into a Coffin and bury him privately on Tower-Hill Concluding That God is gracious in cutting off evil Instruments before their time Which Sentence while he was writing it reflected the judgment on himself For Northampton having a great influence in the Kingdom being a prime Counsellor to the King and intimate with Somerset they two grasping all Power and Northampton having the better head to manage it the miscarriages were not without cause imputed to him For being a Papist he did not only work upon Somerset to pervert him by letting him see there was a greater latitude for the Conscience in that Religion but got him to procure many immunities for the Papists as the Kings best affected Subjects And being Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports he gave free access to Priests and Iesuits that abundantly flockt again into the Kingdom the operation of the last Proclamation having now lost the vertue And a Letter being discovered which he had written to Cardinal Bellarmine wherein he expresses the condition of the Times and the Kings importunity compelled him to be a Protestant in shew yet nevertheless his heart stood firm with the Papists and if there were cause he would express it with much more to this purpose These things first muttered then urged against him touched him to the heart so that he retired disposed of his Estate and dyed He had a great mind tending towards eminent things which he was the better able to effect by living a Batchelor to an old Age being always attended and he loved it with Gentlemen of Quality to whom he was very bountiful His affections were also much raised to Charity as by the Almshouse he erected appears and his Works shew him to be a great getter But leaving no Issue to propagate his name he built a fair House by Charing-cross to continue it which it lost soon after his death being called Suffolk-house for a time and now is Northumberland-house Such changes there are in the Worlds measures His Body was carried to be buried at Dover because he was Warden of the Cinque-Ports as was reported by some of his Followers but it was vulgarly rumored to be transported to Rome But these actions of his about Overbury lying dormant made no great noise at this time against him but when they broke out they laid upon his name as great a stench as Infamy or Oaium could produce SUFFOLK HOUSE CHARING CROSS The Spaniards the first discoverers being more covetous to grasp than well able to plant took possession of the most precious places so that the English French and Dutch caught but what they left Sir Walter Rawleigh and others after Sir Francis Drake found out that Country now called Virginia which was long since planted with a Colony And in that tract of Land more Northerly within the degrees of 40 and 48 of latitude lies New-England a Climate temperate and healthful but not so much as the Old It is rather a low than a high Land full of Rocky-Capes or Promontories The Inmost parts of the Country are Mountainous intermixt with fruitful Vallies and large Lakes which want not store of good Fish The Hills are no where Barren though in some places Stony but fruitful in Trees and Grass There are many Rivers fresh Brooks and Springs that run into the Sea The Rivers are good Harbors and abound with plenty of excellent Fish yet are they full of Falls which makes them not Navigable far into the Land The Seas bordering the Shores are studded with Islands about which great Shoals of Fishes Cod Haddock and such like do wantonly sport themselves The main Land doth nourish abundance of Deers Bears Wolves and a beast called Moose peculiar to those Regions and the Rivers and Ponds are stored with some Beavers Otters and Musquashes There are also divers kinds of small Beasts but the most offensive are Foxes Fowls there are store in their several seasons as Turkies Geese and Ducks and the soyl naturally produces wild Vines with very large Bunches of Grapes but the extremity of heat and cold hinder their just temper There are many other Fruits which are very good with Plants whose Rinds or Barks transcends our Hemp or Flax both Air and Earth concurring to bring forth most things that Industry and Art can provide for the use of man The first that sent a Colony into this Country was the Lord Chief Justice Popham in the year 1606. A man highly renowned in his time for persecuting such as transgressed the Laws among Christians living like Beasts of prey to the prejudice of Travellers And in this he had a special aim and hope also to establish Christian Laws among Infidels and by domestical to chace away those ferous and indomitable Creatures that infested the Land Brave and gallant spirits having ever such publick ends But Planters are like Alchymists they have something in projection that many times fails in production It is conceived the Romans were not well advised to settle one of their first Colonies at Maldon in Essex whose soyl about is neither yet sound nor Air salubrious And the first opening of ground in a Climate not Natural hath an extraordinary operation upon the Bodies of Men whose Senses must comply to give entertainment to a Stranger that often spoils the place where it finds Hospitality For the first Planters of New-England having seated themselves low few of them were left to direct those that succeeded in a better way Yet People by dear experience overcame it by degrees being yearly supplied by men whose industry and affections taught them there was more hope to find safety in New-England than in the Old Though these found some stop yet our great Favourite the Earl of Somerset and his business runs smoothly without rub since Overburies death But he must alter his Bias and go less or find some new ways to bring in Monies the Revenues of the Crown are not competent to maintain such vast Expences accumulated by his Riot though he had all the Earl of Westmorelands Lands at his Marriage and Creation added to his Earldom There must be therefore a new Order of Baronets made in number two hundred that must be next Degree to Barons and these must pay a thousand pound a piece for their Honour having it by Patent under the great Seal and continued to Posterity with the Title of Knights Some of these new Honourable men whose Wives pride and their own Prodigalities had pumpt up to it were so drained that they had not moisture to maintain the radical humour but wither'd no nothing This money thus raised is pretended for planting the North of Ireland but it found many other Chanels before it came to that Sea And though at our Kings first access to the Crown there was a glut of Knights made yet after some time he held his hand left the Kingdom should be cloyed with them And the World thriv'd so well with some that the price was afterwards brought
providence to prevent the perils otherwise inevitable Considering their absolute submission to Foreign Iurisdiction at their first taking Orders doth leave so conditional an authority to Kings over their Subjects as the same Power by which they were made may dispense at pleasure with the strictest Bond of Loyalty and Love between a King his People Among which Foreign Powers though We acknowledg Our self personally so much beholden to the now Bishop of Rome for his kind Offices and private temporal Carriages towards Us in many things as We shall be ever ready to requite the same towards him as Bishop of Rome in state and condition of a Secular Prince Yet when we consider and observe the course and Clame of that See We have no reason to imagine that Princes of Our Religion and Profession can expect any assurance long to continue unless it might be assented by mediation of other Christian Princes that some good course might be taken by a general Council free and lawfully called to pluck up those Roots of Dangers and Iealousies which arise about Religion as well between Prince and Prince as between them and their Subjects and to make it manifest that no State or Potentate either hath or can challenge power to dispose of earthly Kingdoms or Monarchies or to dispense with Subjects obedience to their natural Soveraigns In which charitable Action there is no Prince living that will be readier than We shall be to concur even to the uttermost of Our Power not only out of particular disposition to live peaceably with all States and Princes of Christendom but because such a setled Amity might by an Union in Religion be established among Christian Princes as might enable Us all to resist the common Enemy Given at Our Palace at Westminster the two and twentieth day of February in the first year of Our Reign c. This did something allay the heat and hopes of the Iesuits and their correspondents but it made way for dark and more secret Contrivances which afterwards they put in practice On the contrary another Proclamation came out for Vniformity in Religion according to the Law established to reduce those to Conformity that had not received satisfaction at the last Conference The Bishops thought themselves unsecure while so many opposites unblameable in their conversations by their Pens and Preaching gained upon the people striking at the very Root of Hierarchy that it was a hard Question whether the Iesuits whose Principles would advance their Greatness or these that would pluck it down were most odious to them And now Proclamations are the activest Agents some go abroad to please the people some the King All Monopolies like diseases that crept in when the good old Queen had not strength enough to keep them out must be purged away and such protections as licentious liberty had granted to hinder proceedings in Law must be taken off Saltpeter-men that will dig up any mans house by authority where they are not well fee'd must be restrained and Purveyors Cart-takers and such insolent Officers as were grievances to the people must be cryed down by Proclamation A Prince that is invited or comes newly to a Kingdom must have his Chariot wheels smooth shod And yet the liberty of Hunting must be forbidden the Kings Game preserved and a strict Proclamation threatens the disobeyers Indeed take this Kings Reign from the beginning to the end and you shall find Proclamations current Coin and the people took them for good payment a great while till the multitude of them lessened their valuation The Bishops could not be so wary but some Courtier or other would commend a Preacher to the King if they knew any of excellent parts so that some preached before him that were averse to the Bishops ways Among the rest one Mr. Burges an excellent Preacher and a pious man moderately touching upon the Ceremonies said They were like the Roman Senators Glasses which were not worth a mans life or livelihood For saith he this Senator invited Augustus Caesar to a Dinner and as he was coming to the Feast he heard a horrid Out-cry and saw some company drawing a man after them that made that noise the Emperor demanded the cause of that violence it was answered their Master had condemned this man to the Fish-ponds for breaking a Glass which he set a high value and esteem upon Caesar commanded a stay of the Execution and when he came to the House he asked the Senator whether he had Glasses worth a mans life Who answered being a great lover of such things that he had Glasses he valued at the price of a Province Let me see them saith Augustus and he brought him up to a room well furnished The Emperor saw them beautiful to the eye but knew withal they might be the cause of much mischief therefore he broke them all with this expression Better all these perish than one man I will leave it saith he to your Majesty to apply But the Bishops got this and some other things against him by the end and silenced him for venting any more such comparisons So that for many years after he practised Physick and grew an excellent Physician Put upon second considerations he was admitted again to Preach retaining both his Piety and Integrity though he writ a book for the moderate use of the Ceremonies ending his days in a good old age at Sutton Cofeld in Warwick-shire after a journey into the Palatinate as shall be exprest in its time The fifth of August this year had a new title given to it The Kings Deliveries in the North must resound here Whether the Gowries attempted upon the Kings person or the King on theirs is variously reported It may be he retained something of his Predecessor and great Parent Henry the seventh that made Religion give way to Policy oftentimes cursing and thundring out the Churches fulminations against his own Ministers that they might be received with the more intimate familiarity with his Foreign Enemies for the better discovery of their designs I will not say the celebration of this Holy-day had so much Prophaneness for Fame may be a slanderer But where there is a strength of Policy there is often a power of worldly wisdom that manages and sways it The King forgot not the services there done him or the secret contrivances acted for him for Erskin and Ramsey two of his then deliverers were not long after rewarded with wealth and honour the one made Earl of Kellie the other Earl of Holderness the first prime Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber to the King and second got to his Bedfellow one of the prime Beauties of the Kingdom daughter to Robert Earl of Sussex and both of them had their Masters purse at command yet in our time the one died poor with many children the other poor and childless The Kings first going abroad was privately to visit some of his houses for naturally he did not love to be looked on
