betake our selves to new Counsels The very Words he used to that Parliament in the Year 1628. Further upon the discovery of his Plot to bring up the English Army against the Parliament he turn'd to the Scottish Army then at New Castle and baited his Temptation with a rich Reward not only to have 300000 l. in hand and the spoil of London but four Northern Counties to be made Scotists Moreover to encourage them to joyn with him he Declared to them That he was to have Money and Horse from Denmark and that he would make York the place of his Residence for the better accommodation of both Nations or fuller Revenge upon London He also gathered Men in London under pretence of raising Forces for Portugal who were to possess themselves of the Tower The Queen in Holland was buying Arms and His Majesty had actually raised Forces in divers Counties The Parliament was all this time Petitioning in Peace and for the Reasons now assigned amongst many others They humbly besought him that he would be pleased to put the Tower of London and the Militia into the Hands of such Persons as should be recommended unto him by both Houses of Parliament The King seemed to comply herein and by his Answer promised them That the Militia should be put into such Hands as they should approve of or recommend to him hereupon both Houses nominated Persons of the greatest Honour as fit for that Trust. I shall give you the Names of some of them The Earls of Holland Rutland Bedford Bullingbrook Salisbury Warwick Pembrook Leicester Stamford Essex Clare Northumberland Lincoln Suffolk c. Lords Paget North Strange Roberts Grey of Werk Chandois Dacres Mandeville Wharton Spencer Brook Herbert Fielding Littleton Lord Keeper c. Men Eminent in all Qualifications of Honour and Sufficiency were recommended for several Counties and the King was desired to agree thereunto as he had promised upon his delaying to give a satisfactory Answer they again Petition setting forth That nothing could enable them to suppress the Rebellion in Ireland and secure England but the granting of their Humble Petition which they find so absolutely necessary for the preservation of the King and Common-wealth that the Laws of God and Man injoin them to see it put in Execution They followed him to Theobalds and his several removes to York but he having Abdicated the Parliament and being deaf to all their Importunities they declared That there had been of late a most desperate Design upon the House of Commons which they had just cause to believe was an effect of the Bloody Councels of Papists and other evil affected Persons who had already raised a Rebellion in Ireland and by reason of many Discoveries They could not but fear they would proceed not only to stir up the like Rebellion and Insurrection in this Kingdom but also to back them with Forces from Abroad and thereupon both Houses made an Ordinance for the ordering of the Militia of England and Wales there appearing an urgent and inevitable necessity for putting His Majesties Subjects in a posture of Defence for the Safeguard of both His Majesty and his People and they resolved That in this Case of extream danger and of His Majesties Refusal the Ordinance agreed to by both Houses for the Militia doth oblige the People and ought to be obeyed by the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom They further about that time Resolved That the King's Absence so far remote from his Parliament was not only an Obstruction but might be a Destruction to the Affairs of Ireland These and many other Reasons that may with the greatest ease be given 't is notoriously manifest That King Charles began and carryed on that Bloody Civil War against his poor Subjects without the least Colour of Reason and Iustice for which wicked Acts God justly suffered him to be brought to that shameful and untimely End This King studdying and endeavouring by all ways imaginable as he lived without the Love so he died without the Lamentation of most People but those Villains that had been large instruments in bringing him and his People into that miserable War and Division 25. That after he had taken God to Witness of his readiness to Treat at Uxbridge with the Parliament for avoiding of Blood-shed as pretended he took the advantage of a Mist the fittest Weather for Deceit and Treachery and followed at the Heels those Messengers of Peace with a Train of Covert War and with a Bloody surprise falls on the Parliaments secure Forces which lay Quartering at Brentford in the thoughts and expectation of a Treaty He gives his Reason why he seemed for Peace in a Letter to his Queen which was That She must know as a certain Truth That all even his Party are strongly impatient for a Peace which oblidged him so much the more to shew on all occasions his Intentions to Peace but tells her no danger of Death shall make him do any thing unworthy of her Love An excellent Resolution no doubt for the preserving the Protestant Religion made to his Popish Queen At the very instant of this Treaty which was in 1644. the