is an ordinary working-day it being will-worship and superstition to make it a Sabbath by vertue of the fourth Commandement But whilest Mr. Bradborn was marching furiously and crying Victoriae to himself he fell into the ambush of the High Commission whose well tempered severity herein so prevailed upon him that submitting himself to a private conference and perceiving the unfoundnesse of his own principles he became a Convert conforming himself quietly to the Church of England 2. Francis White Bishop formerly of Norwich then of Ely Sabbatarian controversies revived was employed by his Majesty to confute Mr. Bradborn his erroneous opinion In the writing whereof some expressions fell from his pen whereat many strict people but far enough from Bradborn's conceipt took great distaste Hereupon Books begat Books and controversies on this subject were multiplied reducible to five principal heads 1. What is the fittest name to signifie the day set apart for Gods publique service 2. When that day is to begin and end 3. Upon what authority the keeping thereof is bottomed 4. Whether or no the day is alterable 5. Whether any recreations and what kindes of them be lawfull on that day And they are dinstinguishable into three severall opinions Sabbatarians Moderate men Anti-Sabbatarians I Are charged to affect the word Sabbath as a Shiboleth in their writing preaching and discoursing to distinguish the true Israelites from lisping Ephraimites as a badg of more pretended puritie As for Sunday some would not have it mentioned in Christian mouthes as resenting of Saxon Idolatry so called from and dedicated to the Sunne which they adored 2. Some make the Sabbath to begin on Saturday night The evening and the morning were the first day and others on the next day in the morning both agreeing on the extent thereof for four and twenty hours 3. They found it partly on the law and light of nature deriving some countenances for the septenary number out of heathen authours and partly on the fourth Commandement which they avouch equally moral with the rest I. Sabbath especially if Christian be premised may inoffensively be used as importing in the original only a Rest And it is strange that some who have a dearnesse yea fondness for some words of Jewish extraction Altar Temple c. should have such an antipathie against the Sabbath Sunday may not only safely be used without danger of Paganisme but with increase of piety if retaining the name we alter the notion and therewith the notion thereof because on that day The a Mal. 4. 2. Sunne of Righteousnesse did arise with healing in his wings But the most proper name is the Lords-day as ancient used in the Apostles b Revel 1. 10. time and most expressive being both an Historian and Preacher For the Lords day looking backward mindeth us what the Lord did for us thereon rising from the dead and looking forward it monisheth us what we ought to doe for him on the same spending it to his glory in the proper duties thereof 2. The question is not of so great concernment For in all circular motions it matters not so much where one beginneth so be it he continueth the same untill he return unto that point again Either of the aforesaid computations of the day may be embraced Diésque quiésque redibit in orbem 3. In the Lords-day three things are considerable 1. A day founded on the light of nature pure impure Pagans destining whole daies to their idolatrous service 2. One day in seven grounded on the moral equity of the fourth Commandement which is like the feet and toes of Nebuchad-nezzar's c Dan. 2. 41. Image part of potters clay and part of iron The clay part and ceremonial mottie of that Commandement viz. that seventh day or Jewish Sabbath is mouldred away and buried in Christ's grave The iron part thereof viz. a mixture of moralitie therein one day in seven is perpetuall and everlasting 3. This seventh day being indeed the eighth from the creation but one of the seven in the week is built Sabbatarians 1 The word Sabbath as now used containeth therein a secret Magazeen of Judaism as if the affecters thereof by spirituall Necromancy endeavoured the reviving of dead and rotten Mosaicall Ceremonies 2. They confine the observation of the day only to the few hours of publique service 3. These unhinge the day off from any Divine Right and hang it meerly on Ecclesiasticall authority first introducing it as custome and consent of the Church had since established it Sabbatarians Moderate-Men Anti-Sabbatarians Anno Dom. 1633 Anno Regis Carol. 9 4. The Church no not ex plenitudine suae potestatis may or can alter the same 5. No exercises at all walking excepted with which strictnesse it self cannot be offended are lawful on this day Insomuch as some of them have been accused of turning the day of rest into the day of torture and self-maâ—eration on Divine right in a larger sense having an analogy in the Old and insinuations in the New Testament with the continued practice of the Church 4. Would be right glad of the generall agreement of the Christian Church but withall right sorry that the same should be abused for the alteration of the Lords-day But as there is but little hope of the former so is there no fear of the latter it being utterly unexpedient to attempt the altering thereof 5. The Sabbath in some sort was Lord yea Tyrant over the Jews and they by their superstition contented vassalls under it Christ was e Matth. 12. 8. Lord of the Sabbath and struck out the teeth thereof Indeed such recreations as are unlawfull on any day are most unlawfull on that day yea recreations doubtfull on other daies are to be forborn on that day on the suspicion of unlawfulnesse So are all those which by their over violence put people past a praying capacity Add also those which though acted after Evening-Service must needs be preacted by the fancy such the volatility thereof all the day before distracting the minde though the body be at Church These recreations forbidden other innocent ones may be permitted 4. The Universall consent of the Christian Church may alter it Yea d Pocklington in his Sunday no Sabbath pag. 8. one saith that the Church of Geneva went about to translate it to Thursday but it seems it was carried in the negative 5. Mixt dancings Masques Interludes Revells c. are by them permitted in the intervalls betwixt but generally after Evening-Service ended A worthy f Dr. Paul Micklewaite Doctor who in his Sermons at the Temple no less piously than learnedly handled the point of the Lords-day worthily pressed that Gentle-folke were obliged to a stricter observation of the Lords-day than labouring people The whole have no need of the Physitian but those who are sick Such as are not annihilated with labour have no title to be recreated with liberty Let Servants whose hands are ever working whilest their
Erambrook Richard Tovey John Hasting Thomas Bayll John Austine In Canterbury Richard Gomershan Nicholas Clement Thomas Farley Sodomites William Liechfield William Cawston Thomas Morton John Goldingston John Ambrose Christoph James Kept 3 married Whores In St. Augustine Thomas Barham a Whoremonger and a Sodomite In Chichester John Champion and Roger Barham both of them natural Sodomites In Cathedrall Church John Hill had no lesse than thirteen Whores In Windsor-Castle Nicholas Whyden had 4 George Whitethorn kept 5 Nicholas Spoter Kept 5 Robert Hunne had 5 Robert Danyson kept 6 Whores In Shulbred Monastery George Walden Prior of shulbred had 7 John Standney had at this command 7 Nich Duke to supply his Venery had 5 Whores In Bristow William Abbot of Bristow kept 4 Whores In Mayden Bradley Richard Prior of Mayden-Bradley kept 5 Whores In Bath Monastery Richard Lincombe had 7 Whores and was also a Sodomite In Abingdon Monastery Thomas Abbot of Abingdon kept 3 whores and had 2 children by his own Sister In Bermondsey Abbey John White Prior or rather Bull of Bermondsey had 20 Whores I finde this Catalogue only in the third Edition of Speed proving it a posthumeaddition after the Authors death attested in the margine with the authority of n Cap. 21. sol 183. Henry Steven his Apologie for Herodotus who took the same out of an English Book containing the Vilenesse discovered at the Visitation of Monasteries Thus this being but the report of a forrainer and the Original at home not appearing many justly abate in their belief of the full latitude of this report Indeed tradition is the onely Author of many stories in this nature amongst which the insuing story intituleth it felt to as much probability as any other 3. One Sir Henry Colt of Neither-Hall in Essex A coltish trick served much in favour with K Henry the eighth for his merry conceits suddenly took his leave of Him late at night promising to wait on His Grace early the next morning Hence he hastned to Waltham-Abbey being informed by his setter's that the Monks thereof would return in the night from Cheshunt-Nunnery where they had secretly quartered themselves Sir Henry pitcht a Buckstall wherewith he used to take Deer in the Forest in the narrowest place of the Marsh where they were to passe over leaving some of his Confederates to manage the same 4. The Monks upon the Monks of Waltham coming out of the Nunnery hearing a great noise made behind them and suspecting to be discovered put out the light they had with them whose feet without eyes could finde the way home in so used a pathe Making more hast than good speed they ran themselves all into the Net The next morning Sir H. Colt brought and presented them to King Henry who had often seen sweeter but never fatter Venison 5. Here I cannot believe what is commonly told of under-ground Vaults leading from Fryeries to Nunneries More talk than truth of under-ground Vaults confuted by the scituation of the place through Rocks improbably and under Rivers impossible to be conveyed Surely had Wal tham Monks had any such subterranean contrivances they would never have made use of so open a passage and such Vaults extant at this day in many Abbeys extend but a few paces generally used for the conveyance of water or sewers to carry away the filth of the Covent 6. More improbable it is Provision made for their lust what is generally reported that Abbots made provision for their lusts on their Leases enjoyning their Tenents to furnish them as with wood and coles so with fewel for their wantonness A o Mr. Steven Marshall Reverend Divine hath informed me that he hath seen such a passage on a Lease of the Abbey of Essex where the Lessee was enjoyned yearly to provide Unam claram lepidam puellam ad purgandos renes Domini Abbatis 7. It was never my hap to behold any Instrument with such a lustfull clause Charity best in doubtfull evidence or wanton reservation therein and shall hardly be induced to believe it First because such turpis conditio was null in the very making thereof Secondly because it was contrary to the Charta magna as I may call it of Monasticall practise Sinon cassè tamen cautè wherefore what private compact soever was by word of mouâ—h made betwixt them upon their Leases parole sure all Abbots were if not so honest so discreet that no act in scriptis should remain which on occasion might publickly be produced against them 8. As for the instances of their private incontinence A Solome in Sion Nunnery they are innumerable I will insist but in one hapning just at this juncture of time and which may be presumed very operative to the ruine of such Religious Houses A Lettore certefying the incontynensye of the Nuns of Syon with the Friores and astore the acte done the Friores reconsile them to God Endoised To the Right Honourable Master Thomas Cromwell chief Secretary to the Kings Highnesse IT maye please your goodnesse to understand that p He was one of Fryers who according to the constitution of your Order lived here with the Brigitian Nuns Bushope this day preched and declared the Kynges tytelle very well and hade a grete Audyense the Chorche full of people one of the * I conceive this two proper names Focaces in his said declaration only called him false knave with other foolish words it was the foolish fellow with the corled head that kneeled in your waye when you came forth of the Confessores Chamber I can no lesse doe but set him in prisone ut poena ejus sit metus aliorum yesterday I learned many enormous thinges against Bushope in the examination of the lay Brederen first that Bushope perswaded towe of the Brederene to have gone theire wayes by night and he himselfe with them and to the accomplishment of that they lacked but money to buy them seculere apparell Further that Bushope would have perswaded one of his lay-Brederen a Smithe to have made a keay for the doare to have in the night time received in Wenches for him and his fellows and especially a Wiffe of Uxebridge now dwelling not farre from the old Lady Derby nigh Uxebridge which Wiffe his old customer hath byne many times here at the grates communing with the said and he was desirous to have her convoyed into him The said Bushope also perswaded a Nunne to whom he was Cenfessour ad libidinem corporis perimplendam And thus he perswaded her in Confession making her believe that whensover and as ofte as they shold medle together if she were immediately after confessed by him and tooke of him absolution she shold be cleere forgeven of God and it shold be none offence unto her before God And she writte diveres and sundrye Lettores unto him of such their foolishnesse and unthriftynesse and wold have had his Broden the Smithe to have polled out
particular promise of his Gospell unto them by the mouth of his a Isai 66. 19. Prophet I will send those that escape of them to the Isles afarre off that have not heard my Fame To shew that neither height nor depth no not of the Ocean it self is able to separate any from the Love of God And for the same purpose Christ employed Fishermen for the first Preachers of the Gospell as who being acquainted with the Water and mysteries of Sailing would with the more delight undertake long Sea-voyages into Forreign Countries 7. But now who it was that first brought over the Gospell into Britain is very uncertain S. Peter falsly reported to have preached in Britain The Conversioner understand Parsons the Iesuite mainly b Parsons 3 Conversions 1. part 1. chap. pag. 19. stickleth for the Apostle Peter to have first preached the Gospel here Yea when Protestants object against S t. Peter's being at Rome because S t. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans omitteth to name or salute him The Iesuite handsomely answers That Peter was then probably from home employed in Preaching in Britain and otheres places His Arguments to prove it are not so strong but that they easily accept of Answers as followeth 1. Arg. St. Peter preach't in Britain because Gildas c In Epist de Excid Brit. speaking against his dissolute Country-men taxeth them for usurping the Seat of Peter with their unclean feet Answ Vnderstand him that they had abused the Profession of the Ministery for it follows they have sitten in the pestilent Chair of Iudas the Traitor Whence it appears both are meant mystically and metaphorically parallel to the expressions of the Apostle Jude v. 11. They have gone in the way of Cain c. 2. Arg. d Commentâ—â—iâ— de Petro Pauload diem 29 Iunii Simeon Metaphrastes saith so that he staied some dayes in Britain where having preached the Word established Churches ordained Bishops Priests Deacons in the 12. year of Nero he returned to Rome Answ Metaphrastes is an Authour of no credit as e In aliis multis ibi ab ipso positis errare eum certum est Ecc. Annal in An. 44. num 54. Baronius himself doth confesse 3. Arg. f Epistola 1. ad Decentium Innocent the first reporteth that the first Churches in Italy France Spain Africk Sicily and the Interjacent Islands were founded by S t. Peter Answ Make the Map an Vmpire and the Epithet Interjacent will not reach Britain intending only the Islands in the Mid-land Sea 4. Arg. Gulielmus Eysingrenius saith so Answ Though he hath a long Name he is but a late Authour setting forth his Book g Mason de Minist Ang. lib. 2. cap. 3. pag. 65. Anno 1566. Besides he builds on the Authority of Metaphrastes and so both fall together 5. Arg. S t. Peter himself in a Vision in the dayes of King Edward the Confessour reported that he had preached the VVord in Britain Answ To this Vision pretended of Peter we oppose the certain words of S t. Paul 1 Tim. 1. 4. Neither give heed to Fables We have stayed the longer in confuting these Arguments because from Peters preaching here 37 Parsons would inferre an obligation of this Island to the See of Rome which how strongly he hath proved let the Reader judge He that will give a Cap and make a Legge in thanks for a Favour he never received deserveth rather to be blamed for want of Wit then to be praised for store of Manners None therefore can justly tax us of Ingratitude if we be loath to confesse an engagement to Rome more then is due The rather because Rome is of so tyrannicall a disposition that making herself the Mother-Church she expects of her Daughters not only Dutifulnesse but Servility and not content to have them ask her Blessing but also do her Drudgerie endeavoureth to make Slaves of all her Children 8. Passing by Peter proceed we to the rest of the Apostles whom severall Authours alledge the first Planters of Religion in this Island 1 St. a Isidorus de patribus utriusque Testastament c. 72. Item Flavius Lucius Dexter in Chronico ad annum 41. Iames Son to Zebedee St. Iames St. Paul St. Simon St. Aristobulus Preachers in Britain and brother to Iohn 41 But if we consult with the Scripture we shall find that the Sword of Herod put an end to all his Travells before the Apostles their generall departure from Hierusalem Indeed this Iames is notoriously reported how truly let them seek who are concerned to have been in Spain and it is probable some mistaking Hibernia for Hiberia and then confounding Hibernia a British Island with our Britain as one Errour is very procreative of another gave the beginning to Iames his Preaching here 2. St. Paul is by others shipt over into our Island amongst whom thus sings b Lib. 3. de vita S. Martini Venantius Fortunatus Transit Oceanum vel qua facit Insula Portum Quasque Britannus habet terras quasque ultima Thule But lesse credit is to be given to Britannus because it goeth in companie with ultima Thule Which being the noted expression of Poets for the utmost bound of the then-known-world seems to favour more of Poeticall Hyperbole then Historicall Truth as a Phrase at Randome only to expresse farre forreign Countries 3 Simon the Canaanite 47 surnamed Zelotes and well did he brook his Name the fervencie of whose Zeal carried him into so farre and cold a countrie to propagate the Gospell Dorotheus makes him to be both martyred and buried in Britain But this saith c Anual Eccles in Anno 44. num 39. Baronius receiveth no Countenance from any ancient Writers What then I pray was Dorotheus himself being Bishop of Tyre under Diocletian and Constantine the Great If the Cardinall count him young what grave Seniours will he call ancient 4 d Rom. 16. 10. Aristobulus 56 though no Apostle yet an Apostles Mate counted one of the seventy Disciples is by e Menaea Graecorum Die decimo-quinto Martii Grecian Writers made Bishop of Britain Strange that forreign Authours should see more in our Island then our home-bred Historians wholy silent thereof and it much weakneth their Testimonie because they give evidence of things done at such distance from them But how easie is it for a Writer with one word of his Pen to send an Apostle many Miles by Land and Leagues by Sea into a Country wherein otherwise he never set his Footing The Result of all is this Churches are generally ambitious to entitle themselves to Apostles for their Founders conceiving they should otherwise be esteemed but as of the Second Forme and Younger House if they received the Faith from any inferiour Preacher Wherefore as the Heathen in searching after the originall of their Nations never leave Soaring till they touch the Clouds and fetch their Pedigree from some God So Christians think
most sadly 201 at the entrance whereof we are accosted with the Funeralls of King Lucius The death buriall and Epitaph of King Lucius the brightest Sun must set buried as they say in Glocester Different dates of his Death are assigned but herein we have followed the a Annals of Sarum M. Paris Westm with London tables and hist of Rochest most judicious Long after the Monks of that Convent bestowed an Epitaph upon him having in it nothing worthy of translating Lucius b John Bever in his Abbreviat of the Brit. Chron. in tenebris priûs Idola qui coluisti Es merito celebris ex quo Baptisma subisti It seems the puddle-Poet did hope that the jingling of his Rhyme would drown the sound of his false Quantity Except any will say that he affected to make the middle Syllable in Idola short because in the days of King Lucius Idolatry was curb'd and contracted whilest Christianity did dilate and extend it self 2. But Christianity in Britain was not buried in the Grave of Lucius The Christian faith from the first preaching thereof ever continued in Britain but survived after his Death Witness Gildas whose words deserve to be made much of as the clearest evidence of the constant continuing of Religion in this Island Christ's Precepts saith c Quae praecepta â—in Britannia â— licet ab incolis tepidè suscepta sunt apud quosdam tamen integre alios minùs usque ad persecutionem Diocletiani novennem permansere Gildas in Epist de excidio Brit. he though they were received but luke-warmly of the Inhabitants yet they remained entirely with some less sincerely with others even untill the nine years of Persecution under Diocletian Whose expression concerning the entertaining of Christianity here though spoken indefinitely of the British Inhabitants yet we are so far from understanding it universally of all this Island or generally of the most or eminently of the principal parts thereof that if any list to contend that the main of Britain was stil Pagan we will not oppose A thing neither to be doubted of nor wondered at if the modern Complaints of many be true that even in this Age there are dark Corners in this Kingdome where Profaneness lives quietly with invincible Ignorance Yea that the first Professours in Christianity were but luke-warm in Religion will without Oath made for the truth thereof be easily believed by such who have felt the temper of the English Laodiceans now a days However it appeares there were some honest Hearts that still kept Christianity on foot in the Kingdome So that since Religion first dwelt here it never departed hence like the Candle of the vertuous Wife d Prov. 31. 18. It went not out by night by the Night neither of Ignorance nor of Security nor of Persecution The Island generally never was an Apostate nor by Gods blessing ever shall be 3. To the Authority of Gildas Two Fathers to be believ'd before two children we will twist the Testimony of two Fathers both flourishing in this Century Tertullian and Origen plainly proving Christianity in Britain in this Age both of them being undoubtedly Orthodox without mixture of Montanist Anno Dom. 201 or Millenary in historical matters Hear the former There are places of the a Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca Christo verò subdita Tertull advers Iudaeos cap. 7. Britans which were unaccessible to the Romans but yet subdued to Christ Origen in like maner b Virtus Domini Salvatoris cum his est qui ab orbe nostro in Britannia dividuntur Orig. in Lucae c. 1. Homil. 6. The power of God our Saviour is even with them which in Britain are divided from our world These ought to prevail in any rational belief rather then the detracting reports of two modern men Paradine and Dempster who affirm that after Lucius death the British Nation returned to their Heathen Rites and remained Infidels for full five hundred years after Which c Paradine Ang. descrip cap. 22. Dempster in Apparat. Hist Scot. cap. 6. words if casually falling from them may be passed by with pardon if ignorantly uttered from such Pretenders to Learning will be heard with wonder if wilfully vented must be taxed for a shameless and impudent Falshood Had Dempster the more positive of the two in this point read as many Authours as he quoteth and marked as much as he read he must have confuted himself yea though he had obstinately shut his Eies so clear a Truth would have shined through his Eye-lids It wil be no wilde Justice or furious Revenge but Equity to make themselves satisfaction if the Britans declare Dempster devoid of the faith of an Historian who endeavoured to deprive their Ancestours of the Christian Faith for many yeares together his Pen to be friend the North doing many bad offices to the South part of this Island 4. The Magdeburgenses The judgement of the Magdeburgenses in this point Compilers of the General Ecclesiastical History not having lesse Learning but more Ingenuity speaking of the Churches through Europe in this Age thus express themselves Then follow the Isles of the Ocean where we first meet with Britain d Centuria tertia cap. 2. colum 6. Mansisse hac aetate ejus Insulae Ecclesias affirmare non dubitamus We doubt not to affirme that the Churches of that Island did also remain in this Age. But as for the names of the Places and Persons professing it we crave to be excused from bringing in the Bill of our particulars 5. By the Levitical Law Want of work no fault of the workman e Exod. 22. 12. If an Oxe Sheep or Beast were delivered to a man to keep and it were stolen away from him the keeper should make restitution to the owner thereof but if it was torn in pieces and he could bring the fragments thereof for witness he was not bound to make it good Had former Historians delivered the entire memory of the passages of this Century to our custody and charged us with them the Reader might justly have blamed our Negligence if for want of our Industry or Carefulness they had miscarried but seeing they were devoured by Age in evidence whereof we produce these torn Reversions hardly rescued from the Teeth of Time we presume no more can justly be exacted of us 6. Gildas very modestly renders the reason Reason why so little left of this Age. why so little is extant of the British History Scripta patriae Scriptorumve monumenta si quae fuerint aut ignibus hostium exusta aut Civium exulum classe longius deportata non comparent The Monuments saith he of our Country or Writers if there were any appear not as either burnt by the fire of enemies or transported farr off by our banished countrymen 7. This is all I have to say of this Century Conclusion of this Century and must now confess my self as
