Selected quad for the lemma: war_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
war_n	high_a	king_n	treason_n	3,672	5	9.5249	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56127	The antipathie of the English lordly prelacie, both to regall monarchy, and civill unity: or, An historicall collection of the severall execrable treasons, conspiracies, rebellions, seditions, state-schismes, contumacies, oppressions, & anti-monarchicall practices, of our English, Brittish, French, Scottish, & Irish lordly prelates, against our kings, kingdomes, laws, liberties; and of the severall warres, and civill dissentions occasioned by them in, or against our realm, in former and latter ages Together with the judgement of our owne ancient writers, & most judicious authors, touching the pretended divine jurisdiction, the calling, lordlinesse, temporalities, wealth, secular imployments, trayterous practises, unprofitablenesse, and mischievousnesse of lordly prelates, both to King, state, Church; with an answer to the chiefe objections made for the divinity, or continuance of their lordly function. The first part. By William Prynne, late (and now againe) an utter-barester of Lincolnes Inne.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1641 (1641)	Wing P3891A; Wing P3891_vol1; Wing P4074_vol2_CANCELLED; ESTC R18576	670,992	826

further revenge whereas Simon Langthon his brother by his procurement had beene elected to the Sea of Yorke a strange example to have an whole Kingdome ruled by two Brethren of so turbulent humors the Pope not onely did cassate his Election but likewise made him uncapable of any Episcopall Dignity placing in that Sea Walter Gray a trustie ●riend to the King and a professed enemie to the Langhtons whose Pall cost him no lesse than a thousand pound King Iohn having thus procured all his Barons to be excommunicated and the City of London siding with them to be interdicted and the Arch-Bishops suspension to be confirmed the Barons and Arch-Bishop held these Censures in such high contempt that they decreed neither themselves nor the Citizens should observe them nor the Prelates denounce them alledging that they were procured upon false suggestions and that the Pope had no power in Secular matters from Christ but onely in Spirituall and that Prelates had nothing at all to doe with Warres and thereupon sent for Lewis the Dolphin of France to receive the Crowne of England Who not so voyd of Ambition as to lose a Crown for want of fetching was not long behind landing here in England in despight of the Popes inhibition and threats of Excommunication to hinder him with a great Army and Fleete of sixe hundred Boates. After which he repaires to L●ndon electing Simon Langhton for his Chancelor the Arch-Bishops Brother the Arch-bishop being the chiefe man in this Rebellion and Trea●on against King Iohn by whose Counsell and Preaching the Citizens of London and Barons though all excommunicated by the Pope did celebrate Divine Service and drew on Lewis to doe the like King Iohn levying a great Armie and hasting to give Battaile to those Rebels and Enemies comming to Swinshed Abbey was poysoned in a Chalice by a Monke of that House who went to the Abbor and shrived himselfe telling him how he intended to give the King such a Drinke that all England should be glad and joyfull thereof at which the Abbot wept for joy and praysed God for the Monkes constancie who being absolved before-hand by the Abbot tooke the Cup of Poyson and therewith poysoned both the King and himselfe to doe the Arch-Bishops and Prelates a favour since this King could not abide the pride and pretended authority of the Clergie when they went about to wrest out of his hands the Prerogative of his Princely Government He dying Henry his young Son was received to the Kingdome Lewis forsaken the Barons absolved by the Pope and Clergie-men too after a composion payd by them After this Stephen Langhton enshrines his Predecessor Becket as great a Traytor as himselfe in a very sumptuous Shrine the King and greatest part of the Nobility of the Realme being present at the solemnity which done this Arch-Traytor after he had endeavoured to raise a new Warre betweene the King and the Nobles dyed himselfe Iuly 9. 1228. To obscure whose Treasons and Rebellions our Monkes who writ the Histories of those times have raised up many slanders and lyes of this poysoned King Iohn to his great defamation Richard Wethershed the very next Arch-Bishop withstood King Henry the 3. who in Parliament demanded Escuage of those who held any Baronies of him maintaining that the Clergie ought not to be subject unto the judgement of Laymen though all the Laitie and other of the Spiritualty consented to the King After this hee had a great controversie with Hubert de Burgo Earle of Kent concerning some Lands of the Earle of Gloucester the profits whereof the Arch-Bishop challenged as due unto him in the minority of the sayd Earle The Arch-Bishop complained of the pretended wrong to the King with whom Hubert was very gracious for the good service he had done him in defending Dover Castle against the French and finding no remedy answerable to his minde at the Kings hands who answered him truely That the Lands were held of him in capite and so the wardship of them belonged to himselfe not to the Arch-Bishop hee thereupon excommunicated all the Authors of this his supposed injury the King onely excepted and then gat him to Rome the common Sanctuary and receptacle for all Rebellious Traytorly Prelates this being the first Excommunication that was pronounced against any man for invading the Temporalties of the Church The King hereupon sends divers to Rome to stop the Arch-bishops proceedings and defend his Royall Prerogative The Pope notwithstanding delighted much with the eloquence gravity and excellent behaviour of the Arch-Bishop granted presently all his demands even in prejudice of the Kings Crowne and Right Little joy had he of his Victory for being but three dayes in his way homeward he fell sicke at Saint Gemma and dyed In this Bishops time the Italians had gotten many Benefices in England who being much spited at certaine mad fellowes tooke upon them to thresh out their Corne every where and give it unto the poore as also to rob and spoyle them of their money and other goods after which the Italians were not so eager upon English Benefices Saint Edmund Arch-Bishop of Cante●bury had many bickerings with King Henry the third hee was baptized in the same Font that Thomas Becket his Predecessour was and somewhat participated of his disposition Being consecrated Arch-Bishop he presently fell into the Kings displeasure by opposing himselfe against the marriage of Elianor the Kings Sister with Simon Moun●fort Earle of Leicester because upon the death of the Earle Marshall her first Husband she had vowed Chastitie to have which vow dispensed withall the King procured the Pope to send Otto his Legate into England betweene whom and the Arch-Bishop there were many quarrels This Arch-Prelate refused to appeare upon summons before the King went to Rome where he made many complaints not onely against Otto but against the King himselfe ●or certaine injuries received at his hands yet with ill successe and was foiled in two severall suites both with the Monkes of Rochester and the Earle of Arundel to whom he was condemned in a thousand Markes to his great disgrace and impoverishing Hee Excommunicated the Monkes of Canterbury for chusing a Prior without his consent The Popes Legate absolving them for money h● excommunicated them afresh and interdicted their Church till Otto decided the Controversie which Otto excommunicated Fredericke the Emperour first in the Monastery of Saint Albanes and then publickly in Pauls Church and collected infinite summes of money here in England to maintaine the Popes warres against him which the Emperour tooke very ill at the Kings hands This Arch-Bishop for a great summe of money obtained a Grant f●om the Pope in derogation of the Kings Supremacie that if any Bishopricke continued voyd by the space of sixe moneths it should bee lawfull for the Arch-Bishop to conferre it on whom he list which the King procured the Pope immediately to revoke Polichronicon writes that hee called

Royalties in their Ecclesiasticall Courts Hee thereupon sent forth Writs to restraine them to this effect Rex Archiepiscopis c. The King to the Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbots Priors Deanes Arch-Deacons Chancellours Praecentors Provosts Sacrists Prebends in Cathedrall and Collegiate Churches and to all other Ecclesiasticall Persons constituted in what-ever Dignity or Office as also to publike Notaries and all others greeting It behoveth us so much the more carefully to doe our endeavour and more solici●ously to extend our hand to our Royall Prerogatives lest they ●hould utterly perish or by the undue Usurpations of any be in some ●ort substracted by maintaining them as farre as we lawfully may by reducing them to their due state● if any of them have beene substracted and seized on as likewise by bridling the impugners o● our said Royall Jurisdictions and by punishing them as it is meet according to their demerits And so much the rather by how much we are knowne to be obliged to doe it by the Bond of an Oath and behold more men from day to day to impugne the same Rights to their utmost power whereas we have recovered in our Court before us by consideration of the said Cour● our Collation to the Prebend of S. in the Church of Saint Peters in Yorke c. And now we have understood that certaine men endeavouring with all th●●r might to impugne our Royall Right and for●sai● Judgement as likewise our Collation made to our said Clerke have made and procured to be made certaine Provocations Appeale● Indictions Inhibitions c. by the which if they should proceed our Royall Right and foresaid Judgement and the effect of our Collation should be annulled which might many wayes generate prejudice and exheredation to us and our Crowne We desiring by all meanes we may to preven● such prejudice and exheredation and to restraine the unlawfull endeavours of all the impugners of the Rights of our Crowne strictly prohibite you and every of you that you doe not by pretext of any Commission made or hereafter to be made to you or any of you presume by any Authority without our advice to attempt or by others in any so●● cause to be attempted any thing which may tend to the derogation of our Royall Right or annulling of the ●oresaid Judgement rightly given or the weakening of our said Collation knowing that if you shall doe otherwise we will proceed to apprehend you in a grievous manner Tanquam violatores Iuris nostri Regii as violaters of our Royall Right By these Writs the Usurpations of this Arch Prelate and the Bishops on the Kings Royall Prerogative and Courts of Justice were somewhat restrained otherwise they had in time made themselves absolute Kings and the Kings of England meere Cyphers and onely executioners of their Papall pleasures Robert Winchelsie his Successour exceedingly opposed his Soveraigne King Edward the first Who having spent an infinite summe of Money in the Warres of Scotland summon●d a Parliament at Barwicke wherein when the Temporalty contributed liberally toward the charge of that Warre the Clergy alledging the Canon of the