King used all imaginable meams to bring not only Foreign Forces but the Irish Cut Throats against the Parliament To clear up this point and also to shew how insincere he was in his pretended Intentions of Peace I will briefly present his Underhand Transactions as well with Foreign Princes as those Rebels and in the first place I shall take notice of some passages between Him and the Queen in relation to this and other Treaties In a Letter to Her of January 9th 1644. he Writes thus The Scots Commissioners have sent to me to send a Commission to their General Assembly Which I am resolved not to do but to the end of making some use of this occasion by sending an honest Man to London and that I may have the more time for a handsome Negative I have demanded a Pasport for Phil. Warwick by whom to return my Answer At another time the same Month He tells Her That as for my calling those a Parliament if there had been but Two of my Opinion I had not done it the calling did no ways acknowledge them to be a Parliament upon which condition and construction I did it and accordingly it is registred in the Council Books Nothing is more evident than that the King was steered by the Queen's Council in the management of this Uxbridge Treaty and that which is call'd the Church of England The Bishops was greatly her care By Letter in January 1644. before the beginning of that Treaty She instructs him not to abandon those who have served him lest they forsake him in his need that She hopes he will have a care of her and her Religion that in Her Majesties Opinion Religion should be the last thing upon which he should Treat for if he do agree upon strickness against the Catholicks it would discourage them to serve
Archbishop of Canterbury was most justly Beheaded The House of Commons having proof that he had a great Hand in all the Arbitrary Proceedings and Dealings with Rome December 18th 1640. they Voted him to be a Traytor and Mr. Hollis was sent to the Lords to Accuse him of High-Treason which he did immediately assuring the Lords that in convenient time there should be a charge put in against him to make Good the Accusation desiring that he might be sequestred from the House and Committed which was forthwith done by the Lords The Articles wherewith he was charged consist of these Heads c. 1. For that he had Treacherously 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 2. That he had laboured to Overthrow the Authority of Parliaments and the Force of the Laws of the Kingdom of England 3. That he had laboured to corrupt and pervert the Ministers of Justice 4. That he himself had corruptly bought and sold Justice in his Seat 5. That he had put a New Book of Cannons in Execution against Law Vide 2 Vol. 2d Part of Rushworth's Hist. Collect. Fol. 1365. sequent 6. That he had Traytorously assumed to himself a Pap̄al and Tyrannical Power both in Ecclesiastical and Temporal Matters 7. That he had laboured to subvert the Protestant Religion and instead thereof to set up Popish Superstition and Idolatry 8. That he had prefer'd notorious Papist to Places of Dignity 9. That he had chosen to himself a Chaplain Popishly affected 10. That he had kept Confederacy and Intelligence with Popish Priests and Jesuits 11. That he had cruelly persecuted Godly Ministers 12. That he had laboured to make Divisions and Discord between us and other Churches 13. That he had stir'd up War and Enmity between his Majesties two Kingdoms of England and Scotland 14. That he had Slandened and Incensed His Majesty against Parliaments 15. That he had laboured to slander Parliaments with the Nick Name of Puritans and commended the Papists for harmless and peaceable Subjects 16. That he had Traytorously indeavoured to advance the Power of the Council Table the Cannons of the Church and the King's Prerogative above the Laws and Statutes of the Realm 17. That he had Wittingly and Willingly Harboured Countenanced and Relieved divers Popish Priests and Jesuits and particularly one call'd Sancta Clara alias Damport a dangerous Person and Franciscan Fryar and did also provide Maintenance and Entertainment for one Monsieur St. Gyles a Popish Priest at Oxford knowing him to be a Popish Priest 18. That he had threatningly said there must be a Blow given to the Church such as had not been yet given before it could be brought to Conformity 19. That he punished divers Ministers in Prosecution of the last Cannons made by himself 20. That he had wickedly and malitiously Advised His Majesty to dissolve the last Parliament and presently after it was Dissolved told His Majesty That then he was absolved from all Rules of Government and left free to use all extraordinary Ways for his Supply These were the chief Heads of the Charge against that Proud Popish and Arbitrary Prelate for which he was sent Prisoner to the Tower After some close Inquiries and Examinations taken from the Informations of the late Lord Deputy of Ireland it was sufficiently known that the Archbishop was the Conduite Pipe through which the Popish