the Bar there was Alderman Hoyle of York and some other which I knew not very Angry and saying it was a very strange Conversion that I was like to make of them with other Terms of Scorn I went patiently into the little Committee-Chamber at the entring into the House Thither Mr. Peters followed me in great haste and began to give me ill Language and told me that he and other Ministers were able to name Thousands that they had Converted I knew him not as having never seen him to my remembrance in my Life though I had heard enough of him And as I was going to answer him one of my Councel Mr. Hearn seeing how violently he began stepped between us and told him of his uncivil Carriage towards me in my Affliction And indeed he came as if he would have struck me By this time some occasion brought the Earl of Essex into that Room and Mr. Hearn complained to him of Mr. Peters his usage of me who very Honourably checked him for it and sent him forth Not long after Mr. Hearn was set upon by Alderman Hoyle and used as coursly as Peters had used me and as far as I remember only for being of Councel with such a one as I though he was assigned to that Office by the Lords What put them into this Choler I know not unless they were Angry to hear me say so much in my own Defence especially for the Conversion of so many which I think they little expected For the next day a great Lord met a Friend of mine and grew very Angry with him about me not forbearing to ask what I meant to Name the Particulars which I had mentioned in the end of my Speech saying many Godly Ministers had done more And not long after this the day I now remember not Mr. Peters came and Preached at Lambeth and there told them in the Pulpit that a great Prelat their Neighbour or in words to that effect had bragged in the Parliament-House that he had Converted Two and Twenty but that he had Wisdom enough not to tell how many Thousands he had Perverted with much more abuse God of his Mercy relieve me from these Reproaches and lay not these Mens causeless Malice to their Charge After a little stay I received my Dismission for that time and a Command to appear again the next day at Nine in the Morning Which was my usual Hour to attend though I was seldom called into the House in two Hours after CAP. XXIII The Second Day of my Hearing I Came as commanded But here before the Charge begins I shall set down the Articles upon which according to the Order of March 9. they which were intrusted with the Evidence meant this Day to proceed They were the First and Second Original Articles and the Second Additional Article which follow in these words 1. That he hath Traiterously endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws and Government of the Kingdom of England and instead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government against Law and to that end hath wickedly and traiterously advised his Majesty that he might at his own Will and Pleasure Levy and take Money of his Subjects without their Consent in Parliament and this he affirmed was Warrantable by the Law of God 2. He hath for the better accomplishment of that his traiterous Design advised and procured divers Sermons and other 〈◊〉 to be Preached Printed and Published in which the Authority of Parliaments and the Force of the Laws of the Kingdom are denyed and an Absolute and Unlimited Power over the Persons and Estates of his Majesty's Subjects is maintained and defended not only in the King but also in himself and other Bishops above and against the Law and he hath been a great Protector Favourer and Promoter of the Publishers of such false and Pernicious Opinions Second Additional Article 2. That within the space of Ten Years last past the said Arch-Bishop hath Treacherously endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws of this Realm and to that end hath in like manner endeavoured to advance the Power of the Council-Table the Canons of the Church and the King's Prerogative above the Laws and Statutes of the Realm And for manifestation thereof about Six Years last past being then a Privy Counsellor to his Majesty and sitting at the Council-Table he said That as long as he sate there they should know that an Order of that Board should be of equal Force with a Law or Act of Parliament And at another Time used these Words That he hoped e're long that the Canons of the Church and the King's Prerogative should be of as great Power as an Act of Parliament And at another Time said That those which would not yield to the King's Power he would crush them to pieces These three Articles they begun with and the first Man appointed to begin was Mr. Maynard And after some general things against me as if I were the most violent Man for all illegal Ways The First Particular charged against me was out of my Diary The Words these The King Declared his Resolution for a Parliament in Case of the Scottish Rebellion The First Movers of it were my Lord Deputy of Ireland the Lord Marquess Hamilton and my self And a Resolution voted at the Board to Assist the King in Extraordinary Ways if the Parliament should prove peevish and refuse c. The Time was Decemb. 5. 1639. That which was inforced from these Words was First that I bestowed the Epithete Peevish upon the Parliament And the Second that this Voting to Assist the King in Extraordinary Ways in Case the Parliament refused proceeded from my Counsel 1. To this I replyed And first I humbly desired once for all that all things concerning Law may be saved entire unto me and my Councel to be heard in every such Particular 2. Secondly that the Epithete Peevish was a very Peevish Word if written by me I say If For I know into whose Hands my Book is fallen but what hath been done with it I know not This is to be seen some Passages in that Book are half burnt out whether Purposely or by Chance God knows And some other Papers taken by the same Hand from me are now wanting Is it not possible therefore some Art may be used in this Besides if I did use the Word Peevish it was in my Private Pocket Book which I well hoped should never be made Publick and then no Disgrace thereby affixed to the Parliament And I hope should a Man forget himself in such an Expression of some Passage in some one Parliament and this was no more it is far short of any thing that can be called Treason And yet farther most manifest it is in the very Words themselves that I do not bestow the Title upon that Parliament in that Case but say only If it should prove Peevish which is possible doubtless that in some particulars a Parliament may Though
King 's Learned Councel that his Lordship well knew what had passed and that being so used as I had been by the Townsmen I would trouble my self with no more References to Lawyers or to that effect And I appeal to the Honour of my Lord whether this be not a true Relation The Sixth Instance concerns the putting of one Mr. Grant out of his Right He says but he is single and in his own Cause That Mr. Bridges was presented to an Impropriation and that suing for Tythe He the said Grant got a Prohibition and Mr. Bridges a Reference to the then Lord Keeper Coventry and my self that we referred them to the Law and that there Grant was Non-Suited and so outed of his Right First in all this there 's nothing said to be done by me alone Secondly the Lord Keeper who well understood the Law thought it fittest to refer them to the Law and so we did If he were there Non-Suited first and outed after it was the Law that put him out not we Yet your Lordships see here was a Prohibition granted in a Case which the Law it self after rejected Then follows the Instance that I had a purpose to Abolish all Impropriations The first Proof alledged was a passage out of Bishop Mountague's Book p. 210. That Tythes were due by Divine Right and then no Impropriations might stand And Mr. Pryn witnessed very carefully That this Book was found in my own Study and given me by Bishop Mountague And what of this Doth any Bishop Print a Book and not give the Arch-Bishop one of them Or must I answer for every Proposition that is in every Book that is in my Study Or that any Author gives me And if Bishop Mountague be of Opinion that Tythes are due by Divine Right what is that to me Your Lordships know many Men are of different Opinions in that difficulty and I am confident you will not determin the Controversie by an Act of Parliament They were nibling at my Diary in this to shew that it was one of my Projects to fetch in Impropriations but it was not fit for their purpose For 't is expressed That if I Lived to see the Repair of St. Paul's near an end I would move his Majesty for the like Grant for the buying in of Impropriations And to buy them from the Owners is neither against Law nor against any thing else that is good nor is it any Usurpation of Papal Power 2. The Second Proof was my procuring from the King such Impropriations in Ireland as were in the King's Power to the Church of Ireland Which Mr. Nicolas in his gentle Language calls Robbing of the Crown My Lords the Case was this The Lord Primate of Armagh writ unto me how ill Conditioned the State of that Church was for want of Means and besought me that I would move his Majesty to give the Impropriations there which yet remained in the Crown for the Maintenance and Incouragement of able Ministers to Live among the People and Instruct them Assuring me they were daily one by one begged away by Private Men to the great prejudice both of Crown and Church And the Truth of this the Lord Primate is now in this Kingdom and will witness I acquainted the King's great Officers the Lord Treasurer and the Chancellor of the Exchequer with it And after long deliberation the King was pleased at my humble Suit to grant them in the way which I proposed Which was that when they came into the Clergies Hands they should pay all the Rents respectively to the King and some consideration for the several Renewings And the Truth of this appears in the Deeds So here was no Robbing of the Crown For the King had all his set Rents reserved to a Penny and Consideration for his Casualties beside And my Lords the increase of Popery is complained of in Ireland Is there a better way to hinder this growth than to place an Able Clergy among the Inhabitants Can an Able Clergy be had without Means Is any Means fitter than Impropriations restored My Lords I did this as holding it the best Means to keep down Popery and to advance the Protestant Religion And I wish with all my Heart I had been able to do it sooner before so many Impropriations were gotten from the Crown into Private Hands Next I was Charged with another Project in my Diary which was to settle some fixed Commendams upon all the smaller Bishopricks For this I said their own Means were too small to live and keep any Hospitality little exceeding Four or Five Hundred Pound a Year I consider'd that the Commendams taken at large and far distant caused a great dislike and murmur among many Men. That they were in some Cases Materia Odiosa and justly complained of And hereupon I thought it a good Church-work to settle some Temporal Lease or some Benefice Sine Cura upon the lesser Bishopricks but nothing but such as was in their own Right and Patronage That so no other Man's Patronage might receive prejudice by the Bishop's Commendam Which was not the least Rock of Offence against which Commendams indanger'd themselves And that this was my intent and endeavour is expressed in my Diary And I cannot be sorry for it Then I was Accused for setting Old Popish Canons above the Laws Mr. Burton is the sole Witness He says it was in a Case about a Pew in which those Canons did weigh down an Act of Parliament I did never think till now Mr. Burton would have made any Canons Pew-Fellows with an Act of Parliament But seriously should not Mr. 〈◊〉 Testimony for this have been produced at the second Instance of this day For in the end of that is just such another Charge and the Answer there given will satisfie this and that by Act of Parliament too After this came a Charge with a great out-cry that since my coming to be Arch-Bishop I had renewed the High-Commission and put in many Illegal and Exorbitant Clauses which were not in the former Both the Commissions were produced Upon this I humbly desired that the Dockett might be Read by which their Lordships might see all those Particulars which were added in the New Commission and so be able to Judge how fit or unfit they were to be added The Dockett was Read And there was no Particular found but such as highly deserved Punishment and were of Ecclesiastical Cognizance as Blasphemy Schism and two or three more of like Nature 1. In this Charge the first Exorbitant Clause they insisted on as added to the new Commission was the Power given in locis Exemptis non Exemptis as if it were thereby intended to destroy all Priviledges No not to destroy any Priviledge but not to suffer Enormous Sins to have any Priviledge Besides this Clause hath ever been in all Commissions that ever were Granted And I then shewed it to the Lords in the Old Commission
found him with his Mother sitting in the Room It was a fair Chamber he went away and I went after but missed him and after tyred my self extreamly but neither could I find him nor so much as the House again Anno 1637 March 30. Thursday I Christened the Lady Princess Ann King Charles his third Daughter She was born on Friday March 17. Junij 10. My Book of the Records in the Tower which concerned the Clergy and which I caused to be Collected and Written in Vellam was brought me finished 'T is ab Ann. 20. Ed. 1. ad Ann. 14. Ed. 4. Junij 14. This Day Jo Bastwick Dr of Physick Hen Burton Batch of Divinity and Will Prynne Barrister at Law were Censured for their Libells against the Hierarchy of the Church c. Junij 26. The Speech I then spake in the Star-Chamber was commanded by the King to be Printed And it came out Junij the 25. Junij 26. This Day Munday The Prince Elector and his Brother Prince Rupert began their Journey toward the Sea Side to return for Holland Junij 30. Friday the above named three Libellers lost their Ears Julij 7. Friday A Note was brought to me of a Short Libel pasted on the Cross in Cheapside that the Arch-Wolf of Cant. had his Hand in persecuting the Saints and shedding the Blood of the Martyrs Memento for the last of June Julij 11. Tuesday Dr. Williams Lord Bishop of Lincoln was Censured in the Star-Chamber for tampering and corrupting of Wit in the King's Cause Julij 24. Being Munday He was suspended by the High Commission c. Aug. 3. Thursday I Married James Duke of Lenox to the Lady Mary Villars sole Daughter to the Lord Duke of Buckingham The Marriage was in my Chappel at Lambeth the Day very Rainy the King present Aug. 23. Wednesday My Lord Mayor sent me a Libel found by the Watch at the South Gate of St. Pauls That the Devil had lett that House to me c. Aug. 25. Friday Another Libel brought me by an Officer of the High Commission fastned to the North Gate of St. Pauls That the Government of the Church of England is a Candle in the Snuff going out in a Stench Aug. 25. The same Day at Night my Lord Mayor sent me another Libel hanged upon the Standard in Cheapside My Speech in the Star-Chamber set in a kind of Pillory c. Aug. 29. Tuesday Another short Libel against me in Verse Octob. 22. Sunday A great Noise about the perverting of the Lady Newport Speech of it at the Council My free Speech there to the King concerning the increasing of the Roman Party the Freedom at Denmark-house the Carriage of Mr. Wal. Montague and Sir Toby Matthews The Queen acquainted with all I said that very Night and highly displeased with me and so continues Novemb. 22. Wednesday The extream and unnatural hot Winter Weather began and continued till Decemb. 8. Decemb. 12. Tuesday I had Speech with the Queen a good space and all about the Business of Mr. Montague but we parted fair Anno 1638. April 29. The Tumults in Scotland about the Service-Book offered to be brought in began July 23. 1637. and continued increasing by fits and hath now brought that Kingdom in danger No question but there is a great Concurrence between them and the Puritan Party in England A great aim there to destroy me in the King's Opinion c. Maij 26. Saturday James Lord Marquess Hamilton set forth as the King's Commissioner to appease the Tumults in Scotland God prosper him for God and the King It was a very Rainy Day June My Visitation then began of Merton Coll. in Oxford by my Visitors was Adjourned to my own Hearing against and upon Octob. 2. Octob. 2. 3. 4. I sate upon this Business these Three Days and Adjourned it to July 1. inter Horas primam tertiam Lambeth The Warden appeared very foul Octob. 19. Friday News was brought to us as we sate in the Star-Chamber That the Queen-Mother of France was Landed at Harwich many and great Apprehensions upon this Business Extream Windy and Wet Weather a Week before and after the Water-men called it Q Mother Weather Octob. 26. Friday A most Extream Tempest upon the Thames I was in it going from the Star-Chamber Home between six and seven at Night I was never upon the Water in the like Storm And was in great Danger at my Landing at Lambeth Bridge Octob. 31. Wednesday The Q Mother came into London and so to St James's Novemb. 13. Tuesday The Agreement between me and Ab. S. c. Novemb. 21. Wednesday The General Assembly in Scotland began to Sit. Novemb. 29. Thursday The Proclamation issued out for dissolving the General Assembly in Scotland under pain of Treason Decemb. 20. They sate notwithstanding and made many strange Acts till Decemb. 20. which was Thursday and then they rose But have indicted another Assembly against July next Januar. 14. Munday About 5. at Night a most grievous Tempest of Wind Thunder Lightning and Rain Feb. 10. My Book against Fisher the Jesuit was Printed and this day being Sunday I delivered a Copy to his Majesty Feb. 12. Tuesday-night I dreamed that K. C. was to be Married to a Minister's Widow And that I was called upon to do it No Service-Book could be found and in my own Book which I had I could not find the Order for Marriage Anno 1639. March 27. Wednesday Coronation-day King Charles took his Journey Northward against the Scottish Covenanting Rebels God of his infinite Mercy bless him with Health and Success March 29. Friday An extream Fire in St. Olaves Parish Southwark forty Houses burnt down April 3. Wednesday Before the King 's going I setled with him a great business for the Queen which I understood she would never move for her self The Queen gave me great Thanks And this day I waited purposely on her to give her Thanks for her gracious acceptance She was pleased to be very free with me and to promise me freedom April 29. Munday This day the King went from York toward New-Castle but stayeth at Durham for a week at least Maij 28. His Majesty incamped two Miles West from Barwick by Tweed Junij 4. Whitson-Tuesday As I was going to do my duty to the Queen an Officer of the Lord Mayor's met me and delivered to me two very Seditious Papers the one to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen the other to excite the Apprentices c. Both Subscribed by John Lilburn a Prisoner in the Fleet Sentenced in the Star-Chamber c. Junij 5. Wednesday I delivered both these to the Lords of the Council Junij 15 17. Saturday and Munday The Peace concluded between the King and the Scottish Rebels God make it safe and Honourable to the King and Kingdom Junij 28. Friday I sent the remainder of my Manuscripts to Oxford being in number 576. And about an Hundred of them were Hebrew Arabick and Persian
Novations now spoken of were not then on Foot So that it is evident enough to any Man that will see that these Commotions had another and a higher cause than the present pretended Innovations And if his Majesty had played the King then he needed not have suffered now Besides they are no Fools who have spoken it freely since the Act of Oblivion for the Scottish Business was passed that this great League before mentioned between the discontented Party of both Kingdoms was Consulted on in the Year 1632. and after the King 's being in Scotland Anno 1633. it went on till they took occasion another way to hatch the Cockatrice Egg which was laid so long before But they say these Novations were great besides the Books of Ordination and Homilies So the Books of Ordination and Homilies were great Novations Had they then in Scotland no set Form of Ordination I promise you that 's next Neighbour to no Ordination and no Ordination to no Church formal at least And therefore if this be a Novation among them its high time they had it And for the Homilies if they taught no other Doctrine than was established and current in the Church of Scotland they were no Novations and if they did contain other Doctrine they might have Condemned them and there had been an end Howsoever if these Books be among them in Scotland they were sent thither in King James his Time when the Prelate of Canterbury neither was nor could be the prime cause on Earth of that Novation The other Novations which they proceed unto are first some particular Alterations in matters of Religion pressed upon them without Order and against Law To this I can say nothing till the particular Alterations be named Only this in the general be they what they will the Scottish Bishops were to blame if they pressed any thing without Order or against Law And sure I am the Prelate of Canterbury caused them not nor would have consented to the causing of them had he known them to be such The two other Novations in which they instance are the Book of Canons and the Liturgy which they say contain in them many dangerous Errours in Matter of Doctrine To these how dangerous soever they seem I shall give I hope a very sufficient and clear answer and shall ingenuously set down whatsoever I did either in or to the Book of Canons and the Liturgy and then leave the ingenuous Reader to judge how far the Prelate of Canterbury is the prime cause on Earth of these Things ART I. AND first that this Prelate was the Author and Vrger of some particular Things which made great disturbance amongst us we make manifest first by Fourteen Letters Subscribed W. Cant. in the space of two Years to one of our pretended Bishops Ballatine wherein he often enjoyns him and our other pretended Bishops to appear in the Chappel in their Whites contrary to the Custom of our Kirk and to his own Promise made to the pretended Bishop of Edinburgh at the Coronation That none of them after that Time should be more pressed to wear those Garments thereby moving him against his Will to put them on for that time Here begins the first Charge about the Particular Alterations And first they Charge me with Fourteen Letters written by me to Bishop Ballantyne He was then Bishop of Dunblain and Dean of His Majesties Chappel Royal there He was a Learned and a Grave Man and I did write divers Letters to him as well as to some other Bishops and some by Command but whether just fourteen or no I know not But sure I am their Love to me is such that were any thing worse than other in any of these Letters I should be sure to hear of it First then They say I injoyned wearing of Whites c. surely I understand my self a great deal better than to injoyn where I have no Power Perhaps I might express that which His Majesty Commanded me when I was Dean of his Majesty's Chappel here as this Reverend Bishop was in Scotland And His Majesty's Express Command was that I should take that care upon me that the Chappel there and the Service should be kept answerable to this as much as might be And that the Dean should come to Prayers in his Form as likewise other Bishops when they came thither And let my Letters be shewed whether there be any Injoyning other than this and this way And I am confident His Majesty would never have laid this Task upon me had he known it to be either without Order or against Law Next I am Charged that concerning these Whites I brake my Promise to the Bishop of Edinburgh Truly to the uttermost of my Memory I cannot recall any such Passage or Promise made to that Reverend and Learned Prelate And I must have bin very ill advised had I made any such Promise having no Warrant from his Majesty to ingage for any such thing As for that which follows that he was moved against his will to put on those Garments Truly he expressed nothing at that time to me that might signifie it was against his Will And his Learning and Judgment were too great to stumble at such External Things Especially such having been the Ancient Habits of the most Reverend Bishops from the descent of many Hundred Years as may appear in the Life of St. Cyprian And therefore the Novation was in the Church of Scotland when her Bishops left them off not when they put them on In these Letters he the Prelate of Canterbury directs Bishop Ballantine to give Order for saying the English Service in the Chappel twice a day For his neglect shewing him that he was disappointed of the Bishoprick of Edinburgh promising him upon his greater care of these Novations advancement to a better Bishoprick For the direction for Reading the English Service it was no other than His Majesty Commanded me to give And I hope it is no Crime for a Bishop of England by His Majesties Command to signifie to a Bishop in Scotland what his pleasure is for Divine Service in his own Chappel Nor was the Reading of the English Liturgy any Novation at all in that place For in the Year 1617. I had the Honour as a Chaplain in Ordinary to wait upon King James of Blessed Memory into Scotland and then the English Service was Read in that Chappel and twice a Day And I had the Honour again to wait upon King Charles as Dean of His Majesties Chappel Royal here at his Coronation in Scotland in the Year 1633 And then also was the English Service Read twice a Day in that Chappel And a strict Command was given them by His Majesty that it should be so continued and Allowance was made for it And none of the Scots found any fault with it at that time or after till these Tumults began And for Bishop Ballantyn's missing the Bishoprick of Edinburgh and my promising him