that which renders the Conquest to Consideration in our Church-Story is the manifest Change of Religion from what formerly was publickly professed in England To make this Mutation in it's due time more conspicuous we will here conclude this Book with a brief Character of the principall Doctrines generally taught and believed by the English in these four last Centuries before tainted with any Norman Infection For though we must confesse and bemoan that Corruptions crept into the Church by Degrees and Divine Worship began to be clogg'd with superstitious Ceremonies yet that the Doctrine remained still sound and intire in most materiall Points will appeare by an Induction of the dominative Controversies wherein we differ from the Church of Rome 1. Scripture generally read For such as were with the Holy Bishop Aidan sive Attonsi sive b Bedae Eccles Hist lib. 3. cap. 5. Laici either Clergy or Laity were tied to exercise themselves in reading the Holy Word and learning of Psalms The Originall preferred For Ricemarch a c Caradoc in Chron. of Cambridge Britan a right Learned and Godly Clerk Son to Sulgen Bishop of Saint Davids flourishing in this Age made this Epigram on those who translated the Psalter out of the Greek so taking it at the Second hand and not drawing it immediatly out of the first Vessel Ebreis d MS. in the Library of the Learned Bishop William Bedel and cited by the Arch-bishop of Armagh in the Religion of the ancient Irish pag. 9. Nablam custodit liter a signis Pro captu quam quisque suo sermone Latino Edidit innumeros lingua variante libellos Ebreum que jubar suffuscat nube Latina Nam tepefacta ferum dant tertia Labra Saporem Sed sacer Hieronymus Ebreo fonte repletus Lucidius nudat verum breviusque ministrat This Harp the holy Hebrew Text doth tender Which to their Power whil'st every one doth render In Latine Tongue with many Variations He clouds the Hebrew Rayes with his Translations Thus Liquors when twice shifted out and powr'd In a third Vessel are both cool'd and sowr'd But Holy Ierome Truth to light doth bring Briefer and fuller fetcht from th' Hebrew Spring No Prayers for the Dead in the modern notion of Papists For though we find Prayers for the Dead yet they were not in the nature of Propitiation for their Sins or to procure Relaxation from their Sufferings but were onely an honourable Commemoration of their Memories and a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving for their Salvation Thus S t. Cuthbert after he had seen the Soul of one Hadwaldus e Bede in vita Cuthberti cap. 34. carried by Angels into Heaven did celebrate Obsequies of Prayers in his behalf Purgatory though nevvly hatched not yet fledged For although there are frequent Visions and Revelations in this Age pretended thereon to build Purgatory which had no Foundation in Scripture yet the Architects of that fancy-full Fabrick had not so handsomely contrived it as it stands at this day in the Romish Belief For a Lib. 3. c. 19. Bede out of the Vision of Furseus relateth certain great Fires above the Aire appointed to examine every one according to the merits of his VVork differing from the Papists Purgatory which Bellarmine by the common Consent of the School-men determineth to be within the Bowels of the Earth Thus nothing can be invented and perfected at once Communion under both kinds For b De vita Cuthberti prosa cap. 15. Bede relateth that one Hildmer an Officer of Egfride King of Northumberland intreated our Cuthbert to send a Priest that might minister the Sacrament of the Lords Body and Bloud unto his Wife that then lay a dying And Cuthbert himself immediately before his own Departure out of this Life received the Communion of the Lords Body and Bloud And lest any should fondly hope to decline so pregnant an Instance by the novel conceit of Concomitancy a Distinction that could not speak because it was not born in that Age it is punctually noted that he distinctly received the Cup. Pocula c Idem in vita Cuthberti carmine cap. 36. degustat vitae Christique supinum Sanguine munit iter His Voyage steep the easier to climbe up Christs Bloud he drank out of Lifes healthfull Cup. So that the Eucharist was then administred entire and not maimed as it is by Papists at this day serving it as d 2 Sam. 10. 4 Hanun the Ammonite did the Cloaths and Beards of David's Ambassadours cutting it off at the Middle And though the word Mass was frequent in that Age generally expressing all Divine Service yet was it not known to be offered as a propitiatory-Sacrifice for the quick and dead 43. But if any desire farther Information herein The Authors engagement to the Archb. of Armagh and conclusion of this second book let him repair to the worthy Work which Iames the right learned and pious Arch-bishop of Armagh hath written of the Religion professed by the ancient Irish and British From whom I have borrowed many a Note though not alwayes thanking him in the Margin by citing his Name and therefore now must make one generall Acknowledgement of my Engagement In Cities we see that such as sell by Retaile though of lesse Credit are of great Use especially to poor people in parcelling out Peny-worths of Commodities to them whose Purses cannot extend to buy by Whole-sale from the Merchant Conceive I in like manner my Pains will not be altogether unprofitable who in this History have fetch'd my Wares from the Store-house of that Reverend Prelate the Cape-Merchant of all Learning and here in little Remnants deliver them out to petty-country-Chapmen who hitherto have not had the Hap or Happinesse to understand the original Treasuries whence they are taken And clean through this Work in point of Chronologie I have with implicite Faith followed his e In his book de Brit. Eccl. primord Computation setting my Watch by his Dial knowing his Dial to be set by the Sun and Account most exactly calculated according to the critical truth of Time Long may he live for the Glory of God and Good of his Church For whereas many learned men though they be deep Abysses of Knowledge yet like the Caspian Sea receiving all and having no Out-let are loth to impart ought to others this bright Sun is as bountifull to deal abroad his Beams as such dark Dales as my self are glad and delighted to receive them SEVERALL COPIES OF BATTEL-ABBEY ROLL To the right worshipfull S r. Simon Archer of Tanvvorth in Warvvickshire SOme report that the Toad before her death sucks up if not prevented vvith suddain surprisall the precious Stone as yet but a Jelly in her Head grudging Mankind the Good thereof Such generally the Envy of Antiquaries preferring that their Rarities should die vvith them and be buried in their Graves rather then others receive any Benefit thereby You cross the current of common Corruption it being
of succession could be pleaded where no two links followed in order But others answered that such popular election of Stephen had been of validity if the electors had been at liberty whereas they being preingaged to Maud by former oath could not again dispose of those their votes which formerly they had passed away 32. Others conceived that the stain of Stephen his usurpation in getting the Crown A second party with theiropposers was afterward scoured clean out by his long more then eighteen years enjoying thereof For suppose Providence for a time may winke Anno Regis Steph. 〈◊〉 and connive yet it cannot be conceived in so long a slumber yea asleep yea a lethargie as to permit one peaceably so long to posses a Throne except heaven had particularly designed him for the same To this others answered that Stephen all that time rather possessed then enjoyed the Crown alarum'd all his life long by Maud and her Son so that he had as little quiet in as right to the Kingdom But grant his possession thereof never so peaceable what at first was foundered in the foundation could not be made firm by any height of superstructure thereupon An error by continuance of time can never become a truth but more inveterate error 33. A third of maintained that Subjects Loyaltie is founded on their Soveraigns protection A third with theirs so that both sinke together Seeing therefore Maud was unable to afford her people protection her people were bound to no longer allegiance But thus position was disproved by such who bottoming allegiance onely on conscience make protection but the encouragement not the cause thereof They distinguished also betwixt a Princes wilful deserting his people and his inability to protect them not through his own default but the forcible prevailing of others Thus the conjugal tie is onely dissolved by the parties voluntary uncleanness and not by his or her adventitious impotency to render due benevolence 34. A fourth party avouched A fourth with theirs that Maud though not actually and openly yet tacitly and interpretatively released the English from their allegiance unto her For what Prince can be presumed so tyrannical as to tie up people to the strict termes of Loyaltie unto him when the same is apparently destructive unto them and no whit advantagious to himself But others disliked this position for where did nay such relaxation appear It cancelleth not the obligation of a debtor to fancy to himself an acquittance from his creditor which cannot be produced 35. Some acted at the commands though not for the commands of King Stephen Some act at not for King Stephens commands namely in such things wherein his injunctions concurred with equity charity and order consistent with the principles of publike utility and self-preservation These having the happiness to be commanded by an Usurper to do that which otherwise they would have done of themselves did not discover themselves to act out of their own inclinations whilest it passed unsuspected in the notion of their obedience to King Stephen Thus many thousands under the happy conduct or at leastwise contrivance of Thurstan Arch-Bishop of York though in their hearts well affected to Maud her title unanimously resisted David King of Scots though he pretended recuperative armes in Queen Maud her behalf under which specious title he barbarously committed abominable cruelties till nettled therewith both Stephanists and Maudists joyntly bad him battle and overthrew him nigh Alerton in York-shire 36. All generally bare the burdens and no less politickly then patiently Politick patience paied all taxes imposed upon them Recusancy in this kinde had but armed King Stephen with a specious pretence to take all from them for refusing to give a part Nor scrupled they hereat because thereby they strengthened his usurpation against the rightful heir because done against their wills and to prevent a greater mischief Mean time they had a reservation of their loyaltie and erecting a throne in their hearts with their prayers and tears mounted Queen Maud on the same 37. Robert Robert Earl of Glocester singular Earl of Glocester the Queens half-brother may even make up a forme by himself finding none other before or after him of the same opinion Who conditionally did homage to King Stephen scilicet a Mat. Paris pag. 75 si dignitatem suam sibi servaret illibatam namely So long as he preserved this Roberts dignity for so I understand the Pronoune's reciprocation to be inviolated 38. A few there were Highly conscientious whose relucting consciences remonstrated against the least compliance with King Stephen whose high loyalty to Maud interpreted all passiveness under an Usurper to be activity against the right heir These even quitted their Lands in England to the tempest of time and secretly conveyed themselves with the most incorporeal of their estates as occuping in the least room in their wastage over into Normandy 39. The Clergie An honest revote of the Clergie perceiving that King Stephen performed little of his large promises unto them were not formerly so forward in setting him up 1136. but now more fierce in plucking him down and sided effectually with Maud against him An act which the judicious behold not as a crocked deed bowing them from their last but as an upright one streight'ning them to their first and bxest oath made to this Maud in the life time of her father But Stephen resolved to hold with a strong what he had got with a wrong hand fell violently on the Bishops who then were most powerfull in the land every prime one having as a Cathedral for his devotion so many manors for his profit parks for his pleasure and castles for his protection and he uncastled Roger of Sarisbury Alexander of Lincoln and Nigellus of Ely taking also a great mass of treasure from them 40. Most fiercely fell the fury of King Stephen on the Dean and Canons of Pauls for crossing him in the choice of their Bishop For he sent Canons of Pauls soundly paid and took their a Rad. de Diceto in huncanum Focarias and cast them into London Tower where they continued many dayes not without much scorn and disgrace till at last those Canons ransomed their liberty at a great rate 41. What these Focariae were we conceive it no disgrace to confess our ignorance What Focariae were the word not appearing in any Classical Author and we must by degrees scrue our selves into the sense thereof 1. It signifieth some female persons the gender of the word discovering to much 2. They were near to the Canons who had an high courtesie for them as appears by procuring their liberty at so dear a price 3. Yet the word speaks not the least relation of affinity or consanguinity unto them 4. All the light we can get in this Focariae is from some sparks of fire which we behold in the word so as if these shee s were nymphs
them a punishment far lighter then the offence did deserve Indeed it is most meet in matters meerly Ecclesiastical touching the Word and Sacraments Clergy-men be onely answerable for their faults to their spiritual superiors as most proper and best able to discern and censure the same And in cases criminal it is unfit that Ministers should be summoned before each proud pettish petulant pragmatical secular under-officer However in such causes to be wholly exempted from civil power is a priviledge which with reason cannot be desired of them nor with justice indulged unto them Sure I am Abiathar though High-Priest was convented before and deposed by Solomon for his practising of treason And S t Paul saith Rom. 13. 1. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers 60. To retrench these enormities of the Clergy 1164. the King called a Parliament at Clarendon 10. near Sarisbury and not in Normandy He incurs the Kings displeasure as Mr Fox will have it intending with the consent of his great Councel to confirm some severe Laws of his Grand-father King Henry the first To these Laws See them at large in Mat. Paris sixteen in number Becket with the rest of the Bishops consented and subscribed them But afterwards recanting his own act Anno Regis Hen. 2 10. renounced the same Anno Dom. 1164 Let not therefore the crime of inconstancy be laid too heavily to the charge of Arch-Bishop Cranmer first subscribing then revoking popish articles presented unto him seeing this his name-sake Thomas and predecessor Becket without any stain to his Saintship retracted his own act upon pretence of better information But so highly was Becket offended with himself for his subscription that in revenge for some moneths he suspended himself from all Divine Service his pride and laziness both before and after suspended him from ever preaching and would not be present thereat Hereafter let none hope for more favour from this Arch-Bishop then their fact may deserve seeing he cannot rationally be expected to be courteous to others who was so severe unto himself The best was in this his suspension the knot was not tied so hard as to hurt him who in case of necessity as he had bound so he could loose himself though for the more state of the matter Pope Alexander * Fox his Mon. see the letter at large pag. 269. himself was pleased solemnly to assoil him from his suspension Mean time Becket both in his suspension and absolution most highly offended King Henry who every day the more was alienated from and incensed against him 61. During Beckets abode about Clarendon The vanity of Beckets path he is reported every morning to have walk'd from his lodging some miles to the Kings Palace Where the ground say they called Beckets path at this day presenteth it self to the eyes of the beholders but most quick-sighted if looking through Popish spectacles with the grass and grain growing thereon in a different hew and colour from the rest A thing having in it more of report then truth yet more of truth then wonder the discolourations of such veins of earth being common in grounds elsewhere which never had the happiness of Becket his feet to go upon them 62. But oh He flieth beyond Sea without the Kings consent If Becket's feet had left but the like impression in all the wayes he went how easie had it been for all mens eyes and particularly for our pen to have track'd him in all his travels Who not long after without the consent of the King took Ship sail'd into Flanders thence travelled into the Southern parts of France thence to Pontiniack thence to Senes abiding seven years in banishment But though he served an apprentiship in exile he learned little humility thereby onely altering his name for his more safety from Becket to Derman but retaining all his old nature remitting nothing of his rigid resolutions 63. Now to avoid idleness How employed in his banishment Becket in his banishment variously employed himself First in making and widening breaches between Henry his native Soveraign 11. and Lewis the French King 1165. Secondly in writing many voluminous a See them exemplified at large in Stapleton De Tribus Thomis letters of expostulation to Princes and Prelates Thirdly in letting flie his heavy excommunications against the English Clergie namely against Roger Arch-Bishop of York Gilbert Foliot Bishop of London a learneder man them himself Joceline Bishop of Sarisbury and others His chief quarrel with them was their adherence to the King and particularly because the Arch-Bishop presumed to Crown Henry the King's Son made joynt-King in the life of his Father a priviledge which Becket claimed as proper to himself alone Fourthly in receiving comfort from and returning it to Pope Alexander at Beneventum in Italy 13. Sameness of affliction bred sympathy of affection betwixt them 1167. both being banished the Pope by Frederick Barbarossa the Emperour for his pride and insolency as our Becket smarted for the same fault from King Henry Here also Becket solemnly resigned his Arch-Bishoprick to the Pope as troubled in conscience that he had formerly took it as illegally from the King and the Pope again restored it to him whereby all scruples in his minde were fully satisfied 64. But afterwards by mediation of friends Is reconciled to the King Becket's reconciliation was wrought and leave given him to return into England However the King still retained his temporals in his hand Anno Dom 1167. on weighty considerations Anno Regis Hen. 2. 13. Namely to show their distinct nature from the spirituals of the Arch-Bishoprick to which alone the Pope could restore him Lay-lands being separable from the same as the favour of secular Princes and Becket's bowed knee must own the Kings bountiful hand before he could receive them Besides it would be a caution for his good behaviour 65. Caelum non animum Returns as obstinate as he went over Travellers change climates 1170. not conditions 16. Witness our Becket stubborn he went over stubborn he staied stubborn he return'd Amongst many things which the King desired and he denied he refused to restore the Excommunicated Bishops pretending he had no power indeed he had no will and that they were Excommunicate by his Holiness Yea he instead of recalling his old added new Excommunications and that thunder which long before rumbled in his threatnings now gave the crack upon all those that detained his temporal revenues a Parte posteriâ—â—i Henrici secundi pag. 521. Roger Hoveden reports that upon christmas-Christmas-day the better day the better deed he Excommunicated Robert de Broc because the day before he had cut off one of his horses tailes Yea he continued and encreased his insolence against the King and all his subjects 66. Here the King let fall some discontented words Is slain by four Knights in his own Church which
thereof improve the Popes power by invading the undoubted priviledges of King John The Monks soberly excused themselves that they durst not proceed to an election without the Kings consent but affrighted at last with the high threats of his Holiness menacing them with Excommunication Stephen Langton was chosen accordingly One that wanted not ability for the place but rather had too much as King John conceived having his high spirit in suspition that he would be hardly managed 4. Then two Letters were dispatch'd from the Pope The Pope sends two Letters of contrary tempers to the King to the King 1207. The first had nothing of business 10. but complement and four gold Rings with several stones desiring him rather to minde the mysterie then value the worth of the present wherein the Round form signified Eternity their Square Number Constancy the green Smaragd Faith the clear Saphir Hope the red Granat Charity the bright Topaz good works How pretious these stones were in themselves is uncertain most sure it is they proved Dear to King John who might beshrow his own fingers for ever wearing those Rings and as my * Mat. Paris in Anno 1207. pag. 223. Author saith soon after gemmae commutatae in gemitus For in the second Letter the Pope recommended Stephen Langton to the Kings acceptance closely couching threats in case he refused him 5. King John returned an answer full of stomach and animosity King Johns return raising his voice to too high a note at first that this was an intolerable encroachment on his Crown and Dignity which he neither could nor would digest to have a stranger unknown unto him bred in forrein parts familiar with the French King his sworn enemy obtruded upon him for an Arch-Bishop He minded the Pope that he had plenty of Prelates in the Kingdome of England sufficiently provided in all kind of knowledge and that he need not to go abroad to seek for judgement and justice Anno Regis Job 10. intimating an intended defection from Rome Anno Dom. 1207. in case he was wronged Other passages were in his letter which deserved memory had they beeâ— as vigorously acted as valiantly spoken Whereas now because he fouly failed at last judicious ears hearken to his words no otherwise then to the empty brags of impotent anger and the vain evaporations of his discontentment However he began high not onely banishing the Monks of Canterbury for their contempt out of his Kingdome but also forbidding Stephen Langton from once entring into England 6. Hereupon Pope Innocent Three Bishops by command from the Pope Interdict the whole Kingdome the third employed three Bishops William of London Eustace of Ely and Mauger of Worcester to give the King a serious admonition and upon his denial or delaying to receive Stephen Langton for Arch-Bishop to proceed to Interdict the Kingdome of all Ecclesiasticall service saving Baptisme of Children Confession and the Eucharist to the dying in case of necessity which by them was performed accordingly No sooner had they Interdicted the Kingdome but with Joceline Bishop of Bath and Giles of Hereford they as speedily as secretly got them out of the Land like adventurous Empiricks unwilling to wait the working of their desperate Physick except any will compare them to fearfull Boyes which at the first tryall set fire to their squibs with their faces backwards and make fast away from them but the worst was they must leave their lands and considerable moveables in the kingdome behind them 7. See now on a sudden the sad face of the English Church Englands sad case under Interdiction A face without a tongue no singing of service no saying of Masse no reading of Prayers as for preaching of Sermons the lazinesse and ignorance of those times had long before interdicted them None need pity the living hearing the impatient complaints of Lovers for whose marriage no licence could be procured when he looks on the dead a Corpora defunctorum more Canum in Bivijs fossatis sine orationibus sacerdotum ministerio sepelibantur Matt. Paris pag. 226 who were buried in ditches like dogs without any prayers said upon them True a well informed Christian knows full well that a corps though cast in a bogge shall not stick there at the day of judgement thrown into a Wood shall then finde out the way buried by the high wayes side is in the ready Road to the Resurrection In a word that wheresoever a body be put or plac'd it will equally take the Alarum at the last Trumpet Yet seeing these People beleeved that a Grave in consecrated ground was a good step to Heaven and were taught that prayers after their death were essentaill to their Salvation it must needs put strange fears into the heads and hearts both of such which deceased and their friends which survived them And although afterwards at the intreaty of Stephen Langton the Pope indulged to conventuall b Antiq. Brit. in Steph Langton pag. 159. Churches to have Service once a Week Yet Parish Churches where the Peoples need was as much and number far more of souls as dear in Gods sight were debar'd of that benefit 8. Some Priests were well pleased that the Interdiction for a time should continue Two grand effects wrought by this Interdiction as which would render their persons and places in more reputation and procure a higher valuation of Holy mysteries Yea this fasting would be wholesome to some souls who afterwards would feed on Divine Service with greater appetite Hereby two Grand effects were generally produc'd in the Kingdom One a terrible impression made in mens mindes of the Popes Power which they had often heard of and now saw and felt whose long arm could reach from Rome all over England and lock the doors of all Churches there an Emblem that in like manner he had or might have bolted the Gates of Heaven against them The second an Alienation of the peoples hearts from King John all being ready to complain O cruell Tyrant over the souls of his Subjects whose wilfulnesse depriveth them of the means of their salvation King Johns innocence the Popes injustice in these proceedings 9. However if things be well weighed King John will appear meerly passive in this matter suffering unjustly because he would not willingly part with his undoubted right Besides suppose him guilty what equity was it that so many thousands in England who in this particular case might better answer to the name of Innocent then his Holinesse himself should be involved in his punishment God indeed sometimes most justly punisheth subjects for the defaults of their Soveraignes as in the case of the plague destroying the people for Davids numbring of them But it appears in the a Compare the 2 Sam. 74. 1 with the 1 Chron. 21. 1 Text that formerly they had been offenders and guilty before God as all men at all times are But seeing
