oppositions to Monarchical and Episcopal Government in the Realm of Scotland their secret Practices and Conspiracies to advance their Discipline together with their frequent Treasons and Rebellions in the pursuance of the same from the year 1565 till the year 1585. Lib. VI. Containing The beginning progress and proceedings of the Puritan Faction in the Realm of England in reference to their Innovations both in Doctrines and Forms of Worship their Opposition to the Church and the Rules thereof from the beginning of the Reign of King Edward VI 1548 to the fifteenth year of Queen Elizabeth Anno 1572. Lib. VII Containing A Relation of their secret and open Practices the Schism and Faction by them raised for advancing the Genevian Discipline in the Church of England from the year 1572 to the year 1584. Lib. VIII Containing The Seditious Practices and positions of the said English Puritans their Libelling Railing and Reviling in order to the setting up of the holy Discipline from the year 1584 to the year 1589. The undutiful carriage of the French and the horrible insolencies of the Scottish Presbyters from the year 1585 to the year 1592. Lib. IX Containing Their Disloyalties Treasons and Seditions in France the Country of East-Friesland and the Isles of Britain but more particularly in England together with the several Laws made against them and the several exceptions in pursuance of them from the year 1589 to the year 1595. Lib. X. Containing A relation of their Plots and Practices in the Realm of England their horrible Insolencies Treasons and Seditions in the Kingdom of Scotland from the year 1595 to year 1603. Lib. XI Containing Their successes either good or bad in England Scotland Ireland and the Isles of Jersey from the year 1602 to the year 1623 with somewhat touching their affairs as well in France and Sweden as the Belgick Provinces Lib. XII Containing Their tumultuating in the Belgick Provinces their Practices and Insurrections in the Higher-Germany the frustrating their designe on the Churches of Brandenberg the revolts of Transylvania Hungary Austria and Bohemia and the Rebellions of the French from the year 1610 to the year 1628. Lib. XIII Containing The Insurrection of the Presbyterian and Puritan Faction in the Realm of Scotland the Rebellions raised by them in England their horrid Sacriledges Murders Spoils and Rapines in pursuit thereof their Innovations both in Doctrine and Discipline and the great Alteration made in the Civil Government from the year 1536 to the year 1647 when they were stript of all Command by the Independants Advervisement of Books newly printed The History of the late Wars in Denmark comprizing all the Transactions both Military and Civil during the differences betwixt the two Northern Crowns in the years 1657 1658 1659 1660. Illustrated with several Maps By R. Manley To be sold by Tho. Basset at the George in Fleetstreet A Help to English History Containing a Succession of all the Kings of England the English Saxons and the Britains the Kings and Princes of Wales the Kings and Lords of Man the Isle of Wight As also of all the Dukes Marquesses Earls and Bishops thereof with the description of the places from whence they had their Titles continued and enlarged with the names and ranks of the Viscounts Barons and Baronets to the year 1669. By Peter Heylyn AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History Of the PRESBYTERIANS LIB I Containing The first institution of Presbyterie in the Town of Geneva the Arts and Practices by which it was imposed on the neck of that City and pressed upon all the Churches of the Reformation together with the dangerous Principles and Positions of the chief Countrivers in the pursuance of that project from the year 1536 to the year 1585. AT such time as it pleased God to raise up Martin Luther a Divine of Saxonie to write against the errours and corruptions of the Church of Rome Vlderick Zuinglius a Cannon of the Church of Zurick endeavoured the like Reformation amongst the Switzers but holding no intelligence with one another they travailed divers ways in pursuance of it which first produced some Animosities between themselves not to be reconciled by a personal Conference which by the Lantgrave of Hassia was procured between them but afterwards occasioned far more obstinate ruptures between the followers of the parties in their several stations The Zuinglian Reformation was begun in defacing Images decrying the established Fasts and appointed Festivals abolishing set forms of worship denying the old Catholick Doctrine of a real presence and consequently all external reverence in the participation of the blessed Sacrament which Luther seriously laboured to preserve in the same estate in which he found them at the present They differed also in the Doctrine of Predestination which Luther taught according to the current of the ancient Fathers who lived and flourished before the writings of St. Augustine so that the Romanists had not any thing to except against in that particular when it was canvassed by the School-men in the Council of Trent But Zuinglius taught as was collected from his writings That God was the total cause of all our Works both good and evil that the Adultery of David the cruelty of Manlius and the treason of Iudas were the works of God as well as the vocation of Saul that no man hath power to think well or ill but that all cometh of absolute necessity that man doth nothing towards his Predestination or Reprobation but all is in the Will of God that the Predestinate cannot be condemned nor the Reprobate saved that the Elect and Predestinate are truely justified that the justified are bound by Faith to believe they are in the number of the Predestinated that the justified cannot fall from Grace but is rather bound to believe that if he chance to fall from Grace he shall receive it again and finally that those who are not in the number of the Predestinate shall never receive Grace though offered to them Which difference being added unto that of the Sacrament and eagerly pursued on both sides occasioned such a mortal and implacable hatred between the parties that the Lutherans have solemnly vowed rather to fall off roundly to the Church of Rome then yeild to those Predestinarian and Sacramentary pestilences as they commonly called them But Zuinglius in the mean time carried it amongst the Switzers five of those thirteen Cantons entertain his Doctrine the like did also divers Towns and Seignories which lay nearest to them of which Geneva in a short time became most considerable 2. Geneva is a City of the Alpian Provinces belonging anciently to the Allobroges and from thence called Aurelia Allobrogum by some Latine writers scituated on the South-side of the Lake Lemane opposite to the City of Lozanne in the Canton of Berne from which it is distant six Dutch Miles the River Rhosâ—o having passed through the lake with so clear a colour that it seemeth not at all to mingle with the waters of it runeth
less of Rome then before it had though nothing was meerly Romane and not Primitive also yet was it still as far off from the Rules of Geneva as it was at that time which gave a new Alarum to Calvin that he should take so much pains and trouble so many of his Friends to so little purpose And long it shall not be before he lets us know his resentment of it The English Protestants being scattered in the Reign of Queen Mary betake themselves to divers places in Germany at Geneva and amongst the Switzers In Germany some of them procure a Church in the City of Frankfort but they were such as had more minde to conform themselves to Calvins Models then to the Liturgie of England and such a deviation thereupon was made from the Rules of this Church as looked little better then an open Schism The business bad enough before but made much worse when Knox that great Incendiary of Scotland took that charge upon him when at his coming he found many not well pleased with those alterations which had been made by others from the Church of England which he resolved not to admit of how much soever the continuance of it had been recommended by such Divines as had retired to Strasburgh Zurick and elsewhere To over-ballance whose Authority which he found much valued he flees for succour unto Calvin sends him a Summary or Abstract of the English Book in the Latine Tongue and earnestly desires his opinion of it not doubting but all opponents would submit to his final sentence What Calvins judgement was in the present Point and what sentence he was like to give in the case before him Knox could not but have good assurance when he wrote that Letter having lived with Calvin at Geneva and published some Seditious Books from thence with his approbation before his coming unto Frankfort and it succeeded answerably to his expectation as may appear by Calvins answer to that Letter which in regard it was the ground of all those troubles which afterwards were raised against the Liturgy by the Puritan Faction I shall here subjoyn 17. It is no small affliction to me and in it self no less inconvenience that a contention should be raised between brethren professing the same Faith and living as banished men or exiles for the same Religion especially for such a Cause which in this time of your dispersion ought to have been the Bond of Peace to bind you the more finally to one another for what ought rather to be aimed at by you in this woful condition then that being torne away from the bowels of your native Country you should put your selves into a Church which might receive you in her bosom conjoyned together like the Children of the same Parent both in hearts and tongues But at this time in my opinion it is very unseasonable that troubles should be raised amongst you about Ceremonies and Forms of Prayer as happens commonly amongst those who live in wantonness and ease by means whereof you have been hindred hitherto from growing into one body I do not blame the constancy of those men who being unwillingly drawn into it do earnestly contend in an honest Cause but rather the stubbornness of those which hitherto hath hindred the holy purpose of forming and establishing a Church amongst you For as I use to shew my self both flexible and facile in things indifferent as all Rites and Ceremonies are yet I cannot always think it profitable to comply with the foolish waywardness of some few men who are resolved to remit nothing of their Ancient Customs I cannot but observe many tolerable fooleries in the English Liturgy such as you have described it to me By which two words those names of tolerable fooleries I mean onely this that there is not such Purity or Perfection as was to be desired in it which imperfections notwithstanding not being to be remedied at the first were to be born with for a time in regard that no manifest impiety was contained in them It was therefore so far lawful to begin with such beggerly Rudiments that the Learned Grave and Godly Ministers of Christ might be thereby encouraged for proceeding farther in setting out somewhat which might prove more pure and perfect If true Religion had flourished till this time in the Church of England it had been necessary that many things in that Book should have been omitted and others altered to the better But now that all such Principles are out of force and that you were to constitute a Church in another place and that you were at liberty to compose such a Form of Worship which might be useful to the Church and more conduce to Edification then the other did I know not what to think of those who are so much delighted in the dregs of Popery But commonly men love those things best to which they have been most accustomed Which though in the first place it may seem a vain and childish folly yeâ— in the next place it may be considered that such a new Model is much different from an alteration Howsoever as I would not have you too stiff and peremptory if the infirmity of some men suffer them not to come up unto your own desires so I must needs admonish others not to be too much pleased with their wants and ignorances nor to retard the course and progess of so good a work by their own perversness nor finally to be transported in the manner by such a foolish Emulation For what other ground have they for this contention but that they think it a disgrace to yeild unto better counsels But possibly I may address my words in vain to those who peradventure may not ascribe so much unto me as to vouchsafe to hearken unto any advice which doth proceed from such a despicable Author If any of them fear that any sinister report will be raised of them in England as if they had forsaken that Religion for which they put themselves into a voluntary exile they are much deceived For this ingenuous and sincere Profession will rather compel those godly men which are left behind seriously to consider what a deep Abyss they are fallen into whose dangerous estate will more grievously wound them when they shall see that you have travailed beyond the middle of that course from which they have been so unhappily retracted or brought back again Farewel my most dear Brethren the faithful servants of Jesus Christ and be you still under the governancce and protection of the Lord your God 18. This Letter bearing date on the fifteenth of the Calends of February and superscribed in general to the English which remained at Frankfort carried so great a stroke with the Knoxian party that there was no more talk of the English Liturgie the Order of Geneva being immediately entertained in the place thereof And when the matter was so handled by Dr. Cox first Tutor and then Almoner to King Edward
life at Edenborough on the 10 of Iune and none was nominated to succeed with like Authority The French Forces were imbarked on the 16 of Iuly except some few which were permitted to remain in the Castle of Dunbar and the Isle of Inchkeeth so few that they seemed rather to be left for keeping possession of the Kingdom in the name of the Queen then either to awe the Country or command obedience And that they might be free from the like fears for the times ensuing Francis the Second dyeth on the 5 of December leaving the Queen of Scots a desolate and friendless Widdow assisted onely by her Uncles of the House of Guise who though they were able to do much in France could do little out of it This put the Scots I mean the leading Scots of the Congregation into such a stomack that they resolved to steer their course by another compass and not to Sail onely by such Winds as should blow from England They knew full well that the breach between the two Queens was not reconcileable and that their own Queen would be always kept so low by the power of England that they might trample on her as they pleased now they had her under And though at first they had imbraced the Common-prayer-Book of the Church of England and afterwards confirmed the use of it by a solemn Subscription yet when they found themselves delivered from all fear of the French by the death of their King and the breach growing in that Kingdom upon that occasion they then began to tack about and to discover their affections to the Church of Geneva Knox had before devised a new book of Discipline contrived for the most part after Calvins platform and a new Form of Common-prayer was digested also more consonant to his infallible judgement then the English Liturgie But hitherto they had both lain dormant because they stood in need of such help from England as could not be presumed on with so great a confidence if they had openly declared any dissent or disaffection to the publick Forms which were established in that Church Now their estate is so much bettered by the death of the King the sad condition of their Queen and the assurances which they had from the Court of England from whence the Earls of Morton and Glencarne were returned with comfort that they resolve to perfect what they had begun to prosecute the desolation of Religious Houses and the spoyl of Churches to introduce their new Forms and suspend the old For compassing of which end they summoned a Convention of the Estates to be held in Ianuary 25. Now in this Book of Discipline they take upon them to innovate in most things formerly observed and practised in the Church of Christ and in some things which themselves had setled as the ground-work of the Reformation They take upon them to discharge the accustomed Fasts and abrogate all the ancient Festivals not sparing those which did relate particularly unto Christ our Saviour as his Nativity Passion Resurrection c. They condemned the use of the Cross in Baptism give way to the introduction of the New Order of Geneva for ministring the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and commend sitting for the most proper and convenient gesture to be used at it They require that all Churches not being Parochial should be forthwith demolished declare all Forms of Gods publick Worship which are not prescribed in his Word to be meer Idolatry and that none ought to administer the holy Sacraments but such as are qualified for preaching They appoint the Catechism of Geneva to be taught in their Schools Ordained three Universities to be made and continued in that Kingdom with Salaries proportioned to the Professors in all Arts and Sciences and time assigned for being graduated in the same They decree also in the same that Tythes should be no longer paid to the Romish Clergy but that they shall be taken up by Deacons and Treasurers by them to be imployed for maintainance of the poor the Ministers and the said Universities They complained very sensibly of the Tyranny of Lay-Patrons and Impropriators in exacting their Tythes in which they are said to be more cruel and unmerciful then the Popish Priests and therefore take upon them to determine as in point of Law what Commodities shall be Tythable what not and declare also that all Leases and Alienations which formerly had been made of Tythes should be utterly void 26. Touching the Ministration of the Word and Sacraments and the performance of other Divine Offices it is therein ordered That Common-prayers by which they mean the new Form of their own devising be said every day in the greater Towns except it be upon the days of publick Preaching but then to be forborn that the Preachers own Prayer before and after Sermon may not be despised or disrespected That Baptism be Administred onely upon the Sundays and other days of publick Preaching for the better beating down of that gross Opinion of the Papists so they pleas'd to call it concerning the necessity of it That the first Sundays of March Iune September and December should be from thenceforth set apart for the holy Communion the better to avoid the superstitious receiving of it at the Feast of Easter That all persons exercise themselves in singing Psalms to the end they may the better perform that service in the Congregation That no singing of Psalms no reading of Scriptures should be used at burials That no Funeral-Sermon shall be preached by which any difference may be made between the rich and the poor and that no dead body for the same cause shall be buried in Churches That Prophesyings and Interpreting of the holy Scriptures shall be used at certain times and places according to the custom of the Church of Corinth That in every Church there shall be one Bell to call the people together one Pulpit for the Word and a Bason for Baptism And that the Minister may the better attend these Duties it is ordered that he shall not haunt the Court nor be of the Council nor bear charge in any Civil Affairs except it be to assist the Parliament when the same is called 27. Concerning Ecclesiastical persons their Function Calling Maintainance and Authority it was ordered in the said Book of Discipline That Ministers shall from thenceforth be elected by the Congregation where they are to preach that having made tryal of their Gifts and being approved of by the Church where they are to Preach they shall be admitted to their charge but without any imposition of hands as in other Churches That some convenient pension be assigned to every Minister for the term of life except he deserve to be deprived with some provision to be made after his decease for his Wife and Children That the bounds of the former Diocesses being contracted or enlarged there shall be ten or twelve Superintendents appointed in the place of the former Bishops who are to have the
shall hereafter treat of them as they come before us with reference to the Practises and Proceedings of their English Brethren And first beginning with the Scots it is to be remembred that we left them at a very low ebb the Earl of Goury put to death many of the Nobility exiled into Forreign Countreys and the chief Zealots of the Faction amongst the Ministers putting themselves into a voluntary Banishment because they could not have their wills on the King and Council England as nearest hand was the common Sanctuary to which some Lords and almost all the Refractory Ministers had retired themselves Much countenanced by Mr. Secretary Walsingham who had set them on work and therefore was obliged to gratifie them in some fit proportion To such of the Nobility as had fled into England he assigned the Isle of Lindisfarm commonly called the Holy Island not far from Berwick with order to the Lord Hundsdon who was then Governour of that Town to give them the possession of it But Hundsdon though he had less Zeal had so much knowledg of his Duty as to disobey him considering the great consequence of the place and that there was no impossibility in it but that the Scots might make use of it to the common prejudice if they should prove Enemies to this Crown as perhaps they might A matter which the Secretary would not have passed over in so light a manner but that an Ambassador was sent at the same time from the King of Scots by whom it was desired that the Fugitives of that Nation whatsoever they were might either be remitted home or else commanded not to live so near the Borders where they had opportunity more than stood with the good of that Kingdom to pervert the Subjects Which Reasonable Desire being yeelded unto the Lords and Great men of that Nation were ordered to retire to Norwich and many of the Ministers permitted to prepare for London Oxon Cambridg and some other places where some of them procured more mischief to the Church of England than all of them could have done to their own Countrey had they staid at Berwick 2. At London they are suffered by some zealous Brethren to possess their Pulpits in which they rail without comptroll against their King the Council of that Kingdom and their natural Queen as if by the practises of the one and the connivence of the other the Reformed Religion was in danger to be rooted out Some Overtures had been made at that time by the Queen of Scots by which it was desired that she might be restored unto the Liberty of her person associating with the young King in the Government of the Realm of Scotland and be suffered to have the Mass said in her private Closet for her self and her Servants The news whereof being brought to London filled all the Pulpits which the Scots were suffered to invade with terrible Complaints and Exclamations none of them sparing to affirm That her Liberty was inconsistent with Queen Elizabeth's Safety That both Kingdoms were undone if she were admitted to the joynt-Government of the Realm of Scotland and That the Reformed Religion must needs breathe its last if the Popish were permitted within the Walls of the Court. Which points they pressed with so much vehemence and heat that many were thereby inflamed to join themselves in the Association against that Queen which soon after followed Against their King they railed so bitterly and with such reproach one Davinson more than any other that upon complaint made by the Scottish Ambassador the Bishop of London was commanded to silence all the Scots about the City and the like Order given to the rest of the Bishops by whom they were inhibited from preaching in all other places But the less noise they made in the Church the more closely and dangerously they practised on particular persons in whom they endeavoured to beget an ill opinion of the present Government and to engage them for advancing that of the Presbyterian in the place thereof But this they had followed more successfully at the Act in Oxon where they are liberally entertained by Genebrand and the rest of the Brethren amongst which Wilcox Hen and Ackton were of greatest note And at this time a question was propounded to them concerning the proceeding of the Minister in his duty without the assistance or tarrying for the Magistrate How they resolved this question may be easily guessed partly by that which they had done themselves when they were in Scotland and partly by the Actings of their English Brethren in pursuance of it 3. For presently after Gelibrand deals with divers Students in their several Colledges to put their hands unto a paper which seemed to contain somewhat in it of such dangerous nature that some did absolutely refuse and others required further time of deliberation of which Gelibrand thus writes to Field on the 12 th of Ian. then next following I have already saith he entred into the matters whereof you write and dealt with three or four several Colledges concerning those amongst whom they live I find that men are very dangerous in this point generally favouring Reformation but when it comes to the particular point some have not yet considered of the things for which others in the Church are so much troubled others are afraid to testifie any thing with their hands lest it breed danger before the time and many favour the Cause of the Reformation but they are not Ministers but young Students of whom there is good hope if they be not cut off by violent dealing before the time As I hear by you so I mean to go forward where there is any hope and to learn the number and certifie you thereof c. But that these secret practises might not be suspected they openly attend the Parliament of this year as at other times in hope of gaining some advantage against the Bishops and the received Orders of the Church For in the Parliament of this year which began on the Twenty third of November they petitioned amongst other things That a Restraint might be laid upon the Bishops for granting of Faculties conferring of Orders as also in the executing of Ecclesiastical Censure the Oath Ex Officio permitting Non-residence and the like But the Queen would not hearken to it partly because of the dislike she had of all Innovations which commonly tend unto the worse but chiefly in regard that all such Applications as they made to the Parliament were by her looked on as derogatory to her own Supremacy So that instead of gaining any of those points at the hands of the Parliament they gained nothing but displeasure from the Queen who is affirmed by Stow to have made a Speech at the end of their Session and therein to have told the Bishops That if they did not look more carefully to the discharge of their Duties she must take order to deprive them Sharp words and such as might necessitate the Bishops to
City of Embden and afterwards in all places under his command prohibiting the exercise of all Religion but the Lutheran only Which Prohibition notwithstanding some Anabaptists from the Neighbouring Westphalia found way to plant themselves in Embden where liberty of Trade was freely granted to all comers which allured thither also many Merchants and Artificers with their Wives and Families out of the next-adjoining Provinces of Holland Zealand and West-Friesland then subject to the King of Spain Who being generally Calvinians in point of Doctrine were notwithstanding suffered to plant there also in regard of the great benefit which accrued unto it by their Trade and Manufactures But nothing more encreased the Power and Wealth of that City than the Trade of England removed from Antwerp thither on occasion of the Belgick Troubles and the great fear they had conceived of the Duke of Alva who seemed to breathe nothing but destruction unto their Religion And though the English Trade was removed not long after unto Hambourgh upon the hope of greater Priviledges and Immunities than they had at Embden yet still they kept a Factory in it which added much to the improvement of their Wealth and Power insomuch that the Inhabitants of this Town only are affirmed to have Sixty Ships of One hundred Tun a-piece and Six hundred lesser Barks of their own besides Seven hundred Busses and Fishing Boats maintained for the most part by their Herring-fishing on the Coast of England 44. Having attained unto this Wealth they grew proud withall and easily admitting the Calvinian Doctrines began to introduce also the Genevian Discipline connived at by Ezardus the second the Son of Enno in respect of the profit which redounded by them to his Exchequer though they began to pinch upon him to the diminution of his Power In which condition it remained till his marriage with Catharine the Daughter of Gustavus Ericus King of Sweden who being zealously addicted to the Lutheran Forms and sensible of those great Incroachments which had been made upon the Earl's Temporal Jurisdiction by the Consistorians perswaded him to look better to his own Authority and to regain what he had lost by that Connivence Something was done for the recovering of his Power but it went on slowly hoping to compass that by time and dissimulation which he could not easily obtain by force of Arms. After whose death and the short Government of Enno the second the matter was more stoutly followed by Rodolphus the Nephew of Catharine who did not only curb the Consistorians in the exercise of their Discipline but questioned many of those Priviledges which the unwariness of his Predecessors had indulged unto them The Calvinians had by this time made so strong a Party that they were able to remonstrate against their Prince complaining in the same That the Earl had violated their Priviledges and infringed their Liberties That he had interposed his Power against Right and Reason in matters which concerned the Church and belonged to the Consistory That he assumed unto himself the Power of distributing the Alms or publick Collections by which they use to bind the poor to depend upon them That he prohibited the exercise of all Religions except only the Confession of Ausberg And that he would not stand to the Agreement which was made betwixt them for interdicting all Appeals to the Chamber of Spires Having prepared the way by this Remonstrance they take an opportunity when the Earl was absent arm themselves and seize by force upon his Castle demolished part of it which looks toward the Town and possest themselves of all the Ordnance Arms and Ammunition with an intent hereafter to employ them against him And this being done they govern all Affairs in the Name of the Senate without relation to their Prince making themselves a Free-Estate or Commonwealth like their Belgick Neighbours 45. Extreamly moved with this affront and not being able otherwise to reduce them to a sense of their duty he borrows Men and Arms from Lubeck to compel them to it With which assistance he erects a Fort on the further side of the Haven to spoil their Trade and by impoverishing the people to regain the Town The Senate hereupon send abroad their Edicts to the Nobility and Commons of East-Friesland it self requiring them not to aid their own lawful Prince with Men Arms or Money threatning them if they did the contrary to stop the course of all Provisions which they had from their City and by breaking down their Dams and Sluces to let the Ocean in upon them and drown all their Countrey Which done they make their Applications to the States of Holland requiring their assistance in that common Cause to which they had been most encouraged by their Example not doubting of their Favour to a City of their own Religion united to them by a long intercourse of Trade and resemblance of Manners and not to be deserted by them without a manifest betraying of their own Security All this the States had under their consideration But they consider this withall That if they should assist the Embdeners in a publick way the Earl would presently have recourse for some aid from the Spaniard which might draw a Warr upon them on that side where they lay most open Therefore they so contrived the matter with such Art and Cunning that carrying themselves no otherwise than as Arbiters and Umpires between the Parties they discharged some Companies of Soldiers which they had in West-Friesland who presently put themselves into the Pay of the Embdens and thereby caused the Earl to desist from his Intrenchments on the other side of the Haven After which followed nothing but Warrs and Troubles between the City and the Earl till the year 1606. At what time by the Mediation of the English Ambassador and some other Honourable Friends the differences were compromised to this effect That all the Ordnance Arms and Ammunition which were found in the Castle should be restored unto the Earl That he should have to his own use the whole Profit of the Imposts which were laid on Wine and half the benefit of those Amercements or Fines which should be raised upon Delinquents together with the sole Royalties both of Fishing and Hunting And on the other side That the Embdeners should have free Trade with all the Profits and Emoluments belonging to it which should be granted to them by Letters Patents But for admitting him to any part of the Publick Government or making restitution of his House or Castles the ancient Seat of his abode as there was nothing yeelded or agreed on then so could he never get possession of them from that time to this Which said we must cross over again into the Isle of Brittain where we shall find the English Puritans climbing up by some new devices and the Scottish Presbyterians tumbling down from their former height till they were brought almost to as low a fall as their English Brethren AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The
Noble Lord command is given unto the Provost of Edenborough To attach the Ministers But they had notice of his purpose and escape into England making Newcastle their retreat as in former times 25. It is a true saying of the wise Historian That every Insurrection of the people when it is suppressed doth make the Prince stronger and the Subject weaker And this the King found true in his own particular The Citizens of Edenborough being pinched with the Proclamation and the removal of the Court and the Courts of Justice offered to purge themselves of the late Sedition and tendred their obedience unto any thing whatsoever which his Majesty and the Council should be pleased to enjoyn whereby they might repair the huge Indignity which was done to his Majesty provided that they should not be thought guilty of so great a Crime which from their hearts they had detested But the King answers That he would admit of no purgation that he would make them know that he was their King And the next day proclaims the Tumult to be Treason and proclaims all for Traytors who were guilty of it This made them fear their utter ruine to be near at hand The ordinary Judicatories were removed to Leith the Sessions ordained to be held at Perth their Ministers were fled their Magistrates without regard and none about the King but their deadly Enemies And to make up the full measure of their disconsolation Counsel is given unto the King to raze the Town and to erect a Pillar in the place thereof for a perpetual Monument of so great an Insolence But he resolves to travel none but Legal ways and being somewhat sweetned by a Letter from the Queen of England he gives command unto the Provost and the rest of the Magistrates to enter their persons at Perth on the first of February there to keep ward until they either were acquitted or condemned of the former uproar Whilst things remained in this perplexity and suspence he is advised to make his best use of the conjuncture for setling matters of the Church and to establish in it such a decent Order as was agreeable to God's Word To which end he appoints a National-Assembly to be held at Perth and prepares certain Queries fifty five in number to be considered and debated in the said Assembly all of them tending to the rectifying of such Abuses which were either crept into the Discipline or occasioned by it Nothing so much perplexed the principal Ministers who had the leading of the rest as that the Discipline should be brought under a dispute which they had taught to be a part of the Word of God But they must sing another Tune before all be ended 26. For the King having gained a considerable Party amongst the Ministers of the North and treated with many of the rest in several whom he thought most tractable prevailed so far on the Assembly that they condescend at the last upon many particulars which in the pride of their prosperity had not been required The principal of which were these viz. That it should be lawful to his Majesty by himself or his Commissioners or to the Pastors to propone in a general Assembly whatsoever point he or they desired to be resolved in or reformed in matters of External Government alterable according to Circumstances providing it be done in right time and place Animo aedificandi non tentandi 2. That no Minister should reprove his Majesty's Laws and Statutes Acts or Ordinances until such time as he hath first by the advice of his Presbytery or Synodal or General Assemblies complained and sought remedy of the same from his Majesty and made report of his Majesty's Answer before any further proceedings 3. That no man's Name should be expressed in the Pulpit except the Fault be notorious and publick and so declared by an Assize Excommunication Contumace and lawful Admonition nor should he be described so plainly by any other Circumstances than publick Vices always damnable 4. That in all great Towns the Ministers shall not be chosen without his Majesty's consent and the consent of the Flock 5. That no matter of Slander should be called before them wherein his Majesty's Authority is pre-judged Causes Ecclesiastical only excepted 6. And finally That no Conventions shall be amongst Pastors without his Majesty's knowledg except their Sessions Presbyteries and Synods the Meetings at the Visitation of Churches admission or deprivation of Ministers taking up of deadly Feuds and the like which had not already been found fault with by his Majesty According to which last Artiele the King consents unto another general Assembly to be held at Dundee and nominates the tenth of May for the opening of it 27. It was about this time that Dr. Richard Bancroft Bishop of London began to run a constant course of Correspondence with the King of Scots whom he beheld as the undoubted Heir and Successor of the Queen then Reigning And well considering how conducible it was to the Peace of both Kingdoms that they should both be governed in one Form of Ecclesiastical Policy he chalked him out a ready way by which he might restore Episcopacy to the Kirk of Scotland To which end as the King had gained the liberty in the last Assembly to question and dispute the Government then by Law established and gained a power of nominating Ministers in the principal Cities so in the next they gratified him in this point That no man should from thenceforth exercise a Minister without having a particular Flock nor be admitted to that Flock without Ordination by the Imposition of hands He required also in the same That before the conclusion of any weighty matter his Highness Advice and Approbation should be first obtained And so far they consented to the Proposition as to express how glad they were to have his Majesty's Authority interposed to all Acts of importance which concerned the Church so as matters formerly concluded might not be drawn in question He gained some other points also in the same Assembly no less important than the other towards his Design as namely 1. That no Minister shall exercise any Iurisdiction either by making of Constitutions or leading of Processes without advice and concurrence of his Session Presbytery Synod or General Assembly 2. That Presbyteries shall not meddle with any thing that is not known without all controversie to belong to the Ecclesiastical Iudicatory and that therein Vniformity should be observed throughout the Countrey And 3. That where any Presbyteries shall be desired by his Majesty's Missive to stay their proceedings as being prejudicial to the Civil Iurisdiction or private men's Rights they should desist until his Majesty did receive satisfaction But that which made most toward his purpose was the appointing of Thirteen of their number to attend his Majesty as the Commissioners of the Kirk whom we may call the High Commissioners of Scotland the King 's Ecclesiastical Council the Seminary of the future Bishops to whom