but also though it be done as a help to Continency And S. Hilary agrees with this and calls it not a Custom but a Constitution such a Constitution as that if any Man shall advisedly and of set purpose Fast on the Lord's Day by the Decree of the Fourth Council of Carthage he should not be accounted a Catholick And they must needs do it advisedly and of set purpose who appoint a publick solemn Fast upon that Day and then keep it And this was so strictly observed in S. Ambrose his time that it was not held Lawful to Fast upon that Day no not in Lent Nay he goes farther For he says expresly If any Man make a Law or give a Command for Fasting on the Lord's Day he believes not in the Resurrection of Christ. And is not this opposite to Christianity it self And is not that Legem indicere when they Proclaim or Command a Publick Fast With him S. Augustin joyns very fully and first says it is a great Scandal Then he gives the reason of it Because Christ joyned Mourning with Fasting which becomes not this Day unless Men think 't is fit to be sorry that Christ is risen from the Dead And this I am sure is opposite to Christianity it self For if Christ be not Risen then is our Preaching vain and your Faith is also vain 1. Cor. 15. After this he asks this Question Who doth not offend God if with the Scandal of the whole Church of Christ he will Fast upon the Lord's Day I will not go lower down This is enough if any thing be Yet this I will add that as this Fasting on Sunday was antiently prohibited so was it never practised of old but by notorious and professed Hereticks as by the Manichees who appointed that Day for fasting so S. Aug. and were justly condemned for it so S. Ambrose And by Aerians who Fasted on Sunday and Feasted on Fridays so Epiphanius And by the Priscilianists whom S. Aug. therefore calls the Imitators of the Manichees and so they were indeed For neither of them believed that our Blessed Saviour was a true Man and therefore disregarded the Day of his Resurrection as appears in S. Leo. And as against these the Council held at Caesar-Augusta An. 381. provided so before An. 324. the Council at Gangra made their Canon against Eutactus the Armenian Monk and his Ground was pretence of Abstinence as if he could never Fast enough This is enough and all this is within the compass of the Primitive Church which certainly if these Men did not scorn they would never have urged this against me Well! This is they say drawn out of my fourteen Letters Next they will prove me the Author of many Disturbances among them 2. By two Papers of Memoirs and Instructions from the Pretended Bishop of St. Andrews to the pretended Bishop of Ross coming to this Prelate that is of Canterbury for ordering the Affairs of the Kirk and Kingdom of Scotland It is manifest here by their own Words that these Memorials and Instructions whatsoever they were had not me the Prelate of Canterbury for their prime cause on Earth for they came from the Reverend and Prudent Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews to the Reverend Bishop of Ross by him to deliver to me for the ordering of the Affairs of the Kirk and Kingdom of Scotland Surely I think no Man will judge it to be a Crime in me to give my Bretheren the Bishops of Scotland the Best Counsel and with that Counsel the best Assistance to his Majesty that I could in their Church-Affairs considering their absence and remoteness from him and the Place that I bear about him And for my own part had I been defective therein I should have thought my self not only unkind to them but faulty otherwise in my Duty both to his Majesty and that Church But for the Affairs of that Kingdom though I had the Honour to be a Sworn Counsellor of that State as well as this yet I never medled with them but at such time and in such a way as I was called and commanded to by his Majesty Let us therefore see the Particulars which are Named As not only to obtain Warrants to order the Exchequer the Privy-Council the great Commission of Surrenders The matter of Balmerinoe's Process as might please our Prelates but Warrants also for the sitting of the High-Commission-Court once a Week in Edinburgh and to gain from the Noble-Men for the Benefit of the Prelates and their Adhaerents the Abbacies of Kelsoe Arbroth St. Andrews and Lindores For the first of these my obtaining Warrants to order the Exchequer there that is indeed an Affair of the Kingdom and a great one But all or most that I did herein was at the earnest entreaty of the Earl of Traquair Treasurer Depute and after that Lord Treasurer who avowed to me that if the Orders were setled for the Exchequer he would not only bring the King out of Debt but raise him some Revenue also with a Protestation farther that for that and some such like particulars he could trust no hand but mine in his absence to get them done and kept private And at so great an Officers intreaty and for Matters under his own Charge I could not refuse so much Service for the King as was pretended by him As for Orders to the Privy-Council I remember not any procured by me And sure I am if I did any thing to that Honourable Body it was by his Majesty's Command and in relation to Church Affairs there And for the Great Commission of Surrenders in which both the Bishops and the inferiour Clergy were deeply interessed and did much fear the loss of their Tythes and to be made Stipendiaries I conceive I had all the reason in the World to give them my best assistance and yet I undertook not this Care till his Majesty gave me a special Command to do what I did And if the Bishops were in any thing mistaken in this Commission that cannot charge upon me who followed it no farther than I received special directions from his Majesty for the publick good For the Lord Balmerinoe's Process I heard much discourse of it at Court but I medled nothing with it one way or other saving that at the intreaty of some Men of Honour of that Nation I did twice if not thrice adventure to become an humble Suitor to his Majesty in that Lord's behalf And this was all the Harm I did him As for the High-Commission-Court if there were no fault in it as such a Court then I am sure there could be none in the Sitting of it once a Week If the having of such a Court be a Fault as it seems 't is now accounted as well here as there yet for my own part with all humble Submission to better Judgment I cannot think it is and I must still pray that both Nations
their Opinion unless they be such as have been bred up either in their Faction or in the Opposite at Rome For Bodin is clear That Arms may not be taken up against the Prince be he never so Impious and Wicked And instances in Saul and Nebuchadnezzar And Grotius doth not only say as much as Bodin but Censures them which hold the contrary to be Men which serve Time and Place more than Truth Nor is it any whit more Lawful for Inferiour Magistrates to make this resistance against the King than it is for private Men. And this is universally true where the Princes are free and have not undertaken the Government under that or the like Condition or being free seek with a Hostile Mind to ruine their People which is scarce possible And a great Civilian tells us that he is properly a Rebel that resists the Emperor or his Officers in things belonging to the State of the Empire Some Cases he lays down indeed in which the pleasure of a Prince may not be obeyed but none in which his Power is to be resisted Nor is it any marvel that Christians do disallow the taking up of Arms against the Prince since even the soundest Politicks among the Heathen have declared so likewise Aristotle was of this Opinion that if the Magistrate strike yet he is not to be struck again And Seneca that Men are to bear the unjust as well as the just Commands of Princes And Tacitus that good Emperours are to be desired but whatever they be to be born with And Plutarch that it is not Lawful to offer any Violence to the Person of the King And Cicero That no Force is to be offered either to a Man's Parent or to his Country And therefore in his Judgment not to the Prince who is Pater Patriae the Father of his Country And the truth is where-ever the contrary Opinion is maintained the Prince can never be safe nor the Government setled But so soon as a Faction can get a fit Head and gather sufficient strength all is torn in pieces and the Prince lost for no considerable Errour or perhaps none at all For a strong Party once Heated can as easily make Faults as find them either in Church or Common-wealth And make the King say as Zedekiah sometimes did to his potent Nobles Behold Jeremiah is in your Hands for the King is not he that can do any thing against you Jerem. 38. But whereas they say it is a Doctrine that tends to the utter Slavery and ruin of all States and Kingdoms That will appear most untrue by the very Letter of the Canon it self which gives way to no Tyranny but expresses only the true Power of a King given by God and to be exercised according to God's Law and the several Laws of Kingdoms respectively And I hope there will ever be a real difference found in Christian Kingdoms between the Doctrine that tends to Slavery and Ruine and that which forbids taking up of Arms against their Sovereign which is all that this Canon doth And in the mean time I pray God this not Doctrine only but Practice also of taking up Arms against the Lord 's Anointed under meer pretence of Religion do not in a shorter time than is fear'd bring all to Confusion where-ever 't is Practised For howsoever it bears a shew of Liberty yet this way of maintaining it is not only dishonourable to Kings but the ready way to make them study ways of Force and to use Power when-ever they get it to abridge the Liberties of such over-daring Subjects And in all times it hath sown the Seeds of Civil Combustions which have ended in Slavery and Ruine of flourishing Kingdoms And I pray God these do not end so in this But they go on And as if this had not been sufficient he procures six Subsidies to be lifted of the Clergy under pain of Deprivation to all who should refuse The giving of the King Subsidies is no new thing The Clergy have bin ever willing to the uttermost of their Power But what I and my Brethren of the Clergy did at this time therein is before set down And I hold it not fit to lengthen this Tract with the needless Repetition of any thing And which is yet more and above which Malice it self cannot ascend by his means a Prayer is framed Printed and sent through all the Parishes of England to be said in all Churches in time of Divine Service next after the Prayer for the Queen and Royal Progeny against our Nation by Name as Trayterous Subjects having cast off all Obedience to our Anointed Sovereign and coming in a Rebellious manner to Invade England that shame may cover our Faces as Enemies to God and the King We are now come to the last part of their Charge and that 's the Prayer which was made and sent to be used in all Churches when the Scots came into England But this Prayer was made not by my means or procurement but by his Majesties special Command to me to see it done And it hath bin ever usual in England upon great and urgent occasions to have one or more Prayers made by some Bishop or Bishops nearest hand to fit the Present business And this may appear by divers Forms and Prayers so made and publickly used in all times since the Reformation And since this Prayer was made by his Majesties own Command I am sorry they should say of it that Malice it self cannot ascend above it Though I perswade my self they thought to hit me not him in this Speech Now what I pray is that above which Malice it self cannot ascend Why first it is That they were called in that Prayer trayterous Subjects which had cast off all Obedience to their Anointed Sovereign Why but Truth spake this not Malice For Trayterous Subjects they were then if ever a King had any And the Kings Proclamation called them so before that Prayer came forth And what Title soever it is fit to give them now since his Majesty hath bin graciously pleased to treat with them and pass by their Offence that 's another thing but as the case stood then they had shaken off all Obedience and were as they were then called Trayterous Subjects And I had a special Charge from the King not to spare that Name Secondly They except against this that 't is there said that they came in a Rebellious manner to Invade this Kingdom And that is most true too for whereas they said they came in a peaceable manner to deliver their Petitions to the King for the Liberty of their Religion and Laws Is it a peaceable way to come two or three and twenty Thousand Men strong and Armed to deliver a Petition Let the whole World judge whether this were not a Rebellious Invasion Thirdly They say 't is desir'd in the Prayer that God would with shame cover the Faces
Tyrannical Government contrary to Law I could not endeavour this my knowledge and judgment going ever against an Arbitrary Government in comparison of that which is settled by Law I learned so much long ago out of Aristotle and his Reasons are too good to be gone against And ever since I had the honour to sit at the Council Table I kept my self as much to the Law as I could and followed the Judgment of those great Lawyers which then sat at the Board And upon all References which came from His Majesty if I were one I left those freely to the Law who were not willing to have their business ended any other way And this the Lord Keeper the Lord Privy Seal and the Councel Learned which attended their Clients Causes can plentifully witness I did never advise His Majesty that he might at his own Will and Pleasure levy Money of his Subjects without their Consent in Parliament Nor do I remember that ever I affirmed any such thing as is Charged in the Article But I do believe that I may have said something to this effect following That howsoever it stands by the Law of God for a King in the just and necessary defence of himself and his Kingdom to levy Money of his Subjects yet where a particular National Law doth intervene in any Kingdom and is settled by mutual consent between the King and his People there Moneys ought to be Levied by and according to that Law And by God's Law and the same Law of the Land I humbly conceive the Subjects so met in Parliament ought to supply their Prince when there is just and necessary cause And if an Absolute necessity do happen by Invasion or otherwise which gives no time for Counsel or Law such a Necessity but no pretended one is above all Law And I have heard the greatest Lawyers in this Kingdom confess that in times of such a Necessity The King 's Legal Prerogative is as great as this And since here is of late such a noise made about the Subversion of the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and Mens Lives called this way in question 't is very requisite that these Fundamental Laws were known to all Men That so they may see the danger before they run upon it Whereas now the Common Laws of England have no Text at all In so much that many who would think themselves wronged if they were not accounted good Lawyers cannot in many points assure a Man what the Law is And by this means the Judges have liberty to retain more in Scrinio Pectoris than is fitting and which comes a little too near that Arbitrary Government so much and so justly found fault with Whereas there is no Kingdom that I know that hath a setled Government but it hath also a Text or a Corpus Juris of the Laws written save England So here shall be as great a punishment as is any where for the breach of the Laws and no Text of them for a Man's direction And under favour I think it were a work worthy a Parliament to Command some prime Lawyers to draw up a Body of the Common Law and then have it carefully Examined by all the Judges of the Realm and thoroughly weighed by both Houses and then have this Book Declared and Confirmed by an Act of Parliament as containing the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom And then let any Man go to Subvert them at his Peril 2. He hath for the better accomplishment of that his Trayterous Design advised and procured divers Sermons and other Discourses to be Preached Printed and Published in which the Authority of Parliaments and the force of the Laws of this Kingdom are denied and an Absolute and Vnlimited Power over the Persons and Estates of his Majesties Subjects is maintained and defended not only in the King but also in himself and other Bishops above and against the Law And he hath been a great Protector Favourer and Promoter of the Publishers of such false and pernicious Opinions I have neither advised nor procured the Preaching Printing or Publishing of any Sermons or other Discourses in which the Authority of Parliaments and the force of the Laws of this Kingdom are denied and an Absolute and Unlimited Power over the Persons and Estates of his Majesty's Subjects maintained and defended Nay I have been so far from this that I have since I came into place made stay of divers Books purposely written to maintain an Absolute Power in the Kingdom and have not suffered them to be Printed as was earnestly desired And were it fit to bring other Mens Names in question and expose their Persons to danger I have some of those Tracts by me at this present And as I have not maintained this Power in the King's Majesty so much less have I defended this or any other Power against Law either in my self or other Bishops or any other Person whatsoever Nor have I been a Protector Favourer or Promoter of any the Publishers of such false and pernicious Opinions knowing them to be such Men. 3. He hath by Letters Messages Threats Promises and divers other ways to Judges and other Ministers of Justice interrupted and perverted and at other times by the means aforesaid hath indeavoured to interrupt and pervert the course of Justice in his Majesty's Courts at Westminster and other Courts to the Subversion of the Laws of this Kingdom whereby sundry of his Majesty's Subjects have been stopped in their Just Suits and deprived of their Lawful Rights and subjected to his Tyrannical Will to their utter Ruin and Destruction I have neither by Letters Messages Threats nor Promises nor by any other Means endeavoured to interrupt or pervert the course of Justice in his Majesty's Judges or other Ministers of Justice either to the Subversion of the Law or the stopping of the Subjects in their Just Suits Much less to the ruin or destruction of any one which God forbid I should ever be guilty of The most that ever I have done in this kind is this When some poor Clergy-Men which have been held in long Suits some Seven Nine Twelve Years and one for Nineteen Years together have come and besought me with Tears and have scarce had convenient Clothing about them to come and make their address I have sometimes underwritten their Petitions to those Reverend Judges in whose Courts their Suits were and have fairly desired Expedition for them But I did never desire by any Letter or Subscription or Message any thing for any of them but that which was according to the Law and Justice of the Realm And in this particular I do refer my self to the Testimony of the Reverend Judges of the Common Law 4. That the said Arch-Bishop hath Traiterously and Corruptly sold Justice to those that have had Causes depending before him by Colour of his Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as Arch-Bishop High-Commissioner Referree or otherwise and hath taken unlawful Gifts and Bribes of his
said that I did often wish from my Heart that His Majesty had kept the Army which he had at Barwick together but Eight or Ten Days longer And that I did not doubt but that if he had so done he might have had more Honourable Conditions of his Scottish Subjects This I said and more or otherwise I said not and whosoever shall relate them otherwise forgets Truth Now to say that His Majesty might have had more Honourable Conditions doth not infer that the Pacification then made was upon Dishonourable Conditions but only upon less Honourable than it might have been And I had great Reason to observe my own words and remember them because I saw some Lords at the Table touched with them perhaps in their own Particulars Nor was I alone in this Judgment For my Lord the Earl of Holland though he then said nothing at the Council-Table yet at his first return from Barwick his Lordship did me the Honour to come and see me at Lambeth And in the Gallery there while we were discoursing of the Affairs in the North of himself he used these words to me That His Majesty did too suddenly dissolve his Army there indeed so suddenly that every body wondered at it And that for his part he was so sorry especially for the dismissing of all the Horse which he said were as good as any were in Christendom And farther that he offer'd His Majesty to keep one Thousand of them for a Year at his own and his Friends Charge till the King might see all things well setled again in Scotland By which it is apparent that in his Lordships Judgment things might have been better had not that Army been so suddenly dissolved And I hope it was no Sin in me to wish the best success and the most Honour to the King's Affairs Now that which moved me to say thus at the Council-Table was this The last Article in the Pacification was To restore to every one of His Majesties Subjects their Liberties Lands Houses Goods and Means whatsoever taken and detained from them by whatsoever means since the aforesaid time But within two Days or three at the most after the Pacification agreed upon and concluded the Lord Lindsay made an open and publick Protestation either in the Camp at Dunns or at the 〈◊〉 in Edenburgh or both that no Clergy Man his Goods or Means was included in the Pacification Which yet expresses every one of His Majesties Subjects And this I did then conceive and do still was a very bold audacious Act of that Lord very injurious to the Poor Clergy and not so Honourable for the King And this made me say and I say it still His Majesty might have had more Honourable Conditions and his Pacification better kept had he continued his Army but Eight or Ten Days longer For in all probability the Scots could not so long have continued their Army together And I did farther conceive that by this Act of the Lord Lindsay in protesting and by the Scots making his Protestation good against the Clergy there was a direct and manifest Breach of the Pacification on their behalf And then though I saw no Reason why the King should be bound to keep that mutual Pacification which they had broken for a Knot must be fast at both ends or loose at both Yet remembring my Calling I did not Incense His Majesty against his Subjects in Scotland nor did hereupon advise the undertaking of an Offensive War against them nor ever give other Counsel in this Particular than what I openly gave before the Lords either in the Committee or at the Board And there my Concurring in Opinion with all the rest of the Lords was I hope no other nor no greater fault than in them though I be thus singled out And for the Pacification I shall say thus much more Though I could with all my Heart have wished it more Honourable for the King and more express and safe for my Brethren of the Clergy yet all things Considered which were put unto me I did approve it For before the Pacification was fully agreed upon His Majesty did me the Honour to write unto me all with his own Hand In this Letter He Commanded me all delay set apart to send him my Judgment plainly and freely what I thought of the Pacification which was then almost ready for conclusion I in all Humility approved of the Pacification as it was then put to me and sent my Answer presently back and my Reasons why I approved it Little thinking then but that my Poor Brethren the Bishops of Scotland should have had all restored unto them according to the Article of the Pacification before recited or at least for so long till they had defended themselves and their Calling and their Cause in a free General Assembly and as free a Parliament Now this was ever assumed to me should be done and to procure this was all which the Bishops seemed to desire of me And for the Truth of this I appeal to His Majesty to whom I writ it And to my Lord Marquess Hamilton to whom the King shewed my Letter As my Lord Marquess himself told me at his return And to Dr. Juxon Lord Bishop of London then Lord High Treasurer of England to whom I shewed my Letter before I sent it away And this is all I did concerning the Pacification 14. That to preserve himself from being questioned for these and other his Trayterous Courses he hath laboured to subvert the Rights of Parliament and the Ancient Course of Parliamentary proceedings And by false and malicious Slanders to incense His Majesty against Parliaments By which Words Counsels and Actions he hath Trayterously and contrary to his Allegiance laboured to alienate the Hearts of the Kings Liege People from his Majesty to set a Division between them and to 〈◊〉 and Destroy his Majesty's Kingdoms For which they do impeach him of High Treason against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity I did never Labour to subvert the rights of Parliaments or the antient Course of their Proceedings And not doing it at all I could not do it to keep my self from being questioned Much less did I by any malitious Slanders or any other way incense his Majesty against Parliaments nor ever thereby labour to alienate the Hearts of the King's Liege People from his Majesty nor to set any Division between them or to Ruine and Destroy his Majesty's Kingdoms And am no way Guilty in the least Degree of High Treason against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity It is true I have been much and very often grieved to see the great distractions which have happened of later Years both in King James his time and since about the Breaches which have been in Parliaments And I have as heartily wished and to my Power endeavoured that all Parliaments which have been called might come to their Happy Issue and end in the Contentment of
the King and his People And I have ever been of Opinion and I shall Live and Dye in it That there can be no true and setled Happiness in this or any other Kingdom but by a fair and Legal as well as Natural Agreement between the King and his People and that according to the Course of England this Agreement is in a great proportion founded upon Parliaments Now Parliaments as I humbly conceive can never better preserve their own Rights than by a free and honourable way to keep up the Greatness and Power of their King that so he may be the better able against all Forreign Practices to keep up the Honour as well as the Safety of the Nation both which usually stand or fall together And if any particular Mens Miscarriages have distempered any Parliaments and caused or occasioned a Breach I have upon the Grounds before laid been as sorry as any Man for it but never contributed any thing to it And I hope it is not Criminal to think that Parliaments may sometimes in some things by Misinformation or otherwise be mistaken as well as other Courts This in conclusion I clearly think Parliaments are the best preservers of the Ancient Laws and Rights of this Kingdom But this I think too that Corruptio optimi est Pessima that no Corruption is so bad so foul so dangerous as that which is of the best And therefore if Parliaments should at any time be misguided by practice of a 〈◊〉 Party nothing then so dangerous as such a 〈◊〉 because the highest Remedy being Corrupted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sure Redress left at all And we had a lamentable 〈◊〉 of such a Parliament 〈◊〉 Hen. 4. was set up For that 〈◊〉 was the Cause of 〈◊〉 the Civil Wars and that great 〈◊〉 of Blood which followed soon after in this Kingdom God make us mindful and careful to prevent the like The said Commons do farther aver that the said William Arch-Bishop of Canterbury during the time in which the Treasons and Offences afore-named were Committed hath been a Bishop or Arch-Bishop in this Realm of England one of the King's Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Matters and of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council And that he hath taken an Oath for his Faithful discharge of the said Office of Counsellor and hath likewise taken the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance And the said Commons by Protestation saving to themselves the Liberty of Exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Accusation or Impeachment against the said Arch-Bishop and also of replying to the Answers that the said Arch-Bishop shall make unto the said Articles or to any of them and of offering farther Proof also of the Premises or any of them or of any other Impeachment or Accusation that shall be exhibited by them as the Case shall according to the Course of Parliaments require do pray that the said Arch-Bishop may be put to answer to all and every the Premises and that such Proceedings Examinations Tryal and Judgment may be upon every of them had and used as is agreeable to Law and Justice This is the Conclusion of these general Articles then put up against me and is added only for Form and so requires no Answer from me But in the Close they of the House of Commons make two Petitions to the Lords and both were granted as 't is fit they should The one is That they may add farther Accusations or farther Proof of this as the Course of Parliaments require And I refuse no such either Accusation or Proof so the due Course of Parliaments be kept The other is That there may be such Proceedings Examinations Tryal and Judgment as is agreeable to Law and Justice And such Proceedings my Innocency can never decline But whether the Proceedings hitherto against me be according to the Antient Proceedings in Parliament or to Law and Justice I leave Posterity to judge Since they which here seem so earnestly to call for Examinations Tryal and Judgment have not to this Day proceeded to any Tryal nay have not so much as brought up any particular Charge against me it being almost a full Year since they brought up this general Charge and called for Examinations and Tryal and yet have kept me in Prison all this while to the great Weakning of my Aged Body and Waste of my poor Fortunes And how much longer they mean to keep me there God knows Whereas all that I do desire is a Just and Fair Tryal with such an Issue better or worse as it shall 〈◊〉 God to give CAP. VIII WHen these Articles had been Read unto me in the Upper House and I had spoken to the Lords in a general Answer to them what I thought fit as is before expressed I humbly desired of the Lords this being upon Friday Feb. 26. that my going to the Tower might be put off till the Monday after that so I might have time to be the better fitted for my Lodging This I humbly thank their Lordships was granted I returned to Mr. Maxwell's Custody and that Afternoon sent my Steward to Sir William Balfore then Lieutenant that a Lodging might be had for me with as much convenience as might be On Munday March 1. Mr. Maxwell carried me in his Coach to the Tower St. George's Feast having been formerly put off was to begin that Evening By this means Mr. Maxwell whose Office tied him to attendance upon that Solemnity could not possibly go with me to the Tower at Evening as I desired Therefore Noon when the Citizens were at Dinner was chosen as the next fittest time for Privateness All was well till I passed through Newgate Shambles and entred into Cheapside There some one Prentice first Hallowed out more and followed the Coach the Number still increasing as they went till by that time I came to the Exchange the shouting was exceeding great And so they followed me with Clamour and Revilings even beyond Barbarity it self not giving over till the Coach was entred in at the Tower-Gate Mr. Maxwell out of his Love and Care was extreamly troubled at it but I bless God for it my Patience was not moved I looked upon a higher Cause than the Tongues of Shimei and his Children The same Day there was a Committee for Religion named in the Upper House of Parliament Ten Earls Ten Bishops and Ten Barons So the Lay Votes will be double to the Clergy that they may carry what they will for Truth This Committee professes to meddle with Doctrine as well as Ceremonies and to that end will call some Divines to them to consider of and prepare Business This appears by a Letter sent by Dr. Williams then Lord Bishop of Lincoln now Lord Arch-Bishop of York to some Divines which were named to attend this Service The Copy of the Letter follows WIth my best Wishes unto you in Christ Jesus I am Commanded by the Lords of the Committee for Innovations in Matters of
