Conclusion from so bad a Beginning by making way for some Protestant Lady of that Country that might advance the Reformation begun by him there he vext the Question a long while and finding that the Pope over-aw'd by the Emperour durst not consent to a Divorce he to scandalize him the more set forth by many learned Arguments the unlawfulness of the Marriage and so nettled King Henry that the Pope doubting the effects of his Impatience propos'd by way of Expedient though but faintly to Gregory Cassalis the English Resident then at Rome that he would permit him ut aliam duceret Uxorem which in plain English was That if the King pleased he would allow him to have two Wives at once Now whether it were that the King doubted his power and thought he could not make good what he promised for that he could not make that Marriage out which he had already to be either lawful or unlawful so as to relieve him or dismiss it Or whether he had as is more probable a clear Sentiment of the Popes slight Opinion of him in making so unusual not to say unlawful a Proposal to him is not certain but certain it is he never forgave the Affront till by vertue of his own proper power he had divorced himself from his Authority which the Cardinal labouring to uphold by his Legatine power out of hope of being himself Pope nor only lost himself in the attempt but drew all he Clergy who took part with him into a Premunire Of whose Error his wise Servant Cromwel took the advantage making his Masters fall the occasion of his own rising by whom the thoroughly humbled Convocation weâ—e perswaded to petition the King for their pardon under the Title and Stile of Ecclesiae Cleri Anglicani Protector supremum Caput which rais'd a greater dispute upon the Supremacy not long after then was before upon the point of Divorce For the Bishop of Rochester who by reason of his great learning and sanctity of Life was a leading man refusing to subscribe the aforesaid Petition unless some words might be added by way of explanation of the Kings Supremacy Cromwel took the Defence thereof upon himself and by advice with Bishop Cranmer there were many Arguments brought to justifie the same both from the Authority of Kingship in general de Communi Jure by vertue of that Divine Law that has given the stile of a Royal Priesthood to all anointed Kings and to which by a parallel Case the Pope himself did not long after give more then a seeming allowance For Clement the Seventh at the interview of Marselles when he was urged by some that desired Reformation and prest for the liberty of receiving the Sacrament in both kinds by an Argument taken from the custome of the Kings of France who alwayes received both Elements he answered That it was a peculiar priviledge by which Kings were differenced from other men as being anointed with the Unction of Priesthood as likewise from the particular Prerogative of the Kings of this Isle de proprio Jure or by the Common Law of this Land which was of ancienter date then any Prescription made by the Pope having been ratified by the Sanction of several Acts of Parliament that had declar'd all Spiritual Jurisdiction to be inherent in the Crown This Doctrine of his wanted not its Use for the King had this immediate benefit of the Dispute to be restored to the Annates and First-fruits of the Bishopricks and now the Bond of his Holiness 's Authority being thus loosed one priviledge dropt out after another till at length they not only divested him of the profit but of the honour of his Fatherhood forbidding any to call him any more * Anciently written Pa. Pa. i. e. Pater Patriarcharum Papa or Pater for that there could be but one Lord and Father but only Bishop of Rome These Annates as they were some of the principal Flowers of the Triple Crown and could not well be pluck'd off without defacing the Sacred Tyara so the whole Conclave took such an alarm at the loss of them that apprehending no less then a total defection to follow they most peremptorily cited the King himself to appear at Rome under pain of Excommunication This was thought to be so unreasonable an Indignity offered to his Majesty in respect it was neither convenient for him to abandon his Kingdom by going so far in Person nor any way decent to trust the Secrets of his Conscience to a pragmatical Proctor that the Parliament who were conven'd to consider of the matter thought it but necessary to put a stop to all Appeals to be made out of the Realm under the penalty of Premunire and pray'd his Majesty without more ado to appoint a Court of Delegates here at home to determine the Cause Upon which the Marriage being not long after declared void Cromwell hastned on the Match with the Lady Anne Bulloigne but the Court of Rome judging the first Marriage good and the last void anathematiz'd all that were assistant in the Divorce and to shew how much they were incens'd by the precipitation of their Sentence they concluded it in one only which by the usual Form could not be finish'd in less then three Consistories This began that Fiery tryal which followed not long after wherein we may say his Holiness himself prov'd to be the very first Martyr dying immediately after the pronunciation of that great Curse as one blasted by the Lightning of his own Thunder whereby the Church Universal being without a Head The Reformists here took that opportunity to provide for their own by declaring the King Supream Head in Earth of the Church of England for the support of which Dignity they vested in the Crown the First-fruits of all Benefices as they had before of all Bishopricks Dignities and Offices whatever spiritual Setting forth in what manner Bishops Suffragans should be nominated and appointed and what their Priviledges and Authorities should be In defence of which their proceedings the King himself wrote an excellent Book or at least it pass'd for his De Potestate Christianorum Regum in suis Ecclesiis contra Pontificis Tyrannidem c. But there were many however and those of no small note who continued so obstinate in their Popish Principles that they could neither be moved by his Pen nor his Penalties to submit chusing rather to part with their Blood then their Blessing And whether they were real or mistaken Martyrs or not rather Sufferers then Martyrs I will not take upon me to say it being as hard for others to judge them as for themselves to judge the thing they died for Truth and Treason being in those dayes Qualities so like one another that they were scarcely to be discern'd as appears by the nice Cases of those two I think the most eminent persons of all that were so unhappy as to suffer for setting up the Papal above the Regal Authority the
whit as sound as the exterior parts Witness the free Cities and those large Countries the Patrimonies of the Psaltzgrave the Dukes of Saxony Brandenburg Wittenburg Lunenburg Brunswick Mecklen Pomerania Sweburgh Newburgh and Holst with those other under the Prince of Anhalt the Marquess of Baden the Landgrave of Hesse and in fine almost all the Princes of Germany I think we may except only the Dukes of Austria and Bavaria in whose Countries yet are many Protestant Families of note to all which joyning those out-lying Plantations in the furthest part of the less known World containing many a Sun-burnt Saint those of the Reformed Religion there being infinitely more extensive and Populous than those of the Popish Perswasion and all these with Universal consent acknowledging our King as Head of the League within the Protestant Pale as it will extend the Borders of our Church beyond what is commonly apprehended so it so far magnifies the Majesty of the King of England whether consider'd as Propagator fidei in the Protestant Phrase or Defensor Fidei in the Pope's stile that it may as truly be said of him as of Claudius when he was Lord of Britaine (f) Anâ—nimi Epigra vet Lib. 2. Oceanus medium venit in Imperium Now because the Supremacy in Ecclesiasticis is so nice a Point as the Popish Faction render it many of whom not comprehending the Legality much less the necessity of its being Intrusted with the King only have been more obstinate in the defence of their Allegations than their Allegiance it may be reasonable to examine the matter of Right by the matter of Fact as that by Common Usuage which our Common Lawyers Date (g) Bracton fol. 314. Cook sur Lit. l. 2. Sect. 170. Du temps il ny ad memoire de Contraire from the Authority of which Age we may conclude the practice whatever it has been to have gain'd the form and effect as well as the honour and repute of a Law according to that known Maxime (h) Cook sur Litt. lib. 3. Sect. 659. Quod Prius est Tempore potius est Jure Pass we then through those four noted Periods 1. From the time of Lucius the first Christian King of the Britains to that of Constantine the first Christian King or Emperour of the Romans reckon'd about a hundred and fifty years 2. From that Time till the Conversion of Ethelbert the first Christian King of the Saxons or English suppos'd to be three hundred and sixty years more 3. From thence to the time of the first King of the Norman here which was not so little as five hundred years more at what time the Pope first put