Party made the pernicious Seed of Division run so smoothly that he was the Wicked Instrument they made use of to stir up the Division between the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland and between the Protestants of the Church of England and the Presbyterians These heavy charges being made good against this Bishop and he most righteously executed for these his notorious Evil Actions Why are most of our Clergy and some of our Laity so wicked as to vindicate him and without the least Reason or shaddow of Truth cry him up for a Blessed Martyr that had violated all the Laws of the Land and was so great a Cause of most of the Miseries of England That to prevent the Peoples being too Religious advised and highly promoted the Declaration of Sports on the Lord's Day a time so odious in the sight of any thing of a Christian that it ought never to be forgotten 21. That after he had compleatly acted the part of a great Tyrant and thereby had justly lost the general Love Esteem and Affection of the best Protestants of the three Kingdoms He willingly consented that Bishop Gauden Bishop Duppa c. should compose a Book and call it His Portraicture or Picture and this Book the King was to own as his that it was composed by him when God knows he had neither so much Piety nor Capacity as that Work re-required though as a Noble Peer lately said Let that Book be Written by the King on by any body else there is little in it that deserves Esteem The design of this Book was three-fold the first was By the Lies thereby to justifie the King 's Arbitrary and Illegal Actions secondly Heavily to load the People of England with Rebellion c. for standing up for the legal Liberties and Properties belonging to them though absolutely forced thereunto to prevent the Inundation of Misery and Popish Slavery that the King and his wicked Court Favourites were then bringing on the three Kingdoms thirdly The cunning drift of the Factious and Defeated Party design'd to make the same Advantage of his Book as they did before of his Regal Name and Authority and intended it not only for a Defence of the King 's former Actions but also for promoting their own future Designs As for the Book who ever is the real Author has no occasion to value himself for that Work two things being with the greatest ease to be prov'd upon him First That he is a most Notorious Lyer both as to his Assertions of the King's Innocency of those sad matters justly laid to his Charge and also of his many unjust Accusations of the People of England and secondly That he was a Thief and had so much Piety as to have recourse to the famous Sir Philip Sydney's Arcadia a Romance in the time of his Troubles and from thence to steal the Prayer of Pamelia to an Heathen Diety being under Imprisonment not finding a suitable Form in the Liturgy Psalms of David or any other places of the sacred Scripture And that the Reader may be satisfied of the Truth of this Piece of Thievery I have thought fit to Print both Prayers in Collums one against the other That of Pamelias may be found in Pembrook's Arcadia p. 248. 13 Edit Printed 1674. That of King Charles I's is call'd a Prayer in time of Captivity Printed in a Great Folio call'd the Works of King Charles and also in his Eicon Basilike The King's Prayer Pamelia ' s Prayer to the Heathen Deity O
that her Husband had writ that call'd the King's Book it coming at last to the knowledge of Dr. Nicholson then Bishop of Gloucester who desiring to be fully satisfied in that point did put the Question to her upon her receiving the Sacrament and she then affirmed that it was wrote by her Husband This Persons of undoubted credit now living in Gloucester can affirm for a Truth and it is not question'd but the present Bishop of Gloucester will acknowledge that those Persons have related this matter to him that it is well known to Mrs. Gauden's Brother and several of her Relations that Mrs. Gauden constantly in her Conversation Declared That her Husband was the Author of this Book I could if necessity requird produce a great many Arguments more out of Doctor Walkers or other Writings to prove the Truth of this matter but shall conclude it with this one of the Doctors in reference to the Providence of this Discovery Though God had many Holy Righteous and Gracious ends to serve his Providence by in the Publication of this Book yet as I find it expressed in this very Book Chap. the last p. 262. of the first Edition God's wise Providence we know oft permits many Events which his revealed Word in no sort approves And I confess I have many cogent reasons to persuade me that God was not well pleased with Dr. Gauden others or my self for what we contributed to it And though for the aforesaid ends he suffered it to succeed yet I know not but he may have other ends now to serve by suffering this Discovery to be Wrung and rested from me I had almost said by some Bodies viz. Hollingworths Impertinent Affectation to meddle with what he understands not Thus spake that good Man I had not enlarged