late Councell of Lyons wherein it was decreed That no Clergie-man should pay any Ayde or Subsidie to any Temporall Magistrate without the Popes licence which Canon the Arch-Bishop alledged against the Subsidie granted by the Clergy two yeares before in his absence causing them then to set it downe for a Canon afterwards to be kept inviolably refused to grant the King a Subsidy without the Popes consent and would then give no Subsidy nor supply at all to the King though at the same time they readily granted three Subsidies to the Pope towards his Warres against the French The King would not take this for payment and therefore presently tooke order That all Barnes of these undutifull rebellious Clergy-men should be locked up and by Proclamation put all the Clergy from out of his protection so that hereafter it should be lawfull for any man to sue them for any Cause but they might not commence Suite against any man holding a Parliament with his Temporall Lords and Commons onely and shutting the Bishops and Clergy out of the Parliament house This constrained some of the Clergy after much contest though animated and sollicited by the Arch-Bishop still to resist to submit to the King at last and to be content to grant him such a proportion of their goods though it were the fifth part of their Revenues as he should like of onely the Arch-Bishop the Head of this ●action continued obstinate making no other answer to the King but this Under God our universall Lord we have two other Lords a Spirituall Lord the Pope and a Temporall Lord the King and though wee be to obey both yet rather the Spirituall Lord then the Temporall When therefore he saw all the rest inclining to yeeld using no other words then this Salvet unusquisque animam suam Let every man save his owne Soule as if Rebellion against his Prince were the only meanes to save his soule and pronouncing all those excommunicated that contributed any thing to the King he rose up and suddenly departed out of the Convocation House The King for this his contumacy seized all his Lands and commanded all such Debts of his as were found in the Rolls of the Exchequer to be le●ed with all speed on his Goods and Cattell which he seized into his hands and made shew of great displeasure Notwithstanding shortly after being to make Warre with the French King in France hee thought good before his departure to receive this Arch-Rebell to favour againe who had caused the King to be cited up to the Court of Rome and there suspended But this grace endured not long for presently upon his returne the King laid divers high Treasons to his charge as That he had dehorted his Subjects in his absence from paying their Sub●idies That he went about to trouble the quiet state of the Realme and to defend and succour Rebellious persons That he had conspired with divers of his Nobility to deprive him of his Kingdome though the best Prince that ever England had before to commit him to perpetuall Prison and to Crowne his Sonne Edwa●d King in his stead and that he was the Ring-leader and Authour of this Conspiracy The Arch-Bishop no● able to deny these Treasons and being suspended from his Office by the Pope till he should purge himselfe of these things he fell downe on the ground at the Kings feete craving pardon of his heynous offences with teares and howling calling the King then his Lord which he never did before neither with his month nor in his Letters Thus this proud Prelate ex●crable both to God and man who had twice a little before prohibited the King in the Popes name to make Warre with the rebellious and treacherous Scots his Enemies who had invaded his Kingdome in his absence because the Pope had taken them into his protection who had

the King and his Barons to complaine against the blanke Bulls found in the chests of Be●ard de Nympha the Popes agent after his death and of the many machinations of the Romanes to disquiet the Realme Iohn Ger●sey next Bishop of W●nchester consecrated at Rome where ●e payd 6000. markes to the Pope and so much more to his Chancellour for his consecration was a great stickler in the Barons warres against King Henry the third as appeares by the forecited passages of Matthew Westminister and was excommunicated by Octobon the Popes Legate for taking part against the King in the Barons warres and forced to goe to Rome for his absolution where he died Henry Woodlocke Bishop of Winchester made request to King Edward the first for Robert Winchelsey Archbishop of Canterbury whom the King had banished for high Treason in which request he called the Archbishop an arch-Traytor his good Lord which the King as he had cause tooke so hainously that he confiscated all his goods and renounced all protection of him Adam Tarleton or de Arleton Bishop of Winchester about the yeere 1327. was arrested and accused of high Treason for aiding the Mortimers against King Edward the second both with men and armour when he was brought to the barre to be arraigned for this Treason the Archbishops of Canterbury Yorke and Dublin with their suffragans came with their Crosses● and rescued him by force carrying him with them from the barre in such manner as I have formerly related more at large in the Acts of Wal●er Rainolds pag. 55.56 Notwithstanding the indictment and accusation being found true his temporalities wereseized into the Kings hands untill such time as the King much deale by his imagination and devise was deposed of his Kingdome If he which had beene a traytor unto his Prince before after deserved punishment for the same would soone be intreated to joyne with other in the like attempt it is no marvell No man so forward as he in taking part with Isabell the Queene against her husband King Edward the second She wi●h her sonnes and army being at Oxford this good Bishop steps up into the pulpit and there taking for his Text these words My head grieved me he made a long Discourse to prove that an evill head not otherwise to be cured must be taken away applying it to the King that hee ought to be deposed A Bishoplike application Hereupon they having gotten the King into their power the Bishop fearing least if at any time recovering his liberty crowne again they might receive condigne punishment councelled the Queene to make him away good ghostly advice of a Prelate wherupon she being as ready and willing as he to have it done they writ certaine letters unto the keepers of the old King signifiing in covert termes what they desired they either not perfectly understanding their meaning or desirous of some good warrant to shew for their discharge pray them to declare in expresse words whether they would have them put the King to death or no. To which question this subtile Fox framed this answer Edwardum occidere nolite timere bonum●est without any point at all If you set the point betweene nolite and t●aere it forbiddeth if betweene nolite and bonum it ●xhorteth them to the committinng of the fact This ambiguous sentence unpointed they take for a sufficient warrant and most pittifully murthered the innocent King by thrusting an hot spit into his fundament and who then so earnest a persecuter of those murthere●s as this Bishop that set them a worke who when diverse of his Letters were produced and shewed to him warranting this most trayterly inhumane Act eluded and avoided them by Sophisticall interpretations and utterly denied that he was any way consenting to this hainous fact of which in truth he was the chiefe occasion How clearely he excused himselfe I ●now not But s●re I am he like many Arch-trayterly Prelates before him● who were oftner rewarded than punished for their Treasons was so farre from receiving punishment as within two moneths after he was preferred unto Hereford than to the Bishoppricke of Worce●er and sixe yeares after that translated to Winchester by the Pope● at the request of the French King whose secret friend he was which King Edward the third taking in very ill part because the French King and he were enemies detained his temporalties from him till that in Parliament at the suite of the whole Cleargie he was content to yeeld them unto him after which he became blinde in body as hee was before in minde and so died deserving to have lost his head for these his notorious Treasons and conspiracies long before he being the Archplotter of all the Treacheries against King Edward the second Anno. 10. Richard the third 1366. thirteene Lords were appointed by Parliament to have the government of the Realme under the King in diminution of his Prerogative among these Williara Edingdon Bishop of Winchester Iohn Gilbert Bishop of Hereford Lord Treasurer of England Thomas Arundle Bishop of Ely and Chancellour Nicholas Abbat of Waltham Lord Keeper of the privy Seale VVilliam Archbishop of Canterbury Alexander Archbishop of Yorke and Thomas Bishop of Exeter were chiefe and the principall contrivers of this new project which fell out to be inconvenient and pernicious both to the King and Realme the very procurers of this Act as some of the J●dges afterwards resolved deserving death which resolution afterward cost some of them their lives● as the Stories of those times declare It seemes this Bishop made great havocke of the goods of his Church for his successor V●illiam VVicham sued his Executors for dilapidations and recovered of them 1672. pound tenne shillings● besides 1566. head of neate 386. Weathers 417. Ewes 3521. Lambes and 127. Swine all which stocke it seemeth belonged unto the Bishoppricke of VVinchester at that time William Wicham his next successor was a great Pluralist the yearely revenues of his spirituall promotions● according as they were then rated in the Kings bookes beside his Bishoppricke amounting to 876. pound● thirteene shillings and foure pence besides these Ecclesiasticall preferments he held many temporall offices at the Secretariship the Keepership of the Privy Seale the Mastership of Wards the Treasurership of the Kings revenues in France and divers others Being consecrated Bishop of VVinchester in the yeare 1367. he was made soone after first Treasurer then Chancellor of England It seemes that he was a better Treasurer for himselfe than the King who though hee received hugh summes of money by the ransome of two Kings and spoile of divers large Countries abroad and by unusuall subsedyes and taxations at home much grudged at by the Commons was yet so bare as for the payment of his debts he was constrained to find new devices to raise mony whereupon a solemne complaint was framed against this Bishop for vainely wasting or falsely imbezelling the Kings

