consent of their several Churches they prepared these several Answers To the first it was answered That they had that Liturgie which all the Churches of the French Tongue both in France and in the United Provinces of the States have had since the blessed Reformation and which their Churches refuged here have had this sixty or seventy years or more That the English Liturgie was Translated into French but that they used it not and that they knew not whether it were Translated in Dutch or not To the second it was answered That the greatest part of the Heads of the Families were not born here but about a third part because that the greatest part of the old ones were Strangers born and many others are newly come since a few years But to the third they desired to be excused from making any Answer at all foreseeing as it was pretended a dissipation of their Churches in reference to the maintainance of their Ministry and relief of their poor if such Conformity should be pressed which they endeavoured to avoid by all means imaginable But before these Answers were returned it was thought fit to consult with the Coetus as they style it of the French and Dutch Churches in London who were concerned as much as they and who by reason of their wealth and number governed all the rest by whom they were advised to suppress those Answers and to present their Declinator fixing themselves upon their Priviledges and challenging the Exemption granted them by King Edward vi confirmed by several Acts of Council in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth King Iames and his Sacred Majesty This Declinator no way satisfied his Grace of Canterbury He knew none better That Acts of Council were not like the Laws of the Medes and Persians but might be changed and varied as occasion served That the Letters Patents granted by King Edward vi to the first Congregation of Strangers under Iohn A Lasco by which they were Licenced to use their own Forms both of Worship and Government without any disturbance were vacated by the departure of the said Congregation in the time of Queen Mary and that the French and Dutch Churches now in England could pretend no succession unto that in the time of King Edward vi And therefore as soon as Brent returned from his Visitation of which we shall hear more anon and had a while reposed himself after that long Journey he was dispatched to Canterbury with these Injunctions viz. 1. That all the Natives of the Dutch and Walloon Congregations in his Graces Diocess are to repair to their several Parish Churches where they inhabite to hear Divine Service and Sermons and perform all Duties and Payments required in that behalf And 2. That all the Ministers and all other of the same Walloon or French Congregations which are Aliens born shall have and use the Liturgie used in the English Churches as the same is or may be faithfully Translated into French or Dutch These two Injunctions being given on the nineteenth of December with time for conforming thereunto till the first of March were presently communicated by the Kentish to the London Churches and by those of London to the rest in the Province of Canterbury requiring them to send their Deputies to consult together with them in this Common Danger There were at that time ten Churches of Strangers in this Province that is to say two in London two in Norwich and one apiece in Canterbury Sandwich Maidstone Southampton Colchester and Yarmouth who were to send their sufficient Deputies consisting of Ministers and Lay-Elders to make this Synod But because the time might be elapsed before these Deputies from so many Places could meet together and resolve upon any Conclusion it was determined by the Coetus that those of Kent whom it most immediately concerned should address themselves to the Archbishop and desire his favour for the enjoying of their Priviledges as in former times whose Propositions being heard and their Reasons pondered he answered That it was his purpose to make a General Visitation of all his Province and that he would begin at home That he did nothing but what had been communicated to the King and resolved by the Council That neither the Letters Patents of King Edward vi nor any Reasons by them alledged should hinder him from proceeding in the said Injunctions That their Churches were nests and occasions of Schism which he would prevent in Kent as well as he could That it were better there were no Foreign Churches nor Strangers in England than to have them thereby to give occasion of prejudice or danger to the Church-Government of it That they endeavoured to make themselves a State in a State and had vaunted That they feared not his Injunctions but That he hoped the King would maintain him in it as long as he Governed by the Canons That the dissipation of their Churches and maintenance of two or three Ministers was not to be laid in the same Balance with the Peace and Happiness of the Church of England That their ignorance in the English Tongue ought not to be used for a pretence for their not going to their Parish Churches considering that it was an affected Ignorance and they might avoid it when they would And finally That he was resolved to have his Injunctions put in execution and that they should conform to them at their peril by the time appointed Finding no hope of Good this way they expect the Sitting of the Synod on the fifth of February to which the Deputies made a Report of their ill Successes and thereupon it was resolved That a Petition in the name of all the Foreign Churches should be presented unto the King which way they found as unsuccessful as the other was For his Majesty having read the Petition delivered it to the Earl of Pembroke commanding him to give it to one of the Secretaries And though Pembroke either out of love to the Cause or hate to the Archbishops Person chose rather to deliver it to Cooke than Windebank yet neither Cooke himself nor Weckerly his chief Clerk a Walloon by birth who had very much espoused the Quarrel could do any thing in it The next course was to back that Petition with a Remonstrance containing the chief Reasons which they had to urge in their own behalf and that Remonstrance to be put into his Majesties hands by the Duke of Soubize a Prince of great Descent in France and a chief stickler in the Wars of the Hugonots against their King In which Reasons when they came to be examined more particularly there was nothing found material but what had formerly been observed and answered except it were the fear of a Persecution to be raised in France when it should there be known how much the French Churches in this Kingdom had been discountenanced and distressed And this they after aggravated by some fresh Intelligence which they had from thence by which they were advertised of some words of
in that expectation carrying himself with such an even and steady hand that every one applauded but none envied his preferment to it insomuch as the then Lord Faulkland in a bitter Speech against the Bishops about the beginning of the Long Parliament could not chuse but give him this faire Testimony viz. That in an unexpected place and power he expressed an equal moderation and humility being neither ambitious before nor proud after either of the Crozier or White Staff The Queen about these times began to grow into a greater prevalâ—nâ—y over his Majesties Affections than formerly she had made shew of But being too wise to make any open alteration of the conduct of aâ—â—airs she thought it best to take the Archbishop into such of her Counsels as might by him be carried on to her contentment and with no dishonour to himself of which he gives this intimation in the Breviate on the thirtieth of August 1634. viz. That the Queen sent for him to Oatlands and gave him thanks for a business which she had trusted him withall promising him to be his Friend and that he should have immediate access to her when he had occasion This seconded with the like intimation given us May 18. 1635. of which he writes that having brought his account to the Queen on May 18. Whitsunday the Court then at Greenwich it was put of till the Sunday after at which time he presented it to her and received from her an assurance of all that was desired by him Panzani's coming unto London in the Christmas holydaies makes it not improbable that the facilitating of his safe and favourable reception was the great business which the Queen had committed to the Archbishops trust and for his effecting of it with the King had given him those gracious promises of access unto her which the Breviate spake of For though Panzani was sent over from the Pope on no other pretence than to prevent a Schism which was then like to be made between the Regulars and the Secular Priests to the great scandall of that Church yet under that pretence were muffled many other designs which were not fit to be discovered unto Vulgar eyes By many secret Artifices he works himself into the fauour of Cottington Windebank and other great men about the Court and at last grew to such a confidence as to move this question to some Court-Bishops viz. Whether his Majesty would permit the residing of a Catholick Bishop of the English Nation to be nominated by his Majesty and not to exercise his Function but as his Majesty should limit Upon which Proposition when those Bishops had made this Quaere to him Whether the Pope would allow of such a Bishop of his Majesties nominating as held the Oath of Allegiance lawful and should permit the taking of it by the Catholick Subjects he puts it off by pleading that he had no Commission to declare therein one way or other And thereupon he found some way to move the King for the permission of an Agent from the Pope to be addressed to the Queen for the concernments of her Religion which the King with the Advice and Consent of his Council condescended to upon condition that the Party sent should be no Priest This possibly might be the sum of that account which the Archbishop tendred to the Queen at Greenwich on the Whitsontide after Panzani's coming which as it seems was only to make way for Con of whom more hereafter though for the better colour of doing somewhat else that might bring him hither he composed the Rupture between the Seculars and the Regulars above-mentioned I cannot tell whether I have hit right or not upon these particulars But sure I am that he resolved to serve the Queen no further in her desires than might consist both with the honour and safety of the Church of England which as it was his greatest charge so did he lay out the chief parts of his cares and thoughts upon it And yet he was not so unmindful of the Foreign Churches as not to do them all good offices when it came in his way especially when the Doctrine or Discipline of the Church of England was not concerned in the same For in the year 1634. having received Letters from the Queen of Bohemia with whom he held a constant course of Correspondence about the furtherance of a Collection for the exiled Ministers of the Palatinate he moved the King so effectually in it that his Majesty granted his Letters Patents for the said Collection to be made in all parts of the Kingdom which Letters Patents being sealed and brought unto him for his further Direction in prosecution of the same he found a passage in it which gave him no small cause of offence and was this that followeth viz. Whose cases are the more to be deplored for that this extremity is fallen upon them for their sincerity and constancy in the true Religion which we together with them professed and which we are all bound in conscience to maintain to the utmost of our powers whereas these Religious and Godly persons being involved amongst other their Country-men might have enjoyed their Estates and Fortunes if with other backsliders in the times of Trial they would have submitted themselves to the Antichristian Yoke and have renounced or dissembled the Profession of the true Religion Upon the reading of which passage he observed two things First That the Religion of the Palatine Churches was declared to be the same with ours And secondly That the Doctrine and Government of the Church of Rome is called an Antichristian Yoke neither of which could be approved of in the same terms in which they were presented to him For first he was not to be told that by the Religion of those Churches all the Calvinian Rigors in the point of Predestination and the rest depending thereupon were received as Orthodox that they maintain a Parity of Ministers directly contrary both to the Doctrine and Government of the Church of England and that Pareus Profesâ—or of Divinity in the University of Heydelberg who was not to be thought to have delivered his own sense only in that point ascribes a power to inferiour Magistrates to curb the power controule the persons and resist the Authority of Soveraign Princes for which his Comment on the Romans had been publickly burnt by the appointment of King Iames as before is said Which as it plainly proves that the Religion of those Churches is not altogether the same with that of ours so he conceived it very unsafe that his Majesty should declare under the Great Seal of England that both himself and all his Subjects were bound in conscience to maintain the Religion of those Churches with their utmost power And as unto the other point he lookt upon it as a great Controversie not only between some Protestant Divines and the Church of Rome but between the Protestant Divines themselves hitherto not determined in any Council nor
ex Officio And finally That no person or persons subject to the said Writ shall be Absolved by virtue of an Appeal into any Ecclesiastical Court till they have first taken in their own persons the usual Oath De parendo juri stando mandatis Ecclesiae With a Petition to his Majesty in the Name of the Synod to give command both to his Officers in Chancery and the Sheriffs of the several Counties for sending out and executing the said Writs from time to time without any Charge to the Diocesans whose Estates it would otherwise much exhaust as often as it should be desired of them Such is the substance of this Canon in laying down whereof I have been the more punctual and exact that the equal and judicious Reader may the better see what point it was which the Archbishop aimed at from the first beginning of his Power and Government as before was noted In the mean time whilst this Canon was under a Review another ready drawn was tendred to the Prolocutor by the Clerk of Westminster for the better keeping of the day of his Majesties most happy Inauguration By which it was decreed according to the Example of the most pious Emperours of the Primitive Times and our own most Godly Kings and Princes since the Reformation and the Form of Prayer already made and by his Majesties Authority Appointed to be used on the said days of Inauguration That all manner of persons within the Church of England should from thenceforth celebrate and keep the morning of the said day in coming diligently and reverently unto their Parish Church or Chappel at the time of Prayer and there continue all the while that the Prayers Preaching or other Service of the day endureth That for the better observing of the said day two of the said Books should be provided at the Charge of each several Parish by the Churchwardens of the same with an Injunction to all Bishopâ— Archdeacons and other Ordinaries to inquire into the premises at their Visitations and punish such as are delinquent as in case of such as absent themselves on the other Holydays Another Canon was brought in against Socinianism by the spreading of which damnable and cursed Heresie much mischief had already been done in the Church For the suppressing whereof it was ordained by the Synod after some explication and correction of the words and phrases That no Stationer Printer or other person should print buy sell or disperse any Book broaching or maintaining the said Abominable Doctrine or Positions upon pain of Excommunication ipso facto and of being proceeded against by his Majesties Atturney-General on a Certificate thereof to be returned by the several Ordinaries to their Metropolitan according to the late Decree of Star-Chamber against Sellers of prohibited Books That no Preacher should presume to vent any such Doctrine in any Sermon under pain of Excommunication for the first Offence and Deprivation for the second That no Student in either of the Universities nor any person in Holy Orders excepting Graduates in Divinity or such as have Episcopal or Archidiaconal Jurisdiction or Doctors of Law in Holy Orders shall be suffered to have or read any such Socinian Book or Discourse under pain if the Offender live in the University that he shall be punished according to the strictest Statutes provided there against the publishing reading and maintaining of false Doctrines or if he lived in the City or Country abroad of a Suspension for the first Oâ—fence Excommunication â—or the second and Deprivation for the third unless he should absolutely and in terminis abjure the same That if any Lay-person should be seduced unto that Opinion and be convicted of it he should be Excommunicated and not Absolved but upon due Repentance and Abjuration and that before his Metropolitan or his own Bishop at least With several Clauses for seizing and burning all such Books as should be found in any other hands than those before limited and expressed Which severe course being taken by the Convocation makes it a matter of no small wonder That Cheynell the Usufructuary of the 〈◊〉 Parsonage of Petworth should impute the Rise and Growth of 〈◊〉 in a Pamphlet not long after Printed unto many of those who had been principal Actors in suppressing of those wicked and detestable Heresies Another Canon was presented to the Prolecutâ—r by one of the Members of that Body advanced the next year to a 〈◊〉 Dignity for Restraint of Sectaries By which it was deâ—â—â—â—d That all those Proceedings and Penalties which are mentiâ—â—â—d in the Canon against Popish Recusants so far forth as may be appliable should be in full force and vigour against all Anabaptists Brownists Sâ—peratists Familists or other Sect or Sects Person or Persons whatsoever who do or shall either obstinately refuse or ordinarily not having a lawful impediment that is for the space of a Month neglect to repair to their Parish Churches or Chappels where they inhabit for the hearing of Divine Service established and receiving of the Holy Communion according to Law That the Clause in the former Canon against Books of Socinianism should also extend to the Makers Importers Printers and Publishers or Dispersers of any Book Writing or Scandalous Pamphlet devised against the Discipline and Government of the Church of England and unto the Maintainers and Abettors of any Opinion or Doctrine against the same And finally That all despisers and depravers of the Book of Common Prayer who resorted not according to Law to their Church or Chappel to joyn in the Publick Worship of God in the Congregation contenting themselves with the hearing of Sermons only should be carefully inquired after and presented to their several and respective Ordinaries The same Proceedings and Penalties mentioned in the aforesaid Canons to be used against them unless within one whole Month after they are first Denounced they shall make Acknowledgment and Reformation of their fault So far the Bishops and Clergy had proceeded in the Work recommended to them when the Parliament was most unhappily Dissolved And possibly the Convocation had expired the next day also according to the usual custom if one of the Clergy had not made the Archbishop acquainted with a Precedent in Queen Elizabeths Time for the granting a Subsidy or Benevolence by Convocation to be Taxed and Levied by Synodical Acts and Constitutions without help of the Parliament directing to the Records of Convocation where it was to be found Whereupon the Convocation was Adjourned from Wednesday till the Friday following and then till the next day after and so till Munday to the great amazement of many of the Members of it who expected to have been Dissolved when the Parliament was according to that clause in the Commission aforesaid by which it was restrained to the Time of the Parliament only Much pains was taken by some of the Company who had been studied in the Records of Convocation in shewing the difference betwixt the Writ for calling a Parliament
CYPRIANUS ANGLICUS OR THE HISTORY OF THE Life and Death OF The most Reverend and Renowned PRELATE WILLIAM By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all ENGLAND and Metropolitan Chancellor of the Universities of Oxon. and Dublin and one of the Lords of the Privy Council to His late most SACRED MAJESTY King CHARLES the First Second MONARCH of Great Britain CONTAINING ALSO The Ecclesiastical History of the Three Kingdoms of ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND from His first rising till His Death By P. Heylyn D. D. and Chaplain to Charles the first and Charles the second Monarchs of Great Britain ECCLUS 44. VERS 1 3. 1. Let us now praise Famous Men and our Fathers that begat Vs. 3. Such as did bear Rule in their Kingdoms Men Renowned for their Power giving Counsel by their Vnderstanding and Declaring Prophesies LONDON Printed for A. Seile MDCLXVIII To the Honourable Sir IOHN ROBINSON Kt. and Baronet HIS MAJESTIES Lieutenant of the Tower of London SIR YOV have here before you the History of an Eminent Prelate and Patriot a Person who lived the honour and died a Martyr of the English Church and State for it was his sad Fate to be crusht betwixt Popery and Schism and having against both defended the Protestant Cause with his Pen he after chearfully proceeded to Seal that Faith with his Bloud Together with the Story of this Great Man you have likewise that of the Age he lived in especially so far as concerned the Church wherein you will find recorded many notable Agitations and Contrivances which it were pity should be lost in silence and pass away unregarded These Considerations towards a Gentleman of your worth Curiosity and loyalty are warrant enough to justifie me in this Dedication And yet I must not conceal that it belongs to you by another right that is to say the Care of recommending this VVork to the Publick was committed to a Gentleman who himself had presented it to your hand if God had not taken him away just upon the point of putting his purpose in execution So that it seems in me as well matter of Conscience as of Respect to deliver it wholly up to your Patronage and Protection since in exposing it to the world I do but perform the will of my dead Father and in addressing it to your self together with my own I also gratifie that of my deceased Friend The value of the VVork it self I do not pretend to judge of my duty and interest for the Author forbids it but for the Industry Integrity and good meaning of the Historian I dare become answerable And in truth I hope well of the rest without which I should not have made bold with Sir John Robinson's Name in the Front of it who being so nearly related both in bloud and affection to that Incomparable and Zealous Minister of God and his Prince cannot besides a Natural but upon an Honourable Impression concern himself in the glories or blemishes of this Character defective in nothing but that it could not be as ample as his worth And now having discharged my trust and duty as I could do no less so I have little more to add for my self but that I am SIR Your most humble and obedient Servant HENRY HEYLYN A Necessary INTRODUCTION To the following HISTORY BEFORE we come unto the History of this Famous Prelate it will not be amiss to see upon what Principles and Positions the Reformation of this Church did first proceed that so we may the better Judge of those Innovations which afterwards were thrust upon her and those Endeavours which were used in the latter times to bring her back again to her first Condition 1. Know therefore that King Henry viii having obtained of the Bishops and Clergie in their Convocation Anno 1530. to be acknowledged the Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England did about three years after in the 26 of his Reign confirm the said Supremacy to Himself his Heirs and Successors with all the Priviledges and Preheminencies thereunto belonging by Act of Parliament And having procured the said Bishops and Clergie in another of their Convocations held in the year 1532. to promise in verbo Sacerdotii not to assemble from thenceforth in any Convocation or Synodical Meeting but as they should be called by his Majesties Writ nor to make any Canons or Constitutions Synodal or Provincial without his Leave and Licence thereunto obtained nor finally to put the same in Execution till they were Ratified and Confirmed under the Great Seal of England Procured also an Act of Parliament to bind the Clergie to their promise Which Act called commonly The Act of the Submission of the Clergie doth bear this name in Poulton's Abridgment viz. That the Clergie in their Convocation should Enact no Constitutions without the Kings assent Anno 25. Henry viii c. 19. Which Grounds so laid he caused this Question to be debated in both Universities and all the Famous Monasteries of the Kingdom viz. An aliquid auâ—horitatis in hoc Regno Angliae Pontifici Romano de jure competat plusquam alii cuicumque Episcopo extero Which Question being concluded in the Negative and that Conclusion ratified and confirmed in the Convocation Anno 1534. there past an Act of Parliament about two years after Intituled An Act Extinguishing the Authority of the Bishops of Rome In which there was an Oath prescribed for abjuring the Popes Authority within this Realm The refusing whereof was made High-Treason Anno 28. H. viii c. 10. 2. But this Exclusion of the Pope as it did no way prejudice the Clergy in their power of making Canons Constitutions and other Synodical Acts but only brought them to a dependance upon the King for the better ordering of the same so neither did it create any diminution of the Power and Priviledges of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops in the free exercise of that Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which anciently belonged to them For in the Act of Submission before-mentioned there passed a Clause that all former Constitutions Synodal or Provincial which were not contrary to the Word of God the Kings Prerogative Royal or the Laws and Statutes of this Realm should remain in force until they were reviewed and fitted for the use of the Church by 32 Commissioners to be nominated by the King for that end and purpose Which re-view being never made in the time of that King nor any thing done in it by K. Edw. vi though he had an Act of Parliament to the same effect the said Old Canons and Constitutions remained in force as before they were By means whereof all causes Testamentary Matrimonial and Suits for Tythes all matters of Incontinency and other notorious Crimes which gave publick Scandal all wilful absence from Divine Service Irreverence and other Misdemeanours in the Church not punishable by the Laws of the Land were still reserved unto the Ecclesiastical Courts Those Ancient Canons and Constitutions remaining also for the perpetual standing Rule
framed to the Visitation viz. Whither in all Churches and Chappels all Images Shrines Tables Candlesticks Trindals and Rolls of Wax Pictures Paintings and other Monuments of feigned and false Miracles Pilgrimages Idolatry and Superstition were removed abolished and destroyed Numb 2. But these objections carried their own answers in them it being manifest by the words both of the Articles and Injunctions that it never was the meaning of the Queen her Councel or Commissioners to condemn abolish or deface all Images either of Christ himself or of any of the Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and other godly Fathers in the Church of Christ the abuse whereof is ordered to be reformed by the first Injunction but only to remove such Pictures of false and feigned Miracles as had no truth of being or existence in Nature and therefore were the more abused to Superstition and Idolatry in the times of Popery In answer to such passages as are alledged out the said Homilies it is replyed first that is confessed in the beginning of the last of the said three Homilies that Images in Churches are not simply forbidden by the New Testament Hom. Fol. 39. And therefore no offence committed against the Gospel if they be used only for History Example and stirring up of pure Devotion in the souls of men in which respect called not unfitly by Pope Gregory The Lay-mans Books Secondly The Compilers of those Homilies were the more earnest in point of removing or excluding Images the better to wean the People from the sin of Idolatry in which they had been trained up from their very infancy and were not otherwise to be weaned from it then by taking away the occasions of it And thirdly All that vehemence is used against them not as intollerable in themselves but as they might be made in those broken and unsettled times an occasion of falling before men could be fully instructed in the right use of them as appears plainly by these passages viz. Our Images also have been and be and if they be publickly suffered in Churches and Chappels ever will be also worshipped and so Idolatry committed to them p. 13. So hard it is and indeed impossible any long time to have Images publickly in Churches and Temples without Idolatry fol. 33. And finally by the passage which before we touched at where after much vehemency not only against Idolatry and Worshipping of Images but also against Idols and Images themselves the heats thereof are qualified by this expression viz I mean alwayes thus herein in that we be stirred and provoked by them to worship them and not as though they were simply forbidden by the New Testament without such occasion and danger ibid. fol. 39. And thereupon it is first alledged by those of contrary judgment that all such as lived in times of Popery being long since dead and the people of this last age sufficiently instructed in the unlawfulness of worshipping such painted Images they may be lawfully used in Churches without fear of Idolatry which seems to have been the main inducement for their first defacing Secondly Many of the Eastern Churches which notwithstanding do abominate the Superstitions of the Church of Rome retained the use of painted Images though they reject those which were cut and carved Thirdly That Images are still used in the Lutheran Churches upon which our first Reformers had a special eye and that Luther much reproved Carolostadius for taking them out of such Churches where before they had been suffered to stand letting him know Ex mentibus hominum potius removendas that the worship of Images was rather to be taken out of mens mindes by diligent and painful preaching then the Images themselves to be so rashly and unadvisedly cast out of the Churches That painted Images were not only retained in the Chappels of the Queen and of many great men of the Realm in most of the Cathedral Churches and in some private Churches and Chappels also without any defacing witness the curious painted Glass in the Cathedral Church of Canterbury the Parish Church of Faireford in the County of Glocester and the Chappel of the Holy Ghost near Basingstoke but a rich and massy Crucifix was kept for many years together on the Table or Altar of the Chappel Royal in Whitehal as appears by Saunders and Du Chesne till it was broke in pieces by Pach the Queens Fool when no wiser man could be got to do it upon the secret instigation of Sir Francis Knollis and finally it appears by the Queens Injunctions that the Priests being commanded not to extol the dignity of any Images Relicks c. and the people diligently to teach that all Goodness Health and Grace ought to be asked and looked for only at the hands of God whereby all Superstition might be taken out of their hearts the Images might lawfully remain as well in publick Churches as in private Houses as they had done formerly 16. As for the times of publick Worship we must behold them in their Institution and their Observation And first as for their Institution it is agreed on of all hands that the Annual Feasts Saints Dayes or Holy Dayes as now commonly called do stand on no other ground then the Authority of the Church which at first ordained them some in one age and some in another till they grow unto so great a number that it was thought fit by King Henry viii and afterwards by King Edward vi to abolish such of them as might best be spared Nor stands the Sunday or Lords Day according to the Doctrine of the Church of England on any other ground then the rest of the Holy dayes for in the Homily touching the time and place of Prayer it is thus doctrinally resolved viz. As concerning the time in which God hath appointed his people to assemble together solemnly it doth appear by the fourth Commandment c. Which Example and Commandment of God the godly Christian people began to follow after the Ascension of our Lord Christ and began to chuse them a standing day in the week to come together in yet not the seventh day which the Jews kept but the Lords day the day of the Lords Resurrection the day after the seventh day which is the first day of the week c. This makes the matter clear enough and yet the Statute 5 and 6 of Edw. vi in which all the Prelates did concur with the other Estates makes it clearer then the Homily doth Forasmuch saith the Statute as men be not at all times so mindeful to laud and praise God so ready to resort to hear Gods holy Word and come to the holy Communion c. as their bounden duty doth require therefore to call men to remembrance of their duty and to help their infirmities it hath been wholesomely provided that there should be some certain dayes and times appointed wherein Christians should cease from all kindes of labour and apply themselves only and wholly unto the aforesaid holy works properly
leave to Worship God as your selves do For if it be Gods Worship I ought to do it as well as you and if it be Idolatry you ought not to do it more then I. 19. This duty being performed at their first entrance into the Church it was next required by the Rubrick that they should reverently kneel at the reading of the publick Prayers and in the receiving of the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper that they should stand up at the reading of the Apostles Creed and consequently at the Athanasian and Nicene also which are as Commentaries on that Text as also at the frequent Repetitions of the Gloria Patri which is an Abridgement of the same And in the next place it was required by the Queens Injunctions That whensoever the Name of Iesus shall be in any Lesson Sermon or otherwise in the Church pronounced that due reverence be made of all persons young and old with lowness of courtesie and uncovering the heads of the mankinde as thereunto doth necessarily belong and heretofore hath been accustomed In which it is to be observed that though this Injunction was published in the first year of the Queen yet then this bowing at the Name of Iesus was lookt on as an ancient custom not only used in Queen Maries Reign but also in King Edwards time and in those before And in this case and in that before and in all others of that nature it is a good and certain rule that all such Rites as had been practised in the Church of Rome and not abolisht nor disclaimed by any Doctrine Law or Canon of the first Reformers were to continue in the same state in which they found them But this commendable custom together with all other outward reverence in Gods publick Service being every day more and more discontinued as the Puritan Faction got ground amongst us it seemed good to the Prelates and Clergy assembled in Convocation Anno 1603. to revive the same with some enlargement as to the uncovering of the Head in all the acts and parts of publick worship For thus we have it in the 18. Canon of that year viz. No man shall cover his head in the Church or Chappel in time of Divine Service except he have some Infirmity in which case let him wear a night Cap or Coife And likewise when the Name of Iesus shall be mentioned due and lowly reverence shall be done by all persons present as it hath been accustomed testifying by this outward Ceremony and Gesture their inward Humility Christian Resolution and due acknowledgement that the Lord Iesus Christ the true and eternal Son of God is the only Saviour of the world in whom alone all Graces Mercies and Promises of Gods love to mankinde for this life and the life to come are wholly comprised In which Canon we have not only the Doctrine that bowing is to be used to the Name of Iesus but the uses also and not alone the custom but the reasons of it both grounded on that Text of Scripture Phil. 2.10 that at the Name of IESVS every knee should bow according to such expositions as were made thereof by St. Ambrose and others of the ancient Writers 20. In matters which were meerly doctrinal and not practical also so the first Reformers carried on the work with the same equal temper as they did those which were either mixt or meerly practical And first beginning with the Pope having discharged themselves from the Supremacy which in the times foregoing he had exercised over them in this Kingdom I finde no Declaration in any publick Monument or Records of the Church of England that the Pope was Antichrist whatsoever some of them might say in their private Writings some hard expressions there are of him in the Book of Homilies but none more hard then those in the publick Litany first published by King Hen. viii at his going to Bolongue and afterwards retained in both Liturgies of King Edward vi In which the people were to pray for their deliverance from the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and his detestable enormities c. This was conceived to be as indeed it was a very great scandal and offence to all those in the Realm of England who were well affected to the Church of Rome and therefore in the Liturgy of Queen Elizabeth it was quite left out the better to allure them to the Divine Service of the Church as at first it did And for the Church of Rome it self they beheld it with no other eyes then as a Member of the visible Church which had for many hundred years maintained the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith though both unsound in Doctrine and corrupt in Manners Just as a man distempered in his Brain Diseased in all the parts of his Body and languishing under many putrified Sores doth still retain the being of a natural man as long as he hath sense and motion and in his lucid intervals some use of Reason They tell us in the 19. Article that the Church of Rome hath erred not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies but in matters of Faith But then they lookt upon her as a Member of the Visible Church as well as those of Ierusalem Antioch and Alexandria which are there affirmed to have erred also Erre then she might and erre she did indeed too grosly and yet might notwithstanding serve as a conduit-pipe to convey to us many of those Primitive Truths and many of those godly Rites and Ceremonies which she had superstitiously defiled In which last place it was a very pious rule that in the Reformation of a Church abuses being taken away the primitive Institution should be left remaining Tollatur abusus maneat usus as the saying is and in the first as piously observed by King Iames in the Conference at Hampton-Court that in all Reformations he would not have any such departure from the Papists in all things that because we in some points agree with them therefore we should be accounted to be in an error Let us then see how near the first Reformers did and might come unto the Papists and yet not joyn with them in their Errors to the betraying of the Truth 21. The Pope they deprived of that unlimitted Supremacy and the Church of Rome of that exorbitant power which they formerly challenged over them yet did they neither think it fit to leave the Church without her lawful and just Authority nor saâ—e to put her out of the protection of the Supream Governour Touching the first it was resolved in the 20. Article That the Church hath power not only to decree Rites and Ceremonies but also in Controversies of Faith as the English Ecclesia habet Ritus Ceremonias Statuendi jus in fidei controversiis Authoritatem as it is in the Latine And so it stands in the Original Acts of the Convocation Anno 1562. and publisht in the self same words both in Latine and English Afterwards in the year
1571. by the power and prevalency of some of the Genevian Faction the Articles were reprinted and this Clause left out But the times bettering and the Governors of the Church taking just notice of the danger which lay lurking under that omission there was care taken that the said clause should be restored unto its place in all following impressions of that Book as it hath ever since continued Nor was this part of the Article a matter of speculation only and not reducible to practice or if reducible to practice not fit to be enforced upon such as gain-said the same For in the 34. Article it is thus declared That whosoever through his private judgement willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant unto the word of God and be ordained and approved by common Authority ought to be rebuked openly that others may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common order of the Church and hurteth the the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of the weak Brethren More power then this as the See of Rome did never challenge so less then this was not reserved unto it self by the Church of England And as for the Authority of the Church in controversies of Faith the very Articles by which they declared that power seconded by the rest of the points which are there determined is a sufficient Argument that they used and exercised that power which was there declared And because some objection had been made both by the Papists and those of the Genevian party that a Papal power was granted as at first to King Henry viii under the name of Supream Head so afterwards to Queen Elizabeth and her Successors it was thought expedient by the Church to stop that clamour at the first and thereupon it was declared in the Convocation of the Prelates and Clergy who make the representative Body of the Church of England in the 37. Article of the year 1562. That whereas they had attributed to the Queens Majesty the chief Government of all the Estates of this Realm whether Ecclesiastical or Civil in all cases they did not give unto their Princes the ministring either of Gods Word or of the Sacraments but that only Prerogative which was known to have been given alwayes to all godly Princes in Holy Scripture by God himself that is to say that they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers Less Power then this as good Subjects could not give unto their King so more then this hath there not been exercised or desired by the Kings of England Such power as was by God vouchsafed to the godly Kings and Princes in Holy Scripture may serve abundantly to satisfie even the unlimited desires of the mightiest Monarch were they as boundless as the Popes 22. Next to the point of the Supremacy esteemed the Principal Article of Religion in the Church of Rome primus praecipuus Romanensis fidei Articulus as is affirmed in the History of the Council of Trent the most material differences betwixt them and us relate to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and the natural efficacy of good works in which the differences betwixt them and the first Reformers seem to be at the greatest though even in those they came as near to them as might stand with Piety The Sacrament of the Lords Supper they called the Sacrament of the Altar as appears plainly by the Statute 1 Edward vi entituled An Act against such as speak unreverently against the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ commonly called the Sacrament of the ALTAR For which consult the Body of the Act it self Or secondly by Bishop Ridley one of the chief Compilers of the Common-Prayer-Book who doth not only call it the Sacrament of the Altar affirming thus that in the Sacrament of the Altar is the natural Body and Blood of Christ c. But in his Reply to an Argument of the Bishop of Lincoln's taken out of St. Cyril he doth resolve it thus viz. The word Altar in the Scripture signifieth as well the Altar whereon the Jews were wont to oder their Burnt Sacrifice as the Table of the Lords Supper and that St. Cyril meaneth by this word Altar not the Iewish Altar but the Table of the Lord c. Acts and Mon. part 3. p. 492. and 497. Thirdly By Bishop Latimer his fellow Martyr who plainly grants That the Lords Table may be called an Altar and that the Doctors called it so in many places though there be no propitiatory Sacrifice but only Christ part 2. p. 85. Fourthly By the several affirmations of Iohn Lambert and Iohn Philpot two Learned and Religious men whereof the one suffered death for Religion under Henry viii the other in the fiery time of Queen Mary This Sacrament being called by both the Sacrament of the Altar in their several times for which consult the Acts and Monuments commonly called the Book of Martyrs And that this Sacrament might the longer preserve that name and the Lords Supper be administred with the more solemnity it was ordained in the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth no Altar should be taken down but by the over-sight of the Curate of the Church and the Church-Wardens or one of them at least and that the Holy Table in every Church be decently made and set up in the place where the Altar stood and there commonly covered as thereto belongeth It is besides declared in the Book of Orders Anno 1561. published about two years after the said Injunction That in the place where the Steps were the Communion Table should stand and that there shall be fixed on the Wall over the Communion Board the Tables of Gods Precepts imprinted for the same purpose The like occurs in the Advertisements published by the Metropolitan and others the High Commissioners 1565. In which it is ordered That the Parish shall provide a decent Table standing on a frame for the Communion Table which they shall decently cover with a Carpet of Silk or other decent covering and with a white Linâ—en Cloath in the time of the administration and shall set the Ten Commandments upon the East-Wall over the said Table All which being laid together amounts to this that the Communion-Table was to stand above the steps and under the Commandments therefore all along the Wall on which the Ten Commandments were appointed to be placed which was directly where the Altar had stood before Now that the Holy Table in what posture soever it be plac't should not be thought unuseful at all other times but only at the time of the Ministration it was appointed by the Church in its first Reformation that the Communion-Service commonly called the Second Service upon all Sundayes and Holy-dayes should be read only at the Holy Table For first in the last
and Apollo's watering do receive increase For being thus resolved upon the point it was not long before he had an opportunity to set it forwards He had before attained unto an high esteem for Arts and Oratory and was conceived to have made so good a proficiency in the Studies of Divinity also that in the year 1602. he was admitted to read the Lecture of Mrs. May's Foundation with the general liking of that Colledge With the like general consent and approbation he was chosen out of all the rest of that Society to be a Candidate for the Proctorship in the University into which Office he was chosen on the fourth of May 1603. which was as soon as he was capable of it by the University Statutes which Office he discharged with great applause as to himself and general satisfaction unto others Doctor George Abbot Master of Vniversity Colledge who afterwards attained to the See of Canterbury was at that time Vice-chancellor of the University whom with the rest of the Doctors and Heads of Houses he accompanied to Woodstock Manor to present themselves and tender their most humble service to the most Mighty Prince King Iames succeeding on the 24th of March before to the Crown of England And in this year it was but whether in reading of the Lecture of Mrs. May's Foundation or some other Chappel Exercise I am not able to say he maintained the constant and perpetual visibility of the Church of Christ derived from the Apostles to the Church of Rome continued in that Church as in others of the East and South till the Reformation Dr. Abbot Master of Vniversity Colledg and Vice-chancellor was of a different opinion and could not finde any such visibility of the Christian Church but by tracing it as well as he could from the Berengarians to the Albigenses from the Albigenses to the Wickliffists from the Wickliffists unto the Hussites and from the Hussites unto Luther and Calvin for proof whereof we may consult a Book of his entituled The Visibility of the Church published in those busie Times when this impertinent Question viz. Where Was your Church before Luther was as impertinently insisted on by the Priests and Jesuites This being his opinion also when he lived in Oxon he thought it a great derogation to his Parts and Credit that any man should dare to maintain the contrary and thereupon conceived a strong grudge against him which no tract of time could either abolish or diminish In the next year viz. 1604. he peformed his Exercise for Batchelor of Divinity in which he maintained these two Points First The necessity of Baptism Secondly That there could be no true Church without Diocesan Bishops For which last he was shrewdly ratled by Doctor Holland above-mentioned as one that did endeavour to cast a bone of Discord betwixt the Church of England and the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas and for the first it was objected That he had taken the greatest part of his Supposition out of Bellarmines Works as if the Doctrine of the Incarnation of the Son of God or any necessary Truths were to be renounced because they are defended by that Learned Cardinal But misfortunes seldom come alone if at the least it may be counted a misfortune to be reproach'd for standing up in defence of truth For not long after viz. Anno 1606. he was questioned by Dr. Airy being Vice-chancellor for that year for a Sermon preached in St. Maries Church on the 26th of October as containing in it sundry scandalous and Popish passages the good man taking all things to be matter of Popery which were not held forth unto him in Calvins Institutes conceiving that there was as much Idolatry in bowing at the Name of IESVS as in worshipping the brasen Serpent and as undoubtedly believing that Antichrist was begotten on the Whore of Babylon as that Pharez and Zara were begotten on the body of Tamar Which advantage being taken by Doctor Abbot he so violently persecuted the poor man and so openly branded him for a Papist or at least very Popishly enclined that it was almost made an Heresie as I have heard from his own mouth for any one to be seen in his company and a misprision of Heresie to give him a civil Salutation as he walked the Streets But there will one day come a time when Doctor Abbot may be made more sensible of these Oppressions when he shall see this poor despised man standing upon the higher ground and more above him in respect of Power than beneath in Place So unsafe a thing it is for them that be in Authority to abuse their Power and carry matters on to the last extremities as if they had Fortune in a string and could be sure to lead her with them whithersoever they went This scandal being raised at Oxon it was not long before it flew to Cambridge also at what time Mr. Ioseph Hall who died Bishop of Norwich about the year 1657. was exercising his Pen in the way of Epistles in one of which inscribed to Mr. W. L. the two first Letters of his Name it was generally supposed that he aimed at him and was this that followeth I would saith he I knew where to finde you then I could tell how to take direct aims whereas now I must pore and conjecture To day you are in the Tents of the Romanists to morrow in ours the next day between both against both Our Adversaries think you ours we theirs your Conscience findes you with both and neither I flatter you not This of yours is the worst of all tempers Heat and Cold have their uses Lukewarmness is good for nothing but to trouble the stomack Those that are spiritually hot find acceptation those that are stark cold have a lesser reckoning the mean between both is so much worse as it comes neerer to good and attains it not How long will you halt in this indifferency Resolve one way and know at last what you do hold what you should Cast off either your wings or your teeth and loathing this Bat-like Nature be either a Bird or a Beast To die wavering and uncertain your self will grant fearful If you must settle when begin you If you must begin why not now It is dangerous deferring that whose want is deadly and whose opportunity is doubtful God cryeth with Iehu Who is on my side who Look at last out of your window to him and in a resolute courage cast down the Iezebel that hath bewitched you Is there any impediment which delay will abate Is there any which a just answer cannot remove If you had rather waver who can settle you But if you love not inconstancy tell us why you stagger Be plain or else you will never be firm c. But notwithstanding these false bruits and this smart Epistle Doctor Buckridge who had been his Tutor and from whom he received his Principles had better assurance of his unfeigned sincerity in the true
