whereof these our Letters we have caused to be made Patents Witness our self at London the 15th day of June the 4th Year of our Reign This Charter was granted about the time the Clowns of Essex disbanded and received theirs it was brought into Harfordshire to Saint Albans by Wallingford one of the Town Friday says Walsingham the day of Tribulation c. which was the 16th of Iune the Townsmen of Saint Albans being at the time of Mattins acquainted by those of Barnet with the Command of the Ordinance or Act for repairing to London presently with the Esquires of the Abbot set forth So that I conceive the Day of this Charter is mistaken in it by the Monk The Clowns throw down their Arms at the Kings Feet sue for Mercy and deliver up their Chiefs the Principal of which Priest Straw was after drawn from his hiding Holes and laid hold of by the Kings Officers What became of them we shall see below in the Visitation made by the King and his Ministers through the Provinces in Uproar The Commons of Kent now scatter and dissolve the Heads of the Arch-bishop Lord Prior and the rest are taken down from the Bridge and the Idols advanced there That Baal should now be taken in an old House is an Error of the Knights Baal must take his Turn but he shall have a longer Run for it That the Dagger should now be given in Honour of Sir William Walworth as an Addition to the City Arms is Fabulous this Dagger is the Sword of St. Paul and was born by the City when Tyler was living The King now rides to Westminster where he gives God Thanks for his Deliverance and presents his Offering to the Virgin Mary in her Chappel of the Piew next he visits the Princess Mother in the Tower Royal called the Queens Wardrobe and bids her rejoyce for says he this Day I have recovered mine Heritage the Realm of England near lost the Lords return to their own Houses The other Countries now in Combustion and upon their March to London make halt they were Thunder-strucken at the Disaster of the Idol they hated the Fortune not the Wickedness of that Monster and tarry to pour out those Plagues at Home if they be not checked which before they intended to carry farther off The Example and Success of the Idol had moved with many but his Invitation and Sollicitation by the Emissaries of this Confederacy and Spirit more The Sectaries or Ring-leaders of the hurden rustick Raggamuffins in the several Provinces of the Association while Tyler was thus busied in the chief Seat of his new Dominions promote the Cause and pursue the Instructions of the Prince of Devils they were all to trèad his Steps as we shall find in what follows I have before spoken of the Summons of the Idol to fetch the bordering Rogues into the Line of Communication who were to serve as Auxiliaries only to strengthen Tyler rather than to enrich themselves and likely to be cashiered and cast off when he had perfected his Works amongst these Rake-hells were the Townsmen of Saint Albans with the Abbots Servants shuffled in the Throng of purpose to oversee and awe the Clowns from the new Fangles of our Phanaticks These as is related were sworn to the Ingagement at Heibury whence they come to London whither they are no sooner got but the Townsmen separate from the Servants of the Monastery and in St. Mary-bow-Church does their profane Conventicle consult how to make Advantage of the Tumult And what Pretences of Revolt from their Lord Abbot would seem most fair and taking Here they make not the Causes of their Disobedience they were hatched secretly amongst themselves they deliberate how to perfect things how to come to Effects The enlarging the Bounds of their Common free Fishing Hunting in certain places when they pleased and Hand-mills that the Bayliff of the Liberty shall no more meddle within the Precincts of the Town the Revocation of Charters prejudicial to the Free-born Burgesses cancelling the Bonds of their Fore-fathers made to Abbot Richard are the Propositions first voted One who would be wiser than the rest perswades them not to attempt things rashly and giddily without Authority He tells them that Wat Tyler Protector and Captain General of the Clowns was near that the Protector was a Righter of Wrongs raised and inspired by Providence to redeem the faithful Commons from the Thraldom of the Wicked At the Suit of the Godly Party says he Tyler has accepted the Government he is to govern the two Nations The Supreme executive Power resides in him from him says he and from the Keepers of the Liberties let us seek for Remedy Let us make our Addresses to him let us seek to his Highness for Power and Commission This he said as Walsingham writes supposing a greater than Tyler should not be seen in the Kingdom that Tylers Greatness for the time to come would only be eminent That the Laws of the Land the most ancient English Saxon Laws would be of no Force of no Validity because the most of the Lawyers were already murthered and the rest in their Account not long-lived the Axes Edge was turned towards them He concludes let us return Home and in the Puissance of Wat and our selves force the Abbot to Reason if he deny our Requests we will awe him with Burning and demolishing the Monastery with killing the Monks we will threaten not to leave one Stone upon another Others conceive it more safe to petition the King who might be spoken with by every Man and durst refuse nothing for his Letters under the Privy Seal commanding the Abbot to restore to the Townsmen the Rights and Liberties which their Ancestors enjoyed in the time of King Henry the First as if the English Church had been lately endowed the Monasteries founded their Royalties Liberties Priviledges granted by the Norman Princes than which nothing could be more false The most Christian Saxon Kings of Blessed Memory twelve of which dyed Martyrs of the Faith ten shine Glorious Stars in the Calender of Saints were all nursing Fathers of the Church scarcely was there one in the Illustrious Roll who gave not Lands and Possessions with Exemptions and Immunities to the Church who erected not Bishop-ricks or Monasterys into which Thirty of our Crowned Heads Kings or Queens entred the Superstition of the Ages then ought not to blemish their Piety The Mercian King Offa his Son Ecgfryd King Ethelred King Edward are the Founders and Donors of S. Albans What King Henry the First did for the Town I cannot say nor how ample its Liberties were then This is true he confirms the Grants of the Saxon Princes to the Monastery and adds the Norman Seal to strengthen the Saxon Crosses this is all but Truth is not necessary in such Uproars the Credulity of a Light-headed Multitude is quickly abused their Duty and Obedience easily corrupted without it To keep
the Candle 's out But I profane thy Ashes gracious Soul Thy Spirit flew to high to truss these foul Gnostick Opinions Thou desired'st to meet Such Tenents that durst stand upon their Feet And beard the Truth with as intens'd a Zeal As Saints upon a fast Night quilt a Meal Rome never trembled till thy piercing Eye Darted her through and crush'd the Mystery Thy Revelations made St. Iohn's compleat Babylon fell indeed but 't was thy Sweat And Oyl perform'd the work to what we see Foret old in misty Types broke forth in thee Some shallow Lines were drawn and sâ—…onces made By Smatterers in the Arts to drive a Trade Of Words between us but that prov'd no more Than threats in cowing Feathers to give ore Thy Fancy laid the Siege that wrought her Fall Thy Batteries commanded round the Wall Not a poor loop-hole Error could sneak by No not the Abbess to the Friery Though her Disguise as close and subtly good As when she wore the Monk's hose for a Hood And if perhaps their French or Spanish Wine Had fill'd them full of Beads and Bellarmine That they durst sally or attempt a Guard O! How thy busie Brain would beat and ward Rally And reinforce Rout And relieve Double reserves And then an onset give Like marshal'd Thunder back'd with Flames of Fire Storms mixt with Storms Passion with Globes of ire Yet so well disciplin'd that Judgment still Sway'd and not rash Commissionated Will No Words in thee knew Order Time and Place The instant of a Charge or when to face When to pursue advantage where to halt When to draw off and where to reassault Such sure Commands stream'd from thee that 't was one With thee to vanquish as to look upon So that thy ruin'd Foes groveling confess Thy Conquests were their Fate and Happiness Nor was it all thy Business hereto war With forreign Forces But thy active Star Could course a home-bred Mist a native Sin And shew its Guilt 's Degrees how and wherein Then sentence and expel it Thus thy Sun An Everlasting Stage in labour run So that its motion to the Eye of Man Waved still in a compleat Meridian But these are but fair Comments of our Loss The Glory of a Church now on the Cross The transcript of that Beauty once we had Whilst with the Lustre of thy Presence clad But thou art gone Brave Soul and with thee all The Gallantry of Arts Polemical Nothing remains as Primitive but Talk And that our Priests again in Leather walk A Flying Ministry of Horse and Foot Things that can start a Text but ne'er come to 't Teazers of Doctrines which in long sleev'd Prose Run down a Sermon all upon the Nose These like dull glow-worms twinckle in the Night The frighted Land-skips of an absent Light But thy rich Flame 's withdrawn Heaven caught thee hence Thy Glories were grown ripe for Recompence And therefore to prevent our weak Essays Th' art crown'd an Angel with Coelestial Bays And there thy ravish'd Soul meets Field and Fire Beauties enough to fill its strong Desire The Contemplation of a present God Perfections in the Womb the very Road And Essences of Vertues as they be Streaming and mixing in Eternity Whiles we possess our Souls but in a Veil Live Earth confin'd catch Heaven by retail Such a Dark-lanthorn Age such jealous Days Men tread on Snakes sleep in Batalias Walk like Confessors hear but must not say What the bold World dares act and what it may Yet here all Votes Commons and Lords agree The Crosier fell in Laud the Church in thee On the death of his Royal Majesty Charles late King of England c. WHat went yout out to see a dying King Nay more I fear an Angel suffering But what went you to see A Prophet slain Nay that and more a martyr'd Soveraign Peace to that sacred Dust Great Siâ—… our Fears Have left us nothing but Obedient Tears To court your Hearse and in those Pious Floods We live the poor remainder of our Goods Accept us in these latter Obsequies The unplundred Riches of our Hearts and Eyes For in these faithful Streams and Emanations W' are Subjects still beyond all Sequestrations Here we cry more than Conquerors Malice may Murder Estates but Hearts will still obey These as your