so much on this 21st Article but that I was desirous of giving full satisfaction to the World of the Real Author of Eicon Basilice That Posterity might not be deceived by the many Impudent Ignorant False and Scandalous Assertions of most of the Clergy and too many of the Laity who to their Eternal Shame have taken more care and pains to defend that Book and its pretended Author King Charles I. than they done to Vindicate the Holy Bible and the Truth of the Christian Religion 22. That caused the Star-Chamber and High-Commission-Courts to be made Use of to the general Grievance of the People of England and was unwilling to part with them till he found these Courts were highly offensive to the Parliament and that it was not Seasonable to displease the Kingdom at that time for which Reasons at last he pass'd the Bills to take them away And indeed there were many and great Reasons why those abominable oppressive Courts should be pull'd down and taken away For that Old Serpent Arch-Bishop Laud and divers of his Brethren had cast off all Humanity and were metamorphosed into Ravenous Wolves and these Courts were under their Management The Star-Chamber had abounded in Extravagant Censures whereby the Subjects were oppress'd by Grievious Fines Imprisonments Stigmatizings Mutilations Whippings Pillories Gags Banishments c. And the High Commission Court was grown to such Excess of Sharpness and Severity as was not much less than the Spanish Inquisition To repeat two or three of the many Instances of the Horrid Oppressions and barbarous Cruelty exercised in these Tyrannical Courts Upon the 17th of February 1629. Dr. Leighton coming out of Black Fryers Church it seems then he was no Conventicler was seized by a Warrant from the High Commission Court and dragged to Bishop Laud's House from thence without any Examination he was carried to New-gate and there clapt into Irons and thrust into a Nasty Hole where he continued from Tuesday Night till Thursday Noon without Meat or Drink They kept him in that loathsome Place where Snow and Rain beat in upon him Fifteen Weeks not permitting his Wife or any Friend to come near him and denyed to give him a Copy of his Commitment then they brought him into the Star-Chamber Court where an Information was Exhibited against him for Publishing a Book call'd Lyon's Plea against the Pâ—lates Dr. Leighton confess'd that in 1628. He drew up the Heads of that Book and having the approbation of five hundred Persons under their hands some whereof were Parliament Men. He went into Holland and got between five and six hundred Printed for the use of the Parliament but they being Dissolved he returned home not bringing any of them into the Land but made it his special care to suppress them In the same information the Doctor was charged with these Words in the said Book He do not read of greater Persecutions of God's People in any Nation professing the Gospel then in this our Island especially since the Death of Queen Elizabeth He confessed the Words and Answered That the thing was too true as appeared by the Prelates taking away Life and Livelihood from many Ministers and private Men of whom many were pined to Death in Prison and many wandred up and down their Families being left desolate and helpless That besides this the Blood of Souls had been endanger'd by the Removal of the Faithful Shepheards from the Flock this was a cutting Truth And Wicked Laud being enraged Desired the Court to put the highest Censure that could be put upon him which they did to his Content Condemning him to have his Ears cut his Nose slit to be Branded in the Face Whipped at a Post to stand on a Pillory to pay Ten Thousand Pound fine tho' they knew he was not worth so much and to be perpetually Imprisoned This Hellish Sentence being past that vile Wretch Laud was so well pleased with it that he pull'd of his Cap and holding up his Hands gave thanks to God who had given him Victory over his Enemies This Sentence being so miserably severe the Execution thereof was little expected But Laud had his design for upon the 26th of November 1630. The Censure was Executed in a most cruel manner His Ears were cut his Nose slit his Face Branded with burning Irons he was tyed to a Post and Whipped with a treble Cord to that cruel Degree that he himself Writing the History thereof Ten Years after affirmed that every lash brought away the Flesh and that he should feel it to his dying day He was lastly put into the Pillory and kept there near two hours in Frost and Snow and then after this most barbarous Usage not permitted to return to his Quarters in the Fleet Prison in a Coach provided to carry him but compelled in that sad Condition and severe Season to go by Water After this was kept Ten Weeks in Dirt and Mire not being sheltered from Rain and Snow They shut him up most closely Twenty Two Months and he remain'd a Prisoner Ten or Eleven Years not suffered to breath in the open Air until that Noble Parliament of November 1640. most happily delivered him When he came abroad to