removed and that Sir John Conyers may be recommended to his Majesty for that Place But before the House of Lords would give any Resolution herein it was Ordered That the Common-Council of the City of London the Merchants that have Estates in Bullion the Minters and all others concerned shall be inquired of whether there be a stay of the Mint or any forbearance of bringing in of Bullion into the Tower of London and if there be whether it proceeds in respect of Sir John Byron 's being Lieutenant of the Tower and hereof speedy Certificate to be made to the Lords in Parliament A Message was then brought from the House of Commons by Denzil Hollis Esquire 1. He brought up the Bill for the Relief of his Majesties distressed Subjects of Ireland 2. To desire the Lords to join with them in an Ordinance to secure 50000 l. borrowed of the Merchant Adventurers for the Affairs of Ireland 3. To move the King to concur with both Houses in the Order made giving Power to Sir John Hotham for securing the Town of Hull and the Magazine there for his Majesties Service To which the Answer was That their Lordships will take the particulars into Consideration this Afternoon The Ordinance for securing the said Merchant Adventurers was read in these words THe Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled Ordinance of the Lords and Commons for securing the Merchant Adventurers 50000 l. having a due Regard to the good Affections of the Governors Assistants and Fellowship of Merchant Adventurers of England expressed in the present advancing and lending of 30000 l. of Lawful Money and forwardness to advance and lend the foresaid Sum of 20000 l. more of like Money if their Affairs will admit the same for the security of this Common-wealth in the supply of the present Affairs in Ireland which the said Lords and Commons do take in very good part and being resolved to make a full and just satisfaction for the same do hereby declare that the said Sum of 30000 l. and such Sum and Sums as they shall further advance and lend as aforesaid shall be fully satisfied and paid unto the said Company of Merchant Adventurers into the hands of their Treasurer for the time being with Interest after the Rate of 8 l. per cent for a Year out of such Moneys as shall be next raised by Authority of Parliament To which Ordinance the Lords agreed Then the Lord Keeper informed the House The Act for the Captives at Argiers and for pressing Marriners passed by Commission That the Commission was come signed by his Majesty for giving the Royal Assent to two Bills one for pressing of Marriners the other against Pyrates Then the Lord Keeper the Lord Great Chamberlain and the Earl of Cumberland three of the Commissioners being sate upon a Form for a-cross the House between the Chair of State and the Lord Keeper's Wool-sack the Gentleman-Usher of the Black-Rod was commanded to go for the House of Commons who being come with their Speaker the Lord Keeper acquainted the Lords and Commons That his Majesty having such occasions as he could not come to this House to give his Royal Assent to the Two Bills in Person hath given a Commission under the Great Seal of England the Contents whereof was read openly which being done the Clerk of the Crown was commanded to read the Titles of the Bills severally in haec verba viz. An Act for the freeing of the Captives of Argier and to prevent the taking of others An Act for pressing of Marriners and Soldiers for the present Guarding of the Seas and the defence of his Majesties Dominions Which being done the Clerk of the Parliament pronounced the Royal Assent to them particularly and severally in these Words Le Roy le Veult And then the Commons returned to their House After this the Lord Keeper Reported the Conference yesterday to this Effect The L. Keeper's Report of the Conference concerning Bagshaw's Information That the House of Commons received Information concerning divers Forces of Horses and Armed Men in a Warlike manner which have been seen at Kingston and afterwards at Windsor and now gone towards Farnham and that Yesterday about 100 Men were met going from London towards Windsor Armed with Pistols and Waggons were going towards Windsor laden with Ammunition The House of Commons say this causeth much wonder at this time all at Peace and a Parliament sitting that such Forces should be Levied therefore they desire that it may be declared by both Houses That whosoever shall raise Forces at this time without Consent in Parliament may be esteemed Enemies and Disturbers of the Peace of the Kingdom and that both Houses will take care to suppress them and likewise the House of Commons desire That a Message be sent to the King to this purpose and to acquaint his Majesty that both Houses of Parliament will be very careful of the Publick Peace and that they hold it against the Law any Forces should be so levied And further the House of Commons acquaints their Lordships That the Lord Digby hath been with the Soldiers at Kingston and given them thanks in the King's Name and told them That his Majesty came out of London to keep them from being trampled in the dirt therefore they desire that the Lord Digby may be summoned to attend this House forthwith Hereupon it was Ordered Order to Summon the Lord Digby to attend the House of Lords That the Lord George Digby shall be Summoned forthwith to attend this House as a Peer of this Realm and hereof he is not to fail Directed to the Gentleman-Usher attending the House of Peers It will be worth the Readers while to cast his Eye a little back upon the Information of Bagshaw of Windsor upon which Foundation all this Conference was built and as there is little doubt but Bagshaw saw double so the Commons looked through their usual Multiplying Glass and saw his single Waggon of Ammunition turned into Waggons and those few Soldiers which he only by Report heard to be at Windsor were Multiplied into an Army But they had a Design now behind the Curtain of seizing the Militia into their Hands either with or against the King's Consent to which this noise of raising Forces by the Lord Digby was to contribute by heightning and swelling the Peoples Fears and Jealousies throughout the Nation in order to smooth their Way to this great Design upon which these Criminals of the Faction built their own Security though they pretended the Safety of the Nation But that I may give all the light I can possibly into this Affair which filled the City and Nation with Terror and Amazement I will present the Reader with the Lord Digby's Apology which besides the clear account it gives of this Kingston Army will also let in some light into other dark and obscure passages both before and after this time and will set the Arts and Intrigues of the
or he serve him in he took to be lawful wayes and that in all Debates he concluded That the safest and surest Expedient was a Parliament to make both the King and People Happy As to his procuring the Parliament of Ireland to declare their Assistance in a War against the Scots he desired the Remonstrance of the Parliament before the 4. Subsidies might be read which was THat whereas they have with one Consent cleerly given to His Majesty Part of the Remonstrance of Parliament in Ireland about War with the Scots Four entire Subsidies towards His present Preparations to reduce His Disaffected Subjects the Covenanters in Scotland to their due Obedience They still hope that His Majesties great Wisdom and unexampled Clemency may yet prevail with the worse affected of those His Subjects to bring them to that conformity and submission which by the Laws of God and Nature they owe to him But if His Majesty shall be enforced to use His Power to vindicate His just Authority This House for Themselves and the Commons of this Kingdom do profess That their Zeal and Duty shall not stay here at these Four Subsidies but humbly promise That they will be ready with their Persons and Estates to their uttermost ability for His Majesties future Supply in Parliament as His great Occasions by the continuance of His Forces against that distemper shall require This they pray that it may be represented to His Majesty by the Lord Lieutenant and Recorded as an Ordinance of Parliament and published in Print as a Testimony to all the World and succeeding Ages That as this Kingdom hath the happiness to be Governed by the best of Kings so they desire to give cause That he shall account this People among the best of His Subjects If he had procured this Declaration it had been no Crime but he had no part in it but it was their own voluntary free and chearful Action For the Confederacy charged between him and Sir George Radcliff to bring over the Irish Army to destroy England if it be made appear that he had so much as a thought of it he would give Judgment against himself as unworthy to live who would enslave himself and his Posterity That he hath a Heart that loves Freedom as well as another man and values it as highly and in a modest and dutiful way will go as far to defend it it is an Opinion he learnt in the Honourable House of Commons That to stand for Property and Liberty renders a man the best Subject That this Opinion hath gone along with him ever since and he hopes he shall carry it to his Grave That what is deposed by Sir Robert King and Lord Ranulagh as to Sir George Ratcliff cannot affect him since the meanest Subject in the Kingdom cannot commit Treason by Letter of Attorney And it is a priviledg which though he hath the honour to be a Peer he never desires to do it by Proxy and that the Army was never intended to set foot on English Ground Earl of Northumberland he desires my Lord Northumberland 's Examination may witness for him by which it appeared they were designed for the West of Scotland nor did he ever hear of any Design of reducing the Subjects of England by that Army Marquess Hamilton Sir Tho. Lucas Mr. Slingsby The Lord Marquess Hamilton also attested the same Sir Tho. Lucas Serjeant Major General of the King's Horse attested the same Mr. Slingsby who was of the Councel of War affirmed the design was to land them at Ayre in Scotland and that he had order to provide a Magazine Shipping and Flat-Bottom Boats for that Design and that he had a Coast Map drawn of that Place for that purpose Sir William Pennyman also attested Sir William Pennyman That some of the Lords Petitioning the Irish Army might not land in England my Lord Strafford told him He wondred at it for there never was any such intention As to the Testimony of his Brother deposed by Sir Tho. Barrington That England would never be well till it was conquered again he observed That his Brother his Friends his Table his House his Bed every place is searched to convince him of that which he thanked God he was never guilty of That what his Brother sayes is nothing to him and he desired he might be Examined but Mr. Maynard opposed it as tending to clear himself and so he was not heard The discourse between my Lord Bristol and himself he confesses but that what he said was in case of Extream Necessity as Invasion when there is not time to call a Parliament he conceives the King being accountable to God Almighty for Himself and People he may Use his Power And for the other words That the King is not to be Mastered by the frowardness c. he does not remember it but relyes so on the Honour of my Lord Bristol that he affirming it he will not deny it but reserves to himself in this case the Benefit of the Law that it is but a single Testimony He owns what my Lord Newborough deposed and thinks the King is not secluded more then another person from doing the best for himself in a fair and just and honourable way The same he sayes to my Lord of Holland 's Deposition That it is grounded upon Salus Populi Suprema Lex and speaking it as he did with these Limitations doth quite alter the Case besides that these discourses were private and rather argumentative and problematical then positive and to make these Treason were to debar men the joy and comfort of human society But all this while these were but words which by Act of Parliament though much higher are not Treason citing a Clause of 1 Ed. 6. c. 12. Be it Enacted by c. if any Person or Persons do compass and imagine by open Preaching Express words or Saying to depose or deprive the King his Heirs or Successors from his or their Royal Estate or Title or openly publish or say by Express words or saying That any other Person or Persons other then the King his Heirs or Successors of Right ought to be c. yet the first and second offences are not made Treason but only the third That it was the wisdom of their Lordships Noble Ancestors to chain up this Lion by concluding what is Treason and not to suffer him to tear us all in pieces by Arbitrary Treason which would make actions of Treason more common than Actions of Trespass To the words charged in the 23d Article spoken at Council Board or Committee of Scotch affairs of the King 's being absolved from all Rules of Government c. Mr. Treasurer who deposed them hath reversed his Testimony saying first Your Majesty hath an Army in Ireland which you may employ there Afterwards upon being Ordered to repeat his Testimony he said which you may employ in England and whereas he calls in aid of my Lord of Northumberland his Lordship
Act declaring Vnlawful and Void the late Proceedings touching Ship-Money and for Vacating of all Records and Process concerning the same 4. An Act for the Certainty of Forrests and of the Meers Meets Limits and Bounds of the Forrests The Private Acts were these 1. Private Bills passed An Act for the Settling of Certain Mannors Lands Tenements c. on Katharine Countess Dowager of Bedford William now Earl of Bedford John Russell and Edward Russell Esquires Sons of Francis Earl of Bedford deceased 2. An Act to Enable Sir Alexander Denton to sell Lands to pay Debts and provide for his Younger Children 3. An Act to Settle the Mannor of Belgrave c. upon William Byarley Esquire c. to pay the Debts of William Davenport Esquire deceased 4. An Act for John Eggar 's Free School in Alton in Com. Southampton 5. An Act for the Alteration of the Tenure of certain Lands in Fulham Middlesex held of the Lord Bishop of London as of the Mannor of Fulham 6. An Act for making the Chappel of Hool in Com. Lancaster a Parish Church 7. An Act for Confirmation of his Majesties Letters Patents to the Town of Plymouth and for dividing the Parish and Building of a New Church To which the Clerk of the Parliament pronounced the Royal Assent in these words Soit fait comme il est desire After which his Majesty made a short Speech touching the Necessity of his going to Scotland adding That he had given Order to the Lord Keeper for the further declaring of his Mind therein Upon which the Lord Keeper spake Expressing his Majesties great forwardness hitherto in so readily and graciously complying with his Parliament in gratifying them in all their Requests more than any of the Kings his Royal Predecessors had ever done before him instancing in the several Bills for taking away the Star-Chamber Regulating the Council Board taking away the High Commission Court Ship-Money and the passing the Bill for the Judges to continue quam diu se bene gesserint and several other things After which his Majesty spoke some few words acquainting them That he had received an Account by a Nobleman lately come from Scotland of the absolute Necessity of his Journey and that it was impossible for him without great Inconvenience to his Affairs in that Kingdom to defer his Journey and so he took his Leave of their Lordships and bade the Parliament Farewell and so departed But the House of Commons returning to their House fell immediately upon the Debate of it and sent a Message by Mr. Hollis to the Lords Earnestly desiring the Lords to joyn with them to Petition his Majesty either to Substitute a Locum Tenens during his Absence or to stay 14 dayes Longer in regard it so nearly concerned the Quiet and Peace of the Kingdom The Lords sent them in Answer That they would move his Majesty to defer his Journey for two dayes longer but this gave the Commons little Satisfaction In this Debate both Houses sate till Ten of the Clock at Night but could not come to any Resolution but in the Commons House it was moved That in respect the Necessity was so great and his Majesty so firm in his Resolution to set forwards on Monday that both Houses might meet and Sit upon Sunday and a Message being sent up to the Lords to desire their Concurrence it was accordingly agreed There being many of the Members of the Commons House absent Order for the absent Members to repair to the House It was this day also Ordered by the Commons That all the Members of the House in regard of the Great and Weighty Affairs that import the Safety of the Kingdom do repair hither to attend the Service of the Common-wealth with all possible speed upon pain of incurring the Displeasure of this House for their neglect And it is further Ordered That the Knights of the several Counties and the Burgesses and Barons of the several Burroughs and Cinque-Ports that are now in Town shall send Copies of this Order to the Sheriffs of the several Counties to the End it may be published with all Care and Speed By Six of the Clock in the Morning there was a Sermon at St. Sunday August 8. Margarets Westminster before the Commons after which both the Houses Sate and the time was wholly spent in the morning in Debates Messages and Conferences between the Two Houses about Petitioning the King to stay yet 14 dayes longer the Lords inclining not to press his Majesty further in it and the Commons insisting upon their former Votes to that purpose The Earl of Bath reported the Conference with the House of Commons as follows Aug. 8. 1641. The Report of the Conserence about staying the Kings Journey 14 dayes THat the House of Commons gave their Lordships thanks for joining with them humbly to Petition His Majesty for deferring his Journey into Scotland for 14 days And to the end that it may be no prejudice to the Parliament of Scotland the House of Commons desires that some of the Lords Commissioners may acquaint the Scots Commissioners with these particulars following and desire their Answers 1. Propositions to the Scots Commissioners about the Kings stay 14 dayes That the Houses of Parliament have commanded them to express to the Scots Commissioners the great care that they have to keep a good Correspondency betwixt the Two Nations of England and Scotland and to take away the Objections which may be made in respect of the Publick engagements to submit to His Majesties pleasure in his present intended Journey 2. That they take notice of the often Meetings and Adjournments of the Parliament of Scotland and lest it might be a great inconvenience the States being now met there if they should stay long there together without doing any thing both the Houses of Parliament have Resolved that for the better satisfaction of the Parliament of Scotland they will humbly Petition His Majesty to send a Commissioner to Edinburgh that if there be pressing Occasions to dispatch any of their Publick Affairs there may be Authority for the same and if they think good to stay His Majesty's coming to them in Person the Houses of Parliament do hope that it will be within 14 days of that time wherein His Majesty was expected there and they shall take their consent thereunto as a great Argument of their Affection to this Kingdom 3. That the Houses likewise do intend to send Commissioners from hence to the Scottish Parliament to declare to them the great Reasons which moves them to Petition His Majesty's stay for 14 days which are such as do very much import the Peace and Safety of both Kingdoms as also their care to move His Most Excellent Majesty to send His Commissioner that the Parliament of Scotland may not be disappointed in respect of the dispatch of their own great Affairs in that Kingdom in the mean time 4. And lastly That the Houses do desire the
Councel for his necessary Defence in Point of Law which may happen upon the Matter of High Treason of which he is impeached and in Point of Law and Fact upon the Matters of Misdemeanors of which he is Impeached That for the few Daies until the time of his Tryal he may remain in the Custody of the Sheriff of London where he hath remained a true Prisoner for almost three Quarters of a Year in whose House all his Collections and Papers are for his Defence And that he may have your Lordships License to go with a Keeper to Serjeants Inn to look out some Papers which he hath there and shall have Occasion to produce at his Tryal as also there to Confer and Advise with such Councel as your Lordships shall please to admit or Assign unto him And your Petitioner according to his bounden Duty shall allways pray for the continuance of your Lordships Honor and Happiness c. The Names of such Councel as your Petitioner most humbly desires are The Princes Attorney Mr. Recorder of London Mr. Herne Mr. Thorp Mr. Fountain Mr. Bierley Mr. Lightfoot Mr. Brome Subscribed Robert Berkley Before the House resolved of any Answer herein The Bishops withdraw being a mixt Charge the House was Adjourned into a Committee to consider whether the Bishops should not withdraw during the Agitation of this Business it being a mixt Charge of Treason as well as Misdemeanor after a long Debate the House was resumed and it was agreed That the Matter of Treason should be first Ordered at which the Bishops are to withdraw and when the Matter of Misdemanor come into Agitation they are to come into this House again to their Places Hereupon the Bishops withdrew themselves and after a long Debate it was Ordered That Mr. Justice Berkley shall have a Warrant for to bring such Witnesses as he shall have Occasion for to testifie for him at his Trial in Matters of Misdemeanors but not in Matters of Treason Then the Lords the Bishops were called in and the Lord Keeper declaring unto them the Sense of this Order they gave their Consents thereunto And further it was Ordered That the Princes Attorney Mr. Recorder of London Mr. Herne Mr. Bierly Mr. Thorp shall be assigned of Council for Mr. Justice Berkley in Point of Law which may happen upon the Matter of Treason and in Point of Law and Fact upon the Matters of Misdemeanor at his Trial the second of November next And that the said Justice Berkley shall still remain in the Custody of George Clerk Esquire one of the Sheriffs of the City of London where he is now and that he have Liberty to go to Serjeants Inn in Fleet Street one Day when he shall think good with his Keeper to look out some Papers which he hath there and shall have Occasion to use at his Tryal Then Mr. Justice Berkley was called in and the Lord Keeper pronounced the aforesaid Order to him for which he gave their Lordships most humble Thanks Mr. Warwick Reports Five Conge de Estires for new Bishops to be petitioned to be stayed That there were Directions given from his Majesty for the drawing up of Five Conge d' Eslires for the making of Five New Bishops viz. Dr. Prideaux Dr. Brownrick Dr. Holdsworth Dr. Winniff and Doctor King Upon which Mr. Strode moves the House to send up a Message to the Lords to desire them to joyn in Petitioning his Majesty for the staying the making of these new Bishops till the Charge against the other Bishops was dispatched This day Information was given into the House of Lords that since the Act for bounding the Forrest many Riots were committed upon the occasion of killing of Deer pretending they were not within the Bounds of the Forrest and that in Oxfordshire in one of those Fraies a Keeper was killed It was also moved that the Bill for disabling Persons in Holy Orders from exercising Temporal Jurisdiction might not be read at present it having been voted against as to the Substance in a former Bill this Sessions but it was Ordered to be read a second time to morrow Morning peremptorily Mr. Pym Reports the Reasons for Excluding the Thirteen Bishops Wednesday October 27 in Order to the delivering them at a Conference with the Lords and desires that Mr Solicitor may have the mannaging of the Business On the other Side Mr. Solicitor excused himself and desired that Mr. Pym might manage it whereupon it was to end the Contest Ordered That Mr. Pym and Mr. Solicitor should have the mannaging of the whole Business concerning the Bishops and accordingly they did so at a Conference with the Lords upon this Subject The Lord Privy Seal Reported the Conference yesterday with the House of Commons concerning Bishops viz. Mr. Mr. Pym's Speech at the Conference about Excluding the Bishops from Voting in the Case of the 13 Bishops impeached Oct. 27. 1641. Pym declared from the House of Commons That there is nothing of greater importance to the safety and good of the Kingdom then that this High Court of Parliament which is the Fountain of Justice and Government should be kept pure and uncorrupted from Corruption free from Partiality and by-respects this will not only add Lustre and Reputation but Strength and Authority to all our Actions Herein he said your Lordships are specially interessed as you are a Third Estate by Inheritance and Birth-right so the Commons are publickly interessed by Representation of the whole Body of the Commons of this Kingdom whose Lives Fortunes and Liberties are deposited under the Custody and Trust of the Parliament He said The Commons have commanded him and his Colleague Mr. Solicitor General to present to your Lordships two Propositions which they thought very necessary to be observed and put in Execution at this time 1. That the 13 Bishops which stand accused before your Lordships for making the late pretended Canons and Constitutions may be Excluded from their Votes in Parliament 2. That all the Bishops may be suspended from their Votes upon that Bill intituled An Act to disable all Persons in Holy Orders to exercise any Jurisdiction or Authority Temporal The first of these is committed to his Charge and he said he was commanded to support it with three Reasons First That the 13 Bishops have broken that Trust to which every Member of Parliament is obliged which Trust is to maintain 1. The Prerogative of the King 2. The Priviledge of Parliaments 3. The Propriety of the Subject 4. The Peace of the Kingdom And this Trust they have broken not by one Transient Act but by setting up Canons in Nature of Laws to bind the Kingdom for ever That the Canons are of this Nature appears by the Votes of both Houses and that they were all Parties to the making thereof appears by the Acts of that Synod The Book it self the Commons cannot tender to your Lordships because they sent for it but he that hath the Book in Custody
will buy the same The Lord Bishop of Lincoln gave this House an Account Bishop of Lincoln Reports the Votes about the Irish Affairs what the Committees for Irish Affairs had considered of and presented some Votes and Orders of the House of Commons in which they desire their Lordships to joyn with them which were read as follows Resolved upon the Question That the House of Commons holds it fit That 20000 l. shall be forthwith supplyed for the present Occasions of Ireland out of the Moneys that are now in ready Cash or shall first come in Resolved c. That a convenient number of Ships shall be provided for the Guarding of the Sea-Coasts of Ireland Resolved c. That the House of Commons holds it fit that Six Thousand Foot and Two Thousand Horse shall be raised with all convenient speed for the present Expedition into Ireland Resolved c. That such Officers shall be forthwith sent over into Ireland for the Commanding of Men there as shall be thought fit by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland with the approbation of both Houses of Parliament Resolved c. That a Magazine of Victuals shall be forthwith provided at West-Chester to be sent over to Dublin as the Occasion of that Kingdom shall require Resolved c. That the Magazin of Arms Ammunition and Powder at Carlisle shall be forthwith sent over to Knockfergus in Ireland Resolved c. That in Bristol and West-Chester and one other Port in Cumberland Magazines of Arms Ammunition Powder and Victuals shall be provided to be Transported into the next convenient Ports of Ireland as the Occasions of that Kingdom shall require Resolved c. That all Arms Ammunition and Powder in the Magazine at Hull Except such a proportion of Powder Bullet and Match as shall be thought fit for Supply of the Northern Counties as Occasion shall require be Transported to the Tower of London Resolved c. That a convenient Number of Engineers and Gunners shall be sent into Ireland Resolved c. That a Post shall be set up between Beaumarish and Holy-head Resolved c. That it be referred to the Kings Councel to consider of some fit way and to present it to the Houses for a Publication to be made of Rewards to be given to such as shall do Service in this Expedition into Ireland and for a Pardon of such of the Rebels in Ireland as shall come in by a time limited and of a Sum of Money to be appointed for a Reward to such as shall bring in the Heads of such principal Rebels as shall be nominated Resolved c. That Letters shall be forthwith sent to the Justices in Ireland to acquaint them how sensible this House is of the Affairs in Ireland and what Care they have taken for the Occasion of Ireland Resolved c. That the House of Commons holds it fit that a Drum shall be forthwith beaten for the calling in of Volunteers for this Service for Ireland Ordered That Directions be given for the Drawing a Bill for the Pressing of Men for this particular Service for Ireland and Mr. Serjeant Wild is desired to prepare a Bill for that purpose Ordered That the 11000 l. in ready Cash in the Chamber of London shall be forthwith paid over to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the present Occasions of that Kingdom and that the Commissioners and Treasurers appointed in the Act grant forth their Warrants and Orders accordingly Ordered That the Officers and Customers of the several Ports of this Kingdom towards Ireland do make diligent Search in all Trunks and other Carriages that come to be Transported from England to Ireland that belong to any Papist or suspected person and particularly that those Trunks sent by Exeter shall be stayed and searched Ordered That the Committee for Irish Affairs of the House of Commons shall propound to the Committee of Lords to prepare Heads to be considered of how and in what manner this Kingdom shall make use of the Friendship and Assistance of Scotland in this business of Ireland After this the Lord Bishop of Lincoln acquainted the House with a draught of a Declaration to be sent into Ireland to the Lords Justices with a Letter from the Speakers of both Houses of Parliament which was read in haec verba The Declaration THe Lords and Commons in this present Parliament being advertized of the dangerous Conspiracy and Rebellion in Ireland The Declaration of the English Parliament about the Irish Rebellion by the treacherous and wicked Instigation of Romish Priests and Jesuits for the bloody Massacre and Destruction of all the Protestants living there and other his Majesties Loyal Subjects of English Blood though of the Romish Religion being antient Inhabitants within several Counties and Parts of that Realm who have alwayes in former Rebellions given Testimony of their Fidelity to this Crown and for the utter depriving of his Royal Majesty and the Crown of England from the Government of that Kingdom under pretence of setting up the Popish Religion have thereupon taken into their Serious Consideration how these Mischievous Attempts might be most Speedily and Effectually prevented wherein the Honour Safety and Interest of this Kingdom are most nearly and fully concerned Wherefore they do hereby Declare That they do intend to serve his Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes for the Suppressing of this Wicked Rebellion in such a way as shall be thought most Effectual by the Wisdom and Authority of Parliament And thereupon have ordered and provided for a present Supply of Moneys and raising the number of 6000 Foot and 2000 Horse to be sent from England being the full proportion desired by the Lords Justices and his Majesties Councel Resident in that Kingdom with a Resolution to add such further Succours as the Necessity of those Affairs shall require They have also resolved of providing Arms and Munition not only for those Men but likewise for his Majesties Faithful Subjects in that Kingdom with Stores of Victuals and other Necessaries as there shall be occasion and that these Provisions may more conveniently be Transported thither they have appointed Three several Ports of this Kingdom that is to say Bristol West-Chester and one other in Cumberland where the Magazines and Store-Houses shall be kept for the Supply of the several Parts of Ireland They have likewise Resolved to be humble Mediators to his Majesty for the Encouragement of those English or Irish who shall upon their own Charges raise any number of Horse or Foot for his Service against the Rebels that they shall be honourably rewarded with Lands of Inheritance in Ireland according to their Merits and for the inducing the Rebels to repent of their wicked Attempts they do hereby commend it to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland or in his absence to the Lord Deputy or Lords Justices there according to the Power of the Commission granted them in that behalf to bestow his Majesties Gracious Pardon to all such as within
the Earl of Leicester Lord Lieutenant of Ireland making some scruple of raising Men to be imployed in the busness of Ireland without the King's Commission and his Lordship desiring to have the Authority of the Parliament for the same in the mean time It is thought fit and so Ordered by the Lords in Parliament according to the Power given unto them by His Majesty mentioned in an Order dated the sixth of November 1641. That the said Lord Lieutenant shall have full power by virtue of this Order to Levy Men according to the Order given him from the Parliament in the interim until His Majesty shall grant him a Commission under the Great Seal of England for his Warrant for so doing The House of Commons did also take notice of the Doubt of the Earl but notwithstanding did resolve and think fit that he should proceed to raise men for the Service by Virtue of the Ordinance of Parliament It was also Ordered by the Lords and Commons A Council of War for the Affairs of Ireland That the Lord Viscount Wilmot Sir John Conyers Sir Jacob Ashly Sir Simon Harcourt Sir John Heyden Sir Foulk Hunks Sir Thomas Glemham Sir Robert King Colonel Culpeper Colonel Vavasor Lieutenant Colonel Ballard and Captain Skippon shall be Assistants as a Council of War to the Committees of both Houses of Parliament appointed for the Affairs of Ireland and have full Power by virtue of this Order to meet and consider of the present state and condition of the said Kingdom and also of an Establishment for the Army Lords agree with the Commons to put the Laws against the Papists in Execution speedily The Lords then entred upon the Consideration of the Proposition sent from the Commons concerning securing the Persons of Popish Recusants and after a long Debate the Result was this That whereas the House of Commons desired that the persons of the Romish Recusants for the safety of the Kingdom might be secured this House doth consent with them therein and Orders That the Laws of this Kingdom shall be put into Execution against them presently Upon the desire of the Commons by Mr. Pym Letters from France and Antworp stopped it was Ordered by the Lords That the Foreign Letters from France and Antwerp be stopped and perused by the Lords Committees for opening Letters there being as Mr. Pym said ground and intelligence that those Letters will discover some Root of the Rebellion in Ireland The Declaration of the State of the Kingdom was also this day read and it was moved that a Consideration of these particulars might be added and which is very uncommon I find in the Margin of the Journal the Names of the Persons which made the several Motions which in regard it is to be supposed they did it in futuram rei Memoriam that Posterity might not hereafter be to seek for their Names I will take care to transmit them down to future Ages but whether they will have Statutes Erected for the Achievement I cannot promise unless it be of Infamy Moved That the last Expedition into Germany J. C. but whether Corbet or Clotworthy I cannot tell The Loans upon Privy Seals The Commission of Excise might be added The Additional Explanation to the Petition of Right Palmer I suppose The Declaration set forth upon the Breach of both Parliaments Strode The Proclamation set forth Wingate forbidding People so much as to talk of a Parliament Gun-Powder Monopoly J. C. as it was a Project for the disarming of the Kingdom The destruction of Timber Wildt especially in the Forrest of Dean by Recusants The Entituling the King to the Lands between High-Water J. C. and Low-Water mark The abuses of Purveyors and Salt-Petre men Whitlock The Commission of Sewers to be further Explained Cromwel The Court of Wards Smyth The Jurisdiction of the Council of the Marches The Council Table as they take Cognizance of Me Te. The Buying and Selling of Honours and Dignities The further Debate ordered to be resumed to Morrow The Lord Keeper Reported the Conference with the Commons Yesterday That Mr. Pym delivered by Command divers Heads agreed upon by the Commons Wednesday Novem. 10. which are Instructions to be sent to the Commissioners of both Houses now attending his Majesty in Scotland which they desire their Lordships to joyn with them in The Instructions were read in haec verba 1. YOu shall humbly inform his Majesty Instructions to the Commissioners in Scotland Nov. 10th 1641. That the Propositions made to the Parliament of Scotland concerning their Assistance for suppressing the Rebellion in Ireland hath been fully considered and debated by both Houses of Parliament here and their Wise and Brotherly Expressions and Proceedings are apprehended and Entertained here by us not only with Approbation but with Thankfulness Wherefore we desire that his Majesty will be pleased That You in the Name of the Lords and Commons of England give publick Thanks to the States of the Parliament of Scotland for their Care and Readiness to imploy the Forces of that Kingdom for the reducing the Rebellious Subjects of Ireland to their due Obedience to his Majesty and the Crown of England 2. You shall further make known to his Majesty That in the great and almost Vniversal Revolt of the Natives of Ireland cherished and fomented as we have Cause to doubt by the Secret Practices and Encouragements of some Forreign States ill-affected to the Crown and that the Northern Parts of that Kingdom may with much more Ease and Speed be supplied from Scotland than from England We humbly desire and beseech his Majesty to make Vse of the Assistance of his Parliament and Subjects of Scotland for the present Relief of those Parts of Ireland which lie nearest to them according to the Treaty agreed upon and confirmed in both Parliaments and this Affectionate und Friendly Disposition now lately Expressed as is more particularly specified in the 5th Article 3. You shall present to His Majesty the Copy Enclosed of the Declaration which We have sent into Ireland for the Encouragement of his good Subjects there and for the more speedy and Effectual opposing of the Rebels and in Execution and performance of our Expressions therein made of Zeal and Faithfulness to his Majesties Service We have already taken Care for 50000 l. to be presently Borrowed and Secured by Parliament We have likewise resolved to hasten the Earl of Leicester Lord Lieutenant of Ireland very speedily to repair thither and forthwith to raise a Convenient number of Horse and Foot for securing Dublin and the English Pale with such other Parts as remain in his Majesties subjection intending to second them with a far greater Supply 4. We have further Ordered and Directed That his Majesties Arms and Munition lying in the City of Carlisle shall be Transported into the North Parts of Ireland for the supply of Carrick-fergus and other his Majesties Forts and
