Government Amongst which no small care was taken for making twelve Classes of the Ministers of London only and after for dividing each particular County into several Classes with reference to the largeness and extent thereof Which Orders and Directions were after seconded by the Ordinance of October the twentieth containing certain Rules for the suspension of scandalous and ignorant persons from the holy Supper and giving power to certain persons therein named to sit as Judges and Tryers as well concerning the Election as the Integrity and Ability of all such men as are elected Elders within any of the Twelve Classes of the Province of London It is not to be thought but that the London-Elderships made sufficient haste to put themselves into the actual possession of their new Authority But in the Countrey most men were so cold and backward that the Lower-House was fain to quicken them with some fresh Resolves by which it was required on the twentieth of February That choice be forthwith made of Elders thoroughout the Kingdom according to such former Directions as had past both Houses and that all Classes and Parochial Congregations should be thereby authorised effectually to proceed therein And that the Church might be supplied with able Ministers in all times succeeding the Power of Ordination formerly restrained to certain persons residing in and about the City of London according to the Ordinance of the second of October 1644. is now communicated to the Ministers of each several Classes as men most like to know the wants of the parish-Parish-Churches under their Authority 53. But here it is to be observed that in the setling of the Presbyterian Government in the Realm of England as the Presbyteries were to be subordinate to the Classical Provincial and National Assemblies of the Church so were they all to be subordinate to the Power of the Parliament as appears plainly by the Ordinance of the fourteenth of March which makes it quite another thing from the Scottish Presbyteries and other Assemblies of that Kirk which held themselves to be supream and unaccountable in their actings without respect unto the King the Parliament and the Courts of Justice But the truth is that as the English generally were not willing to receive that yoak so neither did the Houses really intend to impose it on them though for a while to hold fair quarter with the Scots they seemed forward in it And this appears sufficiently by a Declaration of the House of Commons published on the seventeenth of April 1646 in which they signifie That they were not able to consent to the granting of an Arbitrary and unlimited Power and Iurisdiction to near Ten thousand Iudicatories to be erected in the Kingdom which could not be consistent with the Fundamental Laws and Government of it and which by necessary consequence did exclude the Parliament from having any thing to do in that Iurisdiction On such a doubtful bottom did Presbytery stand till the King had put himself into the Power of the Scots and that the Scots had posted him in all haste to the Town of Newcastle Which caused the Lords and Commons no less hastily to speed their Ordinance of the fifth of Iune For the present setling of the Presbyterial Government without further delay as in the Title is exprest And though it was declared in the end of that Ordinance That it was to be in force for three years only except the Houses should think fit to continue it longer yet were the London-Ministers so intent upon them that they resolve to live no longer in suspence but to proceed couragiously in the execution of those several Powers which both by Votes and Ordinances were intrusted to them And to make known to all the World what they meant to do they published a Paper with this Title that is to say Certain Considerations and Cautions agreed upon by the Ministers of London and Westminster and within the Lines of Communication Iune the nineteenth 1646. According to which they resolve to put the Presbyterial Government into execution upon the Ordinances of Parliament before published 54. In which conjuncture it was thought expedient by the Houses of Parliament to send Commissioners to Newcastle and by them to present such Propositions to his Sacred Majesty as they conceived to be agreeable to his present condition In the second of which it was desired That according to the laudable Example of his Royal Father of happy memory he would be pleased to swear and sign the Solemn League and Covenant and cause it to be taken by Acts of Parliament in all his Kingdoms and Estates And in the third it was proposed That a Bill should pass for the utter abolishing and taking away of Arch-Bishops Bishops Chancellors Commissaries Deans c. as they occur before in the Oxon Articles Num. 21. That the Assembly of Divines and Reformation of Religion according to the said Covenant should be forthwith setled and confirmed by Act of Parliament and that such unity and uniformity between the Churches of both Kingdoms should in like manner be confirmed by Act of Parliament as by the said Covenant was required after Advice first had with the Divines of the said Assembly It was required also in the said Propositions That he should utterly divest himself of all power to protect his people by putting the Militia into the hands of the Houses and that he should betray the greatest part of the Lords and Gentry which had adhered unto him in the course of the Warr to a certain ruin some of which were to be excluded from all hope of Pardon as to the saving of their Lives others to forfeit their Estates and to lose their Liberties the Clergy to remain under sequestration the Lawyers of both sorts to be disabled from the use of their Callings Demands of such unreasonable and horrid nature as would have rendred him inglorious and contemptible both at home and abroad if they had been granted 55. These Propositions were presented to him on the eleventh day of Iuly at Newcastle by the Earls of Pembroke and Suffolk of the House of Peers Erle Hipisly Robinson and Goodwin from the House of Commons Of whom his Majesty demanded Whether they came impowred to treat with him or not And when they answered That they had no Authority so to do He presently replied That then the Houses might as well have sent their Propositions by an honest Trumpeter and so parted with them for the present His Majesty had spent the greatest part of his time since he came to Newcastle in managing a dispute about Church-Government with Mr. Alexander Henderson the most considerable Champion for Presbytery in the Kirk of Scotland Henderson was possest of all advantages of Books and Helps which might enable him to carry on such a Disputation But His Majesty had the better Cause and the stronger Arguments Furnished with which though destitute of all other Helps than what he had within himself he prest his Adversary so hard
Gospel did with Christ our Saviour adorned them in their Royal Robes with their Crowns and Scepters and then exposed them to the scorn of the common Souldiers the insolencies and reproaches of the raskal Rabble 28. Nor do they deal much better with them in reference to their power in Spiritual Matters which they make either none at all or such as is subservient onely to the use of the Church Calvin first leads the way in this as he did in the other and seems exceedingly displeased with King Henry the Eighth for taking to him the title of Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England Of this he makes complaint in his Commentary on the 7 of Amos not onely telling us what inconsiderate men they were who had conferred upon him any such Supremacie but that himself was very much disquieted and offended at it And though he be content to yeild him so much Authority as may enable him to make use of the Civil Sword to the protecting of the Church and the true Religion yet he condemns all those of the like inconsiderateness who make them more spiritual that is to say of greater power in Sacred Matters then indeed they are The Supreme power according to the Rules of Calvins Platform belongs unto the Consistory Classes or Synodical Meetings to which he hath ascribed the designation of all such as bear publick Office in the Church the appointing and proclaiming of all solemn Fasts the calling of all Councils or Synodical Meetings the censuring of all misdemeanors in the Ministers of holy Church in which last they have made the Supreme Magistrate an incompetent Judge and therefore his Authority and final Judgement in such cases of no force at all Beza treads close upon the heels of his Master Calvin and will allow no other power to the Civil Magistrate then to protect the Church and the Ministry of it in propagating and promoting the True Worship of God It is saith he the Office of the Civil Magistrate to use the Sword in maintenance and defence of Gods holy Church as it is the duty of the Ministers and Preachers of it to implore their aid as well against all such as refuse obedience to the Decrees and Constitutions of the Church as against Hereticks and Tyrants which endeavoured to subvert the same In which particulars if the Magistrate neglects to do his duty and shall not diligently labour in suppressing Heresie and executing the Decrees of the Church against all opponents what can the people do but follow the Example of the Mother-City in taking that power upon themselves though to the total alteration and subversion of the publick Government For from the Principles and practice of these great Reformers it hath ever since been taken up as a Ruled case amongst all their Followers that if Kings and Princes should refuse to reform Religion that then the inferiour Magistrates or the Common people by the direction of their Ministers both may and ought to proceed to a Reformation and that by force of Arms also if need so require 29. That by this Rule the Scots did generally walk in their Reformation under the Regencie of Mary of Lorreign Queen-Dowager to Iames the Fifth and after her decease in the Reign of her Daughter we shall show hereafter And we shall show hereafter also that it was published for good Genevian Doctrine by our English Puritans That if Princes hinder them that travail in the search of this holy Discipline they are Tyrants to the Church and the Ministers of it and being so may be deposed by their subjects Which though it be somewhat more then Calvin taught as to that particular yet the conclusion follows well enough on such faulty Premises which makes it seem the greater wonder in our English Puritans that following him so closely in pursuit of the Discipline their disaffection unto Kings and all Soveraign Princes their manifest contempt of all publick Liturgies and pertinaciously adhering to his Doctrine of Predestination they should so visibly dissent him in the point of the Sabbath For whereas some began to teach about these times that the keeping holy of one day in seven was to be reckoned for the Moral part of the fourth Commandment he could not let it pass without some reproof for what saith he can be intended by those men but in defiance of the Jews to change the day and then to add a greater Sanctity unto it then the Jews ever did First therefore he declares for his own Opinion that he made no such reckoning of a seventh-day-Sabbath as to inthral the Church to a necessity of conforming to it And secondly that he esteemed no otherwise of the Lords-day-Sabbath then of an Ecclesiastical Constitution appointed by our Ancestors in the place of the Jewish Sabbath and therefore alterable from one day to another at the Churches pleasure Followed therein by all the Churches of his party who thereupon permit all lawful Recreations and many works of necessary labour on the day it self provided that the people be not thereby hindred from giving their attendance in the Church at the times appointed Insomuch that in Geneva if self all manlike exercises as running vaulting leaping shooting and many others of that nature are as indifferently indulged on the Lords day as on any other How far the English Puritans departed from their Mother-Church both in Doctrine and Practice with reference to this particular we shall see hereafter when they could finde no other way to advance Presbytery and to decry the Reputation of the ancient Festivals then by erecting their new Sabbath in the hearts of the people 30. It is reportred by Iohn Barkley in his Book called Parenesâ—s ad Scotos that Calvin once held a Consultation at Geneva for transferring the Lords day from Sunday to Thursday Which though perhaps it may be true considering the inclination of the man to new devices yet I conceive that he had greater projects in his Head and could finde other ways to advance his Discipline then by falling upon any such ridiculous and odious Counsel He had many Irons in the fire but took more care in hammering his Discipline then all the rest First by entitling it to some express Warrant from the holy Scripture and afterwards by commending it to all the Churches of the Reformation In reference to the first he lets us know in his Epistle to Farellus Septemb. 16. 1543. that the Church could not otherwise subsist then under such a Form of Government as is prescribed in the Word and observed in old times by the Church And in relation to the other he was resolved to make his best use of that Authority which by his Commentaries on the Scriptures his Book of Institutions and some occasional Discourses against the Papists he had acquired in all the Protestant and reformed Churches Insomuch that Gasper Ligerus a Divine of Witteberge by his Letters bearing date Feb. 27. 1554
the chief Church of Heidelberg the principal City of the lower Palatinate and the chief Seat of his 〈◊〉 The news whereof encouraged all the rest of the Protestant Princes to congratulate with him and to desire him to embrace the Confession of Ausberge to which he readâ—ly accorded and setled all things in his Countries by the Lutheran Model as well for Government and Doctrine as for Forms of Worship In which condition it continued during the residue of his life and the short Government of Otho-Henry who succeeded him in those Estates and was the last of the direct Line of the House of Bavaria After whose death Anno 1559 succeeded Frederick Duke of Simmeren descended from Steven Palatine of Zuidbrook or Bipont younger son of the Emperour Rupert From whom the Princes of the other House had delivered their Pedigree Which Prince succeeding by the name of Frederick the Third appeared more favourable to the Zuinglian then the Lutheran Forms animated thereunto by some â—eedy Courtiers in hope to make a prey of â—lebe and Tythes and other poor remainders of the Churches Patrimony 2. For the advancing of this Work Gualâ—er a very moderate and learned man is desired from Zurick and cheerfully undertakes the Service in which he prospered so well that he took off most of the Princes from their former opinions and brought them to conform their judgements in all points of Doctrine to the Confession of the Switzer or Helvetian Churches The Discipline of which Churches differed at that time from Calâ—ins Platform as appears clearly by some passages in a Letter of Bullingers bearing date Decemb. 13. 1553 when Calvin was necessitated to beg some tolerable approbation of his new Device For there it is expresly said that though their Discipline at Zurick and the rest of the Cantons agreed not in all points with that of the Consistory which had been setled at Geneva but was accommodated to the temper of their own Dominions yet they desired not the subversion of Calvins Model which seemed so necessary at that time for the Town of Geneva that they advised not to have it altered But more particularly it appears by Beza in the life of Calvin and by the Letter of Ligerus before remembred that Excommunications were not used in any of the Reformed Churches whether they were of Lutheran or Zuinglian judgement But scarce had Gualter so setled Zuinglianism in the Church of Heidelberg and those which did depend upon it when a bold Challenger from Geneva deâ—ies them all and undertakes to prove this Proposition in the publick Schools That to a Minister assisted with the help of his Eldership doth appertain the power of Excommunication by the Law of God Hereupon followed that famous Disputation in the Schools of Heidelberg the substance whereof we finde drawn up in Vrsines Catechism from pag. 835. to pag. 847. of the English Edition By which it doth appear that the name of the Respondent was George Withers a Native of England and that one Peter Boquine was the Moderator and therefore Withers must be taken to have made the Challenge The Theses then maintained by Withers were these two that follow viz That to the sincere preaching of the Word and the lawful administration of the Sacraments is required an Office or Power of Government in the Church 2. That a Minister with his Eldership ought to enjoy and exercise a Power of Convicting Reproving Excommunicating and Executing any part of Ecclesiastical Discipline or any Offenders whatsoever even on Princes themselves 3. The Arguments by which the Respondent was assaulted together with the answers which were made unto them were taken by the pen of Vrsine a Divine of Heidelberg who was present at the Disputation and by his means transmitted to the use of the Church the Title of his Abstract this viz. 〈◊〉 Arguments assoyled whereby some in a publiâ—k Disputation held in Heidelberg 1568 June 10. Dr. Peter Boquine being Moderator and Mr. George Withers English man Respondent endeavoured to abolish Ecclesiastical Discipline Which Arguments and their solutions were taken word for word from the mouth of Dr. Ursine at the repetition of this disputation on the next day privately made in Colleg. Sapient For further satisfaction I refer the Reader to the Book it self and shall now onely add this note viz. that as the Arguments were not found sufficient to beat down that power which Christ had left unto his Church for excommunicating scandalous and notoriâ—us sinners so neither were the Answers strong enough to preserve Lay-elders in the possession of a power that belonged not to them Which was in time the issue of the disputation which afterwards was so hotly followed between Theodore Beza on the one side and Dr. Thomas Erastus whom Calvin mentioneth in his Epistle to Olerianus Doctor of Physick on the other Beza evincing the necessity of Excommunication in the Church of Christ and Erastus proving nothing to the contrary but that Lay-elders were not necessary to the exercise of it Which disputation lasted long and effected little managed on both sides in Printed Tractates the last of which was that of Beza first published at Geneva reprinted afterwards at London An. 1590. But in the mean time the Genevian Discipline was admitted in both Palatinates the Country divided into Classes and Synodical meetings those Classes subdivided into their Presbyteries and each Presbytery furnished with a power of Excommunication and exercising such Church-censures as the Fact required But then we are to know withal that those wise Princes being loath to leave too much Authority in the hands of the Elderships with whose encroachments on the power of the Civil Magistrate they were well acquainted appointed some Superiour Officers of their own nomination to sit as Chief amongst them without whom nothing could be done and they were sure that by them nothing would be done which either might intrench upon their Authority or their people's Liberty A temperament for which they were beholden to the said Erastus who being a Doctor of Physick as before was noted devised this Pill to purge Presbytery of some Popish humours which secretly lay hid in the body of it 4. The like alloy was mixed with the Genevian Discipline in the Churches of Hassia Nassaw and those other petite Estates and Signories which make up the Confederacie of the Wetterâ—vians Which having once received the Doctrine of Zuinglius did shortly after entertain the Calvinian Elderships but moderated and restrained in those Exorbitancies which the Presbyterians actually committed in the Realm of Scotland and in most places else subjected unto their Authority But in regard the Palatine Churches are esteemed as a Rule to the rest the rest of Germany I mean in all points of Doctrine and that the publick Catechism thereof is generally reckoneâ— for Authentick not onely in the Churches of the Higher Germany but in the Netherland-Churches also it will not be amiss to take notice of them in such Doctrinal Points
in which they come up close to Calvin and the Rules of Geneva First therefore taking them for Zuinglians in the point of the Sacrament and Anti-Lutherans in defacing Images abolishing all distinction of Fasts and Festivals and utterly denying all set-Forms of publick Worship they have declared themselves as high in maintainance of Calvins Doctrines touching Predestination Grace Free-will c. as any sub-lapsarian or supra-lapsarian which had most cordially Espoused that Quarrel For proof whereof the Writings of Vrsine and Parcus Alsted Piscator and the rest Professors in the Schools of Heidelberg Herborne and Sedan being all within the limits of the Higher Germanâ— might be here produced did I think it necessary But these not being the proper Cognizances of the Presbyterians and better to be taken by their actings in the Synod of Dort then in scattered Tractates I shall take notice onely of those points of Doctrine which are meer Genevian in reference to their opposition to Monarchical Government a Doctrine not unwelcome to the Zuinglian Princes in either Germany because it gives them a fit ground for their justification not onely for proceeding to reform their Churches without leave of the Emperour whom they must needs acknowledge for their Supreme Lord but also for departing from the Confession of Ausberge which onely ought to be received within the bounds of the Empire 5. First then beginning with Vrsine publick Professor for Divinity in the Chair of Heidelberg he thus instructs us in his Commentary on the Palatine Catechism Albeit saith he that wicked men sometimes bear Rule and therefore are unworthy of honours yet the Office is to be distinguished from their persons and that the man whose vices are to be detested ought to be honoured for his Office as Gods Spiritual Ordinance which is a truth so consonant to the Holy Scriptures that nothing could be said more piously in so short a position But then he gives us such a Gloss as corrupts the Text telling us in the words next following That since Superiours are to be honoured in respect of their Office it is therefore manifest that so far onely we must yeild obedience unto their commands as they exceed not in the same the bounds of their Offices Which plainly intimates that if Princes be at any time transported beyond the bounds of their Offices of which the people and their popular Magistrates are the onely Judges the Subjects are not bound to yeild obedience unto their commands under pretence that they are past beyond their bounds and have no influence on the People but onely when they shine within the compass of their proper Spheres 6. More plainly speaks Parcus who succeeded him both in place and Doctrines out of whose Commentary on the 13 Chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans the following propositions were extracted by some Delegates and Divines of Oxon when the unsoundness of his Judgement in this particular was questioned and condemned by that University First then it was declared for a truth undoubted That Bishops and other Ministers or Pastors in the Church of Christ both might and ought with the consent of their several Churches to Excommunicate or give over to the power of Satan their Superiour Magistrates for their impiety towards God and their injustice towards their Subjects if they continued in those errours after admonition till they gave some manifest signs of their repentance 2. That subjects being in the condition of meer private men ought not without some lawful calling either to take arms to assault a Tyrant before their own persons be indangered or to deâ—end themselves though they be indangered if by the ordinary Magistrates they may be defended from such force and violence 2. That Subjects being in the condition of meer private men may lawfully take Arms to defend themselves against a Tyrant who violently shall break in upon them as a Thief or Ravisher and expedite themselves from the present danger as against a common Thief and Robber when from the ordinary Magistrates there appeareth no defence or succour 4. That such Subjects as are not meerly private men but are placed in some inferiour Magistracy may lawfully by force of Arms defend themselves the Common-wealth the Church and the true Religion against the pleasure and command of the Supreme Magistrate These following conditions being observed that is to say if either the Supreme Magistrate become a Tyrant practiseth to commit Idolatry or blaspheme Gods Name or that any great and notable injustice be offered to them as that they cannot otherwise preserve their consciences and lives in safety conditioned finally that under colour of Religion and a Zeal to Iustice they do not rather seek their private ends then the publick good And this last Proposition being so agreeable to Calvins Doctrines he flourisheth over and inforceth with those words of Trajan which before we cited out of Buchan when he required the principal Captain of his Guard to use the Sword in his defence if he governed well but to turn the point thereof against him if he did the contrary 7. Building their practice on these Doctrines we finde the Palatine Princes very forward in aiding the French Hugonots against their King upon all occasions In the first risings of that people Monsieur d' Andelot was furnished with five thousand Horse and four thousand Foot most of them being of the Subjects of the Prince Elector Anno 1562 when he had out newly entertained the thoughts of Zuinglianism and had not fully settled the Calvinian Doctrines But in the year 1566 when the Hugonots were upon the point of a second War he joyns with others of the German Princes in a common Ambathe by which the French King was to be desired that the Preachers of the Reformed Religion might Preach both in Paris and all other places of the Kingdom without control and that the people freely might repair to hear them in what numbers they pleased To which unseasonable demand the King though naturally very Cholerick made no other answer then that he would preserve a friendship and affection for those Princes so long as they did not meddle in the Affairs of his Kingdom as he did not meddle at all in their Estates After which having somewhat recollected his Spirits he subjoyned these words with manifest shew of his displeasure that it concerned him to sollicite their Princes to suffer the Catholicks to say Mass in all their Cities With which nipping answer the Ambassadors being sent away they were followed immediately at the heels by some of the Hugonots who being Agents for the rest prevailed with Prince Iohn Casimir the second Son of the Elector to raise an Army in defence of the common Cause To which purpose they had already furnished him with a small sum of money assuring him that when he was come unto their Borders they would pay down one hundred thousand Crowns more towards the maintainance of his Army Which promises perswading more then the greatest Rhetorick
my purpose to relate It is sufficient that we have presented to the eye of the Reader upon what principles the Netherlands were first embroyled whose hands they were by which the Altars were prophaned the Images defaced Religious Houses rifled and the Churches ruinated And finally by what party and by whose strange practices the King of Spain was totally devested of all those Provinces which since have cast themselves into the form of a Common-wealth 59. Which being thus shortly laid together in respect of their Politicks we must look back and take another view of them in their Ecclesiasticks In which we shall finde them run as cross to all Antiquity as they had done to Order and good Government in their former Actings And the first thing we meet with of a Church-concernment was the publishing of their Confession of their Faith and Doctrine Anno 1565 or thereabouts as many national and provincial Churches had done before but differing in many great points from that of Ausberg and therefore the less acceptable unto the Lutheran party and the more distasteful to the Romish In which Confession to be sure they must hold forth a parity of Ministers in the Church of Christ they had not else come up to the Example and designe of the Mother-City which was to lay all flat and level in the publick Government For in the XXXI Article it is said expresly that for as much as concerns the Ministers of Gods holy Word in what place soever they shall execute that Sacred Calling they are all of them to enjoy the same Power and Authority as being all of them the Ministers of Jesus Christ the onely Universal Bishop and the onely Head of his Body which is the Church And for the Government of the Church it was declared to be most agreeable to that Sacred and Spiritual Polity by God prescribed in his Word that a Consistory or Ecclesiastical Senate should be Ordained in every Church consisting of Pastors Elders and Deacons to whose charge and care it should belong that true Religion be preserved sound Doctrine preached and that all vitious and lewd livers should be restrained and punished by the Churches Censures For turning which Aerian Doctrines into use and practice they did not only animate all Orders and Degrees of men not to admit their new Bishops where they were not setled or to expel them where they were but alienated and dismembred all such Lands and Rents by which they were to be maintained This they conceived the readiest way to make sure work with them for when the maintainance was gone the Calling was not like to hold up long after And this being done as they had first set up their Consistories in Antwerp and such other Cities in which they were considerable for power and number so by degrees they set up their Presbyteries in the lesser Towns which they united into Classes and ranged those Classes into National and Provincial Synods In which they made such Laws and Canons if some of their irregular Constitutions may deserve that name as utterly subverted the whole Frame of the ancient Discipline and drew unto themselves the managery of all Affairs which concerned Religion 60. But that they might not be supposed therein to derogate from the Authority of the Civil Magistrate they are content to give him a coercive power in some matters which were meerly Civil and therefore in plain terms condemn the Anabaptists for seditious persons Enemies to all good Order and publick Government But then they clog him with some Duties in which he was to be subservient to their own designs that is to say the countenancing of the Sacred Ministry removing all Idolatry from the Worship of God the ruinating and destroying of the Kingdom of Antichrist And what they meant by Antichrist Idolatry and the Sacred Ministry is easie to be understood without the help of a Commentary Which Duties if the Magistrate shall discharge with care and diligence he would ease them of much labour which otherwise they meant to take upon themselves if not they must no longer stay his leisure nor expect his pleasure but put their own hands unto the work and so it was delivered for good Doctrine by Snecanus a Divine of West-Friesland for which see lib. 8. num 23. Which though it be the general Doctrine of all the party yet never was it preached more plainly then by Cleselius a Calvinian of Rotterdam who openly maintained that if the Magistrates took no care to reform the Church that then it did belong to the common people And they as he informs us were obliged to do it even by force and violence not onely to the shedding of their own but their Brethrens blood So principled it could be no marvail if they turned out the Bishops to make room for their own Presbyteries defaced all Churches that retained any thing in them of the old Idolatries and finally pulled down even the Civil Magistrate when his advancing did not stand with their ends and purposes Flacius Ilyricus the founder of the Stiff or Rigid Lutherans had led the way unto them in the last particular By whom it was held forth for a Rule in all Church-Reformations that Princes should be rather terrified with the fear of Tumults then any thing which seemed to savour of Idolatry or Superstition should either be tolerated or connived at for quietness-sake Concurring with him as they did in his Doctrines of Predestination Grace Freewil and things indifferent they were the better fitted to pursue his Principles in opposition unto all Authority by which their Councils were controuled or their Power restrained And by this means the publishing of their Confession with these Heads and Articles they did not onely justifie their exorbitancies in the time then past but made provision for themselves in the times to come 61. In such other points of their Confession as were meerly doctrinal and differing from the general current of the Church of Rome they shew themselves for the most part to be Anti-Lutheran that is to say Zuinglians in the point of the Holy Supper and Calvinists in the Doctrine of Predestination In which last point they have exprest the Article in such modest terms as may make it capable of an Orthodox and sober meaning For presupposing all mankinde by the Fall of Adam to be involved by Gods just judgement in the Gulph of Perdition they make them onely to be predestinate to eternal life whom God by his eternal and immutable counsel hath elected in Christ and separated from the rest by the said Election But when the differences were broken out betwixt them and such of their Brethren which commonly past amongst them by the name of Remonstrants and that it was pretended by the said Remonstrants that the Article stood as fair to them as the opposite party the words were then restrained to a narrower sence then the generality of the expression could literally and
visitation of all the Ministers and Churches in their several bounds to fix their dwellings in the chief Towns or Cities within the same and to be chosen by the Burgesses of the said Towns or Cities together with the suffrages of the Ministers of their several Circuits and more particularly that the County or Province of Lothaine shall be abstracted from the Diocess of St. Andrews and have a Superintendent of its own who was to keep his Residence in the City of Edenborough which afterwards in the year 1633 was erected by King Charles into a Bishops See and Lothaine assigned him for his Diocess as was here devised That for the better maintainance of the Ministers and Superintendents as also for defraying of all other publick charges which concerned the Churches the lands belonging unto the Bishops as also to all Cathedral and Convenâ—â—al Churches and to the Houses of Monks and Fryars shall be set apart not otherwise to be imployed That in all Churches there be two Elders annually chosen to be associate with the Ministers in the Cognizance of all Ecclesiastical Causes and in the Censures of the Church That the said Elders shall have power not onely to admonish but correct their Ministers if occasion be but not to proceed to deprivation without the allowance and consent of the Superintendent and that the Deacons shall be joyned as Assistants in judgement with the Elders and Ministers That no man presume to eat or drink or otherwise to converse familiarly with excommunicate persons except those of his own Family onely That their Children should not be Baptised till they came unto the years of discretion And that all Murtherers and other Malefactors punishable by death according to the Laws of the Land though they be pardoned for the same by the supreme Magistrates shall notwithstanding be esteemed as excommunicate persons and not received into the Church without such satisfaction and submission as is required of other notorious offenders by the Rules of the Discipline It appears also by this Book that there was one standing Supreme Câ—uncil for ordering the Affairs of the Church and by which all publick grievances were to be redressed but of what persons it consisted and in what place it was held is not mentioned in it 28. This Book being tendered to the consideration of the Convention of Estates was by them rejected whether it were because they could not make such a manifest separation from the Polity of the Church of England or that it concerned them more particularly in their own proper interest in regard of the Church-lands Tythes which they had amongst them or perhaps for both Certain it is that some of them past it over by no better Title then that of some devout Imaginations which could not be reduced to practice This so offended Knox and others who had drawn it up if any other but Knox onely had a hand therein that they spared not bitterly to revile them for their coldness in it taxing them for their carnal liberty their love untâ—â— their worldly Commodities and their corrupt imaginations Some of them are affirmed to have been licentious some greedily to have griped the possessions of the Church and others to be so intent upon the getting of Christs Coat that they would not stay till he was crucified Of the Lord Erskin who refused to subscribe to the Book it is said particularly that he had a very evil woman to his Wife and that if the Schools the poor and the Ministry of the Church had their own his Kiâ—â—hâ—n would have lacked two parts of that which he then possessed Of all of them it was admired that for such a long continuance they could hear the threatnings of God against Thieves and Robbers and that knowing themselves to be guilty of those things which were most rebuked they should never have any remorse of Conscience nor intend the restoring of those things which they had so stolen For so it was if they may be believed that said it that none in all the Realm were more unmerciful to the poor Ministers then they that had invaded and possessed themselves of the greatest Rents of right belonging unto the Church and therein verified as well the old Proverb That the belly hath no ears at all as a new observation of their own devising That nothing would suffice a wretch Such were the discontents and evaporations of these zealous men when they were crossed in any thing which concerned them in their power or profit 30. But in another of their projects they had better Fortune They had sollicited the Convention of Estates for demolishing of all Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry in which number they accounted all Cathedral Churches as well as Monasteries and other Religious Houses which they insisted on the rather because it was perceived and perhaps given out that the â—apists would again erect their old Idolatry and take upon them a command as before they did upon the Consciences of the people that so as well the great men of the Realm as such whom God of his Mercy so they tell us had subjected to them should be compelled to obey their lawless appetites In this some hopes were given them that they should be satisfied but nothing done in execution of the same till the May next following And possibly enough it might have been delayed to a longer time if the noise and expectation of the Queens return had not spurred it on For either fearing or not knowing what might happen to them if she should interpose her power to preserve those places whose demolishing they so much desired they introduce that Discipline by little and little which they could not settle all at once They begin first planting Churches and nominating Superintendents for their several Circuits they superinduce their own Ministers over the heads of the old incumbents establish their Presbyteries divide them into several Classes and hold their general Assemblies without any leave desired of the Queen or Council They proceed next to execute all sorts of Ecclesiastical Censures and arrogate Authority to their selves and their Elders to Excommunicate all such as they found unconformable to their new devices For the first tryal of their power they convent one Sanderson who had been accused to them for Adultery whom they condemned to be carted and publickly exposed unto the scorn of Boys and Children An uproar had been made in Edenborough about the chusing of a Robbinhood or a Whitson-Lord in which some few of the preciser sort opposed all the rest and for this crime they excommunicate the whole multitude wherein they shewed themselves to be very unskilful in the Canon-law in which they might have found that neither the Supreme Magistrate nor any great multitudes of people are to be subject to that Censure They proceed afterwards to the appointing of solemn Fasts and make choice of Sunday for the day which since that time hath been made use of for those Fasts more then any
