against those Jesuits who would have cut off the King the Royal Family the Bishops of the English Catholick Church the Nobility and Gentry as their Letter speaks with one Blow says of this Resignation or Donation if we may so he call it so that it was not freely given The Jesuits Challenge the perpetual Dictature or Regency of the University of Pontamousson by Bull of Sixtus the Fifth contrary to the Statutes of the Foundation by Gregory the Thirteenth Were the Bull true says Berclay yet it ought not to be of Force because it was obtain'd presently after his Creation when things are presumed to be rather extorted than obtained Bodin denys that a King deceived or forced can be bound by his Grants The Justice of Contracts is that alone which binds The Distinction of Royal and private Acts is of more Sound than Strength and answers not the Injustice of the impulsive Violence which must be naturally vicious every where and corrupt and weaken the Effects and cannot be good and bad by Changes or as to this or that Grotius who loves this Distinction in another place is positive There must be Equality in all Contracts He condemns all Fear or Awe upon the Person purposely moved for the Contracts Sake and tells us out of Xenophon of those of Lacedaemon who annulled a Sale of Lands which the Elians had forced the Owners to pass out of Fear A Charter of King Henry the Third imprisoned and forced is said by Aldenham to be void upon this Reason and I judge the Justice of this Revocation by the Law of England by which as our old Parliaments such Force is Treason The Fruits of which were here more justly plucked up than they were planted He who gives up his Money to Thieves according to his Oath may lawfully take it away from them However they are bound to make Restitution Nor can any Prescription of time establish a Right of Possession in him who makes his Seizure upon no other Title but Plunder and Robbery The 5th of this King the Parliament declares these Grants to be forced and void Enough to clear the Honour of King Richard as to this part At Chelmsford the King is informed of the whole History of Mischiefs done at St. Albanes and resolved in Person with all his Guards and Cavalry to ride thither and sentence the Malefactors with his own Mouth but Sir Walter Ley of Hartfordshire fearing the much impoverishing the Country if the King should make any long Stay there with such Numbers as then attended him beseeches him to make a Tryal whether things might not be composed without him and offers to reconcile the Abbot and Townsmen if the King would which was consented to The King grants him a Commission and joyns with him Edward Benstude Geofry Stukely and others of the Gentry of that County The coming of these Commissioners was noised at St. Albans The fiercest of the Clowns knowing what they had done was condemned by the Law and not to be defended but by Force which now they had not began to shake and take Fright are plotting to get out of the Way Greyndcob Lieutenant of the late Idol comforts them he perswades to go to Horse let us meet the Knight says he and see whether his Looks promise Peace or not if not the Towns about us have engaged they have associated and are of our League we are rich and cannot want good Fellows who will assist us while our Monys last On St. Peters Day this ill-advised Crue meets the Knight upon the Road who was ignorant of their Resolutions and conduct him Honourably according to their Fashion to the Town Sir Walter had with him fifty Lances and some Companies of Archers listed at random many of them being of the Churls and Confederates with them The Knight cites the Townsmen and their Neighbours to appear before him in Derfold to hear the Pleasure and Commands of the King they fail not There he tells them what Forces the King had assembled how rigorously those of Essex were sentenced That the King was highly incensed at the Troubles and Seditions of this place of which he was the Patron and Defender That with Great Difficulty he had procured of the King a Commission by which himself and others not Strangers or Enemies but their Friends and Neighbours were authorized to do Iustice in the KingsStead he concludes if they will appease the King they must find out and deliver up the Beginners of these Broils and make Satisfaction to the Lord Abbot an holy and a just Man for the Wrong they had done him This many of the Hearers approve and promise to obey The Knight charges a Jury to be made ready the next Morning and make what Discovery they can and gives the People Leave to depart Towards Night he sends for the Jury to his Chamber intending to have apprehended the Lieutenants by the Assistance of the Jury without any Noise These good Men and true know nothing it was