Protestant Religion here by Law established than to be so perswaded of him he had not else preferred him to the service of Bishop Neile or recommended him to the Colledge as the fittest man to succeed him in the Presidents place when he himself was at the point of his preferment to the See of Rochester So also had the whole Body of the University when they conferred upon him his Degrees in Divinity which certainly they had never done if either they had believed him to have been a Papist or at the least so Popishly affected as the Faction made him Neither could he have taken those Degrees had it been so with him without a most perfidious dissimulation before God and Man because in taking those Degrees he must both take the Oath of Supremacy and subscribe to the three Articles contained in the 36 Canon of the year 1603. In the first of which he was to have abjured the Popes Authority and in the next to have declared his approbation of the Doctrine Government and Forms of Worship established in the Church of England Which may sufficiently serve to over-balance the Depositions of Sir Nath. Brent and Doctor Featly the first of which deposed at his Tryal That whilst the Archbishop remained in Oxon he was generally reputed to be Popishly affected the other Not only that the Archbishop was generally reported to be Popish when he lived in Oxon but that both he and others conceived so of him But both these men were Abbot's Creatures and had received their Offices and Preferments from him I need say no more For had he either been a Papist or so strongly biassed on that side what should have hindred him from making an open Declaration of it or stop him from a reconciliation with the Church of Rome His Fellowship was not so considerable but that he might presume of a larger Maintenance beyond the Seas Nor was he of such common parts but that he might have looked for a better welcom and far more civil usage there than he found at home Preferments in the Church he had none at the present nor any strong presumptions of it for the time to come which might be a temptation to him to continue here against the clear light of his Understanding And this may be a further Argument not only of his unfeigned sincerity but of his constancy and stedfastness in the Religion here established that he kept his station that notwithstanding all those clamours under which he suffered he was resolved to ride out the storm and neither to desert the Barque in which he sailed nor run her upon any of the Roman Shores In this of a far better Temper than Tertullian was though as much provok'd of whom it is reported by Beatus Rhenamus That at first he only seemed to favour Montanus or at the least not to be displeased with his proceedings But afterwards being continually tormented by the tongues and pens of the Roman Clergy he fell off from the obedience of the Church and became at last a downright Montanist All which together make it plain that it was not his design to desert the Church but to preserve her rather from being deserted to vindicate her by degrees from those Innovations which by long tract of time and the cunning practises of some men had been thrust upon her And being once resolved on this the blustring winds which so raged against him did rather fix him at the root than either shake his resolution or force him to desist from his purpose in it And therefore it was well resolved by Sir Edw. Dering though his greatest enemy That he was always one and the same man that beginning with him at Oxon. and so going on to Canterbury he was unmoved and unchanged that he never complied with the times but kept his own stand until the times came up to him as they after did Such was the man and such the purpose of the man whom his good friends in Oxon. out of pure zeal no doubt we must take it so had declared a Papist During these Agitations and Concussions in the Vniversity there hapned an accident at Wansteed in the County of Essex which made as great a noise as his being a Papist but such a noise as might have freed him from that Accusation if considered rightly In the year 1605. he had been made Chaplain to Charles Lord Mountjoy Earl of Devonshire a man in great favour with King Iames for his fortunate Victory at Kinsale in Ireland by which he reduced that Realm to the obedience of this Crown broke the whole Forces of the Rebells and brought the Earl of Tir-owen a Prisoner into England with him For which great Services he was by King Iames made Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom and one of the Lords of his Privy Council created Earl of Devonshire and one of the Knights of the most Noble Order of the Garter This Gentleman being a younger Brother of William Lord Mountjoy and known only by the name of Sir Charles Blunt while his Brother lived had bore a strong and dear affection to the Lady Penelope Daughter of Walter Earl of Essex a Lady in whom lodged all attractive Graces of Beauty Wit and sweetness of Behaviour which might render her the absolute Mistress of all Eyes and Hearts And she so far reciprocated with him in the like affection being a compleat and gallant man that some assurances past between them of a future Marriage But her friends looking on him as a younger Brother considerable only in his depending at the Court chose rather to dispose her in Marriage to Robert Lord Rich a man of an independent Fortune and a known Estate but otherwise of an uncourtly disposition unsociable austere and of no very agreeable conversation to her Against this Blunt had nothing to plead in Bar the promises which passed between them being made in private no Witnesses to attest unto it and therefore not amounting to a pre-Contract in due form of Law But long she had not lived in the Bed of Rich when the old flames of her affection unto Blunt began again to kindle in her and if the Sonet in the Arcadia A Neighbour mine not long ago there was c. be not too generally misconstrued she made her Husband the sole instrument to acquaint him with it But whether it were so or not certain it is that having first had their private meetings they afterwards converst more openly and familiarly with one another than might stand with honour unto either especially when by the death of his elder Brother the Title of Lord Mountjoy and the Estate remaining to it had accrued unto him As if the alteration of his Fortune could either lessen the offence or suppress the fame Finding her at his coming back from the Wars of Ireland to be free from Rich legally freed by a Divorce and not a voluntary separation only a toro mensa as they call it he thought himself obliged
not engaged upon either side might succeed in their places But notwithstanding all this care the Faction still held up against him the younger fry inclining to the same side which had been taken by their Tutors But whiles these things were in agitation there hapned a great alteration in the Church of England by the death of the most Reverend Archbishop Bancroft who died on the second of November 1610. and with whom died the Vniformity of the Church of England A man he was of eminent parts and of a most undaunted spirit one who well knew his work and did it When Chaplain only to the Lord Chancellor Hatton he piec'd himself with Doctor Whitgift not long after his first coming to the See of Canterbury to whom he proved a great support in gaining the Lord Chancellor for him by whose assistance he was enabled to hold out against the over-ruling Power of the Earl of Leicester the Patron-General of the Faction In the year 1588. he Preached a Sermon at St. Paul's Cross and therein made an open Declaration of those manifold Dangers which the prevalency of that Faction would bring upon the Church and State if they might be suffered which blow he followed in a Book entituled Dangerous Positions and Proceedings published and practised within this Island of Britain under pretence of Reformation and for the Presbyterial Discipline And in that Book he made such a perfect discovery of their Plots and Practises and so anatomized them in every part that he made them odious unto those who before had been their greatest Patrons In the year 1593. he published another Treatise entituled A Survey of the Pretended holy Discipline in which he so dissected the whole Body of Calvin's Presbyterial Platform shewing the incoherencies of it in it self and the inconsistencies thereof with Monarchical Government that he took off the edge of many and those Great ones too who had not only seemed to like it but had longed for it The Plot was so laid down by Whitgift that at the same time there should come out two other Books the one written by Doctor Thomas Bilson Warden of the Colledge neer Winton for proof of the Antiquity and perpetual Government of the Church by Bishops the other by Doctor Richard Cosens a right Learned Civilian in justification of the Proceedings in the Ecclesiastical Courts By which four Books the Puritan Faction was so muzled that they were not able to bark in a long time after Nor do they want their several and just Rewards for such good performances Bilson being first made Bishop of Worcester and not long after Bishop of Winton Bancroft advanced to the See of London and Doctor Cosens Vicar-general and Dean of the Arches within few years after being consecrated Bishop of London on the eighth of May 1597. he kept such a watchfull eye over it and held so strict a hand upon it that from a receptactle and retreat of the Grandees of the Puritan party it became almost as free from Faction as any other in the Kingdom And knowing how much the Peace of this Church did depend upon it he managed a secret Corespondency with King Iames in Scotland insinuating unto him the necessity of conforming the Churches of both Kingdoms in Government and Forms of Worship and laying down a plot for restoring Episcopacy to that Kirk without noise or trouble Which counsel being advisedly followed by King Iames before his coming into England was afterwards so well pursued though not without some violent strugling of the Presbyterians of that Kingdom that on the 21. day of October in the year 1609. the designed Bishops of Glascow Brechen and Gallo-Way received Episcopal Consecration in the Chappel of London-house by the hands of Doctor George Abbot then Bishop of London Doctor Lancelot Andrews Bishop of Ely Doctor Iames Montague Bishop of Bath and Wells and Doctor Richard Neile then Bishop of Rochester Bancroft himself forbearing to lay hands upon them for the avoiding of all scruples amongst the Scots as if he pretended any Jurisdiction or Authority over them In the mean time Anno 1603. he carried a chief hand in the Conference at Hampton Court and had the sole management of the Convocation of the same year also in which he passed that excellent body of Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical to serve for a perpetual standing Rule to the Church of England Succeeding Whitgift in the See of Canterbury Anno 1604. he resolved to put the Canons into execution and press'd it with so stout a courage that few had confidence enough to stand out against him Some of them did and those he either depriv'd or silenc'd and thereby terrified the rest to an open Conformity They saw too plainly that they must not dally with his patience as they did with Whitgifts and that he was resolved to break them if they would not bow And they did wisely in so bowing for who could stand against a man of such a spirit armed with Authority having the Law on his side and the King to friend who had declared publickly in the Conference at Hampton Court That if they would not conform he would either hurry them out of the Kingdom or else do worse In the year 1608. he was chosen Chancellor at Oxon. and questionless would have set all things right in that University if Sickness and the stroke of Death had not prevented his intendments But die he must and being dead there was a Consultation amongst some of the Bishops and other Great men of the Court whom to commend unto King Iames for his Successor in that See They knew that Mountague and Abbot would be venturing at it but they had not confidence enough in either of them both of them being extremely popular and such as would ingratiate themselves with the Puritan Faction how dearly soever the Church paid for it And thereupon it was resolved to fix on Andrews for the man a man as one says very well of him of Primitive Antiquity in whom was to be found whatever is desirable in a Bishop even to admiration to whom they found the King to be well affected for taking up the Bucklers for him against Cardinal Bellarmine The Motion was no sooner made but it was embraced and they departed from the King with as good assurance as if the business had been done and Andrews fully setled in the Throne of Canterbury In confidence whereof some of them retired to their Country Houses and others lessened their accustomed diligence about the King and thereby gave an opportunity to the Earl of Dunbar a powerful Minister of State to put in for Abbot who had attended him in some Negotiations which he had with the Scots and he put in so powerfully in his behalf that at last he carried it and had the Kings Hand to the passing of the publick Instruments before the other Bishops ever heard of the Plot But when they heard of it there was no Remedy but Patience but it was
Dr. Abbot being thus removed to an higher spheare it seemed not good to Laud to pursue the quarrel but patiently to attend the year of his expectation before the expiring whereof the King bestowed upon him the Deanry of Glocester as before was said At the bestowing of which Deanry his Majesty told him that he had been informed that there was scarce ever a Church in England so ill governed and so much out of order as that was requiring him in the general to reform and set in order what he found amiss Being thus forewarned and withall forearmed he makes hast to Glocester where he found the Church in great decay many things out of order in it the Communion Table standing almost in the middest of the Quire contrary to the posture of it in his Majesties Chappel and of all the Cathedral Churches which he had seen Which being observed he called a Chapter of the Prebends and having acquainted them with his Majesties Instructions easily obtained their consent to two Chapter Acts The one for the speedy Repairing of the Church where it was most necessary The other for transposing the Communion Table to the East end of the Quire and placing it all along the Wall according to the scituation of it in other Cathedral or Mother Churches which Transposition being made he recommended to the Prebendaries the Quire men Choresters and the under-Officers of the Church the making of their humble reverence to Almighty God not only at their first entrance into the Quire but at their approaches toward the holy Table according to the laudible custom of the Primitive times retained still in the sollemnities of the Knights of the Garter at the Act in Oxon. in the Chappels of his Majesty and divers great persons in the Realm His Majesties instructions the Contents of the two Chapter Acts and how he had proceeded on them I find certified under his hand in two Letters The one to his good Friend the Bishop of Lincoln bearing date March 3. 1616. The other unto the Bishop of Glocester who had shewed himself offended at his proceedings bearing date on the twenty seventh of February then next foregoing The Bishop of Glocester at that time was Dr. Miles Smith once of Brazen-Nose Colledge a great Hebrician and one that took as much pains as any in the last Translation of the Bible as a reward for which he received this Bishoprick But then withall he was a man that spared not to shew himself upon all occasions in favour of the Calvinian party and more particularly in countenancing the Lecturers within his Diocess against the lawful Minister of the Parish when ever any complaint of their proceedings was made unto him No sooner had he heard what the new Dean had done about the Communion Table but he expressed his dislike of it and opposed it with all the power he had But finding that he could not prevaile according unto his desires he is said to have protested unto the Dean and some of the Prebends that if the Communion Table were removed or any such Innovations brought into that Cathedral he would never come more within those Walls which Promise or Protestation he is said by some to have made good and not to have come within that Church to his dying day Which if he did forbear upon that occasion he must needs shew himself a man of great pertinacity and one that feared not to give a publick scandall to the Church and the Court to boot This transposition being made in the declining of the year 1616. his Pallace standing near the walls of that Cathedral and he not dying till the year 1624. which was eight years after Seeing how little he prevailed one White his Chaplain takes upon him in a Letter written to the Chancellor of that Diocess to acquaint him with the strange Reports which were come unto them touching the scituation of the Communion Table in the place where the High Altar stood before and that low obeysance were made to it assuring him how much the secret Papists would rejoyce in hope that that which they long looked for was now near at hand In which Letter he also challenged and upbraided the Prebends and other Preachers of that City that they did not offer either by word or deed to resist the Dean in those proceedings admiring that no man should have any spark of Elias Spirit to speak a word in Gods behalf that the Preachers should swallow down such things in silence and that the Prebends should be so faint hearted as to shrink in the first wetting especially having the Law on their side against it It was not long before this Letter was made a Libell Either the Letter it self or a Copy of it being cast into the Pulpit at St. Michaels Church where Prior the Sub-Dean used to preach to the end that he and others of the Prebendaries might take notice of it Found by the Parish Clerk and by him put into the hands of the Curate by them communicated unto others who took Copies of it and in short time divulged over all the City The City at that time much pestered with the Puritan Faction which was grown multitudinous and strong by reason of the small abode which the Dean and Prebendaries made amongst them the dull connivance of their Bishop and the remiss Government of their Metropolitan so that it seemed both safe and easie to some of the Rabble to make an out-cry in all places that Popery was coming in that the translating of the Communion Table into an Altar with the worship and obeysance which were done to it were Popish superstitions and the like Iones one of the Aldermen of the City and a Justice of the Peace withall caused some of the principal dispersers of this Libellous Letter to be brought before him committed some of them to prison and threatned to bind the rest to their good behaviour But fearing lest his own power might not be sufficient to crush that Faction which had begun to gather strength by long connivance he advised that the business might be referred to the High Commissioners as men more able to deal with them Notice hereof being given to the new Dean by some Letters thence bearing date Feb. 21. he addressed this Letter above mentioned to the Bishop of Glocester In which he desired such Favour and Equity at his hands as that his Lordship would joyn to reform such Tongues and Pens as knew not how to submit to any Law but their own that of necessity he was to acquaint his Gracious Majesty not only with the thing it self but with the entertainment which it found among Turbulent Spirits and that he doubted not but that his Majesty would be well pleased to hear how careful his Lordship shewed himself in preserving the Order and Peace of the Church But fearing that the Bishop whose Chaplain was the sole cause of the mischief would not be very forward to redress it he dispatched the other Letter
above mentioned to the Bishop of Lincoln and in that Letter he desired his Lordship having first moved that the High Commission would be pleased to take some speedy order in it to let him have his lawful assistance to the end that so long as he did nothing but what was established and practised in the Church of England he might not be brought into contempt by turbulent Spirits at his first entrance on that place and so be disinabled to do that good service which he owed to the Church of Christ withall propounding to his Lordship that if it stood with his good liking his Majesty might be made acquainted with the first success of his endeavors for reforming such things as he found most amiss in that Church c. Whilst these things were thus agitated in the Reformation of the Church of Glocester there were other Actings in the Court touching the Reformation of some things in the Vniversity of Oxon. Laud had before informed the Bishop of Lincoln concerning the course usage which he had from Dr. Abbot as before was said Which being represented to his Majesty it was withall insinuated to him what dangers would proceed by the training up of young Students in the Grounds of Calvinism if some directions were not issued from his Majesty for the course of their studies that there was no readier way to advance the Presbyterial Government in this Kingdom than by suffering young Scholars to be seasoned with Calvinian Doctrines that it was very hard to say whether of the two either the Puritan or the Papist were more destructive of Monarchical Government and finally that for want of subscription to the three Articles contained in the 36. Canon not only Lecturers but divers other Preachers in and about the University positively maintained such points of Doctrine as were not maintained or allowed by the Church of England Which matter his Majesty having taken into consideration by the advice of such Bishops and others of the Clergy as were then about him upon the eighteenth of Ianuary he dispatcht these Directions following to the Vice Chancellor the Heads of Colledges and Halls the two Professors and the two Proctors of the University to be carefully and speedily put in execution JAMES REX 1. That it was his Majesties pleasure that he would have all that take any degree in Schools to subscribe to the three Articles in the 36th Canon 2. That no Preacher be allowed to preach in the Town but such as are every way conformable both by subscription and every other way 3. That all Students do resort to the Sermons in St. Maries and be restrained from going to any other Church in the time of St. Maries Sermons and that provision be made that the Sermons in St. Maries be diligently made and performed both before-noon and afternoon 4. That the ordinary Divinity Act be constantly kept with three Replicants 5. That there be a greater Restraint of Schollars haunting Town-houses especially in the night 6. That all Scholars both at the Chappels and at the Schools keep their Scholastical Habits 7. That young Students in Divinity be directed to study such books as be most agreeable in Doctrine and Discipline to the Church of England and encited to bestow their times in the Fathers and Councils School-men Histories and Controversies and not to insist too long upon Compendiums and Abreviatures making them the Grounds of their study in Divinity 8. That no man either in Pulpit or Schools be suffered to maintain Dogmatically any point of Doctrine that is not allowed by the Church of England 9. That Mr. Vice-Chancellor and the two Professors or two of the Heads of Houses do at such time as his Majesty resorts into those parts wait upon his Majesty and give his Majesty a just account how these his Majesties Instructions are observed 10. Let no man presume of what condition or degree soever not to yield his obedience to these his Majesty Directions lest he incur such censures as the Statutes of this Vniversity may justly inflict upon such transgressors This was the first step toward the suppressing of that Reputation which Calvin and his Writings had attained unto in that University and a good step it might have been if Dr Goodwin Dean of Christ Church who was then Vice-Chancellor had not been Father-in-law to Prideaux or rather if Prideaux himself had approved the Articles or that Dr. Benfield of Corpus Christi the other Professor for Divinity a grave but sedentary man had been active in it But howsoever being published though it went no farther it gave such a general Alarm to the Puritan Faction that the terrour of it could not be forgotten in 20. years after Certain I am that in the year 1636. it was charged by H. Burton of Fryday-street for an Innovation one of the many Innovations introduced by Laud and others of the Prelatical party to subvert Religion But leaving them to the folly of their own affrightments let us look back unto the King who being confident that he had left the University in a ready way for coming to an Vnity in matters of Doctrine prepared for his Journey into Scotland with a like confidence of effecting an Vniformity in Forms of Worship A matter of consequence and weight and therefore to be managed by able Ministers such as knew how to winde and turn the Presbyterians of that Kingdom if matters should proceed to a Disputation The known Abilities of Laud mark'd him out for one which though it were like to bring a great Charge upon him yet he preferred the Reputation before the Charge and chearfully embrac'd the Service Nor was it more welcom unto him than grateful to the Bishop of Lincoln assured thereby not only of a trusty Friend but of a sociable Companion for that tedious Journey His Majesty having filled up the List of his Attendants on the 14th day of March began his Journey accompanied by the Queen and Prince as far as Theobalds and from thence went forward with his Train before appointed By the way he called in at the City of Lincoln where it is not to be doubted but that the Bishop gave him as magnificent an Entertainment as the Place and Country would afford And from this place it was that he dated his Instructions of the 14th of April to the Lord Iohn Digby then going Embassador into Spain to Treat upon and Conclude a Marriage between Prince Charles and the Infanta Maria the Second Daughter of that King one of which Articles was to this effect That the Espousals being made in Spain according to the Order of the Councel of Trent the Marriage should be solemnized in England where there should be such a Solemnization as by the Laws of this Realm should make the Marriage valid and take away all scruple touching the Legitimation of the Issue Which temperament seems to me to have very much in it of Laud's hand and spirit In the beginning of May 1617. his Majesty was come as far
towards which the Testimonial Letters sent from the Church of Amsterdam did not help a little in which Letters he stands commended for a man of unblamable life sound Doctrine and fair behaviour as may be seen at large in the Oration which was made at his Funeral in the Divinity Schools of Leyden on the 22. of October Anno 1609. During his sitting in that Chair he drew unto him a great part of that University who by the Piety of the man his powerful Arguments his extreme diligence in the place and the clear light of Reason which appeared in all his Discourses were so wedded unto his Opinions that no time nor trouble could divorce them For Arminius dying in the year 1609. as before was said the heats betwixt his Scholars and those of the contrary perswasion were rather increased than abated the more increased for want of such a prudent Moderator as had before saved and preserved these Churches from a publick Rupture The Breach between them growing wider each side thought fit to seek the Countenance of the State and they did accordingly For in the year 1610. the Followers of Arminius address their Remonstrance containing the Antiquity of their Doctrines and the substance of them to the States of Holland which was encountred presently by a Contra-Remonstrance exhibited by those of Calvins Party From hence the names of Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants so frequent in their Books and Writings till the Remonstrants were condemned in the Synod of Dort and either forced to yield the cause or quit their Country each Party in the mean time had the opportunity to disperse their Doctrines in which the Remonstrants gained exceedingly upon their Adversaries For the whole Controversie being reduced to these five Points viz. the Method of Predestination the Efficacie of Christs Death the operations of Grace both before and after mans Conversion and perseverance in the same the Parties were admitted to a publick Conference at the Hague in the year 1611. in which the Remonstrants were conceived to have had much the better of the day But these Tongue-Combates did produce a further mischief than was suspected at the first For the Calvinians hoping to regain by Power what they lost by Argument put themselves under the Protection of Maurice van Nassaw Prince of Orange Commander General of the Forces of the United Provinces both by Sea and Land The Remonstrants on the other side applied themselves unto Iohn Olden Barnevelt a principal Counsellor of State and of great Authority in his Country Who fearing the Greatness of the Prince and having or thinking that he had some cause to doubt that he aimed at an absolute Soverainty over those Estates did chearfully entertain the offer in hope to form such a Party by them as with the help of some other good Patriots might make a sufficient Counter-ballance against that design But Barnevelts projects being discovered he was first seized on by the Prince together with Grotius Liedenburgius and others of his chief Adherents and that being done he shewed himself with his Forces before such Towns and Cities as had declared in favour of them Reducing them under his Command changing their Magistrates and putting new Garrisons into them Next followed the Arraignment and death of Barnevelt contrary to the Fundamentall Laws both of his native Country and the common Union whose death occasioned a general dejection as well it might amongst those of the Remonstrant Party and their dejection animated the Calvinians to refer their differences to a National Council which thereupon was intimated to be held at Dort one of the principle Towns of Holland This Council being thus resolved on their next care was to invite to their assistance some Divines out of all the Churches of Calvins Platform and none else which did sufficiently declare that they intended to be both Parties and Judges as in fine it proved For unto this Convention assembled the most Rigid Calvinists not only of the United Provinces but also of all the Churches of High Germany and amongst the Switz and from the City of Geneva whom it most concerned From France came none because the King upon good Reason of State had commanded the contrary and the Scots much complained that they were not suffered by King Iames to send their Commissioners thither with the rest of the Churches For though King Iames had nominated Balcanquel to that imployment in the name of the Kirk yet that could give them no contentment From England the King sent Dr. George Carleton Bishop of Landaff Dr. Ios. Hall Dean of Worcester Dr. Iohn Davenant Master of Queens Colledge and Lady Margarets Professor in Cambridge and Dr. Sam. Ward Master of Sydney Colledge in the same University And this he did that by the Countenance of his power and by the Presence of his Divines he might support the Party of the Prince of Orange and suppress his Adversaries On the third of November they began the Synod But things were carried there with such inequality that such of the Remonstrants as were like to be elected by their several Classes were cited and commanded to appear as Criminals only and being come could not be suffered to proceed to a Disputation unless they would subscribe to such conditions as they conceived to be destructive to their Cause and their Conscience too Which being refused they were expelled the House by Bogerman who sate President there in a most fierce and bitter Oration condemned without answering for themselves and finally for not subscribing to their own condemnation compelled to forsake their native Country with their Wives and Children and to beg their bread even in desolate places What influence those quarrells had amongst our selves and what effects that Synod did produce in the Church of England we shall see hereafter when the same Points come to be agitated and debated on this side of the Seas His Majesty having thus made himself the Master of his Designs both at home and abroad and being recovered from a dangerous sickness which had fallen upon him at New-Market in the year 1619. resolved on such a work of Magnificent Piety as might preserve his name and memory of succeeding Ages To which end upon Midlent Sunday Anno 1620. accompanied by the Prince attended by the Marquiss of Buckingham the Bishops Lords and most of the principal Gentlemen about the Court he intended to visit St. Pauls From Temple-bar he was conducted in most solomn manner by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London and at his entrance into the Church received under a Canopy by the Dean and Canons attired in rich Copes and other Ecclesiastical Habits Being by them brought into the Quire he heard with very great Reverence and Devotion the Divine Service of the day most solemnly performed with Organs Cornets and Sagbuts accompanied and intermingled with such excellent voices that seemed rather to enchant than chant The Divine Service being done he went unto a place prepared where he heard the Sermon
at the Cross preached by the eloquent and religious Prelate Dr. Iohn King Lord Bishop of London The Sermon being ended the Collation began His Majesty attended with all the Lords and the rest of his Train being entertained by the said Lord Bishop at a sumptuous Banquet with no less honour to himself than content to his Majesty But there was more intended by this Visit than Pomp and Ostentation only For his Majesty having taken a view of the Ruinous Estate in which he beheld that goodly Fabrick issued not long after a Commission for repair thereof and somewhat was done in it both by Bishop King and Bishop Mountain But the carrying one of this work was reserved to another man For a breach following not long after between Spain and England and wars soon following on that breach a stop was made to all proceedings in that work till the year 1631. At what time Laud being Bishop of London obtained a like Commission from the hands oâ— King CHARLES and set his heart so much upon it that in few years he had made a mighty Progress in it of which more hereafter And here it was once feared that this present History might have ended without going further for on the second of April as he past from London towards Oxon he took up his Inn at Wickam upon the Rode where he fell suddenly dead and was not without much diffâ—culty and Gods special favour restored unto his former being But God reserved him to a life more eminent and a death more glorious not suffering him to dye obscurely like a traveller in a Private Inn but more conspicuously like a Martyr on the Publick Theatre for on the 22. of Ianuary he was installed Prebend in the Church of Westminster after no less than ten years expectation of it And on the last of the same Month he sate as Dean of Glocester in the Convâ—cation The Prince Elector Palatine who married the Kings only Daughter in the year 1612. had the last year most inconsiderately took upon him the Crown of Bohemiah not taking with him the Kings Counsel in it as he might have done but giving him an account oâ— it on the Post-Fact only The Emperour exasperated with this Usurpation as by him reputed gave up his Country for a prey assigning the Electoral Dignity with the Upper Palatinate to the Duke of Bavaria and the Lower to the King of Spain who had possest themselves of divers good Towns and pieces in it For the recovery whereof and the Preservation of the rest in which his Daughter and her Children were so much concerned it pleased his Majesty to call a Parliament to begin on the thirtieth day of Ianuary accompanied with a Convocation as the custom is on the morrow after The business of their Conveening being signified unto them by the King the Parliament at their first sitting which ended March 27. bestowed upon his Majesty two Subsidies but they gave no more which rather served to stay his stomach than allay his hunger They had some turns to serve upon him before they would part with any more money if they did it then But the Clergy dealt more freely with him in their Convocation because they had no other ends in it than the expressing of their duty and good affections In testimony whereof they gave him three entire Subsidies of four shillings in the pound at their first sitting and would not have been wanting to his Majesty in a further addition in the second or third if his Majesty had required it of them Incouraged with which supplies and the hopes of greater he sent some Regiments of old English Souldiers for the defence and preservation of the Lower Palatinate under the Command of that Noble Souldier Sir Horatio Vere When the Commons bestowed upon him the said two Subsidies he took them only as a bit to stay his stomach as before was said giving himself some hopes that at the next Session they would entertain him with a better and more costly dinner but then they meant that he should pay the reckoning for it For at their reassembling on the seventeenth of April instead of granting him the supplies he looked for they fell to pick quarrels with his Servants and one of his chief Ministers of State not only questioning Sir Giles Mompesson and Sir Francis Michael but even the Lord Chancellor Bacon also These men supposing them to have been as criminal as their enemies made them were notwithstanding such as acted under his Commissions and therefore not to have been punished by his own Authority only The giving of them over to the Power of the Parliament not only weakened his own Prerogative but put the House of Commons upon such a Pin that they would let no Parliament pass for the times to come without some such Sacrifice And so foll Bacon Lord Chancellor of England Lord Verulan and Viscount of St. Albans a man of good and bad qualities equally compounded one of a most strong brain and a Chimical head designing his endeavors to the perfecting of the Works of Nature or rather improving Nature to the best advantages of life and the common benefit of mankind Pity it was he was not entertained with some liberal Salary abstracted from all affairs both of Court and Judicature and furnished with sufficiency both of means and helps for the going on in his design which had it been he might have given us such a body of Natural Philosophy and made it so subservient to the publick good that neither Aristotle nor Theophrastus amongst the Ancients nor Paracelsus or the rest of our later Chimists would have been considerable In these Agitations held the Parliament till the fourth of Iune without doing any thing in order to his Majesties Service who thereupon adjourned them till the fourteenth of November following before which time we find Laud mounted one step higher and ready to take place amongst the Bisâ—ops in the House of Peers And therefore here we will conclude the first Part of our present History THE LIFE OF The most Reverend FATHER in GOD WILLIAM Lord Archbishop of Canterbury LIB II. Extending from his being made Bishop of St. Davids till his coming to the See of Bath and Wells IT is an observation no less old than true that Patience and Perseverance overcome all difficulties And so it hapned unto Laud. He had with most incredible patience endured the baffles and affronts which were put upon him by the power and practises of his enemies Nor did he shew less patience in his so long and chargeable attendance at the Court for which he had so small regard that he was rather looked upon as the Bishop of Durhams Servant than the Kings But notwithstanding these cross winds he was resolved to ride it out neither to shift his sails nor to tack about but still to keep his way and to stem the current till he had gained the Port he aimed at His Majesty had been made acquainted by
Calverts Letter unto Digby on the fifth of this present Ianuary That he could have no rest for his young Master for being called on early and late to hasten the dispatch of all Some Messages and dispatches had been brought by Porter out of Spain about three daies before which winged his feet and added Spurs to the design The Journey being thus agreed on was in the very nature of it to be made a secret and therefore not communicable to the Lords of the Council for fear of staying him at home or rendring him obnoxious to the danger of an interception as he past through France which mischief if it had befaln him he must either have submitted unto such conditions or suffered under such restraints as might seem intollerable in themselves but absolutely destructive of his present purpose which may the rather be believed by reason of the like proceedings of that King with the present Prince Elector Palatine who posting disguised through France in hope to get the Command of Duke Bernards Army was stayed in the middle of his Journey by that Kings command and kept so long under Restraint that he lost the opportunity of eâ—fecting that which he desired It is not to be thought but that much danger did appear in the undertaking but Love which facilitates impossibilities overcomes all dangers On the eighteenth day of February accompanied by the Duke of Buckingham Mr. Endimion Porter and Mr. Francis Cottington he took Ship at Dover and landed safe at Boloigne a Port of Picardy Advanced on his way as far as Paris his Curiosity carried him to the Court to see a Masque at which he had a view of that incomparable Princess whom he after married But he was like to have paid dear for this curiosity For no sooner had he left the City but the French King upon Advertisement of his being there dispatcht away many of his Servants in pursuance of him commanding them not only to stay his Journey but to bring him back unto the Court But he rides fast who rides upon the wings of Love and Fear so that the Prince had past Bayonne the last Town of France without being overtaken by them and posting speedily to Madrid he entred the Lord Ambassadors Lodging without being known to any but his Confidents only That Danger being thus escaped he cast himself upon another For having put himself into the Power of the King of Spain it was at the curtesie of that King whither he should ever return or not it being a Maxime among Princes that if any one of them without leave sets foot on the ground of another he makes himself ipso facto to become his Prisoner Richard the First of England passing in disguise through some part of the dominions of the Arch-Duke of Austria was by him took prisoner and put unto so high a Ransome that the Arch-Duke is said to have bought the Earldom of Styria or Styrmark with some part of the money and to have walled Vienna with the rest Nor wanted the Spaniards some Examples of a latter date which might have justified his detention there had they been so minded and those too borrowed from our selves Philip the first of Spain one of the Predecessors of the King then Reigning being cast by tempest on the Coast of England was here detained by King Henry the Seventh till he had delivered up the Earl of Suffolk who had put himself under his protection In like manner Mary Queen of Scots being forced by her Rebellious Subjects to flee into this Realm was presently seized on as a Prisoner and so continued till her lamentable and calamitous death And what could more agree with the rules of Justice and the old known practise of Retaliation then that the English should be punished by the rigour of their own severities Such were the Dangers which the Princes person was exposed to by this unparalell'd adventure not otherwise to be commended in most mens opinions but by the happy success of his Return And yet there were some fears of a greater danger than any could befall his Person by Sea or Land that is to say the danger of his being wrought on to alter his Religion and to make shipwrack of his Faith and this by some uncharitable persons is made the ground of the design to the indelible reproach of those who were supposed to have had a hand in the contrivement of the Plot. Amongst those the Marquiss stands accused by the Earl of Bristol as appears by the first Article of the Charge which was exhibited against him in the Parliament of the year 1626. And our new Bishop stands reproached for another of them by the Author of the book entituled Hidden works of darkness c. But then it cannot be denied but that his Majesty and the Prince must be the Principals in this Fact this Hidden work of darkness as that Author calls it Buckingham and St. Davids being only accessaries and subservient instruments But who can think they durst have undertaken so soul a business which could not be washt off but by their bloud had not the King commanded and the Prince consented Now for the King there is not any thing more certain than the great care he took that no danger should accrue to the Religion here by Law established by the Match with Spain And this appears so clearly by the Instructions which he gave to Digby at the first opening of this Treaty as if it had been written with a beam of the Sun The matter of Religion saith he is to us of most principal consideration for nothing can be to us dearer than the honour and safety of the Religion we profess And therefore seeing that this Marriage and Alliance if it shall take place is to be with a Lady of a different Religion from us it becometh us to be tender as on the one part to give them all satisfaction convenient so on the other to admit nothing that may blemish our Conscience or detract from the Religion here established And to this point he stood to the very last not giving way to any alteration in this or tolleration of that Religion though he was pleased to grant some personal graces to the Recusants of this Kingdom and to abate somewhat of the Rigour of those Capitall Laws which had been formerly enacted against Priests and Jesuites Next for the Prince he had been brought up for some years then last past at the feet of this most learned and wise Gamaliel by whom he was so fortified in the true Protestant Religion established by the Laws of this Realm that he feared not the encounter of the strongest Adversary and of this the King was grown so confident that when Maw and Wren the Princes Chaplains were to receive his Majesties Commands at their going to Spain there to attend upon their Master he advised them not to put themselves upon any unnecessary Disputations but to be only on the defensive part if they should
be challenged And when it was answered That there could be no reason to engage in such Disputations where no Moderator could be had The King replied That Charles should moderate between them and the opposite party At which when one of them seemed to smile upon the other the King proceeded and assured them that Charles should manage a point in Controversie with the best studied Divine of them all and that he had trained up George so far as to hold the Conclusion though he had not yet made him able to prove the Premises By which it seems that his Majesty conceived no such fear on the Princes part as that he could be practised or disputed out of his Religion and that he had no such fear of Buckingham neither but that he would be able to stand his ground notwithstanding any Arguments which were brought to move him And he that is so far confirmed as to stand his ground will never yield himself though he may be vanquished It was not then to be believed that me so principled and instructed as not to be forced out of their Religion should take such pains to be perverted or seduced upon worldly policies as well against their Science as against their Conscience Had they gone thither on that Errand what could have hindred them from putting the design in execution having in Spain sit opportunity to effect it at home the Kings Authority to confirm and Countenance it and the whole power of his Catholick Majesty which was offered more than once or twice to justifie and defend the misrule against all the world That they brought back the same Religion which they carried with them is a strong Argument to any man of Sense and Reason that they went not into Spain of purpose to betray it there Let us next look upon the proofs which are offered to us for Laud being privy to this journey whereof his being of Council to â—ervert the Prince and draw him to the Church of Rome there is no proof offered For first I find it charged that he wrote a Letter unto Buckingham on the fifth day after his departure and maintained a constant Correspondence with him when he was in Spain And secondly That he was privy to some Speeches which his Majesty had used to the Prince at his going hence His Majesty in some of his printed Books had maintained that the Pope was Antichrist and now he feared that this might be alledged against him in the Court of Rome to hinder the Popes Dispensation and obstruct the Marriage For the removal of which bar he commands the Prince to signifie if occasion were to all whom it might concern That his Majesty had writ nothing in that Point concludingly but by way of Argument That Laud was present at this Conference betwixt his Majesty and the Prince hath no proof at all He might be made acquainted with it on the post-fact when the Prince returned and yet because he was made acquainted with this passage though upon the post-fact it must be hence concluded as a matter certain That he was one of the Cabinet Council and privy to the Princes going into Spain and secondly as a matter probable That he suggested this distinction unto King James to please the Pope and promote the Match As little strength there is in the second proof touching his Writing to the Marquis on the fifth day after his departure But then it was not till the fifth before which time the Princes Journey into Spain was made the general Discourse of all Companies the ordinary Subject of all Tongues and Pens communicated by word of mouth by Letters and by what means not Nor can those following Letters which he received from Buckingham when he was in Spain convince him of being privy to that Journey when it was in project and design there being many others also who both received and dispatched Letters frequently from that very same person so far from being of the Council as to that particular that they were not of the Court at all So ordinary is the fate of such sorry Arguments to conclude nothing at all or that which is nothing to the purpose But what need more be said to confute this Calumny on which I have so long insisted than the great Care which was immediately taken by the King and his Bishops to maintain the Reputation of the Church of England in the Court of Spain No sooner had his Majesty notice that the Prince was come in safety to the Court of that King but order presently was taken for Officers of all Qualities and Servants of all sorts to be sent unto him that so he might appear in Publick with the greater lustre Nor was it the least part of his Royal Care to accommodate him with two such Chaplains as should be able to defend the Doctrine of this Church against all Opponents And that there might appear a face of the Church of England in the outward Forms of Worship also his Majesty was pleased by the Advice of the Bishops then about him of which Laud was one to give the said Chaplains Maw and Wren these Instructions following dated at Newmarket March 10. I. That there be one convenient Room appointed for Prayer the said Room to be employed during their abode to no other use II. That it be decently adorned Chappel-wise with an Altar Fonts Palls Linnen Coverings Demy-Carpet four Surplices Candlesticks Tapers Chalices Pattens a fine Towel for the Prince other Towels for the Houshold a Traverse of Waters for the Communion a Bason and Flaggons two Copes III. That Prayers be duly kept twice a day That all reverence be used by every one present being uncovered kneeling at due times standing up at the Creeds and Gospel bowing at the Name of JESUS IV. That the Communion be celebrated in due form with an Oblation of every Communicant and admixing Water with the Wine the Communion to be as often used as it shall please the Prince to set down smooth Wafers to be used for the Bread V. That in the Sermons there be no Polemical Preachings to inveigh against them or to confute them but only to confirm the Doctrine and Tenets of the Church of England by all positive Arguments either in Fundamental or Moral Points and especially to apply themselves in Moral Lessons to Preach Christ Jesus Crucified VI. That they give no occasions or rashly entertain any of Conference or Dispute for fear of dishonour to the Prince if upon any offence taken he should be required to send away any one of them but if the Lord Embassador or Mr. Secretary wish them to hear any that desire some information then they may safely do it VII That they carry the Articles of our Religion in many Copies the Books of Common Prayer in several Languages store of English Service-Books the Kings own Works in English and Latin Such were his Majesties Instructions to the said two Chaplains and being such they do concludingly demonstrate
