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majesty_n	act_n	parliament_n	session_n	4,433	5	10.8456	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56127	The antipathie of the English lordly prelacie, both to regall monarchy, and civill unity: or, An historicall collection of the severall execrable treasons, conspiracies, rebellions, seditions, state-schismes, contumacies, oppressions, & anti-monarchicall practices, of our English, Brittish, French, Scottish, & Irish lordly prelates, against our kings, kingdomes, laws, liberties; and of the severall warres, and civill dissentions occasioned by them in, or against our realm, in former and latter ages Together with the judgement of our owne ancient writers, & most judicious authors, touching the pretended divine jurisdiction, the calling, lordlinesse, temporalities, wealth, secular imployments, trayterous practises, unprofitablenesse, and mischievousnesse of lordly prelates, both to King, state, Church; with an answer to the chiefe objections made for the divinity, or continuance of their lordly function. The first part. By William Prynne, late (and now againe) an utter-barester of Lincolnes Inne.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1641 (1641)	Wing P3891A; Wing P3891_vol1; Wing P4074_vol2_CANCELLED; ESTC R18576	670,992	826

and gracious Lady and Queene much false and erroneous Doctrine hath beene taught preached and written partly by divers naturall borne subjects of this Realme and partly being brought in hither from sundry other forraine Countries hath beene sowne and spread a broad within the same by reason wherof as well the spirituali●y as the temporality of your Highnesse Realmes and Dominions have swerved from the obedience of the See Apostolicke and declined from the unity of Christs Church and so have continued untill such time as your Majesty being first raised up by God and set in the seat royall over us then by his divine gracious providence knit in marriage with the most Noble and Vertuous Prince the King our Soveraigne Lord your husband the Popes holinesse and the See Apostolike sent hither unto your Majesties as unto persons undefiled and by Gods goodnesse preserved from the common infection aforesaid to the whole Realm the most reverend father in God the Lord Cardinall Poole Legate de Latere to call us home againe into the right way from whence we have all this long while wandred and strayed abroad and we a●●er sundry long and grievous plagues and calamities seeing by the goodnesse of God● our owne errours have acknowledged the same unto the said most reverend Father and by him have beene and are the rather at the contemplation of your Majesties received and embraced into the unity and bosome of Christs Church and upon our humble submission and promise made for a declaration of our repentance to repeale and abrogate such Acts and Statures as had beene made in Parliament since the said 20. yeare of the said King Henry the 8. against the supremacie of the See Apo●stolike as in our submission exhibited to the said most reverend Father in God by your Majesties appeareth The tenor whereof ensueth Wee the Lords spirituall and temporall and the Commons assembled in this present Parliament representing the whole body of the Realme of England and the Dominions of the same in the name of our selves particularly and also of the said body universally in this our supplication directed to your Majesties with most humble suit that it may by your graces intercession and meanes be exhibited to the most reverend Father in God the Lord Cardinall Poole Legate sent specially hither from our most holy Father Pope Iulius the third and the See Apostolike of Rome do declare our selves very sory and repentant of the Schisme and disobedience committed in this Realme and dominions aforesaid against the said See Apostolike either by making agreeing or executing any Lawes ordinances or Commandements against the supremacy of the said See or otherwise doing or speaking that might impugne the same offering our selves and promising by this our supplication that for a token and knowledge of our said repentance we are and shall be alwayes ready under and with the Authorities of your Majesties to the uttermost of our powers to doe what shall lye in us for the abrogation and repealing of the said Lawes and Ordinances in this present Parliament as well for our selves as for the whole body whom wee represent whereupon wee most humbly desire your Majesties as personages undefiled in the offence of this body towards the said See which neverthelesse God by his providence hath made subject to you so to set forth this our most humble suit that wee may obtaine from the See Apostolike by the said most reverend Father as well particularly as generally absolution release and discharge from all danger of such censures and sen●en●●s as by the Lawes of the Church wee are fallen into and that wee may a● children repentant be received into the bosome and unity of Christs Church so as this noble Realme with all● the members thereof may in this unity and perfect obedience to the See Apostolike and Popes for the time being serve God and your Majesties to the furtherance and advancement of his honou● and glory wee are at the intercession of your Majesties by the authority of our holy Father Pope Iulius the third and of the See Apostolicke assoyled discharged and delivered from excommunication interdictions and other censures Ecclesiasticall which have hanged over our heads for our said defaults since the time of the said schisme mentioned in our said supplication The which time the said Lord Legate and wee do all declare recognise and meane by this Act to be onely since the 20. yeare o● the raigne of your most Noble Father King Henry the 8. It may now like your Majesties that for the accomplishment of our promise made in th● said supplication that is to repeale all Lawes and Statutes made contrary to the said supremacie and See Apostolike during the said schisme which is to be understood since the 20. yeare of the raigne of the said late King Henry the 8. and so the Lord Legate doth accept and recognise the same After which they repeale in this Act also the Statutes against the Popes supremacie and profit And declare that the title or stile of supemacie or supreme head of the Church of England and of Ireland or either of them never was nor could be justly or lawfully attributed or acknowledged to any King or Soveraigne Governour of this Realme nor in any wise could or might rightfully justly or lawfully by any King or Soveraigne Governour of this Realme be claymed challenged or used And withall they commend Queene Mary for omitting this stile though s●●●led by Act of Parliament And to colour this disloyalty and prejudice to the Crown they adde this srivolous clause to the end of this Act And forasmuch as we your Majesties humble obedient subjects the Lords spirituall and temporall and Commons in this present Parliament assembled neither by the making or delivering of either the supplications afor●said nor by any clause Articles or Sentence thereof or of any other Clause A●ticle or Sentence of this or any other Statu●e or the preambles of the same made or agreed upon in this Session of this pr●s●nt Parliament by any manner of interpretation construction implication or otherwise intend to derogate impaire or diminish any of the prerogatives liber●ies franchesies preheminences or jurisdictions of your Crowne imperiall of this Realme and other the Dominions to the same belonging Wee do most humbly beseech your Majesties that it may be declared and ordained and be it ●nac●ed and declared by authority of this present Parliament that neither the making exhibiting or inferring in this present Statute or in the preambles of the same of the supplica●ions or promise aforesaid or either of them nor any other things words sentences clauses Articles in the preambles or body of the Acts aforesaid shall be construed understood or expounded to derogate diminish or take away any the liberties priviledges prerogatives preheminences authorities or jurisdictions or any part or parcell thereof which were in your Imperiall Crowne of this Realme or did belong to your said Imperiall Crowne the 20.

