persons as were either Papists or suspected to be Papists or had not received the Communion within the space of one whole year or whose Wives or any of their Servants were Recusants or suspected to be so might be removed from all Commissions of charge and trust from being Justices of the Peace or bearing any Office in the Common Wealth But this Petition was not made ready for the Lords till the twentieth of May next following and being then reported to them by the Archbishop of Canterbury they did proceed no further in it The Commons in the mean time had been wholly busied in the Prosecution of the Lord Treasurer Cranfield whom at last they brought unto his Sentence A Gentleman he was by birth but had his breeding in the City from whence by his own wit and industry he preferred himself into the Court where he was first made Master of the Wardrobe afterward Master of the Wards and finally advanced by the power and favour of the Duke one of whose Kinswomen he had married to the office of Lord Treasurer and the honour of being made the first Earl of Middlesex In this Office he had disobliged the Prince when he was in Spain by disswading and diverting those Large Supplies which were required for the maintaining of his Port in a Forraign Kingdom And he had disobliged the Duke by joyning in some secret practises to make him grow less and less in his Majesties Favour They had both served the turn of the Commons in drawing the King by their continual importunities to dissolve the Treatie And the Commons must now serve their turn in prosecuting this man to his final destruction Which they pursued so effectually that in the end he was sentenced in the House of Lords to be deprived of the Office of Lord High Treasurer of England to be fined fifty thousand Pounds and remain a Prisoner in the Tower during his Majesties will and pleasure It was moved also to degrade him from all Titles of honour but in that the Bishops stood his Friends and dasht the motion So Cranfield sell and Williams did not stand long after Laud was now brought into an higher degree of credit with the Duke of Buckingham than he was before by means whereof he came to be of great power and authority with him Insomuch that when the Duke fell sick of an Ague in the beginning of May he was extreme impatient in his Fits till Laud came to visit him by whom he was so charmed and sweetned that at first he endured his Fits with patience and by that patience did so break their heats and violences that at last they left him From this time forwards he was not used only as a Confessor but a Counsellor also imployed by him in considering and advising whether the great endowments belonging to the Hospitals founded in the dissolved house of Carthusian Monks commonly but corruptly called the Charter-House might not be inverted to the maintenance of an Army for the present Wars as well for his Majesties advantage as the case of the Subject And to this Proposition as it seems he returned a Negative for I find not that the business advanced any further He liked not any inversions or alienations of that nature lest being drawn into example the Lands of Colledges or Cathedral Churches might in like manner be imployed unto secular uses Besides he could not choose but know that a project had been set on foot about ten years before for the Entituling of the King to all Sutton's Lands which probably might have succeeded if Coke then being Lord Chief Justice and one of the Trustees for erecting the Hospital had not stood stoutly to his trust By which though he got the Kings displeasure yet amongst others he preserved the reputation of an honest man And Laud might very well conclude that he who durst oppose the King when he was in his favour would be found more intractable at this time when he was in disgrace which rendred him the less sollicitous to appear in a business not otherwise approved of by him But in another point which was more to his liking and lay within the spheare of his activity he gave him as much satisfaction as he had desired This was the giving him the heads of Doctrinal Puritanism that is to say the Heads of such Doctrines as were maintained by those of the Puritan Faction though not maintained by them as Puritans but as Calvinists only The Duke had a desire to know them and he served him in it I must needs say the name of Doctrinal Puritanism is not very ancient but whether first taken up by the Archbishop of Spalato at his being here I am not able to say Nor am I of opinion that Puritan and Calvinian are terms convertible For though all Puritans are Calvinians both in doctrine and practise yet all Calvinians are not to be counted as Puritans also whose practises many of them abhor and whose inconformities they detest though by the errour of their Education or ill direction in the Course of their Studies they may and do agree with them in some points of Doctrine But I must take the word as it stands in the Breviate and so let it go These Doctrinal heads being ten in number related to the indispâ—nsible morality of the Lords-day-Sabbath the indiscrimination of Bishops and Presbyters the Power of Soveraign Princes in Ecclesiastical matters the Doctrine of Confession and Sacerdotal Absolution and the five Points so much disputed about Predestination and the Concomitants thereof Which last Points having been hotly agitated for twenty years last past in the Belgick Churches did now begin to exercise the Church of England upon this occasion The Priests and Jesuites having been very busie of late in gaining Proselites and sowing their erronious Doctrines had got a haunt in a Village of the County of Essex called Stanford-Rivers The Rector of that Church was Richard Montague Batchelor of Divinity Prebend of Windsor and one of the Fellows of Eaton Colledge a man exceedingly well versed in all the Learning of Greeks and Romans and as well studied in the Fathers Councils and all other ancient Monuments of the Christian Church Desirous to free his Parish from this haunt he left some Propositions at the house of one of his Neighbours which had been frequently visited with these Night-Spirits with this Declaration thereunto that if any of those which ranged that walk could convince him in any of the same he would immediately subscribe and be a Papist After long expectation instead of answering to his queries one of them leaves a short Pamphlet for him entituled A new Gag for the Old Gospell in which it was pretended that the Doctrine of the Protestants should be confuted out of the very words of their own English Bibles This book he was required to answer and found it no such knotty piece but that it might be cleft in sunder without Beetle or Wedges But in perusing of that