ever any Man played me But he failed in his hopes and his Petition was cast out of the Lords House to try his Right at Law which was all that was asked by Dr Merricke Yet upon the earnestness of the then Lord Bishop of Lincoln and now Arch-Bishop of York the Lords Sequestred my Jurisdiction and put it into the Hands of my Inferiour Officers and added in the Order that I should dispose of neither Benefice nor any other thing but I should first acquaint them with it The Order follows in haec verba Die Sab. 23. Octob. 1641. IT is Ordered by the Lords in Parliament that the Jurisdiction of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury shall be Sequestred until he shall be Convicted or Acquitted of the Charge of High Treason against him and the same in the mean time to be Executed by his Inferiour Officers And farther concerning those Ecclesiastical Benefices Promotions or Dignities that are in his disposing he shall present to this House the Names of such Persons as shall be Nominated by him for the same to be Approved of first by this House before they be Collated or Instituted Jo. Browne Cler. Parliam c. For my Jurisdiction I Thank God I never knowingly abused it And of the other Restraint about the giving of my Benefices I cannot but think it very hard in two respects The one is that I should be put to Name to them before I give that which by Law is mine to give In the mean time they cry out of the violation of the Propriety which each Subject hath in his Goods and yet I must not give my own So also they condemn Arbitrary Government and yet press upon me an Arbitrary Order against Law The other is that if in Obedience to this Order I shall Nominate any Man to them be he never so worthy for Life and Learning yet if upon Misinformation or otherwise the House should refuse him I should not only not do him the good I intended but blast him for all the remainder of his Life And whensoever he shall seek for any other Preferment that shall be laid unto him that he was thought unworthy by the High Court of Parliament Yet how to ease my self against this Order I know not This day Novemb. 1. News came to the Parliament of the Rebellion in Ireland The King being then in Scotland where there were Troubles enough also The Irish pretended the Scots Example and hoped they should get their Liberties and the Freedom of their Religion as well as they But that Rebellion is grown fierce and strong and what end that War will have God knows A happy one God of his Mercy send For this Nation is in many difficulties at once and we have drawn them all upon our selves But this belongs not to my Story Only this I shall add which is the Judgment of all Prudent Men that I speak with both of Ireland and England that if the Earl of Strafford had Lived and not been blasted in his Honour and Service no Rebellion had been stirring there And if this be so 't is a soar Account must be given for his Blood If either that Kingdom be upon this occasion quite lost from the Crown of England or not recover'd without great Expence both of Treasure and Blood On Thursday Novemb. 25. the King returning from Scotland entred into London was received with great State and Joy and Sumptuously Entertained This made divers Men think there would have been a Turn in the present Business And what it might have proved if the King would have presently and vigorously set himself to vindicate his own Just Power and leave them their Antient and Just Priviledges is not I think hard to judge But he let it cool and gave that which is truly the Malignant Faction but call others so time to underwork him and bring the City round and all ran then stronger in the same Current than ever it did So God of his Mercy bless all On Thursday Decemb. 30. the Lord Arch-Bishop of York and Eleven other Bishops were sent to the 〈◊〉 for High Treason and two other Bishops Duresme and Coventry and Litchfield to Mr. Maxwell's for setting their Hands to a Petition and delivering of it with a Protestation that this was not a free Parliament since they who had Antient Right there could not come to give their Votes as they ought without danger of their Lives For by this time it was grown common that the Multitude came down in heaps if either the Lords or the King denyed any thing which the House of Commons affected But how it came to pass that these Multitudes should come down in such disorder and yet be sent back and dissolved so easily at a word or beck of some Men let the World judge The Petition and Protestation which the Bishops delivered in was as follows and perchance it was unseasonably delivered and perhaps some Words in it might have been better spared but the Treason and peradventure that 's my Ignorance I cannot find in it The Petition and Protestation of Twelve Bishops for which they were Accused of High-Treason by the House of Commons and Committed by the Lords to the Black-Rod THat whereas the Petitioners are called upon by several and respective Writs under great Penalties to Attend in Parliament and have a clear and indubitable Right to Vote in Bills and all other Matters whatsoever debated in Parliament by the Antient Customs Laws and Statutes of this Realm and are to be protected by your Majesty quietly to attend and prosecute that great Service They humbly remonstrate and protest before God your Majesty and the Noble Peers now Assembled in Parliament that as they have an indubitable Right to Sit and Vote in the House of Lords so they if they may be protected from force and violence are most ready and willing to perform that Duty accordingly and that they do abominate all Actions and Opinions tending to Popery or any inclination to the Malignant Party or any other side and Party whatsoever to the which their own Reasons and Consciences shall not adhere But whereas they have been at several times violently Menaced Affronted and Assaulted by multitudes of People in coming to perform their Service to that Honourable House and lately chased away and put in danger of their Lives and find no Redress or Protection upon sundry Complaints made to both Houses in that particular They likewise protest before your Majesty and that Noble House of Peers that saving to themselves all their Rights and Interests of Sitting and Voting in your House at other times they dare not sit to Vote in the House of Peers unless your Majesty shall further secure them from all Affronts Indignities and Danger in the Premises Lastly whereas their fears are not built upon Fancies and Conceipts but upon such Grounds and Objects as may well
Gifts were great but that I perverted them all And that I was guilty of Treason in the highest Altitude These were the Liveries which he liberally gave me but I had no mind to wear them And yet I might not desire him to wear this Cloth himself considering where I then stood and in what Condition This Treason in the Altitude he said was in my Endeavour to alter the Religion established by Law and to subvert the Laws themselves And that to effect these I left no way unattempted For Religion he told the Lords That I laboured a Reconciliation with Rome That I maintained Popish and Arminian Opinions That I suffered Transubstantiation Justification by Merits Purgatory and what not to be openly Preached all over the Kingdom That I induced Superstitious Ceremonies as Consecrations of Churches and Chalices and Pictures of Christ in Glass-Windows That I gave liberty to the Prophanation of the Lords-day That I held Intelligence with Cardinals and Priests and endeavoured to ascend to Papal Dignity Offers being made me to be a Cardinal And for the Laws he was altogether as Wild in his Assertions as he was before for Religion And if he have no more true sense of Religion than he hath knowledge in the Law though it be his Profession I think he may offer both long enough to Sale before he find a Chapman for either And here he told the Lords That I held the same Method for this which I did for Religion And surely that was to uphold both had the Kingdom been so happy as to believe me But he affirmed with great Confidence That I caused Sermons to be Preached in Court to set the Kings Prerogative above the Law and Books to be Printed to the same effect That my Actions were according to these Then he fell upon the Canons and discharged them upon me Then that I might be guilty enough if his bare Word could make me so he Charged upon me the Benevolence the Loan the Ship-money the Illegal pulling down of Buildings Inclosures saying that as Antichrist sets himself above all that is called God so I laboured to set the King above all that is called Law And after a tedious stir he concluded his Speech with this That I was like Naaman the Syrian a great Person he confessed but a Leper So ended this Noble Celeustes I was much troubled to see my self in such an Honourable Assembly made so vile Yet seeing all Mens Eyes upon me I recollected my self and humbly desired of the Lords two things One that they would expect Proof before they give up their Belief to these loud but loose Assertions Especially since it is an easie thing for Men so resolved to Conviciate instead of Accusing when as the Rule given by Optatus holds firm Quum intenditur Crimen when a Crime is objected especially so high a Crime as this Charged on me 't is necessary that the Proof be manifest which yet against me is none at all The other that their Lordships would give me leave not to Answer this Gentleman's Particulars for that I shall defer till I hear his Proofs but to speak some few things concerning my self and this grievous Impeachment brought up against me Which being yielded unto me I then spake as follows My Lords my being in this Place and in this Condition recalls to my memory that which I long since read in Seneca Tormentum est etiamsi absolutus quis fuerit Causam dixisse 'T is not a grief only no 't is no less than a Torment for an ingenuous Man to plead Criminally much more Capitally at such a Bar as this yea though it should so fall out that he be absolved The great truth of this I find at present in my self And so much the more because I am a Christian And not that only but in Holy Orders And not so only but by Gods Grace and Goodness preferred to the greatest Place this Church affords and yet now brought Causam dicere to Plead and for no less than Life at this Great Bar. And whatsoever the World thinks of me and they have been taught to think more ill than I humbly thank Christ for it I was ever acquainted with Yet my Lords this I find Tormentum est 't is no less than Torment to me to appear in this Place to such an Accusation Nay my Lords give me leave I beseech you to speak plain Truth No Sentence that can justly pass upon me and other I will never fear from your Lordships can go so near me as Causam dixisse to have pleaded for my self upon this occasion and in this Place For as for the Sentence I thank God for it I am at St. Paul's Ward If I have committed any thing worthy of death I refuse not to die For I bless God I have so spent my time as that I am neither ashamed to live nor afraid to die Nor can the World be more weary of me than I am of it For seeing the Malignity which hath been raised against me by some Men I have carried my Life in my Hands these divers years past But yet my Lords if none of these things whereof these Men accuse me merit Death by Law though I may not in this Case and from this Bar appeal unto Caesar yet to your Lordships Justice and Integrity I both may and do Appeal not doubting but that God of his Goodness will preserve my Innocency And as Job in the midst of his Affliction said to his mistaken Friends so shall I to my Accusers God forbid I should justifie you till I Dye I will not remove my Integrity from me I will hold it fast and not let it go my Heart shall not reproach me as long as I live My Lords I see by the Articles and have now heard from this Gentleman that the Charge against me is divided into two main Heads the Laws of the Land and the Religion by those Laws established For the Laws first I think I may safely say I have been to my Understanding as strict an Observer of them all the Days of my Life so far as they concern me as any Man hath and since I came into Place I have followed them and been as much guided by them as any Man that sat where I had the Honour to sit And for this I am sorry I have lost the Witness of the Lord Keeper Coventry and of some other Persons of Honour since Dead And the Learned Councel at Law which attended frequently at the Council Table can Witness some of them that in References to that Board and in Debates arising at the Board I was usually for that part of the Cause where I found Law to be And if the Councel desired to have their Clyents Cause referred to the Law well I might move in some Cases for Charity or Conscience to have admittance but to the Law I left them if thither they would go And
so many innocent Souls from imminent Danger To whose monitions he willingly consented and delivered the following things to be put in Writing out of which the Articles not long since tendered to your Grace may be clearly explicated and demonstrated 1. First of all that the Hinge of the Business may be rightly discerned it is to be known that all those Factions with which all Christendom is at this Day shaken do arise from the Jesuitical Off-spring of Cham of which four Orders abound throughout the World Of the First Order are Ecclesiasticks whose Office it is to take care of things promoting Religion Of the second Order are Politicians whose Office it is by any means to shake trouble reform the State of Kingdoms and Republicks Of the Third Order are Seculars whose property it is to obtrude themselves into Offices with Kings and Princes to insinuate and immix themselves in Court Businesses bargains and sales and to be busied in Civil Affairs Of the Fourth Order are Intelligencers or Spies Men of Inferiour condition who submit themselves to the services of great Men Princes Barons Noblemen Citizens to deceive or corrupt the Minds of their Masters 2. A Society of so many Orders the Kingdom of England nourisheth For scarce all Spain France and Italy can yield so great a multitude of Jesuits as London alone where are found more than Fifty Scottish Jesuits There the said Society hath elected to it self a seat of Iniquity and hath conspired against the King and the most faithful to the King especially the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and likewise against both Kingdoms 3. For it is more certain than certainty it self that the forenamed Society hath determined to effect an universal Reformation of the Kingdom of England and Scotland Therefore the determination of the end necessarily infers a determination of means to the end 4. Therefore to promote the undertaken Villany the said Society dubbed it self with the Title of The Congregation of propagating the Faith which acknowledgeth the Pope of Rome the Head of the College and Cardinal Barbarino his Substitute and Executor 5. The chief Patron of the Society at London is the Popes Legat who takes care of the business into whose Bosom these Dregs of Traytors weekly deposite all their Intelligences Now the Residence of this Legation was obtained at London in the name of the Roman Pontif by whose mediation it might be lawful for Cardinal Barbarino to work so much the more easily and safely upon the King and Kingdom For none else could so freely circumvent the King as he who should be palliated with the Pope's Authority 6. Master Cuneus did at that time enjoy the Office of the Pope's Legat an universal Instrument of the conjured Society and a serious promoter of the business whose secrets as likewise those of all the other Intelligencers the present good Man the Communicator of all these things did receive and expedite whither the business required Cuneus set upon the chief Men of the Kingdom and left nothing unattempted by what means he might corrupt them all and incline them to the Pontifician Party He inticed many with various Incitements yea he sought to delude the King himself with gifts of Pictures Antiquities Idols and of other Vanities brought from Rome which yet would prevail nothing with the King Having entred familiarity with the King he is often requested at Hamptoncourt likewise at London to undertake the cause of the Palatine and that he would interpose his Authority and by his Intercession persuade the Legat of Colen that the Palatine in the next Diet to treat of Peace might be inserted into the Conditions which verily he promised but performed the contrary He writ indeed that he had been so desired by the King concerning such things yet he advised not that they should be consented to lest peradventure it might be said by the Spaniard that the Pope of Rome had patronized an heretical Prince In the mean time Cuncus smelling from the Arch-Bishop most trusty to the King that the King's Mind was wholly pendulous or doubtful resolved That he would move every Stone and apply his Forces that he might gain him to his party Certainly considing that he had a means prepared For he had a command to offer a Cardinal's Cap to the Lord Archbishop in the Name of the Pope of Rome and that he should allure him also with higher Promises that he might corrupt his sincere Mind Yet a sitting ocasion was never given whereby he might insinuate himself into the Lord Arch-Bishop for the Scorpion sought an Egg Free access was to be impetrated by the Earl and Countess of Arundel likewise by Secretary Windebank The intercession of all which being neglected he did fly the Company or familiarity of Cuneus worse than the Plague He was likewise perswaded by others of no mean rank well known to him neither yet was he moved 7. Another also was assayed who hindred access to the detestable wickedness Secretary Cook he was a most bitter hater of the Jesuits from whom he intercepted access to the King he entertained many of them according to their deserts he diligently enquired into their Factions by which means every incitement breathing a Magnetical attractive power to the Popish Party was ineffectual with him for nothing was so dear unto him that might incline him to wickedness Hereupon being made odious to the Patrons of the Conspiracy he was endangered to be discharged from his Office it was laboured for three Years space and at last obtained Yet notwithstanding there remained on the King's part a knot hard to be untied for the Lord Arch-Bishop by his constancy interposed himself as a most hard Rock When Cuneus had understood from the Lord Arch-Bishop's part that he had laboured in vain his Malice and the whole Societies waxed boyling hot Soon after Ambushes began to be prepared wherewith the Lord Arch-Bishop together with the King should be taken Likewise a Sentence is passed against the King for whose sake all this business is disposed because nothing is hoped from him which might seem to promote the Popish Religion but especially when he had opened his Mind that he was of this Opinion that every one might be saved in his own Religion so as he be an honest and pious Man 8. To perpetrate the Treason undertaken the Criminal execution at Westminster caused by some Writings of Puritans gave occasion of the first Fire Which thing was so much exasperated and exaggerated by the Papists to the Puritans that if it remained unrevenged it would be thought a blemish to their Religion the Flames of which Fire the subsequent book of Prayers increases 9. In this heat a certain Scottish-Earl called Maxfield if I mistake not was expedited to the Scots by the Popish party with whom two other Scottish Earls Papists held correspondency He ought to stir up the People
I had finished my Answer the Right Reverend Lancelot Lord Bishop of Winchester and I went together to the Country House which John Lord Bishop of Rochester hath by Bromley We Dined there and returned in the Evening June 8. Wednesday I went to Chelsey but returned with my Labour lost June 12. Sunday it was Trinity Sunday Queen Mary crossing the Seas Landed upon our Shore about Seven a Clock in the Evening God grant that she may be an Evening and an Happy Star to our Orb. June 13. Munday the Parliament waiting for the King 's coming adjourned again till Saturday the 18th of June June 16. Thursday the King and Queen came to London They arrived at Court at five a Clock It was ill weather and the day cloudy When they came by the Tower of London for they came by water instead of Coach the King led out the Queen to the outside of the Barge that she might see the People and the City But at the same time a violent shower of Rain falling down forced them both to return into the inward part of the Barge The shower continued until they had entred White-Hall and then ceased June 18. Saturday The first Parliament of King Charles which had been so often put off now began There were present at the opening of it the Duke of Shiveruz with other French Noblemen a Bishop also who Attended the Queen For fear of the Pestilence which then began to be very rife the King omitted the pomp usual upon that day lest the great conflux of People should be of ill consequence And the Sermon which had been imposed upon me to be Preached in Westminster Abbey at the beginning of this Session was put off to the next day that is to June 19. First Sunday after Trinity on which day I Preached it in the Chappel at White-Hall June 20. The Convocation began June 24. Was the Feast of St John Baptist. The King Commanded the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with six other Bishops whom he then Named to advise together concerning a Publick Fast and a Form of Prayer to implore the Divine Mercy now that the Pestilence began to spread and the extraordinary wet weather threatned a Famin and also to beg the Divine Blessing upon the Fleet now ready to put to Sea The Bishops were London Durham Winchester Norwich Rochester St. Davids This was done June 25. Saturday All the Bishops who were then in Town were introduced together that they might wait upon Queen Mary and kiss her Hand She received us very Graciously July 2. Saturday The Fast was kept by both Houses of Parliament to set an Example therein to the whole Kingdom July 3. Sunday in my Sleep his Majesty King James appeared to me I saw him only passing by swiftly He was of a pleasant and serene Countenance In passing he saw me beckned to me smiled and was immediately withdrawn from my Sight July 7. Thursday Richard Montague was brought into the Lower House of Parliament c. July 9. Saturday it pleased his Majesty King Charles to intimate to the House of Commons that what had been there said and resolved without consulting him in Montague's Cause was not pleasing to him July 11. Monday The Parliament was Prorogued to Oxford against the first day of August July 13. Wednesday there having died in the former week at London 1222 Persons I went into the Country to the House of my good Friend Francis Windebank In going thither Richard Montague met me by chance I was the first who certified him of the King's Favour to him July 15. Friday I went to Windsor and performed some Businesses committed to my trust by the Right Reverend Bishop of Durham I returned that night The Court was there at that time July 17. Sunday I went again to Windsor I stood by the King at Dinner time Some Matters of Philosophy were the Subject of Discourse I Dined Afterwards I Eat in the House of the Bishop of Glocester Baron Vaughan was there present with his Eldest Son The next day one of the Bishops Servants who had waited at Table was seized with the Plague God be merciful to me and the rest That Night I returned being become lame on the sudden through I know not what humor falling down upon my left Leg or as R An thought by the biting of Buggs I grew well within two days July 20. Wednesday A Publick Fast was held throughout all England I Preached in the Parish of Hurst where I then abode with Master Windebanke July 21. Thursday I visited Sir Richard Harrison and returned July 24. Sunday I Preached in the Parish of Hurst July 29. Friday I entred into Oxford July 31. Sunday I fell down I know not how in the Parlour of the President 's Lodging at St. John's Colledge and hurt my left shoulder and hip Aug. 1. Monday The Parliament began at Oxford Presently after the beginning of it a great assault was made against the Duke of Buckingham Aug. 12. Friday The Parliament was dissolved the Commons not hearkning as was expected to the King's Proposals Aug. 15. My Relapse I never was weaker in the judgment of the Phisician It was Munday The same day I began my journey towards Wales Aug. 21. Sunday I Preached at Brecknock where I stayed two days very busie in performing some Business That Night in my Sleep it seemed to me that the Duke of Buckingham came into Bed to me where he behaved himself with great kindness towards me after that Rest wherewith wearied Persons are wont to solace themselves Many also seemed to me to enter the Chamber who saw this Not long before I dreamed that I saw the Dutchess of Buckingham that Excellent Lady at first very much perplexed about her Husband but afterwards chearful and rejoycing that she was freed from the fear of Abortion so that in due time she might be again a Mother Aug. 24. Wednesday and the Festival of St. Bartholomew I came safely thanks be to God to my own House at Aberguille Although my Coach had been twice that day overturned between Aber-Markes and my House The first time I was in it but the latter time it was empty Aug. 28. Sunday I Consecrated the Chappel or Oratory which I had built at my own charge in my House commonly called Aberguilly-House I Named it the Chappel of St. John Baptist in grateful remembrance of St. John Baptist's Colledge in Oxford of which I had been first Fellow and afterwards President And this I had determined to do But another thing intervened of no ill Omen as I hope of which I had never thought It was this On Saturday the Evening immediately preceeding the Consecration while I was intent at Prayer I know not how it came strongly into my mind that the day of the Beheading of St. John Baptist was very near When Prayers were finished I consulted the Calendar I found that day to fall upon Munday to wit the 29th of August not upon Sunday I could have