the Case of their Fellows in Mischief and might be their own They answer in a plain Ignoramus they can indict no Man accuse no Man Amongst all the sounder of these Swine there was not one who had been Faithless and Disloyal to his Natural Liege Lord not one Breaker of his Peace not one who could appear so to them The Knight seems not to understand the Falsness and Cunning of these Hob-nail perjured Juglers He takes another Way and next requires them within a peremptory time to bring him the Charters which they had forced from the Monastery they return after a short Consultation and in the Abbots Chamber where the Knight then was tell him They dare not obey out of Fear of the Commons what was more they knew not in whose Custody the Charters were The Knight grows angry and swears they shall not go out of the Chamber till he have them which they call imprisoning their Persons Here the Abbot intercedes and though he knew them as very Knaves and Lyers as any Tyler had set on work yet he will not he says distruct their Honesty he will leave things to their Consciences upon which they are freed Another Assembly is appointed at Barnet Wood whither the Villagers about throng in Multitudes Three hundred Bow-men of Barnet and Berkhamsted make here so terrible a Show nothing is done The Commissioners privately charge the Gentry Constables and Bayliffs to seize in the Night Greyndcob Cadindon Iohn the Barber with some others and to bring them to Hartford whither themselves went in all Haste which was performed The Esquires and Servants of the Abby were sent with them to strengthen the Company This enrages the Townsmen afresh they gather into Conventicles in the Woods and Fields so much frightful to the Monastery that the Abbot recalls his Esquires le ts the Prosecution fall and fearfully summons in his Friends to guard him Greyndcobs Friends take Advantage of this Change and bail him for three Days
conquering Arms and striking his Sword which shewed the present Power on London-stone The Cyclops or Centaur of Kent spoke these Words From this Day or within four Days all Law or all the Laws of England as others shall fall from Wat Tylers Mouth The Kings indeed had bound themselves and were bound by the Laws They were named in them Tyler was more than a King he was an Emperor he was above the Laws nor was it fit the old over-worn Magna Charta should hold him The Supreme Authority and Legislative Power no one knows how derived were to be and reside in him according to the new Establishment Tyler like Homers Mars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a Whirl windâ—… he was Egnatius in Paterculus rather a Fencer a Swash-Buckler that a Senator his right Arm his brutish Force not Justice not Reason must sway all things Tyler will not rule in Fetters his Will his Violence shall be called Law and grievous Slavery under that Will falsly Peace Had those whom no Government never so sweet and gracious will please unless the Supreme Power be given the People seen the Confusion and Dangers the Cruelty and Tyranny of these few days they would quickly have changed this Opinion The Knight performs his Embassy he urges the Idol with great Earnestness to see the King and speedily He answers if thou must be so much for Haste get thee back to the King thy Master I will come when I list yet he follows the Knight on Horse-back but slowly In the Way he is met by a Citizen who had brought sixty Doublets for the Commons upon the publick Faith This Citizen asks him for his Money he promises Payment before Night and presses on so near the King that his Horse touched the Croup of the Kings Horse Froissart reports his Discourse to the King Sir King says the Idol seest thou yonder People The King answers Yes and asks him what he means by the Question He replys they are all at my Command have sworn to me Faith and Truth to do what I will have them He and they had broke their Faith and Truth to their Prince and he thinks these Men will be true to him Here though it be a Digression too much I cannot omit a passage of the late Civil Wars of France begun and continued by the Iesuiced Party to extirpate the Royal Family there Villers Governour of Roüen for the Holy League tells the Duke of Mayen Captain General of the Rebellion That he would not obey him they were both Companions and Spoilers of the State together The King being levelled all Men else ought to be equal The Idol as he that demanded so the Knight nothing but Riot continues his Discourse thus Believest thou King that these People will depart without thy Letters The King tells him He means fairly that he will make good his Word his Letters are near finished and they shall have them But the Glory of the Idol which was meerly the Benefit of Fortune began to