in his Claim 4. From thence to the time he let go his hold again which being about the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign whose Ambassadour he refused to treat with makes up near five hundred years more and if in all that long series of Christianity it shall appear by consent of all Ecclesiastical Writers in all times that the King has ever been deem'd to be Papa Patriae Jure Proprietatis Vicarius Dei in Regno Jure Possessionis I hope then the Imputation of Heresie and Schism laid upon Henry the Eight by Paul the Third for taking upon him to be the Supream head of the Church within his own dominions will vanish as a Result of Passion and Our present Kings be Judged in Remitter to their antient Right or as the Law-books Express it Enson (i) 25. Assis pl. 4.35 Ass s pl. 11.23 Edw. 3.69.11 Hâ—n 4.50 Tit. Remitt 11. melior Droit Lucius and those claiming immediately from by and after him I take to be stated in a double right Ratione Fundationis ratione Donationis For as the Lawyers have it cujus est dare ejus est disponere Now that all the Bishopricks of this Isle were of his Foundation and Donative appears by all our books saith the (k) Sur Lit. Cap. Discontinuance Sec. 648. Lord Cooke The first Canons receiving Sanction Ex Divinitate Principis as the Canonists express it till such time as that Foundation laid by him was buried in the Rubbish of Dioclesian's Persecution After which we have no Constat of any Ecclesiastical Polity till the time of Constantine who having recover'd the Church out of its Ruines and laid a new Superstructure of his own upon the Old Found is upon that Account both by Eusebius and Socrates stil'd the Great and it is well they call'd him not the Vniversal Bishop His Power being no less extensive than his Dominions the (l) Euseb vit Constant Cap. 24. L. 4. first of them pointing at his power in General calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The (m) Socrat. Hist Eccles last referring to his more immediate power over the Clergy for to say truth he precided even in Rome it self stiles him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Pontifex Maximus From the time of this Constantine the Great till that of Pope Gregory the Great neither heard those here any thing of the Church of Rome nor they of Rome any thing of the Church here That Pope being so little known to or knowing any thing of the concerns of this Isle that when accidentally he saw some little (n) Some it seems of the Pagan Saxons then newly planted here Children who had been brought from hence he ask'd whether they were Christians or no and it being as Ignorantly answer'd him That all the Natives here were Pagans he out of his singular Zeal to Christian Piety sent over Austin the Monk to bring them under his Apostolical Obedience By which we may rather Understand a subjection to the Roman Faith than to the Roman Church for that Rome being at that time but a private Diocess had not Credit enough to give Laws to all the Churches of Italy much less to Impose upon those further off for every body knows how they of (o) Sygonius lib. 9. de â—eg Italiae dicit non debere Ambrosianam Ecclesiam Rom. â—egibus subjicere Millan not to mention any other contested with them for the Precedence many years after And for the Independency of the Churches in (p) Baronius An. 1059. Spain and France there needs no other Proof than what we have from that Magisterial Monk's own Relation before mention'd who as he pass'd through France in his way hither observing how different their Forms of Divine Service were from those at Rome and how repugnant their Discipline to any thing he had been before acquainted with was so surpriz'd with the Novelty that he could not forbear (q) Cum una sit fides cur sunt Ecclesiarum consuetudines alterum missarum consuetudo in Sanct. Rom. Eccles atque altera in Galliarum c. Expostulating the Reason with his Ghostly Master whose pious Answer yet to be seen at the end of his Printed Works is worthy Notice who after an excellent discourse upon that Subject concludes that as their Liberty
to both yet neither was so tortur'd between the Consideration of what was safe and what was Just that it appear'd in bringing the Earl they had brought him to Tryal and put him into such an Agony as shook the very Foundations of the Government And this Hesitation of his prov'd to be the Groundwork of three the most Important Jealousies that ever troubled any State the Parliament thereupon declaring themselves dissatisfied in the Security of their Religion Proprieties and Priviledges to the clearing whereof they made not long after three as strange Proposals 1. For the Extirpation of Bishops 2. The Establishment of a Triennial Parliament 3. The Delivery of the Militia into their Disposal This Contumacy of theirs taking its rise from the Confidence they had in their Brethren the Scots who all this while continued in Arms upon the Borders for want of money to disband them eating like a Fistula Insensibly into the Bowels of the Kingdom he made it his first care to cure that Malady wherein he proceeded with that great judgment and skill that in paying them off the Parliament gave the Money but he the Satisfaction having thereby so far recover'd the good Opinion of those People however they came to be perverted afterward that as soon as he arriv'd in their Country whither he went in Person presently after the Peace was concluded they gave him two notable Instances of their Duty and Submission The first Publick in reviving that good old Law there which made it Treason for any to Leavy Arms without the Kings Leave and Commission The second Private in the discovery of the five Members here that had been the principal Engineers to draw them into England But whilst he was busie in quenching the Incendiations of Scotland behold a more dreadful Fire breaks out in Ireland the Matter whereof was so prepaâ—'d that there appear'd very little or no smoak of Suspition till it was all in a Flame and which made it more terrible was That the Rebels pretended to take their Rule from the English as their President from the Scots in defending their Religion Proprieties and Liberties by Arms all which being as they said undermined not knowing how soon the Blow might be given they thought it justifiable enough to prevent what they could not withstand Now to prove that their Religion was in danger they urg'd the Preparatory Votes and Menaces of the House of Commons in England and for the proof of the Impairing their Liberty and Proprieties they referr'd to the Remonstrances of those in Scotland who made it the first motive of their rising that they were like to be reduced to the slavish Condition of Ireland in being brought under the Form of a Province and subjected to the insupportable Tyranny of a * The placing a President ov r the Councel of State being the Ground of that Fear Lord Lieutenant And now to add a Varnish to this Colour they declar'd for Preservation of the Kings Rights as well as their own swearing to oppose with Life Power and Estate all such as should directly or indirectly indeavour to Suppress the Royal Prerogative of the King his Heirs and Successors or do any †Referring to the Proceedings of the Parliament in England who had but a little before taken away the Tonnage Poundage the Sâ—ipmoney Court of Wards High Commission-Court and were earnestly contesting for the Militia c. Act or Acts contrary to the Royal Government This Declaration of theirs was written with a Pen of Iron in Letters of Blood as believing that no Rebels in the World had more to say for themselves then they at least that they had much more matter of Justification then either the Scots or English could pretend to who justified themselves by seigning only to suspect what t'other really suffer'd under Neither perhaps had the World so condemned them all Circumstances considered had there not appear'd a Self-condemnation within themseâ—ves by counterfeiting a * Whiâ—h that it might be the more authent câ— they take off an old Seal from an Absolâ—te Patent to Farâ—ham-Abby which they annex'd to it Commission from the King to justifie this their Arming falsly bragging that the Queen was with them and that the King would very shortly come to them Which as it was a base and abject piece of Policy that lost them more Credit when it was detected then it got them Repute while it was believ'd so it was malitious towards the King to that degree with respect to the Condition he was then in that it cannot otherwise be thought but that having murther'd so many of his Protestant Subjects they had a mind to murther him too The Consequences of that great Suspition it brought upon him being such as he could never recover the disadvantages it fastned on him till he fell finally under the power of those Sons of Belial who destroyed him for no other Reason but to destroy Monarchy it self So that he was not much mistaken who confidently averred It was the Papists brought him to the block the Presbyterians that tuck'd up his hair and the Fanatick that cut off his head Whereof he himself was so sensible that the very last words he us'd as if to shew he alike abhorr'd either of them was to profess He