as are warrantable by Act of Parliament 6. All Fortifications to desist and no further working therein and they to be remitted to his Majesty's Pleasure 7. To restore to every one of his Majesty's Subjects their Liberty Lands Houses Goods and Means whatsoever taken and detained from them by whatsoever means since the aforesaid time The Copy of the Act of the Pacification as it passed under his Majesties Hand and includes these Articles above written is as follows Ch. R. WE having considered the Papers and humble Petitions presented unto us by those of our Subjects of Scotland who were admitted to attend our pleasure in the Camp and after a full Hearing by Our Self of all that they could say or alledge thereupon having communicated the same to Our Council of both Kingdoms upon mature deliberation with their unanimous Advice We have thought fit to give them this Just and Gracious Answer That though We cannot condescend to Ratifie and Approve the Acts of the pretended General Assembly at Glasgow for many Grave and Weighty Considerations which have happened both before and since much importing the Honour and Security of that true Monarchical Government Lineally descended upon Us from so many of Our Ancestors Yet such is Our Gracious Pleasure That notwithstanding the many disorders committed of late We are pleased not only to confirm and make good whatsoever Our Commissioner hath granted and promised in Our Name But also We are further Graciously pleased to declare and assure That according to the Petitioner's humble desires all Matters Ecclesiastical shall be determined by the Assemblies of the Kirk and Matters Civil by the Parliament and other inferiour Judicatories Established by Law which accordingly shall be kept once a Year or as shall be agreed upon at the General Assembly And for setling the general distractions of that Our Ancient Kingdom Our Will and Pleasure is that a free General Assembly be kept at Edinburgh the sixth day of August next ensuing where We intend God willing to be personally present And for the Legal Indiction whereof We have given Order and Command to Our Council and thereafter a Parliament to be holden at Edinburgh the 20th day of August next ensuing for Ratifying of what shall be concluded in the said Assembly and setling such other things as may conduce to the Peace and Good of Our Native Kingdom and therein an Act of Oblivion to be passed And whereas We are further desired that Our Ships and Forces by Land be recalled and all Persons Goods and Ships restored and they made safe from Invasion We are Graciously pleased to Declare that upon their disarming and disbanding of their Forces dissolving and discharging all their pretended Tables and Conventicles and restoring unto Us all Our Castles Forts and Ammunitions of all sorts as likewise Our Royal Honours and to every one of Our Good Subjects their Liberty Lands Houses Goods and Means whatsoever taken and detained from them since the late pretended General Assembly We will presently thereafter recall Our Fleet and retire our Land-Forces and cause Restitution to be made to all Persons of their Ships and Goods detained and arrested since the aforesaid time Whereby it may appear that Our intention in taking up of Arms was no ways for Invading of Our Native Kingdom or to Innovate the Religion and Laws but meerly for the Maintaining and Vindicating of Our Royal Authority And since that hereby it doth clearly appear that We neither have nor do intend any alteration in Religion or Laws but that both shall be maintained by Us in their full integrity We expect the performance of that Humble and Dutiful Obedience which becometh Loyal and Dutiful Subjects and as in their several Petitions they have often professed And as We have just Reason to believe that to Our peaceable and well-affected Subjects this will be satisfactory so We take God and the World to witness that whatsoever Calamities shall ensue by Our necessitated suppressing of the Insolencies of such as shall continue in their disobedient Courses is not occasioned by us but by their own procurement This Pacification was not much sooner made by the King than it was broken by the Scots For whereas it was agreed by the Seventh Article and is repeated in the Body of the Pacification That every one of his Majesties good Subjects shou'd enjoy their Liberty Lands Houses Goods and Means whatsoever taken and detayned from them since the aforesaid time The * Lord Lindsay in the Name of the rest made a Protestation either in the Camp at Dunns or at the Cross in Edinburgh that no Bishop or Clergyman was included in this Pacification which yet in manifest and plain Terms extended it self to all the Kings good Subjects And this Protestation was so pursued as that it obtained and no Clergyman was relieved in any the Particulars Upon this and other Particulars agitated in Parliament amongst them his Majesty thought fit to look to himself and examine their Proceedings farther To this end he often called his Council and in particular made a Committee of eight more particularly to attend that service They were the Lord Bishop of London then Lord Treasurer the Lord Marquis Hamilton the Earl of Northumberland Lord Admiral the Earl of Strafford Lord Deputy of Ireland the Lord Cottington Sir Henry Vane and Sir Francis Windebanck Secretaries and my self to which was after added the Earl of Arundel Lord Marshal And though I spake nothing of these Scottish Businesses but either openly at Council-Table or in presence of all or so many of this Committee as occasionally met and so had Auditors and Witnesses enough of what I did or said yet it was still cast out among the 〈◊〉 that I was a chief Incendiary in the Business Where yet had I said or done any thing worse than other there wanted not Sir Henry Vane to discover it At this Committee many things were proposed diversly for the Aid and Assistance of the King and many Proposals rejected as Illegal At last the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland propos'd the calling of a Parliament Much was not said against this but much said for it Nor indeed was it safe for any Man to declare against it after it was once publickly moved So a Parliament was resolved on and called against April 13. 1640. At that time it sat down and many Tumultuary Complaints were made by the Scots against the Bishops and Church Government in England and with great vehemency against my self All this while the King could get no Money to Aid him against the Scottish Rebellion At last after many Attempts Sir Henry Vane told the King plainly that it was in vain to expect longer or to make any other overture to them For no Money wou'd be had against the Scots Hereupon his Majesty called all his Lords of Council together and upon Maij 5. being Tuesday at Six in the Morning they met in the Council-Chamber I by the mistake of the Messenger was warned
this set others on work both in the Western and the Northern Parts Till at last by the practice of the Faction there was suddenly a great alteration and nothing so much cryed down as the Canons The comfort is Christ himself had his Osanna turned into a Crucifige in far less Time By this means the Malice of the Time took another occasion to whet it self against me The Synod thus ended and the Canons having this Success but especially the Parliament ending so unhappily The King was very hardly put to it and sought all other means as well as he could to get supply against the Scots But all that he could get proved too little or came too late for that service For the averse party in the late Parliament or by and by after before they parted ordered things so and filled Mens Minds with such strange Jealousies that the King 's good People were almost generally possest that his Majesty had a purpose to alter the ancient Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom and to bring in Slavery upon his People A thing which for ought I know his Majesty never intended But the Parliament-men which would not relieve the King by their meeting in that Assembly came to understand and inform one another and at their return were able to possess their several Countries with the Apprehensions themselves had and so they did Upon this some Lords and others who had by this time made an underhand solemn Confederacy with a strong faction of the Scots brought an Army of them into the Kingdom For all Men know and it hath been in a manner confessed that the Scots durst not have come into England at that Time if they had not been sure of a Party here and a strong one and that the King should be betrayed on all hands as shall after appear By these and the like means the King being not assisted by his Parliament nor having Means enough to proceed with his Forces in due Time the Scots were brought in as is aforesaid upon both King and Kingdom They under the Conduct of Sir Alexander Leshley their General passed the Tyne at Newborne Aug. .... 1640. and took New-castle the next Day after And all this gross Treason though it had no other end than to Confirm a Parliament in Scotland and to make the King call another in England that so they might in a way of Power extort from him what they pleased in both Kingdoms yet Religion was made almost all the pretence both here and there and so in pursuance of that pretence Hatred spread and increased against me for the Service-Book The King hearing that the Scots were moving Posted away to York Aug. 20. being Thursday There he soon found in what Straights he was and thereupon called his Great Council of all his Lords and Prelates to York to be there by September 24. But in regard the Summons was short and suddain he was Graciously pleased to dispense with the Absence of divers both Lords and Bishops and with mine among the rest How things in Particular succeeded there I know not nor belongs it much to the Scope of this short History intended only for my self But the Result of all was a present Nomination of some Lords Commissioners to treat at Rippon about this Great Affair with other Commissioners from the Scotch Army But before this Treaty at Rippon one Melborne or Meldrum Secretary to general Leshly as he was commonly said to be at the Shire-House in Durham when the Country-Gentlemen met with the chief of the Scottish Army about a composition to be made for Payment of Three Hundred and Fifty Pounds a Day for that County expressed himself in this Manner Septemb. 10. 1640. I wonder that you are so Ignorant that you cannot see what is good for your selves For they in the South are sensible of the good that will ensue and that we came not unsent for and that oftner than once or twice by your own Great Ones There being a Doubt made at these words Great Ones He reply'd your own Lords with farther Discourse These Words were complained of during the Treaty at Rippon to the English Lords Commissioners by two Gentlemen of the Bishoprick of Durham to whom the Words were spoken by Meldrum The Gentlemen were Mr. John Killinghall and Mr. Nicholas Chaytor and they offer'd to Testify the Words upon Oath But the Lords required them only to Write down those Words and set their Hands to them which they did very readily The Lords acquainted the Scotch Commissioners with the Words They sent to Newcastle to make them known to General Leshly He called his Secretary before him questioned him about the Words Meldrum denyed them was that enough against two such Witnesses This Denyal was put in Writing and sent to Rippon Hereupon some of the English Lords Commissioners required that the two Gentlemen should go to Newcastle to the Scotch Camp and there give in their Testimony before General Leshly The two Gentlemen replyed as they had great reason to do that they had rather testify it in any Court of England and could do it with more safety Yet they would go and testify it there so they might have a safe Conduct from the Scottish Commissioners there being as yet no Cessation of Arms. Answer was made by some English Lords that they should have a safe Conduct Hereupon one of the Kings Messengers attendant there was sent to the Scotch Commissioners for a safe Conduct for the Two Gentlemen He brought back Word from the Earl of Dumfermling to whom it was directed that the Two Gentlemen were unwise if they went to give such Testimony at the Camp And then speaking with the Lord Lowdon he came again to the Messenger and told him that such a safe Conduct could not be granted and that he would satisfy the Earl that sent for it who was Francis Earl of Bedford The Messenger returning with this Answer the Gentlemen were dismissed So the business dyed it being not for somebody's safety that this Examination should have proceeded for it is well enough known since that many had their hands in this Treason for Gross Treason it was by the express Words of the Statute of 25 Edw. 3. c. 2. The Truth of all this will be sworn to by both the Gentlemen yet living and by a very honest grave Divine who was present at all these Passages at Rippon and gave them to me in Writing In this Great Council while the Treaty was proceeding slowly enough it was agreed on that a Parliament should begin at London Nov. 3. following And thither the Commissioners and the Treaty were to follow and they did so After this how things proceeded in Parliament and how long the Scotch Army was continued and at how great a charge to the Kingdom appears olsewhere upon Record for I shall hasten to my own particular and take in no more of the Publick than Necessity shall inforce me to make my sad Story hang together
their Opinion unless they be such as have been bred up either in their Faction or in the Opposite at Rome For Bodin is clear That Arms may not be taken up against the Prince be he never so Impious and Wicked And instances in Saul and Nebuchadnezzar And Grotius doth not only say as much as Bodin but Censures them which hold the contrary to be Men which serve Time and Place more than Truth Nor is it any whit more Lawful for Inferiour Magistrates to make this resistance against the King than it is for private Men. And this is universally true where the Princes are free and have not undertaken the Government under that or the like Condition or being free seek with a Hostile Mind to ruine their People which is scarce possible And a great Civilian tells us that he is properly a Rebel that resists the Emperor or his Officers in things belonging to the State of the Empire Some Cases he lays down indeed in which the pleasure of a Prince may not be obeyed but none in which his Power is to be resisted Nor is it any marvel that Christians do disallow the taking up of Arms against the Prince since even the soundest Politicks among the Heathen have declared so likewise Aristotle was of this Opinion that if the Magistrate strike yet he is not to be struck again And Seneca that Men are to bear the unjust as well as the just Commands of Princes And Tacitus that good Emperours are to be desired but whatever they be to be born with And Plutarch that it is not Lawful to offer any Violence to the Person of the King And Cicero That no Force is to be offered either to a Man's Parent or to his Country And therefore in his Judgment not to the Prince who is Pater Patriae the Father of his Country And the truth is where-ever the contrary Opinion is maintained the Prince can never be safe nor the Government setled But so soon as a Faction can get a fit Head and gather sufficient strength all is torn in pieces and the Prince lost for no considerable Errour or perhaps none at all For a strong Party once Heated can as easily make Faults as find them either in Church or Common-wealth And make the King say as Zedekiah sometimes did to his potent Nobles Behold Jeremiah is in your Hands for the King is not he that can do any thing against you Jerem. 38. But whereas they say it is a Doctrine that tends to the utter Slavery and ruin of all States and Kingdoms That will appear most untrue by the very Letter of the Canon it self which gives way to no Tyranny but expresses only the true Power of a King given by God and to be exercised according to God's Law and the several Laws of Kingdoms respectively And I hope there will ever be a real difference found in Christian Kingdoms between the Doctrine that tends to Slavery and Ruine and that which forbids taking up of Arms against their Sovereign which is all that this Canon doth And in the mean time I pray God this not Doctrine only but Practice also of taking up Arms against the Lord 's Anointed under meer pretence of Religion do not in a shorter time than is fear'd bring all to Confusion where-ever 't is Practised For howsoever it bears a shew of Liberty yet this way of maintaining it is not only dishonourable to Kings but the ready way to make them study ways of Force and to use Power when-ever they get it to abridge the Liberties of such over-daring Subjects And in all times it hath sown the Seeds of Civil Combustions which have ended in Slavery and Ruine of flourishing Kingdoms And I pray God these do not end so in this But they go on And as if this had not been sufficient he procures six Subsidies to be lifted of the Clergy under pain of Deprivation to all who should refuse The giving of the King Subsidies is no new thing The Clergy have bin ever willing to the uttermost of their Power But what I and my Brethren of the Clergy did at this time therein is before set down And I hold it not fit to lengthen this Tract with the needless Repetition of any thing And which is yet more and above which Malice it self cannot ascend by his means a Prayer is framed Printed and sent through all the Parishes of England to be said in all Churches in time of Divine Service next after the Prayer for the Queen and Royal Progeny against our Nation by Name as Trayterous Subjects having cast off all Obedience to our Anointed Sovereign and coming in a Rebellious manner to Invade England that shame may cover our Faces as Enemies to God and the King We are now come to the last part of their Charge and that 's the Prayer which was made and sent to be used in all Churches when the Scots came into England But this Prayer was made not by my means or procurement but by his Majesties special Command to me to see it done And it hath bin ever usual in England upon great and urgent occasions to have one or more Prayers made by some Bishop or Bishops nearest hand to fit the Present business And this may appear by divers Forms and Prayers so made and publickly used in all times since the Reformation And since this Prayer was made by his Majesties own Command I am sorry they should say of it that Malice it self cannot ascend above it Though I perswade my self they thought to hit me not him in this Speech Now what I pray is that above which Malice it self cannot ascend Why first it is That they were called in that Prayer trayterous Subjects which had cast off all Obedience to their Anointed Sovereign Why but Truth spake this not Malice For Trayterous Subjects they were then if ever a King had any And the Kings Proclamation called them so before that Prayer came forth And what Title soever it is fit to give them now since his Majesty hath bin graciously pleased to treat with them and pass by their Offence that 's another thing but as the case stood then they had shaken off all Obedience and were as they were then called Trayterous Subjects And I had a special Charge from the King not to spare that Name Secondly They except against this that 't is there said that they came in a Rebellious manner to Invade this Kingdom And that is most true too for whereas they said they came in a peaceable manner to deliver their Petitions to the King for the Liberty of their Religion and Laws Is it a peaceable way to come two or three and twenty Thousand Men strong and Armed to deliver a Petition Let the whole World judge whether this were not a Rebellious Invasion Thirdly They say 't is desir'd in the Prayer that God would with shame cover the Faces
Tyrannical Government contrary to Law I could not endeavour this my knowledge and judgment going ever against an Arbitrary Government in comparison of that which is settled by Law I learned so much long ago out of Aristotle and his Reasons are too good to be gone against And ever since I had the honour to sit at the Council Table I kept my self as much to the Law as I could and followed the Judgment of those great Lawyers which then sat at the Board And upon all References which came from His Majesty if I were one I left those freely to the Law who were not willing to have their business ended any other way And this the Lord Keeper the Lord Privy Seal and the Councel Learned which attended their Clients Causes can plentifully witness I did never advise His Majesty that he might at his own Will and Pleasure levy Money of his Subjects without their Consent in Parliament Nor do I remember that ever I affirmed any such thing as is Charged in the Article But I do believe that I may have said something to this effect following That howsoever it stands by the Law of God for a King in the just and necessary defence of himself and his Kingdom to levy Money of his Subjects yet where a particular National Law doth intervene in any Kingdom and is settled by mutual consent between the King and his People there Moneys ought to be Levied by and according to that Law And by God's Law and the same Law of the Land I humbly conceive the Subjects so met in Parliament ought to supply their Prince when there is just and necessary cause And if an Absolute necessity do happen by Invasion or otherwise which gives no time for Counsel or Law such a Necessity but no pretended one is above all Law And I have heard the greatest Lawyers in this Kingdom confess that in times of such a Necessity The King 's Legal Prerogative is as great as this And since here is of late such a noise made about the Subversion of the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and Mens Lives called this way in question 't is very requisite that these Fundamental Laws were known to all Men That so they may see the danger before they run upon it Whereas now the Common Laws of England have no Text at all In so much that many who would think themselves wronged if they were not accounted good Lawyers cannot in many points assure a Man what the Law is And by this means the Judges have liberty to retain more in Scrinio Pectoris than is fitting and which comes a little too near that Arbitrary Government so much and so justly found fault with Whereas there is no Kingdom that I know that hath a setled Government but it hath also a Text or a Corpus Juris of the Laws written save England So here shall be as great a punishment as is any where for the breach of the Laws and no Text of them for a Man's direction And under favour I think it were a work worthy a Parliament to Command some prime Lawyers to draw up a Body of the Common Law and then have it carefully Examined by all the Judges of the Realm and thoroughly weighed by both Houses and then have this Book Declared and Confirmed by an Act of Parliament as containing the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom And then let any Man go to Subvert them at his Peril 2. He hath for the better accomplishment of that his Trayterous Design advised and procured divers Sermons and other Discourses to be Preached Printed and Published in which the Authority of Parliaments and the force of the Laws of this Kingdom are denied and an Absolute and Vnlimited Power over the Persons and Estates of his Majesties Subjects is maintained and defended not only in the King but also in himself and other Bishops above and against the Law And he hath been a great Protector Favourer and Promoter of the Publishers of such false and pernicious Opinions I have neither advised nor procured the Preaching Printing or Publishing of any Sermons or other Discourses in which the Authority of Parliaments and the force of the Laws of this Kingdom are denied and an Absolute and Unlimited Power over the Persons and Estates of his Majesty's Subjects maintained and defended Nay I have been so far from this that I have since I came into place made stay of divers Books purposely written to maintain an Absolute Power in the Kingdom and have not suffered them to be Printed as was earnestly desired And were it fit to bring other Mens Names in question and expose their Persons to danger I have some of those Tracts by me at this present And as I have not maintained this Power in the King's Majesty so much less have I defended this or any other Power against Law either in my self or other Bishops or any other Person whatsoever Nor have I been a Protector Favourer or Promoter of any the Publishers of such false and pernicious Opinions knowing them to be such Men. 3. He hath by Letters Messages Threats Promises and divers other ways to Judges and other Ministers of Justice interrupted and perverted and at other times by the means aforesaid hath indeavoured to interrupt and pervert the course of Justice in his Majesty's Courts at Westminster and other Courts to the Subversion of the Laws of this Kingdom whereby sundry of his Majesty's Subjects have been stopped in their Just Suits and deprived of their Lawful Rights and subjected to his Tyrannical Will to their utter Ruin and Destruction I have neither by Letters Messages Threats nor Promises nor by any other Means endeavoured to interrupt or pervert the course of Justice in his Majesty's Judges or other Ministers of Justice either to the Subversion of the Law or the stopping of the Subjects in their Just Suits Much less to the ruin or destruction of any one which God forbid I should ever be guilty of The most that ever I have done in this kind is this When some poor Clergy-Men which have been held in long Suits some Seven Nine Twelve Years and one for Nineteen Years together have come and besought me with Tears and have scarce had convenient Clothing about them to come and make their address I have sometimes underwritten their Petitions to those Reverend Judges in whose Courts their Suits were and have fairly desired Expedition for them But I did never desire by any Letter or Subscription or Message any thing for any of them but that which was according to the Law and Justice of the Realm And in this particular I do refer my self to the Testimony of the Reverend Judges of the Common Law 4. That the said Arch-Bishop hath Traiterously and Corruptly sold Justice to those that have had Causes depending before him by Colour of his Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as Arch-Bishop High-Commissioner Referree or otherwise and hath taken unlawful Gifts and Bribes of his