fade his Principality was too cruel too violent to be lasting Vengeance here hovered over his Head and he who had been the Destruction of Multitudes hastens nay precipitates his own Fate and ruins himself by his own Fury he puts himself into the Kings Power who should in his first towring had he been wisely wicked like a Vulture of the Game have flown at his Throat The judicious Politick will not begin to give over However will never venture himself in the Princes Hands whom he has justly offended by Treasons against his Government Charles of Burgundy confesses this to be a great Folly his Grandfather Philip lost his Life at Montereau upon the Yonne by it and our Idol shall not escape better Sir Iohn Newton the Knight imployed to fetch him delivered his Message on Horseback which is now remembred and taken for an high Neglect besides it seemeth the Carriage and Words of the Knight were not very pleasing Every Trifle in Omission was Treason to the Idols Person and new State He rails foully draws his Dagger and bellowing out Traitor menaces to strike the Knight who returns him in Exchange the Lye and not to be behind in Blows draws his This the Idol takes for an intolerable Affront but the King fearful of his Servant cools and asswages the Heat he commands the Knight to dismount and offer up his Dagger to the Idol which though unwillingly was done This would not take off his Edge The Prince who yields once to a Rebel shall find Heaps of Requests and must deny nothing The King had given away his Knights Dagger Now nothing will content Tyler but the Kings Sword with which the Militia or Power of Arms impliedly was sought This he asks then again rushes upon the Knight vowing never to eat till he have his Head When the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom whom neither Necessity nor Misery could animate lye down trampled on by these Villaines without Soul or Motion in comes the Mayor of London Sir William Walworth the everlasting Honour of the Nation a Man who over did Ages of the Roman Scaevolae or Curtii in an Hours Action and snatches the King and Kingdom out of these Flames He tells the King it would be a Shame to all Posterity to suffer more Insolences from this Hangman this Lump of Blood This the rest of the Courtiers now wakened by their own Danger for he who destroys one Man contrary to Law or Justice gives all Men else Reason to fear themselves and take heed are Ecchoes to This puts Daring into the young King he resolves to hazard all upon this Chance This Way he could not but dye Kingly at least like a Gentleman with the Sword which God of whose great Majesty he was a Beam gave him in his Hand The only Way left to avoid a shameful Death was to run the Danger of a brave One and a wise Coward I will not say an Honourable One considering the Incertainty of things under that Iron Socage Tenure would think so The King commands the Mayor to arrest the Butcher This was Charge enough and rightly understood indeed there was then no time for Form nor Tryal the Suspension of the Courts was Tylers Act his Crime and he ought not to look for any Advantage from it An Historian says the Duke of Guyse's Power was so much that the Ordinary Forms of Justice could not be observed fair Law is handsome but it is not to be given to Wolves and Tygers Tyler was a Traitor a common Enemy and against such says a Father long agone every Man is a Souldier whosoever struck too struck as much in his own Defence in his own Preservation as the King 's And the Safety of the King and People made this Course â—…ecessary besides Tylers Crimes were publick and notorious The generous Lord Mayor obeys the Sentence which was given by the same Power by which the Judges of Courts sat and acted
our Way Both these Counsels are approved William Greyndcob an Hind who had eaten the Bread of the Monastery for the most part of his Life is elected with others and sent on this Errand to the King before whom he kneels six times out of Zeal to prevail This Loâ—… too was made principal Prolocutor says our Monk or Speaker to the Idol before whose sordid Excellency and his unclean Counsel he complains of the grievous Tyranny of the Abbot and Prior some few Monks are thrust in to make up the Number of the Oppressures of the Commons of witholding the Wages of poor Labourers the Design was to rouze the Wolf Tyler meant not to leave London yet he promises if need be to send Twenty Thousand of the Saints who shall not fail to shave the Beards of the Abbot and the rest which signified in plain English cutting off their Heads The gracious Captain General was yet more kind he vows if it be convenient to assist them in his own Person He gives them Directions and Orders to govern themselves by and makes their Obedience here