dyed a Christian according to the Profession of the Church of England as he found it left him by his Father foreseeing that he should suffer more by Reproach then by the Axe After which he resigned himself to the fatal stroke with that cheerfulness as shew'd he believ'd by removing that Scandal only he should get a greater Victory over his Enemies when he was dead then ever they got over him whilst he was alive The ill news of Ireland drew him with all imaginable haste out of Scotland But before he could come to the Consideration of that great Affair he was prevented by the Parliaments renewing their old Complaints who found a slight occasion of quarrel to introduce other matters that they knew would widen the Difference beyond all reconciliation for his Majesty having taken publick notice of a Bill that was depending in the House whereby he thought his Prerogative pinch'd to which therefore he offer'd a Provisional Clause with a Salvo Jure to himself and the people to prevent all Disputes at the passing of it they interpreted this to be so high a violation of their Priviledge that they pray'd to have the Informers brought in to condign punishment Seconding that Petition with a Remonstrance against all those whose Affection or Interest they thought might be serviceable to him under a new coyn'd name of Malignants which they ranged into three Classes 1. Jesuited Papists 2. Corrupted Clergy-men and Bishops 3. Interested Counsellors and Courtiers concluding thereupon 1. That no Bishops should have any Votes in Parliament 2. That no People should be imploy'd about him but such as they could confide in 3. That none of the Lands forfeited by the Irish Rebels should be
Neither is it so in the Case of a particular Person only but if the whole Body of the people of this Nation should take upon them to do the like absque assensu Regis The Judges holding that where a War shall be so declared against any in League with the King without his consent and allowance the League is not thereby broken The like holds in all cases of Confederacies and Combinations which forced the late Rebels in the time of Charles the First to declare this Kingdom a Common-wealth before they could prevail with any Forrain Princes to treat with them and very few did it then Wherefore it is recorded as a wise answer of that Parliament in the Seventeenth of Richard the Second who when that King out of a necessitous compliance with the People offer'd them leave to take into their consideration some concerns of War and Peace Replied It did not become their Duty neither in Truth durst they presume ever to Treat of matters of so Transcendent Concernment No doubt then can there be of that Jus Foecialis 5. Jus Foecialis or right of Legation in directing sending and receiving all Embassies which Curtius calls Jus Regium a Power so Singular and Absolute that as (b) Bod. de Repub. Bodin and (c) In State Christ printed Anno 1657. H. Wotton both men of sufficient Authority affirm divers of our Neighbour Princes who yet call themselves absolute as the Kings of Hungary Poland Denmark Bohemia c. have nothing like it being bound up to consult with their People about all publick concerns before they can make any Conclusion of Peace or War Whereas all Addresses of State are made to Our Kings as I shewed in part before without any Obligation of their parts to communicate any thing to any of the Members of their great Council Privy Council or Common Council much less to either of the Ministers of State whether Secretaries or others however sworn to Secrecy and Trust Nor needs there a more pregnant Instance of the Kings inherent and determinate Prerogative in this point than that verbal Order of King Henry the Eight to the Lord Gray Governour of Bullen who upon a dispute about demolishing a Fort the French were then erecting by the name of Chastilons Garden contrary to the Sence of all the Lords of his Council expressed in Scriptis and which was more the formality of his own Letters confirming their Order did by a verbal Commission only privately whisper'd to him Justifie him in flinging down that Work which was a manifest breach of the Peace with the French and consequently a Capital crime in the Governour had not the same breath that made him forfeit it given him his life again which President as it was very remarkable so it proves that which follows 6. Jus Vitae Necis 26. Jus Vitae Necis that highest power of Life and Death to be only in the King being signaliz'd by the Ceremony of carrying the Sword before him in all publick Processions and is in truth so antient and undoubted a Right of the Crown that upon this Account only we find all the Pleas touching life and member to be call'd by the Lawyers Placita Coronae and all Capital Offences of high treason are termed Crimina Laesae Majestatis in proceeding whereon no Original Writ is necessary as in civil Causes but every Constable as the Kings Deputy may Ex Ossicio without any Process seize on any Murtherer Traytor or Felon and till the Statute of Magna Charta 17 of King John it is manifest that every mans Person was so subjected to the King by his Oath of Allegiance from those words De vita de membro that the (d) Vita Membrasunt in Potestate Regis Bracton l. 1. fol. 6. Cap. 5. Sect. 18. King at his pleasure might Imprison any man without process of Law or giving any cause for it and however the King has been pleas'd to circumscribe himself by Law since for the greater assurance of his Grace to his People yet the Judges have still so far respect to the Kings honour in this particular that upon the Commitment of any person by the Kings Command or by Order of the Lords of his Council they do not take upon them as perhaps by strictness of Law they might to deliver the Person till the Cause be first shewn and then expecting a Declaration of the Kings further pleasure bind him to answer what may be objected in the Kings behalf 7. Jus Rerum Sacrarum 27. The last and highest Prerogative as being purely Spiritual is that Jus Rerum Sacrarum to which no Princes in the World had a fairer Pretence than those here if considered as the only Christian Kings foster'd with the milk of a distinct National Church The Kings of great Britain the only Kings of a distinct national Church that may as properly be called the Sister as those of France Germany and Italy are call'd the Daughters of Rome and therefore the Pope when he naturaliz'd as I may say all the Christian Nations within the bosom of the Church he declared the Emperour to be Filius Major the French King Filius Minor but our King Filius Adoptivus neither matters it much though they prove our Church to be the younger Sister that disparagement if any it be being abundantly recompensed by being as indeed she is the most innocent the most beautiful and perhaps the most fruitful Parent of the two having Matriculated no less than eight Nations now as great almost as her self in the first Ages of Christianity and been the Foster-Mother to as many more in this last and most knowing age The Protestant Religion more properly called the Catholiâ—k Religion than that of Rome whereby the Reformed Religion as it is now vulgarly called to difference it from that of Rome is become as universal as that they call with so much Ostentation Catholick which if confined within the Range of the Church of Rome is not above a (c) Purchas Pilgrim cap. 13. lib. 1. fourth part of Christendom if so be the Computation of our modern Geographers be not mistaken who put Sweden in the Scale against both the Iberia's Italy and Spain and England Denmark and the Hans Towns against France which yet we know is Checquer'd in their Religion having divers Towns of the Reformed Judgment besides those Lesser Congregations in Poictou Gascony Languedoc and Normandy and take out of Germany suppos'd to be the third part of Europe two intire parts the whole being divided into three that at this day are integrally Protestant that is to say in the East Poland Lithuania Livonia Podolia Russia minor with divers Parts of Hungary and Transilvania even to the Euxine Sea in the West the Cantons of Swizzerland the United Provinces with the Grisons and the Republick of Geneva the South and North parts being yet more intirely Protestant and the heart of it every
