a fresh Body of Horse which reach'd him not until the Evening before the fight and secondly by the intercepting of some Letters sent from General Goring in which His Majesty was advised to decline all occasion of Battel till he could come up to him with his Western Forces This hastned the Design of fighting in the adverse Party who fall upon the King's Army in the Fields near Naisby till that time an obscure Village in Northamptonshire on Saturday the 19th of Iune the Battels joined and at first His Majesty had the better of it and might have had so at the last if Prince Rupert having routed one Wing of the Enemy's Horse had not been so intent upon the chase of the Flying-Enemy that he left his Foot open to the other Wing Who pressing hotly on them put them to an absolute Rout and made themselves Masters of his Camp Carriage and Cannon and amongst other things of His Majesty's Cabinet In which they found many of his Letters most of them written to the Queen which afterwards were published by Command of the Houses to their great dishonour For whereas the Athenians on the like success had intercepted a Packet of Letters from Philip King of Macedon their most bitter Enemy unto several Friends they met with one amongst the rest to the Queen Olympias the rest being all broke open before the Council that they might be advertised of the Enemy's purposes the Letter to the Queen was returned untouch't the whole Senate thinking it a shameful and dishonest act to pry into the Conjugal Secrets betwixt Man and Wife A Modesty in which those of Athens stand as much commended by Hilladius Bisantinus an ancient Writer as the chief Leading-men of the Houses of Parliament are like to stand condemned for want of it in succeeding Stories 47. But to proceed this miserable Blow was followed by the surrendry of Bristol the storming of Bridgwater the surprise of Hereford and at the end of Winter with the loss of Chester During which time the King moved up and down with a Running-Army but with such ill Fortune as most commonly attends a declining-side In which distress he comes to his old Winter-Quarters not out of hope of bringing his Affairs to a better condition before the opening of the Spring From Oxon he sends divers Messages to the Houses of Parliament desiring that He might be suffered to return to Westminster and offering for their security the whole Power of the Kingdom the Navy Castles Forts and Armies to be enjoyed by them in such manner and for so long time as they had formerly desired But finding nothing from them but neglect and scorn His Messages despised and His Person vilified He made an offer of Himself to Fairfax who refused also Tired with repulse upon repulse and having lost the small remainder of His Forces near Stow on the Wold He puts Himself in the beginning of May into the hands of the Scots Commissioners residing then at Southwell in the County of Nottingham a Mannor-House belonging to the See of York For the Scots having mastered the Northern parts in the year 1644 spent the next year in harrasing the Countrey even as far as Hereford which they besieged for a time and perhaps had carried it if they had not been called back by the Letters of some special Friends to take care of Scotland then almost reduced to the King's obedience by the Noble Marquess of Montross On which Advertisement they depart from Hereford face Worcester and so marcht Northward From whence they presently dispatch Col. David Leshly with Six thousand Horse and with their Foot employed themselves in the Siege of Newark which brought down their Commissioners to Southwell before remembred From thence the King is hurried in post-haste to the Town of Newcastle which they looked on as their strongest Hold. And being now desirous to make eeven with their Masters to receive the wages of their Iniquity and being desirous to get home in safety with that Spoil and Plunder which they had gotten in their marching and re-marching betwixt Tweed and Hereford they prest the King to fling up all the Towns and Castles which remained in His Power or else they durst not promise to continue Him under their Protection 48. This Turn seemed strange unto the King Who had not put Himself into the Power of the Scots had He not been assured before-hand by the French Ambassador of more courteous usage to whom the Scots Commissioners had engaged themselves not only to receive His Person but all those also which repaired unto Him into their protection as the King signified by His Letters to the Marquess of Ormond But having got Him into their Power they forget those Promises and bring Him under the necessity of writing to the Marquesses of Montross and Ormond to discharge their Soldiers and to His Governours of Towns in England to give up their Garrisons Amongst which Oxford the then Regal City was the most considerable surrendred to Sir Thomas Fairfax upon Midsommer-day And by the Articles of that Surrendry the Duke of York was put into the Power of the Houses of Parliament together with the Great Seal the Signet and the Privy-Seal all which were most despitefully broken in the House of Peers as formerly the Dutch had broke the Seals of the King of Spain when they had cast off all Fidelity and Allegiance to him and put themselves into the Form of a Common-wealth But then to make him some amends they give him some faint hopes of suffering him to bestow a visit on his Realm of Scotland his ancient and native Kingdom as he commonly called it there to expect the bettering of his Condition in the changes of time But the Scots hearing of his purpose and having long ago cast off the yoke of subjection voted against his coming in a full Assembly so that we may affirm of him as the Scripture doth of our Saviour Christ viz. He came unto his own and his own received him not John cap. 1.2 The like resolution was taken also by the Commissioners of that Nation and the chief Leaders of their Army who had contracted with the two Houses of Parliament and for the sum of Two hundred thousand pounds in ready money sold and betrayed him into the hands of his Enemies as certainly they would have done the Lord Christ himself for half the money if he had bowed down the Heavens and came down to visit them Being delivered over unto such Commissioners as were sent by the Houses to receive him he was by them conducted on the third of February to his House of Holdenby not far from the good Town of Northampton where he was kept so close that none of his Domestick Servants no not so much as his own Chaplains were suffered to have any access unto him And there we leave him for the present but long he shall not be permitted to continue there as shall be shewn hereafter in due place and time