Dr. Abbot being thus removed to an higher spheare it seemed not good to Laud to pursue the quarrel but patiently to attend the year of his expectation before the expiring whereof the King bestowed upon him the Deanry of Glocester as before was said At the bestowing of which Deanry his Majesty told him that he had been informed that there was scarce ever a Church in England so ill governed and so much out of order as that was requiring him in the general to reform and set in order what he found amiss Being thus forewarned and withall forearmed he makes hast to Glocester where he found the Church in great decay many things out of order in it the Communion Table standing almost in the middest of the Quire contrary to the posture of it in his Majesties Chappel and of all the Cathedral Churches which he had seen Which being observed he called a Chapter of the Prebends and having acquainted them with his Majesties Instructions easily obtained their consent to two Chapter Acts The one for the speedy Repairing of the Church where it was most necessary The other for transposing the Communion Table to the East end of the Quire and placing it all along the Wall according to the scituation of it in other Cathedral or Mother Churches which Transposition being made he recommended to the Prebendaries the Quire men Choresters and the under-Officers of the Church the making of their humble reverence to Almighty God not only at their first entrance into the Quire but at their approaches toward the holy Table according to the laudible custom of the Primitive times retained still in the sollemnities of the Knights of the Garter at the Act in Oxon. in the Chappels of his Majesty and divers great persons in the Realm His Majesties instructions the Contents of the two Chapter Acts and how he had proceeded on them I find certified under his hand in two Letters The one to his good Friend the Bishop of Lincoln bearing date March 3. 1616. The other unto the Bishop of Glocester who had shewed himself offended at his proceedings bearing date on the twenty seventh of February then next foregoing The Bishop of Glocester at that time was Dr. Miles Smith once of Brazen-Nose Colledge a great Hebrician and one that took as much pains as any in the last Translation of the Bible as a reward for which he received this Bishoprick But then withall he was a man that spared not to shew himself upon all occasions in favour of the Calvinian party and more particularly in countenancing the Lecturers within his Diocess against the lawful Minister of the Parish when ever any complaint of their proceedings was made unto him No sooner had he heard what the new Dean had done about the Communion Table but he expressed his dislike of it and opposed it with all the power he had But finding that he could not prevaile according unto his desires he is said to have protested unto the Dean and some of the Prebends that if the Communion Table were removed or any such Innovations brought into that Cathedral he would never come more within those Walls which Promise or Protestation he is said by some to have made good and not to have come within that Church to his dying day Which if he did forbear upon that occasion he must needs shew himself a man of great pertinacity and one that feared not to give a publick scandall to the Church and the Court to boot This transposition being made in the declining of the year 1616. his Pallace standing near the walls of that Cathedral and he not dying till the year 1624. which was eight years after Seeing how little he prevailed one White his Chaplain takes upon him in a Letter written to the Chancellor of that Diocess to acquaint him with the strange Reports which were come unto them touching the scituation of the Communion Table in the place where the High Altar stood before and that low obeysance were made to it assuring him how much the secret Papists would rejoyce in hope that that which they long looked for was now near at hand In which Letter he also challenged and upbraided the Prebends and other Preachers of that City that they did not offer either by word or deed to resist the Dean in those proceedings admiring that no man should have any spark of Elias Spirit to speak a word in Gods behalf that the Preachers should swallow down such things in silence and that the Prebends should be so faint hearted as to shrink in the first wetting especially having the Law on their side against it It was not long before this Letter was made a Libell Either the Letter it self or a Copy of it being cast into the Pulpit at St. Michaels Church where Prior the Sub-Dean used to preach to the end that he and others of the Prebendaries might take notice of it Found by the Parish Clerk and by him put into the hands of the Curate by them communicated unto others who took Copies of it and in short time divulged over all the City The City at that time much pestered with the Puritan Faction which was grown multitudinous and strong by reason of the small abode which the Dean and Prebendaries made amongst them the dull connivance of their Bishop and the remiss Government of their Metropolitan so that it seemed both safe and easie to some of the Rabble to make an out-cry in all places that Popery was coming in that the translating of the Communion Table into an Altar with the worship and obeysance which were done to it were Popish superstitions and the like Iones one of the Aldermen of the City and a Justice of the Peace withall caused some of the principal dispersers of this Libellous Letter to be brought before him committed some of them to prison and threatned to bind the rest to their good behaviour But fearing lest his own power might not be sufficient to crush that Faction which had begun to gather strength by long connivance he advised that the business might be referred to the High Commissioners as men more able to deal with them Notice hereof being given to the new Dean by some Letters thence bearing date Feb. 21. he addressed this Letter above mentioned to the Bishop of Glocester In which he desired such Favour and Equity at his hands as that his Lordship would joyn to reform such Tongues and Pens as knew not how to submit to any Law but their own that of necessity he was to acquaint his Gracious Majesty not only with the thing it self but with the entertainment which it found among Turbulent Spirits and that he doubted not but that his Majesty would be well pleased to hear how careful his Lordship shewed himself in preserving the Order and Peace of the Church But fearing that the Bishop whose Chaplain was the sole cause of the mischief would not be very forward to redress it he dispatched the other Letter
supposed it makes exceedingly to the honour and commendation of this our Bishop as well in point of Secrecy as unfeigned Fidelity that his Majesty should pick out him from all other men to be his Pen-man or Chief Secretary in such weighty businesses Then again it is affirmed That he not only corrected and amended the Dukes Answer to the Impeachment which was made against him by the Commons but that he also penned that Speech which the Duke subjoined unto his Answer A Crime of the same nature and proved by the same Mediums as the others was and such as rather might have served for a strong assurance both of his honest Fidelity to his Friend and Patron and the even temper of his own mind in the managing of it For if we may believe the Author of the first History of the Life and Reign of King Charles as I think we may this Answer of the Duke was so in-laid with Modesty and Humility that it became a new Grievance to his Adversaries and was like to have a powerful influence toward the conversion of many who expected a Defence of another and more disdainful Spirit Thus have we brought two Parliaments unto an end but we hear nothing of the Convocations which were summoned with them Nothing indeed of the first Convocation but the passing of a Grant for three Subsidies toward the Advancement of his Majesties Service In the second we find something more though no Subsidies are granted in it On the fifth Sunday in Lent Goodman then Bishop of Glocester preach'd before his Majesty and press'd so hard upon the Point of the Real Presence that he was supposed to trench too neer the borders of Popery which raised a great clamour both in Court and Country The matter of which Sermon was agitated pro and con in the Convocation March 29. without determining any thing on either side But his Majestie out of a desire to satisfie both himself and his Houses of Parliament