and distrusting all Parliamentary Advice to take Counsel from themselves from France and from Necessity And in the meane time they fomented all the Jealousies which they caused They continued to inculcate Forty and One in Court and Country Those that refused all the mony they demanded were to be the onely Recusants and all that asserted the Libertyes of the Nation were to be reckoned in the Classis of Presbyterians The 13th of October came and his Majesty now asked not only a Supply for his building of Ships as formerly but further to take off the Anticipation upon his Revenue The House of Commons took up again such Publick Bills as they had on foot in their former sitting and others that might either Remedy Present or Prevent Future Mischiefs The Bill for Habeas Corpus That against sending men Prisoners beyond Sea That against raising Mony without Consent of Parliament That against Papists sitting in either House Another Act for speedier convicting of Papists That for recalling his Mejestys Subjects out of the French service c And as to his Majestys supply they proceeded in their former Method of the two Bills One for raising 300000 l. and the other for Appropriating the Tunnage and Poundage to the use of the Navy And in the Lords House there was a good disposition toward things of Publick Interest But 300000 l. was so insipid a thing to those who had been continually regaled with Millions and that Act of Appropriation with some others went so much against stomack that there wanted only an opportunity to reject them and that which was readiest at hand was the late quarrel betwixt the House of Lords and the Commons The house of Commons did now more peremptorily then ever oppose the Lords Jurisdiction in Appeals The Lords on the otherside were resolved not to depart from so essentiall a Priviledge and Authority but to proceed in the Exercise of it So that this Dispute was raised to a greater Ardure and Contention then ever and there appeared no way of accomodation Hereupon the Lords were in consultation for an Addresse to his Majesty conteining many weighty Reasons for his Majestyes dissolving this Parliament deduced from the nature and behaviour of the present House of Commons But his Majesty although the transaction between the two Houses was at present become impracticable Judging that this House might at some other time be of use to him chose only to Prorogue the Parliament The blame of it was not onely laid but aggravated upon those in both Houses but especially on the Lords-House who had most vigorously opposed the French and Popish-Jnterest But those who were present at the Lords and observed the conduct of the Great Ministers there conceived of it otherwise And as to the House of Commons who in the heat of the Contest had Voted That vvhosoever shall Sollicity or prosecute any Appeal against any Commoner of England from any Court of Equity before the House of Lords shall be deemed and taken abetrayer of the Rights and Liberties of the Commons of England and shall be proceeded against accordingly Their Speaker going thorow VVestminster Hall to the House and looking down upon some of those Lawyers commanded his Mace to seize them and led them up Prisoners with him which it is presumed that he being of his Majesties Privie Councill would not have done but for what some men call his Majesties Service And yet it was the highest this of all the Provocations which the Lords had received in this Controversie But however this fault ought to be divided there was a greater committed in Proroguing the Parliament from the 22th of November 1675 unto the 15th of February 1676. And holding it after that dismission there being no Record of any such thing done since the being of Parliaments in England and the whole Reason of Law no lesse then the Practise and Custome holding Contrary This vast space betwixt the meetings of Parliament cannot more properly be filled up then with the coherence of those things abroad and at home that those that are intelligent may observe whether the Conspirators found any interruption or did not rather sute this event also to the Continuance of their Counsells The Earl of Northampton is not to be esteemed as one engaged in those Counsells being a person of too great Honour though the advanceing of him to be Constable of the Tovver was the first of our Domestick occurrents But if they could have any hand in it 't is more probable that lest he might perceive their Contrivances they apparelled him in so much Wall to have made him insensible However men conjectured even then by the Quality of the Keeper that he was not to be disparaged with any mean and vulgar Prisoners But another thing was all along very remarkable That during this Inter-Parliament there were five Judges places either fell or were made vacant for it was some while before that Sir Francis North had been created Lord Cheif Justice of the Common Pleas the five that succeeded were Sir Richard Rainsford Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench. Mountagne Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer Vere Bartie Barrister at Law one of the Barrons of the Exchequer Sir William Scroggs one of the Justices of the Common Pleas. And Sir Thomas Jones one of the Justices of the Kings Bench. Concerning all whom there it somthing too much to be said and it is not out of a figure of speech but for meer reverence of their Profession that I thus passe it over considering also humane infirmity and that they are all by their Pattens Durante Bene Placito bound as it were to the Good Behaviour And it is a shame to think what triviall and to say the best of them obscure persons have and do stand next in prospect to come and sit by them Justice Atknis also by Warping too far towards the Laws was in danger upon another pretense to have made way for some of them but upon true Repentance and Contrition with some Almes Deeds was admitted to Mercy And all the rest of the Benches will doubtlesse have profited much by his and some other example Alas the Wisdom and Probity of the Law went of for the most part with good Sir Mathevv Hales and Justice is made a meere property This poysonous Arrow strikes to the very heart of Government and could come from no Quiver but that of the Conspirators What French Counsell what standing Forces what Parliamentary Bribes what National Oaths and all the other Machinations of wicked men have not yet been able to effect may be more compendiously Acted by twelve Judges in Scarlet The next thing considerable that appeared preparatory for the next session was a Book that came out by publick Authority Intitled Considerations touching the true vvay to suppresse Popery c. A very good design and writ I beleive by a very good man but under some mistakes which are not to be passed over One in the Preface wherein he
for the supplying of the said Vacancy and to be placed in such Order as the said Prelates so assembled or the major part of them shall think fit without regard to dignity antiquity or any other form which Writing shall be presented to the King who may thereupon appoint one of the three persous so to be named to succeed in the said Vacancy And the person so appointed or chosen shall by due form of Law according to the course now used be made Bishop of that See But if in 30 days after such presentment of such Names the King or Queen Regnant shall not Elect or appoint which of the said three persons shall succeed in the said vacant See or if after such Election or appointment there shall be any obstruction in pressing of the usual Instruments and formalities of Law in order to his Consecration then such person whose Name shall be first written in the said Instrument of nomination if there be no Election or appointment made by the King within the time aforesaid shal be the Bishop of the vacant See And if there be an Election or appointment made then the person so appointed shall be the Bishop of the vacant See And the Arch-bishop of the Province wherein the said vacancy shall be or such other person or persons who ought by his Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws to Consecrate the said Bishop shall upon reasonable demand and are hereby required to make Consecration accordingly upon pain of forfeiting trebble damages and costs to the party grieved to be recovered in any of his Majesties Courts at Westminster And immediately after such Consecration the person so consecrated shall be and is hereby Enacted to be compleat Bishop of the said vacant See and is hereby vested in the Temporalties of the said Bishop-prick and in actual possession thereof to all intents and purposes and shall have a Seat and Place in Parliament as if he had by due forms of Law been made Bishop and had the Temporalities restored unto him And in case the person so first named in the said Instrument of nomination or the person so Elected by the King or Queen Regnant shall then be a Bishop so that no Consecration be requisite then immediately after default of Election or appointment by the King or immediately after such Election or appointment if any shall be made within the said time and any Obstructions in pressing the Instruments and Formalities in Law in such cases used the Bishop so first Named or Elected and appointed shall thereupon ipso facto be translated and become Bishop of that See to which he was so nominated and appointed and shall be and is hereby vested in the Temporalties and actual possession thereof to all intents and purposes and shall have his Seat and Place in Parliament accordingly and his former See shall become vacant as if he had been by due Forms of Law chosen and confirmed into the same and had the Temporalities restored unto him And be it further Enacted That until the making the said Oath and Declaration in manner aforesaid the respective succeeding Kings and Queens that shall not have made and subscribed the same shall not grant or dispose of any Denary or Arch-Deconary Prebendary Mastership of any Colledge Parsonage Viccarage or any Ecclesiastical Benefice or Promotion whatsoever to any other person but such person as shall be nominated for the same unto the said King or Queen Regnant by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury or Guardians of the Spiritualities of the said Arch-bishop-prick for the time being if the same be within the Province of Canterbury and by the Arch-bishop-prick of York or Guardians of the spiritualities of the said Arch-bishop-prick for the time being if the same be within the Province of York by writing under their respective Hands and Seals and in case any such as shall be accordingly nominated shall not be able to obtein Presentation or grant thereof within 30 dayes next after such nomination then the said person shall and may and is hereby enabled by force of the said nomination to require Institution and Induction from such person and persons unto whom it shall belong to grant the same who shall accordingly make Institution and Induction as if the said person were lawfully presented by the said King or Queen Regnant upon pain to forfeit to the party grieved trebble damages and costs to be recovered in any of his Majesties Courts at VVestminster and in cases where no Institution or Induction is requisite the said person so nominated from and after the end of the said 30 dayes shall be and is hereby actually vested in the possession of such Denary Arch-Deaconary Prebendary Mastership Rectory Parsonage or Vicarage Donative or other Ecclefiastical Benefice or Promotion and shall be full and absolute proprietor and Incumbent thereof to all Intents and Purposes as if he had obteyned possession therof upon a legall grant by the said King or Queen Regnant and proceeding thereupon in due form of Law Provided always and