did not offend him so neither did he desire that his Authority should offend them but as soon as this Austin came hither he found yet more matter of Amazement For part of the Isle being Pagans and part Christians these last seem'd to him to be more inhospitable than the other at least they were so far from submitting to his Legatine Authority after the Ignorant Pagans had own'd it 1 Cor. 14.1.11 that as St. Paul expresses it by not understanding one another each seem'd to the other alike Barbarian whereby it so fell out that they fell from Arguments to Arms and he having no probability of Subjugating them under his Jurisdiction Baptiz'd almost as many of them in (r) He caused 1200 Monks of the Brittains to be murthered at one time Blood as he did in Water but as it appeared that he brought them no new Faith so neither would they suffer him to bring in any new Lawe amongst them defending their own Church so well with their own Cannons that neither he nor any of the Roman community could break in upon them or infringe their liberty in the least for the space of near five hundred Years when Henry the Second reducing both State and Church under like Paction of Servitude forc'd them by the laws of Conquest to part as well from their Ecclesiastical as Civil Rights and at the same time they became no Church to become no People being so Cantoniz'd with England that they were no longer considerable which had yet been Impossible for him to have Effected had he not at the same time he set up his own declared against the Pope's Supremacy But to proceed from that of the Britaines to consider the Primitive State of the English Church it may yet be allow'd for good Prescription and that we know is a (s) Lit. Sect. 170. Title implies a long continued and peaceable Possession derived ab Authoritate Legis if it can be made out that any of the Saxon Kings converted by the aforesaid Austin from the time of the Proto-Christian King Ethelbert himself until the Norman Conquest did at any time so far Agnize the Pope's Authority as to forbear the Exercise of any part of that Spiritual dominion which they challenged Proprio Jure For as it is evident that they did constrain as well Ecclesiasticks as Laicks to submit to the final determination as well of Spiritual as Civil Pleas in their temporal Courts so they not seldome made the Ecclesiastical Censures without and sometimes against the Consent of the Bishop if it displeased them even after Excommunication pronounced and did they not (t) Leg. Alfred cap. 8. p. 25. dispense even with the Offences themselves if they were only (u) As were Priest Marriage Basterdy Non-residency Pluralities c. Mala per accidens and not mala in se as the Casuists distinguish Nay did they not permit even Nuns to marry against the usual practice of those Times and the Judgment of the Church doing many other things of the like nature which whoso reads M. Paris Florentius Eadmerus c. will find more at large than becomes the brevity I design and all this they did without any Exception or Scandal or to use (w) Baronius Tome 3. Anno 312. N. 100. Baronius his own Phrase Sine ullâ Ecclesiarum Labe. Indeed such was the plenitude of their Ecclesiastical Power that each King of them was as the Priest pray'd at their (x) See the old formula continued til H. 6. time Coronation that they might be Sicut Aaron in Tabernaculo Zacharias in Templo Petrus in Clave as appears by their several Edicts yet Extant Some for the better Observation of the (y) Leg. Alured C. 39. P. 33. Lords day Some for the due keeping of (z) Bede lib. 3. Cap. 8. Lent Others for the right administration of the (a) Jornal l. 761. C. 2. Sacraments the Regulation of (b) â—eg Canut C. 7. p. 101. Matrimony and ascertaining the degrees of (c) Leg. Alured uâ— supâ—a Consanguinity Some for permitting Divorces others for perfecting Contracts in fine they did whatever might become the wisdom and honour of such as had the sole care of the Church all Christian Obedience being enforced Providentiâ Potentiâ Regis as (d) Hoveden fol. 41â— Hoveden expresses it or as we find it in some (e) 2 H. 4. N. 44. Records Justitiâ fortitudine Regis for however the Bishop was always joyn'd in Commission with tâ—e Lay Magistrate as having in him Jus Ordinis as some (f) Belâ—arm Pontif. lib. 4. Divines call it yet this was not so much in affirmation of his Ecclesiastical as for Prevention of his disputing the Regal Authority and to take off all clashing (g) Treisden Eccles Juris Regis Inter Placita Regis Christianitatis Jura that is to say in M. Paris's own words ne contra Regiam Coronam dignitatem aliquid statuere tentaretur Episcopus who was to the King as the Arch-Deacon to him Tanquam Oculus Regis as t'other was tanquam Oculus Episcopi But the greatest Instance of all was that of the (h) Jan. Anglor lib. 1. Pag. 85. Investiture of the Bishops by the King who gave them the Ring and the Pastoral Staffe the antient Emblemes of Supream dignity and Authority which he himself had accepted at his Coronation the first signifying the Power of Joyning such an one to the Church the last denoting the Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical in Foro interiori or as some term it in Foro animae but he kept the Scepter in his own hand as the proper Ensign of that Jus Potentiae or Soveraign Power by which he stood particularly obliged to defend the Church to which King Edgar doubtless Referr'd when he told his Bishops at a general Convocation Ego Constantini vos Petri gladium habetis in manibus and as Christ commanded Peter as soon as he had drawn his Sword to put it up again so did he as Christ's Representative forbid St. Dunstan who would be thought St. Peter's to sheath his weapon when he began to draw upon the Lay Magistrate and would have been medling with those things that were (i) as Socrates expresses it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forbidding any Inquity to be made de peccatis subditorum Add to this that in all general Councils the King himself presided Tanquam Papa Patriae Thus Ina for I chuse to begin with him because Baronius stiles him Rex maxime Pius presided in the great Synod at Winchester An. 733. by the Title of (*) Tom. 9. Anno 740. N. 14. Vicarius Dei (k) Jornal Lib. 761. Edgar at another meeting gave the Law to all the Clergy Tanquam (l) Vide Tit. Gar. Edgar Pastor Pastorum The like did Ethelred under the stile of (m) Eadmer 146. 16. Eadmer 155. 6. Vicarius Christi after him again Canute presided in another Council at Winchester by the Title of (n)
3. and that brought on the Treaty betwixt that King and Gregory the Eleventh which after two years debate ended with this express Agreement (t) Walsingham Hist 1374. Page 184. Quod Papa de caetero reservationibus beneficiorum minime uteretur which Dignities Henry the Fourth made no scruple to collate to his own use notwithstanding his being anointed with that Oil which came from Heaven the vertue whereof was to encline all the Princes that were inaugurated therewith to be favourable to the Church His Son Henry the Fifth for his exemplary Piety stil'd the Prince of Priests thought fit to demand of Martin the Fifth several Ecclesiastical Priviledges which his Predecessors had got from the Kings of England at several times and his Ambassadors finding the Pope to stick at it and give them no ready answer told him plainly That the King their Master intended to use his own mind in the matter whether he consented or no (u) In vit Hen. Chichley Pag. 56 57. Edito Anno 1617. Vtpote quae non à necessitatis sed honoris causa petat Thus the Papal power as it was interrupted in all times so from this time it sensibly languish'd till it received its fatal blow from Henry the Eight who if I may so say did as it were beat out the Popes Brains with his own Keys and had he not afterward used violence to himself by referring the point of his Supremacy to the Parliament to be confirm'd by Statute Law that was sufficiently firm'd before by the Common Law that cannot change he had undoubtedly been more absolute Lord of himself than any Christian Prince whatever and acknowledg'd Head of the Church nullis Exceptionibus as Tacitus expresses it in another case but laying the burthen of that weighty Question of the Supremacy upon the Shoulders of Divines which had been better supported by those of the great Lawyers he was perplext with many Scruples and in the end forced to enter the List in Person and fight the (w) Antiqu. Brit. Eccles p. 384. 37. Pope at his own weapon the Pen wherein by great good fortune being a great master of defence that way he had the better of it and by the Authority of his Example drew many to Second him his Supremacy being afterward Justified by the whole Convocation of Divines in both the Universities and most of the Monastical and Collegiate Theologues of the whole Kingdom whilst only four adventur'd to assert the Pope's Right to be de Jure divino 29. And now to conclude this whole discourse The Government of this Isle alwayes Monarchial it may perhaps be thought a Point of glory not unworthy our Remarke to observe that the Government of this Isle was never cloath'd in any other form but what appeared Monarchial notwithstanding the many chances and changes I cannot say alterations which Time conspiring with Fate hath brought forth wantonly disposing the Scepter of these Isles not only to several Persons and Families but different People and Nations The Genius of the very first Natives the Aborigines as Caesar observes of their Ancestors the Gaules being always inclinable to be rul'd by one single Person affecting Monarchy as Naturally as the Greeks did Aristocracy the Romans Democracy or the Germans and indeed all the Northern Nations Oligarchy and however we read of no less than four Kings in Kent by which may be guest a proportionable number of the like kind in other Provinces which Cesar had no Knowledg of yet it appears by those who wrote after him with more certainty That all these Reguli were under one Chief Tacitus to whom it matters not what Title was given by themselves Speaking of Caraciacus since Tacitus calls him more