sit and apt Clerk to be preferred to the same Hence it plainly appears by the said Covenant and Proviso that the said Committees as to the Advouson of the Church of Sutton belonging to the said Ward are but Lessees in Trust to present such a Clerk to the same as the King or the Master and Council of the Court of Wards for the King shall Name or Appoint Then it is Pregnant That the Clerk being refused whom the Lady offered to the Rectory without the Kings Consent c. no Injustice is offered 199. He rejoyns to the Second That the said Church being become Void the Lord Keeper by Virtue of his Place as time out of mind hath been used presented Dr. Grant the Kings Chaplain in his Majesties Name The Master of the Wards presented likewise Dr. Wilson in the Kings Name to the same Church But Dr. Grant was first presented admitted and Dr. Wilson gave way After both these the Committees present their Clerk in their own Name and pray a Quare Impedu to remove the Kings Clerk and to have their own Clerk admitted in his room This Quare Impedit by the Kings Commandment to the Lord Keeper was denied them For which much is alledged Lands in Question in Chancery were Decreed by the Lord Ellsmore to Peacock in Equity against Revell who had a good Title in Law Revell would have had an Original Writ of Assise against Peacock to have recover'd the Lands from him by Law The Writ was denied him by the Lord Ellsmore If Revell would have made a Lease or a Feoffment to any Friend in trust which Friend would have sued for an Original Writ to have recover'd the Land the Writ might as well be denied to him as to Revell himself So the Master of the Wards presented a Clerk to the Church of Sutton in the Kings Name before the Lord Darcy presented If that Clerk would have sued for a Quare Impedit in the Kings Name the Lord Keeper by the Kings Appointment might have denied the Writ And by the same Reason may he in like manner deny the Writ to the Lady Darcy who as to the Advouson is but a Lessee in trust to present such a Clerk as the Master of the Wards for the King shall name As by the Covenant and Proviso in the Lease doth appear If Lands in Question in the Chancery be by Order of the Court by both Parties conveyed to one of the Six Clerks in trust that he shall convey the same as the Court shall Order upon the hearing of the Cause who refuseth to convey the Land according to the trust and prayeth a Writ of Assise to recover the Land from him to whom the Court hath order'd the same for the trust appears as plainly to the Court as in the Case of a Decree This Writ may be denied So the Lady Darcy being a Lessee of the Advouson in trust to present such a Clerk as the King or the Court of Wards shall name or allow of if she will present a Clerk of her own contrary to the trust reposed in her and sue for a Quare Impedit to remove the Clerk presented by the King and to put in her own choice this Writ by the Kings Appointment may be denied her for the trust appears of Record So if Bonds be taken of a Defendant in Chancery in the Name of a Master of the Chancery with Condition to perform the Order or Decree of the Court The Court Decrees Money to be paid by the Defendant to the Plaintiff at a Day who pays the same the next Day after which the Plaintiff accepts and the Court allows of If the Master of Chancery will pray an Original Writ of Debt upon this Bond to recover the Money to his own use this Writ may be denied him The Lord Ellsmore presented a Clerk in the Kings Name Ratione Minoris AEtatis The Lady Mordant pretended Title to present and having four Feoffees in trust of the Mannor or Lands to which the Advouson did belong as she pretended would have had four Writs of Quare Impedit against the Kings Clerk in the Names of her four Feoffees severally The Lord Ellsmore denied them all There are many more Precedents to be shewed in like Cases where Original Writs have been denied 200. Yet since it is to be done with great Tenderness and Discretion and seldom or never but when it appears that one Injury must be prevented necessarily with another he declares Thirdly That the Lady Darcy's Proceedings thrust in so dangerously between two great Courts that ordinary Justice could not but be denied her for fear an extraordinary Difference should be raised between the said Courts being thus laid open When the Lord Ellsmore was Lord Chancellor and Robert Earl of Salisbury Master of the Wards there fell out a Contestation between these two Potent Lords whose Right it was to present to the Wards Livings which were under Value of 20 l. in the First-Fruit-Office And the Contention grew so insoluble that King James with all his Pacificous Wisdom could not readily light upon a way to reconcile it Yet at the last it was compounded thus That which soever of those two Officers should first present to such a Benefice his Presentation should be Valid for the Possession of the Living If both Presentations should come together to the Bishop which perhaps would not happen in an Age then there was Casus pro amico on the Bishop's behalf as the Canonists speak This Agreement had continued amicably to that very Day and was then in danger to be infring'd For if a Suit had commenced as the Lady desired the Lord Keeper could not avoid to charge the Court of Wards with Fraudulency in passing away the Donations of Livings in the Compositions for Wards which was a pre-occupating or rather plain deluding of the Patronage which was in the Lord Keeper by the Agreement Wherefore he waves the strong and full defence he had made upon the stopping of an Original Writ and deprecates all offence by that Maxim of the Law which admits of a mischief rather than an inconvenience Which was as much as to say That he thought it a far less Evil to do the Lady the probability of an Injury in her own sense than to suffer those two Courts to clash together again and fall into a new Dispute about their Jurisdiction which might have produc'd a publick inconvenience which is most carefully to be avoided This Plea satisfied the House and cleared him in the general Opinion or as some Interpreted excus'd him rather for his other good Parts then absolutely cleared in this intricate Point as Livie li. 1. says Horatius escaped Sentence by the Voice of the people because they loved his Person rather then lik'd the Fact upon which he was question'd Absolveruntque admiratione magis virtutis quam jure Causae Yet it goes strongly to justifie the Lord Keeper in the Fact that all the Lawyers in the House did unanimously
hope to comprehend all that I shall say or any man else can materially touch upon in this Bill The first is the Rise or Motive of this Bill which is the Duty of men in Holy Orders for the words are Persons in Holy Orders ought not to intermeddle c. And this Duty of Ministers may be taken in this place two several ways either for their Duty in point of Divinity or for their Duty in point of Convenience which we commonly call Policy In regard of either of these Duties it may be conceived that men in Holy Orders ought not to intermeddle in Sacred Affairs c. and this is the Motive Rise and Ground of this Bill The second point are the persons concerned in the Bill which are Archbishops Bishops Parsons Vicars and all other in Holy Orders The third point contains the things inhibited from this time forward to such persons by this Bill and they are of several sorts and natures First Freeholds and Rights of such persons as their Suffrages Votes and Legislative Power in Parliament Secondly Matters of Princely Favours as to sit in Star-chamber to be call'd to the Council-board to be Justices of the Peace c. Thirdly Matters of a mixt and concrete nature that seem to be both Freeholds and Favours of former Princes as the Charters of some of the Bishops and some of the ancient Cathedrals are conceived to be And these are all the matters or things inhibited from those persons in Holy Orders by this present Bill The fourth point is the manner of this Inhibition which is of a double nature first of a severe Penalty and secondly under Cain's Mark an eternalkind of Disability and Incapacity laid upon them from enjoying hereafter any of those Freeholds Rights Favours or Charters of former Princes and that which is the heaviest point of all without killing of Abel or any Crime laid to their Charge more than that in the beginning of the Bill it is said roundly and in the style of Lacedaemon That they ought not to intermeddle in Secular Affairs The fifth point is a Salvo for the two Universities but none for the Bishop of Durham nor for the Bishop of Ely not for the Dean of Westminster their next Neighbour who is establish'd in his Government by an especial Act of Parliament that of the 27 of Queen Elizabeth The sixth and last point is a Salvo for Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons or Peers of this Kingdom that either may be or are such by Descent Which Clause I hope in God will prove not only a Salvo to those honourable persons whereof if we of the Clergy were but so happy as to have any competent number of our Coat Quot Thebarum portae vel divit is ostia Nili this Bill surely had perish'd in the Womb and never come to the Birth but I hope that this Clause will prove this Bill a felo de se and a Murtherer of it self and intended for a Salvo to noble Ministers only prove a Salvo for all other Ministers that be not so happy as to be nobly born because the very poor Minister for ought we find in Scripture or common Reason is no more tyed to serve God in his Vocationâ— than these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and nobly-born Ministers are And therefore I hope those noble Ministers will deal so nobly as to pull their Brethren the poor Ministers out of the Thorns and Bryars of this Bill And these are all the true Heads and Contents of this Bill And among these six Heads your Lordships shall be sure to find me and I shall expect to sind your Lordships in the whole Tract of this Committee And now with your Lordships honourable Leave and Patience I will run them over almost as briefly as I have pointed and pricked them down 160. For the first the Rise and Motive of this Bill which is the Duty of Men in Holy Orders not to intermeddle with Secular Affairs must either rise from a point of Divinity or from a point of Conveniency or Policy And I hope in God it will not appear to your Lordships that there is any Ground either of Divinity or Policy to inhibit men in Orders so modestly to intermeddle with Secular Affairs as that the measure of intermeddling in such Affairs shall not hinder nor obstruct the Duties of their Calling They ought not so to intermeddle in Secular Affairs as to neglect their Ministry no more ought Lay-men neither for they have a Calling and Vocation wherein they are to walk as Ministers have they have Wife and Children and Families to care for and they are not to neglect these to live upon Warrants and Recognizances to become a kind of Sir Francis Michel or a Justus nimis as Solomon calls it Eccles 7.16 That place 2 Tim. 2.4 No man that warrs entangles himself with the affairs of this life will be found to be applied by all good Interpreters to Lay-men as well as Church-men and under favour nothing at all to this purpose Besides that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth point at a man that is so wholly taken up with the Affairs of this Life that he utterly neglects the Offices and Duties of a Christian man And so I leave that place as uncapable of any other Exposition nor ever otherwise interpreted but by Popes Legates and Canonists that make a Nose or Wax of every place of Scripture they touch upon But that men in Holy Orders ought not in a moderate manner together with the Duties of their Calling to help and assist in the Government of the Common-wealth if they be thereunto lawfully called by the Soveraign Prince can never be proved by any good Divinity for in the Law of Natâ—e before the Deluge and a long time after it is a point that no man will deny me That the Eldest of the Family was both the Priest and the Magistrate Then the People were taken out of Aegypt by Moses and Aaron Moses and Aaron among his Priests as it is in the Psalm Then there was a Form of a Common-wealth setch'd from Heaven indeed and planted upon the Earth and judiciary Laws dictated for the regulating of the same Nor do I much care though some men shall say That persons in Holy Orders ought not to intermeddle in Secular Affairs when that Great God of Heaven and Earth doth appoint them to intermeddle with all the principal Affairs of that estate witness the exorbitant Power of the High-Priest in Secular Matters the Sanhedrim the 23 the Judges of the Gate which were most of them Priests and Levites And the Church-men of that Estate were not all Butchers and Slaughter-men for they had their Tabernacle their Synagogues their Prayers Preaching and other Exercises of Piety In a word we have Divinius but they had operosius ministerium as St Austin speaketh Our Ministry takes up more of our Thoughts but theirs took up more of their Labour and Industry Nor is it any matter that
what he perform'd in St. Maries in Cambridg rather than in a sorry Vicarage I can tell them among others that were present that he publisht himself a most rare Preacher in a Sermon made before the University anno 1610. upon this Text Luc. 16.22 It came to pass That the Beggar died and was carried by the Angels into Abrahams Bosom He handled the points of the Souls Immortality of the present Blessed â—ss of them that dye in Gods Mercy of their Reception into Heaven of the Ministry of Angels whether particularly Guardian or rather in general to all Christians there he discours'd with that depth of Learning yet liquidating that depth with such facility of opening it beside with that Energy and Vigour of Voice and Sides that his Auditory granted him to be a loud Cymbal and a well-Tuned Cymbal About Eight Mouths after being Listed into the Combination of the choicest Preachers He was call'd to do that Duty before K. James and Prince Henry at Royston whereupon the King spake much good of him but the Prince taking great notice of him as an Honour to Wales was not satisfied to give him encouragement of praise but gave him his Princely Word that He would Reward him after the weight of his Worth But the Father bestowed that preferment on him which the Prince taken away by early Death for our Sins intended I heard of this Sermon Six Weeks after and by a merry Token for having occasion to come to that hunting Court at Royston I received Hospitality at a Table full of good Company where I was askt over and over especially by the old Brittains what Place and Dignity Mr. Williams had in Cambridge every one of them could tell me he made a most Excellent Sermon before the King but for their parts they had been such attentive Hearers that among them all I could not Learn the Text. The Fame of our accomplisht Preacher who had taken the University and the Court so far with his Merits as none more spread far And he wanted not Friends in the Lord Chancellour Egertons Family to acquaint his Lordship with it who instantly preferr'd him before all Competitors and said no more but Send for him and let me have him This was at Midsummer anno 16â—1 That Lord Chancellour was a great Patron to Divines but then they must be of many degrees above Mediocrity and those whom he pickt out for the Service of his House were of the first and as it were Seraphical Order And such indeed were Dr. Richard Feild Dr. King Bishop of London Dr. Carew Bp. of Exon and as one of that stamp he was pleased to entertain Mr. Williams But when he came to London to be Approved for that Service after great and humble acknowledgment of his Thankfulness he prayed the Lord Chancellour he might continue a year or the greatest part of it at Cambridg before he came to wait constantly in his Lordships Honourable Family because at Michaelmass following he was to enter upon the Proctor-ship of his University a place of Credit and some Emolument And may you not fulfil that place by a Deputy says the Chancellor My Lord says the Chaplain I must take an Oath upon my admission into that Office to oversee the Government entrusted to me not in general Terms only of Faith and Diligence but for the due Provision of many particular Branches of the Statutes and I dare not trust my Oath with another mans Conscience To so fair a Plea he got a gentle concession where I must shew him in his Honour of Proctorship before he return again to my Lord Egerton I have more to say than to tell the World he was Junior Proctor of Cambridge So have many been who did nothing but that which deserves to be forgotten like Consuls that acted nothing and were useful for nothing but to have the Fasti known by their Names His was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a a procuration indeed so it is Translated out of Xenophon which he filled up with as much real Worth and Value with as much Profit and Dignity to the University as could be dispatcht in the Orb of that Government The first place wherein Epaminondas appear'd publickly among the Citizens of Thebes was the Surveyorship of the High-ways and no better Et muneri Dignitatem addidit says Valerius lib. 3. c. 4. He gave Lustre by his management to that petty Function It holds as right as possibly an Example can match a thing in this instance It is well known our Proctor came into this Magistracy burthened with great expectation which measure he filled up and exceeded it He rose with great Light and set with more Brightness than he rose Happy were those times that heard his Plinian Orations for his Style had that Savour that heard his Aristotelian disputations that enjoyed the Fruit to hear him moderate at the Morning Exercises between a Master and a Batchelor Methinks yet I do hear him inveighing as I did once against the Sloth of the Batchelors for degenerating from themselves and the Ancient Customs of the Schools as of a fearful Metamorphâ—is with those Words Nam vos mutastis illas He was an assiduous Overseer and Interlocutor at the Afternoon Disputations of the Under Graduates Some of the most hopeful he enflamed with his Praise Not a few Tasted of his Bounty and in no meaner Mettle than Gold I know a man whom he took Notice of at those Acts who is the better for his good liking to this day It was greatly commendable in him that he disdain'd not to be President himself at these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but attended at them and acted in them vivâ voce and did not put off the Work to Journey-men The Night-watches indeed he committed sometimes to Deputies as the manner is to compel the Looser sort from their Haunts of Inns and Taverns and Houses of ill Fame But when he held the Staff in his own hand he perceiv'd he prevail'd most And it was sensible to the Eye That he reclaimed many from disorder not that in all the year he damnified any one by censure that I could hear of Neither did he use to make a crackling Noise with contumelies and Threatnings But won Regard to his Place by Sweetness by Affableness by Perswasions as dealing with Scholars not with Peasants with Freemen and not with Servants This I am sure of by his Prudence and Vigilancy Scandals of corrupted behaviour abated but increased not And what any of his Successors of the sowrest Rigor could do more I know not 27. In this Procuratorian year it is as due as any thing to be Remembred how he behaved himself in three weighty occurrencies Soon after Christmass the Kings Majesty Commanded the Heads of the University to give entertainment such as might be prepared of a sudden to a German Prince and his Train It was the Duke of Wittenberg I cannot err in that I suppose for we of the younger fort were
