Selected quad for the lemma: state_n
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A65415
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Memoirs of the most material transactions in England for the last hundred years, preceding the revolution of 1688 by James Welwood ...
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Welwood, James, 1652-1727.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing W1306; ESTC R731
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168,345
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436
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his Majesty that he forthwith prepared again for War And such was their Confidence that having corrupted and distempered the whole Frame and Government of the Kingdom they did now hope to corrupt that which was the only means to restore all to a right frame and temper again to which end they persuaded his Majesty to call a Parliament not to seek Counsel and Advice of them but to draw Countenance and Supply from them and engage the whole Kingdom in their Quarrel and in the mean time continued all their unjust Levies of Money resolving either to make the Parliament pliant to their Will and to establish mischief by a Law or else to break it And with more colour to go on by Violence to take what they could not obtain by Consent the Ground alledged for the Justification of this War was this That the undutiful Demands of the Parliament of Scotland was a sufficient Reason for his Majesty to take Arms against them without hearing the Reason of those Demands And thereupon a new Army was prepared against them their Ships were seized in all Ports both of England and Ireland and at Sea their Petitions rejected their Commissioners refused Audience This whole Kingdom most miserably distemper'd with Levies of Men and Money and Imprisonments of those who denied to submit to those Levies The Earl of Strafford pass'd into Ireland caused the Parliament there to declare against the Scots to give four Subsidies towards that War and to engage themselves their Lives and Fortunes for the prosecution of it and gave directions for an Army of Eight thousand Foot and One thousand Horse to be levied there which were for the most part Papists The Parliament met upon the 13 th of April 1640. The Earl of Strafford and Archbishop of Canterbury with their Party so prevailed with his Majesty that the House of Commons was prest to yield to a Supply for maintenance of the War with Scotland before they had provided any Relief for the great and pressing Grievances of the People which being against the Fundamental Privilege and proceeding of Parliament was yet in humble Respect to his Majesty so far admitted as that they agreed to take the matter of Supply into Consideration and two several days it was debated Twelve Subsidies were demanded for the Release of Ship-money alone a third day was appointed for conclusion when the Heads of that Party begun to fear the People might close with the King in satisfying his desire of Money but that withal they were like to blast their malicious designs against Scotland finding them very much indisposed to give any countenance to that War Thereupon they wickedly advised the King to break off the Parliament and to return to the ways of Confusion in which their own evil Intentions were most like to prosper and succeed After the Parliament ended the fifth of May 1640 this Party grew so bold as to counsel the King to supply himself out of his Subjects Estates by his own Power at his own Will without their Consent The very next day some Members of both Houses had their Studies and Cabinets yea their Pockets searched Another of them not long after was committed close Prisoner for not delivering some Petitions which he received by Authority of that House And if harsher courses were intended as was reported it is very probable that the sickness of the Earl of Strafford and the Tumultuous Rising in Southwark and about Lambeth were the Causes that such violent Intentions were not brought to execution A false and scandalous Declaration against the House of Commons was published in his Majesty's Name which yet wrought little effect with the People but only to manifest the Impudence of those who were Authors of it A forced Loan of Money was attempted in the City of London The Lord Mayor and Aldermen in their several Wards enjoined to bring in a List of the Names of such Persons as they judged fit to lend and of the Sum they should lend And such Aldermen as refused so to do were committed to Prison The Archbishop and the other Bishops and Clergy continued the Convocation and by a new Commission turned it to a Provincial Synod in which by an unheard-of presumption they made Canons that contain in them many matters contrary to the King's Prerogative to the Fundamental Laws and Statutes of the Realm to the Right of Parliaments to the Property and Liberty of the Subject and matters tending to Sedition and of dangerous consequence thereby establishing their own Usurpations justifying their Altar-Worship and those other Superstitious Innovations which they formerly introduced without warrant of Law They imposed a new Oath upon divers of his Majesty's Subjects both Ecclesiastical and Lay for maintenance of their own Tyranny and laid a great Tax upon the Clergy for Supply of his Majesty and generally they shewed themselves very affectionate to the War with Scotland which was by some of them stiled Bellum Episcopale and a Prayer composed and enjoined to be read in all Churches calling the Scots Rebels to put the two Nations into Blood and make them irreconcileable All those pretended Canons and Constitutions were armed with the several Censures of Suspension Excommunication Deprivation by which they would have thrust out all the good Ministers and most of the well-affected People of the Kingdom and left an easy Passage to their own Design of Reconciliation with Rome The Popish Party enjoined such Exemptions from the Penal Laws as amounted to a Toleration besides many other Encouragements and Court-Favours They had a Secretary of State Sir Francis Windebank a powerful Agent for the speeding of all their desires a Pope's Nuncio residing here to act and govern them according to such influences as he received from Rome and to intercede for them with the most powerful concurrence of the Foreign Princes of that Religion By his Authority the Papists of all sorts Nobility Gentry and Clergy were convocated after the manner of a Parliament new Jurisdictions were erected of Romish Archbishops Taxes levied another State moulded within this State independent in Government contrary in Interest and Affection secretly corrupting the ignorant or negligent Professors of our Religion and closely uniting and combining themselves against such as were sound in this posture waiting for an opportunity by force to destroy those whom they could not hope to seduce For the effecting whereof they were strengthen'd with Arms and Munition encouraged by superstitious Prayers enjoined by the Nuncio to be Weekly made for the prosperity of some great design And such power had they at Court that secretly a Commission was issued out intended to be issued to some Great Men of that Profession for the levying of Soldiers and to command and employ them according to private Instructions which we doubt were framed for the advantage of those who were the Contrivers of them His Majesty's Treasure was consumed his Revenue anticipated his Servants and Officers compelled to lend great Sums of Money