used may be furnished with such gifts and graces as every one have or shall have need of That it may appear that the Action now in hand is his own and therefore he will provide safety for his holy ones and destruction for those who are vessels of wrath who have accomplished the number of their sins which call for vengeance from Heaven These Letters Hacket carried to Pamplin Schoolmaster of Oundell to be read unto him for that himself could neither write nor read But I have not yet heard that he complained thereof to any in Authority When Arthington also about the midst of Arthington returns to London Coppinger visits him and magnifies Hacket to him as the Holiest man that ever was except Christ Trinity Term last was returned to London Coppinger hearing thereof came to his Lodging and then with many words extolled and magnified Hacket unto him for the holiest man that ever was Christ only excepted and one that travelled together with him for the good of the Queen and the Land but after an extraordinary manner and not both by one means And albeit Arthington seems not desirous of their Secrets Coppinger persuades him to hear Hacket's extempore Prayers which he admires as divine and esteems him as a most holy man Arthington as now he saith desired them to keep their Secrets to themselves and not to trouble him with them who had other business to attend yet Coppinger importuned him so as he could not avoid but yield to hear Hacket pray before them as a man of a singular Spirit albeit utterly unlearned of the Book The first Prayer of his that Arthington heard was about four or five Weeks before their apprehension All which Prayers conceived by Hacket even since his apprehension the said Arthington praised to be so divine sweet and heavenly that thereby he was drawn into a great admiration of him In all the Prayers that Hacket made in his presence Arthington observed this difference from other mens That he usually therein desired the Lord to confound A horrible execration used in his Prayer him if he did not seek only his honour and glory in all things Which Arthington marking from time to time in him and seeing him still to be so perfectly sound and very well was thereby drawn together with Coppinger's words and experience of him to reckon and esteem of him as of a most holy man This Lesson of wishing themselves confounded his said two Scholars by imitation did so perfectly learn of him that to the great astonishment and horror of such The same used by the other two in their Affirmations that afterward examined them they used this Execration Wishing themselves confounded and damned if they said not the truth in every matter whereof they made any asseveration and wherein they desired to be credited thinking as Arthington confesseth that whatsoever the Spirit as he fansied told him was a truth he was bound to bind it upon his Salvation or Damnation These being joined with the Relation of certain extreme Torments which Hacket had signified Hacket pretends to suffer extream inward torments from the Devil as well as outward from men for trail of the truth of the Gospel which they conclude he is to establish in all Kingdoms and that all Scepters are to be yielded to him unto them that he suffered not only outwardly by the instigation of certain noble and worshipful Persons as he untruly made them believe but more grievously a great deal he said by suffering whatsoever either Devils in Hell Sorcerers or Witches in Earth could practise against him all which he pretended to have endured for trial and proof that the Gospel was the true Religion against Popery and all other Sects did so deeply astonish or rather infatuate them that after great fasting and prayer used which fasting they usually performed on the Sabboth days they all did resolutely conclude That if Hacket indured in truth all these torments and practices against him for so holy an end no doubt he was a man which should not only establish the Gospel in all Kingdoms but all Kings and Princes should also yield their Scepters unto him and he should be established chief King over all Europe Reasoning thus with themselves that surely the Lord had some great good to be done by him that had indured so much for his sake Now this was the Opinion which to This was the main drift of Hacket's cunning and it succeeded have firmly planted in them two as indeed it was first in Coppinger and afterward in Arthington was the main scope and drift as may seem of all Hacket's cunning counterfeiting of so much Holiness Piety Zeal and Religion To work this he handled his Actions so Coppinger avouched that God would deny Hacket nothing warily with them that Coppinger seriously once avouched unto Arthington how himself had by good experience found that God would deny unto Hacket nothing which he prayed for or desired and namely protested that Hacket begged of God in a Drought that was not long afore their apprehension a Shower of Rain and that it was presently sent in good abundance Coppinger also so firmly believed Hacket that he told his own Man Emerson how Hacket being imprisoned the Bolts would often fall off his heels miraculously But for proof that such incredible Torments were indeed suffered by Hacket he appealed herein to some of the Nobility and to divers others both of worship and good credit This did Coppinger further confirm Coppinger and Wigginton attest to the truth of Hacket ' s pretended Torments unto Arthington saying that Master Wigginton also did justify the truth of the Torments that Hacket suffered and could do it with a hundred honest Witnesses more if need required And Arthington himself also once heard Wigginton pitifully tell how great and extreme Torments Hacket had endured But being asked by them why he was so tormented and how these could tend to prove the Gospel to be the only true Religion Hacket answered them thus That his Tormentors the better to colour their lewd purposes and malice gave out and surmised him to be out of his wits but the truth was said he that being once at Table with one G. H. an obstinate Papist and reasoning which was the true Religion I Hacket ' s strange way to prove the truth of Religion against Popery c. defending this which we now profess to be the truth against Popery and all other Sects amongst other Speeches I protested upon my Damnation that this was the truth and withal prayed that I might sink presently down into Hell if it was not so And that if he the said G. H. would say so much for his Religion if he did not sink presently into Hell then would I take Popery to be the true Religion But he refusing so to do and being greatly moved thereby against me complotted with a Knight a neer Kinsman of his and with another Gentleman
dismayed and yet not sought to be revealed by Wigginton unto any Magistrate till upon his examination it was found out Lastly I observe the Coggery of the 6 Reporter or else the lewd lying and contradiction to himself of that wretched Seducer Hacket For in his Answer to the fifth and sixth Articles he knows no degrees of glory in Heaven and yet in his Answer to the eighth he assigneth more honour and higher places in Heaven unto some few that are the most forward than he doth unto others But let us go on with the Narration of the principal Action interrupted by occasion of the Conferences had with Wigginton and of his report of them From Wigginton's Lodging the said Coppinger Hacket ' s History continued and Arthington came directly to Hacket's Chamber in Walker's House at Broken Wharf and there found the Beast in Bed after Eight of the Clock Where being enflamed they say with zeal out of all measure Coppinger began to pray at the Bed's feet and Arthington joined with him wherein they stood much upon their own unworthiness c. but yet offered their obedience to do as the Lord should direct them by his Spirit having already done so much as was enjoined them Whereupon Hacket came out of his Bed and prayed with them in his Shirt twice that the Spirit might direct them and they likewise obey the same in all things to the glory of God only After Hacket's latter Prayer Coppinger offered to go on in his Prayer but the Devilish Spirit moved Arthington to interrupt him and to charge him in the Name of the Lord Jesus to arise and anoint the King with the Holy Ghost Whereupon Coppinger straightway rose up and three times kissed the Boards under his feet rising up after every time and making great reverence with bowed knee and after the third time he came towards Hacket as he lay in his Bed who put out his hand and took Coppinger by the hand and said You shall not need to anoint me Blasphemy for I have been already anointed in Heaven by the Holy Ghost himself Then Coppinger asked him what his pleasure was to be done Go your way both said he as Arthington reports and tell them in the City that Christ Jesus is come with his Fan in his hand to judge the Earth And if any man ask you where he is tell them he lies at Walker ' s House by Broken Wharf and if they will not believe it let them come and kill me if they can for as truly as Christ Jesus is in Heaven so truly is he come to judge the world Then Coppinger said it should be done forthwith and thereupon went forward and Arthington followed so readily the said Prophet of Mercy that he had no leisure to take his Gloves with him and ere Arthington could get down the Stairs Coppinger had begun in the House below to proclaim News from Heaven of exceeding great Mercy That Christ Jesus was come c. as above is said with whom Arthington also cried the same words aloud following him along the Streets from thence by Watling-street and Old Change towards Cheapside they both adding beyond their Commission these words Repent England Repent But surely either their Commission was delivered them at one time or other more largely than the one of them now reporteth or else they went beyond and exceeded it in many other material Points besides this For after they both had thus come with mighty concourse of the common multitude as to such a novelty of hearing two new Prophets in these days arisen was likely with an uniform cry into Cheapside near unto the Cross and there finding