thither at that Season from Lord Chancellor Elsmore's House and the very brave Attendance of the Lord Privy-Seal the lately confirm'd Chancellor of the University divers others attended the Elder Brother of the Act. Sir Charles Stanhop Knight of the Bath only Son and Heir to John Lord Stanhop of Harington a comely Gentleman that took his Degree of Master and well deserv'd it as much by the Proficiency of his Learning as by the Title of his Blood These Gallants must be Feasted by the Proctor and there was no Want I would there had been no Superfluity These Costly and Luxurious Meals are the Lard of our Commencements thrust in among the better Banquets of Scholastical Exercises The Proctors Table was more Sumptuous I understand my Comparison for the time then useth to be at a Mayoralty in London I do not reckon it among his clean and unblemish'd Praises But if I may presume to sit Judge over his Thoughts I believe He took Parsimony to be most uncivil Behaviour The Prevaricator made me smile when he gave him this Character to his Face Titus Largius primus Dictator Romanorum To express my self a little further These Messes of good Chear ought to be frankly set out at the times of such Genial and Gaudy Days It were a wise World if they could be kept within Moderation The wise and well-governing Heathen Romans had Leges Cibarias as old thrifty Cato term'd them Leges sumptum comprimentes in the Style of Tertullian in his Apology I take it from A. Gellius lib. 2. c. 24. that the Sum of 300 Sestertii and no more were permitted to be spent in feriis Solennibus which comes to about 40 Shillings or a little under as I cast it up with my Counters Yet Liberal Julius Caesar indulg'd on such Occasions the Expence of 1000 his Nephew Augustus bounded it up to 2000 which comes not altogether to 15 Pounds of our Money Ut his saltem finibus Luxuriae effervescentis aestus coercerctur And this was granted only to Senators the Princes of the World and not to Scholars and that neither but in Nuptiis Repotiis at the Feast of the Bride and the Repotations of the Bridegroom I want not Commission to spend this little Ink and it is but very little upon this Subject For the Holy Scriptures speak of Salomon's Feasts as well as of Salomon's Wisdom Howsoever these Junquets and the mention are quickly taken away with a Voider The Feasts of his Learning and Eloquence demonstrated in the Theatre of the Commencement that was the open House-keeping were far more delicious and sweet to the Ear then Meats could be to the Belly All his Speeches were damask'd quite over with most pleasant Allusions out of Greek and Latin Authors This was the last Scene acted on the Stage of that one Year's Office and it had the loudest Plaudite Indeed this was the Vintage when more then ever before he press'd out the ripe Grapes of his Elegancies Virgil. Georg. Tumidisbumasta racemis These were his Olympic Wrestlings wherein he got the Mastery in all sorts of Exercises As Laertius says of Democritus lib. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So this Champion got the best at all the Weapons of Philosophy Selected Questions were disputed and fit for the greatest Celebrity of the Year extracted out of the Politics Natural Theorems and the Metaphysics he became Victor in every Duel And so he shut up his Proctorship as to the Learned Trial of it here it ended with that General Testimony of his Praise Ut puderet virum altius extollere as Pollio says of Valerianus that neither we could give nor he with modesty receive a greater Commendation 31. These Performances being so well over he left Cambridge and made a happy Remove as a Consul well approved in the Year of his Magistracy was transposed into a Proconsulat or Charge of a Province to testifie the good liking of the People to his precedent Office By this Province I mean his Chaplain-Attendance in the House of Lord Chancellor Egerton a Nest for an Eagle From that Step in the House of Lord Chancellor Hatton Dr. Bancroft began to rise higher till he came to be Metropolitan of all England By the like Service in the House of Lord Keeper Puckering Dr. Vaughan first made his Abilities known and afterward got his Prince's Favour to sit in the See of London Now the Disciple whom these two great Prelates loved so well performing that Trust with Lord Egerton which they had done with his Lordship's Predecessors was their Match at least in Dispatch and Judgment and by God's Providence their Equal in Prosperity Yet before I settle him for good and all in this Honourable Family which will best be done in an whole Piece without disjoyning it I must bring him to Cambridge again by an Act of Revocation A fond Mother that dotes upon her dear Son whom she hath sent abroad to be Manner'd and Disciplin'd will pick many Occasions after a little absence to recal him But the Expedient and not the Fondness which made the University borrow him of the Lord Chancellor his Master after he had been 7 months away was this The King 's only Daughter the Glorious Princess Elizabeth was married at Whitehall to Frederick Prince Palatine and Chief Elector of the Empire at Shrovetide Nothing could be devised to Honour a Royal Solemnity with Bravery Tiltings Barriers Masques and all sorts of Triumphs which was not used and presented The Gallantry of the Court having had deservedly the first Place in Celebrating these Nuptials it was Resolved by the King's Majesty That His Son-in-Law the Elector with the Strangers of the Platz should be received for a Conclusion with an Academical Entertainment at Cambridge The Warning coming to Dr. Carew the Vice-Chancellor a Prudent Courtly Man and very fit for the Service Matters were put in a short time into Order and Readiness The Earl of Northampton our Chancellor was expected for Tradition Immemorial required him at such a season but the frugal old Man appeared not The Charge of great Fare and Feasting was not more Costly then Welcom to the brave Mind of Dr. Nevile Master of Trinity College who never had his like in that Orb I believe for a splendid courteous and bountiful Gentleman His Table was Graced with the Company of Prince Charles Prince Elector Frederick the Bridegroom Count Henry of Nassaw Lodwick Duke of Lenox with a most comely Concourse of Nobles and Gentlemen both of the German and English Nations In two distinct Nights a Comick and a Pastoral Fable both in Latin were Acted before their Highnesses and other Spectators by the Students of the same College This was Play the rest was Work The Scholastical Dissertations were the Work of the Day the Church of St. Mary being Scaffolded for that use 32. The Vice-Chancellor with the Sages of the Consistory concluded there should be a kind of Commencement extraordinary to Congratulate these Potentates and
His Majesty for a Pension to support them in their sequestred Sadness where they might spend their Days in Fasting and Prayer It was vehemently considered that our Hierarchy was much quarrel'd with and opposed by our own Fugitives to the Church of Rome who would fasten upon this Scandal and upon it pretend against our constant Succession hitherto undemolish'd with all the Malice that Wit could excogitate And indeed they began already For the Fact was much discoursed of in Foreign Universities who were nothing concerned especially our Neighbours the Sorbonists at Paris ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 4.15 over-busie to have an Oar in our Boat Disputing it three several times in their Schools and concluded the Accident to amount to a full Irregularity which is an Incapacity to exercise any Ecclesiastical Act of Order or Jurisdiction His Majesty upon the eruption of these Scruples was called up to think seriously that his Sweetness and Compassion did not leave a Slur upon this Church which himself under Christ had made so Glorious It belonged to the four Bishops Elect to be most Circumspect in this matter expecting their Consecration shortly and to be informed whether they should acknowledge that the Power of an Arch-Bishop was Integral and Unblemish'd in a casual Homicide and submit to have his Hands laid upon their Heads Dr. Davenant shewed Reason That it behoved him not to be seen in the Opposition because the Arch-Bishop had Presented him to the rich Parsonage of Cotnam not far from Cambridge It was well taken for among honest Pagans a Benesiciary would not contend against his Patron Howsoever such as knew not the wherefore were the more benevolous to the Arch-Bishop's misfortune because so great a Clerk stood off and meddled not The Rhodian's Answer in Plutarch was not forgotten who was baited by his Accusers all the while that the Judge said nothing I am not the worse for their Clamours says the Defendant but my Cause is the better that the Judge holds his peace Non refert quid illi loquantur sed quid ille taceat The other three without Davenant stirred in it the most they could to decline this Metropolitan's Consecreation not out of Enmity or Superstition but to be wary that they might not be attainted with the Contagion of his Scandal and Uncanonical Condition The Lord-Keeper appearing for the rest writes thus to the Lord Marquess as it is extant Cabal p. 55. MY Lord's Grace upon this Accident is by the Common-Law of England to forfeit all his Estate to His Majesty and by the Canon-Law which is in force with us irregular Ipso facto and so suspended from all Ecclesiastical Function until he be again restored by his Superior which I take it is the King's Majesty in this Rank and Order of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction I wish with all my heart His Majesty would be as Merciful as ever He was in all his Life But yet I hold it my Duty to let His Majesty know by your Lordship that His Majesty is fallen upon a Matter of great Advice and Deliberation To add Affliction to the Afflicted as no doubt he is in Mind is against the King's Nature To leave a Man of Blood Primate and Patriarch of all his Churches is a thing that sounds very harsh in the old Councils and Canons of the Church The Papists will not spare to descent upon the one and the other Heave the Knot to His Majesties deep Wisdom to Advise and Resolve upon A gentler Hand could not touch a Sore yet I think of his Judgment in this Point as Sealiger did of the sine Poet Fracostorius Ab suâ ipse magnitudine descendisse credi potest aliquando He flew lower at this Game then the pitch of his wonted Wisdom For the Question did hang yet upon this Pin Whether there were a Sore to be cured His Lordship had look'd attentively into the Canonists whom he could cite by rote with his happy Memory Their Decretals and Extravagants Un-bishop a Man that kill'd a Man and meant a Beast nay further if the Bishop's Horse did cast the Groom that water'd him into a Pond and drown'd him But if we Appeal from them to higher and better Learning their Rigour will prove Ridiculous The Fact is here confess'd But is Sin in the Fact or in the Mind of the Facient Omne peccatum in tantum est peccatum in quantum est voluntarium This is the Maxim of the Schools upon actual Sins and a true one A guilty Mind makes a guilty Action An unfortunate Hand concurs often with an innocent Heart Quis nomen unquam sccleris errori indidit Put the Case that these Writers are very inclinable to have Absolution granted incontinently to such Contingencies but to keep a bustle whether Absolution is to be given or not when there is no fault is to abuse the Power of the Keys Irregularities in that Superstitious Latin Church are above Number what have we to do with them That we did cut them off we did not name it indeed in our Reformation under Edward the Sixth c. for they were thrown out with Scorn as not to be mention'd among ejected Rubbish For we perceived they were never meant to bind but to open I mean the Purse He that is Suspended may entangle himself from the Censure with a Bribe The Canonists are good Bone-letters for a Bone that was never broken their Rubrics are filled with Punctilio's not for Consciences but for Consciuncles Haberdashers of small Faults and palpable Brokers for Fees and Mercinary Dispensations Therefore those plain-dealing and blunt People among the Helvetians otherwise Clients of the Roman Party serv'd them very well as Simler hath Page 64. of his History Cum Papa Rom acceptà pecuniâ Matrimonium contra canones concesserat populus recognitâ statuit Si divitious pecunià numeratâ hoc licitum sit etiam pauperibus absque pecunid fas essc And a little before Pag. 135. when those poor Cantoners could not enjoy their own in quiet for the Rent-gatherers of the Court of Rome they bid them keep off at their own peril with this popular Edict Si pergant nundinatores bullarum jus urgere in vincula conjiciontur ni huic renuntient aquis submorgantur scilicet ut ita bullae bullis eluantur Such resolute Men as these were too rude to be cozen'd So Irregularities should be used which are invented for the Prosit of Dispensative Graces having nothing in them to Unsanctisie the Order of a Bishop by Divine Law or the Law of Nature because they can be wiped away with a Feather if it be a Silver Wing and the Feathers of Gold But because these double Doctors of Canon and Civil Laws will pretend to some Reason in their greatest Folly it is not amiss to repeat the best Objection with which they stiffen their Opinion Thus they divide the Hoof That if one by chance-medly kills a Man being then employed in nothing that is evil
