be made of this Canon what their Reason was they best know I returned Answer belike in this sort That the Canon stood behind the Curtain and would not be throughly understood by every Man yet advised the Printing in regard of the necessary use of it For let this Canon be in force and right use made of it and a National Church may ride safe by God's Ordinary Blessing through any Storm which without this Latitude it can never do The next Charge is in 2. The Title prefixed to these Canons by our Prelates For there 't is thus Canons agreed on to be proponed to the several Synods of the Kirk of Scotland And is thus changed by Canterbury Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical c. Ordained to be observed by the Clergy He will not have Canons to come from the Authority of Synods but from the Power of Prelates or from the Kings Prerogative I perceive they mean to sift narrowly when the Title cannot scape But truly in this Charge I am to seek which is greater in my Accusers their Ignorance or their Malice Their Ignorance in the Charge or their Malice in the Inference upon it The Title was Canons agreed upon to be proponed to the Synods of the Kirk of Scotland And this was very fit to express the Prelates intendment which for ought I know was to propose them so But this Book which was brought to me was to be Printed And then that Title could not stand with any Congruity of Sense For no Church uses to Print Canons which are to be proponed to their Synods but such as have been proposed and agreed on Nor did this altering of the Title in any the least thing hinder those worthy Prelates from Communicating them with their Synods before they Printed them And therefore the Inference must needs be extream full of Malice to force from hence that I would not have Canons come from the Authority of Synods but from the Power of Prelates or the King's Prerogative Whereas most manifest it is that the fitting of this Title for the Press doth neither give any Power to Prelates nor add to the King's Prerogative more than is his due nor doth it detract any thing from the Authority of Synods For I hope the Bishops had no purpose but to Ordain them in Synod to be observed by the Clergy c. and Approved and Published by the King's Consent and Authority After this comes 3. The formidable Canon Cap. 1. 3. threatning no less than Excommunication against all such Persons whatsoever shall open their Mouths against any of these Books proceeded not from our Prelates nor is to be found in Copies sent from them but is a Thunderbolt forged in Canterbury's own Fire First whether this Canon be to be found in the Copies sent from your Prelates or not I cannot tell but sure it was in the Copy brought to me or else my Memory forsakes me very strangely Secondly after all this Noise made of a Formidable Canon because no less is threatned than Excommunication I would fain know what the Church can do less upon Contempt of her Canons Liturgy and Ordinations than to Excommunicate the Offenders or what Church in any Age laid less upon a Crime so great Thirdly suppose this Thunderbolt as 't is called were forged in Canterbury's Fire yet that Fire was not outragious For this Canon contains as much as the 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Canons of the Church of England made in the beginning of the gracious Reign of King James And yet to every one of those Canons there is an Excommunication in Facto affixed for every one of these Crimes single Whereas this Canon shoots this one Thunderbolt but once against them all And this I would my Accusers should know that if no more Thunderbolts had been forged in their Fire than have been in mine nor State nor Church would have Flamed as of late they have done 4 Our Prelates in divers Places witness their dislike of Papists A Minister shall be deposed if he shall Rushw. be found negligent to convert Papists Cap. 8. 15. The Adoration of the Bread is a Superstition to be condemned Cap. 6. 6. They call the Absoluteness of Baptism an Errour of Popery Cap. 6. 2. But in Canterbury's Edition the Name of Papists and Popery are not so much as mentioned Here 's a great general Accusation offered to be made good by three Particulars The general is that in the Copy of the Canons which their Prelates sent there 's a dislike of Papists But none in the Edition as it was alter'd by me Now this is utterly untrue for it is manifest cap. 1. 1. There is express care taken for the King's Majesty's Jurisdiction over the Estate Ecclesiastical and abolishing all Foreign Power repugnant to it And again in the same Canon That no Foreign Power hath in his Majesty's Dominions any Establishment by the Law of God And this with an Addition That the Exclusion of all such Power is just And Cap. 2. 9. 't is Ordained that every Ecclesiastical Person shall take the Oath of Supremacy And Cap. 10. 3. All Readers in any Colledge or Schools shall take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy And sure I think 't is no great matter whether Papists or Popery be Named so long as the Canons go so directly against them This for the General Now for the three Particulars And first That which was in Cap. 8. 15. That a Minister shall be deposed if he be found negligent to convert Papists I did think fit to leave out upon these two Grounds The one that the Word Negligent is too general an Expression and of too large an extent to lay a Minister open to Deposition And if Church-Governours to whom the execution of the Canons is committed should forget Christian Moderation as they may Pati humana a very worthy Minister might sometimes be undone for a very little Negligence for Negligence is Negligence be it never so little Besides I have learned out of the Canons of the Church of England that even gross Negligence in a matter as great as this is is punished but with Suspension for three Months The other Ground why I omitted this clause is Because I do not think the Church of Scotland or any other particular Church is so blessed in her Priests as that every of her Ministers is for Learning and Judgment and Temper Able and Fit to convert Papists And therefore I did think then and do think yet that it is not so easie a work or to be made so common but that it is and may be much fitter for some able selected Men to undertake And if any Man think God's Gifts in him to be neglected as Men are apt to overvalue themselves let them try their Gifts and labour their Conversion in God's Name But let not the Church by a Canon set every Man on work lest their Weak or Indiscreet Performance hurt the Cause and blemish the Church The
Articles Which follow in haec Verba The Eighth Article 8. That for the better advancing of his Trayterous Purpose and Design he did abuse the great Power and Trust his Majesty reposed in him and did intrude upon the Places of divers great Officers and upon the Right of other his Majesty's Subjects whereby he did procure to himself the Nomination of sundry Persons to Ecclesiastical Dignities Promotions and Benefices belonging to his Majesty and divers of the Nobility Clergy and others and hath taken upon him the commendation of Chaplains to the King by which means he hath preferred to his Majesty's Service and to other great Promotions in the Church such as have been Popishly affected or otherwise Vnsound and Corrupt both in Doctrine and Manners The Ninth Article 9. He hath for the same Trayterous and Wicked intent chosen and imployed such Men to be his Chaplains whom he knew to be Notoriously disaffected to the Reformed Religion grosty addicted to Popish Superstition and Erroneous and Vnsound both in Judgment and Practice and to them or some of them he hath committed the Licensing of Books to be Printed by which means divers False and Superstitious Books have been Published to the great Scandal of Religion and to the 〈◊〉 of many of his Majesty's Subjects The Fourteenth Day of my Hearing At the ending of the former days Charge I was put off to this day which held The First Charge was concerning Mr. Damport's leaving his Benefice in London and going into Holland 1. The First Witness for this was Quaterman a bitter Enemy of mine God forgive him He speaks as if he had fled from his Ministry here for fear of me But the Second Witness Mr. Dukeswell says that he went away upon a Warrant that came to Summon him into the High Commission The Truth is my Lords and 't is well known and to some of his best Friends that I preserved him once before and my Lord Veer came and gave me Thanks for it If after this he fell into danger again Majus Peccatum habet I cannot preserve Men that will continue in dangerous courses He says farther and in this the other Witness agrees with him That when I heard he was gone into New-England I should say my Arm should reach him there The Words I remember not But for the thing I cannot think it fit that any Plantation should secure any Offender against the Church of England And therefore if I did say my Arm should reach him or them so offending I know no Crime in it so long as my Arm reached no Man but by the Law 2. The Second Witness Mr. Dukeswell adds nothing to this but that he says Sir Maurice Abbot kept him in before For which Testimony I thank him For by this it appears that Mr. Damport was a dangerous Factious Man and so accounted in my Predecessor's Time and it seems Prosecuted then too that his Brother Sir Maurice Abbot was fain being then a Parishioner of his to labour hard to keep him in The Second Charge was concerning Nathaniel Wickens a Servant of Mr. Pryns 1. The First Witness in this Cause was William Wickens Father to Nathaniel He says his Son was Nine Weeks in divers Prisons and for no Cause but for that he was Mr. Pryn's Servant But it appears apud Acta that there were many Articles of great Misdemeanour against him And afterwards himself adds That he knew no Cause but his refusing to take the Oath Ex Officio Why but if he knew that then he knew another Cause beside his being Mr. Pryn's Servant Unless he will say all Mr. Pryn's Servants refuse that Oath and all that refuse that Oath are Mr. Pryn's Servants As for the Sentence which was laid upon him and the Imprisonment that was the Act of the High-Commission not mine Then he says That my Hand was first in the Warrant for his Commitment And so it was to be of course 2. The Second Witness was Sarah Wayman She says that he refused to take the Oath Therefore he was not committed for being Mr. Pryn's Servant She says that for refusing the Oath he was threatned he should be taken pro Confesso And that when one of the Doctors replyed that could not be done by the Order of the Court I should say I would have an Order by the next Court Day 'T is manifest in the Course of that Court that any Man may be taken pro Confesso that will not take the Oath and answer Yet seeing how that party of Men prevailed and that one Doctors doubting might breed more Difference to the great Scandal and Weakning of that Court I publickly acquainted his Majesty and the Lords with it Who were all of Opinion that if such Refusers might not be taken pro Confesso the whole Power of the Court was shaken And hereupon his Majesty sent his Letter under his Signet to command us to uphold the Power of the Court and to proceed She says farther that he desired the sight of his Articles which was denyed him It was the constant and known Course of that Court that he might not see the Articles till he had taken the Oath which he refused to do 3. The Third Witness was one Flower He agrees about the business of taking him pro Confesso But that 's answerd He adds that there was nothing laid to his Charge and yet confesses that Wickens desired to see the Articles that were against him This is a pretty Oath There were Articles against him which he desired to see and yet there was nothing laid to his Charge 4. Then was produced his Majesty's Letter sent unto us And herein the King requires us by his Supream Power Ecclesiastical to proceed c. We had been in a fine case had we disobeyed this Command Besides my Lords I pray mark it we are enjoyned to proceed by the King 's Supream Power Ecclesiastical and yet it is here urged against me that this was done to bring in Popery An Excellent new way of bringing in Popery by the King's Supremacy Yea but they say I should not have procured this Letter Why I hope I may by all Lawful ways preserve the Honour and just Power of the Court in which I sat And 't is expressed in the Letter that no 〈◊〉 was done than was agreeable to the Laws and Customs of the Realm And 't is known that both an Oath and a taking pro Confesso in point of refusal are used both in the Star-Chamber and in the Chancery 5. The last Witness was Mr. Pryn who says That his Man was not suffered to come to him during his Soarness when his ears were Cropped This Favour should have been asked of the Court of Star-Chamber not of me And yet here is no Proof that I denyed him this but the bare Report of him whom he says he employed Nor do I remember any Man's coming to me about it The Third Charge followed it was concerning stopping of Book
in their Cause and medled in decernendo in determining and that before-hand what the Prelats should do and sometimes in Commanding the Orthodox Prelats to Communicate with the Arrians This they refused to do as being against the Canons of the Council of Nice And then his Answer was Yea but that which I will shall go for Canon But then we must know withal that Athanasius reckn'd him for this as that Antichrist which Daniel Prophesied of Hosius also the Famous Confessor of those Times condemned in him that kind of medling in and with Religion And so doth St. Hilary of Poictiers Valentinian also the Younger took upon him to judge of Religion at the like presuasion of Auxentius the Arrian but he likewise was sharply reproved for it by St. Ambrose In like manner Maximus the Tyrant took upon him to judge in Matters of Religion as in the Case of Priscillian and his Associates But this also was checkt by St. Martin Bishop of Tours Where it is again to be observed that though these Emperours were too busie in venturing upon the determination of Points of Faith yet no one of them went so far as to take Power from the Synods and give it to the Senate And the Orthodox and Understanding Emperours did neither the one nor the other For Valentinian the Elder left this great Church-work to be done by Church-Men And though the Power to call Councils was in the Emperour And though the Emperours were sometimes personally present in the Councils and sometimes by their Deputies both to see Order kept and to inform themselves yet the decisive Voices were in the Clergy only And this will plainly appear in the Instructions given by the Emperor Theodosius to Condidianus whom he sent to supply his place in the Council of Ephesus which were That he should not meddle with Matters of Faith if any came to be debated And gives this Reason for it Because it is unlawful for any but Bishops to mingle himself with them in those Consultations And Basilius the Emperour long after this in the Eighth General Council held at Constantinople 〈◊〉 870. affirms it of the Laity in general That it is no way lawful for them to meddle with these things But that it is proper for the Patriarchs Bishops and Priests which have the Office of Government in the Church to enquire into these Things And more of this Argument might easily be added were that needful or I among my Books and my Thoughts at liberty And yet this crosses not the Supremacy which the King of England hath in Causes Ecclesiastical as it is acknowledged both by the Church and Law For that reaches not to the giving of him Power to determine Points of Faith either in Parliament or out or to the acknowledgment of any such Power residing in him or to give him Power to make Liturgies and publick Forms of Prayer or to Preach or Administer Sacraments or to do any thing which is meerly Spiritual But in all things which are of a mixed Cognizance such as are all those which are properly called Ecclesiastical and belong to the Bishops External Jurisdiction the Supremacy there and in all things of like Nature is the Kings And if at any time the Emperour or his Deputy sit Judge in a Point of Faith it is not because he hath any right to judge it or that the Church hath not Right but meerly in case of Contumacy where the Heretick is wilful and will not submit to the Church's Power And this the Hereticks sometimes did and then the Bishops were forced to Appeal thither also but not for any Resolution in the point of Faith but for Aid and Assistance to the just Power of the Church I cannot but remember a very Prudent Speech utter'd in the beginning of the late preceding Parliament and by that Lord who now made this The occasion was A Lord offer'd to deliver a Message from the King before he was formally brought into the House and his Patent shew'd This Lord who thinks Church-Ceremonies may so easily be alter'd stood up and said He would not be against the delivery of the Message he knew not how urgent it might be but desired withal that it might be enter'd that this was yielded unto by Special leave of the House For that saith he though this be but a Ceremony yet the Honour and Safety of the Priviledges of this Great House is preserved by nothing more than by keeping the Ancient Rights and Ceremonies thereof intire And this I think was very wisely spoken and with great Judgment And could my Lord see this in the Parliament and can he not see it in the Church Are Ancient Ceremonies the chief Props of Parliamentary Rights and have they no use in Religion to keep up her Dignity yea perhaps and Truth too The House of Parliament is I confess a Great and Honourable House But the whole Church of Christ is greater And it will not well beseem a Parliament to maintain their own Ceremonies and to kick down the Ceremonies of the National Church which under God made all their Members Christians Most sure I am they cannot do it without ossence both to State and Church and making both a Scorn to Neighbouring Nations Now in the close of all my Lord tells his Fellow Peers and all others in them That if they shall thus wound the Consciences of their Brethren the Separatists they will certainly offend and sin against Christ. Soft and fair But what shall these Lords do if to Humour the Consciences of those Brethren some weak and many wilful and the cunning misleading the simple they shall disgrace and weaken and perhaps overthrow the Religion they profess Shall they not then both wound their own Consciences and most certainly sin against Christ Yes out of all doubt they shall do both Now where it comes to the wounding of Consciences no question can be made but that every Man ought first to look to his own to his Brethrens after A Man must not do that which shall justly wound his Brother's Conscience though he be his Brother in a Separation and stand never so much a-loof from him But he must not wound his own to preserve his Brother from a wound especially such a one as happily may cure him and by a timely pinch make him sensible of the ill Condition in which he is As for these Men God of his Mercy give them that Light of his Truth which they want and forgive them the boasting of that Light which they presume they have And give them true Repentance and in that Sense a wounded Conscience for their breaking the Peace of this Church And forgive them all their Sins by which they still go on with more and more violence to distract this Church And God of his Infinite Goodness preserve this Church at all times and especially at this time while the Waves of this Sea of Separation
Majesty's Subjects And hath as much as in him lyeth indeavoured to corrupt other Courts of Justice by advising and procuring his Majesty to sell places of Judicature and other Offices and procuring the Sale of them contrary to the Laws and Statutes in that behalf I did least of all expect this Charge For I have not corruptly sold Justice either as Arch-Bishop High-Commissioner Referree or otherwise Nor have I taken any unlawful Gift or Bribe of any his Majesty's Subjects And though in this Article there is no particular mentioned more than in the rest yet I am not ignorant that I have been Charged in the House of Commons for taking two Pipes of Sack from one Mr. Tho. Stone as a Bribe for the abarement of a Fine imposed upon some Men of Chester by the High-Commission at York Which power of Abatement was in me by vertue of a Broad-Seal granted me to that purpose bearing Date ..... Now because there is no Particular known to me but this belonging to this or any other Article and because I know not what course the Parliament will hold with me namely whether they will produce Particulars or proceed by Bill of Attainder I will take opportunity here to unfold all that is true in this odious Accusation of Stone And the Case is thus Mr. Stone knowing that these Fines with other were given by his Majesty towards the repair of St. Pauls in London and that the Trust of that Business with Power to abate any Fine was committed to me under the Broad Seal of England became a very earnest Suiter to me in the behalf of these Chester-Men fined at York And he set divers of his Friends and mine upon me for abatement of this Fine And among others his own Son-in-Law Mr. William Wheat Barrister at Law who had been bred under me in St. John's Colledge in Oxford and Mr. Wheat 's Brother Doctor Baylie then Dean of Salisbury In this Suit Stone pretended and protested too that these Men ought him two or three Thousand Pound I well remember not whether and that he should lose it all if these Mens Fines were not abated For they would hide their Heads and never appear again During this Suit he came twice if not thrice to my Steward and told him he had at present excellent Sack and that he would send in two Pipes for me My Steward at each time refused his motion and acquainted me with it as my Command ever was he should do in Cases of receiving any thing into my House I at every of these times commanded it should not be received Mr. Stone then protested to my Steward that he did not offer this as any Bribe or Gratuity for the business of the Chester-Men but meerly as a Token of his Thankfulness for many and great Kindnesses done by me to himself his Son-in-Law and his Friend Doctor Baylie Notwithstanding this I gave absolute Command the Sack should not be received When Mr. Stone saw this he found a time to send in the Sack when my Steward was not in the House and told my Under-Servants that my Steward was acquainted with it The next time Mr. Stone came to the House which as far as I remember was the very next day My Steward told him he would send back the Sack and was about to do it as he after assured me Then Mr. Stone was very earnest with him that he would save his Credit and not send the Wine back to his disgrace renewing his former deep Protestations that he had in this no relation at all to the Chester-Mens business Upon this my Steward being acquainted with him and his fore-named Friends trusted him and let the Wine stay contrary to my former Commands After all this this unworthy Man put the price of this Wine upon the Chester-Mens Account as if for that Gift I had abated their Fine and so gave them an occasion to complain of me to the Parliament Whereas both the Chester-Men and Mr. Stone himself had before acknowledged I had used them kindly in the Composition for their Fine and wished they had been referred to me for the whole Cause And for my whole carriage in this business I dare refer my self to the Testimony of Mr. Stone 's own Son-in-Law and Doctor Baylie who were the chief Men whom Mr. Stone imployed to me Besides after all this cunning it will appear by my Servants their Accounts that the Wine was not brought into my House in the cunning manner before mentioned till divers days after I had compounded with the Chester-Men for their Fine so a Bribe for doing a business it could not be And upon the whole matter I am verily perswaded considering Stone 's Profession in Religion for he is a Brownist or next Neighbour to him that he did this of set purpose to see if he could insnare me in this way Lastly I desire the Lords and all Men that have had any thing to do with me to look upon me in the whole course of my Life wherein they shall find me untainted with so much as the value of Six-pence in this base way And it is not unknown to the World that for many Years together I had opportunities enough to inrich my self by such a way had I been minded to take that course Whereas now it is well known my Estate is the meanest of any Arch-Bishop's of Canterbury that hath sate for many Years And having carried it thus along for all my Life I presume no Man can be so injurious to me as to think I would now in mine Old Age being Sixty Eight when this was Charged upon me sell either my Conscience or my Honour for a Morsel of Bread or a Cup of Wine And for the other part of this Article I did never advise his Majesty to sell Places of Judicature or other Offices or procure the Sale of them contrary to Law 5. He hath Traiterousty caused a Book of Canons to be Composed and Published and those Canons to be put in Execution without any lawful Warrant and Authority in that behalf In which pretended Canons many Matters are contained contrary to the King's Prerogative to the Fundamental Laws and Statutes of this Realm to the Right of Parliament to the Propriety and Liberty of the Subjects and Matters tending to Sedition and of dangerous Consequence and to the Establishment of a vast unlawful and presumptuous Power in himself and his Successors Many of the which Canons by the practice of the said Arch-Bishop were surreptitiously passed in the last Convocation without due Consideration and Debate others by fear and 〈◊〉 were Subscribed to by the Prelates and Clerks there 〈◊〉 which had never been Voted and passed in the Convocation as they ought to have been And the said Arch-Bishop hath contrived and endeavoured to assure and confirm the Vnlawful and Exorbitant Power which he hath Vsurped and Exercised over his Majesty's Subjects by a Wicked and Vngodly Oath in one
of the said pretended Canons enjoyned to be taken by all the Clergy and many of the Laity of this Kingdom I Composed no Book of Canons The whole Convocation did it with unanimous Consent So either I must be free or that whole Body must be guilty of High-Treason For in that Crime all are Principals that are guilty Accessory there is none Neither did I publish or put in Execution those Canons or any of them but by Lawful Authority And I do humbly conceive and verily believe there is nothing in those Canons contrary either to the King's Prerogative the Fundamental Laws of the Realm the Rights of Paliament the Propriety and Liberty of the Subjects or any matter tending to Sedition or of dangerous consequence or to the establishment of any vast or unlawful Power in my self and my Sucessors Neither was there any Canon in that Convocation surreptitiously passed by any practice of mine or without due Consideration and Debate Neither was there any thing in that Convocation but what was voted first and subscribed after without fear or compulsion in any kind And I am verily perswaded there never sate any Synod in Christendom wherein the Votes passed with more freedom or less practice than they did in this And for the Oath injoyned in the sixth Canon as it was never made to confirm any unlawful or exorbitant Power over his Majesty's Subjects so I do humbly conceive that it is no Wicked or Ungodly Oath in any respect And I hope I am able to make it good in any learned Assembly in Christendom that this Oath and all those Canons then made and here before recited and every Branch in them are Just and Orthodox and Moderate and most necessary for the present Condition of the Church of England how unwelcom soever to the present Distemper 6. He hath traiterously assumed to himself a Papal and Tyrannical Power both in Ecclesiastical and Temporal Matters over his Majesty's Subjects in this Realm of England and other places to the Disinherison of the Crown Dishonour of his Majesty and Derogation of his Supreme Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters And the said Arch-Bishop claims the King 's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as incident to his Episcopal and Archiepiscopal Office in this Kingdom and doth deny the same to be derived from the Crown of England which he hath accordingly exercised to the high contempt of his Royal Majesty and to the destruction of divers of the King's Liege-People in their Persons and Estates I have not assumed Papal or Tyrannicl Power in matters Ecclesiastical or Temporal to the least Disinherison Dishonour or Derogation of his Majesty's Supream Authority in matters Ecclesiastical or Temporal I never claimed the King's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as incident to my Episcopal or Archiepiscopal Office in this Kingdom Nor did I ever deny that the exercise of my Jurisdiction was derived from the Crown of England But that which I have said and do still say concerning my Office and Calling is this That my Order as a Bishop and my Power of Jurisdiction is by Divine Apostolical Right and unalterable for ought I know in the Church of Christ. But all the Power I or any other Bishop hath to exercise any the least Power either of Order or Jurisdiction within this Realm of England is derived wholly from the Crown And I conceive it were Treasonable to derive it from any other Power Foreign or Domestick And for the Exercise of this Power under his Majesty I have not used it to the Contempt but to the great Advantage of his Royal Person and to the Preservation not the Destruction of his People Both which appear already by the great Distractions Fears and Troubles which all Men are in since my Restraint and which for ought I yet see are like to increase if God be not exceeding Merciful above our Deserts 7. That he hath traiterously endeavoured to alter and subvert God's true Religion by Law established in this Realm and instead thereof to set up Popish Superstition and Idolatry and to that end hath declared and maintained in Speeches and Printed Books divers Popish Doctrines and Opinions contrary to the Articles of Religion established by Law He hath urged and injoyned divers Popish and Superstitious Ceremonies without any warrant of Law and hath cruelly persecuted those who have opposed the same by Corporal Punishment and Imprisonment and most unjustly vexed others who refused to conform thereto by Ecclesiastical Censures of Excommunication Suspension Deprivation and Degradation contrary to the Law of the Kingdom I never endeavoured to alter or subvert God's true Religion established by Law in this Kingdom or to bring in Romish Superstition Neither have I declared maintained or Printed any Popish Doctrine or Opinion contrary to the Articles of Religion established or any one of them either to the end mentioned in this Article or any other I have neither urged nor injoyned any Popish or Superstitious Ceremonies without warrant of Law nor have I cruelly persecuted any Opposers of them But all that I laboured for in this particular was that the external Worship of God in this Church might be kept up in Uniformity and Decency and in some Beauty of Holiness And this the rather because first I found that with the Contempt of the Outward Worship of God the Inward fell away apace and Profaneness began boldly to shew it self And secondly because I could speak with no conscientious Persons almost that were wavering in Religion but the great motive which wrought upon them to disaffect or think meanly of the Church of England was that the external Worship of God was so lost in the Church as they conceived it and the Churches themselves and all things in them suffered to lye in such a base and slovenly Fashion in most places of the Kingdom These and no other Considerations moved me to take so much care as I did of it which was with a single Eye and most free from any Romish Superstition in any thing As for Ceremonies all that I injoyned were according to Law And if any were Superstitious I injoyned them not As for those which are so called by some Men they are no Innovations but Restaurations of the ancient approved Ceremonies in and from the beginning of the Reformation and setled either by Law or Custom till the Faction of such as now openly and avowedly separate from the Church of England did oppose them and cry them down And for the Censures which I put upon any I presume they will to all indifferent Men which will Understandingly and Patiently hear the Cause appear to be Just Moderate and according to Law 8. That for the better advancing of his Traiterous Purpose and Designs he did abuse the great Power and Trust his Majesty reposed in him and did intrude upon the Places of divers great Officers and upon the Right of divers his Majesty's Subjects whereby he did procure to himself the Nomination of sundry
the Bar there was Alderman Hoyle of York and some other which I knew not very Angry and saying it was a very strange Conversion that I was like to make of them with other Terms of Scorn I went patiently into the little Committee-Chamber at the entring into the House Thither Mr. Peters followed me in great haste and began to give me ill Language and told me that he and other Ministers were able to name Thousands that they had Converted I knew him not as having never seen him to my remembrance in my Life though I had heard enough of him And as I was going to answer him one of my Councel Mr. Hearn seeing how violently he began stepped between us and told him of his uncivil Carriage towards me in my Affliction And indeed he came as if he would have struck me By this time some occasion brought the Earl of Essex into that Room and Mr. Hearn complained to him of Mr. Peters his usage of me who very Honourably checked him for it and sent him forth Not long after Mr. Hearn was set upon by Alderman Hoyle and used as coursly as Peters had used me and as far as I remember only for being of Councel with such a one as I though he was assigned to that Office by the Lords What put them into this Choler I know not unless they were Angry to hear me say so much in my own Defence especially for the Conversion of so many which I think they little expected For the next day a great Lord met a Friend of mine and grew very Angry with him about me not forbearing to ask what I meant to Name the Particulars which I had mentioned in the end of my Speech saying many Godly Ministers had done more And not long after this the day I now remember not Mr. Peters came and Preached at Lambeth and there told them in the Pulpit that a great Prelat their Neighbour or in words to that effect had bragged in the Parliament-House that he had Converted Two and Twenty but that he had Wisdom enough not to tell how many Thousands he had Perverted with much more abuse God of his Mercy relieve me from these Reproaches and lay not these Mens causeless Malice to their Charge After a little stay I received my Dismission for that time and a Command to appear again the next day at Nine in the Morning Which was my usual Hour to attend though I was seldom called into the House in two Hours after CAP. XXIII The Second Day of my Hearing I Came as commanded But here before the Charge begins I shall set down the Articles upon which according to the Order of March 9. they which were intrusted with the Evidence meant this Day to proceed They were the First and Second Original Articles and the Second Additional Article which follow in these words 1. That he hath Traiterously endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws and Government of the Kingdom of England and instead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government against Law and to that end hath wickedly and traiterously advised his Majesty that he might at his own Will and Pleasure Levy and take Money of his Subjects without their Consent in Parliament and this he affirmed was Warrantable by the Law of God 2. He hath for the better accomplishment of that his traiterous Design advised and procured divers Sermons and other 〈◊〉 to be Preached Printed and Published in which the Authority of Parliaments and the Force of the Laws of the Kingdom are denyed and an Absolute and Unlimited Power over the Persons and Estates of his Majesty's Subjects is maintained and defended not only in the King but also in himself and other Bishops above and against the Law and he hath been a great Protector Favourer and Promoter of the Publishers of such false and Pernicious Opinions Second Additional Article 2. That within the space of Ten Years last past the said Arch-Bishop hath Treacherously endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws of this Realm and to that end hath in like manner endeavoured to advance the Power of the Council-Table the Canons of the Church and the King's Prerogative above the Laws and Statutes of the Realm And for manifestation thereof about Six Years last past being then a Privy Counsellor to his Majesty and sitting at the Council-Table he said That as long as he sate there they should know that an Order of that Board should be of equal Force with a Law or Act of Parliament And at another Time used these Words That he hoped e're long that the Canons of the Church and the King's Prerogative should be of as great Power as an Act of Parliament And at another Time said That those which would not yield to the King's Power he would crush them to pieces These three Articles they begun with and the first Man appointed to begin was Mr. Maynard And after some general things against me as if I were the most violent Man for all illegal Ways The First Particular charged against me was out of my Diary The Words these The King Declared his Resolution for a Parliament in Case of the Scottish Rebellion The First Movers of it were my Lord Deputy of Ireland the Lord Marquess Hamilton and my self And a Resolution voted at the Board to Assist the King in Extraordinary Ways if the Parliament should prove peevish and refuse c. The Time was Decemb. 5. 1639. That which was inforced from these Words was First that I bestowed the Epithete Peevish upon the Parliament And the Second that this Voting to Assist the King in Extraordinary Ways in Case the Parliament refused proceeded from my Counsel 1. To this I replyed And first I humbly desired once for all that all things concerning Law may be saved entire unto me and my Councel to be heard in every such Particular 2. Secondly that the Epithete Peevish was a very Peevish Word if written by me I say If For I know into whose Hands my Book is fallen but what hath been done with it I know not This is to be seen some Passages in that Book are half burnt out whether Purposely or by Chance God knows And some other Papers taken by the same Hand from me are now wanting Is it not possible therefore some Art may be used in this Besides if I did use the Word Peevish it was in my Private Pocket Book which I well hoped should never be made Publick and then no Disgrace thereby affixed to the Parliament And I hope should a Man forget himself in such an Expression of some Passage in some one Parliament and this was no more it is far short of any thing that can be called Treason And yet farther most manifest it is in the very Words themselves that I do not bestow the Title upon that Parliament in that Case but say only If it should prove Peevish which is possible doubtless that in some particulars a Parliament may Though
