my old friend was sworn Secretary of State which Place I obtained for him of my gracious Master King Charles About the same time also Sir Francis Cottington who succeeded the Lord Treasurer Weston in the place of Chancellor was made Successor unto Nanton in the Mastership of the Wards and Liveries No sooner was he in this place but some difference began to grow betwixt him and Coventry Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England about the disposing of such Benefices as belonged to the King in the Minority of his Wards Coventry pleaded a joynt interest in it according to the Priviledge and usage of his Predecessors it standing formerly for a rule that he of the two which first heard of the vacancy and presented his Clerk unto the Bishop should have his turn served before the other But Cottington was resolved to have no Competitor and would have either all or none During which Competition betwixt the parties Laud ends the difference by taking all unto himself Many Divines had served as Chaplains in his Majesties Ships and ventured their persons in the Action at the Isle of Rhe during his Majesties late engagements with France and Spain some reward must be given them for their Service past the better to encourage others on the like occasions for the time to come It is cold venturing in such hot Services without some hope of Reward And thereupon he takes occasion to inform his Majesty that till this Controversie were decided he might do well to take those Livings into his own disposing for the reward of such Divines as had done him service in his Wars or should go forth hereafter on the like imployments Which Proposition being approved his Majesty committed the said Benefices unto his disposal knowing full well how faithfully he would discharge the trust reposed in him for the advancement of his Majesties Service the satisfaction of the Suitors and the Churches peace Neither did Cottington seem displeased at this designation As being more willing that a third man should carry away the prize from both than to be overtopt by Coventry in his own Jurisdiction By the accession of this power as he encreased the number of his dependents so he gained the opportunity by it to supply the Church with regular and conformable men for whom he was to be responsal both to God and the King Which served him for a Counter-Ballance against the multitude of Lecturers established in so many places especially by the Feoffees for impropriations who came not to their doom till February 13. of this present year as before was said But greater were the Alterations amongst the Bishops in the Church than amongst the Officers of Court and greater his Authority in preferring the one than in disposing of the other Buckeridge his old Tutor dying in the See of Elie makes room for White then Bishop of Norwich and Lord Almoner to succeed in his place A man who having spent the greatest part of his life on his private Cures grew suddenly into esteem by his zealous preachings against the Papists his Conferences with the Jesuite Fisher and his Book wrote against him by command of King Iames. Appointed by that King to have a special eye on the Countess of Denbigh whom the Priests much laboured to pervert he was encouraged thereunto with the Deanry of Carlisle advanced on that very account to the Bishoprick thereof by the Duke her brother The Duke being dead his favour in the Court continued remove to Norwich first and to Ely afterwards Corbet of Oxon. one of Lauds fellow-sufferers in the University succeeds him in the See of Norwich and Bancroft Master of Vniversity Colledge is made Bishop of Oxon. Kinsman he was to ever renowned Archbishop Bancroft by whom preferred unto that Headship and looked upon for his sake chiefly though otherwise of a good secular living in this Succession The Bishoprick of small Revenue and without a House but Laud will find a remedy for both in convenient time The Impropriate Parsonage of Cudesdens five miles from Oxon. belonged to the Bishop in the right of his See and he had the Donation of the Vicaridge in the same right also The Impropriation was in Lease but he is desired to run it out without more renewing that in the end it might be made an improvement to that slender Bishoprick The Vicaridge in the mean time falling he procured himself to be legally instituted and inducted and by the power and favour of our Bishop of London obtains an annexation of it to the See Episcopal the design of bringing in the impropriation going forwards still and builds that beautiful house upon it which before we mentioned The See of Bristow was grown poorer than that of Oxon. both having been dilapidated in Queen Elizabeths time though by divers hands To improve the Patrimony thereof his Majesty had taken order that Wright then Bishop of that Church should suspend the renewing of a Lease of a very good Farm not very far distant from that City well Housed and of a competent Revenue to serve as a Demesn to the following Bishops for which he was to be considered in some other Preferment Houson of Durham being dead Morton removes from Lichfield thither A man who for the greatest part of his time had exercised his Pen against the Papists but gave withall no small contentment to King Iames by his learned Book in defence of the three harmless Ceremonies against the Puritans Wright follows him at Lichfield and Cooke brother to Secretary Cooke follows Wright at Bristoll tyed to the same conditions and with like encouragement The Secretary had formerly done our Bishop some bad Offices But great Courtiers must sometimes pay good turnes for injuries break and be pieced again as occasions vary The like care also taken by him for mending the two Bishopricks of Asaph and Chester as appears by his Breviate Nor were these all the Alterations which were made this year Archbishop Harsnet having left his life the year before care must be taken for a sit man to succeed at York a man of an unsuspected trust and one that must be able to direct himself in all emergencies Neiles known sufficiencies had pointed him unto the place but he was warm at Winton and perhaps might not be perswaded to move toward the North from whence he came not long before with so great contentment Yet such was the good mans desires to serve his Majesty and the Church in what place soever though to his personal trouble and particular loss that he accepted of the offer and was accordingly translated in the beginning of this year or the end of the former Two Offices fell void by this remove one in the Court which was the Clerkship of the Closet and another in the Church of Winton which was that of the Bishop To the Clerkship of the Closet he preferred Dr. William Iuxon whom before he had made President of St. Iohns Colledge and recommended to his Majesty for
pertaining to true Religion c. Neither is it to be thought that there is any certain times or definite number of dayes prescribed in Holy Scripture but the appointment both of the time and also of the number of dayes is left by the Authority of Gods Word unto the Liberty of Christs Church to be determined and assigned orderly in every Countrey by the discretion of the Rulers and Ministers thereof as they shall judge most expedient to the setting forth of Gods Glory and the edification of their people Now for the number and particularities of those dayes which were required to be kept holy to the Lord they are thus specified and enumerated in the Common-Prayer-Book confirmed by Parliament in that year These to be kept Holy Dayes and no other that is to say all Sundayes in the Year the Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord and Saviour the Feast of the Epiphany c. Which specification and enumeration is made also in the aforesaid Statute 17. As for the observation of those dayes there was no difference made between them by the first Reformers the same Divine Offices prescribed for both the diligent attendance of the people required in both the penalties upon such as wilfully and frequently did absent themselves were the same for both and finally the works of necessary labour no more restrained upon the one then upon the other For first it is declared in the foresaid Homily that Christian People are not tyed so streightly to observe and keep the other Ceremonies of the Sabbath day as were the Iews as touching the forbearing of the work and labour in time of great necessity c. Secondly and more particularly in the Statute before-mentioned we finde it thus viz. That it shall be lawful for every Husband-man Fisher-man and to all and every other person or persons of what Estate Degree or Condition he or they be upon the Holy Dayes aforesaid of which the Lords Day is there reckoned for one in Harvest or at any other times in the Year when necessity shall so require to Labour Ride Fish or Work any kinde of Work at their own will and pleasure Thirdly It is ordered in the Injunctions of the said King Edw. vi that it shall be lawful for the people in time of Harvest to labour upon Holy and Festival Dayes and save that thing which God hath sent and that scrupulosity to abstain from working on those dayes doth grievously offend God Fourthly We finde the like in the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth published with the advice of her Council Anno 1559. Being the first year of her Reign viz. That all persons Vicars Curates shall teach and declare unto their Parishioners that they may with a safe and quiet conscience after Common-Prayer in the time of Harvest labour upon the Holy and Festival Dayes and save that thing which God hath sent And if for any scrupulosity or grudge of Conscience men shall superstitiously abstain from working on those dayes that then they should grievously offend and displease God And as for the practice of the Court it was ordered by the said King Edward That the Lords of the Council should upon Sunday attend the publick affairs of the Realm and dispatch answers to Letters for the good order of the State and make full dispatches of all things concluded in the Week before Provided that they be present at Common-Prayers and that on every Sunday night the Kings Secretary should deliver him a memorial of such things as were to be debated in the Privy Council the week ensuing Which course of meeting in the Council on Sunday in the afternoon hath been continued in the Court from the time of the said King Edward the vi to the death of King Charles without dislike or interruption If then the Country people in some times and cases were permitted to employ themselves in bodily labour on the Sundayes and other Holy Dayes and if the Lords of the Council did meet together on those dayes to consult about affairs of State as we see they did there is no question to be made but that all man-like exercises all lawful Recreations and honest Pastimes were allowed of also 18. As for the duties of the people in those times and places it was expected at their hands that due and lowly reverence should be made at their first entrance into the Church the place on which they stood being by Consecration made Holy Ground and the business which they came about being holy business For this there was no Rule nor Rubrick made by the first Reformers and it was not necessary that there should the practice of Gods people in that kinde being so universal Vi Catholicae consuetudinis by vertue of a general and continual usage that there was no need of any Canon to enjoyn them to it Nothing more frequent in the Writings of the ancient Fathers then Adoration toward the East which drew the Primitive Christians into some suspicion of being Worshippers of the Sun Inde suspicio quod innotuerit nos versus orientis regionem praecari as Tertullian hath it And though this pious custom began to be disused and was almost discontinued yet there remains some footsteps of it to this very day For first It was observed by the Knights of the most noble Order of the Garter who I am sure hate nothing more then Superstitious Vanities at their approaches toward the Altar in all the Solemnities of that Order Secondly In the Offerings or Oblations made by the Vice-Chancellor the Proctors and all Proceeders in the Arts and Faculties at the Act at Oxon. And thirdly By most Countrey Women who in the time of my first remembrance and a long time after made their obeysance toward the East before they betook themselves to their Seats though it was then taken or mistaken rather for a Courtesie made unto the Minister revived more generally in these latter times especially amongst the Clergy by the Learned and Reverend Bishop Andrews a man as much verst in Primitive Antiquity and as abhorrent from any thing which was meerly Popish as the greatest Precisian in the Pack Which point I finde exceedingly well applyed and prest in the Speech made by this Arch-Bishop at the Censure of Dr. Bastwick Mr. Burton on Iune 26. 1637. Who speaking to such of the Lords as were Knights of the Garter he accosts them thus And you saith he my Honourable Lords of the Garter in your great solemnities you do reverence and to Almighty God I doubt not but yet it is versus Altare toward the Altar c. And this your reverence you do when you enter the Chappel and when you approach nearer to offer c. And Idolatry it is not to worship God toward his Holy Table for if it had been Idolatry I presume Queen Elizabeth and King Iames would not have practised it no not in this great Solemnity And being not Idolatry but true Divine Worship you will I hope give a poor Priest