Realm of France What was taught afterwards in pursuance of Calvins Doctrines by Hottaman and him that calls himself Eusebius Philadelphos amongst the French by Vrsine and Pareus in the Palatine Churches by Buchanan and Knox amongst the Scots and by some principal Disciplinarians amongst the English we shall hereafter see in their proper places And we shall then see also what was done in point of practice first by the Princes on the House of Bourbon and afterwards by some great Lords of the Hugonot party against Francis the Second Charles the Ninth Henry the Third and Lewis the Thirteenth Kings of France by William Prince of Orange and other of the Belgick Lords in the final abdication of King Philip the Second by the Hungarians and Bohemians in their revolting from the Princes of the House of Austria by the Rebellious Scots in deposing imprisoning and expelling of their rightful Queen and finally by the Genevian Faction in the Realm of England in their imbroylments of the Nation under Queen Elizabeth and that calamitious War but more calamitous in the issue and conclusion of it against Charles the First All which are built upon no other ground then this Doctrine of Calvin accommodated and applyed to their several purposes as appears plainly by the Answer of the Scots to Queen Elizabeth who justified the deposing of their natural and lawful Queen on those words of Calvin which they relyed on for the sole ground of that horrible Treason and their Indemnity therein of which more hereafter 26. In the mean time I shall content my self with the following passage faithfully gathered out of the Common Places of William Bucan Divinity-Reader in the small University of Lawsanna sâ—ituate on the Lake Lemane in the Canton of Berne and consequently a neer Neighbour to the Town of Geneva who treating in his forty one Chapter of the Duty of Magistrates propounds this question toward the close viz. What a good Christian ought to do if by a cruel Prince he be distressed by some grievous and open injury To which he thus returns his Answer That though Princes and Subjects have relation unto one another yet Subjects in the course of nature were before their Princes and therefore that such Princes if they usurp not a plain Tyranny in their several Kingdoms are not Superiour to the rest by nature in the right of Father hood but are setled by the suffrages and consent of the people on such conditions as originally were agreed between them and that it follows thereupon according unto Buchanans Doctrine that Subjects are not born for the good of their Kings but that all Kings were made to serve for the good of the people that it is lawful to defend Religion by force of Arms not onely against the assaults of such Forreign Nations as have no jurisdiction over us but also against any part of the same Common-wealth the common consent of the Estates being first obtained which doth indeavour to subvert it that no violence is to be offered to the person of the Supreme Magistrate though he play the Tyrant by any private man whatsover except he be warranted thereunto by some extraordinary and express command from the Lord himself but the oppression rather to be born with patience then that God should be offended by such rash attempts that the Protection of the Supreme Magistrate was to be required against the unjust oppressions of inferiour Officers and that in a free Common-wealth the Supreme Magistrate is rather to be questioned in a course of Law then by open Force that Subjects may lawfully take up Arms in defence of their Wives and Children if the Chief Magistrate make any violent assault upon them as Lyons and other brute Creatures sight to defend their young ones this last exemplified by that of Trajan giving the Sword to the Captain of his Guard with these following words Hoc ense pro me justa faciente injusta facienâ—e contra me utaris that is to say That he should use the Sword against him in defence of himself and for the protection of all those who in regard of his Office were subject to him that therefore it was well done by the Switzers to free themselves of their subjection to the House of Austria when the Princes of the House had exercised more then ordinary cruelty in most parts of the Country that David might lawfully have killed Saul because he gave his Wife to another man expelled him from his native Country murdered the Priests for doing some good Offices to him and pursued him from one place to another with his flying Army but that he did forbear to do it lest he should give an Example to the people of Israel of killing their Kings which other men prompted by ambition might be like enough to imitate 27. Such is the Commentary of Buchanus upon Calvins Text by which all Christian Kings are made accountable even in Civil Matters to the three Estates or any other ordinary Officers of their own appointing Which Doctrines being once by him delivered and inforced by others what else could follow thereupon but first an undervaluing of their transcendent Authority afterwards a contempt of their persons and finally a reviling of them with reproachful Language From hence it was that Calvin calls Mary Queen of England by the name of Proserpine assuring us that all the Devils in Hell were not half so mischievous and that Knox could not finde for her any better titles then that of Iezabel mischievous Mary of the Spaniards blood the professed enemy of God From hence it was that Beza calls Mary Queen of Scots by the names of Medea and Athaliah of which the one was no less infamous in the Sacred then the other was in the Heathen story that the English Puritans compared Queen Elizabeth to an idle slut who swept the middle of the room but left all the dust and filth thereof behind the doors that Didoclavius calls King Iames the greatest and most deadly enemy of the holy Gospel and positively affirms of all Kings in general that they are naturally enemies to the Kingdom of Christ. And finally from hence it was that the seditious Author of the base and unworthy Dialogue entituled Eusebius Philadelphus hath so bespattered the great Princes of the House of France that he hath made them the most ugly Monsters in their lusts and cruelty which ere Nature produced and could devise no fitter names for Queen Mary of Scotland then those of Medea Clytemnestra Proserpine with that of monstrum Exitiale in the close of all And that the late most mighty Monarch of Great Britain was handled by his Subjects of this Faction with no less scurrility then if he had been raised on high for no other purpose then to be made the mark against which they were to shoot their Arrows even most bitter words the object of all false tongues and calumnious Pens Thus do they deal with Kings and Princes as Pilate in the
be admitted to any office charge dignity or magistracy whatever if he did not profess and live conformable in all points to the Roman Religion And for a Preamble hereunto the King was pleased to make a long and distinct Narration of the indulgence he had used to reduce the Hugonots to a right understanding and of the ill requital they had made unto him by the seditions and conspiracies which they raised against him their bringing in of forraign forces and amongst others the most mortal enemies of the French Nation putting into their hands the strongest places and most flourishing parts of the Kingdom to the contempt of his authority the despising of his grace and goodness and the continual disquieting of his Dominions and the destruction of his subjects To counter-poise which terrible Edict the Princes and other Leaders of the Hugonots which were then at Rochel entred into a solemn Covenant or Association by which they bound themselves by Oath to persevere till death in defence of their Religion never to lay down arms or condescend to any agreement without the general consent of all the Commanders and not then neither but upon sufficient security for the preservation of their lives and the enjoying of that Liberty of Conscience for which they first began the war 30. But the Admiral well knowing that the business was not to be carried by Oaths and Manifests and that they wanted mony to proceed by arms advised the Rochellers to send their Navy to the sea which in a time when no such danger was expected might spoyle and pillage all they met with and by that means provide themselves of mony and all other necessaries to maintain the war Which Counsel took such good effect that by this kind of Piracy they were enabled to give a fair beginning to this new Rebellion