Cook in his Jurisdiction of Courts looks no higher than 28. of Edw. 3. This Lord Keeper cites a Precedent out of his own Search of Records of a Baron Fin'd and Imprison'd by it in the 16th of Edw. 2. as it is quoted Cabal P. 58. Of what standing it was before for the Evidence doth not run as if then it were newly born to me is uncertain For the Dignity that famous Judge I mentioned lifts up his Style that it is the most honourable Court our Parliament excepted that is in the Christian World Jurisdic P. 65. The Citations of it are to cause to appear Coram Rege Concilio for the King in Judgment of Law is always in the Court when it fits and King James did twice in Person give Sentence in it The Lords and others of the Privy Council with the two Chief Justices or two other Justices or Barons of the Exchequer in their Absence are standing Judges of that Court. For in Matters of Right and Law some of the Judges are always presum'd to be of the King's Counsel The other Lords of Parliament who are properly De magno Concilio Regis are only in Proximâ poteentiâ of this Council and are actually Assessors when they are specially called These Grandees of the Realm who cannot fit to hear a Cause under the Number of Eight at the least ennoble this Court with their Presence and Wisdom to the Admiration of Foreign Nations and to the great Satisfaction of our selves for none can think himself too great to be Try'd for his Misdemeanors before a Convention of such Illustrious Senators And as Livy says Nihil tam aequandae libertati prodest quà m potentissimum quemque posse causam dicere As touching the Benefit that the Star-Chamber did bring thus that Atlas of the Law the Lord Cook Et cujus pars magna fuit says in the same Place That the right Institution and ancient Orders thereof being observed it keepeth all England in Quiet Which he maintains by two Reasons First Seeing the Proceeding according to the Laws and Customs of this Realm cannot by one Rule of Law suffice to punish in every Case the Enormity of some great and horrible Crimes this Court dealeth with them to the end the Medicine may be according to the Disease and the Punishment according to the Offence Secondly To curb Oppression and Exorbitancies of great Men whom inferior Judges and Jurors though they should not would in respect of their Greatness be afraid to offend Indeed in every Society of Men there will be some Bashawes who presume that there are many Rules of Law from which they should be exempted Aristotle writes it as it were by Feeling not by Guess Polit. 4. c. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They that were at the Top among the Greeks nor would be rul'd nor would be taught to be rul'd Therefore this Court profest the right Art of Justice to teach the Greatest as well as the Meanest the due Construction of Good Behaviour I may justly say that it was a Sea most proper for Whale-Fishing little Busses might cast out Nets for Smelts and Herring So says the great Lawyer Ordinary Offences which may sufficiently be punished by the Proceeding of the Common Laws this Court leaveth to the ordinary Courts of Justice Ne dignitas hujus Curiae vilesceret 96. Accordingly the Lord Keeper Williams having Ascended by his Office to be the first Star in the Constellation to illuminate that Court he was very Nice I might say prudent to measure the Size of Complaints that were preferred to it whether they were knots fit for such Axes A number of contentious Squabbles he made the Attorney's Pocket up again which might better be compounded at home by Country Justices It was not meet that the Flower of the Nobility should be call'd together to determine upon Trifles Such long Wing'd Hawks were not to be cast off to fly after Field-Fares The Causes which he designed to hear were Grave and Weighty wherein it concern'd some to be made Examples for Grievous Defamations Perjuries Riots Extortions and the like Upon which Occasions his Speeches were much heeded and taken by divers in Ciphers which are extent to this day in their Paper Cabinets To which I Appeal that they were neither long nor Virulent For though he had Scope on those Ocasions to give his Auditors more then a Tast of his Eloquence which was clear sententious fraught with Sacred and Moral Allusions yet he detested nothing more then to insult upon the Offendor with girds of Wit He foresaw that Insolencies and Oppressions are publick provocations to bury a Court in it's own Shame And what could exasperate more then when an unfortunate man hath run into a Fault to shew him no humane Respect Nay to make him pass through the two malignant Signs of the Zodiaque Sagitary and Scorpio That is to wound him first with Arrows of sharp-pointed Words and then to Sting him with a Scorpiack censure Indeed if there be an extreme in shewing too much mercy I cannot Absolve the Lord Keeper For many I confess censur'd him for want of deeper censures said he was a Friend to Publicans and Sinners to all delinquents and rather their Patron then their Judge 〈◊〉 was so oftentimes when he scented Malice in the Prosecution It was so sometimes when he laid his Finger upon the Pulse of humane Frailty Brethren if a Man be overtaken in a Fault we which are Spiritual Restore such a one in the Spirit of meekness considering thy self least thou also be Tempted Galat. 6.1 Pliny the younger had been faulted that he had excus'd some more then they deserv'd Whereupon he Writes to Septitius lib. 7. Ep. Quid mihi invident felicissimum Errorem Ut enim non sint tales quales à me praedicantur ego tamen Beatus quod mihi videntur Which is to this meaning Why do you grudg me this Error they are not so good as I accounted them but I am happy in my Candor that I account them better then they are But first he never condemn'd an Offender to be Branded to be Scourg'd to have his Ears cut Though that Court hath proceeded to such censure in time old enough to make Prescription yet my Lörd Cook adviseth it should be done sparingly upon this Reason Quod Arbitrio judicis relinquitur non facile trahit ad effusionem Sanguinis They that judge by the light of Arbitrary Wisdom should seldom give their sentence to spill Blood He would never do it and declin'd it with this plausible avoidance as the Arch-Bishop Whitgift and Bancroft and the Bishop of Winton the Learned Andrews had done before him that the Canons of Councils had forbidden Bishops to Act any thing to the drawing of blood in a judicial Form Once I call to mind he dispens'd with himself and the manner was pretty One Floud a Railing Libelling Varlet bred in the Seminaries beyond Seas had vented Contumelies bitterer then Gall against many
Iron 115. Among the Exceptions with which the Lord Cranfeild did exagitate him one may require a larger Answer than he thought him worthy of in that Humour He replies to him very briefly in the Laconcick Form because such brittle Ware would break with a Touch. The Treasurer was misinform'd or coin'd it out of his own Head That the Keeper dispatch'd great Numbers of Causes by hearing Petitions in his Chamber and that he did usually reverse Decrees upon Petitions That Forty Thousand Pounds had been taken in one Year among his Servants by such spurious and illegitimate Justice Yet Sir An. IV. all whose Ink makes blots could not imagine how such a Man should be raised out of that Practise but that it was Calculated to be worth to him and his Servants Three Thousand Pounds per Annum A great fall and the less charge I do not say that either of them did learn to suspect by their own practise Let God judge it But I knew this Man so well that he would as soon have taken a share out of Courtesans Sins as the Pope doth as out of his Servants Purses But state the Case thus That he did much Work by Petitions and trebble as much in the first Year as in those that succeeded 't is confest First The Hindrances had been so great which the Court sustein'd before he began to rectifie them that unless he had allow'd poor Men some Furtherance by Motions in Petitions they had been undone for want of timely Favour Even Absalom won the Hearts of those whom he seem'd to pity that were in that condition 2 Sam. 13.3 A Plaintiff makes great moan for redress of Wrongs but a delaying Judge is his greatest Oppressor Secondly All high Potentates and Magistrates under them have ever employ'd some at their Hand to give Answers to Supplicants that made Requests unto them Papinian serv'd in that Office under Severus Pertinax So did Ulpian under Alexander Mammaeus Many more may be produc'd who were greatly honour'd for that Imployment All the Praefecti Libellorum and Magistri Scriniorum who are mention'd of old were of this Constitution Every Proconful caâ—ried such a Scribe with him into his Province and heard the Oppressions of the People by Petition and redress'd them Not that main Causes were not pleaded in the open Face of the Praetorian Court as it is in the Pandects Ubi decretum necessarium est per Libellum id expedire Proconsul non potest But an Exception strengthens a Rule as Cicero says pro Corn. Balbo Quod si exceptio facit ne liceat Ibi necesse est licere ubi non est exceptum And where Decrees were not necessary a Subscription to a Supplication was a common way to relieve those who needed not the Ceremony to be undone with longer Obstruction Thirdly What if I should grant without Derogation to the Lord Keeper's admired Sufficiency that when he took that litigious Work of Chancery first in hand if some crabbed Difficulties were mine'd small into a Petition he could the better swallow them Every man may judge better of that which he reads than that which he hears chiefly he that is initiated into a Profession Allow him Cork that learns to Swim to keep him from Sinking he saves himself and hurts no man Therefore it was a most certain way to overcome some part of the Tediousness of Business by Petitions and it was no less incorrupt innocent legal expedite to do good to the People Some that practis'd at the Bar repin'd that they might not have a Glut of Motions Of whose covetous Discontents this Lord was aware as Pliny says of Apelles Lib. 31. Post tabulam latens vitia quae notarentur auscultabat He was at the back of the Frame which he set forth and heard what Errors the Passengers noted in his Picture So this Man's Ears were open and his Eyes waking groundless Repining never took him winking Therefore to straiten his Course against all Presumption of Errors he directed two Remonstrances the first to the Lord Marquess September the 8th the other to his Majesty October the 5th 1622 which follow as he penn'd them My most noble Lord 116. I Am half asham'd of my self that any Man durst be so shameless as to lay upon me the least Suspicion of Corruption in that Frugality of Life Poverty of Estate and Retiredness from all Acquaintance or Dependencies wherein I live But I have learnt one Rule in the Law that Knaves ever complain of Generalities And I long to be Charg'd with any Particular Petitions are things that never brought to any Man in my Place either Profit or Honour but infinite Trouble and Molestation Three Parts of four of them are poor Mens and bring not a Peny to my Secretaries The last part are so slighted and dis-respected by my Orders that they cannot be to my Secretaries whom I take to be honest men and well provided for worth their Trouble or Attendance All Petitions that I answer are of these Kinds 1. For ordinary Writs to be sign'd with my Hand 2. For Motions to be made in Court 3. For to be plac'd in the Paper of Peremptories 4. For License to beg 5. For referring of insufficient Answers 6. For a day to dispatch References recommended from the King 7. For Reigling Commissions to be dispatch'd in the Country 8. For my Letter to the next Justices to compound Brables 9. For Commissions of Bankrupts Certiorari especial Stay off an Extent till Counsel be heard c. Let any Man that understands himself be question'd by your Lordship whether any of these poor things can raise a Bribe or a Fee worth the speaking of I protest I am fain to allow twenty Pounds a year to a Youth in my Chamber to take care of the poor Mens Petitions the Secretaries do so neglect them In a while after Thus to the King May it please Your most Excellent Majesty TO pardon the first Boldness of this kind of interrupting Your Majesty Although I do find by search those particular Charges of Chamber-Orders shew'd unto me by my most Noble Lord the Lord Admiral to be falsly laid and wilfully mistaken as being either binding Decrees or solemn Orders pronounced in open Court and pursued only to Processes of Execution by these private Directions Yet do I find withal that I have advisedly and with mature Deliberation upon my entring into this Office made many Dispatches upon the Petitions of the Subjects to mine own exceeding great Trouble and to the Ease of their Purses many thousand Pounds in the Compass of this Year For that Motion which upon a Petition will cost the Party nothing if it be deny'd nor above Five Shillings to the Secretaries unless the Party play the Fool and wilfully exceed that expected Fee when it is granted being put into the Mouth of a Lawyer will cost the Client whether granted or deny'd one Piece at the least and for the most part Five Ten or Twenty Pieces as is
my power to advertise you of all Particulars though it would be very useful to me I end c. If one should say to this That young Heads hope for the best upon all Expectations because Experience hath not taught them to Distrust I take it up and Answer That there was nothing then in appearance to be distrusted no not the Remora of the Pontifical Dispensation when it should come with all its Trinkets about it The Prince had excellently prevented it For as it was Reported before the Lords and Commons in our ensuing Parliament 1624. his Highness did utterly refuse to Treat with the King of Spain or his Council until he was assured he might go on with the Marriage if he satisfied them to his Power and Conscience in all Particulars to be Debated without respect to any orders that should come from Rome This was granted to his Highness before he would sit in Consultation which caused the Lord Marquess unto that time to bear up with chearfulness 137. The month of May coming in with its Verdue his Lordship had a Garland sent him the most eminent Title of a Duke to shew says the Lord-Keeper in his Dispatch May 2. That His Majesty is most constant and in some degrees more enslamed in his Affections to your Grace than formerly and which is better than all unaffectedly to remunerate your Diligence in the great Negotiation and that being the Princes right hand by the Trust you are in your Honour might be no less than the Conde Duke Olivares the Great Privado of King Philip. It may be 't is so small a Circumstance that I have not searched about it that the Patent came with the Ships that carried the Prince's Servants into Spain to attend his Highness who went with the King's Order and their own great Desire a most specious Train of them to visit their dear Master and to serve him in all Offices of his Family Among these two were his Highness's Chaplains who were sent over to Officiate to him and his Court in the Worship of God These were Dr. Maw and Dr. Wrenn both of prime Note for Learning and Discretion very Learned to defend their own Religion and very Discreet to give no wilful Offence to the opposite part in a Foreign Dominion The Spanish liked not their company yet they took it not so ill for they could not but expect them as that there was not one Romish Catholic declared for such a one among all his Highness's Attendants Cabal p. 15. Tully states the Proverb in the Feminine Sex Lib. 5. ad Att. Ep. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As you would say Such as Diana her self such are her Nymphs about her But it is better paralell'd in King David's Person He that walketh with a perfect heart he shall serve me Psal 101.6 These were the Chorus of the Scene that sung in Tune with the chief Actor and seconded his Part with their Symplasma as it is called by ancient Musicians in their adherence to sincere Religion Yet some of these brought Instructions with them to the Duke of Buckingham from his secret Intelligencers which not only disturbed all posteriour Treaties but made the Prince return for England with the Willow Wreath Because the King and they that were faithful to his meaning knew not of it till July next after let it squat till then and it that order be started up In this place it sufficeth to glance at it that the Duke was cunningly dealt with and underhand by some whom he had lest behind to be as it were the Life-Guard of his Safety who were to send him notice of common Talk or secret Whispers that might concern him These perswaded him to set the Match back by degrees and in the end to overturn it That this was the desire of most Voices in England And his Grace must look to stand by the love of the People as well as of the King Or if he could not prevail in that let him be sure to joyn the Restitution of the Palatinate with the Marriage in the Capitulations or the Unsatisfaction which all would take that pitied the King's Daughter and her Children would undo him Upon these and their subtile Arts Sir W. Ashton Reflects in this Passage Cabal p. 32. I believe that your Grace hath represented to you many Reasons shewing how much it concerns you to break the Match with all the force you have This was the Junto at London that had done his Grace this Office and had guilded their Councils over with flourishing Reasons That these would procure him a stable continuance in Power and Sublimity with everlasting Applause Well every thing that is sweet is not wholsom Cael. Rhodoginus says lib. 23. c. 25. That at Trevisond in Pontus the Honey that Bees make in Box-Trees breeds Madness if it be eaten So I mean that the Urgencies of those Undertakes who pretended so far to the Duke's Prosperity were no better than Rhodoginus his Box-Tree Honey-Combs Yet after they had given the Qu now began the Duke to irritate the Spaniard to shut out or to slight the Earl of Bristow in all Councels to pour Vinegar into every Point of Debate to fling away abruptly and to threaten the Prince's Departure These boistrous Moods were not the way to succour the Prince's Cause for Favour cannot be forc'd from great Spirits by offering Indignities And the Temper of the Business in hand was utterly mistaken For they were not met at a Diet to make Articles of Peace and War but to Woo a fair Lady whose Consent is to be sought with no Language but that which runs sweet upon the Tongue As Q. Cicero wrote to his Brother de Peti Consul Opus est magnopere Blanditiâ Quae etiamsi vitiosa turpis sit in caeterâ vitá tam in Petitione est necessaria All Suitors are ty'd to be fair spoken but chiefly Lovers 138. No doubt but at this time in the Prime of May the Duke with such such others as the Prince did take into his Council sate close to consider upon the Overtures that came with the Dispensation For all thought that was the Furnace to make or to mar the Wedding-Ring and it asked Skill and Diligence to cast it well It is a Gibe which an Heathen puts upon an Amorose that wasts his whole time in Dalliance upon his Mistress 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Love is an idle Man's Business But there was Business enough beside Courtship and Visits which came thick to keep this Love from being idle The Dispatches that were sent from Spain to employ those that were in Commission here to direct the great Negotiation were many First The Dispensation came to the King from the Prince his Son May 2. But it came to scanning a good while after as will appear by this Letter of the Lord Keepers to the Duke dated May 9. May it please your Grace IT is my Fortune and I thank God for it to be ever rendring