for the Happiness of this Kingdom I would to God it were impossible But suppose the Word Peevish had been absolutely spoken by me is it Lawful upon Record to say the Parliament An. 42. Hen. 3. was Insanum Parliamentum a Mad Parliament and that in the 6. Hen. 4. Indoctum an Unlearned Parliament and that in the 4. Hen. 6. a Parliament of Clubbs And shall it be High Treason in me to say a Parliament in some one Particular was Peevish or but to suppose if it were Canany Man think that an Vnlearned or a Mad Parliament or one of Clubbs did not do something Peevishly Might my Precessor Tho. Arundel tell the Commons openly in Parliament that their Petitions were Sacrilegious And may not I so much as suppose some one Action of a Parliament to be Peevish but it shall be Treason May an ordinary Historian say of that Vnlearned Parliament that the Commons were fit to enter Common with their Cattle for any Vertue they had more than Brute-Beasts And may not I in my private Notes write the Word Peevish of them without Treason 3. Thirdly Whereas 't is said That the Voting at the Council-Table to assist the King in Extraordinary Ways if c. was by my Counsel There is no such thing in my Diary There is that I with others advised a Parliament But there is not one Word that the Voting mentioned at the Council-Table proceeded from any Advice of mine So there is no Proof from my Diary and other Proof beside that was not so much as urged which was not in Favour but because they had it not For had they had any other Proof I see already it should not have been lost for want of urging Where I desired their Lordships also to observe in what a difficulty I have lived with some Men who will needs make me a great Enemy to Parliaments and yet are angry with me that I was one with others who moved for that Parliament So it seems nothing that I do can content some Men For a Parliament or against it nothing must be well if the Counsel be mine 4. Fourthly For the Voting of Assistance in Extraordinary Ways I was included in the general Vote of the Table and therefore that cannot be called or accounted my Counsel 5. Fifthly It is expressed in my Diary whence all this Proof is taken that it was in and for the Scottish Business and so is within the Act of Oblivion And these Answers I gave to Mr. Brown when in the summing up of the Charge against me in the Honourable House of Commons he made this to be my Counsel to the King And he began with it in his Charging of the Points against Law The Second Particular this Day 〈◊〉 against me was That after the Ending of the late Parliament I did use these Words to the King That now he might use his own Power or Words to that Effect This was attested by Sir Henry Vane the Elder then a Counsellor and present 1. To this my Answer was That I spake not these Words either in Terms or in Sense to the uttermost of my Knowledge 2. Secondly If I had spoken these Words either they were ill advised Words but no Treason and then they come not home to the Charge Or they are Treasonable and then I ought by Law to have been tryed within Six Months Mr. Brown in his Reply to me in the House of Commons said That this Statute expired with the Queen because it concerned none but her and the Heirs of her Body I had here urged Sir Edward Coke as urging this Statute and commending the Moderation of it But I was therein mistaken for he speaks of 1. Eliz. c. 1. And that Statute is in force and is for Tryal within Six Months for such Crimes as are within that Statute So it comes all to one for my Cause so either of the Statutes be in force And to this Charge in general I gave the same Answers which are here 3. Thirdly Sir Henry Vane is in this a single Witness whereas by Lav he that is accused of Treason must be convicted by two Witnesses or his own Confession without Violence neither of which is in this Case And strange it is to me that at such a full Table no Person of Honour should remember such a Speech but Sir Henry Vane 4. Fourthly both this and the former Charge relate to the Scottish Business and so are within the Act of Oblivion which I have Pleaded Besides here is nothing expressed in the Words Charged which savours of Practice Conspiracy Combination or Force and cannot therefore possibly be adjudged Treason especially since there is no Expression made in the Words Witnessed what Power is meant For what should hinder the King to use his own Power But Legal still Since nothing is so properly a King 's own Power as that which is made or declared his own by Law As for the Inference That this was called his own in opposition to Law First Sir Henry Vane is a Witness to the Words only and not to any Inference So the Words have but one Witness and the Inference none And perhaps it were as well for themselves as for Persons questioned in great Courts if they who are imployed about the Evidence would be more sparing of their Inferences many Men laying hold of them without Reason or Proof Lastly For the Honour of Sir Henry Vane let me not forget this he is a Man of some Years and Memory is one of the first Powers of Man on which Age works and yet his Memory so good so fresh that he alone can remember Words spoken at a full Council-Table which no Person of Honour remembers but himself Had any Man else remembred such Words he could not have stood single in this Testimony But I would not have him brag of it For I have read in St Augustin That Quidam Pessimi some even the worst of Men have great Memories and are Tanto Pejores so much the worse for having them God Bless Sir Henry I have stayed the longer upon these Two because they were apprehended to be of more weight than most which follow The next was a Head containing my Illegal Pressures for Money under which the next Particular was That in the Case of Ship-Money I was very angry against one Samuel Sherman of Dedham in Essex That I should say Dedham was a Maritime Town And that when the Sum demanded of him was Named I should say a Proper Sum whereas the Distress came to eleven Subsidies To this I Answered First here was no Proof but Sherman and in his own Cause Secondly he himself says no more than that he believes I was the Instrument of his Oppression as he called it whereas his Censure was laid upon him by the Council-Table not by me Nor was I in any other Fault than that I was present and gave my Vote with the rest So here
a poor Evasion was this Were there no other Lawyers for him because Mr. Solicitor was for me The Truth is all that ever I did in this Business was not only with the Knowledge but by the Advice of my Councel which were Mr. Solicitor Littleton and Mr. Herbert At last this Gentleman submitted himself and the Cause and if as he says Dr. Eden perswaded him to it that 's nothing to me As for the Fine I referred the moderation of it wholly to my Councel They pitched upon Sixteen Hundred Pounds and gave such Days of Payment as that a good part is yet unpaid And this Summ was little above one Years Rent For the Parsonage is known to be well worth Thirteen Hundred Pound a Year if not more And after the Business was setled my Lord Wimbleton came to me and gave me great Thanks for preserving this Gentleman being as he said his Kinsman whom he confessed it was in my Power to ruin For the raising of the Rent Sixty Pounds it was to add Means to the several Curats to the Chappels of Ease And I had no Reason to suffer Sir Ralph Ashton to go away with so much Profit and leave the Curats both upon my Conscience and my Purse And for his Fine to St Pauls I gave him all the Ease I could But since his Son will force it from me he was accused of Adultery with divers Women and confessed all And whither that Fine went and by what Authority I have already shewed And thus much more my Lords at Mr. Bridgman's Intreaty I turned this Lease into Lives again without Fine But since I have this Reward for it I wish with all my Heart I had not done it For I am confident in such a Case of Right your Lordships would have left me to the Law and more I wou'd not have asked And I think this though intreated into it was my greatest Error in the Business 6. The last Instance was about the conversion of some Money to St. Pauls out of Administrations By Name Two Thousand Pounds taken out of Wimark's Estate and Five Hundred out of Mr. Gray's First whatsoever was done in this kind I have the Broad-Seal to Warrant it And for Mr. Wimark's Estate all was done according to Law and all care taken for his Kindred And if I had not stired in the Business Four Men all Strangers to his Kindred would have made themselves by a broken Will Executors and swept all away from the Kindred Secondly for Mr. Gray's Estate after as Odious an expression of it as could be made and as void of Truth as need to be the Proceedings were confessed to be Orderly and Legal and the Charge deserted Then there was a fling at Sir Charles Caesar's getting of the Mastership of the Rolls for Money and that I was his means for it And so it was thence inferred That I sold Places of Judicature or helped to sell them For this they produced a Paper under my Hand But when they had thrown all the Dirt they could upon me they say they did only shew what Probabilities they had for it and what Reason they had to lay it in the end of the Fourth Original Article and so deserted it And well they might For I never had more Hand in this Business than that when he came to me about it I told him plainly as things then stood that Place was not like to go without more Money than I thought any Wise Man would give for it Nor doth the Paper mentioned say any more but that I informed the Lord Treasurer what had passed between us CAP. XXVIII THis day ended I was Ordered to appear again April 4. 1644. And received a Note from the Committee under Serjeant Wild's Hand dated April 1. That they meant to proceed next upon the Fifth and Sixth Original Articles and upon the Ninth Additional which follow in haec verba The Fifth Original He hath Trayterously caused a Book of Canons to be Composed and Published and those Canons to be put in Execution without any lawful Warrant and Authority in that behalf in which pretended Canons many Matters are contained contrary to the King's Prerogative to the Fundamental Laws and Statutes of this Realm to the Right of Parliament to the Propriety and Liberty of the Subjects and Matters tending to Sedition and of dangerous Consequence and to the Establishment of a vast unlawful and presumptus Power in himself and his Successors Many of the which Canons by the practice of the said Arch-Bishop were surreptitiously passed in the late Convocation without due consideration and debate others by fear and compulsion were Subscribed unto by the Prelats and Clerks there assembled which had never been Voted and Passed in the Convocation as they ought to have been And the said Arch-Bishop hath contrived and endeavoured to assure and confirm the Vnlawful and Exorbitant Power which he hath Vsurped and Exercised over his Majesty's Subjects by a Wicked and Vngodly Oath in one of the said pretended Canons injoyned to be taken by all the Clergy and many of the Layety of this Kingdom The Sixth Original He hath Trayterously assumed to himself a Papal and Tyrannical Power both in Ecclesiastical and Temporal Matters over his Majesty's Subjects in this Realm of England and in other places to the Disherison of the Crown Dishonour of his Majesty and Derogation of his Supream Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters And the said Arch-Bishop claims the King 's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as incident to his Episcopal and Archiepiscopal Office in this Kingdom and doth deny the same to be derived from the Crown of England which he hath accordingly exercised to the high contempt of his Royal Majesty and to the destruction of divers of the King's Liege People in their Persons and Estates The Ninth Additional Article That in or about the Month of May 1641. presently after the dissolution of the last Parliament the said Arch-Bishop for the ends and purposes aforesaid caused a Synod or Convocation of the Clergy to be held for the several Provinces of Canterbury and York wherein were made and established by his Means and procurement divers Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical contrary to the Laws of this Realm the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament and Liberty and Property of the Subject tending also to Sedition and of dangerous Consequence And amongst other things the said Arch-Bishop caused a most Dangerous and Illegal Oath to be therein made and contrived the Tenor whereof followeth in these words That I A. B. do Swear that I do approve the Doctrine and Discipline or Government Established in the Church of England as containing all things necessary to Salvation And that I will not endeavour by my self or any other directly or indirectly to bring in any Popish Doctrine contrary to that which is so Established Nor will I ever give my consent to alter the Government of this Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons c. as it
Law But what is the Heart of this Charge It is say they That I Commanded Dr. Duck to prosecute them And what fault was in this For if it were Just why should not Dr. Duck go on with his Prosecution If Dr. Duck and I were both mistaken in the Particular 't was easy getting a Prohibition Yea but they say I said If this must be so Sir Thomas Dacres shall be Bishop of London and I 'll be Sir Tho. Dacres For ought I see in the Weight of it this whole Charge was but to bring in this Speech And truly my Lords my old decayed Memory is not such as that I can recall a Speech Thirteen or Fourteen Years since But if I did say it I presume 't is not High Treason for a Bishop of London to say so much of Sir Tho. Dacres Mr. Browne in the summing up the Charge against me laid the weight of the Charge in this That these Church-Wardens were Prosecuted for Executing the Warrant of a Justice of Peace upon an Ale-House-Keeper for Tipling on the Sabbath-Day contrary to the Statutes Jacobi 7. Caro. 3. To which I Answer'd That those Statutes did concern the Ale-House-Keepers only nor were the Church-Wardens called in question for that but because being Church Officers and a Church-Man Tipling there they did not complain of that to the Chancellor of the Diocess Mr. Browne replied there was no Clergy-Man there I am glad I was so mistaken But that excuseth not the Church-Wardens who being Church Officers should have been as ready to inform the Bishop as to obey the Justice of Peace The Fourth Instance was about Marriages in the Tower which I opposed against Law The Witness Sir William Balfore then Lieutenant of the Tower He says that I did oppose those Marriages And so say I. But I did it for the Subject of England's sake For many of their Sons and Daughters were there undone Nor Banes nor Licence nor any means of fore-knowledge to prevent it Was this ill He says that when he spake with me about it I desired him to speak with his Majesty about it because it was the King's House What could I do with more moderation He confesses he did so and that he moved the King that the Cause might be heard at the Council-Table not at the High-Commission To this his Majesty inclined and I opposed nothing so the general Abuse might be rectified Then he says Mr. Attorney Noye said at the Council-Table it was the King's Free-Chappel and that no Pope in those times offer'd to inhibit there First if Mr. Attorney did so say he must have leave to speak freely in the King's Cause Secondly as I humbly conceive the Chappel for ordinary use of Prisoners and Inhabitants of the Tower where these disorderly Marriages are made is not that which is called the King's Free-Chappel But another in the side of the white Tower by the King's Lodgings Thirdly if it be yet I have herein not offended for I did all that was done by the King's leave not by any assumption of Papal Power Then he tells the Lords that in a Discourse of mine with him at Greenwich about this business I let fall an Oath I am sorry for it if I did But that 's no Treason And I know whom the Deponent thinks to please by this Interposition For to the matter it belongs not In conclusion he says truly that the King committed the business to some Lords and Judges that so an end might be put to it And in the mean time Ordered that till it were ended there should be no more Marriages in the Tower How this business ended I know not It began I am sure by Authority of his Majesty's Grant of the High Commission to question and punish all such Abuses Tam in loois Exemptis quam non Exemptis And his Majesty having Graciously taken this Care for the Indempnity of the Subject I troubled my self no more with it My aim being not to cut off any Priviledges of that Place but only to prevent the Abuses of that Lawless Custom And if cui bono be a considerable Circumstance as it uses to be in all such Businesses then it may be thought on too that this Gentleman the Lieutenant had a considerable share for his part out of the Fee for every Marriage Which I believe was as dear to him as the Priviledge The next Instance is broke out of the Tower and got as far as Oxford The Witness Alderman Nixon He says the Mayor and the Watch set by him were disturbed by the Proctors of the Vniversity and a Constable Imprisoned The Night-Walk and the keeping of the Watch is the ancient known and constant Priviledge of the University for some Hundred of Years and so the Watch set by the Town purposely to pick a quarrel was not according to Law He adds That when the Right Honourable the Earl of Barkshire would have referred the business to the King's Councel Learned I refused and said I would maintain it by my own Power as Chancellor If I did say this which I neither remember nor believe I might better refuse Lawyers not the Law but Lawyers than they a Sworn Judge of their own Nomination which they did The Case was briefly this There were some five or six Particulars which had for divers Years bred much trouble and disagreement between the Vniversity and the City of which to my best remembrance this about the Night-Watch and another about Felons Goods were two of the chief The Vniversity complained to me I was so far from going any by-way that I was resolved upon a Tryal at Westminster-Hall thinking as I after found that nothing but a Legal Tryal would set those two Bodies at quiet The Towns-Men liked not this Came some of the Chief of them to London Prevailed with their Honourable Steward my Lord the Earl of Barkshire to come to me to Lambeth and by his Lordship offer'd to have all ended without so great Charge at Law by Reference to any of the Judges I said I had no mind to wrong the Town or put them to Charge but thought they would fly off from all Awards and therefore stuck to have a Legal Tryal After this some of the chief Aldermen came to me with my Lord and offer'd me that if the Vniversity would do the like they would go down and bring it up under the Mayor and Aldermens Hands that they would stand to such end as Judge Jones who rode that Circuit should upon Hearing make They did so And brought the Paper so Subscribed and therefore I think Alderman Nixon's Hand is to it as well as the rest upon this I gave way the Vniversity accepted the Judge heard and setled And now when they saw my Troubles threatning me they brake all whistled up their Recorder to come and complain at the Council-Table his Majesty present And I remember well I told his Lordship then making the aforesaid Motion to refer to the
King 's Learned Councel that his Lordship well knew what had passed and that being so used as I had been by the Townsmen I would trouble my self with no more References to Lawyers or to that effect And I appeal to the Honour of my Lord whether this be not a true Relation The Sixth Instance concerns the putting of one Mr. Grant out of his Right He says but he is single and in his own Cause That Mr. Bridges was presented to an Impropriation and that suing for Tythe He the said Grant got a Prohibition and Mr. Bridges a Reference to the then Lord Keeper Coventry and my self that we referred them to the Law and that there Grant was Non-Suited and so outed of his Right First in all this there 's nothing said to be done by me alone Secondly the Lord Keeper who well understood the Law thought it fittest to refer them to the Law and so we did If he were there Non-Suited first and outed after it was the Law that put him out not we Yet your Lordships see here was a Prohibition granted in a Case which the Law it self after rejected Then follows the Instance that I had a purpose to Abolish all Impropriations The first Proof alledged was a passage out of Bishop Mountague's Book p. 210. That Tythes were due by Divine Right and then no Impropriations might stand And Mr. Pryn witnessed very carefully That this Book was found in my own Study and given me by Bishop Mountague And what of this Doth any Bishop Print a Book and not give the Arch-Bishop one of them Or must I answer for every Proposition that is in every Book that is in my Study Or that any Author gives me And if Bishop Mountague be of Opinion that Tythes are due by Divine Right what is that to me Your Lordships know many Men are of different Opinions in that difficulty and I am confident you will not determin the Controversie by an Act of Parliament They were nibling at my Diary in this to shew that it was one of my Projects to fetch in Impropriations but it was not fit for their purpose For 't is expressed That if I Lived to see the Repair of St. Paul's near an end I would move his Majesty for the like Grant for the buying in of Impropriations And to buy them from the Owners is neither against Law nor against any thing else that is good nor is it any Usurpation of Papal Power 2. The Second Proof was my procuring from the King such Impropriations in Ireland as were in the King's Power to the Church of Ireland Which Mr. Nicolas in his gentle Language calls Robbing of the Crown My Lords the Case was this The Lord Primate of Armagh writ unto me how ill Conditioned the State of that Church was for want of Means and besought me that I would move his Majesty to give the Impropriations there which yet remained in the Crown for the Maintenance and Incouragement of able Ministers to Live among the People and Instruct them Assuring me they were daily one by one begged away by Private Men to the great prejudice both of Crown and Church And the Truth of this the Lord Primate is now in this Kingdom and will witness I acquainted the King's great Officers the Lord Treasurer and the Chancellor of the Exchequer with it And after long deliberation the King was pleased at my humble Suit to grant them in the way which I proposed Which was that when they came into the Clergies Hands they should pay all the Rents respectively to the King and some consideration for the several Renewings And the Truth of this appears in the Deeds So here was no Robbing of the Crown For the King had all his set Rents reserved to a Penny and Consideration for his Casualties beside And my Lords the increase of Popery is complained of in Ireland Is there a better way to hinder this growth than to place an Able Clergy among the Inhabitants Can an Able Clergy be had without Means Is any Means fitter than Impropriations restored My Lords I did this as holding it the best Means to keep down Popery and to advance the Protestant Religion And I wish with all my Heart I had been able to do it sooner before so many Impropriations were gotten from the Crown into Private Hands Next I was Charged with another Project in my Diary which was to settle some fixed Commendams upon all the smaller Bishopricks For this I said their own Means were too small to live and keep any Hospitality little exceeding Four or Five Hundred Pound a Year I consider'd that the Commendams taken at large and far distant caused a great dislike and murmur among many Men. That they were in some Cases Materia Odiosa and justly complained of And hereupon I thought it a good Church-work to settle some Temporal Lease or some Benefice Sine Cura upon the lesser Bishopricks but nothing but such as was in their own Right and Patronage That so no other Man's Patronage might receive prejudice by the Bishop's Commendam Which was not the least Rock of Offence against which Commendams indanger'd themselves And that this was my intent and endeavour is expressed in my Diary And I cannot be sorry for it Then I was Accused for setting Old Popish Canons above the Laws Mr. Burton is the sole Witness He says it was in a Case about a Pew in which those Canons did weigh down an Act of Parliament I did never think till now Mr. Burton would have made any Canons Pew-Fellows with an Act of Parliament But seriously should not Mr. 〈◊〉 Testimony for this have been produced at the second Instance of this day For in the end of that is just such another Charge and the Answer there given will satisfie this and that by Act of Parliament too After this came a Charge with a great out-cry that since my coming to be Arch-Bishop I had renewed the High-Commission and put in many Illegal and Exorbitant Clauses which were not in the former Both the Commissions were produced Upon this I humbly desired that the Dockett might be Read by which their Lordships might see all those Particulars which were added in the New Commission and so be able to Judge how fit or unfit they were to be added The Dockett was Read And there was no Particular found but such as highly deserved Punishment and were of Ecclesiastical Cognizance as Blasphemy Schism and two or three more of like Nature 1. In this Charge the first Exorbitant Clause they insisted on as added to the new Commission was the Power given in locis Exemptis non Exemptis as if it were thereby intended to destroy all Priviledges No not to destroy any Priviledge but not to suffer Enormous Sins to have any Priviledge Besides this Clause hath ever been in all Commissions that ever were Granted And I then shewed it to the Lords in the Old Commission
considerable also that as the state of the Church yet stands the Laity have the benefit by the Leases which they hold of more than five parts of all the Bishops Deans and Chapters and College Revenues in England And shall it be yet an Eye-sore to serve themselves with the rest of their own This Evidence Mr. Browne whose part it was to summ up the Evidence against me at the end of the Charge wholly omitted For what Cause he best knows The next Charge was about my Injunctions in my Visitation of Winton and Sarum for the taking down of some Houses But they were such as were upon Consecrated Ground and ought not to have been built there and yet with caution sufficient to preserve the Lessees from over-much dammage For it appears apud Acta that they were not to be pulled down till their several Leases were expired And that they were Houses not built long since but by them and that all this was to be done to the end that the Church might suffer no dammage by them And that this demolition was to be made Juxta Decreta Regni according to the Statutes of the Kingdom Therefore nothing injoyned contrary to Law Or if any thing were the Injunction took not place by the very Tenor of that which was charged Mr. Browne omitted this Charge also though he hung heavily upon the like at St. Pauls though there was satisfaction given and not here The Ninth Charge was my intended Visitation of both the Vniversities Oxford and Cambridge For my Troubles began then to be foreseen by me and I Visited them not This was urged as a thing directly against Law But this I conceive cannot be so long as it was with the King's Knowledge and by his Warrant Secondly because all Power of the King's Visitations was saved in the Warrant and that with consent of all parts Thirdly because nothing in this was surreptitiously gotten from the King all being done at a most full Council-Table and great Councel at Law heard on both sides Fourthly because it did there appear that three of my Predecessors did actually Visit the Vniversities and that Jure Ecclesiae suae Metropoliticae Fifthly no Immunity pleaded why the Arch-Bishop should not Visit for the instance against Cardinal Poole is nothing For he attempted to Visit not only by the Right of his See but by his power Legatin from the Pope whereas the University Charters are Express that such power of Visitation cannot be granted per Bullas Papales And yet now 't is charged against me that I challenged this by Papal Power Mr. Browne wholly neglected this Charge also which making such a shew I think he would not have done had he found it well grounded The Tenth Charge was my Visitation of Merton College in Oxford The Witness Sir Nathaniel Brent the Warden of the College and principally concerned in that business He said First that no Visitation held so long But if he consult his own Office he may find one much longer held and continued at All-Souls College by my worthy Predecessor Arch-Bishop Whitgift Secondly he urged that I should say I would be Warden for Seven Years If I did so say there was much need I should make it good Thirdly That one Mr. Rich. Nevil Fellow of that College lay abroad in an Ale-House that a Wench was got with Child in that House and he accused of it and that this was complained of to me and Sir Nath. Brent accused for Conspiring with the Ale-Wife against Nevil I am not here to accuse the one or defend the other But the Case is this This Cause between them was publick and came to Hearing in the Vice-Chancellor's Court Witnesses Examined Mr. Nevil acquitted and the Ale-Wife punished In all this I had no Hand Then in my Visitation it was again complained of to me I liked not the business but forbare to do any thing in it because it had been Legally Censured upon the place This part of the Charge Mr. Browne urged against me in the House of Commons and I gave it the same Answer Lastly when I sate to hear the main Business of that College Sir Nathaniel Brent was beholding to me that he continued Warden For in Arch-Bishop Warham's time a Predecessor of his was expelled for less than was proved against him And I found that true which one of my Visitors had formerly told me namely That Sir Nathaniel Brent had so carried himself in that College as that if he were guilty of the like he would lay his Key under the Door and be gone rather than come to Answer it Yet I did not think it fit to proceed so rigidly But while I was going to open some of the Particulars against him Mr. Nicolas cut me off and told the Lords this was to scandalize their Witnesses So I forbare Then followed the last Charge of this day concerning a Book of Dr Bastwick's for which he was Censured in the High-Commission The Witnesses in this Charge were three Mr. Burton a Mortal Enemy of mine and so he hath shewed himself Mrs. Bastwick a Woman and a Wife and well Tutoured For she had a Paper and all written which she had to say though I saw it not till 't was too late And Mr. Hunscot a Man that comes in to serve all turns against me since the Sentence passed against the Printers for Thou shalt commit Adultery In the Particulars of this Charge 't is first said That this Book was written Contra Episcopos Latiales But how cunningly so-ever this was pretended 't is more than manifest it was purposely written and divulged against the Bishops and Church of England Secondly that I said that Christian Bishops were before Christian Kings So Burton and Mrs. Bastwick And with due Reverence to all Kingly Authority be it spoken who can doubt but that there were many Christian Bishops before any King was Christian Thirdly Mr. Burton says that I applied those words in the Psalm whom thou may'st make Princes in all Lands to the Bishops For this if I did err in it many of the Fathers of the Church mis-led me who Interpret that place so And if I be mistaken 't is no Treason But I shall ever follow their Comments before Mr. Burton's Fourthly Mrs. Bastwick says that I then said no Bishop and no King If I did say so I Learned it of a Wise and Experienced Author King James who spake it out and plainly in the Conference at Hampton-Court And I hope it cannot be Treason in me to repeat it Fifthly Mrs. Bastwick complained that I committed her Husband close Prisoner Not I but the High-Commission not close Prisoner to his Chamber but to the Prison not to go abroad with his Keeper Which is all the close Imprisonment which I ever knew that Court use Lastly the pinch of this Charge is that I said I received my Jurisdiction
was nothing done against Law any Friend may privately assist another in his Difficulties And I am perswaded many Friends in either House do what they justly may when such sad Occasions happen And this Answer I gave to Mr. Brown when he Summed up my Charge in the House of Commons But Mr. Brown did not begin with this but with another here omitted by Mr. Nicolas though he had pressed it before in the Fifteenth day of my Hearing Dr. Potter writ unto me for my advice in some Passages of a Book writ by him as I remember against a Book Intituled Charity mistaken I did not think it fit to amend any thing with my own Pen but put some few things back to his Second Thoughts of which this was one That if he express himself so he will give as much Power to the Parliament in Matters of Doctrine as to the Church This Mr. Brown said took away all Authority from Parliaments in that kind But under Favour this takes away nor all nor any that is due unto them Not all for my Words are about giving so much Power Now he that would not have so much given to the one as the other doth not take away all from either Not any that is due to them For my Words not medling simply with Parliamentary Power as appears by the Comparative Words so much my Intention must needs be to have Dr. Potter so to consider of his Words as that that which is proper to the Church might not be ascribed to Parliaments And this I conceive is plain in the very Letter of the Law The Words of the Statute are Or such as shall hereafter be Ordered Judged or determined to be Heresy by the High Court of Parliament in this Realm with the Assent of the Clergy in their Convocation Where 't is manifest that the Judging and Determining Part for the Truth or Falshood of the Doctrin is in the Church For the Assent of the Church or Clergy cannot be given but in Convocation and so the Law requires it Now Assent in Convocation cannot be given but there must preceed a Debate a Judging a Voting and a Determining Therefore the Determining Power for the Truth or Falshood of the Doctrine Heresie or no Heresie is in the Church But the Judging and determining Power for binding to Obedience and for Punishment is in the Parliament with this Assent of the Clergy Therefore I humbly conceive the Parliament cannot by Law that is till this Law be first altered Determine the Truth of Doctrine without this Assent of the Church in Convocation And that such a Synod and Convocation as is Chosen and Assembled as the Laws and Customs of this Realm require To this Mr. Brown in his Reply upon me in the House of Commons said Two Things The one that this Branch of the Statute of one Eliz. was for Heresie only and the Adjudging of that but medled not with the Parliaments Power in other matters of Religion If it be for Heresie only that the Church alone shall not so Determine Heresie as to bring those grievous Punishments which the Law lays upon it upon the Neck of any Subject without Determination in Parliament then is the Church in Convocation left free also in other matters of Religion according to the First Clause in Magna Charta which establishes the Church in all her Rights And her main and constant Right when that Charter was made and confirmed was Power of Determining in matters of Doctrine and Discipline of the Church And this Right of the Clergy is not bounded or limited by any Law but this Clause of 1. Eliz. that ever I heard of The other was that if this were so that the Parliament might not meddle with Religion but with the Assent of the Clergy in Convocation we should have had no Reformation For the Bishops and the Clergy dissented First it is not as I conceive to be denyed that the King and his High Court of Parliament may make any Law what they please and by their Absolute Power may change Religion Christianity into Turcism if they please which God forbid And the Subjects whose Consciences cannot obey must flye or indure the Penalty of the Law But both King and Parliament are sub graviori Regno and must Answer God for all such abuse of Power But beside this Absolute there is a Limited Power Limited I say by Natural Justice and Equity by which no Man no Court can do more than what he can by Right And according to this Power the Church's Interest must be considered and that indifferently as well as the Parliaments To apply this to the Particular of the Reformation The Parliament in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth would not indure Popish Superstition and by Absolute Power Abolished it without any Assent of the Clergy in Convocation And then in her first Year An. 1559. She had a Visitation and set out her Injunctions to direct and order such of the Clergy as could conform their Judgments to the Reformation But then so soon as the Clergy was settled and that a Form of Doctrine was to be agreed upon to shew the difference from the Roman Superstition a Synod was called and in the Year 1562. the Articles of Religion were agreed upon and they were determined and confirmed by Parliament with the Assent of the Clergy in Convocation and that by a just and orderly Power Nor is the Absolute Power of King and Parliament any way unjust in it self but may many ways be made such by Misinformation or otherwise And this gives the King and the Parliament their full Power and yet preserves this Church in her just Right Just and acknowledged by some that loved her not over well For the Lord Brook tells us That what a Church will take for true Doctrine lies only in that Church Nay the very Heathen saw clearly the Justice of this For M. Lucullus was able to say in Tully That the Priests were Judges of Religion and the Senate of Law The Second Proof is That I made two Speeches for the King to be spoken or sent to the Parliament that then was and that they had some sour and ill Passages in them These Speeches were read to the Lords and had I now the Copies I would insert them here and make the World Judge of them First I might shuffle here and deny the making of them For no Proof is offer'd but that they are in my Hand and that is no necessary Proof For I had then many Papers by me written in my own Hand which were not my making though I transcribed them as not thinking it fit to trust them in other Hands But Secondly I did make them and I followed the Instructions which were given me as close as I could to the very Phrases and being commanded to the Service I hope it shall not now be made my Crime that I was trusted by my Soveraign Thirdly As I did never