Church of England had a great stock at that time to be driven in Spain and many of the Romish Factors were desirous to be trading in it No sooner was the Princes Train of Lords and Gentlemen come to the City of Madrid but the King of Spain assigned a day for his Reception A Reception so Magnificent so full of State and Royal Pomp that it redounded infinitely to the honour of the Spanish Court and the satisfaction of the Prince Never was King of Spain on the day of his inauguration received into that City with a more general concourse of all sorts of people and greater signs of Joy and Gallantry then the Prince was conducted through it to the Palace Royal. In which his Quarters being assigned him there wanted no allurements on their parts to win him to a fair esteem of their Religion and to put some high value also on their Court and Nation Nor was the Prince wanting for his part in all fit compliances by which he might both gain on them and preserve himself for by his Courtly Garb he won so much on the affections of the Lady Infanta and by his Grace and circumspect behaviour got so much ground upon that King and his Council that the Match went forward in good earnest A dispensation for the Marriage was procured from Gregory the fifteenth then sitting in the See of Rome The Articles of the Marriage with all the circumstances thereof were agreed upon and solemnly sworn to by both Kings Nothing remained to bring the whole business to a joyfull issue but the Consummation But before that could be obtained the Prince must try his fortunes in an harder Conflict than any he had learnt in the Schools of Love The change of his Religion was much hoped for by the Court of Spain at his first coming thither To perfect which he was plied from time to time with many perswasive Arguments by many persons of great Honour about that King And many of the most learned Priests and Jesuites made their Addresses to him with such Rhetorical Orations with such insinuating Artifices and subtle Practises as if they had a purpose rather to conquer him by kindness than by disputation Nor stop they there but dedicated many Books unto him to gain him fairly to their Party invited him to behold their solemn Processions to captivate his outward senses and carried him to the most Religious places famous for their magnificent Fabricks and pretended Miracles In which conjuncture of designs it is not to be thought but that the Pope bestirred himself in gaining to his Church a Prince of such parts and greatness For first he writes unto the Bishop of Conchen Inquisitor general of Spain not to be wanting to the opportunity which God had put into his hands The next day being the twentieth of April he addressed his lines unto the Prince extolling the piety of his Predecessors their Zeal unto the Catholick Church and to the head thereof the Pope inviting him by all the blandishments of Art to put himself upon the following of their brave examples Never had Prince a harder game to play than Prince Charles had now He found himself under the Power of the King of Spain and knew that the whole business did depend on the Popes dispensation with whom if he complied not in some handsome way his expectation might be frustrate and all the fruits of that long Treaty would be suddenly blasted He therefore writes unto the Pope in such general terms as seemed to give his Holiness some assurances of him but being reduced unto particulars signified nothing else but some civill complements mixt with some promises of his endeavours to make up the breaches in the Church and restore Christendom to an happy and desirable peace Which notwithstanding was after reckoned amongst his crimes by such as rather would not then did not know the necessity which lay upon him of keeping at that time a plausible correspondence with the Catholick party But these Temptations and Allurements these Artifices and Insinuations prevailed so little with the Prince that he still kept his stand and was found impregnable carrying himself with such a prudent Moderation in these Encounters that he came off alwaies without Envy but not without Glory And that it might appear on what grounds he stood it was thought fit to let them see that he professed no other Religion than what was agreeable to the Rules of Antiquity and not much abhorrent from the Forms then used in the Church Rome And to this end by the prudent care of the Lord Keeper Williams the English Liturgie was translated into Spanish so many Copies of the book then Printed being sent into Spain as gave great satisfaction both to the Court and Clergy The work performed by a converted Dominican who was gratified for his pains therein by a good Prebend and a Benefice as he well deserved And this I must needs say was very seasonably done For till that time the Spaniards had been made believe by their Priests and Jesuites that when the English had cast off the Pope they had cast off all Religion also That from thenceforth they became meer Atheists and that the name of God was never used amongst them but with a purpose to expose it to profanation An Argument whereof may be the extreme squeamishness of the Constable of Castile sent into England in the beginning of the Reign of King Iames to swear the peace between both Kings Who understanding that the business was to be performed in the Chappel where some Anthems were to be sung desired that whatsoever was sung Gods name might not be used in it and that being forborn he was content they should sing what they listed And when the Earl of Nottingham attended by many Gentlemen of worth and quality went into Spain to take the like Oath of the Catholick King it was reported by his followers at their coming back how much it was commiserated by the Vulgar Spaniards that so many goodly persons should be trained up in no other Religion than to worship the Devil But let us leave the Prince and return for England where the King had as hard a game to play For having left such a Pawn in Spain he was in a manner bound to his good behaviour and of necessity to gratifie the Popish Party in this Kingdom with more than ordinary Favours He knew no Marriage could be made without the Popes Dispensation and that the Popes Dispensation could not be obtained without indulging many graces to his Catholick Subjects To smooth his way therefore to the point desired he addresseth several Letters to the Pope and Cardinals in which he gives him the title of most holy Father and imploys Gage as his Agent in the Court of Rome to attend the business At home he dischargeth all such Priests and Iesuites as had been formerly imprisoned inhibiting all Processes and Superseding all proceedings against Recusants and in a word suspends
of Olivarez to that effect and had set her heart upon the making of her self grateful and welcome to the King and Kingdom by overcoming the difficulties that appeared in it In which respect it was very truly said by Digby in one of his Letters to King Iames That it would be held a point of great dishonour to the Infanta if the Powers called for by her Friends should be detained on the Princes part and that whosoever had deserved ill she certainly had deserved neither disrespect nor discomforts Add hereunto That the Popes Dispensation coming to the Court of Spain in the beginning of December that King caused Bonfires to be made in all the parts of his Realms intending on that day in satisfaction of the Oath which he had made to the Prince to proceed to the Espousals with all due solemnity Which being the true state of this affair as far as I am able to look into it I shall refer it to the judgment of the equal Readers whether this poor Lady were more dishonoured and discomforted by her own Brother and his Ministers if they meant not really and effectually to satisfie all expectations touching either Treaty or by the English if they did But it is now time to leave these Foreign Negotiations and keep close at home where we shall finde the Priests and Iesuits as busie in seducing the people and the Lay-Papists as audacious in hearing and frequenting Masses as if they had been fortified by a Toleration But it pleased God to put some Water into their Wine and abate the fervour of those heats by letting them feel the strokes of his heavy hand when they look'd not for it Being assembled in a fair and capacious Room at Hunsdon House in the Black-Friers to hear the Sermon of one Drury a Jesuit their numbers were so great and their weight so heavy that the Floor sunk under them Most lamentable were the cries of those which fell under that Ruine 94 of them of which the Preacher himself was one being killed outright most of the rest so miserably bruised and maimed that the condition of the dead was esteemed far happier than that of the living A matter of great astonishment to their Party here and that it might not be so abroad they thought it good to shift the Scene and change the Actors publishing to that end a Pamphlet which they dispersed in divers parts of France and Italy containing a Relation of Gods Judgments shown on a sort of Protestant Hereticks by the fall of an House in St. Andrews Parish in Holborn in which they were assembled to hear a Geneva Lecture October 26. A. D. 1623. So wickedly wise are those of that Generation to cheat their own Souls and abuse their Followers And yet the Pamphleteer says well That this disaster hapned on the 26th of October for so it did according to the Old Style and Account of England But it was on the fifth day of November according to the New Style and Account of Rome And this indeed may seem to have somewhat of Gods Judgment in it That the intended blowing up of the Parliament to the unavoidable destruction of the King Prince Prelates Peers and the chiefest Gentry of the Nation on the fifth day of our November should on the fifth day of their own be recompenced or retaliated by the sinking of a Room in which they met to the present slaughter of so many and the maiming of more But leaving them to their ill Fortunes it was not long before Buckingham found the truth of such Informations as he had received touching those ill Offices which had been done to him in his absence from some whom he esteemed his Friends Hereupon followed an estranging of the Dukes Countenance from the Lord Keeper Williams and of his from the Bishop of St. Davids whom he looked upon as one that stood in the way betwixt him and the Duke with which the Duke was not long after made acquainted But these displeasures were not only shewn in offended Countenances but brake out within little time into sharp Expostulations on either side The Duke complained to Laud December 15. That the Lord Keeper had so strangely forgotten himself to him as he seemed to be dead in his affections and began to entertain some thoughts of bringing him by a way which he would not like to a remembrance of his duty and on the eleventh of Ianuary the Lord Keeper meets with Laud in the Withdrawing Chamber and fell into very hot words with him of which the Duke hath an account also within three days after But Williams seeing how unable he was to contend at once with Wit and Power applied himself with so much diligence to regain the Favour of the Duke that in the beginning of February a Reconciliation was made between them the Duke accepting his submission and learning from him That his great Favours unto Laud were the chief reasons which had moved him unto that forgetfulness And that the benefit of this Reconciliation might extend to all who were concerned in the displeasures Williams engageth to the Duke to be friends with Laud and did accordingly bestow some Complements upon him but such as had more ceremony than substance in them From henceforth nothing but an appearance of fair weather between these Great Persons though at last it brake out again more violently into open Storms The Wound was only skinned not healed and festred the more dangerously because the secret Rancour of it could not be discerned In the mean time Laud was not wanting to himself in taking the benefit of this Truce Abâ—ot had still a spite against him and was resolved to keep him down as long as he could to which end he had caused him to be left out of the High-Commission and Williams was not forward to put him in though never a Bishop that lived about London was left out but himself and many who lived not there put in Of which Indignity he complained to the Duke by his Letter bearing date November 1. 1624. and was remedied in it During the heat of these Court-combats the Parliament before-mentioned was assembled at Westminster on the seventeenth of February upon whose humble Petition and Advice his Majesty dissolved the Treaties and engaged himself in a War with Spain But this he had no sooner done when they found into what perplexities they had plunged themselves by this Engagement there being nothing more derogatory to the Honour and Prosperity of a King of England than to be cast on the necessity of calling Parliaments which rendreth them obnoxious to the power and pride of each popular spirit and makes them less in Reputation both at home and abroad For first they Petitioned him for a Fast which he also granted They had desired the like in some former Parliaments and Sessions of Parliaments as they had done also in Queen Elizabeths time but could never obtain the same from either It was then told them That there
were weekly Fasts appointed to be kept by the Laws of the Land which if they did observe as they ought to do there would be no need of Solemn Fasts to begin their Parliaments The blame of which Answer in the Parliament immediately foregoing this was by the Puritan Faction cast upon the Bishops who at the same time had opposed some Proposition tending to some Restraints on the Lords day not imposed before as men whose Pride hindred all such Religious Humiliations and whose Profaneness made them Enemies to all Piety But the King having now cast himself into the arms of his People had brought himself to a necessity of yielding to their desire and thereby left a fair President both for them to crave and his Successor to grant the like So that from this time forward till the last of King Charles we shall see no Parliament nor Session of Parliament to begin without them though that King checked some times at the importunity So far his Majesty had gone along with them in yielding unto their desires but he must go a little further And therefore secondly They thought it not enough that his Majesty had made a Publick Declaration for the real and utter Dissolution of the said Treaties but it must be declared also by Act of Parliament That the said two Treaties were by his Majesty Dissolved Which gave them some colour of Pretence in the following Parliament to claim a share in managing the War which the Dissolving of these Treaties had occasioned and of being made acquainted with the Enterprize which was then in hand But for this time they were contented to have engaged the King for the future War toward the carrying on of which and more particularly as the Act expresseth for the Defence of this Realm of England the Securing of the Kingdom of Ireland the Assistance of his Majesties Neighbours the States of the Vnited Provinces and other his Majesties Friends and Allies and for the setting forth of his Royal Navy they granted to him three Subsidies together with three Fifteenths and Tenths to be paid before the tâ—nth of May which should be in the year 1625. Which though it be affirmed in the said Act to be the greatest Aid which ever was granted in Parliament to be levied in so short a time yet neither was the time so short as it was pretended there being almost fifteen Months between the dissolving of the Treaties and the last payment of the Monies Nor did the King get any thing by it how great soever the said Aid was supposed to be For thirdly before the King could obtain this Act he was fain to gratifie them with some others amongst which that entituled An Act for the general quiet of the Subject against all pretext of Concealments whatsoever was the most considerable An Act of such a grand Concernment to the Peace and Happiness of the Subject and of such Disprofit to the King in his Gifts and Graces to his Servants that it was affirmed by Justice Dodderidge at the Oxon. Assises next ensuing That his Majesty had bought those Fifteenths and Subsidies at ten years purchase Nor fourthly did one penny of this Money so dearly paid for accrew unto his Majesties particular use or was to come into his Coffers it being ordered in the Act aforesaid That the said Monies and every part and parcel of them should be paid to certain Commissioners therein nominated and that the said Commissioners should issue and dispose the same according as they should be warranted by George Lord Carew Foulk Lord Brooke and certain other Commissioners to the number of ten nominated and appointed for a Council of War by them to be expended in the Publick Service And albeit the Grant of the said Fifteenths Tenths and Subsidies might possibly be the greatest Aid which had been given in Parliament for so short a time yet did this greatness consist rather in tale than weight the Subsidy-Books being grown so low for those of the Fifteenths and Tenths do never vary that two entire Subsidies in the time of Queen Elizabeth came to more than all More nobly dealt the Clergy with him in their Convocation because it came into his own Coâ—lers and without Conditions For taking into consideration amongst other motives the great Expences at which his Majesty was then and was like to be hereafter as well for the support of his Royal Estate as for the necessary Defence of this Realm of England and other his Dominions whereby was like to grow the safety of Religion both at whom and abroad they granted to him four entire Subsidies after the rate of 4 s. in every Pound which was indeed the greatest Aid that was ever given by Convocation in so short a time the Subsidies of the Clergy being fixed and certain those of the Laity diminishing and decreasing daily A Burden which must needs fall exceeding heavy on many poor Vicars in the Country whose Benefices are for the most part of small yearly value and yet rated very high in the Kings Books according unto which they are to be Taxed Insomuch as I knew several Vicaridges not worth above 80 l. per Annum which were charged higher than the best Gentlemen in the Parish whose yearly Revenues have amounted unto many Hundreds Laud who had sometimes been Vicar of Stamford in Northamptonshire as before is said was very compassionate of the case of these poor men for whose case he devised a course in this present Session which being digested into form he communicated to the Duke of Buckingham who very readily promised to prepare both the King and Prince for the passing of it This done he imparted it also to the Lord Keeper Williams and the Bishop of Durham who look'd upon it as the best service which had been done for the Church many years before and advised him to acquaint the Archbishop with it But Abbot either disliking the Design for the Authors sake or being an enemy to all Counsels which had any Author but himself instead of favours returned him frowns asking him What he had to do to make any suit for the Church And telling him withall That never any Bishop attempted the like at any time and that no body would have done it but himself That he had given the Church such a wound in speaking to any Lord of the Layty about it as he could never make whole again And finally That if the Lord Duke did fully understand what he had done he would never endure him to come near him again St Davids replies very mildly That he thought he had done a very good office for the Church and so did his betters too That if his Grace thought otherwise he was sorry that he had offended But hoped that he had done it out of a good mind and for the support of many poor Vicars abroad in the Country who must needs sink under the payment of so many Subsidies and therefore that his error might be pardonable if
The Books which had been written on both sides being purposely dispersed abroad to encourage and encrease their several Parties cross'd over the Seas into England also where being diligently studied either out of curiosity or desire of Knowledge they awaked many out of that dead sleep in which they were to look with better eyes into the true and native Doctrines of this Church than before they did Amongst the first which publikly appeared that way at Oxon. after the coming out of the said Books were Laud and Houson whom Abbot then Doctor of the Chair and Vice-chancellor also exposed to as much disgrace as by his Place and Power he could lay upon them Amongst the first at Cambridge were Tompson a Dutchman by original if I be not mistaken in tâ—e man and Richardson the Master of Trinity Colledge The first of these had writ a Book touching Falling away from Grace entituled De Intercisione Gratiae Iustificationis to which Abbot of Oxon. above-mentioned returned an Answer The other being a corpulent man was publickly reproach'd in S. Maries Pulpit in his own University by the name of a Fat-bellied Arminian By that name they were called in Holland which adhered not unto Calvin's Doctrine though many had formerly maintained these Opinions in those Churches before van Harmine came to the Chair of Leyden And by that name they must be called in England also though the same Doctrines had been here publickly Authorised and Taught before he was born So that the entitling of these Doctrines to the name of Arminius seems to be like the nominating of the great Western Continent by the name of America of which first Christopher Columbus and afterwards the two Cabots Father and Son had made many great and notable Discoveries before Americus Vestputius ever saw those Shores Howsoever these Doctrines must be called by the name of Arminianism and by that name Mountague stands accused by the two Informers though he protests in his Appeal That he had never seen any of the Writings of Arminius and that he did no otherwise maintain those Doctrines than as they were commended to him by the Church of England and justified by the unanimous Consent of the Ancient Fathers But of this man and the pursuance of these Quarrels we shall hear more shortly These matters being thus laid together let us look back on some former Passages which preceded Mountagues Disputes The Commons had obtained their ends in dissolving all Treaties with the King of Spain but lost their hopes of Marrying the Prince to a Lady of their own Religion His Majesty would not look beneath a Crown to finde a Marriage for his Son and no Crown could afford him a better Wife for his Son than a Daughter of France The Prince had seen the Lady at the Court in Paris and the King as much desired to see her in the Court of England Upon this ground the Earl of Holland is dispatch'd privately into France to see how the Queen-Mother and her Ministers who then Governed the Affairs of that King would approve the Match to which at first they seemed so chearâ—ully inclined that they did not seem to stand upon any Conditions But no sooner had they found that the Breach between his Majesty and the King of Spain was grown irreparable and that both sides prepared for War but they knew how to make their best advantage of it They thought themselves to be every way as considerable as the Spaniards were and would abate nothing of those Terms which had been obtained by the Spaniards in reference either to the Princess her self or in favour of the English Catholicks And to these Terms when they saw no better could be gotten his Majesty and the Prince consented But such a Spirit of Infatuation was at that time upon the People that they who on the 23d of February before had celebrated the Dissolving of the Treaties with Spain with Bâ—lls and Bonfires on the 21st of November following did celebrate with like Solemnities and Expressions the like Match with France And in this Match Laud is accused to have a hand or at the least to have shew'd his good affections to promote it An heavy Crime and proved by as infallible proofs that is to say his writing to and receiving Letters from the Duke at such time as the Duke was sent to the Court of France to attend the new Queen into England And what else could this Match and those Letters aim at but to carry on the same design to bring in Popery and by that means to stand their ground and retain all those Priviledges and Immunities which the Popish Party had procured by the former Treaties To such absurdities are men sway'd when Prejudice and Prepossessions over-rule the Balance We must begin the next year with the Death of King Iames and therefore think it not amiss to take a brief view of the Condition of the Church and State at the time of his departing from us He had spent all his life in Peace but died in the beginning of a War A War which had been drawn upon him by dissolving the Treaties to which he was as it were constrained by the continual importunity of the Prince and the Duke of Buckingham The Duke knew well that he could not do a more popular act than to gratifie the Commons in that business and had easily possess'd the Prince with this opinion That as his future Greatness must be built on the Love of his People so nothing could oblige them more than to be instrumental in dissolving the present Treaties But herein they consulted rather their own private Passions than the publick Interest of the Crown and they shall both pay dear enough for it in a very short space For there is nothing more unsafe for a King of England than to cast himself upon the necessity of calling Parliaments and depending on the Purse of the Subject by means whereof he makes himself obnoxious to the humour of any prevailing Member in the House of Commons and becomes less in Reputation both at home and abroad The Church he left beleaguer'd by two great Enemies assaulted openly by the Papist on the one side undermined by the Puritans on the other Of the audaciousness of the Papists we have spoke already abated somewhat by the Fall at Black-friers more by the dissolving the two Treaties about four Months after For though they made some use of the French by this new Alliance yet they resolved to fasten no dependance upon that Crown insomuch that many of those who greedily embraced such Favours as were obtained for them by the Treaties with the King of Spain would not accept the same when they were procured by the Match with France for which being asked the Reason they returned this Answer That they would not change an old Friend for a new of the continuance of whose Favours they could have no certainty and who by suffering Hereticks in his own Dominions declared
hereof being given to Laud he considered of the sad effects and consequents which might follow on it communicating those his fears to some other Bishops By whom it was thought fit that Mountagues case and not his only but the case of the Church it self should be commended to the care and power of the Duke of of Buckingham According unto which Advice and Resolution three of them framed and signed the ensuing Letter But before this Letter was delivered Mountague had taken so much care of himself as to prepare his way by a Letter of his own bearing date Iuly 29. In which Letter he first laid open the state of his case desiring that by his Majesties Power he might be absolutely freed from those who had neither any Authority over his person as being one of his Majesties Servants nor over his Book as being commanded by his Father and authorized by himself Which being said he makes this resolute declaration That if he could not really and throughly answer whatsoever was or could be imputed to him in any of his Books he would no further desire favour and protection of his Majesty or his Grace but willingly would be left unto the power of his Enemies Which Letter being sent before to prepare the way this of the said three Bishops followed within four daies after May it please your Grace WE are bold to be Suitors to you in the behalf of the Church of England and a poor Member of it Mr. Mountague at this time not a little distressed We are not strangers to his person but it is the Cause which we are bound to be tender of The cause we conceive under correction of better Iudgment concerns the Church of England nearly for that Church when it was reformed from the superstitious opinions broached or maintained by the Church of Rome refused the apparent and dangerous Errors and would not be too busie with every particular School-Point The Cause why she held this mederation was because she could not be able to preserve any unity among Christians if men were forced to subscribe to curious particulars disputed in Schools Now may it please your Grace the opinions which at this time trouble many men in the late Book of Mr. Mountague are some of them such as are expresly the resolved Doctrine of the Church of England and those he is bound to maintain Some of them are such as are fit only for Schools and to be left at more liberty for learned men to abound in their own sense so they keep themselves peaceable and distract not the Church And therefore to make any Man subscribe to School-opinions may justly seem hard in the Church of Christ and was one great fault of the Council of Trent And to affright them from those opinions in which they have as they are bound subscribed to the Church as it is worse in it self so may it be the Mother of greater danger May it please your Grace farther to consider That when the Clergie submitted themselves in the time of Henry the Eighth the submission was so made that if any difference Doctrinal or other fell in the Church the King and the Bishops were to be Iudges of it in the National Synod or Convâ—cation the King first giving leave under his Broad Seal to handle the Points in difference But the Church never submitted to aâ—y other Iudge neither indeed can she though she would And we humbly desire your Grace to consider and then to move his most Gracious Majesty if you shall think fit what dangerous consequences may follow upâ—n it For first if any other Iudge be allowed in matter of Doctrine we shall depart from the Ordinance of Christ and the continual Course and Practice of the Church Secondly If the Church be once brought down beneath her self we cannot but fear what may be the next stroke at it Thirdly It will some way touch the honour of his Majesties dear Father and our most Dread Soveraign of glorious and ever blessed memory King James who saw and approved all the opinions of this Book And he in his rare Wisdom and Iudgment would never have allowed them if they had crossed with truth and the Church of England Fourthly We must be bold to say that we cannot conceive what use there can be of Civil Government in the Commonwealth or of Preaching or External Ministry in the Church if such fatall opinions as some which are opposite and contrary to these delivered by Mr. Mountague are shall be publikely taught and maintained Fifthly We are certain that all or most of the contrary opinions were treated of at Lambeth and ready to be published but then Queen Elizabeth of famous memory upon notice given how little they agreed with the Practice of Piety and obedience to all Government caused them to be suppressed and so they have continued ever since till of late some of them have received countenance at the Synod of Dort Now this was a Synod of that Nation and can be of no Authority in any other National Church till it be received there by publick Authority And our hope is That the Church of England will be well advised and more than once over before she admit a foraign Synod especially of such a Church as condemneth her Discipline and manner of Government to say no more And further we are bold to commend to yâ—ur graces Wisdom this one particular His Majesty as we have been informed hath already taken this business into his own care and most worthily referred it in a right course tâ— Church consideration And we well hoped that without further trouble to the State or breach of unity in the Church it might so have been well and orderly composed as we still pray it may These things considered we have little to say for Mr. Mountagues person only thus much we know He is a very good Scholar and a right honest man A man every way able to do God his Majesty and the Church of England great service We fear he may receive discouragement and which is far worse we have some cause to doubt this may breed a great backwardness in able men to write in defence of the Church of England against either home or foraign Adversaries if they shall see him sink in Fortunes Reputation or health upon occasion of his Book And this we most humbly submit to your Graces Iudgment and care of the Churches peace and welfare So commending your Grace to the Protection of Almighty God We shall ever rest at Your Graces Service Io. Rossens Io. Oxâ—n Guil. Meneven August 2. 1625. After this no more news of Montague in the present Parliament Adjourned by his Majesty on the eleventh of Iuly by reason of the Plague to Oxâ—n there to be reassembled on the first of August Which time being come his Majesty puts them again in mind of his pressing occasions acquaints them with the necessity of setting out the Fleet then ready for Service That the eyes of
in sundry parts of this Kingdom And therefore he did not only require that none of them might have any manner of Covert Protection Countenance or connivence from them or any of the rest as they tendred his Royal Commandment in that behalf but that all possible diligence be used as well to unmask the false shadows and pretences of those who may possibly be won to Conformity letting all men know That he could not think well of any that having Place and Authority in the Church do permit such persons to pass with impunity much less if they give them any countenance to the emboldening them or their adherents On the receiving of these Letters Abbot transmits the Copies of them to his several Suffragans and to our Bishop of St. Davids amongst the rest requiring him to conform therein to his Majesties Pleasure and to see the same executed in all parts of his Diocess On the receipt whereof the Bishop commands his Chancellor Arch-Deacons and other Ecclesiastical Officers within his Diocess of St. Davids That all possible care be taken of such as are any way backward in Points of Religion and more especially of known and professed Recusants that they may be carefully presented and Proceedings had against them to Excommunication according to form and order of Law and that there be a true List and Catalogue of all such as have been presented and proceeded against sent to him yearly after Easter by him to be presented to the Archbishop of Canterbury as had been required No Command given unto his Chancellor and other Officers to look into the Practises and Proceedings of the Puritan Faction for which I am able to give no reason but that he had received no such Direction and Command from Archbishop Abbot whose Letter pointed him no further it is no hard matter to say why than to the searching out presenting and Excommunicating the Popish Recusants And in what he commanded he was obeyed by his Chancellor returning to him in Iune following the names of such Recusants as lived within the Counties of Caermarthen and Pembroke the chief parts of his Diocess The Kings Coronation now draws on for which Solemnity he had appointed the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin better known by the name of Candlemas day The Coronations of King Edward vi and Queen Elizabeth had been performed according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Roman Pontificals That at the Coronation of King Iames had been drawn in haste and wanted many things which might have been considered of in a time of leasure His Majesty therefore issueth a Commission to the Archbishop of Canterbury and certain other Bishops whereof Laud was one to consider of the Form and Order of the Coronation and to accomodate the same more punctually to the present Rules and Orders of the Church of England On the fourth of Ianuary the Commissioners first met to consult about it and having compared tâ—e Form observed in the Coronation of King Iames with the publick Rituals it was agreed upon amongst them to make some Alterations in it and Additions to it The Alteration in it was that the Unction was to be performed in forma Crucis after the manner of a Cross which was accordingly done by Abbot when he officiated as Archbishop of Canterbury in the Coronation The Additions in the Form consisted chiefly in one Prayer or Request to him in the behalf of the Clergy and the clause of another Prayer for him to Almighty God the last of which was thought to have ascribed too much Power to the King the first to themselves especially by the advancing of the Bishops and Clergy above the Laity The Prayer or Request which was made to him followed after the Vnction and was this viz. Stand and hold fast from henceforth the Place to which you have been Heir by the Succession of your Forefathers being now delivered to you by the Authority of Almighty God and by the hands of us and all the Bishops and Servants of God And as you see the Clergy to come neerer to the Altar than others so remember that in place convenient you give them greater honour that the Mediator of God and Man may establish you in the Kingly Throne to be the Mediator between the Clergy and the Laity that you may Reign for ever with Iesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who with the Father and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth for ever Amen The Clause of that Prayer which was made for him had been intermitted since the time of King Henry vi and was this that followeth viz. Let him obtain favour for the People like Aaron in the Tabernacle Elisha in the Waters Zacharias in the Temple Give him Peters Key of Discipline and Pauls Doctrine Which Clause had been omitted in times of Popery as intimating more Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to be given to our Kings than the Popes allowed of and for the same reason was now quarrell'd at by the Puritan Faction It was objected commonly in the time of his fall That in digesting the form of the Coronation he altered the Coronation Oath making it more advantageous to the King and less beneficial to the People than it had been formerly from which calumny his Majesty cleared both himself and the Bishop when they were both involved by common Speech in the guilt thereof For the clearer manifestation of which truth I will first set down the Oath it self as it was taken by the King and then the Kings Defence for his taking of it Now the Oath is this The Form of the CORONATION-OATH SIR says the Archbishop Will you grant keep and by your Oath confirm to your People of ENGLAND the Laws and Customs to them granted by the Kings of ENGLAND your Lawful and Religious Predecessors and namely the Laws Customs and Franchises granted to the Clergy by the Glorious King St. Edward your Predecessor according to the Laws of God the true Profession of the Gospel established in this Kingdom and agreeable to the Prerogative of the Kings thereof and the Ancient Customs of this Land The King Answers I grant and promise to keep them Archbishop Sir Will you keep Peace and Godly Agreement entirely according to your Power bâ—th to God the Holy Church the Clergie and the People Rex I will keep it Archbishop Sir Will you to your Power cause Iustice Law and Discretion in Mercy and Truth to be executed in all your â—udgments Rex I will Archbishop Sir Will you grant to hold and grant to keep the Laws and rightful Customs which the Commâ—nalâ—y of this your Kingdom have and will you deâ—end and uphold them to the honour of God so much as in you lieth Rex I grant and promise so to do Then one of the Bishops reads this Admonition to the King before the People with a loud voice Our Lord and King we beseech you to pardon and to grant and to preserve unto us and
the Churches committed to our charge all Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Iustice and that you would protect and defend us as every good King in his Kingdom ought to be a Protector and Defender of the Bishops and the Churches under their Government The King answereth With a willing and devout heart I promisâ— and grant my pardon and that I will preserve and maintain to you and the Churches commâ—â—ted tâ—â—â—ur charge all Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Iustice and that I will be your Protector and Defender to my power by the Assistance of God as every good King ought in his Kingdom in right to protect and deâ—end the Bishops and Churches under theiâ— Government The King ariseth and is leaâ— to the Communion Table where he makes a soleâ—n Oath in â—ight of all the People to observe the Premises and laying his Hand upon the Book saith The things which I have before promised I shall perform and keep So help me Gâ—â— and the Contents of this Book Such was the Coronation-Oath accustomably taken by the Kings of England Which notwithstanding it was objected by the Lords and Commons in the time of the Long Parliament 〈…〉 the same which ought to have been taken by him And for proof thereof an antiquated Oath was found and published in a Remonstrance of theirs bearing date the twentieth of May 1642. To which his Majesty made this Answer That the Oath which he took at his Coronation was warranted and enjoyned by the Customs of his Predecessors and that the Ceremony of their and his taking of it they might find in the Records of the Exchequer And this it is c. Now in performing the Solemnities of the Coronation the Abbot anciently and for more than one hundred years last past the Deans of Westminster had a special place To them belonged the Custody of the old Regalia that is to say the Crown Sword Scepter Spurs c. of King Edward Sirnamed the Confessor kept by them in a secret place of Westminster Abbey not easily acceâ—â—able to any but such as know the mystery of it never brought forth but at the Coronation of a King or his going to Parliament Williams the late Lord Keeper was at this time Dean But being under the Kings displeasure was commanded to forbear his attendance at the Coronation and to depute one of the Prebends in his place This put him into some dispute within himself He had no mind to nominate Laud being then one of the Prebendaries of that Church because he lookt upon him as his Corrival and Supplanter in the Dukes good Grace and to have named otâ—er of a lower order there being a Bishop in the number would have subjected him to some discourse and misconstruction He therefore very wisely sent unto his Majesty the names degrees and dignities of all the Prebends leaving it unto him alone to make the Election who thereupon without any Hesitancy or deliberation deputed Laud unto the Service Laud being thus nominated and deputed prepared all things ready for that great Solemnity And finding the Old Crucifix among the Regalia he caused it to be placed on the Altar as in former times The Coronation being ended his Majesty going in his Robes to Westminster Hall did there deliver them to Laud representing in that Pomp the Dean of Westminster together with the Crown Scepter and the Sword called Cortena to be laid up with the rest of the Regalia in their old repository which he receiving from the King returned into the Abbey Church offered solemnly on the Altar in his Majesties name as by his place he was to do and so laid them up Two things there were remarkable in this Coronation which seemed to have something in them of Presage Senhouse who had been once his Chaplain when Prince of Wales and was now Bishop of Carlile had the honour to preach upon the day of that great Solemnity An eloquent man he was reputed and one that could very well express a passion but he had chosen such a Text as was more proper for a Funeral than a Coronation his Text being this viz. I will give thee a Crown of life Apoc. 2.10 and was rather thought to put the new King in mind of his Death than his duty in Government and to have been his Funeral Sermon when he was alive as if he were to have none when he was to be buried It was observed also that his Majesty on that day was cloathed in White contrary to the Custom of his Predecessors who were on that day clad in Purple And this he did not out of any necessity for want of Purple Velvet enough to make a Suite for he had many yards of it in his outward Garment but at his own choice only to declare that Virgin Purity with which he came to be espoused unto his Kingdom White as we know is the colour of the Saints who are represented to us in White Robes by St. Iohn in the Revelation and Purple is the Imperial and Regal colour so proper heretofore unto Kings and Emperours that many of the Constantinopolitan Emperours were called Porphyrogenites because at their first coming into the world they were wrapt in Purple And this some looked on also as an ill Presage that the King laying aside his Purple the Robe of Majesty should cloath himself in White the Robe of innocence as if thereby it were fore-signified that he should devest himself of that Regal Majesty which might and would have kept him safe from affront and scorn to rely wholly on the innocence of a vertuous life which did expose him finally to calamitous ruine No sooner were the Pomps of the Coronation ended but the Second Parliament began at the opening whereof on Munday the sixt of February our Bishop of St. Davids preacht before his Majesty the Lords c. in the Abbey Church He was appointed to have preached in the beginning of the former Parliament on Saturday the eighteenth of Iune but that turn being otherwise supplied he preached the same Sermon the next day before his Majesty at Whitehall his Text then Psal. 75.2 3. When I shall receive the Congregation I will judge according unto right c. But now he chose for the Theam or Subject of his discourse the 3 4 5 verses of the 112 Psalm viz. Ierusalem is like a City that is at unity in it self c. In which considering Ierusalem as a Type of the Church and State he first beholds it as a type of the State or Civil Government Where he considered That Ordo Politicus the wise ordering of the people in Concord and Vnity was simply the strongest Wall of a State But break Vnity once and farewell all strength And therefore disjoynted Factions in a State when they work upon Division are Publica irae divinae incendia the publick kindlings of Gods Anger and they burn down all before them And God seldom suffers these to fire a State till himself be heated first
supposed it makes exceedingly to the honour and commendation of this our Bishop as well in point of Secrecy as unfeigned Fidelity that his Majesty should pick out him from all other men to be his Pen-man or Chief Secretary in such weighty businesses Then again it is affirmed That he not only corrected and amended the Dukes Answer to the Impeachment which was made against him by the Commons but that he also penned that Speech which the Duke subjoined unto his Answer A Crime of the same nature and proved by the same Mediums as the others was and such as rather might have served for a strong assurance both of his honest Fidelity to his Friend and Patron and the even temper of his own mind in the managing of it For if we may believe the Author of the first History of the Life and Reign of King Charles as I think we may this Answer of the Duke was so in-laid with Modesty and Humility that it became a new Grievance to his Adversaries and was like to have a powerful influence toward the conversion of many who expected a Defence of another and more disdainful Spirit Thus have we brought two Parliaments unto an end but we hear nothing of the Convocations which were summoned with them Nothing indeed of the first Convocation but the passing of a Grant for three Subsidies toward the Advancement of his Majesties Service In the second we find something more though no Subsidies are granted in it On the fifth Sunday in Lent Goodman then Bishop of Glocester preach'd before his Majesty and press'd so hard upon the Point of the Real Presence that he was supposed to trench too neer the borders of Popery which raised a great clamour both in Court and Country The matter of which Sermon was agitated pro and con in the Convocation March 29. without determining any thing on either side But his Majestie out of a desire to satisfie both himself and his Houses of Parliament touching that particular referred the consideration of it to Abbot Archbishop of Canterbury Andrews Bishop of Winchester and Laud Bishop of St. Davids who meeting and considering of it on the twelfth of April returned this Answer to the King That some things in that Sermon had been spoke less warily but nothing falsly That nothing had been innovated by him in the Doctrine of the Church of England But howsoever That they thought very fit that Goodman should be appointed to Preach again before his Majesty for the better explaining of his meaning and shewing how and in what Particulars he had been mistaken by his Auditors Which he accordingly performed But nothing was of such concernment to a Convocation as the cause of Mountague vexed and molested by the Commons in both the Parliaments for supposed Popery and Arminianism matters meerly Doctrinal And possibly it may be admired that they should do nothing in a matter of their own peculiar having his Majesty to Friend for it appears in the Letter of the three Bishops before-mentioned to the Duke of Buckingham That his Majesty had taken that business into his own care and had most worthily referred it in a right course to Church-consideration And it appears also by the Breviate pag. 8. That on Sunday April 22. of this present year his Majesty had commanded all the Bishops to come before him and reprehended such as came being fourteen in number for being silent in Causes which concerned the Church and had not made known unto him what might be profitable or unprofitable for it the Cause whereof he was so ready to promote But then we are to call to mind that Laud not long since had been sent by the Duke of Buckingham to consult with Andrews and learn of him what he thought fitting to be done in the Cause of the Church and more especially in the Five Articles so hotly agitated between the Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants in the Belgick Provinces And it appears by the event That Andrews did not hold it fit for any thing to be done in that particular as the case then stood the truth in those Opinions not being so generally entertained amongst the Clergy nor the Archbishop and the greater part of the Prelates so inclinable to them as to venture the determining of those Points to a Convocation But that which was not thought fit in that present Conjuncture for a Convocation his Majesty was pleased to take order in by his Royal Edict Many Books had been written against Mountague by Carleton Bishop of Chichester Sutcliffe Dean of Exeter Yates and Rouse by which the differences were rather increased than diminished Which coming to his Majesties notice it pleased him by the Advice of his Bishops to signifie by his Proclamation of Iune 14. Not only to his own People but to all the World his utter dislike of all those who to shew the subtilty of their Wits or to please their own Humours or vent their own Passions do or shall adventure to stir or move any new Opinions not only contrary but differing from the sound and Orthodoxal Grounds of the true Religion sincerely Professed and happily Established in the Church of England and also to declare his full and constant Resolution That neither in matter of Doctrine nor Discipline of the Church nor in the Government of the State he will admit of the least Innovation but by Gods assistance will so guide the Scepter of these his Kingdoms and Dominions by the Divine Providence put into his hand as shall be for the comfort and assurance of his sober Religious and well-affected Subjects and for the repressing and severe punishing of such as out of any sinister respects or disaffection to his Person or Government shall dare either in Church or State to distract or disquiet the Peace thereof His Majesty thereupon commands all his Subjects the Clergy most especially both in England and Ireland That from thenceforth they should carry themselves so wisely warily and conscionably that neither by Writing Preaching Printing Conferences or otherwise they raise any doubts or publish or maintain any new Inventions or Opinions concerning Religion than such as are clearly grounded and warranted by the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England heretofore published and happily established by Authority Straightly charging all Archbishops and Bishops in their several Diocesses as also all Counsellors of State Judges and Ministers of Justice speedily to reclaim and repress all such Spirits as shall adventure hereafter to break this Rule of Sobriety and due Obedience to his Majesty his Laws and this Religious Duty to the Church of God or in the least degree attempt to violate this bond of Peace adding withal this intimation of his Royal Pleasure That whosoever from thenceforth should take the boldness wilfully to neglect this his Majesties gracious Admonition and either for the satisfying of their unquiet and restless Spirits or for expressing of their rash and undutiful Insolencies should wilfully break that