touching that particular referred the consideration of it to Abbot Archbishop of Canterbury Andrews Bishop of Winchester and Laud Bishop of St. Davids who meeting and considering of it on the twelfth of April returned this Answer to the King That some things in that Sermon had been spoke less warily but nothing falsly That nothing had been innovated by him in the Doctrine of the Church of England But howsoever That they thought very fit that Goodman should be appointed to Preach again before his Majesty for the better explaining of his meaning and shewing how and in what Particulars he had been mistaken by his Auditors Which he accordingly performed But nothing was of such concernment to a Convocation as the cause of Mountague vexed and molested by the Commons in both the Parliaments for supposed Popery and Arminianism matters meerly Doctrinal And possibly it may be admired that they should do nothing in a matter of their own peculiar having his Majesty to Friend for it appears in the Letter of the three Bishops before-mentioned to the Duke of Buckingham That his Majesty had taken that business into his own care and had most worthily referred it in a right course to Church-consideration And it appears also by the Breviate pag. 8. That on Sunday April 22. of this present year his Majesty had commanded all the Bishops to come before him and reprehended such as came being fourteen in number for being silent in Causes which concerned the Church and had not made known unto him what might be profitable or unprofitable for it the Cause whereof he was so ready to promote But then we are to call to mind that Laud not long since had been sent by the Duke of Buckingham to consult with Andrews and learn of him what he thought fitting to be done in the Cause of the Church and more especially in the Five Articles so hotly agitated between the Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants in the Belgick Provinces And it appears by the event That Andrews did not hold it fit for any thing to be done in that particular as the case then stood the truth in those Opinions not being so generally entertained amongst the Clergy nor the Archbishop and the greater part of the Prelates so inclinable to them as to venture the determining of those Points to a Convocation But that which was not thought fit in that present Conjuncture for a Convocation his Majesty was pleased to take order in by his Royal Edict Many Books had been written against Mountague by Carleton Bishop of Chichester Sutcliffe Dean of Exeter Yates and Rouse by which the differences were rather increased than diminished Which coming to his Majesties notice it pleased him by the Advice of his Bishops to signifie by his Proclamation of Iune 14. Not only to his own People but to all the World his utter dislike of all those who to shew the subtilty of their Wits or to please their own Humours or vent their own Passions do or shall adventure to stir or move any new Opinions not only contrary but differing from the sound and Orthodoxal Grounds of the true Religion sincerely Professed and happily Established in the Church of England and also to declare his full and constant Resolution That neither in matter of Doctrine nor Discipline of the Church nor in the Government of the State he will admit of the least Innovation but by Gods assistance will so guide the Scepter of these his Kingdoms and Dominions by the Divine Providence put into his hand as shall be for the comfort and assurance of his sober Religious and well-affected Subjects and for the repressing and severe punishing of such as out of any sinister respects or disaffection to his Person or Government shall dare either in Church or State to distract or disquiet the Peace thereof His Majesty thereupon commands all his Subjects the Clergy most especially both in England and Ireland That from thenceforth they should carry themselves so wisely warily and conscionably that neither by Writing Preaching Printing Conferences or otherwise they raise any doubts or publish or maintain any new Inventions or Opinions concerning Religion than such as are clearly grounded and warranted by the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England heretofore published and happily established by Authority Straightly charging all Archbishops and Bishops in their several Diocesses as also all Counsellors of State Judges and Ministers of Justice speedily to reclaim and repress all such Spirits as shall adventure hereafter to break this Rule of Sobriety and due Obedience to his Majesty his Laws and this Religious Duty to the Church of God or in the least degree attempt to violate this bond of Peace adding withal this intimation of his Royal Pleasure That whosoever from thenceforth should take the boldness wilfully to neglect this his Majesties gracious Admonition and either for the satisfying of their unquiet and restless Spirits or for expressing of their rash and undutiful Insolencies should wilfully break that
is nothing more dear to us than the preservation of true Religion as it is now setled and established in this Our Kingdom to the Honour of God the great Comâ—ort of Our Self and Our Loyal People and there can nothing more conduce to the Advancement thereof than the strict observations of such Canons of the Church as concern those who are to take Orders in their several Times more especially of keeping that particular Canon which enjoins That no man be made a Priest without a Title For We find that many not so qualified do by favour or other means procure themselves to be Ordained and afterwards for want of Means wander up and down to the scandal of their Calling or to get Maintenance fall upon such Courses as were most unfit for them both by humouring their Auditors and other ways altogether unsufferable We have therefore thought fit and We do hereby straightly command require and charge you to call such Bishops to you as are now present in or near Our City of London and to acquaint them with this Our Resolution And further That you fail not in the beginning of the next Term to give notice of this Our Will and Pleasure openly in Our High-Commisâ—ion Court and that you call into your said Court every Bishop respectively that shall presume to give Orders to any man that hath not a Title and there to censure him as the Canon aforesaid doth enjoin which is to maintain the Party so Ordered till he give him a Title and with what other Censure you in Iustice shall think fit And Our further Will is That nothing shall be reputed a Title to enable a man for Orders but that which is so by the Ancient Course of the Church and the Canon-Law so far forth as that Law is received in this our Church of England And as you must not fail in these our Directions nor in any part of them so We expect that you give us from time to time a strict Account of your Proceedings in the same Given under Our Signet at Our Palace of Westminster Septemb. 