That there was no design in the King or Prince or in any of the Court or Court-Bishops of what name soever to alter the Religion here by Law established or that the Prince was posted into Spain of purpose that he might be perverted or debauched from it But the best is that he which gave the Wound hath made the Plaister and such a Plaister as may assuredly heal the Sore without troubling any other Chyrurgeon It is affirmed by him who published the Breviate of our Bishops Life That he was not only privy to this Journey of the Prince and Buckingham into Spain but that the Journey was purposely plotted to pervert him in his Religion and reconcile him to Rome And this he makes apparent by the following Prayer found amongst others in the Bishops Manual of Devotions than which there can be nothing more repugnant to the Propositions â—or proof of which it is so luckily produced Now the said Prayer 〈◊〉 thus verbatim viz. O Most merciful God and gracious Father the Prince hath put himself to a great Adventure I humbly beseech thee make clear the way before him give thine Angels charge over him be with him thy self in Mercy Power and Protection in every step of his Iourney in every moment of his Time in every Consultation and Address for Action till thou bring him back with Safety Honour and Contentment to do thee service in this place Bless his most truly and faithful Servant the Lord Duke of Buckingham that he may be diligent in Service provident in Business wise and happy in Counsel for the honour of thy Name the good of the Church the preservation of the Prince the contentment of the King the satisfaction of the State Preserve him I humbly beseech thee from all Envy that attends him and bless him that his eyes may see the Prince safely delivered to the King and State and after it to live long in happiness to do thee and them service through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen And with this Prayer so plainly destructive of the purpose for which it was published I shut up the Transactions of this present year We will begin the next with the dismission of the Archbishop of Spalato a man defamed by the Italians at his coming hither and as much reproached by the English at his going hence His name was Marcus Antonius de Dominis Archbishop of Spalato in Fact and Primate of Dalmatia in Title Such anciently and of right those Archbishops were till the Bishop of Venice being made a Patriarch by Pope Eugenius the Fourth Anno 1450. assumed that Title to himself together with a Superintendency over all the Churches of that Country as subordinate to him He had been long conversant with the Fathers and Ancient Councils By this Light he discerned the Darkness of the Church of Rome and the blind Title which the Popes had for their Supremacy Inclining to the Protestant Religion he began to fear that his own Country would prove too hot for him at the last and therefore after he had sate in the See of Spalato about fourteen years he quitted his Preferments there and betook himself for Sanctuary to the Church of England Anno 1616. Extremely honoured at his first coming by all sorts of people entertained in both Universities with solemn Speeches presented complemented feasted by the great Lords about the Court the Bishops and some principal Persons about the City Happy was he that could be honoured with his Company and satisfied with beholding his comely presence though they understood not his Discourses Commended by King Iames at first for a constant Sojourner and Guest to Archbishop Abbot in whose Chappel at Lambeth he assisted at the Consecration of some English Bishops Made afterwards by the King the Master of the Savoy and Dean of Windsor and by himself made Rector of West-Illesby in the County of Berks A Revenue not so great as to bring him under the suspicion of coming hither out of Covetousness for the sake of filthy Lucre nor so contemptible but that he might have lived plentifully and contentedly on it During his stay here he published his learned and elaborate Book entituled De Republica Ecclesiastica never yet answered by the Papists and perhaps unanswerable He had given great trouble to the Pope by his defection from that Church and no small countenance to the Doctrine of the Protestant Churches by his coming over unto ours The foundring of so great a Pillar seemed to prognosticate that the Fabrick of that Church was not like to stand And yet he gave greater blows to them by his Pen than by the defection of his person the wound so given being conceived to be incurable In these respects those of that Church bestirred themselves to disgrace his person devising many other causes by which he might be moved or forced to forsake those parts wherein he durst no longer tarry but finding little credit given to their libellous Pamphlets they began to work upon him by more secret practises insinuating That he had neither that Respect nor those Advancements which might encourage him to stay That the new Pope Gregory the Fifteenth was his special Friend That he might chuse his own Preferments and make his own Conditions if he would return And on the other side they cunningly wrought him out of credit with King Iames by the Arts of Gundamore Embassadour at that time from the King of Spain and lessened his esteem amongst the Clergy by some other Artifices So that the poor man being in a manner lost on both sides was forced to a necessity of swallowing that accursed bait by which he was hooked over to his own destruction For having sollicited King Iames by several Letters the last of them bearing date on the third of February to licence his departure home he was by the King disdainfully turned over to the High-Commission or rather to a special Commission directed to Archbishop Abbot the Lord Keeper Lincoln the Bishops of London Durham and Winchester with certain of the Lords of the Privy Council These Lords assembling at Lambeth on the 30th of March and having first heard all his Excuses and Defences commanded him to depart the Realm within twenty days or otherwise to expect such punishment as by the Laws of the Land might be laid upon him for holding Intelligence by Letters Messages c. with the Popes of Rome To this Sentence he sorrowfully submitted protesting openly That he would never speak reproachfully of the Church of England the Articles whereof he acknowledged to be sound and profitable and none of them to be Heretical as appears by a Book entituled SPALATO's Shiftings in Religion published as it was conceived by Laud's especial Friend the Lord Bishop of Durham How well or rather how ill he performed this promise and what became of him after his return to Rome is not now my business The man is banished out of England and my History leads me next into Spain not Italy The
Church of England had a great stock at that time to be driven in Spain and many of the Romish Factors were desirous to be trading in it No sooner was the Princes Train of Lords and Gentlemen come to the City of Madrid but the King of Spain assigned a day for his Reception A Reception so Magnificent so full of State and Royal Pomp that it redounded infinitely to the honour of the Spanish Court and the satisfaction of the Prince Never was King of Spain on the day of his inauguration received into that City with a more general concourse of all sorts of people and greater signs of Joy and Gallantry then the Prince was conducted through it to the Palace Royal. In which his Quarters being assigned him there wanted no allurements on their parts to win him to a fair esteem of their Religion and to put some high value also on their Court and Nation Nor was the Prince wanting for his part in all fit compliances by which he might both gain on them and preserve himself for by his Courtly Garb he won so much on the affections of the Lady Infanta and by his Grace and circumspect behaviour got so much ground upon that King and his Council that the Match went forward in good earnest A dispensation for the Marriage was procured from Gregory the fifteenth then sitting in the See of Rome The Articles of the Marriage with all the circumstances thereof were agreed upon and solemnly sworn to by both Kings Nothing remained to bring the whole business to a joyfull issue but the Consummation But before that could be obtained the Prince must try his fortunes in an harder Conflict than any he had learnt in the Schools of Love The change of his Religion was much hoped for by the Court of Spain at his first coming thither To perfect which he was plied from time to time with many perswasive Arguments by many persons of great Honour about that King And many of the most learned Priests and Jesuites made their Addresses to him with such Rhetorical Orations with such insinuating Artifices and subtle Practises as if they had a purpose rather to conquer him by kindness than by disputation Nor stop they there but dedicated many Books unto him to gain him fairly to their Party invited him to behold their solemn Processions to captivate his outward senses and carried him to the most Religious places famous for their magnificent Fabricks and pretended Miracles In which conjuncture of designs it is not to be thought but that the Pope bestirred himself in gaining to his Church a Prince of such parts and greatness For first he writes unto the Bishop of Conchen Inquisitor general of Spain not to be wanting to the opportunity which God had put into his hands The next day being the twentieth of April he addressed his lines unto the Prince extolling the piety of his Predecessors their Zeal unto the Catholick Church and to the head thereof the Pope inviting him by all the blandishments of Art to put himself upon the following of their brave examples Never had Prince a harder game to play than Prince Charles had now He found himself under the Power of the King of Spain and knew that the whole business did depend on the Popes dispensation with whom if he complied not in some handsome way his expectation might be frustrate and all the fruits of that long Treaty would be suddenly blasted He therefore writes unto the Pope in such general terms as seemed to give his Holiness some assurances of him but being reduced unto particulars signified nothing else but some civill complements mixt with some promises of his endeavours to make up the breaches in the Church and restore Christendom to an happy and desirable peace Which notwithstanding was after reckoned amongst his crimes by such as rather would not then did not know the necessity which lay upon him of keeping at that time a plausible correspondence with the Catholick party But these Temptations and Allurements these Artifices and Insinuations prevailed so little with the Prince that he still kept his stand and was found impregnable carrying himself with such a prudent Moderation in these Encounters that he came off alwaies without Envy but not without Glory And that it might appear on what grounds he stood it was thought fit to let them see that he professed no other Religion than what was agreeable to the Rules of Antiquity and not much abhorrent from the Forms then used in the Church Rome And to this end by the prudent care of the Lord Keeper Williams the English Liturgie was translated into Spanish so many Copies of the book then Printed being sent into Spain as gave great satisfaction both to the Court and Clergy The work performed by a converted Dominican who was gratified for his pains therein by a good Prebend and a Benefice as he well deserved And this I must needs say was very seasonably done For till that time the Spaniards had been made believe by their Priests and Jesuites that when the English had cast off the Pope they had cast off all Religion also That from thenceforth they became meer Atheists and that the name of God was never used amongst them but with a purpose to expose it to profanation An Argument whereof may be the extreme squeamishness of the Constable of Castile sent into England in the beginning of the Reign of King Iames to swear the peace between both Kings Who understanding that the business was to be performed in the Chappel where some Anthems were to be sung desired that whatsoever was sung Gods name might not be used in it and that being forborn he was content they should sing what they listed And when the Earl of Nottingham attended by many Gentlemen of worth and quality went into Spain to take the like Oath of the Catholick King it was reported by his followers at their coming back how much it was commiserated by the Vulgar Spaniards that so many goodly persons should be trained up in no other Religion than to worship the Devil But let us leave the Prince and return for England where the King had as hard a game to play For having left such a Pawn in Spain he was in a manner bound to his good behaviour and of necessity to gratifie the Popish Party in this Kingdom with more than ordinary Favours He knew no Marriage could be made without the Popes Dispensation and that the Popes Dispensation could not be obtained without indulging many graces to his Catholick Subjects To smooth his way therefore to the point desired he addresseth several Letters to the Pope and Cardinals in which he gives him the title of most holy Father and imploys Gage as his Agent in the Court of Rome to attend the business At home he dischargeth all such Priests and Iesuites as had been formerly imprisoned inhibiting all Processes and Superseding all proceedings against Recusants and in a word suspends
