gracious Prince But who will undertake to finish what Laud began I must therefore leave the deceased King to those Memorials and those Memorials to be found in his Breviate p. 5. But there was another Pourtraiture provided for that King before his Funeral His Body being brought from Theobalds unto Sommerset-house where a Royal and Magnificent Hearse was erected for him visited and resorted to by infinite multitudes of people for some Weeks together From Sommerset-house his Body was carried in great State on Saturday the seventh of May to St. Peters Church in Westminster where it was solemnly interred The Funeral Sermon preached by the Lord Keeper Williams and printed not long after by the name of Great Britains Solomon which afterwards administred the occasion of some discourse which otherwise might have been spared Thus is Iames dead and buried but the King survives his only Son Prince Charles being immediately proclaimed King of Great Britain France and Ireland first at the Court Gates by Sir Edward Zouch Knight Marshal most solemnly the next day at London and afterwards by degrees in all the Cities and Market Towns of the Kingdom At his first entrance on the Crown he found himself ingaged in a war with the K. of Spain the mightiest Monarch of the West for which he was to raise great Forces both by Sea and Land He was also at the Point of Marriage with the Daughter of France and some proportionable preparations must be made for that Nor was King Iames to be interred without a solemn and magnificent Funeral answerable in the full height to so great a Prince All which must needs exact great Sums of money and money was not to be had without the help of a Parliament which he therefore gave order to be called in the usual manner But in the middest of these many and great preparations he forgets not the great business of the Church He had observed the multitudinousness of his Fathers Chaplains and the disorder of their waitings which puts him on a Resolution of reducing them to a lesser number and limiting them to a more certain time of attendance than before they were He knew well also what an influence the Court had alwaies on the Country by consequence how much it did concern him in his future Government that his Officers and Servants should be rightly principled according to the Doctrine Government and Forms of Worship established in the Church of England And therefore that he might be served with Orthodox and Regular men Laud is commanded to prepare a Catalogue of the most eminent Divines and to distinguish them by the two Letters of O and P. according to their several perswasions and affections And that being done he is directed by the Duke and the Kings appointment to have recourse to the most learned Bishop Andrews to know of him what he thought fitting to be done in the Cause of Religion Especially in reference to the five Articles condemned not long since in the Synod at Dort and to report his answer with convenient speed A Convocation was of course to accompany the ensuing Parliament And it was fit not only that the Prelates should resolve before-hand what Points they meant to treat on when they were assembled but that his Majesty also might have time to consider of them These seasonable cares being thus passed over he hastens both his own marriage and his Fathers Funeral The first he sollemnized by Proxie in the Church of Nostre Dame in Paris on Sunday the first of May according to the Style of England The news whereof being brought to the Court on the Wednesday following was celebrated in the Streets of London the Liberties and out-parts of it with more than ordinary Expressions of Joy and Gladness The Proxie made to Claud. de Lorain Duke of Chevereux one of the younger Sons of the Duke of Guise from which House his Majesty derived himself by his great Grand-Mother Mary of Lorain Wife of Iames the Fifth The Funeral he attended in his own Person as the principal Mourner Which though it were contrary to the Custome of his Predecessors yet he chose rather to express his Piety in attending the dead Body of his Father to the Funeral Pile than to stand upon any such old niceties and points of State This was the third Funeral which he had attended as the principal Mourner which gave some occasion to presage that he would prove a man of sorrows and that his end would carry some proportion to those mournful beginnings The Intervall before the coming of his Queen he spent in looking to his Navy and drawing his Land Forces together for that Summers service But hearing that his Queen was advancing toward him he went to Canterbury and rested there on Trinity Sunday the twelfth of Iune That night he heard the news of her safe arrival at the Port of Dover whom he welcomed the next morning into England with the most chearful signs of a true aâ—fection From thence he brought her unto Canterbury and from thence by easie Stages to Gravesend where entring in their Royal Barge attended by infinite companies of all sorts of People and entertained by a continual peal of Ordnance all the way they passed he brought her safely and contentedly unto his Palace at Westminster The Lords and Ladies of the Court having presented to her the acknowledgement of their humble duties such Bishops as were about the Town as most of them were in regard of
his Confederates were fixt upon him and that they would separate and dissolve if it did not spâ—edily set forwards But then the dangers which they feared from the growth of Popery stood as much in his way as Mountague and the Grievances had done before For the securing tâ—em from all such fears an humble Petition and Remonstrance must be first prepared which they framed much after the same manner with that wâ—ich had been oâ—â—ered to King Iames in the year 1621. In this they shewed the King the dangers which were threatned to the Church and State by the more than ordinary increase of Popery and oâ—fered him such Remedies as they conceived most likely to prevent the mischiefs And unto this Petition they procured the Peers also to joyn with them But the King easily removed this obstruction by giving them such a full and satisfactory answer on the seventh of Aâ—gust that they could not chuse before their Rising which followed within five days after but Vote their humble Thanks to be returned unto his Majesty for giving such a Gracious Answer to their said Petition This they had reason to expect from his Majesties Piety but then they had another Game which must be followed before the Kings Business could be heard In the two former Parliaments they had flesh'd themselves by removing Bacon from the Seal and Cranfeild from the Treasury And somewhat must be done this Parliament also for fear of hazarding such a Priviledge by a discontinuance Williams came first into their eye whom they looked on as a man not only improper for the Place but also as not having carried himself in it with such integrity as he should have done and him the Lawyers had most mind to that they might get that Office once again into their possession This Williams fearing so applied himself to some leading Members that he diverted them from himself to the Duke of Buckingham as a more noble Prey and fitter for such mighty Hunters than a silly Priest Nor was this Overture proposed to such as were either deaf or tongue-tied for this great Game was no sooner started but they followed it with such an Out-cry that the noise thereof came presently to his Majesties ears who finding by these delays and artifices that there was no hope of gaining the Supplies desired on the 12th of the same August dissolved the Parliament He may now see the error he had run into by his breach with Spain which put him into a necessity of making War and that necessity compell'd him to cast himself in a manner on the Alms of his People and to stand wholly in like manner at their Devotion The Parliament being thus dissolved his Majesty progresseth towards the West to set forward his Navy and Laud betakes himself unto his Diocess this being the year of his Triennial Visitation He took along with him in this Journey such Plate and Furniture as he had provided for his new Chappel at Aberguilly which he Consecrated on Sunday August 28. Here he continued by reason that the Sickness was hot in London and not cooled in Oxon. till he was fain to make his way back again through Ice and Snow as he writes in his Letters to the Duke from Windsor December 13. At his return he found no small alteration in the Court The Lord Keeper Williams stood upon no good terms with the Duke in the life of King Iames but he declined more and more in Favour after his decease The Duke had notice of his practising against him in the last Parliament and was resolved to do his errand so effectually to the King his Master that he should hold the Seal no longer and he prevailed therein so far that Sir Iohn Suckling Controller of His Majesties Houshold was sent to him being then at a House of the Lord Sandys's in the Parish of Bray neer Windsor to require him to deliver up the Seal to his Majesties use which being very unwillingly done the Custody of the Great Seal on Sunday the second of October was committed to Sir Thomas Coventry his Majesties Atturney General whom Heath succeeded in that place But my Lord was not gone though the Keeper was He still remained Lord Bishop of Lincoln and Dean of Westminster holding still both his other Dignities and Preferments before recited So that he might have lived as plentifully as the greatest and as contentedly as the best had he not thought that the fall was greater from the top of the Stairs unto the second or third Step than from the second or third to the lowest of all But as he sell so Laud ascended Neil his good Friend then Bishop of Durham had fallen sick in the beginning of the Spring at whose request he was appointed to wait upon his Majesty as Clerk of the Closet in which Service though he continued not long yet he made such use of it that from that time forwards he grew as much into the Kings Favour as before he had been in the Dukes becoming as it were his Majesties Secretary for all Church Concernments His Majesty having set forward his Navy which setting out so late could not be like to make any good Return was not unmindful of the Promise he had made in Parliament in answer to the Petition of the Lords and Commons concerning the great dangers threatned to the Church and State by the Growth of Popery to which end he caused a Commission to be issued under the Great Seal for executing the Laws against Recusants which he commanded to be published in all the Courts of Justice at Reading to which Town the Term was then removed that all his Judges and other Ministers of Justice might take notice of it as also that all his Loving Subjects might be certified of his Princely Care and Charge for the Advancement of true Religion and Suppression of Popery and Superstition Which done he directed his Letters of the 15th of December to his two Archbishops signifying how far he had proceeded and requiring them in pursuance of it That no good means be neglected on their part for discovering finding out and apprehending of Jesuits and Seminary Priests and other Seducers of his People to the Romish Religion or for repressing Popish Recusants and Delinquents of that sort against whom they were to proceed by Excommunication and other Censures of the Church not omitting any other Lawful means to bring them forth to publick Justice But then withal his Majesty takes notice of another Enemy which threatned as much danger to the Church as the Papists did And thereupon he further requireth the said two Archbishops That a vigilant care be taken with the rest of the Clergy for the repressing of those who being ill affected to the true Religion here established they keep more close and secret their ill and dangerous affections that way and as well by their example as by secret and under-hand sleights and means do much encourage and encrease the growth of Popery and Superstition
with the sins of the State But then he will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel Gen. 49. Nay scatter Iacob and Israel it self for them Which said in general he descended to a more particular application putting his Auditory in mind of those words of Tacitus That nothing gave the Romans powerful enemies though they were more advantage against the ancient Britains than this Quod Factionibus studiis trahebantur That they were broken into Factions and would not so much as take counsel and advice together And they smarted for it But I pray what is the difference for men not to meet in counsel and to fall to pieces when they meet If the first were our Fore-fathers errour God of his mercy grant this second be not ours And for the Church that is as the City too just so Doctrine and Discipline are the Walls and the Towers of it But be the one never so true and the other never so perfect they come both short of Preservation if that body be not at unity in it self The Church take it Catholick cannot stand well if it be not compacted together into an holy unity with Faith and Charity And as the whole Church is in regard of the affairs of Christendom so is each particular Church in the Nation and Kingdom in which it sojourns If it be not at unity in it self it doth but invite Malice which is ready to do hurt without any invitation and it ever lies with an open side to the devil and all his batteries So both Church and State then happy and never till then when they are at unity within themselves and one with another Well both State and Church owe much to Vnity and therefore very little to them that break the peace of either Father forgive them they know not what they do But if unity be so necessary how may it be preserved in both How I will tell you Would you keep the State in Vnity In any case take heed of breaking the peace of the Church The peace of the State depends much upon it For divide Christ in the minds of men or divide the minds of men about their hopes of Salvation in Christ and tell me what unity there will be Let this suffice so far as the Church is an ingredient into the unity of the State But what other things are concurring to the unity of it the State it self knows better than I can teach This was good Doctrine out of doubt The Preacher had done his part in it but the hearers did not the Parliament not making such use of it as they should have done At such time as the former Parliament was adjourned to Oxon the Divinity School was prepared for the House of Commons and a Chair made for the Speaker in or near the place in which his Majesties Professor for Divinity did usually read his publick Lectures and moderate in all publick Disputations And this first put them into conceit that the determining of all Points and Controversies in Religion did belong to them As Vibius Rufus in the Story having married Tullies Widow and bought Caesars Chair conceived that he was then in a way to gain the Eloquence of the one and the power of the other For after that we find no Parliament without a Committee for Religion and no Committee for Religion but what did think it self sufficiently instructed to manage the greatest Controversies of Divinity which were brought before them And so it was particularly with the present Parliament The Commons had scarce setled themselves in their own House but Mountague must be called to a new account for the Popery and Arminianism affirmed to have been maintained by him in his books In which Books if he had defended any thing contrary to the established Doctrine of the Church of England the Convocation of the two was the fitter Judge And certainly it might have hapned ill unto him the King not being willing to engage too far in those Emergences as the case then stood if the Commons had not been diverted in pursuit of the Duke of Buckingham which being a more noble game they laid this aside having done nothing in it but raised a great desire in several Members of both Houses to give themselves some satisfaction in those doubtful Points To which end a Conference was procured by the Earl of Warwick to be held at York House between Buckeridge Bishop of Rochester and White Dean of Carlile on the one side Morton then of Lichfield and Preston then of Lincolns-Inn of whom more hereafter on the other The Duke of Buckingham the Earl of Pembroke many other Lords and many other persons of inferiour quality being present at it To this Conference which was holden on the eleventh of this February another was added the next week on the seventeenth In which Mountague acted his own part in the place of Buckeridge the Concourse being as great both for the quality and number of the persons as had been at the former And the success was equal also The Friends and Fautors of each side giving the victory to those as commonly it happens in such cases whose cause they favoured After this we hear no more of Mountague but the passing of some Votes against him in the April following which â—eats being over he was kept cold till the following Parliament And then he shall be called for In the mean time the King perceiving that the Commons had took no notice of his own occasions gave order to Sir Richard Weston then Chancellour of his Exchequer to mind them of it by whom he represented to them the return of the last years Fleet and the want of Money to satisfie the Mariners and Souldiers for their Arrâ—ars That he had prepared a new Fleet of forty Sail ready to set forth which could not stir without a present supply of money And that without the like supply not only his Armies which were quartered upon the Coasts would disband or mutiny but that the Forces sent for Ireland would be apt to rebell and therefore he desired to know without more adoe what present supply he must depend upon from them that accordingly he might shape his course These Propositions being made Clem. Coke a younger Son of Sir Edward Coke who had successively been Chief Justice of either Bench obstructs the Answer by this rash and unhandsome expression That it was better to dye by a Forreign Enemy than to be destroyed at home Which general words were by one Turner a Doctor of Physick and then a Member of that House restrained and applied more particularly to the Duke of Buckingham The Commons well remembred at what Point they were cut off in the former Parliament and carefully watcht all advantages to resume it in this They had begun a great clamour against him on the first of March for staying a French Ship called the St. Peter of Newhaven and Turner now incites them to a higher distemper by six
dropp'd out of his Pocket was taken up and forthwith carried to the Duke The shame and grief of which mischance gave him so much trouble that he withdrew by little and little and at last betook himself wholly to his old affectation of a Popular Greatness By reason of his Lectures in Cambridge and Lincolns-Inn he was grown powerful in the University and had gained a strong Party in the City but died about the time that Laud succeeded Mountain in the See of London And it was well for him that he died so opportunely Laud was resolved that there should be no more but one Bishop of that City and would have found some way or other to remove him out of Lincolns-Inn to the end he might have no pretence of raising or encreasing any Faction there to disturbe the Publick But before Laud shall come from St. Davids to London he must take Bath and Wells in his way to which we are now ready to wait upon him THE LIFE OF The most Reverend FATHER in GOD WILLIAM Lord Archbishop of Canterbury LIB III. Extending from his being made Bishop of Bath and Wells till his coming to the See of Canterbury IT hapned during the Sitting of the late Parliament that Doctor Arthur Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells a man of great Learning and exemplary Piety departed this Life into whose Place his Majesty on the twentieth of Iune nominates our Bishop of St. Davids In pursuance of which Nomination his Majesty on the 26th of Iuly Signed the Writ of Conge d'eslire to the Dean and Chapter warranting them thereby to proceed to a new Election and therewith sent his Letters Missive according to the usual Custom in behalf of Laud. On Wednesday August the 16th they Elect him Bishop of that See and on September 18. their Election is confirmed in due form of Law his Majesty on the morrow after restoring the Temporalties of that Bishoprick from the time of his Predecessors death And now he is actually possessed not only of the Jurisdiction but of the Rents Profits and Emergencies belonging to a Bishop of Bath and Wells a double Title but relating to a single Diocess and that Diocess confined to the County of Somerset The Bishops seat originally at Wells where it still continues and in respect whereof this Church is called in some Writers Fontanensis Ecclesia The stile of Bath came in but upon the by The church of Wells first built by Ina King of the West Saxons Anno 704. and by him dedicated to St. Andrew after endowed by Kenulfe another King of the same people Anno 766. and finally made a Bishops See in the time of Edward the elder Anno 905. The first that bore that title being Adelmus before Abbot of Glastenbury The present Church in place where that of Ina had stood before was built most part of it by Bishop Robert the eighteenth Bishop of this See but finished and perfected by Bishop Ioceline Sirnamed d' Wellis Iohannes d' Villula the sixteenth Bishop having bought the Town of Bath of King Henry the First for five hundred Marks transferred his Seat unto that City 1088. Hence grew a jar betwixt the Monks of Bath and the Canons of Wells about the Election of the Bishop At last the difference was thus composed by that Bishop Robert whom before I spake of that from thenceforward the Bishop should be denominated from both places and the precedency in the Style should be given to Bath that on the vacancy of the See a certain number of Delegates from both Churches should elect their Prelate who being elected should be installed in them both both of them to be reckoned as the Bishops Chapter and all his Grants and Patents confirmed in both And so it stood untill the Reign of King Henry VIII at what time the Monastery of Bath being dissolved there passed an Act of Parliament for the Dean and Chapter of Wells to make one sole Chapter to the Bishop 35 Hen. 8. C. 15. To welcome him to this new honour his Majesty commanded him to draw up certain Instructions to be communicated to the Archbishops Bishops and the rest of the Clergy of this Realm upon this occasion The late Parliament being dissolved without acting any thing in order to his Majesties Service he was necessitated by the urgency of his affairs to try his Fortune on the subject in the way of Loane which seemed to have some Regality in it For whereas the Parliament had passed a Bill of three Subsidies and three fifteens and that the said Parliament was dissolved before the Bill passed into an Act his Majesty was advised that he had good grounds to require those Subsidies of the Subjects which the House of Commons in their names had assented to and yet not to require them by the name of Subsidies but only in the way of Loan till the next Parliament should enable him to make payment of it or confirm his levying of those moneys by a subsequent Act. The Sum required to be raised was 173411 pound which was conceived to equal the three Subsidies which had been voted for him in the House of Commons though it never passed into an Act or otherwise to make up that Sum which the present necessity of setting out his Fleet required He had before pawned the Plate and Jewels of the Crown and sold as much Land to the City of London which would neither lent gratis nor take those Lands in way of Mortgage as brought in 120000 pound upon easie purchases All which he was ready to expend or had before expended on the publick safety But that not being able to make such necessary provisions as were required both to secure himself at home and succour his Confederates and Allies abroad he was forced to fall upon this course To which end he issues out his Letters of Commission bearing date the thirteenth of October directed to certain Lords Knights and Gentlemen in their several Counties In which they were required to acquaint the People that his dear Uncle the King of Denmark was brought into great distress That without present Succour the Sound would be lost his Garrison in Stoade broken by the Emperours Forces which then straightly besieged it the Eastland Trade which maintains our Shipping and the Staple of Hamborough which vents our Cloth would both be gotten from him As also that the two great Kings of Spain and France together with the Pope were joyned to rout out our Religion That their Admirals the Duke of Guise and Don Frederick d' Toledo were at that present before Rochel endeavouring to block it up And that they have store of Land-men ready on the Coast of Britain with them and other Forces to invade us Upon which grounds they were required by all plausible and powerful means to perswade the People to pay the Taxes severally imposed upon them with many other directions tending to advance the Service It was observed of Queen Elizabeth that when she had
any business to bring about amongst the people she used to tune the Pulpits as her saying was that is to say to have some Preachers in and about London and other great Auditories in the Kingdom ready at command to cry up her design as well in their publick Sermons as their private Conferences Which course was now thought fit to be followed in preparing the people toward a dutifull compliance to these his Majesties desires And to that end Laud received a Command from his Majesty by the Duke of Buckingham to reduce certain instructions into Form partly Political partly Ecclesiastical in the Cause of the King of Denmark not long before beaten and now much distressed by Count Tilly to be published in all Parishes within the Realm To this he chearfully conformed and brought the said Instructions to the Duke within two daies after being the sixteenth of September And having read them over first to the Duke and after to the King himself he received from both a very favourable acceptation On the next day they were communicated to the Lords of the Council who approved them also By whose advice he sent them to the Archbishop of Canterbury requiring him by his Letters bearing date September 29. to see them published and dispersed in the several Diocesses of his Province The like Letters he also writ to the Archbishop of York And they accordingly gave order to their several and respective Suffragans To see them made known to the worthy Preachers and Ministers in their Diocess and so far as their Lordships might in their own persons to put these things in execution and to call upon the Clergy which was under them in their Preachings and private Conferences to stir up all sorts of people to express their Zeal to God their Duty to the King and their Love unto their Country and one to another that all good and Christian-like course might be taken for the preservation of true Religion both in this Land and through all Christendom Now the tenour of the said Instructions was as followeth Most Reverend Father in God right trusty and right well-beloved Counsellour We greet you well WE have observed that the Church and the State are so nearly united and knit together that though they may seem two bodies yet indeed in some relation they may be accounted but as one inasmuch as they both are made up of the same men which are differenced only in relation to Spiritual or Civil ends This neerness makes the Church call in the help of the State to succour and support her whensoever she is pressed beyond her strength And the same nearness makes the State call in for the service of the Church both to teach that duty which her Members know not and to exhort them to and encourage them in that duty which they know It is not long since we ordered the State to serve the Church and by a timely Proclamation settled the peace of it And now the State looks for the like assistance from the Church that she and all her Ministers may serve God and us by preaching peace and unity at home that it may be the better able to resist Forraign Force uniting and multiplying against it And to the end that they to whom we have committed the Government of the Church under us may be the better able to dispose of the present occasions we have with the Advice of our Council thought fit to send unto you these Instructions following to be sent by you to the Bishops of your Province and such others whom it may concern and by them and all their Officers directed to all the Ministers throughout the several Diocesses that according to these punctually they may instruct and exhort the people to serve God and us and labour by their Prayers to divert the dangers which hang over us The danger in which we are at this time is great It is encreased by the late blow given our good Vncle the King of Denmark who is the chief Person in those parts that opposed the spreading Forces of Spain If he cannot subsist there is little or nothing left to hinder the House of Austria from being Lord and Master of Germany And that is a large and mighty Territory and such as should it be gotten would make an open way for Spain to do what they pleased in all the West part of Christendom For besides the great strength which Germany once possessed would bring to them which are two strong already you are to consider first how it enables them by Land in that it will joyn all or the most part of the Spaniards now distracted Territories and be a means for him safely and speedily to draw down Forces against any other Kingdom that shall stand in his way Nor can it be thought the Low Countries can hold out longer against him if he once become Lord of the upper parts And secondly You are to weigh how it will advantage him by Sea and make him strong against us in our particular which is of easie apprehension to all men And besides if he once get Germany he will be able though he had no Gold from India to supply the necessity of those Wars and to hinder all Trade and Traffick of the greatest Staple Commodities of this Kingdom Cloth and Wool and so make them of little or no value You are to know therefore that to prevent this is the present care of the King and State and there is no probable way left but by sending Forces and other Supplies to the said King of Denmark our dear Vncle to enable him to keep the Field that our Enemies be not Masters of all on the sudden You are further to take notice how both we and the whole State stand bound in Honour and Conscience to supply the present necessity of the King of Denmark For this quarrel is more nearly ours the recovery of the Ancient Inheritance of our dear Sister and her Children The King of Denmark stands not so near in bloud unto her as we do Yet for her and our sakes that brave and valiant King hath adventured into the field and in that ingagement hath not only hazarded his Person but as things go now it may turn to some danger to his own Kingdom and Posterity should he not receive aide and succour from us without delay Which should it happen as God forbid will be one of the greatest dishonours that ever this Kingdom was stained withall Nor is danger and dishonour all the mischief that is like to follow this disaster For if it be not presently relieved the Cause of Religion is not only likely to suffer by it in some one part as it hath already in a fearful manner in the Palatinate but in all places where it hath gotten any footing So that if we supply not presently our Allies and Confederates in this case it is like to prove the extirpation of true Religion and the re-planting of Romish Superstition in all