pounds subsidies due to the late Queen besides what the Parliament had given him And fearing that Proclamations who were indeed very active Ministers would now become Laws ushering in the Kings will with large strides upon the peoples Liberties who lay down while they stept over them The ingenious sort sensible of this incroaching Monarchy brake out into private murmur which by degrees being of a light nature carried a Cloud with it by which the wise Pilots of the State foreseeing a Storm gathering strive to dissipate it the next Session of Parliament which was held the nineteenth of February in the seventh year of our Kings Reign Thomas Sackville Earl of Dorset Not long after this the Earl of Dorset Lord High Treasurer died suddenly as he sate at the Council Table which gave occasion to some persons disaffected to him as what eminent Officer that hath the managing of Moneys can please all to speak many things to his Dishonour But they considered not that besides the Black worm and the White day and night as the Riddle is that are gnawing constantly at the root of this tree of Life there are many insensible Diseases as Apoplexies whose Vapors suddenly extinguish the Animal Spirits and Apostems both in the upper and middle Region of Man that often drown and suffocate both Animal and Vital who are like imbodyed Twins the one cannot live without the other if the Animal Spirits fail the Vital cannot subsist if the Vitals perish the Animal give over their operations And He that judges ill of such an Act of Providence may have the same hand at the same time writing within the Palace walls of his own Body the same Period to his Lives earthly Empire The Earl of Salisbury succeeded him a man nourished with the milk of Policy under his father the Lord Burley famous for Wisdom in his Generation a Courtier from his infancy Batteld by Art and Industry under the late Queen mother of her Country Though Nature was not propitious to his Outside being Crooked backt She supplied that want with admirable indowments within This man the King found Secretary and Master of the Wards and to these he added the Treasurers staff knowing him to be the staff of his Treasury For he had knowledg enough to pry into other Mens Offices aswell as his own and knew the ways of disbursing the Kings moneys The Earl of Northhampton he made Lord Privy Seal and these were the two prime wheels of his triumphant Chariot The Earl of Suffolk was made Lord Chamberlain before but he came far behind in the management of the Kings affairs being a Spirit of a more Grosser Temper fitter to part a fray and Compose the differences of a disordered Court than a Kingdom Upon the Shoulders of the two first the King laid the Burthen of his business For though he had many Lords his Creatures some by Creation and some by insinuation for Kings will never want supple-hand Courtiers and the Bishops being his Dependents the most of them tending by direct Lines towards him as the Center of their advancement so that He like the Supreme Power moved this upper Region for the most part and that had an influence upon the lower in inferior Orbs yet these two noble Men were the two great Lights that were to discover the Kings mind to the Parliament and by whose Heat and Vigor the blessed fruits of Peace and Plenty should be produced The Lord Treasurer by a Command from the King instructs both Houses in their business and what they shall do well to insist upon this Session First To supply his Majesties wants Secondly To ease the people of their Grievances They go commonly yoakt together for the peoples Grievances are the Kings Wants and the Kings Wants are the peoples Grievances How can they be separated If the King will always want the people will always suffer For Kings when they do want lay commonly lawless impositions on the people which they must take off again with a sum of money and then they want again to a continued vicissitude These two Propositions are sweetned by him with a third Which is to make the Parliament witnesses of those great favours and honours that his Majesty intended his Royal Son Prince Henry in creating him Prince of Wales Which though the King might do without a Parliament and that divers Kings his Predecessors had done so as by many precedents was manifested yet being desirous to have a happy Vnion betwixt him and his People he would have nothing resound ill in their ears from so eminent an instrument to the Kingdoms good as his Son Then they excuse the Kings necessities proceeding from his great disbursements For the three hundred and fifty thousand pounds Subsidies due in the late Queens time he received with one hand and paid her Debts with another redeeming the Crown Lands which she had morgaged to the City He kept an Army of nineteen thousand men in Ireland for some time a foot wherein a great many of the Nobility were Commanders and other deserving Soldiers that would have been exposed to want and penury if not supplied And it was not safe for the King to trust the inveterate malice of a new reconciled Enemy without the Sword in his hand The late Queens Funeral Charges were reckon'd up which they hoped the Parliament would not repine at Nor was it fit the King should come in as a private Person bringing in one Crown on his head and finding another here or his Royal Consort with our future Hopes like so many precious Ienels exposed to Robbers without a Guard and Retinue How fit was the Magnificence at the King of Denmarks being here And how just that Ambassadors from Foreign Princes more than ever this Crown received should find those Entertainments and Gratuities the want whereof would put a dim lustre abroad upon the most sparkling Jewels of the Crown Besides the necessary Charge of sending Ambassadors to others being concurrent and mutual Civilities among Princes That these are the causes of the Kings wants and not his irregular Bounty though a magnificent mind is inseparable from the Majesty of a King If he did not give his subjects and servants would live in a miserable Climate And for his Bounty to those that were not born among us it must be remembred he was born among them and not to have them taste of the blessing he hath attained were to have him change his Vertue with his Fortune Therefore they desire the Kings wants may be supplied a thing easie to be granted and not to be valued by Wise-men nor spoken of without contempt Philosophy saith that all Riches are but food and rayment the rest is nugatorium quiddam And that it is but purior pars terrae and therefore but crassior pars aquae a thing unworthy the denial to such a King who is not only the wisest of Kings but the very Image of an Angel that hath brought good
pay him with his Spanish Sarcasms and Scoffs saying My Lord I wish you a good Easter And you my Lord replied the Chancellor a good Passover For he could neither close with his English Buffoonry nor his Spanish Treaty which Gondemar knew though he was so wise as publickly to oppose neither In fine he was a fit Iewel to have beautified and adorned a flourishing Kingdom if his flaws had not disgraced the lustre that should have set him off William Viscount Sayand Sealem of the Court of Wardes etc Are to be sould by Iohn Hinde In this very time of Parliament when the King carried all things with a full sail the Pilots of the Commonwealth had an eye to the dangers that lay in the way for in both Houses the King had a strong Party especially in the House of Lords All the Courtiers and most of the Bishops steer'd by his Compass and the Princes presence who was a constant Member did cast an awe among many of them yet there were some gallant Spirits that aimed at the publick Liberty more then their own interest If any thing were spoken in the House that did in the least reflect upon the Government or touch as the Courtiers thought that Noli me tangere the Prerogative those that moved in it were snapt up by them though many times they met with stout encounters at their own Weapon among which the Principal were Henry Earl of Oxford Henry Earl of Southampton Robert Earl of Essex Robert Earl of Warwick the Lord Say the Lord Spencer and divers others that supported the Old English Honour and would not let it fall to the ground Oxford was of no reputation in his youth being very debauched and riotous and having no means maintained it by fordid and unworthy ways for his Father hopeless of Heirs in discontent with his Wife squandred away a Princely Estate but when she and his great Fortune were both gone he married a young Lady of the ancient family of the Trenthams by whom he had this young Lord and two Daughters she having a fortune of her own and industry with it after her Husband's death married her Daughters into two noble Families the Earl of Mountgomery married the one and the Lord Norris after Earl of Berk-shire married the other And finding her Son hopeless let him run his swing till he grew weary of it and thinking he could not be worse in other Countries than he had been in his own she sent him to travel to try if change of Air would change his Humour He was not abroad in France and Italy above three years and the freedoms and extravagancies there that are able to betray and insnare the greatest modesties put such a Bridle upon his inordinateness that look how much before he was decried for a mean and poor spirit so much had his noble and gallant comportment there gained that he came over refined in every esteem and such a Valuation was set upon his parts and merit that he married the Lady Diana Cecil Daughter to the Earl of Exeter one of the most eminent Beauties and Fortunes of the time Southampton though he were one of the King 's Privy Councel yet was he no great Courtier Salisbury kept him at a bay pinched him so by reason of his relation to old Essex that he never flourished much in his time nor was his spirit after him so smooth shod as to go always the Court pace but that now and then he would make a Carrier that was not very acceptable to them for he carried his business closely and slily and was rather an Adviser than an Actor Essex had ever an honest Heart and though Nature had not given him Eloquence he had a strong reason that did express him better his Countenance to those that knew him not appeared somewhat stern and solemn to intimates affable and gentle to the Females obligingly courteous and though unfortunate in some yet highly respected of most happily to vindicate the Vertue of the Sex The King never affected him whether from the bent of his Natural inclination to effeminate faces or whether from that instinct or secret Prediction that Divine fate often imprints in the apprehension whereby he did fore-see in him as it were a hand raised up against his Posterity may be a Notation not a determination But the King never liked him nor could he close with the Court. Warwick though he had all those excellent indowments of Body and fortune that gives splendor to a glorious Court yet he used it but as his Recreation for his Spirit aimed at more publick adventures planting Colonies in the Western World rather than himself in the King's favour his Brother Sir Henry Rich about this time made Baâ—on of Kensington and he had been in their youths two emulous Corrivals in the publick affections the one's browness being accounted a lovely sweetness transcending most men the other 's features and pleasant aspect equalled the most beautiful Women the younger having all the Dimensions of a Courtier laid all the Stock of his Fortune upon that Soil which after some years Patience came up with increase but the Elder could not so stoop to observances and thereby became his own Supporter Saye and Seale was a seriously subtil Peece and always averse to the Court ways something out of pertinaciousness his Temper and Constitution ballancing him altogether on that Side which was contrary to the Wind so that he seldom tackt about or went upright though he kept his Course steady in his own way a long time yet it appeared afterwards when the harshness of the humour was a little allayed by the sweet Refreshments of Court favours that those stern Comportments supposed natural might be mitigated and that indomitable Spirits by gentle usage may be tamed and brought to obedience Robert Earle of Warwicke and Lord Rich of Leeze etc. Henry Earle of Holland Baron of Kensington etc. â—â—ulâ— by Ruâ—â—â—â— Pâ—ake There were many other noble Patriots concentrique with these which like Jewels should be preserved and kept in the Cabinet of every man's memory being Ornaments for Posterity to put on but their Characters would make the line too long and the Bracelet too big to adorn this Story About this time Spencer was speaking something in the House that their great Ancestors did which displeased Arundel and he cuts him off short saying My Lord when these things you speak of were doing your Ancestors were keeping sheep twitting him with his Flocks which he took delight in Spencer instantly replied When my Ancestors as you say were keeping sheep your Ancestors were plotting Treason This hit Arundel home and it grew to some heat in the House whereupon they were separated and commanded both out of the House and the Lords began to consider of the offence There was much bandying by the Court Party to excuse the Earl of Arundel but the heat and rash part of it beginning with him laying such a brand upon a
or wary in such an Eruption as this so contrary to his Nature as he saith himself a War was a new World to him fearing to lay out by it more than he should receive And in this he was like the Man that when his Master gave great Charge to go and gather up his Rents in the Country and to take a pair of Pistols with him to bring home his Money with the more security After the Master had appointed him to pay so much in one place and so much in another that the Man saw he should not receive so much as he should disburse Bid his Master take his Pistols again he should not use them So the King fearing that when the War was begun there would not be where withal to maintain it Thanked the Parliament for their Advice and he would consider better of it And they seeling the King's Pulse by his expressions resolved now not to let him flag but to keep up the temper of his Spirit that a little thing would make decline again And therefore they seriously settled to their Business and answered his Expectation fully which they presented unto him shortly after in these words to his great Satisfaction Most Gracious Soveraign WE your Majesties most Humble and Loyal Subjects the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled do first render to your Sacred Majesty Our most Dutiful Thanks for that to Our unspeakable Comfort you have vouchsafed to express your Self so well satisfied with Our late Declaration made unto your Majesty of Our general Resolution in pursuit of Our Humble Advice to assist your Majesty in a Parliamentary way with Our Persons and Abilities And whereas your Majesty in your Great Wisdom and Iudgment foreseeing that it will make a deeper impression both in the Enemies of that Cause and in your Friends and Allies if they shall not onely hear of the Cheerful Offers but also see the Real performance of your Subjects towards so great a Work Your Majesty was pleased to descend to a particular Proposition for the advancing of this great Business We therefore in all humbleness most ready and willing to give your Majesty and the whole World an ample Testimony of Our Sincere and Dutiful Intentions herein upon Mature Advice and Deliberation as well of the Weight and Importance of this great Affair as of the present Estate of this your Kingdom the Weal and Safety whereof is in Our Iudgments apparently threatned if your Majesties Resolution for the Dissolving of the Treaties now in question be longer deferred and that Provision for defence of your Realm and aid of your Friends and Allies be not seasonably made have with a Cheerful Consent of all the Commons no one dissenting and with a Full and Cheerful Consent of the Lords Resolved That upon your Majesties publique Declaration for the Dissolution and utter Discharge of both the said Treaties of the Marriage and the Palatinate in pursuit of Our Advice therein and towards the Support of that War which is likely to ensue And more particularly for those four Points proposed by your Majesty Namely for the Defence of this your Realm the Securing of Ireland the assistance of your Neighbours the States of the United Provinces and other your