warrant from the Kirke and containing beside the Popish forme thereof diverse Popish errours and Ceremonies and the s●eds of manifold grosse superstitions and Idolatry with a Booke of Canons without warrant or direction from the Generall Assembly establishing a Tyrannicall power over the Kirke in the person of Bishops and overthrowing the whole discipline and Acts of our Kirke And with the High-Commion erected without the consent of the Kirke subverting the jurisdiction and Ordinary Judicatories of this Kirke and giving to persons meerely Ecclesiasticall power of both swords and to persons meerely Civill the power of the keyes and Kirke censures A Second cause was the Articles of Perth viz. Observation of festivall dayes kneeling at the Communion Confirmation Administration of the Sacraments in private places which was brought in by a Civill Assembly and are contrary to the confession of Faith as it was meant and subscribed Anno 1580. And diverse times since to the order and constitution of this Kirke Thirdly the change of the government of the Kirke from the Assembly of the Kirke to the persons of some Kirkemen usurping the priority and power over their Brethren by the way and under the name of Episcopall government against the Confession of Faith 1580. Against the Order set downe in the booke of Policy and against the intentions and Constitutions of this Kirke from the beginning Fourthly the Civill places and power of Kirkemen their sitting and voycing in Parliament and their sitting on the Bench as Justices of Peace which according to the constituons of this Kirke are incompatible with their spirituall functions lifting them up above the Brethren in worldly Pompe tending to the hinderance of the Ministery Fifthly the keeping and authorizing of corrupt assemblies at Linlithgrow 1606. and 1608. and at Glascow 1610. at Aberdin 1616 at Saint Andrewes 1617. at Perth ●618 which are null and unlawfull as being called and constitu●e quite contrary to the Order and constitutions of this kirke received and practized ever since the reformation o● Religion and withall labouring to introduce Novation within this Ki●ke against the Order and Religion established A sixth cause is the want of the lawfull and free generall Assemblies rightly constitute of Pastors Doctors and Elders yearely or oftner pro re nata according to the liberty of this Kirke expressed in the Booke of Policy and acknowledged in the Act of Parliament 1592. After which his Majesties Commissioner having heard patiently and examined particularly and all objections to the contrary being answered to the full The whole Assembly with expresse consent of his Majesties Commissioner in one heart and voyce did declare that these and such other proceeding from the neglect and breach of the Nationall Covenant of this Kirke and kingdome made in Anno 1588. have beene indeed the true and maine Cause of all our evils and distractions And therefore ordaines according to the Constitutions of generall A●semblies of this Kirke and upon the grounds respective above specified That the foresaid Service Booke Bookes of Canon and Ord●nation and the High-Commission be still rejected That the Articles of Perth be no more practised That Episcopall government and the Civill places and power of Kirkemen be holden still as unlaw●ull in this Kirke That the above named pretended Assemblies at Linlithgrow 1606. and 1608. at Glascow 1610. at Aberdene 1616. at Saint Andrewes 1617 at Perth 1618. be hereafter accounted of as null and of none effect And that for preservation of Religion and preven●●ng of all such evils in time comming Generall Assemblies rightly Constitute as the perfit and competent Judge of all matters Ecclesiasticall hereafter be kept yearely and oftner as occasion and necessity shall require The necessity being first remonstrate to his Majesty by humble supplication as also of these occasionall Assemblies That Kirke Sessions Presbyteries and Synodall Assemblies be constitute and observed according to the Booke of Policy and Order o● this Kirke The Bishop of Dunkell his Recantation BE it knowne to all men me Master Alexander Lindsay Minister of Sinadois for so much as I by my missive Letter sent by me to the Generall Assembly of the Kirke of Scotland holden at Glascow the 21. of November last past did freely submit my selfe demit and lay downe at the foot of the Assembly my pretended Office of Episcopacy as pretended Bishop of Dunkell and by my Letter promised to subscribe what ample forme of Commission there anent the said Assembly should prescribe and now the said reverent Assembly hath found and declared the said office of Episcopacy as it hath beene te●med and used within the said Kirke of Scotland to be abjured by the comession of Faith 1580. and 1581 and 1590. And therefore hath decerner the said Office to be removed out of the said Kirke of Scotland as also seeing the said reverent Assembly hath decernet me according to my said Letter to subscribe a more ample forme of demission of the said pretended office in presence of Sir Iohn Montcrieff of that Ilke Knight Baronet Master Robert Murrey Minister at Methuen Master Iohn Roberton Minister at Perth Master Alexander Petrie Minister at Rinde and Thomas Durham Burgesse of Perth Commissioners appointed by them for that effect Therefore and for performance of my said Letter and in obedience to the Ordinance of the said reverent Assembly Wit ye me to have demitted quite claim'd and simpliciter overgeven like as I now in presence of the said Commissioners freely demits quite claimes and simpliciter overgists the ●oresaid pretended Office of Episcopacy of Dunkell with the whole Title stile name and dignity thereof power of Ordination Jurisdiction thereof voyce in Parliament and all usurpation of the same in time comming and faithfully promises and by these presents binds and obliges me never to exercise nor use the said pretended Office in the said kirke of Scotland nor no power of Ordination Jurisdiction voyce in Parliament neither any other power Ecclesiasticall belonging usurped and acclaimed to belong to the said pretended Office like as according to the Act of the said reverent Assembly I acknowledge the said Office of Episcopacy to be abjured in the foresaid confession of Faith and therefore most justly ought to be removed out of this said kirke of Scotland and the whole premises I heartily acknowledge as I will answer to God in testimony hereof I have subscribed these presents with my hand Like as for further security hereof I am content and consent that these presents be insert and Registrate in the generall Bookes of Assembly therein to remaine Ad futuram rei memoriam And to that effect constitute my lawfull procutors promittendo de rato In witnesse whereof written by Robert Readhench serviteur to Patricke Rosse Notaire in Perth I have subscribed the same with my hand as said is at Saint Andrewes the 24. of Ianuary 1639. before these witnesses Master Iohn Paterson Master Alexander Dundie Student in Perth and George

publish it First an unfeined desire to dispossesse the seduced and mis-informed judgements of Princes Nobles and others of that over-weaning opinion they have hitherto generally embraced of Lordly Prelats extraordinary fidelity sincerity Piety to Kings Kingdomes in Chur●h and State affaires and of the necessity of their Supportation continuan●e both for the Security Tranquillity and felicity of all Christian Kings States Churches to all which in verity they have beene the greatest Plagues and Opposites This notable mistake proceeding either out of a meere nescience or inadvertency of the Prelates trecherous plots and turbulent Actions in all Climes and times or from the deception of this false Paradox No Bishop no King or from the immoderate panegyricall applauses of their Parasites who almost deifie them in Presse in Pulpit especially in Court Sermons and their owne selfe-commendations which are now most frequent in their writings and discourses or from their owne outward Pompe Splendor and Superficiall shewes of Sanctity and Piety backed with their sordid flattery of and temporizing with the greatest men the better to effect their owne designes will soonest and best bee rectified by this bare Historicall discovery of their Trecheries and villanies in all ages the very knowledge whereof as the Prophet Malachy and Christ informe us will make them contemptible and base before all the people and like unsavory salt fit neither for the Land nor for the Dunghill cause them to be cast out and trod●n under foote of men as good for nothing Secondly a sincere indeavour to the uttermost of my power to prevent those blacke imminent stormes of warre sedition schisme oppression with s●ndry other miseries which the desperat● proceedings practises and counsells of our all-swaying Prelates in my weake apprehension then threatned suddenly to bring downe upon us to the apparent danger if not ruine and