goes a little further and tells us of him That the World wanted Learning to know how Learned he was so skilled in all especially Oriental Languages that some conceive he might if then living almost have served as an Interpreter-General at the Confusion of Tongues In his life time he only published two Books in Latin viz. His Apologie against Cardinal Bellarmine and that which he called Tortura Torti in behalf of King Iames and a small Tract entituled Determinatio Theologica de jure-jurando exigendo quarto Printed at London 1593. And in English nothing but a small Volume of Sermons which he acknowledged for his own The Book of Catechetical Doctrine published in his life by others but without his privity and consent he always professedly disavowed as containing only some imperfect Collections which had been taken from his mouth by some ignorant hand when he was Reader of the Catechism Lecture in Pembroke Hall But after his decease ninety six of his Sermons were collected with great care and industry published in Print and Dedicated to his Sacred Majesty by Laud then Bishop of London and Buckeridge at that time Bishop of Ely 1628. For Felton of Ely dying the year before Buckeridge had been translated thither by the Power and Favour of that his dear Friend and quondam Pupil Curle Dean of Litchfield and one of the Residentiaries of Salisbury succeeding after his Translation in the See of Rochester By the same hands some other Pieces of his both in English and Latin were very carefully drawn together and published with the like Dedication to his Sacred Majesty Anno 1629. He that desires to hear more of him let him first consult the Funeral Sermon before mentioned extant at the end of the great Volume of his Sermons and afterwards peruse his Epitaph in the Church of St. Maries Over-rhe transcribed in Stows Survey of London of the last Edition After his death the See of Winton was kept vacant till the latter end of the year next following the profits of it being in the mean time taken up for his Majesties use and answered into the Exchequer according to an ancient Custom but more old than commendable used frequently by the Kings of England since the time of William sirnamed Rufus from whom it is said to have took beginning But the Deanry of the Chappel had not been void above nine days when Laud was nominated to it and was actually admitted into that Office on the sixth day of October following by Philip Earl of Montgomery Lord Chamberlain of his Majesties Houshold before whom he took the usual and appointed Oath He had before observed a Custom as ill though not so old as the other used in the Court since the first entrance of King Iames. The Custom was That at what part soever of the Publick Prayers the King came into his Closet which looked into the Chappel to hear the Sermon the Divine Service was cut off and the Anthem sung that the Preacher might go into the Pulpit This the new Dean disliked as he had good reason and thereupon humbly moved his Majesty that he would be present at the Liturgie as well as the Sermon every Lords day and that at whatsoever part of Prayers he came the Priest who Ministred should proceed to the end of the Service To which his Majesty most readily and religiously condescended and gave him thanks for that his seasonable and pious Motion As for the Deanry of the Chappel it was of long standing in the Court but had been discontinued from the death of Dr. George Carew Dean of Windsor the Father of George Lord Carew of Clopton and Earl of Totness Anno 1572. till King Iames his coming to this Crown at what time Bancroft then Bishop of London conceiving into what dangers the Church was like to run by the multitude of Scots about him thought it expedient that some Clergy-men of Note and Eminence should be attendant always in and about the Court And thereupon it was advised that to the Bishop Almoner and the Clerk of the Closet a Dean of the Chappel should be added to look unto the diligent and due performance of Gods Publick Service and order matters of the Quire According to which resolution Dr. Iames Mountague was recommended to the King for the first Dean of the Chappel in his time succeeded in that place by Andrews and he now by Laud. But to proceed Whilest matters went on thus smoothly about the Court they met with many Rubbs in the Country some of the Preachers did their parts according as they were required by the said Instructions amongst whom Sibthorp Vicar of Brackly in Northampton-shire advanced the Service in a Sermon preached by him at the Assizes for that County The scope of which Sermon was to justifie the Lawfulness of the general Loane and of the Kings imposing Taxes by his own Regal Power without consent in Parliament and to prove that the people in point of Conscience and Religion ought chearfully to submit to such Loans and Taxes without any opposition The Licencing of which Sermon when it was offered to the Press being refused by Archbishop Abbot and some exceptions made against it the perusing of it was referred to Laud April 24. 1627 by whom after some qualifications and corrections it was approved and after published by the Author under the name of Apostolical Obedience About the same time Manwaring Doctor in Divinity one of his Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary and Vicar of the Parish Church of St. Giles in the Fields published two Sermons of his preaching on the same occasion the one before the King the other in the hearing of his own Parishioners These Sermons he entituled by the name of Religion and Allegiance both of them tending to the justification of the lawfulness of the Kings imposing Loans and Taxes on his people without consent in Parliament and that the imposition of such Loans and Taxes did so far bind the Consciences of the Subjects of this Kingdom that they could not refuse the payment of them without peril of eternal damnation But neither the Doctrine of these Preachers or of any other to that purpose nor the distress of the King of Denmark nor the miserable estate of Rochel did so far prevail amongst the people but that the Commissioners for the Loane found greater opposition in it than they did expect Many who had been Members in the two former Parliaments opposed it with their utmost power and drew a great part of the Subjects in all Countries some to the like refusal For which refusal some Lords and many of the choice Gentry of the Kingdom and others of inferiour sort were committed unto several Prisons where they remained till the approach of the following Parliament Insomuch that the Court was put upon the necessity of some further Project The Papists would have raised a Provision for the setting forth both of Ships and Men for the defence of the Narrow Seas and working
against the like Instructions in the time of King Iames and the late Declaration published by the King reigning For what less could be aimed at in them than suppressing the Divine Ordinance of Preaching or at the least a dreadful diminution of the number of Sermons And what could follow thereupon but negligence in the Priests ignorance in the People Popery and Superstition in the mean time gaining ground on both Spending the afternoons in teaching the Catechism was a work fitter for a Pedagogue than a preaching Minister who rather were ordained to provide strong meats for men than milk for babes and yet such was the strictness of the said Instructions in looking to the observance of the late Declaration that they were not suffered to set strong meats before the people though men of ripe years and somewhat more than children in their understandings Preaching must be restrained hereafter to Gods Will revealed to Faith in Christ and Moral duties toward God and men but as for his secret Will and Purpose in the unfathomable depths of Predestination those must be kept sealed up under lock and key and none but the Arminians have the opening of them And yet the grief had been the less if Lecturers had been left to their former liberty and not tied up to Gown and Surplice or fettered with Parochial cures and consequently with Subscriptions and Canonical Oaths badges of Antichrist and professed enemies to the pure Freedom of the Gospel Where might a man repair with comfort to hear Gods Word preached in truth and simplicity the Sacraments administred in their original nakedness to hear Christ speaking in his Prophets and the Prophets speaking to the People if this world went on But notwithstanding these secret Murmurs on the one side and the open Clamours of the other Laud was resolved to do his duty who summoning all the Ministers and Lecturers about the City of London to appear before him made a solemn Speech in which he pressed the necessity of his Majesties said Instructions for the good of the Church and of their chearful obedience to them He directed Letters also to every Archdeacon in his Diocess requiring them to see them published to all the Clergy and to give him an exact account at the end of their Visitations how they were observed especially insisting on the third Instruction For keeping the Kings Declaration that so the differences and disputes in those prohibited points might be laid aside The like care taken also by the rest of the Bishops but slackning by degrees when the heat was over and possibly in short time after they had not been looked into at all if Abbot had continued longer in the See of Canterbury or that his Majesty had not enjoyned the Bishops to give him an exact account of their proceedings in the said particulars not once for all but Annually once in every year on the second of Ianuary Which care being taken for the peace and happiness of the Church of England we will lay hold upon this opportunity for crossing over into Ireland and taking a short view of the state of Religion in that Country which from henceforth shall be lookt into more than hath been formerly Concerning which we are to know that when the Reformation was advanced in the Church of England the first care was to let the people have the Bible the publick Liturgie and certain godly Homilies in the English tongue as appeareth by the Statutes 2 3. Edw. vi 5 6. Edw. vi and 1 Eliz. Secondly The like care was taken of the Welch For whose Instruction it was further ordered partly by the Queen and partly by Act of Parliament in the fifth of her Reign that as well the Bible as the Common-Prayer Book should be Translated Printed and Published in that Language one Book of each sort to be provided for every several Church at the Charge of the Parish Which being Printed at the first in the large Church-Volume was afterwards reduced to a more portable bulk for Domestical uses by the cost and charge of Rowland Heylyn Citizen and Alderman of London about the beginning of the Reign of this King But for Ireland no such care was taken The Acts of the Supremacy and of the Consecrations of Archbishops and Bishops were received there as before in England the English Liturgie imposed on them by order from hence and confirmed by Parliament in that Kingdom Which notwithstanding not only the Kernes or natural wild Irish but many of the better sort of the Nation either remain in their old barbarous ignorance or else adhere unto the Pope or finally to their own superstitious fancies as in former times And to say truth it is no wonder that they should there being no care taken to instruct them in the Protestant Religion either by translating the Bible or the English Liturgy into their own Language as was done in Wales but forcing them to come to the English Service which they understood no more than they did the Mass. By means whereof the Irish are not only kept in continual ignorance as to the Doctrine and Devotions of the Church of England but those of Rome are furnished with an excellent argument for having the Service of the Church in a Language which the Common people understand not And though somewhat may be pleaded in excuse thereof during the unquietness of that Kingdom under Queen Elizabeth who had the least part of it in her possession yet no sufficient plea can be made in defence of it for the time succeeding when the whole Country was reduced and every part thereof lay open to the course of Justice So that I cannot look upon it without great amazâ—mâ—nt that none of the Bishops of that Church should take care herein or recommend the miserable condition of that people to tâ—e Court of England Now as Popery continued by this means in the Realm of Ireland so Calvinism was as strongly rooted in that part thereof which professed the Doctrine and Religion of the Church of England And touching this we are to know also that the Calvinian Doctrines being propagated in both Universities by such Divines as lived in exile in Queen Maries time one Peter Baroe a Frenchman obtained to be the Lady Margarets Professor in the Divinity Scâ—ools at Cambridge This man approving better the Melancthonian Doctriâ—â— of Predestination than that of Calvin publickly taught it in tâ—ose Schools and gained in short time very many followers Whitaker was at that time her Majesties Professor for Divinity there and Perkins at the same time was of no small note both Calvinists in these points of Doctrine and both of them supralapsarians also Betwixt these men and Baroe there grew some disputes which afterwards begat some heats and those heats brake out at last into open Factions Hereupon Whitaker Perkins Chaderton and others of the same opinion thought it expedient to effect that by power which they were not able to obtain by Argument And to that end
Preoccupate the most Reverend Archbishop Whitgift with most sad complaints touching the Rupture made by Baroe in that Vniversity For remedy whereof the Archbishop calls unto him Fletcher the Lord Elect of London Vaughan the Lord Elect of Bangor Tyndal Dean of Ely and such Divines as came from Cambridge who meeting at his house in Lambeth on the twenty sixth day of November Anno 1595. did then and there conclude upon certain Articles for regulating disputations in those points of Controversie Which Articles being nine in number are these that follow I. God from all eternity hath predestinated certain men unto life certain men he hath reprobated II. The moving or efficient cause of Predestination unto life is not the foresight of Faith or of perseverance or of God-works or of any thing that is in the person predestinated but only the good will and pleasure of God III. There is predetermined a certain number of the Predestinate which can either be augmented or diminished IV. Those who are not predestinated to salvation shall be necessarily damned for their sins V. A true living and justifying faith and the Spirit of God justifying is not extinguished falleth not away it vanisheth not away in the Act either finally or totally VI. A man truly faithful that is such a one who is enduced with a justifying Faith is certain with the full assurance of faith of the remission of his sins and of his everlasting salvation by Christ. VII Saving grace is not given is not granted is not communicated to all men by which they may be saved if they will VIII No man can come unto Christ unless it shall be given unto him and unless the Father shall draw him and all men are not drawn by the Father that they may come to the Son IX It is not in the will or power of every one to be saved These Articles being brought to Cambridge so discouraged Baroe that when the ordinary time of his publick readings was expired he forsook that place and not many years after died in London His Funerall being attended by order from Bishop Bancroft by most of the Eminent Divines about that City which shews that both the Bishop and the most eminent Divines of London were either inclinable to his opinions or not so averse from them as not to give a solemn attendance at the time of his Funeral The news of which proceedings being brought to the Queen she was excâ—edingly offended conceiving it a deep intrenchment upon her Prerogative that any such Declaration should be made in matter of Religion without her Authority Once was she at a point to have them all indited of a Praemunire but the high esteem she had of Whitgift whom she commonly called her black husband reprieved all the rest from the danger of it Howsoever such a strict course was taken for suppressing the said Articles that a Copy of them was not to be found in Cambridge for a long time aâ—ter though after the Queens death they began to peep abroad again and became more publick Nor was King Iames better conceited of them than Queen Elizabeth was for when it was moved by Dr Reynolds at Hampton Court that the nine Orthodoxal Assertions as he pleased to call them which were concluded on at Lambeth might be admitted into the confession of the Church of England the King so much disliked the motion that it was presently rejected without more ado But that which the Calvinians could not get in England they effected at the last in Ireland where the true and genuine Doctrines of the Church of England had been less looked after than at home For in the year 1615. a Parliament and Convocation being holden in Dublin it was resolved on by the Archbishop Bishops and the rest of the Clergy then assembled that a Book of Articles should be framed to be the Publick Confession of that Church for succeeding times the drawing up whereof was committed to Doctor Iames Vsher afterwards Archbishop of Armagh and Lord Primate of Ireland a Rigid Calvinist but otherwise the ablest Scholar of that Nation And he accordingly fashioning the Doctrine for that Church by his own Conceptions inserted into the said Book of Articles the nine Conclusions made at Lambeth to be the standing Rule as he thought and hoped of that Church for ever And yet they did not stay there neither The Sabbatarian Doctrines had been broached by Bownd in the same year wherein the nine Articles had been made at Lambeth Which being opposed by Archbishop Whitgift and never admitted in this Church were by the cunning of that Faction and the zeal or diligence of this man incorporated into the Body of the Articles for the Church of Ireland in which it is declared for a Doctrinal Point That the first day of the Week which is the Lords-day is wholly to be dedicated to the Service of God and therefore we are Bound therein to rest from our common and daily Business and to bestow that leisure upon holy Exercises both Publick and Private And because he concluded in himself that the Pope was Antichrist that also must be made an Article of this Confession in which we find it in these words viz. The Bishop of Rome is so far from being the Supream Head of the Vniversal Church that his Works and Doctrines do plainly discover him to be the Man of Sin foretold in the Holy Scripture whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth and abolish with the brightness of his coming And hereunto That the Plantation of the Scots in Vlster unhappily projected in the time of King Iames brought in so much Puritanism such a contempt of Bishops such a neglect of the Publick Liturgie and other Divine Offices of this Church that there was nothing less to be found amongst them than the Doctrine Government and Forms of Worship established in the Church of England The Papists in the mean time encreasing more and more grew at the last to so great a confidence by the clashings here in England betwixt the King and his Parliaments that they gave themselves great hope of a Toleration And possibly enough they might have obtained somewhat like it if the Irish Bishops had not joined together in a Protestation to the contrary and caused it to be published in the Pulpit by the Bishop of Derry with infinite Acclamations of the Protestant Hearers Howsoever the lost hopes had so far emboldened them that they set up some Religious Houses even in Dublin it self shewed themselves openly in their Friars Habits and publickly affronted not only the Mayor but the Archbishop of that City This coming to his Majesties knowledge he caused his pleasure to be signified to the Lords of his Council That Order should be taken there That the House where the said Seminary Friars appeared in their Habits and wherein the Reverend Archbishop and the Mayor of Dublin received their first Affront be speedily demolished and be the Mark of Terrour to
the Resisters of Authority and that the rest of the Houses erected or employed there or elsewhere to the use of Superstitious Societies be converted to Houses of Correction and to set the People on work or to other Publick uses for the Advancement of Justice good Arts or Trade Which Order of the Council-Table bears date 31 Ianuary 1629. That part of the Remonstrance of the House of Commons which related to the Affairs of Ireland first alarm'd Laud to take the Business of that Church into consideration And that he might be the better informed in all Particulars which concerned it he took order with Doctor William Beadle designed unto the Bishoprick of Killmore to give him an exact Account of the Estate of that Church as soon as he could make any perfect Discovery of it This Order of the Council-Table reinforced that case and quickned the dispatch of Beadle for his satisfaction from whom he received a Letter dated April the first Anno 1630. In which he signified That he had not been unmindful of his Lordships commands which he was now the better able to perform because saith he I have been about my Diocess and can set down out of my knowledge and view what I shall relate and shortly to speak much ill matter in few words Which said he lets his Lordship know That the Estate of his Church was very miserable That the Cathedral Church of Ardagh united to the See of Killmore one of the most ancient in Ireland and said to be built by St. Patrick together with the Bishops House there was down to the ground That the Church at Killmore had been built but without Bell or Steeple Font or Chalice That the Parish-Churches were all in a manner ruined or unroofed and unrepaired That the People saving a few British Planters here and there which are not the tenth part of the Remnant were obstinate Recusants That there was a Popish Clergy more numerous by far than the English Clergy That they were in full Exercise of all Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical by their Vicars-general and Officials who were so confident as to Excommunicate those that come to the Courts of the Protestant Bishops That the Popish Primate for Ireland lived within two miles of his House and the Bishops in another part of his Diocess further off That every Parish had their Priest and some two or three apiece and so their Massing-houses also and that Masses are sometimes said in their Churches That there were Friars in divers places who went about though not in their Habit who by their importunate begging did impoverish the People That Poverty was much increased as well by their paying double Tythes both to their own Clergy and the English as by the dearth of Corn and the death of their Cattel That the Oppressions of the Courts Ecclesiastical which was reckoned for another cause of the common poverty were not indeed to be excused which for his part he had a purpose to reform That in each Diocess there were some seven or eight Ministers of good sufficiency but being English they neither understood the Tongue of the People nor could perform any Divine Offices nor converse with them as they ought and consequently could give no stop to the growth and increase oâ— Popery That most of the said Ministers held two three four or more Vicaridges apiece and that sometimes one man was Clerk of three or four Parishes which were ordinarily bought sold and let to Farm And finally That by those and such other means his majesty was King as to the Hearts and Consciences of that People but so that it remained wholly at the Popes Discretion Here was sufficient work for a Reformation and we shall see Laud taking care of it in convenient time But first we must look back to England where we shall find a new Honour attending on him On Saturday being the tenth of April William Lord Herbert Earl of Pembroke Lord Steward of his Majesties Houshold and Chancellor of the University of Oxon. died suddenly at his House called Baynards-Castle having then made up the â—iâ—tieth year of his life beyond which it had been foresignified by some Learned Mathematicians that he should not live This News being brought to Oxon. the same night or else betimes on Sunday morning Laâ—d's friends not only in St. Iohns but in other Colledges so bestirred themselves that before noon there was a Party strong enough to confer that honourable Office on him Frewen of Magdalen Colledge being then Vice-Chancellor was at that time as far as Andover in a Colledge-Progress where hearing accidentally of the Earls decease he made such haste back again to Oxon. that he came thither before the end of Evening Prayer and finding his own Colledge in so good a posture advised with some other Heads of Houses whom he knew to have the same Inclinations to make sure work of it by whom it was agreed That a Convocation should be called the next day to speed the business before any other Competitor should appear against him Nor did they make more haste than good speed in it some Agents coming thither before night in behalf of Philip Earl of Montgomery Brother to the Earl deceased and they so well discharged their Trust that those of the Welch Nation generally Prideaux and some other Heads of Houses who were of the Calvinian Party and the four Colledges belonging to the Visitation of the Bishop of Lincoln that is to say Baliol Orial Lincoln and Brazen-nose were wholly in a manner for him that Bishop stickling in the Cause not so much out of love to him as hate to Laud. But all their diligence could not carry it as they desired the Election passing clear for the Bishop of London of which he was presently advertised by the University On his receiving of which Message he presently addressed himself unto the King acquainted him with what had hapned and humbly submitted the Place unto his disposal To which his Majesty most graciously returned this Answer That he knew none more worthy of it than himself and that he should rathâ—r study how to add further Honours to him than take any from him On which incouragement he appointed Wednesday the twenty eighth of the same Month for the Solemnity of his Investiture in that Oâ—fice which was performed in a frequent Convocation of that University held at London-House to the great contentment oâ— both Parties To add a further Honour to him it pleased his Majesty to send him the joyful news under his Royal Signature of the Princes Birth born at his Majesties House of St. Iames's on Saturday May the twenty ninth about one of the Clock in the afternoon He had the happiness of seeing the Royal Infant in the first hour of his Birth and the honour afterwards to Baptize him By ancient Priviledge belonging to the See of Canterbury those Archbishops are Ordinaries of the Court his Majesties Houshold wheresoever the same shall be being reckoned to
conjure down these unruly Spirits which otherwise would not be confined within their Circle Mady the Lecturer of Christ-Church near Newgate must needs fly out upon the Point of Election and the motives to it For this contempt he is called before the Bishop of London and on some further misbehaviour prohibited from preaching any more within that Diocess Burges who afterwards pulled down the Cross in St. Pauls Church-yard must needs add scorn to his contempt telling his Auditors that if their Minister preached Popery or Arminianism they might change their dwellings and not trouble the peace and order of their Church For which about the same time he is questioned also White and some others in that Diocess suspended by this Bishop on the same occasion From the City pass we to the Court Where toward the end of the same Month we find Davenant Bishop of Sarum preaching a Lent Sermon before the King and therein falling upon some of those prohibited points even before his face for which the King being much offended as he had good reason he caused him to be called before the Lords of his Council The cause is managed against him by Archbishop Harsnet Laud all the while walking by in silence who gravely laid before him as well the Kings Piety in setting forth the said Declaration as the greatness of his the said Davenants offence in making so little reckoning of it Davenant at first endeavoureth many defences to make good his Action but at last wisely casts himself upon this submission he tells the Lords in answer to one of Harsnets objections That he was sorry he did no sooner understand his Majesties intention which if he had done before he would have taken some other matter to treat of which might have given none offence and that for the time to come he would conform himself as readily as any other to his Majesties Command Arundel Earl Marshal bids him hold to that as his safest plea and that he should proceed to no further defence a bad cause not being made the better by two much handling To this counsel he conforms himself And being afterwards admitted to the kiss of his Majesties hand which his attendance might deserve though his Sermon did not his Majesty declared to him his Resolution That he would not have this high Point meddled withal or debated either the one way or the other because it was too high for the Peoples understanding and that other Points which concerned Reformation and Newness of life were more needful and profitable I hope the lower Clergy will not say hereafter as some did of old That Laws are like the Spiders Cobwebs which suffer the great flies to break through and lay hold only upon those of the smaller size From the Court let us go to Oxon. where we find the next year beginning in a manner with a Sermon preached at St. Maries Church by one Hill of Heart-hall May 24. point blank enough against his Majesties Declaration and more than bitter enough against those of different perswasion from him whom he charged with handling Scriptures worse than poor Christians were by the Turk at Tunis enforcing them to the vassallage of the foulest errours not without some reflection on the Higher Powers by whom they were mischieved into honour For which indiscretion being convented before the Vice-Chancellor and Heads of Houses but not without the Chancellors privity he confessed his fault and craved pardon for the same which he obtained on his submission made in the Convocation the sixteenth of Iuly following But worse it fared not long after with Ford of Magdalen Hall Hodges of Exeter Colledge and Thorne of Baliol who in their several Sermons had not only committed the like error but charged their Renovation of some ancient order in the Church to be no other than plain Innovation Questioned for this by Smith then Warden of Wadham Colledge and Vice-Chancellor of that University they appeal from him to the Convocation The Proctors having unadvisedly received the Appeal were at the point to have named Delegates when Smith appealed to the King But they took their aim amiss when they shot this bolt For both his Majesty and the Chancellor were alike concerned in it the King to justifie his Declaration the other to preserve his own power and dignity neither of which could have been done but by defending Smith in his lawful acting On the twenty third of August all Parties interessed in the Cause appeared before the King at Woodstock who after a full hearing of both sides it was ordered thus That the three Delinquents should be expelled the University Doughty and Bruch the two Proctors should be deprived of their places Prideaux and Wilkinson this last then Principle of Magdalen Hall being checked for stickling so much in it and glad they were that they escaped without further censure But they shewed not the same mercy which they found for Rainsford of Wadham Colledge preached at St. Maries in August following in defence of Vniversal Grace and Mans Election unto life from Faith foreseen No man more forward than Prideaux to appeach him of it on whose complaint and prosecution he was sentenced to a publick acknowledgment of his offence in a form prescribed which was as much as had been done in the case of Hill So that the Rigid Calvinians can pretend no just ground for that so great Calumnie that none but they were censured from preaching those prohibited Doctrines those of the Arminian Party as they commonly called them going off unpunished From Oxon. cross we into Ireland where we shall see Lauds care as great for preserving the Kings Authority and the Churches peace as it was in England Vsher the Lord Primate of that Church had published a Book this same year in the Latine Tongue called The History of Gotteschalchus for which he was after much extolled by Twist of Newbury as professed a Calvinian as himself in a Letter of his dated May 29. 1640. For having first commended him for his great learning and various reading manifested in his Book De Primodiis Britannicarum Ecclesiarum he magnifies next his singular wisdom for taking an occasion to insert therein the History of the Pelagian Heresie coming so opportunely in his way and then he addeth that his History of Gotteschalchus was a piece of the like nature and came forth most seasonable so much the more because it seemed to give some check to a Book written by Vossius a right Learned man which had been much cried up by the Remonstrants Downham then Bishop of Derry had somewhat before that published a Discourse about Perseverance wherein some Passages were found directly thwarting his Majesties most pious purpose in the said Declaration But Vshâ—r's Book being writ in Latin gave the less offence Nor seemed it fit to put any publick disgrace on a man to whom the Government of the whole National Church had been committed by King Iames of most Blessed Memory By questioning
and suppressing Downham's Book he might be made as sensible of his Error in writing the aforesaid History as if his own had been made subject to the like condemnation His Majesty therefore gives him Order by Letters bearing date at Woodstock August 24. the next day after the said Sentence of Thorn Hodges c. to call in Bishop Downham's Book who thereupon sent out Warrants and caused all the Books that were unsent into England to be seised on But so long it was before the King had notice of it and so long after that before his Letters came to the Lord Primates hands which was not till the fifteenth of October following that almost all the Copies were dispersed in England and Ireland before the coming out of the Prohibition And for preventing of the like for the time to come a Command is laid on Beadle Bishop of Killmore which sheweth that Vsher was not thought fit to be trusted in it to have an eye unto the Press and to take care that nothing hereafter should be published contrary to his Majesties said Directions So Beadle in his Letter to the Bishop of London dated November 8. 1631. Which care being taken for the Peace of that Church and nothing else presented to us on that side of the Sea to detain us any longer there we will hoise Sail again for England where we finde more Work More Work indeed and far the greatest not only of this present year but the greatest of this Bishops Life A Work before in project but in project only None had the Courage or the Power to carry it on so far as he He could not rest under the shade of those vast Ruines of St. Paul's Church his own Cathedral without continual thought and some hopes withal of repairing those deformities in it which by long time had been contracted Of the first Founding of this Church by Ethelbert King of Kent the first Christian King and the sixth Monarch of the Saxons and the Enlargement of the same by Erkenwald the fourth Bishop of it we have spoke already And now we are to know That their old Fabrick being much wasted by Fire in the time of the Conqueror Mauritius then Bishop of London Anne 1083. began the Foundation of that most magnificent Pile now standing viz. all the Body of the Church with the South and North cross Isles Toward which Work he made use of a great part of the Materials of the old Palatine Castle standing in the same place where the Covent of the Black-Friars was after built great part whereof had perished by the same Fire also But the Foundations which this worthy Bishop had laid being sutable to his mind were so vast as the Historian observes That though he prosecuted the Work twenty years he left the performing thereof to the care of Posterity amongst which none more transcendently aâ—fected to this business than his next Successor Richard Beaumis who bestowed the whole Revenue of his Bishoprick upon it supporting himself and his Family by other means And after him some other Bishops succeeding between them that Richard who was Treasurer to King Henry ii being made Bishop of London in the first year of King Richard bestowed great Sums of Money in the Reparation of this Church and the Episcopal Houses which belonged unto it But all this Charge was principally laid out on the main Body of the Church and the Crossed Isles thereof the Choire not holding Proportion with so vast a Structure So that resolving to make it fairer and more capacious than before they began with the Steeple which was finished in Anno 1221. 5 Hen. 3 In which year the Dedication of it was celebrated with great magnificence the King himself Otho the Popes Legate Edmond Archbishop of Canterbury Roger sirnamed Niger then Bishop of London a chief Advancer of the Work with five other Bishops besides infinite multitudes of the Nobility Gentry Citizens and others of the Common People from all parts of the Land being present at it Nor is it to be thought that the Charges of that stately and magnificent Structure was supported by the Bishops only or issued out of such Revenues as belonged unto the Dean and Chapter but that the Clergy and People generally both of England and Ireland contributed largely to the Work the People of those Times out of their Devotion to Gods Service being easily incited to further all Works of this nature as occasion offered And this appears by the sundry Letters of several Bishops of both Nations to the Clergy under their Jurisdiction for recommendation of that business to their particular Congregations many of which are extant still upon Record Nor were the People stirred on only by the sollicitation of their Priests or the exhortatory Letters of their several Prelates but by the grants of such Indulgences and relaxation from their several and respective Penances which in those Letters were extended unto all sorts of People who with a chearful heart and liberal hand did promote the Service By means whereof some men contributed Materials others sent in Money and many Masons Carpenters and other Artificers who were to labour in the Work bestowed their pains and toil upon it for less consideration and reward than in other Buildings Besides which Henry de Lacy Earl of Lincoln is said to have been a principal Benefactor to that part of it which was then called the New-Work in a Chappel whereof dedicated to St. Dunstan we find his body to be interred And so was Ralph de Baldock also both while he was Dean and when he was Bishop of this Church whose Body was also buried in another part of the New-Work called Our Ladies Chappel But this vast Pile the Work of so long time and so many Ages was on the fourth of Iune Anno 1561. in danger to be suddenly consumed by a violent Fire beginning in the Steeple and occasioned by the negligence of a Plummer who left his pan of coals unquench'd at his going to dinner A Fire so violent that in the space of few hours it consumed not only the Steeple where it first began but did spread it self to the upper Roof of the Church and Isles totally burning all the Rafters and whatsoever else was of combustible nature The Queen knew well as well as any that the Revenues of that Church were so dilapidated that neither the Bishops themselves nor the Dean and Chapters were able to repair the least part of those Ruines which the Fire had made And thereupon out of a deep apprehension of that lamentable Accident forthwith directed her Letters to the Lord Mayor of London requiring him to make some speedy Order for its repair and to further the Work gave out of her Purse 1000 Marks in Gold as also a Warrant for 1000 Load of Timber to be taken out of her Woods and elsewhere Nor were the Citizens slack herein for having given a large Benevolence they added three whole Fifteens to be speedily
paid for that purpose all which amounted to three thousand two hundred forty seven pound sixteen shillings two pence half-peny The Clergy of England within the Province of Canterbury freely contributed the fortieth part of all such Church Livings as were charged with First-fruits and the thirtieth part of all their Benefices not so charged those of London only excepted who besides the thirtieth part of such as paid First-fruits gave the twentieth part of all the rest Which Contribution of the Clergy amounted to one thousand four hundred sixty one pound thirteen shillings and eleven pence whereunto was added by the benevolence of the Bishop of London at several times coming in all to nine hundred five pound one shilling and eleven pence By the Dean and Chapter one hundred thirty six pound thirteen shillings and four pence and made of the surplusage of Timber one hundred nineteen pound three shillings and nine pence Given by the Justices and Officers of the Common Pleas thirty four pound five shillings and by those of the Kings Bench seventeen pound sixteen shillings eight pence All which together made no more than six thousand seven hundred and two pound thirteen shillings and four pence And yet with this small Sum such was the cheapness of those Times the Work was carried on so prosperously that before the Month of April 1566. all the Roofs of Timber whereof those large ones of the East and West framed in Yorkshire and brought by Sea were perfectly finished and covered with Lead the adding of a new Steeple being thought unnecessary because too chargeable though divers Models have been made and presented of it The whole Roof being thus Repaired the Stone-work of it stood as before it did sensibly decaying day by day by reason of the corroding quality of the Sea-coal smoke which on every side annoyed it Which being observed by one Henry Farley about the middle of the Reign of King Iames he never left solliciting the King by several Petitions and Addresses to take the Ruinous Estate thereof into his Princely Consideration till at last it was resolved on by the King And to create the greater Veneration to so good a Work he bestowed that magnificent Visit on it described at large in the first Book of this History Anno 1620. The product and result whereof was the issuing out a Commission under the Great Seal of England bearing date the sixteenth day of November then next following directed to Sir Francis Iones Knight then Lord Mayor of London George Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Francis Lord Verulam then Lord Chancellor of England and divers others to the number of sixty Persons and upwards Which Commission importing That this Church being the greatest and most eminent as also one of the principal Ornaments of the Realm and in much decay any six or more of these Commissioners whereof three to be of the said Kings Privy-Council should meet to make Particulars of the decay and likewise what Houses Cellars c. had been built near it either to the annoyance of it or the Church-yard And moreover to Inquire what Lands Rents c. had been given towards its Repair or Sums of Money collected to that purpose and not accordingly employed And further to consider of the most fit and proper means to raise money to carry on the said Repair And lastly to appoint Surveyors and other Officers of their Work and to make Certificate of their Proceedings therein into the Chancery Upon the Meeting of which Commissioners and diligent search made into the Particulars afore-mentioned it was acknowledged that the Bishop of London had the whole care of the Body of that Church and the Dean and Chapter of the Choires But that which each of them enjoyed to this purpose was so little that they yearly expended double as much upon the Roof and other parts decayed to preserve them from present ruine Which being made evident to the Commissioners as also that in former times even from the very first foundation thereof it had been supported partly out of the large Oblations of those that visited the Shrines and Oratories therein and partly from Publick Contributions in all parts of the Kingdom It was concluded to proceed in the same way now as had been done formerly And that it might proceed the better the King himself and many of the principal Nobility and Gentry declared by their Superscriptions for the encouragement of others to so good a Work what Sums they resolved to give in pursuance of it Doctor Iohn King then Bishop of London subscribing for 100 l. per Annum as long as he should continue in that See Mountain who succeeded not long after in that Bishoprick procured with great charge and trouble some huge massie Stones to be brought from Portland for the beginning of the Work But money coming slowly in and he being a man of small activity though of good affecâ—ions the heat of this great business cooled by little and little and so came to nothing But Laud succeeding him in the See of London and having deservedly attained unto great Authority with his Majesty no sooner saw his Office settled both at home and abroad but he possessed him with a Loyal and Religious Zeal to persue that Work which King Iames had so piously designed though it went not much further than the bare design Few words might serve to animate the King to a Work so pious who aimed at nothing more than the Glory of God in the Advancement of the Peace and Happiness of the Church of England And therefore following the example oâ— his Royal Father he bestowed the like Visit on St. Pauls whither he was attended with the like Magnificence and entertained at the first entrance into the Church with the like Solemnity The Divine Service being done and the Sermon ended which tended principally unto the promoting of a Work so honourable both to his Majesties Person and the English Nation his Majesty took a view of the Decays of that Church and there Religiously promised not to be wanting in the Piety of his best Endeavours to the Repair of those Ruines which Age the Casualties of Weather or any other Accidents had brought upon it In order whereunto in the beginning oâ— this year he issued out his Royal Commission under the Great Seal of England bearing date the tenth of April in the seventh year of his Reign directed to Sir Robert Ducy Lord Mayor of the City of Londan George Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Lord Coventry Lord Keeper of the Great Seal c. William Lord Bishop of London Richard Lord Bishop of Winton Iohn Lord Bishop of Ely c. Nicholas Rainton Ralph Freeman Rowland Heylyn c. Aldermen of the City of London Edward Waymack and Robert Bateman Chamberlain of the said City of London In which Commission the said King taking notice of this Cathedral as the goodliest Monument and most ancient Church of his whole Dominions as also that it was the principal
Monument of the City of London the Imperial Seat of this his Realm and moreover That the Commissions issued out by his Royal Father as heretofore had been observed were slackned by reason of his death but he resolving to go on therewith effectually declared as followeth viz. 1. That all Money brought in for Repair thereof should be paid into the Chamber of London 2. That William Laud then Bishop of London offered to allow 100. l. per Annum out of the Revenues of that Bishoprick during his continuance therein 3. That a Register-Book should be made of all Subscriptions for Contributions thereunto as had been done in King James his time 4. That the Iudges of the Prerogative Court and all Officials throughout the several Bishopricks in England and Wales upon the Decease of any Person Intestate should be excited to remember this Church out of what was proper to be given to pious uses And lastly That Commissions should be issued throughout the whole Kingdom Which Commissions were executed in the Country with care and diligence and seconded so strongly by the power and sollicitation of this pious Prelate that the money came flowing in apace so much being raised by Legacies by money given to pious uses and other free and voluntary Contributions before the issuing out of those Commissions as enabled the grand Commissioners to begin the work Insomuch that on the sixteenth of December Anno 1632. they found that there had been brought into the Chamber of London the Sum of 5416 li. 13 s. 6 d. And in April next ensuing the Work was begun The houses adjoyning to and near the Church being compounded for and plucked down a great part of the Church-yard paled in for Masons to work in and an order given to Inigo Iones Surveyor general of his Majesties Works on the twenty sixth of Iune next following to prepare Scaffolding for the same Which Preparations being made the first stone of this new Work was solemnly laid by our Bishop himself the second by Sir Francis Windebanke his Majesties principal Secretary of State and the third by Sir Henry Martin Knight then Judge of the Prerogative Court and the fourth by the said Inigo Iones chief Surveyor of that Fabrick each of them giving money liberally amongst the Workmen the better to encourage them to proceed therein with all honest speed The Quire or Chancel being first finished the work was carried on to the North part of the Cross Isle and so unâ—o the Western part or main body of the Cross Isle and so unto the Western part or main body of the Church This worthy Prelate continuing the Piety of his endeavours towards the compleating of this stately and Magnificent Structure as well when he was Archbishop of Canterbury to which dignity he was promoted in September following as when he was Bishop of London and was more nearly concerned in the affairs of that Church And though it be affirmed by a late Historian that many had no fancy to the work because he promoted it yet on the contrary it is known that had not he promoted it there were not many would have had the fancy to a work of that nature Some men in hope of favour and preferment from him others to hold fair quarter with him and not a few for fear of incurring his displeasure contributing more largely to it than they had done otherwise if otherwise they had contributed at all Certain I am that the Regular Clergy were so forward in it that being called together by their several Ordinaries few of them gave so little as a single tenth many a double Subsidy most in the middle betwixt both to be paid in three four or five years as the work continued Which joyned together amounting to a liberal sum not reckoning in the Deans and Chapters whom it more nearly did concern to support that Fabrick than those of the Parochial Clergy And yet it cannot be denied but that it met with many rubs and mighty enemies The Puritan Ministers and their Adherents inveighed against it as the repairing and adorning of a Rotten Relique insinuating to the people as they found occasion that it was more agreeable to the Rules of Piety to demolish such old Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry than to keep them standing For remedy whereof order was given to such as preached at St. Pauls Cross and other publick places both in City and Country to represent unto their hearers all those several motives which might not only serve to justifie but endear the work nor wanted there some zealous Patriots or such as were desirous to be so accounted on the other side who gave it out to be a cheat a mear Court device to procure money for the King without help of Parliaments which project if it might succeed the King said they would grow too absolute and take unto himself an Arbitrary form of Government the People for want of Parliaments being left remediless which false report coming to his Majesties ears he was compelled to make this Declaration of himself in all such following Commissions as were dispatched into the Country that he had not only commanded That the work of Reparation should begin but had caused an entrance to be made into it and that he was constantly resolved to follow it till it was brought to perfection whereof he required the Commissioners to satisfie all his loving Subjects of the clearness of his Royal Intention therein and to assure them in his Name that all rumours and imaginations as of diverting the money to any other purpose was but the fancies of men either grosly malevolent or causelesly jealous and distrustful The Subject being thus assured the Clergy active and the Nobility giving good example unto all the rest the work was so followed by the care of this powerful Prelate that before the year 1640. the whole body of it was finished and the Tower or Steeple Scaffolded to the very top with an intent to take it down to the very Arches and raise it to a more stately height than it had at the present with four great Pinacles at each Corner one the Arches being thought unable to support the burthen of such a Steeple as before was fired And though the publick Contribution which was brought into the Chamber of London amounted to the Sum of 101330 li. 4 s. 8 d. yet there was something more done in it by the Munificence of the King and the bounty of the private Subject His Majesty to gâ—ve life to the Work had sent in first and last 10295 li. 5 s. 6 d. toward the said Sum with part whereof he caused a stately Portico to be erected at the West end of the Church raised on Corinthian Pillars where he placed the Statues of his Royal Father King Iames and himself for a lasting memorial of this their advancement of so glorious a work Which Portico was intended to be an Ambulatory for such as by usual walking in the body of the Church
