pardon And when men once are brought unto such a condition they must resolve to fight it out to the very last and either carry away the â—arland as a signe of Victory or otherwise live like Slaves or dye like Traytors But this was done according to Calvins Doctrine in the Book of Institutes in which he gives to the Estates of each several Country such a Coercive Power over Kings and Princes as the Ephori had exercised over the Kings of Sparta and the Roman Tribunes sometimes put in practice against the Consuls And more then so he doth condemn them of a betraying of the Peoples Liberty whereof they are made Guardians by Gods own appointment so he saith at least if they restrain not Kings when they play the Tyrants and want only insult upon or oppress the Subjects So great a Master could not but meet with some apt Scholars in the Schools of Politie who would reduce his Rules to practice and justifie their practice by such great Authority 54. But notwithstanding the unseasonable publication of such an unprecedented sentence few of the Provinces fell off from the Kings obedience and such strong Towns as still remained in the hands of the States were either forced unto their duty or otherwise hard put to it by the Prince of Parma To keep whom busied in such sort that he should not be in a capacity of troubling his Affairs in Holland the Prince of Orange puts the Brabanders whose priviledges would best bear it to a new Election And who more fit to be the man then Francis Duke of Anjou Brother to Henry the Third of France and then in no small possibility of attaining to the Marriage of the Queen of England Assisted by the Naval power of the one and the Land-Forces of the other What Prince was able to oppose him and what power to withstand him The young Duke passing over into England found there an entertainment so agreeable to all expectations that the Queen was seen to put a Ring upon one of his Fingers which being looked on as the pledge of a future Marriage the news thereof posted presently to the Low Countries by the Lord Aldegund who was then present at the Court where it was welcomed both in Antwerp and other places with all signes of joy and celebrated by discharging of all the Ordnance both on the Walls and in such Ships as then lay on the River After which triumph comes the Duke accompanied by some great Lords of the Court of England and is invested solemnly by the Estates of those Countries in the Dukedoms of Brabant and Limburg the Marquisate of the holy Empire and the Lordship of Machlin which action seems to have been carryed by the power of the Consistorian Calvinists for besides that it agreeth so well with their common Principles they were grown very strong in Antwerp where Philip Lord of Aldegund a profest Calvinian was Deputy for the Prince of Orange as they were also in most Towns of consequence in the Dukedom of Brabant But on the other side the Romish party was reduced to such a low estate that they could not freely exercise their own Religion but onely as it was indulged unto them by Duke Francis their new-made Soveraign upon condition of taking the Oath of Allegiance to him and abdicating the Authority of the King of Spain the grant of which permission had been vain and of no significancie if at that time they could have freely exercised the same without it But whosoever they were that concurred most powerfully in conferring this new honour on him he quickly found that they had given him nothing but an airy Title keeping all power unto themselves So that upon the matter he was nothing but an honourable Servant and bound to execute the commands of his mighty Masters In time perhaps he might have wrought himself to a greater power but being young and ill advised he rashly enterprised the taking of the City of Antwerp of which being frustrated by the miscarriage of his plot he returned ingloriously into France and soon after dyes 55. And now the Prince of Orange is come to play his last part on the publick Theatre his winding Wit had hitherto preserved his Provinces in some terms of peace by keeping Don Iohn exercised by the General States and the Prince of Parma no less busied by the Duke of Anjou nor was there any hope of recovering Holland and Zealand to the Kings obedience but either by open force or some secret practice the first whereof appeared not possible and the last ignoble But the necessity of removing him by what means soever prevailed at last above all sence and terms of Honour And thereupon a desperate young Fellow is ingaged to murther him which he attempted by discharging a Pistol in his face when he was at Antwerp attending on the Duke of Anjou so that he hardly escaped with life But being recovered of that blow he was not long after shot with three poyson Bullets by one Balthasar Gerard a Burgundian born whom he had lately taken into his service which murder was committed at Delph in Holland on the 10 of Iune 1584 when he had lived but fifty years and some months over He left behind him three Sons by as many Wives On Anne the Daughter of Maximilian of Egmont Earl of Bucen he begat Philip Earl of Bucen his eldest Son who succeeded the Prince of Orange after his decease By Anne the Daughter of Maurice Duke Elector of Saxony he was Father of Grave Maurice who at the age of eighteen years was made Commander General of the Forces of the States United and after the death of Philip his Elder Brother succeeded him in all his Titles and Estates And finally by his fourth Wife Lovise Daughter of Gasper Colligny great Admiral of France for of his third being a Daughter to the Duke of Montpensier he had never a Son he was the Father of Prince Henry Frederick who in the year 1625 became Successor unto his Brother in all his Lands Titles and Commands Which Henry by a Daughter of the Count of Solmes was Father of William Prince of Orange who married the Princess Mary Eldest Daughter of King Charles the second Monarch of great Britain And departing this life in the flower of his youth and expectations Anno 1650 he left his Wife with Childe of a Post-humous Son who after was baptized by the name of William and is now the onely surviving hope of that famous and illustrious Family 56. But to return again to the former William whom we left weltring in his bloud at Delph in Holland He was a man of great possessions and Estates but of a soul too large for so great a Fortune For besides the Principality of Orange in France and the County of Nassaw in Germany he was possessed in right of his first Wife of the Earldom of Bucen in Gelderland as also of the Town and Territories of Lerdame and Iselstine in Holland
Friends and Followers they could finde in Edenborough but they found that place too hot for them also the Captain of the Castle did so ply them with continual shot that it was held unsafe for them to abide there longer From thence therefore they betook themselves to the Town of Dumfreis not far from the City of Carlisle in England into which they might easily escape whatsoever happened as in time they did For the King leaving his old Father the Earl of Lenox to attend them there march'd with his Forces into Fife where the party of the Lords seemed most considerable which Province they reduced to their obedience some of the great Lords of it had forsook their dwellings many were taken prisoners and put to Ransome and some of the chief Towns fined for their late disloyalty Which done they march to Edenborough and from thence followed to Dumfreis On whose approach the Lords unable to defend themselves against their Forces put themselves into Carlisle where they are courteously received by the Earl of Bedford who was then Lord-Warden of the Marches from thence Duke Hamilton the Earls of Glencarne and Rothes the Lord Vchiltry the Commendator of Kilvinning and divers others of good note removed not long after to New-castle that they might have the easier passage into France or Germany if their occasions so required The Earl of Murray is dispatched to the Court of England but there he found so little comfort at the least in shew as brought the Queen under a suspition amongst the Scots either of deep dissimulation or of great inconstancy The news whereof did so distract and divide the rest that Duke Hamilton under-hand made his own peace with his injured Queen and put himself into her power in the December following The falling off of which great person so amazed the rest that now they are resolved to follow all those desperate counsels by which they might preserve themselves and destroy their enemies though to the ruine of the King the Queen and their natural Country But what they did in the pursuance of those counsels must be reserved for the subject of another Book The end of the fourth Book AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR The History Of the PRESBYTERIANS LIB V. Containing A further discovery of their dangerous Doctrines their oppositions to Monarchical and Episcopal Government their secret Practices and Conspiracies to advance their Discipline together with their frequent Treasons and Rebellions in the pursuance of the same from the year 1565 till the year 1585. 