19. in the ninth year of Our Reign 1633. On the Receipt of these Letters which himself had both advised and digested he called such of his Suffragan Bishops who were then about London to come before him acquaints them with the great scandal which was given the Church the danger of Schism and Faction which might thence arise and the more than ordinary displeasure which had been taken by his Majesty and the Lords of his Council at such unlawful and uncanonical Ordinations he required them therefore to be more careful for the time to come and not to give the like offence to his Sacred Majesty who was resolved to see the Canons of the Church in that particular more punctually observed than they had been formerly and to call all such to an account who should presume hereafter to transgress therein Which said he gave to each of them a Copy of his Majesties Letters and sent the like Copies unto all the rest of his Suffragan Bishops inclosed in Letters of his own in which Letters having declared unto them as much as he spake unto the rest touching his Majesties pious Care to redress that Mischief he requires them and every one of them That at all times of Ordination they be very careful to admit none into Holy Orders but such men as for Life and Learning are fit and which have a Title for their maintenance according to the Laws and the ancient Practice of the Church assuring them that his Majesty had commanded him to let them know That he would not fail to call for an account of those his Letters both from him and them and therefore That he did not doubt but that they would have a special care both of the good of the Church and his Majesties Contentment in it The like Letters were sent from his Majesty by his procurement to the Archbishop of York who was as sensible of the inconvenience as himself could be And though nothing was required in either of the said Letters but what had been provided for in the Canon of 1603. yet was it as much inveighed against as if it had been a new device never heard of formerly The reason was because that neither any Lecture nor any possibility of being entertained as a Chaplain in the Houses of Noblemen or others of the inferiour Gentry could be allowed of for a Title and consequently no Orders to be given hereafter under those Capacities But notwithstanding those Reproaches the Archbishops so bestirred themselves and kept such a strict eye on their several Suffragans that from henceforth we hear but little of such vagrant Ministers and Trencher-Chaplains the old brood being once worn out as had pestred and annoyed the Church in those latter Times It is to be observed That the Archbishops Letter to his several Suffragans bears date on the eighteenth of October which day gives date also to his Majesties Declaration about Lawful Sports concerning which we are to know That the Commons in the first Parliament of his Majesties Reign had gained an Act That from thenceforth there should be no Assembly or Concourse of People out of their own Parishes on the Lords day or any Bull-baiting Bear-baiting Enterludes Common Plays or any other unlawful Exercises or Pastimes in their own Parishes on the same Which being gained they obtained another in the third Parliament for inhibiting all Carriers Waggoners Drovers Pack-men for Travelling on the said day with their Horses Waggons Packs c. As also That no Butcher should from thenceforth kill or sell any Victual upon that day either by himself or any other under the several Penalties therein contained And though it was not his Majesties purpose in those Acts to debar any of his good Subjects from any honest and harmless Recreations which had not been prohibited by the Laws of the Land or that it should not be lawful for them in case of necessity to buy a piece of Meat for the use of their Families the Butchers Shop not being set open as on other days yet presently some Publick Ministers of Justice began to put another sense upon those Acts than ever came within the compass of his meaning For at the Summer Assizes held in Exon Anno 1627. an Order was made by Walter then Chief Baron and Denham one of the puisne Barons of the Court of Exchequer for suppressing all Revels Church-Ales Clerk-Ales which had been used upon that day requiring the Justices of the Peace within the said County to see the same put in execution and that every Minister in his Parish-Church should publish the said Order yearly on the first Sunday in February The like Order made in the same year also for the Counties of Somerset and Dorset and probably enough for some of the other Counties of that Western Circuit none of them in those squeasie and unsettled Times being questioned for it And then in
reference to the Statute of the Third of this King a Warrant is granted in the Month of April 1629. by Richard Dean then Lord Mayor of London for apprehending all Porters carrying Burthens or Water-men plying at their Oars all Tankerd-bearers carrying Water to their Masters Houses all Chandlers and Hucksters which bought any Victuals on that day of the Country-Carriers all Vinteners Alehouse-keepers Strong water-men and Tobacco-sellers which suffered any Person to fit drinking on that day though possibly they might do it only for their honest necessities In which as Dean out-went the Statute so Raynton in the same Office Anno 1633. over-acted Dean prohibiting a poor woman from selling Apples on that day in St. Paul's Church-yard within which place he could pretend no Jurisdiction and for that cause was questioned and reproved by Laud then Bishop of London But none so lastily laid about him in this kind as Richardson the Chiâ—â— Justice of his Majesties Bench who in the Lent-Assizes for the County of Somerset Anno 1631. published the like Order to that which had been made by Walter for the County of Devon not only requiring that the Justices of the Peace in the said County should see the same to be duly put in execution but also as the other had done before that publication should be made thereof in the Parish-Churches by all such Ministers as did Officiate in the same with which encroachment upon the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in imposing upon men in Holy Orders the publishing of Warrants and Commands from the Secular Judges Laud being then Bishop of London and finding his Majesties Affairs in a quieter condition than they had been formerly was not meanly offended as he had good reason so to be and made complaint of it to the King who thereupon commanded Richardson to revoke the said Order at the next Assizes But Richardson was so far from obeying his Majesties Command in that particular that on the contrary he not only confirmed his former Order but made it more peremptory than before Upon complaint whereof by Sir Robert Philips and other chief Gentlemen of that County his Majesty seemed to be very much moved and gave Command to the Bishop of London to require an Account from the Bishop of Bath nnd Wells then being how the said Feast-days Church-Ales Wakes or Revels were for the most part celebrated and observed in his Diocess On the Receipt of which Letters the Bishop calls before him 72 of the most Orthodox and ablest Clergy-men amongst them who certified under their several hands That on the Feast-days which commonly fell upon the Sunday the Service of God was more solemnly performed and the Church was better frequented both in the forenoon and afternoon than upon any Sunday in the year That the People very much desired the continuance of them That the Ministers in most Places did the like for these Reasons specially viz. For preserving the memorial of the Dedication of their several Churches For civilizing the People For composing Differences by the mediation and meeting of Friends For encrease of Love and Unity by those Feasts of Charity For Relief and Comfort of the Poor the Richer part in a manner keeping open House c. On the Return of which Certificate so seasonably seconding the Complaint and Information of the Gentry Richardson was again convented at the Council-Table and peremptorily commanded to reverse his former Orders at the next Assizes for that County withal receiving such a rattle for his former Contempt by the Bishop of London that he came out blubbering and complaining That he had been almost choaked with a pair of Lawn Sleeves Whilst