Majesties Friends and Allies and for the setting forth of your Royal Navy We will grant for the present the greatest Aid which ever was given in Parliament That is to say Three intire Subsidies and three Fifteens to be all paid within the compass of one whole Year after your Majestie shall be pleased to make the said Declaration The Money to be paid into the Hands and expended by the Direction of such Committees or Commissioners as hereafter shall be agreed upon at this present Session of Parliament And We most humbly beseech your Majesty to accept of these First Fruits of Our Hearty Oblation dedicated to that Work which We infinitely desire may prosper and be advanced And for the Future to rest confidently assured That We your Loyal and Loving Subjects will never fail in a Parliamentary way to assist your Majestie in so Royal a Design wherein your Own Honour and the Honour of your most Noble Son the Prince the Antient Renown of this Nation the Welfare and very Subsistence of your Noble and Onely Daughter and her Consort and their Posterity the Safety of your Own Kingdom and People and the Prosperity of your Neighbours and Allies are so deeply ingaged The Parliament by this Declaration came up so close to the King that he could make no evasion but rested contented now in his Latter time when the Almonds as it were begun to Blossom upon his head to plunge himself into a War which brought him again to the Parliament to thank them for their Readiness to assist him telling them That he is willing to follow their advice in the Anulling and Breach of these two Treaties They having given enough to begin a War but when the end will be he said God knows Yet he will ingage for himself and his Son his Successour That no means shall be left unused for recovery of the Palatinate And for all his Old Age if it might do any good he would go in person to further the Business But as he is contented to have the Parliament Committees to dispose of the Moneys by their Directions so the Design must not be acted by publique Councels For whether he shall send Two thousand or Ten thousand whether by Sea or Land East or West by Diversion or Invasion upon the Bavarian or the Emperor that must be left to the King And this he did that there might be no jealousies but to smooth every Rub betwixt them And to put it in execution a Council of War is chosen out of the old and long discontinued Militia of Ireland and some others of the Nobility and upon result of their Counsels after some debate it was concluded to send fix thousand men for the present into the Low Countreys to joyn with the States Forces against the King of Spain's mighty Armies under the command of Marquess Spinola that threatned the next Summer to over-run the Netherlands that weakning the Spaniard in Flanders they might have the more free access into Germany The Dissolution of the Treaties with Spain and the preparation for War resounding in every Ear gave such an Allarm to the Spanish Ambassadour the Marquess of Inoiosa that whether out of Truth and Knowledge as he pretended or Malice only cannot be determined But he sent to the King to let him know that the Duke of Buckingham had some dangerous Machination a foot that tended to his Destruction and the best he could expect would be a confinement to a Countrey-house in some Park during his life the Prince being now in full abilities and ripe in Government This Concussion was strong enough to shake an old Building that was of a fearful and tottering Temper especially if he considered how his Mother was
can very well assure you and in the Word of a King promise unto you that I shall never give the first occasion of the breach thereof neither shall I ever be moved for any particular or private passion of mind to interrupt your publick peace except I be forced thereunto either for reparation of the honour of the Kingdom or else by necessity for the weal and preservation of the same In which case a secure and honourable War must be preferred before an unsecure and dishonourable peace Yet do I hope by my experience of the by past blessings of peace which God hath so long ever since my birth bestowed upon me that he will not be weary to continue the same nor repent him of his grace towards me transferring that sentence of King Davids upon his by past Victories of War to mine of peace That that God who preserved me from the devouring jaws of the Bear and of the Lion and delivered them into my hand shall now also grant me Victory over that uncircumcised Philistine But although outward peace be a great blessing yet it is as far inferiour to peace within as Civil Wars are more cruel and unnatural than Wars abroad And therefore the second great blessing that God hath with my Person sent unto you is Peace within and that in a double form First by my dedescent lineally out of the loyns of Henry the seventh is re-united and confirmed in me the Vnion of the two Princely Roses of the two Houses of Lancaster and York whereof that King of happy memory was the first Vniter as he was also the first ground-layer of the other peace The lamentable and miserable events by the civil and bloody dissension betwixt these two Houses was so great and so late as it need not be renewed unto your memories which as it was first setled and united in Him so it is now re-united and confirmed in Me being justly and lineally descended not only of that happy conjunction but of both the Branches thereof in any Times before But the Union of these two Princely Houses is nothing comparable to the Union of the two ancient and famous Kingdoms which is the other Inward peace annexed to my Person And here I must crave your patience for a little space to give me leave to discourse more particularly of the Benefits that do arise of that Vnion which is made in my blood being a matter that belongeth most properly to me to speak of as the Head wherein that great Body is united And first if we were to look no higher than to Natural and Physical Reasons we may easily be perswaded of the great Benefits that by this Vnion do redound to the whole Island for if twenty thousand men be a strong Army is not the double thereof forty thousand a stronger Army If a Baron enricheth himself with double as many Lands as he had before is he not double the greater Nature teacheth Vs that Mountains are made of Motes and that at first Kingdoms being divided and every particular Town or little Country as Tyrants or Usurpers could obtain the possession of a Signory apart many of these little Kingdoms are now in process of Time by the Ordinance of God joyned into great Monarchies whereby they are become powerful within themselves to defend themselves from all Outward invasions and their Head and Governour thereby enabled to redeem them from Foreign Assaults and punish private transgressions within Do we not yet remember that this Kingdom was divided into seven little Kingdoms besides Wales And is it not now the stronger by their Vnion And hath not the Vnion of Wales to England added a greater strength thereto Which though it was a great Principality was nothing comparable in greatness and power to the antient and famous Kingdom of Scotland But what shall we stick upon any Natural appearance when it is manifest that God by his Almighty Providence hath pre-ordained it so to be Hath not God first united these two Kingdoms both in Language and Religion and similitude of Manners Yea hath he not made Vs all in one Island compassed with one Sea and of it self by Nature so indivisible as almost those that were borderers themselves on the late Borders cannot distinguish nor know or discern their own Limits These two Countries being separated neither by Sea nor great River Mountain nor other strength of Nature but only by little small Brooks or demolished little Walls so as rather they were divided in apprehension than in effect and now in the end and fulness of time united the right and title of both in my Person alike lineally descended of both the Crowns whereby it is now become a little World within it self being intrenched and fortified round about with a natural and yet admirable strong Pond or Ditch whereby all the former fears of this Nation are quite cut off The other part of the Island being ever before now not only the Place of Landing to all Strangers that were to make Invasion here but likewise moved by the Enemies of this State by untimely Incursions to make inforced diversion from their Conquests for defending themselves at home and keeping sure their Back-door as then it was called which was the greatest hindrance and Let my Predecessors of this Nation ever had in disturbing them from their many famous and glorious Conquests abroad What God hath conjoyned then let no man separate I am the Husband and all the whole Island is my lawful Wife I am the Head and it is my Body I am the Shepherd and it is my Flock I hope therefore no man will be so unreasonable as to think that I that am a Christian King under the Gospel should be a Polygamist and Husband to two Wives that I being the Head should have a divided and monstrous Body or that being the Shepherd of so fair a Flock whose Fold hath no wall to sence it but the four Seas should have my Flock parted in two But as I am assured that no honest Subject of whatsoever degree within my whole Dominions is less glad of this joyful Vnion than I am so may the frivolous objection of any that would be hinderers of this Work which God hath in my Person already established be easily answered which can be none except such as are either blinded with ignorance or else transported with malice being unable to live in a well-governed Common-wealth and only delighting to fish in troubled waters For if they would stand upon their reputation and privileges of any of the Kingdoms I pray you were not both the Kingdoms Monarchies from the beginning And consequently could ever the Body be counted without the Head which was ever unseparably joyned thereunto So that as the honour and priviledges of any of the Kingdoms could not be divided from their Sovereign so are they now confounded and joyned in my Person who am equal and alike kindly Head to both When this Kingdom of England was divided
into so many petty Kingdoms as I told you before one of them eat up another till they were all united into One. And yet can Wiltshire or Devonshire which were of the West-Saxons although their Kingdom was of longest durance and did by Conquest overcome divers of the rest of the little Kingdoms make Claim to Priority of place or Honour before Suâ—sex Essex or other Shires which were Conquered by them And have We not the like experience in the Kingdom of France being composed of divers Dutchies and one after another Conquered by the Sword For even as little Brooks lose their Names by running and falling into great Rivers and the very name and memory of great Rivers swallowed up in the Ocean so by the conjunction of divers little Kingdoms into One are all these private differences and questions swallowed up And since the success was happy of the Saxon Kingdoms Conquered by the Spear of Bellona how much greater reason have We to expect a happy issue of this greater Vnion which is only fastned and bound up by the Wedding-Ring of Astrea And as God hath made Scotland the one half of this Island to enjoy my birth and the first and most imperfect half of my life and you here to enjoy the perfect and last half thereof so can I not think that any would be so injurious to me no not in their thoughts and wishes as to cut asunder the one half of Me from the other But in this matter I have far enough insisted resting assured that in your hearts and minds you all applaud this my Discourse Now although these blessings before rehearsed of inward and outward peace be great yet seeing that in all good things a great part of their goodness and estimation is lost if they have not appearance of perpetuity or long continuance so hath it pleased Almighty God to accompany my person also with that favour having healthful and hopeful Issue of my bod whereof some are here present for continuance and propagation of that undoubted Right which is in my person under whom I doubt not but it will please God to prosper and continue for many years this Vnion and all other blessings of inward and outward Peace which I have brought with me But neither peace outward nor peace inward nor any other blessing that can follow thereupon nor appearance of the perpetuity thereof by propagation in posterity are but weak pillars and rotten reeds to lead unto if God doth not strengthen and by the staff of his blessing make them durable for in vain doth the Watchman watch the City if the Lord be not the principal defence thereof in vain doth the Builder build the house if God give not the success and in vain as Paul saith doth Paul plant and Apollo water if God give not the increase for all worldly blessings are but like swift passing shadows fading flowers or chaff blown before the wind if by the profession of true Religion and works according thereunto God be not moved to maintain and settle the Thrones of Princes And although since mine entry into this Kingdom I have both by meeting with divers of the Ecclesiastical state and likewise by divers Proclamations clearly declared my mind in points of Religion yet do I not think it amiss in this so solemn an Audience to take occasion to discover somewhat of the secrets of my heart in that matter For I shall never with Gods grace be ashamed to make publick profession thereof upon all occasions lest God should be ashamed of me before Men and Angels especially lest at this time men might presume further upon the misknowledg of my meaning to trouble this Parliament than were convenient At my first coming although I found but one Religion and that which by my self is professed publickly allowed and by the Law maintained yet found I another sort of Religion besides a private Sect lurking within the bowels of this Nation The first is the true Religion which by me is professed and by Law is established The second is the falsly called Catholicks but truly Papists The third which I call a Sect rather than a Religion is the Puritans and Novelists who do not so far differ from us in points of Religion as in their confused form of policy and parity being ever discontented with the present Government and impatient to suffer any superiority which maketh their Sects insufferable in any well governed Common-wealth But as for my course towards them I remit it to my Proclamations made upon that subject And now for the Papists I must put a difference betwixt mine own private profession of my salvation and my politick Government of the Realm for the weal and quietness thereof As for my own profession you have me your head now among you of the same Religion that the Body is of As I am no stranger to you in Blood no more am I a stranger to you in Faith or in matters concerning the House of God And although this my profession be according to my education wherein I thank God I suckt the milk of Gods Truth with the milk of my Nurse yet I do here protest unto you that I would never for such a conceit of Constancy or other prejudicate opinion have so firmly kept my first profession if I had not found it agreeable to all reason and to the rule of my conscience But I was never violent nor unreasonable in my profession I acknowledg the Roman Church to be our Mother Church although defiled with some infirmities and corruptions as the Iews were before they Crucified Christ. And as I am no enemy to the life of a sick man because I would have his body purged of ill humours no more am I an enemy to their Church because I would have them reform their errors not wishing the down-throwing of the Temple but that it might be purged and cleansed from corruption otherwise how can they wish us to enter if their house be not first made clean But as I would be lother to dispense in the least point of mine own conscience for any worldly respect than the foolishest Precisian of them all so would I be as sorry to streighten the politick Government of the bodies and minds of all my Subjects to my private Opinions Nay my mind was ever so free from persecution or inthralling of my Subjects in matters of conscience as I hope those of that profession within this Kingdom have a proof since my coming that I was so far from increasing their burthens with Rehoboam as I have so much as either time occasion or law could permit lightned them And even now at this time have I been careful to revise and consider deeply upon the Laws made against them that some overture might be made to the present Parliament for clearing these Laws by reason which is the soul of the Law in case they have been in times past further or more rigorously extended by Iudges than the meaning of the