that they received those Articles for an interim onely till a more perfect Order might be attained at the hands of the King the Regent or the States of the Realm And it was well that they admitted them so far For presently upon the rising of this Assembly Mr. Iohn Douglass Provost of the new Colledge in St. Andrews was preferred to the Archbishoprick of that See Mr. Iames Boyd to the Archbishoprick of Glasco Mr. Iames Paton to the Bishoprick of Dunkeld and Mr. Andrew Grahame to the See of Dumblane the rest to be disposed of afterwards as occasion served 28. But long it was not that they held in so good a Posture Morton succeeding in the Regencie to the Earl of Marre entred into a consideration of the injury which was done the King by the invading of his Thirds and giving onely an allowance yearly of five thousand Marks These he brings back unto the Crown upon assurance that the Pensions of the Ministers should be better answered then in former times and to be payable from thenceforth by the Parish in which they served But no sooner had he gained his purpose when to improve the Kings Revenue and to increase the Thirds he appointed to one Minister two or three Churches in which he was to preach by turns and where he did not preach to appoint a Reader Which Reader for the most part was allowed but twenty or forty pounds yearly each pound being valued at no more then one shilling eight pence of our English money And in the payment of these Pensions they found their condition made worse then before it was for whereas they could boldly go to the Superintendents and make their poor Estates known unto them from whom they were sure to receive some relief and comfort they were now forced to dance attendance at the Court for getting warrants for the payment of the sums assigned and supplicating for such augmentations as were seldom granted And when the Kirk desired to be restored unto the Thirds as was also promised in case the assignations were not duly paid it was at last told them in plain terms That since the Surplus of the Thirds belonged to the King it was fitter the Regent and Council should modifie the Stipends of Ministers then that the Kirk should have the appointment and designation of a Surplus Nor did the Superintendents speed much better if not worse when they addressed themselves to any of the Court-Officers for the receiving the Pensions assigned unto them which being greater then the others came more coldly in And if they prest at any time with more importunity then was thought convenient it was told them that the Kirk had now no use of their services in regard that Bishops were restored in some places to their Jurisdictions 29. And now the Discipline begins to alter from a mixed to a plain Preâ—bytery Before the confirming of Episcopacie by the late conclusions the Government of the Kirk had been by Superintendents assisted by Commissioners for the Countries as they called them then The Commissioners changed or new Elected at every general Assembly the Superintendents setled for term of life To them it appertained to approve and admit the Ministers they presided in all Synods and directed all Church-censures within their bounds neither was any Excommunication pronounced without their Warrant To them it also was referred to proportion the Stipends of all Ministers to appoint the Collectors of the Thirds as long as they were chosen by the general Assembly to make payment of them after such form and manner as to them seemed best and to dispose of the Surplusage if any were toward the charges of the State And to this Knox consented with the greater readiness because in an unsetled Church the Ministers were not thought of parts sufficient to be trusted with a power of Jurisdiction and partly because such men as were first designed for Superintendents were for the most part possessed of some fair Estate whereby they were not onely able to support themselves but to afford relief and comfort to the poor Ministers But when these men grew old or dyed and that the entertaining of the Reformed Religion in all parts of the Realm had given incouragement to men of Parts and Learning to enter into the Ministry they then began more universally to put in practice those restrictions with which the Superintendents had been fettered and the power of the Ministers extended by the Book of Discipline according to the Rules whereof the Minister and Elders of every Church with the assistance of their Deacons if occasion were were not alone enabled to exercise most part of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction over their several Congregations but also to joyn themselves with the chief Burgesses of the greater Towns for censuring and deposing their own Superintendents In which respect the Government may be said to be a mixt not a plain Presbytery as before was noted though in effect Presbytery was the more predominant because the Superintendents by the Book of Discipline were to be subject to the Censures of their own Presbyteries 30. But these Presbyteries and the whole power ascribed unto them by the Book of Discipline were in a way to have been crushed by the late conclusions when they flew out again upon occasion of the hard dealing of the Earl of Morton in putting them besides their Thirds And then withal because the putting of some Ministers into Bishops Sees had been used by him for a pretence to defraud the Superintendents of their wonted means the Bishops were inhibited by the general Assembly which next followed from exercising any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction within the bounds which they had formerly assigned to their Superintendents without their consent and approbation Which opportunity was both espied and taken by Andrew Melvin for making such an innovation in the Form of Government as came most near unto the Pattern of Geneva where he had studied for a time and came back thence more skilful in Tongues and Languages then any other part of Learning And being hot and eager upon any business which he took in hand emulous of Knoxes greatness and hoping to be Chronicled for his equal in the Reformation he entertained all such as resorted to him with the continual commendations of that Discipline which he found at Geneva where the Presbyteries carried all without acknowledging any Bishop or Superintendent in power above them Having by this means much insinuated into divers Ministers he dealt with one Iohn Drury one of the Preachers of Edenborough to propound a question in the general Assembly which was then convened touching the lawfulness of the Episcopal Function and the Authority of Chapters in their Election Which question being put according as he had directed he first commends the Speakers Zeal as if he had been unacquainted with the motion and then proceeds to a long and well-framed discourse touching the flourishing Estate of the Church of Geneva and the opinions of those great and eminent
men Calvin then dead and Theodore Beza then alive in the point of Church-Government After which premises he fell upon this conclusion That none ought to bear any Office in the Church of Christ whose titles were not found in the holy Scripture That though the name of Bishop did occur in Scripture yet was it not to be taken in that sence in which it was commonly understood That no Superiority was allowed by Christ amongst the Ministers of the Church all of them being of the same degree and having the same power in all Sacred Matters That the corruptions crept into the Estate of Bishops were so great and many that if they should not be removed Religion would not long remain in Purity And so referred the whole matter to their consideration 31. The Game being thus started and pursued by so good a Huntsman it was thought fit by the Assembly to commend the chase thereof to six chosen Members who were to make report of their diligence to the rest of the Brethren Of which though Melvin took a care to be named for one and made use of all his wit and cunning to bring the rest of the Referrees to his own opinion yet he prevailed no further at that time then under colour of a mannerly declining of the point in hand to lay some further restrictions upon the Bishops in the exercise of their Power and Jurisdictions then had been formerly imposed The sum of their report was to this effect Viz. That they did not hold it expedient to answer the Questions propounded for the present but if any Bishop was chosen that had not qualities required by the Word of God he should be tryed by the General Assembly That they judged the name of a Bishop to be common to all Ministers who had the charge of a particular flock and that by the Word of God his chief function consisted in the Preaching of the Word the Ministration of the Sacraments and the exercise of Ecclesiastical Discipline with the consent of the Elders That from amongst the Ministry some one might be chosen to oversee and visit such reasonable bounds besides his own flock as the General Assembly should appoint That the Minister so elected might in those bounds appoint Preachers with the advice of the Ministers of that Province and the consent of the flock which should be admitted and that he might suspend Ministers from the exercise of their Office upon reasonable causes with the consent of the Ministers of the bounds This was the sum of the Report and that thus much might be reported to begin the game with great care was took by Melvin and his Adherents that neither any of the Bishops nor Superintendents which were then present in the Assembly being eight in number were either nominated to debate the points proposed nor called to be present at the Conference But somewhat further must be done now their hand was in And therefore that the rest might see what they were to trust to if this world went on they deposed Iames Patton Bishop of Dunkelden from his place and dignity without consulting the Lord-Regent or any of the secret Council in so great a business 32. The next Assembly makes some alteration in propounding the question and gives it out with a particular reference to their own concernment in this manner following that is to say Whether the Bishops as they were in Scotland had their Function warranted by the Word of God But the determining of this question was declined as formerly Onely it was conceived expedient for a further preparative both to approve the opinions of the Referrees in the former Meeting and to add this now unto the rest That the Bishops should take to themselves the service of some one Church within their Diocess and nominate the particular flock whereof they would accept the charge News of which last addition being brought to the Regent he required by a special Message either to stand to the Conclusions before mentioned which were made at Leith or else devise some other Form of Church-Government which they would abide And this fell out as Melvin and his Tribe would have it For after this there was nothing done in the Assemblies for two years together but hammering forming and reforming a new Book of Discipline to be a standing Rule for ever to the Kirk of Scotland But possible it is that the design might have been brought to perfection sooner if the Regent had not thought himself affronted by them in the person of his Chaplain Mr. Patrick Adamson whom he had recommended to the See of S. Andrews For the Election being purposely delayed by the Dean and Chapter till the sitting of the next Assembly Adamson then present was interrogated whether he would submit himself unto the tryal and undertake that Office upon such conditions as the Assembly should prescribe To which he answered That he was commanded by the Regent not to accept thereof upon any other terms then such as had been formerly agreed upon between the Commissioners of the Kirk and the Lords of the Council On this refusal they inhibit the Chapter from proceeding in the said Election though afterwards for fear of the displeasure of so great a man their command therein was disobeyed and the party chosen Which so provoked those meek and humble-spirited men that at their next Meeting they discharged him from the exercise of all Jurisdiction till by some General Assembly he were lawfully licensed And this did so exasperate the Regent on the other side that he resolved to hinder them from making any further Innovation in the Churches Polity as long as he continued in his place and power 33. But the Regent having somewhat imprudently dismissed himself of the Government and put it into the hands of the King in the beginning of March An. 1577 they then conceived they had as good an opportunity as could be desired to advance their Discipline which had been hammering ever since in the Forge of their Fancies And when it hapned as it was not long before it did they usher in the Design with this following Preamble viz. The General Assembly of the Kirk finding universal corruption of the whole Estates of the body of this Realm the great coldness and slackness in Religion in the greatest part of the Professors of the same with the daily increase of all kind of fearful sins and enormities as Incests Adulteries Murthers committed in Edenborough and Stirling cursed Sacriledge ungodly Sedition and Division within the bowels of the Realm with all manner of disordered and ungodly living which justly hath provoked our God although long-suffering and patient to stretch out his arm in his anger to correct and visit the iniquity of the Land and namely by the present penury famine and hunger joyned with the Civil and Intestine Seditions Whereunto doubtless greater judgements must succeed if these his corrections work on Reformation and amendment in mens hearts Seeing also the bloody exclusions of
the cruel counsels of that Roman Beast tending to extermine and rase from the face of all Europe the true light of the blessed Word of Salvation For these causes and that God of his mercy would bless the Kings Highness and his Regiment and make him to have a happy and prosperous Government as also to put in his Highness heart and in the hearts of his Noble Estates of Parliament not onely to make and establish good politick Laws for the Weal and good Government of the Realm but also to set and establish such a Polity and Discipline in the Kirk as is craved in the Word of God and is contained and penned already to be presented to his Highness and Council that in the one and in the other God may have his due praise and the age to come an example of upright and Godly dealing Which Act of the Assembly pass'd on the 24 of April 1578. 34. The Discipline must be of most excellent use which could afford a present remedy to so many mischiefs and yet as excellent as it was it could obtain no Ratification at that time of the King or Parliament which therefore they resolve to put in practise by the strength of their party without insisting any further on the leave of either In which respect it will not be unnecessary to take a brief view of such particulars in which they differ from the Ancient Government of the Church of Christ or the Government of the Church of England then by Law established or finally from the former Book of Discipline which themselves had justified Now by this Book it is declared That none that bear Office in the Church of Christ ought to have Dominion over it or be called Lords That the Civil Magistrates are so far from having any power to Preach administer the Sacraments or execute the Censures of the Church that they ought not to prescribe any Rule how it should be done and that as Ministers are subject to the judgement and punishment of Magistrates in External things if they offend so ought the Magistrates submit themselves to the Discipline of the Church if they transgress in matter of Conscience and Religion That the Ministers of the Church ought to govern the same by mutual consent of Brethren and equality of power according to their several Functions That there are onely four ordinary Office bearers in the Church that is to say The Pastor Minister or Bishop the Doctor the Elder and the Deacon and that no more ought to be received in the Word of God and therefore that all ambitious Titles invented in the Kingdom of Antichrist and his usurped Hierarchy which are not of these four sorts-together with the Offices depending thereupon that is to say Archbishops Patriarchs Chancellours Deans Archdeacons c. ought in one word to be rejected That all which bear Office in the Church are to be elected by the Eldership and consent of the Congregation to whom the person presented is appointed and no otherwise That the Ordination of the person so elected is to be performed with Fasting Prayer and the Imposition of the hands of the Eldership Remember that Imposition of hands was totally rejected in the former Book That all Office-bearers in the Church should have their own particular flocks amongst whom they ought to exercise their charge and keep their residence 35. But more particularly it declares That it is the Office of the Pastor Bishop or Minister to preach the Word of God and to administer the Sacraments in that particular Congregation unto which he is called and it belongs unto them after lawful proceeding of the Eldership to pronounce the sentence of binding and loosing as also to solemnize Marriage between persons contracted being by the said Eldership thereunto required That it is the Office of the Doctor simply to open the mind of the Spirit of God in the Scriptures without making any such application as the Minister useth and that this Doctor being an Elder ought to assist the Pastor in the Government of the Church by reason that the Interpretation of the Word which is the onely Iudge in Ecclesiastical matters is to him committed That it is the Office of the Elder that is to say The Lay-Elder for so they mean both privately and publickly to watch with all diligence over the flock committed to them that no corruptions of Religion or manners grow amongst them as also to assist the Pastor or Minister in examining those that come to the Lords Table in visiting the sick in admonishing all men of their duties according to the Rule of the Word and in holding Assemblies with the Pastors and Doctors for establishing good order in the Church the Acts whereof he is to put in execution That it is the Office of the Deacon to collect and distribute the goods of the Church at the appointment of the Elders amongst which he is to have no voyce in the common Consistory contrary to the Rules of the former Book That all Ecclesiastical Assemblies have a power lawfully to convene together for that effect That it is in the power of the Eldership to appoint Visitors for their Churches within their bounds and that this power belongs not to any single person be he Bishop or otherwise That every three four or more Parishes may have an Eldership to themselves but so that the Elders be chosen out of each in a fit proportion That it is the Office of these Elderships to enquire of naughty and unruly Members and to bring them into the way again either by Admonition and threatning of Gods Iudgements or by Correction even to the very Censure of Excommunication as also to admonish censure and if the case require to depose their Pastor if he be found guilty of any of those grievous crimes among which Dancing goes for one which belongs to their cognizance The Errors committed by the Eldership to be corrected by Provincial Assemblies and those in the Provincials by the General The maintainance and assisting of which Discipline and the inflicting of Civil punishments upon such as do not obey the same without confounding one Iurisdiction with another is made to be the chief Office of Kings and Princes And that this Discipline might be executed without interruption it was required that the Name and Office of Bishops as it then was and had been formerly exercised in the Church of Scotland as also the Names and Offices of Commendators Abbots Priors Deans Deans and Chapters Chancellors Archdeacons c. should from thenceforth be utterly abolished and of no effect Which points and all the rest therein contained being granted to them all right of Patronages destroyed that popular Elections may proceed in all their Churches and finally the whole Patrimony of the Church in Lands Tythes or Houses permitted to the distribution of the Deacons in every Eldership they then conceive that such a right Reformation may be made as God requires 36. This Book of Discipline being presented to
to reject the publick Liturgie and being resolved not to conform themselves unto it they fell upon a course of hiring some Lay-brother as Snape did a Lame Souldier of Barwick or possibly some ignorant Curate to read the Prayers to such as had a minde to hear them neither themselves nor their Disciples coming into the Church till the singing of the Psalm before the Sermon Concerning which one of the brethren writes to Field That having nothing to do with the prescribed form of Common-prayer he preached every Lords day in his Congregation and that â—e did so by the counsel of the Reverend Brethren by whom such was Gods goodness to him he had been lately called to be one of the Classis which once a week was held in some place or other 36. In this condition stood the Affairs when the Reverend Whitgift came to the See of Canterbury A man that had appeared so stoutly in the Churches quarrels that there could be no fear of his Grindâ—llizing by winking at the plots and practices of the Puritan Faction So highly valued by the Queen that when she first preferred him to the See of Worcester Anno 1576 she gave him the disposing of all the Prebendaries of that Church to the end he might be served with the ablest and most Learned men Nor was he less esteemed for his civil prudence which moved Sir Henry Sidney to select him before all others to be his Vice-President in Wales at such time as he was to go Lord-Deputy for the Realm of Ireland Upon this man the Queen had always kept her eye since Grindal fell into disfavour and willingly would have made him his Co-adjutor if he could have been perswaded to accept the offer Which moderation altered nothing of the Queens minde toward him who was so constant in her choice and designations of fit men to serve her that upon Grindals death which happened on the 6 of Iuly 1583 she preferred Whitgift to the place To which he was actually translated before Michaelmas following that he might have the benefit of the half-years-rent Which as it was another Argument of the Queens good affection to him who otherwise was sufficiently intent on her personal profit so for a further demonstration of it she caused one hundred pounds to be abated in his Tenths and first Fruits which had been over-charged on his Predecessor And which was more then both together she suffered him to Commence a Suit against Sir Iames Crofts Comptroller of her Houshold Governour of the Town of Barwick and a privy Councellor for the recovery of some Lands to the quantity of one thousand Acres which had been first alienated to the Queen and by the Queen was given to Crofts on a Court-petition Which suit as he had courage enough to take in hand so had he the felicity of an happy Issue in the recovering of those Lands from such Potent Competitors without loosing any part of her Majesties favour But these things are not pertinent to my present business unless it be to shew upon what ground he stood and that he was resolved to abate of nothing which concerned the honour of the Church who was so vigilant and intent without fear of envy or displeasure on the profit of it 37. The Queen was set upon a point of holding her Prerogative-Royal at the very height and therefore would not yield to any thing in Civil matters which seemed to tend to any sensible diminution of it And in like sort she was resolved touching her Supremacy which she considered as the fairest Jewel in the Regal Diadem and consequently could as little hearken to such Propositions as had been made in favor of the Puritan Faction by their great Agents in the Court though she had many times been sollicited in it To ease herself of which Sollicitations for the time to come she acquaints Whitgift at his first coming to the place that she determined to discharge herself from the trouble of all Church-concernments and leave them wholly to his care That he should want no countenance and encouragement for carrying on the great trust committed to him That she was sensible enough into what disorder and confusion the affairs of the Church were brought by the connivance of some Bishops the obstinancy of some Ministers and the power of some great Lords both in Court and Countrey but that notwithstanding all these difficulties he must resolve not onely to assert the Episcopal Power but also to restore that Uniformity in Gods Publick Worship which by the weakness of his Predecessor was so much endangered Thus authorized and countenanced he begins his Government And for the first Essay thereof he sends abroad three Articles to be subscribed by all the Clergy of his Province The Tenour of which Articles because they afterwards created so much trouble to him I shall here subjoyn First therefore he required the Clergy to subscribe to this That the Queen had Supreme Authority over all persons born within her Dominions of what condition soever they were and that no other Prince Prelate or Potentate either had or ought to have any jurisdiction Civil or Ecclesiastical within her Realms and Dominions 2. That the Book of Common-prayer and the Ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons contained nothing contrary to the Word of God but might lawfully be used and that they would use that and no other 3. That he allowed the Articles of Religion agreed in the Synod holden at London in the year of our Lord 1562 and published by the Queens Authority and did believe them to be consonant to the Word of God 38. It is not easie to imagine what clamours were raised amongst the Brethren upon this occasion how they moved Heaven and Earth the Court and Country and all the Friends they had of the Clergie or Laity to come to their assistance in this time of their tryal By means whereof they raised so strong an opposition against his proceedings that no man of less courage then Whitgift and none but Whitgift so well backed and countenanced by a gratious Mistress could have withstood the violence and fury of it But by the Queens constancie on the one side who gave Semper Eadem for her Motto to shew that she was always one and by his most invincible patience on the other side whose Motto being Vincit qui patitur declared what hopes he had that by a discreet patience he might get the Victory he had the happiness to see the Church reduced to her former lustre by the removing of all obstacles which lay before him The first of which was laid by some of his own Diocess who being required by him to subscribe for an Example to others not onely refused so to do but being thereupon suspended for their contumacy in due Form of Law they petitioned to the Lords of the Council for relief against him the like Petition was presented to them by some Ministers of the Diocess of Norwich against Dr. Edmond Freak
look well about them 4. It happened also that some of the great Lords at Court whom they most relyed on began to cool in their affections to the Cause and had informed the Queen of the weakness of it upon this occasion The Earl of Leicester Walsingham and some others of great place and power being continually prest unto it by some Leading-men prevailed so far on the Arch-bishop of Canterbury as to admit them in their hearing to a private Conference To which the Arch-bishop condescends and having desired the Arch-bishop of York and the Bishop of Winchester to associate with him that he might not seem to act alone in that weighty business he was pleased to hear such Reasons as they could alledg for refusing to conform themselves to the Orders of the Church established At which time though the said most Reverend Prelate sufficiently cleared all their Doubts and satisfied all Exceptions which they had to make yet at the earnest request of the said great persons he gave way unto a second Conference to be held at Lambeth at which such men were to be present whose Arguments and Objections were conceived unanswerable because they had not yet been heard But when the points had been canvased on both sides for four hours together the said great persons openly professed before all the Company That they did not believe the Arch-bishops Reasons to have been so strong and those of the other side so weak and trivial as they now perceived them And having thanked the Lord Arch-bishop for his pains and patience they did not only promise him to inform the Queen in the truth of the business but endeavoured to perswade the opposite Party to a present Conformity But long they did not stay in so good a humour of which more hereafter 5. With better fortune sped the Lords of the Scottish Nation in the advance of their Affairs Who being admitted to the Queens presence by the means of Walsingham received such countenance and support as put them into a condition of returning homewards and gaining that by force and practise which they found impossible to be compassed any other way All matters in that Kingdom were then chiefly governed by the Earl of Arran formerly better known by the name of Captain Iones who being of the House of the Stuarts and fastening his dependence on the Duke of Lenox at his first coming out of France had on his instigation undertaken the impeaching of the Earl of Morton after which growing great in favour with the King himself he began to ingross all Offices and Places of Trust to draw unto himself the managery of all Affairs and finally to assume the Title of Earl of Arran at such time as the Chiefs of the Hamiltons were exiled and forfeited Grown great and powerful by these means and having added the Office of Lord Chancellor to the rest of his Honours he grew into a general hatred will all sorts of people And being known to have no very good affections to the Queen of England she was the more willing to contribute towards his destruction Thus animated and prepared they make toward the Borders and raising the Countrey as they went marched on to Sterling where the King then lay And shewing themselves before the Town with Ten thousand men they publish a Proclamation in their own terms touching the Reasons which induced them to put themselves into Arms. Amongst which it was none of the least That Acts and Proclamations had not long before been published against the Ministers of the Kirk inhibiting their Presbyteries Assemblies and other Exercises Priviledges and Immunities by reason whereof the most Learned and Honest of that number were compelled for safety of their Lives and Consciences to abandon their Countrey To the end therefore that all the affâ—icted Kirk might be comforted and all the said Acts fully made in prejudice of the same might be cancelled and for ever abolished they commanded all the King's Subjects to come in to aid them 6. The King perceiving by this Proclamation what he was to trust to first thinks of fortifying the Town but finding that to be untenable he betakes himself unto the Castle as his surest strength The Conquerors having gained the Town on the first of October possest themselves also of the Bulwarks about the Castle which they inviron on all sides so that it was not possible for any to escape their hands In which extremity the King makes three Requests unto them viz. That his Life Honour and Estate might be preserved That the Lives of certain of his Friends might not be touched And that all things might be transacted in a peaceable manner They on the other side demand three things for their security and satisfaction viz. 1. That the King would allow of their intention and subscribe their Proclamation until further Order were established by the Estates c. and that he would deliver into their hands all the Strong-holds in the Land 2. That such as had disquieted the Commonwealth might be delivered to them and abide their due tryal by Law And 3. That the old Guard might be removed and another placed which was to be at their disposal To which Demands the King consents at last as he could not otherwise though in their Second they had purposely run a-cross to the Second of his wherein he had desired that the Lives of such as were about him might not be endangered Upon the yeelding of which points which in effect was all that he had to give unto them he puts himself into their hands hath a new Guard imposed upon him and is conducted by them wheresoever they please And now the Ministers return in triumph to their Widowed Churches where they had the Pulpits at command but nothing else agreeable to their expectation For the Lords having served their own turns took no care of theirs insomuch that in a Parliament held in Lithgoe immediately after they had got the King into their power they caused an Act to pass for ratifying the appointment betwixt them and the King by which they provided well enough for their own Indempnity But then withall they suffered it to be Enacted That none should either publikely declare or privately speak or write in reproach of his Majesties Person Estate or Government Which came so cross upon the stomacks of the Ministers whom nothing else could satisfie but the repealing of all former Statutes which were made to their prejudice that they fell foul upon the King in a scandalous manner insomuch that one Gibson affirmed openly in a Sermon at Edenborough That heretofore the Earl of Arran was suspected to have been the Persecutor but now they found it was the King against whom he denounced the Curse that fell on Ieroboam That he should dye Childless and be the last of his Race For which being called to an account before the Lords of the Council he stood upon his justification without altering and was by them sent Prisoner to the Castle
as put a difference between the Rights of a Prophane and a Christian Magistrate Specanus a stiff Presbyterian in the Belgick Provinces makes a distinction between potestas Facti and potestas Iuris and then infers upon the same That the Authority of determining what is fit to be done belongs of right unto the Ministers of the Church though the execution of the Fact in Civil Causes doth properly appertain to the Supreme Magistrate And more than this the greatest Clerks amongst themselves would not give the Queen If she assume unto Her self the exercise of Her farther Power in ordering Matters of the Church according to the lawful Authority which is inherent in the Crown She shall presently be compared unto all the wicked Kings and others of whom we read in the Scriptures that took upon them unlawfully to intrude themselves into the Priest's Office as unto Saul for his offering of Sacrifice unto Osias for burning Incense upon the Altar unto Gideon for making of an Ephod and finally to Nadab and Abihu for offering with strange fire unto the Lord. 33. According to these Orthodox and sound Resolves they hold a Synod in St. Iohn's Colledg in Cambridg taking the opportunity of Sturbridg-Fayr to cloak their meeting for that purpose At which Synod Cartwright and Perkins being present amongst the rest the whole Book-Discipline reviewed by Traverse and formally approved of by the Brethren in their several Classes received a more Authentick approbation insomuch that first it was decreed amongst them That all which would might subscribe unto it without any necessity imposed upon them so to do But not long after it was made a matter necessary so necessary as it seems that no man could be chosen to any Ecclesiastical Office amongst them nor to be of any of their Assemblies either Classical Provincial or National till he had first subscribed to the Book of Discipline Another Synod was held at Ipswich not long after and the Results of both confirmed in a Provincial and National Synod held in London which gave the Book of Discipline a more sure establishment than an Act of State It is reported that the night before the great Battel in the Fields of Thessaly betwixt Caesar and Pompey the Pompeyan Party was so confident of their good success that they cast Dice amongst themselves for all the great Offices and Magistracies of the City of Rome even to the Office of the Chief-Priest-hood which then Caesar held And the like vanity or infatuation had possessed these men in the opinion which they had of their Strength and Numbers Insomuch that they entred into this consideration how Arch-Bishops Bishops Chancellors Deans Cannons Arch-Deacons Commissaries Registers Apparitors c. all which by their pretended Reformation must have been thrust out of their Livings should be provided for that the Commonwealth might not be thereby pestered with Beggars And this they did upon the confidence of some unlawful Assistance to effect their purposes if neither the Queen nor the Lords of the Council nor the Inferior Magistrates in their several Counties all which they now sollicited with more heat than ever should co-operate with them For about this time it was that Cartwright in his Prayer before his Sermon was noted to have used these words viz. Because they meaning the Bishops which ought to be Pillars in the Church combine themselves against Christ and his Truth therefore O Lord give us Grace and Power all as one man to set our selves against them Which words he used frequently to repeat and to repeat with such an earnestness of spirit as might sufficiently declare that he had a purpose to raise Sedition in the State for the imposing of that Discipline on the Church of England which was not likely to be countenanced by any lawful Authority which put the Queen to a necessity of calling him and all the rest of them to a better account to which they shall be brought in the years next following 33. In the mean time we must pass over into France where we find HENRY the Third the last King of the House of Valoise most miserably deprived of his Life and Kingdom driven out of Paris first by the Guisian Faction and afterwards assassinated by Iaques Clement a Dominican Fryar as he lay at St. Cloud attending the reduction of that stubborn City Upon whose death the Crown descended lineally on HENRY of Bourbon King of Navarre and Duke of Vendosme as the next Heir-male For the excluding of which Prince and the rest of that House the Holy League was first contrived as before is said There was at that time in the late King's Army a very strong Party of French Catholicks who had preferred their Loyalty to their Natural Prince before the private Interest and Designs of the House of Guise and now generally declare in favour of the true Successor By their Assistance and the concurring-Forces of the Hugonot-Faction it had been no hard matter for him to have Mastered the Duke of Maine who then had the Command of the Guisian Leagues But in the last he found himself deceived of his expectation The Hugonots which formerly had served with so much cheerfulness under his Command their King would not now serve him in his just and lawful Warrs against his Enemies Or if they did it shall be done upon Conditions so intolerable that he might better have pawned his Crown to a Forreign Prince than on such terms to buy the favour of his Subjects They looked upon him as reduced to a great necessity most of the Provinces and almost all the Principal Cities having before engaged against HENRY the Third and many others falling off when they heard of his death So that they thought the new King was not able to subsist without them and they resolved to work their own Ends out of that Necessity Instead of leading of their Armies and running cheerfully and couragiously towards his defence who had so oft defended them they sent Commissioners or Delegates to negotiate with him that they may know to what Conditions he would yeeld for their future advantage before they acted any thing in order to his preservation and their Conditions were so high so void of all Respects of Loyalty and even common Honesty that he conceived it safer for him and far more honourable in it self to cast himself upon the Favour of the Queen of England than condescend to their unreasonable and unjust demands So that in fine the Hugonots to a very great number forsook him most disloyally in the open Field drew off their Forces and retired to their several dwellings inforcing him to the necessity of imploring succours from the professed Enemies of his Crown and Nation Nor did he find the Queen unwilling to supply him both with Men and Money on his first desires For which She had better reason now than when She aided him and the rest of the French Hugonots in their former Quarrels And this She did with such a cheerful
Noble Lord command is given unto the Provost of Edenborough To attach the Ministers But they had notice of his purpose and escape into England making Newcastle their retreat as in former times 25. It is a true saying of the wise Historian That every Insurrection of the people when it is suppressed doth make the Prince stronger and the Subject weaker And this the King found true in his own particular The Citizens of Edenborough being pinched with the Proclamation and the removal of the Court and the Courts of Justice offered to purge themselves of the late Sedition and tendred their obedience unto any thing whatsoever which his Majesty and the Council should be pleased to enjoyn whereby they might repair the huge Indignity which was done to his Majesty provided that they should not be thought guilty of so great a Crime which from their hearts they had detested But the King answers That he would admit of no purgation that he would make them know that he was their King And the next day proclaims the Tumult to be Treason and proclaims all for Traytors who were guilty of it This made them fear their utter ruine to be near at hand The ordinary Judicatories were removed to Leith the Sessions ordained to be held at Perth their Ministers were fled their Magistrates without regard and none about the King but their deadly Enemies And to make up the full measure of their disconsolation Counsel is given unto the King to raze the Town and to erect a Pillar in the place thereof for a perpetual Monument of so great an Insolence But he resolves to travel none but Legal ways and being somewhat sweetned by a Letter from the Queen of England he gives command unto the Provost and the rest of the Magistrates to enter their persons at Perth on the first of February there to keep ward until they either were acquitted or condemned of the former uproar Whilst things remained in this perplexity and suspence he is advised to make his best use of the conjuncture for setling matters of the Church and to establish in it such a decent Order as was agreeable to God's Word To which end he appoints a National-Assembly to be held at Perth and prepares certain Queries fifty five in number to be considered and debated in the said Assembly all of them tending to the rectifying of such Abuses which were either crept into the Discipline or occasioned by it Nothing so much perplexed the principal Ministers who had the leading of the rest as that the Discipline should be brought under a dispute which they had taught to be a part of the Word of God But they must sing another Tune before all be ended 26. For the King having gained a considerable Party amongst the Ministers of the North and treated with many of the rest in several whom he thought most tractable prevailed so far on the Assembly that they condescend at the last upon many particulars which in the pride of their prosperity had not been required The principal of which were these viz. That it should be lawful to his Majesty by himself or his Commissioners or to the Pastors to propone in a general Assembly whatsoever point he or they desired to be resolved in or reformed in matters of External Government alterable according to Circumstances providing it be done in right time and place Animo aedificandi non tentandi 2. That no Minister should reprove his Majesty's Laws and Statutes Acts or Ordinances until such time as he hath first by the advice of his Presbytery or Synodal or General Assemblies complained and sought remedy of the same from his Majesty and made report of his Majesty's Answer before any further proceedings 3. That no man's Name should be expressed in the Pulpit except the Fault be notorious and publick and so declared by an Assize Excommunication Contumace and lawful Admonition nor should he be described so plainly by any other Circumstances than publick Vices always damnable 4. That in all great Towns the Ministers shall not be chosen without his Majesty's consent and the consent of the Flock 5. That no matter of Slander should be called before them wherein his Majesty's Authority is pre-judged Causes Ecclesiastical only excepted 6. And finally That no Conventions shall be amongst Pastors without his Majesty's knowledg except their Sessions Presbyteries and Synods the Meetings at the Visitation of Churches admission or deprivation of Ministers taking up of deadly Feuds and the like which had not already been found fault with by his Majesty According to which last Artiele the King consents unto another general Assembly to be held at Dundee and nominates the tenth of May for the opening of it 27. It was about this time that Dr. Richard Bancroft Bishop of London began to run a constant course of Correspondence with the King of Scots whom he beheld as the undoubted Heir and Successor of the Queen then Reigning And well considering how conducible it was to the Peace of both Kingdoms that they should both be governed in one Form of Ecclesiastical Policy he chalked him out a ready way by which he might restore Episcopacy to the Kirk of Scotland To which end as the King had gained the liberty in the last Assembly to question and dispute the Government then by Law established and gained a power of nominating Ministers in the principal Cities so in the next they gratified him in this point That no man should from thenceforth exercise a Minister without having a particular Flock nor be admitted to that Flock without Ordination by the Imposition of hands He required also in the same That before the conclusion of any weighty matter his Highness Advice and Approbation should be first obtained And so far they consented to the Proposition as to express how glad they were to have his Majesty's Authority interposed to all Acts of importance which concerned the Church so as matters formerly concluded might not be drawn in question He gained some other points also in the same Assembly no less important than the other towards his Design as namely 1. That no Minister shall exercise any Iurisdiction either by making of Constitutions or leading of Processes without advice and concurrence of his Session Presbytery Synod or General Assembly 2. That Presbyteries shall not meddle with any thing that is not known without all controversie to belong to the Ecclesiastical Iudicatory and that therein Vniformity should be observed throughout the Countrey And 3. That where any Presbyteries shall be desired by his Majesty's Missive to stay their proceedings as being prejudicial to the Civil Iurisdiction or private men's Rights they should desist until his Majesty did receive satisfaction But that which made most toward his purpose was the appointing of Thirteen of their number to attend his Majesty as the Commissioners of the Kirk whom we may call the High Commissioners of Scotland the King 's Ecclesiastical Council the Seminary of the future Bishops to whom