be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That it shall and may be lawful for the Lord High Chancellor of England or the Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England for the time being to pass presentations or grants to any Ecclesiastical Benefice under value in the Kings Gift in such manner as hath been accustomed any thing in this present Act to the contrary notwithstanding And be it further Enacted That during such time as any King or Queen Regnant shall be under the said fourteen yeares no person that shall be Lord Protector or Regent of this Realme During such minority shall in any wise either in the name of the King or Queen Regnant or in his own name grant confer or dispose of any Arch-Bishop-prick Bishoprik Deanary Prebendary Master-ship of any Colledge Personage Vicarage or other Ecclesiastical Benefice or Promotion whatsoever but the same shall be disposed of in manner above mentioned during such miniority untill such Lord Protector or Regent shall make and subscribe the said Oath and Declaration mutatis mutandis before such nine or more of the said Prelates as he shall call to Administer the same unto him which Oath and Declaration they are hereby Authorized and required to Administer under the penaltyes aforesaid when they shall be called thereunto by such Lord Protector or Regent for the time being And be it further Enacted That the Children of such succeeding King or Queen Regnant that shall not have made and subscribed the Oath and Declaration in manner aforsaid shall from their respective Ages of seven years untill the respective Ages of fourteen yeares to be under the care and goverment of the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York and Bishop of London Durham and VVinchester for the time being who are hereby enjoyned and required to take care that they be well instructed and Educated in the true Protestant Religion as it is now Established by Law and to the Intent that the Arch-Bishops and Bishops for the time being
An Account of the GROWTH OF POPERY AND Arbitrary Government IN ENGLAND More Particularly from the Long Prorogation of November 1675 Ending the 15th of February 1676 till the Last Meeting of Parliament the 16th of July 1677. AMSTERDAM Printed in the Year 1677. An account of the Growth of POPERY and Arbitrary Government in England c. THere has now for diverse Years a design been carried on to change the Lawfull Government of England into an Absolute Tyranny and to convert the established Protestant Religion into down-right Popery than both which nothing can be more destructive or contrary to the Interest and Happinesse to the Constitution and Being of the King and Kingdom For if first we consider the State the Kings of England Rule not upon the same terms with those of our neighbour Nations who having by force or by adresse usurped that due share which their People had in the Government are now for some Ages in possession of an Arbitrary Power which yet no Presciption can make Legall and exercise it over their persons and estates in a most Tyrannical manner But here the Subjects retain their proportion in the Legislature the very meanest Commoner of England is represented in Parliament and is a party to those Laws by which the Prince is sworn to Govern himself and his people No Mony is to be levied but by the common consent No than is for Life Limb Goods or Liberty at the Soveraigns discretion but we have the same Right modestly understood in our Propriety that the Prince hath in his Regality and in all Cases where the King is concerned we have our just remedy as against any private person of the neighbourhood in the Courts of Westminster Hall or in the High Court of Parliament His very Prerogative is no more then what the Law has determined His Broad Seal which is the Legitimate stamp of his pleasure yet is no longer currant than upon the Trial it is found to be Legal He cannot commit any person by his particular warrant He cannot himself be witnesse in any cause the Ballance of Publick Justice being so dellicate that not the hand only but even the breath of the Prince would turn the scale Nothing is left to the Kings will but all is subjected to his Authority by which means it follows that he can do no wrong nor can he receive wrong and a King of England keeping to these measures may without arrogance be said to remain the onely Intelligent Ruler over a Rational People In recompense therefore and acknowledgment of so good a Government under his influence his Person is most sacred and inviolable and whatsoever excesses are committed against so high a trust nothing of them is imputed to him as being free from the necessity or temptation but his Ministers only are accountable for all and must answer it at their perills He hath a vast Revenue constantly arising from the Hearth of the Housholder the Sweat of the Laboures the Rent of the Farmer the Industry of the Merchant and consequently out of the Estate of the Gentleman a larg competence to defray the ordinary expense of the Crown and maintain its lustre And if any extraordinary occasion happen or be but with any probable decency pretended the whole Land at whatsoever season of the year does yield him a plentifull Harvest So forward are his Peoples affections to give even to superfluity that a Forainer or English man that hath been long abroad would think they could neither will nor chuse but that the asking of a supply were a meer formality it is so readily granted He is the Fountain of all Honours and has moreover the distribution of so many profitable Offices of the Houshold of the Revenue of State of Law of Religion of the Navy and since his persent Majesties time of the Army that it seems as if the Nation could scarse furnish honest men enow to supply all those imployments So that the Kings of England are in nothing inferiour to other Princes save in being more abridged from injuring their own subjects But have as large a field as any of external felicity wherein to exercise their own Virtue and so reward and incourage it in others In short there is nothing that comes nearer in Government to the Divine Perfection then where the Monarch as with us injoys a capacity of doing all the good imaginable to mankind under a disability to all that is evil And as we are thus happy in the Constitution of our State so are we yet more blessed in that of our Church being free from that Romish Yoak which so great a part of Christendome do yet draw and labour under That Popery is such a thing as cannot but for want of a word to express it be called a Religion nor is it to be mentioned with that civility which is otherwise decent to be used in speaking of the differences of humane opinion about Divine Matters Were it either open Judaisine or plain Turkery or honest Paganisme there is yet a certain Bona fides in the most extravagant Belief and the sincerity of an erroneous Profession may render it more pardonable but this is a compound of all the three an extract of whatsoever is most ridiculous and impious in them incorporated with more peculiar absurdityes of its own in which those were deficient and all this deliberately contrived knowingly carried on by the bold imposture of Priests under the name of Christianity The wisdom of this fifth Religion this last and insolentest attempt uppon the credulity of mankind seems to me though not ignorant otherwise of the times degrees and methods of its progresse principally to have consisted in their owning the Scriptures to be the word of God and the Rule of Faith and Manners but in prohibiting of the same time their common use or the reading of them in publick Churches but in a Latine translation to the vulgar there being no better or more rational way to frustrate the very design of the great Institutor of Christianity who first planted it by the extraordinary gift of Tongues then to forbid the use even of the ordinary languages For having thus a book which is universally avowed to be of Divine Authority but sequestring it only into such hands as were intrusted in the cheat they had the opportunity to vitiate suppresse or interpret to their own profit those Records by which the poor People hold their salvation And this necessary point being once gained there was thence forward nothing so monstrous to reason so abhorring from morality or so contrary to scripture which they might not in prudence adventure on The Idolatry for alas it is neither better nor worse of adoring and praying to Saints and Angels of worshipping Pictures Images and Reliques Incredible Miracles and plapable Fables to promote that veneration The whole Liturgy and Worship of the Blessed Virgin The saying of Pater Nosters and Creeds to the honour of Saints and of Ave Mary's too not
opposed any such pretension But some of them at last growing wiser by foisting a counterfeit Donation of Constantine and wresting another Donation from our Saviour advanced themselves in a weak ignorant and credulous Age to that Temporal and Spiritual Principality that they are now seised of Tues Petrus super hanc Petram adificabo Ecclesiam meam Never was a Bishop-prick and a Verse of Scripture so improved by good management Thus by exercising in the quality of Christs Uicar the publick function under an invisible Prince the Pope like the Maires of the Palace hath set his master aside and delivered the Government over to a new Line of Papal Succession But who can unlesse wilfully be ignorant what wretched doings what Bribery what Ambition there are how long the Church is without an Head upon every Vacancy till among the crew of bandying Cardinalls the Holy Ghost have declared for a Pope of the French or Spanish Faction It is a sucession like that of the Egyptian Ox the living Idol of that Country who dying or being made away by the Priests there was a solemn and general mourning for want of a Deity until in their Conclave they had found out another Beast with the very same marks as the former whom then they themselvs adored and with great Jubilee brought forth to the People to worship Nor was that Election a grosser reproach to human Reason then this is also to Christianity Surely it is the greatest Miracle of the Romish Church that it should still continue and that in all this time the Gates of Heaven should not prevaile against it It is almost unconceivable how Princes can yet suffer a Power so pernicious and Doctrine so destructive to all Government That so great a part of the Land should be alienated and condemned to as they call it Pious Uses That such millions of their People as the Clergy should by remaining unmarryed either frustrate humane nature if they live chastly or if otherwise adulterate it That they should be priviledged from all labour all publick service and exempt from the power of all Secular Jurisdiction That they being all bound by strict Oaths and Vows of Obedience to the Pope should evacuate the Fealty due to the Soveraign Nay that not only the Clergy but their whole People if of the Romish preswasion should be obliged to rebel at any time upon the Popes pleasure And yet how many of the Neighbouring Princes are content or do chuse to reign upon those conditions which being so dishonorable and dangerous surely some great and more weighty reason does cause them submit to Whether it be out of personal fear having heard perhaps of several attempts which the blind obedience of Popish Zelotes hath executed against their Princes Or whether aiming at a more absolute and tyrannical Government they think it still to be the case of Boniface and Phocas an usurping Emperour and an usurping Bishop and that as other Cheats this also is best to be managed by Confederacy But as farre as I can apprehend there is more of Sloth then Policy on the Princes side in this whole matter and