of the Queen not much improved in case it were not made more miserable In the time of K. IAMES some Propositions had been offered by Him in the Conference at Hampton-Court about sending Preachers into Ireland of which he was but half King as himself complained their Bodies being subject unto his Authority but their Souls and Consciences to the Pope But I find nothing done in pursuance of it till after the year 1607 where the Earl of Ter-ownen Ter-connel Sir Iohn Odaghartie and other great Lords of the North together with their Wives and Families took their flight from Ireland and left their whole Estates to the King 's disposing Hereupon followed the Plantation of Vlster first undertaken by the City of London who fortified Colraine and built London-Derrie and purchased many thousand Acres of Lands in the parts adjoyning But it was carried on more vigorously as more unfortunately withall by some Adventurers of the Scottish Nation who poured themselves into this Countrey as the richer Soil And though they were sufficiently industrious in improving their own Fortunes there and set up Preaching in all Churches whersoever they fixed yet whether it happened for the better or for the worse the event hath showed For they brought with them hither such a stock of Puritanism such a contempt of Bishops such a neglect of the publick Liturgy and other Divine Offices of this Church that there was nothing less to be found amongst them than the Government and Forms of Worship established in the Church of England 32. Nor did the Doctrine speed much better if it sped not worse For Calvinism by degrees had taken such deep root amongst them that at the last it was received and countenanced as the only Doctrine which was to be defended in the Church of Ireland For not contented with the Articles of the Church of England they were resolved to frame a Confession of their own the drawing up whereof was referred to Dr. Iames Vsher then Provost of the Colledg of Dublin and afterwards Arce-bishop of Armagh and Lord Primate of Ireland By whom the Book was so contrived that all the Sabbatarian and Calvinian Rigors were declared therein to be the Doctrines of that Church For first the Articles of Lambeth rejected at the Conference at Hampton-Court must be inserted into this Confession as the chief parts of it And secondly An Article must be made of purpose to justifie the Morality of the Lord's-day-Sabbath and to require the spending of it wholly in Religious Exercises Besides which deviations from the Doctrine of the Church of England most grievous Torments immediately in His Soul are there affirmed to be endured by Christ our Saviour which Calvin makes to be the same with his descent into Hell The Abstinencies from eating Flesh upon certain days declared not to be Religious Fasts but to be grounded upon Politick Ends and Considerations All Ministers adjudged to be lawfully called who are called unto the work of the Ministry by those that have publick Authority given them in the Church but whether they be Bishops or not it makes no matter so they be authorized unto it by their several Churches The Sacerdotal Power of Absolution made declarative only and consequently quite subverted No Power ascribed to the Church in making Canons or Censuring any of those who either carelesly or maliciously do infringe the same The Pope made Antichrist according to the like determination of the French Hugonots at Gappe in Daulphine And finally Such a silence concerning the Consecration of Arch-bishops and Bishops expresly justified and avowed in the English Book as if they were not a distinct Order from the common Presbyters All which being Vsher's own private Opinions were dispersed in several places of the Articles for the Church of Ireland approved of in the Convocation of the year 1615 and finally confirmed by the Lord Deputy Chichester in the Name of King IAMES 33. What might induce King IAMES to confirm these Articles differing in so many points from his own Opinion is not clearly known but it is probable that he might be drawn to it on these following grounds For first He was much governed at that time in all Church-concernments by Dr. George Abbot Arch-bishop of Canterbury and Dr. Iames Mountague Bishop of Bath and Wells who having formerly engaged in maintenance of some or most of those Opinions as before is said might find it no hard matter to perswade the King to a like approbation of them And secondly The King had so far declared himself in the Cause against Vorstius and so affectionately had espoused the Quarrel of the Prince of Orange against those of the Remonstrant Party in the Belgick Churches that he could not handsomely refuse to confirm those Doctrines in the Church of Ireland which he had countenanced in Holland Thirdly The Irish Nation at that time were most tenaciously addicted to the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome and therefore must be bended to the other Extream before they could be straight and Orthodox in these points of Doctrine Fourthly and finally It was an usual practise with that King in the whole course of His Government to balance one Extream by the other countenancing the Papists against the Puritans and the Puritans against the Papists that betwixt both the true Religion and Professors of it might be kept in safety But whether I hit right or not certain it is that it proved a matter of sad consequence to the Church of England there being nothing more ordinary amongst those of the Puritan Party when they were pressed in any of the points aforesaid then to appeal unto the Articles of Ireland and the infallible Judgment of K. IAMES who confirmed the same And so it stood until the year 1634 when by the Power of the Lord Deputy Wentworth and the Dexterity of Dr. Iohn Bramhall then Lord Bishop of Derry the Irish Articles were repealed in a full Convocation and those of England authorised in the place thereof 34. Pass we next over to the Isles of Iersey and Guernsey where the Genevian Discipline had been setled under Queen ELIZABETH and being so setled by that Queen was confirmed by K. IAMES at his first coming to this Crown though at the same time he endeavoured a subversion of it in the Kirk of Scotland But being to do it by degrees and so to practise the restoring of the old Episcopacy as not to threaten a destruction to their new Presbyteries it was thought fit to tolerate that Form of Government in those petit Islands which could have no great influence upon either Kingdom Upon which ground he sends his Letter to them of the 8 th of August first writ in French and thus translated into English that is to say 35. JAMES by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland c. Vnto all those whom these Presents shall concern greeting Whereas We Our selves and the Lords of Our Council have been given to understand that
being displaced the Elder turned out of his Office Perine and his Wife clapt up in Prison and all the rest exposed to some open shame So he in his Epistle to his Friend Farellus Anno 1546. Upon this ground Perinus always made himself of the opposite party and thereupon sollicited the relaxation given to Bertilier but in the end was forced together wâ—â—h the rest to submit themselves unto this yoak and the final sentence of the said four Churches was imposed upon them And so we have the true beginning of the Genevian Discipline begotten in Rebellion born in Sedition and nursed up by Faction 10. Thus was the Discipline confirmed and Calvin setled in the jurisdiction which he had aspired to But long he could not be content with so narrow a Diocess as the Town and Territory of Geneva and would have thought himself neglected if all those Churches which embraced the Zuinglian Doctrines had not withal received the Genevian Discipline for the confirming whereof at home and the promoting it in all parts abroad there was no passage in the Scripture which either spake of Elders or Excommunication but he applyed the same for justifying the Authority of his new Presbytery in which the Lay-elders were considered as distinct from those which laboured in the Word and Sacraments but joyned with them in the exercise of a Jurisdiction even that of Ordination also which concerned the Church Assuredly we are as much in love with the Children of our Brains as of our Bodies and do as earnestly desire the preferment of them Calvin had no sooner conceived and brought forth this Discipline but he caused it first to be nourished and brought up at the charge of Geneva and when he found it strong enough to go abroad of it self he afterwards commended it to the entertainment of all other Churches in which he had attained to any credit proceeding finally so far as to impose it upon the world as a matter necessary and not to be refused on pain of Gods high displeasure by means whereof what Jealousies Heart-burnings Jars and Discords have been occasioned in the Protestant Reformed Churches will be made manifest by the course of this present History Which notwithstanding might easily have been prevented if the Orders which he devised for the use of this City had not been first established in themselves then tendered unto others as things everlastingly required by the Law of that Lord of lords against whose Statutes there was no exception to be taken In which respect it could not chuse but come to pass that his Followers might condemn all other Churches which received it not of manifest disobedience to the Will of Christ And being once engaged could not finde a way how to retire again with Honour Whenas the self-same Orders having been established in a Form more wary and suspence and to remain in force no longer then God should give the oportunity of some general Conference the Genevians either never had obtruded this Discipline on the rest of the Churches to their great disquiet or left themselves a fair liberty of giving off when they perceived what trouble they had thereby raised to themselves and others 11. Now for the means by which this Discipline was made acceptable to the many Churches which had no dependance on Geneva nor on Calvin neither they were chiefly these that is to say â—irst The great contentment which it gave the Common people to see themselves intrusted with the weightiest matters in Religion and thereby an equality with if not by reason of their number being two for one superiority above their Ministers Secondly the great Reputation which Calvin had attained unto for his diligence in Writing and Preaching whereby his Dictates came to be as authentick amongst some Divines as ever the Popes Ipse dixit was in the Church of Rome Thirdly his endeavours to promote that Platform in all other Churches which was first calculated for the Meridian of Geneva onely of which we shall speak more particularly in the course of this History Fourthly the like endeavours used by Beza who not content to recommend it as convenient for the use of the Church higher then which Calvin did not go imposed it as a matter necessary upon all the Churches so necessary that it was utterly as unlawful to recede from this as from the most material Points of the Christian Faith of which more hereafter Fifthly the self-ends and ambition of particular Ministers affecting the Supremacy in their several Parishes that themselves might lord it over Gods Inheritance under pretence of setting Christ in his Throne Upon which ground they did not onely prate against the Bishops with malicious words aâ— Dieotrephes did against the Apostles but were resolved to cast them out of the Church neither receiving them amongst themselves nor suffering those that would have done it if they might Sixthly the covetousness of some great persons and Lay-Patrons of which the one intended to raise themselves great Fortunes by the spoil of the Bishopricks and the other to return those Titles to their own proper use to which they onely were to nominate some deserving person For compassing of which three last ends their followers drove on so furiously that rather then their Discipline should not be admitted and the Episcopal Government destroyed in all the Churches they are resolved to depose Kings ruine Kingdoms and subvert the Fundamental Constitutions of all Civil States 12. Thus have we seen the Discipline setled at the last after many struglings but setled onely by the forestalled judgement and determination of four neighbouring Churches which neither then did entertain it nor could be ever since induced to receive the same And we have took a general view of those Arts and Practices by which it hath been practised and imposed upon other Nations as also of those grounds and motives on which it was so eagerly pursued by some and advanced by others We must now therefore cast our eyes back on that Form of Worship which was by him devised at first for the Church of Geneva commended afterwards to all other Churches which were not of the Lutheran Model and finally received if not imposed upon most Churches which imbraced the Discipline Which Form of Worship what it was may best be gathered from the summary or brief view thereof which Beza tendreth to the use of the French and Dutch Churches then established in the City of London and is this that followeth The publick Meetings of the Church to be held constantly on the Lords day to be alike observed both in Towns and Villages but so that in the greater Towns some other day be set apart on which the Word is to be preached unto the people at convenient times Which last I take to be the grounds of those Week-day-Lectures which afterwards were set up in most of the great Towns or Cities of this Realm of England a Prayer to usher in the Sermon and another after it the frame
the Sixth brought thither by the noise of so great a Schism that the Liturgie of England was again restored Knox was so far from yeilding to the Gravity and Authority of that Learned man that he inveighed against him in the Pulpit without fear or wit But Cox not able to endure a baffle from so mean a fellow informs against him to the Senate touching some passages in one of his Seditious Pamphlets in which it is affirmed that Queen Mary whom elsewhere he calls by the odious name of Iesabel and a Traytoress to England ought not to joyn her self in Marriage with the Emperours Son because the Emperour himself maintained Idolatry and was a greater Enemy to Christ then ever was Nero. Knox hereupon departs by Moon-light but howsoever quits the Town and retires to Geneva leaving the Liturgie for the present in a better condition then he had found it at hiâ— first coming thither But Cox considering with himself how necessary Calvins favour might be to him salutes him with a civil Letter subscribed by himself and fourteen others all of them being men of Note in their several places In which they excused themselves for having set that Church in order without his advice not without some rejoycing that they had brought the greatest part of those who withstood their doings to be of the same Opinion with them Which how agreeable it was to Calvin may be seen by his return to Cox and his adherents Coxo Gregalibus suis as the Latine hath it bearing date Iune 14. 1555. 19. In which Letter having first craved pardon for not writing sooner he lets them know that he had freely signified to Dr. Sampson a very fit man to be acquainted with his secrets what he conceived of the Disputes which were raised at Frankfort as also that he had been certified by some Friends of his who complained much of it that they did stand so strictly on the English Ceremonies as shewed them to be too much wedded to the Rites of their Country And further certified that he had heard somewhat of those Reasons which they stood on most for not receding any thing from the Form established but they were such as might receive an easie Answer that he had writ to those of the opposite party to carry themselves with moderation in the present business though nothing was therein remitted by Cox and his and howsoever was now glad to hear that the difference was at last composed He speaks next touching their retaining of Crosses Tapers and such other trifles of that nature proceeding at the first from superstition and thereupon infers that they who so earnestly contended for them when it was in their choice not to do it did draw too neer upon the dregs He adds that he could see no Reason why they should charge the Church with frivolous and impertinent Ceremonies which he should no way wrong if he called them dangerous when they were left at liberty to compose an Order for themselves more pure and simple that in his judgement it was done with little Piety and less brotherly Love on any clancular informations to call Knox in question for so I understood him by his letter N and that they had done better to have stay'd at home then to have kindled the coals by such a piece of unjust cruelty in a Forreign Country by which others also were inflamed and finally that he had written howsoever unto some of the adverse party of whose intent to leave that place he had been advertised that they should continue where they were and not violate the League of their Friendship by their separations with other things to that effect But notwithstanding this advice many of the Schismatical party removed from Frankfort and put themselves into Geneva the principal of which were Whittingham Knox Goodman and he which afterwards was able to do more then all the rest Mr. Francis Knollis allyed by Marriage to the Caryes descended from a younger Sister of Queen Anne Bullen and consequently neer of Kin to Queen Elizabeth These men grew very great with Calvin with whose good leave they put themselves into the form of a Congregation chose Knox and Goodman for their Brethren and in all points conformed themselves to the Rules of that Church which afterwards they laboured to promore in England and actually did effect in Scotland to the no small disturbance of either Kingdom By the perswasion of these men he is resolved to try his Fortune once again on the Church of England before the resetling of the Liturgie under Queen Elizabeth might render the design impossible or at least unprosperous To which end he addresseth his desires to the Queen her self at her first coming to the Crown The like he doth to Mr. Secretary Cecil by his Letters bearing date the 17 of Ianuary 1558 in which he makes mention of the other in both he spurs them on to a Reformation complaining that they had not shewed such a forwardness in it as all good men expected and that cause required But above all things he desires that a pure and perfect Worship of God may be fully setled that the Church may be throughly purged of its former filth and that the Children of God in England might be left at liberty to use such purity in all Acts of publick Worship as to them seemed best And what else could he aim at by these expressions comparing them with the Contents of his two last Letters but that the former Liturgie should be abolished or brought unto a neerer conformity to the Rules of Geneva or at the least that liberty might be left to the godly party to use any other Form of Worship which they though more pure But finding no such good return to either Letter as he had promised to himself he leaves the cause to be pursued by such English Zealots as he had trained up at Geneva or otherwise had setled their abode amongst the Switzers where all set Forms of Worship were as much decryed as they were with him And that they might not slacken in the midst of their course he recommends the general Superintendents of the Church of England to the care of Beza who after his decease succeeded both in his place and power of whose pragmaticalness in pursuing this design against the Liturgie condemning all established Orders of this Church his interposing in behalf of such of his Followers as had heen silenced suspended or deprived for their inconformity we shall speak more large at when we come to England 20. There happened another quarrel in the Church of England and he must needs make himself a party in it Mr. Iohn Hooper having well deserved by his pains in preaching and publishing some Books which very much conduced to the peace of the Church is nominated by the King to the See of Glocester Willing enough he was to accept the charge but he had lived so long at Zurick in the Reign of King Henry where there
imployed themselves to advance his projects Amongst whom none more practical or pragmatical rather then Iohn Alasco of a Noble Family in that Country but a professed Calvinian both for Doctrine and Discipline for the promoting whereof when he had setled himself and his Church in London Anno 1550 he publisheth a Pamphlet in defence of sitting at the Holy Sacrament incouraged those who had refused conformity to the Cap and Surplice and eagerly sollicited M. Bucer a man of greater parts but of more moderation to shew himself on their behalf Driven out of England he betakes himself to the Dukedom of Saxony where he behaved himself with such indiscretion that he was fain to quit those parts and retire to Poland in which the greatness of his kindred was his best protection There he sets up again for Calvin By the Activity of this man the diligence of Vtenhorius and the compliance of some great persons upon Politick ends the Eldership is advanced in many places of that Kingdom as appears by the Letters of the said Vtenhorius bearing date Ian. 27. 1559. In which he signifies unto him that the most illustrious Prince the Palatine of Vilâ—a in Lithuania being come to the Assembly of the States which was held at Petrico resolved not to depart from thence before some Convention of the Brethren should be held there also to which as well the Elders which his Highness brought thither with him as those he found there at his coming should consult together for the establishing of a greater purity in Rites and Ceremonies to be used amongst them For which admission of the Discipline into Lithuania Calvin expresseth no small joy in his Letters to a nameless Friend in that Country bearing date Octob. 9. 1561. In which he lets him know how much he did congratulate the happiness of the Realm of Poland and more particularly of the Province of Lithuania that the Reformed Religion made so great a progress in those Countries by which addition Christs Kingdom had been much enlarged that his joy was very much increased by hearing that together with the same Religion they received the Discipline that it was not without very good cause that he used to call the Discipline the Nerves of the Church in regard of the great strength which it added to it By which last words we may perceive what kinde of Church Government it was which he commended to Ligerus before remembred under this very title of the Nerves of Discipline by which Religion was to be preserved inviolable for the times to come 33. In the Assembly at Petrico before remembred the Palatines and other great men of the Kingdom obtained a Priviledge whereby it was made lawful for them to reform all the Churches under their command to reform them in such manner as to them seemed best It was then also moved by the Count of Tarnaco that the Bishops should no longer hold their place or suffrage in the Assembly of Estates but keep themselves only to such matters as concerned the Church which though it did not take effect yet the attempt appeared so dreadful in the eye of those Prelates then present that they became more tractable and obsequious to the great State-Officers then they had been formerly And what could follow hereupon but that the great men being left to please themselves in their own Religion and the Bishops not daring to oppose not onely Zuinglianism and the Discipline but many other Sects and Innovations should get ground upon them In reference to the Discipline as it was fitted and accommodated to whole Realms and Nations they had not onely their Presbyteries as in Geneva Strasbourg and some other Cities but their Classical and Synodical Meetings as in France and Scotland wherein they took upon them to make Laws and Ordinances for the directing of their Churches after Calvins Model For in the Synod held at Tzenger in the year 1564 it was Decreed that they should use no other Musick in their Churches then the singing of Psalms after the manner of Geneva understand it so condemning that which was then used in the Church of Rome partly because the Psalms and Hymns were sung in the Latine Tongue and partly because the Priests did bellow in them as they pleased to phrase it like the Priests of Baal Concerning which we are to know that the device of turning Davids Psalms into Rhyme and Meter was first taken up by Clement Marrot one of the Grooms of the Bed-chamber to King Francis the First who being much addicted to Poetry and having some acquaintance with those which were thought to wish well to the Reformation was perswaded by the learned Vatablus Professor of the Hebrew Tongue in the University of Paris to exercise his Poetical Fancies in translating some of Davids Psalms For whose satisfaction and his own he translated the first fifty of them into Gallick Meters and after fleeing to Geneva grew acquainted with Beza who in some tract of time translated the other hundred also and caused them to be fiâ—ted unto several Tunes Which thereupon began to be sung in private Houses and by degrees to be taken up in all the Churches of the French and other Nations which followed the Genevian Platform For first in imitation of this Work of Marrot's Sternhold a Groom of the Privy-Chamber to King Edward the Sixth translated thirty seven of them into English Meeter Anno 1552 the rest made up by Iohn Hopkins and some others in the time of Queen Mary but most especially by such as had retired unto Geneva in those very times Followed therein by some Dutch Zealots who having modelled their Reformation by the Rules of Calvin were willing to imbrace this Novelty amongst the rest So as in little tract of time the singing of these Psalms in Meter became a most especial part of their publick Worship and was esteemed as necessary to the Service of God as were the acts of Prayer and Preaching and whatsoever else was esteemed most Sacred In the next place to take away all difference in Apparel whether Sacred or Civil and all distinction in the choice of Meats and Drinks he accounted it a ridiculous and ungodly thing for those which are the Heirs of all things with dominion over all the Creatures to suffer themselves to be restrained by any superstitious use of Meats Drinks or Vestments The Temples built unto their hands they were contented to make use of for their publick Meetings being first purged of Idols Altars the Bellowings beforementioned and other the like dregs of Popery though formerly they had been abused who sees not a Calvinian spirit walking in all these lines by the Priests of Baal They seem content also to allow their Ministers Meat Drink and wages condemning those which grutch them such a sorry Pittance But as for Tithes and Glebes and Parsonage-Houses they kept them wholly to themselves that being the Fish they angled for in those troubled waters and the
that there was no necessity of Lay-elders to be Ministers of it 40. But his main business was to settle the Calvinian Forms in the Realms of Britain in which he aimed at the acquiring of as great a name as Calvin had obtained in France or Poland Knox had already so prevailed amongst the Scots that though they once subscribed to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England yet he had brought them to admit such a Form of Worship as came more neer to the Example of Geneva And he had brought the Discipline to so good a forwardness that Beza was rather wanting to confirm then to introduce it as shall appear at large when we come to Scotland But Knox had many opportunities to effect his business during the absence of their Queen the Regencie of Queen Mary of Lorreign and the unsettledness of affairs in the State of that Kingdom which the Brethren could not finde in England where the Fabrick of the State was joyned together with such Ligaments of Power and Wisdom that they were able to act little and effect much less Some opposition they had made after their coming back from Frankfort and Geneva their two chief Retreats against the Vestments of the Church and the distinction of Apparel betwixt Priests and Lay-men In which some of them did proceed with so vain an obstinacie that some of them were for a time suspended and others totally deprived of their Cures and Benefices some of them also had begun to take exception against some parts and Offices of the publick Liturgie refusing thereupon to conform unto it and thereupon likely to incur the very same penalties which were inflicted on the other In both these cases they consult the Oracle resolving to adhere to his determination in them whatsoever it was First therefore he applyes himself to Grindal then Bishop of London and very zealously affected to the name of Calvin to whom he signifies by his Letter of the 26 of Iune 1566 how much he was afflicted with the sad reports out of France and Germany by which he was advertised that many Ministers in England being otherwise unblamable both for Life and Doctrine had been exauctorated or deprived by the Queens Authority the Bishops giving their consent and approbation onely for not subscribing to some Rites and Ceremonies but more particularly that divers of them were deprived not onely for refusing to wear those Vestments which were peculiar to Baals Priests in the times of Popery but for not conforming to some Rites which had degenerated into most shameful superstitions such as the Cross in Baptism kneeling at the Communion and the like to these That Baptism was admitted sometimes by Midwives That power was left unto the Queen to Ordain other Rites and Ceremonies as she saw occasion and finally that the Bishops were invested with the sole Authority for ordering matters in the Church the other Ministers not advised with or consulted in them 41. Such is the substance of his charge against each particular point whereof he bends his forces as if he had a minde to batter down the Bulwarks of the Church of England and lay it open to Geneva I shall not note how much he blames the Ancient Fathers for bringing in so many Ceremonies into use and practice which either had been borrowed from the Iews or derived from the Gentiles or how he magnifieth the nakedness and simplicity of those Forreign Churches which abominate nothing more then such outward trappings But the result of all is this that whatsoever Rite or Ceremony was either brought into the Church from the Iews or Gentiles not warranted by the institution of Christ or by any Examples of the Apostles as also all significant Ceremonies which by no right were at first brought into the Church ought all at once to be prohibited and suppressed there being no hope that the Church would otherwise be restored to her native Beauty I onely note that he compares the Cross in Baptism to the Brazen Serpent abused as much to Superstition and Idolatry and therefore to be abrogated with as great a Zeal in a Church well ordered as that Image was destroyed by King Hezekiah He falls soul also on that manner of singing which was retained in the Queens Chappels all the Cathedrals and some Parish-Churches of this Kingdom because perhaps it was set forth with Organs and such Musical Instruments as made it sitter in his judgement to be used in Dancing then in Sacred actions and tended more to please the ears then to raise the affections Nor seems he better pleased with that Authority which was enjoyed and exercised by the Archbishop of Canterbury in granting Licenses for Pluralities non-Residence contracting Marriages in the Church and eating Flesh on days prohibited with many other things of that nature which he accounts not onely for so many stains and blemishes in the Face of Christendom but for a manifest defection even from Christ himself in which respect they rather were to be commended then condemned and censured that openly opposed themselves against such corruptions 42. Yet notwithstanding these complaints he grants the matters in dispute and the Rites prescribed to be things indifferent not any way impious in themselves nor such as should necessitate any man to forsake his Flock rather then yeild obedience and conformity to them But then he adds that if they do offend who rather chuse to leave their Churches then to conform themselves to those Rites and Vestments against their Consciences a greater guilt must be contracted by those men before God and his Angels who rather chuse to spoil these Flocks of able Pastors then suffer those Pastors to make choice of their own Apparel or rather chuse to rob the people of the Food of their souls then suffer them to receive it otherwise then upon their knees But in his Letter of the next year he adventureth further and makes it his request unto all the Bishops that some fit Medicine be forthwith applyed to the present mischief which did not onely give great scandal to the weak and ignorant but even to many Learned and Religious Persons And this he seems to charge upon them as they will answer for the contrary at the Judgement-Seat of Almighty God to whom an account is to be given of the poorest Sheep which should be forced to wander upon this occasion from the rest of the Flock Between the writing of which Letters some of their brethren had propounded their doubts unto him touching the calling of the Ministers as it was then and still is used in the Church of England the wearing of the Cap and Surplice and other Vestments of the Clergy which was then required the Musick and melodious singing in Cathedral Churches the interrogatories proposed to Infants at the time of their Baptism the signing of them with the sign of the Cross kneeling at the Communion administring the same in unleavened Bread though the
Bishops were the first means to advance the Pope so the pretended Bishops would maintain the Relicks of Popery And then he adds that it concerns all those to avoid that plague by which he meanâ— undoubtedly the Episcopal Order who pretend to any care of the Churches safety And therefore since they had so happily discharged that calling in the Church of Scotland they never should again admit it though it might flatter them with some assurance of peace and unity 46. What followed thereupon in Scotland we shall see hereafter But his desires of propagating the Genevian Forms was not to be restrained to that part of the Island In his first Letter unto Grindal he doth not onely justifie the Genevian Discipline and the whole Order of that Church in Sacred Offices as grounded on the Word of God but findes great fault with the Episcopal Government in the Church of England and the great power which was ascribed unto the Queen in Spiritual Matters How so Because said he he found no warrant for it in the Word of God or any of the ancient Canons by which it might be lawful for the Civil Magistrate of his own Authority either to abrogate old Ceremonies or establish new or for the Bishops onely to ordain and determine any thing without the judgement and consent of their Presbyteries being first obtained And in his answer to the Queries of the English brethren he findes no less fault with the manner of proceedings in the Bishops Courts in regard that Excommunications were not therein passed by the common consent of a Presbytery but decreed onely by some Civil Lawyers or other Officers who faâ—e as Judges in the same But first the man was ignorant of the course of those Courts in which the sentence of Excommunication is never published or pronounced but by the mouth of a Minister ordained according to the Rules of the Church of England And secondly it is to be conceived in Reason that any Batchelor or Doctor of the Civil Law is far more fit to be imployed and trusted in the exercise of that part of Discipline then any Trades-man of Geneva though possibly of the number of the five and twenty For the redress of which great mischief and of many other he applies himself unto the Queen to whom he dedicates his Annotations on the New Testament published in the year 1572. In the Epistle whereunto though he acknowledgeth that she had restored unto this Kingdom the true Worship of God yet he insinuates that there was wanting a full Reformation of Ecclesiastical Discipline that our Temples were not fully purged that some high places still remained not yet abolished and therefore wisheth that those blemishes might be removed and those wants supplyed Finally understanding that a Parliament was then shortly to be held in England and that Cartwright had prepared an Admonition to present unto it he must needs interpose his credit with a Peer of the Realm to advance the service as appears plainly by his Letter of the same year and the Nones of Iuly In which though he approves the Doctrine yet he condemns the Government of the Church as most imperfect not onely destitute of many things which were good and profitable but also of some others which were plainly necessary 47. But here it is to be observed that in his Letter to this great person whosoever he was he seems more cautelous and reserved then in that to Grindal but far more modest then in those to Knox and the English Brethren The Government of England was so well setled as not to be ventured on too rashly And therefore he must first see what effect his counsels had produced in Scotland before he openly assaults the English Hierarchy But finding all things there agreeable to his hopes and wishes he published his Tract De Triplici Episcopatu calculated for the Meridian onely of the Kirk of Scotland as being writ at the desire of the Lord Chancellor Glammis but so that it might generally serve for all Great Britain In which Book he informs his Reader of three sorts of Bishops that is to say the Bishop by Divine Institution being no other then the Minister of a particular Church or Congregation the Bishop by humane appointment being the same onely with the President of a Convocation or the Moderator as they phrase it in some Church-assembly and finally the Devils Bishops such as presume to take upon them the whole charge of a Diocess together with a superiority and jurisdiction over other Ministers Which Book was afterwards translated into English by Feild of Wandsworth for the instruction and content of such of the Brethren as did not understand the Latine To serve as a Preface to which Work the Presbyterian Brethren publish their Seditious Pamphlets in defence of the Discipline some in the English Tongue some in the Latine but all of them Printed at Genâ—va For in the year 1570 comes out The plain and full Declaration of Ecclesiastical Discipline according to the Word of God without the name of any Author to gain credit to it And Traverse a furious Zealot amongst the English had published at Geneva also in the Latine Tongue a discourse of Ecclesiastical Discipline according to the Word of God as it was pretended with the declining of the Church of England from the same Anno 1574 which for the same reason must be turned into English also and Printed at Geneva with Beza's Book Anno 1580. What pains was took by some of the Divines of England but more particularly by Dr. Iohn Bridges Dean of Sarum and Dr. Adrian Saravia preferred upon the merit of this service in the Church of Westminster shall be remembred in a place more proper for it when we shall come to a review of those disturbances which were occasioned in this Church by the Puritan Faction Most of which did proceed from no other Fountain then the pragmaticalness of Beza the Doctrines of Calvin and the Example of Geneva which if they were so influential on the Realms of Britain though lying in a colder climate and so far remote it is to be presumed that they were far more powerful in France and Germany which lay nearer to them and in the last of which the people were of a more active and Mercurial Spirit 48. What influence Calvin had upon some of the Princes Cities and Divines of Germany hath been partly touched upon before and how his Doctrines did prevail in the Palatine Churches and his Discipline in many parts and Provinces of the Germane Empire may be shown hereafter In France he held intelligence with the King of Navar the Brethren of Rouen Aix Mont-Pelier and many leading men of the Hugonot party none of which can be thought to have asked his counsel about purchasing Lands the Marriages of their Children or the payment of Debts And when the Fortune of the Wars and the Kings just anger necessitated many of them to forsake their Country they
found no place so open to them as the Town of Geneva and none more ready to befriend them then Calvin was whose Letters must be sent to all the Churches of the Switzers and the Neighbouring Germany for raising Contributions and Collections toward their relief which so exasperated the French King that he threatned to make War upon the Town as the fomenter of those discords which embroyled his Kingdom the Receptacle of his Rebels the Delphos as it were of that Sacred Oracle which Soveraignly directed all affairs of moment But of these things and how Beza did co-operate to the common troubles which did so miserably distract the peace of France shall be delivered more particularly in the following Book 49. As for the Town and Territory of Geneva it self it had so far submitted unto their Authority that Calvin wanted nothing of a Bishop in it but the name and title The City of Geneva had been anciently an Episcopal See consisting of many Parishes and Country Villages all subject by the Rules of the Discipline unto one Presbytery of which Calvin for the term of his life had the constant Precedency under the style of Moderator without whom nothing could done which concerned the Church And sitting as chief President in the Court or Consistory he had so great an influence on the Common-council as if he had been made perpetual Dictator also for ordering the affairs of the Common-wealth The like Authority was exercised and enjoyed by Beza also for the space of ten years or thereabouts after his decease At what time Lambertus Danaeus one of the Ministers of that City thinking himself inferiour to him in no part of Scholarship procured the Presidency in that Church to go by turns that he and others might be capable of their courses in it By which means the Genevians being freed from those powerful Riders would never suffer themselves to be bridled as they had been formerly For thereupon it was concluded by a Decree of the Senate that the Presbytery should have no power to convent any man before them till the Warrant was first signed by one of the Syndicks Besides which curb as the Elders are named by the lesser Council and confirmed by the greater the Ministers advice being first had in the nomination so do they take an Oath at their admission to keep the Ecclesiastical Ordinances of the Civil Magistrate In which respect their Consistory doth not challenge an exorbitant and unlimited power as the Commissioners of Christ as they did afterwards in Scotland but as Commissioners of the State or Signiory by which they are restrained in the exercise of that Jurisdiction which otherwise they might and would have challenged by their first institution and seemed at first a yoke too insupportable for the necks of the people In reference to their Neighbouring Princes their City was so advantageously seaâ—ed that even their Popish Neighbours were more ready to support and aid them then suffer the Town to fall into the power of the Duke of Savoy And then it is not to be doubted but such States and Kingdoms as were Zealous in the Reformation did liberally contribute their assistance to them The conâ—â—uence of so many of the French as had retired thither in the heat of the Civil Wars had brought a miserable Plague upon them by which their numbers were so lessened and their strength so weakned that the Duke of Savoy took the oppornity to lay Siege unto it In which distress they supplicate by Letters to all their Friends or such as they conceived might wish well unto them in the cause of Religion and amongst others to some Bishops and Noble-men of the Church of England Anno 1582. But Beza having writ to Traverse a most Zealous Puritan to negotiate in it the business sped the worse for the Agents sake no great supply being sent unto them at that time But afterwards when they were distressed by the Savoyard Anno 1589 they were relieved with thirteen thousand Crowns from England twenty four thousand Crowns from the State of Venice from France and Florence with intelligence of the enemies purposes onely the Scots though otherwise most zealous in advancing the Discipline approved themselves to be true Scots or false Brethren to them For having raised great sums of mony under pretence of sending seasonable relief to their friends in Geneva the most part of it was assigned over to the Earl of Bothwel then being in Rebellion against their King and having many ways endeavoured to surprise his person and in fine to take away his life But this prank was not play'd until some years after and therefore falls beyond the time of my design which was and is to draw down the successes of the Presbyterians in their several Countries till the year 1585 and then to take them all together as they related unto England or were co-incident with the Actions and Affairs thereof But we must make our way by France as lying nearest to the practices of the Mother-City though Scotland at a greater distance first took fire upon it and England was as soon attempted as the French themselves The end of the first Book AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History Of the PRESBYTERIANS LIB II. Containing The manifold Seditions Conspiracies and Insurrections in the Realm of France their Libelling against the State and the Wars there raised by their procurement from the year 1559 to 1585. 1. THe Realm of France having long suffered under the corruptions of the Church of Rome was one of the first Western Kingdoms which openly declared against those abuses Beringarius in the Neighbouring Italy had formerly opposed the Gross and Carnal Doctrines of the Papists in the point of the Sacrament Whose opinions passing into France from one hand to another were at last publickly maintained by Peter Waldo one of the Citizens of Lyons who added thereunto many bitter invectives against the Supremacy of the Pope the Adoration of Images the Invocation of Saints and the Doctrine of Purgatory His Followers from the place of his Habitation were at first called in contempt The poor men of Lyons as afterwards from the name of their Leader they were by the Latines called Waldenses by the French Les Vandoise But Lyons proving no safe place for them they retired into the more desert parts of Languedock and spreading on the banks of the River Alby obtained the name of Albigenses in the Latine Writers and of Les Albigeoise in the French supported by Raymond the Fourth Earl of Tholouse they became so insolent that they murthered Trincanel their Viscount in the City Beziers and dasht out the teeth of their Bishop having taken Sanctuary in St. Magdalens Church one of the Churches of that City For which high outrages and many others of like nature which ensued upon them they were warred upon by Lewis the Ninth of France Sirnamed the Saint and many Noble adventurers who sacrificed many of them in the self-same Church wherein they had spilt the