all pesti●ent filth that hath infected the State and government of the Church and Common-wealth looke upon him in his dependancies and he is the man the onely man that hath raised and advanced all those that together with himselfe have beene the Authors and causers of all the ruines miseries and calamities we now groane under Who is it but he onely that hath brought the Earle of Strafford to all his great places and imployments a fit instrument and spirit to act and execute all his wicked and bloody designes in thes● Kingdomes Who is it but he onely that brought in Secretary Winde●anke into the place of Secretary and trust the very Broker and P●nder to the Whore of Babylon Who is it Mr. Speaker but he onely that hath advanced all Popish Bishops I shall name some of them Bishop Manwaring the Bishop of Bathe and Wells the Bishop of Oxford and Bishop Wren the least o● all but the most uncleane one These are men that should have sed Christs Flocke but they are the Wolves that devoured them the Sheepe should have fed upon the Mountaines but the Mountaines have eaten up the Sheepe It was the happinesse of the Church when the zeale of Gods house did eate up the Bishops glorious and brave Martyrs that went to the stake in defence of the Protestants religion but the zeale of these Bishops have beene to eate up and persecute the Church Who is it Mr. Speaker but the great Arch-Bishop of Canterbury that hath sit at the Helme to guide and steere them to all the managing of their Projects that have beene set on foote in this Kingdome these ten yeares last past and rather than he would stand out he hath most unworthily trucked and chaffered in the meanest of them As for instance that of Tobacco wherein thousands of poore people have beene stripped and turned out of their trade● for which they have served as Apprentises we all know he was the Compounder and Contractor with them for the Licences putting them to pay Fines and Fee-Farme-rents to use their Trades Certainely Mr. Speaker he might have spent his time better and more for his grace in the Pulpit then thus sharking and taking in the Tobacco shop Mr. Speaker we all know what he hath beene charged withall here in this House Crim●s of a dangerous consequence and of transcendent nature no lesse than the subversion of the Government of this Kingdome and the alteration of the Protestant Religion and this not upon bare information onely but much of it comes before us already upon cleare and manifest poofes and there is scarce any businesse Grievances or Complaints come before us in this place wherein we doe not finde him intermingled and as it were twisted into it like a busie and angry Waspe his sting in the taile of everything We have this day heard the report of the Conference yesterday and in it the Accusations which the Scottish Natio● hath charged him withall And we doe all know he is guilty of the same if not more in this Kingdome Mr. Speaker he hath beene and is the common enemie to all goodnesse and good men and it is not safe that such a viper should be neere to his Majesties person to distill his poyson into his Sacred eares nor is it safe for the Common wealth that he should sit in so eminent a place of Government being thus accused we know what we did in the Earle of Straf●ords case This man is the corrupt Fountaine that hath in●ected all the streames and till the fountaine be purged we cannot expect to have any cleare Channels I shall be bold therefore to offer my opinion and if I erre it is the errour of my judgement and not my want of zeale and affection to the publicke good I conceive it most necessary and fit that we should now take up a Resolution to doe somewhat to strike whilst the Iron is hot And goe up to the Lords in the name of the Commons of this House and in the name of the Commons of England and to accuse him of High Treason and to desire their Lordships his person may be sequestred and that in convenient time they may bring up the Charge Which soone after was accordingly executed as you have already seene By these speeches Articles of High Treason against this Arch-Prelate it is apparent that his Treasons equall if not far exceed the Treasons of any of his Predecessors in the darkest mists of Popery and that he like his Predecessor Austin hath endeavored to rayse a bloody civill warre betweene England Ireland and Scotland onely for opposing his all-subduing Archiepiscopall Jurisdiction extended by him over all his Majesties three Kingdomes and for refusing to receive those Superstitious Romish Ceremonies and Innovations which he would have violently thrust upon them yea it is evident by these Articles that he is the primum mobile whence all our late warres tumults uproares and divisions proceeded● and the spring whence all our insupportable grievances both in our Church and State have originally flowed And so by his owne late published maxime A schisme must needes be theirs whose the cause of it is and he makes the separation that gives the first just cause thereof the blame of all these late schismes warres and intolerable grievances whether Civill or Ecclesiasticall must rest intirely on his head who as he is like to leave no heires of his body law●ully begotten to inherit his vertues so it is pity he should leave any successour behinde him in his See to perpetuate his and his Predecessors Treasons with other their Archiepiscopall vices It is his owne late resolution The condition of the Church were most miserable if it should be constrained to acknowledge a Wolfe manifestly raging for her shepheard and it is likewise his observation A man may become of a Pastor a Wolfe and since Iudas changed from an Apostle to a Devill Joh 6. It is no wonder to see others change from shepheards into Wolves● I doubt the Church is not empty of such changlings at this day Whether himselfe and his forementioned Predecessors have not proved such Wolves and changlings by reason of the Venome of their Archiepisco●all Chaire and whether the condition of our Church were not most miserable if she should be still constrained to acknowledge these Arch-Wolves of Canterbury manifestly raging to be her Shepheards and still to maintaine an interrupted succession of them to devoure the poore sheepe of Christ both soule and body and to be perpetuall pests Traytors and incendiaries to our Church and State as their Predecessours have ever beene I shall submit to those whom it most concernes who have now sufficient power and opportunity in their hands to redresse all incumbent and prevent all future mischiefes in this kinde I could now gladly wade out of this dangerous See of Canterbury wherein I have so long roved did not the Acts of some other ancient Prelates of it next successors to Augustine

King hereupon moved with pitty sends forth his Proclamations That all such as were out-lawed or proscribed should be at Glocester upon a certaine day there to be received into the Kings favour againe and to have restitution of their inheritances● but least they might suspect any evill measure it was ordered that they should be in the Churches protection and come under the safe conduct of the Archbishop and the other Prelates● Thither at the time and place limitted doth Hubert de Burgo Earle of Kent and lately chiefe Justicier of England repaire upon whom by mediation of the Bishop the compassionate King lookes graciously receiving him in his armes● with the kisse of peace In like sort was the Lord Gilbert Basset and all others of that fellowship received into favour their severall livings and rights fully restored and both Hubert and Basset admitted to be of his Councell Vpon this reconcilement the practise by which the late great Marshall was destroyed and his possessions dismembred came to light the coppy of the Letters which had beene sent into Ireland being by commandement of the Archbishop of Canterbury openly read in the presence of the King the Prelates Earles and Barons It moved teares in all of them the King with an Oath affirming that he knew not the Contents of the said Letters though by the urging of the Bishop of Winchester Rivallis Segrave Passeletu with other of his Councell hee had caused his Seale to be put unto them At the sound of Summons to make their severall appearances the Malefactors take Sanctuary the Bishop and Peter de Rivallis in Winchester Church Segrave in Leicester Abby Passeleiu in the new Temple and others otherwhere And some write that the King commanded Winchester utterly to depart the Court and to repaire to his Bishopricke and there to give himselfe intirely to the cure of soules If such a precept were now given by his Majesty to all our Court Prelates it would be but just In the end upon the intercession of Edraond Archbishop of Canterbury who piously endeavoured to extinguish all occasions of further dissention in the Kingdome and undertooke they should have a lawfull triall the delinquents appeared at Westminster before the King who sate in person with his Justiciers upon the Bench Peter de Rivallis was first called for the Bishop came not whom the King shot through with an angry eye saying O thou Traytor by thy wicked advise I was drawne to set my Seale to these treacherous Letters for the destruction of the Earle Marshall the contents whereof were to me unknowne and by thine and such like councell I banished my naturall Subjects and turned their rainds and hearts from me By thy bad councell and thy complices I was moved to make warre upon them to my irreparable losse and the dishonour of ray Realme In which enterprize I wasted my treasure and lost many worthy persons together with much of my royall respect therefore I exact of thee an account as well of my treasure as of the custodies of wards together with many other profits and escheats belonging to my Crowne Peter denying none of the accusations but falling to the ground thus besought him My Soveraigne Lord and King I have beene nourished by you and made rich in worldly substance confound not you owne creature but at least wise grant me a time of deliberation that I may render a competent reason for such poynts as I am charged with Thou shalt said the King be carried to the Tower of London there to deliberate till I am satisfied he was so Step●en de Segrave the Lord chiefe Justice whom the King also called most wicked Traytor had time till Michaelmas to make his accounts at the Archbishops and other Bishops humble intreaty and for other matters hee shifted them of from himselfe by laying the blame upon such as were higher in place than he into whose office of chiefe Justice Hugh de Pateshull is advanced The like evasion Robert Passeleu had● by leaving the fault upon Walter Bishop of Carleil who was above him in the Exchequer And thus were these civill enormities reformed not without reducing store of coyne to the King this Bishop of VVinchester being the chiefe Author of all these warres and mischiefes which thus molested King State and People at that time Anno. 1238. Otho the Popes Legate lodging at Osnie Abby some of his servants abusing the Schollers of Oxford that came thither to see him they thereupon falling together by the eares slew the Legates Cooke and hurt other of his servants reviling the Legate and stiling him a wicked wretch a Robber of England the gulfe of Roman avarice c. Hereupon the Legate fled up into the Towne for feare and sent to the King to Abindon to rescue him the next day he publikely excommunicated all who had assaulted him depriving them both from their office and benefice and pronouncing them irregular interdicted all the Churches in Oxford and suspended the Schollers from studying there the which Sentence was by this Bishop of VVinchester solemnely denounced and executed before all the Clergy and people assembled together for that purpose at S. Frideswids in Oxford and so all that Summer the Schollers were dissipated their study at Oxford was suspended At length the Abbot and Canons of Osnie and regent Masters of Oxford comming bare foote to the Legate with their heads uncovered and their upper garments put off and rent oft times humbly craved pardon of him● and so at last going through the midst of the Citty of London to the Bishop of Durhams house they with much adoe obtained pardon whereupon the Schollers were restored to their Study at Oxford and released from their said sentences An. 1246. The Pope writ to William Bishop of VVinchester and the Bishop of Lincolne that they should levy 6000. markes of the Cleargy to his use They thereupon began to execute this mandate of the Pope but are prohibited by the King to proceede under paine of proscription The Cleargy now interposed betweene the King Pope and terrified with both their threats● were uncertaine what to doe but perceiving the Kings inconstancy and fearing least his courage failing he should at last as he often had done before yeeld to the Pope● many of them paying their money secretly avoided both the Kings and Popes indignation To prevent these exactions messengers were sent to the Pope from the King Peeres Prelates and Commons of England these the Pope reviles and repels as Schismaticks saying The King of England who now turnes his heeles against me and Frederizeth hath his Councell but I have mine With which scornefull words the King was so moved that he proclaimed through England That no man should pay any thing to the Pope But the Pope growing more angry hereat threatned the Prelates with all kinde of punishment that they should pay the foresaid summe to his Nuncio in the new Temple very spedily The King terrified with the