a Condition of his Love These Orders were generally enjoyned by our English Mahomet through all the Provinces of his Conquest and were framed according to the Law of his bloody Alchoran He swears them to omit nothing either in his Commands or Doctrine A Servant of the Abbot one of the Spies upon the Townsmen rides in full Career to S. Albans and gives Intelligence to the Abby of the Exploits of the new Masters at London He tells them in what manner that Dirt of a Captain Tyler fullyed and polluted with the Blood of the Nobless had butchered the English Patriarch and the Lord Treasurer That London the Den of these ravenous Beasts falsly called the Chamber of her Kings was likely now to become the Charnel-house of Richard and his Loyal Vassals That these Fiends who would goe for Saints and the only good Patriots commit the Acts of Thieves and Murtherers neither reverencing Religion nor Laws And that the Conquering French who makes fair War nay the barbarous Scot broke out of the Fastness of his own Desart mortal Enemies of the Nation could not spoil nor ruin with more Cruelty and Villany No Mercy says he yield who will upon Mercy no Favour no Goodness can be expected from this Rout of Wolves He bids those pointed at and named by Greyndcob to Tyler shift for themselves which they are not long in resolving of The Prior four Monks and some of their Servants one part horsed another on Foot fly for their Lives not assuring themselves till they got to Tynmouth a Priory of this Monastery of Saint Albans in Northumberland William Greyndcob and William Cadindon a Baker on Fryday had hastened to S. Albans that they might make the Honour of the Atchievement theirs by first appearing in the Action These brag aloud of the Prosperity of Affairs that they were no more Drudges and Slaves but Lords for the time to come that they had brought about great and wonderful Feats against the Abby they propose first to defie the Abbot to renounce all Amity and Peace with him then to break down his Folds and Gates in Fauconwood Eywood and his other Woods and to pull down the Under-Bowsers House standing over against the Fish-market and hindering the Prospect of the Burgesses and Nobility of the Town this is their own Style a Nobility scarce to be parallel'd in the World discovered unless we fetch in the Man-eaters of Brasil who have neither Letters nor Laws acknowledge neither God nor Prince This Night the first Scene of the Tragedy is acted the next day being Saturday fatal to the Hangman Tyler the Upstart Nobility of Churls assemble and make Proclamation That no Man able to serve his Country presume to slight the Lieutenants of the Idol but that every Man furnish himself with such Arms as he can provide to attend them the Lieutenants in his own Defence The Crew summoned are commanded to press the Gentry for the Service and to cut off the Heads of those who would not joyn with them and swear to be faithful to them beheading burning Houses Forfeiture of Goods were menaced to all that would not assist the Forces raised by Tyler and fight the Lords Battels that is for the Cause This says our Monk was the Charge of their Lord and Master Wat this was his Rubrick of Blood Next with great Pomp they march to Fauconwood to level the slips of their Haste and Night-work something they feared might be left whole upon Review when Root and Branch were pared and torn up they retire The other Growtnolls of the Neighbourhood subject to the Distress or Seigniory of Saint Albans wait for them these were cited upon the same Threats to meet and promised Belly-fulls Cart Loads of Liberties Now or never for the Liberty of the Subject and the Power of Godliness This Supply swells them into huge Hopes it puffs them up Greyndcob and Cadindon more haughty now than ever lead their Battalias blustering with surly Pride and Disdain to the Gates of the Monastery which with the same Loftiness they command the Porter to set open Some of the Company Friends of the House had given private Intelligence to the Abbot of the Contrivances against him who had instructed his Servants how to carry themselves toward this Tag and Rag of Swains they observe them punctually That they may seem pious in their Entrance they free the publick Malefactors out of the Abbots Prison but so that they should owe Faith hereafter and Grace of the Benefit to the Commons a Name the most Honourable and which must swallow up all things else and inseparably stick to them One of the Offenders whom they suppose unworthy of Liberty or Life grown Judges and Executioners by the same Inspiration and Spirit they behead on the Ground before the Gates then fix his Head upon the Pillory roaring with that devilish Cry they had learnt at London This was plain Murther by the Law