Garrisons there and that a convenient Number of Men shall be sent from the North Parts of England for the better Guard and Defence of those Forts and Countries adjoyning and that a large proportion of Arms and other Munition shall be speedily conveyed out of his Majesties Stores to West-Chester to be disposed of according to the Direction of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for arming the Men to be sent from England and such other of his Majesties Loyal Subjects as may be raised in Ireland 5. And because we understand That the Rebels are like with great strength to attempt the ruin and destruction of the Brittish Plantation in Ulster we humbly Advise his Majesty by the Council and Authority of his Parliament in Scotland to provide that one Regiment consisting if 1000 men furnish't and accomplish't with all necessary Arms and Munition as shall seem best to their Great Wisdoms and Experience may with all possible speed be Transported into Ireland under the Command of some Worthy Person well affected to the Reformed Religion and the Peace of both Kingdoms and well Enabled with Skill Judgment and Reputation for such an Employment which Forces we desire may be Quartered in those Northern Parts for the Opposing the Rebels and Comfort and Assistance of his Majesties good Subjects there with Instructions from his Majesty and the Parliament of Scotland that they shall upon all Occasions pursue and observe the Directions of the Lord Lieutenant his Lieutenant General or the Governor of Ireland according to their Authority derived from his Majesty and the Crown of England 6. And as touching the Wages and other Charges needful which this Assistance will require We would have You in our Name to beseech His Majesty to commend it to our Brethren the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland to take it into their Care on the behalf of His Majesty and this Kingdom to make such agreements with all the Commanders and Soldiers to be imployed as they would do in the like Case for themselves and to let them know For Our parts We do wholly rely upon their Honorable and Friendly dealing with us and will take Care that Satisfaction be made accordingly 7. You shall represent to his most Excellent Majesty this our Humble and Faithful Declaration that we cannot without much grief remember the great Miseries Burthens and Distempers which have for divers Years afflicted all his Kingdoms and Dominions and brought them to the last point of Ruine and Destruction all which have issued from the Cunning False and Malicious Practices of some of those who have been admitted into very near Places of Council and Authority about him who have been Favourers of Popery Superstition and Innovation Subverters of Religion Honor and Justice Factors for promoting the Designs of Forreign Princes and States to the great and apparent danger of His Royal Person Crown and Dignity and of all his People Authors of False Scandals and Jealousies betwixt his Majesty and his Loyal Subjects Enemies to the Peace Vnion and Confidence betwixt Him and his Parliament which is the surest Foundation of Prosperity and Greatness to his Majesty and of Comfort and Hope to them That by their Councils and Endeavours those great Sums which have been lately drawn from the People have been either consumed unprofitably or in the maintenance of such Designs as have been Mischievous and Destructive to the State and whilest we have been labouring to Support his Majesty to purge out the Corruptions and restore the Decayes both of Church and State others of their Faction and Party have been contriving by Violence and Force to suppress the Liberty of Parliament and indanger the Safety of those who have opposed such wicked and pernicious Courses 8. That we have just Cause to believe That those Conspiracies and Commotions in Ireland are but the Effects of the same Councils and if persons of such Aims and Conditions shall still continue in Credit Authority and Imployment the great Aids which we shall be inforced to draw from his People for subduing the Rebellion in Ireland will be applied to the Fomenting and Cherishing of it there and Encouraging some such like attempt by the Papists and ill-affected Subjects in England and in the End to the Subversion of Religion and destruction of his Loyal Subjects in both Kingdoms And do therefore most humbly beseech his Majesty to change those Councils from which such ill Courses have proceeded and which have Caused so many Miseries and Dangers to himself and all his Dominions and that he will be graciously pleased to imploy such Councils and Ministers as shall be approved of by his Parliament who are his greatest and most Faithful Council that so his People may with Courage and Confidence undergo the Charge and Hazard of this War and by their Bounty and Faithful Endeavours with Gods Blessing restore to his Majesty and this Kingdom that Honor Peace Safety and Prosperity which they have Enjoyed in former times And if herein his Majesty shall not vouchsafe to condescend to our humble Supplication although we shall always continue with Reverence and Faithfulness to his Person and to his Crown to perform those Duties of Service and Obedience to which by the Laws of God and this Kingdom we are Obliged Yet we shall be forced in discharge of the Trust which we ow to the State and to those whom we represent to Resolve upon some such way of defending Ireland from the Rebels as may concur to the Securing our selves from such Mischievous Councils and Designs as have lately been and still are in practice and agitation against us as we have just cause to believe and to commend those Aids and Contributions which this great Necessity shall require to the Custody and Disposing of such Persons of Honor and Fidelity as we have Cause to confide in The Faction as the Reader may before have observed had upon all Occasions indeavoured to lay hold upon the Soveraign Power of the Sword and indeed nothing less could Protect them from their own Fears of a future Reckoning which they were affraid they must make if ever the King's Affairs came into a prosperous Condition and setled Posture But certainly next to the Execrable Rebellion in Ireland it was one of the most barbarous Outrages to a most Excellent Prince whose Indulgence was his greatest Crime not only to charge him with the Fomenting and in a manner Contriving this most wicked Rebellion as is evident by these Venemous Reflections they intended to do but to take this advantage of the Misfortune of his Affairs to wrest from him that little remainder of Power and Regal Authority which he had not hitherto divested himself of But this was the Resolution of these Ingrateful and Ungenerous Subjects whose unbounded Ambition all the Streams of Royal Bounty were not able to satisfie so long as the King was the Fountain of them and they were determined to make use of his Majesties extreme Necessity as they had
a full and just satisfaction for the same do hereby declare That this said Sum of 50000 l. lent for the Irish Affairs and the Sum of 50000 l. more lent by the said City unto the Peers attending His Majesty in the Northern Parts before the beginning of this present Parliament and such other Sums lent by the said City unto this Parliament which are not yet paid or otherwise secured shall be fully satisfied and repaid unto the said City of London with Interest after the rate of 8 l. per cent for a Year out of such Moneys as are or shall be raised by Authority of Parliament and for that purpose will Exhibit a Bill and become humble Suiters to His Majesty that the same may be passed with all Expedition Provided always that this present Declaration shall not be in any wise prejudicial to any Members of the said House of Commons who have formerly lent any Sums of Money to this Parliament nor to the Northern Counties nor to any persons whatsoever to whom the Houses of Parliament or the House of Commons have formerly Ordered the Payment of any Sums of Mony nor to any security given to them before the making of this Declaration Mr. The Commons Reasons for the Continuance of Guards Pym presents from the Committee the Reasons of both Houses of Parliament for the continuance of a Guard viz. 1. The great numbers of disorderly suspicious and desperate Persons especially of the Irish Nation lurking in obscurâ—â— Allies and Victualling Houses in the Suburbs and other places near London and Westminster 2. The Jealousie conceived upon the discovery of the Design in Scotland for the surprising of the Persons of divers of the Nobility Members of the Parliament there which had been spoken of here some few days before it broke out not without some whispering intimation that the like was intended against divers Persons of both Houses which found more Credit by reason of the former attempts of bringing up the Army to disturb and inforce this Parliament 3. The Conspiracy in Ireland managed with so much secresie that but for the happy discovery at Dublin it had been Executed in all parts of the Kingdom upon one and the same day or soon after and that some of the chief Conspirators did profess that the like course was intended in England and Scotland which being found in some degree true in Scotland seemed the more probable likewise to be done in England 4. Divers Advertisements from beyond the Seas which came over about the same Time that there would be a great alteration in Religion in England in a few days and that the necks of both the Parliaments should be broken 5. Divers Examinations of dangerous Speeches of some of the Popish and discontented party in this Kingdom 6. The secret Meetings and Consultations of the Papists in several Parts their frequent Devotions for the prosperity of some great Design in hand These several Considerations do move the Parliament to desire a Guard under the Command of the Earl of Essex and they do conceive there is just Cause to apprehend that there is some wicked and mischievous practice to interrupt the peaceable proceedings of the Parliament still in hand for preventing whereof it is fit the Guards should be still continued under the same Command or such other as they should chuse But to have it under the Command of any other not chosen by themselves they can by no means consent to and will rather run any hazard then admit of a Precedent so dangerous both to this and to future Parliaments And they humbly leave it to His Majesty to consider whether it will not be fit to suffer his High Court of Parliament to enjoy that Priviledge of providing for their own safety which was never denied other inferior Courts And that he will be pleased graciously to believe that they cannot think themselves safe under any Guard of which they shall not be assured that it will be as faithful in defending His Majesties safety as their own whereof they shall always be more careful then of their own Among all these Reasons here is not one word of Beal the Taylors Discovery of the 108 Men which for 40 s. apiece were to do such strange things it seems by this time they found it an incredible Story and it is very probable that if the other grounds of their fears did not proceed from their own Quiver yet if they had Examined them they would have found them as frivolous as that or the Scotch Design against Hamilton and Arguile which upon the strictest Scrutiny would not afford more proof then to make a noise about the Streets of Plots against the Parliament the better to incite the unruly Multitude to Tumults and Insurrections which they now began to raise again to cry out No Bishops and with unheard of Insolence to affront His Majesty and whoever was Loyal But the King having Ordered them a Guard of the Trained Bands they were so displeased not at the thing for they had made use of them before but at His Majesties appointing them that it was Ordered in the House of Commons That the Guard should be dismissed and without giving His Majesty an Account or presenting him with the Reasons above recited the very same day Mr. Glyn and Mr. Wheeler were Ordered to require the High Constable of Westminster to provide a strong and sufficient Watch in their stead But to make a little flourish of Loyalty and tenderness for the King's Honour and Reputation it was this day Ordered That a Declaration be drawn for clearing His Majesties honour from false Reports cast upon him by the Rebels in Ireland and a Provision to be made Order for a Declaration to clear the Kings Honor from the Scandals of the Irish Rebels that there may be no Conclusion of that War to the prejudice of this Kingdom There might be malice even in this seeming kindness for whilst they pretended to vindicate His Majesties Honour they divulged the Scandal to the whole Nation and by their subsequent Actions and Declarations which within a little while after they published to improve the belief of that Scandal one would think they intended to prepare the way for it by this plausible pretence of a Vindication And most certainly they could intend him no real Reparation when themselves were this Day resolved to defame his Government from the very beginning of his Reign by that Scandalous Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom for this very Day Mr. Pym Sir Symon D'Ewes The Names of the Committee who were appointed to deliver the Remonstrance Sir Arthur Ingram Sir John Thyn Sir Henry Bellasis Lord Gray Sir Christopher Wray Lord Fairfax Sir Ralph Hopton Sir Richard Winn Sir John Corbet Sir Edward Deering and Sir Arthur Haslerig were Ordered to wait upon his Majesty what time he appoints with the Petition and Declaration and indeed all their Actions seemed to carry Fire in one Hand and
preparing of Articles against him but they shall be ready in convenient time to give him a Charge And in regard they hear he is not well they are contented he shall be removed to * Now Somerset-House Denmark House he putting in Caution not to go to Court and to appear when he shall be required Hereupon it was Ordered That Phillips shall upon these Cautions finding Sureties be released from his imprisonment in the Tower It was also Ordered That the Lords the Bishops that are Impeached shall be heard by their Council on Friday next at the Bar what they can say why this Motion should not be granted But the Faction of the Commons were resolved Tumults as before they had done in the Case of the Earl of Strafford to obtain that by the Force of Tumults that they could not obtain by Law or Reason The Lords however were so sensible of this affront put upon the Freedom of the Parliament that it was Ordered That all the Judges do consult among themselves what Course is fit to be taken to prevent Riots Routs and unlawful Assemblies and having considered of the Laws and Statutes in this Case to present their opinions to the House to morrow Morning and in the mean time to have a Conference with the Commons concerning the Tumults In the Commons House Serjeant Wild Reports the Conference That the Lord Keeper told the Committee That their Lordships had received Information of great numbers of People gathered together in a Tumultuous Vnusual and Disorderly manner about the Houses of Parliament and therefore desired the Commons House to joyn with them in a Declaration to remove them and that for these Two Reasons First If these disorders should continue they might render the good Acts and Provisions of this Parliament of suspicion to Posterity by the interpretation of ill Ministers Secondly Because it did not stand with the Dignity of Parliament to suffer such Tumults to be so near the Houses of Parliament The House being informed That Phillips had a Trunk brought to him to the Tower by Two Capuchins it was Ordered That the Lieutenant of the Tower and Sir William Parkhurst shall search his Trunk and if there be any Papers that concern the State to secure them till the pleasure of this House be known The Committee formerly named to wait upon the King with the Petition and Declaration were Ordered to go forthwith to present them to the King Sir Edward Deering to read it to His Majesty and in his absence Sir Ralph Hopton to read it If he be absent the Committee to appoint the Person that shall read it Accordingly the Committee went this day and attended His Majesty with the said Petition and Remonstrance which as I find it Printed in Husband's Collections was in these words The Petition of the House of Commons which Accompanied the Declaration of the State of the Kingdom Most Gracious Soveraign YOur Majesties Most Humble and Faithful Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled The Petition and Declaration of the State of the Kingdom delivered by the Commons to the King at Hampton-Court Dec. 1. 1641. do with much thankfulness and joy acknowledge the great Mercy and Favour of God in giving your Majesty a safe and peaceable return out of Scotland into your Kingdom of England where the pressing dangers and distempers of the State have caused us with much earnestness to desire the comfort of your Gracious Presence and likewise the Unity and Justice of your Royal Authority to give more Life and Power to the Dutiful and Loyal Counsels and endeavours of your Parliament for the prevention of that imminent ruine and destruction wherewith your Kingdoms of England and Scotland are threatned The Duty which we ow to your Majesty and our Country cannot but make us very sensible and apprehensive that the multiplicity sharpness and malignity of those Evils under which we have now many years suffered are fomented and cherished by a corrupt and ill-affected Party who amongst other their mischievous devices for the alteration of Religion and Government have sought by many false scandals and imputations cunningly insinuated and dispersed amongst the People to blemish and disgrace our Proceedings in this Parliament and to get themselves a Party and Faction amongst your Subjects for the better strengthening of themselves in their wicked courses and hindring those Provisions and Remedies which might by the wisdom of your Majesty and Council of your Parliament be opposed against them For preventing whereof and the better Information of your Majesty your Peers and all other your Loyal Subjects we have been necessitated to make a Declaration of the State of the Kingdom both before and since the Assembly of this Parliament unto this time which we do humbly present to your Majesty without the least intention to lay any blemish upon your Royal Person but only to represent how your Royal Authority and Trust have been abused to the great prejudice and danger of your Majesty and of all your good Subjects And because we have reason to believe that those Malignant Parties whose Proceedings evidently appear to be mainly for the advantage and encrease of Popery is composed set up and acted by the subtile practice of the Jesuits and other Engineers and Factors for Rome and to the great danger of this Kingdom and most grievous affliction of your Loyal Subjects have so far prevailed as to corrupt divers of your Bishops and others in prime places of the Church and also to bring divers of these Instruments to be of your Privy-Council and other employments of trust and nearness about your Majesty the Prince and the rest of your Royal Children And by this means hath had such an Operation in your Council and the most Important Affairs and Proceedings of your Government that a most dangerous division and chargeable Preparation for War betwixt your Kingdoms of England and Scotland the encrease of jealousies betwixt your Majesty and your most Obedient Subjects the violent distraction and interruption of this Parliament the Insurrection of the Papists in your Kingdom of Ireland and bloody Massacre of your people have been not only endeavoured and attempted but in a great measure compassed and effected For preventing the final accomplishment whereof your poor Subjects are enforced to engage their Persons and Estates to the maintaining of a very expenceful and dangerous War notwithstanding they have already since the beginning of this Parliamenâ— undergone the Charge of 150000 Pounds Sterling or thereabouts For the necessary support and supply of your Majesty in these present and perillous Designs And because all our most faithful endeavours and engagements will be ineffectual for the Peace Safety and Preservation of your Majesty and your People if some present real and effectual course be not taken for suppressing this wicked and malignant Party We Your Most Humble and Obedient Subjects do with all faithfulness and humility beseech your Majesty 1. THat you will be
Declaration against the House of Commons was published in His Majesties Name which yet wrought little Effect with the People but only to manifest the Impudence of those who were Authors of it A forced Loan of Money was attempted in the City of London The Lord Mayor and Aldermen in their several Wards injoyned to bring in a List of the Names of such Persons as they judged fit to lend and of the Sum they should lend And such Aldermen as refused so to do were committed to Prison The Archbishop and the other Bishops and Clergy continued the Convocation and by a new Commission turned it to a Provincial Synod in which by an unheard-of presumption they made Canons that contain in them many Matters contrary to the King's Prerogative to the Fundamental Laws and Statutes of the Realm to the Right of Parliaments to the Property and Liberty of the Subject and Matters tending to Sedition and of dangerous Consequence thereby establishing their own Usurpations justifying their Alter-Worship and those other Superstitious Innovations which they formerly introduced without Warrant of Law They Imposed a new Oath upon divers of his Majesties Subjects both Ecclesiastical and Lay for maintenance of their own Tyranny and laid a great Tax upon the Clergy for Supply of his Majesty and generally they shewed themselves very Affectionate to the War with Scotland which was by some of them styled Bellum Episcopale and a Prayer Composed and Injoyned to be read in all Churches calling the Scots Rebels to put the two Nations into Blood and make them irreconcileable All those pretended Canons and Constitutions were armed with the several Censures of Suspension Excommunication Deprivation by which they would have thrust out all the good Ministers and most of the Well-Affected People of the Kingdom and left an easie Passage to their own Design of Reconciliation with Rome The Popish Party injoyned such Exemptions from the Penal Laws as amounted to a Toleration besides many other Encouragements and Court Favours They had a Secretary of State Sir Francis Windibank a powerful Agent for the speeding of all their desires a Popes Nuntio residing here to Act and Govern them according to such Influences as he received from Rome and to intercede for them with the most powerful Concurrence of the Forreign Princes of that Religion By his Authority the Papists of all sorts Nobility Gentry and Clergy were convocated after the manner of a Parliament new Jurisdictions were erected of Romish Archbishops Taxes levied another State moulded within this State independant in Government contrary in Interest and Affection secretly corrupting the ignorant or negligent Professors of our Religion and closely uniting and combining themselves against such as were Sound in this Posture waiting for an Opportunity by force to destroy those whom they could not hope to seduce For the effecting whereof they were strengthened with Arms and Munition encouraged by superstitious Prayers enjoyned by the Nuncio to be weekly made for the prosperity of some great Design And such Power had they at Court that secretly a Commission was issued out intended to be issued to some great Men of that Profession for the levying of Soldiers and to Command and Imploy them according to private Instructions which we doubt were framed for the advantage of those who were the Contrivers of them His Majesties Treasure was consumed his Revenue anticipated His Servants and Officers compelled to lend great Sums of Money Multitudes were called to the Councel Table who were retired with long attendances there for refusing illegal Payments The Prisons were filled with their Commitments many of the Sheriffs summoned into the Star-Chamber and some imprisoned for not being quick enough in levying the Ship-Money the People languished under Grief and Fear no visible hope being left but in desperation The Nobility began to be weary of their Silence and Patience and sensible of the duty and trust which belongs to them and thereupon some of the most eminent of them did Petition his Majesty at such a time when evil Councels were so strong that they had reason to expect more hazard to themselves then redress of those publick Evils for which they interceded whilest the Kingdom was in this agitation and distemper the Scots restrained in their Trades Impoverished by the loss of many of their Ships bereaved of all possibility of satisfying his Majesty by any naked Supplication entred with a powerful Army into the Kingdom and without any Hostile Act or Spoil in the Country as they passed more than forcing a Passage over the Tyne at Newborne near New-Castle possessed themselves of New-Castle and had a fair opportunity to press on further upon the King's Army but Duty and Reverence to his Majesty and brotherly love to the English Nation made them stay there whereby the King had leisure to entertain better Counsels wherein God so blessed and directed him that he summoned the great Council of Peers to meet at York upon the twenty fourth of September and there declared a Parliament to begin the Third of November then following The Scots the first day of the great Council presented an humble Petition to His Majesty whereupon the Treaty was appointed at Rippon A present Cessation of Arms agreed upon and the full Conclusion of all Differences referred to the Wisdom and Care of the Parliament At our first Meeting all Oppositions seemed to vanish the Mischiefs were so evident which those Evil Counsellors produced that no Man durst stand up to defend them Yet the Work it self afforded difficulty enough The multiplied Evils and Corruption of sixteen years strengthened by Custom and Authority and the concurrent Interest of many powerful Delinquents were now to be brought to Judgment and Reformation The King's Houshold was to be provided for they had brought him to that Want that he could not supply his ordinary and necessary Expences without the Assistance of his People Two Armies were to be payed which amounted very near to eighty thousand Pounds a Month the People were to be tenderly charged having bin formerly exhausted with many burthensome Projects The difficulties seemed to be insuperable which by the Divine Providence we have overcome The Contrarieties incompatible which yet in a great measure we have reconciled Six Subsidies have been granted and a Bill of Poll-Money which if it be duly levyed may equal six Subsidies more in all six hundred thousand pounds Besides we have contracted a Debt to the Scots of 220 thousand pounds and yet God hath so blessed the endeavours of this Parliament that the Kingdom is a great gainer by all these charges The Ship-Money is abolished which cost the Kingdom above two hundred thousand pounds a year The Coat and Conduct Money and other Military charges are taken away which in many Countries amounted to little less then the Ship-Money The Monopolies are all supprest whereof some few did prejudice the Subject above a Million yearly The Soap an hundred thousand pounds the Wine three hundred thousand pounds
have a Copy of the Declaration against him and shall put in his Answer thereunto on Tuesday come seven Night The Commons were also in an extraordinary heat about the Halberdeers who were set to prevent Tumults and Riots Routs and unlawful Assemblies which now frequently resorted to Westminster to cry out against the Bishops and their Votes in Parliament some of the Halberdeers were called to the Bar and Examined and they giving the same Account as was before given to the Lords the Bailiff of Westminster the Constable of St. Clement Danes and the Under-Sheriff of Middlesex were ordered to be sent for to give an Account of the Reason of placing those Guards about the Parliament House And thereupon it was Voted Resolved c. That the setting of any Guards about this House Vote of the Commons concerning the Guard of Halberdeers set about the Parliament House without the Consent of the House is a breach of the Privilege of this House and that therefore such Guards ought to be dismissed And thereupon the Serjeant at Armes attending the House was appointed to Command them to depart which was done accordingly The House then sell into Debate concerning the treating with the Scottish Commissioners concerning raising Men for the relief of Ireland and upon the Question it was Resolved c. That this House doth Approve and Consent that his Majesties Commissioners named by the House and appointed to treat with the Scotch Commissioners shall treat with them for the raising of 10000 Scots for the Occasions of Ireland Sir Walter Earl then gave Information to the House of some dangerous Words spoken by several Persons but did not Name them whereupon it was Ordered That Mr. Speaker should issue out a Warrant to apprehend such Persons as Sir Walter Earl shall nominate to him for speaking Words of a dangerous Consequence This was one of the common Arts which they used to restrain those who were able from informing the People of the dangerous Consequences of their own Proceedings and Liberty of Speech seemed now to be wholly confined within the Walls of St. Stephen's Chappel or if any of that common Privilege of Mankind was indulged it was only to the Favourites of the Faction the Sectaries and Schismaticks who they were assured would be very serviceable to them in imploying that Liberty to traduce and Calumniate the King the Bishops the Government of the Church and whatever was either Orthodox or Loyal but for others if they once dared to Intrench upon the Privilege of the Pretended Sects or to correct those Liberties they took to defame the King and his Ministers the Church and her Governors or to arraign any of the violent Proceedings of the Faction these Religious Spies and Setters immediately gave Informations against them to some of the Members of the Commons and these Men had a certain devise to punish Men who had transgressed no known Law for Crimes which would not bear an Indictment or the Test of a Jury of their Peers by bringing them under the Rod of the Commons House for Words of dangerous Consequence for which constructive Offences their Persons were imprisoned and their Purses fleeced by the Serjeant and his Officers as if they had been the most notorious Malefactors Such precious beginnings had this Dawning of the glorious Day which they promised the People should be nothing but one continued Sun-shine of Liberty and Property without the least Cloud of Arbitrary or Exorbitant Government But as a great Man said upon another Occasion in this present Parliament Misera est servitus ubi jus est vagum et incertum Where known Law ends there Slavery begins And where our Law knows not how to lay an Indictment it must certainly be something Arbitrary that inflicts a Punishment But this was the Case of Loyalty Men were not only made Offenders for a Word but for such Words as were justifiable by the Laws of God and Man His Majesty whose Zeal for the Church was as Eminent as his Piety and Devotion were singular and most extraordinary observing what an Inundation of Schisme and Errors were flowing in upon the Church the Pretence of Reformation letting loose all the Schismaticks who pretended to be the great Reformers issued out a most Excellent Proclamation to prevent that Disorder Division and Separation which he too Prophetically foresaw would indanger the Subversion of the very Essence and Substance of Religion The Proclamation was as follows A Proclamation for Obedience to the Laws Ordained for Establishing of the True Religion in this Kingdom of England HIs Majesty considering that it is a Duty most beseeming A Proclamation for Obedience to the Laws for Establishing the true Religion in England Dec. 11. 1641. and that most obligeth Soveraign Authority in a Christian King to be careful above all other Things of preserving and advancing the Honor and Service of Almighty God and the peace and tranquility of the Church to which end His Majesty with his Parliament hath it under Consideration how all just Scruples might be removed And being in the mean time sensible that the present Division Separation and Disorder about the Worship and Service of God as it is Established by the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom in the Church of England tendeth to great Distraction and Confusion and may endanger the Subversion of the very Essence and Substance of true Religion hath resolved for the preservation of Vnity and Peace which is most necessary at this time for the Church of England to require Obedience to the Laws and Statutes Ordained for establishing of the True Religion in this Kingdom whereby the Honor of God may be advanced to the great Comfort and Happiness both of His Majesty and his good Subjects His Majesty doth therefore Charge and Command That Divine Service be performed in this His Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales as is appointed by the Laws and Statutes Estadlished in this Realm and that Obedience be given by all His Subjects Ecclesiastical and Temporal to the said Laws and Statutes concerning the same And that all Iudges Officers and Ministers Ecclesiastical and Temporal according to Iustice and their respective Duties do put the said Acts of Parliament in due Execution against all willfull Contemners and Disturbers of Divine Service contrary to the said Laws and Statutes His Majesty doth further Command That no Parsons Vicars or Curates in their several Parishes shall presume to introduce any Rite or Ceremonies other then those which are Established by the Laws and Statutes of the Land Given at His Majesties Palace of White-Hall the tenth Day of December in the Seventeenth Year of His Majesties Reign God save the KING But the Root of the Schism lay too deep to be Cured by a Proclamation and the Separatists knew where to take Sanctuary not only for their Disobedience to the Laws made in favor of the Church but of the Crown too or otherwise they would not in such riotous and Tumultuous Manner