on the Kings wants flattered themselves with the hope of a Toleration for it But old Sir Iohn Savill of Yorkshire who had been lately taken into his Majesties Council had found out a plot worth two of that conceiving that a Commission to proceed against Recusants for their thirds due to his Majesty by Law would bring in double the Sum which they had offered To this the King readily condescended granting him and some others a Commission for that purpose for the Parts beyond Trent as unto certain Lords and Gentlemen for all other Counties in the Kingdom By which means and some moneys raised upon the Loane there was such a present stock advanced that with some other helps which his Majesty had he was enabled to set forth a powerfull Fleet and a considerable Land Army for the relief of the Rochellers whose quarrel he had undertaken upon this occasion The Queen at her first coming into England had brought with her a complâ—at Family of French to attend her here according to the Capitulations between the Commissioners of both Kings before the Marriage But the French Priests and some of the rest of her Domesticks were grown so insolent and had put so many affronts upon his Majesty that he was forced to send them home within few daies after he had dissolved the foregoing Parliament In which he had done no more than what the French King had done before him in sending back all the Spanish Courtiers which his Queen brought with her But the French King not looking on his own Example and knowing on what ill terms the King stood both at home and abroad first seized on all the Merchants Ships which lay on the River of Burdeaux and then brake out into open war So that the King was necessitated to make use of those Forces against the French which were designed to have been used against the Spaniard and to comply with the desires of the Rochellers who humbly sued for his protection and defence But the Fleet not going out till after Michaelmas found greater opposition at Sea than they feared from the Land being encountred with strong Tempests and thereby necessitated to return without doing any thing but only shewing the Kings good will and readiness toward their assistance But the next Fleet and the Land-Army before mentioned being in a readiness the Duke of Buckingham appeared Commander general for that Service who hoped thereby to make himself of some consideration in the eyes of the People On the twenty seventh of Iune he hoised Sailes for the Isle of Rhe which lay before the Port of Rochel and embarred their trade the taking whereof was the matter aimed at And he had strength enough both for Sea and Land to have done the work if he had not followed it more like a Courtier than a Souldier For having neglected those advantages which the victory at his Landing gave him he first suffered himself to be complemented out of the taking of their chief Fort when it was almost at his mercy and after stood unseasonably upon point of Honour in facing those Forces which were sent from the French King to raise the Siege when he might have made a safe retreat unto his Ships without loss or danger So that well beaten by the French and with great loss of Reputation among the English he came back with the remainder of his broken Forces in November following as dearly welcom to the King as if he had returned with success and triumphs During the preparations for this unfortunate attempt on Sunday the twenty ninth of April it pleased his Majesty to admâ—t the Bishop of Bath and Wells for one of the Lords of his most honourable Privy Council An honour which he would not have accepted with so great chearfulness if his dear Friend the Lord Bishop of Durham had not been sworn at or about the same time also So mutually did these two Prelates contribute their assistances to one another that as Neile gave Laud his helping hand to bring him first into the Court and plant him in King Iames his favour So Laud made use of all advantages in behalf of Neile to keep him in favour with King Charles and advance him higher The Fleet and Forces before mentioned being in a readiness and the Duke provided for the Voyaye it was not thought either safe or fit that the Duke himself should be so long absent without leaving some assured Friend about his Majesty by whom all practises against him might be either prevented or suppressed and by whose means the Kings affections might be alwaies inflamed towards him To which end Laud is first desired to attend his Majesty to Portsmouth before which the Navy lay at Anchor and afterwards to wait the whole Progress also the Inconveniencies of which journeys he was as willing to undergo as the Duke was willing to desire it The Church besides was at that time in an heavy condition and opportunities must be watcht for keeping her from falling from bad to worse No better her condition now in the Realm of England than anciently in the Eastern Churches when Nectarius sate as Supâ—â—me Pastor in the Chair of Constantinople of which thus Nazianze writes unto him The Arians saith he were grown so insolent that they make open profession of their Heresie as if they had been authorized and licenced to it The Macedonians so presumptuous that they were formed into a Sect and had a Titular Bishop of their own The Apollinarians held their Conventicles with as much safety and esteem as the Orthodox Christians And for Eunomius the bosome-mischief of those times he thought so poorly of a general connivence that at last nothing would content him but a toleration The cause of which disorders he ascribeth to Nectarius only A man as the Historian saith of him of an exceeding fair and plausible demeanour and very gracious with the people one that chose rather as it seems to give free way to all mens fancies and suffer every mans proceedings than draw upon himself the envy of a stubborn Clergy and a factious Multitude Never was Church more like to Church Bishop to Bishop time to time the names of the Sects and Heresies being only changed than those of Constantinople then and of England now A pregnant evidence that possibly there could not be a greater mischief in a Church of God than a Popular Prelate This though his Majesty might not know yet the Bishops which were about him did who therefore had but ill discharged their duty both to God and man if they had not made his Majesty acquainted with it he could not chuse but see by the practises and proceedings of the former Parliaments to what a prevalency the Puritans were grown in all parts of the Kingdom and how incompatible that humour was with the Regal interest There was no need to tell him from what fountain the mischief came how much the Popularity and remiss Government of Abbot did contribute
Promotions Fourthly That all persons to be admitted to any Benefice with cure should likewise subscribe to the said Articles and publickly read the same in the open Church within two months after their Induction with declaration of their unseigned assent to the same on the pain aforesaid In all which there was nothing done to confirm these Articles but only a pious care expressed for reformation of such disorders as were like to rise amongst the Ministers of the Church by requiring their subscription and assent unto them under such temporal punishments which at that time the Canons of the Church had not laid upon them But it is time to leave these follies of my own and return to our Bishop who had thus seasonably manifested both his Zeal and Judgment in reference to the peace of the Church in general nor shewed he less in reference to the peace of that Universitie which had the happiness and honour of his Education The Proctorship had beâ—ore been carried by a combination of some houses against the rest the weaker side calling in strangers and non-residents to give voyces for them For remedie whereof a Letter in another year was procured from the Earl of Pembroke then Chancellour of that University by which it was declared that only such as were actually Residents should be admitted to their Suffrages in the said Elections which Letter was protested against by the Proctors for the year 1627. as knowing how destructive it was of their plot and party And on the other side such Colledges as had many Chappelries and other places which were removable at pleasure invested many which came out of the Country in the said Offices and Places one after another thereby admitting them for the time into actual residence In which estate things stood when the great competition was April 23. 1628. betwixt Williamson of Magdalens and More of New-Colledge on the one side and Bruch of Brazen-nose with Lloyd of Iesus Colledge on the other side These last pretending foul play to be offered to them as indeed it was not very fair made their appeal unto the King before whom the proceedings being heard and examined Williamson and Lloyd were returned Proctors for that year the last pretending Kindred to the Dutchess of Buckingham And to prevent the like disorders for the time to come it was resolved by the King with the Advice of his Council but of Laud especially that the Proctors should from thenceforth be chosen by their severall Colledges each Colledge having more or fewer turns according to the number and greatness of their Foundations To which end a Cycle was devised containing a perpetual Revolution of three and twenty years within which Latitude of time Christ-Church was to enjoy six Proctors Magdalen five New-Colledge foure Merton All-Souls Exeter Brazen-Nose St. Iohns and Wadham Colledges to have three a piece Trinity Queens Orial and Corpus Christi to have only two the rest that is to say Vniversity Baliol Lincoln Iesus and Pembroke but one alone which Cycle was so contrived that every Colledge knew their turn before it came and did accordingly resolve on the fittest man to supply the place And for the more peaceable ordering of such other matters in the University as had relation thereunto some Statutes were digested by Laud and recommended by the King to the said University where they were chearfully received without contradiction and Entred on Record in the Publick Registers in December following Yet was not this the only good turn which that University recieved from him in this Year For in the two Months next ensuing he procured no fewer than 260 Greek Manuscripts to be given unto the Publick Library that is to say 240 of them by the Munificence of the Earl of Pembroke and 20 by the Bounty of Sir Thomas Row then newly returned from his Negotiations in the Eastern parts And now the time of the next Parliamentary Meeting which by divers Adjournments had been put off till the twentieth of Ianuary was neer at hand And that the Meeting might be more agreeable to his Intendments his Majesty was advised to smooth and prepare his way unto it first by removing of some Rubs and after by some popular Acts of Place and Favour Savill of Yorshire a busie man in the House of Commons but otherwise a politick and prudent Person he had taken off at the end of the former Parliament by making him one of his Privy Council and preferring him to be Comptroller of his Houshold in the place of Suckling then deceased and at the end of the last Session had raised him to the honour of Lord Savill of Pontfract Competitor with Savill in all his Elections for that County had been Sir Thomas Wentworth of Wentworth Woadhouse a man of most prodigous Parts which he had made use of at first in favour of the Popular Faction and for refusing of the Loan had been long imprisoned He looked on the Preferments of Savill his old Adversary with no small disdain taking himself to be as indeed he was as much above him in Revenue as in Parts and Power To sweeten and demulce this man Sir Richard Weston then Lord Treasurer created afterwards Earl of Portland used his best endeavours and having gained him to the King not only procured him to be one of his Majesties Privy Council but to be made Lord President of the North and advanc'd unto the Title of Viscount Wentworth by which he over-topped the Savills both in Court and Country Being so gained unto the King he became the most devout Friend of the Church the greatest Zealot for advancing the Monarchical Interest and the ablest Minister of State both for Peace and War that any of our former Histories have afforded to us He had not long frequented the Council-Table when Laud and he coming to a right understanding of one another entred into a League of such inviolable Friendship that nothing but the inevitable stroke of Death could part them and joining hearts and hands together cooperated from thenceforth for advancing the Honour of the Church and his Majesties Service These Matters being carried thus to assure himself of two such Persons in which he very much pleased himself his Majesty must do something also to please the People and nothing was conceived could have pleased them more than to grant them their desires in matters which concerned Religion and bestow Favours upon such men as were dear unto them In pursuance of his gracious Answer to the Lords and Commons touching Priests and Jesuits the growth of Popery and obstinacy of Recusants he had caused his Proclamation to be issued on the third of August for putting the Laws and Statutes made against Jesuits Priests and Popish Recusants in due Execution And now he adds another to it dated on the eleventh day of December for the Apprehension of Richard Smith a Popish Priest styling and calling himself the Bishop of Chalcedon a dangerous man and one who under colour of a
paid for that purpose all which amounted to three thousand two hundred forty seven pound sixteen shillings two pence half-peny The Clergy of England within the Province of Canterbury freely contributed the fortieth part of all such Church Livings as were charged with First-fruits and the thirtieth part of all their Benefices not so charged those of London only excepted who besides the thirtieth part of such as paid First-fruits gave the twentieth part of all the rest Which Contribution of the Clergy amounted to one thousand four hundred sixty one pound thirteen shillings and eleven pence whereunto was added by the benevolence of the Bishop of London at several times coming in all to nine hundred five pound one shilling and eleven pence By the Dean and Chapter one hundred thirty six pound thirteen shillings and four pence and made of the surplusage of Timber one hundred nineteen pound three shillings and nine pence Given by the Justices and Officers of the Common Pleas thirty four pound five shillings and by those of the Kings Bench seventeen pound sixteen shillings eight pence All which together made no more than six thousand seven hundred and two pound thirteen shillings and four pence And yet with this small Sum such was the cheapness of those Times the Work was carried on so prosperously that before the Month of April 1566. all the Roofs of Timber whereof those large ones of the East and West framed in Yorkshire and brought by Sea were perfectly finished and covered with Lead the adding of a new Steeple being thought unnecessary because too chargeable though divers Models have been made and presented of it The whole Roof being thus Repaired the Stone-work of it stood as before it did sensibly decaying day by day by reason of the corroding quality of the Sea-coal smoke which on every side annoyed it Which being observed by one Henry Farley about the middle of the Reign of King Iames he never left solliciting the King by several Petitions and Addresses to take the Ruinous Estate thereof into his Princely Consideration till at last it was resolved on by the King And to create the greater Veneration to so good a Work he bestowed that magnificent Visit on it described at large in the first Book of this History Anno 1620. The product and result whereof was the issuing out a Commission under the Great Seal of England bearing date the sixteenth day of November then next following directed to Sir Francis Iones Knight then Lord Mayor of London George Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Francis Lord Verulam then Lord Chancellor of England and divers others to the number of sixty Persons and upwards Which Commission importing That this Church being the greatest and most eminent as also one of the principal Ornaments of the Realm and in much decay any six or more of these Commissioners whereof three to be of the said Kings Privy-Council should meet to make Particulars of the decay and likewise what Houses Cellars c. had been built near it either to the annoyance of it or the Church-yard And moreover to Inquire what Lands Rents c. had been given towards its Repair or Sums of Money collected to that purpose and not accordingly employed And further to consider of the most fit and proper means to raise money to carry on the said Repair And lastly to appoint Surveyors and other Officers of their Work and to make Certificate of their Proceedings therein into the Chancery Upon the Meeting of which Commissioners and diligent search made into the Particulars afore-mentioned it was acknowledged that the Bishop of London had the whole care of the Body of that Church and the Dean and Chapter of the Choires But that which each of them enjoyed to this purpose was so little that they yearly expended double as much upon the Roof and other parts decayed to preserve them from present ruine Which being made evident to the Commissioners as also that in former times even from the very first foundation thereof it had been supported partly out of the large Oblations of those that visited the Shrines and Oratories therein and partly from Publick Contributions in all parts of the Kingdom It was concluded to proceed in the same way now as had been done formerly And that it might proceed the better the King himself and many of the principal Nobility and Gentry declared by their Superscriptions for the encouragement of others to so good a Work what Sums they resolved to give in pursuance of it Doctor Iohn King then Bishop of London subscribing for 100 l. per Annum as long as he should continue in that See Mountain who succeeded not long after in that Bishoprick procured with great charge and trouble some huge massie Stones to be brought from Portland for the beginning of the Work But money coming slowly in and he being a man of small activity though of good affecâ—ions the heat of this great business cooled by little and little and so came to nothing But Laud succeeding him in the See of London and having deservedly attained unto great Authority with his Majesty no sooner saw his Office settled both at home and abroad but he possessed him with a Loyal and Religious Zeal to persue that Work which King Iames had so piously designed though it went not much further than the bare design Few words might serve to animate the King to a Work so pious who aimed at nothing more than the Glory of God in the Advancement of the Peace and Happiness of the Church of England And therefore following the example oâ— his Royal Father he bestowed the like Visit on St. Pauls whither he was attended with the like Magnificence and entertained at the first entrance into the Church with the like Solemnity The Divine Service being done and the Sermon ended which tended principally unto the promoting of a Work so honourable both to his Majesties Person and the English Nation his Majesty took a view of the Decays of that Church and there Religiously promised not to be wanting in the Piety of his best Endeavours to the Repair of those Ruines which Age the Casualties of Weather or any other Accidents had brought upon it In order whereunto in the beginning oâ— this year he issued out his Royal Commission under the Great Seal of England bearing date the tenth of April in the seventh year of his Reign directed to Sir Robert Ducy Lord Mayor of the City of Londan George Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Lord Coventry Lord Keeper of the Great Seal c. William Lord Bishop of London Richard Lord Bishop of Winton Iohn Lord Bishop of Ely c. Nicholas Rainton Ralph Freeman Rowland Heylyn c. Aldermen of the City of London Edward Waymack and Robert Bateman Chamberlain of the said City of London In which Commission the said King taking notice of this Cathedral as the goodliest Monument and most ancient Church of his whole Dominions as also that it was the principal
my old friend was sworn Secretary of State which Place I obtained for him of my gracious Master King Charles About the same time also Sir Francis Cottington who succeeded the Lord Treasurer Weston in the place of Chancellor was made Successor unto Nanton in the Mastership of the Wards and Liveries No sooner was he in this place but some difference began to grow betwixt him and Coventry Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England about the disposing of such Benefices as belonged to the King in the Minority of his Wards Coventry pleaded a joynt interest in it according to the Priviledge and usage of his Predecessors it standing formerly for a rule that he of the two which first heard of the vacancy and presented his Clerk unto the Bishop should have his turn served before the other But Cottington was resolved to have no Competitor and would have either all or none During which Competition betwixt the parties Laud ends the difference by taking all unto himself Many Divines had served as Chaplains in his Majesties Ships and ventured their persons in the Action at the Isle of Rhe during his Majesties late engagements with France and Spain some reward must be given them for their Service past the better to encourage others on the like occasions for the time to come It is cold venturing in such hot Services without some hope of Reward And thereupon he takes occasion to inform his Majesty that till this Controversie were decided he might do well to take those Livings into his own disposing for the reward of such Divines as had done him service in his Wars or should go forth hereafter on the like imployments Which Proposition being approved his Majesty committed the said Benefices unto his disposal knowing full well how faithfully he would discharge the trust reposed in him for the advancement of his Majesties Service the satisfaction of the Suitors and the Churches peace Neither did Cottington seem displeased at this designation As being more willing that a third man should carry away the prize from both than to be overtopt by Coventry in his own Jurisdiction By the accession of this power as he encreased the number of his dependents so he gained the opportunity by it to supply the Church with regular and conformable men for whom he was to be responsal both to God and the King Which served him for a Counter-Ballance against the multitude of Lecturers established in so many places especially by the Feoffees for impropriations who came not to their doom till February 13. of this present year as before was said But greater were the Alterations amongst the Bishops in the Church than amongst the Officers of Court and greater his Authority in preferring the one than in disposing of the other Buckeridge his old Tutor dying in the See of Elie makes room for White then Bishop of Norwich and Lord Almoner to succeed in his place A man who having spent the greatest part of his life on his private Cures grew suddenly into esteem by his zealous preachings against the Papists his Conferences with the Jesuite Fisher and his Book wrote against him by command of King Iames. Appointed by that King to have a special eye on the Countess of Denbigh whom the Priests much laboured to pervert he was encouraged thereunto with the Deanry of Carlisle advanced on that very account to the Bishoprick thereof by the Duke her brother The Duke being dead his favour in the Court continued remove to Norwich first and to Ely afterwards Corbet of Oxon. one of Lauds fellow-sufferers in the University succeeds him in the See of Norwich and Bancroft Master of Vniversity Colledge is made Bishop of Oxon. Kinsman he was to ever renowned Archbishop Bancroft by whom preferred unto that Headship and looked upon for his sake chiefly though otherwise of a good secular living in this Succession The Bishoprick of small Revenue and without a House but Laud will find a remedy for both in convenient time The Impropriate Parsonage of Cudesdens five miles from Oxon. belonged to the Bishop in the right of his See and he had the Donation of the Vicaridge in the same right also The Impropriation was in Lease but he is desired to run it out without more renewing that in the end it might be made an improvement to that slender Bishoprick The Vicaridge in the mean time falling he procured himself to be legally instituted and inducted and by the power and favour of our Bishop of London obtains an annexation of it to the See Episcopal the design of bringing in the impropriation going forwards still and builds that beautiful house upon it which before we mentioned The See of Bristow was grown poorer than that of Oxon. both having been dilapidated in Queen Elizabeths time though by divers hands To improve the Patrimony thereof his Majesty had taken order that Wright then Bishop of that Church should suspend the renewing of a Lease of a very good Farm not very far distant from that City well Housed and of a competent Revenue to serve as a Demesn to the following Bishops for which he was to be considered in some other Preferment Houson of Durham being dead Morton removes from Lichfield thither A man who for the greatest part of his time had exercised his Pen against the Papists but gave withall no small contentment to King Iames by his learned Book in defence of the three harmless Ceremonies against the Puritans Wright follows him at Lichfield and Cooke brother to Secretary Cooke follows Wright at Bristoll tyed to the same conditions and with like encouragement The Secretary had formerly done our Bishop some bad Offices But great Courtiers must sometimes pay good turnes for injuries break and be pieced again as occasions vary The like care also taken by him for mending the two Bishopricks of Asaph and Chester as appears by his Breviate Nor were these all the Alterations which were made this year Archbishop Harsnet having left his life the year before care must be taken for a sit man to succeed at York a man of an unsuspected trust and one that must be able to direct himself in all emergencies Neiles known sufficiencies had pointed him unto the place but he was warm at Winton and perhaps might not be perswaded to move toward the North from whence he came not long before with so great contentment Yet such was the good mans desires to serve his Majesty and the Church in what place soever though to his personal trouble and particular loss that he accepted of the offer and was accordingly translated in the beginning of this year or the end of the former Two Offices fell void by this remove one in the Court which was the Clerkship of the Closet and another in the Church of Winton which was that of the Bishop To the Clerkship of the Closet he preferred Dr. William Iuxon whom before he had made President of St. Iohns Colledge and recommended to his Majesty for
about it Maxwell applying himself to Laud then Bishop of London from whom he received this positive Answer That if his Majesty would have a Liturgie setled there different from what they had already it was best to take the English Liturgie without any variation from it that so the same Service-Book might pass through all his Majesties Dominions Maxwell replying That the Scottish Bishops would be better pleased to have a Liturgie of their own but such as should come near the English both in Form and Matter the Cause was brought before the King who on a serious consideration of all Particulars concurred in Judgment for the English And on these terms it stood till this present year Laud standing hard for admitting the English Liturgie without alteration the Scottish Bishops pleading on the other side That a Liturgie made by themselves and in some things different from the English Service would best please their Countrymen whom they found very jealous of the least dependence on the Church of England But because Letters writtten in the time of Action are commonly conceived to carry more truth in them than Relations made upon the post-fact for particular ends take here this short Remembrance in one of his Letters to the Earl of Traquaire dated September 11. 1637. where we find this Passage And since saith he I hear from others That some exception is taken because there is more in that Liturgie in some few particulars than is in the Liturgie of England Why did they not admit the Liturgie of England without more ado But by their refusal of that and the dislike of this 't is more than manifest they would have neither and perhaps none at all were they left to themselves But besides this there was another Invitation which wrought much upon him in order to the present Journey At his first coming to the Crown the great Engagements then upon him want of Supply from England and small help from Scotland forced him to have recourse to such other ways of assistances as were offered to him of which this was one In the Minority of King Iames the Lands of all Cathedral Churches and Religious Houses which had been setled on the Crown by Act of Parliament were shared amongst the Lords and great men of that Kingdom by the connivence of the Earl of Murrey and some other of the Regents to make them sure unto that side And they being thus possessed of the same Lands with the Regalities and Tythes belonging to those Ecclesiastical Corporations Lorded it with Pride and Insolence enough in their several Territories holding the Clergy to small Stipends and the poor Peasant under a miserable Vassalage and subjection to them not suffering them to carry away their nine parts till the Lord had carried off his Tenth which many times was neglected out of pride and malice those Tyrants not caring to lose their Tythe so that the poor mans Crop might be left unto spoil and hazard King Iames had once a purpose to revoke those Grants but growing into years and troubles he left the following of that Project to his Son and Successor Having but little help from thence to maintain his Wars by the Advice of some of the Council of that Kingdom he was put upon a course of resuming those Lands Tythes and Regalities into his own hand to which the present Occupants could pretend no other Title than the unjust Usurpation of their Predecessors This to effect he resolves upon an Act of Revocation Commissionating for that purpose the Earl of Annandale and the Lord Maxwell afterwards Earl of Niddisdale to hold a Parliament in Scotland for Contribution of Money and Ships against the Duynkirkers and arming Maxwell also with some secret Instructions for passing the said Act of Revocation if he found it feasible Being on the way as far as Barwick Maxwell was there informed That his chief errand being made known had put all at Edenborough into Tumult That a rich Coach which he had sent before to Dalkeith was cut in pieces the poor Horses killed the People seeming only sorry that they could not do so much to the Lord himself Things being brought unto this stand the King was put to a necessity of some second Counsels amongst which none seemed more plausible and expedient to him than that of Mr. Archibald Achison who from a puisne Judge in Ireland was made his Majesties Procurator or Solicitor-General in the Kingdom of Scotland who having told his Majesty That such as were Estated in the Lands in question had served themselves so well by the bare naming of an Act of Revocation as to possess the People whom they found apt to be inflamed on such Suggestions That the true intendment of that Act was to revoke all former Laws for suppressing of Popery and settling the Reformed Religion in the Kirk of Scotland And therefore That it would be unsafe for his Majesty to proceed that way Next he advised That instead of such a General Revocation as the Act imported a Commission should be issued out under the Great Seal of that Kingdom for taking the Surrendries of all such Superiorities and Tythes within the Kingdom at his Majesties Pleasure And that such as should refuse to submit unto it should be Impleaded one by one to begin first with those whom he thought least able to stand out or else most willing to conform to his Majesties Pleasure Assuring him That having the Laws upon his side the Courts of Iustice must and would pass Iudgment for him The King resolved upon this course sends home the Gentleman not only with Thanks and Knighthood which he had most worthily deserved but with Instructions and Power to proceed therein and he proceeded in it so effectually to the Kings Advantage that some of the impleaded Parties being cast in the Suit and the rest seeing that though they could raise the People against the King they could not raise them against the LaWs it was thought the best and safest way to compound the business Hereupon in the year 1630. Commissioners are sent to the Court of England and amongst others the Learned and right Noble Lord of Marcheston from whose mouth I had this whole Relation who after a long Treaty with the King did at last agree That the said Commission should proceed as formerly and That all such Superiorities and Tythes as had been or should be surrendred should be re-granted by the King on these Conditions First That all such as held Hereditary Sheriffdoms or had the Power of Life and Death over such as lived within their Iurisdiction should quit those Royalties to the King Secondly That they should make unto their Tenants in their several Lands some permanent Estates either for their Lives or one and twenty years or some such like Term that so the Tenants might be encouraged to Build and Plant and improve the Patrimony of that Kingdom Thirdly That some Provisions should be made for augmenting the Stipends of the