not the name of the other when it came to his turn The Ships being come and staying for a change of wind the like curtesie was desired of Pennington Admiral of that little Fleet for the present Service Pennington told them that he had no Chaplain that there was in the Ship one Dr. Ambrose his Friend and Kinsman who had borne him company in that Voyage and that he doubted not but that he would readily hearken to them if they made the motion The motion being made and granted Ambrose attends his Admiral to the place of Exercise where he took up his stand very near the Pulpit The Congregation being filled and the Psalm half done a Deacon is sent to put him in mind of going into the Pulpit of whom he desires to be accommodated with a Bible and a Common-Prayer Book The Deacon offered him a Bible but told him that they had no such thing as a Common-Prayer Book and that the Common Prayers were not used amongst them Why then said Ambrose the best is that I have one of my own which being presently taken out of his pocket he began with the Sentences and invitation and was scarce entred into the Confession when all the Church was in an uprore The Elders thereupon in a great amaze sent back the Deacon to desire him to go into the Pulpit and not to trouble them with that which they were not used to Ambrose replied That if they were an English Church they were obliged to serve God by the English Liturgie and that if they would have no Prayers they should have no Sermon and so proceeded on with the rest of the Liturgy which Message being delivered to the Elders the Deacon was sent back the third time requiring him to desist from that unnecessary Service On the receiving of which Message he puts the book into his pocket and goes out of the Church the two Embassadours following him and the Admiral them to the great honour of himself and the confusion of Iohnson from whose mouth I received the story and the other Chaplain being thus shewed their errour in not doing the like That our Bishop was ever made acquainted by the said Iohnson with this passage I am not able to say but whether he were or not he had too much ground for what he did in offering to their Lordships his considerations for regulating Divine Service in that and all other Factories Imployments and Commands of the English Nation That is to say First That the Colonels of the English Regiments in the Low-Countries should entertain no Minister as Preacher to their Regiments but such as should conform in all things to the Church of England to be commended to them by their Lordships the Advice of the Archbishop of Canterbury and York being taken in it Secondly That the Company of Merchants there residing or in any other parts shall admit no Minister as Preacher to them but such as are so qualified and so commended as aâ—oresaid Thirdly That if any Minister hath gotten himself by indirect means to be so commended and should be afterwards found to be unconformable and should not conform himself within three months upon warning giving him by the said Colonels or Deputy Governour of the Factors under whom he liveth he shall be dismist from his imployment and a more orderly man recommended to it Fourthly That every Minister or Chaplain in any Factory or Regiment whether of English or Scots shall read the Common Prayers Administer the Sacraments Catechise the Children and perform all other publick Ministerial duties according to the Rules or Rubricks of the English Liturgie and not otherwise Fifthly That if any Minister or Preacher being the Kings born Subject should with any bitter words or writings in Print or otherwise defame the Church of England by Law established notice thereof is to be given to the Ambassador there and by him to this State by whom the party so offending should be commanded over again to answer for his said offences the like to be done also in derogating from the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church and in Preaching Writing or Printing any thing prejudicial to the Temporal State and Government of the Realm of England Sixthly That no Colonel or Deputy Governour should permit their Minister or Preacher in the case of sickness or necessary absence to bring in any to preach or officiate for him but such an one for whose conformity he would be accountable Seventhly That no Deputy Governours should be sent to Delfe or any other place of Residence for the English Merchants but one that being conformable to the Church of England both in Doctrine and Discipline would take care also that such as be under him shall perform all Church duties before expressed that the party so designed shall be presented to their Lordships by the Merchant Adventurers giving assurance of his fitness and sufficiency for that charge and that some of the chief of the Merchants be sent for to the board and made acquainted with this order Eightly That as often as the said Merchants shall renew their Patents a clause for the due observation of these Instructions or so many of them at the least as should seem necessary to their Lordships to be inserted in the same Ninthly That all his Majesties Agents there from time to time have these Instructions given them in Charge and that once a year they be required to give the Board an account of the Progress of the business that further order might be taken if occasion be Tenthly That the English Ministers in Holland being his Majesties born Subjects be not suffered to hold any Classical meetings but howsoever not to assume the power of Ordination from which if they should not be restrained there would be a perpetual Seminary for breeding up men in Schism and Faction to the disturbance of this Kingdom In reference to the French and Dutch Churches here in England he proceeded in another method first representing the occasion of their settling here their several abuses of that Favour together with the manifold dangers and inconveniencies which might thence arise and next advising such agreeable remedies as he thought most proper for the cure And first he represented to them the great piety of this State in giving liberty to those Nations to enjoy the freedom of their own Religion at London and elsewhere in this Kingdom when being under persecution in their own Countries they could not enjoy the same at home Secondly That it was not the meaning of this State then or at any other time since that the first Generation being worn out their Children and Childrens Children being naturally born Subjects of this Realm should still remain divided from the rest of the Church which must needs alienate them from the State and make them apt to any innovation which may sort better with their humour Thirdly That they still keep themselves as a distinct body of themselves marrying only in their own Tribe with one
another by means whereof it must needs follow that as they are now a Church within a Church so in short time they might grow to be a Common-wealth in the middest of a Kingdom Fourthly That these bodies standing thus divided from the Church and State are planted for the most part in such Haven Towns as lay fittest for France and the Low-Countries which may be a shrewd temptation to them to take such advantages to themselves or to make use thereof for others as occasion offereth Fifthly That the example is of ill consequence in Church-affairs to the Subjects of England many being confirmed by it in their stubborn waies and inconformities but in London chiefly Sixthly That neither French nor Dutch Church be longer tolerated in this Kingdom than the Subjects of this Kingdom be suffered to enjoy the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England in those several parts beyond the Seas where they have their abode The dangers and inconveniencies being thus laid down he proceeds to the Remedies And first he doth advise That the number of them in all places of the Kingdom be fully known to the end a better Judgment might be made of the way by which they are to be reduced to the rest of the Kingdom Secondly That a Command be issued to this purpose from the State it self and that it be avowedly and not perfunctorily taken in all places where they do reside and a Certificate returned of the men of most credit and wealth amongst them Thirdly That if they will continue as a distinct body both from State and Church they should pay all duties double as strangers used to do in this Realm and not be capable of such immunities as the Natives have as long as they continue so divided from them Fourthly That when it shall be thought convenient to reduce them to the same condition with the rest of the Subjects they should then be warned in an Ecclesiastical way excepting such as be new Commers to repair diligently to their Parish Churches and to conform themselves to their Prayers and Sacraments which if they should refuse to do then to proceed against them by Excommunication and so unto the Writ de Excommunicato capiendo for a terror to others Fifthly and lastly That if this course prevaile not with them a Declaration to be made by the State to this effect That if they will be as natives and take the benefit of Subjects they must conform themselves to the Laws of the Kingdom as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal That being the likeliest way to make them capable of the inconveniencies they should run unto by their refusal and perverseness Such were the considerations offered by him to the Lords of the Council for advancing the peace and honour of this Church both at home and abroad But long it will not be before we shall behold him sitting in the Chair of Canterbury acting his own counsels bringing these Conceptions to the birth and putting the design into execution of which more hereafter These matters standing in this state we must at last look toward Scotland for the receiving of which Crown his Majesty and the Court prepare the beginning of this year But besides the Pomp and Splendor of a Coronation which the people with great importunity had long prest upon him there were some other Loadstones which made the Needle of his Compass point so much to the North. Concerning which the Reader may be pleased to know that at the first Alteration of Religion in the Kirk of Scotland the Scots petitioning for aide from Queen Elizabeth to expell the French obliged themselves by the subscription of their hands to embrace the Liturgie Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England According whereunto an Ordinance was made by their Reformers that in all Parishes of that Realm the Common-Prayer should be read weekly on Sundaies and other Festival daies with the Lessons of the Old and New Testament conform to the order of the Book of Common-Prayer of the Church of England it being well known that for divers years after they had no other order for Common-Prayer but that which they received from hence But as Presbytery prevailed so the Liturgie sell the fancy of Extemporary Prayers growing up so fast in the minority of King Iames that it soon thrust all Publick Forms out of use and credit In which confused estate it stood till the coming of that King to the Crown of England where he much pleased himself with the Sobriety and Piety of the publick Liturgie This made him cast his eyes more sadly on the Kirk of Scotland where for want of some such publick Forms of Prayers the Ministers prayed so ignorantly that it was a shame to all Religion to have God spoke to in that barbarous manner and sometimes so seditiously that their Prayers were plain Libells against Authority or stuft with lies made up of all the false reports in the Kingdom For remedy whereof after he had restored and settled the Episcopal Government he procured the General Assembly of that Kirk held at Aberdeen Anno 1616. to pass an Act for Authorising some of the Bishops and divers others to compile a Publick Liturgie for the use of that Kirk which being presented unto the King and by him approved should be universally received over all the Kingdom To prepare the way unto them his Majesty gave order the next Spring after That the English Liturgie should be Officiated day by day in his Chappel-Royal in the City of Edenborough and in the year following 1618. obtained the five Articles before-mentioned as so many chief Ingredients for the Common-Prayer-Book to be passed at Perth by which Encouragements the Commissioners which were appointed to compile the Book went so luckily forwards that it was not long before they brought it to an end and sent it to King Iames by Archbishop Spotswood who not only carefully perused every Passage in it but caused it to be revised by some of the Bishops of that Kingdom which were then in England in whose Judgments he reposed especial confidence Fitted according to his mind he sent it back again to those from whose hands he received it to be by them commended to the use of the Church which undoubtedly had took effect if the Breach with Spain and the Death of that King which followed not long after had not unfortunately interrupted the Success of the business In this condition of Affairs King Charles succeeded in the Crown ingaged in a War with the King of Spain and standing upon no good terms with his People at home so that the business of the Liturgie seemed to be laid asleep if not quite extinct But in the year 1629. having agreed his differences with the Crown of France and being in a good way towards an Accommodation with the King of Spain the Scottish Bishops were again remembred of their Duty in it who dispatch'd Maxwell then one of the Preachers of Edenborough to the Court
about it Maxwell applying himself to Laud then Bishop of London from whom he received this positive Answer That if his Majesty would have a Liturgie setled there different from what they had already it was best to take the English Liturgie without any variation from it that so the same Service-Book might pass through all his Majesties Dominions Maxwell replying That the Scottish Bishops would be better pleased to have a Liturgie of their own but such as should come near the English both in Form and Matter the Cause was brought before the King who on a serious consideration of all Particulars concurred in Judgment for the English And on these terms it stood till this present year Laud standing hard for admitting the English Liturgie without alteration the Scottish Bishops pleading on the other side That a Liturgie made by themselves and in some things different from the English Service would best please their Countrymen whom they found very jealous of the least dependence on the Church of England But because Letters writtten in the time of Action are commonly conceived to carry more truth in them than Relations made upon the post-fact for particular ends take here this short Remembrance in one of his Letters to the Earl of Traquaire dated September 11. 1637. where we find this Passage And since saith he I hear from others That some exception is taken because there is more in that Liturgie in some few particulars than is in the Liturgie of England Why did they not admit the Liturgie of England without more ado But by their refusal of that and the dislike of this 't is more than manifest they would have neither and perhaps none at all were they left to themselves But besides this there was another Invitation which wrought much upon him in order to the present Journey At his first coming to the Crown the great Engagements then upon him want of Supply from England and small help from Scotland forced him to have recourse to such other ways of assistances as were offered to him of which this was one In the Minority of King Iames the Lands of all Cathedral Churches and Religious Houses which had been setled on the Crown by Act of Parliament were shared amongst the Lords and great men of that Kingdom by the connivence of the Earl of Murrey and some other of the Regents to make them sure unto that side And they being thus possessed of the same Lands with the Regalities and Tythes belonging to those Ecclesiastical Corporations Lorded it with Pride and Insolence enough in their several Territories holding the Clergy to small Stipends and the poor Peasant under a miserable Vassalage and subjection to them not suffering them to carry away their nine parts till the Lord had carried off his Tenth which many times was neglected out of pride and malice those Tyrants not caring to lose their Tythe so that the poor mans Crop might be left unto spoil and hazard King Iames had once a purpose to revoke those Grants but growing into years and troubles he left the following of that Project to his Son and Successor Having but little help from thence to maintain his Wars by the Advice of some of the Council of that Kingdom he was put upon a course of resuming those Lands Tythes and Regalities into his own hand to which the present Occupants could pretend no other Title than the unjust Usurpation of their Predecessors This to effect he resolves upon an Act of Revocation Commissionating for that purpose the Earl of Annandale and the Lord Maxwell afterwards Earl of Niddisdale to hold a Parliament in Scotland for Contribution of Money and Ships against the Duynkirkers and arming Maxwell also with some secret Instructions for passing the said Act of Revocation if he found it feasible Being on the way as far as Barwick Maxwell was there informed That his chief errand being made known had put all at Edenborough into Tumult That a rich Coach which he had sent before to Dalkeith was cut in pieces the poor Horses killed the People seeming only sorry that they could not do so much to the Lord himself Things being brought unto this stand the King was put to a necessity of some second Counsels amongst which none seemed more plausible and expedient to him than that of Mr. Archibald Achison who from a puisne Judge in Ireland was made his Majesties Procurator or Solicitor-General in the Kingdom of Scotland who having told his Majesty That such as were Estated in the Lands in question had served themselves so well by the bare naming of an Act of Revocation as to possess the People whom they found apt to be inflamed on such Suggestions That the true intendment of that Act was to revoke all former Laws for suppressing of Popery and settling the Reformed Religion in the Kirk of Scotland And therefore That it would be unsafe for his Majesty to proceed that way Next he advised That instead of such a General Revocation as the Act imported a Commission should be issued out under the Great Seal of that Kingdom for taking the Surrendries of all such Superiorities and Tythes within the Kingdom at his Majesties Pleasure And that such as should refuse to submit unto it should be Impleaded one by one to begin first with those whom he thought least able to stand out or else most willing to conform to his Majesties Pleasure Assuring him That having the Laws upon his side the Courts of Iustice must and would pass Iudgment for him The King resolved upon this course sends home the Gentleman not only with Thanks and Knighthood which he had most worthily deserved but with Instructions and Power to proceed therein and he proceeded in it so effectually to the Kings Advantage that some of the impleaded Parties being cast in the Suit and the rest seeing that though they could raise the People against the King they could not raise them against the LaWs it was thought the best and safest way to compound the business Hereupon in the year 1630. Commissioners are sent to the Court of England and amongst others the Learned and right Noble Lord of Marcheston from whose mouth I had this whole Relation who after a long Treaty with the King did at last agree That the said Commission should proceed as formerly and That all such Superiorities and Tythes as had been or should be surrendred should be re-granted by the King on these Conditions First That all such as held Hereditary Sheriffdoms or had the Power of Life and Death over such as lived within their Iurisdiction should quit those Royalties to the King Secondly That they should make unto their Tenants in their several Lands some permanent Estates either for their Lives or one and twenty years or some such like Term that so the Tenants might be encouraged to Build and Plant and improve the Patrimony of that Kingdom Thirdly That some Provisions should be made for augmenting the Stipends of the
Clergy Fourthly That they should double the yearly Rents which were reserved unto the Crown by their former Grants And finally That these Conditions being performed on their parts the King should settle their Estates by Act of Parliament Home went the Commissioners with joy for their good success expecting to be entertained with Bells and Bonfires but they found the contrary the proud Scots being generally resolved rather to put all to hazard than to quit that Power and Tyranny which they had over their poor Vassals by which name after the manner of the French they called their Tenants And hereunto they were encouraged under-hand by a Party in England who feared that by this Agreement the King would be so absolute in those Northern Regions that no Aid could be hoped from thence when the necessity of their designs might most require it Just as the Castilians were displeased with the Conquest of Portugal by King Philip the Second because thereby they had no place left to retire unto when either the Kings displeasure or their disobedience should make their own Country to hot for them Such was the face of Church and State when his Majesty began his Journey for Scotland to receive the Crown a Journey of great expence on both sides but of small profit unto either On the thirteenth day of May he advanced toward the North but by such leisurely Removes that he recovered not the City of York till the twenty fourth into which he made a Solemn and Magnificent Entrance attended by the Flower of the English Nobility the principal Officers of his Court and some of the Lords of his Privy Council He was received at his first entrance into Scotland with a gallant body of that Nation consisting for the most part of the like Ingredients and so conducted into Edenborough on the tenth of Iune Edenborough the chief City of the Realm of Scotland and indeed the Summa totalis of that Kingdom extended a whole mile in length from the Palace-Royal of Holy-Rood-House lying at the foot of the Hill to a fair and ancient Castle mounted on the top thereof From this Castle the King was to descend the Street in a Royal Pomp till he came to his Palace as the Kings of England commonly on the like occasion ride from the Tower thorow London to the Court of Whitehall where the Solemnities of the Coronation were to be perform'd The day designed for it was the eighteenth of Iune the concourse of People beyond expression and the expressions of their Joy in gallantry of Apparel sumptuous Feastings and Acclamations of all sorts nothing inferiour to that concourse But this was only the Hosanna of his first Reception they had a Crucifige for him when he came to his Parliament It was conceived at his Majesties first going toward the North that he would have settled the English Liturgie in that Church at his being there but he either carried no such thoughts with him or if he did he kept them to himself as no more than thoughts never discovering any such thing in his words or actions The Scots were of another temper than to be easily won to any thing which they had no mind to and a less mind they could have to nothing than the English Liturgie King Iames had taken order at his being in Scotland Anno 1617. That it should constantly be read twice every day in his Chappel-Royal for that City and gave command that the Lords of his Privy-Council and the Lords of Session should be present at it on the Sundays and there receive the Holy Communion according to the form prescribed in the Common-Prayer-Book And this he did unto this end That as well the Citizens of Edenborough as such as came thither upon Business might by degrees be made acquainted with the English Forms and consequently be prepared for the receiving of such a Liturgie as the King with the Advice of his Bishops and other Learned Men according to the Act of the Assembly at Aberdeen should commend unto them But these Directions being either discontinued or carelesly followed after his decease and the five Articles of Perth not press'd so diligently on the People as they might have been the Scots were generally as great Strangers to the Liturgie of the Church of England as when King Iames first came amongst us His Majesty could not be so ill served as not to be well enough informed how things went in Scotland and therefore was not to venture rashly upon such a business wherein he might receive a foil He thereupon resolves to proceed no further in Matters which concerned the Church than to pass an Act of Ratification an Act Confirmatory of such Laws and Statutes relating unto Church-concernments as by King Iames had been obtained with great charge and cunning And though he carried this Act at last yet was it not without a far greater opposition than he had reason to expect from that Convention But the Commission of Surrendry did so stick in their stomacks that they could not chuse but vent their disaffections on the first occasion Nor would they suffer him to enjoy the benefit of that Act so hardly gotten with Peace and Honour but followed him into England with a pestilent Libel in which they charged him to have carried that Act by corrupting some and a plain down-right buying of the Voices of others This was the first taste which they gave the King of their malevolency towards his Person and Government but it shall not prove to be the last His Majesty had another business to effect at his being there for which he needed not their Assistance and for that reason did not ask it This was the raising of the City of Edenborough to a See Episcopal which before was only a Borough Town belonging anciently to the Diocess and Jurisdiction of St. Andrews The Metropolitan of St. Andrews was willing for the common good to yield unto this diminution of his Power and Profit and that the whole County of Lothian extending from Edenborough-Fryth to the Town of Barwick should be dismembred from his own Diocess to serve as a Diocess to this Bishop of new Election And on the other side the Duke of Lenox whose Ancestors had long enjoyed the Priory of St. Andrews with a great part of the Lands belonging to it was willing to let his Majesty have a good penyworth of some part of those Lands to serve as a Patrimony to this new Episcopal See and the Bishop of it Which Provision being thus made and settled Forbesse a right grave and solid Divine is made the first Bishop of this City his Cathedral fixed in the Church of St. Giles being the fairest in the Town a Dean appointed for that Church some Ministers of Edenborough and the Parts adjoining being nominated for the Canons or Prebends of it A design pious in it self and purposely intended to inure the Edenburghers to the Fatherly Government of a Bishop who by tempering the exorbitancies of
the Ministers there might by degrees prepare the People to such impressions of Conformity as his Majesty by the Council and Consent of the rest of the Bishops should graciously be pleased to imprint upon them But such ill luck his Majesty had with that stubborn Nation that this was look'd upon also as a general Grievance and must be thought to aim at no other end than Tyranny and Popery and what else they pleased We have almost done our work in Scotland and yet hear nothing all this while of the Bishop of London not that he did not go the Journey but that there was little to be done at his being there but to see and be seen And yet it was a Journey which brought him some access of Honour and gave him opportunity of making himself known to those of best Quality of that Kingdom He had been in Scotland with King Iames but then he waited only as a private Chaplain He is now looked upon as the third Bishop of England in Place and the greatest in Power a Counsellor of State and the Kings great Favorite He entred Scotland as a Privy-Counsellor of England only but returned thence as a Counsellor for that Kingdom also to which Office he was sworn on the fifteenth of Iune Nor did he shew himself less able in that Church than in the Council-Chamber being appointed by his Majesty to Preach before him on the last of that Month in which some question may be made how he pleased the Scots although it be out of question that he pleased the King The greatest part of the following Iuly was spent in visiting the Country and taking a view of the chief Cities and most remarkable Parts and Places of it Which having seen he made a Posting Journey to the Queen at Greenwich whither he came on Saturday the twentieth of Iuly crossing the Water at Blackwall and looking towards London from no nearer distance But in this Act he laid aside the Majesty of his Predecessors especially of Queen Elizabeth of Famous Memory of whom it was observed That she did very seldom end any of her Summer Progresses but she would wheel about to some end of London to make her passage to Whitehall thorow some part of the City not only requiring the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in their Scarlet Robes and Chains of Gold to come forth to meet her but the several Companies of the City to attend solemnly in their Formalities as she went along By means whereof she did not only preserve that Majesty which did belong to a Queen of England but kept the Citizens and consequently all the Subjects in a reverent Estimation and Opinion of her She used the like Arts also in keeping up the Majesty of the Crown and Service of the City in the Reception and bringing in of Foreign Embassadors who if they came to London by Water were met at Gravesend by the Lord Mayor the Aldermen and Companies in their several Barges and in that Solemn manner conducted unto such Stairs by the Water side as were nearest to the Lodgings provided for them But if they were to come by Land they were met in the like sort at Shooters-Hill by the Mayor and Aldermen and thence conducted to their Lodgings the Companies waiting in the Streets in their several Habits The like she used also in celebrating the Obsequies of all Christian Kings whether Popish or Protestant with whom she was in Correspondence performed in such a Solemn and Magnificent manner that it preserved her in the estimation of all Foreign Princes though differing in Religion from her besides the great contentment which the People took in those Royal Pomps Some other Arts she had of preserving Majesty and keeping distance with her People yet was so popular withal when she saw her time that never Majesty and Popularity were so matched together But these being laid aside by King Iames who brooked neither of them and not resumed by King Charles who loved them not much more than his Father did there followed first a neglect of their Persons which Majesty would have made more Sacred and afterwards a mislike of their Government which a little Popularity would have made more grateful Laud having no such cause of hastning homewards returned not to his House at Fulham till the twenty sixth of the same Month But he came time enough to hear the news of Abbot's Sickness and within few days after of his Death which hapned on Sunday morning the fourth of August and was presently signified to the King being â—hen at Greenwich A man he was that had tasted both of good and ill Fortune in extremes affirmed by the Church Historian for I shall only speak him in the words of others to be a grave man in his Conversation and unblameable in his Life but said withal to have been carried with non amavit gentem nostram forsaking the Birds of his own feather to fly with others and generally favouring the Laity above the Clergie in all Cases which were brought before him Conceived by one of our State Historians to be too facil and yielding in the exercising of his Function by whom it also affirmed That his extraordinary remisness in not exacting strict Conformity to the prescribed Orders of the Church in point of Ceremony seemed to resolve those legal Determinations to their first Principle of Indifferency and to lead in such an habit of Inconformity as the future reduction of those tender-conscienc'd men to long discontinued Obedience was interpreted an Innovation By the first Character we find what made him acceptable amongst the Gentry by the last what made him grateful to the Puritan in favour of which men he took so little care of the great Trust committed to him and gave them so many opportunities of increasing both in Power and Numbers that to stop tâ—em in their full career it was found necessary to suspend him from his Metropolitical Jurisdiction as before was noted It is reported That as Prince Henry his Majesty then Duke of Yorke Archbishop Abbot with many of the Nobility were waiting in the Privy Chamber for the coming out of King Iames the Prince to put a jest on the Duke his Brother took the Archbishops Square Cap out of his hands and put it on his Brothers head telling him that if he continued a good Boy and followed his Book he would one day make him Archbishop of Canterbury Which the Child took in such disdain that he threw the Cap upon the ground and trampled it under his feet not being without much difficulty and some force taken off from that eagerness This though first it was not otherwise beheld than as an Act of Childish Passion yet when his Brother Prince Henry died and that he was Heir apparent to the Crown it was taken up by many zealous Church-men for some ill presage unto the Hierarchy of Bishops the overthrow whereof by his Act and Power did seem to be fore-signified by it But as
Noble Houses which made them the more insolent and uncontrollable That the Pope had erected an University in Dublin to confront his Majesties Colledge there and breed up the Youth of the Kingdom to his Devotion one Harris being Dean thereof who had dispersed a Scandalous Pamphlet against the Lord Primates Sermon preach'd at Wansteed one of the best Pieces that ever came from him Anno 1629. That since the Dissolving of their new Frieries in the City of Dublin they had Erected them in the Country and had brought the People to such a sottish negligence that they cared not to learn the Commandments as God spake and left them but flocked in Multitudes to the hearing of such Superstitious Doctrines as some of their own Priests were ashamed of That a Synodical Meeting of their Clergy had been held lately at Drogheda in the Province of Vlster in which it was decreed That it was not lawful to take the Oath of Allegiance And therefore That in such a conjuncture of Affairs to think that the bridle of the Army might be taken away must be the thought not of a Brain-sick but of a Brainless man which whosoever did endeavour not only would oppose his Majesties Service but expose his own neck to the Skeanes of those Irish cut-throats All which he humbly refers to his Lordships seasonable Care and Consideration Upon this Information the Deputy obtains his Majesties leave to hold a Parliament in that Kingdom which he managed with such notable dexterity that he made himself Master of a Power sufficient to suppress the Insolencies of the Papists and yet exceedingly prevailed upon their Affections From which time forwards the Popish Recusants in that Kingdom were kept in stricter duty and held closer to loyal Obedience for fear of irritating so severe a Magistrate than ever they had been by any of his Predecessors This Parliament brought with it a Convocation as a thing of course and in that somewhat must be done to check the spreading of Calvinism in all parts of that Church The Articles of Religion agreed upon in Convocation Anno 1615. were so contrived by Vsher the now Lord Primate That all the Sabbatarian and Calvinian Rigours were declared therein to be the Doctrines of that Church Most grievous Torments immediately in his Soul affirmed to be endured by Christ which Calvin makes to be the same with his descent into Hell The abstenencies from eating Flesh upon certain days declared not to be Religious Fasts but to be grounded only upon Politick Ends and Considerations All Ministers adjudged to be Lawfully called who are called unto the Work of the Ministry by those that have Publick Authority given them in the Church but whether they be Bishops or not it makes no matter so that he be Authorized unto it by their several Churches The Sacerdotal Power of Absolution made declarative only and consequently quite subverted No Power ascribed unto the Church in Ordaining Canons or censuring any of those who either carelesly or maliciously do infringe the same the Pope made Antichrist according to the like Determination of the French Hugonots made at Gappe in Dolphine And finally such a silence concerning the Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops expresly justified and avowed in the English Book as if there were not a different Order from the Common Presbyters All which being Vsher's own Opinions were dispersed in several places of these Articles for the Church of Ireland approved of in that Convocation and finally confirmed by the Lord Deputy Chichester in the Name of King Iames. By means whereof these two great mischiefs did ensue First A great matter of division which it caused to the Priests and Papists of the Realm that in three Kingdoms under the Obedience of one Sovereign Prince there should be three distinct and contrary Professions and yet pretending every one to the same Religion And secondly Whensoever the Points were agitated here in England against the Sabbatarian and Calvinian Rigours the Disputants were forthwith choaked by the Authority of these Articles and the infallible Judgment of King Iames who confirmed the same If therefore the Archbishop meant to have Peace in England the Church of Ireland must be won to desert those Articles and receive ours in England in the place thereof This to effect it was not thought expedient by such as had the managing of that design to propose any abrogation or repealing of the former Articles which had so many Friends and Patrons in that Convocation that it was moved severally both in the House of the Bishops and in that of the Clergy to have them ratified and confirmed in the present Meeting And questionless it had been carried in that way if it had not seasonably been diverted by telling the Promoters of it That those Articles had already received as much Authority as that Church could give them and that by seeking to procure any such Confirmation they would weaken the Original Power by which they stood This blow being thus handsomly broken their next work was to move the Primate That for the avoiding of such scandal which was given the Papists and to declare the Unity in Judgment and Affections between the Churches a Canon might be passed in approbation of the Articles of the Church of England To this the Prelate being gained the Canon was drawn up and presented to him and being by him propounded was accordingly passed one only man dissenting when it came to the Vote who had pierced deeper into the bottom of the Project than the others did It was desired also by Bramhall not long before the Lord Deputies Chaplain but then Bishop of Derrie That the whole Body of Canons made in the year 1603. might be admitted in that Church But the Primate was ever so afraid of bowing at the Name of IESVS and some other Reverences required in them which he neither practised nor approved that he would by no means hearken to it which bred some heats between him and Bramhall ending at last in this Temperament That some select Canons should be taken out of that Book and intermingled with some others of their own composing But for the Canon which approved and received the Articles of the Church of England it was this that followeth viz. Of the Agreement of the Church of England and Ireland in the Profession of the same Christian Faith FOr the manifestation of our Agreement with the Church of England in the Confession of the same Christian Faith and Doctrine of the Sacraments We do receive and approve the Book of Articles of Religion agreed upon by the Archbishops and Bishops and the whole Clergie in whole Convocation holden at London Anno Dom. 1562. for the avoiding of diversities of Opinions and for the establishing of Consent touching true Religion And therefore if any hereafter shall affirm That any of those Articles are in any part Superstitious and Erroneous or such as he may not with a good Conscience Subscribe unto Let him be Excommunicated
the great Cardinal Richelieu to this effect viz. That if a King of England who was a Protestant would not permit two Disciplines in his Kingdom why should a King of France a Papist permit two Religions Great workings had been in the Court upon this occasion though all which was effected by it was but the present qualification of the second Injunction His Majesty on good Reason of State insisting so strongly on the first that it could not be altered But as for the second Injunction it was qualified thus viz. That the Ministers and all others of the French and Dutch Congregations which are not Natives and born Subjects to the Kings Majesty or any other Stranger that shall come over to them while they remain Strangers may have and use their own Discipline as formerly they have done yet it is thought fit that the English Liturgie should be Translated into the French and Dutch for the better fitting of their Children to the English Government But before the Injunction thus qualified could be sent to Canterbury the Mayor and Brethren of that City were put upon a Petition in their behalf insisting amongst other things on the great Charge which would fall upon them if the relief of the poor French which formerly had been maintained on the common Purse of that Church should be cast upon the several Parishes and the great want of Work which would happen to their own Poor in that City if the Manufactures of the French should be discontinued To which Petition they received a favourable Answer in respect of themselves but without any alteration of his Graces purpose in such other points of it as concerned those Churches A Temperament was also used in regard of the Ministers which did Officiate in those Churches it being condescended to on the suit of their Deputies That such of their Ministers as were English born should continue in their Place and Ministry as in former times but that hereafter none should be admitted to be Ministers in their Congregations but such as were Strangers Which Condescensions notwithstanding It was directed by the Coetus of the London Churches That by no means the Kentish Foreigners should publish the said Injunctions in their Congregations and that if the prosecution of them should be strictly urged they would then think upon some other course to bear of that blow And by this Tergiversation they gained so much time that the final Decree was not passed upon them till the 26th of September 1635. when to the former Injunction they found this Clause or Proviso added viz. That the Natives should continue to contribute to the maintenance of their Ministry and the Poor of their Church for the subsisting thereof and that an Order should be obtained from his Majesty if it were desired to maintain them in their Manufactures against all such as should endeavour to molest them by Informations Some time was spent about the publishing of this Decree the Ministers and Elders of those Churches refusing to act any thing in it But at the last it was published in the French Church at Canterbury by one of their Notaries and in Sandwich by the Chanter or Clerk of the Congregation with Order to the Ministers and Churchwardens of the several Parishes to take notice of such of the Natives as resorted not diligently to their Parish Churches This proved a leading Case to all the other French and Dutch Churches on this side of the Seas though they opposed it what they could For no sooner was the News of these Injunctions first brought to Norwich when a Remonstrance was presented to Corbet who was then Bishop of that Diocess and by him transmitted to the Archbishop in which they had expressed such Reasons against the tenour of the same as we have met with formerly in this Narration But the Archbishops Visitation of that Diocess in the year next following Anno 1635. put an end to that business the Injunction being published in the Churches of Strangers in that City before any publication of them had been made in Canterbury Nor was the like done only in all the Churches of Strangers in the Province of Canterbury but in those of York where the Archbishop kept them to a harder Diet for having seen what had been done by Brent in his Visitation and having no such powerful Sollicitors as the Coetus of the London Churches to take off his edge he denied them the Exercise of any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of their own injoins them the use of the English Liturgie in the French Tongue with Obedience to all the Laws and Ordinances of the Church of England to receive the Sacrament once a year in the Church of the Parish where they dwell and to perform all their Christenings Marriages and Burials there or else none of their Congregations to be permitted But notwithstanding all this care of the Metropolitans the business went forward more or less as the Ministers and Church-wardens stood affected in their several Parishes And in most Parishes the Ministers and Church-wardens were so well pleased with that indecency which they had amongst them in respect of any Superiors in Church-concernments to whom they might be made accountable for Life or Doctrine that generally they wish'd themselves in the same condition And being freed from their greatest fear of having the Poor of those Churches cast upon them in their several Parishes they seemed not much sollicitous whether they came to the Church or not to hear the Sermons receive the Sacraments or perform any other part of Publick Worship especially if they were not scrupulous in paying to the Minister his accustomed Dues and yielding to such Rates and Taxes as the Church-wardens laid upon them for Parochial uses If any Minister began to look too strictly to them they would find some means to take him off by Gifts and Presents or by some powerful Letter from some of the Grandees residing in London and sometimes from a neighbouring Justice whose displeasure must not be incurred And that they might not want encouragement to stand it out as long as they could the leading men of the Genevian Faction in most parts of the Realm did secretly sollicite them not to be too forwards in conforming to the said Injunctions assuring them of such Assistances as might save them harmless and flattering them with this Opinion of themselves That the Liberty of the Gospel and the most desirable Freedom of the Church from Episcopal Tyranny depended chiefly on their Courage and Resolution What was done afterwards in pursuance of the said Injunctions shall be told elsewhere all which Particulars I have laid together that the Proceedings of his Grace in this weighty business so much calumniated and defamed might be presented to the Reader without interruption It was once said by Telesinus to Caj Marius That he did well to scoure the Country but Italy would never want Wolves so long as Rome continued so fit a Forest to afford them shelter In like manner the