of the said pretended Canons enjoyned to be taken by all the Clergy and many of the Laity of this Kingdom I Composed no Book of Canons The whole Convocation did it with unanimous Consent So either I must be free or that whole Body must be guilty of High-Treason For in that Crime all are Principals that are guilty Accessory there is none Neither did I publish or put in Execution those Canons or any of them but by Lawful Authority And I do humbly conceive and verily believe there is nothing in those Canons contrary either to the King's Prerogative the Fundamental Laws of the Realm the Rights of Paliament the Propriety and Liberty of the Subjects or any matter tending to Sedition or of dangerous consequence or to the establishment of any vast or unlawful Power in my self and my Sucessors Neither was there any Canon in that Convocation surreptitiously passed by any practice of mine or without due Consideration and Debate Neither was there any thing in that Convocation but what was voted first and subscribed after without fear or compulsion in any kind And I am verily perswaded there never sate any Synod in Christendom wherein the Votes passed with more freedom or less practice than they did in this And for the Oath injoyned in the sixth Canon as it was never made to confirm any unlawful or exorbitant Power over his Majesty's Subjects so I do humbly conceive that it is no Wicked or Ungodly Oath in any respect And I hope I am able to make it good in any learned Assembly in Christendom that this Oath and all those Canons then made and here before recited and every Branch in them are Just and Orthodox and Moderate and most necessary for the present Condition of the Church of England how unwelcom soever to the present Distemper 6. He hath traiterously assumed to himself a Papal and Tyrannical Power both in Ecclesiastical and Temporal Matters over his Majesty's Subjects in this Realm of England and other places to the Disinherison of the Crown Dishonour of his Majesty and Derogation of his Supreme Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters And the said Arch-Bishop claims the King 's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as incident to his Episcopal and Archiepiscopal Office in this Kingdom and doth deny the same to be derived from the Crown of England which he hath accordingly exercised to the high contempt of his Royal Majesty and to the destruction of divers of the King's Liege-People in their Persons and Estates I have not assumed Papal or Tyrannicl Power in matters Ecclesiastical or Temporal to the least Disinherison Dishonour or Derogation of his Majesty's Supream Authority in matters Ecclesiastical or Temporal I never claimed the King's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as incident to my Episcopal or Archiepiscopal Office in this Kingdom Nor did I ever deny that the exercise of my Jurisdiction was derived from the Crown of England But that which I have said and do still say concerning my Office and Calling is this That my Order as a Bishop and my Power of Jurisdiction is by Divine Apostolical Right and unalterable for ought I know in the Church of Christ. But all the Power I or any other Bishop hath to exercise any the least Power either of Order or Jurisdiction within this Realm of England is derived wholly from the Crown And I conceive it were Treasonable to derive it from any other Power Foreign or Domestick And for the Exercise of this Power under his Majesty I have not used it to the Contempt but to the great Advantage of his Royal Person and to the Preservation not the Destruction of his People Both which appear already by the great Distractions Fears and Troubles which all Men are in since my Restraint and which for ought I yet see are like to increase if God be not exceeding Merciful above our Deserts 7. That he hath traiterously endeavoured to alter and subvert God's true Religion by Law established in this Realm and instead thereof to set up Popish Superstition and Idolatry and to that end hath declared and maintained in Speeches and Printed Books divers Popish Doctrines and Opinions contrary to the Articles of Religion established by Law He hath urged and injoyned divers Popish and Superstitious Ceremonies without any warrant of Law and hath cruelly persecuted those who have opposed the same by Corporal Punishment and Imprisonment and most unjustly vexed others who refused to conform thereto by Ecclesiastical Censures of Excommunication Suspension Deprivation and Degradation contrary to the Law of the Kingdom I never endeavoured to alter or subvert God's true Religion established by Law in this Kingdom or to bring in Romish Superstition Neither have I declared maintained or Printed any Popish Doctrine or Opinion contrary to the Articles of Religion established or any one of them either to the end mentioned in this Article or any other I have neither urged nor injoyned any Popish or Superstitious Ceremonies without warrant of Law nor have I cruelly persecuted any Opposers of them But all that I laboured for in this particular was that the external Worship of God in this Church might be kept up in Uniformity and Decency and in some Beauty of Holiness And this the rather because first I found that with the Contempt of the Outward Worship of God the Inward fell away apace and Profaneness began boldly to shew it self And secondly because I could speak with no conscientious Persons almost that were wavering in Religion but the great motive which wrought upon them to disaffect or think meanly of the Church of England was that the external Worship of God was so lost in the Church as they conceived it and the Churches themselves and all things in them suffered to lye in such a base and slovenly Fashion in most places of the Kingdom These and no other Considerations moved me to take so much care as I did of it which was with a single Eye and most free from any Romish Superstition in any thing As for Ceremonies all that I injoyned were according to Law And if any were Superstitious I injoyned them not As for those which are so called by some Men they are no Innovations but Restaurations of the ancient approved Ceremonies in and from the beginning of the Reformation and setled either by Law or Custom till the Faction of such as now openly and avowedly separate from the Church of England did oppose them and cry them down And for the Censures which I put upon any I presume they will to all indifferent Men which will Understandingly and Patiently hear the Cause appear to be Just Moderate and according to Law 8. That for the better advancing of his Traiterous Purpose and Designs he did abuse the great Power and Trust his Majesty reposed in him and did intrude upon the Places of divers great Officers and upon the Right of divers his Majesty's Subjects whereby he did procure to himself the Nomination of sundry
in that Law But how sufficient soever that Cause may be in Parliament if I had been in a Premunire there-while and lost my Liberty and all that I had beside for disobeying the Royal Assent I believe I should have had but cold Comfort when the next Parliament had been Summoned no Exception against the Man being known to me either for Life or Learning but only this Censure Nor is there any Exception which the Arch-Bishop is by that Law allowed to make if my Book be truly Printed Then followed the Charge of Dr. Heylin's Book against Mr. Burton out of which it was urged That an unlimited Power was pressed very far and out of p. 40. That a way was found to make the Subject free and the King a Subject that this Man was preferred by me that Dr. Heylin confessed to a Committee that I commanded him to Answer Mr. Burton's Book and that my Chaplain Dr. Braye Licensed it I Answer'd as follows I did not prefer Dr. Heylin to the King's Service it was the Earl of Danby who had taken Honourable Care of him before in the University His Preferments I did not procure For it appears by what hath been urged against me that the Lord Viscount Dorchester procured him his Parsonage and Mr. Secretary Coke his Prebend in Westminster For his Answer to the Committee that I commanded him to Write against Burton It was an Ingenuous and a True Answer and became him and his Calling well for I did so And neither I in Commanding nor he in Obeying did other than what we had good Precedent for in the Primitive Church of Christ. For when some Monks had troubled the Church at Carthage but not with half that danger which Mr. Burton's Book threatned to this Aurelius then Bishop commanded St. Aug. to Write against it and he did so His Words are Aurelius Scribere Jussit feci But though I did as by my Place I might Command him to Write and Answer yet I did neither Command nor Advise him to insert any thing unsound or unfit If any such thing be found in it he must Answer for himself and the Licenser for himself For as for Licensing of Books I held the same course which all my Predecessors had done And when any Chaplain came new into my House I gave him a strict Charge in that Particular And in all my Predecessors Times the Chaplains suffer'd for faults committed and not their Lords though now all is heaped on me As for the particular Words urged out of Dr. Heylin's Book p. 40. there is neither Expression by them nor Intention in them against either the Law or any Lawful Proceedings but they are directed to Mr. Burton and his Doctrine only The words are You have found out a way not the Law but you Mr. Burton to make the Subject free and the King a Subject Whereas it would well have beseem'd Mr. Burton to have carried his Pen even at the least and left the King his Freedom as well as the Subject his From this they proceeded to another Charge which was That I preferred Chaplains to be about the King and the Prince which were disaffected to the Publick Welfare of the Kingdom The Instance was in Dr Dove And a Passage Read out of his Book against Mr Burton And it was added that the declaring of such disaffection was the best Inducement or Bribe to procure them Preferment To this I then said and 't is true I did never knowingly prefer any Chaplain to the King or Prince that was ill-affected to the Publick And for Dr. Dove if he utter'd by Tongue or by Pen any such wild Speech concerning any Members of the Honourable House of Commons as is urged thereby to shew his disaffection to the Publick he is Living and I humbly desire he may answer it But whereas it was said That this was the best Inducement or Bribe to get Preferment This might have been spared had it so pleased the Gentleman which spake it But I know my Condition and where I am and will not lose my Patience for Language And whereas 't is urged That after this he was Named by me to be a Chaplain to the Prince his Highness the Thing was thus His Majesty had suit made to him that the Prince might have Sermons in his own Chappel for his Family Hereupon his Majesty approving the Motion commanded me to think upon the Names of some fit Men for that Service I did so But before any thing was done I acquainted the Right Honourable the Lord Chamberlain that then was with it my Lord knew most of the Men and approved the Note and delivered it to his Secretary Mr Oldsworth to Swear them This was the Fact And at this time when I put Dr Dove's Name into the List I did not know of any such Passage in his Book nor indeed ever heard of it till now For I had not Read his Book but here and there by snatches I am now come and 't is time to the last Particular of this day And this Charge was The giving of Subsidies to the King in the Convocation without consent in Parliament That the Penalties for not paying were strict and without Appeal as appears in the Act where it is farther said that we do this according to the Duty which by Scripture we are bound unto which reflects upon the Liberties of Parliaments in that behalf But it was added they would not meddle now with the late Canons for any thing else till they came to their due place 1. My Answer to this was That this was not my single Act but the Act of the whole Convocation and could not be appliable to me only 2. That this Grant was no other nor in any other way Mutatis Mutandis than was granted to Queen Elizabeth in Arch-Bishop Whitgift's time This Grant was also put in Execution as appeared by the Originals which we followed These Originals among many other Records were commanded away by the Honourable House of Commons and where they now are I know not But for want of them my Defence cannot be so full 3. For the Circumstances as that the Penalties are without Appeal and the like 't is usual in all such Grants And that we did it according to our Duty and the Rules of Scripture we conceived was a fitting Expression for our selves and Men of our Calling without giving Law to others or any intention to violate the Law in the least For thus I humbly conceive lyes the mutual Relation between the King and his People by Rules of Conscience The Subjects are to supply a full and Honourable Maintenance to the King And the King when Necessities call upon him is to ask of his People in such a way as is per pacta by Law and Covenant agreed upon between them which in this Kingdom is by Parliament yet the Clergy ever granting their own at all times And that this was my Judgment long before this
a poor Evasion was this Were there no other Lawyers for him because Mr. Solicitor was for me The Truth is all that ever I did in this Business was not only with the Knowledge but by the Advice of my Councel which were Mr. Solicitor Littleton and Mr. Herbert At last this Gentleman submitted himself and the Cause and if as he says Dr. Eden perswaded him to it that 's nothing to me As for the Fine I referred the moderation of it wholly to my Councel They pitched upon Sixteen Hundred Pounds and gave such Days of Payment as that a good part is yet unpaid And this Summ was little above one Years Rent For the Parsonage is known to be well worth Thirteen Hundred Pound a Year if not more And after the Business was setled my Lord Wimbleton came to me and gave me great Thanks for preserving this Gentleman being as he said his Kinsman whom he confessed it was in my Power to ruin For the raising of the Rent Sixty Pounds it was to add Means to the several Curats to the Chappels of Ease And I had no Reason to suffer Sir Ralph Ashton to go away with so much Profit and leave the Curats both upon my Conscience and my Purse And for his Fine to St Pauls I gave him all the Ease I could But since his Son will force it from me he was accused of Adultery with divers Women and confessed all And whither that Fine went and by what Authority I have already shewed And thus much more my Lords at Mr. Bridgman's Intreaty I turned this Lease into Lives again without Fine But since I have this Reward for it I wish with all my Heart I had not done it For I am confident in such a Case of Right your Lordships would have left me to the Law and more I wou'd not have asked And I think this though intreated into it was my greatest Error in the Business 6. The last Instance was about the conversion of some Money to St. Pauls out of Administrations By Name Two Thousand Pounds taken out of Wimark's Estate and Five Hundred out of Mr. Gray's First whatsoever was done in this kind I have the Broad-Seal to Warrant it And for Mr. Wimark's Estate all was done according to Law and all care taken for his Kindred And if I had not stired in the Business Four Men all Strangers to his Kindred would have made themselves by a broken Will Executors and swept all away from the Kindred Secondly for Mr. Gray's Estate after as Odious an expression of it as could be made and as void of Truth as need to be the Proceedings were confessed to be Orderly and Legal and the Charge deserted Then there was a fling at Sir Charles Caesar's getting of the Mastership of the Rolls for Money and that I was his means for it And so it was thence inferred That I sold Places of Judicature or helped to sell them For this they produced a Paper under my Hand But when they had thrown all the Dirt they could upon me they say they did only shew what Probabilities they had for it and what Reason they had to lay it in the end of the Fourth Original Article and so deserted it And well they might For I never had more Hand in this Business than that when he came to me about it I told him plainly as things then stood that Place was not like to go without more Money than I thought any Wise Man would give for it Nor doth the Paper mentioned say any more but that I informed the Lord Treasurer what had passed between us CAP. XXVIII THis day ended I was Ordered to appear again April 4. 1644. And received a Note from the Committee under Serjeant Wild's Hand dated April 1. That they meant to proceed next upon the Fifth and Sixth Original Articles and upon the Ninth Additional which follow in haec verba The Fifth Original He hath Trayterously caused a Book of Canons to be Composed and Published and those Canons to be put in Execution without any lawful Warrant and Authority in that behalf in which pretended Canons many Matters are contained contrary to the King's Prerogative to the Fundamental Laws and Statutes of this Realm to the Right of Parliament to the Propriety and Liberty of the Subjects and Matters tending to Sedition and of dangerous Consequence and to the Establishment of a vast unlawful and presumptus Power in himself and his Successors Many of the which Canons by the practice of the said Arch-Bishop were surreptitiously passed in the late Convocation without due consideration and debate others by fear and compulsion were Subscribed unto by the Prelats and Clerks there assembled which had never been Voted and Passed in the Convocation as they ought to have been And the said Arch-Bishop hath contrived and endeavoured to assure and confirm the Vnlawful and Exorbitant Power which he hath Vsurped and Exercised over his Majesty's Subjects by a Wicked and Vngodly Oath in one of the said pretended Canons injoyned to be taken by all the Clergy and many of the Layety of this Kingdom The Sixth Original He hath Trayterously assumed to himself a Papal and Tyrannical Power both in Ecclesiastical and Temporal Matters over his Majesty's Subjects in this Realm of England and in other places to the Disherison of the Crown Dishonour of his Majesty and Derogation of his Supream Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters And the said Arch-Bishop claims the King 's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as incident to his Episcopal and Archiepiscopal Office in this Kingdom and doth deny the same to be derived from the Crown of England which he hath accordingly exercised to the high contempt of his Royal Majesty and to the destruction of divers of the King's Liege People in their Persons and Estates The Ninth Additional Article That in or about the Month of May 1641. presently after the dissolution of the last Parliament the said Arch-Bishop for the ends and purposes aforesaid caused a Synod or Convocation of the Clergy to be held for the several Provinces of Canterbury and York wherein were made and established by his Means and procurement divers Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical contrary to the Laws of this Realm the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament and Liberty and Property of the Subject tending also to Sedition and of dangerous Consequence And amongst other things the said Arch-Bishop caused a most Dangerous and Illegal Oath to be therein made and contrived the Tenor whereof followeth in these words That I A. B. do Swear that I do approve the Doctrine and Discipline or Government Established in the Church of England as containing all things necessary to Salvation And that I will not endeavour by my self or any other directly or indirectly to bring in any Popish Doctrine contrary to that which is so Established Nor will I ever give my consent to alter the Government of this Church by Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons c. as it
agrees as he said with my Judgment For that in a Paper of Bishop Harsnett's there is a Marginal Note in my Hand that Salvo Jure Coronae is understood in the Oaths of a King But first there 's a great deal of difference between Jus Regis Praerogativa between the Right and Inheritance of the King and his Prerogative though never so Legal And with Submission and until I shall be convinced herein I must believe that no King can Swear himself out of his Native Right Secondly If this were and still be an Error in my Judgment that 's no Argument at all to prove Malice in my Will That because that is my Judgment for Jus Regis therefore I must thrust Praerogativam Regis which is not my Judgment into a Publick Oath which I had no Power to alter These were all the Proofs which Mr. Maynard at first and Mr. Brown at last brought against me in this Particular And they are all but Conjectural and the Conjectures weak But that I did not alter this Oath by adding the Prerogative the Proofs I shall bring are Pregnant and some of them Necessary They are these 1. My Predecessor was one of the Grand Committee for these Ceremonies That was proved by his Servants to the Lords Now his known Love to the Publick was such as that he would never have suffered me or any other to make such an Alteration Nor would he have concealed such a Crime in me loving me so well as he did 2. Secondly 'T is Notoriously known that he Crowned the King and Administred the Oath which was avowed also before the Lords by his Ancient Servants And it cannot be rationally conceived he would ever have Administred such an alter'd Oath to his Majesty 3. Thirdly 'T is expressed in my Diary at Januar. 31. 1625. And that must be good Evidence for me having been so often produced against me that divers great Lords were in this Committee for the Ceremonies and did that Day sit in Council upon them And can it be thought they would not so much as compare the Books Or that comparing of them they would indure an Oath with such an Alteration to be Tender'd to the King Especially since 't is before confessed that One Copy of King James his Coronation had this Alteration in it and the other had it not 4. Fourthly 'T is expressed in my Diary and made use of against me at Januar. 23. 1625. That this Book urged against me did agree per Omnia cum Libro Regali in all things with the King's Book brought out of the Exchequer And if the Book that I then had and is now insisted upon did agree with that Book which came out of the Exchequer and that in all things how is it possible I should make this Alteration 5. Fifthly with much Labour I got the Books to be compared in the Lords House That of King James his Coronation and this of King Charles And they were found to agree in all things to a Syllable Therefore 't is impossible this should be added by me And this I conceive cuts off all Conjectural Proofs to the contrary Lastly In the Printed Book of the Votes of this present Parliament it is acknowledged that the Oath given to King James and King Charles was the same The same Therefore unaltered And this Passage of that Book I then shewed the Lords in my Defence To this Mr. Maynard then replyed That the Votes there mentioned were upon the Word Elegerit and the doubt whether it should be hath chosen or shall chuse I might not then Answer to the Reply but the Answer is plain For be the occasion which led on the Votes what it will as long as the Oath is acknowledged the same 't is manifest it could not be altered by me And I doubt not but these Reasons will give this Honourable House Satisfaction that I added not this Particular of the Prerogative to the Oath Mr. Brown in his last Reply passed over the other Arguments I know not how But against this he took Exception He brought the Book with him and Read the Passage And said as far as I remember that the Votes had Relation to the Word Chuse and not to this Alteration Which is in Effect the same which Mr. Maynard urged before I might not Reply by the Course of the Court but I have again considered of that Passage and find it plain Thus First they say They have considered of all the Alterations in the Form of this Oath which they can find Therefore of this Alteration also if any such were Then they say Excepting that Oath which was taken by his Majesty and his Father King James There it is confessed that the Oath taken by them was one and the same called there That Oath which was taken by both Where falls the Exception then For 't is said Excepting that Oath c. why it follows Excepting that the Word Chuse is wholly left out as well hath Chosen as will Chuse Which is a most manifest and evident Confession that the Oath of King James and King Charles was the same in all things to the very leaving out of the Word Chuse Therefore it was the same Oath all along No difference at all For Exceptio firmat Regulam in non Exceptis and here 's no Exception at all of this Clause of the Prerogative Therefore the Oath of both the Kings was the same in that or else the Votes would have been sure to mention it Where it may be observed too that Serjeant Wilde though he knew these Votes and was present both at the Debate and the Voting and so must know that the Word Chuse was omitted in both the Oaths yet at the first he Charged it eagerly upon me that I had left this Clause of Chusing out of King Charles his Oath and added the other God forgive him But the World may see by this and some other Passages with what Art my Life was sought for And yet before I quite leave this Oath I may say 't is not altogether improbable that this Clause And agreeing to the Prerogative of the King 's thereof was added to the Oath in Edward 6. or Queen Elizabeth's time And hath no Relation at all to the Laws of this Kingdom absolutely mentioned before in the beginning of this Oath But only to the Words The Profession of the Gospel Established in this Kingdom And then immediately follows And agreeing to the Prerogative of the Kings thereof By which the King Swears to maintain his Prerogative according to God's Law and the Gospel Established against all foreign Claims and Jurisdictions whatsoever And if this be the meaning he that made the Alteration whoever it were for I did it not deserves Thanks for it and not the Reward of a Traytor Now to return to the Day The Fourth Charge went on with the Ceremonies still But Mr. Serjeant was very nimble For he leaped from the Coronation at Westminster