Law was or might tend to the hurt as well of the Innocent as of the guilty persons And as to the persons of my Subjects which are of that profession I must divide them into two ranks Clericks and Laicks for the Laicks I ever thought them far more excusable than the other sort because their Religion containeth such an ignorant doubtful and implicite kind of Faith grounded upon their Church that except they do generally believe whatsoever their Teachers please to affirm they can not be thought guilty of these particular Points of Heresies and Corruptions which their Teachers so wilfully profess And again I must subdivide the Laicks into two ranks which are either quiet and well-minded men peaceable Subjects who either being old retain their first drunk-in liquor upon a certain shamefacedness to be thought curious or changeable Or being young men through evil education have been nursed and brought up upon such venom instead of wholsome nutriment And this sort of People I would be sorry to punish their Bodies for the error of their minds the reformation whereof must only come of God and the true Spirit But the other rank of Laicks who either through curiosity affectation of novelty or discontentment have changed their Coats only to be factious stirrers of sedition and perturbers of the Common-wealth thâ—s giveth a ground to Me the Magistrate to take better heed to their proceedings and to correct their obstinacy REVERENDIS S D NS TOBIAS ARCHIEPISCOPVS EBORACENSIS ET ANGLIAE PRIMAâ—… Exerit Hic Sanctos viva ub imagine vultus Ecce Senex Vtinam fas sit et inde loqui Qui dum Zelus iners Boreali friget in Orbe Emicuit gelidis flamma corusca plagis Christiadae nautae Mundi qui fluctuatâ—… dis Erranti et dubio Stellae Polaris adest Duplex cum Tibi sit Sanctorum Nomen Vtru In vitam pariter conuenit Alme tuam But of one thing would I have the Papists of this Land to be admonished that they presume not so much upon my lenity because I would be loth to be thought a Persecutor as thereupon to think it lawful for them daily to increase their number and strength in this Kingdom whereby if not in my time at least in the time of my Posterity they may be in hope to erect their Religion again No let them assure themselves that as I am a Friend to their Persons if they be good Subjects so I am a vowed Enemy and do denounce Mortal War to their Errors And as I would be sorry to be driven by their ill behaviour from the protection and conservation of their bodies and lives so will I never cease as far as I can to tread down their Errors and wrong Opinions For I could not permit the increase and growing of their Religion without betraying my self and my own Conscence and this whole Island as well the part I am come from as the part I remain in in betraying their Liberties and reducing them to the former slavish yoke which both had cast off before I came among them as also the Liberty of the Crown in my Posterity which I should leave again under a new Slavery being left free to me by my Predecessors And therefore I would wish all good Subjects that are deceived with this Corruption if they find any beginnings in themselves of knowledg and love to the truth to foster the same by all lawful means and to beware of quenching the Spirit that worketh within them And if they can find as yet no motion tending that way to be studious to read and confer with learned Men and to use all such means as may further their Resolution assuring them that as long as they are disconformable in Religion to us they cannot be but half my Subjects be able to do but half service and I shall want the best half of them which is their souls And here I have occasion to speak to you my Lords the Bishops for as you my Lord of Durham said very learnedly today in your Sermon Correction without Instruction is but Tyranny So ought you and all the Clergy under you to be more careful vigilant and careful than you have been to win souls to God as well by your exemplary Life as Doctrine And since you see how careful they are sparing neither labour pains nor extreme peril of their Persons to pervert the Devil is so busie a Bishop ye should be the more careful and wakeful in your Charges Follow the Rule prescribed you by Saint Paul Be careful to exhort and instruct in season and out of season And where you have been any way sluggish before now waken your selves up again with a new diligence remitting the success to God who calling them either at the second third tenth or twelfth hour as they are alike welcom to him so shall they be to me his Lieutenant here The third Reason of my Convening you at this time which containeth such Actions of my Thankfulness towards you as I may either do or leave undone yet shall with Gods grace ever press to perform all the days of my life It consists in these two Points In making of Laws at certain Times which is only at such Times as this in Parliament or in the careful Execution of the Laws at other Times As for the Making of them I will thus far faithfully promise unto you that I will ever prefer the Weal of the Body above any particular or private ends of my Own thinking ever the Weal of the Commonwealth to be the greatest Weal and worldly felicity A Point wherein a lawful King doth directly differ from a Tyrant But at this time I am only thus far to forwarn you in that Point that you beware to seek the making of too many Laws for two especial Reasons First because In corruptissima Republica plurimae leges And the execution of some good Laws is far more profitable in a Common-wealth than to burthen mens memories with making too many of them And next because the making of too many Laws in one Parliament will bring in Confusion for want of leisure wisely to deliberate before you conclude for the Bishop said well to day That to Deliberation a large time would be given but to Execution a greater promptness was required As for the Execution of good Law it hath been very wisely and honourably foreseen and ordered by my Predecessors in this Kingdom in planting such a number of Iudges and all sorts of Magistrates in convenient places for execution of the same And therefore must I now turn to you that are Iudges and Magistrates under me as mine Eyes and Ears in this case I can say no otherwise to you than as Ezekias the good King of Iuda said to their Iudges Remember that the Thrones you sit on are Gods and neither yours nor mine And as you must be answerable to me so must both you and I be answerable to God for the due Execution of Our Offices
or lump That in the state of the Church among People of several languages and lineages there is a Communion of Saints and we are all fellow-Citizens and Naturalizants of the Heavenly Ierusalem and yet divers Ecclesiastical Laws Policies and Hierarchies for the Laws are rather Figura Republicae than Forma rather bonds of Perfection than Intireness That in Ireland Iersey Gâ—rnsey and the Isle of Man our Common Laws are not in force and yet they have the benefit of Naturalization To which it was replyed that these are only Flourishes of Rhetorick for God who is the only Disposer of all his Creatures keeps them in Order and Obedience to Him by a Law which they cannot deviate from unless he withdraws his preserving Hand from them But betwixt Man and Man or Realm and Realm there can be no such Tie or Obligation to hold an Vnity where they have various Laws and various Priviledges And for the immunities given to the Irish for some Ages past they were English Colonies sent there to plant being a great part of them Natives with us of the same blood and stock with whom we are ingrafted by Time and made as it were one Body the better to secure their obedience and hinder any League or Amity with a Foreign Nation But Scotland hath an intire Vnion with the French continued for some hundreds of years that is indissolvable and therefore incompetent yet to the freedoms of England When we have had as much experience of the Friendship of Scotland as of them we shall incline to a more intimate Vnion Besides there is an inequality in the Portunes of the two Nations and by this Commixture there may ensue advantage to them and loss to us To the latter part was answered Beatius est dare quà m accipere And Edward the First among other Commendations of War and Policy none was more celebrated than his purpose and enterprize for the Conquest of Scotland as not bending his Designs to glorious Acquests abroad but solid strength at home which if it had succeded could not but have brought in those inconveniences of the Commixture of a more opulent Kingdom with a less for it is not the yoke either of Laws or Arms that can alter the nature of the Climate or the nature of the Soil neither is it the manner of the Commixture that can alter the nature of the Commixture and therefore if it were good for us then it is good for us now and not to be prized the less because we paid not so dear for it They strive further to prove That the benefit of Naturalization is by Law to as many as have been or shall be born since the Kings coming to the Crown for there is no more than to bring the Ante-nati unto the degree of Post-nati that Men grown may be in no worse case than Children and elder Brothers in no worse condition than younger Brothers That if any object the Law is not so but that the Post-nati are Aliens as the rest it is contrary to the Reason of Law The Wisdom of the Common Laws of England is admirable in distribution of the Benefit and Perfection of the Law according to the several conditions of Persons The Degrees are four two of Aliens and two of Subjects The first Degree is of an Alien born under a King or State that is an Enemy if such an one come into the Kingdom without safe conduct it is at his peril the Law giveth him no protection neither of Body Lands nor Goods so as if he be slain there is no remedy by any appeal at the Parties sute though she were an English Woman though at the Kings sute the Case may be otherwise in regard of the offence to the Peace and Crown The second Degree is of an Alien that is born under Faith and Allegiance of a King or State that is a Friend unto such a Person the Law doth impart a greater benefit and protection concerning things personal transitory and moveable as Goods and Chattels Contracts and the like but not concerning Free-hold and Inheritance and the Reason is because he may be an Enemy though he be not for the State where he was born may enter into Hostility and therefore as the Law hath but a Transitory assurance of him so it rewards him with Transitory benefits The third Degree is of a Subject who having been an Alien is made free by Charter and Denization To such a one the Law doth impart yet a more ample benefit for it gives him a power to purchase Free-hold and Inheritance to his own use and likewise inables his Children born after his Denization to inherit But yet he cannot make Title or convey any Pedigree from any Ancestour Paramount for the Law thinks not good to make him in the same Degree with a Subject born because he was once an Alien and so might have been an Enemy and Affections cannot be so setled by any benefit as when from their Nativity they are inbred and inherent The fourth Degree and the perfect Degree is of such a Person as neither is Enemy nor can be Enemy in time to come nor would have been Enemy at any time past and therefore the Law gives unto him the full benefit of Naturalization Now if these be the true steps and paces of the Law no man can deny but whosoever is born under the Kings obedience never could in aliquo puncto temporis be an Enemy and therefore in reason of Law is Naturalized So though the Scots seem to be in Reason Naturales ipso jure yet it is not superfluous to have it done by Parliament for it will shew the World our love to them and good agreement with them Then they shewed by authority of History and Experience the Inconveniencies that may grow if this Vnion of Naturalization doth not close and bind up the Veins so as to make it one perfect Body For else it may be apt to open and break out again upon all occasions and relapse to the detriment of both Ripping up ancient Stories of the Romans and Latines and the Wars they had meerly for want of this Vnion and never were at quiet till they injoyed it Then between the Peloponnesians and the Spartans the like And from ancient Stories to the Kingdom of Arragon and Castile united in the Persons of Ferdinando and Isabella severed and divided from the rest of Spain in Priviledges and directly in this point of Naturalization or capacity of Inheritance But what came of this A Rebellion grew among them which a Royal Army with difficulty suppressed and they being made one incorporated Body with the rest of Spain perpetuated Peace to Posterity The like example was betwixt Florence and Pisa. And whatsoever Kingdoms and States have been United and that Vnion corroborated by the Bonds of Naturalization you shall never observe them afterward upon any occasion to break or sever again Whereof divers Provinces in France by time annexed to that Crown are