all that pretense of inslaving men by the assistance of Religion more easily is neither more nor lesse then when the Bramine by having the first night of the Bride assures himself of her devotion for the future and makes her more fit for the husband This reflection upon the state of our Neighbours in aspect to Religion doth sufficiently illustrate our happinesse and spare me the labour of describing it further then by the Rule of Contraryes Our Church standing upon all points in a direct opposition to all the forementioned errours Our Doctrine being true to the Principles of the first Christian institution and Episcopacy being formed upon the Primitive Model and no Ecclesiastical Power jostling the Civil but all concurring in common obedience to the Soveraign Nor therefore is their any whether Prince or Nation that can with less probability be reduced back to the Romish perswasion than ours of England For if first we respect our Obedience to God what appearance is there that after so durable and general an enlightning of our minds with the sacred Truth we should again put out our own Eyes to wander thorow the palpable darkness of that gross Superstition But forasmuch as most men are less concern'd for their Interest in Heaven than on Earth this seeming the nearer and more certain on this account also our alteration from the Protestant Religion is the more impossible When beside the common ill examples and consequences of Popery observable abroad whereby we might grow wise at the expense of our Neighbours we cannot but reflect upon our own Experiments at home which would make even fools docible The whole Reign of Queen Mary in which the Papists made Fewel of the Protestants The Excommunicating and Deprivation of Queen Elizabeth by the Pope pursued with so many Treasons and attempts upon her Person by her own Subjects and the Invasion in Eighty-Eight by the Spanish The two Breves of the Pope in order to exclude King James from the Succession to the Crown seconded by the Gunpovvder-Treason In the time of his late Majesty King Charles the first besides what they contributed to the Civil War in England the Rebellion and horrid Massacre in Ireland and which was even worse than that their pretending that it was done by the Kings Commission and vouching the Broad Seal for their Authority The Popes Nuncio assuming nevertheless and exercising there the Temporal as well as Spiritual Power granting out Commissions under his own Hand breaking the Treatys of Peace between the King and as they then styled themselves the Confederate Catholicks heading two Armies against the Marquess of Ormond then Lord Lieutenant and forcing him at last to quit the Kingdom all which ended in the Ruine of his Majesties Reputation Government and Person which but upon occasion of that Rebellion could never have happened So that we may reckon the Reigns of our late Princes by a succession of the Popish Treasons against them And if under his present Majesty we have as yet seen no more visible effects of the same spirit than the Firing of London acted by Hubert hired by Pieddelou two French-men which remains a Controverfie it is not to be attributed to the good nature or better Principles of that Sect but to the wisdom of his Holyness who observes that we are not of late so dangerous Protestants as to deserve any special mark of his Indignation but that we may be made better use of to the weakning of those that are of our own Religion and that if he do not disturbe us there are those among our selves that are leading us into a fair way of Reconciliation with him But those continued fresh Instances in relation to the Crown together with the Popes claim of the Temporal and immediate Dominion of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland which he does so challenge are a
sufficient caution to the Kings of England and of the People there is as little hopes to seduce them the Protestant Religion being so interwoven as it is with their Secular Interest For the Lands that were formerly given to superstitious uses having first been applyed to the Publick Revenue and afterwards by severall Alienations and Contracts distributed into private possession the alteration of Religion would necessarily introduce a change of Property Nullum tempus occurrit Ecelesiae it would make a general Earth-quake over the nation and even now the Romish Clergy on the other side of the water snuffe up the savoury odour of so many rich Abbies and Monasteries that belonged to their predecessors Hereby no considerably Estate in England but must have a piece torn out of it upon the Titile of Piety and the rest subject to be wholly forfeited upon the account of Heresy Another Chimny mony of the old Peter pence must again be payed as tribute to the Pope beside that which is established on his Majesty and the People instead of those moderate Tithes that are with too much difficulty payed to their Protestant Pastors will be exposed to all the exactions of the Court of Rome and a thousand artifices by which in former times they were used to draine away the wealth of ours more then any other Nation So that in conclusion there is no English-man that hath a Soul a Body or an Estate to save that Loves either God his King or his Country but is by all those Tenures bound to the best of his Power and Knowledge to maintaine the established Protestant Religion And yet all this notwithstanding there are those men among us who have undertaken and do make it their businesse under so Legal and perfect a Government to introduce a French slavery and instead of so pure a Religion to establish the Roman Idolatry both and either of which are Crimes of the Highest nature For as to matter of Government if to murther the King be as certainly it is a Fact so horred how much more hainous is it to assassinate the Kingdome And as none will deny that to alter our Monarchy into a Commonvvealth were Treason so by the same Fundamenttal Rule the Crime is no lesse to make that Monarchy Absolute What is thus true in regard of the State holds as well in reference to our Religion Former Parliaments have made it Treason in whosoever shall attempt to seduce any one the meanest of the Kings subjects to the Church of Rome And this Parliament hath to all penalties by the Common or Statute Law added incapacity for any man who shall presume to say that the King is a Papist or an Introducer of Popery But what lawless and incapable miscreants then what wicked Traytors are those wretched men who endevour to pervert our whole Church and to bring that about in effect which even to mention is penal at one Italian stroke attempting to subvert the Government and Religion to kill the Body and damn the Soul of our Nation Yet were these men honest old Cavaliers that had suffered in his late Majesties service it were allowable in them as oft as their wounds brake out at Spring or Fall to think of a more Arbitrary Government as a soveraign Balsom for their Aches or to imagine that no Weapon-salve but of the Moss that grows on an Enemies Skul could cure them Should they mistake this Long Parliament also for Rebells and that although all Circumstances be altered there were still the same necessity to fight it all over again in pure Loyalty yet their Age and the Times they have lived in might excuse them But those worthy Gentlemen are too Generous too good Christians and Subjects too affectionate to the good English Government to be capable of such an Impression Whereas these Conspiratours are such as have not one drop of Cavalier Blood or no Bovvels at least of a Cavalier in them but have starved them to Revel and Surfet upon their Calamities making their Persons and the very Cause by pretending to it themselves almost Ridiculous Or were these Conspiratours on the other side but avowed Papists they were the more honest the less dangerous and the Religion were answerable for the Errours they might commit in order to promote it Who is there but must acknowledge if he do not commend the Ingenuity or by what better Name I may call it of Sir Thomas Strickland Lord Bellassis the late Lord Clifford and others eminent in their several stations These having so long appeared the most zealous Sons of our Church yet as soon as the late Test against Popery was inacted tooke up the Crosse quitted their present imployments and all hopes of the future rather then falsify their opinion though otherwise men for Quality Estate and Abilityes whether in Warre or Peace as capable and well deserving without disparagement as others that have the art to continue in Offices And above all his Royal Highnesse is to be admired for his unparallelled magnanimity on the same account there being in all history perhaps no Record of any Prince that ever changed his Religion in his circumstances But these persons that have since taken the worke in hand are such as ly under no temptation of Religion secure men that are above either Honour or Consciencs but obliged by all the most sacred tyes of Malice and Ambition to advance the ruine of the King and Kingdome and qualified much better then others under the name of good Protestants to effect it And because it was yet difficult to find Complices enough at home that were ripe for so black a desing but they wanted a Back for their Edge therefore they applyed themselves to France that King being indowed with all those qualityes which in a Prince may passe for Virtues but in any private man would be capital and moreover so abounding in wealth that no man else could go to the price of their wickednesse To which Considerations adding that he is the Master of Absolute Dominion the Presumptive Monarch of Christendom the declared Champion of Popery and the hereditary natural inveterate Enemy of our King and Nation he was in all respects the most likely of all Earthly Powers to reward and support them in a Project every way suitable to his one Inclination and Interest And now should I enter into a particular retaile of all former and latter Transactions relating to this affaire there would be sufficient for a just Volume of History But my intention is onely to write a naked Narrative of some the most considerable passages in the meeting of Parliament the 15 of Febr. 1676. Such as have come to my notice which may serve for matter to some stronger Pen and to such as have more leisure and further opportunity to discover and communicate to the Publick This in the mean time will by the Progresse made in so few weeks demonstrate at what rate these men drive over the necks of King