within it for the Reasons formerly alledged 2. Because an Endeavour to subvert Laws is of so great a Latitude and Uncertainty that every Action not Warranted by Law may be thereby extended to be a Treason In the Sixth Report in Mildmays Case Fol. 42. where a Conveyance was made in Tail with a Proviso if he did go about or attempt to discontinue the Entail the same should be void It was resolved the Proviso was void and the principal Reason was that these Words attempt or go about are Words uncertain and void in Law And the Words of the Book are very observable viz. God defend that Inheritances and Estates of Men should depend upon such incertainties for that Misera est Servitus ubi Jus est vagum quod non definitur in Jure quid fit conatus and therefore the Rule of the Law doth decide this point Non efficit conatus nisi sequitur effectus and the Law doth reject Conations and goings about as things uncertain which cannot be put in issue These are the Words of the Book And if so considerable in Estates your Lordships we conceive will hold it far more considerable in a Case of Life which is of highest Consequence And if it should be said this Law of 25. Ed. 3. takes notice of Compassing and Imagining We answer it is in a Particular declared by that Law to be Treason in Compassing the death of the King But this of Endeavouring to subvert Laws not declared by that or any other Law to be a Treason And if it should be granted that this Law might in any Case admit any other Fact to be Treason by Inference or Construction other than is therein particularly declared which we conceive it cannot Yet it is not Imaginable that a Law introduced purposely to limit and ascertain Crimes of so high Consequence should by Construction or Inference be subject to a Construction of admitting so uncertain and indefinite a thing as an endeavour to subvert the Law is it being not comprised within the Letter of that Law 3. That the Subversion of the Law is an impossible thing therefore an Endeavour to do an act which cannot be effected cannot be Treason 4. That in all times the Endeavouring to subvert the Laws hath been conceived no determinate Crime but rather an Aggravation only of a Crime than otherwise And therefore hath been usually joyned as an Aggravation or result of Crimes below Treason As appears in the Parliament Roll 28 H. 6. num 28. to num 47. in the Case of the Duke of Suffolk where the Commons having in Parliament preferred Articles of Treason against him did not make that any part of their Charge Yet in the same Parliament and within few Days after the First being in February the latter in March Exhibiting other Articles against him they therein Charged all the Misprisions Offences and Deeds therein mentioned to have been the cause of the Subversion of Laws and Justice and the Execution thereof and nigh likely to tend to the Destruction of the Realm So as it appears it was then conceived an Offence of another Nature and not a Treason And it appears as well by the Articles exhibited in Parliament 21 H. 8. against Cardinal Woolsey as by Indictment in the Kings Bench against Ligham 23 H. 8. Rot. 25. That the Cardinal did Endeavour to subvert Antiquissimas Leges hujus Regni Vniversumque hoc Regnum Angliae Legibus Imperialibus Subjugare which although it be a Charge of subverting the ancient Laws of the Kingdom and to introduce new and Arbitrary Laws yet neither upon the Articles or Indictment was the same imputed to be Treason but ended in a Charge of a Premunire And if it shall be said that Empson 1 H. 8. had Judgment and Died for it upon an Indictment in London We answer 1. This was not the Substance of the Indictment but only an Aggravation 2. And if Charged it is with an actual subverting not with an Endeavour to subvert the Laws and is joyned with divers other Offences 3. Which is a full Answer The Indictment upon which he was Tryed was Paschae 2 H. 8. at Northampton and was for Levying War against the King a Treason declared by the Law of 25 Ed. 3. upon which he was Convicted and Suffered and no proceeding upon the other Indictment ever had And as to the second General Charge of Endeavouring to subvert Religion This no more than that former of subverting the Laws is any Treason within any Law established in this Kingdom And herein as to the Charge of the Endeavour we shall rely upon what hath been already said upon the former With this further That until that happy Reformation begun in the time of King Edward VI. there was another Frame of Religion established by Law which was conceived until then to have been the True Religion and any Endeavour to Change or Alter it prosecuted with great Extremities Yet was not any Attempt to alter it conceived to be a Treason but several especial Acts of Parliaments were made for particular Punishments against Persons who should attempt the Alteration thereof Witness the Statute of 5 R. 2. Cap. 5. and 2 H. 5. Cap. 7. In which latter although mention is made of endeavouring to destroy and subvert the Christian Faith yet was not the Offence made or declared to be Treason And at this day Heresie of what kind soever is not punishable but according to the old course of the Law And we may add the Statute of 1 Edw. 6. Cap. 12. that of 1 Mariae 12. which makes it but Felony to attempt an Alteration of Religion by force The worst kind of Attempt certainly To the third and last general Charge Labouring to subvert the Rights of Parliaments To the Labouring to do it we shall add nothing to what hath been said to the Charge of Endeavour in the two former only thus much we shall observe That in the Parliament of 11 R. 2. amongst the many Articles preferred against the Duke of Ireland and others the 14th Article contains a Charge much of this Nature viz. That when the Lords and others in divers Parliaments had moved to have a good Government in the Realm they had so far incensed the King that he caused divers to depart from his Parliament so that they durst not for fear of Death advise for the good of the Kingdom Yet when the Lords came to single out the Articles what was or was not Treason That although a Charge transcending this was none of the Articles by them declared to be Treason My Lords Having done with these Generals it remains only that we apply our selves to those other Articles which we conceive were insisted upon as Instances conducing and applied to some of the Generals we have handled Wherein if the Generals be not Treason the Particular Instances cannot be and on the other side if the Instances fall
herewith presently to me I will send an Express away with it presently In the mean time I have by this Express returned him this Answer That I think he shall do well to hold on the Treaty with these Men with all Care and Secresy and drive on to the Discovery so soon as the Business is ripe for it that he may assure himself and them they shall not want reward if they do the Service That for my part he shall be sure of Secresy and that I am most confident that your Majesty will not impart it to any That he have a special Eye to the Eighth and Ninth Proposition Sir for Gods sake and your own safety secresy in this business And I beseech you send me back this Letter and all that comes with it spedily and secretly and trust not your own Pockets with them I shall not eat nor sleep in quiet till I receive them And so soon as I have them again and your Majesty's Warrant to proceed no diligence shall be wanting in me to help on the Discovery This is the greatest business that ever was put to me And if I have herein proposed or done any thing amiss I most humbly crave your Majesty's pardon But I am willing to hope I have not herein erred in judgment and in fidelity I never will These Letters came to me on Thursday Septemb. 10. at night and I sent these away according to the date hereof being extreamly wearied with writing this Letter copying out these other which come with this and dispatching my Letters back to him that sent these all in my own hand Once again secrecy for God's sake and your own To his most blessed Protection I commend your Majesty and all your Affairs And am York 13. Lambeth Septemb. 11. 1640. Your Majesty's most humble faithful servant W. Cant. As I had ended these whether with the labour or indignation or both I fell into an extream faint Sweat I pray God keep me from a Fever of which three are down in my Family at Croyden These Letters came late to me the Express being beaten back by the Wind. The Arch-Bishop's Indorsement with his own Hand Received from the King Sept. 16. 1640. For your Sacred Majesty Yours Apostyled The King's Answer to the Plot against him c. Sir William Boswell's second Letter to the Arch-Bishop May it please your Grace THis Evening late I have received your Grace's dispatch with the enclosed from his Majesty by my Secretary Oueart and shall give due account with all possible speed of the same according to his Majesty's and your Grace's Commands praying heartily that my Endeavours which shall be most faithful may also prove effectual to his Majesty's and your Grace's content with which I do most humbly take leave being always Hagh 24. Sept. 1640. S. Angelo Your Grace's most dutiful and humble servant William Boswell The Arch-Bishop's Indorsement Received Sept. 30. 1640. Sir William Boswell his acknowledgment that he hath received the King's directions and my Letters Sir William Boswell's third Letter to the Arch-Bishop sent with the larger Discovery of the Plot. May it please your Grace UPon receipt of his Majesty's Commands with your Grace's Letters of 9. and 18. Sept. last I dealt with the party to make good his offers formerly put in my Hand and transmitted to your Grace This he hopes to have done by the inclosed so far as will be needful for his Majesty's satisfaction yet if any more particular explanation or discovery shall be required by his Majesty or your Grace He hath promised to add thereunto whatsoever he can remember and knows of truth And for better assurance and verification of his integrity he professeth himself ready if required to make Oath of what he hath already declared or shall hereafter declare in the business His Name he conjures me still to conceal Though he thinks his Majesty and your Grace by the Character he gives of himself will easily imagine who he is having been known so generally through Court and City as he was for three or four Years in the quality and imployment he acknowledgeth by his Declaration inclosed himself to have held Hereupon he doth also redouble his most humble and earnest suit unto his Majesty and your Grace to be most secret and circumspect in the Business that he may not be suspected to have discovered or had a hand in the same I shall here humbly beseech your Grace to let me know what I may further do for his Majesty's Service or for your Grace's particular behoof that I may accordingly endeavour to approve my self as I am Hague 15. Octob. 1640. Your Grace's most dutiful and obliged servant William Boswell The Arch-Bishop's Indorsement Received Octob. 14. 1640. Sir William Boswell in prosecution of the great Business If any thing come to him in Cyphers to send it to him The large particular Discovery of the Plot and Treason against the King Kingdom and Protestant Religion and to raise the Scottish Wars Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord. WE have willingly and cordially perceived that our offers have been acceptable both to his Royal Majesty and likewise to your Grace This is the only Index to us That the blessing of God is present with you whereby a spur is given that we should so much the more cheerfully and freely utter and detect those things whereby the hazard of both your Lives the subversion of the Realm and State both of England and Scotland the tumbling down of his Excellent Majesty from his Throne is intended Now lest the Discourse should be enlarged with superfluous circumstances we will only premise some things which are meerly necessary to the business They may first of all 〈◊〉 that this good Man by whom the ensuing things are detected was born and bred in the Popish Religion who spent many Years in Ecclesiastical dignities At length being found fit for the expedition of the present Design by the counsel and mandate of the Lord Cardinal Barbarino he was adjoyned to the assistance of Master Cuneus Cun by whom he was found so diligent and sedulous in his Office that hope of great promotion was given to him Yet he led by the instinct of the good Spirit hath howsoever it be contemned sweet promises and having known the vanities of the Pontifician Religion of which he had sometime been a most severe defender having likewise noted the Malice of those who fight under the Popish Banner felt his Conscience to be burdened which Burden that he might case himself of he converted his Mind to the Orthodox Religion Soon after that he might exonerate his Conscience he thought 〈◊〉 that a desperate Treason machinated against so many Souls was to be revealed and that he should receive ease if he vented such things into the Bosom of a Friend Which done he was seriously admonished by the said Friend that he should shew an Example of his Conversion and Charity and free
me in my Sleep having been dead two Years before at least He seemed to me in very good plight and merry enough I told him what I had done for his Widow and Children He after a little thought answered That the Executor had satisfied him for those Legacies while he was yet alive And presently looking upon some Papers in his Study adjoyning he added that it was so He moreover whispering in my Ear told me that I was the Cause why the Bishop of Lincoln was not again admitted into Favour and to Court Apr. 4. Wednesday When his Majesty King Charles forgave to Doctor Donne certain slips in a Sermon Preached on Sunday Apr. 1. what he then most graciously said unto me I have wrote in my Heart with 〈◊〉 Characters and great 〈◊〉 to God and the King Apr. 7. Saturday Going to Court to wait upon the King at Supper in going out of the Coach my foot stumbling I fell headlong I never had a more dangerous fall but by God's mercy I escaped with a light bruise of my Hip only Apr. 24. Tuesday There were then first sent to me the Exceptitions which the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had Exhibited against Doctor Sibthorp's Sermon and what followed April 29. Sunday I was made Privy-Councellour to his Majesty King Charles God grant it may conduce to his Honour and to the good of the Kingdom and the Church May 13. Whitsunday I Preached before the King c. Junij 7 8. I attended King Charles from London to Southwick by Portsmouth Junij 11. His Majesty dined a-board the Triumph where I attended him June 17. The Bishoprick of London was granted me at Southwick June 22. We came to London June 24. I was commanded to go all the Progress June 27. The Duke of Buckingham set forwards towards the Isle of Ree June 30. The Progress began to Oatlands July 4. The King lost a Jewel in Hunting of a 1000 l. value That day the Message was sent by the King for the Sequestring of A. B. C. July 7. Saturday-night I dreamed that I had lost two Teeth The Duke of Buckingham took the Isle of Ree July 26. I attended the King and Queen at Wellingburrough July 29. The first News came from my Lord Duke of his Success Sunday August 12. The second News came from my Lord Duke to Windsor Sunday August 26. The third News came from my Lord Duke to Aldershot Sunday September News came from my Lord Duke to Theobalds The first fear of ill Success News from my Lord Duke to Hampton-Court I went to my Lord of Rochester to consider about A. B. C. and returned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Court 〈◊〉 King's Speech to me in the withdrawing Chamber That if any did c. I c. before any thing should sink c. The business of Doctor Bargar Dean of Canterbury began about the Vicaridge of Lidd October The Commission to the Bishops of London Durham Rochester Oxford and my self then Bath and Wells to Execute Archiepiscopal Jurisdiction during the Sequestration of my Lord's Grace of Canterbury The Dean of Canterbury's Speech that the business could not go well in the Isle of Ree There must be a Parliament some must be Sacrificed that I was as like as any Spoken to Doctor W. The same Speech after spoken to the same Man by Sir Dudlye Diggs I told it when I heard it doubled Let me desire you not to trouble your self with any Reports till you see me forsake my other Friends c. Ita Ch. R. The Retreat out of the Isle of Ree November My Lord Duke's return to Court The Countess of Purbeck censured in the High Commission for Adultery December 25. I Preached to the King at White-Hall January 29. Tuesday A resolution at the Council Table for a Parliament to begin March 17. if the Shires go on with levying Money for the Navy c. January 30. Wednesday My Lord Duke of Buckingham's Son was Born the Lord George New Moon die 26. February 5. Tuesday The straining of the back sinew of my right Leg as I went with his Majesty to Hampton-Court I kept in till I Preached at the opening of the Parliament March 17. but I continued lame long after saving that Februar 14. Thursday Saint Valentine's-day I made a shift to go and Christen my Lord Duke's Son the Lord George at Wallingford-House March 17. I Preached at the opening of the Parliament but had much ado to stand it was Munday Anno 1628. June 1. Whitsunday I Preached at White-Hall June 11. My Lord Duke of Buckingham Voted in the House of Commons to be the Cause or Causes of all Grievances in the Kingdom June 12. Thursday I was complained of by the House of Commons for warranting Doctor Manwaring's Sermons to the Press June 13. Dr. Manwaring answered for himself before the Lords and the next day June 14. Being Saturday was Censured After his Censure my Cause was called to the Report And by God's Goodness towards me I was fully cleared in the House The same day the House of Commons were making their Remonstrance to the King One Head was Innovation of Religion Therein they Named my Lord the Bishop of Winchester and my self One in the House stood up and said Now we have Named these Persons let us think of some Causes why we did it Sir Edw. Cooke answered Have we not Named my Lord of Buckingham without shewing a Cause and may we not be as bold with them June 17. This Remonstrance was delivered to the King on Tuesday June 26. Thursday The Session of Parliament ended and was Prorogued to October 20. July 11. Tuesday My Conge-deslier was Signed by the King for the Bishoprick of London July 15. Tuesday St. Swithin and fair with us I was Translated to the Bishoprick of London The same day the Lord Weston was made Lord Treasurer August 9. Saturday A terrible salt Rheum in my left Eye had almost put me into a Fever August 12. Tuesday My Lord Duke of Buckingham went towards Portsmouth to go for Rochell August 23. Saturday St Bartholomew's Eve the Duke of Buckingham slain at Portsmouth by one Lieutenant Felton about Nine in the Morning August 24. The News of his Death came to Croydon where it found my self and the Bishops of Winchester Ely and Carlile at the Consecration of Bishop Montague for Chichester with my Lord's Grace August 27. Wednesday Mr. Elphinston brought me a very Gracious Message from his Majesty upon my Lord Duke's Death August 30. As I was going out to meet the Corps of the Duke which that Night was brought to London Sir W Fleetwood brought me very Gracious Letters from the King's Majesty written with his own Hand September 9. Tuesday The first time that I went to Court after the Death of the Duke of Buckingham my dear Lord The Gracious Speech which that Night the King was pleased to use to me September 27. Saturday I fell Sick and came Sick from Hampton-Court Tuesday Septemb. ult I was sore
found him with his Mother sitting in the Room It was a fair Chamber he went away and I went after but missed him and after tyred my self extreamly but neither could I find him nor so much as the House again Anno 1637 March 30. Thursday I Christened the Lady Princess Ann King Charles his third Daughter She was born on Friday March 17. Junij 10. My Book of the Records in the Tower which concerned the Clergy and which I caused to be Collected and Written in Vellam was brought me finished 'T is ab Ann. 20. Ed. 1. ad Ann. 14. Ed. 4. Junij 14. This Day Jo Bastwick Dr of Physick Hen Burton Batch of Divinity and Will Prynne Barrister at Law were Censured for their Libells against the Hierarchy of the Church c. Junij 26. The Speech I then spake in the Star-Chamber was commanded by the King to be Printed And it came out Junij the 25. Junij 26. This Day Munday The Prince Elector and his Brother Prince Rupert began their Journey toward the Sea Side to return for Holland Junij 30. Friday the above named three Libellers lost their Ears Julij 7. Friday A Note was brought to me of a Short Libel pasted on the Cross in Cheapside that the Arch-Wolf of Cant. had his Hand in persecuting the Saints and shedding the Blood of the Martyrs Memento for the last of June Julij 11. Tuesday Dr. Williams Lord Bishop of Lincoln was Censured in the Star-Chamber for tampering and corrupting of Wit in the King's Cause Julij 24. Being Munday He was suspended by the High Commission c. Aug. 3. Thursday I Married James Duke of Lenox to the Lady Mary Villars sole Daughter to the Lord Duke of Buckingham The Marriage was in my Chappel at Lambeth the Day very Rainy the King present Aug. 23. Wednesday My Lord Mayor sent me a Libel found by the Watch at the South Gate of St. Pauls That the Devil had lett that House to me c. Aug. 25. Friday Another Libel brought me by an Officer of the High Commission fastned to the North Gate of St. Pauls That the Government of the Church of England is a Candle in the Snuff going out in a Stench Aug. 25. The same Day at Night my Lord Mayor sent me another Libel hanged upon the Standard in Cheapside My Speech in the Star-Chamber set in a kind of Pillory c. Aug. 29. Tuesday Another short Libel against me in Verse Octob. 22. Sunday A great Noise about the perverting of the Lady Newport Speech of it at the Council My free Speech there to the King concerning the increasing of the Roman Party the Freedom at Denmark-house the Carriage of Mr. Wal. Montague and Sir Toby Matthews The Queen acquainted with all I said that very Night and highly displeased with me and so continues Novemb. 22. Wednesday The extream and unnatural hot Winter Weather began and continued till Decemb. 8. Decemb. 12. Tuesday I had Speech with the Queen a good space and all about the Business of Mr. Montague but we parted fair Anno 1638. April 29. The Tumults in Scotland about the Service-Book offered to be brought in began July 23. 1637. and continued increasing by fits and hath now brought that Kingdom in danger No question but there is a great Concurrence between them and the Puritan Party in England A great aim there to destroy me in the King's Opinion c. Maij 26. Saturday James Lord Marquess Hamilton set forth as the King's Commissioner to appease the Tumults in Scotland God prosper him for God and the King It was a very Rainy Day June My Visitation then began of Merton Coll. in Oxford by my Visitors was Adjourned to my own Hearing against and upon Octob. 2. Octob. 2. 3. 4. I sate upon this Business these Three Days and Adjourned it to July 1. inter Horas primam tertiam Lambeth The Warden appeared very foul Octob. 19. Friday News was brought to us as we sate in the Star-Chamber That the Queen-Mother of France was Landed at Harwich many and great Apprehensions upon this Business Extream Windy and Wet Weather a Week before and after the Water-men called it Q Mother Weather Octob. 26. Friday A most Extream Tempest upon the Thames I was in it going from the Star-Chamber Home between six and seven at Night I was never upon the Water in the like Storm And was in great Danger at my Landing at Lambeth Bridge Octob. 31. Wednesday The Q Mother came into London and so to St James's Novemb. 13. Tuesday The Agreement between me and Ab. S. c. Novemb. 21. Wednesday The General Assembly in Scotland began to Sit. Novemb. 29. Thursday The Proclamation issued out for dissolving the General Assembly in Scotland under pain of Treason Decemb. 20. They sate notwithstanding and made many strange Acts till Decemb. 20. which was Thursday and then they rose But have indicted another Assembly against July next Januar. 14. Munday About 5. at Night a most grievous Tempest of Wind Thunder Lightning and Rain Feb. 10. My Book against Fisher the Jesuit was Printed and this day being Sunday I delivered a Copy to his Majesty Feb. 12. Tuesday-night I dreamed that K. C. was to be Married to a Minister's Widow And that I was called upon to do it No Service-Book could be found and in my own Book which I had I could not find the Order for Marriage Anno 1639. March 27. Wednesday Coronation-day King Charles took his Journey Northward against the Scottish Covenanting Rebels God of his infinite Mercy bless him with Health and Success March 29. Friday An extream Fire in St. Olaves Parish Southwark forty Houses burnt down April 3. Wednesday Before the King 's going I setled with him a great business for the Queen which I understood she would never move for her self The Queen gave me great Thanks And this day I waited purposely on her to give her Thanks for her gracious acceptance She was pleased to be very free with me and to promise me freedom April 29. Munday This day the King went from York toward New-Castle but stayeth at Durham for a week at least Maij 28. His Majesty incamped two Miles West from Barwick by Tweed Junij 4. Whitson-Tuesday As I was going to do my duty to the Queen an Officer of the Lord Mayor's met me and delivered to me two very Seditious Papers the one to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen the other to excite the Apprentices c. Both Subscribed by John Lilburn a Prisoner in the Fleet Sentenced in the Star-Chamber c. Junij 5. Wednesday I delivered both these to the Lords of the Council Junij 15 17. Saturday and Munday The Peace concluded between the King and the Scottish Rebels God make it safe and Honourable to the King and Kingdom Junij 28. Friday I sent the remainder of my Manuscripts to Oxford being in number 576. And about an Hundred of them were Hebrew Arabick and Persian