the throng and press of People to encrease about them in such sort as that they could not well pass further nor be conveniently heard of them all as they desired therefore they got them up into an empty Cart which stood there and out of that choise Pulpit fur such a purpose made their lewd and traiterous preachment unto the People wherein they stood not only upon the words of their former cry but so near as I could learn from so common an Auditory and in so confused an Action they reading something out of a Paper went more particularly over the Office and Calling of Hacket how he represented Christ by partaking a part of his glorified Body by his principal Spirit and by the Office of severing the Good from the Bad with his Fan in his hand and of establishing the Gospel in Europe which as it seemeth they took to be all the World or else supposed that all Europe did profess Christianity and of bringing in that Discipline which they so often babble of and which they mean by the term of Reformation and the holy Cause That he was now come and all these things were presently to be performed by him telling also the People where they saw him where he lay and remained That they were two Prophets the one of Mercy the other of Judgment sent and extraordinarily called by God to assist him in this great Work and were Witnesses of these things confirming the same upon their own Salvation and wishing themselves confounded and damned for ever if these things they spoke were not true And thereupon the one of them pronounced Mercy great Comfort and unspeakable Joys to all that should repent presently be obedient and embrace this acceptable Message and opportunity offered And the other denounced terrible Judgments if they repented not which should even presently also fall upon them and especially upon that City of London affirming that all that believed them not were condemned Body and Soul This Judgment against London as Arthington the pretended Prophet of Judgment saith he gathered out of Hacket's History was that men should there kill and massacre one another as Butchers do kill Swine all the day long and no man should take compassion of them There was then and there further delivered by them or by the one of them that Hacket was King of Europe and so ought to be obeyed and taken and that all Kings must hold of him and that the Queen's Majesty had forfeited her Crown and was worthy to be deprived Which most traiterous Point amongst others Hacket enjoined them to publish as in the one of his Indictments is contained Lastly In very unmannerly and sawey terms they prayed to God to confound two great Lords of her Majesty's Counsel for these two together with a certain Knight they then and there openly and most lewdly accused in general terms of Treason This outrage was done the sixteenth day of July aforesaid about Ten of the Clock or something after in the Forenoon By which their Proclamation being laid together with their former Conferences Letters and Purposes against the Queen and Counsel and for advancing of Hacket and for altering the State with the very time when so many Soldiers were about the City it is evident to any who hath but half an eye to
born Anno 1530. at Grimsby in Lincolnshire Ib. First instructed by his Uncle Robert Whitgift Abbot of Wellow in Lincolnshire 3 Sent up to London Ib. Narrowly escaped the Plague Ib. Sent back to Grimsby for refusing to go to Mass Ib. Sent to Cambridge first of Queen's College then of Pembroke-Hall 4 Chosen Fellow of Peter-House May 1555. Ib. Had a grievous Sickness Ib. Dr. Pearne's special Care of him 5 Recovering his Health determined to Travel Ib. Disswaded by Dr. Pearne Ib. Commenced Batchelor of Arts 1553. Master of Arts 1556. Batchelor of Divinity 1562. Doctor of Divinity 1569. Ib. His Act-Sermon at St. Mary's 1560. on Rom. 1. 16. Ib. Made Master of Pembroke-Hall Chaplain to the Bishop of Ely Prebendary of Ely Parson of Teversam 7 Divinity Reader Ib. Queen's Professor Ib. Read upon the Apocalyps and the Hebrews Ib. Sent for to preach before the Queen 8 Was made Master of Trinity College July 4. 1567. and the Queen's Chaplain Ib. Found Divisions in the College 9 Wisely appeased them Ib. Cartwright's first discontent Ib. His Self-conceit 10 Cartwright went to Geneva affected the Discipline of that Church 11 His opposition to the Established Church-Government in England Ib. Preacheth against the Surpless 12 Whitgift preacheth against Cartwright's Opinions 13 Cartwright and his Followers oppose Whitgift Ib. Whitgift's Gentleness 14 The State of the University disturb'd by Cartwright 15 Whitgift adviseth him to be quiet Ib. Calls him in question Ib. Expells him the House and deprives him of the Lady Margaret's Lecture 16 Offers him a Conference which Cartwright refuseth Ib. This recorded in the Register of the University Ib. The Disciplinarians publish An Admonition to the Parliament 19 Whitgift answers it 1572. Ib. Cartwright replies 20 Whitgift defends his Answer Ib. Cartwright's Second Reply Ib. Mr. Whitaker's Letters concerning Mr. Cartwright's Reply and his censure of him 21 Whitgift made Dean of Lincoln 22 Several Noblemen c. his Pupils 23 Their respects towards him Ib. He holds the Scholars strictly to their Exercises and Devotion Ib. Procures amendment of the University Statutes 24 His Wisdom and Courage 25 His Moderation Ib. Mr. Hooker's Character of him in his Eccles Policy Ib. Whitgift's esteem with the Queen Ib. Consecrated Bishop of Worcester April 21. 1577. Ib. Takes leave of the University with an Exhortation to Peace and Unity 26 His Farewel-Text 2 Cor. 13. 11. Ib. Sets out for Worcester June 1597. attended with the Heads of Houses c. Ib. The Queen forgives his First-fruits and gives him the disposal of all the Prebends of that Church Ib. He finds the Bishoprick impaired by Grants of long Leases 27 Particularly the Rent-Corn of Two of the best Mannors Hollow and Grimley Ib. He questions the said Lease Ib. Has great Friends at Court 28 Satisfies the Queen Ib. Recovers the said Rent-Corn paying 300 l. out of his own Purse Ib. He has great respect from the Gentlemen and People in the Country 29 Is a great Peace-maker among them 30 Makes up a Remarkable Quarrel betwixt Sir John Russell and Sir Henry Barkeley Ib. Is made Vice-President of the Marches of Wales 31 He had great experience in Government yet backward to bear sway 32 Has a special watch over his own Family and Attendants to avoid all colour of corruption 33 Is highly esteemed by the People of Wales Ib. His great Integrity Justice and mild Government 34 He is made Commissioner by the Queen for reforming the Disorders in the Cathedrals of Lichfield and Hereford Ib. The Queen designs him for Archbishop of Canterbury in the room of Grindall then in disgrace 35 He utterly refuseth it during Grindall's Life the Queen is contented Ib. Grindall dies 36 Whitgift sent for to Court Ib. Is translated to the Archbishoprick of Canterbury Septemb. 24. 1583. 37 Finds the Bishoprick overvalued gets an abatement in the First-fruits for him and his Successors 38 Recovers Lands that had been detained Ib. Amends Curats Wages where small Ib. The Queen jealous of the Ruritans charges the Archbishop to see strict Conformity observed to the Established Church and Government Ib. His care of the Queen's Command 39 Decemb. 1584. For satisfaction of some great Persons he with two other Bishops received the Reasons of some Ministers for their Nonconformity 40 They sufficiently answer the same Ib. A Conference at Lambeth and a further debate of the Controversy to the seeming satisfaction of those Great Personages 41 The Archbishop perplexed with Oppositions is grieved Ib. Writes his mind 42 After which he is in strict league with Sir Christopher Hatton by means of Dr. Bancroft 48 Lord Treasurer Burley his firm Friend Ib. The Archbishop sworn of the Privy Council Ib. Lord Buckhurst his faithful Friend 49 He has free access to the Queen Ib. His Oppositions abated Ib. Sir Thomas Bromely Lord Chancellor died April 12. 1587. Ib. The Queen disposed to make the Archbishop Lord Chancellor Ib. He excuses himself and recommends Sir Christopher Hatton Ib. Sir Christopher Hatton made Lord Chancellor April 29. 1587. 50 The Earl of Leicester died September 4. 1588. Ib. Oxford desire the Archbishop for their Chancellor in the Earl's room Ib. He recommends Sir Christopher Hatton who is chosen He is the Archbishop's constant Assistant in bridling the Puritan Faction 51 Martin Marprelate and other Libels published 1588. Ib. A Private Puritan Press erected at Kingston and afterwards removed to several Places Ib. The Press discovered at Manchester 52 The Printers apprehended prosecuted and fined in the Star-Chamber Ib. On their submission and the Archbishop's Mediation were released and Fines remitted Ib. Penry and Udall Authors of the Libels Ib. Newman a Cobler Disperser Ib. John Penry condemned 1593. 53 Udall pardoned Ib. Thomas Cartwright with others proceeded with in the Starchamber for their Conventicles 1591. and for publishing their Book of New Discipline Ib. Dr. Bancroft writes two Books against the Disciplinarians and their dangerous Practices and Positions 54 The Archbishop and State 's vigilant watch upon them 55 Coppinger and Arthington their preaching in a Cart in Cheapside July 16. 1591. 56 That Hacket represented Christ and Themselves Prophets from God Ib. Conspiracy for Pretended Reformation wrote by Dr. Cosin Ib. Barrow and Greenwood their Schismatical and Seditious Positions 58 The Ringleaders on being convened make shew of Conformity but afterwards go back 59 Were re-committed July 1588. and proceeded against March 1592. Ib. An Act of Abjuration and Banishment made against Schismaticks Ib. Only four Persons prosecuted of a very great Number 60 Great Troubles in Germany just cause of Fears here from like Principles and Pretences of Reformation Ib. The Discipline decreed in their Assemblies to be put in Practice 61 The Queen's Authority Ecclesiastical to be restrain'd Ib. Cartwright's Seditious Doctrines 62 Cartwright's charitable Prayer for the Bishops in his Sermons at Banbury 1589. Ib. Penry's Supplication to the Parliament threatning them with Plagues Ib. Udall's Threats against the Resisters of the Presbytery 63