and a Faction in the State The first Author of the Schism was Arminius of the Faction Barnevelt Persons of great parts and power though of different natures The one had been Divinity-Professor at Leyden the other the Manager of all the great affairs of the State Distempers in Kingdoms and States are like madness in bodies which doth not break out till some accident doth stir the humor Arminius dyed just upon the beginning of the Treaty which was in the year 1609. Leaving behind him the seeds of this Pelagian Heresie which though it were cherished much by some in whose bosomes he had sown it yet happily it might never have taken root had not Peace and Ease manured it and made it fruitful The Mysteries of Predestination and the ineffable Essence of God Quaetremenda admiranda sunt sed non scrutanda to use our King 's own words which are to be trembled at and admired not pried into are the great Theme Such intuitions are too high for flesh and blood Yet what will not Pragmatical spirits do when they proudly look into Divine things with the Eye of Reason not humbly with the Eye of Faith Rombout Hogerbeets pensionaris der Stad Leyden But long before this time our King saw the Storm coming upon them For in the year 1611 he forewarns the State telling them that by the unhappy succession of two such Prodigies in one Sphere as Arminius and Vorstius some dreadful mischief would succeed For Arminius was no sooner dead but those that drew on the Design had an eye on Vorstius his Disciple to make him Divinity-Professor in his place which the King hearing of and having read some of Vorstius blasphemous Writings sends to his then Ambassador Sir Ralph Winwood Resident there to let the State know that Vorstius rather deserved punishment than promotion that the head of such a Viper should be trod upon and crushed that was likely to eat his way through the bowels of the State And if they nevertheless would persist to prefer him he would make known to the World publickly in Print how much he detested such abominable Heresies and all allowers and tolerators of them The Ambassador urging the King's desires they returned a long Answer in justification of Vorstius First That the Curators of the University of Leyden according to their duty and the ancient custom ever since the foundation of that University having diligently made inquiry for some Doctor to be chosen in the place of Divinity-Professor there at that time void after mature deliberation they made election of Conradus Vorstius to that place Which Election and Calling was countermined presently after by certain persons to whose Office or Disposal the business did nothing at all belong who charged the said Vorstius with unsoundness of Doctrine whereupon the Curators thought fit with the good liking of Vorstius himself that both at Leyden and at the Hague he should appear in his own justification to answer all Accusers which he did and there came none to charge him But not long after six Ministers undertook to prove That Vorstius had published false Doctrine who being heard in a full Assembly of the States of Holland and Westfrizeland they could by their Arguments find no reason why the Execution of what was done by the Curators lawfully ought to be hindred or impeached And they do assuredly believe that if his Majesty of Great Britain were well informed of the true Circumstances of this business he would according to his high wisdom and prudence conceive favourably of them they proceeding in this business with all reverence care and respect to his Majestie 's serious admonition Dated at the Hague 1 Octob. 1611. The King seeing which way the States went by the print of the footing that Vorstius had set among them caused his Books publickly to be burned in Paul's Church-yard and both the Universities And not giving it over writes to them again to be mindful of the glory of God and not suffer such scan dalous members to remain in the body of the true Reformed Church that maintain such execrable Blasphemies as to deny the Eternity and Omnipotency of God Therefore he desires them so much to mind the glory of God and their own honour and safety as to extirpate such Atheisms and Heresies But if they suffer such pestilent Hereticks to nestle among them who dare take upon them the licentious liberty to fetch again from Hell ancient Heresies long since condemned and invent new ones of their own to the depravation of the true Catholick Church he should be constrained publickly to protest against them Dated at Theobalds 6 Octob. 1611. Sir Ralph Winwood represented this Letter to the States and finding them cold and backward in proceeding any further against Vorstius according to the King's Directions to him he made this Remonstrance to them My Lords JACOBUS ARMINIUS S. S. TH. DOCT. ET PROFESS NATUS OUDEWATRIAE MDLX DENAT LUGD. BATAV MDCIX AETAT XLIX Qui nunc per altas aurei caeli domos Regnat beatus et suo junctus Deo Humana celsus spernit ac nescit simul Sic. Hospes ora magnus ARMINIUS tulit Caelare mores atque dotes ingeni Doctumque pectus quod fuit sed heu Fuit Manus nequivit artifax et quid manus Effere cum non lingua non stylus queant These are in part the opinions of that great Divine who is chosen to domineer in the Chair at Leyden In opposition whereunto I mean not to say any thing but that which the Roman Orator did once pronounce in the like Case Mala est impia consuetudo contra Deum disputandi sive serio id fit sive simulaté It is an evil and wicked Custom to dispute against God whether it be in earnest or in jest Now my Lords I address my self unto you and according to the Charge which I have received from the King my Master I conjure you by the amity that is betwixt his Kingdoms and your Provinces to awaken your Spirits and to have a careful eye at this Assembly of Holland which is already begun ne quid Respublica detrimenti capiat that the Commonwealth take no harm which undoubtedly at one time or other will be turned upside down if you suffer such a dangerous Contagion to harbour so near you and not remove it as soon as possibly you may The Disciples of Socinus with whose Doctrine Vorstius hath been suckled in his Childhood do seek him for their Master and are ready to embrace him Let him go he is a Bird of their own feather Et dignum sanè patellâ operculum A fit Cover for such a Dish On the other side the Students in Divinity at Leyden to the number of six and fifty by a dutiful Remonstrance presented unto the States of Holland the sixteenth of October the last year being 1610. did most humbly beseech the said States not to use their authority in compelling them to receive a Professor
more prayers and oblations offered here to the Mother than to the Son For the Marquess himself as he was a man of excellent symmetry and proportion of parts so he affected beauty where he found it but yet he looks upon the whole race of Women as inferior things and uses them as if the Sex were one best pleased with all And if his eye cull'd out a wanton beauty he had his Setters that could spread his Nets and point a meeting at some Ladies House where he should come as by accident and find Accesses while all his Train attended at the dore as if it were an honourable visit The Earl of Rutland of a Noble Family had but one Daughter to be the Mistris of his great Fortune and he tempts her carries her to his Lodgings in Whitehall keeps her there for some time and then returns her back again to her Father The stout old Earl sent him this threatning Message That he had too much of a Gentleman to suffer such an indignity and if he did not marry his Daughter to repair her honour no greatness should protect him from his justice Buckingham that perhaps made it his design to get the Father's good will this way being the greatest match in the Kingdom had no reason to mislike the Union therefore he quickly salved up the wound before it grew to a quarrel And if this Marriage stopt the Current of his sins he had the less to answer for This young Lady was bred a Papist by her Mother but after her Marriage to the Marquess she was converted by Doctor White as was pretended and grew a zealous Protestant but like a morning dew it quickly vanished For the old Countess of Buckingham never left working by her sweet Instruments the Iesuits till she had placed her on the first foundation So that the Marquess betwixt a Mother and a Wife began to be indifferent no Papist yet no Protestant but the Arminian Tenets taking root were nourished up by him and those that did not hold the same opinions were counted Puritans These new indifferences now grew so hot in England that the Protestant Cause grew very cold in Germany Which made the spirits of most men rise against the Spanish Faction at home and Spain's incroaching Monarchy abroad And though the King sped ill the last Parliament of Somerset's undertaking and thought to lay them by for ever as he often expressed looking upon them as incroachers into his Prerogative and diminishers of his Majesty and Glory making Kings less and Subjects more than they are Yet now finding the peoples desires high-mounted for regaining the Palatinate he thought they would look only up towards that and liberally open their Purses which he might make use of and this Unanimity and good agreement betwixt him and his people would induce his Brother of Spain to be more active in the Treaty in hand and so he should have supply from the one and dispatch from the other But Parliaments that are like Physicians to the bodies of Common-wealths when the humors are once stirred they find cause enough many times to administer sharp Medicines where there was little appearance of Diseases For in this Recess and Ease Time-servers and Flatterers had cried up the Prerogative And the King wanting Money for his vast expenses had furnished himself by unusual courses For Kings excessive in gifts will find followers excessive in demands and they that weaken themselves in giving lose more in gathering than they gain in the gift For Prodigality in a Soveraign ends in the Rapine and Spoil of the Subject To help himself therefore and those that drained from him he had granted several Patents to undertakers and Monopolizers whereby they preyed upon the people by suits and exactions milkt the Kingdom and kept it poor the King taking his ease and giving way to Informers the Gentry grown debauched and Fashion-mongers and the Commons sopt and besotted with quiet and restiness drunk in so much disability that it might well be said by Gondemar England had a great many people but few men And he would smile at their Musters for through disuse they were grown careless of Military Discipline ill provided of Arms effeminate Officers neglecting their charges and duties conniving for gain at their Neighbours miscarriages Some of the Officers in the Militia and Iustices of the Peace not a few being Church-Papists floating upon the smooth stream of the times overwhelming all others that opposed them stigmatizing them with the name of Puritans and that was mark enough to hinder the current of any proceeding or preferment aimed at or hoped for either in Church or State And the Iesuits ranging up and down like spirits let loose did not now as formerly creep into corners using close and cunning Artifices but practised them openly having admission to our Counsellors of State for when Secretaries and such as manage the intimate Counsels of Kings are Iesuitical and Clients to the Pope there can be no tendency of Affection to a contrary Religion or Policy Those were only most active in the Court of England that courted the King of Spain most and could carry the face of a Protestant and the heart of a Papist the rest were contented to go along with the cry For they hunted but a cold scent and could pick out and make nothing of it that drew off or crost or hunted counter Which raised the spirits of the people so high against them that were the chief Hunters in these times that they brought the King himself within the compass of their Libels and Pasquils charging him to love his hounds better than his people And if this bad blood had been heated to an itch of Innovation it would have broke out to a very fore and incurable Malady every man seeing the danger few men daring to prevent it The Pulpits were the most bold Opposers but if they toucht any thing upon the Spanish policy or the intended Treaties for the Restitution of the Palatinate was included in the Marriage before it was the Spaniards to give their mouths must be stopt by Gondemar without the Lady Iacob's Receipt and it may be confined or imprisoned for it So that there were noplain downright blows to be given but if they cunningly and subtily could glance at the misdemeanors of the Times and smooth it over metaphorically it would pass current though before the King himself For about this time one of his own Chaplains preaching before him at Greenwich took this Text 4 Mat. 8. And the Devil took Iesus to the top of a Mountain and shewed him all the Kingdoms of the World saying All these will I give c. He shewed what power the Devil had in the World at that time when he spake these words and from thence he came down to the power of the Devil now And dividing the World into four parts he could not make the least of the four to be Christian and of