desolation to our Religion Lawes Liberties King Kingdomes of which we have since had most visible reall experiments to the insupportable charge and infinite disturbance of his Majesty and the whole Realme who have cause eternally to detest our Lordly Prelacy as the very root of bitternes whence al our ancient and present calamities have issued To anticipate and redresse which sad events then and secure us against the like effects of Prelacie both now and hereafter I could not in my poore Judgement finde out any readier course within the narrow spheare of my Activity than the publication of this History of our Prelates practises and disloyal●y Quorum perfidiam exposuisse supera●se est as Saint Hierom witnesseth in a like case Thirdly to ●ase our Church State with all conscientious godly Ministers and people from the importable heavie yoakes of our Prelates tyranny under which they have miserably groaned and against which they have lamentably declaimed for many hundred yeares and could never yet bee throughly eased thereof as I have manifested by the Testimonies of our owne writers and Martyrs in the latter part of this Antipathy to accomplish which long desired and now expected worke I presume nothing can be more effectuall than such an Anatomy as this of our Prelates villanies of this nature Fourthly to further the propagation of religion the frequent and sincere preaching of the Gospell the powerfull practise of true piety the salvation of mens soules and tranquillity of our Church and State to all which I dare confidently averre our Lordly Bishops have beene greater enemies and obstacles in all ages ●hen all other professions of men whatsoever Fiftly to s●cure our long enjoyed oft confirmed fundamentall Lawes and the hereditary Libertie● both of our persons States Lives from small losse and utter subversion to all which our Prelates have commonly shewed themselves Arch-enemies endeavouring e●ther secretly to undermine them by treachery or openly to trample them under their po●tificall feete by violence of which our present time● have had large experience especially in Canterbury● who hath oft times publikely protested in a most insolent manner that he wo●ld breake both the Necke and back of Prohibitions so of the Common Law or else they should break his which now he findes they are like to doe And to defend our lawes and liberties against Prelaticall incroachments is one principall part of a Lawyers Profession so that in this regard this Antipathy is neither without nor besides my calling Sixtly to vindicate the sin●ere professors of Religion for I will be no Patron of Frantike Enthusiasts or dissembling Hypocrites in generall and my selfe in particular from the Calumnies of the Prelates and their Instruments There is nothing more frequent in late Prelaticall Factious discourses Sermons Writings then to accuse the true servants of God and most zealous Christians of Sedition Treason Rebellion Faction and Conspiracie against their Soveraignes and Superiours In this sort have they slandered our Martyrs Latymer Luther and others heretofore and many poore Christians now and this practise hath beene so common that the Century-writers observe Solemne est ut Christianis crimina seditionis laesae Majestatis a persecutoribus affingantur quibus tamen non sunt obnoxii And for my owne particular though conscious to my selfe of no seditious or disloyall Act it hath beene my unhappinesse to be not onely slandered but Censured by our Prelates as a Seditious Person for Bookes authorized by their owne Chaplain●s approbations and to be accused to his Majestie and proclaimed both in Print and Pulpit by Canterbury and his Agents for a Malevolent against State and Church a Traytor Rebell Factious Spirit Monster worse than any Priest or Iesuite one deserving to be forfeited to the Gallowes and as ●ad as Corah Dathan and Abiram onely for oppugning their Arminian and Popish Innovations their desperate incroachments upon his Majesties Royall Prerogative the Lawes and Subjects Liberties according to my Oath and Duty I could doe no lesse therefore for the vindication of my owne personall Innocencie which your Honours by your unanimous Votes have now abundantly cleared with the ruines of that Court which censured me the justification of all sincere Professors from these Prelaticall black Calumnies and the perpetual silencing of our Prelates slanderous Tongues Quils in this kinde then present your Honours and the world with an irrefragable Catalogue of their most horrid Treasons Rebellions and Seditions in all ages which alone out-vie all other mens whatsoever both for quality and numerosity and so returne these malicious defamations with infinite disadvantage upon their own guilty Pates Qui ut crimina in silentium mitterent sua vitam infamare conati sunt alienam cum possent ipsi ab innocentibus argui innocentes arguere studuerint mittentes ubique liter as livore dictante conscriptas as some delinquents did of old whose steps our Prelates trace These were the speciall reasons both of my compiling and publishing this Antipathy wherin your Excellencies may clearely discerne that these Exorbitances of

devill and his disciples be against thee for God thy protector is stronger than hee or any other and shall by his grace give him and them a fall and so shew unto thee that God is on thy side Consider that it is written in Prov. 6. that amongst many crimes there rehearsed that God hateth chiefly hee doth detest those persons that sow discord among their brethren as all we Christians are brethren under our heavenly Father Also it is written in Iohn 8. that those that do stirre men to murther are children of the Devill which was from the beginning a murtherer and brought Adam to sinne and thereby to death as the Jewes his children stirred the peop●e to put Christ to death Saint Paul also in Rom. 16. warneth them to beware of those that make dissention and debate among them against the Doctrine that he had taught them and biddeth them eschew their company wherein the Holy Ghost wrought in Paul for these many yeares past little warre hath beene in these parts of Christendome but the Bishop of Rome either hath beene a stirrer of it or a nourisher of it and seldome any compounder of it unlesse it was for his ambition and profit Where●ore since as S. Paul saith in 1 Cor. 14. that God is not the God of dissention but of peace who commandeth by his Word peace alway to be kept we are sure that all those that goe about to breake peace betweene Realmes and to bring them to warre are the children of the devill what holy names soever they pretend to cloake their pestilent malice withall which cloaking under hypocrisie is double devillishnesse and of Christ most de●ested because under his blessed name they do play the Devills part And therefore seeing Christ is on ourside against them let us not feare them at all but putting our confidence in Almighty God cleaving fast to the Kings Majesty our supreme head on earth next under Christ of this Church of England as ●aithfull subjects by Godslaw ought to do though they goe about to stirre Gog Magog and all the ravenners of the world against us we trust in God verily and doubt not but they shall have such a ruine as is prophesied by Ezekiel in C. 39. against Gog and Magog going about to destroy the people of God whom the people of God shall so vanquish and overthrow on the mountaines of Israel that none of them shall escape but their carkasses there to lye to be devoured by ki●es and crowes and birds of the aire and if they shall persist in their pestilent malice to make invasion into this Realme then let us wish that their great Captaine Gog I meane the Bishop of Rome may come to them to drinke with them of the same cup that hee maliciously goeth about to prepare for us that the people of God might surely live in peace Thus Tonstall concerning the Pope and the Cardinall though a Papist It is an Italian proverbe of our English men That an Italianated English man is a devill incarnate such a one was this Cardinall qui Italis pontificiisque adulationibus con●iliis atque technis in Regis atque Patriae discrimine sic se 〈…〉 passus ●st ●● non modo 〈…〉 PRODITOR writes his immedia●e successor of him● In the 31. yeare of King Henry the 8● he put the King Kingdome to extraordinary trouble and expence ●or the King being then enformed by his ●rusty and faithfull friends that the cankered and cruell Serpent the Bishop of Rome by that Arch-tr●ytor Reginald Poole enemy to Gods Words and his naturall country had moved and stirred divers great Princes and Potentates of Christendome to invade the Realme of England and utterly to destroy the whole Nation of the same Wherefore his Majesty in his owne person without any delay tooke very laborious and pain●ull journeys ●owards the Sea coasts also hee sent divers of his Nobles and Counsellours to view and search all the Ports and dangers of the Coasts where any mee●e