resolves revenge and because he could not make her Queen whom he desired he would make him King whom he pleased 31. Take hereof this cursory account 8. After many bloudy battles 1468 King Edward was taken Prisoner at Wolney in Warwick-shire King Edward taken prisoner and King Henry enlarged and committed by the Earl of Warwick to the custody of his Brother George Nevil Arch-Bishop of York Henry is brought out of the Tower shall I call him the sixth or the seventh because dead though not in Law in dignity and once Deposed he is now restored again to wear the Royal Robes not so much as his own garments but as the Livery the Earl of Warwick his liberality However he acted a very short part of Soveraignty wherein he revenged not any personal wrongs offered unto him in his restraint For one who thrust him into the side with a sword when he was Prisoner in the Tower was afterwards pardoned by him when restored to his former dignity 32. Mean time the Arch-Bishop allowed King Edward liberty to ride abroad and follow his pleasure Edward escaped flieth beyond sea and returneth now a careless Keeper giveth his Prisoner a warning and sheweth him a way to make his escape King Edward followeth his hawking so long that he taketh his own flight at last Over he gets beyond the Seas to his Brother in law Charles Duke of Burgundie by whom he was supplied to the proportion of a competent subsistence but not enabled for the recovering of a Crown However he returned into England landed in the North marched to York desired to be received therein as into the place whence he received his Title but in no other notion then a Subject to King Henry taking the Sacrament on the truth thereof but having gotten the City as Duke he kept it as King contrary to his oath for which his Children are conceived to fare no whit the better 33. Let the State-Historians inform you with what various changes K. Edward made hence into the South Recovereth the Crown by Conquest and at last near Barnet bid battle to and defeated the Earl of Warwick 10. slain with his Brother the Marquess Montague on the place 1470 Learn also from them how King Henry was cruelly put to death and his Son and Queen Margaret soon after overthrown at Tewxbury For when a Royal Family is once falling all things conduce to expedite their destruction Henceforward King Edward saving the differences of his own with his Wives Kindred passed the remnant of his dayes in much peace plenty and pleasure 34. In most of the Battles we may observe Why most Armies make for London it was the word general of the weaker side for London for London as the most martial thrift to Conquer a Kingdom in a City For such whose necessities can allow their Armies but little time to stay do burn day light in pelting against petty Towns in the out skirts of a Land especially if all other humane hopes be in one desperate push Hence was it that so many Battles were fought about Barnet and S t Albans the Cock-pit of War the lines of all Armies drawn from the circumference of the Land being the closer together the nearer they approched London the Center in Trade and Wealth though not in exact position thereof 35. Come we now to a tamer contest Brawls betwixt Mendicants and Secular Priests and more proper for our pen continuing all this Kings time betwixt the Begging Friers and Secular Priests the former not content to cry up the dignity of their own Order Anno Dom. 1470. but cast contempt on the rest of the Clergie Anno Regis Ed. 4. 10. But these bold Beggers met with as bold sayers â—ay I mean these Mendicants found their matches in the Secular Priests effectually humbling their pride herein For it was beheld as a most pestiferous doctrine the Friers so heightning the perfection of begging that according to their principles all the Priesthood and Prelacy in the Land yea by consequence the Pope himself did fall short of the sanctity of their Order Yet hard was it for them to perswade his Holiness to quit Peters Patrimony and betake himself to poverty although a Fryer Thomas Holden by name did not blush to preach at Pauls Cross that a Fox Acts and Mon. p. 717. Christ himself as first Founder of their Society was a Beggar a manifest untruth and easily confuted out of Scripture 36. For vast the difference betwixt begging Christ falsely traduced to be a beggar and taking what the bounty of others doth freely confer as our Saviour did from such who b Luke 8. 3. ministred unto him of their substance We never read him begging any thing save when from the c John 4. 7. Woman of Samaria he asked water a creature so common and needful that it was against the law of nature to deny it him Nor is it probable he was a Mendicant who was rated in the Publicans Tole-Book and paid Tribute unto d Mat. 17. 24. Caesar Not to say that he was so far from begging John 13. 29. that it was his custom especially about the time of the Passeover to relieve others and Judas his Purse-bearer was his Almoner to distribute to the poor 37. Here it will not be amiss to reckon up the principal Champions on both sides Writers pro con in the cause whose pens publickly appeared For Mendicants Against Mendicants 1. Henry f Piz p. 660. Parker a Carmelite bred in Cambridg living afterwards in Doncaster Covent imprisoned for preaching 2. Jo. g Idem p. 673 Milverton bred in Oxford Carm. of Bristol being excommunicated by the Bishop of London and appealing to the Pope found no favour but was kept three years captive in S t Angelo 1. Thomas h Idem p. 659 Wilton Doctor of both Laws and say some Dean of Saint Pauls most zealous in his preachings and disputings 2. William Ivie i Idem p. 654. Canon of S t Pauls in London who wrote very learnedly in the defence of Rich. Hill Bishop of London who imprisoned two Mendicants for their proud preaching But after Pope Paul the second had interposed herein concluding quod Christus publicè mendicavit pro damnata haeresi undique declarandam conculcandam esse the Mendicants let fall their Bucklers and the controversie sunk in silence nevermore revived 38. Never had England at once two Arch-Bishops of so high extraction as at this time A prodigious fear at an Arch-Bishops installation namely Thomas Bourchier Son of Henry Earl of Essex and George Nevil Brother to the Great Earl of Warwick The latter is famous for a prodigious Feast wherein whoso noteth the number and quality of the Guests all the Nobility most of the prime Clergie many of the Great Gentry will wonder where he got meat for so many mouthes whilest such who number the dishes thereof
though perchance wisely for the State not warily for himself Indeed it is impossible for such Officers managing not onely multitudes but multiplicity of matters but that in some things they must mistake As in c Prov. 10. 19. many words there wanteth not iniquity so in the Actours of many affairs faults are soon found out He was also accused to set at liberty certain persons not capable of it for granting Licenses and Commissions destructive to the King's authority for being guilty of Heresie himself and favouring it in others Trayterous speeches were also charged upon him spoken two years before in the Church of S. Peter's in the Poor in Broad street the avouchers thereof pretending that as hitherto they had concealed them for love of themselves fearing Cromwel's greatnesse so now for the love of the King they revealed the same Indeed on the first manifesting of the King's displeasure against him the foes of Cromwel had all their mouthes open and his friends their mouthes shut up 24. The mention of S. Peter's in Broad-street An injurious Act to many poor people charged on the Lord Cromwell mindeth me of a passage not unworthy to be recited of an injury offered by this Lord Cromwell to many poor men in the same Parish And because every one is best able to tell his own tale take it in the words of John d Survey of London p. 187. Stow being himself deeply concerned therein The Lord Cromwell having finished his house in Throgmorton-street in London and having some reasonable plot of ground left for a garden caused the pales of the gardens adjoyning to the North part thereof on a sudden to be taken down two and twenty foot to be measured forth-right into the North of every man's ground a line there to be drawn a trench to be cast a foundation laid and an high brick-wall to be builded My father had a garden there and there was an house standing close to his South-pale this house they loosed from the ground and bare upon rowlers into my father's garden two and twenty foot ere my father heard thereof no warning was given him nor other answer when he spake to the Surveyors of that work but that their Master Sir Thomas commanded them so to doe no man durst goe to argue the matter but each man lost his land and my father paid his whole rent which was six sâ—illings eight pence the year for that half which was left Thus much of mine own knowledge have I thought good to note that the sudden rising of some men causeth them to forget themselves I am moved the rather to believe our Authour herein because elsewhere he alloweth this Lord his deserved praise for his virtues and especially his Hospitality affirming e Survey of London p. 74. he had often seen at the Lord Cromwell's gate above two hundred persons served twice every day with meat and drink sufficient Nor can I see what may be said in excuse of this oppression except any will plead that Abimelech's servants violently f Gen. 21. 26. took away the wells from Abraham and yet Abimelech himself never knew more or lesse thereof 25. As for the passionate expressions of Cromwell The worst passionate Speech objected against him a g Sir I. Strode of Parubam in Dorcet-shire Knight aged well-nigh eighty whose Mother was Daughter to the Lord Cromwell's Son hath informed me That the principall passage whereon the Lord's enemies most insisted was this It being told the L. Cromwell that one accused him for want of fidelity to the King Cromwell returned in passion Were he here now I would strike my dagger into his heart meaning into the heart of the false Accuser and therein guilty of want of charity to his fellow-subject not of loyaltie to his Sovereign But seeing the words were a measuring cast as uttered though not as intended to whom they should relate the pick-thank Repeater avowed them uttered against the King Himself So dangerous are dubious words and ambiguous expressions when prevalent power is to construe and interpret the meaning thereof 26. Ten daies after his Arrest His Speech on be scaffold he was attainted of high Treason in Parliament and brought on the Scaffold the next week to execution Here he spake the following words unto the people which the Reader is requested the more seriously to peruse July 19. that thereby he may be enabled to passe if concerned therein his verdict in what Religion this Lord died I Am come hither to die 29. and not to purge my selfe as some think peradventure that I will For if I should so doe I were a very wretch and miser I am by the law condemned to die and thank my Lord God that hath appointed me this death for mine offence For since the time that I have had years of discretion I have lived a sinner and offended my Lord God for the which I aske him heartily forgivenesse And it is not unknown to many of you that I have been a great traveller in this world and being but of base degree I was called to high estate and since the time I came thereunto I have offended my Prince for the which I aske Him heartily forgivenesse and beseech you all to pray to God with me that he will forgive me And now I pray you that be here to bear me record I die in the Catholick Faith not doubting in any Article of my faith no nor doubting in any Sacrament of the Church Many have slandered me and reported that I have been a bearer of such as have maintained evil opinions which is untrue But I confesse that like as God by his Holy Spirit doth instruct us in the truth so the Devil is ready to seduce us and I have been seduced but bear me witnesse that I die in the Catholick Faith of the Holy Church And I heartily desire you to pray for the King's Grace that He may long live with you in health and prosperity and that after Him His son Prince Edward that goodly impe may long reign over you And once again I desire you to pray for me that so long as life remaineth in this flesh I waver nothing in my faith And so making his Prayer c. The generall terms wherein this his Speech is couched hath given occasion for wise men to give contrary censures thereof Fox in his Marginall Note on this Speech pag. 515. A true Christian Confession of the Lord Cromwell at his death Lord Herbert in the Index of his History under C. Cromwell died a Roman-Catholick notwithstanding he had been such a destroyer of the Church True it is so warie were Cromwell's expressions that Luther and Bellarmine might in their own persons have said the same without any prejudice to their own principles and many conceive that the most which these his words amount to will but make him an six-Articles Protestant 27. But let Cromwell's politick Speech be in part expounded by
those daies deserveth not ivie in cur Age. Now seeing by the rules of justice and the Kings own appointment His Debts were to be paid before His Legacies and seeing many of His personall debts remained unsatisfied till the daies of Queen Elizabeth probably most of these Legacies were never paid especially to inferiour persons As if it were honour enough for them to have such summs bequeathed unto though never bestowed upon them 53. Whereas mention in this Will of a Monument well onwards and almost made Monument made for the King by the Cardinal it is the same which Cardinal Wolsey built For King Henry and not for himself as is commonly reported Wherefore whereas there goeth a tale That King Henry one day finding the Cardinal with the workmen making His Monument should say unto him Tumble your self in this Tomb whilest you are alive for when dead you shall never lie therein it is a meer fiction the Cardinal originally intending the same for the King as appeareth by the ancient Inscription * Godwin in Hen 8. p. 200. thereupon wherein King Henry was stiled LORD not KING of Ireland without addition of supreme Head of the Church plainly shewing the same was of antient date in the daies of the Cardinal 54. Whereas the Lady Mary and Elizabeth Why His Nieces more at liberty than his Daughters Their marriages are so severely conditioned that if made without consent of the Councell They were to forfeit Their right to the Crown men interpret it as provided in terrorem and not otherwise Yet this clause was it which afterwards put so plausible a pretence on Wiat his rebellion which though made of rotten cloth had notwithstanding a good colour thereon Now whereas the King's Nieces the Daughters to Mary His younger Sister were not clogg'd in this His Will with such restrictions concerning their Marriages the plain reason was because both of them were already married before this Will was made Frances the elder to Henry Gray Marquesse Dorset afterward Duke of Suffolke and Eleanour the younger to Henry Clifford Earl of Cumberland 55. The Portion of but ten thousand pounds a piece left to His two Daughters Ten thousand pounds the portion of a Princesse was not much unproportionable to the value of money as it went in that Age though a summe small for such an use in our daies And I have heard that Queen Elizabeth being informed that Doctor Pilkington Bishop of Durham had given ten thousand pounds in marriage with his Daughter and being offended that a Prelates daughter should equal a Princesse in portion took away one thousand pounds a year from that Bishoprick and assigned it for the better maintenance of the Garrison of Barwick 56. Very much of His own abitrarinesse appears in this Will of King Henry Much of arbitrarinesse in this Will entalling the Crown according to His own fancie against all right and reason For first how unjust was it that His female issue by Queen Katharine Parr His last Wife had He had any should inherit the Crown before Mary and Elizabeth His eldest Daughters by His former Wives If Mary and Elizabeth were not His lawfull Children how came They by any right to the Crown If His lawfull Children why was Their birth-right and seniority not observed in succession Well it was for Them that Henry Fitz Roy His naturall Son but one of supernaturall and extraordinary endowments was dead otherwise some suspect had He survived King Edward the sixth we might presently have heard of a K. Henry the ninth so great was His Fathers affection and so unlimited His power to preferre Him 57. But the grand injury in this His Testament is The Scotish Line quite left out That He quite passeth over the Children of Margaret His eldest Sister married into Scotland with all Her issue not so much as making the least mention thereof 58. Great indeed when this Will was first made was the antipathy which for the present possessed Him against the Scotch with whom then He was in actual warre though at other times when in good humour very courteous to His kinred of that extraction For most sure it is that when Margaret Douglas His Sisters Daughter was married to Math. Earle of Lenox He publickly professed That in case His own Issue failed He should be right glad some of Her body should sacceed to the Crown as it came to * Henry Lord Darly her Son Father to King James passe 59. Of the eleven Witnesses Legatees Witnesses in Kings Will. whose names are subscribed to His Will the nine first are also Legatees therein and therefore because reputed Parties not sufficient Witnesses had it been the Will of a private person But the Testaments of Princes move in an higher sphere than to take notice of such Punctilloes and forraigners being unfit to be admitted to such privacies domesticall Servants were preferred as the properest Witnesses to attest an Instrument of their Lord and Master 60. It is but just with God that He who had too much of His Will done Little of His Will performed when living should have the lesse when dead of His Testament performed The ensuing Reformation swept away the Masses and Chantery Priests founded to pray for His soul The Tombs of Henry the sixth and Edward the fourth the one the last of Lancaster the other the first of Yorke the Titles of both which Houses met in this Henry remain at this day in statu quo priùs without any amendment Where by the way seeing in this Will King Henry the sixth is styled his Uncle I cannot make out the relation in the common sence of the word except any will say that Kings Uncles as their Cousins are oft taken in a large and favourable acception But the main wherein His Will missed the intent is in that the Scotch Line neglected and omitted by Him ordinary Heirs are made in Heaven Heirs to Crowns in the Heaven of Heavens came in Their due time to the Throne Their undoubted Right thereunto recognized by Act of Parliament 61. After the making of this his Will His disease and the manner of His death He survived a full Month falling immediately sick He had sesque corpus a body and half very abdominous unweldy with fat and it was death to Him to be dieted so great His appetite and death to Him not to be dieted so great His corpulency But now all His humours repaired to one place and setled themselves in an old sore in His thigh which quickly grew to be greatly enflamed Here flame met with fire the anguish of the sore with an hot and impatient temper so that during his sickness few of His Servants durst approach His presence His Physicians giving Him over desired some who tendred the good of His soul to admonish Him of His estate But such who could flie with good tidings would not halt to Him with ill newes Besides lately a Law was made That
to return to bed was accounted a petty apostacie 2. Let all at the sign given leave off their work and repair presently to prayers Sign This in England commonly called the ringing Island was done with tolling a bell but in other Countreys with loud stroaks as Noblemens Cooks knock to the dresser at which time none might continue their work Yea the Canon was so strict that it provided scriptores literam non integrent That writers a great trade in Monasteries having begun to frame and flourish a Text letter were not to finish it but to break off in the middle thereof 3. Let those who are absent in publick imployment be reputed present in prayers Absent Hence it was that antiently at the end of prayers there was a particular commemoration made of them and they by name recommended to Divine protection 4. Let no Monk go alone but alwaies two together Two That so they might mutually have both testem honestatis and monitorem pietatis And this was done in some imitation of Christs sending his Disciples to preach f Luke 10. 1. Two and two before his face that so they might alternately ease one another 5. From Easter to Whitsunday let them dine alwaies at twelve and sup at six of the clock Dine The Primitive Church forbade fasting for those fifty daies that Christians might be cheerfull for the memory g Tertullian Libro de corons militis of Christs resurrection Immunitate Jejunandi à die Paschae Pentecosten usque gaudemus and therefore more modern is the custome of fasting on Ascension Eve 6. Let them at other times fast on Wednesdaies and Fridaies till three a clock in the afternoon Three of the clock So making but one meal a day but know that the twelve daies in Christmas were in this Canon excepted 7. Let them fast every day in Lent till six of the clock at night Six a clock Stamping a character of more abstinence on that time For though all a Monk's life ought to be a LENT yet this most especially wherein they were to abate of their wonted sleep and diet and adde to their daily devotion Yet so that they might not lessen their daily fare without leave from the Abbot all things done without whose consent will be accounted presumption and not redound to reward so that in such cases obedience to their Superiours was better than the sacrifice of their own free abstinence 8. Let no Monk speak a word in the Refectory when they are at their meals Speak a word Whilst their mouthes are open to eat their lips must be lockt to speak For proof whereof they corruptly cite the Apostles words to h 2 Thes 3. 12. eat their own bread with silence whereas indeed it is work with quietness and therein a contented minde injoyned Such might also remember Solomon's rule Eat thy bread with joy 9. Let them listen to the Lecturer reading Scripture to them whilst they feed themselves Listen This was i In regula Capite quinto S. Austine ' s rule Ne solae fauces sumant cibum sed aures percipiant Dei verbum 10. Let the Septimarians dine by themselves after the rest Septimarians These were weekly Officers not as the Abbot Porter c. for term of life as the Lecturer Servitors at the table Cook who could not be present at the publick refection as the Bible-Clerks in Queens-Coll in Cambrige waiting on the Fellows at dinner have a Table by themselves their stomacks being set to go an hour after all the rest 11. Let such who are absent about businesse observe the same hours of prayer Absent Be it by sea or land on ship in house or field they were to fall down on their knees and though at distance and very briefly yet in some sort to keep time and tune with the Covent in their devotions 12. Let none being from home about businesse and hoping to return at night presume foris mandicare to eat abroad Eat abroad This Canon was afterwards so dispensed with by the Abbot on severall occasions that it was frustrate in effect when Monks became common guests at Lay-mens tables 13. Let the COMPLETORIE be solemnly sung about seven a clock at night COMPLETORIE Because it compleated the duties of the day This service was concluded with that Verticle of the Psalmist k Psal 141. 3. Set a watch O Lord before my mouth and keep the door of my lips 14. Let none speak a word after the Completorie ended but hasten to their beds Speak a word For they might expresse themselves by signes and in some cases whisper but so softly that a third might not overhear it This silence was so obstinately observed by some that they would not speak though assaulted with thieves to make discovery in their own defence 15. Let the Monks sleep in beds singly by themselves but all if possible in one room Singly by themselves To prevent that sin of Sodomie whereof many were detected and more suspected in after-Ages One room For the comfort of their mutuall society 16. Let them sleep in their cloathes girt with their girdles but not having their knives by their sides for fear of hurting themselves in their sleeps In their clothes Is slovenness any advantage to sanctity This was the way not to make the Monks to lie alone but to carry much company about them 17. Let not the youth lie by themselves but mingled with their seniours Seniours That their gravity may awe them into good behaviour Thus husbandmen couple young colts with staid horses that both together may draw the better 18. Let not the candle in the Dormitory go out all the night Candle In case some should fall soddainly sick and that this standing candle might be a stock of light to recruit the rest on occasion 19. Let Infants incapable of excommunication be corrected with rods Infants Such all were accounted under the age of fifteen years of whom many in Monasteries whose minorities were beneath the censures of the Church 20. Let the offenders in small faults whereof the Abbot is sole Judge be onely sequestred from the table Small faults As coming after grace to dinner breaking though casually the earthen ewer wherein they wash their hands being out of tune in setting the Psalm taking any by the hand as a preface forsooth to wantonnesse receiving Letters from or talking with a friend without leave from the Abbot c. From the table Such were to eat by themselves and three hours after the rest until they had made satisfaction 21. Let the offenders in greater faults be suspended from table and prayers Greater faults viz Thest adultery c. And Prayers This in effect amounted to the greater Excommunication and had all the penalties thereof 22. Let none converse with any excommunicated under the pain of excommunication None Yet herein his Keeper deputed by the Abot was excepted Converse Either to car or speak with him He might not so much as blesse him