Prayer come as from the Publick Spirit of the Church when it is but the Bishop or his Chaplain or some private Spirit that frames them If this be my Lord's meaning far be it from me or any other to impose any Form of set Prayers upon the Church But it is one thing to Impose and quite another to Compose a set Form of Prayer Impose none can but Just Authority Compose all together cannot but some one or more must be singled out to take that pains And all or most may approve what one or few have compiled When it is so approved then it can no more be said to proceed from any private Spirit of this or that Man be it the Bishop or his Chaplain but from the Spirit and Power of the Church My Lord himself being a Prudent Man hath had the Happiness to make Motions in Parliament which have taken the House been approved and Orders drawn up upon them When the Order is so agreed on no Man may say it is an Order of my Lord 's private Spirit but the Order of the House and approved by the publick Spirit and imposed by the Publick Authority of the State And therefore to me it seems strange that my Lord who understands these things so well should neither like of a set Form of Prayers Composed by private Men nor by a certain number of Men and after publickly Confirmed Sure this would make any Man think my Lord likes none however he minces it But my Lord goes farther and says This Injunction is an Vsurpation of Power over the Churches of Christ and over the Gifts and Graces which Christ hath given unto Men which the Apostles never exercised nor would assume And yet they might much better have done it And the same Reasons might have been alledged for it that are now This turns such Forms instead of being Directions into Superstition It seems by this for I am most willing to take my Lord 's Meaning at the fairest that my Lord can digest some set Forms of Prayer but he would have no Injunction upon them So he that would use them might and he that would not might choose and this in short time would bring meer confusion into the Church of God which I hope is not my Lord's Intention to do Besides my Lord cannot but know that this Injunction for our set Form of Service comes not from the Churches Direction and Constitution though her Wisdom and Piety framed it but from the Authority and Power of King and Parliament So that all the Arguments which his Lordship brings here against the Church are equally if not more set against the King and the Parliament Well Why then is not an Injunction of set Form of Prayers fit Why my Lord tells you First because it is an Vsurpation of Power over the Churches of Christ. 'T is indeed an Act of Power but no Usurpation The Church Directing and the Soveraign Enacting ever had this Power since States became Christian. And should I have called it an Vsurpation of Power his Lordship I fear would have called it Treason against the King's Supremacy But I doubt my Lord would have the Churches free from Regal Power having ought to do with them durst he speak out Secondly because it 's an Vsurpation of Power over the Gifts and Graces which God hath given unto Men. Not so neither For whatsoever Gifts or Graces God hath given unto Men they may all have time place and occasions enough to use them to God's Glory and the Comfort of themselves and others and yet in the Publick Service of God submit to that set Form of God's Worship which is enjoyned for Unity and Decency in that External Service So this lays no restraint upon the Gifts and Graces of pious and religious Men But it keeps off bold ignorant and audacious Men from foming out their own shame to the great disorder and scandal of the Church of Christ. As we may see at this day now that Injunction begins to be but a little loosed what Froth and base Stuff is preached to the Consciences of Men. And yet these Men which preach thus scandalously talk of Gifts and Graces none more Thirdly because the Apostles never Exercised nor would Assume this Power of enjoyning a set Form and yet they might better have done it But how doth my Lord know the Apostles never Exercised nor would Assume this Power Out of all doubt the Apostles did Exercise and Assume many things which are not come down to our knowledge And since the Apostles did enjoyn a Form of Doctrine to the Church of Rome and delivered it too And since St. Paul enjoyned the Church at Philippi to walk by a set Rule for a Rule it cannot be unless it be set that so they might learn to mind the same things Phil. 3. And a Form of Ordination by imposition of Hands 1 Tim. 5. for such Persons as should instruct the People in these things And this with a stiff Injunction v. 21. And a Form of wholesome words 2 Tim. 1. And since St. John the Baptist taught his Disciples to pray St. Luke 11. and that it was by some set Form of Prayer I have some Reason to think First because if they did Pray by the Motion of the Spirit only St. John could not teach them that but the Spirit only So either St. John taught them not at all to pray which I hope this Lord will not say against a plain Text. Or else he taught them some set Form which was in his power and theirs to teach and learn Secondly because Christ's Disciples seem to intimate so much For they desire Christ to teach them to pray as St. John taught his Disciples And Christ instantly granting their Request taught them a set Form of Prayer Therefore it is more than probable that St. John taught his so too though the Form be not Recorded in Scripture Upon all which laid together it is probable enough by my Lord's leave that the Apostles did Exercise some set Form that at least which Christ taught them And Assumed Power to enjoyn it upon their Followers But herein yet the Apostles are somewhat beholding to this Lord that he re-allows they might better have done it than any now-adays Well I will not dispute what they might better have done sure I am it may and ought to be done now Fourthly because the same Reasons might then have been alledged for it that are now The same might but not all the same In particular the Church was small then and might with ease be Ordered in comparison of the great Congregations that are now But especially the Apostles and Apostolical Men were then present and could in another manner and with a greater Power than Men now adays both Judge and Order the Gifts and Graces of other Men to the avoiding of confusion in the Church which God by his Apostles would none of Besides the Apostles and some others in
prevailing with him that he told me plainly He would be torn with wild Horses before he would Subscribe that Canon And so we parted The hour of Convocation drew on and we met to Subscribe the Canons When it came to the Bishop of Glocester's turn his Lordship would neither allow the Canons nor reject them but pretended as he had once done about a week before that we had no Power to make Canons out of Parliament time since the Statute of H. 8. It was then told his Lordship that we had the King's Power according to that Statute And that his Lordship was formerly satisfied by the Lawyers Hands as well as we And that this was but a pretence to disgrace our Proceedings the better to hide his unwillingness to Subscribe that Canon against the Papists as appeared by that Speech which he had privately used to me that Morning and with which I publickly charged him upon this occasion and he did as publickly in open Convocation acknowledge that he spake the words unto me Besides this he was further told that in all Synods the Suffragants were to declare themselves by open Affirmation or denyal of the Canons agreed upon and that therefore he ought to express his Consent or his Dissent And though at that time I pressed it no further on him yet it stands with all Reason it should be so For otherwise it may so fall out that the Synod may be disappointed and be able to determine nothing And it seems they were bound to declare in Synod For otherwise when points of difficulty or danger came the Fathers might have with more sasety forborn to Vote which yet they did not For in the Case of Nestorius in the Ephesine Council the heats grew very high between Cyril of Alexandria and John of Antioch and though most of the Votes went with Cyril for the deposition of Nestorius yet the rest held with John who was thought to favour Nestorius So for matter of Opinion and point of Faith when Cyril had set out his twelve Anathematisms Recorded in the Acts of the Ephesine Synod The Eastern Bishops in a Body and Theodoret by himself set out their Confutations of them And this I believe verily they had not done the temper of those Times considered if they might have sate still as Spectators only without declaring their Judgment But this appears more plainly by the Fourth Council of Toledo where it was Decreed That no Man should dare to dissolve the Council till all things were determined and subscribed by the Bishops For this makes it evident that every one who had a Voice in Council was not only to declare his Judgment but subscribe his Name Nor can I see why either the absence of a Bishop being Summon'd thither or his departure thence before all things were concluded should be so penal as by the Ancient Canons it was in case they were not bound to declare their Judgments being once come thither It being all one upon the matter to be absent thence and to say nothing there For by the Council of Arles it was no less than Excommunication And though that was after mitigated in the Council of Orleans to suspension for six Months in the Year 552. Yet in the Council of Sevil in the Year 590. upon sight of the Inconveniencies which fell out upon it it was made Excommunication as it was formerly And a President of this we have in our own Acts of Convocation An. 1571. And this was not only since the Act of the submission of the Clergy but since the Reformation too For there it appears that Richard Cheyney Bishop of Glocester for not attending the Convocation though he were then in Westminster and going home without leave asked of the Arch-Bishop was Excommunicated by the joint consent of all his Brethren Yet I may not deny that in the Question of King Hen. 8th's Marriage with his Brother's Wife when the business came to Voting in the lower House of Convocation fourteen affirmed that the Law De non ducendâ fratris Relictâ for a Man 's not Marrying the Widow of his Brother was indispensable and seven denied and one doubted As also in the Act of the Submission of the Clergy consisting of three Articles when it came to Voting in that House the first Article was denied by eighteen and referred by eight The two other were denied by nineteen and referred by seven the residue consenting unto all But neither of these had they then been thought on could have relieved the Bishop of Glocester Because he neither doubted nor referred but peremptorily said to me that Morning that he would be torn with wild Horses before he would subscribe that Canon against the Papists And yet when it came to the Subscription he would neither affirm nor deny the Canon but would have turn'd it off as if we had not Power to make those Canons Therefore when his Lordship would not do either I with the consent of the Synod suspended him Divers of my Lords the Bishops were very tender of him and the Scandal given by him And John Davenant then Lord Bishop of Salisbury and Joseph Hall then Lord Bishop of Exeter desired leave of the House and had it to speak with my Lord of Glocester to see if they could prevail with him They did prevail and he came back and Subscribed the Canons in open Convocation But I told him Considering his Lordship's Words I did not know with what Mind he Subscribed and would therefore according to my Duty acquaint his Majesty with all the Proceedings and there leave it The Subscription to the Canons went on no one man else checking at any thing And that work ended the Convocation was dissolved Maij 29. being Friday The Convocation thus ended I did acquaint his Majesty with my Lord of Glocester's Carriage and with that which was done upon it His Majesty having other Jealousies of this Bishop besides this resolved to put him to it So his Lordship was brought before the King and the Lords in Council and restrained to his Lodging and a Writ Ne exeat Regnum sent him But this Writ proceeded not for any thing said or done by his Lordship in the Convocation but upon other information which his Majesty had received from some Agents of his beyond the Seas As shall appear hereafter if this be objected against me In the mean time let this Bishop rest for me The Canons thus Freely and Unanimously Subscribed were Printed And at their first Publication they were generally approved in all Parts of the Kingdom and I had Letters from the remotest Parts of it full of Approbation Insomuch that not my self only but my Breth'ren which lived near these Parts and which were not yet gone down were very much Joyed at it But about a Month after their Printing there began some Whisperings against them by some Ministers in London and their Exceptions were spread in writing against them And
this set others on work both in the Western and the Northern Parts Till at last by the practice of the Faction there was suddenly a great alteration and nothing so much cryed down as the Canons The comfort is Christ himself had his Osanna turned into a Crucifige in far less Time By this means the Malice of the Time took another occasion to whet it self against me The Synod thus ended and the Canons having this Success but especially the Parliament ending so unhappily The King was very hardly put to it and sought all other means as well as he could to get supply against the Scots But all that he could get proved too little or came too late for that service For the averse party in the late Parliament or by and by after before they parted ordered things so and filled Mens Minds with such strange Jealousies that the King 's good People were almost generally possest that his Majesty had a purpose to alter the ancient Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom and to bring in Slavery upon his People A thing which for ought I know his Majesty never intended But the Parliament-men which would not relieve the King by their meeting in that Assembly came to understand and inform one another and at their return were able to possess their several Countries with the Apprehensions themselves had and so they did Upon this some Lords and others who had by this time made an underhand solemn Confederacy with a strong faction of the Scots brought an Army of them into the Kingdom For all Men know and it hath been in a manner confessed that the Scots durst not have come into England at that Time if they had not been sure of a Party here and a strong one and that the King should be betrayed on all hands as shall after appear By these and the like means the King being not assisted by his Parliament nor having Means enough to proceed with his Forces in due Time the Scots were brought in as is aforesaid upon both King and Kingdom They under the Conduct of Sir Alexander Leshley their General passed the Tyne at Newborne Aug. .... 1640. and took New-castle the next Day after And all this gross Treason though it had no other end than to Confirm a Parliament in Scotland and to make the King call another in England that so they might in a way of Power extort from him what they pleased in both Kingdoms yet Religion was made almost all the pretence both here and there and so in pursuance of that pretence Hatred spread and increased against me for the Service-Book The King hearing that the Scots were moving Posted away to York Aug. 20. being Thursday There he soon found in what Straights he was and thereupon called his Great Council of all his Lords and Prelates to York to be there by September 24. But in regard the Summons was short and suddain he was Graciously pleased to dispense with the Absence of divers both Lords and Bishops and with mine among the rest How things in Particular succeeded there I know not nor belongs it much to the Scope of this short History intended only for my self But the Result of all was a present Nomination of some Lords Commissioners to treat at Rippon about this Great Affair with other Commissioners from the Scotch Army But before this Treaty at Rippon one Melborne or Meldrum Secretary to general Leshly as he was commonly said to be at the Shire-House in Durham when the Country-Gentlemen met with the chief of the Scottish Army about a composition to be made for Payment of Three Hundred and Fifty Pounds a Day for that County expressed himself in this Manner Septemb. 10. 1640. I wonder that you are so Ignorant that you cannot see what is good for your selves For they in the South are sensible of the good that will ensue and that we came not unsent for and that oftner than once or twice by your own Great Ones There being a Doubt made at these words Great Ones He reply'd your own Lords with farther Discourse These Words were complained of during the Treaty at Rippon to the English Lords Commissioners by two Gentlemen of the Bishoprick of Durham to whom the Words were spoken by Meldrum The Gentlemen were Mr. John Killinghall and Mr. Nicholas Chaytor and they offer'd to Testify the Words upon Oath But the Lords required them only to Write down those Words and set their Hands to them which they did very readily The Lords acquainted the Scotch Commissioners with the Words They sent to Newcastle to make them known to General Leshly He called his Secretary before him questioned him about the Words Meldrum denyed them was that enough against two such Witnesses This Denyal was put in Writing and sent to Rippon Hereupon some of the English Lords Commissioners required that the two Gentlemen should go to Newcastle to the Scotch Camp and there give in their Testimony before General Leshly The two Gentlemen replyed as they had great reason to do that they had rather testify it in any Court of England and could do it with more safety Yet they would go and testify it there so they might have a safe Conduct from the Scottish Commissioners there being as yet no Cessation of Arms. Answer was made by some English Lords that they should have a safe Conduct Hereupon one of the Kings Messengers attendant there was sent to the Scotch Commissioners for a safe Conduct for the Two Gentlemen He brought back Word from the Earl of Dumfermling to whom it was directed that the Two Gentlemen were unwise if they went to give such Testimony at the Camp And then speaking with the Lord Lowdon he came again to the Messenger and told him that such a safe Conduct could not be granted and that he would satisfy the Earl that sent for it who was Francis Earl of Bedford The Messenger returning with this Answer the Gentlemen were dismissed So the business dyed it being not for somebody's safety that this Examination should have proceeded for it is well enough known since that many had their hands in this Treason for Gross Treason it was by the express Words of the Statute of 25 Edw. 3. c. 2. The Truth of all this will be sworn to by both the Gentlemen yet living and by a very honest grave Divine who was present at all these Passages at Rippon and gave them to me in Writing In this Great Council while the Treaty was proceeding slowly enough it was agreed on that a Parliament should begin at London Nov. 3. following And thither the Commissioners and the Treaty were to follow and they did so After this how things proceeded in Parliament and how long the Scotch Army was continued and at how great a charge to the Kingdom appears olsewhere upon Record for I shall hasten to my own particular and take in no more of the Publick than Necessity shall inforce me to make my sad Story hang together
was it from all suspition of being so much as built like an Antient Church Now since his Majesty took down these Galleries and the Stone-wall to make St. Giles's Church a Cathedral there certainly my Command took them not down to make way for Altars and Adoration towards the East which I never commanded in that or any other Church in Scotland The Charge goes on ART II. The second Novation which troubled our Peace was a Book of Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical obtruded upon our Kirk found by our General Assembly to be devised for Establishing a Tyrannical Power in the Persons of our Prelates over the Worship of God and over the Consciences Liberties and Goods of the People and for Abolishing the whole Discipline and Government of our Kirk by General and Provincial Assemblies Presbyteries and Kirk-Sessions which was setled by Law and in continual practice from the time of Reformation This Charge begins with a General and will come to Particulars after And first it seems they are angry with a Book of Canons Excellent Church-Government it seems they would have that will admit of no Canons to direct or controul their Liberty And if they mean by obtruding upon their Church that the Canons were unduly thrust upon them because that Book was Confirmed by the King's Anthority then 't is a bold Phrase to call it Obtruding For if His Majesty that now is did by his Sole Authority Command the present Book of Canons to the Church of Scotland he did but Exercise that Power which King James challenged did in the right of his Crown belong to him As appears manifestly by a Letter of his to the Prelates of Scotland then Assembled at Perth That Royal Letter is large but very worthy any Mans Reading and is to be seen in the Relation of those Proceedings But because they speak of my Novations if they mean that this Book of Canons was Obtruded upon their Church by me Or if it were found in a Just Synod and upon fair Proceedings to Establish a Tyrannical Power of the Prelates over the Worship of God or the Consciences Liberties or Goods of the People Or for Abolishing any thing that was setled by Laws they had Reason both to be troubled and to seek in a Dutiful manner first rightly to inform His Majesty and then to desire a Remedy from him But if the Book of Canons did really none of these things as for ought I yet know it did not and as I hope will appear when they come to Particulars then this will be no longer a Charge but a Slander And howsoever if any thing in those Canons were Ordered against their Laws it was by our invincible Ignorance and their Bishops fault that would not tell us wherein we went against their Laws if so we did And for my own part I did ever advise them to make sure in the whole Business that they attempted nothing against Law But if their late General Assembly in which they say these things were found to be against Law did proceed Unwarrantably or Factiously as the most Learned Men of that Kingdom avow it did the less heed must and will in future times be given to their Proceedings But before they come to Particulars they think fit to lay Load on me and say That Canterbury was Master of this Work is manifest by a Book of Canons sent to him written upon the one side only with the other side blank for Corrections Additions and putting all in better Order at his pleasure Which accordingly was done as may appear by the Interlinings Marginals and filling up of the Blank Pages with Directions sent to our Prelates I was no Master of this Work but a Servant to it and Commanded thereunto by His Sacred Majesty as I have to shew under his Hand And the Work it self was begun in His Majesties Blessed Fathers Time For the Bishops of Scotland were gathering their Canons then And this is most manifest by a Passage in the Sermon which my Lord the Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews Preached before the General Assembly at Perth An. 1618 when I was a private Man and had nothing to do with these things The words are these And when I least expected these Articles that is the five Articles of Perth were sent unto me not to be proponed to the Church but to be inserted amongst the Canons thereof which were then in gathering touching which Point I humbly excused my self c. So this Work was begun and known to that Church long before I had any thing to do with it And now when it came to be Perfected I did nothing but as I was Commanded and Warranted by His Majesty But indeed according to this Command I took a great deal more pains than I have thanks for as it too often falls out with the best Church-Men To this end 't is true a Book of Canons was not sent me but brought by my Lord the Bishop of Ross and delivered to me And if it were written on one side only and left Blank on the other for Corrections or Additions I hope there 's no sin in that to leave room and space for me to do that for which the Book was brought to me As for that which follows it hath less fault in it For they say it was for my putting all in better Order And I hope to put all in better Order is no Crime Censurable in this Court. And whatever they of Scotland think that Church did then need many things to be put in better Order and at this Day need many more Yea but they say this should not be done at my pleasure I say so too Neither was it For whatsoever I thought fit to correct or add in the Copy brought to me I did very humbly and fairly submit to the Church of Scotland And under those Terms delivered it back to the Bishop which brought it with all the Interlinings Marginals and fillings up of Blank Pages and the best Directions I was able to give them And all this was in me Obedience to His Majesty and no Wrong that I know to the Church of Scotland I am sure not intended by me Neither are these Interlinings or Additions so many as they are here insinuated to be for the Bishops of Scotland had been very careful in this Work All which would clearly appear were the Book produced Yet the Charge goes on against me still And that it was done by no other than Canterbury is evident by his Magisterial way of Prescribing and by a new Copy of these Canons all written with S. Andrews own hand precisely to a Letter according to the former Castigations and Directions sent back to procure the King's Warrant unto it which accordingly was obtained By no other Hand than Canterburies is very roundly affirmed How is it proved Why by two Reasons First they say 't is evident by his Magisterial way of Prescribing An Excellent Argument The Book of Canons was delivered to me
their Opinion unless they be such as have been bred up either in their Faction or in the Opposite at Rome For Bodin is clear That Arms may not be taken up against the Prince be he never so Impious and Wicked And instances in Saul and Nebuchadnezzar And Grotius doth not only say as much as Bodin but Censures them which hold the contrary to be Men which serve Time and Place more than Truth Nor is it any whit more Lawful for Inferiour Magistrates to make this resistance against the King than it is for private Men. And this is universally true where the Princes are free and have not undertaken the Government under that or the like Condition or being free seek with a Hostile Mind to ruine their People which is scarce possible And a great Civilian tells us that he is properly a Rebel that resists the Emperor or his Officers in things belonging to the State of the Empire Some Cases he lays down indeed in which the pleasure of a Prince may not be obeyed but none in which his Power is to be resisted Nor is it any marvel that Christians do disallow the taking up of Arms against the Prince since even the soundest Politicks among the Heathen have declared so likewise Aristotle was of this Opinion that if the Magistrate strike yet he is not to be struck again And Seneca that Men are to bear the unjust as well as the just Commands of Princes And Tacitus that good Emperours are to be desired but whatever they be to be born with And Plutarch that it is not Lawful to offer any Violence to the Person of the King And Cicero That no Force is to be offered either to a Man's Parent or to his Country And therefore in his Judgment not to the Prince who is Pater Patriae the Father of his Country And the truth is where-ever the contrary Opinion is maintained the Prince can never be safe nor the Government setled But so soon as a Faction can get a fit Head and gather sufficient strength all is torn in pieces and the Prince lost for no considerable Errour or perhaps none at all For a strong Party once Heated can as easily make Faults as find them either in Church or Common-wealth And make the King say as Zedekiah sometimes did to his potent Nobles Behold Jeremiah is in your Hands for the King is not he that can do any thing against you Jerem. 38. But whereas they say it is a Doctrine that tends to the utter Slavery and ruin of all States and Kingdoms That will appear most untrue by the very Letter of the Canon it self which gives way to no Tyranny but expresses only the true Power of a King given by God and to be exercised according to God's Law and the several Laws of Kingdoms respectively And I hope there will ever be a real difference found in Christian Kingdoms between the Doctrine that tends to Slavery and Ruine and that which forbids taking up of Arms against their Sovereign which is all that this Canon doth And in the mean time I pray God this not Doctrine only but Practice also of taking up Arms against the Lord 's Anointed under meer pretence of Religion do not in a shorter time than is fear'd bring all to Confusion where-ever 't is Practised For howsoever it bears a shew of Liberty yet this way of maintaining it is not only dishonourable to Kings but the ready way to make them study ways of Force and to use Power when-ever they get it to abridge the Liberties of such over-daring Subjects And in all times it hath sown the Seeds of Civil Combustions which have ended in Slavery and Ruine of flourishing Kingdoms And I pray God these do not end so in this But they go on And as if this had not been sufficient he procures six Subsidies to be lifted of the Clergy under pain of Deprivation to all who should refuse The giving of the King Subsidies is no new thing The Clergy have bin ever willing to the uttermost of their Power But what I and my Brethren of the Clergy did at this time therein is before set down And I hold it not fit to lengthen this Tract with the needless Repetition of any thing And which is yet more and above which Malice it self cannot ascend by his means a Prayer is framed Printed and sent through all the Parishes of England to be said in all Churches in time of Divine Service next after the Prayer for the Queen and Royal Progeny against our Nation by Name as Trayterous Subjects having cast off all Obedience to our Anointed Sovereign and coming in a Rebellious manner to Invade England that shame may cover our Faces as Enemies to God and the King We are now come to the last part of their Charge and that 's the Prayer which was made and sent to be used in all Churches when the Scots came into England But this Prayer was made not by my means or procurement but by his Majesties special Command to me to see it done And it hath bin ever usual in England upon great and urgent occasions to have one or more Prayers made by some Bishop or Bishops nearest hand to fit the Present business And this may appear by divers Forms and Prayers so made and publickly used in all times since the Reformation And since this Prayer was made by his Majesties own Command I am sorry they should say of it that Malice it self cannot ascend above it Though I perswade my self they thought to hit me not him in this Speech Now what I pray is that above which Malice it self cannot ascend Why first it is That they were called in that Prayer trayterous Subjects which had cast off all Obedience to their Anointed Sovereign Why but Truth spake this not Malice For Trayterous Subjects they were then if ever a King had any And the Kings Proclamation called them so before that Prayer came forth And what Title soever it is fit to give them now since his Majesty hath bin graciously pleased to treat with them and pass by their Offence that 's another thing but as the case stood then they had shaken off all Obedience and were as they were then called Trayterous Subjects And I had a special Charge from the King not to spare that Name Secondly They except against this that 't is there said that they came in a Rebellious manner to Invade this Kingdom And that is most true too for whereas they said they came in a peaceable manner to deliver their Petitions to the King for the Liberty of their Religion and Laws Is it a peaceable way to come two or three and twenty Thousand Men strong and Armed to deliver a Petition Let the whole World judge whether this were not a Rebellious Invasion Thirdly They say 't is desir'd in the Prayer that God would with shame cover the Faces
CAP. IV. NOW follows Adam Blair the second with a Codicil or a Corollary to this Charge And this though it concerns my Brethren the Bishops as much as me yet because it charges upon the Calling and was delivered in with the Charge against me though under another date of December 15. I shall express what I think of that too For I think the Scotch Commissioners took another day in upon advice that they might have a fling at the whole Calling And I cannot but think it was upon design among them when I consider how eagerly the House of Commons hath followed Episcopacy ever since This Codicil to their last Will and Testament concerning me begins thus We do indeed confess that the Prelates of England have been of very different humours some of them of a more hot and others of them Men of a moderate Temper some of them more and some less inclinable to Popery yet what known Truth and constant Experience hath made undeniable we must at this Opportunity express And so must we For we as ingenuously confess that the Presbyters of Scotland have been of very different humours some of them of a more hot and others of them Men of a moderate Temper And the more moderate for Temper and the more able for Learning among them have ever declared for the Episcopacy of England But whereas they say some of the Bishops of England are more and some less inclinable to Popery that may seem to imply that all of them are more or less inclinable to Popery which I dare say is a loud untruth Perhaps that which some of them call Popery is Orthodox Christianity and not one whit the worse for their miscalling it though they much the worse for disbelieving it But now you shall hear what that known truth is which constant experience they say hath made undeniable That from the first time of the Reformation of the Kirk of Scotland not only after the coming of King James of Happy Memory into England but before the Prelates of England have been by all means uncessantly working the overthrow of our Discipline and Government A little change in the words answers this For from the very first of the Reformation of the Church of England as well before as after the coming in of King James of Happy Memory the Presbyters of Scotland have been by all means uncessantly working the overthrow of Episcopacy our Discipline and Government As appears most manifestly in Archbishop Bancroft's Works So then either this is a loud untruth if our Prelates did not so practise against them Or if it be truth our Bishops had altogether as much reason if not more the justice of the Cause considered to work the overthrow of their Discipline than they had of Episcopacy But they tell us It hath come to pass of late that the Prelates of England having prevailed and brought Vs to Subjection in point of Government and finding their long-waited-for Opportunity and a rare Congruity of many Spirits and Powers ready to co-operate for their Ends have made a strong Assault upon the whole External Worship and Doctrine of our Kirk Surely for their Doctrine 't is too large a Field to beat over at this time Yet many Doctrines are on foot amongst them which are fitter to be weighed than swallowed would they permit them to be brought to the Sanctuary and Balanced there And for the whole External Worship which they speak of I have heard it said they have none at all and out of doubt 't is very little they have if any And therefore if the Prelates of England had gotten an Opportunity and a Congruity of Spirits and Powers to co-operate which yet is not so they had been much to blame if they had not pursued it till they had brought both the one and the other to a better Condition than they stand in at present And if they had such an Opportunity they were much to blame that deserted it And if they had not these Men are unworthy for asserting it But what End had the Prelates of England in this Why sure By this their doing they did not aim to make us conform to England but to make Scotland first whose weakness in resisting they had before experienced in Novations of Government and of some Points of Worship and therefore England conform to Rome even in those matters wherein England had separated from Rome ever since the time of Reformation These Men out of doubt have or take on them to have a great insight into the Hearts and Souls of the Prelates of England They know that we did not aim to make them conformable to England but to make Scotland first and then England conformable to Rome But I know the contrary and will leave the Book it self to be judged by the Learned in all parts of Christendom for it is carefully Translated into Latin whether it teach or practise Conformity with Rome or not which trial is far beyond their unlearned and uncharitable Assertion And if any other of my Brethren have had this aim they should do well to name them But they are so void of Charity that they cannot forbear to say that we aim to make them Conformable to Rome even in those things wherein England had separated from Rome ever since the Reformation Which is so monstrous an untruth that I wonder how Impudence it self dare utter it considering what the Bishops of England have written in defence of their Reformation against Rome and how far beyond any thing which the Presbyters of Scotland have written against it As for the Reason which is given why we began with Scotland namely because we had experience of their weakness in resisting Novations of Government and of some Points of Worship I know not what they mean by their weakness in resisting unless it be That they did not prevail against King James of Blessed Memory for resist they did to their power when he brought in Bishops which it seems they call Novations in Government and the Articles of Perth which they stile Novations in some Points of Worship And if this be that which they mean there is no Novation in the one or the other And for their weakness in resisting you may see what it is For no sooner have they gotten the Opportunity which they speak of in the beginning of this Codicil but they cast out all their Bishops reversed all the Articles of Perth all the Acts of Parliament which confirmed both brought back all to the rude draught of Knox and Buchanan saving that they have made it much worse by admitting so many Lay-Elders with Votes in their General Assemblies as may inable the Lay-men to make themselves what Religion they please A thing which the Church of Christ never knew in any part of it Nor have they stayed here but made use of the same Opportunity to cry down the Bishops and Church-Government in England As you will see by that