little as that she could oft-times be content to take the Meat off his Trencher which he had cut for himself and to eat it up from him But whensoever this devout Slighted the Divine Service Flock came so near to Stoke Church as they might perceive the Minister to be yet at Divine Service and Prayer then they used to stay abroad and rest themselves in the Green Churchyard there without going into the Church until they heard the Psalm begun before Sermon for fear lest they should be polluted by those Prayers One most memorable Prank above others was plaid in Oundel by Hacket which is renowned far and near for the unmanly brutishness of it It happened that M. Hussey his Master fell at debate and was offended with one Freckingham an Artificer of the Town This Freckingham had a Son which was a Schoolmaster who as in nature he was bound did take part with his Father Now Hacket meeting this Schoolmaster in an Alehouse or Inn did lovingly as seemed signify unto him how sorry he was that there should be any breach betwixt his Master and him the said Schoolmaster entertaining him that suspected no Treachery with such good Speeches till spying an advantage he so grasped both Freckingham his Arms as that he might easily hold him and throw him to the ground Thus having gotten him down on the ground under him He treacherously bit off a man's Nose in a Quarrel Hacket most savagely and currishly bit off the poor Schoolmaster 's Nose with his teeth which when he had so barbarously performed both the said Freckingham and one Clement a cunning Surgeon instantly desired the Nose of him again that whilst the Wound was fresh and green it might be stitched on and grow again as they conceived it would to avoid so foul and great deformity But the Canibal Varlet not only utterly refused so to part with it but held it up triumphantly and shewed it with great vauntery and glory to all that would behold it and after as some have reported did in a most spiteful and divelish outrage eat it up In process of time it happened that his Master fell out with him and put him from his Service I think for no good Conditions yet it is said that he was retained afterward Retain'd in the Service of Sir Charles Morrison in service by what means I know not with a very worshipful Gentleman Sir Charles Morrison Knight Nephew to his first Master and one of those against whom he lately caused his two small Prophets so vilely to exclaim and so unworthily to charge even openly in Cheatside Besides his former Vertues and good Qualities Hacket a great Swearer and Blasphemer in his Youth this Hacket was also a very great Swearer and Blasphemer of the Name of God in his younger years which course when afterward to retain the reputation of a Professor of the Gospel whereof he made great pretence he was forced to leave he turned his single Oaths in truth into worse and more horrible joined with most fearful Imprecations Which after his pretended Conversion he turn'd into areadful Execrations against himself whensoever he would make any Asseverations wherein he desired to be credited as namely these So God judge me I renounce God and God confound and damn me or do so or so unto me if this be not true which was so usual and by long custom so inveterate in him even till the time of his apprehension that in the midst of his counterfeit Holiness whereby he seduced Coppinger and Arthington he often burst forth into this kind of execration against himself as an especial motive amongst others to have his words to be better believed by them Arthington noted this course of Hacket's as a notable vertue in him and a matter of rare zeal His manner saith he of praying is as it were speaking to His strange Expressions in Prayer God face to face denouncing his Judgments against himself if he dissemble lie or seek himself in any thing but the honour of God only He prayed so confidently for Mistress H. that he charged God to have given her unto him to restore her to her former health and liberty every way saying Lord according to thy promise thou hast power and I have faith therefore it shall come to pass This Mistress H. is a Gentlewoman of London who pretendeth or feareth to be possessed with a Devil now fourteen years together Besides these he was given to quaffing and Addicted to Drunkenness and lascivious Life drunkenness Being not only a Maltster but a Malt-worm and was addicted also to lascivious life with Women which commonly accompanieth the other vicious Excess For credit whereof his own Story or Legend which himself endited as a notbale Monument of his excellent Vertues and special Holiness may give too sufficient testimony For therein he telleth of many temptations in this kind with Women which as himself confesseth he rejected not altogether but went further than either godliness or yet civil honesty would permit But he pretendeth that these Baits were offered and laid by his Enemies who sought matter against him as Snares and Traps whereby to take his holiness tardy that belike was so hard to be entangled Insomuch as Arthington in the forefront of that History which he did whilst he was yet seduced by Hacket doth stamp this brand and censure upon it That they were prophane Speeches and matters of Women which he would not have set down but that he could not otherwise reveal the villanous practice which Hacket's Enemies intended for the overthrow of the Gospel of Christ as he most childishly and ridiculously excused then the matter For further proof and manifestation of his lascivious Disposition it is also informed from the Place of his Abode that on a time under colour of giving godly Counsel he attempted to have wickedly ravished a poor man's Daughter whereupon he was forced to step aside out of the way for a season Neither did the wickedness of this Wretch here rest it self For he was vehemently holden in suspicion for committing also of sundry Robberies But that which maketh up the heap of Covers his Wickedness with Profession of Religion and zeal for Reformation all Wickedness is this That the sink of these Sins in him he always smoothly covered and parieted over especially for sundry late years with a very rare outward earnestness in profession of true Religion and with a most entire yea burning desire of reforming forsooth the Church and Commonwealth by establishing the Presbyterial Discipline which he did imagine would prove like the Box of Pandora for it promiseth cure for all Maladies and Disorders But this his zeal and desire of Reformation Which he then chiefly pretended to after he had wasted his Substance begun then most of all to enkindle it self in him and to break forth after that by riotous mispending and licentious life he had wasted the Wealth that he had
was wrought in this An Account thereof out of Hacket's History Arthington's Prophesies Both Manuscripts manner as Hacket testifieth in that Discourse which they since call Hacket's History enlarged endited by himself written by Coppinger and afterward copied out fair by Arthington as it should have gone to the Press being annexed to Arthington's Prophesy For there it is said That the Lord brought Hacket to London about the beginning of Easter Term last to see what would be done against Job Throgmorton and partly to reckon with M. Wigginton about the making of malt between them together At what time Wigginton said That there was a Gentleman in the City a very good man but Hacket as the Lord knoweth did not think that there had been one godly man in the Land and supposed the Twelfth Psalm belonged to this time When Wigginton was describing the Man and the matter that he was entring into viz. that the Man whom he spoke of had a message to say to his Sovereign concerning some practice intended against her from dealing wherein the Preachers in London had wonderfully discouraged him then Hacket answered thus Did you so also No saith Wigginton Then said Hacket encourage him in any wise for what know you what matter it is he hath to say Hereupon Wigginton sent for the said Edmund Coppinger to come to the Counter to speak with him who by God's Providence came forthwith and Wigginton willed them to take acquaintance one of the other assuring Coppinger that he knew Hacket to be a man truly fearing God and such a Person as by whose Conference God might minister some comfort to Coppinger Whereupon they two viz. Coppinger and Hacket went from thence presently unto Hacket ' s Chamber at the Sign of the Castle without Smithfield-Bars So soon as they were entred the Chamber Coppinger desired that before any speech should pass between them they might first pray to God together which they did Hacket speaking to the Lord first After which Prayer Coppinger delivered unto Hacket how he had been very strangely and extraordinarily moved by God to go to her Majesty and to tell her plainly that the Lord's pleasure was that she must with all speed reform her self her Family the Common-wealth and the Church And that the Lord had further told him by what means all the same should be done but that Secret he would not then deliver unto Hacket Then Coppinger also prayed into God desiring him if he would be with him and bless that Business which he had committed to his charge that then he would both furnish him with Gifts fit for so weighty an Action and knit the heart of Hacket and his so together as David ' s and Jonathan ' s Moses ' s and Aaron ' s For answer hereof Hacket took further time till the morning at which time in the morning a Prayer being first made Hacket laid all the Lord's business which was to be done by himself upon Coppinger ' s back telling him the Lord had appointed him to it and would stand with him in it Thus far in this Point goeth that Discourse But long before this time of their two first Acquaintances Coppinger upon his return forth of Kent in Michaelmas Term last had signified unto Arthington and to one T. Lancaster a Schoolmaster in Shoe-lane both being of his familiar Acquaintance and whom he had requested to fast and pray Coppinger pretends to a secret Mystery revealed to him relating to the Discipline and the