Master with all Duty and Faithfulness and without any known or wilful Disservice to the State there-while And this I did with as true and free a Heart as ever any Man did that served a King And I thank God my care was such for the Publick that it is well known I much neglected my own private Fortunes there-while The more was I amazed at the first apprehension of this heavy and undeserved Charge Upon this Charge I was commanded to withdraw But I first desired leave to speak a few words And I spake to this effect That I was heartily sorry for the Offence taken against me and that I was most unhappy to have my Eyes open to see that day and mine Ears to hear such a Charge But humbly desired their Lordships to look upon the whole course of my Life which was such as that I did verily perswade my self not one Man in the House of Commons did believe in his Heart that I was a Traytor Here my Lord the Earl of Essex interrupted me and said That Speech of mine was a Scandal put upon the whole House of Commons that they should bring me up charged with so high a Crime which themselves did not believe I 〈◊〉 desired then that I might be proceeded with in the Antient Parliamentary way of England This the Lord Say excepted against as if I would prescribe them how they should proceed So I withdrew as I was commanded and was presently called in again to the Bar and thence delivered to Mr. James Maxwell the Officer of the Black Rod to be kept in safe Custody till the House of Commons should farther Impeach me Here I humbly desired leave that I might go home to fetch some Papers necessary for my Defence This was granted me with some difficulty and Mr. Maxwell was commanded to Attend me all the while I should stay When I was gone to Lambeth after some little discourse and sad enough with my Steward and some private Friends I went into my Chappel to Evening Prayer The Psalms for that day gave me much comfort and were observed by some Friends then present as well as by my self And upon the Comfort I then received I have every day since unless some urgent Business prevented me Read over both these Psalms and God willing purpose so to do every day of my Life Prayers being ended I went with Mr. Maxwell as I was commanded Hundreds of my Poor Neighbours standing at my Gates to see me go and Praying 〈◊〉 for my safe return to my House For which I blessed God and them CAP. II. AND because here I am sure to find my self being now Imprisoned I will begin farther off and shew briefly why and how this Malignity pursued and overtook me When I was first Bishop of London His Majesty expressed a great desire which he had to settle a Liturgy in the Church of Scotland and this continued in agitation many Years And what my part was therein I shall clearly and ingenuously set down hereafter when I come to Answer the Scottish Accusations of me in that behalf or the Articles of the Parliament here one of which relates to them In the Year 1633. His Majesty went into Scotland and was Crowned there I attended his Majesty in that Service The Parliament then sitting in Scotland was very quick about some Church Affairs and the King was much unsatisfied with some Men and their Proceedings At his Majesty's Return in the same Year I was by his special Grace and Favour made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury 19 Septembris The debate about the Scottish Liturgy was pursued a-fresh and at last it was resolved by the King that some Scottish Bishops should draw up a Liturgy as near that of England as might be and that then his Majesty would have that Confirmed and Setled for the use of that Kingdom This Liturgy was carefully considered of and at last Printed and Published An. 1637. It seems the Bishops which were trusted with this business went not the right way by a General Assembly and other Legal Courses of that Kingdom But what way soever was taken or in whomsoever there was a failure this was certain in the Event The Bishops were deceived in their expectation of a peaceable admission of that Service-Book The King lost the Honour and Safety of that Settlement And that Kingdom such a Form of God's Service as I fear they will never come near again And that People by cunning and factious practices both at home and from hence were heated into such a Phrensie as will not easily be cured And 't is well if we their Neighbours run not mad for Company These violent Distempers continued from the Publishing of this Service-Book in the Year 1637. till the Year 1638. Then they grew up into a formal Mutiny And the Scottish Subjects began to Petition with Arms in their Mouths first and soon after in their Hands His Majesty was often told that these Northern Commotions had their Root in England His Majesty's Goodness was confident upon the Fidelity of his Subjects of both Nations and would not believe that of either which was most true of a powerful Faction in both Till at last after much intercourse and mediation lost and cast away the King was so betray'd by some of his own Agents that the Scots appeared upon their Borders in a formal Army His Majesty went with an Army to Barwick There after some stay a Pacification was made and his Majesty returned to White-Hall Aug. 3. 1639. Now during all this time from the Publishing of this Service-Book to this Pacification I was voyced by the Faction in both Nations to be an Incendiary a Man that laboured to set the two Nations into a bloody War Whereas God knows I laboured for Peace so long till I received a great check for my labour And particularly at the beginning of these Tumults when the Speech of a War first began in the Year 1638. openly at the Council-Table at Theobalds my Counsels alone prevailed for Peace and Forbearance in hope the Scots would think better of their Obedience But their Counsels were fomented to another end as after appeared The Pacification being made was in Terms as followeth The Articles of the Pacification 1. The Forces of Scotland to be disbanded and dissolved within Eight and Forty Hours after the Publication of his Majesty's Declaration being agreed upon 2. His Majesty's Castles Forts Ammunitions of all sorts and Royal Honours to be delivered after the Publication so soon as his Majesty can send to receive them 3. His Majesty's Ships to depart presently after the delivery of the Castles with the first fair Wind and in the mean time no interruption of Trade or Fishing 4. His Majesty is Graciously pleased to cause to be restored all Persons Goods and Ships detained and arrested since the first of November last past 5. There shall be no Meetings Treatings Consultations or Convocations of his Majesty's Lieges but such
Novations now spoken of were not then on Foot So that it is evident enough to any Man that will see that these Commotions had another and a higher cause than the present pretended Innovations And if his Majesty had played the King then he needed not have suffered now Besides they are no Fools who have spoken it freely since the Act of Oblivion for the Scottish Business was passed that this great League before mentioned between the discontented Party of both Kingdoms was Consulted on in the Year 1632. and after the King 's being in Scotland Anno 1633. it went on till they took occasion another way to hatch the Cockatrice Egg which was laid so long before But they say these Novations were great besides the Books of Ordination and Homilies So the Books of Ordination and Homilies were great Novations Had they then in Scotland no set Form of Ordination I promise you that 's next Neighbour to no Ordination and no Ordination to no Church formal at least And therefore if this be a Novation among them its high time they had it And for the Homilies if they taught no other Doctrine than was established and current in the Church of Scotland they were no Novations and if they did contain other Doctrine they might have Condemned them and there had been an end Howsoever if these Books be among them in Scotland they were sent thither in King James his Time when the Prelate of Canterbury neither was nor could be the prime cause on Earth of that Novation The other Novations which they proceed unto are first some particular Alterations in matters of Religion pressed upon them without Order and against Law To this I can say nothing till the particular Alterations be named Only this in the general be they what they will the Scottish Bishops were to blame if they pressed any thing without Order or against Law And sure I am the Prelate of Canterbury caused them not nor would have consented to the causing of them had he known them to be such The two other Novations in which they instance are the Book of Canons and the Liturgy which they say contain in them many dangerous Errours in Matter of Doctrine To these how dangerous soever they seem I shall give I hope a very sufficient and clear answer and shall ingenuously set down whatsoever I did either in or to the Book of Canons and the Liturgy and then leave the ingenuous Reader to judge how far the Prelate of Canterbury is the prime cause on Earth of these Things ART I. AND first that this Prelate was the Author and Vrger of some particular Things which made great disturbance amongst us we make manifest first by Fourteen Letters Subscribed W. Cant. in the space of two Years to one of our pretended Bishops Ballatine wherein he often enjoyns him and our other pretended Bishops to appear in the Chappel in their Whites contrary to the Custom of our Kirk and to his own Promise made to the pretended Bishop of Edinburgh at the Coronation That none of them after that Time should be more pressed to wear those Garments thereby moving him against his Will to put them on for that time Here begins the first Charge about the Particular Alterations And first they Charge me with Fourteen Letters written by me to Bishop Ballantyne He was then Bishop of Dunblain and Dean of His Majesties Chappel Royal there He was a Learned and a Grave Man and I did write divers Letters to him as well as to some other Bishops and some by Command but whether just fourteen or no I know not But sure I am their Love to me is such that were any thing worse than other in any of these Letters I should be sure to hear of it First then They say I injoyned wearing of Whites c. surely I understand my self a great deal better than to injoyn where I have no Power Perhaps I might express that which His Majesty Commanded me when I was Dean of his Majesty's Chappel here as this Reverend Bishop was in Scotland And His Majesty's Express Command was that I should take that care upon me that the Chappel there and the Service should be kept answerable to this as much as might be And that the Dean should come to Prayers in his Form as likewise other Bishops when they came thither And let my Letters be shewed whether there be any Injoyning other than this and this way And I am confident His Majesty would never have laid this Task upon me had he known it to be either without Order or against Law Next I am Charged that concerning these Whites I brake my Promise to the Bishop of Edinburgh Truly to the uttermost of my Memory I cannot recall any such Passage or Promise made to that Reverend and Learned Prelate And I must have bin very ill advised had I made any such Promise having no Warrant from his Majesty to ingage for any such thing As for that which follows that he was moved against his will to put on those Garments Truly he expressed nothing at that time to me that might signifie it was against his Will And his Learning and Judgment were too great to stumble at such External Things Especially such having been the Ancient Habits of the most Reverend Bishops from the descent of many Hundred Years as may appear in the Life of St. Cyprian And therefore the Novation was in the Church of Scotland when her Bishops left them off not when they put them on In these Letters he the Prelate of Canterbury directs Bishop Ballantine to give Order for saying the English Service in the Chappel twice a day For his neglect shewing him that he was disappointed of the Bishoprick of Edinburgh promising him upon his greater care of these Novations advancement to a better Bishoprick For the direction for Reading the English Service it was no other than His Majesty Commanded me to give And I hope it is no Crime for a Bishop of England by His Majesties Command to signifie to a Bishop in Scotland what his pleasure is for Divine Service in his own Chappel Nor was the Reading of the English Liturgy any Novation at all in that place For in the Year 1617. I had the Honour as a Chaplain in Ordinary to wait upon King James of Blessed Memory into Scotland and then the English Service was Read in that Chappel and twice a Day And I had the Honour again to wait upon King Charles as Dean of His Majesties Chappel Royal here at his Coronation in Scotland in the Year 1633 And then also was the English Service Read twice a Day in that Chappel And a strict Command was given them by His Majesty that it should be so continued and Allowance was made for it And none of the Scots found any fault with it at that time or after till these Tumults began And for Bishop Ballantyn's missing the Bishoprick of Edinburgh and my promising him
ready made That which was mine is here confessed to be but Interlinings and Marginals and Corrections and at most some Additions And they would be found a very small Some were the Original Book seen And yet it must be Evident that no Hand but mine did this by my Magisterial way of Prescribing in an Interlining or a Marginal Excellent Evidence Secondly they have another great Evidence of this But because that is so nervous and strong I will be bold to reduce it to some Form that it may appear the clearer though it be against my self There was they say a new Copy of these Canons all written with S. Andrews own Hand and according to the former Castigations and Directions sent to have the King's Warrant to it which was obtained Therefore these Interlinings and Marginals c. were done by no other than Canterbury Most Excellent Evidence and clear as Mid-Night The plain Truth is contrary to all this Evidence For by the same Command of His Majesty the Reverend Bishop of London was joyned with me in all the view and Consideration which I had either upon the Book of Canons or upon the Service-Book after So it is utterly untrue that these Interlinings or Marginals or Corrections or call them what you will were done by no other than Canterbury For my Lord of London's both Head and Hand were as deep in them as mine And this I avow for well known Truth both to the King and those Scottish Bishops which were then imployed and this notwithstanding all the Evidences of a Magisterial way and a New Copy And yet this General Charge pursues me yet farther and says The Kings Warrant was obtained as is said to these Canons but with an Addition of some other Canons and a Page of New Corrections according to which the Book of Canons thus Composed was Published in Print The inspection of the Books Instructions and his Letters of Joy for the success of the Work and of other Letters from the Prelate of London and the Lord Sterling to the same purpose all which we are ready to exhibit will put the Matter out of all debate Yet more ado about nothing Yet more noise of Proof to put that out of all debate which need never enter into any For if no more be intended than that I had a view of the Book of Canons and did make some Interlinings and Marginals and the like I have freely acknowledged it and by whose Command I did it and who was joyned with me in the Work So there will need no Proof of this either by my Letters or the Prelate of Londons or the Lord Sterlings Yet let them be exhibited if you please But if it be intended as 't is laid that this was done by no other than Canterbury then I utterly deny it and no Proof here named or any other shall ever be able to make it good As for the Addition of some other Canons and Pages of New Corrections according to which the Book of Canons is said to be Composed and Published Truly to the utmost of my Memory I know of none such but that the Copy written by my Lord of S. Andrews own Hand and sent up as is before mentioned was the very Copy which was Warranted by His Majesty and Published without any further Alteration But if any further Alteration were it was by the same Authority and with the same Consent And for my Letters of Joy for the Success of the Work let them be exhibited when you please I will never deny that Joy while I live that I conceived of the Church of Scotland's coming nearer both in the Canons and the Liturgy to the Church of England But our gross unthankfulness both to our God and King and our other many and great Sins have hindred this great Blessing And I pray God that the loss of this which was now almost effected do not in short time prove one of the greatest Mischiefs which ever befel this Kingdom and that too This is the General Charge about the Canons Now follow the Particulars Beside this General Charge there be some things more special worthy to be adverted unto for discovering his Spirit First the Fourth Canon of Cap 8. For as much as no Reformation in Doctrine or Discipline can be made perfect at once in any Church Therefore it shall and may be Lawful for the Kirk of Scotland at any time to make Remonstrances to His Majesty or his Successours c. Because this Canon holds the Door open to more Innovations he writes to the Prelate of Ross his Prime Agent in all this Work of his great Gladness that this Canon did stand behind the Curtain And his great desire that this Canon might be Printed fully as one that was to be most useful Now come the Particulars worthy to be adverted unto for the discovery of my Spirit And the first is taken out of the Fourth Canon of Cap. 8. The Charge is that this Canon holds the Door open to more Innovations First I conceive this Accusation is vain For that Canon restrains all Power from private Men Clergy or Laye nay from Bishops in a Synod or otherwise to alter any thing in Doctrine or Discipline without Authority from His Majesty or his Successours Now all Innovations come from private assumption of Authority not from Authority it self For in Civil Affairs when the King and the State upon Emergent Occasions shall abrogate some Old Laws and make other New that cannot be counted an Innovation And in Church-Affairs every Synod that hath sate in all times and all places of Christendom have with leave of Superiour Authority declared some Points of Doctrine condemned other-some Altered some Ceremonials made new Constitutions for better assisting the Government And none of these have ever been accounted Innovations the Foundations of Religion still remaining firm and unmoved Nay under favour I conceive it most necessary that thus it ought to be And therefore this Canon is far from holding a Door open for more Innovations since it shuts it upon all and leaves no Power to alter any thing but by making a Remonstrance to the Supream Authority that in a Church-way approbation may be given when there is Cause And therefore if I did write to the Prelate of Ross that this Canon might be Printed fully as one that was to be most useful I writ no more then than I believe now For certainly it is a Canon that in a well-governed Church may be of great use And the more because in Truth it is but Declaratory of that Power which a National Church hath with leave and approbation of the Supream Power to alter and change any alterable thing pertaining to Doctrine or Discipline in the Church And as for that Phrase said to be in my Letter that this Canon did stand behind the Curtain it was thus occasioned My Lord the Bishop of Ross writ unto me from the Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews that no words might
possess their Religion in Peace especially being against no worse Devices or no greater Novations than they have quarelled at in these Books Yet for all this I shall after make it appear that I kindled no War against them but kept it off from them as much and as long as I could And as themselves confess I was not the Sole so neither they nor any man else shall ever be able to prove I was the Principal Agent or Adviser of that War Yea but When by the Pacification at Barwick both Kingdoms looked for Peace and Quietness he spared not openly in the hearing of many often before the King and privately at the Council-Table and the Privy Junto to speak of us as of Rebels and Traytors and to speak against the Pacification as dishonourable and meet to be broke Neither did his malignancy and bitterness ever suffer him to rest till a new War was entred upon and all things prepared for our destruction This Article about the breach of the Pacification the Parliament of England have thought fit to make a part of their Charge against me And therefore I shall put off the main of my Answer till I come to those Articles In the mean time thus much in brief I shall say to some circumstantial things in this Charge And first I do not think that any thing can be said to be Privately spoken at the Council-Table that is openly delivered there in the hearing of his Majesty and all the Lords present And so was all which I spake there Secondly they say I did openly and often speak of them the Scots as of Rebels and Traytors That indeed is true I did so And I spake as I then thought and as I think still For it was as desperate a plotted Treason as ever was in any Nation And if they did not think so themselves what needed their Act of Oblivion in Scotland or the like in England to secure their Abetters here Thirdly For the Pacification at Barwick whatever I said touching the Dishonour of it as shall after appear yet no Man can truly Charge me that I said it was meet to be broken Fourthly I had no Malignity answerable to their bitterness against the Church of England nor did the entring upon a new War proceed from my Counsels nor did I give farther way to it than all the Lords of the Junto did Lastly it is manifest here how truly the King was dealt with on all Hands For here ye see they take on them to know not only what was done at the Council-Table but what was said also at the private Junto When in all that time his Majesty could get no information of any thing that proceeded in Scotland But they proceed yet farther against me By him was it that our Covenant approven by National Assemblies Subscribed by his Majesty's Commissioner and by the Lords of his Majesty's Council and by them commanded to be Subscribed by all the Subjects of the Kingdom as a Testimony of our Duty to God and the King By him was it still called Ungodly Damnable Treasonable By him were Oaths invented and pressed upon divers of our poor Countrymen upon the pain of Imprisonment and many other Miserie 's which were unwarranted by Law and contrary to their National Oath This their Covenant indeed as it was made at first without at least if not against the King I did utterly dislike And if I did say it was Vngodly Damnable and Treasonable I said no more than it deserved Nor was it any thing the better but much the worse if as it was so made at first it were approved by National Assemblies For that was but the greater sign that the Rebellious Faction grew stronger But I never found fault with their Covenant after they were pleased to take in the King and by his Authority signified by the Subscription of his Commissioner to do what was fit to be done Nor was there any Oath invented or pressed by me upon their Countrymen unwarrantable by Law for I neither invented nor pressed any But whatsoever was done in this kind was done by Publick Authority at the Council Table And if any Oath tendred to them there were contrary to their National Oath I doubt it will easily be found that their National Oath if such it be was contrary to their due and Natural Allegiance But what 's next Why this When our Commissioners did appear to render the Reasons of our demands he spared not in the presence of the King and the Committee to rail against our National Assembly as not daring to appear before the World and Kirks abroad where himself and his Actions were able to indure tryal And against our just and necessary Defence as the most malicious and treasonable Contempt of Monarchical Government that any by-gone Age had heard of His hand also was at the Warrant of Restraint and Imprisonment of our Commissioners sent from the Parliament warranted by the King and seeking the Peace of the Kingdom There are divers things in this part of the Charge And the first is that I railed at their National Assembly in the presence of the King and the Committee But that under favour is not so Nor is it my fashion to rail at any body much less in such a Presence I was then openly taxed and by Name by the L. Lowdon one of the Commissioners and that which I said in answer to him was in my own defence And it was to this effect That whatsoever their Assembly had concluded did not much move me For I did assure my self nothing they could say or do could sink my Credit in Christendom going upon grounds which would every where abide tryal And I somewhat doubted whether the Acts of their Assembly would do so since even at home not the Bishops only but the Learned Divines of Aberdeen opposed divers of them This was not railing against their Assembly And if it shall be thought too much to be spoken by though for my self I humbly desire the Christian Reader to remember That even S. Paul was forced to commend himself when false Brethren accused him 2 Cor. 12. Next they say I spake against their just and necessary defence Truly not I That which I spake was against their defence as being neither Just nor Necessary And if I then said speaking of things as they stood then that they were Treasonable Contempts of Monarchical Government then being such their defence of them could neither be Just nor Necessary And truly as they stood then I held them very desperate against the Honour and just Power of the King I say as they stood then For since his Majesty hath referred them to Honourable Commissioners of both Nations and out of his Clemency and Goodness hath admitted all or most of them which I believe few Kings would have done I have spoken nothing of them but in Prayer that God will graciously be pleased to turn all these things to the Good and