Glory 's yet above the reach Of such whose purple Lines confusion preach And now Dear Sir vouchsafe us to admire With envy your arrival and that Quire Of Cherubims and Angels that supply'd Our Duties at your Triumphs Where you ride With full Caelestial Ioes and Ovations Rich as the Conquest of three ruin'd Nations But 't was the Heavenly Plot that snatch'd you hence To crown your Soul with that Magnificence And bounden rites of Honour that poor Earth Could only wish and strangle in the Birth Such pittied Emulation stop'd the blush Of our Ambitious Shame non-suited us For where Souls act beyond Mortality Heaven only can perform that Iubilee We wrestle then no more but bless your day And mourn the Anguish of our sad delay That since we cannot add we yet stay here Fetter'd in Clay Yet longing to appear Spectators of your Bliss that being shown Once more you may embrace us as your own Where never Envy shall divide us more Nor City-tumults nor the Worlds uproar But an Eternal Hush a quiet Peace As without end so still in the Increase Shall lull Humanity asleep and bring Us equal Subjects to the Heavenly King Till when I 'll turn Recusant and forswear All Calvin for there 's Purgatory here An Epitaph STay Passenger Behold and see The widdowed Grave of Majesty Why tremblest thou Here 's that will make All but our stupid Souls to shake Here lies entomb'd the Sacred Dust Of Peace and Piety Right and Just. The Blood O start'st not thou to hear Of a King 'twixt hope and fear Shed and hurried hence to be The Miracle of Misery Add the ills that Rome can boast â—…rift the World in every Coast â—…ix the Fire of Earth and Seas With humane Spleen and Practices To puny the Records of time By one grand Gygantick Crime Then swell it bigger till it squeeze The Globe to crooked Hams and Knees Here 's that shall make it seem to be But modest Christianity The Law-giver amongst his own â—…entenc'd by a Law unknown â—…oted Monarchy to Death By the course Plebeian Breath The Soveraign of all Command â—…uffering by a Common Hand A Prince to make the Odium more Offer'd at his very door The head cut off O Death to see 't â—…n Obedience to the Feet And that by Iustice you must know If you have Faith to think it so Wee 'l stir no further than this Sacred Clay But let it slumber till the Iudgment Day Of all the Kings on Earth 't is not denyed Here lies the first that for Religion dyed A Survey of the World THe World 's a guilded Trifle and the State Of sublunary Bliss adulterate Fame but an empty Sound a
resign the Powers to him which we received of him We have voted if you comply not to send for the Captain General Tyler and Twenty thousand of his Militia to the Danger of this Place and of the Monks Heads The Abbot here recites his good Deeds how often in their Necessities he had relieved them he had been he says their spiritual Father thirty two Years in all which time no Man had been grieved or oppressed by him this giving implyedly the Lye to Wallingford they grant but will not be denyed The Obligations and Charters which they require are delivered them which they burn in the Market-place near the Cross. This did not content them they ask for an ancient Charter concerning the Town Liberties the Capital Letters of which say they were one of Gold another of Azure The Abbot prays them to be satisfied for that time he protests they have all he has to give them he knew of no more yet he would make a search and if any such Deed could be found it should faithfully be delivered to them This too was the answer of the Covent it was agreed that the Abbot should after Dinner disclaim under his Hand and Seal in all Things prejudicial to their Liberty In Memory of an old Suit betwixt Abbot Richard the First and the Townsmen in the Reigns of William the Second and Henry the First wherein the Townsmen were overthrown were laid Milstones before the Door of the Parlor These Iohn the Barber with others took away as a Token of Victory over the Law these they break into small pieces and distribute amongst the Worthies as the Sacred Bread is given in the Eucharist Who could forbear Tears says Walsingham heavily bewailing these Changes to see Servants command their Lords who know not how to rule nor how to pity To see London once the noble Head of our Cities become a Stye for unclean Swine Who would not tremble to hear that the Arch-bishop and the Lord Treasurer should be offered Victims to wicked Spirits to the Kentish â—…dol the Kentish Saturn or Moloch and his Hob-goblins in the midst of the Kingdom Nay says he whose Heart would it not have wounded through to have seen the King of England who of Right for Majesty and Dignity ought to precede all Kings in the World out of Fear of his Head observe the Nods and Becks of these Varlets and the Nobility and Gentry mortified Beasts trampled on by these Scullions enslaved at their own Charge lick up their Dust. After Dinner a sad Dinner to the Monks this Merdaille these Stinkards throng before the Gates and demand the Charter of Liberties which the Abbot had promised them to seal which was sent and read to them in the thickest of the Rout If they please to accept it this was the Abbots Complement he is ready to seal They resolved never to be pleased with much Scorn and Pride answer by an Esquire of the Abbot That the Abbot must appoint some Clerk of his to attend them with â—…nk and Parchment themselves would dictate and after the Abbot and Covent should confirm what was done when this Humour was satisfied the Safety and Peace of the Monastery and Monks were as desperate as ever The old Charter which they will everlastingly believe concealed must be produced else they will bury the Covent in the Ruins of the Cloysters This Charter did certainly as they will have it contain all their ancient Liberties and Priviledges and if this was true there was no great Reason it should be in the Abbots keeping Here the Abbot imploys the most Honourable Esquires of the Country as Mediators to soften them and offers if they desire it to say Mass before them next Morning and to swear upon the Sacrament he should be about to take with what Monks they would name that he kept from them no such Charter with his Knowledge Make Choice says he of what Liberties you can you shall have my Charters drawn they shall be granted you by it I will seal you a real Charter instead of a fantastical one never seen by you no where to be had The Abbot struggles in vain against these Waves this Charter of their Fancies they will have Nor shall any other Price redeem the Monastery they intended the Subversion of the House and wrangle thus crossly that they might seem to have some Pretences to do it but because they had much Business to go about and could not be here and there too a Truce was taken for that Day and many of these pure Brethren betake themselves to other parts some of them would not be prevailed with the Bread and Ale of the Monastery brought forth to them in huge Fat 's would not work upon them to lay their Fury they staid only for a leading Hand Here an honest Burgess interposes Ribaulds says he what is it you purpose most of you here are Forreigners of the Villages about this is the most famous Mischief which can be acted in this Country this Beacon must set all on Fire and it is fit we who are Burgesses and Freemen of this Town should give the On-set By this Fineness they are gained to quit the Gates and joyn to the Assistance of their Fellow-Labourers The rest of the Day is spent by their united Forces in overthrowing of Houses clashing of Vessels and spoiling of Goods according to the Rule of Walter the false Founder of the Order At Night the Lieutenants make Proclamamation under the Kings Banner commanding strong Guards to be set about the Town that they may be assured against Surprizes and about the River Werlam and Saint Germains making it Loss of the Head to any Monk who should be found issuing from or entring the Monastery that Way this was done to set a Trap for the Prior and those who fled with him They proclaimed also that whosoever could challenge any Debts due to him from the Monastery might put in his Claim and little Proof should be needed the next Day and the Burgesses of the Town would discharge as far as the Goods of the Monastery would reach Much more was Magisterially thrown in to shew a Cast of the present Power Which was no sooner done but there appears a Farmer of the Mannor of Kingsbury belonging to this Abby arme I with his Sword and Buckler this Man was much in Arrears for his Farm and durst not peep abroad from his lurking Holes before these Broils which hiding of himself he imputes now to the Injustice and Cruelty of the Prior This Chuff demands one hundred Marks Damages for the Losses he had sustained in his Absence and threatens to burn the Grange of Saint Peter and Mannor-house of Kingsbury near the Abby if he be not repaired Twenty pounds he receives upon this Demand and goes away swearing he would freely give it back again for the Priors Head Saturday Night passed with much Perplexity to the Monks who were at their Wits
to fire unless Iohn Lakinhethe Guardian of the Temporalities of the Barony in the Vacancy then were delivered to them which the Towns-men mingled in the Throng put them upon The Guardian stood amidst the Crowd unknown This Man out of Piety to preserve the Monastery it was Piety then though it may be thought Impiety now discovers himself he tells them he is the Man they seek and asks what it is the Commons would have with him They call him Traitor it was Capital to be called so not to be so drag him to the Market-place and cut off his Head which is set upon the Pillory to keep Company with the Priors and Chief Justices Walter of Todington a Monk was sought for they wanted his Head but he hid himself and escaped Our Hacksters Errant of the Round Table Knights of Industry would be thought General Redeemers to take Care of all men in Distress for the Burgesses Sake they command the Monks threatning them and their Walls if they obey not to deliver up the Obligations of the Townsmen for their good Behaviour all the ancient Charters from the time of King Knute the Founder any way concerning the Liberties of the Town besides they must grant and confirm by Charter the Liberties of the Town which could not be done in the Vacancy for so it was Edmund of Brumfield Abbot in Name by Provision of the Pope was a Prisoner at Nottingham nor had any Election been since the Death of Abbot Iohn Brivole and therefore the Jewels of the House are pawned to the Townsmen as a Gage that Edmund of Brumfield whom they would suppose Abbot and whom they intended to set free should seal which Jewels were a Cross and Chalice of Gold with other things exceeding in value One thousand Pounds these were