for the continuance whereof it was thought necessary to sollicite their Friends in Germany to furnish them with fresh recruits of able men and Queen Elizabeth of England for such sums of money as might maintain them in the service And in the first of these designs there appears no difficulty the inclination of the Prince Elector together with the rest of the Calvinian Princes and Imperial Cities were easily intreated to assist their Brethren of the same Religion And the same spirit governed many of the people also but on different grounds they undertaking the imployment upon hope of spoil as Mercenaries serving for their Pay but more for Plunder In England their desires were entertained with less alacrity though eagerly sollicited by Odet Bishop of Beauvais a younger Brother of the Admiral who having formerly been raised to the degree of a Cardinal therefore called most commonly the Cardinal of Chastillon had some years since renounced his Habit and Religion but still kept his Titles By the continual sollicitation of so great an Advocate and the effectual interposing of the Queen of Navar Elizabeth was perswaded to forget their former ingratitude and to remember how conducible it was to her personal interest to keep the French King exercised in perpetual troubles upon which Reason of State she is not onely drawn to accommodate the Hugonots with Ships Corn Arms and Ammunition but to supply them with a hundred thousand Crowns of ready money for the maintaining of their Army consisting of fourteen thousand Germans and almost as many more of the natural French And yet it was to be believed that in all this she had done nothing contrary to the League with France which she had sworn not long before because forsooth the Forces of the Hugonots were raised to no other end but the Kings mere service and the assistance of the Crown against the Enemies of both and the professed Adversaries of the true Religion But neither this great lone of money nor that which they had got by robbing upon the Seas was able to maintainâ— War of so long continuance For maintainance whereof they were resolved to sell the Treasures of the Churches in all such Provinces as they kept under their Command the Queen of Navar ingaging her Estate for their security who should adventure on the purchase 31. I shall not touch on the particulars of this Warâ— which ended with the death of the Prince of Conde in the battel of Iarnar the rigorous proceedings against the Admiral whom the King caused to be condemned for a Rebel his Lands to be confiscatedâ— his Houses plundred and pulled down and himself executed in Effigie the loss of the famous battel of Mont-Contour by the Hugonots party Anno 1569 which forced them to abandon all their strong holds except Rochel Angoulesme and St. Ieanâ—d Angeli and finally to shut themselves up within Rochel onely after which followed such a dissembled reconciliation between the parties as proved more bloudy then the War The sudden and suspected death of the Queen of Navar the Marriage of the Prince her Son with the Lady Margaret one of the Sisters of the King the celebrating of the wedding in the death of the Admiral on St. Bartholomews day 1572 and the slaughter of thirty thousand men within few days after the reduction of the whole Kingdom to the Kings obedience except the Cities of Nismes Montauban and Rochel onely the obstinate standing out of Rochel upon the instigation of such Preachers as fled thither for shelter and the reduction of it by the Duke of Anjon to the last extremity the raising of the Siege and the Peace ensuing on the Election of that Duke to the Crown of Poland the resolution of the Hugonots to renew the War as soon as he had left the Kingdom and their ingaging in the same on the Kings last sickness In all which traverses of State there is nothing memorable in reference to my present purpose but onely the conditions of the Pacification which was made at the Siege of Rochel by which it was accorded between the parties on the 11 of Iuly Anno 1573 that all offences should be pardoned to the said three Cities on their submission to the King and that it should be lawful for them to retain the free Exercise of their Religion the people meeting in the same unarmed and but few in numberâ— that all the inhabitants of the said three Cities should be obliged to observe in all outward matters except Baptism and Matrimony the Rites and Holy-days of the Church that the use of the Catholick Religion should be restored in the said Cities and all other places leaving unto the Clergy and Religious persons their Houses Profits and Revenues that Rochel should receive a Governour of the Kings appointment but without Garrison renounce all correspondencies and confederacies with Forreign Princes and not take part with any of the same Religion against the King and finally that the said three Towns should deliver Hostages for the performance of the Articles of the present Agreement to be changed at the end of every three months if the King so pleased It
as put a difference between the Rights of a Prophane and a Christian Magistrate Specanus a stiff Presbyterian in the Belgick Provinces makes a distinction between potestas Facti and potestas Iuris and then infers upon the same That the Authority of determining what is fit to be done belongs of right unto the Ministers of the Church though the execution of the Fact in Civil Causes doth properly appertain to the Supreme Magistrate And more than this the greatest Clerks amongst themselves would not give the Queen If she assume unto Her self the exercise of Her farther Power in ordering Matters of the Church according to the lawful Authority which is inherent in the Crown She shall presently be compared unto all the wicked Kings and others of whom we read in the Scriptures that took upon them unlawfully to intrude themselves into the Priest's Office as unto Saul for his offering of Sacrifice unto Osias for burning Incense upon the Altar unto Gideon for making of an Ephod and finally to Nadab and Abihu for offering with strange fire unto the Lord. 33. According to these Orthodox and sound Resolves they hold a Synod in St. Iohn's Colledg in Cambridg taking the opportunity of Sturbridg-Fayr to cloak their meeting for that purpose At which Synod Cartwright and Perkins being present amongst the rest the whole Book-Discipline reviewed by Traverse and formally approved of by the Brethren in their several Classes received a more Authentick approbation insomuch that first it was decreed amongst them That all which would might subscribe unto it without any necessity imposed upon them so to do But not long after it was made a matter necessary so necessary as it seems that no man could be chosen to any Ecclesiastical Office amongst them nor to be of any of their Assemblies either Classical Provincial or National till he had first subscribed to the Book of Discipline Another Synod was held at Ipswich not long after and the Results of both confirmed in a Provincial and National Synod held in London which gave the Book of Discipline a more sure establishment than an Act of State It is reported that the night before the great Battel in the Fields of Thessaly betwixt Caesar and Pompey the Pompeyan Party was so confident of their good success that they cast Dice amongst themselves for all the great Offices and Magistracies of the City of Rome even to the Office of the Chief-Priest-hood which then Caesar held And the like vanity or infatuation had possessed these men in the opinion which they had of their Strength and Numbers Insomuch that they entred into this consideration how Arch-Bishops