Peace of both Kingdoms which must be little less than a Miracle if he do As for my Hand that it was at the Warrant of Restraint of the Commissioners sent from the Parliament c. This also is but a meer clamour to bring me into further hatred which hath been their aim all along For why else is my Hand picked out alone whereas the Hands of all for ought I know that were then present at the Committee were subscribed to that Warrant And yet it seems no Hand hath troubled them but mine And for these Commissioners seeking the Peace of the Kingdom I will not offer to enter upon their Thoughts what they sought but leave it to future times that will discover the success of things and by it open the aim of the Agents how they sought the Peace of these Kingdoms But yet they go on For when we had say they by our Declarations Remonstrances and Representations manifested the Truth of our Intentions and Lawfulness of our Actions to all the good Subjects of the Kingdom of England when the late Parliament would not be moved to assist or enter into a War against us maintaining our Religion and our Liberties Canterbury did not only advise the breaking up of that High and Honourable Court to the great grief and hazard of the Kingdom but which is without Example did sit still in the Convocation and make Canons and Constitutions against us and our Just and Necessary defence They did indeed offer by many Pamphlets Printed and sent into England to manifest the Truth of their Intentions which was to join close with their Party here and come and gain some good Booty in England And this end they have obtained But the lawfulness of their Actions they neither have nor can make good to any Impartial and Judicious Reader of them And whereas they say they have made the lawfulness of them manifest to all the good Subjects of the Kingdom of England you must know that they are only such English as joyn with them in their Plot or at least in Affection to Religion And 't is easie to make any thing that fits their Humour and comes from their Associats manifest enough But God forbid these should be all the good Subjects of England which it may too justly be feared are none of them And yet it cannot be denied but that England hath at this day much too many of these good Subjects They add further that the late Parliament would not assist nor enter into a War against them I believe that is true and I leave the Parliament to give their own Reasons why they would not But I am sure that which follows is most untrue That I gave Advice for the breaking of it up as appears by that which I have formerly set down and will not repeat And I shall ever wish from my Heart that the Kingdom may never be hazarded more than it hath been by my Counsels and then by God's Blessing it shall be a happier Kingdom than the youngest now alive are like to see it if things go on in the Track they now are Next they say that without all Example I sat still in Convocation though the Parliament were risen Without Example What is that to them if it were so But the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury have sate in Convocation and made Canons too when no Parliament hath been sitting as is most manifest by the Records of that See Yea but there is no Example of it since the Reformation Be it so Nor is it for all that forbidden in the Statute of the submission of the Clergy 25 H. 8. so they sit by the King 's Writ And yet here I was so careful as that I caused the great Lawyers of the Kingdom to be consulted abaut it and followed their Judgments as is before expressed And for the Canons which were made they were not against them One branch indeed of the first Canon is against Subjects bearing Arms against their King offensive or defensive under any pretence whatsoever But this as it is the Antient Doctrine which the Church of Christ hath ever Taught in all times and places So is it not against them at all unless they against Christian Religion and Natural All giance bear Arms against their King But if they do or have done so the Canon that was not made against them hits them full And in this Case let them pretend what they list their Defence can neither be Just nor Necessary Yea but they say farther that I Ordained under all highest pains That hereafter the Clergy shall Preach four times in the Year such Doctrine as is contrary not only to our Proceedings but to the Doctrine of other Reformed Kirks to the Judgment of all sound Divines and Politicks and tending to the utter Slavery and Ruine of all States and Kingdoms and to the dishonour of Kings and Monarchs This goes high indeed if it were as full in proof as 't is loud in expression But here is not one shew of Proof added either from Reason or Authority Divine or Humane more than their bare word And therefore I must answer it in the same Key First then 't is true that in the Preface of the first Canon every Minister is injoyned under a Penalty to Publish to his People the Exposition of Regal Power contained in that Canon and this once every quarter of a Year So then if the Doctrine contained in that Canon be true and it was approved for Truth by the whole National Synod of England then all this high Charge falls low enough Besides it will concern them to consider well what their Proceedings have been For as for this Canon it is according to the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church And they surely were both Pious and Sound Divines that lived in it and I for my part shall hold no Man a Sound Divine that runs contrary to it Now that the Primitive Christians were of Opinion that Subjects ought not to take Arms against their Kings Offensive or Defensive upon any pretence whatsoever which are the words in our Canon which they are so angry with no not for or under pretence of Religion see the Proofs in the Margin For in the most bitter Times of Persecution for the very highest points of Religion whatever Miseries they indured they still contained themselves within the bounds of their Obedience And that too not out of any want of Power but will to hurt And if the Doctrine of other Reformed Churches be contrary to this they shall do well to shew it and then I 'll give such farther Answer as is fit But if the Canon be contrary to the Judgment of sound Politiques I know not which they call sound For if they mean such as are of their Feather I think their Judgments are alike Sound that is neither And if they mean Learned and well experienced Politiques I believe they will be able to shew none of
which comes next An Evil therefore which hath issued not so much from the Personal Disposition of the Prelates themselves as from the innate Quality and Nature of their Office and Prelatical Hierarchy which did bring forth the Pope in Ancient times and never ceaseth till it bring forth Popish Doctrine and Worship where it is once rooted and the Principles thereof fomented and constantly followed They tell us here that this Conformity with Rome is an Evil that issues not so much from the Personal Disposition of the Prelates themselves as from the innate Quality and Nature of their Office Conformity with Rome in any Error or Superstition is doubtless an Evil but that it issues from the Nature of a Bishop's Office cannot be For that Office is to Preach Christ and to govern the Church of Christ according to his Laws If any Bishop break this 't is his Personal Error and most unnatural to his Office to which if he adhere he can neither teach nor practise Superstition Therefore certainly what Error soever comes is from his Person not his Office And 't is great Ignorance to call this Evil an innate Quality of the Office when the Office is a thing of Institution not of Nature and therefore cannot possibly have any innate Quality in it But since they will needs have it thus let us invert it a little and see how it will fit them against their King more than it can fit the Bishops for the Pope For if we should say as perhaps we may too truly that the dangerous Positions which too many of the Presbyterian Faction publickly maintain and in Print proceed not so much from the Personal Disposition of the Presbyterians themselves as from the innate Quality and Nature of their Presbyteries and their Antimonarchical Party I believe it would trouble them to shape a good Answer to it unless they will admit of that which I before have given But then if they do this they Charge themselves with falshood in that which they lay upon the Bishops Office Next they tell you that this Prelatical Hierarchy did bring forth the Pope in Ancient times But truly I think they are thus far deceived The Hierarchy cannot be said to bring forth the chief parts of it self Now the Patriarchs of which the Bishop of Rome was one if not Prime in Order were the Principal parts of the Hierarchy Therefore the Hierarchy cannot well be said to bring them forth But suppose it be so that the Pope were brought forth by the Bishops what fault is there in it For the Pope was good both Nomine Re in name and in being as they were at first For thirty of them together were Martyrs for Christ And the Church of Rome was famous for her Faith over the World in the very Apostles times Rom. 1. And if either the Popes or that Church have degenerated since that is a Personal Crime and not to be imputed to the Office And therefore these Men do very ill or very ignorantly to affirm that this Office of Episcopacy never ceases till it bring forth Popish Doctrine and Worship For in all the time of these thirty Popes there was no Doctrine brought forth which may justly be accounted Superstitious or called Popery For the last of those thirty died in the Year 309. ..... And they cannot be ignorant that Bishop Jewell on the behalf of the Church of England challenged the Current of the Fathers for full Six Hundred Years to be for it against Rome in very many and main Points of Popery And therefore I may well say there was no Popery in the World when the Thirtieth Pope died Well if this Evil do not arise from the Hierarchy yet it doth From the Antipathy and Inconsistence of the two Forms of the Ecclesiastical Government which they conceived and not without Cause one Island joyned also under one Head and Monarch was not able to bear The one being the same in all the Parts and Powers which it was in the time of Popery and still is in the Roman Kirk The other being the Form of Government received maintained and practised by all the Reformed Kirks wherein by their own Testimonies and Confessions the Kirk of Scotland had amongst them no small Eminency Sure these Men have forgotten themselves For they tell us immediatly before that this Evil of bringing forth Popish Doctrine and Worship proceeds from the very Office of a Bishop And now they add and from the Antipathy of these two Forms of Church Government Doth the Bishops Office produce Popery And doth the Antipathy between the Presbytery and Episcopacy produce Popery too So then belike in these Men's Judgments both Bishops and they which oppose Bishops produce Popery And if that be true Popery must needs increase that is produced on all sides An Evil then there is though perhaps not this which issues from that Antipathy and Inconsistence of these two Forms of Ecclesiastical Government which they say we Prelates of England conceived and not without Cause one Island joyned also under one Head and Monarch was not able to bear And that Evil was as I conceive the continual Jarrs and Oppositions which would daily arise among His Majesties Subjects of both Kingdoms concerning these different Forms of Government And these would bring forth such Heart-burnings and Divisions among the People that the King might never be secure at home nor presume upon united Forces against a Foreign Enemy And this is Evil enough to any Monarch of two divided Kingdoms especially lying so near in one Island Now if the Bishops of England did conceive thus and as our Adversaries here confess not without Cause Then certainly by their own Confession the Prelates of England had Reason to use all just endeavours to remove and take away this Inconsistence that the Form of the Ecclesiastical Government might be one in one Island and under one Monarch that so Faction and Schism might cease which else when they get Opportunity find a way to rent the Peace of Kingdoms if not Kingdoms themselves And this Island God of his Mercy preserve it is at this time in great hazard to undergo the fatality of it in a great measure The next is a manifest untruth For though there be as is said an Inconsistence between the Governments which makes one Island under one King unable to bear both in the different parts of the Island or at least unsafe while it bears them Yet neither is Episcopacy in all the Parts and Powers of it that which it was in time of Popery and still is in the Roman Church And this is most manifest to any Man that will but look upon what Power the Prelates had before and what they have since the Statute of the Submission of the Clergy in Hen. 8. time Beside all those Statutes which have since been made in divers Particulars to weaken their Power Nor is the other Form of Government received
said that I did often wish from my Heart that His Majesty had kept the Army which he had at Barwick together but Eight or Ten Days longer And that I did not doubt but that if he had so done he might have had more Honourable Conditions of his Scottish Subjects This I said and more or otherwise I said not and whosoever shall relate them otherwise forgets Truth Now to say that His Majesty might have had more Honourable Conditions doth not infer that the Pacification then made was upon Dishonourable Conditions but only upon less Honourable than it might have been And I had great Reason to observe my own words and remember them because I saw some Lords at the Table touched with them perhaps in their own Particulars Nor was I alone in this Judgment For my Lord the Earl of Holland though he then said nothing at the Council-Table yet at his first return from Barwick his Lordship did me the Honour to come and see me at Lambeth And in the Gallery there while we were discoursing of the Affairs in the North of himself he used these words to me That His Majesty did too suddenly dissolve his Army there indeed so suddenly that every body wondered at it And that for his part he was so sorry especially for the dismissing of all the Horse which he said were as good as any were in Christendom And farther that he offer'd His Majesty to keep one Thousand of them for a Year at his own and his Friends Charge till the King might see all things well setled again in Scotland By which it is apparent that in his Lordships Judgment things might have been better had not that Army been so suddenly dissolved And I hope it was no Sin in me to wish the best success and the most Honour to the King's Affairs Now that which moved me to say thus at the Council-Table was this The last Article in the Pacification was To restore to every one of His Majesties Subjects their Liberties Lands Houses Goods and Means whatsoever taken and detained from them by whatsoever means since the aforesaid time But within two Days or three at the most after the Pacification agreed upon and concluded the Lord Lindsay made an open and publick Protestation either in the Camp at Dunns or at the 〈◊〉 in Edenburgh or both that no Clergy Man his Goods or Means was included in the Pacification Which yet expresses every one of His Majesties Subjects And this I did then conceive and do still was a very bold audacious Act of that Lord very injurious to the Poor Clergy and not so Honourable for the King And this made me say and I say it still His Majesty might have had more Honourable Conditions and his Pacification better kept had he continued his Army but Eight or Ten Days longer For in all probability the Scots could not so long have continued their Army together And I did farther conceive that by this Act of the Lord Lindsay in protesting and by the Scots making his Protestation good against the Clergy there was a direct and manifest Breach of the Pacification on their behalf And then though I saw no Reason why the King should be bound to keep that mutual Pacification which they had broken for a Knot must be fast at both ends or loose at both Yet remembring my Calling I did not Incense His Majesty against his Subjects in Scotland nor did hereupon advise the undertaking of an Offensive War against them nor ever give other Counsel in this Particular than what I openly gave before the Lords either in the Committee or at the Board And there my Concurring in Opinion with all the rest of the Lords was I hope no other nor no greater fault than in them though I be thus singled out And for the Pacification I shall say thus much more Though I could with all my Heart have wished it more Honourable for the King and more express and safe for my Brethren of the Clergy yet all things Considered which were put unto me I did approve it For before the Pacification was fully agreed upon His Majesty did me the Honour to write unto me all with his own Hand In this Letter He Commanded me all delay set apart to send him my Judgment plainly and freely what I thought of the Pacification which was then almost ready for conclusion I in all Humility approved of the Pacification as it was then put to me and sent my Answer presently back and my Reasons why I approved it Little thinking then but that my Poor Brethren the Bishops of Scotland should have had all restored unto them according to the Article of the Pacification before recited or at least for so long till they had defended themselves and their Calling and their Cause in a free General Assembly and as free a Parliament Now this was ever assumed to me should be done and to procure this was all which the Bishops seemed to desire of me And for the Truth of this I appeal to His Majesty to whom I writ it And to my Lord Marquess Hamilton to whom the King shewed my Letter As my Lord Marquess himself told me at his return And to Dr. Juxon Lord Bishop of London then Lord High Treasurer of England to whom I shewed my Letter before I sent it away And this is all I did concerning the Pacification 14. That to preserve himself from being questioned for these and other his Trayterous Courses he hath laboured to subvert the Rights of Parliament and the Ancient Course of Parliamentary proceedings And by false and malicious Slanders to incense His Majesty against Parliaments By which Words Counsels and Actions he hath Trayterously and contrary to his Allegiance laboured to alienate the Hearts of the Kings Liege People from his Majesty to set a Division between them and to 〈◊〉 and Destroy his Majesty's Kingdoms For which they do impeach him of High Treason against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity I did never Labour to subvert the rights of Parliaments or the antient Course of their Proceedings And not doing it at all I could not do it to keep my self from being questioned Much less did I by any malitious Slanders or any other way incense his Majesty against Parliaments nor ever thereby labour to alienate the Hearts of the King's Liege People from his Majesty nor to set any Division between them or to Ruine and Destroy his Majesty's Kingdoms And am no way Guilty in the least Degree of High Treason against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity It is true I have been much and very often grieved to see the great distractions which have happened of later Years both in King James his time and since about the Breaches which have been in Parliaments And I have as heartily wished and to my Power endeavoured that all Parliaments which have been called might come to their Happy Issue and end in the Contentment of
the King and his People And I have ever been of Opinion and I shall Live and Dye in it That there can be no true and setled Happiness in this or any other Kingdom but by a fair and Legal as well as Natural Agreement between the King and his People and that according to the Course of England this Agreement is in a great proportion founded upon Parliaments Now Parliaments as I humbly conceive can never better preserve their own Rights than by a free and honourable way to keep up the Greatness and Power of their King that so he may be the better able against all Forreign Practices to keep up the Honour as well as the Safety of the Nation both which usually stand or fall together And if any particular Mens Miscarriages have distempered any Parliaments and caused or occasioned a Breach I have upon the Grounds before laid been as sorry as any Man for it but never contributed any thing to it And I hope it is not Criminal to think that Parliaments may sometimes in some things by Misinformation or otherwise be mistaken as well as other Courts This in conclusion I clearly think Parliaments are the best preservers of the Ancient Laws and Rights of this Kingdom But this I think too that Corruptio optimi est Pessima that no Corruption is so bad so foul so dangerous as that which is of the best And therefore if Parliaments should at any time be misguided by practice of a 〈◊〉 Party nothing then so dangerous as such a 〈◊〉 because the highest Remedy being Corrupted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sure Redress left at all And we had a lamentable 〈◊〉 of such a Parliament 〈◊〉 Hen. 4. was set up For that 〈◊〉 was the Cause of 〈◊〉 the Civil Wars and that great 〈◊〉 of Blood which followed soon after in this Kingdom God make us mindful and careful to prevent the like The said Commons do farther aver that the said William Arch-Bishop of Canterbury during the time in which the Treasons and Offences afore-named were Committed hath been a Bishop or Arch-Bishop in this Realm of England one of the King's Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Matters and of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council And that he hath taken an Oath for his Faithful discharge of the said Office of Counsellor and hath likewise taken the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance And the said Commons by Protestation saving to themselves the Liberty of Exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Accusation or Impeachment against the said Arch-Bishop and also of replying to the Answers that the said Arch-Bishop shall make unto the said Articles or to any of them and of offering farther Proof also of the Premises or any of them or of any other Impeachment or Accusation that shall be exhibited by them as the Case shall according to the Course of Parliaments require do pray that the said Arch-Bishop may be put to answer to all and every the Premises and that such Proceedings Examinations Tryal and Judgment may be upon every of them had and used as is agreeable to Law and Justice This is the Conclusion of these general Articles then put up against me and is added only for Form and so requires no Answer from me But in the Close they of the House of Commons make two Petitions to the Lords and both were granted as 't is fit they should The one is That they may add farther Accusations or farther Proof of this as the Course of Parliaments require And I refuse no such either Accusation or Proof so the due Course of Parliaments be kept The other is That there may be such Proceedings Examinations Tryal and Judgment as is agreeable to Law and Justice And such Proceedings my Innocency can never decline But whether the Proceedings hitherto against me be according to the Antient Proceedings in Parliament or to Law and Justice I leave Posterity to judge Since they which here seem so earnestly to call for Examinations Tryal and Judgment have not to this Day proceeded to any Tryal nay have not so much as brought up any particular Charge against me it being almost a full Year since they brought up this general Charge and called for Examinations and Tryal and yet have kept me in Prison all this while to the great Weakning of my Aged Body and Waste of my poor Fortunes And how much longer they mean to keep me there God knows Whereas all that I do desire is a Just and Fair Tryal with such an Issue better or worse as it shall 〈◊〉 God to give CAP. VIII WHen these Articles had been Read unto me in the Upper House and I had spoken to the Lords in a general Answer to them what I thought fit as is before expressed I humbly desired of the Lords this being upon Friday Feb. 26. that my going to the Tower might be put off till the Monday after that so I might have time to be the better fitted for my Lodging This I humbly thank their Lordships was granted I returned to Mr. Maxwell's Custody and that Afternoon sent my Steward to Sir William Balfore then Lieutenant that a Lodging might be had for me with as much convenience as might be On Munday March 1. Mr. Maxwell carried me in his Coach to the Tower St. George's Feast having been formerly put off was to begin that Evening By this means Mr. Maxwell whose Office tied him to attendance upon that Solemnity could not possibly go with me to the Tower at Evening as I desired Therefore Noon when the Citizens were at Dinner was chosen as the next fittest time for Privateness All was well till I passed through Newgate Shambles and entred into Cheapside There some one Prentice first Hallowed out more and followed the Coach the Number still increasing as they went till by that time I came to the Exchange the shouting was exceeding great And so they followed me with Clamour and Revilings even beyond Barbarity it self not giving over till the Coach was entred in at the Tower-Gate Mr. Maxwell out of his Love and Care was extreamly troubled at it but I bless God for it my Patience was not moved I looked upon a higher Cause than the Tongues of Shimei and his Children The same Day there was a Committee for Religion named in the Upper House of Parliament Ten Earls Ten Bishops and Ten Barons So the Lay Votes will be double to the Clergy that they may carry what they will for Truth This Committee professes to meddle with Doctrine as well as Ceremonies and to that end will call some Divines to them to consider of and prepare Business This appears by a Letter sent by Dr. Williams then Lord Bishop of Lincoln now Lord Arch-Bishop of York to some Divines which were named to attend this Service The Copy of the Letter follows WIth my best Wishes unto you in Christ Jesus I am Commanded by the Lords of the Committee for Innovations in Matters of