The miserable ends of the Cardinals instruments herein that these houses were still continued to the generall end of pious uses however it was not fair to alienate them from the primitive intention of the Founders yea God himself seemed not well-pleased therewith I know that g Eccles 9. 1 2. no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them All things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked c. However Gods exemplary hand ought to be heeded in the signall fatality of such as by the Cardinall were employed in this service Five they were in number two whereof challenging the field of each other one was h Godwin his Annals of Hen. the eighâ—h Anno 1525. Yet Mr. Fox maketh the Lord Cromwell the principall person employed by the Cardinall therein slain and the other hanged for it A third throwing himself headlong into a well perished wilfully A fourth formerly wealthy grew so poor that he begged his bread The fifth Dr. Allen one of especiall note afterward Archbishop of Dublin was slain in Ireland What became of the Cardinal himself is notoriously known and as for his two Colledges that in Ipswich the embleme of its Builder soon up soon down presently vanished into private houses whilst the other Christ-Church in Oxford was fain to disclaim its Founder and being adopted the issue of the bounty of the King Henry the eighth at this day owns not him for Father who first gave it life but who afterwards kept it from dying In a word this dissolution of fourty small Houses caused by the Cardinall made all the Forest of religious Foundations in England to shake justly fearing the King would finish to fell the oaks seeing the Cardinal began to cut the underwood Of the first Priory which was solemnly suppressed by King Henry the eighth SOme six years after Christ-Church Priorie neer Allgate first and solely dissolved whilst as yet all other Abbeys flourished in their height and happinesse as safe and secure as ever before King Henry the eighth for reasons best known to Himself singled out the Priory of Christ-Church nigh Allgate in London and dissolved the same This He bestowed as a boon on Thomas a Hall's Chronicle An. 1525. Audley Speaker in the Parliament and indeed it was an excellent receit to clear his voice to make him speak shrill and loud for his Master This shrewdly shook the freehold of all Abbeys seeing now two such great men Wolsey and Audley both in their times Lord-Chancellours of England and therefore presumed well versed in cases of conscience the one a Divine first took the other a Common-Lawyer first received such lands into their possession 2. A word of the antiquity The antiquity wealth and dignity thereof wealth and dignity of this Covent because in each respect it was remarkable It was founded Anno 1108. by Queen b Harpâ—field in his Catalogue of Abbeys Matilda Wife to King Henry the first dedicated to the holy Trinity for Black Canons or Canons-Regular and one Norman by name and nation was first Prior thereof In processe of time it became rich in land and ornaments and passed all the Priories in London or Middlesex especially in this particular that the Prior thereof was alwaies an c Stow's Survey of London p. 145. Alderman of London namely of Portsoken Ward though otherwise their Covent standeth in Ealgate Ward and used to ride amongst the Aldermen in a livery like the rest save that his habit was in the shape of a spiritual person In the year 1264 d Idem ibidem Eustathius the eighth Prior of this Covent because he himself was loth to deale in temporall matters instituted Theobald Fitz-Ivo Alderman in his place They were most bountifull house-keepers relieving all comers and goers and got themselves much reputation for their hospitality 3. Some conjecture this was King Henry's designe in dissolving this Priorie A guesse at King Henry's design thereby to make a discovery in peoples affections how they resented the same He dispatched this Covent first as the forelorn hope is sent out before the body of the Army which if meeting with unsuspected dangers may give timely notice to the rest to advance no farther And if He had found the people much startled thereat He could quickly knock off retrench His resolutions and dexterous to decline envy for Himselfe handsomely cast the same on His instruments employed therein Others think the King as yet had no such project in intention but did it meerly to gratifie Sir Thomas Audley whom He loved the better for hating Cardinal Wolsey now beginning to fall against whom he had bitterly inveighed in the Parliament 4. As for the manner of the dissolving thereof The Priory taken by composition whereas all other Abbeys afterwards were stormed by violence whatsoever is plausibly pretended to the contrary this onely was fairly taken by composition For the Prior thereof was sent for by the King commended for his hospitality promised preferment as a man worthy greater dignity which promise surely He performed though the particulars of the agreement are not to be known Whereupon Anno 1531 the twenty third year of the King's reign in the moneth of July he surrendred the same to the King's use As for the Canons they were sent to other houses of the same Order who now being severally disposed in other Covents they might serve them as Monitours to warn all the rest seasonably to prepare for the time of their dissolution 5. The rooting out of this Priory wrought a middle effect in people The effect thereof upon the people for they were neither dumb nor clamorous thereat but grumbled out their discontentment for a time and then returned to their former temper However at first they were so abstemious that whereas the Priory Church and Steeple was e Idem ut priùs profered to whomsoever would take it down no man would undertake the offer Whereupon Sir Thomas Audley was fain to be at more charges than he could make of the materials the workmen with great labour beginning at the top loosed stone from stone and throwing them down most part of them were broken in the fall and remained uuelesse 6. What might move the King to single this Priory out of all the rest This the antientest of all Priories to lead this sad dance is variously conjectured Indeed this was the antientest of all England of that Order since the Conquest I mean of Canon-Regulars as our f Stow ut priùs Authour telleth us And therefore it was but reasonable the oldest should go first the first-born should be first buried But surely no such consideration moved King Henry to this choice who was not so methodical in His deeds of undoing 7. As for the Lord Audley At this day called the Dukes-Place on whom this Priory was bestowed Margaret his sole Daughter Heir was
credit and comfort of the English Church if the dispersed handfulls of their exiles were bound up in one sheaf united into one congregation where they might serve God in purity of faith and integrity of life having both Doctrine and Discipline free from any mixture of superstation 46. Notwithstanding this their importunity But refuse to communicate with them those of Zurich made no other addresses to Frankford than by dilatory letters excusing themselves from coming thither Some saw no absolute necessity that all the English should repair to one place conceiving it rather safer to adventure themselves in several bottoms and live in distinct Colonies Others were displeased with the imperative stile of the letter from Frankford requiring them to come thither exceeding the bounds of counsell for convenience into command for conscience yea charging recusancy herein as a sin on the soul of the refusers They pleaded they were already peacably seated and courteously used at Zurich and to goe away before they had the least injury offered them was to offer an injury to those who so long and lovingly had entertained them Some insisted on the material point how they should be maintained at Frankford there being more required to their living there than their bare coming thither But the main was those of Zurich were resolved no whit to recede from the liturgie used in England under the reign of King Edward the 6 th and except these of Frankford would give them assurance that comming thither they should have the full and free use thereof they utterly refused any communion with their Congregation SECTION Anno Dom. 1556. III. To the right worshipfull Sr. HENRY WROTH Knight SIr it is my desire fitly to suite my dedications to my respective Patrons that what is wanting in the worth of the present may be partly supplied in the propernes thereof which made me select this parcell of my History for your Patronage I finde Sr. Thomas Wroth your great-grandfather of the Bedchamber and a favourite to King Edward the 6 th who as I am informed at his death passed out of the armes of him his faithfull Servant into the embraces of Christ his dearest Saviour Soon after Sr. Thomas found a great change in the English Court but no alteration as too many did to their shame in his own conscience in preservation whereof he was fain to fly beyond the Seas To be a fugitive is a Sin and shame but an honour to be a voluntary Exile for a good cause Hence it is that I have seen in your ancient House at Durance the * * viz. a Lions Head erazed crest of your Armes with the extraordinary addition of Sable vvings somewhat alluding to those of Bats to denote your ancestours dark and secret flight for his safety However God brought him home again on the silver vvings of the Dove when peaceably restoring him in the dayes of Q. Elizabeth to his large Possessions In a word I may wish you and yours less mediate trouble then he had in the course of his Life but cannot desire you more final happines in the close thereof T F. ABout this time M r. John Knox came from Geneva Mr. Knox chosen constant Minister at Frankford and was chosen by the Congregation of Frankford for their constant Minister Let none account it incongruous that among so many able and eminent English Divines a Scotchman should be made Pastour of the English Church seeing M r. Knox his reputed merit did naturalize him though a forrainer for any Protestant Congregation At which time also M r. Chambers and M r. Edmond Grindal came thither as Agents with a letter from the Congregation of Strasburgh This Strasburgh as in the position thereof it is almost seated in the just midd-way betwixt Zurich and Frankford so the English there residing embraced a moderate and middle expedient betwixt the extremities of the two foresaid Congregations These made a motion that they might have the a Tr. of Fr. pag. 24. substance and effect of the Common prayer-book though such ceremonies and things which the Countrie could not bear might well be omitted Knox and Whitingam asked them what they meant by the substance of the Book and whilest the other wanted commission to dispute the point the motion for the present came to no perfection 2. However it gave occasion that Mr. Knox The Liturgie of England tendred to Mr. Calvin and his censure thereof and others in Frankford drew up in Latine a platforme or description of the Liturgie as used in England under King Edward and tendered the same to the judgement of M r. John Calvin in Geneva to pass his sentence thereon This is that M r. Calvin whose care of all the Churches is so highly commended by some and as much censured is he by others as boasting himself in another mans line and medling with forraine matters which did not belong unto him Take M r. Calvins judgment herein from his own letter bearing date the 20 th of January following In the Liturgie of England I see there are many tolerable foolish things by these words I mean that there is not that purity which were to be desired These vices though they could not at the first day be amended yet seeing there was no manifest impiety they were for a season to be tolerated Therefore it was lawfull to begin of such rudiments or abcedaries but so that it behooved the learned grave and godly Ministers of Christ to enterprize further and to set forth some thing more filed from rust and purer This struck such a stroke especially in the Congregation of Frankford that some therein who formerly partly approved did afterward wholy dislike and moe who formerly dislik'd did now detest the English Liturgie 3. In this case stood matters in Frankford Dr. Cox and others aâ—tive at Frankford when D r. Richard Cox with some of his friends out of England arrived there This Doctour was a man of an high spirit deep learning unblameable life and of great credit amongst his Countrie-men for he had been Tutour unto Edward the 6 th And well may the nurse herself be silent whilest the well battleing of the babe pleads aloud for her care and diligence as here the piety and pregnancie of his Prince-pupill added much to D r. Cox his deserved reputation He with others coming into the Congregation March 13. discomposed the model of their service first answering aloud after the Minister and on the Sunday following one of his company without the consent and knowledge of the Congregation got up into the pulpit and there read all the a Tr. of Fr. pag. 38. Letanie Knox highly offended hereat in the afternoon preaching in his course out of Genesis of Noahs nakednesse in his tent took occasion sharply to tax the authours of this disorder avowing many things in the English Book to be superstitious impure and imperfect and that he would never consent they should be received
volley of ill words discharged at them amongst which none so mortal to their reputation as the word Schismatick wherewith the Coxians branded them at their departure Much fending and proving there was betwixt them whether Schismatick was properly applyable to such who agreeing in doctrine dissented onely in superfluous ceremonies In conclusion nothing was concluded amongst them as to agreement And now no pitty shewed at their departure no sending of sighes or shedding of tears on either side the one being as glad of the room they left as the other were desirous of their own removall 10. If any be curious to know the names of such The names of such as went to Geneva who separated themselves from this Congregation of Frankford this ensuing catalogue a Taken out of their subscription to a letter in the Troubles of Frankford pag. 47. will acquaint him therewith William William Anthonie Christopher Thomas Iohn Williams Whittingham Gilby Goodman Cole Fox Thomas William Iohn Iohn Christopher Nicolas Wood. Keth◠Kelke Hilton Soothous Purfote Iohn Thomas William Laurence Iohn Anthonie Escot Grafton Walton Kent Hellingham Carier Of these M r. Fox with a few moe went to Basil the rest settled themselves at Geneva where they were all most courteously entertained And now who can expect less but that those still remaining at Frankford as the same in opinion should be the same in affection and live in brotherly love together But alas man while he is man will be man and Sathan the sower of tares 6. 155. 7. did set a sad dissention betwixt them which we come now to relate 11. There was an eminent member of the Congregation in Frankford The sad difference betwixt Mr. Ashley and Mr. Horne M r. Ashley by name one of a worshipfull b Troubles of Frankford pag. 55. degree and as it seems of a Spirit not to say Stomack no whit beneath his extraction Jan. 14. 16. Now there happened some high words at Supper betwixt Him and M r. Horn then Pastor of the Congregation yet so that all the difference by the seasonable mediation of the Guests was then seemingly composed But two dayes after M r. Ashley was convented before the Elders where it was laid to his charge that at time and place aforesaid he had spoken words slanderous to them and their Ministry Ashley appealed from them as an adversary Part against Him and therefore no competent Judges unto the whole Congregation as men of estimation with both Parties to hear and determine the difference betwixt them 12. Hereat M r. Horn and the Elders were highly offended Horne and the Elders in discountent quit their places pleading that they had received authority from the whole Church to hear and decide such Cases Ann. Dom. 6. 155-7 and were resolved not to depart with the power so legally delegated unto them And whereas many meetings were made of M r. Ashleys friends to debate his businesse M r. Horne and the Elders condemned them as tending to schism accounting their own presence so of the Quorum to any lawful assembly that without it all conventions were conventicles Yea M r. Horne and the Elders perceiving that M r. Ashleys friends being most numerous in the Congregation would bring his Cause to be determined by the diffusive Church Feb. 2. fully and freely forsook their Ministry and Service therein Preferring rather willingly to un-Pastor and dis-Elder themselves than to retain the place without the power Title without the Authority due thereunto 13. This deserting of their Duty Where at the Church is highly offended was by others interpreted an high contempt of the Congregation Especially when two dayes after a full Church met with an empty Pulpit 4. wherein none to teach the people The Ashleyans being far the major part took exception that Horne and the Elders should so slightly and suddenly quit what before they had so seriously and solemnly accepted as if their Pastoral charges were like their cloaths or upper garments to be put off at pleasure to coole themselves in every heat of Passion Besides these men being married in a manner to their Ministeriall Functions could not legally divorce themselves without mutual consent and the Churches approbation thereof 14. Soon after the State of the controversie was altered Inquiry how to proceed against the Pastor and Elders if accused M r. Ashleys businesse being laid aside and another of an higher concernment taken up in the room thereof namely how the Congregation should proceed against the Pastor and Elders in case they were accused for misdemeanour For hitherto no provisions were made in the constitutions of this Church to regulate this case if chancing to occur Whether because the compilers of those constitutions charitably presumed on the integrity of all such Officers or omitted the making any law against them in favour to themselves as most probable to obtain such places or because no canons can at once be compleated 14. but a reserve must be left for the additions of others to perfect the same But now eight were appointed to regulate the manner of the proceeding of the Congregation against Pastor and Elders if peccant who were without or rather above censure according to the old Discipline which still inflamed the anger of M r. Horne and his Party 15. A Party much advantaged by M r. Chambers siding therewith Mr. Chambers accused of injustice because He was keeper of the charity conferred on and contributions collected for the Congregation Now where goeth the Purse there goeth the Poor most in want were of Hornes side in hope of the larger relief This made others complain of Chambers as an unjust Steward of the Churches treasure too free to such as He affected and bountifull only of Taunts and ill Terms to those of a different Judgement making neither Mens Need or Deserts but only his own fancy the direction of his Distributions 16. Now began their brawls to grow so loud The scandal of this dissention that their next neighbours over-heard them I mean the State of Frankford took notice thereof to the shame of all and grief of all good in the English Nation For how scandalous was it that exiles of the same Country for the same Cause could not agree together But man in misery as well as man in honour hath no understanding Yea they began to fear lest many Dutch-men hitherto their bountifull Benefactours should for the future withdraw their benevolences conceiving these exiles wanted no mony who had such store of animosities and probably poverty would make them more peaceable amongst themselves Their discords were the worse because the Vernali mart at Frankford did approach and it would be welcome ware and an usefull commodity for Popish Merchants meeting there to carry over into England and all the world over the news of their distractions 17. Hereupon the Magistrate of Frankford interposed to arbitrate their differences 〈…〉 short friends but whether
all due and wonted Ecclesiasticall monition declared so requiring it conceived it to belong unto us to provide for the eternall Salvation both of our selves and such as are committed to our charge by all means possible for us to obtain Wherefore stirred up by the examples of our Predecessours who have lived in the like times that faith which in the Articles under-written we believe to be true and from our souls profess to the praise and honour of God and the discharge of our duty and such souls as are commited unto us we thought in these presents publiquely to insert affirming and avowing as God shall helpe us in the last day of judgement First that in the Sacrament of the Altar by the vertue of Christs assisting after the word is duly pronounced by the Priest the naturall Body of Christ conceived of the Virgin Mary is really present under the species of bread and wine also his naturall bloud Item that after the Consecration there remains not the substance of Bread and Wine nor any other substance save the substance of God and man Item that the true body of Christ and his true bloud is offered a propitiatory sacrifice for the Quick and Dead Item that the supreme power of feeding and governing the militant Church of Christ and of confirming their Brethren is given to Peter the Apostle and to his lawfull Successours in the See Apostolike as unto the Vicars of Christ Item that the Authority to handle and define such things which belong to faith the Sacraments and Discipline Ecclesiasticall hath hitherto ever belonged and only ought to belong unto the Pastors of the Church whom the holy spirit hath placed in the Church of God and not unto lay-men Which our Assertion Affirmation and faith We the lower Clergy aforesaid so represent the aforesaid considerations unto your Fatherhoods by the Tenor of these Presents humbly requesting that because we have not liberty otherwise to notifie this our Judgement and intention to those which in this behalf are concerned you who are Fathers would be pleased to signifie the same to the Lords in Parliament wherein as we conceive you shall performe an office of Charity and Piety and you shall provide as it is meet for the safety of the flock committed to your charge and shall discharge your duty towards your own soul This remonstrance exhibited by the lower house of Convocation to the Bishops was according to their Requests presented by Edmond Bonner B p. of London to the Lord Keeper of the broad Seal of England in the Parliament Marc. 3. and as the said Bishop in the eighth Session reported he generously and gratefully received it But we finde no further news thereof save that in the 10. Session an account was given in by both Universities in an Instrument under the hand of a Publique Notary 10. wherein they both did concur to the Truth of the aforesaid Articles the last only excepted 10. But we may probably conceive that this Declaration of the Popish Clergy hastened the Disputation appointed on the last of March in the Church of Westminster The Disputations betwixt the Papists and Protestants at Westminster wherein these questions were debated 1. Whether Service and Sacraments ought to be celebrated in the vulgar tongue 2. Whether the Church hath not power to alter Ceremonies so all be done to edification 3. Whether the Mass be a propitiatory sacrifice for the Living and the Dead Popish Disputants Moderators Protestant Disputants * There is some difference in the Number and Names of Both Parties Mr. Fox neither agreeth with Mr. Camden nor with himself White Watson Baynes Scot. Bps. of Winchester Lincolne Covent and Lichfield Chester D r. Cole Deane of Pauls D r. Langdale D r. Harpsfield D r. Cheadsey Arch-Deac of Lewes Canterbury Middlesex Nicholas Heath B p. of York S r. Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the great Seal John Scory late B p. of Chichester David Whitehead Robert Horne Edmond Gwest Edwine Sands John Aelmer Edmond Grindall John Jewell The passages of this Disputation whereof more Noise then fruit and wherein more Passion then Reason Anno Dom. 1458. Cavils then Arguments are largely reported by M r. Fox It was ordered that each side should tender their Judgements in writing to avoid verball extravagancies as also in English for the better information of the Nobility and Gentry of the house of Parliament their Auditors and that the Papists should begin first and the Protestants answer them But in the second dayes disputation this order was broken by the Popish Bishops who quitting their Primacy to the Protestants stood peremptorily upon it that they themselves would deliver their Judgements last Alledging in their behalf the fashion of the Schools that because they had the negative on their side the others ought first to oppose Citing also the Custome of the Courts at Westminster where the plaintiffe pleadeth before the defendant conceiving themselves in the nature and notion of the Later because maintaining those opinions whose Truth time out of minde were established Chester more open then the Rest plainly confessed that if the protestants had the last word they would come off cum Applausu Populi with applause of the People which themselves it seems most desired Whereby it appears what Wind they wished for not what was fittest to fanne the truth but what would blow them most reputation In this Refusal to begin Winchester and Lincolne behaved themselves faucily and scornfully the rest stiffly and resolutely only Feckenham Abbot of Westminster who it seems the second day was added to the Popish Disputants carried it with more meeknesse and moderation Hereupon the Lord Keeper cut off this conference with this sharp Conclusion Seeing my Lords we cannot now hear you you may perchance shortly hear more of us 11. Yet need we not behold the frustration of this meeting The Papists complain of partial usage as a private Doome peculiarly to this conference alone but as the generall Destiny of such publike Colloquies which like Sicamore-trees prove barren and which the larger the Leaves of the Expectation the less the fruits of Successe The Assembly dissolved it were hard to say which were lowder the Papists in Complaining or the Protestants in Triumphing The former found themselves agrieved that they were surprised of a sudden having but two dayes warning to provide themselves That Bacon the Moderator though well skil'd in matters of Equity ignorant in matters of Divinity was their Zealous Enemy to whom the Arch-Bishop was added only for a stale That to call such fundamentall points of Doctrine into question would cause an unsetlednesse in Religion of dangerous consequence both to single souls and to the Church in generall That it was unlawfull for them owing obedience to the Sea Apostolike without leave of his Holinesse first obtained to discusse these truthes long since decided in the Church 13. The Protestants on the other side slighted the Papists Plea of want