opposites to stand to one another in the defence of the Edicts and altogether to submit to the Authority of the Prince of Conde as the head of their Union publishing a tedious Declaration with their wonted confidence touching the motives which induced them to this Combination This more estranged the Queen from them then she was at first and now she is resolved to break them by some means or other but rather to attempt it by Wit then by Force of Arms And to this end she deals so dexterously with the Constable and the Duke of Guise that she prevailed with them to leave the Court and to prefer the common safety of their Country before their own particular and personal greatness which being signified by Letters to the Prince of Conde he frankly offered under his hand that whensoever these great Adversaries of his were retired from the Court which he conceived a matter of impossibility to perswade them to he would not onely lay down Arms but quit the Kingdom But understanding that the Constable and the Duke had really withdrawn themselves to their Country-houses devested of all power boâ—h in Court and Council he stood confounded at the unadvisedness and precipitation of so rash a promise as he had made unto the Queen For it appeared dishonourable to him not to keep his word more dangerous to relinquish his command in the Army but most destructive to himself and his party to dissolve their Forces and put himself into a voluntary exile not knowing whither to retreat At which dead lift he is refreshed by some of his Calvinian Preachers with a Cordial comfort By which learned Casuists it was resolved for good Divinity that the Prince having undertaken the maintenance of those who had imbraced the purity of Religion and made himself by Oath Protector of the Word of God no following obligation could be of force to make him violate the first In which determining of the Case they seemed to have been guided by that Note in the English Bibles translated and printed at Geneva where in the Margine to the second Chapter of St. Matthews Gospel it is thus advertised viz. That promise ought not to be kept when Gods honour and the preaching of the Truth is hindred or else it ought not to be broken They added to make sure work of it at the least they thought so that the Queen had broken a former promise to the Prince in not bringing the King over to his party as she once assured him and therefore that he was not bound to keep faith with her who had broke her own 20. But this Divinity did not seem sufficient to preserve his honour another temperament was found by some wiser heads by which he might both keep his promise and not leave his Army By whose advice it was resolved that he should put himself into the power of the Queen who was come within six Miles of him with a small reâ—inue onely of purpose to recâ—ive him that having done his duty to her he should express his readiness to forsake the Kingdom as soon as some Accord was settled and that the Admiral D' Andelot and some other of the principal Leaders should on the sudden shew themselves forcibly mount him on his Horse and bring him back into the Army Which Lay-device whether it had more cunning or less honesty then that of the Cabal of Divines it is hard to say But sure it is that it was put in execution accordingly the Queen thereby deluded and all the hopes of Peace and Accommodation made void and frustrate But then a greater difficulty seized upon them The King had re-inforced his Army by the accession of ten Cornets of German Horse and six thousand Switz The Princes Army rather diminished then increased and which was worse he wanted Money to maintain those Forces which he had about him so that being neither able to keep the Field for want of men nor keep his men together for want of Money it was resolved that he must keep his men upon free-quarter in such Towns and Cities as followed the Fortune of his side till he was seconded by some strength from England or their Friends in Germany The Queen of England had been dealt with but she resolved not to engage on their behalf except the Port of Havre-de-grace together with the Town of Diepe were put into her hands and that she might have leave to put a Garrison of English into Rouen it self Which Proposition seemed no other to most knowing men then in effect to put into her power the whole Dukedom of Normandy by giving her possession of the principal City and hanging at her Girdle the two Keys of the Province by which she might enter when she pleased with all the rest of her Forces But then the Ministers being advised with who in all publick Consultations were of great Authority especially when they related unto Cases of Conscience it was by them declared for sound Doctrine That no consideration was to be had of worldly things when the maintenance of Coelestial Truths and the propagation of the Gospel was brought in question and therefore that all other things were to be contemned in reference to the establishment of true Religion and the freedom of Conscience According to which notable determination the Seneschal of Rouen and the young Visdame of Chartres are dispatched to England with whom it was accorded by the Queens Commissioners that the Queen should presently supply the Prince and his Confederates with Monies Arms and Ammunition that she should aid him with an Army of eight thousand Foot to be maintained at her own pay for defence of Normandy and that for her security in the way of caution the Town of New haven which the French call Havre-de-grace as is before said should be forthwith put into her hands under a Governour or Commander of the English Nation that she should place a Garrison of two thousand English in the City of Rouen and a proportionable number in the Town of Diepe but the Chief Governours of each to be natural French Which Covenants were accordingly performed on both sides to the dishonour of the French and the great damage and reproach of the Realm of England as it after proved For so it was that the Prince of Conde being forced to disperse his Souldiers and to dispose of them in such manner as before was noted the King being Master of the Field carryed the War from Town to Town and from place to place and in that course he speeds so well as to take in the Cities of Angiers Tours Bloise Poictiers and Bourges with divers others of less note some of which were surrended upon composition some taken by assault and exposed to spoil And now all passages being cleared and all rubs removed they were upon the point of laying Siege to the City of Orleance when at the Queens earnest sollicitation they changed that purpose for the more profitable expedition to the King and
the Government both of Church and State Some Hugonots which afterwards were took in Gascoyne and by the Marshal of Monluck were exposed to torture are said to have confessed upon the Rack that it was really intended to kill the King together with the Queen and the two young Princes and having so cut off the whole Royal Line to set the Crown upon the head of the Prince of Conde But Charity and Christianity bids me think the contrary and to esteem of this report as a Popish Calumny devised of purpose to create the greater hatred against the Authors of those Wars 27. But whether it were true or not certain it is that the design was carryed with such care and closeness that the Queen had hardly time enough to retire to Meux a little Town twelve Leagues from Paris before the whole Body of the Hugonots appeared in sight from whence they were with no less difficulty conducted by the Switz whom they had suddenly drawn together to the Walls of Paris the Switz being charged upon the way by no fewer then eleven hundred Horse and D' Andelot in the head of one of the parties but gallantly making good their March and serving to the King and the Royal Family for a Tower or Fortress no sooner were they come to Paris but the Hugonots take a resolution to besiege the City before the Kings Forces could assemble to relieve the same To which end they possessed themselves of all the passes upon the River by which provisions came into it and burned down all the Wind-mills about the Town which otherwise might serve for the grinding of such Corn as was then within it No better way could be devised to break this blow then to entertain them with a Parley for an accommodation not without giving them some hope of yeilding unto any conditions which could be reasonably required But the Hugonots were so exorbitant in their demands that nothing would content them but the removing of the Queen from publick Government the present disbanding of the Kings Forces the sending of all strangers out of the Kingdom a punctual execution of the Kings Edict of Ianuary liberty for their Ministers to Preach in all places even in Paris it self and finally that Calice Metz and Havre-de-grace might be consigâ—ed unto them for Towns of caution but in plain truth to serve them for the bringing in of the English and Germans when their occasion so required The Treaty notwithstanding was continued by the Queen with great dexterity till the King had drawn together sixteen thousand men with whom the Constable gives battel to the Enemy on the 10 of November compels them to dislodge makes himself master of the Field but dyed the next day after in the eightieth year of his age having received his deaths wound from the hands of a Switz who most unmanfully shot him when he was not in condition to make any resistance 28. In the mean time the City of Orleance was surprised by the Hugonots with many places of great importance in most parts of the Realm which serving rather to distract then increase their Forces they were necessitated to seek out for some Forraign aid Not having confidence enough to apply themselves to the Queen of England whom in the business of Newhaven they had so betrayed they send their Agents to sollicite the Elector Palatine and prevailed with him for an Army of seven thousand Horse and four thousand Foot to which the miserable Country is again exposed Encouraged with which great supplies they laid Siege to Chartres the principal City of La Beaue the loss whereof must of necessity have subjected the Parisians to the last extremities The chief Commanders in the Kings Army were exceeding earnest to have given them battel thereby to force them from the Siege But the Queen not willing to venture the whole State of the Kingdom upon one cast of the Dice especially against such desperate Gamesters who had nothing to lose but that which they carryed in their hands so plyed them with new Offers for accommodation that her conditions were accepted and the Germans once again disbanded and sent back to their Country During which broyls the Town of Rochel strongly sâ—ituated on a bay of the Ocean had declared for the Hugonots and as it seems had gone so far that they had left themselves no way to retreat And therefore when most other places had submitted to the late Accord the Rochellers were resolved to stand it out and neither to admit a Garrison nor to submit to any Governour of the Kings appointment in which rebellious obstinacy they continued about sixty years the Town being worthily esteemed for the safest sanctuary to which the Hugonots retired in all times of dangeâ— and most commodious for the letting in of a forraign army when they found any ready to befriend them in that cause and quarrel The standing out of which Town in such obstinate manner not only encouraged many others to doe the like but by the fame thereof drew thither both the Admiral and the Prince of Conde with many other Gentlemen of the Hugonot Faction there to consult about renewing of the war which they were resolved on To whom repaired the Queen of Navarre with the Prince her Son then being but fifteen years of age whom she desired to train up in that holy war upon an hope that he might one day come to be the head of that party as he after was And here being met they publish from hence two several Manifests one in the name of all the Hugonots in general the other in the name of that Queen alone both tending to the same effect that is to say the putting of some specious colour upon their defection and to excuse the breaking of the peace established by the necessity of a warre 29. This rapture so incensed the King and his Council that they resolved no longer to make use of such gentle medicines as had been formerly applyed in the like distempers which resolution was the parent of that terrible Edict by which the King doth first revoke all the former Edicts which had been made during his minority in favour of the Reformed Religion nullifying more particularly the last capitulations made only in the way of Provision to redress those mischiefs for which no other course could be then resolved on And that being done it was ordained and commanded That the exercise of any other Religion then the Roman Catholick ever observed by him and the King his Predecessors should be prohibited and expresly forbidden and interdicted in all places of the Kingdom banished all the Calvinist Ministers and Preachers out of all the Towns and places under his Dominion and within fifteen days upon pain of death to avoid the Realm pardoned through special grace all things past in matters of Religion but requiring for the future under pain of death a general Conformity to the Rites of the Catholick Church and finally ordained that no person should
Tyrants of preceding times which comes up close to those irreverent and lewd expressions which frequently occur in Calvin Beza Knox c. in reference to the two Mary's Queens of England and Scotland and other Princes of that age which have been formerly recited in their proper places 35. The Royal Family being thus wretchedly exposed to the publick hatred he next applyes himself to stir up all the world against them both at home and abroad And first he laboureth to excite some desperate Zealot to commit the like assassinate on the King then Reigning as one Bodillus is reported in some French Histories to have committed on the person of Chilprick one of the last Kings of the Merovignians which he commemorates for a Noble and Heroick action and sets it out for an example and encouragement to some gallant French-man for the delivery of his Country from the Tyranny of the House of Valois the ruine whereof he mainly drives at in his whole designe And though he seem to make no doubt of prevailing in it yet he resolves to try his Fortune otherwise if that should fail And first beginning with their next neighbour the King of Spain he he puts them in remembrance of those many injuries which he and his Ancestors had received from the House of Valois acquaints him with the present opportunity which was offered to him of revenging of thoâ—e wrongs and making himself Master of the Realm of France and chalks him out a way how he might effect it that is to say by coming to a present Accord with the Prince of Orange indulging Liberty of Conscience to the Belgick Provinces and thereby drawing all the Hugonots to adhere unto him which counsel if he did not like he might then make the same use of the Duke of Savoy for whom the Hugonots in France had no small affection and by bestowing on him the adjoyning Regions of Lyonoise Dâ—ulphine and Provence might make himself Lord of all the rest without any great trouble The like temptation must be given to the Queen of England by putting her in minde of her pretences to the Crown it self and shewing how easie a thing it might be for her to acquire those Countries whose Arms and Titles she assumed with like disloyalty he excites the Princes of the Empire to husband the advantage which was offered to them for the recovering of Metz Toule and Verdun three Imperial Cities by this Kings Father wrested betwixt fraud and force from Charles the Fifth and ever since incorporated with the Realm of France If all which failed he is resolved to cast himself on the Duke of Guise though the most mortal and implacable enemy of the Hugonot Faction and makes a full address to him in a second Epistle prefixt before the Book it self in which he puts him in remembrance of his old pretensions to the Crown of France extorted by Hugh Capet from his Ancestors of the House of Loraigne offereth him the assistance of the Hugonot party for the recovery of his Rights and finally beseeches him to take compassion of his ruined Country cheerfully to accept the Crown and free the Kingdom from the spoil and tyranny of Boyes and Women together with that infinite train of Strangers Bawdes and Leachers which depend on them which was as great a Master-piece in the art of mischief as the wit of malice could devise 36. As for his Doctrines in reference to the common duties between Kings and Subjects we may reduce them to these heads that is to say 1. That the Authority of Kings and Supreme Magistrates is circumscribed and limited by certain bounds which if they pass their Subjects are no longer tyed unto their obedience that Magistrates do exceed those bounds when either they command such things as God forbiddeth or prohibit that which he commands that therefore they are no longer to be obeyed if their Commands are contrary to the Rules of Piety or Christian Charity of which the Subjects must be thought the most competent Judges 2. That there were companies and societies of men before any Magistrates were set over them which Magistrates were no otherwise set over them then by common consent that every Magistrate so appointed was bound by certain Articles and Conditions agreed between them which he was tyed by Oath to preserve inviolable that the chief end for which the people chose a Superiour Magistrate was that they might remain in safety under his protection and therefore if such Magistrates either did neglect that end or otherwise infringe the Articles of their first Agreement the Subjects were then discharged from the bond of obedience and that being so discharged from the bond of obedience it was as lawful for them to take up Arms against their King in maintainance of their Religion Laws and Liberties if indangered by him as for a Traveller to defend himself by force of Arms against Thieves and Robbers 3. That no Government can be rightly constituted in which the Grandeur of the Prince is more consulted then the weal of the People that to prevent all such incroachments on the Common Liberty the people did reserve a power of putting a curb upon their Prince or Supreme Magistrates to hold them in such as the Tribunes were in Rome to the Senate and Consuls and the Ephori to the Kings of Sparta that such a power as that of the Spartan Ephori is vested in the seven Electors of the German Empire which gives them an Authority to depose the Emperour if they see cause for it and that the like may be affirmed of the English Parliaments who oftentimes have condemned their Kings but he knows not whom 4. That by the first constitutions of the Realm of France the Supreme power was not entrusted to the King but the three Estates so that it was not lawful for the King to proclaim a War or to lay Taxes on the people but by their consent that these Estates assembled in a Common Council did serve instead of eyes and ears to a prudent Prince but to a wicked and ungoverned for Bit or Bridle and that according to this power they dethroned many of their Kings for their Lusts Luxuries Cruelty Slothfulness Avarice c. that if they proceeded not in like manner with the King then Reigning it was because they had an high esteem with scorn and insolence enough of his eminent Vertues his Piety Justice and Fidelity and the great commendations which was given of his Mothers Chastity and therefore finally which was the matter to be proved by those Factious Principles that it was altogether as lawful for the French to defend themselves their Laws and Liberties against the violent assault of a furious Tyrant so he calls their King as a Traveller by Thieves and Robbers Which Aphorisms he that listeth to consult in the Author may finde them from pag. 57. to 66. of the second Dialogue and part 1. pag. 8. 37. But notwithstanding these indignities
excited him with many Captains and Commanders who for the most part lived upon spoil and plunder to raise an Army of seven thousand Horse and four thousand Foot with which they made foul work in France wasting and spoiling all Countries wheresoever they came for being joyned unto the rest of the Hugonots Army they found them brought to such a poor and low condition that they were not able to advance the least part of that sum which they had promised to provide against their coming Somewhat was raised by way of Contribution to keep them in some present compliance and for the rest they were permitted to pay themselves in the spoil of the Country especially Churches Monasteries and Religious Houses But the Queen offering termes of Peace none were more forward then these Germans to imbrace the offer and Casimir more forward in it then all the rest The King had offered to disburse a great part of the money which belonged to the Souldiers for their pay which to those mercenary spirits was too strong a temptation to be resisted or neglected 8. These Germans were scarcely setled in their several Houses when the Hugonots brake out again and a new Army must be raised by the Duke of Zudibruck whom the French call the Duke of Deuxponts a Prince of the Collateral Line to the Electoral Family who upon hope of being as well paid as his Cozen Casimir tempted with many rich promises by the Heads of the Hugonots and secretly encouraged by some Ministers of the Queen of England made himself Master of a great and puisâ—ant Army consisting of eight thousand Horse and six thousand Foot With this Army he wastes all the Country from the very edge of Burgundy to the Banks of Loire crosseth that River and commits the like outrages in all the Provinces which lye between that River and the Aquitain Ocean In which action either with the change of Air the tediousness of his Marches or excessive drinking he fell into a violent Feaver which put a period to his travails within few days after Nor did this Army come off better though it held out longer for many of them being first consumed with sickness arising from their own intemperance and the delicious lusts of the Strumpets of France the rest were almost all cut off at the Battail of Mont-counter in which they lost two Colonels and twenty seven Captains of Foot and all their Horse except two thousand which saved themselves under Count Lodowick of Nassaw But the love of money prevailed more with them then the fear of death For within few years after Anno 1575 we finde them entring France again under Prince Iohn Casimir in company with the young Prince of Conde who had sollicited the Cause The Army at that time consisting of eight thousand Horse three thousand French Fire-locks and no fewer then fourteen thousand Switz and Germane Foot joyned with the Hugonots and a new Faction of Politicks or Male-contents under the Command of the Duke of Alanzon who had revolted from his Brother became so terrible to the King that he resolved to buy his Peace upon any rates To which end having somewhat cooled the heats of his Brother he purchaseth the departure of the Germane Souldiers by ingaging to pay them their Arrears which came in all to twelve hundred thousand Crowns on a full computation Besides the payment of which vast sum he was to gratifie Prince Casimir with the Siguory of â—hasâ—eau-Thierry in the Province of Champagne the command of one hundred French Lances and an annual pension of fourteen thousand Crowns as before was said 9. In the mean time the flames of the like civil War consumed a great part of Flanders to which the Prince Elector must bring Fewel also For being well affected to the House of Nassaw and more particularly to the Prince of Orange and knowing what encouragements the Calvinians in the Netherlands had received from them he hearkned cheerfully to such Propositions as were made to him at the first by Count â—odowick his Ministers and after by the Agents of the Prince himself But those small Forces which he sent at their first ingaging doing no great service he grants them such a large supply after the first return of Prince Casimirs Army Anno 1568 as made them up a Body of French and Germans consisting of seven thousand Foot and four thousand Horse with which he sent Prince Christopher a younger Son to gain experience in the War and to purchase Honour And though he might have been discouraged by the loss of that Army and the death oâ— his Son into the bargain from medling further in that quarrel yet the Calvinian spirit so predominated in his Court and Counsels that another Army should be raised and Casimir imployed as Commander of it as soon as he could give himself the least assurance that the French required not his assistance During the languishing of which Kingdom between Peace and War the War in Flanders grew more violent and fierce then ever which moved the Provinces confederated with the Prince of Orange to enter into a strict union with the Queen of England who could not otherwise preserve her self from the plots and practices of Don Iohn of Austria by which he laboured to embroyl her Kingdom By the Articles of which League or Union she bound her self to aid them with one thousand Horse and five thousand Foot the greatest part whereof she raised in the Dominions of the Prince Elector or indeed rather did contribute to the payment of so much money for his Army which was drawn together for the service of the Prince of Orange as might amount unto that number And that they might receive the greater countenance in the eye of the World she sends for Casimir into England where he arrived about the latter end of Ianuary 1578 is Royally feasted by the Queen rewarded with an annual Pension and in the next year made Knight of the Garter also By these encouragements he returns to his charge in the Army which he continued till the calling in of the Duke of Anjou and then retired into Germany to take breath a while where he found such an alteration in the State of affairs as promised him no great assurance of employment on the like occasion 10. For Lodowick the fifth succeeding Prince Elector in the place of his Father and being more inclined to the Lutheran Forms did in time settle all his Churches on the same Foundation on which it had been built by the Electors of the former Line so that it was not to be thought that either he could aid the Hugonots or the Belgick Calvinists in any of their Insurrections against their Princes if either of them possibly could have had the confidence to have moved him in it But he being dead and Frederick the Fourth succeeding the Zuinglian Doctrines and the Genevian Discipline are restored again and then Prince Casimir is again sollicited to raise a greater
pardon And when men once are brought unto such a condition they must resolve to fight it out to the very last and either carry away the â—arland as a signe of Victory or otherwise live like Slaves or dye like Traytors But this was done according to Calvins Doctrine in the Book of Institutes in which he gives to the Estates of each several Country such a Coercive Power over Kings and Princes as the Ephori had exercised over the Kings of Sparta and the Roman Tribunes sometimes put in practice against the Consuls And more then so he doth condemn them of a betraying of the Peoples Liberty whereof they are made Guardians by Gods own appointment so he saith at least if they restrain not Kings when they play the Tyrants and want only insult upon or oppress the Subjects So great a Master could not but meet with some apt Scholars in the Schools of Politie who would reduce his Rules to practice and justifie their practice by such great Authority 54. But notwithstanding the unseasonable publication of such an unprecedented sentence few of the Provinces fell off from the Kings obedience and such strong Towns as still remained in the hands of the States were either forced unto their duty or otherwise hard put to it by the Prince of Parma To keep whom busied in such sort that he should not be in a capacity of troubling his Affairs in Holland the Prince of Orange puts the Brabanders whose priviledges would best bear it to a new Election And who more fit to be the man then Francis Duke of Anjou Brother to Henry the Third of France and then in no small possibility of attaining to the Marriage of the Queen of England Assisted by the Naval power of the one and the Land-Forces of the other What Prince was able to oppose him and what power to withstand him The young Duke passing over into England found there an entertainment so agreeable to all expectations that the Queen was seen to put a Ring upon one of his Fingers which being looked on as the pledge of a future Marriage the news thereof posted presently to the Low Countries by the Lord Aldegund who was then present at the Court where it was welcomed both in Antwerp and other places with all signes of joy and celebrated by discharging of all the Ordnance both on the Walls and in such Ships as then lay on the River After which triumph comes the Duke accompanied by some great Lords of the Court of England and is invested solemnly by the Estates of those Countries in the Dukedoms of Brabant and Limburg the Marquisate of the holy Empire and the Lordship of Machlin which action seems to have been carryed by the power of the Consistorian Calvinists for besides that it agreeth so well with their common Principles they were grown very strong in Antwerp where Philip Lord of Aldegund a profest Calvinian was Deputy for the Prince of Orange as they were also in most Towns of consequence in the Dukedom of Brabant But on the other side the Romish party was reduced to such a low estate that they could not freely exercise their own Religion but onely as it was indulged unto them by Duke Francis their new-made Soveraign upon condition of taking the Oath of Allegiance to him and abdicating the Authority of the King of Spain the grant of which permission had been vain and of no significancie if at that time they could have freely exercised the same without it But whosoever they were that concurred most powerfully in conferring this new honour on him he quickly found that they had given him nothing but an airy Title keeping all power unto themselves So that upon the matter he was nothing but an honourable Servant and bound to execute the commands of his mighty Masters In time perhaps he might have wrought himself to a greater power but being young and ill advised he rashly enterprised the taking of the City of Antwerp of which being frustrated by the miscarriage of his plot he returned ingloriously into France and soon after dyes 55. And now the Prince of Orange is come to play his last part on the publick Theatre his winding Wit had hitherto preserved his Provinces in some terms of peace by keeping Don Iohn exercised by the General States and the Prince of Parma no less busied by the Duke of Anjou nor was there any hope of recovering Holland and Zealand to the Kings obedience but either by open force or some secret practice the first whereof appeared not possible and the last ignoble But the necessity of removing him by what means soever prevailed at last above all sence and terms of Honour And thereupon a desperate young Fellow is ingaged to murther him which he attempted by discharging a Pistol in his face when he was at Antwerp attending on the Duke of Anjou so that he hardly escaped with life But being recovered of that blow he was not long after shot with three poyson Bullets by one Balthasar Gerard a Burgundian born whom he had lately taken into his service which murder was committed at Delph in Holland on the 10 of Iune 1584 when he had lived but fifty years and some months over He left behind him three Sons by as many Wives On Anne the Daughter of Maximilian of Egmont Earl of Bucen he begat Philip Earl of Bucen his eldest Son who succeeded the Prince of Orange after his decease By Anne the Daughter of Maurice Duke Elector of Saxony he was Father of Grave Maurice who at the age of eighteen years was made Commander General of the Forces of the States United and after the death of Philip his Elder Brother succeeded him in all his Titles and Estates And finally by his fourth Wife Lovise Daughter of Gasper Colligny great Admiral of France for of his third being a Daughter to the Duke of Montpensier he had never a Son he was the Father of Prince Henry Frederick who in the year 1625 became Successor unto his Brother in all his Lands Titles and Commands Which Henry by a Daughter of the Count of Solmes was Father of William Prince of Orange who married the Princess Mary Eldest Daughter of King Charles the second Monarch of great Britain And departing this life in the flower of his youth and expectations Anno 1650 he left his Wife with Childe of a Post-humous Son who after was baptized by the name of William and is now the onely surviving hope of that famous and illustrious Family 56. But to return again to the former William whom we left weltring in his bloud at Delph in Holland He was a man of great possessions and Estates but of a soul too large for so great a Fortune For besides the Principality of Orange in France and the County of Nassaw in Germany he was possessed in right of his first Wife of the Earldom of Bucen in Gelderland as also of the Town and Territories of Lerdame and Iselstine in Holland
and in his own Patrimonial Right was Lord of the strong Towns and goodly Signories of Breda Grave and Diest in the Dukedom of Brabant In the right of which last Lordship he was Burgrave of Antwerp He was also Marquess of Vere and Vlushing with some jurisdiction over both in the Isle of Walcheren by Charles the Fifth made Knight of the Golden Fleece and by King Philip Governour of Holland Zealand and the County of Burgundy All which he might have peaceably enjoyed with content and honour as did the Duke of Areschot and many others of the like Nobility if he had aimed onely at a personal or private greatness But it is possible that his thoughts carryed him to a higher pitch and that perceiving what a general hatred was born by the Low Country-men against the Spaniard he thought it no impossible thing to dispossess them at the last of all those Provinces and to get some of them for himself And he had put fair for it had not death prevented him by which his life and projects were cut off together For compassing which projects he made use of that Religion which best served his turn being bred a Lutheran by his Father he profest himself a Romanist under Charles the Fifth and after finding the Calvinians the more likely men to advance his purposes he declared himself chiefly in their favour though he permitted other Sects and Sectaries to grow up with them in which respect he openly opposed all Treaties Overtures and Propositions looking towards a peace which might not come accompanied with such a liberty of Conscience both in Doctrine and Worship as he knew well could never be admitted by the Ministers of the Catholick King But the Calvinians of all others were most dear unto him By his encouragement the Belgick Confession was drawn up and agreed upon 1567. By his countenance being then Burgrave and Governour of Antwerp as before is said they set up their Consistory in that City as afterwards in many others of the Dukedome of Brabant and by his favour they attained unto such Authority and took such deep root in Holland Zealand and the rest of the Provinces under his command that they prevailed in fine over all Religious Sects and Sectaries which are therein tolerated 57. And that they might the better be enabled to retain that power which under him they had acquired they were resolved not to return again to their first obedience which they conceived so inconsistent with it and destructive of it To this end they commit the Government to some few amongst them under the name of the Estates who were to govern all affairs which concerned the publick in the nature of a Common-wealth like to that of the Switzers so much the more agreeable to them because it came more neer to that form or Polity which they had erected in the Church And in this posture they will stand as long as they can which if they found themselves unable to continue with any comfort and that they needs must have a Prince they will submit themselves to the French and English or perhaps the Dane to any rather then their own And to this point it came at last for the Prince of Parma so prevailed that by the taking of Gaunt and Bruges he had reduced all Flanders to the Kings obedience brought Antwerp unto terms of yeilding and carried on the War to the Walls of Vtrecht In which extremity they offered themselves to the French King but his affairs were so perplexed by the Hugonots on the one side and the Guisian Faction on the other that he was not in a fit capacity to accept the offer In the next place they have recourse to the Queen of England not as before to take them into her protection but to accept them for her Subjects and that the acceptance might appear with some shew of justice they insist on her descent from Philip Wife to King Edward the Third Sister and some say Heir of William the Third Earl of Holland Haynalt c. Which Philip if she were the Eldest Daughter of the said Earl William as by their Agents was pretended then was the Queens Title better then that of the King of Spain which was derived from Margaret the other Sister Or granting that Philip was the younger yet on the failer or other legal interruption of the Line of Margaret which seemed to be the case before them the Queen of England might put in for the next Succession and though the Queen upon very good reasons and considerations refused the Soveraignty of those Countries which could not without very great injury to publick justice be accepted by her yet so far she gave way to her own fears the ambition of some great persons who were near unto her and the pretended Zeal of the rest that she admitted them at the last into her protection 58. The Earl of Leicester was at that time of greatest power in the Court of England who being a great favourer of the Puritan Faction and eagerly affecting to see himself in the head of an Army sollicited the affair with all care and cunning and it succeeded answerably to his hopes and wishes The Queen consents to take them into her protection to raise an Army of five thousand Foot and one thousand Horse to put it under the Command of a sufficient and experienced General and to maintain it in her pay till the War were ended And it was condescended to on the other side that the Towns of Brill and Vlushing with the Fort of Ramekins should be put into the hands of the English that the Governour whom the Queen should appoint over the Garrisons together with two other persons of her nomination should have place and suffrage in the Council of the States United that all their own Forces should be ranged under the Command of the English General and that the States should make no peace without her consent By which transaction they did not onely totally withdraw themselves from the King of Spain but suffered the English to possess the Gates of the Netherlands whereby they might imbar all Trade shut out all Supplies and hold them unto such conditions as they pleased to give them But any Yoke appeared more tolerable then that of the Spaniard and any Prince more welcome to them then he to whom both God and Nature had made them subject According unto which agreement Vlushing is put into the hands of Sir Philip Sidney the English Army under the Command of the Earl of Leicester and which is more then was agreed on an absolute Authority over all Provinces is committed to him together with the glorious Titles of Governour and Captain-General of Holland Zealand and the rest of the States United which how it did displease the Queen what course was took to mitigate and appease her anger what happened in the war betwixt him and the Prince of Parma and what cross Capers betwixt him and the States themselves is not
very pleasing news to those of the Congregation who thought it more expedient to their Affairs that the Queen should not Marry at all or at least not Marry any other Husband but such as should be recommended to her by the Queen of England on whom their safety did depend In which regard they are resolved to oppose this Match though otherwise they were assured that it would make the Queen grow less in reputation both at home and abroad to Marry with one of her own subjects of what blood soever 51. And now comes Knox to play his prize who more desired that the Earl of Leicester as one of his own Faction should espouse the Queen then the Earl desired it for himself If she will Marry at all let her make choice of one of the true Religion for other Husband she should never have if he could help it And to this end he lays about him in a Sermon preached before the Parliament at which the Nobility and Estates were then assembled And having roved sufficiently as his custom was at last he tells them in plain terms desiring them to note the day and take witness of it That whensover the Nobility of Scotland who profess the Lord Iesus should consent that an Infidel and all Papists are Infidels saith he should be head to their Soveraign they did so far as in them lyes banish Christ Iesus from this Realm yea and bring Gods judgements upon the Country a plague upon themselves and do small comfort to her self For which being questioned by the Queen in a private conference he did not onely stand unto it without the least qualifying or retracting of those harsh expressions but must intitle them to God as if they had been the immediate Inspirations of the holy Ghost for in his Dialogue with the Queen he affirmed expresly that out of the preaching place few had occasion to be any way oâ—fended with him but there that is to say in the Church or Pulpit he was not Master of himself but must obey him that commands him to speak plain and flatter no flesh upon the face of the Earth This insolent carriage of the man put the Queen into passion insomuch that one of her Pages as Knox himself reports the story could hardly finde Handkerchiefs enough to dry her eyes with which the proud fellow shewed himself no further touched then if he had seen the like fears from any one of his own Boys on a just correction 52. Most men of moderate spirits seemed much offended at the former passage when they heard it from him in the Pulpit more when they heard of the affliction it had given the Queen But it prevailed so far on the generality of the Congregation that presently it became a matter of Dispute amongst them Whether the Queen might chuse to her self an Husband or whether it were more fitting that the Estates of the Land should appoint one for her Some sober men affirmed in earnest that the Queen was not to be barred that liberty which was granted to the meanest Subject But the Chief leading-men of the Congregation had their own ends in it for which they must pretend the safety of the Common-wealth By whom it was affirmed as plainly that in the Heir unto a Crown the case was different because said they such Heirs in assuming an Husband to themselves did withal appoint a King to be over the Nation And therefore that it was more fit that the whole people should chuse a Husband to one Woman then one Woman to elect a King to Rule over the whole people Others that had the same designe and were possibly of the same opinion concerning the imposing of a Husband on her by the States of the Realm disguised their purpose by pretending another Reason to break off this Marriage The Queen and the young Noble-man were too near of Kindred to be conjoyned in Marriage by the Laws of the Church her Father and his Mother being born of the same Venter as our Lawyers phrase it But for this blow the Queen did easily provide a Buckler and dispatched one of her Ministers to the Court of Rome for a Dispensation The other was not so well warded but that it fell heavy at the last and plunged her into all those miseries which ensued upon it 53. But notwithstanding these obstructions the Match went forwards in the Court chiefly sollicited by one David Risio born in Piedmont who coming into Scotland in the company of an Ambassador from the Duke of Savoy was there detained by the Queen first in the place of a Musician afterwards imployed in writing Letters to her Friends in France By which he came to be acquainted with most of her secrets and as her Secretary for the French Tongue to have a great hand in the managing of all Forreign transactions This brought him into great envy with the Scots proud in themselves and not easie to be kept in fair terms when they had no cause unto the contrary But the preferring of this stranger was considered by them as a wrong to their Nation as if not able to afford a sufficient man to perform that Office to which the Educating of so many of them in the Court of France had made them no less fit and able then this Mungrel Italian To all this Risio was no stranger and therefore was to cast about how to save himself and to preserve that Power and Reputation which he had acquired Which to effect he laboured by all means to promote the Match that the young Lord being obliged unto him for so great a benefit might stand the faster to him against all Court-factions whensoever they should rise against him And that it might appear to be his work onely Ledington the chief Secretary is dispatched for England partly to gain the Queens consent unto the Marriage and partly to excuse the Earl of Lenox and his Son for not returning to the Court as she had commanded In the mean time he carries on the business with all care and diligence to the end that the Match might be made up before his return Which haste he made for these two Reason first lest the dissenting of that Queen whose influence he knew to be very great on the Kingdom of Scotland might either beat it off or at least retard it the second that the young Lord Darnley for so they called him might have the greater obligation to him for effecting the business then if it had been done by that Queens consent 54. To make all sure as sure at least as humane Wisdom could project it a Convention of the Estates is called in May and the business of the Marriage is propounded to them To which some yeilded absolutely without any condition others upon condition that Religion might be kept indempnified onely the Lord Vehiltry one who adher'd to Knox in his greatest difficulties maintained the Negative affirming openly that he would never admit a King of the Popish Religion Encouraged