and convenient landing place might be supposed as well on the borders of England as also of VVales and in all such doubtfull places his highnesse caused divers and many Bulwarkes and ●ortifications to be made And further his Highnesse caused the Lord Admirall Earle of Southhampton to prepare in readinesse ships for the Sea to his great cost and charges And beside this to have all people in a readinesse hee directed his commissions throughout the Realme to have his people mustered and the harnesse and weapons seene and viewed to the intent that all things should be in readinesse if his enemies should make any attempt into this Realme and likewise caused a generall muster to be made of all the Citizens of London betweene the age of 60. and 16. This Arch-traytor after the Pope had imployed him to move the Emperour and King of Spaine to breake their league with King Henry and to proclaime warre against him kept a continuall guard about him lest the King should send some to murther him And retiring to Viterbium where he lived some space neere a Nunnery he bega● two bastards a sonne and a daughter on the Abbe●se who oft repaired to his lodging which was afterwards objected to him when he was elected Pope by the major part of Cardinals and yet lost that Antichristian See by his owne negligence and delayes King Edward the 6. deceasing and Queene Mary comming to the Crowne she presently sent for this Traytor home the Pope upon this occasion makes him his Legate to reduce England under his vassallage and tyranny The Cardinall hereupon sore longed homeward not doubting but if things stood as hee thought to get a dispensation to lay off the Hat and put on a Crowne But the Emperour mistrusting what the Prelate intended found devises to hold him beyond the seas untill the match was concluded betweene Queene Ma●y and his sonne Anno 1554. he arrived in England and the same day he landed an Act passed in the Parliament house through the Queenes and VVinchesiers meanes for his restitution in blood and the utter repealing of the Act of at●ainder against him in King Henry the 8. his raigne The Cardinall soone after caused Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury to be deprived and degraded seating himselfe in his See and making a long Oration in Parliament declaring the offence and schisme of the Kingdome in casting off the Pope and his willingnesse to receive them into the bosome of the Church againe upon their submission he caused the Parliament to make an Act repealing all Statutes Articles and Provisions made against the See of Rome since the 20. yeare of Henry the 8. reviving the Popes supremacie and denying the Queens wherein the whole Realm submitted it selfe to the Pope some parts of which Act pertinent to my purpose I shall crave leave to recite Whereas since the 20. yeare of K. Henry the 8. of famous memory Father unto your Majesty our most naturall Soveraigne

yeare of the raigne of your the Queens Majesties most noble Father Henry the 8. or any other your most noble Progenitors before the said 20 yeare And the Popes holinesse and See Apostolicke to be restored have and enjoy such authority preheminence and jurisdiction as his Holinesse used and exercised or might lawfully have used and exercised by authority of his supremacie the said 20. yeare of the raigne of the King your Father within this your Realme of England and other your Dominions without diminution or enlargement of the same and none other and the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction of the Archbishops Bishops and Ordinanaries to be in the same Sta●e for processe of sui●s punishment of crimes and execution of censures of the Church with knowledge of causes belonging to the same and as large in these points as the said jurisdiction was the said 20. yeare Where observe that the Prelates usurped Jurisdiction over the Kings prerogative was much eclipsed if not quite abolished by severall statutes made in King Henry the 8. and Edward the 6. his raigne and expired together with the Popes as appeares by these words of the Clergies supplication recited in the body of this Act. Nos Episcopi Clerus c. cum omni debita humilitate reverentia exponimus Majestatibus vestris quod licet Ecclesiarum quibus in Episcopos Decanos Archidiaconos c. constituti sumus bona Iurisdictiones jura in pernicioso hujus Regni praeterito schismate DEPERDITA ET AMISSA omni studio totis nostris v●ribus recuperare ad pristinum ecclesiarum jus revocare juris remediis niti deberemus c. Insuper Majestatibus vestris supplicamus ut pro sua pietate efficere dignentur ut ea quae ad jurisdictionem nostram libertatem Ecclesiasticam pertinent sine quibus debitum nostri pastoralis officii curae animarum nobis commissae exercere non possumus nobis superiorum temporum injuria ablata restituantur ea nobis ecclesiis perpetuo illaesa salva permaneant ut omnes leges quae hanc nostram jurisdictionem libertatem Ecclesiasticam tollunt seu quovis modo impediunt abrogentur ad honorem dei majestatum vestrarum c. As therefore the Bishops Popes Jurisdiction were suppressed together before so it is worth the observation that they are both revived together by this Act upon the restauration of Popery And good reason for Nicholas le Maistre in his Instauration of the Ancient Principality of Bishops Dedicated to the great French Cardinall Richeleiu Printed at Paris 1633. in his Dedicatory Epistle to this Cardinall informes us That verily the Majestie of the Pontificall and Episcopall jurisdiction is so conjoyned and confederated together that the enemies cannot so guide their hands but with the same audacity wherewith they assaulted the Popes Crowne they likewise shaked the Bishops Miters and as it were with one bloody wound pierced both their sides Whence it came to passe that the atrocity of the Bishops sorrowes increased so farre that their patience sufficient to digest their owne domesticke injuries was let loose to the dangers of the chiefe Pontise the Pope and brake forth into the most sharpe indignation and hatred● that thence it might appeare that the glory of their owne name could never be more secure than when and where the Popes greatnesse shall be adorned with greatest honours which being violated all the splendor of the Episcopall Order must necessarily dye and grow contemptible Hence we see it comes to passe by a certaine Divine assent and Counsell that the Authority of Bishops should be expelled out of the same Provinces out of which unhappy lust had thrust out the Papall Majestie So this Author of late by which we may discerne what a neare and indissoluble connexion there is betweene the Papacy and the Prelacie and how the Pope and Prelates ever mutually strive to support and advance one anothers authority Cardinall Poole thus reviving the Popes and Prelates Jurisdiction and suppressing and eclipsing the Royall Prerogative as you have heard hereupon the Queenes name and Title formerly used in all Ecclesiasticall Processe with this clause Suprema Autoritate Regia legitime fulcitus the like was wholly omitted out of them and whereas all such processes were sealed with her seale and all Probates of Wills and Letters of Administration granted in her name and under her seale onely not the Bishops like Writs at the Common Law according to the Statute of 1 Ed. 6. c. 2. the Bishops thenceforth used onely their owne seales and names excluding hers and so set themselves in her Royall Throne To effect this the Cardinall and Prelates caused Queene Mary to send Articles to the Ordinaries to be put in Execution whereof this was one that no Bishop or his O●ficer or any other Person hereafter in any of their Ecclesiastical writings in proces or other extrajudiciall Acts doe use to put in this clause or sentence Regia autoritate fulcitus or doe demand any Oath touching the Primacy to which Master Fox annexeth this Marginall annotation The Kings Authority giveth place to the Popes Authority the supremacy of the King repealed and hereupon in the Queenes writ to Bonner ●or the sommoning of a Convocation her stile of Supremum caput was taken away where note good Reader writes Master Fox concerning the altering and changing of the Queenes stile the later part hereof to be le●t out of her Title which is Ecclesiae Anglicanae Hibernae supremum caput because in the Parliament last past the supremacy being given away from the Crowne of England to the Pope thereupon this parcell of the Title was also taken away likewise the sayd Bonner giving his Certificate upon the same left out Autoritate illustrissimae c. legitime fulcitus which parcell also in the said Parliament was reprived and taken away the same time Which notable usurpation upon the Crowne though abolished by 1. E l. c. 1.8 E l. c. 1.1 ●ac c. 25. and other Acts which revive the statute 1. E l. 6. c. 2. being nothing but the Common Law our Prelates in imitation of these and other their undutifull Popish Predecessors have not onely continued but likewise upon the now Arch-Bishop of Canterburies motion in Star-Chamber procured a Resolution and Certificate of all the Judges of England against the Laws Kings prerogative royall to justifie this their usurpation of issuing out processe under their owne names and seales and keeping Visitations and Courts in their owne names without any Patent or Commission from his Majestie to be legall as appeares by two Orders of Starre-Chamber 12. Maii and 4. Iunii 13. Caroli This Arch-prelate Cardinall having thus re-established the Popes and Prelates jurisdiction here by Act of Parliament caused divers of our Martyrs to be burnt of which his Predecessor Cranmer was one and in his Visitation at Oxford and Cambridge caused the dead