Vniversities than for simple Auditories Which said Instructions bearing date at Windsor on the 10 th of August 1622 opened the way to the suppression of that heat and fierceness by which the Calvinists had been acted in some years fore-going 29. During which Heats and Agitations between the Parties a Plot was set on foot to subvert the Church in the undoing of the Clergy and there could be no readier way to undo the Clergy than to reduce them unto such a Beggerly Competency for by that name they love to call it as they had brought them to in all the rest of the Calvinian or Genevian Churches This the design of many hands by whom all passages had been scored in Cotton's Library which either did relate to the point of Tythes or the manner of payment But the Collections being brought together and the Work compleated there appeared no other Name before it than that of Selden then of great Credit in the World for his known Abilities in the retired Walks of Learning The History of Tythes writ by such an Author could not but raise much expectation amongst some of the Laity who for a long time had gaped after the Church's Patrimony and now conceived and hoped to swallow it down without any chewing The Author highly magnified the Book held unanswerable and all the Clergy looked on but as Pigmies to that great Goliah who in his Preface had reproached them with Ignorance and Laziness upbraided them with having nothing to keep up their Credit but Beard Title and Habit and that their studies reached no further than the Breviary the Postills and the Polyanthea Provoked wherewith he was so galled by Tillesly so gagged by Mountague and stung by Netles that he never came off in any of his Undertakings with more loss of Credit By which he found that some of the Ignorant and Lazy Clergy were of as retired Studies as himself and could not only match but over-match him too in his own Philology But the chief Governours of the Church went a shorter way and not expecting till the Book was answered by particular men resolved to seek for reparation of the wrong from the Author himself upon an Information to be brought against him in the High Commission Fearing the issue of the business and understanding what displeasures were conceived against him by the King and the Bishops he made his personal appearance in the open Court at Lambeth on the 28 th day of Ianuary 1618 where in a full Court he tendred his submission and acknowledgment all of his own hand-writing in these following words My Lords I most humbly acknowledg my Error which I have committed in publishing The History of Tythes and especially in that I have at all by shewing any Interpretations of Holy Scriptures by medling with Councils Fathers or Canons or by whatsoever occurrs in it offered any occasion of Argument against any Right of Maintenance â—ure Divino of the Ministers of the Gospel beseeching your Lordships to receive this ingenuous and humble acknowledgment together with the unfeigned Protestation of my grief for that through it I have so incurred both His Majesty's and your Lordships Displeasure conceived against me in behalf of the Church of England JOHN SELDEN This for the present was conceived to be the most likely Remedy for the preventing of the Mischief but left such smart Remembrances in the mind of the Author as put him on to act more vigorously for the Presbyterians of which more hereafter by whom he seemed to be engaged in the present Service 30. But it is now high time for us to cross over St. George's Channel and take a short view of the poor and weak Estate of the Church of Ireland where these Designs were carried on with better Fortune A Church which for the most part had been modelled by the Reformation which was made in England But lying at a greater distance and more out of sight it was more easily made a prey to all Invaders the Papists prevailing on the one side and the Puritans on the other getting so much ground that the poor Protestants seemed to be crucified in the midst between them Some Order had been taken for establishing the English Liturgy together with the Bible in the English Tongue in all the Churches of that Kingdom which not being understood by the natural Irish left them as much in Ignorance and Superstition as in the darkest times of the Papal Tyranny And for the Churches of the Pale which very well understood the English Language they suffered themselves to be seduced from the Rules of the Church and yeelded to the prevalency of those zealous Ministers who carried on the Calvinian Project with their utmost power In order whereunto it was held necessary to expose the Patrimony of the Bishops and Cathedral Churches to a publick Port-sale that being as much weakned in their Power as they were in Estate they might be rendred inconsiderable in the eyes of the people Hence-forward such a general devastation of the Lands of the Church that some Episcopal-Sees were never since able to maintain a Bishop but have been added to some others two or three for failing to make up somewhat like a Competency for an Irish Prelate The Bishoprick of Ardagh was thereupon united unto that of Kill more but the Cathedral of the one together with the Bishop's House adjoyning to it had been levelled with the very ground the other in some better repair but neither furnished with Bell Font or Chalice The like union had been also made between the Bishopricks of Clonfert and Killmare Ossery and Kilkenny Down and Connour Waterford and Lismore Cork and Rosse c. and was projected by the late Lord Primate between the See of Kilfanore and that of Killallow not to descend any more particulars of the like Conjunctions 31. Such also were the Fortunes of the Rural Clergy whose Churches in some places lay unrooted in others unrepaired and much out of order The Tythes annexed for the most part to Religions Houses fell by the ruin of those Houses to the Power of the Crown and by the Kings and Queens of England were aliened from the Church and by them became Lay-Fees The Vicaridges generally so ill provided that in the whole Province of Connaught most of the Vicars Pensions came but to forty shillings per annum and in some places but sixteen only And of such Vicaridges as appeared to be better endowed three four or five were many times ingrossed into one man's hands who neither understood the Language nor performed the Service In which respect it was no marvel if the people took up that Religion which came next to hand such as did either serve most fitly to continue them in their former Errors or to secure them in the quiet enjoyment of those Estates which they had ravished from the Church and still possessed by the Title of the first Usurpers In which estate we find the Church of Ireland at the death
of the Queen not much improved in case it were not made more miserable In the time of K. IAMES some Propositions had been offered by Him in the Conference at Hampton-Court about sending Preachers into Ireland of which he was but half King as himself complained their Bodies being subject unto his Authority but their Souls and Consciences to the Pope But I find nothing done in pursuance of it till after the year 1607 where the Earl of Ter-ownen Ter-connel Sir Iohn Odaghartie and other great Lords of the North together with their Wives and Families took their flight from Ireland and left their whole Estates to the King 's disposing Hereupon followed the Plantation of Vlster first undertaken by the City of London who fortified Colraine and built London-Derrie and purchased many thousand Acres of Lands in the parts adjoyning But it was carried on more vigorously as more unfortunately withall by some Adventurers of the Scottish Nation who poured themselves into this Countrey as the richer Soil And though they were sufficiently industrious in improving their own Fortunes there and set up Preaching in all Churches whersoever they fixed yet whether it happened for the better or for the worse the event hath showed For they brought with them hither such a stock of Puritanism such a contempt of Bishops such a neglect of the publick Liturgy and other Divine Offices of this Church that there was nothing less to be found amongst them than the Government and Forms of Worship established in the Church of England 32. Nor did the Doctrine speed much better if it sped not worse For Calvinism by degrees had taken such deep root amongst them that at the last it was received and countenanced as the only Doctrine which was to be defended in the Church of Ireland For not contented with the Articles of the Church of England they were resolved to frame a Confession of their own the drawing up whereof was referred to Dr. Iames Vsher then Provost of the Colledg of Dublin and afterwards Arce-bishop of Armagh and Lord Primate of Ireland By whom the Book was so contrived that all the Sabbatarian and Calvinian Rigors were declared therein to be the Doctrines of that Church For first the Articles of Lambeth rejected at the Conference at Hampton-Court must be inserted into this Confession as the chief parts of it And secondly An Article must be made of purpose to justifie the Morality of the Lord's-day-Sabbath and to require the spending of it wholly in Religious Exercises Besides which deviations from the Doctrine of the Church of England most grievous Torments immediately in His Soul are there affirmed to be endured by Christ our Saviour which Calvin makes to be the same with his descent into Hell The Abstinencies from eating Flesh upon certain days declared not to be Religious Fasts but to be grounded upon Politick Ends and Considerations All Ministers adjudged to be lawfully called who are called unto the work of the Ministry by those that have publick Authority given them in the Church but whether they be Bishops or not it makes no matter so they be authorized unto it by their several Churches The Sacerdotal Power of Absolution made declarative only and consequently quite subverted No Power ascribed to the Church in making Canons or Censuring any of those who either carelesly or maliciously do infringe the same The Pope made Antichrist according to the like determination of the French Hugonots at Gappe in Daulphine And finally Such a silence concerning the Consecration of Arch-bishops and Bishops expresly justified and avowed in the English Book as if they were not a distinct Order from the common Presbyters All which being Vsher's own private Opinions were dispersed in several places of the Articles for the Church of Ireland approved of in the Convocation of the year 1615 and finally confirmed by the Lord Deputy Chichester in the Name of King IAMES 33. What might induce King IAMES to confirm these Articles differing in so many points from his own Opinion is not clearly known but it is probable that he might be drawn to it on these following grounds For first He was much governed at that time in all Church-concernments by Dr. George Abbot Arch-bishop of Canterbury and Dr. Iames Mountague Bishop of Bath and Wells who having formerly engaged in maintenance of some or most of those Opinions as before is said might find it no hard matter to perswade the King to a like approbation of them And secondly The King had so far declared himself in the Cause against Vorstius and so affectionately had espoused the Quarrel of the Prince of Orange against those of the Remonstrant Party in the Belgick Churches that he could not handsomely refuse to confirm those Doctrines in the Church of Ireland which he had countenanced in Holland Thirdly The Irish Nation at that time were most tenaciously addicted to the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome and therefore must be bended to the other Extream before they could be straight and Orthodox in these points of Doctrine Fourthly and finally It was an usual practise with that King in the whole course of His Government to balance one Extream by the other countenancing the Papists against the Puritans and the Puritans against the Papists that betwixt both the true Religion and Professors of it might be kept in safety But whether I hit right or not certain it is that it proved a matter of sad consequence to the Church of England there being nothing more ordinary amongst those of the Puritan Party when they were pressed in any of the points aforesaid then to appeal unto the Articles of Ireland and the infallible Judgment of K. IAMES who confirmed the same And so it stood until the year 1634 when by the Power of the Lord Deputy Wentworth and the Dexterity of Dr. Iohn Bramhall then Lord Bishop of Derry the Irish Articles were repealed in a full Convocation and those of England authorised in the place thereof 34. Pass we next over to the Isles of Iersey and Guernsey where the Genevian Discipline had been setled under Queen ELIZABETH and being so setled by that Queen was confirmed by K. IAMES at his first coming to this Crown though at the same time he endeavoured a subversion of it in the Kirk of Scotland But being to do it by degrees and so to practise the restoring of the old Episcopacy as not to threaten a destruction to their new Presbyteries it was thought fit to tolerate that Form of Government in those petit Islands which could have no great influence upon either Kingdom Upon which ground he sends his Letter to them of the 8 th of August first writ in French and thus translated into English that is to say 35. JAMES by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland c. Vnto all those whom these Presents shall concern greeting Whereas We Our selves and the Lords of Our Council have been given to understand that
the Dukes of Bouilâ—on That he was most disgracefully deprived of his Place and Function by those of the Calvinian Party because he had delivered in a Sermon on those words of St. â—ames c. 1. v. 13. God tempteth no man c. That God was not the Author of Sin 7. But possibly it may be said That these Oppressions Tyrannies and Partialities are not to be ascribed to the Sect of Calvin in the capacity of Presbyterians but of Predestinarians and therefore we will now see what they acted in behalf of Presbytery which was as dear to all the Members of that Synod but the English only as any of the Five Points whatsoever it was For in the Hundred forty fifth Session being held on the 20 th of April the Belgick Confession was brought in to be subscribed by the Provincials and publickly approved by the Forreign Divines In which Confession there occurred one Article which tended plainly to the derogation and dishonour of the Church of England For in the Thirty one Article it is said expresly That forasmuch as doth concern the Ministers of the Church of Christ in what place soever they are all of equal Power and Authority with one another as being all of them the Ministers of Iesus Christ who is the only Vniversal Bishop and sole Head of His Church Which Article being as agreeable to Calvin's Judgment in point of Discipline as their Determinations were to his Opinion in point of Doctrine was very cheerfully entertained by the Forreign Divines though found in few of the Confessions of the Forreign Churches But being found directly opposite to the Government of the Church by Arch-bishops and Bishops with which a parity of Ministers can have no consistence was cordially opposed by the Divines of the British Colledg but most especially by Dr. George Carlton then Lord Bishop of Landaff and afterwards translated to the See of Chichester who having too much debased himself beneath his Calling in being present in a Synod or Synodical Meeting in which an ordinary Presbyter was to take the Chair and have precedency before him thought it high time to vindicate himself and the Church of England to enter a Legal Protestation against those proceedings Which though it was admitted and perhaps recorded received no other Answer but neglect if not scorn withall Concerning which he published a Declaration after his return in these words ensuing 8. When we were to yeeld our consent to the Belgick Confession at Dort I made open protestation in the Synod That whereas in the Confession there was inserted a strange conceit of the Parity of Ministers to be instituted by Christ I declared our dissent utterly in that point I showed that by Christ a Parity was never instituted in the Church that he ordained Twelve Apostles as also Seventy Disciples that the Authority of the Twelve was above the other that the Church preserved this Order left by our Saviour And therefore when the extraordinary Power of the Apostles ceased yet this ordinary Authority continued in Bishops who succeeded them who were by the Apostles left in the Government of the Church to ordain Ministers and to see that they who were so ordained should preach no other Doctrine that in an inferior degree the Ministers were governed by Bishops who succeeded the Seventy Disciples that this Order hath been maintained in the Church from the times of the Apostles and herein I appealed to the Iudgment of Antiquity and to the Iudgment of any Learned man now living and craved herein to be satisfied if any man of Learning could speak to the contrary My Lord of Salisbury is my Witness and so are all the rest of our Company who speak also in the Cause To this there was no answer made by any whereupon we conceived that they yeelded to the truth of the Protestation But it was only he and his Associates which conceived so of it and so let it go 9. His Lordship adds that in a Conference which he had with some Divines of that Synod he told them That the cause of all their troubles was because they had no Bishops amongst them who by their Authority might repress turbulent spirits that broached Novelty every man having liberty to speak or write what they list and that as long as there were no Ecclesiastical men in Authority to repress and censure such contentious Spirits their Church could never be without trouble To which they answered That they did much honour and reverence the good Order and Discipline of the Church of England and with all their hearts would be glad to have it established amongst them but that could not be hoped for in their State that their hope was That seeing they could not do what they desired God would be merciful to them if they did what they could This was saith he the sum and substance of their Answer which he conceived to be enough to free that people from aiming at an Anarchy and open-Confusion adding withall that they groaned under the weight of that burden and would be eased of it if they could But by his Lordship's leave I take this to be nothing but a piece of dissimulation of such a sanctified Hypocrisie as some of the Calvinians do affirm to be in Almighty God For certainly they might have Bishops if they would as well as the Popish Cantons of the Switzers or the State of Venice of which the one is subject to an Aristocracy the other to a Government no less popular than that of the Netherlands In which respect it was conceived more lawful by the late Lord Primate for any English Protestant to communicate with the Reformed Churches in France who cannot have Bishops if they would than with the Dutch who will not have Bishops though they may there still remaining in their hands Seven Episcopal Sees with all the Honours and Revenues belonging to them that is to say the Bishoprick of Harlem in Holland of Middlebourgh in Zealand of Lewarden in Friesland of Groining in the Province so called of Deventer in the County of Overyssell and of Ruremond in the Dutchy of Gueldress all of them but the last subordinate to the Church of Vtrect which they keep also in their Power 10. Somewhat was also done in the present Synod in order to the better keeping of the Lord's Day than it had been formerly For till this time they had their Faires and Markets upon this day their Kirk-masses as they commonly called them Which as they constantly kept in most of the great Towns of Holland Zealand c. even in Dort it self so by the constant keeping of them they must needs draw away much people from the Morning-Service to attend the business of their Trades And in the Afternoon as before was noted all Divine Offices were interdicted by a Constitution which received life here Anno 1574 that time being wholly left to be disposed of as the people pleased either upon their profit or their recreation But their
allure the people to adhere unto them they flatter them with an hope of an absolute Freedom and such a power in Sacred matters as should both authorize and justifie their approaches to the holy Altar without the intervention of Priest or Prelate Which being done they boldly shew themselves against Moses and Aaron and told them plainly to their faces that they took more upon them then belonged to either that all the Congregation was holy every one of them in regard that God appeared so visibly amongst them and therefore that they had done that which they could not justifie in lifting themselves above the Congregation of the Lord. In which it is to be observed that though some of the chief Princes of the House of Dan and perhaps many also of the other Tribes did appear in the Action yet it is plainly called in Scripture The Gain-saying of Korah either because the practice was of his Contrivement or chiefly carried on by the power and credit which he and his Accomplices of the Tribe of Levi had gained amongst the common people by reason of their Interests and Concernments in Sacred matters so excellent are the opportunities which are afforded to unquiet and seditious men when either by â— seeming zeal to the Worship of God or by some special place and interest in his Publick Service they are become considerable in the eyes of the Vulgar These were the first seeds of those dangerous Doctrines and most unwarrantable practices which afterwards brought forth such sad effects toward the latter end of the Jewish State when the Pharisees began to draw unto themselves the managing of all affairs both Sacred and Civil They were not ignorant of that high displeasure which God had manifestly shewn against the principal Authors of that first Sedition who under the pretence of regulating the Authority of his two Chief Ministers had put a baffle as it were upon God himself whose Servants and Ministers they were The Pharisees therefore were content that both the Chief-Priest and the Supreme Prince should still preserve their rank and station as in former times but so that neither of them should be able to act any thing of weight and moment but as directed by their counsels and influenced by their assistance For the obtaining of which point what arts they used what practices they set on foot and by what artifices they prevailed upon mens affections as also into what calamities they plunged that Nation by the abuse of their Authority having once obtained it shall be laid down at large in the following History All the particulars whereof the Reader is desired to observe distinctly that he may see how punctually the Presbyterians of our times have played the Pharisees as well in the getting of their power by lessening the Authority both of Prince and Prelate as in exasperating the people to a dangerous War for the destruction of them both the calling in of Foreign forces to abet their quarrel the fractions and divisions amongst themselves and the most woful Desolation which they have brought upon the happiest and most flourishing Church which the Sun of Righteousness ever shined on since the Primitive times Nec ovum oâ—o nec lac lacti similius Iupiter could not make himself more like Amphitrio nor Mercury play the part of Sociae with more resemblance then the ensuing Story may be parallel'd in our late Combustions Actor for Actor Part for Part and Line for Line there being nothing altered in a manner in that fearful Tragedie but the Stage or Theatre Change the Stage from Palestine or the Realm of Iuda and we shall see the same Play acted over again in many parts and Provinces of the Christian Church In which we finde the Doctrines of the Pharisees revived by some their Hypocrisie or pretended Purity taken up by others their Artifices to encrease their party in the gaining of Proselytes embraced and followed by a third till they grew formidable to those powers under which they lived and finally the same Confusions introduced in all parts of Christendom in which their counsels have been followed Which I shall generally reduce under these four heads that is to say The practices of the Novatians in the North the Arrians in the East the Donatists in Affrick or the the Southern parts and the Priscillianists in the Western The arts and subtilties of the Pharisees were at first suppos'd to be too Heterogeneous to be all found in any one Sect of Hereticks amongst the Christians till they were all united in the Presbyterians the Sects or Hereticks above mentioned participating more or less of their dangerous counsels as they conceived it necessary to advance their particular ends In the pursuance of which ends as the Arrians ventured upon many points which were not known to the Novatians and the Donatists upon many more which were never practised by the Arrians so the Priscillianists did as much exceed the Donatists in the arts of mischief as they themselves have been exceeded by the Presbyterians in all the lamentable consequents and effects thereof which I desire the Reader to consider distinctly that he may be his own Plutarch in fitting them and every one of them with a perfect parallel in reference to those men whose History I shall draw down from the time of Calvin unto these our days tracing it from Geneva into France from France into the Netherlands from the Netherlands to Scotland and from thence to England And in this search I shall adventure upon nothing but what is warranted by the Testimony of unquestioned Authors from whose sence I shall never vary though I may finde it sometimes necessary not to use their words And by so doing I shall keep my self unto the rules of a right Historian in delivering nothing but the Truth without omitting any thing for fear or speaking any thing in favour of the adverse party but as I shall be justified by good Authors THE CONTENTS Lib. I. Containing THe first Institution of Presbytery in the Town of Geneva the Arts and Practices by which it was imposed on the neck of that City and pressed upon all the Churches of the Reformation together with the dangerous Principles and Positions of the chief Contrivers in the pursuance of their project from the year 1536 to the year 1585. Lib. II. Containing Their manifold Seditions Conspiracies and Insurrections in the Realm of France their Libelling against the State and the Wars there raised by their procurement from the year 1559 to 1585. Lib. III. Containing Their Positions and Proceedings in the Higher Germany their dangerous Doctrines and Seditions their Innovations in the Church and alteration in the Civil Government of the Belgick Provinces from the year 1559 to the year 1585. Lib. IV. Containing Their Beginning Progress and Positions their dangerous Practices Insurrections and Conspiracies in the Realm of Scotland from the year 1544 to the year 1566. Lib. V. Containing A further discovery of their dangerous Doctrines their
into the hands of the Presbytery in reference unto crimes and persons and the unhandsome manner of proceeding in it for power was given unto them by the Rules of the Discipline not onely to proceed to Excommunication if the case required it against Drunkards Whore-masters Blasphemers of Gods holy Name disturbers of the peace by fighting or contentious words but also against such as pleased themselves with modest dancing which was from henceforth looked on as a grievous crime and what disturbances and disquiets did ensue upon it we shall see anon Nor were they onely Authorized to take notice of notorious crimes when they gave just scandal to the Church or such as past in that account by the voice of Fame but also to inquire into the lives and conversations of all sorts of persons even to the private ordering of their several Families In reference to which last they are required to make a diligent and strict enquiry whether men lived peaceably with their Wives and kept their Families in good order whether they use constantly some course of morning and evening Prayer in their several housholds sit down at their Tables without saying Grace or cause their Children or Servants diligently to frequent the Churches with many others of that nature And to the end they may come the better to the knowledge of all particulars it is not onely permitted by the Rules of their Discipline to tamper with mens Neighbours and corrupt their Servants but to exact an Oath of the parties themselves who are thereby required to make answer unto all such Articles as may or shall be tendred to them in behalf of the Consistory which odious and unneighbourly office is for the most part executed by those of the Laity or at the least imputed wholly unto their pragmaticalness though the Lay-elders possibly have done nothing in it but by direction from their Pastors For so it was contrived of purpose by the wise Artificer that the Ministers might be thereby freed from that common hatred which such a dangerous and saucie inquisition might else draw upon them And yet these were not all the mischiefs which their submitting to that yoak had drawn upon them by which they had enthralled themselves to such hard conditions that if a man stood Excommunicate or in contempt against the censures of the Church for the space of a twelve month he was to suffer a whole years banishment by Decree of the Senate not otherwise to be restored but upon submission and that submission to be made upon their knees in the open Church 8. These melancholick thoughts had not long possessed them when an occasion was presented to try their courage Perinus Captain of the people and of great power in that capacity amongst the multitude pretends the common liberty to be much endangered by that new subjection and openly makes head against him in defence thereof Ten years together did it struggle with the opposition and at last was almost ruined and oppressed by it For whereas the Consistory had given sentence against one Bertilier even in the highest censure of Excommunication the Common councel not onely absolved him from that censure under their Town-seal but foolishly Decreed that Excommunication and Absolution did properly belong to them Upon this he is resolved again to quit the Town and solemnly takes his leave of them at the end of one of his Sermons which he had fitted for that purpose but at the last the Controversie is reduced to these three questions viz. First after what manner by Gods Ordinance according to the Scripture Excommunication was to be exercised Secondly whether it may not be exercised some other way then by such a Consistory Thirdly what the use of other Churches was in the like case And being reduced to these three questions it was submitted to the judgement and determination of four of the Helvetian Churches to whose Decree both parties were obliged to stand But Calvin knew beforehand what he was to trust to having before prepared the Divines of Zurick to pronounce sentence on his side of whom he earnestly desired that they would seriously respect that cause on which the whole State of the Religion of the City did so much depend that God and all good men were now inevitably in danger to be trampled on if those four Churches did not declare for him and his Associates when the cause was to be brought before them that in the giving of the sentence they should pass an absolute approbation upon the Discipline of Geneva as consonant unto the Word of God without any cautions qualifications ifs or ands and finally that they would exhort the Genevian Citizenâ— from thenceforth not to innovate or change the same Upon which pre-ingagement they returned this Answer directed to the Common council of Geneva by which their judgement was required that is to say That they had heard already of those Consistorial Laws and did acknowledge them to be godly Ordinances drawing towards the Prescript or Word of God In which respect they did not think it good for the Church of Geneva to make any innovation in the same but rather to keep them as they were This caution being interposed that Lay-elders should be chosen from amongst themselves that is to say ten of them to be yearly out of the Council of two hundred and the other two for there were to be but twelve in all to be elected out of the more powerful Council of the five and twenty 9. Now for the quarrel which he had with Captain Perine it was briâ—fly this as he himself relates the story in his own Epistles Dancing had been prohibited by his sollicitation when he first setled in that Town and he resolved to have his will obeyed in that as in all things else But on the contrary this Perine together with one Corneus a man of like power amongst the people one of the Syndicks or chief Magistates in the Common-wealth one of the Elders for the year who was called Henricus together with other of their Friends being merry at an Invitation fell to dancing Notice hereof being given to Calvin by some false Brother they were all called into the Consistory excepting Corneus and Perinus and being interrogated thereupon They lyed said he most impudently both to God and us most Apostolically said At that said he I grew offended as the indignity of the thing deserved and they persisting in their contumacie I thought it fit to put them to their Oaths about it by which it seems that the Oath Ex officio may be used in Geneva though cryed down in England so said so done And they not onely did confess their former dancing but also that upon that very day they had been dancing in the house of one Balthasal's Widow On which confession he proceeded to the censure of all the parties which certainly was sharp enough for so small a fault for a fault he was resolved to make it the Syndick
the Sixth brought thither by the noise of so great a Schism that the Liturgie of England was again restored Knox was so far from yeilding to the Gravity and Authority of that Learned man that he inveighed against him in the Pulpit without fear or wit But Cox not able to endure a baffle from so mean a fellow informs against him to the Senate touching some passages in one of his Seditious Pamphlets in which it is affirmed that Queen Mary whom elsewhere he calls by the odious name of Iesabel and a Traytoress to England ought not to joyn her self in Marriage with the Emperours Son because the Emperour himself maintained Idolatry and was a greater Enemy to Christ then ever was Nero. Knox hereupon departs by Moon-light but howsoever quits the Town and retires to Geneva leaving the Liturgie for the present in a better condition then he had found it at hiâ— first coming thither But Cox considering with himself how necessary Calvins favour might be to him salutes him with a civil Letter subscribed by himself and fourteen others all of them being men of Note in their several places In which they excused themselves for having set that Church in order without his advice not without some rejoycing that they had brought the greatest part of those who withstood their doings to be of the same Opinion with them Which how agreeable it was to Calvin may be seen by his return to Cox and his adherents Coxo Gregalibus suis as the Latine hath it bearing date Iune 14. 1555. 19. In which Letter having first craved pardon for not writing sooner he lets them know that he had freely signified to Dr. Sampson a very fit man to be acquainted with his secrets what he conceived of the Disputes which were raised at Frankfort as also that he had been certified by some Friends of his who complained much of it that they did stand so strictly on the English Ceremonies as shewed them to be too much wedded to the Rites of their Country And further certified that he had heard somewhat of those Reasons which they stood on most for not receding any thing from the Form established but they were such as might receive an easie Answer that he had writ to those of the opposite party to carry themselves with moderation in the present business though nothing was therein remitted by Cox and his and howsoever was now glad to hear that the difference was at last composed He speaks next touching their retaining of Crosses Tapers and such other trifles of that nature proceeding at the first from superstition and thereupon infers that they who so earnestly contended for them when it was in their choice not to do it did draw too neer upon the dregs He adds that he could see no Reason why they should charge the Church with frivolous and impertinent Ceremonies which he should no way wrong if he called them dangerous when they were left at liberty to compose an Order for themselves more pure and simple that in his judgement it was done with little Piety and less brotherly Love on any clancular informations to call Knox in question for so I understood him by his letter N and that they had done better to have stay'd at home then to have kindled the coals by such a piece of unjust cruelty in a Forreign Country by which others also were inflamed and finally that he had written howsoever unto some of the adverse party of whose intent to leave that place he had been advertised that they should continue where they were and not violate the League of their Friendship by their separations with other things to that effect But notwithstanding this advice many of the Schismatical party removed from Frankfort and put themselves into Geneva the principal of which were Whittingham Knox Goodman and he which afterwards was able to do more then all the rest Mr. Francis Knollis allyed by Marriage to the Caryes descended from a younger Sister of Queen Anne Bullen and consequently neer of Kin to Queen Elizabeth These men grew very great with Calvin with whose good leave they put themselves into the form of a Congregation chose Knox and Goodman for their Brethren and in all points conformed themselves to the Rules of that Church which afterwards they laboured to promore in England and actually did effect in Scotland to the no small disturbance of either Kingdom By the perswasion of these men he is resolved to try his Fortune once again on the Church of England before the resetling of the Liturgie under Queen Elizabeth might render the design impossible or at least unprosperous To which end he addresseth his desires to the Queen her self at her first coming to the Crown The like he doth to Mr. Secretary Cecil by his Letters bearing date the 17 of Ianuary 1558 in which he makes mention of the other in both he spurs them on to a Reformation complaining that they had not shewed such a forwardness in it as all good men expected and that cause required But above all things he desires that a pure and perfect Worship of God may be fully setled that the Church may be throughly purged of its former filth and that the Children of God in England might be left at liberty to use such purity in all Acts of publick Worship as to them seemed best And what else could he aim at by these expressions comparing them with the Contents of his two last Letters but that the former Liturgie should be abolished or brought unto a neerer conformity to the Rules of Geneva or at the least that liberty might be left to the godly party to use any other Form of Worship which they though more pure But finding no such good return to either Letter as he had promised to himself he leaves the cause to be pursued by such English Zealots as he had trained up at Geneva or otherwise had setled their abode amongst the Switzers where all set Forms of Worship were as much decryed as they were with him And that they might not slacken in the midst of their course he recommends the general Superintendents of the Church of England to the care of Beza who after his decease succeeded both in his place and power of whose pragmaticalness in pursuing this design against the Liturgie condemning all established Orders of this Church his interposing in behalf of such of his Followers as had heen silenced suspended or deprived for their inconformity we shall speak more large at when we come to England 20. There happened another quarrel in the Church of England and he must needs make himself a party in it Mr. Iohn Hooper having well deserved by his pains in preaching and publishing some Books which very much conduced to the peace of the Church is nominated by the King to the See of Glocester Willing enough he was to accept the charge but he had lived so long at Zurick in the Reign of King Henry where there