on by her command through every County by the Sheriffs and Gentry till he came to Berwick from whence he passed safely unto Edenborough where he was welcomed with great joy by his Friends and Followers Nothing else memorable in this Treaty which concerns our History but that when Murray and the rest of the Scots Commissioners were commanded by Queen Elizabeth to give a reason of their proceedings against that Queen they justified themselves by the Authority of Calvin by which they did endeavour to prove as my Author hath it That the Popular Magistrates are appointed and made to moderate and keep in order the excess and unruliness of Kings and that it was lawful for them to put the Kings that be evil and wicked into prison and also to deprive them of their Kingdoms Which Doctrine how it relished with Queen Elizabeth may be judged by any that knows with what a Soveraign power she disposed of all things in her own Dominions without fear of rendring an account to such Popular Magistrates as Calvins Doctrine might encourage to require it of her But Calvin found more Friends in Scotland then in all the world there being no Kingdom Principality or other Estate which had herein followed Calvins Doctrine in the imprisoning deposing and expelling their own natural Prince till the Scots first led the way unto it in this sad Example 20. Between the last Parliament in Scotland and the Regents journey into England a general Assembly of the Kirk was held at Edenborough In which they entred into consideration of some disorders which had before been tolerated in the said Assemâ—ly and were thought fit to be redressed For remedy whereof it was enacted That none should be admitted to have voice in these Assemblies but Superintendents Visitors of Churches Commissioners of Shires and Vniversities together with such other Ministers to be elected or approved by the Superintendents as were of knowledge and ability to dispute and reason of such Matters as were there propounded It was ordained also That all Papists which continued obstinate after lawful admonition should be Excommunicated as also that the committers of Murther Incest Adultery and other such hainous crimes should not be admitted to make satisfaction by any particulur Church till they did first appear in the habit of penitents before the general Assembly and there receive their Order in it It was also condescended to upon the humble Supplication of the Bishop of Orkney that he should be restored unto his place from which they had deposed him for his acting in the Queens Marriage Which favour they were pleased to extend unto him upon this Condition That for removing of the scandal he should in his first Sermon acknowledge the fault which he had committed and crave pardon of God the Kirk and the State whom he had offended But their main business was to alter the Book of Discipline especially in that part of it which related to the Superinterdents whom though they countenanced for the present by the former Sanction till they had put themselves in a better posture yet they resolve to bring them by degrees to a lower station and to lay them level with the rest In reference whereunto the Regent is sollicited by their Petition that certain Lords of secret Council might be appointed to confer with some of the said Assembly touching the Pâ—lity and Jurisdiction of the Kirk and to assign some time and place to that effect that it might be done before the next Session of Parliament To which Petition they received no answer till the Iuly following But there came no great matter of it by reason of the Regents death which soon after hapned 21. For so it was that after his return from England he became more feared by some and obeyed by others then he had been formerly which made him stand more highly upon terms of Honor and Advantage when Queen Elizabeth had propounded some Conditions to him in favour of the Queen of Scots whose cause appearing desperate in the eyes of most who wished well to her they laboured to make their own peace and procure his Friendship Duke Hamilton amongst the rest negotiated for a Reconcilement and came to Edenborough to that purpose but unadvisedly interposing some delays in the business because he would not act apart from the rest of the Queens Adherents he was sent Prisoner to the Castle This puts the whole Clan of the Hamiltons into such displeasures being otherwise no good friends to the Race of the Stewarts that they resolved upon his death compassed not long after by Iames Hamilton whose life he had spared once when he had it in his power At Lithgoe on the 23 of Ianuary he was shot by this Hamilton into the belly of which wound he dyed the Murtherer escaping safely into France His death much sorrowed for by all that were affected to the Infant-King of whom he had shewed himself to be very tender which might have wiped a way the imputation of his former aspirings if the Kings death could have opened his way unto the Crown before he had made sure of the Hamiltons who pretended to it But none did more lament his death then his Friends of the Kirk who in a General Assembly which they held soon after decreed That the Murtherer should be Excommunicated in all the chief Boroughs of the Realm and That whosoever else should happen to be afterwards convicted of the Crime should be proceeded against in the same sort also And yet they were not so intent upon the prosecution of the Murtherers as not to be careful of themselves and their own Concernments They had before addressed their desires unto the Regent that remedy might be provided against chopping and changing of Benefices diminution of Rentals and setting of Tythes into long Leases to the defrauding of Ministers and their Successors That they who possessed pluralities of Benefices should leave all but one and That the Jurisdiction of the Kirk might be made separate and distinct from that of the Civil Courts But now they take the benefit of the present distractions to discharge the thirds assigned unto them from all other Incumbrances then the payment of Five thousand Marks yearly for the Kings support which being reduced to English money would not amount unto the sum of Three hundred pound and seems to be no better then the sticking up a feather in the ancient By-word when the Goose was stollen 22. As touching the distractions which emboldened them to this Adventure they did most miserably afflict the whole State of that Kingdom The Queen of Scots had granted a Commission to Duke Hamilton the Earls of Huntley and Arguile to govern that Realm in her Name and by her Authority in which they were opposed by those who for their own security more then any thing else professed their obedience to the King Great spoils and Rapines hereupon ensued upon either side but the Kings party had the worst as having neither hands enough to
France for demolishing all Religious Houses and other Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry Under which name all the Cathedrals were interpreted to be contained and by that means involved in the general ruine onely the Church at Glasco did escape that storm and remained till this time undefaced in its former glory But now becomes a very great eye-sore to Andrew Melvin by whose practices and sollicitations it was agreed unto by some Zealous Magistrates that it should forthwith be demolished that the materials of it should be used for the building of some lesser Churches in that City for the ease of the people and that such Masons Quarriers and other Workmen whose service was requisite thereunto should be in readiness for that purpose at the day appointed The Arguments which he used to perswade those Magistrates to this Act of Ruine were the resorting of some people to that Church for their private Devotions the huge vastness of the Fabrick which made it incommodious in respect of hearing and especially the removing of that old Idolatrous Monument which only was kept up in despite of the Zeal and Piety of their first Reformers But the business was not carried so closely as not to come unto the knowledge of the Crafts of the City who though they were all sufficiently Zealous in the cause of Religion were not so mad as to deprive their City of so great an Ornament And they agreed so well together that when the Work-men were beginning to assemble themselves to speed the business they made a tumult took up Arms and resolutely swore that whosoever pulled down the first stone should be buried under it The Work-men upon this are discharged by the Magistrates and the people complained of to the King for the insurrections The King upon the hearing of it receives the actors in that business into his protection allows the opposition they had made and layes command upon the Ministers who had appeared most eager in the prosecution not to meddle any more in that business or any other of that nature adding withal that too many Churches in that Kingdom were destroyed already and that he would not tolerate any more abuses of such ill example 40. The King for matter of his Book had been committed to the institution of George Buchanan a most fiery and seditious Calvinist to moderate whose heats was added Mr. Peter Young father of the late Dean of Winchester a more temperate and sober man whom he very much esteemed and honoured with Knighthood and afterwards preferred to the Mastership of St. Cross in England But he received his Principles for maâ—ter of State from such of his Council as were most tender of the pubâ—lick interest of their Native Country By whom but most especially by the Earl of Morton he was so well instructed that he was able to distinguish between the Zeal of some in promoting the Reformed Religion and the madness or sollies of some others who practised to introduce their innovations under that pretence Upon which grounds of State and Prudence he gave order to the general Assembly sitting at this time not to make any alteration in the Polity of the Church as then it stood but to suffer things to continue in the state they were till the following Parliament to the end that the determinations of the three Estates might not be any ways prejudged by their conclusions But they neglecting the command look back upon the late proceedings which were held at Stirling where many of the most material points in the Book of Discipline were demurred upon And thereupon it was ordained that nothing should be altered in Form or Matter which in that Book had been concluded by themselves With which the King was so displeased that from that time he gave less countenance to the Ministers then he had done formerly And to the end that they might see what need they had of their Princes favour he suffered divers sentences to be past at the Council Table for the suspending of their Censures and Excommunications when any matter of complaint was heard against them But they go forwards howsoever confirmed and animated by a Discourse of Theodore Beza which came out this year entituled De Triplici Episcopatu In which he takes notice of three sorts of Bishops the Bishop of Divine Institution which he makes to be no other then the ordinary Minister of a particular Congregation the Bishop of humane Constitution that is to say the President or Moderator in the Church-assemblies and last of all the Devils Bishop such as were then placed in a perpetual Authority over a Diocesâ— or Province in most parts of Christendom under which last capacity they beheld their Bishops in the Kirk of Scotland And in the next Assembly held at Dundee in Iuly following it was concluded That the Office of a Bishop as it was then used and commonly taken in that Realm had neither foundation ground nor warrant in the holy Scriptures And thereupon it was decreed That all persons either called unto that Office or which should hereafter be called unto it should be required to renounce the same as an Office unto which they are not warranted by the Word of God But because some more moderate men in the next Assembly held at Glasgow did raise a scruple touching that part of the Decree in which it was affirmed That the calling of Bishops was not warranted by the Word of God it was first declared by the Assembly that they had no other meaning in that Expression then to condemn the estate of Bishops as they then stood in Scotland With which the said moderate men did not seem contented but desired that the conclusion of the matter might be respited to another time by reason of the inconvenience which might ensue They are cryed down by all the rest with great heat and violence insomuch that it was proposed by one Montgomery Minister of Stirling that some Censure might be laid on those who had spoken in defence of that corrupted estate Nay such was the extream hatred to that Sacred Function in the said Assembly at Dundee that they stayed not here They added to the former a Decree more strange inserting That they should desist and cease from Preaching ministring the Sacraments or using in any sort of Office of a Pastor in the Church of Christ till by some General Assembly they were De Novo Authorized and admitted to it no lower Censure then that of Excommunication if they did the contrary As for the Patrimony of the Church which still remained in their hands it was resolved that the next General Assembly should dispose thereof 49. There hapned at this time an unexpected Revolution in the Court of Scotland which possibly might animate them to these high presumptions It had been the great Master-piece of the Earl of Morton in the time of his Regency to fasten his dependance most specially on the Queen of England without which he saw it was impossible to preserve
obedient subjects The Kings escape was made in the end of Iune and in December following he calls a Convention of the Estates in which the subject of his Proclamation was approved and verified the fact declared to be Crimen laesae Majestatis or Treason in the highest degree For which as some were executed and others fled so divers of the Ministers that had been dealers in that matter pretending they were persecuted had retired into England For notwithstanding his Majesties great clemency in pardoning the Conspirators on such easie conditions they preferred rather the pursuing of their wicked purposes then the enjoying of a peaceable and quiet life For whether it were that they presumed on supplies from England of which they had received no inâ—â—obable hopes as afterwards was confessed by the Earl of Gowry or that they built upon the Kirk-Faction to come in to aid them as the General Assembly had required they begin in all places to prepare for some new Commotion but being deceived in all their hopes and expectations they were confined to several Prisons before the Convention of Estates and after it upon a further discovery of their preparations and intentions compelled to quit the Kingdome and betake themselves for their protection unto several Nations Onely the Earl of Gowry staid behind the rest and he paid well for it For being suspected to be hammering some new design he was took Prisoner at Dundee in the April following 1584 thence brought to Edenborough and there condemned and executed as he had deserved In the mean time the Kirk-men were as troublesome as the Lay-Conspirators Dury so often mentioned in a Sermon at Edenborough had justified the fact at Ruthen for which being cited to appear before the Lords of the Council he stood in maintainance of that which he had delivered but afterwards submitting himself unto the King on more sober thoughts he was kept upon his good â—ehaviour without further punishment But Andrew Melvin was a man of another metal who being commanded to attend their Lordships for the like offence declined the judgement of the King and Council as having no cognizance of the cause To make which good he broached this Presbyterian Doctrine That whatsoever was spoken in the Pulpit ought first to be tryed by the Presbyterie and that neither the King nor Council were to meddle with it though the same were treasonable till the Presbyterie had first taken notice of it But finding that the King and Council did resolve to proceed and had entred upon Examination of some Witnesses which were brought against him he told the King whether with greater Confidence or Impudence is hard to say That he preached the Laws both of God and man For which undutiful Expression he was commanded Prisoner to the Castle of Blackness Instead whereof he takes Sanctuary in the Town of Berwick where he remained till way was made for his return the Pulpits in the mean time sounding nothing but that the Light of the Countrey for Learning and Piety was forced for safety of his life to forsake the Kingdom In which Exile he was followed within few moneths after by Palvart Sub-Dean of Glasgow Galloway and Carmichiel two inferior Ministers who being warned to tender their appearance to the King and Council and not appearing at the time were thereupon pronounced Rebels and fled after the other Nor was the General Assembly held at Edenborough of a better temper then these Preachers were in which the Declaration made at the last Convention of Estates was stoutly crossed and encountred The King with the advice of his Estates had resolved the Fact of surprizing His Majesties person to be treasonable But the Brethren in the said Assembly did not onely authorize and avow the same but also esteeming their own judgement to be the Soveraign judgement of the Realm did ordain all them to be excommunicated that would subscribe unto their opinion 61. The King perceiving that there was no other way to deal with these men then to husband the present opportunity to his best advantage resolved to proceed against them in such a way as might disable them from committing the like insolencies for the time to come The chief Incendiaries had been forced to quit the Kingdom or otherwise deserted it of their own accords the better to escape the punishment which their crimes had merited The great Lords on whose strength they had most presumed were either under the like exile in the neighbouring Countries or else so weakned and disanimated that they durst not stir So that the King being clearly Master of the Field his Counsellors in good heart and generally the Lords and Commons in good terms of obedience it was thought fit to call a Parliament and therein to enact such Laws by which the honour of Religion the personal safety of the King the peace and happiness of the Kingdom and the prosperity of the Church might be made secure In which Parliament it was enacted amongst others things the better to encounter the proceedings of the Kirk and most Zealous Kirkmen That none of his Highness Subjects in time coming should presume to take upon them by word or writing to justifie the late treasonable attempt at Ruthen or to keep in register or store any Books approving the same in any sort And in regard the Kirk had so abused his Majesties goodness by which their Presbyterial Sessions the general Assemblies and other meetings of the Kirk were rather connived at then allowed an Act was made to regulate and restrain them for the times ensuing for by that Act it was ordained That from thenceforth none should presume or take upon them to Convocate Convene or assemble themselves together for holding of Councils Conventions or Assemblies to treat consult or determine in any matters of Estate Civil or Ecclesiastical excepting the ordinary judgements without the Kings special commandment 62. In the next place the Kings lawful Authority in causes Ecclesiastical so often before impugned was approved and confirmed and it was made treason for any man to refuse to answer before the King though it were concerning any matter which was Ecclesiastical The third Estate of Parliament that is the Bishops were restored to the ancient dignity and it was made treason for any man after that time to procure the innovation or diminution of the Power and Authority of any of the three Estates And for as much as through the wicked licentious publick and private Speeches and untrue calumnies of divers his Highness subjects I speak the very words of the Act to the disdain contempt and reproach of his Majesty his Council and proceedings stirring up his Highness subjects thereby to misliking sedition unquietness to cast off their due oâ—edience to his Majesty Therefore it is ordained that none of his subjects shall presume or take upon them privately or publickly in Sermons Declamations oâ— familiar Conferences to utter any false scandalous and untrue Speeches to the disdain reproach and contempt of
the See of Rome procures himself to be acknowledged by the Prelates and Clergie in their Convocation for Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England obtained a promise of them in verbo Sacerdotii which was then equal to an Oath neither to make promulge nor execute any Ecclesiastical Constitutions but as they should be authorized thereunto by his Letters-Patents and then proceedâ— unto an Act for extinguishing the usurped Authority of the Bishop of Rome But knowing what a strong party the Pope had in England by reason of that huge multitudes of Monks and Fryers which depended on him he first dissolves all Monasteries and Religious Houses which were not able to dispend Three hundred Marks of yearly Rent and after draws in all the rest upon Surrendries Resignations or some other Practices And having brought the work so far he caused the Bible to be published in the English Tongue indulged the private reading of it to all persons of quality and to such others also as were of known judgement and discretion commanded the Epistles and Gospels the Lords Prayer the Creed and the Ten Commandment to be rehearsed openly to the people on every Sunday and Holy Day in the English Tongue and ordered the Letany also to be read in English upon Wednesdays and Fridays He had caused moreover many rich Shrines and Images to be defaced such as had most notoriously been abused by Oblations Pilgrimages and other the like acts of Idolatrous Worship and was upon the point also to abolish the Mass it self concerning which he had some secret communication with the French Ambassador if Fox speak him rightly 2. But what he did not live to do and perhaps never would have done had he lived much longer was brought to pass in the next Reign of King Edward VI. In the beginning whereof by the Authority of the Lord Protector the diligence of Archbishop Cranmer and the endeavours of many other Learned and Religious men a Book of Homilies was set out to instruct the people Injunctions published for the removing of all Images formerly abused to Superstition or false and counterfeit in themselves A Statute past in Parliament for receiving the Sacrament in both kinds and order given to the Archbishop of Canterbury and Some other Prelates to draw a Form for the Administration of it accordingly to the honor of God and the most Edification of all good people The news whereof no sooner came unto Geneva but Calvin must put in for a share and forthwith writes his Letters to Archbishop Cranmer in which he offereth his assistance to promote the service if he thought it necessary But neither Cranmer Kidley nor any of the rest of the English Bishops could see any such necessity of it but that they might be able to do well without him They knew the temper of the man how busie and pragmatical he had been in all those places in which he had been suffered to intermeddle that in some points of Christian Doctrine he differed from the general current of the Ancient Fathers and had devised such a way of Ecclesiastical Polity as was destructive in it self to the Sacred Hierarchy and never had been heard of in all Antiquity But because they would give him no offence it was resolved to carry on the work by none but English hands till they had perfected the composing of the Publick Liturgie with all the Rites and Ceremonies in the same contained And that being done it was conceived not to be improper if they made use of certain Learned men of the Protestant Churches for reading the Divinity-Lectures and moderating Disputations in both Universities to the end that the younger Students might be trained up in sound Orthodox Doctrine On which account they invited Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr two men of eminent parts and Learning to come over to them the one of which they disposed in Oxon and the other at Cambridge This might have troubled Calvin more then his own repulse but that he thought himself sufficiently assured of Peter Martyr who by reason of his long living amongst the Switzers and his neaâ— Neighborhood to Geneva might possibly be governed by his Directions But because Bucer had no such dependance on him and had withal been very much conversant in the Lutheran Churches keeping himself in all his Reformations in a moderate course he practiseth to gain him also or at least to put him into such a way as might come nearest to his own Upon which grounds he posts away his Letters to him congratulates his invitation into England but above all adviseth him to have a care that he endeavoured not there as in other places either to be the Author or Approver of such moderate counsels by which the parties might be brought to a Reconcilement 3. For the satisfaction of these strangers but the last especially the Liturgie is translated into Latine by Alexander Alesius a right Learned Scot. A Copy of whose Translation or the sum thereof being sent to Calvin administred no small matter of offence unto him not so much because any thing in it could be judged offenâ—ive but because it so much differed from those of his own conception The people of England had received it as an heavenly treasure sent down by Gods great mercy to them all moderate men beyond the Seas applauded the felicity of the Church of England in fashioning such an excellent Form of Gods Publick Worship and by the Act of Parliament which confirmed the same it was declared to have been done by the special aid of the Holy Ghost But Calvin was resolved to think otherwise of it declaring his dislike thereof in a long Letter written to the Lord Protector In which he excepteth more particularly against Commemoration of the dead which he acknowledgeth notwithstanding to be very ancient as also against Chrism or Oyl in Baptism and the Form of Visiting the sick and then adviseth that as well these as all the rest of the Rites and Ceremonies be cut off at once And that this grave advice might not prove unwelcome he gives us such a Rule or Reason as afterwards raised more trouble to the Church of England then his bare advice His Rule is this That in carrying on the work of a Reformation there is not any thing to be exacted which is not warranted and required by the Word of God That in such cases there is no Rule left for worldly wisdom for moderation and compliance but all things to be ordered as they are directed by his will revealed What use his Followers made of their Masters Rule in crying down the Rites and Ceremonies of this Church as Superstitiouâ— Antichristian and what else they pleased because not found expresly and particularly in the Holy Scriptures we shall see hereafter In the mean time we must behold him in his Applications to the King and Council his tampering with Archbishop Canmer his practising on men of all conditions to encrease his party For finding little benefit
the Learned Godly and Grave Ministers of Christ to set forth something more refinâ—d from Filth and Rustiness Which Letter see at large in the first Book of this History Number 17. This Answer so prevailed upon all his Followers that they who sometimes had approved did now as much dislike the English Liturgie and those who at first had conceived a dislike thereof did afterwards grow into an open detestation of it In which condition of Affairs Dr. Richard Cox Dr. Horne and others of great Note and Quality put themselves also into Frankfort where they found all things contrary to their expectation Cox had been Almoner to King Edward VI Chancellor of the University of Oxon Dean of Westminster one that had a chief hand in composing the English Liturgie which made him very impatient of such Innovations amounting to no less then a total rejection of it as he found amongst them By his Authority and appointment the English Litany is first read and afterwards the whole Book reduced into use and practice Against which when Knox began to rail in a publick Sermon according to his wonted custom he is accused by Cox to the Senate of Frankfort for his defamatory writings against the Emperour and the Queen of England Upon the news whereof Knox forsakes the Town retires himself unto his Sanctuary at Geneva and thither he is followed by a great part of his Congregation who made foul work in England at their coming home 7. But this about the Liturgy though it was the greatest was not the onely quarrel which was raised by the Zuinglian or Calvinian Zealors The Church prescribed the use of Surplices in all Sacred Offices and Coapes in the officiating at the holy Altar It prescribed also a distinct habit in the Clergy from the rest of the people Rocheâ—s and Chimeres for the Bishops Gowns Tippets and Canonical Coats for the rest of the Clergy the square Cap for all Their opposition in the use of the Surplice much confirmed and countenanced as well by the writings as the practice of Peter Martyr who kept a constant intercourse with Calvin at his being here For in his Writings he declared to a Friend of his who required his judgement in the case that such Vestments being in themselves indifferent could make no man godly or ungodly either by forbearance or the use thereof but that he thought it more expedient to the good of the Church that they and all others of that kinde should be taken away when the next convenient opportunity should present it self Which judgement as he grounds upon Calvin's Rule that nothing should be acted in a Reformation which is not warranted expresly by the Word of God so he adds this to it of his own that where there is so much contending for these outward matters there is but little care of the true Religion And he assures us of himself in point of practice that though he were a Canon of Christ-Church and diligent enough in attending Divine Service as the others did yet he could never be perswaded to use that Vestment which must needs animate all the rest of the Genevians to forbear it also The like was done by Iohn Alasco in crying down the Regular habit of the Clergie before describ'd In which prevailing little by his own authority he writes to M. Bucer to declare against it and for the same was most severely reprehended by that moderate and learned man and all his cavils and objections very solidly answered Which being sent unto him in the way of a Letter was afterwards printed and dispersed for keeping down that opposite humour which began then to over-swell the Banks and threatned to bear all before it But that which made the greatest noise was the carriage of Mr. Iohn Hooper Lord Elect of Gloucester who having lived amongst the Switzers in the time of King Henry did rather choose to be denied his Consecration then to receive it in that habit which belonged to his Order At first the Earl of Warwick who after was Duke of Northumberland interceded for him and afterwards drew in the King to make one in the business But Cranmer Ridley and the rest of the Bishops who were most concerned craved leave not to obey His Majestie against his Laws and in the end prevailed so far that Hooper for his contumacy was committed Prisoner and from the Prison writes his Letters to Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr for their opinion in the case From the last of which who had declared himself no Friend to the English Ceremonies he might presume of some encouragement the rather in regard that Calvin had appeared on his behalf who must needs have a hand in this quarrel also For understanding how things went he writes unto the Duke of Sommerset to attone the difference not by perswading Hooper to conform himself to the received Orders of the Church but to lend the man a helping hand by which he might be able to hold out against all Authority 8. But Hooper being deserted by the Earl of Warwick and not daring to relie altogether upon Calvins credit which was unable to support him submits at last unto the pleasure of his Metropolitan and the Rules of the Church So that in fine the business was thus compromised that is to say That he should receive his Consecration attired in his Episcopal Robes That he should be dispensed withal from wearing them at ordinary times as his daily habits but that he should be bound to use them whensoever he preached before the King in his own Cathedral or any other place of like publick nature According to which Agreement being appointed to preach before the King he shewed himself apparelled in his Bishops Robes viz. A long Scarlet Chimere reaching down to the ground for his upper Garment changed in Queen Elizabeths time to one of black Sattin and under that a white linen Rochet with a Square Cap upon his head This Fox reproacheth by the name of a Popish Attire and makes it to be a great cause of shame and contumelie to that godly man But notwithstanding the submission of this Reverend Prelate too many of the inferior Clergie were not found so tractable in their conformity to the Cap and Tippet the Gown and the Canonical Coat the wearing whereof was required of them whensoever they appeared in publick Being decryed also by Alasco and the rest of the Zuinglians or Galvinians as a Superstitions and Popish Attire altogether as unfit for Ministers of the holy Gospel as the Chimere and Rochet were for those who claimed to be the Successors of the Lords Apostles So Tyms replied unto Bishop Gardiner when being asked whether a Coat with stockins of divers colours were a fit apparel for a Deacon He sawcily made answer that his Vesture did not so much vary from a Deacons as his Lordships did from that of an Apostle Which passage as well concerning the debates about the Liturgie as about the Vestments I have here abbreviated
them without Rule or Order To give a check to whose forwardness the Queen sets out her Proclamation in the end of December but which she gave command That no Innovation should be made in the State of Religion and that all persons should conform themselves for the present to the practices of Her Majesties Chappel till it was otherwise appointed Another Proclamation was also issued by which all preaching was prohibited but by such onely as were licensed by her Authority which was not like to countenance any men of such turbulent spirits The news whereof much hastned the return of those Zealous Brethren who knew they might have better fishing in a troubled water then in a quiet and composed Calvin makes use also of the opportunity directs his Letters to the Queen and Mr. Secretary Cecil in hope that nothing should be done but by his advice The contrary whereof gave matter of cold comfort both to him and them when they were given to understand that the Liturgie had been revised and agreed upon That it was made more passable then before with the Roman Catholicks and that not any of their number was permitted to act any thing in it except Whitehead onely who was but half theirs neither and perhaps not that All they could do in that Conjuncture was to find fault with the Translation of the Bible which was then in use in hope that their Genevian Edition of it might be entertained and to except against the paucity of fit men to serve the Church and fill the vacant places of it on the like hopes that they themselves might be preferred to supply the same 13. And it is possible enough that either by the mediation of Calvin or by the intercession of Peter Martyr who wrote unto the Queen at the same time also the memory of their former Errors might have been obliterated if Knox had not pulled more back with one hand then Calvin Martyr and the rest could advance with both For in a Letter of his to Sir William Cecil dated April the 24 1559 he first upbraids him with consenting to the suppressing of Christs true Evangel to the erecting of Idolatry and to the shedding of the blood of Gods most dear children during the Reign of Mischievous Mary that professed Enemy of God as he plainly calls her Then he proceeds to justifie his treasonable and seditious book against the Regiment of Women Of the truth whereof he positively affirmeth that he no more doubteth then that he doubted that was the voyce of God which pronounced this sentence upon that Sex That in dolour they should bear their children Next he declares in reference to the Person of Queen Elizabeth That he could willingly acknowledge her to be raised by God for the manifestation of his glory although not Nature onely but Gods own Ordinance did oppugn such Regiment And thereupon he doth infer That if Queen Elizabeth would confess that the extraordinary Dispensations of Gods great mercy did make that lawful in her which both Nature and Gods Laws did deny in all women besides none in England should be more ready to maintain her lawful Authority then himself But on the other side he pronounceth this Sentence on her That if she built her Title upon Custom Laws and Ordinances of men such foolish presumption would grievously offend Gods Supreme Majestie and that her ingratitude in that kind should not long lack punishment To the same purpose he writes also to the Queen Herself reproaching her withal That for fear of her life she had declined from God bowed to Idolatry and gone to Mass during the persecution of Gods Saints in the time of her Sister In both his Letters he complains of some ill offices which had been done him by means whereof he was denyed the liberty of Preaching in England And in both Letters he endeavoured to excuse his flock of late assembled in the most godly Reformed Church and City of Geneva from being guilty of any offence by his publishing of the book the blame whereof he wholly takes upon himself But this was not the way to deal with Queens and their Privy Counsellors and did effect so little in relation to himself and his flock that he caused a more watchfull eye to be kept upon them then possibly might have been otherwise had he scribled less 14. Yet such was the necessity which the Church was under that it was hardly possible to supply all the vacant places in it but by admitting some of the Genevian Zealots to the Publick Ministery The Realm had been extreamly visited in the year foregoing with a dangerous and Contagious Sickness which took away almost half the Bishops and occasioned such Mortality amongst the rest of the Clergy that a great part of the Parochial Churches were without Incumbents The rest of the Bishops twelve Deans as many Archdeacons Fifteen Masters of Colledges and Halls Fifty Prebendaries of Cathedral Churches and about Eighty Beneficed-men were deprived at once for refusing to subâ—â—â—â— to the Queens Supremacy For the filling of which vacant places though as much care was taken as could be imagined to stock the Church with moderate and conformable men yet many â—ast amongst the rest who either had not hitherto discovered their dis-affections or were connived at in regard of their parts and learning Private opinions not regarded nothing was more considered in them then their zeal against Popery and their abilities in Divine and Humane studies to make good that zeal On which account we find the Queens-Professor in Oxford to pass amongst the Non-Conformists though somewhat more moderate then the rest and Cartwright the Lady Margarets in Cambridge to prove an unextinguished fire-brand to the Church of England Wittingham the chief Ring-leader of the Frankfort-Schismaticks preferred unto the Deanry of Durham from thence encouraging Knox and Goodman in setting up Presbyterie and sedition in the Kirk of Scotland Sampson advanced unto the Deanry of Christ-Church and not long after turn'd out again for an incorrigible Non-Conformist Hardiman one of the first twelve Prebends of Westminster deprived soon after for throwing down the Altar and defacing the Vestments of the Church And if so many of them were advanced to places of note and eminence there is no question to be made but that some numbers of them were admitted unto Countrey-Cures by means whereof they had as great an opportunity as they could desire not onely to dispute their Genevian Doctrines but to prepare the people committed to them for receiving of such Innovations both in Worship and Government as were resolved in time convenient to be put upon them 15. For a preparative whereunto they brought along with them the Genevian Bible with their Notes upon it together with Davids Psalms in English metre that by the one they might effect an Innovation in the points of Doctrine and by the other bring this Church more neer to the Rules of Geneva in some chief acts of Publick Worship For to