whatsoever this Mans Crime was these Rogues were guilty in a most high Nature so that besides the Baseness of their Condition they were incapable of any Jurisdiction by the ancient fundamental Laws of England as being Traitors and out of the Kings Faith But to wave all this by these ancient Laws every Prisoner might demand Oyer hearing of the Judges Commission these Villains had neither Authority nor Commission but from Tylers Sword which was but a Derivative of his Usurpation No Act of which can be just the Foundation of his Tyranny this Way in being just and illegal at the first From the Idols first Entrance no Act of Confirmation or Grant was done could any such Act be done and valid to establish or make a Right by the Power which had that Right to bestow he asked for a Commission of Life and Death but was refused and his Arbitrary Acts were only a Continuance of his
popular who says he forgetful of their Profession and Vows greedy and covetous of Mony foster the People in their Errors call good Evil and Evil good seducing the Great Men with Fawning and the Rabble with Lyes So that in those Days thus he proceeds the Argument held in every Mans Mouth This is a Fryer therefore a Lyer as strong as this This is white therefore coloured Here again is Walsingham at a Stand he complains that it is impossible to relate the Villanies of the Rustick Devils done in all parts We will now return to see what the King does next who was not asleep this while After he had cleared the City lately Tylers good Town of the Kentish Fry he commands the Nobility and Gentry who durst now peep abroad all the Kingdom over to repair to him at London well armed and well horsed as they loved him and his Royal Honour Their own Danger and late Fears add Wings to their Haste Within a few Days forty thousand Horse meet at a Rendevouz upon Blackheath whither the young King who had taken his Sequestration off and restored himself to his Blood and Majesty rides daily upon a Royal Courser to view their Order with his Imperial Banner born before him He delighted to be seen and acknowledged for what he was amongst his own Homagers Here he is informed that the Kentishmen a stirring People but with what generous Resolution will soon be found are again in Mutiny a Mutiny however else contemptible not to be sleighted at that time The King commands his Cavalry on Fire as much as himself to march and root out this perfidious Race of Miscreants Here the Nobility and Gentry of the County interpose and become Pledges for the Commons which appeases the King who now disbands his Army and resolves to take no other Course of Justice but such as was ordinary and usual by Judgments upon the known Laws of the Land and by Juries of twelve Men the Ancient Birth-right of the Englishmen Laws which could not have fitted Tylers Courts nor Tryals but which have been ever the Rule in all just and legal Tryals in all calm and pious Ages The Law Martial being proper to an Army marching to be exercised in it If otherwise all Sentences by Colour of it are against the Magna Charta c. and to the manifest Subversion of the Priviledges of Subjects Upon this fair and Kingly Conclusion of Richard Commissions were given and Justices of Oyer and Terminer to hear and determine the Treasons and Fellonies committed in the late Insurrections and principally to enquire who were the chief Authors Fomenters and Incendiaries of the Broils are sent into Kent Essex and the rest of the Provinces in Rebellion The most Honourable Mayor of London with others in Commission with him sate upon those of Kent Essex Norfolk and Suffolk c. who were apprehended in London Straw taken in an old rotten House about London Kirkby Treder Sterling are condemned and beheaded Straws Head being set upon London-bridge with Tylers but Iack Straw who was privy to all the Contrivances and Plots of the Confederacy could give Light into the Mid-night Darkness of Tylers Steps through all the close Windings of his Labyrinths of Treasons is urged the Mayor promising with some honest Citizens to be at the Charge of Masses for his Soul the Good of which they desire him to consider to declare his full Knowledge of the Counsels and Votes passed and to what end they had conjured up the wicked Spirits of those Garboyles Iohn was obstinate at the first and would confess nothing but gained by these Promises and a little penitent which was much to be believed of one possessed with Legions he tells them Because I have hopes of Help from your Suffrages after my Death and because this Discovery may be advantageous to the Common wealth I will confess truly to you what we intended When we met at Black-heath and sent for the King by our Captain-Generals Order we purposed to have massacred all the Nobility