the Parliament and Convocation were admitted to the kiss of her hand whom she most graciously received For on the Saturday before being Iune the eighteenth the Parliament had took beginning Which fell out not unseasonably that the French Lords might see with what Royal Magnificence he was attended by the Prelates Peers and other Officers of State besides his own Domestick Servants to the Parliament House At their first meeting he put them in mind of the War in which they had engaged his Father and of the promise they had made to stand to him in it with their lives and fortunes That both his Land and Sea Forces were now in readiness to set forwards And That there wanted nothing but a present supply of money to quicken and expedite the affaire That the eyes of all Christendom were fixt upon him And that if he should miscarry in his first attempt it would blemish all the honour of his future actions And therefore That they should endeavour to deliver him out of that War in which they had incumbred he hoped it would never be said that they had betrayed him In answer whereunto the Commons past a Bill of two Subsidies only so short of that excessive charge which the maintenance of so great a Fleet and Army required at their hands that being distributed amongst the Officers Souldiers and Mariners it would scarce have served for Advance-money to send them going Which notwithstanding he very graciously accepted of it taking it as an earnest of their good affections in reference to the greater Sums which were to follow In order whereunto he audited his account unto them as well for such moneys as had remained undisbursed of the former aides as for the defraying of such further Charges as his present Fleet consisting of 120 Sail and a considerable Land Army must needs lay upon him The particulars of which account stood thus viz. 32000 pounds for securing of Ireland 47000 pounds for strengthning the Forts 37000 pounds for the repair of the Navy 99000 pounds upon the four English Regiments in the States Country 62000 pounds laid out for Count Mansfield Totall 287000 pounds Besides which he sent in a demand of 200000 pounds and upwards upon the Navy 48000 pounds upon the Ordnance 45000 pounds in Charges of the Land men 20000 pounds a month to Count Mansfield and 46000 pounds to bring down the King of Denmarke the totall of which latter Sum amounts to 339000 pounds Both Sums make no less than 626000 pounds to which the Grant of two Subsidies holds but small proportion But the Commons had other game to follow Their Grievances must first be heard A List whereof they had presented to King IAMES toward the end of the former Parliament of which the greatest part were still unredressed To these his Majesty vouchsafed a very gracious and for the most part a full and satisfactory Answer Amongst which Grievances a sober and discreet man would not think to find that the building of all houses in London and the parts adjoyning in one uniform way with a face of brick toward the streets should be passed for one then which there could not be a greater ornament to that City or a greater honour to his Majesties Government And to that his Majesty returned this Answer That there had much good come by such a reformation of Building in his Fathers time and therefore that he was resolved to go on with the work Which Resolution so much tending to the glory of the English Nation and no objection being ready for his other Answers the matter of Grievances could no longer be insisted on especially in such a time when the concernments of the State his Majesties honour and all the motives which induced them to ingage him in this present War ought in all reason to precede their Grievances had they been greater than they were But then they had some Religious Grievances which required a more speedy redress than any which concerned them in their Civil Interesses The Lords day was pretended to be much profaned by unlawful pastimes and People frequently resorted out of their own Parishes to feast in Revels Of this a remedy is desired by Act of Parliament Had any such Bill been offered in King Iames his time it would have found a sorry welcome but this King being under a necessity of compliance with them resolved to grant them their desires in that Particular to the end that they might grant his also in the aide required when that obstruction was removed The Sabbatarians took the benefit of this opportunity for the obtaining of this grant the first that ever they obtained by all their struglings which of what consequence it was we shall see hereafter But then the Doctrine of the Church was more in danger than ever In former Parliaments they were afraid of the Papists only But now there was as much danger to be feared from Arminianism as before from Popery An Information had been made by Yales and Ward as before is said against some passages in Mountagues Answer to the Romish Gagger and he had agravated his offence by justifying all his Popish and Arminian Tenents in a book newly published called Appello Caesarem It could not be denied but that this book was Licenced by Dr. White then Dean of Carlile by whom it was affirmed to be agreeable to the Publick Faith Doctrine and Discipline established in the Church of England But White they said was now turned black and what is the Established Doctrine of the Church of England compared with Calvins Doctrine in his Institutions What Trifles are the Articles of Religion agreed on by the Bishops and Clergy in two several Synods held in London compared with the determinations of the Synod of Dort which Mountague that bold man had despised and vilified This was a matter which became the care of the House of Commons and Mountague is cited to appear before them on the seventh of Iuly Being brought unto the Bar the Speaker declared to him the pleasure of the House which was that they would refer his Censure to the next meeting and that in the interim he should stand committed to the Serjeants Ward and entred baile for his appearance to the value of two thousand pound His Majesty had present notice of this occurrence And being very sensible of this new incroachment he thereupon caused intimation to be made unto them that he was not pleased with their proceedings against Mountague being one of his Chaplains adding withall that he conceived his Servants to be as capable of protection from all imprisonments and arrests as any of the Servants of the Knights and Burgesses It was not long before Laud found an opportunity to give Mountague notice of his Majesties great care of him and affection to him Which must needs be a Soveraign Cordial to the man notwithstanding that the Commons were so stiff in their Rigors toward him that his bail-bond of 2000 pound did remain uncancelled Notice
his Confederates were fixt upon him and that they would separate and dissolve if it did not spâ—edily set forwards But then the dangers which they feared from the growth of Popery stood as much in his way as Mountague and the Grievances had done before For the securing tâ—em from all such fears an humble Petition and Remonstrance must be first prepared which they framed much after the same manner with that wâ—ich had been oâ—â—ered to King Iames in the year 1621. In this they shewed the King the dangers which were threatned to the Church and State by the more than ordinary increase of Popery and oâ—fered him such Remedies as they conceived most likely to prevent the mischiefs And unto this Petition they procured the Peers also to joyn with them But the King easily removed this obstruction by giving them such a full and satisfactory answer on the seventh of Aâ—gust that they could not chuse before their Rising which followed within five days after but Vote their humble Thanks to be returned unto his Majesty for giving such a Gracious Answer to their said Petition This they had reason to expect from his Majesties Piety but then they had another Game which must be followed before the Kings Business could be heard In the two former Parliaments they had flesh'd themselves by removing Bacon from the Seal and Cranfeild from the Treasury And somewhat must be done this Parliament also for fear of hazarding such a Priviledge by a discontinuance Williams came first into their eye whom they looked on as a man not only improper for the Place but also as not having carried himself in it with such integrity as he should have done and him the Lawyers had most mind to that they might get that Office once again into their possession This Williams fearing so applied himself to some leading Members that he diverted them from himself to the Duke of Buckingham as a more noble Prey and fitter for such mighty Hunters than a silly Priest Nor was this Overture proposed to such as were either deaf or tongue-tied for this great Game was no sooner started but they followed it with such an Out-cry that the noise thereof came presently to his Majesties ears who finding by these delays and artifices that there was no hope of gaining the Supplies desired on the 12th of the same August dissolved the Parliament He may now see the error he had run into by his breach with Spain which put him into a necessity of making War and that necessity compell'd him to cast himself in a manner on the Alms of his People and to stand wholly in like manner at their Devotion The Parliament being thus dissolved his Majesty progresseth towards the West to set forward his Navy and Laud betakes himself unto his Diocess this being the year of his Triennial Visitation He took along with him in this Journey such Plate and Furniture as he had provided for his new Chappel at Aberguilly which he Consecrated on Sunday August 28. Here he continued by reason that the Sickness was hot in London and not cooled in Oxon. till he was fain to make his way back again through Ice and Snow as he writes in his Letters to the Duke from Windsor December 13. At his return he found no small alteration in the Court The Lord Keeper Williams stood upon no good terms with the Duke in the life of King Iames but he declined more and more in Favour after his decease The Duke had notice of his practising against him in the last Parliament and was resolved to do his errand so effectually to the King his Master that he should hold the Seal no longer and he prevailed therein so far that Sir Iohn Suckling Controller of His Majesties Houshold was sent to him being then at a House of the Lord Sandys's in the Parish of Bray neer Windsor to require him to deliver up the Seal to his Majesties use which being very unwillingly done the Custody of the Great Seal on Sunday the second of October was committed to Sir Thomas Coventry his Majesties Atturney General whom Heath succeeded in that place But my Lord was not gone though the Keeper was He still remained Lord Bishop of Lincoln and Dean of Westminster holding still both his other Dignities and Preferments before recited So that he might have lived as plentifully as the greatest and as contentedly as the best had he not thought that the fall was greater from