them Morally as they stand in opposition to the light of Nature to right reason and the principles of humane society you will then perceive pride without any moderation● such a Pride as that is which exalts it selfe above all that is called God Malice without any provocation Malice against vertue against innocencie against piety injustice without any meanes of restitution even such injustice as doth robbe the present times of their possessions the future of their possibilities I● they be examined My Lords by Legall Rules in a Civill way as they stand in opposition to the Publiqu● Good and to the Lawes of the Land Hee will be found to be a Traytor a●gainst his Majesties Crowne an incendiary against the Peace of the State hee will be found to be the highest the boldest the mo●t i●pudent oppressour that ever was an oppressor both of King and People● This Charge my Lords is distributed and conveyed into ●o●●teene severall Articles as you have heard and those articles are onely generall I● being the intention of the House of Commons which they have commanded mee to declare to make them more certaine and particular by preparatory Examinations to be taken with the helpe of your Lordships house as in the Case of my Lord of Strafford I shall now runne thorough them with a light touch onely marking in every of them some speciall point of venome virulency and malignity 1 The first Article my Lords doth containe his ●ndeavour to introduce into this Kingdome an Arbitrary power of Government without any limitations or Rules of Law This my Lords is against the safety of the Kings Person the honour of his Crowne and most destructive to his people Those Causss which are most perfect have not onely a power to produce effects but to conserve and cheri●h them The Seminary vertue and the nutritive vertue in vegetables do produce from the same principles It was the defect of justice the restraining of oppression and violence that first brought government into the World and set up Kings the most excellent way of Government And by the maint●nance of Justice all kinds of government receive a sure foundation and establishment It is this that hath in it an ability to preserve and secure the royall power of Kings yea to adorne and encrease it 2 In the second Article yo●r Lordships may observe absolute and unlimited power defended by Preaching by Sermons and other discourses printed and published upon that subject And truely my Lords it seemes to be a prodigious crime that the truth of God and his holy Law should be perverted to defend the lawlesnesse of men That the holy and sacred function of the Ministry which was ordained for instruction of mens soules in the wayes of God should be so abused that the Ministers are become the trumpets of sedition the promoters and defenders of violence and oppression 3 In the third Article my Lords you have the Judges who under his Majesty are the dispersers and distributers of Justice frequently corrupted by feare solicitation you have the course of Justice in the execution of it● shamefully obstructed And if a wilfull Act of injustice in a Judge be so high a crime in the estimate of the Law as to deserve death under what burthen of guilt doth this man lye who hath beene the cause of great numbers of such voluntary and wilfull acts of injustice 4 In the fourth Article hee will be found in his owne person to have sold justice in Causes depending be●ore him And by his wicked couns●ll endeavouring to make his Majesty a Merchant of the same commodity onely with this difference that the King by taking money for places of judicature should sell it in grosse whereas the Archbishop sold it by retaile 5 In the fi●t Article there appeares a power usurped of making Canons of laying obligations on the Subjects in the nature of Lawes and this power abused to the making of such Canons as are in the matter of them very pernicious being directly contrary to the prerogative of the King and the liberty of the people In the manner of pressing of them may be found fraud and shuf●ling in the conclusion violence and constaint men being forced by terrour and threatning to subscribe to all which power thus wickedly gotten they laboured to establish by perjury injoyning such an Oath for the maintenance of it as can neither be taken nor kept with a good conscience 6. In the sixth Article you have the King robbed of his Supremacy you have a Papall power exercised over his Majesties Subjects in their consciences and in their persons You have Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction claimed by an Incident right which the Law declares to proceede from the Crowne And herein your Lordships may observe that those who labour in civill matters to set up ●he King above the Lawes of the Kingdome do●e yet in Ecclesiasticall matters endevour to set up themselves above the King This was ●irst procured by the Arch-bishop to be extrajudicially declared by the Judges and then to be published in a Proclamation In doing whereof he hath made the Kings Throne but a footstoole for his owne and their pride 7. You have my Lords in the seventh Article Religion undermined and s●bverted you have Popery cherished and de●ended you have this seconded with power and violence by severe punishment upon those which have opposed this mischievous intention and by the subtile and eager prosecution of these men hath the power of Ecclesiasticall Commissioners of the Starre-Chamber and Councell Table beene often made subservient to his wicked designe My Lords 8. You may observe in the eighth Article great care taken to get into his owne hand the power of nominating to Ecclesiasticall Livings and promotions you have as much mischievous as much wicked care taken in the disposing of these preferments to the hinderance and corruption of Religion And by this meanes my Lords the Kings sacred Majesty instead of Sermons fit for spirituall instructours hath often had invectives against his people incouragement to injustice or to the overthrow of the Lawes Such Chaplaines have beene brough into his service as have as much as may bee laboured to corrupt his owne Houshold and beene eminent examples of corruption to others which hath so farre prevailed as that it hath exceedingly tainted the Universities and beene generally disper●t to all the chiese Cities the greatest Townes and Auditories of the Kingdome The grievous Effects whereof is most manifest to the Commons House there being diverse h●ndred complaints there depending in the House against scandalous ministers and yet I beleeve the hundred part of them is not yet brought in 9. The ninth Article sets out the like care to have Chaplaines of his owne that might be promoters of this wicked and trayterous designe Men of corrupt judgements of corrupt practice extreamely addicted to superstition and to such mens cares hath beene committed the Licensing of Bookes to the Presse by meanes whereof many have beene published