Bishops Chancellors Deans Cannons Arch-Deacons Commissaries Registers Apparitors c. all which by their pretended Reformation must have been thrust out of their Livings should be provided for that the Commonwealth might not be thereby pestered with Beggars And this they did upon the confidence of some unlawful Assistance to effect their purposes if neither the Queen nor the Lords of the Council nor the Inferior Magistrates in their several Counties all which they now sollicited with more heat than ever should co-operate with them For about this time it was that Cartwright in his Prayer before his Sermon was noted to have used these words viz. Because they meaning the Bishops which ought to be Pillars in the Church combine themselves against Christ and his Truth therefore O Lord give us Grace and Power all as one man to set our selves against them Which words he used frequently to repeat and to repeat with such an earnestness of spirit as might sufficiently declare that he had a purpose to raise Sedition in the State for the imposing of that Discipline on the Church of England which was not likely to be countenanced by any lawful Authority which put the Queen to a necessity of calling him and all the rest of them to a better account to which they shall be brought in the years next following 33. In the mean time we must pass over into France where we find HENRY the Third the last King of the House of Valoise most miserably deprived of his Life and Kingdom driven out of Paris first by the Guisian Faction and afterwards assassinated by Iaques Clement a Dominican Fryar as he lay at St. Cloud attending the reduction of that stubborn City Upon whose death the Crown descended lineally on HENRY of Bourbon King of Navarre and Duke of Vendosme as the next Heir-male For the excluding of which Prince and the rest of that House the Holy League was first contrived as before is said There was at that time in the late King's Army a very strong Party of French Catholicks who had preferred their Loyalty to their Natural Prince before the private Interest and Designs of the House of Guise and now generally declare in favour of the true Successor By their Assistance and the concurring-Forces of the Hugonot-Faction it had been no hard matter for him to have Mastered the Duke of Maine who then had the Command of the Guisian Leagues But in the last he found himself deceived of his expectation The Hugonots which formerly had served with so much cheerfulness under his Command their King would not now serve him in his just and lawful Warrs against his Enemies Or if they did it shall be done upon Conditions so intolerable that he might better have pawned his Crown to a Forreign Prince than on such terms to buy the favour of his Subjects They looked upon him as reduced to a great necessity most of the Provinces and almost all the Principal Cities having before engaged against HENRY the Third and many others falling off when they heard of his death So that they thought the new King was not able to subsist without them and they resolved to work their own Ends out of that Necessity Instead of leading of their Armies and running cheerfully and couragiously towards his defence who had so oft defended them they sent Commissioners or Delegates to negotiate with him that they may know to what Conditions he would yeeld for their future advantage before they acted any thing in order to his preservation and their Conditions were so high so void of all Respects of Loyalty and even common Honesty that he conceived it safer for him and far more honourable in it self to cast himself upon the Favour of the Queen of England than condescend to their unreasonable and unjust demands So that in fine the Hugonots to a very great number forsook him most disloyally in the open Field drew off their Forces and retired to their several dwellings inforcing him to the necessity of imploring succours from the professed Enemies of his Crown and Nation Nor did he find the Queen unwilling to supply him both with Men and Money on his first desires For which She had better reason now than when She aided him and the rest of the French Hugonots in their former Quarrels And this She did with such a cheerful
About this time one of the Ministers named Rosse uttered divers Treasonable and Irreverent speeches against His Majesty in a Sermon of his preached at Perth for which the King craved Justice of the next Assembly and he required this also of them That to prevent the like for the times ensuing the Ministers should be inhibited by some Publick Order from uttering any irreverent speeches in the Pulpit against His Majesty's Person Council or Estate under the pain of Deprivation This had been often moved before and was now hearkned to with as little care as in former times All which the King got by it was no more but this that Rosse was only admonished to speak so reverently of His Majesty for the time to come as might give no just cause of complaint against him As ill success he had in the next Assembly to which he recommended some Conditions about the passing of the Sentence of Excommunication two of which were to this effect 1. That none should be excommunicated for Civil causes for any Crimes of leight importance or for particular wrongs offered to the Ministers lest the Censure should fall into contempt 2. That no summary Excommunication should be thenceforth used but that lawful citations of the Parties should go before in all manner of Causes whatsoever To both which he received no other Answer but That the Points were of too great weight to be determined on the sudden and should be therefore agitated in the next Assembly In the mean time it was provided That no Summary Excommunication should be used but in such occasions in which the Safety of the Church seemed to be in danger Which Exception much displeased the King knowing that they would serve their turn by it whensoever they pleased Nor sped he better with them when he treated severally than when they were in the Assembly The Queen of England was grown old and he desired to be in good terms with all his Subjects for bearing down all opposition which might be made against his Title after her decease To which end he deals with Robert Bruce a Preacher of Edenborough about the calling home the Popish Lords men of great Power and Credit in their several Countreys who had been banished the last year for holding some intelligence with the Catholick King Bruce excepts only against Huntley whom the King seemed to favour above all the rest and positively declared That the King must lose him if he called home Huntley for that it was impossible to keep them both And yet this Bruce was reckoned for a Moderate man one of the quietest and best-natur'd of all the Pack What was the issue of this business we shall see hereafter 42. In the mean time let us pass over into France and look upon the Actions of the Hugonots there of whose deserting their new King we have spoke of before And though they afterwards afforded him some Supplies both of Men and Money when they perceived him backed by the Queen of England and thereby able to maintain a defensive Warr without their assistance yet they did it in so poor a manner as made him utterly despair of getting his desired Peace by an absolute Victory In which perplexity he beholds his own sad condition his Kingdom wasted by a long and tedious Warr invaded and in part possessed by the Forces of Spain new Leagues encreasing every day both in strength and number and all upon the point of a new Election or otherwise to divide the Provinces amongst themselves To prevent which he reconciles