they do with all dutiful Reverence to Your most Excellent Majesty declare That it is their Ancient and Vndoubted Right that Your Majesty ought not to take notice of any matter in Agitation and Debate in either Houses of Parliament but by their information and agreement And that Your Majesty ought not to propound any Condition Provision or Limitation to any Bill or Act in Debate or preparation in either Houses of Parliament or to manifest or declare your consent or dissent approbation or dislike of the same before it be presented to Your Majesty in due course of Parliament And that every particular Member of either House hath free liberty of Speech to propound or debate any matter according to the order and course of Parliament And that Your Majesty ought not to conceive displeasure against any Man for such Opinions and Propositions as shall be delivered in such debate it belonging to the several Houses of Parliament respectively to judge and determine such Errors and Offences in Words or Actions as shall be committed by any their Members in the handling or debating any matters depending They do further declare That all the Priviledges above-mentioned have been lately broken to the great sorrow and grievance of your most humble and faithful Subjects in that Speech which Your Majesty made in Parliament to both Houses upon Tuesday last the 14th of this present Month of December in that Your Majesty did therein take notice of a Bill for impressing of Soldiers being in Agitation in the said Houses and not agreed upon And that Your Majesty did therein offer a Salvo Jure or provisional Clause to be added to that Bill before it was presented to Your Majesty by the Consent of both Houses and did at the same time declare Your displeasure against such Persons as had moved some Doubt or Question concerning the same Bill All which they do affirm and declare to be against the Ancient Lawful and Vndoubted Priviledges and Liberties of Parliament And therefore they most humbly beseech Your Majesty by Your Royal Power and Authority to maintain and protect them in these and all other the Priviledges of Your High Court of Parliament that You will not for the time to come break or interrupt the same And that none of Your Loyal Subjects may suffer or sustain any prejudice in Your Majesties favour or good opinion for any thing done or spoken in Parliament And for the reparation of Your Loyal Subjects in this their just Grievance and Complaint for the Breaches of their Priviledges above-mentioned and prevention of the like for the time to come That Your Majesty will be pleased to declare and make known the Name or Names of the Person or Persons by whose mis-information and evil Counsel Your Majesty was induced to the same that so he or they may receive such condigne punishment as shall appertain to Justice in that behalf And this they most humbly desire and as Your greatest and most faithful Councel shall advise Your Majesty to perform as that which will be not only a comfort to themselves but likewise a great advantage to Your Majesty by procuring and confirming such a Confidence and Vnity betwixt Your Majesty and Your People as may be a foundation of Honour Safety and Happiness to Your Person and Throne as they stand bound always to pray for and endeavour Which being done it was Resolved upon the Question That this Petition and Remonstrance now read shall be presented to the King and these Lords following were appointed to go along with such Members as the House of Commons should appoint to attend the King accordingly Viz. Arch-Bishop of York Lord Steward Earl Marshal Lord Admiral Earl of Bath Earl of Dorset Earl of Cambridge Earl of Bristol Earl of Holland Lord Wharton The Commons appointed the same Committee for this Service which are before named to whom were added Sir Henry Vane Senior Mr. Lisle Sir Ralph Hopton Lord Crompton Lord Buckhurst Mr. Jones Sir Edward Patherich Mr. Palmer Sir Rich. Buller Sir Sam. Oldfield Sir Simon D'Ewes Mr. Cary Sir Jo. Culpeper Sir Rob. Harley Sir John Clotworthy The Lord Steward and the Earl of Holland were appointed presently to attend the King To know what time he will please to appoint the Select Committees of both Houses may wait upon him for this purpose To which the Lord Steward brought Answer That the King appoints to morrow at two of the Clock at White-Hall In the Commons House Orders to the Mayor of Berwick Hull and New-Castle to take care of those Places after the Reading and Voting of the Protestation Petition and Declaration It was Ordered That Mr. Speaker do write his Letters to the Mayor of Berwick enjoyning him to require such Papists and suspected Persons as reside in Berwick or make their Constant repair thither forthwith to depart the Town and such as shall refuse to tender the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance unto them and to proceed against them according to Law And to require him that a Guard be kept at the several Gates of that Town and that the Arms of that place be in readiness And Mr. Speaker is likewise to write to the Mayor of Newcastle and to the Mayor of Hull requiring them to have a special Care in the disarming of Recusants and injoining them to depart those places and such as shall refuse to tender unto them the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance and to proceed against them according to Law and to have the Arms of those Towns in a Readiness and good Condition for the defence of these Places especially the Mayor of Hull to provide well for the safety of the Magazine there And that Sir Robert Harley and Mr. Littleton do repair to the Lord Keeper and to desire him to issue out Commissions to the Mayors of Berwick Hull and Newcastle enabling them to tender the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance to Papists and suspected Persons After which it was Resolved upon the Question Sir James Douglas to be sent for as a Delinquent That Sir James Douglass shall be sent for as a Delinquent by the Serjeant at Arms attending the House A Petition of the Knights and Gentlemen of the County of Hertford on the behalf of themselves and divers others was this day read and it was Ordered That the same shall be taken into Consideration on Saturday next and also at the same time to Debate such other Matters as shall be necessary for the defence of the Kingdom and of putting the Kingdom into a Posture of Defence And Mr. Speaker is to put the House in mind of this Order I have not been able to recover this Petition but it is easie by the Order that treads upon the Heels of it to know that the Matter was putting the Bishops out and the Kingdom into a Posture of Defence which Two Topicks were by the indefatigable Emissaries of the Faction laboured for night and day To say the truth they were the most industrious
groaning under the Burden of Tyrannical Oppression inflicted on them unjustly and maliciously by Unmerciful and Wicked Men that have Usurped unto themselves Places and Offices of Power and Authority both in Church and State Mr. Speaker This Great and high court is not only the Powerfullest of all other Courts whatsoever but the Prudentest and Wisest made and compacted not only of Men sound in Religion well Learned but Ripe in their Judgments contracted from all Parts of this Kingdom Elected Chosen with the free consent of the whole body Politique of the Kingdom this great and high Council is not only of such Power and Wisdom but indued and attended with the most and greatest Priviledges thereof that not only the meanest of his Majesties Subjects but the greatest Personages of the Kingdom are in danger if infringers of the same to be called in Question and by them punished therefore give me leave Mr. Speaker to speak somewhat of the Priviledges in this particular incident and appertaining to this Wise Senate and in speaking thereof I shall observe these three particulars 1. The Rights and Priviledges belonging to the same in the free Votes and Judicature thereof 2. The Rights and Priviledges belonging to the Power and Jurisdiction thereof 3. The Rights and Priviledges in the Continuances thereof being freely called and assembled by his Majesties Authority not to be dissolved or broken off till all things agitated therein for the good both of Church and Common-Wealth be fully concluded and determined First Mr. Speaker concerning the Priviledges of a Parliament belonging to the free Votes and Judicature thereof I shall observe these three particulars First To speak freely without Interruption or Contradiction in any Debate Dispute or Argument upon any business agitated in the same being a Member thereof I conceive to be one Priviledge of a Parliament Secondly Not to be questioned or any such free Dispute Argument or Debate to be taxed or accused for the same either during the free sitting thereof or after is another Priviledge of Parliament Thirdly Freely to give Vote Judgment or Sentence upon the Reading of any Bill to be made a Law or any Bill either of attainder or other Charge against Delinquents and Criminous Persons against the State at their Tryal upon the same is a third Priviledge of Parliament Fourthly To defend and Maintain the Free Vote Judgments and Sentences of the whole House by Protestation Remonstrance or other Declaration if not consented unto or opposed by the House of Lords is a Fourth Priviledge Fifthly For any Member of the House not to be accused of any Crime or Impeached for Treason by any Person whatsoever during the continuance of the Parliament for things done in the same without Legal Accusation and Prosecution of any such Member by the whole House is another Priviledge of Parliament Sixthly Not to be apprehended upon such Impeachment or arrested by any Officer or to have studies broken open their Books and Writings seized upon without consent or Warrant of the whole Parliament is another Priviledge of the same and thus much Mr. Speaker shall suffice to be spoken concerning the Priviledges and Rights of Parliament pertinent to the Subjects of which I am to speak I come now to the Second thing I proposed to your Audience which was the Rights and Priviledges belonging to the Power and Jurisdiction of the Parliament in which I shall observe these particulars First to consult and consider of what Laws are fit to be made and Enacted in this Kingdom for the good Government thereof is one Priviledge belonging to the Power and Jurisdiction of this High Court. Secondly to Justifie or abrogate repeal make Void to ratifie and Confirm Establish and Maintain Laws Statutes and Ordinances made and Enacted by precedent Parliaments by Councils of State or other Courts of Judicature is a second Priviledge pertaining to the Power and Jurisdiction of the Parliament Thirdly To give Subsidies to raise Taxes to impose Loans and other charges upon the Subject is another Priviledge belonging to the Power Jurisdiction of the Parliament Fourthly to Accuse or Impeach any Incendiaries or Delinquents in this Kingdom of any Crime notorious tending to the prejudice of his Majestie or any of his Loyal Subjects whether it be for Treason or other wayes be they Members of the Parliament or no is another Priviledge belonging to the Power and Jurisdiction of the Parliament Fifthly and lastly To prosecute and bring to Judgment such Persons so Accused or Impeached for any Crime whatsoever is another Priviledge belonging to the Power and Jurisdiction of this Court. And thus much of the Rights and Priviledges belonging to the Power and Jurisdiction of a Parliament And now Mr. Speaker I come to the last thing I Mentioned to you concerning the Priviledges belonging to the Continuance and Free sitting till all things be concluded of for the Good Government of Church and State in which I shall also observe these particulars First that for a Parliament when Freely called and Assembled by Royal Authority not to be to debate or argue any one particular business appointed by any person whatsoever is one Priviledge belonging to the Continuance of a Parliament Secondly Not to break off or dissolve a free Parliament until all the Grievances and oppression of all his Majesties Loyal Subjects be fully redressed and Remedied is a Second Priviledge belonging to the continuance of Parliament Thirdly Not to break off or dissolve a Parliament till all Incendiaries and Delinquents in the State be brought to condigne punishment for their Crimes Fourthly and lastly To Accuse or Impeach any Member of the Parliament thereby to hinder and interrupt the Legal Proceedings thereof in the Weighty Affairs of the Common-Wealth is another Priviledge belonging to the Continuance of a Parliament And thus having briefly declared to you the Power and Jurisdiction of a Parliament above all other Courts of Judicature in this Land the Wisdom and Policy of a Parliament above all other Councils the Rights and Priviledges of a Parliament in respect of the free Votes and Judicature thereof the Power and Jurisdiction thereof and the free continuance thereof I humbly leave to the Consideration of this House whether the accusation of these Gentlemen accused by his Majesty and the illegall breaking open upon this their Accusation of thir Chambers Truncks and studies be not a breach of some of the Priviledges of Parliament which I have Mentioned unto you I have nothing to say against the Real Priviledges of the High Court of Parliament but certainly that of a Parliaments sitting till all pretended Grievances are Redressed which is tantamount to sitting perpetually since there will be alwayes such Pretences is so far from being a Real Privilege of Parliament that among all the Rolls and Records of our Parliaments there cannot be found one single Instance of any Parliament that pretended or laid Claim to such a Privilege And there cannot be a more demonstrative Agreement against this
then the very Act which this Parliament obtained from the King that they should not be dissolved or prorogued by the King without their own Consent which was a plain Confession that till his Majesty had in this Particular by giving the Royal Assent to that fatal Bill limited the undoubted Power of his Prerogative it was an inherent Right annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm that the King was the sole Judg of the Calling Continuance and Dissolution of Parliaments And though some Seditious Pens and particularly the Apostate Author of the Life of Julian the Apostate have taken great Pains to revive and furbish up this Opinion and to reflect upon his present Majesty as the Rebels of this Parliament did upon his Royal Father for breaking up of some Mutinous and Troublesome Parliaments in the beginning of his Reign which plainly shews them to be of the Temper of the ill Men of those ill times yet I think they ought to stay before they Preach this Doctrine to the People for a true Privilege of Parliament till they have got such another Act of Perpetuation in one Hand and a Sword to maintain it in the other which is the only Argument that at long run such Seditious People must have Recourse to and I hope it may be some time before such another Act will be obtained and longer before they can get the Power of the Sword to maintain it And certainly were there no other Inconveniences yet the dismal Effects which the continuance of this Parliament brought upon the King and Kingdom to the intire Ruin of the Government Laws Liberty and Property of the English Nation are sufficient to give all Loyal and Honest Subjects very terrible Apprehensions not only of the thing it self but that the Persons who revive and propagate such Opinions must have Designs to compass and effect the same Mischiefs over again which like an Inundation drowned the Kingdom in Blood by the Breach of this Bank of Royal Prerogative of the Kings being the sole Judg of the continuance and dissolving of Parliaments Mr. Glyn's Speech upon this Subject was as followeth Mr. Speaker WE sit now upon that grand business of the Breaches of the Rights and Priviledges of Parliaments which are so many and great Mr. Glyn's Speech about Breach of Priviledges Jan. 5. 1641. so carefully preserved and defended and having in former times severely punished the infringers thereof that I had thought and conceived that no Subject of what degree or dignity soever would either in their own persons or by misinforming his Majesty concerning the same would have presumed to have intrenched in the least measure upon the free Liberty Rights and very Beings of Parliaments or tending to the Breach thereof But Mr. Speaker I perceive the perverseness of divers persons in places of Authority that they dare not only presume to provoke his Majesty by their politick mis-informations but dare attempt of themselves to resist the lawful power both of the King and his high Court of Parliament Mr. Speaker These Men notwithstanding they apparently perceive that their wicked practices and malicious designs cannot take effect according to their expectation but are rejected and detected as well by his Sacred Majesty as his Lords and his whole Council dare venture to endeavour by casting aspersions and spreading abroad evil reports not only of the Members but of the Proceedings of the House of Commons against them and others of their Adherents and Favourits in their wicked and desperate Actions and Designs against their lawful Soveraign and his Liege People I conceive Mr. Speaker did these persons but remember the many Presidents yet extant of the just and deserved punishments inflicted by former Parliaments upon such Miscreants as witness the Arch-Bishop of York the Duke of Suffolk Chief Justice Belknap and the rest of that Conspiracy in the Reign of King Edward the Second they would have prejudged to themselves the like danger would follow upon them for their evil Actions Nay Mr. Speaker did these men but consider with themselves the just judgments of God that have immediately lighted upon the necks of such as have been the troublers of Kingdoms and Common-wealth whereof they have been Members as well recorded in Sacred Writ as of late times in this Kingdom yet still in fresh Memory they would have laid their hands upon their Mouths and hearts when they went about to speak or do any thing tending to the dishonour of Almighty God in innovating of his true Religion corrupting the sincere Doctrine and discipline of Christ and his Apostles as also any thing tending to the dishonour and perpetual destruction of his Royal Majesty however otherwise they may pretend the Fundamental Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom the Rights and Priviledges of Parliaments and the very being thereof but surely Mr. Speaker they are altogether benummed and stupified their Consciences dead and seared their Lives and Conversations altogether devoted to the works of darkness and impurity their desires altogether sensual carnal and devilish forgetting God kicking and spurring with maliciousness against all Piety and Godliness or else they would never have adventured to practice such things as it is too too manifest they have done Mr. Speaker I intend to be brief in that which I am to speak concerning the Breaches of the Priviledges of Parliament First To inform his Majesty of any Proceedings in the House of Commons upon any businesses whatsoever before they have concluded finished and made ready the same to present to his Majesty for his Royal Assent thereunto is a Breach of the Priviledges of Parliament Secondly To mis-inform his Majesty contrary to the Proceedings in Parliament thereby to incense and provoke him against the same is a Breach of Priviledge of Parliament Thirdly To cause or procure any Information or Accusation to be brought or preferred without the knowledge or consent of the Parliament into the House against any of the Members thereof is a Breach of Priviledge of Parliament Fourthly To apprehend any such Accused to imprison their persons to seize upon their Goods or Estates to prosecute and proceed against them to their Tryal and Judgment to Condemn or Execute them upon such Accusation without the consent or advice of the Parliament is a Breach of the Priviledges thereof Fifthly To endeavour to cast an evil opinion of such Members Accused into the hearts of his Majesties Loyal Subjects whereby they disaffecting them may be ready and willing to put in execution any Command or Warrant for their apprehension and imprisonment is a Breach of the Priviledges of Parliament Sixthly To come in open Parliament for any Officer or Serjeant to demand and arrest any such Member accused be it of high Treason or any other Crime whatsoever without the knowledge of the whole House is a Breach of the Priviledges of Parliament Seventhly to come to a Parliament sitting in free consultation assisted and guarded with Armed Men and with them be sitting the
1. That for the sad business of Ireland His Majesty cannot possibly express a greater sence then He hath done there being nothing left on His Majesties part unoffered or undone And He hoped by the speedy advice and assistance of His Parliament that great and necessary Work would be put in a just forwardness to which his Majesty will contribute all his power And how zealous He is and hath bin therein will appear in a Declaration speedily to be set forth by his Majesty 2. For the Tower His Majesty wonders that having removed a Servant of good Trust and Reputation from that Charge onely to satisfie the fears of the City and put in another of unquestionable Reputation and known ability the Petitioners should still entertain those fears and what-ever preparation of Strength is there made is with as great an Eye of Safety and advantage to the City as to his Majesties own Person and shall be equally employed to both 3. For the fortifying of White-hall with Men and Munition in an unusual way His Majesty doubts not but the Petitioners have observed the strange provocation he hath received to entertain that Guard That by the disorderly and tumultuous conflux of people at Westminster and White-hall his Majesties great Councel was not onely disquieted but his own Royal Person in danger most seditious language being uttered even under his own windows whilest the examination and punishing such Tumults by the course of Law were interrupted and stopped And if any Citizens were wounded or ill intreated his Majesty is confidently assured that it hapned by their own evil and corrupt demeanours 4. His Majesty knows no other endeavours to the Innes of Court then a gracious intimation That He received the tender of their loyal and dutiful Affections with very good Approbation and Acceptance and an incouragement given them to continue the same upon all occasions Neither doth his Majesty know what discovery hath bin lately made of Fire-works in the hands of any Papist 5. For his going to the House of Commons when his Attendants were no otherwise armed then as Centleman with Swords his Majesty is verily perswaded That if the Petitioners knew the cleer grounds upon which those persons stand accused of high Treason and what will be proved against them which in due time they shall be acquainted with and considered the gentle way his Majesty took for their apprehension which he preferred before any course of violence though that way had bin very justifiable for his Majesty is very well assured that it is notoriously known that no priviledge of Parliament can extend to Treason Felony or breach of the Peace the Petitioners would believe his Majesties going thither was an Act of grace and favour to that House and the most peaceable way of having that necessary service for the apprehension of those persons performed specially if such Orders have bin made which his Majesty is not willing to believe for the resistance of all lawful Authority as are discoursed of 6. And for the proceedings against those Persons mentioned in the Petition his Majesty ever intended the same should be with all justice and favour according to the Laws and Statutes of the Realm to the which all innocent men would cheerfully submit And this extraordinary way of satisfying a Petition of so unusual a nature his Majesty is confidently perswaded will be thought the greatest instance can be given of his Majesties clear intention to his Subjects and of the singular estimation he hath of the good affections of the City which he believes in gratitude will never be wanting to his just Commands and Service The People were kept perpetually allarm'd An Information of a Plot against some Lords with one little Plot or another either against the Parliament in General or some particular Persons the Favorites of the Faction so it is no Miracle that they were in such heats but rather that they did not fall into perfect Frenzy and Madness for want of Sleep to cool their Brains every day produced a new Discovery to keep them waking And this Day one Francis Moor an Italian gave in an Information to the House of Lords That yesterday he coming towards White-Hall he stood talking with an Irish Man who lives with the Lord Viscount Loftus in the Street and overheard one Brian Kelly an Irish Man Servant to the Earl of Arundel speak in Italian to one Signior Francisco an Italian and say That there was a Plot laid to kill some Lords of the Parliament and in particular named the Earl of Northumberland the Earl of Essex the Earl of Holland the Earl of Pembroke and the Earl of Leicester Hereupon It is Ordered That the said Brian Kelly and Signior Francisco shall be forthwith apprehended and attached by the Gentleman Vsher attending this House and brought as Delinquents to the Bar which was done accordingly and Brian Kelly being brought to the Bar and charged with the Words he denied that he ever spake any such Words Thereupon Moore was called in to confront him and upon Oath averred what he had formerly informed Whereupon Kelly was by Order of the Lords committed to Newgate that Mr. Justice Reeves and Justice Foster do presently examine the said Kelly and Signior Francisco and all others whom they think fit to give further Informations in this Business and report the said Examinations to the House Mr. Justice Reeves informed the House That the Irish Man's Name that was with Moore when he heard Kelly speak the Words is Philip Dnell Servant to the Lord Sheffield Hereupon the said Duell was sent for to attend the House presently and to be Examined The Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench was also Ordered forthwith to examine Tho. Acroie and Signior Francisco and such others as he shall think fit to examine touching the Report of the Plot that certain Lords of this House should be killed and to report the same to the House The Attorney General ordered to justify his proceedings against Kymbolton and 5 Members It was then moved That Mr. Attorney General might be commanded to speak what he can to justify the manner of Proceedings against the Lord Kymbolton and the five Members of the House of Commons Then Mr. Attorney made a Narrative of what he did that Day by the King's Directions and when he came to justify himself as to the legality of the proceeding and that it was agreeable to the Course of Parliament he desired some time to prepare himself with some particular Proceedings which would be too long to read now and the House gave him time till to morrow Morning The Commons were restless to have the Loyal Lieutenant Sir John Byron out of the Tower Message from the Commons about the Tower and therefore a Message was sent by them to let their Lordships know That they are informed that there are extraordinary quantities of Ammunition carried out of the Tower and extraordinary Stores of Provisions carried in and therefore
desire the Lieutenant may be sent for to give an Account of these things Which the Lords agreed to and immediately sent for the Lieutenant and Captain Connisby to atttend both Houses of Parliament presently But this was not satisfactory enough for Mr. Pym came with a second Message to the same Effect And that therefore the House of Commons desire that Directions may be given to the Lieutenant of the Tower and the Master of the Ordnance That no Provisions or Ammunition whatsoever shall be sent out of the Tower without the King's Authority signified by both Houses of Parliament and that no extraordinary quantity of Provisions be brought into the Tower without his Majesties Pleasure signified by the Houses of Parliament For the putting this in Execution the House of Commons desire that a convenient Guard may be put about the Tower by Land and by Water and this Guard to be appointed by the Sheriffs of London and to be under the Command of Sergeant Major General Skippon and that the Care of the Parliament herein may be intimated to the Common Council of London Whereunto the House of Lords immediately agreed Thus did they exactly follow the Example of their Brethren of Scotland who in the beginning of the Rebellion there laid a Blockade to the Castle of Edinburgh till they got it into their Power and a Creature of their own placed in it which was the Design now upon the Tower of London And these Messages produced the following Order Ordered by the Lords and Commons in Parliament Order of Lords and Commons to set a Guard upon the Tower That the Earl of Newport Master of the Ordnance and the Lieutenant of the Tower for the time being their Deputies or other Officers shall not permit or suffer any Ordnance Ammunition or other Provisions whatsoever to be carried out of the Tower nor permit extraordinary Increase of Waiters or any Provision of Victuals in any extraordinary Quantity or Proportion to be brought into the Tower without the King's Authority signified to both Houses of Parliament And for the better Safeguard of the Tower It is further Ordered by both Houses of Parliament That the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex shall appoint and place a sufficient Guard about the Tower both by Land and Water under the Command of Sergeant Major General Skippon Commander of the Guards of the Parliament and that these Guards be careful to see the former Order observed And the said Sheriffs are required to intimate to the Common Council of London in what manner the Lords and Commons have provided for the Safety of the Tower Order to stay 4 Dunkirkers with Ammunition c. for the Rebels Then an Order was directed to the Lord Admiral to stay four Ships lately come from Dunkirk with Arms and Ammunition for the Rebels in Ireland also the like Order to the L. Duke of Richmond Constable of Dover-Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports and to the Earl of Portland Captain of the Isle of Wight The House was informed that the Lieutenant of the Tower was served with the Order and after he had read it he said Lieutenant of the Tower's answer to the Order to attend the Parliament That he was very desirous to attend the Houses of Parliament according to the Order but conceived he could not come without his Majesties leave first obtained in respect he hath received a Warrant from his Majesty with a Command not to depart out of the Tower without his Majesties leave but to reside there A Copy of which Warrant the Lieutenant sent to the Parliament and Captain Conisby was called in and attested the same producing this following Warrant CHARLES R. TRusty and Well beloved We greet you well The King's Warrant to Sir John Byron Lieutenant of the Tower Forasmuch as in these Tumultuous times We have thought it necessary that the Tower of London where remains not only Our Principal Magazine of Arms and Munition but also Our Records and other Matters of great Importance should be always very well Ordered and that all the Officers and Guard there should be all Resident to perform their Duties Our Will and Command therefore is That you fail not to reside constantly in Our said Tower to see the Guard there to perform their several and respective Duties and that you at no time go out of Our said Tower upon any occasion whatsoever without first acquainting Vs therewith and receiving Our leave and Order for the same and herein We expect that you fail not as you tender Our displeasure and will Answer the contrary for which these shall be your sufficient Warrant Given under Our Signet at Our Court at White-Hall the 10 th day of January in the 17 Year of Our Reign To Our Trusty and Well-beloved Sir John Byron Knight of the Bath Lieutenant of Our Tower of London Whereupon the House conceived That the Lieutenant of the Tower had committed a high Contempt to the Order of this House in not coming notwithstanding the King's Warrant because the King's Command is always supposed to be in an Order of this House And after much debate a Message was sent to acquaint the Commons with the whole Matter A Message was then brought up from the Commons by Mr. Nathaniel Fines Information against Lord Digby Col. Lunsford That whereas the House of Commons hath been informed That Collonel Lunsford and the Lord George Digby Son to the Earl of Bristol with others have gathered together Troops of Horse and have appeared in a Warlike Manner at Kingston upon Thames within the County of Surrey where the Magazine of that Part of the Countrey lies to the Terror and Fright of his Majesties good Subjects and Disturbance of the Publick Peace of the Kingdom the House of Commons hold it fit that particular directions be sent to the Sheriffs of Surrey and Middlesex Bucks and Berks for the suppressing of such Assemblies being contrary to Law and to take some Course for the securing of those four Counties and the Strand and Westminster and the Magazines thereof and for the suppressing of all unlawful Assemblies that are gathered together to the disturbance of the Peace of the Kingdom and they to be required to call in the Justices of the Peace and Train'd Bands of the Counties for their Assistance herein and to give a speedy account of their Proceedings therein to the Parliament The House of Commons do also desire their Lordships to take Order That the Lord Digby a Member of this House be required to give his Attendance here Portsmouth And further they desire That an Order may be sent from both Houses to the Governor of Portsmouth requiring him that he do not deliver up the Town nor receive any Forces into it but by his Majesties Authority signified by both Houses of Parliament And Lastly Common-Council Whereas the Common Council of London hath appointed a Committee to consider of the defence and safety of the
Faithful endeavours may be any way useful we shall be most ready at all occasions to contribute the same 15th of Jan. 1641. Ja. Primrose The very same Paper Verbatim was 〈◊〉 their request presented to the Lords by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland After the reading of this Paper Sir Philip Stapleton Mr. Long and Mr. Arthur Goodwin were Ordered to return thanks from the House of Commons to the Scotch Commissioners for their good Affections Exprest to this State and Parliament and likewise to desire to know of them what it is that they have sent unto his Majesty by way of Advice To which Sir Philip Stapelton brought this answer That most of the Commissioners were gone from the place of Meeting not expecting any Message from this House besides they have not as yet sent the Paper to the King by reason they could not get Post-Horses and till such time as his Majesty hath first received the same they conceive it not so fit it should be made known But upon Monday morning they make no doubt to give this House full satisfaction I know no reason I have to make the Reader stay till Monday whose Expectation may be as willing to be gratified with a sight of this Paper as the House of Commons were and therefore I present him with it as followeth To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble desires of the Commissioners of his Majesties Kingdom of SCOTLAND WE your Majesties humble and faithful Subjects The Petition and advice of the Commissioners of Scotland to the King by way of Mediation considering that the Mutual Relation betwixt your Majesties Kingdoms of Scotland and England is such as they must stand or fall together and the disturbance of the one must needs disquiet and distemper the Peace of the other as has been often acknowledged by them both and especially in the late Treaty which is ratified in Parliament and confirmed by the publick Faith of the Estates of your Majesties ancient and Native Kingdom of Scotland so that they are bound to maintain the Peace and Liberties of one another being highly concerned therein as the assured means of the safety and preservation of their own And finding our selves Warranted and obliged by all means to labour to keep a right Vnderstanding betwixt your Majesty and your People to confirm that Brotherly Affection betwixt the two Nations to advance their Vnity by all such ways as may tend to the Glory of God and Peace of the Church and State of both Kingdoms and aykways to proffer our service for removing all Jealousies and mistakes which may arise betwixt your Majesty and this Kingdom and our best endeavours for the better Establishment of the Affairs and quiet of the same that both your Majesties Kingdoms of Scotland and England may be Vnited in the enjoying of their Liberties in Peace under your Majesties Scepter which is the most assured Foundation of your Majesties Honour and Greatness and of the security of your Royal Person Crown and Dignity We have taken the Boldness to shew your Majesty that we are heartily sorry and grieved to behold these Distractions which increase daily betwixt your Majesty and your People and which we conceive are entertained by the wicked Plots and Practices of Papists Prelates and their Adherents whose aim in all these Troubles has not been only to prevent all further Reformation but also to subvert the Purity and Truth of Religion within all your Majesties Kingdoms for which end their constant Endeavours have been to stir up Divisions betwixt your Majesty and your People by their Questioning the Authority of Parliaments the lawful Liberties of the Subjects and real Weakning your Majesties Power and Authority nay all upon pretence of Extending the same whereof by Gods Providence being disappointed in your Majesties Kingdom of Scotland these have now converted thir Mischievous Councels Conspiracies and Attempts to produce these distempers in your Majesties Kingdoms of England and Ireland And therefore according to our Duty to your Majesty to testifie our Brotherly Affection to this Kingdom and acquit our selves of the trust Imposed in us We do make offer of our humble Endeavours for composing of these differences And to that purpose do beseech your Majesty in these Extremities to have Recourse to the sound and faithful advice of the Honourable Houses of Parliament and to repose thereupon as the only assured and happy means to Establish the Prosperity and quiet of this Kingdom And in the depth of your Royal Wisdom to consider and prevent these Apprehensions of Fear which may possess the Hearts of your Majesties Subjects in your other Kingdoms if they shall conceive the Authority of Parliament and the Rights and Liberties of the Subject to be here called in Question And we are confident that if your Majesty shall be graciously pleased to take in good part and give Eare to these our humble and faithful Desires that the success of your Majesties Affairs howsoever perplexed shall be happy to your Majesty and joyful to all your People over whom that your Majesty may long and prosperously Reign is the Fervent and Constant Prayer of us your Majesties Faithful Subjects and Servants It was likely to come to a hopeful issue for his Majesty and all his Loyal Friends when those who had by Rebellion wrested from him so great a share of his Sovereignity and Regal Authority undertook to be Umpires and Mediators in a difference to which they were Principal Parties and to compose those differences which the Faction following their Example were resolved should be determined by no other terms of Accommodation then his Majesties parting with the Sword which Guarded his Septer and which they were resolved either to have or to force it from him by the down-right strength of a most deep rooted and formidable Rebellion But what thanks soever they had for this officious diligence from the King they received many thanks from both Houses for the affection expressed to the Kingdom in the advice which they gave the King in this Paper which was mightily to the Grace of the Faction and Tuned to the humor of the Times which charged all the Miseries and Distractions upon the King 's refusing the sound advice of his great Council the Parliament This day an Order was made in the Lords House Munday January 17. The Lo. Nettervile's Son ordered to be brought before the Lords for the bringing up to the Lords in Parliament Mr. Thomas Netterville Son to the Lord Neterville who was stayed in Chester by the Mayor of the place upon Suspicion and the Lord Admiral was Ordered to write to the Mayor thanks from the House of Lords for his care in staying the said Mr. Netterville Then the Lord Duke of Richmond Reported the King's Answer to the Message delivered to him Jan. 15th The King's Answer to the Bill for adjournment Hull c. 1. Concerning his Majesties Assent to be given to the Bill for the Adjourning of the Parliament