in their Houses of Convocation And this shall be your Warrant so to do Dated at our Palace of Whitehal in Westminster this 28 Decem. 1623. The Tenth of February was first appointed being Tuesday the day of the Week which K. James observ'd to auspicate his great Affairs but proving to be Shrove-Tuesday wherein the Younkers of the City us'd to exceed in horrid Liberty that day was scratcht out of the Writ and Thursday the Twelfth was chosen in the Room But God scratcht out the Twelfth day when the day was come Nay when the King and his Train were putting on their Robes so far in readiness to begin their Solemnity For the King look'd about him and miss'd the L. Steward Duke of Richmond and Lenox He was absent indeed absent from the Body and present with God 2 Cor. 5.8 He had Supp'd chearfully the Night before complain'd of nothing when he went to Bed slept soundly Et iter confecit dormiendo he finish'd this last Journey in his sleep His Servant was commanded to waken him and hasten him to attend the King but found that he had breathed out his Spirit about an Hour before said the Sons of Art because his Corps was but inclining to be Cold. What a do was made to no purpose to suspect some foul means to rock him into this Everlasting Sleep which would never have been question'd in a meaner Man And cannot God prepare a Worm to smite the Gourd of our Body that it shall wither in a moment He was deplor'd generally I am in with them for he deserv'd it French he was born and bred You might have seen the Gallican Decency in his manners of good Aspect and well shap'd Affable Humble Inoffensive contented with so much Favour as was never Repin'd One that never Wrestled with the King's Privado's and was never near a fall One whose Wit and Honesty kept him great and much belov'd of all which rarely meet One that deserves the Elogy which Lampridias gives to Quintilius Marcellus Counsellor to Alexander Severus Qs. Meliorem ne Historiae quidem continent More was spoken to his never-dying Honour by the Graceful Eloquence of the Lord Keeper upon a fit Text taken out of the 1 King cap. 4. verse 5. Zabud the Son of Nathan was principal Officer and the King's Friend This was perform'd at his Funerals in Westminster Abby April 27. Which were the most costly and set out with the most Princely Pomp for a Subject that ever I saw His Dutchess thinking nothing too sumptuous in his Obsequies to do him the greatest Renown that could be Which Love in her survived towards him to her last hour But good Lady what a penurious House-Wife and scorn to the World hath Ar. Wilson made her p. 259. That her Tables in her Hall were spread as if there had been Meat and Men to furnish them but before Eating time the House being voided the Linnen Return'd into their Folds again and all her people Grased on some few Dishes Out of what Rascal Fame he scrapt up this I know not The Author liv'd not one day after he had Publish'd his Work to Answer it But there are yet as many Living that know this to be maliciously false as there are Pages in his Book For my own part I knew the Order the Comliness the Bounty of her House-keeping in Holborn and at Exeter-House whether I came often on Message from a Lady of a great understanding and a great will the Lady Elizabeth Hatton to streiten an Account of 8000 l. between them I have been kept upon my business until Meal-times very often Noon and Night and have staid with her Worthy Steward Mr. William Bolton at his Table which I could not Civilly Refuse I never saw but that every Board in the Hall was bountifully serv'd the Stewards Table chiefly so costly in well Cook'd-Meats so Rich in the Plate wherein it was serv'd so well observ'd by the Attendants as I preferr'd it before the like in any Noble Family that ever I was present at in the Kingdom I am bound I take it to defend the Hospitality in Truth where I have been a Guest Neither doth it belong only to Knight Errands in Wildwitted that is no Witted Romances to defend a Ladies Honour but it is due from every man that professeth Justice and Ingenuity Principally as Aristotle Writes Prob. 9. Sect. 30 Defunctis opitulari magis Justum est quam vivis hominibus The Exequies of the Dead are call'd Justa and it is more Just to defend the Dead then the Living Let me Weave into the Fringe of this Paragraph a touch at as Wise and Faithful a Letter as ever the Lord Keeper wrote to the Duke of Buckingham He that Reads it all as it is Cab. p. 101. Shall find it no loss of time mending the Fault of the Date a mistake very common in that Rhapsody of Letters it should bear the Style of Feb 13. 1623. instead of Mart. 2. 1624. The Office of the Lord Steward of the King's House was become void by the Death of the Duke of Richmond The next Morning he writes to my Lord of Buckingham That it was a place sit to be accepted of by his Lordship What more Places but peruse the Letter and the Scope of it all along will appear to instruct him upon the Assumption of this to part with another place the Admiralty more beneficial to his Followers then to himself who therefore kept him from discarding But how far had his Lordship been more Fortunate if he had follow'd better Counsel First he had made himself a less Object of their Malice who look'd with Meager Countenance upon him for holding so many Places of Publick Trust Mastership of the Horse Admiralty Wardenship of the Cinque Ports Justice in Eyer over all Chaces and Forrests on this side Trent Whereas the Lord Steward serves the King only in his Houshold Therefore the Lord Keeper omits not to remember him there Your Grace may leave any Office you please to avoid Envy The plurality of the Dukes Offices were one and the first of the Grievances heard and Prosecuted in the Houses of the Lords and Commons throughout all his troubles while his Life lasted Secondly but for the Name of Lord Admiral he had never withdrawn himself from Court to head a Navy at the Sea where never any Commander of the English Fleet made so improsperous a Voyage As Renowned Camden anno 1601. Eliz. says of Robert Earl of Essex That he was a Brave Warrier but Fortune did much forsake him and he would not say with Astrologers That Mars being Lord of his Nativity ' in the Eleventh Station Afflictissimus nascenti affulserat So this Lord Admiral was Valiant and feared not his Foes but Mars was not a propitious Ascendant at his Nativity He that feared it and knew him to be both wilful and unskilful advis'd him to take a White Staff instead of an Anchor but the Duke return'd him no Gra-mercy
Subjects Roman Catholicks and every of them as well by Information Presentment Indictment Conviction Process Seisure Distress or Imprisonment as also by any other ways or means whatsoever whereby they may be molested for the Causes aforesaid And further also That from time to time you take notice of and speedily redress all Causes of Complaints for or by reason of any thing done contrary to this our will And this shall be unto you and to all to whom you shall give such Warrant Order and Direction a sufficient Warrant and Discharge in that behalf There was no scrupling of this Order but it must be dispatch'd For though as a great Counsellor the Keeper was to be watchful over the Voices and Affections of the People and that he knew this was not the Course to keep the Subject in terms of Contentment yet he had no power to stop the Tide as in former days My Lord of Buckin would not stay to hear the Arguments of his Wisdom Altissimo orbe praecipuâ potentiâ stella Saturni fortur Tacit. 1 list lib. 5. The Planet of Saturn was in the highest Orb and ruled all the Influence of the Court Where was now the Cavil against the Spanish Match that in the Treaty for it it encroach'd too far upon Religion Indeed my Lord of Kensington writes from Paris Cab. p. 275. The French will not strain us to any unreasonableness in Conditions for the Catholicks And as much again p. 284. Their Pulse in matter of Religion beats temperately So he told us in another Pacquet p. 292. That the French will never abandon us in the Action for the recovering the Palatinate Which of these Engagements were broken last a more solid Question than to ask Which of their Promises were kept first They kept none Some chop out Promises as Nurses tell Tales to Children to lull them asleep As it is in the neat Phrase of Arnobius Somno occupari ut possint leves audiendoe sunt naenioe The Histories of Spain and the Netherlands as well as of England do not spare to touch that Noble Nation that none have taken greater liberty to play fast and loose with Articles and Covenants And as the French were inconstant to us so new Symptoms and new Apprehensions made us variable and inconstant to our selves Now a Letter must be sent to all Magistrates Spiritual and Temporal to cause them to suspend the Execution of all Laws against the Papists At the Term at Reading in November following Divulgation is made in all Courts under the Broad-Seal that all Officers and Judges should proceed against them according to Law After the Second Parliament of King Charles was broken up that is in the Summer that followed the Term at Reading by the Mediation of the French Embassador Marshal Bassampere new Letters come from the King to redintegrate Favours to the Recusants and that all Pursevants must be restrained and their Warrants to search the Houses of Papists taken from them And this continued but till Winter It was safe and just to return quickly again into the High-way of the Law for the shortest Errors are the best Especially in God's Cause Which Vincen. Lirin well adviseth Nos religionem non quo volumus ducere sed quò illa nos ducit sequi debemus We must take up the Train of Religion and come after it and not lead it after us in a String of Policy 5. Private Men may better keep this Rule than such as are publickly employed in the State But though the Keeper had no remedy but the preceding Warrant must be obeyed Yet he tryed his Majesty how his Service would be taken in stopping a Warrant upon another occasion bearing date May 23. Because the sumptuous Entertainment of the Queen and her magnificient Convoy being ready to land would be very chargeable he thrust in his Judgment to advise the King against disorderly Liberality And though he knew the Secretary Conway for no other than a Friend yet he lik'd not his Encroachment upon the Royal Bounty but signifies it in this manner Most dread Sovereign and my most gracious Master I Received this Morning a Warrant from your most Excellent Majesty to pass a Grant under the Great-Seal of England of the Sum of Two thousand Pounds out of the Court of Wards to my Lord Conway for Twenty One Years to come The which I durst not for fear of infringing my Duty to your Majesty and drawing some danger upon my self pass under the Great-Seal before I had made unto your most Excellent Majesty this most humble Representation First The issuing of so great a Lease of such a vast Sum of Money is under your Majesty's Favour and Correction disadvantageous to your Majesty's Service in regard of the time being in the face of that Parliament from which your Majesty is to expect a main Supply Secondly It is I believe without Prsident or Example that Pensions have been granted in Contemplation of Services for Years But for the Party's Life only My Lord of Middlesex his Lease of the Sugars is the only President in that kind which hath hapned during the time of my Service in this Place Thirdly The Assigning of this Pension upon the Court of Wards or any other Place than the Receipt of the Exchequer is directly against the Rules and Orders taken upon mature deliberation by your Father of Blessed Memory Fourthly This great Lord for so be is indeed is in the Eye and the Envy of many Men as your Majesty I fear it will hear e're long As having received more great Favours within these two Years than any Three Subjects within this Kingdom Although I do believe looking up to the hands that conferred them he may well deserve them all Most gracious Sovereign I am not ignorant of the danger I incur in making this Representation But I have put on an irremoveable Resolution that as long as you are pleased to continue me in your Service I will never from this time forth out of Contemplation of mine own Safety or any other carnal Respect neglect voluntarily any part of my Duty to my God or my King Which I suppose I had greatly forgotten without presenting your most Excellent Majesty with this Remonstrance And having perform'd this part of my Duty I shall most punctually obey your Majesty's Direction in this particular For this good Service it was well he had no check yet he had no gra-mercy to seem wiser than those that had prepared the business And though the Patent for that Pension was a flat Violation of good Order yet the Plea was it would be unkind to revoke it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch in the Life of Agis observes it in some Mens Humours Though a thing be ill undertaken it is held a shame to go back This Lord Secretary was the Keeper's cold Friend upon it but he lived not long and quitted his Office before he ceased to live Only some deckings of empty Titles were given him
And what Plot could I have against his Grace in the Meeting at Oxford when I oppos'd it at Hampton-Court and Ricot and would have had it put off at Woodstock That I am as mere a Stranger as any Lord that serves your Majesty to all those disaffected Persons that appear'd so opposite to your Royal ends in the House of Commons That I never spake in all my Life with any of them excepting one and at one time only and that by Order and Commission concerning any Parliamentary-business whatsoever That I am content if at any time admitted to my Answer I shall be sufficiently convicted in any of these Premises or any other Particular included under any of these to renounce your Majesty's Favour as long as I live and which is the only Hell upon Earth to me never look on your face again But if all these Informations against a poor Bishop that so served your Father in his Life and at his Death be grounded only upon Suspicion Malice or Misapprehension and be cried down as they needs must be by all the Members of the one and the other House pity me dread Sovereign and let me retire with the comfortable Assurance of your Majesty's Favour that I may spend my days quietly in the Service of my God in serving whom as I resolve to do I shall never fail to serve your Majesty whom God Almighty prosper with all Success in this World and with all Happiness and eternal Glory in that to come 28. The Letter being read He was call'd for to the King immediately and had access to make his Petitions His Requests were just modest and suitable to his Condition and the King's Answers Princely and Prudent The Petitioner ask'd first for his Majesty's Grace and Favour in general His Majesty granted it and gave him twice his Hand to kiss 2. The Petitioner humbly thanking his Majesty for his gracious Promise to take away none of his Church-Preferments till he had given better in lieu thereof besought his Majesty to keep the same benevolent Mind towards him The King said It was his Intention 3. The Petitioner besought his Majesty to remember his Father's Promise made before all the Lords that whensoever he took away the Seal he would place me in as good a Bishoprick or Arch-Bishoprick as he could a Promise not only seconded but drawn from your Father first by your Majesty The King said There was no such Place yet void when any fell then it would be time to make this Request unto him 4. The Petitioner besought that his Majesty would dismiss him freely and absolutely without any Command from the Table but to leave it to his discretion to forbear The King said He ever intended it so and never said a word to the contrary but expected he would not offend by voluntary Intrusion 5. The Petitioner besought that his Majesty would declare unto the Lords that he had willingly and readily yielded to his Majesty's Pleasure and that I part in your Favour and good Opinion and am still your Servant The King said He would but says he I look that no Petitions be made for you by any Man at that time but only for my Favour in general 6. The Petitioner besought that his Majesty in his good time would make his Atonement with my Lord-Duke either upon or without Examination of those Informations which the Lord-Duke had receiv'd against him The King said It became not him a King to take up the Quarrels between his Subjects And that the Duke had never exprest any such Enmity against him before his Majesty The Petitioner thank'd his Majesty for the last part of the Answer which revived him not a little as did a short Letter lately received from the Countess his Grace's Mother which he besought the King to read and 't was this Noble Lord I Must not forget my Promise to your Lordship I have had large Conference with my Son about you And he tells me that the King is determin'd to put another into your Place But for his own part he 〈◊〉 he is in Love and Charity with your Lordship And that he thinks your Lordship 〈◊〉 leave the Place better than you found it and that you have done the King good 〈◊〉 in it For the rest I shall give you better Satisfaction when I see you next than I 〈◊〉 do by Letter In the mean time I am sorry there should be any unkindness betwixt your Lordship and him that is so near to me and that wisheth you both so well Mar. Buckingham Burleigh Octob. 