Common-wealth h●th sustained by the exorbitant courses of the Bishops and knowing well what the wiseman saith Eccles. 8.11 Tha● i● sen●●nce be not speedily executed against ●n evill w●rke the h●arts ●f the son●e of men are set upon further mischiefe ●he timely r●dr●sse whe●eof doth better become the wisedome of Parliament● then a too-late wofull r●pentance have commanded me to represent unto your Lordships That Walter Bishop of Winchester Robert Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield Godfry Bishop of Glocester Joseph Bishop of Ex●ester John B●shop of Asaph William Bishop of Bath and Wells Geo●ge B●shop of Hereford Matthew Bishop of Ely William B●shop of Bangor Robert Bishop of Bris●oll John B●shop of Roch●ster John Bish●p of Peterborough Morgan Bishop of Landaffe Together with Willi●m Archbishop of Canterbury and others of the Clergie of that Province at a Convocation or Synod for the same Province begun at London in the yeare 1640. did contrive make and promulg● severall Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiasticall containing in them divers matters contrary to the Kings Prerogative to the fundamentall L●wes and Statutes of the Realme to the Rights of Parliament to the Propriety and Liberty of the Subjects and matters tending to sedition and of dangerous consequence And to adde the more weigh● and efficacie to this their monstrous designe They did at the same Synod under a specious and faire Title grant a Ben●vol●nce or Contribution to his Majesty to be paid by the Clergy of that Province contrary to Law It rested not there for though this had beene enough to have affrighted and terr●fied the Kings people with strange apprehensions and feares yet that these might not seem to be contrivancies of their brain or Fancies o●ly● they were put in Execution and were executed upon divers with animosity and rigour to the great oppression of the Clergy of this Realme and other his Majesties subjects and in contempt of the King and of the Law Whether these persons my Lords that are culpable of these Offences shall be thought fit to have an Interest in the Legislative power your Lordships Wisdome and Justice is able to judge But for these matters ●nd things the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House in Parliament in the name of themselves and of all the Commons of England doe impeach the said Bishops before-named of the Crimes and Misdemeanors before expressed and do therefore pray that they may bee forthwith put to their Answers in the Presence of the Commons and that such further Proceedings may bee had against them as to Law and Justice shall appertaine Now that the world may take notice what Power the Clergy in their Con●ocation have to make Canons and Constitutions to bind the subjects and of what validity their late Canons are I shall avouch the Votes of the Commons House concerning them as I find them printed at the end of this Impeachme●t of Bishops The Votes concerning the Bishops late Booke of Canons in the House of Commons THat the Clergy of England convented in any Convocation or Synod or otherwise have no power to make any Constitutions Canons or Acts whatsoever in matter of doctrine or otherwise to binde the Clergy or Laity of this Land without the common consent of Parliament That the severall Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiasticall treated upon by the Archbishops of Canturbury and Yorke Presidents of the Convocation for the respective Provinces of Canterbury and Yorke and the rest of the Bishops and Clergy of these Provinces and agreed upon by the Kings Majesties licence in their ●everall Synods begun at London and Yorke 1640. doe not bind the Clergy or Laity of this Land or either of them And thus I have don● with our English Lordly Prelates whose only study is and hath been to support their Lordly dignity not true religion devotion and piety● I shall conclude with them in Saint Bernards words Vides omnem Ecclesiasticum zelum fervere sola pro dignita●e tuenda Honori totum datur sanctitati nihil aut parum Nisi quod sublime est hoc salutare dicamus quod gloriam redolet id justum Ita omne humile probro ducitur inter Palatinatos Et tunc potissimum volunt dominari cum professi fuerint servitutem Fideles se spondent ut opportunius fidentibus noceant Ante omnia sapientes sunt ut facia●t mala b●num autem facere nesciunt Hi invisi terrae coe●o utrique injecêre manus impii in Deum temerarii in sancta seditiosi in invicem aemuli in vicinos inhumani in extraneos quos neminem amantes amat nemo Hi sunt qui subesse non sustinent praeesse non norunt superioribus infideles inferioribus importabiles Docuerunt linguam suam grandia loqui cum operentur exigua Blandissimi adulatores mordacissimi detractores simplicissimi dissimulatores malignissimi Proditores O miserandam Sponsam talibus creditam Paranymphis qui assignata cultui ejus proprio retinere quaestui non verentur Non amici profectò Sponsi sed aemuli sunt Erunt inquam hujusmodi maximo studio corrigendi ne pereant aut ne perimant coercendi CHAP. VII Containing the severall Treasons Rebellions Seditions Schismes Contumacies Warres and disloyalties of the Bishops of France Normandy Scotland and Ireland with reference unto the Kings of England HAving thus passed through the Treasons Rebellions Seditions Warres and disloyall practises of our English Lordly Prelates I shall here in the next place give you a taste of the like crimes and practises of some French Norman Prelates against our Kings their Soveraignes either here or in Normandy and likewise of the Bishops of Scotland and Ireland which I thought meet to couple with our English Prelates these Kingdomes being now happily united under the Government of our gracious Soveraigne and his deceased Father French and Norman Bishops Acts of this kind I shall begin with Saint German Bishop of A●xerre in France of whom it is storyed that comming into England in King Vortigerns time and repairing to his Court with his Companions in a cold frosty night the King shut him out and would give him no lodging which the Kings Herdsman seeing taking pitty upon them and commiserating their affliction lodged them in his house and killed a calfe which they did eate at supper whose bones Saint German commanded to be brought to him when supper was ended and putting them all into the Calves skin he miraculously rais●d up the Cal●e againe from the dead whereas Christ and his Apostles never raised any dead beast but dead men onely and put him to his damme where he sell a eating hay And on the next day by command from God as some writers affirme German deposed Vortigerne from his Kingdome and made the Herdsman King in his place to the great admiration of all men and from thence forth the King● of the Britaine 's descended from the race of this Herdsman But Gildas in his History saith that this happened not to

this peece of it may seasonably promote have induced mee to divide it into two parts the first whereof thou hast here compleate the second God willing thou shalt receive with all possible expedition In the mean season I shall desire thy favourable acceptation of this moity and of a perfect Table of the severall Chapters of the whole Treatise wherein thou maist behold the latter part in Epitome till thou enjoy it in grosse A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS OF THE FIRST PART Chap. I. COntaining the severall Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions Seditions Contumacies and Disloyalties of the Archbishops of Canterbury against their Soveraignes Kings of England and the severall Warres Tumults and Dissentions occasioned and raised by them in or against our Realme Chap. II. Of the severall Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions Seditions State-schismes Contempts and Disloyalties of the Archbishops of Yorke against their Soveraignes and of the Warres Tumults and Civill Dissention● caused by them Chap. III. Comprising the severall Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions Contumacies Disloyalties Warres Dissentions and State Schismes of the Bishops of London Winchester Durham Salisbury and Lincolne The TABLE of the Chapters of the second Part. Chap. IV. Comprising the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Con●umacies and Disloyalties of the Bishops of Ely Exeter and Hereford Chap. V. Containing the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Contumacies and Disloyalties of the Bishops of Chichester Carlile Chester and Norwich Chap. VI. Comprising the Treasons Conspiracies Seditions Contumacies and Disloyalties of the Bishops of S. Davids Landaffe Bangor Asaph Bath and Wels. Chap. VII Containing the severa●l Treasons Rebellions Seditions Schismes Contumacies Warres and disloyalties of the Bishops of France Normandy Scotland and Ireland with reference unto England Chap. VIII Containing certaine conclusions deduced from the premises with the judgements and r●solutions of divers of our ancient Writers and Martyrs and some of our learnedest Bishops and Authors in Queene Elizabeths raigne touching the pretended Divine Iurisdiction of Bishops their Treasons Rebellions Temporalties large Possessions and the uselessenesse unprofitablenesse and mischievousnesse of Lordly Bishops and their government in our Church Chap. IX Comprising an answer to the principall Objections alleaged by the Prelates in defence of the Divine pretended institution and for the continuance of their Episcopacie● in our Church ERRATA PAge 11. l. 40. read The King thinking p. 73. l. 21. such l. 33. a●t au Royans R●y p. 78. l. ●0 faithfull p. ●25 l. 28. granted gr●nted p. 132. l. 5. Edward deceasing p. 144. l. 1. D●acan●s p. 147. l 9 Datary p. 150. ● l 8. Penry p. 152. l. 24. against p. 156. l. 16. Saxons p. 171. l. 11. Archiepiscopall l. 15 un int●rrupt●d p. 176. l. 38 oppressions p 194 l. 13. undefi●ed p. 212. l. 14. they the. p. 220 l. 11. favour feare p. 234. l. 1. be app●ehended p. 2●8 