displicuisse videatur idque non tam praesract â voluntate quam tenera conscientiâ cujus tantam esse vim magni authores optimi quique viri scripserunt ut quicquid eâ vel reclamante vel errante vel haesitante fiat non leve peccatum esse statuerint Acut quod verum est ingenuè humiliter attendamus illud omnium qued unum agitur vel necessario silentio vel voluntariâ oblectatione obruamus Si laudabile est vitam non modo abomni crimine sed suspicione criminis liberam traduxisse traduxit si bonestum Religionem ab omni non modo Papistica corruptela sed à schismatica pravitate integram conservare conservavit si Christianum non modo propter justitiam persecutionem passum esse sed per caeter as nationes propter Evangelium oberrasse passus est oberravit Quae cum ita sint Regina Clementissima omnes hae nostrae voces ad Celsitudinem Tuam profectae hoc unum demississimè quà m fieri potest subjectissimè comprecantur idque per singularem naturae Tuae bonitatem per anteactae Tuae vitae consuetudinem per pietatem Regiam in subditos per charitatem Christianam in inimicos perque eam qua reliquos omnes privatos Principes excellis lenitatem ut velis Majestatem Tuam mansuetudine justitiam misericordiâ iramplacabilitate offensionem indulgentiâ mitigare Archiepiscopum maerore sractum debilitatum non modo extollere jacentem sed Ecclesiam ipsi ipsum Ecclesiae Tuis civibus suis fratribus exteris nationibus denique pijs omnibus tandem aliquando restituere Quod si fecerit Majestas Tua vel potiùs cùm fecerit quod enim summè cupimus summè etiam sperare jucundum est non dubitamus quin illum Reverendissimum Patrem supplicem abjectum non tam à pedes quà m ad nutûs Tuos perpetuò sis habitura Ita Celsitati Tuae persanctè pollicemur nobis neque in Ecclesia constituenda curam neque in Religione propagandâ studium neque in Schismatibus tollendis diligentiam neque in hoc beneficio praecipuè recolendo memoriam neque in ferendo quas debemus gratias gratam animi benevolentiam ullo unquam tempore defuturam Dominus Jesus Majestatem Tuam ad Reipublicae tranquillitatem ad Ecclesiae conservationem ad suae veritatis amplificationem omni foelicitatis genere diutissimè prosequatur This petition though presented with all advantage found no other entertainment than delays which ended in a final deniall it being daily suggested to the Queen that Grindal was a great patrone of prophesyings now set up in severall parts of the land which if permitted to take place would in fine prove the bane of the Church and Commonwealth 2. These prophesyings were founded on the Apostles a 1 Cor. 14. 13. precept The model and method of prophesyings For ye may all prophesie one by one that all may learn and all be comforted but so as to make it out they were fain to make use of humane prudential additions modelling their prophesyings as followeth 1. The Ministers of the same precinct by their own appointment not strictly standing on the old division of Deanries met at the principal place therein 2. The junior Divine went first into the pulpit and for halfe an hour more or less as he could with clearness contract his meditations treated upon a portion of Scripture formerly by a joynt-agreement assigned unto him After him foure or five moe observing their seniority successively dilated on the same text 3. At last a grave Divine Anno Dom. 1580. Anno Regin Eliza. 23. appointed on purpose as Father of the Act made the closing sermon somewhat larger then the rest praising the pains and performance of such who best deserved it meekly and mildly reproving the mistakes and failings of such of those if any were found in their Sermons Then all was ended as it was begun with a solemn prayer and at a publick refection of those Ministers together with many of the Gentry repairing unto them the next time of their meeting was appointed text assigned Preachers deputed a new Moderator elected or the old one continued and so all were dissolved This exercise proved though often long seldome tedious and peoples attentions though travelling farr were little tired because entertained with much variety 3. However The inconveâ—â—â—â—s of 〈◊〉 â—e yings 〈◊〉 or suspected some inconveniences were seen and more foreseen by wise or at least suspected by fearfull men if these prophesies might generally take place in the land 1. Many modest Ministers and those profitable Preachers in their private Parishes 〈◊〉 were loath to appear in this publick way which made them underservedly sleighted and neglected by others 2. Many young men of more boldness than learning readiness than solidity carried away the credit to the great disheartning of those of more age and ability 3. This consort of Preachers kept not always time and tune amongst themselves much jarring of personal reflections often disturbing their harmony 4. Many would make impertinent excursions from their text to inveigh against the present discipline and government of the Church Such-Preachers being more plausible to the people generally best pleased with them who manifest their displeasure against the present authority 5. A wise person was often wanting to moderate the Moderator partially passing his censures rather according to affection than judgement 6. People factiously cried up some one Minister some another to the disgrace of Gods Ordinance 7. These prophesyings being accounted the faires for spiritual merchandizes made the weekly markets for the same holy commodities on the Lords day to be less respected and Ministers to be neglected in their respective Parishes 8. In a word the Queen was so perfectly prepossessed with prejudice against these prophesyings as if they foretold the rise of schisme and faction that she was implacably incensed against Arch-Bishop Grindal as the principal Patrone and promoter thereof However the good Arch-Bishop to vindicate himself and state the usefulness of these prophesyings wrote a large letter to the Queen and allthough we cannot exactly tell the just * To the day and moneth being confident this was the year time thereof yet knowing it will be welcome to the pious reader at any time here we present the true copie thereof WIth most humble remembrance of bounden duty to your Majesty The most remarkable letter of Arch-Bishop Grindall in defence of Prophesies and Church jurisdiction It may please the same to be advertized that the speeches which it pleased you to deliver unto me when I last attended on your Highness concerning the abridging the number of Preachers and the utter subversion of all learned exercises and conferences amongst the Ministers of the Church allowed by the Bishops and Ordinaries have exceedingly dismayed and discomforted me not so much for that the said speeches founded very hardly against my own person
conscience is grounded upon the word of God and the word of God worketh his effect by preaching so as generally where preaching wanteth obedience faileth No Prince ever had more lively experience hereof then your Majesty hath had in your time and may have daily if your Majesty comes to the City of London never so often what gratulations what joy what concourse of the people is there to be seen Yea what acclamations and prayers to God for your long life and other manifest significations are there to be heard of inward and unfeined love joyned with most humble and hearty obedience are there to be heard Whereof commeth this Madam but of the continuall preaching of Gods word in that City whereby that people hath been plentifully instructed in their duty towards God and your Majesty On the contrary what bred the Rebellion in the North was it not Papistry and ignorance of Gods word through want of often preaching in the time of that rebelling were not all men of all states that made profession of the gospel most ready to offer their lives for your defence in so much that one poore parish in York-shire which by continuall preaching hath been better instructed then the rest Halifax I mean was ready to bring three or foure thousand able men into the field to serve you against the said rebels How can your Majesty have a more lively triall and experience of the effects of much preaching or little or no preaching the one worketh most faithfull obedience the other working most unnaturall disobedience and rebellion but it is thought that many are admitted to preach and few able to do it well that unable preachers be removed is very requisite if ability and sufficiency may be rightly weighed and judged and therein I trust as much is and shall be done as can be for both I for my own part let it be spoken without any ostentation I am very carefull in allowing of such preachers only as be able both for the knowledge in the Scriptures and also for testimony of their godly life and conversation and besides that I have given very great charge to the rest of my brethren the Bishops of this Province to do the like we admited no man to the office of preaching that either prosesseth Papistry or puritanisme the graduats of the Vniversities are only admitted to be preachers unless it be some few which have excellent gifts of knowledge in the Scriptures joyned with good utterance and godly perswasions I my self procured above 40. learned preachers and graduats within less then these six years to be placed within the Diocess of York besides those I found there and there I left them the fruits of whose travell in preaching your Majesty is like to reap daily by most assured dutifull obedience of your subjects in those parts But indeed this age judgeth hardly and nothing indifferently of the ability of preachers of our time judging few or none to be able in their opinion which hard judgement groweth upon divers ill dispositions of men St. Paul doth command the preaching of Christ crucified be absque eminentia sermonis but in our time many have so delicate eares that no preaching can satisfie them unless it be sauced with much sweetness and exornation of speech which the same apostle utterly condemneth and giveth this reason ne evacuetur crux Christi Some there be also that are mislikers of the godly reformation in religion now established wishing indeed that there were no preachers at all and so by depraving of ministers impugne religion non aperto Martis sed in cuniculis much like to the Popish Bishops in your fathers time who would have had the english translation of the Bible called in as evill translated and the new translation thereof to be committed to them which they never intended to performe A number there is and that exceeding great whereof some are altogether worldly minded and altogether bent covetously to gather worldly goods and possessions serving all carnall vain dissolute and lascivious life Voluptatis amores magis quam Dei semetipsos dediderunt ad patrandum omnem immunditiem cum aviditate Eph. 4. 19. and because the preaching of Gods word which to all Christians conscience is sweet and delectable to them having cauterizatas conscientias is bitter and grievous for as St. Ambrose saith super Psal 119. quomodo possunt verba Dei dulcia esse in faucibus tuis in quibus est amaritudo There they wish also that there were no preachers at all but because they dare not directly condemne the office of preaching so expressly commanded by Gods word for that the same were open blasphemy they turne themselves altogether and with the same meaning as others do to make exceptions against the persons of them that be admitted to preach But God forbid Madam that you should open your eares to any of these wicked perswasions or any way to diminish the preaching of Christs gospell for that you would ruinate altogether at length Cum defecerit propheta dissipabitur populus Pro. 27. saith Solomon Now where it is though that the reading of godly Homilies set forth by publick authority may suffice I continue in the same minde I was when I attended upon your Majesty the reading of Homilies hath his commodities but it is nothing comparable to the office of preaching The godly preacher is learned in the gospell Fidelis servus qui novit who can apply his speech to the diversity of times places and hearers which cannot be done in homilies Exhortations reprehensions and perswasions are uttered with more affections to the moving of the hearers in sermons then in Homilies Besides Homilies were devised by godly Bishops in your brothers dayes only to supply necessity by want of preachers and are by the statute not to be preferred but to give place to sermons wheresoever they may be had and were never thought in themselves to contain alone sufficient instruction for the Church of England for it was then sound as it is sound now that this Church of England hath been by appropriations and that not without sacriledge spoiled of the livings which at the first were appointed to the office of preaching and teaching which appropriations were first annexed to Abbyes and after came to the crown and now are disposed to private mens possessions without hope to reduce the same to the originall Institution So that at this day in my opinion where one Church is able to yield sufficient living to a learned preacher there are at the least seven Churches unable to do the same where there be * * The word nor being easily legible I have 〈◊〉 â—â—ink as sometimes before and after prefering to refer the sence to the Judicious Readers own coniecture then to impose my guess upon him soules the more is the pitâ—y there are not seven pounds a year reserved for the Minister In such parishes as it is not possible to place able preachers for want of convenient
majesty aside determine with your self to obey his voice and with all humility say unto him non mea sed tua voluntas fiat God hath blessed you with great felicity in your reign now many years beware you do not impute this same to your own deserts or policy but give God the glory and as to instruments and means impute your said felicity first to the goodness of the cause which you set forth I mean Christs true religion And Secondly to the sighs and groans of the Godly in fervent prayer to God for you which have hitherto as it were tied and bound the hands of God that he could not pour out his plagues upon you and your people most justly deserved Take heed that you never think of declining from God lest it be verified of you which is written of Joash 2 Cron. 24. who continued a Prince of good and godly government for many years together and afterwards cum corroboratus esset elevatum est cor ejus in interitum suum neglexit Deum You have done many things well but unless you persevere to the end you cannot be blessed for if you turn from God then will be turn his mercifull countenance from you and what remaineth then to be looked for but only a horrible expectation of Gods judgement and an heaping up of Gods wrath against the day of wrath But I trust in God your Majesty will alwayes humble your self under his mighty hand and goe forward in the godly and zealous setting forth of Gods true religion alwayes yeilding true obedience and reverence to the word of God the only rule of faith and religion And if you so doe although God hath just cause many wayes to be angry with you and us for our unthankfulness Yet I doubt nothing but for his own names sake he will still hold his mercifull hand over us shield and protect us under the shadow of his wings as he hath hitherto done I beseech God our heavenly Father plentifully to pour his principall spirit upon you and alwayes direct your heart in his holy fear Amen Amen What could be written with more spirit and less animosity more humility and less dejection I see a Lambe in his own can be a Lion in God and his churches Cause Say not that orbitas and senectus the two things which made the man speak so boldly a Plutarch Morals to the Tyrant only encouraged Grindall in this his writing whose necessary boldness did arise partly from confidence in the goodness of the cause for which partly from the graciousnes of the Queen to whom he made his address But alas all in vain Leicester had so filled her Majesties eares with complaints against him there was no room to receive his petition 4. Indeed Leicester cast a covetous eye on Lambeth-House Lambeth house Grindals guilt alledging as good arguments for his obtaining thereof as ever were urged by Ahab for Naboths-Vineyard Now Grindall though generally condemned for remisness in this kinde parting with more from his See then ever his successors thanked him for stoutly opposed the alienating of this his principal Palace and made the Leicestrian Party to malice him but more hereof b In Grindals character at his death hereafter Mean time may the Reader take notice that a great Scholar and Statesman and no Enemy to the Hierarchie in his c Sâ— Francis Bacon worthy considerations abuut Church-Government tendred to King James conceiveth that such Prophesyings which Grindall did favour might be so discreetly cautioned and moderated as to make them without fear of faction profitable for advancing of learning and Religion But so jealous were some Bishops of that Age of these Prophecyings as having too much Presbyterian Analogie and classical Constitution therein they decried the motion of them as Schismatical 5. I finde no mortality of Protestant Worthies this year The death of Cope and Bullock But amongst the Catholicks much moan for the death of Allan Cope Harpsfields great correspondent and Agent for those of his Religion at Rome where he died and was buried in the English Colledge and George Bullock bred in S t. Johns in Cambridge and after lived in Antwerpe in the Monastery of S t. Michaels 6. Now began Priests and Jesuites to flock faster into England Pepish Iecusis swarme iuto England than ever before having exchange of cloaths and names and professions He who on Sunday was a Priest or Jesuite was on Monday a Merchant on Tuesday a Souldier on Wednesday a Courtier c. and with the sheers of equivocation constantly carried about him he could cut himself into any shape he pleased But under all their new shapes they retained their old nature being akinn in their turbulent spirits to the wind pent in the subterranean concavities which will never be quiet untill it hath vented it self with a State-quake of those countries wherein they abide These distilled traiterous principles into all people wheresoever they came and endeavoured to render them disaffected to Her Majesty maintaining that She neither had nor ought to have any dominion over Her Subjects whilest She persisted in an heretical distance from the Church of Rome 7. Hereupon the Parliament Necessary severity of the Parliament against them which now met at Westminster was enforced for the security of the State to enact severe laws against them First Jan. 16. that it should be treason to draw any from that faith established in England to the Romish religion Secondly that it should be treason to be reconciled to the Romish religion Thirdly that to maintain or conceal any such person longer then twenty days should be misprision of treason Fourthly that saying mass should be two hundred marks penalty and one years imprisonment Fiftly hearing Mass should be one hundred marks penalty and one years imprisonment Sixtly absence from the Church one moneth fineable at twenty pounds Seventhly all they shal be imprisoned who will not or cannot pay the forfeiture Eightly it was provided that such should pay ten pounds a moneth who kept a School-master in their house who repaireth not to Church Where by the way we may mention that some since conceive themselves to have discovered a defect in this law because no order is taken therein against Popish School-mistrisses And although School-master may seem of the Common-gender and inclusive of both sexes yet by the letter of the law all She-teachers which did mischief to little children evaded the punishment Thus when authority hath carefully shut all doores and windows imaginable some little offenders will creep through the cranies thereof 8. When Sovereigns have made laws Many against 〈◊〉 mâ—lcts for 〈◊〉 Subjects sometimes take the boldness to sit in judgement upon them to commend them for just or condemne them for cruel as here it came to pass Some and those far enough from all Popery misliked the imposing of monie-mâ—lcts on mens consciences If the Mass were lawfull let it freely be permitted if
c. illegally inflicting any other punishments Such Commissioners proceeding against Offender by Attachment Fine or Imprisonment are contrary to the express words of Carta Magna providing that no free man shall be taken or imprisoned or be disseised of his free hold and liberty and but by the lawful judgement of his Peers or of the Law of the Land Their whole Commission is void in Law because it beareth date in July but was not signed till November next after contrary to the Statute which enjoyneth that Letters patents should be dated the day of their delivery into Chancery or else they shall be void For the High Commission The words in the Statute run thus they shall have full power and authority by vertue of this Act and of the Letters patents under your Highness your Heirs and successors to Exercise Vse execute all the promises according to the Tenor and effect of the said Letters patents any matter or cause to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding Now their Letters patents inable them to Attach Fine or Imprison c. in doing whereof they are sufficiently impowered by the Commission When Carta Magna was made Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction though it was de jure it was not de facto in the King Whereby it plainly appears that those words related not to the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction but only to Crimes belonging to the Common Law But since the Parliament hath declared Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the Queen the Ecclesiastical persons might impose such penalties even to the Condemning of Hereticks though never tri'd by a Jury It appeareth by the Preamble of that Statute that the words cannot be stretched to Letters patents of that nature but belong only to such to private persons wherein Grantees are unjustly expelled out of their right by colour of Letters patents bearing an elder date But the most general exception against the High Commission was this that proceeding ex officio mero by way of enquiry against such whom they pleased to suspect they tendered unto them an Oath which was conceived unjust that in Cases Criminal a party should be forced to discover what might be penal to himself The Lawfulness of which Oath was learnedly canvassed with Arguments on both sides Against the Oath ex Officio The Common Laws have ever rejected and impugned it never put in Ure by any civil Magistrate in the Land but as it is corruptly crept in amongst other abuses by the sinister practises and pretences of the Romish Prelates and Clergimen And where loss of Life Liberty or good Name may ensue the Common Law hath forbidden such Oath It is contrary to the Fundamental Law of Liberty Nemo tenetur seipsum prodere It appeareth by the Lord Dyer's Book that one Hynde called before the Commissioners Ecclesiastical for Vsury refused to swear whereupon he was committed But upon an Information in the Common pleas he had a Corpus cum causa to remove him so as it seemeth the Judges were then of Opinion that the Commissioners could not give him such an Oath Though such proceedings ex officio were practised by the Popish Prelates against the Saints and Servants of God Yet it was never used by Protestants in their Ecclesiastical Censures The Justice of the Land detesteth that the Judge should himself be an Accuser For by Law no man may be Accuser and Witness Inditer and Jurer therefore much less Judg Accuser which notwithstanding he is that tendereth the Oath ex Officio Even the Heathen Romans were so Christian that by antient custome no Vestal Virgin or * Gellius lib. 10 câ—p 15. Flamen of Jupiter was restrained to swear whereof * Plutarch problems 43. Plutarch rendreth three Reasons First because an Oath is a kinde of torture to a free man Secondly it is absurd in smaller matters not to credit their words who in higher matters touching God are believed Thirdly an Oath in case they were forsworne draweth a curse on them a detestable Omination towards the Priests of God And why may not as much be allowed to the true Ministers of the Gospel The Scripture which ought to be the Rule of our Actions affords neither precepts nor precedent of such proceedings where Witnesses were produced and the Accusers brought face to face William Tindal a worthy Martyr in his * Pag. 208. Comment on the fifth of Matthew saith plainly that a Judge ought not to compel a man to swear against himself No Protestant Church beyond the Seas hath made use of such tyrannical proceedings For the Oath ex Officio It is true To give this Oath to the Defendent in Causes of Life and Death is contrary to the Justice of the Land But where Life or Limbe is not concerned it is usually tendered in Chancery Court of Requests Councel of Marches and Councel in the North yea in other Courts of Record at Westminster where the Judges time out of minde by Corporal Oath did examine any person whom in discretion they suspected to have dealt lewdly about any Writ Returne entrie of Rule pleading or any such like Matter not being Capital It is granted But with all Proditus per deruntiationem Famam c. tenetur seipsum offendere Some faults are simply secret no way bruited or published abroad in which cases the person guilty is not bound to make Confession thereof though urged on his Oath to any Officer Civil or Ecclesiastical But if once discovery be made by Presentment Denunciation Fame c. according to Law then is not the fault meerly secret but revealed in some sort to the Magistrate or abroad who for avoiding Scandal to Christian Religion and Reformation of the Party may thus inquire of the Offence to see it redressed and punished There is no such report in the Lord Dyer all that is extant is only this Marginal Note upon Skroggs his case in Michaelmas Terme 18. of Elizabeth Simile M. 18. fol. per Hynde qui noluit jurare coram justiciariis Ecclesiasticis super Articulos pro usura Which seems added by some unskilful person it being improbable so learned a Judge would have termed the Commissioners Justiciarios Ecclesiasticos Besides this cause of Hynde can no where else be found Certain Commissioners whereof some Bishops some privie Councellers some Civilians and some Judges and Common Lawyers in the Reign of K. Edward the sixth charged BP Bonner with a corporal Oath * For Act Mon. sol 1512. ex Officio to answer to questions ministred unto him and for resusal he was pronounced * For Acts Mon. sol 1516. contumacious The like Oath in matter criminal and Penal was tendered to * For Acts Mon. sol 1536. Stephen Gardener at appeareth by the sentence of his deprivation of the Bishoprick of Winchester The Laws Civil and Ecclesiastical hold not the Judge proceeding of office to be an Accuser but that whereupon the Enquiry is grounded to represent the Accusation By the granting of this peculiar priviledge to these