restored again in time of Peace but with much Unwillingness Upon the Bruit of the Idols Mishap and the Suppression of his Legions at London these Caterpillers dissolve of themselves Wraw the Priest Westbrome and the rest of the Capital Villains in the General Audit or Doomesday for these Hurliburlies shall be called to a Reckoning for their Outrages Cambridge suffered not a little in these Uproars the Towns-men with the Country Peasants about confederated together break up the Treasury of the University tear and burns its Charters they compel the Chancellor and Scholars under their common Seals to release to the Mayor and Townsmen all Rights and Liberties all Actions and to be bound in 3000l not to molest the Burgesses by Suits of Law concerning these things for the time to come The Mayor and Bayliffs were fetched up by Writ to the next Parliament where the Deeds were delivered up and cancelled the Liberties of the Town seized into the Kings Hand as forfeited new ones granted by him to the University all which they owe yet to the Piety of this King and his Parliament a Court which the Idol never names Had he set up one of his own begetting it must have had nothing else but the Name it would have been as destroying as the Field Norfolk the Mother of the Kets would not loyter this while nor sit lazily and sluggishly looking on Iohn Litster a Dyer of Norwich King of the Commons there infuses Zeal and Daring into his Country-men he had composed out of his own Empire and the Borders an Army of fifty thousand Men. This Upstart Kingling would not wholly move by Example he makes Presidents of his own and tramples not like a dull Beast the Road beaten by others He had heard what was done by the London Congregations he had a Stock of Traditions from the Elders there which he was able to improve and although I know not how he could exceed the Idol with his Council yet so the Monk exceed them he did he presumed greater things Tyler lost his Life before things were ripe was watched and undermined by the King and Nobility he could not spread his full Sails else for his Presumption he far out-goes Litster Litster the Norfolk Devil begins with Plunder and Rapine the only Way to flesh a young Rebellion The Malignants of the Kings Party the rich and peaceable go under that Notion are made a Prey no place was safe or priviledged Plots were laid to get the Lord William of Ufford Earl of Suffolk at his Mannor of Ufford near Debenham in Suffolk into the Company out of Policy that if the Cause succeeded not then the Rebels might cover themselves under the Shadow of that Peer The Earl warned of their Intention rises from Supper and disguised as a Groom of Sir Roger of Bois with a Portmantue behind him riding By-ways and about ever avoiding the Routs comes to St. Albanes and from thence to the King The Commons failing here possess themselves of the places and Houses of the Knights near and compell the Owners to swear what they list and for greater Wariness to ride the Country over with them which they durst not deny Among those enthralled by this Compulsion were the Lords Scales and Morley Sir Iohn Brews Sir Stephen of Hales and Sir Robert of Salle which last was no Gentleman born but as full of Honour and Loyalty as any Man Knighted by the Kings Grand-father for his Valour he was says Froissart one of the biggest Knights in England a Man not supple enough who could not bend before the new Lords he had not the Solidity of Judgment as some more subtle than honest call it to accomodate himself to the times Like Messala he would be of the justest side let the Fortune be what it would he would not forsake Justice under Colour of following Prudence he thought it not in vain to prop up the falling Government perhaps his Judgment may be blamed he stayed not for a sit time had he not failed here he had not fought against Heaven against Providence whose Councils and Decrees are hid from us are in the Clouds not to be pierced our Understanding is as weak as foolish as Providence is certain and wise Our Hopes and Fears deceive us alike we cannot resolve our selves upon any Assurance to forsake our Duty for the time to come Gods Designs are known only to himself it is Despair not Piety Despair too far from that to leave our Country in her dangerous Diseases in her publick Calamities the Insolency of injust Men is a Prodigy of their Ruin and the Incertainty of things Humane may teach us That those we esteem most established most assured are not seldom soonest overthrown Plato would not have them refer all things to Fate there is somewhat in our selves says he not a little in Fortune Ours are but Cockfights the least Remainder of Force and Life may strike a necking Blow and by an unlooked for Victory raise what is fallen if Death cannot be kept off if our Country cannot he saved by our Attempts there is a Comliness in dying handsomly nor can any Man be unhappy but he who out-lives it We have heard of
contracts the Sight At one end but when turn'd doth multiply't But you 're inchant'd Sir you 're doubly free From the great Guns and Squibbing Poetry Whom neither Bilbo nor Invention pierces Proof even 'gainst th' Artillery of Verses Strange That the Muses cannot wound your Mail If not their Art yet let their Sex prevail At that known Leaguer where the Bonny Besses Supply'd the Bow-strings with their twisted Tresses Your Spels could ne'er have fenc'd you ev'ry Arrow Had lanc'd your noble Breast and drunk the Marrow For Beauty like white Powder makes no noise And yet the silent Hypocrite destroys Then use the Nuns of Helicon with pity Lest Wharton tell his Gossips of the City That you kill Women too nay Maids and such Their General wants Militia to touch Impotent Essex Is it not a shame Our Commonwealth like to a Turkish Dame Should have an Eunuch-Guardian May she be Ravish'd by Charles rather than sav'd by thee But why my Muse like a Green-sickness Girl Feed'st thou on Coals and Dirt A Gelding Earl Gives no more relish to thy Female palate Than to the Ass did once the Thistle Salat Then quit his barren Theme and all at once Thou and thy Sisters like bright Amazons Give Rupert an Alarum Rupert one Whose name is Wit 's Superfoetation Makes Fancy like Eternity's round womb Unite all Valour past present to come He who the old Philosophy controuls That voted down Plurality of Souls He breaths a Grand Committee all that were The Wonders of their Age constellate here â—…nd as the Elder Sisters Growth and Sense Souls paramount themselves in Man commence â—…ut faculties of Reason Queen no more â—…re they to him who was complete before â—…gredients of his Virtues Thread the Beads â—…f Caesar's Acts Great Pompey's and the Swedes â—…nd 't is a Bracelet fit for Rupert's hand â—…y which that vast Triumvirat is span'd â—…ere here is Palmestry here you may read â—…ow long the World shall live and when 't shall bleed What every Man winds up that Rupert hath For Nature rais'd him on the Publick Faith Pandora's Brother to make up whose store The Gods were fain to run upon the score Such was the Painter's Brief for Venus Face Item an Eye from Iane a Lip from Grace Let Isaac and his Cits flay off the Plate That tips their Antlets for their Calf of State Let the Zeal-twanging Nose that wants a Ridge Snuffling devoutly drop his silver Bridg Yes and the Gossip's Spoon augment the Sum Although poor Caleb lose his Christendom Rupert outweighs that in his Sterling self Which their Self-want pays in Committee-pelf Pardon Great Sir for that ignoble Crew ' Gains when made Bankrupt in the Scales with you As he who in his Character of Light Styl'd it God's shadow made it far more bright By an Eclipse so glorious Light is dim And a black Nothing when compar'd with him So 't is Illustrious to be Rupert's foil And a just Trophey to be made his spoil I 'll pin my Faith on the Diurnal's sleeve Hereafter and the Guild-Hall Creed believe The Conquests which the Common-Council heaâ—… With their wide listning Mouth from the Greaâ—… Peeâ—… That run away in Triumph such a Foe Can make Men Victors in their Overthrow Where Providence and Valour meet in one Courage so pois'd with Circumspection That he revives the Quarrel once again Of the Soul's Throne whether in Heart or Brain And leaves it a drawn Match whose fervor can Hatch him whom Nature poach'd but half a Man His Trumpet like the Angels at the last Makes the Soul rise by a miraculous blast Was that Mount Athos carv'd in shape of Man As was design'd by th' Macedonian Whose right hand should a populous Land contain The left should be a Channel to the Main His Spirit would inform th' Amphibious Figure â—…nd strait-laced sweat for a Dominion bigger The terror of whose Name can out of seven â—…ike Falstaf's Buckram-men make fly eleven Thus some grow rich by breaking Vipers thus â—…y being slain are made more numerous â—…o wonder they 'l confess no loss of men â—…or Rupert knocks 'em till they gig again They fear the Giblets of his Train they fear â—…ven his Dog that four-leg'd Cavalier â—…e that devours the Scraps that Lunsford makes Whose Picture feeds upon a Child in Stakes Who name but Charles he comes aloft for him â—…ut holds up his Malignant Leg at Pym Gainst whom they have these Articles in Souse â—…irst that he barks against the Sense o'th'House â—…esolv'd Delinquent to the Tower straight â—…ither to th'Lyons or the Bishop's Grate â—…ext for his ceremonious Wag o'th'Tail â—…ut there the Sisterhood will be his Bail â—…t least the Countess with Lust's Amsterdam â—…hat le ts in all Religions of the Game â—…hirdly he smells Intelligence that 's better â—…nd cheaper too than Pym's from his own Letter Who 's doubly paid Fortune or we the blinder â—…or making Plots and then for Fox the finder â—…astly he is a Devil without doubt â—…or when he would lie down he wheels about Makes Circles and is couchant in a Ring And therefore score up one for conjuning What canst thou say thou Wretch O quarter quarter I 'm but an Instrument a mere Sir Arthâ—… If I must hang O let not our Fates vary Whose Office 't is alike to fetch and carry No hopes of a Reprieve the mutinous stir That strung the Jesuit will dispatch the Cur. Were I a Devil as the Rabble fears I see the House would try me by my Peers There Iowler there ah Iowler ' st 't is nought What e'er the Accusers cry they 'r at default And Glyn and Maynard have no more to say Than when the glorious Strafford stood at bay Thus Libels but amount to him we see T' enjoy a Copy-hold of Victory Saint Peter's shadow heal'd Rupert's is such 'T would find Saint Peter work and wound as much He gags their Guns defeats their dire Intent The Cannons do but lisp and complement Sure Iove descended in a leaden shower To get this Perseus hence the fatal power Of shot is strangled Bullets thus allied Fear to commit an Act of Paricide Go on brave Prince and make the World confess Thou art the greater World and that the less Scatter th'accumulative King untruss That five-fold Fiend the State 's Smectymnuus Who place Religion in their Vellum-ears As in their Phylacters the Iews did theirs England's a Paradice and a modest word Since guarded by a Cherub's flaming Sword Your Name can scare an Atheist to his Prayers And cure the Chin-cough better than the Bears Old Sybils charm Tooth-ach with you the Nurse Makes you still Children and the pond'rous Curse The Clown salutes with is deriv'd from you Now Rupert take thee Rogue how dost thou do In fine the Name of Rupert thunders so Kimbolton's but a rumbling Wheel-barrow Upon Sir Thomas Martin who subscribed a Warrant thus We the Knights and Gentlemen of the Committee when there was no Knight but himself HAng