Romano Imperator Britannorum After the Romans got the Government into their hands though there was a seeming Pentarchy yet the Emperour saith Herodian reserv'd to himself all Appeals from the Presidents and Lieutenants not excepting the Cesars themselves here During the Saxon Heptarchy when each of those Royteletts had a distinct Legislative power within his own Kingdom striving like Twins in the Womb of their Conquest which should be born first yet one saith Bede was saluted by common consent with the stile and Title of Rex Anglorum So during the still-born Tetarchy of the Danes Knute was not only Primus but Princeps Uniting the Trine Power of his Predecessours in his single Person Neither did the Genius of the Normans affect any other form notwithstanding the intestine Feuds betwixt divers of those Kings and their Nobles these striving to recover what they had lost those resolving to keep what by advantage of time and sufferance they had got ingaged them in desperate Resolutions for however the Populacy prevail'd against King John Henry the Third Edward the Second and Richard the Second taking the boldness to commit so many Insolencies as sullied the memory of those times and gave Strangers occasion to brand the whole Nation with one of the basest Characters that malice could invent Les mutins Anglois yet was not their ill disposition heightned to that degree of madness as to follow Providence in the pursuit of their Liberties beyond the bounds of Magna Charta for though they left succeeding Ages a President they never found in deposing the two last acts no less dishonourable to themselves than them yet they admitted the Son of the one and the Uncle of the other to succeed Nor was it want of power to do otherwise Vox Populi being at the same time Preached up by no meaner a man than the Primate of England to be Vox Dei and pass'd for as good Divinity as Policy The like may be observed in those disorderly times when the two fatal houses of York and Lancaster justled one another out of the Throne with such alternate success as gave advantage to the Plebiscitum to Elect which they pleas'd the Soveraignty being so weakned by the blood lost on either side that the people had it in their power not only to turn the Scale as they thought fit but to break the Beam of Majesty on which the weight of that destructive Quarrel hung and so by taking away the Cause have prevented the Occasions of ensuing mischiefs yet still we find they kept within the Circle of their Allegiance and though they directed it variously to several Lines yet all tended to supporting the main Nave of the Monarchy continuing the Government as it had ever been in a single Person which Devotion to Monarchy was as St. Hierome observes in one of his Epistles rewarded from Heaven with this great blessing upon the Incolae in general of this Isle That by their Obedience to one Prince they were the more easily brought to the belief of One God who blest their early Faith with the Honour of having the First Christian King and Emperour of the World amongst them 30. But This last Age of ours I confess hath brought forth an unnatural Race of
Tools that are as dangerous as useful if not skilfully handled Whom therefore she counterpoiz'd with as many of her own Religion to the end that holding the Ballance in her own hand she might turn the Scale as she saw cause Neither was it a thing of small Moment that came first to be weigh'd by her to wit the great Business of Religion The Materials whereof being prepared to her hand by her Brother as the Foundation was laid to his by her Father she resolv'd to proceed in Edification of the Church as Solomon did in building of the Temple with as little noise as might be And accordingly as she conform'd to take her Assumption from the hand of a Popish Bishop who performed all the Ceremonies of her Inauguration More Romano so being crown'd she made choice as I said of such a mix'd Councel as might put her out of all doubt of over-setting the Vessel by loading too much upon any one side and out of all danger of Foundring by steering their Course in too streight a Line cross the Surges of the swelling Tide and because she designed to shew her Moderation as well as her Wisdom she did not put out the Candle-light of Popery all at once but let in the Sun-shine of the Gospel by such degrees that the People might neither be left altogether in the Dark to grope after new Laws nor yet expos'd to be dazled with the two sudden approach of the greater Light refining the Mass with such a temperate heat of Zeal as first took off the Scum only that is the foulest and grossest part of Superstition then proceeded to purge out the thinner Dross of scandalous Matter and in the last place she took away what appear'd superfluous and unnecessary retaining only the sounder part out of which she made up that Form of Service which hath ever since continued to be used in the Church of England Whose ground work she laid upon the Holy Scriptures making up the Superstructure of the Doctrine of the * Nicen. Athanasian and Apostles Creed Three Creeds approv'd and confirm'd by those great Masters of Assemblies in the Four first General Councels worthily esteem'd to be stiled Synodi Firmissimi and explain'd by several of the Orthodox Fathers in the several Ages following to the intent that coâ—â—aining Ecclesiarâ—m â—â—mâ—ium Fidem they might be a Rule without all Exception But whiles she proceeded with this great tendernesâ— in hopes to have pleas'd both Parties she displeas'd either The first being no less griev'd by her Reforming so much then the last by her Reforming no more One would have thought that her Clemency would have silenced the Papish for that she might have purg'd with Fire and Faggot as her Sister did And that her Honesty would have subdued the Protestants who they found heâ— to continue to be Semper Eadem notwithstanding the warm Tempâ—â—tions wherewith the Pope plyed her for a long time offering 1. To take away the Sin of her Father notwithstanding the many injuries donâ— to the Church and confirming all his Alienations 2. To take away the reproach of her Mother by making Null the Sentence of Divorce notwithstanding she never reconciled to the Church 3. To honour the Memory of her Brother so far as to allow the use of the Common-Prayer Book in English recording to his establishment And lastly to indulge this to the honoâ—â— of her own Memory that her Realm should for her sake only which never was offer'd before have the Priviledge to receive the Sacrament in both kinds A well compounded Bait and such as if it had been large enough to have cover'd the Hook might probably have taken any other Woman but as her Conscience forbid her to close with the one so Reason of State permitted not that she should come nearer the other then she did For there was newly started up a Generation of Inlightned men who took upon them to reform her Reformation and make it more Suitable they would not say Conformable to Christs Scepter and Kingdom by rooting out those Representatives of Antichrist the Bishops who they thought to differ no otherwise from the Popish Prelates then Rooks do from Ravens desiring instead of the Hierarchy to set up a Gospel Ministry so they phras'd it that was certain Evangelicks after the example of those Congregational Pastors of Geneva who despising all Order Habit or Title were underpropt or assisted by two Lay-Elders chosen out of the gravest though not the wisest of the People whose Office as one observes like that of the Ears is only to bear themselves upright and hear what the Praetor says without any other Ecclesiastical priviledge pretence or power This projection was under-hand carried on by some squint-eyed Lawyers who having one eye upon the Jurisdiction of the Bishop t'other upon her Prerogative took all occasions to detect the nakedness of her Government and to bespatter it with scurrilous Libels Amongst which there could be nothing more bold and Seditious then those two notorious Books the one intituled The Admonition to the Parliament the other The Defence of that Admonition Not to mention those lewd Pamphlets call'd by the Names of Martyn Marr Prelate Christs Scepter and Kingdome Englands Gulph c. by the Oath Ex Officio was rendred Antichristian and the Oath of Supremacy not lawful but in a qualified sense This giving her sufficient warning to secure the State by fortifying the Church she caused the Arch-bishop Whitguift to cast three Cannons which were so plac'd that Innovation could no way make its approaches to let in any of their Factious Teachers For no man was to be admitted to the Cure of Souls that did not first recognize the Queens Supremacy Secondly submit to the use of the Book of Common-Prayer and Ordination of Bishops and Thirdly to the Articles pass'd at the last Synod at London 1562. and Lastly Declare that they believ'd either of them consonant and agreeable to the word of God However it was no small Interruption that these brain-sick men gave to her intended Reformation and the Mischiefs that attended it were so much more insupportable by how much they proceeded from a Religious Madness that reign'd at that time over all Christendome most of the Neighbour Nations even as far as Italy it self not excepting the very Dominions of the Pope labouring under the same Distemper which was a kind of Spiritual Feaver that caus'd such an Inflammation in their Consciences as could be cured no other wayes but by Blood-letting the very worst of Remedies whereof the King of France made the first experience and no where so much by whose Example the King of Spain afterwards did the like and other Princes imitating them it is since become a common practise This troubled her the more in respect of the advantages taken by the adverse Party the Papists who being more strictly united by these Divisions amongst the Protestants and deluded by the belief of certain groundless Predictions that her Reign