Common-wealth from ruin in so great a time of danger And thus they address themselves to their great Pilot. Most dread and gracious Soveraign WE your most humble and loyal Subjects the Knights Citizens and Burgesses assembled in the Commons House of Parliament full of grief and unspeakable sorrow through the true sence of your Majesties displeasure expressed by your Letter lately sent to Our Speaker and by him related and read unto Us Yet comforted again with the assurance of your Grace and Goodness and of the sincerity of our own intentions and proceedings whereon with confidence we can rely in all humbleness beseech your most excellent Majesty that the Loyalty and Dutifulness of as faithful and loving Subjects as ever served or lived under a gracious Soveraign may not undeservedly suffer by the mis-information of partial and uncertain Reports which are ever unfaithful Intelligencers but that your Majesty would in the clearness of your own Judgment first vouchsase to understand from Our selves and not from others what our humble Declaration and Petition resolved upon by the Universal Voice of the House and proposed with your Gracious favour to be presented unto your Sacred Majesty doth contain Upon what Occasion we entred into Consideration of those things which are therein contained with what dutiful respect to your Majesty and your Service we did consider thereof and what was our true intention thereby And that when your Majesty shall thereby truly discern our dutiful Affections you will in your Royal judgment free us from those heavy Charges wherewith some of our Members are burthened and wherein the whole House is involved And we humbly beseech your Majesty that you will not hereafter give Credit to private Reports against all or any of the Members of our House whom the whole have not censured until your Majesty have been truly informed thereof from our selves and that in the mean time and ever we may stand upright in your Majesties Grace and good Opinion than which no worldly consideration is or can be dearer unto us When your Majesty had reassembled us in Parliament by your Royal Commandment sooner than we expected and did vouchsafe by the mouths of three honourable Lords to impart unto us the weighty occasions moving your Majesty thereunto And from them we did understand these particulars That notwithstanding your Princely and Pious indeavours to procure Peace the time is now come that Janus Temple must be opened That the Voice of Bellona must be heard and not the Voice of the Turtle That there was no hope of Peace nor any Truce to be obtained no not for a few days That your Majesty must either abandon your own Children or ingage your self in a war wherein Consideration is to be had what foot what horse what money would be sufficient That the Lower Palatinate was seized upon by the Army of the King of Spain as Executor of the Ban there in quality of Duke of Burgundy as the Upper Palatinate was by the Duke of Bavaria That the King of Spain at his own Charge had now at least five several Armies on foot That the Princes of the Union were disbanded but the Catholick league remained firm whereby those Princes so dissevered were in danger one by one to be ruined That the Estate of those of the Religion in Foreign parts was miserable And That out of these Considerations we were called to a war and forthwith to advise for a Supply for keeping the forces in the Palatinate from disbanding and to fore-see the means for raising and maintaining the body of an Army for the war against the Spring We therefore out of our Zeal to your Majesty and your Posterity with more alacrity and colerity than ever was precedented in Parliament did address our selves to the Service commended unto Us. And although we cannot conceive that the honor and safety of your Majesty and your posterity the patrimony of your Children invaded and possessed by their Enemies the welfare of Religion and State of your Kingdom are matters at any time unfit for our deepest consideration in time of Parliament And though before this time we were in some of these points silent yet being now invited thereunto and led on by so just an occasion we thought it Our Duties to provide for the present supply thereof and not only to turn our eyes on a war abroad but to take care for the securing of our peace at home which the dangerous increase and insolency of Popish Recusants apparently visibly and sensibly did lead us unto The consideration whereof did necessarily draw us truly to represent unto your Majesty what we conceive to be the Causes what we feared would be the effects and what we hoped might be the remedies of these growing Evils Among which as incident and unavoidable we fell upon some things which seem to touch upon the King of Spain as they have relation to Popish Recusants at home to the Wars by him maintained in the Palatinate against your Majestie 's Children and to his several Armies now on foot yet as we conceived without touch of dishonour to that King or any other Prince your Majestie 's Consederate In the discourse whereof we did not assume to our selves any power to determin of any part thereof nor intend to incroach or intrude upon the Sacred bounds of your Royal Authority to whom and to whom only we acknowledg it doth belong to resolve of Peace and War and of the Marriage of the most noble Prince your Son But as your most Loyal and humble Subjects and Servants representing the whole Commons of your Kingdom who have a large interest in the happy and prosperous estate of your Majesty and your Royal Posterity and of the flourishing Estate of our Church and Common-wealth did resolve out of our Cares and Fears truly and plainly to demonstrate these things to your Majesty which we were not assured could otherwise come so fully and clearly to your knowledg and that being done to lay the same down at your Majesties feet without expectation of any other answer of your Majesty touching these higher points than what at your good pleasure and in your own time should be held fit This being the effect of that we had formerly resolved upon and these the occasions and reasons inducing the same our humble suit to your Majesty and confidence is that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to receive at the hands of these our Messengers our former humble Declaration and Petition and to vouchsafe to read and favourably to interpret the same And that to so much thereof as containeth our humble Petition concerning Jesuits Priests and Popish Recusants the passage of Bills and granting your Royal Pardon you will vouchsafe an answer unto us And whereas your Majesty by the general words of your Letter seemeth to restrain us from intermedling with matters of Government or particulars which have their motion in the Courts of Justice the generality of which words
in the largeness of the extent thereof as we hope beyond your Majesties intention might involve those things which are the proper Subjects of Parliamentary occasions and discourse And where as your Majesty doth seem to abridge us of the ancient liberty of Parliament for freedom of Speech Jurisdiction and just Censure of the House and other proceedings there wherein we trust in God we shall never transgress the bounds of loyal and dutiful Subjects a liberty which we assure our selves so wise and so just a King will not infringe the same being our ancient and undoubted right and an inheritance received from our Ancestors without which we cannot freely debate nor clearly discern of things in Question before us nor truly inform your Majesty in which we have been confirmed by your Majesties most gracious former Speeches and Messages We are therefore now again inforced in all humbleness to pray your Majesty to allow the same and thereby to take away the doubts and scruples your Majesties late Letter to your Speaker hath brought upon us So shall we your Loyal and loving Subjects ever acknowledge your Majesties justice grace and goodness and be ready to perform that service to your Majesty which in the true affection of our hearts we prosess and powre out our dayly and devout prayers to the Almighty for your Majesties long life happy and religious Reign and prosperous Estate and for your Royal posterity after you for ever The Parliament thought it strange that the King in a Recess should call them together before the appointed time of meeting pretending Emergent occasions and by his Ministers of State persuade and incite to a War and when in obedience to this command they shall proceed in their advice only to prevent the dangers abroad and establish security at home they shall be accounted presumptuous and insolent But by this they discover and which the King plainly expresses in his Answer that he required none of their advice he wanted only their money if they had furnished him with that instead of Counsel it would have been a golden Remonstrance They are to be his Bank his Merchants he needs no other directions let them find money he knows how to dispose of it This was the great fault which this Petition strives to mitigate accompanied with the Remonstrance it self and the Petition against Recusancy for both which it was an intercessor but it could not with all its Humility procure acceptance for its Companions though sent by twelve select Members of the House and the leading man Sir Richard Weston who was really the King's chosen by the Commons to make their Petitions the more acceptable And the House finding it a great discouragement to them to proceed in any business when there was so great a distance betwixt the King and them the King thinking their actions an intrenchment upon his Prerogative and they thinking the King's expressions an infringement of their Liberties they resolved to give over all business till they had an Answer of their Petitions for they thought they had as good do nothing as have that they do undone again Which the King hearing of was vexed at the heart and entertained their Messengers very roughly and some say he called for twelve Chaire's for them saying Here are twelve Kings come to me But after he had considered their desires in their last Petition rejecting the others he returns them this answer to all WE must here begin in the same fashion that we would have done if your first Petition had come to our Hands before we had made a stay thereof which is to repeat the first words of the late Queen of famous memory used by her in answer to an insolent Proposition made by a Polonian Embassadonâ— unto her that is Legatum expectabamus Heraldum accipimus For we had great reason to expect that the first Message from your House should have been a Message of thanksgiving for Our continued gratious behaviour towards our People since your last Recess Not only by our Proclamation of Grace wherein were contained six or seven and thirty Articles all of several points of Grace to the people but also by the labour we took for the satisfaction of both Houses in those three Articles recommended unto Us in both their names by the right Reverend Father in God the Archbishop of Canterbury and likewise for the good Government of Ireland we are now in hand with at your request But not only have We heard no news of all this but contrary great complains of the Danger of Religion within this Kingdom tacitly implying Our ill Government in this point And we leave you to judge whether it be your Duties that are the Representative Body of Our People so to distate them with Our Government whereas by the contrary it is your Duty with all your indeavours to kindle more and more a dutiful and thankful Love in the peoples hearts towards us for our just and gracious Government Now whereas in the very beginning of this your Apology you tax Us in fair terms of trusting uncertain Reports and partial informations concerning your Proceedings We wish you to remember that we are an old and experienced King needing no such lessons being in our conscience freest of any King alive from hearing or trusting idle Reports which so many of your House as are nearest Us can bear witness unto you if you would give as good ear to them as you do to some Tribunitial Orators among you And for proof in this particular We have made your own Messengers confer your other Petitions sent by you with the Copy thereof which was sent Us before between which there is no difference at all but that since our receiving the first Copy you added a Conclusion unto it which could not come to our hands till it was done by you and your Messengers sent which was all at one time And if we had had no Copy of it before hand we must have received your first Petition to our great dishonour before we had known what it contained which would have inforced us to have returned you a far worse answer than now we do For then your Messengers had returned with nothing but that We have judged your Petition unlawful and unworthy of an answer For as to your Conclusion thereof it is nothing but Protestatio contraria facto for in the body of your Petition you usurp upon Our Prerogative Royal and meddle with things far above your reach and then in the Conclusion you protest the contrary as if a Robber would take a mans purse and then protest he meant not to rob him For first you presume to give Us your advice concerning the Match of Our dearest Son with some Protestant we cannot say Princess for we know none of these fit for him and dissuade us from his Match with Spain urging us to a present War with that King and yet in the conclusion forsooth ye protest ye intend not to
press upon our most undoubted and Regal Prerogative as if the petitioning of Us in matters that your selves confess ye ought not to meddle with were not a medling with them And whereas ye pretend that ye were invited to this course by the Speeches of three honourable Lords ye thy so much as your selves repeat of the Speeches nothing can be concluded but that We were resolved by War to regain the Palatinate if otherwise We could not attain unto it And you were invited to advise forthwith upon a Supply for keeping the Forces in the Palatinate from disbanding and to fore-see the means for the raising and maintaining of the Body of an Army for that War against the Spring Now what inference can be made upon this That therefore we must presently denounce War against the King of Spain break our dearest Son's Match and Match him to one of Our Religion Let the world judge The difference is no greater than if we would tell a Merchant that We had great need to borrow money from him for raising an Army that thereupon it should follow that We were bound to follow his advice in the Directions of the War and all things depending thereupon But yet not contenting your Selves with this excuse of yours which indeed cannot hold water ye come after to a direct contradiction to the conclusion of your former Petition saying that the Honor and Safety of Us and Our posterity and the patrimony of our Children invaded and possessed by their Enemies the welfare of Religion and State of Our Kingdom are matters at any time not unfit for your deepest considerations in Parliament To this generality We answer with the Logicians That where all things are contained nothing is omitted So as this plenipotency of yours invests you in all power upon Earth lacking nothing but the Popes to have the Keyes also both of Heaven ahd Purgatory And to this vast generality of yours we can give no other Answer for it will trouble all the best Lawyers in the House to make a good Commentary upon it For so did the Puritan Ministers in Scotland bring all kind of Causes within the compass of their Jurisdiction saying That it was the Churches Office to judge of Slander and there could no kind of crime or fault be committed but there was a slander in it either against God the King or their Neighbour and by this means they hooked into themselves the too fair a ground and opened them too Wide a Gate for Curbing and oppressing of many thousands of our Religion in divers parts of Christendom And whereas you excuse your touching upon the King of Spain upon occasion of the incidents by you repeated in that place and yet affirm that it is without any touch to his Honour We cannot wonder enough that ye are so forgetful both of your Words and Writs For in your former Petition ye plainly affirm that he affects the Temporal Monarchy of the whole Earth then which there can be no more malice uttered against any great King to make all other Princes and Potentates both envie and hate him But if ye list it may be easily tried whether that Speech touched him in Honour or not if we shall ask him the Question whether he means to assume to himself that Title or no For every King can best judge of his own Honour We omit the particular ejaculations of some foul mouthed Orators in your House against the Honour of his Crown and State And touching your excuse of not determining any thing concerning the Match of our dearest Son but only to tell your