which comes next An Evil therefore which hath issued not so much from the Personal Disposition of the Prelates themselves as from the innate Quality and Nature of their Office and Prelatical Hierarchy which did bring forth the Pope in Ancient times and never ceaseth till it bring forth Popish Doctrine and Worship where it is once rooted and the Principles thereof fomented and constantly followed They tell us here that this Conformity with Rome is an Evil that issues not so much from the Personal Disposition of the Prelates themselves as from the innate Quality and Nature of their Office Conformity with Rome in any Error or Superstition is doubtless an Evil but that it issues from the Nature of a Bishop's Office cannot be For that Office is to Preach Christ and to govern the Church of Christ according to his Laws If any Bishop break this 't is his Personal Error and most unnatural to his Office to which if he adhere he can neither teach nor practise Superstition Therefore certainly what Error soever comes is from his Person not his Office And 't is great Ignorance to call this Evil an innate Quality of the Office when the Office is a thing of Institution not of Nature and therefore cannot possibly have any innate Quality in it But since they will needs have it thus let us invert it a little and see how it will fit them against their King more than it can fit the Bishops for the Pope For if we should say as perhaps we may too truly that the dangerous Positions which too many of the Presbyterian Faction publickly maintain and in Print proceed not so much from the Personal Disposition of the Presbyterians themselves as from the innate Quality and Nature of their Presbyteries and their Antimonarchical Party I believe it would trouble them to shape a good Answer to it unless they will admit of that which I before have given But then if they do this they Charge themselves with falshood in that which they lay upon the Bishops Office Next they tell you that this Prelatical Hierarchy did bring forth the Pope in Ancient times But truly I think they are thus far deceived The Hierarchy cannot be said to bring forth the chief parts of it self Now the Patriarchs of which the Bishop of Rome was one if not Prime in Order were the Principal parts of the Hierarchy Therefore the Hierarchy cannot well be said to bring them forth But suppose it be so that the Pope were brought forth by the Bishops what fault is there in it For the Pope was good both Nomine Re in name and in being as they were at first For thirty of them together were Martyrs for Christ And the Church of Rome was famous for her Faith over the World in the very Apostles times Rom. 1. And if either the Popes or that Church have degenerated since that is a Personal Crime and not to be imputed to the Office And therefore these Men do very ill or very ignorantly to affirm that this Office of Episcopacy never ceases till it bring forth Popish Doctrine and Worship For in all the time of these thirty Popes there was no Doctrine brought forth which may justly be accounted Superstitious or called Popery For the last of those thirty died in the Year 309. ..... And they cannot be ignorant that Bishop Jewell on the behalf of the Church of England challenged the Current of the Fathers for full Six Hundred Years to be for it against Rome in very many and main Points of Popery And therefore I may well say there was no Popery in the World when the Thirtieth Pope died Well if this Evil do not arise from the Hierarchy yet it doth From the Antipathy and Inconsistence of the two Forms of the Ecclesiastical Government which they conceived and not without Cause one Island joyned also under one Head and Monarch was not able to bear The one being the same in all the Parts and Powers which it was in the time of Popery and still is in the Roman Kirk The other being the Form of Government received maintained and practised by all the Reformed Kirks wherein by their own Testimonies and Confessions the Kirk of Scotland had amongst them no small Eminency Sure these Men have forgotten themselves For they tell us immediatly before that this Evil of bringing forth Popish Doctrine and Worship proceeds from the very Office of a Bishop And now they add and from the Antipathy of these two Forms of Church Government Doth the Bishops Office produce Popery And doth the Antipathy between the Presbytery and Episcopacy produce Popery too So then belike in these Men's Judgments both Bishops and they which oppose Bishops produce Popery And if that be true Popery must needs increase that is produced on all sides An Evil then there is though perhaps not this which issues from that Antipathy and Inconsistence of these two Forms of Ecclesiastical Government which they say we Prelates of England conceived and not without Cause one Island joyned also under one Head and Monarch was not able to bear And that Evil was as I conceive the continual Jarrs and Oppositions which would daily arise among His Majesties Subjects of both Kingdoms concerning these different Forms of Government And these would bring forth such Heart-burnings and Divisions among the People that the King might never be secure at home nor presume upon united Forces against a Foreign Enemy And this is Evil enough to any Monarch of two divided Kingdoms especially lying so near in one Island Now if the Bishops of England did conceive thus and as our Adversaries here confess not without Cause Then certainly by their own Confession the Prelates of England had Reason to use all just endeavours to remove and take away this Inconsistence that the Form of the Ecclesiastical Government might be one in one Island and under one Monarch that so Faction and Schism might cease which else when they get Opportunity find a way to rent the Peace of Kingdoms if not Kingdoms themselves And this Island God of his Mercy preserve it is at this time in great hazard to undergo the fatality of it in a great measure The next is a manifest untruth For though there be as is said an Inconsistence between the Governments which makes one Island under one King unable to bear both in the different parts of the Island or at least unsafe while it bears them Yet neither is Episcopacy in all the Parts and Powers of it that which it was in time of Popery and still is in the Roman Church And this is most manifest to any Man that will but look upon what Power the Prelates had before and what they have since the Statute of the Submission of the Clergy in Hen. 8. time Beside all those Statutes which have since been made in divers Particulars to weaken their Power Nor is the other Form of Government received
Tyrannical Government contrary to Law I could not endeavour this my knowledge and judgment going ever against an Arbitrary Government in comparison of that which is settled by Law I learned so much long ago out of Aristotle and his Reasons are too good to be gone against And ever since I had the honour to sit at the Council Table I kept my self as much to the Law as I could and followed the Judgment of those great Lawyers which then sat at the Board And upon all References which came from His Majesty if I were one I left those freely to the Law who were not willing to have their business ended any other way And this the Lord Keeper the Lord Privy Seal and the Councel Learned which attended their Clients Causes can plentifully witness I did never advise His Majesty that he might at his own Will and Pleasure levy Money of his Subjects without their Consent in Parliament Nor do I remember that ever I affirmed any such thing as is Charged in the Article But I do believe that I may have said something to this effect following That howsoever it stands by the Law of God for a King in the just and necessary defence of himself and his Kingdom to levy Money of his Subjects yet where a particular National Law doth intervene in any Kingdom and is settled by mutual consent between the King and his People there Moneys ought to be Levied by and according to that Law And by God's Law and the same Law of the Land I humbly conceive the Subjects so met in Parliament ought to supply their Prince when there is just and necessary cause And if an Absolute necessity do happen by Invasion or otherwise which gives no time for Counsel or Law such a Necessity but no pretended one is above all Law And I have heard the greatest Lawyers in this Kingdom confess that in times of such a Necessity The King 's Legal Prerogative is as great as this And since here is of late such a noise made about the Subversion of the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and Mens Lives called this way in question 't is very requisite that these Fundamental Laws were known to all Men That so they may see the danger before they run upon it Whereas now the Common Laws of England have no Text at all In so much that many who would think themselves wronged if they were not accounted good Lawyers cannot in many points assure a Man what the Law is And by this means the Judges have liberty to retain more in Scrinio Pectoris than is fitting and which comes a little too near that Arbitrary Government so much and so justly found fault with Whereas there is no Kingdom that I know that hath a setled Government but it hath also a Text or a Corpus Juris of the Laws written save England So here shall be as great a punishment as is any where for the breach of the Laws and no Text of them for a Man's direction And under favour I think it were a work worthy a Parliament to Command some prime Lawyers to draw up a Body of the Common Law and then have it carefully Examined by all the Judges of the Realm and thoroughly weighed by both Houses and then have this Book Declared and Confirmed by an Act of Parliament as containing the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom And then let any Man go to Subvert them at his Peril 2. He hath for the better accomplishment of that his Trayterous Design advised and procured divers Sermons and other Discourses to be Preached Printed and Published in which the Authority of Parliaments and the force of the Laws of this Kingdom are denied and an Absolute and Vnlimited Power over the Persons and Estates of his Majesties Subjects is maintained and defended not only in the King but also in himself and other Bishops above and against the Law And he hath been a great Protector Favourer and Promoter of the Publishers of such false and pernicious Opinions I have neither advised nor procured the Preaching Printing or Publishing of any Sermons or other Discourses in which the Authority of Parliaments and the force of the Laws of this Kingdom are denied and an Absolute and Unlimited Power over the Persons and Estates of his Majesty's Subjects maintained and defended Nay I have been so far from this that I have since I came into place made stay of divers Books purposely written to maintain an Absolute Power in the Kingdom and have not suffered them to be Printed as was earnestly desired And were it fit to bring other Mens Names in question and expose their Persons to danger I have some of those Tracts by me at this present And as I have not maintained this Power in the King's Majesty so much less have I defended this or any other Power against Law either in my self or other Bishops or any other Person whatsoever Nor have I been a Protector Favourer or Promoter of any the Publishers of such false and pernicious Opinions knowing them to be such Men. 3. He hath by Letters Messages Threats Promises and divers other ways to Judges and other Ministers of Justice interrupted and perverted and at other times by the means aforesaid hath indeavoured to interrupt and pervert the course of Justice in his Majesty's Courts at Westminster and other Courts to the Subversion of the Laws of this Kingdom whereby sundry of his Majesty's Subjects have been stopped in their Just Suits and deprived of their Lawful Rights and subjected to his Tyrannical Will to their utter Ruin and Destruction I have neither by Letters Messages Threats nor Promises nor by any other Means endeavoured to interrupt or pervert the course of Justice in his Majesty's Judges or other Ministers of Justice either to the Subversion of the Law or the stopping of the Subjects in their Just Suits Much less to the ruin or destruction of any one which God forbid I should ever be guilty of The most that ever I have done in this kind is this When some poor Clergy-Men which have been held in long Suits some Seven Nine Twelve Years and one for Nineteen Years together have come and besought me with Tears and have scarce had convenient Clothing about them to come and make their address I have sometimes underwritten their Petitions to those Reverend Judges in whose Courts their Suits were and have fairly desired Expedition for them But I did never desire by any Letter or Subscription or Message any thing for any of them but that which was according to the Law and Justice of the Realm And in this particular I do refer my self to the Testimony of the Reverend Judges of the Common Law 4. That the said Arch-Bishop hath Traiterously and Corruptly sold Justice to those that have had Causes depending before him by Colour of his Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as Arch-Bishop High-Commissioner Referree or otherwise and hath taken unlawful Gifts and Bribes of his
Persons to Ecclesiastical Dignities Promotions and Benefices belonging to his Majesty and divers of the Nobility Clergy and others and hath taken upon him the Nomination of Chaplains to the King by which means he hath preferred to his Majesty's Service and to other great Promotions in the Church such as have been Popishly affected or other wise Vnsound and Corrupt both in Doctrine and Manners I did never wittingly abuse the Power or Trust which His Majesty reposed in me Nor did I ever intrude upon the Places of any great Officers or others to procure to my self the Nomination of Persons Ecclesiastical to Dignities Promotions and Benefices belonging to His Majesty the Nobility or any other And though here be no Particular named yet I guess at that which is meant and will clearly set down the Truth His Majesty some few Years since assumed to himself from the Right Honourable the Lord Coventry the Lord Keeper that then was and from my Lord Cottington then Master of the Court of Wards the disposing of all such Benefices as came to the King's Gift by Title of Wardship of what value soever they were The Reason which moved His Majesty to do this was The Lord Keeper and the Lord Cottington became humble Suitors to him to end a Contention between them about the giving of those Benefices both for their own Quiet and the Peace of other His Majesties Subjects For the Course was when any thing fell void in the Gift of a Ward he of these two great Officers which came first to know of the avoidance gave the Living This caused great and oft-times undue Practising among them which were Suitors for the Benefices And many times the Broad-Seal and the Seal of the Court of Wards bore Date the same Day And then the Bishop which Clerk soever he Instituted was sure to offend the other Lord. And these Lords too many times by the earnest putting on of Friends were not well pleased one with another in the Business Upon this Suit of their own His Majesty gave a Hearing to these Lords and in Conclusion of it took the Disposal of all such Benefices into his own Hands and for ought I know with both their liking and content In the disposing of these Benefices to such Men as had served His Majesty at Sea or otherwise I was trusted by the King and I served him in it faithfully but proceeded no farther nor otherwise than he directed and commanded me But I never took the Nomination of any one to my self or my own disposing And the Truth of this as His Majesty knows so I am Confident my Lord Cottington who is yet living will Witness For the Nomination of Chaplains to the King if I had done it I think the work was as proper for the Arch-Bishop as for any Man Yet because by Ancient Custom it was conceived to belong in a great part to the Lord Chamberlain who was then the Right Honourable the Earl of Pembrook I never Named any to His Majesty but I did fairly acquaint the Lord Chamberlain with it and desired his favour But in all my time I never was the means to prefer any Man to His Majesties Service as a Chaplain or to any Promotion whom I knew to be Popishly affected or any way Corrupt in Doctrine or Manners 9. He hath for the same Trayterous and Wicked intent chosen and employed such Men to be his own Domestical Chaplains whom he knew to be Notoriously disaffected to the Reformed Religion grosly addicted to Popish Superstition and Erroneous and unsound both in Judgment and Practice And to them or some of them he hath committed Licensing of Books to be Printed By which means divers false and Superstitious Books have been Published to the great Scandal of Religion and to the seducing of many of His Majesties Subjects I never chose any Man to be my Chaplain who I knew or had good Cause to suspect was Popishly affected Nor any that was unsound in Judgment or Practice Nor did I commit the Licensing of Books to any such but to those only who I then did and do still believe are Orthodox and Religious Divines and Men of very good Judgment for that Necessary and great Service And if they or any of them have by negligence or otherwise suffered any Erroneous and Dangerous Books to pass the Press they must answer both the Church and the State for whatsoever they have done amiss in that kind for it is not possible for the Archbishop to perform all those Services in Person And in the committing of them to my Chaplains and other Divines of Note I have done no new thing but that which my Predecessors have done before me This I am sure of I gave often and express and strict Command to all and every of them that they should License nothing that was contrary to the Doctrine and Discipline Established in the Church of England or might Personally or otherwise give Offence or Distaste And I hope they have Obeyed my Directions If not they must Answer for themselves 10. He hath Trayterously and Wickedly endeavoured to reconcile the Church of England with the Church of Rome And for the effecting thereof hath Consorted and Confederated with divers Popish Priests and Jesuits and hath kept secret intelligence with the Pope of Rome And by himself his Agents and Instruments treated with such as have from thence received Authority and Instruction He hath permitted and countenanced a Popish Hierarchy or Ecclesiastical Government to be Established in this Kingdom By all which Trayterous and Malicious Practices this Church and Kingdom have been exceedingly indangered and like to fall under the Tyranny of the Roman See The Article is now come of which I spake before and in my Answer to which I promised to set down the substance of that which I spake in the Parliament House to the Lords when this General Charge was brought up against me and I shall somewhat inlarge it yet without any Change of the Grounds upon which I then stood And now I shall perform that Promise And I shall be of all other least afraid to answer all that is here said concerning Religion For my Heart I bless God for it is sound that way to the uttermost of my Knowledge and I think I do well understand my Principles And my Old Master Aristotle hath taught me long since that Qui se bene habent ad divina audaciores sunt they which are well and setledly composed in things pertaining to God that is in Religion are much the bolder by it And this not only against Slanders and Imputations cast upon Men for this but in all other Accidents of the World what ever they be And surely I may not deny it I have ever wished and heartily Prayed for the Unity of the whole Church of Christ and the Peace and Reconciliation of torn and divided Christendom But I did never desire a Reconciliation but such as might stand
said that I did often wish from my Heart that His Majesty had kept the Army which he had at Barwick together but Eight or Ten Days longer And that I did not doubt but that if he had so done he might have had more Honourable Conditions of his Scottish Subjects This I said and more or otherwise I said not and whosoever shall relate them otherwise forgets Truth Now to say that His Majesty might have had more Honourable Conditions doth not infer that the Pacification then made was upon Dishonourable Conditions but only upon less Honourable than it might have been And I had great Reason to observe my own words and remember them because I saw some Lords at the Table touched with them perhaps in their own Particulars Nor was I alone in this Judgment For my Lord the Earl of Holland though he then said nothing at the Council-Table yet at his first return from Barwick his Lordship did me the Honour to come and see me at Lambeth And in the Gallery there while we were discoursing of the Affairs in the North of himself he used these words to me That His Majesty did too suddenly dissolve his Army there indeed so suddenly that every body wondered at it And that for his part he was so sorry especially for the dismissing of all the Horse which he said were as good as any were in Christendom And farther that he offer'd His Majesty to keep one Thousand of them for a Year at his own and his Friends Charge till the King might see all things well setled again in Scotland By which it is apparent that in his Lordships Judgment things might have been better had not that Army been so suddenly dissolved And I hope it was no Sin in me to wish the best success and the most Honour to the King's Affairs Now that which moved me to say thus at the Council-Table was this The last Article in the Pacification was To restore to every one of His Majesties Subjects their Liberties Lands Houses Goods and Means whatsoever taken and detained from them by whatsoever means since the aforesaid time But within two Days or three at the most after the Pacification agreed upon and concluded the Lord Lindsay made an open and publick Protestation either in the Camp at Dunns or at the 〈◊〉 in Edenburgh or both that no Clergy Man his Goods or Means was included in the Pacification Which yet expresses every one of His Majesties Subjects And this I did then conceive and do still was a very bold audacious Act of that Lord very injurious to the Poor Clergy and not so Honourable for the King And this made me say and I say it still His Majesty might have had more Honourable Conditions and his Pacification better kept had he continued his Army but Eight or Ten Days longer For in all probability the Scots could not so long have continued their Army together And I did farther conceive that by this Act of the Lord Lindsay in protesting and by the Scots making his Protestation good against the Clergy there was a direct and manifest Breach of the Pacification on their behalf And then though I saw no Reason why the King should be bound to keep that mutual Pacification which they had broken for a Knot must be fast at both ends or loose at both Yet remembring my Calling I did not Incense His Majesty against his Subjects in Scotland nor did hereupon advise the undertaking of an Offensive War against them nor ever give other Counsel in this Particular than what I openly gave before the Lords either in the Committee or at the Board And there my Concurring in Opinion with all the rest of the Lords was I hope no other nor no greater fault than in them though I be thus singled out And for the Pacification I shall say thus much more Though I could with all my Heart have wished it more Honourable for the King and more express and safe for my Brethren of the Clergy yet all things Considered which were put unto me I did approve it For before the Pacification was fully agreed upon His Majesty did me the Honour to write unto me all with his own Hand In this Letter He Commanded me all delay set apart to send him my Judgment plainly and freely what I thought of the Pacification which was then almost ready for conclusion I in all Humility approved of the Pacification as it was then put to me and sent my Answer presently back and my Reasons why I approved it Little thinking then but that my Poor Brethren the Bishops of Scotland should have had all restored unto them according to the Article of the Pacification before recited or at least for so long till they had defended themselves and their Calling and their Cause in a free General Assembly and as free a Parliament Now this was ever assumed to me should be done and to procure this was all which the Bishops seemed to desire of me And for the Truth of this I appeal to His Majesty to whom I writ it And to my Lord Marquess Hamilton to whom the King shewed my Letter As my Lord Marquess himself told me at his return And to Dr. Juxon Lord Bishop of London then Lord High Treasurer of England to whom I shewed my Letter before I sent it away And this is all I did concerning the Pacification 14. That to preserve himself from being questioned for these and other his Trayterous Courses he hath laboured to subvert the Rights of Parliament and the Ancient Course of Parliamentary proceedings And by false and malicious Slanders to incense His Majesty against Parliaments By which Words Counsels and Actions he hath Trayterously and contrary to his Allegiance laboured to alienate the Hearts of the Kings Liege People from his Majesty to set a Division between them and to 〈◊〉 and Destroy his Majesty's Kingdoms For which they do impeach him of High Treason against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity I did never Labour to subvert the rights of Parliaments or the antient Course of their Proceedings And not doing it at all I could not do it to keep my self from being questioned Much less did I by any malitious Slanders or any other way incense his Majesty against Parliaments nor ever thereby labour to alienate the Hearts of the King's Liege People from his Majesty nor to set any Division between them or to Ruine and Destroy his Majesty's Kingdoms And am no way Guilty in the least Degree of High Treason against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity It is true I have been much and very often grieved to see the great distractions which have happened of later Years both in King James his time and since about the Breaches which have been in Parliaments And I have as heartily wished and to my Power endeavoured that all Parliaments which have been called might come to their Happy Issue and end in the Contentment of
the King and his People And I have ever been of Opinion and I shall Live and Dye in it That there can be no true and setled Happiness in this or any other Kingdom but by a fair and Legal as well as Natural Agreement between the King and his People and that according to the Course of England this Agreement is in a great proportion founded upon Parliaments Now Parliaments as I humbly conceive can never better preserve their own Rights than by a free and honourable way to keep up the Greatness and Power of their King that so he may be the better able against all Forreign Practices to keep up the Honour as well as the Safety of the Nation both which usually stand or fall together And if any particular Mens Miscarriages have distempered any Parliaments and caused or occasioned a Breach I have upon the Grounds before laid been as sorry as any Man for it but never contributed any thing to it And I hope it is not Criminal to think that Parliaments may sometimes in some things by Misinformation or otherwise be mistaken as well as other Courts This in conclusion I clearly think Parliaments are the best preservers of the Ancient Laws and Rights of this Kingdom But this I think too that Corruptio optimi est Pessima that no Corruption is so bad so foul so dangerous as that which is of the best And therefore if Parliaments should at any time be misguided by practice of a 〈◊〉 Party nothing then so dangerous as such a 〈◊〉 because the highest Remedy being Corrupted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sure Redress left at all And we had a lamentable 〈◊〉 of such a Parliament 〈◊〉 Hen. 4. was set up For that 〈◊〉 was the Cause of 〈◊〉 the Civil Wars and that great 〈◊〉 of Blood which followed soon after in this Kingdom God make us mindful and careful to prevent the like The said Commons do farther aver that the said William Arch-Bishop of Canterbury during the time in which the Treasons and Offences afore-named were Committed hath been a Bishop or Arch-Bishop in this Realm of England one of the King's Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Matters and of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council And that he hath taken an Oath for his Faithful discharge of the said Office of Counsellor and hath likewise taken the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance And the said Commons by Protestation saving to themselves the Liberty of Exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Accusation or Impeachment against the said Arch-Bishop and also of replying to the Answers that the said Arch-Bishop shall make unto the said Articles or to any of them and of offering farther Proof also of the Premises or any of them or of any other Impeachment or Accusation that shall be exhibited by them as the Case shall according to the Course of Parliaments require do pray that the said Arch-Bishop may be put to answer to all and every the Premises and that such Proceedings Examinations Tryal and Judgment may be upon every of them had and used as is agreeable to Law and Justice This is the Conclusion of these general Articles then put up against me and is added only for Form and so requires no Answer from me But in the Close they of the House of Commons make two Petitions to the Lords and both were granted as 't is fit they should The one is That they may add farther Accusations or farther Proof of this as the Course of Parliaments require And I refuse no such either Accusation or Proof so the due Course of Parliaments be kept The other is That there may be such Proceedings Examinations Tryal and Judgment as is agreeable to Law and Justice And such Proceedings my Innocency can never decline But whether the Proceedings hitherto against me be according to the Antient Proceedings in Parliament or to Law and Justice I leave Posterity to judge Since they which here seem so earnestly to call for Examinations Tryal and Judgment have not to this Day proceeded to any Tryal nay have not so much as brought up any particular Charge against me it being almost a full Year since they brought up this general Charge and called for Examinations and Tryal and yet have kept me in Prison all this while to the great Weakning of my Aged Body and Waste of my poor Fortunes And how much longer they mean to keep me there God knows Whereas all that I do desire is a Just and Fair Tryal with such an Issue better or worse as it shall 〈◊〉 God to give CAP. VIII WHen these Articles had been Read unto me in the Upper House and I had spoken to the Lords in a general Answer to them what I thought fit as is before expressed I humbly desired of the Lords this being upon Friday Feb. 26. that my going to the Tower might be put off till the Monday after that so I might have time to be the better fitted for my Lodging This I humbly thank their Lordships was granted I returned to Mr. Maxwell's Custody and that Afternoon sent my Steward to Sir William Balfore then Lieutenant that a Lodging might be had for me with as much convenience as might be On Munday March 1. Mr. Maxwell carried me in his Coach to the Tower St. George's Feast having been formerly put off was to begin that Evening By this means Mr. Maxwell whose Office tied him to attendance upon that Solemnity could not possibly go with me to the Tower at Evening as I desired Therefore Noon when the Citizens were at Dinner was chosen as the next fittest time for Privateness All was well till I passed through Newgate Shambles and entred into Cheapside There some one Prentice first Hallowed out more and followed the Coach the Number still increasing as they went till by that time I came to the Exchange the shouting was exceeding great And so they followed me with Clamour and Revilings even beyond Barbarity it self not giving over till the Coach was entred in at the Tower-Gate Mr. Maxwell out of his Love and Care was extreamly troubled at it but I bless God for it my Patience was not moved I looked upon a higher Cause than the Tongues of Shimei and his Children The same Day there was a Committee for Religion named in the Upper House of Parliament Ten Earls Ten Bishops and Ten Barons So the Lay Votes will be double to the Clergy that they may carry what they will for Truth This Committee professes to meddle with Doctrine as well as Ceremonies and to that end will call some Divines to them to consider of and prepare Business This appears by a Letter sent by Dr. Williams then Lord Bishop of Lincoln now Lord Arch-Bishop of York to some Divines which were named to attend this Service The Copy of the Letter follows WIth my best Wishes unto you in Christ Jesus I am Commanded by the Lords of the Committee for Innovations in Matters of