1. AMongst the many natural Children of King Iames the Fifth none were more eminent and considerable in the course of these times then Iames Pryor of St. Andrews and Iohn Pryor of â—oldingham neither of which were men in Orders or trained up to Learning or took any further charge upon them then to receive the profit of their several places which they enjoyed as Commendators or Administrators according to the ill custom of some Princes in Germany Iohn the less active of the two but Father of a Son who created more mischief to King Iames the Sixth then Iames the other Brother did to the present Queen For having took to Wiâ—e a Daughter of the House of Hepbourn Sister and next Heir of Iames Hepbourn Earl of Bothwel of whom more anon he was by her the Father of Francis Stewart who succeeded in that Earldom on the death of his Unckle But Iames the other Brother was a man of a more stirring spirit dextrous in the dispatch of his business cunning in turning all things to his own advantage a notable dissembler of his love and hatred and such a Master in the art of insinuation that he knew how to work all parties to espouse his interest His preferments lay altogether in Ecclesiastical Benefices designed unto him by his Father or conferred upon him by his Sister or the King her Husband But that all three conjured to the making of him appears by the Kings Letter on the seventeenth day of Iuly upon this occasion At what time as the Marriage was solemnized between Francis then Daulphin of France and the Queen of Scots he went thither to attend those tryumphs where he became a Suiter to the Queen his Sister that some further Character or Mark of Honour might be set upon him then the name of Pryor But the Queen having been advertised by some other Friends that he was of an aspiring minde and enterprising nature and of a spirit too great for a private Fortune thought it not good to make him more considerable in the eye of the people then he was already and so dismist him for the present 2. The frustrating of these hopes so exceedingly vexed him as certainly some are as much disquieted with the loss of what they never had as others with the ruine of a present possession that the next year he joyned himself to those of the Congregation took Knox into his most immediate and particular care and went along with him hand in hand in defacing the Churches of St. Andrews Stirling Lithgow Edenborough and indeed what not And for so doing he received two sharp and chiding Letters from the King and Queen upbraiding him with former Benefits received from each and threatning severe punishment if he returned not immediately to his due obedience Which notwithstanding he continues in his former courses applies himself unto the Queen and Council of England and lays the plot for driving the French Forces out of Scotland Which done he caused the Parliament of 1560 to be held at Edenborough procures some Acts to pass for banishing the Popes Supremacie repealed all former Statutes which were made in maintainance of that Religion and ratifies the Confession of the Kirk of Scotland in such form and manner as it was afterwards confirmed in the first Parliament of King Iames the Sixth Upon the death of Francis the young French King he goes over again And after some condolements betwixt him and the Queen intimates both to her and the Princes of the House of Guise how ill the rugged and untractable nature of the Scots would sort with one who had been used to the compliances and affabilities of the Court of France adviseth that some principal person of the Realm of Scotland might be named for Regent and in a manner recommends himself to them as the fittest man But the worst was that his Mother had been heard to brag amongst some of her Gossips that her Son was the lawful Issue of King Iames the Fifth to whose desires she had never yeilded but on promise of Marriage This was enough to cross him in his present aims and not to trust him with a power by which he might be able to effect his purposes if he had any such aspirings And so he was dismist again without further honour then the carrying back of a Commission to some Lords in Scotland by which they were impowered to manage the affairs of that Kingdom till the Queens return 3. This second disappointment
against the Laws might very well afford them all his best assistances when Law and Liberty seemed to speak in favour of it But being there was nothing done by them which was more than ordinary as little more than ordinary could be done amongst them after they had betrayed their Countrey to the Power of Strangers We shall leave him to pursue their Warrs and return for England where we shall find the Queen of Scots upon the point of acting the last part of her Tragedy 13. Concerning which it may not be unfit to recapitulate so much of Her story as may conduct us fairly to the knowledg of her present condition Immediately on the death of Queen MARY she had taken on her self the Title and Arms of England which though she did pretend to have been done by the command of her Husband and promised to disclaim them both in the Treaty of Edenborough yet neither were the Arms obliterated in her Plate and Hangings after the death of that Husband nor would she ever ratifie and confirm that Treaty as had been conditioned On this first grudg Queen ELIZABETH furniâ—heth the Scots both with Men and Arms to expel the French affords them such a measure both of Money and Countenance as made them able to take the Field against their Queen to take her Prisoner to depose her and finally to compel her to forsake the Kingdom In which Extremity she lands in Cumberland and casts her self upon the favour of Queen ELIZABETH by whom she was first confined to Carlisle and afterwards committed to the custody of the Earl of Shrewsbury Upon the death of FRANCIS the Second her first Husband the King of Spain designed her for a Wife to his Eldest Son But the Ambition of the young Prince spurred him on so fast that he brake his Neck in the Career The Duke of Norfolk was too great for a private Subject of a Revenue not inferior to the Crown of Scotland insomuch that the Queen was counselled when she came first to the Throne either to take him for her Husband or to cut him off He is now drawn into the Snare by being tempted to a hope of Marriage with the Captive-Queen which Leicester and the rest who had moved it to him turned to his destruction Don Iohn of Austria Governour of the Netherlands for the King of Spain had the like design that by her Title he might raise himself to the Crown of England To which end he recalled the Spanish Soldiers out of Italy to whose dismission he had yeelded when he first came to that Government and thereby gave Q. ELIZABETH a sufficient colour to aid the Provinces against him But his aspirings cost him deer for he fell soon after The Guisards and the Pope had another project which was To place her first on the Throne of England and then to find an Husband of sufficient Power to maintain her in it For the effecting of which Project the Pope commissionated his Priests and Jesuits and the Guisards employed their Emissaries of the English Nation by Poyson Pistol open Warr or secret practises to destroy the one that so they might advance the other to the Regal Diadem 14. With all these Practises and Designs it was conceived that the Imprisoned Queen could not be ignorant and many strong presumptions were discovered to convict her of it Upon which grounds the Earl of Leicester drew