the top of the Stairs unto the second or third Step than from the second or third to the lowest of all But as he sell so Laud ascended Neil his good Friend then Bishop of Durham had fallen sick in the beginning of the Spring at whose request he was appointed to wait upon his Majesty as Clerk of the Closet in which Service though he continued not long yet he made such use of it that from that time forwards he grew as much into the Kings Favour as before he had been in the Dukes becoming as it were his Majesties Secretary for all Church Concernments His Majesty having set forward his Navy which setting out so late could not be like to make any good Return was not unmindful of the Promise he had made in Parliament in answer to the Petition of the Lords and Commons concerning the great dangers threatned to the Church and State by the Growth of Popery to which end he caused a Commission to be issued under the Great Seal for executing the Laws against Recusants which he commanded to be published in all the Courts of Justice at Reading to which Town the Term was then removed that all his Judges and other Ministers of Justice might take notice of it as also that all his Loving Subjects might be certified of his Princely Care and Charge for the Advancement of true Religion and Suppression of Popery and Superstition Which done he directed his Letters of the 15th of December to his two Archbishops signifying how far he had proceeded and requiring them in pursuance of it That no good means be neglected on their part for discovering finding out and apprehending of Jesuits and Seminary Priests and other Seducers of his People to the Romish Religion or for repressing Popish Recusants and Delinquents of that sort against whom they were to proceed by Excommunication and other Censures of the Church not omitting any other Lawful means to bring them forth to publick Justice But then withal his Majesty takes notice of another Enemy which threatned as much danger to the Church as the Papists did And thereupon he further requireth the said two Archbishops That a vigilant care be taken with the rest of the Clergy for the repressing of those who being ill affected to the true Religion here established they keep more close and secret their ill and dangerous affections that way and as well by their example as by secret and under-hand sleights and means do much encourage and encrease the growth of Popery and Superstition
Promotions Fourthly That all persons to be admitted to any Benefice with cure should likewise subscribe to the said Articles and publickly read the same in the open Church within two months after their Induction with declaration of their unseigned assent to the same on the pain aforesaid In all which there was nothing done to confirm these Articles but only a pious care expressed for reformation of such disorders as were like to rise amongst the Ministers of the Church by requiring their subscription and assent unto them under such temporal punishments which at that time the Canons of the Church had not laid upon them But it is time to leave these follies of my own and return to our Bishop who had thus seasonably manifested both his Zeal and Judgment in reference to the peace of the Church in general nor shewed he less in reference to the peace of that Universitie which had the happiness and honour of his Education The Proctorship had beâ—ore been carried by a combination of some houses against the rest the weaker side calling in strangers and non-residents to give voyces for them For remedie whereof a Letter in another year was procured from the Earl of Pembroke then Chancellour of that University by which it was declared that only such as were actually Residents should be admitted to their Suffrages in the said Elections which Letter was protested against by the Proctors for the year 1627. as knowing how destructive it was of their plot and party And on the other side such Colledges as had many Chappelries and other places which were removable at pleasure invested many which came out of the Country in the said Offices and Places one after another thereby admitting them for the time into actual residence In which estate things stood when the great competition was April 23. 1628. betwixt Williamson of Magdalens and More of New-Colledge on the one side and Bruch of Brazen-nose with Lloyd of Iesus Colledge on the other side These last pretending foul play to be offered to them as indeed it was not very fair made their appeal unto the King before whom the proceedings being heard and examined Williamson and Lloyd were returned Proctors for that year the last pretending Kindred to the Dutchess of Buckingham And to prevent the like disorders for the time to come it was resolved by the King with the Advice of his Council but of Laud especially that the Proctors should from thenceforth be chosen by their severall Colledges each Colledge having more or fewer turns according to the number and greatness of their Foundations To which end a Cycle was devised containing a perpetual Revolution of three and twenty years within which Latitude of time Christ-Church was to enjoy six Proctors Magdalen five New-Colledge foure Merton All-Souls Exeter Brazen-Nose St. Iohns and Wadham Colledges to have three a piece Trinity Queens Orial and Corpus Christi to have only two the rest that is to say Vniversity Baliol Lincoln Iesus and Pembroke but one alone which Cycle was so contrived that every Colledge knew their turn before it came and did accordingly resolve on the fittest man to supply the place And for the more peaceable ordering of such other matters in the University as had relation thereunto some Statutes were digested by Laud and recommended by the King to the said University where they were chearfully received without contradiction and Entred on Record in the Publick Registers in December following Yet was not this the only good turn which that University recieved from him in this Year For in the two Months next ensuing he procured no fewer than 260 Greek Manuscripts to be given unto the Publick Library that is to say 240 of them by the Munificence of the Earl of Pembroke and 20 by the Bounty of Sir Thomas Row then newly returned from his Negotiations in the Eastern parts And now the time of the next Parliamentary Meeting which by divers Adjournments had been put off till the twentieth of Ianuary was neer at hand And that the Meeting might be more agreeable to his Intendments his Majesty was advised to smooth and prepare his way unto it first by removing of some Rubs and after by some popular Acts of Place and Favour Savill of Yorshire a busie man in the House of Commons but otherwise a politick and prudent Person he had taken off at the end of the former Parliament by making him one of his Privy Council and preferring him to be Comptroller of his Houshold in the place of Suckling then deceased and at the end of the last Session had raised him to the honour of Lord Savill of Pontfract Competitor with Savill in all his Elections for that County had been Sir Thomas Wentworth of Wentworth Woadhouse a man of most prodigous Parts which he had made use of at first in favour of the Popular Faction and for refusing of the Loan had been long imprisoned He looked on the Preferments of Savill his old Adversary with no small disdain taking himself to be as indeed he was as much above him in Revenue as in Parts and Power To sweeten and demulce this man Sir Richard Weston then Lord Treasurer created afterwards Earl of Portland used his best endeavours and having gained him to the King not only procured him to be one of his Majesties Privy Council but to be made Lord President of the North and advanc'd unto the Title of Viscount Wentworth by which he over-topped the Savills both in Court and Country Being so gained unto the King he became the most devout Friend of the Church the greatest Zealot for advancing the Monarchical Interest and the ablest Minister of State both for Peace and War that any of our former Histories have afforded to us He had not long frequented the Council-Table when Laud and he coming to a right understanding of one another entred into a League of such inviolable Friendship that nothing but the inevitable stroke of Death could part them and joining hearts and hands together cooperated from thenceforth for advancing the Honour of the Church and his Majesties Service These Matters being carried thus to assure himself of two such Persons in which he very much pleased himself his Majesty must do something also to please the People and nothing was conceived could have pleased them more than to grant them their desires in matters which concerned Religion and bestow Favours upon such men as were dear unto them In pursuance of his gracious Answer to the Lords and Commons touching Priests and Jesuits the growth of Popery and obstinacy of Recusants he had caused his Proclamation to be issued on the third of August for putting the Laws and Statutes made against Jesuits Priests and Popish Recusants in due Execution And now he adds another to it dated on the eleventh day of December for the Apprehension of Richard Smith a Popish Priest styling and calling himself the Bishop of Chalcedon a dangerous man and one who under colour of a
County of Kent situate about seven miles from the Sea and neighboured by a little River capable only of small boats and consequently of no great use for the wealth and trading of the place It was made an Archiepiscopal See at the first planting of the Gospel amongst the English Augustine the Monk who first preacht the one being the first Archbishop of the other For though that Dignity was by Pope Gregory the Great designed for London yet Augustine the Monk whom he sent hither on that Errand having received this City in gift from the King resolved to six himself upon it without going further Merlin had prophesied as much if those Prophesies be of any credit signifying that the Metropolitan dignity which was then at London should in the following times be transferred to Canterbury Ethelbert then King of Kent having thus given away the Regal City retires himself unto Reculver where he built his Palace for himself and his Successors in that Kingdom leaving his former Royal Seat to be the Archiepiscopal Palace for the Archbishops of Canterbury The Cathedral having been a Church before in the Britains time was by the said Archbishop Augustine repaired Consecrated and Dedicated to the name of Christ which it still retains though for a long time together it was called St Thomas in honour of Thomas Becket one of the Archbishops hereof who was murthered in it The present Fabrick was begun by Archbishop Lanfranck and William Corboyle and by degrees made perfect by their Successors Take Canterbury as the Seat of the Metropolitan it hath under it twenty one Suffragan Bishops of which seventeen are in England and four in Wales But take it as the Seat of a Diocesan and it containeth only some part of Kent to the number of 257 Parishes the residue being in the Diocess of Rochester together with some few particular Parishes dispersed here and there in several Diocesses it being an ancient priviledge of this See that wheresoever the Archbishops had their Mannors or Advousons the place forthwith became exempt from the Ordinary and was reputed of the Diocess of Canterbury The other Priviledges of this See are that the Archbishop is accounted Primate and Metropolitan of ALL England and is the first Peer of the Realm having precedency of all Dukes not being of the Royal bloud and all the great Officers of the State He hath the Title of Grace afforded him in common speech and writes himself Divina Providentia where other Bishops only use Divina Permissione The Coronation of the King hath anciently belonged unto him It being also formerly resolved that wheresoever the Court was the King and Queen were the proper and Domestical Parishioners of the Archbishop of Canterbury It also did belong unto him in former times to take unto himself the Offerings made at the holy Altar by the King and Queen wheresoever the Court was if he were present at the same and to appoint the Lent Preachers but these time hath altered and the King otherwise disposed of Abroad in General Councils he had place at the Popes Right foot At home this Royal Priviledge That those which held Lands of him were liable for Wardship to him and to compound with him for the same though they held other Lands in chief of our Lord the King And for the more increase of his power and honour it was Enacted 25 Hen. viii and 21. That all Licences and Dispensations not repugnant to the Law of God which heretofore were sued for in the Court of Rome