out a Flag and gather pence a piece Which Africk never bred nor swelling Greece With Stories Tympany a Beast so rare No Lecturer's wrought Cap or Barthol'mew Fair Can match him Nature's Whimsey that outvies Tredescant and his Ark of Novelties The Gog and Magog of Prodigious Sights With reverence to your eyes Sir Thomas Knights But is this Bigamy of Titles due Are you Sir Thomas and Sir Martin too Issachar couchant 'twixt a brace of Sirs Thou Knighthood in a pair of Panniers Thou that look'st wrap'd up in thy warlike-Leather Like Valentine and Orson bound together Spur's Representative thou that art able To be a Voyder to King Arthur's Table Who in this Sacrilegious Mass of all It seems has swallow'd Windsor's Hospital Pair Royal headed Cerberus his Cousin Hercules Labors were a Baker's dozen Had he but trump'd on thee whose forked neck Might well have answered at the Font for Smec But can a Knighthood on a Knighthood ly Metal on Metal is false Heraldry And yet the known Godfry of Bouloign's Coat Shines in Exception to the Herald's Vote Great Spirits move not by Pedantick Laws Their Actions though Eccentrick state the Cause And Priscian bleeds with honour Caesar thus Subscrib'd two Consuls with one Iulius Tom never oaded Squire scarce Yeoman high Is Tom twice dip'd Knight of a double die Fond man whose Fate is in his Name betray'd It is the setting Sun doubles his shade But it 's no matter for amphibious he May have a Knight hang'd yet Sir Tom go free The General Eclipse LAdies that gild the glittering Noon And by Reflection mend his Ray Whose Beauty makes the sprightly Sun To dance as upon Easter-day What are you now the Queen 's away Courageous Eagles who have whet Your Eyes upon Majestick Light And thence deriv'd such Martial heat That still your Looks maintain the Fight What are you since the King's Good-night Cavalier-buds whom Nature teems As a Reserve for England's Throne Spirits whose double edge redeems The last Age and adorns your own What are you now the Prince is gone As an obstructed Fountain's head Cuts the Intail off from the Streams And Brooks are disinherited Honour and Beauty are mere Dreams Since Charles and Mary lost their Beams Criminal Valors who commit Your Gallantry whose Poean brings A Psalm of Mercy after it In this sad Solstice of the King 's Your Victory hath mew'd her wings See how your Souldier wears his Cage Of Iron like the Captive Turk And as the Guerdon of his Rage See how your glimmering Peers do lurk Or at the best work Journey-work Thus 't is a General Eclipse And the whole World is al-a-mort Only the House of Commons trips The Stage in a Triumphant sort Now e'en Iohn Lilburn take 'em for 't SECT III. Containing MISCELLANIES Upon Princess Elizabeth born the Night before New-Year's Day AStrologers say Venus the self same Star Is both our Hesperus and Lucifer The Antitype this Venus makes it true She shuts the old Year and begins the new Her Brother with a Star at Noon was born She like a Star both of the Eve and Morn Count o'er the Stars fair Queen in Babes and vie With every Year a new Epiphany Upon a Miser who made a great Feast and the next day dyed for Grief NOr scapes he so our Dinner was so good My liquorish Muse cannot but chew the Cud And what delight she took in th'Invitation Strives to taste o'er again in this Relation After a tedious Grace in Hopkin's Rhyme Not for Devotion but to take up time March'd the Train'd-Band of Dishes usher'd there To shew their Postures and then as they were For he invites no Teeth perchance the Eye He will afford the Lover's Gluttony Thus is our Feast a Muster not a Fight Our Weapon's not for Service but for Sight But are we Tantaliz'd Is all this Meat Cook'd by a Limner for to view not eat Th'Astrologers keep such Houses when they sup On Joynts of Taurus or the Heavenly Tup What ever Feasts he made are summ'd up here His Table vies not standing with his Cheer His Churchings Christnings in this Meal are all And not transcrib'd but in th' Original Christmass is no Feast moveable fonlo The self same Dinner was ten years ago 'T will be immortal if it longer stay The Gods will eat it for Ambrosia But stay a while unless my Whineyard fail Or is inchanted I 'll cut off the Intail Saint George for England then have at the Mutton Where the first cut calls me blood-thirsty Glutton Sâ—…out Ajax with his anger-codled Brain Killing a Sheep thought Agamemnon slain The Fiction's now prov'd true wounding the Rost I lamentably Butcher up mine Host. Such Sympathy is with his Meat my Weapon Makes him an Eunuch when it carves his Capon Cut a Goose Leg and the poor Fool for mone Turns Cripple too and after stands on one Have you not heard th' abominable sport A Lancaster Grand-Jury will report The Souldier with his Morglay watch'd the Mill The Cats they came to feast when lusty Will Whips off great Pusses Leg which by some Charm Proves the next day such an old Woman's Arm. It 's so with him whose carcass never scapes But still we slash him in a thousand shapes Our Serving-men like Spaniels range to spring The Fowl which he had cluck'd under his wing Should he on Woodcock or on Widgeon feed It were Thyestes-like on his own Breed To Pork he pleads a Superstition due But we subscribe neither to Scot nor Iew. No Liquor stirs call for a Cup of Wine 'T is Blood we drink we pledge thee Catiline Sawces we should have none had he his wish The Oranges i' th Margin of his Dish He with such Huâ—…ster's care tells o'er and o'er Th' Hesperian Dragon never watch'd them more But being eaten now into despair Having nought else to do he falls to prayer Thou that didst once put on the form of Bull And turn'd thine Io to a lovely Mull Defend my Rump great Iove allay my grief O spare me this this Monumental Beef But no Amen was said see see it comes Draw Boys let Trumpets sound and strike up Drums See how his Blood doth with the Gravy swim And every Trencher hath a Limb of him The Ven'son's now in view our Hounds spend deeper Strange Deer which in the Pasty hath a Keeper Stricter than in the Park making his Guest As he had stol 't alive to steal it drest The scent was hot and we pursuing faster Than Ovid's Pack of Dogs e'er chac'd their Master A double prey at once we seize upon Acteon and his Case of Venison Thus was he torn alive to vex him worse Death serves him up now as a second Course Should we like Thracians our dead bodies eat He would have liv'd only to save his Meat Lastly we did devour that Corps of His Throughout all Ovid's Metamorphosis On the Memory of Mr. Edward King drown'd in the Irish Seas I Like not tears in tune nor do
heal'd Ruperts is such 'T would find St. Peters Work yet wound as much He gags their Guns defeats there dire Intent The Canons do but lisp and Complement Sure Iove descended in a leaden Shower To get this Perseus Hence the fatal Power Of Shot is strangled Bullets thus allied Fear to commit an Act of Parricide Go on brave Prince and make the World confess Thou art the greater World and that the less Scatter th'accumulative King untruss That five-fold Fiend the States SMECTYMNUUS Who place Religion in their Vellum-ears As in their Phylacters the Jews did theirs England's a Paradise and a modest Word Since guarded by a Cherub's flaming Sword Your Name can scare an Athiest to his Prayers And cure the Chin-cough better then the Bears Old Sybil charms the Tooth-ake with you Nurse Makes you still Children nay and the pond'rous curse The Clowns salute with is deriv'd from you Now RUPERT take thee Rogue how dost thou do In fine the Name of Rupert thunders so Kimbolton's but a rumbling Wheel-barrow An Elegy upon Mr. John Cleveland PRime Wits are prun'd the First this may appear By that high-valued Piece interred here Whose Laureat Genius rapt with Sacred Skill Prov'd his Extraction from Pernassus Hill Whose Fame like Pallas Flame shone in each Clime Crowning his Fancy royally Divine Rich in Elixar'd Measures and in all That could breath Sense in Airs Emphatical Pure Love his Native Influence A Lot Given him from Heav'n No People save the Scot But did affect him These had lov'd Him too Had he school'd Baseness with a smoother Brow But his refined Temper scorn'd t' ingage His Pen to Time or Humour any Age. Compleat in all that might true Honour gain Only an Enemy to Withers Strain Holding it still the Prodigy of Time To Canonize a Poet for a Rhyme Free in Fruition of himself Content In what dis-relish'd Servile Sp'rits Restraint Now some will say His Uolume was too small To rear an Hermian Arch or Escural To his dilated Fame O do not put These frivolous Objections Homers Nut Inclos'd a living Iliad 'T is not much Perpetuates our Memory but such As can act Wonders And apply a Cure To States surprized with a Calenture And with their Quill beyond all Chymick Art Purge the Corruptions of a State-sick Heart By rare Phlebotomy This Art was His Which made his Name so precious as it is Such was the Practice of a Golden Time To spare the Person but to taxe the Crime Age is not summ'd by Years but Hours as Times So 〈◊〉 are ballanc'd not by Leaf but Lines Clitus affirm'd and bound it with an Oath That Celsus Poems were meer Food for th'Moth And for those Manuscrips which Mevius writ They might be styl'd the Surquedry of Wit Look home and weigh the Fancies of these Days And you 'l conclude they merit equal Praise A Title or a Frontispiece in Plate Drawn from a Person of Desertless State Lures Legions of Admirers Wits must want That holds a Distance with the Sycophant Timists be only Thrivers But a Brain That 's freely Generous scorns Servile Gain Such was this pure Pernassian whose clear Nature To gain a World could never brook to flatter Poize this Imparallel and you will find A Mine of Treasures in a Matchless Mind No more The Name of Cleveland speaks to me A living Annal dying Elegy Upon the pittiful Elegy writ lately on him modestly taxed and freely vindicated by the canded Censure