the two Houses did as confidently aver for positive and undoubted Truths as if they had had a Discovery under the King or the Queens own Hand and Seal and to make the People believe it they so vigorously pressed that the Queen might make an Open and Publick Declaration to be sent to Ireland disavowing all manner of Countenance or Assistance to the Rebels or the Rebellion which was designed purposely to blemish Hers and the King's Honor by spreading the Suspition which the Faction had that they were concerned secretly in this detestable Rebellion There were indeed some great Persons I doubt not who gave the Rebels all the Countenance Encouragement and Assistance they could Possibly but I am for setting the Saddle upon the Right Horse Cardinal Richelieu I make no doubt who was in his time the great Incendiary of Europe and who had had a great share in the management of the Scottish Rebellion as before hath been observed had also a very great Influence both upon this Rebellion in Ireland and that which followed it in England as in due time I shall indeavour to make it appear And to fortifie this Opinion I will present the Reader with the Information of Mr. James Wishert a Scot who in a Letter to Mr. Pym gives this account of himself and the Intelligence he got among the Rebels during the space of 12 Weeks that he was a Prisoner among them and since I have not found that Mr. Pym made this Information publique which confirms me in the Opinion that this was a tender point and Richelieu too much a Friend to their own wicked designs to be discovered or Exposed I think my self bound to give Posterity all the light I have been able to discover to enable them to look into the dark and horrid Contrivances of the Conspirators of that Age and the rather in regard it may be a Caution to succeeding Times and may give them some Reason to suspect that there may be dangerous Confederacies even between the Pretenders to Reformation and the greatest Papists though for different Ends the Reformers to secure themselves from Justice by embroyling the Nation and the Popish Ministers of Forreign Nations to keep us busie at home that so we might not be at leizure to keep the ballance even as the Kings of England have ever had the Honour to do but that our hands being tied behind us by domestique Divisions they might be at Liberty by the Power of their Arms to Extend their Empire and Ambition beyond the Bounds and Limits within which the Wisdom of former Ages had restrained them The Information was as followeth OCcurrences that I learned for truth the time of my Bondage Mr. Wishert's Information that Cardinal Richlieu somented the Irish Rebellion First by Mr. Thomas Flemyng Father-in-Law to the Lord Inchekilling and divers others in the Camp That General O Neil with the Rebels had sent one Christopher Ultache a Frier to the Cardinal Richelieu whom he detained five Weeks till he should see further of their Success then they sent another Frier called Newgent with whom they sent the true Relation of all their proceedings whereupon the Cardinal hath assured to send them 16000 Sute of Arms for Foot and 6000 for Horse to Dunkirk and from thence to be sent to Wexford there to be received by the O Tooles Bearns and the Mac Farralds and if they could not land there to land at Carlingford to be received by the Mac Gennis'es and Mac Carties As also that Con Oghe O Neil the Lawful Heir of the House of Tyrone with Colonel Preston Vncle to the Viscount Gormanstown are in West Flanders and have written to all the Irish in the Spanish Service the Emperor's Service or elsewhere and they are to meet them at Dunkirk and so to come from thence with all the Provisions they can make That Tredagh is of such Consequence that the Rebels Esteemed it of Inestimable Value in regard of the Strength thereof the Ammunition of Ponder Ball Cannon and other things therein and of the near Situation thereof to Dublin the Rebels assured themselves of the Kingdom if they had it and Dublin were not able to resist them John Wishert To his Trusty and Well beloved Mr. John Pym. Upon the 16th of November the Parliament met at Dublin where little was done more than the making this ensuing Protestation The Protestation and Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament Assembled WHereas the Happy and Peaceable Estate of this Realm hath been of late and is still interrupted by sundry Persons The Protestation and Declaration of the Irish Parliament against the Rebellion ill-affected to the Peace and Tâ—anquillity thereof who contrary to their Duty and Loyalty to his Majesty and against the Laws of God and the Fundamental Laws of this Realm have Trayterously and Rebelliously raised Arms seised upon his Majesties Forts and Castles and dispossessed many of his Faithful Subjects of their Houses Lands and Goods and have slain many of them and committed other Cruel and Inhumane Outrages and Acts of Hostility within this Realm The said Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled being justly moved with a right Sense of the said Disloyal and Rebellious Proceedings and Actions of the Persons aforesaid do hereby Protest and Declare That the said Lords and Commons from their Hearts do detest and abhor the said Abominable Actions and that they shall and will to their uttermost Power maintain the Rights of his Majesties Crown and Government of this Realm and the Peace and Safety thereof as well against the persons aforesaid their Abettors Adherents as also against all Forreign Princes Potentates and other persons and attempts whatsoever And in case the persons aforesaid do not repent of their aforesaid Actions and lay down Arms and become humble Suitors to his Majesty for Grace and Mercy in such convenient time and in such Manner and Form as by his Majesty or the Chief Governor or Governors and the Council of this Realm shall be set down the said Lords and Commons do further protest and declare That they will take up Arms and will with their Lives and Fortunes suppress them and their Attempts in such a way as by the Authority of the Parliament of this Kingdom with the approbation of his Excellent Majesty or of his Majesties chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom shall be thought most effectual Some overtures of an Accommodation however were made by some of the Rebels as appears by this Letter Addressed to the Lord Dillon Viscount of Costeloe one of the Lords of the Council of Ireland which he presented to the Board upon the 10th of Novemb. 1641. Our very Good Lord. OUR Alliance unto your Lordships Ancestors The Longford Letter to the Lord Viscount Costeloe Nov. 10. 1641. and your self and the Tryaal of your and their performance of Trust unto their Friends in their greatest Adversity encourageth us and engageth your Honour to our
Power enough to have done it And whether ever such were spoken the suffering them to appear in print and to be dispersed throughout the Nation was of as ill Influence to the Publique as if they had been real and yet I am not without good Authority that divers of those Speeches were the true Children of those Parents at whose Doors they were laid several of them being entred in Reports of Conferences upon the Lords Journal But still I must do right where I am satisfied that it was an Artifice of the Faction to delude the People by such Speeches Printed under the passable Authority of Considerable Names and if either Sir John Holland or any other Person can by fair Authority convince me that they were in this Nature imposed upon I shall not decline doing him or them the Justice I ought to do of an Impartial Collector who has no manner of Animosity against Persons but the Actions of the late times and thinks himself under an indispensible Duty to his Prince Country and Conscience to the utmost of his Power to detect and expose the Artifices and Methods which occasioned those dreadful and detestable Revolutions and the intire Subversion of the whole Frame of the Government both Civil and Ecclesiastical among which these Printed Speeches whether spoken or not had not the least share in deluding and animating the People to the following Rebellion An Instance of the wicked Licentiousness of those Times in slurring of Speeches sometimes upon worthy Gentlemen as I have from good Authority may be seen by the Speech fathered upon Sir Edward Hales a Gentleman whose known Loyalty made him a very great Sufferer in the times when the Tyranny and Arbitrary Government of the Faction of the Two Houses of Parliament bore all the sway which was thus One Talboy a busie prating News-monger being desirous to Exchange a Speech he had pick't up for another which he wanted he went to a Scrivener at Temple-Bar who then Traded in such things who refusing a Speech without a Name to make it Currant Coin Talboy stamp'd on it that of Sir Edward Hales and for a while it passed as his but notice being taken of it Sir Edward Hales consulted his Friends Members of the then House of Commons to advise what was fit for him to do towards vindicating his Honor from the Scandal which Talboy had put upon him but Sir Norton Knatchbull who is yet alive to attest this and the rest of his Friends were of Opinion that considering the despicable Credit of the Fellow and the improbability of the Aspersion so inconsistent with the known Integrity and Loyalty of Sir Edward Hales it was more advisable to take no notice of the Imposture then to make the Speech more publick by the punishment of the Impostor by which means Talboy escaped the lash and the Speech got under that Name into the Press and out of that into the World There are some other Marginal Notes in the first Volume concerning the Members of the Convocation which by misinformation are mistakes but they are only such as can do no hurt being only the attributing some honours to some Names which they never enjoyed But I am of the opinion that St. Augustine never writ any thing that more became him then his Retractions and I hope the Ingenuous Readers will from my willingness to acknowledge the smallest mistakes do me the honour to believe that I do above all things study sincerity and that I will not in any thing to the best of my understanding impose Falshood for Truth upon the World or be guilty of misleading Posterity into Errors whilst I pretend to gratifie them with the most authentick and undisguised account of the Publick Transactions of those Things and Times with which I entertain them I have but one word more to add I am sensible that I have already fallen under the displeasure of some Persons who having been Eminent Actors in the late Times against the King and the Government and are yet Survivers and living Monuments of their own Guilt and the unexampled Clemency of their most Gracious Sovereign are extremely uneasie at the account that is here given of those Times For my particular I must disavow my having any Personal Animosity but truely those who find themselves offended by any matters in these Collections which are unjustifiable or disreputable to the Authors and Actors of them if they be such as have sincerely Repented of those past Errors and Actions will be so far from being displeased to see them Exposed and Condemned that they will be ready to do it themselves thereby to make some compensation for the former Ills they have been accessary to and if they have not yet by a thorough Penitence Attoned Heaven and procured an Act of Oblivion there as well as the Clemency of his Majesty has given them one here it is high time for them to go about it and it is a piece of Charity to put them in mind of it as this History does for which I should rather expect their thanks than their anger and displeasure and I am sure if they consult their future Interest and the little time they can hope to have still left for the performance of so great a Work there can be no Service so advantageous in Reason how unwelcom soever it may be to Passion and Prejudice as that of a faithful Monitor who gives them warning to escape the greatest of all Miseries and Dangers AN Impartial Collection OF ALL THE MEMORABLE EVENTS FROM The Scotch Rebellion to the KING'S Murther Volume II. The History of the Earl of STRAFFORD year 1641 ALTHOUGH many Ages and Histories afford us great Variety of Examples to convince us of the instability of Humane Affairs and that no persons have a more dangerous Station than such Great Ministers of State and Royal Favourites as are mounted to the Lofty Pinnacles of Honour Yet I think our Country has not produced any Instance of the Treachery of Fortune so signally remarkable as this of the Noble Earl of Strafford a Person in whose Character Every thing conspired that could make a Subject Great And certainly had he lived in any other Age than that wherein the Turbulent Whirlwind of Rebellion and Disloyalty threw down all before it his Great Wisdom Learning Courage and Loyalty would have rendred him one of the greatest Lives that ever adorned the English Chronicles as well as one of the Wisest Statesmen and Ablest Ministers that ever supported the British Throne and how great an Interest he had in that Weighty Employment both the Envy of his and the Enemies of the Royal Seat and the Miserable Fall of that Illustrious Empire of which he was so main a Pillar will abundantly manifest and indeed they who will pull down the Throne of Solomon alwayes first endeavour to remove and destroy the Lions that support it This Great and Illustrious-Man was descended of an Honourable and Ancient Family born to an
division I allow of that is Treason by Statute-Law as he terms it though it be Treason by the Common-Law and constructive Treason And upon that method he hath recited the evidence produced on either part Give me leave to follow and trace him a little and afterwards to discharge my own duty in taking my own course and representing the evidence as it appears truly and I will avoid as much as I can to fall into my Lord of Strafford's error in mis-reciting a Particle if I do it shall be against my will He begins with the Fifteenth Article and pretends that that is not proved The ground and foundation of that Article was a Warrant issued out by himself to a Serjeant at Arms one Savill which gave directions and power to that Serjeant to lay Soldiers on any person that should contemn the Process of the Council-board in Ireland that was the effect Now says he this Warrant is not produced and adds That the Judges will tell your Lordships that if a man be charged with any thing under Hand and Seal the Deed must be produced and proved or else no credit is to be given to it Truly my Lords it is true if it had been a Bond or a Deed where those that Seal it use to call their neighbours to testify and be Witnesses to it perhaps it might be a colourable answer that because we do not produce the Deed and prove it by Witnesses you can therefore give no credit to it But my Lords in case of authority to commit High Treason I suppose my Lord of Strafford nor any other did call witnesses to prove the Signing Sealing and Delivering of the Warrant for execution of High Treason and therefore it is a new way and invention found out by his Lordship for ought I see to commit High Treason and to give authority for it and it is but taking away the original Warrant and he shall never be touched for any Treason But I beseech your Lordships patience till I come to open that Article and your Lordships will find the Warrant though it be not produced proved by three or four Witnesses and his Hand and Seal proved too And whereas he pretends the Serjeant at Arms is no competent Witness because he excuses himself my Lord mistakes himself for I take it to be no excuse to prove a Warrant from any person whatsoever if it be to commit High Treason and therfore Savil's testimony is the more strong being so far from excusing that he doth accuse himself And though he is charged with laying of Soldiers upon the King's People contrary to an express Act of Parliament made in 18 H. 6. yet my Lord is pleased I know not how to term it whether it be merrily or otherwise to use his Retorick Here is a great levying of War when there is not above four Musquetiers or six at most laid upon any one man My Lords it is a plain levying of War and without all question and in all sense it is as much mischievous to me to be surprized by four or six Musquetiers to enforce me to any thing they would have as if there were an Army of Forty thousand brought upon me for if that strength will but over-master me it is all one to me whether I be mastered by four or by four thousand And therefore let not this be a rule that to send four or six or ten Musquetiers up and down is not considerable because of the smalness of the number the danger is the same yet this is no levying of War because they goe not in Troops of greater number as it pleases my Lord of Strafford to affirm My Lords Your Lordships remember what the effect of the Warrant is sworn to be that howsoever the Serjeant at Arms and his Ministers that executed it brought but four or six or ten yet the Serjeant might have brought all the Army of Ireland for there was authority so to do And admitting the matter of Fact proved he mentions an Act of Parliament made 11 Eliz. whereby a penalty is laid upon men that shall lay Soldiers on the King's Subjects and yet as my Lord observes it must now be Treason in the Deputy My Lords The very casting of an eye upon that Act shews it to be as vainly objected as if he had said nothing for in truth it is no other than as if he should say The King hath given me the Command of an Army in Ireland and therefore I may turn them upon the bowels of the King's Subjects It is no more in effect Your Lordships heard him the other day mentioning two Acts of Repeal and I expected he would have insisted upon them but it seems he hath been better advised and thinks them not worthy repetition nor indeed are they And if the matter of Fact be proved upon the Fifteenth Article I am confident he will find the Statute of 18 H. 6. to be of full force My Lords I am very sorry to hear that when levying of War upon the King's Subjects is in agitation and he charged with High Treason he should make mention of the Yorkshire men and the Army now on foot whereby he would insinuate that if he be charged with High Treason then they must be likewise though they lye quartered and have meat and drink with the assent of the people which may breed ill blood for ought I know From the Fifteenth Article he descends to the Three and twentieth and that is the Article whereby he stands charged with speaking of Words and giving of Counsel to His Majesty to incense him against His Parliament pretending a Necessity and telling him He is loose and absolved from all Rules of Government That he had an Army in Ireland which he might make use of to reduce this Kingdom In this he is pleased to begin with the Testimony of my Lord Ranelagh conceiving an apprehension and fear in him that the Army should go over to England which my Lord says is no more but his saying and Mr. Treasurer Vane ' s. I pray God my Lord Ranelagh had not much cause to fear but by the same rule he may lay a charge of unwarrantable fear upon all the Commons for sure the the Commons of England did fear it else they would not make an Article of it but my Lord Ranelagh's fear did not arise from a slight cause and he shewed himself a good Common-wealths man in expressing it and he is to be commended for it howsoever it be apprehended by my Lord of Strafford For his observation of the single Testimony of Mr. Treasurer Vane give me leave to take the same latitude as his Lordship did for he shews to three or four Articles what he could have proved as to the Article concerning the Army he could have proved the design of it by Sir John Burlacy and some others if they had been here But by this rule and liberty he hath taken to alledge what he could have shown give me
were the King 's right and due and a great profit was thereby advanced and he trusted to advance it The King must loose of his former Rents in the case of Custom and received a small Rent in the case of Tobacco my Lord himself in the mean time imbursing such vast summs of Money where is then the discharge of his Trust where is his care to advance the King's Rents to increase his Revenue Compare that part of his Answer with this and see what credit is to be given to his affirmation My Lords throughout the passages of his discourse he insinuates and never more than this day with the Peers of the Realm magnifying them almost to Idolatry and yet my Lords when he was in his Kingdom in Ireland and had power over them what respect shewed he then to the Peers of the Kingdom when he judged some to death trampled upon others in misery committed them to prison and seized on their Estates where then was the Peerage he now magnifies And to shew it was an insinuation for his own advantage you may remember when there was an unlawful Act to be committed that is the levying of Money in the North What regard had he then to the Peers of the Kingdom when he comes to justifie and boulster up High-Treason it self under the name and authority of the great Council where most of the Peers of the Realm then were and so by this time I know what credit your Lordships give to his words spoken when he lies under your Mercy and Power but what do I speak of the Peers of the Kingdom and his using of them My Lords he spared not his Soveraign His Majesty in His whole Defence for being charged with offences of a high nature he justifies those offences under the pretence and under the authority of His Majesty our Gracious King and Soveraign even Murther it self in the Case of Denwitt and my Lord Mountnorris Treason it self in the Fifteenth Article by a Command in Ireland and in the Seven and twentieth by a pretended authority from His Majesty in the face of His people he justifies my Lord Mountnorris his sentence by a Letter from his Majesty Denwit's Sentence by a Commission from his Majesty and he read three or four clauses to that purpose My Lords my Lord of Strafford doth very well know and if he doth not know it I have a Witness to produceagainst him which I will not examine but refer it to his own Conscience that is The Petition of Right that the King's Servants are to serve him according to Law and no otherwise he very well knew if an unlawful act be committed especially to a degree of Treason and Murder the King's Authority and Warrant produced is no justification at all So then my Lords to mention the King's name to justifie an unlawful act in that way can do him no good and his own understanding knows it may do the King harm if we had not so Gracious a King that no such thing can do harm unto But my Lords to produce the King's Warrant to justifie his actions under his Patent and Command what is it else but so far as in him lies in the face of his people to raise a cloud and exhale a vapour To interpose betwixt the King and his Subjects whereby the splendor of his Glory and Justice cannot be discovered to his people My Lords what is it else when the people make complaint against the Ministers that should execute Justice of their oppression and slavery and bondage For the Minister when he is questioned to justifie this under the King's Authority what is it I say but as much as in that Minister lies to six this offence to fasten this oppression upon the King himself to make it to be believed that the occasion of these their groans proceeded from his Sacred Majesty yet God be thanked the strength of that Sun is powerful enough to dispel these vapours and to disperse the cloud that he would have raised but in the mean time my Lord is nothing to be excused My Lords he may pretend zeal to the King's Service and affection to His Honour but give me leave not to believe it since when he is questioned by all the King's people and in the face of his people and offences laid to his charge which himself now confesses to be against Law he should justifie it under the King's authority that savours not of a good servant I will say no more My Lords he is charged with exercising a tyrannical power over the King's people and in his Defence your Lordships have often heard and I may not omit it that he shelters himself under the protection of the King's Prerogative though he be charged with Tyranny of the highest nature that may be see then how foul and malignant an aspect this hath My Lords what is it else but to endeavour as much as in him lies to infuse into the King's heart an apprehension that his Prerogative is so bottomless a Gulf so unlimited a Power as is not to be comprehended within the Rules of Law or within the bounds of Government for else why should he mention the Prerogative when he is charged to exceed the Law What is it else but as far as in him lies to make the people believe for I may not forget the words he hath used by his magnifying of the Prerogative that it hath a special stamp of Divinity on it and that the other part of the Government that God pleases to put into the King's hands had not that stamp upon it as if any thing done by one was to be justified by authority derived from Heaven but the other not These expressions your Lordships remember and I may not omit to put your Lordships in mind of them and I can expound them no otherwise than as much as in him lies to make the Subject believe and apprehend that which is the buckler and defence of his protection to be the two-edged sword of his destruction according to the Doctrine he Preached and that that which is the Sanctuary of their Liberty is the Snare and Engine of their Slavery And thus he hath cast a bone of contention as much as in him lay betwixt King and People to make the Subjects loath that glorious Flower of his Crown by fixing a jealousie in them that it may be a means of their Bondage and Slavery But there is so much Piety and Goodness in the King's Heart that I hope upon fair understanding there will be no such occasion but no thanks to the party that so much advanced the Prerogative in the case and condition he stands in to justify that which is laid to his Charge of High Treason My Lords I beseech you give me leave there is no greater safety to King and People than to have the Throne incircled with good Counsellors and no greater danger to both than to have it encompassed with wicked and dangerous ones and yet I
Captainship make any demand of the people of any Exaction nor as a Captain assemble the people of the Shire-Grounds nor as a Captain shall lead those people to do any acts Offensive or Invasive without Warrant under the Great-Seal of England or of the Lord-Deputy Deputy upon penalty that if he do any thing contrary to that Act that then the Offender shall forfeit a Hundred pounds My Lords the Rebels had been out the Courts of Justice scarce sate for defence of the Country divers usurped the place of Captains concluded of War against the Rebels and invaded them without Warrant Invading the Rebels without Authority is a crime This appears further by particular clauses in the Statute none shall exercise any Captainship within the Shire-grounds nor assemble the men of the Shire-grounds to conclude War or lead them to any Invasion That that had anciently been so continued to this time that is the Irish and the English Pale they within the Shire-grounds were within the English Pale and ad fidem legem Angliae The Irish without the Pale were enemies always either in open act of Hostility or upon Leagues and Hostages given for securing the Peace and therefore as here in England we had our Marches upon the frontiers in Scotland and Wales so were there Marches between the Irish and English Pale where the Inhabitants held their Lands by this tenure to defend the Country against the Irish as appears in the close Roll of the Tower in the 20th year of Edw. 3. membrana 15. on the backside and in an Irish Parliament held the 42 year of Edw. 3. it 's declared That the English Pale was almost destroyed by the Irish enemies and that there was no way to prevent the danger but only that the Owners reside upon their Lands for defence and that absence should be a forfeiture This Act of Parliament in a great Council here was affirmed as appears in the close Roll the 22 year of Edw. 3. Membrana 20 dorso Afterwards as appears in the Statute of 28 Hen. 6th in Ireland this Hostility continued between the English Marches and the Irish Enemies who by reason there was no difference between the English Marches and them in their Apparel did daily not being known to the English destroy the English within the Pale Therefore it is enacted that every English-man shall have the hair of his upper Lip for distinction sake This hostility continued until the 10th year of Henry the 7th as appears by the Statute of 10 H. 7th and 17th so successively downwards till the making of this very Statute of 11 Eliz. as appears fully in the 9th Chap. Nay immediately before and at the time of the making of this Statute there was not only enmity between those of the Shire-ground that is the English and Irish Pale but open War and acts of Hostility as appears by History of no less Authority than that Statute it self for in the first Chapter of that Statute is the Attainder of Shane Oneale who had made open War was slain in open War it 's there declared That he had gotten by force all the North of Ireland for an hundred and twenty miles in length and about a hundred in breadth that he had mastered divers places within the English Pale when the flame of this War by his death immediately before this Statute was spent yet the Firebrands were not all quenched for the Rebellion continued by John Fitz-Gerard called the White Knight and Thomas Gueverford this appears by the Statute of the Thirteenth year of Queen Eliz. in Ireland but two years after this of the Eleventh year of Queen Eliz. where they are attainted of High-Treason for Levying of War this Eleventh year wherein this Statute was made So that my Lords immediately before and at the time of the making of this Statute there being War between those of the Shire-Grounds mentioned in this Statute and the Irish the concluding of War and Acts Offensive and Invasive there mentioned can be intended against no others but the Irish Enemies Again The words of the Statute are No Captain shall assemble the people of the Shire-grounds to conclude of Peace or War Is to presume that those of the Shire-grounds will conclude of War against themselves Nor with the Statute Shall carry those of the Shire-grounds to do any Acts Invasive by the construction which is made on the other side they must be carried to fight against themselves Lastly The words are That as a Captain none shall assume the Name or Authority of a Captain or as a Captain shall gather the people together or as a Captain lead them the offence is not in the matter but in the manner If the Acts offensive were against the Kings good Subjects those that were under Command were punishable as well as the Commanders but in respect the Soldiers knew the service to be good in it self being against the enemies and that it was not for them to dispute the Authority of their Commanders the penalty of 100 l. is laid only upon him That as Captain shall assume this Power without Warrant the People commanded are not within this Statute My Lords The Logick whereupon this Argument is framed stands thus because the Statute of the Eleventh year of Queen Elizabeth inflicts a penalty of 100 l. and no more upon any man that as a Captain without Warrant and upon his own head shall conclude of or make War against the King's Enemies Therefore the Statute of the 18th year of Henry the 6th is repealed which makes it Treason to lay Soldiers upon or to levy War against the Kings good People But My Lords Observation hath been made upon other words of this Statute that is that without Licence of the Deputy these things cannot be done this shews that the Deputy is within none of the Statutes My Lords This Argument stands upon the same reason with the former because he hath the ordering of the Army of Ireland for the defence of the people and may give Warrant to the Officers of the Army upon eminent occasions of Invasion to resist or prosecute the Enemy because of the danger that else might ensue forthwith by staying for a Warrant from His Majesty out of England My Lords The Statute of the 10th year of Henry the 7th Chap. 17. touched upon for this purpose clears the business in both points for there is declared That noâ—e ought to make War upon the Irish Rebels and Enemies without Warrant from the Lieutenant the forfeiture 100 l. as here the Statute is the same with this and might as well have been cited for repealing the Statute of the 18th year of Henry the 6th as this of the 11th year of Queen Elizabeth But if this had been insisted upon it would have expounded the other two clear against him Object My Lords It hath been further said although the Statute be in force and there be a Treason within it yet the Parliament hath no Jurisdiction the
rather what was safe than what seemed just preferring the outward peace of my Kingdoms with men before that inward exactness of Conscience before God And indeed I am so far from excusing or denying that complyance on my part for plenary consent it was not to his destruction whom in my judgment I thought not by any clear Law guilty of death that I never did bear any touch of Conscience with greater regret which as a sign of my repentance I have often with sorrow confessed both to God and Men as an Act of so sinful frailty that it discovered more a fear of man than of God whose Name and Place on Earth no man is worthy to bear who will avoid inconveniencies of State by Acts of so high injustice as no publick convenience can expiate or compensate I see it a bad exchange to wound a mans own Conscience thereby to salve State sores to calm the storms of popular discontents by stirring up a Tempest in a mans own bosom Nor hath Gods Justice failed in the event and sad consequences to shew the World the fallacy of that Maxim Better one man perish though unjustly than the people be displeased or destroyed For in all likelihood I could never have suffered with my people greater calamities yet with greater comfort had I vindicated Strafford's innocency at least by denying to Sign that destructive Bill according to that Justice which my Conscience suggested to me then I have done since I gratified some mens unthankful importunities with so cruel a favour and I have observed that those who counsell'd me to Sign that Bill have been so far from receiving the rewards of such ingratiatings with the People that no men have been harassed and crushed more than they he only hath been least vexed by them who counselled me not to consent against the Vote of my own Conscience I hope God hath forgiven me and them the sinful rashness of that business To which being in my Soul so fully Conscious those Judgments God hath pleased to send upon me are so much the more welcome as a means I hope which his mercy hath sanctified so to me as to make me repent of that unjust Act for so it was to me and for the future to teach me that the best rule of policy is to prefer the doing of Justice before all enjoyments and the peace of my Conscience before the preservation of my Kingdoms Nor hath any thing more fortified my resolutions against all those violent importunities which since have sought to gain a like consent from me to Acts wherein my Conscience is unsatisfied than the sharp touches I have had for what passed me in my Lord of Straffords business Not that I resolved to have employed him in my affairs against the advice of my Parliament but I would not have had any hand in his death of whose guiltiness I was better assured than any man living could be Nor were the crimes objected against him so clear as after a long and fair hearing to give convincing satisfaction to the major part of both Houses especially that of the Lords of whom scarce a third part were present when the Bill passed that House And for the House of Commons many Gentlemen disposed enough to diminish my Lord of Strafford 's Greatness and Power yet unsatisfied of his Guilt in Law durst not condemn him to dye who for their integrity in their Votes were by posting their Names exposed to the popular Calumny Hatred and Fury which grew then so exorbitant in their clamors for Justice That is to have both my self and the Two Houses Vote and do as they would have us that many 't is thought were rather terrified to concur with the condemning party than satisfied that of right they ought so to do And that after Act vacating the Authority of the precedent for future imitation sufficiently tells the world that some remorse touched even his most implacable Enemies as knowing he had very hard measure and such as they would be very loath should be repeated to themselves This tenderness and regret I find in my Soul for having had any hand and that very unwillingly God knows in the shedding one mans Blood unjustly though under the colour of the Formalities of Justice and pretences of avoiding publick Mischiefs which may I hope be some Evidence before God and Man to all Posterity that I am far from bearing justly the vast load and guilt of all that blood which hath been shed in this unhappy War which some men will needs charge upon me to ease their own Souls who am and ever shall be more afraid to take away any mans life unjustly than to lose my own Nor was this all for besides what he said at his own Death he acquainted Doctor Shelden afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury with his Resolution if ever he was in a Condition to perform his Vows of which this was one To do publick Pennance for the injustice he had suffered to be done to the Earl of Strafford as may be large be seen in his Life written by Dr. Perinchief fol. 119. Nothing was sounded in the Kings Ears but Fears Terrors and Threatnings of Worse and Worse Tumults and Rebellions from every quarter of the City and every corner of the Kingdom and indeed the King who had seen the effects of them both in Scotland and England could not but have very terrible apprehensions of them At last having wrastled him breathless he was vanquished by Importunity and necessity and yielded to the Passing of these two Fatal Bills by Commission the one for the Earl's and the other as it proved in the Event for his own Execution Upon Monday May the 10th Monday May 10. Bill of Attainder passed by Commission Mr. Maxwell Gentleman-Usher to the Lords came to acquaint the Commons with the good news that His Majesties Assent to the two Bills was to be given by Commission and that their Lordships did expect Mr. Speaker and the House of Commons to come up It seems the Gentleman was something transported as sure all the world was out of their wits for he came without the Black Rod and entred without being called in at which there was Exceptions taken but the News he brought was so agreeable that the transport of it did him the favour to take off the Resentments of the House who at another time would not have pocketted up such an affront with silence The Commission was granted under the Great-Seal of England directed unto the Lord Privy-Seal Lord Great Chamberlain Lord Steward The manner of passing Bills by Commission or any two of them for passing the Royal Assent to two Bills the one intituled An Act of Attainder of Thomas Earl of Strafford of High-Treason the other An Act to prevent the Inconveniencies which may happen by the untimely Adjourning Proroguing or Dissolving of this present Parliament The Lords being all in their Robes and the Commissioners sate upon a Form standing across the House