acknowledgeth the great benefit which he had received by his Writings acquaints him with the peaceable estate of the Church of Saxonie but signifies withal that Excommunication was not used amongst them whereunto Calvin makes this Answer That he was glad to hear that the Church of Saxony continued in that condition but sorry that it was not so strengthned by the Nerves of Discipline as might preserve the same inviolated to the times to come He adds that there could be no better way of correcting vice then by the joynt consent of all the Pastors of one City and that he never thought it meet that the power of Excommunicating should reside in the Pastors onely that is to say not in conjunction with their Elders which last he builds on these three Reasons First in regard it is an odious and ungrateful Office next because such a sole and absolute power might easily degenerate into tyranny and finally because the Apostles had taught otherwise in it By which we see that as he builds his Discipline on the Word of God or at the least on Apostolical tradition which comes close unto it so he adventureth to commend it to the Lutheran Churches in which his Reputation was not half so great as amongst those which had embraced the Zuinglian Doctrines 31. But in the Zuinglian Churches he was grown more absolute his Writings being so highly valued and his person so esteemed of in regard of his Writings that most of the Divines thereof depended wholly upon his judgement and were willing to submit to any thing of his Prescription The Church of Strasbourgh where he had remained in the time of his exile received his Discipline with the first as soon as it was finally established in Geneva it self For it appeareth by the Letter which Gasper Oberianus sent to Calvin bearing date April 12. 1560. that the Eldership was then well setled in that Church and the Elders of it in a full possession of their power the exercise whereof they are desired to suspend in one particular which is there offered to his view This Gasper was chief Minister of the Church of Tryers so passionately affected to the name of Calvin that he accounted it for one of his greatest honours to be called a Calvinian Preacher Acquainting him with the condition of the Church of Tryers he tells him amongst other things that he found the people very willing to submit to Discipline and thereupon intreats him for a Copy of those Laws and Orders which were observed in the Consistory of Geneva to the end he might communicate them to such of the Senators as he knew to be zealously affected Calvin who was apt enough to hearken to his own desires sends him a large draught of the whole Platform as well relating to the choice of the Members either Lay or Ministers as to the power and jurisdiction which they were to exercise with all the penalties and particularities with reference unto crimes and persons which depended on it And having given him that account he thus closeth with him This summary saith he I had thought sufficient by which or out of which you may easily frame to your self such a form of Government as I have no reason to prescribe To you it appertains modestly to suggest those counsels which you conceive to be most profitable for the use of the Church that godly and discreet men who seldom take it ill to be well advised may thereupon consider what is best be to done Which words of his though very cautelously couched were so well understood by Oberianus that the Discipline was first admitted in that Church and afterwards propagated into those of the Neighbouring Provinces 32. He hath another way of screwing himself into the good opinion of such Kings and Princes as he conceived to be inclinable to the Reformation sometimes congratulating with them for their good success sometimes encouraging them to proceed in so good a work of which sort were his Letters to King Edward the Sixth to Queen Elizabeth and Mr. Secretary Cecil to the Prince Elector Palatine Duke of Wirâ—inburgh Lantgrave of Hesse But he bestirred himself in no place more then he did in Poland which though he never visited in person yet he was frequent in it by his Lines and Agents The Augustane Confession had been brought thither some years before of which he took but little notice But he had heard no sooner that the Doctrines of Zuinglius began to get some ground upon them under the Reign of Sigismund sirnamed Augustus when presently he posts his Letters to the King and most of the great Officers which were thought to encline that way Amongst which he directs his Letters to Prince Radzeville one of the Chief Palatines and Earl Marshal Spirtetus Castelan of Sunderzee and Lord high-Treasurer to Iohn Count of Tarnaco Castelan of Craco and Lord General of his Majesties Armies besides many other Castelans and persons of great power in the Affairs of that Kingdom In his first Letters to that King dated the fourth of December 1554 he seems to congratulate with him for imbracing the Reformed Religion though in that point he was somewhat out in his intelligence and thereupon exhorts him to be earnest in the propagating of the Faith and Gospel which in himself he had imprest and that he would proceed to reform the Church from the dregs of Popery without regard to any of those dangers and inconveniences which might follow on it But in his next address 1555 he comes up more close speaks of erecting a tribunal or throne to Christ setting up such a perfect Form of the true Religion as came neerest to the Ordinance of Christ. And we know well that in the meaning of his party the settling of Presbytery was affirmed to be nothing else then setting Christ upon his Throne holding the Scepter of the Holy Discipline in his own right-hand And somewhat to this purpose he had also written to the Count of Tarnaco whom in his first Letter he applauds for his great readiness to receive the Gospel But in his second bearing date the nineteenth of November 1558 he seems no less grieved that the Count demurred on something which he had recommended to him under pretence that it was not safe to alter any thing in the State of the Kingdom and that all innovations seemed to threaten some great danger to it which cautelousness in that great person could not relate to any alteration in the State of Religion in which an alteration had been made for some years before and therefore must refer to some Form of Discipline which Calvin had commended to him for the use of those Churches And no man can conceive that he would recommend unto them any other Form then that which he devised for the Church of Geneva 32. But Calvin did not deal by Letters onely in the present business but had his Agents in that Kingdom who busily
leisure to coâ—sult the same or otherwise may make a judgement of them by this small scantling as the wise Mathematician took the just measure of the body of Hercules by the impression which he made in the sand by one of his Feet And therefore I shall look no further then upon such specialities as have relation to the Doctrine Discipline or Forms of Worship which are most proper to the rest Some of the Brethren not fully setled in a Church had laid aside the singing of Psalms either for fear of being discovered or otherwise terrified and discouraged by the threats of the adversary For this he reprehends them in a tedious Letter dated Iuly 19. 1559. imputes it to their fearfulness or pasillanimity accuseth them of plain tergiversation and shutting up all passages against the entrance of the Graces of Almighty God The Brethren of Mont-Pelyard for I think the former lived in Mettz the chief City of Lorrein were required by the Guardians of their Prince that is to say the Palatine of Zuibrook and the Duke of Wirtenberge to hold conformity in some Ceremonies with the Lutheran Church as namely in the Form of their Catechising the manner of Administring the Holy Sacrament the Form of publick Prayers and Solemnizing of Marriages They were required also to imploy themselves in Preaching down the errours and corruptions of the Church of Rome in some small Signiories which were lately fallen unto their Prince and had not formerly been instructed in the Doctrine of the Protestant Churches But absolutely they refused the one and would do nothing in the other without Calvins leave to whose infallible judgement and determination they refer the points whereunto he returns such answer by his Letters bearing date September 25. 1562 as confirmed them in their first refusal excepting more particularly against suffering Midwives to Baptize and against praying for the joyful Resurrection of a man deceased at the time of his Burial But in the other he adviseth them to accept the charge as visibly conducing to the propagation of the true Religion and the inlarging of Christs Kingdom 37. So for the Discipline which seemed to be devised at first upon humane prudence accommodated to the present condition of Geneva onely the use of Excommunication had been discontinued in the Protestant Churches and no such creatures as Lay-Elders heard of in the Primitive times or glanced at in the holy Scriptures So that to trust them with the power of the Churches-censures could not pretend to any ground in the Word of God supposing that the use of Excommunication was to be every where received Calvin himself confesses in his Letter unto those of Zurick that in the judgement of most Learned and Religious men there was no need of Excommunication under Christian Princes Beza acknowledgeth the like in the Life of Calvin and what Ligerus saith for the Church of Saxonie hath been shewed already But by degrees it came to be intituled to Divine Authority at first commended as convenient and at last as necessary With the opinion of the Sacred and Divine Authority of the holy Discipline he had so far possessed Saligniar a man of Eminent power in the City of Paris and one that for thirty years before had declared himself in favour of the Reformation that he acknowledgeth it in the end to be Apostolical For in his Letter written unto Calvin on the Ides of December he lets him know how vehemently he did desire that they might have such a Form of Ecclesiastical Polity as Calvin seemed to breath and could not be denyed to be Apostolical From hence it was that he declared so positively in his Epistle to Poppius February 25. 1559 that the Magistrates were to be sollicited for the Exercise of Excommunication by publick Authority which if it could not be obtained the Ministers were to make this protestation that they durst not give the Sacrament to unworthy receivers for fear of coming under the censure of casting that which was holy before Dogs and Swine More fully in his answer to some questions about the Discipline in which we finde and that goes very high indeed that the safety of the Church cannot otherwise be provided for then by the free use of Excommunication for the purifying of the same from filth the restraint of licentiousness abolishing enormous crimes and the correcting of ill manners the moderate exercise whereof he that will not suffer doth plainly shew himself to be no sheep of our Saviours Pasture 38. And so far Calvin had proceeded but he went no further neither condemning the Estate of Bishops as Antichristian and unlawful nor thinking his Lay-elders so extreamly necessary that no Decree of Excommunication could be past without them But Beza who succeeded in the Chair of Calvin is resolved on both For Calvin having sate eight and twenty years in the Chair of Geneva ended his life in the year 1564. During which time he had attained to such an height of Reputation that even the Churches of the Switzers lost the name of Zuinglians and thought it no small honour to them as well as those of Germany France Pole or Scotland to be called Calvinian Onely the English held it out and neither had imbraced his Doctrines nor received his Discipline And though the Puritan party in it took the name of Calvinists our Divines commonly called Calvinists say the two Informers yet both Saravia stomached it to be so accounted Mountague in answer to the two Informers doth protest against it and all the true sons of the Church of England do as much disclaim it Beza endeavoured what he could to introduce his Discipline and Forms of Worship into all the Churches which did pretend to any Reformation of their ancient Errours In the pursuit whereof he drives on so furiously like Iehu in the holy Scriptures as if no Kings or Princes were to stand before him Scarce was he setled in his Chair when one of his professed Champions for Presbytery puts himself into Heidelberg which had not long before admitted the Calvinian Doctrines but not submitted to the Discipline as extrinsecal to them This Champion therefore challenges the Divines thereof to a disputation publickly holds forth this proposition which he then defended that is to say That to a Minister with his Elders there is power given by express warrant from Gods Word to Excommunicate all offenders even the greatest Prince From hence proceeded that dispute which afterwards Erastus of whom more hereafter maintained with Beza the point being put upon this issue Whether all Churches ought to have their Eldership invested with a power of Excommunication and that Lay-elders were so necessary in every Eldership that nothing could be done without them In which dispute as it is very well observed by judicious Hooker they seemed to divide the whole truth between them Beza most truely holding the necessity of Excommunication in a Church well constituted Erastus no less truely shewing
last were left at liberty by the Rules of the Church and used in some few places onely Of all which he not onely signified a plain dislike but endeavoured to shew the errours and absurdities contained in them for such they must contain if he pleased to think so And what could follow hereupon but an open Schism a separation from the Church a resort to Conventicles which he takes notice of in his last to Grindal but imputes it unto that severity which was used by the Bishops in pressing such a yoak of Ceremonies upon tender Consciences The breach not lessened but made wider by another Letter directed to the French and Dutch Churches at London in which he sets before them the whole Form of Worship which was established at Geneva insisteth upon many points neither agreeable to the Discipline or Doctrine of the Church of England and â—inally so restrains the power of the Supreme Magistrate that he is left to the correction and control of his under Officers Of which two Letters that which was writ for satisfaction of the English brethren bears date Octob. 24. 1567 the other Iune 21 in the year next following 43. With great Zeal he drives on in pursuit of the Discipline the Form and Power whereof we will first lay down out of his Epistles and then observe to what a height he doth endeavour to advance the same excluding the Episcopal Government as Antichristian if not Diabolical First then he tells us that to each Minister which officiates in the Country-Villages within the Signiory of Geneva two Over-seers are elected as Assistants to him and that to them it appertains to keep a watchful eye over all men in their several Parishes to convent such before them as they finde blame-worthy to admonish them of their misdeeds and finally if he cannot otherwise prevail upon them to turn them over to the censure of the Eldership which resides in the City This Eldership he compounds of the six ordinary Pastors and twelve Lay-elders the last continually chosen from amongst the Senators To whose charge and office it belongs to take notice of all scandals and offences of what sort soever within the bounds assigned unto them and every Thursday to report to the Court or Consistory what they have discovered The parties thereupon are to be convented fairly admonished of their faults sometimes suspended from the Sacrament if the case require it and excommunicated at the last if they prove impenitent To this Eldership also it belongs to judge in all cases and concernments of Matrimony according to the Word of God and the Laws of the City to repel such from the Communion as do not satisfie the Ministers by a full confession of their Faith and Knowledge And in the company of an Officer of each several Ward to make a diligent inquiry over them in every Family concerning their proficiencie in the Word of God and the ways of Godliness 44. We must next see to what a height he doth endeavour to advance this Discipline which if we take it on his word is not to be received onely as a matter necessary but to be had in equall Reverence with the Word of God Sarnixius had acquainted him with some news from Poland concerning the Divisions and subdivisions in the Churches there whereunto Beza makes his answer by his Letters of the first of November 1566 That unless some Form of Ecclesiastical Discipline according to the Word of God were received among them he could not see by what means they were able to remedy their discords oâ— to prevent the like for the time to come that he had many times admired that being warned by the confusion of their Neighbours in Germany they had not considered before this time as well of the necessity to receive such Discipline as for the strict observing of it when it was received that there was onely one and the self-same Author both of Doctrine and Discipline and therefore that it must seem strange which I would have the Reader mark with his best attention to entertain one part of the Word of God and reject the other that it was most ridiculous to expect or think that either the Laws could be observed or the Peace maintained without Rules and Orders in which the very life of the Law did so much consist that for the avoiding of some new Tyranny which seemed to lye disguised under the Mask and Vizard of the present Discipline they should not run themselves into such Anarchy and discords as were not otherwise to be prevented and finally that no severity could be feared in the use of that Discipline as long as it was circumscribed within the bounds and limits assigned unto it by the Word of God and moderated by the Rules of Christian charity So that we are not to admire if the Discipline be from henceforth made a Note of the Church every way as essential to the nature of it as the Word and Sacraments which as it is the common Doctrine of the Presbyterians so we must look on Beza as the Author of it such Doctrine being never preached in the Church before 45. But because Beza seems to speak in that Epistle concerning the necessity of admitting some certain Form of Ecclesiastical Discipline without pointing punctually and precisely unto that of Geneva we must next see what Form of Discipline he means and whether a Church-Government by Bishops were intended in it And first he tells us in a Postscript of a Letter to Knox dated the third of Iuly 1569 wherein he much congratulates his good Fortune for joyning the Discipline in his Reformation with the truth of Doctrine beseeching him to go forward with it as he had begun lest it might happen to him as it did to others either to slacken in their speed or not be able to advance were they never so willing And we know well what Discipline what Form of Government and Worship had been by Knox established in the Kirk of Scotland But secondly many of the Scots being still unsatisfied in the point of Episcopacy and not well pleased with any other Government of a late invention it was thought fit to send to Beza for his judgement in it who was now looked upon as the Supreme Pastor Successor unto Calvin both in place and power Beza considers of the Business and by his Letters of the 12 of April 1572 returns this Answer viz. That he beheld it as an extraordinary blessing on the Church of Scotland That together with the true Religion they also had received the Discipline for the bond thereof Both which he earnestly conjures them so to hold together as to be sure that there is no hope to keep the one if they lose the other which being said in reference to the Holy Discipline he next proceeds to spend his judgement in the point of Episcopacy In reference to which he first tells them this that as the
Bishops were the first means to advance the Pope so the pretended Bishops would maintain the Relicks of Popery And then he adds that it concerns all those to avoid that plague by which he meanâ— undoubtedly the Episcopal Order who pretend to any care of the Churches safety And therefore since they had so happily discharged that calling in the Church of Scotland they never should again admit it though it might flatter them with some assurance of peace and unity 46. What followed thereupon in Scotland we shall see hereafter But his desires of propagating the Genevian Forms was not to be restrained to that part of the Island In his first Letter unto Grindal he doth not onely justifie the Genevian Discipline and the whole Order of that Church in Sacred Offices as grounded on the Word of God but findes great fault with the Episcopal Government in the Church of England and the great power which was ascribed unto the Queen in Spiritual Matters How so Because said he he found no warrant for it in the Word of God or any of the ancient Canons by which it might be lawful for the Civil Magistrate of his own Authority either to abrogate old Ceremonies or establish new or for the Bishops onely to ordain and determine any thing without the judgement and consent of their Presbyteries being first obtained And in his answer to the Queries of the English brethren he findes no less fault with the manner of proceedings in the Bishops Courts in regard that Excommunications were not therein passed by the common consent of a Presbytery but decreed onely by some Civil Lawyers or other Officers who faâ—e as Judges in the same But first the man was ignorant of the course of those Courts in which the sentence of Excommunication is never published or pronounced but by the mouth of a Minister ordained according to the Rules of the Church of England And secondly it is to be conceived in Reason that any Batchelor or Doctor of the Civil Law is far more fit to be imployed and trusted in the exercise of that part of Discipline then any Trades-man of Geneva though possibly of the number of the five and twenty For the redress of which great mischief and of many other he applies himself unto the Queen to whom he dedicates his Annotations on the New Testament published in the year 1572. In the Epistle whereunto though he acknowledgeth that she had restored unto this Kingdom the true Worship of God yet he insinuates that there was wanting a full Reformation of Ecclesiastical Discipline that our Temples were not fully purged that some high places still remained not yet abolished and therefore wisheth that those blemishes might be removed and those wants supplyed Finally understanding that a Parliament was then shortly to be held in England and that Cartwright had prepared an Admonition to present unto it he must needs interpose his credit with a Peer of the Realm to advance the service as appears plainly by his Letter of the same year and the Nones of Iuly In which though he approves the Doctrine yet he condemns the Government of the Church as most imperfect not onely destitute of many things which were good and profitable but also of some others which were plainly necessary 47. But here it is to be observed that in his Letter to this great person whosoever he was he seems more cautelous and reserved then in that to Grindal but far more modest then in those to Knox and the English Brethren The Government of England was so well setled as not to be ventured on too rashly And therefore he must first see what effect his counsels had produced in Scotland before he openly assaults the English Hierarchy But finding all things there agreeable to his hopes and wishes he published his Tract De Triplici Episcopatu calculated for the Meridian onely of the Kirk of Scotland as being writ at the desire of the Lord Chancellor Glammis but so that it might generally serve for all Great Britain In which Book he informs his Reader of three sorts of Bishops that is to say the Bishop by Divine Institution being no other then the Minister of a particular Church or Congregation the Bishop by humane appointment being the same onely with the President of a Convocation or the Moderator as they phrase it in some Church-assembly and finally the Devils Bishops such as presume to take upon them the whole charge of a Diocess together with a superiority and jurisdiction over other Ministers Which Book was afterwards translated into English by Feild of Wandsworth for the instruction and content of such of the Brethren as did not understand the Latine To serve as a Preface to which Work the Presbyterian Brethren publish their Seditious Pamphlets in defence of the Discipline some in the English Tongue some in the Latine but all of them Printed at Genâ—va For in the year 1570 comes out The plain and full Declaration of Ecclesiastical Discipline according to the Word of God without the name of any Author to gain credit to it And Traverse a furious Zealot amongst the English had published at Geneva also in the Latine Tongue a discourse of Ecclesiastical Discipline according to the Word of God as it was pretended with the declining of the Church of England from the same Anno 1574 which for the same reason must be turned into English also and Printed at Geneva with Beza's Book Anno 1580. What pains was took by some of the Divines of England but more particularly by Dr. Iohn Bridges Dean of Sarum and Dr. Adrian Saravia preferred upon the merit of this service in the Church of Westminster shall be remembred in a place more proper for it when we shall come to a review of those disturbances which were occasioned in this Church by the Puritan Faction Most of which did proceed from no other Fountain then the pragmaticalness of Beza the Doctrines of Calvin and the Example of Geneva which if they were so influential on the Realms of Britain though lying in a colder climate and so far remote it is to be presumed that they were far more powerful in France and Germany which lay nearer to them and in the last of which the people were of a more active and Mercurial Spirit 48. What influence Calvin had upon some of the Princes Cities and Divines of Germany hath been partly touched upon before and how his Doctrines did prevail in the Palatine Churches and his Discipline in many parts and Provinces of the Germane Empire may be shown hereafter In France he held intelligence with the King of Navar the Brethren of Rouen Aix Mont-Pelier and many leading men of the Hugonot party none of which can be thought to have asked his counsel about purchasing Lands the Marriages of their Children or the payment of Debts And when the Fortune of the Wars and the Kings just anger necessitated many of them to forsake their Country they
which made him afterwards more cordial to the interest of the Church of Rome notwithstanding all the arguments and insinuations used by his Wife a most zealous Hugonot to withdaaw him from it But the Hugonots gave out on the other side that they had made good their Doctrines convinced the Catholick Doctors confounded the Cardinal of Lorrain and gotten License from the King to Preach Which gave such courage to the rest of that Faction that they began of their own Authority to assemble themselves in such places as they thought most convenient and their Ministers to preach in publick and their Preachings followed and frequented by such infinite multitudes as well of the Nobility as the common People that it was thought impossible to suppress and dangerous to disturb their Meetings For so it was that if either the Magistrates molested them in their Congregations or the Catholicks attemped to drive them out of their Temples without respect to any Authority they put themselves into Arms and in the middle of a full Peace was made a shew of a most terrible and destructive War 15. This being observed by those which sate at the Helme and finding that these tempests were occasioned by the Edict of Iuly it was resolved to stere their course by another winde For the Queen being setled in this Maxime of State That she was not to suffer one Faction to destroy the other for fear she should remain a prey to the Victor not onely gave order for conventing all the Parliaments to a Common-Council but earnestly sollicited for a Pacification which gave beginning to the famous Edict of Ianuary whereby it was granted that the Hugonots should have the Free exercise of their Religion that they might assemble to hearing of Sermons in any open place without their Cities but on condition that they went unarmed and that the Officers of the place were there also present Which Edict so offended the chief Heads of the Catholick party that a strict combination and confederacy was concluded on between the King of Navar the Constable and the Duke of Guise for maintenance of the Religion of the Church of Rome And this reduced the Queen-Regent to the like necessity of making a strict union with the Admiral and the Prince of Conde whereby she was assured of the power of the Hugonots and they became as confident of her Protection In which condition they were able to form their Churches to cast them into Provinces Classes and other subdivisions of a less capacity to settle in them their Presbyteries and Synodical Meetings grounded according to their Rules of Calvins Platform in Doctrine Discipline and Worship The Forms whereof being discribed at large in the former Book may there be found without the trouble of a repetition In so much that it was certified to the Fathers in the Council of Trent that the French Hugonots were at that time distributed into two thousand one hundred and fifty Churches each of them furnished with their proper and peculiar Preachers according to a just computation which was taken of them which computation was then made to satisfie the Queen-Regent in the strength of that party for which she could not otherwise declare her self unless she were first made acquainted with their power and numbers But being satisfied in those points she began to shew her self much inclined to Calvinism gave ear unto the Discourses of the Ministers in her private Chamber conferred familiarly with the Prince the Admiral and many others in matters which concerned their Churches and finally so disguised her self that the Pope was not able to discover at what port she aimed For sometimes she would write unto him for such a Council as by the Calvinians was desired at other times for a national one to be held in France sometimes desiring that the Communion might be administred under both kindes otherwhile requiring a Dispensation for Priests to Marry now solliciting that Divine Service might be said in the vulgar tongue then proposing such other like things as were wished and preached for by the Hugonots By which dissimulations she amused the World but gave withal so many notable advantages to the Reformation that next to God she was the principal promoter and advancer of it though this prosperity proved the cause of those many miseries which afterwards ensued upon it 16. For by this means the Preachers having free access into the Court became exceedingly respected in the City of Paris where in short time their followers did increase to so great a multitude as put the Prince of Conde into such a confidence that he assumed unto himself the managery of all great affairs Which course so visibly tended to the diminution of the King of Navar that he resolved by strong hand to remove him from Paris And to that end directed both his Messages and his Letters to the Duke of Guise to come in to help him The Duke was then at Iainville in the Province of Champaigne and happened in his way upon a Village called Vassey where the Hugonots were assembled in great numbers to hear a Sermon A scuffle unhappily is begun between some of the Dukes Footmen and not a few of the more unadvised and adventurous Hugonots which the Duke coming to part was hit with a blow of a stone upon one of his Cheeks which forced him with the loss of some blood to retire again Provoked with which indignity his Followers being two Companies of Lances charge in upon them with their Fire-looks kill sixty of them in the place and force the rest for preservation of their lives into several houses This accident is by the Hugonots given out to be a matter of design the execution done upon those sixty persons must be called a Massacre and in revenge thereof the Kingdom shall be filled with Blood and Rapine Altars and Images defaced Monasteries ruined and pulled down and Churches bruitishly polluted The Queen had so long juggled between both parties that now it was not safe for her to declare for either Upon which ground she removed the Court to Fountain-bleau and left them to play their own Games as the Dice should run The presence of the King was looked upon as a matter of great importance and either party laboured to get him into their power The City of Orleance more especially was aimed at by the Prince of Conde as lying in the heart of the Kingdom rich large and populous sufficiently inclined to novelty and innovations and therefore thought the fittest Stage for his future Actings Being thus resolved he first sends D' Andelot with some Forces to possess the Town and posts himself towards Fountain-Bleau with three thousand Horse But the Catholick Confederates had been there before him and brought the King off safely to his City of Paris which being signified to the Prince as he was on his way he diverts toward Orleance and came thither in a luckie hour to relieve his Friends which having seized upon one of the
Gates and thereby got possession of that part of the City was in apparent danger to be utterly broken by the Catholick party if the Prince had not come so opportunely to renew the fight but by his coming they prevailed made themselves Masters of the City and handselled their new Government with the spoil of all the Churches and Religious Houses which either they defaced or laid waste and desolate Amongst which none was used more coursely then the Church of St. Crosse being the Cathedral of that City not so much out of a dislike to all Cathedrals though that had been sufficient to expose it unto Spoil and Rapine as out of hatred to the name Upon which furious piece of Zeal they afterwards destroyed all the little Crosses which they found in the way between Mont-Martyr and St. Denis first raised in memory of Denis the first Bishop of Paris and one that passeth in account for the chief Apostle of the Gallick Nations 17. But to proceed to put some fair colour upon this foul action a Manifest is writ and published in which the Prince and his adherents signifie to all whom it might concern that they had taken arms for no other reason but to restore the King and Queen to their personal liberty kept Prisoners by the power and practice of the Catholick Lords that obedience might be rendred in all places to his Majesties Edicts which by the violence of some men had been infringed and therefore that they were willing to lay down Arms if the Constable the Duke of Guise and the Marshal of St. Andrews should retire from Paris leaving the King and Queen to their own disposing and that liberty of Religion might be equally tolerated and maintained unto all alike These false Colours were wiped off by a like Remonstrance made by the Parliament of Paris In which it was declared amongst other things that the Hugonots had first broke those Edicts by going armed to their Assemblies and without an Officer That they had no pretence to excuse themselves from the crime of Rebellion considering they had openly seized on many Towns raised Souldiers assumed the Munition of the Kingdom cast many pieces of Ordnance and Artillery assumed unto themselves the Coyning of Money and in a word that they have wasted a great part of the publick Revenues robbed all the rich Churches within their power and destroyed the rest to the dishonour of God the scandal of Religion and the impoverishing of the Realm The like answer was made also by the Constable and the Duke of Guise in their own behalf declaring in the same that they were willing to retire and put themselves into voluntary exile upon condition that the Arms taken up against the King might be quite laid down the places kept against him delivered up the Churches which were ruined restored again the Catholick Religion honourably preserved and an intire obedience rendred to the lawful King under the Government of the King of Navar and the Regencie of the Queen his Mother Nor were the King and Queen wanting to make up the breach by publishing that they were free from all restraint and that the Catholick Lords had but done their duty in waiting on them into Paris that since the Catholick Lords were willing to retire from Court the Prince of Conde had no reason to remain at that distance that therefore he and his adherents ought to put themselves together with the places which they had possessed into the obedience of the King which if they did they should not onely have their several and respective Pardons for all matters past but be from thenceforth looked upon as his Loyal Subjects without the least diminution of State or honour 18. These Paper-pellets being thus spent both sides prepare more furiously to charge each other But first the Prince of Conde by the aid of the Hugonots makes himself Master of the great Towns and Câ—ties of chief importance such as were Rouen the Parliamentary City of the Dukedom of Normandy the Ports of Diepe and New-haven the Cities of Angiers Towres Bloise Vendosme Bourges and Poictiers which last were reckoned for the greatest of all the Kingdom except Rouen and Paris after which followed the rich City of Lyons with that of Valence in the Province of Daulphiny together with almost all the strong places in Gascoigne and Languedock Provinces in a manner wholly Hugonot except Tholouse Bourdeaux and perhaps some others But because neither the Contributions which came in from the Hugonots though they were very large nor the spoil and pillage of those Cities which they took by force were of themselves sufficient to maintain the War the Prince of Conde caused all the Gold and Silver in the Churches to be brought unto him which he coyned into Money They made provision of all manner of Artillery and Ammunition which they took from most of the Towns and laid up in Orleance turning the Covent of the Franciscans into a Magazine and there disposing all their stores with great art and industry The Catholicks on the other side drew their Forces together consisting of 4000 Horse and six thousand Foot most of them old experienced Souldiers and trained up in the War against Charles the Fifth The Prince had raised an Army of an equal number that is to say three thousand Horse and seven thousand Foot but for the most part raw and young Souldiers and such as scarcely knew how to stand to their Arms And yet with these weak Forces he was grown so high that nothing would content him but the banishment of the Constable the Cardinal of Lorrain and the Duke of Guise free liberty for the Hugonots to meet together for the Exercise of their Religion in walled Towns Cities and Churches to be publickly appointed for them the holding of the Towns which he was presently possessed of as their absolute Lord till the King were out of his Minority which was to last till he came to the age of two and twenty He required also that the Popes Legate should be presently commanded to leave the Kingdom that the Hugonots should be capable of all Honours and Offices and finally that security should be given by the Emperour the Catholick King the Queen of England the State of Venice the Duke of Savoy and the Republick of the Switzers by which they were to stand obliged that neither the Constable nor the Duke of Guise should return into France till the King was come unto the age before remembred 19. These violent demands so incensed all those which had the Government of the State that the Prince and his Adherents were proclaimed Traytors and as such to be prosecuted in a course of Law if they laid not down their Arms by a day appointed Which did as little benefit them as the proposals of the Prince had pleased the others For thereupon the Hugonots united themselves more strictly into a Confederacie to deliver the King the Queen the Kingdom from the violence of their
was the ruine of their Party and that they could not otherwise preserve their power then by open War The Prince of Conde seizeth on La Fere in Picardy and the King of Navar makes himself Master by strong hand on the City of Cahors which draws the King again from his Meditations under which must be covered his retirement from all publick business But La Fere being regained from the Prince of Conde the sacking of Cahors was connived at and the breach made up that so the Hugonots might be tempted to consume their Forces in the Wars of Flanders to which they were invited by their Brethren of the Belgick Provinces who had called in the Duke of Anjou against their King And so long France remained in quiet as that War continued But when the Duke returned after two or three years and that there was no hopes of his reverting to so great a charge the Hugonots wanting work abroad were furnished with this occasion to break out at home The Catholick League had now layn dormant for some years none seeming more Zealous then the King in the Cause of Rome But when it was considered by the Duke of Guise and the rest of the League that the Duke of Anjou being dead and the King without any hope of Issue the Crown must fall at last to the King of Navar it was resolved to try all means by which he might be totally excluded from the right of Succession For what hope could they give themselves to preserve Religion when the Crown should fall upon the head of an Heretick an Heretick relapsed and therefore made uncapable of the Royal Dignity by the Canon-Laws Of these Discourses and Designes of the Guisian Faction the King of Navar takes speedy notice and prepares accordingly thinking it best to be before-hand and not to be taken unprovided when they should come And to that end having first cleared himself by a Declaration from the crime of Heresie and now particularly from being a relapsed Heretick with many foul recriminations on the House of Guise he sends his Agents to sollicite the German Princes to come in to aid him against the oppressions of the League which seemed to aim at nothing but the ruine of the Realm of France which so exasperated those of the Guisian Faction that they prevailed by their Emissaries with Pope Sixtus the Fifth to Excommunicate the King of Navar and the Prince of Conde and to declare them both uncapable of the Royal Succession as relapsed Hereticks Which he performed in open Consistory on the ninth of September 1585 and published the sentence by a special Bull within three dayes after 41. The French King in the mean time findes himself so intangled in the Snares of the League and such a general defection from him in most parts of the Kingdom that he was forced by his Edict of the ninth of Iuly to revoke all former grants and capitulations which had been made in favour of the Hugonot party After which followed a new War in which the Switz and Germans raise great Levies for the aid of the Hugonots sollicited thereunto amongst many others by Theodore Beza who by his great Eloquence and extraordinary diligence did prevail so far that the Princes Palatine the Count Wirtemberge the Count of Montbelguard and the Protestant Cantons of the Switz agreed to give them their assistance Amongst whom with the helps which they received from the King of Denmark and the Duke of Saxony a mighty Army was advanced consisting of thirty two thousand Horse and Foot that is to say twelve thousand German Horse four thousand Foot and no fewer then sixteen thousand Switz For whose advance besides a general contribution made on all the Churches of France the sum of sixty thousand Crowns was levyed by the Queen of England and put into the hands of Prince Casimire before remembred who was to have the Chief Command of these Forreign Forces These Forreign Forces made much greater by the accession of eight thousand French which joyned unto them when they first shewed themselves upon the Borders Of which two hundred Horse and eight hundred Foot were raised by the Signory of Geneva But before this vast Army could come up to the King of Navar the Duke of Ioyeuse gives him battel near a place called Coutrasse at which time his whole Forces were reduced to four thousand Foot and about two thousand five hundred Horse with which small Army encountred a great power of the Duke of Ioyeuse and obtained a very signal Victory there being slain upon the place no fewer then three thousand men of which the Duke of Ioyeuse himself was one more then three thousand taken prisoners together with all the Baggage Arms and Ammunition which belonged to the Enemy After which followed the defeat of the Germans by the Duke of Guise and the violent proceedings of the Leaguers against the King which brought him to a necessity of joyning with the King of Navar and craving the assistance of his Hugonot Subjects whose Arms are now legitimated and made acts of Duty In which condition I shall leave them to their better Fortunes first taking a survey of the proceedings of the Calvinists in the neighbouring Germany passing from thence to the Low Countries and after crossing over to the Isles of Britain The end of the third Book AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History Of the PRESBYTERIANS LIB III. Containing Their Positions and Proceedings in the Higher Germany their dangerous Doctrines and Seditions their Innovations in the Church and alteration of the Civil Government of the Belgick Provinces from the year 1559 to the year 1585. 1. THe Doctrine of the Reformation begun by Luther and pursued by Zuinglius was entertained in many Provinces of the Higher Germany according as they stood affected to either party or were transported by the ends and passions of their several Princes But generally at the first they inclined to Luther whose way of Reformation seemed less odious to the Church of Rome and had the greatest approbation from the States of the Empire the Duke of Saxony adhered unto him at his first beginning as also did the Marquess of Brandenbourg the Dukes of Holsteine the two Northern Kings and by degrees the rest of the German Princes of most power and value except onely those of Austria and the Duke of Bavaria the three Elector Bishops the Duke of Cleve the Marquess of Baden and generally all the Ecclesiasticks which were not under the Command of the Lutheran States The Prince Electoâ— Palatine came not in to the party till the year 1546. At which time Frederick the Second though scarce warm in his own Estate on which he entred Anno 154â— took the advantage of the time to reform his Churches the Emperour being then brought low by the change of Fortune and forced not long after to abandon Germany Upon the 1â— of Ianuary he caused Divine Offices to be celebrated in the Mother-tongue in