Queen's repentance about it with him for success in obtaining a Widow that God had shewed him the said Coppinger great favour by revealing such a secret Mystery unto him as was wonderful being in substance thus much viz. That he knew a way how to bring the Queen to repentance and to cause all her Council and Nobles to do the like out of hand or else detect them to be Traitors that refused All they by such Repentance meaning and understanding as it seemeth the erecting of their fanciful Discipline For this Phrase being usual with them in Conferences of this matter he thereby sufficiently declared his mind to them and they well understood what was meant without further a-do Now it had been inconvenient that Coppinger He imparts it to Wigginton should all this while conceal this Mystery which he imparted unto them and after to Hacket from Wigginton who brought them acquainted together unto whom he so oft resorted and so highly above all other Preachers esteemed for his resolute dealings in God's matters as he terms them whom he also after advouched unto Arthington as an irrefragable Witness to be persuaded by that would justify the truth of Hacket's Torments and whom he also knew more often busied for attaining of that Discipline which himself also laboured for than perhaps for Heaven it self And you see that he had accordingly done it Wigginton not discouraging him therein This Proposition so made by Coppinger Arthington and Lancaster mislike the matter as impracticable Arthington saith that he and Lancaster misliked as a matter impossible by Coppinger to be done but by the Lord Jesus only and such whereof the issue could not fall out well any way and so put him off for the first time not understanding in what manner and by what special means Coppinger conceived that such repentance should be wrought in the Queen's Majesty and in others The manner and other circumstances of the first revealing of this pretended Mystery Coppinger himself at large declareth in a Letter written the 4th of February last unto T. C. in Prison The occasion of writing it The manner and circumstances of revealing the Mystery Coppinger declares in a Letter to Cartwright then in Prison desiring an Answer to some Questions he there saith was the said T. C's offer to take knowledge by writing from him of such matter as might induce him to suppose himself to have received some hope of special favour from God to some special use But yet without warrant from the Word direction of the Holy Spirit and approbation of the Church he was he said most unwilling to enter into so great an Action The Letter is long but to this effect That upon some extraordinary humiliation of him he with some other and a Guide of their Exercise joined in a Fast Their Guide in the Evening spake of the use of Fasts c. and then willed the others to add to that which he had delivered either for the general or particular Causes which moved them to humble themselves That a great part of the said Night Coppinger found himself very extraordinarily exercised c. by such a motive as he could not well describe partly comforted with a wonderful Zeal which he found himself to have to set forth God's glory any ways which lawfully he might enter into partly cast down by such a burning fire of Concupiscence as in his greatest strength of body he had not found the like That the next day
of to bring them to pass which they hoped to stir up by their pretence of so great holiness with calling the Realm to repentance in the open Streets of London by offering joys and mercy to the Penitent and by their Proclamation also then made in Cheapside as hereafter cometh to be declared Now that these their two last Purposes were indeed the principal and main ends which they propounded to themselves besides that which by the way is noted already and that which comes hereafter to be mentioned let these few Proofs ensuing suffice First for the alteration of the whole Government Ecclesiastical and erecting of the new Discipline It is confessed that Coppinger Coppinger and Arthington two false Prophets their words to Wigginton the day before the Insurrection and Arthington the two Counterseit Prophets on the 16th of July last being Friday and the self-same day that they arose in Cheapside told Wigginton in the morning these words amongst many others viz. That Reformation and the Lord's Discipline should now forthwith be established and therefore charged Wigginton in the Lord's name to put all Christians in comfort that they should see a joyful alteration in the state of Church-Government shortly To which words Wigginton made no reply nor further demand as of any matter strange unto him how it was so shortly to be compassed Wherein may also be observed that these kind of Persons do reckon and term only those Christians that will take comfort and joy at such an Alteration So that by their Opinions it skilleth not what be attempted or done against all others being but as Heathens and Paynims or at least Idolaters Thus much with their seditious Purposes Their Seditious Purposes appear in Coppinger's Letter to Udal then condemned for writing the Demonstration of Discipline also is plainly implied in a dangerous Letter written by the said Coppinger since Easter last unto one John Udal a condemned man for Felony in the White Lyon in Surrey for writing of the Book termed the Demonstration of Discipline That Letter beginneth thus Right Reverend Sir my forbearing to visit you and the rest of the Saints who suffer for Righteousness sake do give you all cause to think that I have forsaken my first Love and have embraced the God of this World But my Conscience beareth me witness of the contrary The Reasons of my absence being so great and so weighty that hereafter when they shall be examined by your selves who are endued with the spirit of wisdom and discerning of Spirits I doubt not but Note you will allow of my not coming which might bring you into more trouble and danger than it would do me good or breed me comfort And afterward thus You have care and conscience to further the building of the Lord's House which lieth waste and to seek the final overthrow of Antichrist's Kingdom which being the Lord 's own work he will bless it and all the Actors in it And this I dare be bold of mine own knowledge to report that in this great Work he hath divers that lie hid and are yet at liberty who are hammering their heads busying their brains and spending their spirits in prayers to God as much as you or any of you that are in Prison Note and hope in short time to be brought forth into the sight of their and your Enemies to defend the Cause you stand for And again afterward in this wise I beseech you cheer up your selves in the Lord for the day of our Redemption is at hand and pray that the Hand of the Lord may be strengthened Note in them whom he hath appointed to take part with you in this Cause and beseech him that blessing may be upon Sion and confusion upon Babel Pardon my long Letter I beseech you and impart mine humble suit to all the rest to whom I neither dare write nor offer to see I neither put to my Name nor make Subscription The Bringer can report who sendeth the Letter and let that suffice Furthermore that they hated deadly and maligned her Majesty as a principal Obstacle to their Innovation and Kingdom and therefore sought to deprive her Highness of her Sovereignty and Life may be gathered by their own Words and Actions For Hacket confessed before the other two that They usually attend Egerton a Preacher in Black-Frairs at a Sermon of one Egerton's preach'd in the Black-Fryars whither they usually resort he the said Hacket remained uncovered all the Sermon time until the Preacher came to pray for her Majesty but then he said that he put on his Hat And when Arthington demanded why he did so Coppinger streightway answered thus There is a matter in that Likewise when as in their private Prayers amongst themselves Arthington used to pray for the Queen Coppinger Coppinger and Hacket forbear to pray for the Queen would sundry times tell him that his so doing did much grieve Hacket adding that in the beginning himself did also pray for her but Hacket had now drawn him from it saying there was a cause why which Arthington knew not but should know hereafter For saith he you do not know this man meaning Hacket who is a greater Person than she and indeed above all the Princes in the World And whenas on the very Sunday before their rising for so themselves have since termed that Action it happened that Arthington prayed again for the preservation of the Queen's Majesty Hacket not digesting this suddenly with indignation turned his face away from him but when he prayed for other matters then Hacket cast his countenance towards him again which he perceiving that Arthington also marked by him and purposing as it seemeth to salve up this matter again left Arthington happily might yet have fallen from them therefore when they had ended their Prayers Hacket took him with his Arms about the middle in very kind sort affirming that he loved the Queen as well as either of them and desired him not to be offended for the Lord had commanded it Adding further that there was a matter in it that Arthington as yet knew not Hereupon Coppinger being in hearing thereof said that she might be prayed for in general terms but not so specially as Arthington did whereby Hacket was grieved nor yet to be prayed for as a Sovereign For said he she may not reign as Note Sovereign but this man Hacket and yet saith he she shall live better than ever she did albeit she must be governed by another thereby also meaning Hacket And to the intent they might the more assuredly retain Arthington without suspicion of their poisonful malice wherein they boiled against the Queen's Highness Hacket himself once after this time very subtilly prayed for her Majesty For proof that they also meant to deprive her of life the several Confessions of Arthington Arthington confesseth that Hacket and Coppinger design'd the Queen's deprivation of Government and Life at sundry Examinations may be