dealt with him in all things most frankly That notwithstanding all the Expressions in my Lord Keeper Bridgmans Speech of the Treaty betvveen France and his Majesty concerning Commerce vvherein his Majesty vvill have a singular regard to the Honour and also to the Trade of this Nation and notwithstanding the intollerable oppressions upon the English Traffick in France ever since the Kings Restauration they had not in all that time made one step towards a Treaty of Commerce or Navigation with him no not even now when the English were so necessary to him that he could not have begun this War without them and might probably therefore in this conjuncture have condescended to some equality But they knew how tender that King was on that point and to preserve and encrease the Trade of his Subjects and that it was by the Diminution of that Beam of his Glory that the Hollanders had raised his Indignation The Conspirators had therefore the more to gratify him made it their constant Maxime to burden the English Merchant here with one hand while the French should load them no less with the other in his Teritories which was a parity of Trade indeed though something an extravagant one but the best that could be hoped from the prudence and integrity of our States-men insomuch that when the Merchants have at any time come down from London to represent their grievances from the French to seek redress or offer their humble adviâ—…e they were Hector'd Brow-beaten Ridiculed and might have found fairer audience even from Monsieur Colbert They knew moreover that as in the matter of Commerce so they had more obliged him in this War That except the irresistable bounties of so great a Prince in their own particular and a frugal Subsistance-money for the Fleet they had put him to no charges but the English Navy Royal serv'd him like so many Privateers No Purchase No Pay That in all things they had acted with him upon the most abstracted Principles of Generosity They had tyed him to no terms had demanded no Partition of Conquests had made no humane Condition but had sold all to him for those two Pearls of price the True Worship and the True Government Which disinteressed proceeding of theirs though suited to Forraine Magnanimity yet should we still lose at Sea as we had hitherto and the French Conquer all at Land as it was in prospect might at one time or other breed some difficulty in answering for it to the King and Kingdom However this were it had so hapned before the arrival of the Plenipotentiaries that whereas here in England all that brought applycations from Holland were treated as Spies and Enemies till the French King should signify his pleasure he on the contrary without any communication here had received Addresses from the Dutch Plenipotentiaries and given in to them the sum of his Demands not once mentioning his Majesty or his Interest which indeed he could not have done unless for mockery having demanded all for himself so that there was no place left to have made the English any satisfaction and the French Ministers therefore did very candidly acquaint those of Holland that upon their accepting those Articles there should be a firm Peace and Amity restored But as for England the States their Masters might use their discretion for that France was not obliged by any Treaty to procure their advantage This manner of dealing might probably have animated as it did warrant the English Plenipotentiaries had they been as full of Resolution as of Power to have closed with the Dutch who out of aversion to the French and their intollerable demands were ready to have thrown themselves into his Majesties Armes or at his Feet upon any reasonable conditions But it wrought clean otherwise For those of the English Plenipotentiaries who were it seems intrusted with a fuller Authority and the deeper Secret gave in also the English Demands to the Hollanders consisting in eight Articles but at last the Ninth saith Although his Majesty contents himself vvith the foregoing Conditions so that they be accepted vvithin ten dayes after vvhich his Majesty understands himself to be no further obliged by them He declares nevertheless precisely that albeit they should all of them be granted by the said States yet they shall be of no force nor vvill his Majesty maâ—…e any Treaty of Peace or Truce unless the Most Christian King shall have received satisfastion from the said States in his particular And by this means they made it impossible for the Dutch however desirous to comply with England excluded us from more advantagious terms than we could at any other time hope for and deprived us of an honest and honourable evasion out of so pernicious a War and from a more dangerous Alliance So that now it appeared by what was done that the Conspirtors securing their own fears at the price of the Publick Interest and Safety had bound us up more strait then ever by a new Treaty to the French Project The rest of this year passed with great successe to the French but none to the English And therefore the hopes upon which the War was begun of the Smyrna and Spanish Fleet and Dutch Prizes being vanished the slender Allowance from the French not sufficing to defray it and the ordinary Revenue of the King with all the former Aides being as was fit to be believed in lesse then one years time exhausted The Parliament by the Conspirators good leave was admitted again to sit at the day appointed the 4th of February 1672. The Warr was then first communicated to them and the Causes the Necessity the Danger so well Painted out that the Dutch abusive Historical Pictures and False Medalls which were not forgot to be mentioned could not be better imitated or revenged Onely there was one great omission of their False Pillars which upheld the whole Fabrick of the England Declarations Upon this signification the House of Commons who had never failed the Crown hitherto upon any occosion of mutual gratuity did now also though in a Warre contrary to former usuage begun without their Advice readily Vote no less a summe than 1250000 l. But for better Colour and least they should own in words what they did in effect they would not say it was for the Warre but for the Kings Extraordinary Occasions And because the Nation began now to be aware of the more true Causes for which the Warre had been undertaken they prepared an Act before the Money-Bill slipt thorrow their Fingers by which the Papists were obliged to pass thorow a new State Purgatory to be capable of any Publick Imployment whereby the House of Commons who seem to have all the Great Offices of the Kingdom in Reversion could not but expect some Wind-falls Upon this Occasion it was that the Earl of Shaftsbury though then Lord Chancellour of England yet Engaged so far in Defence of that ACT and of the PROTESTANT RELIGION that in due
time it cost him his Place and was the first moving Cause of all those Misadventures and Obloquy which since he lyes ABOVE not Under The Declaration also of Indulgence was questioned which though his MAJESTY had out of his Princely and Gracious Inclination and the memory of some former Obligations granted yet upon their Representation of the Inconveniencies and at their humble Request he was pleased to Cancel and Declare that it should be no President for the Future For otherwise some succeeding Governour by his single Power Suspending Penal Laws in a favourable matter as that is of Religion might become more dangerous to the Government than either Papists or Fanaticks and make us Either when he pleased So Legal was it in this Session to Distinguish between the King of Englands Personal and his Parliamentary Authority But therefore the further sitting being grown very uneasie to those who had undertaken for the Change of Religion and Government they procured the Recess so much sooner and a Bill sent up by the Commons in favour of Dissenting Protestants not having passed thorow the Lords preparation the Bill concerning Papists was enacted in Exchange for the Money by which the Conspiraiors when it came into their management hoped to frustrate yet the effect of the former So the Parliament was dismissed till the Tvventy seventh of October One thousand six hundred seventy three In the mean time therefore they strove with all their might to regain by the VVar that part of their Design which they had lost by Parliament and though several honourably forsook their Places rather than their Consciences yet there was never wanting some double-dyed Son of our Church some Protestant in grain to succeed upon the same Conditions And the difference was no more but that their Offices or however their Counsels were now to be administred by their Deputies such as they could confide in The business of the Land Army was vigourously carried on in appearance to have made some descent in Holland but though the Regiments were Compleated and kept Imbodyed it wanted effect and therefore gave cause of sufpition The rather because no Englishman among so many well-disposed and qualified for the work had been thought capable or fit to be trusted with Chief Command of those Forces but that Monsieur Schomberg a French Protestant had been made General and Collonel Fitsgerald an Irish Papist Major General as more proper for the Secret the first of advancing the French Government the second of promoting the Irish Religion And therefore the dark hovering of that Army so long at Black-Hearth might not improbably seem the gatherings of a Storm to fall upon London But the ill successes which our Fleet met withall this Year also at Sea were sufficient had there been any such design at home to have quasht it for such Gallantries are not to be attempted but in the highest raptures of Fortune There were three several Engagements of ours against the Dutch Navy in this one Summer but while nothing was Tenable at Land against the French it seem'd that to us at Sea every thing was impregnable which is not to be attributed to the want of Courage or Conduct either the former Year under the Command of his Royal Highness so Great a Souldier or this Year under the Prince Robert But is rather to be imputed to our unlucky Conjunction with the French like the disasters that happen to men by being in ill Company But besides it was manifest that in all these Wars the French ment nothing less than really to assist us He had first practised the same Art at Sea when he was in League with the Hollander against us his Navy never having done them any service for his business was only to see us Batter one another And now he was on the English side he only studied to sound our Seas to spy our Ports to learn our Building to contemplate our way of Fight to consume ours and preserve his own Navy to encrease his Commerce and to order all so that the two great Naval Powers of Europe being crushed together he might remain sole Arbitrator of the Ocean and by consequence Master of all the Isles and Continent To which purposes the Conspirators furnished him all possible opportunities Therefore it was that Monsieur d' Estree though a Person otherwise of tryed Courage and Prudence yet never did worse than in the third and last Engagement and because brave Monsieur d' Martel did better and could not endure a thing that looked like Cowardise or Treachery though for the Service of his Monarch commanded him in rated him and at his return home he was as then was reported discountenanced and dismissed from his Command for no other crime but his breaking of the French measures by adventuring one of those sacred Shipps in the English or rather his own Masters Quarrel His Royal Highnesse by whose having quitted the Admiralty the Sea service thrived not the better was now intent upon his Marrige at the same time the Parliament was to reassemble the 27th of October 1673. the Princesse of Modena his consort being upon the way for England and that businesse seemed to have passed all impediment Nor were the Conspirators who to use the French phrase made a considerable Figure in the Government wholly averse to the Parliaments meeting For if the House of Commons had after one years unfortunate War made so vast a Present to his Majesty of 1250000 l. But the last February it seemed the argument would now be more pressing upon them that by how much the ill sucesses of this year had been greater they ought therefore to give a yet more liberal Donative And the Conspirators as to their own particular reckoned that while the Nation was under the more distresse and hurry they were themselves safer from Parliament by the Publick Calamity A supply therefore was demanded with much more importunity and assurance then ever before and that it should be a large one and a speedy They were told that it was now Pro Aris Focis all was at stake And yet besides all this the Payment of the Debt to the Banckers upon shutting the Exchequer was very civilly recommended to them And they were assured that his Majesty would be constantly ready to give them all proofes of his Zeal for the true Religion and the Laws of the Realm upon all occasions But the House of Commons not having been sufficiently prepared for such demands nor well satisfied in several matters of Fact which appeared contrary to what was represented took check and first interposed in that tender point of his Royall Highuesse's Match although she was of his own Religion which is a redoubled sort of Marriage or the more spiritual part of its Happynesse Besides that she had been already solemnly married by the Dukes Proxcy so that unlesse the Parliament had been Pope and calmed a power of Dispensation it was now too late to avoide it His Majesty by a