Bishops of Leige some to the jurisdiction of the Archbishops of Rheims and Colen and others under the Authority of the Bishops of Munster Of which the first were in some sort under the Protection of the Dukes of Burgundy the three last absolute and independent not owing any suite or Service at all unto them By means whereof concernments of Religion were not looked into with so strict an eye as where the Bishops are accomptable to the Prince for their Administration or more united with and amongst themselves in the publick Government The inconvenience whereof being well observed by Charles the Fifth he practised with the Pope then being for increasing the number of the Bishopricks reducing them under Archbishops of their own and Modeling the Ecclesiastical Politie under such a Form as might enable them to exercise all manner of spiritual jurisdiction within themselves without recourse to any Forreign Power or Prelate but the Pope himself Which being first designed by him was afterwards effected by King Philip the Second though the event proved contrary to his expectation For this enlargement of the number of the Sees Episcopal being projected onely for the better keeping of the Peace and Unity of the Belgick Churches became unhappily the occasion of many Tumults and Disorders in the Civil State which drew on the defection of a great part of the Country from that Kings obedience 14. For so it was that the Reformed Religion being entertained in France and Germany did quickly finde an entrance also into such of the Provinces as lay nearest to them where it found people of all sorts sufficiently ready to receive it To the increase whereof the Emperor Charls himself gave no small advantage by bringing in so many of the Switz and German Souldiers to maintain his Power either in awing his own Subjects or against the French by which last he was frequently invaded in the bordering Provinces Nor was Queen Mary of England wanting though she meant it not to the increasing of their numbers For whereas many of the Natives of France and Germany who were affected zealously to the Reformation had put themselves for Sanctuary into England in the time of King Edward they were all banished by Proclamation in the first year of her Reign Many of which not daring to return to their several Countries dispersed themselves in most of the good Towns of the Belgick Provinces especially in such as lay most neer unto the Sâ—a where they could best provide themselves of a poor subsistance By means whereof the Doctrine of the Protestant and Reformed Churches began to get much ground upon them to which the continual intercourses which they had with England gave every day such great and manifest advantage that the Emperour was fain to bethink himself of some proper means for the suppressing of the inconveniences which might follow on it And means more proper he found none in the whole course of Government then to increase the number of the former Bishopricks to re-inforce some former Edicts which he made against them and to bring in the Spanish Inquisition which he established and confirmed by another Edict bearing date April 20. 1548. Which notwithstanding the Professors of that Doctrine though restrained a while could not be totally suppressed some Preachers out of Germany and others out of France and England promoting underhand those Tenents and introducing those opinions which openly they durst not own in those dangerous times But when the Emperour Charles had resigned the Government and that King Philip the Second upon some urgent Reasons of State had retired to Spain and left the Chief Command of his Belgick Provinces to the Dutchess of Parma they then began to shew themselves with the greater confidence and gained some great ones to their side whom discontent by reason of the disappointment of their several aims had made inclinable to innovation both in Church and State 15. Amongst the great ones of which time there was none more considerable for Power and Patrimony then William of Nassaw Prince of Orange invested by a long descent of Noble Ancestors in the County of Nassaw a fair and goodly Territory in the Higher Germany possest of many good Towns and ample Signories in Brabant and Holland derived upon him from Mary Daughter and Heir of Philip Lord of Breda c. his great Grand-fathers Grand-mother and finally enriched with the Principality of Orange in France accruing to him by the death of his Cozen Rene which gave him a precedencie before all other Belgick Lords in the Court of Brussels By which advantages but more by his abilities both for Camp and Counsel he became great in favour with the Emperour Charles by whom he was made Governour of Holland and Zealand Knight of the Order of the Fleece imployed in many Ambassies of weight and moment and trusted with his dearest and most secret purposes For Rivals in the Glory of Arms he had the Counts of Horne and Egmond men of great Prowess in the Field and alike able at all times to Command and Execute But they were men of open hearts not practised in the Arts of Subtilty and dissimulation and wanted much of that dexterity and cunning which the other had for working into the affections of all sorts of people Being advanced unto this eminencie in the Court and knowing his own strength as well amongst the Souldiers as the common people he promised to himself the Supreme Government of the Belgick Provinces on the Kings returning into Spain The disappointment of which hope obliterated the remembrance of all former favours and spurred him on to make himself the Head of the Protestant party by whose assistance he conceived no small possibility of raising the Nassovian Family to as great an height as his ambition could aspire to 16. The Protestants at that time were generally divided into two main bodies not to say any thing of the Anabaptists and other Sectaries who thrust in amongst them Such of the Provinces as lay toward Germany and had received their Preachers thence embraced the Forms and Doctrines of the Lutherâ—â— Câ—â—â—ches in which not onely Images had been still retained â—ogether with set-Forms of Prayer kneeling at the Communioâ— the Cross in Baptism and many other laudable Ceremonies of the Elder times but also most of the ancient Fasts and Fâ—â—tivals of the Catholick Church and such a Form of Eccleâ—â—tical Polity as was but little differing from that of Bishops which Forms and Doctrines being tolerated by the Edicts of Paussaw and Ausberg made them less apt to work disturbance in the Civil State and consequently the less obnoxious to the fears and jealousies of the Catholick party But on the other side such Provinces as lay toward France participated of the humour of that Reformation which was there begun modelled according unto Calvins Platform both in Doctrine and Discipline More stomacked then the other by all those who adhered to the Church of Rome or otherwise pretended to the peace
and safety of the Common-wealth For the French Preachers being more practical and Mercurial then the other were and not well principled in respect of Monarchical Government were looked upon as men more likely to beget commotions and alienate the peoples hearts from their natural Governour And at the first the Prince of Orange enclined most to the Lutheran party whose Forms and Doctrines had been setled by his Father in the County of Nassaw And for the clear manifestation of the good opinion which he harboured of them he Married Anne the Daughter of Maurice Duke Elector of Saxony the greatest of the Lutheran Princes At which when the Dutchess of Parma seemed to be displeased he openly assured her of his Adhesion to the Catholick Cause and caused his Eldest Son which he had of that Marriage to be Baptized according to the Prescript of the Church of Rome but underhand promoted for a time the Lutheran Interest which he had sucked in as it were with his Mothers Milk But it was onely for a time that he so promoted it For finding the Calvinians to be men of another Metal more quick and stirring of themselves more easily exasperated against their Governours and consequently more fit to advance his purposes he made â—imself the great Protector of that faction and spared not to profess himself for such upon all occasions insomuch that being afterwards questioned about his Religion by the Duke of Arescot he discovered to him his bald head and told him plainly thâ—t there was not more Calvism on his head then there was Calvinism in his heart 17. But to make way for these designes there were two obstacles to be removed without which nothing could be done in pursuance of them King Philip at his going for Spain had left three thousand Spanish Souldiers the onely remainder of those great Armies which had served his Father and himself against the French in Garrison upon the Borders under pretence of shutting up the back-door against the French but generally thought to be left of purpose for a curb to the Natives in case of refractoriness or opposition unto his Commands They must be first removed and the Country cleared of all such rubs as otherwise would have made the way less passable unto private ends For though the King had put those Souldiers under the Command of two Lords of the Netherlands that is to say the Prince of Orange himself and the Count Egmont that they might rather seem to be the natural Militia of the Country then a power of strangers yet that device did little edifie amongst them for the two Lords especially the Prince of Orange expressed such contentment in the trust and honour which was therein conferred upon them that they excited the whole Country both to move the King before his going and the Governess after his departure to dismiss those Souldiers which could not be imposed upon them without breach of their Priviledges To this request the King had given a gratious answer and promised to remove them within four months after his going into Spain but secretly gave order to the Lady Regent to retain them longer till the new Bishops and the Inquisition were confirmed amongst them And she conceived her self so bound to those instructions and their â—etaining there so necessary for his Majesties Service that she delayed time as long as possibly she could Which being observed by those which were of greatest power and credit with the common people it was resolved that no more contribution should be raised on the several Provinces toward the payment of their wages and on the other side the Regent was so constant to her resolution that she took up money upon interest for their satisfaction But being wearied in the end by the importunity of all sorts of people counselled by her Husband the Duke of Parma to give way unto it and authorized at last by the King himself to hearken unto their desires she gives order to have them drawn out of their several Garrisons and Shipt at Flushing from thence to be transported into Spain with the first fair winde 18. The easie removing of this rub incouraged those who managed the designe for innovating in the Church and State to make the like attempt against the Cardinal Granvel whose extraordinary parts and power they were more affraid of then of all the Spaniards in the Country This man being of the â—erenots of Granvel in the Country of Burgundy was trained up by a Father of such large abilities that he was by Charles the Fifth made Chancellor of the German Empire and trusted by him in Affairs of the greatest moment And he declared himself to be such a quick proficient in the Schools of Learning that he became the Master of no fewer then seven Languages in all which he was able to express himself with a fluent eloquence and at twenty four years of age was made Bishop of Arras commended by his Father to the Emperour Charles and by him unto King Philip the Second he served them both with great fidelity and courage and had withall such a dexterity of dispatch in all concernments as if he had been rather born then made a States-man And unto these he added such a moderation in his pleasures such abstinence both from food and sleep when the case required it such extraordinary pains in accommodating all the difficulties which came before him and such a diligent observance of his Princes motions that his greatest Adversaries could not chuse but say that he was a Jewel fit to be owned by none but the greatest Kings By means whereof he so prevailed upon the King whilst he staid amongst them that he did nothing eitheâ— at home or abroad made neither Peace nor League with Kings or Nations concluded no Marriage quieted no Seditions acted nothing that related to Religion or the Church in which the counsels of this mâ—n were not influential The like Authority he held with the Dutchess of Parma not onely out of that report which the King made of him but her own election who found his counsel so applyable to all occasions that seldom any private or publick business came in agitation in which his judgement had not been previously required before it was openly delivered And though his previous resolutions in matters of counsel were carried with all imaginable care and closeness from the eyes of the Courtiers yet no man doubted but that all Affairs were tâ—ansacted by him imputing many things unto him as it often happeneth which he had no hand â—n 19. In the first risings of this man he was dâ—spised for an upstart by the Prince of Orange and some other great men of the Country not fearing any thing from him as an alien born unfurnished of dependants and who by reason of his caâ—ling could make no strong Alliance to preserve his Power But when they found that his Authority increased that all things bended to that point at which he aimed and that some of
Palatinate crossed over the Mose an Army of the French Hugonots should fall into Artois to give the Spaniards the more work by this treble invasion But the French Forces being followed at the heels by some Troops of Horse whom the King sent after them were totally defeated neer the Town of St. Vallery their Chief Commanders brought to Paris and there beheaded Count Hostrat with his Forces had the like misfortune first broken and afterwards totally vanquished by Sancho d' Avila one of Alva's Generals Onely Count Lodowick had the honour of a signal Victory but bought it with the death of his brother Adolph whom he lost in the Battail though afterwards encountring with the Duke himself he lost six thousand of his men besides all his Baggage Ordnance and Ammunition hardly escaping with his life And now it is high time for the Prince to enter who having raised an Army of eight and twenty thousand Horse and Foot increased not long after by the addition of three thousand Foot and five hundred Horse which the French Hugonots out of pure Zeal unto the Cause had provided for him takes his way toward Brabant which he had marked out for his Quarters but there he found the Dukes whole Army to be laid in his way whom he could neither pass by nor ingage in fight the Duke well knowing that such great Armies wanting pay would disband themselves and were more safely broken by delay then battail onely he watched their motions and ingaged by parties in which he always had the better And by these Arts so tired the Prince that in the end he was compelled to dissolve his Forces and retire once more into Nassaw But whilst the Duke was thus imployed in securing the passages of the Country which lay next to Germany he left the Ports and Sea-Towns open to the next Invadour Which being observed by William de March Baron of Luma who with few Ships kept himself upon the Seas out of Alva's reach he suddenly seized upon the Brill a Port of Holland where he defaced such Images as he found in their Churches omitting no irreverence unto any thing which was accounted Sacred but otherwise so fortified and intrenched the Town that it proved impregnable This hapned on Palm-Sunday Anno 1570 and on the Sunday following being Easter-day the Spanish Garrison is turned out of Vlushing the chief Port of Zealand by gaining of which two places it might not be unfitly said that they carried the Keys of Holland and Zealand at their Girdles and were inabled by that means to receive succours from all Parts and Nations which lay towards the Sea as they after did 40. The loss of these two Ports drew along with it a defection of most of the strong Towns in Holland which at the instigation of the Baron of Luma put themselves under the command of the Prince of Orange and at his motion took the Oath of fidelity to him from him they received their Garrison Shipping and Arms and to him they permitted the disposing of all places of Government making of Laws and the distributing of the Revenues which belonged to the Clergy To him such multitudes repaired out of France and England besides Auxiliary Scots that within less then four months a Navy of one hundred and fifty Sail lay rigged in Vlushing and from thence spoiled and robbed all Merchants of the Spanish party Nor were the Dukes Affairs in much better order in the parts next France in which Count Lodowick with the help of some French Hugonots had made himself Master of Mons the chief City of Haynalt which seemed the more considerable in the eyes of Alva because the French King openly but for different ends had avowed the Action By whose permission Gasper Colligny the great Admiral of France and one of the chief Leaders of the Hugonot party had raised an Army in the Borders consisting of six or seven thousand men which he put under the command of the Lord of Iâ—nlis who had before conducted the French Succours to the Prince of Orange But Ienlis being defeated by Don Frederick the Dukes Eldest Son and the Prince of Orange wanting power to relieve the besieged the Town was re-delivered into the hands of the Spaniards upon terms of honour and Lodowick retires to Dilemberg the chief Town of Nassaw 41. The Prince of Orange in the mean time animated by the General revolt of almost all the strong Towns in Holland raised a new Army of no fewer then eleven thousand Foot and six thousand Horse with which he entred into Brabant possest himself of some of the principal Towns and suffered others to redeem themselves with great sums of money with which he satisfied his Souldiers for their pains and hazard in the obtaining of the rest Dendermond and Oudenard two strong Towns of Flanders which had made some resistance he both stormed and plundered the Souldiers in all places making spoil of Churches and in some tyrannizing over the dead whose Monuments they robbed and pillaged But none fared worse then the poor Priests whom out of hate to their Religion they did not onely put to death but put to death with tortures and in some places which fell under the power of the Baron of Luma hanged up their mangled Limbs or Quarters as Butchers do their small Meats in a common Shambles which spoils and cruelties so alienated the affections of all the people that his power in those parts was not like to continue long and having failed of his attempt in relieving Mons crossed the Country into Holland as his surest receptacle on whose retreat the Duke recovers all the Towns which he had taken in Brabant and Flanders follows him into Holland and besiegeth Harlem in which the Souldiers to demonstrate of what Sect they were made a meer Pageant of Religion for setting up Altars on the Bulwarks they dressed them with Images and representations of the Saints and being attired in Copes and Vestments they sung Hymns before them as if they were offering Devotions After which mockery they brought out the resemblances of Priests and Religious persons made of straw whipt them and stabbed them into the body and finally cutting off their heads flung them into the Leaguer Sometimes they also placed the Images of Christ and many of the Saints against the mouth of the Cannon with many other Arts of the like impiety for which they were brought to a dear reckoning when the Town was taken at which time most of them were either put to the Sword or hanged or drowned 42. Frederick the Prince Elector Palatine had hitherto ingaged no further in the Belgick troubles then the rest of his Neighbours But now he doth more cordially espouse the quarrel upon some hope of propagating the Calvinian Doctrines which he had lately introduced into his Dominions And being well affected to the House of Nassaw and knowing what encouragements the Calvinian Faction in the Netherlands had received from them cheerfully hearkened to such
of it That they were ready to continue in all duty toward their Soveraign and her Mother there Regent provided they might have the free exercise of their own Religion In reference to their medling with the Irons of the Mint and the Coyning of Money they justified themselves as being most of them Councellors born and doing nothing in it but for the good of the people To which effect they writ their Letters also to the Regent her self whom they assured in the close that if she would make use of her authority for the abolishing of Idolatry and Superstitious abuses which agreed not with the Word of God she should finde them as obedient as any Subjects within the Realm Which in plain truth was neither more nor less then this that if they might not have their wills in the point of Religion she was to look for no obedience from them in other matters whereof they gave sufficient proof by their staying in Edenborough her command to the contrary notwithstanding by pressing more then ever for a toleration and adding this over and above to their former demands that such French Forces as remained in Scotland might be disbanded and sent back to their native Country In the first of which demands they were so unreasonable that when the Queen offered them the exercise of their own Religion upon condition that when she had occasion to make use of any of their Churches for her own Devotions such exercise might be suspended and the Mass onely used in that conjuncture they would by no means yeild unto it And they refused to yeild unto it for this Reason onely because it would be in her power by removing from one place unto another to leave them without any certain Exercise of their Religion which in effect was utterly to overthrow it And hereto they were pleased to add that as they could not hinder her from exercising any Religion which she had a minde to but this was more then they would stand to in their better Fortunes so could they not agree that the Ministers of Christ should be silenced upon any occasion and much less that the true Worship of God should give place to Idolatry A point to which they stood so stifly that when the Queen Regent had resetled her Court at Edenborough she could neither prevail so far upon the Magistrates of that City as either to let her have the Church of St. Gyles to be appropriated onely to the use of the Mass or that the Mass might be said in it at such vacant times in which they made no use of it for themselves or their Ministers 17. But in their other demands for sending the French Souldiers out of Scotland they were not like to finde any such compliance as had been offered in the former Henry the Third of France dyed about that time and left the Crown to Francis the Second Married not long before to the Queen of Scots the preservation of whose power and prerogative Royal must be his concernment And he declared himself so sensible of those indignities which had been lately put upon her as to protest that he would rather spend the Crown of France then not be revenged of the seditious Tumults raised in Scotland in pursuance of which resolution he sends over a French Captain called Octavian who brought with him a whole Regiment of Souldiers great sums of money and all provisions necessary to maintain a War Followed not long after with four Companies more which made up twenty Ensigns compleat together with four Ships of War both to defend the Town of Leith and command the Haven Incouraged with whose coming the Queen Regent did not onely fortifie that Town but put a strong Garrison of the French into it which gave a new grievance unto those of the Congregation the Trade and Town of Edenborough being like by this means to be brought under her command and to rest wholly in a manner at her devotion The breach made wider on the one side by the taking of the Fort of Boughty Crag into the hands of those of the Congregation which was pretended to be done for fear lest otherwise it might have been seized on by the French and on the other side by the coming of two thousand French Souldiers out of France under pretence of being a Convoy to the Bishop of Amiens and some other persons sent thither to dispute as it was given out with the Scotish Ministers Which great accession of French Forces so amazed the Lords of the Congregation that they excited the whole Kingdom by a publick Writing to arm against them requiring all those which were or desired to be accounted for nâ—tural Scotch-men to judge betwixt the Queen and them and not abstract the just and dutiful support from their Native Country in so needful a time assuring them that whosoever did otherwise should be esteemed betrayers of their Country to the power of strangers 18. And that the people might not cool in the midst of this heat they draw their Forces together and march toward Edenborough on the 18 of October upon the news whereof the Queen Regent put her self into Leith as the safer place and leaves them Masters of the City From whence they send a Letter to her requiring in a peremptory and imperious manner that the fortifications about Leith be forthwith slighted the Forts about the same to be demolished and all strange Souldiers to be immediately removed Which if she not pleased to do they must bethink themselves of some such other remedies as they thought most necessary But when their Messenger returned unsatisfied and that Lyon King at Arms was sent presently after him commanding them amongst other things to remove from Edenborough they then resolve for putting that in execution which had been long before in deliberation that is to say the deposing of the Queen Regent from the publick Government But first they must consult with their Ghostly Fathers that by their countenance and authority they might more certainly prevail upon all such persons as seemed unsatisfied in the point Willock and Knox are chosen above all the rest to resolve this doubt if at the least any of them doubted of it which may well be questioned They were both Factors for Geneva and therefore both obliged to advance her interest Willock declares that albeit God had appointed Magistrates onely to be his Lieutenants on Earth honouring them with his own title and calling them Gods yet did he never so establish any but that for just causes they might be deprived Which having proved by some Examples out of holy Scripture he thereupon inferred that since the Queen Regent had denyed her chief Duty to the Subjects of this Realm which was to preserve them from invasion of Strangers and to suffer the Word of God to be freely preached seeing also she was a maintainer of superstition and despised the counsel of the Nobility he did think they might justly deprive her from all Regiment and
concernment to the Church were then also moved but they were onely promised without any performance It was also then agreed between them that all Noblemen Barons and other Professors should imploy their whole Forces Strength and Power for the punishment of all and whatsoever persons that should be tryed and found guilty of that horrible Murther of late committed on the King And further that all the Kings and Princes which should succeed in following times to the Crown of that Realm should be bound by Oath before their Inauguration to maintain the true Religion of Christ professed then presently in that Kingdom Thus the Confederates and the Kirk are united together and hard it is to say whether of the two were least execusable before God and man But they followed the light of their own principles and thought that an excuse sufficient without fear of either 14. The news of these proceedings alarms all Christendom and presently Ambassadors are dispatched from France and England to mediate with the Confederates they must not be called Rebels for the Queens Delivery Throgmorton for the Queen of England presseth hard upon it and shewed himself exceeding earnest and industrious in pursuance of it But Knox and self-interest prevailed more amongst them then all intercessions whatsoever there being nothing more insisted upon by that fiery spirit then that she was to be deprived of her Authority and Life together And this he thundred from the Pulpit with as great a confidence as if he had received his Doctrine at Mount Sinai from the hands of God at the giving of the Law to Moses Nor was Throgmorton thought to be so Zealous on the other side as he outwardly seemed For he well knew how much it might concern his Queen in her personal safety and the whole Realm of England in its peace and happiness that the poor Queen should be continued in the same or a worse condition to which these wretched men had brought her And therefore it was much suspected by most knowing men that secretly he did more thrust on her deprivation with one hand then he seemed to hinder it with both Wherewith incouraged or otherwise being too far gone to retire with safety Lindsay and Ruthen are dispatched to Lochlevin-house to move her for a resignation of the Crown to her Infant-Son Which when she would by no means yeild to a Letter is sent to her from Throgmorton to perswade her to it assuring her that whatsoever was done by her under that constraint would be void in Law This first began to work her to that resolution But nothing more prevailed upon her then the rough carriage of the two Lords which first made the motion By whom she was threatned in plain terms that if she did not forthwith yeild unto the desires of her people they would question her for incontinent living the murther of the King her tyranny and the manifest violation of the Laws of the Land in some secret transactions with the French Terrified wherewith without so much as reading what they offered to her she sets her hand to three several Instruments In the first of which she gave over the Kingdom to her young Son at that time little more then a twelve Month old in the second she constituted Murray Vice-Roy during his minority and in the third in case that Murray should refuse it she substitutes Duke Hamilton the Earls of Lenox Arguile Athol Morton Glencarne and Marre all but the two first being sworn Servants unto Murray and the two first made use of onely to discharge the matter 15. Thus furnished and impowered the Lords return in triumph to their fellows at Edenborough with the sound of a Trumpet and presently it was resolved to Crown the Infant-King with as much speed as might be for fear of all such alterations as might otherwise happen And thereunto they spurred on with such precipitation that whereas they extorted those subscriptions from her on St. Iame's day being the 25 of Iuly the Coronation was dispatched on the 29. The Sermon for the greater grace of the matter must be preached by Knox but the superstitious part and ceremony of it was left to be performed by the Bishop of Orknay another of the natural Sons of Iames the Fifth assisted by two Superintendents of the Congregation And that all things might come as near as might be to the Ancient Forms the Earl of Morton and the Lord Humes took Oath for the King that he should maintain the Religion which was then received and minister Justice equally to all the Subjects Of which particular the King made afterwards an especial use in justifying the use of God-fathers and God mothers at the Baptizing of Infants when it was questioned in the Conference at Hampton-court Scarce fifteen days were past from the Coronation when Murray shewed himself in Scotland as if he had dropt down from Heaven for the good of the Nation but he had took England in his way and made himself so sure a party in that Court that he was neither affraid to accept the Regencie in such a dangerous point of time nor to expostulate bitterly with his own Queen for her former actions not now the same man as before in the time of her glories For the first handselling of his Government he calls a Parliament and therein ratifies the Acts of 1560 for suppressing Popery as had been promised to the last general Assembly and then proceeds to the Arraignment of Hepbourne Hay and Daglish for the horrible murther of the King by each of which it was confessed at their execution that Bothwel was present at the murther and that he had assured them at their first ingaging that most of the Noble-men in the Realm Murray and Morton amongst others were consenting to it 16. And now or never must the Kirk begin to bear up bravely In which if they should fail let Knox bear the blame for want of well-tutoring them in the Catechism of their own Authority They found themselves so necessary to this new Establishment that it could not well subsist without them and they resolved to make the proudest he that was to feel the dint of their spirit A general Assembly was convened not long after the Parliament by which the Bishop of Orknay was convented and deposed from his Function for joyning the Queen in Marriage to the Earl of Bothwel though he proceeded by the Form of their own devising And by the same the Countess of Arguile was ordained after citation on their part and appearance on hers to give satisfaction to the Kirk for being present at the Baptism of the Infant-King because performed according to the Rites of the Church of Rome the satisfaction to be made in Stirling where she had offended upon a Sunday after Sermon the more particular time and manner of it to be prescribed by the Superintendent of Lothian And this was pretty handsome for the first beginning according whereunto it was thought fit by the Chief Leaders to
the King in â—â—rliament and the approving of the same deferred to a furâ—her time they took this not for a delay but a plain denyal and therefore it was agreed in the next general Assembly as before is said to put the same in execution by their own Authority without expecting any further confirmation of it from the King or Council Which that they might effect without fear of disturbance they first discharge the Bishops and Superintendents from intermedling in Affairs which concerned Religion but onely in their own particular Churches that so their Elderships according to this new establishment might grow up and flourish And then they took upon them with their own adherents to exercise all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction without respect to Prince or Prelate they altered the Laws according to their own appetite they assembled the Kings Subjects and injoyned Ecclesiastical pains unto them they made Decrees and put the same in execution they prescribed Laws to the King and State they appointed Fasts throughout the whole Realm especially when some of their Faction were to move any great enterprise they used very traytorous seditious and contumelious words in the Pulpits Schools and otherwise to the disdain and reproach of the King and being called to answer the same they utterly disclaimed the Kings Authority saying he was an incompetent Judge and that matters of the Pulpit ought to be exempted from the judgement and correction of Princes And finally they did not onely animate some of those that adhered unto them to seize upon the Kings person and usurp his power but justified the same in one of their general Assemblies held at Edenborough for a lawful Act ordaining all those to be excommunicated which did not subscribe unto the same This we take up by whole-sale now but shall return it by retail in that which follows 37. And first they begin with Mr. Iames Boyd Archbishop of Glasco a man of a mild and quiet nature and therefore the more like to be conformable to their commands requiring him to submit himself to the Assembly and to suffer the corruptions of the Episcopal Order to be reformed in his person To which proud intimation of their will and pleasure he returned this Answer which for the modesty or piety thereof deserves to be continued to perpetual memory I understand saith he the name Office and Reverence given to a Bishop to be lawful and allowed by the Scriptures of God and being elected by the Church and King to be Bishop of Glasco I esteem my Office and Calling lawful and shall endeavour with all my power to perform the duties required submitting my self to the judgement of the Church if I shall be tryed to offend so as nothing be required of me but the performance of those duties which the Apostle prescribeth Finding him not so tractable as they had expected they Commissionate certain of their Members to require his subscription to the Act made at Stirling for reformation of the State Episcopal by which it was agreed that every Bishop should take charge of some flock in particular And this they prest upon him with such heat and violence that they never left prosecuting the poor man till they had brought him to his Grave By none more violently pursued then by Andrew Melvin whom he had brought to Glasco and made Principal of the Colledge there gave him a free access to his House and Table or otherwise very liberally provided for him But Scots and Presbyterians are not won by favours nor obliged by Benefits For Melvin so disguised his nature that when he was in private with him at his Table or elsewhere he would use him with all reverence imaginable giving him the title of his Lordship with all the other honours which pertained unto him but in all particular Meetings whatsoever they were he would onely call him Mr. Boyd and otherwise carried himself most despitefully towards him 38. Their rough and peremptory dealing with this Reverend Prelate discouraged all the rest from coming any more to their Assemblies Which hapned as they could have wished For thereupon they agree amongst themselves upon certain Articles which every Bishop must subscribe or else quit his place that is to say 1. That they should be content to be Ministers and Pastors of a flock 2. That they should not usurp any criminal jurisdiction 3. That they should not vote in Parliament in the name of the Church unless they had a Commission from the general Assembly 4. That they should not take up for maintaining their ambition the Rents which might maintain many Pastors Schools and Poor but content themselves with a reasonable portion for discharge of their Offices 5. That they should not claim the title of Temporal Lords nor usurp any Civil Iurisdiction whereby they might be drawn from their charge 6. That they should not Empire over Presbyteries but be subject to the same 7. That they should not usurp the power of Presbyteries nor take upon them to visit any bounds that were not committed to them by the Church 8. That if any more corruptions should afterwards be tryed the Bishop should agree to have them reformed These Articles were first tendred to Patrick Adamson Archbishop of St. Andrews and Metropolitan of all Scotland against whom they had a former quarrel not onely because he was preferred elected and admitted to that eminent Dignity without their consent but had also exercised the Jurisdiction which belonged unto it in express and direct opposition unto their commands And first they quarrelled with him for giving Collation unto Benefices and for giving voice in Parliament not being authorized thereunto by the Kirk They quarrelled with him afterwards for drawing or advising the Acts of Parliament Anno 1584 which they conceived to be so prejudicial to the Rights of the Kirk and held the King so hard unto it that he was forced to counsel the poor Prelate to subscribe some Articles by which he seemed in a manner to renounce his Calling of which more hereafter They quarrelled with him again in the year 1589 for marrying one of the Daughters of the late Duke of Lenox to the Earl of Huntly without their consent wherein the King was also fain to leave him to their discretion And finally they so vexed and persecuted him from one time to another upon pretence of not conforming to their lawless pleasures that they reduced him in the end to extreme necessity published a false and scandalous Paper in his name as he lay on his death bed containing a Recantation as they called it or rather a renouncing of his Episcopal Function together with his approbation of their Presbyteries which Paper he disowned at the the hearing of it By which and many such unworthy courses they brought his gray hairs as they did some others of his Order with shame and sorrow to the Grave 39. Mention was made before of an Act of Parliament made in the time of the Interregnum before the Queens coming back from
endeavoured by all the Friends they could to advance his Discipline to which they were incouraged by the brothers here and the Governors there The Governours in each Island advanced the project out of a covetous intent to inrich themselves by the spoil of the Deanries the brethren have hereupon a hope to gain ground by little and little for the erecting of the same in most parts of England And in pursuance of this plot both Islands joyn in confederacy to petition the Queen for an allowance of this Discipline Anno 1563. In the year next following the Signiour de St. Owen and Monsieur de Soulemount were delegated to the Court to sollicite in it where they received a gratious answer and full of hopes returned to their several homes In the mean time the Queen being strongly perswaded that this designe would much advance the Reformation in those Islands was contented to give way unto it in the Towns of St. Peters Port and St. Hillaries only but no further To which purpose there were Letters decretory from the Council directed to the Bayliff the Iurates and others of each Island subscribed by Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seal the Marquess of Northampton the Earl of Leicester the Lord Clynton afterwards Earl of Lincolne Rogers Knollis and Cecil The Tenour of which Letter in relation to the Isle of Iarsey was this that followeth 21. After our very hearty commendations unto you where the Queens most excellent Majesty understandeth that the Isles of Guernsey and Jarsey have anciently depended on the Diocess of Constance and that there be certain Churches in the same Diocess well reformed agreeable throughout in the Doctrine as is set forth in this Realm knowing therewith that they have a Minister which ever since his arrival in Jarsey hath used the like Order of Preaching and Administration as in the said reformed Churches or as it is used in the French Church of London her Majesty for divers respects and considerations moving her Highness is well pleased to admit the same Order of Preaching and Administration to be continued at St. Hillaries as hath been hitherto accustomed by the said Minister Provided always that the residue of the Parishes in the said Isle shall diligently put aside all superstitions used in the said Diocess and so continue there the Order of Service ordained within this Realm with the Injunctions necessary for that purpose Wherein you may not fail diligently to give your aids and assistance as best may serve for the advancement of Gods Glory And so farewel From Richmond the 7 of August Anno 1565. 22. Where note that the same Letter the names onely of the places being changed and subscribed by the same men was sent also unto those of Guernsey for the permission of the said Discipline in the Port of St. Peters In which though there be no express mention of allowing their Discipline but onely of their Form of Prayer aâ—d Administration of Sacraments yet they presumed so far on the general words as to put it presently in practice In prosecution of which Counsels the Ministers and Elders of both Churches held their first Synod in the Isle of Guernsey on the 2 of September Anno 1567 where they concluded to advance it by degrees in all the rest of the Parishes as opportunity should serve and the condition of Affairs permit to the great joy no question of their great Friends in England who could not but congratulate their own good Fortune in these fair beginnings 23. At home they found not such success as they did abroad not a few of them being deprived of their Benefices and other preferments in the Church for their inconformity exprest in their refusing to officiate by the publick Liturgy or not submitting to the directions of their Ordinaries in some outward matters as Caps and Surplices and the like The news of which severity flies to France and Scotland occasioning Beza in the one and Knox and his Comrades in the other to interpose themselves in behalf of their brethren With what Authority Beza acted in it we shall see anon And we may now take notice that in Knoxes Letter sent from the general Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland the Vestments in dispute are not onely called Trifles and Rags of Rome but are discountenanced and decryed for being such Garments as Idolaters in time of greatest darkness used in their Superstitious and idolatrous service thereupon it is inferred That if Surplice Cap and Tippet have been badges of Idolaters in the very act of their Idolatry that then the Preachers of Christian Liberty and the Rebukers of Superstition were to have nothing to do with the dregs of that Romish beast Which inference is seconded by this Request viz. That the Brethren in England which refused those Romish Rags might finde of them the Bishops who use and urge them such favour as their Head and Master commandeth each one of his Members to shew to another And this they did expect to receive of their courtesie not onely because they hoped that they the said Bishops would not offend God in troubling their Brethren for such Vain trifles but because they hoped that they would not refuse the request of them their Brethren and fellow-Ministers in whom though there appeared no worldly Pomp yet they assured themselves that they were esteemed the servants of God and such as travelled to set forth Gods Glory against the Antichrist of Rome that conjured enemy of true Religion the Pope The days say they are evil iniquity abounds charity alas waxeth cold and therefore that it concerned them all to walk diligently because it was uncertain at what hour the Lord would come to whom they were to render an account of their Administration After which Apostolical Admonition they commit them to the Mighty protection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we conclude their Zealous Letter dated December 27. 1566. 24. With more Authority writes Beza as the greater Patriarch and he writes too concerning things of greater consequence then Caps and Surplices For in a Letter of his to Grindal bearing date Iuly anno 1566 he makes a sad complaint concerning certain Ministers unblameable as he saith both in life and Doctrine suspended from the Ministery by the Queens Authority and the good liking of the Bishops for not subscribing to some new Rites and Ceremonies imposed upon them Amongst which Rites he specifies the wearing of such Vestments as were then worn by Baals Priests in the Church of Rome the Cross in Baptism kneeling at the Communion and such Rites as had degenerated as he tell us into most filthy Superstition But he seems more offended that Women were suffered to baptize in extreme necessities That power was granted to the Queen for ordaining such other Rites and Ceremonies as should seem convenient but most especially which was indeed the point most grieved at that the Bishops were invested with a sole Authority for all matters of the Church without consulting