l. 18. this the p. ●3● l. 6. dele a. p. 242. l. 1 dele and● l. 12. Edmond Edward p● 241 l 8. Bishop p. 260. l. 13. were where p. 261. l. 14. excellently learned p. ●62 l 37. ripped p. 284. l. 2●●●ele in p. 277 l. 27.35 deluded de●ivered p. 280 l. 2. Cales l 25. forfeiting fortefying p. 281 l. 31. said laid 282 l. 23 wi●e w●●e p 292. l. 23. grea●ly● p 295. l. 30. upon this p. 305 l. 20. left lift l. 28. or of p. 312. l. 40. ever● even p. 315. l. 9. learned unlearned p. 318. l. 24. examination excommunication p. 323. l. ●9 Geof●y● Hugh p. 327. l. 17. gravissima l. 27. accuse accurse p. 331. l. 20. strangers p. 334. l. 4. from his p. 336. l. 29. imployed In the Margin p. ●35 l. 6. Beacon l. 8. vol. 3. p. ●51 l. 5. Bishop See THE PROLOGVE THere is nothing more frequent in these latter day●s in the mouthes of our domineering Lordly Prelates than this triviall Paradox of Archbishop Bancroft which some would Originally father upon our late Soveraigne King James NO BISHOP NO KING as if Kings could neither bee nor continue Kings unlesse Prelates were suffered both to be and continue Lords and Princes Crownes irreparably lost if Bishops Miters were but once cast downe This absurd and groundlesse Assertion as it is evidently disproved by those many flourishing Kings and Kingdomes which have well subsisted with●ut Lord Bishops both before these Mushrome Lords Spirituall onely in Title but wholly Temporall in reality first sprouted up by insensible degrees in the Church of Christ so it is most infallibly convinced of notorious falshood by the multitude of those most execrable Treasons Treacheries Conspiracies Rebellions Contumacies Insurrections Seditions and Anti-Monarchiall practises of Lordly Prelates against their Soveraignes in all ages since they grew rich and potent in all Kingdomes and Churches where they have beene admitted of which there are so many presidents as would fully fraught many Folio Volumes and require another Baronius or Tostatus to digest into severall vast Tomes And I dare further adde to the immortall prayse of this loyall generation of Lordly Prelates that there is no one calling or profession of men whatsoever in the Christian World guilty of so many traiterous treacherous perfidious seditious rebellious contumacious practises and conspiracies against their lawfull Princes or that have proved such execrable firebrands of dissentions commotions bloody warres Rebellions and detestable Schismes both in Church and State as these Prelaticall Lords Yea I supp●se I may confidently averre without any errour or calumny that Lordly Prelates have beene the Originall Authors and contrivers of more Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions Schismes Warres and Contentions in Christian Kingdomes than all other rankes and callings of men whatsoever not severally considered but united This I could at large demonstrate by an whole Volume of examples of Popes and Lordly Prelates in forraigne parts but I neede not travell abroad since we have so many presidents at home of our owne English Lordly Prelates as may abundantly suffice to illustrate this truth the chiefest whereof I have here collected and faithfully transcribed out of the Marginall Authors quoted to every of them whose very words I onely recite for the most part but where brevity or necessitie enfo●ce me to use my owne expressions for meth●d or connexion sake when the Historians either somewhat vary or are over-tedious in their relations or where one Historian relates some particulars which another omits in which case I must desire the Reader to peruse all the Authors quoted to each example lest examining onely one or two of them which record but a part and not the entire relation he should either wrong himselfe or censure me of calumnie or forgerie without just cause Neither let the Reader here expect an exact enumeration of all the Treasons Conspiracies Trecheries Rebellions Seditions Con●umacies Warres or State-schismes that our English Prelates have beene guilty of since they became potent Lords● for many of them no doubt were so secretly contrived and carryed by them that the Historians of their ●imes could have no information of them

defiled and infected the whole Priest-hood and Clergy of England with his pride exercised an unheard of Tyranny over the people being now deprehended by the King in his wickednesse terrified and dejected with the guilt of his sinne and feare of punishment lay now prostrate on the ground before the King offered him his Pall and sub●i●ted his person and goods to his mercy To whom the King gave this answer I will not punish thee my selfe le●t I should seeme rather to have respect to my owne Revenge though most just then to thy Order And although thou art altogether unworthy of thy Order and my Grace yet I will referre the matter to thy fellow Bishops and the Pope of Rome that thou mayest be tryed by thy Peeres lest thou shouldest thinke me an unjust Judge though the Conusans of Treason the highest Crime in a S●bject belongs without doubt to my Tribunall not to theirs Moreover added the King I have knowne thy hatred and malice towards me not onely in the greatest things but even in the smallest and in matters of least moment in which by thy authority thou hast over-much abused my patience depriving my Clerkes in thy visitation notwithstanding my Letters to the contrary and their just appeales both which thou hast contemned together with my Royall Authority The Arch-Bishop troubled and confounded in minde at these things craved a Blessing from the King who replyed That his Blessing would rather become him then his the Arch Bishop The King hereupon complaines of him to the Pope That he had troubled the peaceable and safe estate of the Kingdome in his absence and stirred up the Nobles to a Rebellion and Conspiracy against him c. And notwithstanding his submission cited him to appeare at Rome banished him the Realme seized upon all his goods moveable and unmoveable forbidding all his Subjects under a great paine to foster him Yet the Monkes of Canterbury secretly harboured him for a time furnished him with necessaries and conveyed him beyond the Seas Which the King afterwards understanding seized on all their Goods and Lands banished them the Monastery turning fourescore Monkes a begging forbidding any to harbour them and kept them in that miserable estate till afterwards he was pleased upon their submission to restore them After which the Bishop of Winchester interceded to the King for this Arch Traytor calling him his Lord with which the King being greatly offended put this Bishop out of his protection and confiscated his goods because he acknowledged another then the King to be his lord even such a one who being guilty of Treason manifest contempt against the King had lost the very right of a Subject in his Kingdome While the Arch-Bishop was thus in exile before any hearing of this Cause at Rome the King deceaseth who as Holinshed writes was an earnest enemie of the high and presumptuous insolencie of Priests which he judged to proceede chiefely of too much Wealth and Riches and therefore hee devised to establish the Statute of Mortmain to be a bridle to their inordinate lusts and riotous excesse which Statute they laboured to repeale and purchase out by giving large Subsidies to that end His Sonne Edward the second succeeding him out of an over-indulgent pitty calls home this Arch-Traytor by his Letter writes to the Pope to discontinue his Fathers Suite against him and to send him over with all speed to Crowne him Who glad with the newes and unable to make haste home as was requisite by reason of his crazie body sent a Commission to the King with the names of three Bishops in it giving him liberty to elect which of the three he desired to Crowne him in his behalfe who made choyse of the Bishop of Winchester who set the Crowne on his head The King upon the Arch-Bishops returne restored him all his goods and every penny received of his Temporalties during his two yeares exile a good reward for a Traytor whereby he became the richest Arch-Bishop of many before and after him He was no sooner come home but a new danger encountred him by his owne wonted boldnesse The King by the counsell of Piers Gaveston had committed the Bishop of Coventry to Ward at York A Convocation shortly after being assembled the Arch-Bishop would not suffer any matter to be debated in the House till the Bishop were set at liberty which the King was contented to beare withall at that time This Bishop saith Matthew his Successour though he were reported to be a stout Governour of the English Church and a Defender of its Rites yet he was too excessive in this and ever opposite to the King attributing that to the Pope with whom he was most strictly linked which he derogated from the King seeking not so much the Liberties of the Realme as the encrease of the Popes power and deminishing the Kings Authority that he might transferre it to the Pope He was a great enemie to Prohibitions labouring the advancement of the Ecclesiasticall Courts Jurisdiction and the eclipsing of the Authority and Jurisdiction of the Kings Courts He was the Author of Articuli Cleri and Walter Raynolds his Successour procurer of the Kings answere to them in Parliament Which Articles though they bee commonly taken for a Statute yet in truth they are none but a meere Answere of the King in Parliament to Articles exhibited to him by the Clergie made by the advice of his Councell but not of the Commons and whole Parliament and a particular Grant of the King onely not of the Parliament as appeares by the severall Answeres to each of those Articles but especially to the last Finally he ever sided with the Pope for the Liberties of the Church and with the Barons also against the King He opposed himselfe against Piers Gaveston the Spensers and other Favouri●es and Corruptors of the young King very boldly and enforced Iohn Warren Earle of Surrey to forsweare the Company of a certaine beautifull Harlot with the love of whom hee was greatly bewitched And afterwards when notwithstanding his Oath he returned to her company and got Children upon her hee accused him to the Convocation both of Adultery and Perjury and a● last made him to leave her Hee excommunicated Walter Bishop of Coventry for revol●ing from him and the Clergie and adhering to Piers Gaveston who appealed unto the Pope and was by him absolved Which last Acts of his are commendable though they proceeded rather from the stournesse and haughtinesse of his Spirit then the Pietie of his Heart How ever his former are most execrable Walter Raynolds his next Successor advanced and preferred onely by King Edward the Second to that Sea when the King after the Barons Warres ended had done execution upon divers of the Nobl●s that had reb●lled Adam Tarlt●n Bishop of Hereford by the Kings direction in a Parliament holden at London Anno Dom. 1324. was apprehended and brought to the Ba●●● to be arraigned for the like faults