endeavoured by all the Friends they could to advance his Discipline to which they were incouraged by the brothers here and the Governors there The Governours in each Island advanced the project out of a covetous intent to inrich themselves by the spoil of the Deanries the brethren have hereupon a hope to gain ground by little and little for the erecting of the same in most parts of England And in pursuance of this plot both Islands joyn in confederacy to petition the Queen for an allowance of this Discipline Anno 1563. In the year next following the Signiour de St. Owen and Monsieur de Soulemount were delegated to the Court to sollicite in it where they received a gratious answer and full of hopes returned to their several homes In the mean time the Queen being strongly perswaded that this designe would much advance the Reformation in those Islands was contented to give way unto it in the Towns of St. Peters Port and St. Hillaries only but no further To which purpose there were Letters decretory from the Council directed to the Bayliff the Iurates and others of each Island subscribed by Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seal the Marquess of Northampton the Earl of Leicester the Lord Clynton afterwards Earl of Lincolne Rogers Knollis and Cecil The Tenour of which Letter in relation to the Isle of Iarsey was this that followeth 21. After our very hearty commendations unto you where the Queens most excellent Majesty understandeth that the Isles of Guernsey and Jarsey have anciently depended on the Diocess of Constance and that there be certain Churches in the same Diocess well reformed agreeable throughout in the Doctrine as is set forth in this Realm knowing therewith that they have a Minister which ever since his arrival in Jarsey hath used the like Order of Preaching and Administration as in the said reformed Churches or as it is used in the French Church of London her Majesty for divers respects and considerations moving her Highness is well pleased to admit the same Order of Preaching and Administration to be continued at St. Hillaries as hath been hitherto accustomed by the said Minister Provided always that the residue of the Parishes in the said Isle shall diligently put aside all superstitions used in the said Diocess and so continue there the Order of Service ordained within this Realm with the Injunctions necessary for that purpose Wherein you may not fail diligently to give your aids and assistance as best may serve for the advancement of Gods Glory And so farewel From Richmond the 7 of August Anno 1565. 22. Where note that the same Letter the names onely of the places being changed and subscribed by the same men was sent also unto those of Guernsey for the permission of the said Discipline in the Port of St. Peters In which though there be no express mention of allowing their Discipline but onely of their Form of Prayer aâ—d Administration of Sacraments yet they presumed so far on the general words as to put it presently in practice In prosecution of which Counsels the Ministers and Elders of both Churches held their first Synod in the Isle of Guernsey on the 2 of September Anno 1567 where they concluded to advance it by degrees in all the rest of the Parishes as opportunity should serve and the condition of Affairs permit to the great joy no question of their great Friends in England who could not but congratulate their own good Fortune in these fair beginnings 23. At home they found not such success as they did abroad not a few of them being deprived of their Benefices and other preferments in the Church for their inconformity exprest in their refusing to officiate by the publick Liturgy or not submitting to the directions of their Ordinaries in some outward matters as Caps and Surplices and the like The news of which severity flies to France and Scotland occasioning Beza in the one and Knox and his Comrades in the other to interpose themselves in behalf of their brethren With what Authority Beza acted in it we shall see anon And we may now take notice that in Knoxes Letter sent from the general Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland the Vestments in dispute are not onely called Trifles and Rags of Rome but are discountenanced and decryed for being such Garments as Idolaters in time of greatest darkness used in their Superstitious and idolatrous service thereupon it is inferred That if Surplice Cap and Tippet have been badges of Idolaters in the very act of their Idolatry that then the Preachers of Christian Liberty and the Rebukers of Superstition were to have nothing to do with the dregs of that Romish beast Which inference is seconded by this Request viz. That the Brethren in England which refused those Romish Rags might finde of them the Bishops who use and urge them such favour as their Head and Master commandeth each one of his Members to shew to another And this they did expect to receive of their courtesie not onely because they hoped that they the said Bishops would not offend God in troubling their Brethren for such Vain trifles but because they hoped that they would not refuse the request of them their Brethren and fellow-Ministers in whom though there appeared no worldly Pomp yet they assured themselves that they were esteemed the servants of God and such as travelled to set forth Gods Glory against the Antichrist of Rome that conjured enemy of true Religion the Pope The days say they are evil iniquity abounds charity alas waxeth cold and therefore that it concerned them all to walk diligently because it was uncertain at what hour the Lord would come to whom they were to render an account of their Administration After which Apostolical Admonition they commit them to the Mighty protection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we conclude their Zealous Letter dated December 27. 1566. 24. With more Authority writes Beza as the greater Patriarch and he writes too concerning things of greater consequence then Caps and Surplices For in a Letter of his to Grindal bearing date Iuly anno 1566 he makes a sad complaint concerning certain Ministers unblameable as he saith both in life and Doctrine suspended from the Ministery by the Queens Authority and the good liking of the Bishops for not subscribing to some new Rites and Ceremonies imposed upon them Amongst which Rites he specifies the wearing of such Vestments as were then worn by Baals Priests in the Church of Rome the Cross in Baptism kneeling at the Communion and such Rites as had degenerated as he tell us into most filthy Superstition But he seems more offended that Women were suffered to baptize in extreme necessities That power was granted to the Queen for ordaining such other Rites and Ceremonies as should seem convenient but most especially which was indeed the point most grieved at that the Bishops were invested with a sole Authority for all matters of the Church without consulting
with the Pastors of particular flocks He was too well versed in the Writings of the Ancient Fathers as not to know that all the things which he complains of were approved and practiced in the best and happiest times of Christianity as might be otherwise made apparent out of the Writings of Tertullian Cyprian Hierome Chrysostome and indeed who not But Beza has a word for this For first he blames the Ancient Fathers for borrowing many of their Ceremonies from the Jews and Gentiles though done by them out of a good and honest purpose that being all things to all men they might gain the more And thereupon he gives this Rule That all such Rites as had been borrowed either from the Iew or Gentile without express Warrant from Christ or the holy Apostles as also all other significant Ceremonies which had been brought into the Church against right and reason should be immediately removed or otherwise the Church could never be restored to her Native Beauty Which Rule of his if once admitted there must be presently an end of all external Decency and Order in the Worship of God and every man might be left to serve him both for time and place and every particular circumstance in that Sacred action as to him seemed best And what a horrible confusion must needs grow thereby not onely in a whole National Church but in every particular Congregation be it never so small is no hard matter to conceive 25. At the Reforming of this Church not onely the Queens Chappel and all Cathedrals but many Parochial Churches also had preserved their Organs to which they used to sing the appointed Hymns that is to say the Te Deum the Benedictus the Magnificat the Nunc Dimittis c. performed in an Artificial and Melodious manner with the addition of Cornets Sackbuts and the like on the Solemn Festivals For which as they had ground enough from the holy Scripture if the Practice and Authority of David be of any credit so were they warranted thereunto by the godly usage of the primitive times after the Church was once restored to her peace and freedom Certain I am that S. Augustine imputes no small part of his Conversion to that heavenly Melodie which he heard very frequently in the Church of Mâ—llaine professing that it did not onely draw tears from him though against his will but raised his soul unto a sacred Meditation on spiritual matters But Beza having turned so many of the Psalms into metre as had been left undone by Marot gave an example unto Sternhold and Hopkins to attempt the like Whos 's Version being left unfinished but brought unto an end by some of our English Exiles which remained at Geneva there was a purpose for imposing them upon the Church by little and little that they might come as close as might be in all points to their Mother-City At first they sung them onely in their private houses and afterwards as beforesaid adventured to sing them also in the Church as in the way of entertainment to take up the time till the beginning of the Service and afterwards to sing them as a part of the Service it self For so I understand that passage in the Church Historian in which he tells us That Dr. Gervis being then Warden of Merton Colledge had abolished certain Latine superstitious Hymns which had been used on some of the Festivals appointing the Psalms in English to be sung in their place and that as one Leech was ready to begin the Psalm another of the Fellows called Hall snatched the book out of his hands and told him That they could no more dance after his pipe But whatsoever Hall thought of them Beza and his Disciples were perswâ—ded otherwise And that he might the better cry down that Melodious Harmony which was retained in the Church of England and so make way for the Genevian fashion even in that point also he tells us in the same Letter to Bishop Gryndal That the Artificial Musick then retained in the Church of England was fitter to be used in Masks and Dancings then Religious Offices and rather served to please the ear then to move the affections Which censure being pass'd upon it by so great a Rabby most wonderful it was how suddenly some men of good note and quality who otherwise deserved well enough of the Church of England did bend their wits and pens against it and with what earnestness they laboured to have their own Tunes publickly introduced into all the Churches Whâ—ch that they might the better do they procured the Psalms in English metre to be bound in the same Volume with the Publick Liturgie and sometimes with the Bible also setting them forth as being allowed so the Title tells us to be sung in all Churches before and after Morning and Evening Prayer as also before and after Sermons but with what truth and honesty we have heard before 16. In finâ— he tells the Bishops how guilty they would seem to God and his hâ—ly Angels if they chuse rather to deprive the Ministers of their Cures and Benefices then suffer them to go apparelled otherwise then to them seemed good And rather to deprive many hungry souls of their heavenly food then give them leave to receive it otherwise then upon their knees And this being said he questions the Authority of the Supreme Magistrate as contrary to the Word of God and the Ancient Canons for ordaining any new Rites and Ceremonies in a Church established but much more the Authority ascribed to Bishops in ordering any thing which concerned the Church without calling the Presbytery to advise about it and having their approbation in it This was indeed the point most aimed at And to this point his followers take the courage to drive on amain the Copies of this Letter being presently dispersed for their greater comfort if not also printed Some of the brethren in their zeal to the name of Calvin preferred him once before S. Paul and Beza out of question would have took it ill if he had been esteemed of less Authority then any of those who claimed to be Successors to S. Peter And therefore it were worth the while to compare the Epistles of these men with those of Pope Leo and then to enter seriously into consideration whether of the two took more upon him either Pope Leo where he might pretend to some command or Beza where he had no authority to act at all How much more moderate and discreet were the most eminent men for Learning amongst the Zwitzers may appear by the example of Gualter and Bullinger no way inferior unto the other but in Pride and Arrogancy who being desired by some of the English Zealots to give their judgement in the point of the Churches Vestments returned their approbation of them but sent it in a Letter directed to Horn Sandys and Grindal to let them see that they would not intermeddle in the affairs of this Church without their
prosecution of which work he commends to Iewel that by the interposing of his Authority they might be brought to yield to the points proposed and thereby be continued in the exercise of their Vocation Which last clause could not chuse but be exceeding acceptable to that Reverend Prelate who had shewed himself so earnest for Conformity in a Sermon preached by him at the Cross that he incurred some censure for it amongst the brethren Which put him to this Protestation before his death That his last Sermon at S. Pauls Cross and Conference about the Ceremonies and state of the Church was not to please any man living nor to grieve his brethren of a contrary opinion but onely to this end that neither party might prejudice the other But he was able to act nothing in pursuance of Zanchy's motion by reason of his death within few days after if not some days before he received that Letter For on the 22 of the same Moneth it pleased God to take him to himself and thereby to deprive the Church of the greatest Ornament which she could boast of in that age The end of the sixth Book AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History Of the PRESBYTERIANS LIB VII Containing A Relation of their secret and open Practices the Schism and Faction by them raised for advancing the Genevian Discipline in the Church of England from the year 1572 to the year 1584. 1. THe English Puritans had hitherto maintained their Quarrel by the Authority of Calvin the sawciness of Knox the bold activities of Beza and the more moderate interposings of some Forreign Divines whose name was great in all the Churches of the Reformation But now they are resolved to try it out by their proper valour to fling away their Bulrushes and lay by their Crutches or at the best to make no other use of Out-landish Forces then as Auxiliaries and Reserves if the worst should happen And hitherto they had appeared onely against Caps and Surplices or questioned some Rites and Ceremonies in the publick Liturgie which might be thought to have been borrowed from the Church of Rome But now they are resolved to venture on the Episcopal Government and to endeavour the erecting of the Presbyterian as time and opportunity should make way unto it Amongst which undertakers none more eminent because none more violent then Cartwright formerly remembred Snape of Northampton a great stickler for the holy Discipline and Feild a Lecturer in London as ridiculously zealous to advance Presbytery as the most forward in the pack But Cartwright was the man upon whose Parts and Learning they did most depend and one who both by private Letters and some Printed Pamphlets had gained more credit to the side then all the rest And yet it was amongst his own onely that he gained such credit For when his Papers had been shewn unto Bishop Iewel and that the Judgement of that Reverend and Learned Prelate was demanded of them he is said to have returned this answer That the Arguments therein contained were too slight to build up and too weak to pull down And so it proved in the event when Cartwrights whole discourses against the Forms of Government and Publick Worship here by Law established came to be seriously debated 2. For having been long great with Childe of some new designe the Babe comes forth in the beginning of the Parliament which was held in the year 1572 intituled by the name of an Admonition in which complaint was made of their many grievances together with a Declaration of the onely way to redress the same which they conceived to be no other then the setling of the Genevian Platform in all parts of the Kingdom But the Parliament was so little pleased with the Title and so much displeased with the matter of the Admonition that the Authors and Preferrers of it were imprisoned by them But this imprisonment could lay no Fetters on their spirits which grew the more exasperated because so restrained For towards the end of the Parliament out comes the second Admonition far more importunate then the first and it comes out with such a flash of Lightning and such claps of Thunder as if Heaven and Earth were presently to have met together In the first he had amassed together all those several Arguments which either his reading could afford or his wit suggest or any of that party could excogitate for him against the Government of Bishops the whole body of the English Liturgie and almost all the particular Offices in the same contained And in the second he not onely justified whatsoever had been found in the first but challenged the Parliament for not giving it a more gratious welcome For there he tells them in plain terms That the State did not shew it self upright alledge the Parliament what it will That all honest men should finde lack of equity and all good Consciences condemn that Court That it should be easier for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of Iudgement then for such a Parliament That there is no other thing to be looked for then some speedy vengeance to light upon the whole Land let the Politick Mâ—chiavils of England provide as well as they can though God do his worst And finally that if they of that Assembly would not follow the advice of the first Admonition they would infallibly be thâ—ir own carvers in it the Church being bound to keep Gods Ordeâ— and nothing to be called Gods Order but their present Platform 3. About this time Clark Travers Gardiner Barber Cheston and lastly Crook and Egerton joyned themselves to the Brotherhood Amongst whom the handling of such points as concerned the Discipline became very frequent many motions being made and some conclusions setled in pursuance of it but more particularly it was resolved upon the question That for as much as divers Books had been written and sundry Petitions exhibited to her Majesty the Parliament and their Lordships to little purpose every man should therefore labour by all means possible to bring the Reformation into the Church It was also then and there resolved That for the better bringing in of the said holy Discipline they should not onely as well publickly as privately teach it but by little and little as well as possibly they might draw the same into practice According to which Resolution a Presbytery was erected on the 20 of November at a small Village in Surrey called Wandsworth where Field had the Incumbencie or cure of Souls a place conveniently scituate for the London-Brethren as standing near the bank of the Thames but four miles from the City and more retired and out of sight then any of their own Churches about the Town This first Establishment they indorsed by the name of the Orders of Wandsworth In which the Elders names are agreed on the manner of the Election declared the approvers of them mentioned their Offices agreed on also and described And though the Queen might have no notice of this first
the same Arts which they brought hither with them Such welcome Guests must needs have some Encouragement to remain here always And what Encouragement could be greater and more welcome to them then to enjoy the liberty of their own Religion according to such Government and Forms of Worship as they had exercised at home King Edward had indulged the like priviledges to Iohn Alasco and Queen Elizabeth to the French neither of which were so considerable as the Flemish Inmates A suit is therefore made by their Friends in Court for granting them the Church of Augustine-Fryers where Iohn Alasco formerly held his Dutch Congregation and granting it with all such Priviledges and Immunitiâ—s as the Dutch enjoyed And that they might proceed in setting up their Presbyteries and new Forms of Worship they obtain not onely a Connivance or Toleration but a plain Approbation of their actings in it For in the Letters which confirmed this new Church unto them it is expresly signified by the Lords of the Council That they knew well that from the first beginning of the Christian Faith different Rites and Ceremonies had been used in some parts thereof which were not practised in the other That whilst some Christians worshipped God upon their knees others erect upon their feet and some again groveling on the ground there was amongst them all but one and the same Religion as long as the whole action tended to the honor of God and that there was no Superstition and Impiety in it That they contemned not the Rites which these Dutch brought with them nor purposed to compel them to the practice of those which were used in England but that they did approve and allow their Ceremonies as sitted and accommodated to the nature of the Countrey from whence they came Which priviledges they enlarged bâ— their Letter of the 29 of Iune in the year next following An. 1574 extending them to all such of the Belgick Provinces as reâ—orted hither and joyned themselves unto that Church thâ—ugh otherwise dispersed in several parts and Sea-Towns for their own conveniences which gave the first beginning to the nâ—w Dutch Churches in Canterbury Sandwich Yarmouth Norwich and some other places in the North to the great animation or the Presbyters and the discomfort of all such who were of judgement to foresee the sad consequents of it 8. With like felicity they drove on their designs in Iersey and Guernsey in the two principal Towns whereof the Discipline had been permitted by an Order of the Lords of the Council as before was said But not content with that allowance which the Lords had given them by His Majesties great grace and favour their Preachers being for the most part natural Frenchmen had introduced it by degrees into all the Villages furthered therein by the Sacrilegious Avarice of the several Governors out of a hope to have the spoil of the poor Deanries to ingross all the Tythes unto themselves and then put off the Ministers with some sorry stipends as in fine they did But first those Islands were to be dissevered by some Act of State from being 〈◊〉 longer Members of the Diocess or subject to the Juriâ—â—iction of the Bishops of Constance And that being easily obtained it was thought fit that Snape and Cartwright the great Supporters of the cause in England should be sent unto them to put their Churches in a posture and settle the Discipline amongst them in such form and manner as it was practised in Geneva and amongst the French Which fell out happily for Cartwright as his case stood who being worsted in the last Encounter betwixt him and Whitgift had now a handsome opportunity to go off with credit not as if worsted in the fight but rather called away to another tryal Upon thâ—s Invitation they set sail for the Islands and take the charge thereof upon them the one of them being made the titular Pastor of the Castle of Mount-Orgueil in the Isle of Iersey and the other of Castle-Cornet in the Rode of Guernsey Thus qualified they convene the Churches of each Island communicate unto them a rude Draught of the Holy Discipline which afterwards was polished and accommodated to the use of those Islands but not agreed upon and exercised until the year next following as appears by the Title of it which is this viz. The Ecclesiastical Discipline observed and practised by the Churches of Jersey and Guernsey after the Reformation of the same by the Ministers Elders and Deacons of the Isles of Guernsey Jersey Sark and Alderney confirmed by the Authority and in the presence of the Governors of the same Isles in a Synod holden in Guernsey the 28 of June 1576 and afterwards revived by the said Ministers and Elders and confirmed by the said Governors in a Synod holden in Jersey the 11 12 13 14 15 and 17 days of October 1577. 9. With worse success but less diligence did Travers labour in the cause who being one of the same spirit published a book in maintenance of the Holy Discipline which he caused to be printed at Geneva and was thus intituled viz. Ecclesiasticae Disciplinae Anglicanae Ecclesiae ab illa aberrationis plena e verbo Dei Dilucida Explicatio that is to say A full and perfect Explication of Ecclesiastical Discipline according to the Word â—f God and of the Church of Englands departing from it In which book he advanced the Discipline to so great a height as made it necessary for all Christian Kings and Princes to submit unto it and lay down their Crowns and Scepters at the Churches feet even to the very licking up of the dust thereof if occasion were But Travers sojourned in Geneva when he wrote this book and was to frame it to the palate of Beza and the rest of that Confistory who had by this time made the Discipline as essenâ—ial to the true being of a Church as either the Preaching of the Word or the Administration of the holy Sacraments Beza had so declared it in a Letter to Knox An. 1572. In which he reckons it as a great and signal blessing from Almighty God that they had introduced in Scotland not onely the true Worship of God but the Discipline also which was the best Preservative of the truth of Doctrine Which therefore he desires him so to keep together as to be sure that if the one be lost that is laid aside the other is not like to continue long And Cartwright leading in the same path also heightned it above all which had gone before or that followed after him Some of the Brethren have extolled it to the very Skies as being the onely Bond of Peace the Bane of Heresie the Punisher of Sin and maintainer of Righteousness A Discipline full of all goodness for the peace and honour of Gods people ordained for the joy and happiness of all the Nations But Cartwright sets them such a leap as they durst not reach at not onely telling us in
English Martyrologist addrest his Letters to the Queen in which he supplicated for the lives of those wretched men and offered many pious and prudential reasons for the reversing of that sentence or at the least for staying it from execution By which he so prevailed upon her that she consented to a gratious sparing of their lives iâ— on a months Reprieve and Conference in the mean time with Learned men they could be gained unto a retractation of their damnable Heresies But that expedient being tryed and found ineffectual the forfeiture of their lives was taken and the sentence executed Nor had the Dutch Church of Norwich any better Fortune or could pretend to be more free from harbouring some Fanatical spirits then the Dutch Congregation in the Augustine Fryars From some of which it may be probably supposed that Matthew Hamant a poor Plow-wright of Featherset within three Miles of Norwich took his first impressions which afterwards appeared in more horrid blasphemies then any English ever had been acquainted with in the times preceding For being suspected to hold many dangerous and unsound Opinions he was convented before the Bishop of that City at what time it was charged upon him that he had publickly maintained these Heresies following that is to say That the new Testament or Gospel was but meer foolishness and a story of men or rather a meer Fable That he was restored to Grace of the free Mercy of God without the means of Christ his Blood and Passion That Christ is not God or the Saviour of the World but a sinful man a meer man and an abominable Idol and that all they that worship him are abominable Idolaters That Christ did not rise again from death to life by the power of his Godhead neither that he ascended into Heaven That the Holy Ghost is not God and that there is no such thing as an Holy Ghost That Baptism is not necessary in the Church of God nor the use of the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ. For which he was coâ—demned for an Heretick in the Bishops Consistory on the Fourteenth of April and being thereupon delivered to the Sheriff of the City he was burnt in the Castle-Ditch on the Twentieth of May 1579. As a preparative to which punishment his ears had been cut off on the Thirteenth of that Moneth for base and slanderous words against the Queen and Council 12. About the same time that the Anabaptists were first brought to Censure there spawned another Fry of Hereticks who had its first Original amongst the Dutch and from thence came for England with the rest of their brethren These called themselves the Family of Love as before is said and were so well conceited of their own great holiness that they thought none to be Elected to Eternal life but such as were admitted into their Society The particulars of their Opinions and the strange manner of Expressions have been insisted on before Let it suffice that by their seeming Sanctity and other the like deceitful arts of Dissimulation they had drawn some of the English to them who having broke the bond of peace could not long keep themselves to the Spirit of Unity Some of them being detected and convented for it were condemned to do Penance at S. Pauls Cross and there to make a Retractation of their former Errors According to which Sentence five of them are brought thither on the 12 of Iune who there confest themselves utterly to detest as well the Author of that Sect H. N. as all his damnable Heresies Which gentle punishment did rather serve to multiply then decrease the Sect which by the diligence of the Hereticks and the remisness of the new Archbishop came to such an height that course was taken at the last for thâ—ir apprehension and for the severe punishing of those which were so apprehended For the Queen seriously considering how much she was concerned both in honor and safety to preserve Religion from the danger threatned by such desperate Hereticks published her Proclamation on the ninth of October An. 1580 for bringing their persons unto Justice and causing their pestilent Pamphlets to be openly burnt And to that end she gave a strict Command to all Temporal Judges and other Ministers of Justice to be assistant to the Bishops and their under Officers in the severe punishing of those Sects and Sectaries by which the happiness of the Church was so much endangered By which severities and a Formal Abjuration prescribed unto them by the Lords of the Council these Sects were seasonably suppressed or had the reason to conceal themselves amongst such of the Brethren as did continue in their Separation from the Church of England 13. In the mean time there hapned a great alteration in the state of the Church by the death of one and the preferment of another of the greatest Prelates Archbishop Parker left this life on the 17 of May Anno 1575. To whom succeeded Dr. Edmond Grindal Translated from the See of York unto that of Canterbury on the 15 of February The first a Prelate of great parts and no less Eminent for his zeal in the Churches cause which prompted him to keep as hard a hand on all Sects and Sectaries and more particularly on those of the Genevian Platform as the temper of the times could bear But Grindal was a man of another spirit without much difficulty wrought upon by such as applied themselves to him And having maintained a correspondence when he lived in Exile with Calvin Beza and some others 〈◊〉 â—he Consistory he either could not shake off their acquaintâ—â—â—e at his coming home or was as willing to continue it as they câ—uld desire Being advanced unto the Bishoprick of London he condescends to Calvins motion touching the setling of a French Church in that City on Genevian Principles and received thanks from him for the same And unto whom but him must Beza make his Applications when any of the brethren were suspended deprived or sequestred for not conforming to the Vestments then by Law required Being Translated unto York which wâ—s upon the 22 of May 1370 he entertains a new Intelligence with Zanchy a Divine of Heidelburg somewhat more moderate then the other but no good Friend neither to the Church of England as appears by his interposings in behalf of the brethren when they were under any Censure for their inconformity To this man Grindal renders an account of his Preferment both to York and Canterbury To him he sends Advertisement how things went in Scotland at his Advancement to the first and of the present state of affairs in England when he came to the other The like Intelligence he maintained with Bullinger Gualter and some of the chief Divines amongst the Switzers taking great pride in being courted by the Leading-men of those several Churches though they had all their ends upon him for the advancing of Presbytery and Inconformity in the Church of England 14. Upon these grounds
directly of the Spirit of God nothing of those impurities and prophanations of the Church of England Hereupon followed a defection from the Church it self not as before amongst the Presbyterians from some Offices in it Browns Followers which from him took the name of Brownists refusing obstinately to joyn with any Congregation with the rest of the people for hearing the Word preached the Sacraments administred and any publick act of Religious Worship This was the first gathering of Churches which I finde in England and for the justifying hereof he caused his Books to be dispersed in most parts of the Realm Which tending as apparently to Sedition brought both the Dispersers of them within the compass of the Statute 23 Eliz. cap. 2. Of which we are informed by Stow that Elias Thasker was hanged at Bury on the fourth of Iune and Iohn Copping on the sixth of the same Month for spreading certain Books seditiously penned by Robert Brown against the Book of Common-prayer established by the Laws of this Realm as many of their Books as could be found being burnt before them 31. As for the Writer of the Books and the first Author of the Schism he was more favourably dealt with then these wretched instruments and many other of his Followers in the times succeeding Being convented before Dr. Edmond Freak then Bishop of Norwich and others of the Queens Commissioners in conjunction with him he was by them upon his refractory carriage committed to the custody of the Sheriff of Norwich But being a near kinsman by his Mother to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh he was at his request released from his imprisonment and sent to London where some course was taken to reclaim him if it might be possible totally or in part at least as God pleased to bless it Whitgift by this time had attained to the See of Canterbury a man of excellent patience and dexterity in dealing with such men as were so affected By whose fair usage powerful Reasons and exemplary piety he was prevailed upon so far as to be brought unto a tolerable compliance with the Church of England In which good humour he was favourably dismist by the Arch-bishop and by the Lord-Treasurer Burleigh to the care of his Father to the end that being under his eye and dealt with in a kinde and temperate manner he might in time be well recovered and finally withdrawn from all the Reliques of his fond opinions Which Letters of his bear date on the 8 of October 1585. But long he had not staid in his Fathers house when he returned unto his vomit and proving utterly incorrigible was dismist again the good old Gentleman being resolved upon this point that he would not own him for a Son who would not own the Church of England for his Mother But at the last though not till he had passed through two and thirty prisons as he used to brag by the perswasions of some Friends and his own necessities the more powerful Orators of the two he was prevailed with to accept of a place called A Church in Northamptonshire beneficed with cure of Souls to which he was presented by Thomas Lord Burleigh after Earl of Exon and thereunto admitted by the Bishop of Peterborough upon his promise not to make any more disturbances in the proceedings of the Church A Benefice of good value which might tempt him to it the rather in regard that he was excused as well from preaching as from performing any other part of the publick Ministry which Offices he discharged by an honest Curate and allowed him such a competent maintainance for it as gave content unto the Bishop who had named the man And on this Benefice he lived to a very great age not dying till the year 1630 and then dying in Northampton Gaol not on the old account of his inconformity but for breach of the Peace A most unhappy man to the Church of England in being the Author of a Schism which he could not close and most unfortunate to many of his Friends and Followers who suffered death for standing unto those conclusions from which he had withdrawn himself divers years before 32. But it is time that we go back again to Cartwright upon whose principles and positions he first raised this Schism Which falling out so soon upon the Execution which was done on Stubs could not but put a great rebuke upon his spirit and might perhaps have tended more to his discouragement had not his sorrows been allayed and sweetned by a Cordial which was sent from Beza sufficient to revive a half-dying brother Concerning which there is no more to be premised but that Geneva had of late been much wasted by a grievous pestilence and was somewhat distressed at this time by the Duke of Savoy Their peace not to be otherwise procured but by paying a good sum of money and money not to be obtained but by help of their Friends On this account he writes to Travers being then Domestick Chaplain to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh but so that Cartwright was to be acquainted with the Tenour of it that by the good which the one might do upon the Queen by the means of his Patron and the great influence which the other had on all his party the contribution might amount to the higher pitch But as for so much of the said Letter as concerns our business it is this that followeth viz. If as often dear Brother as I have remembred thee and our Cartwright so often I should have written unto thee you had been long since overwhelmed with my Letters no one day passing wherein I do not onely think of you and your matters which not onely our ancient Friendship but the greatness of those affairs wherein you take pains seems to require at my hands But in regard that you were fallen into such times wherein my silence might be safer far then my writing I have though most unwillingly been hitherto silent Since which time understanding that by Gods Grace the heats of some men are abated I could not suffer this my Friend to come unto you without particular Letters from me that I may testifie my self to be the same unto you as I have been formerly as also that at his return I may be certified of the true state of your affairs After which Preamble he acquaints him with the true cause of his writing the great extremities to which that City was reduced and the vast debts in which they were plunged whereby their necessities were grown so grievous that except they were relieved from other parts they could not be able to support them And then he addes I beseech thee my dear Brother not onely to go on in health with thy daily prayers but that if you have any power to prevail with some persons shew us by what honest means you can how much you love us in the Lord. Finally having certified him of other Letters which he had writ to certain Noblemen and to all the Bishops
look well about them 4. It happened also that some of the great Lords at Court whom they most relyed on began to cool in their affections to the Cause and had informed the Queen of the weakness of it upon this occasion The Earl of Leicester Walsingham and some others of great place and power being continually prest unto it by some Leading-men prevailed so far on the Arch-bishop of Canterbury as to admit them in their hearing to a private Conference To which the Arch-bishop condescends and having desired the Arch-bishop of York and the Bishop of Winchester to associate with him that he might not seem to act alone in that weighty business he was pleased to hear such Reasons as they could alledg for refusing to conform themselves to the Orders of the Church established At which time though the said most Reverend Prelate sufficiently cleared all their Doubts and satisfied all Exceptions which they had to make yet at the earnest request of the said great persons he gave way unto a second Conference to be held at Lambeth at which such men were to be present whose Arguments and Objections were conceived unanswerable because they had not yet been heard But when the points had been canvased on both sides for four hours together the said great persons openly professed before all the Company That they did not believe the Arch-bishops Reasons to have been so strong and those of the other side so weak and trivial as they now perceived them And having thanked the Lord Arch-bishop for his pains and patience they did not only promise him to inform the Queen in the truth of the business but endeavoured to perswade the opposite Party to a present Conformity But long they did not stay in so good a humour of which more hereafter 5. With better fortune sped the Lords of the Scottish Nation in the advance of their Affairs Who being admitted to the Queens presence by the means of Walsingham received such countenance and support as put them into a condition of returning homewards and gaining that by force and practise which they found impossible to be compassed any other way All matters in that Kingdom were then chiefly governed by the Earl of Arran formerly better known by the name of Captain Iones who being of the House of the Stuarts and fastening his dependence on the Duke of Lenox at his first coming out of France had on his instigation undertaken the impeaching of the Earl of Morton after which growing great in favour with the King himself he began to ingross all Offices and Places of Trust to draw unto himself the managery of all Affairs and finally to assume the Title of Earl of Arran at such time as the Chiefs of the Hamiltons were exiled and forfeited Grown great and powerful by these means and having added the Office of Lord Chancellor to the rest of his Honours he grew into a general hatred will all sorts of people And being known to have no very good affections to the Queen of England she was the more willing to contribute towards his destruction Thus animated and prepared they make toward the Borders and raising the Countrey as they went marched on to Sterling where the King then lay And shewing themselves before the Town with Ten thousand men they publish a Proclamation in their own terms touching the Reasons which induced them to put themselves into Arms. Amongst which it was none of the least That Acts and Proclamations had not long before been published against the Ministers of the Kirk inhibiting their Presbyteries Assemblies and other Exercises Priviledges and Immunities by reason whereof the most Learned and Honest of that number were compelled for safety of their Lives and Consciences to abandon their Countrey To the end therefore that all the affâ—icted Kirk might be comforted and all the said Acts fully made in prejudice of the same might be cancelled and for ever abolished they commanded all the King's Subjects to come in to aid them 6. The King perceiving by this Proclamation what he was to trust to first thinks of fortifying the Town but finding that to be untenable he betakes himself unto the Castle as his surest strength The Conquerors having gained the Town on the first of October possest themselves also of the Bulwarks about the Castle which they inviron on all sides so that it was not possible for any to escape their hands In which extremity the King makes three Requests unto them viz. That his Life Honour and Estate might be preserved That the Lives of certain of his Friends might not be touched And that all things might be transacted in a peaceable manner They on the other side demand three things for their security and satisfaction viz. 1. That the King would allow of their intention and subscribe their Proclamation until further Order were established by the Estates c. and that he would deliver into their hands all the Strong-holds in the Land 2. That such as had disquieted the Commonwealth might be delivered to them and abide their due tryal by Law And 3. That the old Guard might be removed and another placed which was to be at their disposal To which Demands the King consents at last as he could not otherwise though in their Second they had purposely run a-cross to the Second of his wherein he had desired that the Lives of such as were about him might not be endangered Upon the yeelding of which points which in effect was all that he had to give unto them he puts himself into their hands hath a new Guard imposed upon him and is conducted by them wheresoever they please And now the Ministers return in triumph to their Widowed Churches where they had the Pulpits at command but nothing else agreeable to their expectation For the Lords having served their own turns took no care of theirs insomuch that in a Parliament held in Lithgoe immediately after they had got the King into their power they caused an Act to pass for ratifying the appointment betwixt them and the King by which they provided well enough for their own Indempnity But then withall they suffered it to be Enacted That none should either publikely declare or privately speak or write in reproach of his Majesties Person Estate or Government Which came so cross upon the stomacks of the Ministers whom nothing else could satisfie but the repealing of all former Statutes which were made to their prejudice that they fell foul upon the King in a scandalous manner insomuch that one Gibson affirmed openly in a Sermon at Edenborough That heretofore the Earl of Arran was suspected to have been the Persecutor but now they found it was the King against whom he denounced the Curse that fell on Ieroboam That he should dye Childless and be the last of his Race For which being called to an account before the Lords of the Council he stood upon his justification without altering and was by them sent Prisoner to the Castle