Archbishop knew full well how small a Progress he should make in his Reformation for reducing the French and Dutch to a Communion with the Church of England and the Church of England to it self if London were not brought to some Conformity Which City having a strong influence on all parts of the Kingdom was generally looked on as the Compass by which the lesser Towns and Corporations were to steer their Course the practice of it being pleaded upon all occasions for Vestries Lectures and some other Innovations in the State of the Church And to this nothing more concurred than that the Beneficed Clergy being but meanly provided for were forced to undertake some Lectures or otherwise to connive at many things contrary to their own Judgment and the Rules of the Church in hope that gaining the good will thereby of the Chief of their Parishes they might be gratified by them with Entertainments Presents and some other helps to mend their Maintenance The Lecturers in the mean time as being Creatures of the People and depending wholly on the Purse of the wealthier Citizens not only overtopped them in point of Power and Reputation but generally of Profit and Revenue also Not that these Lecturers were maintained so much by the Zeal and Bounty of their Patrons as by a general Fraud which for many years last past had been put upon the Regular Clergy by the diminishing of whose just Dues in Tythes and Offerings such Lecturers and Trencher-Chaplains had been fed and cherished For the better understanding whereof we are to know That in the year 1228. Roger Niger Bishop of London ordained by a Synodical Constitution That the Citizens should pay of every pounds Rent by the year of all Houses Shops c. the Sum of 3 s. 5 d. as time out of mind had formerly been paid Which 3 s. 5 d. did arise from the Offerings upon every Sunday and thirty of the principal Holydays in the same year after the Rate of one halspeny for every twenty shillings Rent of their Houses Shops c. This Order of Roger Niger remaining in force till the year 1397. and the Câ—â—â—gy being kept to such Rates for the Rents of Houses as at the first making of the same it was decreed by Thomas Arundell then Bishop of Canterbury That as the Rent increased so the Offerings or Tythes should increase also That the said Order should be read in every Parish-Church four times in the year and a Curse laid upon all those who should not obey it Confirmed by Pope Innocent vii and Nicholas v. with a Proviso That the said Oblations should be paid according to the true yearly value of the Shops and Houses It so remained until the twenty fifth year of Henry viii at what time many of the former Holydays being abrogated by the Kings Authority the yearly Profit of the Clergy found a great abatement the greater in regard of the variances which arose betwixt them and their Parishioners about the payment of their Dues the People taking the advantage of some Disorders which the Clergy at that present had been brought unto by acknowledging the King for the Supream Head of the Church of England Upon this variance a Complaint is made unto the King who refers the whole matter to Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Audley Lord Chancellor Gardiner Bishop of Winton Cromwell Chief Secretary of Estate Fitz-Iames and Norwich Chief Justices of the several Benches by whom it was concluded That from thenceforth 2 s. 9 d. only should be paid out of every pound for the Rents of Houses Shops c. And to this Order the Citizens did not only consent as they had good reason but bound themselves by an Act of Common Council to perform the same the said Decree confirmed by Act of Parliament in the twenty seventh and afterwards in the thirty seventh of that King with a power given to the Lord Mayor to commit to Prison every person whatsoever who should not pay his Tythes and Dues according to that Proportion But contrary to the true intent and meaning of the said Decrees and the several Acts of Parliament which confirmed the same the covetous and unconscionable Landlords who had the Fee-simple or some long Leases at the least of such shops and houses devised many base and fraudulent waies to put a cheat upon the Law and abuse the Clergie reserving some small sum in the name of a Rent and covenanting for other greater Sums to be paid quarterly or half yearly in the name of Fines Annuities Pensions Incomes Interest money c. Finding these Payments so conditioned and agreed upon to be too visible a cheat some were so wise as to take their Fines in gross when they sealed their Leases some inconsiderable Rent being charged upon them others so cunning as to have two Leases on foot at the same time one at a low contemptible Rent to gull the Incumbent of his dues the other with a Rent four or five times as great to keep down the Tenant and some by a more cleanly kind of conveyance reserving a small Rent as others did caused their Tenants to enter into several bonds for the payment of so much money yearly with reference to the term which they had in their Leases By which Devises and deceits the house-Rents were reduced to so low a value that some Aldermen who do not use to dwell in Sheds and Cottages could be charged with no more than twenty shillings for a whole years Tythe the Rent reserved amounts after that proportion but to seven pounds yearly The Clergie by the Alteration of Religion had lost those great advantages which had before accrued unto them by Obits Mortuaries Obventions to the Shrines and Images of some special Saints Church Lands and personal Tythes according to mens honest gain which last was thought to have amounted to more than the Tythe of houses Being deprived of the one and abused in the other they were forced in the sixteenth of King Iames Anno 1618. to have recourse to the Court of Exchequer by the Barons whereof it was declared that according to the true intent of the said Acts the Inhabitants of London and the Liberties thereof ought to pay the Tythe of their houses shops c. after the rate of two shillings nine pence in the pound proportionable to the true yearly value of the Rent thereof In order whereunto it was then ordered by the Court that a Shed which had been built and made a convenient dwelling house should pay twenty four shillings nine pence yearly in the name of a Tythe as was afterwards awarded by Sir Henry Yelverton upon a reference made unto him that one Rawlins who paid forty shillings yearly to his Landlord in the name of a Rent and twelve pound by the name of a fine should from thenceforth pay his Tythe to the Incumbent of the Parish in which he dwelt after the rate of fourteen pound yearly This and the like Arbitrements about that time
it is to be supposed that the Bishop could receive small thanks for his disobedience In Essex the business met with a greater difficulty Aylet Official there under the Chancellor of London had caused many of the Communion Tables within the verge of his Jurisdiction to be transposed and railed in and the People to come up and kneel and receive at the Rail Opposed at first in some of the greater Towns because they found it otherwise in the Churches of London whose example they conceived might be a sufficient warrant for them in that particular But much more were they moved to stand out against him upon sight of one of the Articles for the Metropolitical Visitation by which they conceived that they had leave to remove their Table at the time of Celebration and place it as it might be most convenient for the Parishioners to come about it and receive the Sacrament Aylet complains of this to Lamb finding himself thereby under an imputation of crossing the Article delivered by his Graces Visitors and following after his own Inventions without any Authority For remedy whereof and to save all that he had done from returning back again to the same estate in which he found it he desires to know his Graces Pleasure and Lambs Directions More constantly and with better fortune is the business carried on by Pierce in his Diocess of Bath and Wells No sooner had his Majesty signified his Pleasure in the Case of St. Gregories but he issueth out a Commission to some of his Clergy to inquire into the State of all the Parish Churches within that Diocess and on the return of their Account gives Order for the rectifying of such things as they found amiss especially in the posture of the Holy Table And that it might be seen that his Commands were not only countenanced by Power but backed by Reason he prepares certain Motives and Considerations to perswade Conformity as viz. 1. That it was Ordered by the Queens Injunctions That the Communion Table should stand where the Altar did 2. That there should be some difference between the placing of the Lords Table in the Church and the placing of a Mans Table in his House 3. That it was not fit the People should sit above Gods Table or be above the Priest when he Consecrateth 4. That when the Communion Table stands thus the Chancel would be the fairer and so there would be more room for the Communicants 5. That the Table standing thus the face of the Minister would be better seen and his voice more audibly and distinctly heard than if it stood upon a Level in the midst of the Chancel And 6. That it was expedient that the Daughters should be like their Mother and that the Parochial Churches should conform themselves in that particular to their own Cathedrals But that which seemed to be the most popular Argument to perswade Obedience was the avoiding of those Prophanations which formerly the Holy Table had been subject to For should it be permitted to stand as before it did Church-wardens would keep their Accounts on it Parishioners would dispatch the Parish business at it School-Masters will teach their Boys to Write upon it The Boys will lay their Hats Sachels and Books upon it Many will sit and lean irreverently against it in Sermon time The Dogs would piss upon it and defile it and Glasiers would knock it full of Nail-holes By which means he prevailed so far that of 469 Parishes which were in that Diocess 140 had conformed to his Order in it before the end of the Christmas Holy-days in this present year Anno 1635. without any great reluctancy in Priest or People The first strong Opposition which he found in the business came from a great and populous Parish called Beckington where Hewish Incumbent of the place was willing of himself to have obeyed his Directions in it but the Church-wardens of the Parish were determined otherwise For this being sent for by the Bishop he gave them Order by word of mouth to remove the Table to the East end of the Chancel and to place a decent Rail before it Which they refusing to perform were cited to appear in the Bishops Court before Duck the Chancellor of that Diocess on the ninth of Iune by whom they were commanded to remove such Seats as were above the Communion Table to obey the Bishops former Directions and to return a Certificate of all that they had done therein by the sixth of October then next following and for default thereof were on the same day Excommunicated by the Bishop in person But the Church-wardens being rich well-backed and disaffected to the Service appealed from their Diocesan to the Dean of the Arches at whose request upon some hope given of their Conformity they were absolved for a Month and admonish'd to submit to that which had been enjoined them Continuing in their obstinacy he Excommunicates them again and they again appeal to the Dean of the Arches where finding â—o Relief they presented a Petition to the Archbishop with no less than a hundred hands unto it and afterwards to the King himself but with like success Pierce had done nothing in that case but what he had been warranted to do by their Authority and therefore was by their Authority to be countenanced in it There is an ancient Priviledge belonging to the Church of England That he who standeth obstinately Excommunicated for forty days upon Certificate thereof into the Court of Chancery shall be attached with a Writ De excommunicato capiendo directed to the Sheriff for his Apprehension by him to be committed to Prison without Bail or Mainprise as our Lawyers call it till he confâ—rm himself and seek Absolution By virtue of this Writ these obstinate persons were laid up in the Common Gaol after they had remained Excommunicate above a twelvemonth which shews with how great patience they had been forborn And then at last perceiving what ill counsel they had followed and into what perplexities they had cast themselves they made their submission to their Bishop by whom they were enjoined to do Penance for their Contempt and obstinate standing out against the Sentence of the Court in a form prescribed The Penance to be done in the great Church of Bath their own Parish Church at Beckington and in the Parish Church of Frome-Selwood the next Market-Town adjoining to it and thereupon the Parties to be Absolved Which Opposition thus suppressed prepared the People in most other places of that Diocess for a more ready conformity than otherwise the Diocesan might have found amongst them So true is that of the Historian That the Resistancies of the Subject being once suppressed add strength to that Authority which they sought to crush How he behaved himself in reference to his Majesties Instructions we shall see hereafter when he is brought upon the stage on that occasion and we shall see hereafter also how much or how little was done in order to the purpose
Minister of the Parish should be prest to the publishing of it But then withall they should consider that the Bishops were commanded to take order for the publishing of it in their several Parishes and whom could they require to publish it in the Parish Churches but the Ministers only Bound to them by an Oath of Canonical obedience at their admission to their Cures So that the Bishops did no more than they were commanded in laying the publication of this Declaration on the back of the Ministers and the Ministers by doing less than they were commanded infringed the Oath which they had taken rendring themselves thereby obnoxious to all such Ecclesiastical Censures as the Bishops should inflict upon them It was alledged secondly That the publishing of this Declaration was a work more proper for the Constable or Tything-man or the Church-wardens at the least than it was for the Ministers But then it was to be considered that the Constable or Tything-man were Lay-officers meerly bound by the Law to execute the Warrants of the Judges and Justices but not the Mandates of the Bishops so far from being Proper Instruments in such a business that none of the Judges thought it fit to command their Service in publishing their Orders against Ales and Revels And though the Church-wardens had some relation to Church-matters and consequently to the Bishop in the way of Presentments yet was he not bound to execute any such Commands because not tyed by an Oath of Canonical obedience as the Ministers were Or were it otherwise yet doth it happen many times in Country Villages that the Church-wardens cannot read and therefore not to be imployed in publishing such Declarations which require a more knowing man than a silly Villager And last of all it was alledged that the Ministers of all others were most unfit to hold the Candle for lighting and letting in such a course of licenciousness as was indulged on the Lords day by the said Declaration But then it was to have been proved that any of the Sports allowed of in it might have been brought within the compass of such Licentiousness which neither the Word of God nor the Canons of the Christian Church nor any Statutes of the Realm had before forbidden Or had it been as they pretended that the Command was contrary to the Law of God and could not be obeyed with a saâ—e conscience yet this was only a pretenâ—â— their reading of the Book being no more an argument of their approbation of any thing therein contained than when a common Crier reads a Proclamation the Contents whereof perhaps he likes not The Business being at this stand it was thought fit that the Bishops should first deal with the Refusers in a Fatherly and gentle way but adding menaces sometimes to their perswasions if they saw cause for it and that in the mean season some discourses should be writ and published to bring them to a right understanding of the truth and their several duties which burden being held of too great weight for any one to undergo and the necessity of the work requiring a quick dispatch it was held fit to divide the imployment betwixt two The Argumentative and Scholasticall part referred to the right learned Dr. White then Bishop of Ely who had given good proof of his ability in Polemical matters in several Books and Disputations against the Papists The Practical and Historical by Heylyn of Westminster who had gained some reputation for his Studies in the ancient Writers by Asserting the History of S. George maliciously impugned by those of the Calvinian Party upon all occasions Both of them being enjoyned their tasks were required to be ready for the Press against Michaelmas Term at the end whereof both books came out The Bishops under the Title of A Treatise of the Sabbath day containing a defence of the Orthodoxal Doctrine of the Church of England against Sabbatarian Novelty The other called The History of the Sabbath was divided into two Books or Parts The first whereof began with the Creation of the World and carried on the Story till the destruction of the Temple The second beginning with our Saviour Christ and his Apostles was drawn down to the year 1633. when the publishing of this Declaration was required But going different waies to work they did not both encounter the like success The Bishops Book had not been extant very long when an Answer was returned unto it by Byfield of Surrey which Answer occasioned a Reply and that Reply begat a Rejoynder To Heylyns Book there was no Answer made at all whether because unanswerable or not worth the Answering is to me unknown And though it is not to be doubted but that the Arguments of the one and the Authorities of the other prevailed with some to lay aside their former obstinacy and averseness yet did there still remain too many who stopp'd their ears like the deaf Adder in the Psalmist and would not hear the voice of the Charmers charmed they never so sweetly By which it did appear too plainly That there was some Association had and made amongst them to stand it out to the last and put some baffle or affront upon their Superiors by whose Command the reading of the Book was imposed upon them And thereupon it was resolved That the Bishops in their several Diocesses should go to work more roundly with them and either bring them to Conformity if it might be done or otherwise to proceed against them by Ecclesiastical Censures But whilst these things were acting on the Stage of England the Bishops of Scotland were as active in drawing of a Book of Canons and framing a Publick Liturgie for the use of that Church Both Undertakings warranted by the Act of a General Assembly held at Aberdeen Anno 1616. and the one brought to a good forwardness before the death of King Iames But being discontinued by the Accidents and Debates before-remembred it pleased his Majesty at the last to yield unto the importunity of the Scottish Bishops in having a Liturgie of their own differing in some things from that of the Church of England to shew the independency and self-subsistence of their Kirk but agreeing with it in the main to testifie the Conformity between the Churches Which being thus condescended to they were ordered to proceed with all speed and diligence which they did accordingly But the Canons being the shorter work were first brought to an end for the compiling whereof his Majesty gives these Reasons in his large Declaration First That he held it but exceeding necessary that there should be some Book extant to contain the Rules of the Ecclesiastical Government so that as well the Clergy as the Laity might have one certain standing Rule to regulate the Power of the one the Obedience and Practise of the other Secondly That the Acts of General Assemblies were Written only and not Printed and therefore could not come to the knowledge of many So large and voluminous that
positively defined by the Church of England and therefore he conceived it as unsafe as the other that such a doubtful controversie as that of the Popes being Antichrist should be determined Positively by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England of which there was great difference even amongst the Learned and not resolved on in the Schools With these objections against that passage he acquaints his Majesty who thereupon gave order that the said Letters Patents should be cancelled and new ones to be drawn in which that clause should be corrected or expunged and that being done the said Letters Patents to be new sealed and the said Collection to proceed according to the Archbishops first desires and proposition made in that behalf But before this Collection was finished and the money returned Charles Lodowick Prince Elector Palatine eldest surviving Son of the Queen of Bohemia comes into England to bestow a visit on his Uncle and to desire his aid and counsel for the recovery of the Electoral Dignity and Estate which did of right belong unto him On the twenty second of November this present year 1635. he comes to Whitehall graciously welcomed by the King who assigned him for his quarters in the Court the Lodgings properly belonging to the Prince his Son where he continued whilst he made his abode in England except such times as he attended his Majesty in his Summers Progress Knowing how forward the Archbishop had expressed himself in doing all ready Services for the Queen his Mother and the good offices which he had done for her sake to the distressed Ministers of his Dominions on the 30 day of the same Month he crost over to Lambeth and was present with the Archbishop at the Evening Prayer then very solemnly performed and upon that day fortnight came unexpectedly upon him and did him the honour to dine with him And that he might the better endear himself to the English Nation by shewing his conformity and approbation of the Rites and Ceremonies here by Law established he did not only diligently frequent the Morning and Evening Service in his Majesties Closet but upon Christmass day received the Communion also in the Chappel Royal of Whitehall For whose accommodation at the receiving of it there was a Stool placed within the Traverse on the left hand of his Majesty on which he sate while the Remainder of the Anthem was sung and at the Reading of the Epistle with a lower Stool and a Velvet Cushion to kneel upon both in the preparatory Prayers and the Act of Receiving which he most reverently performed to the great content of all beholders During his being in the Court he published two Books in Print by the advice of the King and Council not only to declare his Wrongs but assert his Rights The first he called by the name of a PROTESTATION against all the unlawful and violent proceedings and actions against him and his Electoral Family The second called the MANIFEST concerning the right of his Succession in the Lands Dignities and Honours of which his Father had been unjustly dispossessed by the Emperour Ferdinand the Second After which Preparatory writings which served to no other effect than to justifie his own and the Kings proceedings in the eye of the world he was put upon a course for being furnished both with men and money to try his fortune in the Wars in which he wanted not the best assistance which the Archbishop could afford him by his Power and Counsels But as he laboured to advance his interess in the recovery of his Patrimony and Estates in Germany so he no less laboured to preserve the Interess of the Church of England against all dangers and disturbances which might come from thence And therefore when some busie heads at the time of the Princes being here had published the Book entituled A Declaration of the Faith and Ceremonies of the Palsgraves Churches A course was took to call it in for the same cause and on the same prudential grounds on which the Letters Patents before mentioned had been stopt and altered The Prince was welcome but the Book might better have stayed at home brought hither in Dutch and here translated into English Printed and exposed to the publick view to let the vulgar Reader see how much we wanted of the Purity and simplicity of the Palatine Churches But we must now look back on some former Counsels in bringing such refractory Ministers to a just conformity in publishing his Majesties Declaration about lawful Sports as neither arguments and perswasions could pâ—evaâ—l upon And that the Suffragan Bishops might receive the more countenance in it the Archbishop means not to look on but to act somewhat in his own Diocess which might be exemplaâ—y to the rest some troublesome persons there were in it who publickly opposed all establisht orders neither conforming to his Majesties Instructions nor the Canons of the Church nor the Rubricks in the publick Liturgy Culmer and Player two men of the same aâ—â—â—ctions and such as had declared their inconformity in â—ormer times were prest unto the publishing of this Declaration Brent acting in it as Commissary to the Bishop of the Diocess not Vicar General to the Archbishop of the Province of Canterbury On their refusal so to do they were called into the Consistory and by him suspended Petitioning the Archbishop for a release from that suspension they were answered by him That if they knew not how to obey he knew as little how to grant He understood them to be men of Factious spirits and was resolved to bring them to a better temper or else to keep them from disturbing the publick peace And they resolving on the other side not to yield obedience continued under this suspension till the coming in of the Scottish Army not long before the beginning of the Long Parliament Anno 1640. which wanted little of four years before they could get to be released Wilson another of the same Crew was suspended about the same time also and afterwards severely sentenced in the High Commission the profits of his Living sequestred as the others were and liberal assignments made out of it for supplying the Cure In which condition he remained for the space of four years and was then released on a motion made by Dering in the House of Commons at the very opening in manner of the Long Parliament that being the occasion which was taken by them to bring the Archbishop on the Stage as they after did And though he suspended or gave order rather for suspending of no more than these yet being they were leading-men and the chief sticklers of the Faction in all his Diocess it made as much noise as the great Persecution did in Norfolk and Suffolk By one of which first County we are told in general That being promoted to this dignity he thought he was now Plenipotentiary enough and in full capacity to domineer as he listed and to let his profest enemies
Iews commanded by Antiochus gave up the Divine Books to his Officers to be destroyed it was afterwards adjudged in favour of them by Optatus Bishop of Milevis a right godly man to be sin rather in them that commanded than of those who with fear and sorrow did obey their Mandates That when the Emperour Mauritius had made an Edict That no Souldier should be admitted into any Monastery and sent it to be published by Gregory sirnamed the Great the Pope forthwith dispersed it into all parts of the Christian World because he was subject to his command though in his own judgment he conceived the said Edict to be unlawful in it self and prejudicial unto many particular persons as well in reference to their spiritual as their temporal benefit and finally That it was resolved by St. Augustine in his Book against Faustus the Manichee cap. 75. That a Christian Souldier fighting under a Heathen Prince may lawfully pursue the War or exercise the Commands of his immediate or Superior Officers in the course of his Service though he be not absolutely assured in the justice of the one or the expedience of the other Such were the Reasons urged in behalf of all Parties concerned in this business and such the Defences which were made for some of them in matter of fact but neither the one nor the other could allay that storm which had been raised against him by the Tongues and Pens of unquiet Persons of which more anon Nor was the Clamour less which was raised against such of the Bishops as either pressed the use of his Majesties Instructions concerning Lecturers and silencing the Arminian Controversies or urged the Ministers of their several and respective Diocesses to use no other form of Prayer before their Sermons than that which was prescribed Canon 55. It had been prudently observed That by suâ—fering such long Prayers as had accustomably been used of late before the Sermons of most Preachers the Publick Liturgie of the Church had been much neglected That the Puritan Preachers for the most part had reduced all Gods Service in a manner to those Pulpit-Prayers That the People in many places had forborn to go into the Church till the Publick Liturgie was ended and these Prayers begun That by this means such Preachers prayed both what they listed and how they listed some so seditiously that their very Prayers were turned into Sin others so ignorantly and impertinently that they dishonoured God and disgraced Religion For remedy whereof it was thought convenient by the Archbishop and some other Prelates to reduce all to the form of Prayers appointed in the Canon above-mentioned according to the like form prescribed in the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth and before her time by King Edward the Sixth and before his time also by King Henry the Eighth practised accordingly in the times of their several Reigns as appears by the Sermons of Bishop Latimer Bishop Gardiner Archbishop Parker Bishop Iewell Bishop Andrews and generally by all Divines of the Church of England till by the artifices and endeavours of the Puritan Faction these long Prayers of their own making had been taken up to cry down the Liturgie Which being in charge in the Visitation and afterwards in the Articles of several Bishops made as much noise amongst ignorant and factious People under colour of quenching the Spirit of God expressed in such extemporary Prayers of the Preachers conceiving as silencing the Doctrines of Predestination changing the afternoons Sermons into Catechisings and regulating the Extravagances of some of their Lecturers under the colour of a Plot to suppress the Gospel In which last Calumny as most of the Bishops had a share so did it fall as heavy on Pierce of Bath and Wells as on any other though he did nothing in that kind but what he was required to do by the Kings Instructions His Crimes were That he had commanded the Ministers in his Diocess to turn their afternoons Sermons into Catechisings and those Catechisings to be made according to the Questions and Answers in the Catechism authorised by Law and extant in the Book of Common Prayer which some few absolutely refusing to conform unto and others contrary to the meaning of the said Instructions taking some Catechism-point for their Text and making long Sermons on the same were by him suspended and so continued till they found a greater readiness in themselves to obey their Ordinary But the Great Rock of Offences against which they stumbled and stumbling filled all places with their Cries and Clamours was That he had suppressed the Lecturers in most parts of his Diocess and some report That he proceeded so far in it as to make his brag not without giving great Thanks to God for his good Success That he had not left one Lecturer in all his Diocess of what sort soever whether he Lectured for his Stipend or by a voluntary combination of some Ministers amongst themselves Which if it should be true as I have some reason to believe it is not ought to be rather attributed to some exiliency of humane frailty of which we are all guilty more or less than to be charged amongst his Sins But for his Actings in this kind as also for his vigorous proceedings in the Case of Beckington he had as good Authority as the Instructions of the King and the Directions of his Metropolitan could invest him in And so far Canterbury justified him in the last particular as to take the blame if any thing were blame-worthy in it upon himself though then a Prisoner in the Tower and under as much danger as the Power and Malice of his Enemies could lay upon him For such was his undaunted Spirit that when Ash a Member of the House of Commons demanded of him in the Tower Whether the Bishop of Bath and Wells had received his Directions from him in the Case of Beckington he answered roundly That he had and that the Bishop had done nothing in it but what became an obedient Diocesan to his Metropolitan So careful was he of preserving those who had acted under him that he chose rather to augment the number of his own misfortunes then occasion theirs If all the Bishops of that time had joined their hearts and hands together for carrying on the work of Uniformity as they were required the Service might have gone more happily forwards and the Envy would have been the less by being divided but leaving the whole burden upon so few and turning it over to their Chancellors and Under-Officers if they did so much they did not only for as much as in them was destroy the business but expose such as took care of it to the publick hatâ—ed For such was their desire to ingratiate themselves amongst the People that some of them being required to return the names of such Ministers as refused the reading of the Book made answer That they would not turn Informers against their Brethren there being enough besides
after his being named to a Bishoprick or a better Deanry to renew any Lease either into lives or years His Majesty having well observed that at such times of remove many men care not what or how they let their Estates to the prejudice of the Church and their Successors Which Letters bear date at Greenwich in the twelfth year of his Reign Iune 27. Nor was he less careful to preserve the Parochial Clergy from being oppressed by their neighbours in rates and taxes than he had been in maintaining the Estates of Capitular bodies for the greater honour of those bodies at the present time and the benefit of Succession for the time to come During the Remiss Government of King Iames his Majesties late embroylments with France and Spain and his entanglements at home the Hollanders had invaded the Regality of the Narrow Seas and questioned the property of his Dominion in the same not only growing to such an height of insolency as to dispute their striking Sail in passing by any of his Majesties Ships but publishing a Discourse in Latine called Mare Liberum in defence thereof These affronts occasioned Noy the Atturney Generall to put his Majesty in mind of setting out a strong power of Ships for the recovery of his Rights against all pretenders And the better to enable him for it adviseth him to set on foot the old Naval Aide required of the Subject by his Predecessors He was a man extremely well versed in old Records with which consulting frequently in the course of his studies he had excerpted and laid by many notes and precedents for the Kings levying of such Navil Aide upon the Subjects by his own Authority whensoever the preservation and safety of the Kingdom did require it of them which Notes and Precedents he had taken as they came in his way in small pieces of Paper most of them no bigger than ones hand he kept in the Coffin of a Pye which had been sent him by his Mother and kept there till the mouldiness and corruptibleness of it had perished many of his Papers And by these Notes it did appear that many times in the same years wherein the Kings had received Subsidies by way of Parliament they levied this Naval Aide by their own sole power For if as he discoursed it to me at his house near Brentford the King wanted money either to support his own expences or for the enlarging of his Dominions in Foreign Conquests or otherwise to advance his honour in the eye of the World good reason he should be beholden for it to the love of his People But if the Kingdom was in danger and that the safety of the Subject was concerned in the business he might and did raise such sums of money as he thought expedient for the preventing of the danger and providing for the publick safety of him and his Subjects According to which precedents he prepares a Writ by which his Majesty commandeth the Maritime Counties to provide a certain number of Ships for defence of the Kingdom prescribing to each Ship its several burden the number of Mariners and great Pieces of Ordnance with Victuals Arms and Ammunition thereunto proportioned The Subject not daring at the first to dispute the Command collected money for the Service according to the several rates imposed on them in their several Counties but dealt so unmercifully with the Clergy in the levying of it that they laid upon them generally the fifth or sixth part of the sum imposed The Ice thus broken and his Majesty finding that provision not sufficient to effect his purpose issued out his Writs in the next year after anno 1635. into all the Counties of the Kingdom for preparing of a Royal Fleet to be in readiness against the beginning of this year in which the Clergy were as like to suffer as before they did By the best was that they had not only a gracious Patron but a very powerful Mediatour Upon whose humble desire his Majesty was pleased to direct his Letters to all the Sheriffs in England respectively requiring them that no Tax should be laid upon any Clergy-man possest of a Parsonage above the tenth part of the Land-rate of their several Parishes and that consideration should be had of the poor Vicars in their several Parishes according to their small revenue compared with the Abilities of the Parishioners amongst whom they lived The whole Sum levied by this Tax amounted to 236000 li. or there abouts which comes not to 20000 li. a month and being instead of all other payments seemed to be no such heavy burthen as it was generally made by the Popular Party many of which quarrelled and and refused it But his Majesty was two just a Prince to exact any thing by power when he had neither Law nor Reason to make it good And therefore as he had the opinion of all his Judges subscribed by their hands for justifying the Legality of this Naval Tax amongst the Subjects so he thought fit to publish some defence of his Dominion Right and Soveraignty in the Narrow Seas for the satisfaction of his Neighbours Iohn Selden of the Inner Temple a name that stands in need of no titles of honour had written a Discourse in the time of King Iames which in answer to that of Grotius called Mare Liberum 〈◊〉 intituled by the name of Mare Clausum But stomacking the submission and acknowledgment which he was forced to make in the High Commission for publishing his book of Tythes and sensible of the smart which he had found from the Pens of Tillesly Montague and Nettles in their Answers to him he did not only suppress the â—ook which he had written in the Kings defence but carried an evil eye to the Court and Church for a long time after But being a man of great parts and eminent in the retired walks of Learning he was worth the gaining which Canterbury takes upon him and at last efâ—ecteth By his perswasion he not only perfected but published that laborious piece which he dedicated to his Majesty whose cause he pleaded By whom it was so well approved that he sent it by Sir William Beecher one of the Clerks of his Council to the Barons of the Exchequer in open Court by them to be laid up as a most inestimable Jewel amongst the choice Records which concerned the Crowns In this book which came out this year he first asserts the Soveraignty or Dominion of the Brittish Seas to the Crown of England And that being cleared he proved by constant and continual practice that the Kings of England used to levy money from the Subjects without help of Parliament for the providing of Ships and other necessaries to maintain the Soveraignty which did of right belong unto them This he brought down unto the times of King Henry the Second and might have brought it nearer to his own times had he been so pleased and thereby paved a plain way to the payment of Ship-money as
But now Laud being Archbishop of Canterbury and Wren Dean of the Chappel it was resolved to move his Majesty that the Lent Sermons might be preached on Wednesdaies as they had been Anciently To which his Majesty condescending and the Bill of Lent-Preachers being drawn accordingly it was first muttered secretly and afterwards made a publick clamour that this was one of the Archbishops Artifices a trick devised for putting down the Tuesday Sermons of which you should never hear more when this Lent was over Which Cry growing lowder and lowder as the Lent continued was suddenly hush'd and stilled again on the Easter Tuesday when they saw the Preacher in the Pulpit as at other times So usual is it with some men to be afraid of their own shadows and terrified with fears of their own devising This Interruption thus past over I shall unwillingly resume my former Argument concerning Bastwick and the rest of his fellow-Criminals who being called unto their Answer used so many delays that the Case could not come to Sentence before Midsomer Term. Some Answers they had drawn but they were so Libellous and full of scandal that no Counsellor could be found to put his hand to them according to the course of that Court Instead whereof they exhibited a cross Bill against Canterbury and his Confederates as they called them charging them with the greatest part of those Reproaches which had been made the subject-matter of their former Libels which being signed by no hands but their own and tendred so to the Lord Keeper was by him rejected and themselves taken pro confessis their obstinacy in not answering in due form of Law being generally looked on by the Court as a self-conviction On the fourteenth of Iune they received their Sentence which briefly was to this effect Prynne to be fined 5000 l. to the King to lose the remainder of his ears in the Pillory to be branded on both cheeks with the Letters S. L. for a Schismatical Libeller and to be perpetually imprisoned in Carnarvan Castle Bastwick and Burton condemned in the like Fine of 5000 l. to be Pilloried and lose their Ears the first to be imprisoned in the Castle of Lanceston in Cornwal and the second in the Castle of Lancaster On the thirtieth of the same Month Burton being first degraded of his Ministry in the High-Commission they were brought into the Palace-yard of Westminster to receive their punishment not executed on them with such great severity as was injuriously given out But being executed howsoever it was a great trouble to the spirits of many very moderate and well-meaning men to see the three most Eminent Professions in all the World Divinity Law and Physick to be so wretchedly dishonoured in the Persons of the Malefactors as was observed by the Archbishop himself in his Epistle to the King Which part of the Punishment being inflicted they were conveyed with care and safety to their several Prisons the People either foolishly or factiously resorting to them as they passed and seeming to bemoan their Sufferings as unjustly Rigorous And such a haunt there was to the several Castles to which they were condemned of purpose for preventing all Intelligence and Correspondence to be held between them that the State found it necessary to remove them further Prynne to the Castle of Mont Orgueil in the Isle of Iersey Burton to Castle-Cornet in the Road of Guernsey and Bastwick to St. Maries Castle in the Isle of Silly which last remembreth me of the like Confinement to which Instantius a professed Priscilianist a very near Kinsman of the English Puritan had been condemned by the Justice of the Primitive Times At the pronouncing of this Sentence the Archbishop made a long and elaborate Speech in vindication of himself and the rest of the Bishops from any Design to bring in Popery or innovating in the Government and Forms of Worship here by Law established He made his Introduction to it in a brief Discourse touching the nature of the Crime shewing how odious a thing it was to think of defending Religion in the way of Libels a thing not used by any of the Primitive Christians in the greatest heats of Persecution and then professing for his own part That he had done nothing as a Bishop but with a sincere intention for the good Government and Honour of the Church of England and the maintenance of the Orthodox Truth and Religion professed and established in it adding withal That nothing but his Care of reducing the Church into Order in the External Worship of God and the settling of it on the Rules of its first Reformation had raised this Storm against himself and the rest of the Bishops for which alone they stood accused of Innovations by those which were the greatest Innovators in the Christian World He spake next touching the Calling of Bishops which he maintained to be Iure Divino though not all the Adjuncts of that Calling averring further That from the time of the Apostles to the days of Calvin the Government of the Church was by Bishops only Lay-Elders being never heard of which Claim by Divine Right derogateth not from the King either in Right or Power as the Libellers made it no more than the Calling of the Presbyters by the same Right could be thought to do in regard they exercised not any Iurisdiction in the Kings Dominions but with his Licence for so doing Or were it otherwise yet that the Bishops stood in England in as good a case as the present Laws could make them and therefore they that Libelled against them Libelled against the King and State by the Laws whereoâ— they were established and consequently could aim at no other end than the stirring of Sedition amongst the People As touching the design of bringing in Popery by which Artifice they chiefly hoped to inflame the People he first acquitted the King of it by shewing his sincerity and constancy in his Religion exemplified by his Carriage in Spain where he wanted no temptations to draw him from it and his Deportment since in England in which â—e had so often declared a settled Resolution to maintain the same Or were it otherwise and that the King had any mind to change Religion he must seek for other Instruments than himself to effect that purpose most humbly thanking God That as yet he knew not how to serve any Man against the Truth of Christ so â—e hoped he should never learn professing further for the satisfaction of all which heard him That he knew of no plot nor purpose of altering the Religion here established and that for his own part he had ever been far from attempting any thing which might be truly said to tend that way in the least degree to both which he was ready to take his Oath Which said in general he briefly touch'd on those Innovations which in those Libels had been charged on him and the rest of the Bishops in order unto that Design To the
a base and Libellous Answer without the name of any Author Place or Printer or any Bookseller according to the unusual Custom where and of whom it might be bought I shall not trouble my self any more about it than by a Transcript of the Title which was this that followeth viz. DIVINE and POLITICK OBSERVATIONS newly translated out of the Dutch Language wherein they were lately divulged upon some lines in the Speech of the Archbishop of Canterbury pronounced in the STAR-CHAMBER the fourteenth of June 1637. VERY expedient for preventing all prejudice which as well through ignorance as through malice and flattery may be incident to the judgment which men make thereby either of his Graces power over the Church and with the King or of the Equity Iustice and Wisdom of his ENDS in his said Speech and of the reasons used by him for attaining to his said ENDS And though he took great care and pains concerning that supposed additional clause to the 20th Article so much as might satisfie any man not extremely partial yet find I a late Writer so unsatisfied in it that he leaves it to the State-Arithmeticians to decide the Controversie whether the Bishops were more faulty in the addition than the opposites in their substraction of it One other Charge there was and a great one too which I find not touched at in this Speech and that is that the Prelates neither had nor sought to have the Kings Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England for their keeping Courts and Visitations c. but did all in their own Names and under their own Seals contrary to the Law in that behalf Concerning which we are to know that by a Statute made in the first year of King Edward the Sixth it was Enacted That all Summons Citations and other Process Ecclesiastical in all Suites and causes of Instance and all causes of Correction and all causes of Bastardy or Bigamy or De jure Patronatus Probates of Testaments and Commissions of Administrations of persons deceased be made in the name and with the Style of the King as it is in Writs Original or Iudicial at the Common Law c. As also that no matter of person or persons who hath the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction use any other Seal of Jurisdiction but wherein his Majesties Arms be engraven c. on pain of incurring his Majesties indignation and suffering imprisonment at his will and pleasure Which Statute and every branch thereof being repealed by Queen Mary and not revived by Queen Elizabeth in all her Reign the Bishops of her time were safe enough from any danger on that side But in the first Parliament of King Iames there passed an Act for continuing and reviving of divers Statutes and for repealing of some others 1 Iac. c. 25. Into the Body whereof a Clause was cunningly conveyed his Majesties Council learned not considering or fraudulently conniving at it for the repealing of that Statute of the Reign of Queen Mary by which King Edwards stood repealed of which no notice being taken for some while by those whom it chiefly did concern it was now discovered and made use of as a Rod to affright the Prelates from exercising their Jurisdiction over obstinate and incorrigible Non-conformists as formerly they had been accustomed For remedy whereof and for encouraging the Bishops to perform their duties iâ— was declared by the Judges with an unanimous consent and so delivered by the Lords Chief Justices in the Star-Chamber the fourteenth of May in this present year That the said Act of Repeal 1 of Queen Mary did still stand in force as unto that particular Statute by them so much pressed This was sufficient for the present but the Archbishop would not trust to it for the time to come and thereupon in in his Epistle to the King before remembred He humbly desired his Majesty in the Churches name That it might be resolved by all the Reverend Judges of England and then published by his Majesty that the Bishops keeping of their Courts and issuing Processes in their own names and the like exceptions formerly taken and now renued were not against the Laws of this Realm that so the Church Governours might go on chearfully in their duty and the peoples minds be quieted by this assurance that neither their Law nor their Liberty as Subjects was thereby infringed A motion favourably heard and graciously granted his Majesty issuing out his Royal Proclamation on the eighteenth day oâ— August then next following For declaring that the proceedings of his Ecclesiastical Câ—urts and Ministers were according to Law The Tenour of which Proclamation or Declaration was as followeth By the King WHereas in some of the Libellous Books and Pamphlets lately published the most Reverend Fathers in God the Lord Archbishops and Bishops of the Realm are said to have usurped upon his Majesties Prerogative Royal and to have proceeded in the High Commission and other Ecclesiastical Courts contrary to the Laws and Statutes of the Realm It was Ordered by his Majesties High Court of Star-Chamber the twelfth of June last that the Opinion of the two Lords Chief Justices the Lord Chief Baron and the rest of the Judges and Barons should be had and certified in these particulars viz. whether Processes may not issue out of the Ecclesiastical Courts in the names of the Bishops Whether a Patent under the Great Seal be necessary for the keeping of the Ecclesiastical Courts and enabling Citations Suspensions Excommunications and other Censures of the Church And whether the Citations ought to be in the Kings Name and under his Seal of Arms and the like for Institutions and Inductions to Benefices and correction of Ecclesiastical offences And whether Bishops Archdeacons and other Ecclesiastical persons may or ought to keep any Visitation at any time unless they have express Commission or Patent under the great Seal of England to do it and that as his Majesty Visitors only and in his name and right alone Whereupon his Majesties said Judges having taken the same into their sâ—rious consideration did unanimously agree and concur in opinion and the first day of Iuly last certified under their hands as followeth That Processes may issue out of Ecclesiastical Courts in the name of the Bihops and that a Patent under the Great Seal is not necessary for the keeping of the said Ecclesiastical Courts or for the enabling of Citations Suspensions Excommunications and other Censures of the Church And that it is not necessary that Summons Citations or other Processes Ecclesiastical in the said Courts or Institutions and Inductions to benefices or correction of Ecclesiastical offences by Censure in those Courts be in the Kings name or with the Style of the King or with the Kings Seal or the Seals of the Office have in them the Kings Arms And that the Statute 1 Edw. 6. c. 2. which enacted the contrary is not now in force And that the Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons and other Ecclesiastical