these things were thus in agitation one Brabourne a poor School-master in the Diocess of Norfolk being seduced and misguided by the continual inculcating of the Morality of the Lords-day Sabboth from the Press and Pulpit published a Book in maintenance of the Seventh-day Sabboth as it was kept amongst the Iews and prescribed by Moses according to Gods Will and Pleasure signified in the Fourth Commandment This Book at the first not daring to behold the Light went abroad by stealth but afterwards appeared in publick with an open confidence an Epistle Dedicatory to his Majesty being placed before it His Majesty extremely moved with so lewd an impudence and fearing to be thought the Patron of a Doctrine so abhorrent from all Christian Piety gave Order for the Author to be Censured in the High-Commission Brabourne being thereupon called into that Court and the Cause made ready for an Hearing his Errour was so learnedly confuted by the Bishops and other judicious Divines then present that he began to stagger in his former Opinion which hint being taken by their Lordships he was admonished in a grave and Fatherly manner to submit himself unto a Conference with such Learned men as should be appointed thereunto to which he chearfully consented and found such benefit by that Meeting that by Gods Blessing he became a Convert and freely conformed himself to the Orthodoxal Doctrine of the Church of England concerning the Sabboth and Lords-day Which Tendences of some of the People to downright Iudaism grounded upon the Practices and Positions of the Sabbatarians and seconded by the petulancy of some Publick Ministers of Justice in debarring his good Subjects in keeping the ancient Dedication-Feast of their several Churches occasioned his Majesty to think of the reviving of his Royal Fathers Declaration about Lawful Sports To which end he gave Orders to the Archbishop of Canterbury to cause the same to be re-printed word for word as it had issued from the Press in the time of his late Royal Father Anno 1618. at the end whereof he caused this Declaration of his own sense to be super-added that is to say Now out of a like Pious Care saith his Sacred Majesty for the Service of God and for suppressing of any humours that oppose the Truth and for the case and comfort and recreation of Our well-deserving People We do Ratifie and Publish this Our Blessed Fathers Declaration the rather because of late in some Counties of Our Kingdom we find that under pretence of taking away Abuses there hath been a general forbidding not only of ordinary Meetings but of the Feasts of the Dedication of Churches commonly called Wakes Now Our express Will and Pleasure is That these Feasts with others shall be observed and that our Iustices of the Peace in their several Divisions shall look to it both that all Disorders there may be prevented or punished and that all neighbourhood and freedom with manlike and lawful exercises be used And We further command Our Iustices of Assize in their several Circuits to see that no man do trouble or molest any of Our lâ—yal and dutiful People in or for their Lawful Recreations having first done their Duty to God and continuing in Obedience to Vs and Our Laws And of this We command all Our Iudges Iustices of the Peace as well within Liberties as
private Laird to be a Peer of that Realm made him first Treasurer Depute Chancellor of the Exchequer we should call him in England afterwards Lord Treasurer and Privy Counsellor of that Kingdom This man he wrought himself so far into Lauds good liking when he was Bishop of London only that he looked upon him as the fittest Minister to promote the Service of that Church taking him into his nearest thoughts communicating to him all his Counsels committed to his care the conduct of the whole Affair and giving order to the Archbishops and Bishops of Scotland not to do any thing without his privity and direction But being an Hamiltonian Scot either originally such or brought over at last he treacherously betrayed the cause communicated his Instructions to the opposite Faction from one time to another and conscious of the plot for the next daies tumult withdrew himself to the Earl of Mortons house of Dalkeith to expect the issue And possible it is that by his advice the executing of the Liturgy was put off from Easter at what time the reading of it was designed by his Majesty as appears by the Proclamation of December 20. which confirmed the Book By which improvident delay he gave the Presbyterian Faction the longer time to confederate themselves against it and to possess the people with Fears and Jealousies that by admitting of that book they should lose the Purity of their Religion and be brought back unto the Superstitions and Idolatries of the Church of Rome And by this means the People were inflamed into that Sedition which probably might have been prevented by a quicker prosecution of the Cause at the time appointed there being nothing more destructive of all publick Counsels than to let them take wind amongst the People cooled by delaies and finally blown up like a strong Fortress undermined by some subtle practice And there were some miscarriages also amongst the Prelates of the Kirk in not communicating the design with the Lords of the Council and other great men of the Realm whose Countenance both in Court and Country might have sped the business Canterbury had directed the contrary in his Letters to them when the first draughts of the Liturgy were in preparation and seems not well pleased in another of his to the Archbishop of St. Andrews bearing date September 4. that his advice in it was not followed nor the whole body of the Council made acquainted with their Resolutions or their advice taken or their power called in for their assistance till it was too late It was complained of also by some of the Bishops that they were made strangers to the business who in all Reason ought to have been trusted with the knowledge of that intention which could not otherwise than by their diligence and endeavours amongst their Clergy be brought to a happy execution Nor was there any care taken to adulce the Ministers to gain them to the Cause by fair hopes and promises and thereby to take off the edge of such Leading men as had an influence on the rest as if the work were able to carry on it self or have so much Divine assistance as countervailed the want of all helps from man And which perhaps conduced as much to the destruction of the Service as all the rest a publick intimation must be made in all their Churches on the Sunday before that the Liturgie should be read on the Lords day following of purpose as it were to unite all such as were not well affected to it to disturb the same And there were some miscarriages also which may be looked on as Accessories after the Fact by which the mischief grew remediless and the malady almost incurable For first the Archbishops and Bishops most concerned in it when they saw what hapned consulted by themselves apart and sent up to the King without calling a Council or joyning the Lay Lords with them whereas all had been little enough in a business of that nature and so much opposed by such Factious persons as gathered themselves on purpose together at Edenborough to disturb the Service A particular in which the Lay Lords could not be engaged too far if they had been treated as they ought But having run upon this error they committed a worse in leaving Edenborough to it self and retiring every one to his own Diocess except those of Galloway and Dumblaine For certainly they must needs think as Canterbury writes in one of his Letters to Traquaire that