chosen the Professor for the Lady Margaret that he might come as near to him as he could both in place and power But not content with that which he had done in the Colledge he puts up his Disciples into all the Pulpits in the University where he and they inveigh most bitterly against the Government of the Church and the Governours of it the Ordination of Priests and Deacons the Liturgie established and the Rites thereof And though Whitgift Preached them down as occasion served with great applause unto himself but greater satisfaction to all moderate and sober men yet Cartwright and his Followers were now grown unto such a head that they became more violent by the opposition 32. It hapneth commonly as a Learned man hath well observed That those fervent Reprehenders of things established by publick Authority are always confident and bold spirited men and such as will not easily be taken off from their prosecutions by any fair and gentle usage Which Whitgift found at last alter all his patience insomuch that having many times in vain endeavoured by gentle Admonitions and fair perswasions to gain the man unto himself or so to moderate and restrain him as that he should no longer trouble both that Colledge and the whole University with his dangerous Doctrines he was necessitated in the end to expel him out of the House and after to deprive him also of the Margaret-Lecture Which last he acted as Vice-chancellor upon this account that he had delivered divers errors in his Lectures which he had neither recanted as he was required nor so expounded as to free himself from that imputation and that withal he had exercised the Function of a Minister without being able to produce any Letters of Orders Hereupon Cartwright and his Followers began to mouth it complaining that the man had been mightily wronged in being deprived of his preferments in the University without being called unto his answer that Cartwright had made many offers of Disputation for tryal of the points in Question but could never be heard and therefore that Whitgift supplyed this by excess of power which he was not able to make good by defect of Arguments To stop which clamour Whitgift not onely offered him the opportunity of a Conference with him but offered it in the presence of sufficient witnesses and put the man so hard unto it that he not onely declined the Conference at the present but confest that Whitgift had made him the like offers formerly and that he had refused the same as he now did also All which appears by a Certificate subscribed by eight sufficient Witnesses and a publick Notary dated the 18 of March 1570. But this disgrace was followed by a greater much about that time for finding himself in a necessity to depart from Cambridge he would have taken the degree of Doctor along with him for his greater credit but was denyed by the major part of the Regent Masters and others which had votes therein which so displeased both him and all his adherents that from this time the Degrees of Doctors Batchellors and Masters were esteemed unlawful and those that took them reckoned for the Limbs of Antichrist as appears by the Genevian Notes on the Revelâ—tion But for this and all the other wrongs which he had suffered as was said in the University he will revenge himself upon the Church in convenient time and in convenient time we shall hear more of it 36. In the mean season we must make a step to Banstâ—ed in Surrey where we shall finde a knot of more Zealous Calvinists then in other places so Zealous and conceited of their own dear Sanctity that they separated themselves from the rest of their brethren under the name of the Anoynted The Bond of Peace was broken by the rest before and these men meant not to retain the unity of spirit with them as they had done formerly Their Leader was one Wright their Opinions these viz. That no man is to be accused of sin but he that did reject the truths by them professed That the whole New Testament contained nothing but predictions of things to come and therefore that Christ whom they grant to have appeared in the flesh before shall come before the Day of Iudgement and actually perform those things which are there related That he whose sins are once pardoned cannot sin again And that no credit was to be afforded to men of Learning but all things to be taught by the Spirit onely Of these men Sanders tells us in his Book De visibile Monarchia Fol. 707 and placeth them in this present year 1570. But what became of them I finde not there or in any others And therefore I conceive that either they were soon worn out for want of Company or lost themselves amongst the Anabaptists Familists or some other And this I look upon as one of the first Factions amongst the Puritans themselves after they had begun their separation from the Church of England Which separation so begun as before is said was closed again about this time by the hands of those who first had laboured in the breach 37. For so it was that either out of love to their own profit or the publick peace some of them had consulted Beza touching this particular that is to say Whether he thought it more expedient for the good of the Church That the Ministers should chuse rather to forsake their Flocks then to conform unto such Orders as were then prescribed Whereunto he returns this Answer That many things both may and ought to be obeyed which are not warrantably commanded That though the Garments in dispute were not imposed upon the Church by any warrant from the Word of God yet having nothing of impiety in them he conceived that it were fitter for the Ministers to conform themselves then either voluntarily to forsake their Churches or be deprived for their refusal That in like manner the people were to be advised to frequent the Churches and hear their Pastors so apparelled as the Church required rather then utterly to forsake that spiritual food by which their souls were to be nourished to eternal life But so that first the Ministers do discharge their Consciences by making a modest protestation against those Vestments as well before the Queens Majesty as their several Bishops and so apply themselves to suffer what they could not remedy This might have stopt the breach at the first beginning if either the English Puritans had not been too hot upon it to be cooled so suddenly or that he had not made his own good counsel ineffectual in the close of all In which he tells them in plain terms That if they could no otherwise preserve their standing in the Church then either by subscribing to the lawfulness of the Orders Rites and Ceremonies which were then required or by giving any countenance to them by a faulty silence they should then finally give way to that open violence which they were
not able to resist that is to say for so I understand his meaning that they should rather leave their Churches then submit themselves to such conditions But this direction being given toward the end of October Anno 1567 seems to be qualified in his Epistle to the Brethren of the Forreign Churches which were then in England bearing date Iune the fifth in the year next following in which he thus resolves the case proposed unto him That for avoiding all destructive ruptures in the body of Christ by dividing the members thereof from one another it was not lawful for any man of what Rank soever to separate himself upon any occasion from the Church of Christ in which the Doctrine is preserved whereby the people are instructed in the ways of God and the right use of the Sacraments ordained by Christ is maintained inviolable 38. This might I say have stopped the breach in the first beginning had not the English Puritans been resolved to try some conclusions before they hearkned to the Premises But finding that their party was not strong enough to bear them out or rich enough to maintain them on their private purses they thought it not amiss to follow the directions of their great Dictator And hereunto the breaking out of those in Surrey gave some further colour by which they say that nothing but confusion must needs fall upon them and that so many Factions Subdivisions and Schismatical Ruptures as would inevitably ensue on the first separation must in fine crumble them to nothing And on these grounds it was determined to unite themselves to the main body of the Church to reap the profit of the same and for their safer standing in it to take as well their Orders as their Institution from the hands of the Bishops But so that they would neither wear the Surplice oftner then meer necessity compelled them or read more of the Common-prayers then what they thought might save them harmless if they should be questioned and in the mean time by degrees to bring in that Discipline which could not be advanced at once in all parts of the Kingdom Which half Conformity they were brought to on the former grounds and partly by an Act of Parliament which came out this year 13 Eliz. cap. 12. for the reforming of disorders amongst the Ministers of the Church And they were brought unto no more then a half-Conformity by reason of some clashing which appeared unto them between the Canons of the Convocation and that Act of Parliament as also in regard of some interposings which are now made in their behalf by one of a greater Title though of no more power then Calvin Martyr Beza or the rest of the Advocates 39. The danger threatned to the Queen by the late sentence of Excommunication which was past against her occasioned her to call the Lords and Commons to assemble in Parliament the Bishops and Clergy to convene in their Convocation These last accordingly met together in the Church of St. Paul on the 5 of April 1571. At which time Dr. Whitgift Master of Trinity-Colledge in Gambridge preached the Latine Sermon In which he insisted most especially upon the Institution and Authority of Synodical Meetings on the necessary use of Ecclesiastical Vestments and other Ornaments of the Church the opposition made against all Orders formerly Established as well by Puritans as Papists touching in fine on many other particularities in rectifying whereof the care and diligence of the Synod was by him required And as it proved his counsel was not given in vain For the first thing which followed the Conforming of the Prolocutor was a command given by the Archbishop That all such of the lower House of Convocation who not had formerly subscribed unto the Articles of Religion agreed upon Anno 1562 should subscribe them now or on their absolute refusal or procrastinations be expelled the House Which wrought so well that the said Book of Articles being publickly read was universally approved and personally subscribed by every Member of both Houses as appears clearly by the Ratification at the end of those Articles In prosecution of which necessary and prudent course it was further ordered That the Book of Articles so approved should be put into Print by the appointment of the Right Reverend Dr. John Jewel then Bishop of Sarum and that every Bishop should take a competent number of them to be dispersed in their Visitations or Diocesan Synods and to be read four times in every year in all the Parishes of their several and respective Diocesses Which questionless might have settled a more perfect Conformity in all parts of the Kingdom somâ— Câ—nons of the Convocation running much that way if the Parliament had spoke as clearly in it as the Convocation or if some sinister practice had not been excogitated to pervert those Articles in making them to come out imperfect and consequently deprived of life and vigour which otherwise they would have carried 40. The Earl of Leicester at that time was of great Authority and had apparently made himself the head of the Puritan faction They also had the Earl of Huntingdon the Lord North and others in the House of Peers Sir Francis Knollis Walsingham and many more in the House of Commons To which if Zanchy be to be believed as perhaps he may be some of the Bishops may be added who were not willing to tye the Puritans too close to that Subscription by the Act of Parliament which was required of them by the Acts and Canons of the Convocation It had been ordered by the Bishops in their Convocation That all the Clergy then assembled should subscribe the Articles And it was ordered by the unanimous consent of the Bishops and Clergie That none should be admitted from thenceforth unto Holy-Orders till he had first subscribed the same and solemnly obliged himself to defend the things therein contained as consonant in all points to the Word of God Can. 1571. Cap. de Episcop But by the first Branch of the Act of Parliament Subscription seemed to be no otherwise required then to such Articles alone as contained the Confession of the trâ—e Christian Faith and the Doctrine of the holy Sacraments Whereby all Articles relating to the Book of Homilieâ— the Form of Consecrating Archbishops and Bishops the Churches power for the imposing of new Rites and Ceremonies and retaining those already made seemed to be purposely omitted as not within the compass of the said Subscription And although no such Restriction do occur in the following Branches by which Subscription is required indefinitely unto all the Articles yet did the first Branch seem to have such influence upon all the rest that it was made to serve the turn of the Puritan Faction whensoever they were called upon to subscribe to the Episcopal Government the Publick Liturgie of the Church or the Queens Supremacy But nothing did more visibly discover the designs of the Faction and the great power their Patrons had in
the Publick Government then the omitting the first Clause in the Twentieth Article In which it was declared That the Church hâ—d power to Decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith Which Clause though extant in the Registers oâ— the Convocation as a part of that Article and printed as a part thereof both in Latine and English Anno 1562 was totally left out in this new Impression and was accordingly left out in all the Harmonies of Confessions or other Collections of the same which were either printed at Geneva or any other place where Calvinism was of most predominancy And so it stood with us in England till the death of Leicester After which in the year 1593 the Articles were reprinted and that Clause resumed according as it stands in the Publick Registers By which Clause it was after published in the third year of K. Iames and in the tenth year of the said King Anno 1512 and in all following Impressions from that time to this Once cunningly omitted in a Latine Impression with came out at Oxon An. 1536. but the forgery was soon discovered and the Book call'd in the Printer checked and ordered to reprint the same with the Clause prefixed Which makes it the more strange and almost incredible that the Puritans should either plainly charge it as an Innovation on the late Archbishop or that any other sober or indifferent man should make a question whether the Addition of that Clause were made by the Prelates or the Substraction of it by the Puritans for their several purposes 41. There also past a Book of Canons in this Convocation by which it was required That all such as were admitted unto Holy-Orders should subscribe the Book of Articles as before was said That the Gâ—ay Amice still retained as it seems by some of the old Priests of Queen Maries time should be from thenceforth laid aside and no longer used That the Deans and Residentiaries of Cathedral Churches should admit no other Form of saying or singing Divine Service of the Church or administring the holy Sacraments then that which was prescribed in the Publick Liturgie That if any Preacher in the same should openly maintain any point of Doctrine contrary to any thing contained in the Book of Articles or the Book of Common-Prayer the Bishop should be advertised of it by the Dean and Prebendaries to the end he might proceed therein as to him seemed best That no man be admitted to preach in what Church soever till he be licensed by the Queen or the Archbishop of the Province or the Bishop of the Diocess in which he serveth And that no Preacher beng so licensed should preach or teach any thing for Doctrinal to bâ— believed by the people but what was consonant to the Word of God in Holy Scripture or by the Ancient Fathers or Orthodox Bishops of the Church had been gathered from it That no Parson Vicar or Curate should from thenceforth read the Common Prayers in any Chappel Oratory or Private House unlâ—ss he were licensed by the Bishop under hand and seâ—â— And that none of the persons aforesaid should 〈◊〉 his Ministery or carry himself in his apparel or kind of life like â—o one of the Laity That the said Parsons Vicars and Curates should yearly certifie to their several Ordinaries the names and Sirnames of all persons of fourteen years of age and upwards who had not received the Communion or did refuse to be instructed in the Publick Catechiâ—m or that they should not suffer any such persons to be God-Father or God-Mother to any child or to contract any Marriage either between themselves or with any other It was also ordered in those Canons That every Bishop should cause the Holy Bible in the largest Volume to be set up in some convenâ—ent place of his Hall or Parlour that as well those of his own Family as all such strangers as resorted to him might have recourse to it if they pleased And that all Bishops Deans and Archdeacon should cause the Book called The Acts and Monuments to be disposed of in like sort for the use aforesaid The first of which Injunctions seems to have been made for keeping up the Reputation of the English Bibles publickly Authoâ—ized for the use of this Church The credit and Authority of which Translation was much decryed by those of the Genevian Faction to advance their own By the other there was nothing aimed at but to gain credit to the Book which served so seasonably to create an odium in all sorts of people against the Tyrannies and Superstitions of the Pope of Rome whose plots and practices did so apparently intend the ruine of the Queen and Kingdom No purpose either in the Bishops or Clergie to justifie all or any of the passages in the same contained which have been since made use of by the Disciplinarians either to countenance some strange Doctrine or decry some Ceremony to which he shewed himself a Friend or Enemy as the case might vary 42. Fortified with these Canons and Synodical Acts the Prelates shew themselves more earnest in requiring Subscription more zealous in pressing for Conformity then before they did but found a stiffer opposition in the Puritan Faction then could be rationally expected For whether it were that they relyed upon their Friends in Court or that some Lawyers had informed them that by the Statute no Subscription was to be required of them but only unto points of Doctrine certain it is that they were now more insolent and intractable then they had been formerly For now the bettâ—r to disguise their Projects to wound the Discipline the quarrels about Surplices and other Vestments which seemed to have been banished a while are revived again complaints made of their sufferings in it to the Forreign Churches and the report is spread abroad to gain the greater credit to their own perverseness that many of the Bishops did as much abominate those Popish Vestments as any of the brethren did For so writes Zanchy a Divine of Heidelburg in his Letters unto Queen Elizabeth of September the second and writes so by direction from the Prince Elector whom they had engaged in the cause out of an hope to take her off from giving any further countenance to the Bishops in that point of Conformity To the same purpose he writes also to Bishop Iewel on the 11 of September Where he informs as he had been informed himself That many of the Ecclesiastical Order would rather chuse to quit their station in the Church and resign their Offices then yield to the wearing of those Vestments which had been formerly defiled by such gross Superstition He also signifies what he had writ unto the Queen of whose relenting he could give himself no great assurance and that he had also been advised to write to some of the Clergie to the end that they might be perswaded to a present Conformity rather then deprive the Church of their future Ministery The
Kirk within this Realm or that presently bears or shall hereafter bear Office therein shall be charged by every particular Presbytery where their residence is to subscribe the Heads of the Discipline of the Kirk of their Realm at length set down and allowed by Act of the whole Assembly in the Book of Polity which is registrate in the Assembly-Books and namely the Heads controverted by Enemies of the Discipline of the Reformed Kirk of this Realm betwixt this and the next Synodal Assemblies of the Provinces under the pain of Excommunication to be executed against the Non-subscribers and the Presbyteries which shall be found remiss and negligent herein to receive publick rebuke of the whole Assembly And to the effect the said Discipline may be known as it ought to be to the whole Brethren it is ordained That the Moderator of each Presbytery shall receive from the Clerk of the Assembly a Copy of the said Book under his Subscription upon the Expences of the Presbytery betwixt this and the first day of September next to come under the pain of being openly accused in the face of the whole Assembly 41. This Preparation being made they present their whole desires to the King in the following Parliament convened at Edenborough in the Month of Iune 1592. In which it was proposed 1. That the Acts of Parliament made in the year 1584 against the Discipline of the Kirk and the Liberty thereof should be abrogated and annulled and a Ratification of the Discipline granted whereof they were then in practise 2. That the Act of Annexation should be repealed and restitution made of the Church's Patrimony 3. That the Abbots Priors and other Prelates bearing the Titles of Kirk-men and giving Voices for the Kirk without Power and Commission from the same should not be permitted in time coming to give Voice in Parliament or convene in the Name of the Kirk And 4. That a solid Order might be taken for purging the Realm of Idolatry and Blood wherewith it was miserably polluted On the second and third of these Desires the King took longer time of deliberation as being points of great concernment to Himself and others touching the main of their Estates But He resolved to give them satisfaction in the first and last It was answered therefore to the first part of the last Article That saying of Mass receiving of Iesuits Seminary Priests and Trafficking Papists against the King's Majesty and Religion presently professed should be a just cause to infer the pain of Treason with this Proviso notwithstanding That if the Iesuits and Seminary Priests did satisfie the Prince and the Church the foresaid Penalty should not be laid on the Receivers And to the second part thereof concerning Blood it was answered That the same should be remitted to the Courts of Justice In like manner it was answered to the first branch of their first Proposal That the said Statutes should be no ways prejudicial nor derogatory to the Priviledges that God had given to the spiritual Office-bearer in the Church concerning Heads of Religion matters of Heresie Excommunication Collation or Deprivation of Ministers or any such Ecclesiastical Censures grounded and having warrant of the Word of God But to the second branch thereof he gave his Plenary assent according to the tenor of the Act here following which in regard it contains the sum of all their Projects for life-time then past and the ground of all their Insolencies for the times ensuing it shall not grieve me to subjoyn nor be troublesome to the Reader to pass it over if he have not patience enough to go thorow with it Now the tenor of the said Act is as followeth At the Parliament holden at Edenborough June 5. in the Year of God 1592. 42. Our Soveraign Lord and Estates of this present Parliament following the Laudable and Good Example of their Predecessors hath ratified and approved and by the tenor of this present Act ratifies and approves all Liberties Priviledges Immunities and Freedoms whatsoever given and granted by His Highness his Regents in His Name or any of His Predecessors to the True and Holy Kirk presently established within this Realm and declared in the first Act of His Highness Parliament the 20 th day of Octob. 1579. And all and whatsoever Acts of Parliaments and Statutes made of before by His Highness and His Regents anent the Liberty and Freedom of the said Kirk and specially the first Act of Parliament holden at Edenborough the 24 th of October in the year of God 1581 with the whole particular Acts there mentioned which shall be as sufficient as if the same were here mentioned and all other Acts of Parliament made since in favour of the true Kirk and such like ratifies and approves the general Assemblies appointed by the said Kirk and declares That it shall be lawful to the Kirk and Ministers every year at least or oftner pro re natâ as occasion and necessity shall require to hold and keep general Assemblies providing that the King's Majesty or His Commissioners with Him to be appointed by His Highness be present at ilk general Assembly before the dissolving thereof to nominate and appoint time and place when and where the next general Assembly shall be holden And in case neither His Majesty nor His Commissioners be present for the time in that Town where the next general Assembly is holden then and in that case it shall be lesum to the said general Assembly by themselves to nominate and appoint time and place where the next general Assembly of the Kirk shall be kept and holden as they have been used to do in times by-past And also ratifies and approves the Provincial and Synodal Assemblies to be holden by the said Kirk and Ministers twice ilk year as they have been or presently are in use to do within every Province of this Realm And ratifies and approves these Presbyteries and particular Sessions appointed by the said Kirk with the whole Discipline and Jurisdiction of the same agreed upon by His Majesty in conference had by His Highness with certain of the Ministers convened to that effect of the which Articles the tenour followeth 1. Matters to be intreated in Provincial Assemblies 43. Their Assemblies are constitute for weighty matters necessary to be intreated by mutual consent and assistance of Brethren within the Province as need requires This Assembly hath Power to handle order and redress all things omitted or done amiss in the particular Assemblies It hath Power to depose the Office-bearers of the Province for good and just causes deserving deprivation And generally these Assemblies have the whole Power of the particular Elderships whereof they are collected 2. Matters to be intreated in the Presbyteries The Power of the Presbyteries is To use diligent labours in the bounds committed to their charge that the Kirks be kept in good order To enquire diligently of naughty and ungodly persons and to travel to bring them into the way
thoughts of restoring Episcopacy by passing over the Church-Lands to the use of the Crown And to make as sure of it as they could because a three-fold Cord is not easily broken they had before called upon the King to reinforce the Band or National Covenant which had been made for their adhaesion to the true Religion and renouncing Popery For so it was that some suspitions had been raised by the Presbyterians That the King was miserably seduced and enclined to Popery and that the Earl of Lenox had been sent from France for no other purpose but to work Him to it And thereupon the King gave order unto Mr. I. Craige being then a Preacher in the Court to form a short Confession of Faith wherein not only all the Corruptions of the Church of Rome in point of Doctrine but even those also which related unto Discipline and Forms of Worship were to be solemnly abjured Which Confession for example to others the King Himself with all His Court and Council did publickly both subscribe and swear Anno 1580. And the next year He required the like Oath and Subscription from all His Subjects for the securing of those Fears and Jealousies which the Kirk had of Him But in regard this general Confession was not found sufficient to hinder the encrease of Popery for want of some strict Combination amongst the Subjects which professed the Reformed Religion it was desired that a Solemn League or Band might be authorized by which they should be bound to stand to one another in defence thereof that is to say both of their Covenant and Religion against all Opponents The Guisian Papists had projected the like League in France to suppress the Gospel and why should they in Scotland be less zealous for the true Religion than the Guisian Papists for the false Upon which ground the King was easily entreated to consent unto it and first subscribed the Band Himself with all His Family An. 1589 which the next year he caused to be subscribed by all sorts of people as the General Assembly had desired 48. Now in this Covenant and Confession they did not only bind themselves to renounce the Pope together with all the Superstitions and Corruptions of the Church of Rome but in particular to continue in obedience to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Kirk of Scotland and to defend the same according to their vocation and power all the days of their lives And though it cannot be conceived that under those general words of Doctrine and Discipline there could be any purpose to abjure the Episcopal Government which was in being when that Confession was first framed and for many years after yet being now received and subscribed unto and their Presbyteries established by Act of Parliament it was interpreted by the Covenanters of succeeding times Anno 1638 to contain in it an express renouncing of Episcopacy as also of such Rites and Ceremonies as had been introduced amongst them by the Synod of Perth Anno 1618. The sad Effects whereof the King foresaw not at the present but He took order to redress them in the time to come For now the Temporal Estates of Bishops being alienated and annexed to the Crown by Act of Parliament Anno 1587. Episcopacy tacitly abjured by Covenant and that Covenant strengthned by a Band or Association Anno 1590. And finally their Presbyteries setled by like Act of Parliament in this present year Anno 1592. it was not to be thought that ever Bishops or Episcopacy could revive again though it otherwise happened It cannot be denied but that K. IAMES did much despise this Covenant commonly called the Negative Confession when He came into England for taking occasion to speak of it in the Conference of Hampton-Court he lets us know That Mr. Craige the Compiler of it with his renouncings and abhorrings his detestations and abrenounciations did so amaze the simple people that few of them being able to remember all the said particulars some took occasion thereby to fall back to Popery and others to remain in their former ignorance To which he added this short note That if he had been bound to that Form of Craige 's the Confession of his Faith must have been in his Table-Book and not in his Head But what a mean opinion soever K. IAMES had of it the Puritans or Presbyterians of both Kingdoms made it serve their turns for raising a most dangerous Rebellion against his Son and altering the whole Frame of Government both in Church and State which they new-molded at their pleasure and sure I am that at the first entring into this Band the Presbyterians there grew so high and insolent that the King could get no Reason of them in his just demands The King had found by late experience how much they had encroached upon his Royal Prerogative defamed the present Government and reviled his Person And thereupon as he had gratified them in confirming their Discipline so he required them not long after to subscribe these Articles that is to say That the Preacher should yeeld due obedience unto the King's Majesty That they should not pretend any priviledg in their Allegiance That they should not meddle in matters of State That they should not publikely revile His Majesty That they should not draw the people from their due obedience to the King That when they are accused for their Factious Speeches or for refusing to do any thing they should not alledg the inspiration of the Spirit nor feed themselves with colour of Conscience but confess their faults like Men and crave pardon like Subjects But they were well enough they thanked him and were resolved to hold their own Power let Him look to His. AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History OF THE PRESBYTERIANS LIB IX Containing Their Disloyalty Treasons and Seditions in France the Country of East-Friesland and the Isles of Brittain but more particularly in England Together with the severe Laws made against them and the several Executions in pursuance of them from the year 15â—9 to the year 1595. THus have we brought the Presbyterians to their highest pitch in the Kirk of Scotland when they were almost at their lowest fall in the Church of England these being at the very point of their Crucifixion when the others were chanting their Hosanna's for their good success The English Brethren had lost their principal Support by the death of Leicester though he was thought to have cooled much in his affections towards their Affairs But what they lost in him they studied to repair by the Earl of Essex whose Father's Widow he had married trained him up for the most part under Puritan Tutors and married him at the last to Walsingham's Daughter Upon these hopes they made their applications to him and were chearfully welcomed the Gentleman bâ—ing young ambitious and exceeding popular and therefore apt enough to advance their Interest and by theirs his own And he appeared the rather for them at the first to cry quits
the other two In whose behalf when it was moved by one Mr. Wroth That the House should be humble Suitors to Her Majesty for the releasing of such of their Members as were under restraint it was answered by such of the Privy-Councellors as were then Members of the House That Her Majesty had committed them for causes best known to Her self and that to press Her Highness with this Suit would but hinder those whose good it sought That the House must not call the Queen to an account for what she did of Her Royal Authority That the Causes for which they are restrained may be high and dangerous That Her Majesty liketh no such Questions neither did it become the House to deal in such matters Upon which words the House desisted from interposing any further in their behalf but left them wholly to the Queen by whom Wentworth was continued Prisoner for some years after 24. In the same Parliament one Morrise Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster proposed unto the House That some course might be taken by them against the hard courses of Bishops Ordinaries and other Ecclesiastical Judges in their several Courts towards sundry godly Ministers and painful Preachers who deserved more encouragement from them They also spake against Subscription and the Oath Ex Officio and offered a Bill unto the House against the imprisonment of such as refused the same Of this the Queen had present notice and thereupon sends for Coke then Speaker of the House of Commons but afterwards successively Chief Justice of either Bench to whom she gave command to deliver this Message to the House that is to say That it was wholly in Her Power to call to determine to assent or dissent to any thing done in Parliament That the calling of this was only that the Majesty of God might be more Religiously observed by compelling with some sharp Laws such as neglect that Service and that the safety of Her Majesty's Person and the Realm might be provided for That it was not meant they should meddle with matters of State or Causes Ecclesiastical That She wondered that any should attempt a thing so contrary to Her Commandment and that She was highly offended at it and finally that it was Her pleasure That no Bill touching any matters of State or for the Reformation of Causes Ecclesiastical should be there exhibited On the delivery of which Message Morrise is said to have been seized on in the House by a Serjeant at Arms but howsoever seized on and committed Prisoner kept for some years in Tutbury Castle discharged from his Office in the Dutchy and disabled from any Practise in his Profession as a common Lawyer Some others had prepared a Bill to this effect That in lieu of Excommunication there should be given some ordinary Process with such sute and coertion as thereunto might appertain that so the dignity of so high a Sentence being retained and the necessity of mean Process supplied the Church might be restored to its ancient splendor Which Bill though recommended somewhat incogitantly by one of the Gravest Councellors of State which was then in the House was also dashed by Her Majesty's express Command upon a Resolution of not altering any thing the quality of the times considered which had been setled in the Church both by Law and Practise Which constancy of Hers in the preserving of Her own Prerogative and the Church's Power kept down that swelling humour of the Puritan Faction which was even then upon the point of overflowing the banks and bearing down all opposition which was made against them 25. And that they might be kept the better in their natural Channel she caused an Act to be prepared and passed in this present Parliament for retaining them and others of Her Subjects in their due obedience By which it was Enacted for the preventing and avoiding of such Inconveniencies and Perils as might happen and grow by the wicked and dangerous Practices of Seditious Sectaries and Disloyal persons That if any person or persons above the age of sixteen years should obstinately refuse to repair to some Church Chappel or usual place of Common-Prayer to hear Divine Service established or shall forbear to do the same by the space of a Month without lawful cause or should move or perswade any other person whatsoever to forbear and abstain from coming to the Church to hear Divine Service or to receive the Communion according to the Laws and Statutes aforesaid or to come or be present at any unlawful Assemblies Conventicles or Meetings under pretence of Religious Exercise contrary to the Laws and Statutes made in that behalf or should at any time after forty days from the end of that Session by Printing Writing or express Words or Speeches advisedly and purposely go about to move or perswade any of Her Majesty's Subjects or any other within Her Highness Realms and Dominions to deny withstand or impugn Her Majesty's Power and Authority in causes Ecclesiastical united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of the Realm That then every person so offending and convicted of it should be committed unto Prison without Bail or Main-prise till he or they should testifie their Conformity by coming to some Church Chappel or other place of Common-prayer to hear Divine Service and to make open submission and declaration of the same in such form and manner as by the said Statute was provided Now that we may the better see what great care was taken as well by the two Houses of Parliament as by the Queen Her self for preserving the Honour of the Church the Jurisdiction of the Bishops and the Royal Prerogative in both it will not be amiss to represent that Form to the eye of the Reader in which the said Submission was to be delivered The tenour whereof was as followeth viz. 26. I A. B. do humbly confess and acknowledg That I have grievously offended God in contemning Her Majesty's godly and lawful Government and Authority by absenting my self from Church and from hearing Divine Service contrary to the godly Laws and Statutes of this Realm and in using and frequenting disordered and unlawful Conventicles and Assemblies under pretence and colour of exercise of Religion And I am heartily sorry for the same and do acknowledg and testifie in my Conscience That no person or persons hath or ought to have any Power or Authority over Her Majesty And I do promise and protest without any dissimulation or any colour of means of any Dispensation That from henceforth I will from time to time obey and perform Her Majesty's Laws and Statutes in repairing to the Church and hearing Divine Service and do mine utmost endeavour to maintain and defend the same 27. This Declaration to be made in some Church or Chappel before the beginning of Divine Service within three Months after the conviction of the said Offenders who otherwise were to abjure the Realm and to depart the same at such time and place as should be limited