continued his counterfeit vein that he had then undertaken one while crying out Jehovab Messias Jehovab Messias His extravagant Speeches going to Execution another while crying out thus Look look how the Heavens open wide and the Son of God cometh down to deliver me When he came under the Gibbet which was reared hard by the Cross in Cheapside towards the right hand of the Street as you come from Paul's and the noise being appeased he was exhorted to ask God and the Queen Forgiveness and to fall to his Prayers But he persevering in his unprofitable course of dissimulation instead thereof fell to railing and cursing of the Queen's Majesty most villanously He curses the Queen But being more vehemently urged to remember his present state and to give over all hope to do himself good by such dissembling he began to pray this most passionate blasphemous and execrable Prayer viz. O God of Heaven mighty Jebovah His blasphemous execrable Prayer Alpha and Omega Lord of Lords King of Kings and God everlasting that knowest me to be that true Jebovah whom thou hast sent send some miracle out of a cloud to convert these Infidels and deliver me from these mine enemies If not I will fire the heavens and tear thee from thy throne with my hands With other words of most execrable blasphemy against the divine Majesty of God not to be rehearsed by reason that he found not that deliverance which he fancied God to have promised Then turning towards the Executioner he said unto him Ah thou bastards chila wilt thou His words to the Hangman hang Wm. Hacket thy king The Magistrates and people detesting this subtil seditious and blasphemous humour commanded and cried to the Officers to dispatch with him or to have his mouth stopped from blaspheming but they had much ado to get him up the Ladder And when he was up he struggled with his head to and fro as well as he could that he might not have the fatal noose put over his head Then he asked them very fearfully O what do you what do you but seeing by the circumstance what they intended he began to rave again and said Have I this for my kingdom bestowed He dies horridly blaspheming upon thee I come to revenge thee and plague thee and so was turn'd off But the people unwilling that so traitorous and blasphemous a wretch should have any the least favour cried out mightily to have him cut down presently to be quartered and seemed very angry with the Officers that made no more haste therein but as soon almost as he was cut down even with a trice his heart was taken forth and shewed out openly to the people for a most detestable blasphemous Traytor 's heart Thus died the most dangerous firebrand of sedition most detestable Traytor most hypocritical seducer and most execrable blasphemous hellhound that many ages ever saw or heard of in this Land The next day after this being Thursday Coppinger having wilfully abstained Coppinger starves himself and dies next day in Bridewel from meat as is said seven or eight days together died in Bridewell and Arthington liveth yet in the Counter in Woodstreet reserved I hope unto sincere and perfect Arthington in the Counter repents and sues for Pardon repentance For immediately upon Hacket's execution he wrote a Letter unto two great Counsellors whom among others he had lewdly slandered of submission and afterwards more at large he wrote to the body of the Council the whole course as he pretendeth of this action so far as he was made acquainted therewith humbly craving their Lordships mediation unto the Queens most excellent Majesty for his pardon and acknowledging his dangerous error and devilish leduction by Hacket especially into this traiterous action This Declaration is truly taken forth of their own Letters Writings under their hands and their Confessions upon Examinations subscribed by themselves and by sundry honourable and worshipful persons of great gravity and wisdom before whom they were made and therefore may suffice to shew unto all reasonable and well-affected the lewdness and danger of the hypocritical Plots and seditious Conspiracies entred into by these persons But some there are so perversely wedded to The state slandered in these Proceedings their own wills and addicted to their fancies once conceived that they give out they were mad and furious persons choosing therein rather to accuse the honourable Justice of the Realm and all the administers thereof than that any of their factious Crew professing desire of pretended Reformation and to bring in The Discipline as they call it should be noted with so deep disloyalty As it is not the part of any honest Christian by calumniation to charge those that be innocent so doth it not become a loyal Subject to justifie any Traytors especially with slandering of the State It therefore seemeth requisite that this point be not left uncleared whether they or any of them in these practices were indeed transported The Justice vindicated with fury besides themselves so as they needed not to have been regarded nor by Law ought to have suffered death for them In wants of understanding and reason after such time as men should naturally have them there are noted divers degrees that are also of several consideration that is to say Furor sive Rabies Dementia sive Amentia Insania sive Phrenesis Fatuitas Stultitia Lethargia Delirium And albeit the three first by sundry Writers be sometimes confounded and taken for one like as also the fourth is with the fifth and the sixth with the last yet when the diversity espied in the things themselves do drive men to a more exact consideration and distinction of the words by which those passions are to be expressed they are for the most part thus properly termed and distinguished by the best Writers Furor as it is described by Tully est mentis ad omnia coecitas an entire and full Tusc qu. li. 3. blindness or darkening of the understanding of the mind whereby a man knoweth not at all what he doth or saith and is englished madness or woodness He that is Bal In Lsed milites 〈◊〉 autem § ffide excus tuto passim alij possessed herewith is carried with fury of mind into great violences and outrages so that he neither spareth himself nor other men and is called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such was the madness of Ajax as is fained by the Poets who whipped and scourged droves of beasts and cattel thinking they were the Groecians that had displeased him and afterward in that rage killed himself Dementia is described there by the same Ibidem Author to be affectio animi lumine mentis carens A passion of the mind bereaving it of the light of understanding Or as another Quintil. Declamat 348. grave and learned Author calleth it ablatus rerum omnium intellectus when a man's perceivance and
to I. T. and others and to them of forreign Churches were for that matter well and advisedly endited His cunning was not small to keep the very particular way of effecting that which he desired from those he dealt with because himself knew it a dangerous secret and a course not justifiable unless it came by extraordinary motion and special oeconomy from God and therefore he desired to have it allowed so to be His pretence of entertaining intelligence touching some important service to the State of the Realm whereof he pretended to have an inlking but no full and particular knowledg was none unadvised or simple reach of policy in him For if in platting of his purposes and dealing in the principal action any thing of doubtful acceptance should happen to have been after discovered then might he well and with good colour have pretended that he did it but in way of attaining to intelligence of those dangers whereof the generality as it were in the Clouds he had afore delivered to a Counsellor For he might not seem a man to be suspected of any disloyal purpose who shewed himself so careful for his Sovereign's safety Add to these his cunning petition to have prisoners for treason c. to be examined by himself and execution of condemn'd persons to be stai'd at his beck whereby he might more easily have induced them to appeach whom he list to have overthrown and whom he principally aimed at His subtilty also doth notably appear in his petitions to her Majesty where he makes shew of great secrets to be delivered only in her presence and prayeth to be pardoned if in overmuch fear of her safety he had attempted to prove that which he could not which argueth that he had indeed not so much as any colourable intelligence delivered unto him of Treason intended by such great men as he pretended but used this as a means to have access for himself and the others unto her Highness's presence for some further intended mischief Then his allowance and commendation of sound and good counsel given him by Eg. a preacher and by others his sparing to reveal the great and dangerous secret unto Hacket upon their first acquaintance his razing out of Hacket's and the Town 's Name out of the Letter sent by him to a Noble personage to give inkling of Treasons intended against her Majesty lest the quality and unlikelyhood of the man being enquired after that that plot should be dashed his not subscribing of his name to sundry Letters his directing of Hacket neither to subscribe nor endorse but in that sort as he prescribed for fear of discovery his desire to have all the Letters again that he had written to Eg. about that matter his wary and diligent keeping of copies of every Letter that he writ in that cause and when leasure served not so to do his great care to have the very Letters again his offence with one Hoc for keeping a Letter from him which he had sent unto him his cunning excuse of Hacket's defacing of the Queen's Arms his counterfeit revelation to bring Arthington further in his device to make Arthington resolute by saying it was revealed to him that they had Angelical spirits not subject to hurt by any mortal power his willing choice to withdraw himself into an house when after their proclamation things fell not out as was expected and from thence afterward to go to his place of abode through by-lanes his and Hacket's putting off the matter from knowledg of Arthington for a time though afterward happely to be opened why the Queen might not be pray'd for in particular their