not by Reports April 30. Sunday I Preached before the King at White-Hall May 1. Munday The Earl of Bristol was accused in Parliament of High Treason by the King's Attorney Sir Robert Heath the Earl then and there preferred 12. Articles against the Duke of Buckingham and therein charged him with the same Crime and other Articles also against the Lord Conway Secretary of State The Earl of Bristol was committed to the Custody of James Maxwell the Officer in Ordinary of the House of Peers May 4. Thursday Arthur Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells Died at London May 8. Munday At Two a Clock in the Afternoon the House of Commons brought up to the House of Peers a Charge against the Duke of Buckingham consisting of 13. Articles May 11. Thursday King Charles came into the Parliament House and made a short Speech to the Lords concerning preserving the Honour of the Nobility against the vile and malicious Calumnies of those in the House of Commons who had accused the Duke c. They were Eight who in this matter chiefly appeared The Prologue Sir Dudly Digges the Epilogue John Elliot were this day by the King's Command committed to the Tower They were both dismissed thence within few days May 25. Thursday The Earl of Arundel not being sent back to the House nor the Cause of his detainment made known the House of Peers began to be jealous of the breach of their Priviledges and resolved to Adjourn the House to the next day On which day May 26. They Adjourned again to June 2. resolving to do nothing until the Earl should be set free or at least a Cause given c. May 25. On which day these Troubles first began was the Feast of Pope Vrban and at this time Vrban VIII sitteth in the Papal Chair to whom and to the Spaniard if they who most desire it would do any acceptable service I do not see what they could better devise in that kind than to divide thus into Parties the great Council of the Kingdom June 15. Thursday After many Debates and Struglings private Malice against the Duke of Buckingham prevailed and stopped all publick Business Nothing was done but the Parliament was dissolved Junij 20. Tuesday His Majesty King Charles named me to be Bishop of Bath and Wells And at the same time commanded me to prepare a Sermon for the Publick Fast which he had by Proclamation appointed to be kept on the 5th of July following July 5. A Solemn Fast appointed partly upon account of the Pestilence yet raging in many Parts of the Kingdom partly on account of the Danger of Enemies threatning us I Preached this day before the King and Nobility at White-Hall It was Wednesday July 8. The King commanded me to Print and Publish the Sermon It was Saturday July 16. Sunday I presented that Sermon which was now Printed to his Majesty and returned July 26. Wednesday The King signed the Conge d' Eslire empowering the Dean and Chapter to elect me Bishop of Bath and Wells July 24. Thursday In the Morning Dr. Feild Bishop of Landaff brought to me 〈◊〉 Letters from the most Illustrious Duke of Buchingham The Letters were open and wrote partly in Characters The Duke sent them to me that I should consult one Named Swadlinge mentioned in those Letters as one who could read the Characters I was also named in them as to whom that Swadling was known having been educated in S. John's Colledge in Oxford at what time I was President of that Colledge Aug. 1. Thomas Swadlinge came to me whom from his leaving the Colledge to that day for almost 8. Years I had not once seen He bestowing some pains at length read the Characters and Aug. 4. Friday I and he went to the Duke He read them They were certain malicious things The Duke as was fit despised them We returned Aug. 16. I was elected Bishop of Bath and Wells being Wednesday the Letter D. Aug. 25. Friday Two Robin-red-breasts flew together through the Door into my Study as if one pursued the other That sudden motion almost startled me I was then preparing a Sermon on Ephes. 4. 30. and Studying Septemb. 14. Thursday Evening the Duke of Buckingham willed me to form certain Instructions partly Political partly Ecclesiastical in the Cause of the King of Denmark a little before brought into great streights by General Tilly to be sent through all Parishes Certain heads were delivered to me He would have them made ready by Saturday following Sept. 16. I made them ready and brought them at the appointed hour I read them to the Duke He brought me to the King I being so commanded read them again Each of them approved them Sept. 17. Sunday They were read having been left with the Duke before the Lords of the Privy-Council and were thanks be to God approved by them all Sept. 18. Munday My election to the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells was confirmed Sept. 19. Tuesday At Theobalds I swore Homage to his Majesty who there presently restored me to the Temporalties from the death of my Predecessor What passed between me and the Lord Conway Principal Secretary to the King in our return Sept. 21. Munday about four a Clock in the Morning Died Lancelot Andrews the most worthy Bishop of Winchester the great Light of the Christian World Sept. 30. Saturday The Duke of Buckingham signified to me the King's Resolution that I should succeed the Bishop of Winchester in the Office of Dean of the Chappel-Royal Octob. 2. Munday The Duke related to me what the King had farther resolved concerning me in case the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury should die c. Octob. 3. Tuesday I went to Court which was then at Hampton-Court There I returned Thanks to the King for the Deanry of the Chappel then granted to me I returned to London Octob. 6. I took the Oath belonging to the Dean of the Chappel in the Vestry before the Right Honourable Philip Earl of Montgomery Lord Chamberlain Stephen Boughton the Sub-Dean Administring it It was Friday Novemb. 14. Or thereabout taking occasion from the abrupt both beginning and ending of Publick Prayer on the fifth of November I desired his Majesty King Charles that he would please to be present at Prayers as well as Sermon every Sunday and that at whatsoever part of the Prayers he came the Priest then Officiating might proceed to the end of the Prayers The most Religious King not only assented to this Request but also gave me thanks This had not before been done from the beginning of K. James's Reign to this day Now thanks be to God it obtaineth Decemb. 21. I dreamed of the burial of I know not whom and that I stood by the Grave I awaked sad Decemb. 25. Christmas-day Munday I Preached my first Sermon as Dean of the Chappel-Royal at White-Hall upon S. John 1 14. part 1. Januar. 5. Epiphany-Eve and Friday In the Night I dreamed that my Mother long since dead stood by my
me in my Sleep having been dead two Years before at least He seemed to me in very good plight and merry enough I told him what I had done for his Widow and Children He after a little thought answered That the Executor had satisfied him for those Legacies while he was yet alive And presently looking upon some Papers in his Study adjoyning he added that it was so He moreover whispering in my Ear told me that I was the Cause why the Bishop of Lincoln was not again admitted into Favour and to Court Apr. 4. Wednesday When his Majesty King Charles forgave to Doctor Donne certain slips in a Sermon Preached on Sunday Apr. 1. what he then most graciously said unto me I have wrote in my Heart with 〈◊〉 Characters and great 〈◊〉 to God and the King Apr. 7. Saturday Going to Court to wait upon the King at Supper in going out of the Coach my foot stumbling I fell headlong I never had a more dangerous fall but by God's mercy I escaped with a light bruise of my Hip only Apr. 24. Tuesday There were then first sent to me the Exceptitions which the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had Exhibited against Doctor Sibthorp's Sermon and what followed April 29. Sunday I was made Privy-Councellour to his Majesty King Charles God grant it may conduce to his Honour and to the good of the Kingdom and the Church May 13. Whitsunday I Preached before the King c. Junij 7 8. I attended King Charles from London to Southwick by Portsmouth Junij 11. His Majesty dined a-board the Triumph where I attended him June 17. The Bishoprick of London was granted me at Southwick June 22. We came to London June 24. I was commanded to go all the Progress June 27. The Duke of Buckingham set forwards towards the Isle of Ree June 30. The Progress began to Oatlands July 4. The King lost a Jewel in Hunting of a 1000 l. value That day the Message was sent by the King for the Sequestring of A. B. C. July 7. Saturday-night I dreamed that I had lost two Teeth The Duke of Buckingham took the Isle of Ree July 26. I attended the King and Queen at Wellingburrough July 29. The first News came from my Lord Duke of his Success Sunday August 12. The second News came from my Lord Duke to Windsor Sunday August 26. The third News came from my Lord Duke to Aldershot Sunday September News came from my Lord Duke to Theobalds The first fear of ill Success News from my Lord Duke to Hampton-Court I went to my Lord of Rochester to consider about A. B. C. and returned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Court 〈◊〉 King's Speech to me in the withdrawing Chamber That if any did c. I c. before any thing should sink c. The business of Doctor Bargar Dean of Canterbury began about the Vicaridge of Lidd October The Commission to the Bishops of London Durham Rochester Oxford and my self then Bath and Wells to Execute Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction during the Sequestration of my Lord's Grace of Canterbury The Dean of Canterbury's Speech that the business could not go well in the Isle of Ree There must be a Parliament some must be Sacrificed that I was as like as any Spoken to Doctor W. The same Speech after spoken to the same Man by Sir Dudlye Diggs I told it when I heard it doubled Let me desire you not to trouble your self with any Reports till you see me forsake my other Friends c. Ita Ch. R. The Retreat out of the Isle of Ree November My Lord Duke's return to Court The Countess of Purbeck censured in the High Commission for Adultery December 25. I Preached to the King at White-Hall January 29. Tuesday A resolution at the Council Table for a Parliament to begin March 17. if the Shires go on with levying Money for the Navy c. January 30. Wednesday My Lord Duke of Buckingham's Son was Born the Lord George New Moon die 26. February 5. Tuesday The straining of the back sinew of my right Leg as I went with his Majesty to Hampton-Court I kept in till I Preached at the opening of the Parliament March 17. but I continued lame long after saving that Februar 14. Thursday Saint Valentine's-day I made a shift to go and Christen my Lord Duke's Son the Lord George at Wallingford-House March 17. I Preached at the opening of the Parliament but had much ado to stand it was Munday Anno 1628. June 1. Whitsunday I Preached at White-Hall June 11. My Lord Duke of Buckingham Voted in the House of Commons to be the Cause or Causes of all Grievances in the Kingdom June 12. Thursday I was complained of by the House of Commons for warranting Doctor Manwaring's Sermons to the Press June 13. Dr. Manwaring answered for himself before the Lords and the next day June 14. Being Saturday was Censured After his Censure my Cause was called to the Report And by God's Goodness towards me I was fully cleared in the House The same day the House of Commons were making their Remonstrance to the King One Head was Innovation of Religion Therein they Named my Lord the Bishop of Winchester and my self One in the House stood up and said Now we have Named these Persons let us think of some Causes why we did it Sir Edw. Cooke answered Have we not Named my Lord of Buckingham without shewing a Cause and may we not be as bold with them June 17. This Remonstrance was delivered to the King on Tuesday June 26. Thursday The Session of Parliament ended and was Prorogued to October 20. July 11. Tuesday My Conge-deslier was Signed by the King for the Bishoprick of London July 15. Tuesday St. Swithin and fair with us I was Translated to the Bishoprick of London The same day the Lord Weston was made Lord Treasurer August 9. Saturday A terrible salt Rheum in my left Eye had almost put me into a Fever August 12. Tuesday My Lord Duke of Buckingham went towards Portsmouth to go for Rochell August 23. Saturday St Bartholomew's Eve the Duke of Buckingham slain at Portsmouth by one Lieutenant Felton about Nine in the Morning August 24. The News of his Death came to Croydon where it found my self and the Bishops of Winchester Ely and Carlile at the Consecration of Bishop Montague for Chichester with my Lord's Grace August 27. Wednesday Mr. Elphinston brought me a very Gracious Message from his Majesty upon my Lord Duke's Death August 30. As I was going out to meet the Corps of the Duke which that Night was brought to London Sir W Fleetwood brought me very Gracious Letters from the King's Majesty written with his own Hand September 9. Tuesday The first time that I went to Court after the Death of the Duke of Buckingham my dear Lord The Gracious Speech which that Night the King was pleased to use to me September 27. Saturday I fell Sick and came Sick from Hampton-Court Tuesday Septemb. ult I was sore
Master with all Duty and Faithfulness and without any known or wilful Disservice to the State there-while And this I did with as true and free a Heart as ever any Man did that served a King And I thank God my care was such for the Publick that it is well known I much neglected my own private Fortunes there-while The more was I amazed at the first apprehension of this heavy and undeserved Charge Upon this Charge I was commanded to withdraw But I first desired leave to speak a few words And I spake to this effect That I was heartily sorry for the Offence taken against me and that I was most unhappy to have my Eyes open to see that day and mine Ears to hear such a Charge But humbly desired their Lordships to look upon the whole course of my Life which was such as that I did verily perswade my self not one Man in the House of Commons did believe in his Heart that I was a Traytor Here my Lord the Earl of Essex interrupted me and said That Speech of mine was a Scandal put upon the whole House of Commons that they should bring me up charged with so high a Crime which themselves did not believe I 〈◊〉 desired then that I might be proceeded with in the Antient Parliamentary way of England This the Lord Say excepted against as if I would prescribe them how they should proceed So I withdrew as I was commanded and was presently called in again to the Bar and thence delivered to Mr. James Maxwell the Officer of the Black Rod to be kept in safe Custody till the House of Commons should farther Impeach me Here I humbly desired leave that I might go home to fetch some Papers necessary for my Defence This was granted me with some difficulty and Mr. Maxwell was commanded to Attend me all the while I should stay When I was gone to Lambeth after some little discourse and sad enough with my Steward and some private Friends I went into my Chappel to Evening Prayer The Psalms for that day gave me much comfort and were observed by some Friends then present as well as by my self And upon the Comfort I then received I have every day since unless some urgent Business prevented me Read over both these Psalms and God willing purpose so to do every day of my Life Prayers being ended I went with Mr. Maxwell as I was commanded Hundreds of my Poor Neighbours standing at my Gates to see me go and Praying 〈◊〉 for my safe return to my House For which I blessed God and them CAP. II. AND because here I am sure to find my self being now Imprisoned I will begin farther off and shew briefly why and how this Malignity pursued and overtook me When I was first Bishop of London His Majesty expressed a great desire which he had to settle a Liturgy in the Church of Scotland and this continued in agitation many Years And what my part was therein I shall clearly and ingenuously set down hereafter when I come to Answer the Scottish Accusations of me in that behalf or the Articles of the Parliament here one of which relates to them In the Year 1633. His Majesty went into Scotland and was Crowned there I attended his Majesty in that Service The Parliament then sitting in Scotland was very quick about some Church Affairs and the King was much unsatisfied with some Men and their Proceedings At his Majesty's Return in the same Year I was by his special Grace and Favour made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury 19 Septembris The debate about the Scottish Liturgy was pursued a-fresh and at last it was resolved by the King that some Scottish Bishops should draw up a Liturgy as near that of England as might be and that then his Majesty would have that Confirmed and Setled for the use of that Kingdom This Liturgy was carefully considered of and at last Printed and Published An. 1637. It seems the Bishops which were trusted with this business went not the right way by a General Assembly and other Legal Courses of that Kingdom But what way soever was taken or in whomsoever there was a failure this was certain in the Event The Bishops were deceived in their expectation of a peaceable admission of that Service-Book The King lost the Honour and Safety of that Settlement And that Kingdom such a Form of God's Service as I fear they will never come near again And that People by cunning and factious practices both at home and from hence were heated into such a Phrensie as will not easily be cured And 't is well if we their Neighbours run not mad for Company These violent Distempers continued from the Publishing of this Service-Book in the Year 1637. till the Year 1638. Then they grew up into a formal Mutiny And the Scottish Subjects began to Petition with Arms in their Mouths first and soon after in their Hands His Majesty was often told that these Northern Commotions had their Root in England His Majesty's Goodness was confident upon the Fidelity of his Subjects of both Nations and would not believe that of either which was most true of a powerful Faction in both Till at last after much intercourse and mediation lost and cast away the King was so betray'd by some of his own Agents that the Scots appeared upon their Borders in a formal Army His Majesty went with an Army to Barwick There after some stay a Pacification was made and his Majesty returned to White-Hall Aug. 3. 1639. Now during all this time from the Publishing of this Service-Book to this Pacification I was voyced by the Faction in both Nations to be an Incendiary a Man that laboured to set the two Nations into a bloody War Whereas God knows I laboured for Peace so long till I received a great check for my labour And particularly at the beginning of these Tumults when the Speech of a War first began in the Year 1638. openly at the Council-Table at Theobalds my Counsels alone prevailed for Peace and Forbearance in hope the Scots would think better of their Obedience But their Counsels were fomented to another end as after appeared The Pacification being made was in Terms as followeth The Articles of the Pacification 1. The Forces of Scotland to be disbanded and dissolved within Eight and Forty Hours after the Publication of his Majesty's Declaration being agreed upon 2. His Majesty's Castles Forts Ammunitions of all sorts and Royal Honours to be delivered after the Publication so soon as his Majesty can send to receive them 3. His Majesty's Ships to depart presently after the delivery of the Castles with the first fair Wind and in the mean time no interruption of Trade or Fishing 4. His Majesty is Graciously pleased to cause to be restored all Persons Goods and Ships detained and arrested since the first of November last past 5. There shall be no Meetings Treatings Consultations or Convocations of his Majesty's Lieges but such
this set others on work both in the Western and the Northern Parts Till at last by the practice of the Faction there was suddenly a great alteration and nothing so much cryed down as the Canons The comfort is Christ himself had his Osanna turned into a Crucifige in far less Time By this means the Malice of the Time took another occasion to whet it self against me The Synod thus ended and the Canons having this Success but especially the Parliament ending so unhappily The King was very hardly put to it and sought all other means as well as he could to get supply against the Scots But all that he could get proved too little or came too late for that service For the averse party in the late Parliament or by and by after before they parted ordered things so and filled Mens Minds with such strange Jealousies that the King 's good People were almost generally possest that his Majesty had a purpose to alter the ancient Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom and to bring in Slavery upon his People A thing which for ought I know his Majesty never intended But the Parliament-men which would not relieve the King by their meeting in that Assembly came to understand and inform one another and at their return were able to possess their several Countries with the Apprehensions themselves had and so they did Upon this some Lords and others who had by this time made an underhand solemn Confederacy with a strong faction of the Scots brought an Army of them into the Kingdom For all Men know and it hath been in a manner confessed that the Scots durst not have come into England at that Time if they had not been sure of a Party here and a strong one and that the King should be betrayed on all hands as shall after appear By these and the like means the King being not assisted by his Parliament nor having Means enough to proceed with his Forces in due Time the Scots were brought in as is aforesaid upon both King and Kingdom They under the Conduct of Sir Alexander Leshley their General passed the Tyne at Newborne Aug. .... 1640. and took New-castle the next Day after And all this gross Treason though it had no other end than to Confirm a Parliament in Scotland and to make the King call another in England that so they might in a way of Power extort from him what they pleased in both Kingdoms yet Religion was made almost all the pretence both here and there and so in pursuance of that pretence Hatred spread and increased against me for the Service-Book The King hearing that the Scots were moving Posted away to York Aug. 20. being Thursday There he soon found in what Straights he was and thereupon called his Great Council of all his Lords and Prelates to York to be there by September 24. But in regard the Summons was short and suddain he was Graciously pleased to dispense with the Absence of divers both Lords and Bishops and with mine among the rest How things in Particular succeeded there I know not nor belongs it much to the Scope of this short History intended only for my self But the Result of all was a present Nomination of some Lords Commissioners to treat at Rippon about this Great Affair with other Commissioners from the Scotch Army But before this Treaty at Rippon one Melborne or Meldrum Secretary to general Leshly as he was commonly said to be at the Shire-House in Durham when the Country-Gentlemen met with the chief of the Scottish Army about a composition to be made for Payment of Three Hundred and Fifty Pounds a Day for that County expressed himself in this Manner Septemb. 10. 1640. I wonder that you are so Ignorant that you cannot see what is good for your selves For they in the South are sensible of the good that will ensue and that we came not unsent for and that oftner than once or twice by your own Great Ones There being a Doubt made at these words Great Ones He reply'd your own Lords with farther Discourse These Words were complained of during the Treaty at Rippon to the English Lords Commissioners by two Gentlemen of the Bishoprick of Durham to whom the Words were spoken by Meldrum The Gentlemen were Mr. John Killinghall and Mr. Nicholas Chaytor and they offer'd to Testify the Words upon Oath But the Lords required them only to Write down those Words and set their Hands to them which they did very readily The Lords acquainted the Scotch Commissioners with the Words They sent to Newcastle to make them known to General Leshly He called his Secretary before him questioned him about the Words Meldrum denyed them was that enough against two such Witnesses This Denyal was put in Writing and sent to Rippon Hereupon some of the English Lords Commissioners required that the two Gentlemen should go to Newcastle to the Scotch Camp and there give in their Testimony before General Leshly The two Gentlemen replyed as they had great reason to do that they had rather testify it in any Court of England and could do it with more safety Yet they would go and testify it there so they might have a safe Conduct from the Scottish Commissioners there being as yet no Cessation of Arms. Answer was made by some English Lords that they should have a safe Conduct Hereupon one of the Kings Messengers attendant there was sent to the Scotch Commissioners for a safe Conduct for the Two Gentlemen He brought back Word from the Earl of Dumfermling to whom it was directed that the Two Gentlemen were unwise if they went to give such Testimony at the Camp And then speaking with the Lord Lowdon he came again to the Messenger and told him that such a safe Conduct could not be granted and that he would satisfy the Earl that sent for it who was Francis Earl of Bedford The Messenger returning with this Answer the Gentlemen were dismissed So the business dyed it being not for somebody's safety that this Examination should have proceeded for it is well enough known since that many had their hands in this Treason for Gross Treason it was by the express Words of the Statute of 25 Edw. 3. c. 2. The Truth of all this will be sworn to by both the Gentlemen yet living and by a very honest grave Divine who was present at all these Passages at Rippon and gave them to me in Writing In this Great Council while the Treaty was proceeding slowly enough it was agreed on that a Parliament should begin at London Nov. 3. following And thither the Commissioners and the Treaty were to follow and they did so After this how things proceeded in Parliament and how long the Scotch Army was continued and at how great a charge to the Kingdom appears olsewhere upon Record for I shall hasten to my own particular and take in no more of the Publick than Necessity shall inforce me to make my sad Story hang together