should be hereafter granted by the Archbishop of Canterbury and his Successors As also in the 1 Eliz. and 2. That by the Advice of the Metropolitan or Ecclesiastical Commissioners the Queens Majesty might ordain and publish such Rites and Ceremonies as may be most for the Advancement of Gods glory the Edifying of his Church and the due Reverence of Christs holy Sacraments To this high dignity Laud succeedeth on the death of Abbot nominated unto it by the King on the sixth of August the Election returned and presented to his Majesty from the Dean and Chapter on the twenty fifth of the same and the translation fully perfected on the nineteenth of September then next following on which day he kept a solemn and magnificent Feast at his house in Lambeth his State being set out in the great Chamber of that house and all persons standing bare before it after the accustomed manner his Steward Treasurer and Comptroller attending with their white staves in their several Offices Thus have we brought him to his height and from that height we may take as good a prospect into the Church under his direction as the advantage of the place can present unto us And if we look into the Church as it stood under his direction we shall find the Prelates generally more intent upon the work committed to them more earnest to reduce this Church to the ancient Orders than in former times the Clergy more obedient to the Commands of their Ordinaries joyning together to advance the work of Vniformity recommended to them the Liturgie more punctually executed in all the parts and offices of it the Word more diligently preacht the Sacraments more reverendly administred than in some scores of years before the people more conformable to those Reverend Gestures in the House of God which though prescribed before were but little practised more cost laid out upon the beautifying and adorning of Parochial Churches in furnishing and repairing Parsonage houses than at or in all the times since the Reformation the Clergy grown to such esteem for parts and power that the Gentry thought none of their Daughters to be better disposed of than such as they had lodged in the Arms of a Church-man and the Nobility grown so well affected to the State of the Church that some of them designed their younger Sons to the Order of Priesthood to make them capable of rising in the same Ascendent Next if we look into the Doctrine we shall find her to be no less glorious within than beautified and adorned to the outward eye the Doctrines of it publickly avowed and taught in the literal and Grammatical sense according to the true intent and meaning of the first Reformers the Dictates and Authorities of private men which before had carried all before them subjected to the sense of the Church and the Church hearkening to no other voice than that of their great Shepherd speaking to them in his holy Scriptures all bitternesses of spirit so composed and qualified on every side that the advancement of the great work of Unity and Uniformity between the parties went forwards like the building of Solomons Temple without the noise of Axe or Hammer If you will take her Character from the mouth of a Protestant he will give it thus He that desires to pourtray England saith he in her full structure of external glory let him behold the Church shining in transcendent Empyreal brightness and purity
gave them some hope of finding more relief from the Court of Exchequer than they could expect from the Lord Mayor who being at the first made Judge in the business for the ease of the Clergy carried himself rather like a party concerned in it than an equal Umpire But there was no contending with the Purse of the City For though the proceedings of the City Landlords were declared to be unjust and Sacrilegious under the hands of many Bishops and most of the Heads of Houses in both Universities Anno 1620. yet the business going on from bad to worse they were necessitated to cast themselves at the feet of King Charles and to petition for a remedy of these growing mischiefs which otherwise in some tract of time might become insupportable Which Petition being taken into consideration by his Sacred Majesty he was graciously pleased to refer the same to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury the Lord Keeper Coventry the Earl Marshal the Lord Bishop of London the Lord Cottington Mr. Secretary Windebank and Chief Justice Richardson or any five or three of them of which the Lord Archbishop to be alwaies one requiring and thereby authorizing to call before them all parties concerned in the business and after a full hearing and examination thereof to end if they could or otherwise to report to his Majesty where the Impediment lay that so his Majesty might take such further order therein as in his Princely wisdom he should think most meet Which reference being made the fifteenth of May of this present year was carried on with such equality and moderation that the rich Landlords had no reason to complain of any obliquity or partiality in the conduct of it But having been accustomed to â—eed on the Churches Bread and to have the poor Clergie obnoxious them they could with no patience entertain the thoughts of relinquishing their former dyet or suffer a deserving Clergy to enjoy their own Nothing more feared than that the Clergy by this means would grow too rich They who conceived two thousand pound of yearly Rent not enough for an Alderman think one hundred pound per annum as was affirmed by one of that number to be too much for a Minister And should the Clergy once grow rich they would become more absolute and independent not so obsequious to them as they had been formerly and consequently more apt to cross them in their opposition or neglect of establisht Orders And in this state the business stood when Iuxon the Bishop of London was advanced to the Treasurers Staff in the end of March 1635. which much encreast the hopes of the one and the fears the other Some of the Clergie had the hap to better their condition and improve their Benefices by the appearing of so many powerful persons in their behalf and possible enough it is that some expedient would have been resolved on by the Referâ—ees to the general content of both parties his Grace of Canterbury being very sollicitous in behalf of the Clergy if the troubles which brake out soon after in Scâ—tland and the preparations for the War which ensued upon it had not put the business to a stand and perswaded both the King and Council to an improfitable compliance with that stubborn City from which he reapt nothing in conclusion but neglect and scorn So frequently have the best designs been overthrown not so much by the puissance and might of the adverse party as through defect of Constancy and Resolution to go through with them Mention was made in the Narrative of our Archbishops late proceeding against the Congregations of the French and Dutch of somewhat which was done in order to it in the Metropolitical Visitation of the Province of Canterbury Concerning which we are to know that in the beginning of the year 1634. he resolved upon that Visitation And having some distrust of Brent his Vicar General he prâ—pared one of his Confidents to be a joynt Commissioner with him that he might do no hurt if he did no good But afterwards being more assured of Brent than before he was he resolved to trust him with himself and not to fetter him with any such constant Overseer to attend his actings The Articles for his Visitation Printed for the use of Churchwardens and Sides-men in their several Parishes had little in them more than ordinary But he had given directions to his Vicar General to enquire into the observation of his Majesties Instructions of the year 1629. to command the said Churchwardens to place the Communion Table under the Eastern Wall of the Chancel where formerly the Altar stood to set a decent Raile before it to avoid profaneness and at the Raile the Communicants to receive the blessed Sacrament It had been signified to the Archbishop that a Dog in one place or other but I remember not the name had run away with the Bread appointed for the holy Communion and that the Communion Wine had been brought unto the Table in many places in Pint-pots and Bottles and so distributed to the people The placing of a Raile before the Table would prevent all infamies of the first sort and he hoped the Ministers would take order to reform abuses of the last Williams at that time Bishop of Lincoln had placed the Table of his own Chappel in the state of an Altar and â—urnisâ—ed it with Plate and other costly Utensils beyond most others in the Kingdom The Table stood in the same posture in the Cathedral Church of Lincoln of which he was both Bishop and Residentiary and in the Collegiate Church of Westminster whereof he was Dean The Chancel of St. Martins Câ—urch in the Town of Leicester had been made a Library which he when he was in his good humours perswaded the people to remove to trim and prepare the said Choire with Railes and such other Ornaments as were fitting for it and then to place therein their Communion Table all whicn they accordingly performed But understanding of the Order of the third of November made by his Majesty and the Lords of his Council in the Case of St. Gregories he untwisteth all this Line again For a Certificate being presented to him by the Vicar Church-wardens and some others of the Parish That the place where the Table stood before was far more fit by reason of the more capacity to receive the Communicants and the more audibleness of the Ministers voice and the Proximity of it to the place where Morning and Evening Prayer had been appointed to be read than the Chancel was he gave them leave to remove the Communion Table to the place where it formerly stood especially at such times as they received the Communion All which by his Letters of the nineteenth of December 1633. he signifies to Burden one of Lambs Surrogates in the Archdeaconry of Leicester requiring him not to be troublesome or molestfull to the said parties in any thing concerning the Premises Which Letter Burden sends to Lamb and Lamb
consent in the times foregoing so were they now upon the point of having those old Rules broken on them by the King in making Canons and putting Laws and Orders on them for their future Government to which they never had consented And therefore though his Majesty had taken so much care as himself observed for facilitating and conveniencing their obedience by furthering their knowledge in those points which before they knew not yet they did generally behold it and exclaimed against it as one of the most grievous burthens that ever had been laid upon them More clamour but on weaker grounds was made against the Book of Common Prayer when it first came out which was not till the year 1637. and then we shall hear further of it Mean while we will return to England and see what our Archbishop doth as a chief Counsellor and States-man in his Civil Actings It was about four or five years since Anno 1631 that he first discovered how ill his Majesties Treasury had been managed between some principal Officers of his Revenue to the enriching of themselves to the impoverishing of their Master and the no small amazement of all good Subjects But the abuses being too great to be long concealed his Majesty is made acquainted with all particulars who thereupon did much estrange his countenance from the principal of them For which good service to the King none was so much suspected by them as the Archbishop of Canterbury against whom they began to practise endeavouring all they could to remove him from his Majesties ear or at the least to lessen the esteem and reputation which his fidelity and upright dealing had procured of him Factions are heightned in the Court Private ends followed to the prejudice of Publick Service and every mouth talkt openly against his proceedings But still he kept his ground and prevailed at last appointed by his Majesty on the fifth of February 1634. to be one of the great Committee for Trade and the Kings Revenue and seeing Wesâ—ons Glories set under a cloud within few weeks after Weston being dead it pleased his Majesty to commit the managing of the Treasury by Letters Patents under the Broad Seal bearing date on the fourteenth day of March to the Lord Archbishop Cottington Chancellor of the Exchequer Cooke and Windebank principal Secretaries and certain others who with no small envy looked upon him as if he had been set over them for a Supervisor Within two daies after his being nominated for this Commission his Majesty brought him also into the Foreign Committee which rendred him as considerable