on the first day were called in Chappel Christ-Church Worcester Westminster Andrewes S. Pauls Overall Chester Barlow Sarisbury Bridges Winsor D. Field King KING JAMES Spectators All the Lords of the Privy Council whereas some at times interposed a few words Place A withdrawing Room within the Privy chamber Dr. Reynolds Sparks Mr. Knewstubs Chaderton These remaining in a Room without were not called in the first day To omit all gratulatory Preambles as necessary when spoken as needlesse if now repeated we will present onely the Substance of this Dayes Conference his Majesty thus beginning it It is no novel device but according to the example of all Christian Princes for Kings to take the first course for the establishing of the Church both in Doctrine and Policy To this the very Heathen related in their Proverb A Jove principium particularly in this Land King Henry the 8. towards the end of his Reign altered much King Edward the 6. more Queen Mary reversed all and lastly Queen Elizabeth of b Note his Majesty never remembred her but with some honourable Addition famous memory setled Religion as now it standeth Herein I am happier than they because they were faine to alter all things they found established Ann. Dom. 160 3 4 whereas I see yet no suchcause to change Ann. Reg. Jac. 1 as confirm what I finde well setled already For blessed be Gods gracious Goodnesse who hath brought me into the Promised Land where Religion is purely professed where I sit amongst Grave Learned and Reverend Men not as before elsewhere a King without State without Honour without Order where Beardlesse Boyes would brave us to the Face And I assure you we have not called this Assembly for any Innovation for we acknowledge the Government Ecclesiasticall as now it is to have been approved by manifold blessings from God himself both for the increase of the Gospel and with a most happy and glorious Peace Yet because nothing can be to absolutely ordered but that something may be added thereunto and corruption in any State as in the Body of Man will insensibly grow either thorough Time or Persons and because we have received many complaints since our first entrance into this Kingdome of many disorders and much disobedience to the Lawes with a great falling away to Popery Our purpose therefore is like a good Physitian to examine and try the Complaints and fully to remove the occasions thereof if scandalous cure them if dangerous and take knowledge of them if but frivolous thereby to cast a Sop into Cerberus his Mouth that he bark no more For this cause we have called you Bishops and Deans in severally by your selves not to be confronted by the contrary Opponents that if any thing should be found meet to be redressed it might be done without any visible Alteration Particularly there be some speciall Points wherein I desire to be satisfied and which may be renduced to three Heads 1. Concerning the Book of Common Prayer and Divine Service used in the Church 2. Excommunication in Ecclesiasticall Courts 3. The providing of fit and able Ministers for Ireland In the Common Prayer-book I require satisfaction about three things First about Coâ—firmation For the very name thereof if arguing a Confirming of Baptâ—sme as if this Sacrament without it were of no validity is plainly blasphemous For though at the first use thereof in the Church it was thought necessary that baptised Infants who formerly had answered by their Patrins should when come to yeares of discretion after their Profession made by themselves be confirmed with the blessing of the Bishop I abhorre the Abuâ—e wherein it is made a Sacrament or Corroboration to Baptisme As for Absolution I know not how it is used in our Church but have heard it likened to the Popes Pardons There be indeed two kindes thereof from God One generall all Prayers and Preaching importing an Absolution The other particular to speciall Parties having committed a Scandall and repenting Otherwise where Excommunication precedes not in my judgement there needs no Absolution Private Baptisme is the third thing wherein I would be satisfied in the Common Prayer If called Private from the Place I think it agreeable with the use of the Primitive Church but if termed private that any besides a lawfull Minister may baptise I utterly dislike it And here his Majesty grew somewhat earnest in his Expressions against the baptising by Women and Laicks In the second Head of Excommunication I offer two things to be considered of First the Matter Secondly the Persons For the first I would be satisfied whether it be executed as it is complainmed of to me in light Causes and that too commonly which causeth the undervaluing thereof For the Persons I would be resolved why Chancellours and Commissaries being Lay-men should do it and not rather the Bishops themselves or some Minister of Gravity and account deputed by them for the more dignity to so high and weighty a Censure As for providing Ministers for Ireland I shall refer it in the last daies Conference to a Consultation c He addressed himselfe to the King on his knee Ar-Bp of CaÌ„t. Confirmation hath been used in the Catholick Church ever since the Apostles and it is a very untrue suggestion if any have informed your Highnesse that the Church of England holds Baptisme imperfect without it as adding to the vertue and strength thereof BP of Lon. The Authority of Confirmation depends not onely on d Citing Cypr. Ep. 73. and Jer. Adversus Luciferiam Antiquity and the Practise of the Primitive Church but is an Apostolical Institution named in expresse words Heb. 6. 2. and so did Mr. Calvin expound the very place earnestly wishing the restitution thereof in the reformed Churches The Bishop of Carlile is said gravely and learnedly to have urged the same and the Bishop of Durham noted something out of S. Matthew for the Imposition of hands on Children The Conclusion was this For the fuller Explanation that we make Confirmation neither a Sacrament nor a Corroboration thereof their Lordships should consider whether it might not without Alteration whereof his Majesty was still very wary be intitled an Examination with a Confirmation Ar-B of CaÌ„t. As for the point of Absolution wherein your Majesty desires satisfaction it is clear from all abuse or superstition as it is used in our Church of England as will appear on the reading both of the Confession and Absolution following it in the beginning of the Communion Book Here the King perused both and returned His Majesty I like and approve them finding it to be very true what you say BP of Lond. It becometh us to deal plainly with your Majesty There is also in the Book a more particular and personall absolution in t he Visitation of the Sick Here the Dean of the Chappel turned unto it and read it These be severally cited BP of Lond. Not onely the Confessions of Augusts Boheme and Saxon
and nice-conscienced Elects scrupled to be consecrated by him He gave during his own life Twenty pounds a year to the Man's Widow which was not long a Widow as quickly re-maried He kept a Monethly-Fast on a Tuesday as the day whereon this casualty befell in a word this Keeper's death was the Archbishop's mortification 18. A project against the Clergy to get money At this time the KING's Exchequer grew very low though Lionel Cransield Lord Treasurer and Earl of Middlesex neglected no means for the improving thereof In order whereunto Reader let this Story passe into thy belief on my credit knowing my selfe sufficiently assured thereof a Projector such necessary evils then much countenanced informed His MAJESTY of a way whereby speedily to advance much Treasure And how for sooth was it Even that a new Valuation should be made of all Spiritual preferments which now in the King's Books passed at Under-tates to bring them up to or near the full value thereof This would promote both the casual fines as I may term them of First-fruits and the Annual rent of Tenths to the great advantage of the Crown The KING sent to the Lord Treasurer demanding his judgment thereof 19. Declined by the Lord Treasurer The Treasurer returned His MAJESTY an Answer to this effect so near as I can remember from the mouth of a Noble person then present Sir You have ever been beheld as a great Lover and Advancer of Learned men and You know Clergy-mens education is chargeable to them or their friends Long it is before they get any preferment which at last generally is but small in proportion to their pains and expences Let it not be said that You gained by grinding them other waies lesse obnoxious to just censure will be found out to furnish your occasions The KING commended Cranfield as doing it only for triall adding moreover I should have accounted thee a very knave if encouraging Me herein and so the project was blasted for the present as it was when it budded again propounded by some unworthy instrument in the Reign of King CHARLES 20. Who is truly excused I know some will suspect the Treasurer more likely to start than crush so gainful a design as who by all waies means sought to encrease the royal Revenue I know also that some accuse him as if making his Master's wings to molt thereby the better to feather his own nest Indeed he raised a fair estate and surely he will never be a good Steward for his Master who is a bad one for himself Yet on due and true enquiry it will appear that though an High power did afterwards prosecute him yet his innocence in the main preserved him to transmit a good estate to his posterity So that much of truth must be allowed in his * Frequent in his House at Copâ—hall Motto PERDIDIT FIDES he was lost at Court for his fidelity to K. JAMES in sparing His Treasure and not answering the expensivenesse of a great Favourite 21. The L. Bacon outed â—or Bâ—ibery A Parliament was call'd Jan. 20. wherein Francis Bacon L d Chancellor was outed his Office for Bribery the frequent receiving thereof by him or his was plainly proved Yet for all his taking just and unjust he was exceedingly poor and much indebted Wherefore when motion was made in the House of Commons of Fining him some thousand of pounds Sir Fr. S. a noble Member standing up desired that for two Reasons his Fine might be mitigated into fourty shillings First because that would be payed whereas a greater summe would onely make a noise and never be payed Secondly the shame would be the greater when such his prodigality that he who had been so large a taker in his Office was reduced to such penury that forty shillings should be conceived a sufficient Fine for his Estate But it was fine enough for him to lose his Office remitted to a mean and private condition 22. None can character him to the life An 〈…〉 his character save himself He was in parts more than a Man who in any Liberal profession might be whatsoever he would himself A great Honourer of antient Authors yet a great Deviser and Practiser of new waies in Learning Privy Counsellor as to King JAMES so to Nature it self diving into many of her abstruse Mysteries New conclusions he would dig out with mattocks of gold silver not caring what his experience cost him expending on the Trials of Nature all and more than he got by the Trials at the Barre Posterity being the better for his though he the worse for his own dear experiments He and his Servants had all in common the Men never wanting what their Master had and thus what came flowing in unto him was sent flying away from him who in giving of rewards knew no bounds but the bottome of his own purse Wherefore when King JAMES heard that he had given Ten pounds to an under-keeper by whom He had sent him a Buck the KING said merrily I and He shall both die Beggars which was condemnable Prodigality in a Subject He lived many years after and in his Books will ever survive in the reading whereof modest Men commend him in what they doe condemn themselves in what they doe not understand as believing the fault in their own eyes and not in the object 23. Bishop Williams made Lord Keeper All stood expecting who should be Bacon's Successour in the Chancery Sure he must be some man of great and high abilities otherwise it would seem a valley next a mountain to maintain a convenient and comely level in that eminent Place of Judicature Now whilst in common discourse some made this Judge others that Sergeant Lord Chancellor King JAMES made Dr. Williams lately and still Dean of Westminster soon after Bishop of Lincolne Though the KING was the principal July 10. the Duke of Buckingham was more than the instrumental advancer of him to the title of Lord Keeper in effect the same in Place and Power with the Lord Chancellor 24. Some causlesly offended The KING's choice produced not so much dislike as general wonder Yet some cavilled at Doctor Williams his Age as if it were preposterous for one to be able for that Office before antient and as if one old enough for a Bishop were too young for a Chancellor Others questioned his abilities for the Place Could any expect to reap Law where it was never sown who can apply the remedy whilst he is ignorant in the malady Being never bred to know the true grounds and reasons of the Common Law how could he mitigate the rigour thereof in difficult cases He would be prone to mistake the severity of the Common Law for cruelty and then unequal equity and unconscionable conscience must be expected from him Besides the Place was proper not for the plain but guarded Gown and the Common Lawyers prescribed for six * Yet Sir Ch.
resolution that he would not have this high point medled withall or debated either the one way or the other because it was too high for the peoples understanding and other points which concern Reformation and newness of life were more needfull and profitable I promised obedience herein and so kissing his Majesties hand departed I thought fit to acquaint you with the whole cariage of this business because I am afraid many false reports will be made of it and contrary one to another as men stand contrarily affected I shewed no letter or instructions neither have any but these geneâ—all instructions which King James gave us at our going to Dort which make little or nothing to this business I sought amongst my papers but could not finde them on the suddain and I suppose you have them already As for my Sermon the brief heads were these Text Rom 6. 23. Eternall life is the gift of god through Jesus Christ our Lord. As in the former part I had spoken of the threefold miserie of the wicked so here I expounded the threefold happiness of the godly to be considered 1. Happy in the Lord whom the serve God or Christ Jesus 2. Happy in the reward of their service Eternall life 3. Happy in the manner of their reward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or gratnitum donurn in Christo The two former points were not excepted against In the third and last I considered eternall life in three divers instances in the eternall destination thereunto which we call Election Anno Regis Caroli Anno Dom. in our Conversion Regeneration or Justification which I termed the Embryo of Eternall life John 4. 14. And last of all in our Coronation when full possession of eternall fiâ—e is given us In all these I shewed it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the free gift of God through Christ not procured or premented by any speciall Acts depending upon the free will of Men. The last point wherein I opposed the Popish Doctrin of Merit wà s not disliked The second wherein I shewed the effectuall Vocation or Regeneration whereby we have Eternall life inchoated and begun in us is a free gift was not expresly taxed Only the first was it which bred the offence not in regard of the Doctrin it self but because as my Lords grace said the King had prohibited the debating thereof And thus having let you understand the carriage of this businesse I commit you to the protection or the Almighty 17. This yeer Thomas Dove Bishop of Peterborough ended his life The death of Bishop Dove He was bred in Pembroke-Hall in Cambridge chosen Tanquam therein which it seems is a Fellow in all things save the name thereof Afterwards Chaplain to Q. Elizâ—beth who made him Dean of Norwich being much affected with his Preaching as wont to say that The * Godwin in the Bishops of Peterborough and Sir john Havington in his continuation Holy Ghost was again come down in the Dove He was a constant Housekeeper and Reliever of the Poor so that such who in his life time condemned him for Covetousnesse have since justly praised his Hospitality Now though Doves are generally said to want gall yet the Non-conformists in his Diocesse will complain of his severity in asserting Ecclesiasticall Discipline when he silenced five of them in one morning on the same token that King James is said to say it might have served for five yeers He was an aged man being the only Queen Elizabeths Bishop of that Province which died in the Reign of King Charles living in a poor Bishoprick and leaving a plentifull estate to shew that it is not the moisture of the Place but the long lying of the stone which gathereth the great mosse therein In a word had he been more carefull in conferring of Orders too commonly bestowed by him few of his Order had exceeded him for the unblamablenesse of his behaviour 18. Now began great discontents to grow up in the University of Oxford on this occasion 7 1631 Troubles begin in Oxford Many conceived that Innovations defended by others for Renovations and now only reduced as used in the Primitive times were multiplied in Divine service Offended whereat they in their Sermons brake our into what was interpreted bitter invectives Yea their very Texts gave some offence one preaching on Numbers 14. 4. Let us make us a Captain and let us return into Egypt Another on 1 Kings 13. 2. And he cried against the Altar in the word of the Lord and said O Altar Altar c. In prosecution whereof they had not only tart reflexion on some eminent Persons in the Church but also were apprehended to violate the Kings Declaration for the sopiting of all Arminian controversies 19. Dr. An apreale from the Vice-chancellor to the Procters Smith Warden of Wadham convented the principal persons viz. Mr. Thorn of Bailiol Col. and Mr. Ford of Magdalen Hall as offenders against the Kings instructions and ordered them to bring in the Copies of their Sermons They suspecting partiality in the Vice-Chancellor appealed from him to the Procters two men of eminent integrity and ability Mr. Atherton Bruch and Mr. John Doughty who received their appeal presuming the same justifiable by the Statutes of the University But it seems the Procters were better Scholars than Lawyers except any will say both Law and Learning must submit when Power is pleased to interpose 20. Archbishop Laud did not like these retrograde appeals Severely punished but sensible that his own strength moved rather ascendendo than descendendo procured the cause to be heard before the King at Woodstock where it was so ordered that 1 The Preachers complained of were expelled the University 2 The Procters were deprived of their places for accepting their appeal Anno Dom. 1631 Anno Regis Caroli 7 3 Dr. Prideaux and Dr. Wilkinson were shrewdly checkt for engaging in their behalf The former of these two Doctors ingenuously confessing to the King Nemo mortalium omnibus horis saepit wrought more on his Majesties affections than if he had harangued it with a long oration in his own defence 21. The expulsion of these Preachers expelled not And il resâ—nted but increased the differences in Oxford which burnt the more for blaZing the lesse many complaining that the Sword of Justice did not cut indifferently on both sides but that it was more Penal for some to touch than others to break the Kings declaration 22. This yeare ended the dayes of Mr. Arthur Hildersham The death of Mr. Haldershâ—â— born at Stechworth in the County bred in Christ-Colledge in the University of Cambridge whose education was an experimentall Comment on the words of David * Psalm 27. 10 When my father and mother forsake me then the Lord taketh me up My Father Thomas Hildersham a Gentleman of an ancient Family And Mother Anne Poole daughter to Sir Jeffery neece to Cardinall Poole grandchild to
eies are waking let such who all the foregoing week had their Cheeks moistned with sweat and hands hardened with labor let such have some recreation on the Lordsday indulged unto them whilst persons of quality who may be said to keep Sabbath all the week long I mean who rest from hard labor are concerned in conscience to observe the Lords-day with the greater abstinence from recreations Anno Dom. 34. Pass we now from the pen Troubles begâ—n in Somerset-shire to the practicall part of the Sabbatarian difference Somerset-shire was the stage whereon the first and fiercest Scene thereof was acted Here Wakes much different I dare say from the watching prescribed by our Saviour were kept on thâ— Lords day with Church-Ales Bid-Ales and Clerks-Ales If the Reader know not the criticall meaning and difference of these words I list not to be the interpreter and his ignorance herein neither is any disgrace nor can be any damage unto him The Gentry of that County perceiving such revells the cause of many and occasion of moe misdemeanors many acts of wantonness bearing their dates from such meetings importuned Sr. Thomas Richardson Lord Chief Justice and Baron Denham then Judges riding the Western circuit in the Lent-vacation to make a severe Order for the suppressing of all Ales and Revells on the Lords-day 35. In complyance with their desire March 19 Judg Richardsons order against Lords-day Revells the aforesaid Judges made an order on the 19. day of March founded on former precedents signed by Judge Popeham Lord Chief Justice in the latter end of Queen Elizabeth her Reign therein suppressing such Revells in regard of the infinite number of inconveniences daily arising by means thereof injoyning the Constables to deliver a copie thereof to the Minister of every Parish who on the first Sunday in February and likewise the two first Sundays before Easter was to publish the same every yeare 36. The Archbishop of Canterbury beheld this as an usurpation on Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction Which he would not revoke and complained of the Judges to his Majesty procuring a Commission to Bishop Pierce and other Divines to enquire into the manner of publishing this Order and the Chief Justice his cariage in this business Notwithstanding all which the next Assise Judge Richardson gave another strict charge against these Revels required an account of the publication and execution of the aforesaid Order punishing some persons for the breach thereof After whose return to London the Archbishop sent for him and commanded him to revoke his former Order as he would answer the contrary at his peril telling him it was his Majesties pleasure he should reverse it The Judge alledged it done at the request of the Justices of the Peace in the County with the generall consent of the whole Bench on the view of ancient precedents in that kinde 1634 However the next Assise he revoked his Order with this limitation as much as in him lay At what time also the Justices of the Peace in Somerset shire who in birth brains spirit and estate were inferiour to no County in England drew up an humble petition to his Majesty for the suppressing of the aforesaid unlawfull assemblies concurring with the Lord Chief Justice therein sending it up by the hand of the Custos Rotulorum to deliver it to the Earle of Pembroke Lord Lieutenant of their County to present it to his Majesty 37. Just in this juncture of time a Declaration for sports The Kings Declaration set forth the fifteenth of King James was revived and enlarged For his Majesty being troubled with petitions on both sides thought good to follow his Fathers royal example upon the like occasion in Lancashire and we refer the Reader to what we have writen * See the 15. of K. James before for arguments pro and con about the lawfulnesse of publique reading thereof 38. It was charged at his triall The Archbishop excuseth himself on the Archbishop of Canterbury that he had caused the reviving and enlarging of this Declaration strong presumptions being urged for the proof thereof He denied it yet professing his judgment for recreations on that day alledging the practice of the Church of Geneva allowing shooting in long Bowes c. thereon Adding also that though indulging liberty to others in his own person he strictly observed that day Anno Dom. 1634 Anno Regis Caroli 10 A self-praise or rather self-purging because spoken on his life which seem'd uttered without pride and with truth and was not cleerly confuted Indeed they are the best carvers of libertie on that day who cut most for others and leave least for themselves 39. However No injunction to the Ministers there was no express in this Declaration that the Minister of the Parish should be pressed to the publishing Many counted it no Ministers work and more proper for the place of the Constable or Tithing-man to perform it Must they who were if not worst able most unfitting hold the Candle to lighten and let in licentiousnesse But because the Judges had enjoyned the Ministers to read their order in the Church the Kings Declaration was inforced by the Bishops to be published by them in the same place 40. As for such whose consciences reluctated to publish the Declaration Yet some silenced for refusall to read the book various were their evasions Some left it to their Curats to read Nor was this the plucking out of a thorn from their own to put it in another Mans conscience seeing their Curats were perswaded of the lawfulnesse thereof Others read it indeed themselves but presently after read the fourth Commandement And was this fair play setting God and their King as they conceived at odds that so they themselves might escape in the fray Others point-blanck refused the reading thereof for which some of them were suspended ab officio beneficio some deprived and moe molested in the High Commission it being questionable whether their sufferings procured more pity to them or more hatred to the causers thereof 41. All Bishops urged not the reading of the Book with rigour alike Moderation of some Bishopâ— therein nor punished the refusall with equall severity I hear the loudest longest and thickest complaints come from the Diocess of Norwich and of Bath and Wells I knew a Bishop in the West to whom I stood related in kindred and service who being pressed by some to return the names of such as refused to read the Book to the Archbishop of Canterbury utterly denied and his words to me were these I will never turn an accuser of my Brethren there be enough in the World to take that office As for the Archbishop of Canterbury much was his moderation in his own Diocess silencing but three in whom also a concurrence of other non-conformities through the whole extent thereof But oh The necessity of the generall day of Judgment wherein all Mens actions shall be expounded