and Gentry with him then to have lead the King with us respected and treated Kingly from place to place to bait the vulgar by the Authority of his Presence into our League whom they might so have taken for the Head of our Commotion he being by these Means likely to have been supposed by his own Party too to have trusted us when by the Confluence of all the Counties our Companies had been full and the Supreme Executive Power wholly ours we meant to have purged the Nation to have destroyed the Gentry and first the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem with all the Rags of Royalty which by this time had been but a Rag it self Afterwards to have killed the King whose Name could then have been of no Use to us Their Oath to preserve him could not last longer than their Conveniency and Opinions which had then changed We meant so once but we mean otherwise now had been a satisfactory Excuse They had often sworn and covenanted that they neither meant nor had Power to hurt the Kings Prerogative that they intended to maintain the Kings Authority in his Royal Dignity the free Course of Iustice and the Laws of the Land with infinite Expressions and Protestations of this kind They might answer the Time was when all this was real when they would not have subverted the Government nor have destroyed the ancient Family to which says a Statute which we hope it can be no Treason to Tylers Ghost to recite the Dominions and Rights of the Realm of England c. Ought by inherent Birth-right and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come This we being bounden thus speak the Members heretofore thereunto by the Laws of God and Man do recognise c. The Answer we say might have been easie they would not have done it some time agone they swore and covenanted and covenanted again they would not now they will Tyler is still Tyler but his Liberty false cheating Liberty is every where free both to Will and Dislike as the Safety of the Common-wealth shall require and carry him on This was the Faith and Honesty of that Age by which we may guess at the Cause and Men who acted for it Who were the Undertakers what Trust is to be given to such perfidious Knaves whose Protestations and Covenants of one Day are wiped out by an Inspiration of the next We may say by an Inspiration it was wondrous fit for these Changes Our Proteus should bring Inspiration in All those of Estates and Possessions Bishops Canons Persons of Churches Monks we would have rooted out of the Earth Only the begging Fryars should have been preserved who would have served such Sheep such Shepherds well enough for Church-duties which we may wonder after all these Pranks that they should think of here would have been a very plain Church Questionless after all these Actions the Devotion of these Reformers could not have been much
within which time they were either tyed to agree with the Abby or render up Greyndcob to the Justices again The Townsmen fierce enough still yet earnest to preserve their Worthy are content to part with the Charters but this Greyndcob more Fool-hardy than wise would not consent to Nor does he as knowing the Stifness of his Clowns whine in a Religious Tone never used by him He prays them to consider how Beautiful Liberty is how sweet how Honourable Dangerous Liberty says he is more valuable than safe and quiet Slavery let us live or dye with Liberty in so generous so honest a Contention it will be Glorious to be overcome whatsoever our Fears are worse we cannot be then now we are about to make our Selves Success too doth not so often fail Men as their own Industry and Boldness Fear not for me nor trouble your selves at my Dangers I shall think my self more happy than our Lords if they prosper or their King to dye a Martyr of the Cause with the Reputation of such a Gallantry Let such Courage as would have hurryed you forward to all brave and signal Mischiefs had I lost my Head at Hartford inflame your heavy Sprights Methinks I see the Hero Tylers Ghost chiding our sluggish Cowardice and by the Blazes of his Fire-brands kindled in Hell and waved by Fiends about his Head lead on to noble Villanies Let dreaming Monks and Priests tremble at the airy Sounds of God and Saints he who fears Thunder-bolts is a Religious heartless Coxcomb and shall never climb a Molehill Thus our buskin'd Martyr swaggers after the Raptures put upon him by Walsingham Greyndcob's Stubbornness hardens on the Clowns they now accuse themselves of Baseness that they did not cut off the Knights Head and nail it on the Pillory to the Terror say they of all Judges and false Justices Greyndcob had raised Spirits which he could not lay when he would Three days being expired he is again sent to Hartford Goal where he hears News from his Brother