the Regiment of the Kingdom together with the King And now will any say No Bishop No King yet one word more before I part with these Bishops what Ground-work they laid and what means they used for the Ruine of King and Kingdom was it not their working upon the Impotence of a Womans will insinuating what indignity it was that a She-Daughter of France being promised to be a Queen was become no better than a waiting-woman living upon a Pension and so nourishing in her great Discontents perswaded her going to France which was the Matter and Embrion and as I may say the chief Cause of Common Destruction which after ensued God keep all good Princes from heark'ning or consenting to the pernicious Counsels of such pestilent Priests and prating Parasites To declare all their Disloyalties in Parliament and out would fill a large Volume But now Brevis esse laboro therefore I only say That as it was not for their Goodness but Greatness that they sate in Parliament so their sitting there did I think I may say almost evert Monarchy yea Regality with what face can they inculcate that Aspersion No Bishop no King Certainly by what I have already delivered and shall now declare in the Reigns of Succeeding Princes it will â—ppear quite contrary that where Lordly Bishops domineer and bear Rule and Sway neither Kings nor Kingdoms themselves or Subjects are secure Now to the Reign of King Edward the Third did not John Archbishop of Canterbury perswade and incite this King and the Parliament to a most dangerous War with France whereby the Death of Millions hath been occasioned To such Mischief do they use their Learning and Eloquent Orations in Parliament What Epiphanius delivered of Philosophers that they were In Re stultâ Sapientes so may we say of such Bishops that they are In malo publico facundi But to pass by particular Men and Actions I shall only deliver unto you some Notable Passages in Parliament Anno 1371. The Parliament did Petition the King to have them deprived of all Lay-Offices and Government they being commonly the Plotters and Contrivers of all Treasons Conspiracies and Rebellions the very Incendiaries Pests and Grievances both of the Church and State the chiefest Instruments to advance the Peoples usurped Authority though with Prejudice of the Kings which they never cordially affected and the Arch-Enemies of the Common-wealth through their private Oppression Covetousness Rebellion and Tyranny when they have been in Office as may appear by Antiquitates Ecclesioe Britannicae in the Lives of Anselm Becket Arundel c. Here we see that they never affected the Authority of Kings but rather were Scourges to their Sides and Thorns in their Eyes Now we come to R. 2. his Grandchild who Succeeded him R. 2. we read that when in Parliament in London the Layety had granted a Fifteenth on Condition that the Clergy would likewise give a Tenth and Half William le Courtney then Archbishop did stiffly oppose it alledging they ought to be free nor in any wise to be taxed by the Layety which Answer so offended the Lords and Commons Tho. Walsingham that with extream fury they besought the King to deprive them of their Temporalties alledging That it was an Alms-Deed and an Act of Charity thereby to humble them that was then delivered for an Alms-Deed and an Act of Charity which is now accounted Sacrilege and Cruelty The next that Succeeded him was H. 4. but an Usurper also H. 4. for at that time there were living of the House of York whose Right by the Title of Clarence was before his as Mortimer c. In opposition to his Claim and Right the Bishop of Carlisle made a most Eloquent Oration but to what purpose Hayward to perswade his dethroning now vested in the Regal Government and thereby to ingage the Kingdom in a Civil War which when his Oratory could not effect he laboured and so far prevailed that by his subtil insinuations and perswasions many Princes of the Blood Royal Joh. Stow ex Anonymo Hal. Cron. and other great Lords were drawn to a Conspiracy himself laying the Plot together with the Abbot of Westminster the Chief Wheels of all the Practice as moving the rest for the King's Death whereby he brought to the Block those Noble Peers and as his Pestilent Council had infected their Minds so was the Blood of them John Stow Annals Hall ex Walsingh and theirs tainted by this foul Treason but as I discommend his disloyal Actions so I no better approve the other flattering and Time-serving Bishops who did Plead the Right of the Title of the said King more Eloquently than Honestly more Rhetorically than Divinely for which their Expressions they were employed as Ambassadors to Foreign Parts to declare and justifie his Title and Right to the Scepter the Bishop of Hereford to Rome the Bishop of Durham to France the Bishop of Bangor to Germany and the Bishop of St. Asaph to Spain which Bishop of Asaph sate as Judge in that Parliament and pronounced the Sentence of Deposition against King Richard The Form as near as I remember was We John Bishop of St. Asaph John Abbot of Glastenbury Commissioners named by the House of Parliament Sitting in Place of Judgment c. Here you may note that the Bishop did pass Judgment of a great Inheritance no less than Two or Three Kingdoms and though not between two Brothers but Cozins yet did adjudge most wrongfully as was most apparent I note withal That the Title of Lord is not assumed by this King-deposing Bishop nor any other that I read of Now what he had judged in Parliament his Holy Brother of Canterbury must make good in Pulpit Fabian 1. Concor Hall ex Fab. delivering what unhappiness it was to a Kingdom to have it governed by such a Man Certainly a most dangerous Position to an Hereditary Monarchy I also note that this Arch-Bishop was Brother to the Earl of Arundel and at the same time the Arch-Bishop of York a near Kinsman to the Earl of Wiltshire and who durst then plead against the Right of the Bishops Sitting in Parliament In the same King's Reign Richard le Scroop the Arch-Bishop of York did in Parliament enter into Conspiracy with Thomas Mowbray Earl Marshal against the said King for which they were both beheaded And now in the said King's Reign in the Parliament of Coventry let me also tell you That in the said Parliament as in other both before and after a Bill was exhibited against the Temporalties of the Clergy who called that Parliament Parliamentum Indoctorum saying That the Commons were fit to enter Common with their Cattle having no more Reason then bruit Beasts This is Speed's delivery but I take it that he repeateth it as the Prelates Censure of the House of Commons But to him succeeded Henry the Fifth H. 5 in his time did not Henry Chichley in an Eloquent Oration in Parliament revive
Readiness though at the same time the Parliament had sent Orders to him by Commissioners authorized under the Great Seal according to the King's Directions to apprehend him but he pretended the Orders came not time enough And at the same time he took an Oath which was administred by the King's Authority under the Great Seal to be True and Faithful to the King and Parliament and keep the Town of Portsmouth for their Use and not to deliver it but by both their Consents The Plot being made known to the House of Commons they resented it as a thing of very dangerous Consequence and found it necessary therefore that Mr. Goring should own the Discovery of the Design and immediately he was sent for by the House of Commons whereof he was a Member and being present there he was commanded to declare his Knowledg of the Design Upon this Command he Expressed himself in these Terms Having been told that there was an Intention to Unite the Forces of our Army and to put them into a Posture of being aâ—â—e if not purpose of being willing to interpose in the Proceedings of â—â—â—nament I hearkened to the Propositions of soliciting a Redress for the Miseries of the Souldiery being the first step to this in respect of the present Necessities of it not any future consequence of trouble to those that were to procure our Relief But lest the manner of asking this or the Effect of it being obtained might be less just than the thing it self which was desired and I might be involved in their Crime that had further Ends perhaps than merely the Redress of our Armies Grievances I thought it not amiss to take some Witness of my Integrity along with me and spake to a Noble Lord the very same Day when I assured him there were some Officers of the Army that were least thought on that had not the greatest Zeal to the Proceedings of this House and I thought there would be an occasion to let him know more of it within few Days After this Mr. Jermin and I being admitted into a Consultation where we were tied to Secrecy by an Oath in the Company of those Gentlemen I have named in my Depositions where their purpose was declared to us in some Propositions which were to this Effect First putting the Army into a Posture to serve the King Secondly Tendring a Declaration to the Parliament containing That no Act of Parliament should be made contrary to any former Act which was Expressed That Episcopacy should be kept up as it is now Thirdly That the King's Revenue should be Established This I thought unlawful for our undertakings since they intended to interpose in the Determinations of this House and it belongs to an Army to maintain not to contrive the Acts of State I objected therefore against their Propositions and more the Follies and Difficulties than the irregularities of them not only because I thought Reason a greater Argument with them than Conscience but because I was so unhappy of the two to be thought a worse Common-wealths-man than a Souldier and in that quality could procure most Credit for my words I endeavoured to shew them that as the Design would be impious if the most desperate Counsels had been followed so it would have been the weakest that ever was undertaken if they were omitted And whereas I am said to have a part in this Violent Councel till the day before this Meeting I never heard word of it and knew not when I came to the Room whether theirs were not the same with the other This they may witness for me and that I declared I would have to do with neither and that I expressed contempt of our meeting in that manner But I rely upon the Testimony of some Noble Lords of his Majesties Council and others how I protested against all those violent Councels even in the Birth of them and with what Piety I looked towards the Person of his Majesty and the whole Kingdom in this Business I appeal also to them and some Members of this House what my Carriage was towards these Gentlemen that were imbarqued in these Undertakings intending rather to prevent a mischief by abandoning their Councels than to ruin them by disclosing them But mistake me not for had I known of any former Plot proceeded in that could indanger or disturb the Quiet of his Majesty or the Peace of the Kingdom I should not have been contented with declaring mine own Innocency nor have stayed till the Commands of this House or an Oath Extorted from me a discovery but by a hasty open Declaration have broke the Laws of Amity and Friendship and all former Tyes to the present Duty of a Subject and as freely Exposed the Knowledg of all to the View of the World as I have been tender in publishing these Purposes even to my nearest Friends which had weight enough to crush nothing but the Undertakers of it And certainly if they had stayed where I left them there was no Conclusion at all It appears there were two several Intentions digested by others before they were communicated to me and I know not whether my hearkening to them was a fault but I am sure it was no misfortune By what hath been related Thursday June 10. The L. Digby Expelled the House of Commons but made a Baron the Reader will Easily perceive for what Reason my Lord Digby thought himself Obliged to speak so sharply against Colonel Goring as by his own Confession guilty of a Wilful Perjury as Entring into the Oath of Secrecy purposely with an Intention to discover the Confederacy But all this would not Satisfie the Faction who had entertained a mortal displeasure against him for his Apostacy as they called it in declaring so frankly his Opinion against the Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford for though their Resentments slept some time it was only to gain a fit opportunity to discover their Revenge to purpose and therefore laying hold of these Expressions against Colonel Goring he was this Day by Vote Expelled the House as unworthy to continue any longer a Member of it and Mr. Speaker was Ordered to give Directions to the Clerk of the Crown to issue out a Writ for a new Election in his Place But this was only to shew their Revenge for this very day he was introducted with the Usual Ceremony into the House of Lords and placed next below the Lord Brook his Writ being dated the 9th of June 17 Caroli Regis And immediately upon this it was Ordered That the Lord Digby be added to all the standing Committees The Names of the Persons complained of Yesterday for Disorders in the Church were this day given in to the House of Lords The Names of those that committed the Disorder at the Communion and the Lords Order about it Those that pulled down the Rails about the Communion Table in St. Saviour's Church in Southwark were William Smister William Shepheard Toby Grotwick Hugh
Clergy-man no Dignitary whose Books have cost him a Thousand Pounds which when he dies may be worth to his Wife and Children about Two Hundred It will be a shameful reproach to so flourishing a Kingdom as this to have a poor beggarly Clergy For my part I think nothing too much nothing too good for a good Minister a good Clergy-man They ought least to want who best know how to abound Burning and shining Lights do well deserve to be set in good Candlesticks Mr. Hide I am as much for Reformation for purging and maintaining Religion as any man whatsoever but I profess I am not for Innovation Demolition nor Abolition Possibly the Reader will now be desirous to see this Bill which gave so much business to the Parliament and therefore I here present him with a Copy of it as I find it in the Paper-Office An Act for the Abolishing and taking away of all Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deacons and Chanters Arch-Deacons Prebendaries and Canons and all other their Under-Officers of the Church of England WHereas the Government of the Church of England by Arch-Bishops and Bishops The Bill against Episcopal Government and the Hierarchy of the Church their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Arch-Deacons and others their Cathedral Officers have been found by lang experience to be a great Impediment to the perfect Reformation and Growth of Religion prejudicial to the Civâ—l Government of this Kingdom Be it therefore Enacted by the King 's most excellent Majesty the Lords and Commons Assembled in this present Parliament by the Authority of the same That from henceforth there shall be no Arch-Bishops Chancellors or Commissaries of any Bishopricks Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons Prebendaries Chanters Canons or Pety-Canons or any other of their Officers within this Church or Kingdom And every Parson that shall hereafter use or exercise any Power Iurisdiction Office or Authority Ecclesiastical or Civil by Collection of any such Name Title Dignity or Office or Iurisdiction to incur the Penalty and a Forfeiture contained in the Act of Premunires made in the 16 R. 2. That all which hereafter done by any Arch-Bishopricks their Chancellors Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons Prevendaries Canons Petty-Canons or any other Office by Collection of any of their Dignities or Officers aforesaid shall be meérly void in Law any Statute or Ordinance heretofore made to the contrary any wise notwithstanding And that all Mannors Lands Territories Impropriations Houses Rents Services and other Hereditaments whatsoever of the said Arch-Bishopricks Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons Prebendaries Canons Petty-Canons which they or any of them have in Right of the said Churches or Dignities shall be disposed and ordered of in such manner sort and form as the King 's most excellent Majesty the Lords Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled shall appoint And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction fit to be exercised within this Church and Kingdom of England shall be committed to such a number of Persons and in such manner as by this present Parliament appointed Divers Papers were upon this occasion presented to the Consideration of the House of Commons and many even of the Presbyterians who were for altering some things yet were not for Extirpation of Root and Branch among the rest I find these two in the Paper-Office THe Agitation of change of Government in the Church A Proposition concerning Bishops and Ecclesiastical Affairs and Church Government in the House of Commons is a Business of so high a Consequence that it is necessary to prevent any Resolution by Voting their judgment alone lest that being brought up with prejudice to the Lords who are and ought to be equally interessed may also prejudice the Cause It is a doubtful Case in the heat of this dispute how farr the Commons may go in the Declaration of their Opinions in which if the Lords shall not concur it may prove a great Rock of offence between the two Houses Therefore 't is very requisite that the Lords of the Higher House do timely interest themselves in the discussion and before any Resolution in either House To this purpose the Lords may be pleased to make a Committee in their House for the Reformation of Church Affairs and Government and thereupon demand a Conference with the Committee of the House of Commons that the business may be handled by Consultation on both sides pari passu and gradu At this Conference the Lords may be pleased to propose these grounds 1. That neither by Example nor Reason in any Age or State Matters Ecclesiastical or Mutations in Church Affairs were ever alone determined by Lay-men 2. In the Primitive Church and most Ancient times matters of this nature were always debated in General Councils or National Synods in the blessed Reformation the business was agitated by a Choice number of Divines who communicated their proceeding with Reformed Divines abroad and admitted some Strangers into their Consultations for the satisfaction of their Brethren and Peace of the Church 3. The publick Enemy of our Religion will take infinite advantage at every Alteration and especially at any that shall be resolved above by Lay-men 4. It must of necessity produce a dangerous Schism in the Church if without all Respect of Edification and satisfaction to the Parties different in judgment any conclusion should be imposed upon both without their consent 5. It is impossible that any Resolution taken in Heat and Passion can be so permanent but that time will discover a Necessity of fresh alterations to the shame of the whole Reformation 6. It is necessary to proceed in such a way as may not be Scandalous to the Churches abroad and may give satisfaction to both Parties opposite and contending at Home and may be Honourable Durable Obliging and Fortified with the consent and agreement of the Ecclesiastick and the Authority of the Parliament To effect which it is most agreeable to true Wisdom and Policy that both Houses of Parliament determine and declare for the present that the Laws Established for Church Government shall be obeyed And because all things in the first Reformation could not be fore-seen or some things were necessarily for other respects overseen which Time and great Liberty and Light have discovered and which may now be more fitly taken into consideration That therefore both Houses may be pleased to move His Majesty for the calling of a National Synod I mean of a Select number of Divines of all three Nations subject to His Majesty equally and impartially chosen of Moderate and Learned Men of both sides in which may be discussed and resolved a setled and uniform Model of Government to be presented unto the Parliament of all the Kingdoms there to receive Strength and Approbation In which Assembly Godly Men and lovers of Peace assisted by the Spirit of God may doubtlessly be induced to receive satisfaction from one another in
Sir John Culpeper Message about the payment of the Scots the arrear of the Brotherly Assistance to acquaint their Lordships with Three Votes made in their House concerning the Scots Two Voted the 19th of this Instant June and the other made this Day and desired their Lordships to take them into Consideration and Confirm them The Votes were these Resolved That one Moiety of the Brotherly Assistance that is in Arrear shall be paid at Midsummer come 12 Month and the other Moiety at Midsummer come 2 Years Resolved c. That an Act of Parliament of Publique Faith shall pass for Security to be given for the Brotherly Assistance that is in Arrear Die Veneris 25. Junii 1641. Resolved c. That the House of Commons doth declare That the Sums of Money Arrear for the Brotherly Assistance to be comprised in the Act of Parliament is 220000 l. Then it was Resolved upon the Question by the Major part of the Lords That this House doth approve of these Votes of the House of Commons Memorand That this Vote doth not Engage this House in any Moneys but to strengthen the Votes of the House of Commons thereby to prepare an Act of Parliament for the Publique Faith An Officer being sent with a Warrant to apprehend Father Phillips and Waiting for him at Whitehall Complaint was made to the King about it And the Lord Chamberlain by the King's Command sent for the Officer to Examine him by what Authority he came into the Verge of the Court to attach any person who shewing him his Warrant desired he would trust him with it to shew it to the King Which the Officer did and the Lord Chamberlain soon after returning gave this Answer That his Majesty would Satisfie the House about it if Phillips did not appear Thus did these men who made such Outcries against the least infringement of their Priviledges make no scruple to invade the Undoubted Priviledge of his Majesty and his Royal Court. However Phillips did appear in the Afternoon before the Committee where he was Examined about this Ensuing Letter as I find it in the Book of Speeches Copy of Father Phillips his Letter to Mr. Mountague in France THe good King and Queen are left very naked the Puritans if they durst would pull the good Queen in pieces Can the good King of France suffer a Daughter of France his Sister and her Children to be thus affronted Can the Wise Cardinal endure England and Scotland to unite and not be able to discern in the end it is like they will joyn together and turn head against France A stirring active Ambassador might do good Service here I have sent you a Copy of the King's Speech on Saturday last at which time he discharged his conscience and was advised to make that Speech by the Earl of Bristol and the Lord Sey but I believe there is a mistake in the Writing and that it should have been the Lord Savyll This Speech did much operate to the disadvantage of the Earl of Strafford for the Commons were much thereby incensed and inflamed against him and this brought forth the next day being Monday a Protestation which was taken in both Houses of Parliament of the same nature but rather worse then the Scottish Covenant The Londoners who were very boysterous came upon Munday 5 or 6000 and were so rude that they would not suffer the Lords to come and go quietly and peaceably to their Houses but threatned them that if they had not Justice and if they not his Life it should go hard for all those that stood for him following them up and down and calling for Justice Justice Justice There was in the House of Commons fifty six that denyed to pass the Earl of Strafford 's Bill their Names were taken and they were fixed upon Posts in divers parts of London and there was Written over the Head These are Straffordians the betrayers of their Country By this means it came to pass that the Lords and Judges were much affrighted and the most of his Friends in the Lords House forsook him all the Popish Lords did absent themselves the Lord of Holland and Hartford were absent so was Bristoll and others Savyll and the Duke only stuck close and faithfully to him and some few other Lords God knows the King is much dejected The Lords much affrighted which makes the Citizens and House of Commons shew their Heads some have braved little less then to unthrone His Majesty who if he had but an ordinary Spirit might easily quash and suppress these People Our good Queen is much afflicted and in my Conscience the Puritans if they durst would tear her in pieces this cannot be for the Honour of France to endure a Daughter of that Nation and her Children should be thus oppressed and affronted The Earl of Holland is made General of the Army whither he is gone down The Earl of Newport Master of the Ordnance Belfoard the Lientenant of the Tower hath proved an errand Traytor to the King who commanded him upon his Allegiance to receive a Captain and 1000 men into the Tower which he most Traiterously refused to do one clause is omitted which should have been placed in the middle of the Letter which was to this effect that there was a report in London That the Parliament House was on fire whereupon there were more then 1000 People very suddenly gathered together whereby you may easily perceive the hight and violence of the Peoples affections May 6. Anno Dom. 1641. This Letter was thought to be sent from a Priest calling himself Father Phillips to Mr. Montague There was another Letter and that was sent from one Robert Philips one of the Queens Priests and it is supposed to be to Master Montague to this effect You may expect some company with you ere long Crofts Suckling Piercy Jermyn are gone all things here are in great incertainties Protestation is made and taken by both Houses much like but much worse then the Scottish Covenant I sent you some money by Master Jermyn but now that he is gone I make some doubt whether he might be mindful of you to take it with him I have spoke to the Queen about your occasions and will do what I can though I am not able to undertake much Your Loving Friend Francis Philips There is one Passage in this Letter which makes me apt to suspect it to be a Forgery of some of the Party and that is in the 5th Paragraph where speaking of the Earl of Strafford he saith That most of his Friends in the Lords House forsook him all the POPISH Lords did absent themselves For certainly no Roman Priest would call them Popish but Catholique Lords which is their constant Dialect when they speak of those of their own Sect and a peculiar Honour they arrogate to themselves whereas they disdain the word Popish as generally bestowed upon them in Distinction and Contempt by the Protestants Let it be
behalf The Second Article is condescended unto according to the Proposition added to the Act of Pacification The Third Demand concerning making of War with Forreigners with the other Two Articles concerning Leagues and Confederations and concerning mutual Supply and Assistance against forreign Invasion is agreed to be referred to Commissioners to be chosen by His Majesty and the Parliaments As likewise the Fourth Fifth and Sixth Articles concerning Trade Commerce Naturalization mutual Priviledges and Capacity and other of that Nature and the demands concerning the Extract of Bonds and Decrets and the manner of safe Conduct for Transporting the Monys from England to Scotland are all referred to be taken into Consideration by the Commissioners to be appointed by both Parliaments who shall have power to Advise and Treat thereupon and report to the Parliaments respectively It is just that the Tenor of the Commission for Conserving of Peace should be agreed on by mutual Consent but the closing of the Treaty not to stay hereupon but to be left to the Commissioners to be named To that desire concerning such as should be placed about the Prince the King hath already given a clear satisfactory Answer That there be an Act of Parliament of Publick Faith for securing the payment of 220000 l. which is Arrear of the Brotherly Assistance is just and order is given for it accordingly and it shall be Communicated with the Scottish Commissioners that it may be a perfect Security The Tenth for appointing a Quorum for attending the payment of the Mony is already moved to the Parliament and will be done as is desired The Eleventh Article is very just and order shall be given accordingly for recalling all Proclamations and for Publick Thanksgiving The Twelfth Article for the Castle of Edinburgh and other Strengths of Scotland is to be settled betwixt His Majesty and the Commissioners of Scotland or by His Majesty and the Parliament of Scotland Which being read this House approved both of the Propositions and the Answers and Ordered That they should be Communicated to the House of Commons â—o morrow morning Mr. Thursday August 5. Report of the Conference about the Custos Regni Pym Reports the Conference with the Lords concerning the Custos Regni Lord Privy Seal told them That the occasion of this Conference was the matter of a former Conference desired by this House wherein two Propositions were delivered concerning a Custos Regni Commissioners to be appointed in the Kings absence to Pass these Bills 1. The Act of Treaty 2. Any Bill for raising Mony as there shall be occasion 3. For raising of Forces for Service at Sea and Land to resist forreign Invasions or Seditions at home with all things necessarily incident thereunto 4. Any Bill for Tonnage and Poundage or other Duties upon the Exportation or Importation of Commodities 5. The Bill for the preservation of the Mines for Salt-Petre and making Gun-Powder for the defence of the Kingdom 6. A Power to Pass the Bill concerning the 8 Subsidies given by the Clergy A short Act to be drawn Authorizing the Passing of Bills to be conceived upon these Heads Lord Say said That the Lords intended not to conclude this House but that they might add what they should think necessary to be Expedited in the King's absence and that some Course might be taken that the Parliament might Sit till an Act might pass to Enable and Confirm this Commission The House was then acquainted That the Bishoprick of Durham County of Northumberland and Town of Newcastle are willing to take the Parliaments Security for Billet Whereupon it was agreed That the House is contented to pay with all speed unto the Scots Commissioners the residue of the 80000 l. which they have provided accordingly and desire that the Scots Commissioners give speedy notice thereof unto their General whereby he may apply himself to put the Army into a readiness to march away according to their promises immediately upon the receipt of the said Monys And this House desireth they will receive so much of the said Mony here as conveniently they can dispose of and the House is ready to send the Residue to Newcastle if they shall desire it This day one Mr. Smith Rector of Long-Ditton in Kent Mr. Smith a Minister sent to the Gate-house who was sent for as a Delinquent upon an Information given in against him by some of the Godly and Well Affected Party that he should say The House of Commons had undeservedly Imprisoned an honester Man than any of themselves in the Tower meaning the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury For which he was committed to the Gate-House Bill against Knighthood passed by the Lords Message from the Commons about disbanding This day the Bill to prevent vexatious proceedings touching the Order of Knighthood being read a Third time and put to the Question it was Resolved to pass as a Law A Message was brought from the House of Commons by Sir Philip Stapleton to let their Lordships know That they have considered of the disbanding of both Armies and are provided of Mony to effect it and that they have resolved to take the Publick Faith of the Scots for their disbanding Further That the House of Commons had made an Order That the Horse of the King's Army be first disbanded therefore do desire this House to joyn with them That the Horse of the King's Army be first disbanded and that forthwith To which after some Consideration the Lords agreed The Petition of the Creditors of Sir Thomas Dawes was read shewing A Ne exeat regnum awarded a gainst Sir Tho. Dawes That they stand bound with the said Sir Thomas for great Sums of Mony and they have Reason to fear that he will depart this Kingdom Hereupon it was Ordered That there shall be a Ne Exeat Regnum issued out against the said Sir Thomas Dawes The House of Commons being upon the Consideration of the King's Journey Friday August 6. Commons resolved to insist upon a Locum Tenens in the Kings absence it was Resolved c. That this House shall at a Conference with the Lords insist upon the King 's appointing a Locum Tenens during his absence The Bishop of Lincoln reports the Conference with the Commons about a Locum Tenens in the King's absence in these words That formerly the House of Commons had brought up a Proposition concerning a Custos Regni in the King's absence Conference about a locum tenens in the Kings absence of which they have received no Answer which makes them now renew it again as formerly and they do offer some more Reasons 1. Because that in the King's absence many Emergent Occasions may happen in Parliament or otherwise where necessary use may be of the King's Authority especially in these time when things are not yet so fully setled 2. That by all Presidents it doth appear That when a Parliament was Sitting in the King's absence there was a Custos
present Month Letter to the Lord General for the Scots to March over Barwick Bridge concerning the Passage of the Scots over Barwick Bridge and have acquainted the Lords with the same they have Commanded me to signifie unto your Lordship That since it is a Resolution taken by both Houses and consented to by them they see no Cause to alter it or to give an Occasion to the Scots to hinder their March as is agreed and concluded on by the Treaty here and therefore they adhere to their first Order to your Lordship for their Passage over Barwick Bridge and do require your Lordship to obey the Order of the Houses only for the Manner and Onder they recommend it to your Lordships Care and Directions that it may be speedy and with Safety God have your Lordship in his Keeping Your c. His Majesty was now Safely Arrived in Scotland Monday Aug. 19. purposing with all Application imaginable to Settle and Quiet the Minds of his Subjects of that Kingdom in hopes that it might conduce very much to the Composure of the Affairs of England and for this purpose at his first appearance in the Parliament of Scotland being Thursday August 19th he made this following Speech My Lords and Gentlemen THere hath nothing been so displeasing to Me as those Vnlucky Differences which have happened between Me and My People His Majesties Speech to the Parliament of Scotland Aug. 19. 1641. and nothing that I have more desired than to see this Day wherein I hope not only to settle these Vnhappy Mistakings but rightly to know and to be known of My Native Countrey I need not tell you for I think it is well known to most what Difficulties I have passed through and overcome to be here at this present Yet this I will say If Love to My Native Countrey had not been a chief Motive to this Journey other respects might easily have found a shift to do that by a Commission which I am come to perform My Self And this considered I cannot doubt of such real Testimonies of your Affections for the maintenance of that Royal Power which I enjoy after an Hundred and eight Descents and which you have professed to maintain and to which your own National Oath doth oblige you that I shall not think any Pains ill bestowed Now the End of My Coming is shortly this to perfect whatsoever I have promised and withal to quiet the Distractions which have and may fall out amongst you And this I mind not superficially but fully and chearfully to perform For I assure you That I can do nothing with more chearfulness then to give My People a general Satisfaction Wherefore not offering to Endear My Self unto you in Words which indeed is not My way I desire in the first place to Settle that which concerns the Religion and Just Liberties of this My Native Countrey before I proceed to any other Act. Information of Arms in the Marquess of Winton's House at Basing-Stoke In the House of Commons one Mr. Sewer did this day give Information that he did see on Monday was seven-Night a great many Arms in the Marquiss of Winchester's House at Basingstoke a Recusant and that the Keepers of them told him there were Arms for a thousand five hundred Men. One Welsh an Irish Priest was ordered to be sent for and if he refused to come to be taken into Custody by the Serjeant It was also Ordered Order about disbanding That Mr. Arthur Goodwin Mr. Hotham and Sir Henry Anderson shall go into the North about disbanding the Army to whom Mr. Scowen was afterwards added by a Vote of the House The Copy of the Commission to be sent for his Majesty to Sign for the Commissioners to impower them to go into and Act in Scotland was also read which was as follows Commission for the Commissioners that are to go to Scotland CHARLES by the Grace of God of England Scotland France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith c. To Our Trusty and right well Beloved William Earl of Bedford and to Our trusty and right well Beloved Edward Lord Howard and also to Our trusty and well Beloved Nathaniel Fiennes Esquire Sir William Armyn Baronet Sir Ph ilip Stapleton Knight and John Hambden Esquire Greeting Know Ye that We reposing special Trust and Confidence in your approved Fidelity Wisdom and Discretions have Nominated and Appointed you to be Our Commissioners and by these said Presents give unto you or any three or more of you full Power and Authority to go into Our Kingdom of Scotland and there to Treat Confer and Concluds with such of Our Commissioners as shall be Named and Authorized in Our Parliament of Scotland according to the Instructions hereunto Annered And you or any three or more of you are likewise to Observe and Pursue all such further Instructions as you or any three or more of you as aforesaid shall from time to time receive from the Lords and Commons Assembled in Our Parliament of England with Our Consent and Approbation Signified under Our Royal Hand In Witness c. The House took into Consideration the Case of Mr. Votes about Mr. Cooper suspended by Dr. Rone and Sir John Lamb. Cooper Rector of Alton in Com. Huntington and it was Resolved c. That the Suspension of Mr. Cooper Rector of Alton in Com. Huntington for not reading the Book of Recreations is illegal Resolved c. That Doctor Rone and Sir John Lamb ought to give him Reparation for his Damages sustained and that his Suspension be taken off Post Meridiem Mr. Pym Reports the Order agreed upon by both Houses for the Disbanding in haec verba WHereas it was Ordered by the Lords and Commons in Parliament August 7. 1641. Order of both Houses for disbanding the Army That the Horse Troops of the King's Army be forthwith Disbanded whereunto his Majesty gave his Corsent and signified his gracious Pleasure to have it effected accordingly all which was certified to the Earl of Holland General of his Majesties Army by two several Letters from the Speakers of both Houses respectively and withal a Copy of the same sent unto him We understand by a Letter from the Lord General that none of the Horse are yet disbanded nor intended to be disbanded until the 24th of this Month and that it is propounded that some of the Foot shall then be disbanded before the rest of the Horse now both the Houses of Parliament expecting that this Order should have been performed accordingly do hereby expresly Order that the Lord General all further Delays and Excuses set apart shall forthwith disband all the Horse Troops of the Army before any of the Foot and commanded them and all the Officers of the said Horse Troops to depart from the Army which they do hereby declare to be a Matter of great Importance to the good of the Common-Wealth and therefore they do expect a quick and ready Obedience thereunto