the form of an Association by which he bound himself and as many others as should enter into it To make enquiry against all such persons as should attempt to invade the Kingdom or raise Rebellion or should attempt any evil against the Queen's Person to do her any manner of hurt from or by whomsoever that layed any claim to the Crown of England And that that Person by whom or for whom they shall attempt any such thing shall be altogether uncapable of the Crown shall be deprived of all manner of Right thereto and persecuted to the death by all the Queen 's Loyal Subjects in case they shall be found guilty of any such Invasion Rebellion or Treason and should be so publickly declared Which Band or Association was confirmed in the Parliament of this year ending the 29 th of March Ann. 1585 exceedingly extolled for an Act of Piety by those very men who seemed to abominate nothing more than the like Combination made not long before between the Pope the Spaniard and the House of Guise called the Holy League which League was made for maintenance of the Religion then established in the Realm of France and the excluding of the King of Navarre the Prince of Conde and the rest of the House of Bourbon from their succession to the Crown as long as they continued Enemies to that Religion The Brethren in this case not unlike the Lamiae who are reported to have been stone-blind when they were at home but more than Eagle-sighted when they went abroad Put that they might not trust to their own strength only Queen ELIZABETH tyes the French King to her by investing him with the Robes and Order of St. George called the Garter She draws the King of Scots to unite himself unto her in a League Offensive and Defensive against all the World and under colour of some danger to Religion by that Holy League she brings all the Protestant Princes of Germany to confederate with her 15. And now the Queen of Scots is brought to a publick Tryal accelerated by a new Conspiracy of Babington Tichborn and the rest in which nothing was designed without her privity And it is very strange to see how generally all sorts of people did contribute toward her destruction the English Protestants upon an honest apprehension of the Dangers to which the Person of their Queen was subject by so many Conspiracies the Puritans for fear lest she should bring in Popery again if she came to the Crown the Scots upon the like conceit of over-throwing their Presbyteries and ruinating the whole Machina of their Devices if ever she should live to be Queen of England The Earl of Leicester and his Faction in the Court had their Ends apart which was To bring the Imperial Crown of this Realm by some means or other into the Family of the Dudley's His Father had before designed it by marrying his Son Guilford with the Lady Iane descended from the younger Sister of K. HENRY the Eighth And he projects to set it on the Head of the Earl of Huntington who had married his Sister and looked upon himself as the direct Heir of George Duke of Clarence And that they might not want a Party of sufficient strength to advance their Interest they make themselves the Heads of the Puritan Faction the Earl of Leicester in the Court and the Earl of Huntingdon in the Countrey For him he obtaineth of the Queen the command of the North under the Title of Lord President of the Councel iu York to keep out the Scots and for himself the Conduct
11. In which condition it remained till this present year when the said Image was again fastned and repaired the Images of Christ's Resurrection and the rest continuing broken as before And on the East side of the said Cross where the steps had been was then set up a curious wrought Tabernacle of gray Marble and in the same an Alablaster Image of Diana from whose naked Breasts there trilled continually some streams of Water conveyed unto it from the Thames But the madness of this Faction could not so be stayed for the next year that I may lay all things together which concern this Cross a new mishapen Son as born out of time all naked was put into the Arms of the Virgin 's Image to serve for matter of derision to the common people And in the year 1599 the figure of the Cross erected on the top of the Pile was taken down by Publick Order under pretence that otherwise it might have fallen and endangered many with an intent to raise a Pyramis or Spire in the place thereof which coming to the knowledg of the Lords of the â—â—uncil they directed their Letters to the Lord Mayor then being whom they required in the Queen's Name to cause the said Cross to be repaired and advanced as formerly But the Cross still remaining headless for a year and more and the Lords not enduring any longer such a gross Contempt they re-inforced their Letters to the next Lord Mayor dated December 24 in the year 1600. In which they willed and commanded him in pursuance of her Majesty's former Directions to cause the said Cross without more delay to be re-advanced respecting in the same the great Antiquity and continuance of that stately Monument erected for an Ensign of our Christianity In obedience unto which Commands a Cross was forthwith framed of timber cover'd with lead and set up and gilded and the whole body of the Pile new cleansed from filth and rubbish Which gave such fresh displeasure to some zealous Brethren that within twelve nights after the Image of the blessed Virgin was again defaced by plucking off her Crown and almost her Head dispossessing her of her naked Child and stabbing her into the breast c. Most ridiculous Follies 12. In the beginning of the year we find Sir Thomas Egerton advanced to the Custody of the Great Seal of England Lord Chancellor in effect under the Title of Lord Keeper to which Place he was admitted on the sixth of May to the great joy of the Arch-bishop who always looked upon him as a lover of Learning a constant favourer of the Clergy zealous for the established Government and a faithful Friend unto himself upon all occasions Who being now Peered with the Lord Chancellor and the Earl of Essex assured of the good-will of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh and strengthned with the Friendship of Sir Robert Cicil Principal Secretary of State was better fortified than ever And at this time Her Majesty laying on his shoulders the burden of all Church-Concernments told him It should fall on his Soul and Conscience if any thing fell out amiss in that by reason of her age she had thought good to ease her self of that part of her Cares and looked that he should yeeld an account thereof to Almighty God So that upon the matter he was all in all for all Church-Affairs and more especially in the disposing of Bishopricks and other Ecclesiastical Promotions For his first entrance on which Trust he preferrs Dr. Thomas Bilson to the See of Worcester who received his Episcopal Consecration on the 13 th of Iune Anno 1596. and by his Favour was translated within two years after to the Church of Winchester He advanced also his old Friend Dr. Richard Bancroft to the See of London whom he consecrated on the 8 th of May Anno 1597 that he might always have him near him for Advice and Counsel Which Famous Prelate that I may note this by the way was born at Farnworth in the County of Lancaster Baptized September 1544. His Father was Iohn Bancroft Gentleman his Mother Mary Curwin Daughter of Iohn Brother of Hugh Curwin Bishop of Oxon whose eldest Son was Christopher the Father of Dr. Iohn Bancroft who after dyed Bishop of that See Anno 1640. But this Richard of whom now we speak being placed by his Unkle Dr. Curwin in Christ's Colledg in Cambridg from thence removed to Iesus Colledg in the same University because the other was suspected to incline to Novelism His Unkle Dr. Curwin being preferred to the Arch-bishoprick of Dublin made him a Prebend of that Church after whose death he became Chaplain to Cox Bishop of Ely who gave him the Rectory of Teversham not far from Cambridg Being thus put into the Road of Preferment he proceeded Batchellor of Divinity Anno 1580 and Doctor in the year 1585 About which time he put himself into the Service of Sir Christopher Hatton by whose recommendation he was made a Prebend of St. Peters in Westminster 1592. From whence he had the earlier passage to St. Pauls in London 13. About this time brake out the