himself to the Church of Rome goes personally to the Mass and in all other publick Offices which concerned Religion conformed himself unto the directions of the Pope And for so doing he gives this account to Wilks the Queen's Ambassador sent purposely to expostulate with him upon this occasion that is to say That Eight hundred of the Nobility and no fewer than Nine Regiments of the Protestant Party who had put themselves into the Service of his Predecessor returned unto their several homes and could not be induced to stay with him upon any perswasions That such of the Protestants as he had taken at the same time to his Privil-Council were so intent on their own business that they seldom vouchsafed their presence at the Council-Table so that being already forsaken by those on whom he relyed and fearing to be forsaken by the Papists also he was forced to run upon that course which unavoidable necessity had compelled him to and finally that being thus necessitated to a change of Religion he rather chose to make it look like his own free Act that he might thereby free the Doctrine of the Protestants from those Aspersions which he conceived must otherwise needs have fallen upon it if that Conversion had been wrought upon him by Dispute and Argument for hearkening whereunto he had bound himself when he first took the Crown upon him If by this means the Hugonots in France shall fall to as low an ebb as the Fortunes of their Brethren did in England at the same time they can lay the blame on nothing but their own Ingratitude their Disobedience to their King and the Genevian Principles that were rooted in them which made them Enemies to the Power and Guidance of all Soveraign Princes But the King being still in heart of his own Religion or at least exceeding favourable to all those that professed the same he willingly passed over all unkindness which had grown between them and by his countenance or connivence gave them such advantages as made them able to dispute the point with his Son and Successor whether they would continue Subjects to the Crown or not 43. In the Low-Countreys all things prospered with the Presbyterians who then thrive best when they involve whole Nations in Blood and Sacriledg By whose example the Calvinians take up Arms in the City of Embden renounce all obedience to their Prince and put themselves into the Form of a Commonwealth This Embden is the principal City of the Earl of East-Friesland situate on the mouth of the River Emns called Amasus by Latin Writers and from thence denominated Beautified with a Haven so deep and large that the greatest Ships with full sail are admitted into it The People rich the Buildings general fair both private and publick especially the Town-Hall and the stately Castle Which last being situate on a rising-ground near the mouth of the Haven and strongly fortified toward the Town had for long time been the Principal Seat of the Earls of that Province The second Earl hereof called Ezard when he had governed this Countrey for the space of sixty years or thereabouts did first begin to introduce the Doctrines of Luther into his Estates Anno 1525. But being old he left the Work to be accomplished by Enno his eldest Son who first succeeded in that Earldom and using the assistance of Hardimbergius a Moderate and Learned man established the Augustine Confession in the
Street cryed out so loud that he was heard by all the Lords and Gentlemen of his Retinue who thereupon prepared themselves for his assistance In the pursuit whereof the Earl himself is killed by Eveskin as he was making haste to help his Brother and Alexander is dispatched by Ramsey one of the King's Pages who being acquainted with the House came by the back-stairs time enough to preserve his Master Of this great Danger and Deliverance the King gives notice to all his Subjects desiring them to joyn with him in thanks to Almighty God for so great a Mercy which was accordingly performed by all honest men but the whole Story disbelieved discredited mis-reported by the Presbyterians whom it concerned to wash their hands of so foul a Treason And how far they were Parties in it or at least well-wishers to it may appear by this That when the Ministers of Edenborough were desired to convene their people and give God thanks for this deliverance of the King they excused themselves as not being well acquainted with all particulars And when it was replyed unto them That they were only required to make known to the people That the King had escaped a great Danger and to excite them to Thansgiving for his deliverance They answered That they were not very well satisfied in the truth of the matter That nothing was to be delivered in the Pulpit the truth whereof was not certainly known and that they were to utter nothing in that place but that which migh be spoke in Faith On which Refusal it was ordered by the Lords of the Council That the people should be drawn together into the Market-place That the Bishop of Ross should make a Declaration of the whole Design and therewithall conceive a Prayer of Thanksgiving for the King's Deliverance Which was performed on his part with a true affection and entertained by the people with great joy and gladness 37. But the whole Nation was not so besotted by the Presbyterians as either to dispute the Story or despise the Mercy Which wrought so far upon the Consciences of all honest men that in a Parliament held at Edenborough in November following the Estate of Goury was confiscate his Sons disherited the Name of Ruthen utterly abolished but the last dispenced with the bodies of the two Brothers brought to Edenborough there hanged and quartered the Heads of both being fixed upon the top of the Common Prison and finally The Fifth of August ordained by Act of Parliament for a Day of Thanksgiving in all times succeeding The like done also two years after at a General Assembly of the Ministers of the Church held in Haly-Rood-House as to the Day of Thanksgiving which they decreed to be kept solemnly from thenceforth in all the Churches of that Kingdom And it was well they did it then the King not venturing the Proposal to them in the year fore-going when they assembled at Burnt-Island whether in reference to some indisposition of Body which he found in himself or rather of some greater indisposition of Mind which he found in them But now it went clearly for him without contradiction as did some other things propounded to their consideration His Ey now looks unto the Crown of England and he resolved to bring the Churches of both Kingdoms to an Uniformity but so to do it as might make neither noise nor trouble The solemnizing of Marriage had been prohibited on Sundays by the Rules of the Discipline but by an Order made in the present Assembly it was indifferently permitted on all days alike Sundays as well as other days at the will of the Parties Before this time the Sacrament of Baptism was not administred but only at the times of Preaching on some opinion which they had of the indifferency or at the least the non-necessity thereof But now it was ordained with a joynt consent That the Ministers should not refuse the Sacrament of Baptism to Infants nor delay the same upon whatsoever pretext the same being required by the Parents or others in their name Which brought them two steps nearer to the Church of England than before they were 38. It was not long after the end of this Assembly when the King received Intelligence of Queen Elizabeth's death and of the general acknowledgment of his Succession both by Peers and People This puts him on a preparation for a Journey to England where he is