of Winchester's House the Commons desired a Conference with the Lords about it which Conference was thus Reported by Mr. Pym. That the Earl of Warwick said That whereas this House had propounded the Disarming of Recusants their Lordships agreed with them in the matter but desired a free Conference concerning the manner but it was remembred by another Lord that the manner was likewise propounded which was to send down Commissioners into all Counties to see it done upon which the Lords desired of this House to consider what men to send down and they did fully agree to the manner This Day the Lord Keeper signified to the House A Message from the King about Soldiers for the Spanish Ambassador That His Majesty hath Commanded Mr. Nicholas the Clerk of the Council to let their Lordships know That His Majesty is so far now engaged to the Spanish Ambassador for four Regiments of Irish That His Majesty cannot go back now and that it was assured His Majesty before he went from London that both Houses were content only it wanted the formality of Voting whereupon His Majesty gave an absolute Order for the Levying and Transporting of those Men and reiterated His Majesties promises to the Ambassador wherefore His Majesty would have the Houses acquainted herewith that those Levies may not be stopt Which was afterwards at a Conference communicated to the House of Commons Monday August 23. Letters from the E. of Holland and Sir William Udal about disbanding A Letter from the Lord General the Earl of Holland was this Day Read informing the Lords That he had not been wanting in diligence to fulfil their Orders and Commands in Disbanding the Army and that it was an affliction to him that the best Service he was able to perform was not better accepted by their Lordships That he had done all that lay in his Power and that as soon as the Accounts for Billetting could be stated they should be discharged but till Money came to them they could not do it This was seconded by a Letter from Sir William Vdal informing That they can proceed no further in the Disbanding till there be a Supply of Money and that he hath not above 200 l. in his hands Tuesday August 24. Whereupon It was Ordered That the Gentlemen that serve for the City of London shall endeavour to Borrow 40000 l. of the City upon the Credit of the Two last Bills of 4 Subsidies and the Poll-Bill without which the Army cannot be Disbanded The Speaker of the House of Commons was likewise Ordered to write a Letter in the Name of the House to those Sheriffs who were thought deficient in gathering the Poll-Money to quicken them in the Collecting and sending of it to the Army The Copy of which Letter was thus SIR THE House of Commons did hope The Speakers Letter to the Sheriffs about the Poll Mony that in so great a time and so visible a Necessity of present Money no private person much less any Publique Officers would have been so slow in contributing their Assistance to the getting in of the Poll-Money but by the not coming in of this from the slow and slender coming of it from others together with more particular Informations this House is forced to believe that both Payers Assessors Collectors and Returners are in fault concerning it I am therefore Commanded to let you know from the House That as you tender your Own or the Publique Good you make all possible hast in returning such Money as you have ready and that you will make known to the Commissoners That if we be not by them prevented the House intends to make a review of the Assessments to the End that wherein the Assessors through partiality shall be found either to have left any uncharged whom the Act chargeth or to have charged any lower than they are charged by the Act those that shall be found faulty may incur both the ill Opinion and severe Punishment of Parliament as Contemners of the greatest Authority in a time of greatest Necessity and by that Contempt being Causes of the Armies less speedy Disbanding to the Danger as well as the unsupportable and unnecessary Expence of the Kingdom An Order was likewise drawn up and presented to the Lords at a Conference by Mr. Pym with the Reasons of it the Necessity of present Money for the several Counties therein mentioned to pay in their Poll-Money at York See the Order it self August 24. 1641. An Order of the Lords and Commons in Parliament The Order of both Houses for paying in the Poll-Mony at York to Expedite the Disbanding Aug. 24. 1641. concerning the more speedy Transportation of the Poll-Mony to York for Disbanding of His Majesties Army WHereas it is Enacted that the Sheriffs of the Counties and Cities hereafter named shall amongst others pay such Summs of money as they shall receive for Poll-money to the Treasurer in the Act named in the Chamberlains Office within the City of London Now forasmuch as their long delay and slow payment is very burthensom and dangerous to the Kingdom because the Kings Army in the North by this means remains un-disbanded to the insupportable Charge of the Common-wealth For the more speedy relief of the Kingdom the Lords and Commons in this Parliament assembled do hereby order and ordain that the several Sheriffs of Worcester Cambridge Huntington Leicester Northampton Rutland Warwick and of the Cities that are Counties within those Countries and every of them respectively shall forthwith on notice of this Order send such Monies now in their hands or shall come to his Hand or any of their Hands respectively or to the Hands of his Under-Sheriff or Deputy or to the Hands of any of their Under-Sheriffs or Deputies respectively under a sufficient Guard and Convoy to the City of York to pay the same to Sir William Vdall Knight Treasurer of His Majesties Army now there residing takeing his acquittance for the same which acquittance the said several Sheriffs respectively shall send to the Chamber of London and that the said Treasurer in the Act named shall accept of the same as if so much Money were paid in specie and shall deliver an Acquittance or Acquittances for the same which shall be as sufficient a discharge to the said several Sheriffs as if the Mony had been paid there And the said Treasurer of the Army is hereby required that he shall as speedily as he may after the receipt of any such Summs from any of the Sheriffs afore-mentioned send up to the said Treasurer of the Chamber of London present and distinct Certificates of the same It is further Ordered that the several Sheriffs of the Counties through which these Moneys do pass shall provide a sufficient Convoy to Guard the same through the several Counties and that the Sheriffs under whose charge the Money is shall have allowance for Transportation thereof in their several Accounts Lastly it is ordered that a strict account
Thanksgiving at this the Commons took great distast and upon Monday at their first meeting they fell upon this Debate the Result of which was That this House doth declare The Commons offended with the Bishop of Lincoln for making a Form of Prayer for the Thanksgiving Day That the Bishop of Lincoln had no Power to set forth any Prayer to be read at the Publick Thanksgiving and that no Minister ought to be ingaged to read the said Prayer and therefore the House is of Opinion and doth so Order That the said Prayer be not read in the Liberties of Westminster or elsewhere and that the Prayer be taken into Consideration upon Wednesday next and that a Conference be desired with the Lords thereupon At a Conference with the Lords several Letters were read Conference with the Lords about the Spanish Ambassador's Transporting Soldiers one from the King about four thousand Irish for the King of Spain a complaint being made to His Majesty by the Spanish Ambassador of the stopping of Ships which he had contracted with for their Transportation The Lord Newport acquainted the Commons That a Corporal of his Troop lately come out of the North was spoken unto from the Spanish Ambassador to conduct Horsemen to Plymouth and to have about three pound a man for it and it was very highly resented that the Spanish Ambassador should take upon him to levy Men here in England without consent of Parliament Whereupon it was Ordered That there shall be a stop at all the Ports in England to prohibit all Transportation of Horse or Foot out of the King's Dominions and that Sir John Culpeper and Mr. Waller shall forthwith repair to the Spanish and French Ambassadors to know by what Authority they Treat with Officers concerning the Levies of any Men Horse or Foot To this upon their return they gave the House an account That the Spanish Ambassador answered Negatively that he did not Treat with any whatsoever but that a Colonel had offered his Service but till he had His Majesties consent he refused to Treat with him That by His Majesties promises he thought himself in Possession of the Irish Soldiers and if they were taken from him he thought they took from him that which was his own It was thereupon further Ordered That no Merchants Transport any Soldiers out of any of His Majesties Dominions and no Ships to be cleared till they have given Security that they will not It was twice this day put to the Vote The same Question put twice in the House whether Col. Ashburnham Capt. Pollard should have their pay Whether Colonel Ashburnham and Captain Pollard should have their pay and the House was thereupon divided with the Noes were 49 with the Yeas 41. But the Friends of these Gentlemen taking the opportunity of the absence of some of those who had Voted against them moved the thing a second time and upon the Debate of the House they were again divided with the Yeas were 29 with the Noes 23 so it was carried in the Affirmative It was also Ordered Order about Lecturers That it shall be lawful for the Parishioners of any Parish in the Kingdom of England or Dominion of Wales to set up a Lecture and to maintain an Orthodox Minister at their own Charge to Preach every Lord's day where there is no Preaching and to Preach one day in every week where there is no weekly Lecture Thus did they set up a Spiritual Militia of these Lecturers who were to Muster their Troops and however it only appeared a Religious and Pious Design yet it must go for one of their pioe fraudes Politick Arts to gain an Estimate of their Numbers and the strength of their Party These Lecturers were neither Parsons Vicars nor Curates but like the Order of the Friers Predicants among the Papists who run about tickleing the Peoples Ears with stories of Legends and Miracles in the mean time picking their Pockets which were the very Faculties of these Men for they were all the Parliaments or rather the Presbyterian Factions Creatures and were therefore ready in all places to Preach up their Votes and Orders to Extol their Actions and applaud their Intentions these were the Men that debauched the People with Principles of disloyalty and taught them to Worship Jeroboam's Golden Calves the pretended Liberty of the Subject and the Glorious Reformation that was coming which the Common People adored even the Imaginary Idea of like the wild Ephesians as if it were a Government falling down from Heaven and as they used to Cant it the Pattern in the Mount the New Jerusalem and Mount Zion And in short the succeeding Tragedies of Murder Rapine Sacriledge and Rebellion were in a great measure the dismal Harvest of these Seeds of Fears Jealousies the Lawfulness of resisting the King's Authority in assistance of the Parliament their long Prayers and disloyal Sermons their Curse ye Meroz's and exhorting to help the Lord against the Mighty which with such diligence they sowed and with such unwearied pains by preaching as they said in Season and most certainly out of Season they took care to Cultivate and Improve and whoever will take the pains to observe shall find in the thred of this History that these Hirelings were so far from laying down their Lives for the Sheep that they preached many deluded Souls out of their Lives by a flagrant Rebellion and were so far from advancing the Gospel of Peace that they sounded the Trumpet for War and always their Pulpit Harangues to the People were the Repeated Ecchoes of the Votes Orders Remonstrances and Declarations of Westminster Besides this general Order for Lecturers there was a particular Order sent from the House to the Curate of Farnham the Seat of the Bishop of Winton commanding him to admit of a Lecturer The Contagion of the Pestilence Wednesday Septemb. 8. which had infected the Cities of London and Westminster increasing there were by the agreement of both Houses of Parliament certain Orders made to prevent the spreading of the Infection which were as follows 1. That the Bill Lord have mercy upon us with a large Red Cross be set upon the Door of every House infected with the Plague Orders for preventing the spreading of the Infection of the Plague 2. That all the stuff in the House where any have been visited with the Plague be well Ayred before they be discharged or the House opened 3. The House visited with the Plague to be shut up whether any persons therein do die or not and the persons so shut up to bear their own charges if they be of ability 4. No person to be removed out of any infected House but by leave of the Magistrate 5. If any person shall fly out of any House infected with the Plague at or before the death of any in the House such persons so flying to be pursued by Hue and Cry and the House where they shall be found to be
with any Forreign Prince or State their Ambassadors Agents or other Ministers of any Forreign Prince or State concerning raising or transporting any Forces either Horse or Foot to be imployed in the Service of any such Prince or State And it is further Ordered That it shall not be lawful for any Owner or Master of any Ships in either of the said Kingdoms to Contract or Agree for the transporting of any Forces Horse or Foot out of these Kingdoms for the Service of any Forreign Prince or State and that no such Forces shall be Raised Transported or Imployed by any Person whatsoever in the Service of any Forreign Prince or State without the Special License of His Majesty with the Consent and Advice of the Lords and Commons in Parliament It is further Ordered That none of the Ships of any of his Majesties Subjects of England or Ireland which have or shall be imployed in the Service of any Forreign Prince shall be used or imployed against any Forces which shall be any where commanded by his Majesties Commission by Sea or Land but such of his Majesties Subjects as are in any such Service shall forthwith withdraw themselves from the same and refuse to bear Arms in such Case It is likewise further Ordered That whosoever shall Contemn or disobey this Ordinance shall be taken to be a high Contemner of the Authority of the Houses of Parliament and shall be liable to such further Censure as shall stand with their Honor and Justice in that behalf This Order to continue and be in Force unto the first Day of November next and to be forthwith Printed and Published After which Mr. Pym Reports the Declaration of the Commons in Parliament made September 9. which was as followeth A Declaration of the Commons in Parliament made September the Ninth 1641. THe Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House A Declaration of the Commons without the consent of the Lords for Reformation of several Matters in the Church Sep. 9. 1641. having received many great Complaints from the several Parts of this Kingdom of heavy Grievances upon divers of his Majesties Subjects by the excessive pressing of some Matters concerning Religion which are in their own Nature indifferent by Pretext or Colour of the Laws now in force and by the unlawful enforcing other things without any Colour of Law and considering that a full Reformation cannot be made in this streight of time did for the Comfort and Ease of the People frame an Order in manner following Die Mercurii 8. Septemb. 1641. WHereas divers Innovations in or about the Worship of God have been lately practised in this Kingdom by enjoyning some things and prohibiting others without Warrant of Law to the great Grievance and Discontent of his Majesties Subjects For the suppression of such Innovations and for the preservation of the Publick Peace It is this day Ordered by the Commons in Parliament Assembled That the Church-Wardens of every Parish-Church and Chappel respectively do forthwith remove the Communion Table from the East end of the Church Chappel or Chancel into some other convenient Place and that they take away the Rails and level the Chancels as heretofore they were before the late Innovations That all Crucifixes scandalous Pictures of any one or more Persons of the Trinity and all Images of the Virgin Mary shall be taken away and abolisht and that all Tapers Candlesticks and Basins be removed from the Communion Table That all Corporal bowing at the Name JESUS or towards the East End of the Church Chappel or Chancel or towards the Communion Table be henceforth forborn That the Orders aforesaid be observed in all the several Cathedral Churches of this Kingdom and all Collegiate Churches or Chappels in the two Universities or any other part of the Kingdom and in the Temple Church and the Chappels of the other Innes of Court by the Deans of the said Cathedral Churches by the Vice-Chancellor of the said Universities and by the Heads and Governors of the several Colledges and Halls aforesaid and by the Benchers and Readers in the said Innes of Court respectively That the Lords Day shall be duly observed and Sanctified All Dancing or other Sports either before or after Divine Service be forborn and restrained and that the Preaching of God's Word be permitted in the Afternoon in the several Churches and Chappels of this Kingdom and that the Ministers and Preachers be encouraged thereunto That the Vice-Chancellors of the Universities Heads or Governors of Colledges all Parsons Vicars Church-Wardens do make Certificates of the performance of these Orders and if the same shall not be observed in any of the Places aforementioned upon complaint thereof made to the two next Justices of Peace Mayor or Head Officers of Cities or Towns corporate It is Ordered that the said Justices Mayor or other Head-Officer respectively shall examine the truth of all such Complaints and certifie by whose Default the same are committed All which Certificates are to be delivered in Parliament before the thirtieth of October next ANd did upon the eighth of September in a Conference with the Lords desire their Lordships to Consent unto it and to joyn with them in the Publishing thereof whereunto they never received Answer but contrary to their Expectation upon this present ninth of September being the Day intended for the Recess of both Houses they received in a Conference from their Lordships an Order dated January the sixteenth 1640. In these Words Die Sabbati 16. Januarii 1640. IT is this day Ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the High Court of Parliament Assembled That the Divine Service be performed as it is appointed by the Acts of Parliament of this Realm And that all such as shall disturb that wholsome Order shall be severely Punished according to the Law And the Parsons Vicars and Curates in the several Parishes shall forbear to introduce any Rites or Ceremonies that may give Offence otherwise then those that are established by the Laws of the Land And one other of this present ninth of September In these Words Resolved upon the Question this ninth of September 1641. That the obovesaid Order shall be Printed and Published DEsiring that the Commons would joyn with them in publishing thereof which being presented to the House of Commons it was thought unseasonable at this time to urge the severe Execution of the said Laws Whereupon it was voted that they do not consent to those Orders or either of them And they have thought fit to make this Declaration that it may be understood that the last Order of the Lords was made with the Consent only of Eleven Lords and that nine other Lords then present did dissent from it so that it may be still hoped when both Houses shall meet again that the good Propositions and Preparations in the House of Commons for preventing the like Grievances and reforming the Disorders and Abuses in Matters of Religion may be brought to perfection Wherefore
the performance hereof their Pleasure is That you should continue there to wait upon his Majesty till you receive further direction or that his Majesty be pleased to come away for England Instructions of the Lords and Commons in Parliament to the Committees of both Houses now Attending his Royal Majesty in Scotland I. YOU shall acquaint his Majesty Additional Instructions to the Committee in Scotland That by your Advertisement both Houses have taken Notice of the Examinations and Confessions taken in the Parliament of Scotland concerning a malicious design affirmed to be undertaken by the Earl of Craford and others against the Persons of the Marquiss of Hamilton the Earls of Argyle and Lannerick having taken the same into Consideration they have good Cause to doubt That such ill-affected persons as would disturb the Peace of that Kingdom are not without some malicious Correspondence here which if those wicked Purposes had taken Effect in Scotland would have been ready to attempt some such mischievous Practices as might produce Distempers and Confusions in this Kingdom to the Hazard of the Publique Peace for prevention whereof they have given Order for strong Guards in the Cities of London and Westminster * The Debate about the Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom in order to their possessing themselves of the Militia was many Weeks before in the House only this was a fair occasion for the attempt and have resolved to take into their Care the Security of the rest of the Kingdom II. You shall further declare to his most Excellent Majesty That the States of his Parliament here do hold it a matter of great Importance to this Kingdom That the Religion Liberty and Peace of Scotland be preserved according to the Treaty and Articles agreed by his Majesty and confirmed by Act of Parliament of which they are bound to be careful not only by Publique Faith in that Treaty but by their Duty which they ow to his Majesty and this Kingdom because they hold it will be a great means of preserving Religion Liberty and Peace in England Ireland and his Majesty 's other Dominions and the Union of all his Loyal Subjects in maintaining the Common good of all will be a sure Foundation of Honor Greatness and Security to his Royal Person Crown and Dignity wherefore they have resolved to Employ their Humble and Faithful Advice to his Majesty the Power and Authority of Parliament and of this Kingdom for Suppressing of all such as by any Conspiracy Practice or other Attempts shall endeavour to disturb the Peace of Scotland and to infringe the Articles and the Treaty made betwixt the Two Kingdoms III. You shall likewise inform the King That whereas Orders have been given by his Majesty with the Consent of Parliament for the Disbanding the Garrisons of Carlisle and Berwick the first whereof is already wholly disbanded and all the House and Eight Companies of Foot sent out of Berwick and only Five Companies remaining which likewise should have been disbanded at or before the 15th of this Month if they had not been stayed by his Majesties Command signified to Sir Michael Ernley Lieutenant Governor according to direction in that behalf and whereas by Order of Parliament Ships have been sent for the Transporting his Majesties Munition Ordnance and other Provisions in that Town and the Holy Island all which have been of very great Charge to the Commonwealth the Commons now Assembled in Parliament have declared That they intend to be at no further Charge for the longer stay and Entertainment of those Men or for the Demurrage of the Ships if by occasion of this direction they be kept out longer than was agreed upon Ordered That Mr. Speaker do write a Letter to Mr. Secretary Vane that in case the Committee of both Houses be come out of Scotland before the Letter and Instructions now to be sent can be delivered there unto them that then he shall he desired by this House to present the same unto his Majesty Saturday Octob. 23. Order for the Bishops impeached to have Councel This day upon the humble Request of the Bishop of Rochester on his own behalf and the rest of the Bishops which are impeached by the House of Commons before their Lordships concerning the late Canons c. It is Ordered That Mr. Serjeant Jerman Mr. Herne Mr. Chute and Mr. Hales being publiquely named in this House by the said Bishop and approved of by the House shall be assigned to be of Counsel with the Bishops that are impeached With this Proviso nevertheless That if any of the said Counsel shall upon just Cause desire to be Excused here and the House approve of the said Excuse That then he or they shall not be compelled to be of the said Bishops Councel as aforesaid The Commons being met there was a Report made of certain Troopers who had made a disturbance about a Tavern-Reckoning and the Guard in the Pallace-Yard being called to quiet them they fell upon them and cut the Drum but being taken and committed to Custody and one of them saying in Bravado That there were a thousand of them about the Town who if they were there would help them and make the Pallace too hot for the Guards they were Ordered to be sent to the Lords Bar to receive their Censure for this Misdemeanor But it struck such a fear into some of the Members of the Commons House that they immediately Voted what they had so often denied the King though his Word and Honor were engaged to the Spanish Ambassador to let him have some of the disbanded Troops for it was Votes to let the disbanded Soldiers past beyond Sea Resolved c. That the House is of Opinion and holds fit that Orders should be sent to the Officers of the several Ports requiring them to permit all such Soldiers of the late disbanded Army as shall desire it to pass beyond the Seas provided that they take such Oaths and perform such other Duties as are usually required according to the Laws Resolved c. That this House is further of Opinion and holds it fit That such other Soldiers of the late disbanded Army as are Strangers and not Subjects or Natives of this Kingdom shall have liberty to pass out of this Kingdom and to receive Entertainment of any Forreign Prince Sir Gilbert Gerrard carries up the Bill for dissabling all Persons in Holy Orders to exercise any temporal Jurisdiction or Authority and acquainted the Lords That the House of Commons desired there might be all speed in the passing of it for it much concerns the good of the Common-Wealth The Lord General Thanks given to the L. General by the House of Lords the Earl of Holland being now returned and having at a Conference given an Account of the disbanding of the Army It was Ordered by the Lords That this House gives Thanks to the Earl of Holland late Lord General of his Majesties Army in the North for
auxi mesmes les Communes remercierment les seigneurs Espirituelx Temporelx de lour bon droiturell Jugment quils auoint fait come Piers du Parlement That the said Commons returned thanks to the Lords Temporal and Spiritual for the good and upright Judgment which they had made as Peers of Parliament In the 2 of H. 6 John Lord Talbot accused James Boteler Earl of Ormond Rot. Par. n. 9. 2 H. 6. in Parliament of sundry Treasons and the Record saith That De avisamento assensu Dominorum Spiritualium Temporalium ac Communitatis Regni Angliae in eodem Parliamento existent ' facta fuit quaedam Abolitio delationis nunciatonis Detectionis predict ' c. By the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons of England there was made a certain abolition of the said Accusation Relation and Discovery From which Presidents it is evident that the Lords the Bishops did Sit and Debate Vote and Determin in Causes Capital as well as the other Temporal Lords The third Position is that they are a third Estate in Parliament Which is proved both by undeniable Reason and undoubted Presidents and Records That there are three Estates in the Parliament of England is a matter on all hands allowed But some Persons who would bring down the Soveraignty to a Coordinacy do affirm that the King is the third Estate the Lords making one and the Commons the other which dangerous Position as it doth submit the Monarchy to great hazzards so it gave occasion and colour to the taking away of the Peerage of the Bishops the third Estate notwithstanding their Exclusion being according to this principle left as Intire in the Lords House as it was upon the Exclusion of the Lord Abbots in the time of King Henry the Eighth Now that the King is not one of the three Estates and consequently that the Lords the Bishops must be so and were ever accounted so evidently appears by the Records of our Parliaments which are cited to this purpose as follows In the Parliament of 1. H. 4. By the Roll it appears that King Richard the Second appointed two Procurators to declare his Resignation of the Crown coram omnibus Statibus Regni before all the States of the Realm and one of the Articles against him was concerning his Impeachment of Thomas Arch-Bishop of Canterbury coram Rege omnibus Statibus Regni before the King and all the Estates of the Realm And who all these Estates of the Realm were it most fully appears in that the Commissioners for the Sentence of this unfortunate Kings deposition are said to be appointed Per Pares Proceres Regni Anglia Spirituales Temporales ejusdem Regni Communitates omnes status ejusdem Regni representantes By the Peers and Nobility of the Kingdom of England Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons of the same representing all the Estates of the said Realm So that First the Bishops are declared Peers of the Realm in Parliament Secondly The Estates of the Parliament are to represent all the Estates of the Kingdom Clergy Nobility and Commons Thirdly The three Estates in Parliament are the Lords Spiritual the Lords Temporal and the Commons of the Realm In the Roll of Parliament Rot. Parl. 1. R. 3. 1. R. 3. it is Recorded That whereas before his Coronation certain Articles were delivered unto him in the name of the three Estates of the Realm that is to say of the Lords Spiritual Lords Temporal and of the Commons by name c. Now forasmuch as neither the said three Estates neither the said Persons which in their name presented and delivered as it is aforesaid the said Roll unto our Soveraign Lord the King were Assembled in Form of Parliament divers doubts have been moved c. Now by the said three Estates Assembled in this present Parliament and by Authority of the same be ratified and Enrolled c. Upon which Record Mr. Prinn himself makes this Marginal Note The three Estates must concur to make a Parliament no one or two of them being a full or Real Parliament but all conjoyned In the 3. H. 6. it is said in the Record Prinn Abridgments of Records p. 710. 714. the three Estates Assembled in this present Parliament In the Explanation of the Duke of Bedford's Power as Protector It is said it was advised and appointed by the Authority of the King Assenting the three Estates of this Realm so that it is plain that the King was not then accounted one of them Rot. Par. 3. H. 6. n. 19. 6. H. 6. n. 24. In the 11. H. 6. The Duke of Bedford appeared in Parliament and declared the Reason of his coming coram Domino Rege tribus Statibus Regni before the King and the three Estates of the Realm 11. Hen. 6. n. 10. and n. 2. n. 2. N. 11. Domino Rege tribus Regni Statibus in presenti Parliamento Existentibus Our Lord the King and the three Estates in Parliament being present where the King is plainly distinct from the three Estates 11. H. 6. N. 2. The Lord Cromwell Lord Treasurer Exhibits a Petition in Parliament wherein he saith that the Estate and necessity of the King and of the Realm have been notified to the three Estates of the Land Assembled in Parliament In the Appendix to the Rolls of Parliament that Year the Duke of Bedford saith in his Petition to the King How that in your last Parliament yit lyked your Hyghness by yaduis of three Estates of yis Land to will me c. 23. H. 6. N. 11. Presente Domino Rege 23. H. 6. n. 11. tribus Statibus in presenti Parliamento Existentibus c. Our Lord the King being present and the three Estates in the present Parliament Assembled 28. H. 6. N. 9. Domino Rege 28. H. 6. n. 9. tribus Regni Statibus in pleno Parliamento comparentibus c. Our Lord the King and the three Estates in full Parliament appearing c. 1. H. 6. 1. H. 6. The Queen Dowager in her Petition mentioning the Ratification made in Parliament 9. H. 5. saith it was not only sworn by the King but by the three Estates of the Kingdom of England Cest assavoir Les Prelatz Nobles Grands per les Comuns de mesm le Royalm Dengleterre That is to say by the Prelats Nobles and Great Men and by the Commons of the said Realm of England And since the Reformation In the 8 of Eliz. 1. 8. Eliz. 1. The Bishops are in Parliament called one of the greatest States of this Realm From all which Instances it plainly appears First That there are three Estates in the Fundamental Constitution of every Parliament Secondly That there are three Estates besides the King and consequently that he cannot be one of the three Thirdly that the Lords Spiritual the Bishops are a Third Estate of the Realm in Parliament
Illustrious Memory of the Royal Martyr from the Barbarous Calumny which the wickedest of Mankind indeavoured to fix upon him as being conscious of and favouring this Execrable Rebellion in Ireland Whereas this makes it evident beyond the possibility of contradiction that His Majesty took all the care imaginable to suppress the very first beginnings and motions towards an Insurrection And from hence one may also very probably conjecture at the reason why his Majesty was so willing to comply with the Desire of the Spanish Ambassador to Transport such a Number of the Irish for the Service of the King his Master and possibly this very information might be the great inducement which moved his Majesty to consent to their Transportation for rationally speaking had these Levies gone forward and the Military men of that Nation been sent abroad into the Service of Forreign Princes there could have been no Rebellion or at least nothing so formidable as it proved and that which seems to confirm the Conjecture is That the Roman Catholick Members of the House of Commons in Ireland who were acquainted with the Conspiracy did with all the Artifice and Industry imaginable as well as the English Parliament indeavour to obstruct the Transportation of the disbanded and discontented Souldiers among other Specious and Colourable Arguments * Vide Dr. Borlase's History p. 8. insinuating That the Spaniards having long born ill-will to England they did not know how soon those very Regiments acquainted with every Creek of the Kingdom might be returned on their own Bowels having naturally a love to their Religion which such an Incendiary as the King of Spain might soon inflame to the highest prejudice But however this Intimation given to the Lords Justices by Secretary Vane's Letter doth abundantly clear his Majesty from the least degree of Suspition of contriving fomenting or conniving at this Irish Rebellion so it will fix a blemish either upon the Integrity or Abilities of Sir William Parsons at least after having so fair Warning given that he should never be able to penetrate into the Plot of the Irish which sure a Chief Governor of Ireland could not want Means and Instruments to do till it was so ripe for Execution as to be impossible to prevent it and which is worse to be in no tolerable posture of Provision to Suppress and Extinguish it upon the first Eruption Nor did the Conspirators in Ireland fail to Use the same Arts and Methods which those of Scotland and England and indeed all Conspirators are wont to make Use of to raise up Fears and Animosities Jealousies and pretended Grievances to unhinge the People from their Allegiance by complaining of the Mal-Administration of the Government and Publick Affairs Salust in Conjur Catal. This the Historian tells us was one of the Master-Pieces of Cataline and his Associates illis quieta movere magna merces videbatur And thus did the Irish Conspirators for at the meeting of the Parliament the great business was complaints of Grievances and Impeachments of High Treason against the Prime Ministers of State Sir Richard Bolton Lord Chancellor of Ireland and others were Impeached of High Treason and the Bishop of Derry though contrary to all presidents of that Nature as was certified by the Lords Justices to the principal Secretary upon Search made by his Majesties Commands for that purpose but as Sir John Temple observes they had a design to draw the Government wholly into the hands of Natives thereby to facilitate the intended Alteration of the Constitution And upon this occasion the Popular Men displayed their Talents in aggravating Speeches to make things little in themselves swell and appear bulky and grievous Upon the Impeachment of Sir Richard Bolton c. Mr. Audley Mervin made this following Speech My Lords I Am commanded by the Knights Mr. Audley Mervin's Speech at the Exhibiting the Articles of High Treason against Sir Richard Bolton c. March 4. 1640. Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House to present unto you Ireland's Tragedy the Gray-Headed Common Laws Funeral and the Active Statutes Death and Obsequies This dejected Spectacle Answers but the prefiguring Type of Caesar's Murther wounded to the Death in the Senate and by Brutus his Bosom Friend our Caesar's Image by Reflection even the Fundamental Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom the sole Means by which our Estates are confirmed our Liberties preserved our Lives secured are Wounded to Death in the Senate I mean in the Courts of Justice and by Brutus too even by those Persons that have received their Beings and Subsistance from them so that here enters those inseperable first Twins Treasons and Ingratitude In a plain Phrase My Lords I tender unto you Treason High Treason such a Treason that wants nothing but Words to express it To Counterfeit the King's Seal to Counterfeit the King's Money it is Treason but this dies with the individual Party To betray a Fort is Treason but it dies with a few Men. To betray an Army is a Treason but it dies with a Limited Number which may be reinforced again by Politick Industry To blow up both Houses of Parliament is Treason but succeeding Ages may replant Branches by a fruitful Posterity but this High Treason which I do now in the Name of the Houses of Commons charge and impeach Sir Richard Boulton Knight Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Sir Gerard Lowther Knight Lord Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas John Lord Bishop of Derry Sir George Ratcliffe Knight is in its Nature so far transcending any of the former that the rest seem to be but petty Larcenies in respect of this What is it to Subvert the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom High Treason What is it with a contumacious Malice to Trample under Feet the rich Legacies of our Fore-Fathers purchased with Sweat and Expence I mean the Statute Laws what is it but High Treason What is it through an Innate Antipathy to the Publick Good to Incarcerate the Liberty of the Subject under the Iron and Weighty Chains of an Arbitrary Government High Treason What is it since his Majesty the most amiable and delightful Portraiture of Flourishing and Indulgent Justice to his Subjects to present him Personated in their Extrajudicial Censures and Judgments but to possess if possible the Hearts of his Loyal Subjects of this Kingdom That he is a Bloody and Devouring Tyrant and to provoke their never Dying Allegiance into a Fatal and Desperate Rebellion What is it to Violate the Sacred Grants of many of his Majesties Progenitors Kings and Queens of England Confirmed under the Broad Seal being the Publick Faith of this Kingdom by an Extrajudicial Breath grounded upon no Record What is it to Insert a Surreptitious Clause forged by some Servile Brain in the Preamble of our last Act of Subsidies by which the King 's Most Excellent Majesty and the Earl of Strafford are placed in one and the same Sphear allowing them but equal Influences to nourish the
