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
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
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
at the Cross preached by the eloquent and religious Prelate Dr. Iohn King Lord Bishop of London The Sermon being ended the Collation began His Majesty attended with all the Lords and the rest of his Train being entertained by the said Lord Bishop at a sumptuous Banquet with no less honour to himself than content to his Majesty But there was more intended by this Visit than Pomp and Ostentation only For his Majesty having taken a view of the Ruinous Estate in which he beheld that goodly Fabrick issued not long after a Commission for repair thereof and somewhat was done in it both by Bishop King and Bishop Mountain But the carrying one of this work was reserved to another man For a breach following not long after between Spain and England and wars soon following on that breach a stop was made to all proceedings in that work till the year 1631. At what time Laud being Bishop of London obtained a like Commission from the hands oâ— King CHARLES and set his heart so much upon it that in few years he had made a mighty Progress in it of which more hereafter And here it was once feared that this present History might have ended without going further for on the second of April as he past from London towards Oxon he took up his Inn at Wickam upon the Rode where he fell suddenly dead and was not without much diffâ—culty and Gods special favour restored unto his former being But God reserved him to a life more eminent and a death more glorious not suffering him to dye obscurely like a traveller in a Private Inn but more conspicuously like a Martyr on the Publick Theatre for on the 22. of Ianuary he was installed Prebend in the Church of Westminster after no less than ten years expectation of it And on the last of the same Month he sate as Dean of Glocester in the Convâ—cation The Prince Elector Palatine who married the Kings only Daughter in the year 1612. had the last year most inconsiderately took upon him the Crown of Bohemiah not taking with him the Kings Counsel in it as he might have done but giving him an account oâ— it on the Post-Fact only The Emperour exasperated with this Usurpation as by him reputed gave up his Country for a prey assigning the Electoral Dignity with the Upper Palatinate to the Duke of Bavaria and the Lower to the King of Spain who had possest themselves of divers good Towns and pieces in it For the recovery whereof and the Preservation of the rest in which his Daughter and her Children were so much concerned it pleased his Majesty to call a Parliament to begin on the thirtieth day of Ianuary accompanied with a Convocation as the custom is on the morrow after The business of their Conveening being signified unto them by the King the Parliament at their first sitting which ended March 27. bestowed upon his Majesty two Subsidies but they gave no more which rather served to stay his stomach than allay his hunger They had some turns to serve upon him before they would part with any more money if they did it then But the Clergy dealt more freely with him in their Convocation because they had no other ends in it than the expressing of their duty and good affections In testimony whereof they gave him three entire Subsidies of four shillings in the pound at their first sitting and would not have been wanting to his Majesty in a further addition in the second or third if his Majesty had required it of them Incouraged with which supplies and the hopes of greater he sent some Regiments of old English Souldiers for the defence and preservation of the Lower Palatinate under the Command of that Noble Souldier Sir Horatio Vere When the Commons bestowed upon him the said two Subsidies he took them only as a bit to stay his stomach as before was said giving himself some hopes that at the next Session they would entertain him with a better and more costly dinner but then they meant that he should pay the reckoning for it For at their reassembling on the seventeenth of April instead of granting him the supplies he looked for they fell to pick quarrels with his Servants and one of his chief Ministers of State not only questioning Sir Giles Mompesson and Sir Francis Michael but even the Lord Chancellor Bacon also These men supposing them to have been as criminal as their enemies made them were notwithstanding such as acted under his Commissions and therefore not to have been punished by his own Authority only The giving of them over to the Power of the Parliament not only weakened his own Prerogative but put the House of Commons upon such a Pin that they would let no Parliament pass for the times to come without some such Sacrifice And so foll Bacon Lord Chancellor of England Lord Verulan and Viscount of St. Albans a man of good and bad qualities equally compounded one of a most strong brain and a Chimical head designing his endeavors to the perfecting of the Works of Nature or rather improving Nature to the best advantages of life and the common benefit of mankind Pity it was he was not entertained with some liberal Salary abstracted from all affairs both of Court and Judicature and furnished with sufficiency both of means and helps for the going on in his design which had it been he might have given us such a body of Natural Philosophy and made it so subservient to the publick good that neither Aristotle nor Theophrastus amongst the Ancients nor Paracelsus or the rest of our later Chimists would have been considerable In these Agitations held the Parliament till the fourth of Iune without doing any thing in order to his Majesties Service who thereupon adjourned them till the fourteenth of November following before which time we find Laud mounted one step higher and ready to take place amongst the Bisâ—ops in the House of Peers And therefore here we will conclude the first Part of our present History THE LIFE OF The most Reverend FATHER in GOD WILLIAM Lord Archbishop of Canterbury LIB II. Extending from his being made Bishop of St. Davids till his coming to the See of Bath and Wells IT is an observation no less old than true that Patience and Perseverance overcome all difficulties And so it hapned unto Laud. He had with most incredible patience endured the baffles and affronts which were put upon him by the power and practises of his enemies Nor did he shew less patience in his so long and chargeable attendance at the Court for which he had so small regard that he was rather looked upon as the Bishop of Durhams Servant than the Kings But notwithstanding these cross winds he was resolved to ride it out neither to shift his sails nor to tack about but still to keep his way and to stem the current till he had gained the Port he aimed at His Majesty had been made acquainted by
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