lurked under the carpets of the Counsel Table but even like fleas to have leaped into the pillows of Princes bed-chambers thence deriving their private knowledge of all things which were or were not ever done or thought of In defiance of whom I adde Give unto Cesar the things that are Cesars and unto God the things that are Gods The memory of this treason perpetuated by Act of Parl Let King JAMES by reading the Letter have the credit of discovering this Plot to the world and GOD the glory for discovering it unto King JAMES 40. A learned k Gamblen Brit. in Middlesex Author The memory of this treason â—e peâ—uâ—ted by Act of Parl Ann. Dom. 1605-06 Ann. Reg. Jac. 5 making mention of this Treason breaketh forth into the following rapture Excidat illa dies aevo ne postera credant Secula nos certè taceamus obruta multâ Nocte tegi propriae patiamar crimina gentis Oh let that day be quite dash'd out of time And not believ'd by the next generation In night of silence we ' ll conceal the crime Thereby to save the credit of our nation A wish which in my opinion hath more of Poetrie than of pietie therein and from which I must be forced to dissent For I conceive not the credit of our Countrey-men concerned in this Plot not beholding this as a nationall act whose actors were but a partie of a partie a desperate handfull of discontented persons of the Papisticall faction May the day indeed be ever forgotten as to the point of imitation but be ever remembred to the detestation thereof May it be solemnly transmitted to all posterity that they may know how bad man can be to destroy and how good God hath been to deliver That especially we English-men may take notice how wofull we might have been how happy we are and how thankfull we ought to be In order whereunto the Parliament first moved therein by Sir Edward Mountague afterward Baron of Boughton enacted an annuall and constant memoriall of that day to be observed 41. Certainly Iust complaint that the day is no better observed if this Plot had took effect the Papists would have celebrated this day with all solemnity and it should have taken the upper hand of all other Festivalls The more therefore the shame and pity that amongst Protestants the keeping of this day not as yet full fifty years old begins already to wax weak and decay So that the red letters wherein it is written seem daily to grow dimmer and paler in our English Kalender God forbid that our thankfulnesse for this great deliverance formerly so solemnly observed should hereafter be like the squibs which the Apprentices in London make on this day and which give a great flash and crack at the first but soon after go out in a stink 42. Matthew Hutton Archbishop of Yorke ended his religious life The death of Archbishop Hâ—tton descended from an antient Family of Hutton Haell as I take it in Lancashire Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge to the enlarging whereof he gave an hundred marks afterwards Master of Pembroke Hall and Margaret Professour then Bishop of Durham and Archbishop of Yorke One of the last times that ever he preached in his Cathedrall was on this occasion The Catholicks in Yorkeshire were commanded by the Queens Authority to be present at three Sermons and at the two first behaved themselves so obstreperously that some of them were forced to be gagged before they would be quiet The Archbishop preached the last Sermon most gravely and solidly taking for his Text Joh. 8. 47. He that is of God heareth Gods words ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God 43. Here I must clear the memory of this worthy Prelate A foul mistake râ—ctified from a mistake committed surely not wilfully but through false intelligence by a pen otherwise more ingenuous and professing respect to him and some familiarity with him Sir John Harrington in his Additional to Bishop Godwin page 192. This Archbishop his eldest Sonne is a Knight lately Sheriffe of Yorkeshire and of good reputation One other Son he had Luke Hutton by name so valiant that he feared not men nor laws and for a robbery done on Saint Luke's day for names sake he died as sad a death though I hope with a better minde as the Thief of whom Saint Luke writes The Archbishop herein shewed that constancy and severity worthy of his place for he would not endeavour to save him as the world thought he easily might The Truth Ann. Reg. Jac. 4. Ann. Dom. 1606. This worthy Prelate had but three Sonnes 1. Marke who died young 2. Sir Timothy Hutton Knighted Anno 1605. and Sheriffe of Yorkeshire 3. Sir Thomas Hutton Knight who lived and died also respected in his own Countrey As for this Luke Hutton he was not his but Son to Doctor Hutton Prebendarie of Durham This Archbishop was a learned man excepted