possess their Religion in Peace especially being against no worse Devices or no greater Novations than they have quarelled at in these Books Yet for all this I shall after make it appear that I kindled no War against them but kept it off from them as much and as long as I could And as themselves confess I was not the Sole so neither they nor any man else shall ever be able to prove I was the Principal Agent or Adviser of that War Yea but When by the Pacification at Barwick both Kingdoms looked for Peace and Quietness he spared not openly in the hearing of many often before the King and privately at the Council-Table and the Privy Junto to speak of us as of Rebels and Traytors and to speak against the Pacification as dishonourable and meet to be broke Neither did his malignancy and bitterness ever suffer him to rest till a new War was entred upon and all things prepared for our destruction This Article about the breach of the Pacification the Parliament of England have thought fit to make a part of their Charge against me And therefore I shall put off the main of my Answer till I come to those Articles In the mean time thus much in brief I shall say to some circumstantial things in this Charge And first I do not think that any thing can be said to be Privately spoken at the Council-Table that is openly delivered there in the hearing of his Majesty and all the Lords present And so was all which I spake there Secondly they say I did openly and often speak of them the Scots as of Rebels and Traytors That indeed is true I did so And I spake as I then thought and as I think still For it was as desperate a plotted Treason as ever was in any Nation And if they did not think so themselves what needed their Act of Oblivion in Scotland or the like in England to secure their Abetters here Thirdly For the Pacification at Barwick whatever I said touching the Dishonour of it as shall after appear yet no Man can truly Charge me that I said it was meet to be broken Fourthly I had no Malignity answerable to their bitterness against the Church of England nor did the entring upon a new War proceed from my Counsels nor did I give farther way to it than all the Lords of the Junto did Lastly it is manifest here how truly the King was dealt with on all Hands For here ye see they take on them to know not only what was done at the Council-Table but what was said also at the private Junto When in all that time his Majesty could get no information of any thing that proceeded in Scotland But they proceed yet farther against me By him was it that our Covenant approven by National Assemblies Subscribed by his Majesty's Commissioner and by the Lords of his Majesty's Council and by them commanded to be Subscribed by all the Subjects of the Kingdom as a Testimony of our Duty to God and the King By him was it still called Ungodly Damnable Treasonable By him were Oaths invented and pressed upon divers of our poor Countrymen upon the pain of Imprisonment and many other Miserie 's which were unwarranted by Law and contrary to their National Oath This their Covenant indeed as it was made at first without at least if not against the King I did utterly dislike And if I did say it was Vngodly Damnable and Treasonable I said no more than it deserved Nor was it any thing the better but much the worse if as it was so made at first it were approved by National Assemblies For that was but the greater sign that the Rebellious Faction grew stronger But I never found fault with their Covenant after they were pleased to take in the King and by his Authority signified by the Subscription of his Commissioner to do what was fit to be done Nor was there any Oath invented or pressed by me upon their Countrymen unwarrantable by Law for I neither invented nor pressed any But whatsoever was done in this kind was done by Publick Authority at the Council Table And if any Oath tendred to them there were contrary to their National Oath I doubt it will easily be found that their National Oath if such it be was contrary to their due and Natural Allegiance But what 's next Why this When our Commissioners did appear to render the Reasons of our demands he spared not in the presence of the King and the Committee to rail against our National Assembly as not daring to appear before the World and Kirks abroad where himself and his Actions were able to indure tryal And against our just and necessary Defence as the most malicious and treasonable Contempt of Monarchical Government that any by-gone Age had heard of His hand also was at the Warrant of Restraint and Imprisonment of our Commissioners sent from the Parliament warranted by the King and seeking the Peace of the Kingdom There are divers things in this part of the Charge And the first is that I railed at their National Assembly in the presence of the King and the Committee But that under favour is not so Nor is it my fashion to rail at any body much less in such a Presence I was then openly taxed and by Name by the L. Lowdon one of the Commissioners and that which I said in answer to him was in my own defence And it was to this effect That whatsoever their Assembly had concluded did not much move me For I did assure my self nothing they could say or do could sink my Credit in Christendom going upon grounds which would every where abide tryal And I somewhat doubted whether the Acts of their Assembly would do so since even at home not the Bishops only but the Learned Divines of Aberdeen opposed divers of them This was not railing against their Assembly And if it shall be thought too much to be spoken by though for my self I humbly desire the Christian Reader to remember That even S. Paul was forced to commend himself when false Brethren accused him 2 Cor. 12. Next they say I spake against their just and necessary defence Truly not I That which I spake was against their defence as being neither Just nor Necessary And if I then said speaking of things as they stood then that they were Treasonable Contempts of Monarchical Government then being such their defence of them could neither be Just nor Necessary And truly as they stood then I held them very desperate against the Honour and just Power of the King I say as they stood then For since his Majesty hath referred them to Honourable Commissioners of both Nations and out of his Clemency and Goodness hath admitted all or most of them which I believe few Kings would have done I have spoken nothing of them but in Prayer that God will graciously be pleased to turn all these things to the Good and
Peace of both Kingdoms which must be little less than a Miracle if he do As for my Hand that it was at the Warrant of Restraint of the Commissioners sent from the Parliament c. This also is but a meer clamour to bring me into further hatred which hath been their aim all along For why else is my Hand picked out alone whereas the Hands of all for ought I know that were then present at the Committee were subscribed to that Warrant And yet it seems no Hand hath troubled them but mine And for these Commissioners seeking the Peace of the Kingdom I will not offer to enter upon their Thoughts what they sought but leave it to future times that will discover the success of things and by it open the aim of the Agents how they sought the Peace of these Kingdoms But yet they go on For when we had say they by our Declarations Remonstrances and Representations manifested the Truth of our Intentions and Lawfulness of our Actions to all the good Subjects of the Kingdom of England when the late Parliament would not be moved to assist or enter into a War against us maintaining our Religion and our Liberties Canterbury did not only advise the breaking up of that High and Honourable Court to the great grief and hazard of the Kingdom but which is without Example did sit still in the Convocation and make Canons and Constitutions against us and our Just and Necessary defence They did indeed offer by many Pamphlets Printed and sent into England to manifest the Truth of their Intentions which was to join close with their Party here and come and gain some good Booty in England And this end they have obtained But the lawfulness of their Actions they neither have nor can make good to any Impartial and Judicious Reader of them And whereas they say they have made the lawfulness of them manifest to all the good Subjects of the Kingdom of England you must know that they are only such English as joyn with them in their Plot or at least in Affection to Religion And 't is easie to make any thing that fits their Humour and comes from their Associats manifest enough But God forbid these should be all the good Subjects of England which it may too justly be feared are none of them And yet it cannot be denied but that England hath at this day much too many of these good Subjects They add further that the late Parliament would not assist nor enter into a War against them I believe that is true and I leave the Parliament to give their own Reasons why they would not But I am sure that which follows is most untrue That I gave Advice for the breaking of it up as appears by that which I have formerly set down and will not repeat And I shall ever wish from my Heart that the Kingdom may never be hazarded more than it hath been by my Counsels and then by God's Blessing it shall be a happier Kingdom than the youngest now alive are like to see it if things go on in the Track they now are Next they say that without all Example I sat still in Convocation though the Parliament were risen Without Example What is that to them if it were so But the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury have sate in Convocation and made Canons too when no Parliament hath been sitting as is most manifest by the Records of that See Yea but there is no Example of it since the Reformation Be it so Nor is it for all that forbidden in the Statute of the submission of the Clergy 25 H. 8. so they sit by the King 's Writ And yet here I was so careful as that I caused the great Lawyers of the Kingdom to be consulted abaut it and followed their Judgments as is before expressed And for the Canons which were made they were not against them One branch indeed of the first Canon is against Subjects bearing Arms against their King offensive or defensive under any pretence whatsoever But this as it is the Antient Doctrine which the Church of Christ hath ever Taught in all times and places So is it not against them at all unless they against Christian Religion and Natural All giance bear Arms against their King But if they do or have done so the Canon that was not made against them hits them full And in this Case let them pretend what they list their Defence can neither be Just nor Necessary Yea but they say farther that I Ordained under all highest pains That hereafter the Clergy shall Preach four times in the Year such Doctrine as is contrary not only to our Proceedings but to the Doctrine of other Reformed Kirks to the Judgment of all sound Divines and Politicks and tending to the utter Slavery and Ruine of all States and Kingdoms and to the dishonour of Kings and Monarchs This goes high indeed if it were as full in proof as 't is loud in expression But here is not one shew of Proof added either from Reason or Authority Divine or Humane more than their bare word And therefore I must answer it in the same Key First then 't is true that in the Preface of the first Canon every Minister is injoyned under a Penalty to Publish to his People the Exposition of Regal Power contained in that Canon and this once every quarter of a Year So then if the Doctrine contained in that Canon be true and it was approved for Truth by the whole National Synod of England then all this high Charge falls low enough Besides it will concern them to consider well what their Proceedings have been For as for this Canon it is according to the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church And they surely were both Pious and Sound Divines that lived in it and I for my part shall hold no Man a Sound Divine that runs contrary to it Now that the Primitive Christians were of Opinion that Subjects ought not to take Arms against their Kings Offensive or Defensive upon any pretence whatsoever which are the words in our Canon which they are so angry with no not for or under pretence of Religion see the Proofs in the Margin For in the most bitter Times of Persecution for the very highest points of Religion whatever Miseries they indured they still contained themselves within the bounds of their Obedience And that too not out of any want of Power but will to hurt And if the Doctrine of other Reformed Churches be contrary to this they shall do well to shew it and then I 'll give such farther Answer as is fit But if the Canon be contrary to the Judgment of sound Politiques I know not which they call sound For if they mean such as are of their Feather I think their Judgments are alike Sound that is neither And if they mean Learned and well experienced Politiques I believe they will be able to shew none of
reduce them to the Heresies in Doctrine the Superstition and Idolatry in Worship and the Tyranny in Government which are in that See and for which the Reformed Kirks did separate from it and came forth of Babel From him certainly hath issued all this Deluge which almost hath overturned all What not the Pope himself now surely he could do little then For as I told you in the very last Passage I never intended more to the Reformed Churches than to wish them in Doctrine and Discipline like the Church of England And I hope that was neither to Negotiate for Rome nor to reduce them to Heresie in Doctrine nor to Superstition and Idolatry in Worship no nor to Tyranny in Government All which are here most wrongfully imputed to me And this comparing of me with the Pope himself I could bear with more ease had I not Written more against Popish Superstition than any Presbyter in Scotland hath done And for my part I wou'd be contented to lay down my Life to Morrow upon Condition the Pope and Church of Rome would admit and confirm that Service-Book which hath been here so eagerly charged against me For were that done it would give a greater blow to Popery which is but the Corruption of the Church of Rome than any hath yet been given And that they know full well And whereas they say that for these things the Reformed Churches did separate from it and came forth of Babel That is true that they did separate and for these things But not till for the maintaining of the contrary to these things they were Excommunicated and Thrust out Then indeed they separated but not till they were forced by a double necessity of Truth from which they might not depart and of that Punishment which would not suffer them to enter And yet the Reformed Churches all and every of them had need look well to themselves For if they came out of Babel to run down into Egypt they 'll get little by the Bargain Now they end in Confidence We are therefore confident that your Lordships this they speak to the English Commissioners who were to deliver this their Charge against me into the Lords House will by your means deal effectually with the Parliament that this great Fire-brand may be presently removed from his Majesties Presence and that he may be put to Tryal and have his deserved Censure according to the Laws of the Kingdom Which shall be good Service to God Honour to the King and Parliament Terror to the Wicked and Comfort to all good Men and to us in special who by his means principally have been put to so many and grievous Afflictions wherein we had Perished if God had not been with us Decemb. 14. 1640. Ad. Blayer They were and they might well be confident upon their Lordships For all or some chief of that Committee were in league with them And some of them the principal Men which brought the Scots in to have their ends upon the King And they did deal effectually with the Parliament For as appears by the Date this Charge was delivered to the English Commissioners Decemb. 14. It was Read in the upper House and transmitted to the House of Commons and such haste made of it there that they though they had no Articles drawn yet came up in haste and accused me to the Lords of High Treason desiring my Commitment and Promising the bringing up of their Articles and Proof against me in convenient time So upon this Accusation only I was upon Decemb. 18. committed to Mr. James Maxwell the Officer of the House and so removed from his Majesty's Presence which was the great aim against me For they conceiv'd I wou'd speak my Conscience if I came near him And they could not with any Colour of Justice take me from him but by an Accusation of High Treason of which I would not for all the World be as Guilty as some of them are which Accused me This was their desire for my Commitment Their next desire was That I might be brought to Tryal and receive my Censure according to the Laws And this hath been and yet is my desire as well as theirs For I long for nothing more than a Tryal and I can fear no Censure that is according to Law and am as free from the Breach of any Law that can make me guilty of Treason as I was when my Mother bare me into the World And when I was thus far on upon my Answer I had remained at Mr. Maxwell's and in the Tower Eleven Months so many it was when I writ this But before I came to my Hearing I had been Thirteen Months in Prison and neither brought to Tryal no nor so much as a Particular Charge brought up against me that I might prepare for an Answer in so heavy a Business And I am somewhat farther of my Accusers Mind That to bring me to a just Tryal according to Law would be good Service to God Honour to the King and the Parliament who cannot but suffer in the Judgment of Moderate Men for laying a Man of my Place and Calling so long in Prison a thing without all Precedent and yet charging me with no particular Nay and I think in a good Sense too it would be a Terrour to the Wicked to see an Innocent Man brought to such a Tryal Yea and yet a Comfort to all Good Men too when they see that an Innocent Man shall not be let lye and languish to Death in Prison which may be my Case for ought I see but that in some time they may hope for Tryal Yea and to them the Scots in special For this Bold and most true Word I 'll speak The Scottish Nation in general the City of Edinburgh in special and very many particular Men of good Worth and some Men of Honour besides Clergy-men of all sorts during the time I had Interest in Court have been more beholding to me than to any ten English Subjects of what rank and condition soever And this his Majesty knows and I dare say will Witness And for their present Afflictions which they speak of the Current of this Discourse will shew to the indifferent Reader what a Principal means I have been of them In the mean time I little deserved from them the Name of This great Firebrand for many of them have warmed themselves at me but yet I never Fired any of them Nor can I make any doubt but that God will deliver me out of the midst of this Fire which he knows I kindled not Howsoever letthem take heed for as sure as they now make themselves in the Conjuncture of a great Party in which one Wave seconds and keeps up another yet though these Waves of the Sea are mighty and rage horribly the Lord that dwelleth on High is Mightier And under him I rest and I hope shall till their Waves be broken against some Rock or other
which comes next An Evil therefore which hath issued not so much from the Personal Disposition of the Prelates themselves as from the innate Quality and Nature of their Office and Prelatical Hierarchy which did bring forth the Pope in Ancient times and never ceaseth till it bring forth Popish Doctrine and Worship where it is once rooted and the Principles thereof fomented and constantly followed They tell us here that this Conformity with Rome is an Evil that issues not so much from the Personal Disposition of the Prelates themselves as from the innate Quality and Nature of their Office Conformity with Rome in any Error or Superstition is doubtless an Evil but that it issues from the Nature of a Bishop's Office cannot be For that Office is to Preach Christ and to govern the Church of Christ according to his Laws If any Bishop break this 't is his Personal Error and most unnatural to his Office to which if he adhere he can neither teach nor practise Superstition Therefore certainly what Error soever comes is from his Person not his Office And 't is great Ignorance to call this Evil an innate Quality of the Office when the Office is a thing of Institution not of Nature and therefore cannot possibly have any innate Quality in it But since they will needs have it thus let us invert it a little and see how it will fit them against their King more than it can fit the Bishops for the Pope For if we should say as perhaps we may too truly that the dangerous Positions which too many of the Presbyterian Faction publickly maintain and in Print proceed not so much from the Personal Disposition of the Presbyterians themselves as from the innate Quality and Nature of their Presbyteries and their Antimonarchical Party I believe it would trouble them to shape a good Answer to it unless they will admit of that which I before have given But then if they do this they Charge themselves with falshood in that which they lay upon the Bishops Office Next they tell you that this Prelatical Hierarchy did bring forth the Pope in Ancient times But truly I think they are thus far deceived The Hierarchy cannot be said to bring forth the chief parts of it self Now the Patriarchs of which the Bishop of Rome was one if not Prime in Order were the Principal parts of the Hierarchy Therefore the Hierarchy cannot well be said to bring them forth But suppose it be so that the Pope were brought forth by the Bishops what fault is there in it For the Pope was good both Nomine Re in name and in being as they were at first For thirty of them together were Martyrs for Christ And the Church of Rome was famous for her Faith over the World in the very Apostles times Rom. 1. And if either the Popes or that Church have degenerated since that is a Personal Crime and not to be imputed to the Office And therefore these Men do very ill or very ignorantly to affirm that this Office of Episcopacy never ceases till it bring forth Popish Doctrine and Worship For in all the time of these thirty Popes there was no Doctrine brought forth which may justly be accounted Superstitious or called Popery For the last of those thirty died in the Year 309. ..... And they cannot be ignorant that Bishop Jewell on the behalf of the Church of England challenged the Current of the Fathers for full Six Hundred Years to be for it against Rome in very many and main Points of Popery And therefore I may well say there was no Popery in the World when the Thirtieth Pope died Well if this Evil do not arise from the Hierarchy yet it doth From the Antipathy and Inconsistence of the two Forms of the Ecclesiastical Government which they conceived and not without Cause one Island joyned also under one Head and Monarch was not able to bear The one being the same in all the Parts and Powers which it was in the time of Popery and still is in the Roman Kirk The other being the Form of Government received maintained and practised by all the Reformed Kirks wherein by their own Testimonies and Confessions the Kirk of Scotland had amongst them no small Eminency Sure these Men have forgotten themselves For they tell us immediatly before that this Evil of bringing forth Popish Doctrine and Worship proceeds from the very Office of a Bishop And now they add and from the Antipathy of these two Forms of Church Government Doth the Bishops Office produce Popery And doth the Antipathy between the Presbytery and Episcopacy produce Popery too So then belike in these Men's Judgments both Bishops and they which oppose Bishops produce Popery And if that be true Popery must needs increase that is produced on all sides An Evil then there is though perhaps not this which issues from that Antipathy and Inconsistence of these two Forms of Ecclesiastical Government which they say we Prelates of England conceived and not without Cause one Island joyned also under one Head and Monarch was not able to bear And that Evil was as I conceive the continual Jarrs and Oppositions which would daily arise among His Majesties Subjects of both Kingdoms concerning these different Forms of Government And these would bring forth such Heart-burnings and Divisions among the People that the King might never be secure at home nor presume upon united Forces against a Foreign Enemy And this is Evil enough to any Monarch of two divided Kingdoms especially lying so near in one Island Now if the Bishops of England did conceive thus and as our Adversaries here confess not without Cause Then certainly by their own Confession the Prelates of England had Reason to use all just endeavours to remove and take away this Inconsistence that the Form of the Ecclesiastical Government might be one in one Island and under one Monarch that so Faction and Schism might cease which else when they get Opportunity find a way to rent the Peace of Kingdoms if not Kingdoms themselves And this Island God of his Mercy preserve it is at this time in great hazard to undergo the fatality of it in a great measure The next is a manifest untruth For though there be as is said an Inconsistence between the Governments which makes one Island under one King unable to bear both in the different parts of the Island or at least unsafe while it bears them Yet neither is Episcopacy in all the Parts and Powers of it that which it was in time of Popery and still is in the Roman Church And this is most manifest to any Man that will but look upon what Power the Prelates had before and what they have since the Statute of the Submission of the Clergy in Hen. 8. time Beside all those Statutes which have since been made in divers Particulars to weaken their Power Nor is the other Form of Government received
of the said pretended Canons enjoyned to be taken by all the Clergy and many of the Laity of this Kingdom I Composed no Book of Canons The whole Convocation did it with unanimous Consent So either I must be free or that whole Body must be guilty of High-Treason For in that Crime all are Principals that are guilty Accessory there is none Neither did I publish or put in Execution those Canons or any of them but by Lawful Authority And I do humbly conceive and verily believe there is nothing in those Canons contrary either to the King's Prerogative the Fundamental Laws of the Realm the Rights of Paliament the Propriety and Liberty of the Subjects or any matter tending to Sedition or of dangerous consequence or to the establishment of any vast or unlawful Power in my self and my Sucessors Neither was there any Canon in that Convocation surreptitiously passed by any practice of mine or without due Consideration and Debate Neither was there any thing in that Convocation but what was voted first and subscribed after without fear or compulsion in any kind And I am verily perswaded there never sate any Synod in Christendom wherein the Votes passed with more freedom or less practice than they did in this And for the Oath injoyned in the sixth Canon as it was never made to confirm any unlawful or exorbitant Power over his Majesty's Subjects so I do humbly conceive that it is no Wicked or Ungodly Oath in any respect And I hope I am able to make it good in any learned Assembly in Christendom that this Oath and all those Canons then made and here before recited and every Branch in them are Just and Orthodox and Moderate and most necessary for the present Condition of the Church of England how unwelcom soever to the present Distemper 6. He hath traiterously assumed to himself a Papal and Tyrannical Power both in Ecclesiastical and Temporal Matters over his Majesty's Subjects in this Realm of England and other places to the Disinherison of the Crown Dishonour of his Majesty and Derogation of his Supreme Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters And the said Arch-Bishop claims the King 's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as incident to his Episcopal and Archiepiscopal Office in this Kingdom and doth deny the same to be derived from the Crown of England which he hath accordingly exercised to the high contempt of his Royal Majesty and to the destruction of divers of the King's Liege-People in their Persons and Estates I have not assumed Papal or Tyrannicl Power in matters Ecclesiastical or Temporal to the least Disinherison Dishonour or Derogation of his Majesty's Supream Authority in matters Ecclesiastical or Temporal I never claimed the King's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as incident to my Episcopal or Archiepiscopal Office in this Kingdom Nor did I ever deny that the exercise of my Jurisdiction was derived from the Crown of England But that which I have said and do still say concerning my Office and Calling is this That my Order as a Bishop and my Power of Jurisdiction is by Divine Apostolical Right and unalterable for ought I know in the Church of Christ. But all the Power I or any other Bishop hath to exercise any the least Power either of Order or Jurisdiction within this Realm of England is derived wholly from the Crown And I conceive it were Treasonable to derive it from any other Power Foreign or Domestick And for the Exercise of this Power under his Majesty I have not used it to the Contempt but to the great Advantage of his Royal Person and to the Preservation not the Destruction of his People Both which appear already by the great Distractions Fears and Troubles which all Men are in since my Restraint and which for ought I yet see are like to increase if God be not exceeding Merciful above our Deserts 7. That he hath traiterously endeavoured to alter and subvert God's true Religion by Law established in this Realm and instead thereof to set up Popish Superstition and Idolatry and to that end hath declared and maintained in Speeches and Printed Books divers Popish Doctrines and Opinions contrary to the Articles of Religion established by Law He hath urged and injoyned divers Popish and Superstitious Ceremonies without any warrant of Law and hath cruelly persecuted those who have opposed the same by Corporal Punishment and Imprisonment and most unjustly vexed others who refused to conform thereto by Ecclesiastical Censures of Excommunication Suspension Deprivation and Degradation contrary to the Law of the Kingdom I never endeavoured to alter or subvert God's true Religion established by Law in this Kingdom or to bring in Romish Superstition Neither have I declared maintained or Printed any Popish Doctrine or Opinion contrary to the Articles of Religion established or any one of them either to the end mentioned in this Article or any other I have neither urged nor injoyned any Popish or Superstitious Ceremonies without warrant of Law nor have I cruelly persecuted any Opposers of them But all that I laboured for in this particular was that the external Worship of God in this Church might be kept up in Uniformity and Decency and in some Beauty of Holiness And this the rather because first I found that with the Contempt of the Outward Worship of God the Inward fell away apace and Profaneness began boldly to shew it self And secondly because I could speak with no conscientious Persons almost that were wavering in Religion but the great motive which wrought upon them to disaffect or think meanly of the Church of England was that the external Worship of God was so lost in the Church as they conceived it and the Churches themselves and all things in them suffered to lye in such a base and slovenly Fashion in most places of the Kingdom These and no other Considerations moved me to take so much care as I did of it which was with a single Eye and most free from any Romish Superstition in any thing As for Ceremonies all that I injoyned were according to Law And if any were Superstitious I injoyned them not As for those which are so called by some Men they are no Innovations but Restaurations of the ancient approved Ceremonies in and from the beginning of the Reformation and setled either by Law or Custom till the Faction of such as now openly and avowedly separate from the Church of England did oppose them and cry them down And for the Censures which I put upon any I presume they will to all indifferent Men which will Understandingly and Patiently hear the Cause appear to be Just Moderate and according to Law 8. That for the better advancing of his Traiterous Purpose and Designs he did abuse the great Power and Trust his Majesty reposed in him and did intrude upon the Places of divers great Officers and upon the Right of divers his Majesty's Subjects whereby he did procure to himself the Nomination of sundry