opinions and lay it down at Our feet First We desire to know how you could have presumed to determin in that point without Committing of high Treason And next you cannot deny but your talking of his Match after that manner was a direct breach of Our commandment and Declaration out of Our own mouth at the first sitting down of this Parliament where we plainly professed that we were in treaty of his Match with Spain and wished you to have that Confidence in our Religion and Wisdom that We would so manage it as Our Religion should receive no prejudice by it And the same We now repeat unto you professing that We are so far engaged in that March as we cannot in Honour go back except the King of Spain perform not such things as we expect at his hands And therefore We are sorry that ye should shew to have so great Distrust in Us or to conceive that We should be cold in our Religion otherwise We cannot imagine how Our former public Declaration should not have stopt your mouths in this point And as to your Request That We would now receive your former Petition We wonder what could make you presume that We would not receive it whereas in our former Letter We plainly declared the Contrary unto you and therefore we have justly rejected that suit of yours For what have you left un-attempted in the Highest points of Soveraignty in that Petition of yours except the striking of Coin For it contains the violation of Leagues the particular way how to govern a War and the Marriage of our dearest Son both Negative with Spain nay with any other Popish Princess And also Affirmatively as to the Matching with one of Our Religion which We confess is a strain beyond any Providence or Wisdom God hath given Us as things now stand These are unfit things to be handled in Parliament except your King should require it of you For who can have Wisdom to judge of things of that Nature but such as are daily acquainted with the particulars of Treaties and of the Variable or fixed Connexion of Affairs of State together with the knowledge of the secret ways ends and intentions of Princes in their several Negotiations otherwise a small mistaking in matters of this Nature may produce more effects than can be imagined And therefore Nesutor ultra crepidam And besides the intermedling in Parliament with matters of Peace or War and Marriage of Our dearest Son would be such a diminution to Us and to Our Crown in forraign Countries as would make any Prince neglect to treat with Us either in matters of Peace or Marriage except they might be assured by the assent of Parliament And so it proved long ago with a King of France who upon a trick procuring his States to dissent from some Treaty which before he had made was after refused treating with any other Princes to his great reproach unless he would first procure the Assent of his Estates to their Proposition And will you cast your eyes upon the late Times you shall find that the late Queen of Famous memory was humbly petitioned by a Parliament to be pleased to marry But her Answer was that she liked their petition well because it was simple not limiting her to place or person as not besitting her liking to their Fancies and if they had done otherwise she would
have thought it a high presumption in them Judge then what We may do in such a Case having made our public Declaration already as we said before directly contrary to that which you have now petitioned Now to the points in your Petition whereof you desire an answer as properly belonging to the Parliament The first and the greatest point is that of Religion concerning which at this time We can give you no other answer than in the General which is that you may rest secure that We will never be weary to do all we can for the propagation of Our Religion and repressing of Popery But the manner and form you must remit to Our care and providence who can best consider of Times and Seasons not by undertaking a public War of Religion through all the World at once which how hard and dangerous a task it may prove you may judge But this puts Us in mind how all the World complained the last year of plenty of Corn and God hath sent Us a cooling Card this year for that heat And so We pray God that this desire among you of Kindling Wars shewing your weariness of Peace and Plenty may not make God permit Us to fall into the miseries of both But as we already said Our care of Religion must be such as on the one part We must not by the hot persecution of Our Recusants at home irritate forrain Princes of contrary Religion and teach them the way to plague the Protestants in their Dominions whom with We dayly intercede and at this time principally for ease to them of Our profession that live under them Yet upon the other part We never mean to spare from due and severe punishment any Papist that will grow insolent for living under Our so mild Government And you may also be assured We will leave no Care untaken as well for the good Education of the youth at home especially the Children of Papists as also for preserving at all times hereafter the youth that are or shall be abroad from being bred in dangerous places and so poisoned in Popish Seminaries And as in this point namely concerning the good Education of Popish youth at Home We have already given some good proofs both in this Kingdom and in Ireland so will We be well pleased to pass any good Laws that shall be made either now or any time hereafter to this purpose And as to your request of making this a Session and granting a general pardon it shall be in your Defaults if We make not this a Session before Christmas But for the Pardon ye crave such particulars in it as We must be well advised upon lest otherwise we give you back the double or treble of that we are to receive by your entire Subsidy without Fifteens But the ordinary course We hold fittest to be used still in this Case is that We should of our free grace send you down a Pardon from the higher House containing such points as We shall think fittest wherein we hope ye shall receive good satisfaction But We cannot omit to shew you how strange we think it that ye should make so bad and unjust a Commentary upon some words of our former Letter as if we meant to restrain you thereby of your ancient privileges and liberties in Parliament Truly a Scholler would be ashamed so to misplace and mis-judge any Sentences in another Mans book For whereas in the end of our former Letter We discharge you to meddle with matters of Government and Mysteries of State namely Matters of War or Peace or our dearest Sons Match with Spain by which particular denominations We interpret and restrain Our former words And then after We forbid you to meddle with such things as have their Ordinary course in Courts of Justice yet couple together those two distinct Sentences and plainly leave out these words Of Mysteries of State errâ—à benè â—à benè divisis ad malè conjecta For of the former part concerning Mysteries of State We plainly restrained our meaning to the particulars that were after mentioned And in the latter we confess we meant it by Sir Edward Cook 's foolish business And therefore it had well become him especially being Our Servant and One of Our Consel to have complained unto Us which he never did though he was ordinarily at Court since and never had access refused unto him And although We cannot allow of the stile calling it Your Ancient and undoubted right and inheritance but could rather have wished that ye had said That your Privileges were derived from the Grace and permission of our Ancestors and Us for most of them grow from Precedents which shews rather a toleration than inheritance yet we are pleased to give you Our Royal assurance that as long as you shall contain your selves within the limits of your Duty we will be as careful to maintain and preserve your lawful Liberties and Privileges as ever any of Our Predecessors were nay as to preserve Our own Royal Prerogative So as your House shall only have need to beware to trench upon the Prerogative of the Crown which would enforce Us or any just King to retrench them of their Privileges that would pare his Prerogative and Flowers of the Crown But of this We hope there shall be never cause given This was the effect of the King's Answer which was dated at New-market the 11. of December 1621. Thus the King acted his part and though his answer might be the Result of his thoughts yet it was some transcendent Cause that put it into Words for his Nature was apt enough to fear the Sound of its own impressions But now his Spirit was mounted either the Breach of the Treaty with Spain or the Breach as he thought upon his Prerogative gave wing to raise his Anger higher than his fear Princes that never knew how to obey ride their Passions with a loose rein and are easiest carried by that impulsion The Prince and the People are here Competitors both jealous of encroachments both striving to prevent them Liberty is a power that gives a well being and life to the People Power is a liberty that Princes take to be the very life of their Being Kings are like the Sea and the people like the land the industry of the one striving with the Piles and Banks of good laws and Precedents to bound the often-springtides and over-flowing of the other In Scotland the Land was high Rocky and inaccessible for his Waves though never so boisterous Here he finds a smooth Shore and the people as tame in their obedience as they were in their sufferings which makes him the bolder with them But the Parliament weighing the King's answer by the Ballance of Reason not Passion found that there was little for them to do For how is this a mixt Government when Kings do what they please They Call their People to a Parliament where the three Estates are said to be the mixt Government
the Ban against him which course of ours seeing it was never intended to be prosecuted to the prejudice of the Electoral College or against our own Capitulation we hope that the Electors will not take it otherwise being that we promise withal so to moderate it that no detriment or prejudice shall result thereby unto the Dignity Electoral As for the Translation of the Electorate and your advice for Restoring of the Palatinate there is I perceive some difference in your Opinions One part wisely and in favour of us affirming the great Reason we have to do it But for the other party which adviseth his Restoring we purpose not so far to consent unto it as to the restoring of him to the Electoral Dignity seeing that in the disposing of it other where we are resolved that we shall do no more than we have just reason to do nor will we defer the filling up of the Electoral College because the dispatching of it doth so much concern the Common good But for the Restitution of the Person of the Palatine you shall see how much our Mind is inclined towards clemency and how far we will declare Our self to gratifie the King of Great Britain the King of Denmark the Elector of Saxony and other Electors and Princes interceding for him And as concerning our forbidding the Exercise of the Lutheran Religion in the City of Prague we do not see how it any way concerns this Diet to inquire of our Letter have signified the causes that moved us to begin it unto the Elector of Saxony nor can we think that what we have done there any of the Neighbour States or Territories need be suspicious of seeing that we have sworn oftner than once in the Word of an Emperour that we will most Religiously observe the Peace both of Religion and civil Government throughout the Empire And thus much we could not but advertise this Illustrious Presence of Electors and Princes and you the Ambassadors of those that are absent The Protestant Electors and Princes still persisted in their Resolution that the Emperour could not translate the Electorate legally the words of the Capitulation being clearly these In all difficult businesses no process ought to be made without the knowledg and consent of the Electors and that without ordinary process no proscription should go out against any one of the States of the Empire before the cause were heard This is the fundamental Law of the Empire which required no more but to be constantly observed nor is it to be drawn into further dispute or deliberation And it stood the Electors upon to be open eyed to see to the observation of it being it concerned the three Secular Electors especially whose Dignity did by an Hereditary Right descend unto their Posterity to keep it safe and entire which they hoped that Caesar would not contradict But the Emperour would not be perswaded from his own Resolution yet in conclusion to gratifie the Princes he was contented to confer the Electorate with a Proviso that the investiture of the Duke of Bavaria should not be prejudicial to the children of the Palatine and so the Diet ended The ending of the Diet in Germany and our Prince's Journey into Spain were much about a time He went with the Marquess of Buckingham privately from Court the 17. of February to New-Hall in Essex the Marquess's House purchased of that unthrift Robert Earl of Sussex and from thence the next day by Graves-End the straight way to Dover attended onely by Sir Richard Graham Master of the Marquess's Horse where they were to meet Sir Francis Cottington who was thought fit to be the Prince's Secretary and Endimion Porter who was then taken from the Marquess's Bed-Chamber to wait upon the Prince Cottington was at first Clerk to Sir Charles Cornwallis his Secretary when Cornwallis was Ambassadour in Spain and being left there an Agent in the Intervals of Ambassadours was by that means trained up in the Spanish affairs Porter was bred up in Spain when he was a Boy and had the Language but found no other Fortune there then brought him over to be Mr. Edward Villers his man in Fleetstreet which was before either the Marquess or his Master were acceptable at White-Hall And Graham at first was an underling of low degree in the Marquess's Stable It is not hereby intended to vilifie the persons being men in this World's lottery as capable of advancement as others but to show in how poor a Bark the King ventured the rich freight his Son having onely the Marquess to steer his Course The Prince and Buckingham had false Beards for disguizes to cover their smooth Faces and the names of Iack Smith and Tom Smith which they past with leaving behind them impressions in every place with their bounty and presence that they were not the Persons they presented but they were not so rudely dealt with as to be questioned till they came to Dover and there the Mayor in a Supercilious Officiousness which may deserve the title of a careful Magistrate examined them so far being jealous they were Gentlemen going over to fight that the Marquess though Admiral was glad to Vail his Beard to him in private and tell him he was going to visit the Fleet so they had liberty to take Ship and landed at Bulloign the same day making swist Motion by Post-Horses which celerity leaves the least impression till they came to Paris There the Prince spent one day to view the City and Court shadowing himself the most he could under a Bushy Peruque which none in former times but bald people used but now generally intruded into a fashion and the Prince's was so big that it was hair enough for his whole face The Marquesses fair Face was shadowed with the same Pencil and they both together saw the Queen Mother at Dinner the King in the Gallery after Dinner and towards the Evening they had a full view of the Queen Infanta and the Princess Henrietta Maria with most of the Beauties of the Court at the practice of a Masking Dance being admitted by the Duke of Montbason the Queens Lord Chamberlain in Humanity to Strangers when many of the French were put by There the Prince saw those Eyes that after inflamed his Heart which increased so much that it was thought to be the cause of setting Three Kingdoms afire but whether any spark of it did then appear is uncertain if it did it was closely raked up till the Spanish fire went out the heat whereof made him neglect â—no time till he came to Madrid At Burdeaux the Duke D'Espernon Governour there out of a noble freedom to Strangers offered them the Civilities of his House which they declined with all bashful respects and Sr Francis Cottington who always looked like a Merchant and had the least Miene of a Gentleman fittest for such an imployment let him know they were Gentlemen that desired to improve themselves and