the Adverse party would make use of the present time to put further difficulties upon the work and therefore that they should have been as careful to uphold it the Bishop of Ross especially whose hand had been as much in it as the most But possibly the Bishops might conceive the place to be unsecure and therefore could not stay with safety neither the Lords of the Council nor the Magistrates of the City having taken any course to bring the chief Ringleaders of the Tumult to the Bar of Justice which must needs animate all disaffected and seditious persons and almost break the hearts of those who were well enclined And such indeed was the neglect of the Civil Magistrate that we hear of no man punished scarce so much as questioned for so great a Riot as was not to be expiated but by the death or some proportionable punishment of the chief offenders Which had it been inflicted on some three or four for a terror to others it might have kept that City quiet and the whole Kingdom in obedience for the time to come to the saving of the lives of many thousands some hundreds of thousands at the least in all the three Kingdoms most miserably lost in those long and cruel Wars which ensued upon it But the Lords of Scotland were so far from looking before them that they took care only for the present and instead of executing Justice on the Malefactors suspended the Liturgie it self as the cause of the Tumult conceiving it a safer way to calm the differences than to encrease the storm by a more rigorous and strict proceeding All that they did in order to his Majesties Service or the Churches peace was the calling in of a scandalous Pamphlet entituled A dispute against the English Popish Ceremonies obtruded on the Kirk of Scotland which not being done till October 20 following rather declared their willingness to suffer the said Book to be first dispersed and set abroad then to be called in and suppressed Nor seemed the business to be much taken to heart in the Court of England from whom the Scots expected to receive Directions Nor Order given them for unsheathing the Sword of Justice to cut off such unsound and putrified Members which might have saved the whole Body from a Gangreen the drawing of some Blood in the Body Politick by the punishment of Malefactors being like letting Blood in the Body Natural which in some strong Distempers doth preserve the whole Or granting that the Tumult
as forward in it as any other that their Contributions mounted higher than was expected The Benevolence of the Diocess of Norwich only aâ—ounting to 2016 l. 16 s. 5 d. The Archdâ—acorry of Winchester only to the sum of 1305 l. 5 s. 8 d. And though we may not conclude of all the rest by the greatness of thâ—se yet may it be very safely said that they did all exceeding bountifully in their several proportions with reference to the extent of their Diocesses and the ability of their Estates Nor were the Judges of the several Benches of the Courts at Westminster and the great Officers under them Protonotaries Secondaries and the like deficient in expressing their good aâ—â—ections to this general cause in which the safety of the Realm was as much concerned as his Majesties honour And for the Doctors of the Laws Chancellors Commissaries Officials and other Officers belonging to the Ecclesiastical Courts they were spurred on to follow the example of the Secular Judges as having a more particular concernment in it by a Letter sent from the Archbishop to the Dean of the Arches on February 11. and by him communicated to the rest By which Free-will offerings on the one side some commanded duties on the other and the well-husbanding of his Majesties Revenue by the Lord Treasurer Iuxon he was put into such a good condition that he was able both to raise and maintain an Army with no charge to the Common Subject but only a little Coat and Conduct money at their first setting out These preparations were sufficient to give notice of a War approaching without any further denouncing of it by a publick Herald and yet there was another accident which seemed as much to fore-signifie it as those preparations Mary de Medices the Widow of King Henry iâ— of France and Mother to the Queens of England and Spain arrived at Harwich on October 19. and on the last of the same was with great State conducted through the Streets of London to his Majesties Palace of St. Iames. A Lady which for many years had not lived out of the smell of Powder and a guard of Muskets at her door embroyled in wars and troubles when she lived in France and drew them after her into Flanders where they have ever since continued So that most men were able to presage a Tempest as Mariâ—eâ—s by the appearing of some Fish or the flying of some Birds about their ships can foresee a storm His Majesty had took great care to prevent her comming knowing â—ull well how chargeable a guest she would prove to him and how unwelcome to the Subject To which end â—eswel was commanded to use all his wits for perswading her to stay in Holland whither she had retired from Flanders in the year precedent But she was wedded to her will and possibly had received such invitations from her Daughter here that nothing but everlasting foul weather at Sea and a perpetual cross-wind could have kept her there All things provided for the War his Majesty thought sit to satisfie his good Subjects of both Kingdoms not only of the Justice which appeared in this Action but in the unavoydable necessity which enforced him to it To which end he acquaints them by his Proclamation of the 20 of February How traiterously some of the Scottish Nation had practiced to pervert his Loyal Subjects of this Realm by scattering abroad their Libellous and Seditious Pamphlets mingling themselves at their publick meetings and reproaching both his Person and Government That he had never any intention to alter their Religion or Laws but had condescended unto more for defence thereof than they had reason to expect That they had rejected the Band and Covenant which themselves had prest upon the people because it was commended to them by his Authority and having made a Covenant against God and him and made such Hostile preparations as if he were their sworn Enemy and not their King That many of them were men of broken Fortunes who because they could not well be worse hoped by engaging in this War to make themselves better That they had assumed unto themselves the power of the Press one of the chief markes of the Regal Authority prohibiting to Print what he commanded and commanding to Print what he prohibited and dismiâ—â—ng the Printer whom he had established in that Kingdom That they had raised Arms blockt up and besieged his Castles laid Impositions and Taxes upon his people threatned such as continued under Loyalty with force and violence That they had contemned the Authority of the Council Table and set up Tables of their own from which they send their Edâ—cts throughout all parts of the Kingdom contrary to the Laws therein established pretending in the mean time that the Laws were violated by himself That the question was not now whether the Service-Book should be received or not or whether Episcopacy should continue or not but whether he were King or not That many of them had denied the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance for which some of them had been committed as inconsistent and incompatible with their holy Covenant That being brought under a necessity of taking Arms he had been traduced in some of their writings for committing the Arms he had then raised into the hands of professed Papists a thing not only dishonourable to himself