who mediated for him in the Court not very pleasing which he communicates to his Townsmen His Intelligence was to this Effect That Richard of Beauchamp Earl of Warwick and Sir Thomas Piercie with a thousand armed Men were appointed to visit S. Albans At this Report the Rebels startle they fall to new Treaties offer the Charters and Book in which the old Pleas betwixt the Abby and the Town were recorded with 200 l. for amends The Book is received the rest put off till the next Day The Earl of Warwick sends only Excuses he heard his own House was on Fire that the Clowns of his own Lordships were up and he leaves all things else to quell them This raises the fallen Courages of those of Saint Albans they now laugh at their late Fears If the Commons say they must quit their Right of Conquest and surrender their Charters yet will not we the Renowned Mechanicks of St. Albans be their President And as in all Tumults which can never be observed too often Lying is necessary and must not be useless whatsoever else is they lay the Blame of their Obstinacy upon the Inhabitants of Barnet and Watford who threaten so they would have it believed to burn their Town if they deliver up their Liberties Which Inhabitants of Barnet and Watford had humbly surrendred theirs before and submitted to the Kings Mercy Thus we find these Rebels of St. Albans again swaggering in their old Rhodomontadoes An Esquire of the Abbots acquaints the King with these Turnings who vows to sit personally in Judgment upon these Everlasting Malecontents The Abbot full of Pity and Charity who had saved some of these Enemies of his House from the Axe by Intercession at London continues his Goodness still He sollicites Sir Hugh Segrave Steward of the Houshold and others of his Friends to mitigate the King's Displeasure and hinder his Journey thither which was not in their Power Now again are the Townsmen dejected and seek by all means to keep off the Tempest which threatned them They fee Sir William Croyser a Lawyer to make their Defence and mediate with the Abbot wherethere was no Danger An Agreement is concluded the Day of the Kings Entry by which they would bind the Abbot not to disclose them or inform against them He promises if they fail not in Performance on their Part not to make any Complaints to the King of them that he would be a Suiter for their Peace if his Prayers may be heard but that here he cannot assure them Pardons were Acts flowing meerly from the Kings Grace No Man had any Power or Authority to pardon or remit Treasons c. but the King and whether he could prevail for them he knew not This Doubtfulness troubles them it seems to call their Innocency too much into Question They tell him his good Will was sufficient and that as to what belonged to the Royal Dignity they should satisfie the King After Vespers the King made his Entry into the Town being met by the Abbot and Covent the Bells rang aloud and the Monks sang merrily his Welcome He was followed by some thousands of Bowmen and Cavaliers In this Train was Sir Robert Tresilian Chief Justice of the Kings Bench who the next Day being Saturday the 13. of Iuly and first of the Dog-days sat in Judgment at the Moot-hall says Walsingham at the Town-house Greyndcob Cadindon and Iohn the Barber are fetched from Hartford and laid fast till Munday against which time new Jury-men are chosen and charged to be ready with their Verdicts Prophet Baal the Sergius of the new Alcoran the Priest of the Idol and his Calves the Martin of the Yoak of pure Discipline of the Eldership was taken by the Townsmen of Coventry brought to St. Albans the Day before and this Saturday condemned by the Chief Justice to be Drawn Hanged Beheaded Imbowelled and Quartered which was done on the Munday following He confessed to the Bishop of London to whose Christian Piety he ought the two last Days of his Life which were begged for his Repentance that certain hot and powerful Pastors of the Separation Brethren of simple Hearts called by the Spirit he named six or seven had covenanted and engaged to compass England and Wales round as Itinerant Apostles to propagate the Gospel beat down all Abomination of the outward Man Antichristian Hierarchy and Tyranny of the Nimrods of the Earth to cry up the great and Holy Cause and to spread the Law Principles and Heresies of Baal which Disciples says this Rabbi unless they be prevented and taken off will destroy the Realm in two Years He might have said two Months and been believed as to the Civility Humanity Order and Honour never intermitted but in the Confusion of a barbarous impious Age which made England Glorious they had been destroyed and torn up in a less time A few licentious ill Acts easily beget a Custom and an hundred ill Customs quicklier