12. The Petitioner went on and besought that whereas by the King his Father's direction he had bought a Pension no new one but the fame that was paid to Viscount Wallingford of 2000 Marks per Annum and had disbursed 3000 l. down for it with which his Majesty was acquainted and lik'd it that his Majesty would be pleased either to buy the Pension of him for the Sum laid out and extinguish it or to assign it to be paid him out of the Tenths and Subsidies of the Bishoprick as before he had appointment to receive it out of the Hamper The King said Assignments were naught but he would take order with his Treasurer either to pay it or buy it as should be found most convenient 8. The Petitioner besought that his Majesty would please to bestow the next Prebend in Westminster that was void upon his Library-keeper as his Father had promis'd or to let him resume his Books again The King said it was full of Reason 9. The Petitioner besought that his Majesty would please to ratifie a Grant made by his Father of four Advousons to St. John's Colledge in Cambridge whereof two he had bought with his Money and two the King gave him for the good of that Society The King said He would ratifie the Grant and give way to amend any Errors in the Form or in the Passing 10. The Petitioner besought that he might have leave to retire to a little Lodge lent to him by the Lord Sandys where my Lord Conway may receive the Seal when his Majesty commanded it in his Journey towards Windsor The King granted it Lastly The Petitioner besought that the King would not be offended at him if upon his discharge reports were made that he was discontented which he protested he was not giving over so comfortably in his Majesty's Favour The King said He would do him that Justice and that he little valued Reports And with a sweet Countenance gave him his Hand to kiss with a gracious Valediction 29. Poets use to have quaint Allusions in their Fictions as when they tell us that Pallas struck Tiresias blind but gave him a Staff to walk with Quo veluti duce vestigiis inoffensis graderetur Politia Miscel p. 80. So the King had set the Keeper but a Week's Period to keep his Office but gave him good words to carry him merrily home And certainly his Majesty meant real Performance of all
and known to Thousands Nam lux altissima fati-occultum nihil essesinit Claud. Paneg. 4. Honor. What Spight is this to be silent in that which was certainly so and to engrave with a Pen of Steel that which was ignominous uncertain nay a falsity which hath travelled hither out of the Mountains 200 Miles So Jos Scaliger revealed his Disdain against some Criticks in his Notes upon Manil. p. 175. Ubi reprehendendi sumus tunc nominis nostri frequens mentio alià s mirum silentium I need no Pardon that I could not hold in to leave this Admonition behind at the last Stage of his Episcopal Work his general Visitation which was applauded much by all except two sorts of men Some that had not done their Duty and were mulcted Quid tristes querimoniae si non supplicio culpa reciditur Horat. Od. 24. lib. 3. such could not escape Censure who suffer'd with moderation by one that appeared in his temperate Judicature rather to be above the Faults than above the Men. Two others and of the Ministry were sullen because they did not speed in their Presentments according to their mind the reason was the Complainants were found to be rugged and contentious not giving good Example of Yielding and Peace 62. Let me cast in a small handful of other things fit to be remark'd In adject is mensura non quaeritur The Bishop of Lincoln is a Visitor of some Colleges by their local Statutes in both Universities This Bishop visited Kings-College in Cambridge upon the Petition of the Fellows thereof anno 1628. when he shew'd himself to be a great Civilian and Canonist before those learned Hearers but the Cause went for the right worthy Provost Dr. Collins in whose Government the Bishop could perceive neither Carelesness nor Covetousness The most that appeared was That the Doctor had pelted some of the active Fellows with Slings of Wit At which the Visitor laugh'd heartily and past them by knowing that the Provost's Tongue could never be worm'd to spare his Jests who was the readiest alive to gird whom he would with innocent and facetious Urbanity The Provost of Orial-College in Oxford Dr. Tâ—lson with others of his Society visited the Bishop at his Palace of Bugdâ— with a Signification to the Bishop that they might eject one of the Members of their Foundation Mr. Tailour The Bishop saw there was small reason to raise such a Dust out of a few indiscreet words yet he satisfied Dr. Tolâ—on that Mr. Taâ—our should depart so it were with a farewel of Credit and he liked Mr. Tadour so well that he took him into his own House till he had provided the Living of Hempsted for him As 〈◊〉 said of his own Brother in Erasm Epist p. 417. Illius mores tales sunt ut omnibus possint congruere A benevolent Nature will agree with all men and please the Adversaries of both sides Those of young and tender years were much in his Care as appeared that he seldom travelled but Notice being given before he staid at some Town or Village to confirm such as were but even past children to lay his Hands on them and to bless them and did it ostener than the 60 Canon requires An ancient and an admirable Order when such were presented as were before made ready by being exactly catechized And for Childrens sakes he listen'd much what good Schoolmasters he had in his Diocess that bare the irksome and tedious Burden to rear up a good Seminary for Church and State such he valued and thought their Place was better than is usually given them in the World They are the tertia that make up a happy Corporation as Charles the Fifth thought who entring into any Imperial City or Burough was wont to ask the Recorder that did congraturate him Have you a good Magistrate Have you a good Pastor Have you a good Schoolmaster If he said Yes Then all must be well among you said the Emperor Our Bishop had the opportunity to consecrate Churches new re-edisied and Chappels erected which he perform'd with much Magnificence and Ceremony that the Houses of God his Houses of Prayer might be had in a venerable regard Nothing was more observ'd in that Performance than that at the hallowing of a Chappel belonging to the Mansion-place of Sir Gostwick in Bedfordshire the Knight's Son and Heir being born deaf and dumb and continuing in that defect no sooner did the Bishop alight and come into the House but the young Gentleman kneeled down and made signs to the Bishop that he craved his Blessing and had it with a passionate Embrace of Love A sweet Creature he was and is of rare Perspicacity of Nature rather of rare Illumination from God whose Behaviour Gestures and zealous Signs have procur'd and allow'd him admittance to Sermons to Prayers to the Lord's Supper and to the Marriage of a Lady of a great and prudent Family his Understanding speaking as much in all his motions as if his Tongue could articulately deliver his Mind Nor was any of the Prelacy of England more frequented than this Lord for two things First by such as made Suit unto him to compound their Differences that they might not come to the chargeable and irksome attendance of the Courts of Law Aversos solitus componere amicos Horat. Serm. 5. And so many Causes were referred to him and by no mean ones that he continued like a petty Chancellor to arbitrate Contentions Secondly Sundry did appeal to his Judgment for Resolution of Cases of Consciences and most in Matrimonial Scruples and of intricate Points of Faith as about Justisication and Predestination in which when he thought the doubting Person would not be contented with Discourse he gave them his Resolutions very long and laborious in Writing which gathered together and as I have seen them digested would have made an handsome Tractate but the worst Visitor that ever came to a Bishop's House seized on them and never restored them This was Kilvert a vexatious Prosecutor of many in the Court of Star-chamber for the King whose Lineaments are drawn out in the Ninth Book of Apul. Metam Omnia prorsus ut in quandam comorum latrinam in ejus animum vitia consluxerunt Every Beast hath some ill Property this Beastly Fellow had all He stands too near so good a Subject as is in hand for this is the lively Image of a renowned Bishop the Image but of one though the good Parts of many may be concentred in this one as the Agrigentine Painter made Juno by the Pattern of five well-favour'd Virgins All that I have drawn up of his Pastoral Behaviour was seen in the Day-light therefore as St. Paul said of the Corinthians whom he had commended so I may with Modesty apply it to my Subject If I have boasted any thing of him to you I am not ashamed 2 Cor. 7.14 Nor is this all of him in that Holy Charge not by a great deal but so much as is preserved in
into the bottom of the Sea and fetch up Sponges so The Righteous shall hold on his way and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger Job 17.9 68. Neither did it deject the Bishop to be made a Gazing-stock by Disparagements The King's Coronation and his second Parliament began together at Candlemas and he was warned by Letter to serve at neither A Coronation being usually accompanied with a General Pardon should have cast a Frown upon none Yet his Place was not granted him to do his Homage among the Spiritual Lords nor to assist the Archbishop at the Sacred Parts of that high Solemnity as Dean of Westminster It is arbitrary and at the King's Pleasure to range that Royal Ceremony as he likes best to follow former Presidents or wave them to intrust what Ministers he likes in the Management except some Tenure or old Charter give admittance to some persons without exception Otherwise in the very principal performance says venerable Saravia De Christ Obed. p. 139. Ab Episcopo traditur corona quod potest furi à proceribus But the Dean of the Collegiate Church of Westminster did attend as a specal Officer at the Coronation of K. James after the manner of Deacon to the Archbishop of Canterbury it was Dr. Andrews which could not be granted him by Prescription for there was no Dean nor any such Dignity in the Church at the Coronation of Q. Elizabeth But upon the new Foundation Anno 3. of that Queen the Dean was intrusted with the Custody of K. Edward's Crown and the other Regalia and Decorum was kept thereupon to give him a great Employment of Assistance on that day Yet the Regalia were kept in a strong place of that Church long before For I find in Baron anno 1060. par II. That Pope Nicholas the Second gave a Charter to that Abby Ut sit repositorium regalium insignium What a busie Fisher was this that would have an Oar or a Net rather in every Boat Could not the Kings of England without him appoint the fittest place for the Custody of the Ornaments of their Imperial Majesties He that was so kind to dispose who should keep the Crown did mean That the King should not wear it without his Leave and Courtesie And let it be his Fault to be impertinent and to meddle with the keeping of Royal Treasure that did not concern him What is their Crime that have carried them quite away both Crown and Scepter and Robes from their ancient Sacrary I would that had been all This was wont to be the Mark of him that opposeth and exalts himself above all that is called GOD Dixi Dii est is 2 Thess 2.4 But what 's the matter that I have almost lost my self in this Loss I was about to tell that Bishop Williams must not wait in the Honourable Place of the Dean at the Coronation but in a Complement he was sent to Name one of the Twelve Prebendaries to serve in his room This was devised to fret him and to catch a Wasp in a Water-trap Bishop Laud was a Prebendary at this time and the Substitute intended at Court to act in the Coronation If Lincoln should Name him he had been laugh'd at for preferring the man that thrust himself by And if he did not Name him and no other he had been check'd for inscribing one of a lesser Order in the Church before a Bishop to so great a Service But his Wit saved him from either Inconvenience He sent the Names of his Twelve Brethren to the King resigning it up to His Majesty to elect whom he pleased A Submission which Climacus would call Sepulchrum voluntatis a dead Obedience without a sensible Concurrence And he stirred no more either by Challenge or Petition to do that eminent Office of the Deanery in his own Person but says in his Letter to the King That he submitted to that Sequestration for so he calls it It is wise to sit down when a man can trouble no Body but himself if he moves Especially I affect the Lesson which Erasmus gives in an Epistle p. 222. Pulchrius est aliquando modestia quam cansâ superare It is handsomer sometimes to excel in Modesty than to win a Cause 69. Other Reasons sway'd this circumspect man to carry it with no such Indifferency that he was not called to the Parliament But to do Honour to the King and to save his own Right nay the common Right of Peers he took a middle way between Crouching and Contumacy He call'd it His Majesty's Gracious Pleasure and was in earnest that he esteem'd it so to spare his Presence at the Parliament but he expostulated to have a Writ of Summons denied to no Prisoners no nor condemned Peers in the late Reign of his blessed Father Cab. p. 118. that accordingly he might make a Proxy which he could not do the Writ not receiv'd And he struggled till he had it in his own way and entrusted it with the Lord Andrews Bishop of Winchester it being the last Parliament wherein that famous Servant of God sate and the last year of his Life But the Mr. W. Sanders tells us p. 143. of his Annals of King Charles That Lincoln at this time continued not a Peer but a Prelate in Parliament Res memoranda novis Annalibus atque recenti historiâ Juven Sat. 2. This is a pitiful matter for what Bishop of Lincoln could be a Prelate in those days and not a Peer Is it his meaning that he did not sit among the Peers Nor did he sit among the Prelates in Convocation but by Proxy he sate in both places as Peer and Prelate A Letter sent from him to the King and dated March 12. will clear this matter and greater things or else it had not been publish'd 'T is large and confident searing the Duke's Greatness no more than the Statuary Work of a vast Colossus But as Portius Latro says in Sallust Gravissimi sunt morsus irritatae necessitat is 'T is no marvel if Necessity break good Manners which will break through Stone Walls says the Proverb And much Provocations attends not much whom it displeaseth The Letter follows Most Mighty and Dread Soveraign IT becometh me of all the rest of your Subjects having been so infinitely obliged to Your Majesty to cast my self down at your Feet and oppose no Interpretation Your Majesty shall be pleased to make of any of my Actions whatsoever Howbeit before the receipt of my Lord Keeper's Letter that I had carried my absence from the Parliament with as much Humility and Respect to Your Majesty as ever Subject of England did towards his Soveraign The delivery of my Proxy to the first Bishop Your Majesty named I excused mannerly to Your Majesty but with a private Reason to my Lord Keeper not to be replied against The second Lord Bishop is directly uncapable of that part of my Proxy which concerneth the House of Convocation These two Lords now named