even by a Jesuit who wrote in disgrace of the English as neglecting the reading of Fathers and another Matthew more qui unus in paucis versare Patres dicitur He founded an Hospitall in the North and endowed it with the yearly revenue of thirty five pounds 44. Two other Bishops this year also ended their lives The death of the Bishops of Rochester and Chichester In March John l See Bishop Godwin in his Catalogue Young Doctour in Divinity once Master of Pembroke Hall in Cambridge Bishop of Rochester in which See he sate above twenty seven years And Anthony Watson Fellow of Christs Colledge in Cambridge first Dean of Bristol and afterwards Bishop of Chichester whom Queen Elizabeth made Her Almoner namely after Bishop Fletcher at whose indiscrâ—et second marriage the Queen took distaste Bishop Watson died in September and alwaies led a single life 45. Father Henry Garnet was now most solemnly Garnet's education early viciousnesse and ceremoniously brought to the scaffold who because he is cried up by the Papists for so pretious a piece of piety we will be the larger in the delivery of his true character For although we will not cast dirt on the foulest face it is fit we should wash off the paint of counterfeit holinesse from the hypocriticall pretenders thereunto Bred he was in Winchester School where with some other Scholars he conspired to cut off his School-Masters Bilson's m Attested by Bishop Bilson of Winchester alive at Garnet's death and many years after right hand early his enmitie against Authority retrenching his riot but that his designe was discovered Being Prepositour of the School whose frown or favour was considerable to those under his inspection he sodomitically abused five n Rob Abbot in his Antilogia Epistle to the Reader or six of the handsomest youths therein Hereupon his School-Master advised him yea he advised himself rather silently to slink away than to stand Candidate for a repulse in
and no place assigned whence they were to be raised or where mustered is clog'd with much improbability The rather because onely the three persons as is aforesaid are mentioned by name of so vast a number 37. On the other side Leaveth all to the last day I am much startled with the Evidence that appeareth against him Anno Dom. 1414. Indeed I am little moved with what T. Walsingham writes Anno Regis Hen. quint. 2. whom all later Authors follow as a flock the Belweather knowing him a Benedictine Monk of S t Albanes bowed by interest to partiality but the Records of the Tower and Acts of Parliament therein wherein he was solemnly condemned for a Traitor as well as Heretick challenge belief For with what confidence can any private person promise credit from Posterity to his own Writings if such publick Monuments be not by him entertained for authentical Let M r Fox therefore be this Lord Cobhams Compurgator I dare not and if my hand were put on the Bible I should take it back again Yet so that as I will not acquit I will not condemn him but leave all to the last day of the * Rom. 2. 5. Revelation of the righteous judgment of God 38. This is most true The Lord Cobham taken in Wales that the Lord Cobham made his escape out of the Tower wherein he was imprisoned fled into Wales here he lived four years being at last discovered and taken by the Lord Powis Yet so that it cost some blows and bloud to apprehend him till a Woman at last with a Stool broke the Lord Cobham's Leggs whereby being lame he was brought up to London in a Horse-litter 39. At last he was drawn upon a hurdle to the Gallows His double death his Death as his Crime being double hang'd and burn'd for Traitor and Heretick Hence some have deduced the Etymologie of Tyburne from Ty and burne the necks of offending persons being ty'd thereunto whose leggs and lower parts were consumed in the flame 40. Stage-Poâ—t Unjustly made the Buffoon in playes have themselves been very bold with and others very merry at the Memory of S r John Oldcastle whom they have fancied a boon Companion a jovial Royster and yet a Coward to boot contrary to the credit of all Chronicles owning him a Martial man of merit The best is S r John Falstaffe hath relieved the Memory of S r John Oldcastle and of late is substituted Buffoone in his place but it matters as little what petulant Poets as what malicious Papists have written against him 41. Richard Fleming Doctor of Divinity Lincolne Col. founded designed by the Pope Arch-Bishop of York but to please King Henry the fifth contented with the Bishoprick of Lincoln about this time founded a Colledg named Lincoln-Colledg in Oxford It fared the worse because he died before it was fully finished and the best Guardian to an Orphan-foundation comes far short of the Father thereof Yet was this