without Mayors Bayliffs Constables and other Officers to take notice and to see observed as they tender Our displeasure And We further Will That Publication of this Our Commmand be made by Order from the Bishops thorow all the Parish Churches of their several Diocesses respectively Given at our Palace at Westminster Oct. 18. in the ninth year of Our Reign 1633. His Majesty had scarce dried his Pen when he dipt it in the Ink again upon this occasion The Parishioners of St. Gregories in St. Pauls Church-yard had bestowed much cost in beautifying and adorning their Parish Church and having prepared a decent and convenient Table for the holy Sacrament were ordered by the Dean and Chapter of St. Pauls as being Ordinaries of the place to dispose of it in such a Posture in the East end of the Chancel as anciently it had stood and did then stand in the Mother Cathedral Against this some of the Parishioners not above five in number appeal unto the Dean of the Arches and the Dean and Chapter to the King The third day of November is appointed for debating the Point in controversie before the Lords of the Council his Majesty sitting as chief Judge accompanied with Laud Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Keeper Lord Archbishop of Yorke Lord Treasurer Lord Privy Seal Lord Duke of Lenox Lord High Chamberlaine Earle Marshal Lord Chamberlaine Earle of Bridgewater Earle of Carlisle Lord Cottington Mr. Treasurer Mr. Comptroller Mr. Secretary Cooke Mr. Secretary Windebanke The cause being heard and all the Allegations on both sides exactly pondered his Majesty first declared his dislike of all Innovations and receding from ancient Constitutions grounded upon just and warrantable reasons c. And afterwards gave Sentence in behalf of the Dean and Chapter But because this Order of his Majesty in the case of St. Gregories was made the Rule by which all other Ordinaries did proceed in causing the Communion Table to be placed Altarwise in the Churches of their several and respective Diocesses I will subjoyn it here verbatim as it lies before me At Whitehall Novem. 3. 1633. This day was debated before his Majesty sitting in Council the question and difference which grew about the removing of the Communion Table in St. Gregories Church near the Cathedral Church of St. Paul from the middle of the Chancel to the upper end and there placed Altarwise in such manner as it standeth in the said Cathedral and Mother-Church as also in other Cathedrals and in his Majesties own Chappel and as is consonant to the practice of approved Antiquity which removing and placing of it in that sort was done by order of the Dean and Chapter of St. Pauls who are Ordinaries thereof as was avowed before his Majesty by Doctor King and Doctor Montfort two of the Prebends there Yet some few of the Parishioners being but five in number did complain of this act by appeal to the Court of Arches pretending that the Book of Common Prayer and the 82 Canon do give permission to place the Communion Table where it may stand with most fitness and convenience Now his Majesty having heard a particular relation made by the Counsell of both parties of all the carriage and proceedings in this cause was pleased to declare his dislike of all innovation and receding from ancient Constitutions grounded upon just and warrantable reasons especially in matters concerning Ecclesiastical Orders and Government knowing how easily men are drawn to affect Novelties and how soon weak Iudgments in such cases may be overtaken and abused And he was also pleased to observe that if those few Parishioners might have their wills the difference thereby from the foresaid Cathedral Mother-Church by which all other Churches depending thereon ought to be guided would be the more notorious and give more subject of discours and disputes that might be spared by reason of the nearness of St. Gregories standing close to the Wall thereof And likewise for so much as concerns the Liberty by the said Common Book or Canon for placing the Communion Table in any Church or Chappel with most conveniency that liberty is not so to be understood as if it were ever left to the discretion of the Parish much less to the particular fancy of any humorous person but to the judgment of the Ordinary to whose place and Function it doth properly belong to give direction in that point both for the thing it self and for the time when and how long as he may find cause Vpon which consideration his Majesty declared himself that he well approved and confirmed the Act of the said Ordinary and also gave commandment that if those few Parishioners before mentioned do proceed in their said Appeal then the Dean of the Arches who was then attending at the hearing of the cause should confirm the said Order of the aforesaid Dean and Chapter Of this last Declaration there was no great notice took at first the danger being remote the case particular and no necessity imposed of conforming to it But the other was no sooner published then it was followed and pursued with such loud outcries as either the Tongues or Pens of the Sabbatarians could raise against it Some fell directly on the King and could find out no better names for this Declaration than a Profane Edict a maintaining of his own honour and a Sacrilegious robbing of God A Toleration for prophaning the Lords day Affirming That it was impossible that a spot of so deep a dye should be emblanched though somewhat might be urged to qualifie and alleviate the blame thereof Others and those the greatest part impute the Republishing of this Declaration to the new Archbishop and make it the first remarkable thing which was done presently after he took possession of his Graceship as Burton doth pretend to wit it in his Pulpit Libell And though these Books came not out in Print till some years after yet was the clamour raised on both at the very first encreasing every day more and more as the reading of it in their Churches had been pressed upon them To stop the current of these clamours till some better course might be devised one who wisht well both to the Parties and the Cause fell on a fancy of Translating into the English Tongue a Lecture or Oration made by Dr. Prideaux at the Act in Oxon. Anno 1622. In which he solidly discoursed both of the Sabbath and Sunday according to the judgment of the ancient Fathers and the most approved Writers of the Protestant and Reformed Churches This Lecture thus translated was ushered also with a Preface In which there was proof offered in these three Propositions First That the keeping holy of one day of seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment Secondly That the alteration of the day is only an humane and Ecclesiastical Constitution Thirdly That still the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other Which as they are the general Tendries of the
place where the Altar formerly had stood In Christ-Church the Cathedral of that City to which the Lord Deputies repair on Sundays and Holydays for Gods Publick Worship he found the Holy Table scituated in the middle of the Choire or Chancel and day by day profaned by Boys and Girles who sate upon it This Table he caused to be removed also as he did the other And whereas the Earl of Cork had built a stately Monument for his Wife and some of her Ancestors but chiefly for himself and his own Posterity at the East end of the Choire in St. Patrick's Church being the second of that City the Lord Deputy required him to take it down or otherwise to satisfie the Archbishop of Canterbury in the standing of it Of all these things he gave Order to his Chaplain Bramhall to give the Archbishop an Account which Bramhall did accordingly in his Letters of the tenth of August 1633. In which Letters he gave this testimony also of the Deputies Care That it was not possible for the Intentions of a mortal Man to be more serious and sincere in those things that concerned the good of the Irish Church than his Lordships were And that he might lay a sure foundation to proceed upon he procured the University of Dublin to make choice of Laud then being Lord Elect of Canterbury for their Lord and Chancellor To this they chearfully assented passed the Election on the fourteenth of September Anno 1633. being but six days before his actual Confirmation into the Metropolitical and Supream Dignity of the Church of England Nor was it long before they found on what a gracious Benefactor they had placed that Honour He had been told by Ryves his Majesties Advocate who formerly had exercised that Office in the Realm of Ireland of the deplorable condition of that Church in the respect of Maintenance Most of the Tythes had been appropriated to Monasteries and Religious Houses afterwards vested in the Crown or sold to private Subjects and made Lay-Fees The Vicaridges for the most part Stipendary and their Stipends so miserable sordid that in the whole Province of Connaught most of the Vicars Pensions came but to 40 s. per Annum and in many places but 16. The Bishopricks at that time were many in number but of small Revenue having been much dilapidated in the change of Religion some of them utterly unable to maintain a Bishop and no good Benefice near them to be held in Commendam This had been certified unto him by Letters from the Lord Primate about three years since and it had been certified also by Beadle Bishop of Killmore That the Churches were in great decay and that some men of better quality than the rest were possessed of three four five or more of those Vâ—caridges to the great disservice of the Church and reproach to themselves These things he could not chuse but look on as great discouragements to Learning and such as could produce no other effects than Ignorance in the Priest and Barbarism in the People Scandalous Benefices make for the most part scandalous Ministers as naked Walls are said in the English Proverb to make giddy Houswifes Where there is neither Means nor Maintenance for a Learned Ministry what a gross night of Ignorance must befal those men who were to hold forth the Light to others And if the Light it self be Darkness how great a Darkness must it be which doth follow after it That Observation of Panormitan That poor Churches will be filled with none but ignorant Priests being as true as old and as old as lamentable For remedy whereof he took an opportunity to move his Majesty to restore all such Impropriations to the Church of Ireland as were then vested in the Crown The Exchequer was at that time empty the Revenue low which might seem to make the Proposition the more unseasonable But so great was his Majesties Piety on the one side the Reasons so forcible on the other and the Lord Deputy of that Kingdom so cordially aâ—fected to advance the Work that his Majesty graciously condescended to it and sound his Ministers there as ready to speed the business as either of them could desire Encouraged by which Royal Example the Earl of Cork who from a very small beginning had raised himself to a vast Revenue in that Kingdom Re-built some Churches and Repaired others restored some of his Impropriations to those several Churches and doubtless had proceeded further if a difference had not hapned betwixt the Lord Deputy and him about the removing of the Monument which he had erected for himself and his Posterity in one of the principal Churches of the City of Dublin as before was said And as for the improving of the Bishopricks as Ossory and Kilkenny Killmore and Ardagh Down and Connor and possibly some others had before this been joined together so was it advised by the Primate That Kilfenore should be joined unto that of Killalow lying contiguous to each other Both which being joined by a perpetual union were thought sufficient to make an indifferent Competency for an Irish Bishop But all this Care had been to little or no purpose if some course were not also taken to preserve Religion endangered on this side by Popery and on that by Calvinism each side unwillingly contributing to the growth of the other The perverse oppositions of the Calvinist made the Papist obstinate and the insolencies of the Papists did both vex and confirm the Calvinists Betwixt them both the Church of England was so lost that there was little of her genuine and native Doctrine to be found in the Clergy of that Kingdom The Papists being first suppressed it was conceived to be no hard matter to reduce the Calvinians to Conformity and to suppress the Papists it was found expedient That the standing Army should be kept in continual Pay and that Monies should be levied on the Papists themselves for the payment of it In order whereunto the Bishop of Killmore before-mentioned had given an Account unto his Grace then Bishop of London touching the dangerous condition of that Church by the growth of Popery and now he finds it necessary to give the like Account unto the new Lord Deputy Him therefore he informs by Letters dated November 5. 1633. which was not long after he had personally assumed the Government and received the Sword to this effect viz. That in that Crown the Pope had a far greater Kingdom than his Majesty had That the said Kingdom of the Pope was governed by the new Congregation de propaganda Fide established not long since at Rome That the Pope had there a Clergy depending on him double in number to the English the Heads of which were bound by a corporal Oath to maintain his Power and Greatness against all Persons whatsoever That for the moulding of the People to the Popes Obedience there was a great rabble of Irregular Regulars most of them the younger Sons of
Noble Houses which made them the more insolent and uncontrollable That the Pope had erected an University in Dublin to confront his Majesties Colledge there and breed up the Youth of the Kingdom to his Devotion one Harris being Dean thereof who had dispersed a Scandalous Pamphlet against the Lord Primates Sermon preach'd at Wansteed one of the best Pieces that ever came from him Anno 1629. That since the Dissolving of their new Frieries in the City of Dublin they had Erected them in the Country and had brought the People to such a sottish negligence that they cared not to learn the Commandments as God spake and left them but flocked in Multitudes to the hearing of such Superstitious Doctrines as some of their own Priests were ashamed of That a Synodical Meeting of their Clergy had been held lately at Drogheda in the Province of Vlster in which it was decreed That it was not lawful to take the Oath of Allegiance And therefore That in such a conjuncture of Affairs to think that the bridle of the Army might be taken away must be the thought not of a Brain-sick but of a Brainless man which whosoever did endeavour not only would oppose his Majesties Service but expose his own neck to the Skeanes of those Irish cut-throats All which he humbly refers to his Lordships seasonable Care and Consideration Upon this Information the Deputy obtains his Majesties leave to hold a Parliament in that Kingdom which he managed with such notable dexterity that he made himself Master of a Power sufficient to suppress the Insolencies of the Papists and yet exceedingly prevailed upon their Affections From which time forwards the Popish Recusants in that Kingdom were kept in stricter duty and held closer to loyal Obedience for fear of irritating so severe a Magistrate than ever they had been by any of his Predecessors This Parliament brought with it a Convocation as a thing of course and in that somewhat must be done to check the spreading of Calvinism in all parts of that Church The Articles of Religion agreed upon in Convocation Anno 1615. were so contrived by Vsher the now Lord Primate That all the Sabbatarian and Calvinian Rigours were declared therein to be the Doctrines of that Church Most grievous Torments immediately in his Soul affirmed to be endured by Christ which Calvin makes to be the same with his descent into Hell The abstenencies from eating Flesh upon certain days declared not to be Religious Fasts but to be grounded only upon Politick Ends and Considerations All Ministers adjudged to be Lawfully called who are called unto the Work of the Ministry by those that have Publick Authority given them in the Church but whether they be Bishops or not it makes no matter so that he be Authorized unto it by their several Churches The Sacerdotal Power of Absolution made declarative only and consequently quite subverted No Power ascribed unto the Church in Ordaining Canons or censuring any of those who either carelesly or maliciously do infringe the same the Pope made Antichrist according to the like Determination of the French Hugonots made at Gappe in Dolphine And finally such a silence concerning the Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops expresly justified and avowed in the English Book as if there were not a different Order from the Common Presbyters All which being Vsher's own Opinions were dispersed in several places of these Articles for the Church of Ireland approved of in that Convocation and finally confirmed by the Lord Deputy Chichester in the Name of King Iames. By means whereof these two great mischiefs did ensue First A great matter of division which it caused to the Priests and Papists of the Realm that in three Kingdoms under the Obedience of one Sovereign Prince there should be three distinct and contrary Professions and yet pretending every one to the same Religion And secondly Whensoever the Points were agitated here in England against the Sabbatarian and Calvinian Rigours the Disputants were forthwith choaked by the Authority of these Articles and the infallible Judgment of King Iames who confirmed the same If therefore the Archbishop meant to have Peace in England the Church of Ireland must be won to desert those Articles and receive ours in England in the place thereof This to effect it was not thought expedient by such as had the managing of that design to propose any abrogation or repealing of the former Articles which had so many Friends and Patrons in that Convocation that it was moved severally both in the House of the Bishops and in that of the Clergy to have them ratified and confirmed in the present Meeting And questionless it had been carried in that way if it had not seasonably been diverted by telling the Promoters of it That those Articles had already received as much Authority as that Church could give them and that by seeking to procure any such Confirmation they would weaken the Original Power by which they stood This blow being thus handsomly broken their next work was to move the Primate That for the avoiding of such scandal which was given the Papists and to declare the Unity in Judgment and Affections between the Churches a Canon might be passed in approbation of the Articles of the Church of England To this the Prelate being gained the Canon was drawn up and presented to him and being by him propounded was accordingly passed one only man dissenting when it came to the Vote who had pierced deeper into the bottom of the Project than the others did It was desired also by Bramhall not long before the Lord Deputies Chaplain but then Bishop of Derrie That the whole Body of Canons made in the year 1603. might be admitted in that Church But the Primate was ever so afraid of bowing at the Name of IESVS and some other Reverences required in them which he neither practised nor approved that he would by no means hearken to it which bred some heats between him and Bramhall ending at last in this Temperament That some select Canons should be taken out of that Book and intermingled with some others of their own composing But for the Canon which approved and received the Articles of the Church of England it was this that followeth viz. Of the Agreement of the Church of England and Ireland in the Profession of the same Christian Faith FOr the manifestation of our Agreement with the Church of England in the Confession of the same Christian Faith and Doctrine of the Sacraments We do receive and approve the Book of Articles of Religion agreed upon by the Archbishops and Bishops and the whole Clergie in whole Convocation holden at London Anno Dom. 1562. for the avoiding of diversities of Opinions and for the establishing of Consent touching true Religion And therefore if any hereafter shall affirm That any of those Articles are in any part Superstitious and Erroneous or such as he may not with a good Conscience Subscribe unto Let him be Excommunicated
consent in the times foregoing so were they now upon the point of having those old Rules broken on them by the King in making Canons and putting Laws and Orders on them for their future Government to which they never had consented And therefore though his Majesty had taken so much care as himself observed for facilitating and conveniencing their obedience by furthering their knowledge in those points which before they knew not yet they did generally behold it and exclaimed against it as one of the most grievous burthens that ever had been laid upon them More clamour but on weaker grounds was made against the Book of Common Prayer when it first came out which was not till the year 1637. and then we shall hear further of it Mean while we will return to England and see what our Archbishop doth as a chief Counsellor and States-man in his Civil Actings It was about four or five years since Anno 1631 that he first discovered how ill his Majesties Treasury had been managed between some principal Officers of his Revenue to the enriching of themselves to the impoverishing of their Master and the no small amazement of all good Subjects But the abuses being too great to be long concealed his Majesty is made acquainted with all particulars who thereupon did much estrange his countenance from the principal of them For which good service to the King none was so much suspected by them as the Archbishop of Canterbury against whom they began to practise endeavouring all they could to remove him from his Majesties ear or at the least to lessen the esteem and reputation which his fidelity and upright dealing had procured of him Factions are heightned in the Court Private ends followed to the prejudice of Publick Service and every mouth talkt openly against his proceedings But still he kept his ground and prevailed at last appointed by his Majesty on the fifth of February 1634. to be one of the great Committee for Trade and the Kings Revenue and seeing Wesâ—ons Glories set under a cloud within few weeks after Weston being dead it pleased his Majesty to commit the managing of the Treasury by Letters Patents under the Broad Seal bearing date on the fourteenth day of March to the Lord Archbishop Cottington Chancellor of the Exchequer Cooke and Windebank principal Secretaries and certain others who with no small envy looked upon him as if he had been set over them for a Supervisor Within two daies after his being nominated for this Commission his Majesty brought him also into the Foreign Committee which rendred him as considerable abroad as he was at home This as it added to his power so it encreased the stomach which was borne against him The year 1635. was but new began when clashing began to grow between him and Cottington about executing the Commission for the Treasury And that his grief and trouble might be the greater his old Friend Windebank who had received his preferment from him forsook him in the open field and joyned himself with Cottington and the rest of that Party This could not chuse but put him to the exercise of a great deal of Patience considering how necessary a friend he had lost in whose bosome he had lodged a great part of his Counsels and on whose Activity he relied for the carrying on of his designs at the Council Table But for all this â—e carries on 〈◊〉 Commâ—â—â—ion the whole year about acquaints himself with the Mysteries and secrets of it the honest advantages which the Lord Treasurers had for enriching themselves to the value of seven tâ—ousand pound a year and upwards as I have heard from his own mouth without defrauding the King or abusing the Subject He had observed that divers Treasurers of late years had raised themselves from very mean and private Fortunes to the Titles and Estates oâ— Earls which he conceived could not be done without wrong to both and therefore he resolves to commend such a man to his Majesty for the next Lord Treasurer who having no Family to raise no Wife and Children to provide for might better manage the Incomes of the Treasury to the Kings advantage than they had been formerly And who more like to come into his eye for that preferment than Iuxon his old and trusty Friend then Bishop of London a man of such a well tempered disposition as gave exceeding great content both to Prince and People and one whom he knew capable of as much instruction as by a whole years experience in the Commission for the Treasury he was able to give him It was much wondred at when first the Staff was put into this mans hand in doing whereof the Archbishop was generally conceived neither to have consulted his own present peace nor his future safety Had he studied his own present peace he should have given Cottington leave to put in for it who being Chancellor of the Exchequer pretended himself to be the next in that Ascendent the Lord Treasurers Associate while he lived and the presumptive heir to that office after his decease And had he studied his own safety and preservation for the times to come he might have made use of the power by recommending the Staff to the Earles of Bedford Hartford Essex the Lord Say or some such man of Popular Nobility by whom he might have been reciprocated by their strength and interess with the People in the change of times But he preferred his Majesties Advantages before his particular concernments the safety of the Publick before his own Nor did he want some seasonable considerations in it for the good of the Church The peace and quiet of the Church depended much on the conformity of the City of London and London did as much depend in their trade and payments upon the Love and Justice of the Lord Treasurer of England This therefore was the more likely way to conform the Citizens to the directions of their Bishop and the whole Kingdom unto them No small encouragement being thereby given to the London Clergy for the improving of their Tythes For with what confidence could any of the old Cheats adventure on a publick Examination in the Court of Exchequer the proper Court for suits and grievances of that nature when a Lord Bishop of London sate therein as the principal Judge Upon thâ—se Counsels he proceeds and obtains the Staff which was delivered to the Bishop of London on Sunday March 6. sworn on the same day Privy Counsellor and on the first of the next Term conducted in great state from London House to Westminster Hall the Archbishop of Canterbury riding by him and most of the Lords and Bishops about the Town with many Gentlemen of chief note and quality following by two and two to make up the Pomp. It was much feared by some and hoped by others that the new Treasurer would have sunk under the burden of that place as Williams did under the custody of the Seal but he deceived them both
of particular Churches and of some Times only And 3. It in Points of Doctrine Whether such Points have been determined oâ— before in a General Council or in Particular Councils universally received and countenanced or are to be defined de novo on emergent Controversies And these Distinctions being thus laid I shall Answer briefly 1. If the things to be reformed be either Corruptions in Manners or neglect of Publick Duties to Almighty God Abuses either in Government or the Parties governing the King may do it of himself by his sole Authority The Clergy are beholden to him if he takes any of them along with him when he goes about it And if the Times should be so bad that either the whole body of the Clergy or any though the greatest part thereof should oppose him in it he may go forwards notwithstanding punishing such as shall gainsay him in so good a Work and compelling others And this I look on as a Power annexed to the Regal Diadem and so inseparably annexed that Kings could be no longer Kings iâ— it were denied them And on the other side if the Reformation be in Points oâ— Doctrine and in such Points of Doctrine as have not been before defined or not defined in form and manner as before laid down the King only with a few of his Bishops and Learned Clergy though never so well studied in the Point disputed can do nothing in it That belongs only to the whole body of the Clergy in their Convocation rightly called and constituted whose Acts being Ratified by the King bind not alone the rest of the Clergy in whose name they Voted but all the residue of the Subjects of what sort soever who are to acquiesce in their Resolutions But if the thing to be Reformed be a matter practical we are to look into the usage of the Primitive Times And if the Practice prove to have been both ancient and universally received over all the Church though intermitted for a Time and by Time corrupted the King consulting with so many of his Bishops and others of his most able Clergy as he thinks â—it to call unto him and having their Consent and Direction in it may in the case of intermission revive such Practice and in the case of corruption and degeneration restore it to its Primitive and Original Lustre Now that there should be Liturgies for the use of the Church And that those Liturgies should be Celebrated in a Language understood by the People That in those Liturgies there should be some prescribed Forms for Giving the Communion in both Kinds for Baptizing Infants for the reverent Celebration of Marriage performing the 〈◊〉 Office to the Sick and the decent Burial of the Dead as also for set Fasts and appointed Festivals hath been a thing of Primitive and General Practice in the best times of the Church And being such though intermitted and corrupted as before is said the King advising with his Bishops and other Church-men though not in a Synodical way may cause the same to be revised and revived and having fitted them to Edification and encrease of Piety either commend them to the Church by his sole Authority or else impose them on the People under certain Penalties by his Power in Parliament The Kingdom of Heaven said the Reverend Isidore of Sevil doth many times receive increase from these Earthly Kingdoms in nothing more than by regulating and well ordering of Gods Publick Worship Add hereunto what was before alledged for passing the Canons in the same way and then we have the sum of that which was and probably might have been pleaded in defence hereof The prosecution of this Liturgie on the one side and the exaction of those Publick Orders on the other kindled such fires in the breasts of some of the Puritan Faction that presently they brake out into open Flames For first the Scots scattered abroad a virulent and seditioâ—s Libel in the year 1634. wherein the King was not only charged with altering the Government of that Kingdom but traduced for very strong inclinations to the Religion of the Church of Rome The chief Abettor whereof for the Author was not to be found was the Lord Balmerino for which he was Legally convicted and condemned of Treason but pardoned by the Kings great Goodness and by that Pardon kept alive for the mischiefs following And as the English had Scotized in all their Practises by railing threatning and stirring up of Sedition for bringing in the Genevian Discipline in Queen Elizabeths Time so they resolve to follow their Example now Bastwick a Doctor of Physick the second part of Leighton first leads the Dance beginning with a Pestilent Pamphlet called Flagellum Episcoporum Latialium maliciously venomous against the Bishops their Function Actions and Proceedings But this not being likely to do much hurt amongst the People because writ in Latine he seconds it with another which he called his Litany in the English Tongue A Piece so silly and contemptible that nothing but the Sin and Malice which appeared in every line thereof could possibly have preserved it from being ridiculous Prynne follows next and publisheth two Books at once or one immediately on the other one of these called The Quench-Coal in answer unto that called A Coal from the Altar against placing the Communion-Table Altar-wise The other named The Vnbishoping of Timothy and Titus against the Apostolical Institution of Diocesan Bishops But that which was entituled to him by the name of a Libel was The News from Ipswich intended chiefly against Wren then Bishop of Norwich who had taken up his dwelling in that Town as before is said but falling as scandalously foul on the Archbishop himself and some of the other Bishops also and such as acted under them in the present Service For there he descants very trimly as he conceived on the Archbishop himself with his Arch-Piety Arch-Charity Arch-Agent for the Devil that Beelzebub himself had been Archbishop and the like to those a most triumphant Arch indeed to adorn his victories With like reproach he falls on the Bishops generally calling them Luciferian Lord Bishops execrable Traitors devouring Wolves with many other odious names not fit to be used by a Christian and more particularly on Wren telling us That in all Queen Maries times no such havock was made in so short a time of the faithful Ministers of God in any part nay in the whole Land than had been made in his Diocess And then he adds with equal Charity and Truth That Corbet Chancellor to this Bishop had threatned one or two godly Ministers with pistolling and hanging and I know not what because they had refused to read his Majesties Declaration about lawful Sports More of this dish I could have carved but that this may serve sufficiently for a taste of the whole But the great Master-piece of mischief was set out by Burton so often mentioned before who preaching on the fifth of November in his own Parish