City of Embden and afterwards in all places under his command prohibiting the exercise of all Religion but the Lutheran only Which Prohibition notwithstanding some Anabaptists from the Neighbouring Westphalia found way to plant themselves in Embden where liberty of Trade was freely granted to all comers which allured thither also many Merchants and Artificers with their Wives and Families out of the next-adjoining Provinces of Holland Zealand and West-Friesland then subject to the King of Spain Who being generally Calvinians in point of Doctrine were notwithstanding suffered to plant there also in regard of the great benefit which accrued unto it by their Trade and Manufactures But nothing more encreased the Power and Wealth of that City than the Trade of England removed from Antwerp thither on occasion of the Belgick Troubles and the great fear they had conceived of the Duke of Alva who seemed to breathe nothing but destruction unto their Religion And though the English Trade was removed not long after unto Hambourgh upon the hope of greater Priviledges and Immunities than they had at Embden yet still they kept a Factory in it which added much to the improvement of their Wealth and Power insomuch that the Inhabitants of this Town only are affirmed to have Sixty Ships of One hundred Tun a-piece and Six hundred lesser Barks of their own besides Seven hundred Busses and Fishing Boats maintained for the most part by their Herring-fishing on the Coast of England 44. Having attained unto this Wealth they grew proud withall and easily admitting the Calvinian Doctrines began to introduce also the Genevian Discipline connived at by Ezardus the second the Son of Enno in respect of the profit which redounded by them to his Exchequer though they began to pinch upon him to the diminution of his Power In which condition it remained till his marriage with Catharine the Daughter of Gustavus Ericus King of Sweden who being zealously addicted to the Lutheran Forms and sensible of those great Incroachments which had been made upon the Earl's Temporal Jurisdiction by the Consistorians perswaded him to look better to his own Authority and to regain what he had lost by that Connivence Something was done for the recovering of his Power but it went on slowly hoping to compass that by time and dissimulation which he could not easily obtain by force of Arms. After whose death and the short Government of Enno the second the matter was more stoutly followed by Rodolphus the Nephew of Catharine who did not only curb the Consistorians in the exercise of their Discipline but questioned many of those Priviledges which the unwariness of his Predecessors had indulged unto them The Calvinians had by this time made so strong a Party that they were able to remonstrate against their Prince complaining in the same That the Earl had violated their Priviledges and infringed their Liberties That he had interposed his Power against Right and Reason in matters which concerned the Church and belonged to the Consistory That he assumed unto himself the Power of distributing the Alms or publick Collections by which they use to bind the poor to depend upon them That he prohibited the exercise of all Religions except only the Confession of Ausberg And that he would not stand to the Agreement which was made betwixt them for interdicting all Appeals to the Chamber of Spires Having prepared the way by this Remonstrance they take an opportunity when the Earl was absent arm themselves and seize by force upon his Castle demolished part of it which looks toward the Town and possest themselves of all the Ordnance Arms and Ammunition with an intent hereafter to employ them against him And this being done they govern all Affairs in the Name of the Senate without relation to their Prince making themselves a Free-Estate or Commonwealth like their Belgick Neighbours 45. Extreamly moved with this affront and not being able otherwise to reduce them to a sense of their duty he borrows Men and Arms from Lubeck to compel them to it With which assistance he erects a Fort on the further side of the Haven to spoil their Trade and by impoverishing the people to regain the Town The Senate hereupon send abroad their Edicts to the Nobility and Commons of East-Friesland it self requiring them not to aid their own lawful Prince with Men Arms or Money threatning them if they did the contrary to stop the course of all Provisions which they had from their City and by breaking down their Dams and Sluces to let the Ocean in upon them and drown all their Countrey Which done they make their Applications to the States of Holland requiring their assistance in that common Cause to which they had been most encouraged by their Example not doubting of their Favour to a City of their own Religion united to them by a long intercourse of Trade and resemblance of Manners and not to be deserted by them without a manifest betraying of their own Security All this the States had under their consideration But they consider this withall That if they should assist the Embdeners in a publick way the Earl would presently have recourse for some aid from the Spaniard which might draw a Warr upon them on that side where they lay most open Therefore they so contrived the matter with such Art and Cunning that carrying themselves no otherwise than as Arbiters and Umpires between the Parties they discharged some Companies of Soldiers which they had in West-Friesland who presently put themselves into the Pay of the Embdens and thereby caused the Earl to desist from his Intrenchments on the other side of the Haven After which followed nothing but Warrs and Troubles between the City and the Earl till the year 1606. At what time by the Mediation of the English Ambassador and some other Honourable Friends the differences were compromised to this effect That all the Ordnance Arms and Ammunition which were found in the Castle should be restored unto the Earl That he should have to his own use the whole Profit of the Imposts which were laid on Wine and half the benefit of those Amercements or Fines which should be raised upon Delinquents together with the sole Royalties both of Fishing and Hunting And on the other side That the Embdeners should have free Trade with all the Profits and Emoluments belonging to it which should be granted to them by Letters Patents But for admitting him to any part of the Publick Government or making restitution of his House or Castles the ancient Seat of his abode as there was nothing yeelded or agreed on then so could he never get possession of them from that time to this Which said we must cross over again into the Isle of Brittain where we shall find the English Puritans climbing up by some new devices and the Scottish Presbyterians tumbling down from their former height till they were brought almost to as low a fall as their English Brethren AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The
he did sends him to see the Boy and Burton that he might learn him to behave himself on the like occasions And finding him at last grown perfect sends him to Nottingham with intimation that he should make mention of him in his Fits Darrel is hereupon made Lecturer of the Town of Nottingham that being the Fish for which he angled as being thought a marvellous Bug to scare the Devil And though he had no lawful Calling in that behalf yet was this given out to be so comfortable a Vocation and so warrantable in the sight of God that very few Ministers have had the like there being no Preacher setled there as he gave it out since her Majesty's Reign as if neither Parsons nor Vicars nor any that bear such Popish Names might pass for Preachers 14. After this he pretends occasion for a journey to Lancashire where he finds seven women possest with Devils and out of every one of them was affirmed to have cast as many as had entred into Mary Magdalen Of this he published a Book Anno 1600 though the Exploit was done in this present year Anno 1597. These things being noised abroad by his Consederates this extraordinary Faculty of casting out Devils was most highly magnified and cryed up both in Sermons and Printed Pamphlets as a Candle lighted by God upon a Candlestick in the heart and Center of the Land And no small hopes were built upon it that it would prove a matter of as great consequence as ever did any such Work that the Lord gave extraordinarily since the time that he restored the Gospel and as profitable to all that profess the knowledg of Jesus Christ. Now what this Plot was may appear by this which is deposed by Mr. More one of Mr. Darrel's great Admirers and Companions viz. That when a Prayer was read out of the Common-Prayer-Book in the hearing of those which were possessed in Lancashire the Devils in them were little moved with it but afterwards when Mr. Darrel and one Mr. Dicon did severally use such Prayers as for the present occasion they had conceived then saith he the wicked Spirits were much more troubled or rather the wicked Spirits did much more torment the Parties So little do premeditated Prayers which are read out of a Book and so extreamly do extemporary and conceived Prayers torment the Devil 15. But Summers at the last grown weary of his frequent Counterfeitings tired out with his possessings dispossessings and repossessings and in that Fit discovers all to be but Forgeries and to have been acted by Confederacy Darrell deals with him to revoke his said Confession seeks to avoid it by some shifts discredits it by false Reports and finally procures a Commission from the Arch-bishop of York to whose Province Nottingham belongeth to examine the business A Commission is thereupon directed to Iohn Thorald Esq Sheriff of the County Sir Iohn Byron Knight Iohn Stanhop c. most of them being Darrell's Friends the Commission executed March 20 no fewer than seventeen Witnesses examined by it and the Return is made That he was no Counterfeit But the Boy stands to it for all that and on the last of the same Month confesseth before the Mayor of Nottingham and certain Justices of the Peace the whole contrivement of the Plot and within three days after acts all his Tricks before the Lord Chief Justice at the publick Assizes Upon this news the Boy of Burton also makes the like Confession Darrell thereupon is convented by the High Commissioners at Lambeth and by them committed his Friends and Partizens upon that Commitment are in no small Fury which notwithstanding he and one of his Associates receive their Censure little or nothing eased by the Exclamations of his Friends and Followers who bitterly inveighed against the Judgment and the Judges too To stiâ—â— whose Clamours so maliciously and unjustly raised the story of these leud Impostors is writ by Harsnet then being the Domestick Chaplain of Arch-bishop Whitgift by whom collected faithfully out of the Depositions of the Parties and Witnesses and published in the year next following Anno. 1599. 16. In the same year brake out the Controversie touching Christ's Descent maintained by the Church of England in the litteral sense that is to say That the Soul of Christ being separated from his Body did locally descend into the nethermost Hell to the end that he might manifest the clear light of his Power and Glory to the Kingdom of Darkness triumphing over Satan as before he did over Death and Sin For which consult the Book of Articles Art 4. the Homily of the Resurrection fol. 195. and Nowel's Paraphrase on that Article as it stands in the Creed published in his Authorized Catechism Anno 1572. But Calvin puts another sense upon that Article and the Genevian-English must do the same For Calvin understands by Christ's descending into Hell that he suffered in his Soul both in the Garden of Gethsemanie and upon the Cross all the Torments of Hell even to abjection from God's Presence and Despair it self Which horrid Blasphemy though balked by many of his Followers in the Forreign Churches was taken up and very zealously promoted by the English Puritans By these men generally it was taught in Catechisms and preached in Pulpits That true it was that the death of Christ Jesus on the Cross and his bloodshedding for the remission of our sins were the first cause of our Redemption But then it was as true withall That he must and did suffer the death of the Soul and those very pains which the damned do in Hell before we could be ransomed from the Wrath of God and that this only was the descent of Christ into Hell which we are taught by Christ to believe But more particularly it was taught by Banister That Christ being dead descended into the place of everlasting Torments where in his Soul he endured for a time the very Torments which the damned Spirits without intermission did abide By Paget in his Latin Catechism That Christ alive upon the Cross humbled himself usque ad Inferni tremenda tormenta even to the most dreadful Torments of Hell By Gifford and the Houshold-Catechism That Christ suffered the Torments of Hell the second death abjection from God and was made a Curse i. e. had the bitter anguish of God's Wrath in his Soul and Body which is the fire that shall never be quenched Carlisle more honestly not daring to avouch this Doctrine nor to run cross against the Dictates of his Master affirmed That Christ descended not into Hell at all and therefore that this Article might be thought no otherwise than as an Error and a Fable 17. The Doctrine of the Church being thus openly rejected upon some Conference that passed between Arch-bishop Whitgift and Dr. Thomas Bilson then Bishop of Winchester it was resolved That Bishop Bilson in some Sermons at St. Paul's Cross and other places should publickly deliver what the Scriptures teach touching our
v. 28. The second was Dr. Buckeridg then Master of St. Iohn's Colledg in Oxon and afterwards preferred to the See of Rochester who no less learnedly evinced the King's Supremacy in all Concernments of the Church selecting for his Text the words of same Apostle Rom. 13. v. 1. Next followed Dr. Andrews then Bishop of Chichester who taking for his Text those words of Moses viz. Make thee two Trumpets of silver c. Numb 10. v. 2. convincingly demonstrated out of all Antiquity That the calling of all General and National Councils had appertained unto the Supreme Christian Magistrate Dr. King then Dean of christ-Christ-Church brings up the Rear and taking for his Text those words of the Canticles Cap. 8. v. 11. disproved the calling of Lay-Elders as men that had no Power in governing the Church of Christ nor were so much as heard of in the Primitive times But neither the Learned Discourses of these Four Prelates nor the Arguments of the Scottish Bishops nor the Authority and Elocution of the King could gain at all on these deaf Adders who came resolved not to hear the voice of those Charmers charmed they never so wisely Thus have we seen them in their Crimes and now we are to look upon them in their several Punishments And first the Ministers which had been summoned into England were there commanded to remain until further The six which were condemned for Treason were sentenced by the King to perpetual banishment and never to return to their Native Countrey upon pain of death And as for those which had acknowledged their offence and submitted to mercy they were confined unto the Isles and out-parts of the Kingdom where they may possibly work some good but could do no harm After which Andrew Melvin having made a Seditious Libel against the Altar and the Furniture thereof in His Majesty's Chappel was brought into the Starr-Chamber by an Ore tenus where he behaved himself so malepertly toward all the Lords and more particularly towards the Arch-bishop of Canterbury that he was sentenced to imprisonment in the Tower of London and there remained till he was begged by the Duke of Bouillon and by him made Professor of Divinity in the School of Sedan 21. During the time that all men's Eyes were fastned on the issue of this great Dispute the King thought fit to call a Parliament in Scotland which he managed by Sir George Hume his right trusty Servant not long before created Earl of Dunbar and made Lord Treasurer of that Kingdom His chief Work was to settle the Authority of the King and the Calling of Bishops that they might mutually support each other in the Government of the Church and Stateâ—punc It was supposed that no small opposition would be made against him by some Puritan Ministers who repaired in great numbers to the Town as on their parts it was resolved on But he applyed himself unto them with such Art and Prudence that having taken off their edg the Acts passed easily enough with the Lords and Commons By the first Act the King's Prerogative was confirmed over all Persons and in all Causes whatsoever Which made Him much more Absolute in all Affairs which had relation to the Church than he had been formerly And by the next entituled An Act for Restitution of the Estate of Bishops the Name of Bishops was conferred upon such of the Ministers as by the King were nominated unto any of the Bishop-Sees and thereby authorized to have place in Parliament A course was also taken by it to repossess the Bishops of the Lands of their several Churches as well as their Titles and Degree not that a Plenary re-possession of their Lands was then given unto them but that by a Repeal of the late Act of Annexation the King was put into a capacity of restoring so much of the Rents as remained in the Crown and otherwise providing for them out of his Revenues And that the like distraction might not be made of their Estates for the time to come an Act was passed for restraining such Dilapidations as had impoverish'd all the Bishopricks since the Reformation After which and the dooming of the greater Zealots to their several Punishments he indicts a general Assembly at Linlithgow in December following at which convened One hundred thirty six Ministers and about Thirty three of the Nobility and principal Gentry In this Assembly it was offered in behalf of his Majesty That all Presbyteries should have their constant Moderators for whose encouragement his Majesty would assign to each of them a yearly stipend amounting to One hundred pounds or Two hundred Marks in the Scots account That the Bishops should be Moderators of all Presbyteries in the Towns and Cities where they made their residence as also in Provincial and Diocesan Synods and that the Bishops should assume upon themselves the charge of prosecuting Papists till they returned to their obedience to the King and the Church In the obtaining of which Acts there was no small difficulty but he obtained them at the last though not without some limitations and restrictions super-added to them under pretence of keeping the Commissioners hereafter to be called Bishops within their bounds 22. The Presbyterians notwithstanding were not willing to forgo their Power but strugling like half-dying men betwixt life and death laid hold on all advantages which were offered to them in opposition to the Acts before agreed on Gladstanes Arch-bishop of St. Andrews taking upon him to preside as Moderator in the Synod of Fife being within his proper Diocese and Jurisdiction was for a while opposed by some of the Ministers who would have gone to an Election as at other times The Presbyteries also in some places refused to admit the Bishops for their Moderators according to the Acts and Constitutions of the said Assembly Which though it put the Church into some disorder yet the Bishops carried it at the last the stoutest of the Ministers suâ—mitting in the end unto that Authority which they were not able to contend with In which conjuncture the King gives order for a Parliament to be held in Iune in which He passed some severe Laws against the Papists prohibiting the sending of their Children to be educated beyond the Seas and giving order for the choice of Pedagogues or Tutors to instruct them there as also against Jesuits and the Sayers and Hearers of Mass. The cognizance of several Causes which anciently belonged to the Bishops Courts had of late times been setled in the Sessions or Colledg of Justice But by an Act of this Parliament they are severed from it and the Episcopal Jurisdiction restored as formerly the Lords of the Session being in lieu thereof rewarded with Ten thousand pounds yearly which must be understood according to the Scottish account out of the Customs of that Kingdom It was enacted also That the King from thenceforth might appoint such Habit as to him seemed best to Judges Magistrates and Church-men Which
it pleased God to put into the heart of the late Queen Our most dear Sister to permit and allow unto the Isles of Jersey and â—uernsey parcel of the Dutchy of Normandy the use of the â—â—â—â—ment of the Reformed Churches of the said Dutchy whereof they have stood possessed until Our coming to the Crown For this cause We desiring to follow the pious Example of Our said Sister in this behalf as well for the advancement of the Glory of Almighty God as for the edification of his Church do will and ordain That Our said Isles shall quietly enjoy their said Liberty in the use of Ecclesiastical Discipline there now established Forâ—idding any one to give them any trouble or impeachment so long as they contain themselves in Our obedience and attempt not any thing against the Power and Sacred Word of God Given at our Palace at Hampton-Court the 8th of August in the first year of Our Reign of England 1603. 36. This Letter was communicated unto all whom it might concern in a Synod of both Islands held in Iersey Anno 1605. But long they were not suffered to enjoy the benefit of this Dispensation For sir Iohn Peiton who succeeded Governour of Iersey in the place of Raleigh had of himself no good affections to that Platform and possibly might be furnished with some secret Instructions for altering it in the Island on the first conveniency The ground whereof was laid upon this occasion The Curate of St. Iohn's being lately dead it pleased the Colloquie of that Island according to their former method to appoint one Brevin to succeed him Against this course the Governour the King's Attorney and other the Officers of the Crown protested publickly as being prejudicial to the Rights and Profits of the King Howbeit the Case was over-ruled and the Colloquie for that time carried it Hereupon a Bill of Articles was exhibited to the Lords of the Council against the Ministers of that Island by Peiton the Governour Marret the Attorney and the rest as viz. That they had usurped the Patronage of all Benefices in the Island That thereby they admitted men to Livings without any Form or Presentation and by that means deprived his Majesty of Vacancies and First-fruits That by the connivance to say no worse of it of the former Governours they exercised a kind of Arbitrary Iurisdiction making and disannulling Laws at their own most uncertain pleasure In consideration whereof they humbly pray His Sacred Majesty to grant them such a Discipline as might be fittest to the nature of the Place and less derogatory to the Royal Prerogative 37. In the pursuance of this Project Sir Robert Gardiner once Chief Justice of Ireland and Iames Husley Dr. of the Laws are sent Commissioners unto that Island though not without the colour of some other business To these Commissioners the Ministers give in their Answer which may be generally reduced to these two heads First That their appointment of men into the Ministry and the exercise of Jurisdiction being principal parts of the Church-Discipline had been confirmed unto them by His Sacred Majesty And secondly That the payment of First-fruits and Tenths had never been exacted from them since they were freed from their subordination to the Bishops 〈◊〉 â—onstance to whom formerly they had been due But these Anâ—â—â—â— giving no just satisfaction unto the Council of England and nothing being done in order to a present Settlement a foul deformity both of Confusion and Distraction did suddenly overgrow the face of those wretched Churches For in the former times all such as took upon them any publick Charge either in Church or Common-wealth had bound themselves by Oath to cherish and maintain the Discipline That Oath is now disclaimed as dangerous and unwarrantable Before it was their custom to exact subscription to their Plat-form of all such as purposed to receive the Sacrament but now the King's Attorney and others of that Party chose rather to abstain from the Communion than to yeeld Subscription Nay even the very Elders silly souls that thought themselves as sacro sancti as a Roman Tribune were drawn with Process into the Civil Courts and there reputed with the Vulgar Nor was the Case much better in the Sacred Consistory the Jurates in their Cohu or Town-Hall relieving such by their Authority whom that once paramount Tribunal had condemned or censured And yet this was not all the Mischief which befel them neither Those of the lower rank seeing the Ministers begin to stagger in their Chairs refused to set out their Tythes and if the Curates mean to exact their Dues the Law is open to all comers to try their Title Their Benefices which before were accounted as exempt and priviledged are now brought to reckon for First-fruits and Tenths and that not according to the Book of Constance as they had been formerly but by the will and pleasure of the present Governour And to make up the total sum of their Mis-fortunes one of the Constables preferrs a Bill against them in the common Cohu in which they were accused of Hypocrisie in their Conversation and Tyranny in the Exercise of their Jurisdiction and finally of holding some secret practises against the Governour which consequentially did reflect on the King Himself 38. In this Confusion they address themselves to the Earl of Salisbury then being Lord Treasurer of England and in great credit with King IAMES who seeming very much pleased with their Application advised them to invite their Brethren of the Isle of Guernsey to joyn with them in a Petition to the King for a redress of those Grievances which they then complained of A Counsel which then seemed rational and of great respect but in it self of greater cunning than it seemed in the first appearance For by this means as certainly he was a man of a subtile Wit he gave the King more time to compass his Designs in Scotland before he should declare himself in the present business and by engaging those of Guernsey in the same desires intended to subject them also to the same conclusion But this Counsel taking no effect by reason of the death of the Councellor they fall into another trouble of their own creating The Parish of St. Peters falling void by the death of the Minister the Governour presents unto it one Aaron Messering one that had spent his time in Oxon and had received the Order of Priesthood from the Right Reverend Dr. Bridges then Bishop of that Diocess but of himself a Native of the Isle of Iersey A thing so infinitely stomacked by those of the Colloquy that they would by no means yeeld unto his admission not so much in regard of his presentation by the Power of the Governour as because he had taken Orders from the hands of a Bishop For now they thought that Popery began to break in upon them and therefore that it did concern them to oppose it to the very last A new Complaint is
acquaintance with the English brought them to more sense of Piety And now they took the opportunity to train the people to the Church in the Afternoon by the Authority and Reputation of the present Synod For having entertained the Palatine Catechism in their publick Schools it was resolved that it should be taught in all their Churches on Sunday in the After-noon That the Ministers should be bound to read and expound that Catechism though none were present at the Exercises but those of their own Families only in hope that others might be drawn after their example and that the Civil Magistrate should be employed by the Synod to restrain all Servile Works and other Prophanations of that day wherewith the Afternoons had commonly been spent that so the people might repair to the Catechisings And though some Reformation did ensue upon it in the greater Towns yet in their lesser Villages where men are more intent on their Worldly businesses it remains as formerly 11. As little of the Sabbatarian had the Palatine Churches which in all points adhered tenaciously unto Calvin's Doctrine For in those Churches it was ordinary for the Gentlemen to betake themselves in the After-noon of the Lord's Day unto Hawking and Hunting as the season of the year was fit for either or otherwise in taking the Air visiting their Friends or whatsoever else shall seem pleasing unto them As usual it was also with the Husband-man to spend the greatest part of the After-noon in looking over his Grounds ordering his Cattel and following of such Recreations as are most agreeable to his Nature and Education no publick Divine Offices being prescribed for any part of that Day but the Morning only And so it stood in the year 1612 At what time the Lady ELIZABETH Daughter to K. Iames and Wife to Frederick the fifth Prince Elector Palatine came first into that Countrey whose having Divine Service every After-noon in her Chappel or Closet officiated by her own Chaplains according to the Liturgy of the Church of England gave the first hint unto that Prince to cause the like Religious Offices to be celebrated in his part of the Family afterwards by degrees in all the Churches of Heldenbourgh and finally in most other Cities and Towns of his Dominions Had he adventured no further on the confidence of that Power and Greatness which accrued to him by contracting an Alliance with so great a Monarch it had been happy for himself and the Peace of Christendom But being tempted by Scultetus and some other of the Divines about him Not to neglect the opportunity of advancing the Gospel and making himself the principal Patton of it he fell on some Designs destructive to himself and his Who though he were a Prince of a Flegmatick nature and of small Activity yet being prest by the continual sollicitation of some eager Spirits he drew all the Provinces and Princes which profest the Calvinian Doctrines to enter into a strict League or Union amongst themselves under pretence of looking to the Peace and Happiness of the true Religion 12. It much advantaged the Design that the Calvinians in all parts of Germany had began to stir as men resolved to keep the Saddle or to lose the Horse In Aix the Latins call it Aquisgranum an Imperial City they first appeared considerable for their Power and Numbers Anno 1605 at what time they shrewdly shaked the Estate thereof But being thereupon debarred the exercise of their Religion and punished for the Misdemeanor they kept themselves quiet till the year 1614 when in a popular Tumult they surprise the City secure the principal Magistrates of it and eject the Jesuits And though by the Mediation of the French Agents and those of Iulier's a Peace was for the present clapt up between them yet neither Party was resolved to stand longer to it than might serve their turns But whosoever made the reckoning the Calvinists were at last compelled to pay the shot For the Town being proscribed by Matthias the Emperor and the execution of the Ban committed to Arch-Duke Albert he sends the Marquess of Spinola with an Army thither by whom the Town is brought to a surrender the ancient Magistrates restored and the Calvinians either forced to forsake the place or to submit themselves unto Fine and Ransome if they kept their dwellings Nor did they speed much better in the City of Colen where their Party was not strong enough to suppress the Catholicks and therefore they forsook the City and retired to Mulleime which they began to build and fortifie for their habitation But those of Colen fearing that this new Town might in short time overtop that City both in Wealth and Power addrest themselves unto the Emperor Matthias By whose Command the Duke of Newbourgh falls upon it destroys the greatest part thereof and leaves the finishing of that Work to the Marquess Spinola 13. In Hassia their Affairs succeeded with more prosperous Fortune where Lodowick of the second House of the Lantgraves who had the City of Marperge for his Seat and Residence declared himself in favour of their Forms and Doctrines at such time as the Calvinists of Aix before remembred first began to stirr followed therein by George his Brother commonly called the Lantgrave of Darmstad from the place of his dwelling half of which Town belonging to the Patrimony of the Prince Elector had easily made way for Calvinism into all the rest And though this Lodowick was disturbed in his Government or Possession by his Cousin Maurice commonly called the Lantgrave of Cassells from his principal City who seized upon the Town of Marperge Anno 1612 yet was he shortly after restored to his whole Estate by the Palatine-League which for the time carried a great sway in those parts of Germany But of greater consequence were the agitations about Cleve and Gulick occasioned by a difference between the Marquess of Brandenbourgh and the Duke of Newbourgh about the partage of the Patrimony and Estates of the Duke of Cleve For Iohn-William the last Duke of Cleve deceasing without Issue in the year 1610 left his Estates between the Children of his Sisters of which the eldest called Maria Leonora was married to Albert of Brandenbourgh Duke of Prussia whose Daughter Ann being married to Iohn Sigismund the Elector of Brandenbough was Mother of George-William the young Marquess of Brandenbourgh who in her Right pretended to the whole Estate The like pretence was made by Wolfgangus Guilielmus Duke of Newbourgh descended from the Electoral Family of the Princes Palatine whose Mother Magdalen was the second Sister of the said Iohn-William The first of these Pretenders was wholly of a Lutheran Stock and the other as inclinable to the Sect of Calvin though afterwards for the better carrying on of their Affairs they forsook their Parties 14. For so it hapned that the Duke of Newbourgh finding himself too weak for the House of Brandenbourgh put himself under the protection of the Catholick King who
having concluded a Truce of Twelve years with the States United wanted Employment for his Army and that he might engage that King with the greater confidence he reconciles himself to the Church of Rome and marries the Lady Magdalen Daughter to the Duke of Bavaria the most potent of the German Princes of that Religion which also he established in his own Dominions on the death of his Father This puts the young Marquess to new Counsels who thereupon calls in the Forces of the States Vnited the Warr continuing upon this occasion betwixt them and Spain though the Scene was shifted And that they might more cordially espouse his Quarrel he took to Wife the Sister of Frederick the fifth Prince Elector Palatine and Neece of William of Nassaw Prince of Orange by his youngest Daughter and consequently Cousin-German once removed to Count Maurice of Nassaw Commander-General of the Forces of the Sates Vnited both by Sea and Land This kept the Balance eeven between them the one possessing the Estates of Cleve and Mark and the other the greatest part of Berge and Gulick But so it was that the old Marquess of Brandenbourgh having setled his abode in the Dukedom of Prussia and left the management of the Marquissate to the Prince his Son left him withall unto the Plots and Practises of a subtil Lady Who being throughly instructed in all points of Calvinism and having gotten a great Empire in her Husband's Affections prevailed so far upon him in the first year of their Marriage Anno 1614 that he renounced his own Religion and declared for Her 's which he more cheerfully embraced in hope to arm all the Calvinians both of the Higher and the Lower Germany in defence of his Cause as his Competitor of Newbourgh had armed the Catholicks to preserve his Interest 15. Being thus resolved he publisheth an Edict in the Month of February Anno 1615 published in his Father's Name but only in his own Authority and sole Command under pretence of pacifying some distempers about Religion but tending in good earnest to the plain suppression of the Lutheran forms for having spent a tedious and impertinent Preamble touching the Animosities fomented in the Protestant Churches between the Lutherans and those of the Calvinian Party he first requires that all unnecessary Disputes be laid aside that so all grounds of strife and disaffection might be also buried Which said he next commands all Ministers within the Marquissate to preach the Word purely and sincerely according to the Writings of the holy Prophets and Apostles the Four Creeds commonly received amongst which the Te Deum is to go for one and the Confession of Ausberg of the last Correction and that omitting all new glosses and interpretations of idle and ambitious men affecting a Primacy in the Church and a Power in the State they aim at nothing in their Preachings but the Glory of God and the Salvation of Mankind He commands also That they should abstain from all calumniating of those Churches which either were not subject to their Jurisdiction nor were not lawfully convicted of the Crime of Heresie which he resolved not to connive at for the time to come but to proceed unto the punishment of all those who wilfully should refuse to conform themselves to his Will and Pleasure After which giving them some good Counsel for following a more moderate course in their Preachings and Writings than they had been accustomed to in the times fore-going and in all points to be obedient to their principal Magistrate he pulls off the Disguise and speaks plainly thus 16. These are saith he the Heads of that Reformation which is to be observed in all the Churches of Brandenbourgh that is to say All Images Statua's and Crosses to be removed out of the place of publick Meetings all Altars as the Relicks of Popery and purposely erected for the Sacrifices of the Popish Mass to be taken away that in their room they should set up a Table of a long square Figure covered at all times with a Carpet of Black and at the time of the Communion with a Linnen Cloth That Wafers should be used instead of the former Hosts which being cut into long pieces should be received and broken by the hands of those who were admitted to communicate at the holy Table That ordinary Cups should be made use of for the future instead of the old Popish Chalice That the Vestments used in the Mass should be forborn no Candles lighted in any of their Churches at noon-day No Napkin to be held to those that received the Sacrament nor any of them to receive it upon their knees as if Christ were corporally present The sign of the Cross to be from thenceforth discontinued The Minister not to turn his back to the people at the Ministration The Prayers and Epistles before the Sermon to be from thenceforth read not sung and the said Prayers not to be muttered with a low voice in the Pulpit or Reading-Pew but pronounced audibly and distinctly Auricular Confession to be laid aside and the Communion not to be administred to sick persons in the time of any common Plague or Contagious Sickness No bowing of their knee at the Name of Iesus Nor Fonts of stone to be retained in their Churches the want whereof may be supplied by a common Bason The Decalogue to be repeated wholly without mutilation and the Catechism in some other points no less erroneous to be corrected and amended The Trinity to be adored but not exprest in any Images either carved or painted The words of Consecration in the holy Supper to be interpreted and understood according unto that Analogy which they held with the Sacrament and other Texts of holy Scripture And finally That the Ministers should not be so tyed to preach upon the Gospels and Epistles that were appointed for the day but that they might make choice of any other Text of Scriptures as best pleased themselves Such was the tenour of this Edict on which I have insisted the more at large to show the difference between the Lutheran and Genevian Churches and the great correspondence of the first with the Church of England But this Calvinian Pill did not work so kindly as not to stirr more Humours than it could remove For the Lutherans being in possession would not deliver up their Churches or desert those Usages to which they had been trained up and in which they were principled according to the Rules of their first Reformation And hereupon some Rupture was like to grow betwixt the young Marquess and his Subjects if by the intervention of some honest Patriots it had not been closed up in this manner or to this effect That the Lutheran Forms only should be used in all the Churches of the Marquissate for the contentation of the people and that the Marquess should have the exercise of his new Religion for Himself his Lady and those of his Opinion in their private Chappels 17. But the