of an indeared Brother SInce thy Remove form Earth there came to me A Funeral Elegy addrest to thee Elegiacks made gracious by thy Name But too short-lung'd to parallel thy Fame Laurel and Bays were the Subjects of his Pen Whose muddy Muse deserved none of them A sublimated Style bereft of Sense Is like a Brain-strapt Justice on a Bench Whose Tones are Thunder Fury and Command But in a Dialect none understand Thy Native Fancy was no Lucian Dream Deriv'd from th'Chrystal Rills of Hypocrene Thy free-born Genius did it self express Iu Phidias Colours without forreign Dress Much like the Damask Rose but newly blown And blusheth in no tincture but her own Such was thy Posie which th' Albion State May envy or admire scarce imitate In purest Odes Bards should thy Loss bemoan And in surviving Measures or in none For these who want Art to Imbellish Worth Wrong them whom they endeavour to set forth Sic perit Ingenium Genii ni pignora vitam Perpetuam statuant Monumenta struant Aurea sic docilem coluerunt Secula vatem Ordine Pieridum commemorando parem Auson An Elegy in Memory of Mr John Cleveland SOon as a Verse with Feet as swift as Thought The Stabbing News of Clevelands Death had brought To sad Parnassus the distracted Nine First in a dismal Shriek their Voices joyn Which the forkt Hill did eccho twice and then Each Eye seem'd chang'd into an Hippocrene As if like Niobe 't were their Intent To weep themselves into his Monument Nor did their Grief exceed their Loss his Quill More Love and Honour gain'd to th' Muses Skill Then all those Modern Factions of Wit Such as 'gainst Gondibert or for him writ And such whom their Rhymes so much do affect To be esteem'd o' th' Court or Colledge Sect Whose Lines with Clevelands such Proportion hold As the New-Court and Colledges with th' Old How lofty was his Strain yet clear and even The Center ofâ—…s Conceptions was Heaven 'T was not his Muses toyl but ease to soar He writ so high cause he could write no lower And though the World in English Poetry No Monarch knew so absolute as He Yet did he ne'er Excise the Natives nor Made Forreign Mines unto his Mint bring Oar. He his own Treasure was and as no Quill Was Guide to his so shall his Verse be still Un-imitated by the best and free From meaner Poets Petty-larceny That Plagiary that can filch but one Conceipt from Him and keep the Theft unknown At Noon from Phaebus may by the same Sleight Steal Beams and make 'em pass for his own Light W. W. An Elegy offered to the Memory of that Imcomparable Son of Apollo Mr. John Cleveland GRief the Souls Sables in my Bosom lies A true Close-mourner at thy Obsequies Whilst Tears in Floods from my o'er-charg'd Eyes ran With Grief to drown the little World of man He that survives this Loss may justly say His Soul doth Pennance in a Sheet of Clay And rather welcome Death than patient sit To solemnize the Funeral of Wit The Painter Agamemnon's Face did screen Drawing the Sacrifice of Iphygene To shew his grieved Looks as well as Heart Did far transcend the humble reach of Art So when all 's said that can be said we find There 's nothing said to what he left behind But his all searching Soul scorning to be Confin'd to th'limits of Mortality Shook off its clog of Flesh that pond'rous Mass His Spirit freer than his Country was For Fate his Life might circumscribe and
their Mind Which you convey'd them through their Mother who Even thus did travel with your Vertues too Which to descend to our dull Sense and Earth Comes to us in their shapes and suffer Birth And be your Off-spring who when Chronicle Is all we have and Annals only tell Your Deeds and Actions and when Men shall look And see the Prince and Duke do all the Book And live your Royal Story and that all Which you did well was but prophetical Will not be thought as your Posterity But you in them will your Successor be To the Queen upon the Birth of her first Daughter AFter the Prince's Birth admired Queen Had you prov'd barren you had fruitful been And in one Heir born to his Fathers Place And Royal Mind had brought us forth a Race But we who thought we wisht enough to see A Prince of Wales have now a Progeny And you being perfect now have learnt the Way To be with Child as oft as we can pray So that henceforth we need no Altars vex With empty Vows being heard in either Sex Nor have we all our Kingdoms Incense try'd So many Years only to be deny'd We no Desires but thankful Off'rings bring That bearing many you prefer the King And to us yet have but one Daughter shown Who else had been the Original alone Without a Copy For the Shapes we see In Tables of you but bright Errors be Nor could we hope Art could beget an Heir To that sweet Form unless your self did bear Your Pourtraiture and in a Daughter shew That of your self which yet no Painter drew Who with his subtle Hand and wisest Skill Hath hitherto but striv'd to draw you ill And when he takes his Pencil from your Look Finds Colours make you but a Piece mistook And so paints Treason nor would have Pretence To scape but that he limns a fair Pretence But in the Princess you are writ so plain And true that in her you were born again And when we see you both together plac't You are your Daughter only grown in haste In both we may the self-same Graces see But that they yet in her but Infant be Not Woman Beauties nor will we despair The Prince and Duke of York have equal Share In your Perfection which though they divide Make them both Prince enough by th'Mothers side Whose Composition is so clear and good That we can see Discourses in your Blood And understand your Body so refin'd That of you might be born a Soul or Mind O may you still be fruitful and begin Henceforth to make our Year by lying in May we have store of Princes and they live Till Heraulds doubt what Titles they should give To this may you be young still and no other Signs of more Age found in you but a Mother Upon one that preacht in a Cloak SAw you the Cloak at Church to day The long-worn short Cloak lin'd with Say What had the Man no Gown to wear Or was this sent him from the Mayor Or is 't the Cloak which Nixon brought To trim the Tub where Golledge taught Or can this best conceal his Lips And shew Communion sitting Hips Or was the Cloak St. Pauls If so With it he found the Parchments too Yes verily for he hath been With mine Host Gaius at the new Inn. A Gown God bless us trails o'th'Floor Like th'Petticoat o'th'Scarlet Whore Whose large stiff Plates he dare confide Are Ribs from Antichrists own side A mourning Cope if it look to th' East Is the black Surplice of the Beast A Song of SACK COme let us drink away the time A Pox upon this pelting Rhime When Wine runs high Wit 's in the Prime Drink and stout Drinkers are true Joys Odd Sonnets and such little Toys Are Exercises fit for Boys 2. The whining Lover that doth place His Fancy on a painted Face And wasts his Substance in the Chase Would ne'er in Melancholy pine Had he Affections so Divine As once to fall in Love with Wine 3. Then to our Liquor let us sit Wine makes the Soul for Action fit Who drinks most Wine hath the most Wit The Gods themselves do Revels keep And in pure Nectar tipple deep When sloathful Mortals are asleep 4. They fudled me for Recreation In Water which by all Relation Did cause Deucalions Inundation The Spangle Globe had it almost Their Cups were with Salt-Water do'st The Sun-burnt Center was the Toast 5. The Gods then let us imitate Secure from carping Care and Fate Wine Wit and Courage both create In Wine Apollo always chose His darkest Oracles to disclose 'T was Wine gave him his Ruby-nose 6. Who dare's not drink 's a wretched Wight Nor do I think that Man dares fight All Day that dares not drink all Night Come fill my Cup untill it swim With Foam that overlooks the Brim Who drinks the deepest Here 's to him 7. Sobriety and Study breeds Suspicion in our Acts and Deeds The down-right Drunkard no Man heeds Give me but Sack Tobacco store A drunken Friend a little Whore Provide me these I 'll ask no more A Time-Sonnet NOw that our Holy Wars are done Between the Father and the Son And since we have by Righteous Fate Distrest a Monarch and his Mate And forc'd their Heirs flee into France To weep out their Inheritance Let 's set open all our Packs That contain ten thousand Racks Cast on the Shore of the Red Sea Of Naseby and of Newbery If then you will come provided with Gold We dwell close by Hell where we 'l sell What you will that is ill For Charity waxeth cold 2. Hast thou done Murther or Blood spilt We can soon get another Name That will keep thee from all Blame But be it still provided thus That thou hast once been one of us Gold is the God that shall pardon the Guilt For we have What shall save Thee from th' Grave Since the Law We can awe Although a famous Prince's Blood were spilt 3. If a Church thou hast bereft Of its Plate 't is Holy Theft Or for Zeal sake if thou bee'st Prompted on to be a Thief Gold is a sure prevailing Advocate Then come bring a Sum Law is dumb And submits to our Wits For it 's Policy guides a State The Parliament MOst Gracious and Omnipotent And Everlasting Parliament Whose Power and Majesty Is greater than all Kings by odds And to account you less then Gods Must needs be Blasphemy 2. Moses and Aaron ne'er did do More Wonder than are wrought by you For Englands Israel But though the Red Sea we have past If you to Canaan bring 's at last Is 't not a Miracle 3. In six Years space you have done more Than all the Parliaments before You have quite done the Work The King the Cavaller and Pope You have o'erthrown and next we hope You will confound the Turk 4. By you we have Deliverance From the Design of Spain and France Ormond Montross the Danes You aided by our