joyfully received and found no small contentment in the change of his Fortunes here sitting amongst Grave Learned and Reverend men not as before a King without State without Honour without Order where Beardless Boys would every day brave him to his face where Jack and Tom and Will and Dick did at their pleasures cenâ—â—re the proceedings of him and his Council where Will stood up and said he would have it thus and Dick replied Nay marry but it shall be so as he describes their carriage in the Conference at Hampton-Court p. 4. and 80. So leaves he Scotland and the Puritans there with this Character of them recorded in the Preface of his Book called Basilicon Doron in which he paints them out as people which refusing to be called Anabaptists too much participated of their Humours not only agreeing with them in their General Rule the contempt of the Civil Magistrate and in leaning to their own Dreams Imaginations and Revelations but particularly in accounting all men prophane that agree not to their Fancies in making for every particular Question of the Polity of the Church as much Commotion as if the Article of the Trinity was called in question in making the Scripture to be ruled by their Conscience and not their Conscience by the Scripture in accounting every body Ethnicus Publicanus not worthy to enjoy the benefit of breathing much less to participate with them in the Sacraments that denies the least jot of their Grounds and in suffering King People Law and all to be trod under foot before the least jot of their Grounds be impugned in preferring such Holy Warrs to an Vngodly Peace not only in resisting Christian Princes but denying to pray for them for Prayer must come by Faith and it is not revealed that God will bear their Prayers for such a Prince To which He adds this Clause in the Book it self viz. That they used commonly to tell the people in their Sermons That all Kings and Princes were naturally Enemies to the Liberty of the Church and could never patiently bear the Yoak of Christ. And thereupon he gives this Counsel to the Prince To take heed all of such Puritans whom he calls the very Pests of the Church and Commonwealth whom no deserts can oblige neither Oaths nor Promises bind breathing nothing but Sedition and Calumnies aspiring without measure railing without reason and making their own imaginations the square of their Conscience protesting before the Great God That he should never find in any Highlander baser Thieves greater Ingratitude and more Lyes and vile
main business of these times were the Commotions raised in Transylvania Hungary Austria and Bohemia by those of the Calvinian Party which drew all the Provinces of the Empire into such confusions as have disturbed the Peace thereof to this very day For laying down the true Original thereof we may please to know that Ferdinand the younger Brother of Charles the fifth succeeding on the death of Maximilian the Emperor in the Dukedom of Austria and afterwards attaining by Marriage to the Crown of Hungary and Bohemia which he was not born to endeavoured to oblige his Subjects in all those Dominions by a connivance at such Deviations from the Church of Rome as were maintained by those who adhered to Luther and held themselves to the Confession of Ausberg which afterwards was ratified by Imperial Edict Followed therein by Maximilian the second who succeeded him in his Estates and being a mild and gracious Prince not only showed himself unwilling to challenge any Power over Souls and Consciences but was pleased to mediate in behalf of his Protestant Subjects with the Fathers at Trent amongst whom he incurred the suspition of being a Lutheran But Rodolphus the eldest of his Sons and his next Successor was of a different temper from his Father and Grandfather a profest Enemy to all that held not a Conformity with the Church of Rome which he endeavoured to promote with such terrible Edicts as threatned nothing but destruction unto all gain-sayers He had five Brethren at that time but none of them the Father of any children which made him cast his eyes on Ferdinand of Gratts Son of Charles Duke of Gratts and Nephew of Ferdinand the Emperor before remembred Who going to Rome in the Year of Iubile Anno 1600 obliged himself by Oath to the Pope then being to extirpate all the Protestants out of his Dominions which upon the instigation of the Iesuits he did accordingly by pillaging and banishing all of the Augustan Confession thorough Styria Carinthia and Carniola though they had paid for the Freedom of their Conscience a great sum of Money 18. This so endeared him to Rodolphus that he resolved upon him for his next Successor and at the present to estate him in the Realm of Hungary as a step unto it In which Design as he was seconded by the Pope and Spaniard so questionless it had been effected if Matthias the Emperor's Brother and next Heir had not countermined them by countenancing those of the Calvinian or Reformed Religion who then began to seem considerable in the eye of that Kingdom To carry on which Spanish Plot to the End desired the Prelates of Hungary in an Assembly held at Presburgh Anno 1604 published a Decree without the consent of the Nobility and Estates of the Kingdom for the burning or perpetual banishment of all such as were of the Reformed Religion Which having been entertained in the Realm of Poland found no great difficulty in crossing the Carpathian Mountains and gaining the like favourable admission in this Kingdom also Against which Edict of the Bishops a Protest is presently made by the Estates of the Realm under the Seal of the Palatine the chief Officer of it By whom it was publickly affirmed That they would with just Arms defend themselves if they should be questioned for the Cause of Religion Which notwithstanding Beliojosa one of the Emperor 's chief Commanders in the Realm of Hungary first got into his hands the strong Town of Cassovia standing upon the borders of Transylvania And that being done he did not only interdict all those of the Reformed Religion from making any uses of them as they had done formerly but he inhibits them from having Sermons in their private Houses from reading in the holy Bible and from the burying of their dead in hallowed places 19. Nor staid he there but pick'd a needless quarrel with Istivon â—otscay a great man of that Countrey two of whose Castles he surprised and razed and thereupon provoked him to become â—his Enemy For being so provoked he takes upon himself the Patronage of his Native Countrey then miserably oppressed by the German Soldiers calls himself Prince of Transylvania confederates himself with the Turkish Bassa's and thrived so well in his Designs that he compelled the Emperor to recall his Forces out of Transylvania and procured Liberty of Conscience for all his Followers For being assisted by the Turks he encountred the said Beliojosa cuts off 6000 of his men and sends a great part of the Enemy's Ensigns to the Visier Bassa as a sign of his Victory Which Blow he followed by a Proclamation to this effect viz. That all such as desired Liberty of Conscience and to live free from the Corruptions and Idolatries of the Church of Rome should repair to him as to their Head and that he would allow to each of them Five Dollars weekly Which Proclamation did not only draw unto him many thousands of the common people together with a great part of the Nobility and Gentry but tempted many of the Emperor's Soldiers to forsake their General and joyn themselves unto his Party Strengthned wherewith he makes himself Master of Cassovia in which he changed not only the Religion but the Civil