the Infanta Maria sister to the King To which end he had sent his Son into Spain to treat and conclude the match together with George Duke of Buckingham Iohn Earl of Bristol Sir Walter Astone and Sir Francis Cottington Baronets Commissioners on his part for the said Treaty And on the behalf of the King of Spain Iohn de Mendoza and Luna Marquess of Monstes Claros Didacus Sarmiento de Acuna Earl of Gondemar and Iohn de Cirica Secretary to the Secret Council Which Commissioners for both parts qualified by a Dispensation from his Holiness after long and deliberate Dispute in so serious a matter Communi consensu atque judicio in aliqout Capitulationes conditiones ad rem terminandam absolvendam accommodata quae sic se habent convenerunt by one consent and judgment had determined and concluded the same Then followed the before recited Articles after which this long Postscript attesting them Effigies eximÿ viri Dn̄i Didaci Salmienti de Acuna Comitis de Gondomaere EQuitis nobli ordinis Calatravae This Train of Witnesses are set down to shew who were then of Our King's Council though some of them set their hands to it much against their wills and swore with as little zeal to observe and keep as much as in them lay all the aforesaid Articles Such Power have Kings over mens Reasons and Consciences There was some little Contest betwixt our King and the King of Spains Ambassadours about some particular Ceremonies observed in swearing of these Articles For our King having written and spoken against the Popes Holiness would not admit him to be so styled in his Oath But the Ambassadours refused to proceed further unless that Title were consented unto so that Our King affecting ever to be accounted a Peace-maker though he where Defender of the Faith was forced to lay by his Shield admitting him to be holy who was most unholy and so the strife ended Some other little things were stood upon by the Ambassadours but the King's Patience surmounted all their Demands And in the Close of the Businesse he invited the Ambassadours to a Royall Feast at Whitehal where after dinner retiring into the Council-Chamber The King took another private Oath to observe certain Articles in favour of Roman Catholicks for a free exercise of their Religion in all his Dominions Wherein he protested to do what in him lay that the Parliament should confirm the same And thus was the great Business accomplished which gave Our King so much content that being transported with an assurance of the Match he was heard to say Now all the Devils in Hell cannot hinder it So secure was he of it in his own Opinion But one that heard him said to others standing by That there was never a Devil now left in Hell for they were now all gone into Spain to make up the Match This forwardness of the Union with Spain and indulgence to Papists made Iesuits and Priests swarm in every corner setting up their subtile Traps to catch wavering Spirits And they could not hear of a man of estate that was sick for persons of Quality were only aimed at but they would tamper with his weak conscience and persuade him to the Charity of their Religion whereby his Soul that was tainted with earthly corruptions and must needs be purged by Fire before it can come to God should escape the pains of Purgatory or if it went thither their Prayers could redeem them thence with such stuff as this deceiving many poor Soules But their most specious jugling Argument which did catch many ignorant persons was the Visibility of their Church in all Ages as they pretended and their great Question Where the Protestant Church was before Luther Among the rest one Edward Buggs Esquire living in London aged seventy years and an old professed Protestant was seduced by them in his Sickness and after his recovery being troubled in mind at his request and desire there was a publick conference and dispute appointed at Sir Lind's House Lind being a friend to Buggs and a Gentleman of great knowledge and integrity who was able to grapple with the Iesuits himself yet he modestly desired Doctor White and Doctor Featly Protestants to encounter with Father Fisher and Father Sweet Jesuits Where Featly laid their jugling tricks at their Doores protesting to acknowledg himself overcome by them if they could prove out of any good Author let them brag what they would of the Visibility of their Church in all ages that in City Parish or Hamlet within five Hundred years next after Christ there was any visible assembly of Christians to to be named maintaining or defending either the Council of Trent in general or these Points of Popery in special 1. That there is a Treasury of Saints Merits and super abundant Satisfactions at the Pope's disposing 2. That the Laity are not commanded by Christ's Institution to receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in both kinds 3. That the Publick Service of God in the Church ought or may be celebrated in an unknown tongue 4. That Private Masses wherein the Priest saith Edite bibite ex hoc omnes and yet eateth and drinketh himself only are according to Christ's Institution 5. That the Pope's Pardons are requisite or useful to release Souls out of Purgatory 6. That the effect of the Sacrament dependeth upon the Intention of the Minister Here Mr. Sweet interrupted him saying These were Scholastical Points not Fundamental To which Doctor White replied Those things which are defined in your Council of Trent are to you matters Fundamental And whatsoever Article denied makes a Man an Heretick is Fundamental But the denyal of any of these make a Man an Heretick Ergo Every one of these Articles is Fundamental To which Argument nothing being answered Doctor Featly proceeded 7. That extream Unction is a Sacrament properly so called 8. That we may worship God by an Image 9. That the Sacred Host ought to be elevated or carried in solemn Procession 10. That Infidels and impious persons yea Rats and Mice may eat the Body of Christ. 11. That all Ecclesiastical Power dependeth on the Pope 12. That he cannot err in matters of Faith 13. That he hath Power to Canonize Saints to dispose of Kings and Kingdomes at his pleasure c. But the Iesuits not being able to prove that any of these things were in practice in the Primitive Times of Christianity but that they wene fobb'd in by several Popes and Councils in latter times to serve their own turns waved the Argument and insisted upon other particulars not material to the Point striving to confound one thing with another as their manner is that they might complicate and wrap up in obscurity all that was spoken Which Mr. Buggs perceiving rested fully satisfied and confirmed in the Truth But thus the Iesuits ranged up and down seeking whom they might devour and their Insolency being greater and more notorious at this
up to three hundred pounds a piece But now again the poor Courtiers were so indigent that sixty pounds would purchase a Knighthood the King wanting other means to gratifie his Servants Yet he was of so free a Nature and careless of Money when he had it though solicitous to get it that he batled in his own bounty For being one day in the Gallery at White-hall and none with him but Sir Henry Rich who was second Son to the Earl of Warwick afterwards Earl of Holland a Gentleman of excellent Natural Parts but youthfully expensive and Iames Maxwel one of his Bed Chamber some Porters past by them with three thousand pounds going to the Privy Purse Sir Henry Rich whispering Maxwel the King turned upon them and asked Maxwel what says he what says he Maxwel told him he wisht he had so much money Marry shalt thou Harry saith the King and presently commanded the Porters to carry it to his Lodging with this Expression You think now you have a great Purchase but I am more delighted to think how much I have pleasured you in giving this money than you can be in receiving it This Story intervenes to shew the Temper of his Mind About this time also Gold was raised to two shillings in the pound occasioned from the high value set upon it abroad which made the Merchant transport it But the first Inhancers can make their Markets by ingrossing great Sums especially the Payments of those times and all this Kings Reign being for the most part in Gold so that it might be called the Golden Age that it is a wonder now what gulf hath swallowed those great sums if their golden wings be not flown to the Sun-rising But these little projects will bring in but small store of money to maintain the Work many such Materials must go to make up a Royal Building and little Streams will not easily fill a Cistern that hath many Issues A Parliament can furnish all but who dare venture on such Refractory Spirits Yet there was a generation about the Court that to please and humour Greatness undertook a Parliament as men presuming to have Friends in every County and Borough who by their Power among the People would make Election of such Members for Knights and Burgesses as should comply solely to the Kings desires and Somerset is the Head and Chief of these Vndertakers But this was but an Embrion and became an Abortive The English Freedom cannot be lost by a few base and tame spirits that would unmake themselves and their Posterity to ingrandize one Man For the Parliament meeting according to their Summons such Faces appeared there as made the Court droop who instead of Contributing to the Kings wants lay open his wasts especially upon the Scots with whom they desire medietatem linguae a share of favour The Bread by our Saviours rule properly belonging to the Children of the Kingdom And they beseech His Majesty to stop the Current of future access of that Nation to make residence here having enough to eat up their own Crums They enquire into the Causes of the unexpected increase of Popish Recusants since the Gun-Powder Plot the detestation whereof they thought should have utterly extinguished them and they find it to the Admission of Popish Nobility into his Counsels the silencing of many watchful and diligent Ministers the divers Treaties his Majesty hath entertained not only for the Marriage of the deceased Prince Henry but for Prince Charles that now liveth with the Daughters of Popish Princes which dis-heartneth the Protestant and encourageth the Recusant laying open with these many other miscarriages in Government which the King willing to have concealed stopt them in their Course dissolving the Parliament and committing to the Tower and other Princes the beginning of incroachment upon the publick liberties such as were most active for the Common good These fair Blossoms not producing the hoped-for fruit they find out new Projects to manure the People different much in name and nature a Benevolence extorted a Free-gift against their wills was urged upon them and they that did not give in their money must give in their names which carried a kind of fright with it But the most knowing men like so many Pillars to the Kingdoms liberties supported their Neighbours tottering Resolutions with assuring them that these kind of Benevolences were against Law Reason and Religion First against Law being prohibited by divers Acts of Parliament and a Curse pronounced against the infringers of them Secondly against Reason that a particular man should oppose his judgment and discretion to the wisdom and judgment of the King assembled in Parliament who have there denyed any such aid Thirdly against Religion That a King violating his Oath taken at his Coronation for maintaining the Laws Liberties and Customs of the Realm should be assisted by the people in an Act of so much Injustice and Impiety These and many other Arguments instilled into the people by some good Patriots were great impediments to the Benevolence So that they got but little money and lost a great deal of love For no Levies do so much decline and abase the love and spirits of the people as unjust Levies Subsidies get more of their money but Exactions enslave the mind for they either raise them above or depress them beneath their sufferings which are equally mischievous and to be avoided This Summer the King of Denmark revisited his Sister the Queen of England with some forty Lords Gentlemen and others in his Train landing at Yarmouth and passing directly to London took up his Lodging in our Common Inns and was not known but for some Outlandish Nobleman till he came to the Queens Palace in the Strand where she was surprized with the unexpected joy of a Brothers company distanced from her by the interest of his people the great Bar that hinders Princes the common civilities and happiness of their Inferiors But the joy continued not long for after some fourteen days interview they parted again But those days had such a plenitude of all those delights that contend to satisfaction as if a great deal of more time had been involved and contracted in them VERA EFFIGIES FRANCISCAE COMITISSAE SOMERSETIAE VICECOM ROFFEN ETc The lively portraict of the Lady Francis Countesse of Somerset Sir Ralph Winwood who had been Lieger-Ambassador with the States in the Netherlands for his abilities and good service had merited so much from the King that he made him Secretary of State The Queen closes with him the better to discover Somersets miscarriages and he was ready enough to oblige her for Somerset made him but an Vnderling grasping all Publick imployments into his own hand not caring whom he disobliged or what Malice he pulled upon himself for like a Coloss he stood the brunt of all the Tempests of Envy making those that carried the greatest sail to strike and come under him Nor would he suffer any