and the said noble persons but false and odious in it self That some of power in the Hierarchy had been defamed for being the cause of his taking Arms to invade that Kingdom who on the contrary had been only Counsellors of peace and the chief perswaders as much as in them lay of the undeserved moderation wherewith he had hitherto proceeded toward so great Offenders That he had no intent by commending the Service-Book unto them to innovate any thing at all in their Religion but only to create a conformity between the Churches of both Kingdoms and not to infringe any of their Liberties which were according to the Laws That therefore he required all his loving Subjects not to receive any more of the said seditious Pamphlets but to deliver such of them as they had received into the hands of the next Justice of the Peace by him to be sent to one of his Majesties principal Secretaries And finally That this his Proclamation and Declaration be read in time of Divine Service in every Church within the Kingdom that all his People to the meanest might see the notorious carriages of these men and likewise the Justice and Mercy of all his proceedings And now his Majesty is for Action beginning his Journey towards the North March 27. being the Anniversary day of his Inauguration His Army was advanced before the best for quality of the Persons compleatness of Arms number of serviceable Horse and necessary Provision of all sorts that ever waited on a King of England to a War with Scotland Most of the Nobility attended on him in their Persons and such as were to be
grosly abused by the multiplicity of Libellous Pamphlets and my self debarred from wonted access to the best of Princes and it is Vox Populi that I am Popishly affected How earnest I have been in my Disputations Exhortations and otherwise to quench such sparks lest they should become Coals I hope after my death you will all acknowledge yet in the midst of all my afflictions there is nothing 〈◊〉 hath so nearly touched me as the remembrance of your free and joyful acceptance of me to be your Chancellour and that I am now shut up from being able to do you that Service which you might justly expect from me When I first received this honour I intended to have carried it with me to my Grave neither were my hopes any less since the Parliament called by his Majesties Royal Command committed me to this Royal Prison But sith by reason of matters of greater consequence yet in hand the Parliament is pleased to procrastinate my Trial I do hereby as thankfully resign my Office of being Chancellor as ever I received that Dignity entreating you to Elect some Honourable Person who upon all occasions may be ready to serve you and I beseech God send you such an one as may do all things for his glory and the furtherance of â—â—ur most famous Vniversity This is the continual Prayer of Your dejected Friend and Chancellour Being the last time I shall write so Will. Cant. Tower Iune 28 1641. This Resignation having eased him of some part of his cares it was no small refreshment to him in the midst of his sorrows that notwithstanding all the clamour about Innovations the Parliament had made no Order to alter any thing which he had laboured to establish The Commons might perhaps have some thoughts that way but they either kept them to themselves or found but little comfort in them when they suffered them to go abroad or shew themselves in any motion to the House of Lords The Peers were then so far from entertaining any such extravagant Fancies that taking notice of the Irregular Zeal of some forward men who had not patience enough to attend the leisure of Authority they joyned together with the Prelates in this Order of Ianuary 16. for putting a stop to their Exorbitancies at the first breaking out For by that Order it was signified to be the pleasure of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal assembled in the High Court of Parliament That the Divine Service be performed as it is appointed by the Acts of Parliament of this Realm And that all such as shall disturb that wholsom Order shall be severely punished according to the Law And the Parsons Vicars and Curates in the several Parishes shall forbear to introduce any Rites or Ceremonies that may give offence otherwise than those which are established by the Laws of the Land Which last Clause being couched in such general terms related only to such Rites and Ceremonies as otherwise might have been introduced for the time to come not unto such as had been entertained and settled by any former Authority Countenanced and secured by which Declaration the Ordinaries went on chearfully in the exercise of their Jurisdiction suffering no alteration or disturbance to pass unquestioned if any troublesome or unquiet person did begin to stir But no sooner was the Coercive power of Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Judges restrained or rather utterly abolished by the late Act of Parliament and the Kings Journey into Scotland left men and matters at more liberty than before they were but presently the House of Commons took upon them such a Reformation so it must be called in which they neither found concurrence of the House of Peers or could expect it from the King But finding that they were strong enough to set up for themselves without working Journey-work any longer unto either of them they made the following Order of September 8. to be the first Experiment or Essay of their undertakings For though in a Conference had the same day with the Lords they desired their consent therein and that the Lords returned them no other Answer than by sending them the next day being the day of the Recess a Copy of the former Order of Ianuary 16. in which they desired then to concur yet Pym who governed the Committee during that Recess dispatcht his Mandate oâ— the 29 th of the same month over all the Kingdom requiring all Ministers and Churchwardens to publish the said Order in their several Churches to see it put in execution and cause Certificates to be made thereof by the time appointed Which Order being the Leading Card to the Game that followed was verbatim thus viz. WHereas divers Innovations in or about the Worship of God have been lately practised in this Kingdom by enjoyning sâ—me things and prâ—â—â—â—â—â—ng others without warrant of Law to the great grievance and disconâ—ent of his Majesties Subjects For the suppression of such Innovations and for preservation of the Publick Peace It is this day Ordered by the Commons in Parliament assembled That the Churchwardens of every Parish Church or Chappel respectively doth forthwith remove the Communion Table from the East end of the Church Chappel or 〈…〉 some other convenient place and that they take away the 〈…〉 the Chancâ—ls as heretofore they were before the late 〈…〉 That all Crucifixes scandalous Pictures of any one or 〈…〉 of tâ—e Trinity and all Images of the Virgin Mary shall 〈…〉 and aâ—olished and that all Tapers Candlesticks and 〈…〉 from the Communion Table That all Corporal Bâ—w 〈…〉 IESVS or toward the East end of the Church 〈…〉 or towards the Communion Table be henceforth 〈…〉 That the Orders aforesaid be observed in all the several Ca 〈…〉 Churches of this Kingdom and all the Colledges Churches or 〈◊〉 in the two Vniversities or any other part of this Kingdom 〈◊〉 in thâ— Temple Church and the Chappels of other Inns of Court 〈◊〉 the Deaâ—s of the said Cathedral Churches by the Vice-Chancellours of the said Vniversities and by the Heads and Governours of the several Câ—lleâ—ges and Halls aforesaid and by the Benchers and Readers in 〈…〉 Inns â—f Court respectively That the Lords day shall be duly obsâ—râ—ed and sanctified All Dancing or other Sports either before or after Diâ—iâ—e Service be forborne and restrained and that the Preaching 〈…〉 â—â—rd be permitted in the Afternoon in the several Churches and Chappels of this Kiâ—gdom and that Ministers and Preachers be encouâ—â—gâ—d thereunto That the Vice-Chancellours of the Vniversities Heads 〈…〉 Colledges all Parsons Vicars Churchwardens do 〈◊〉 Câ—rtificate of the performance of these Orders and if the same shall 〈◊〉 be observed in any places aforementioned upon complaint therâ—of made to the two next Iustices of the Peace Major and Head-Officers of Cities and Towns Corporate It is ordered That the said Iustices Major and other Head-Officer respectively shall examine the 〈◊〉 of all such complaints and certifie by whose default the same are â—â—mitted All which Certificates are to