heavy as very Asses as himself He is said to be a crafty Fellow and of an Excellent Wit but wanting Grace yet crafty enough he was not for the great and dangerous Enterprize A Marius however Impious for such he must be pace pessimus fitter to remove things to overturn overturns than for Peace but as Plutarch of him subtil faithless one who could over do all Men in Dissembling in Hypocrisie practised in all the Arts of Lying and some of these good Sleights Tyler wanted not one who had Sense and Iudgment to carry things on as well as desperate Confidence to undertake had become this part incomparably had gone through with it how easily under such a Captain if we look upon the Weakness of the Opposition and the Villainous Baseness of the Gentry had the Frame of the ancient Building been rased the Model must have held Richard whose Endeavours of Defence or Loyalty alone should have been killing had not fallen by the Sword of Lancaster he had found his Grave on Tower-hill or Smithfield where the faithful Lieges of his Crown were torn in peices by these Cannibals The Reverence due to the Anointed Heads of Kings began to fall away and Naked Majesty could not guard where Innocency could not But Tyler blinded by his own fatal Pride throws himself foolishly upon the Kings Sword and by his over-much Hast preserves him whom he had vowed to destroy The Heathens make it a Mark of the Divinity of their Gods that they bestowed Benefits upon Mortal Men and took nothing from them The Clowns of the Idol upon this Rule were not very Heavenly they were the meek Ones of those times the only Inheritors of Right the Kingdom was made a Prey by them it was cantoned out to erect new Principalities for the Mock-Kings of the Commons so their Chiefs or Captains would be called Here though the Title of Rebellion spoke fair was shewn somewhat of Ambition and no little of unjust private Interest no little of Self-seeking which the Good of the People in Pretence only was to give Way to and no Wonder for the good of the People properly was meerly to be intended of themselves and no where but amongst those was the Commonwealth Had these Thistles these Brambles flourished the whole Wood of Noble Trees had perished If the violent casting other Men out of their Possessions firing their Houses cutting off their Heads violating of all Rights be thought Gods Blessing any Evidence of his owning the Cause these Thieves and Murderers were well blessed and sufficiently owned Such was then the Face of things Estates were dangerous Every rich Man was an Enemy Mens Lives were taken away without either Offence or Tryal their Reign was but a Continuation of horrible Injuries the Laws were not only silent but dead The Idol's Fury was a Law and Faith and Loyalty and Obedience to Lawful Power were damnable Servants had the Rule over Princes England was near a Slavery the most unworthy of free and ingenious Spirits of any What I relate here to speak something of the Story I collect out of Sir John Froissart a French-Man living in the Times of King EDWARD the Third and his Grandchild King RICHARD who had seen England in both the Reigns was known and esteemed in the Court and came last over after these Tumults were appeased And out of Thomas of Walsingham a Monk of St. Albans in Henry the Sixth's Days who says Bale in his Centuries of him writes many the most choice Passages of Affairs and Actions such as no other hath met with In the Main and to the Substance of things I have made no Additions no Alterations I have faithfully followed my Authors who are not so historically exact as I could wish nor could I much better what did not please me in their Order No Man says Walsingham can recite fully the Mischeifs Murders Sacriledge and Cruelty of these Actors he excuses his digesting them upon the Confusion of the combustious Flaming in such Variety of Places and in the same time Tyler Litstar and those of Hartfordshire take up most part of the Discourse Westbrome is brought in by the Halves the lesser Snakes are only named in the Chronicle what had been more had not been to any purpose Those were but Types of Tyler the Idol and acted nothing but according to the Original according to his great Example they were Wolves alike and he that reads one knows all Thomas of Becket Simon of Montfort the English Cataline Thomas of Lancaster Rebels and Traitors of the former years are canonized by the Monks generally the Enemies of their Kings Miracles make their Tâ—…mbs Illustrious and their Memories Sacred The Idol and his Incendiaries are abhorred every where every History detests them while Faith Civility Honesty and Piety shall be left in the World the Enemies of all these must neither be beloved nor pittied THE Rustick Rampant OR RURAL ANARCHY THe Reign of King Richard the Second was but a Throw of State for so many Years a Feaver to whose Distempers all pieces of the home Dominions contributed by Fits the forraign part only continuing faithful In the fourth Year of his Reign and Fifteenth of his Age the Dregs and Off-scum of the Commons unite into Bodies in several parts of the Kingdom and form a Rebellion called the Rebellion of the Clowns which lead the rest and shewed the Way of Disobedience first Of which may truly be said though amongst other Causes we may attribute it to the Indisposition and Unseasonableness of the Age that the Fruits of it did not take it was strongly begun and had not Providence held back the Hand the Blow had fallen the Government had broke into Shivers then The young King at this time had few besides Thomas of Woodstock his Uncle Earl of Buckingham and after Duke of Glocester but the Servants of his House in Ordinary about him the Lord Edmund of Langley Earl of Cambridge after Duke of York with the Lords Beauchamp Botereaux Sir Matthew Gourney with others of the Nobility and Gentry had set sail for Portugal the Duke Iohn of Lancaster another of his Uncles was in Scotland treating a Peace when this Commotion brake out Though no Cause can be given for Seditions those who design publick Troubles can never want Pretences Polidore as much out in this Story as any gives this Reason for this the Poll-mony says he imposed by Parliament a Groat Sterling upon every Head was intolerable It was justly imposed and so by some to whom Law and Custom of England were intolerable not to be endured but we shall find in the Tyranny breaking in not only fifth and twentieth Parts and Loans forced out of Fear of Plunder and Death but Subsidies in Troop and Regiments by Fifties more than Sequestrations and Compositions not under Foot low Sales for what had these Rascals to give but down-right Robbery and Violent Usurpations of Estates Thus would Polidore have it in Defence
greeteth well John Nameless and John the Miller and John Carter and biddeth them that they beware of Guile in Borough which Stow by a notable Mistake calls Gillinborough and stand together in Gods Name and biddeth Pierse Plowman go to his Work and chastise Hob the Robber and take with you John Trewman and all his Fellows and no moe John the Miller that yground smal smal smal The King's Sonne of Heaven shall pay for all Beware or ye be woe Know your Friend from your Foe Have ynough and say hoe And do well and better and flee Sinne and seek Peace and hold therein And so biddeth John Trewman and all his Fellows A List of Sanctity does well in these Cases but his seeking of Peace chastising the Robber and fleeing of Sinne I must leave as mystical This shews the Industry Carefulness and Vigilancy of the Prophet in his Preparations and his Willingness to hurt He disperseth other Letters of this kind in one he chargeth all Men in the Name of the Trinity c. to stand Manlike together and help Truth now we have Truth to our Peace and Truth shall help them in his Rags of Verses for a Rhimer he would be he is as earnest for Truth They begin Iack Trewman doth you to understand That Falsness and Guile hath reigned too long And Truth hath been set under a Lock And Falsness reigneth in every Flock No Man may come truth to But he must sing si dedero Many Remonstrances and Declarations flew abroad from him The Kentishmen seasoned by this Priest or Prophet of the Idol are easily tempted by the Essexians to associate in the Undertakings and share in the Honour of gaining Liberty precious Liberty for the People and taking away the evil Customs of the Kingdom which is the Glorious Title of the Tumult This was no more says the Monk than the Kentishmen had long wished for They are quickly ready and by the Arts used by those of Essex put all the Country into a Combustion That they may not appear with too much Horror at the first Sight they would seem to pretend to an Outside Piety they account so they tell the Kingdom and the World the professing of any thing in the sight of God the strongest Obligation that any Christian and the most solemn publick Faith that any such State as a Common-wealth can give In all Humility and Reverence they contrive a Sacred Vow and Covenant They fasten the knot of their Holy League with National Covenants and Oaths which themselves will first break than which there can be no stronger tie Religion consists in Faith he who loses his Faith hath lost himself Oaths contrary to their sworn Allegiance and former Oaths which is a most absurd Impiety here God must be called upon to help and witness the Perfidiousness Oaths use to end so help me God He who performs not his Oath directly and plainly renounces God and all that is Sacred and Divine To swear to Day against what we were sworn to yesterday must be strange amongst Christians these Impieties being once allowed there can be neither Peace Society nor Government amongst Men safe and unindangered The Ways leading to Canterbury are beset the Pilgrims swarming thither according to the Superstition of those Ages are seized and forced to swear with these extraordinary Workers To keep Faith to King Richard whose most faithful Servants most humble and Loyal Subjects they profess themselves to be and the Commons according to their Power and Vocation To accept no King called Iohn a Vanity thrown in for Duke Iohn of Lancasters Sake the Kings Uncle and neglected by the Norfolk Reformers who advanced King Iohn Litstere to the Soveraignty To be ready upon Summons to assist the Commons the great Wheel of the New State for whom this Oath was given and to be principally respected by it To induce their Friends and Allies to hold with them and to allow no Tax but the Fifteenth which say they falsly was the only Tax their Forefathers ever heard of or submitted to How Sacred in all the Parts this â—…th will be with them which never was to be intended more than temporary will soon be discovered Diversity of Words cannot change the Nature of things Their first March is to Canterbury where they visit Thomas of Canterbury who lived and dyed a Rebel to his Prince and to use the Words of Rogerus a Norman in Caesarius the Monk deserved Death and Damnation for this Contumacy against his King the Minister of God a fit Saint for such Votaries their Kindness was not much they spoil his Church break up the Bishops Chamber and make a Prey of all they find protest the Bishop shall give them an Account of the Profits of his Chancery and here they begin their Audit Thus we see our New Reformers are entred but Sacriledge ushers them in they break open the Prisons and free the Saint in Bonds Baal when they had done what they came for the Citizens who had entertain'd them willingly leave their Houses to keep them Company a Council is called to resolve upon what Ground the next Storm should pour down London ever false to the Prince The Wood which no doubt would lodge the Wolves is set by their Orders Tyler the Idol who knew his Reign would last no longer than while these Men continued mad thought this the only place likely to keep them so London too was the fairest Mark and besides the Clowns were assured of a Welcome upon a private Invitation from some of the Citizens whose Ancestors and Predecessors in all Ages in the Tumults of the Confessor S. Edwards Reign in all the Barons Wars since have gained the Renown to be Lovers of Reformation otherwise pure Rebellion Enemies to Courtiers and Malignants Enemies to the Enemies of their dear Liberties which yet sometimes they pursue with too much Heat and blind Zeal sometimes to their Cost and Repentance mistaking every where both Notions and Things the Bridles which they without Fear or Wit provide for their Kings being often thrust into their own Mouths by the New Riders which themselves lift into the Saddle while they grown sober Mules dare neither kick nor fling Behold the common People says the Knight when they be up against their Prince and especially in England among them there is no Remedy for they are the perillousest People of the World and most outrageous if they be up and specially the Londoners says the Monk the Londoners never want Fury if they be not kept in if License or Infolence be permitted them The Princess Dowager of the incomparable Edward the black Prince Mother of the young King then at Canterbury hardly escapes these Savages who rudely assault her Chair and put her and her Ladies in no small Fear of â—…lany to be done to their Persons This Princess was so willing to be out of their reach that notwithstanding she was very fat and unwieldy she got to London in