to lay hold of that Opportunity to be rid of the Scots But so good and so quick was the Intelligence from some of the Lords that the House of Commons was risen before the Messengers from the Lords could get thither and so the Conference was not only prevented but things so ordered that the Scots stayed in England till the middle of August following at a marvellous great Charge to the Kingdom and with what Wrong and Dishonour to King and Kingdom let Posterity Judge Before the Death of the Earl of Strafford the Libels came out thick and very Malitious against him And all this to whet the Malice that was against him and make the People more greedy for his Death But no sooner was he gone into his Rest but the Libellers which during that time reviled him fell on me and no question but to the same end And the Libels and Ballads against me were frequently spread through the City and sung up and down the Streets And I thank God for it they were as full of Falshood as Gall. Besides they made base Pictures of me putting me into a Cage and fastning me to a Post by a Chain at my Shoulder and the like And divers of these Libels made Men sport in Taverns and Alehouses where too many were as Drunk with Malice as with the Liquor they sucked in Against which my only Comfort was that I was fallen but into the same Case with the Prophet David Psal. 69. For they that sat in the Gate spake against me and I was the Song of the Drunkards About this time I fell into a Tertian Ague which was Comfortless in a Prison But I humbly Praise God for it after seven or eight Fits he restored me to my Health the only Comfort which I have under him in this time of my Affliction CAP. X. UPon Wednesday June 23. I acquainted His Majesty by my Lord of London that now I had answered all Complaints come against me concerning the Vniversity of Oxford I thought it requisite for me to Resign the Chancellorship of that place And I gave His Majesty such Reasons as he approved for my so doing And the truth is I suffered much by the Clamours of the Earl of Pembroke who thought it long till he had that place which he had long gaped for And after the Cloud was once spread over me spared me in no Company though I had in all the time of my Prosperity observed him in Court more than ever he had deserved of me And I had reason notwithstanding all his causless Heat to keep the place till I had justified my self against the Towns-Mens Petition to the Lords wherein they Charged me with no less than Treason for setting out a Proclamation about Regulating the Market in my own Name But I made it appear to the Lords that I did no more therein than the Earl of Leicester in Queen Elizabeth's time or the Earl of Dorset in King James his time did before me when they were Chancellors of that Vniversity And I was able to shew the Lords and did so the Copies of both their several Proclamations in Print in their own Names And farther I made appear by the Vniversity Records that the Chancellors for the time being had frequently done it ever since the time of King Edward 3 And that the Lord Mayor of London and other Mayors having the Clark-ship of the Market as the Chancellors of Oxford have and not the Mayor do it daily So this great and most Malicious Complaint of the City of Oxford vanished when they and some body else for them had shewed their Teeth but could not bite But having ended this Business and my Vice-Chancellor whom I was not willing to Expose to anothers hand had finished his Year and that according to Duty I had given His Majesty an Account of the Business I pursued my Resolution And upon Friday June the 25th I sent down my Resignation of the Chancellorship of Oxford to be Published in Convocation which was done accordingly and the Earl of Pembroke had his desires and was chosen into it God bless the Vniversity there-while and grant they may never have need of me now unable to help them On Tuesday August 10. His Majesty rode away Post into Scotland the Parliaments Sitting in both Kingdoms and the Armies not yet dissolved There was great Scanning about this Journey And the House of Commons sent some Commissioners thither as the Scots had some here Among the Scotch Commissioners the Prime Man was the Earl of Róthes who also was one of the greatest and most Zealous Leaders of the Scottish Rebellion under the pretence of Religion and a deadly Enemy to the Earl of Strafford and was heard to say more than once they would have his Head And they had it But much about this time Rothes his Zeal was so hot among the Ladies and the Citizens Wives that he fell very foully into the Pox And divers of his Friends as they told me themselves going to visit him were not admitted to see him and at last he was conveyed from London to Richmond by his Aunt the Lady Roxborough where he dyed But this base and dishonourable End of his in Rottenness they concealed as much as they could What the King did in Scotland hath no Relation for ought I yet hear to this poor Story of mine And the Parliament here made a Recess Aug. ... till Octob. ..... leaving a considerable Committee Sitting to prepare Business against the House met again During this Recess there was all silence concerning me And as is conceived upon this Ground Because before the Recess the Committee appointed for that Business failed in some Proofs which they well hoped should have reached me home in Matters of Religion and thereupon have done little since And the Libels since that time have neither been so frequent nor so Malicious against me God quiet this Storm though I praise God I know not why it was raised so high against me On Thursday September 23 1641. Mr Adam Torless my Ancient Loving and Faithful Servant and then my Steward after he had served me full Forty and Two Years dyed to my great both loss and grief For all my Accounts since my Commitment were in his Hands and had he not been a very Honest and Careful Man I must have suffered much more than I did yet I suffered enough besides the loss of his Person who was now become almost the only Comfort of my Affliction and my Age. So true it is that Afflictions seldom come single CAP. XI DUring the Recess of the Parliament Sir Hen Martyn dyed and I made Dr Merricke Judge of the Prerogative Dr Duck missing his hopes of this Office by his own absence and default and finding me under this thick Cloud hoped to have wrested this Office out of my Hands and his to whom I had given it This was one of the basest and most ungrateful parts that
a poor Evasion was this Were there no other Lawyers for him because Mr. Solicitor was for me The Truth is all that ever I did in this Business was not only with the Knowledge but by the Advice of my Councel which were Mr. Solicitor Littleton and Mr. Herbert At last this Gentleman submitted himself and the Cause and if as he says Dr. Eden perswaded him to it that 's nothing to me As for the Fine I referred the moderation of it wholly to my Councel They pitched upon Sixteen Hundred Pounds and gave such Days of Payment as that a good part is yet unpaid And this Summ was little above one Years Rent For the Parsonage is known to be well worth Thirteen Hundred Pound a Year if not more And after the Business was setled my Lord Wimbleton came to me and gave me great Thanks for preserving this Gentleman being as he said his Kinsman whom he confessed it was in my Power to ruin For the raising of the Rent Sixty Pounds it was to add Means to the several Curats to the Chappels of Ease And I had no Reason to suffer Sir Ralph Ashton to go away with so much Profit and leave the Curats both upon my Conscience and my Purse And for his Fine to St Pauls I gave him all the Ease I could But since his Son will force it from me he was accused of Adultery with divers Women and confessed all And whither that Fine went and by what Authority I have already shewed And thus much more my Lords at Mr. Bridgman's Intreaty I turned this Lease into Lives again without Fine But since I have this Reward for it I wish with all my Heart I had not done it For I am confident in such a Case of Right your Lordships would have left me to the Law and more I wou'd not have asked And I think this though intreated into it was my greatest Error in the Business 6. The last Instance was about the conversion of some Money to St. Pauls out of Administrations By Name Two Thousand Pounds taken out of Wimark's Estate and Five Hundred out of Mr. Gray's First whatsoever was done in this kind I have the Broad-Seal to Warrant it And for Mr. Wimark's Estate all was done according to Law and all care taken for his Kindred And if I had not stired in the Business Four Men all Strangers to his Kindred would have made themselves by a broken Will Executors and swept all away from the Kindred Secondly for Mr. Gray's Estate after as Odious an expression of it as could be made and as void of Truth as need to be the Proceedings were confessed to be Orderly and Legal and the Charge deserted Then there was a fling at Sir Charles Caesar's getting of the Mastership of the Rolls for Money and that I was his means for it And so it was thence inferred That I sold Places of Judicature or helped to sell them For this they produced a Paper under my Hand But when they had thrown all the Dirt they could upon me they say they did only shew what Probabilities they had for it and what Reason they had to lay it in the end of the Fourth Original Article and so deserted it And well they might For I never had more Hand in this Business than that when he came to me about it I told him plainly as things then stood that Place was not like to go without more Money than I thought any Wise Man would give for it Nor doth the Paper mentioned say any more but that I informed the Lord Treasurer what had passed between us CAP. XXVIII THis day ended I was Ordered to appear again April 4. 1644. And received a Note from the Committee under Serjeant Wild's Hand dated April 1. That they meant to proceed next upon the Fifth and Sixth Original Articles and upon the Ninth Additional which follow in haec verba The Fifth Original He hath Trayterously caused a Book of Canons to be Composed and Published and those Canons to be put in Execution without any lawful Warrant and Authority in that behalf in which pretended Canons many Matters are contained contrary to the King's Prerogative to the Fundamental Laws and Statutes of this Realm to the Right of Parliament to the Propriety and Liberty of the Subjects and Matters tending to Sedition and of dangerous Consequence and to the Establishment of a vast unlawful and presumptus Power in himself and his Successors Many of the which Canons by the practice of the said Arch-Bishop were surreptitiously passed in the late Convocation without due consideration and debate others by fear and compulsion were Subscribed unto by the Prelats and Clerks there assembled which had never been Voted and Passed in the Convocation as they ought to have been And the said Arch-Bishop hath contrived and endeavoured to assure and confirm the Vnlawful and Exorbitant Power which he hath Vsurped and Exercised over his Majesty's Subjects by a Wicked and Vngodly Oath in one of the said pretended Canons injoyned to be taken by all the Clergy and many of the Layety of this Kingdom The Sixth Original He hath Trayterously assumed to himself a Papal and Tyrannical Power both in Ecclesiastical and Temporal Matters over his Majesty's Subjects in this Realm of England and in other places to the Disherison of the Crown Dishonour of his Majesty and Derogation of his Supream Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters And the said Arch-Bishop claims the King 's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as incident to his Episcopal and Archiepiscopal Office in this Kingdom and doth deny the same to be derived from the Crown of England which he hath accordingly exercised to the high contempt of his Royal Majesty and to the destruction of divers of the King's Liege People in their Persons and Estates The Ninth Additional Article That in or about the Month of May 1641. presently after the dissolution of the last Parliament the said Arch-Bishop for the ends and purposes aforesaid caused a Synod or Convocation of the Clergy to be held for the several Provinces of Canterbury and York wherein were made and established by his Means and procurement divers Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical contrary to the Laws of this Realm the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament and Liberty and Property of the Subject tending also to Sedition and of dangerous Consequence And amongst other things the said Arch-Bishop caused a most Dangerous and Illegal Oath to be therein made and contrived the Tenor whereof followeth in these words That I A. B. do Swear that I do approve the Doctrine and Discipline or Government Established in the Church of England as containing all things necessary to Salvation And that I will not endeavour by my self or any other directly or indirectly to bring in any Popish Doctrine contrary to that which is so Established Nor will I ever give my consent to alter the Government of this Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons c. as it
just Grievances is not the least Cause of my present Condition In which my Case though not my Abilities is somewhat like Cicero's For having now for many Years defended the Publick State of the Church and the Private of many Church-Men as he had done many Citizens when he by prevailing Factions came into danger himself ejus Salutem defendit nemo no Man took care to defend him that had defended so many which yet I speak not to impute any thing to Men of my own Calling who I presume would have lent me their just Defence to their Power had not the same Storm which drove against my Life driven them into Corners to preserve themselves The First Instance was in Mr. Shervil's Case in which Mr. John Steevens tells what I said to the Councel Pleading in the Star-Chamber which was that they should take care not to cause the Laws of the Church and the Kingdom to clash one against another I see my Lords nothing that I spake was let fall nor can I remember every Speech that passed from me he may be happy that can But if I did speak these Words I know no Crime in them It was a good Caveat to the Councel for ought I know For surely the Laws of Church and State in England would agree well enough together if some did not set them at Odds. And if I did farther say to the then Lord Keeper as 't is Charged that some Clergy-Men had sat as high as he and might again which I do not believe I said yet if I did 't is a known Truth For the Lord Coventry then Lord Keeper did immediately succeed the Lord Bishop of Lincoln in that Office But though I dare say I said not thus to the Lord Keeper whose Moderation gave me no Cause to be so round with him yet to the Councel at the Bar I remember well upon just occasion given that I spake to this Effect That they would forbear too much depressing of the Clergy either in their Reputation or Maintenance in regard it was not impossible that their Profession now as high as ours once was may fall to be as low as ours now is If the Professors set themselves against the Church as some of late are known to have done And that the sinking of the Church would be found the ready way to it The Second Instance was about calling some Justices of the Peace into the High-Commission about a Sessions kept at 〈◊〉 1. The First Witness for this for Three were produced was Mr. Jo. Steevens He says That the Isle where the Sessions were kept was joyned to the Church If it were not now a part of the Chuch yet doubtless being within the Church-Yard it was Consecrated Ground He says That Sessions were kept there heretofore And I say the more often the worse He says That I procured the calling of them into the High-Commission But he proves no one of these Things but by the Report of Sir Rob Cook of Gloucestershire a Party in this Cause He says again that They had the Bishop's License to keep Sessions there But the Proof of this also is no more than that Sir Rob. Cook told him so So all this hitherto is Hearsay Then he says the 88. Canon of the Church of England was urged in the Commission Court which seems to give leave in the close of the Canon that Temporal Courts or Leets may be kept in Church or Church-Yard First that Clause in the end of the Canon is referred to the Ringing of Bells not to the Profanations mentioned in the former part of that Canon Nor is it probable the Minister and Church-Wardens should have Power to give such leave when no Canon gives such Power to the Bishop himself And were it so here 's no Proof offered that the Minister and Church-Wardens did give leave And suppose some Temporal Courts might upon urgent Occasion be kept in the Church with leave yet that is no Warrant for Sessions where there may be Tryal for Blood He says farther That the Civilians quoted an Old Canon of the Pope's and that that prevailed against the Canon of Our Church and Sentence given against them All those Canons which the Civilians urged are Law in England where nothing is contrary to the Law of God or the Law of the Land or the King's Prerogative Royal And to keep off Profanation from Churches is none of these Besides were all this true which is urged the Act was the High-Commissions not mine Nor is there any thing in it that looks toward Treason 2. The Second Witness is Mr. Edward Steevens He confesses that the Sentence was given by the High-Commission and that I had but my single Vote in it And for the Place it self he says The Place where the Sessions were kept was separated from the Isle of the Church by a Wall Breast-high which is an evident Proof that it was formerly a Part of that Church and continued yet under the same Roof 3. The Third Witness is Mr. Talboyes who it seems will not be out of any thing which may seem to hurt me He says The Parish held it no part of the Church Why are not some of them examined but this Man's Report from them admitted They thought no harm he says and got a License But why did they get a License if their own Conscience did not prompt them that something was Irregular in that Business He says he was informed the Sessions had been twice kept there before And I say under your Lordships Favour the oftner the worse But why is not his Informer produced that there might be Proof and not Hearsay Upon this I said so he concludes That I would make a President against keeping it any more If I did say so the Cause deserved it Men in this Age growing so Bold with Churches as if Profanation of them were no Fault at all The Third Instance concerned Sir Tho. Dacres a Justice of Peace in Middlesex and his Warrant for Punishing some disorderly Drinking The Witnesses the two Church Wardens Colliar and Wilson two plain Men but of great Memories For this Business was when I was Bishop of London and yet they agree in every Circumstance in every Word though so many Years since Well what say they It seems Dr. Duck then my Chancellor had Cited these Church-Wardens into my Court Therefore either there was or at least to his Judgment there seemed to be somwhat done in that business against the Jurisdiction of the Church They say then That the Court ended Dr. Duck brought them to me And what then Here is a Cause by their own confession depending in the Ecclesiastical Court Dr. Duck in the King's Quarters where I cannot fetch him to Testifie no means left me to know what the Proceedings were and I have good cause to think that were all the Merits of the Cause open before your Lordships you would say Sir Tho. Dacres did not all according to
there present p. 28 32 35 42. Nay more this proceeding tam in locis Exemptis quam non Exemptis is allowed to the Governours of the Church in the Exercise of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Act of Parliament in Queen Elizabeth's Time which would never have been allowed had it then been thought such a dangerous Business as 't is now made against me 2. The Second Clause was Power to Censure by Fine and Imprisonment This also I shewed in the old Commission Fol. 37. and is as I conceive in plain pursuance of the Act of Parliament upon which the High-Commission is grounded For the King says there Fol. 13. And so 't is in the new That he grants this Power by Vertue of his Supream Authority and Prerogative Royal and of the said Act. Nay farther 't is added in this latter Commission and by our Authority Ecclesiastical which is not expressed in the former And sure I would never have caused Authority Ecclesiastical to be added had I any Plot as 't is urged either to exalt the Clergy above the Laity or to usurp Papal Power which all Men know is far enough from ascribing Ecclesiastical Authority to the King And as for Fine and Imprisonment if that Power be not according to Law why was it first admitted and after continued in all former Commissions 3. The Third Clause was the Non Obstante which he said was against all Law and of such a boundless Extent as was never found in Commission or other Grant in England And he here desired the Lords that he might read it which he did with great Assurance of a Triumph But after all this Noise which Mr. Nicolas had made I shewed the same Non Obstante in the Old Commission 〈◊〉 62. Word for Word which I humbly desired might be read and compared It was so The Lords looked strangely upon it Mr. Nicolas was so startled that he had not Patience to stay till his Reply which he saw impossible to be made but interrupted me and had the Face to say in that Honourable Assembly that I need not stand upon that for he did but name that without much regarding it And yet at the giving of the Charge he insisted principally upon that Clause and in higher and louder Terms than are before expressed Had such an Advantage been found against me I should have been accounted extreamly Negligent if I compared not the Commissions together or Extreamly Impudent if I did 4. The Fourth Exception was That by this Commission I took greater Power than ever any Court had because both Temporal and Ecclesiastical First whatsoever Power the High-Commission had was not taken by them till given by his Majesty and that according to Use and Statue for ought hath been yet declared Secondly they have not Power of Life or Limb therefore not so great Power as other Courts have Thirdly they may have more various Power in some respects but that cannot make it greater As for the Expression in which 't is said I took this Power that is put most unworthily and unjustly too to derive the Envy as much as he could upon my Person only For he could not hold from comparing me to Pope Boniface 8. and saying that I took on me the Power of both Swords But this was only ad Faciendum Populum For he knows well enough that to take both the Swords as the Pope takes them is to challenge them Originally as due to him and his Place Not to take both as under the Prince and given by his Authority and so not I alone but all the Commissioners take theirs 5. Fifthly To prove that this vast Commission as it was called was put in execution Mr. Burton is produced He says that when he was called into the High-Commission he appealed to the King and pleaded his Appeal and that thereupon I and the Bishop of London Writ to the King to have him submit to the Court He confesses he was dismissed upon his Appeal till his Majesty's Pleasure was farther known And it was our Duty considering what a Breach this would make upon the Jurisdiction of the Court to inform his Majesty of it and we did so The King declared that he should submit to the Court as is confessed by himself Then he says because he would not submit to the Court he was Censured notwithstanding his Appeal And he well deserved it that would not be ruled by his Majesty to whom he had appealed And the Commission had Power to do what they did Besides himself confesses all this was done by the High-Commission not by me Nor doth he urge any Threat Promise or Solicitation of mine any way to particularize the Act upon me and farther he is single and in his own Cause Then followed the last Charge of this Day which was the Patent granted for the Fines in the High-Commission for Finishing the West End of St Pauls cryed out upon as Illegal and Extorted from the King and such as took all Power from him for the space of the Ten Years for which time it was granted This is the Fourth time that St Pauls is struck at My Lords let it come as often as it will my Project and Endeavour in that Work was Honest and Honourable to both Church and Kingdom of England No Man in all this Search and Pursuit hath been able to charge me with the turning of any one Penny or Pennyworth to other use than was limited to me I took a great deal of Care and Pains about the Work and cannot repent of any thing I did in that Service but of Humane Frailty And whereas 't is said this Patent was extorted from his Majesty as there is no Proof offered for it so is there no truth in it For his Majesty's Piety was so forward that nothing needed to be extorted from him Thus went I on Bonâ Fide and took the Prime Direction of the Kingdom for drawing the Patent The Lord Keeper Coventry Mr. Noy and Sir Henry Martin And therefore if any thing be found against Law in it it cannot be imputed to me who took all the care I could to have it beyond exception And I marvel what security any Man shall have that adventures upon any great and publick Work in this Kingdom if such Councel cannot be trusted for drawing up of his Warrant And whereas it was said this Patent for the Ten Years space took away both Justice and Mercy from the King That 's nothing so For whatever the Words be to enable me the better for that Work yet these being inseparable from him may be used by him notwithstanding this or any other Patent And if these be inseparable as 't is granted they are no inseparable thing can be taken away or if it be taken 't is void in Law and the King is where he was in the Exercise of his Right both for Justice and Mercy And so I answered Mr. Brown's summary Charge against me and as for that