Answer was returned to the first That the People would not besatisfied nor believe he was Dead unless they saw him Dye publickly And to the second That time enough was given already and that if any farther delay were used the People would think Justice should not be done at all and resort thither again in Multitudes to the hazzard of Publick Peace The Earl made these two Suits and in the mean time one Offer was made to him It was this That if he would employ his Power and Credit with the King for the taking of Episcopacy out of the Church he should yet have his Life His Christian Answer was very Heroical Namely That he would not buy his Life at so dear a rate The Man that sent him this Message was his Brother-in-Law Mr. Denzill Hollis one of the great Leading Men in the House of Commons And my Lord Primate of Armagh avowed this from the Earl of Strafford's own Mouth And as he was of too Generous a Spirit to lye basely so being in preparing of himself to leave the World it cannot be thought he would with a Dying-Mouth bely his Brother These Answers being returned the Earl prepared himself And upon Wednesday Morning about Ten of the Clock being May the Twelfth he was Beheaded on the Tower-Hill many Thousands beholding him The Speech which he made at his End was a great Testimony of his Religion and Piety and was then Printed And in their Judgment who were Men of Worth and some upon some near the Scaffold and saw him Dye he made a Patient and Pious and Couragious end insomuch that some doubted whether his Death had more of the Roman or the Christian in it it was so full of both And notwithstanding this hard Fate which fell upon him he is dead with more Honour than any of them will gain who hunted after his Life Thus ended the Wiseest the Stoutest and every way the Ablest Subject that this Nation hath bred these many Years The only Imperfections which he had that were known to me were his want of Bodily Health and a Carelesness or rather Roughness not to oblige any And his Mishaps in this last Action were that he groan'd under the Publick Envy of the Nobles served a Mild and a Gracious Prince who knew not how to be or be made great and trusted false perfidious and cowardly Men in the Northern Imployment though he had many Doubts put to him about it This Day was after called by divers Homicidium Comitis Straffordiae the Day of the Murder of Strafford Because when Malice it self could find no Law to put him to Death they made a Law of purpose for it God forgive all and be Merciful The Earl being thus laid low and his great Services done in Ireland made part of his Accusation I cannot but observe two things The one That upon Sunday Morning before Francis Earl of Bedford having about a Month before lost his second Son in whom he most Joyed Dyed the Small Pox striking up into his Brain This Lord was one of the Main Plotters of Strafford's Death And I know where he with other Lords before the Parliament Sat down resolved to have his Blood But God would not let him Live to take Joy therein but cut him off in the Morning whereas the Bill for the Earl of Strafford's Death was not Signed till Night The other is That at this time the Parliament tender'd two and but two Bills to the King to Sign This to cut off Strafford's Head was one and the other was that this Parliament should neither be Dissolved nor Adjourned but by the consent of both Houses in which what he cut off from himself Time will better shew than I can God Bless the King and his Royal Issue I told you before the People came in a Tumultuous Way to call for Justice And half an Eye may see how and by whom they were set on In the mean time let me tell you farther that this Art being once begun without Consideration of the Danger or Care of the Dishonour of such Proceedings whensoever there was any thing proposed in the House of Commons which it was thought the Lords would stick at or the King not grant by and by the Rabble came about the Houses and called for this and that Justice as they were prompted God Bless the Government of this Kingdom or all is lost I must tell you farther that from the time that the Earl of Strafford was first brought to his Answer in Westminster-Hall the bitter and fierce Libels of the factious People came daily out to keep up and increase the Peoples Hate against him And though they were full of most notorious Untruths yet coming from that Party were swallowed and believed by the most Among divers others they spread one in which they delivered to the World that the Earl of Strafford drawing near to his End when he saw no Remedy but he must Dye fell into great and passionate Expressions against me That I and my Counsels had been the Ruine of him and his House and that he cursed me bitterly Now as this is most false in it self so am I most able to make it appear so For his Lordship being to Suffer on the Wednesday Morning did upon Tuesday in the Afternoon desire the Lord Primate of Armagh then with him to come to me and desire me that I would not fail to be in my Chamber Window at the open Casement the next Morning when he was to pass by it as he went to Execution that though he might not speak with me yet he might see me and take his last leave of me I sent him word I would and did so And the next Morning as he passed by he turned towards me and took the Solemnest leave that I think was ever by any at distance taken one of another and this in the sight of the Earl of Newport then Lord Constable of the Tower the Lord Primate of Armagh the Earl of Cleveland the Lieutenant of the Tower and divers other Knights and Gentlemen of Worth Besides though during the time of both our Restraints and the nearness of our Lodgings we held no Intercourse each with other yet Sir William Balfore then Lieutenant of the Tower told me often what frequent and great expressions of Love the Earl made to me Which cannot stand with that base Slander which the lewd Libel vented But I leave that Honourable Person in his Grave and while I live shall Honour his Memory But must here a little go back For May the first after the King had declared his Conscience and his Judgment concerning the Earl of Strafford's Offences to both Houses as is before set down and was gone away a Letter was read in the Vpper House from the Scots in which their Army did earnestly desire to be gone It was moved to have a present Conference with the Commons about it and the Debate was very short many Lords being desirous
to lay hold of that Opportunity to be rid of the Scots But so good and so quick was the Intelligence from some of the Lords that the House of Commons was risen before the Messengers from the Lords could get thither and so the Conference was not only prevented but things so ordered that the Scots stayed in England till the middle of August following at a marvellous great Charge to the Kingdom and with what Wrong and Dishonour to King and Kingdom let Posterity Judge Before the Death of the Earl of Strafford the Libels came out thick and very Malitious against him And all this to whet the Malice that was against him and make the People more greedy for his Death But no sooner was he gone into his Rest but the Libellers which during that time reviled him fell on me and no question but to the same end And the Libels and Ballads against me were frequently spread through the City and sung up and down the Streets And I thank God for it they were as full of Falshood as Gall. Besides they made base Pictures of me putting me into a Cage and fastning me to a Post by a Chain at my Shoulder and the like And divers of these Libels made Men sport in Taverns and Alehouses where too many were as Drunk with Malice as with the Liquor they sucked in Against which my only Comfort was that I was fallen but into the same Case with the Prophet David Psal. 69. For they that sat in the Gate spake against me and I was the Song of the Drunkards About this time I fell into a Tertian Ague which was Comfortless in a Prison But I humbly Praise God for it after seven or eight Fits he restored me to my Health the only Comfort which I have under him in this time of my Affliction CAP. X. UPon Wednesday June 23. I acquainted His Majesty by my Lord of London that now I had answered all Complaints come against me concerning the Vniversity of Oxford I thought it requisite for me to Resign the Chancellorship of that place And I gave His Majesty such Reasons as he approved for my so doing And the truth is I suffered much by the Clamours of the Earl of Pembroke who thought it long till he had that place which he had long gaped for And after the Cloud was once spread over me spared me in no Company though I had in all the time of my Prosperity observed him in Court more than ever he had deserved of me And I had reason notwithstanding all his causless Heat to keep the place till I had justified my self against the Towns-Mens Petition to the Lords wherein they Charged me with no less than Treason for setting out a Proclamation about Regulating the Market in my own Name But I made it appear to the Lords that I did no more therein than the Earl of Leicester in Queen Elizabeth's time or the Earl of Dorset in King James his time did before me when they were Chancellors of that Vniversity And I was able to shew the Lords and did so the Copies of both their several Proclamations in Print in their own Names And farther I made appear by the Vniversity Records that the Chancellors for the time being had frequently done it ever since the time of King Edward 3 And that the Lord Mayor of London and other Mayors having the Clark-ship of the Market as the Chancellors of Oxford have and not the Mayor do it daily So this great and most Malicious Complaint of the City of Oxford vanished when they and some body else for them had shewed their Teeth but could not bite But having ended this Business and my Vice-Chancellor whom I was not willing to Expose to anothers hand had finished his Year and that according to Duty I had given His Majesty an Account of the Business I pursued my Resolution And upon Friday June the 25th I sent down my Resignation of the Chancellorship of Oxford to be Published in Convocation which was done accordingly and the Earl of Pembroke had his desires and was chosen into it God bless the Vniversity there-while and grant they may never have need of me now unable to help them On Tuesday August 10. His Majesty rode away Post into Scotland the Parliaments Sitting in both Kingdoms and the Armies not yet dissolved There was great Scanning about this Journey And the House of Commons sent some Commissioners thither as the Scots had some here Among the Scotch Commissioners the Prime Man was the Earl of Róthes who also was one of the greatest and most Zealous Leaders of the Scottish Rebellion under the pretence of Religion and a deadly Enemy to the Earl of Strafford and was heard to say more than once they would have his Head And they had it But much about this time Rothes his Zeal was so hot among the Ladies and the Citizens Wives that he fell very foully into the Pox And divers of his Friends as they told me themselves going to visit him were not admitted to see him and at last he was conveyed from London to Richmond by his Aunt the Lady Roxborough where he dyed But this base and dishonourable End of his in Rottenness they concealed as much as they could What the King did in Scotland hath no Relation for ought I yet hear to this poor Story of mine And the Parliament here made a Recess Aug. ... till Octob. ..... leaving a considerable Committee Sitting to prepare Business against the House met again During this Recess there was all silence concerning me And as is conceived upon this Ground Because before the Recess the Committee appointed for that Business failed in some Proofs which they well hoped should have reached me home in Matters of Religion and thereupon have done little since And the Libels since that time have neither been so frequent nor so Malicious against me God quiet this Storm though I praise God I know not why it was raised so high against me On Thursday September 23 1641. Mr Adam Torless my Ancient Loving and Faithful Servant and then my Steward after he had served me full Forty and Two Years dyed to my great both loss and grief For all my Accounts since my Commitment were in his Hands and had he not been a very Honest and Careful Man I must have suffered much more than I did yet I suffered enough besides the loss of his Person who was now become almost the only Comfort of my Affliction and my Age. So true it is that Afflictions seldom come single CAP. XI DUring the Recess of the Parliament Sir Hen Martyn dyed and I made Dr Merricke Judge of the Prerogative Dr Duck missing his hopes of this Office by his own absence and default and finding me under this thick Cloud hoped to have wrested this Office out of my Hands and his to whom I had given it This was one of the basest and most ungrateful parts that
terrifie Men of great Resolution and much Constancy they do in all Humility and Duty protest before your Majesty and the Peers of this most Honourable House of Parliament against all Votes Resolutions and Determinations and that they are in themselves null and of no effect which in their absence since the Twenty Seventh of this instant Month December 1641. have already passed and likewise against all such as shall hereafter pass in that most Honourable Assembly during such time of their forced and violented absence from the said most Honourable House Not denying but if their absenting of themselves were wilful and voluntary that most Noble House might proceed in all these Premises their absence and Protestation notwithstanding And humbly beseecheth your Most Excellent Majesty to command the Clerk of the House of Peers to enter this their Petition and Protestation in their Records They will ever pray God to bless and preserve c. Jo. Eborac Williams Geo. Hereford Coke Tho. Duresme Moorton Rob. Oxon Skinner Rob. Co. Lich. Wright Ma. Ely Wren Jos. Norwich Hall Godfr Glouc. Goodman Jo. Asaphen Owen Jo. Peterburg Towers Guil. Ba. Wells Pearce Mor. Llandaff Owen On Tuesday January 4. his Majesty went into the House of Commons some number of Gentlemen accompanyed him to the Door but no farther There he demanded the Persons of Mr. Denzil Hollis Sir Arthur Haselrigge Mr. Jo. Pymm Mr. Jo. Hampden and Mr. William Strode whom together with the Lord Kimbolton Sir Ed. Herbert his Majesty's Attorney General had the day before charged with High Treason in the Vpper House upon seven Articles of great consequence It seems they had information of the King 's coming and were slipt aside This made a mighty noise on all hands But the business was so carried that the House adjourned to sit in a Committee at Guild-Hall and after at the Grocer's-Hall Where things were so Ordered that within two or three days these Men were with great salutes of the People brought and in a manner guarded to the Committee and after to the House at Westminster and great stir made to and fro about the Accusation of these Men and the breach of the Priviledges of Parliament by his Majesty's coming thither in that manner Things were carried in a higher strain than ever before The King left the City and withdrew privately first to Hampton-Court after that to Windsor Many puttings on and puttings off concerning this and other great Affairs between the King and the House All which I leave to publick Records as not concerning this poor History Yet could not omit to say thus much in the general because much of the Church-business as well as the States and much of mine as well as the Churches will depend upon it CAP. XII UPon Thursday January 20. upon no Complaint that I know for I am sure I never deserved any in that kind there was an Order made in the Lords House to take away my Arms. They stood me in above Three Hundred Pounds I provided them for the Service of the State as Need might require I never employed any of them to any the least Disservice of it nor ever had thought to do Yet the Order is as follows both to my Disgrace to have them so taken from me and to my loss for though the Sheriffs of London be to take them upon Inventory yet of whom shall I demand them when they are out of their Office Die Jovis 20. Jan. 1641. IT is this Day Ordered by the Lords in Parliament That the Sheriffs of the City of London or either of them shall receive by inventory all such Ordnance and other Arms as belong to any private Persons which are to be kept to their Uses remaining now at Fox-Hall Canterbury-House the Arch-Bishop of York's House in Westminster and in the Bishop of Winchester's House a fit proportion of Arms being left at each Place for necessary Security thereof The said Sheriffs being to receive their Directions from a Committee lately appointed by the Parliament But the Intents of the Lords are and it is farther Ordered that such Ordnance and Arms as do belong to his Majesty shall be forthwith sent unto the King's Magazine in the Tower Upon Saturday Feb. 6. the Bill passed That the Bishops should have no Votes in Parliament nor have to do in Civil Affairs This was mightily strugled for almost all this Session and now obtained The Bishops have ever had this in Right and Possession ever since there was any use of Parliaments in England which the antientest Family of the Nobility which now sit there and thrust them out cannot say There was great Joy upon the Passing of this Bill in both Houses and in some Parishes of London Ringing and Bonfires The King gave way to this Bill and so that is setled And if it after prove that the King and Kingdom have Joy in it it is well But it may be that the Effects of this Eclipse may work farther than is yet thought on and the Blackness of it darken the Temporal Lords Power more than is yet feared And here I must tell you two Things The one that for the compassing of their ends in this Bill the nowbecome-usual Art was pursued and the People came in Multitudes and Clamour'd for the outing of the Bishops and the Popish Lords Votes so they were still joyned out of the House Insomuch that not the People of London only but Petitioners were brought out of divers Counties with Petitions either sent unto them or framed ready for them here against they came and they in every Petition for preservation of the Priviledges of Parliament desired the taking away of the Bishops and the Popish Lords Votes out of the House as if it were a common Grievance The other That now the Bishops have their Votes taken away by Act of Parliament you shall not see in haste any Bill at all Pass for taking away the Votes of the Popish Lords which will infer this as well as some other things That these were joyned together to make the Bishops more odious to the People as if they were Popishly affected themselves and to no other end The Court removed from Windsor to Hampton-Court and on Thurs-Day Febr. 10. The King and Queen came to Greenwich and on Friday Febr. 11. they went from thence toward Dover the Queen resolving to go into Holland with her young Daughter the Princess Mary who the Year before was Married to the Prince of Aurange his Son But the true Cause of this intended Journey was to be out of the Fears Discontents and Dangers as she conceived of the present Times And doubtless her Discontents were many and great and what her Dangers might have been by staying or may be by going God alone knows His Majesty while he was upon that Journey sent a Message to both Houses This was Printed Febr. 14. By this the King puts all
Stisted in Essex was fallen void and in my Gift The E of Warwick was an earnest Suitor to me for it for one Mr Clark I delayed having Six Months time by Law to dispose of my Benefices During this delay Mr Richard Howlett a Batchelour of Divinity and a Man of very good worth a Dean in Ireland was by the Rebels there turned out of all he had and forced for safety of his Life to come with his Wife and Children into England His Wife was my near Kinswoman At their coming over I was forced to relieve them else they might have begged Hereupon I resolved in my self to give Stisted to Mr Howlett and to gratifie Mr Clark with something after Nothing doubting but that the Parliament would readily give way in such a case of Necessity for so worthy a Man as Mr Howlett was known to be While these things were in my Thoughts two other great Benefices fell into my disposal Bocking and Lachingdon both in Essex Presently the Parishioners Petition me They of Bocking for Dr Gawden a Chaplain of the Earl of Warwick's They of Lachingdon that they might chuse their own Minister I gave a fair Answer to both but reserved my self Then I was pressed with Letters from the Earl of Warwick for Dr Gawden My Answer was I could not gratifie Dr Gawden with Bocking and Mr Clark with Stisted Then Dr Gawden brings me a very earnest Letter but very Honourable from the Earl of Hertford When I saw my self thus pressed I resolved to name fit Men to all three Benefices presently and see how the Parliament would be pleased to deal with me Before I did this I thought fit to make a fair Offer to the Earl of Warwick who by Dr Gawden's intreaty came to me to the Tower I freely told his Lordship my Resolution which was that at the desire of his Lordship and my Honourable Friend the Lord Marquess of Hertford I would give Bocking to Dr Gawden Lachingdon to Mr Howlett in regard of his Alliance to me and his present Necessities and Stisted to Mr Newested to whom I was pre-ingaged by Promise to my Ancient worthy Friend Sir Tho Rowe whom Mr Newested had served in his Embassages seven Years and for Mr Clark he should have the next Benefice which fell in my Gift for his Lordship's sake His Lordship seemed to be very much taken with this Offer of mine and promised me and gave me his Hand upon it that he would do me all the kindness he could that these my Nominations might pass with the Lords Upon this I rested and according to my Promise Petitioned the Lords as is expressed Upon the Reading of this Petition the Lords Order'd me presently to Collate Bocking upon Dr Gawden which I did the Order being brought unto me the next Day But for the other two the Lords took time to consider The Earl of Warwick was then present in the House and as I am informed said little or nothing This made me fear the worst And therefore I advised Mr Howlett to get a full Certificate of the Lord Primate of Armagh both for Life and Learning and attend with it at the Parliament to make the best Friends for himself The Business stuck still At last he met with the Lord Kimbolton who presently made all Weather fair for him And upon his Lordships motion to the House an Order passed for Mr Howlett to have Lachingdon The Motive this Mr Howlett was Fellow of Sidney College in Cambridge and Tutor at that time to two Sons of the Lord Mountague the Lord Kimbolton's Uncle At which time also the Lord Kimbolton himself was a Student in the same College and knew the Person and worth of Mr Howlett This his Lordship Honourably now remembred else it might have gone hard with Mr Howlett's Necessities So upon the Order thus obtained I Collated Lachingdon upon him After this the Earl of Warwick went Lord Admiral to Sea by appointment of the Parliament And forthwith I was served with another Order to give Stisted to Mr Clark Hereupon I Petitioned again and set forth my Resolutions and Ingagements to Sir Tho Rowe And Dr Gawden having told me that the Earl of Warwick had left that Business for me in trust with the Lord Roberts I made bold to write to his Lordship and intreat his lawful Favour The Lord Roberts denied that any such Order or Care of that Business was left with him nor would he meddle in it but referred me to the Lord Kimbolton who still followed the Business close for Mr Clark By all which it appeared to me that the Earl of Warwick had forgotten his Promise to me to say no more Soon after I received another Order to give Stisted to Mr Clark To this I answered again by Petition but with like Success For another Order came forth Peremptorily to Command me to give Stisted to Mr Clark But it so fell out that this Order was not brought to me till Ten Days after the Date I sent my Councel to attend the Lords that I might not fall into Contempt The Business was not then called on and by the Sixteenth of the same Month Stisted fell in Lapse to His Majesty So I lost the giving of the Benefice and some body else their Ends upon me CAP. XVI ON May 15. Sunday I made a shift between my Man and my Staff to go to Church There Preached one Mr Joslin His Text Judge 5 23. Curse ye Meroz c. To pass over what was strangely Evil thoroughout his Sermon his Personal Abuse of me was so foul and so palpable that Women and Boys stood up in the Church to see how I could bear it And this was my first Welcome into the Church after my long Lameness But I humbly thank God for it I bare his Virulence patiently and so it vanished As did much other of like Nature which I bare both before and after this God forgive them After this I had some quietness most Particulars lying dead out of several respects unknown to me But all things grew higher and higher between the King and the Parliament to the great Dammage and Distraction of the Kingdom God of his Mercy send a speedy and a blessed Issue and preserve his Majesty the Kingdom and this poor Church from Ruin But I much fear our Sins are ripe for a very great if not a final Judgment Friday August the 19. Captain Royden and his Company by Order of Parliament came about seven of the Clock in the Evening to my House at Lambeth to take away my Arms. They stayed there all Night and searched every Room and where any Key was not ready brake open Doors And the next Morning they carried my Arms away in Carts to Guild-Hall London and I was sufficiently abused all the way by the People as my Arms passed They gave out in London there were Arms for Ten Thousand Men whereas there was not enough for
the Sacrament in my Chappel The Witnesses two The first was Dr. Haywood who had been my Chaplain in the House They had got from others the Ceremonies there used and then brought him upon Oath He confessed he Administred in a Cope And the Canon warranted it He confesses as it was urged that he fetched the Elements from the Credential a little Side-Table as they called it and set them Reverently upon the Communion Table Where 's the offence For first the Communion Table was little and there was hardly room for the Elements to stand conveniently there while the Service was in Administration And Secondly I did not this without Example for both Bishop Andrews and some other Bishops used it so all their time and no exception taken The Second Witness was Rob. Cornwall one of my Menial Servants A very forward Witness he shewed himself But said no more than is said and answered before Both of them confessing that I was sometimes present The Third Charge was about the Ceremonies at the Coronation of his Majesty And first out of my Diary Feb 2 1625. 'T is urged that I carried back the Regalia offer'd them on the Altar and then laid them up in their place of safety I bare the place at the Coronation of the Dean of Westminster and I was to look to all those things and their safe return into Custody by the place I then Executed And the offering of them could be no offence For the King himself offers upon solemn days And the Right Honourable the Knights of the Garter offer at their Solemnity And the Offertory is Established by Law in the Common Prayer Book of this Church And the Prebendaries assured me it was the Custom for the Dean so to do Secondly they charged a Marginal Note in the Book upon me That the Vnction was in formâ Crucis That Note doth not say that it ought so to be done but it only relates the Practice what was done And if any fault were in Anointing the King in that form it was my Predecessors fault not mine for he so Anointed him They say there was a Crucifix among the Regalia and that it stood upon the Altar at the Coronation and that I did not except against it My Predecessor Executed at that time And I believe would have excepted against the Crucifix had it stood there But I remember not any there Yet if there were if my Predecessor approved the standing of it or were content to connive at it it would have been made but a Scorn had I quarrell'd it They say one of the Prayers was taken out of the Pontifical And I say if it were it was not taken thence by me And the Prayers are the same that were used at King James his Coronation And so the Prayer be good and here 's no word in it that is excepted against 't is no matter whence 't is taken Then leaving the Ceremonies he charged me with two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Body of the King's Oath One added namely these Words 〈◊〉 to the King's Prerogative The other omitted namely these words Quae Populus Elegerit which the People have chosen or shall choose For this latter the Clause omitted that suddenly vanished For it was omitted in the Oath of King James as is confessed by themselves in the Printed Votes of this present Parliament But the other highly insisted on as taking off the total assurance which the Subjects have by the Oath of their Prince for the performance of his Laws First I humbly conceive this Clause takes off none of the Peoples Assurance none at all For the King 's Just and Legal Prerogative and the Subjects Assurance for Liberty and Property may stand well together and have so stood for Hundreds of Years Secondly that Alteration what ever it be was not made by me nor is there any Interlining or Alteration so much as of a Letter found in that Book Thirdly if any thing be amiss therein my Predecessor gave that Oath to the King and not I. I was meerly Ministerial both in the Preparation and at the Coronation it self supplying the place of the Dean of Westminster After this days work was ended it instantly spread all over the City that I had altered the King's Oath at his Coronation and from thence into all parts of the Kingdom as if all must be true which was said at the Bar against me what Answer so-ever I made The People and some of the Synod now crying out that this one thing was enough to take away my Life And though this was all that was Charged this day concerning this Oath yet seeing how this fire took I thought fit the next day that I came to the Bar to desire that the Books of the Coronation of former Kings especially those of Queen Elizabeth and King James might be seen and compared and the Copies brought into the Court both from the Exchequer and such as were in my Study at Lambeth And a fuller Inquisition made into the Business In regard I was as Innocent from this Crime as when my Mother bare me into the World A Salvo was entred for me upon this And every day that I after came to the Bar I called upon this Business But somewhat or other was still pretended by them which managed the Evidence that I could not get the Books to be brought forth nor any thing to be done till almost the last day of my Hearing Then no Books could be found in the Exchequer nor in my Study but only that of King James whereas when the Keys were taken from me there were divers Books there as is confessed in the Printed Votes of this Parliament And one of them with a Watchet Sattin Cover now missing And whether this of King James had not my Secretary who knew the Book seen it drop out of Mr. Pryn's Bag would not have been concealed too I cannot tell At last the Book of King James his Coronation and the other urged against me concerning King Charles were seen and compared openly in the Lords House and found to be the same Oath in both and no Interlining or Alteration in the Book charged against me This Business was left by the Serjeant to Mr. Maynard who made the most that could be out of my Diary against me And so did Mr. Brown when he came to give the Summ of the Charge against me both before the Lords and after in the House of Commons And therefore for the avoiding of all tedious Repetition And for that the Arguments which both used are the same And because I hold it not fit to break a Charge of this moment into divers pieces or put them in different places I will 〈◊〉 set down the whole Business together and the Answer which I then gave Mr. Brown in the Summ of the Charge against me in the Commons-House when he came to this Article said he was now come to the Business so much