first Innovation touching the suppressing of Sermons during the time of the late Fast in infected places contrary to the Orders in former times he answered First That after-Ages might without offence learn to avoid any visible inconvenience observed in the former And secondly That the suppressing of those Sermons was no Act of the Bishops but a Command proceeding on a full debate from the Lords of the Council the better to avoid the spreading of the Contagion And thirdly That as Sermons on the Fast-days had been used of late they were so far from humbling men in the sight of God that they were fitter for other operations as the raising of Sedition amongst the People of which there could not be a clearer instance than in that of Burton To the second That by appointing the Weekly Fasts to be on Wednesdays and those Fasts to be kept without any Sermons there was a plot for suppressing all Wednesday Lectures for ever after It was answered That Wednesday was the usual day for such Publick Fasts That it was named by the Lord Keeper no great Friend to Popery and that those men had lived to see the Fast ended and the Wednesday Lectures still continued To the third That the Prayer for Seasonable Weather was left out of the last Book and that the leaving of it out was one cause of the Shipwracks and Tempestuous Weather which followed after He answered generally first That all Fast-Books are made by the command of the King who alone had Power to call such Fasts and that the Archbishops and Bishops who had the ordering of those Books had also Power under the King of putting in and leaving out of those Books whatsoever they think fit for the present occasion Secondly as to this particular That when the Fast-Book was made the Weather was very Seasonable and the Harvest in and that it was not the Custom of the Church to pray for seasonable Weather when they had it but when it was wanting Thirdly That it was very boldly done to ascribe the cause of those Tempests to the leaving out of that Prayer which God had never revealed unto them and they could not otherwise know but by Revelation To the fourth touching a Clause omitted in the first Collect in which Thanks had been given to God for delivering us from Popish Superstition He answered That though our Fore-fathers had been delivered from such Superstitions yet God be blessed that for our parts we were never in them and therefore could not properly be said to have been delivered To the fifth touching the leaving out of a passage in one of the Orders for the Fast concerning the abuse thereof in relation to Merit he answered That it was left out because in this Age and Kingdom there was little opinion of Merit by Fasting insomuch that all Fasts were contemned and scorned both at Lent and all other set times except such as some humerous men called for of themselves to promote their ends The sixth Innovation charged upon them was the leaving of the Lady Elizabeth and her Children out of one of the Collects And the seventh That out of the same Collect the words Father of thine Elect and of their Seed was expunged also To which it was answered That the said Collect was not in the Common-Prayer-Book confirmed by Law neither King Edward vi nor Queen Elizabeth having any Children Secondly That it was added to the Book at the coming in of King Iames who brought a Princely Issue with him and left out again in the beginning of the Reign of King Charles who at that time and for four years after had no Issue neither Thirdly That as the Lady Elizabeth and her Children were put into the Collect when the King had no Issue of his own so when the King had Issue of his own there was as much reason to leave them out Fourthly For the leaving out of that Clause Father of thine Elect c. it was done by his Predecessor and that the leaving out of the Lady Elizabeth and her Issue was done by the Command of the King The eighth Innovation charged upon them was bowing at the Name of IESVS and altering to that end the words in the Epistle on the Sunday next before Easter by changing IN the Name of Iesus to AT the Name of Iesus And it was answered unto this That bowing at the Name of IESVS was no Innovation made by the Prelates of this Age but required by the Injunction of Queen Elizabeth in the very first beginning of the Reformation And secondly Though it be IN the Name of Iesus in the old Editions of the Liturgie yet it is AT the Name of Iesus in the Translation of Geneva Printed in the year 1567. and in the New Translation Authorised by King Iames. The ninth relates to the Alteration of two Passages in the Form of Prayer set forth by Act of Parliament for the Fifth of November in which Form it is thus expressed Root out the Babylonish Sect which say of Jerusalem Down with it c. And in the other place Cut off those Workers of Iniquity whose RELIGION is REBELLION Which are thus altered in the Books which came out last viz. Root out that Babylonish and Antichristian Sect of them which say c. And in the other Cut off those workers of Iniquity who turn RELIGION into REBELLION c. To which it was replied That the Book of Prayer appointed for the Fifth of November was neither made set forth or commanded to be read by Act of Parliament but only made and appointed to be read by the Kings Authority Secondly That being made and appointed to be read by no other Authority than the Kings the King might alter in it what he thought convenient and that he had the Kings hand for those Alterations What Reasons there might be to move his Majesty to it we may enquire into hereafter on another occasion To the tenth for the leaving out the Prayer for the Navy he answered that the King had then no Fleet at Sea nor any known enemy to assault as he had when that Prayer was first put in and that howsoever if there had been any design to bring in Popery to which these Innovations must be made subserviâ—nt they should rather have kept in that Prayer than have left it out Concerning the Communion Table there were three Innovations urged the placing of it Altarwise reading the second Service at it and bowing towards or before it For answer to the first It was proved to have been no Innovation in regard of Practice because it had so stood in his Majesties Chappels and divers Cathedrals of this Kingdom since the first Reformation Which posture if it be decent and convenient for the Service of God either in the Kings Chappels or Cathedrals it may be used also in other Churches but if it served to bring in Popery it was not to be used in them Nor was it any Innovation in regard of Law
a base and Libellous Answer without the name of any Author Place or Printer or any Bookseller according to the unusual Custom where and of whom it might be bought I shall not trouble my self any more about it than by a Transcript of the Title which was this that followeth viz. DIVINE and POLITICK OBSERVATIONS newly translated out of the Dutch Language wherein they were lately divulged upon some lines in the Speech of the Archbishop of Canterbury pronounced in the STAR-CHAMBER the fourteenth of June 1637. VERY expedient for preventing all prejudice which as well through ignorance as through malice and flattery may be incident to the judgment which men make thereby either of his Graces power over the Church and with the King or of the Equity Iustice and Wisdom of his ENDS in his said Speech and of the reasons used by him for attaining to his said ENDS And though he took great care and pains concerning that supposed additional clause to the 20th Article so much as might satisfie any man not extremely partial yet find I a late Writer so unsatisfied in it that he leaves it to the State-Arithmeticians to decide the Controversie whether the Bishops were more faulty in the addition than the opposites in their substraction of it One other Charge there was and a great one too which I find not touched at in this Speech and that is that the Prelates neither had nor sought to have the Kings Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England for their keeping Courts and Visitations c. but did all in their own Names and under their own Seals contrary to the Law in that behalf Concerning which we are to know that by a Statute made in the first year of King Edward the Sixth it was Enacted That all Summons Citations and other Process Ecclesiastical in all Suites and causes of Instance and all causes of Correction and all causes of Bastardy or Bigamy or De jure Patronatus Probates of Testaments and Commissions of Administrations of persons deceased be made in the name and with the Style of the King as it is in Writs Original or Iudicial at the Common Law c. As also that no matter of person or persons who hath the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction use any other Seal of Jurisdiction but wherein his Majesties Arms be engraven c. on pain of incurring his Majesties indignation and suffering imprisonment at his will and pleasure Which Statute and every branch thereof being repealed by Queen Mary and not revived by Queen Elizabeth in all her Reign the Bishops of her time were safe enough from any danger on that side But in the first Parliament of King Iames there passed an Act for continuing and reviving of divers Statutes and for repealing of some others 1 Iac. c. 25. Into the Body whereof a Clause was cunningly conveyed his Majesties Council learned not considering or fraudulently conniving at it for the repealing of that Statute of the Reign of Queen Mary by which King Edwards stood repealed of which no notice being taken for some while by those whom it chiefly did concern it was now discovered and made use of as a Rod to affright the Prelates from exercising their Jurisdiction over obstinate and incorrigible Non-conformists as formerly they had been accustomed For remedy whereof and for encouraging the Bishops to perform their duties iâ— was declared by the Judges with an unanimous consent and so delivered by the Lords Chief Justices in the Star-Chamber the fourteenth of May in this present year That the said Act of Repeal 1 of Queen Mary did still stand in force as unto that particular Statute by them so much pressed This was sufficient for the present but the Archbishop would not trust to it for the time to come and thereupon in in his Epistle to the King before remembred He humbly desired his Majesty in the Churches name That it might be resolved by all the Reverend Judges of England and then published by his Majesty that the Bishops keeping of their Courts and issuing Processes in their own names and the like exceptions formerly taken and now renued were not against the Laws of this Realm that so the Church Governours might go on chearfully in their duty and the peoples minds be quieted by this assurance that neither their Law nor their Liberty as Subjects was thereby infringed A motion favourably heard and graciously granted his Majesty issuing out his Royal Proclamation on the eighteenth day oâ— August then next following For declaring that the proceedings of his Ecclesiastical Câ—urts and Ministers were according to Law The Tenour of which Proclamation or Declaration was as followeth By the King WHereas in some of the Libellous Books and Pamphlets lately published the most Reverend Fathers in God the Lord Archbishops and Bishops of the Realm are said to have usurped upon his Majesties Prerogative Royal and to have proceeded in the High Commission and other Ecclesiastical Courts contrary to the Laws and Statutes of the Realm It was Ordered by his Majesties High Court of Star-Chamber the twelfth of June last that the Opinion of the two Lords Chief Justices the Lord Chief Baron and the rest of the Judges and Barons should be had and certified in these particulars viz. whether Processes may not issue out of the Ecclesiastical Courts in the names of the Bishops Whether a Patent under the Great Seal be necessary for the keeping of the Ecclesiastical Courts and enabling Citations Suspensions Excommunications and other Censures of the Church And whether the Citations ought to be in the Kings Name and under his Seal of Arms and the like for Institutions and Inductions to Benefices and correction of Ecclesiastical offences And whether Bishops Archdeacons and other Ecclesiastical persons may or ought to keep any Visitation at any time unless they have express Commission or Patent under the great Seal of England to do it and that as his Majesty Visitors only and in his name and right alone Whereupon his Majesties said Judges having taken the same into their sâ—rious consideration did unanimously agree and concur in opinion and the first day of Iuly last certified under their hands as followeth That Processes may issue out of Ecclesiastical Courts in the name of the Bihops and that a Patent under the Great Seal is not necessary for the keeping of the said Ecclesiastical Courts or for the enabling of Citations Suspensions Excommunications and other Censures of the Church And that it is not necessary that Summons Citations or other Processes Ecclesiastical in the said Courts or Institutions and Inductions to benefices or correction of Ecclesiastical offences by Censure in those Courts be in the Kings name or with the Style of the King or with the Kings Seal or the Seals of the Office have in them the Kings Arms And that the Statute 1 Edw. 6. c. 2. which enacted the contrary is not now in force And that the Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons and other Ecclesiastical
do for Kilvert against their Master The Story whereof desireth the Readers further patience though it come somewhat out of time and is briefly this Osbaldston the late Schoolmaster and then Prebend of Westminster a profess'd Creature of the Bishops and much imployed by him in his greatest businesses had written a Letter to him about Christmas in the year 1635. touching some Heats which hapned in that cold Season betwixt the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Treasurer Weston Osbaldston conceiving this to be a fit opportunity for the Bishop to close in with Weston and by his means to extricate himself out of those Perplexities in which this Star-Chamber Suit had so long intangled him This Intelligence he disguised in these expressions viz. The little Vermin the Vrchin and Hocus Pocus is this stormy Christmas at true and real variance with the great Leviathan And this conceit the Bishop out of too much jollity makes known to others by whom at last it came to Kilvert who laying hold on the Advantage exhibits a new Bill against him for divulging Scandalous Libels against Privy Counsellors there being good proof to be produced That by the names of Little Vermin Vrchin and Hocus Pocus the writer of that Letter designed no other than the Archbishop and the Lord Treasurer Weston by the Great Leviathan Both being made Parties to the Bill Osbaldston answers for himself That by Leviathan he intended Chief Justice Richardson and Spicer a Doctor of Laws by the other Character The differing statures of the men seeming to make good this Construction which the Grammar of the Text might bear as well as the other The Bishop pleaded for his part That he remembred not the receiving of any such Letter and that if any such Letter had come unto him it could not be brought within the compass of a Libel because not written in such plain and significant terms as might apparently decypher and set forth the Person intended in it But all this proved to be but shifts on either side for Kilvert had a Letter ready which Walker was supposed to have put into his hands to make sure work of it a Letter which the Bishop had writ to the said Walker being then his Secretary at the time of that falling out betwixt Laud and Weston Here is a strange thing saith that Letter Mr. Osbaldston importunes me to contribute to my Lord Treasurers use some Charges upon the Little Great Man and assures me they are mortally out I have utterly refused to meddle in this business and I pray you learn from Mr. S. and Mr. H. if any such falling out be or whether somebody hath not gulled the Schoolmaster in these three last Letters and keep it unto your self what I write unto you If my Lord Treasurer would be served by me he must use a more neer solid and trusty Messenger and free me from the Bonds of the Star-Chamber else let them fight it out for me This Secret thus discovered and the Mystery opened it was not long before the Cause was brought to Censure For the two Letters being compared with the Time and Circumstances it was no hard matter to the Lords who had their own Concerment in it to conclude both of them to be guilty of the Crime called Scandalum Magnatum a Libelling and defaming the Great Men of the Realm proâ—ibited and punishable by the Laws of the Land So that no Buckler being â—ound to bear off the Blow a Fine of another 8000 l. was imposed on the Bishop Osbaldston fined 5000 l. to be deprived of all his Ecclesiastical Preferments his Ears to be tack'd to the Pillory in the Palace-yard and Dammages or Costs of Suit to be paid by both to the Archbishop of Canterbury A Censure greater than the Crime as most men conceived in respect of Osbaldston whose Indiscretion might have been corrected with far less severity and less severity was intended then the Sentence intimated For though Osbaldston at that time conceived the Archbishop to be his greatest Enemy yet the Archbishop was resolved to shew himself his greatest Friend assuring the Author of this History before any thing was known of his supposed flight that he would cast himself at the Kings feet for obtaining a discharge of that corporal punishment unto which he was Sentenced Which may obtain the greater credit first in regard that no course was taken to stop his flight no search made after him nor any thing done in order to his Apprehension And secondly By Osbaldstons readiness to do the Archbishop all good Offices in the time of his Troubles upon the knowledge which was given him at his coming back of such good intentions For Osbaldston not hoping for so much favour and fearing more the shame of the Punishment than the loss of Preferment had seasonably withdrawn himself to a Friendâ— House in London where he lay concealed causing a noise to be spread abroad of his going beyond Sea and signifying by a Paper which he left in his Study That he was gone beyond Canterbury But this hapned not till the latter end of the year next following though I have laid it here together because of the coherence which it hath with the former Story To look back therefore where we left The Bishop of Lincoln was no sooner Suspended by the High-Commission that part of the Sentence being executed Iuly 24. but all the Profits of his Preferments in the Church were Sequestred to the Use of the King A Privy Seal is sent to the Sub-Dean and Prebends of the Church of Westminster requiring them to set apart all the Profits certain and uncertain which of right accrued unto that Dean and to pay the same from time to time into the Receipt of the Exchequer And that his Majesties Profits might not suffer any diminution nor the Prebends of that Church be punished for the fault of their Dean a Commission was issued under the Great Seal of England inabling them to Let and Set to Renew Leases keep Courts and make Grants of Offices and finally to act and do all manner of things which concerned the Government of that Church in as ample manner as if the Dean himself had been present at the doing of them The like course also taken in gathering in the Profits of his other Promotions those of the Bishoprick of Lincoln naturally flowing into the Exchequer as in times of Vacancy And as for his Episcopal Iurisdiction that fell as naturally to the Archbishop of the Province as the Temporal Revenue to the King the Archbishop of Canterbury exercising all kind of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction throughout the Diocess of Lincoln not only as Ordinary of that Diocess but as Visitor of all those Colledges which had any dependence on that See Amongst which Colledges as that of Eaton was the chief so there was somewhat in it which was thought to want a present Remedy some Information being given That they had diminished the number of their Fellows from Ten to Seven
private Laird to be a Peer of that Realm made him first Treasurer Depute Chancellor of the Exchequer we should call him in England afterwards Lord Treasurer and Privy Counsellor of that Kingdom This man he wrought himself so far into Lauds good liking when he was Bishop of London only that he looked upon him as the fittest Minister to promote the Service of that Church taking him into his nearest thoughts communicating to him all his Counsels committed to his care the conduct of the whole Affair and giving order to the Archbishops and Bishops of Scotland not to do any thing without his privity and direction But being an Hamiltonian Scot either originally such or brought over at last he treacherously betrayed the cause communicated his Instructions to the opposite Faction from one time to another and conscious of the plot for the next daies tumult withdrew himself to the Earl of Mortons house of Dalkeith to expect the issue And possible it is that by his advice the executing of the Liturgy was put off from Easter at what time the reading of it was designed by his Majesty as appears by the Proclamation of December 20. which confirmed the Book By which improvident delay he gave the Presbyterian Faction the longer time to confederate themselves against it and to possess the people with Fears and Jealousies that by admitting of that book they should lose the Purity of their Religion and be brought back unto the Superstitions and Idolatries of the Church of Rome And by this means the People were inflamed into that Sedition which probably might have been prevented by a quicker prosecution of the Cause at the time appointed there being nothing more destructive of all publick Counsels than to let them take wind amongst the People cooled by delaies and finally blown up like a strong Fortress undermined by some subtle practice And there were some miscarriages also amongst the Prelates of the Kirk in not communicating the design with the Lords of the Council and other great men of the Realm whose Countenance both in Court and Country might have sped the business Canterbury had directed the contrary in his Letters to them when the first draughts of the Liturgy were in preparation and seems not well pleased in another of his to the Archbishop of St. Andrews bearing date September 4. that his advice in it was not followed nor the whole body of the Council made acquainted with their Resolutions or their advice taken or their power called in for their assistance till it was too late It was complained of also by some of the Bishops that they were made strangers to the business who in all Reason ought to have been trusted with the knowledge of that intention which could not otherwise than by their diligence and endeavours amongst their Clergy be brought to a happy execution Nor was there any care taken to adulce the Ministers to gain them to the Cause by fair hopes and promises and thereby to take off the edge of such Leading men as had an influence on the rest as if the work were able to carry on it self or have so much Divine assistance as countervailed the want of all helps from man And which perhaps conduced as much to the destruction of the Service as all the rest a publick intimation must be made in all their Churches on the Sunday before that the Liturgie should be read on the Lords day following of purpose as it were to unite all such as were not well affected to it to disturb the same And there were some miscarriages also which may be looked on as Accessories after the Fact by which the mischief grew remediless and the malady almost incurable For first the Archbishops and Bishops most concerned in it when they saw what hapned consulted by themselves apart and sent up to the King without calling a Council or joyning the Lay Lords with them whereas all had been little enough in a business of that nature and so much opposed by such Factious persons as gathered themselves on purpose together at Edenborough to disturb the Service A particular in which the Lay Lords could not be engaged too far if they had been treated as they ought But having run upon this error they committed a worse in leaving Edenborough to it self and retiring every one to his own Diocess except those of Galloway and Dumblaine For certainly they must needs think as Canterbury writes in one of his Letters to Traquaire that the Adverse party would make use of the present time to put further difficulties upon the work and therefore that they should have been as careful to uphold it the Bishop of Ross especially whose hand had been as much in it as the most But possibly the Bishops might conceive the place to be unsecure and therefore could not stay with safety neither the Lords of the Council nor the Magistrates of the City having taken any course to bring the chief Ringleaders of the Tumult to the Bar of Justice which must needs animate all disaffected and seditious persons and almost break the hearts of those who were well enclined And such indeed was the neglect of the Civil Magistrate that we hear of no man punished scarce so much as questioned for so great a Riot as was not to be expiated but by the death or some proportionable punishment of the chief offenders Which had it been inflicted on some three or four for a terror to others it might have kept that City quiet and the whole Kingdom in obedience for the time to come to the saving of the lives of many thousands some hundreds of thousands at the least in all the three Kingdoms most miserably lost in those long and cruel Wars which ensued upon it But the Lords of Scotland were so far from looking before them that they took care only for the present and instead of executing Justice on the Malefactors suspended the Liturgie it self as the cause of the Tumult conceiving it a safer way to calm the differences than to encrease the storm by a more rigorous and strict proceeding All that they did in order to his Majesties Service or the Churches peace was the calling in of a scandalous Pamphlet entituled A dispute against the English Popish Ceremonies obtruded on the Kirk of Scotland which not being done till October 20 following rather declared their willingness to suffer the said Book to be first dispersed and set abroad then to be called in and suppressed Nor seemed the business to be much taken to heart in the Court of England from whom the Scots expected to receive Directions Nor Order given them for unsheathing the Sword of Justice to cut off such unsound and putrified Members which might have saved the whole Body from a Gangreen the drawing of some Blood in the Body Politick by the punishment of Malefactors being like letting Blood in the Body Natural which in some strong Distempers doth preserve the whole Or granting that the Tumult
had been grown so high and so strongly backed that Justice could not safely have been done upon them a way might have been found to have cooled the Fever without loss of Blood by bringing the whole Corporation under the danger of a forfeiture of their Lands and Liberties in a Legal way which course proved so successful unto King IAMES on the like occasion Anno 1597. Or finally supposing that the Cause admitted not such a long delay if then his Majesty had but sent a Squadron of the Royal Navy which he had at Sea to block up their Haven he had soon brought the Edenburghers unto his devotion and consequently kept all the rest of the Kingdom in a safe Obedience This was the way to keep them under and of this course the People of the City were more afraid than of any other Somewhat they are to do which might make his Majesty hope better of them than they had deserved and nothing they could do which might better please him than to express their chearfulness in admitting the Liturgie To this end they addressed their Letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury as more concerned in this Affair than any other of the Lords which were neer his Majesty expressing in the same their great dislike of the late Tumult for their Innocency therein they refer themselves to his Majesties Council in that Kingdom declaring further their concurrence with the Bishops which remained in the City and the Ministry of the same for settling the Service-Book and offering Means above their Power to such as should undertake the Reading of it and finally desiring his Grace to make known to his Majesty how ready they were at all points to advance the Service which they promised to accept as an accumulation of his Graces Favours unto them and their City And that this Letter of theirs which bears date the nineteenth of August might bear the greater credit with him they did not only seem industrious for the apprehending of some and the inquiring after others of the Principal Actors but bound themselves by an Obligatory Act of the Common-Council both for the Indempnity and Maintenance of such as should read the Book the Ministers of Edenborough refusing to do their parts in it without such Encouragements But the danger was no sooner over by the coming home of the Fleet but they Petitioned the Lords of the Council to put them into the same condition with the rest of the Subjects and that the Service-Book should be no further pressed on them than it had been in all the other parts of the Kingdom To which they were encouraged by a general confluence of all sorts of People such most especially as had most shewn their disaffection to the work in hand For the Harvest was no sooner in and the People at more leisure than before to pursue that Quarrel but the City swarmed with throngs of People from all parts even to a formidable number which moved the Lords to publish two Proclamations on the seventeenth of October The first commanding all of them to repair to their Dwellings except such as should shew sufficient reason for their stay and continuance there The second for Adjourning the Sessions from Edenborough to the Town of Linlithgow But this served rather like the powring on of Oyl to encrease the Flame than of Water to quench it For the next day the Bishop of Galloway being to Sit with the Lord Chief Justice upon some especial Business in the Council-House he was pursued all along the Street with bitter Railings to the very Door and being drawn in from the rage of the People they immediately beset the House demanding the delivery of him and threatning his destruction The Earl of Traquair being advertised of the Bishops danger who formerly had been his Tutor came to his Relief and with much ado forced an Entrance thorow the Press But being got in he was in no better plight than the Bishop the Clamour still encreasing more and more and encompassing the Council-House with terrible Menaces Hereupon the Provost and City-Council was called to raise the Siege but they returned answer That their condition was the same for they were surrounded with the like Multitude who had enforced them for fear of their Lives to sign a Paper importing First That they should adhere to them in opposition to the Service-Book Secondly To restore to their Places Ramsey and Rollock two Silenced Ministers and one Henderson a Silenced Reader No better Answer being returned the Lord Treasurer with the Earl of Wigton went in Person to the Town-Council-House where they found the heat of the fury somewhat abated because the Magistrates had signed the Paper and returned with some hope that the Magistrates would calm the Disorders about the Council-House so as the Bishop might be preserved But they no sooner presented themselves to the Great Street than they were most boysterously assaulted the Throng being so furious as they pulled down the Lord Treasurer took away his Hat Cloack and White Staff and so haled him to the Council-House The Lords seeing themselves in so great danger at length pitch upon the best expedient for their safety and sent to some of the Noblemen and Gentry who were disaffected to the Service-Book to come to their Aid These Lords and Gentlemen came as was desired and offered both their Persons and Power to protect them which the Lords and the Council-House readily embraced and so were quietly guarded to Holy-Rood-House and the Bishop to his Lodging The Lords of the Council not thinking themselves to be secure published a Proclamation the same day in the afternoon for repressing such Disorders for the time to come But they found slender Obedience yielded to it Commissioners being sent unto them from the Citizens in an insolent manner for demanding the Restitution of their Ministers to their Place and Function and performing all such Matters as had been agreed on at the Pacification These Riots and Seditions might have served sufficiently in another Reign to have drawn a present War upon them before they were provided in the least degree to make any resistance But the Edenburghers knew well enough what they were to do what Friends they had about the King and what a Party they had got among the Lords of his Council which Governed the Affairs of that Kingdom And they were apt enough to hope by the unpunishing of the first Tumult on Iuly 23. That the King might rather have patience enough to bear such Indignities than Resolution to revenge them so that he came at last to that perplexity which a good Author speaks of That he must either out-go his Nature or fore-go his Authority For instead of using his just Power to correct their Insolencies he courts them with his Gracious Proclamation of the seventh of December in which he lets them know How unwilling he was that his Loyal and Faithful Subjects should be possessed with groundless and unnecessary doubts and fears touching