Juglings of Iohn Darrel who without any lawful Calling had set up a new Trade of Lecturing in the Town of Nottingham and to advance some Reputation to his Person pretends an extraordinary Power in casting out Devils He practised first on one Catharine Wright An. 1586. But finding some more powerful Practises to be then on foot in favour of the Presbyterian Discipline he laid that Project by till all others failed him But in the year 1592 he resumes the Practise hoping to compass that by Wit and Legerdemain which neither Carthwright by his Learning nor Snape by his Diligence Penry by his Seditions or Hacket by his damnable Treasons had the good fortune to effect He first begins with William Summers an unhappy Boy whom he first met at Ashby de la Zouch in the Country of Him he instructs to do such Tricks as might make him seem to be possest acquaints him with the manner of the Fits which were observed by Catharine Wright delivers them in writing to him for his better remembrance wished him to put the same in practise and told him that in so doing he should not want But either finding no great forwardness in the Boy to learn his Lesson or being otherwise discouraged from proceeding with him he applies himself to one Thomas Darling commonly called The Boy of Burton Anno 1596 whom he found far more dextrous in his Dissimulations the History of whose Possessings and Dispossessings was writ at large by Iesse Bee a Religious sad Lyar contracted by one Denison a Countrey-Minister Seen and Allowed by Hildersham one of the principal sticklers in the Cause of Presbytery and Printed with the good leave and liking of Darrel himself who growing famous by this means remembers Summers his first Scholar to whom he gives a second meeting at the Park of Ashby teacheth him to act them better than before
having concluded a Truce of Twelve years with the States United wanted Employment for his Army and that he might engage that King with the greater confidence he reconciles himself to the Church of Rome and marries the Lady Magdalen Daughter to the Duke of Bavaria the most potent of the German Princes of that Religion which also he established in his own Dominions on the death of his Father This puts the young Marquess to new Counsels who thereupon calls in the Forces of the States Vnited the Warr continuing upon this occasion betwixt them and Spain though the Scene was shifted And that they might more cordially espouse his Quarrel he took to Wife the Sister of Frederick the fifth Prince Elector Palatine and Neece of William of Nassaw Prince of Orange by his youngest Daughter and consequently Cousin-German once removed to Count Maurice of Nassaw Commander-General of the Forces of the Sates Vnited both by Sea and Land This kept the Balance eeven between them the one possessing the Estates of Cleve and Mark and the other the greatest part of Berge and Gulick But so it was that the old Marquess of Brandenbourgh having setled his abode in the Dukedom of Prussia and left the management of the Marquissate to the Prince his Son left him withall unto the Plots and Practises of a subtil Lady Who being throughly instructed in all points of Calvinism and having gotten a great Empire in her Husband's Affections prevailed so far upon him in the first year of their Marriage Anno 1614 that he renounced his own Religion and declared for Her 's which he more cheerfully embraced in hope to arm all the Calvinians both of the Higher and the Lower Germany in defence of his Cause as his Competitor of Newbourgh had armed the Catholicks to preserve his Interest 15. Being thus resolved he publisheth an Edict in the Month of February Anno 1615 published in his Father's Name but only in his own Authority and sole Command under pretence of pacifying some distempers about Religion but tending in good earnest to the plain suppression of the Lutheran forms for having spent a tedious and impertinent Preamble touching the Animosities fomented in the Protestant Churches between the Lutherans and those of the Calvinian Party he first requires that all unnecessary Disputes be laid aside that so all grounds of strife and disaffection might be also buried Which said he next commands all Ministers within the Marquissate to preach the Word purely and sincerely according to the Writings of the holy Prophets and Apostles the Four Creeds commonly received amongst which the Te Deum is to go for one and the Confession of Ausberg of the last Correction and that omitting all new glosses and interpretations of idle and ambitious men affecting a Primacy in the Church and a Power in the State they aim at nothing in their Preachings but the Glory of God and the Salvation of Mankind He commands also That they should abstain from all calumniating of those Churches which either were not subject to their Jurisdiction nor were not lawfully convicted of the Crime of Heresie which he resolved not to connive at for the time to come but to proceed unto the punishment of all those who wilfully should refuse to conform themselves to his Will and Pleasure After which giving them some good Counsel for following a more moderate course in their Preachings and Writings than they had been accustomed to in the times fore-going and in all points to be obedient to their principal Magistrate he pulls off the Disguise and speaks plainly thus 16. These are saith he the Heads of that Reformation which is to be observed in all the Churches of Brandenbourgh that is to say All Images Statua's and Crosses to be removed out of the place of publick Meetings all Altars as the Relicks of Popery and purposely erected for the Sacrifices of the Popish Mass to be taken away that in their room they should set up a Table of a long square Figure covered at all times with a Carpet of Black and at the time of the Communion with a Linnen Cloth That Wafers should be used instead of the former Hosts which being cut into long pieces should be received and broken by the hands of those who were admitted to communicate at the holy Table That ordinary Cups should be made use of for the future instead of the old Popish Chalice That the Vestments used in the Mass should be forborn no Candles lighted in any of their Churches at noon-day No Napkin to be held to those that received the Sacrament nor any of them to receive it upon their knees as if Christ were corporally present The sign of the Cross to be from thenceforth discontinued The Minister not to turn his back to the people at the Ministration The Prayers and Epistles before the Sermon to be from thenceforth read not sung and the said Prayers not to be muttered with a low voice in the Pulpit or Reading-Pew but pronounced audibly and distinctly Auricular Confession to be laid aside and the Communion not to be administred to sick persons in the time of any common Plague or Contagious Sickness No bowing of their knee at the Name of Iesus Nor Fonts of stone to be retained in their Churches the want whereof may be supplied by a common Bason The Decalogue to be repeated wholly without mutilation and the Catechism in some other points no less erroneous to be corrected and amended The Trinity to be adored but not exprest in any Images either carved or painted The words of Consecration in the holy Supper to be interpreted and understood according unto that Analogy which they held with the Sacrament and other Texts of holy Scripture And finally That the Ministers should not be so tyed to preach upon the Gospels and Epistles that were appointed for the day but that they might make choice of any other Text of Scriptures as best pleased themselves Such was the tenour of this Edict on which I have insisted the more at large to show the difference between the Lutheran and Genevian Churches and the great correspondence of the first with the Church of England But this Calvinian Pill did not work so kindly as not to stirr more Humours than it could remove For the Lutherans being in possession would not deliver up their Churches or desert those Usages to which they had been trained up and in which they were principled according to the Rules of their first Reformation And hereupon some Rupture was like to grow betwixt the young Marquess and his Subjects if by the intervention of some honest Patriots it had not been closed up in this manner or to this effect That the Lutheran Forms only should be used in all the Churches of the Marquissate for the contentation of the people and that the Marquess should have the exercise of his new Religion for Himself his Lady and those of his Opinion in their private Chappels 17. But the