House happy in two bountiful Benefactors Thomas Beckington Bishop of Bath and Wells who according to the ingenuity of that Age hath left his Memory in a Beacon with a Tun on the Walls and Thomas Rotherham Arch-Bishop of York adding five Fellowships thereunto 42. Here I wonder what made f Bri. Twine in miscellaniis Nicholas Pont N Pont. great Anti L-incolnian Fellow of Merton Colledg and Scholar enough to be such a back-friend to this Colledg in the infancy thereof enveying bitterly against it This is that Pont whose Faith many distrust for his violent writing against t Pitz. Anno 1410. Wickliff but whose Charity more may dislike for his malice to this innocent Colledg except it was that he foresaw it would produce in time worthy Champions of the Truth Opposers of his erroneous Opinions as indeed it hath though I be unable to give a particular Catalogue of them 43. Indeed I could much desire were it in my power to express my service to this foundation The Author some weeks in though not of this house acknowledging my self for a quarter of a year in these troublesome times though no member of a dweller in it I will not complain of the dearness of this University where seventeen weeks cost me more then seventeen yeers in Cambridge even all that I had but shall pray that the students therein be never hereafter disturbed upon the like occasion 44. Amongst the modern worthies of this Colledge still surviving The Arch-Casuists of our Church and Age. D r Robert Saunderson late Regius Professor moveth in the highest Sphear as no less plain and profitable then able and profound Casuist a learning almost lost amongst Protestants wrapping up sharp thorns in rosie leaves I mean hard matter in sweet latine and pleasant expressions Rectors Anno Regis Hen. 5 8. 1. M r. Gul. Chamberlen 2. M r. John Beke 3. M r. Jo. Tristrope 4. D r. Geo. Srangwayes 5. M r. Gul. Betham 6. M r. Tho. Banke 7. M r. Tho. Drax. 8. D r. Jo. Cottisford 9. M r. Hugo Weston 10. M r. Christ. Hargrave 11. D r. Fra. Babington 12. M r. Hen. Henshaw 13. M r. John Bridgter 14. M r. John Tatam 15. D r. John Vnderhill 16. D r. Rich. Kilbie D r. Paul Hudd Bishops Anno Dom. 1421. Jo. Vnderhill Bp. of Oxford Benefactors 1. John Forrest Dean of Wells 2. John Southam Arch-Deacon of Oxford 3. William Findern Esquire 4. Henry Beauford Cardinall Bp. of Winchester 5. John Bucktot 6. Joh. Crosly Treasurer of Linc. 7. William Batz 8. Edward Darby 9. Will. Dagril Maj. of Oxford 10. Will. Bish 11. Edmund Audley 12. Joan Traps 13. Rich Kilbie late Rector Learned Writers * Pitz. de Script Ang. 6 p. 801. William Harris whose Writings are much esteemed by the Papists Richard Thornton So that at the present are maintained one Rector fourteen Fellows two Chaplains four Schollars which with Servants and other Commoners lately made up seventy two 43. We must not forget John Williams Bishop of Lincoln builds them a new Chappel Bishop of Lincolne bred in Cambridge related only to this House as Visitor thereof Here finding the Chappel built by John Forrest Dean of Wells in the Reign of King Henry the sixt old little and inconvenient he erected a far fairer Fabrick in the room thereof He had a good Precedent of a Cambridge man's bountie to this House even Thomas Rotherham Fellow of Kings Colledge and Master of Pembrooke Hall therein whom Bishop Williams succeeded as in the Bishoprick of Lincolne and the Archbishoprick of Yorke so in his Liberality to this Foundation 44. On the last of August 9 Aug. 31. King Henry the fifth ended his life 1422 in France The death and character of King Henry the fift one of a strong and active body neither shrinking in cold not sloathfull in heat going commonly with his head uncovered the wearing of Armour was no more cumbersome unto him
Fellows two Chaplains three Clerks six Choristers besides Officers and Servants of the Foundation with other Students the whole number being seventy The Fellows of this College are bound by their Statutes to be benè nati spendidè vestiti mediocriter docti in plano cantu Know Reader I was promised by my respected friend D r Jeremy Taylor late Fellow of this house well known to the world by his worth a Catalogue of the Eminent Scholars thereof but it seems the Press like Time and Tide staying for no man I have not been so happy seasonably to receive it 11. Six years did this Arch-Bishop survive the first Founding of this Colledg A tart jeer soberly returned He was a worthy man in his generation 1443 had not his vassalage to the Pope the epidemical disease of those dayes ingaged him in cruelty against the poor professors of the truth 21. May 3. Most of the Synods called by him toward the latter end of his life effected onely the advance of money the Clergy being very desirous to buy