Government insomuch that many of those which were addicted to the Church of Rome were presently slain upon the place and most of the rest turned out of the City together with the greatest part of the Church-men the Bishops and the Emperor's Treasurer Upon which fortunate Success a great Party in the Vpper Hungary declare in favour of his Cause violently break open the Religious Houses compel the Fryers to put themselves into fortified places and finally to abandon Presburgh the chief Town of that Kingdom and to flye for shelter to Vienna as their surest Refuge 20. After this Basta the Lord-General of the Emperor's Forces obtained the better of them in some Fortunate Skirmishes which rather served to prolong than to end the Warr. For Botscay was grown to so great strength and made such spoil in all places wherever he came that Pallas Lippa his Lieutenant was found to be possessed at the time of his death of no fewer than Seven hundred Chains of Gold and One hundred thousand Ducats in ready money which he had raked together within less than a year This Treasure coming into Botscay's hands by the death of Lippa he mightily encreased his Army with which he took in many strong Towns and brought in some of the Nobility of the Vpper Hungary sending his Forces into Styria Austria and Moravia which he spoiled and wasted Insomuch that the Emperor being forced to send Commissioners to him to accord the Differences could obtain no better Conditions from him but That Liberty of Conscience and the free exercise of the Reformed Religion should be permitted to all those who demanded the same and that himself should be estated in the Principality of Transylvania for the term of his life And though the Emperor
of time in which the Commons were intent on the Warr of Ireland and the Puritans as much busied in blowing the Trumpet of Sedition in the Kingdom of England it only showed the King's good meaning with his want of Power In which conjuncture hapned the Impeachment and Imprisonment of Eleven of the Bishops Which made that Bench so thin and the King so weak that on the 6 th of February the Lords consented to the taking away of their Votes in Parliament The News whereof was solemnized in most places of London with Bells and Bouâ—â—res Nothing remained but that the King should pass it into Act by his Royal Assent by some unhappy Instrument extorted from Him when he was at Canterbury and signified by His Message to the Houses on the fourteenth of that Month. Which Condescention wrought so much unquietness to His Mind and Conscience and so much unsecureness to His Person for the rest of His Life that He could scarce truly boast of one day's Felicity till God was pleased to put a final period to His Grieâ—s and Sorrows For in relation to the last we find that the next Vote which passed in Parliament deprived Him of His Negative Voice and put the whole Militia of the Kingdom into the hands of the Houses Which was the first beginning of His following Miseries And looking on Him in the first He will not spare to let us know in one of his Prayers That the injury which he had done to the Bishops of England did as much grate upon his Conscience as either the permitting of a wrong way of Worship to be set up in Scotland or suffering innocent blood to be shed under colour of Iustice. 12. For so it was that some of the prevailing-Members in the House of Commons considering how faithfully and effectually the Scots had served them not only voted a Gratuity of Three hundred thousand pounds of good English Money to be freely given them but kept their Army in a constant and continual Pay for Nine Months together And by the terror of that Army they forced the King to pass the Bill for Trienial Parliaments and to perpetuate the present Session at the will of the Houses to give consent for Murthering the Earl of Strafford with the Sword of Justice and suffering the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to be banished from him to fling away the Starr-Chamber and the High-Commission and the Coercive Power of Bishops to part with all his right to Tonnage and Poundage to Ship-money and the Act for Knighthood and by retrenching the Perambulation of His Forests and Chases to leave his Game to the destruction of each Bore or Peasant And by the terror of this Army they took upon them to engage all the Subjects of the Kingdom in a Protestation first hammered on the third of May in order to the condemnation of the Earl of Strafford for maintenance of the Priviledges and Rights of Parliament standing to one another in pursuance of it and bringing all persons to condign punishment who were suspected to oppose them Encouraged also by the same they took upon them an Authority of voting down the Church's Power in making of Canons condemning all the Members of the late Convocation calumniating many of the Bishops and Clergy in most odious manner and vexing some of them to the Grave And they would have done the like to the Church it self in pulling down the Bishops and Cathedral Churches and taking to themselves all their Lands and Houses if by the Constancy and Courage of the House of Peers they had not failed of their Design But at the last the King prevailed so far with the Scots Commissioners that they were willing to retire and withdraw their Forces upon His Promise to confirm the Acts of the Assembly at Glasgow and reach out such a Hand of Favour unto all that Nation as might estate them in a happiness above their hopes On this assurance they march homewards and He followeth after Where he consents to the abolishing of Bishops and alienating all their Lands by Act of Parliament suppresseth by like Acts the Liturgy and the Book of Canons and the five Articles of Perth rewards the chief Actors in the late Rebellion with Titles Offices and Honours and parts with so much of His Royal Prerogative to content the Subjects that He left Himself nothing of a King but the empty Name And to sum up the whole in brief In one hour He unravelled all that excellent Web the weaving whereof had took up more than Forty years and cost His Father and Himself so much Pains and Treasure 13. By this Indulgence to the Scots the Irish Papists are invited to expect the like and to expect it in the same way which the Scots had travelled that is to say by seizing on His Forts and Castles putting themselves into the Body of an Army and forcing many of His good Protestant-Subjects to forsake the Kingdom The Motives which induced them to it their opportunities for putting it in execution and the miscarriage of the Plot I might here relate but that I am to keep my self to the Presbyterians as dangerous Enemies to the King and the Church of England as the Irish Papists For so it hapned that His Majesty was informed at His being in Scotland That the Scots had neither took up Arms nor invaded England but that they were encouraged to it by some Members of the Houses of Parliament on a design to change the Government both of Church and State In which he was confirmed by the Remonstrance of the state of the Kingdom presented to Him by the Commons at His first coming back the forcible attempt for breaking into the Abby of Westminster the concourse of seditious people to the Dores of the Parliament crying out that they would have no Bishops nor Popish Lords and their tumultuating in a fearful manner even at White-Hall Gates where they cryed out with far more horror to the Hearers That the King was not worthy to live that they would have no Porter's Lodg between Him and them and That the Prince would govern better Hereupon certain Members of both Houses that is to say the Lord Kimbolton of the Upper Hollis and Haslerig Hampden Pym and Stroud of the Lower-House are impeached of Treason a Serjeant sent to apprehend them and command given for sealing up their Trunks and Closets 14. But on the contrary the Commons did pretend and declared accordingly That no Member of theirs was to be impeached arrested or brought unto a Legal Trial but by the Order of that House and that the sealing up of their Trunks or Closets was a breach of Priviledg And thereupon it was resolved on Monday Ian. 3. being the day of the Impeachment That if any persons whatsoever should come to the Lodgings of any Member of the House or seize upon their persons that then such Members should require the aid of the Constable to keep such persons in safe custody till the House gave