to visit this Diocess as well for the Reasons premised as because all the means of Livelihood belonging to this See being taken away by the Duke of Somerset 2 Ed. 61. and a new airy and phantastical Corps being framed for the miserable Bishoprick consisting in great part of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction if your Grace should inhibit the exercise thereof and divert the Profits assigned therefrom for the Bishop's Maintenance he should not be able to eat or drink much less to pay unto his Majesty First-fruits Tenths and Subsidies charged upon this Bishoprick with relation to this last Endowment In the which last Difference this Bishoprick is for ought I know miserably distinguish'd from all others Thus I conceive the case to stand my gracious Lord and I hope unless your Grace will be pleased to permit me to go on with my Visitation for this year and take further time to consider thereof by our Lady-Eve to procure all those several pieces which confirm these Premisses to be transcribed out of our Records and Registries and sent by my Officers to attend your Grace's further Good-will and Pleasure c. How reasonable the Propositions of this Letter are I know not I know they did not prevail Sed ne querelae tum quidem gratae fuere cum forsitan erant necessariae says Livy in his Preface His Complaints were not well taken though they were necessary and good to stand upon Record to shew what was alledg'd for the benefit of his own See and the emolument of smaller Bishopricks In the end our Bishop let it go on the Archbishop's side without more contradiction having not forgotten that Philosophy in Seneca Acerbissimam partem servitutis effugit qui imperium libens excipit 97. All this and so many Quarrels piled one upon another were too little to bow the straightness of his Spirit yet there was enough to make his Foes audacious because a heavy Charge in Star chamber depended Seven years against him prosecuted for the King by the Attorny-General concurrent all along with the rehearsed Troubles Omne tulit secum Caesaris ira malum Ov. 3. Trist el. 12. God complains of the Rigour of the Heathen against Jerusalem I was but a little displeased and they helped forward the affliction Zech. 1.15 Beware to help Affliction forward Revenge is fierce when Misery cannot mitigate it It may be a Court-lesson it is not a Christian to thrust him down that is a falling Mark Reader that the Actors herein came into the hands of a Power or rather of a Tyranny that had no compassion of any Optima vindex insolentiae variet as humanae conditionis Valer. lib. 4. c. 7. The Wheel of Vicissitude turning many Sticklers that were at the top to the bottom is the Act and Motion of Providence to be the Scourge of Insolency Among all Devices to thrust him under Water that was sinking already none was hatcht of more Despight and Indignity than a Book publish'd by a Bluster-master ann 1636. call'd A Coal from the Altar to defame a Letter sent nine years before by the Bishop to some Divines of the Neighbourhood of Grantham in Lincolnshire to resolve a Doubt upon the Site of the Communion-Table or Altar as the Vicar of Grantham call'd it from whose Indiscretion the Contention began If ever any had a Wolf by the Ear the Bishop was in that quandary upon this provocation Gladly he would have made his Peace with the King to which he came near twice or thrice but at last utterly lost the sight of it It behoved him for his Safety not to make them his Enemies who were like to be his Judges chiefly not to trespass against the Likings of Archbishop Laud who could draw the King with one Hand farther than all the Lords in the Court with their whole Arm. From anno 1627 when the Letter was written in the Case of the Vicar of Grantham to anno 1636 there had been much done in Preaching and Practice to introduce some comelinesses in the Worship of God as they were stiled which had not been before The Archbishop set his Mind upon it which a late Writer calls his Pregnancy to revive ancient Ceremonies and another Book Antid Lincol. p. 85. No Metropolitan of this Church that more seriously endeavour'd to promote the Uniformity of Publick Order than his Grace now being The Clamours raised upon him are an Evidence of it The Compliance of many to curry Favour did out-run the Archbishop's Intentions if my Opinion deceive me not and made the Clamour the greater which meeting with other Discontents might have warned Wisdom to stop or go on slowly So well it is known to be dangerous to run against the Stream and Unwillingness of the People and no good Physician will try Experiments upon an accrased Pody An honest Mind is not enough to patronize that which is much condemâ—â—â— I would have none to suspect the Archbishop that he meant any Change in the Doctrine of our Church I would have none to tax his Reformation for Superstition but I will say as Polybius did in defence of the nice Observations of the old Roman Religion that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Excess of Piety Yet be not too bold against causeless Jealousies Grant it but I do not give it that the Clamours did rise from weak Judgments and pass over that Rule That the strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our solves Rom. 15.1 Policy ought to listen abroad to the Talk of the Streets and the Market-places for secular Policy is no prophane thing well used in the Service of God and not to despise Rumours when they are sharpened against the innovating of any Discipline These things appeared but Straws to stumble at to a resolved Stomach and a Champion comes out in print to gagg all popular murmuring against the placing of the Holy Table Altar-wise Ambustum Torrâ—m Corinaeus ab arâ corripit Aen. 12. one that would vent more I believe than the Masters of the Game would have done that put him into the Lists Athletâ—e suts ineitatoribus fortiores sunt says St. Hicrom in an Epistle to Julianus Yet the common Vogue was that this Author though learned was not the fittest to defend the Cause being not fortunate in the good opinion of the Times It was remembred that the Spartans would not pass that into a Decree which was good in it self which a scandalous Fellow oster'd to their Council but turned him by and set up a plain honest man to prefer it Sic bona sententia mansit turpis autor mutatus est Gel. lib. 18. c. 3. But if the Press must be set awork as the Pulpits Schools and Consistories had been to maintain this matter of no great moment God wot why must this Bishop and his Letter be the Block to fashion their Wit upon He was one that would carry no Coals they knew it A judicious Reply from him would make the Shadow return
hath given encouragement to the Metropolitan and Bishops and other Ordinaries to require the like in all Churches committed to them The Bishop says He hath left all to the Law to the Communion-book to the Canons and Diocesan p. 59. And which is much they two should agree the Doctor says so too Ant. p. 64. That it is left to the Judgment of the Ordinary for the thing for the time N. B. when and how long he may find cause The Bishop says more That after this Order he had heard of no Bishop that had exacted of his Diocess the placing of the Holy Table Altar-wise p. 69. And in the year following 1634. the Archbishop holding a Metropolitical Visitation keeps him to the ancient form in this Interrogatory Doth the Table stand in a convenient place of Chancel or Church If one Prelate was singular in his Visitation of Norwich Diocess which the Dr. would seem not to speak out but to intimate our Bishop hath a Passage to meet it p. 85. out of Archbishop Whitgift There is no manner of reason that the Orders of the Church should depend upon one or two mens liking or disliking Where now appears I say not the Command but the Encouragement that the Order made for St. Gregory's Church should be observed in all Parishes It will conduce to this Cause to borrow one Quotation out of the Bishop and two out of the Doctor the Bishop's is taken from an Act of Council made for reformation 1 Edw. 6. That the form of a Table shall never move the simple from the superstitious Opinions of the Popish Mass and that this superstitious Opinion is more held in the minds of the simple and ignorant by the form of an Altar than of a Table The Dr. p. 105. out of a Sermon of Bishop Hooper's preach'd before K. Edward It were well it might please the Magistrates to turn the Altars into Tables according to the first Institution of Christ to take away the false Perswasion of the People which they have of Sacrifices to be done upon the Altars for as long as the Altars remain both the ignorant People and the ignorant evil-perswaded Priest will dream always of Sacrifice Then p. 129. Bishop Ridley took down Altars and appointed the form of a right Table to be used in all his Diocess Duo Scipiadae These two Bishops were very learned and very Martyrs A little remains to shut up this Controversie or rather to shut it out For to set the Table under the East Window of the Chancel the ends running North and South is this to set it Altar-wise Verily it is a meer English Phrase or rather an English Error because Altars beyond the Seas are placed promiscuously either at the top or in the midst of the Chancel as the Bishop notes p. 218. and commonly so far from the Wall that the Priests and Deacons might stand round about them As in Cardinal Borromaeo's Reformation a space of eight cubits was to be left between the Altar and the Wall Altare in medio Ecclesiae situm says Baron anno 451. p. 62. Josephus Vicecomes a skilful man in these punctilio's Altaria in medio Ecclesiae allocata fuisse But to fasten it sure I refer it to Marcellus Corcyrensis lib. 3. Sacr. Cerem p. 215. he says The Pope never preacheth but when he celebrates the Mass himself he goes not up into a Pulpit but sits in his Chair Sedet ante altare super faldistorium si altare est apud Parietem Si autem sedes Papae non infra sed supra altare est ut in Ecclesiâ S. Petri similibus tune Papa vertit faciem ad chorum sedens in praedictâ sede Here 's the Altar in the chief Mother-Church of Rome in the midst of the Quire which falls into this conclusion that these local Differences among us about the Holy Table are not in imitation of any Church but forms taken up at home so that upon the final Sentence Maxima de nihilo nascitur historia as Propertius says fitly 106. Here you have the Book of the Holy Table epitomiz'd and you see the Bishop broke not the Peace of the Church but was upon the defence His Adversary tells us lately that it was a Book cried up every where with great applause when it came first to light What would it have been if it had been studied any long time and lick'd over with a second or third examination But one month in the Autumn began it and ended it as not only the Author but the Amanuensis testified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is when one is swift in doing a good thing God and he were joyn'd together But this Praise belongs to the Dr. as well as to him who is a swift Dromedary traversing her ways Jer. 2.23 There are Passages between them with some bitterness on both sides I like it in neither they that spit upon one another are both defiled I cite nothing faln in that kind for every Dunghill smells ill but not till you stir it To excuse such things Non contumelias sed argutias vocamus says Seneca It may be sharpness of Wit but it is bluntness of Wisdom One thing the Criticks noted beside That in some Passages the Holy Table is too light and merry and no Merriment is worse than the Laughter of Anger Subridens mistâ Mezentius irâ Virg. It was not publish'd in the person of a Bishop And to me it seems that a joculary Style was not amiss for a frivolous Cause Nor would the Author seem to be damp'd or troubled but full of sanguine Alacrity for all the Provocation And if Mirth keep decorum it is a good Rule of Theages the Pythagorean Laert. p. 847. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the office of Virtue to act with pleasure and not with sadness Or as Solomon much better A merry heart doth good like a medicine Prov. 17.22 But if any the least thing were amiss he heard of it on both Ears in the Antidotum Lincolniense which I pass over because no Reply was made unto it Not that the Author had won the Field but as Livy said Dec. 1. lib. 3. when the People of Rome retired to the Aventine Mountain for the Injury done to Virginia and the Senators ask'd them what they would have Non defuit quid responderetur defuit qui responsum daret The Bishop I know was making his Notes ready to vindicate his Book and was resolved as the Italian Proverb runs to give his Adversary Cake for Bread for he was like to Bishop Fisher in Erasmus's Character of him Ep. p. 396. Roffensis vir pius cum primis ac eruditus sed eo ingenio ut non facilè desinat ubi semel incaluit in certamine He was prevented by his Cause in Star-chamber which was brought to hearing in the same month that the Antidotum came abroad a Censure pass'd upon him which was executed with that rigour that all that he
First That it was utterly against the Practice of the Court from the Foundation of it to fall upon a new Charge started out of a former before the first had been heard 2. That advantage was taken to undo any man living to gather new Impeachments out of the Books after the publication of the precedent Cause 3. That for all that was offer'd to the Court complaint had been openly made by Counsel and not disproved That it rose from the Prosecutors mis-leading and menacing of Witnesses whom Terrour and Imprisonment would not suffer to be constant to themselves Like as Eusebius reports lib. 6. Praepar Ervang c. 1. that when one importun'd the Oracle for an Answer and threatned if he staid any longer the Oracle told him Retine vim istam falsa enim dicam si coges Use no violence for I must tell a lye if you do Lastly The Bishop pleaded with Animosity quid enim loqueretur Achilles Ovid. Met. 13. that their Lordships ought to take such a Charge into Cognisance for Tampering had never been noted for Criminal Action before any Judgment in the Land which is not a Colour but a Maxime of Law which appears by that which is since publish 't by the Lord Cook in Jurisdiction of Courts c. 5. How that Court dealeth not with any offence which is not Malum in se against the Common Law or Malum prohibitum against some Statute And that Novelties without warrant of Praesidents are not to be allowed Assume now out of the Premises that no Example could be found that the censorious magnificence of the Star-Chamber had ever tamper'd with such a peccatulum as tampering Alteration in the forms of a Court beget the Corruption of the Substance Who ever read that a Bench of Honourable Judges came into hatred so long as it kept close to the ways of their wise and venerable Predecessors But says Symmachus in Ep. p. 14. Si adjiciantur insolita forsan consueta cessabunt When the People are over-lay'd with new Discipline perhaps the old Seats of Justice may crack in pieces The Lord Keeper knew Justice and loved it and did not obscurely signifie that he thought the Demur was reasonable which had almost removed him And he found by one occurrence that the Bishop's Case was to be severed from other mens For whereas a Proclamation came forth in October 1636. that because a Plague was begun in London and Westminster therefore all Pleas and Suits in Law should be suspended till Hillary Term was opened and the Bishop claimed the Priviledge that all things might be respited about his Cause branched out into ten Heads till that season The Proclamation indeed is full and clear on your side says the Lord Keeper but I have special directions that you shall have no benefit thereof And I tell you as a Friend if you rely upon the Proclamation your imprisonment is aimed at As if there were one Rule of Justice for all the Subjects in the Land and another for this Bishop who took his qu. from this Caveat to attend his Business and he did it with the more confidence that in seven years his Adversaries had got no ground of him as Grotius writes of the Spaniards siege at Haâ—rlem being seven months about it Annal. Belg. p. 42. Visi sunt vinci posse qui tam lentè vicerant 118. Of which none that look't into the Cause despair'd till the Scale was overturn'd by the weight of a most rigorous Censure The Charge in debate without any favour to the Defendant is thus comprised Anno 1634. when Kilvert wanted Water to turn his Mill Sir John Mounson and Dr. Farmery Chancellour of Lincoln offer'd themselves to debauch the Credit of Pregion the Bishop's Witness who both expected to have gained and did gain almost as much as Kilvert by the Avenues of the Cause To bring their Contrivance about a Bastard is laid to Pregion to be begotten of the Body of Elizabeth Hodgson and that he bribed her to lay it upon another Father The Bishop was to defend the Credit of his Witness and had to do with Matters and Persons in this Point wherein himself was altogether a Stranger He suspected ill dealing from Sir J. Mounson the great Stickler because he knew he hated Pregion for casting a Scandal upon his Lady as vertuous a Gentlewoman as the Country had in which Cause the Bishop had caused Pregion to give Satisfaction long before Then he had more assurance of Pregions Innocency because he was clear'd of this Bastard in a Sessions held at Lincoln in May Car. 9. and whereas it came again into debate at the Sessions 3 Octob. following and it was given out that an Order was past to find Pregion guilty the Bishop was certified that the Order was not drawn up in open Court and that it was inserted in many places with Farmeries hand And Thomas Lund being present at the Sessions asserted That it was not consented to by the Justices but drawn out of Sir J. Mounson's pocket He had Letters from Knights of far greater Estates than Sir John who likewise testified the same and from Mr. Richardson the Clerk of the Peace who refused to enter that Order and that it was excepted against