abroad as he was at home This as it added to his power so it encreased the stomach which was borne against him The year 1635. was but new began when clashing began to grow between him and Cottington about executing the Commission for the Treasury And that his grief and trouble might be the greater his old Friend Windebank who had received his preferment from him forsook him in the open field and joyned himself with Cottington and the rest of that Party This could not chuse but put him to the exercise of a great deal of Patience considering how necessary a friend he had lost in whose bosome he had lodged a great part of his Counsels and on whose Activity he relied for the carrying on of his designs at the Council Table But for all this â—e carries on 〈◊〉 Commâ—â—â—ion the whole year about acquaints himself with the Mysteries and secrets of it the honest advantages which the Lord Treasurers had for enriching themselves to the value of seven tâ—ousand pound a year and upwards as I have heard from his own mouth without defrauding the King or abusing the Subject He had observed that divers Treasurers of late years had raised themselves from very mean and private Fortunes to the Titles and Estates oâ— Earls which he conceived could not be done without wrong to both and therefore he resolves to commend such a man to his Majesty for the next Lord Treasurer who having no Family to raise no Wife and Children to provide for might better manage the Incomes of the Treasury to the Kings advantage than they had been formerly And who more like to come into his eye for that preferment than Iuxon his old and trusty Friend then Bishop of London a man of such a well tempered disposition as gave exceeding great content both to Prince and People and one whom he knew capable of as much instruction as by a whole years experience in the Commission for the Treasury he was able to give him It was much wondred at when first the Staff was put into this mans hand in doing whereof the Archbishop was generally conceived neither to have consulted his own present peace nor his future safety Had he studied his own present peace he should have given Cottington leave to put in for it who being Chancellor of the Exchequer pretended himself to be the next in that Ascendent the Lord Treasurers Associate while he lived and the presumptive heir to that office after his decease And had he studied his own safety and preservation for the times to come he might have made use of the power by recommending the Staff to the Earles of Bedford Hartford Essex the Lord Say or some such man of Popular Nobility by whom he might have been reciprocated by their strength and interess with the People in the change of times But he preferred his Majesties Advantages before his particular concernments the safety of the Publick before his own Nor did he want some seasonable considerations in it for the good of the Church The peace and quiet of the Church depended much on the conformity of the City of London and London did as much depend in their trade and payments upon the Love and Justice of the Lord Treasurer of England This therefore was the more likely way to conform the Citizens to the directions of their Bishop and the whole Kingdom unto them No small encouragement being thereby given to the London Clergy for the improving of their Tythes For with what confidence could any of the old Cheats adventure on a publick Examination in the Court of Exchequer the proper Court for suits and grievances of that nature when a Lord Bishop of London sate therein as the principal Judge Upon thâ—se Counsels he proceeds and obtains the Staff which was delivered to the Bishop of London on Sunday March 6. sworn on the same day Privy Counsellor and on the first of the next Term conducted in great state from London House to Westminster Hall the Archbishop of Canterbury riding by him and most of the Lords and Bishops about the Town with many Gentlemen of chief note and quality following by two and two to make up the Pomp. It was much feared by some and hoped by others that the new Treasurer would have sunk under the burden of that place as Williams did under the custody of the Seal but he deceived them both
same Month he gives Order for a General Assembly to be held at Glasco on November 21. next following in which he could not but be sure that after so many previous Condescensions on his part they would be able to do whatsoever they listed in defiance of him For before the Assembly was Indicted the Covenanters had so laid the Plot that none but those of their own Party should have Suffrage in it as afterwards by several Orders from their Tables they directed that no Chaplain nor Chapter-man nor any who have not subscribed the Covenant should be chosen to it not suffering the Archbishops or Bishops to sit as Moderators in their Presbyteries where the Elections were to pass and citing them to appear as Criminal Persons at the said Assembly by means of which Exclusions and Prelimitations the greatest part of the Assembly did consist of such as either were irregularly chosen by the over-ruling Voices of Lay-Elders which were thrust upon them or else not capable of being Elected some of them being under the Censures of the Kirk of Scotland others under the Censures of the Church of Ireland and some not having taken the Oath of Supremacy required by the Laws of the Land Upon which just and weighty Reasons as also the Admission of the Schismatical Clergy to sit as Judges over their Bishops the intrusion of so many Lay-Elders contrary to the Constitution of former General Assemblies the countenancing of a scandalous Libel against their Function and Persons and the prejudging of their Cause in their several Presbyteries by excluding them from having any Vote in the said Assembly when they were not present to interpose or speak any thing in their own behalf the Archbishops and Bishops in the name of themselves and all which did adhere unto them prepared their Declinator or Protestation against the said General Assembly and all the Acts and Conclusions of it as being void and null in Law to all intents and purposes whatsoever The day being come Hamilton marcheth to the place appointed for the Session in the equipage of a High-Commissioner the Sword and Seal being carried before him the Lords of the Council and all the Officers of State attending on him like a King indeed The reading of his Commission the putting in and rejecting of the Declinator the chusing of Henderson to be Moderator of the Assembly the constituting of the Members of it and some Debates touching the Votes and Suffrages challenged by Hamilton for such as were Assessors to him took up all the time between their first Meeting and their Dissolution which was by Proclamation solemnly declared on the twenty ninth of the same Month having â—ate only eight days by the Kings Authority For notwithstanding the said Dissolution the Members of the said Assembly continued and kept their Session and therein passed many Acts for the utter overthrow of the Polity and Government of the Church the infringing of his Majesties Prerogative Royal and violating the Authority of Parliaments For they not only Excommunicated the Bishops and their Adherents but condemned the very Function it self to be Antichristian and utterly to be abolished out of the Church notwithstanding that several Parliaments had confirmed the same The like Censure they also past on the Service Book and Canons with the five Articles of Perth though the two first received the Stamp of Royal Authority and the five last were confirmed in Parliament also They condemned in one breath all the Arminian Tenents in case of Predestination without examining the Arguments on which they were built and declared all men subject to Excommunication and other Censures of the Church who should refuse to yield obedience to all their unlawful Actings and Determinations And though his Majesty by the same Proclamation had commanded all his faithful Subjects not to yield any obedience to their Acts and Ordinances and bound himself in the Word of a King to defend them in it yet those of the Assembly were resolved to maintain their Authority For notwithstanding his Majesties late Declaration and Commands not only the Bishops and Clergy but also as many of the Layty as had refused to subscribe to the Acts thereof were deprived of their Offices and Preferments banished their Country and forced to fly into England oâ— other places the King not being able to protect them from the power and malice of their Adversaries For having lost the opportunity of suppressing them in their first Insurrection in the year precedent aâ—d afterwards of reducing them by force of Arms in the year next following he was forced to shuffle up such a Pacification in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms Anno 1641. as left his Party dâ—â—â—â—tute of all protection but what they found in England by his Majesties Favour in providing the Clergy of some small Benefices for their present subsistance which possibly might amount to more than formerly they enjoyed in their own Country And yet the Covenanters did not play all parts in this Assembly the King and his Commissioner had one part to act which was the presenting of a Declaration containing the sum and substance of all his Majesties gracious Condescensions exprest in the several Proclamations before remembred and a Command to have it registred in the Acts and Records thereof But upon what considerations and reasons of State his Majesty might be moved to commit that Paper to be registred amongst the Acts of Assembly is beyond my reach 〈◊〉 â—â—ough many times the wisest Princes have sent out Proclamations of Grace for redress of Grievances and pardoning of fore-past o 〈…〉 yet were those Proclamations and Acts of Grace beheld no otherwise than as temporary and occasional Remedies for the present mischiefs not to be drawn into Example and much less put upon Record for the times cusuing his Majesties Condescensions had been large enough and too much to the prejudice of his Crown and Dignity without this Enrolment Nor wants it somewhat of a â—iddle that at such time as Hamilton tendred the Paper of his Majâ—stiâ—s â—racious Concessions for discharging of the Service Book c. to be enrolled amongst the Acts of the Assembly he both declared and protested that his so doing should be no acknowledgment of the lawfulness and validity of that Convention which was instantly to be dissolved or that his Majestie should give order to have those Acts of Grace and Favour enrolled in the Records of the Assembly to stand full and sure to all his good Subjects for their assurance of and in the true Religion which Assembly at the same time â—e declared to be illegal and all the Acts thereof to be null and void I must confess I am not Oedipus enough for so dark a Sphinx and must therefore leave this depth of State-craft to more able heads Only I cannot chuse but note how little his Majesty got by those Condescensions the stubborn and rebellious Scots being so far unsatisfied with these Acts of Grace that they not only forced all