AERIVS REDIVIVVS OR THE HISTORY OF THE Presbyterians CONTAINING The Beginnings Progress and Successes of that active Sect. Their Oppositions to Monarchical and Episcopal Government Their Innovations in the Church and Their Imbroylments of the Kingdoms and Estates of Christendom in the pursuit of their Designes From the Year 1536 to the Year 1647. By PETER HEYLYN D. D. And Chaplain to Charles the First and Charles the Second MONARCHS of GREAT BRITAIN OXFORD Printed for Io. Crosley and are to be sold in London by Tho. Basset at the George neer Cliffords-Inne in Fleetstreet and Chr. Wilkinson at the Black-Boy over against S. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet 1670. To the Right Honorable The LORDS SPIRITUAL TEMPORAL and COMMONS in Parliament assembled May it please Your Honors YOu are here most humbly implored for the Patronage of a Post-humous birth of my dear and honored Fathers Laborious mind in the Cause of this Kingdoms profest and settled Religion You may safely believe the Title-Page reports to You the true and genuine Author of the Book but it 's most humbly intreated that You would not For if You rather please to read it You will be assured of the Parent by the Lineaments remarkable upon the Child and therewith too receive I hope such satisfaction as may justly flow from the perusal of an History which in some measure confirms the Excellency of those Laws You have devised and Sacred Majestie confirm'd for the Protection of that Religion and Government You profess and stand for The Beauty Iustice and Prudence of the Sanctions will not a little appear in the ill visage of that Party whose Rude humor and ungoverned Zeal is here represented It would be an immodest boldness in me to press Your belief with my Assertions of the happy performances herein And they being for the most part but faithful Collections of matter of Fact transacted by the Ancestors of a Sect to this day more then enough warm in the Bowels of these Kingdoms are to stand and fall in Your Grave and Iudicious opinions according to their correspondency with the Annals of Your own and other Countreys If I had nothing to plead for the Publication of this History but the zeal of a Son to preserve his Fathers Off-spring from treading too close after him to the Grave I doubt not it would easily prevail with so much Nobleness as the High and Honorable Court of Parliament doth imply But I am moreover apt to believe that when Your Wisdoms please to consider that the Party hereby proved peccant are still so far from Repentance that they dare to boast their Innocency and vie Loyalty and peaceable mindedness at the same rate at least they did before our late Troubles and present Distempers made their Turbulencies and Seditions notorious I may then reasonably I hope beg Your favorable acceptance of this Dedication or at least depend upon that pardon from you which the offended Party will be unwilling to allow to him who though unworthy so great an honor craves leave to subscribe himself Right Honorable Lords and Gentlemen Your most Devoted and Obedient Servant Henry Heylyn THE PREFACE INtending a compleat History of the Presbyterians in all the Principles Practices and most remarkable Proceedings of that dangerous Sect I am to take a higher aim then the time of Calvin though he be commonly pretended for the Founder of it and fetch their Pedigree from those whose stepts they follow For as our Saviour said to some of the Jews that they were of their Father the Devil and the works of their Father they would do So by their works that is to say by the Opinions which they hold the Doctrines which they preach and the Disturbances by them made in these parts of Christendome we may best find from what Original they derive themselves I know that some out of pure zeal unto the Cause would fain intitle them to a descent from the Jewish Sanhedrim ordained by God himself in the time of Moses And that it might comply the better with their ends and purposes they have endeavoured to make that famous Consistory of the Seventy Elders not onely a co-ordinate power with that of Moses and after his decease with the Kings and Princes of that State in this Publick Government but a Power Paramount and Supreme from which lay no appeal to any but to God himself A power by which they were enabled not onely to control the actions of their Kings and Princes but also to correct their persons Which as I can by no means grant to be invested in the Sanhedrim by God himself or otherwise usurped and practised by them in the times of that Monarchy though possibly they might predominate in those times and intervals in which there was no King in Israel as such times there were so neither can I yield unto the Presbyterians any such Prerogative as to derive themselves and their pretensions whether it be over Kings or Bishops from the Jewish Sanhedrim And yet I shall not grutch them an Antiquity as great as that which they desire as great as that of Moses or the Jewish Sanhedrim from which they would so willingly derive themselves For if we look upon them in their professed opposition as well to all Monarchical as Episcopal Government we cannot but give them an Extraction from that famous Triumvirate Korah Dathan and Abiram combined in a Design against Moses and Aaron against the Chief-Priest and the Supreme Prince though otherwise of different Families and having different Counsels amongst themselves For Dathan and Abiram were descended from the Line of Reuben the eldest Son of Father Iacob and therefore thought themselves more capable of the Soveraign Power then Moses who descended from a younger house And Korah thought himself as much neglected in seeing Elizaphan the Son of Vzziel to have been made the Prince of the Kohathites the principal Family of the Levites next to that of Gerson when he himself descended of the elder Brother Nor was he able to discern but that if there were any such necessity of having one Priest above the rest in place and power the Mitre might sit as well upon his head as on that of Aaron whose readiness in complying with the peoples humor in setting up the Golden-Calf had rendred him uncapable of so great a trust Having conferred their notes and compared their grievances they were resolved to right themselves and to have neither any Chief-Priest or Soveraign Prince to lord it over them but to erect a parity both in Sacred and Civil matters as most agreeable to the temper of a free born Nation They had got little else by being set at liberty from the House of Bondage if they should now become the Vassals of their Fathers Children But first they were to form their party and they did it wisely drawing no fewer then two hundred and fifty of the chief men of the Assembly to conspire with them in the Plot. And that they might
directly of the Spirit of God nothing of those impurities and prophanations of the Church of England Hereupon followed a defection from the Church it self not as before amongst the Presbyterians from some Offices in it Browns Followers which from him took the name of Brownists refusing obstinately to joyn with any Congregation with the rest of the people for hearing the Word preached the Sacraments administred and any publick act of Religious Worship This was the first gathering of Churches which I finde in England and for the justifying hereof he caused his Books to be dispersed in most parts of the Realm Which tending as apparently to Sedition brought both the Dispersers of them within the compass of the Statute 23 Eliz. cap. 2. Of which we are informed by Stow that Elias Thasker was hanged at Bury on the fourth of Iune and Iohn Copping on the sixth of the same Month for spreading certain Books seditiously penned by Robert Brown against the Book of Common-prayer established by the Laws of this Realm as many of their Books as could be found being burnt before them 31. As for the Writer of the Books and the first Author of the Schism he was more favourably dealt with then these wretched instruments and many other of his Followers in the times succeeding Being