in open Sessions by Mr. Sanderson a Counsellor of the Laws and by the greater part of the Bench as utterly illegal So that afterward being tried at the King's Bench for the illegality of it it was damned by all the four Judges Yet more to detect the Corruption of that Order at the next Sessions held in May the Justices discharged Pregion and laid the base Child upon one Booth a Recusant a Kinsman of Sir J. Mounson's which Judgment was so inerrable that it was proved by three Witnesses That upon the very day that the Bishop was sentenced Booth himself confest in the hearing of those Witnesses that Pregion had nothing to do with that baggage Woman but that he the said Booth at such a time and place did get her with Child and that Kilvert whom he cursed bitterly had promised him half the Fine to charge the Child upon Pregion and had not performed it and did vainly brag that Kilvert had brought him to kiss the King's hand This was detected when the sad day was over Et instaurant dolorem sera solatia Sym. p. 86. But the Objection lay not only upon the getting of the Child but how that Pregion or rather the Bishop had carried themselves to entangle the Witnesses that had sworn against Pregion which was the main Charge of the Information and the colour for the heavy Sentence The Bishop being authorized from the Star-Chamber to uphold the Credit of his Witness he found the Depositions of Lund Wetheral Alice Smith and Anne Tubb to press upon Pregion Grande doloris Ingenium est miserisque venit solertia rebus Metam lib. 6. So he did light upon a course which was inoffensive to extricate Pregion for his own safety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Archbishop and if all that read it do not condemn it I am not in my Senses For I will Appeal in those words of Job c. 17. v. 8. Upright men shall be astonied at this and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite Mark how the Game was plaid by a black Bishop and two Rooks and how the white Bishop was taken by discovery Dr. Walker our Bishop's Secretary hardly escap'd in the second Bill and Kilvert's anger did still hang over him Cadwallader Powel his Steward was then fined at 300 l. and Imprisonment yet was never toucht in his person nor a peny of the Fine exacted of him For which Favours he is dealt with to espy what he could to crush his Lord with some fresh Oppression Who raking in every Corner to find out somewhat that might answer his Undertaking he produceth two Letters of Mr. Osbolstons the head School-master of the King's School at Westminster The Bishop to whom they are written will not own them that he did ever receive them Powel says he found them in his Chamber And it is possible there was such heedlessness for I knew the House well and have seen some careless oversights in that kind A fault incident to Melanctthon says Camerarius in vit p. 37. Litterae quae afferebantur quotidie omnium oculis manibus expositae ex quibus subtractum plurimum esse constat A negligence not to be cover'd with the excuse of the greatest and gravest studies But it was made highly probable that these Letters were neither found scatter'd at random nor pick't out of a Desk or Hamper of Papers both which for certain Powel broke open but Powel received them immediately from the Carrier and never deliver'd them to his Lord and Master So it was confirm'd by many Oaths in Court nay confest by Powel That when his Lord was in remoter parts he had order to open all Letters directed to his Lordship to look into them if they had any matter concerning the Suits so hotly prosecuted against him and to send them as he thought fit to the Secretary to London The Contents of these two Letters being glost upon by Powel to be dangerous to the Archbishop and lap'd up in dark folds to give a greater affright it founds likely that he reserved them to himself and kept them in lavender for such a day wherein they might stand him in stead For more confirmation the Bishop takes his Oath He did not remember that ever he received such Letters and Osbolston swears point blank He never had an answer to them which makes a strong presumption that this trusty Steward did pocket them up Of whom Kilvert received them which is not denied And he presents them to his Grace and if his Grace had been the Master of a brave Spirit we would have thrown them into the sire That had been generous to abhor a Servant that betray'd his Master and to borrow no Office of Villany from him That had been noble not to rake for Secrets and Advantages in the Letters of his Adversary So did Caesar when Scipio's Cabinet was brought to him found at Thapsus so he did with Pompey's Papers seized on at Pharsalia which he would not look into but burnt them Illa suit vera incomparabilis animi sublimitas captis apud Pharsaliam Pompeii magni sertniis Epistolarum concremasse eas optima 〈◊〉 aâ—que non legisse Plin. lib. 7. Nat. Hist c. 15. Such Gallantry had better become a Primate of all England than the Dictator of Rome and all the World This had been way to have got him a great Name to give Lincoln such an Eslay of his Civility Nihil laudabilius nihil magno praeclaro viro dignius 〈◊〉 clemâ—ntiâ Tul. 2. l. Of. But to look for such things from a revengful mind is as unlikely as to make the brisâ—ly skin of a Hedghog smooth And when all the Stuff in the Letters are scann'd what Fadoodles are brought to light First Osbolston is charg'd to write libellous matter against his Grace in That he call'd him Vermin little Urchin medling Hocas Pocas and the Lord Treasurer deceased Great Leviathan 2. To contain false News and tales in this passage That the little Urchin and great Leviathan are become at great distance in earnest 3. To contain a Conspiracy to destroy his Grace because one Letter enquires when Lincoln would come to Westminster to look after this Gear On the Bishop's part a Note scribled hastily but no Letter is produced sent to Walker in these Words MR. Osbolston importunes me to contribute to my Lord Treasurer some Charges upon the little Great man and assures me they are mortally out I have utterly refused to meddle in this Business And I pray you learn from Mr. Selden and Mr. Herbert if any such falling out be And keep it to your self what I write unto you If my Lord Treasurer would be served by me he must use a more solid and sufficient Messenger and free me from the Bonds of the Star Chamber Else let them fight it out for me What a Spider's Thread is here to pull a Man into the Star Chamber by itâ— So Fulgentius tells us of Padre Paulo that he wrote a Letter in Cypher to Gabriel Collison touching at the Court of Rome as if some came to Dignities by evil Services which Collison revealed to St. Severmo Cardinal and Head of the Office of Inquisition for which Paul was trounced with continual disturbance And our Inquisitor St. Severo did now make use of the like or rather less opportunity 125. To slide this Cause with the most sly advantage into a hearing Lincoln is kept in close Imprisonment from All-hollantide till the end of Christmas for what Cause will appear in order that he might be surprized and neither trouble the King with Petitions nor the Court of Star-Chamber with motions He chaft at it extreamly and could do no less 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Aristotle Eth. 4. c. 5. They that are not angry upon meet occasion are Foo's But the day is set and come without any respect had to his due preparation according to Rules and Customs At the hearing Mr. Osbolston pleads That the great Prelate had no reason to take those nick-names to himself that he neither named him nor thought of him He swears it and proves it strongly That the Hocas Pocas was one Dr. Spicer who was vulgarly abused with that by-word and that Judge Richardson was the great Leviathan who had committed Spicer at that time no less than five years before to Newgate What reason was there but he should expound his own Riddle Now here 's a forked Dilemma let the Bishop or any man living escape one horn of it if it be possible For if he receive such Letters and not complain of them if it come to light distortions of Phrases shall endanger him to be guilty of smothering a Libel If he take the other course and reveal them to
this Common-wealth is no more in being it sufficeth it hath been once and that planted by God himself who would never have appointed persons in Holy Orders to intermeddle with things they ought not to intermeddle withal I will go on with my Chronology of persons in Holy Orders and only put you in mind of Ely and Samuel among the Judges of Sadock's Employment under K. David of Jehojada's under his Nephew King Joash and would sain know what Hurt these men in Holy Orders did by intermedling in Secular Affairs of that time Now we are returned from the Captivity of Babylon I desire you to look upon the whole Race of the Maccabâ—s eveâ— to Antigonus the last of them all taken Prisoner by Pompey and 〈◊〉 afterwards by M Antony and shew me any of those Princes a Woman or two excepted that was not a Priest and a Magistrate 161. We are now come to Christ's time when methinks I hear St. Paul 23. of the Acts excuse himself for reviling of the High-Priest I wist not Brethren that he was the High-â—iest for it is written Thoushalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy People Where observe that the word Ruler in the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very same word that is used by St. Paul Rom. 13.3 where this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is translated by Beza Magistrates Then you must be pleased to imagine the Church asleep or almost dead under Persecution for almost 300 years until the happy days of the Emperor Constantine and not expect to find many Magistrates among the Christians Yet you shall find St. Paul 1 Cor. 6.5 offend against this Bill and intermeddle Knuckle-deep with Secular Affairs by inhibiting the Corinthians very sharply for their Chicanery their Pettisoggery and common Barretry in going to Law one with another Besides that as all learned men agree both the Apostles and Apostolical men that lived presently after them had a miraculous power of punishing exorbitant Crimes which supplied the power of the ordinary Magistrate as appears in Ananias and Sapphira the incestuous Corinthian and many others But then from Constantine's Age till the Reformation began by Luther Churchmen were so usually employed in managing of Secular Affairs that I shall confess ingenuously it was too much there lying an Appeal from the Courts of the Empire to the Bishops Judicatory as you shall find it every where in the Code of Justinian So it was under Carolus Magnus and all the Carolovingian Line of our neighbour Kingdom of France So and somewhat more it was with us in the Saxon Heptarchy the Bishop and the Sheriff sitting together check by jowl in their Turns and Courts But these exorbitant and vast Employment in Secular Affairs I stand not up to desend and therefore I will hasten to the Reformation Where Mr. Calvin in the fourth Book of his Institutions and eleventh Distinction doth confess that the holy men heretofore did refer their Controversies to the Bishop to avoid Troubles in Law You shall find that from Luther to this present day in all the flux of Time in all Nations in all manner of Reformations persons in Holy Orders were thought fit to intermeddle in Secular Affairs Brentius was a Privy-Councillor to his Duke and Prince Functius was a Privy-Councillor to the great Duke of Borussâ—a as it is but too notoriously known to those that are versed in Histories Calvin and Beza while they lived carried all the Council of the State of Geneva under their own Gowns Bancroft in his Survey c. 26. observeth that they were of the Council of State there which consisteth of Threescore And I have my self known Abraham Scultetus a Privy-Councillor to the Prince Palatine Reverend Monsieur Du Moulin for many years together a Councillor to the Princess of Sedan his Brother-in-law Monsieur Rivet a great learned Personage now in England of the Privy-Council of the Prince of Orange You all hear and I know much good by his former Writings of a learned man called Mr. Henderson and most of your Lordships understand better than I what Employment he hath at this time in this Kingdom And truly I do believe that there is no Reformed Church in the World settled and constituted by the State wherein it is held for a point in Divinity that persons in Holy Orders ought not to intermeddle with Secular Affairs Which is all I shall say of this Duty of Ministers in point of Divinity 162. Now I come to the second Duty of men in Holy Orders in point of Conveniency or Policy and am clearly of opinion that even in this Regard and Reâ—ection they ought not to be debarred from modestly intermeddling in Secular Affairs for iâ— there be any such Inconvenience it must needs arise from this That to exercise some Secular Jurisdiction must be evil in it self or evil to a person in Holy Orders Which is neither so nor so for the whole Office of a subordinate civil Magistrate is most exactly described in Rom. 13. v. 3 4. and no man can add or detract from the same The Civil Power is a Divine Ordinance set up to be a Terror to the Evil and an Encouragement to Good Works This is the whole compass of the Civil Power And theresore I do here demand with the most learned Bishop Davenant that within a few days did sit by my side in the Eleventh Question of his Determinations What is there of Impiety what of Unlawfulness what unbecoming either the Holiness or Calling of a Priest in terrifying the bad or comforting the good Subject in repressing of Sin or punishing of Sinners For this is the whole and entire act of Civil Jurisdiction It is in its own nature repugnant to no Person to no Function to no fort or condition of Men let them hold themselves never so holy never so seraphical it becomes them very well to repress Sin and punish Sinners that is to say to exercise in a moderate manner Civil Jurisdiction if the Soveraign shall require it And you shall find that this Doctrine of debarring persons in Holy Orders from Secular Employments is no Doctrine of the Reformed but the Popish Church and first brought into this Kingdom by the Popes of Rome and Lambeth Lanfrank Anselm Stephen Langton and the rest together with Otho and Ottobon and to this only end that the man of Rome might withdraw all the Clergy of this Kingdom from their obligation to the King and Nobility who were most of them great Princes in those times and thereby might establish and create as in great part he did Regnum in Regno a Kingdom of Shavelings in the midst of this Kingdom of England And hence came those Canons of mighty consequence able to shoot up a Priest at one shot into Heaven as that he must not meddle with matters of Blood that he must not exercise Civil Jurisdiction that he must not be a Steward to a Noble-man in his House and all the rest of this Palea and