of the Peace between the two Nations And thus they entertained the time till the beginning of the Parliament which removed the Treaty from Rippon to London where the Scots were sure of more Friends and of warmer Quarters than the Northern Counties could afford them In the mean time it may be asked what became all this while oâ— the Irish Army consisting of 8000 Foot and 1000 Horse which had been raised with so much zeal by the Earl of Strafford at the beginning of the Spring and by the power whereof kept ever since in constant pay and continual exercise his Majesty might have reduced the Scots to their due obedience as was declared by the Earl at the Council Table on May 6. being the next day after the dissolving of the former Parliament Which Army if it had been put over into Cumberland to which from the Port of Carickfergus in Ireland is but a short and easie passage they might have got upon the Back of the Scots and caught the wretched People in a pretty Pitfall so that having the English Army before them and the Irish behind them they could not but be ground to powder as between two Milstones But this design if it were ever thought of was never put in execution so as that Army was dissolved without doing any thing in order to his Majesties Service the Commons in the following Parliament not thinking themselves or their affairs in any security as long as those Forces were maintained and held together It may be askt in the next place why the Parliament called at such a time and on such an occasion that is to say the over-running of the Northern parts of the Kingdom by a Scottish Army should be held at Westminster when York where the King was then in Person lay nearer to the danger and the Scene of Action and to the place of Treaty betwixt the Nations These Reasons were sufficient to have moved the King to hold this Parliament at York and not at Westminster had he known nothing of the disaffections and engagements of the neighbouring City as he knew too much And he had some good Presidents too which might have added no small weight to the consideration For when King Edward was busie in the Conquest of Wales he called his Parliament to Acton Burnel being in the Marches of that Country and when he turned his Forces to the Conquest of Scotland he called his Parliament to Carlisle if my memory fall me not being on the borders of that Kingdom Had the King made choice of the like Place for this present Parliament which he did afterward endeavour to alter when it was too late he had undoubtedly prevented all those inconveniencies or rather mischiefs which the Pride Purse Faction and Tumultuousness of the Londoners did afterwards inforce upon him And finally It might be asked What might move his Majesty to transfer the Treaty from Rippon to London where the Commissioners of the Scots were Complemented Feasted and presented by the wanton Citizens Their Lodgings more frequented for Prayers and Sermons than the houses of Foreign Embassadors had ever been for hearing Mass by any of the English Papists By means whereof they had the greater opportunity to enflame that City and make it capable of any impression which they thought fit to imprint upon it exprest not long after by their going down in such huge multitudes after Alderman Pennington to present a Petition to the Parliament subscribed by some Thousands of hands against the Government of Bishops here by Law estalisâ—t as afterwards in no less number to clamour at the Parliament doors for Justice on the Earl of Strafford which were the points most aimed at by the Scottish Covenanters To which no Answer can be given but that all these things were so disposed of by the supreme and over-ruling power of the Heavenly Providence contrary to all reason of State and Civil Prudence But to proceed the third of November drawing on when the Parliament was to take beginning A Letter was writ to the Archbishop of Canterbury advertising that the Parliament of the twentieth year of King Henry viii which began in the Fall of Cardinal Wolsey continued in the Diminution of the Power and Priviledges of the Clergy and ended in the dissolution of the Abbeys and Religious Houses was begun on the third day of November and therefore that for good-luck sake he would move the King to Respite the first sitting of it for a day or two longer But the Archbishop not harkning to this Advertisement the Parliament had its first sitting at the time appointed Which Parliament as it began in the Fall and Ruine of the Archbishop himself and was continued in the total Dissipation of the remaining Rites and Priviledges of the English Clergy so did it not end till it had subverted the Episcopal Government dissolved as much as in them was all Capitular Bodies and left the Cathedrals of this Land not presently ruined I confess but without means to keep them up for the time to come The day appointed being come his Majesty declined the accustomed way of riding in a Magnificent Pomp from Whitehall to the Church of Westminster and making his entry there at the great Western Gate but rather chose to pass thither privately by water attended by such of the Lords as could accommodate themselves with convenient Barges Entring the Church at the Little door which openeth toward the East he was received by the Sub-Dean and Prebendaries under a Canopy of State and so conducted to the place where he heard the Sermon the performance of which work was commended by his Grace of Canterbury to the Bishop of Oxon. and by him learnedly discharged The Sermon being done his Majesty attended by the Peers and Prelates returned the same way to Westminster Hall and from thence went to the Parliament House where causing the Commons to be called before him he acquainted both Houses with the Insolencies committed by the Scots who not content to embroyle their own Country had invaded this requiring their timely assistance to drive the Rebels out of the Kingdom and casting â—imself upon the good affections of his English Subjects The Commons were not more willing to hear that his Majesty was resolved to cast himself wholly on their good affections than many zealous Patriots seemed to be troubled at it knowing how ill it sorts with Kings when they have no way to subsist or carry on their great Designs but by casting themselves wholly on the love of the People These on the other side were not better pleased with hearing his Majesty call the Scots by the name of Rebels whom he had too long courted by the name of his Scottish Subjects than the Prevailing Members in the House of Commons were offended at it the name of Rebels rendring them uncapable of those many Favours which were designed them by that House And the displeasure went so high that his Majesty finding into what condition he had cast
signed with the same Penful of Ink for the continuance of the present Parliament during the pleasure of the Houses The Act thus past on Munday Morning the Earl was brought unto the Scaffold on the Wednesday following desiring earnestly but in vain to Exchange some words with the Archbishop before his Death Which gave occasion to a report that a little before his Death he had charged his misfortunes oversights and misdemeanours upon the Archbishop of Canterbury as the Prime Author of the same and had bitterly Curst the day of their first acquaintance Which being so scandalous and dishonourable to this great Prelate I shall lay down the whole truth in this particular as it came from the Archbishops own mouth in the presence of Balfore a Scot and then Lieutenant of the Tower who was required to attest to each period of it The Lord Strafford the night before the Execution sent for the Lieutenant of the Tower and asked him whether it were possible he might speak with the Archbishop The Lieutenant told him he might not do it without Order from the Parliament Whereupon the Earl replied You shall hear what passeth between us for it is not a time now either for him to plot Heresie or me to plot Treason The Lieutenant answered That he was limited and therefore desired his Lordship would Petition the Parliament for that Favour No said he I have gotten my dispatch from them and will trouble them no more I am now Petitioning an Higher Court wâ—ere neither partiality can be expected nor Error â—eared But my Lord said he turning to the Primate of Ireland whose company he had procured of the Houses in that fatal Exigent I will tell you what I should have spoken to my Lords Grace of Canterbury You shall desire the Archbishop to lend me his Prayers this night and to give me his Blessing when I do go abroad to morrow and to be in his Window that by my last Farewell I may give him thanks for this and all other his former Favours The Primate having delivered the Message without delay the Archbishop replied That in conscience he was bound to the first and in duty and obligation to the second but he feared his weakness and passion would not lend him eyes to behold his last Departure The next morning at his coming forth he drew near to the Archbishops Lodging and said to the Lieutenant Though I do not see the Archbishop yet give me leave I pray you to do my last observance towards his Rooms In the mean time the Archbishop advertised of his approach came out to the Window Then the Earl bowing himself to the ground My Lord said he your Prayers and your Blessing The Archbishop lift up his hands and bestowed both but overcome with grief fell to the ground in Animi deliquio The Earl bowing the second time said Farewell my Lord God protect your Innocency And because he feared that it might perhaps be thought an effeminacy or vnbecoming weakness in him to sink down in that manner he addâ—d That he hoped by Gods Assistance and his own Innocency that when he came to his own Execution which he daily longed for the World should perceive he had been more sensible of the Lord Strafford's Loss than of his own And good reason it should be so said he for the Gentleman was more serviceable to the Church he would not mention the State than either himself or any of all the Church-men had ever been A gallant Farewell to so eminent and beloved a Friend Thus march'd this Great Man to the Scaffold more like a General in the Head of an Army to breath out Victory than like a Condemned Man to undergo the Sentence of death The Lieutenant of the Tower desired him to take Coach for fear the People should rush in upon him and tear him in pieces No said he to the Lieutenant I dare look Death in the face and I hope the People too Have you a care that I do not escape and I care not how I die whether by the hand of the Executioner or the madness and fury of the People If that may give them better content it is all one to me In his last Speech upon the Scaâ—fold he declared That in all his Imployments since he had the honour to serve his Majesty he never had any thing in the purpose of his heart but what tended to the joynt and individual prosperity both of King and People That he was so far from being an Enemy to Parliaments which had been charged amongst his Crimes that he did always think the Parliaments of England to be the most happy Constitution that aâ—y Kingdom or Nation lived under and the best means under God to make the King and People happy That he acquitted all the World for his death heartily beseeching the God of Heaven to forgive all them that contrived it though in the intentions and purposes of his heart he was not guilty of the Oâ—fences which he was to die for That it was a great comfort to him that his Majesty conceived him not meriting so severe and heavy a Punishment as the utmost execution of this Sentence And finally after many other Expressions That he died a true Son of the Church of England in which he had been born and bred for the Peace and Prosperity whereof he most heartily prayed Turning his eyes unto his Brother Sir George Wentworth he desired him to charge his Son to fear God to continue an obedient Son to the Church of England and not to meddle with Church-Livings as that which would prove a Moth or Canker to him in his Estate And having several times recommended his prepared Soul to the Mercies of God he submiâ—ted his Neck with most Christian Magnanimity to the stroke of the 〈◊〉 which took his Head from him at one blow before he had filled up the number of fifty years A man on whom his Majesty looked as one whose great Abilities might rather make a Prince afraid than ashamed to employ him in the greatest Affairs of State â—or those were proâ—e to create in him great confidence of Undertakings and this was like enough to betray him to great Errors and many Enemies whereof he could not but contract good store while moving in so high a Sphere and with so vigorous a Lustre he must needs as the Sun raise many envious Exhalations which condensed by a Popular Odium were capable to cast a Cloud upon the highest Merit and Integrity So far he stood commended by the Pen of his sorrowful Sovereign who never could sufficiently â—â—waâ—l his own Infelicity in giving way unto an Act of such 〈…〉 justice as he calls it there of which he gives this Testimony in his Meditation on the Death of this unfortunate Earl That he wa◠〈◊〉 far from excusing or denying that Compliance on his part for plenary consent it was not to his destruction whom in his own judgment he thought not by any clear