ever any Man played me But he failed in his hopes and his Petition was cast out of the Lords House to try his Right at Law which was all that was asked by Dr Merricke Yet upon the earnestness of the then Lord Bishop of Lincoln and now Arch-Bishop of York the Lords Sequestred my Jurisdiction and put it into the Hands of my Inferiour Officers and added in the Order that I should dispose of neither Benefice nor any other thing but I should first acquaint them with it The Order follows in haec verba Die Sab. 23. Octob. 1641. IT is Ordered by the Lords in Parliament that the Jurisdiction of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury shall be Sequestred until he shall be Convicted or Acquitted of the Charge of High Treason against him and the same in the mean time to be Executed by his Inferiour Officers And farther concerning those Ecclesiastical Benefices Promotions or Dignities that are in his disposing he shall present to this House the Names of such Persons as shall be Nominated by him for the same to be Approved of first by this House before they be Collated or Instituted Jo. Browne Cler. Parliam c. For my Jurisdiction I Thank God I never knowingly abused it And of the other Restraint about the giving of my Benefices I cannot but think it very hard in two respects The one is that I should be put to Name to them before I give that which by Law is mine to give In the mean time they cry out of the violation of the Propriety which each Subject hath in his Goods and yet I must not give my own So also they condemn Arbitrary Government and yet press upon me an Arbitrary Order against Law The other is that if in Obedience to this Order I shall Nominate any Man to them be he never so worthy for Life and Learning yet if upon Misinformation or otherwise the House should refuse him I should not only not do him the good I intended but blast him for all the remainder of his Life And whensoever he shall seek for any other Preferment that shall be laid unto him that he was thought unworthy by the High Court of Parliament Yet how to ease my self against this Order I know not This day Novemb. 1. News came to the Parliament of the Rebellion in Ireland The King being then in Scotland where there were Troubles enough also The Irish pretended the Scots Example and hoped they should get their Liberties and the Freedom of their Religion as well as they But that Rebellion is grown fierce and strong and what end that War will have God knows A happy one God of his Mercy send For this Nation is in many difficulties at once and we have drawn them all upon our selves But this belongs not to my Story Only this I shall add which is the Judgment of all Prudent Men that I speak with both of Ireland and England that if the Earl of Strafford had Lived and not been blasted in his Honour and Service no Rebellion had been stirring there And if this be so 't is a soar Account must be given for his Blood If either that Kingdom be upon this occasion quite lost from the Crown of England or not recover'd without great Expence both of Treasure and Blood On Thursday Novemb. 25. the King returning from Scotland entred into London was received with great State and Joy and Sumptuously Entertained This made divers Men think there would have been a Turn in the present Business And what it might have proved if the King would have presently and vigorously set himself to vindicate his own Just Power and leave them their Antient and Just Priviledges is not I think hard to judge But he let it cool and gave that which is truly the Malignant Faction but call others so time to underwork him and bring the City round and all ran then stronger in the same Current than ever it did So God of his Mercy bless all On Thursday Decemb. 30. the Lord Arch-Bishop of York and Eleven other Bishops were sent to the 〈◊〉 for High Treason and two other Bishops Duresme and Coventry and Litchfield to Mr. Maxwell's for setting their Hands to a Petition and delivering of it with a Protestation that this was not a free Parliament since they who had Antient Right there could not come to give their Votes as they ought without danger of their Lives For by this time it was grown common that the Multitude came down in heaps if either the Lords or the King denyed any thing which the House of Commons affected But how it came to pass that these Multitudes should come down in such disorder and yet be sent back and dissolved so easily at a word or beck of some Men let the World judge The Petition and Protestation which the Bishops delivered in was as follows and perchance it was unseasonably delivered and perhaps some Words in it might have been better spared but the Treason and peradventure that 's my Ignorance I cannot find in it The Petition and Protestation of Twelve Bishops for which they were Accused of High-Treason by the House of Commons and Committed by the Lords to the Black-Rod THat whereas the Petitioners are called upon by several and respective Writs under great Penalties to Attend in Parliament and have a clear and indubitable Right to Vote in Bills and all other Matters whatsoever debated in Parliament by the Antient Customs Laws and Statutes of this Realm and are to be protected by your Majesty quietly to attend and prosecute that great Service They humbly remonstrate and protest before God your Majesty and the Noble Peers now Assembled in Parliament that as they have an indubitable Right to Sit and Vote in the House of Lords so they if they may be protected from force and violence are most ready and willing to perform that Duty accordingly and that they do abominate all Actions and Opinions tending to Popery or any inclination to the Malignant Party or any other side and Party whatsoever to the which their own Reasons and Consciences shall not adhere But whereas they have been at several times violently Menaced Affronted and Assaulted by multitudes of People in coming to perform their Service to that Honourable House and lately chased away and put in danger of their Lives and find no Redress or Protection upon sundry Complaints made to both Houses in that particular They likewise protest before your Majesty and that Noble House of Peers that saving to themselves all their Rights and Interests of Sitting and Voting in your House at other times they dare not sit to Vote in the House of Peers unless your Majesty shall further secure them from all Affronts Indignities and Danger in the Premises Lastly whereas their fears are not built upon Fancies and Conceipts but upon such Grounds and Objects as may well
terrifie Men of great Resolution and much Constancy they do in all Humility and Duty protest before your Majesty and the Peers of this most Honourable House of Parliament against all Votes Resolutions and Determinations and that they are in themselves null and of no effect which in their absence since the Twenty Seventh of this instant Month December 1641. have already passed and likewise against all such as shall hereafter pass in that most Honourable Assembly during such time of their forced and violented absence from the said most Honourable House Not denying but if their absenting of themselves were wilful and voluntary that most Noble House might proceed in all these Premises their absence and Protestation notwithstanding And humbly beseecheth your Most Excellent Majesty to command the Clerk of the House of Peers to enter this their Petition and Protestation in their Records They will ever pray God to bless and preserve c. Jo. Eborac Williams Geo. Hereford Coke Tho. Duresme Moorton Rob. Oxon Skinner Rob. Co. Lich. Wright Ma. Ely Wren Jos. Norwich Hall Godfr Glouc. Goodman Jo. Asaphen Owen Jo. Peterburg Towers Guil. Ba. Wells Pearce Mor. Llandaff Owen On Tuesday January 4. his Majesty went into the House of Commons some number of Gentlemen accompanyed him to the Door but no farther There he demanded the Persons of Mr. Denzil Hollis Sir Arthur Haselrigge Mr. Jo. Pymm Mr. Jo. Hampden and Mr. William Strode whom together with the Lord Kimbolton Sir Ed. Herbert his Majesty's Attorney General had the day before charged with High Treason in the Vpper House upon seven Articles of great consequence It seems they had information of the King 's coming and were slipt aside This made a mighty noise on all hands But the business was so carried that the House adjourned to sit in a Committee at Guild-Hall and after at the Grocer's-Hall Where things were so Ordered that within two or three days these Men were with great salutes of the People brought and in a manner guarded to the Committee and after to the House at Westminster and great stir made to and fro about the Accusation of these Men and the breach of the Priviledges of Parliament by his Majesty's coming thither in that manner Things were carried in a higher strain than ever before The King left the City and withdrew privately first to Hampton-Court after that to Windsor Many puttings on and puttings off concerning this and other great Affairs between the King and the House All which I leave to publick Records as not concerning this poor History Yet could not omit to say thus much in the general because much of the Church-business as well as the States and much of mine as well as the Churches will depend upon it CAP. XII UPon Thursday January 20. upon no Complaint that I know for I am sure I never deserved any in that kind there was an Order made in the Lords House to take away my Arms. They stood me in above Three Hundred Pounds I provided them for the Service of the State as Need might require I never employed any of them to any the least Disservice of it nor ever had thought to do Yet the Order is as follows both to my Disgrace to have them so taken from me and to my loss for though the Sheriffs of London be to take them upon Inventory yet of whom shall I demand them when they are out of their Office Die Jovis 20. Jan. 1641. IT is this Day Ordered by the Lords in Parliament That the Sheriffs of the City of London or either of them shall receive by inventory all such Ordnance and other Arms as belong to any private Persons which are to be kept to their Uses remaining now at Fox-Hall Canterbury-House the Arch-Bishop of York's House in Westminster and in the Bishop of Winchester's House a fit proportion of Arms being left at each Place for necessary Security thereof The said Sheriffs being to receive their Directions from a Committee lately appointed by the Parliament But the Intents of the Lords are and it is farther Ordered that such Ordnance and Arms as do belong to his Majesty shall be forthwith sent unto the King's Magazine in the Tower Upon Saturday Feb. 6. the Bill passed That the Bishops should have no Votes in Parliament nor have to do in Civil Affairs This was mightily strugled for almost all this Session and now obtained The Bishops have ever had this in Right and Possession ever since there was any use of Parliaments in England which the antientest Family of the Nobility which now sit there and thrust them out cannot say There was great Joy upon the Passing of this Bill in both Houses and in some Parishes of London Ringing and Bonfires The King gave way to this Bill and so that is setled And if it after prove that the King and Kingdom have Joy in it it is well But it may be that the Effects of this Eclipse may work farther than is yet thought on and the Blackness of it darken the Temporal Lords Power more than is yet feared And here I must tell you two Things The one that for the compassing of their ends in this Bill the nowbecome-usual Art was pursued and the People came in Multitudes and Clamour'd for the outing of the Bishops and the Popish Lords Votes so they were still joyned out of the House Insomuch that not the People of London only but Petitioners were brought out of divers Counties with Petitions either sent unto them or framed ready for them here against they came and they in every Petition for preservation of the Priviledges of Parliament desired the taking away of the Bishops and the Popish Lords Votes out of the House as if it were a common Grievance The other That now the Bishops have their Votes taken away by Act of Parliament you shall not see in haste any Bill at all Pass for taking away the Votes of the Popish Lords which will infer this as well as some other things That these were joyned together to make the Bishops more odious to the People as if they were Popishly affected themselves and to no other end The Court removed from Windsor to Hampton-Court and on Thurs-Day Febr. 10. The King and Queen came to Greenwich and on Friday Febr. 11. they went from thence toward Dover the Queen resolving to go into Holland with her young Daughter the Princess Mary who the Year before was Married to the Prince of Aurange his Son But the true Cause of this intended Journey was to be out of the Fears Discontents and Dangers as she conceived of the present Times And doubtless her Discontents were many and great and what her Dangers might have been by staying or may be by going God alone knows His Majesty while he was upon that Journey sent a Message to both Houses This was Printed Febr. 14. By this the King puts all
that the King graciously sent him with a Reference to the Council for satisfaction First I must believe if he were so sent the Wrong being only the Kings and he willing he should have satisfaction however for his Loss that the Lords would never refuse in such a Case whatsoever is here said to the contrary Secondly it may be observed how Gracious the King was to the Subject that though the Annoyance was great to that House of his Recreation and retiring near the City yet he would not have Mr. Bond suffer without satisfaction Notwithstanding which Goodness of the King he comes into this great Court and so he may have a Blow at me blasts as much in him lies all the King's Proceedings under the Name of Oppression and that in a high degree He says also That a Friend of his perswaded him to come to me and offer me somewhat to St. Pauls and that he did come to me accordingly and that I said I must have of him a Thousand Pounds to St. Pauls That he was not unwilling to give it because his Brewing was worth twice as much to him My Lords I humbly desire your Lordships to consider this part of the Charge well First what Friend of his this was that came so to him he says not nor do I know and so have no possibility to Examine Secondly he says not that I sent this Friend of his to him thus to advise him and then his coming no way concerns me Thirdly when he was come upon this Friend's perswasion if he were willing to give a Thousand Pounds to St. Pauls in regard of his double gain from his Brew-House as himself confesses I do not see under Favour what Crime or Oppression is in it Lastly I remember none of this and let him well weigh his Oath with himself For I cannot call to mind one Penny that he gave to St. Pauls Nor yet shall I ever think it a Sin to take a Thousand Pounds to such a work from any Rich and Able Man that shall voluntarily offer it especially upon hope of gaining twice as much To make this Charge the heavier He says I sent him to the Queen-Mother who lay then at St. James's and that there he was laboured by some about her to change his Religion and then he should have all Favour This is a bold Oath let him look to it for I sent him not It may be I might tell him that if the Queen Mother were offended with the Annoyance from his House it would not be in my power to help him which was true And that about his Religion was added to make your Lordships think that I sent him thither for that purpose But God be thanked this Witness says not any one word tending that way And for the Queen Mother since she is thus mentioned I shall crave leave to say two things The one that I did both in open Council and privately oppose her coming into England with all the strength I had though little to my own ease as I after found The other that after she was come the Lords of the Council went in a Body to do their Duty to her That time I could not but go but never either before or after was I with her Then he concludes that there was a Capias out for him and that he was fain to make an Escape by Night which he did to Alderman Pennington who very Nobly Succoured him privately in his House All which concerns me nothing 2. The other Witness is Mr. Arnold who told as long a Tale as this to as little purpose He speaks of three Brew-Houses in Westminster all to be put down or not brew with Sea-Coal That Secretary Windebanck gave the Order Thus far it concerns not me He added that I told him they burnt Sea-Coal I said indeed I was informed they did and that I hope was no Offence He says that upon Sir John Banks his new Information four Lords were appointed to view the Brew-Houses and what they burnt But I was none of the four nor did I make any Report for or against He says Mr. Attorney Banks came one day over to him and told him that his House annoyed Lambeth and that I sent him over The Truth is this Mr. Attorney came one-day over to Dine with me at Lambeth and walking in the Garden before Dinner we were very sufficiently annoyed from a Brew-House the Wind bringing over so much Smoak as made us leave the place Upon this Mr. Attorney asked me why I would not shew my self more against those Brew-Houses being more annoyed by them than any other I replyed I would never be a means to undo any Man or put him from his Trade to free my self from Smoak And this Witness doth after confess that I said the same words to himself Mr. Attorney at our parting said he would call in at the Brew-House I left him to do as he pleased but sent him not And I humbly desire Mr. Attorney may be Examined of the Truth of this He farther says that he came over to me to Lambeth and confesses the words before mentioned and that he offer'd me Ten Pound Yearly to St. Pauls and that I said he might give Twenty He says that I sent him to Mr. Attorney but withal told him that if he found not such favour as I wished him it was a sign he had more powerful Adversaries than my Friendship could take off In all this I cannot see what Fault I have committed And I foretold him Truth For though the Business were after referred to Mr. Attorney and my self as himself says yet we were not able to end it Then he says I would not suffer Sir Edw. Powell Master of the Requests to deliver his Petition to the King But first this is but Sir Edw. Powell's Report and so no Proof unless he were produced to justifie it Secondly the World knows I had no power in Sir Edward He would then willingly have delivered Petition or any thing else that he thought might hurt me And the Cause is known Lastly He says Mr. Attorney sent out a Capias for him that the Sheriff came by force to take him and what hard shift he made to escape That after upon his Petition the Lords gave him six Months time to provide himself elsewhere and that he was fain to give Five-Hundred-Pound-Bond not to Brew there To all this I then said and say still First here 's no one thing Charged upon me in particular Secondly here 's not a word of my Advice or Endeavour to set on Mr. Attorney or to move the Lords to any thing against him And whereas it hath been urged that my Power was such that I sway'd the Lords to go my way This cannot be said without laying an Imputation upon the Lords as if they could so easily be over-wrought by any one Man and that against Law which is a most unworthy Aspersion upon Men of Honour And if all this were true it
I may write to any Judge for Information And there is nothing Peremptory in the Letter The Words are If things be rightly suggested But howsoever the Letter is Dell's and if he have done amiss in it he is here present to Answer And it will be a hard business with Men of Honour if when any Lord shall Command his Secretary to Write and give him Directions for the Matter he shall afterwards be answerable for every slip of his Secretary's Pen especially in so high a way as 't is Charged on me But the best is here 's nothing amiss that I know CAP. XXVII The Sixth Day of my Hearing THE First Charge of this Day concerned the Censure Deprivation and Imprisonment of Mr Huntly The Witnesses produced are Four 1. Mr. Merifield comes on first He says That himself was Committed by the Lords of the Council and that there I said that he the said Merifield deserved to be laid by the Heels and to be called into the Star-Chamber This Man was as I take it Mr Huntly's Attorney and if I did speak those Words concerning him surely his Words and Carriage deserved it Else I am confident the Lords would not have Committed him for a naked and an orderly following of his Clyent 's Cause especially in the presence of two Judges Justice Jones and Justice Crook who he says himself were present And this Answer I gave Mr Brown who in the Sum of his Charge against me omitted not this Case of Mr Merifield for so was this Attorney's Name 2. The next Witness is Mr Huntly himself He says That I said unto him that he being an Ecclesiastical Person and in an Ecclesiastical Cause ought not to decline the Church-Censure Then followed his Imprisonment and his Action for false Imprisonment and the rest of his proceedings In all which the High-Commission proceeded against him and he proceeded against the High-Commissioners nothing done by me or against me in particular So nothing of this Charge falls upon me but the Words and for them they are very far from offering to Exempt any Clergyman him or other from the Temporal Laws it things cognizable by them But I humbly conceive his Oath of Canonical Obedience considered that he ought not to decline the Ecclesiastical Judicature in things meerly Ecclesiastical And if in this my Judgment I do Err yet it is Error without Crime And surely my Lords no Treason 3. The Third Witness is John Dillingham He says That Mr Huntly moved before the Lord Chief Justice Richardson and that the Judge replyed By his Faith he durst not do him Justice To this my Lords I answer Here 's never a Word that he durst not do him Justice for fear of me that 's not said by the Witness and ought not by Conjectures be inforced against me But howsoever if he spake those Words the more shame for him He is Dead and I will not rake into his Grave but if he so spake it seems he was none of those Judges which Jethro advised Moses to make for the ease of himself and the good of the People Mr Brown in summing up of his Charge pressed this Speech of the Judge hard upon me which inforces me to add thus much more That this 〈◊〉 lays it hard upon the Judge not upon me For no Proof is offered that I did Solicit him in that Cause And if he wanted Courage to do Justice why sat he there 4. The Fourth Witness was Mr Pit a sworn Officer he says The Order concerning Mr Huntly was from the Council and that there was then a full Board So this was no single Act of mine He says farther That he was not simply Prohibited but only till he had acquainted the Lord Keeper with it or those Judges whose Courts it concerned And this was so Ordered as I concelve to remedy the tedious and troublesome Interpositions of Mr Huntly Where it is not unfit for me to inform your Lordships that this Cause of Mr Huntly's was in my Predecessor Arch-Bishop Abbot his time I had nothing to do in it but as any other ordinary Commissioner then present had And here at the entring upon my Answers this Day I did in general put the Lords in mind that nothing of late times was done either in Star-Chamber or at Council-Table which was not done in King James and Queen Elizabeth's Times before I was born and that many Parliaments have been since and no Man accused of Misdemeanour for things done there much less of Treason Nor is there any one Witness that hath charged me That that which I did was to overthrow the Laws or to introduce Arbitrary Government That 's only the Construction made on 't at the Bar which as it is without all Proof for any such Intention so I am confident they shall answer for it at another Bar and for something else in these Proceedings Then followed the Charge about Prohibitions In which are many Particulars which I shall take in Order as the several Witnesses Charge them upon me 1. The First is Mr Pryn. He says That An 4 Caroli he brought a Prohibition and that thereupon I should say Doth the King give us Power and then are we prohibited Let us go and Complain First If this were An 4 Caroli it was long before the Article so that I could neither expect the Charge nor provide the Answer Secondly I humbly conceive there 's no Offence in the Words For if a Prohibition be unjustly granted upon Misinformation or otherwise or if we do probably conceive it is ill grounded I hope 't is no Sin to complain of it to the King the Fountain of Justice in both Courts Yea but he says farther That I said I would lay him by the Heels that brought the next And this Mr Burton witnesses with him First if I did say so they were but a few hasty Words For upon second thoughts it was not done Next I desire your Lordships to consider what manner of Witness Mr Burton is who confesses here before your Lordships that he brought the next with a purpose to tempt me You know whose Office that is and so Mr Burton hath abundantly shewed himself and proclaimed his Religion 3. As for Mr Comes he says just the same with Mr Pryn and I give the same Answer Then about taking down of a Pew in a Church in London my Notes are uncertain for the Name which Pew was set above the Communion Table That I required to have it pulled down That they came to me to have an Order for it and that thereupon I should say You desire an Order of Court that you may have it to shew and get a Prohibition But I will break the Back of Prohibitions or they shall break mine And this is joyntly Witnessed by Mr Pocock and Mr Langham And this they say was Thirteen or Fourteen Years ago Excellent Memories that can punctually swear Words so long after But my Lords
I confess to your Lordships I could never like that Seats should be set above the Communion Table If that be any Error in me be it so For the Words I did not speak them of Prohibitions in general but of such as I did conceive very Illegal as for ought I yet know this must have been And this was the Answer wich I gave Mr Brown when in Summing up the Charge he instanced in this against me To these Rouland Tomson adds new Words That I wondered who durst grant a Prohibition the High-Commission Court being above all But he confesses he knows not the time when this was spoken Let him look to his Oath for I am as Confident he knows not the thing And I farther believe that neither he nor any the rest of my Accusers think me so Ignorant as to say the High-Commission Court was above all 7. Francis Nicolas says that about Four Years since he delivered a Prohibition and was committed for it To this Quaterman comes in and says more than Nicolas himself For he says he delivered it in upon a Stick and was Committed for it First if he were Committed it was not for bringing the Prohibition but for his unmannerly delivery of it and to reach it into the Court upon a Stick to call the People to see it was no Handsom way of Delivery And one that brought a Prohibition whether this Man or no I cannot certainly say threw it with that violent Scorn into the Court that it bounded on the Table and hit me on the Breast as I sat in Court. Howsoever his Commitment was the Act of the Court not mine And for Quaterman he is an Exasperated Man against me and that Court as hath appeared to the World many ways 9. Mr Edwards was called up next and he says it was a common thing to lay them by the Heels which brought Prohibitions And they were commonly brought by bold impudent Men picked out of purpose to affront the Court. And then if the Court made their Imprisonment as common as they their Rudeness where 's the Fault And I pray mark this is still the Act of the Court not mine 10. Mr. Welden says That there was a Command given to lay hold of a Man which brought a Prohibition But more he says not Nor did he offer to make himself Judge of the Justice of the Court in that behalf And considering what Affronts have been put upon the Court of High Commission by the bringers of Prohibitions I hope it shall not be accounted a Crime to stay him that brings it till the Prohibition be seen and considered 11. The next Witness is Mr. Ward And he is an angry Witness for his Cause before-mentioned about Symony That which he says is That An. 1638 He that brought a Prohibition in a Cause of Mr. Foetroughts was laid by the Heels But he himself confesses the Court then declared that they were affronted by him And then he was Punished for that Misdemeanour in his Carriage not for bringing the Prohibition He says farther that I directed some Commissioners to attend the Judges about it and that the Party had no benefit by his Prohibition For my directing Attendance upon the Judges I think I did what well became me For there came a Rule before the Prohibition which required the Court so to do And Mr. Pryn objected because this was not done and now I am Accused because I gave direction to do it And if the Party had no benefit by his Prohibition it must needs follow that either the Judges were satisfied by our Information of the Cause or if not that they did Mr. Foetrought the wrong and not we 12. The last Witness about Prohibitions was Mr. Wheeler He says that in a Sermon of mine long since I used these Words They which grant Prohibitions to the Disturbance of the Churches Right God will prohibit their entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven And he says he writ down the Words that he might remember them If this Gentleman will tell me what Text I then Preached on I will look upon my Sermon if that with my other Papers be not taken from me and shew the place In the mean time with that Limitation with which he confesses I spake them I conceive there is no fault at all in the Words For it will be found no small fault in Judges to grant Prohibitions to the Disturbance of the Rights of the Church which no Law of God or Man warrants them to do So the words I spake must needs be understood of illegal Prohibitions For they which are Legal do only stop the Church from doing wrong but do no wrong to the Church by disturbing her Rights Mr. Browne charged this Sermon Note upon me also and I gave him this Answer Nevertheless I cannot but be sorry to hear it from Mr. Wheeler's own Mouth that he was so careful to write this Passage and so ready to come to witness it against me considering how many Years I have known him and how freely he hath often come to my Table and been welcome to me yet never told me this Passage in my Sermon troubled him It seems some Malignity or other laid it up against this wet Day Here having thus answered all Particulars I humbly craved leave of their Lordships to inform them some few things concerning Prohibitions As first that there was a great Contestation about them between my Predecessor Arch-Bishop Bancroft and the then Judges and this before King James and the Lords of the Council and Mr. Atturney Hobart Pleaded for the Church against them Sir Henry Martin gave me Copies of all those Papers on both sides No final End made that I could ever hear of This calling them all in Question was far more than ever was done by me or in my time and yet no Accusation at all much less any of Treason put up against Arch-Bishop Bancroft for this Secondly I have here Papers Attested of all the Prohibitions which have been admitted in my Courts of Arches and Audience And I find there are as many if not more admitted in my Seven Years time as in any Seven Years of my Predecessor Arch-Bishop Abbot And these Papers I delivered into the Court. As for the High-Commission the Records are all taken from us else I make no doubt but it would soon appear by them that as many have been admitted there also Thirdly There is a great difference touching Prohibitions and the sending of them since the Times of Reformation and before For before the Bishops Courts were kept under a foreign Power and there were then weighty Reasons for Prohibitions both in regard of the King's Power and the Subjects Indempnity But since the Reformation all Power Exercised in the Spiritual Courts is from the King as well as the Temporal so that now there neither is nor can be so much Cause as formerly was And yet all that I did humbly and earnestly desire was that
making of that which was done so long before is the Task lying now upon me to answer which with your Lordships honourable Favour I shall in all Humbleness Address my self unto Before these Words were well out of my Mouth Mr. Nicolas with much earnestness interposed That he hoped their Lordships would not indure that the Solemn Votes of both Houses should be called into Question by any Delinquent and was sure the House of Commons would not endure it Upon this the Lords presently gave their Resolution that I might not speak to any thing that was declared by Votes but was to answer only to the Fact whether I made the Canons or no. To this with leave humbly asked I replyed That if I might not answer to the Votes I must yield the Evidence which I could not do And that if I might answer I must dispute the Votes which their Lordships resolved I should not do That then I was in a Perplexity and must necessarily offend either way And therefore humbly besought them to consider not my Case only but their own too For I did conceive it would concern them in Honour as much as me in Safety That no Charge might be brought against me in that great Court to which I should not be suffered to make answer Or else that they in Honour would not judge me for that to which my Answer is not suffer'd to be given With this that all these Canons were made in open and full Convocation and are Acts of that Body and cannot be ascribed to me though President of that Synod but are the Joynt Acts of the whole Body So by me they were not made which is my Answer And according to this I framed my Answer to Mr. Brown's Summary of my Charge both hinting the Canons in general and concerning the Instance before given about the Bishop of Gloucester But though I was not allowed there to make any farther Answer in defence of these Canons Nor can hold it fit to insert here so long an Answer as these Votes require I humbly desire the Courteous Reader if he please to look upon the Answer which I have made to a Speech of Mr. Nathaniel Fynes in the House of Commons against these Canons In which Answer I humbly conceive I have satisfied whatsoever these Votes contain against them Howsoever I cannot but observe this in present The Words in the Sixth Original Article are as they are above Cited That the late Canons contain Matters contrary to the King's Prerogative the Laws c. But in the Ninth Additional all the rest of the Exceptions are in against them but these Words about the King's Prerogative are quite left out I would fain know if I could what is the Reason of this Omission in these added Articles Is it for Shame because there was a purpose to Charge me as Serjeant Wild did in his Speech the first Day that I laboured to advance the King's Prerogative above the Law To advance it and yet made contrary Canons against it which is the way to destroy it What pretty Nonsense is this Or is it because the framers of these Additionals whom I conceive were some Committee with the help of Mr. Pryn thought the time was come or coming in which the King should have no more Prerogative Or if there be a third Reason let them give it themselves This was all concerning the Canons Then followed the sixth Original Article about my assuming of Papal Power where Mr. Brown in Summing up of his Charge was pleased to say that no Pope claimed so much as I had done But he was herein much mistaken For never any Pope claimed so little For he that claimed least claimed it in his own right which was none whereas I claimed nothing but in the King 's right and by vertue of his Concession Between which there is a vast Latitude The first Proof upon this Article was read out of certain Letters sent unto me by the Vniversity of Oxford I being then their Chancellor Which great Titles were urged to prove my assuming of Papal Power because I did not check them in my Answers to those Letters 1 The first Title was Sanctitas tua which Mr. Nicolas said was the Pope's own Title But he is deceived For the Title was commonly given to other Bishops also clean through the Primitive Church both Greek and Latin He replied in great heat as his manner it seems is that 't is Blasphemy to give that Title Sanctitas in the Abstract to any but God And though by the Course of the Court I might not answer then to the Reply yet now I may And must tell Mr. Nicolas that 't is a great Presumption for him a Lawyer and no Studied Divine to Charge Blasphemy upon all the Fathers of the Primitive Church 'T is given to St. Augustine by Hilarius and Euodius and in the Abstract And which is the Charge laid to me St. Augustine never checks at or finds fault with the Title nor with them for writing it And St. Augustine himself gives that Title to Euodius answering his Letters which I was not to do to theirs And after that to Quintianus Neither is any thing more common than this Stile among the Fathers as all Learned Men know And 't is commonly given by St. Gregory the Great to divers Bishops Who being Pope himself would not certainly have given away his own Title had it been peculiar to him to any other Bishop Nor would any of the Fathers have given this Epithete to their Brethren had any savour of Blasphemy been about it But there is a two-fold Holiness the one Original Absolute and Essential and that is in God only and incommunicable to any Creature The other Derivative and Relative and that is found in the Creatures both Things and Persons Or else God should have no Saints no Holy Ones For no Man can be said to be Sanctus Holy but he who in some degree hath Sanctitatem Holiness residing in him And this I answered at the present But according to Mr. Nicolas his Divinity we shall learn in time to deny the Immortality of the Soul For Immortality in the Abstract is applied to God only 1 Tim. 6. Who only hath Immortality Therefore if it may not in an under and a qualified Sense by Participation be applied to the Creature the Soul of Man cannot be Immortal 2 The Second Title is Spiritu Sancto effusissimè plenus My Lords I had sent them many Hundred Manuscripts and in many Languages upon this in Allusion to the gift of Tongues and it was about Pentecost too that I sent them the Luxuriant Pen of the University Orator ran upon these Phrases which I could neither fore-see before they were written nor remedy after And finding fault could not remedy that which was past Besides all these Letters were in Answer to mine I was to answer none of theirs That might have made me work enough had I