agrees as he said with my Judgment For that in a Paper of Bishop Harsnett's there is a Marginal Note in my Hand that Salvo Jure Coronae is understood in the Oaths of a King But first there 's a great deal of difference between Jus Regis Praerogativa between the Right and Inheritance of the King and his Prerogative though never so Legal And with Submission and until I shall be convinced herein I must believe that no King can Swear himself out of his Native Right Secondly If this were and still be an Error in my Judgment that 's no Argument at all to prove Malice in my Will That because that is my Judgment for Jus Regis therefore I must thrust Praerogativam Regis which is not my Judgment into a Publick Oath which I had no Power to alter These were all the Proofs which Mr. Maynard at first and Mr. Brown at last brought against me in this Particular And they are all but Conjectural and the Conjectures weak But that I did not alter this Oath by adding the Prerogative the Proofs I shall bring are Pregnant and some of them Necessary They are these 1. My Predecessor was one of the Grand Committee for these Ceremonies That was proved by his Servants to the Lords Now his known Love to the Publick was such as that he would never have suffered me or any other to make such an Alteration Nor would he have concealed such a Crime in me loving me so well as he did 2. Secondly 'T is Notoriously known that he Crowned the King and Administred the Oath which was avowed also before the Lords by his Ancient Servants And it cannot be rationally conceived he would ever have Administred such an alter'd Oath to his Majesty 3. Thirdly 'T is expressed in my Diary at Januar. 31. 1625. And that must be good Evidence for me having been so often produced against me that divers great Lords were in this Committee for the Ceremonies and did that Day sit in Council upon them And can it be thought they would not so much as compare the Books Or that comparing of them they would indure an Oath with such an Alteration to be Tender'd to the King Especially since 't is before confessed that One Copy of King James his Coronation had this Alteration in it and the other had it not 4. Fourthly 'T is expressed in my Diary and made use of against me at Januar. 23. 1625. That this Book urged against me did agree per Omnia cum Libro Regali in all things with the King's Book brought out of the Exchequer And if the Book that I then had and is now insisted upon did agree with that Book which came out of the Exchequer and that in all things how is it possible I should make this Alteration 5. Fifthly with much Labour I got the Books to be compared in the Lords House That of King James his Coronation and this of King Charles And they were found to agree in all things to a Syllable Therefore 't is impossible this should be added by me And this I conceive cuts off all Conjectural Proofs to the contrary Lastly In the Printed Book of the Votes of this present Parliament it is acknowledged that the Oath given to King James and King Charles was the same The same Therefore unaltered And this Passage of that Book I then shewed the Lords in my Defence To this Mr. Maynard then replyed That the Votes there mentioned were upon the Word Elegerit and the doubt whether it should be hath chosen or shall chuse I might not then Answer to the Reply but the Answer is plain For be the occasion which led on the Votes what it will as long as the Oath is acknowledged the same 't is manifest it could not be altered by me And I doubt not but these Reasons will give this Honourable House Satisfaction that I added not this Particular of the Prerogative to the Oath Mr. Brown in his last Reply passed over the other Arguments I know not how But against this he took Exception He brought the Book with him and Read the Passage And said as far as I remember that the Votes had Relation to the Word Chuse and not to this Alteration Which is in Effect the same which Mr. Maynard urged before I might not Reply by the Course of the Court but I have again considered of that Passage and find it plain Thus First they say They have considered of all the Alterations in the Form of this Oath which they can find Therefore of this Alteration also if any such were Then they say Excepting that Oath which was taken by his Majesty and his Father King James There it is confessed that the Oath taken by them was one and the same called there That Oath which was taken by both Where falls the Exception then For 't is said Excepting that Oath c. why it follows Excepting that the Word Chuse is wholly left out as well hath Chosen as will Chuse Which is a most manifest and evident Confession that the Oath of King James and King Charles was the same in all things to the very leaving out of the Word Chuse Therefore it was the same Oath all along No difference at all For Exceptio firmat Regulam in non Exceptis and here 's no Exception at all of this Clause of the Prerogative Therefore the Oath of both the Kings was the same in that or else the Votes would have been sure to mention it Where it may be observed too that Serjeant Wilde though he knew these Votes and was present both at the Debate and the Voting and so must know that the Word Chuse was omitted in both the Oaths yet at the first he Charged it eagerly upon me that I had left this Clause of Chusing out of King Charles his Oath and added the other God forgive him But the World may see by this and some other Passages with what Art my Life was sought for And yet before I quite leave this Oath I may say 't is not altogether improbable that this Clause And agreeing to the Prerogative of the King 's thereof was added to the Oath in Edward 6. or Queen Elizabeth's time And hath no Relation at all to the Laws of this Kingdom absolutely mentioned before in the beginning of this Oath But only to the Words The Profession of the Gospel Established in this Kingdom And then immediately follows And agreeing to the Prerogative of the Kings thereof By which the King Swears to maintain his Prerogative according to God's Law and the Gospel Established against all foreign Claims and Jurisdictions whatsoever And if this be the meaning he that made the Alteration whoever it were for I did it not deserves Thanks for it and not the Reward of a Traytor Now to return to the Day The Fourth Charge went on with the Ceremonies still But Mr. Serjeant was very nimble For he leaped from the Coronation at Westminster
all the Proof here made mentions him only by whom the Kings Pleasure is signified not him that procures the Preferment So the Docket in this Case no Proof at all The Fifth Charge was a Paper Intituled Considerations for the Church Three Exceptions against them The Observation of the King's Declaration Art 3. The Lecturers Art 5. And the High-Commission and Prohibitions Art 10 11. The Paper I desired might be all Read Nothing in them against either Law or Religion And for Lecturers a better care taken and with more Ease to the People and more Peace to the Church by a Combination of Conformable Neighbouring Ministers in their turns and not by some one Humorous Man who too often mis-leads the People Secondly my Copy of Considerations came from Arch-Bishop Harsnet in which was some sour Expression concerning Emanuel and Sidney Colleges in Cambridge which the King in his Wisdom thought fit to leave out The King's Instructions upon these Considerations are under Mr. Baker's Hand who was Secretary to my Predecessor And they were sent to me to make Exceptions to them if I knew any in regard of the Ministers of London whereof I was then Bishop And by this that they were thus sent unto me by my Predecessor 't is manifest that this account from the several Dioceses to the Arch-Bishop and from him to his Majesty once a Year was begun before my time Howsoever if it had not I should have been glad of the Honour of it had it begun in mine For I humbly conceive there cannot be a better or a safer way to preserve Truth and Peace in the Church than that once a Year every Bishop should give an account of all greater Occurrences in the Church to his Metropolitan and he to the King Without which the King who is the Supream is like to be a great Stranger to all Church Proceedings The Sixth Charge was about Dr Sibthorp's Sermon that my Predecessor opposed the Printing of it and that I opposed him to Affront the Parliament Nothing so my Lords Nothing done by me to oppose or affront the One or the Other This Sermon came forth when the Loan was not yet settled in Parliament The Lords and the Judges and the Bishops were some for some against it And if my Judgment were Erroneous in that Point it was mis-led by Lords of great Honour and Experience and by Judges of great knowledge in the Law But I did nothing to affront any 'T is said that I inserted into the Sermon that the People may not refuse any Tax that is not unjustly laid I conceive nothing is justly laid in that kind but according to Law Gods and Mans. And I dare not say the People may refuse any thing so laid For Jus Regis the Right of a King which is urged against me too I never went farther than the Scriptures lead me Nor did I ever think that Jus Regis mentioned 1 Sam 8 is meant of the Ordinary and just Right of Kings but of that Power which such as Saul would be would assume unto themselves and make it right by Power Then they say I expunged some things out of it As first The Sabbath and put instead of it the Lords Day What 's my Offence Sabbath is the Jews Word and the Lords-Day the Christians Secondly about Evil Counseilors to be used as Haman The Passage as there Expressed was very Scandalous and without just Cause upon the Lords of the Council And they might justly have thought I had wanted Discretion should I have left it in Thirdly that I expunged this that Popery is against the first and the second Commandment If I did it it was because it is much doubted by Learned Men whether any thing in Popery is against the first Commandment or denies the Unity of the God-head And Mr. Perkins who Charges very home against Popery lays not the Breach of the first Commandment upon them And when I gave Mr. Brown this Answer In his last Reply he asked why I left out both Why I did it because its being against the second is common and obvious and I did not think it worthy the standing in such a Sermon when it could not be made good against the first But they demanded why I should make any Animadversions at all upon the Sermon It was thus The Sermon being presented to his Majesty and the Argument not common he committed the Care of Printing it to Bishop Mountain the Bishop of London and four other of which I was one And this was the Reason of the Animadversions now called mine As also of the Answer to my Predecessors Exceptions now Charged also and called mine But it was the Joint Answer of the Committee And so is that other Particular also In which the whole Business is left to the Learned in the Laws For though the Animadversions be in my Hand yet they were done at and by the Committee only I being puny Bishop was put to write them in my Hand The Seventh Charge was Dr Manwaring's Business and Preferment It was handled before only resumed here to make a Noise and so passed it over The Eighth Charge was concerning some Alterations in the Prayers made for the Fifth of November and in the Book for the Fast which was Published An 1636. And the Prayers on Coronation Day 1. First for the Fast-Book The Prayer mentioned was altered as is Expressed but it was by him that had the Ordering of that Book to the Press not by me Yet I cannot but approve the Reason given for it and that without any the least approbation of Merit For the Abuse of Fasting by thinking it Meritorious is the thing left out whereas in this Age and Kingdom when and where set Fastings of the Church are cryed down there can be little fear of that Erroneous Opinion of placing any Merit in Fasting 2 Secondly for the Prayers Published for the Fifth of November and Coronation Day The Alterations were made either by the King himself or some about him when I was not in Court And the Books sent me with a Command for the Printing as there altered I made stay till I might wait upon his Majesty I found him resolved upon the alterations nor in my judgment could I justly except against them His Majesty then gave Warrant to the Books themselves with the alterations in them and so by his Warrant I commanded the Printing And I then shewed both the Books to the Lords who Viewed them and acknowledged his Ma jesty ' Hand with which not his Name only but the whole Warrant was written And here I humbly desired three things might be observed and I still desire it First with what Conscience this passage out of my Speech in the Star Chamber was urged against me for so it was and fiercely by Mr. Nicolas to prove that I had altered the Oath at the King's Coronation because the Prayers appointed for the Anniversary of the Coronation were
these The Ninth Charge was about the ordering of Popish Books that were seized and the disposing of them The sole Witness here is John Egerton He says These Books were delivered to Mr. Mattershead Register to the High-Commission And I say so too it was the constant Course of the High-Commission to send them thither and have them kept in that Office till there was a sufficient number of them and then to burn them Yea but he adds that Mattershead told him they were re-delivered to the Owners This is but a Report and Mattershead is dead who should make it good And though this be but a single Witness and of a dead Man's Report yet Mr. Browne thought fit to Summ it up with the rest But surely if any Books were redelivered to the Owners it was so ordered by the High-Commission in regard the Books were not found dangerous From me Mattershead had never any such Command Lastly he says he met Sir Toby Matthew twice at Lambeth But he confesses he never saw him with me and then me it cannot concern The Tenth Charge was concerning the Priests in Newgate the Witnesses are Mr. Deuxel and Francis Newton They both agree and they say that the Priests there had the best Chambers and Liberty to go abroad without Keepers I hope these Men do not mean to make the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Keeper of Newgate If any Man gave them this Liberty he is to be blamed for it not I who never knew it till now Nor do either of these Witnesses say that they called on me for remedy or ever did so much as acquaint me with it And they say this was Twelve Years since and I had been Arch-Bishop but Seven Years when I was Committed The Eleventh Charge was about words in my Epistle Dedicatory before my Book against Mr. Fisher. The Words these For to my remembrance I have not given him or his so much as course Language So the Charge is because I have not given ill Words And here Mr. Nicolas fell foul upon me again for taking such care that the Whore of Babylon may have nothing but good Words c. But First my Lords I have always thought and do still that ill Language is no Proof against an Adversary All the good it can do is it may bring Scorn upon the Author and work hardness of Heart in the Adversary whom he doth or should labour to Convert And this I learned of two eminent Fathers in the Church Gregory Nazienzen and S. Augustin The First would not use it no not against the Arrians who as he saith made open War against the Deity of Christ. Nor would the other against the same Adversaries The one accounts it Ignorance though a Fashion taken up by many and the other loss of time And here I desired the Lords that I might read what immediately followed this Passage which was granted And there as their Lordships did so may the Reader see if he please that though my Words were not uncivil yet in the Matter I favoured neither him nor his And to avoid Tediousness thither I refer the Reader With this that sometimes Men apt enough to accuse me can plead for this Moderation in their own Cases and tell each other that Christ will not own bitterness in maintaining any way though consonant to his Word And another finds just Fault both with Papists and Martin Marr-Prelat for this reproachful Language And yet it must be a Crime in me not to use it The Last Charge was the Commitment of one Ann Hussy to the Sheriff of London The Business was this She sent one Philip Bambridge to tell me of I know not what Plot against the King nor I think she neither Bambridge came to White-Hall toward the Evening and could make nothing of this dangerous Plot. Yet because it pretended so high I sent him presently to Mr Secretary Windebank I being the next Morning to go out of Town The Business was called to the Council-Table When I came back I was present there Bambridge produced Ann Hussy but she could make nothing appear She says I thought she was out of her Wits Not so my Lords but I did not think she was well in them nor do I yet And whereas she complains of her Imprisonment it was her own desire she might be committed to the Sheriff and Mr. Hearn my Councel here present was assigned by the Lords to take her Examination Therefore if any Particular in this Charge stick with your Lordships I humbly desire Mr. Hearn may supply my want of Memory But it passed over as well it might Here this Day ended and I was ordered to attend again July 29. CAP. XLII The Twentieth and the Last Day of my Hearing THis Day I appeared again and they proceeded upon the Fourteenth Original Article which Follows in these Words Art 14. That to preserve himself from being questioned for these and other his Traiterous Courses he hath laboured to subvert the Rights of Parliaments and the ancient Course of Parliamentary Proceedings and by false and malicious Slanders to incense his Majesty against Parliaments By which Words Councels and Actions he hath Traiterously and contrary to his Allegiance laboured to alienate the Hearts of the King's Liege People from his Majesty to set a Division between them and to ruine and destroy his Majesty's Kingdoms For which they do Impeach him of High-Treason against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity The First Charge of this Day was Prefaced with a Note out of my Diary at May 8. 1626. That the Duke of Buckingham was that Day impeached to the Lords by the House of Commons And at May 25. The difference arising in the House of Peers about the Earl of Arundel's Commitment to the Tower without a Cause declared No use made of these but that I then Bishop of S. Davids took notice of these things Then the Charge followed and the First of it was That I then being of the Lords House and so to be one of the Duke's Judges made a Speech for him and Corrected his Speech in some particulars and of a Judge made my self an Advocate Which Mr. Nicolas said was a great Offence I saw not these Papers and therefore can say nothing what is or is not under my Hand But to the thing it self I say first that if in that Speech any particular Fault had been found impeaching any Right or Power of Parliament that I must have answered but none is charged but only the bare making of one Speech and the mending of another And this is a very poor Argument of any Enmity against Parliaments Secondly seeing no Fault is charged upon me in particular it was but the Office of a poor Friend to a great one to whom being so much bound as I was I could not refuse so much Service being intreated to it And Thirdly I do humbly conceive that so long as there
within it for the Reasons formerly alledged 2. Because an Endeavour to subvert Laws is of so great a Latitude and Uncertainty that every Action not Warranted by Law may be thereby extended to be a Treason In the Sixth Report in Mildmays Case Fol. 42. where a Conveyance was made in Tail with a Proviso if he did go about or attempt to discontinue the Entail the same should be void It was resolved the Proviso was void and the principal Reason was that these Words attempt or go about are Words uncertain and void in Law And the Words of the Book are very observable viz. God defend that Inheritances and Estates of Men should depend upon such incertainties for that Misera est Servitus ubi Jus est vagum quod non definitur in Jure quid fit conatus and therefore the Rule of the Law doth decide this point Non efficit conatus nisi sequitur effectus and the Law doth reject Conations and goings about as things uncertain which cannot be put in issue These are the Words of the Book And if so considerable in Estates your Lordships we conceive will hold it far more considerable in a Case of Life which is of highest Consequence And if it should be said this Law of 25. Ed. 3. takes notice of Compassing and Imagining We answer it is in a Particular declared by that Law to be Treason in Compassing the death of the King But this of Endeavouring to subvert Laws not declared by that or any other Law to be a Treason And if it should be granted that this Law might in any Case admit any other Fact to be Treason by Inference or Construction other than is therein particularly declared which we conceive it cannot Yet it is not Imaginable that a Law introduced purposely to limit and ascertain Crimes of so high Consequence should by Construction or Inference be subject to a Construction of admitting so uncertain and indefinite a thing as an endeavour to subvert the Law is it being not comprised within the Letter of that Law 3. That the Subversion of the Law is an impossible thing therefore an Endeavour to do an act which cannot be effected cannot be Treason 4. That in all times the Endeavouring to subvert the Laws hath been conceived no determinate Crime but rather an Aggravation only of a Crime than otherwise And therefore hath been usually joyned as an Aggravation or result of Crimes below Treason As appears in the Parliament Roll 28 H. 6. num 28. to num 47. in the Case of the Duke of Suffolk where the Commons having in Parliament preferred Articles of Treason against him did not make that any part of their Charge Yet in the same Parliament and within few Days after the First being in February the latter in March Exhibiting other Articles against him they therein Charged all the Misprisions Offences and Deeds therein mentioned to have been the cause of the Subversion of Laws and Justice and the Execution thereof and nigh likely to tend to the Destruction of the Realm So as it appears it was then conceived an Offence of another Nature and not a Treason And it appears as well by the Articles exhibited in Parliament 21 H. 8. against Cardinal Woolsey as by Indictment in the Kings Bench against Ligham 23 H. 8. Rot. 25. That the Cardinal did Endeavour to subvert Antiquissimas Leges hujus Regni Vniversumque hoc Regnum Angliae Legibus Imperialibus Subjugare which although it be a Charge of subverting the ancient Laws of the Kingdom and to introduce new and Arbitrary Laws yet neither upon the Articles or Indictment was the same imputed to be Treason but ended in a Charge of a Premunire And if it shall be said that Empson 1 H. 8. had Judgment and Died for it upon an Indictment in London We answer 1. This was not the Substance of the Indictment but only an Aggravation 2. And if Charged it is with an actual subverting not with an Endeavour to subvert the Laws and is joyned with divers other Offences 3. Which is a full Answer The Indictment upon which he was Tryed was Paschae 2 H. 8. at Northampton and was for Levying War against the King a Treason declared by the Law of 25 Ed. 3. upon which he was Convicted and Suffered and no proceeding upon the other Indictment ever had And as to the second General Charge of Endeavouring to subvert Religion This no more than that former of subverting the Laws is any Treason within any Law established in this Kingdom And herein as to the Charge of the Endeavour we shall rely upon what hath been already said upon the former With this further That until that happy Reformation begun in the time of King Edward VI. there was another Frame of Religion established by Law which was conceived until then to have been the True Religion and any Endeavour to Change or Alter it prosecuted with great Extremities Yet was not any Attempt to alter it conceived to be a Treason but several especial Acts of Parliaments were made for particular Punishments against Persons who should attempt the Alteration thereof Witness the Statute of 5 R. 2. Cap. 5. and 2 H. 5. Cap. 7. In which latter although mention is made of endeavouring to destroy and subvert the Christian Faith yet was not the Offence made or declared to be Treason And at this day Heresie of what kind soever is not punishable but according to the old course of the Law And we may add the Statute of 1 Edw. 6. Cap. 12. that of 1 Mariae 12. which makes it but Felony to attempt an Alteration of Religion by force The worst kind of Attempt certainly To the third and last general Charge Labouring to subvert the Rights of Parliaments To the Labouring to do it we shall add nothing to what hath been said to the Charge of Endeavour in the two former only thus much we shall observe That in the Parliament of 11 R. 2. amongst the many Articles preferred against the Duke of Ireland and others the 14th Article contains a Charge much of this Nature viz. That when the Lords and others in divers Parliaments had moved to have a good Government in the Realm they had so far incensed the King that he caused divers to depart from his Parliament so that they durst not for fear of Death advise for the good of the Kingdom Yet when the Lords came to single out the Articles what was or was not Treason That although a Charge transcending this was none of the Articles by them declared to be Treason My Lords Having done with these Generals it remains only that we apply our selves to those other Articles which we conceive were insisted upon as Instances conducing and applied to some of the Generals we have handled Wherein if the Generals be not Treason the Particular Instances cannot be and on the other side if the Instances fall
been lately made Secondly That to effect this Trayterous Design they have not only secretly erected some Monasteries of Monks Nuns in and about London but sent over hither whole Regiments of most active subtile Jesuits incorporated into a particular new Society whereof the Pope himself is Head and Cardinal Barbarino his Vicar which Society was first discovered and some of them apprehended in their private College at Clerkenwel together with their Books of Account Reliques and Massing Trinkets about the beginning of the Second Parliament of this King yet such Power Favour Friends they had then acquired that their Persons were speedily and most indirectly released out of Newgate without any Prosecution to prevent the Parliament's Proceedings against them Since which this conjured Society increasing in Strength and Number secretly replanted themselves in Queenstreet and Long-Acre and their Purses are now so strong their Hopes so elevated their Designs so ripened as they have there purchased and founded a new magnificent College of their own for their Habitation near the fairest Buildings of Nobles Knights and Gentlemen the more commodiously to seduce them Thirdly That these Jesuits and Conspirators hold weekly constant uninterrupted Intelligence with the Pope and Romish Cardinals and have many Spies or Intelligencers of all sorts about the King Court City Noblemen Ladies Gentlemen and in all Quarters of the Kingdom to promote this their Damnable Plot. Fourthly That the Pope for divers late Years hath had a known avowed Legat Con by Name openly residing even in London near the Court of purpose to reduce the King and his Kingdoms to the Obedience of the Church of Rome and the Queen at least another Leger at Rome trading with the Pope to facilitate the Design to wit one Hamilton a Scot who receives a large Pension out of the Exchequer granted to another Protestant of that Name who payeth it over unto him to palliate the business from the People's knowledge by which means there hath been a constant allowed Negotiation held between Rome and England without any open interruption Fifthly That the Pope's Legat came over into England to effect this Project and kept his Residence here in London for the better Prosecution thereof by the King 's own Privity and Consent And whereas by the ancient Law and Custom of the Realm yet in force even in Times of Popery no Legat whatsoever coming from Rome ought to cross the Seas or land in England or any the King's Dominions without the King's Petition Calling and Request and before he had taken a Solemn Oath or Protestation to bring and attempt nothing in Word or Deed to the Prejudice of the Rights Priviledges Laws and Customs of the King and Realm This Legat for ought appears was here admitted without any such cautionary Oath which would have crossed the chief End of his Legation to prejudice all of them and our Religion too Yea whereas by the Statutes of the Realm it is made no less than High Treason for any Priests Jesuits or others receiving Orders or Authority from the Pope of Rome to set footing in England or any the King's Dominions to seduce any of his Subjects to Popery And no Popish Recusant much less then Priests Jesuits and Legats ought to remain within Ten Miles of the City of London nor come into the King's or Prince's Courts the better to avoid such traiterous and most dangerous Conspiracies Treasons and Attempts as are daily devised and practised by them against the King and Commonweal Yet notwithstanding this Pope's Legat and his Confederates have not only kept Residence for divers Years in or near London and the Court and enjoyed free Liberty without Disturbance or any Prosecution of the Laws against them to seduce his Majesty's Nobles Courtiers Servants Subjects every where to their Grief and Prejudice but likewise have had familiar Access to and Conference with the King himself under the very Name and Authority of the Pope's Legat by all Arts Policies and Arguments to pervert and draw him with his three Kingdoms into a new Subjection to the See of Rome as Cardinal 〈◊〉 the last Pope's Legat extant in England before this in Queen Mary's Reign reconciled her and the Realm to Rome to their intolerable Prejudice An Act so inconsistent with the Laws of the Realm with his Majesty's many ancient and late Remonstrances Oaths Protestations to maintain the Protestant Religion without giving way to any back-sliding to Popery in such sort as it was maintained and professed in the purest Times of Queen Elizabeth c. as may well amaze the World which ever looks more at real Actions than verbal Protestations Sixthly That the Popish Party and Conspirators have lately usurped a Sovereign Power not only above the Laws and Magistrates of the Realm which take no hold of Papists but by the Parliament's late Care against them here but even over the King himself who either cannot or dares not for fear perchance of Poysoning or other Assassination oppose or banish these horrid Conspirators from his Dominions and Court but hath a long time permitted them to prosecute this Plot without any publick Opposition or Dislike by whose Powerful Authority and Mediation all may easily divine Alas What will become of the poor Sheep when the Shepherd himself not only neglects to chase and keep out these Romish Wolves but permits them free Access into and Harbour in the Sheepfold to assault if not devour not only his Flock but Person too Either St. John was much mistaken in the Character of a good Shepherd and in prescribing this Injunction against such Seducers If there come any unto you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not into your House neither bid him God speed for he that biddeth him God speed is Partaker of his evil Deeds And the Fathers and Canonists deceived in this Maxim Qui non prohibet malum quod potest jubet Or else the Premises cannot be tolerated or defended by any who profess themselves Enemies or Opposites to the Pope Priests or Church of Rome Seventhly That these Conspirators are so potent as to remove from Court and Publick Offices all such as dare strenuously oppose their Plots as the Example of Secretary Cook with other Officers lately removed in Ireland evidence and plant others of their own Party and Confederacy both in his Majesty's Court Privy Council Closet Bed-chamber if not Bed and about the Prince to corrupt them And how those who are thus environed with so many industrious potent Seducers of all sorts who have so many Snares to entrap so many Enticements to withdraw them both in their Beds Bed-Chambers Closets Councils Courts where-ever they go or come should possibly continue long untainted unseduced without an omnipotent Protection of which none can be assured who permits or connives at such dangerous Temptations is a thing scarce credible in Divine or Humane Reason if Adam's Solomon's and others Apostacies by such means be duly pondered