be delivered in Parliament before the thirtieth of October next ensuing Anno 1641. It may be justly wondred at that all this while we have heard nothing of the Scots the chief promoters of these mischiefs but we may rest ourselves assured that they were not idle soliciting their affairs both openly and underhand instant in season and cut of season till they had brought about all ends which invited them hither They had made sure work with the Lord Lieutenant and feared 〈◊〉 the Resurâ—â—ction of the Lord Archbishop though Doâ—med at that time only to a Civil death They had gratified the Commons in procuring all the Acts of Parliament before remembred and paring the Bishops nails to the very quick by the only terrour of their Arms and were reciprocally gratified by them with a gift of three hundred thousand pounds of good English money in the name of a brotherly assistance for their pretended former losses which could not rationally be computed to the tenth part of that Sum. And in relation to that Treaty they gained in a manner all those points which had been first insisted on in the meeting at Rippon and many additionals also which were brought in afterwards by London In their Demand concerning Unity in Religion and Uniformity in Church-Government the Answer savoured rather of delay than satisfaction amounting to no more than this That his Majesty with the Advice oâ— both Houses of Parliament did well approve of the affections of his Subjects of Scotland in their desires of having a Conformity of Church-Government between the two Nations And that as the Parliament had already taken into consideration the Reformation of Church-Government so they would proceed therein in due time as should best conduce to the glory of God and peace of the Church and of both Kingdoms Which Condescensions and Conclusions being ratified on August 7. by Act of Parliament in England a Provision was also made for the security of all his Majesties Party in reference to the former troubles excluding only the Scottish Prelates and four more of that Nation from the benefit of it And that being done his Majesty sâ—t forwards toward Scotland on Tuesday the tenth of the same month giving order as he went for the Disbanding of both Armies that they might be no further charge or trouble to him Welcomed he was with great joy to the City of Edenborough in regard he came with full desires and resolutions of giving all satisfaction to that People which they could expect though to the Diminution of his Royal Rights and just Prerogative He was resolved to sweeten and Caress them with all Acts of Grace that so they might reciprocate with him in their Love and Loyalty though therein he found himself deceived For he not only ratified all the Transactions of the Treaty confirmed in England by Act of Parliament in that Kingdom but by like Act abolished the Episcopal Government and yielded to an alienation of all Church-Lands restored by his Father or himself for the maintenance of it A matter of most woful consequence to the Church of England For the House of Commons being advertised of these Transactions prest him with their continual importunities after his Return to subvert the Government oâ— Bishops here in England in the destruction whereof he had been pleased to gratifie his Scottish Subjects which could not be râ—puted so considerable in his estimation nor were so in the eye of the World as the English were What followed hereupon we may hear too soon â—â—is good sucâ—â—ss of the Scots encouraged the Irish Papists to attempt the like and to attempt it in the same way the Scots had gone that is to say by seâ—sing his Majesties Towns Forts and Castles putting themselves into the body of an Army banishing and imprisoning all such as opposed their Practices and then Petitioning the King for a publick exercise of their Religion And they had this great furtherance to promote their hopes For when the King was prest by the Commons for the disbanding of the Irish Army a suite was made unto him by the Embassadour of Spain that he might have leave to list three or four thousand of them for his Masters Service in the Wars to which motion his Majesty readily condescending gave order in it accordingly But the Commons never thinking themselves 〈◊〉 as long as any of that Army had a Sword in his hand never 〈◊〉 inâ—pâ—â—tuning the King whom they had now brought to the condition 〈◊〉 dâ—â—ying nothing which they asked till they had made him â—at his word and revoke those Orders to his great dishonour which so â—xâ—â—pâ—rated that Army consisting of 8000 Foot and 1000 Horse that it was no hard matter for those who had the managing of tâ—at Plot to make sure of them And then considering that the Scâ—â—s by raising of an Army had gained from the King an abolition of tâ—e Episcopal Order the Rescinding of his own and his Fathers Acts aâ—out the reducing of that Church to some Uniformity with this aâ—d settled their Kirk in such a way as best pleased their own humours Why might not the Irish Papists hope that by the help of such an Army ready raised to their hands or easily drawn together tâ—ough dispersed at present they might obtain the like indulgences and grants for their Religion The 23 of October was the day designed for tâ—e seizing of the City and Castle of Dublin and many places of great Importance in that Kingdom But failing in the main dâ—â—ign which had been discovered the night before by one O Conally they brake out into open Arms dealing no better with the Protestants there than the Covenanters had done with the Royal Party in Scotland Oâ— this Rebellion for it must be called a Rebellion in the Irish though not in the Scots his Majesty gives present notice to the Houses of Parliament requiring their Counsel and assistance for the extinguishing of that Flame before it had wasted and consumed that Kingdom But neither the necessity of the Protestants there â—ot the Kings importunity here could perswade them to Levy one man toward the suppression of those Rebels till the King had disclaimed his power of pressing Souldiers in an Act of Parliament and thereby laid himself open to such Acts of violence as were then hammering against him But to proceed his Majesty having settled his Affairs in Scotland to the full contentment of the People by granting them the Acts of Grace before remembred and giving some addition of Honour to his greatest enemies amongst whom Lesly who commanded their two lâ—te Armies most undeservedly was advanced to the Title of Earl of Leven prepared in the beginning of Novemb. for his journey to London where he was welcomed by the Lord Mayor and Citizens with all imaginable expressions of Love and Duty But the Commons at the other end of the Town entertain'd him with a sharp Declaration Entituled The Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom which they presented to
prophaned the place and disturbed the Divine Service in the Choire And on the other side Sir Paul Pindar Knight sometime Embassador from King Iames at Constantinople first repaired the decaies of that goodly Partition made at the West end of the Choire adorning the outward Front thereof with fair Pillars of black Marble and Statues of those Saxon Kings who had been Founders and Benefactors to that Church beautified the inward part thereof with Figures of Angels and all the Wainscoat work with Figures and Carving viz. of Cherubins and other Images richly guilded adding also fine sorts of hangings for the upper end thereof and afterwards bestowed 4000 li. in repairing the South part of the Cross Isle But as this Bishop fell the work fell with him the yearly Contribution abating in the year 1641. when he was plunged into his troubles from 15000 li. and upward to little more than 1500 li. and after by degrees to nothing which clearly shews upon what Wheel the whole Engine moved whose soul it was which gave both life and motion to that great design A work of such a vast Magnificence as required a large and open heart commensurate in some manner to the greatness of it not to be entertained by a man of such narrow comprehensions as were ascribed unto him in a Speech made by one of the Peers when he first fell into his troubles So easie a thing it is to disgrace the man whom the weight of his afflictions have once made uncapable of standing up against such reproaches as the Pens or Tongues of his Revilers shall accumulate on him Better success he had in another of his undertakings though not of such a publick nature or of so general a concernment to the honour of the Church and State He had received his breeding and first Preferments in St. Iohns Colledge in Oxon. which he resolved to gratifie for the charge of his Education by adding a second Quadrangle unto that of the first Foundation The other great work he carried on by the publick Purse contributing little more unto it besides his annual pension of 100 li. but his power and diligence But this he means to carry on at his own proper Costs his Majesty most graciously contributing some timber towards it out of Shot-over woods of which the Lord Treasurer endeavoured but in vain endeavoured to have made a stop Some Benefactor had before enricht the Colledge with a Publick Library which made one side to his new Building the other three he added to it of his own That on the North consisted altogether of several Chambers for the accommodations of the Fellows and other Students That on the East of a fair open walk below supported upon curious Pillars and bearing up a beautiful Gallery opening out of the Library for meditation and discourse confronted on the other side with the like open walk below and a sutable Fabrick over that raised up against the Eastern wall of the Ancient Buildings The whole composure fashioned in an excellent Symetry according to the exactest rules of Modern Architecture not only graceful in it self and useful to that private house but a great ornament also to the University St. Iohns in Cambridge shall boast no longer of its precedency before this in a double Quadrangle In which it stands equalled at the least if not surmounted also by this of Oxford On the twenty third of Iuly in this present year he laid the first stone of this new building not intermitting it but only during the unseasonableness of the following Winters till he had brought it to an end according to his first design and proposition Nor did these publick buildings take him off in the least degree from doing the Office of a Bishop His eye was alwaies watchfull over the Churches peace And to preserve his own Diocess both in peace and order he bestowed this year a personal Visitation on it beginning at Brentwood in Essex on the thirtieth of August and so went on from place to place till he had visited and regulated the whole Clergy of it in their several Deanries and Precincts And for performing of that Office he laid aside the dignity of a Privy Counsellor and his attendance on the person of his gracious Soveraign in being an example of a careful and prudent Pastor to the rest of his brethren In the late Agitations at Woodstock before the King he let fall some words which were interpreted to the disparagement of the married Clergy He was a single man himself and wisht perhaps as St. Paul once did That all men else that is to say all men in holy Orders would remain so likewise And some occasion being offered at that time to speak about the conveniencies or inconveniencies of a married Clergy he made some declaration of himself to this effect that in disposing of all Ecclesiastical Promotions he would prefer the single man before the married supposing the abilities of the persons were otherwise equal which limitation notwithstanding it gave much matter of discourse and not a little ground of scandal to many very honest and well-minded men who began presently to fear the sad consequents of it This general murmur could not but come unto his ears and found him very sensible of the Inconveniencies which might grow upon it For he soon wiped off that reproach by negotiating a Marriage between Mr Thomas Turner one of his Chaplains and a Daughter of Windebanke his old friend at whose house he had so long lain sick as before is said And that the satisfaction in this point might appear the greater he officiated the whole Service of their Marriage in his own Chappel at London House joyning their hands and giving the Nuptial Benediction and performing all other Ecclesiastical Rites which belonged to the solemnization of Matrimony by the Rules of this Church This was the answer which he made to his own Objection and indeed it was so full and home that the Objection seemed not to require any further answer Nor was it long before Windebanke found how well his chearfulness in yielding to that Match had been entertained He was at that time one of the Clerks of the Signet as his Father Sir Thomas Windebanke had been before him But our Bishop did not mean he should dwell there alwaies They had been Cotemporaries at St. Iohns Colledge their acquaintance from their very Childhood their persons much of the same stature a like facetiousness in both for wit and company In which respects Laud had commended him to the good Graces of the Duke when he was alive But the Duke doing nothing for him left Laud in a capacity to supply the want by whose power and favour with the King he was advanced unto the honourable Office of the principal Secretary of State in the place of Dudly Lord Carlton Viscount Dorchester Dorchester died on Ash-Wednesday Morning Anno 1631. And of Windebanke he writes thus in his Breviate viz. Iune 15. 1632. Mr. Francis Windebanke