see it Flourish in another Hundred Years 't is that which I cannot hope for now He says there was a Reference to the Councel on both sides and that under that Reference the Business dyed And if it dyed then what makes it here before the Resurrection Yea but says Mr. Nicolas here 's Agitation about the submitting of the Sword which is the Emblem of Temporal Power But neither to Foreign nor Home Power but only to God and that in the place and at the performance of his Holy Worship At which time and place Christian Kings submit themselves and therefore cannot stand upon the Emblems of their Power Nor would the Lords of the Council have made either Order or Reference had there been any thing of danger or against Law in this kind of submitting Mr. Yorke was produced as another Witness but said just the same with Marsh and so the same Answer served him Then followed a Charge about the Charter of York to be renewed and that I did labour to have the Arch-Bishop of York his Chancellor and some of the Residentiaries named in it to be Justices of Peace within the City To prove this Alderman Hoyle is produced Who says There was an Order of the Council about this but cannot say that I procured it So far then this Proof reaches not me For the Bishop his Chancellor and some of the Residentiaries to be Justices of Peace within the City If I were of this Opinion as then advised I am sure there 's no Treason in it and I believe no Crime And under your Lordships Favour I could not but think it would have made much Peace and done much Good in all the Cities of England where Cathedrals are Lastly he says There was a Debauched Man committed about breach of the Sabbath and being casually smother'd I should say they deserved to be Hanged that Killed him Concerning this Man he lost his Life that 's confessed His Debauchery what it was is not proved And were he never so disorderly I am sure he was not without Legal Tryal to be shut up into a House and smother'd That is against both Law and Conscience And the Officers then in being had reason to smother the Business as much as they could And it may be deserved somewhat if not that which this Alderman says I said to his best Remembrance For so and with no more certainty he expressed it This I am sure I said That if the Bishop 〈◊〉 any of the Church had been then in their Charter the Poor Man's Life had not been lost The Fourth Charge was just of the same Nature concerning the Charge of Shrewsbury For this there were produced two Witnesses Mr. Lee and Mr. Mackworth But they make up but one between them For Mr. Lee could say nothing but what he acknowledges he heard from Mr. Mackworth And Mr. Mackworth says first That the Schoolmaster 's Business was referred to other Lords and my self That 's no Crime and to my knowledge that has been a troublesom business for these Thirty Years He says I caused that there should go a Quo Warranto against the Town This is but as Mr. Owen informed him so no proof Beside 't is no Crime being a Referee if I gave legal Reason for it Nor is it any Crime that the Bishop and his Chancellor should be Justices within the Town As is aforesaid in the Case of York Considering especially that then many Clergy-Men bare that Office in divers Counties of England He adds that an Old Alderman gave Fifty Pound to St. Pauls But out of what Consideration I know not nor doth he speak And if every Alderman in the Town would have given me as much to that use I would have taken it and thanked them for it Then he says There was an Order from all the Lords Referees for setling all things about their Charter So by his own Confession the whole Business was transacted publickly and by Persons of great Honour and nothing charged upon my Particular If Mr. Owen sent me in a Butt of Sack and after put it upon the Town Account for so he also says Mr. Owen did ill in both but I knew of neither And this the Councel in their Reply said they urged not in that kind Lastly the Charter it self was Read to both Points of the Bishops and his Chancellors being Justices of Peace within the Town and the not bearing up of the Sword To both which I have answer'd already And I hope your Lordships cannot think his Majesty would have passed such a Charter Or that his Learned Councel durst have put it to him had this thing been such a Crime as 't is here made The next Charge was out of my Diary at March 5 1635. The words are William Juxon Lord Bishop of London made Lord High Treasurer of England No Church-Man had it since H 7 time I pray God bless him to carry it so that the Church may have Honour and the King and the State Service and Contentment by it And now if the Church will not hold up themselves under God I can do no more I can see no Treason in this nor Crime neither And though that which I did to help on this Business was very little yet Aim I had none in it but the Service of the King and the Good of the Church And I am confident it would have been both had not such troublesom Times followed as did Then they instanced in the Case of Mr. Newcomen But that Cause being handled before they did only refer the Lords to their Notes And so did I to my former Answers Then followed the Case of Thorn and Middleton which were Fined in the High Commission about some Clergy-Mens Business Thorne being Constable The Witnesses in this Case are Three 1. The first is Huntford if I took his Name right And for the Censure of these Men he confesses it was in and by the High Commission and so no Act of mine as I have often pleaded But then he says that I there spake these words That no Man of their Rank should meddle with Men in Holy Orders First he is in this part of the Charge single and neither of the other Witnesses comes in to him Secondly I humbly desire the Proceedings of the High Commission may be seen which are taken out of our hands For so far as I can remember any thing of this Cause the Minister Mr. Lewis had hard measure And perhaps thereupon I might say that Men of their Rank should not in such sort meddle with Men in Holy Orders But to tax the proceedings of a violent busie Constable was not to exempt the Clergy from Civil Magistracy Upon this he falls just upon the same words and says that I utter'd them about their offering to turn out a Corrector from the Printing-House This Corrector was a Minister and a well deserving Man The Trust of the Press was referred to the High-Commission Court And
there present p. 28 32 35 42. Nay more this proceeding tam in locis Exemptis quam non Exemptis is allowed to the Governours of the Church in the Exercise of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Act of Parliament in Queen Elizabeth's Time which would never have been allowed had it then been thought such a dangerous Business as 't is now made against me 2. The Second Clause was Power to Censure by Fine and Imprisonment This also I shewed in the old Commission Fol. 37. and is as I conceive in plain pursuance of the Act of Parliament upon which the High-Commission is grounded For the King says there Fol. 13. And so 't is in the new That he grants this Power by Vertue of his Supream Authority and Prerogative Royal and of the said Act. Nay farther 't is added in this latter Commission and by our Authority Ecclesiastical which is not expressed in the former And sure I would never have caused Authority Ecclesiastical to be added had I any Plot as 't is urged either to exalt the Clergy above the Laity or to usurp Papal Power which all Men know is far enough from ascribing Ecclesiastical Authority to the King And as for Fine and Imprisonment if that Power be not according to Law why was it first admitted and after continued in all former Commissions 3. The Third Clause was the Non Obstante which he said was against all Law and of such a boundless Extent as was never found in Commission or other Grant in England And he here desired the Lords that he might read it which he did with great Assurance of a Triumph But after all this Noise which Mr. Nicolas had made I shewed the same Non Obstante in the Old Commission 〈◊〉 62. Word for Word which I humbly desired might be read and compared It was so The Lords looked strangely upon it Mr. Nicolas was so startled that he had not Patience to stay till his Reply which he saw impossible to be made but interrupted me and had the Face to say in that Honourable Assembly that I need not stand upon that for he did but name that without much regarding it And yet at the giving of the Charge he insisted principally upon that Clause and in higher and louder Terms than are before expressed Had such an Advantage been found against me I should have been accounted extreamly Negligent if I compared not the Commissions together or Extreamly Impudent if I did 4. The Fourth Exception was That by this Commission I took greater Power than ever any Court had because both Temporal and Ecclesiastical First whatsoever Power the High-Commission had was not taken by them till given by his Majesty and that according to Use and Statue for ought hath been yet declared Secondly they have not Power of Life or Limb therefore not so great Power as other Courts have Thirdly they may have more various Power in some respects but that cannot make it greater As for the Expression in which 't is said I took this Power that is put most unworthily and unjustly too to derive the Envy as much as he could upon my Person only For he could not hold from comparing me to Pope Boniface 8. and saying that I took on me the Power of both Swords But this was only ad Faciendum Populum For he knows well enough that to take both the Swords as the Pope takes them is to challenge them Originally as due to him and his Place Not to take both as under the Prince and given by his Authority and so not I alone but all the Commissioners take theirs 5. Fifthly To prove that this vast Commission as it was called was put in execution Mr. Burton is produced He says that when he was called into the High-Commission he appealed to the King and pleaded his Appeal and that thereupon I and the Bishop of London Writ to the King to have him submit to the Court He confesses he was dismissed upon his Appeal till his Majesty's Pleasure was farther known And it was our Duty considering what a Breach this would make upon the Jurisdiction of the Court to inform his Majesty of it and we did so The King declared that he should submit to the Court as is confessed by himself Then he says because he would not submit to the Court he was Censured notwithstanding his Appeal And he well deserved it that would not be ruled by his Majesty to whom he had appealed And the Commission had Power to do what they did Besides himself confesses all this was done by the High-Commission not by me Nor doth he urge any Threat Promise or Solicitation of mine any way to particularize the Act upon me and farther he is single and in his own Cause Then followed the last Charge of this Day which was the Patent granted for the Fines in the High-Commission for Finishing the West End of St Pauls cryed out upon as Illegal and Extorted from the King and such as took all Power from him for the space of the Ten Years for which time it was granted This is the Fourth time that St Pauls is struck at My Lords let it come as often as it will my Project and Endeavour in that Work was Honest and Honourable to both Church and Kingdom of England No Man in all this Search and Pursuit hath been able to charge me with the turning of any one Penny or Pennyworth to other use than was limited to me I took a great deal of Care and Pains about the Work and cannot repent of any thing I did in that Service but of Humane Frailty And whereas 't is said this Patent was extorted from his Majesty as there is no Proof offered for it so is there no truth in it For his Majesty's Piety was so forward that nothing needed to be extorted from him Thus went I on Bonâ Fide and took the Prime Direction of the Kingdom for drawing the Patent The Lord Keeper Coventry Mr. Noy and Sir Henry Martin And therefore if any thing be found against Law in it it cannot be imputed to me who took all the care I could to have it beyond exception And I marvel what security any Man shall have that adventures upon any great and publick Work in this Kingdom if such Councel cannot be trusted for drawing up of his Warrant And whereas it was said this Patent for the Ten Years space took away both Justice and Mercy from the King That 's nothing so For whatever the Words be to enable me the better for that Work yet these being inseparable from him may be used by him notwithstanding this or any other Patent And if these be inseparable as 't is granted they are no inseparable thing can be taken away or if it be taken 't is void in Law and the King is where he was in the Exercise of his Right both for Justice and Mercy And so I answered Mr. Brown's summary Charge against me and as for that
which he farther urged concerning S. Gregory's Church Mr. Jingo Jones and others were trusted with that whole Business and were Censured for it in this present Parliament In all which Examination no part of the Charge fell on me And because here are so many things urged about Free-Chappels Lay-Fees Patents Appeals and the like I humbly desire a Salvo may be entred for me and that my Councel may be heard for matter of Law if any Doubt stick with your Lordships This Day ended I did according to my Resolution formerly taken move the Lords for Means considering my Charge in coming and how oft I had Attended and was not Heard Their Lordships considered of my Motion and sent me out Word I should Petition them I did humbly Petition their Lordships May 6. My Petition was presently sent down to the House of Commons that so by both Houses it might be recommended to the Committee for Sequestrations But upon a Speech in the House of Commons that it was fit to see what would become of me before they troubled themselves with thinking of Means for me my Petition was cast aside CAP. XXXI AT my Parting from the House I was ordered to appear again on Thursday May 9. But then fairly put off by an Order sent to the Lieutenant of the Tower to Munday May 13. so the Scorn and Charge of that Day was scaped But then I appeared according to this Order and had Scorn plenty for what I escaped the Day before And after long attendance was dismissed again unheard and had Thursday May 16. assigned unto me That Day held and proceeded thus The Ninth Day of my Hearing The First Charge of this Day was about a Reversion of the Town-Clerks Office of Shrewsbury to one Mr. Lee which he desired might be inserted into the new Charter First Mr. Lee is single here and in his own Case Secondly it appears by his own confession out of the Mouth of Mr. Barnard that there was a Reference of this Business to those Lords to whom Shrewsbury Charter was Referred For he says that Mr. Barnard told him his Business was stayed and he thought by me but did not know whether the Lord-Keeper's Hand were not in it So it seems by himself this was done by the Lords Referees and not by me Thirdly I did not then think nor do now that the Reversion of a Place to be sold for three Hundred Pound as he confesses that was was fit to be put into a Town Charter But yet neither I nor the Lord Keeper did any thing in that stop but what we acquainted his Majesty with and had his Approbation of And whereas he says that he acquainted the Right Honourable the Earl of Dorset with the stay that was made and That thereupon his Lordship should say Have we Two Kings I cannot believe that Honourable Lord would so say unless he were much abused by Mr. Lee's Information Both in regard of his Love to me And in regard it could not proceed from a Man of so great a Judgment as that Lord is For I beseech your Lordships consider may not Lords to whom a business is Referred give his Majesty good Reason to alter his Mind in some particulars which they have Debated and not he And may not this be done without any one of them taking on him to be a Second King The Second Charge was laid on me by Sir Arthur Haselrigg which should have come in the Day before as Mr. Nicolas said but that Sir Arthur was absent in the necessary service of the State Sir Arthur being single and in his own Case says That Sir John Lambe presented a Blind Parson to a Living of his If Sir John did that or any unworthy thing else AEtatem habet let him answer for himself He says farther That this Living is an Impropriation and so a Lay-Fee by Law and that when he told me so much I made him this answer That if I Lived no Man should Name or stand upon his Lay-Fee I conceive my Lords here 's a great mistake in the main For I have been Credibly informed and do believe that Benefice is Presentative and so no Lay-Fee And then there 's no Fault to present unto it so the Clerk be fit Secondly there is a main mistake in my Words which I remember well and where it was that I spake them My Words under this Gentleman's Favour and your Lordships were these and no other That I had good Information that the Benefice was Presentative and that if I lived I hoped to order it so that no Man should make a Presentative Benefice a Lay-Fee there were too many of them already Thirdly if I did speak the Words as they are Charged if they come within that Statute of Six Months so often mentioned to that I refer my Self Whatsoever the Bird at this time of the Year Sings as Mr. Nicolas was pleased to put it upon me And truly my Lords I could easily return all his Bitterness upon himself could it befit my Person my present Condition or my Calling The Third Charge was about the refusing of a Pardon which Mrs Bastwick said she produced in the High-Commission Court some Nine or Ten Years since And she adds that I should then say it should not serve his turn But this was no rejecting of the Pardon for she confesses I said I would move his Majesty about it So that if it did not serve his turn it was from the King himself upon Motion made and Reason given not from any Power assumed by the High-Commission or my self And the Act whatever it were was the Act of the whole Court not mine As for the Words if mine I give the same Answer as before notwithstanding Mr. Nicolas his Bird. The Fourth Charge was That whereas there was a Proclamation to be Printed about the Pacification with the Scots it was suddenly stopped and an Order after for burning of the Pacification First Mr. Hunscot is single in this Charge Secondly whatsoever was done in this was by Order of Council And himself names an Order which could not come from me Thirdly he Charges me with nothing but that I sent word the Proclamation was to be stayed Which if I did I did it by Command Howsoever this concerns the Scottish business and therefore to the Act of Oblivion I refer my self With this that I see by this Testimony Mr. Hunscourt for I took his Name uncertainly hath not yet forgotten Thou shalt commit Adultery So desirous he is to catch me at the Press The Fifth Charge was about a Benefice in North-Hamptonshire in the Case of Mr Fautrye and Mr Johnson and Dr Beal's succeeding them In which broken business for such it was First that business all along was acted by the High-Commission not by me Secondly that though in the Case of Simony the Benefice be lost Ipso Facto yet that must be proved before the Incumbent can be thrust out and
think my Lord Arch-Bishop hath done no Good Work in all his Life but these Men will object it as a Crime against him before they have done With this Charge about the Statutes it was let fall and I well know why It was to heat a Noble Person then present That I procured my self to be chosen Chancellour of that Vniversity If I had so done it might have been a great Ambition in me but surely no Treason But my Lords I have Proof great store might I be enabled to fetch it from Oxford that I was so far from endeavouring to procure this Honour to my self as that I laboured by my Letters for another And 't is well known that when they had chosen me I went instantly to his Majesty so soon as ever I heard it and humbly besought him that I might refuse it as well foreseeing the Envy that would follow me for it and it did plentifully every way But this for some Reasons his Majesty would not suffer me to do Then were objected against me divers Particulars contained in those Statutes As First the making of new Oaths The Charters of the Vniversity are not new and they gave Power to make Statutes for themselves and they have ever been upon Oath The next Illegality is That Men are tied to obey the Proctors in Singing the Litany This is Ancient and in use long before ever I came to the Vniversity and it is according to the Liturgy of the Church of England established by Law Thirdly The Statute of Bannition from the Vniversity But there is nothing more ancient in the Vniversity Statutes than this Fourthly That nothing should be propased in Convocation but what was consented unto among the Heads of Colleges first which was said to be against the Liberty of the Students The young Masters of Arts void of Experience were grown so tumultuous that no Peace could be kept in the Vniversity till my worthy Predecessor the Right Honourable William Earl of Pembroke setled this Order among them As he did also upon the same Grounds settle the present way of the choice of their Proctors In both which I did but follow and confirm for so much as lay in me the Good and Peaceable Grounds which he had laid in those two Businesses And Mr. Brown who in the summing up of my Charge urged this against me mainly mistook in two things The one was that he said this Inhibition of Proposals was in Congregations Whereas it was only in Convocations where more weighty Businesses are handled The other was that this stay of Proposals was made till I might be first acquainted with them No it was but till the Heads of Colleges had met and considered of them for avoiding of tumultuary Proceedings And when my Honourable Predecessor made that Order it was highly commended every where and is it now degenerated into a Crime because it is made up into a Statute Fifthly That some things are referred to Arbitrary Penalties And that some things are so referred is usual in that Vniversity and many Colleges have a particular Statute for it Nor is this any more Power than Ordinary School-Masters have which have not a Statute-Law for every Punishment they use in Schools And in divers things the old known Statute is that the Vice-Chancellour shall proceed Grosso Modo that is without the regular Forms of Law for the more speedy ending of Differences among the Scholars Sixthly That the Statute made by me against Conventicles is very strict But for these that Statute is express De Illicitis Conventiculis and I hope such as are unlawful may be both forbid and punished Besides it is according to the Charter of Richard the Second to that Vniversity The Seventh was the Power of Discommoning But this also hath ever been in Power and in Usage in that Vniversity as is commonly known to all Oxford-Men And no longer since than King James his time Bishop King then Vice-Chancellor Discommuned Three or Four Towns-Men together Next That Students were bound to go to Prison upon the Vice-Chancellors or Proctors Command This also was Ancient and long before my coming to the Vniversity And your Lordships may be sure the Delegacy appointed by themselves would not have admitted it had it not been Ancient and Usual Lastly about the stay of granting Graces unless there were Testimony from the Bishop of the Diocess This was for no Graces but of such as Live not Resident in the Vniversity and so they could not judge of their Manners and Conversation And for their Conformity to the Church of England none as I conceive can be a fitter Witness than the Bishop of the Diocess in which they resided And my Lords for all these thus drawn up by some of their own Body I obtained of his Majesty his Broad Seal for Confirmation And therefore no one thing in them is by any Assumption of Papal Power as 't is urged but by the King's Power only Then followed the Seventh Charge about the Statutes of some Cathedral Churches First my Lords for this I did it by Letters-Patents from the King bearing Date Mar. 31. Decimo Caroli and is extant upon Record And all that was done was Per Juris Remedia and so nothing intended against Law nor done that I know They had extream need of Statutes for all lay loose for want of confirmation and Men did what they listed And I could not but observe it for I was Dean of Gloucester where I found it so In seeking to remedy this I had nothing but my Labour for my Pains and now this Accusation to Boot The Particulars urged are That I had Ordered that nothing should be done in these Statutes Me inconsulto And I had great Reason for it For since I was principally trusted in that work by his Majesty the King if any Complaint were made would expect the account from me And how could I give it if other Men might do all and I not be so much as consulted before they passed 2. That I made a Statute against letting Leases into three Lives But first my Lords the Statute which makes it lawful to let Leases for One and Twenty Years or three Lives hath this limitation in it that they shall not let for any more Years than are limited by the said Colleges or Churches Now in Winchester Church and some other the old local Statute is most plain that they shall let no Lease into Lives Let the Dean and Prebendaries Answer their own Acts and their Consciences as they can And in those Statutes which I did not find pregnant to that purpose I did not make the Statute absolute but left them free to renew all such Leases as were Anciently in Lives before And this give me leave to say to your Lordships without offence If but a few more Leases be granted into Lives no Bishop nor Cathedral Church shall be able to subsist And this is
all the Proof here made mentions him only by whom the Kings Pleasure is signified not him that procures the Preferment So the Docket in this Case no Proof at all The Fifth Charge was a Paper Intituled Considerations for the Church Three Exceptions against them The Observation of the King's Declaration Art 3. The Lecturers Art 5. And the High-Commission and Prohibitions Art 10 11. The Paper I desired might be all Read Nothing in them against either Law or Religion And for Lecturers a better care taken and with more Ease to the People and more Peace to the Church by a Combination of Conformable Neighbouring Ministers in their turns and not by some one Humorous Man who too often mis-leads the People Secondly my Copy of Considerations came from Arch-Bishop Harsnet in which was some sour Expression concerning Emanuel and Sidney Colleges in Cambridge which the King in his Wisdom thought fit to leave out The King's Instructions upon these Considerations are under Mr. Baker's Hand who was Secretary to my Predecessor And they were sent to me to make Exceptions to them if I knew any in regard of the Ministers of London whereof I was then Bishop And by this that they were thus sent unto me by my Predecessor 't is manifest that this account from the several Dioceses to the Arch-Bishop and from him to his Majesty once a Year was begun before my time Howsoever if it had not I should have been glad of the Honour of it had it begun in mine For I humbly conceive there cannot be a better or a safer way to preserve Truth and Peace in the Church than that once a Year every Bishop should give an account of all greater Occurrences in the Church to his Metropolitan and he to the King Without which the King who is the Supream is like to be a great Stranger to all Church Proceedings The Sixth Charge was about Dr Sibthorp's Sermon that my Predecessor opposed the Printing of it and that I opposed him to Affront the Parliament Nothing so my Lords Nothing done by me to oppose or affront the One or the Other This Sermon came forth when the Loan was not yet settled in Parliament The Lords and the Judges and the Bishops were some for some against it And if my Judgment were Erroneous in that Point it was mis-led by Lords of great Honour and Experience and by Judges of great knowledge in the Law But I did nothing to affront any 'T is said that I inserted into the Sermon that the People may not refuse any Tax that is not unjustly laid I conceive nothing is justly laid in that kind but according to Law Gods and Mans. And I dare not say the People may refuse any thing so laid For Jus Regis the Right of a King which is urged against me too I never went farther than the Scriptures lead me Nor did I ever think that Jus Regis mentioned 1 Sam 8 is meant of the Ordinary and just Right of Kings but of that Power which such as Saul would be would assume unto themselves and make it right by Power Then they say I expunged some things out of it As first The Sabbath and put instead of it the Lords Day What 's my Offence Sabbath is the Jews Word and the Lords-Day the Christians Secondly about Evil Counseilors to be used as Haman The Passage as there Expressed was very Scandalous and without just Cause upon the Lords of the Council And they might justly have thought I had wanted Discretion should I have left it in Thirdly that I expunged this that Popery is against the first and the second Commandment If I did it it was because it is much doubted by Learned Men whether any thing in Popery is against the first Commandment or denies the Unity of the God-head And Mr. Perkins who Charges very home against Popery lays not the Breach of the first Commandment upon them And when I gave Mr. Brown this Answer In his last Reply he asked why I left out both Why I did it because its being against the second is common and obvious and I did not think it worthy the standing in such a Sermon when it could not be made good against the first But they demanded why I should make any Animadversions at all upon the Sermon It was thus The Sermon being presented to his Majesty and the Argument not common he committed the Care of Printing it to Bishop Mountain the Bishop of London and four other of which I was one And this was the Reason of the Animadversions now called mine As also of the Answer to my Predecessors Exceptions now Charged also and called mine But it was the Joint Answer of the Committee And so is that other Particular also In which the whole Business is left to the Learned in the Laws For though the Animadversions be in my Hand yet they were done at and by the Committee only I being puny Bishop was put to write them in my Hand The Seventh Charge was Dr Manwaring's Business and Preferment It was handled before only resumed here to make a Noise and so passed it over The Eighth Charge was concerning some Alterations in the Prayers made for the Fifth of November and in the Book for the Fast which was Published An 1636. And the Prayers on Coronation Day 1. First for the Fast-Book The Prayer mentioned was altered as is Expressed but it was by him that had the Ordering of that Book to the Press not by me Yet I cannot but approve the Reason given for it and that without any the least approbation of Merit For the Abuse of Fasting by thinking it Meritorious is the thing left out whereas in this Age and Kingdom when and where set Fastings of the Church are cryed down there can be little fear of that Erroneous Opinion of placing any Merit in Fasting 2 Secondly for the Prayers Published for the Fifth of November and Coronation Day The Alterations were made either by the King himself or some about him when I was not in Court And the Books sent me with a Command for the Printing as there altered I made stay till I might wait upon his Majesty I found him resolved upon the alterations nor in my judgment could I justly except against them His Majesty then gave Warrant to the Books themselves with the alterations in them and so by his Warrant I commanded the Printing And I then shewed both the Books to the Lords who Viewed them and acknowledged his Ma jesty ' Hand with which not his Name only but the whole Warrant was written And here I humbly desired three things might be observed and I still desire it First with what Conscience this passage out of my Speech in the Star Chamber was urged against me for so it was and fiercely by Mr. Nicolas to prove that I had altered the Oath at the King's Coronation because the Prayers appointed for the Anniversary of the Coronation were
to that which should be his Quiet the Grave 7. The Seventh was Arch-Bishop Neile a Man well known to be as true to and as stout for the Church of England established by Law as any Man that came to Preferment in it Nor could his great Enemy Mr. Smart say any thing now against him but a Hearsay from one Dr. Moor of Winchester And I cannot but profess it grieves me much to hear so many Honest and Worthy Men so used when the Grave hath shut up their Mouths from answering for themselves 8. The next was Dr Cosin to be Dean of Peterborough I named Four of his Majesty's Chaplains to him as he had Commanded me And the King pitched upon Dr. Cosens in regard all the Means he then had lay in and about Duresm and was then in the Scots Hands so that he had nothing but Forty Pound a Year by his Headship in Peter-House to maintain himself his Wife and Children 9. The Ninth was Dr. Potter a known Arminian to the Deanery of Worcester What Proof of this Nothing but the Docket And what of the Crime Nothing but Dr. Featly's Testimony who says no more but this That Dr. Potter was at first against Arminianism that 's Absolute But afterwards he defended it as he hath heard there 's a Hearsay 10. The Tenth was Dr Baker 11. The Eleventh Dr Weeks Both very Honest and Able Men but Preferred by their own Lord the Lord Bishop of London 12. The Twelfth was Dr Bray He had been my Chaplain above Ten Years in my House I found him a very Able and an Honest Man and had reason to Prefer him to be able to Live well and I did so Here is nothing objected against him but his Expungings and not Expungings of some Books which if he were Living I well hope he would be able to give good Account for 13. The Thirteenth Dr Heylin He is known to be a Learned and an Able Man but for his Preferment both to be his Majesty's Chaplain and for that which he got in that Service he owes it under God to the Memory of the Earl of Danby who took care of him in the University 14. After these they named some whom they said I preferred to be the King's Chaplains The Witness here Mr. Oldsworth the Lord Chamberlain's Secretary He says the Power and Practice of naming Chaplains was in the Lord Chamberlain for these 25. Years And I say 't is so still for ought I know He says that in all things concerning which the Lord Chamberlain's Warrant went in this Form These are to will and require you c. that there his Lordship did it without consulting the King and that the Warrant for Chaplains run all in this Form First this is more than I know or ever heard of till now Secondly be it so yet 't is hard to deny the King to hear Men Preach before they be sworn his Chaplains if his Majesty desire it since it argues a great care in the King especially in such a Factious time as began to overlay this Church Thirdly he confesses that he knows not who put the King upon this way but believes that I did it He is single and his belief only is no Evidence And whosoever gave the King that Advice deserved very well both of his Majesty and the Church of England That none might be put about him in that Service but such as himself should approve of But that which troubled this Witness was another thing He had not Money for every one that was made Chaplain nor Money to get them a Month to wait in nor Money to change their Month if it were inconvenient for their other Occasions nor Money for sparing their Attendance when they pleased In which and other things I would he had been as careful of his Lord's Honour as I have been in all things For 't is well known in Court I observed his Lordship as much as any Man The Men which are instanced in are Dr Heylin But he was preferred to that Service by my Lord the Earl of Danby Then Dr. Potter But the Lord Keeper Coventry was his means Dr. Cosens was preferred by Bishop Neile whose Chaplain he had been many Years and he moved the Lord Chamberlain for it Dr Lawrence was my Lord Chamberlain's own Chaplain and preferred by himself and in all likelyhood by Mr. Oldsworth's means For he was Fellow of Magdalen College in Oxford as Mr. Oldsworth himself was and he once to my Knowledge had a great Opinion of him Dr. Haywood indeed was my Chaplain but I preferred him not to his Majesty till he had Preached divers times in Court with great Approbation nor then but with my Lord Chamberlain's Love and Liking As for Dr. Pocklington I know not who recommended him nor is there any Proof offered that I did it 15. Then they proceeded to my own Chaplains They name Four of them First Dr. Weeks But he was never in my House never medled with the Licensing of any Books till he was gone from me to the Bishop of London So he is charged with no Fault so long as he was mine The Second Dr Haywood But he is charged with nothing but Sales which was a most desperate Plot against him as is before shewed The Third was Dr. Martin Against him came Mr. Pryn for his Arminian Sermon at S. Pauls Cross. But that 's answered before And Mr. Walker who said he proposed Arminian Questions to divers Ministers Belike such as were to be examined by him But he adds as these Ministers told him So 't is but a Hear-say And say he did propose such Questions may it not be fit enough to try how able they were to answer them The Fourth was Dr. Bray Against him Dr. Featly was again produced for that which he had expunged out of his Sermons But when I saw this so often inculcated to make a noise I humbly desired of the Lords that I might ask Dr. Featly one Question Upon leave granted I asked him Whether nothing were of late expunged out of a Book of his written against a Priest and desired him to speak upon the Oath he had taken He answered roundly that divers passages against the Anabaptists and some in defence of the Liturgy of the Church of England were expunged I asked by whom He said by Mr. Rouse and the Committee or by Mr. Rouse or the Committee Be it which it will I observed to the Lords that Mr. Rouse and the Committee might expunge Passages against the Anabaptists nay for the Liturgy established by Law but my Chaplains may not expunge any thing against the Papists though perhaps mistaken From thence they fell upon Men whom they said I had preferred to Benefices They named but Two Dr Heylin was one again whom I preferred not The other was Dr Jackson the late President of Corpus Christi College in Oxford Dr Featly being produced said Dr Jackson was a known Arminian If so to him 't is well The Man