terrorem it might have become the Bishops t d mediate for a mitigation thereof Let Canvâ—s be rough and rugged Lawn ought to be soft and smooth Meekness Mildness and Mercy being more proper for men of the Episcopall Function 69. Two dayes after 30 Mr Burton his words on the Pillory three Pillories were set up in the Palace-yard or one double one and a single one at some distance for Mr. Prinne as the chief offender Mr. Burton first suffered making a long speech in the Pillorie not entire and continued but interrupted with occasionall expressions But the main intent thereof was to parallel his sufferings with our Saviours For at the first sight of the Pillory Me thinks said he I see Mount-Calvary whereon the three Crosses were erected If Christ was numbred amongst Theeves shall a Christian think much for his sake to be numbred amongst Rogues And whereas one told an Halberter standing by who had an old rusty Halbert the Iron whereof was tacked to the staffe with an old crooked nail What an old rusty weapon is this Mr. Burton over-hearing them answered It seems to be one of those Halberts which accompanied Judas when Christ was betrayed and apprehended 70. His Eares were cut off very close Severall censures on his behaviour so that the Temporall or Head Artery being cut the blood in abundance streamed down upon the Scaffold all which he manfully endured without manifesting the least shrinking thereat Indeed of such who measured his minde by his words some conceived his carriage farre above others though using the same scale suspected the same to be somewhat beside himself But let such who desire more of his character consult with his printed life written with his own hand though it be hard for the most Excellent Artist truely to draw his own Picture 71. Dr. Bastwick succeeded him Mr. Bastwick his Speech making a Speech to this effect Here are many spectatours of us who stand here as Delinquents yet am I not conscious to my self of the least trespasse wherein I have deserved this outward shame Indeed I wrote a Book against Antichrist the Pope and the Pope of Canterbury said it was written against him But were the Presse open unto us we would scatter his Kingdome and fight couragiously against Gog and Magog There be many here that have set many daies apart on our behalf let the Prelates take notice thereof and have sent up strong prayers to God for us the strength and fruit whereof we have felt all along in this cause In a word so farre am I from fear or care that had I as much blood as would swell the Thames then visible unto him his face respecting the South I would lose every drop thereof in this cause 72. His Friends much admired and highly commended the erection of his minde triumphing over pain and shame Many Men many mindes making the one easie the other honourable and imputed the same to an immediate Spirituall support Others conceived that anger in him acted the part of patience as to the stout undergoing of his sufferings and that in a Christian there lyeth a reall distinction betwixt Spirit and Stomach Valour and Stubbornnesse 73. Mr. Prinne concluded the sad sight of that day Mr. Prinne his Speech and spake to this purpose The cause of my standing here is for not bringing in my Answer God knoweth my conscience beareth witnesse and my Councell can tell for I paid them twice though to no purpose But their cowardise stands upon Record And that 's the reason why they did proceed and take the cause pro confesso against me But rather then I would have my cause a leading cause to the depriving of the Subjects liberties which I seek to maintain I choose to suffer my body to become an example of this punishment 74. The censure was with all rigour executed on him His behaviour at the censure and he who felt the most fretted the least commended for more kindly patience than either of his Predecessours in that place So various were mens fancies in reading the same letters imprinted in his face that some made them to spell the guiltiness of the Sufferer but others the cruelty of the Imposer Of the latter sort many for the cause more for the man most for humanity sake bestowed pity upon him and now all three were remanded 〈◊〉 their former Prisons and Mr. Prinne as he returned by water to the Tâ—â—er made this Distick upon his own stigmatizing S. L. Stigmara maxillis referens insignia Laudis Exultans remeo Victima grata Deo Not long after they were removed Mr. Prinne to Carnarvan-Castle in Wales Dr. Bastwicke and Mr. Burton the one to Lancaster-Castle the other to Lanceston in Cornewall 75. But it seems these places were conceived to have Their removall either too little of Privacy or too much of Pleasure The two latter therefore were removed again One to the Isle of Scilly the other to the Isle of â—ernezey and Mr. Prinne to Mount Orgueile-Castle in Jersey This in vulgar apprehensions added breadth to the former depth of their sufferings scattering the same over all the English Dominions making the Islands thereof as well as the Continent partake of their patience And here we leave them all in their Prisons and particularly Mr. Prinne improving the Rocks and the Seas good Spirituall Husbandrie with pious meditations But we shall heare more of them hereafter at the beginning of the Parliament 76. Next came the Bishop of Lincoln to be censured in the Star-chamber A preparative to the censure of the Bishop of Lincoln and something must be premised preparative thereunto After the great Seal some ten yeares since was taken from him he retired himself to Bugden in Huntingdonshire where he may be said to have lived in a publick privacie So many his Visitants hospitall his house-keeping it being hard to say whether his Table were more free and full in dyet or discourse indeed he had a plentifull estate to maintain it besides his purchased Land The revenues of his Bishoprick and Deanery of Westminster out of which long since he had been shaken if not fastned therein by the Letters Patents of King James His Adversaries beheld him with envious eyes and one great Prelate plainly said in the presence of the King that the Bishop of Lincoln lived in as much pompe and plenty as any Cardinall in Rome for Dyâ—t Musick and attendance They resolved therefore to humble his height the concurrence of many matters ministring occasion thereunto 77. Sir John Lambe Dean of the Arches formerly a Favourite of Lincoln feâ—cht off from being prosecuted in Parliament The Bishop his discourse at the table with Sir John Lamb. and knighted by his means with Dr. Sibthorp Allen and Burden two Proctors as I take them were entertained at the Bishops talk at Bugden where their table was the discourse generall of those dayes against Puritans The Bishop advised them
to take off their heavy hand from them informing them that his Majesty inâ—ended to use them hereafter with more mildnesse as a considerable party â—â—ing great influence on the Parliament without whose concurrence the 〈◊〉 could not comfortably supply his necessities adding moreover that 〈◊〉 Majesty had communicated this unto him by his own mouth with his â—â—â—tions hereafter of more gentlenesse to men of that opinion 〈◊〉 Some yeers after upon the deniall of an Officialls place in Leicester 〈◊〉 which notwithstanding Informed against him in the Star-chamber he carried in despight of the Bishop Sir John â—â—â—be fell foul with his old Friend and in revenge complained of him for â—evealing the Kings secrets concredited to his privacy Hereupon Atturney Noy was employ'd to put the same into an Information in the Star-chamber unto which Bishop Williams by good advise of counsell did plead and demurre as containing no matter fit for the cognizance of that Court as concerning words spoken of matters done in Parliament secrets pretended to be revealed by him a Privy Counsellor and Peere of Parliament and therefore not to be heard but in that High-Court This Demurrer being heard argued by Counsell Pro and Con in open Court for two or three hours the Lord Keeper and other Lords there present finding no cause nor colour to overrule it was referred to Judge Richison who lately having singded his Coat from blasts at the Court by him to be smothered who in a private Chamber presently after dinner over-ruled the same in a quarter of an houre 79. The Demurrer thus rendred useless in the Bishops defence Deserteth his intents of compounding with the King he used what means he could by the Lord Weston a proper person because Treasurer to meddle in money matters to compound with his Majesty but his Majesty resolved to have the Bishops answer and confession of his fault before he would compound with him Whereupon the Bishop quitting all thoughts of composition resolved to weather out the Tempest of his Majesties displeasure at open sea either out of confidence of the strength of his tackling his own innocence or skill of his Pilots who were to steere his suit having the learnedst Counsel of the Land by whose advise he put in a strong plea which likewise being argued and debated in open Court came at last to 70. His Eares were cut off very close Severall censures on his behaviour so that the Temporall or Head Artery being cut Anno Dom. 1637 the blood in abundance streamed down upon the Scaffold Anno Regis Caroli 13 all which he manfully endured without manifesting the least shrinking thereat Indeed of such who measured his minde by his words some conceived his carraige farre above others though using the same scale suspected the same to be somewhat beside himself But let such who desire more of his character consult with his printed lite written with his own hand though it be hard for the most Excellent Artist truely to draw his own Picture 71. Dr. Bastwick succeeded him Mr. Bastwick his Speech making a Speech to this effect Here are many spectatours of us who stand here as Delinquents yet am I not conscious to my self of the least trespasse wherein I have deserved this outward shame Indeed I wrote a Book against Antichrist the Pope and the Pope of Canterbury said it was written against him But were the Presse open unto us we would scatter his Kingdome and fight couragiously against Gog and Magog There be many here that have set many daies apart on our behalf let the Prelates take notice thereof and have sent up strong prayers to God for us the strength and fruit whereof we have felt all along in this cause In a word so farre am I from fear or care that had I as much blood as would swell the Thames then visible unto him his face respecting the South I would lose every drop thereof in this cause 72. His Friends much admired and highly commended the erection of his minde triumphing over pain and shame Many Men many mindes making the one easie the other honourable and imputed the same to an immediate Sprituall support Others conceived that anger in him acted the part of patience as to the stout undergoing of his sufferings and that in a Christian there lyeth a reall distinction betwixt Spirit and Stomach Valour and Stubbornnesse 73. Mr. Prince concluded the sad sight of that day Mr. Prince his Speech and spake to this purpose The cause of my standing here is for not bringing in my Answer God knoweth my conscience beareth witnesse and my Councell can tell for I paid them twice though to no purpose But their cowardise stands upon Record And that 's the reason why they did proceed and take the cause pro confesso against me But rather then I would have my cause a leading cause to the depriving of the Subjects liberties which I seek to maintain I choose to suffer my body to become an example of this punishment 74. The censure was with all rigour executed on him His behaviour at the censure and he who felt the most fretted the least commended for more kindly patience than either of his Predecessours in that place So various were mens fancies in reading the same letters imprinted in his face that some made them to spell the guiltiness of the Sufferer but others the cruelty of the Imposer Of the latter sort many for the cause more for the man most for huâ—anity sake bestowed pity upon him and now all three were remanded 〈◊〉 their former Prisons and Mr. Prinne as he returned by water to the Tâ—â—er made this Distick upon his own stigmatizing S. L. Stigmara maxillis referens insignala Laudis Exultans remeo Victima grata Deo Not long after they were removed Mr. Prinne to Carnarvan-Castle in Wales Dr. Bastwicke and Mr. Burton the one to Lancaster-Castle the other to Lanceston in Cornewall 75. But it seems these places were conceived to have Their removall either too little of Privacy or too much of Pleasure The two latter therefore were removed again One to the Isle of Scilly the other to the Isle of Gernezey and Mr. Prinne to Mount Orgueile-Castle in Jersey This in vulgar apprehensions added breadth to the former depth of their sufferings scattering the same over all the English Dominions making the Islands thereof as well as the Continent partake of their patience And here we leave them all in their Prisons and particularly Mr. Prinne improving the Rocks and the Seas good Spirituall Husbandrie with pious meditations But we shall heare more of them hereafter at the beginning of the Parliament 76. Next came the Bishop of Lincoln to be censured in the Star-chamber A preparative to the censure of the Bishop of Lincoln and something must be premised preparative thereunto After the great Seal some ten yeares since was taken from him he retired himself to Bugden in
Apocrypha was read in Churches viz. about sixty Chapters for the first lesson from the 28. of September till the 24. of November Canonicall Scripture is alone appointed to be read in the Scotch Liturgy one day alone excepted viz. All Saints day when Wisdome the 3 and Ecclesiasticus the 14 are ordered for Morning and Evening Praier on the same token there wanted not such who said that those two Chapters were left there to keep possession that all the rest might in due time be reintroduced Secondly The word Priest therein declined The word Priest often used in the English Liturgy gave offence to many in so much that c Cartwright in his Admonition 3. cap. 1. division one writeth To call us Priests as touching our office is either to call back again the old Priesthood of the Law which is to deny Christ to be come or else to keep a memory of the Popish Priesthood of abomination still amongst us besides we never read in the New-Testament that the word Priest as touching office is used in the good part Whereupon to prevent exception it was mollified into Presbyter in the Scotch Rubrick 97. The names of sundry Saints omitted in the English Scotch Saints inserted into the Kalender are inserted into the Scotch Kalender but only in black letters on their severall daies according to the form following January February March 11 David King 13 Mungo Bishop in Latin Kentigernus 18 Colman 11 Constantine the 3. King 17 Patrick 20 Cutbert April May. June 1 Gilbert Bishop 20 Serfe Bishop  9 Columba July August September 6 Palladius  18 Ninian Bishop 25 Adaman Bishop October November December  16 Margaret Queen 27 Ode Virgin 4 Droftane Some of these were Kings all of them Natives of that Countrey Scotch and Irish in former ages being effectually the same and which in probability might render them to the favor of their countrey-men some of them as Coleman c. zealous opposites to the Church of Rome in the celebration of Easter 98. But these Scotch Saints were so farr from making the English Laturgy acceptable Alterations of Addition in the Scotch Liturgie that the English Liturgy rather made the Saints odious unto them Such the Distasting alterations in the Book reduceable to 1. Additions 2. Omissions 3. Variations 4. and Transpositions To instance in the most materiall of the first kinde 1. In the Baptisme these words are inserted d Fol. 106. pag. 2. Sanctifie this fountain of water thou which art the Sanctifier of all things Which words are enjoyned to be spoken by the Minister so often as the water in the Fount is changed which must be at least twice a moneth 2. In the Praier after the Doxologie and before the Communion this Passage expunged by the English Reformers out of our Liturgy is out of the Ordinary of Sarum inserted in the Scotch Praier Book And of thy almighty c fol. 102. pagina 1. goodnesse vouchsafe so to blesse and sanctify with thy word and holy word these thy gifts and Creatures of Bread and Wine that they may be unto us the body and blood of thy most dearly beloved Sonne from which words saith the Scotch Author all f Bayly in his Canterburians Self-conviction pag. Papists use to draw the truth of the Transubstantiation 3. He that Celebrateth is injoyned to cover that which remaineth of the consecrated Eleents with a faire linen Cloth or Corporall g fol. 103. pag. 2. a word unknown to vulgar Eares of either Nations in other sense then to signify an under-officer in a foot Company and complained of to be purposely placed here to wrap up therein all Romish superstition of Christs Carnall Corporall presence in the Sacrament 4. In the Praier for the State of Christs Church Militant these words are added And h folio 98. pagina 1. we also blesse thy holy name for all those thy servants who having finished their course in faith doe now rest from their labours And we yeeld unto thee most high praise and hearty thanks for the wonderfull grace and vertue declared in all thy Saints who have been the choice vessells of thy grace and the lights of the world in their severall generations most humbly beseeching thee that we may have grace to follow the example of their stedfastnesse in thy faith and obedience to thy holy commandements that at the day of the generall Resurrection we and all they which are of the mysticall body of thy Sonne may be set on his right hand and hear that his most joyfull voice Come yee blessed c. 99. Amongst the Omissions none more complained of than the deleting these words The most materiall omission in the delivery of the bread at the Sacrament Take i fol. 103. pag. 2. and eat this in remembrance that Christ dyed for thee and feed on him in thine heart by faith with thanksgiving A passage destructive to Transubstantiation as diverting Communicants from Carnall Munducation and directing their Soules to a spirituall repast on their Saviour All which in the Scotch Liturgy is cut off with an Amen from the Receiver The Variations and Transpositions are of lesse moment as where the money gathered at the offer ory distributable by the English Liturgy to the poor alone hath a moyety thereof assigned the Minister therewith to buy him books of holy Divinity and some praiers are transposed from their place and ordered elsewhere whereat some doe take no small exception Other smaller differences if worth the while will quickly appear to the curious perusers of both Liturgies 100. Pass we now from the constitution of the book The discontented condition of the Scorch Nation when the Liturgy was first brought unto them to the condition of the Scotch Nation in this unhappy juncture of time when it was imposed upon him For it found them in a discontented posture and high Royalists will maintain that murmuring and muting against Princes differ only in degree nor in kinde occasioned on severall accounts 1. Some years since the King had passed an Act of revocation of Crown Lands aliened in the minority of his Ancesters whereby much land of the Nobility became obnoxious to forfeiture k The Kings declaration at large pag. 6. And though all was forgiven again by the Kings clemency and nothing acted hereby to the prejudice of any yet it vexed some to hold that as remitted by the Kings bounty wherein they conceived themselves to be before unquestionably estated 2. Whereas many formerly in Scotland were rather Subjects than Tenants rather Vassalls than Subjects Such the Land-lords Princely not to say Tyranniolly power over them the King had lately freed many from such dangerous dependence Especially in point of payment of Tythes to the Lords of the Erection equivalent to our English lay Impropriators but allowing the Land lords a valuable consideration according to the purchases l Idem pag. 9. of that Countrey whereby the
be in the Commission of the Peace nor Judges in Temporall Courts 3. Nor sit in the Star-Chamber nor be Privy-Counsellors The two last branches of this Bill passed by generall consent not above two dissenting But the first branch was voted in the Negative wherein all the Bishops gave their own voices for themselves Yet had their suffrages been secluded and the question only put to the lay-Lords it had been carried for the Bishops by sixteen decisive June 8 76. After some dayes debate the Lords who were against the Bishops protested that the former manner of voting the Bill by branches was unparlamentary and illegall Wherefore they moved the House that they should be so joyned together as either to take the Bill in wholly or cast it all out Whereupon the whole Bill was utterly cast out by many voices had not the Bishops as again they did given their suffrages in the same 77. Master Maynard made a Speech in the Committee of Lords against the Canons At last wholly cast out made by rhe Bishops in the last Convocation therein with much learning indeavouring to prove 1. That in the Saxons times as Malmesbury Hoveden Sir Henry Spelman c. doe witnesse Lawes and constitutions Ecclesiasticall had the confirmation of Peers and sometimes of the People Mr. Maynards Speech against the Canons to which great Councells our Parliaments doe succeed 2. That it appears out of the aforesaid Authors and others that there was some checking about the disuse of the generall making of such Church Lawes 3. That for Kings to make Canons without consent of Parliament cannot stand because built on a bad foundation viz. on the Popes making Canons by his sole Power so that the groundwork not being good the superstructure sinketh therewith 4. He examined the Statute 25 of Henry 8 avouching that that clause The Clergy shall not make Canons without the Kings leave implyeth not that by his leave alone they may make them Lastly he endeavoured to prove that these Canons were against the Kings Prerogative the Rights Liberties and Properties of the Subject insisting herein on severall particulars 1. The first Canon puts a penalty on such as disobey them 2. One of them determineth the Kings Power and the Subjects right 3. It sheweth that the Ordinance of Kings is by the Law of Nature and then they should be in all places and all alike 4. One of the Canons saith that the King may not be resisted 5. Another makes a Holy Day whereas that the Parliament saith there shall be such and no more This his Speech lost neither life nor lustre being reported to the Lords by the Bishop of Lincoln a back friend to the Canons because made during his absence and durance in the Tower 78. One in the House of Commons heightned the offence of the Clergy herein Severall judgments of the Clergyes offence into Treason which their more moderate adversaries abated into a Premunire Many much insisted on the Clarks of the Convocation for presuming being but private men after the dissolution of the Parliament to grant subsidies A Bill read against the High-Commission and so without Law to give away the estates of their fellow-subjects 78. A Bill was read to repeal that Statute of 1 Eliz. whereby the High-Commission Court is erected This Bill afterwards forbad any Archbishop Bishop c. deriving power from the King to Assesse or inflict any pain penalty amercement imprisonment or corporall punishment for any ecclesiasticall offence or transgression Forbidding them likewise to administer the Oath Ex officio or give Oath to Church-Wardens Sides-men or any others whereby their own or others offences should be discovered DIGNISSIMO DOM. THOMAE FISHER BARONETTO CUM Insignia tua Gentilitia intueor Anno Regis Carol 16 Anno Dom. 1640 non sum adeò Heraldicae Artis ignarus quin probè sciam quid sibi velit Manus illa Scutello inserta Te scilicet Baronettum designat cùm omnes in illum Ordinem cooptati ex Institutione sua ad * * Seldenus in titulis Honoris Vltoniam Hiberniae Provinciam forti dextrâ defendendam teneantur At sensum praeter hunc vulgarem alium latiorem quoad meipsum laetiorem Manui illi expansae quae in tuo Clypeo spectabilis subesse video Index est summae tuae Munificentiae quo nomine me tibi divinctissimum profiteor 1. OMitting matters of greater consequence The High-Commission Court put down know that the Bill against the High-Commission June 24 was the third time read in the House of Lords and passed it which some dayes after was confirmed by his Majesty Thus the edge of the Spiritual Sword as to discipline was taken away For although I read of a Proviso made in the House of Lords that the generall words in this Bill should extend only to the High-Commission Court and not reach other Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction yet that Proviso being but writen and the Statute printed all coercive power of Church Consistories were taken away Mr. Pim triumphed at this successe crying out Digitus Det it is the finger of God Anno Dom. 1641 that the Bishops should so supinely suffer themselves to be surprised in their power Anno Regis Caroli 16 Some disaffected to Episcopy observed a Justice that seeing many simple souls were in the high Commission Court by captious interrogatories circumvented into a self-accusation an unsuspected clause in this Statute should abolish all their lawfull authority 2. The Bishop of Lincoln brought up a Bill to regulate Bishops and their jurisdiction The Bill for Regulation of Bishops consisting of severall particulars July 2 1. That every Bishop being in his Diocesse not sick should preach once every Lords day or pay five pounds to the poor to be levyed by the next Justice of Peace and distresse made by the Constable 2. That no Bishop shall be Justice of Peace save the Dean of Westminster in Westminster and St. Martines 3. That every Bishop should have twelve assistants besides the Dean and Chapter four chosen by the King four by the Lords and four by the Commons for jurisdiction and ordination 4. That in all vacancies they should present to the King three of the ablest Divines in the Diocesse out of which his Majesty might choose one to be Bishop 5. Deans and Prebends to be resident at the Cathedralls but sixty dayes 6. That Sermons be preached therein twice every Lords day once every Holy day and a Lecture on Wednesday with a salary of 100. Marks 7. All Archbishops Bishops Collegiate Churches c. to give a fourth part of their fines and improved rents to buy out Impropriations 8. All double beneficed men to pay a moiety of their benefice to their Curates 9. No appeal to the Court of Arches or Audience 10. Canons and Ecclesiasticall capitulations to be drawn up and fitted to the Lawes of the Land by sixteen learned men chosen six by the King