pretence of the Lords commandment to keep the means secret how the Queen's Majesty and the Counsel were to be brought to repentance and unto their pretended Reformation the sensible and coherent manner of report unto Wigginton touching Hacket's and their own callings and offices by Coppinger and Arthington their temperate and pertinent answers unto Wigginton's speeches and all their consulting sundry times together about their business namely the night afore and the day of their proclamation do plainly argue that Coppinger albeit he were greatly misled by a false and spightful zeal and by much hyprocrisie yet was he far enough from any distracting of his wits in every part of this action And concerning Hacket whose terrible blasphemies at the last do argue either a villanous dissimulation to have his execution respited or a desperate intemperancy against God for frustrating his expectation there can no fury or madness be justly noted in him by the whole managing of this action but rather notable hypocricy craft and dissembled holiness First in that he seem'd a man most zealous for the pretended Reformation of the Church by erecting the Discipline and afterwards also for reforming of the Common-wealth That he used in outward appearance a most servent and devout manner of praying that in his prayers he did execrate himself most deeply if he sought not the glory of God only in this action thereby the better to be credited and to cover his villanies that he took a day's deliberation to answer the great matter after it was first propounded by Coppinger that he sought to get credit to himself and to terrify her Majesty by telling in generalities of strange judgments of God imminent over her that were revealed unto him that foreseeing it not unlikely to rain after a long time of drought he prayed in Coppinger's presence for rain whereby it might seem to be sent by God at his only prayer and mediation that he bare them in hand he could tell things to come being merely contingent that he could fain such kind of Revelations as if they were shewed to him in the midst of his torments which if they be marked tended only to have himself magnified as a man placed most highly in God's favour that when the one of his followers seemed offended he craftely excused the mislike which he had shewed to hear her Majesty prayed for that the better to colour his hatred and malice he afterwards prayed for her himself that he cunningly induced Coppinger either to fain or to fancy a Revelation that he and Arthington must obey him the said Hacket in all things that he pretended to dispence with Arthington for honouring him as King of Europe until he should do it before others where it might stand him in better sted that he craftily put off his intended anointing by Coppinger as being already done in heaven left some unlooked for accident happely falling forth the whole pageant might have been marr'd that his pretended greatest office of severing in Christ's behalf the good from the bad with his Fan in his hand was concealed from Arthington until the very time that the message was to be done by them when as it was too late to consider of it and unlawful to be disobeied that this office he proclamed unto them after his two solemn prayers for direction of them by
I. other the common people themselves might every where have the free choice of sincere Ministers Another That Mortuaries might wholly be taken 2. away A Third That they might be disburdened of paying any Tithes to Ecclesiastical Persons but only Corn. And a Fourth That 4. they might also prescribe how these Tithes should be better employed Luther in an Answer that Luther calls this Sedition a Stratagem of Satan he made to that Book of theirs saith he conceived that this Sedition was a very Stratagem of Satan to the intent that the Devil might destroy and kill him and other true and sound Preachers of the Gospel by men making outward shew and profession of the same Religion because he saw he could not effect it nor so far prevail by open Adversaries such as the Pope was and his Adherents For these Rebels called themselves a Christian Congregation and bragged They call themselves a Christian Congregation and pretend to follow the precise Rule of God's Word much that they would in all their actions follow the precise Rule of God's Word And whereas under the pretence of detestation of sin and of their own great sincerity and good lives these Traiterous Rebels noted many Faults in all other sorts and states of men and protested also great Loyalty and Fidelity to the Persons of their Princes so they might but have things amiss reformed he freely and truly putteth them Luther winds them of their Pride and Hypocrisy in mind That whiles they pried thus narrowly into other mens faults the Devil had so blinded them through Pride and Hypocrisy that they could not see their own detestable Treasons with other their Sins and Impieties Adding also That such as wrest away or abate Princes Swords and Jurisdictions will upon any fit opportunity offered no doubt take away their Lives also which is chiefly maintained by their Sovereign Jurisdiction and by Power of the Sword Amongst others Carolastadius a Preacher Carolastadius one of their Encouragers professing the Gospel but fallen into discontentments and emulous oppositions against Luther gave no small advancement to this fearful Commotion This man attributed much to Cabinet Teachers in private Conventicles and unto Visions and pretended Conferences with God But of all other Preachers that pretended Enmity both to the Pope and unto Luther one Thomas Muncer Muncer the hottest and chiefest Leader He exhorts them to great strictness of Life was the hottest and chiefest Boutifeu and Bellows of this Sedition At first he urged and exhorted men in his teaching by a good space together and that with great vehemency unto a singular strait precise and holy course of life namely to fly all even the least shew of actual sin to fast much to array themselves with mean and base Rayment to retain a settled Austerity in Countenance to speak seldom and such like which he called the bearing of the Cross Mortification and Discipline Now when as hereby he had procured unto himself a great Opinion of Holiness and Reputation with the common People he proceeded further He broacheth dangeroas Opinions Teacheth men to pray for Signs and expect Visions from God unto strange and very dangerous Opinions For then he began to teach men in their Prayers to ask a Sign of God Whether they held the Truth in Religion or not That if he gave not a Sign they might importune him and expostulate with him that he dealt not well with them in not giving a Sign to them who in this sort begged but true knowledge of him saying that to shew such Anger in Prayer was acceptable unto God for that hereby men did shew their fervency in Zeal He taught also that God even in these days did reveal his Will by Dreams and Visions That all Judgments civil must be by the Bible or Revelation from God That all in dignity must be equal He railed against Princes and imputed Rails at Princes many faults unto them and namely this That they suffered the Ecclesiastical State with great Impiety This Opinion of Equality of Authority and Dignity made the common People fall from their Work and beginning to gad idly up and down they took away by violence such things as they had need of from those that were more wealthy Muncer in this sort winning many They enter into Leagues to root out wicked Magastrates unto him they entred from time to time into secret Leagues together upon mutual Oaths given to help to root out and kill all wicked Magistrates to the intent new that were more godly might be set in their places for so he said God had given in commandment unto him According to which Plots by a Tumult of the People at Mulhusin he procured the old Officer to be deposed and a new Magistrate to be set up in his place and himself to be chosen a Senator of that City albeit he was still a Preacher and seemed to mislike this course in other men Now when as by these and other like means great multitudes of men to the number of Forty thousand had taken up Arms throughout Franconia and Suevia then Forty thousand arm in Franconia and Suevia One Physer joins them he thought opportunity served him to set forward his purposes by adjoyning himself unto them and in this action one Phyfer a near Companion of his and like affected to him did also Joyn. But when the Rebellious Rout wanted Victuals and many other Necessaries whereby their courages began to Fail then he comforted them in his Sermons and assured them as from God that their Cause and Quarrel was so good that the Frame of the whole World should sooner be changed than they should be forsaken or left destitute of him And when the Prince's Army gathered to subdud them being greater and better furnished than theirs were was ready to joyn in battel he still most resolutely assured them of some evident miraculous help to be manifest from Heaven for the overthrow of their Enemies saying that God would so enfeeble all their Enemies Shot that Muncer himself would receive them all without harm into the Lap of his Coat before they should Light For a token hereof it happened that they had taken the Sign of a Rain-Bow for their Ensign He shewed A Rainbow is their Ensign a token of Victory them as it fell out the self same time a true Rain-Bow in Heaven as an undoubted sign that they should obtain the Victory Whereupon they courageously at first set forward singing a Song for aid by the Holy Ghost But being nevertheless all put in Rout and They are routed Muncer flies is taken be justifies the Fact discomfited Muncer fled away and disguised himself Yet by means of certain Letters that were found with him he was afterward in a House discovered and taken Being brought before the Magistrates he stoutly defended his fact affirming that Princes who refused to establish the purity of the Gospel were in that sort