and Dangers in the Premises Lastly Whereas these fears are not built upon Conceits but upon such Grounds and Objects as may well terrifie Men of Resolution and much Constancy they do in all Humility and Duty Protest before Your Majesty and the Peers of the Most Honourable House of Parliament against all Laws Orders Votes Resolutions and Determinations as of themselves Null and of None Effect which in their Absence since the 27th of this Instant Moneth of December 1641. have already passed As likewise that all such as shall hereafter Pass in the Most Honourable House during the time of this their Forced and Violent Absence from the said Most Honourable House not denying but if their absenting of themselves were Wilful and Voluntary that Most Honourable House might Proceed in all their Premises their Absence or this Protestation Notwithstanding And humbly beseeching Your Most Excellent Majesty to Command the Clerk of the House of Peers to Enter this their Petition and Protestation among his Records They will ever Pray God to bless c. This Petition being presented to his Majesty was by him deliâ—vered to the Lord Keeper Littleton to be Communicated the next day being the 30th of Decemb. to the House of Peers But the Lord Keeper contrary to his Majesties directions did first impâ—rt iâ— to some of the Preaching party in both Houses of Parliament and after as the plot was laid to the Peers in general Upon the â—eading whereof a conference was desired with the House oâ— Câ—mmons to whom the Lord Keeper whom they had under the Laâ—â— was pleased to signifie that this Petition and Protestation of the twelâ—e Bishops contained matters of high and dangerous consequence extending to the deep intrenching upon the Fundamental Priviledges and Being of Parliament Whereupon the said twelve Bishops were Impeached by the Commons of high Treason The Usher called Black-Rod Commanded to find them out and to bring them to the Bar in the House of Peers which by reason of their scattered and divided Lodgings could not be effected till eight of the Clock at night at what time being brought together their offence was signified unto them and an Order presently made for their commitment to the Tower whither they were all carried the next day Except the Bishops of Durham and Lichfield who found the favour the one by reason of his Eminent Learning and both of them in regard of their age and Infirmities to stand committed to the custody of the Gentleman Usher Our Archbishop had now more Neighbours then â—e desired but not more company then before it being prudently Ordered amongst themselves that none of them should bestow any visits on him for fear of giving some advantage to their common enemy as if they had been hatching some conspiracy against the Publick But they refrained not on either side from sending meâ—â—ages of Love and consolation unto one another those mutual civilities being almost every day performed betwixt the two Archbishops also though very much differing both in their Counsels and Affections in the times foregoing The Archbishop of York was now so much declined in favour tâ—at he stood in as bad terms with the Common People as the other did His picture cut in Brass attired in his Episcopal Robes with his square Cap upon his head and Bandileers about his Neck shouldering a Musket upon one of his shoulders in one hand and a Rest in the other either presaging that which followed or else relating unto that which had passed in defence of the Abbey Together with which a book was Printed in which he was Resembled to the Decoy-Duck alluding to the Decâ—yes in Lincolnshire where he had been Bishop restored to Liberty on design that he might bring more company with him at his coming back and a device Ingraven for the Front of the Book which represented the conceit and that not unhappily Certain I am that our Archbishop in the midst of those sorrows seemed much pleased with the Fancy whither out of his great Love to wit oâ— some other self-satisfaction which he found therein is beyond my knowledge These Bishops bâ—ing thus secured and no body left in a manner to solicite the Common Cause but the Bishop of Rochester the Bill against their Votes passed currantly in the House of Peers on February 6. the Citizens who before had feasted the King with such signs oâ— Affection now celebrating the Concurrence of the House against his Interest with Bâ—lls and Bonfires Nor was it long before the â—ing gave over the Cause for which he had so long contended For either terrified with the Apprehension of his own Dangers or wrought on by the importunity of some about him he signed the Bill at Canterbury on February 14. to which place he had accompanied the Queen in her way toward Holland And by that Bill it was desired to be Enacted That no Archbishop Bishop or any other Person in Holy Orders from February 15. then next following should have any Seat or Place Suffrage or Voice use or execute any Power or Authority in the Parliaments of this Realm nor should be of the Privy-Council of his Majesty his Heirs or Successors or Justices of the Peace of Oyer and Terminer or Gaol-delivery or execute any Temporal Authority by vertue of any Commission but should be wholly disabled or be uncapable to have receive use or execute any of the said Offices Places Powers Authorities and Things aforesaid The passing of which Act what specious Pretences soever were given out for it redounded little to his Majesties Benefit and far less to his Comfort For by cutting off so many of his Friends at a blow he lost his Power in the House of Peers and not long after was deprived of his Negative Voice when the great Business of the Militia came to be disputed And though he pleased himself sometimes with this perswasion of their contentedness in suffering a present diminution of their Rights and Honours for his sake and the Commonwealths yet was it no small trouble to his Conscience at other times that he had added this to the former injury in consenting to the taking away of the Coercive Power of their Jurisdiction for this we find to be one of those three things which lay heaviest on him in the time of his Solitude and Sufferings as appears by this passage in one of his Prayers viz. Was it through ignorance that I suffered innocent Blood to be spilt by a false pretended Iustice Or that I permitted a wrong way of Worship to be set up in Scotlan Or injured the Bishops in England By which we see that the Injury done unto the Bishops of England is put into the same scale with his permitting a wrong way of Worship to be set up in Scotland and the shedding of the innocent Blood of the Earl of Strafford And if this Act proved so unpleasing to the King it must needs be grievous to the Bishops themselves to none more than the