of Rebellion and High Treason against his Soveraigne to wit for ayding succouring and maintaining the Mor●imers and other Rebels who having nothing to say in defence of himselfe against the Crimes objected unto him at first disdained to make any answere at all and when he was in a manner forced thereto standing mute a long space at length hee brake out into these words and flatly told the King My Lord and King saving your Reverence I am an humble Minister and Member of the Holy Church of God and a consecrated Bishop though unworthy I neither can nor ought to answere to such high matters without the connivence and consent of my Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury my direct Iudge next after the Pope and of the other Fathers the Bishops my Peeres At which saying the Arch-Bishops and Bishops there present rose up and interceded to the King for their Colleague and when as the King would not be entreated the whole Clergie challenged the Bishop as a Member of the Church and so exempt from the Kings Judicature as if Lay men were not Members of the Church too as well as Bishops and Priests and so by this reason exempt from Secular Jurisdiction The King forced thereunto with their Clamours though for a very Traytors rescue committed him to the Arch-Bishops custody to answere elsewhere for these Crimes But within few dayes after when the King called him againe before his presence to make answere to the matters layd against him and there arraigned him before his Royall Tribunall for his Treasons all the Bishops of England almost being then at London the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury Yorke and Dublin accompanyed with ten other Bishops and a great troupe of men hearing of Tarl●ons Arraignment in great haste hyed them thither and having their Crosses borne before them entred the Court by violence tooke the Prisoner from the Barre before hee had made any answere chased away the Kings Officers by force and carryed him away with them from the Barre the highest affront that ever was offered to publicke Justice in the Kingdome and that in open Parliament in case of High Treason against the King and withall they proclaimed That no man should lay violent hands on this Traytor whom they had rescued upon paine of Excommunication The King being exceedingly moved with this unparalleled insolence of the Clergie as he had reason commanded an Inquest to bee impanelled and a lawfull inquiry to bee made of the Treasons committed by him in his absence The Jury without feare of the King or any hatred of the Bishop according to the truth of the matter finding the Bishop guilty of all the Treasons and Rebellions whereof he was indicted the King hereupon banished the Bishop● seized upon his Temporalties Lands and Goods but the Bishop himselfe by the consent of all the Arch-Bishops and Bishops was by strong hand kept safe in the Arch-Bishop of Canterburies custodie notwithstanding his proscrip●ion who at last reconciled this Traytor to the King So industrious have the Bishops beene not onely to plot and execute Treasons but likewise to defend and int●rcede for Traytors of their owne Coat to keepe them from execution and to get them againe into favour that so they might more boldly proceede on in their intended Trecheries and Rebellions being sure to escape unpunished by meanes of their fellow Bishops how ever other Traytors speede After this the King demanded Subsidies of the Clergie towards his Warres which they at first stiffely denyed to grant without the Popes Licence first obtained which the King was enforced to procure and notwithstanding it they stood off a while alledging That the Pope had of late yeares received so many Subsidies and Procurations from them that they were not able to give the King so much as one Subsidie who could readily grant the Pope so many At last upon this condition That the King should augment and confirme those Ecclesiasticall Priviledges they claymed they granted him a Subsidie and he thereupon gave the Answeres to Articuli Cleri and granted the Clergie to be free from Purveyances After this the Queene with Edward the third her Sonne went into France to make Peace betweene France and England where by the French Kings perswasions being her Brother she continued refusing to returne againe into England The King hereupon banisheth her and her Sonne great Warres and stirres arise hereupon divers of the Nobles together with the Bishops of Lincolne Hereford Dublin and Ely side with the Queene and levie a great summe of Money for her The Arch-Bishop though advanced meerely by the King who highly favoured him secretly joynes with the Queene against his Soveraigne in his greatest necessi●ies and sent the Queene both monies and supplies secretly yet keeping in with the King in outward shew the better to betray him and his secrets And Bishop Tarlton whom he had formerly rescued from his Arraignement and reconciled to the King became the chiefest stickler and Incendiary against his Soveraigne and the Authour of his subsequent murther The King what with warres and Papall exactions was brought to such penurie that he was forced to borrow 260. pounds even of the Popes Collectors of Peter-pence The Queenes side and For●es at last prevailing against the King who was glad to lurke in Wales like a fugitive the Arch-Bishop openly revolts from him and the King by his and other the Bishops meanes being deposed in Parliament Edward the third his Sonne was unanimously elected King by all the people The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with all the Prelates here all Arch-traytors consented to the Election and the Arch-Bishop taking this Theame The voyce of the People is the voyce of God made a speech to the people exhorting them to pray to the King of Kings for the new Elected King who out of his filiall duty refused upon any termes to accept the Crowne without his Fathers consent whereupon three Bishops with others were sent to the King to Kenelworth where he was imprisoned to get his consent which being implyedly obtained the Arch-Bishop Crownes his Sonne King in his stead at Westminster the very height of Treason This Arch-Bishop much hindered the course of Prohibitions from the Kings Court to the Ecclesiasticall At last hee was commanded by the Queene to consecrate one Iames Barkely Bishop of Exeter which hee did but for his labour was so threatned taunted and revi●ed by the Pope who had reserved the Donation of this Bishopricke to himselfe that for very griefe hee dyed Iohn Stra●ford his very next successour being made Bishop of Winchester by the Popes provision against King Edward the seconds liking who would have preferred Robert Baldocke his Chancellour to that See had no sooner set sooting into this Bishopricke but the King caused all his Goods to be seized and his Livings to be sequestred to his use besides he caused him to be summoned to answer● to severall Actions so as for feare hee was faine to hide himselfe Whereupon

paper once allowed them to write to their friends for necessaries and by a bloody cruell warre betweene England and Scotland which Bishop Peirce truly termed Bellum Episcopale the Bishops warre he would have thought himselfe a Prophet this saying of his more experimentally verefied by this Arch-prelate than by any of his Predecessors all whose tyranny malice fury violence injustice lawlesnesse oppression inhumanity trechery pride ambition extravagances treasons and prelaticall vices seeme to meere and lodge together in him as in their prop●r center as I could largely manifest by particulars did not his unjust and rigorous proceedings against my selfe and all who had relation to mee without any just cause or provocation on my part or theirs command mee silence lest I might seeme malicious or revengefull Since therefore these his practises are so notorious unto all I shall forbeare to rip up particulars and close up all concerning him with the whole house of Commons Articles and Charges of high Treason against him as they were transmitted to the Lords by that worthy Gentleman my much honoured friend M. Iohn Pymme which being a publike charge of all the Commons by way of justice in the supremest Court of Judicature published already to the world in Print I hope it will neither be reputed a scandalum magnatum nor matter of revenge in mee if I here insert them since most pertinent to the Subject matter of this Treatise which I had in part digested many yeares by-past before his last information in Starchamber exhibited against mee A true Copy of the Articles of the Commons assembled in Parliament against WILLIAM LAUD Archbishop of Canterbury in maintenance of their accusation whereby hee stands charged with high Treason and of the Speech or Declaration of JOHN PYMME Esquire upon the same upon their transmission to the Lord. My Lords I Am commanded by the Knights Citizens and Burgesses now assembled for the Commons in Parliament to deliver to your Lordships these Articles in maintenance of their Charge against the Archbishop of Canterbury Their desire is that first your Lordships would be pleased to heare the Articles read and then I shall endeavour to present to you the sense of the Commons concerning the nature of the Charge and the order of their proceedings Articles of the Commons assembled in Parliament in maintenance of their accusation against WILLIAM LAUD Archbishop of Canterbury whereby hee stands charged with high Treason 1. That hee hath traiterously endeavoured to subvert the fundamentall Lawes and Government of this Kingdome of England and instead thereof to introduce an Arbit●ary and tyrannicall Government against Law and to that end hath wickedly and traiterously advised his Majesty that hee might at his owne will and pleasure leavie and take money of his Subjects without their consent in Parliament and this hee affirmed was warrantable by the Law of God 2. He hath for the better accomplishment of that his traiterous designe advised and procured Sermons and other discourses to be Preached Printed and published in which the Authority of Parliaments and the force of the Lawes of this Kingdome have bin denyed and absolute and unlimited power over the persons and estates of his Majesties subjects maintained and defended not onely in the King but in himselfe and other Bishops against the Law And he hath beene a great protector favourer and promoter of the publishers of such false and pernicious opinions 3. Hee hath by Letters Messages Threa●s and Promises and by divers other wayes to Judges and other Ministers of Justice interrupted and perverted and at other times by meanes aforesaid hath endeavoured to interrupt and pervert the course of Justice in his Majesties Courts at Westminster and other Courts to the subversion of the Lawes of this Kingdome whereby sundry of his Majesties Subjects have beene stopt in their just suits deprived of their lawfull rights and subjected to his tyrannicall will to their ruine and destruction 4. That the said Archbishop hath trayterously and corruptly sold Justice to those who have had causes depending before him by colour of his Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction as Archbishop High Commissioner Referree or otherwise and hath taken unlawfull gifts and bribes of his Majesties Su●●●● and hath as much as in him lies endeavoured to corrupt the other Courts of Justice by advising and procuring his Majesty to ●ell places of Judicature and other Offices contrary to the Lawes and Statutes in that behalfe 5. He hath trayterously caused a booke of Canons to be composed and published without any lawfull warrant and authority in that behalfe in which pretended Canons many matters are contained contrary to the Kings Prerogative to