to be bridled When he was brought to the place of Execution and saw no hope of Escape which before he hoped for he grew to be At his Execution is dejected and poplexed very much dejected and perplexed in Mind insomuch as without help of a Godly Prince which then stood by he could not repeat so much as the Articles of his Christian faith I shall not need to dwell long in the application The Story applied to our Disciplinarians and the Parallel alike in all particulars and resemblance of these points unto this late Tragedy the very reading of them over giving sufficient Light unto the same For the sharp and angry Zeal of some unadvised Preachers which pretend neither to like of the Pope nor of the present state of the Church for want of some purity as they fansy Hath it not incensed and made to boil over not only the foul Mouths of Martinists but also the traiterous actions of these Conspirators And albeit the common multitude whom the Disciplinarians brag to be already inflamed with Zeal ready to lend a hundred thousand hands for the advancement of their Cause and by whom they hope and say such Reformation must at last be brought in did better keep themselves out of this Action than was expected Yet the danger thereof was as great and if it had once taken head would happily as hardly as the other have been subdued Were not the Treaties of these men also in private Houses at Night-Fasts and the Consultations concerning it at Classical Conventicles and like Assemblies Did not these likewise shoot at the Overthrow of the whole State Ecclesiastical and at the displacing of her Majesty's most Honourable Council and that under pretence of Reformation and to advance the preaching of the Gospel in every Congregation throughout this Land Made not these the like Complaints of wicked Counsellors Noblemen and Magistrates for keeping out the Discipline for persecuting sincere Preachers and afflicting God's People like Lyons and Dragons And do they not pretend this to be a special Grievance of theirs That the common people of every Congregation may not elect their own Ministers That the People are brought under the Yoak of the Law Ceremonial by paying Tythes c. and is not the hand and head of Satan as plainly in this Action to seek the overthrow of sound Professors by others of the same Profession under pretence of greater Sincerity Do not these likewise almost appropriate to themselves and their Favourites the Terms of God's Church of Christian Brethren and of true and reformed Preachers Is any Speech more rise in their mouths than that they will only be tried and judged by God's Book and by his Spirit Do they not tax all other men not so far gone as themselves of loose Lives of Antichristianism of Hypocrisy and Idolatry in the mean time never looking at their own Treasons Disloyalties and other Vices Make they not great Ostentation of Love and Fidelity to her Majesty's Person and of Care of her Safety even when they secretly nourished a fancy of Forfeiture of her Crown and sought to over-rule her by Hacket their imagined Sovereign King of Europe Had they not their Cabinet Preachers their Table-end Teachers their Guides of Fasts c. that teach pray for and attend extraordinary Callings by Visions Dreams Revelations and Enlightnings Was not Giles Wigginton and some others unto them as Thomas Muncer and Phifer were to the Germans men of supposed great Austerity of Life Holiness Favour with God Resoluteness in his Cause Singleness and Uprightness of heart Did not Wigginton resolve them by Examples he gathered touching Extraordinary Callings in these days by reason of the great Waste of this Church of England Had not he and they likewise learned of the same Devil in the Prayers at Fasts to ask Signs and Seals of God for their extraordinary Callings Doth not Arthington say that he importuned God in his Prayers And Coppinger That he had leave given to talk more familiarly with God than afore Did not Hacket in praying for the pretended possessed Gentlewoman sawcily expostulate with God and charge him with his Promise as if he dealt not well with him Did he not at his Arraignment and Execution shew such Anger in his Prayers against God thinking belike as those did to be excused by his Fervency of Zeal Did not both he and Coppinger pretend Conference with God by sundry Revelations and Dreams Do not they and the rest of the Disciplinarian Humour Fenneritheol exact and seek to square out even in Hypothesi all Civil Policies and Judgments in Causes Criminal especially unto the Judicials of Moses given for the People of the Jews Is there any thing they stand more upon or condemn the contrary deeper than to have an Equality among all Persons Ecclesiastical Do they not inveigh sharply against Prince and Nobles for upholding the State Ecclesiastical and in this respect intended to have them brought to Repentance when their Opinions grew to a Ripeness Was not this their principal pretended purpose to plant the Gospel and their Reformation by rooting out wicked Magistrates and Counsellors as they judged and by setting others in their places Did Hacket's fancied Fan instead of Christ to sever the good from the bad import any thing else or should it have served any other turn than for the killing up of all that thought not well of their Discipline and Reformation Did they not pretend the Will of the Lord so to be And was it not plainly meant this to be effected by tumult of the common people Did not these likewise bear one another in hand that all things should succeed and prosper with them that no violence could harm them nor any man had power to hurt them as having Angelical Spirits and being in most high favour with God And Hacket accordingly even in going to execution did he not call for and expect a miraculous deliverance from heaven out of the hands of those whom he called his enemies Did he not likewise for a certain sign of his favour with God make Coppinger believe that he could and did obtain rain and could stay it at his pleasure Was not the chiefest of their plots and conspiracies detected by their letters found with them Did not they likewise when they were convented before the Magistrate stoutly and resolutely defend their dealings and maintain that the Princess had for seited her right and was now to be bridled and over-ruled by others and lastly Was not that impious Wrech Hacket as irresolute dejected and base-minded towards his death as Muncer or any man either could be or as so bad a cause might procure Not long after those former Rebellions in Another like Commotion of the Anabaptist's in Munster Germany another strange and memorable Commotion happened in Munster the principal City of Westphalia a Province also of Germany which is not unmeet to be in some points also touched in this place for the
for the rest unto the perusal of Doctor Cosin his Book intituled Conspiracy for Pretended Reformation Conspiracy for pretended Reformation wrote by Dr. Cosin Where he shall find their Purposes Plots and Designments with many other markable things at large discoursed and taken truly out of their Conference and Writings under their own hands with their Confessions and Examinations subscribed by themselves before sundry honourable and worshipful Personages of great gravity and wisdom employed in those Affairs By all which together with their temperate direct and pertinent Speech and congruity of Phrase and Matter both before and after their Apprehension it will clearly appear that the said Conspirators were not Mad-men unless it be a kind of Madness to be a violent * Promoters Prosecutor of This Reformation as indeed it is howsoever some of that Fraternity and Sect have so given it out chusing thereby rather to accuse the honourable Justice of the Realm and all the Ministers thereof than that any professing desire of pretended Reformation should be noted with deep Disloyalty as they were charged withal 66. When the Queen and State saw the incredible height of these audacious Attempts so dangerous to the Commonwealth thus knotted and countenanced under pretence of reforming the Church they found it necessary to stop the Fountains of these Proceedings lest it might grow to the like outrage Amongst whom there were very forward to the like presumption Henry Barrow Gentleman and John Greenwood Clerk who were convented before the High Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical in November 1587. for 1587. Barrow and Greenwood their Schismatical and Seditious Positions their Schismatical and Seditious Opinions viz. That our Church is no Church or at the least no true Church yielding these Reasons therefore First That the Worship of the English Church is flat Idolatry Secondly That we admit into our Church Persons unsanctified Thirdly That our Preachers have no lawful Calling Fourthly That our Government is ungodly Fifthly That no Bishop or Preacher preacheth Christ sincerely and truly Sixthly That the People of every Parish ought to chuse their Bishop and that every Elder though he be no Doctor nor Pastor is a Bishop Seventhly That all the Precise which refuse the Ceremonies of the Church and yet preach in the same Church strain at a Gnat and swallow a Cammel and are close Hypocrites and walk in a left-handed Policy as Master Cartwright Wiggington c. Also in Norwich Master Moare Pawmone and Burges that all which make Catechisms or teach and expound printed and written Catechisms are Idol Shepherds as Calvin Ursin Nowell c. That the Child of ungodly Parents ought not to be baptized as of Usurers Drunkards c. nor any Bastards That Set-Prayer is blasphemous 67. The fore said Brochers of these The Ring-leaders on being convened make shew of Conformity but afterwards go back Opinions at this their first Convention made shew of their conformity upon conference with some Divines and in hope thereof were enlarged upon bonds but all in vain For after their liberty they burst forth into further Extremities and were again committed to the Were re-committed July 1588. and proceeded against March 1592. Fleet July 20. 1588. where they pub lished their Scandalous and Seditious Writings for which they were proceeded withal at Justice-Hall near Newgate in London March 21. 1592. 