so they might have a Rase Campagne of Religion Government and Propriety or they hoped at least by this means to fright the one party and incourage the other to give hence forward Money at pleasure and that money on what title soever granted with what stamp coyned might be melted down for any other service or uses But there could not have been a greater affront and indignity offerred to those Gentlemen and the best did so resent it then whether these hopes were reall to think them men that might be hired to any base action or whether as hitherto but imaginary that by erecting the late Kings Statue that whole Party might be rewarded in Effigie While these things were upon the Anvill the tenth of November was come for the Parliaments sitting but that was put of till the 13th of April 1675. And in the mean time which fell out most opportune for the Conspirators these Counsells were matured and something further to be contrived that was yet wanting The Parliament accordingly meeting and the House of Lords as well as that of the Commons being in deliberation of severall wholesome Bills such as the present state of the Nation required the great Design came out in a Bill unexpectedly offered one morning in the House of Lords whereby all such as injoyed any beneficiall Office or Imployment Ecclesiastical Civill or Military to which was added Privy Counsellours Justices of the Peace and Members of Parliament were under a Penalty to take the Oath and make the Declaration and Abhorrence insuing I A. B. Do declare That it is not Lavvful upon any pretence vvhatsoever to take up Armes against the King and that I do abhorre that Traiterous position of taking Armes by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissioned by him in Pursuance of such Commission And I do svvear that I vvill not at any time Indeavour the Alteration of the Government either in Church or State So help me God This same Oath had been brought into the House of Commons in the Plague year at Oxford to have been imposed upon the Nation but there by the assistance of those very same persons that now introduce it t was thrown out for fear of a General Infection of the Vitales of this Kingdome And though it passed then in a particular Bill Known by the name of the Five-mile Act because it only concerned the Non-conformist Preachers yet even in that it was throughly opposed by the late Earle of Southampton whose Judgement might well have been reckoned for the Standard of Prudence and Loyalty It was indeed happily said by the Lord Keeper in the opening of this Session No Influences of the Starrs no Configuration of the Heavens are to be feared so long as these tvvo Houses stand in a Good Disposition to each other and both of them in a happy Conjunction vvith their Lord and Soveraign But if he had so early this Act in his prospect the same Astrology might have taught him that there is nothing more portentous and of worse Omen then when such an Oath hangs over a Nation like a New Comet forboding the Alteration of Religion or Government Such was the Holy League in France in the Reigne of Henry the third Such in the time of Philip the second the Oath in the Netherlands And so the Oaths in our late Kings time taught the Fanaticks because they could not swear yet to Covenant Such things therefore are if ever not needlessely thought for good fortune sake only to be attempted and when was there any thing lesse necessary No King of England had ever so great a Treasure of this Peoples Affections except what those ill men have as they have done all the rest consumed whom but out of an excesse of Love to his Person the Kingdome would never for it never did formerly so long have suffered The Old Acts of Allegiance and Supremacy were still in their full Vigour unlesse against the Papists and even against them too of late whensoever the way was to be smoothed for a liberall Session of Parliament And moreover to put the Crown in full security this Parliament had by an Act of theirs determined a Question which the wisdome of their Ancestors had never decided that the King hath the sole power of the Militia And therefore my Lord Keeper did by his patronizing this Oath too grossely prevaricate against two very good State Maximes in his Harangue to the Parliament for which he had consulted not the Astrologer but the Historian advising them first That they should not Quieta movere that is said he vvhen men stirre those things or Questions vvhich are and ought to be in peace And secondly That they should not Res parvas magnis motibus agere That is saith he againe vvhen as much vveight is laid upon a nevv and not alvvays necessary Proposition as if the vvhole summe of affaires depended upon it And this Oath it seems was the little thing he meant of being forsooth but a Moderate Security to the Church and Crovvn as he called it but which he and his party layd so much vveight on as if the vvhole sum of Affaires did depend upon it But as to the Quieta movere or stirring of those things or Questions which are and ought to be in Peace was not this so of taking Armes against the King upon any pretence whatsoever And was not that also in Peace of the Trayterous Position of taking Armes by his Authority against his Person Had not the three Acts of Corporations of Militia and the Five Miles sufficiently quieted it Why was it further stirred But being stirred it raises in mens thoughts many things more some les others more to the purpose Sir Walter Tirrells Arrow grazed upon the Deer it was shot at but by that chance kill'd King William Rufus Yet so far was it that Sir Walter should for that chance shot be adjudged of Treason that we do not perceive he underwent any other Tryal like that of Manslaughter But which is more to the point it were difficult to instance a Law either in this or other Country but that a private Man if any king in Christendom assault him may having retreated to the Wall stand upon his Guard and therefore if this matter as to a particular man be dubious it was not so prudent to stirre it in the General being so well setled And as to all other things though since Lord Chancellour he havein his Speech of the 15 of Feb. One thousand six hundred seveny six said to testify his own abhorrency Avvay vvith that ill meant distinstion betvveen the Natural and the Politique Capacity He is too well read to be ignorant that without that Distinction there would be no Law nor Reason of Law left in England To which end it was and to put all out of doubt that it is also required in this Test to declare mens abhorrency as of a Traitorous Position to take Armes against those that
saith The Favour here proposed in behalf of the Romanists is not more than they injoy among Protestants abroad at this day This I take not to be true either in Denmark or Svveden and some other Countrys were Popery is wholly suppressed and therefore if that have been effected there in ways of prudence and consisting with Christianity it ought not to have been in so general words misrepresented Another is P. 59 and 60. a thing ill and dangerously said concluding I knovv but one Instance that of David in Gath of a man that vvas put to all these straits and yet not Corrupted in his principles When there was a more Illustrious Example near him and more obious What else I have to say in passing is as to the Ground-work of his whole design which is to bring men nearer as by a distinction betwixt the Church and Court of Rome a thing long attempted but ineffectually it being the same thing as to distinguish betwixt the Church of England and the English Bishops which cannot be seperated But the intention of the Author was doubtlesse very honest and the English of that Profession are certainly of all Papiest the most sincere and most worthy of favour but this seemed no proper time to negotiate further then the Publick Convenience There was another Book likewise that came out by Authority towards the Approach of the Session Intitled A Packet of Advise to the men of Shaftsbury c. But the name of the Author was concealed not out of any sparke of moModesty but that he might with more security excercise his Impudence not so much against those Noble Lords as against all Publick Truth and Honesty The whole composition is nothing else but an Infusion of Malice in the Froath of the Town and the Scum of the University by the Prescription of the Conspirators Nor therefore did the Book deserve naming no more then the Author but that they should rot together in their own Infamy had not the first events of the following Session made it remarkable that the Wizard dealt with some Superior Intelligence And on the other side some Scattering papers straggled out in Print as is usuall for the information of Parliament men in the matter of Law concerning Prorogation which all of them it is to be presumed understood not but was like to prove therefore a great Question As to matters abroad from the Year 1674 That the Peace was concluded betwixt England and Holland the French King as a mark of his displeasure and to humble the English Nation let Loose his Privateers among our Merchant men There was thenceforth no security of Commerce or Navigation notwithstanding the publick Amity betwixt the two Crowns but at Sea they Murthered Plundred made Prize and Confiscated those they met with Their Picaroons laid before the Mouth of our Rivers hoverd all along the Coast took our Ships in the very Ports that we were in a manner blocked up by Water And if any made application at his Soveraign Port for Justice they were insolently bassled except some sew that by Sir Ellis Leightous Interest who made a second prize of them were redeemed upon easier Composition In this manner it continued from 1674 till the latter end of 1676 without remedy even till the time of the Parliaments Sitting so that men doubted whether even the Conspirators were not Complices also in the matter and sound partly their own account in it For evidence of what is said formerly the Paper at the end of this Treatise annexed may serve returned by some Members of the Privy Council to his Majesties Order to which was also adjoyned a Register of so many of the English Ships as then came to notice which the French had taken and to this day cease not to treat our Merchants at the same rate And yet all this while that they made these intolerable and barbarous Piracyes and depredations upon his Majestyes Subjects from hence they were more deligently then ever supplied with Recruits and those that would go voluntarily into the French service were incouraged others that would not pressed imprisoned and carried over by maine force and constraint even as the Parliament here was ready to sit down notwithstanding all their former frequent applications to the Contrary And his Majesties Magazins were daily emptied to furnish the French with all sorts of Ammunition of which the following note containes but a small parcell in comparison of what was daily conveyed away under colour of Cockets for Jarsy and other places A short account of some Amunition c. Exported from the Port of London to France from June 1675. to June 1677. Granadoes without number Shipt off under the colour