off the penalty of a Praemunire so pernicious to their proceedings but could not compleatly compass the same I have nothing else to observe of Arch-Bishop Chichely save the common tradition how King Henry the sixth acted herein by some misoclere-Countries otherwise in himself friend enough to Church-men sent this Arch-Bishop for a New-years-gift a shred-pie indeed as containing pieces of cloath and stuff of several sorts and colours in jeer because his father was a Taylor at Higham-Ferrars in Northampton-shire The Arch-Bishop thankfully received the gift even after he had seen the entrals thereof and courteously entertained the messenger Anno Regis Hen 6 21. requesting him to return to his Grace If my Lord the King do but as far exceed Henry the fifth whom God assoil his Father Anno Dom. 1443 as my meanness hath gone beyond my poor father he will make the most accomplished Monarch that ever was in Christendom John Stafford one of noble parentage succeeded in the place of Chichely deceased 12. This good precedent of the Arch-Bishops bounty 24. may be presumed a spur to the speed of the Kings liberality 1446 who soon after Founded Eaton Colledg The Founding of Eaton Colledg incorporate by the name of Praepositi Collegii Regalis Col. Beatae Mariae de Eaton juxta Winsor It seemeth these words Beatae Mariae are so necessary that being left out in a Lease wherein all the other Titles of the Foundation were inserted at large the said a A bridgment of Judge Diers reports Num. 379. Trin. Term. quarto Mariae Lease was adjudged void for that omission But know this verdict passed in Queen Maries dayes when Regina Maria made the mention of Beatae Mariae so essential thereunto 13. Indeed it was high time some School should be founded The bad Poetry of that Age. considering how low Grammer-Learning ran then in the Land as may appear by the following Verses made for King Henry the Founder as good no doubt as the generality of that Age did afford though scarce deserving Translation so that the worst scholar in Eaton Colledg that can make a Verse can make a better Luce tua qui natus erat Nicolae sacer Rex Henricus Sextus hoc stabilivit opus Vnctum qui Lapidem postquam ponebat in Eaton Hunc fixit Clerum commemorando suum Astiterant illi tunc Pontifices in honorem Actus solennis Regis Ecclesiae Ex Orientali * Medlo si bis septem pedetentim Mensurare velis invenies Lapidem In festo sancti Jacobi sanctam stabilivit Hic unctam Petram Regia sacra manus Annis M. CCCC sexto quarter Xque Regis H. Regni quinto jungendo Vicena Devout King Henry of that name the sixt Born Nic'las on thy day this building fixt In Eaton having plac'd a stone anointed In sign it for the Clergy was appointed His Prelates then were present so the more To honour the Kings acts and holy Chore. From Eastern midst whereof just fourteen feet If any measure they this stone shall meet On holy James his day the sacred hand Of Royal Henry caus'd this stone to stand M. four C s. fourty six since Christ was born When H. the Crown * Viz. Current otherwise but 24 compleat twenty five years had worn 14. This Colledg consisteth of one Provost A Bountiful Foundation God continue it Fellows a Schoolmaster and Usher with Kings Scholars Besides many Oppidanes maintained there at the cost of their friends so that were Eaton as also Winchester-School removed into Germany they would no longer be accounted Scholae but Gymnasia a middle terme betwixt a School and an Vniversity The Provostship of Eaton is accounted one of the Gentilest Anno Dom. 1446. and intirest preferments in England the Provost thereof being provided for in all particulars Anno Regis Hen. 6 24. to the very points of his hose my desire is one tag of them may not be diminished and as a pleasant * Prov. 28. 19. Courtier told King Henry the eighth an hundred pound a year more then enough Sir John Harrington in the continuation of Godwins Bish in Bish Day of Winchester How true this is I know not this I know if some Courtiers were to stint the enough of Clergy-men even the most industrious of them should with * Prov. 28. 19. Solomons sloathful man have poverty enough But take here a Catalogue of the Provosts of Eaton 1. Henry Seilver D. D. Almoner to King Henry the sixth 2. William Wainflet B. D. afterwards Bishop of Winchester 3. John Clerk B. D. died Provost the 7 th Novemb 1447. 4. William Westbury B. D. chosen Provost Anno 1448. 5. Hen. Bost B. D. he gave an hundred Marks and twenty pounds per an to the Colledg died the 7 th Feb. 1503. 6. Roger Lupton B. D. 7. Robert Aldridge afterwards Bishop of Carlisle 8. S r Tho. Smith Doct. of Law of Queens Colledg in Cambridg chosen Anno 1554. 9. Henry Colle D. D. and Law chosen in the same year 1554. 