when Justice flowed down from the Fountain in the ordinary Channel and which the Damm Head being thus troubled by this Wolf could flow no otherwise which was Authority sufficient by this Power Richards Captains must fight when he has them and kill those whom the Courts of Justice cannot deal with Tyler faints and shrinks to what he had been he was as cowardly as cruel and could not seem a Man in any thing but that he was a Thief and a Rebel He asks the brave Mayor in what he was offendedly him This was a strange Question to an honest Man he finds it so The Mayor says Froissart calls him false stinking Knave and tells him he shall not speak such Words in the Presence of his natural Lord the King The Mayor answers in full upon the accursed Sacrilegious Head of the Idol with his Sword He struck heartily and like a faithful zealous Subject Dagon of the Clowns sinks at his Feet The Kings Followers inviron him round Iohn Standish an Esquire of the Court alights and runs him into the Belly which thrust sent him into another World to accompany him who taught Rebellion and Murder first Event was then no Sign of a good Cause All History now brands him for a Traitor which by some will be attributed to his Miscarriage without Doubt had he prospered in the Work he had had all the Honours which goe along with Prosperity The King had been the wrong Doer and his Afflictions if nothing in so much Youth could have been found out had been Crimes we must over-power those whom we would make guilty Henry the Great of France under the Popes Interdict is told by a Gentleman Sir if we be overcome we shall dyne condemned Hereticks if your Majesty conquer the Censures shall be revoked they will fall of themselves He who reads the Mischiefs of his Usurpation will think he perished too late Now I come to an Act of Richards the most glorious of his History which the Annals past can no where parallel here his Infancy excells his after Man-hood Here and in the Gallantry of his Death he appears a full Prince and perhaps vies with all the Bays of his Usurpers Triumphs Alexander the Monarch of the World not more wondered at for his Victories than for that suppressing the Sedition of his Macedons in Asia tired and unable to march whither his Ambition carried him on Wings leaps from his Throne of State into the Battels of his Phalanges enraged seizes Thirteen of the Chief Malecontents and delivers them to the Custody of his Guards knows not what he should impute this Amazement of the Seditious to every Man returning upon it to his old Duty and Obedience and ready to yield himself up into the same Hands It might be says he the Veneration of the Majesty of Kings which the Nations submitted under Worship equally with the Gods or of himself which laid the Tempest That Confidence too of the Duke Alessandro of Parma in a Mutiny of the German Ruiters at Namurs is memorable who made his Way with his Sword alone through the Points of all their Lances into the middest of their Troops and brought thence by the Collar one of the Mutineers whom he commanded to be hang'd to the Terror of the rest The Youth of Richard begat rather Contempt than Reverence of which too these Clowns Breasts were never very full When the Fall of the Idol was known to the Rout they put themselves into a Posture of Defence thunder out nothing but Vengeance to the King and his whom they now arraign of Murder and Tyranny He is guilty of Innocent Blood a Tyrant a Traitor an Homicide the publick Enemy of the Common-wealth Richard Plantagenet is indicted in the Name of the People of England of Treason and other heinous Crimes He is now become less than Tylers Ghost a Traitor to the Free-born People His Treason was he would not destroy himself he would not open his Body to Tylers full Blow They roar out our Captain General is slain treacherously let us stand to it and revenge his precious Blood or dye with him I cannot pass this place without some little Wonder had these Ruffians with whom Kings hedged about by Holy Scripture and Laws Humane are neither Divine nor Sacred been asked whether Tyler the Idol of their own Clay and Hands might have been tryed touched or struck according to their resenting this Blow here Let his Tyrannies his Exorbitances have been what they would they would have answer'd no doubt in the Negative Though Richard might have been struck thorough and thorough Tyler who had usurped his Power must have been Sacred it must have been Treason to touch him Phocas must not be hurt In Tylers Case Straw would allow the old Text again The Powers were to be obeyed Their Bows were drawn when the King gallops up to them alonae and riding round the Throng asks them what Madness it was that armed them thus against their own Peace and his Life whether they would have no end of Things or Demands He tells them If Liberty be their only Aim as hitherto they have pretended they may assure themselves of it and that it is an extreme Folly to seek to make that our own with the Breach of Faith of Laws with Impieties violating God and Man which we may come by fairly But they trod not the Path to Liberty that where every Man commands no Man can be free the Liberty too they fancy cannot be had the World cannot subsist without Order and Subjection Men cannot be freed from Laws If they were there could be no Society no Civility any where Men must be shunned as much as Wolves or Bears Rapine and Blood-shed would over-run the World the Spoyler must fear the next Comer like savage Beasts who hurt others and know not it is ill to hurt them Men would devour Men the stronger Thief would swallow up the rest No Relations would be Sacred where every Man has the Power of the Sword the aged Sire could there be any such must defend his silver Hairs from the unnatural Violence of his own Sons He adds if there can be any just Cause of Sedition yet is the Sedition unjust which outlasts it which continues when the Cause is yielded to and taken away that if his Prerogative has been sometimes grievous his Taxes heavy and any of those they call evil Counsellors faulty they ought to remember in their first Risings and all along in all their Oaths and Covenants they swore continually not to invade the Monarchy nor touch the Rights of his free Crown You ought to remember your own Remonstrances you once declared that you acknowlegded the Maxim of the Law The King can doe no wrong if any ill be committed in Matters of State the Counsellors if in Matters of Law the Iudges must answer for it My Person was not to be violated He expects they should deal with him as the honest
Husbandman does in Overflows of Waters who clears and drains his Ground repairs the Banks but does not usurp upon the Stream does not inhance within the Channel and farther that quarrels to his Government and Laws are unreasonable from those who out of Ambition arm to overthrow both that Reformation is not the Work of Sedition which ever disorders what is well setled He conjures them to forsake these Furies who says he abuse their Lightness meerly for their own Ends whose Companions and Masters they were lately now are they but their Guards and that if they refuse a Subjection according to all Laws Divine and Humane to his Scepter they must become Slaves and Tributaries to their Iron to the Flails and Pitch-forks of some Mushroom of their own Dirt and that advancing their Mushroom thus upon his Power by the Ways of Force gives an Example to the next Tumults against themselves There can be no Safety for any new Power raised upon this Force the Obedience to that upon these Rules being limited and annexed to the Force and Success and to yield and give Way to the next Power visible which shall overbear it A way to thrust a Nation into a State of War continual Perjury and Impiety to the Worlds End This Realm as he goes on is my Inheritance which I took Possession of after the Death of my Grandfather being a Child and did I claim only by your Gift which I shall never grant yet are not you free to make a new Choice you are bound to me by Oaths and Compacts and no Right of new Complyance or Submission can be left you to transfer He concludes That Despair was a dangerous Sin which would drive them head-long to Destruction that whatsoever their Offences had been they were not above his Mercy He bids them not trouble themselves for Tyler a base Fellow who thrust them into Dangers and blew them into a Storm to raise himself upon the Billows upon the Ruins of his Country He promises to lead them he will be their Captain if they will follow him he will please them in all their Desires This he spake to draw them off farther into Smithfield fearing they would again fall to burning of Houses They now wanted their Devil who possessed them and being in Doubt whether they should kill the King or return Home with his Charters there being no Incendiary to command follow the King in Suspence Baal and Straw about this time amazed at the Idol's Fall lose Courage and slip away In the mean time the stout Mayor spurs to the City with one Servant where in a few Words he acquaints the Citizens with the Kings Peril and his own and requests their sudden Assistance if not for himself for the King who says he is in Danger now to be murthered