68. For suppressing this kind of People which as you see were grown unto a great height of violence and outrage the State held it fit at the next Parliament An Act of Abjuration and Banishment made against Schismaticks following to make a Law of Abjuration or Banishment of such as should either persuade others or be present themselves at these their Conventicles or Meetings which Law is entituled An Act to restrain the Queen's Majesty's Subjects in their due obedience 69 LET the Reader now consider with what Contagion and Leprosy many poor Souls had like to have been infected through the divulging of their wicked Libels and dangerous Positions tending to Innovation and Rebellion had not the stroke of Justice and providence of the State wisely prevented the same selecting as out of an hundred thousand seditious Mutineers for so many they confessed were ready for that purpose only four Only four Persons prosecuted of a very great Number Persons as the chief Ring-leaders whose lot it was to be proceeded withal for the quenching of the fiery outrage of the rest kindled already to the like Attempts as those in Germany of the Great Troubles in Germany just cause of sears here from like Principles and Pretences of Reformation Cabinet-teachers and Reformers both at Mulhusin and Munster in Westphalia Which Seditions could not be appeased till Fifty thousand of them were killed and cut in pieces by the united Forces of most of the Princes of the Empire And though some not of the greatest foresight may think that the fear which our Archbishop conceived of Dangers to ensue out of these Sectaries Attempts was far greater than there was just cause yet the Examples of those foreign Pretenders of like Reformation as is aforesaid compared with these our Reformers Designs taught him not to be without fear or care for preventing these dangerous Events at home For all their Intendments sorted to one end viz. Reformation and to be brought to pass by one and the self-same means viz. by commotion of the unbridled multitude 70. For was it not in their Assemblies The Discipline decreed in their Assemblies to be put in Practice Classical and Synodical concluded That the Discipline should within a time limited be put in practice and erected all in one day by the Ministers together with the People whom these Disciplinarians bragged to be already enflamed with Zeal to lend so many thousand hands for the advancement of their Cause by whom they hoped and said such Reformation must be brought in And how I pray you did they incense the common People not only in their private Conventicles decreeing that the Queen's Authority The Queen's Authority Ecclesiastical to be restrain'd ought to be restrained in Causes Ecclesiastical but in their publick Sermons and Exhortations alienating the hearts of their Auditors from all obedience of the Ecclesiastical Magistrates As namely Master Cartwright who saith That no obedience Cartwright ' s seditious Doctrines ought to be given unto them either in doing that which they command or abstaining from that which they prohibit And that it should not be lawful for any one of the Brother-hood to take an Oath whereby he may discover any thing prejudicial to himself or his Brother especially if he be persuaded the matter to be lawful for which the punishment is like to be inflicted or having taken it he need not discover the very truth And in his Prayer before his Sermons he used thus to say Because they Cartwright ' s charitable Prayer for the Bishops in his Sermons at Banbury 1589. Penry '
s Supplication to the Parliament threatning them with Plagues meaning the Bishops which ought to be Pillars in the Church do band themselves against Christ and his Truth therefore O Lord give us grace and power all as one man to set our selves against them Which words by way of Emphasis he would often repeat And how I pray you doth Penry in his Supplication to the Parliament incite both the Lords and Commons threatning them with Plagues and Bloodshed if they gathered not Courage rage and Zeal And withal scoffing at their unwillingness hitherto for disturbing of the State forsooth to set upon the Hierarchy of the Bishops telling them if they refused so to do they should declare unto their Children That God had raised up but a company of White-livered Soldiers to teach them the Gospel in the sincerity under Queen Elizabeth And doth not Udall threaten that the Presbytery Udall ' s Threats against the Resisters of the Presbytery shall prevail and come in by that way and means as shall make all their hearts to ake that shall withstand or hinder the same 71. And when I pray you were These Stirs set on foot at the time of the Spanish Invasion 1588. these Classical Assemblies and these Seditious Stirs and Hurli-burlies of Martimists and that Reforming Sect put in practice In the Year 1588. at that time when the Invincible Spanish Navy as some vainly termed it was upon our Coasts and should have invaded us albeit it was by the gracious Providence of our Omnipotent God prevented and their Ships so dispersed as that no Enemy was able to put foot on English Shore but as a Prisoner or Captive At which time as the Care of her Majesty for the preparation of Forces to encounter and resist them was very great so might her Grief also be to behold a discord and dissention of her own Subjects within her Realm The Archbishop also himself had not the The Archbishop's preparation for Defence of his Prince and Country The whole Clergy of his Provinçe Armed meanest part to perform in so great and weighty an Action when the whole Forces of the Clergy not only within his particular Diocess but through his whole Province were committed unto his care and charge to have in readiness besides his own Family and Tenants which were by him gathered together and all prepared mustered and trained for defence of Prince and Country 72. Now of the aforesaid Stirs and Seditious Attempts of sundry Persons in this our Archbishop's time that Master Cartwright was the Fountain and Cartwright the Head of the Puritan Party principal Author it may appear by sundry Passages and also by the Opinion and Dependencies which all the Fore named had upon him especially in their Proceedings as their Conferences and Conventicles do sufficiently declare which are extant in the Records of the Star-chamber whence I have taken my chiefest Instructions in this behalf The recourse of Hacket Coppinger and Arthington unto him and Hacket Coppinger and Arthington resort to him his Fraternity and the vain Conceits of extraordinary Callings which they were put into both by Speech and Letters and the Opinion which they all three conceived of Master Cartwright by name both before and after their Apprehension Penry and Udall his Consorts may appear sufficiently both by the Records and * Conspiracy for pretended Reformation Books published whereof mention is already made That Penry Vdall and the rest of the Libellers Dangerous Positions were of his Consort by his sight of divers of the Books and knowledge both of the Authors and Publishers and his not revealing them to the State he could not deny being examined thereupon And that he approved their hateful Libels it appeared by his own words when being asked his Opinion of such Books he said Seeing the Bishops Cartwright's words in the Articles in the Star-Chamber and others there touched would not amend by grave Books and Advertisements it was therefore meet they should be dealt withal to their further reproach Which was not unsuitable to one of his own Decrees in a Synod where it was determined That no Books should be put in The Disciplinarians Decree about Books to be printed print but by consent of the Classes that some of those Books must be earnest some more mild and temperate whereby they may be both of the Spirit of Elias and Elizeus 73. That Barrow and Greenwood were Barrow and Greenwood infected by Cartwright so infected with his Grounds and Opinions which brought them unto their fatal Ends shall manifestly appear unto you upon Barrow's own Confession For when Doctor Ravis then Chaplain to the Archbishop and late Lord Bishop of London at the earnest desire of Barrow himself and direction of the Archbishop dealt with Master Cartwright to confer with Barrow they being then both Prisoners in the Fleet Master Cartwright having been once before with him at the entreaty of Master Sperin a Minister would by no means be drawn to further Conference with him again Which his refusal when it was by Doctor Ravis signified to Barrow in Bishop Ravis's Conference with Barrow and Greenwood 1592. the presence of divers of good Reputation and Account he fetched a great sigh saying And will he not Hath he only brought me into this brake and will he now leave me For from him received I my grounds and out of his Premises did I infer and make the conclusion of the Positions which I now hold and for which I suffer bands 74. Again when Sentence of death Bishop Androws and Bishop Parrey with others their Conference with Barrow and Greenwood was given against the said Barrow Doctor Androws now Lord Bishop of Ely Doctor Bisse and Doctor White were sent unto him to counsel him for his Soul's health There also accompanied them Doctor Parry now Lord Bishop of Worcester After many passages of Speech with Doctor White unto whom he then seemed especially to address himself he brake forth into these words You are not the men whom I most dislike in these Differences For although you be out of the way yet you think you are in the right But I cannot but complain of Master Cartwright and others of his knowledge from whom we have received the truth of these things and have been taught that your Callings are Antichristian who yet utterly against their Consciences forsake us in our Sufferings and will not come out of Babylon for fear of their lives It being farther replied by Doctor White that those Callings which Barrow reproached as Antichristian were the very same which Archbishop Cranmer and Ridley and many other holy Bishops c. that suffered Martyrdom in Queen Mary's time did embrace Barrow replied in this vain-glorious manner True it is that Cranmer and others Barrow's Vain-glorious Answer were Martyrs in Queen Mary's days but these holy Bands of mine and therewithal shook the Fetters which he did wear are