10. William Bill D. D. Almoner to Queen Elizabeth chosen July 5. 1559. 11. William Day B. D. Dean also of Windsor chosen Jan. 5. 1561. afterwards Bishop of Winchester 12. Sir Henry Savile Warden of Merton Colledg in Oxford chosen 3 June 1596. eminent to all posterity for his magnificent Edition of Saint Chrysostome in Greek 13. Tho. Murrey Esq Tutor and Secretary to King Charls whilst Prince 14. S r Henry * Whose Life is excellently written by my worthy fried Mr Isaac Walton Wotton famous for several Embassies chosen 1625. 15. Steward Doct. of Law and Dean of S t Pauls 16. Francis Rouse Esabque This Eaton is a nursery to Kings Colledg in Cambridg All that I will add is to wish that the prime Scholars in this School may annually be chosen to the University and when chosen their places may
ejusdem Provinciae ad conveniendum eorum vobis in Ecclesia Sancti Pauli London vel alibi prout melius expedire videritis cum omni celeritate accommoda modo debito convocari faciatis Ad tractandum consentiendum concludendum super praemissis aliis quae sibi clarius proponentur tunc ibidem exparte nostrâ Et hoc sicut nos statum Regni nostri honorem utilitatem Ecclesiae praedictae diligitis nullatenus omittatis Teste me ipso c. 7. In this Writ we may observe first Observations thereon that from the word Convocari faciatis the word Convocation took its denomination being formerly called Synods as lately since our Scotizing termed Assemblies Secondly that clause in Ecclesia Sancti Pauli London vel alibi prout melius expedire videritis pointeth at a power placed or rather a Liberty left to the Arch-Bishops to call their Synods elsewhere in case they adjudged it more convenient But because the Arch-Bishops and Bishops might the better attend their business in Parliaments henceforward commonly kept at the same time with Convocations S r Pauls in London was generally preferred for the place of their convention Thirdly this Writ was used even after the Reformation mutatis mutandis namely the title of Apostolical Legate to the Arch-Bishop being left out as also the names of Priors and Abbots are extinguished Lastly of this third Sort of Convocations was all those kept by Thomas Arundel and the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury his successors unto Thomas Cranmer or if you will from the sixteenth of Richard the second unto the twenty fifth of King Henry the eighth These Convocations did also make Canons as in Lynwood his Constitutions do appear which were binding although none other then Synodical authority did confirm them 8. The last sort of Convocations remains The last sort of Convocations called since the Statute the twenty fifth of King Henry the eighth that none of the Clergie should presume to attempt alledge claim or put in ure any Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial or Synodals or any other Canons Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial by whatsoever name or names they may be called in their Convocation in time coming which alwayes shall be assembled by the Kings Writ unless the same Clergie may have the Kings most Royal Assent and Licence to make promise and execute such Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial or Synodical upon pain of every one of the said Clergie doing the contrary to this Act and thereof convicted to suffer imprisonment and making Fine at the Kings will Since this year from Arch-Bishop Cranmer to Arch-Bishop Laud all Convocations so long as they lasted are born tongue-tied till the King did cut the string thereof with his Letters Patent allowing them leave to debate on matters of Religion Otherwise what they conclude are arrows without piles daggers without points too blunt to pierce into the practise of others but sharp enough to wound themselves and bring them within the compass of a Praemunire Yea even such Convocations with the Royal assent subject not any for recusancy to obey their Canons to a civil penalty in person or property until confirmed by Act of Parliament 9. This I humbly conceive to be the difference betwixt the three kindes of Convocations The Authors submission submitting what I have written to the censure and correction of the Learned in the Law conscious of my own ignorance therein as indeed such skill neither is to be expected or required in one of my profession who am ready with willingness yea with cheerfulness yea with thankfulness to God and man publickly to recall and retract what any such convince me to have mistaken herein hoping that my stumbling in so dark a subject may prevent the failing of others 10. There goeth a tradition taken up by many without examination that anciently the Clergie sat as one body with the Parliament A vulgar Errour and were not divided till in the Reign of King Henry