his words and mistakes his meaning wresting the most Orthodox and innocent truths to his wicked ends and putting his own corrupt Gloss and sense upon them And which is yet most strange of all with an unparalelled impudence he dedicates it to his Sacred Majesty calling upon him To send out his Royal Edict for the taking down of all Altars which where ever they stand are by him said to stand in open defiance of Christ Another for calling in the Book for Sports on the Lords day A third for calling in his Declaration before the Articles of Religion A fourth for calling in of all Orders for the Restraint of Preaching A fifth for restoring to their place and Ministry all those who out of Conscience of their duty to God had by the Prelates been thrust out of all for refusing to read the said Book And finally for releasing and setting at liberty the three poor banished prisoners the loud cry of whose oppressions might otherwise provoke the thunderbolt of Divine Revenge to blast the beauty of his State Now as he laboured by these means to preserve the Church of England from the growth of Popery so he took care for preventing the subversion of it by the spreading of the Socinian Heresies He had before took care for suppressing all Books of that nature which had been imported into England out of other Countries and had received thanks for it from the Pen of a Jesuit But Burton chargeth it upon him among his Crimes reproaching him for suppressing those books for no other reason but because they magnified the Authority of the holy Scriptures and by the late Decree for Printing of which more anon he had took such order that no Eggs of that pestiferous Brood should be laid in England or if they were should ever peep out of the Shell or appear in sight There had been published a Discourse called Disquisitio Brevis in which some of the principal Socinian Tenents were cunningly inserted pretending them for the best Expedients to appease some Controversies betwixt us and Rome The Book ascribed in common Speech to Hales of Eaton a man of infinite reading and no less ingenuity free of Discourse and as communicative of his knowledge as the Coelestial Bodies of their light and influences There past also up and down a Discourse of Schism not Printed but transmitted from hand to hand in written Copies like the Bishop of Lincolns Letter to the Vicar of Grantham intended chiefly for the encouragement of some of our great Masters of Wit and Reason to despise the Authority of the Church Which being dispersed about this time gave the Archbishop occasion to send for him to Lambeth in hope that he might gain the man whose abilities he was well acquainted with when he lived in Oxon. An excellent Grecian in those daies and one whom Savil made great use of in his Greek Edition of St. Chrysostoms Works About nine of the Clock in the Morning he came to know his Graces pleasure who took him along with him into his Garden commanding that none of his Servants should come at him upon any occasion There they continued in discourse till the Bell rang to Prayers and after Prayers were ended till the Dinner was ready and after that too till the coming in of the Lord Conway and some other Persons or honour put a necessity upon some of his Servants to give him notice how the time had passed away So in they came high coloured and almost panting for want of breath enough to shew that there had been some heats between them not then fully cooled It was my chance to be there that day either to know his Graces pleasure or to render an account of some former commands but I know not which and I found Hales very glad to see me in that place as being himself a meer stranger to it and unknown to all He told me afterwards That he found the Archbishop whom he knew before for a nimble Disputant to be as well versed in books as business That he had been ferretted by him from one hole to another till there was none left to afford him any further shelter That he was now resolved to be Orthodox and to declare himself a true Son of the Church of England both for Doctrine and Discipline That to this end he had obtained leave to call himself his Graces Chaplain that naming him in his Publick Prayers for his Lord and Patron the greater notice might be taken of the Alteration Thus was Hales gained unto the Church and gained a good preferment in it promoted not long after by the Archbishops Commendation to be Prebend of Windsor and to hold the same by special dispensation with his place in Eaton Nor was the Archbishop less intent upon all Advantages for keeping down the Genevian Party and hindring them from Printing and Publishing any thing which might disturb the Churches Peace or corrupt her Doctrine To this end he procured a Decree to be pass'd in the Star-Chamber on Iuly 1. Anno 1637. to Regulate the Trade of Printing and prevent all Abuses of that Excellent Art to the disturbance of the Church By which Decree it had been Ordered That the Master-Printers from thenceforth should be reduced to a certain number and that if any other should secretly or openly pursue that Trade he should be set in the Pillory or whipped through the Streets and suffer such other Punishment as that Court should inflict upon him That none of the said Master-Printers should from thenceforth Print any Book or Books of Divinity Law Physick Philosophy or Poetry till the said Books together with the Titles Epistles Prefaces Tables or Commendatory Verses shall be lawfully Licenced either by the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of London for the time being or by some of their Chaplains or by the Chancellors or Vice-Chancellors of either of the two Vniversities upon pain of loosing the Exercise of his Art and being proceeded against in the Star-Chamber or the High-Commission Court respectively That no Person or Persons do hereafter Re-print or cause to be Re-printed any Book or Books whatsoever though formerly Printed with Licence without being reviewed and a new Licence obtained for the Re-printing thereof That every Merchant Bookseller or other Person who shall Import any Printed Books from beyond the Seas shall present a true Catalogue of them to the said Archbishop or Bishop for the time being before they be delivered or exposed to Sale upon pain of suffering such Punishment as by either of the said two Courts respectively shall be thought fit That none of the said Merchants Booksellers or others shall upon pain of the like Punishment deliver any of the Books so Imported till the Chaplains of the said Archbishop or Bishop for the time being or some other Learned Man by them appointed together with the Master and Wardens of the Company of Stationers or one of them shall take a view of the same with Power to seize
Belgick Provinces might easily have served for a strong temptation to bring over the rest to enjoy the like But the Country was too narrow for them and the Brethren of the Separation desired elbow-room for fear of Enterfeering with one another New-England was chiefly in their eye a Puritan Plantation from the first beginning and therefore fitter for the growth of the Zuinglian or Calvinian Gospel than any Country whatsoever A Country first discovered to any purpose by one Captain Gosnold Anno 1602. and in the next year more perfectly surveyed by some of Bristol afterwards granted by King Iames Anno 1606. unto a Corporation of Knights Gentlemen and Merchants to be planted and disposed of for the Publick under the Ordering and Direction of Chief Justice Popham by whom a Colony was sent thither in the year next following at what time they built St. Georges Fort to secure their Haven that they might have a door open for their going thence which soon after followed And though the Adventurers made a further attempt in the year 1616 yet it never settled into Form till the building of New-Plymouth in the year 1620. and some incouragements being sent thence to bring others on it came in very short space to so swift a growth that no Plantation for the time ever went beyond it New Bristol new Boston and new Barnstable being quickly added to the other The growth of old Rome and new England had the like foundation both Sanctuaries for such of the neighbouring Nations as longed for Novelties and Innovations both in Church and State But let the Reader take their Character from de Laet a right good Chorographer in the third Book of his Description of America where he informeth us that the first Planters and those which followed after them were altogether of that Sect which in England were called Brownists or Puritans many of which had formerly betaken themselves to Holland but afterwards departed thence to joyn with their Brethren in New-England The Churches cast into the same mould with those before all of them following the device of Robinson that notorious Schismatick at the spawning of the second separation in Amsterdam Who to distinguish his followers from the brethren of the first separation governed by a Try-formed Presbytery of Pastors Elders and Deacons introduced a new way of his own leaving as much Exercise of Church Discipline to the whole Congregation as was elsewhere enjoyed by the Pastors and Elders In this estate they stood in the year 1633. at what time Iohn de Laet made that Character of them Exceedingly encreased in short time after both in Men and Buildings by those who frequently flocked thither from most parts of this Kingdom either for fear of Punishment or for danger of Debt or to enjoy the folly of their Schism with the greater safety But whatsoever were the causes of the Separation certain I am the Crime was laid on the Archbishop of Canterbury amongst the Articles of whose Impeachment by the House of Commons I find this for one viz. That in his own Person and his Suffragans Visitors Surrogates Chancellors or other Officers by his Command he had caused divers Learned Pious and Orthodox Preachers of Gods Word to be silenced suspended deprived degraded excommunicated or otherwise grieved and vexed without any just and lawful cause whereby and by divers other means he hath hindred the Preaching of Gods Word and caused divers of his Majesties Subjects to forsake the Kingdom So is the Judge to be accused for all those mischiefs which the condemned Malefactors when they once break Prison may design and execute The principal Bell-weathers of these Flocks were Cotton Chancy Wells Hooker and perhaps Hugh Peters the rest let them look after who affect such Company Not much took notice of at the first when they were few in Numbers and inconsiderable for their Power but growing up so fast both in strength and multitude they began to carry a face of danger For how unsafe must it be thought both to Church and State to suffer such a constant Receptacle of discontented dangerous and schismatical Persons to grow up so fast from whence as from the Bowels of the Trojan Horse so many Incendiaries might break out to inflame the Nation New-England like the Spleen in the Natural Body by drawing to it so many sullen sad and offensive Humours was not unuseful and unserviceable to the General Health But when the Spleen is grown once too full and emptieth it self into the Stomach it both corrupts the Blood and disturbs the Head and leaves the whole man wearisom to himself and others And therefore to prevent such mischiefs as might thence ensue it was once under Consultation of the chief Physicians who were to take especial care of the Churches Health to send a Bishop over to them for their better Government and back him with some Forces to compel if he were not otherwise able to perswade Obedience But this Design was strangled in the first Conception by the violent breakings out of the Troubles in Scotland which call upon us from this place to look towards them And now again we are for Scotland where we spent the last year in doing nothing and shall spend this in doing that which was worse than nothing The Insolencies of the Covenanters were now grown so great that some advised the King to take the Sword into his hand and to reduce them to Obedience by force of Arms before they had ripened their Intelligences and formed a Party to their will both at home and abroad But the King would not hearken to it resolved upon his Fathers way of sending Commissioners and trying what he might effect by Treaty and Negotiation Which Resolution being taken the next Consideration was for the choice of the man The well-affected Scots pitched on the Marquis of Huntley a man of great Power in his own Country true to the King and a professed Enemy to the Presbyterians And to this end the Earl of Sterling Principal Secretary of Estate the Bishops of Ross and Brechin Privy-Counsellors both Hay the Clerk-Register and Spotswood Lord President of the Sessions a most deserving Son of a Reverend Father made a journey thence unto the King and used their best Endeavours with him to commit the managing of that great Trust into Huntâ—â—ys hands But the Court-Faction carried it for the Marquis Hamilton whose Head was better than his Heart a notable dissembler tâ—â—e only to his own ends and a most excellent Master in the Art of Inâ—â—â—uation by which he screwed himself so far into his Majesties good opinion that whosoever undertook the unrivetting of him made him faster in it And so far had the man prevailed by his Arts and Instruments that the Duke of Lenox was brought over to contribute his Assistances to him and rather chose to commend the known Enemy of his House to that great Employment than that a private Country-Gentleman such as Huntley was should carry the
Honour from them both And therefore briefly in this place to speak of Hamilton and his Proceedings in the weighty Charge committed to him in which he hath been generally suspected to betray his Master we will fetch the Story somewhat higher that we may see what ends he aimed at for himself and what enclined him rather to foment than quench the Flames which had been kindled in that Kingdom Know therefore That the Hamiltonian Family derives it self from one Hamilton an Englishman who went to try what Fortunes he could find in Scotland Neither himself nor his Posterity of any great note till Iames iii. bearing a great affection to Sir Iames Hamilton married him to one of his Sisters whom he had forcibly taken from the Lord Boyd her former Husband From this unlawful Marriage descended another Iames the Grandchild of this as impious and â—dulterous in his second Marriage as his Grandmother had been before For having married a Wife of one of the Noble Houses of Scotland he put her shamefully away and took into his Bed a Niece of Cardinal Beton's who then swayed all things in that Kingdom Of this last Marriage came Iohn Earl of Arran Created by King Iames vi the first Marquis of Hamilton the Father of Iohn and Grandfather of Iames Marquis of Hamilton of whom we now speak This man considering with himself that he was descended from a Daughter of King Iames ii but without taking notice of any intervenient Flaws which occurred in the Pedigree conceived by 〈◊〉 and little That a Crown would look as lovely upon his Head as on the Heads of any which descended from a Daughter of Iames v. To give some life unto his Fancies he found the Great Men amongst the Scots in high discontentments about the Revocation of Church-Lands which the King then busily intended The Popular Party in England no less discontented by the Dissolving of three Parliaments one after another and the Puritans in both by the great Power and Credit which some Bishops had attained unto in either Kingdom In which conjuncture it was not hard for him to conceive That he might make unto himself a strong Party in That without fear of any opposition to be made from This. And so â—ar had his hopes gone with him when he obtained the Conduct of an Army intended by his Majesty for assisting of the King of Sweden in the Wars of Germany An Army for the most part raised in Scotland and most of the Commanders of that Nation also whom he had so obliged unto him by his Arts and Flatteries that a Health was openly begun by David Ramsey a boisterous Ruffian of that Court to King Iames the Seventh And so much of the Design was discovered by him unto Donald Maukie Baron of Ree than being in the Marquisses Camp that the Loyal Gentleman thought himself bound in duty to make it known unto the King Ramsey denying the whole matter and the Lords having no proof thereof as in such secret Practices it could hardly be more than a confident asseveration and the Engagement of his Honour the King thought good to refer the Controversie to the Earl of Lindsey whom he made Lord High-Constable to that end and purpose Many days were spent accordingly in pursuance of it But when most men expected that the matter would be tried by Battel as had been accustomed in such cases the Business was hushed up at Court the Lord Ree dismissed to his Employment in the Wars and contrary to the mind of all good men the Marquis did not only continue in the Kings great Favour but Ramsey was permitted to hold the Place of Gentleman of the Privy-Chamber which had been formerly procured for him As for the Army of Scots consisting of 7000. if my memory fail not transported into Germany in the Summer before Anno 1631. they mouldred away by little and little without acting any thing the King of Sweden being then in a prosperous condition and not desiring the Scots should carry away any part of the Spoil and Honour which he doubted not of acquiring to his own Nation in the course of the War This put the Marquis upon new Counsels and in the course of these new Counsels he was not only to â—oment those Animosities which had been raised in that Nation against the King but to remove all those Impediments which might lye in the way betwixt him and his affected Greatness Two men there were whom he more feared than all the rest both of the House of Graham and both descended from a Son of King Robert the Second and that too by a clearer Descent than the Hamiltons could pretend from the Daughter of King Iames ii The first was William Earl of Menteith descended from an Heir-general of David Earl of Stratherne one of the younger Sons of King Robert ii as before was said A man oâ— sound Abilities and approved Affections and therefore by the King made President of the Council in Scotland In which Office he behaved himself and stood so stoutly in behalf of the King his Master upon all occasions that nothing could be done for Advance of Hamiltons Designs till he was removed from that Place In order whereunto it was put into his head by some of that Faction that he should sue unto the King to be Created Earl of Stratherne as the first and most honourable Title which belonged to his House That his Merits were so great as to assure him not to meet with a denial and that the King could do no less than to give him some nominal Reward for his real Services On these Suggestions he repaired to the Court of England 1632. where without any great difficulty he obtained his Suit and waited on the King the most part of the Summer-Progress no man being so openly honoured and courted by the Scottish Nation as he seemed to be But no sooner was he gone for Scotland but the Hamiltonians terrified the King with the Dangers which he had run into by that Creation whereby he had revived in that proud and ambitious Person the Rights which his Ancestors pretended to the Crown of Scotland That the King could not chuse but see how generally the Scots flock'd about him after his Creation when he was at the Court and would do so much more when he was in Scotland And finally That the proud man already had so far declared himself as to give it out That the King held the Crown of him Hereupon a Commission was speedily posted into Scotland in which those of Hamiltons Faction made the greatest number to inquire into his Life and Actions and to consider of the Inconveniencies which might redound unto the King by his affecting this new Title On the Return whereof the poor Gentleman is removed from his Office from being one of the Privy Council and not only deprived of the Title of the Earl of Stratherne but of that also of Menteith which for a long time had remained in his Ancestors And
Army That the like be done for Mustering and Arraying the Clergy throughout England or otherwise to furnish the King with a proportion of Armed Men for the present Service 6. That Writs be issued out into all Counties for certifying the King what number of Horse and Foot every County could afford him in his Wars with Scotland 7. The like also to the Borders requiring them to come unto the Kings Army well armed Commissions to be made for punishing such as refused 8. That the Sheriffs of the Counties were commanded by Writ to make Provisions of Corn and Victuals for the Kings Army and to cause them to be carried to the place appointed The like Command sent to the Merchants in the Port-Towns of England and Ireland and the Ships of the Subject taken to Transport such Provisions to the place assigned 9. Several Sums of Money raised by Subsidies and Fifteens from the English Subject and Aid of Money given and lent by the Merchant-Strangers toward the Maintenance of the War 10. That the King used to suspend the payment of his Debts for a certain time in regard of the great occasions he had to use Money in the Wars of Scotland Other Memorials were returned to the same effect but these the principal According to these Instructions his Majesty directs his Letters to the Temporal Lords his Writs to the High-Sheriffs his Orders to the Lord-Lieutenants and Deputy-Lieutenants in their several Counties his Proclamations generally to all his Subjects Requiring of them all such Aids and Services in his present Wars as either by Laws oâ— Ancient Customs of the Land they were bound to give him He caused an Order also to be made by the Lords of the Council directed to the two Archbishops Ianuary 29. by which they were Required and Commanded To write their several and â—espâ—ctive Letters to all the Lords Bishops in their several Provinces respectively forthwith to convene before them all the Clergy oâ— Ability in their Diocesses and to incite them by such ways and means as shall be thought best by their Lordships to aid and assist his Majesty with their speedy and liberal Contributions and otherwise for defence of his Royal Person and of this Kingdom And that the same be sent to the Lord Treasurer of England with all diliâ—ence Subscribed by the Lord Keeper Coventry the Bishop of London Lord Treasurer the Earl of Manchester Lord Privy Seal tâ—â— Duke of Lenox the Earl of Lindsey Lord Great Chamberlain tâ—â— Earl of Arundel Earl-Marshal the Earl of Dorset Lord Chamberlain to the Queen the Earl oâ— Pembroke Lord Chamberlain to the King the Earl of Holland Chancellor of Cambridge Cottington Maâ—ter of the Wards Vane Treasurer of the Houshold Cooke and Winâ—â—bank the two Principal Secretaries Which Warrant whether it proceeded from the Kings own motion or was procured by the Archbishop himself to promote the Service is not much material Certain I am that he conformed himself unto it with a chearful diligence and did accordingly direct his Letters to his Suffragan Bishops in this â—ollowing â—orm My very good Lord I Have received an Order from the Lords of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council giving me notice of the great Preparations made by sâ—me of Scotland both of Arms and all other Necessaries for War And that this can have no other end than to invade or annoy this his Majesties Kingdom of England For his Majesty having a good while since most graciously â—ielded to their Demands for securing the Religion by Law established amongst them hath made it appear to the World That it is not Religion but Sedition that stirs in them and fills them with this most irreligious Disobedience which at last breaks forth into a high degree of Treason against their Lawful Sovereign In this Case of so great danger both to the State and Church of England your Lordships I doubt not and your Clergie under you will not only be vigilant against the close Workings of any Pretenders in that kind but very free also to your Power and Proportion of Means leâ—t to the Church to contribute toward the raising of such an Army as by Gods Blâ—ssing and his Majesties Care may secure this Church and Kingdom from all intended Violence And according to the Order sent unto me by the Lords a Copy whereof you shall herewith receive these are to pray your Lordship to give a good Example in your own Person and with all convenient speed to call your Clergie and the abler Schoolmasters as well those which are in Peculiars as others and excite them by your self and such Commissioners as you will answer for to contribute to this Great and Necessary Service in which if they give not a good Example they will be much to blame But you are to call no poor Curates nor Stipendaries but such as in other Legal ways of Payment have been and are by Order of Law bound to pay The Proportion I know not well how to prescribe you but I hope they of your Clergie whom God hath blessed with better Estates than Ordinary will give freely and thereby help the want of Means in others And I hope also your Lordship will so order it as that every man will at the least give after the Proportion of 3 s. 10 d. in the Pound of the valuation of his Living or other Preferment in the Kings Books And this I thought fit to lâ—â— you further know That if any man have double Benefices or a Benefice and a Prebend or the like in divers Diocesses yet your Lordship must call upon them only for such Preferments as they have within your Diocess and leave them to pay for any other which they hold to the Bishop in whose Diocess their Preferments are As for the time your Lordship must use all the diligence you can and send up the Moneys if it be possible by the first of May next And for your Indempnity the Lord Treasurer is to give you such discharge by striking a Tally or Tallies upon your several Payments into the Exchequer as shall be fit to sâ—cure you without your Charge Your Lordship must further be pleased to send up a List of the Names of such as refuse this Service within their Diocess but I hope none will put you to that trouble It is further expected That your Lordship and every other Bishop express by it self and not in the general Sum of his Clergie that which himself gives And of this Service you must not fail So to Gods blessed Protection I leave you and rest Your Lordships very Loving Friend and Brother WILL. CANT Lambeth Ian. ult 1638. On the receiving of these Letters the Clergy were Convented in their several Diocesses encouraged by their several Ordinaries not to be wanting to his Majesty in the Present Service and divers Preparations used beforehand to dispose them to it which wrougâ—t so powerfully and effectually on the greatest part of them those which wish'd well unto the Scots seeming