Court after he had founded his Colledge His Answer to Q. Elizabeth the Queen told him Sir Walter I hear you have erected a Puritan Foundation No Madam saith he farre be it from me to countenance any thing contrary to your established Lawes but I have set an Acorn which when it becomes an Oake God alone knows what will be the fruit thereof Sure I am at this day it hath overshadowed all the University more than a moyety of the present Masters of Colledges being bred therein but let us behold their Benefactours Masters Bishops Benefactours Learned Writers Fell. Learned Writers no Fellows Colledge-Livings 1. Laurence Chaderton 2. John Preston 3. William Sandcroft 4. Rich Oldesworth 5. Anthoney Tuckney 6. William Dillingham 1. Jos Hall Bishop of Norwich 2. Will Beadle Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland Qu. Elizabeth Hen E. of Huntington Sir Fr. Hastings Sir Rob Iermin Sir Fran Walsingham S r He. Killegrew S r Wolstan Dixy Sir Iohn Hart. Sir Sam Leonard S t Tho Skinner Alexan Noel Doctor Leeds Doct Harvey D r Branthwait Rob Tailor Customer Smith Nich Fuller Roger Snegg Fran Chamberlaine Master Ellis Iohn Spenliffe William Neale Edm English Alder Racliffe Iohn Morley Ric Culverwell Rob Iohnson Iohn Bernes Mary Dixy Martha Iermin Alice Owen Ioyce Franckland Eliz Walters D r. Richardson S r. Hen â—ildmay of Graces Rich Knightly Thomas Hobbs Walt Richards Will Iones Wil Beadle Iohn Down Hugh Cholmley Ioseph Hall Ralph Cudworth Samuel Crooke Ioh. Cotton Th. Hooker Iohn Yates Io Stoughton Iames Waidsworth who turned Papist Iohn Gifford of Ministers maintenance Ezekiel Culverwel of Faith Robert Firman of admission to the Sacrament Sam Foster of Mathematicks Ierem Burrowes besides many still surviving Sir Roger Twysden an excellent Antiquary H Laurence of Angels and other Treatises Steph Marshall Tho Shephard Samuel Hudson of the visible Church Nath Ward Thomas Arthur Tho Doughty Ioh Wallis now Geometry Professor in Oxf Auler Rect in the Diocesse of Bath and Wells valued at 39l 14s 10d Cadbury Rect in the Diocess of Bath and Wells valued at 28l 17s 2d ob Pydleton Vic in the Diocesse Bristol valued at 31l 2s 10d Stanground Vic. in the Diocesse of Lincolne valued at 6l 6s 10d Winnsford Vic in the Diocess of Bath and Wells valued at 14l 13s 8d Loughberow Rect in the Diocesse of Lincolne valued at 40l 16s 3d. So that lately Ann. Reg. Eliz. 26. viz Ann. Dom. 1584 5. Anno one thousand six hundred thirty four were maintained one Master fourteen Fellows fifty Schollers ten poor Schollers besides Officers and Servants of the foundation with other Students the whole number being 310. 14. Amongst the Bishops of this House Dâ— Oldesworth refuseth a Bishoprick Richard Oldesworth fourth Master must not be forgotten who might but would not be Bishop of Bristol Not out of covetousnesse from which none more free because so small the Revenuss thereof or lazinesse to decline pains none being more laborious in his calling or scruple of conscience none more Zealous in a certain Episcopacy but for some secret reasons which these troublesome times suggested unto him He was a most excellent Preacher both by his pious life and patient death and one passage which I heard from him some daies before his expiring I shall here insert 15. I admire said he at David's gracious heart A good Meditation of a dying Saint who so often in Scripture but especially in the 119 Psalm extolleth the worth and value of the Word of God and yet quantillum Scripturae how little of the Word of God they had in that Age the Pentateuch the Book of Job and some of the Hagiography how much have we now thereof since the accession of the Prophets but especially of the New Testament and yet alas the more we have of the Word of God the lesse it is generally regarded 16. Amongst the Benefactours of this House I have omitted two Two grand Benefactors not because too small but too great to be inserted with others deserving a Form by themselves namely the Lady Grace Mildmay whom the Schollers of this Colledge account the fourth Grace and more worth than the other three as Poeticall Fictions The other Francis Ash Esquire a rich Merchant of London to whom God hath given a full hand and free heart to be bountifull on all good occasions 17. Amongst the learned Writers of this Colledge The Living omitted I have omitted many still alive as Master Anthony Burges the profitable Expounder of the much mistaken nature of the two Covenants Doctor Benjamin Whichcot now Provost of Kings whose perfect List cannot be given in because daily increasing Humfrey Tindall Vicecan 27. Ioseph Smith Iohn Cowell Proct. John Edmonds Major 1585 6. Doct. The. 01. Leg. 03. Med. 02. Bac. Theol. 16. Mag. Art 165. Bac. Leg. 003. Art 198. Iohn Capcott Vicecan 28. Anth Wingfeild Henry Farr Proct Iohn Edmonds Major 1586-87 Doct. Leg. 1. Med. 2. Bac. Theol. 016. Mag. Art 185. Bac. Art 180. Doctor Capcott when chosen Vice-Chancellour The last Vice-chancellour then but Fellow of the House was onely Fellow of Trinity-Coll within which he gave upper hand to Doctor Still then Master but took it of him when out of the walls of the Colledge but before the year ended he was chosen Master of Bennet-Colledge and an Act made amongst the Doctors That for the time to come none but Heads of Houses should be chosen Vice-Chancellours Tho Legg Vicecan Ann. Dom. 1587-8 Iohn Palmer Iohn Smith Proct. Roger Smith Major Ann. Reg. Eliz. 29. Doct. Theol. 2. Leg. 1. Med. 1. Bac. Theol. 8. Mag Art 121. Bac. Leg. 002. Art 129. Thomas Nevill Vicecan 1588-89 Rob Canesfeild Miles Sandys Proct. Nich Gaunt Major 30. Doct. Theol. 07. Leg. 03. Med. 01. Bac. Theol. 19. Mag. Art 107. Bac. Leg. 003. Art 182. Hitherto we have given in the List of the yearly Commensers An unfaithfull Register but now must break off let Thomas Smith University Register bear the blame who about this year entring into his Office was so negligent that as one saith Cum fuit Academiae à memoriâ omnia tradidit oblivioni I can hardly inhold from inveighing on his memory carelesnesse being dishonesty in publick persons so intrusted Thomas Preston Vicecan 1589-90 Henry Mountlaw Richard Betts Proct. Will Wolfe Major 31. Robert Soame Vicecan 1590-91 John Sledd â—uth Bambrigge Proct. John Clerke Major 32. Robert Soame Vicecan 1591-92 Gilbert Jacob Otho Hill Proct. Tho Goldsborrow Major 33. John Still Tho Legge Vicecan 1592-93 Thomas Grimston Samuel Harsnett Proct. Tho Medcalfe Major 34. John Duport Vicecan 1593-94 Henry Mountlow Thomas Iegon Proct. Christoph 35. Hodson Major John Duport Vicecan 1594-95 Gregory Milner Iohn Meriton Proct. Oliver Greene Major 36. Roger Goad Vicecan Ann. Dom. 1594-95 Lionell Duckett Thomas Cooke Proct. Iohn Norcott Major Ann. Regi Eliz. 37. William Barret
large Demesnes and larger Royalty and Command Should I therefore present it to any other save your self it would be held as a STRAY indeed wandring out of the right Way it should go in and so without any thanks to me would fall to your Lordship as due unto you by the Custome of your Manor Your Honours most obliged Servant and Chaplain THE HISTORY OF Waltham-Abby PRovidence by the hand of my worthy friends having planted me for the present at Waltham-Abby I conceive that in our general work of Abbies I owe some particular description to that place of my abode Hoping my endeavours herein may prove exemplary to others who dwell in the sight of remarkable Monasteries to do the like and rescue the observables of their habitations from the teeth of time and oblivion Waltham is so called from the Saxon Ham Waltham Why so named Which is a Town whence the Diminutive Hamlet and Weald or Wealt that is Woody whence the Weald of Kent it being Anciently over-grown with tress and timber Thus Kiriaâ—h-jearim or the City of the woods in Palestine Dendros an Island in Peloponnesus Sylviacum an Ancient City in Belgia got their names from the like woody scituation Some will have it called Waltham quasi Wealthie-Ham I wish they could make their words good in respect of the persons living therein though in regard of the soyl it self indeed in is rich and plentiful The Town is seated on the East side of the River Ley The situation thereof which not onely parteth Hertford-shire from Essex but also seven times parteth from its self whose septemfluous stream in coming to the Town is crossed again with so many bridges On the one side the Town it self hath large and fruitful Medows whose intrinsick value is much raised by the vicinity of London the grass whereof when first gotten an head is so sweet and lushious to Cattle that they diet them at the first entring therein to half an hour a day lest otherwise they over-eat themselves which some Kine yearlie do and quickly die for it notwithstanding all their Keepers care to the contrary On the other side a spacious Forest spreads it self where fourteen years since one might have seen whole Herds of Red and Fallow Deer But these late licentious years have been such a Nimrod such an Hunter that all at this present are destroyed though I could wish this were the worst effect which our woful Wars have produced The aire of the Town is condemned by many Excused from bad air for over-moist and Aguish Anno Dom. caused by the depressed scituation thereof Anno Regis In confutation of which censure we produce the many aged persons in our Town above threescore and ten since my coming hither above threescore and ten years of age so that it seemes we are sufficiently healthful if sufficiently thankful for the same Sure I am what is wanting in good air in the Town is supplied in the Parish wherein as many pleasant hils and prospects are as any place in England doth afford Tovy First Founded by Tovy a man of great wealth and authority as being the Kings Staller that is Standard-Bearer first Founded this Town for the great delight which he took in the game the place having plenty of Deer He planted onely threescore and six in-dwellers therein Athelstan Falls back to the Crown his son proved a Prodigal and quickly spent all his Fathers goods and great estate so that by some transactions the place returned to the Crown Edward the Confessour Bestowed on Earl Harold bestowed Waltham 1060. with the Lands thereabouts Edw. Confessor 18. on Harold his Brother-in-law who presently built and endowed therein a Monastery where of nothing at this day is extant save the West end or body of the Church A structure of Gothish-building The model of the modern Church rather large then neate firm then fair Very dark the design of those dayes to raise devotion save that it was helped again with artificial lights and is observed by Artists to stand the most exactly East and West of any in England The great pillars thereof are wreathed with indentings which vacuities if formerly filled up with Brasse as some confidently report added much to the beauty of the building But it matters not so much their taking away the Brasse from the Pillars had they but left the Lead on the Roof which is but meanly Tiled at this day In a word the best commendation of the Church is that on Lords-dayes generally it is filled with a great and attentive Congregation To the South-side of the Church is joyned a Chappel Mortality triumphant formerly our Ladies now a School-house and under it an arched Charnel-house the fairest that ever I saw Here a pious fancy could make a feast to its self on those dry bones with the meditation of mortality where it is hard yea impossible to discern the Sculls of a rich from a poor wise from a simple noble from a mean person Thus all counters are alike when put up together in the box or bag though in casting of account of far different valuation King Harold Dedicated the Monastery to the honour of an Holy Cross A Dean and Canons founded at Waltham found far West-ward and brought hither as they write by miracle whence the Town hath the addition of Waltham-Holy-Cross but the Church we finde in after ages also Dedicated to S t Laurence His foundation was for a Dean and eleven Secular Black Canons Let none challenge the words of impropriety seeing a Dean in Latin Decanus hath his name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ten over which number he is properly to be preposed For nothing more common then to wean words from their infant and original sense and by custome to extend them to a larger signification as Dean afterwards plainly denoted a superiour over others whether fewer then ten as the six Prebendaries of Rochester or moe as the three and thirty of Salisbury The Dean and eleven Canons were plentifully provided for each Canon having a Manor and the Dean six for his maintenance For in the Charter of Confirmation made by King Edward the Confessor Seventeen Manors confirm'd to them by the Confessor besides North-land in Waltham now called 1062 as I take it 20. North-field wherewith the Monastery was first endowed these following Lordshops with all their appurtenances are reckoned up 1. Passefield 2. Walde 3. Upminster 4. Walthfare 5. Suppedene 6. Alwertowne 7. Wodeford 8. Lambehide 9. Nesingan 10. Brickindon 11. Melnhoo 12. Alichsea 13. Wormeley 14. Nichelswells 15. Hitchche 16. Lukendon 17. West-Wealtham All these the King granted unto them cum Sacha Socha Tol and Team Anno Regis Harol 1. c. free from all gelts and payments Anno Dom. 1066 in a most full and ample Manner Witness himself Edith his Queen Stigand Archiepiscopus Dorobornensis Count Harold and many other Bishops and Lords
a more pleasant tune from barking for food to the blessing of those who procured it Nor let any censure this a digress from my History for though my estate will not suffer me with * Job 29. 15. Job to be eyes to the blind and feet to the Iame I will endeavour what I can to be a Tongue for the Dumbe SECTION XI To the Noble Lady Elianor Roe relict to the Honorable Sr. Thomas Roe Madam I finde that my name-sake * * Hackluits voyages 3. part pag. 825. Thomas Fuller was Pilot in the ship called the Desire wherein Captain Cavendish surrounded the world Far be it from me to compare these my weak undertakings to his great adventures Yet I may terme this my Book the Desire as wherein I desire to please and profit all justly to displease none Many rocks and storms have I passed by Gods blessing and now am glad of so firme an Anchorage as a Dedication to your Ladiship I believe Madam none of your Sex in our Nation hath travelled farther them your self Yet this Section of our History may afford you a rarity not seen before I know you have viewed the Tombe of St. Polycarpus but here the Herse is presented unto you of one whose death cannot be paralell'd in all particulars 1. LAtely certain Delegates from the Vniversity of Oxford pleaded their Priviledges before the Committee of Parliament Anno Regis Carol. 24. that they were onely Visitable by the King Anno Dom. 1648. and such who should be deputed by him Great alterations by the Visiters in Oxford But their allegations were not of proof against the Paramount power of Parliament the rather because a passage in an Article at the Rendition of Oxford was urged against them wherein they were subjected to such a visitation Whereupon many Masters were ejected their Places new Heads of Houses made and soon after new Houses to those Heads which produced great alteration 2. Come we now to the Church-part of the Treaty in the Isle of Wight Clergiemen meeting in the Isle of Wight as the sole Ecclesiastical matter remaining Anno Dom. 1648. Here appeared of the Divines chosen by the King Anno Regis Eliza. 24. James Vsher Arch-Bishop of Armagh Brian Duppa Bishop of Salisbury Doctor Sanderson Doctor Shelden Doctor Henry Ferne As for Doctor Brounrig Bishop of Exeter when on the way he was remanded by the Parliament because under restraint and it was reported that D. Prideaux Bishop of Worcester wanted the more the pitty wherewith to accommodate himself for the journey M r Steven Marshall M r Joseph Caryll M r Richard Vines and M R Lazarus Seaman were present there by appointment from the Parliament 3. It was not permitted for either side All matters managed in writing personally to speak but partly to prevent the impertinencies of orall debates partly that a more steddy aime might be taken of their mutual Arguments all things were transacted in scriptis His Majesty consulted with his Chaplains when he pleased The Kings Writings were publickly read before all by M r Philip Warwick and M r Vines read the Papers of his Fellow-Divines the substance whereof we come here to present 4. His Majesty began The effect of his majesties first paper the effect of whose first Paper was to prove Octo. 2. that the Apostles in their own persons by Authority a Joh. 20. 21. derived from Christ exercised their power in Ordinations giving Rules and Censures 2. That Timothy and b Tit. 1. 5. Titus by Authority derived from the Apostles did or might actually exercise the same power in the three Branches specified 3. That the Angels of the seven Churches Rev. 2. 3. where so many persoae singulares of such as had a Prelacy as well over Pastors as People From the premises his Majesty inferred that our Bishops succeed to the function of the Persons afore named The rather because the same plainly appeareth out of the History of the Primitive Church the writings of Ignatius and other ancient Authors In conclusion his Majesty desired to be satisfied from them what were the Substantials of Church-government appointed by Christ and his Apostles and in whose hands they are left and whether they binde to a perpetual observation thereof or may upon occasion be altered in whole or in part 5. The next day the Parliament-Divines put in their Answer to the Kings Paper The Parliament-Divines answer thereunto wherein they confessed Octo. 3. that the places of Scripture cited by him proved in those Persons by him named a power respectively to do the three things specified But they utterly denied that the foresaid Persons were Bishops as distinct from Presbyters or exercised the Government in that sense 1. To the Instance of the Apostles they answered that they had an extraordinary calling and so nothing thence can be inferrred to prove modern Bishops 2. That Timothy and Titus were Evangelists and the f 2 Tim. 4. 5. first is expressly so termed nor could they be Bishops who resided not in one Diocess but often removed from place to place 3. That the denomination of the Angels of the Churches being Allegorical no firme Argument can be taken thence nor weight laid thereon Besides those Epistles of S. John though directed to One were intended to the whole body of the Church They denyed that the Apostles were to have any successours in their Office affirming but two standing Officers in the Church Presbyterians Deacons They cited Philippians I. I. I Tim. 3. 8. for the proof thereof where there is no mention of Bishops as distinct from Presbyters but of the two Orders only of Bishops or Presbyters and Deacons 6. As for the succeeding ages to the Apostles seeing Scripture reacheth not unto them they can but beget a humane Faith which is uncertain and fallible Besides such the darkness of those Times in respect of Church-History that little certainty can be thence extracted Yet it appeareth in Clement himself that he useth the same word for Bishop and Presbyter and as for Ignatius his Epistles little credit is to be given unto them 7. Lastly there is a great difference between Primitive Episcopacy and the Present Hierarchie as much enlarged in their Power and Priviledges by many Temporal accessions whereof no shaddow or pretence in Scripture In conclusion they humbly besought his Majesty to look rather to the Original of Bishops in holy Writ then to their succession in Humane History 8. As to the point of Substantials in Church Government appointed by Christ wherein his Majesty desired satisfaction the return was short and generall that such Substantials were in the Scripture not descending to any particulars Whether out of policy foreseeing it would Minister matter of more debate or obedience to the Parliament as aliene from the work they were designed for who were only to oppose Episcopacy as qualified in the Bill presented to his Majesty 9. Three days
after Octo. 6. the King gave in his answer The Kings rejoynder to the Parliament Divines to this first paper of the Divines Wherein he acknowledged that the word Episcopus denoting an Overseer in the generall sense agreeth as well to Presbyters as Ministers in which respect they are sometimes in Scripture confounded both meeting in the joynt-function of overseeing Gods Flock But soon after Common usage the best Master of words appropriated Episcopus to the Ecclesiastical Governor leaving Presbyter to signifie the Ordinary Minister or Priest as in the antient Fathers and Councils doth plainly appear 10. As to the Extraordinarie Calling of the Apostles he confessed their Vnction extraordinary consisting in their miraculous gifts which soon after ceased when Churches were planted but he urged their mission to govern and teach to be ordinary necessary and perpetual in the Church the Bishops succeeding them in the former the Presbyters in later Function 11. Their Evasion that Timothy and Titus were Evangelists and not Bishops is clearly refuted by Scultetus Gerard and others yea as his Majesty is informed is rejected by some rigid Presbyters as Gillespee Rotherford c. Besides that Timothy and Titus were Bishops is confirmed by the consentient Testimony of Antiquity S. Hierome himself recording them made by S. Pauls Ordination as also by a Catalogue of twenty seven Bishops of Ephesus lineally succeeding from Timothy as is avouched by D. Reinolds against Hart. 12. If the Angels mentioned in the Revelations were not singular persons who had a Prelacy over the Church whether were they the whole Church or so many individual Pastors therein or the whole Colledge of Presbyters or singular Presidents of those Colledges for into so many opinions these few are divided amongst themselves who herein divide themselves from the ancient Interpretation of the Church Government 13. Concerning Ages succeeding the Apostles his Majesty confesseth it but a humane Faith which is begotten on humane Testimonies yet so that in matter of Fact it may be infallible as by the Credit of History we infallibly know that Aristotle was a Greek Philosopher 14. The objected obscurity of Church-History in primitive Times is a strong Argument for Episcopacy which notwithstanding the darkness of those times Anno Dom. 1648. is so clearly extant by their unquestionable Catalogues Anno Regis Carol. 24. 15. It is plain out of Clement elsewhere even by the Confession of * Vedelius exeâ— 8. In. Ignat. cap. 3. one not suspected to favour the Hierarchie that he was accounted a Bishop as distinct from a Presbyter As for Ignatius his Epistles though some out of partial disaffection to Bishops have indeavoured to discredit the whole Volume of them without regard of Ingenuity or Truth yet sundry of them attested by antiquity cannot with any forehead be denied to be His giving Testimony of the Prelacy of a Bishop above a Presbyter 16. As for the difference between Primitive Episcopacy and present Hierarchie his Majesty did not conceive that the Additions granted by the favour of his Royall Progenitors for the enlarging of the power and priviledges of Bishops did make the Government substantially to differ from what it was no more then Arms and Ornaments make a body really different from it self when it was naked and devested of the same 17. Whereas they besought his Majesty to look rather to the Original then succession of Bishops he thought it needful to look at both the latter being the best Clue in such intrinsick cases to finde out the former 18. Lastly he professed himself unsatisfied in their answer concerning the perpetual and unalterable substantials of Church Government as expecting from them a more particular resolution therein then what he had received 19. Eleven dayes after the Parliament Divines put in their answer to his Majesties last paper The return of the Parliament Divines to the King Herein they affirmed Octo. 17. they saw not by what warrant this Writ of partition of the Apostles office was taken forth that the Governing part should be in the hands of the Bishops the Teaching and Sacramentizing in the Presbyters Scripture making no such Inclosure or Partition-Wall Besides the challenge of Episcopacy is grown to more then it pretended to in ancient times some * S. Chrysost S. Hierom and of modern Bp. Bilson Fathers acknowledging that Bishops differed from Presbyters only in matter of Ordination 20. The Abetters say they of this challenge that they might resolve it at last into Scripture ascend by the scale of succession going up the River to finde the head which like the head of Nile cannot be found Such who would carry it higher endeavour to impe it into an Apostolical Office and at last call it a Divine institution not by force of any express precept but implicite practise of the Apostles 21. They also returned that his Majesties definition of Episcopal Government is extracted out of the Bishops of later date then Scripture-times 21. Concerning the Ages succeeding the Apostles However Episcopal Government was generally current yet the superscription thereof was not judged Divine by some of those which were themselves Bishops or lived under that Government 22. As they firmly believed as to matter of fact that Chrysostome and Augustine were Bishops as that Aristotle was a Philosopher so they would rather call such a beleef grounded upon humane Testimonies uncontroled certain than infallible 23. The darkness of the History of the Church in the times succeeding the Apostles had an influence on the Catalogue-makers who derived the Series of the succession of Bishops taken much from tradition and Reports And it is a great blemish of their Evidence that the nearer they come to they Apostles times wherein this should be most clear to establish the succession firme at the first they are most doubtfull and contradictory one to the other 24. They granted that a succession of men to feed and govern those Churches which by Ecclesiastical Writers in compliance with the language of their own times were called Bishops but not distinct from Presbyters So that if such a succession from the Primitive times Seriatim were proved they would either be found more then Bishops as Apostles and extraordinary persons or less as meerly first Presbyters not having the three Essentials to Episcopal Government insisted on by his Majesty 25. As for Ignatius he cannot distinctly be known in Ignatius his Epistles such their Insincerity adulterate mixture and Interpolations and take him in gross he is the Patron of such Rites as the Church in that Age never owned 26. They professed that in their last Answer they related not to a School-Nicety Utrum Episcopatus sit Ordo vel Gradus the question being stated by Popish Authors to whom they had no Eye or Reference 27. They humbly moved His Majesty that the Regiments of Humane Testimonies on both sides might be discharged the field and the point of dispute tried alone by dint of holy Scripture 28. They