And as if this had not been sufficient he procured sixe Subsidies to be lifted of the Clergy under paine of deprivation to all that should refuse And which is yet worse and above which Malice it selfe cannot ascend by his meanes a Prayer is framed Printed and sent through all the Paroches of England to be said in all Churches in time of Divine Service next after the Prayer for the Queene and Royall Progeny against our Nation by name of Trayterous Subjects having cast off all obedience to our annoynted Soveraigne and comming in a rebellious manner to invade England that shame may cover our faces as Enemies to God and the King Whosoever shall impartially examine what hath proceeded from himselfe in these two Bookes of Canons and Common Prayer what Doctrine hath beene published and Printed these yeares by-past in England by his Disciples and Emissaries what grosse Popery in the most materiall points we have found and are ready to shew in the posthume writings of the Prelate of Edenburgh and Dumblane his owne creatures his neerest familiars and most willing instruments to advance his counsels and projects ●all perceive that his intentions were deepe and large against all the reformed Kirkes and Reformation of Religion which in his Majesties dominions wes panting and by this time had rendred up the Ghost if God had not in a wonderfull way of mercy prevented us And that if the Pope himselfe had beene in his place he could not have beene more Popish nor could he more zealously have negotiated for Rome against the Reformed Kirkes to reduce them to the Heresies in Doctrine the Superstitions and Idolatry in worship and the Tyranny in Government wh●ch are in that See and for which the Reformed Kirkes did separate from it and come furth of Babell From him certainely hath issued all this deluge which almost ha●h overturned all We are therefore confident that your Lordships will by your meanes deale effectually wi●h the Parliament that this great firebrand be presently removed from his Majesties presence and that he may be put to tryall and put to his deserved censure according to the Lawes of the Kingdome which fall be good service to God honour to the King and Parliament terrour to the wicked and comfort to all good men and to us in speciall who by his meanes principally have beene put to so many and grievous afflictions wherein we had perished if God had not beene with us We doe indeed confesse that the Prelates of England have beene of very different humours some of them of a more hot and others of them men of a more moderate temper some of them more and some of them lesse inclinable to Popery yet what knowne truth and constant experience hath made undenyable we must at this opportunity professe that from the first time of Reformation of the Kirke of Scotland not onely after the comming of King Iames of happy memory into England but before the Prelates of England have beene by all meanes uncessantly working the overthrow of our discipline and government And it hath come to passe of late that the Prelates of England having prevailed and brought us to subjection in the point of Governement and finding their long waited for opportunity and a rare congruity of many spirits and powers ready to cooperate for their ends have made a strong assault upon the whole externall worship and doctrine of our Kirke By which their doing they did not aime to make us conforme to England but to make Scotland first whose weak●nesse in r●sisting they had before experienced in the Novations of government and of some poynts of Worship and thereafter England conforme to Rome even in these matters wherein England had separated from Rome ever since the time of Reformation And evill therefore which hath issued not so much from the personall disposition of the Prelates themselves as from the innate quality and nature of their office and Prelaticall Hierarchy which did bring furth the Pope in ancient times and never ceaseth till it bringeth furth Popish Doctrine and worship where it is once roo●ed and the Principles thereof fomented and constantly followed And from that antipathy and inconsistency of the two formes of Ecclesiasticall Government which they conceived and not without cause that one Island united also under one head and Monarch wes no● able to beare the one being the same in all the parts and powers which it wes in the times of Popery and now is in the Roman Church The other being the forme of Government received maintained and practised by all the Reformed Kirks wherein by their owne testimonies and confessions the Kirke of Scotland had amongst them no small eminency This also we represent to your Lordships most serious consideration that not onely the firebrands may be removed but that the fire may be provided against that there be no more combustion after this I shall close up all touching the Prelates of Scotland with the late Act of their generall Assembly at Edenburgh for their utter extirpation out of that Church and the Recantation and abjuration of two of their late Bishops to wit the Bishop of Dunkelden and of the Orcanies The Generall Act for abolishing of Episcopacy and all Innovation● lately intended in the Church of Scotland THe Kings Majesty having graciously declared that it is his Royall will and pleasure that all questions about Religion and matters Ecclesiasticall be determined by Assemblies of the Kirke having also by publique Proclamation indicted this fr●e National Assembly for setling the present distraction of this Kirke and for establishing a perfect peace against such divisions and disorders as hath beene sore displeasing to his Majesty and grievous to all his good Subjects and now his Majes●ies Commissioner Iohn Earle of Traquaire instructed and authorized with a full Commission being present and sitting in this Assembly now fully conveened and orderly constitute in all the members thereof according to the Order of this Kirke having at large declared his Majesties good will to the reformed Religion and his Royall care and tender affection to this Kirke where his Majesty had both his birth and Baptisme his great displeasure at the manifold distractions and division of this Kirk and Kingdome and his desires to have all our wounds perfectly cured with a free and fatherly hand And although in the way approved by the Kirke tryall hath beene taken in former assemblies before from the Kirke Registers to our full satisfaction yet the Commissioners grace making particular enquiry from the members of the Assembly now solemnely conveened concerning the reall and true causes of so many and great evills at this time past had so fore troubled the peace of this Kirke and Kingdome it was presented to his Majesties Commissioner by this Assembly that beside many other the maine and most materiall causes was First the pressing of this Kirke by the Prelates with a Service Booke or Booke of Common Prayer without direction or

judiciall manner against Law and have perpetrated practised and done many other trayterous and unlawfull acts and things whereby as well divers mutinies seditions and rebellions have beene raised as also many thousands of his Majesties Liege people of this Kingdome have beene ruined in their goods Lands Liberties and Lives and many of them being of good quality and reputation have beene utterly defamed by Pillory mutilation of members and other infamous punishments By meanes whereof his Majesty and the Kingdome have beene deprived of their service in Juries and other publique imployments and the generall trade and traffique of this Island for the most part destroyed and his Majesty highly damnified in his customes and other Revenues That they the sayd Iohn Lord Bishop of Derry c. and every of them the better to preserve themselves and the sayd Earle of Strafford in these and other trayterous courses have laboured to subvort the rights of Parliament and the ancient course of Parliamentary proceedings all which offences were contrived committed perpetrated and done at such time as the sayd Sir Richard Bolton Sir Gerard Lowther and Sir George Radcliffe Knights were Privie Counsellours of State within this Kingdome and against their and every of their Oathes of the same at such times as the sayd Sir Richard Bolton Knight was Lord Chancellour of Ireland or chiefe Baron of his Majesties Exchequer within this kingdome and Sir Gerard Lowther Knight was Lord chiefe Justice of the sayd Court of Common Pleas and against their Oathes of the same and at ●uch time as the sayd Iohn Lord Bishop of Derry was actuall Bishop of Derry within this Kingdome and were done and speciated contrary to their and every of their allegiance severall and respective Oathes taken in that behalfe For which the sayd Knights Citizens and Burgesses doe impeach ●he sa●d Iohn Lord Bishop of Der●y c. and every of them of high Treason again●t our Soveraigne Lord the King his Crowne and dignity● What proceedings will insue upon this accusation against this Prela●e time will discover Not to mention ●he lewd beastly Sodomiticall life and most detestable Actions of Aderton Bishop of Wa●e●ford●n ●n Ireland for which he was lately a●●aigned condemned and hanged as a Bishop without any preceding degradation to the great dishonour of his Rochet I shall close up this Historicall Epitome of the Irish Bishops with a Petition and Remonstrance of many thousand Protestan● Inhabitants in severall Counties of Ireland against Episcopacy presented lately to the High Court of Parliament here in England whe●ein the evill ●ruites and seditious oppressive ungodly practises of the present Irish Prelates are fully anatomized To the Honourable Assembly of Knights Citizens and Burgesses in this present Parliament The Humble Petition of some of the Protestant Inhabitants of the Counties of Antrim Downe Tyrone c. part of the Province of Ulster in the Kingdome of Ireland Humbly REpresenteth unto your grave Wisedomes and judicious considerations That your Petitioners having translated themselves out of the severall parts of his Majesties Kingdomes of England and Scotland to promote the Infant Plantation of Ireland wherein your Petitioners by their great labour and industry so much contributed to