Some Loyal Hearts some good Men of the Kings Party arm and joyn to the Number of one Thousand and range themselves in the Street expecting some of the Cavaliers of the Kings Knights to conduct them resolved either to overcome or not to fear the Conquerors Sir Robert Knowles a renowned Commander in the French Wars of the King's Grandfather called falsly Canol by Polydore and others undertakes this Charge Sir Perducas D'Albret called D'Albreth a Noble Gascoign and a Commander too in those Wars Nicholas Brembre the Kings Draper and other Aldermen come in with their Levies and march to the King in sight of the Rebels There the King knights the brave Wil Walworth Iohn Standish one of his Esquires Nicholas Brembre Iohn Philpot 'a most generous Citizen famous for his faithful Service to his Prince in the times succeeding and others The Nobility about the King desire him to strike off an hundred or two of the Clowns Heads in Revenge of the Injuries and Infamy they had received from them Sir Robert Knowls would have him fall on and cut them all to pieces The King dislikes both these Counsels He says many of these unhappy Men were awed to side without either Malice to his Person or Power and that if the first Advice were taken the most Innocent might be punished and the Guilty scape If the Second the very Rebel and the Counterfeit the forced one must be swallowed up together which was high Injustice Yet were there many of these Rebels called to an Account and their Acts of Blood Rapine and Burning cost them dear but these Acts of theirs done against Law were punished Legally upon the finding of Juries when the Tumults were composed Which was fair and handsome and shew the Honourable Justice of our King All that was done against them that Night was to forbid the Citizens by Proclamation to entertain any of these Men in the City or communicate with them and to command all Men who had not dwelt there for one Year before to depart So far was the young King from approving the Cruelty of the late Counsels that in the next Place he causes the Charters which he had promised them to be delivered Yet some may suppose this but a Pardon of Shew and the Pardon-piece of the Charters as well as the other part rather a Piece of Policy than any thing else the Countrys being yet Tumultuons the Clowns were upon their good Behaviour that was a Condition of their Pardon which they would not observe they commit new Outrages break the Kings Laws and pluck down the Vengeance of Justice upon their Heads afresh they did not give over their Mischiefs after their Return says Wals. By the King and his Counsel the Charters at extorted out of Force and Necessity were recalled and though the Meynie generally were pardoned the King again provoked staid but for a fit time to take Vengeance on the Ring-leaders and punish particular Offenders who could not be forgiven It being necessary in so desperate a Revolt for the Terror of others to make Examples of some such malicious Disturbers of the Peace as would never have been reclaimed The King 's Charters contained a Manumission of the Villains and Abolition of the Memory of what was past for the rest The Tenor says Walsingham of the Charters extorted from the King by Force was this he gives us only that of Hartfordshire the Province of his Monastery RIchard by the Grace of God King of England and of France Lord of Ireland To all his Bayliffs and others his Trusty to whom these Letters shall come greeting Know ye that we of our special Grace have made free all our Lieges and every of our Subjects of Hartfordshire and we free those and every of them from all Bondage and quit them by these Presents and also we pardon the same our Lieges and Subjects for all Fellonies Treasons Trespasses and Extortions by them or any of them in any wise done or committed and also every Outlary or Outlaries if any against them or any of them are or shall be published and our full Peace to them or any of them therefore we grant In witness
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
grow and prevail than one single good one There is a Proneness in unruly Man to run into Debauchments and no wonder that the arrogant misled silly Multitude capable of any ill Impressions should deprave and disorder things where all Ties of Restraint are loofened nay where Disorders are not only defended by the corrupt Wits of Hirelings but bidden strengthened by a Law and Villanies made legal Acts. Had the Idol King Tyler with his Council not gone on too far in the Way of Extermination but endeavoured to repair the Breaches of his Entrance it would have been no small Labour to have restored things to any mean and tolerable Condition if Presbyter Wickliff and his Classes by their pernicious Doctrines as they are charged to this Day did first pervert and corrupt the People and broach that Vessel with which Father Baal and Straw poysoned them they must have ruined themselves by the Change sure enough they had been no more comprehended in any of Tylers Toleration than the Prelatical or Papistical Party In the Turmoils and Outrages of this Tyranny had it taken Innocence Virtue Ingenuity Honesty Faith Learning and Goodness had been odious and dangerous The Profit and Advantage of the new Usurpers had been the Measure of Justice and Right The Noble and Ignoble had died Streets and Scaffolds with their Blood not by Laws and Judgment but out of Malice to their Height and Worth out of Fury and Covetousness to enrich publich Thieves and Murtherers The Jealousies too and Fears of Tyler had made all Men unsafe Yet the Repute the Renown of the Founders could not have been much The Glory of Success cannot be greater than the Honesty of the Enterprise there must be Justice in the Quarrel else there can be no true Honour in the Prosperity Cato will love the conquered Common-wealth Iugurtha's Fame who is said to be Illustrious for his Parricides and Rapines will not make all Men fall down and worship On Munday the Fifteenth of Iuly not of October as Walsingham is mis-printed the Chief Justice Tresilian calls before him the Jury for Inquiry who faulter and shamelesly protest they cannot make any such Discovery as is desired The Chief Justice puts them in Mind of the Kings Words to them upon the Way promising Pardon if they will find out the Offenders else threatning them with the Punishment they should have suffered who through such Silence cannot be apprehended Out they go again and the Chief Justice follows them He shews them a Roll of the principal Offenders Names tells them they must not think to delude and blind the Court with this Impudence and advises them out of a Care to preserve wicked Mens Lives not to hazard their own Hereupon they indict many of the Town and Country which Indictments are allowed by a second Inquest appointed to bring in the Verdict and again affirmed by a third Jury of Twelve charged only for the Fairness of the Tryal So no Man was pronounced guilty but upon the finding of thirty six Jurors Then were the Lieutenants Greyndcob Cadindon and Barber and twelve more condemned Drawn and Hanged Wallingford Iohn Garleck William Berewill Thomas Putor and many more with Eighty of the Country were Indicted by their Neighbours and Imprisoned but forgiven by the King's Mercy and discharged They were forgiven most by the Kings Mercy for he had forbidden by Proclamation all Men to sue or beg for them a Command which the good Abbot sometimes disobeyed and he shall be well thanked for it No Benefits can oblige some Men A true rugged Churl can never be made fast never be tyed by any Merit whatsoever Nothing can soften him See an unheard of Shamelesness till then These lazie tender-hearted Clowns who could hardly be got to discover the Guilty now run with full Speed to betray the Innocent They indict the Abbot as the principal Raiser and Contriver of these Tumults which struck at his own Life and the Being and Safety of his Monastery The Abbot as it is said sent to Tyler upon his Ordinances some of the Town and Monastery but to temporize and secure himself This is now supposed by the very Traitors indeed Treason by Common Law and Statute against the King his Natural Liege Lord. This having not the Fear of God in his Heart c. but being seduced by the Instigation of the Devil is compassing the Death c. the Deprivation and deposing of his Soveraign Lord from his Royal State c. as such Indictments use to run This must goe for levying War against the Lord the King adhering to comforting and aiding his Enemies by open Fact Which are the Words of the Statute of Treason declarative of the Common Law The Chief Justice abominating and cursing the treacherous Malice and Perfidiousness of these Brutes makes them tear the Indictment which themselves though urged are not wicked enough to swear to nay which publickly they confess to be false in the Face of the Court. Villeinage was not now abolished though some think otherwise but by Degrees extinguished since this Reign Besides the Letters of Revocation before restoring all things to their old Course a Commission which the Abbot procured from the King out of the Chancery then kept in the Chapter-house of this Monastery makes this manifest which speaks to this Effect RIchard by the Grace of God King of England and of France and Lord of Ireland c. To his Beloved John Lodowick John Westwycomb c. We command you and every of you upon Sight of these Presents c. That on our Part forthwith ye cause to be proclaimed That all and singular the Tenants of our Beloved in Christ the Abbot of S. Albans as well free as bond the Works Customs and Services which they to the foresaid Abbot ought to do and of ancient Time have been accustomed to perform without any Contradiction murmur c. Do as before they have been accustomed The Disobedient are commanded to be taken and Imprisoned as Rebels In the Time of King Henry the Seventh there were Villains This I observe to make it appear how little it is which the miserable Common People without whom no famous Mischief can be attained are Gainers by any of their Riots or Seditions whatsoever the Changes are their Condition is still the same or worse If some few of them advance themselves by the Spoils of the publick Shipwrack the rest are no happier for it the insolent Sight offends their Eyes they see the Dirt of their own Ditches lord it over them and the Body of them perhaps more despised than ever Tyler who could not but have known that nothing can be so Destructive to Government as the Licentiousness of the base Commons would doubtless when his own Work had been done quickly have chained up the Monster he would have perched in the Kings sacred Oak all the Forrest should have been his Bishopricks Earldoms nay the Kingdoms had been swallowed by him Instead of a