of Blackross 7. Of the same temper were the rest who notwithstanding the late Acts of Parliament inhibiting all Assembly and Classical Conventions without leave from the King held a new Synod at St. Andrews in the April following consisting for the most part of Barons and Lay-Gentlemen Masters of Colledges and ignorant School-Masters Which Synod if it may be called so was purposely indicted by Andrew Melvin for censuring the Arch-bishop of that City whom they suspected and gave out to be the chief Contriver of the Acts of Parliament made in 1584 so prejudicial to the Kirk and to have penned the Declaration in defence thereof And hereunto he found the rest so ready to conform themselves that they were upon the point of passing the Sentence of Excommunication against him before he was cited to appear most of them crying out aloud It was the Cause of God and That there needed no citation where the iniquity was so manifest But being cited at the last he appears before them puts up his Protestation concerning the unlawfulness of that Convention and his disowning any Jurisdiction which they challenged over him and so demanded of them What they had to say His Accusation was That he had devised the Acts of Parliament in 84 to the subversion of the Kirk and the Liberties of it To which he answered That he only had approved and not devised the said Acts which having past the approbation of the Three Estates were of a nature too Supreme for such Assemblies and thereupon appealed unto the King the Council and the following Parliament But notwithstanding this Appeal the Sentence of Excommunication is decreed against him drawn into Writing and subscribed Which when neither the Moderator being a meer Layick nor any of the Ministers themselves had confidence enough to pronounce and publish one Hunter a Pedagogue in the House of Andrew Melvin professing that he had the Warrant of the Spirit for it took the charge upon him and with sufficient audacity pronounced the Sentence 8. The informality and perversness of these proceedings much displeased the King but more he feared what would be done in the next Assembly appointed to be held at Edenborough and then near at hand Melvin intended in the same not only to make good whatsoever had been done at the former Meeting but to dispute the nature and validity of all Appeals which should be made against them on the like occasions To break which blow the King could find no other way but to perswade the Arch-bishop to subscribe to these three points viz. That he never publickly professed or intended to claim any Superiority or to be judg over any other Pastors and Ministers or yet a vowed the same to have any warrant in Gods Word That he never challenged any Jurisdiction over the late Synod at St. Andrews and must have erred by his contempt of the said Meeting if he had so done And thirdly That he would behave himself better for the time to come desiring pardon for the oversight of his former Actions promising to be such a Bishop from thenceforth as was described by St. Paul And finally submitting both himself and Doctrine to the Judgment of the said Assembly without appealing from the same in the times to come To such unworthy Conditions was the poor man brought only to gain the King some peace and to reserve that little Power which was left unto Him though the King lost more by this Transaction than possibly He could have done by his standing out For notwithstanding the Submissions on the part of the Bishop the Assembly would descend no lower than to declare That they would hold the said Sentence for not pronounced and thereby leave the Bishop in the same estate in which they found him and not this neither but upon some hopes and assurance given them that the King would favourably concurr with them in the building of the House of God Which Agreement did so little satisfie the adverse party that they justified their former process and peremptorily confirmed the Sentence which had been pronounced Which when it could not be obtained from the greater part of the Assembly who were not willing to lose the glory of so great a Victory Hunter stands up by the advice of Andrew Melvin and publickly protested against it declaring further That notwithstanding any thing which had been done to the contrary the Bishop should be still reputed for an Excommunicated person and one delivered unto Satan It was moved in this Assembly also That some Censure should be laid upon the Ministers who had subscribed the Acts of Parliament made in 84. But their number proved so great that a Schism was feared and they were wise enough to keep all together that they might be the better able upon all occasions to oppose the King Somewhat was also done concerning the Establishment of their Presbyteries and the defining of their Power of which the King would take no notice reserving his disgust of so many Insolencies till he should find himself in a condition to do them Reason 9. In these Exorbitances they are followed by the English Puritans who had been bad enough before but henceforth showed themselves to have more of the Scot in them than in former times For presently upon the news of the good success which their Scottish Brethren had at Sterling a scandalous Libel in the nature of a Dialogue is published and dispersed in most parts of England in which the state of this Church is pretended to be laid open in a Conference between Diotrephes representing the person of a Bishop Tertullus a Papist brought in to plead for the Orders of our Church Demetrius an Usurer signifying such as live by unlawful Trades Pandocheus an Inn-keeper a receiver of all and a soother of every man for his Gain and Paul a Preacher of the Word of God sustaining the place and person of the Consistorians In the contrivance of which piece Paul falls directly on the Bishop whom he used most proudly spightfully and slanderously He condemneth both the Calling of Bishops as Antichristian and censureth their proceedings as Wicked Popish Unlawful and Cruel The Bishop is supposed to have been sent out of England into Scotland for suppressing the Presbyteries there and is made upon his return homewards to be the Reporter of the Scottish Affairs and withall to signifie his great fear lest he and the rest of the Bishops in England should be served shortly as the Bishops had lately been in Scotland viz. at Edenborough St. Andrews c. Tertullus the Papist is made the Bishop's only Counsellor in the whole course of the Government of the Church by whose Advice the Bishops are made to bear with the Popish Recusants and that so many ways are sought to suppress the Puritans And he together with Pandocheus the Host and Demetrius the Usurer relate unto the Bishop such Occurrences as had happened in England during his stay amongst the Scots At which when the Bishop seemed
wretched Popish priests and the Convocation-House of Devils and Belzebub of Canterbury the chief of these Devils The like Reproaches they bestow on the Common-Prayer of which they say That it is full of Corruption and that many of the Contents thereof are against the Word of God the Sacraments wickedly mangled and prophaned therein the Lord's Supper not eaten but made a Pageant or Stage-play and that the Form of publick Baptism is full of Childish Superstitious Toys So that we are not to admire if the Brownists please themselves in their separation from a Church so polluted and unreformed from men so wicked and prophane from such a Cinque of Satan such a Den of Devils But much less can we wonder that the Papists should make use of these horrible Slanders not only to confirm but encrease their Party By shewing them from the Pens of their greatest Adversaries what ugly Monsters had the Government of the Church of England from what Impieties they were preserved by not joyning with them One I am sure that is Parsons in his Book of Three Conversions reports these Calumnies and Slanders for undoubted Truths That Martin Mar-Prelate is affirmed by Sir Edwine Sandys to pass in those times for unquestion'd Credit in the Court of Rome his Authority much insisted on to disgrace this Church and finally that Kellison one of later date doth build as much upon the Credit of these Libels to defame the Clergy as if they had been dictated by the same Infallible Spirit which the Pope pretends to Such excellent Advantages did these Saints give unto the Devil that all the Locusts in the Revelation which came out of the Pit never created so much scandal to the Primitive times 28. To still these Clamours or at the least to stop the mouths of these Railing Rabshecha's that so the abused people on all sides might be undeceived as good a course was took by Whitgift and the rest of the Prelates as Human Wisdom could devise For first A grave Discourse is published in the year next following entituled An Admonition to the People of England in answer to the slanderous Untruths of Martin the Libeller But neither this nor any other grave Refutal would ever put them unto silence till they were undertaken by Tom Nash a man of a Sarcastical and jeering Wit who by some Pamphlets written in the like loose way which he called Pasquill and Marsorius The Counter-Scuffle Pappe with a Hatchet and the like stopped their mouths for ever none of them daring to deal further in that Commodity when they saw what Coyn they should be paid in by so frank a Customer Mention was made before of a sorry Pamphlet entituled The Complaint of the Commons for a Preaching-Ministry which Penry seconded by another called by the Name of A Supplication for Preaching in Wales In both which it was intimated to all sorts of people That the Gospel had no free passage amongst us That there was no care taken for Preaching the Word of God for the instruction of the people for want whereof they still remained in darkness and the shadow of death For the decrying of which scandalous and leud suggestions Order was given unto the Bishops to take the Names and Number of the Preachers in their several Diocesses and to present a true and perfect Catalogue of them in the Convocation which was then at hand By which Returns it will appear That at this time when so much noise was made for want of Preaching there were within the Realm of England and the Dominion of Wales no fewer than Seven thousand four hundred sixty three Preachers and Catechisers which last may be accounted the best sort of Preachers for the instruction of the people Of which great Number there were found to be no fewer than One hundred forty five Doctors in Divinity Three hundred forty eight Batchellors of Divinity Thirty one Doctors of both Laws Twenty one Batchelors of the same Eighteen hundred Masters in Arts Nine hundred forty six Batchelors of Arts and Two thousand seven hundred forty six Catechisers So that neither the number of bare Reading-Ministers was so great nor the want of Preaching so deplorable in most parts of the Kingdom as those Pamphlets made it the Authors whereof ought rather to have magnified the Name of God for sending such a large Encrease of Labourers in his Heavenly Husbandry as could not any where be parallel'd in so short a time there passing no more than Thirty years between the first beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign and the rendring of this Account to the Convocation 29. And that the Parliament might receive the same satisfaction a most excellent and judicious Sermon was Preached at St. Paul's Cross on Sunday the ninth of February being the first Sunday after their Assembling by Dr. Richard Bancroft being then Chaplain to the Lord Chancellor Hatton preferred within some few years after to the See of London and from thence to Canterbury In the performance of which Service he selected for the Theam or Subject of his Discourse 1 Iohn 4.1 viz. Dearly beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God for many false prophets are gone out into the world In canvasing which Text he did so excellently set forth the false Teachers of those times in their proper colours their Railing against Bishops their Ambition their Self-love their Covetousness and all such Motives as had spurred them on to disturb this Church as satisfied the greatest part of that huge Congregation touching the Practises and Hypocrisies of these holy Brethren He also shewed on what a weak Foundation they had built their Discipline of which no tract or footsteps could be found in the Church of Christ from the Apostles days to Calvin and with what Infamy the Aerian Hereticks were reproached in the Primitive times for labouring to introduce that Parity which these men designed He further laid before them the great danger which must needs ensue if private men should take upon them to deny or dispute such matters as had been setled in the Church by so good Authority Against which troublesome Humour many Provisions had been made by the Canons of Councils and the Edicts of Godly and Religious Emperors To which he added the necessity of requiring Subscription in a Church well constituted by all the Ministers of the same which he justified by the example of Geneva and the Churches of Germauy to be the best way to try the spirits whether they be of God or not as his Text required Next he insisted on the excellency of the Common-Prayer-Book applauded by the Divines of Foreign Churches approved by Bucer Fox Alesius the Parliaments and Convocations of this Kingdom and after justified by Arch-bishop Cranmer against the Papists by Bishop Ridley against Knox and by divers others showing withall the many gross Absurdities found in extemporary Prayers to the great dishonour of God and the shame of Religion Hence he proceeds to justifie
openness both of Heart and Hand as did not only make him able to keep the Field but to gain ground on the untraceable and insulting Rebels Which when the Hugonots observed and saw that he was like enough to do well without them they then came freely to his aid and were content to take such terms as he pleased to give them 34. And now again we are for Scotland where we shall find the King's Affairs grown from bad to worse We left him in a great vexation for not being able to prevail in any thing in behalf of Montgomery unless he relinquished his pursuit against Gibson and Cooper For so it was that he must do and suffer more than he had done hitherto before he could give himself any hopes of living peaceably amongst them A Parliament is therefore summoned to be held at Edenborough in the end of Iuly In which he was contented to pass some Acts for ratifying all Laws made in his Minority in favour of the Kirk of Scotland for trying and censuring the Adversaries of true Religion as also for the punishing of such as did menace or invade the Ministers But that which gave them most content was an Act of Parliament for Annexing of all the Temporalties of Bishopricks Abbeys and other Religious Houses which had not otherwise been disposed of to the Crown of that Realm which they promoted under colour of improving the Royal Patrimony that the King might have Means to bear forth the Honour of his Estate and not trouble his Subjects with Taxations but in plain truth to overthrow the Calling and Estate of Bishops which they presumed that no man of Quality would accept when the Lands were aliened And this the King was the more willing to consent to in regard that he had been perswaded by some about him That the Episcopal Houses being reserved out of that Grant together with the Tythes of the Churches formerly annexed to their Benefices would be sufficient to maintain their Dignity in some fit proportion But the King soon found himself abused For the rest of the Temporalties which formerly had been disposed of amongst the Laity being setled and confirmed upon them in the present Parliament there remained so little to the Crown by this Annexation as left him nothing behind but the envy of so high a Sacriledg the gain and benefit whereof was injoyed by others And of that little which remained unto him by the Annexation he received very small contentment most of it being squandered away by some begging Courtiers till he had left himself unable to reward or gratifie a deserving Minister But this he did not find till it was too late though the disease was past all remedy had he found it sooner But what he could not do himself when he lived in Scotland he first commended to the doing of his Son Prince Henry in his Book called Basilicon Doron and after lived to see it remedied in part when he reigned in England 35. There hapned also a Dispute in the present Parliament betwixt the Ministers of the Kirk and such of the Gentry as formerly had possessed themselves of Abbeys and Priories and thereby challenged to themselves a place in Parliament Concerning which we are to know that most of the Monasteries and Religious Houses had been founded upon Tythes and Impropriations though not without some good proportion of Demesnes which were laid unto them But when the Scots were set upon the humour of Reformation and set upon it in a way which shewed them rather to proceed upon private Ends than the publick Interest of Religion the principal men amongst them seized on all which they could lay hands on and after kept it to themselves by no better Title than that of the first Usurpation only and no more than so Some of the Bishops and Abbots also seeing how things were like to go and that the Church's Patrimony was not like to hold in the same Successions which had conveyed it unto them dismembred the best Tythes and Mannors from them or otherwise resigned the whole to the hands of such as appeared most able to protect them And so it stood till Murrey was made Regent of the Realm in the King 's first Infancy who did not only wink at those Usurpations the questioning whereof would most infallibly have estranged the Occupants from adhering to him but suffered many of the Layards and Gentlemen to invade the Tythes which had not formerly been appropriated to Religious Houses and to annex them to the rest of their own Estates By means whereof some of them were possessed of six ten twelve or twenty Tythings united into one Estate as they lay most convenient for them The Ministers being put off with beggerly stipends amounting in few places to ten pounds per annum of good English money These with the rest they called the Lords of new erection and they did Lord it over the poor people with pride and tyranny enough For neither would they suffer the Occupant or Land-holder to carry away his nine parts of the Fruits till they had taken off their Tenth and sometimes out of spight or self-will or any other pestant humour would suffer their tenth part to lye at waste in the open Field that the poor Labourer of the Earth might suffer the more damage by it But that which did most grieve the Ministers in the present exigent was That such Lairds and Gentlemen as had robbed the Church and plumed their own Nests with the Feathers of it should sit and vote in Parliament as Spiritual Persons and they themselves be quite excluded from those publick Councils A great heat hereupon was struck in the present Session by Pont and Lindsey commissionated by the Kirk for that employment who openly propounded in the Name of the Kirk That the said pretended Prelates might be removed at the present and disabled for the time to come to sit in Parliament as having no Authority from the Church and most of them no Function or Calling in it Bruce Commendator of Kinlosse was chosen for the mouth of the rest and he appeared so strongly in it that the Petition of the Ministers was referred to the Lords of the Articles and by them rejected though afterwards they had their Ends in it by a following Parliament 36. Being made secure from any further fear of Bishops by reason of the Poor Submission which was made by Montgomery and the annexing of Arch-bishops Lands to the Royal Patrimony the Ministers became more insolent and imperious than they had been formerly and in that jolly humour they so vexed and terrified him that he could find no other way in point of King-craft to preserve himself against their insolences and attempts but by giving some encouragement to the Popish party The exercise whereof brought out many Priests and Jesuits some of them more particularly to negotiate in behalf of the King of Spain who was then a setting forward his great Armada But the King well
knowing of what consequence that imployment was and how destructive of his Interest to the Crown of England commanded them by publick Proclamation to avoid the Kingdom But withal gave them day till the last of Ianuary that they might not complain of being taken unprovided Which small Indulgence so offended the unquiet brethren that they called a number of Noble-men Barons and Commissioners of Burgly without so much as asking the King's leave in it to meet at Edenborough on the sixt of February to whom they represented the Churches dangers and thereupon agreed to go all together in a full body to the Court to attend the King to the end that by the terror of so great a company they might work him to their own desires But the King hearing of their purpose refused to give access to so great a multitude but signified withall that he was ready to give audience unto some few of them which should be chosen by the rest But this affront the King was forced to put up also to pass by the unlawfulness of that Convention to acknowledg their grievances to be just and to promise a redress thereof in convenient time Which drew him into Action against Maxwel and some others of the Popish Lords and for the same received the publick thanks of the next Assembly that being no ordinary favour in them and was so far gratified withall as to be suffered to take Mr. Patrick Galloway from his Charge in Perth to be one of the Preachers at the Court. Of which particular I had perhaps took little notice but that we are to hear more of him on some other occasion 37. The next fine pranck they plaid relates to the Crowning of Queen Ann with whom the King landed out of Denmark at the Port of Leith on the 20 th of May 1590. aud designed her Coronation on the morrow after None of the Bishops being at hand the King was willing to embrace the opportunity to oblige the Kirk by making choice of one of their own Brethren to perform that Ceremony to which he nominated Mr. Robert Bruce a Preacher at Edenborough and one of the most moderate men in a whole Assembly But when the fitness of it came to be examined by the rest of the Brethren it was resolved to pretermit the Unction or Annointing of Her as a Iewish Ceremony abolished by Christ restored into Christian Kingdoms by the Pope's Authority and therefore not to be continued in a Church Reformed The Doubt first started by one Iohn Davinson who had then no Charge in the Church though followed by a Company of ignorant and seditious people whom Andrew Melvin set on work to begin the Quarrel and then stood up in his defence to make it good Much pains was taken to convince them by the Word of God That the Unction or Annointing of Kings was no Iewish Ceremony but Melvin's Will was neither to be ruled by Reason nor subdued by Argument and he had there so strong a Party that it passed in the Negative Insomuch that Bruce durst not proceed in the Solemnity for fear of the Censures of the Kirk The King had notice of it and returns this word That if the Coronation might not be performed by Bruce with the wonted Ceremonies he would stay till the coming of the Bishops of whose readiness to conform therein he could make no question Rather than so said Andrew Melvin let the Unction pass better it was that a Minister should perform that honourable Office in what Form soever than that the Bishops should be brought again unto the Court upon that occasion But yet unwilling to prophane himself by consenting to it he left them to agree about it as to them seemed best and he being gone it was concluded by the major part of the Voices That the Annointing should be used According whereunto the Queen was Crowned and Annointed on the Sunday following with the wonted Ceremonies but certainly with no great State there being so short an interval betwixt Her Landing and the appointed day of Her Coronation 38. It was not long before that they had a quarrel with the Lords of the Session touching the Jurisdiction of their several Courts but now the Assembly would be held for the chief Tribunal One Graham was conceived to have suborned a publick Notary to forge an Instrument which the Notary confessed on Examination to have been brought to him ready drawn by one of the said Graham's Brethren Graham enraged thereat enters an Action against Sympson the Minister of Sterling as one who had induced the man by some sinister Practises to make that Confession The Action being entred and the Process formed Sympson complains to the Assembly and they give Order unto Graham to appear before them to answer upon the scandal raised on one of their Brethren Graham appears and tells them That he would make good his Accusation before competent Judges which he conceived not them to be And they replyed That he must either stand to their judgment in it or else be censured for the slander The Lords of the Session hereupon interpose themselves desiring the Assembly not to meddle in a Cause which was then dependent in their Court in due form of Law But the Assembly made this Answer That Sympson was a Member of theirs That they might proceed in the purgation of one of their own number without intrenching on the Jurisdiction of the Civil Courts and therefore that their Lordships should not take it ill if they proceeded in the Tryal But let the Lords of the Session or the Party interested in the Cause say what they pleased the Assembly vote themselves to be Judges in it and were resolved to proceed to a Sentence against him as a false Accuser In fine the business went so high on the part of the Kirk that the Lords of the Session were compelled to think of no other Victory than by making a drawn Battel of it which by the Mediation of some Friends was at last effected 39. The Kirk is now advancing to the highest pitch of her Scotch Happiness in having her whole Discipline that is to say their National and Provincial Assemblies together with their Presbyteries and Parochial Sessions confirmed by the Authority of an Act of Parliament In order whereunto they had ordained in the Assembly held at Edenborough on the 4th of August Anno 1590. That all such as then bore Office in the Kirk or from thenceforth should bear any Office in it should actually subscribe to the Book of Discipline Which Act being so material to our present History deserves to be exemplified verbatim as it stands in the Registers and is this that followeth viz. 40. Forasmuch that it is certain That the Word of God cannot be kept in the own sincerity without the Holy Discipline be had in observance It is therefore by the common consent of the whole Brethren and Commissioners present concluded That whosoever hath born Office in the Ministry of the
distinctly assure him upon their Credits That by the Laws of the Realm he was bound to take the Oath required for making a true answer unto the Interrogatories which were to be propounded to him To which he made no other Answer but that he could find no such thing in the Law of God and so continuing in his obstinacy was committed also But the Commissioners having spent some time in preparing the matter and thinking the cognizance thereof more fitter for the Star-Chamber referred both the Persons and the Cause to the care of that Court. In which an Information was preferred against them by the Queen's Attorney for setting forth and putting in practise without warrant and authority a new form of Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments together with the Presbyterial Discipline not allowed by Law Upon the news whereof the Brethren enter into consultation as well about some course to be presently taken for relief of the Prisoners as for the putting of their Discipline into further practise What the result was may be gathered from a Letter of Wiggingtons one of the hottest heads amongst them in which he thus writes to Porter of Lancaster viz. Mr. Cartwright is in the Fleet for refusing the Oath as I hear and Mr. Knewstubs is sent for and sundry worthy Ministers are disquieted who have been spared long So that we look for some bickering ere long and then a Battel which cannot long endure 5. But before any thing could be done upon either side in order to the proceedings of the Coâ—rt or the release of the Prisoners there brake out such a dangerous Treason as took up all the thoughts of the Lords of the Council and the Brethren too The Brethren had so fixed their Fancies on the Holy Discipline and entertained such strange devices to promote the same beyond the warrant of God's Word and the Rule of Law that at the last God gave them up to strong delusions and suffered them to be transported by their own ill spirits to most dangerous downfalls One Coppinger a Gentleman of a very good Family had been so wrought upon by some of the chief Factors to the Presbyterians that he became a great admirer of their Zeal and Piety and being acquainted with one Arthington a Lay Genevian but very zealous in the Cause he adviseth with him of some means for the good of the Prisoners But upon long deliberation they could think of no course at all unless it would please God by some extraordinary Calling to stir up some zealous Brethren to effect their desires and if God pleased to take that way why might not one or both of them be chosen as fit Instruments in so great a service than whom they knew of none more able and of few more zealous On these Preparatories they betake themselves to Prayer and Fasting hold a strict Fast together on the 15 th of December and then began to â—ind themselves extraordinarily exercised as appears by their Letters writ to Lancaster in whose House they held it Immediately upon this Fact Coppinger takes a journey into Kent and fancies by the way that he was admitted to a familiar Conference with God himself that he received from Him many strange Directions to be followed by him whensoever God should please to use his service for the good of His Church and more particularly that he was shewed a way to bring the Queen to repentance and to cause all the Nobles to do the like out of hand or else to prove them to be Traytors to Almighty God Another Fast is held by him and Arthington at his coming back in which he finds himself more strongly stirred to a matter of some great importance than he was before of which he gives notice unto Gibson in Scotland by his Letter of the last of December and afterward to Wiggington above-mentioned by them to be communicated to the rest of the Brethren Another Fast follows upon this at which Wiggington and some others did vouchsafe their presence who had before confirmed them in the fancy of some such extraordinary Calling as he seemed to drive at With the intention of this last Cartwright and other of the Prisoners were made acquainted before-hand to the intent that by the benefit of their secret prayers the Action might be crowned with an End more glorious And the same night Coppinger finds himself in Heaven exceedingly astonished at the Majesty of Almighty God but very much comforted by the Vision and every day more and more encouraged to some great Work which he communicates at several times and by several Letters to Cartwright Travers Clark c. amongst the Preachers and from the Lay-Brethren unto Lancaster and Sir Peter Wentworth 6. And now we must make room for another Actor a greater Zealot than the other and one that was to rob them of the glory of their Dreams and Dotages Hacket an inconsiderable Fellow both for Parts and Fortune pretends to a more near Familiarity with Almighty God than either of the other durst aspire to A Wretch of such a desperate Malice that bearing an old grudg to one that had been his School-Master he bit off his Nose And when the poor man humbly prayed him to let him have it again to the end it might be sowed on before it was cold he most barbarously chewed it with his teeth and so swallowed it down After this having wasted that small Estate which he had by his Wife he becomes a Proselyte pretends at first to more than ordinary zeal for a Reformation and afterwards to extraordinary Revelations for the compassing of it This brings him into the acquaintance of some zealous Ministers who were then furiously driving on for the Holy Discipline but none more than Wiggington before remembred who brings him presently to Coppinger at such time as the poor man was raised to the height of his Follies Hacket had profited so well in the School of Hypocrisie that by his counterfeit-holiness his fervent and continual praying ex tempore fasting upon the Lord's Days making frequent brags of his Conflicts with Satan and pretending to many personal Conferences with the Lord Himself that he became of great esteem with the rest of the Brethren insomuch that some of them did not stick to say not only that he was one of God's beloved but greater in His Favour than Moses or Iohn the Baptist. And he himself made shew That he was a Prophet sent to foretell God's Judgments where His Mercies were neglected prophesying That there should be no more Popes and that England this present Year should be afflicted with Famine Warr and Pestilence unless the Lord's Discipline and Reformation were forthwith admitted These men being both governed by the same ill spirit were mutually over-joyed at this new acquaintance and forthwith entred into counsel for freeing Cartwright Snape and the rest of the Ministers not only from the several Prisons in which they lay but from the danger of their Censure in the
to go off with credit he prepares for Ireland But long he had not dwelt on his new Preferment when either he proved too hot for the Place or the Countrey by reason of the following Warrs grew too hot for him Which brought him back again to England where he lived to a very great age in a small Estate more comfortably than before because less troublesome to the Church than he had been formerly 18. Thus have we seen Travers taken off and Beza quieted nor was it long before Cartwright was reduced to a better temper But first it was resolved to try all means for his delivery both at home and abroad Abroad they held intelligence with their Brethren in the Kirk of Scotland by means of Penry here and of Gibson there two men as fit for their Designs as if they had been made of purpose to promote the Mischief Concerning which thus Gibson writes in one of his Letters to Coppinger before remembred whereby it seems that he was privy to his practices also The best of our Ministers saith he are most careful of your estate and had sent for that effect a Preacher of ours the last Summer of purpose to confer with the best affected of your Church to lay down a plot how our Church might best travel for your relief The Lord knows what care we have of you both in our publick and private Prayers c. For as feeling-members of one body we reckon the affliction of your Church to be our own This showed how great they were with child of some good Affections but there wanted strength to be delivered of the Burthen They were not able to raise Factions in the Court of England as Queen ELIZABETH had done frequently on their occasions in the Realm of Scotland All they could do was to engage the King in mediating with the Queen in behalf of Cartwright Vdal and some others of the principal Brethren then kept in Prison for their contumacy in refusing the Oath And they prevailed so far upon Him who was not then in a condition to deny them any thing as to direct some Lines unto Her in this tenour following 19. RIght Excellent High and Mighty Princess Our dearest Sister and Cousin in Our heartiest manner We recommend Us unto You. Hearing of the Apprehension of Master Vdal and Master Cartwright and certain other Ministers of the Evangel within Your Realm of whose good Erudition and Faithful Travels in the Church We hear a very credible commendation however that their diversity from the Bishops and other of Your Clergy in matters touching their Conscience hath been a mean by their delation to work them your misliking at this time We cannot weighing the Duty which We owe to such as are afflicted for their Conscience in that Profession but by Our most effectuous and earnest Letter interpone Us at Your Hands to stay any harder usage of them for that cause Requesting You most earnestly That for Our Cause and Intercession it may please You to let them be relieved of their present Strait and whatsoever further Accusation or Pursuit depending upon that ground respecting both their former Merit in setting forth the Evangel the simplicity of their Conscience in this Defence which cannot well be their Lett by Compulsion and the great slander which would not fail to fall out upon their further straitning for any such occasion Which We assure Us Your Zeal to Religion besides the expectation We have of Your good will to pleasure Us will willingly accord to Our Request having such proofs from time to time of Our like disposition to You in any matter which You recommend unto Us. And thus Right Excellent Right High and Mighty Princess Our dear Sister and Cousin We commit You to God's Protection Edenborough Iune 12. 1591. 20. This Letter was presented to the Queen by the hands of one Iohnson a Merchant of that Nation then remaining in London But it produced not the Effect which the Brethren hoped for For the Queen looked upon it as extorted rather by the importunity of some which were then about Him than as proceeding from Himself who had no reason to be too indulgent unto those of that Faction This Project therefore not succeeding they must try another and the next tryal shall be made on the High Commission by the Authority whereof Cartwright and Snape and divers others were committed Prisoners If this Commission could be weakned and the Power thereof reduced to a narrower compass the Brethren might proceed securely in the Holy Discipline the Prisoners be released and the Cause established And for the questioning thereof they took this occasion One Caudreys Parson of North-Luffengham in the County of Rutland had been informed against about four years since in the High Commission for preaching against the Book of Common-Prayer and refusing to celebrate Divine Service according to the Rules and Rubricks therein prescribed For which upon sufficient proof he was deprived of his Benefice by the Bishop of London and the rest of the Queen's Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes Four years together he lay quiet without acting any thing against the Sentence of the Court But now it was thought by some of those Lawyers whom Travers had gained unto the side to question the Authority of that Commission and consequently the illegality of his Deprivation In Hillary Term Anno 1591 the Cause was argued in the Exchequer Chamber by all the Judges according to the usual custom in all cases of the like importance and it was argued with great Learning as appears by the sum and substance of their several Arguments drawn up by Coke then being the Queen's Sollicitor-General and extant amongst the rest of his Reports both in English and Latin inscribed De Iure Regis Ecclesiastico but known most commonly by the name of Cawdrey's Case In the debating of which Point the Result was â—his That the Statute of 10 of the Queen for restoring to the Crown the ancient Iurisdiction c. was not to be accounted introductory of a new Authority which was not in the Crown before but only declaratory of an old which naturally and originally did belong to all Christian Princes and amongst others also to the Kings of England For proof whereof there wanted not sufficient evidence in our English Histories as well as in some old Records of unquestioned Credit exemplifying the continual practise of the Kings of England before and since the Norman Conquest in ordering and directing matters which concerned the Church In which they ruled sometimes absolutely without any dispute and sometimes relatively in reference to such opposition as they were to make against the Pope and all Authority derived from the See of Rome 21. Against this Case so solidly debated and so judiciously drawn up when none of the Puritan Professors could make any Reply Parsons the Iesuit undertook it but spent more time in searching out some contrary Evidence which might make for the Pope than in disproving that