Allegiance of this Kingdom what is this but to extol other then Regal Authority and to Crucify the Majesty of our Most Gracious Soveraign betwixt the two Thieves of Government Tyranny and Treason My Lords having such a full and lasting Gale to drive me into the Depth of these Accusations I cannot hereby Steer and Confine my Course within the Compass of Patience since I read in the first Volums of their Brows the least of these to be the certain Ruine of the Subject and if prov'd a most favourable Prologue to usher in the Tragedy of the Actors Counsellors and Abetters herein What was then the first and main Question it was the Subversion of the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom Let then Magna Charta that lies Prostrated Besmeared and Grovelling in her own Gore discount her Wounds as so many Pregnant and Undeniable Proofs mark the Epethite Magna 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confirmed by thirty Parliaments in the Succession of eight Kings the Violation of which hath several times ingaged the Kingdom of England in a Voluntary Sacrifice a Charter which imposeth that Pleasant and Wel-becoming Oath upon all Soveraignty to vindicate and preserve the Immunity thereof before the Crown incircle their Royal Temples in this Oath of so high consequence and general Interest his Majesty doth in a manner levie a fine to his Subjects use for avoiding all frandulent conveyances in the Administration of Justice And this Oath is transplanted unto the Judges as the Feoffees in trust appointed between his Majesty and the Subject and sealed by his Majesties provident care with that emphatical penalty that their Estates and Lives shall be in the Kings mercy upon the Violation of the same either in whole or in part neither hath the deserved punishment for the breach of this Oath enacted as fulgura ex vitrio or as bugbears to inforce the obedience of Children no my Lords the just execution of it upon their Predecessors though in breaches not so capital might have warned them to have strangled their ill born resolutions in the Cradle before they now proclaim their infancie and petition for their punishment Witness Sir Thomas Weyland his banishment confiscation of his Goods and Lands only for his mercenary Justice contrary to his Oath who was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the time of Edward the first Witness Sir William Thorp Chief Justice of the Kings Bench in the time of Edward the Third who was adjudged to be hanged because he had broken the Kings Oath made unto the People wherewith he was intrusted in the Roll. Now my Lords though Magna Charta be sacred for antiquity though its confirmation be strengthned by Oath though it be the proper Dictionary that expounds meum tuum and assignes a Subject his Birth-right yet it only survives in the Rolls but now miserable rent and torn in the practice These words Salvo contenemento live in the Rolls but they are dead in the Castle Chamber These words Nullus liber homo ejicitur è libero suo tenemento in praejudicium parium live in the Rolls but they are dead where property and free-hold are determined by paper-Petitions These words Nulli vendemus nulli differemus Justitiam live in the Rolls but they are dead when the Suites Judgments and Execution of the Subjects are wittingly and illegally suspended retarded and avoided Shall we desire to search the mortal wounds inflicted upon the Statute Laws who sees them not lying upon their death Bed stab'd with Proclamations their primitive and genuine tenures escheated by Acts of State and strangled by Monopolies Will you survey the Liberties of the Subjects every Prison spues out illegal Attachments and Commitments every Pillory is dyed with the forced Blood of the Subjects and hath ears though not to hear yet to Witness this complaint Do you doubt of the defacement of the amiable Offices of his Majesties most transplendent and renowned Justice and Grace let then that Microcosme of Letters Patents confirmed under his Majesties and his Predecessors broad Seal of the Kingdom being the publick faith thereof and yet unchristened by frivolous and private opinions rise up in Judgment let the abortive Judgment of the tenure in Capite where no tenure was exprest nay let the Heretical and Traiterous opinions where the Tenure was exprest yet to draw in all by Markets and Faires granted in the same Patents rise up in Judgments What glass hath this unhappy divided Kingdom from his Majesties presence and audience to contemplate the fair and ravishing form of his Royal intentions in but in the clear and diaphanous administration of his Justice and what do these Trayterous and Illegal practises aim at but in affront to his Majesty which we most tenderly resent and discontent to his Subjects to multiply as by a Magick Glass the Royal dispensation of his Favors into the ugly and deformed Visage of their Suppression of the Liberties Devastation of the Estates and the Deprivation of the Lives of his Loyal Subjects so that it may be said Regali Capiti cervicem consul equinam Jungere sic vellet variasque inducere plumas My Lords these ought to be considered with as serious an Ear as they were practised by mischievous Experiments Inquire of the Netherlands why their Fields are grown Fertile by the Inundation of Blood why the pensive Matrons solemnize too too frequent Funerals of their Husbands and Issue and they will Answer you it was for the Preservation of their Hereditary Laws which Tyranny would have innovated This Kingdom personated in the sable Habit of a Widdow with dishelved Hairs seems to Petition your Lordships That since she is a Mother to most of us yet certainly a Nurse unto us all that you would make some other for Redress of her Tyrannical Oppression These Persons Impeached resemble the opacous Body of the Earth interposed to Ecclipse that Light and Vigor which the solar Aspect of Majesty would communicate unto his Subjects They Imitate the Fish Sepia that vomits a Dark Liquor out of her Mouth to cloud the Waters for her securer Escape They are those whom to the Keys have been committed yet they have barred the Do or to them that Knoc't They are those Unnatural Parents that give their Children Stones instead of Bread and Scorpions for Fish Was it for this purpose that the Royal Authority situated them in these Eminent Places that like Beacons upon high Hills they should Discover and Proclaim each Innovation and Stratagem against the Publick Weal whilest they in the mean time imploy therein Fire to Publick Incendiary or like Ignes fatui seduce the easie and believing Traveller into Pits and unexpected Myres Were they sworn to Seal their Damnation and not their Confirmation of our Liberty Estates and Lives Shall a man be censured for Perjury in that Breach of his private Faith and those be justifiable in Treason aggravated by Perjury against the Dignity of the Crowns and Publick Faith of the Kingdoms No
therefore expect from his Majesty in a more larger and bountiful Manner then at other times A time of great Agitation and Action their State is ready by preparation to annoy us and ill and false Councils at home may quickly bring us to Ruin as we have weakness at home so we ought to decern the Actions abroad where great Provisions are made and a carelesness and improvidence herein when our Neighbours are so provided and have such great Fleets at Sea as will open a Way to suddain Ruin and Destruction before we can be prepared and therefore now the fittest time to move the King 6 The seventh and last Step is That this Alteration of Councils will bring great Advantages to the King in his own Designs In all our Actions our Prayers to God should be that his Name should be Glorified so our Petitions to his Majesty should bring Honor and Profit and Advantage to him by a discouragement to the Rebels a great part of their Confidence resting in the Evil Counsels at home as by the Examinations appeareth it will be a great Encouragement to the King 's good Subjects at home who hazzard their Lives and give Aid and Contribution to have things governed for the Publick Good it will make Men afraid to prefer Servants to the King that are ill Counsellors when they shall come to the Examination of the Parliament for many times Servants are preferred to Princes for advantage of Forreign States This will put an Answer into the King's Mouth against all Importunities that he is to prefer none but such as will be approved on by Parliament those that are Honorable and most Ingenious are aptest to be troubled in this kind and not to deny therefore the King may Answer he hath promised his Parliament not to admit of any but by Advice in Parliament this will Answer them all These are Domestick Advantages but it will also make us fitter to enter into Union and Treaty with Foreign Nations and States and to be made partakers of the Strength and Assistance of others It will fortifie us against the Designs of Foreign Princes there hath been common Council at Rome and in Spain to reduce us to Popery if good Counsel at Home we shall be the better prepared to preserve Peace and Union and better Respect from Abroad Lastly it will make us fit for any Noble Design Abroad Let us but turn the Tables and imagine this Speech spoken by some Loyal Gentleman against Mr. Pym and his Confederates and we shall find all those mischiefs and dangers from ill Counsels and Evil Counsellors the Alteration of Religion and Subversion of Laws the Encouragement of the Irish Rebellion the Impoverishment of the Nation the Loss of Liberty and Property the Ruin of the King and Kingdom to be the Natural Effects of their Consultations and Actions But in Order to accomplish their Wicked Designs the People must be affrighted with the danger of approaching Popery the present Government traduced with intentions of re-introducing it and the King must be Wounded through the Sides of the most Faithful of his Friends These were the Popular Arts by which after they had by repeated Flatteries Importunities and Promises obtained from the King those Fatal Concessions before mentioned they pursued their Design and by Arming those People whom they had deluded with the pretence of Religion and hurrying them on into Actual Rebellion they sought by Violence to obtain that which they could not do by Fraud and Flattery But to proceed After this an Order was read in the House of Lords made by the House of Commons Dated Nov. 9. 1641. That an Ordinance of Parliament may pass to engage the Honor Credit and Authority of both Houses of Parliament for the securing and repaying to the City the 50000 l. with Interest desired to be borrowed of them for the Occasions of Ireland and that a provisional Act shall pass with all Speed for repayment of the said Summ with Interest within six Months Next an Ordinance of Parliament was read concerning the Irish Affairs in haec verba viz. WHEREAS there is just Cause to conceive The Ordinance of Parliament prohibiting any Irish to pass out of England without License c. that diverse ill Affected Persons here being Natives or Inhabitants of Ireland do intend to pass over thither to joyn with the Rebels It is Ordained by the Lords and Commons in Parliament that no Irish Man shall pass out of any the Parts of this Kingdom to return into Ireland without special License of the Committees of both Houses for Irish Affairs or the Lords of his Majesties most Honorable Privy Council or of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland It is further Ordered That no Arms Munition or Powder shall be transported without such License as is aforesaid It is likewise Ordeined by the said Lords and Commons That whereas upon the perusal of diverse Letters and other Intelligence here there is just Cause to suspect that diverse of his Majesties Subjects in Ireland had some Hand in the Conspiracy and Rebellions of the Irish That the Lord Lieutenant shall certifie from time to time during his Aboad in England into Ireland the Names of such suspected Persons and the the Grounds and Reasons of the Suspition and that thereupon the Lords Justices of Ireland and the rest of his Majesties Council there shall enter into Examination of the said Parties and shall have Power to commit them to Prison till the Truth may be fully discovered that so they may either be cleared if they be Innocent or if they be found Guilty they may be proceeded against according to the Laws And that this Ordinance of Parliament shall be a sufficient Warrant to the Lord Lieutenant Lords Justices and Council aforementioned The Lord Admiral then acquainted the House That he had Command and Directions from his Majesty to send some Ships for the Guuarding of the Irish Coasts and also some Ships to keep the Narrow Seas because his Majesty conceives that the Rebellion from Ireland is fomented from abroad and that they expect some Supply from Foreign Parts And his Lordship desires to have the Directions of the Parliament herein what to do Whereupon it was ordered to have a Conference with the Commons about it Divers Orders were read which were made by the House of Commons concerning the Irish Affairs to which they desired their Lordships concurrence that so they may be put in Execution That the Merchants Some Orders of the House of Commons concerning the Affairs of Ireland who have made the Proposition to their House of Transporting Spanish Money in specie into Ireland for the present Occasions of that Kingdom shall have Liberty to Transport so much only as the Lords and Commons in Parliament shall from time to time give them Order and Direction for paying it there as it passes by Proclamation and that all Sums so Transported shall be Registred in the Custom-House and that they shall bring Certificates
this present of 1000 Men only to be Raised in Scotland to be sent into Ireland The Lord-Keeper being so indisposed that he was not able to come to the House Saturday Novemb. 13. the Lord Privy-Seal was appointed to be the Speaker of the House for this day The Lord Kymbolton then reported some Propositions from the Committees of both Houses for the Irish Affairs which were read as followeth 1. That Officers for 2000 Foot shall be sent c. ut supra in the Votes 2. That it shall be referred to the Lord Lieutenant to make a List of those Officers and to appoint of what numbers each Company shall consist of 3. That the 1300 Arms that are in Carlisle shall be sent away presently to the North Parts of Ireland and Arms for one Troop of Horse 4. That the Forty old Foot Companies be recruited unto 100 Men in a Company 5. That the Recommendation of Sir John Clotworthy to some honourable Entertainment in Ireland be proposed to the Lords 6. That the like Recommendation be for the Lord Dungaruan and for the Command of Youghal this request the Lord Dungaruan desires may be left to the Lord Lieutenant 7. That Officers be sent into Munster for 1000 Foot and 1 Troop of Horse and this was the easier yielded unto because the Lord Dungaruan informed that the Soldiers should receive no Pay till they were ready to March against the Enemy 8. That present Order be taken for securing the Port Towns of Munster as Cork Waterford Limrick Kynsale Youghal Baltimore Slego and Gatway in Connaght because these Towns lie on the South-West of Ireland near Spain 9. That the Officers may be speedily sent for Dublin 10. It is thought fit by the Committees that Sir Simon Harcourt should have the Sallary of 20 s. per diem above the rest for his Command of Dublin 11. That the Entertainments of every Regiment of Foot and the Pay of the Officers of the Army shall be from the Date of their Commissions and Sir Simon Harcourt to go away presently to all which the Lords assented The Lord Newnham reported Lord Newnham's Report of the Venetian Ambassadors receiving the Message from the Lords That himself and the rest of the Lords appointed by this House repaired to the Venetian Ambassador and delivered unto him the Paper Translated into Italian touching the excuse for opening his Letters and after he had read it he presented unto the House great thanks for sending persons of such great place in this State unto him and promised he would represent the same to the State of Venice with as much respect as he could But desired that the Kings Ambassador may be sent away as speedily as may be to Venice in the nature of a special Ambassador to make excuse for this particular Business before he Treat of any Publick Affairs and for prevention of any Accident for the future he desires to have an Order to the Post-Master that his Letters may be speedily sent him Whereupon the House thought fit That the first desire concerning the Ambassador be left to the Pleasure of His Majesty and for the other it was Ordered That such Pacquets and Letters as are or shall be directed to the Venetian Ambassador shall be forthwith delivered up to the said Ambassador's own hands It was this day Ordered That the Earl of Newport Order for bringing up the Ammunition from Hull Master of the Ordnance shall have power by Virtue of this Order to send his Commands and Issue forth Warrants for the bringing up the Magazine of Arms and Ammunition remaining now in Kingston upon Hull unto the Tower of London for the securing of the Kingdom It was also Ordered Order about the L. Lieutenant of Ireland That because the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland hath not been invested in the Formality of his Place by the receiving of the Sword in Ireland That his Lordship shall have power by Virtue of this Order to give Command to the Lords Justices of Ireland to seize upon the persons of any that are suspected until they shall clear themselves unto the said Lords Justices there At a Conference this day the Commons desired That the first six Articles of Instructions to the Commissioners in Scotland to which the Lords had already agreed with some little Alterations as that 10000 Men might be raised in Scotland for the service of Ireland might be speedily sent away by Mr. Pickering and for the remaining Articles touching ill Counsels and Counsellors they desire their Lordships would joyn therein and they will tarry four or five days for their Lordships Resolutions Whereupon the 6 Articles were dictinctly read over again and the House agreed to them all and Resolved to take the rest into Consideration hereafter Then the Petition which was to go along with the Instructions was read in haec verba To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of the Lords and Commons in Parliament Most Gracious Soveraign WHereas this Messenger Mr. The Petition to the King in Scotland sent with the Instructions to the Committees Pickering is imployed with Instructions to your Parliament of Scotland our desire of some Aids from that Kingdom for the suppressing of the Rebels in Ireland if it fall out that your Majesty shall be come out of Scotland or our Committees before the Arrival of this Messenger there We humbly beseech your Majesty to give Authority to the said Mr. Pickering to present the said Instructions to the Parliament of Scotland and to bring back their Answer to the Parliament of England Which being read was Approved by the House In the Commons House Sir Thomas Barrington Reports the Answer of the City The Answer of the City about lending Money That the Committee who were Ordered to carry the Letters which came last from Ireland to the City to stir them up to lend Money found a great deal of willingness and readiness in the City to do it the Lord Mayor desired to know the particulars we had in Charge for their security which being made known unto them together with the miserable condition of Ireland Mr. Recorder did very much promote the Business and pressed them to give their Votes but before they did that they desired by way of Prepositions to offer something not by way of Contract to this Honourable House 1. That the Money should be paid as the Act was passed 2. That by reason of the Privilege of the Members of both Houses and by reason of the Protections granted especially by the Lords a vast Sum of Money is detained from them so that Trade cannot be driven nor are they so enabled to lend Money as they desire for the service of the Common-wealth 3. They said they were sensible of the miseries of the Protestants in Ireland and of the Power of the Papists there and therefore did press with much earnestness That the Persons of the Popish Lords and other Persons of Quality here in England
Water in the other for the same Committee was appointed to draw up the Petition together with some Reasons which necessitated the House make this Declaration were at the same time ordered to frame a Congratulation for his Majesties safe return from Scotland And that the Reader may perceive the true Reason why they made use of this Fucus of pretended Loyalty to paint over their Designs and that the Remonstrance was very early projected by the Faction even in the beginning of the Parliament I must once more present him with a Passage out of the Memoires of the late Earl of Manchester The Grievances of the Kingdom having been fully enumerated and declared some of the Members of both Houses had private Meetings and Consultations how to direct their Parliamentary Resolutions in order to present Redress and future Security and it was conceived by them to be the most certain Way and most consistent with the Duty and Allegiance of Subjects to fix their Complaints and Accusations upon evil Counsellors as the immediate Actors in the Tragical Miseries of the Kingdom rather then upon the personal Failings and Mal-administrations in the King Therefore it was resolved That the House of Commons as the Grand Inquest of the Kingdom should draw up such a Remonstrance as might be a faithful and lively Representation to his Majesty of the deplorable Estate of his Kingdom and might point out unto him those that were most Obnoxious and Liable to Censure owning still such a due regard to his Royal Authority as not to mention his Name but with Honor and in the deepest Sense of their former Grievances to render him Thanks for the calling this Parliament as the happy Omen to their present Hopes of future Redress and Establishment By which short passage one may plainly see the Method by which they conducted themselves which was to preface their most scandalous Declarations and most unreasonable Demands with the fair Expressions of Loyalty Duty Allegiance and Honor to his Majesties Person and that all their Animosities month Decem. 1641. were only against the Evil Counsellor who Administred the Publick Affairs but for the King they had no other Intentions then to render him Great and Glorious and to establish the Throne to him and his Posterity But to proceed in the Parliamentary Transactions Wednesday Decemb. 1. Bishop of Exeter's Report about Books formerly seized by the High Commission this Day the Bishop of Exon reported to the Lords House That the Committee formerly appointed by their House have perused those Books which were seized on coming from beyond the Seas and others printed in England and put into the Hands of the Register of the High Commission Court and the Committee finds them to be of three several sorts 1 Such as are fit to be delivered to the Owners and to be sold by the Stationers as good and vendible Books viz. The Holy Table Name and Thing Mr. Walker 's Treaty of the Sabbath A French Commentary on the Revelations Dr. Burgess his Rejoynder for Ceremonies Some old Books of Controversies A Second sort of Books which the Committee thinks fit to be sold to choice Persons as Causin 's 4th Tome of Holy Court in fol. of which there are 370. Thomas de Kempis of the following of Christ of which there are 100 in Decimo Sexto The Life of Sir Thomas Moor. A Third sort of Superstitious Tablets and Books which are fit to be Burnt as Missals Primers and Offices of our Lady c. Hereupon it was Ordered by this House The Order of the Lords concerning some Popish and other Books That the first sort of Books are approved of by this House and are to be delivered to the Owners and to be sold by the Stationers and that the second sort be delivered over to safe Hands to be sold to Noblemen Gentlemen and Schollars but not to Women and lastly That the third sort be burned by the Sheriffs of London in Smithfield forthwith Sir Henry Beddingfield who was formerly sent for by Order of the Lords Sir Henry Beddingfield of Norfolk his Examination was brought in and the Information of William Shales was read unto him which being done Sir Henry Beddingfield desired he might answer particularly to the Charge But there being several Opinions in the House herein he was commanded to withdraw and the House took it into Consideration and Resolved he should be asked Generals before Particulars Sir Henry was called in again and the Speaker by Directions of the House asked him these Questions 1. Whether he knowes one William Shales 2. Whether he was with him in his Garden at the time mentioned in the Information and who else was with him 3. What Discourse he had with Shales 4. How long be had known Shales Sir Henry Beddingfield's Answer was 1. That he knowes William Shales for he was formerly his Faulkner 2. That Shales was with him in his Garden in April last and Poole with them 3. That their Discourse was Where the best place for Hawking was in Ireland and no other discourse It was then desired That Sir Henry Beddingfield might be asked Whether that Poole be a Priest And it was objected That thereby he might accuse himself but he being not upon Oath was asked the Question and he Answered That Poole was no Priest After this Poole was Examined upon Oath What he knowes concerning the Information of William Shales He answered That he was present at the Discourse between Sir Henry Beddingfield and the said Shales and he remembred they discoursed in the Garden of Hawking and what kind of Country Ireland was for Hawking and about taking of a House at Kilkenny and that Shales said All things were quiet in Ireland but denied he heard or knowes any more The House taking the whole business into Consideration and finding no sufficient matter to proceed against Sir Henry Beddingfield Sir H. Beddingfield acquitted Ordered That he be released from his present restraint and dismissed from any further attendance upon this House for any thing concerning this Business And lastly that his Study shall be Vnsealed and opened as it was before any Order of this House served upon him The Lord Keeper Reported a Conference this day had with the Commons concerning the Impeached Bishops and Phillips the Priest A Conference concerning the Impeached Bishops and Phillips the Priest That the House of Commons have received the Plea and Demurrer of 12 of the 13 Bishops that are impeached for making the Book of Canons c. contrary to Law and that one of them pleads Not Guilty the other 12 neither confessed nor denyed the Charge The House of Commons are ready to make it good by proof and do desire a short day to be prefixed for that Purpose Concerning Phillips the Priest the House of Commons say That they understand their Lordships have received satisfaction from him for the Contempt done to their House That the general business of the Kingdom hindered the
Captain Francis Gregory 's Company The Order was directed To all Mayors Justices of Peace Constables and all others His Majesties Officers to be Aiding and Assisting to the said James Watts with all convenient Expedition that may be afforded The like Orders of the same date was granted for taking up of 40 Men for Captain Peyton's Company by John Grey and John Tirrel For 40 Men for Lieutenant Colonel Corbet's Company by William Jenkins For 40 Men for Captain Honywood's Company by Robert Harding and Dymock Holby In the Commons House several Northern Petitions were this day presented for the Billet-Money which was engaged to be paid to the Inhabitants of those Counties where the Scots and English Armies were Quartered Whereupon Sir John Hotham Reported from the Committee appointed to Examine that matter the State of the Money and the Debt of the Kingdom by which it appeared as followeth  l. s. d. The first Two Subsidies 108672. 06. 00. The Third and Fourth Subsidies 96461. 19. 09.  205134. 05. 09. Paid out to divers Citizens of London 51507. 05. 08. To Sir John Harrison 51885. 16. 10. To Alderman Pennington 9972. 13. 10. To other Persons Members of the House 18497. 15. 08. To the Inhabitants of several Wards 45893. 13. 09. To Sir William Udal for the Army 9000. 00. 00.  186757. 05. 09. So rests of the Four Subsidies 18377. 00. 00. Of which paid for the Affairs of Ireland to be repaid out of the Citizens Loan-Money 12000. 00. 00. And to be repaid to Sir Robert Pye Sir Edw. Hales and others that lent it 2000. 00. 00. Remains 4377. 00. 00. Receipts of the Poll-money in general throughout the Kingdom 256720. 18. 02. Viz.    Poll-money paid at York 37371. 09. 10. Sir William Udal from the 7 Northern Counties 15450. 00. 00. Poll-money from Sir Rob. Pye and Mr. Wheeler 37415. 09. 02. Poll-money by the Treasurers 162195. 04. 07. In London 4288. 14. 07. Memorandum in Cash in the City of London 8 Dec. not paid to the Lenders 5596. 15. 11. Total Received upon the four first Subsidies 205134. 05. 09. Vpon the Poll-Bill 256720. 18. 02. The Composition of Old and New Customers 165000. 00. 00. Total 626855. 03. 11. Issued to Sir William Udal 339760. 00. 00. To the Scots 291361. 19. 04. To Sir John Mills for the Queen Mother 7000. 00. 00. To Colonel Goring 3000. 00. 00. To the Pay-Master at Berwick 29000. 00. 00. To the Pay-Master at Carlisle 10000. 00. 00. To Mr. Vassal for Ships to Holy-Island 170. 00. 00. To the Commissioners for the Poll-money 600. 00. 00. To the Committee in Scotland 1200. 00. 00. To O Connelly 500. 00. 00. To several Persons upon Orders 307. 09. 00. Total Issued 682899. 08 04. Total Received 626855. 03. 11. Remains in Debt 56044. 04. 05. Besides for Billet-money 64000. 00. 00. For Half Pay 26000. 00. 00. More for Billet 38000. 00. 00. Scots Arrears of Brotherly Assistance 220000. 00. 00. Peers to the City of London 56000. 00. 00. For Ireland to the City 56000. 00. 00. Total Debt 516044. 04. 05. Having thus helped to purge the Nation of some superfluous Money as appears by this Account which was in a manner wholly occasioned by the Invasion of their Reforming Brethren of Scotland they began now to think of Purging out the Loyal Members from their own House as well as the Bishops from the House of Lords And it was upon the Debate Resolved c. severally That Mr. Henry Wilmot Sir Hugh Pollard Wilmot Pollard and Ashburnham Voted guilty of Misprision of Treason and out of the House Mr. William Ashburnham and Sir John Berkley shall be accused of Misprision of Treason And it was Ordered That Mr. Wilmot who serves for Tamworth Sir Hugh Pollard Burgess for Belraston Devon Mr. William Ashburnham Burgess for Luggershall and Mr. Henry Piercy Knight of the Shire for Northumberland shall be disabled from Sitting as Members in the House of Commons and that Mr. Speaker direct his Warrants to the Clark of the Crown to issue out Writs for new Election of persons to serve in Parliament in their places It was also Ordered That Captain Legg shall be sent for by the Serjeant at Arms attending this House as a Delinquent There being this Day a Company of Watchmen Captain Legg sent for as a Delinquent Friday Decemb. 10. Parliament displeased at a Guard because not of their own appointment with Halberds about the Parliament Door It was moved that some of them might be called in to know who did command them to come and by what authority and to what purpose they come Hereupon two of the Constables were brought in and demanded the Reason why they came thither They said They came by virtue of a Warrant from the High Constable to be ready this Day to attend the Houses of Parliament because of a Riot is likely to be in Westminster Whereupon it was Ordered That the High Constable and the Vnder-Sheriff do attend this House presently In the Interim a Petition was delivered unto the House by the Lord Marquess of Hartford from the Loyal part of the Inhabitants of Somersetshire concerning the Government of the Church which was read presently in haec verba To the High and Honourable Court of Parliament now Sitting The Humble Petition and Remonstrance of the Knights Gentry Clergy Free-holders and Inhabitants of the County of Somerset Humbly Sheweth THat having with grief of Mind heard of sundry Petitions been Exhibited to this Right Honorable Assembly The Somerset-Shire Petition for Episcopacy and the Liturgy presented to the Lords by the Marquiss of Hertford Decemb. 10. 1641. by some of the Clergy and Laity about London and some Counties tending to the Subversion of the Church Government Established in this Kingdom We therefore tendring the Peace and Welfare of both do in all humbleness presume to make known our Opinions and Desires concerning the same Nothing doubting of the like good acceptance of our humble Petition and Remonstrance in this behalf being tendred with no less good Affection to the Peace and Happiness of the Church the Prosperity of his Sacred Majesty and this whole Kingdome For the present Government of the Church we are most Thankful to God belâ—eving it in our hearts to be the most Pious and the Wisest that any People or Kingdom upon Earth hath been blest withal since the Apostles dayes Though we may not deny but through the frailty of Men and Corruption of Times some things of ill Consequence and others needless are stollen or thrust into it which we heartily wish may be reformed and the Church restored to its former Purity And to the End it may be the better preserved from present and future Innovations we wish the wittingly and maliciously guilty of what Condition soever they be whether Bishops or other inferior Clergy may receive condign punishment But for the miscarriage of Governors to destroy the Government we trust it shall never