the eighth as a * Calebut Downing modern Author hath written in a Tract But when I asked of Him where he had read the same he cited a French Letter of Cardinal Sadolets Strange that a Foraigner should be more seeing herein then any of our Native Authors and Records that I ever could behold But it may be the Error had its Original hence because anciently Bishops sitting in the Parliament did not alwayes appear personally or by the proxie of men of their own order but sometimes sent one or more of the inferiour Clergie to represent them if it be true what I have read in a small English book bearing the name of M r Selden but I question whether avowed by him of the proceedings in Parliament 11. John Fryth sealed the Truth with his bloud The Martyrdom of John Fryth one who justly may be said aged sixty at six and twenty so young was he Martyred such his learning Anno Dom. 1533 gravity Anno Regis Hen. 8 25. and constancy It was chiefly charged on him that he denyed the believing of the real presence in the Sacrament understand him de modo thereof to be an Article of the Faith though confessing Christ really present in the bread so he might not be compelled to the worshipping thereof But these things are set down largely in M r Fox Onely I will add that persons out of groundlesse suggest two scandals on this good man and his wives memory One that he was guilty of some practise against the State meerly because he was committed to the Tower The other that his wife being beyond the Seas with M r Tyndal expressing himself content with the will of God that for her sake she would not have the glory of God hindered desired to be rid of her husbands life that M r Tyndal might the more freely enjoy her company Thus this Jesuite being himself a Bastard measureth others by the chastity of his own Parents Indeed the aforesaid Tyndal much exhorted Fryth to patient suffering but not as those Cowardly Captains which encourage others to fight and themselves forsake the field because afterwards he valiantly brought up the rear and suffered for the same cause two years after 12. John Fisher Bishop of Rochester Bishop Fishers Letter for new cloaths and a Confessour was now prisoner in the Tower 1534 where he was but coursely used as appears by a Letter to M r Secretary Cromwel 26. a a Ex literis in Bibliothecâ Cottoniana FUrthermore I beseche yow to be gode Master unto me in my necessitic for I have neither Shirt nor Sute nor yet other Clothes that ar necessary to me to weare but that be ragged and torn to shamefully And now in mine Age my stomake may not away but with a few kind of meats which if I want I decay forthwith and fall into coffs and diseases of my body and cannot keep my selfe in health And as our Lord knoweth I
Though his death much affected his friends in Oxford The death of Robert Abbot Bishop of Salisbury Mar. 2. yet farre greater the grief of that University for the decease of Robert Abbot Bishop of Salisbury who died this year One of the honours not onely of that See but of the Church of England born at Guilford in Surrey of religious Parents as persevering in the Truth though g Abel Redivivus pag. 540. persecuted for the same in the Reign of Queen MARY Whose two younger Brothers George and Maurice the one came to be Archbishop of Canterbury the other was Lord Mayor of London and the first Knight of King CHARLES his dubbing This good Bishop his deserts without any other Friend or Spokesman preferred him to all his Promotions For Upon his Oration made on Queen ELIZABETH her Inauguration he was chosen Scholar and afterwards Fellow and Master of Baliol-Colledge Upon a Sermon preached At Worcester he was made Lecturer of that City At Paul's Crosse Master John Stanhoppe preferr'd him to the rich Benefice of Bingham in Nottingham-shire Before King JAMES he was nominated Successour to Doctor Holland in the Kings-Professour his place in Oxford Upon the same of his incomparable Lectures de potestate Regiâ and other labours he was made Bishop of Salisbury In conferring which Place the KING conquered all opposition which some envious persons raised against him witnesse His MAJESTIES pleasant speech Abbot I have had much to doe to makeâ— thee a Bishop but I know no reason for it unless it were because thou hast written a Booke against a Popish Preâ—â—â—e meaning William Bishop entituled by the Pope the Nominall Bishop of the Aâ—reall Diocesse of Calcedon which enraged the Courâ— Papists against him to obstruct his preferment The hour-glass of his life saith my h Dr. Fealty in the Life 〈◊〉 Bp. Abbor p. 549. Authour ran out the sooner for having the sand or gravel thereof stopt so great his grief of the stone though even whilst his body was on the rack his soule found ease in the