the fundamentall Lawes and Statutes of this Realme to the right of Parliament to the propriety and liberty of the subject and matters tending to sedition and of dangerous consequence and to the establishment of a vast unlawfull and presumptuous power in himselfe and his successors many of which Canons by the practise of the said Archbishop were surrepti●iously passed in the late Convoc●tion without due consideration and debate others by feare and compulsion were subscribed by the Prelates and Clarkes there assembled which h●d never beene voted and passed in the Convocation as they ought to have beene And the said Archbishop hath contrive● and endeavoured to assure and confirme the unlawfull and exorbitant power which hee hath usurped and exercised over his Majesties Subjects by a wicked and ungodly oath in one of the said pretended Canons injoyned to be taken by all the Cleargie and many of the Laity of this Kingdome 6. He hath trayterously assumed to himselfe a Papall and tyrannicall power both in Ecclesiasticall and Temporall matters over his Majesties Subjects in this Realme of England and in other places to the disherison of the Crowne dishonour of his Majestie and derogation of his supreme authority in Ecclesiasticall matters And the said Archbishop claimes the Kings Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction as incident to his Episcopall and Archiepiscopall office in this Kingdome and doth deny the ●ame to be derived from the Crowne of England which he hath accordingly exercised to the hig● contempt of his royall Majesty and to the destruction of divers of the Kings liege people in their persons and estates 7. That he hath trayterously indeavoured to alter and subvert Gods true Religion by Law established in this Realm and in stead thereof to set up Popish superstition and Idolatry And to that end hath declared and maintained in Speeches and Printed Booke divers popish doctrines and opinions contrary to the Articles of Religion established by Law Hee hath urged and injoyned divers Popish and superstitious Ceremonies without any warrant of Law and hath cruelly persecuted those who have opposed the same by corporall punishments and Imprisonments and most unjustly vexed others who refused to conforme thereunto by Ecclesiasticall censures of Excommunication Suspension Deprivation and Degradation contrary to the Lawes of this Kingdome 8. That for the better advancing of his

but their councell onely reserving all obedience unto the See of Rome Neither did this pride stay at Archbishops and Bishops but descended lower even to the rake-hels of the Clergie and puddles of all ungodlinesse for beside the injury received of their superiours how was King Iohn dealt withall by the vile Cistertians at Lincolne in the second of his raigne Certes when hee had upon just occasion conceived some grudge against them for their ambitious demeanour and upon denyall to pay such summes of money as were allotted unto them hee had caused seisure to be made of such horses swine neate and other things of theirs as were maintained in his forrests They denounced him as fast amongst themselves with Bell Booke and Candle to be accursed and excomcommunicated Thereunto they so handled the matter with the Pope and their friends that the King was faine to yeeld to their good graces insomuch that a meeting for pacification was appointed betweene them at Lincolne by meanes of the present Archbishop of Canterbury who went oft betweene him and the Cistertian Commissioners before the matter could be finished In the end the King himselfe came also unto the said Commissioners as they sate in their Chapter house and there with teares fell down at their feete craving pardon for his trespasses against them and heartily requiring that they would from thenceforth commend him and his Realme in their prayers unto the protection of the Almighty and receive him into their fraternity promising moreover full satisfaction of their dammages sust●ined and to build an house of their order in whatsoever place of England● it should please them to assigne And this he confirmed by Charter bearing date the 27 of November after the Scottish King was returned into Scotland and departed from the King Whereby and by other the like as betweene Iohn Strafford and Edward the third c. a man may easily conceive how proud the Clergie men have beene in former times as wholly presuming upon the primacy of the Pope More matter could I alleage of these the like broyles not to be found among our Common Historiographer● howbeit reserving the same unto places more convenient I will cease to speake of them at this time So Harrison And thus have I now at last concl●ded my Canterbury voyage and sayled through this most dangerous See wherein so many Pontiffes have suffered shipwracke both of their loyalty charity faith and honesty And many godly Christians through their cruelty and tyranny made shipwracke not onely of their goods liberties estates cares and other members but also of their lives it being both in Augustines time and almost ever since a very A●eldama and See of blood So as I may well conclude of these Primates and Metropolitans of all England in Saint Bernards words Heu heu Domine Deus ipsi sunt in persecutione tua PRIMI qui videntur in Ecclesia tua PRIMATUM DILIGERE GERERE PRINCIPATUM Misera eorum conversatio plebis tuae miserabilis subversio est Atque utinam sola hac parte nocerent But alas Iusta omnino querimonia nec ad ullam jus●ius quam ad nostram referenda aetatem Parum est nostris vigilibus quod non servant nos nisi perdant Alto quippe demersi oblivionis somno ad nullum Dominicae comminationis tonitruum expergiscuntur ut vel suum ipsorum periculum expavescant Inde est ut not parcant suis qui non parcant sibi PERIMENTES PARITER ET PEREUNTES What then remaines but that King Parliament and people having such just cause and faire opportunity should all joyne cordially together utterly to subvert this chaire of pestilence and with great violence to throw downe this our English Babylon and in one houre to make her so desolate as shee may be found no more at all that so the people beholding her long expected and much desired overthrow may ●ry mightily with a strong and joyfull voyce with the Angel in the Apocalypse Babylon Canterbury the great is falne is falne which hath beene the habitation of devils and the hold of every foule spirit and a cage of every uncleane and hatefull bird and in her was found the blood of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slaine upon the earth From this overflowing boundlesse See which hath still outswolne the bankes of divine and humane Lawes which would confine it have all those perilous inundations of trechery rebellion forraine and in●estine warres seditions tyrannyes oppessions grievances innovations and mischiefes commonly issued which have miserably torne and perplexed our Kingdome vexed if not almost ruined our Kings Church State People in ancient moderne times This great Archiepiscopal prime chaire hath bin the Metropolitical nest wherin all the egges of all ou● mischiefs grievances have commonly been laid and hatched by our Canterburian Harpies I can therfore prescribe no better advise for our future security against those and other our mischievous Prelates and birds of prey than that which Turghesie a prudent man once gave to the King of Meth when he demanded of him how hee might destroy certaine noysome birds then lately come into Ireland where they did much mischiefe to the Country Nidos eorum ubique destruendos that their nests and Sees like the Abbies and Priories of old are every where to be destroyed and converted to better uses then we need not feare a succession of these pernitious birds and mischievous vermin the very Turbans and Acans of our English Israel which must never looke for tranquility or felicity whiles these continue or domineer amongst us Till these Ionasses be cast over-board and quite abandoned we can neither hope for nor enjoy a calme CHAP. II. OF THE SEVERALL Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions Seditions State-schismes Contempts and Disloyalties of the Arch-Bishops of YORKE against their Soveraignes and of the Warres Tumults and Civill Dissentions caused by them I Have thus as briefly as I could with convenience given you an Epitome of the Arch-Bishops of Canterburtes arch-Arch-Treasons Rebellions Trecheries Seditions Disloyalties State-Schismes Disturbances and oppositions to our Lawes more at large related in our Historians I shall now proceed in order to those of the Arch-Bishops of Yorke which will almost equall them as well in heinousnesse as in number both of them being Primates and Metropolitanes in all these prodigious villanies and crimes as well as in Episcopall Jurisdiction VVilfrid the third Arch-Bishop of Yorke about the yeare of our Lord 678. went about to p●rswade King Egfr●dus Queene to forsake her husband and betake her selfe to a Monastery without the Kings privitie or consent the King much displeased with him for it by the advice of Theodore Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who maligned the greatnesse of his Diocesse first sought to diminish his Authoritie by dividing his Diocesse into 3. Bishoprickes● and then exhibited divers complaints against him to the Pope to have him deprived causing him to be condemned in

of the Citie of Yorke which no wayes appertaine unto them The Maior of Yorke is the Kings Lieutenant there and his Sword of Justice the Kings not his owne Therefore the Arch-Bishops putting downe of his Sword within the Precincts of the Close is a direct incroachment upon his Majesties Prerogative Royall and a denying of his Supremacie and Jurisdiction over him or his Cathedrall at Yorke This Prelate being scarce Parliament proofe to prevent all questioning at the approach of this present Parliamentary Assembly fell sicke and dyed being now gone to answer all his Episcopall extravagancies before a greater Tribunall For my part I meddle not with him as he was a man● but onely as he was a Prelate not to defame his person or posteritie but to discover the evill effects of his Prelacie His See continueth yet void since his death● And for ever may it so remaine unlesse his Successours prove more loyall to their Soveraignes more profitable to our Church and State then hee and his fore-mentioned Predecessours have beene CHAP. III. Comprising the severall Treasons Conspiracies Rebellions Contumacies Disloyalties Warres Dissentions and State-Schismes of the Bishops of London Winchester Durham Salisbury and Lincolne HAving thus presented you with the History of the Treasons Conspiracies c. of the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and Yorke I shall now proceed to those of our inferiour Prelates of London Winchester Durham Salisbury and Lincolne who as the old Cockes of Canterbury and Yorke did crow in this behalfe so the young Cockrels of these and other Sees did imitate their demeanour as William Harrison well observeth which may appeare by these ensuing Examples and Histories of their lives Bishops of London Vodinus Arch-Bishop of London reprehended Vor●igern the Brit●ish king for marrying with Rowen Hengists Daughter being an Infidell telling him That he had endangered both his Soule and Crowne which words were so ill digested by Vortigern that shortly after it cost