the settlement of that Kingdome as they were in a most hopefull way of a comfortable abode and when they expected to reape the ●●uite of their great and long labour partly by the cruell severity and a●bit●ary proceedings of the Civill Magistrate but principally through th●●nblest way of the Prelacy with their faction ou● Soules are starved our estates undone out famil●es impoverished and many lives among us cut off and destro●ed T●e Prelates whose pretended Authority though by some pub●●shed to be by divin● Right as we humbly conceive is directly against the same have by their Canons of late their Fines Fees and imprisonments at their pleasure their silencing suspending banishing and excommunicating of our learned and conscionable Ministers their obtruding upon us ignorant erronious and prophane persons to be our teachers their censuring of many hundreds even to excommunication for matters acknowledged by all to be indifferent and not necessary their favouring Popery in this Kingdome a double ●ault their persecuting purity and indeavouring to bring all to a livelesse formality divers of them being notorious incendiaries of the unquietnesse and unsetled estate betweene these Kingdomes with many the like too tedious to relate as more fully in our ensuing grievances doth appeare These our cruell Taske-masters have made of us who were once a people to become as it were no people an astonishment to our selves the object of piety and amazement to others and hopelesse of remedy unlesse hee with whom are bowels of compassion worke in you an heart to interpose for your Petitioners reliefe They therefore most humbly pray that this unlawfull Hierarchicall government with all their appendices may be utterly extirpated such course layd downe as to your great wisedomes shall ●eeme meete for reparation in some measure of our un-utterable dammages ●ustained by the parties thus injuriously grieved your Petitioners setled in a way whereby their persecuted Ministers may have leave to returne from exile and be freed from the unjust censures imposed on them ●●d an open doore continued unto us for provision of a powerfull and able ministry the onely best way to promote Plantation and settle the Kingdome in the profession and practise of true Religion Which as it is the earnest expectation so it shall be the dayly prayer of many thousands besides your Petitioners who will ever ent●eate the Lord for your direction herein and in all other your waighty and important affaires as becommeth your poore Petitioners c. A Particular of manifold evills and heavie pressures caused and occasioned by the Prelacy and their dependants BEfore they had so much as a pretended Canon for their warrant the Prelates urged their Ceremonies with such vehemency that divers of our most learned and painefull Ministers for not obeying them were s●lenced and many of us for the like oppressed in their Courts In the yeare ●634 they made such Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiasticall as enjoyned many corruptions in the worship of God and government of the Church which exceedingly retarded the worke of reformation animated Papists and made way for divers Popish Superstitions Our most painefull godly and learned Ministers were by the Bishops and their Commissaries silenced and deprived for not subscribing and conforming to the sayd unlaw●ull Canons yea through the hotnesse of their persecution ●orced to flee the Land and afterward excommunicated to the danger of all and losse of some of their lives In their places others were obtruded not onely ignorant lazie and lukewarme but many of them unsound in doctrine prophane in life and cruell in persecution Many though sufficiently furnished were not admitted to the Ministry onely for not swallowing downe their groundlesse Innovations yea some though conforme yet for appearing strict in Life were likewise kept out Good and painefull

schismatickes● Church-robbers rebels and traytors to God and to man where are any to be looked for in all the world Another thing yet there is which causeth mee sore to lament the inconveniences thereupon considered And that is this although the Scriptures Chronicles Canons Constitutions Councels and private hystories with your manifest acts in our time doth declare your Fore●athers and you such Heretickes Thee●es and Traytors to the Christian Commonwealth as hath not beene upon the earth but you yet you are still taken into the privy councels both of Emperour and King But what a plague it is or miserable yoke to that Christian Realme whereas yee beare the swinge I thinke it truly unspeakable though it be not seene O eternall Fa●her for thy infinite mercie sake graunt thy most faithfull servant the Kings Majestie our most worthy Soveraigne Lord and Governour under thee cleerly to cast out of his privie Coun●ell House these ●echerous Locusts of Egypt and daily upholders of Sodome and Gomorrah the Popes cruell cattle tokened with his owne proper marke to the universall health of his people as thou hast now constituted him an whole compleate King and the first since the Conquest For never shall hee have of them but deceitfull workemen and hollow hearted Gentlemen and not onely that good Lord but also deprive them of their usurped authority and power restoring againe hereunto his temporall Majestra●es whom their proud Pope hath hitherto most tyrannously thereof deprived Finally to take from them their inordinate pompe and riches and more godly to bestow them that is to say to the aide of his pove●ty as for an example the noble the noble Germans have graciously done before him After a farre other sort defended the Apostles the spirituall Kingdome of Christ then they their armour was righteousnesse poverty patience m●eknesse tribulation contempt of the world and continuall suffering of wrongs their strong shield was faith and their sword the Word o● God Eph. 6. Wi●h the Gospell preaching drove they down all superstitions as you by your Lordlinesse have raised up againe in the glorious Church of Antichrist The Kingdome that hee ●orlooke Ioh. 6. and the Lord●hip that hee so straitly forbad you Luke 22. have ●ou received of the devill with that ambitious raigne of covetousnesse which hee left behind him on the high Mountaine Matth. 4. What ruinous deca●es hath chanced to all Christian Region● and their Babylonish b●ood it we●e much to write● It shall be therefore necessary for our most wor●h● King to looke upon in time and both to diminish you authority and riches lest yee hereafter put all his godly enterp●ises in hazard For nothing else can yee doe of your spiritual na●ure but worke da●ly mischiefe As well may yee be spared in the Commonwealth as may Kites Crowes and Buzzards P●l●ats Wesels and Rats O●ters Wolves and Foxes Bodilice Fleas and Fleshflies with other devouring and noysome verm●ne for a● unprofitable are yee unto it as they and as li●●le have yee in the word of God to uphold you in these vaine offices of Papistry as they This uncommodious commodity hath En●land had of you alwayes when yee have beene of the Kings privie Councell and I thinke hath now at this present hower that whatsoever godly enterprize is there in doing be ●hey never so privily handled yet shall the Popish Prelates of I●aly Spaine France Flanders and Scotland have sure knowledgde thereof by your secret Messengers and you againe their crafty compassings to deface it if may be Neither shall th●se ●ealmes con●inue long after without wa●●e special●y if an earnest reformation of your s●●ainefull abuses be sought there and never shall the originall grounds of that warre be known but other causes shall be laid to ●olour it with as that the King seekes his rig●● his Princely honour the maintenance of his titles or the Realmes Commonwealth ●e●●g nothing lesse in the end but an upholding of you in your mischiefes So long as you beare rule in Parliament Ho●se ●●e Gospell shall be kept under and Christ persecuted in his ●aith●ull members So that no godly Acts shall come out from ●hen●e to the glory o● God and Christian Commonwealth but you will so sawce them with your Romish Sorceries that they be ready to serve your turne Although the Kings Majestie ha●h pe●mitted us the Scriptures yet must the true Ministers thereof at your most cruell appointment either suffer most tyrannous death or else with open mouth deny Christs veri●y which is worse than death Thus give ye strength to his lawe● nourish up his Kingdome whom ye say with your lips yee have refused your pestilent Pope of Rome Ye play altogether Hick-s●o●ne● under the figure of Ironia That yee say yee hate yee lov● and that yee say yee love yee hate Late all faithfull men beware of such double day dreamers and hollow hearted Traytors and thinke whereas they beare the rule nothing shall come rightly forward either in faith or Commonwealth What other workes can come from the Devills working tooles than commeth from the hands of his owne malignant