11. In which condition it remained till this present year when the said Image was again fastned and repaired the Images of Christ's Resurrection and the rest continuing broken as before And on the East side of the said Cross where the steps had been was then set up a curious wrought Tabernacle of gray Marble and in the same an Alablaster Image of Diana from whose naked Breasts there trilled continually some streams of Water conveyed unto it from the Thames But the madness of this Faction could not so be stayed for the next year that I may lay all things together which concern this Cross a new mishapen Son as born out of time all naked was put into the Arms of the Virgin 's Image to serve for matter of derision to the common people And in the year 1599 the figure of the Cross erected on the top of the Pile was taken down by Publick Order under pretence that otherwise it might have fallen and endangered many with an intent to raise a Pyramis or Spire in the place thereof which coming to the knowledg of the Lords of the â—â—uncil they directed their Letters to the Lord Mayor then being whom they required in the Queen's Name to cause the said Cross to be repaired and advanced as formerly But the Cross still remaining headless for a year and more and the Lords not enduring any longer such a gross Contempt they re-inforced their Letters to the next Lord Mayor dated December 24 in the year 1600. In which they willed and commanded him in pursuance of her Majesty's former Directions to cause the said Cross without more delay to be re-advanced respecting in the same the great Antiquity and continuance of that stately Monument erected for an Ensign of our Christianity In obedience unto which Commands a Cross was forthwith framed of timber cover'd with lead and set up and gilded and the whole body of the Pile new cleansed from filth and rubbish Which gave such fresh displeasure to some zealous Brethren that within twelve nights after the Image of the blessed Virgin was again defaced by plucking off her Crown and almost her Head dispossessing her of her naked Child and stabbing her into the breast c. Most ridiculous Follies 12. In the beginning of the year we find Sir Thomas Egerton advanced to the Custody of the Great Seal of England Lord Chancellor in effect under the Title of Lord Keeper to which Place he was admitted on the sixth of May to the great joy of the Arch-bishop who always looked upon him as a lover of Learning a constant favourer of the Clergy zealous for the established Government and a faithful Friend unto himself upon all occasions Who being now Peered with the Lord Chancellor and the Earl of Essex assured of the good-will of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh and strengthned with the Friendship of Sir Robert Cicil Principal Secretary of State was better fortified than ever And at this time Her Majesty laying on his shoulders the burden of all Church-Concernments told him It should fall on his Soul and Conscience if any thing fell out amiss in that by reason of her age she had thought good to ease her self of that part of her Cares and looked that he should yeeld an account thereof to Almighty God So that upon the matter he was all in all for all Church-Affairs and more especially in the disposing of Bishopricks and other Ecclesiastical Promotions For his first entrance on which Trust he preferrs Dr. Thomas Bilson to the See of Worcester who received his Episcopal Consecration on the 13 th of Iune Anno 1596. and by his Favour was translated within two years after to the Church of Winchester He advanced also his old Friend Dr. Richard Bancroft to the See of London whom he consecrated on the 8 th of May Anno 1597 that he might always have him near him for Advice and Counsel Which Famous Prelate that I may note this by the way was born at Farnworth in the County of Lancaster Baptized September 1544. His Father was Iohn Bancroft Gentleman his Mother Mary Curwin Daughter of Iohn Brother of Hugh Curwin Bishop of Oxon whose eldest Son was Christopher the Father of Dr. Iohn Bancroft who after dyed Bishop of that See Anno 1640. But this Richard of whom now we speak being placed by his Unkle Dr. Curwin in Christ's Colledg in Cambridg from thence removed to Iesus Colledg in the same University because the other was suspected to incline to Novelism His Unkle Dr. Curwin being preferred to the Arch-bishoprick of Dublin made him a Prebend of that Church after whose death he became Chaplain to Cox Bishop of Ely who gave him the Rectory of Teversham not far from Cambridg Being thus put into the Road of Preferment he proceeded Batchellor of Divinity Anno 1580 and Doctor in the year 1585 About which time he put himself into the Service of Sir Christopher Hatton by whose recommendation he was made a Prebend of St. Peters in Westminster 1592. From whence he had the earlier passage to St. Pauls in London 13. About this time brake out the Juglings of Iohn Darrel who without any lawful Calling had set up a new Trade of Lecturing in the Town of Nottingham and to advance some Reputation to his Person pretends an extraordinary Power in casting out Devils He practised first on one Catharine Wright An. 1586. But finding some more powerful Practises to be then on foot in favour of the Presbyterian Discipline he laid that Project by till all others failed him But in the year 1592 he resumes the Practise hoping to compass that by Wit and Legerdemain which neither Carthwright by his Learning nor Snape by his Diligence Penry by his Seditions or Hacket by his damnable Treasons had the good fortune to effect He first begins with William Summers an unhappy Boy whom he first met at Ashby de la Zouch in the Country of Him he instructs to do such Tricks as might make him seem to be possest acquaints him with the manner of the Fits which were observed by Catharine Wright delivers them in writing to him for his better remembrance wished him to put the same in practise and told him that in so doing he should not want But either finding no great forwardness in the Boy to learn his Lesson or being otherwise discouraged from proceeding with him he applies himself to one Thomas Darling commonly called The Boy of Burton Anno 1596 whom he found far more dextrous in his Dissimulations the History of whose Possessings and Dispossessings was writ at large by Iesse Bee a Religious sad Lyar contracted by one Denison a Countrey-Minister Seen and Allowed by Hildersham one of the principal sticklers in the Cause of Presbytery and Printed with the good leave and liking of Darrel himself who growing famous by this means remembers Summers his first Scholar to whom he gives a second meeting at the Park of Ashby teacheth him to act them better than before
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
least that Enormities might be redressed as namely That Excommunication might not come forth under the name of Lay-persons Chancellors Officials c. That men be not excommunicated for Trifles and Twelve-penny matters That none be excommunicated without consent of his Pastors That the Officers be not suffered to extort unreasonable Fees That none having Jurisdiction or a Register's Place put the same to Farm That divers Popish Canons as for restraint of Marriage at certain times be reversed That the length of Suits in Ecclesiastical Courts which hung sometimes two three four five six seven years may be restrained That the Oath Ex Officio whereby men are forced to accuse themselves be more sparingly used That Licenses for Marriages without being Asked may be more sparingly granted 4. And here it is to be observed that though there was not one word in this Petition either against Episcopal Government or Set-forms of Prayer yet the design thereof was against them both For if so many of the Branches had been lopped at once the Body of the Tree must needs have rotted and consumed in a short time after The two Universities on the contrary were no less zealous for keeping up the Discipline and Liturgy of the Church then by Law established And to that end it was proposed and passed at Cambridg on the ninth of Iune That whosoever should oppose by word or writing either the Doctrine or the Discipline of the Church of England or any part thereof whatsoever within the Verge and Limits of the same University otherwise than in the way of Disputation he should be actually suspended from all Degrees already taken and utterly disabled for taking any in the time to come They resolved also to return an Answer to the said Petition but understanding that the University of Oxon was in hand therewith and had made a good progress in the same they laid by that purpose congratulating with their Sister-University for her forwardness in it as appears plainly by their Letter of the 7 th of October All this was known unto the King but he resolved to answer them in another way and to that end designed a Conference between the Parties A Conference much desired by those of the Puritan Faction in Queen Elizabeth's time who could not be induced to grant it knowing full well how much it tended to the ruin of all publick Government that matters once established in due form of Law should be made subject to Disputes But K. IAMES either out of a desire of his own satisfaction or to shew his great Abilities in Judgment Oratory and Discourse resolved upon it and accordingly gave Order for it To which end certain Delegates of each Party were appointed to attend upon Him at His Royal Palace of Hampton-Court on the 14 th of Ianuary then next following there to debate the Heads of the said Petition and to abide his Majesty's Pleasure and Determination At what time there attended on behalf of the Church the Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Lord Bishop of London the Bishops of Durham Winchester Worcester St. Davids Chichester Carlisle and Peterborough The Dean of the Chappel Westminster Christ-Church Pauls Worcester Salisbury Chester and Windsor together with Dr. King Arch-Deacon of Nottingham and Dr. Feild who afterwards was Dean of Glocester Apparelled all of them in their Robes and Habits peculiar to their several Orders 5. There appeared also in the behalf of the Millenaries Dr. Iohn Reynolds and Dr. Thomas Spark of Oxford Mr. Chatterton and Mr. Knewstubs of Cambridg Apparelld neither in Priest's Gowns or Canonical Coats but in such Gowns as were then commonly worn in reference to the form and fashion of them by the Turkey Merchants as if they had subscribed to the Opinion of old T. C. That we ought rather to conform in all outward Ceremonies to the Turks than the Papists Great hopes they gave themselves for setling the Calvinian Doctrines in the Church of England and altering so much in the Polity and Forms of Worship as might bring it nearer by some steps to the Church of Geneva In reference to the first it was much prest by Dr. Reynolds in the name of the rest That the Nine Articles of Lambeth which he entituled by the name of Orthodoxal Assertions might be received amongst the Articles of the Church But this Request upon a true account of the state of that business was by that prudent King rejected with as great a constancy as formerly the Articles themselves had been suppressed under Queen ELIZABETH It was moved also That these words neither totally nor finally might be inserted in the Sixteenth Article of the publick Confession to the intent that the Article so explained might speak in favour of the Zuinglian or Calvinian Doctrine concerning the impossibility of falling from the state of Grace and Justification Which Proposition gave a just occasion to Bishop Bancroft to speak his sense of the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination which he called in plain terms a desperate Doctrine Upon whose interposings in that particular and a short Declaration made by the Dean of St. Pauls touching some Heats which had been raised in Cambridg in pursuit thereof this second Motion proved as fruitless as the first had done 6. Nor sped they better in relation to the Forms of Worship than they had done in reference unto points of Doctrine some pains they took in crying down the Surplice and the Cross in Baptism the Ring in Marriage and the Interrogatories proposed to Infants And somewhat also was observed touching some Errors in the old Translation of the English Psalter as also in the Gospels and Epistles as they stood in the Liturgy But their Objections were so stale and so often answered that the Bishops and Conformable Party went away with an easie Victory not only the King's Majesty but the Lords of his Council being abundantly well satisfied in such former scruples as had been raised against the Church and the Orders of it The sum and substance of which Conference collected by the hand of Dr. Barlow then Dean of Chester can hardly be abbreviated to a lesser compass without great injury to the King and the Conferrees Let it suffice that this great Mountain which had raised so much expectation was delivered only of a Mouse The Millenary Plaintifs have gained nothing by their fruitless travel but the expounding of the word Absolution by Remission of sins the qualifying of the Rubrick about private Baptism the adding of some Thanksgivings at the end of the Letany and of some Questions and Answers in the close of the Catechism But on the other side the Brethren lost so much in their Reputation that the King was very well satisfied in the weakness of their Objections and the Injustice of their Cavils insomuch that turning his head towards some of the Lords If this be all quoth he which they have to say I will either make them conform themselves or hurry them out of the Land or
Acts being past Patterns were sent from London in a short time after for the Apparel of the Lords of the Session the Justice and other inferior Judges for the Advocates the Lawyers the Commissairs and all that lived by practise of the Law with a command given to every one whom the Statutes concerned to provide themselves of the Habits prescribed within a certain space under the pain of Rebellion But for the habit of the Bishops and other Church-men it was thought fit to respite the like appointment of them till the new Bishops had received their Consecration to which now we hasten 23. But by the way we must take notice of such preparations as were made towards it in the next General Assembly held at Glasgow Anno 1610 and managed by the Earl of Dunbar as the former was in which it was concluded That the King should have the indiction of all General Assemblies That the Bishops or their Deputies should be perpetual Moderators of the Diocesan Synods That no Excommunication or Absolution should be pronounced without their approbation That all presentations of Benefices should be made by them and that the deprivation or suspension of Ministers should belong to them That every Minister at his admission to a Benefice should take the Oath of Supremacy and Canonical Obedience That the Visitation of the Diocese shall be performed by the Bishop or his Deputy only And finally That the Bishop should be Moderator of all Conventions for Exercisings or Prophesyings call them which you will which should be held within their bounds All which Conclusions were confirmed by Act of Parliament in the year 1612 in which the Earl of Dumferling then being Lord Chancellor of that Kingdom sate as chief Commissioner who in the same Session also procured a Repeal of all such former Acts more patticularly of that which passed in favour of the Discipline 1592. as were supposed to be derogatory to the said Conclusions In the mean time the King being advertised of all which had been done at Glasgow calls to the Court by special Letters under his Sign-Manual Mr. Iohn Spotswood the designed Arch-bishop of Glasgow Mr. Gawen Hamilton nominated to the See of Galloway and Mr. Andrew Lamb appointed to the Church of Brechin to the intent that being consecrated Bishops in due Form and Order they might at their return give consecration to the rest of their Brethren They had before been authorized to vote in Parliament commended by the King unto their several Sees made the perpetual Moderators of Presbyteries and Diocesan Synods and finally by the Conclusions made at Glasgow they were restored to all considerable Acts of their Jurisdiction The Character was only wanting to compleat the Work which could not be imprinted but by Consecration according to the Rules and Canons of the Primitive times 24. And that this Character might be indelibly imprinted on them His Majesty issues a Commission under the Great Seal of England to the Bishops of London Ely Wells and Rochester whereby they were required to proceed to the Consecration of the said three Bishops according to the Rules of the English Ordination which was by them performed with all due solemnity in the Chappel of the Bishop of London's House near the Church of St. Pauls Octob. 21 1610. But first a scruple had been moved by the Bishop of Ely concerning the capacity of the persons nominated for receiving the Episcopal Consecration in regard that none of them had formally been ordained Priests which scruple was removed by Arch-bishop Bancroft alledging that there was no such necessity of receiving the Order of Priesthood but that Episcopal Consecrations might be given without it as might have been exemplified in the Cases of Ambrose and Nectarius of whichâ— the first was made Arch-bishop of Millain and the other Patriarch of Constantinople without receiving any intermediate Orders whether of Priest Deacon or any other if there were any other at that time in the Church And on the other side the Prelates of Scotland also had their Doubts and Scruples fearing lest by receiving Consecration of the English Bishops they might be brought to an acknowledgment of that Superiority which had been exercised and enjoyed by the Primates of England before the first breaking out of the Civil Warrs betwixt York and Lancaster Against which fear the King sufficiently provided by excluding the two Arch-bishops of Canterbury and York who only could pretend to that Superiority out of His Commission which Bancroft very cheerfully condescended to though he had chiefly laid the plot and brought on the work not caring who participated in the Honour of it as long as the Churches of both Kingdoms might receive the Benefit 25. This great Work being thus past over the King erects a Court of High Commission in the Realm of Scotland for ordering all matters which concerned that Church and could not safely be redressed in the Bishops Courts He also gave them some Directions for the better exercise of their Authority by them to be communicated to the Bishops and some principal Church-men whom he appointed to be called to Edenborough in the following February where they were generally well approved But as all general Rules have some Exceptions so some Exceptions were found out against these Commissions and the proceedings thereupon Not very pleasing to those great Persons who then sate at the Helm and looked upon it as a diminution to their own Authority and could not brook that any of the Clergy should be raised to so great a Power much more displeasing to the principal sticklers in the Cause of Presbytery who now beheld the downfall of their glorious Throne which they had erected for themselves in the Name of Christ. One thing perhaps might comfort them in the midst of their sorrows that is to say the death of the most Reverend Arch-bishop Bancroft who left this life upon the second of November not living above thirteen days after the Scottish Bishops had received Consecration For which great blessing to the Church he had scarce time to render his just acknowledgments unto God and the King when he is called on to prepare for his Nunc Dimittis And having seen so great a work accomplished for the glory of God the honour of his Majesty and the good of both Kingdoms beseecheth God to give him leave to depart in peace that with his eyes he might behold that great Salvation which was ordained to be a Light unto the Gentiles and to be the Glory of his people Israel 26. Bancroft being dead some Bishops of the Court held a Consultation touching the fittest Person to succeed him in that eminent Dignity The great Abilities and most exemplary Piety of Dr. Lancelot Andrews then Bishop of Ely pointed him out to be the man as one sufficiently able to discharge a Trust of such main importance and rather looked on as a Preferment to that See than preferred unto it Him they commended to King IAMES who had him in a high
hereupon preferred against them to the Lords of the Council in which their Lordships were informed That the Inhabitants generally of the Isle were discontented with the present Discipline and guidance of the Church that most of them would be easily perswaded to submit to the English Goverment and that many of them did desire it 39. This brings both Parties to the Court the Governour and his Adherents to prosecute the Suit and make good their Intelligence the Ministers to answer to the Complaint and stand to the Pleasure of His Majesty in the final Judgment And at the first the Ministers stood fast together but as it always happeneth that there is no Confederacy so well jointed but one Member of it may be severed from the rest and thereby the whole Practise overthrown so was it also in this business For those who there sollicited some private business of the Governour 's had kindly wrought upon the weakness and ambition of De la Place one of the Ministers appointed to attend the Service perswading him That if the Government were altered and the Dean restored he was infallibly resolved on to be the man Being fashioned into this hope he speedily betrayed the Counsels of his Fellows and furnished their Opponents at all their Interviews with such Intelligence as might make most for their advantage At last the Ministers not well agreeing in their own demands and having little to say in defence of their proper Cause whereunto their Answers were not provided before-hand my Lord of Canterbury at the Council Table thus declared unto them the Pleasure of the King and Council viz. That for the speedy redress of their disorders it was reputed most convenient to establish amongst them the Authority and Office of the Dean That the Book of Common-Prayer being again Printed in the French should be received into their Churches but the Ministers not tyed to the strict observance of it in all particulars That Messervy should be admitted to his Benefice and that so they might return to their several Charges This said they were commanded to depart and to signifie to those from whom they came the full scope of His Majesty's Resolution and so they did But being somewhat backward in obeying this Decree the Council intimated to them by Sir Philip de Carteret chief Agent for the Governour and Estates of the Island That the Ministers from among themselves should make choice of three Learned and Grave persons whose Names they should return unto the Board out of which His Majesty should resolve on one to be their Dean 40. But this Proposal little edified amongst the Brethren not so much out of any dislike of the alteration with which they seemed all well enough contented but because every one of them gave himself some hopes of being the man And being that all of them could not be elected they were not willing to destroy their particular hopes by the appointment of another In the mean time Mr. David Bandinell an Italian born then being Minister of St. Mary's under pretence of other business of his own is dispatched for England and recommended by the Governour as the fittest person for that Place and Dignity And being well approved of by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury who found him answerable in all points to the Governour 's Character he was established in the Place by his Majesty's Letters Patents bearing date Anno 1619 and was accordingly invested in all such Rights as formerly had been inherent in that Office whether it were in point of Profit or of Jurisdiction And for the executing of this Office some Articles were drawn and ratified by His Sacred Majesty to be in force until a certain Body of Ecclesiastical Canons should be digested and confirmed Which Articles he was pleased to call the Interim a Name devised by CHARLES the fifth on the like occasion as appears by His Majesty's Letters Paters Patents for confirmation of the Canons not long after made And by this Interim it was permitted for the present that the Ministers should not be obliged to bid the Holy-days to use the Cross in Baptism or to wear the Surplice or not to give the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper unto any others but such as did receive it kneeling but in all other things it little differed from the Book of Canons which being first drawn up by the Dean and Ministers was afterwards carefully perused corrected and accommodated for the use of that Island by the Right Reverend Fathers in God George Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury Iohn Lord Bishop of Lincoln Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and Lancelot Lord Bishop of Winchester whose Diocess or Jurisdiction did extend over both the Islands In which respect it was appointed in the Letters Patents by which His Majesty confirmed these Canons Anno 1623 That the said Reverend Father in God the Bishop of Winchester should forthwith by his Commission under his Episcopal Seal as Ordinary of the place give Authority unto the said Dean to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the said Isle according to the Canons and Constitutions thus made and established Such were the Means and such the Counsels by which this Island was reduced to a full conformity with the Church of England 41. Guâ—rnsey had followed in the like if first the breach between K. IAMES and the King of Spain and afterwards between K. CHARLES and the Crown of France had not took off the edg of the prosecution During which time the Ministers were much heartned in their Inconformity by the Practises of De la Place before remembred Who stomacking his disappointment in the loss of the Deanry abandoned his Native Countrey and retired unto Guernsey where he breathed nothing but disgrace to the English Liturgy the Person of the new Dean and the change of the Government Against the first so perversly opposite that when some Forces were sent over by King CHARLES for defence of the Island he would not suffer them to have the use of the English Liturgy in the Church of St. Peter's being the principal of that Island but upon these Conditions that is to say That they should neither use the Liturgy therein nor receive the Sacrament And secondly Whereas there was a Lecture weekly every Thursday in the said Church of St. Peters when once the Feast of Christ's Nativity fell upon that day he rather chose to disappoint the Hearers and put off the Sermon than that the least honour should reflect on that ancient Festival An Opposition far more superstitious than any observation of a day though meerly Iewish By his Example others were encouraged to the like perversness insomuch that they refused to baptize any Child or Children though weak and in apparent danger of present death but such as were presented unto them on the day of Preaching And when some of them were compelled by the Civil Magistrate to perform their duty in this kind a great Complaint thereof was made to the Earl of
Darby being then Governour of that Island as if the Magistrate had intrenched on the Minister's Office and took upon them the administration of the blessed Sacraments Of these particulars and many others of that nature intelligence was given to the late Arch-bishop Dr. Laud who had proceeded thereupon to a Reformation Anno 1637 if the Distraction then arising in the Realm of Scotland had not enforced him to a discontinuance of that Resolution AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History OF THE PRESBYTERIANS LIB XII Containing Their Tumultuating in the Belgick Provinces their Practises and Insurrections in the Higher Germany the frustrating of their Design on the Churches of Brandenbourgh the Revolts of Transilvania Hungary Austria and Bohemia and the Rebellions of the French from the Year 1610 to the Year 1628. FRom Guernsey we set sail for Holland in which we left the Ministers divided into two main Factiions the one being called the Remonstrants the other taking to themselves the Name of Contra-Remonstrants To put an end to those Disorders a Conference was appointed between the Parties held at the Hague before the General Assembly of Estates of the Belgick Provinces Anno 1610. The Controversiâ— reduced to five Articles only and the Dispute managed by the ablest men who appeared in the Quarrel on either side In which it was conceived that the Remonstrants had the better of the day and came off with Victory But what the Contra-Remonstrants wanted in the strength of Argument they made good by Power For being far the greater number and countenanced by the Prince of Orange as their principal Patron they prosecuted their Opponents in their several Consistories by Suspensions Excommunications and Deprivations the highest Censures of the Church This forced the Remonstrant Party to put themselves under the protection of Iohn Olden Barnevelt an Hollander by birth and one of the most powerful men of all that Nation who fearing that the Prince of Orâ—nge had some secret purpose to make Himself absolute Lord of those Estates received them very cheerfully into his protection not without hope of raising a strong Party by them to oppose the Prince This draws K. IAMES into the Quarrel who being displeased with the Election of Conradus Vorstius to a Divinity-Reader's Place in the Schools of Leiden and not so readily gratified by the Estates in the choice of another published a Declaration against this Vorstius and therein falls exceeding foul upon Iames Van Harmine and all that followed his Opinions in the present Controversies Which notwithstanding Barnevelt gains an Edict from the States of Holland Anno 1613 by which a mutual Toleration was indulged to either Party more to the benefit of the Remonstrants than the contentment of the others An Edict highly magnified by the Learned Grotius in his Pietas Ordinum c. Against which some Answers were returned by Bogerman Sibrandus and some others not without some reflections on the Magistrates for their actings in it 2. This made the breach much wider than it was before King IAMES appearing openly in favour of the Prince of Orange the Spaniard secretly fomenting the Designs of Barnevelt as it was afterwards suggested with what truth I know not But sure it is that as K. IAMES had formerly aspersed the Remonstrant Party in His Declaration against Vorstius before remembred so He continued a most bitter Enemy unto them till he had brought them at the last to an extermination But what induced him thereunto hath been made a question Some think that he was drawn unto it by the powerful perswasions of Arch-bishop Abbot and Bishop Mountague who then much governed his Counsels in all Church-concernments Others impute it to his Education in the Church of Scotland where all the Heterodoxies of Calvin were received as Gospel which might incline him the more strongly to those Opinions which he had sucked in as it were with his Nurse's Milk Some say that he was carried in this business not so much by the clear light of his own understanding as by a transport of affection to the Prince of Orange to whom he had a dear regard and a secret sympathy Others more rationally ascribe it unto Reason of State for the preventing of a dangerous and uncurable Rupture which otherwise was like to follow in the State of the Netherlands He had then a great Stock going amongst them in regard of the two Towns of Brill and Vlushing together with the Fort of Ramekins which had been put into the hands of Queen ELIZABETH for great sums of money In which regard the Governour of the Town of Vlushing and the Ambassador resident for the Crown of England were to have place in all publick Councils which concerned those Provinces on whose Tranquillity and Power he placed a great part of the peace and happiness of his own Dominions He knew that Concord was the strongest Ligament of their Confederation and looked on the Remonstrants as the breakers of that Bond of Unity which formerly had held them so close together 3. Upon this reason he exhorts them in his said Declaration To take heed of such infected persons their own Countrey-men being already divided into Factions upon this occasion which was a matter so opposite to Vnity the only prop and safety of their State next under God as must of necessity by little and little bring them to utter ruin if wisely and in time they did not provide against it And on the same reason he concurred in Counsel and Design with the Prince of Orange for the suppressing of that Party which he conceived to be so dangerous to the common Peace and sending such of his Divines to the Synod of Dort as were most like to be sufficiently active in their condemnation For so it hapned that the Prince of Orange being animated by so great a Monarch suddenly puts himself into the head of his Forces marches from one strong Town to another changeth the Garrisons in some the chief Commanders in the rest and many of the principal Magistrates in most Towns of Holland Vtrecht and the rest of those Provinces Which done he seizeth on the person of Barnevelt as also on Grotius and Leidebrogius and then proclaims a National Synod to be held at Dort in November following to which the Calvinists were invited from all parts of Christendom And yet not thinking themselves strong enough to suppress their Adversaries they first disabled some of them by Ecclesiastical Censures from being chosen Members of it Others who had been lawfully chosen were not permitted to give suffrage with the rest of the Synodists unless they would renounce their Party And finally They took such Order with the rest that they would not suffer them to sit as Judges in the present Controversies but only to appear before them as Parties Criminal All which being condescended to though against all reason they were restrained to such a method in their disputation as carried with it a betraying of their Cause and Interest and for
having concluded a Truce of Twelve years with the States United wanted Employment for his Army and that he might engage that King with the greater confidence he reconciles himself to the Church of Rome and marries the Lady Magdalen Daughter to the Duke of Bavaria the most potent of the German Princes of that Religion which also he established in his own Dominions on the death of his Father This puts the young Marquess to new Counsels who thereupon calls in the Forces of the States Vnited the Warr continuing upon this occasion betwixt them and Spain though the Scene was shifted And that they might more cordially espouse his Quarrel he took to Wife the Sister of Frederick the fifth Prince Elector Palatine and Neece of William of Nassaw Prince of Orange by his youngest Daughter and consequently Cousin-German once removed to Count Maurice of Nassaw Commander-General of the Forces of the Sates Vnited both by Sea and Land This kept the Balance eeven between them the one possessing the Estates of Cleve and Mark and the other the greatest part of Berge and Gulick But so it was that the old Marquess of Brandenbourgh having setled his abode in the Dukedom of Prussia and left the management of the Marquissate to the Prince his Son left him withall unto the Plots and Practises of a subtil Lady Who being throughly instructed in all points of Calvinism and having gotten a great Empire in her Husband's Affections prevailed so far upon him in the first year of their Marriage Anno 1614 that he renounced his own Religion and declared for Her 's which he more cheerfully embraced in hope to arm all the Calvinians both of the Higher and the Lower Germany in defence of his Cause as his Competitor of Newbourgh had armed the Catholicks to preserve his Interest 15. Being thus resolved he publisheth an Edict in the Month of February Anno 1615 published in his Father's Name but only in his own Authority and sole Command under pretence of pacifying some distempers about Religion but tending in good earnest to the plain suppression of the Lutheran forms for having spent a tedious and impertinent Preamble touching the Animosities fomented in the Protestant Churches between the Lutherans and those of the Calvinian Party he first requires that all unnecessary Disputes be laid aside that so all grounds of strife and disaffection might be also buried Which said he next commands all Ministers within the Marquissate to preach the Word purely and sincerely according to the Writings of the holy Prophets and Apostles the Four Creeds commonly received amongst which the Te Deum is to go for one and the Confession of Ausberg of the last Correction and that omitting all new glosses and interpretations of idle and ambitious men affecting a Primacy in the Church and a Power in the State they aim at nothing in their Preachings but the Glory of God and the Salvation of Mankind He commands also That they should abstain from all calumniating of those Churches which either were not subject to their Jurisdiction nor were not lawfully convicted of the Crime of Heresie which he resolved not to connive at for the time to come but to proceed unto the punishment of all those who wilfully should refuse to conform themselves to his Will and Pleasure After which giving them some good Counsel for following a more moderate course in their Preachings and Writings than they had been accustomed to in the times fore-going and in all points to be obedient to their principal Magistrate he pulls off the Disguise and speaks plainly thus 16. These are saith he the Heads of that Reformation which is to be observed in all the Churches of Brandenbourgh that is to say All Images Statua's and Crosses to be removed out of the place of publick Meetings all Altars as the Relicks of Popery and purposely erected for the Sacrifices of the Popish Mass to be taken away that in their room they should set up a Table of a long square Figure covered at all times with a Carpet of Black and at the time of the Communion with a Linnen Cloth That Wafers should be used instead of the former Hosts which being cut into long pieces should be received and broken by the hands of those who were admitted to communicate at the holy Table That ordinary Cups should be made use of for the future instead of the old Popish Chalice That the Vestments used in the Mass should be forborn no Candles lighted in any of their Churches at noon-day No Napkin to be held to those that received the Sacrament nor any of them to receive it upon their knees as if Christ were corporally present The sign of the Cross to be from thenceforth discontinued The Minister not to turn his back to the people at the Ministration The Prayers and Epistles before the Sermon to be from thenceforth read not sung and the said Prayers not to be muttered with a low voice in the Pulpit or Reading-Pew but pronounced audibly and distinctly Auricular Confession to be laid aside and the Communion not to be administred to sick persons in the time of any common Plague or Contagious Sickness No bowing of their knee at the Name of Iesus Nor Fonts of stone to be retained in their Churches the want whereof may be supplied by a common Bason The Decalogue to be repeated wholly without mutilation and the Catechism in some other points no less erroneous to be corrected and amended The Trinity to be adored but not exprest in any Images either carved or painted The words of Consecration in the holy Supper to be interpreted and understood according unto that Analogy which they held with the Sacrament and other Texts of holy Scripture And finally That the Ministers should not be so tyed to preach upon the Gospels and Epistles that were appointed for the day but that they might make choice of any other Text of Scriptures as best pleased themselves Such was the tenour of this Edict on which I have insisted the more at large to show the difference between the Lutheran and Genevian Churches and the great correspondence of the first with the Church of England But this Calvinian Pill did not work so kindly as not to stirr more Humours than it could remove For the Lutherans being in possession would not deliver up their Churches or desert those Usages to which they had been trained up and in which they were principled according to the Rules of their first Reformation And hereupon some Rupture was like to grow betwixt the young Marquess and his Subjects if by the intervention of some honest Patriots it had not been closed up in this manner or to this effect That the Lutheran Forms only should be used in all the Churches of the Marquissate for the contentation of the people and that the Marquess should have the exercise of his new Religion for Himself his Lady and those of his Opinion in their private Chappels 17. But the
out into open Warr. But finding no occasion they resolve to make one and to begin their first Embroilments upon the sending of the new Liturgy and Book of Canons to the Kirk of Scotland For though the Scots in a general Assembly held at Aberdeen had given consent unto the making of a Liturgy for the use of that Kirk and for drawing up a Book of Canons out of the Acts of their Assemblies and some Acts of Parliament yet when those Books were finished by the Care of King CHARLES and by his Piety recommended unto use and practise it must be looked on as a violation of their Rights and Liberties And though in another of their Assemblies which was held at Perth they had past five Articles for introducing private Baptism communicating of the sick kneeling at the Communion Episcopal Confirmation and the observing of such ancient Festivals as belonged immediately unto Christ yet when those Articles were incorporated in the Common-prayer-Book they were beheld as Innovations in the Worship of God and therefore not to be admitted in so pure and Reformed a Church as that of Scotland These were the Hooks by which they drew the people to them who never look on their Superiors with a greater reverence than when they see them active in the Cause of Religion and willing in appearance to lose all which was dear unto them whereby they might preserve the Gospel in its native purity But it was rather Gain than Godliness which brought the great men of the Realm to espouse this Quarrel who by the Commission of Surrendries of which more elsewhere began to fear the losing of their Tithes and Superiorities to which they could pretend no other title than plain Usurpation And on the other side it was Ambition and not Zeal which enflamed the Presbyters who had no other way to invade that Power which was conferred upon the Bishops by Divine Institution and countenanced by many Acts of Parliament in the Reign of K. IAMES than by embracing that occasion to incense the people to put the whole Nation into tumult and thereby to compel the Bishops and the Regular Clergy to forsake the Kingdom So the Genevians dealt before with their Bishop and Clergy when the Reforming-Humour came first upon them And what could they do less in Scotland than follow the Example of their Mother-City 3. These breakings-out in Scotland smoothed the way to the like in England from which they had received encouragement and presumed on Succours The English Puritaus had begun with Libelling against the Bishops as the Scots did against the King For which the Authors and Abettors had received some punishment but such as did rather reserve them for ensuing Mischiefs than make them sensible of their Crimes or reclaim them from it So that upon the coming of the Liturgy and Book of Canons the Scots were put into such heat that they disturbed the execution of the one by an open Tumult and refused obedience to the other by a wilful obstinacy The King had then a Fleet at Sea sufficiently powerful to have blockt up all the Havens of Scotland and by destroying that small Trade which they had amongst them to have reduced them absolutely to His Will and Pleasure But they had so many of their Party in the Council of Scotland and had so great a confidence in the Marquess of Hamilton and many Friends of both Nations in the Court of England that they feared nothing less than the Power of the King or to be enforced to their obedience in the way of Arms. In confidence whereof they despise all His Proclamations with which Weapons only He encountred them in their first Seditions and publickly protested against all Declarations which He sent unto them in the Streets of Edenborough Nothing else being done against them in the first year of their Tumults they cast themselves into four Tables for dispatch of business but chiefly for the cementing of their Combination For which they could not easily bethink themselves of a speedier course than to unite the people to them by a League or Covenant Which to effect it was thought necessary to renew the old Confession excogitated in the year 1580 for the abjuring of the Tyranny and Superstitions of the Church of Rome subscribed first by the King and His Houshold-Servants and the next year by all the Natives of the Kingdom as was said before And it was also said before that unto this Confession they adjoined a Band Anno 1592 for standing unto one another in defence thereof against all Papists and other professed Adversaries of their Religion This is now made to serve their turn against the King For by a strange interpretation which was put upon it it was declared That both the Government of the Church by Bishops and the Five Articles of Perth the Liturgy and the Book of Canons were all abjured by that Confession and the Band annexed though the three last had no existency or being in the Kirk of Scotland when that Confession was first formed or the Band subjoined 4. These Insolencies might have given the King a just cause to arm when they were utterly unprovided of all such necessaries as might enable them to make the least show of a weak resistance But the King deals more gently with them negotiates for some fair accord of the present differences and sends the Marquess of Hamilton as his chief Commissioner for the transacting of the same By whose sollicitation he revokes the Liturgy and the Book of Canons suspends the Articles of Perth and then rescinds all Acts of Parliament which confirmed the same submits the Bishops to the next General Assembly as their competent Judges and thereupon gives intimation of a General Assembly to be held at Glasgow in which the point of Church-Government was to be debated and all his Condescentions enrolled and registred And which made most to their advantage he caused the Solemn League or Covenant to he imposed on all the Subjects and subscribed by them Which in effect was to legitimate the Rebellion and countenance the Combination with the face of Authority But all this would not do his business though it might do theirs For they had so contrived the matter that none were chosen to have voices in that Assembly but such as were sure unto the side such as had formerly been under the Censures of the Church for their Inconformity and had refused to acknowledg the King's Supremacy or had declared their disaffections to Episcopal Government And that the Bishops might have no encouragement to sit amongst them they cite them to appear as Criminal persons Libel against them in a scandalous and unchristian manner and finally make choice of Henderson a Seditious Presbyter to sit as Moderator or chief President in it And though upon the sense of their disobedience the Assembly was again dissolved by the King's Proclamation yet they continued as before in contempt thereof In which Session they