of unwroght Iron Lead Shot 21 Tuns Gunpovvder 7134 Barrels Iron Shot 18 Tun 600 Weight Matcb 88 Tun 1900 Weight Iorn Ordinance 441. Quantity 292 Tuns 900 Weight Carriages Bandileirs Pikes c. uncertain Thus was the French King to be gratified for undoing us by Sea with contributing all that we could rap and rend of Men or Amunition at Land to make him more potent against us and more formidable Thus are we at length arrived at this much controverted and as much expected Session And though the way to it hath proved much longer then was intended in the entry of this discourse yet is it very short of what the matter would have afforded but is past over to keep within bounds of this Volumn The 15th of February 1676 came and that very same day the French King appointed his March for Flanders It seemed that his motions were in Just Cadence and that as in a Grand Balet he kept time with those that were tuned here to his measure And he thought it a becoming Galanttrie to take the rest of Flanders our natural out work in the very face of the King of England and his Petites Maisons of Parliament His Majesty demanded of the Parliament in his Speech at the opening of the Sessions a Supply for building of Ships and the further continuance of the Additional Excise upon Beer and Ale which was to expire the 24th of June 1677 and recommended earnestly a good correspondence betvveen the tvvo Houses representing their last Differences as the reason of so long a Prorogation to allay them The Lord Chancellor as is usuall with him spoiled all which the King had said so well with straining to do it better For indeed the mischances of all the Sessions since he had the Seales may in great part be ascribed to his indiscreet and unlucky Eloquence And had not the Lord Treasure a farre more effectual way of Perswasion with the Commons there had been the same danger of the ill successe of this Meeting as of those formerly Each House being now seated the case of this long Prorogation had taken place so farre without doores and was of that consequence to the Constitution of all Parliaments and the Ualidity of all proceedings in this Session that even the Commons though sore
Bill is a scandalous falshood and devised by the Authors to throw the Odium off from themselvs upon the Clergy and the Bills that aimed at the ruine of the Church of England having miscarried to compasse the same end by this defamation A sufficient warning to the Clargy how to be intrigued with the Statesmen for the future The second Bill follows An Act for further securing the Protestant Religion by Educating the Children of the Royal Family therein and for the providing for the continuance of a Protestant Clergy TO the Intent that the Protestant Religion which through the blessing of God hath been happily Established in this Realm and is at present sufficiently secured by his Majestys known Piety and Zeal for the preservation thereof may remain secure in all future times Be it Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons in this Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That upon the demise of his Majesty that now is to whom God grant a long and prosperous Reign and upon the demise of any other King or Queen Regnant that shall hereafter bear the Imperial Crown of this Realme the Arch-Bishops and all and every the Bishops of England and Wales for the time being as shall not be disabled by Sicknesse or other Infirmity shall within fourty dayes next after such Demise repaire to Lambeth House and being there assembled to the number of nine at least shall cause to be fairely ingrosed in Parchment the Oath and Declaration following 1. 〈◊〉 King or Queen of England do declare and Svvear that I do beleive that there is not any Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper or in the Elements of Bread and Wine at or after the Consecration thereof by any person vvhatsoever So help me God Which blanck shall be filled up with the Christian Name of such King or Queen And thereupon the Prelates so bled shall without delay repaire to the persons of such succeeding King or Queen Regnant and in humble manner tender 〈◊〉 said Oath or Declaraiton to be taken by such succeeding King or Queen Regnant which they are hereby Authorised to Administer and shall abide in or near the Court by the space of fourteen dayes and at convenient 〈◊〉 as often as conveniently they may they shall appear in the presence of such King and Queen ready to receive Commands for Administring the said Oath and Declaration which if such succeeding King and Queen shall make and subscribe in presence of them or any nine or more of them they shall attest the doing thereof by subscribing their Names to a Certificate Indorsed upon the said Indorsment and carry the same into the high Court of Chancery there to be safely deposited amongst the Records of the said Court. And if such King or Queen Regnant shall refuse or omit to make and subscribe the said Oath and Decalration for the space of fourteen dayes after such humble tender made in manner aforesaid the said Prelates may depart from the Court without any further attendance on this occasion But if at any time afterward such King or Queen shall be pleased to take and subcribe the said Oath and Declaration and shall signifie such pleasure to the Arch-Bishops and Bishops or any nine or more of them the said Arch-Bishops and Bishops or such nine or more of them are hereby Authorised and required forthwith to Administer the same and to attest and certify the same in manner aforesaid And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if any succeeding King or Queen Regnant shall refuse or Omit to make such Oath and Declaration within the time therefore limitted the same having been tendered in manner aforesaid or there shall be any Let Obstruction or hindrance whatsoever to their making the said tender in manner aforesaid they are hereby enjoyned and required to endorse upon the said Engrosement such refusall or omission or any obstruction let or hinderance that shall happen to them whereby they are not able to make the said tender according to the Act and attest the same by subscribing their names thereunto and carry the same into the high Court of Chancery there to be safely deposited in manner aforesaid And if any the said persons hereby appointed to make the said tender shall neglect or refuse to do the same or in case of any refusal or omission of making the said Oath and Declaration or in case of any Obstruction or hindrance to the making of the said tender shall refuse or neglect to make certificate thereof in manner aforesaid that the Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick of the Person or Persons so refusing shall be Ipso Facto voide as if he or they were naturally Dead and the said Person or Persons shall be incapable during his or their Life or Lifes of that or any other Ecclesiastical perferment And be it further Enacted That if any King or Queen Regnant at the time when the Imprial Crown of this Realme shall devolve shall he under the age of fourteen years and that upon his or her attaining the said age of fourteen years the Arch-Bishops and Bishops shall and are upon the like penalties hereby enjoyned within fourteen dayes next after such attaining to the said Age to assemble at the said place and thereupon to do and perform all things in proparing and tendring the said Oath and Declaration and making certificate of the taking or omission thereof that are required by this Act to be done upon the demise of any King or Queen Regnant And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That untill any succeeding King or Queen Regnant shall make the said Oath and Declaration in manner aforesaid such respective King or Queen shall not grant confer or dispose of any Arch-Bishoprick or any Bishoprick in England or Wales otherwise than in manner following that is to say within seven dayes after the Vacancy of any Biship-prick or See shall be known to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury for the time being he shall and is hereby required to send forth a Summons in Writing to all the Prelates in England and Wales requiring them to meet at a certain convenient time and place to be appointed by the summons to consult concerning the nomination of sit persons for the supply of that Vacancy And in case of vacancy of the Arch Bishop-prick of Canterbury the Arch Bishop of York for the time being And if that See shall be also vacant such Prelate of the Realm as by the Statute of 31 H. 8. ought to have place before the rest in Parliament shall and are hereby required to issue forth the said Summons and at the said time and place so appointed in manner aforesaid the Prelates then assembled being seven at the least or the major part of them shall by writing under their Hands and Seals nominate three persons natural born subjects of the King and in holy Orders
may effectally have the Care and Government of such Children according to the true intent of this Law Be it Enected That after any such Children shall have attained their respective Ages of fourteen years no person shall have enjoy bear and execute any office service imployment or place of attendment relateing to their persons but such as shall be approved of in writing under the Hands and Seals of the said Arch-Bishops and Bishops in being or the Major part of such of them as are there in being And if any person shall take upon him to Execute any such Office Service Imployment or place of Attendance contrary to the true intent and meaning of this Act he shall forfeit the sum of 100 l. for every moneth he shall so Execute the same to be recovered by any person that will sue for the same in any Action of Debt Bill Plaint or Information ' in any of his Majesties Courts at VVestminister shall also suffer Imprisonment for the space of six months without Bayle or Manieprize And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That no Person born within this Realme or any other of his Majesties Dominions being a Popish Preist Deacon or Ecclesiiastical Person made or deemed or professed by any Authority or Jurisdiction derived challenged or pretended from the See of Rome or any Jesuite whatsoever shall be allowed to attend the person of the Queens Majesty that now is or any Quen Consort or Queen Dowager that shall be hereafter whilst they are within this Realme â—…or by pretence of such service or any other matter shall be Exempted from the penall Laws already made against such persons coming into being or remaining in this Kingdom but shall be and are hereby lyable to the utmost severity thereof Provided alwayes That it shall and may be lawfull for Master John Huddleston being one of the Queens Majesties Domestique servant to attend her said Majesties service any thing in this Act or any other Law to the contrary notwithstanding And be it further Enacted That after the Death of the Queens Majesty to whom God grant a long and happy life all lay persons whatsoever born within this Realme or any other of his Majesties Dominions that shall be of the Houshold or in the service or Employment of any succeeding Queen Consort or Queen Dowager shall do and performe all things in a late Act of this Parliament Entituled An Act for preventing Dangers vvhich may happen from Popish Recusants required to be done and performed by any person that shall be admitted into the service or Employment of his Majesty or his Royal Highnesse the Duke of York which if they shall neglect or refuse to do and perform and neverthelesse after such Refusall and execute any Office Service or Employment under any succeeding Queen Consort or Queen Dowager every person so offending shall be lyable to the same penalties and disabilities as by the said Act are may be inflicted