their Religion and therefore was pleased to declare That as he abhorreth all Superstitions of Popery so he would be most careful that nothing should be allowed within his Dominions but that which should most tend to the Advancement of the true Religion as it was presently professed within his Ancient Kingdom of Scotland and that nothing was nor should be done therein against the laudable Laws of that his Native Kingdom The Rioters perceived by this Proclamation that the King was more afraid than hurt And seeing him begin to shrink they resolved to put so many fears upon him one after another as in the end might fashion him to their desires First therefore they began with a new Petition not of a rude Multitude but of Noblemen Barons Ministers Burgesses and Commons the very Flower of the whole Nation against the Liturgie and Canons This Petition being sent to the Courts could do no less and it did no more than produce another Proclamation in Reply to the Substance of it some Menaces being intermingled but sweetned in the close to give them the better relish His Majesty first lets them know the Piety of his Intent in appointing the Liturgie assuring them That he had no other end in it than the maintenance of the true Religion there already professed and the beating down of all Superstition That nothing passed in the said Book but what was seen and approved by himself before the same was either divulged or printed and that he was assured That the Book it self would be a very ready means to preserve the Religion there professed of which he doubted not to give them satisfaction in his own time Which said he lets them know That such as had Assembled for subscribing the said Petition had made themselves liable to his highest Censures both in Life and Fortune That notwithstanding he was pleased to dispence with the errour upon a confidence that it proceeded rather from a preposterous Zeal than a disaffection to Sovereignty on condition that they retired themselves upon notice hereof as became good and dutiful Subjects He interdicted also the like Concourse as had been lately made at Edenborough upon pain of Treason commanding that none of them should repair to Sterling to which the Term was then Adjourned or any other place of Counsel and Session without Warrant from the Lords of the Council and that all such of what sort soever not being Lords of the Council or Session which were not Inhabitants of the Town should within six hours after publication thereof depart the same except they were so Licenced and Warranted as before is said under pain of Treason And finally he concludes with this That he would not shut his ears against any Petition upon this or any other Subject which they should hereafter tender to him provided that the matter and form thereof be not prejudicial to his Regal Authority Had his Majesty followed at the heels of this Proclamation with a powerful Army according to the Custom of his Predecessors Kings of England it might have done some good upon them But Proclamations of Grace and Favour if not backed by Arms are but like Cannons charged with Powder without Ball or Bullet making more noise than execution and serve for nothing in effect but to make the Rebel insolent and the Prince contemptible as it proved in this For on the very day and immediately after the reading of it it was encountered with a Protestation published by the Earl of Hume the Lord Lindsey and others justifying themselves in their Proceedings disclaiming all his Majesties Offers of Grace and Pardon and positively declaring their Resolution to go on as they had begun till they had brought the business to the end intended And in pursuance hereof they erected a new Form of Government amongst themselves despotical enough in respect of those who adhered unto them and unaccountable to his Majesty for their Acts and Orders This Government consisted of four Tables for the four Orders of the State that is to say the Noblemen Barons Burgesses and Ministers each Order consulting at his own Table of such things as were necessary for the carrying on of the Design which being reduced into Form were offered debated and concluded at the General Table consisting of a choice number of Commissioners out of all the rest And that this new Government might be looked on with the greater reverence they fixed themselves in Edenborough the Regal City leaving the Lords of Council and Session to make merry at Sterling where they had little else to do than to follow their Pleasures The Tables were no sooner formed but they resolved upon renewing of the Ancient Confession of that Kirk with a Band thereunto subjoined but fitted and accommodated to the present occasion which had been signed by King Iames on the 28th of Ianuary Anno 1580. after their Account and generally subscribed by all the Nation And by this Band they entred Covenant for Maintenance of their Religion then professed and his Majesties Person but aiming at the destruction of both as appeareth both by the Band it self and their Gloss upon it For by the one they had bound themselues to defend each other against all Persons whatsoever the King himself not being excepted and by the other they declared That under the general Names of Popery Heresie and Superstition which were there expressed they had abjured and required all others so to do not only the Liturgie and Canons lately recommended to them but the Episcopal Government and the five Articles of Perth though confirmed by Parliament And to this Covenant in this sense they required an Oath of all the Subjects which was as great an Usurpation of the Regal Power as they could take upon themselves for confirming their own Authority and the Peoples Obedience in any Project whatsoever which should afterwards issue from those Tables In this Estate we leave the Scots and return to England where we shall find all things in a better condition at least as to the outward appearance whatsoever secret workings were in agitation amongst the Grandees and chief Leaders of the Puritan Faction Little or no noise raised about the publishing of the Book for Sports or silencing the Calvinian Doctrines according to his Majesties Declaration before the Articles No clamour touching the transposing of the Holy Table which went on leisurely in most places vigorously in many and in some stood still The Metropolitical Visitation and the Care of the Bishops had settled these Particulars in so good a way that mens Passions began to calm and their Thoughts to come to some repose when the Commands had been more seriously considered of than at first they were And now the Visitation having been carried into all parts of the Realm of England and Dominion of Wales his Grace began to cast his eye upon the Islands of Guernsey and Iersey two Islands lying on the Coast of Normandy to the Dukedom whereof they once belonged and in the
Right of that Dukedom to the Crown of England Iersey the bigger of the two more populous and of richer soil but of no great Trading Guernsey the lesser the more barren but nourishing a wealthier People Masters of many stout Barques and managing a rich Trade with the neighbouring Nations Attempted often by the French since they seised on Normandy but always with repulse and loss the People being very affectionate to the English Government under which they enjoy very ample Priviledges which from the French they could not hope for As parts of Normandy they were subject in Ecclesiastical Matters to the Bishops of Constance in that Dukedom and so continued till the Reformation of Religion here in England and were then added to the Diocess and Jurisdiction of the Bishops of Winchester But the Genevian Discipline being more agreeable to such Preachers as came to them from France they obtained the Exercise thereof in the eighth year of Queen Elizabeth Anno 1565. The whole Government distinguished into two Classes or Colonies that of Iersey of it self being one and that of Guernsey with the Islands of Sark and Alderney making up the other both Classes meeting in a Synod every second or third year according to the Order of their Book of Discipline digested by Snape and Cartwright the two great Ring-leaders of that Faction here in England in a Synod held at Guernsey Iune 28. 1576. And this manner they continued till the time of King Iames when the Churches in the Isle of Iersey falling into some disorder and being under an immediate Governour who was no great Friend to Calvin's Plat-form they were necessitated for avoiding of a greater mischief to cast themselves into the Arms of the Church of England The principal Ecclesiastical Officer whilst they were under the Bishops of Constance had the Title of Dean for each Island one the several Powers both of the Chancellor and Archdeacon being united in his Person This Office is restored again his Jurisdiction marked out his Fees appointed his Revenue settled but made accountable for his Administration to the Bishops of Winchester The English Liturgie is Translated also into French to be read in their Churches Instructions first and afterwards a Body of Canons framed for Regulating both the Ministers and People in their several Duties those Canons bearing date the last of Iune in the one and twentieth year of that King For the confirming of this Island in their Conformity to the Government and Forms of Worship there established and the reducing of the others to the like condition it was resolved That the Metropolitical Visitation should be held in each of them at the next opening of the Spring And that it might be carried on with the greater assurance the Archbishop had designed a Person for his Principal Visitor who had spent some time in either Island and was well acquainted with the Bayliffs Ministers and men of special note amongst them But the Affairs of Scotland growing from bad to worse this Counsel was discontinued for the present and at last laid by for all together But these Islands were not out of his mind though they were out of sight his care extending further than his Visitation The Islanders did use to breed such of their Sons as they designed for the Ministry either at Saumur or Geneva from whence they returned well seasoned with the Leaven of Calvinism No better way to purge that old Leaven out of the Islands than to allure the people to send their Children to Oxon or Cambridge nor any better expedient to effect the same than to provide some preferments for them in our Universities It hapned that while he was intent on these Considerations that one Hubbard the Heir of Sir Miles Hubbard Citizen and Alderman of London departed this Life to whom upon an inquisition taken after his death in due form of Law no Heir was found which could lay claim to his Estate Which falling to the Crown in such an unexpected manner and being a fair Estate withal it was no hard matter for the Archbishop to perswade his Majesty to bestow some small part thereof upon pious uses To which his Majesty consenting there was so much allotted out of it as for the present served sufficiently to endow three Fellowships for the perpetual Education of so many of the Natives of Guernsey and Iersey not without some probable â—ope of doubling the number as the old Leases of it â—â—ould expire These Fellowships to be founded in Exeter Iesus and Pembroke Colledges that being disperst in several Houses there might be an increase both of Fellows and Revenues of the said foundations By means whereof he did both piously and prudently provide for those Islands and the advancement of Conformity amongst them in the times to come For what could else ensue upon it but that the breeding of some Scholars out of those Islands in that University where they might throughly acquaint themselves with the Doctrine Government and Forms of Worship establisht in the Church of England they might afterwards at their return to their native Countries reduce the Natives by degrees to conform unto it which doubtless in a short time would have done the work with as much honour to the King and content to himself as satisfaction to those People It is not to be thought that the Papists were all this while asleep and that neither the disquiets in England nor the tumults in Scotland were husbanded to the best advantage of the Catholick Cause Panzani as before is said had laid the foundation of an Agency or constant correspondence between the Queens Court and the Popes and having so done left the pursuit of the design to Con a Scot by birth but of a very busie and pragmatical head Arriving in England about the middle of Summer Anno 1636. he brought with him many pretended reliques of Saints Medals and Pieces of Gold with the Popes Picture stamped on them to be distributed amongst those of that Party but principally amongst the Ladies of the Court and Country to whom he made the greatest part of his applications He found the King and Queen at Holdenby House and by the Queen was very graciously entertained and took up his chief Lodgings in a house near the new Exchange As soon as the Court was returned to Whitehall he applied himself diligently to his work practising upon some of the principal Lords and making himself very plausible with the King himself who hoped he might make some use of him in the Court of Rome for facilitating the restitution of the Prince Elector And finding that the Kings Councils were much directed by the Archbishop of Canterbury he used his best endeavours to be brought into his acquaintance But Canterbury neither liked the man nor the Message which he came about and therefore kept himself at a distance neither admitting him to Complement nor Communication Howsoever by the Kings Connivence and the Queens Indulgence the Popish Faction gathered not only strength
Honour from them both And therefore briefly in this place to speak of Hamilton and his Proceedings in the weighty Charge committed to him in which he hath been generally suspected to betray his Master we will fetch the Story somewhat higher that we may see what ends he aimed at for himself and what enclined him rather to foment than quench the Flames which had been kindled in that Kingdom Know therefore That the Hamiltonian Family derives it self from one Hamilton an Englishman who went to try what Fortunes he could find in Scotland Neither himself nor his Posterity of any great note till Iames iii. bearing a great affection to Sir Iames Hamilton married him to one of his Sisters whom he had forcibly taken from the Lord Boyd her former Husband From this unlawful Marriage descended another Iames the Grandchild of this as impious and â—dulterous in his second Marriage as his Grandmother had been before For having married a Wife of one of the Noble Houses of Scotland he put her shamefully away and took into his Bed a Niece of Cardinal Beton's who then swayed all things in that Kingdom Of this last Marriage came Iohn Earl of Arran Created by King Iames vi the first Marquis of Hamilton the Father of Iohn and Grandfather of Iames Marquis of Hamilton of whom we now speak This man considering with himself that he was descended from a Daughter of King Iames ii but without taking notice of any intervenient Flaws which occurred in the Pedigree conceived by 〈◊〉 and little That a Crown would look as lovely upon his Head as on the Heads of any which descended from a Daughter of Iames v. To give some life unto his Fancies he found the Great Men amongst the Scots in high discontentments about the Revocation of Church-Lands which the King then busily intended The Popular Party in England no less discontented by the Dissolving of three Parliaments one after another and the Puritans in both by the great Power and Credit which some Bishops had attained unto in either Kingdom In which conjuncture it was not hard for him to conceive That he might make unto himself a strong Party in That without fear of any opposition to be made from This. And so â—ar had his hopes gone with him when he obtained the Conduct of an Army intended by his Majesty for assisting of the King of Sweden in the Wars of Germany An Army for the most part raised in Scotland and most of the Commanders of that Nation also whom he had so obliged unto him by his Arts and Flatteries that a Health was openly begun by David Ramsey a boisterous Ruffian of that Court to King Iames the Seventh And so much of the Design was discovered by him unto Donald Maukie Baron of Ree than being in the Marquisses Camp that the Loyal Gentleman thought himself bound in duty to make it known unto the King Ramsey denying the whole matter and the Lords having no proof thereof as in such secret Practices it could hardly be more than a confident asseveration and the Engagement of his Honour the King thought good to refer the Controversie to the Earl of Lindsey whom he made Lord High-Constable to that end and purpose Many days were spent accordingly in pursuance of it But when most men expected that the matter would be tried by Battel as had been accustomed in such cases the Business was hushed up at Court the Lord Ree dismissed to his Employment in the Wars and contrary to the mind of all good men the Marquis did not only continue in the Kings great Favour but Ramsey was permitted to hold the Place of Gentleman of the Privy-Chamber which had been formerly procured for him As for the Army of Scots consisting of 7000. if my memory fail not transported into Germany in the Summer before Anno 1631. they mouldred away by little and little without acting any thing the King of Sweden being then in a prosperous condition and not desiring the Scots should carry away any part of the Spoil and Honour which he doubted not of acquiring to his own Nation in the course of the War This put the Marquis upon new Counsels and in the course of these new Counsels he was not only to â—oment those Animosities which had been raised in that Nation against the King but to remove all those Impediments which might lye in the way betwixt him and his affected Greatness Two men there were whom he more feared than all the rest both of the House of Graham and both descended from a Son of King Robert the Second and that too by a clearer Descent than the Hamiltons could pretend from the Daughter of King Iames ii The first was William Earl of Menteith descended from an Heir-general of David Earl of Stratherne one of the younger Sons of King Robert ii as before was said A man oâ— sound Abilities and approved Affections and therefore by the King made President of the Council in Scotland In which Office he behaved himself and stood so stoutly in behalf of the King his Master upon all occasions that nothing could be done for Advance of Hamiltons Designs till he was removed from that Place In order whereunto it was put into his head by some of that Faction that he should sue unto the King to be Created Earl of Stratherne as the first and most honourable Title which belonged to his House That his Merits were so great as to assure him not to meet with a denial and that the King could do no less than to give him some nominal Reward for his real Services On these Suggestions he repaired to the Court of England 1632. where without any great difficulty he obtained his Suit and waited on the King the most part of the Summer-Progress no man being so openly honoured and courted by the Scottish Nation as he seemed to be But no sooner was he gone for Scotland but the Hamiltonians terrified the King with the Dangers which he had run into by that Creation whereby he had revived in that proud and ambitious Person the Rights which his Ancestors pretended to the Crown of Scotland That the King could not chuse but see how generally the Scots flock'd about him after his Creation when he was at the Court and would do so much more when he was in Scotland And finally That the proud man already had so far declared himself as to give it out That the King held the Crown of him Hereupon a Commission was speedily posted into Scotland in which those of Hamiltons Faction made the greatest number to inquire into his Life and Actions and to consider of the Inconveniencies which might redound unto the King by his affecting this new Title On the Return whereof the poor Gentleman is removed from his Office from being one of the Privy Council and not only deprived of the Title of the Earl of Stratherne but of that also of Menteith which for a long time had remained in his Ancestors And
those who adhered unto him to fly the Country but intercepted his Revenues seazed on all his Forts and Castles and put themselves into a Posture of open War And that they might be able to manage it with the greater credit they called home some of their Commanders out of Germany and some which served under the Pay of the States General so far prevailing with those States as to continue such Commanders in their Pay and Places as long as they remained in the Service of the Scottish Covenanters A favour which his Majesty could not get at their hands nor had he so much reason to expect it as the others had iâ— considered rightly It had been once their own case and they conceived they had good reason to maintain it in others It may deservedly be a matter of no small amazement that this poor and unprovided Nation should dare to put such baffles and affronts upon their Lawful King the King being backt by the united Forces of England and Ireland obeyed at home and rendred formidable unto all his Neighbours by a puissant Navy they must have some assurances more than ordinary which might enflame them to this height and what they were it may not be amiss to enquire into First then they had the King for their natural Country-man born in that Air preserving a good affection for them to the very laâ—t and who by giving them the Title of his Ancient and Native Kingdom as he did most commonly gave them some reason to believe that he valued them above the English They had in the next place such a strong Party of Scots about him that he could neither stir or speak scarce so much as think but they were made acquainted with it In the Bed-Chamber they had an equal number of Gentlemen and seven Grooms for one in the Presence-Chamber more than an equal number amongst the Gentlemen Ushers Quarter-Waiters c. In the Privy-Chamber besides the Carvers and Cup-bearers such disproportion of the Gentlemen belonging to it that once at a full Table of Waiters each of them having a Servant or two to attend upon him I and my man were the only English in all the Company By which the King was so obsâ—rved and betrayed withal that as far as they could find his meaning by Words by Signs and Circumstances or the silent language of a shrug it was posted presently into Scotland some of his Bed-Chamber being grown so bold and saucy that they used to Ransack his Pockets when he was in bed to transcribe such Letters as they found and send the Copies to their Countrymen in the way of intelligence A thing so well known about the Court that the Archbishop of Canterbury in one of his Letters gave him this memento that he should not trust his Pockets with it For Offices of trust and credit they wâ—re as well accomodated as with those of service Hamilton Master of the Horse who stocked the Stables with that People The Earl of Morton Captain of his Majesties Guard The Earl of Ancram Keeper of the Privy Purse The Duke of Lenox Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover Castle Balfore Lieutenant of the Tower the Fortress of most power and command in England And Wemmys the Master Gunner of his Majesties Navy who had the issuing of the Stores and Ammunition designed unto it Look on them in the Church and we shall find so many of that Nation beneficed and preferred in all parts of this Country that their Ecclesiastical Revenues could not but amount to more then all the yearly Rents of the Kirk of Scotland and of all these scarce one in ten who did not cordially espouse and promote their Cause amongst the People They had beside no less assurance of the English Puritans than they had of their own those in Court of which there was no very small number being headed by the Earl of Holland those in the Country by his Brother the Earl of Warwick The fâ—rst being aptly called in a Letter of the Lord Conways to the Lord Archbishop The spiritual and invisible head the other The visible and temporal head of the Puritan Faction And which was more than all the rest they had the Marquiss of Hamilton for their Lord and Patron of so great power about the King such Authority in the Court of England such a powerful influence on the Council of Scotland and such a general Command over all that Nation that his pleasure amongst them past for Law and his words for Oracles all matters of Grace and Favour ascribed to him matters of harshness or distate to the King or Canterbury To speak the matter in a word he was grown King of Scots in Fact though not in Title His Majesty being looked on by them as a Cypher only in the Arithmetick of State But notwithstanding their confidence in all these Items taking in the Imprimis too they might have reckoned without their Host in the Summa Tetalis the English Nation being generally disaffected to them and passionately affecting the Kings quarrel against them The sense and apprehension of so many indignities prevailed upon the King at last to unsheath the Sword more justly in it self and more justifiably in the sight of others the Rebels having rejected all 〈◊〉 oâ—â—ers of Grace and Favour and growing the more insolent by his Condescensions So that resolved or rather forced upon the War he must bethink himself of means to go thorow with it To which end Burrows the Principal King of Arms is commanded to search into the Records of the Tower and to return an Extract of what he found relating to the War of Scotland which he presented to the Archbishop in the end of December to this effect viz. 1. That such Lords and others as had Lands and Livings upon the Borders were commanded to reside there with their Retinue and those that had Castles there were enjoined to Fortifie them 2. That the Lords of the Kingdom were Summoned by Writ to attend the Kings Army with Horse and Armour at a certain time and place according to their Service due to the King or repair to the Exchequer before that day and make Fine for their Service As also were all Widows Dowagers of such Lords as were deceased and so were all Bishops and Ecclesiastical Persons 3. That Proclamations were likewise made by Sheriffs in every County That all men holding of the King by Knights-Service or Sergeancy should come to the Kings Army or make Fines as aforesaid with a strict command That none should conceal their Service under a great Penalty 4. As also That all men having 40 l. Land per Annum should come to the Kings Army with Horse and Armour of which if any failed to come or to make Fine their Lands Tenements Goods and Chattels were distrained by the Sheriâ—f upon Summons out of the Exchequer 5. That Commissions should be issued out for Levying of Men in every County and bringing them to the Kings
Army That the like be done for Mustering and Arraying the Clergy throughout England or otherwise to furnish the King with a proportion of Armed Men for the present Service 6. That Writs be issued out into all Counties for certifying the King what number of Horse and Foot every County could afford him in his Wars with Scotland 7. The like also to the Borders requiring them to come unto the Kings Army well armed Commissions to be made for punishing such as refused 8. That the Sheriffs of the Counties were commanded by Writ to make Provisions of Corn and Victuals for the Kings Army and to cause them to be carried to the place appointed The like Command sent to the Merchants in the Port-Towns of England and Ireland and the Ships of the Subject taken to Transport such Provisions to the place assigned 9. Several Sums of Money raised by Subsidies and Fifteens from the English Subject and Aid of Money given and lent by the Merchant-Strangers toward the Maintenance of the War 10. That the King used to suspend the payment of his Debts for a certain time in regard of the great occasions he had to use Money in the Wars of Scotland Other Memorials were returned to the same effect but these the principal According to these Instructions his Majesty directs his Letters to the Temporal Lords his Writs to the High-Sheriffs his Orders to the Lord-Lieutenants and Deputy-Lieutenants in their several Counties his Proclamations generally to all his Subjects Requiring of them all such Aids and Services in his present Wars as either by Laws oâ— Ancient Customs of the Land they were bound to give him He caused an Order also to be made by the Lords of the Council directed to the two Archbishops Ianuary 29. by which they were Required and Commanded To write their several and â—espâ—ctive Letters to all the Lords Bishops in their several Provinces respectively forthwith to convene before them all the Clergy oâ— Ability in their Diocesses and to incite them by such ways and means as shall be thought best by their Lordships to aid and assist his Majesty with their speedy and liberal Contributions and otherwise for defence of his Royal Person and of this Kingdom And that the same be sent to the Lord Treasurer of England with all diliâ—ence Subscribed by the Lord Keeper Coventry the Bishop of London Lord Treasurer the Earl of Manchester Lord Privy Seal tâ—â— Duke of Lenox the Earl of Lindsey Lord Great Chamberlain tâ—â— Earl of Arundel Earl-Marshal the Earl of Dorset Lord Chamberlain to the Queen the Earl oâ— Pembroke Lord Chamberlain to the King the Earl of Holland Chancellor of Cambridge Cottington Maâ—ter of the Wards Vane Treasurer of the Houshold Cooke and Winâ—â—bank the two Principal Secretaries Which Warrant whether it proceeded from the Kings own motion or was procured by the Archbishop himself to promote the Service is not much material Certain I am that he conformed himself unto it with a chearful diligence and did accordingly direct his Letters to his Suffragan Bishops in this â—ollowing â—orm My very good Lord I Have received an Order from the Lords of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council giving me notice of the great Preparations made by sâ—me of Scotland both of Arms and all other Necessaries for War And that this can have no other end than to invade or annoy this his Majesties Kingdom of England For his Majesty having a good while since most graciously â—ielded to their Demands for securing the Religion by Law established amongst them hath made it appear to the World That it is not Religion but Sedition that stirs in them and fills them with this most irreligious Disobedience which at last breaks forth into a high degree of Treason against their Lawful Sovereign In this Case of so great danger both to the State and Church of England your Lordships I doubt not and your Clergie under you will not only be vigilant against the close Workings of any Pretenders in that kind but very free also to your Power and Proportion of Means leâ—t to the Church to contribute toward the raising of such an Army as by Gods Blâ—ssing and his Majesties Care may secure this Church and Kingdom from all intended Violence And according to the Order sent unto me by the Lords a Copy whereof you shall herewith receive these are to pray your Lordship to give a good Example in your own Person and with all convenient speed to call your Clergie and the abler Schoolmasters as well those which are in Peculiars as others and excite them by your self and such Commissioners as you will answer for to contribute to this Great and Necessary Service in which if they give not a good Example they will be much to blame But you are to call no poor Curates nor Stipendaries but such as in other Legal ways of Payment have been and are by Order of Law bound to pay The Proportion I know not well how to prescribe you but I hope they of your Clergie whom God hath blessed with better Estates than Ordinary will give freely and thereby help the want of Means in others And I hope also your Lordship will so order it as that every man will at the least give after the Proportion of 3 s. 10 d. in the Pound of the valuation of his Living or other Preferment in the Kings Books And this I thought fit to lâ—â— you further know That if any man have double Benefices or a Benefice and a Prebend or the like in divers Diocesses yet your Lordship must call upon them only for such Preferments as they have within your Diocess and leave them to pay for any other which they hold to the Bishop in whose Diocess their Preferments are As for the time your Lordship must use all the diligence you can and send up the Moneys if it be possible by the first of May next And for your Indempnity the Lord Treasurer is to give you such discharge by striking a Tally or Tallies upon your several Payments into the Exchequer as shall be fit to sâ—cure you without your Charge Your Lordship must further be pleased to send up a List of the Names of such as refuse this Service within their Diocess but I hope none will put you to that trouble It is further expected That your Lordship and every other Bishop express by it self and not in the general Sum of his Clergie that which himself gives And of this Service you must not fail So to Gods blessed Protection I leave you and rest Your Lordships very Loving Friend and Brother WILL. CANT Lambeth Ian. ult 1638. On the receiving of these Letters the Clergy were Convented in their several Diocesses encouraged by their several Ordinaries not to be wanting to his Majesty in the Present Service and divers Preparations used beforehand to dispose them to it which wrougâ—t so powerfully and effectually on the greatest part of them those which wish'd well unto the Scots seeming
as forward in it as any other that their Contributions mounted higher than was expected The Benevolence of the Diocess of Norwich only aâ—ounting to 2016 l. 16 s. 5 d. The Archdâ—acorry of Winchester only to the sum of 1305 l. 5 s. 8 d. And though we may not conclude of all the rest by the greatness of thâ—se yet may it be very safely said that they did all exceeding bountifully in their several proportions with reference to the extent of their Diocesses and the ability of their Estates Nor were the Judges of the several Benches of the Courts at Westminster and the great Officers under them Protonotaries Secondaries and the like deficient in expressing their good aâ—â—ections to this general cause in which the safety of the Realm was as much concerned as his Majesties honour And for the Doctors of the Laws Chancellors Commissaries Officials and other Officers belonging to the Ecclesiastical Courts they were spurred on to follow the example of the Secular Judges as having a more particular concernment in it by a Letter sent from the Archbishop to the Dean of the Arches on February 11. and by him communicated to the rest By which Free-will offerings on the one side some commanded duties on the other and the well-husbanding of his Majesties Revenue by the Lord Treasurer Iuxon he was put into such a good condition that he was able both to raise and maintain an Army with no charge to the Common Subject but only a little Coat and Conduct money at their first setting out These preparations were sufficient to give notice of a War approaching without any further denouncing of it by a publick Herald and yet there was another accident which seemed as much to fore-signifie it as those preparations Mary de Medices the Widow of King Henry iâ— of France and Mother to the Queens of England and Spain arrived at Harwich on October 19. and on the last of the same was with great State conducted through the Streets of London to his Majesties Palace of St. Iames. A Lady which for many years had not lived out of the smell of Powder and a guard of Muskets at her door embroyled in wars and troubles when she lived in France and drew them after her into Flanders where they have ever since continued So that most men were able to presage a Tempest as Mariâ—eâ—s by the appearing of some Fish or the flying of some Birds about their ships can foresee a storm His Majesty had took great care to prevent her comming knowing â—ull well how chargeable a guest she would prove to him and how unwelcome to the Subject To which end â—eswel was commanded to use all his wits for perswading her to stay in Holland whither she had retired from Flanders in the year precedent But she was wedded to her will and possibly had received such invitations from her Daughter here that nothing but everlasting foul weather at Sea and a perpetual cross-wind could have kept her there All things provided for the War his Majesty thought sit to satisfie his good Subjects of both Kingdoms not only of the Justice which appeared in this Action but in the unavoydable necessity which enforced him to it To which end he acquaints them by his Proclamation of the 20 of February How traiterously some of the Scottish Nation had practiced to pervert his Loyal Subjects of this Realm by scattering abroad their Libellous and Seditious Pamphlets mingling themselves at their publick meetings and reproaching both his Person and Government That he had never any intention to alter their Religion or Laws but had condescended unto more for defence thereof than they had reason to expect That they had rejected the Band and Covenant which themselves had prest upon the people because it was commended to them by his Authority and having made a Covenant against God and him and made such Hostile preparations as if he were their sworn Enemy and not their King That many of them were men of broken Fortunes who because they could not well be worse hoped by engaging in this War to make themselves better That they had assumed unto themselves the power of the Press one of the chief markes of the Regal Authority prohibiting to Print what he commanded and commanding to Print what he prohibited and dismiâ—â—ng the Printer whom he had established in that Kingdom That they had raised Arms blockt up and besieged his Castles laid Impositions and Taxes upon his people threatned such as continued under Loyalty with force and violence That they had contemned the Authority of the Council Table and set up Tables of their own from which they send their Edâ—cts throughout all parts of the Kingdom contrary to the Laws therein established pretending in the mean time that the Laws were violated by himself That the question was not now whether the Service-Book should be received or not or whether Episcopacy should continue or not but whether he were King or not That many of them had denied the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance for which some of them had been committed as inconsistent and incompatible with their holy Covenant That being brought under a necessity of taking Arms he had been traduced in some of their writings for committing the Arms he had then raised into the hands of professed Papists a thing not only dishonourable to himself and the said noble persons but false and odious in it self That some of power in the Hierarchy had been defamed for being the cause of his taking Arms to invade that Kingdom who on the contrary had been only Counsellors of peace and the chief perswaders as much as in them lay of the undeserved moderation wherewith he had hitherto proceeded toward so great Offenders That he had no intent by commending the Service-Book unto them to innovate any thing at all in their Religion but only to create a conformity between the Churches of both Kingdoms and not to infringe any of their Liberties which were according to the Laws That therefore he required all his loving Subjects not to receive any more of the said seditious Pamphlets but to deliver such of them as they had received into the hands of the next Justice of the Peace by him to be sent to one of his Majesties principal Secretaries And finally That this his Proclamation and Declaration be read in time of Divine Service in every Church within the Kingdom that all his People to the meanest might see the notorious carriages of these men and likewise the Justice and Mercy of all his proceedings And now his Majesty is for Action beginning his Journey towards the North March 27. being the Anniversary day of his Inauguration His Army was advanced before the best for quality of the Persons compleatness of Arms number of serviceable Horse and necessary Provision of all sorts that ever waited on a King of England to a War with Scotland Most of the Nobility attended on him in their Persons and such as were to be
carrying on of the War the Earl of Essex was Commanded by his Majesty at his first coming to York to put a Garrison into Berwick and to take with him such Provisions of Canon Arms and Ammunition as were assigned for that Imployment Which as he chearfully undertook so he couragiously performed it notwithstanding all the terrours and affrightments which he found in his March For being encountred in his way with the Earls of Roxborough Traquaire and the rest of the Scots then going to York they laboured all they could to disswade him from it assuring him That either the Scots would be in the Town before him or that their whole Army would be so near that he must needs run the hazard of losing all without doing any thing Which notwithstanding he went on entred the Town repaired the Breaches in the Walls and placed his Cannon on the same proceeding in the Work as became a Souldier With less fidelity and courage dealt the Earl of Holland at the Kings coming near the Borders where long he had not been encamped when he had Intelligence that the Scots Army was advancing on which Advertisement he dispatch'd Holland with a great Body of Horse to attend upon them Lesly had drawn his Army into a very large Front his Files exceeding thin and shallow but intermingled with so many Ensigns as if every twenty or thirty men had been a Regiment and behind all a great Herd of Cattel which raised up so much dust with their feet as did cloud the Stratagem Holland dismayed with such a formidable appearance or being afraid that his great Horse would be under-ridden with the Galloway Nags sent Messenger after Messenger to acquaint the King with his present condition who sent him order to draw off and retire again and not to hazard himself and the Forces under him on such a visible disadvantage How Hamilton behaved himself we are next to see who having anchored his Fleet in the Frith of Edenborough and landing some of his spent men in a little Island to give them breath and some refreshments received a Visit from his Mother a most rigid and pragmatical Covenanter the Scots upon the shore saying with no small laughter That they knew the Son of so good a Mother could not do them hurt And so it proved for having loytered thereabouts to no purpose till he heard that the Treaty of the Pacification was begun neer Berwick he left his Ships and came in great haste as it was pretended to disturb the business which was to be concluded before he came thither For so it hapned That as soon as Essex had brought his Forces into Berwick the Scots began to fear the approaching danger which they had drawn upon themselves and thereupon some Chiefs amongst them addressed their Letters to him on the 19th of April laying the cause of all these Troubles to some ill Countrymen of their own whom they conceived to have provoked the King against them endeavouring to make the Remedy of their Evils and the scope of their deserved Punishment the beginning of an incurable Disease betwixt the two Nations to whom the Quarrel should in no way extend They complained also That there were many of the English in Place and Credit whose Private Byass did run clean contrary to the Publick Good such as did rise early to poyson the Publick Fountain and to sow the Tares of unhappy Jealousies and Discords between the Kingdoms before the good Seed of our Love and Respect to the English Nation could take place in their hearts They declared next how strange and unexpected it was unto them to see his Forces drawn toward the Borders which they could not but interpret as a pregnant presumption of some further Project against their Nation by his Power which must needs cause them to bestir themselves in time for their own preservation And though they gave themselves some assurance grounded upon the Reputation of his former Life that his Lordship would be very wary to begin the Quarrel at which Enemies only would rejoyce and catch advantage yet at the last fearing that neither Threats nor Complements would do the business they fall to a downright begging of a Pacification For having taken God to witness That they desired no National Quarrel to arise betwixt them or to taste any of the bitter Fruit which might set their Childrens Teeth on edge They professed themselves obliged in conscience to God their Prince Nation and Brethren to try all just and lawful means for the removal of all Causes of Diâ—â—erence betwixt the two Nations and to be always ready to oâ—fer the occasion of greater Satisfaction for clearing of their Loyal Intentions to their Prince and to all those whom it may concern â—ut more particularly to his Lordship in regard of his Place and Command at that time And this to do by any means whatsoever which should be thought expedient on both sides But Essex though perhaps he might like their Cause did not love their Nation the Affront put upon him by Carr Earl of Somerset running still in his mind so that the Practice edified very little with him for ought I can find whatsoever it might do with others about the King to whom the Letter was communicated which in duty he was bound to do on the first receiving With greater comfort they applied themselves to the Earl of Arundel whom at first they feared more than all the rest but had now placed the greatest part of their confidence on him For whilst the Puritans in both Kingdoms stood at a gaze upon the Issue of this War one Mosely Vicar of Newark upon Trent obtained leave to pass through the Army into Scotland A man of zeal enough to be put upon any business which the wiser ones durst not be seen in and of such silliness withal that no body could fear any danger from him By this Man as appears by their Letter they understood of his Lordships particular Affection to the continuance of the Common Peace betwixt the Nations being before assured of his Noble Disposition in the general as the Letter words it And this being said they signifie unto him and wish that they could do the like to all the good Subjects of England That they were neither weary of Monarchical Government nor had entertained the least thougâ—â—s of casting of the yoke of Obedience or invading England That they desired nothing else than peaceably to enjoy their Religion and the Liberties of their Country according to the Laws and that all Questions about the same might be decided by Parliament and National Assemblies which they conceived his Lordship would judge to be most equitable and for which no National Quarrel as they hoped could justly arise And finally That they had sent him a Copy of the Supplication which they intended to present unto the King as soon as he was prepared for it to the end that by the mediation of his Lordship and other Noble Lords of England
on the Earl of Argile who had declared himself for the Covenanters at the Assembly at Glasco resolved to stand to the Conclusion which he brought along with him though he found himself unable to make good the Premises so that some days being unprofitably spent in these debates the Archbishop and the rest of the Committee made a report of the whole business to the rest of the Council who upon full consideration of all particulars came to this Result That since the Scots could not be reclaimed to their obedience by other means they were to be reduced by Force This was no more then what the Scots could give themselves Reason to expect and therefore they bestirred themselves as much on the other side Part of the Walls of the Castle of Edenborough with all the Ordnance upon it had fallen down on the nineteenth of November last being the Anniversary day of his Majesties Birth not without some presage of that ill fortune which befel him in the course of this War for the Repair whereof they would neither suffer Timber nor any other Materials to be carried to it but on the contrary they began to raise Works and Fortifications against it with an intent to block it up and render it unuseful to his Majesties Service And to keep the Souldiers therein Garrisoned most of them English to hard meats they would not suffer them to come into the Market to recruit their Victuals They made Provisions of great quantity of Artillery Munition and Arms from Foreign Parts laid Taxes of ten Marks in the hundred upon all the Subjects according to their several Revenues which they Levied with all cursed Rigour though bruiting them abroad to be Free-will Offerings scattered abroad many Seditious and Scandalous Pamphlets for justifying themselves and seducing others some of which were burnt in England by the hand of the Hangman Fortified Inchgarvie and other places which they planted with Ordnance Imprisoned the Earl of Southesk and other Persons of Quality for their fidelity to the King took to themselves the Government of the City of Edenborough contrary to their Charters and Immunities by which the Citizens were disabled from serving his Majesty in any of his just Commands and finally employed their Emissaries in all Parts of England to disswade those who were too backward of themselves from contributing to the War against them and to sollicit from them such several Aids as might the better enable them to maintain the War against their Sovereign But their chief Correspondence was with France and Ireland In France they had made sure of Cardinal of Richelieu who Governed all Affairs in that Kingdom Following the Maxim of Queen Elizabeth in securing the Peace of his own Country by the Wars of his Neighbours he practised the Revolt of Portugal and put the Catalonians into Arms against their King to the end that he might waste the fiery Spirit of the French in a War on Flanders with the better fortune and success But knowing that it was the Interest of the Crown of England to hold the Balance even between France and Spain and that his Majesty by removing the Ships of Holland which lay before Duynkirk Anno 1635. had hindred the French from making such a Progress by Land as might have made them Masters of the Spanish Netherlands he held it a chief piece of State-Craft as indeed it was to excite the Scots against their King and to encourage them to stand it out unto the last being so excited Upon which ground he sent Chamberlain a Scot by Birth his Chaplain and Almoner to assist the Confederates in advancing the business and to attempt all ways for exasperating the first heat with Order not to depart from them till things succeeding as he wished he might return with good News And on the same appointed one of his Secretaries to reside in Scotland to march along with them into England to be present at all Councils of War and direct their business And on the other side Hamiltons Chaplains had free accesses unto Con the same Countryman also at such time as Chamberlain was Negotiating for the Cardinal to â—oment the Flames which had begun to rage already And by a Letter subscribed by the Earl of Rothes and others of chief note amongst the Covenanters they craved the Assistance of that King cast themselves upon his Protection beseeching him to give credit to Colvill the Bearer thereof whom they had instructed in all Particulars which concerned their Condition and Desires In Ireland they had a strong Party of Natural Scots planted in Vlster by King Iames upon the forfeited Estates of Tir-Owen Tir-Connel Odighirtie c. not Scots in Birth and Parentage only but Design and Faction But Wentworth was not to be told of their secret Practices he saw it in their general disposition to Schism and Faction and was not unacquainted with their old Rebellions It must be his care that they brake not into any new which he performed with such a diligent and watchful eye that he crushed them in the very beginning oâ— the Combination seising upon such Ships and Men as came thither from Scotland Imprisoning some Fining others and putting an Oath upon the rest By which Oath they were bound to abjure the Covenant not to be aiding to the Covenanters against the King nor to Protest against any of his Royal Edicts as their Brethren in Scotland used to do For the refusing of which Oath he Fined one Sir Henry Steward and his Wife Persons of no less Power than Disaffection at no less than 5000 l. apiece two of their Daughters and one Iames Gray of the same Confederacy at the Sum of 3000 l. apiece committing them to Prison for not paying the Fines imposed upon them All which he justified when he was brought unto his Trial on good Reasons of State There being at that time one hundred thousand Souls in Ireland of the Scottish Nation most of them passionately affected to the Cause of the Covenanters and some of them conspiring to betray the Town and Castle of Carickfergus to a Nobleman of that Country for which the Principal Conspirator had been justly Executed Nor staid he here but he gave finally a Power to the Bishop of Down and Connor and other Bishops of that Kingdom and their several Chancellors to attach the Bodies of all such of the meaner sort who either should refuse to appear before them upon Citation or to perform all Lawful Decrees and Orders made by the said Bishops and their Chancellors and to commit them to the next Gaol till they should conform or answer the Contempt at the Council-Table By means whereof he made the poorer sort so pliant and obedient to their several Bishops that there was good hopes of their Conformity to the Rules of the Church Having thus carried on the affairs of Scotland till the end of this year we must return to our Archbishop whom we shall find intent on the preservation of the