the body v. 20. but now are they many Members yet but one Body v. 21. And the eye cannot say unto the hand I have no need of thee nor again the head unto the feet I have no need of you So far our brave Speaker and all this is exscribed faithfully out of his own Copy Let another take his room and let him that is wisest perform it better The Success was that he laid the Bill asleep for five months for I confess that by over-sight I have not kept the just order of time for it should have been referred to the middle of May before the King went into Scotland and was in a trance by the charm of this Eloquence till November after which shews how like he was to Athanasius Nazian in Orat. pro codem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanasius was an Adamant not to be broken with violent blows and a Load-stone to draw them to him that were of a contrary Opinion Now mark the Partiality upon which the Speaker much insisted That the Lords would grant Interest to noble Persons in Holy Orders to act in Secular Affairs but to none beside As Grotius fits it with a passage Annal. p. 5. Castellani quantumcunque usurpent ipsi libertatem in aliis non serunt The Castilians are great encroachers upon liberty for themselves but will not tollerate it in any beside To the main Cause I yield that that was easie to be defended on the Clergies part as learned Saravia shews de Christian Obed. p. 169. not only from Moses's Law but from the Custom general of the most orderly among the Heathen Gaulish Druids Persian Magi Egyptian Heirophants and so forth by induction from all places to make it amount even to a natural Law that Priests were no where excluded from honourable Imployments in Secular Affairs I will appose two Quotations for it and very remarkable The first from the Judgment of the Scottish Presbytery R. Spotswood Hist p. 299. 449. That they contended for that Priviledge that some Ministers should give Voice in Parliament in the behalf of the Church And some to assist the King in Parliament in Council and out of Council Doth the Wind blow so from the North The other taken from Ludo. Molin Paraen c 4. And he no well-willer to our Hierarchy in that Book least of all to their Consistories Deus Pastori Evangelico non detrahit jus potestatem Magistraturae nec magistratum prohibet ministerio si ad utrumque factus comparatus est But this Bill that went no further when it was first set on foot in May began to enlarge its strides and mend its Pace in the end of Autumn Either because this fiery Parliament saw that Confusion begun must be carried on with acting greater or because the King was suspected that he tamper'd with the Scots and they framed an Injury from his Neglect to leave them so long or how it was that their thoughts were whiâ—'d about with the Wheel of swift Perswasions themselves knew best but their Spleen began to shew it self with stronger fits than ever against the Clergy who were never safe so long as the Bill we have heard of was not cancell'd For the Spanish Proverb tells us That Apple is in great danger that sticks upon the prickles of an Hedge-hogg But if the Sum of the Bill had been right cast the now most noble Marquess of Dorchester and more noble because most learned told his Peers May 21. Which of your Lordships can say he shall continue a Member of this House when at one blow six and twenty are cut off This was sooth nay Sooth-saying and Prophesying but it was not attended 167. When all ways had been tried to pass this Bill of Dishonour upon the Clergy chiefly the Bishops and it hung in the House of the Lords the event methinks is like that which we read I Kings 22. v. 21. There came forth a Spirit and stood before the Lord and said I will perswade them And the Lord said Wherewith And he said I will go forth and I will be a Spirit of clamour and tumult in the mouth of all the People And the Lord said Thou shalt perswade them and prevail also Go forth and do so There had been an unruly and obsteperous concourse of the People in the Earl of Strafford's Case But a Sedition broke forth about Christmas that was ten times more mad Ludum jocumque dices fuisse illum alterum prout hujus rabies quae dabit Terent. Eunuch which took heat upon this occasion The King came to the House of Commons to demand five of their Members to Justice upon impeachment of Treason His Majesty it seems was too forward to threaten such persons with the Sword of Justice when he wanted the Buckler of Safety How far those five were guilty I have nothing to say because plain Force would not let them come to a Tryal But if they were innocent why did they not suffer their Practices to see the Light It had been more to their Honour to be cleared by the Law than to be protected against the Law And that Cause must needs be suspected which could not put on a good outside I am sure the King suffer'd extreamly for their sakes All Sectaries and desperate Varlets in City and Suburbs flock'd by thousands to the Parliament Diogenes was ask'd What was to be seen at the Olympick Sports where he had been Says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laert. in Vit. Much People but few Men. But here were no Men but all Beasts who promised one another Impunity by their full body of Rebels and where there is no fear of Revenge there is little Conscience of Offence Quicquid multis peccatur inultum est Lucan The Rake-hells were chaffed to so high a degree of Acrimony that they pressed through the Court-gates and their Tongues were so lavish that they talk'd Treason so loud that the King and Queen did hear them Let the five Members be as honest as they would make them I am certain these were Traytors that begirt the King's House where his Person was with Hostility by Land and Water He that speaks of them without detestation allows them and makes way for the like Sometimes they called out for Religion sometimes for Justice Ex isto ore religionis verbum excidere aut clabi potest as Tully of Clodius pro Dom. Was the sacred term of Religion sit to come out of their Mouths Did it become them to speak of Justice Sarah cried out to Abraham The Lord judge between me and thee when her self was in the fault Gen. 16.5 Every Tinker and Tapster call'd for Justice and would let the King have none who is the Fountain of it What did the great Parliament in the mean while Give Freedom to their Rage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Odyss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their Friends in their ragged rows were too many to be childden they were more afraid of them than of the
the Fabricks into Coin Four hundred years will not restore their Woods and Timber-Trees so well preserv'd now not the Prelates but the Kingdoms damage What haste they made to rid these things out of the way and to purse up all and to barter presently with their Customers the Jews for fear was upon them lest what remained should return to the right Owners For no time not an Age can cross us in our just Claim hereafter Praescribere volentibus mala fides in aeternum obstat a Maxim of Law in Dr. Duck's Book p. 21. Long before him and in plainer words the Oratour in his best piece Phil. 2. speaking of and praising King Deiotarus Scivit homo sapiens jus semper hoc fuisse ut quae tyranni eripuissent tyrannis sublatis ii quibus ea erepta essent recuperarent God hath a Cyrus in store we hope to pluck away again that which was dedicated to him from prophane Belshazzars When the Phocians had spoiled the Temple of Delos the Grecks were so offended at that Sacriledge that they all resolved in their Pan-hellenium Quod totius orbis viribus expiari debet Lib. 8. Justin And when those Phocians were routed in a bloody Battel and ask't leave to bury their dead the Locrians answer'd them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diod. lib. 16. p. 427. That it was the Common Law of Greece to cast away the Carkasses of the Sacrilegious and not to allow them Burial Some of our Thieves who rob'd God are interr'd in Peace some of them among Princes and Nobles yet they and theirs cannot escape the Curse of an hundred Anathema's darted against them Now it is discernable that the Parliament and such as they raised to maintain their Cause got an East and West-Indies out of the Clergy and Laiety pulling a few Locks away at first at last the Fleece of all the Flock like Graecian Toss-pots that begin with small Cups and quaff off great ones when they are drunk Some little remains to be put to this nay no little but more than a thousand and a thousand drams of Gold to be cast into the Heap of their Gains wherein they suck't the Blood of the Rich and quite starved them who were poor already I mean they and their Horses lying upon the Charge of the Country Vetelliani per omnia Italiae municipia desides tantum hospitibus met uendi Tacit. lib. hist 3. like to like as the Devil to the Collier they were our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Casaubon puts it into one word upon Theophrastus we call it Free-quarter What a grief to be made servile to provide for such Guests when the Family knew it was Judas that dip't his hand with them in the Dish What an Expence it was to bring out all their Stores laid up for a year and to waste it in a week sometimes upon an hundred of their Orgoglioes It is an Arabian Proverb If thy Friend be Honey eat him not up all But these Horse-leaches seldom lest an House till they had thresht the Barn Empty and drunk the Cellar dry And had their mouth been a little widder They would have devoured bidder and shidder says Spencer in his Calendar There are greater wrongs to be complained of than this yet none more vexatious and he that is unlucky to be made an Host to lodge such Guests at Free-quarter let him set up a Cross for his Sign-post Now if the Reader carry in memory that Parliament Priviledges Religion Liberty the Peoples innate Power and the like were the Colour and Pretence to take up Arms against the King but the thing intended was Sacriledge goodly Lands Spoils of all forts a Mass of Riches will he not excuse an honest Vicar of Hampshire who changed one word in the last Verse of the Song Te Deum O Lord in thee have I trusted let me never be a Round-head 193. The Condemnation of an impious disloyal and sacrilegious Rebellion hath filled up many Pages of this Book Loqui multum non est nimium si tamen est necessarium which is St. Austin's by-word As for the Dependance it is not unartificial which the Subject designed in these Papers for that barbarous War running on through many years of the Archbishop of York's life and it being the saddest and most remarkable Passage of the Age it could not be lest out from the remembrance of any Occurrences made and traversed upon those infamous Times The Hatred and Horror of it struck as deep into this Prelate's Heart as into any mans I do not believe that of Cicero to Torquatus lib. 6. ep Nihil praecipuè cuiquam est dolendum in eo quod accidit universis A wise man full of Observation apt to make likely Presages from present Actions upon future Miseries could not pass them by with Slights and Carelesness as some others did Of two things for certain he was disappointed Three years at the most never pass'd over his Head since he had a good Purse but he expended a valuable Sum upon some Monumental Work of Charity His Mind was still the same for all Ground is not barren that lies sallow But being stript of those Revenues which suppeditated Oyl to the Lamp the Light of his Spirit was eclipsed in this obscurity to be unprofitable Another and no less Calamity was that his Papers of long study and much commentation with his choice Books were either rifled or it may be burnt with Cawood Castle and being eager if not ambitious to restore his Notes again by diligence and a mighty memory yet in the noise of Wars beating up of Quarters and shifting of Lodging to sly from Danger it was impossible to contrive it Arts did never profit in the distractions of Wars Chirurgery may get experience by daily searching into wounds Geometry may enhaunce its skill by crecting Bulwarks and drawing Lines for new forts of Fortifications But all Sciences beside will wither in the midst of Arms and Barbarism will over-spread till Learning recover Maintenance Rest and Peace Aptly to this Isocra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the concord and good management of things in Greece the Philosophers and their Studies would fare much the better Yet a man need not say his Life is under great Adversity for want of such Accessions which are but Notes of good direction in the Margent of the Book but belong not to the Text which the Reader cannot span whose Contents are the Church of Christ in its Doctrine Piety Regulation of Order kept inviolate the King's Crown and Honour supported the Laws maintain'd to us as our Ancestors enjoy'd them Liberty and Property defended from wrong and violence these are the Contents of the great Charter so precious to the pious and political man And all these Pillars which held up our Subsistence were battered by the Sons of Anak and ready to fall In this disasterous season who would not pity a great and aged Prelate driven into the remotest corner of the Land and least
Dureque ad miseros veniebas exulis annos says the banish'd Poet at Tomes upon his Nativity-day lib. 3. de Trist El. 13. Pompey was slain as near as could be to his Birth-day Pridie Natalium in the Observation of Plutarch William Earl of Penbrook died suddenly upon his very Birth-day Sanders Hist p. 141. Macrobius tells a Wonder Saturn lib. 1. that Antipater Sidonius had ever a Feaver upon his Birth-day and in his Old-age died of a great Fit the same day This Holy Father had compleated the just number of 68 years Satietas vitae maturum tempus mortis assert Cic. de Sen. He was weary of Life in those hateful Times therefore Death came welcome to him and the more welcome because he lamented his own Condition that he could contribute nothing to raise up the Ruins of the Church and Kingdom Tum cecidit cum lugere rempub potiùs possit quà m servare says the same Eloquent of Hortensius in his Brutus When Satiety of Years was come about a Body wasted a Mind oppress'd with Desolation of the Publick-weal it had been a Punishment not to dye after that neat Similitude of Epictetus lib. 2. c. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is an Injury or in his word a Curse upon Corn when it is Summer-ripe not to be cut down with the Sickle So this worthy Father of the Church died in his Maturity of Age at Glocketh in the Parish of Eglowaysrose in the County of Carnarvan his Body was interred where his House of Pentrin stands in Llangeday the Heriot which every Son of Adam must pay to the Lord of the Mannor of the whole Earth If you look for more of him it is in another and a better World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Says the Epigram Anthol l. 3. If you look for Menender it is â—all one if I said Archbishop Williams look for him with GOD and the Saints above Or if a little more will suffice read this Inscription upon his Tomb in the Chancel of Llangeday-Church Plato in the Twelfth Book of his Laws would have no Epitaph exceed the length of four Verses this shall not hold you four minutes 211. HOspes lege relege Quod in hoc Sacello paucis noto haud expectares Hic situs est Johannes Wilhelmus omnium Praesulum celeberrimus A paternis natalibus è familia Wilhelmorum de Coghwhillin ortus A maternis è Griffithis de Pentrin Cujus summum ingenium in omni genere literarum praestantia Meruit ut Regis Jacobi gratiâ ad Decanatum Sarum Post Westmonasterii eveheretur Ut simul atque uno munere tanto Regi esset à consiliis secretis deliciis Magni Sigilli Custos Sedis Lincolniensis Episcopus Quem Carolus primus infula Episcop Eboracen decoraret Omnes scientias valdè edoctus novem linguarum thesaurus Theologiae purae illibatae medulla prudentiae politicae cortina Sacrae canonicae civilis municipalis sapientiae apex ornamentum Dulciloquii cymbalum memoriae tenacissimae plusquà m humanae Historiarum omnis generis myrothecium Magnorum operum usque ad sumtum viginti mille librarum structor Munificentiae liberalitatis hospitalis lautitri Misericordiae erga pauperes insigne exemplum Postquà m inter tempora luctuosissima Satur esset omnium quae videret audiret Nec Regi aut Patriae per rabiem perduellium ampliùs servire potuit Anno aetatis 68º expleto Martis 25º qui fuit ei natalis Summâ fide in Christum inconcussâ erga Regem fidelitate Animam anginâ extinctus piissimè Deo reddidit Nec refert quod tantillum monumentum in occulto angulo positum Tanti viri memoriam servat Cujus virtutes omnium aetatum tempora celebrabunt Abi viator sat tuis oculis debes 212. That which my Prayers and Studies have long endeavoured the dispatch of this Labour is come to pass by the good Hand of God this Seventeenth of February 1657. which is some hearts-ease but with respect that I wait the Consolation of the Lord in better times Which Benefit not I perhaps but such as are younger may live to see as the old Father said to his Son in Plaut Trin. Mihi quidem aetas acta fermè est Tuâ isthuc refert maximè I need not admonish my Readers for they find it all the way that my Scope is not so much to insist upon the memorable things of one Man's Life as to furnish them with reading out of my small store that are well-willers to Learning in Theological Political and Moral Knowledge Yet in those Observations I have not set down a Cyrus a feigned Subject but wrought them into the true Image of this Prelate So Nazianzen informs us that when Athanasius drew out the Life of Anthony the Hermite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He drew out the Instructions of a Rural Hermetical Lise in his Behaviour Some are cheated with Wit now-a-days after the French fashion and had rather Men should be commended in Romances of Persons that were never extant than in such as lived among us truly deserved Glory and did us good My Subject is real and not umbratick a Man of as deep and large wisdom as I did ever speak with and I fear not to say of him as Laelius doth of Cato major Aut enim nemo quod quidem magis credo aut si quis usquam ille sapiens fuit He was constant to that Religion wherein he was catechized and instructed in it more perfectly in Cambridge A punctual observer of the ancient Church Orders whereof he was a Governour and a great decliner of innovations holding to it that what was long in use if it were not best it was fittest for the People He tasted equally of great Prosperity and Adversity and was a rare Example in both like Lollius in Horace Secundis rebus dubiisque rectus not elevated with Honour nor in the contrary state cast down His Enemies lik't nothing worse in him than his Courage and he pleased himself in nothing more Of a stately Presence and a Mind suitable to it Some call'd it Pride and Haughtiness a Scandal laid upon St. Basil says Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They twisted him that he was lofty and supercilious Underlings will never forbear to object it to Men in places of Preheminence when there is more of it in themselves Well said Petrus Blesensis Melior est purpurata humilitas quà m pannosa superbia Yet I concur with others who knew this Lord that Choler and a high Stomach were his Faults and the only Defects in him And it had been better for him if he had known a meek temper and how to be resisted Otherwise his Vertues were super-excellent A great Devotee to publick and private Prayer There did not live that Christian that hated Revenge more than he or that would forgive an Injury sooner Most Munificent Liberal Charitable above his Means for he died in a Debt of 8000 l. though