upon the breakers of that Law Provided alwayes That all and every person or persons that shallby vertue of this Act have or claym any Arch-Bishoprick Bishoprick Deanry Prebendary Parsonage Vicarage or other Ecclesiastical Benefits with Cure or without Cure shall be and is hereby enjoyned under the like penalties and disabilitys to do and perform all things whatsoever which by Law they ought to have done if they had obteyned the same and by the usuall course and form of Law without the help and benefit of this Act. And be it further Enacted That all and every Arch-Bishops Bishops appointed by this Act to Assemble upon the Demise of his Majesty or any other King or Queen Regnant in order to repaire and make humble tender of the Oath and Declaration aforementioned to any succeeding King or Queen be bound by this Act to Administer the same shall before such tender and Administration thereof and are hereby required to Administer the same Oath and Declaration to one another with such of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops at any time assembled as by the statute 31. H. 8. ought to have precedence of all the rest of them that shall be so assembled is hereby Authorized and required to administer to the rest of them and the next in order to such Prelates is hereby Authorized and required to administer the same to him and the same Oath and Declaration being Engrossed in other peice of Parchment they and every of them are hereby enjoyned to subscribe their names to the same and to return the same into the high Court of Chancery hereafter with their Certificate which they are before by this Act appointed to make And if any of the said Arch-Bishops or Bishops shall be under 〈◊〉 same penalties forfeiture and disabilities as are hereby â—…ointed for such Arch-Bishops and Bishops as neglect or refuse to make any tender of the said Oath and Declaration to any succeeding King or Queen Regnant And be it further Enacted That the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury or Arch-Bishop of York or such other Bishop to whom it shall belong to issue forth summons to all the Bishops of England and Wales requiring to meet and consult concerning the Nomination of fit persons for the supply of any Arch-Bishopprick or Bishopprick according to this Act shall make the said summons in such manner that the time therein mentioned for the meeting the said Arch-Bishops and Bishops shall not be more then forty days distinct from the time of the Date and Issuing out of the said summons And be it further Enacted That in case any person intituled by this Act doth demand Consecration in order to make him Bishop of any vacant See in manner aforesaid shall demand the same of the Arch-Bishop of the Province and such Arch Bishop that shall neglect or refuse to do the same either by himself or by others Commissioned by him by the space of thirty days that then such Arch Bishop shall over and besides the trebble Dammages to the party before appointed forfeit the summe of 1000 l. to any person that will sue for the same in any of his Majesties Courts at Westminster by Action of Debt Bill Plaint or Information wherein no Essoyn Protection or Wager of Law shall be allowed And being thereof lawfully convicted his Arch-Bishopprick shall thereby become Ipso Facto voyd as if he were naturally Dead and he shall be and is hereby made uncapable and disabled to hold have receive the same or any other Bishopprick or Ecclesiastical Benefice whatsoever And be it further Enacted That after such neglect or refusall by the space of thirty dayes after Demand to make such Consecration or in case of the vacancy of the Arch-Bishopprick such Bishop of the said Province for time being who by the Statute of 31. H. 8. ought to have presidents of all the rest calling to his Assistance a sufficient number of Bishops who are likewise required to assist at such time and place as he shall thereunto appoint shall and is hereby required upon reasonable
be built with the 600000 l. now given could not be finished in two years That we had not Naval Stores and Ammunition c. sufficient for such a Purpose and if we had yet the season of the Year was too far advanced to set out a considerable Fleet and we could not now lay in Beef Pork c. That when we were ingaged in a War the Dutch would likely slip Collar leave us in the War and so Gain to themselves the singular advantage of sole trading in Peace which is the Priviledge we now injoy and should not be weary of That it was next to Impossible to make Alliances with the several parties as might be expected such and so various were the severall Interests and crosse-biasses of and amongst the Emperour the Spaniard the Dane the Dutch the Brandenburgh and the severall lesser Princes of Germany and others That we might easily enter into a War but it would be hard to find the way out of it and a long War would be destructive to us for though the Emperour French Spaniard c. use to maintain War for many years yet a Trading Nation as England is could not endure a long-winded War On the other side it vvas said That they did not Addresse for making War but making Leagues which might be a means ro prevent War That the best way to preserve Peace was to be in a prepration for War That admitting a War should ensue thereupon as was not unlikely yet that would tend to our peace and safety in conclusion for it must be agreeded that if the Power of France were not reduced and brought to a more equal Ballance with its neighbours we must fight or submit first or last That it was Commonly the Fate of those that kept themselves Neutral when their Neighbours were at VVar to become a prey to the Conquerour That now or never was the Crititall season to make VVar upon the French whilst we may haveso great auxiliary conjunction and if it were a dangerous and formidable thing to Encounter him now how much more would it be so when this Opportunity was lost the Consederacy disbanded a Peace made on the otherside the water and we left alone to withstand him single That as to his seizing our Merchants Effects the Case was 〈◊〉 the same and no other now than it would be three years hence or at any time when ever the War should commence That as to our Plantations and our Traders we must consider though the French was Powerful he was not Omnipotent and we might as well defend them as the Dutch do theirs by Guards Convoys c. and chiefly when the French have so many Enemies and we shall have so many Friends as no other time is like to afford That they were sorry to hear we had not Ships Stores c. equal to the French and to our Occasions and hoped it would appear to be otherwise That the Season was not so far spent but that a Competent Fleet might be set out this Summer and that however Deficient we might be in this kind the Dutch were forward and ready to make an effectuall Supplement in that behalf That howsoever ill and false some men might esteem the Dutch yet Interest vvill not lie and it is so much their Interest to confine and bring down the French that it is not to be apprehended but they will steadily adhere to every Friend and every Alliance they shall joyn with for that purpose That however cross and divers the several Confederates and their Interests were yet a common Alliance may be made with them against the French and aswell as they have Allyed themselves together aswell may the Allyance be extended to another to be added to them viz. the King of England That a Numerous and Vigorous conjunction against him is the way to shorten the work whereas if he should hereafter attaque us singly he would continue the War on us as long as he pleased till he pleased to make an end of it and us together by our final destruction That if now we should neglect to make Alliances we had no cause to expect to have one Friend when the French should make Peace beyond Sea and single us out for Conquest for all that are conjoyned against the French are provoked and disobliged by reason of the Great Number of English Scotch and Irish which have served and do still serve the French and it was proved at the Bar of this House within this fortnight That 1000 men were levyed in Scotland and sent to the French service in January last and some of them by force and pressing Also that it was understood and resented that we had mainely contributed to this over grown Greatnesse of the French by selling Dunkirk that speciall Key and Inlet of Flanders by making War on the Dutch in 1665. Whereupon the French Joyned with the Dutch under which shelter and opportunity the French lying layd the foundation of this Great Fleet he now hath buying then many Great Ships of the Dutch and obuilding many others as to which but for that occasion the Dutch would have denyed and hindred him by not observing the Tripple League and by our making a Joynt War with the French against the Dutch in which the French yet proceeds and Tryumphs So that in this respect we have much to redeem and retreive That enmnity against the French was the thing wherein this divided Nation did unite and this occasion was to be laid hold on as an opportunity of moment amongst our selves That the bent and weight of the Nation did lean this way and that was a strong Inducement and Argument to Incline their Representatives That it had been made appear and that in Parliament that upon the Ballance of the French Trade this Nation was detrimented yearly 900000 l. Or a Million the value of the Goods Imported from France annually so much exceeding that of the Goods Exported hence thither whereby it is evident that such a sum of the Treasure and money of the Nation was yearly Exhausted and carryed into France and all this by unnecessary Wines Silks Ribbons Feathers c. The saving and retrenching of which Expence and Exhaustion will in a Great Degree serve to maintaine the Charg of a War That the present was the best time for the purpose and that this would give Reputation to the Confederates and Comfort and Courradge to our bestfriends Imediately and safety to our selves in futurity against the Old perpetuall Enemy of England The second Addresse was presented to his Majesty March the 30. and till the 11 of Aprill they received no Answer Insomuch that it became doubtfull whether the mony Bill would be accepted or 10 and if the Commons made any difficulty in passing them unlesse they were first secured against the Frenuh intrest it seemed that the supply would be rejected by the Conspirators good will And that even the building of Ships how necessary soever might rather