Lecturers and that they had their Lectures Read by a Company of Learned and Orthodox Ministers by turns As appeared by the Munday Sermon at Burye during that Learned Bishop's time Nor were any forbid to Preach in the Afternoon so the Catechising were not omitted before it or with it And the Bishop is Living to Answer it if ought were then done amiss by him In all which he did nothing as any Deputy or Surrogate of mine but as Diocesan of the Place As for the Yearly Account to the King according to his Royal Instructions in that behalf though it were pressed here again to multiply noise yet nothing being new I gave my Answer as before and to that I refer my self 3. The Third Answer was concerning Mr. Lee of Wolverhampton The Evidence was a Letter of my Secretary Mr. Dell written by my Command to my Visitors there to this Effect That whether there were Cause or no they should either punish Mr. Lee or bring him into the High-Commission Had the Words or the Sense been thus they might well say It was hard for the Judge before whom the Party was to Answer to write thus But I called to have the Letter read again and the Words were these If there were found against him that which might justly be Censured then they should punish c. And the Reason why this strict care was taken was because the Dean of Windsor his Ordinary complained unto me that Mr. Lee's Carriage was so Factious there that he could contain him in no Order If he were a Man after this approved at Shrewsbury as Mr Walker witnesses I hope the Proceedings at Wolverhampton did him good But my Lords had it so fallen out that my Secretary had forgotten my Instructions and himself too and expressed himself amiss shall that slip of his had it been such be imputed to me I believe your Lordships would not willingly answer for every Phrase of your Secretaries Letters which yet you command them to write 4. The last Instance was the Sentence in the High-Commission against Mr Barnard for Words about Pelagian Errors and Popery First if he were Sentenced in the High-Commission it was the Act of the Court and not mine as has been often said Secondly no Proof is offer'd that he was Sentenced for those Words only Thirdly the Recantation howsoever refused by him as Mr. Pryn says it was makes mention of four Points for which he was Censured of which these words are one But not the words themselves but his Unjust and Scandalous Application of them to me which deserved them not And lastly Dr Cumber Master of Trinity College in Cambridge was Prosecutor against him which Office so Grave and Worthy a Man would not I suppose have undertaken had there not been great and just Cause for it Hence they proceeded to the Sixth Additional Article which follows in these Words That whereas divers Gifts and Dispositions of divers Summs of Money were heretofore made by divers Charitable and well disposed Persons for the buying in of divers Impropriations for the Maintenance of Preaching the Word of God in several Churches the said Arch-Bishop about Eight Years last past wilfully and maliciously caused the said Gifts Feoffments and Conveyances made to the uses aforesaid to be overthrown in his Majesty's Court of Exchequer contrary to Law as things dangerous to the Church and State under the specious pretence of buying in Appropriations whereby that Pious Work was suppressed and trodden down to the great Dishonour of God and Scandal of Religion This Article is only about the Feoffments That which I did was this I was as then advised upon such Information as was given me clearly of Opinion that this was a cunning way under a Glorious pretence to overthrow the Church-Government by getting into their power more dependency of the Clergy than the King and all the Peers and all the Bishops in all the Kingdom had And I did conceive the Plot the more dangerous for the fairness of the pretence and that to the State as well as the Church Hereupon not maliciously as 't is charged in the Article but Conscientiously I resolved to suppress it if by Law it might be done Upon this I acquainted his Majesty with the thing and the danger which I conceived would in few Years spring out of it The King referred me to his Attorney and the Law Mr. Attorney Noye after some pause upon it proceeded in the Exchequer and there it was by Judicial Proceeding and Sentence overthrown If this Sentence were according to Law and Justice then there 's no fault at all committed If it were against Law the fault what e're it be was the Judges not mine for I solicited none of them And here I humbly desired that the Lords would at their leisure read over the Sentence given in the Exchequer which I then delivered in but by Reason of the length it was not then read Whether after it were I cannot tell I desired likewise that my Councel might be heard in this and all other points of Law 1. The First Witness was Mr. Kendall He says that speaking with me about Presteen I thanked God that I had overthrown this Feoffment 2. The Second Witness Mr. Miller says he heard me say They would have undone the Church but I have overthrown their Feoffment These two Witnesses prove no more than I confess For in the manner aforesaid I deny not but I did my best in a Legal way to overthrow it And if I did Thank God for it it was my Duty to do so the thing being in my Judgment so pernicious as it was 3. The Third Witness was Mr. White one of the Feoffees He says that coming as Councel in a Cause before me when that Business was done I fell bitterly on him as an underminer of the Church I remember well his coming to me as Councel about a Benefice And 't is very likely I spake my Conscience to him as freely as he did his to me but the Particulars I remember not nor do I remember his coming afterwards to me to Fulham nor his offer to change the Men or the Course so the thing might stand For to this I should have been as willing as he was and if I remember right there was order taken for this in the Decree of the Exchequer And his Majesty's Pleasure declared that no Penny so given should be turned to other use And I have been and shall ever be as ready to get in Impropriations by any Good and Legal way as any Man as may appear by my Labours about the Impropriations in Ireland But this way did not stand either with my Judgment or Conscience 1. First because little or nothing was given by them to the present Incumbent to whom the Tythes were due if to any that the Parishioners which payed them might have the more cheerful Instruction the better Hospitality and more full Relief for their Poor 2. Secondly because most of the Men they
these The Ninth Charge was about the ordering of Popish Books that were seized and the disposing of them The sole Witness here is John Egerton He says These Books were delivered to Mr. Mattershead Register to the High-Commission And I say so too it was the constant Course of the High-Commission to send them thither and have them kept in that Office till there was a sufficient number of them and then to burn them Yea but he adds that Mattershead told him they were re-delivered to the Owners This is but a Report and Mattershead is dead who should make it good And though this be but a single Witness and of a dead Man's Report yet Mr. Browne thought fit to Summ it up with the rest But surely if any Books were redelivered to the Owners it was so ordered by the High-Commission in regard the Books were not found dangerous From me Mattershead had never any such Command Lastly he says he met Sir Toby Matthew twice at Lambeth But he confesses he never saw him with me and then me it cannot concern The Tenth Charge was concerning the Priests in Newgate the Witnesses are Mr. Deuxel and Francis Newton They both agree and they say that the Priests there had the best Chambers and Liberty to go abroad without Keepers I hope these Men do not mean to make the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Keeper of Newgate If any Man gave them this Liberty he is to be blamed for it not I who never knew it till now Nor do either of these Witnesses say that they called on me for remedy or ever did so much as acquaint me with it And they say this was Twelve Years since and I had been Arch-Bishop but Seven Years when I was Committed The Eleventh Charge was about words in my Epistle Dedicatory before my Book against Mr. Fisher. The Words these For to my remembrance I have not given him or his so much as course Language So the Charge is because I have not given ill Words And here Mr. Nicolas fell foul upon me again for taking such care that the Whore of Babylon may have nothing but good Words c. But First my Lords I have always thought and do still that ill Language is no Proof against an Adversary All the good it can do is it may bring Scorn upon the Author and work hardness of Heart in the Adversary whom he doth or should labour to Convert And this I learned of two eminent Fathers in the Church Gregory Nazienzen and S. Augustin The First would not use it no not against the Arrians who as he saith made open War against the Deity of Christ. Nor would the other against the same Adversaries The one accounts it Ignorance though a Fashion taken up by many and the other loss of time And here I desired the Lords that I might read what immediately followed this Passage which was granted And there as their Lordships did so may the Reader see if he please that though my Words were not uncivil yet in the Matter I favoured neither him nor his And to avoid Tediousness thither I refer the Reader With this that sometimes Men apt enough to accuse me can plead for this Moderation in their own Cases and tell each other that Christ will not own bitterness in maintaining any way though consonant to his Word And another finds just Fault both with Papists and Martin Marr-Prelat for this reproachful Language And yet it must be a Crime in me not to use it The Last Charge was the Commitment of one Ann Hussy to the Sheriff of London The Business was this She sent one Philip Bambridge to tell me of I know not what Plot against the King nor I think she neither Bambridge came to White-Hall toward the Evening and could make nothing of this dangerous Plot. Yet because it pretended so high I sent him presently to Mr Secretary Windebank I being the next Morning to go out of Town The Business was called to the Council-Table When I came back I was present there Bambridge produced Ann Hussy but she could make nothing appear She says I thought she was out of her Wits Not so my Lords but I did not think she was well in them nor do I yet And whereas she complains of her Imprisonment it was her own desire she might be committed to the Sheriff and Mr. Hearn my Councel here present was assigned by the Lords to take her Examination Therefore if any Particular in this Charge stick with your Lordships I humbly desire Mr. Hearn may supply my want of Memory But it passed over as well it might Here this Day ended and I was ordered to attend again July 29. CAP. XLII The Twentieth and the Last Day of my Hearing THis Day I appeared again and they proceeded upon the Fourteenth Original Article which Follows in these Words Art 14. That to preserve himself from being questioned for these and other his Traiterous Courses he hath laboured to subvert the Rights of Parliaments and the ancient Course of Parliamentary Proceedings and by false and malicious Slanders to incense his Majesty against Parliaments By which Words Councels and Actions he hath Traiterously and contrary to his Allegiance laboured to alienate the Hearts of the King's Liege People from his Majesty to set a Division between them and to ruine and destroy his Majesty's Kingdoms For which they do Impeach him of High-Treason against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity The First Charge of this Day was Prefaced with a Note out of my Diary at May 8. 1626. That the Duke of Buckingham was that Day impeached to the Lords by the House of Commons And at May 25. The difference arising in the House of Peers about the Earl of Arundel's Commitment to the Tower without a Cause declared No use made of these but that I then Bishop of S. Davids took notice of these things Then the Charge followed and the First of it was That I then being of the Lords House and so to be one of the Duke's Judges made a Speech for him and Corrected his Speech in some particulars and of a Judge made my self an Advocate Which Mr. Nicolas said was a great Offence I saw not these Papers and therefore can say nothing what is or is not under my Hand But to the thing it self I say first that if in that Speech any particular Fault had been found impeaching any Right or Power of Parliament that I must have answered but none is charged but only the bare making of one Speech and the mending of another And this is a very poor Argument of any Enmity against Parliaments Secondly seeing no Fault is charged upon me in particular it was but the Office of a poor Friend to a great one to whom being so much bound as I was I could not refuse so much Service being intreated to it And Thirdly I do humbly conceive that so long as there
entred into for his Appearance should be delivered up unto him Lastly that the said R. C. should for such his Mis-information and Abuse stand committed Prisoner to the Fleet. XVIII A Passage out of a Sermon Preached by Dr. Heylin at Oxford 1630. against the Feoffment for buying in Impropriations referred to in the preceding History Life of Arch-Bishop Laud pag. 199. Planting also many Pensionary Lecturers in so many places where it need not and upon days of common Labour will at the best bringing forth of Fruit appear to be a Tare indeed though now no Wheat be counted Tares c. We proceed a little on further in the proposal of some things to be considered The Corporation of Feoffees for buying in of Impropriations to the Church doth it not seem in the appearance to be an excellent piece of Wheat A Noble and Gracious point of Piety Is not this Templum Domini Templum Domini But blessed God that Men should thus draw near unto thee with their Mouths and yet be far from thee in their Hearts For what are those intrusted in the managing of this great Business Are they not the most of them the most Active and the best Affected Men in the whole Cause and Magna Partium Momenta chief Patrons of the Faction And what are those whom they prefer Are they not most of them such as must be serviceable to their dangerous Innovations And will they not in time have more Preferments to bestow and therefore more Dependencies than all the Prelates in the Kingdom c. yet all this while we sleep and slumber and fold our Hands in Sloth and see perhaps but dare not note it XIX A Passage out of the Statute of the 27th of Elizabeth against Jesuits and Seminary Priests referred to in the preceding History 27 Eliz. cap. 2. sect 3. And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that it shall not be Lawful to or for any Jesuit Seminary Priest or other such Priest Deacon or Religious Ecclesiastical Person whatsoever being born within this Realm or any other Her Highness Dominions and heretofore since the said Feast of the Nativity of St. John Baptist in the First Year of Her Majesty's Reign made ordained or professed or hereafter to be made ordained or professed by any Authority or Jurisdiction derived challenged or pretended from the See of Rome by or of what Name Title or Degree so-ever the same shall be called or known to come into be or remain in any part of this Realm or any other Her Highness Dominions after the end of the same forty days other than in such special Cases and upon such special Occasions only and for such time only as is expressed in this Act and if he do then every such Offence shall be taken and adjudged to be High Treason and every Person so offending shall for his Offence be adjudged a Traytor and shall suffer lose and forfeit as in Case of High Treason And every Person which after the end of the same forty days and after such time of departure as is before limited and appointed shall wittingly and willingly receive relieve comfort aid or maintain any such Jesuit Seminary Priest or other Priest Deacon or Religious or Ecclesiastical Person as is aforesaid being at Liberty or out of hold knowing him to be a Jesuit Seminary Priest or other such Priest Deacon or Religious or Ecclesiastical Person as is aforesaid shall also for such Offence be adjudged a Felon without Benefit of Clergy and suffer Death lose and forfeit as in Case of one Attainted of Felony XX. A Passage out of Sir Edward Coke's Institutes being his Judgment upon the said Statute referred to in the preceding History Lib. 3. cap. 37. The Cause of making this Statute of 27 Eliz. against Jesuits and Seminary Priests and their Receivers you may read at large lib. 5. fol. 38 39. in the Case De Jure Regis Ecclesiastico Sir Edward Coke's Words in the place referred to by himself are here subjoined And albeit many of Her Subjects after the said Bull of Pius Quintus adhering to the Pope did renounce their former Obedience to the Queen in respect of that Bull yet all this time no Law was either made or attempted against them for their Recusancy c. Then Jesuits and Romish Priests were sent over who in secret Corners whispered and infused into the Hearts of many of the Unlearned Subjects of this Realm that the Pope had Power to Excommunicate and Depose Kings and Princes that he had Excommunicated the late Queen Deprived Her of Her Kingdom and discharged all Her Subjects of their Oaths Duties and Allegiance to Her And thereupon Campian Sherwin and many other Romish Priests were Apprehended c. But all this time there was no Act of Parliament made either against Recusants or Jesuits or Priests c. But after these Jesuits and Romish Priests coming daily into and swarming within this Realm instilling still this Poison into the Subjects Hearts that by Reason of the said Bull of Pius Quintus Her Majesty was Excommunicated Deprived of Her Kingdom c. In the 27th Year of her Reign by Authority of Parliament Her Majesty made it Treason for any Jesuit or Romish Priest being Her Natural Born Subject and made a Romish Priest or Jesuit since the beginning of Her Reign to come into any of her Dominions Intending thereby to keep them out of the same to the end that they should not infect any other Subjects with such Treasonable and Damnable Persuasions and Practices as are aforesaid Which without Controversie were High Treason by the Ancient and Common Laws of England Neither would ever Magnanimous King of England sithence the first Establishment of this Monarchy have suffered any especially being his own Natural Born Subjects to live that persuaded his Subjects that he was no Lawful King and practised with them to withdraw them from their Allegiance c. XXI A Passage out of Bishop Montague's Origines 〈◊〉 referred to in the preceding History Tom. 1. par 2. pag. 464. Sanctè credimus accuratè tuemur defendimus hoc ipsum Officium munus in Ecclesiâ sive Apostolicum seu 〈◊〉 adeò esse de necessitate salutis ordinariâ ut sine altero alterum esse nequeat Non est Sacerdotium nisi in Ecclesiâ non est Ecclesia sine Sacerdotio Illud autem intelligo per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Episcopalem Ordinariam Neque enim admittendam censemus extraordinariam aliquam seu Vocationem seu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nisi miraculosam Oportet omnino miraculis agant suam confirment functionem signo aliquo qui non ab Episcopis derivata ab Apostolis per Successionem Institutione in Ecclesiam inducuntur sed vel orti à sese vel nescio unde intrusi sese ingerunt Nam quod praetendunt ordinariam Vocationem retinendam adhibendam eique adhaerescendum nisi in casu 〈◊〉 absurdum est suppositioni innititur
Witness I laboured nothing but the Settlement of the Decent External Worship of God among us which whatever some other Men think I know was sunk very low and if in labouring this I did err in any Circumstance for in matter of Substance I am sure I did not that may be forgiven me for Humanity sake which cannot free it self from Error But that which brought all these Distractions both upon Church and State was the bringing in of the Scots and the keeping of them here at a vast charge only to serve Turns and those very base ones And to the debasing and dishonour of this whole Nation as well as the King And how far this Lord had his Hand or his Head in this Treacherous Business he best knows Sure I am his Lordship is thought one of the chief Moulders of this Leaven of the Pharisees But my Lord thinks himself safe enough so he can cry me up among the Rabble to be the Author of all And not content with this he insults farther upon me as follows Yet to magnifie his Moderation presently after the breaking of the last Parliament he told a Lord who sits now in my sight that if he had been a Violent Man he wanted no occasion to shew it For he observed that the Lord Say never came to Prayers and added that I was in his knowledge as great a Separatist as any was in England What ever it was I said was not to magnifie my Moderation Nor do I remember that ever I spake these words Yet First if any Lord will say upon his Honour that I did say these very Words I will bear him and the Peerage of the Realm that Honour as that I will submit and believe his Testimony against my own Old now and Weak Memory Next upon enquiry made by some Friends of mine I find that the Words I should speak are said to be these that if I listed to take any advantage against this Honourable Lord I had as much exception to him as to any Separatist in England These Words are neither so Bold nor so Vncivil as those in the Charge and perhaps I might speak these though I remember it not For during the last Parliament not so few as Ten or a Dozen several Lords came to me of themselves as I sat there and complained grievously of this Lord's absenting himself from the Prayers of the Church and some of them wondred he was not questioned for the Scandal he gave by it And if any of them would be so mean as to urge me to speak by speaking Broad themselves and then carry the Tale to this Noble Lord he did that who ever he were which I hope was not the Noblest of his Actions and if I did say these latter Words of this great Lord I must and do say them again and I heartily beseech God that this Sin be not laid to my Charge that I questioned him not when the Times were calmer For had I done that I had done my Duty and if I had not cured him perhaps I might have prevented so much common danger to this Church as his Lordship hath procured since that time both by his Example his Counsel and his Countenance And for the Words I doubt not but he himself will be found to have made them good before I have done examining this Speech of his Lordship In the mean time my Lord proceeds My Lords how far he hath spit this Venom of his against me I am not certain but I may well fear where it might do me greatest Prejudice I shall therefore intreat your Lordships Favour and Patience that I may give you in these things which so nearly concern me a true account of my self which I shall do with Ingenuity and Clearness and so as that if I satisfie not all Men yet I hope I shall make it appear I am not such a one as this Waspish Man was willing to make the World believe I have spit no Venom against his Lordship much less have I spit any thing far For this Report which is here called Venom is common through the Kingdom And I have already told you what divers Lords said to me during the last Parliament And that is no more than hath been avowed unto me by very many others and some of very good Quality so the spreading was to me not from me But yet my Lord fears I spread it where it might do him greatest Prejudice I know not what my Lord means by this unless it be that I should spread it to his Majesty And if that be his meaning I will tell his Lordship truth what I know therein I was present when I heard some Lords more than once tell the King that the Lord Say was a Separatist from the Church of England and would not come at her Common-Prayers And one of these Lords afterwards told me he did conceive it was a great danger to this Kingdom when Noblemen should begin to separate in Religion and that his Majesty had need look to it To this last which was spoken to me in private but I will depose the Truth of it I could not but assent And to the former I then said I had heard as much as was then told his Majesty but I was not certain of it And I doubt not but these Lords sit in his Lordship's sight as well as that Lord who told him the other of me And not in his Sight only but in his Affections also as things go now But however they carry it with him now this they said of him then Nor will I here pick a Thanks to tell this Lord what Service I did him to his Majesty when he was thought to be in danger enough though I was chidden by a Great one that stood by for my Labour I shall therefore intreat the Christian Reader 's Favour and Patience that having hitherto given him a most true and clear Account of that which my Lord charges me with and doth nearly concern me So I may proceed to the rest which I do with all Ingenuity and Truth And so as that if I satisfie not all Men yet I hope I shall make it appear that I am not such a Waspish Man as my Lord would fain render me to the World But if I have been a Wasp in any Court wherein I have had the Honour to sit yet his Lordship should not have called me so considering what a Hornet all men say he is in the Court of Wards and in other Places of Business Where he pinches so deep that discreet Men are in a doubt whether his Aim be to sting the Wards or the Court it self to Death first For no Man can believe 't is for the good of the King And if I fail in this endeavour of mine to clear my self I must desire the Courteous Reader to ascribe it not to my Cause which is very good against his Lordship but to the narrowness of my Comprehensions and my Weakness compared with his