against the Peace and the Crown and Dignity of their Sovereign Lord the King have Assembled by thousands under Pretence of Petitioning against Bishops Evil Counsellors c. as now they did Saturday Decemb. 11. The Lord Keeper this Day signified to the House of Lords That His Majesty had Commanded him to deliver this Message to both Houses That whereas formerly he had acquainted both Houses with the Desire of the French Ambassador That eight Romish Priâ—sts convicted at the Sessions might be Reprieved and Banished at this time because it may concern the Business of Ireland and that his Majesty had desired the Advice of both Houses therein of which his Majesty hath not yet received any Answer His Majesty therefore puts the House in mind thereof and desires an Answer in regard that on Munday next is the Day for Executing of those that are convicted which are seven Priests one of the eight being acquitted upon the Tryal Upon which the Lords sent a Message by Sir Edward Leech and Dr. Bennet to desire a Conference concerning this Matter to which the Commons returned Answer That they will send an Answer by Messengers of their own in convenient time The Bill Intituled The Bill for relief of Captives at Algiers passed the Lords House The Bishops by their Councel adhere to their Plea and Demurrer An Act for the Relief of the Captives taken by Turkish Moorish and other Pirates and to prevent the taking of others in time to come being read a third time and put to the Question It was Resolved To pass as a Law This Day being appointed for the 13 Bishops that are Impeached by the House of Commons for making the Canons and Constitutions and for Granting a Benevolence contrary to Law to make their Answers to the Impeachment their Councel were called in and the Impeachment was read Then the Lord Keeper demanded of them Whether the Bishops will abide by their Plea and Demurrer or make their Answers The Councel Answered That the 12 Bishops do resolve to adhere to their former Plea and Demurrer only they have waved one Branch of their Demurrer which was to the generality of the Charge which appears to be particular Hereupon the Councel withdrew and the House Ordered That the Lords the Bishops that are Impeached shall be heard by their Councel on Monday next touching the Maintaining of their Plea and Demurrer and that the House of Commons have Notice herein that they or some of their Members whom they shall appoint may be present if they please And to this purpose a Conference was sent to be desired by Serjeant Whitfield and Serjeant Glanvile Then the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland produced a Paper which was given by the Scots Commissioners to the English which being read was in these words OVt of the Sense of our Duty we owe unto his Majesty and the true Affection which the Kingdom of Scotland bears to the Kingdom of England We are willing to contribute our best Assistance for the speedy Relief of those distressed Parts of Ireland that lye nearest us Therefore in the Name of the Kingdom of Scotland we make Offer of 10000 Men for that Service which is conceived to be the least Number can be for secureing themselves and reducing the Rebels in the North of Ireland to the due Obedience of his Majesty and the Crown of England This Offer is upon such particular Conditions as in the Progress of this Treaty we shall agree upon which may be for the Honor of our Nation and the Safety and Good of the Army imployed in the Service This being done the Lord Lieutenant declared That his Majesty being made acquainted with this Proposition was willing they should Treat for 10000 Men the House assented to give Power to the Commissioners to Treat accordingly The Commons fell this Day upon the Matter of the Guards and the Justices of the Peace for Middlesex being called in and demanded by what Warrant or Authority they caused those Guards to be set they made Answer That what they had done in this Matter was in Obedience to his Majesties Warrant to them directed Then the Under-Sheriff was called in and Examined also concerning the setting of the Guards who affirmed That the Writ was granted forth by direction of the House of Lords and with the Advice of the Judges They being withdrawn upon the Debate of the Matter the storm for the present fell only upon Mr. Long who had signed the Warrant for the Guards Mr. Long a Justice of the Peace sent to the Tower about the setting of a Guard without the Consent of the Parliament and the Question being put Whether Mr. Long should be put out of the Commission of the Peace The House was divided upon it with the No were 94 with the Yea 90 so it passed in the Negative and he was by the Vote of the House sent to the Tower For that He the said Mr. Long in his Warrant had exceeded the Authority given him by the Writ and had directed Constables and Sitting the Parliament had sent down Armed Men to the Parliament never acquainting the Parliament with it A Committee was also appointed to Examine the business concerning the raising and sending armed men to the Pallace at Westminster The Message from the Lords about the King's desire to know the Answer of the Parliament concerning Banishing the Condemned Priests at the Request of the French Embassador was read and it was singly Voted upon these following Resolved That Hamon Jo. Rivers alias Abbot Walth Coleman Priests voted to be Executed and Turnor Priests shall be put to Execution according to the Laws Sir Phillip Stapleton Reported That the Scots Commissioners had shewed their Authority to Treat to Assist us with 10000 Men upon such Conditions as should be agreed We told them Vpon this Proposition we could not Treat with them for that our Commission was only to Treat for 5000 Men They wished us to acquaint the King with it so according to our Duty we waited on his Majesty who Expressed a great deal of Desire and Affection in the furthering of this business and said he had referred it to the Parliament and would grant a Commission to treat with them for 10000 Men. Whereupon the House assented to it A Petition of some Aldermen and Common Council-men and Subsidy Men of the Factious part of the City of London and Suburbs was this day presented to the House of Commons which being read the Petitioners were called in and Mr. Speaker in the Name and by the Order of the House acquainted them That the House took their Petition in good part and returned them Thanks for their Respects to this House and readiness to supply the Publique and that in convenient time the House will take their Petition into Consideration Some of them then desired they might have leave to speak something to the House whereupon they were ordered to withdraw and the House upon the Debate having resolved
but by Authority of Parliament and that a free Synod of this Nation * * That is from the Law which appoints it and gives the Members equal Privilege and Protection with the Members of the H. of Commons differing in the whole Constitution from the present Convocations of the Clergy now in Vse among us might be as the Petitioners apprehend of great Vse for that purpose and that not only this but all other your great Consultations might be much furthered by a more earnest and assiduous seeking of God by the joint and publick Fasting and Prayers of the whole Kingdom in these sad times so full of distractions and Hellish Conspiracies at home and bloody Cruelties of those Popish Rebels against our own Flesh and our Bones in Ireland The Petitioners humbly pray That you would vouchsafe to lay hold upon the first opportunity that your important Affairs will permit of reassuming into your further consideration their former Petition and to proceed thereupon as you shall find cause either by committing the same to the Debate and Disquisition of a free Synod or otherwise and in the mean time to become Mediators to His Gracious Majesty who could not take notice of their former Petition to this Honourable House for some relaxation in matters of Ceremonies and of reading of the whole Liturgy which as the Petitioners verily believe and hope to prove have been of late times urged further then ever the Law intended And a free Synod of Grave Learned and Judicious Divines of this Kingdom the Dominion of Wales and the Islands adjacent may be by the Authority of Parliament Indicted for the more through and fruitful Debate of the Premisses to expedite a full Reformation by the High Court of Parliament for the setling of a Godly and Religious Order and Government in this Church as your Wisdom shall find convenient And that a publick Fast may be Commanded and Religiously observed throughout the Kingdom once in every Month during your sitting in Parliament for the more effectual procuring of Gods protection of your Persons and of his blessing upon your proceedings and till the miseries of our Brethren in Ireland be happily put to an end And the Petitioners shall be ready further to attend the pleasure of this House with their Reasons of their present Suit for a free Synod of this Nation and of a new Constitution thereof differing from those now in Being when they shall be required and to pray without ceasing c. Were I to give Instructions to draw the Exact Pourtraicture of a Non-Conforming-Conforming Church Hypocrite with Peace in one hand and Fire and Sword in the other with a Conscience like a Cockle-shell that can shut so close when he is under the fear of the Law or losing his Living that you cannot Croud the smallest Scruple into it but when a tide of liberty wets him can lay himself open and display all his resentments against that Government in the Church to whose Laws he had sworn obedience and by that horrid sin of Perjury must confess himself a Villain of no manner of Conscience to Swear without due Consideration and to break his Oath without a lawful Determination that it was unlawful I would recommend this Petition as a rare Original to Copy after I cannot tell how it will relish with the Readers Palate but I must profess my self so tyred with this miserable Crambe that I am under the irresistable temptation of refreshing my self with laying aside for one moment the Gravity of an Historian and Burlesquing the intolerable Flatteries of this Petition and these Hypocritical Petitioners by making them speak Truth for in their Courtship to the Faction for whose Goust this delicate Petition was Cook't and Spiced when they recount their wonderful Atchievments in the Work of Reformation there is still I find a Supplement of some material Truth in matter of plain Fact wanting which I will make bold to add They acknowledge the Pains and Piety of the Faction manfested in many things of high concernment for the Glory of God by affronting his Solemn-publick Established Worship the Honor of the King by indeavouring to degrade him and divert him of the Beams of Majesty his Royal Prerogative the purging of the Church by purging it quite out of the Kingdom they commend their Zeal and Courage for the true Religion against all Popish Idolatry and Superstitious Innovations manifested by letting in a whole Flood of Errors Heresies Sects and Schisms at the Breach of the Banks of the Church-Government by tender Conscience in encouraging Preaching of Sedition and Disobedience to Laws Government and Governors and justling out all Praying out of the Church except the Wild Extravagant Dangerous Libelling Extempory Enthusiasms of bold and presumptuous Men who called their own acquired Art of Impudent Non-sence a gift of the Spirit as doubtless it was of that Spirit which rules in the Children of Disobedience in encouraging painful godly Ministers formerly set aside and justly for Preaching Sedition Schism and Faction for good Divinity in discountenancing bold and unmeet Men that darst Preach the Doctrine of rendring to Caesar the things of Caesar and to God the things of God that without sufficient calling presumptuously intruded into that Holy Office by only gently reproving them for the present and afterwards permitting Tagg and Ragg Godly Coblers and Gifted Tinkers Zealous Taylors and the most sordid illiterate Mechanicks to invade the Pulpit to vilifie the Petitioners with the Title of Hirelings dumb Dogs Baal 's Priests c. by Adonibezeck 's Law without Controul or Animadversion from the Honorable Faction for taking away the Tyranny of the High-Commission and Ecclesiastical Courts and setting Mens Tongues at liberty to Rail without Reason to Quarrel with their Superiors without Cause to affront them with impunity and in conclusion to Murther them Religiously and in the Fear of the Lord for their worthy Orders for removing illegal Rites and Ceremonies Superstitious and Scandalous Pictures and other Innovations and setting up in their stead the Bell and Dragon of these Mens Inventions and for bringing in the greatest Innovations a Church without a Bishop a Religion without Divine Service a Minister without Lawful Ordination a Christian without Baptism a Sacrament without Consecration and at last a Heaven without Repentance of any or all these horrid Sins and Incapacities For their Care to suppress the Irish Rebellion and Butcheries of the bloody Papists by imploying the Men and Money raised for that Service to butcher the Loyal Protestants in England who held the Popish and Malignant Doctrine that they ought to Fear God and Honor the King and die at the Feet of their Sacred Sovereign in defence of his Person Crown and Dignity against these Religious Rebels But Manum de Tabulâ I will not Tire my self and the Reader with Epitomizing their Villanies which are able to fill Volumes and with which he will find these stow'd Tuesday Decemb. 21. Message from the
by the King with the whole consent of his Parliament And in this I observe a twofold Subjection in the particular Members thereof dissenting from the General Votes of the whole Parliament And 2ly the whole state of the Kingdom to a full Parliament First I confess If any particular Member of a Parliament although his Judgment and Vote be contrary do not willingly submit to the rest he is an ill Subject to the King and Country Secondly To resist the Ordinance of the whole State of the Kingdom either by stirring up a dislike in the Hearts of his Majesties Subjects of the Proceedings of the Parliament to endeavour by levying of Arms to compel the King and Parliament to make such Laws as seem best to them to deny the Power Authority and Priviledges of Parliament to cast Aspersions upon the same and Proceedings thereby inducing the King to think ill of the same and to be incensed against the same to procure the untimely Dissolution and Breaking off of the Parliament before all things be settled by the same for the Safety and Tranquillity both of King and State is an apparent sign of a Trayterous and Disloyal Subject against his King and Country And thus having troubled your Patience in shewing the difference between true Protestants and false Loyal Subjects and Traytors in a State or Kingdom and the means how to discern them I humbly desire my Actions may be compared with either both as I am a Subject Protestant and Native in this Country and as I am a Member of this present and happy Parliament and as I shall be found guilty upon these Articles Exhibited against my self and the other Gentlemen either a bad or a good Subject to my Gracious Soveraign and Native Country to receive such Sentence upon the same as by this Honourable House shall be conceived to agree with Law and Justice It is prodigious to see with what Confidence some Persons durst appeal to God and Man and certainly ex ore tuo may most truly be applied to this unhappy Gentleman who by his future Actions upon his own declared Principles proved himself to be that ill and disloyal Subject whom he doth here take such Pains to delineate nor is it less remarkable that as he was one of the first who was in Actual Hostility against the King so contrary to his own avowed Declaration here so was he one of the first who fell in that unnatural Rebellion receiving his mortal Wound in a Skirmish near Chinner in Bucks upon the same Turf where he had assembled the County to frame those Petitions which first led the Nation into Sedition and afterwards into down right Rebellion from whence Posterity may learn what little Credit is to be given to the deepest Protestations of Loyalty and Asseverations of Innocence of such Persons whose Guilt has driven to dispair of any other Security from the Punishment of their ill Actions but what is to be hoped from doing Worse and that the Professions of Loyalty in such Cases are but purely to palliate and hide their Guilt from the view of the World and to avoid the horrid Imputation of Treason a Crime which because it is naturally destructive of humane Society is universally the hatred of Mankind Mr. Brown who was one of those sent to the Gentlemen of the Inns of Court Reports from the Gentlemen of Lincolns-Inn That they went to the Court first upon a general Report that his Majesties Person was in danger This Afternoon his Majesty came in Person to the House of Commons and having Seated himself in the Speaker's Chair he spake as followeth Gentlemen I Am sorry for this occasion of coming unto you The King's Speech in the House of Commons concerning the five Members Jan. 4 1641. Yesterday I sent a Serjeant at Arms upon a very important occasion to apprehend some that by My Command were Accused of High Treason whereunto I did expect Obedience and not a Message And I must declare unto you here That albeit no King that ever was in England shall be more careful of your Priviledges to maintain them to the utmost of His Power then I shall be yet you must know that in Cases of Treason no Person hath a Priviledge And therefore I am come to know if any of those Persons that were Accused are here For I must tell you Gentlemen That so long as those Persons that I have Accused for no slight Crime but for Treason are here I cannot expect that this House can be in the right way that I do heartily wish it Therefore I am come to tell you that I must have them wheresoever I find them Well since I see all the Birds are flown I do expect from you that you shall send them unto Me as soon as they return hither But I assure you in the Word of a King I never did intend any force but shall proceed against them in a Legal and fair way for I never meant any other And now since I see I cannot do what I came for I think this no unfit occasion to repeat what I have said formerly That whatsoever I have done in favour and to the good of My Subjects I do mean to maintain it I will trouble you no more but tell you I do expect as soon as they do come to the House you will send them to Me otherwise I must take My Own course to find them So soon as his Majesty was gone the Faction in the House was all in a flame and after the heats were a little over it was Resolved upon the Question That this House shall Adjourn it self till to morrow at One of the Clock There was not any one Action of which the Faction made greater advantage then this of his Majesties coming to the House in Person to demand the five Members the Faction blew the whole Nation into a blaze with their Out-cries upon it and it did not escape odd Interpretations even from those who professed themselves his Friends It is but just therefore that we should hear his Justification which I cannot give the Reader better then from his own Incomparable Pen. Which therefore take as follows MY going to the House of Commons to demand Justice upon the five Members 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon his Majesties going to the H. of Commons to demand the five Members was an Act which my Enemies loaded with all the Obloquies and Exasperations they could it filled indifferent Men with Jealousies and Fears yea and many of my Friends resented it as a Motion rising rather from Passion then Reason and not guided with such discretion as the touchiness of those times required But these Men knew not the just Motives and pregnant Grounds with which I thought my self so furnished that there needed nothing to such Evidence as I could have produced against those I charged save only a free and Legal Tryal which was all I desired Nor had I any Temptation of displeasure or revenge
the Lords Committees to joyn with them to consider of a Way for Securing of both Houses by Guards as aforesaid that they may come and return and remain in safety Hereupon the Lords Committees have Voted That it is fit and necessary that there should be strong and sufficient Guards from the City of London and adjacent Parts for the securing of both Houses that they may sit in safety Secondly Their Lordships have Voted That it is a legal way for the Houses to require the Sheriffs of Middlesex and London to attend for that purpose with the Posse Comitatus and that they will Report these Votes to the House of Commons accordingly And the Lords Committees meeting with the Committee of the House of Commons the 10th of this instant January were of Opinion That Guards are necessary to be placed before the Committee for Irish Affairs do sit at Westminster and for the manner of ordering of the Guards they referred it to the Common-Council of the City of London And their Lordships will Report to the House of Lords That the placing of those Guards for the safety of the Irish Committee is in their Opinion an acceptable service to the Common-wealth Which Report being made it was confirmed by the House and the several Votes approved and Ordered accordingly Then the Lord Steward Reported the Kings Answer touching the desire of both Houses concerning Guards which Answer was read in these words WE having considered the Petition of both Houses of Parliament concerning a Guard do give this Answer That We will to secure their Fears Command the Lord Mayor of London The Kings answer concerning Guards to appoint 200. Men out of the Train'd Bands of the City such as he will be answerable for to Vs to wait on the House of Parliament that is to say one hundred on Each House and to be Commanded by the Earl of Lindsey it being most proper to him as being Lord Great Chamberlain who by his Place hath a particular Charge of the Houses of Parliament and of whose Integrity Courage and Sufficiency none can doubt But the Faction of the Commons were resolved to have no Guard of the Kings but one of their own appointment Order for a Guard of the Train'd Bands to be Commanded by Major Skippon for upon a Vote of the Commons to this purpose it was Ordered That the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex be hereby required to send two Companies of the Train'd Bands of the City of London and County of Middlesex under the Conduct of Serjeant Major Skippon to attend both Houses of Parliament every day for security of the Parliament until both Houses do give order to the Contrary Directed to the Sheriff of the City of London and Middlesex A Message was brought up by Sir Philip Stapelton who brought up a Bill which had passed the House of Commons Intituled An Act declaring That the Lords and Commons may Adjourn themselves respectively to any Place 2. To let their Lordships know that the House of Commons are informed that there is at Hull a Magazin of Arms of the Kings for 16000. Men and proportionable Ammunition But in regard no great strength is in the Town and that the Countrey about is full of Papists ill affected The House of Commons desires their Lordships to joyn with them that some Companies of the Train'd Bands next adjoyning to Hull be forthwith put into that Town for the Safeguard of that Town and the Magazin there and the said Train'd Bands to be under the Command of Sir John Hotham Knight who hath the Command of that Town already by Patent from the King Whereupon it was Ordered Order for Sir John Hotham to keep the Town of Hull That some of the Train'd Bands of Yorkshire nearest to Hull in the said County under the Command of Sir John Hotham Knight shall with all speed be put into the Town of Hull for the securing of the Kings Magazin there and the said Town and hereof the said Sir John Hotham is by Virtue of this Order Commanded to perform accordingly And the said Sir John Hotham is to Command the Town and Forces therein and all Parties whom it concerns shall give their Obedience unto the said Sir John Hotham and his Ministers And lastly That Sir John Hotham or whoever he shall appoint under him shall not deliver up the Town of Hull or Magazin there or any part thereof without the Kings Authority Signified unto him by the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament Directed to Sir John Hotham the Elder The Vizor now began to drop off apace for the plain English of this and the former Order for a Guard was that the King was only to have the Name but the two Houses were to have the Substance of the Royal Authority And certainly no men ever moved by more Regular Steps towards Rebellion they had pretty well Exhausted his Majesties Stores for the Service of Ireland and now they were resolved to Secure the Rest The Tower of London hung still mightily in their Light and though the King had Displaced Lunsford yet Sir John Byron the present Lieutenant who was a Person of great Loyalty Courage and Gallantry was by no means agreeable to their Liking or Designs and therefore the next attempt was to get quit of him and a Confiding man a Creature of the Faction placed in that Important Command as we shall presently see Then the Act An Act for the Lords and Commons to adjourn themselves to any place passed the Lords declaring that the Lords and Commons may Adjourn themselves respectively to any Place was read twice and after a short debate a third time and upon the Question it was consented to to pass as a Law From whence it is observable that even this Parliament who had gotten an Act that they should not be Prorogued or Dissolved without their own Consent yet did not think they had Power without the Royall Assent to an Act of Parliament to Adjourn themselves to any other Place from Westminster whither they were by Writ Summoned to Assemble and Sit and which likewise is a Concession that it was so solely in his Majesties Power though not to Dissolve them yet to have Adjourned them to some other Place less Factious and Troublesom then at that time London was A Petition was presented this day to the Lords from the Inhabitants of Bucks as follows To the Right Honourable the House of Peers now Assembled in PARLIAMENT The humble Petition of the Inhabitants of the County of Bucks Bucks Petition to the Lords Jan. 11. 1641. SHEWETH THat whereas we hoped upon the happy Assembling of this present Parliament we should have had a speedy Redress of those Pressures we have for many Years been under but have been hitherto in great Measure Frustrated of your hopes by the strong Counter-working of a Malignant Faction whereby the perfecting of Reformation is hindred the endeavours of the House of Commons in great
City and that the Resolution of the said Committee can take no effect until they be communicated to the Common Council the House of Commons desires their Lordships to joyn with them in an Order That the Lord Mayor shall call a Common-Council together as often and at such times as shall be desired by the said Committee and that whatsoever Order the said Lord Mayor hath or shall receive from either of the Houses of Parliament shall be imparted to the said Committee To the first part of this Message the Lords agreed To the second That the Lord Digby have notice to attend this House if he be at Kingston or at Court but if he be gone to Sherborn to fetch up his Lady he is to go on his Journey To the third It was Resolved c. That this House will joyn with the House of Commons concerning the Governor of Portsmouth These Lords following Lords Dissenting from the Vote about Portsmouth before the Question was put Desired their Right of entring their Dissent to this Vote if it were carried against them Which the House gave way unto viz. Earl of Southampton Lord Mowbray Lord Wentworth Lord Pierpoint To the latter part of the Message concerning the Common-Council the House agrees therein with the House of Commons and the next day they were drawn into formal Orders of both Houses The Earl of Southampton speaking some Words in the Debate of this Message which the House conceived to reflect upon the Honor of the House Earl of Southampton questioned for Words which were That the Parliament had neglected their Duty to the King for the safety of his Person Upon which his Lordship was put to explain himself which being done these Resolutions passed Resolved c. Nemine contradicente That this Parliament have performed their Duties to the King for the Safety of his Person Resolved c. That the Earl of Southampton hath satisfied this House with the Explanation he now made of himself A Message was then brought from the House of Commons by Sir Philip Stapleton being two Votes concerning Sir John Byron Lieutenant of the Tower to which they desired the Concurrence of the Lords 1. Votes of the Commons concerning the Lieutenant of the Tower That Sir John Byron the now Lieutenant of the Tower hath committed a high Contempt against the Authority and Priviledges of Parliament in refusing to appear upon the Summons of both Houses of Parliament To which the Lords agreed 2. That Sir John Byron the now Lieutenant of the Tower shall be sent for as a Delinquent The Lords deferred giving any Resolution of this last Vote at this time Search to be made about the Commons House In the Commons House it was this day Ordered That another Lock be set upon the Door under the Stairs at the Door of the Commons House and that Mr. Bell keep the Key and search it every Morning also that it be referred to the Committee appointed to search about the Houses and Places near the Parliament House to take daily care that all Places thereabout be safeguarded and kept Secure Mr. Calcot the Informer of Lunsford's being at Kingston with 500 Horse Theophilus Calcot gave the House Information of many Horse under the Command of Collonel Lunsford were Lodged at Kingston upon Thames to the number of 500 or thereabouts That there came Yesterday two Loads of Ammunition that there was last night Captain Thomas Howard a Member of the Commons House and as they say had a Command of some Men there Which occasioned the Message before mentioned It seems the Information did not agree for afterwards Mr. Hollis reported from the Committee appointed to consider of this Information That there were about 200 Men there that they have Pistols and discharge them and carry themselves in a disorderly Manner to the Terror of the People And in reality all this great Army at Kingston was only the Lord Digby and his ordinary Retinue But every thing was Multiplied and Magnified to the highest degrees and whether true orfalse it did the business Effectually and kept up the Fears and Jealousies of the People and confirmed them in the belief of strange Plots against the City and Parliament Then Mr. Sollicitor St. Johns Mr. Whitlock Sir H. Anderson The Committee to draw the Declaration to be sent into all Parts of the Kingdom to put themselves into a Posture of Defence Sir Gilbert Gerrard Mr. Green Sir John Holland Mr. Whistler Sir H. Mildmay Mr. Rigby Mr. Boduile Mr. Grimston Sir Martin Lumley Sir Edward Hungerford Mr. Cave Sir Edward Patherich Serjeant Wild Sir Thomas Barrington Mr. Ashton Mr. Moore Mr. Strode Sir J. Evelyn Mr. Noble Sir William Massam Mr. Lisle were appointed a Committee to take into consideration the drawing of a Letter or other Declaration to be presented to the Lords and by both Houses to be publish't in Print and sent into all the parts of the Kingdom advising them with all Expedition to be in a readiness and a good posture of Defence upon all occasions to defend their several Counties from Invasion by Papists or other ill affected Persons and to declare the several Designs that this quarter of a year last past hath been against the Parliament and safety of the Kingdom It was also Ordered That 2000 l. of the Pole Money shall be paid by the Lord Mayor of York to Sir John Hotham for the service of Hull It was also Ordered upon the Information of Mr. Thomas Blunt Search for Arms at Mr. Ropers at Eltham in Kent That the said Mr. Blunt and Mr. Gibbon or either of them do forthwith make diligent search in the House of Mr. Anthony Roper in Kent at Eltham or any other suspected place for Arms and Ammunition and if they find any there to Seize the same and to apprehend the Person of him or any other Suspected Persons and to take Examinations touching this matter and to use their best indeavours for the Apprehending of Mr. Cecil Cave Who as Blunt said he had been informed had given out that ere long Bloud would be Sold as cheap as Milk The Serjeant was ordered to repair to the Queens Millener Letters to Mr. Crofts opened and require him forthwith to attend the House with the Paquet of Letters which he this day received by the French Post directed to Mr. Crofts Joseph Lee a Waterman informed the House of some great Saddles going to Kingston by water whereupon Order to Seize Saddles and Horses the Serjeant was commanded to Seize them And an Order was sent to the Justices next Hampton Town to make stay of some Horses that the House is informed are now in the Stable of one Mr. Robinson until this House shall take further order An other Order to Sir John Franklyn and Mr. Search for Arms at Sir James Hamiltons Lodgings Whittacre to search the Lodgings of Sir James Hamilton for Arms and Ammunition and to Seize the same and
means to prevent this great and threat'ning danger to his Majesties Royal Person and to our Religion Lives Liberties and Fortunes have thought good to give a timely Advertisement thereof to all his Majesties Subjects of the Reformed Protestant Religion declaring hereby That they hold it necessary and adviseable that with all Expeditithey put themselves into a good posture of Defence to provide fit Arms and Ammunition and be ready upon all occasions to defend the several Counties from Domestick Insurrections and Foreign Invasions and that the Sheriffs Justices of Peace Majors and Head-Officers within their several Limits do take Care that their Magazines of Powder Arms and other Ammunition be compleatly furnished and that they cause strong Guards and Watches to be set in convenient places for the Securing themselves and for the apprehending of such Persons who they shall have just cause to suspect and if upon Examination any grounds of danger shall appear to give notice thereof unto the Parliament and that all Officers take special care that no Soldiers Arms or Ammunition be raised or levyed nor any Castles Forts or Magazines delivered up without his Majesties Authority signified by both Houses of Parliament This hopeful Declaration had the misfortune to become only an Abortive for when it came up to the House of Lords how prevalent soever the Faction was there yet they were ashamed to own that for a Child of Parliamentary Authority which carried so many notorious Falshoods and Calumnies most easie to be detected in the Front of it and yet this thing which was to be imposed upon the Nation for so great a Truth was compiled out of 3 or 4 Parcels of the same kind of Stuff but much Coarser which were drawn up by the Committees at Guild-Hall and Grocers-Hall and out of which the Committee for this Declaration were by the appointment of the House Ordered to frame it and they accordingly licked those Monstrous and Deformed Cubbs into this Bear which begins with the Papists but flies directly at the Throat of his Sacred Majesty the best Protestant in all his Dominions And this was one of the greatest Artifices of the Faction to Sail with this Side-wind as if they intended to fall furiously upon the Papists but then to make a sudden Tack and pour in all their Broad-sides of Calumnies Plots and Conspiracies upon the King himself and the Loyal and Orthodox Protestants whom under the Notion of Malignants Popishly-affected and Adherents to the Papists they still drew into the Designs which they said were laid against the Parliament Kingdom and the King himself against whom the Bolt of their Thunder was always directly levell'd though the Noise and Crack sounded nothing but Papist There are two or three Passages very remarkable that I cannot but turn them upon themselves For when they charge these Plotters and Papists that they had a Design To make a Division of the Body of this Common-wealth from the Head thereof they themselves it seems were in that Design afterwards putting that horrid Plot in Execution by cutting off not only in a Political but Literal Sense that Illustrious Head of their Sovereign both from his own and the Body of the Common-wealth And whereas afterwards they Charge this Malignant Party with a Design by intestine Wars here amongst our selves to wast the Wealth and Substance and Totally to Annihilate the True Protestant Religion and the whole frame of Government in all his Majesties Dominions There certainly never was in so few words so true a Character of their own subequent Actions and had they sitten for their Picture in Miniature to the fam'd Appelles who used to boast of his Art that he painted for Eternity it had been impossible for him to draw them more exactly to the life with his Pencil then in these words they have drawn themselves with their own Ink the blackness of which though intended for the King and the Loyal Party will with an Ex ore tuo stick to their Memories so long as there remain any Records of time and Posterity will easily discern who were the Plotters to Subvert the Government not by the Charge but the Execution and may from hence draw this serviceable Aphorism That no Persons are more likely to design against a Government or to bring the People into Slavery then such Subjects as Arraign their Sovereign with Designs of Erecting Arbitrary Power and introducing Popery Which were the two main Engines by which this Rebellious Faction undermined and overthrew the best Church and Government in the Christian World and rendred the Freest People of Europe the most Abject Slaves in Christendom to the Arbitrary Usurpations of their fellow Subjects and Servants in every thing that Men esteem valuable whether Life Liberty Fortune or Religion But whether the Lords would consent or not the materials out of which this Declaration was drawn being the results of several Debates of the Committee at Guild-Hall and Grocers-Hall got immediately into the Press and from that Mint of mischief flew like Lightning through the Nation to the intolerable Scandal of his Majesty And yet the very chief Aggravation of this Action of his Majesties of the Insolence of the Soldiers is by one of the News-writers of the Party and Times before mentioned taken off from the King and his Retinue Who he saith demeaned themselves Civilly though this Declaration takes no notice of that And in truth who considers how ill the Parliament had treated the Soldiers both during their being in Arms and after the Disbanding will not think it strange for such a sort of Men who have Mars predominant should be apt to vent their private Resentments against those Persons whom the King had Impeached of Treason and to whom they owed all their Sufferings But to put this to the King's Score was a Barbarous injustice which none but such Men as had shaken hands with all Respect as well as Loyalty to the King could be guilty of But see the Paper it self A Declaration of the House of Commons The Debates at Guild-hall and Grocers-hall Drawn into a Declaration concerning Breach of Priviledge c. Mr. Glyn Reports from Guild-hall Jan. 6th 1641. Touching a late Breach of their Priviledges And for the Vindication thereof and of divers Members of the said House WHereas the Chambers Studies and Trunks of Mr. Denzill Hollis Sir Arthur Haslerig Mr John Pym Master John Hampden and Mr. William Strode Esquires Members of the House of Commons upon Munday the third of this instant January by colour of His Majesties Warrant have been sealed up by Sir William Killigrew and Sir William Flemen and others which is not only against the Priviledge of Parliament but the common liberty of every Subject Which said Members afterwards the same day were under the like colour by Serjeant Francis one of His Majesties Serjeants at Arms contrary to all former Presidents demanded of the Speaker sitting in the House of Commons to be delivered unto him that