of France But a Fleet would protect our whole Ships are the defence of an Island and thereby we may hope to keep at a distance and not apprehend or prepare to meet him at our Dores he Learns by Sicily what it is to Invade an Island he is not like to attempt an Invasion of us till he hath some Masterie at Sea which is Impossible for him to have so long as he is diverted and imployed at Land in the Mediterranean and in the West Indies as he is And as to our Merchants Ships and Goods they are in no more danger now then they were in any War whensoever Nay there was more expectation of this then there was of the last VVar for the first notice we or the Dutch had of that Breach was the Attempt upon their Smyrna Fleet. Also it is observed that what was said a fortnight ago that the season was too far advanced to lay in Beâ—…f and it would stink was admitted to be a mistake for that now it was urged that a greater and better appointed Fleet must be furnished out but still it was insisted on that they were in the dark his Majesty did not speak out that he would make the desired Alliances against the growth of France and resolve with his Parliament to maintain them and so long as there was any coldness or reservedness of this kind they had no clear grounds to grant money for preparations His Majesty was a Prince of that Goodness and â—…are towards his People that none did distrust him but there was a distrust of some of his Ministers and a Jealousie that they were under French Influences and Complaints and Addresses had been made against them and upon the discourse of providing for the safety of the Nation it being said we might be secured by the Guarranty of the General Peace it was reflected on as a thing most pernitious to us and that our money and endeavours could not be worse applied than to procure that Peace Articles are not to be relied on All that they desired was that his Majesty and his People Unanimously Truly Sincerely and Throughly declare and engage in this business with a mutual confidence speaking out on both sides and this and nothing but this would discharge and extinguish all jealousies But it was Objected It was not convenient to discover his Majesties secret purposes in a Publick Assembly it might be too soon known abroad and there was no reason to distrust his Majesty but that being enabled he would prepare and do all things expedient for the Kingdom It was answered That it was usual for Forraine Ministers to get notice of the Councils of Princes as the Earl of Bristol Ambassador in Spain in the last part of King James's Reign procured Coppies and often the sight of the Originals of of Dispatches and Cabinet papers of the King of Spain But acknowledging that his Majesties Councels cannot be penetrated by the French yet the things would in a short time discover themselves besides they said they did not much desire secresy for let the King take a great Resolution and put himself at the Head of his Parliament and People in this weighty and worthy Cause of England and let a flying Post carry the news to Paris and let the French King do his worst His Majesty never had nor never will have cause to distrust his People In 1667 in confidence of our Aid he made a League without advice of Parliament commonly called the Tripple League which was for the Interest of England and whereby his Majesty became the Arbiter of Cristendom and in the Name and upon the Account of that the Parliament gave him several Supplies In 1672 He made War without the Advice of Parliament whith War the Parliament thought not for the Interest of England to continue yet even therein they would not leave him but gave him 1200000 l. to carry himself on out of it How much more are they concerned and obliged to supply and assist him in these Alliances and War if it ensue which are so much for the Interest of England and entered into by the pressing Advice of Parliament We hope his Majesty will declare himself in earnest and we are in earnest having his Majesties heart with us Let his hand Rot off that is not stretcht out for this Affair we will not stick at this or that sum or thing but we will go with his Majesty to all Extremities We are now affraid of the French King because he has great force and extraordinary thinking men about him which mannage his affaires to a wonder but we trust his Majesty will have his Business mannaged by thinking men that will be provident and careful of his Interest and not suffer him to pay Cent. per Cent. more than the things are worth that are taken up and used and if the work be entred upon in this manner we hope England will have English success with France as it is in Bowling if your Bowl be well set out you may think and it will go to the Mark. Were the thing clear and throughly undertaken there would be less reason to dispute of time there never was a Council but would sit on Sunday or any day for such Publick Work In fine they said the business must lye at one door or another and they would not for any thing that it should flat in their hands And although they should hope in an Exigence his Majesty would lend to his People who had given so much to him yet they said they could not leave him without providing him a sum of money as much as he could use between this and some convenient time after Easter when he might if he please command their full attendance by some publick Notification and this was the mentioned sum of 200000 l. The Expedient they provided for doing this was adding a Borrowing Clause to the Bill for almost 600000 l. such an one as was in the Poll Bill the Effect of which is to enable his Majesty presently to take up on the Credit of this Bill 200000 l. ready money at 7 l. per Cent. per annum Interest And this they said might now be done though the Bill were passed by them and also save that they had made the above mentioned amendment by the Lords for that Poll Bill was explained by another Act passed a few days after in the same session But in Hackvvells Modus tenendi Parli pag. 173 was a more remarkable President and exact in the Point But after some Discourse of setting loose part of this 600000 l. c. they reflected that this 600000 l. c. was appropriate for the building of Ships and they would not have this appropriation unhinged by any means and thereupon resolved to annex the borrowing Clause to the Bill for continuing the additional duty of Excise for three years which was not yet passed against which it was Objected That it was given for other purposes viz. to give the
money he could not have money without them nor they Allyance without him The king had considered this matter and this was his Judgment That he ought by such a summe to be put into a posture to maintain and prosecute his Allyance before they could or should be declared and truely otherwise our nakednesse and weaknesse would be exposed T is true as has been Objected the asking and giving money for this purpose would allarm as much as the declaring Alliance but then it would defend too A Whip will allarm a wild Beast but it will not defend the man a Sword will allarm the Beast too but then it will also defend the man We know the King would strip himself to his shirt rather then hazard the Nation He has done much already he has set out and made ready to set out 44 Ships but they must be distributed to several places for Convoys c. Their would need it may be 40 more in a body And it is difficult to get Seamen many are gon into the service of the French Dutch c The King is fain to presse now The King has not had any fruit of the 200000 l. credit provided him upon the three years Excise he has tryed the City to borrow money of them thereupon and my Lord Mayor returned answer that he had endeavoured but could not encourage his Majesty to depend upon the City for it Several others somewhat different spake to this effect We should consider in this case as in the case of the Kings Letters Pattents Proclamations c. If any thing in them be against Law and Reason Lawyers and Courts Judge is void and reckon it not to be said or doneby the King For the King can do no vvrong tho his Counsel may So we must look upon the Kings Speeches and Messages as the product of Counsel and therefore if any mistake be therein it must be imputed to the error of his Counsel and it must be taken that the king never said it Now to apply certainly the treating and concluding of Alliances requirs not a previous summe of mony however the kings Counsel may misinform They may be propounded and accepted by the meanes of the Forraign Ministers even without an Embassy to be sent hence and yet if that were requisite it were not an extraordinary charg Allyances may be made forthwith and then mony would be granted forthwith If they were declared to day the 600000 l. should be given to morrow and as occasion should require And there is no fear but money would be found for this purpose our own Extravagancies would maintaine a War The mony which has been provided the King already this Session is sufficient for all Preparations that can possibly be made before these Allyances may be made Forty Ships of ours with the help of the Dutch are a good Defence against the French at Sea now he is so entangled with 〈◊〉 the West Indies c In the Tripple League it was stipulated that forty of our Ships and forty of the Dutch should be provided and they were thought sufficient for the purpose If it were required that 40 more Ships should be sâ—…t out 600000 l is enough to maintain and pay a whole year clear for the Carpenters work and such like as should presently be required for the fitting them to go out a little money will serve And surely this is the only preparation that can be meant for if it should be meant that we â—…ould fortisie the Land with 〈◊〉 Garrisons 〈◊〉 Towns c. it is not 6 millions will do it But our strength force and defence is our Ships for the debate of this day it is as great and weighty as ever was any in England it concerns our very being and includes our Religion Liberty and Property The doore tovvards France must be shut and Garded for so long as it is open our Treasure and Trade vvill creep out and their Religon creep in at it and this time is ouâ—… season some mischief will be done us and so there will at any time when the War is begun but now the least The French is not very dangerous to us noâ—… to be much feared by us at this present but we ought to advise and act so now as we may not fear or despair hereafter when the French shall make peace beyond Sea and likely he will make Allyances with those People with whom we deferr to make them How ripe and great is ouâ—… Misery then The power and policy of the French is extraordinary and his money Influences round about him We are glad to observe upon what is said by of the King that his Majesty agrees with us in the end and we hope he will be convinced of the reasonableness of the means which is to make and follow these Allyances without which plainly we can give no account to our selves or those we represent of giving money We have made severall Addresses about some of the Kings Ministers their management c. Of which we have seen little fruit Their have continually almost to this hour gone out of England succours to France of Men Powder Ammunition Ordnance c. Not to take into the matter how far the Ministers have been active or passive in this nor to mention any other particulars we must say that unless the Ministers or their minds are altred we have no reason to trust money in their hands Though we declare we have no purpose to arrign or attempt upon them but would rather propose to them an easy way how they might have Oblivion nay and the thanks of the People viz. That they should endeavour and contend who could do most to dispose the king to Comply with this advice of his Parliament We think the prosecuting these Alliances the only good use for which our money can be imployed and therefore before we give we would be secure it should be applyed to this purpose and not by 〈◊〉 â—…lls be diverted to others This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Counsel of the Parliament and no Crosâ—… other counsel is to be 〈◊〉 or Trusted for attaining these great advices which the King and Parliament are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To part with money before Allyances are made is needlesse and to no purpose at best it would be the way to spend that money before hand in vaine which we shall need hereafter when we shal be forced to enter into this defence against France It would be like an errour committed in the late Kings time and which lookes as if men had given Counsel on purpose to destroy that Good King he had by the care and faithfullnesse of Bishop Juxton and others Collected and preserved a good summe of mony before the Scottish Rebellion in One thousand Six hundred Thirty nine upon that Rebellion he was advised to raise an Army at Land which indeed was necessary But he was likewise advised to set out severall of his great Rate 〈◊〉 this appeared in the papers of Sir Robert