convented before Dr. Edmond Freak then Bishop of Norwich and others of the Queens Commissioners in conjunction with him he was by them upon his refractory carriage committed to the custody of the Sheriff of Norwich But being a near kinsman by his Mother to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh he was at his request released from his imprisonment and sent to London where some course was taken to reclaim him if it might be possible totally or in part at least as God pleased to bless it Whitgift by this time had attained to the See of Canterbury a man of excellent patience and dexterity in dealing with such men as were so affected By whose fair usage powerful Reasons and exemplary piety he was prevailed upon so far as to be brought unto a tolerable compliance with the Church of England In which good humour he was favourably dismist by the Arch-bishop and by the Lord-Treasurer Burleigh to the care of his Father to the end that being under his eye and dealt with in a kinde and temperate manner he might in time be well recovered and finally withdrawn from all the Reliques of his fond opinions Which Letters of his bear date on the 8 of October 1585. But long he had not staid in his Fathers house when he returned unto his vomit and proving utterly incorrigible was dismist again the good old Gentleman being resolved upon this point that he would not own him for a Son who would not own the Church of England for his Mother But at the last though not till he had passed through two and thirty prisons as he used to brag by the perswasions of some Friends and his own necessities the more powerful Orators of the two he was prevailed with to accept of a place called A Church in Northamptonshire beneficed with cure of Souls to which he was presented by Thomas Lord Burleigh after Earl of Exon and thereunto admitted by the Bishop of Peterborough upon his promise not to make any more disturbances in the proceedings of the Church A Benefice of good value which might tempt him to it the rather in regard that he was excused as well from preaching as from performing any other part of the publick Ministry which Offices he discharged by an honest Curate and allowed him such a competent maintainance for it as gave content unto the Bishop who had named the man And on this Benefice he lived to a very great age not dying till the year 1630 and then dying in Northampton Gaol not on the old account of his inconformity but for breach of the Peace A most unhappy man to the Church of England in being the Author of a Schism which he could not close and most unfortunate to many of his Friends and Followers who suffered death for standing unto those conclusions from which he had withdrawn himself divers years before 32. But it is time that we go back again to Cartwright upon whose principles and positions he first raised this Schism Which falling out so soon upon the Execution which was done on Stubs could not but put a great rebuke upon his spirit and might perhaps have tended more to his discouragement had not his sorrows been allayed and sweetned by a Cordial which was sent from Beza sufficient to revive a half-dying brother Concerning which there is no more to be premised but that Geneva had of late been much wasted by a grievous pestilence and was somewhat distressed at this time by the Duke of Savoy Their peace not to be otherwise procured but by paying a good sum of money and money not to be obtained but by help of their Friends On this account he writes to Travers being then Domestick Chaplain to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh but so that Cartwright was to be acquainted with the Tenour of it that by the good which the one might do upon the Queen by the means of his Patron and the great influence which the other had on all his party the contribution might amount to the higher pitch But as for so much of the said Letter as concerns our business it is this that followeth viz. If as often dear Brother as I have remembred thee and our Cartwright so often I should have written unto thee you had been long since overwhelmed with my Letters no one day passing wherein I do not onely think of you and your matters which not onely our ancient Friendship but the greatness of those affairs wherein you take pains seems to require at my hands But in regard that you were fallen into such times wherein my silence might be safer far then my writing I have though most unwillingly been hitherto silent Since which time understanding that by Gods Grace the heats of some men are abated I could not suffer this my Friend to come unto you without particular Letters from me that I may testifie my self to be the same unto you as I have been formerly as also that at his return I may be certified of the true state of your affairs After which Preamble he acquaints him with the true cause of his writing the great extremities to which that City was reduced and the vast debts in which they were plunged whereby their necessities were grown so grievous that except they were relieved from other parts they could not be able to support them And then he addes I beseech thee my dear Brother not onely to go on in health with thy daily prayers but that if you have any power to prevail with some persons shew us by what honest means you can how much you love us in the Lord. Finally having certified him of other Letters which he had writ to certain Noblemen and to all the Bishops
But we will let them run unto the end of their Line and then pull them back 38. And first We will begin with the Conspiracies and Treasons of Francis Steward Earl of Bothwell Son of Iohn Prior of Coldingham one of the many Bastards of K. Iames the Fifth who by the Daughter and Heir of Iames Lord Hepborn the late Earl of Bothwell became the Father of this Francis A man he was of a seditious and turbulent nature principled in the Doctrines of the Presbyterians and thereby fitted and disposed to run their courses At first he joyned himself to the banished Lords who seized upon the King at Sterling not because he was any way engaged in their former Practises for which they had been forced to flye their Countrey but because he would ingratiate himself with the Lords of that Faction and gain some credit with the Kirk But being a man also of a dissolute Life gave such scandal to all Honest and Religious men that in the end to gain the Reputation of a Convert he was contented to be brought to the Stool of Repentance to make Confession of his Sins and promise Reformation for the time to come Presuming now upon the Favour of the Kirk he consults with Witches enquires into the Liâ—e of the King how long he was to reign and what should happen in the Kingdom after his decease and more than so deals with the Witch of Keith particularly to employ her Familiar to dispatch the King that he might set on foot some Title to the Crown of that Realm For which notorious Crimes and so esteemed by all the Laws both of God and Man he was committed unto Ward and breaking Prison was confiscated proclaimed Traytor and all Intelligence and Commerce interdicted with him After this he projects a Faction in the Court it self under pretence of taking down the Power and Pride of the Lord Chancellor then being But finding himself too weak to atchieve the Enterprise he departs secretly into England His Faction in the Court being formed with some more Advantage he is brought privily into the Palace of Haly-Rood House makes himself Master of the Gates secureth the Fort and violently attempts to seize the King But the King hearing of the noise retired himself to a strong Tower and caused all the Passages to be locked and barred Which Bothwell not being able to force he resolves to burn the Palace and the King together But before Fire could be made ready the Alarm was taken the Edenbourgers raised and the Conspirators compelled with the loss of some of their Lives to quit the place 39. The next year he attempts the like at Falkland where he showed himself with a Party of six-score Horse but the rest of the Conspirators not appearing he retires again is entertained privately by some eminent Persons and having much encreased his Faction lives concealed in England The Queen negotiates his return and by the Lord Burrough her Ambassador desires the King to take him into Grace and Favour Which