the Thirteenth to reassume the Country into his hands as one of the Kingdoms reputed parcel of St. Peter's Patrimony and held of the Church as he alledged by the Kings of England upon no other Condition but that of Fealty to the See of Rome and therefore Forfeited by the Heresie of the Queen His Holiness who has been ever very captious of all Advantages of this kind was easily prevail'd with to bestow it upon his Natural Son the Marquiss of Vincula to whom one Stukely an Englishman being therefore dignified with the Title of Marquiss of Lempster and Earl of Wexford was appointed General having Eight hundred Italians under his Command Before whom was sent as a Vant-Currier one Fitz-Morris with a Consecrated Banner two Priests and three Ships These dull Rebels were to joyn with those more active ones the Earl of Desmond and his Brothers and were to take Livery and Seisin till the rest could come upon the Place But as was the Cause so was the Success and sitter it was that he should meet with a Cross then a Crown that being but Christs Vicar should be so ambitious of having a Kingdom in this World when his Lord had none for himself Stukely ended his life before he began his Rebellion Fitz-Morris was betray'd by his Fellow-Traytors before his own Treachery could take any effect San Joseph that succeeded him one that was half Jew and half Italian was glad to secure his own with the loss of all their Lives that were under him whiles Desmond the Great Rebel was forc'd to yield to lower Conditions then any of them and the two Priests that attended the holy Banner were starved upon the Mountains But after these there started up yet several others as the Mac Williams since call'd the Burks the Mac Connels in Connaught the Mac Mahons and O Rorks in Monagan the O Connors and O Mulloys in Ophaly and some of the O Brians and Cavenaghs in Lempster who did what they could to raise Tumults but so faintly that we may rather call them Riots then Rebellions signifying no more to her than the bitings of Fleas to a Lion However doubting how she might be pestred with more such Vermine in the heat of the Summer following she took timely care to prevent the worst and having Intelligence given her that they intended to dispute her Soveraignty at Sea as they had done her Right by Land she muster'd up all her Naval Forces determining to carry the War as far from home as possibly she could These were commanded by the famous Drake who resolving to fight them in the other World as well as in this advanced to the place where 't was said the Golden Apples grew where finding no Dragon to keep them so fierce as himself he made himself Master of as much Treasure as might have been a sufficient Found for a greater Empire then that he fought for had either his Covetousness held any proportion with his Courage or his Ambition with his Activity for he brought home besides what was imbezled and conceal'd above two thousand pound weight of uncoyn'd Silver and twelve Chests of ready coyn'd and no less then five hundred pound weight of Gold besides Jewels of an inestimable value having several Carcanets of Diamonds Rubies Topazes Saphires and Emeralds of an incredible Magnitude issued Silks and other rich Commodities of the growth and manufacture of the Country being thought not worth the Portage This added no less to the Fame then to the Wealth of this great Queen who being before compar'd to Solomon for her Wisdom seem'd now not unlike him for her Opulence But not content with this single income of Glory she commanded her Fortunate Admiral back again the second time to brave them at Land as before at Sea where after having taken St. Jago St. Domingo and Cartagena three of the most considerable Towns they had he return'd even surfeited with Victory his Head being as giddy with new Contrivances as his mens were with the Calenture who in the midst of all their Abundance wanting health only were forc'd to take leave of the place being troubled that they could bring home no greater a booty then what was esteem'd at One hundred thousand pounds Sterling and Two hundred and forty pieces of brass Cannon to report their Victory But because this look'd like wounding that King in the hinder parts only she was not satisfied till she gave him one blow in the Face and accordingly sent to defie him before his own Doors entring his chief Port of Cales in which they took and fired no less then One hundred Ships and furnishing themselves with great store of Ammunition and Victuals made for the Cape of St. Vincent where having demolish'd the Forts they pass'd on to the Assores under the great Meridian where they took a great Carack returning from the East-Indies which having the name of St. Philip it was by the Superstitious Seamen look'd on as an ominous Presage of the Future ill Fortune of their King Philip by Sea Whilst Drake was thus active to the Southward Candish was no less busie to the Westward who having destroy'd several Colonies in Chily Peru and Nova Hispania return'd home Laden with the Spoils of Nineteen rich Ships taken in his way And now King Philip provok'd no less by the shame then the continued loss he had sustain'd for above two years together with redoubled diligence and charge got ready a mighty Fleet hoping to perform some wonders suitable to the Expectation of the Time as well as of the Importance of the Affair it being by Astronomers call'd The wonderful Year and being the great Clymacterich of the World they concluded it must produce some extraordinary Effects Neither indeed was there any thing then in the World so extraordinary and amazing as the sight of that moving Wood of his consisting of no less then One hundred and fifty tall Ships which carri'd in them besides all Habiliments of War Twenty thousand men and expected Fifty thousand more to be joyn'd with them that the Duke of Parma was to bring out of Flanders all which were to be Landed in the Thames mouth that so by seizing on the Head they might the more easily command every Member of the whole Body of the Kingdom Well may we imagine that the report of such a Preparation as this the work of no less then three years time was heard further then the noise of their Cannon could though 't is incredible how far they were heard and one would have thought the Sound of that terrible Name they gave their Fleet El Invincible Armado might have been sufficient to have made an universal Earth-quake throughout Christendom But it seems the Adamantine hearts of the Neighbour Princes were so impenetrable that it did not much move them for being satisfied in the Counterpoise of the Queens Power they stood at Gaze seemingly unconcern'd The Queen had prepar'd a double Guard one for the Land t'other for the Sea that by
made Captain of his Guard All persons out-law'd for Treason had their Utlaries revers'd all the bad Subjects were declar'd good and some of the best declar'd Traytors A Treaty of Peace was concluded with England upon Conditions that the Queen-Mother should never be releas'd and in order to the bringing on her Tryal as after it fell out which Tryal of the Mother prov'd yet a greater tryal to the King her Son who having before lost his Father and Grandfather by a dismal Fate both privately murther'd was much more abasht to appear so much a King and no King as to be a helpless Spectator now of his Mothers Tragedy made away by such a publick Tryal as seem'd to proclaim his weakness and shame more then her guilt This seem'd to be the very dregs of that bitter Cup whereof he had drank so largely a little before but being as he hop'd the last draught he was to take of Infelicity he bore it with suitable patience as became a Christian and a King But his Destinies decreed that there must yet be one Throw more before the Birth of his Greatness For however his Majesty clear'd up from the time of his Mothers departure like the Sun after a stormy Morning which becomes brighter and brighter as it draws nearer its Meridian yet there happen'd after all this an Eclipse that lasting only half an hour had like to have extinguish'd all his Light and Glory if a Hand from Heaven had not rescued him For the young Gowry who at the time of his Fathers death and long after continued in Italy the Country where they are learn'd in the Art of Revenge having found an opportunity to draw him again into that fatal Castle where he was before Prisoner to his Father under pretence of shewing him some Chymical Rarities