assurance of salvation 54. About this time The Imp. stuâ—e of the Boy of Bilâ—on a Boy dwelling at Bilson in Stafford-shire William Perry by name not full fifteen years in age but above forty in cunning was practised on by some Jesuits repairing to the house of Mr. Gifford in that County to dissemble himself Possessed This was done on designe that the Priests might have the credit to cast out that Devil which never was in so to grace their Religion with the reputation of a Miracle 55. But now the best of the jest or rather the worst of the earnest Found ouâ— by Bishop Moâ—cton was the Boy having gotten a habit of counterfeiting leading a lazie life thereby to his own ease and Parents profit to whom he was more worth than the best Plough-land in the shire would not be undeviled by all their Exorcisms so that the Priests raised up a spirit which they could not allay At last by the industry of Dr. Moreton Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield the jugling was laid open to the world by the Boyes own confession and repentance who being bound an Apprentice at the Bishops cost verified the Proverb That an untoward Boy may make a good Man 56. Indeed all this KING's Reign was scattered over with Cheaters in this kinde Cheaters of several kindes Some Papists some Sectaries some neither as who dissembled such possession either out of malice to be revenged on those whom they accused of Witchcraft or covetousnesse to enrich themselves seeing such who out of charity or curiosity repaired unto them were bountifull in their relief But take a few of many Papists No Papists i See Bp. Harsnet his Book on this subject pag. 81. Sarah Williams lying past all sense in a Trance had a Devil say the Roma nists slipt up into her leg k John Gâ—â—'s Foot out of the snare pag. 53. Grace Sourebuts of Salmisbury in the County of Lancaster was perswaded by Southworth a Priest to dissemble possession to gain himself credit by Exorcising her l Idem pag. 54. Mary and Amie two Maids of Westminster pretended themselves in raptures from the Virgin Mary and Michael the Arch-Angel m Idem p. 55. Edward Hance a Popish Priest born at Lutterworth in Leicester-shire gave it out that he was possessed of the Blessed Trinity Rich Haydok Fellow of New-Colledge in Oxford preached in his dreams Latine Sermons against the Hierarchie He afterwards recanted lived in good esteem to a great age in Salisbury practising Physick being also an excellent Poet Limner and Ingraver Anne Gunter a Maid of Windsor gave it out she was possessed of a Devil was transported with strange Extaticall Phrensies A Maid at Standon in Hartfordshire which personated a Demoniack so lively that many judicious persons were deceived by her See we this Catalogue consists most of the weaker sex either because Satan would plant his Battery where easiest to make a Breach or because he found such most advantaged for dissembling and his Cloven-foot best concealed under Long coats Indeed some Feminine weaknesses made them more strong to delude the ruines of the Disease of the Mother being the best Foundation to build such Impostourie thereon 57. K. James remembring what Solomon n Prov. 25. 2. King James his dexterity in detecting them Ann. Dom. 1618. Ann. Regis Jac. 16 saith It is the honour of a King to search out a matter was no lesse dexterous than desirous to make discovery of these Deceits Various were His waies in detecting them awing some into confession with His presence perswading others by promise of pardon and fair usage He ordered it so that a Proper Courtier made love to one of these be witched Maids and quickly Cupid his Arrows drave out the pretended Darts of the Devil Another there was the Tides of whose Possession did so Ebbe and Flow that punctually they observed one hour till the KING came to visit her The Maid loath to be so unmannerly as to make His MAJESTY attend her time antedated her Fits many houres and instantly ran through the whole Zodiack of tricks which she used to play A third strangely-affected when the first verse of S. John's Gospel was read unto her in our Translation was tame and quiet whilst the same was pronounced in Greek her English Devil belike understanding no other language The frequency of such forged Possessions wrought such an alteration upon the judgement of King JAMES that he receding from what he had written in his Demonologie grew first diffident of and then flatly to deny the workings of Witches and Devils as but Falshoods and Delusions 58. K. James having last year in His progress passed through Lancashire The Kings Declaration for liberty on the Lords day May 24. took notice That by the preciseness of some Magistrates and Ministers in severall places of this Kingdome in hindring people from