for him in such a place and amongst people so enraged notwithstanding his great clemency shewed unto them in the Pacification His Majesty was now at leisure to repent the loss of those Advantages which God had put into his hands He found the Scots so unprovided not having above 3000. compleat Arms amongst them that he might have scattered them like the dust before the wind at the very first onset By making this agreement with them he put them into such a stock of Reputation that within the compass of that year they furnished themselves out of Holland with Cannon Arms and Ammunition upon days of Payment without disbursing any money which he knew they had not He came unto the borders with a gallant Army which might assure him under God of a very cheap and easie victory an Army governed by Colonels and other Officers of approved Valour and mingled with the choicest of the English Gentry who stood as much upon his honour as upon their own This Army he disbanded wiâ—â—out doing any thing which might give satisfaction to the world himsâ—lf or them Had he retired it only to a further distance he had done as much as he was bound to by the Capitulations But he disbanded it before he had seen the least performance on their parts of the points agreed on before he had seen the issue and success of the two Conventions in which he did expect a settling of his peace and happiness which had he done he had in all reasonable probabilities preserved his honour in the eye of Foraign Nations secured himself from any danger from that people and crusht those Practices at home which afterwards undermined his Peace and destroyed his Glories But doing it in this form and manner without effecting any thing which he seemed to Arm for he animated the Scots to commit new Insolencies the Dutch to affront him in his own Shores by fighting and destroying the Spanish Navy lying under his protection and which was worst of all gave no small discontentment to the English Gentry Who having with great charge engaged themselves in this Expedition out of hope of getting honour to the King their Country and themselves by their faithful service were suddenly dismissed not only without the honour which they aimed at but without any acknowledgment of their Love and Loyalty A matter so unpleasing to them that few of them appeared 〈◊〉 the next years Army many of them turned against him in the following troubles the greatest part looking on his Successes with a careless eye as unconcerned in his Affairs whether good or bad In this condition of Affairs he returned toward London in the end of Iuly leaving the Scots to play their own Game as they listed having first nominated Traquaire as his High Commissioner for managing both the Assembly and the following Parliament In the first meeting of the two they acted over all the parts they had plaid at Glasco to the utter abolition of Episcopacy and the destruction of all those which adhered unto it their Actings in it being confirmed in his name by the High Commission In the Parliament they altered the old form of chusing the Lords of the Articles erected a third Estate out of Lairds and Barons instead of the Bishops invaded the Soveraign power of Coynage Resolved upon an Act for abrogating all former Statutes concerning the Judicature of the Exchequer for making of Proxies and governing the Estates of Wards and finally conceived the King to be much in their debt by yielding to a prorogation till a further time The news whereof reduced the King to such a stand that he was forced to send for Wentworth out of Ireland where he had acted things in settling the Estate of that broken Kingdom beyond expectation or belief This charged on Canterbury as a project and crime of his and both together branded for it in a Speech made by the Lord Faulkland in the first year of the Long Parliament where speaking first of the Bishops generally he tells the Speaker That they had both kindled and blown the fire in both Nations and more particularly that they had both sent and maintained that book of which the Author hath no doubt long since wished with Nero Vtinam nescissem Literas And of which more than one Kingdom hath cause to wish that he who writ it had rather burned a Library though of the value of Ptolemies And then he adds We shall see then saith he who have been the first and principal cause of the breach I will not say of but since the Pacification at Berwick We shall find them to have been the almost sole Abettors of my Lord of Strafford whilst he was practicing upon another Kingdom that manner of Government which he intended to settle in this where he committed so many so mighty and so manifest enormities as the like have not been committed by any Governour in any Government since Veires left Sicily And after they had called him over from being Deputy of Ireland to be in manner Deputy of England all things here being governed by a Iuntillo and that Iuntillo governed by him to have assisted him in the giving of such Counsels and the pursuing of such courses as it is a hard and measuring cast whether they were more unwise more unjust or more unfortunate and which had infallibly been our destruction if by the grace of God their share had not been as small in the subtilty of Serpents as in the innocence of Doves But these were only the Evaporations of some Discontents which that noble Orator had contracted of which more elsewhere Wentworth being called unto this Service was presently made Lord Leiutenant of Ireland and not long after with great solemnity Created Earl of Strafford in the County of York As Lord Lieutenant he had Power to appoint a Deputy that so he might the better attend the Service here without any prejudice to that Kingdom which Office he committed to Wansford a Yorkshire Gentleman and an especial Confident of his whom he had took along with him into Ireland at his first going thither And because great Counsels are carried with most faith and secrecy when they are entrusted but to few his Majesty was pleased to commit the Conduct of the Scottish Businesses to a Iuncto of three that is to say the Archbishop of Canterbury the new Lord Lieutenant and the Marquis of Hamilton which last the other two knew not how to trust and therefore communicated no more of their Counsels to him than such as they cared or feared not to make known to others By these three joyned in Consultations it was conceived expedient to move his Majesty to try his fortune once more in calling a Parliament and in the mean time to command some of the Principal Covenanters to attend his Pleasure at the Court and render an account of their late Proceedings In order to the first they had no sooner signified what they thought fit for his Majesties Service but
it was chearfully entertained by the Lords of the Council who joined together with them in the Proposition promising his Majesty to assist him in extraordinary ways if the Parliament should fail him in it as they after did Upon these Terms his Majesty yielded to the Motion on the fifth of December causing an Intimation to be publickly made of his Intent to hold a Parliament on the 13th of April then next following An Intimation which the Londoners received with great signs of joy and so did many in the Country but such withal as gave no small matter of disturbance unto many others who could not think the calling of a Parliament in that point of time to be safe or seasonable The last Parliament being dissolved in a Rupture the Closets of some Members searched many of them imprisoned and some fined it was not to be thought but that they would come thither with revengeful Spirits And should a breach happen betwixt them and the King and the Parliament be Dissolved upon it as it after was the breach would prove irreparable as it after did Besides which fear it was presumed that the interval of four Months time would give the discontented Party opportunity to unite themselves to practice on the Shires and Burroughs to elect such Members as they should recommend unto them and finally not only to consult but to conclude on such Particulars as they inteâ—â—ed to insist upon when they were Assembled In which Resâ—â—â—â— the calling a Parliament at that time and with so long warning beforehand was conceived unsafe And if it was unsafe it was morâ— unseasonable Parliaments had now long been discontinued the People lived happily without them and few took thought who should see the next And which is more the Neighbouring Kings and States beheld the King with greater Veneration than they had done formerly as one that could stand on his own Legs and had raised up himself to so great Power both by Sea and Land without such discontents and brabbles as his Parliaments gave him So that to call a Parliament was â—eared to be the likeliest way to make his Majesty seem less in estimation both at home and abroad the eyes of men being distracted by so many objects But whatsoever others thought it was thought by Wentworth that he could manage a Parliament well enough to the Kings Advantage especially by setting them such a Lesson as should make them all ashamed of not writing after such a Copy Two ends they had in advising the Intimation of the Parliament to be given so long before the Sitting First That the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland might in the mean time hold a Parliament in that Kingdom which he did accordingly and governed the Affair so well that an Army of 8000 Horse and Foot some of our Writers say 10000 was speedily raised and Money granted by the Parliament to keep them in pay and furnish them with Ammunition Arms and all other Necessaries Secondly That by the Reputation of a following Parliament he might be the better enabled to borrow Money for the carrying on of that War if the Parliament should chance to fail of doing their Duty wherein the Lords performed their parts in drawing in great Sums of Money upon that account For causing a List to be made of most of the Persons of Ability which had relation to the Courts of Judicature either Ecclesiastical or Civil of such as held Offices of the Crown as attained unto his Majesties Service or otherwise were thought to be well affected to the present Cause and had not formerly contributed toward it they called them to the Council-Table where they endeavoured by the prevailing Rhetorick of Power and Favour to perswade them to a bountiful Contribution or a chearful Loan according to the Sums proportioned and requested of them In which they did proceed so well that money came flowing in apace enough to put the King into a condition of making new Levies of Men both for Horse and Foot Listing them under their Commanders and putting them into a Posture for the War approaching And that they might be sure to speed the better by the encouragement of a good Example the Lord Lieutenant subscribed for a Loan of 20000 l. the other Lords with the same Loyalty and Affection proportioning their Engagements to their Abilities and thereby giving Law to most of the Noblemen in all parts of the Kingdom Nor was the Queen wanting for her part to advance the Service For knowing how great a share she had in his Majesties Fortune she employed her Secretary Winter Mountague Digby and others of her Confidents of that Religion to negotiate with the rest of their party for being Assistant to his Majesty in so just a quarrel In which design she found such a liberal correspondence from the Roman Catholicks as shewed them to be somewhat ambitious of being accounted amongst the most Loyal and best affected of his Majesties Subjects These preparations being Resolved on and in some part made it was thought convenient that his Majesty should take the opportunity of the coming of some Commissioners from the Scots to call for an account of their late proceedings According unto which advice his Majesty appointed a Select Committee from the rest of the Council to bring those Commissioners to a reckoning to hear what they could say for themselves and the rest of their fellows and to make report thereof to his Majesty The Commissioners were the Earl of Dumfermelling the Lord London Douglas and Barkley both of inferiour rank but of like Authority Of which the Speakers part was performed by London A confident bold man of a Peâ—antical expressâ—on but one that loved to hear himself above all men living Being Commanded to attend the Committee at the time appointed they râ—nted high touching the Independency of the Crown of Scotland and did not think themselves obliged to Treat with any but his Majesty only His Majesties vouchsaâ—eâ—ng his presence at the said Committee London begins with a defence of their proceedings both in the General Assembly and the late Parliament held at Edenborough by his Majesties Order Alledged that nothing was done in them contrary to the Laws of the Land and the Precedents of former times and finally besought his Majesty to ratifie and confirm the Acts and Results of both Commissions They could shew none to qualifie them in the nature of Publick Agents Nor had they any power to Oblige their party in the performance of any thing which might give his Majesty full satisfaction for the time to come whatsoever satisfaction he was able to give them in debating the business His Majesty endeavoured not by reason only but by all fair and gentle means to let them see the unreasonableness of their demands the legality of their proceedings and the danger which would fall upon them if they continued obstinate in their former courses But London governed all the rest who being of a fiery nature in himself and a dependent
and unprinted Scribbles and glad they were to find such an excellent Advantage as the discovering of an c. in the Body of it did unhappily give them This voiced abroad to be the greatest Mystery of Iniquity which these last Ages had produced containing in it so much of the Depths of Satan that as no man could see the bottom of the Iniquity so neither they that made the Oath nor they that were to take it undeâ—stood the Mystery But unto this it hath been answered as 〈◊〉 the fact That in all the Canons which were made before this bâ—ing five in number there was a particular enumeration of all the persons vested with any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction that is to say Archbishops Bishops Deans Archdeacons Deans and Chapters and other persons having peculiar or exempt Jurisdiction which having been repeated distinctly or particularly in such of the Canons as were first made was in the first drawing of their Oath for avoiding of a Tautologie so often iterated cut off with this c. with an intention nevertheless to make the Enumeration perfect and consequently to expunge this unlucky c. before it came to be Engrossed But the King being weary of the Charge and Clamour which the keeping of a Guard on the Convocation did expose him to did hasten them to a Conclusion by so many Messages brought by Vane and others that in the haste this unlucky c. was forgotten and so committed to the Press accordingly It hath been secondly answered as in point of Reason That the c. as it stands in that part of the Oath is so restrained and limited by the following words viz. as it stands now established that there can be no danger of any Mystery of Iniquity in it So that in the Construction of this Text the c. as it now remains is a meer impertinency For being left in it signifieth nothing in regard of the Restriction following and being left out the sense is currant and compleat without it Which all those witty Gentlemen who so often spoke and others of less wit and quality which so frequently writ against this Oath could not chuse but see but that they were not willing to see any thing which might make against them The Paramount Objection being thus refell'd the rest which have been made against it will be easily satisfied It hath been charged by some That the exacting of an Oath not to consent to the Alteration of the Government of the Church by Archbishops Bishops Deans Archdeacons c. is an affront to the fundamental Rules of Civil Politie To which it hath been answered That it is indeed an affront to Government not to submit or yield Obedience unto Civil Sanctions when made and legally established But it is no affront not to give consent to any such Establishments while they are in Treaty for then the liberty of assenting or dissenting of Yea or Nay would be taken away from every Member in the Houses of Parliament and every Man must give consent to every Bill which is offered to him But besides this there were but few of the Convocation whose consent was likely to be asked when any change of Church-Government should be set on foot so that their dissenting or assenting was not much material but only so far as by their readiness of consenting to such Innovations in the Publick Government they might encourage others to proceed against it Here then is no affront to Government much less to the Fundamentals of it the Oath not binding any man not to yield Obedience but not to give consent to such Alteration As for the last Objection That he who takes the Oath declares therein That he takes it willingly being constrained so to do under grievous Penalties This as it comes last is the least considerable for if this were a Crime in the Convocation it was such a Crime as the High Court of Parliament hath been guilty of in drawing up the Oath of Allegiance in the third year of King Iames in which the Party is to swear That he makes that Recognition not only heartily and truly but also willingly and yet the taking of that Oath is imposed on all the Subjects under several Penalties if any of them shall refuse it And yet these Quarrels at the Oath the Unparliamentary Levying of the said Benevolence and the pretended Illegality of their very Sitting after the Parliament expired were but the out-sides of the business but only colours and disguises to conceal the chief cause of their displeasure from the publick view Somewhat there was which galled them more than all these together that is to say the Propositions for asserting the Regal Power making it absolute and independent with reference both to Pope and People to the great discontent and trouble of the Popular Party since better known by the name of Commonwealths-men Which since the English were not confident enough to speak out at first we must take their meaning from the Scots who in the Articles exhibited against our Archbishop by their Commissioners have expresly charged him with this Crime viz. That he made Canons and Constitutions against them their just and necessary defence Ordaining under all highest Pain That hereafter the Clergy should Preach four times in the year such Doctrine as was contrary not only to their Proceedings but to the Doctrine and Proceedings of other Reformed Kirks to the Judgment of all sound Divines and Politicks as tending to the utter slavery and ruining of all Estates and Kingdoms and to the dishonour of Kings and Monarchs This the true cause of those high Displeasures conceived by some prevailing Members of the House of Commons and openly declared by their Words and Actions branding those innocent Canons for a tendency to Faction and Sedition which they most laboured to suppress condemning all that Voted to them in great sums of Money and afterwards destroying them one by one as they came in their way Compared with this neither the Benevolence nor the Oath nor any thing else before objected was esteemed considerable though all were joyned together to amuze the People and make them fearful of some Plot not only to subvert Religion but their Civil Rights But the best is that howsoever some few men for their private ends reproached these Canons as before his Sacred Majesty the Lords of his most Honourable Privy-Council the Reverend Judges and the Great Lawyers of the Council-Learned conceived otherwise of them in the hearing of all which they were publickly read by the Archbishops procurement before they were tendred to the Clergy to be subscribed and by all which they were approved not without thanks to the Archbishop from the King himself for his pains therein And certainly it had been strange that they should pass the Approbation of the Judges and Learned Lawyers had they contained any thing against the Fundamental Laws of the Land the Property of the Subject and the Rights of Parliaments or been approved by the Lords
of the Kingdom honoured him with the Order of the Garter and made him one of the Lords of his Privy Council so that no greater characters of Power and Favour could be imprinted on a Subject The Office of Lieutenant General he had committed unto the Earl of Strafford Lord Lieutenant of Ireland of whose Fidelity and Courage he could make no question And the Command of the Horse to Edward Lord Conway whose Father had been raised by King Iames from a private condition to be one of his principal Secretaries and a Peer of the Realm Of which three great Commanders it was observed that one had sufficient health but had no will to the business That another had a good will to it but wanted health and that a third had neither the one nor the other And yet as crasie and infirm as the Earl of Strafford found himself he chearfully undertook the charge of the Army in the Generals absâ—nce and signified by Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury that he durst venture upon the peril of his head to drive the Scots out of England but that he did not hold it Counsellable as the case then stood If any other of the Lords had advised the King to try his Fortune in a Battel he doubted not of sending them home in more haste than they came but the Scots had rendred him unfit to make the motion for fear it might be thought that he studied more his own Concernments than he did the Kings For these Invadors finding by whose Counsels his Majesty governed his Affairs resolved to draw them into discredit both with Prince and People And to that end it was declared in a Remonstrance publisht before their taking Arms That their Propositions and Desires so necessary and vital unto that Kingdom could find no access unto the ears of the gracious King by reason of the powerful Diversion of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Deputy of Ireland who strengthned with the high and mighty Faction of Papists near his Majesty did only side in all matters of Temporal and Spiritual affairs making the necessity of their Service to his Majesty to appear in being the only fit Instruments under the pretext of vindicating his Majesties Honour to oppress both the just Liberties of his Free Subjects and the true Reformed Religion in all his Kingdoms Seconding this Remonstrance with another Pamphlet called The Intention of the Army they signified therein to the good People of England that they had no design either to waste their Goods or spoyl their Country but only to become Petitioners to his Sacred Majesty to call a Parliament and to bring the said Archbishop and Lord Lieutenant to their condign Punishments In which those modest men express That as they desired the unworthy Authors of their trouble who had come out from themselves to be tried at home according to their own Laws so they would press no further Process against Canterbury and the Lieutenant of Ireland and the rest of those pernicious Counsellors in England whom they called the Authors of all the miseries of both Kingdoms than what their own Parliament should discern to be their just deserving And that the English might see the better whom they chiefly aimed at a book was published by the name of Laudensium Autocatacrisis or the Canterburians Self-conviction in which the Author of it did endeavour to prove out of the Books Speeches and Writings of the Archbishop himself as also of some Bishops and other learned men who had exercised their Pens in the late disputes That there was a strange design in hand for bringing in Superstition Popery and Arminianism to the subversion of the Gospel and of suppressing the Religion here by Law established But as these Reproaches moved not him so neither did their Remonstrance or any other of their Scribbles distract his Majesties Resolutions untill he found himself assaulted by a Petition from some Lords in the South which threatned more danger at his back than he had cause to fear from the Northern Tempest which blew directly in his teeth Complaint was made in this Petition of the many inconvenicences which had been drawn upon this Kingdom by his Majesties engagings against the Scots as also of the great encrease of Popery the pressing of the present payment of Ship-money the dissolving of former Parliaments Monopolies Innovations and some other grâ—evances amongst which the Canons which were made in the late Convocation could not be omitted For Remedy whereof his Majesty is desired to call a Parliament to bring the Authors of the said pretended grievances to a Legal Trial and to compose the present War without Bloudshed Subscribed by the Earls of Essex Hartford Rutland Bedford Exeter Warwick Moulgrave and Bullingbrooke the Lords Say Mandevil Brooke and Howard presented to the King at York on the third of September And seconded by another from the City of London to the same effect His Majesty being thus between two Milstones could find no better way to extricate himself out of these perplexities than to call the great Council of his Peers to whom at their first meeting on the 24 of the same month he signified his purpose to hold a Parliament in London on the third of November and by their Counsel entertained a Treaty with those of Scotland who building on the confidence which they had in some Lords of England had petitioned for it According unto which Advice a Commission is directed to eight Earls and as many Barons of the English Nation seven of which had subscribed the former Petition enabling them to treat with the Scots Commissioners to hear their Grievances and Demands and to report the same to his Majesty and the Lords of his Council These points being gained which the Puritan Faction in both Kingdoms had chiefly aimed at the Scots were insolent enough in their Proposals Requiring freedom of Commerce Reparation of their former Losses and most especially the maintenance of their Army at the charge of the English without which no Cessation would be harkned to Satisfaction being given them in their last Demand and good Assurances for the two first they decline York as being unsafe for their Commissioners and procure Rippon to be named for the place of the Treaty where the Lord Lieutenant was of less influence than he was at York and where being further from the King they might shuffle the Cards and play the Game to their best contentment The rest of October from the end of the first week of it when they excepted against York was drilled on in requiring that some persons of quality intrusted by the Scottish Nation might have more Offices than they had about his Majesty and the Queen and in the Court of the Prince That a Declaration might be made for naturalizing and settling the Capacities and mutual Priviledges of the Subjects in both Kingdoms but chiefly that there might be an Unity and Uniformity in Church-Government as a special means for conserving
second Chaplain of long time to the Archbishop of Canterbury This last had Licenced two of Pocklington's Books the one being a Sermon Preached at a Visitation before the Bishop of Lincoln the other a Discourse of Altars and the most proper situation of the Lords Table in which were many Passages against that Bishop To pacifie which oâ—fended Deity Pocklington must be sacrificed on his own Altar deprived of all his Preferments at the present and made uncapable of receiving others for the time to come Bray being enjoined to Preach a Recantation-Sermon in St. Margarets Church and 〈◊〉 to retract one and thirty Articles which the Bishop had collected out of those Books Heylyn had been Petitioned against by Pryâ—â—â— at his first coming home as a subservient Instrument under the Archbishop himself of all his Sufferings and was kept four days in Examination but finally dismiss'd without shame or censure Cosens informed against by Smart who had been deprived for his factious Inconformity of some good Preferments in the Bishopâ—ick and Church of Durham was under a great Storm at first but being one that would not shrink in the wetting he stood stoutly to it and in conclusion was dismissed without any other loss but of Time and Charges The like happened also unto Heywood Vicar of St. Giles's in the Fields Squire of St. Leonard's in Shoreditch and Finch of Christchurch The Articles against which four and some others more being for the most part of the same nature and effect as namely Railing in the Communion-Table Adoration toward it Calling up the Parishioners to the Rail to receive the Sacrament Reading the Second Service at the Table so placed Preaching in Surplices and Hoods Administring the Sacrament in Copes Beautifying and Adorning Churches with Painted Glass and others of the like condition which either were to be hâ—ld for Crimes in the Clergy generally or else accounted none in them And though the Informations were so slight and inconsiderable that none of those who were impeach'd could legally be made obnoxious to any Punishment and that the credit of the Informers not proved by Oath which the Commons had no power to give was the chief ground oâ— their Procâ—edings yet that these poor men might appear more monstrous in the eye of the World the Articles against Pocklington Cosens Heywood Squâ—â—e Finch c. were ordered to be put in Print without care taken whether they were true or not They knew full well that when dirt was once thrown upon any man some of it must needs stick upon him or about his Garments how careful soever he might be to wipe it of This course they also held with the Bishop of Ely impeaching him of many pretended Misdemeanours in the See of Norwich viz. That he deprived or banished within the space of two years fifty godly learned painful Ministers His placing the Communion Table Altar-wise and causing a Rail to be set before it The practicing of Superstition in his own Person his bowing toward it Consecrating the Bread and Wine at the West side of the Table with his back toward the People and elevating the same above his head that the People might see it which last Points as they made most noise so they found least proof causing the Seats in all places to be so contrived that the people must of necessity kneel toward the East according to the pious Custom of the Primitive Times Turning all afternoons Sermons into Catechisings by Question and Answer according to the Kings Instructions Appointing no Prayer to be used by Preachers before their Sermons but that prescribed by the Canon and that the Bells should give no other warning for Sermons than they did for Prayers that the People might resort unto the Church at all times alike as by the Laws and Statutes of the Realm they were bound to do In consideratiâ—â— whereof it was resolved upon the Question to be the Opinion oâ— that House That the said Bishop was unfit to hold or 〈◊〉 Office or Divinity in the Church or Commonwealth and that a Message should be sent to the Lords desiring them to joyn with tâ—â— Commons in Petitioning his Majesty to remove him botâ— from his Person and Service By which this wise Prelate understood that his neerness to the Kings Person was his greatest Crime and thereupon in imitation of the Castor having first obtained his Majesties consent thereto he discontinued that attendance which might occasion more danger to him than it brought in profit Which Prosecutions of the Clergy but this last especially have brought me unto the year 1641. Which brought more trouble to the Country Clergy than the last year had done to those which lived in London The Committee Authorised by the House of Commons for Affairs of Religion finding their work begin to fail them and that Informations came not up so last as had been expected dispatched Instructions 〈◊〉 all parts of the Kingdom for an enquiry to be made into the 〈◊〉 and Aâ—tions of the Clergy in their several Parishes And that the Inquisition might be made with the greater diligence not only 〈◊〉 as were in Authority but every ingenious Person was required to 〈◊〉 Active in improving the present opportunity by giving true Inâ—â—â—mation of all the Parishes in their several Counties I know it was pretended by the said Instructions that enquiry should be made into Pluralities and defect of maintenance as well as into scandalous and â—â—preaching Ministers yet the main business was to bring the Clergy on the Stage and find some matter of complaint against them Quite contrary in this to the Emperour Trajan who in the midst of the Persecutions which he had raised against the Church commanded by his Imperial Edict That no strict Inquisition should be made of those who did profess the Faith of Christ but only that they should be punished if accidentally or by the voice of Common Fame they should be offered unto judgment What mischief hereupon ensued in animating the Parishioners against their Minister seducing Servants to accuse and betray their Masters alienating the affections of the Clergy from one another and by that means subjecting them to that dissipation which soon after followed shall be shewn hereafter so far forth as it coms within the compass of this present History But whilâ— these clouds were gathering together in the Country â—s great a tempest seemed to be brewing in the City which threatned no less danger to the Church it self than those proceedings to the Clergy For in the beginning of this year we find some Divines of name and note convened in the Dean of Westminsters Lodgings to consult about matters of the Church the occasion this The Convocation was then sitting but not impowered by his Majesties Commission to act in any thing of concernment It was therefore ordered by the Peers March 21. that a Committee of ten Earls ten Bishops and ten Barons should be nominated in the name of the rest for settling the aâ—fairs