got him up into some higher Rooms whiles his Servants were retired to eat it being presently after he had dined himself where by the help of his younger Brother and another appointed to assist them they intended to have assassinated him had not he that was to do the horrid Deed not only relented at the very instant when he drew his Sword upon him but turn'd his point upon his Fellow Regicide and thereby gave him time to step to a Window and call for help which came so timely to him as to rescue him by the death of the two Gowrys This though it was the last of Treasons was not yet the last of dangers he met with For after this mov'd by what Obligations besides that of Love I know not which commonly is not so domineering a Passion over Princes as private men he run as much danger at Sea as he had before at Land exposing himself to the mercy of that unruly Element at the most dangerous Season of the year to fetch over his Queen the Daughter of Frederick II. King of Denmark who having attempted several times to come to him was drove back and as 't is said by the power of Sorcery into Norwey which hazard being afterward recompenced by the satisfaction he had in the Vertue of his Wife and the hopes conceiv'd of the Children he had by her two Sons and a Daughter as he had no further cause to Fear so he had nothing further to wish but that lucky hit that came by the death of the late Queen Elizabeth to have the Glory of bringing this Isle so long divided from all the World to be at Unity within it self And now to the end he might take the Inclinations of the People at the first bound wherein no man was ever more skilfull then he he abrogated the two names of Distinction England and Scotland and reconciled them to each other under the comprehensive Appeliation of Great Britain restoring England to its old Name as he from whom he claim'd had restor'd the Crown to its ancient stock Fain he would have brought them under the unity of the same Laws but finding neither Nation pleas'd with the Proposal either being partial to their own Constitutions as fitted with due and different respects to their different Tempers Interests and Proprieties he quitted that Design as a Labour of too hard digestion But however the Reasons of State varied he was resolv'd to reconcile the Polity of the two Churches as in an Union of Possession so in an Uniformity of Government and Worship Those of his own Country having then no other Form but that impos'd upon them by Boanerges Fox without taking Counsel of Prince or Prelate which was not otherwise to be made good but by the same Violence with which it was at the first introduced against the Will of any of the Nobility but such whose Ancestors were brib'd by the Alienation of the Church Lands But before he could impose any thing upon them understanding there were many here in England that followed that Classical way he resolv'd to have a free Conference with the ablest of their Demagogues to the end that sounding the depth of their Principles he might if possible fathom that of their Piety which no man could better do then himself being an universal Scholar as well read in Men as Books and so transcendently versed in the last that he was not improperly stil'd Rex Platonicus How confident he was of his skill in discussing all points Theological appears by his entring the List with Pope Pius the Fourth and making him give ground Neither was he a little provoked to this Spiritual Warfare by a clamorous Petition pretended from a thousand dissatisfied Ministers who not having yet matter enough of just Complaint made up the Cry by the number of Complainants To whom while he was considering what Answer to give or rather how to make them answer themselves as after he did by taking each of them apart and commanding him to set down in Writing what it was he singly desired which when compared altogether prov'd so contradictory and absurd that like men brought to cudgel one another in the dark they withdrew with broken Pates he was interrupted by the Discovery of a Treason which coming on so early in the Dawn of his Government could not well be discovered what it was nor whereto it tended For whereas most other Conspiracies are hatch'd by men of the same Faction Interest and Judgment this strangely involv'd People of all sorts and conditions without respect to any Repugnancy of Quality or Concern Priests and Laymen Papists and Puritans Noblemen and Ignoble Citizens and Country-men were all piec'd up together in the same Combination but whether ingaged by Faction Ambition Covetousness or Malice was not known or at least by the Kings Wisdom conceal'd However by the well-known Names of the Principal Conspirators the Lord Cobham who was Lord-Warden of the Cinque Ports the Lord Gray of Wilton who had a great Post in the late Queens Government Sir Walter Rawleigh Lord-Warden of the Stanneries Sir John Fortescue Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Griffith Markham Sir Edward Parham and several
understanding do it by themselves before the Bishop 2. They deem'd it most laudable as being warranted by the practice of the Primitive Church from the very Apostles time Lastly they judg'd it necessary that the Children should receive Benediction by the Imposition of Hands after the Example of †Matt. 19.13 Christ himself This Answer being so solid that it could not well admit of any Reply he very dexterously grafted a Desire upon it That every private Pastor might Confirm as well as the Bishop But Doctor Andrews challenging him to shew where ever it was done by any but Bishops he lost the Point for want of ready proof After this he objected in the second place against Absolution as savouring too much of Popery To which was answer'd That the Commission of Pardoning Sins was originally given by Christ himself and allowed of by the Church of England upon no other but Gospel Terms of sincere Repentance and amendment of Life which differenc'd it sufficiently from the Popes Pardons and Indulgences granted upon far other and easier respects and being agreeable to the practice of other Reformed Churches particularly that of Geneva the pattern which they themselves desired to follow it was thought not only immodest and inconvenient but scarcely justifiable before God or Man to condemn the practice of it Which Answer how it satisfied him at that present time I know not but I have been credibly inform'd that when he was upon the point of Death he earnestly desired the Absolution of a Reverend Divine that came to pray with him and taking his hands between his own kiss'd them with all imaginary shew of Devotion and Humility The third Objection was against the use of the Cross in Baptism but it appearing to have been used in Constantine's time and prov'd out of several of the Fathers to have been used in Immortali Lavacro by which either side understood Baptism the King judg'd it Antiquity enough to justifie the continuance of it still Upon which waving any further Objection to the Antiquity he urged the scandal of it for that it had been Superstitiously abus'd as he said in the time of Popery to which the King himself gave Answer That it should be used no otherwise then as it was before the time of that abuse the Antiquity thereof being imply'd in their own Objection Hereupon one of the out-lying Objectors sallied forth impertinently enough and desired to know how far an Ordinance of the Church was binding without Impeachment of Christian Liberty Whom immediately the King took off with a sharp Reply telling him That as the Church taught him Faith he would teach him Obedience Many other Objections there were against the 4. use of the Surplice 5. The Ring in Marriage 6. The Ordination by Bishops 7. Baptizing by Women 8. Predestination 9. The Oath ex Officio 10. The High Commission Court c. to all which the King himself gave Answers so like a Prince in respect of Authority and yet so like a Priest in point of Divinity that not knowing whether they less understood him or themselves as men at once asham'd afraid and confounded they begg'd to be dismiss'd and promis'd to Conform for the Future now they knew it to be his Will to have it so However there were some Gainsayers that rose up afterwards taking upon them to speak evil of the things they understood not men of perverse spirits puffâ—d up with pride rather then prick'd in Conscience who found out an Engineeâ— fiâ— for their purpose a filthy Dreamer more impudent then can be imagined however he was by his Profession a Physitian of Bodies and not of Souls took upon him to preach in his sleep whose Story is not altogether unpleasant or impertinent having render'd himself so famous by his counterfeit Trances that the King himself curious to find out the chear had a desire to hear him His manner was after having pass'd through a Rapsâ—dy of Prayers to take some apt Text for his purpose to inveigh against Pope Prince and Prelate which he did so smartly and yet so methodically that the King clearly perceiv'd he was awake although being call'd stirr'd or pull'd he would make no shew of having any sense of hearing or feeling Whereupon he commanded every Body out of the Room saving two or three persons only