whatsoever whom they found qualified and gifted for the holy Ministry a Clause being added thereunto That every person and persons which were so ordained should be reputed deemed and taken for a Minister of the Church of England sufficiently authorised for any Office or Employment in it and capable of receiving all advantages which appertained to the same To shew the nullity and invalidity of which Ordinations a learned Tractate was set out by Dr. Bohe Chaplain sometimes to the Right Reverend Dr. Houson Bishop of Oxford first and of Durham afterwards Never since answered by the Presbyterians either Scots or English Next after comes the Directory or new Form of Worship accompanied with an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons on the third of Ianuary for authorising the said Directory or Form of Worship as also for suppressing the publick Liturgy repealing all the Acts of Parliament which confirmed the same and abrogating all the ancient and established Festivals that so Saint Sabbath as sometimes they called it might be all in all The insufficiency of which Directory to the Ends proposed in the same pronounced the weakness of the Ordinance which authorised it and the excellency of the publick Liturgy in all the parts and offices of it was no less learnedly evinced by Dr. Hammond then newly made a Chaplain in ordinary to His Sacred Majesty Which though it might have satisfied all equal and unbyassed men yet neither Learning nor Reason could be heard in the new Assembly or if it were the voice thereof was drowned by the noise of the Ordinances 41. For on the 23 d of August Anno 1645 another Ordinance comes thundering from the Lords and Commons for the more effectual Execution of the Directory for publick Worship with several Clauses in the same not only for dispersing and use thereof but for calling in the Book of Common-prayer under several penalties Which coming to His Majesty's knowledg as soon as he returned to His Winter-Quarters He published His Proclamation of the 13th of November commanding in the same the use of the Common-Prayer notwithstanding any Ordinance to the contrary from the Houses of Parliament For taking notice first of those notable Benefits which had for Eighty years redounded to this Nation by the use of the Liturgy He next observes that by abolishing the said Book of Common-Prayer and imposing the Directory a way would be left open for all Ignorant Factious and Evil men to broach their Fancies and Conceits be they never so erroneous to mislead people into Sin and Rebellion against the King to raise Factions and Divisions in the Church and finally to utter those things for their Prayers in the Congregation to which no Conscientious can say Amen And thereupon He gives Commandment to all Ministers in their Parish-Churches to keep and use the said Book of Common-Prayer in all the Acts and Offices of God's Publick Worship according to the Laws made in that behalf and that the said Directory should in no sort be admitted received or used the said pretended Ordinances or any thing contained in them to the contrary notwithstanding But His Majesty sped no better by His Proclamation than the two Doctors did before by their Learned Arguments For if He had found little or no obedience to his Proclamations when he was strong and in the head of a victorious and successful Army He was not to expect it in a low condition when his Affairs were ruinated and reduced to nothing 42. For so it was that the Scots having raised an Army of Eighteen thousand Foot and Three thousand Horse taking the Dragoons into the reckoning break into England in the depth of Winter Anno 1643 and marched almost as far as the Banks of the River Tine without opposition There they received a stop by the coming of the Marquess of Newcastle with his Northern Army and entertain'd the time with some petit skirmishes till the sad news of the surprise of Selby by Sir Thomas Fairfax compelled him to return towards York with all his Forces for the preserving of that place on which the safety of the North did depend especially The Scots march after him amain and besiege that City in which they were assisted by the Forces of the Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester who by the Houses were commanded to attend that Service The issue whereof was briefly this that having worsted the great Army of Prince Rupert at Marston-moor on the second of Iuly York yeelded on Composition upon that day fortnight the Marquess of Newcastle with many Gentlemen of great Note and Quality shipt themselves for France and the strong Town of Newcastle took in by the Scots on the 19th of October then next following More fortunate was His Majesty with His Southern Army though at the first he was necessitated to retire from Oxon at such time as the Forces under Essex and Waller did appear before it The news whereof being brought unto them it was agreed that Waller should pursue the King and that the Earl's Army should march Westward to reduce those Countreys And here the Mystery of Iniquity began to show its self in its proper colours For whereas they pretended to have raised their Army for no other end but only to remove the King from his Evil Councellors those Evil Councellors as they call them were left at Oxon and the King only hunted by his insolent Enemies But the King having totally broken Waller in the end of Iune marched after Essex into Devonshire and having shut him up in Cornwall where he had neither room for forrage nor hope of succours he forced him to flye ingloriously in a Skiff or Cockboat and leave his Army in a manner to the Conqueror's Mercy But his Horse having the good fortune to save themselves the King gave quarter to the Foot reserving to Himself their Cannons Arms and Ammunition as a sign of His Victory And here again the Warr might possibly have been ended if the King had followed his good fortune and march'd to London before the Earl of Essex had united his scattered Forces and Manchester was returned from the Northern Service But setting down before Plymouth now as he did before Glocester the last year he lost the opportunity of effecting his purpose and was fought withall at Newberry in his coming back where neither side could boast of obtaining the Victory 43. But howsoever having gained some reputation by his Western Action the Houses seem inclinable to accept His offer of entring into Treaty with Him for an Accommodation This He had offered by His Message from Evesham on the 4th of Iuly immediately after the defeat of Waller and pressed it by another from Tavestock on the 8th of September as soon as he had broken the great Army of the Earl of Essex To these they hearkned not at first But being sensible of the out-cries of the common people they condescend at last appointing Vxbridg for the place and the thirtieth day of Ianuary for the