mischiefe who can deny the Bishops to be the instruments of satan understanding the Scriptures and beholding their daily doings Thinke yee ●here can be a greater plague to a Christian Realme than to have such Ghostly Fathers of the Kings Privie councell If wise men do judge it any other than a just plague for our sinnes and a yoke laid upon us for our unreverent receiving of that heavenly treasure the eternall Testament of Christ to have such hypocrites theeves and traytors to raigne over us truly they judge not aright If wee would earnestly therefore repent of our former being and un●ainedly turne to our everliving God as wee find in the Testament I would not doubt it to jeopard both my body and soule that wee should in short space bee delivered of this Popish vermine rising out of this bottomlesse pit Apoc. 9. which eateth up all that is greene upon earth or hath taken any strength of the living word of the Lord for the heart of a King is alwayes in the hands of God and at 〈◊〉 his pleasure hee may evermore turne it Prov. 21. Take mee not here that I condemne any Bishop or Priest that is godly doing those holy offices that the Scripture hath commanded them as preaching the Gospell providing for the poore and ministring the Sacraments right but against the bloody butchers that murther up Gods People a●d daily make havocke of Christs congregation to maintaine the Jewes Ceremonies and the Pagans Superstititions in the Christian Church Those are not Bishops but Bite-sheepes Tyrants Tormenters Termagaunts and the Devils slaughter men Christ left no such Disciples behind him to sit with cruell Caiphas at the Sessions upon life and death of his innocent members but such as in poverty preached the Gospell rebuking the wicked world for Idolatry hypocri●ie and false doctrine Episcopus is as much to say as an

verdict upon an Indictment for the King● against Innovating Clergie men as they were bound to doe both in Law and Conscience Witnesse the Case of Master Aske late Recorder of Colchester Mr. Burroughs and the grand Jury of that Towne who were thus vexed for finding an Indictment against Par●on Newcoman for refusing to deliver the Sacrament to those who came not up to his new raile And no doubt the Bishops secret Commands and Instructions were the Originall cause that moved Sir Robert Berkely Knight one of the Judges of the Kings Bench at the Generall Sessions at Har●ford in Ianuary 7. 1638. to fine Mr. Henry Browne one of the grand Jury men at that Sessions and lay him in Irons one night onely for finding an Indictment for rayling in the Communion Table at Hartford Altar-wise which indictment he caused the said Brown openly to teare trample under his feete and one tha● stayed other indictments of this nature in high affront bo●h o● Law and Justice onely to please the Prela●es whose commands threates and persecutions have beene the Originall causes of most of the Judges irregular proceedings Fourteenthly They have not onely cited but censured some of his Majesties Officers in the High-Commission for executing his Lawes according to their Oath and duty as the Major of Arundell for punishing a drumken Minister and likewise ci●ed Mr. Staple a Justice of peace in Sussex into the High-Co●mission for giving in charge at the quarter Sessions his 〈…〉 against Innovations and deaucht Clergie men Fift●●n●hly●●hey have most unjustly caused some Posters to be ●●opped af●●r ●●●dicts ●ound for the plaintiffes and dammages given by ●he Jury upon ●ul● hearing for Actions justly bro●ght agai●s● 〈◊〉 of ●h●ir Officers for dafamations and other 〈…〉 so that the Plaintiffes could never get judgement● w●●nesse ●he case of Master Bayton against Doctor Martyn Com●●ssary of Tomes and others Sixtee●●hly they haue caused some Solliciters Atturnies and Pla●n●iffes to be imprisoned untill they gave over such just actions as they had commenced and prosecuted against their Office●s for Extortions Opressions and unjust Excommuni●ations witnesse the case of Ferdinando Adams whose Atturny Master Letchford was committed to the Kings Bench by Judge Iones and some other Judges only for bringing an Action of the Case against Dade the the Bishop of Norwich Commissary at Ipswich for Excommunicating him maliciously and unjustly because he re●used to blot out this Text of Scripture written over the Commissaries Court in Saint Maries Church in Ipswich It is written My house shall be called an house of Prayer of all Nations but ye have made it a den of theeves detaining him in prison till he gave over the prosecution and discontinued the suite sundry others having since beene served in this kinde by the Prelates sollicitation Seventeenthly They have beene the Originall occasions of the late unhappy warre and differences betweene Scotland and England which they stiled Bellum Episcopale the Bishops warre to which they liberally contributed themselves and enforced others to do the like when these differences were comprimised and this warre happily concluded in peace they were the chiefe Authors of the breach of the pacifica●ion formerly made and of a second warre to the great danger trouble and unsupportable charge o● his Majesties three kingdomes Eighteenthly they have beene the prime causes of all or most of the grievances pressures distractions Schismes in our Church and Common-weale and chiefe instruments of the unhappy breaches of our former Parliaments to the infinite prejudice both of King and Subject Ninteenthly when as they had caused the last Parliament but this to be dissolved to manifest their omnipotency disloyalty and tyranny they caused a new Convocation to be immediately assembled without a Parliament wherein they compiled and prescribed New Canons with an c. Oath tending highly to the derogation of his Majesties prerogative royall in Ecclesiasticall matters the subversion of the ●undamentall Lawes of the Realme and Liberties of the Subject the affront of Parliaments the suppression of all faithfull ministers and ayming onely at the perpetuating of their owne Episcopall Lordly power and Popish Innovations And as if this were not sufficient they tooke upon them to grant sundry subsidies without a Parliament for the maintenance of a new war against the Scots and enjoyned all Ministers to pay these Subsidies peremptorily at the dayes assigned by them under paine of present deprivation for the first default Omni Appellatione semota without any benefit of appeale one of the highest straines of tyranny and injustice that ever I have met with For which Canons Oath and Subsidies they now stand impeached by the whole house of Commons as delinquents in a high nature and are like ere long to receive condigne punishment Twentiethly it is very suspicious that they or some of them had a hand in the late dangerous Treason and Conspiracie since the first clause of the Oath of Se●recy administred to the Conspirators was To maintaine the Bishops in their functions and votes in Parliament and the Clergie would at their owne charge as Serjant Major Wallis confesseth in his examination maintaine a thousand horse to promote this Trayterous designe and have now as some report an hundred thousand pound ready for such a service In the twentieth one place they have oppressed and ruined divers of his Majesties Loyall Subjects Ministers and others both in their bodies estates credits families caused many thousands of them to forsake the Realme and to transport their families into forraine parts to the great decay of trade and impoverishing of the Realme In which they have done his Majestie great dis-service whose Honour and safety consists in the multitude and wealth of his people and his destruction in want of people In the twenty second ranke they have most undutifully and disloyally cast the odium of all their late Innovations in Religion their new Canons and tyrannicall exorbitant proceedings on his Majestie proclaiming it openly to the people that all they did was onely by his Majesties speciall direction and command of purpose to alienate the hearts of the people from his Majestie as much as in them lay In the twenty third place they and their Officers have sorely fleeced and impoverished his Majesties Subjects in such sort by exacted Fees and vexatio●s suites in their Visitations High-Commissions and other Ecclesiasticall Courts and by putting them to unnecessary costs for raising and rayling in Comm●nion Tables and new adorning their Churches that they are unable to supply his Majesties and the Kingdomes necessities in that liberall proportion as they have formerly done the late Subsidies scarce amounting to halfe that summe as they did in former times Finally in their last High-Commission Pa●ent they obtained this strange Non-obstante which robs the King of his Supremacy and the Subjects of their Lawes and Liberties namely That their Lordships in all Ecclesiasticall causes specified in that Commission might proceede in a meere arbitrary manner as