enim quod nemo nostrum quando apprehenditur reluctatur nec adversus injustam violentiam vestram quamvis nimius copiosus noster sit Populus ulciseitur Cyprian Epistola ad Demetrianum Quum tam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ne verbe quidem reluctamur sed Deo 〈◊〉 ultionem Lactant. L. 5. Divin Instit. c. 22. Neque tunc Civitas Christi quanquam haberet 〈◊〉 magnorum agmina Populorum adversùs impios persecutores pro temporali salute pugnavit Sed 〈◊〉 ut obtineret 〈◊〉 non repugnavit S. Aug. Lib. 22. de Civitat Dei c. 6. a Nec singulis civibus nec universis fas est summi Principls vitam famam aut fortunas in discrimen 〈◊〉 si omnium scelerum c. Poenis acerbissimis statuendum est in eos qui 〈◊〉 scriptis subditos in Principes armare consueverunt Bodin L. 2. de Repub. c. 5. p. 210 212. b Temporibus Locis nimium servientes c. Nec hoc locum habet in privatis tantum sed nec Magistratibus inferioribus hoc licet c. Grotius L. 1. de Jure belli pacis c. 4. n. 6. c Ibid. n. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. d Rebellem propriè strictè dici qui contra Imperatorem vel ejus officiales resistit in pertinentibus ad statum Imperij Asserit Lancelot Conradus L. 1. de praestantia potestate Imperat. n. 12. * Greg. Turonens L. 5. Hist. n. 18. e Aristoteles citat apud Grotium L. 1. de Jure 〈◊〉 c. 4. n. 2. f Seneca Epist. 73. g Tacitus L. 4. Histor. h Nec 〈◊〉 nec licitum Regis 〈◊〉 manus 〈◊〉 Plutarch In vit Agidis Cleomen Boni expetendi qualescunque tolerandi k 〈◊〉 L. 1. Epist Fam. Epist. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nec patriae vim offerri oportere Jerem. 38. 5. * Procured Rushw. Pryn. * p. 9. †Worse Rushw. Pryn. * Conjunction †〈◊〉 Rushw. Pryn. * By 〈◊〉 Rushw. Pryn. †It 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 * Superstitions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Desunt 〈◊〉 in Rushw. †put to Rush Pryn. Who was Register or Secretary to the Scotch Commissioners Decemb. 14. 1640. Decemb. 18. 1640. Ecclus. 51. 〈◊〉 †Conjunction Psal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Decemb 15. 1640. * Profess Rushw. Pryn. †The Scottish 〈◊〉 The Survey of the Discipline * Thereafter Pryn Rushw. †Skill †Ceased Rush. * Brought Rushw. * 〈◊〉 in Platinae Hyginum Vide autem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dissert 1. 4. 2. W S. A. C. Rom. 1. 8. a Jewell's Reply to Dr. Harding * United Rushw Pryn. †The same is added from Pryn and Rush. * Jan. 22. 1641. * 〈◊〉 habens Lutherus rem sine Ecclesiae pernicie abrogari non posse quod unum potuit nomen sustulit 〈◊〉 puriore vocabulo Graeco parum Latinum supposuit pro Episcopis Superintendentes pro Archiepiscopis Generales Superintendentes appellans Tilenus 〈◊〉 ad Scotos c. 6. And he well knew the state of his Neighbour Churches Saravia similiter Praefat. L. de diversis Ministrorum Evangelii gradibus Zanchius de Relig. Observat. c. 25. n. 10 11. Jacob. Haerbrand Lutheranus In 〈◊〉 Commun p. 699. Saving that he dislikes not the Alteration of the Name a S. Aug. L. 19. de Civ Des c. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Latinè superintendere possumus dicere quod ille qui 〈◊〉 eis quibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sc. 〈◊〉 * Recombustion after this Rushw. Pryn. See Rushw. par 3. vol. 2. pag. 135. 152 153 154. 174. 183 184 187. 193 194 c. 207. 235. c. 282 c. See the Petitions of these three Men presented to the House of Commons against the Arch-Bishop apud Rushworth par 3. vol. 1. p. 74 c. * It was 〈◊〉 Libel indeed in strictness of Law having the Author's Name set to it but it is called a Libel for the scurrilous and soul Language of it H. W. †Jan. 26. 1641. Dec. 21. 1640. * There were present and concurring in the Sentence Sir The. Coventry Lord Keeper of the Great Seal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Manchester Lord President of the Council W. Earl of Pembroke Lord Steward Philip 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Lord Chamberlain Edw. Earl of 〈◊〉 Oliver Lord Viscount Grandison George Lord Bishop of London Rich. Lord Bishop of Duresme Sam. Lord Bishop of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord Bishop of Rochester William Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells Sir 〈◊〉 Coke Secretary Sir Hen. Martin Jo. 〈◊〉 Dean of St. Pauls Walt. 〈◊〉 Dean of Rochester Tho. 〈◊〉 Doctor of Divinity Edm. Pope and Hugh Barker Doctors of Law and Sir Charles 〈◊〉 who only desired to be spared and so gave no Sentence * Close Prisoner from the High-Commission-Court was not to shut him up in his Chamber but only not 〈◊〉 suffer him to go out of the Prison W. C. †Jan. 28. 1641. †Jan. 21. 1640. Feb. 26. 1640. Rushworth saith they were carried up by Mr. Pym Mr. Hampden and Mr. Maynard and inserteth Pym's Speech made at the 〈◊〉 of them to the Lords Par. 3. Vol. p. 195. 199. c. So also Pryn pag. 24 25 28. who also Exhibits p. 23 24. the Preliminary Votes and Orders of the 〈◊〉 made Febr. 22 23 24 26. for the framing and carrying up the Articles to the Lords H. W. * 'T is Article 10. There are Printed also in Rushworth par 3 vol 1. p. 196. c. 〈◊〉 Compl. Hist. p. 25 c. †Rushw. * This Kingdom of England Rush. Pryn. Ad 〈◊〉 * Arist. L 3. Polit. c. 11. Ad Secundum †〈◊〉 King Ad Tertium Rushw. Pryn. Desunt in Rushw. Pryn. Ad Quartum All this about Stone is afterward more perfectly related and so this to be omitted here according to the Arch-Bishop's Direction p. 159. Only compare them first together W. S. A. C. The Account being short I thought it better to let it stand here than 〈◊〉 the History for the sake of one single Repetition H. W. Desunt in 〈◊〉 Pryu Ad Quintum * Rush. 〈◊〉 Ad Sextum * Rushw. 〈◊〉 Ad Septim * Other Rushw. Pryn. †Commendation Rushw. Pryn. Ad Octavum * Pryn Rushworth Ad 〈◊〉 Ad 〈◊〉 †Arift l 2. Rhetor. c. 5. Arift Rhet. l. 2. c. 7. §. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 | Non omnis 〈◊〉 perficit 〈◊〉 boni sed solùm illa à quâ dependet esse perfectum 〈◊〉 Tho. 1. 2. q. 36. Art 3. ad quint I would not adventure to 〈◊〉 and disjoint the History The Reader if he so pleaseth may 〈◊〉 by such Repetitions H. W. * I find that some things in my general Answer to the Articles are repeated again in the beginning of my particular Answers when my Tryal came on I desire for I had no time to do it my self that to avoid tediousness all those may be left out of the first Answer that are perfected in the 2d W. 〈◊〉 2. 3. 4. 2 Cor. 13. 8. 5. 6. 7. 〈◊〉 *
like a Damned Rogue between two Theeves c. Glocester C. R. I must bee satisfyed that the Occasions were very necessary otherwaies he shall Answer itt Hereford Oxford Chichester Peterborough Canterbury London Lincoln Bath and Wells Norwich Oxon. Sarum Ely Chichester St. Asaph Bristol Landaff Hereford Winton Peterburgh Rochester Exeter St Davids Glocester The Account of my Province of Canterbury for the Year 1636 presented to his Majesty Jan. An. Praed Canterbury C. R. Informe mee of the Particulars and I shall command the Judges to make them Abjure London C. R. What the High Commission cannot doe in this I shall supply as I shall finde Cause in a more powerfull way Winchester Bath and Wells Norwich C. R. Let him goe Wee are well ridd of him C. R. I approve your Judgment in this I only add that care must be taken that even those Qualified by Law keepe none but Conformable Men. C. R. Bishops Certificates in this Case must be most unquestionable Evidence C. R. His Sute is granted and assuredly his negative Consequence shall followe Oxford C. R. If this be not upon Composition I understand itt not Ely 〈◊〉 C. R. This may prove a bold Part in the Bishop and the poore Preist in noe Fault as the other Day his information proved concerning the Ship Business at the Council-Board therefore examine this farther C. R. Try your way for some tyme. Sarum 〈◊〉 Exon. Chichester Peterborough Hereford C. R. Which ye shall not want if you need St. Davids C. R. Since he hath beene at the Charge and hath so good Testimonie lett him have his desire with those restrictions mentioned Landaff St. Asaph C. R. Itt is done Bangor C. R. I doubt not but by the Grace of God to agree these Differences by my hearinge of them Rochester Glocester Bristol Coventry and Lichfield C R. For the Bishops of Gloster and Coven and Lich I must know why they have not made other Account Whythall the 21 of Feb 1637 Cant. C. R. Keepe those particular Persons fast untill ye thincke what to doe with the rest London C. R. Itt is most fitt Winton C. R. I desire to know the certaintie of this Ely Rochester Sarum Peterburgh Bath and Wells Lincoln Norwich C. R. Let him proceed to Deprivation C. R. Let him doe his Duty and I shall take care that no Prohibition shall trouble him in this case C. R. Herein I shall not faile to doe my Part. Exon. Oxford C. R. Lett mee see those exemptions and then I shall declare my further Pleasure Bristol C. R Doe soe C. R. I shall Chichester Hereford St. Asaph Landaff Bangor Worcester St. Davids C. R. Cale for them Canterbury C. R. Demand theire helpe and if they refuse I shall make them assist you London Winton Lincoln Oxon. Worcester Exon. Hereford Ely Bristol C. R. In this ye have very great reason for it is not fit that the Sentence of Excommunication should stand longer then it needs must Landaff St. Davids C. R. It is no wonder that this Relation is imperfect since the Bishop's Sicknes gives him an excuse for absence Bangor Glocester C. R. This is well enough if he have left his desire of further absenting himselfe Norwich C. R. I doe soe Lichfield C. R. I shall Chichester Peterborough Sarum Bath and Wells Rochester S. Asaph Canterbury C. R. It were not amisse to speake with the Keeper about this London Winton Oxford C. R. Command him in my name to doe soe Conventry and Lichfield C. R. I am content Norwich Ely C. R. It must not bee You are in the Right for if faire meanes will not power must redresse it C. R. Cotting on would bee spoken withall concerning this Hereford Bristol Peterburgh C. R. Soe that Catechizng be first duely performed let them 〈◊〉 a Sermon after that if theye desire it C. R. It is most necessary that the Bishop observe this that you mention strictly Lincoln Exeter Asaph Bath and Wells Sarum Worcester Gloucester Rochester St. Davids Landaff Bangor Chichester C. R. I hope it is to be understood that what is not certified here to be amisse is right touching the observation of my Instructions which granted this is no ill Certificat 10 Feb. 1617 40. C. R. * Who I believe is the Author of this Tract * And would be then disclose it to me if I were in any degree a Promoter of it or a Favourer of the Religion * This is not so For I gave not any Vote at all for his Censure * If a stranger were thus affected at the hearing of this Plot how should we our selves be sensible thereof * I have not looked upon these 〈◊〉 these two Years and 〈◊〉 half Yet if my memory fail not here are some 〈◊〉 left 〈◊〉 * The Jesuits Plots are never ended till they obtain their 〈◊〉 ends in all things * The Pope and Cardinal Barbarino His Majesty and the Realm may be soon be trayed by such false Attendants I beseech Your Majesty read these Letters as they are endorsed by figures 1 2 3 c. Ye had reason so to doe It is an unanswerable Dilemma I concur totally with you in opinion assuring you that no body doth or shall know of this businesse and to shew my care to conceale it I received this but this afternoon and now I make this dispatch before I sleepe Herewith I send his warrant as you advise which indeed I judge to 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 way I like your answer extreame well and doe promise not to deceive your confidence nor make you break your word I have sent all back I thinke these Apostyles will bee warrant enough for you to proceed especially when I expresly command you to doe so In this I am as far from condemning your judgment as suspecting your fidelitie C. R. * The King's hand and date * The Arch-Bishop's Postcript * A very good Argument of truth and reality * Therefore a man of note and imployment * The quality of the discoverer and means inducing him to reveal this Plot. * The Popes Nuncio then in England Four sorts of Jesuits * A good Caveat to Nobles and Gentlemen to beware they entertain not a Jesuit or Romish Spie in their Houses instead of a Servant * We had need 〈◊〉 about when so many active 〈◊〉 are harboured among us even perchance at this present Therefore 〈◊〉 Kingdoms need 〈◊〉 to themselves Strange that such a Society should be 〈◊〉 under the Desender of the Faith A strangeWorld when a Popes Legat shall be openly 〈◊〉 boured so 〈◊〉 the King and Court and have free access to 〈◊〉 without controul If the King truly hate the Pope it will make his Instruments less effectual if they come in his Name Popes Instruments are ever very active Strange it was that the chief Men should not set themselves gainst him and his to send them packing hence especially that the King himself did it not when hethus tempted and assaulted him That a Popes
After they had continued at York till Octob. 28. the King and the Lords returned and the Parliament sate down Novemb. 3. Great Heats appear'd in the very beginning On Wednesday Novemb. 10. Tho. L. 〈◊〉 Earl of Strafford was accused by the House of Commons of High Treason and Committed by the Lords to Mr. James Maxwell the Officer of the House And upon general Articles sent up He was upon Wednesday Novemb. 25. committed to the Tower It is thought and upon good Grounds that the Earl of Strafford had got Knowledge of the Treason of some Men and that he was preparing to accuse them And this Fear both hastned and heated the proceedings against him And upon Dec. 4. being Friday his Majesty at the great Importunity of some Lords of his Council gave way that his Council should be examined upon Oath in the Earl of Strafford's Case and I with others was examined that very Day There were great Thoughts of Heart upon this Business and somewhat vapoured out at Mens Tongues but the thing was done Now at and after the breaking up of the late Parliament Sir Hen. Vane at the private Committee concerning the Scotch Affairs before mentioned instead of setting down the Heads of the several Businesses then Treated of Writ down what every Man said at the Committee though it were but Matter of deliberation and debate Afterwards by a cunning conveyance between his Son who had been Governour in New-England and himself this Paper or a Copy of it was delivered to some Members of the House of Commons and in all probability was the Ground of that which was after done against the Lord Strafford my self and others and the Cause why the King was so hard pressed to have the Lords and others of his Council examined was that so Sir Henry Vane might upon Oath avow the Paper which his Son had seen and shewed and others be brought to witness as much had Truth and their Memories been able to say as much as his Paper After the examination of me and others concerning these Particulars there arose great and violent Debates in the House of Commons against the Bishops and particularly their Votes in Parliament After that Decemb. 16. 1640. they Voted against the late Canons as containing in them many Matters contrary to the fundamental Laws and Statutes of the Realm to the Rights of Parliaments to the Property and Liberty of the Subject and matters tending to Sedition and of dangerous Consequences I was made the Author of all and presently a Committee put upon me to inquire into my Actions and prepare a Charge The same Morning in the Upper-House I was Named as an Incendiary in an Accusation put in by the Scottish Commissioners For now by this Time they were come to that Article of the Treaty which reflected upon me And this was done with great noise to bring me yet further into Hatred with the People especially the Londoners who approved too well the Proceedings of their Brethren the Scots and debased the Bishops and the Church Government in England The Articles which the Scots put into the Upper House by the Hands of their Lords Commissioners against me Decemb. 15. were read there Decemb. 16. I took out a true Copy as it follows here And though I was to make no answer then till the House of Commons had digested them and taken as much out of them as as they pleased to fill my intended Charge withall yet because I after found that the House of Commons insisted upon very few of these particulars if any I thought my self bound to vindicate my Innocency even in these Particulars which shall now appear in their full strength against me if they have any in Wise and Learned Mens Judgments CAP. III THe Novations in Religion which are universally acknowledged to be the main Cause of Commotions in Kingdoms and States and are known to be the true Cause of our present Troubles were many and great besides the Books of Ordination and Homilies First some particular alterations in matters of Religion pressed upon us without Order and against Law contrary to the Form established in our Kirk Secondly a new Book of Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical Thirdly a Liturgy or Book of Common-Prayer which did also carry with them many dangerous Errours in matters of Doctrine Of all these we challenge the Prelate of Canterbury as the prime Cause on Earth I shall easily grant that Novations in Religion are a main Cause of Distempers in Commonwealths And I hope it will be as easily granted to me I am sure it should that when great Distempers fall into Kingdoms and Common-wealths the only way to ingage at home and get Credit abroad is to pretend Religion which in all Ages hath been a Cloak large enough to cover at least from the Eyes of the Many even Treasons themselves And For the present Troubles in Scotland Novations in Religion are so far from being known to be the true Cause as that it is manifest to any Man that will look upon it with a single Eye that Temporal Discontents and several Ambitions of the great Men which had been long a working were the true cause of these Troubles And that Religion was call'd in upon the bye to gain the Clergy and by them the Multitude For besides that which was openly spoken by the right Honourable James then Earl of Carlile that somewhat was a brewing in Scotland among some discontented there which wou'd break out to the Trouble of this Kingdom 't is most apparent there were many discontents among them Some whereof had no relation at all to Religion and were far antienter than the Troubles now began and were all Legally proved against the Lord Balmerino who was condemned of high Treason before any of these Stirs began For there were Grievances as they said propounded in the Convention Anno 1628. about Coyning and their black Money which they say were slighted again in the Parliament held 1633. Murmuring also there was as if the Articles and Parliament were not free Great Clamour likewise was there against the Bishops Power in choosing the Lords of the Articles though that Power belonged unto them by the fundamental Laws of that Kingdom As much against the Act of Revocation and the Taxations which yet were voluntarily offer'd and miscalled on purpose to edge the People As also for Applying as they said these Taxations to wrong uses With all which and more Religion had nothing to do Nay this discontented Party grew so High and so Bold that a very Base and Dishonourable Libel was made and spread against the King Anno 1633. by these and the like Pretences to alienate the Hearts of the People from him Of this Libel if one Hagg were the Authour Balmerino was the Divulger and so prov'd And though it be true that then also some things were to be done against the Church-government yet their
for the Happiness of this Kingdom I would to God it were impossible But suppose the Word Peevish had been absolutely spoken by me is it Lawful upon Record to say the Parliament An. 42. Hen. 3. was Insanum Parliamentum a Mad Parliament and that in the 6. Hen. 4. Indoctum an Unlearned Parliament and that in the 4. Hen. 6. a Parliament of Clubbs And shall it be High Treason in me to say a Parliament in some one Particular was Peevish or but to suppose if it were Canany Man think that an Vnlearned or a Mad Parliament or one of Clubbs did not do something Peevishly Might my Precessor Tho. Arundel tell the Commons openly in Parliament that their Petitions were Sacrilegious And may not I so much as suppose some one Action of a Parliament to be Peevish but it shall be Treason May an ordinary Historian say of that Vnlearned Parliament that the Commons were fit to enter Common with their Cattle for any Vertue they had more than Brute-Beasts And may not I in my private Notes write the Word Peevish of them without Treason 3. Thirdly Whereas 't is said That the Voting at the Council-Table to assist the King in Extraordinary Ways if c. was by my Counsel There is no such thing in my Diary There is that I with others advised a Parliament But there is not one Word that the Voting mentioned at the Council-Table proceeded from any Advice of mine So there is no Proof from my Diary and other Proof beside that was not so much as urged which was not in Favour but because they had it not For had they had any other Proof I see already it should not have been lost for want of urging Where I desired their Lordships also to observe in what a difficulty I have lived with some Men who will needs make me a great Enemy to Parliaments and yet are angry with me that I was one with others who moved for that Parliament So it seems nothing that I do can content some Men For a Parliament or against it nothing must be well if the Counsel be mine 4. Fourthly For the Voting of Assistance in Extraordinary Ways I was included in the general Vote of the Table and therefore that cannot be called or accounted my Counsel 5. Fifthly It is expressed in my Diary whence all this Proof is taken that it was in and for the Scottish Business and so is within the Act of Oblivion And these Answers I gave to Mr. Brown when in the summing up of the Charge against me in the Honourable House of Commons he made this to be my Counsel to the King And he began with it in his Charging of the Points against Law The Second Particular this Day 〈◊〉 against me was That after the Ending of the late Parliament I did use these Words to the King That now he might use his own Power or Words to that Effect This was attested by Sir Henry Vane the Elder then a Counsellor and present 1. To this my Answer was That I spake not these Words either in Terms or in Sense to the uttermost of my Knowledge 2. Secondly If I had spoken these Words either they were ill advised Words but no Treason and then they come not home to the Charge Or they are Treasonable and then I ought by Law to have been tryed within Six Months Mr. Brown in his Reply to me in the House of Commons said That this Statute expired with the Queen because it concerned none but her and the Heirs of her Body I had here urged Sir Edward Coke as urging this Statute and commending the Moderation of it But I was therein mistaken for he speaks of 1. Eliz. c. 1. And that Statute is in force and is for Tryal within Six Months for such Crimes as are within that Statute So it comes all to one for my Cause so either of the Statutes be in force And to this Charge in general I gave the same Answers which are here 3. Thirdly Sir Henry Vane is in this a single Witness whereas by Lav he that is accused of Treason must be convicted by two Witnesses or his own Confession without Violence neither of which is in this Case And strange it is to me that at such a full Table no Person of Honour should remember such a Speech but Sir Henry Vane 4. Fourthly both this and the former Charge relate to the Scottish Business and so are within the Act of Oblivion which I have Pleaded Besides here is nothing expressed in the Words Charged which savours of Practice Conspiracy Combination or Force and cannot therefore possibly be adjudged Treason especially since there is no Expression made in the Words Witnessed what Power is meant For what should hinder the King to use his own Power But Legal still Since nothing is so properly a King 's own Power as that which is made or declared his own by Law As for the Inference That this was called his own in opposition to Law First Sir Henry Vane is a Witness to the Words only and not to any Inference So the Words have but one Witness and the Inference none And perhaps it were as well for themselves as for Persons questioned in great Courts if they who are imployed about the Evidence would be more sparing of their Inferences many Men laying hold of them without Reason or Proof Lastly For the Honour of Sir Henry Vane let me not forget this he is a Man of some Years and Memory is one of the first Powers of Man on which Age works and yet his Memory so good so fresh that he alone can remember Words spoken at a full Council-Table which no Person of Honour remembers but himself Had any Man else remembred such Words he could not have stood single in this Testimony But I would not have him brag of it For I have read in St Augustin That Quidam Pessimi some even the worst of Men have great Memories and are Tanto Pejores so much the worse for having them God Bless Sir Henry I have stayed the longer upon these Two because they were apprehended to be of more weight than most which follow The next was a Head containing my Illegal Pressures for Money under which the next Particular was That in the Case of Ship-Money I was very angry against one Samuel Sherman of Dedham in Essex That I should say Dedham was a Maritime Town And that when the Sum demanded of him was Named I should say a Proper Sum whereas the Distress came to eleven Subsidies To this I Answered First here was no Proof but Sherman and in his own Cause Secondly he himself says no more than that he believes I was the Instrument of his Oppression as he called it whereas his Censure was laid upon him by the Council-Table not by me Nor was I in any other Fault than that I was present and gave my Vote with the rest So here