twelve years before the end of this Session as we shall see too soon in the course of this History In the mean time the Anti-Prelatical party in the house of Peers so bestirred themselves that they prevailed upon the Rest to put a lower valuation on the Bishops then they had done formerly insomuch that at a Solemn Fast following not long after the Temporal Lords took Precedence of the Bishops contrary to the Custom of their Predecessors in all times foregoing the Bishops not thinking it convenient to contend for place at such time as their whole Order was in danger of Falling Which being observed by the Lord Spencer Is this said he a day of Humiliation wherein we shew so great a Pride in taking place of those to whom it was allowed by all our Ancestors A day of Humiliation if it might be called it was made such to the Bishops only the Temporal Lords being never higher in their Exaltation But now we must look back on the Earl of Strafford the prosecution of whose Impeachment had been long delaid upon some probable hope that the displeasures of his greatest adversaries mâ—â—â— be mitigated by some Court-preferments In Order where 〈◊〉 was agreed upon if my intelligence or memory fail not that the Earl of Bedford should be made Lord Treasurer and 〈◊〉 Chancellor of the Exchequer the Earl of Essex Governour of the Prince and that Hambden should be made his Tutor the Lord Say Maâ—ter of the Wards and Hollis Principal Secretary in the Place of Windebank the Deputieship of Ireland was disposed of also and some command appointed for the Earl of Warwick in the Royal Navy Which Earls together with the Earl of Hartford and the Lord Kimbolton eldest Son to the Earl of Manchester were taken at this time into his Majesties Council that they might witness to the Rest of that Party with what sincerity and Piety his Majesties Affairs were Governed at the Council Table And in Relation to this purpose the Bishop of London delivered to the King the Treasurers Staff the Earl of New-castle relinquished the Governance of the Prince and the Lord Cottington resigned his Offices both in the Exchequer and the Court of Wards there being no doubt but that Bishop Duppa in Order to so good a work would relinquish the Tutorship of the Prince when it should be required of him So gallantly did these great persons deny themselves to advance the Service of their Master But before all these things were fully settled and performed the Kings mind was altered but by whom altered hath been more conjectured then affirmed for certain which so exasperated them who were concerned in this designation that they persued the Earl of Strafford with the great eagerness And somewhat to this purpose was hinted in the Kings Declaration of the 12 â—h of August in which he signified what overâ—â—â—es had been made by them and with what importunity for Offices and preferments what great services should have been done for him and what other undertaking even to have saved the Life of the Earl of Straâ—â—ord By which discovery as he blemished the Reputes of some Principal Members in the eyes of many of the people so he gave no small cause of wonder to many others when they were told from his own Pen at how cheap a Rate a Rate which would have cost him nothing he might have saved the Life of such an able and deserving Minister This design being thus unhappily dasht the Earl was called unto hâ—â— Tryal on the 22 â—h day of March last past which being continued many days with great expectation his Adversaries though the ablest men in the House of Commons perceived that his Defences were so strong and their proof so weak that they thought it not sale to leave the Judgement of the Cause to the House of Peers in way of Judicature For finding that their proofs amounted not to a Legal Evidence and that nothing but Legal Evidence could prevail in a Court of Judicature they Resolved to Steer their course by another wind and to call the Legislative power to their assistance according unto which both Lords and Commons might proceed by the Light of their own Understanding without further Testimony And so it was declared by Saint-Iohns then Solicitor General in a conference between the Committees of both Houses April 29. 1641. Where it is said That although single Testimony â—ight be sufficient to satisfie private Consciences yet how far it would have been satisfactory in a judicial way where forms of Law are more to be stood upon was not so clear whereas in this way of Bill private satisfaction to each mans Conscience is sufficient although no Evidence had been given in at all Thus they Resolved it in this Case But knowing of what dangerous consequence it might be to the Lives and Fortunes of themselves and the Rest of Subjects a saving clause was added to the Bill of Attainder that it should not be drawn into Example for the time to come By which it was Provided That no Iudge or Iudges Iustice or Iustices whatsoever shall adjudge or Interpret any Act or thing to be Treason nor hear or determine any Treason nor in any other manner then he or they should or ought to have done before the making of this Act and as if this Act had never been made His Majesty understanding how things were carried Resolved to use his best endeavours to preserve the man who had deserved so bravely of him And therefore in a Speech to both Houses of Parliament on the first of May absolved him from all Treasons charged upon him conjuring them by the merit of his former graces and the hopes of greater not to compel him to do any thing against his conscience to which no worldly consideration whatsoever should be able to tempt him This put the Lords to such a stand who were before enclinable enough to that unfortunate Gentleman that multitudes of the Rabble were brought down out of London and Southwark to cry for speedy Justice and Execution the names of such as had not voted to the Bill being posted up in the Palace-yard by the Title of Straffordians and Enemies to the Commonwealth Which course so terrified the Lords that most of them withdrawing themselves from the House of Peers the Attainder passed and certain Bishops nominated to attend the King for satisfying his Conscience and perswading him to sign that Destructive Bill Never was Poor Prince brought to so sad an Exigent betwixt his Conscience on the one side and the Fears of such a Publick Rupture on the other as seemed to threaten nothing but destruction to himself and his Family But humane frailty and the continual Solicitation of some about him so prevailed at last that on Munday morning the ninth of May he put a most unwilling hand to that fatal Bill Issuing a Commission unto certain Lords to pass the same into an Act and with the same to speed another which he had also
it is affirmed That the ground of this Government by Episcopacy is so ancient and so general so uncontradicted in the first and best times that our most laborious Antiquaries can find no Nation no City no Church no Houses under any other that our first Ecclesiastical Authors tell us of That the Apostles not only allowed but founded Bishops so that the Tradition for some Books of Scripture which we receive as Canonical is both less ancient less general and less uncontradicted than that is So he when he was come again to his former temper and not yet entred nor initiated into Court preferments Nor was the point only canvased within those walls but managed in a more publick way by the Pens of some than there it had been tossed on the Tongues of others The Bishop of Exon. leads the way presenting An humble Remonstrance to the High Court of Parliament in behalf of Liturgie and Episcopacy which presently was encountred with an answer to it wâ—erein the Original of Liturgy and Episcopacy is pretended to be discussed c. This Answer framed by a Juncto of five Presbyterian Ministers in or about the City of London the first Letters of whose names being laid together made up the word Smectymnuus which appears only for the Author The Bishop hereunto replies in a Vindication by which name he called it which Vindication had an Answer or Rejoynder to it by the same Smectymnuus During which Interfeats of Arms and exchange of Pens a Discourse was published by Sir Thomas Ashton Knight and Baronet In the first part whereof he gives us A survey of the Inconveniences of the Presbyterian Discipline and the inconsistences thereof with the constitution of this State And in the second The original Institution Succession and Iurisdiction of the ancient and venerable order of Bishops This last part seconded within the compass of this year by the History of Episcopacy first published as the work of Theophilus Churchman and not till many years after owned by the Authors name The next year bringing forth a book of Dr. Taylors called Episcopacy asserted and the Acriomastix of Iohn Theyer c. All of them backt and the two last encouraged by many Petitions to his Majesty and both Houses of Parliament not only from the two Universities whom it most concerned but from several Counties of the Kingdom of which more hereafter I shall conclude this year with a remembrance of some change of Officers in the Court but of more in the Church Windebanke Secretary of State being questioned for releasing divers Priests and Jesuites contrary to the established Laws conveyed himself over into France and Finch Lord Keeper on some distrust which he had of his safety for acting too zealously in the Forrest-business and the 〈◊〉 of Shipmoney withdrew at the same time into Holland Pembroke Lord Chamberlain of the houshold was discharged of his Office by the King upon just displeasures before his late going into Scotland The Earl of Newcastle for the Reasons before remembred had relinquished his charge of the Princes Person and Cottington his Offices in the Exchequer and Court of Wards Neile Archbishop of York died some few daies before the beginning of the Parliament Mountague of Chichester Bancroft of Oxon. Davenant of Salisbury Potter of Carlisle and Thornborough of Worcester within few months after Nature abhorreth nothing more than Vacuity and it proved to be very agreeable to the Rules of Polity not to suâ—fer their preferments to lye longer in a state of Vacancy To fill these Places the Earl of Hertford about that time advanced to the Title of Marquiss was made and sworn Governour of the Prince Essex Lord Chamberlain of the Houshold Say Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries Littleton Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas preferred to the honour of Lord Keeper Faulkland made Secretary of Estate and Culpepper Chancellour of the Exchequer Which two last being Members of the House of Commons and well acquainted with such designs as were then in Project and men of good parts withall were thought worth the gaining and fastned to the Court by these great Preferments Next for the Vacancies in the Church they were supplied by preferring Williams Bishop of Lincoln to the See of York and Winiff Dean of St. Pauls to the See of Lincoln Duppa of Chichester to Salisbury and King then Dean of Rochester to succeed at Chichester Hall Bishop of Exon. translated to Norwich and Brownrigg Master of Catharine Hall in Cambridge preferred to Exon. Skinner of Bristol removed to Oxon. and Westfield Archdeacon of St. Albons advanced to Bristol the Bishoprick of Carlisle was given in Commendam to the Primate of Ireland during the troubles in that Kingdom and Worcester by the power of Hamilton conferred on Prideaux who formerly had been his Tutoâ— all of them of good parts and merit and under some especial Character of esteem and favour in the eyes of the People though some of them declined afterwards from their former height Nor were there more Changes after these till the suppressing of Episcopacy by the Ordinance of the Lords and Commons bearing date October 9. anno 1646. but that Frewen Dean of Glocester and President of Magdalen Colledge in Oxon. was consecrated Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield on the death of Wright in the beginning of the year 1644. and Howel one of the Prebends of Windsor and Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty was preferred to the Bishoprick of Bristol on the death of Westfield before the end of the same year The passing of this Act forementioned put the imprisoned Bishops in some hope of a speedy deliverance though it proved not so quick as they expected For though on Munday February 14. an Order came that they might put in bail if they would that they should have their hearing on the Friday following and that some of them went out of the Tower the morrow after as appears by Breviate fol. 25. yet the Commons took it so indignly that either that Order was revoked or the Bishops had some private Advertisement to return and continue where they were The Bishops being deprived of their right of Peerage must be supposed to stand on the same ground with the rest of the People and consequently to be accountable for their Actions to the House of Commons whose Priviledges if the Peers invade they must look to hear of it as well as the poor Bishops had done before And on these terms the business stood till May 5. being just eighteen weeks from their first Imprisonment at which time without making suite to the House of Commons the Peers releast them upon baile and dismist them to their several dwellings There they continued all of them at their own disposing till the War forced them to provide themselves of safer quarters except the Bishop of Ely only who within few months after he was discharged from the Tower was seised on by a party of Souldiers at his house of Douwham and brought
way before him at a place called Turnhom-Green neer Chiswick it was thought safer to retreat toward Oxon. while the way was open than to venture his Army to the fortune of a second Battel which if it were lost it would be utterly impossible for him to raise another At Oxon. he receives Propositions of Peace from the Houses of Parliament but such as rather did beseem a conquering than a losing side Amongst which I find this for one That his Majesty would be pleased to give his Royal Assent for taking away Superstitious Innovations and to the Bill for the utter abolishing and taking away all Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Subdeans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Canons and Prebendaries and all Chanters Chancellors Treasurers Sub-Treasurers Succentors and Sacrists and all Vicars Choral and Choristers old Vicars or new Vicars of any Cathedral or Collegiate Church and all other their under-Officers out of the Church of England To the Bill against Scandalous Ministers To the Bill against Pluralities and to the Bill for Consultation to be had with Godly Religious and Learned Divines That his Majesty would be pleased to pass such other Bills for settling of Church-Government as upon Consultation with the Assemby of the said Divines shall be Resolved on by both Houses of Parliament and by them to be presented to his Majesty Which Proposition with the rest being presented to him on Candlemas-day he referred to the following Treaty to be held at Oxon. in which he found the Commissioners of the Houses so streighted in Time and so tied up to their Instructions that nothing could be yielded by them which might conduce to the composing of the present Distempers But it was indifferent to them what Success they found either in the Propositions or the Treaty who had already entred on the Rents and Profits of all the Episcopal Sees and Capitular Bodies which were within the Power of their Armies and Sequestred the Benefices of all such as stood in their way under the common notion of scandalous Ministers who if they had offended against the Laws of tâ—e Realm by the same Laws were to have been proceeded against that so being legally deprived the vacant Churches might be left to be filled by the Patrons with more deserving Incumbents But such a course was inconsistent with the present Design Most of the Silenced Lecturers and Factious Ministers which within ten years then last past had left the Kingdom either for Inconformity or Debt or their own intemperance of Spirit had of late flock'd into it amain like so many Birds of Rapine to seek after the Prey And upon these and such as these the Sequestred Benefices were bestowed to be held no otherwise by them than as Vsufructuaries or Tenants at Will that so they might continue in a servile obsequiousness to the Power and Pleasure of their great Landlords With which his Majesty being made acquainted he presently signified his dislike and resentment of it by his Royal Proclamation bearing date at Oxon. May 15. 1643. In which he first complains That divers of the Clergy eminent for their Piety and Learning were forced from their Cures and Habitations or otherwise silenced and discharged from exercising their Ministry for no other reason but because contrary to the Laws of the Land and their own Consciences they would not pray against him and his Assistants or refused to publish any illegal Commands and Orders for fomenting the unnatural War raised against him but conformed themselves according to the Book of Common Prayers and Preach'd Gods Word according to the purity thereof without any mixture of Sedition Next That the said Clergy being so forcibly driven out or discharged of their Cures many Factious and Schismatical Persons were intruded into them to sow Sedition and seduce his good Subjects from their Obedience contrary to the Word of God and the Laws of the Land Part of the Profits of the said Benefices allotted to the said Intruders the rest converted to the Maintenance of the War against him And thereupon he streightly commandeth all his good Subjects to desist from such illegal courses against any of the Clergy aforesaid to pay their Tythes to the several and respective Incumbents or their Assigns without guile or fraud notwithstanding any Sequestration pretended Orders or Ordinances whatsoever from one or both Houses of Parliament and this to do under pain of being proceeded against according to Law as they should be apprehended and brought to the hands of Justice their Lands and Goods in the mean time to be sequestred and taken into saâ—e custody for their disobedience Requiring all Churchwardens and Sides-men to be assistant in gathering and receiving their Tythes Rents and Profits and to resist all such Persons as much as in them lay which were intruded into any of the Benefices or Cures aforesaid But this served rather to declare his Majesties Piety than to stop the course of those Proceedings For justifying whereof the Clergy must be branded with Offences of divers conditions some of them of such a scandalous and heynous nature as were not to be expiated with the loss of Livings but of Lives if any Legal Evidence had been found to prove them And that nothing might be wanting to their infelicity an infamous Pamphlet is dispersed Licenced by White Chairman for the Committee for Religion under the Title of The first Century of Scandalous and Malignant Priests c. Which though his Majesty abominated upon very good reason when it first came unto his knowledge yet would he not give way that a Recrimination should be made of the adverse Party by such as undertook to do it on far juster grounds In like manner they proceeded to the execution of another part of their design mentioned and presented in the said Proposition touching a Consultation to be had with Godly Religious and Learned Divines For not intending to expect his Majesties pleasure their Commissioners were no sooner returned from the Treaty at Oxon. but they caused such an Assembly to be called by their own Authority as should be sure to do the Work recommended to them The Convocation was in force but not fit to be trusted nor durst they venture to commit the choice of men to the Beneficed Clergy according to the course of National and Provincial Synods That Power they kept unto themselves committing the Nomination unto such as served for the several Counties that so each County might be furnished with such Persons to perform the Service as could have no Authority to bind them by their Constitutions or any other Publick Acts made and agreed upon in that Assembly An Assembly of a very strange mixture consisting of a certain number of the Lords and Commons with a greater proportion of Divines some of which were Prelatical some Independent and the greater part of them Presbyterians out of which spawned another Fry by the name of Erastians And that they might not be bound to this Journey-work
God for it I am for it at St. Paul's word Acts 25.11 If I have committed any thing worthy of death I refuse not to die For I thank God I have so lived that I am neither afraid to die nor ashamed to live But seeing the Malignity which hath been raised against me by some men I have carried 〈◊〉 Life in my hands these divers years past I may not in this Case and at this Bar appeal unto Caesar yet to your Lordships Justice and Integrity I both may and do not doubting but that God of his Goodness will preserve my Innocency And as Job in the midst of his afflictious said to his mistaken Friends so shall I to my Accusers God forbid I should justifie you till I die I will not remove my Integrity from me I will hold it fast and not let it go my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live Iob. 27.5 6. My Lords the Charge against me is brought up in Ten Articles but the main Heads are two An Endeavour to subvert the Laws of the Land and the Religion Estaâ—liâ—â—ed Six Articles the five first and the last concern the 〈◊〉 and the other four Religion For the Laws first I think I may safely say I have been to my understanding as strict an Observer of them so far as they concern me as any man hath and since I came into the Place I have followed them and have been as much guided by them as any man that sate where I had the honour to sit And of this I am sorry I have lost the Testimony of the Lord Keeper Coventry and other Persons of Honour since dead And the Counsellors which attended thâ— Council-Board can witness some of them here present That in all References to the Bord or Debates arising at it I was for that part oâ— the Cause where I found Law to be and if the Counsel desired to have the Cause left to the Law well might I move in some Cases Charity or Conscience to them but I left them to the Law if thither they would go And how such a Carriage as this through the whole course of my Life in private and publick can stand with an intention to overthrow the Laws I cannot see Nay more I have ever been of opinion That Laws bind the Conscience And have accordingly made conscience in observing of them and this Doctrine I have constantly Preached as occasion hath been offered me and how is it possible I should seek to overthrow those Laws which I held my self bound in conscience to keep and observe As for Religion I was born and bred up under the Church of England as it stands established by Law I have by Gods Blessing growâ— up in it to the years which are now upon me and the Place of Preferment which I now bear I have ever since I understood ought of my Proâ—eâ—â—ion kept one constant Tenor in this my Profession without variation or shifting from one Opinion to another for any worldly ends And if my conscience would have suffered me to do so I could easily have slid through all the difficulties which have been prest upon me in this kind But of all Diseases I ever held a Palsie in Religion most dangerous well knowing and ever remembring That that Disease often ends in a Dead Palsie Ever since I came in place I have laboured nothing more than that the External Publick Wâ—rship of God so much slighted in divers parts of this Kingdom might be preserved and that with as much Decency and Vniformity as might be For I evidently saw That the publick neglect of Gods Service in the outward face of it and the nasty lying of many Places dedicated to that Service had almost cast a damp upon the true and inward Worship of God which while we live in the body needs external helps and all little enough to keep it in any vigour And this I did to the utmost of my knowledge according both to Law and Canon and with the consent and liking of the People Nor did any Command issue out from me against the one nor without the other Further my Lords give me leave I beseech you to acquaint you with this also That I have as little acquaintance with Recusants as I believe any mâ—n of my place in England hath or eveâ— had since the Reformation And for my Kindred no one of them was ever a Recusant but Sir William Webb Grandchild to my Vncle Sir William Webb sometimes Lord Mayor of London and since which sâ—me of his Children I reduced back again to the Church of England On this I humbly desire one thing more may be thought on That I am fallen into a great deal of Obloquy in matter of Religion and that so far as appears by the Articles against me that I have endeavoured to advance and bring in Popery Perhaps my Lords I am not ignorant what Party of men have raised these Scandals upon me nor for what end nor perhaps by whom set on but howsoever I would fain have a good Reasâ—n given me if my Conscience stood that way and that with my Conscience I could subscribe to the Church of Rome what should have kept me here before my Imprisonment to endure the Libelling and the Slander and the base Vsage that hath been put upon me and these to end in this Question for my Life I say I would know a good Reason for this â—irst my Lords Is it because of any Pledges I have in this World to sway me against my Conscience No sure for I had neither Wife nor Children to cry out upon me to stay with them And if I had I hope the calling of my Conscience should be heard above them Is it because I was both to lose the Honour and Profit of the Place I was risen to Surâ—ly no For I desire your Lordships and all the World should knâ—w I do much scorn the one and the other in comparison of my Conscience Besides it cannot be imagined by any man but that if I should 〈◊〉 gone over to them I should not have wanted both Honour and 〈◊〉 and suppose not so great as this I have here yet sure would 〈…〉 have served my self of either less with my Conscience 〈◊〉 have prevailed with me more then greater against my Consci 〈…〉 because I lived here at Ease and was loth to venture the 〈…〉 that Not so neither For whatsoever the World may be pleased to think of me I have led a very painful Life and such as I would 〈◊〉 been content to change had I well known how And would my Conscience have served me that way I am sure I might have lived at far more ease and either have avoided the barbarous Libelling and â—â—her bitter grievous Scorns which have been put upon me or at least been â—ut of the hearing of them Not to trouble your Lordships too long I am so innocent in the Business of Religion so free from all Practice or so much
as thought of Practice for any Alteration unto Popery or any blemishing of the true Protestant Religion established in England as I was when my Mother first bore me into the World And let nothing be spoken but truth and I do here re-challenge whatsoever is between Heaven and Hell that can be said against me in point of my Religion in which I have ever hated dissimulation And had I not hated it perhaps I might have been better for worldly safety than now I am but it can no way become a Christian Bishop to halt with God Lastly If I had a purpose to blast the true Religion established in the Church of England and to introduce Popery sure I took a wrong wâ—â— to it For my Lords I have staid more going to Rome and reduced more that were already gone than I believe any Bishop or Divine 〈◊〉 this Kingdom hath dâ—ne and some of them men of great Abilities and some persons of great place And is this the way to introduce Popery My Lords If I have blemished the true Protestant Religion how could I have brought these men to it And if I had promised to introduce Popery I would never have reduced these men from it And that it may appear unto your Lordships how many and of what condition the persons are which by Gods blessing upon my labours I have settled in the true Protestant Religion established in England I shall briefly name some of them though I cannot do it in order of time as I converted them First Henry Berkinstead of Trinity Colledge in Oxon. seduced by a Iesuite and brought to London Two Daughters of Sir Richard Lechford in Surrey sent towards a Nunnery Two Scholars of S. Johns Colledge in Cambridge Toppin and Ashton who had got the French Embassadors Pass and after this I allowed means to Toppin and then procured him a Fellowship in St. Johns And he is at this present as hopeful a young man as any of his time and a Divine Sir William Webb my Kinsman and two of his Daughters and his Son I took from him and his Father being utterly decayed I bred him at my own charge and he is a very good Protestant A Gentleman brought to me by Mr. Chesford his Majesties Servant but I cannot recall his name The Lord Mayo of Ireland brought to me also by Mr. Chesford The Right Honourable the Lord Duke of Buckingham almost quite gone between the Lady his Mother and Sister The Lady Marquiss Hamilton was settled by my direction and she died very Religiously and a Protestant Mr. Digby who was a Priest Mr. James a Gentleman brought to me by a Minister of Buckinghamshire as I remember Dr. Heart the Civilian my Neighbours Son at Fulham Mr. Christopher Seaborne a Gentleman of an ancient Family in Herefordshire The Right Honourable the Countess of Buckingham Sir William Spencer of Parnton Mr. Chillingworth The Sons and Heirs of Mr. Winchcomb and Mr. Wollescot whom I sent with their Friends liking to Wadham Colledge Oxon. and received a Certificate Anno 1638. of their continuing in Conformity to the Church of England Nor did ever any one of these named relapse again but only the Countess of Buckingham and Sir William Spencer It being only in Gods power not mine to preserve them for relapse And now let any Clergy-man in England come forth and give a better account of his zeal to the Church This being said and all Parties commanded to withdraw their Lordships after some short time of consideration appointed the next Morning at nine of the clock for the beginning of the Prosecution to be made against him In order whereunto the twenty four Articles for so many there were in both impeachments were reduced under these four general Heads viz. 1. His traiterous Endeavours and Practices to alter and subvert Gods true Religion by Law established in this Realm and in stead thereof to set up Popish Superstition and Idolatry the particulars wherof are specified in the 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Original and 6 7 8 9 Additional Articles 2. His traiterous usurpation of a Papal and Tyrannical Power in the Church of England in all Ecclesiastical affairs to the prejudice and derogation of his Majesties Royal Prerogative and the Subjects Liberties comprised in the sixth Original Article 3. His traiterous Attempts and Endeavours to subvert the Fundamental Temporal Laws Government and Liberties of the Realm and Subjects of England and instead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and Temporal Government against Law and the Subjects Liberty expressed in the 1 2 3 4 5 6 13 Original and 1 2 2 3 4 5 10 Additional Articles And 4. His traiterous Endeavours to subvert the Rights of Parliament and ancient course of Parliamentary Proceedings and by â—alse and malicious slanders to incense his Majesty against them contained in the 14 Original and the 1 9 10 Additional Articles The managing of the Evidence committed to Maynard Wilde and Nicholas all Members of the House of Commons by whom the business was drawn out to so great a length that it took up no less than seventeen daies not altogether but with so many pauses and intermissions as the Scots prospered and came forwards that the pleadings were not fully finished till the end of Iuly I hope it will not be expected that I should lay down the proceedings on both sides the Proofs and Testimonies which were brought against him or the defences which were made by him in full Answer to them that being a work which of it self would make a greater Volume than our present History All I shall say amounts to no more but this That there wanted neither wit nor will in the Prosecutors to make him appear as guilty in the eye of the Lords as his Accusers could desire And as for him it is related by the Pen of his greatest Adversary That he made as Full as Gallant as Pithy a Defence and spake as much for himself as was possible for the wit of man to invent and that with so much Art Vivacity Oratory Audacity and Confidence that he shewed not the least acknowledgment of Guilt in any of the particulars which were charged upon him And though the Relator putting the worst gloss upon the Text be pleased to say that these Abilities did argue him rather Obstinate than Innocent Impudent than Penitent a far better Orator Sophister than Protestant or Christian a truer Son of the Church of Rome than of the Church of England yet in the midst of these Reproaches he gives him the Commendations of Wit and Eloquence of being a good Orator and a subtle Disputant which with the rest of the Abilities ascribed unto him considering the suddenness of his Preparations the frailty of his Memory the burthen of seventy years with other natural infirmities then lying heavy on him may not unjustly be imputed to Divine assistance What sense the Commons had of his justification and what satisfaction was found in it by the House of