the Service-Books and Books of Common-Prayer bestrewing the whole Pavement with the Leaves thereof They also exercised their madness on the Arras Hangings which adorned the Quire representing the whole story of our Saviour And meeting with some of his Figures amongst the rest some of them swore that they would stab him and others that they would rip up his bowels which they did accordingly so far forth at the least as those figures in the Arras Hanging could be capable of it And finding another Statua of Christ placed in the Frontispiece of the South-Gate there they discharged Forty Muskets at it exceedingly triumphing when they hit him in the Head or Face And it is thought they would have fallen upon the Fabrick if at the humble suit of the Mayor and Citizens they had not been restrained by their principal Officers Less spoil was made at Rochester though too much in that their Follies being chiefly exercised in tearing the Book of Common-Prayer and breaking down the Rails before the Altar Seaton a Scot and one of some command in the Army afterwards took some displeasure at the Organs but his hands were tyed whether it were that Sandys repented of the Outrages which were done at Canterbury or else afraid of giving more scandal and offence to the Kentish Gentry I am not able to determine But sure it is that he enjoyed but little eomfort in these first beginnings receiving his death's wound about three Weeks after in the fight near Powick of which within few Weeks more he dyed at Worcester 26. But I am weary of reciting such Spoils and Ravages as were not acted by the Goths in the sack of Rome And on that score I shall not take upon me to relate the Fortunes of the present Warr which changed and varied in the West as in other places till the Battel of Stratton in which Sir Ralph Hopton with an handful of his gallant Cornish raised by the reputation of Sir Bevil Greenvile and Sir Nicholas Slaining gave such a general defeat to the Western Rebels as opened him the way towards Oxon with small opposition Twice troubled in his March by Waller grown famous by his taking of Malmsbury and relieving Glocester but so defeated in a fight at Roundway-Down Run-away Down the Soldiers called it that he was forced to flye to London for a new Recruit Let it suffice that the King lost Reading in the Spring received the Queen triumphantly into Oxon within a few Weeks after by whom he was supplied with such a considerable stock of Arms aud other Necessaries as put him into a condition to pursue the Warr. This Summer makes him Master of the North and West the North being wholly cleared of the Enemy's Forces but such as seemed to be imprisoned in the Town of Hull And having lost the Cities of Bristol and Exon no Towns of consequence in the West remained firm unto them but Pool Lime and Plymouth so that the leading-members were upon the point of forsaking the Kingdom and had so done as it was generally reported and averred for certain if the King had not been diverted from his march to London upon a confidence of bringing the strong City of Glocester to the like submission This gave them time to breathe a little and to advise upon some course for their preservation and no course was found fitter for them than to invite the Scots to their aid and succour whose amity they had lately purchased at so deer a rate Hereupon Armin and some others are dispatched for Scotland where they applied themselves so dextrously to that proud and rebellious people that they consented at the last to all things which had been desired But they consented on such terms as gave them an assurance of One hundred thousand pound in ready money the Army to be kept both with Pay and Plunder the chief Promoters of the Service to be rewarded with the Lands and Houses of the English Bishops and their Commissioners to have as great an influence in all Counsels both of Peace and Warr as the Lords and Commons 27. But that which proved the strongest temptation to engage them in it was an assurance of reducing the Church of England to an exact conformity in Government and Forms of Worship to the Kirk of Scotland and gratifying their Revenge and Malice by prosecuting the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to the end of his Tragedy For compassing which Ends a Solemn League and Covenant is agreed between them first taken and subscribed to by the Scots themselves and afterwards by all the Members in both Houses of Parliament as also by the principal Officers of the Army all the Divines of the Assembly almost all those which lived within the Lines of Communication and in the end by all the Subjects which either were within their power or made subject to it Now by this Covenant the Party was to bind himself amongst other things first That he would endeavour in his place and calling to preserve the Reformed Religion in Scotland in Doctrine Discipline and Government That he would endeavour in like manner the Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed Churches but more particularly to bring the Churches of God in all the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church-Government and Directory for Worship and Catechising Secondly That without respect of persons they would endeavour to extirpate Popery and Prelacy that is to say Church-Government by Arch-bishops Bishops their Chancellors Commissairs Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on it And thirdly That he would endeavour the discovery of such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants and evil Instruments either in hindering the Reformation of Religion or in dividing between the King and his people c. whom they should bring to condign punishment before the Supream Iudicatories of either Kingdom as their offences should deserve Of which three Articles the two first tended to the setting up of their dear Presbyteries the last unto the prosecution of the late Arch-bishop whom they considered as their greatest and most mortal Enemy 28. The terror of this Covenant and the severe penalty imposed on those which did refuse it compelled great numbers of the Clergy to forsake their Benefices and to betake themselves to such Towns and Garrisons as were kept under the command of his Majesty's Forces whose vacant places were in part supplied by such Presbyterians who formerly had lived as Lecturers or Trencer-Chaplains or else bestowed upon such Zealots as flocked from Scotland and New-England like Vultures and other Birds of Rapine to seek after the prey But finding the deserted Benefices not proportionable to so great a multitude they compelled many of the Clergy to forsake their Houses that so they might avoid imprisonment or some worse Calamity Others they sent to several Gaols or
shut them up in Ships whom they exposed to storms and tempests and all the miseries which a wild Sea could give to a languishing stomack And some again they sequestred under colour of scandal imputing to them such notorious and enormous Crimes as would have rendered them uncapable of Life as well as Livings if they had been proved But that which added the most weight to these Oppressions was the publishing of a malicious and unchristian Pamphlet entituled The first Century of Scandalous and Malignant Priests which whether it were more odious in the sight of God or more disgraceful to the Church or offensive to all sober and religious men it is hard to say And as it seems the scandal of it was so great that the Publisher thereof though otherwise of a fiery and implacable nature desisted from the putting forth of a Second Century though he had promised it in the First and was inclinable enough to have kept his word Instructions had been sent before to all Counties in England for bringing in such Informations against their Ministers as might subject them to the danger of a Deprivation But the times were not then so apt for mischief as to serve their turns which made them fall upon these wretched and unchristian courses to effect their purpose By means whereof they purged the Church of almost all Canonical and Orthodox men The greatness of which desolation in all the parts of the Kingdom may be computed by the havock which they made in London and the Parishes thereunto adjoining according as it is presented in the Bill of Mortality hereunto subjoined 29. A General Bill of Mortality of the Clergy of London which have been defunct by reason of the Contagious breath of the Sectaries of that City from the year 1641 to the year 1647 with the several Casualties of the same Or A brief Martyrology and Catalogue of the Learned Grave Religious and Painful Ministers of the City of London who have been imprisoned plundered and barbarously used and deprived of all Livelihood for themselves and their Families for their constancy to the Protestant Religion established in this Kingdom and their Loyalty to their Soveraign THE Cathedral Church of St. Paul The Dean Residentiaries and other Members of that Church sequestred plundered and turned out St. Albans Woodstreet Dr. Wats sequestred plundered his Wife and Children turned out of doors himself forced to flye Alhallows Barking Dr. Layfield persecuted imprisoned in Ely-house and the Ships sequestred and plundered afterwards forced to flye Alhallows Breadstreet Alhallows Great Alhallows Honey-Lane Alhallows Less Alhallows Lumbardstreet Mr. Weston sequestred Alhallows Stainings Alhallows the Wall Alphage Dr. Halsie shamefully abused his Cap pulled off to see if he were not a shaven Priest voted out and forced to flye dead with grief Andrew Hubbard Dr. Chambers sequestred Andrew Vndershaft 1. Mr. Mason through vexation forced to resign 2. Mr. Prichard after that sequestred Andrew Wardrobe Dr. Isaacson sequestred Ann Aldersgate Dr. Clewet sequestred Ann Black-Fryers Antholin's Parish Austin's Parish Mr. Vdal sequestred his Bed-rid Wife turned out of doors and left in the streets Barthol Exchange Dr. Grant sequestred Bennet Fink Mr. Warfeild sequestred Bennet Grace-Church Mr. Guelch sequestred Bennet Paul's Wharf Mr. Adams sequestred Bennet Shere-hog Mr. Morgan dead with grief Botolph Billingsgate Mr. King sequestred and forced to flye Christ Church turned out and dead Christophers Mr. Hanslow Clement Eastcheap Mr. Stone shamefully abused sequestred sent Prisoner to Plymouth and plundered Dionyse Back-Church Mr. Humes sequestred and abused Dunstans East Dr. Chiderly reviled abused and dead Edmonds Lombardstreet Mr. Paget molested silenced and dead Ethelborough Mr. Clark sequestred and imprisoned Faiths Dr. Brown sequestred and dead Fosters Mr. Batty sequestred plundered forced to flye and dead Gabriel Fenchurch Mr. Cook sequestred George Botolphlane Gregory's by Pauls Hellens Mr. Miller turned out and dead Iames Duke-place Mr sequestred Iames Garlickhithe Mr. Freeman plundered and sequestred and Mr. Anthony turned out Iohn Baptist Mr. Weemsly sequequestred Iohn Evangelist Iohn Zachary Mr. Eldlin sequestred forced to flye and plundered Katherine Coleman Dr. Hill and Mr. Ribbuts sequestred Katharine Greechurch Mr. Rush turned out Laurence Iury Mr. Crane sequestred Laurence Poutney Leonard Eastcheap Mr. Calf forced to give up to Mr. Roborow Scribe to the Assembly Leonard Foster-lane Mr. Ward forced to flye plundered sequestred and dead for want of necessaries Margaret Lothbury Mr. Tabor plundered imprisoned in the King's Bench his Wife and Children turned out of doors at midnight and himself sequestred Margaret Moses Margaret New-Fishstreet Mr. Pory forced to flye plundered and sequestred Margaret Pattons Mr. Megs plundered imprisoned in Ely-house and sequestred Mary Abchurch Mr. Stone plundered sent Prisoner by Sea to Plymouth and sequestred Mary Aldermanbury Mary Aldermary Mr. Brown forced to forsake it Mary le Bow Mr. Leech sequestred and dead with grief Mary Bothaw Mr. Proctor forced to flye and sequestred Mary Colechurch Mary Hill 1. Dr. Baker sequestred pursivanted and imprisoned 2. Mr. Woodcock turned out and forced to flye Mary Mounthaw Mr. Thrall sequestred and shamefully abused Mary Sommerset Mr. Cook sequestred Mary Stainings Mary Woolchurch Mr. Tireman forced to forsake it Mary Woolnoth Mr. Shute molested and vext to death and denied a Funeral-Sermon to be preached by Dr. Holdsworth as he desired Martins Ironmonger-lane Mr. Spark sequestred and plundered Martins Ludgate Dr. Iermine sequestred Martins Orgars Dr. Walton assaulted sequestred plundered and forced to flye Martins Outwich Dr. Pierce sequestred and dead Martins Vintry Dr. Ryves sequestred plundered and forced to flye Matthew Friday-street Mr. Chestlin violently assaulted in his House imprisoned in the Counter thence sent to Colchester Gaol in Essex sequestred and plundered Maudlins Milk-street Mr. Iones sequestred Maudlins Old-Fishstreet Dr. Gryffith sequestred plundered imprisoned in Newgate and when let out forced to flye Michael Bassishaw Dr. Gyfford sequestred Michael Cornhil Dr. Brough sequestred plundred Wife and Children turned out of doors and his Wife dead with grief But Mr. Weld his Curate assaulted beaten in the Church and turned out Michael Crooked-lane Michael Queenhithe Mr. Hill sequestred Michà el Quern Mr. Launce sequestred Michael Royal Mr. Proctor sequestred and forced to flye Michael Woodstreet Mildred Breadstreet Mr. Bradshaw sequestred Mildred Poultry Mr. Maden sequestred and gone beyond Sea Nicholas Acons Mr. Bennet sequestred Nicholas Coleabby Mr. Chibbald sequestred Nicholas Olaves Dr. Cheshire molested and forced to resign Olaves Hartstreet Mr. Haines sequestred Olaves Iury Mr. Tuke sequestred plundered and imprisoned Olaves Silver-street Dr. Boobe abused and dead with grief Pancras Soper-lane Mr. Eccop sequestred plundred and forced to flye his Wife and Children turned out of doors Peters Cheap Mr. Votier sequestred and dead with grief Peter's Cornhil Dr. Fairfax sequestred plundred imprisoned in Ely-House and the Ships his Wife and Children turned out of doors Peters Pauls-Wharf Mr. Marbury sequestred Peters Poor Dr. Holdsworth sequestred plundred imprisoned in Ely-House then in the Tower
brake down the Rails before the Table and burnt them in the very place in the heats of Iuly but wretchedly prophaned the very Table it self by setting about it with their Tobacco and Ale before them and not without the company of some of their zealous Lecturers to grace the Action What else they did in imitation of the Brethren of Exon in laying their filth and execrements about it also I abhor to mention And now I must crave leave to step into the Colledg the Government whereof was taken from the Dean and Prebendaries and given to a select Committee of fifty persons some Lords but Members for the most part of the Lower-House who found there a sufficient quantity of Plate and some other good Houshold-stuff to a very good value which was so Husbanded amongst them that it was either stoln or sold or otherwise imbezilled and inverted to the use of some private persons who best knew how to benefit themselves by the Church's Patrimony 35. But the main business of this year and the three next following was the calling sitting and proceedings of the new Assembly called the Assembly of Divines but made up also of so many of the Lords and Commons as might both serve as well to keep them under and comptroll their Actions as to add some countenance unto them in the eye of the people A Convocation had been appointed by the King when he called the Parliament the Members whereof being lawfvlly chosen and returned were so discountenanced and discouraged by the Votes of the Lower-House the frequent Tumults raised in Westminster by the Rascal Rabble and the preparatives for a Warr against the King that they retired unto their Houses but still continued undissolved and were in a capacity of acting as a Convocation whensoever they should be thereunto required and might do it with safety But being for the most part well affected to the Church of England they were not to be trusted by the Houses of Parliament who then designed the hammering of such a Reformation both in Doctrine and Discipline as might unite them in a perpetual Bond and Confederation with their Scottish Brethren And that they might be furnished with such men the Knights of every Shire must make choice of two to serve as Members for that County most of them Presbyterians some few Royallists four of the Independent Faction and two or three to represent the Kirk of Scotland Which ploughing with an Ox and an Ass as it was no other was anciently prohibited by the Law of Moses And yet these men associated with some Members of either House as before is said no ways impow'red or authorised by the rest of the Clergy must take upon them all the Powers and Priviledges of a Convocation to which they were invited by an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons bearing date Iune the 12 th His Majesty makes a start at this encroachment on His Royal Prerogative and countermands the same by His Proclamation of the 22 d. In which He takes notice amongst other things That the far greatest part of those who had been nominated to the present Service were men of neither Learning or Reputation eminently disaffected to the Government of the Church of England and such as had openly preached Rebellion by their exciting of the people to take Arms against Him and therefore were not like to be proper Instruments of Peace and Happiness either unto the Church or State For maintenance whereof and for the preservation of His own Authority he inhibits them from meeting at the time appointed declares their Acts to be illegal and threatens them with the punishments which they had incurred by the Laws of the Land 36. But they go forwards howsoever hold their first Meeting on the first of Iuly and elect Dr. Twisse of Newberry a rigid Sabbatarian but a professed Calvinian in all other points for their Prolocutor called to this Iourney-work by the Houses they were dispensed with for Non-residence upon their Livings against the Laws preferred to the best Benefices of the Sequestred Clergy some of them three or four together and had withall four shillings a man for their daily wages besides the honour of assisting in so great an action as the ruin of the Church and the subversion of the present Government of the Realm of England In reference whereunto they were to be employed from time to time as occasion was to stir up the people of the Counties for which they served to rise and arm themselves against the King under colour of their own defence as appears plainly by the Order of the tenth of August And that they might be looked upon with the greater reverence they maintain a constant intercourse by Letters with their Brethren of Scotland the Churches of the Netherlands the French and Switzers but chiefly with Geneva it self In which they laid such vile Reproaches on His Majesty and the Church of England the one for having a design to bring in Popery the other for a readiness to receive the same that His Majesty was necessitated to set out a Manifest in the Latin Tongue for laying open the Imposture to the Churches of all Forreign Nations Amongst the rest of this Assembly Dr. Dan. Featly not long before made Chaplain in Ordinary to the King must needs sit for one whether to shew his Parts or to head a Party or out of his old love to Calvinism may best be gathered from some Speeches which he made and printed But he was theirs in heart before and therefore might afford them his body now though possibly he may be excused from taking the Covenant as the others did An Exhortation whereunto was the first great work which was performed by these Masters in Israel after their assembling the Covenant taken by them in most solemn manner at St. Margarets in Westminster on the 25th of September the Exhortation voted to be published on the 9th of February 37. Now to begin the blessed Reformation which they had in hand the Houses were resolved upon exterminating all external Pomp and comely Order out of the Worship of Almighty God And to this end upon the humble motion of these Divines of the Assembly and the sollicitation of some zealous Lecturers who were grown very powerful with them or to ingratiate themselves with the Scottish Covenanters whose help they began to stand in need of or finally out of the perversness of their own cross humours they published an Ordinance on the 28 th of August For the utter demolishing removing and taking away all Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry Under which notion it was ordered That before the last of November then next following all Altars and Tables of stone as if any such were then erected should be demolished in all Churches and Chappels throughout the Kingdom That the Communion-Tables should in all such places be removed from the East end of the Chancel unto some other part of the Church or Chappel That all such Rails as had been
and gave such satisfactory Answers unto all his Cavils that he remained Master of the Field as may sufficiently appear by the Printed Papers And it was credibly reported that Henderson was so confounded with grief and shame that he fell into a desparate sickness which in fine brought him to his Grave professing as some say that he dyed a Convert and frequently extolling those great Abilities which when it was too late he had found in his Majesty Of the particular passages of this Disputation the English Commissioners had received a full Information and therefore purposely declined all discourse with his Majesty by which the merit of their Propositions might be called in question All that they did was to insist upon the craving of a positive Answer that so they might return unto those that sent them and such an Answer they shall have as will little please them 56. For though his Fortunes were brought so low that it was not thought safe for him to deny them any thing yet he demurred upon the granting of such points as neither in Honour nor in Conscience could be yeelded to them Amongst which those Demands which concerned Religion and the abolishing of the ancient Government of the Church by Arch-bishops and Bishops may very justly be supposed to be none of the least But this delay being taken by the Houses for a plain denial and wanting money to corrupt the unfaithful Scots who could not otherwise be tempted to betray their Soveraign they past an Ordinance for abolishing the Episcopal Government and setling their Lands upon Trustees for the use of the State Which Ordinance being past on the ninth of October was to this effect that is to say That for the better raising of moneys for the just and necessary Debts of the Kingdom in which the same hath been drawn by a Warr mainly promoted in favour of Arch-bishops and Bishops and other their Adherents and Dependents it was ordained by the Authority of the Lords and Commons That the Name Title Stile and Dignity of Arch-bishop of Canterbury Arch-bishop of York Bishop of Winchester and Bishop of Durham and all other Bishops or Bishopricks within the Kingdom should from and after the fifth of September 1646 then last past be wholly abolished or taken away and that all persons should from thenceforth be disabled to hold that Place Function or Stile within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales or the Town of Berwick or exercise any Iurisdiction or Authority â—hereunto formerly belonging by vertue of any Letters Patents from the Crown or any other Authority whatsoever any Law or Statute to the contrary notwithstanding As for their Lands they were not to be vested now in the Kings possession as had been formerly intended but to be put into the power of some Trustees which are therein named to be disposed of to such uses intents and purposes as the two Houses should appoint 57. Amongst which uses none appeared so visible even to vulgar eyes as the raising of huge Sums of Money to content the Scots who from a Remedy were looked on as the Sickness of the Common-wealth The Scots Demands amounted to Five hundred thousand pounds of English money which they offered to make good on a just account but were content for quietness sake to take Two hundred thousand pounds in full satisfaction And yet they could not have that neither unless they would betray the King to the power of his Enemies At first they stood on terms of Honour and the Lord Chancellor Lowdon ranted to some tune as may be seen in divers of his Printed Speeches concerning the indelible Character of Disgrace and Infamy which must be for ever imprinted on them if they yeelded to it But in the end the Presbyterians on both sides did so play their parts that the sinful Contract was concluded by which the King was to be put into the hands of such Commissioners as the two Houses should appoint to receive his Person The Scots to have One hundred thousand pounds in ready money and the Publick Faith which the Houses very prodigally pawned upon all occasions to secure the other According unto which Agreement his Majesty is sold by his own Subjects and betrayed by his Servants by so much wiser as they thought than the Traytor Iudas by how much they had made a better Market and raised the price of the Commodity which they were to sell. And being thus sold he is delivered for the use of those that bought him into the custody of the Earl of Pembroke who must be one in all their Errands the Earl of Denbigh and the Lord Mountague of Boughton with twice as many Members of the Lower House with whom he takes his Journey towards Holdenby before remembred on the third of February And there so closely watcht and guarded that none of his own Servants are permitted to repair unto him Marshal and Caril two great sticklers in behalf of Presbytery but such as after warped to the Independents are by the Houses nominated to attend as Chaplains But he refused to hear them in their Prayers or Preachings unless they would officiate by the publick Liturgy and bind themselves unto the Rules of the Church of England Which not being able to obtain he moves the Houses by his Message of the 17th of that Month to have two Chaplains of his own Which most unchristianly and most barbarously they denyed to grant him 58. Having reduced him to this streight they press him once again with their Propositions which being the very same which was sent to Newcastle could not in probability receive any other Answer This made them keep a harder hand upon him than they did before presuming that they might be able to extort those Concessions from him by the severity and solitude of his restraint when their Perswasions were too weak and their Arguments not strong enough to induce him to it But Great God! How fallacious are the thoughts of men How wretchedly do we betray our selves to those sinful hopes which never shall be answerable to our expectation The Presbyterians had battered down Episcopacy by the force of an Ordinance outed the greatest part of the Regular Clergy of their Cures and Benefices advanced their new Form of Government by the Votes of the Houses and got the King into their power to make sure work of it But when they thought themselves secure they were most unsafe For being in the height of all their Glories and Projectments one Ioice a Cornet of the Army comes thither with a Party of Horse removes his Guards and takes him with them to their Head-Quarters which were then at Woburn a Town upon the North-west Road in the County of Bedford Followed not long after by such Lords and others as were commanded by the Houses to attend upon him Who not being very acceptable to the principal Officers were within very few weeks discharged of that Service By means whereof the Presbyterians lost all those great advantages
the Superiority of Bishops and the Supremacy of the Queen together with the dangerous Practises and Designs of the Disciplinarians exemplified by their Proceedings in Scotland and their Positions in England of which more anon All which particulars with many more upon the by he proved with such evidence of demonstration such great variety of Learning and strength of Arguments that none of all that Party could be found to take Arms against them in defence either of their leud Doctrine or more scandalous Vses And this being done he closed up all with a grave and serious Application in reference to the prevalency and malignity of the present Humours which wrought so much upon his Auditors of both Houses of Parliament that in the passing of a general Pardon at the end of the Sessions there was Exception of Seditious Books Disturbances of Divine Service and Offences against the Act of Vniformity in the Worship of God 30. And yet it is not altogether improbable but that this Exception was made rather at the Queen's Command or by some Caveat interposed by the House of Peers than by the sole Advice or any voluntary Motion of the House of Commons in which the Puritans at that time had a very strong Party By whose Endeavour a smart Petition is presented to the Lords in the Name of the Commons for rectifying of many things which they conceived to be amiss in the state of the Church The whole Petition did consist of Sixteen particulars of which the first Six did relate to a Preaching-Ministry the want of which was much complained of in a Supplication which had been lately Printed and presented to them but such a Supplication as had more in it of a Factious and Seditious Libel than of a Dutiful Remonstrance In the other Ten it was desired 1. That no Oath or Subscription might be tendred to any at their entrance into the Ministry but such as was prescribed by the Statutes of the Realm and the Oath against corrupt Entring 2. That they may not be troubled for omission of some Rites or Offices prescribed in the Book of Common-Prayer 3. That such as had been suspended or deprived for no other offence but only for not subscribing might be restored 4. That they may not be called and urged to answer before the Officials and Commissaries but before the Bishops themselves 5. That they might not be called into the High Commission or Moot of the Diocess where they lived except for some notable Offence 6. That it might be permitted to them in every Arch-Deaconry to have some common Exercises and Conferences amongst themselves to be limited and prescribed by the Ordinaries 7. That the high Censure of Excommunication may not be denounced or executed for small matters 8. Nor by Chancellors Commissioners or Officials but by the Bishops themselves with the assistance of grave persons 9. That Non-residency may be quite removed out of the Church Or 10. That at least according to the Queen's Injunctions Art 44. no Non-resident having already a License or Faculty may enjoy it unless he depute an able Curate that may weekly Preach and Catechise as was required by Her Majesty in the said Injunctions Against the violence of this Torrent Arch-bishop Whitgift interposed both his Power and Reason affirming with a sober confidence in the H. of Peers not only that England flourished more at that time with able Ministers than ever it had done before but that it had more able men of eminent Abilities in all parts of Learning than the rest of Christendom besides But finding that the Lord Gray and others of that House had been made of the Party he drew the rest of the Bishops to joyn with him in an humble Address to Her Sacred Majesty in which they represented to Her the true estate of the Business together with those many Inconveniences which must needs arise to the State present and to come to the Two Universities to all Cathedral Churches and the Queen Her Self if the Commons might have had their will though in no other Point than in that of Pluralities All which they prest with such a Dutiful and Religious Gravity that the Queen put an end to that Dispute not only for the present but all Parliaments following 31. Somewhat there must be in it which might make them so afraid of that Subscription which was required at their hands to the Queen's Supremacy as well as to the Consecration of Arch-bishops and Bishops to the Liturgy and to the Articles of Religion by Law established and therefore it will not be amiss as we have done already in all places else to touch upon the Principles and Positions of our English Puritans that we may see what Harmony and Consent there is betwixt them and their dear Brethren of the Discipline in other Nations For if we look into the Pamphlets which came out this Year we shall find these Doctrines taught for more Sacred Truths viz. That if Princes do hinder them that seek for this Discipline they are Tyrants both to the Church and Ministers and being so may be deposed by their Subjects That no Civil Magistrate hath pre-eminence by ordinary Authority either to determine of Church-Causes or to make Ecclesiastical Orders and Ceremonies That no Civil Magistrate hath such Authority as that without his consent it should not be lawful for Ecclesiastical persons to make and publish Church-Orders That they which are no Elders of the Church have nothing to do with the Government of it That if their Reformation be not hastned forward by the Magistrate the Subjects ought not any longer to tarry for it but must do it themselves That there were many thousands which desired the Discipline And That great Troubles would ensue if it were denied them That their Presbyteries must prevail And That if it be brought about by such ways and means as would make the Bishops hearts to ake let them blame themselves For explication of which last passage Martin Mar-Prelate in his first Book threatens only fists but in the second he adviseth the Parliament then assembled to put down Lord Bishops and bring in the Reformation which they looked for whether Her Majesty would or not 32. But these perhaps were only the Evaporations of some idle Heads the Freaks of Discontent and Passion when they were crossed in their Desires Let us see therefore what is taught by Thomas Cartwright the very Calvin of the English as highly magnified by Martin and the rest of that Faction as the other was amongst the French Dr. Harding in his Answer to Bishop Iewel assures us That the Office of a King is the same in all places not only amongst Christians but amongst the Heathen Upon which Premises he concludes That a Christian Prince hath no more to do in deciding of Church-matters or in making Ceremonies and Orders for the same than hath a Heathen Cartwright affirms himself to be of the same opinion professing seriously his dislike of all such Writers
Perjuries than amongst those Fanatical spirits he should meet withall 39. But on the contrary he tells us of the Church of England at his first coming thither That he found that Form of Religion which was established under Queen ELIZABETH of famous memory by the Laws of the Land to have been blessed with a most extraordinary Peace and of long continuance which he beheld as a strong evidence of God's being very well pleased with it He tells us also That he could find no cause at all on a full debate for any Alteration to be made in the Common-Prayer-Book though that most impugned that the Doctrines seemed to be sincere the Forms and Rites to have been justified out of the Practise of the Primitive Church And finally he tells us That there was nothing in the same which might not very well have been born withall if either the Adversaries would have made a reasonable construction of them or that his Majesty had not been so nice or rather jealous as himself confesseth for having all publick Forms in the Service of God not only to be free from all blame but from any suâ—spition For which consult his Proclamation of the fifth of March before the Book of Common-Prayer And herewith he declared himself so highly pleased that in the Conference at Hampton-Court he entred into a gratulation to Almighty God for bringing him into the Promised Land so he pleased to call it where Religion was purely profest the Government Ecclesiastical approved by manifold blessings from God himself as well in the encrease of the Gospel as in a glorious and happy Peace and where he had the happiness to sit amongst Grave and Learned men and not to be a King as elsewhere he had been without State without Honour without Order as before was said And this being said we shall proceed unto the rest of our Story casting into the following Book all the Successes of the Puritans or Presbyterians in his own Dominions during the whole time of his Peaceful Government and so much also of their Fortunes in France and Belgium as shall be necessary to the knowledg of their future Actings AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History OF THE PRESBYTERIANS LIB XI Containing Their Successes whether good or bad in England Scotland Ireland and the Isle of Jersey from the Year 1602 to the Year 1623 with somewhat touching their Affairs as well in France and Sweden as the Belgick Provinces 1. THE Puritans and Presbyterians in both Kingdoms were brought so low when King IAMES first obtained the Crown of England that they might have been supprest for ever without any great danger if either that King had held the Rains with a constant hand or been more fortunate in the choice of his Ministers after the old Councellors were worn out than in fine he proved But having been kept to such hard meats when he lived in Scotland he was so taken with the Delicacies of the English Court that he abandoned the Severities and Cares of Government to enjoy the Pleasures of a Crown Which being perceived by such as were most near unto him it was not long before the Secret was discovered to the rest of the people who thereupon resolved to husband all occasions which the times should give them to their best advantage But none conceived more hopes of him than some Puritan Zealots who either presuming on his Education in the Kirk of Scotland or venturing on the easiness of his Disposition began to intermit the use of the Common-Prayer to lay aside the Surplice and neglect the Ceremonies and more than so to hold some Classical and Synodical Meetings as if the Laws themselves had dyed when the Queen expired But these Disorders he repressed by his Proclamation wherein he commanded all his Subjects of what sort soever not to innovate any thing either in Doctrine or Discipline till he upon mature deliberation should take order in it 2. But some more wary than the rest refused to joyn themselves to such forward Brethren whose Actions were interpreted to savour stronger of Sedition than they did of Zeal And by these men it was thought better to address themselves by a Petition to His Sacred Majesty which was to be presented to him in the name of certain Ministers of the Church of England desiring Reformation of sundry Ceremonies and Abuses Given out to be subscribed by a thousand hands and therefore called the Millenary Petition though there wanted some hundreds of that number to make up the sum In which Petition deprecating first the imputation of Schism and Faction they rank their whole Complaints under these four heads that is to say The Service of the Church Church-Ministers the Livings and Maintenance of the Church and the Discipline of it In reference to the first the Publick Service of the Church it was desired That the Cross in Baptism Interrogatories ministred to Infants and Confirmations as superfluous might be taken away That Baptism might not be administred by Women That the Cap and Surplice might not be urged That Examination might go before the Communion and that it be not administred without a Sermon That the terms of Priest and Absolution with the Ring in Marriage and some others might be corrected That the length of Service might be abridged Church-Songs and Musick moderated And that the Lord's Day be not prophaned nor Holy-days so strictly urged That there might be an Uniformity of Doctrine prescribed That no Popish Opinion be any more taught or defended That Ministers might not be charged to teach their people to bow at the Name of Iesus And that the Canonical Scriptures be only read in the Church 3. In reference to Church-Ministers it was propounded That none hereafter be admitted into the Ministry but Able and Sufficient men and those to preach diligently especially upon the Lord's Day but such as be already entred and cannot preach may either be removed and some charitable course taken with them for their Relief or else to be forced according to the value of their Livings to maintain Preachers That Non-residency be not permitted That K. Edward's Statute for the lawfulness of Ministers marriage might be revived That Ministers might not be urged to subscribe but according to the Law the Articles of Religion and the King's Supremacy It was desired also in relation to the Church's Maintenance That Bishops might leave their Commendams some holding Prebends some Parsonages some Vicaridges with their Bishopricks That double-beneficed men might not be suffered to hold some two some three Benefices and as many Dignities That Impropriations annexed to Bishopricks and Colledges be demised only to the Preachers Incumbents for the old Rent That the Impropriations of Lay-men's Fee may be charged with a sixth or seventh part of the worth to the maintenance of a Preaching-Minister And finally in reference to the execution of the Church's Discipline it was humbly craved That the Discipline and Excommunication might be administred according to Christ's own Institution or at the