the Arch-Bishop his life who was slaine by Hengist his procurement the first Saxon king This king Vortigern An. 450. was excommunicated by St. Germaine Bishop of Auxerre and an whole Synode of Brittish Bishops for marrying his owne daughter and afterwards was deposed by Saint Germaine from his Crowne upon this occasion Vortigerus denied Saint Germain lodging in a cold frosty night and an Heard that kept the kings beasts seeing that Gods servants were grieved lodged Saint Germain and slew a Calfe for his Supper But after supper Saint Germaine causing them to gather all the bones of the Calfe together after they had eaten the flesh raised the Calfe againe from death to life so that standing by his Dam alive he began to eate Hay before them The next day by commandement of God Germain put downe Vortigern from his kingdome● and took the fore-said Heard and made him king Then all men were astonied for wonder And from that time forth the kings of Brittaines came of the Heards kinde But Gyldas in his story saith That this befell by the king of Powsie called Buly and not of Vortigerus and saith that Bulies Successours came of this Heards kinde that were kings in that side of Wales Thus was Vortigerus an ill king I confesse vexed by these proud and insolent Prelates and at last deposed After the death of Bishop Gilbert 1133. one Anselme Abbot of Bury Nephew to Saint Anselme was elected Bishop of LONDON and had his his election confirmed at Rome but presently such exceptions were taken against him as thereupon hee was not onely stayd from cons●cration but deprived also of his Abbotship His Electors were William Deane of Pauls Ralph Langford and Richard ●eauveys the same I beleeve that afterwards was Bishop The King who very much misliked this Election having made request for some other amongst other effects of his displeasure caused the wives of these Canons as Bale reporteth to be imprisoned and otherwise shamefully intreated By reason of the stirres that were about this Election the See continued voyd a long time Anno 1140. Mawde the Empresse having taken King Stephen Prisoner came to London and finding the Bishoppricke voyd caused one Robert de Sigillo a Monke of Reading or as others say Archdeacon of London to be elected and consecrated Bishop Within a yeare or two after this Bishop was taken prisoner at ●ulham by Geofry de Mandevill a Captaine of King S●ephens who ye may be sure could ill brooke any man that the Empresse favoured This Bishop of London would not so much as sweare to be true subject to King Stephen wherein he was maintained by the Pope as appeareth by these Letters Eugenius Episcopus servus Servorum Dei dilecto in Christo filio Stephano illustri Regi Anglorum salut●m Apostolicam benedictionem Ad haec superna providentia in Ecclesia Ponfices ordinavit ut Christianus populus ab eis pascua vitae reciperet tam principes seculares quam inferioris conditionis homines ipsis Pontificibus tanquā Christi vicariis reverentiam exhiberent Venerabilis siquidem frater noster Robertus London Episcopus tanquam vir sapiens honestus religionis amator a nobili●ate tua benigne tractandus est pr● collata a Deo prudentia propensius honorandus Quia ergo sicut in veritate comperimus cum animae suae salute ac suae ordinis periculo fideli●ate qu● ab eo requeritur astringi non potest volumus ex pater●o ●ibi affect● consulimus q●a●enus praedictum fratrem no●trum super hoc nullatenus inquietatis imm● pro bea●i Petri nostra reverentia eum in amorem gratiam tuam recipias Cum autem illud jur●mentum praestare non possit sufficiat discretioni tuae ut simplici veraci verbo promittat quod lae●ionem tibi vel terrae tuae non inferat Vale● Dat. Meldis 6. Cal Iulii Thus we see that Kings were to rule no further than it pleased the Pope to like of neither to chalenge more obedience of their subjects● than stood also with their good will and pleasure He wrote in like sort unto Queene Maud about the same matter making her Sampsons Calfe the better to bring his purpose to passe as appeareth by the same Letter here insuing Solomone attestante didicimus qd mulier sapiens aedificat domum insipiens autem constructam destruet manibus Gaudemus prote devotionis studium in Domino collaudamus quoniam sicutreligiosorum relatione acceptmus timorem Dei praeoculis habens operibus pietatis intendis personas ecclesiasticas diligis honoras ut ergo de bono in melius inspirante Domino proficere valeas nobilitatem tuam in Domino rogamus rogando monemus exhortamur in Domino quatenus initi●s exitus meliores injungas venerabilem fratrem nostrum Robertum London Episcop●m pro illius reverentia qui cum olim Dives esset pro nobis pauper fieri volu●t attentius diligas honores apud virum

and Phil. 1.1 Apud veteres cosdem fuisse Presbyteros quos Episcopos That AMONG THE ANCIENTS PRESBYTERS WERE THE VERY SAME THAT BISHOPS WERE and that the Churches were then governed by a common Councell of the Presbyters As therefore Presbyters know that they out of the custome of the Church are subject to him who shall be set over them so Bishops must know SE MAGIS CONSVETVDINE Quàm DISPOSITIONIS DOMINICAE VERITATE PRESBYTERIS ESSE MAJORES ET IN COMMVNE DEBERE ECCLESIAM REGERE that they by CVSTOME rather then by truth of Divine Disposition are greater then Presbyters and OVGHT TO RVLE THE CHVRCH IN COMMON with them From which pregnant Authority even of an old Archbishop of Canterbury I observe First That by Apostolicall institution Bishops and Presbyters are both one and the same and originally continued so for a season Secondly That the imparity now between them ●s onely by custome not by divine institution and crept in by little and little by degrees after the Apostles time Thirdly That every Presbyter is still truely and properly a Bishop over his owne flock Fourthly That the Church of God at first was governed onely by a common Councell or Synode of Presbyters not by Bishops Fifthly That Presbyters even at this day not onely may but ought to governe the Church in common with the Bishops as they did both in Ignatius Tertullians Cyprians and Irenaeus time as others have proved at large See the Answer to Bishop Hals Remonstrance Sect. 8 9. Sixthly That Bishops were first elected created and instituted by the Presbyters therefore by their owne maxime Ordinans est major ordinato are greater and better then Bishops the rather because Presbyters Quatenus such are of Divin● and Bishops quatenus Bishops but of humane institution and Presbyters as such by Anselmes owne resolution in his Commentary on 1 Tim. 4.14 may of right ordaine Elders as well as Bishops Neither is Anselme singular in his opinion in avouching the parity and identity of Presbyters and Bishops since Athanasius Ambrose Hierome Chrysostome Theodoret Primasius Remigius Rabanus Maurus Haym● Theophylact Bruno in their Commentaries on Phil. 1.1 Acts 20.17 28. 1 Tim. 3. Tit. 1.5 7. and on Ephes. 4.11 12. with sundry other Fathers delivered the same opinion in their writings before his time A truth so cleare that learned Cassander though a Papist confesseth Convenit autem inter OMNES olim Apostolicorum aetate INTER EPISCOPOS ET PRESBYTEROS DISCRIMEN NVLLVM FVISSE SED POSTMODVM ordinis servandi sch●smatis vitandi causa Episcopum Presbyteris fuisse praepositum cui soli Chyrotomi● id est ordinandi potestas servata sit That then this truth which is granted on all hands by ALL both Theologues and Canonists among the Papists should now be questioned nay contradicted and and damned for Heresie by our Prelates seemes strange and monstrous unto me But to proceed on in our owne Writers In the Canons of Aelfrick to Wulfinus a Bishop about the yeare of Christ 990. Sect. 17. There is no more difference between a Masse-priest and a Bishop then that a Bishop is constituted to confer Orders and to visit or oversee and to take care of those things which belong to God which should be committed to too great a multitude if every Presbyter should doe it For both VNVM TENENT EVNDEMQVE ORDINEM have one and the selfesame Order although that part of the Bishop be the worthier And in certaine old Saxon Chapters of incertaine Edition about the same time Know that your degree is next to ours penè CONIVNCTVM esse and to be almost the same or conjoyned to it For as Bishops supply the place of Apostles in the Church so doe Presbyters of the other Disciples of the Lord whence we ought to be mindfull of so great a dignity John Salisbury our famous Country-man flourishing about the yeare of Christ 1140. De Nugis Curialium li. 8. c. 17. and 23. writes thus of the pride and sedition of Bishops Thou must admire to see the various houshold-stuffe and riches as they say of Croesus among them that preach poore Christ They live of the Gospell without preaching the Gospell and it is well if they live onely so as they doe not also ryot They so gape after gaine that they contemne the things that are Jesus Christs and are neither worthy the honour nor name either of a Pastor or hireling They d●● that which makes them to be feared of all to bee beloved of none they preac● peace yet make division they shew and counterfeit humility that they may challenge pride In fulnesse they dispute of fastings and what they build up with words they pull downe with deeds The workes they doe beare witnesse of them you may know them by their fruits It is not sufficient for them to sheare and devoure the flocke by liberty of a divine Law unlesse they also implore the ayde of secular Lawes and being made Officers to Prince● they feare not to commit those things which any other Publican would easily be ashamed of In the meane time they are servants to pleasure or avarice and those who have chosen and admitted them to their custody they spoyle and oppresse and desire the death of those whom they ought to foster both in flesh and spirit Truly they beare in mind ●hat of the Prophet Behold I have set thee over the Nations and over Kingdomes to pull up and to destroy to pull downe and to scatter c. Nor they doe not onely contend but fight for a Bishoprick The Ancients heretofore were dragged against their wils to a Bishoprick and went willingly to Martyrdome they feared the chiefe Chaire worse then a prison or crosse But now the Prelates sp●●ke quite contrary we will not say they be Martyrs but the glory of our Sees we will not give to another Yet there is something in which they seeme to imitate the constancy of Martyrs to wit if they are to contest for a Bishoprick It is reported by some and it is true that ambitious men have sometimes yea often contended for the Bishopricke of Rome and not without brotherly blood hath the High Priest entred into the holy of holies This verily is to succeed Romulus in paricide not Peter in feeding the flock committed to him More then civill Warres are againe stirred up betweene Caesar and Pompey and whatsoever was presumed wha●ever was impiously done at Philippi Lucade Murina in Aegypt or in Spaine a prelaticall Warre accomplisheth Doe they therefore procure the effusion of Christian blood that it may be lawfull for them above other men according to their pastorall duty to lay down their lives for the Flock Doe they therefore pull down the Churches prophane holy things that there may be some thing for them to build up and sanctifie Perchance they dash Nations one against another disquiet Kingdomes violently take away the goods of