Peers we shall see hereafter And here we leave him for a time to see how far the Scots proâ—eeded and what they did in order to the service of those that so 〈◊〉 â—ired them which might be equal to the merit of so great a Sacrifice Of whom we are to know that passing by the Town of Berwick they entred England in the middle of Ianuary with a puissant Army consisting of eighteen thousand Foot two thousand Horse and one thousand Dragoons accommodated with all things necessary for the Expedition not hindred in their March till they came almost to the River Tine where they were stopped by the interposition of the Northern Army under the Conduct and Command of the Marquiss of Newcastle but so that they remained unfought with unless it were in petit Skirmishes and Pickeerings without engaging the whole Power on either side Langdale a Gentleman of approved Valour and Fidelity was commonly reported to have been earnest with the Marquiss to give them battel or at the least to suffer him with a Party of Horse to assault them in such places where they lay most open to Advantage not doubting but to give a good account of his undertakings In all which motions and desires he is said to have been crossed by General King an old experienced Souldier but a Scot by Nation whom his Majesty had recommended to the Marquiss of Newcastle as a fit man to be consulted with in all his Enterprises and he withal took such a fancy to the man that he was guided wholly by him in all his Actions Which King if he had been imployed in any of the Southern or Western Armies he might have done his Majesty as good service as any whosoever But being in this Army to serve against the Scots his own dear Countrymen he is said to have discouraged and disswaded all attempts which were offered to be made against them giving them thereby the opportunity of gaining ground upon the English till the Marquisses retreat toward York For in the opening of the Spring News came unto the Marquiss of the taking of Selby by the Forces Garrisoned in Hull by which necessitated to put himselâ— and the greatest part of his Army into the City of York on the safety whereof the whole fortune of the North depended Followed at the heels by Lesly who notwithstanding the undeserved Honours conferred upon him by the King and his own vehement protestations of a future Loyalty commanded this third Army also as he did the two first and leaving Newcastle at his back struck like a Souldier at the head not troubling himself in taking in such places as imported nothing in reference to the main concernment Resolving on the siege of the Capital City they were seconded by the Army of the Earl of Manchester drawn out of the Associated Counties and the remaining Yorkshire Forces under the Command of the Lord Fairfax By which beleaguered on all sides that great City was reduced to some distress for want of Victuals and other necessary Ammuniâ—ion to make good the place The News whereof being brought to Oxon. Prince Rupert is dispatched with as much of the Kings Army as could well be spared with a Commission to raise more out of the Counties of Chester Stafford Darby Leicester and Lancaster so that he came before York with an Army of twelve thousand men relieved the Town with some Provisions for the present and might have gone away unfought with but that such counsel was too cold for so hot a stomack Resolved upon the onset he encountred with the Enemy at a place called Marston More where the Left Wing of his Horse gave such a fierce Charge on the Right Wing of the Enemy consisting of Fairsax his Horse in the Van and the Scots Horse in the Rear that they fell â—oul on a part of their Foot which was behind them and trod most of them under their Horses feet But Ruperts Horse followâ—â—g the Execution too â—ar and none advancing to make good tâ—â— place which they had leâ—t the Enemy had the opportunity to â—ally again and got the better of the day taking some Prisoners oâ— good notâ— and making themselves Masters of his Cannon So that not being able to do any thing in order to the regaining of the Field â—e marched off unâ—ortunatâ—ly the greatest part of his Army mouldring away he retired to Bristol After this blow the Affairs of the North growing more desperate every day than other York yielded upon Composition on Iuly 16. being a just â—ortnight after the fight tâ—e Marquiss of Newcastle and some principal Gentlemen passing over the Seas so that the strong Town of Newcastle was taken by the Scots oâ— the nineteenth of October following While these things were Acting in the North Essex and Waller with their Armies drew near to Oxford hoping to take it unprovided in the absence of so great a part of his Majesties Forces On whose approach his Majesty leaving the greatest part of his Army for defence of that place marched on directly toward Wales Upon the news whereof it was thought fit by the two Generals to divide their Armies it being agreed upon that Waller should pursue the King and that the Earl of Essex should march towards the West for the regaining of those Countries And now the Mystery of iniquity appeared in its proper colours for whereas it was formerly given 〈◊〉 by the Houses of Parliament that they had undertaken the Waâ— for no other reason but to remove the King from his evil Counsâ—llors those Evil Counsellors were left at Oxon. and the Kings Person only hunted But the King understanding of this Division â—â—ought himsâ—lf able enough to deal with Waller and giving him 〈◊〉 go-by returned towards Oxon. drew thence the remainder of 〈◊〉 Aâ—my and gave him a sharp meeting at a place called Cropready 〈◊〉 where he obtained a signal Victory on the twenty eighth of Iunâ— and entred triumphantly into Oxon. This done he marched after tâ—e Earl of Essex who had made himself Master of some places in the West of good importance During this March it hapned that one of the Carriages brake in a long narrow Lane which they were to pass and gave his Majesty a stop at a time of an intolerable 〈…〉 Rain which fell upon him Some of his â—word and 〈…〉 were about him offered to hew him out a way through 〈…〉 with their â—words that he might get shelter in some of the Villages adjoyning but he Resolved not to forsake his Cannon upon any occasion At which when some about him seemed to admire and marvelled at the patience which he shewed in that Extremity his Majesty lifting up his Hat made Answer That as God had given him afflictions to exercise his patience so he had given him patience to bear his afflictions The carriage being mended he went forward again and trode so close upon the heels of Essex that at last he drave him into Cornwall and there reduced him to that
years and more since it first was made in all which time we hear no news of that performance for which the Ground could be but Little and the evidence less To the other branches of his Charge consisting in Words or Actions he answered first That the Dissolving of the said Parliaments was no Act of his the business being publickly debated at the Council Table and carried by the Unanimous consent of all then Present that the hard measure which he was complained of to have shown to Corbet of Shropshire he being but a Private Subject could not be called an Act of Treason That the words charged upon him at the Council Table and elswhere might well have been spared That no ill effect did follow on them and that they were innocently though suddenly spoken which he hoped might proceed from a man of such a hasty and Incircumspect humour as himself made so as well by nature as by the multiplicity of vexations which were put upon him without involving him in the crime or guilt of Treason That for his words unto the King touching his being absolved from the Rules of Government they contained only matter of opinion and in opinion delivered at the Council Table where all had Liberty to speak their own sense as he did at time which if it were Erroneous and contrary to the sense of others he hoped that no man should justly be condemned of Treason for shewing himself no wiser then God had made him And thereupon he desired the Lords from his misfortune to provide for their own safety and seriously to consider what a way was chalked out to ruine them both in their Lives and their Estates if for every Opinion given in Council or Words suddenly or hastily spoken they who are born to wield the great affairs of the Kingdom should be Arraigned or Sentenced as Traytors To which he added in the close That there was no likelyhood that he had commited Real Acts of Treason when his adverse Party was content to trifle away so much time about Words Neither was there any Treason in them though they had been fully verified and therefore in that as in all other Articles he reserved a Power for his Counsel to dispute in matter of Law Which when it came to the Dispute not called on by the Commons till October 11. the Question or Point in Issue was Whether any Treason was contained in all or any of the Articles which were charged against him And therein Hearn so plaid his part as the mouth of the rest that after the expectation of more months and the expence of almost as many days as had been spent in the Arraignment of the Earl of Strafford his Enemies in the House of Commons were forced to fall again on a Bill of Attainder as they had been before after so much â—â—ise and ostentation of Wit and Eloquence in the case of that Gentleman For being too far engaged to go back with Honour and yet not having confidence enough to venture him to the Judgment of the House of Peers as in the way of Legal Tryal they seemed to be at such a stand as the Thames is said to be at under London-Bridge betwixt Ebb and Flood In which perplexity some who were fit for any mischief imployed themselves to go from door to door and from man to man to get hands against him and so Petition those to hasten to his Condemnation who must forsooth be forced to their own desires whereof and of the Magistrates standing still and suffering them to proceed without any Check he gave them a Memento in his dying Speech Which Preparations being made they followed it with such double diligence that by the beginning of November most men were great with expectation of a final Sentence Conceived by some That the whole Evidence being transmitted with the Prisoner to the Justices of his Majesties Bench he should have been put over to a Middlesex-Iury but they were only some poor Ignorants which conceived so of it The Leading Members of the House thought of no such matter and to say truth it did concern them highly not to go that way For though there was no question to be made at all but that they could have Impanelled a Iury to have found the Bill yet by a Clause in the Attainder of the Earl of Strafford they had bound the Judges not to declare those Facts for Treason in the time to come for which they had Condemned and Executed that Heroick Peer And therefore they resolved on the same course now which they had found before so prosperous and successful to them to proceed now as then by Bill of Attainder and condemn him by Ordinance in which being Parties Witnesses and Judges too they were assured to speed as they would themselves And though for fashion sake he was brought unto the Commons Bar on the eleventh of that Month not without magnifying the Favour of giving him leave to shew some Reason why the Bill should not pass against him yet was this but a matter of Formality only the Ordinance passing in that House within two days after But yet the Business was not done for the Lords stuck at it some of which having not extinguished all the Sparks of Humanity began to find themselves compassionate of his Condition not knowing how soon it should or might be made their own if once disfavoured by the Grandees of that Potent Faction For the Ordinance having been transmitted to the House of Peers and the House of Peers deliberating somewhat long upon it it was Voted on December 4. That all Books Writings and Evidences which concerned the Tryal should be brought before the Lords in Parliament to the end that they might seriously and distinctly consider of all Particulars amongst themselves as they came before them But meaning to make sure work of it they had in the mean time after no small Evaporations of Heat and Passion prepared an Ordinance which they sent up unto the Lords importing the displacing of them from all those Places of Power and Command which they had in the Army Which being found too weak to hold they fall upon another and a likelier Project which was to bring the Lords to sit in the Commons House where they were sure they should be inconsiderable both for Power and Number And to effect the same with more speed and certainty they had recourse to their old Arts drawing down Watkins with his general muster of Subscriptions and putting a Petition into his hands to be tendred by him to the Houses that is themselves wherein it was required amongst other things That they should vigorously proceed unto the punishment of all Delinquents and that for the more quick dispatch of Publick Businesses of State the Lords would please to Vote and Sit together with the Commons On such uncertain terms such a ticklish Tenure did they then hold their Place and Power in Parliament who so officiously complied with the House of Commons in
That there was no design in the King or Prince or in any of the Court or Court-Bishops of what name soever to alter the Religion here by Law established or that the Prince was posted into Spain of purpose that he might be perverted or debauched from it But the best is that he which gave the Wound hath made the Plaister and such a Plaister as may assuredly heal the Sore without troubling any other Chyrurgeon It is affirmed by him who published the Breviate of our Bishops Life That he was not only privy to this Journey of the Prince and Buckingham into Spain but that the Journey was purposely plotted to pervert him in his Religion and reconcile him to Rome And this he makes apparent by the following Prayer found amongst others in the Bishops Manual of Devotions than which there can be nothing more repugnant to the Propositions â—or proof of which it is so luckily produced Now the said Prayer 〈◊〉 thus verbatim viz. O Most merciful God and gracious Father the Prince hath put himself to a great Adventure I humbly beseech thee make clear the way before him give thine Angels charge over him be with him thy self in Mercy Power and Protection in every step of his Iourney in every moment of his Time in every Consultation and Address for Action till thou bring him back with Safety Honour and Contentment to do thee service in this place Bless his most truly and faithful Servant the Lord Duke of Buckingham that he may be diligent in Service provident in Business wise and happy in Counsel for the honour of thy Name the good of the Church the preservation of the Prince the contentment of the King the satisfaction of the State Preserve him I humbly beseech thee from all Envy that attends him and bless him that his eyes may see the Prince safely delivered to the King and State and after it to live long in happiness to do thee and them service through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen And with this Prayer so plainly destructive of the purpose for which it was published I shut up the Transactions of this present year We will begin the next with the dismission of the Archbishop of Spalato a man defamed by the Italians at his coming hither and as much reproached by the English at his going hence His name was Marcus Antonius de Dominis Archbishop of Spalato in Fact and Primate of Dalmatia in Title Such anciently and of right those Archbishops were till the Bishop of Venice being made a Patriarch by Pope Eugenius the Fourth Anno 1450. assumed that Title to himself together with a Superintendency over all the Churches of that Country as subordinate to him He had been long conversant with the Fathers and Ancient Councils By this Light he discerned the Darkness of the Church of Rome and the blind Title which the Popes had for their Supremacy Inclining to the Protestant Religion he began to fear that his own Country would prove too hot for him at the last and therefore after he had sate in the See of Spalato about fourteen years he quitted his Preferments there and betook himself for Sanctuary to the Church of England Anno 1616. Extremely honoured at his first coming by all sorts of people entertained in both Universities with solemn Speeches presented complemented feasted by the great Lords about the Court the Bishops and some principal Persons about the City Happy was he that could be honoured with his Company and satisfied with beholding his comely presence though they understood not his Discourses Commended by King Iames at first for a constant Sojourner and Guest to Archbishop Abbot in whose Chappel at Lambeth he assisted at the Consecration of some English Bishops Made afterwards by the King the Master of the Savoy and Dean of Windsor and by himself made Rector of West-Illesby in the County of Berks A Revenue not so great as to bring him under the suspicion of coming hither out of Covetousness for the sake of filthy Lucre nor so contemptible but that he might have lived plentifully and contentedly on it During his stay here he published his learned and elaborate Book entituled De Republica Ecclesiastica never yet answered by the Papists and perhaps unanswerable He had given great trouble to the Pope by his defection from that Church and no small countenance to the Doctrine of the Protestant Churches by his coming over unto ours The foundring of so great a Pillar seemed to prognosticate that the Fabrick of that Church was not like to stand And yet he gave greater blows to them by his Pen than by the defection of his person the wound so given being conceived to be incurable In these respects those of that Church bestirred themselves to disgrace his person devising many other causes by which he might be moved or forced to forsake those parts wherein he durst no longer tarry but finding little credit given to their libellous Pamphlets they began to work upon him by more secret practises insinuating That he had neither that Respect nor those Advancements which might encourage him to stay That the new Pope Gregory the Fifteenth was his special Friend That he might chuse his own Preferments and make his own Conditions if he would return And on the other side they cunningly wrought him out of credit with King Iames by the Arts of Gundamore Embassadour at that time from the King of Spain and lessened his esteem amongst the Clergy by some other Artifices So that the poor man being in a manner lost on both sides was forced to a necessity of swallowing that accursed bait by which he was hooked over to his own destruction For having sollicited King Iames by several Letters the last of them bearing date on the third of February to licence his departure home he was by the King disdainfully turned over to the High-Commission or rather to a special Commission directed to Archbishop Abbot the Lord Keeper Lincoln the Bishops of London Durham and Winchester with certain of the Lords of the Privy Council These Lords assembling at Lambeth on the 30th of March and having first heard all his Excuses and Defences commanded him to depart the Realm within twenty days or otherwise to expect such punishment as by the Laws of the Land might be laid upon him for holding Intelligence by Letters Messages c. with the Popes of Rome To this Sentence he sorrowfully submitted protesting openly That he would never speak reproachfully of the Church of England the Articles whereof he acknowledged to be sound and profitable and none of them to be Heretical as appears by a Book entituled SPALATO's Shiftings in Religion published as it was conceived by Laud's especial Friend the Lord Bishop of Durham How well or rather how ill he performed this promise and what became of him after his return to Rome is not now my business The man is banished out of England and my History leads me next into Spain not Italy The
carrying on of the War the Earl of Essex was Commanded by his Majesty at his first coming to York to put a Garrison into Berwick and to take with him such Provisions of Canon Arms and Ammunition as were assigned for that Imployment Which as he chearfully undertook so he couragiously performed it notwithstanding all the terrours and affrightments which he found in his March For being encountred in his way with the Earls of Roxborough Traquaire and the rest of the Scots then going to York they laboured all they could to disswade him from it assuring him That either the Scots would be in the Town before him or that their whole Army would be so near that he must needs run the hazard of losing all without doing any thing Which notwithstanding he went on entred the Town repaired the Breaches in the Walls and placed his Cannon on the same proceeding in the Work as became a Souldier With less fidelity and courage dealt the Earl of Holland at the Kings coming near the Borders where long he had not been encamped when he had Intelligence that the Scots Army was advancing on which Advertisement he dispatch'd Holland with a great Body of Horse to attend upon them Lesly had drawn his Army into a very large Front his Files exceeding thin and shallow but intermingled with so many Ensigns as if every twenty or thirty men had been a Regiment and behind all a great Herd of Cattel which raised up so much dust with their feet as did cloud the Stratagem Holland dismayed with such a formidable appearance or being afraid that his great Horse would be under-ridden with the Galloway Nags sent Messenger after Messenger to acquaint the King with his present condition who sent him order to draw off and retire again and not to hazard himself and the Forces under him on such a visible disadvantage How Hamilton behaved himself we are next to see who having anchored his Fleet in the Frith of Edenborough and landing some of his spent men in a little Island to give them breath and some refreshments received a Visit from his Mother a most rigid and pragmatical Covenanter the Scots upon the shore saying with no small laughter That they knew the Son of so good a Mother could not do them hurt And so it proved for having loytered thereabouts to no purpose till he heard that the Treaty of the Pacification was begun neer Berwick he left his Ships and came in great haste as it was pretended to disturb the business which was to be concluded before he came thither For so it hapned That as soon as Essex had brought his Forces into Berwick the Scots began to fear the approaching danger which they had drawn upon themselves and thereupon some Chiefs amongst them addressed their Letters to him on the 19th of April laying the cause of all these Troubles to some ill Countrymen of their own whom they conceived to have provoked the King against them endeavouring to make the Remedy of their Evils and the scope of their deserved Punishment the beginning of an incurable Disease betwixt the two Nations to whom the Quarrel should in no way extend They complained also That there were many of the English in Place and Credit whose Private Byass did run clean contrary to the Publick Good such as did rise early to poyson the Publick Fountain and to sow the Tares of unhappy Jealousies and Discords between the Kingdoms before the good Seed of our Love and Respect to the English Nation could take place in their hearts They declared next how strange and unexpected it was unto them to see his Forces drawn toward the Borders which they could not but interpret as a pregnant presumption of some further Project against their Nation by his Power which must needs cause them to bestir themselves in time for their own preservation And though they gave themselves some assurance grounded upon the Reputation of his former Life that his Lordship would be very wary to begin the Quarrel at which Enemies only would rejoyce and catch advantage yet at the last fearing that neither Threats nor Complements would do the business they fall to a downright begging of a Pacification For having taken God to witness That they desired no National Quarrel to arise betwixt them or to taste any of the bitter Fruit which might set their Childrens Teeth on edge They professed themselves obliged in conscience to God their Prince Nation and Brethren to try all just and lawful means for the removal of all Causes of Diâ—â—erence betwixt the two Nations and to be always ready to oâ—fer the occasion of greater Satisfaction for clearing of their Loyal Intentions to their Prince and to all those whom it may concern â—ut more particularly to his Lordship in regard of his Place and Command at that time And this to do by any means whatsoever which should be thought expedient on both sides But Essex though perhaps he might like their Cause did not love their Nation the Affront put upon him by Carr Earl of Somerset running still in his mind so that the Practice edified very little with him for ought I can find whatsoever it might do with others about the King to whom the Letter was communicated which in duty he was bound to do on the first receiving With greater comfort they applied themselves to the Earl of Arundel whom at first they feared more than all the rest but had now placed the greatest part of their confidence on him For whilst the Puritans in both Kingdoms stood at a gaze upon the Issue of this War one Mosely Vicar of Newark upon Trent obtained leave to pass through the Army into Scotland A man of zeal enough to be put upon any business which the wiser ones durst not be seen in and of such silliness withal that no body could fear any danger from him By this Man as appears by their Letter they understood of his Lordships particular Affection to the continuance of the Common Peace betwixt the Nations being before assured of his Noble Disposition in the general as the Letter words it And this being said they signifie unto him and wish that they could do the like to all the good Subjects of England That they were neither weary of Monarchical Government nor had entertained the least thougâ—â—s of casting of the yoke of Obedience or invading England That they desired nothing else than peaceably to enjoy their Religion and the Liberties of their Country according to the Laws and that all Questions about the same might be decided by Parliament and National Assemblies which they conceived his Lordship would judge to be most equitable and for which no National Quarrel as they hoped could justly arise And finally That they had sent him a Copy of the Supplication which they intended to present unto the King as soon as he was prepared for it to the end that by the mediation of his Lordship and other Noble Lords of England
to whom they had written in like manner his Majesty might be pleased to hear them at large and grant such things as they had desired which they conceived to tend to his Majesties great Glory to put an end to all the present Questions to their mutual rejoycing and to make the blessed Instruments of so good a work to be thankfully remembred to Posterity In their letter to the Earl of Holland of the seventh of Iune they express more confidence as being more assured of him then of any other not only justifying themselves in their former proceedings but requesting his assistance to promote their desires in a petition tendred to his Majesty hands descending by degrees to this particular That by a meeting in some convenient place and of some prime and well affected men to the Reformed Religion and the Common Peace all matters might be so well amended and with such expedition that their evils through further delays might not prove incurable These preparations being made they found an easier business of it then they had any reason to expect or hope to bring his Majesty to meet them in the middle way who was so tender of their case that he was more ready to accept their supplication then they were to offer it It was not his intent to fight them as I have heard from a person of great trust and honour but only by the terrour of so great an Army to draw the Scots to do him reason And this I am the more apt to credit because when a Noble and well experienced Commander offered him then being in Camp near Berwick that with two thousand horse which the King might very well have spared he would so waste and spoil their Countrey that the Scots should creep upon their bellies to implore his mercy he would by no means hearken to the proposition And having no purpose of out-going Muster and Ostentation it is no wonder if he did not only willingly give way to the presenting of their Petition and cheerfully embraced all Overtures tending to a Pacification but make choice also of such persons to Negotiate in it who were more like to take such terms as they could get then to fight it out Commissioners being on both sides appointed they came at last to this conclusion on the seventeenth of Iune viz. First That his Majesty should confirm whatsoever his Commissioner have already granted in his Majesties name and that from thenceforth all matters Ecclesiastical should be determined by the Assemblies of the Kirk and all matters Civil by the Parliament and to that end a General Assembly to be Indicted on the sixth of August and a Parliament on the twentieth of the same Moneth in which Parliament an Act of Oblivion was to pass for the common peace and satisfaction of all parties that the Scots upon the publication of the accord should within fourty eight hours disband all their Forces discharge all pretended Tables and Conventicles restore unto the King all his Castles Forts and Ammunition of all sorts the like Restitution to be made to all his good Subjects of their Liberties Lands Houses Goods and Means whatsoever taken and detained from them since the late pretended General Assembly held at Glasco that thereupon his Majesty should presently recal his Fleet and retire his Land Forces and cause Restitution to be made of all persons of their Ships and Goods Detained and Arrested since the first of February But as for the proceedings of the Assembly of Glasco as his Majesty could not allow them with Honour on the one side so neither do I find that they were condemned or that the Scots were bound to abandon the conclusions of it so that it seems to have been left in the same condition as to all the Acts Determinations and Results there in which it stood before his Majesties taking Arms Which as it was the chief ground of the Quarrel so the King doing nothing in Order to the Abrogating of it and the conclusions therein made when he was in the head of a powerful Army he could not give himself much hopes that the Scots could yield to any such Abrogation when he had no such Army to compel obedience And this appeared immediately on his Majesties signing the Agreement and the discharging of his Forces upon the same For the Declaration of this accord was no sooner published but the Covenanters produced a Protestation First of adhering to their late General Assembly at Glasco as a full and free Assembly of their Kirk and to all the proceedings there especially the sentences of Deprivation and Excommunication of the sometimes pretended Bishops of that Kingdom And secondly of adhering to their Solemn Covenant and Declaration of the Assembly whereby the office of Bishop is abjured Thirdly that the pretended Archbishops and Bishops that usurp the title and office abjured by the Kirk and be contemners of the sentences of Kirk have been malicious Incendiaries of his Majesty against this Kingdom by their wicked calamnies and that if they return to this Kingdom they be esteemed and used as accursed and they delivered up to the Devil and cast off from Christ his body as Ethnicks and Publicans And fourthly that all the entertainers of the Excommucated Bishops should be orderly proceeded against with Excommunication conform to the Acts and Constitutions of this Kirk And this they did as well to justifie their proceeding in the said Assembly as to terrifie and affright the Bishops from presenting themselves as members of Assembly and Parliament at the next Conventions Which done they dispersed abroad a scandalous Paper pretending to contain the heads of the late Agreement but drawn so advantageously for themselves so disagreeably to the true intention of his Majesty that he could do no less in honour then call it in and cause it to be publickly burnt by the hand of the Hangman And being conscious to themselves how much his Majesty must be incensed with these Indignities they continued their meetings and Consultations as before they did maintained their Fortifications at Leith the Port Town to Edenborough disquieted molested and frighted all of different inclinations and kept their Officers and Commanders in continual pay to have them in a Readiness on the next occasion With which disorders his Majesty being made acquainted he sent for some of the Chiefs of them to come to him to Berwick but was refused in his Commands under pretence that there was some intention to entrap them at their coming thither and that his Majesty might be staved off from being present at the next Assembly in Edenborough as he had both promised and resolved they commit a riotous assault on the Earls of Kinnoul and Traquaire Chief Justice Elphinsten and Sir Iames Hamilton all Privy Counsellors of that Kingdom These they pulled violently out of their Coach on a suspicion that some Bishops were disguised amongst them but really that the King might have some cause to suspect that there could be no safety