to whom drawing near the Bed where the Fellow lay seemingly asleep he said I well perceive this Fellow is an irreconcileable Enemy to Church and State and I believe it is the Devil speaks in him whilst he sleeps now because I know not what effects his preaching may have amongst the ignorant Rabble I command you making secret Signs to them that he was not in earnest to strangle him with the pillows before he awake which said he cannot be perceiv'd to be other then a natural Death and I think my self the rather obliged to take away his life that I may not be forc'd to take away the lives of many innocent persons who will be seduced by his Doctrines Therefore as soon as I am withdrawn into the next Room be sure you stifle him immediately The Fellow surpriz'd with the apprehension of this unexpected Judgment so near execution imagining it might be too late to call for Mercy when the King was gone away rose up and pitching upon his knees confess'd his Imposture begging his Majesties pardon Whose Wisdom by this Discovery was magnified to that degree that all men look'd on him as another Solomon in point of King-craft and had his bodily abilities born any proportion to those of his mind doubtless the Women would have extoll'd him no less then the men Having now setled all things to his mind in the Church of England he proceeded in the next place to the Reformation of the Kirk of Scotland whither he sent divers grave and learned Divines upon an Apostolick Ambassy to prepare the way for the establishment of a like Hierarchy there as here Which Work prov'd so successful that without any great Dispute they admitted as many Bishops as there had been ancient Sees in that Church i. e. Thirteen of which number there were three that received their Consecration from the Arch-bishop of York who was it seems accounted and obeyed as Metropolitan of that Kingdom till the Year 1478. all the rest being Consecrated at home by their own Prelates whose Authority was not long after confirmed both by Synodical Acts and Acts of Parliament After which the Liturgy and certain Books of Canons extracted out of scatter'd Acts of their old Assemblies were likewise ratified and confirmed by Parliament And at the Assembly of Perth now call'd St. Johnstown there pass'd two years after though not without great difficulty those five notable Articles for 1. Episcopal Confirmation 2. Kneeling at the Communion 3. Private Baptisme 4. the Celebration of the four great Anniversary Feasts of the Birth Passion and Resurrection of our Saviour and the Pentecost and 5. for the setling the Church Habits All
as his Reason and the Greatness of his Mind much more impregnable then that of his Power wherein though his Patience came not so near to that of our Saviours as his Passion did or as their barbarity rather did to that of those Souldiers imploy'd in that accursed drudgery of his Execution yet it appears to have been such as was as much above their Expectation as himself was above their Malice Witness his Exit not like a Lyon but a Lamb For notwithstanding the sight of those Ropes and Rings which they had provided in case he had strugled with them to bind him down to the Scaffold as a Sacrifice to the Altar had been enough to have disorder'd the Passions of any man much more a King yet having a firm belief that his honor should not suffer with him but as his own words are * In his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rise again like the Sun after Owls and Batts had had their freedom in the night to recover such lustre as should dazle the eyes of those feral Birds and make them unable to behold him he was so well fortified with that assurance that he despised the shame and endured the fatal stroak with alike Magnanimity as that Great †Galbaâ— Emperor who stretch'd forth his neck and bid the Souldiers strike boldly if it were for their Countries good Here seem'd to be the Consummatum est of all the happiness of this Kingdom as well as of the Life of this King For upon his Death the Vail of the Temple rent and the Church was overthrown An universal Darkness overspread the State which lasted not for twelve hours only but twelve years The two great Luminaries of Law and Gospel were put out Such as could not write supply'd the place of Judges such as could not read of Bishops Peace was maintain'd by War Licentiousness by Fasting and Prayer The Commonalty lost their Propriety the Gentry their Liberty the Nobility their Honour the Clergy their Authority and Reverence The Stream of Government ran down in new-cut Chanels whose Waters were alwayes shallow and troubled And new Engines were invented by the new Statesmen that had the stâ—erage to catch all sorts of Fish that came to their Nets some were undone by Sequestration others by Composition some by Decimation or Proscription In sine it appear'd when too late that the whole Kingdom suffer'd more by his suffering then he himself who being so humbled as he was even unto death falling beneath the scorn mounted above the Envy of his Adversaries and had this advantage by their Malice to gain a better Crown then they took from him whiles not induring that he should be their King they consider'd not that they made him their Martyr Quando ullum invenient parem Horat. Ode 24. lib. 1. Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE DIEV ET MON DROIT Now whether the Plot of this imaginary Structure came first from Hell or Holland matters not much but so it was that like the New-buildings there it cost more to make good the Ground it stood on then the Superstructure was worth which made the People in a very little time so weary both of the Projection and the Projectors that it was not long ere it fell into visible decay Now as ill-built Houses whose Foundations fail do not suddenly fall but cracking sink by degrees so the wiser Brethren the Scots foreseeing what the end would be withdrew themselves betimes whereby they not only avoided the danger of being crush'd under the ruins of so ill-grounded a Democracy but did themselves that right to be theÌ„ first return'd to as they were the first went from their Allegiance and however many then thought they did but like Foxes who having once slipt Collar are hardly ever to be chain'd up so fast but that they will one time or another get loose again yet this honest Apostacy of theirs made such a Schism for the present in the Brotherhood that had not Cromwell very opportunely stept into the Gap to stay them the whole Flock like frighted Sheep had then broke out to follow the right Shepheard Non aliud discordantis Patria remedium est quam ut ab uno regeretur Tacit. Annal. This he very well knew and resolving to make the advantage to himself like a second Antipater that would not wear the Purple outwardly but was all Purple within under an humble habit of Meekness he so deluded them that they chose him for their Supream Magistrate under the Title of Protector of the Common-wealth of England Scotland and Ireland Now least they should discover his Ambition before he could master their affection he began his Government not much unlike Tiberius who saith Tacitus would have all things continue at the manner was in the ancient * Meaning under their Consuls Free State for as he was willing to be thought irresolv'd whether to accept of the Empire or not and thereupon would not permit any Edict though it were but to call the Lords of the Senate to Councel to be proclaimed by the Vertue and Authority of any other but a Tribune himself being one so Cromwell retaining still the name of Common-wealth that his Tyranny might seem to differ from the former no otherwise then a Wolf doth from a Dogg submitted all to the Authority of the Parliament whereof himself was a Member And to assure the faithful of the Land that the Rule over them however it were by a single Person disser'd much from Antichristian Monarchy he did so far adventure to deny himself as to admit of those Popular Votes which every Body thought were so incompatible with all Kingly Principles that it was impossible for any one ever to cheat them into Allegiance again As 1. That the People under God are the Original of all just Power 2. That the Commons of England in Parliament assembled being chosen by and representing the People have the Supream Authority of this Nation 3. That whatsoever is enacted by them and declar'd for Law hath the force of Law 4. That all the People of this Nation were concluded thereby although the consent and concurrence of the King and House of Peers were not had thereto But long it was not ere he extracted out of the dreggs of these Votes certain Spirits that made those about him so drunk with Ambition and Courage that they forgat all their Republican Resolves and as 't is said that Caesar incouraged the fearful Pilot that was to waft him over Sea in a Storm by only telling him he carried Caesar and his Fortunes so they were animated by the confidence they observ'd in him who on the sudden was exalted to that wonderful pitch of boldness as altered his very Countenance made it not much unlike that of * Sutton Vit. Neron Lucius Domitius the great Ancestor of the Aenobarbi whose face being stroked by two Cluii or familiar Damons