put in were Persons disaffected to the Discipline if not the Doctrine too of the Church of England 3. Thirdly because no small part was given to School-Masters to Season Youth ab Ovo for their Party And to Young Students in the Universities to purchase them and their Judgments to their side against their coming abroad into the Church 4. Fourthly because all this Power to breed and maintain a Faction was in the Hands of Twelve Men who were they never so Honest and free from Thoughts of abusing this Power to fill the Church with Schism yet who should be Successors and what use should be made of this Power was out of Humane reach to know 5. Because this Power was assumed by and to themselves without any Legal Authority as Mr. Attorney assured me He farther said that the Impropriation of Presteen in Radnorshire was specially given to St Antolins in London I say the more the pity considering the poorness of that Country and the little Preaching that was among that poor People and the plenty which is in London Yet because it was so given there was care taken after the Decree that they of St Antolins had consideration and I think to the full He says that indeed they did not give any thing to the present Incumbents till Good Men came to be in their Places Scarce one Incumbent was better'd by them And what then In so many places not one Good Man found Not one Factious enough against the Church for Mr White to account him Good Yet he thinks I disposed these things afterwards to Vnworthy Men. Truly had they been at my disposal I should not wittingly have given them to Mr. White 's Worthies But his Majesty laid his Command upon his Attorney and nothing was done or to be done in these things but by his direction For Dr. Heylin if he spake any thing amiss concerning this Feoffment in any Sermon of his he is Living to Answer it me it concerns not Mr. Brown in the Summ of the Charge omitted not this And I Answer'd as before And in his Reply he turned again upon it that it must be a Crime in me because I projected to overthrow it But under favour this follows not For to project though the word Projector sound ill in England is no more than to forecast and forelay any Business Now as 't is lawful for me by all good and fit Means to project the Settlement of any thing that is good so is it as lawful by good and Legal means to project the overthrow of any thing that is cunningly or apparently Evil. And such did this Feoffment appear to my Understanding and doth still As for reducing of Impropriations to their proper use they may see if they please in my Diary whence they had this another Project to buy them into the Churches use For given they will not be But Mr. Pryn would shew nothing nor Mr. Nicolas see any thing but what they thought would make against me Here this day ended and I was Commanded to Attend again July 15. But was then put off to July 17. which day held CAP. XL. The Eighteenth Day of my Hearing THis day they charged upon me the Twelfth Original Article which follows in these words He hath Trayterously endeavoured to cause Division and Discord between the Church of England and other Reformed Churches and to that end hath Suppressed and Abrogated the Priviledges and Immunities which have been by his Majesty and his Royal Ancestors granted to the French and Dutch Churches in this Kingdom and divers other ways hath expressed his Malice and Disaffection to those Churches that so by such dis-union the Papists might have more advantage for the overthrow and extirpation of both The First Charge is That I deny them to be a Church For they say that I say plainly in my Book against Fisher that No Bishop no Church Now 't is well known they have no Bishops and therefore no Church The Passage in my Book is an Inference of 〈◊〉 Jerom's Opinion no Declaration of my own And if they or any other be agrieved at St. Jerom for writing so they may Answer him Mr. Nicolas added that this was seconded by Bishop Mountague's Book which Mr. Pryn carefully witnessed was found in my Study and Licensed by Dr. Braye Is this Argument come again that Bishop Mountague's Book was in my Study Leave it for shame But they have now left me never a Book in my Study so I cannot make them any fuller Answer without viewing the place than themselves help me to by their own Confession Which is that he adds this Exception that none but a Bishop can Ordain but in Casu Necessitatis which is the Opinion of many Learned and Moderate Divines Yet this is very considerable in the Business whether an inevitable Necessity be cast upon them or they pluck a kind of Necessity upon themselves The Second Charge is out of a Letter of mine to Bishop Hall upon a Letter which he had formerly sent me In which it seems is something about the Case of Necessity in point of Ordination which they say I disliked And it seems I disliked upon good ground For he had given me power under his Hand to alter what I would in that which he sent unto me I would not take that power but writ back to him what passages I thought might be better expressed if it could agree with his Judgment also Hereupon he sent me another Letter of Jan. 18. 1639. In which he altered those things which I put to his farther Consideration Could any thing be more fairly carried And this Letter was read to the Lords Yea but they say I disliked the giving of this Title Antichrist to the Pope No I did not simply dislike it but I advised Bishop Hall if he thought it good not to affirm it so positively And the Reason I gave was this That King James being pressed upon a great occasion that he had maintained that the Pope was Antichrist which might much trouble if not quite cross some Proceedings much desired by that Prudent King His Majesty made Answer I maintain it not as a point of Faith but as a probable Opinion And for which I have more grounds than the Pope hath for his Challenge of Temporal Power over Princes Let him recall this Opinion and I 'll recall that This I writ to the Bishop but left him free to do what he pleased Here Mr. Nicolas fell extream foul upon me in so much that I could not but wonder at their patience which heard him Among other Titles bestowed upon me many and gross he called me over and over again Pander to the Whore of Babylon I was much moved and humbly desired the Lords that if my Crimes were such as that I might not be used like an Arch-Bishop yet I might be used like a Christian And that were it not for the Duty which I owe to God and my
when they have a just Cause of Proceeding do neither fear nor spare any Man's Greatness And is it probable that they which spared not the Duke of Buckingham's Greatness would have feared mine being then a poor Bishop of Bath and Wells And a Parliament was held again in the very next Year 1627. So that he wanted not opportunity to complain Nor can I believe any Opinion of my supposed Greatness stopped him Let him look into himself Then Mr. Nicolas told the Lords with great vehemency what Venom there was in this Paper which he said was in every Particular A right Spider I see now he is Venom out of any thing Here is a void space left I suppose with design to have the Paper here mentioned to be inserted Which was not done The Seventh Proof was out of my Diary at March 1628. Where the words are that the Parliament which was dissolved March 10 1628. sought my Ruin This had been a better Argument to prove Parliaments an Enemy to me than me to them But nothing can be meant by this but that my Ruin was sought in that Parliament by some particular Men whose Edge was too keen against me And this appears in my Diary at June 14. preceeding at which time I was put into a Remonstrance which had I been found any way guilty must needs have ruin'd me But by God's Blessing the very same day I did clearly acquit my self in open Parliament of all the Aspersions cast upon me about Dr. Manwaring's Sermons This Particular Mr. Brown charged upon me and I Answer'd as before But Mr. Nicolas did not touch upon it this day The Eighth Proof that I was an Enemy to Parliaments was taken from some Marginal Notes which I had made upon a printed Speech of Sir Benjamin Rudyards which he spake in the Parliament held An. 1627. Mr. Nicolas named Four but Mr. Brown in Summing up my Charge insisted only upon Two The Word Reducing And the Aim of Gaining from the King Sir Benjamin Rudyard is my old Acquaintance and a very worthy Member of that House both now and then But be a Man never so Worthy may he not use some Phrase amiss Or if he do may not I or another observe yea check at it but by and by I must be an Enemy to Parliaments Is there any Argument in this I said a Gentleman in the House of Commons used an ill Phrase in a Speech of his in that House therefore I am an Enemy to the Parliament in which he spake it Say I am mistaken and not he and that the Phrase is without Exception yet this is but my Error in Judgment no Proof of Enmity either to the Parliament or him that spake it That which I said was this First that the word Reducing as there placed was a hard Phrase Let any Man view that Speech considerately and tell me whether it be not so Secondly that I disliked the word Gaining being between the King and his People in Parliament For as I humbly conceive there will always be work enough for both to joyn for the Publick Good and well it can never be if they which should so joyn do labour only to gain one from another For if the King shall labour to gain upon the Liberty or Property of the Subject or the Subjects in Parliament labour to gain from the just Power and Prerogative of the King can any Prudent Man think the Publick can thrive there-while Yea but they say that my Marginal Note upon this Phrase was that this Gaining was the Aim of the lower House If my Note be so yet that cannot be otherwise understood than that according to this Expression this must be their Aim And the Reason why I found fault with the Phrase was because I saw this must follow out of it So under Favour I was not so bold with this Gentleman as he was with the House in using this Speech The next Proof was that I found fault with Eight Bills that were then in the House This is a very poor Proof of my Enmity to Parliaments that I disliked some Bills proposed in them Though there be no Proof of this urged at all save only that I writ the time May 27. 1628. upon the Paper where the Bills were mentioned And I hope to mention the time when any Bills were proposed is not to dislike the Bills But say I did dislike them what then It is lawful for any Member of the House and such was I then to take Exceptions which he thinks are just against any Bill before it pass And shall not that which is Lawful for any Man to do be Lawful for me Beside almost all Bills are put in by private Persons The House is not interessed in them till they are Passed and Voted by them So that till then any Man may spend his Judgment upon the Bill without any wrong at all to the Parliament Mr. Brown saw this well enough and therefore vouchsafed not so much as to name it The Tenth Proof was that I made an Answer to the Remonstrance set out by Parliament An. 1628. This was pressed before and here 't is laid hold of on all Hands to make as full a Cry as it can against me Mr. Nicolas presses it here aloud as he doth all things and Mr. Brown lays it close in Summing up the Charge My Answer the same to both First they charge me that I made that Answer to the Remonstrance which came forth An. 1628. I did this by the King's Command and upon such Instructions as were given me And as I obeyed the Command so did I closely pursue my Instructions And I durst do no other for I was then upon my Oath as a Sworn Counsellor and so employed in that Service And I hope no Man will conceive that I would without such a Command have undertaken such a kind of Service Yea but they say it doth not appear that I had any such Command Yes that appears as plainly as that I made it For they bring no Proof that I made it but because the Indorsement upon that Paper is in my Hand and calls it my Answer And the same Indorsement says I made it by his Majesty's Command So either the Indorsement is no sufficient Proof for the one or if it be 't is sufficient for both And must needs witness the one for me with the same strength that it doth the other against me For a kind of Confession that Indorsement is and must therefore not be broken but be taken with all its Qualities Thirdly they say there are some sour and bitter Passages in the Answer 'T is more than I perceived if it be so Nor was any Sourness intended And I hope no such Passages found in it the Person considered in whose Name the Answer was made The Expressions indeed might have been too big for a Subject's Mouth Fourthly they say I was displeased that this Answer was not Printed but
all the Proof they brought for it is that it is written upon the Paper that there was an Intention to Print it but that I know not what hinder'd it But this Argument can never conclude John a Nokes knows not who hindred the Printing of a Jewish Catechism in England therefore he was displeased the Catechism was not Printed But I see every Foot can help trample him that is down Yea but they Instanced in three Particulars which they charged severally upon me The first Particular was That by this Remonstrance they sought to fill our Peoples Hearts more than our Ears A second was that they swelled to that bigness till they brake themselves But neither of these strike at any Right or Priviledge of Parliaments they only Tax some Abuses which were conceived to be in the Miscarriage of that one Parliament And both these Particulars were in my Instructions And though I have ever Honoured Parliaments and ever shall yet I cannot think them Infallible General Councils have greater Promises than they yet they may Err. And when a Parliament by what ill Accident so-ever comes to Err may not their King tell them of it Or must every Passage in his Answer be sour that pleases not And for that Remonstrance whither it tended let the World judge the Office is too dangerous for me The third Particular was the Excusing of Ireland and the growth of Popery there of which that Remonstrance An. 1628. complained This was in the Instructions too And I had Reason to think the King and his Council understood the State of Ireland for Religion and other Affairs as well as other Men. And I was the more easily led into the belief that Religion was much at one State in Ireland in Queen Elizabeth's and King James his time and now because ever since I understood any thing of those Irish Affairs I still heard the same Complaints that were now made For in all these times they had their Romish Hierarchy Submitted to their Government Payed them Tythes Came not to the Protestant Churches And Rebelled under Tyrone under pretence of Religion And I do not conceive they have gone beyond this now If they have let them Answer it who have occasioned it But to prove this great new growth of Popery there they produced first a Proclamation from the State in Ireland dated April 1. 1629. Then a Letter of the Bishop of Kilmore's to my self dated April 1. 1630. Thirdly a Complaint made to the State there An. 1633. of this growth so that I could not but know it Most true when these Informations came I could not but know it But look upon their Date and you shall find that all of them came after this Answer was made to the Remonstrance and therefore could not possibly be foreseen by me without the Gift of Prophesie Then they produced a Letter of the Earl of Straffords in which he Communicated to me Mar. 1633. that to mould the Lower House there and to rule them the better he had got them to be chosen of an equal number of Protestants and Papists And here Mr. Maynard who pressed this point of Religion hard upon me began to fall foul upon this Policy of the Earl of Strafford and himself yet brake off with this But he is gone Then he fell upon me as a Man likely to approve those ways because he desired the Letter might be communicated to me This Letter was not written to me as appears by the Charge it self For if it had no Man else needed to communicate it to me And I would fain know how I could help any of this If that Lord would write any thing to me himself or communicate any thing to another that should acquaint me with it was it in my power to hinder either of these And there were other Passages in this Letter for which I conceive his Lordship desired the Communication of that Letter to me much more than the Particular urged which could no way relate unto me And Mr. Brown in his Summ said very little if any thing to this Business of Ireland After this Mr. Nicolas who would have nothing forgotten that might help to multiply Clamour against me fell upon five Particulars which he did but name and left the Lords to their Notes Four of these Five were handled before As First the words If the Parliament prove peevish Secondly that the King might use his own Power Thirdly the violation of the Petition of Right Fourthly the Canons Fifthly that I set Spyes about the Election of Parliament-Men in Glocester-shire and for this last they produced a Letter of one Allibon to Dr. Heylin To the four first I referred the Lords to their Notes of my Answers as they did To this last that Mr. Allibon is a meer Stranger to me I know not the Man And 't is not likely I should employ a Stranger in such a Business The Letter was sent to Dr. Heylin and if there were any discovery in it of Juglings there in those Elections as too often there are and if Dr. Heylin sent me those Letters as desirous I should see what Practices are abroad what fault is there in him or me for this Then Mr. Nicolas would not omit that which he thought might disgrace and discontent me though it could no way be drawn to be any Accusation 'T was out of my Diary at Oct 27. 1640. this Parliament being then ready to begin The Passage there is That going into my upper Study to send away some Manuscripts to Oxford I found my Picture which hung there privately fallen down upon the Face and lying on the Floor I am almost every day threatned with my Ruin God grant this be no Omen of it The Accident is true and having so many Libels causelesly thrown out against me and hearing so many ways as I did that my Ruin was Plotted I had Reason to apprehend it But I apprehended it without Passion and with looking up to God that it might not be Ominous to me What is this Man Angry at Or why is this produced But though I cannot tell why this was produced yet the next was urged only to Incense your Lordships against me 'T is in my Diary again at Feb. 11. 1640. Where Mr. Nicolas says confidently I did Abuse your Lordships and Accuse you of Injustice My Lords what I said in my Diary appears not if it did appear whole and altogether I doubt not but it alone would abundantly satisfie your Lordships But that Passage is more than half burnt out as is to be seen whether of purpose by Mr. Pryn or casually I cannot tell yet the Passage as confidently made up and read to your Lordships as if nothing were wanting For the thing it self the close of my words is this So I see what Justice I may expect since here 's a Resolution taken not only before my Answer but before my Charge is brought up against me Which Words can
Book of Assize Killing the King's Messenger was Treason And in the Parliament Roll 21 Ed. 3. Numero 15. accroaching the Royal Power wherein every Excess was subject to a Construction of Treason was Treason for which divers having suffered the Commons in Parliament finding how mischievous and destructive it was to the Subject Petitioned it might be bounded and declared And this not to give any Liberty but to give Bounds to it one while it being construed an Accroachment of Royal Power as in the Case of the Earl of Lancaster temp Ed. 2. for being over Popular with the People and in the same King's Reign to Spencer for being over Gracious with the King The sense of these and other Mischiefs by the uncertainty of Treason brought on this Law of 25 Ed. 3. and the benefit of it to the Subject says Sir Ed. Coke upon his Collections of the Pleas of the Crown begot that Parliament the Name of Parliamentum Benedictum and that except Magna Charta no other Act of Parliament had more Honour given it by the King Lords and Commons And this Law hath been in all Times the Rule to Judge Treasons by even in Parliament and therefore in the Parliament Roll 1 H. 4. Num. 144. the Tryal and Judgment in Cases of Impeachment of Treason is prayed by the Commons might be according to the Ancient Laws and in the Parliament Roll 5 H. 4. Num. 12. in the Case of the then Earl of Northumberland this Statute of 25 Ed. 3. was the Guide and Rule by which the Lords Judged in a Case endeavoured to have been extended to be a Treason the same to be no Treason And it is as we conceive very observable That if at any time the Necessity or Excess of the Times produced any particular Laws in Parliament for making of Treasons not contained in that Law of 25 Ed. 3. yet they returned and fixed in that Law Witness the Statute of 1 H. 4. Cap. 10. whereby all those Facts which were made Treasons mean between in the divided time of R. 2. were reduced to this of Ed. 3. In the time of H. 8. wherein several Offences were Enacted to be Treasons not contained in the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. the same were all swept away by the Statute of 1. Ed. 6. Cap. 12. And again wherein the time of Ed. 6. several Treasons were Enacted they were all Repealed and by Act made 1 Mariae 1. none other Offence left to be Treason than what was contained and declared by the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. And from 1 H. 4. to Queen Mary and from thence downward we find not any Judgment hath been given in Parliament for any Treason not declared and contained in that Law but by Bill Thus in succession of all Times this Statute of 25 Ed. 3. in the Wisdom of former Parliaments hath stood and been the constant fixed Rule for all Judgments in Cases of Treason We shall now observe what Offences are in and by that Law declared to be Treasons whereby your Lordships will Examine whether you find any of them in the Charge of these Articles For which purpose we shall desire this Statute of 25. Ed. 3. be Read The Treasons by that Act declared are 1. Compassing and Imagining the Death of the King Queen or Prince and declaring the same by some Overt Act. 2. Murdering the Chancellor Treasurer c. 3. Violating the Queen the King 's Eldest Daughter or the Prince's Wife 4. Levying War against the King 5. Or Adhering to the King's Enemies within the Realm or without and declaring the same by some Overt Act. 6. Counterfeiting the Seals and Coin 7. Bringing in Counterfeit Coin Next we shall lay for a ground that this Act ought not be Construed by Equity or Inference 1. For that it is a declarative Law and no Declaration ought to be upon a Declaration 2. It was a Law provided to secure the Subject for his Life Liberty and Estate and to admit Constructions and Inferences upon it were to destroy the Security provided for by it 3. It hath been the constant Opinion in all Times both in Parliament and upon Judicial Debates that this Act must be literally construed and not by Inference or Illation Nor would it be admitted in a Particular declared by this Law to be Treason which a Man would have thought might have been consistent with it Counterfeiting the Coin of the Kingdom is by this Law declared Treason Washing Filing and Clipping the Coin is an abuse an abasing and not making it Currant Yet in 3 H. 5. when the Question was in Parliament whether that Offence was Treason within the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. It is declared by a special Act then made 3 H. 5. cap. 6. That forasmuch as before that time great doubt and ambiguity had been whether those Offences ought to be adjudged Treason or not in as much as mention is not thereof made in the Declaration of the Articles of Treason by that Statute of 25 Ed. 3. the same was by that particular Act made Treason which before was none and counterfeiting of Foreign Coin made Currant here an equal mischief with counterfeiting of the Coin of this Realm yet because the words of the Statute are his Mony this not Treason until the Act of 1 Mariae cap. 6. made it so And Sir Ed. Coke in his Book before mentioned saith a compassing to Levy War is not a Treason within that Law unless it proceed into Act but only to Compass the Death of the King Yet if a Constructive Treason should be admitted it might happily without any great straining be inferred that compassing to Levy War is in some sort a compassing of the King's Death and of this Kind many more Instances may be given So that the result of all this is that whatsoever is not declared to be a Treason within the Letter of this Law may not be adjudged a Treason by Inference Construction or otherwise Having done with this First we now shall come to our Second Question Whether any the Matters in all or any the Articles Charged contain any the Treasons declared by that Law or Enacted by any subsequent Law wherein although the Charges may appear to be Great and Enormous Crimes yet we shall endeavour and hope to satisfie your Lordships the same nor any of them are Treasons by any established Law of the Kingdom For clearing whereof we shall pursue the Order first proposed First that an Endeavour to subvert Fundamental Laws is not Treason by any Law in this Kingdom Established and particular Act to make it Treason there is none so as we must then return to apply those former general Observations of that Act of 25. Ed. 3. to this Particular and shall add for Reasons 1. That it is not comprized within any the Words of that Law nor may by any Construction or Inference be brought
and by the Council-Table the Courts of Star-Chamber and High-Commission and in Convocation and because many more things so done are to come in the next Head concerning the Law I humbly crave leave for avoiding tedious Repetition to say it once for all That no act done by any of these either by full Consent or major Part which involves the rest ought to be charged singly against me And that for these Reasons following 1. First because this is not Peccare cum Multis For they meet not there in a Relation as Multi but as Vnum Aggregatum as Bodies made one by Law And therefore the Acts done by them are Acts of those Bodies not of any one Man sitting in them And in this Sense a Parliament is one Body consisting of many and the Acts done by it are Acts of Parliament For which should any of them prove amiss no one Man is answerable though many times one Man brings in the Bill 2. Secondly because I could sway no Man's Vote in any of those Places though this hath been often urged against me as an Over Potent Member for my Vote was either last or last save one in all these Places So I could not lead Nor is there any so much as shew of Proof offered that I moved or prepared any Man to a Sentence one way or other in any one of these Courts or Places 3. Thirdly because in those Courts of Judicature there was the Assistance of able Judges Lawyers and Divines for direction And how can that be a Treason in me which is not made so much as a Misdemeanour in any of the rest 4. Fourthly because the Act of this present Parliament which hath taken away the Star-Chamber and the High-Commission and bounded the Council-Table looks forward only and punishes no Man for any Act past much less doth it make any Man's Actions done in them to be Treason And I am no way excluded from the Benefit of that Act. 5. Lastly because in all my Proceedings both in the High-Commission and elsewhere I kept strictly to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England Established by Law against both Papist and other Sectaries And under this Government and Doctrine of this Church it hath pleased God now for above Fourscore Years together to Bless this Kingdom and People above other Nations And I pray God if we forsake the one it prove not a Cause to deprive us of the other And now Mr. Speaker I shall follow this worthy Gentleman as he went on to the Second General Head the Subversion of the Laws And here when he had caused the 1 2 3 5 and 14. Original Articles to be read as also the 2 9 and 10. Additionals He then said that I had laboured this Subversion by my Counsels and by my Actions 1. By my Counsels First Of which he gave Three Instances 1. The Vote of the Council-Table to Assist the King in Extraordinary ways if the Parliament should prove peevish and refuse And this out of my Diary at Decemb. 5. 1639. 2. The Passage in the Epistle before my Speech in Star-Chamber Not one Way of Government since the Humours of the People were in continual Change 3. A Speech at Council-Table That now the King might use his own Power c. Witnessed only by Sir Henry Vane the Elder 2. From my Counsels proceed was made to my Actions Where the Particulars were 1. That I attempted to set Proclamations above the Law 2. That I was for all Illegal Projects at the Council-Table Instanced in Inclosures in the Ship-Money and Sir John Corbett's Commitment 3. The taking down of the Houses about St. Paul's with the large Commission for the Repair of the West-End 4. The stopping of Two Brewers in their Trade being in Westminster and pretended to annoy the Court. 5. Things done by me as Referee Instanced in a Case between Rich and Pool and another of one Symmes 6. Obstructing the Course of Law by sending to Judges Instanced in the Parishioners of Beckington in the Case of Ferdinando Adams in Sir Henry Martyn's Case about an Attorney at Law Judge Richardson's Words in Mr. Huntley's Case and Baron Trevers Words in Grafton's Case 7. The punishing Men that came in a Legal Way Instanced in the Case of New-comin and Burrowes that I said in the High-Commission I hoped to see the Clergy exempt again the next hundred Years the two Church-wardens of Chesham with Words concerning Sir Thomas Dacres 8. The Case of Prohibitions and Mr. Wheeler's Note out of a Sermon of mine concerning them 9. That no Pope ever claimed so much Jurisdiction not from the King 10. The Canons and I the main Man the over-grown Member again 11. The Statutes of Oxford enforced a second time Nevill's Case of Merton-College instanced in 12. Books Printed that are against the Law Instanced in Cowell's Interpreter and Dr. Manwaring's Sermons 13. The Alteration of the King's Oath at his Coronation 14. My Enmity to Parliaments To all which as I then gave sufficient Answers so I hope the Courteous Reader hath found them at large in their several Places And for this last concerning Parliaments I humbly and heartily desire that this may be taken notice of and remembred That there is not in any one of these Paper-Proofs produced against me any one thing that offers to take away any Rights of Parliaments rightly understood much less any that offers to take away Parliaments themselves Which is a continued Mistake all along this particular Charge And if any rash or unweighed Words have fallen from me yet these cannot be extended to the disannulling of Parliaments or their Priviledges in any kind which I defended in Print long since before I could foresee any of this Danger threatning me It is in my Book against Fisher. It was read in the Lords House and I humbly desire I may read it here And it was read After this it was inferred by this worthy Gentleman what a great Offender I was and greater than Cardinal Woolsey Mr. Speaker I have seen the Articles against the Cardinal and sure some body is mistaken for some of them are far greater than any thing that is proved against me In which I thank Christ for it my Conscience is at peace whereas the Cardinal confessed himself guilty of them all and yet no thought of Treason committed And a Premunire was all that was laid upon him Then he gave a touch That in Edward III.'s time there was a Complaint That too much of the Civil Government was in the hands of the Bishops and that in the 45th Year of his Reign they were put out and Lay-men put in But first this concerns not me Secondly the late Act of this Parliament hath taken sufficient Order with that Calling for medling in Civil Affairs Thirdly the time is memorable when this was done It was in the Forty and fifth Year of Edward III. That 's enough Mr. Speaker I shall draw towards an end
I humbly beseech thee give me now in this great Instant full Patience proportionable Comfort and a Heart ready to Die for thine Honour the King's Happiness and the Churches Preservation And my Zeal to this far from Arrogancy be it spoken is all the Sin Humane Frailty excepted and all the Incidents thereunto which is yet known to me in this Particular for which I now come to suffer I say in this Particular of Treason But otherwise my Sins are many and great Lord Pardon them all and those especially whatever they are which have drawn down this present Judgment upon me And when thou hast given me strength to bear it do with me as seems best in thine own Eyes And carry me through Death that I may look upon it in what Visage soever it shall appear to me Amen And that there may be a stop of this Issue of Blood in this more than miserable Kingdom I shall desire that I may Pray for the People too as well as for my self O Lord I beseech thee give Grace of Repentance to all Blood-Thirsty People but if they will not Repent O Lord confound all their Devices defeat and frustrate all their Designs and Endeavours upon them which are or shall be contrary to the Glory of thy Great Name the Truth and Sincerity of Religion the Establishment of the King and his Posterity after him in their just Rights and Priviledges the Honour and Conservation of Parliaments in their just Power the Preservation of this poor Church in her Truth Peace and Patrimony and the settlement of this distracted and distressed People under their Ancient Laws and in their Native Liberty And when thou hast done all this in meer Mercy to them O Lord fill their Hearts with Thankfulness and with Religious Dutiful Obedience to thee and thy Commandments all their Days Amen Lord Jesu Amen And receive my Soul into thy Bosom Amen Our Father which art in Heaven c. The Speech and Prayer being ended he gave the Paper which he read into the Hands of Stern his Chaplain permitted to Attend him in his last Extremity Whom he desired to Communicate it to his other Chaplains that they might see in what manner he left this World and so Prayed God to shew his Blessings and Mercies on them And taking notice that one Hind had employed himself in writing the Words of his Speech as it came from his Mouth he desired him not to do him wrong in Publishing a False or Imperfect Copy This done he next applied himself to the Fatal Block as to the Haven of his Rest. But finding the way full of People who had placed themselves upon the Theatre to behold the Tragedy he desired he might have room to Die beseeching them to let him have an end of his Miseries which he had endured very long All which he did with so serene and calm a Mind as if he rather had been taking order for a Noble-Man's Funeral than making way for his own Being come near the Block he put off his Doublet and used some Words to this Effect God's Will be done I am willing to go out of this World none can be more willing to send me And seeing through the Chinks of the Boards that some People were got under the Scaffold about the very Place where the Block was seated he called to the Officer for some Dust to stop them or to remove the People thence saying It was no part of his Desires that his Blood should fall upon the Heads of the People Never did Man put off Mortality with a Better Courage nor look upon his Bloody and Malicious Enemies with more Christian Charity And thus far he was on his way toward Paradise with such a Primitive Magnanimity as Equalled if not Exceeded the Example of the Ancient Martyrs when he was somewhat interrupted by one of those who had placed himself on the Scaffold not otherwise worthy to be Named but as a Firebrand brought from Ireland to inflame this Kingdom Who finding that the Mockings and Revilings of Malicious People had no power to move him or sharpen him into any discontent or shew of Passion would needs put in and try what he could do with his Spunge and Vinegar and stepping to him near the Block he would needs propound unto him some impertinent Questions not so much out of a desire to learn any thing of him but with the same purpose as was found in the Scribes and Pharisees in propounding Questions to our Saviour that is to say either to intrap him in his Answers or otherwise to expose him to some disadvantage with the standers by Two of the Questions he made Answer to with all Christian Meekness The first Question was What was the Comfortablest Saying which a Dying Man would have in his Mouth To which he Meekly made Answer Cupio dissolvi esse cum Christo. Being asked again What was the fittest Speech a Man could use to express his Confidence and Assurance He answered with the same Spirit of Meekness That such Assurance was to be found within and that no words were able to express it rightly But this not satisfying this Busie Man who aimed at something else as is probable than such satisfaction unless he gave some Word or Place of Scripture whereupon such Assurance might be truly founded he used some words to this effect That it was the Word of God concerning Christ and his dying for us But then finding that there was like to be no end of the Troublesom Gentleman he turned away from him applying himself directly to the Executioner as the Gentler and Discreeter Person Putting some Money into his Hand he said unto him without the least distemper or change of Countenance Here Honest Friend God forgive thee and I do and do thy Office upon me with Mercy And having given him a Sign when the Blow should come he kneeled down upon his Knees and Prayed as followeth viz. Lord I am coming as fast as I can I know I must pass through the shadow of Death before I can come to see thee but it is but Umbra Mortis a meer shadow of Death a little darkness upon Nature but thou by thy Merits and Passion hast broke through the Jaws of Death The Lord receive my Soul and have Mercy upon me and bless this Kingdom with Peace and Plenty and with Brotherly Love and Charity that there may not be this effusion of Christian Blood amongst them for Jesus Christ his sake if it be thy will Then laying his Head upon the Block and praying silently to himself he said aloud Lord receive my Soul which was the Signal given to the Executioner who very dexterously did his Office and took off his Head at a blow his Soul ascending on the Wings of Angels into Abraham's Bosom and leaving his Body on the Scaffold to the care of Men. And if the Bodies of us Men be capable of any Happiness in the Grave he had as great a