in the Liturgy should be expunged and others altered to the worse That Decency and Reverence in officiating God's publick Service should be brought within the compass of Innovations That Doctrinal Calvinism should be entertained in all parts of the Church and all their Sabbath-Speculations though contrary to Calvin's Judgment super-added to it But before any thing could be concluded in those weighty matters the Commons set their Bill on foot against Root and Branch for putting down all Bishops and Cathedral Churches which put a period to that Meeting without doing any thing And though the Bill upon a full debate thereon amongst the Peers was cast out of that House and was not by the course of Parliaments to be offered again yet contrary to all former Custom it was prest from one time to another till in the end they gained the point which they so much aimed at Hereupon followed some Petitions from the Universities in favour of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches without which Learning must be destitute of its chief encouragements and some Petitions from whole Counties in behalf of Episcopacy without which there was like to be no preservative against Sects and Heresies But nothing was more memorable than the inter-pleadings in the House of Commons between Dr. Iohn Hâ—cket one of the Prebendaries of St. Pauls and Arch-Deacon of Bedford and Dr. Cornelius Burges a right doubty Disputant but better skilled in drawing down his Myrmidons than in mustering Arguments the issue of whose Plea was this That though Cathedrals were unnecessary and the Quire-men scandalous yet that their Lands could not be alienated unto private persons without guilt of Sacriledg 9. But little did this edifie with the Leading-part in the House of Commons who were resolved to practise on the Church by little and little and at the last to play at sweep-stake and take all together First therefore they began with taking down the Starr-Chamber and the High Commission without which Courts the Subjects could not easily be kept in order nor the Church from Faction And in the Act for taking down the Court of the High Commission a clause is cunningly inserted which plainly took away all Coercive Power which had been vested in the Bishops and their Under-Officers disabling them from imposing any pain or penalty and consequently from inflicting all Church-Censures on notorious sinners Their Jurisdiction being thus gone it was not likely that their Lands should stay long behind though in good manners it was thought convenient to strip them first from having any place or suffrage in the House of Peers And when they once were rendred useless to the Church and State the Lands would follow of themselves without any great trouble And that they might attain the end which they so much aimed at Burges draws down his Myrmidons to the Doors of he Parliament and teacheth them to cry No Bishops No Bishops with their wonted violence By which confused Rabble some indignities and affronts are very frequently put upon them either in keeping them off from landing if they came by water or offer violence to their persons if they came by Land Which multiplied Injuries gave such just cause of fear and trouble that they withdrew themselves from the House of Peers but sent withall a Protestation to preserve their Rights In which it was declared That all Acts made or to be made in the time of their absence considering their absenâ—e was inforced not voluntary should be reputed void and null to all intents and purposes in the Law whatsoever This Protestation being tendred in the House of Peers communicated to the House of Commons and the supposed offence extreamly aggravated by the Lord Keeper Littleton the Bishops are impeached of Treason nine of them sent Prisoners to the Tower and two committed to the custody of the Gentleman-Usher 10. And there we leave them for a while to look into the Fortunes of the publick Liturgy not like to stand when both the Scots and English Presbyterians did conspire against it The Fame whereof had either caused it totally to be laid aside or performed by halfs in all the Counties where the Scots were of strength and power and not much better executed in some Churches of London wherein that Faction did as much predominate as if it had been under the protection of a Scottish Army But the first great interruption which was made at the officiating of the publick Liturgy was made upon a Day of Humiliation when all the Members of the House of Commons were assembled together at St. Margaret's in Westminster At what time as the Priest began the second Service at the Holy Table some of the Puritans or Presbyterians began a Psalm and were therein followed by the rest in so loud a Tune that the Minister was thereby forced to desist from his duty and leave the Preacher to perform the rest of that day's Solemnity This gave encouragement enough to the rest of that Party to set as little by the Liturgy in the Countrey as they did in the City especially in all such usages and rights thereof as they were pleased to bring within the compass of Innovations But they were more encouraged to it by an Order of the Lower-House bearing date on the 8 th of September Anno 1641. By which all Church-Wardens were required in their several Parishes to remove the Holy Table from the East-end of the Chancel to any other part of the Church to take away the Ralis before it and not to suffer any Tapers Candlesticks or Basons to be placed upon it It was required also by the same That there should be no bowing at the Name of Jesus nor adoration toward the East nor any reverence used in men's approaches to the Holy Table And by the same all Dancing and other lawful Recreations were prohibited on their Lord's-day-Sabbath after the duties of the Day and Catechising turned into After-noon-Sermons directly contrary to His Majesty's Declarations and Instructions given in that behalf And though the Lords refused to join with them in that Vote and sent them back unto an Order of the 16 th of Ianuary by which they had confirmed and enjoined the use of the Liturgy yet Pym commands the Order to be put in execution by a Warrant under his own hand only and that too during the Recess when almost all the Lords and Commons had retired themselves to their several dwellings 11. Hereupon followed such an alteration in all Churches and Chappels that the Church-Wardens pulled down more in a Week or two than all the Bishops and Clergy had been able to raise in two Weeks of years And hereupon there followed such irreverences ni God's publick Service and such a discontinuance of it in too many places that His Majesty was compelled to give new life to it by His Proclamation of the tenth of December and taking order in the same for punishing all the wilful Contemners and Disburbers of it But this Proclamation being published in that point
of time in which the Commons were intent on the Warr of Ireland and the Puritans as much busied in blowing the Trumpet of Sedition in the Kingdom of England it only showed the King's good meaning with his want of Power In which conjuncture hapned the Impeachment and Imprisonment of Eleven of the Bishops Which made that Bench so thin and the King so weak that on the 6 th of February the Lords consented to the taking away of their Votes in Parliament The News whereof was solemnized in most places of London with Bells and Bouâ—â—res Nothing remained but that the King should pass it into Act by his Royal Assent by some unhappy Instrument extorted from Him when he was at Canterbury and signified by His Message to the Houses on the fourteenth of that Month. Which Condescention wrought so much unquietness to His Mind and Conscience and so much unsecureness to His Person for the rest of His Life that He could scarce truly boast of one day's Felicity till God was pleased to put a final period to His Grieâ—s and Sorrows For in relation to the last we find that the next Vote which passed in Parliament deprived Him of His Negative Voice and put the whole Militia of the Kingdom into the hands of the Houses Which was the first beginning of His following Miseries And looking on Him in the first He will not spare to let us know in one of his Prayers That the injury which he had done to the Bishops of England did as much grate upon his Conscience as either the permitting of a wrong way of Worship to be set up in Scotland or suffering innocent blood to be shed under colour of Iustice. 12. For so it was that some of the prevailing-Members in the House of Commons considering how faithfully and effectually the Scots had served them not only voted a Gratuity of Three hundred thousand pounds of good English Money to be freely given them but kept their Army in a constant and continual Pay for Nine Months together And by the terror of that Army they forced the King to pass the Bill for Trienial Parliaments and to perpetuate the present Session at the will of the Houses to give consent for Murthering the Earl of Strafford with the Sword of Justice and suffering the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to be banished from him to fling away the Starr-Chamber and the High-Commission and the Coercive Power of Bishops to part with all his right to Tonnage and Poundage to Ship-money and the Act for Knighthood and by retrenching the Perambulation of His Forests and Chases to leave his Game to the destruction of each Bore or Peasant And by the terror of this Army they took upon them to engage all the Subjects of the Kingdom in a Protestation first hammered on the third of May in order to the condemnation of the Earl of Strafford for maintenance of the Priviledges and Rights of Parliament standing to one another in pursuance of it and bringing all persons to condign punishment who were suspected to oppose them Encouraged also by the same they took upon them an Authority of voting down the Church's Power in making of Canons condemning all the Members of the late Convocation calumniating many of the Bishops and Clergy in most odious manner and vexing some of them to the Grave And they would have done the like to the Church it self in pulling down the Bishops and Cathedral Churches and taking to themselves all their Lands and Houses if by the Constancy and Courage of the House of Peers they had not failed of their Design But at the last the King prevailed so far with the Scots Commissioners that they were willing to retire and withdraw their Forces upon His Promise to confirm the Acts of the Assembly at Glasgow and reach out such a Hand of Favour unto all that Nation as might estate them in a happiness above their hopes On this assurance they march homewards and He followeth after Where he consents to the abolishing of Bishops and alienating all their Lands by Act of Parliament suppresseth by like Acts the Liturgy and the Book of Canons and the five Articles of Perth rewards the chief Actors in the late Rebellion with Titles Offices and Honours and parts with so much of His Royal Prerogative to content the Subjects that He left Himself nothing of a King but the empty Name And to sum up the whole in brief In one hour He unravelled all that excellent Web the weaving whereof had took up more than Forty years and cost His Father and Himself so much Pains and Treasure 13. By this Indulgence to the Scots the Irish Papists are invited to expect the like and to expect it in the same way which the Scots had travelled that is to say by seizing on His Forts and Castles putting themselves into the Body of an Army and forcing many of His good Protestant-Subjects to forsake the Kingdom The Motives which induced them to it their opportunities for putting it in execution and the miscarriage of the Plot I might here relate but that I am to keep my self to the Presbyterians as dangerous Enemies to the King and the Church of England as the Irish Papists For so it hapned that His Majesty was informed at His being in Scotland That the Scots had neither took up Arms nor invaded England but that they were encouraged to it by some Members of the Houses of Parliament on a design to change the Government both of Church and State In which he was confirmed by the Remonstrance of the state of the Kingdom presented to Him by the Commons at His first coming back the forcible attempt for breaking into the Abby of Westminster the concourse of seditious people to the Dores of the Parliament crying out that they would have no Bishops nor Popish Lords and their tumultuating in a fearful manner even at White-Hall Gates where they cryed out with far more horror to the Hearers That the King was not worthy to live that they would have no Porter's Lodg between Him and them and That the Prince would govern better Hereupon certain Members of both Houses that is to say the Lord Kimbolton of the Upper Hollis and Haslerig Hampden Pym and Stroud of the Lower-House are impeached of Treason a Serjeant sent to apprehend them and command given for sealing up their Trunks and Closets 14. But on the contrary the Commons did pretend and declared accordingly That no Member of theirs was to be impeached arrested or brought unto a Legal Trial but by the Order of that House and that the sealing up of their Trunks or Closets was a breach of Priviledg And thereupon it was resolved on Monday Ian. 3. being the day of the Impeachment That if any persons whatsoever should come to the Lodgings of any Member of the House or seize upon their persons that then such Members should require the aid of the Constable to keep such persons in safe custody till the House gave
placed before or about the same should be taken away and the ground levelled with the rest which had been raised for the standing of any such Table within the space of twenty years then last past That all Tapers Candlesticks and Basons which had of late been used on any of the said Tables should also be removed and taken away neither the same nor any such like to be from thenceforth used in God's Publick Service That all Crucifixes Crosses and all Images and Pictures of any one or more Persons of the Trinity or of the Virgin Mary and all other Images and Pictures of Saints should be also demolished and defaced whether they stood in any of the said Churches or Chappels or in any Church-yard or other open place whatsoever never to be erected or renewed again With a Proviso notwithstanding for preserving all Images Pictures and Coats of Arms belonging to any of their Ancestors or any of the Kings of this Realm or any other deceased persons which were not generally considered and beheld as Saints 38. But yet to make sure work of it this Ordinance was re-inforced and enlarged by another of the 9th of May in the year next following wherein besides the particulars before recited they descend to the taking away of all Coaps Surplices and other Superstitious Vestments as they pleased to call them as also to the taking away of all Organs and the Cases in which they stood and the defacing of the same requiring the same course to be also taken in the removing and defacing of Roods Rood-Lofts and Holy-water-water-Fonts as if any such things had been of late erected or permitted in the Church of England as indeed there were not whereupon followed the defacing of all Glass Windows and the demolishing of all Organs within the compass of their power the transposing of the holy Table from the place of the Altar into some other part of the Church or Chancel the tearing and defacing of all Coaps and Surplices or otherwise employing them to domestick uses and finally the breaking down and removing of the Sacred Fonts anciently used for the Ministration of holy Baptism the name of Holy-water-fonts being extended made use of to comprise them also hereupon followed also the defacing and demolishing of many Crosses erected as the Monuments of Christianity in Cities Towns and most of our Country-Villages none being spared which came within the compass of those Enemies of the Cross of Christ. Amongst which Crosses none more eminent for Cost and Workmanship than those of Cheapside in London and Abington in the County of Berks both of them famous for the excellencies of the Statua's which were placed in them more for the richness of the trimming which was used about them But the Divine Vengeance fell on some of the Executioners for a terror to others one of them being killed in pulling down the Cross of Cheapside and another hanged at Stow on the Wold within short time after he had pulled down the first Image of the Cross in Abington And because no Order had been made for the executing of this Order in His Majesty's Chappels as there was in all Cathedral and Parish-Churches a private Warrant was obtained by Harlow a Knight of Herefordshire for making the said Chappels equal to all the rest by depriving them of all such Ornaments of State and Beauty with which they had been constantly adorned in all times since the Reformation And all this done or at the least pretended to be done as the Ordinance tell us as being pleasing unto God and visibly conducing to the blessed Reformation so much desired but desired only as it seems by those Lords and Commons who had a hand in the Design 39. So far they went to show their hatred unto Superstition their dislike of Popery but then they must do somewhat also for expressing their great zeal to the glory of God by some Acts of Piety And nothing seemed more pious or more popular rather than to enjoin the more strict keeping of their Lords-day-Sabbath by some publick Ordinance With this they had begun already on the fifth of May on which it was ordered by no worse men than the Commons in Parliament the Lords being either not consulted or not concurring That His Majesty's Book for tolerating sports on the Lord's Day should be forthwith burned by the hands of the common Hangman in Cheapside and other usual places and that the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex should see the same put in execution which was done accordingly Than which an Act of a greater scorn an Act of greater Insolency and disloyal impudence was never offered to a Soveraign and Annointed Prince So as it was no marvel if the Lords joined with them in the Ordinance of the sixth of April 1644 for to expose all Books to the like disgrace which had been writ or should be writ hereafter by any person or persons against the Morality of the Sabbath By which Ordinance it was also signified That no manner of person whatsoever should publickly cry shew forth and expose to sale any Wares Merchandises Fruits Herbs or other Goods upon that day on pain of forfeiting the same or travel carry burthens or do any act of Labour on it on pain of forfeiting Ten shillings for the said offence That no person from thenceforth on the said day should use exercise keep maintain or be present at any wrestling shooting bowling ringing of Bells for pleasure or pastime Mask Wake otherwise called Feasts Church-Ale Games Dancing Sport or other pastimes whatsoever under the several penalties therein contained And that we may perceive with what weighty cares the heads of these good men were troubled when the whole Nation was involved in Blood and Ruin a Clause was added for the taking down of May-poles also with a Command unto all Constables and Tything-men to see it done under the penalty of forfeiting five shillings weekly till the said May-poles which they looked upon as an Heathenish Vanity should be quite removed Which Nail was driven so far at last that it was made unlawful for any Taylor to carry home a new Suit of Clothes or any Barber to trim the man that was to wear them for any Water-man to Ferry a passenger cross the Thames and finally to any person whatsoever though neither new trimmed or new apparelled to sit at his own door or to walk the streets or take a mouth-full of fresh air in the open Fields Most Rabinical Dotages 40. The day of publick Worship being thus new-molded they must have new Priests also and new Forms of Prayer a new Confession of the Faith new Catechisms and new Forms of Government Towards the first an Ordinance comes out from the Lords and Commons in October following Advice being first had with the Assembly of Divines by which a power was given to some chief men of the Assembly and certain Ministers of London or to any seven or more of them to impose hands upon such persons
time thereof For a preparative whereunto and to satisfie the importunity and expectation of their Brethren of Scotland they attaint the Arch-bishop of High Treason in the House of Commons and pass their Bill by Ordinance in the House of Peers in which no more than seven Lords did concur to the Sentence but being sentenced howsoever by the malice of the Presbyterians both Scots and English he was brought to act the last part of his Tragedy on the 10th of Ianuary as shall be told at large in another place This could presage no good success to the following Treaty For though Covenants sometimes may be writ in blood yet I find no such way for commencing Treaties And to say truth the King's Commissioners soon found what they were to trust to For having condescended to accompany the Commissioners from the Houses of Parliament and to be present at a Sermon preached by one of their Chaplains on the first day of the meeting they found what little hopes they had of a good conclusion The Preacher's Name was Love a Welsh-man and one of the most fiery Presbyters in all the Pack In whose Sermon there were many passages very scandalous to His Majesty's Person and derogatory to His Honour stirring up the people against the Treaty and incensing them against the King's Commissioners telling them That they came with hearts full of Blood and that there was as great a distance betwixt the Treaty and Peace as there was between Heaven and Hell Of this the Oxon Lords complained but could obtain no reparation for the King or themselves though afterwards Cromwel paid the debt and brought him to the Scaffold when he least looked for it 44. But notwithstanding these presages of no good success the King's Commissioners begin the long-wisht-for Treaty which is reduced to these three Heads viz. Concernments of the Church The Power of the Militia and the Warr of Ireland In reference to the first for of the other two I shall take no notice His Majesty was pleased to condescend to these particulars that is to say 1. That freedom be left to all persons whatsoever in matters of Ceremony and that all the penalties of the Laws and Canons which enjoin those Ceremonies be suspended 2. That the Bishops should exercise no act of Iurisdiction or Ordination without the consent and counsel of the Presbyters who shall be chosen by the Clergy of each Diocess out of the gravest and most learned men amongst themselves 3. That the Bishop shall be constantly resident in his Diocess except he be required to attend His Majesty and shall preach every Sunday in some Church or other within the Diocess if he be not hindred either by old age or sickness 4. That Ordination shall be publick and in solemn manner and none to be admitted into Holy Orders but such as are well qualified and approved of by the Rural Presbyters 5. That an improvement be made of all such Vicaridges as belonged to Bishops Deans and Chapters the said improvement to be made out of Impropriations and confirmed by Parliament 6. That from thenceforth no man should hold two Churches with Cure of Souls And 7. That One hundred thousand pound should be forthwith raised out of the Lands belonging to the Bishops and Cathedral Churches towards the satisfaction of the Publick Debts An Offer was also made for regulating the Jurisdiction of Ecclesiastical Courts in Causes Testamentary Decimal and Matrimonial for rectifying some Abuses in the exercise of Excommunication for moderating the excessive Fees of the Bishops Officers and ordering their Visitations to the best advantage of the Church and all this to be done by consent of Parliament 45. His Majesty also offered them the Militia for the space of three years which might afford them time enough to settle the Affairs of the Kingdom had they been so pleased and to associate the Houses with Him in the Warr of Ireland but so as not to be excluded from His Care of that People But these Proposals did not satisfie the Puritan English much less the Presbyterian Scots who were joined in that Treaty They were resolved upon the abolition of Episcopacy both Root and Branch of having the Militia for Seven years absolutely and afterwards to be disposed of as the King and the Houses could agree and finally of exercising such an unlimited power in the Warr of Ireland that the King should neither be able to grant a Cessation or to make a Peace or to show mercy unto any of that people on their due submission And from the rigour of these terms they were not to be drawn by the King's Commissioners which rendred the whole Treaty fruitless and frustrated the expectation of all Loyal Subjects who languished under the calamity of this woful Warr. For as the Treaty cooled so the Warr grew hotter managed for the most part by the same Hands but by different Heads Concerning which we are to know That not long after the beginning of this everlasting Parliament the Puritan Faction became subdivided into Presbyterians and Independents And at the first the Presbyterians carried all before them both in Camp and Council But growing jealous at the last of the Earl of Essex whose late miscarriage in the West was looked on as a Plot to betray his Army they suffered him to be wormed out of his Commission and gave the chief Command of all to Sir Thomas Fairfax with whose good Services and Affections they were well acquainted To him they joined Lieutenant General Oliver Cromwell who from a private Captain had obtained to be Lieutenant to the Earl of Manchester in the associated Counties as they commonly called them and having done good Service in the Battel of Marston-moor was thought the fittest man to conduct their Forces And on the other side the Earl of Brentford but better known by the Name of General Ruthuen who had commanded the King's Army since the Fight at Edg-hill was outed of his Place by a Court-Contrivement and that Command conferred upon Prince Rupert the King's Sisters Son not long before made Duke of Cumberland and Earl of Holderness 46. By these new Generals the Fortune of the Warr and consequently the Fate of the Kingdom which depended on it came to be decided And at the first the King seemed to have much the better by the taking of Leicester though afterwards it turned to his disadvantage For many of the Soldiers being loaded with the Spoil of the place withdrew themselves for the disposing of their Booty and came not back unto the Army till it was too late News also came that Fairfax with his Army had laid siege to Oxon which moved the King to return back as far as Daventry there to expect the re-assembling of his scattered Companies Which hapning as Fairfax had desired he marcht hastily after him with an intent to give him Battel on the first opportunity In which he was confirmed by two great Advantages first by the seasonable coming of Cromwel with
which they had fancied to themselves and shall be better husbanded to the use of their Adversaries though it succeeded worse to his Majesty's person than possibly it might have done if they had suffered him to remain at Holdenby where the Houses fixt him 59. This great turn hapned on the fourth of Iune Anno 1647 before he had remained but four Months in the Power of the Houses Who having brought the Warr to the end desired possest themselves of the King's Person and dismissed the Scots resolved upon disbanding a great part of the Army that they might thereby ease the people of some part of their burthens But some great Officers of the Army had their Projects and Designs apart and did not think it consonant to common prudence that they should either spend their blood or consume their strength in raising others to that Power which being acquired by themselves might far more easily be retained than it had been gotten Upon these grounds they are resolved against disbanding stand on their Guards and draw together towards London contrary to the Will and express Commandment of their former Masters by whom they were required to keep at a greater distance The Officers thereupon impeach some Members of the Lower House and knowing of what great Consequence it might be unto them to get the King into their Power a Plot is laid to bring him into their Head-Quarters without noise and trouble which was accordingly effected as before is said Thus have the Presbyterians of both Nations embroiled the Kingdom first in Tumults and afterwards in a calamitous and destructive Warr. In which the Sword was suffered to range at liberty without distinction of Age Sex or Quality More goodly Houses plundered and burnt down to the ground more Churches sacrilegiously prophaned and spoiled more Blood poured out like Water within four years space than had been done in the long course of Civil-Warrs between York and Lancaster With all which Spoil and publick Ruin they purchased nothing to themselves but shame and infamy as may be shown by taking a brief view of their true condition before and after they put the State into these Confusions 60. And first the Scots not long before their breaking out against their King had in the Court two Lords High Stewards and two Grooms of the Stool successively one after another And at their taking up of Arms they had a Master of the Horse a Captain of the Guard a Keeper of the Privy Purse seven Grooms of eight in his Majesty's Bed-Chamber and an equal number at the least of Gentlemen-Ushers Quarter-waiters Cup-bearers Carvers Sewers and other Officers attending daily at the Table I speak not here of those who had places in the Stables or below the Stairs or of the Servants of those Lords and Gentlemen who either lived about the Court or had Offices in it All which together make up so considerable a number that the Cour might well be called an Academy of the Scots Nation in which so many of all sorts had their Breeding Maintenance and Preferment Abroad they had a Lieutenant of the Tower a Fortress of most consequence in all the Kingdom and a Master-Gunner of the Navy an Office of as great a Trust as the other and more of those Monopolies Suits and Patents which were conceived to be most grievous to the Subjects than all the English of the Court. In the Church they had two Deanries divers Prebendaries and so many Ecclesiastical Benefices as equalled all the Revenues of the Kirk of Scotland All which they had lost like Aesop's Dog catching after a shadow And yet by catching at that shadow they lost all those Advantages which before they had both in Court and Countrey and that not only for the present but in all probability for the time to come Such losers were the Scots by this brutish bargain but whether out of pure zeal to the Holy Discipline or their great love to filthy lucre or the perversness of their nature or the rebellious humour of the Nation or of all together let them judg that can 61. If then the Scots became such losers by the bargain as most sure they did as sure it is that their dear Brethren in the Cause of Presbytery the Puritans or Presbyterians in the Realm of England got as little by it The English Puritans laid their heads and hands together to embroil the Realm out of a confidence that having alienated the greatest part of the Tribes from the House of David they might advance the Golden Calves of their Presbyteries in Dan and Bethel and all other places whatsoever within the Land And for the maintenance thereof they had devoured in conceit all Chapter-Lands and parcelled them amongst themselves into Augmentations But no sooner had they driven this Bargain but a Vote passed for selling those Lands towards the payment of the Debts of the Commonwealth Nor have they lived to see their dear Presbytery setled or their Lay-Elders entertained in any one Parish of the Kingdom For the advancement whereof the Scots were first incouraged to begin at home and afterwards to pursue their Work by invading in England Nor fared it better with those great Achitophels of the popular Party who laboured in the raising of a new Common-wealth out of the Ruins of a Glorious and Ancient Monarchy To which end they employed the Presbyterians as the fittest Instruments for drawing the people to their side and preaching up the piety of their Intentions Which Plot they had been carrying on from the first coming of this King to the Crown of England till they had got His Sacred Person into their possession Which made them a fit parallel to those Husband-men in St. Matthew's Gospel Matt. 21.38 who said amongst themselves This is the Heir come let us kill him and let us seize on his Inheritance A Commonwealth which they had founded and so modelled in their brains that neither Sir Thomas Moor's Vtopia nor the Lord Verulam's new Atlantis nor Plato's Platform nor any of the old Idea's were equal to it The Honours and Offices whereof they had distributed amongst themselves and their own dependance But having brought the King though as it chanced by other hands to the End they aimed and being intent on nothing more than the dividing of that rich Prey amongst themselves gratifying one another with huge sums of Money and growing fat on the Revenues of the Crown and the Lands of the Church and guarded as they thought by invincible Armies they were upon a sudden scattered like the dust before the wind turned out of all and pulickly exposed to contempt and scorn All which was done so easily with so little noise that the loss of that exorbitant Power did not cost so much as a broken Head or a bloody Nose in purchasing whereof they had wasted so many Millions of Treasure and more than One hundred thousand Lives Thus have we seen the dangerous Doctrines and Positions the secret Plots and open
confused Rabble of the Knoxian Brethren brake in upon them dismounted the Image brake off his head against the stones scattered all the Company pulled the Priests Surplices over their Ears beat down their Crosses and in a word so discomposed the Order of that mock-Solemnity that happy was the man who could first save himself in some House or other neither their Bag-pipes nor their Banners their Tabrets nor their Trumpets which made a Principal part in that days triumph though free enough from superstition in themselves could escape their fury but ran the same Fortune with the rest And though no diligence was wanting for finding out the principal actors in that Commotion yet as the story hath informed us the Brethren kept themselves together in such Companies singing of Psalms and openly encouraging one another that no body durst lay hands upon them 7. Finding by this experiment that they were strong enough to begin the work it was thought fit to call back Knox to their assistance to which end they dispatched their Letters to him in the March next following to be conveyed by one Iames Sym whom they had throughly instructed in all particulars touching their affairs In May the Letters are delivered the contents whereof he first communicateth to his own Congregation and afterwards to Calvin and the rest of the Brethren of that Consistory by whom it was unanimously declared unto him that he could not refuse that Vocation unless he would shew himself rebellious unto his God and unmerciful to his native Country He returned answer thereupon That he would visit them in Scotland with all convenient expedition and comes accordingly to Dieppe in October following where contrary to expectation he is advertised by Letters from some secret Friends that all affairs there seemed to be at a stand so that his coming to them at that time might be thought unnecessary Highly displeased with such a cooling Card as he did not look for he sends his Letters thence to the Nobility and principal Gentry in which he lets them know how much he was confounded for travailing so far in their Affairs by moving them to the most Godly and most Learned men by which he means Calvin and the Consistorians who at that time did live in Europe whose judgements and grave counsels he conceived expedient as well for the assurance of their own Consciences as of his own that it must needs redound both to his shame and theirs if nothing should succeed in such long consultations that he left his Flock and Family at Geneva to attend their service to whom he should be able to make but a weak account of his leaving them in that condiâ—ion if he were asked at his return concerning the impediment of his purposed Journey that he fore-saw with grief of spirit what grievous plagues what misery and bondage would most inevitably befal that miserable Realm and every Inhabitant thereof if the power of God with the liberty of his Gospel did not deliver them from the same that though his words might seem sharp and to be somewhat undiscreetly spoken yet wise men ought to understand that a true Friend can be no flatterer especially when the question is concerning the Salvation both of body and soul not onely of a few men but of States and Nations that if any perswade them for fear of dangers which might follow to faint in their intended purpose though otherwise he might seem to be wise and friendly yet was he to be accounted foolish and their mortal enemie in labouring to perswade them to prefer their worldly rest to Gods Praise and Glory and the friendship of the wicked before the salvation of their Brethren that they ought to hazard their own lives be it against Kings or Emperours for the deliverance of the people from spiritual bondage for which cause onely they received from their Brethren Tribute Honour and Homage at Gods Commandment Finally having laid before them many strong inducements to quicken them unto the work he ends with this most memorable Aphorism which is indeed the sum and substance of the whole Consistorian Doctrine in the present case that the Reformation of Religion and of publick enormities doth appertain to more then the Clergy or chief Rulers called Kings 8. On the receiving of these Letters they are resolved to proceed in their former purpose and would rather commit themselves and all theirs to the greatest dangers then suffer that Religion which they called Idolatry any longer to remain amongst them or the people to be so defrauded as they had been formerly of that which they esteemed to be the onely true preaching of Christ's Gospel And to this end they entred into a common Bond or Covenant in the name of themselves their Vassals Tenants and dependants dated upon the third of Decemb and subscribed by the Earls of Arguile Glencarne and Morton the Lords Lorne Ereskin of Dun c. the Tenour of which was as followeth viz. 9. We perceiving how Satan in his members the Antichrists of our time cruelly do rage seeking to overâ—hrow and destroy the Gospel of Christ and his Congregation ought according to our bounden duty to strive in our Masters cause even unto the death being certain of the victory in him The which one duty being well considerâ—d we do promise before the Majesty of God and his Congregation that we by his Grace shall with all diligence continualâ—y apply our whole power substance and our very lives to maintain set forward and establish the most blessed Word of God and his Congregation And shall labour according to our power to have faithful Ministers truely and purely to minister Christs Gospel and Sacraments to his people we shall maintain them nourish them and defend them the whole Congregation of Christ and every Member thereof according to our whole powers and waging of our lives against Sathan and all wicked power that doth intend tyranny or trouble against the aforesaid Congregation Vnto the which holy Word and Congregation we do joyn us and so do forsake and renounce the Congregation of Antichrist with all the Superstitious Abomination and Idolatry thereof And moreover shall declare our selves manifest enemies thereto by this our faithful promise before God testified to this Congregation by our subscription of these presents 10. Having subscribed unto this Bond their next care was to issue out these directions following for the promoting of the work which they were in hand with 1. That in all Parishes of that Realm the Common-prayer-book that is to say the Common-prayer book of the Church of England should be read upon the Sundays and Holydays in the Parish-Church together with the Lessons of the Old and New Testament by the same appointed 2. That preaching and interpretation of Scripture be had and used in private Houses without any great convention of the people at them till it should please God to put it into the heart of the Prince to allow thereof in publick Churches And
had they stood to that they had been unblameable but finding by the Subscriptions which they had received from all parts of the Kingdom that they were nothing inferiour to their Adversaries in power and number they were not able to hold long in so good an humour Howsoever it was thought expedient for the avoiding of Scandal that they should first proceed in the way of supplication to the Queen and Council in which it was desired that it might be lawful for them to meet publickly or privately for having the Common-prayers in the vulgar tongue that the Sacrament of Baptism might be administred in the same Tongue also the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in both kindes according to Christs Institution and that a Reformation might be made of the wicked lives of Prelates Priests and other Ecclesiastical persons The Queen of Scots was in the mean time Married to the Daulphin of France upon whose head it was desired by the French that at the least the Matrimonial Crown should be solemnly placed and that all the French Nation should forthwith be naturalized in the Realm of Scotland For the better effecting whereof in the following Parliament the Queen Regent thought it no ill peece of State-craft so far to gratifie the Petitioners in their desires as to license them to meet in publick or private for the exercise of their own Religion so that it were not in the City of Edenborough or the Port of Leith for fear some Tumult or Sedition might ensue upon it But not content with this Indulgence they were resolved to move the Parliament for an Abrogation of all former Laws made against Sects and Heresies by which they might incur the loss of Life Land or Liberty and that none of their profession should be condemned for Heresie unless they were first convinced by the Word of God to have erred from the Faith which the holy Spirit witnesseth to be necessary to mans Salvation 11. But hereunto they could not get the Queens consent And thereupon they caused a Protestation to be drawn and openly pronounced in the face of the Parliament in which it was declared amongst other things that neither they nor any other of the Godly who pleased to joyn with them in the true Faith grounded upon the Word of God should incur any danger of Life or Lands or other particular pains for not observing such acts as have passed heretofore in favour of their Adversaries or for violating such Rites as have been invented by man without the Commandment of God that if any Tumult or Uproar should happen to arise in the Realm or that any violence should be used in reforming of such things as were amiss in the state of the Church the blame should not be laid on them who had desired that all things might be rectified by publick Order And finally that they pretended to no other end but onely for the reforming of such abuses as were found in Religion and therefore that they might no otherwise be thought of then as faithful and obedient Subjects to Supreme Authority And now the Scheme begins to open the Town of Perth by some called St. Iohnstone declared in favour of the Lords of the Congregation which name they had took unto themselves the news whereof was so unpleasing to the Queen that she commanded the Lord Ruthuen a man of principal Authority in the parts adjoyning to take some order for suppressing those Innovations in Religion which some busie people of that Town had introduced To which he answered That he was able if she pleased to force their bodies and to seize their goods but that he had no power to compel their Consciences which answer did not more displease the Queen then it encouraged those of the Congregation who now from all parts flocked to Perth as a Town strong by scituation well fortified and standing in a fruitful Country from whence they might receive all necessaries if any open force or violence should be used against them 12. Knox in the mean time had retreated to his charge at Geneva not thinking fit to tempt that danger by an unseasonable return which he had so narrowly escaped at his being there He onely waited opportunity to go back with safety and would not stir though frequently sollicited by his Friends in Scotland In so much that means was made to Calvin by especial Letters to re-ingage him in the Cause Which Letters were brought to him in the Month of November Anno 1558. And that it may appear what influence Calvin had upon all the counsels and designes of the Congregation he is advertised from time to time of their successes of the estate of their Affairs whether good or bad in so much that when the Queen Regent had fed them with some flattering hopes Calvin is forthwith made acquainted with their happiness in it And who but he must be desired to write unto her that by his Grave counsel and exhortation she might be animated to go forward constantly in promoting the Gospel But though these Letters came to Calvin in the Month of November yet we finde not Knox in Scotland till the May next following when those of his party had possessed themselves of the Town of Perth though he loved Calvin well and the Gospel better yet all that a man hath he will give for his life and Knox was dearer to himself then either of them But unto Perth he comes at last on the fifth of May. In the chief Church whereof he preached such a thundring Sermon against the Adoration of Images and the advancing of them in places of Gods publick Worship as suddenly beat down all the Images and Religious Houses within the Precincts of that Town For presently after the end of the Sermon when almost all the rest of the people were gone home to dinner some few which remained in the Church pullâ—d down a glorious Tabernacle which stood on the Altar broke it in pieces and defaced the Images which they found therein Which being dispatched they did the like execution on all the rest in that Church and were so nimble at their work that they had made a clear riddance of them before the tenth man in the Town was advertised of it The news hereof causeth the Rascal Multitude so my Author calls them to resort in great numbers to the Church But because they found that all was done before they came they fell with great fury on the Monastery of Carthusian Monks and the Houses of the Preaching and Franciscan Fryars beginning wiâ—h the Images first but after spoyling them of all their provisions Bedding and Furniture of Houshold which was given for a prey unto the poor And in the ruinating of these Houses they continued with much force and eagerness so that within the compass of two days they had left nothing standing of those goodly Edifices but the outward Walls 13. It was reported that the Queen was so inraged when she heard the news that she vowed