also with higher promises that he might corrupt his sincere mind yet a fitting occasion was never offered whereby he might insinuate himself into the Lord Archbishop to whom free access was to be impetrated by the Earl and Countess of Arundel as also by Secretary Windebank all whose intercessions he neglected and did shun as it were the Plague the company or Familiarity of Con. He was also sollicited by others of no mean Rank well known to him and yet he continued unmovable And whereas some found a way to help at last by making Windebank the Internuncio betwixt him and them that only serves to make the matter rather worse than better there being a great strangeness grown betwixt him and Windebank not only before Con's coming into the Realm but before Panzani had settled any course of intelligence in the Court of England As for his favours towards those of the Catholick Party and his connivence of their Practices which is next objected as he had good reason for the one so there could be no reason to object the other He had good reason for the one viz. That by shewing favours to the Papists here they might obtain the like favours for such Protestants as lived in the Dominion of Popish Princes Upon which ground King Iames extended many favours to them in his time as opinions as that Writer makes them appears first by the Testimony of the Archbishop of Spalato declaring in the High Commission a little beâ—ore â—iâ—â—oing hence that he acknowledged the Articles of the Church to be true or profitable at the least and none of them to be Heretical It appears secondly by a Tractate of Franciscus a Sancta Clara as he calls himself in which he pâ—tteth such a gloss upon the 39 Articles of the Church of England as rendreth them not inconsistent with the Doctrines of the Church of Rome And iâ— without prejudice to the truth the controversies might have been composed it is most probable that other Protestant Churches would have suâ—d by their Agents to be included in the Peace if not the Church of England had lost nothing by it as being hated by the Calvinists and not loved by the Lutherans Admitting then that such a Reconciliation was endeavoured betwixt the Agents for both Churches Let us next see what our great States-men have discoursed upon that particular upon what terms the Agreement was to have been made and how far they proceeded in it And first the book entituled the Popes Nuncio affirmed to have been written by a Venetian Ambassador at his being in England doth discourse it tâ—us As to a Reconciliation saith he between the Churches of England and Rome there were made some general Propositions and overtures by the Archbishops Agents they assuring that his Grace was very much disposed thereunto and that if it was not accomplisht in his life time it would prove a work of more difficulty after his death that in very truth for the last three years the Archbishop had introduced some Innovations approaching â—ear the Rites and Forms of Rome that the Bishop of Chichester a great Confident of his Grace the Lord Treasurer and eight other Bishops of his Graces party did most passionately desire a Reconciliation with the Church of Rome that they did day by day receed from their Ancient Tenents to accommodate with the Church of Rome that therefore the Pope on his part ought to make some steps to meet them and the Court of Romeâ—â—mit â—â—mit something of its Rigor in Doctrine or otherwise no accord would be The composition on both sides in so good a forwardness before Panzam leâ—t the Kingdom that the Archbishop and and Bishop of Chichester had often said that there were but two sorts of People likely to impede and hinder the Reconciliation to wit the Puritans amongst the Protestants and the Iesuites amongst the Catholicks Let us next see the judgement and Relation of another Author in a gloss or Comment on the Former intituled the English Pope Printed at London in the same year 1643. And he will tells us that after Con had undertook the managing of the affairs matters began to grow toward some agreement The King required saith he such a dispensation from the then Pope as that his Catholick Subjects might resort to the Protestant Churches and to take the oaths of Supremacy and Fidelity and that the Popes Jurisdiction here should be declared to be but of humane Right And so far had the Pope consented that whatsoever did concern the King therein should have been really performed so far forth as other Catholick Princes usually enjoy and expect as their due and so far as the Bishops were to be Independent both from King and Pope there was no fear of breach on the Popes part So that upon the point the Pope was to content himself amongst us in England with a Priority instead of a Superiority over other Bishops and with a Primacy in stead of a Supremacy in thâ—se parts of Christendom which I conceive no man of Learning and Sobriety would have grudged to grant him It was also condescended to in the name of the Pope that marriage might be permitted to Priests that the Communion might be Administred sub utraque specie and that the Liturgy might be officiated in the English tongue And though the Author adds not long after that it was to be suspected That so far as the inferiour Clergy and the people were concerned the after-performance was to be leâ—t to the Popes Discretion yet this was but his own suspicion without ground at all And to obtain a Reconciliation upon these Advantages the Archbishop had all the Reason in the world to do as he did in ordering the Lords Table to be placed where the Altar stood and making the accustomed Reverence in all approaches towards it and accesses to it in beautifying and adorning Churches and celebrating the Divine Service with all due Solemnities in taking care that all offensive and exasperating passages should be expunged out of such Books as were brought to the Press and for reducing the extravagancy of some opinions to an evener temper His Majesty had the like Reason also for tolerating Lawful Recreations on the Sundays and Holy-days The rigorous Restraint whereof made some Papists think those most especially of the vulgar sort whom it most concerned that all honest Pastime were incompetible with our Religion And if he approved Auricular Confession and shewed himself willing to introduce it into the use of the Church as both our Authors say he did it is no more then what the Liturgy Commends to the care of the Penitent though we find not the word Auricular in it or what the Canons have provided for in the point of security for such as shall be willing to confess themselves But whereas we are told by one of our Authors that the King should say he would use force to make it be received were it not for fear of Sedition
amongst the People yet is but in one of our Authors neither who hath no other Author for it then a nameless Doctor And in the way towards so happy an agreement though they all stand accused for it by the English Pope pag. 15. Sparrow may be excused for placing it with Auricular Confession and Wâ—llâ— for for Penance Heylyn for Adoration toward the Altar and Mountague for such a qualified praying to Saints as his books maintain against the Papists If you would know how far they had proceeded towards this happy Reconciliation the Popes Nuncio will assure us thus That the Vniversities Bishops and Divines of this Realm did dayly embrace Catholick Opinions though they profess'd not so much with Pen or Mouth for fear of the Puritans For example they hold That the Church of Rome is a true Church That the Pope is Superiour to all Bishops That to him it appertains to call General Councils That it is lawful to pray for the Soul of the Departed That Altars ought to be erected of Stone In sum That they believe all that is taught by the Church but not by the Court of Rome Another of their Authors tells us as was elsewhere noted That those amongst us of greatest Worth Learning and Authority began to love Temper and Moderation That their Doctrines began to be altered in many things for which their Progenitors forsook the Visible Church of Christ as for example The Pope not Antichrist Prayers for the Dead Limbus Patrum Pictures That the Church hath Authority in determining Controversies of Faith and to interpret Scriptures about Free will Predestination Universal Grace That all our Works are not Sins Merit of Good Works Inherent Iustice Faith alone doth justifie Charity to be preferred before Knowledge The Authority of Traditions Commandments possible to be kept That in Exposition of the Scripture they are by Canon bound to follow the Fathers And that the once fearful Names of Priests and Altars are used willingly in their Talk and Writings In which Compliances so far forth as they speak the truth for in some Points through the ignorance of the one and the malice of the other they are much mistaken there is scarce any thing which may not very well consist with the established though for a time discontinued Doctrine of the Church of England the Articles whereof as the same Iesuit hath observed seem patient or ambitious rather of some sense wherein they may seem Catholick And such a sense is put upon them by him that calls himself Franciscus a Sacta Clara as before was said And if upon such Compliances as those before on the part of the English the Conditions offered by the Pope might have been confirmed Who seeth not that the greatest Benefit of the Reconciliation would have redounded to this Church to the King and People His Majesties Security provided for by the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance so far as it concerned his Temporal Power The Bishops of England to be independent of the Popes of Rome The Clergy to be permitted the use of Marriage The People to receive the Communion in both KINDS and all Divine Offices officiated in the English Tongue No Innovation made in Doctrine but only in the qualifying of some Expressions and discharging some Out-landish Glosses as were put upon them And seeing this What man could be so void of Charity so uncompassionate of the Miseries and Distractions of Christendom as not to wish from the very bottom of his Soul That the Reconciliation had proceeded upon so good Terms as not to magnifie the men to succeeding Ages who were the Instruments and Authors of so great a Blessing But then admitting as we may That no such Reconciliation was upon the Anvil and that our two Discoursers have proceeded only upon Suppositions yet Canterbury had good ground for what he did were it no other than the settling of the Church of England upon the first Principles and Positions of her Reformation But he had further aims than so He had some thoughts and I have reason to believe it by Conferences first and if that failed by the ordinary course of Ecclesiastical Censures of gaining the Papists to the Church and therefore it concerned him in point of Prudence to smooth the way by removing all such Blocks and Obstacles which had been laid before them by the Puritan Faction He knew that from their Infancy they had been trained up in a Regular Order of Devotion and that they loved that Religion best which came accompanied with Decency and External Splendour That they objected nothing more against us than the Novelty of our Doctrine the Heterodoxies maintained in Publick by some of our Preachers the slovenly keeping of our Churches the Irreverence of the People in them the rude and careless slubbering over of our Common Prayers And what Encouragements had they for resorting to the Congregation when they should hear the Pope defamed whom they behâ—ld with Reverence as their Common Father their Ceremonies to be counted Antichristian their Mass â—â—â—latrous their whole Religion worse than that of the Turks and Moors conâ—ormity to whom in Rites and Ceremonies was held to be more tolerable by the Puritan Preachers than to those of Rome These â—ubs were first to be removed before they could have any thoughts of uniting to us And for the removing of those Rubs he â—â—ll up on the courses before-mentioned which being Renovations only of some ancient Usages were branded by the odious name of Innovations by some of those who out of cunning and design had long disused them Some zealous Protestants beheld his Actings with no small fear as byaâ—sing too strongly toward Rome that the Puritans exclaimed against him for a Papist and the Papists cried him up for theirs and gave themselves some flattering hopes of our coming towards them But the most knowing and understanding men amongst them found plainly That nothing could tend more to their destruction than the introducing of some Ceremonies which by late negligence and Practice had been discontinued For I have heard from a Person of known Nobility That at his being at Rome with a Father of the English Colledge one of the Novices came in and told him with a great deal of joy That the English were upon returning to the Church of Rome That they began to set up Altars to Officiate in their Copes to Adorn their Churches and to paint the Pictures of the Saints in the Church Windows To which the old Father made Reply with some indignation That he talked like an ignorant Novice That these Proceedings rather tended to the Ruine than Advancement of the Catholick Cause That by this means the Church of England coming nearer to the ancient Usages the Catholicks there would sooner be drawn off from them than any more of that Nation would fall off to Rome In reference to Doctrinal Points Heterodoxies and new Opinions and such extravagant Expressions both from Press and Pulpit he took as much
what his Pleasure was for the Prosecution of the business And so far both the King and he had very good Reason to be sensible of the dangers which were threatned to them But when the large discovery was brought unto him transmitted in Boswel's letter of the 15th oâ— Octob. â—e found some names in it which discredited the whole Relation as well in his Majesties Judgement as his own For besides his naming of some profest Papists as the Dutches of Buckingham the Countesses of Arundel and Newport Mountague Digby and Winter oâ— whose Fidelity the King was not willing to have any suspicion 〈◊〉 named the Earl of Arundel Windebank Principal Secretarie of State and Porter one of the Grooms of the Bed-Chamber whom 〈◊〉 charged to be the Kings utter enemies and such as betrayed his secrets to the Popes Nuncio upon all occasions all which his 〈◊〉 beheld as men of most approved Loyalty and affections to him By reason whereof no further credit being given to the Advertisement which they had from Boswel the danger so much scared at first became more slighted and neglected then consisted with his Majesties safety and the condition of the times which 〈◊〉 apt to mischief For though the Party who first brake the â—ee to this Intelligence might be mistaken in the names of some of the Accomplices which were interessed in the designe whose Relations unto those of the Church of Rome might give some ground for the mistake yet the calamities which soon after â—ell upon them both the deplorable death of the Archbishop first and his Majesty afterwards declare sufficiently that there was some greater Reality in the Plot then the King was willing to believe But it â—ad been a Maxime with King Iames his Father That Suspicion was the sickness and disease of a Tyrant which laid him open to all the subtle Practices of malicious cunning And it had been taken up by this King for an Axiom also That it was better to be deceived than to distrust which paved a plain and easie way to all those misfortunes which in the whole course of his Reign especially for ten years last past had been brought upon him And as for Canterbury himself he had so many dangers threatned from the Puritan Faction as made him bend his whole thoughts to prevent their Practices who had already declared their Purpose towards his Destruction For a bruiâ—e being maliciously spread abroad that the late Parliament had been dissolved by his Procurement the Rabble became so inâ—lamed that a Paper was pasted up at the Exchange on Saterday the ninth of May advising and animating the Apprentices to Sack his House at Lambeth on the Munday following This gave him a sufficient warning to expect a storm and to prepare himself against it which he did with so much care and courage that though he was assaulted that night with a confused Raskal Rabble of five hundred persons yet they were not able either to force the House or do any visible harm unto it The next day he procured some pieces of Cannon which he caused to be planted for defence of the great Gate which leads into the house and strengthned all the lesser doors which opened towards the Garden and other places so that there was no danger to be feared from the like alarms though prudently he withdrew to his Chamber at Whitehall till the Rage of the People was blown over Some of the principal Actors in this Sedition being apprehended and committed to the Goal in Southwark were forcibly delivered by others of their Accomplices who brake open that and all the other Prisons in that Precinct for which one Benslead who appeared in the head of that Riot was on the 21. of May condemned for Treason and was accordingly drawn hanged and quartered for a terrour to others Which seasonable Execution put an end to the Outrage but not to the malice of the People Libels against him being scattered in most parts of the City For though about the end of August a Paper was dropt in the Covent Garden encouraging the Souldiers and Apprentices to fall upon him in the Kings Absence his Majesty being then newly gone against the Scots yet there was no Tumult raised upon it the People standing in more fear of the Hangman than to expose themselves again to the Knife and Halter Howsoever thinking it as unsafe as it was imprudent to tempt the Rabble to bestow another visit on him at his house in Lambeth he gave order that the High Commission should be kept in St. Pauls and he did well and wisely in it For the Commissioners sitting there on October 22. were violently assaulted by a mixt multitude of Prâ—wnists Anabaptists and Puritans of all sorts to the number of 2000. and upwards crying out they would have no Bishops nor no High Commission In which Tumult having frighted away the Judges Advocates and Officers of the Court they brake down all the Seats and Benches which they found in the Consistory putting the King to a new necessity of keeping a Guard upon that Church as before at Westminster not only at the next sitting of the said Commissioners but at the first meeting of the Convocation which soon after followed And though one Quatreman had appeared in the head of this company and animated all the rest to commit these insolencies yet there was nothing done in order to his Punishment or Apprehension the Party being grown so audacious in their disorders partly upon the near approach of the Parliament but principally by the coming in of the Scots that they contemned the Law and defied the Magistrates For the Scots being put into a stock of Reputation by the Kings Recalling of his Forces the year before had took up store of Arms and Ammunition as before was said upon days of Payment Advertised of his Majesties Preparation to make war upon them and confident oâ— a strong party which they had in England they entred the Realm in hostile manner taking in all places of importance which they found in their way And having put by his Majesties Forces near a place called Newbourn they past over the Tine and presently made themselves Masters of the strong Town of New-Castle by which they put a bridle into the mouths of the Londoners his Majesties Forces looking on or not very far distant The news of this Invasion being brought to the King on August 20. he began a Posting Journey towards his Army in the North But he neither found the same men nor the same affections as he had so unfortunately discharged the year before Many of these Souldiers being so ill principled or so ill perswaded that in their marchings through the Country they brake into Churches pulled up the Railes threw down the Communion Tables defac'd the Common-Prayer-Books tore the Surplices and committed many other Acts of outragious insolence The chief Command he had entrusted to the Earl of Northumberland whom he had before made Admiral of his Royal Navy for defence
signed with the same Penful of Ink for the continuance of the present Parliament during the pleasure of the Houses The Act thus past on Munday Morning the Earl was brought unto the Scaffold on the Wednesday following desiring earnestly but in vain to Exchange some words with the Archbishop before his Death Which gave occasion to a report that a little before his Death he had charged his misfortunes oversights and misdemeanours upon the Archbishop of Canterbury as the Prime Author of the same and had bitterly Curst the day of their first acquaintance Which being so scandalous and dishonourable to this great Prelate I shall lay down the whole truth in this particular as it came from the Archbishops own mouth in the presence of Balfore a Scot and then Lieutenant of the Tower who was required to attest to each period of it The Lord Strafford the night before the Execution sent for the Lieutenant of the Tower and asked him whether it were possible he might speak with the Archbishop The Lieutenant told him he might not do it without Order from the Parliament Whereupon the Earl replied You shall hear what passeth between us for it is not a time now either for him to plot Heresie or me to plot Treason The Lieutenant answered That he was limited and therefore desired his Lordship would Petition the Parliament for that Favour No said he I have gotten my dispatch from them and will trouble them no more I am now Petitioning an Higher Court wâ—ere neither partiality can be expected nor Error â—eared But my Lord said he turning to the Primate of Ireland whose company he had procured of the Houses in that fatal Exigent I will tell you what I should have spoken to my Lords Grace of Canterbury You shall desire the Archbishop to lend me his Prayers this night and to give me his Blessing when I do go abroad to morrow and to be in his Window that by my last Farewell I may give him thanks for this and all other his former Favours The Primate having delivered the Message without delay the Archbishop replied That in conscience he was bound to the first and in duty and obligation to the second but he feared his weakness and passion would not lend him eyes to behold his last Departure The next morning at his coming forth he drew near to the Archbishops Lodging and said to the Lieutenant Though I do not see the Archbishop yet give me leave I pray you to do my last observance towards his Rooms In the mean time the Archbishop advertised of his approach came out to the Window Then the Earl bowing himself to the ground My Lord said he your Prayers and your Blessing The Archbishop lift up his hands and bestowed both but overcome with grief fell to the ground in Animi deliquio The Earl bowing the second time said Farewell my Lord God protect your Innocency And because he feared that it might perhaps be thought an effeminacy or vnbecoming weakness in him to sink down in that manner he addâ—d That he hoped by Gods Assistance and his own Innocency that when he came to his own Execution which he daily longed for the World should perceive he had been more sensible of the Lord Strafford's Loss than of his own And good reason it should be so said he for the Gentleman was more serviceable to the Church he would not mention the State than either himself or any of all the Church-men had ever been A gallant Farewell to so eminent and beloved a Friend Thus march'd this Great Man to the Scaffold more like a General in the Head of an Army to breath out Victory than like a Condemned Man to undergo the Sentence of death The Lieutenant of the Tower desired him to take Coach for fear the People should rush in upon him and tear him in pieces No said he to the Lieutenant I dare look Death in the face and I hope the People too Have you a care that I do not escape and I care not how I die whether by the hand of the Executioner or the madness and fury of the People If that may give them better content it is all one to me In his last Speech upon the Scaâ—fold he declared That in all his Imployments since he had the honour to serve his Majesty he never had any thing in the purpose of his heart but what tended to the joynt and individual prosperity both of King and People That he was so far from being an Enemy to Parliaments which had been charged amongst his Crimes that he did always think the Parliaments of England to be the most happy Constitution that aâ—y Kingdom or Nation lived under and the best means under God to make the King and People happy That he acquitted all the World for his death heartily beseeching the God of Heaven to forgive all them that contrived it though in the intentions and purposes of his heart he was not guilty of the Oâ—fences which he was to die for That it was a great comfort to him that his Majesty conceived him not meriting so severe and heavy a Punishment as the utmost execution of this Sentence And finally after many other Expressions That he died a true Son of the Church of England in which he had been born and bred for the Peace and Prosperity whereof he most heartily prayed Turning his eyes unto his Brother Sir George Wentworth he desired him to charge his Son to fear God to continue an obedient Son to the Church of England and not to meddle with Church-Livings as that which would prove a Moth or Canker to him in his Estate And having several times recommended his prepared Soul to the Mercies of God he submiâ—ted his Neck with most Christian Magnanimity to the stroke of the 〈◊〉 which took his Head from him at one blow before he had filled up the number of fifty years A man on whom his Majesty looked as one whose great Abilities might rather make a Prince afraid than ashamed to employ him in the greatest Affairs of State â—or those were proâ—e to create in him great confidence of Undertakings and this was like enough to betray him to great Errors and many Enemies whereof he could not but contract good store while moving in so high a Sphere and with so vigorous a Lustre he must needs as the Sun raise many envious Exhalations which condensed by a Popular Odium were capable to cast a Cloud upon the highest Merit and Integrity So far he stood commended by the Pen of his sorrowful Sovereign who never could sufficiently â—â—waâ—l his own Infelicity in giving way unto an Act of such 〈…〉 justice as he calls it there of which he gives this Testimony in his Meditation on the Death of this unfortunate Earl That he wa◠〈◊〉 far from excusing or denying that Compliance on his part for plenary consent it was not to his destruction whom in his own judgment he thought not by any clear
Law guilty of death that he did never bear any touch of Conscience with greater regret which as a sign of his Repentance he had often with sorrow confessed both to God and Men as an Act of so sinful frailty that it discovered more a â—ar of Man than of God whose Name and Place on Earth no man is worthy to bear who will avoid Inconveniences of State by Acts of so high Injustice as no Publick Convenience can compâ—nsat◠〈◊〉 loss of this Gentlemans Life after such a manner so terrified 〈…〉 oâ— his Majesties Servants that as some had deserted him in 〈…〉 appearance of his Troubles so there were few that durst stand to him or put him upon â—â—solute or couragious Counsels when he most wanted such Assistance In which respect it was no 〈◊〉 matter for the Houses of Parliament to wire draw him by de 〈…〉 Conâ—â—secâ—sions as finally left the Church without any Authority and the Crown with little more Prerogative than a Tâ—tular and precarious Empire He had before passed an Act for Triâ—â—nial Parliaments to be called in his default by Sheriffs and Constaples and signed a Bill for the continuance of the present Parliament during the pleasure of the Houses at such time as he passed away this poor Gentlemans Life He must now give up so much of his Power at once as would disable him from subsisting by any other means than the Alms of his Parliament or keeping down those factions and seditious Humours for which the ordinary Courts of Justice tied to Formalities of Law could provide no remedy In reference to the first having kept him hungry and in appetite for seven Months and more from their first meeting in November they present him with a Bill for Tonnage and Poundage to be paid only for the three Months following and that too clogged in the Preamble with such a Condition as to disclaim all such Right unto it as had been formerly enjoyed by his Predecessors They prepared also other Bills for Repealing the Statute concerning Knighthood made by K. Edward ii and then made rather for the ease of the Subâ—â—ct than the advantage of the Crown as also For abolishing his Preâ—â—ntions to the Raising of Ship-money For retrenching the Perambu 〈◊〉 of his Forests For suppressing the Court of Stanneries in Cornwâ—â— And 〈◊〉 long-continued Jurisdiction of his Clerk of the Market Aâ—â— in relation to the other they prepared two Bills more the one for pâ—â—ting down the Court of Star-Chamber the other for destroying the Higâ— Commission without which bridles there had been no ruling of the Puritan Faction But as in the Bill for putting down the Star-Chamber there were some Clauses which extended to the overthrow of tâ—e Court of the Marches and the Council established in the North and for Regulating the Authority of the Council-Table so 〈…〉 for destroying the High-Commission there was a Clause which took away the Coercive power of Bishops Chancellors Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiastical Judges To these two last the Royal Assent having been passed unto all the former without any difficulty the King was pleased to demur which bred such a heat amongst the Commons that he was forced on Munday the fifth of Iuly being but two daies after his passing of the other to make an excuse for this small delay the business being of such importance as the Altering in a great measure those Fundamental Laws both Ecclesiastical and Civil which so many of his Predecessors had established How great a blow was given by the first Act to the Royal Authority I leave to be considered by our Civil Historians What the Church suffered by the second will appear by these words in which it was Enacted under the several penalties therein contained That from the fifth day of August then next following no Archbishop or Bishops or any other Person or Persons having or exercising any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction under the Kings Majesty within the Realm of England and Dominion of Wales should award impose or inflict any Pain Penalty Fine Amercement Imprisonment or any Corporal Punishment for any Contempt Misdemeanour Crime Offence Matter or Thing whatsoever belonging to Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Cognizance or Jurisdiction or should Ex Officio or at the instance or promotion of any person whatsoever urge enforce tender give or minister unto any Churchwarden Sideman or person whatsoever any Corporal Oath whereby they shall be obliged to make any Presentment concerning others or confess any thing against themselves which might make them lyable or expose them to any Censure Pain Penalty of what sort soever Which in effect was to take away the Power of Ecclesiastical Censures belonging naturally and originally to the Episcopal Function that is to say Suspensions Excommunications Deprivations and Degradations all which are both inflicted and renounced as Pains or Penalties to the no small encouragement of Inconformity Incontinency and all other irregular Courses both in Clergy and Laity because it nourisht an opinion of impunity in the hearts of those who formerly had been awed respectively by those several Censures For when the Subject fears neither Pain nor Penalty the Superiour under whom he lives will find little obedience and the Laws much less But we have too long left our Archbishop in his cares and sorrows and therefore must return to ease him of some part of his cares though his sorrows continued as before Hitherto he had given himself no improbable hopes of being called unto his Trial and given such strong proof of his integrity and innocence from the Crimes objected as might restore him to a capacity of doing those good offices to the University as that place of Chancellor did require But finding by the late proceedings of the Houses of Parliament in the business of his dear Friend the Earl of Strafford that his affairs were like to grow from bad to worse he would no longer undergo the name of that Office which he was not able to perform Resolved to put the University into such a condition as might enable them to proceed in the choice of a more fortunate Patron he acquaints the King with his intent by the Bishop of London and finding his Majesties Concurrence in opinion with him he sends his Resignation in his Letter of Iune 28. Which being published and excepted in the Convocation of the University on Iuly 1. The Earl of Pembroke was now elected to succeed him who had before been named in competition for the Office with him MY Present Condition saith the Letter is not unknown to the whole World yet by few pitied or deplored The righteous God 〈◊〉 knows the Iustice of my sufferings on whom both in life and death I will ever depend the last of which shall be unto me most welcome in that my life is now burdensome unto me my mind attended with variety of sad and grievous thoughts my soul continually vexed with Anxietie and troubles groaning under the burden of a displeased Parliament my name aspersed and
depriving the Bishops of their Vote and the Churches Birth-right And this was it which helped them in that time of need And yet not thinking this Device sufficient to fright their Lordships to a present compliance Stroud was sent up with a Message from the House of Commons to let them know That the Londoners would shortly bring a Petition with 20000 Hands to obtain that Ordinance By which stale and common Stratagem they wrought so far on some weak Spirits the rest withdrawing themselves as formerly in the case of the Earl of Strafford that in a thin and slender House not above six or seven in number it was pass'd at last The day before they pass'd the Ordinance for establishing their new Directory which in effect was nothing but a total abolition of the Common-Prayer-Book and thereby shewed unto the World how little hopes they had of settling their new Form of Worship if the foundation of it were not laid in the blood of this famous Prelate who had so stoutly stood up for it against all Novellism and Faction in the whole course of his Life â—e was certified by some Letters to Oxon. and so reported in the Mercurius Aulicus of the following week That the Lord Bruce 〈◊〉 better known by the name of the Earl of Elgin was one of the number of those few Lords which had Voted to the Sentence of his Condâ—mnation The others which concurred in that fatal Sentence being the Earls of Kent Pembroke Salisbury and Bullingbrook together with the Lord North and the Lord Gray of Wark But whatsoever may be said of the other six I have been advertised lately from a very good hand That the said Lord Bruce hath frequently disclaimed that Action and solemnly professed his detestation of the whole Proceedings as most abhorrent from his nature and contrary to his known aâ—fections as well unto his Majesties Service as the Peace and Preservation of the Church of England This Ordinance was no sooner passed but it revived many of those Discourses which had before been made on the like occasion in the Business of the Earl of Strafford For hereupon it was observed That as the predominant Party in the Vnited Provinces to bring about their ends in the death of Barnevelt subverted all those Fundamental Laws of the Belgick Liberty for maintenance whereof they took up Arms against Philip ii So the Contrivers of this Mischief had violated all the Fundamental Laws of the English Government for maintenance whereof they had pretended to take up Arms against the King It was said they a Fundamental Law of the English Government and the first Article in the Magna Charta That the Church of England shall be free and shall have all her whole Rights and Priviledges inviolable Yet to make way unto the Condemnation of this Innocent Man the Bishops must be Voted out of their Place in Parliament which most of them have held far longer in their Predecessors than any of our Noble Families in their Progenitors and if the Lords refuse to give way unto it as at first they did the People must come down to the House in multitudes and cry No Bishops no Bishâ—ps at the Parliament doors till by the terrour of their Tumults 〈◊〉 extort it from them It is a Fundamental Law of the English 〈◊〉 That no Free-man shall be taken or imprisoned without cause 〈◊〉 or be detained without being brought unto his Answer in due form of Law Yet here we see a Freeman imprisoned ten whole weeks together before any Charge was brought against him and kept in Prison three whole years more before his General Accusation was by them reduced unto Particulars and for a year almost detained close Prisoner without being brought unto his Answer as the Law requires It is a Fundamental Law of the English Government 〈…〉 be disserzâ—â— of his Freehold or Liberties but by the known Laws of the Land Yet here we see a man disseized of his Rents and Lands spoiled of his Goods deprived of his Iurisdiction devested of his Right of Patronage and all this done when he was so far from being convicted by the Laws of the Land that no particular Charge was so much as thought of It is a Fundamental Law of the English Liberty That no man shall be condemned or put to death bâ—â— by the Lawful Iudgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land that is in the ordinary way of Legal Tryal And sure an Ordinance of both Houses without the Royal Assent is no part of the Law of England nor held an ordinary way of Tryal for the English Subject or ever reckoned to be such in former times And finally It is a Fundamental Law in the English Government That if any other cause than those recited in the Statute of King Edward iii. which is supposed to be Treason do happen before any of his Majesties Juâ—tices the Justices shall tarry without giving Iudgment till the Cause be shâ—wn and declared before the King and his Parliament whether it ought to be judged Treason or not Yet here we have a new found Treason never known before nor declared such by any of his Majesties Iustices nor ever brought to be considered of by the King and his Parliament but only Voted to be such by some of those Members which â—are at Westminster who were resolved to have it so for their private Ends. The first Example of this kind the first thaâ— ever suffered death by the shot of an Ordinance as himself very well observed in his dying Speech upon the Scaffold though purposely omitted in Hind's Printed Copy to which now he hasteneth For the passing of the Ordinance being signified to him by the then Lieutenant of the Tower he neither entertained the news with a Stâ—ical Apathy nor waâ—led his fate with weak and womanish Lamentations to which Extremes most men are carried in this case but 〈◊〉 it with so even and so smooth a Temper as shewed he neither was ashamed to live nor afraid to die The time between the Sentence and Execution he spent in Prayers and Applications to the Lord his God having obtained though not without some diâ—lâ—â—nâ—ty a Chaplain of his own to attend upon him and to assist him in the Work of his Preparation though little Preparation â—â—â—ded to receive that blow which could not but be welcome because long expected For so well was he studied in the Art of Dying especially in the last and strictest part of his Imprisonment that by continual Fastings Watchings Prayers and such like Acts of Christiaâ— Humiliation his Flesh was rarified into Spirit and the whole maâ— so fitted for Eternal Glories that he was more than half in Heaven before Death brought his bloody but Triumphant 〈◊〉 to convey him thither He that had so long been a Confessâ—â—â—ould â—ould not but think it a Release of Miseries to be made a 〈◊〉 It is Recorded of Alexander the Great That the night before his last and
of their Tithes and procured the Repealing of the Irish Articles and those of England to be approved and received in the placâ— thereof And what said they could be more unadvisedly and unâ—politickly done then to draw upon himself at once the 〈…〉 pleasure of three Kingdoms in the several Concernments of each Nation as also all the Genevian Churches abroad in their Propâ— Interesses Fomented by the Pride and Purse of the City of 〈◊〉 and prosecuted by the Malice and Activity of the Puritanâ—â—ction â—â—ction in them all united in the Common quarrel or the Lords day Sabbath They added that King Edward the first began not with the Conquest of Wales before he had well settled his affairs in England and that he undertook not the following War against the Scots whom afterwards he brought under his obedience till some years after he had finished the Conquest of Wales that as all Supâ—râ—â—tations are dangerous to the Product of the Births of Nature and nothing more Repugnant to a Regular Diet than to fill the 〈◊〉 with fresh viands before it is Emptied of the Former so notâ—ing 〈◊〉 iâ— more destructive to the Body Politick than to try two many Expâ—riments at once upon it which cannot possibly work well together to tâ—e publick health and therefore that he should have practised upon one Kingdom after another as best became so able a Physician and so exact a Maâ—ter in the Art of a Christian Warfare that one of them might have followed the good Example of the other and not all joyn together like so many ill humours to the common disturbance of the work Such were the Censures and Discourses which were passed upon him betwixt his Imprisonment and his Death and for some years after In which how much or little there is of truth is left unto the â—udgment of those who are more thoroughly acquainted with his disposition and aâ—â—ections his secret Counsels and the Reasons which directed him in the conduct of them than I can honestly pretend to All I can say is that which may be said by any other which â—ad no more access to him than my self Of Stature he was low but of strong Composition so short a Trunck never contained so much excellent Treasure which therefore was to be the stronger by reason of the wealth which was lodged within it His Countenance chearful and well-bloudied more fleshy as I have often heard him say than any other part of his body which chearfulness and vivacity he carried with him to the very Block notwithstanding the Afflictions of four years Imprisonment and the infelicity of the times For at his first Commitment he besought God as is observed in the Breviate to give him full patience proportionable comfort and contentment with whatsoever he should send and he was heard in what he prayed for for notwithstanding that he had fed long on the bread of carefulness and drank the water of affliction yet as the Scripture telleth us of the four Hebrew Children His Countenance appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than any of those who eat their portion of the Kings Meat and drank of his Wine A gallant Spirit being for the most part like the Sun which shews the greater at his setting But to proceed in that weak Character which my Pen is able to afford him Of Apprehension he was quick and sudden of a very sociable Wit and a pleasant Humour and one that knew as well how to put off the Gravity of his Place and Person when he saw occasion as any man living whatsoâ—ver Accessible enough at all times but when he was tired out with multiplicity and vexation of business which some who did not understand him ascribed unto the natural ruggedness of his Disposition Zealous he was in the Religion here established as hath been made apparent in the course of this History Constant not only to the Publick Prayers in his Chappel but to his private Devotions in his Closet A special Benefactor to the Town of Reading where he had his Birth and to the University of Oxon. where he had his Breeding so much the more to this last as he preferred his Well 〈…〉 〈◊〉 his Bâ—â—â—iâ— Happy in this that he accomplished those good works in the time of his Life which otherwise must have â—hrunk to nothing in the hands of Executors To speak of the Integrity of so great a Person would be an injury to his Vertues One Argument whereof may be if there were no other That in so long a time of Power and Greatness wherein he had the principal managing of Affairs both in Church and State he made himself the Master of so small a Fortune that it was totally exhausted in his Benefactions unto Oxon. and Reading before remembred The rest I shall refer to the Breviate of his Life and Action though published of purpose to defame him and render him more odious to the Common People In which it will appear to an equal and impartial Reader That he was a man of such eminent Vertues such an exemplary Piety towards God such an unwearied Fidelity to his Gracious Sovereign of such a publick Soul towards Church and State so fixt a Constancy in Friendship and one so little byassed by his private Interesses that Plutarch if he were alive would be much troubled to find a sufficient Parallel wherewith to match him in all the Lineaments of perfect Vertue Thus lived this most Reverend Renowned and Religious Prelate and thus he died when he had lived seventy one years thirteen Weeks and four daies if at the least he may be properly said to die the great Example of whose Vertue shall continue alway not only in the Minds of Men but in the Annals of succeeding Ages with Renown and Fame His Death the more remarkable in falling on St. Williams day as if it did design him to an equal place in the English Calendar with that which William Archbishop of Bourgeois had obtained in the French Who being as great a Zealot in his time against the spreading and increase of the Albigenses as Laud was thought to be against those of the Puritan Faction and the Scottish Covenanters hath ever since been honoured as a Saint in the Gallican Church the tenth of Ianuary being destined for the solemnities of his Commemoration on which day our Laud ascended from the Scaffold to a Throne of Glory The End of the Second Part. ERRATA PAge 12. l. 33. read accâ—rding to p. 14. l. 4. r. out of l. 5. r. that it is p 31. l. 32. r. Pâ—â—seâ—â—nce p. 35. l. 13. r. there be no. p. 47. l. 30. r. Lord â—ip p. 59. l. 43. for 〈◊〉 Colledge r. Pâ—rnâ—â—â—ke Hall p. 66 l 41. r. redounded p. 68. l. 42. â— Chair 〈◊〉 14. r. â—â—â—sances l. 30. r. divuâ—ged it over r. also The City was p. 74. l. 21. ◠〈…〉 smâ—â—â— p. 91. l. 38. r. commends and propounds p. 108. l. 40. r. Pâ—pe p. 〈◊〉 l. 25. r. Church of p. 112. l. 39
Of the Form of Consecration observed but not prescribed since the Reformation What kinde of Images they are which were prohibited by the Queens Injunctions The Articles of the Regal Visitation and What is to be said in answer to such passages as are found against them in the Book of Homilies The Lords Day built upon the same foundation with the other Holy dayes according to the Book of Homilies and The Act of Parliament 5.6 of EDW. vi What works of labour were permitted on the Lords Day and the other Holy dayes by the Book of Homilies The Statute 5. and 6. of EDW. vi The Injunctions of King EDW. vi and Of Queen ELIZ. Practised accordingly in the Court from that time to this Reverence required of the people at their first entrance in to the Church According to the practice of the Primitive times and The example of the Knights of the Garter c. and That example well enforced by Archbishop LAUD p. 47. Kneeling and standing when required The reverence to be used at the name of Iesus continued by Injunct 52. and Afterwards renewed by the Canon of the year 1603. with The Reasons for it The moderate proceedings of the first Reformers In reference to the Pope and The Church of ROME Observed and applauded by K. JAMES The Power of the Church asserted in the twentieth Article In the 34th reduced to practice and Of the power ascribed in Sacred Matters to the Kings of ENGLAND The Sacrament of the Lords Supper called frequently The Sacrament of the Altar as viz. by the Act of Parliament by Bishop RIDLEY Bishop LA TIMER and Some other Martyrs The Lords Table ordered to be placed where the Altar stood by the Injunctions of Q. ELIZ 1559. The Book of Orders 1561 and Advertis of the year 1565. and At the same the second Service to be said on the Sundayes and Holy Dayes The Lords Supper frequently called a Sacrifice by The Ancient Fathers By many Learned men amongst our selves Some of our godly Martyrs also and In what respect A Real Presence proved by The publick Liturgy By Bishop RIDLEY By Mr. Alex. Nowel and By Bishop BILSON The same confirmed â—y the words of the Catechism As also by the testimony of Bishop ANDREWS Bishop Morton The Article of Christs descent made figurative by Calvin and The Lord Primate but Justified to be Local By the Articles of the Church of ENGLAND The words of Mâ— Alexander Nowel and The works of Learned Bishop Bilson The necessity of Baptisme maintained by the first â—eformâ—râ— Justified in the Conference at Hampton-Court and Not gain said by any alteration in the publick Rubrick and Of the efficacy ascribed unto it by the Church Justification how divided betwixt Faith and Works In what respects ascribed to Faith by the Church of ENGL. and In what to Works Of the efficacy of good Works and The Reward belonging to them and Of the Doctrine of the Church of ENGLAND in that particular The great Divisions in the Church touching Predestination The stating of the point by the Church of ENGLAND Illustrated by the story of Agilmond and Lamistus Kings of Lombardy Predestinatination how defined The definition explicated The explication justified by the ancient Fathers By Bishop LATIMER and The last clause of the 17th Article The Church why silent in the point of Reprobation The absolute Decree unknown to Bishop HOOPER By Bishop LATIMER and By King Iames. Universal Redemption maintained by the Book of Articles Many plain passages in the Publick Liturgy And the testimony of our ancient Martyrs The freedom of the Will too much advanced by the 〈◊〉 Decryed as much by Luther and The Contra Remonstrants The temper of St. Augustiâ— in it Approved and imitated in the Articles of the Church of ENGL. and Her Publick Liturgie The Churches Doctrine vindicated and explained by Bishop Hoopâ—â— and by Bishop Latimer as also by the Lutheran Churches and St. Augustine himself The Churches Doctrine in the point of Falling away Made clear by some expressions of Bishop Hâ—oper Of Bishop Latimer and The Conference at Hampton Court The harmony and consent in Judgment between Bishop Hooper and Bishop Ridley and Between Bishop Ridley and Archbishop Cranmer The judgment of Archbishop Craâ—â—â—â— in the point disputed The authority ascriâ—ed to the Works of Erasmus by our first Reformers The Points which still remain in difference betwixt the Churches How far with in the possibility of Reconcilement And in what points they joyn together against the Anabaptists and Sectaries Liberty of Opinion left in other Points by the first Reformers 〈◊〉 Their discretion in so doing Approved and commended by King Iames. Anno Dom. 1573. (a) Brev. 1. Lord Brook p. 3. (b) Brev. 1. Lord Brook p. 3. Camld Rens p. 273. last Edit 1589. (d) 〈◊〉 scribendo quam concionaâ—do veâ—â—â—â—tem Evâ—ngâ—â—icam haud sigâ—â—â—er saâ—agiâ— pâ—opugâ—are Godwin Catal. â—pisc 584. (e) Hist. of Scot. lib. 7. p. 497. 1590. 1593. 1599. (f) Full. Hist. lib. 9. p. 234. (g) Cant. Dâ—me p. 469. (h) Hâ—oker Prefâ—ce (i) 〈…〉 quia 〈…〉 in communes errores Ludo. Vives in Aug. de Civit Dei Nisi quod ex illa ipsa doctrina catholici Patres vetâ—res Episcopi câ—llâ—gâ—râ—nt (k) Lib. Can. cap. De conâ—â—â—at p. 19. 1602. 1603. 1604. 1606. L. Decad. 3. 〈◊〉 Cant. Dome p. 409. (m) Injuria contumelici R. E. Clericorum exâ—gitatus in Montani partes transit B Rhen. in Tertull. (n) Câ—llâ—ct of Speeches p. 5 (o) 〈◊〉 n. Mat. 19.9 9 Bre. p. 4. p. 6. 1608. 1610. 1611. (p) Conf. at Hamp p. 85. Hist. of K. Charles by H. L. p 31. 1611. (z) Iohn 21. v. 3 6. 1614. (s) Church Hist. l. 10 p 59. t 〈…〉 Gâ—dw in Continuat 1617. Hist. Scotl. l. 7. p. 531. Nâ—m p. 534. 1618. Hist. 〈◊〉 Scot. â—â—l 5â—0 (b) 1620. Anno Dom. 1621. 1622. (g) Vide quà m praetiolâ—s vaâ—is administrant Mariae Fâ—lâ—â— Socrat. Hist. Eccl. lib. 3. (h) Cant. Dâ—â—â— p. 504 Et tani ad Sacramenta quam Sacramentalia tum Coenae Dominicae tum etiam Baptismatis Sacri in â—andem ministrantur c. Hidden wâ—rks of dâ—rk p. 47 Iâ— p. 25. (m) Hidden works p. 34. Cant. Dâ—â—m p. 276. Hiâ—d Works c. 34. Brev. p. 3. (p) Breviate p. 14. (q) 〈◊〉 p. 47. Sâ—alâ— 530. (r) Digby â—â— Calvert Iul. 25. (s) to Colverâ— Dec. 28. to K. James Octob. 24. Hâ—dd Works p. 6â— Act of Parl. A. 11 Jac. 21. c. 34. (s) D. Whites Preface to his Reply c. (t) Epist. dediâ—at to tâ—e King 16â—7 (e) Epist. dedicatâ— to Appello Caesâ— (a) Hidden 〈◊〉 p. 73. (b) Ib. p. 69. 1625. Breviate p. 6. Breviâ—te p. 6. 〈◊〉 p. 156. (a) Eâ—â— Regia p. 12. Iâ—id p 15. Cant Doom 69. Hist. K. Ch. 20. 〈…〉 Collect 〈…〉 Eâ—act Collâ—â—t of Edw. Huâ—â— 290. Sâ—r. 3. p. 102 Pag. 104. P. 107. P. 109. 1626. Cabal Breviâ—te p. 7. Pa. 8. Hist. King Charles p. 50. Ch. Hist. lib. 2.