yokes of Bondage and our other gross Corruptions be removed And I must doubt they embrace not the same Faith till they admit the whole Creed and will use the Lord's Prayer which few of them will As for the Spirit that works by Love I much fear he is a great stranger to many of these Men. For I have many ways found their Malice to be fierce and yet endless And therefore I wonder my Lord should have the Boldness to tell my Lords in Parliament that they know all these things of these Men and that they are their Brethren and concur with them in all these forenamed things whom in the mean time their Lordships do and cannot but know different from them nay separating from them in the very Worship of God Next I agree with my Lord again that I would have no pressure put upon those Men in whom the Spirit of Love causes an unblamable Conversation without any offence to the State But in this I must disagree that the Separatists from the Church of England are such manner of Men. For the private Conversation of very many of them whom I could name were it fit is far from being unblamable And the Publick Conversation of all or most of them is full of offence to the State Unless my Lord think the State is or ought to be of their Humour For how can their Conversation be without great offence very great to this or any State Christian who shall have and maintain private Conventicles and Meetings in a different way of Religion from that which is Established by the State Nay which shall not only differ from but openly and slanderously oppose that which is so Established Besides no well governed State will allow of private Meetings especially under pretence of Religion which carry far without their privity and allowance For if this be permitted there lies a way open to all Conspiracies against the State whatsoever and they shall all be satisfied under the pretence of Religion The third thing in which I agree with my Lord is that I would not that for Ceremonies and Things indifferent these Men should be thrust out of the Land and cut off from their Native Country No God forbid if any thing will reclaim them But then I must disagree with my Lord in this That these Men whether such as my Lord describes them or no are thrust out of the Land or cut off from their Native Country for Ceremonies or Things indifferent For First they are not all Ceremonies for which they separate from the Church For they pretend certain gross Corruptions in the very Worship of God as my Lord a little before delivers Secondly be the Cause what it will none of them have been banished or thrust out of the Land or cut from their Native Country as is here spoken to move Hatred against the Government But 't is true they have thrust themselves out and cut themselves off and run a Madding to New England scar'd away as they say by certain gross Corruptions not to be endured in this Church Nor after they have gone a Madding enough is their return denyed to any And I know some that went out like Fools and are come back so like that you cannot know the one from the other In this Passage 't is said by my Lord that these Ceremonies and Things indifferent unto you speaking to the Lords in Parliament are not so to them but Burthens In this Passage I can agree with my Lord in nothing For First my Lord but a very little before tells of Yokes of Bondage and gross Corruptions And are they so soon become but Ceremonies and Things indifferent If they be more than Ceremonies and Things indifferent then my Lord delivers not the whole Truth And if they be but Ceremonies and Things indifferent then his Lordship and all other Separatists ought rather to yield to the Church in such things than for such things to separate from it And certainly so they would if the Spirit that worketh by Love did work in them Yea but my Lord says they are such things as though they be indifferent to others yet to them they are not but burthens And it may be they make them so for in their own Nature they are nothing less And of great use they are to preserve the Substance and the Body of Religion But this I find let any thing in the World be enjoyned by the Church Authority and it is a Burthen presently And so you see all along this Speech how earnest my Lord is in behalf of himself and these Separatists against all Injunctions of set Forms and Yokes of Bondage This is an excellent way of Religion to settle Temporal Obedience And I can as little agree with that which follows Namely that the Lords may without any Offence to the State or prejudice to the Churches take away if they will these Things indifferent to them but Burthens to these Brethren For First suppose them to be but 〈◊〉 and Things indifferent yet can they not be taken away without offence to the State or prejudic to the Churches who to please a few unruly Separatists must make an Alteration in that part of Religion which hath continued with great Happiness to this Church ever since the Reformation Secondly I will not dispute it here what Power a Lay Assembly and such a Parliament is hath to determine Matters of Religion Primely and Originally by and of themselves before the Church hath first agreed upon them Then indeed they may confirm or refuse And this course was held in the Reformation But Originally to take this Power over Religion into Lay Hands is that which hath not been thus assumed since Christ to these unhappy days And I pray God this Chair of Religion do not prove Cathedra Pestilentiae as the vulgar reads it Psal. 1. 1. to the infecting of this whole Nation with Schism and Heresie and in the end bring all to confusion I meddle not here with the King's Power For he may be present in Convocation when he pleases and take or leave any Canons as he pleases which are for the Peace and well Ordering of the Church as well as in Parliament take or leave any Laws made ready for him for the good and quiet of his People But if it come to be Matter of Faith though in his Absolute Power he may do what he will and Answer God for it after Yet he cannot commit the ordering of that to any Lay Assembly Parliament or other for them to determine that which God hath intrusted into the Hands of his Priests Though if he will do this the Clergy must do their Duty to inform him and help that dangerous Error if they can But if they cannot they must suffer an unjust Violence how far soever it proceed but they may not break the Duty of their Allegiance 'T is true Constantius the Emperour a great Patron of the Arrians was by them interested
do here upon the Second of Januay 1635. Comput Angl. present my Account both for the Diocess and Province of Canterbury concerning all those Church-Affairs which are contained in your Majesty's most gracious Instructions published out of your most Princely and Religious care to preserve Unity in Orthodox Doctrine and Conformity to Government within this your Church of England And First for my own Diocess I humbly represent to your Majesty that there are yet very many Refractory Persons to the Government of the Church of England about Maidstone and Ashford and some other Parts the Infection being spread by one Brewer and continued and increased by one Turner They have been both Censured in the High-Commission Court some Years since but the Hurt which they have done is so deeply rooted as that it is not possible to be plucked up on the suddain but I must crave time to work it off by little and little I have according to your Majesty's Commands required Obedience to my Injunctions sent to the French and Dutch Churches at Canterbury Maidstone and Sandwich And albeit they made some shew of Conformity yet I do not find they have yielded such Obedience as is required and was ordered with your Majesty's Consent and Approbation So that I fear I shall be driven to a quicker proceeding with them The Cathedral Church begins to be in very good Order And I have almost finished their Statutes which being once perfected will mutatis mutandis be a sufficient Direction for the making of the Statutes for the other Cathedrals of the new Erection which in King Henry the Eighth's Time had either none left or none Confirmed and those which are in many things not Canonical All which Statutes your Majesty hath given Power to me with others under the Broad Seal of England to alter or make new as we shall find Cause And so soon as these Statutes for the Church of Canterbury are made ready I shall humbly submit them to your Majesty for Confirmation There is one Mr Walker of St John's the Evangelist a Peculiar of mine in London who hath all his time been but a disorderly and a peevish Man and now of late hath very frowardly Preached against the Lord Bishop of Ely his Book concerning the Lord's Day set out by Authority But upon a Canonical Admonition given him to desist he hath hitherto recollected himself and I hope will be advised For the Diocess of London I find my Lord the Bishop hath been very careful for all that concerns his own Person But Three of his Arch-Deacons have made no return at all to him so that he can certifie nothing but what hath come to his knowledge without their help There have been convented in this Diocess Dr Stoughton of Aldermanbury Mr Simpson Curate and Lecturer of St Margarets New-Fishstreet Mr Andrew Moline Curate and Lecturer of St Swithin Mr John Goodwin Vicar of St Stevens Colman-street and Mr Viner Lecturer of St Laurence in the Old 〈◊〉 for Breach of the Canons of the Church in Sermons or Practice or both But because all them promised Amendment for the future and submission to the Church in all things my Lord very moderately forbore farther proceeding against them There were likewise convented Mr Sparrowhawke Curate and Lecturer at St Mary Woolchurch for Preaching against the Canon for Bowing at the Name of Jesus who because he wilfully persisted is suspended from Preaching in that Diocess As also one Mr John Wood a wild turbulent 〈◊〉 and formerly Censured in the High-Commission-Court But his Lordship forbore Mr White of Knightsbridge for that his Cause is at this present depending in the Court aforesaid Concerning the Diocess of Lincoln my Lord the Bishop returns this Information That he hath Visited the same this Year all over in Person which he conceives no Predecessor of his hath done these Hundred Years And that he finds so much good done thereby beyond that which Chancellours use to do when they go the Visitation that he is sorry he hath not done it heretofore in so many Years as he hath been Bishop He farther Certifies that he hath prevailed beyond Expectation for the Augmenting of Four or Five small Vicarages and conceives as your Majesty may be pleased to remember I have often told you upon my own Experience that it is a Work very necessary and fit to be done and most worthy of your Majesty's Royal Care and Consideration For Conformity his Lordship professeth that in that large Diocess he knows but one unconformable Man and that is one Lindhall who is in the High-Commission Court and ready for Sentence My Lord the Bishop of Bath and Wells Certifies that his Diocess is in very good Order and Obedience That there is not a single Lecture in any Town Corporate but grave Divines Preach by course and that he hath changed the Afternoon Sermons into Catechising by Question and Answer in all Parishes His Lordship farther Certifies that no Man hath been Presented unto him since his last 〈◊〉 for any Breach of the Canons of the Church or Your Majesty's Instructions and that he hath received no notice of any increase of Men Popishly affected beyond the number mentioned in his last Certificat The Bishop of this See died almost Half a Year since and had sent in no Certificat But I find by my Visitation there this present Year that the whole Diocess is much out of Order and more at Ipswich and Yarmouth than at Norwich it self But I hope my Lord that now is will take care of it and he shall want no Assistance that I can give him Mr Samuel Ward Preacher at Ipswich was Censured this last Term in the High-Commission Court for Preaching in Disgrace of the Common-Prayer-Book and other like gross Misdemeanours These Six Bishops respectively make their Answer that in their own Persons they have observed all your Majesty's Instructions and that they find all their Clergy very conformable no one of them instancing in any particular to the contrary In this Diocess the Bishop found in his Triennial Visitation the former Year two noted Schismaticks Wroth and Erbury that led away many simple People after them And finding that they willfully persisted in their Schismatical course he hath carefully preferred Articles against them in the High-Commission Court where when the Cause is ready for Hearing they shall receive according to the Merits of it Concerning this Diocess your Majesty knows that the late Bishop's Residence upon the place was necessarily hindred by his Attendance upon your Majesty's Person as Clerk of the Closet But he hath been very careful for the observance of all your Instructions and particularly for Catechizing of the Youth As also for not letting of any thing into Lives to the Prejudice of his Successor in which he hath done exceeding well And I have by your Majesty's Command laid a strict Charge upon his Successor to look to those Particular Leases which
to defer it till hereafter 9. That there is a ready means whereby the Villany may be discovered in one moment the chief Conspirators circumvented and the primary Members of the Conjuration apprehended in the very act 10. That very many about the King who are accounted most faithful and intimate to whom likewise the more secret things are intrusted ARE TRAYTORS TO THE KING corrupted with a foreign Pension who communicate all secrets of greater or lesser moment to a foreign Power 11. These and other most secret things which shall be necessary to be known for the security of the King may be revealed if these things shall be acceptable to the Lord Arch-Bishop 12. In the mean time if his Royal Majesty and the Lord Arch-Bishop desire to consult well to themselves they shall keep these things only superficially communicated unto them most secretly under deep silence not communicating them so much as to those whom they judge most faithful to them before they shall receive by Name in whom they may confide For else they are safe on no side Likewise they may be assured that whatsoever things are here proposed are no Figments nor Fables nor vain Dreams but such real Verities which may be demonstrated in every small Tittle For those who thrust themselves into this Business are such Men who mind no gain but the very Zeal of Christian Charity suffers them not to conceal these things Yet both from his Majesty and the Lord Arch-Bishop some small exemplar of Gratitude will be expected All these Premises have been communicated under good faith and the Sacrament of an Oath to Mr. Leger Embassadour of the King of Great Brittain at the Hague that he should not immediately trust or communicate these things to any Mortal besides the King and the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Subscribed c. Present c. Hague Com. 6 Sept. 1640. in the stile of the place Regiae Majestati Dom. Archiepiscopo Cantuariensi insinuandum per Literas 1. REgiam Majestatem Dom. Archiepiscopum utrumque in magno discrimine vitae constitutum 2. Totam Rempublicam hoc nomine periclitari nisi properè occurratur malo 3. Turbas istas Scoticas in eum finem esse concitatas ut sub isto praetextu Rex Dominus Archiepiscopus perimeretur 4. Dari medium quo utrique hac in parte bene consuli tumultus iste cito componi possit 5. Compositis etiam turbis istis Scoticis 〈◊〉 periclitari Regem esse plarima media quibus Regi Domino Archiepiscopo machinatur exitium 6. Conspirasse certam societatem quae Regi Dom. Archiepiscopo molitur necem totiusque Regni convulsionem 7. Eandem Societatem singulis septimanis explorationis octiduae suum quemque quod nundinatus est ad Praesidem Societatis deponere in unum fasciculum conferre qui Hebdomadatim ad Directorem negotii expeditur 8. Nominari quidem posse omnes per capita dictae conspirationis conjuratos At quia alio medio innotescent differre in posterum placuit 9. Medium esse in promptu quo uno momento detegi poterit scelus Conspiratores praecipui circumveniri membraque primaria Conjurationis in ipso actu apprehendi 10. Astantes Regi plurimos qui pro fidelissimis intimis censentur quibus etiam secretiora fiduntur proditores Regis esse peregrinâ pensione corruptos qui secreta quaeque majoris vel exigui momenti ad exteram Potestatem deferunt 11. Haec alia secretissima quae scitu ad securitatem Regis erunt necessaria quòd si haec accepta Dom. Archiepiscopo fuerint revelari poterunt 12. Interim si Regia Majestas sua Dominus Archiepiscopus bene sibi consultum volunt haec superficialiter quidem tantum ipsis communicata sub profundo silentio secretissimè servabunt ne quidem iis quos sibi fidelissimos judicant communicaturi antequam de nomine acceperint quibus fidendum sit Ab nullo enim latere alias tuti sunt Sint etiam certi quicquid hic proponitur nulla figmenta nec fabulas aut inania Somnia esse sed in rei veritate it a constituta quae omnibus momentis demonstrari poterunt Qui enim se immiscent huic negotio viri honesti sunt quibus nullus quaestus in animo sed ipse Christianae Charitatis Fervor ista facere non sinit Ab utroque tamen suae Majestati tum Domino Archiepiscopo gratitudinis exemplar tale quale expectabitur Haec omnia antecedentia sub bona fide juramenti Sacramento Dom. Residenti Regis Magnae Britanniae Hagae Comitum communicata esse ne ulli mortalium praeter Regem Dom. Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem immediatè ista fideret vel communicaret Subscripta c. Proesentes c. Hagae Com. 6 Sept. 1640. St. loci Detectio c. offerenda Seren. Regiae Majestati Britanniae Dom. Archiepiscopo Cantuariensi c. 6. Sept. 1640. The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury's Letter to the King concerning the Plot With the King's directions in the Margin written with his own Hand May it please your Majesty AS great as the Secret is which comes herewith yet I chuse rather to send it in this silent covert way and I hope safe than to come thither and bring it my self First because I am no way able to make haste enough with it Secondly because should I come at this time and antedate the meeting Septemb. 24. there would be more jealousy of the Business and more enquiry after it especially if I being once there should return again befor that Day as I must if this be followed as is most fit The danger it seems is imminent and laid by God knows whom but to be executed by them which are very near about you For the great Honour which I have to be in danger with you or for you I pass not so your Sacred person and the State may be safe Now May it please your Majesty This Information is either true or there is some mistake in it If it be true the persons which make the discovery will deserve Thanks and Reward if there should be any mistake in it your Majesty can lose nothing but a little silence The Business if it be is extream foul The discovery thus by God's Providence offered seems fair I do hereby humbly beg it upon my Knees of your Majesty that you will conceal this Business from every Creature and his Name that sends this to me And I send his Letters to me to your Majesty that you may see his Sense both of the Business and the 〈◊〉 And such Instructions as you think fit to give him I beseech you let them be in your own Hand for his Warrant without imparting them to any And if your Majesty leave it to his Discretion to follow it there in the best way he can that in your own Hand will be Instruction and Warrant enough for him And if you please to return it
so many innocent Souls from imminent Danger To whose monitions he willingly consented and delivered the following things to be put in Writing out of which the Articles not long since tendered to your Grace may be clearly explicated and demonstrated 1. First of all that the Hinge of the Business may be rightly discerned it is to be known that all those Factions with which all Christendom is at this Day shaken do arise from the Jesuitical Off-spring of Cham of which four Orders abound throughout the World Of the First Order are Ecclesiasticks whose Office it is to take care of things promoting Religion Of the second Order are Politicians whose Office it is by any means to shake trouble reform the State of Kingdoms and Republicks Of the Third Order are Seculars whose property it is to obtrude themselves into Offices with Kings and Princes to insinuate and immix themselves in Court Businesses bargains and sales and to be busied in Civil Affairs Of the Fourth Order are Intelligencers or Spies Men of Inferiour condition who submit themselves to the services of great Men Princes Barons Noblemen Citizens to deceive or corrupt the Minds of their Masters 2. A Society of so many Orders the Kingdom of England nourisheth For scarce all Spain France and Italy can yield so great a multitude of Jesuits as London alone where are found more than Fifty Scottish Jesuits There the said Society hath elected to it self a seat of Iniquity and hath conspired against the King and the most faithful to the King especially the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and likewise against both Kingdoms 3. For it is more certain than certainty it self that the forenamed Society hath determined to effect an universal Reformation of the Kingdom of England and Scotland Therefore the determination of the end necessarily infers a determination of means to the end 4. Therefore to promote the undertaken Villany the said Society dubbed it self with the Title of The Congregation of propagating the Faith which acknowledgeth the Pope of Rome the Head of the College and Cardinal Barbarino his Substitute and Executor 5. The chief Patron of the Society at London is the Popes Legat who takes care of the business into whose Bosom these Dregs of Traytors weekly deposite all their Intelligences Now the Residence of this Legation was obtained at London in the name of the Roman Pontif by whose mediation it might be lawful for Cardinal Barbarino to work so much the more easily and safely upon the King and Kingdom For none else could so freely circumvent the King as he who should be palliated with the Pope's Authority 6. Master Cuneus did at that time enjoy the Office of the Pope's Legat an universal Instrument of the conjured Society and a serious promoter of the business whose secrets as likewise those of all the other Intelligencers the present good Man the Communicator of all these things did receive and expedite whither the business required Cuneus set upon the chief Men of the Kingdom and left nothing unattempted by what means he might corrupt them all and incline them to the Pontifician Party He inticed many with various Incitements yea he sought to delude the King himself with gifts of Pictures Antiquities Idols and of other Vanities brought from Rome which yet would prevail nothing with the King Having entred familiarity with the King he is often requested at Hamptoncourt likewise at London to undertake the cause of the Palatine and that he would interpose his Authority and by his Intercession persuade the Legat of Colen that the Palatine in the next Diet to treat of Peace might be inserted into the Conditions which verily he promised but performed the contrary He writ indeed that he had been so desired by the King concerning such things yet he advised not that they should be consented to lest peradventure it might be said by the Spaniard that the Pope of Rome had patronized an heretical Prince In the mean time Cuncus smelling from the Arch-Bishop most trusty to the King that the King's Mind was wholly pendulous or doubtful resolved That he would move every Stone and apply his Forces that he might gain him to his party Certainly considing that he had a means prepared For he had a command to offer a Cardinal's Cap to the Lord Archbishop in the Name of the Pope of Rome and that he should allure him also with higher Promises that he might corrupt his sincere Mind Yet a sitting ocasion was never given whereby he might insinuate himself into the Lord Arch-Bishop for the Scorpion sought an Egg Free access was to be impetrated by the Earl and Countess of Arundel likewise by Secretary Windebank The intercession of all which being neglected he did fly the Company or familiarity of Cuneus worse than the Plague He was likewise perswaded by others of no mean rank well known to him neither yet was he moved 7. Another also was assayed who hindred access to the detestable wickedness Secretary Cook he was a most bitter hater of the Jesuits from whom he intercepted access to the King he entertained many of them according to their deserts he diligently enquired into their Factions by which means every incitement breathing a Magnetical attractive power to the Popish Party was ineffectual with him for nothing was so dear unto him that might incline him to wickedness Hereupon being made odious to the Patrons of the Conspiracy he was endangered to be discharged from his Office it was laboured for three Years space and at last obtained Yet notwithstanding there remained on the King's part a knot hard to be untied for the Lord Arch-Bishop by his constancy interposed himself as a most hard Rock When Cuneus had understood from the Lord Arch-Bishop's part that he had laboured in vain his Malice and the whole Societies waxed boyling hot Soon after Ambushes began to be prepared wherewith the Lord Arch-Bishop together with the King should be taken Likewise a Sentence is passed against the King for whose sake all this business is disposed because nothing is hoped from him which might seem to promote the Popish Religion but especially when he had opened his Mind that he was of this Opinion that every one might be saved in his own Religion so as he be an honest and pious Man 8. To perpetrate the Treason undertaken the Criminal execution at Westminster caused by some Writings of Puritans gave occasion of the first Fire Which thing was so much exasperated and exaggerated by the Papists to the Puritans that if it remained unrevenged it would be thought a blemish to their Religion the Flames of which Fire the subsequent book of Prayers increases 9. In this heat a certain Scottish-Earl called Maxfield if I mistake not was expedited to the Scots by the Popish party with whom two other Scottish Earls Papists held correspondency He ought to stir up the People
been lately made Secondly That to effect this Trayterous Design they have not only secretly erected some Monasteries of Monks Nuns in and about London but sent over hither whole Regiments of most active subtile Jesuits incorporated into a particular new Society whereof the Pope himself is Head and Cardinal Barbarino his Vicar which Society was first discovered and some of them apprehended in their private College at Clerkenwel together with their Books of Account Reliques and Massing Trinkets about the beginning of the Second Parliament of this King yet such Power Favour Friends they had then acquired that their Persons were speedily and most indirectly released out of Newgate without any Prosecution to prevent the Parliament's Proceedings against them Since which this conjured Society increasing in Strength and Number secretly replanted themselves in Queenstreet and Long-Acre and their Purses are now so strong their Hopes so elevated their Designs so ripened as they have there purchased and founded a new magnificent College of their own for their Habitation near the fairest Buildings of Nobles Knights and Gentlemen the more commodiously to seduce them Thirdly That these Jesuits and Conspirators hold weekly constant uninterrupted Intelligence with the Pope and Romish Cardinals and have many Spies or Intelligencers of all sorts about the King Court City Noblemen Ladies Gentlemen and in all Quarters of the Kingdom to promote this their Damnable Plot. Fourthly That the Pope for divers late Years hath had a known avowed Legat Con by Name openly residing even in London near the Court of purpose to reduce the King and his Kingdoms to the Obedience of the Church of Rome and the Queen at least another Leger at Rome trading with the Pope to facilitate the Design to wit one Hamilton a Scot who receives a large Pension out of the Exchequer granted to another Protestant of that Name who payeth it over unto him to palliate the business from the People's knowledge by which means there hath been a constant allowed Negotiation held between Rome and England without any open interruption Fifthly That the Pope's Legat came over into England to effect this Project and kept his Residence here in London for the better Prosecution thereof by the King 's own Privity and Consent And whereas by the ancient Law and Custom of the Realm yet in force even in Times of Popery no Legat whatsoever coming from Rome ought to cross the Seas or land in England or any the King's Dominions without the King's Petition Calling and Request and before he had taken a Solemn Oath or Protestation to bring and attempt nothing in Word or Deed to the Prejudice of the Rights Priviledges Laws and Customs of the King and Realm This Legat for ought appears was here admitted without any such cautionary Oath which would have crossed the chief End of his Legation to prejudice all of them and our Religion too Yea whereas by the Statutes of the Realm it is made no less than High Treason for any Priests Jesuits or others receiving Orders or Authority from the Pope of Rome to set footing in England or any the King's Dominions to seduce any of his Subjects to Popery And no Popish Recusant much less then Priests Jesuits and Legats ought to remain within Ten Miles of the City of London nor come into the King's or Prince's Courts the better to avoid such traiterous and most dangerous Conspiracies Treasons and Attempts as are daily devised and practised by them against the King and Commonweal Yet notwithstanding this Pope's Legat and his Confederates have not only kept Residence for divers Years in or near London and the Court and enjoyed free Liberty without Disturbance or any Prosecution of the Laws against them to seduce his Majesty's Nobles Courtiers Servants Subjects every where to their Grief and Prejudice but likewise have had familiar Access to and Conference with the King himself under the very Name and Authority of the Pope's Legat by all Arts Policies and Arguments to pervert and draw him with his three Kingdoms into a new Subjection to the See of Rome as Cardinal 〈◊〉 the last Pope's Legat extant in England before this in Queen Mary's Reign reconciled her and the Realm to Rome to their intolerable Prejudice An Act so inconsistent with the Laws of the Realm with his Majesty's many ancient and late Remonstrances Oaths Protestations to maintain the Protestant Religion without giving way to any back-sliding to Popery in such sort as it was maintained and professed in the purest Times of Queen Elizabeth c. as may well amaze the World which ever looks more at real Actions than verbal Protestations Sixthly That the Popish Party and Conspirators have lately usurped a Sovereign Power not only above the Laws and Magistrates of the Realm which take no hold of Papists but by the Parliament's late Care against them here but even over the King himself who either cannot or dares not for fear perchance of Poysoning or other Assassination oppose or banish these horrid Conspirators from his Dominions and Court but hath a long time permitted them to prosecute this Plot without any publick Opposition or Dislike by whose Powerful Authority and Mediation all may easily divine Alas What will become of the poor Sheep when the Shepherd himself not only neglects to chase and keep out these Romish Wolves but permits them free Access into and Harbour in the Sheepfold to assault if not devour not only his Flock but Person too Either St. John was much mistaken in the Character of a good Shepherd and in prescribing this Injunction against such Seducers If there come any unto you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not into your House neither bid him God speed for he that biddeth him God speed is Partaker of his evil Deeds And the Fathers and Canonists deceived in this Maxim Qui non prohibet malum quod potest jubet Or else the Premises cannot be tolerated or defended by any who profess themselves Enemies or Opposites to the Pope Priests or Church of Rome Seventhly That these Conspirators are so potent as to remove from Court and Publick Offices all such as dare strenuously oppose their Plots as the Example of Secretary Cook with other Officers lately removed in Ireland evidence and plant others of their own Party and Confederacy both in his Majesty's Court Privy Council Closet Bed-chamber if not Bed and about the Prince to corrupt them And how those who are thus environed with so many industrious potent Seducers of all sorts who have so many Snares to entrap so many Enticements to withdraw them both in their Beds Bed-Chambers Closets Councils Courts where-ever they go or come should possibly continue long untainted unseduced without an omnipotent Protection of which none can be assured who permits or connives at such dangerous Temptations is a thing scarce credible in Divine or Humane Reason if Adam's Solomon's and others Apostacies by such means be duly pondered
He who sails in the midst of dangerous Rocks may justly fear and expect a Wrack Eighthly That the late Scottish Trouble and Wars were both plotted and raised by these Jesuitical Conspirators of purpose to force the King to resort to them and their Popish Party for Aid of Men and Money against the Scots and by Colour thereof to raise an Army of their own to gain the King into their Power and then to win or force him to what Conditions they pleased who must at least-wise promise them an universal Toleration of their Religion throughout his Dominions e're they will yield to assist him And in case they conquer or prevail he must then come fully over to their Party or else be sent packing by them with a poysoned Fig to another World as his Father they say was it 's likely by their Instruments or Procurement they are so conusant of it and then the Prince yet young and well enclined to them already by his Education being got into their Hands by this wicked Policy shall soon be made an Obedient Son of the Church of Rome Thus the Relator a chief Actor in this pre-plotted Treason discovers And if his single Testimony though out of a wounded Conscience will not be believed alone the ensuing Circumstances will abundantly manifest the Scottish Wars to be plotted and directed by them For Con the Pope's Legat Hamilton the Queen's Agent most of the Jesuits then about London Captain Read their Host the Lord Sterling with other chief Actors in the Plot being all Scots and employing Maxfield and he two other Popish Scots in raising these Tumults the Earl of Arundel another principal Member of this Conspiracy being by their procurement made General of the first Army against the Scots and most of his Commanders Papists the Papists in all Counties of England upon the Queen's Letters directed to them contributing large Sums of Money besides Men Arms and Horses to maintain this War Sir Toby Matthew the most Industrious Conspirator in the Pack making a Voyage with the Lord Deputy into Ireland to stir up the Papists there to contribute Men Arms Moneys to subdue the Scottish Covenanters yea Marquess Hamilton's own Chaplain employed as the King's Commissioner to appease these Scots holding Correspondency with Con and resorting to him in private to impart the Secrets of that business to him the general Discontent of the Papists and Conspirators upon the first Pacification of those Troubles which they soon after infringed and by new Contributions raised a second Army against the Scots when the English Parliament refused to grant Subsidies to maintain the War All these concurring Circumstances compared with the Relation will ratifie it past Dispute that this War first sprung from these Conspirators Ninthly That the subsequent present Rebellion in Ireland and Wars in England originally issued from and were plotted by the same Conspirators For the Scottish War producing this setled Parliament beyond their expectation which they foresaw would prove fatal to this their long-agitated Conspiracy if it continued undissolved thereupon some Popish Irish Commissioners coming over into England and confederating with the Dutchess of Buckingham Captain Read and other of these Conspirators who afterwards departed secretly into Ireland they plotted an universal Rebellion Surprisal and Massacre of all the Protestants in that Kingdom which though in part prevented by a timely discovery securing Dublin and some few Places else yet it took general Effect in all other Parts to the loss of about an Hundred and Forty Thousand Protestants Lives there massacred by them And finding themselves likely to be overcome there by the Parliament's Forces sent hence and from Scotland to relieve the Protestant Party thereupon to work a Diversion they raised a Civil Bloody War against the Parliament here in England procuring the King after Endymion Porter a principal Conspirator in the Plot had gained the Custody of the Great Seal of England to issue out divers Proclamations under the great Seal proclaiming the Parliament themselves Traytors and Rebels to grant Commissions to Irish and English Papists contrary to his former Proclamations to raise Popish Forces both at Home and in Foreign parts for his Defence as his trustiest and most loyal Subjects to send Letters and Commissions of Favour to the Irish Rebels and hinder all Supplies from hence to the Protestant Party And withal they procured the Queen by the Earl of Antrim and Dutchess of Buckingham's Mediation to send Ammunition to the Irish Rebels and to attempt to raise an Insurrection in Scotland too as the Declaration of the Rise and Progress of the Rebellion in Ireland more largely discovers Seeing then all may clearly discern the exact Prosecution of this Plot carried on in all these Wars by the Conspirators therein particularly nominated by the Queen and Popish Party in all Three Kingdoms and in Foreign Parts too who have largely contributed Men Money Arms Ammunition to accomplish this Grand Design through the Instigation of those Conspirators in this Plot who are gone beyond the Seas and have lately caused publick Proclamations to be made in Bruges and other parts of Flanders in July last as appears by the Examination of Henry Mayo since seconded by others That all People who will now give ANY MONEY TO MAINTAIN THE RO-MAN CATHOLICKS IN ENGLAND should have it repaid them again in a Years time with many Thanks the whole World must now of Necessity both see and acknowledge unless they will renounce their own Eyes and Reason that this Conspiracy and Plot is no feigned Imposture but a most real perspicuous agitated Treachery now driven on almost to its Perfection the full Accomplishment whereof unless Heaven prevent it the Catholicks of England expect within the Circuit of one Year as the forenamed Proclamations intimate Tenthly That no setled Peace was ever formerly intended nor can now be futurely expected in England or Ireland without an universal publick Toleration at the least of Popery and a Repeal and Suspension of all Laws against it this being the very Condition in the Plot which the King must condescend to e're the Papists would engage themselves to assist him in these Wars thus raised by them for this end And that none may doubt this Verity the late most insolent bold Demands of the Irish Rebels in the Treaty with them the present Suspension of all Laws against Priests and Recusants in all Counties under his Majesty's Power the uncontrolled multitudes of Masses in his Armies Quarters Wales the North and elsewhere the open Boasts of Papists every where most really proclaim it And if the King after all their many Years restless Labour Plot Costs Pains and pretended Fidelity to his Cause against the Parliament should deny these Merit-mongers such a diminutive Reward as this is the very least they will expect now they have him the Prince and Duke within their Custody Bristol Chester Ireland all his Forccs in their Power this Discoverer an Eye and