being denyed a way is found to bring him into the King's Bed-chamber together with one of his Confederates with their Swords in their hands followed immediately by many others of the Faction by whom the King is kept in a kind of Custody till he had granted their Desires At last upon the Mediation of the English Ambassador and some of the Ministers of Edenborough who were of Counsel in the Plot the King is brought to condescend to these Conditions that is to say That Pardon should be given to Bothwell and his Accomplices for all matters past and that this Pardon should be ratified by Act of Parliament in November following That in the mean time the Lord Chancellor the Lord Hume the Master of Glammir and Sir George Hume who were all thought to favour the Popish Lords should be excluded from the Court. And finally That Bothwell and all his Party should be held good Subjects But these Conditions being extorted were not long made good Agreed on August the 14 th and declared void by a Convention of Estates at Sterling on the 7 th of September Some Troubles being raised upon this occasion and as soon blown over Bothwell is cited to appear at Edenborough and failing of his day is declared Rebel which only served to animate him to some greater Mischief For being under-hand assisted by the English Ambassador he prepares new Forces desires the Lords which were of his Confederacy to do the like under pretence of banishing to Popish Lords but in plain truth to make the King of no signification in the Power of Government Accompanied with Four hundred Horse he puts himself into Leith to the great affrightment of the King who was then at Edenborough But understanding that the rest of his Associates were not drawn together it was thought good to charge upon him with the Bands of that City and some Artillery from the Castle before his Numbers were encreased Which Counsel sped so well that he lost the day and therewith all his hopes in Scotland and in England too 40. For Queen Elizabeth being sensible at the last of the great Dishonour which she had drawn upon her self by favouring such an Infamous Rebel caused Proclamation to be made That no man should receive or harbour him within her Dominions And the Kirk moved by her Example and the King's Request when they perceived that he could be no longer serviceable to their Ends and Purposes gave Order that the Ministers in all Places should disswade their Flocks from concurring with him for the time to come or joyning with any other in the like Insurrections against that Authority which was divested by God in His Majesty's Person The Treasons and Seditious practises of which man I have laid together the better to express those continual Dangers which were threatned by him to the King by which He was reduced to the necessity of complying with the desires of the Kirk setling their Discipline and in all points conforming to them for His own preservation But nothing lost the Rebel more than a new Practise which he had with the Popish Lords whereby he furnished the King with a just occasion to lay him open to the Ministers and the rest of the Subjects in his proper colours as one that was not acted by a Zeal to Religion though under that disguise he masked his Ambitious Ends. In fine being despised by the Queen of England and Excommunicated by the Kirk for joyning with the Popish Lords he was reduced to such a miserable condition that he neither knew whom to trust nor where to flye Betrayed by those of his own Party by whom his Brother Hercules was impeached discovered and at last brought to Execution in the Streets at Edenborough he fled for shelter into France where finding sorry entertainment he removed into Spain and afterwards retired to Naples in which he spent the short remainder of his Life in Contempt and Beggery 41.
his defence And he accordingly declared in all humble manner That he and his Associates had not made any Canons Articles or Decrees with an intent that they should serve hereafter for a standing-Rule to direct the Church but only had resolved on some Propositions to be sent to Cambridg for quieting some unhappy differences in that University With which Answer Her Majesty being somewhat pacified commanded notwithstanding That he should speedily recall and suppress those Articles Which was performed with such Care and Diligence that a Copy of them was not to be found for a long time after 8. As for the Articles themselves they were so contrived that both the Sabbatarians and the Supra-lapsarians very considerably at odds amongst themselves might be sheltred under them to the intent that both may be secured from the common Adversary Which Articles I find translated in these following words viz. I. God from 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 fore-sight of Faith or of Perseverance or of Good 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 neither be augmented nor diminished IV. Those who are not predestinate 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 Elect either totally or finally VI. A man truly faithful that is such an one who is endued 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 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 9. Such were the Articles of Lambeth so much insisted on by those of the Calvinian Faction in succeeding times as comprehending in them the chief Heads of Calvin's Doctrine in reference to the points of the Divine Election and Reprobation of Universal Grace and the impossibility of a total or a final falling from the true justifying-faith which were the subject of the Controversies betwixt Baroe and Whitacre Some have adventured hereupon to rank this most Reverend Arch-bishop in the List of these Calvinists conceiving that he could not otherwise have agreed to those Articles if he had not been himself of the same Opinion And possible it is that he might not look so far into them as to consider the ill consequences which might follow on them or that he might prefer the pacifying of some present Dissenters before the apprehension of such Inconveniences as were more remote or else according to the custom of all such as be in Authority he thought it necessary to preserve Whitacre in power and credit against all such as did oppose him the Merit and Abilities of the man being very eminent For if this Argument were good it might as logically be inferred That he was a Iesuit or a Melancthonian at the least in these points of Doctrine because he countenanced those men who openly and professedly had opposed the Calvinian In which respect as he took part with Hooker at the Council-Table against the Complaints and Informations of Travers as before is said so he received into his service Mr. Samuel Harsnet then being one of the Fellows of Pembroke-Hall who in a Sermon preached at St. Paul's Cross the 27 th of October 1584 had so dissected the whole Zuinglian Doctrine of Reprobation as made it seem most ugly in the ears of his Auditors as afterwards in the eyes of all Spectators when it came to be Printed Which man he did not only entertain as his Chaplain at large but used his Service in his House as a Servant in ordinary employed him in many of his Affairs and finally commended him to the care of King IAMES by whom he was first made Master of Pembroke-Hall and afterwards preferred to the See of Chichester from thence translated to Norwich and at last to York 10. No less remarkable was this year for the repairing of the Cross in Cheap-side which having been defaced in the year 1581 and so continued ever since was now thought fit to be restored to its former beauty A Cross it was of high esteem and of good Antiquity erected by K. Edward the first Anno 1290 in honour of Queen Elienor his beloved Wife whose Body had there rested as it was removed to the place of her Burial But this Cross being much decayed Iohn Hatherly Lord Mayor of London in the year 1441 procured leave of K. HENRY the 6 th to take it down and to re-edifie the same in more beautiful manner for the greater honour of the City Which leave being granted and 200 hundred Fodder of Lead allowed him toward the beginning of the Work it was then curiously wrought at the charge of divers wealthy Citizens adorned with many large and massie Images but more especially advanced by the Munificence of Iohn Fisher Mercer who gave Six hundred Marks for the finishing of it The whole Structure being reared in the second year of K. HENRY the 7 th Anno 1486 was after gilded over in the year 1522 for the entertainment of the Emperor CHARLES the fifth new burnished against the Coronation of Queen Anne Bullen Anno 1533 as afterwards at the Coronation of King EDWARD the sixth and finally at the Magnificent Reception of King PHILIP 1554. And having for so long time continued an undefaced Monument of Christian Piety was quarrelled by the Puritans of the present Reign who being emulous of the Zeal of the French Calvinians whom they found to have demolished all Crosses wheresoever they came they caused this Cross to be presented by the Jurors in several Ward-Motes for standing in the High-way to the hindering of Carts and other Carriages but finding no remedy in that course they resolved to apply themselves unto another In pursuance whereof they first set upon it in the night Iune 21 Anno 1581 violently breaking and defacing all the lowest Images which were placed round about the same that is to say the Images of Christ's Resurrection of the Virgin MARY K. EDWARD the Confessor c. But more particularly the Image of the blessed Virgin was at that time robbed of her Son and her Arms broke by which she held Him in her Lap and her whole Body haled with Ropes and left likely to fall Proclamation presently was made with promise of Reward to any one that could or would discover the chief Actors in it But without effect
main business of these times were the Commotions raised in Transylvania Hungary Austria and Bohemia by those of the Calvinian Party which drew all the Provinces of the Empire into such confusions as have disturbed the Peace thereof to this very day For laying down the true Original thereof we may please to know that Ferdinand the younger Brother of Charles the fifth succeeding on the death of Maximilian the Emperor in the Dukedom of Austria and afterwards attaining by Marriage to the Crown of Hungary and Bohemia which he was not born to endeavoured to oblige his Subjects in all those Dominions by a connivance at such Deviations from the Church of Rome as were maintained by those who adhered to Luther and held themselves to the Confession of Ausberg which afterwards was ratified by Imperial Edict Followed therein by Maximilian the second who succeeded him in his Estates and being a mild and gracious Prince not only showed himself unwilling to challenge any Power over Souls and Consciences but was pleased to mediate in behalf of his Protestant Subjects with the Fathers at Trent amongst whom he incurred the suspition of being a Lutheran But Rodolphus the eldest of his Sons and his next Successor was of a different temper from his Father and Grandfather a profest Enemy to all that held not a Conformity with the Church of Rome which he endeavoured to promote with such terrible Edicts as threatned nothing but destruction unto all gain-sayers He had five Brethren at that time but none of them the Father of any children which made him cast his eyes on Ferdinand of Gratts Son of Charles Duke of Gratts and Nephew of Ferdinand the Emperor before remembred Who going to Rome in the Year of Iubile Anno 1600 obliged himself by Oath to the Pope then being to extirpate all the Protestants out of his Dominions which upon the instigation of the Iesuits he did accordingly by pillaging and banishing all of the Augustan Confession thorough Styria Carinthia and Carniola though they had paid for the Freedom of their Conscience a great sum of Money 18. This so endeared him to Rodolphus that he resolved upon him for his next Successor and at the present to estate him in the Realm of Hungary as a step unto it In which Design as he was seconded by the Pope and Spaniard so questionless it had been effected if Matthias the Emperor's Brother and next Heir had not countermined them by countenancing those of the Calvinian or Reformed Religion who then began to seem considerable in the eye of that Kingdom To carry on which Spanish Plot to the End desired the Prelates of Hungary in an Assembly held at Presburgh Anno 1604 published a Decree without the consent of the Nobility and Estates of the Kingdom for the burning or perpetual banishment of all such as were of the Reformed Religion Which having been entertained in the Realm of Poland found no great difficulty in crossing the Carpathian Mountains and gaining the like favourable admission in this Kingdom also Against which Edict of the Bishops a Protest is presently made by the Estates of the Realm under the Seal of the Palatine the chief Officer of it By whom it was publickly affirmed That they would with just Arms defend themselves if they should be questioned for the Cause of Religion Which notwithstanding Beliojosa one of the Emperor 's chief Commanders in the Realm of Hungary first got into his hands the strong Town of Cassovia standing upon the borders of Transylvania And that being done he did not only interdict all those of the Reformed Religion from making any uses of them as they had done formerly but he inhibits them from having Sermons in their private Houses from reading in the holy Bible and from the burying of their dead in hallowed places 19. Nor staid he there but pick'd a needless quarrel with Istivon â—otscay a great man of that Countrey two of whose Castles he surprised and razed and thereupon provoked him to become â—his Enemy For being so provoked he takes upon himself the Patronage of his Native Countrey then miserably oppressed by the German Soldiers calls himself Prince of Transylvania confederates himself with the Turkish Bassa's and thrived so well in his Designs that he compelled the Emperor to recall his Forces out of Transylvania and procured Liberty of Conscience for all his Followers For being assisted by the Turks he encountred the said Beliojosa cuts off 6000 of his men and sends a great part of the Enemy's Ensigns to the Visier Bassa as a sign of his Victory Which Blow he followed by a Proclamation to this effect viz. That all such as desired Liberty of Conscience and to live free from the Corruptions and Idolatries of the Church of Rome should repair to him as to their Head and that he would allow to each of them Five Dollars weekly Which Proclamation did not only draw unto him many thousands of the common people together with a great part of the Nobility and Gentry but tempted many of the Emperor's Soldiers to forsake their General and joyn themselves unto his Party Strengthned wherewith he makes himself Master of Cassovia in which he changed not only the Religion but the Civil Government insomuch that many of those which were addicted to the Church of Rome were presently slain upon the place and most of the rest turned out of the City together with the greatest part of the Church-men the Bishops and the Emperor's Treasurer Upon which fortunate Success a great Party in the Vpper Hungary declare in favour of his Cause violently break open the Religious Houses compel the Fryers to put themselves into fortified places and finally to abandon Presburgh the chief Town of that Kingdom and to flye for shelter to Vienna as their surest Refuge 20. After this Basta the Lord-General of the Emperor's Forces obtained the better of them in some Fortunate Skirmishes which rather served to prolong than to end the Warr. For Botscay was grown to so great strength and made such spoil in all places wherever he came that Pallas Lippa his Lieutenant was found to be possessed at the time of his death of no fewer than Seven hundred Chains of Gold and One hundred thousand Ducats in ready money which he had raked together within less than a year This Treasure coming into Botscay's hands by the death of Lippa he mightily encreased his Army with which he took in many strong Towns and brought in some of the Nobility of the Vpper Hungary sending his Forces into Styria Austria and Moravia which he spoiled and wasted Insomuch that the Emperor being forced to send Commissioners to him to accord the Differences could obtain no better Conditions from him but That Liberty of Conscience and the free exercise of the Reformed Religion should be permitted to all those who demanded the same and that himself should be estated in the Principality of Transylvania for the term of his life And though the Emperor