His Lordship hath likewise sent up a List of Romish Recusants which were presented at his last Visitation which he saith are for the most part but of mean Condition and those not many considering the greatness of the County In this Diocess the Town of Mawling and that whole Deanery were very much out of Order but the Arch-Deacon by my Lord the Bishop's Command hath setled them My Lord likewise brought Mr Throgmorton the Vicar of Mawling into the High Commission where he submitted himself and received a Canonical Admonition I likewise certifie your Majesty that the Bishop complains that the Cathedral Church suffers much for want of Glass in the Windows and that the Church-Yard lies very undecently and the Gates down and that he hath no Power to remedy these things because the Dean and Chapter refuse to be visited by him upon pretence that their Statutes are not confirmed under the Broad Seal with some other circumstances with which I shall acquaint your Majesty more at large Concerning this Diocess whereas your Majesty's Instructions require that Lecturers should turn their Afternoon Sermons into Catechizing by way of Question and Answer some Persons and Vicars make a question whether they be bound to the like Order because Lecturers only be named as they pretend But your Majesty's Expression is clear for Catechizing generally and my Lord the Bishop will presently settle this doubt There is one Mr Elms in that Diocess who being not qualified by Law keeps a School-Master in his House and useth him as a Chaplain to preach a Lecture upon Sundays in the Afternoon in the Church of Warmington But by this time if the Bishop keep his promise that abuse is Rectified The Bishop complains that the Peculiars of his Diocess wherein he hath no Power are much out of Order and I easily believe it But the Remedy will be hard because I know not in whom the Peculiars are but shall inform my self His Lordship farther certifies that he hath suppressed a Seditious Lecture at Repon and divers Monthly-Lectures with a Fast and a Moderator like that which they called Prophesying in Queen Elizabeth's Time as also the Running Lecture so called because the Lecturer went from Village to Village and at the end of the Week Proclaimed where they should have him next that his Disciples might follow They say this Lecture was ordained to Illuminate the Dark Corners of that Diocess My Lord of St Davids is now Resident in his Diocess and hath so been ever since the last Spring and professes that he will take great care hereafter to whom he gives holy Orders His Lordship certifies That he hath Suspended a Lecturer for his Inconformity and that they have but few Romish Recusants The Bishop of St Asaph returns That all is exceeding well in his Diocess save only that the Number and Boldness of some Romish Recusants increaseth much in many Places and is incouraged by the Superstitious and frequent Concourse of some of that Party to Holy-Well otherwise called St Winifreds Well Whether this Concourse be by way of Pilgrimage or no I know not but I am sure it hath long been complained of without Remedy My Lord the Bishop certifies that he hath not one Refractory Nonconformist or 〈◊〉 Minister within his Diocess and that there are but two Lecturers and that they both are Licensed Preachers My Lord the Bishop of Lincoln signifies That the Company of Mercers in London trusted with the Gift of one Mr Fishburn set up a Lecturer in Huntingdon with the allowance of Forty Pounds per An. to Preach every Saturday Morning being Market-Day and Sunday in the Afternoon with a Proviso in his Grant from them that upon any dislike they may have of him he shall at a Month or a Fortnights Warning give over the Place without any relation to Bishop or Arch-Bishop My most humble Suit to your Majesty is that no Lay Man whatsoever and least of all Companies or Corporations may under any Pretence of giving to the Church or otherwise have Power to put in or put out any Lecturer or other Minister His Lordship likewise complains of some in Bedfordshire that use to wander from their own Parish-Churches to follow Preachers Affected by themselves of which he hath caused his Officers to take special care As for the placing of the Communion-Table in Parish-Churches his Lordship professes that he takes care of it according to the Canon These two last are no part of your Majesty's Instructions yet since his Lordship hath been so careful to report them to me I take it my Duty to express that his Lordship's care to your Majesty These two Diocesses are void and I had no Certificat before the Death of the Bishops All the Bishops above mentioned which are all that have yet certified do agree that all other things in your Sacred Majesty's Instructions contained are carefully observed and particularly that of avoiding factious medling with the prohibited Questions From any of the rest of the Bishops within my Province I have not as yet received any Certificat at all namely Salisbury Norwich Worcester Oxford Bristol Winchester Chichester Glocester Exeter So I humbly submit this my Certificat W. CANT The Lord Bishop of Ely certifies that he hath had special Care of your Majesty's Instructions and that he doth not know that they are broken in his Diocess in any point Jan. 2. 1633. W. CANT The Arch-Bishop's Account of his Province to the King for the Year 1634. May it please Your most Excellent Majesty I Am at this time in Obedience to your Sacred Majesty's Commands to give you an Account how your prudent and pious Instructions for the Good and Welfare of the Church of Christ in this your Kingdom have been obeyed and performed by the several Bishops within my Province of Canterbury which with all Humility and Obedience I here present as followeth And First I represent to your Majesty That I have this Year partly by my Vicar-General and partly by the Dean of the Arches visited seven Diocesses beginning as I am bound by the Ecclesiastical Laws at my own Metropolitical Church of Canterbury and that Diocess that I might first see what was done at Home before I did curiously look abroad into other Bishops Jurisdictions And not to conceal Truth from your Majesty I found in my own Diocess especially about Ashford-side divers professed Separatists with whom I shall take the best and most present Order that I can some of them and some of Maidstone where much Inconformity hath of late Years spread being already called into the High Commission where if they be proved as guilty as they are voiced to be I shall not fail to do Justice upon them I conceive under favour that the Dutch Churches in Canterbury and Sandwich are great Nurseries of Inconformity in those Parts Your Majesty may be pleased to remember I have complained to your self
day of August 1643. That this Book Intituled ROME's MASTER-PIECE be forthwith Printed by Michael Sparke Senior John White LONDON Printed for Ri Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's ChurchYard M DC XCV ROME's MASTER-PIECE IF there be any professing the Protestant Religion within the King's Dominions or elsewhere who are yet so wilfully blinded as not to discern so sottishly incredulous as not to believe any real long-prosecuted Conspiracy by former secret Practices and the present Wars to extirpate the Protestant Religion re-establish Popery and inthrall the People in all three Kingdoms notwithstanding all visible effects and transparent demonstrations of it lively set forth in the late Declaration of the Lords and Commons concerning the Rise and Progress of the Grand Rebellion in Ireland and other Remonstrances of that nature let them now advisedly fix their Eyes Minds upon the ensuing Letters and Discoveries seised on by Master Prynn in the Arch-Bishop's Chamber in the Tower May 31. 1643. by Warrant from the close Committee unexpectedly commanded on that service and then they must needs acknowledge it an indubitable verity Since Sir William Boswell the Arch-Bishop and those who revealed this Plot were perswaded of its reality upon the first Discovery before it brake forth openly in Ireland and England Who and what the Author of this Discovery was who the chief active Instruments in the Plot when and where they assembled in what vigorous manner they daily prosecuted it how effectually they proceeded in it how difficult it is to dissolve or counterwork it without special diligence the Relation it self will best discover Whose verity if any question these Reasons will inforce belief First That the Discoverer was a chief Actor in this Plot sent hither from Rome by Cardinal Barbarino to assist Con the Pope's Legate in the pursuit of it and privy to all the particulars therein discovered Secondly That the horrour and reality of the Conspiracy so troubled his Conscience as it ingaged him to disclose it yea to renounce that bloody Church and Religion which contrived it though bred up in preferred by it and promised greater advancements for his diligence in this Design Thirdly That he discovered it under an Oath of Secresie and offered to confirm every particular by solemn Oath Fourthly That he discovers the Persons principally imployed in this Plot the places and times of their secret Conventions their manner and diligence in the pursuit of it with all other Circumstances so punctually as leaves no place for doubt Fifthly The principal Conspirators nominated by him are notoriously known to be fit instruments for such a wicked design Sixthly Many particulars therein have immediate relation to the King and Arch-Bishop to whom he imparted this Discovery and durst not reveal any thing for Truth which they could disprove on their own knowledge Seventhly Sir William Boswell and the Arch-Bishop if not the King himself were fully satisfied that it was real and most important Eighthly Some particulars are ratified by the Arch-Bishop's Testimony in the Memorials of his own Life written with his own Hand some Years before and others so apparent that most intelligent Men in Court or City were acquainted with them whiles they were acting though ignorant of the Plot. Finally The late sad effects of this Conspiracy in all three Kingdoms in prosecution of this design compared with it are such a convincing Evidence of its reality and God's admirable hand of Providence in bringing this concealed Plot so seasonably to light by an instrument unexpectedly rarsed from the Grave of Exile and Imprisonment to search the Arch-Bishop's Papers who had seised his in former times and shut him up close Prisoner in a Foreign Dungeon such a Testimony from Heaven super-added to the premises that he who deems it an Imposture may well be reputed an 〈◊〉 if not a Monster of Incredulity The first Overture and larger Relation of the Plot it self were both writ in Latin as they are here Printed and faithfully translated word for word as near as the Dialect will permit All which premised the Letters and Plot here follow in order Sir William Boswell's first Letter to the Arch-Bishop concerning the Plot. May it please your Grace THE offers whereof your Grace will find a Copy here inclosed towards a further and more particular discovery were 〈◊〉 made unto me at the second hand and in speech by a Friend of good Quality and Woith in this place But soon after as soon as they could be put into Order were avowed by the principal Party and delivered me in writing by both together Upon Promise and Oath which I was required to give and gave accordingly not to reveal the same to any other Man living but your Grace and by your Graoe's Hand unto his Majesty In like manner they have tyed themselves not to declare these things unto any other but my self until they should know how his Majesty and your Grace would dispose thereof The Principal giving me withal to know That he puts himself and this Secret into your Grace's power As well because it 〈◊〉 your Grace so nearly after his Majesty As that he knows your Wisdom to guide the same aright and is assured of your Graces Fidelity to his Majesty's Person to our State and to our Church First Your Grace is humbly and earnestly Prayed to signifie his Majesty's Pleasure with all possible speed together with your Grace's Disposition herein and purpose to carry all with Silence from all but his Majesty until due time Secondly When your Grace shall think fit to shew these things unto his Majesty to do it immediately not trusting to Letters or permitting any other person to be by or in hearing And to intreat and councel his Majesty as in a case of Conscience to keep the same wholly and solely in his own Bosom from the knowledge of all other Creatures living but your Grace until the Business shall be clear and sufficiently in his Majesty's and your Grace's Hands to effect Thirdly Not to enquire or demand the Names of the parties from whom these Overtures do come or any farther discoveries and advertisements in pursuit of them which shall come hereafter until due satisfaction shall be given in every part of them Nor to bewray unto any person but his Majesty in any measure or kind that any thing of this nature or of any great importance is come from me For as I may believe these Overtures are verifiable in the way they will be layed and that the parties will not shrink So I make account That if never so little a glimpse or shadow of these Informations shall appear by his Majesty's or your Grace's Speech or Carriage unto others the means whereby the business may be brought best unto Tryal will be utterly disappointed And the parties who have in Conserence towards God and Devotion to his Majesty Affection to your Grace and Compassion of our Country disclosed these things will run a present and extream
obligatam ideo aperto nomine praesentibus Reverentiae tuae innotescere volui mansurus Hagae Comitum Sept. 14. S. N. 1640. Observantissimus Officiosissimus Andreas ab Habernfeld Illustrissimo ac Reverendissimo Dom. Domino Gulielmo Archiepiscopo Cantuariensi Primati Metropolitano totius Regni Angliae Dom. meo Most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord ALL my Senses are shaken together as often as I revolve the present business neither doth my Vnderstanding suffice to conceive what Wind hath brought such horridthings that they should see the Sunshine by me For besides expectation this good Man became known unto me who when he had heard me discoursing of these Scottish stirs said that I knew not the Nerve of the Business that those things which are commonly scattered abroad are Superficial From that hour he every day became more familiar to me who acknowledging my dexterity herein with a full Brest poured forth the Burdens of his Heart into my Bosom supposing that he had discharged a Burthen of Conscience wherewith he was pressed Hence he related to me the Factions of the Jesuits with which the whole Earthly World was assaulted and shewed that I might behold how through their Poyson Bohemia and Germany were devoured and both of them maimed with an irreparable Wound That the same Plague did creep through the Realms of England and Scotland the matter whereof revealed in the adjacent writing be discovered to me Which things having heard my Bowels were contracted together my Loyns trembled with horrour that a pernicious Gulf should be prepared for so many thousands of Souls With Words moving the Conscience I inflamed the Mind of the Man He had scarce one hour concocted my Admonitions but he disclosed all the Secrets and he gave free Liberty that I should treat with those whom it concerned that they might be informed thereof I thought no delay was to be made about the things The same Hour I went to Master Boswell the King 's Leger at the Hague who being tied with an Oath of Secrecy to me I communicated the Business to him I admonished him to weigh these things by the Ballance neither to defer but act that those who were in danger might be speedily succoured He as becomes an honest man mindful of his Duty and having nearer looked into the business refused not to obey the monitions Moreover he forthwith caused that an Express should be dispatched and sent word back again what a most acceptable Oblation this had been to the King and your Grace for which we rejoyced from the Heart and we judged that a safe and favourable Deity had interposed it self in this Business whereby you might be preserved Now that the verity of the things related might be confirmed some principal heads of the Conspiracy were purposely pretermitted that the Knowledge of them might be extorted from the circumvented Society of the Conspirators Now the things will be speedily and safely promoted into Act if they be warily proceeded in at Bruxels By my advice that day should be observed wherein the Packet of Letters are dispatched which under the Title of To Monsieur Strario Arch-Deacon of Cambray tied with one Cover are delivered to the Post-Master such a Packet may be secretly brought back from him yet it will be unprofitable because all the inclosed Letters are written Characteristically Likewise another Packet coming weekly from Rome which is brought under this Subscription to the Most Illustrious Lord Count Rossetti Legat for the time these are not to be neglected to whom likewise Letters writ in the same Character are included That they may be understood Read is to be consulted with The forenamed day of dispatch shall be expected In Read's house an accumulated Congregation may be circumvented which succeeding it will be your Grace's part to order the Business The Intestine Enemy being at length detected by God's Grace all Bitterness of Mind which is caused on either side may be abolished delivered to oblivion deleted and quieted the Enemy be invaded on both parts Thus the King and the King's Friend and both Kingdoms near to danger shall be preserved delivered from imminent Danger Your Grace likewise may have this Injunction by you if you desire to have the best advice given you by others that you trust not overmuch to your Pursevants for some of them live under the Stipend of the Popish party How many Rocks how many Scillaes how many displeased Charibdes appear before your Grace in what a dangerous Sea the Cockboat of your Grace's Life next to Shipwrack is tossed your self may judge the Fore-deck of the Ship is speedily to be driven to the Harbour All these things I whisper into your Grace's Ear for I know it bound with an Oath of Secresie therefore by open Name I would by these Presents become known unto your Grace Hague 14. Sept. S. N. 1640. Your Grace's most Observant and most Officious Andrew Habernfeld Andreas ab Habernfeld a Chaplain as some affirm to the Queen of Bohemia his Indorsement hereon The Arch-Bishop's Indorsement with his own hand Rece Octob. 14. 1640. Andreas ab Habernfeld his Letters sent by Sir W. Boswell about the discovery of the Treason I conceive by the English Latin herein that he must needs be an Englishman with a concealed and changed Name And yet it may be this kind of Latin may relate to the Italian Or else he lived some good time in England The declaration of this Treason I have by his Majesty's special Command sent to Sir W. Boswell that he may there see what proof can be made of any particulars The general Overture and Discovery of the Plot sent with Sir William Boswell's first Letter The King's Majesty and Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury are to be secretly informed by Letters 1. THat the King's Majesty and the Lord Arch-Bishop are both of them in great danger of their lives 2. That the whole Common-wealth is by this means endangered unless the mischief be speedily prevented 3. That these Scottish Troubles are raised to the end that under this pretext the King and Arch-Bishop might be destroyed 4. That there is a means to be prescribed whereby both of them in this case may be preserved and this Tumult speedily composed 5. That although these Scottish Tumults be speedily composed yet that the King is endangered and that there are many ways by which Destruction is plotted to the King and Lord Arch-Bishop 6. That a certain Society hath conspired which attempts the Death of the King and Lord Arch-Bishop and Convulsion of the whole Realm 7. That the same Society every week deposits with the President of the Society what intelligence every of them hath purchased in eight days search and then confer all into one Packet which is weekly sent to the Director of the Business 8. That all the Confederates in the said Conspiracy may verily be named by the Poll. But because they may be made known by other means it is thought meet
so many innocent Souls from imminent Danger To whose monitions he willingly consented and delivered the following things to be put in Writing out of which the Articles not long since tendered to your Grace may be clearly explicated and demonstrated 1. First of all that the Hinge of the Business may be rightly discerned it is to be known that all those Factions with which all Christendom is at this Day shaken do arise from the Jesuitical Off-spring of Cham of which four Orders abound throughout the World Of the First Order are Ecclesiasticks whose Office it is to take care of things promoting Religion Of the second Order are Politicians whose Office it is by any means to shake trouble reform the State of Kingdoms and Republicks Of the Third Order are Seculars whose property it is to obtrude themselves into Offices with Kings and Princes to insinuate and immix themselves in Court Businesses bargains and sales and to be busied in Civil Affairs Of the Fourth Order are Intelligencers or Spies Men of Inferiour condition who submit themselves to the services of great Men Princes Barons Noblemen Citizens to deceive or corrupt the Minds of their Masters 2. A Society of so many Orders the Kingdom of England nourisheth For scarce all Spain France and Italy can yield so great a multitude of Jesuits as London alone where are found more than Fifty Scottish Jesuits There the said Society hath elected to it self a seat of Iniquity and hath conspired against the King and the most faithful to the King especially the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and likewise against both Kingdoms 3. For it is more certain than certainty it self that the forenamed Society hath determined to effect an universal Reformation of the Kingdom of England and Scotland Therefore the determination of the end necessarily infers a determination of means to the end 4. Therefore to promote the undertaken Villany the said Society dubbed it self with the Title of The Congregation of propagating the Faith which acknowledgeth the Pope of Rome the Head of the College and Cardinal Barbarino his Substitute and Executor 5. The chief Patron of the Society at London is the Popes Legat who takes care of the business into whose Bosom these Dregs of Traytors weekly deposite all their Intelligences Now the Residence of this Legation was obtained at London in the name of the Roman Pontif by whose mediation it might be lawful for Cardinal Barbarino to work so much the more easily and safely upon the King and Kingdom For none else could so freely circumvent the King as he who should be palliated with the Pope's Authority 6. Master Cuneus did at that time enjoy the Office of the Pope's Legat an universal Instrument of the conjured Society and a serious promoter of the business whose secrets as likewise those of all the other Intelligencers the present good Man the Communicator of all these things did receive and expedite whither the business required Cuneus set upon the chief Men of the Kingdom and left nothing unattempted by what means he might corrupt them all and incline them to the Pontifician Party He inticed many with various Incitements yea he sought to delude the King himself with gifts of Pictures Antiquities Idols and of other Vanities brought from Rome which yet would prevail nothing with the King Having entred familiarity with the King he is often requested at Hamptoncourt likewise at London to undertake the cause of the Palatine and that he would interpose his Authority and by his Intercession persuade the Legat of Colen that the Palatine in the next Diet to treat of Peace might be inserted into the Conditions which verily he promised but performed the contrary He writ indeed that he had been so desired by the King concerning such things yet he advised not that they should be consented to lest peradventure it might be said by the Spaniard that the Pope of Rome had patronized an heretical Prince In the mean time Cuncus smelling from the Arch-Bishop most trusty to the King that the King's Mind was wholly pendulous or doubtful resolved That he would move every Stone and apply his Forces that he might gain him to his party Certainly considing that he had a means prepared For he had a command to offer a Cardinal's Cap to the Lord Archbishop in the Name of the Pope of Rome and that he should allure him also with higher Promises that he might corrupt his sincere Mind Yet a sitting ocasion was never given whereby he might insinuate himself into the Lord Arch-Bishop for the Scorpion sought an Egg Free access was to be impetrated by the Earl and Countess of Arundel likewise by Secretary Windebank The intercession of all which being neglected he did fly the Company or familiarity of Cuneus worse than the Plague He was likewise perswaded by others of no mean rank well known to him neither yet was he moved 7. Another also was assayed who hindred access to the detestable wickedness Secretary Cook he was a most bitter hater of the Jesuits from whom he intercepted access to the King he entertained many of them according to their deserts he diligently enquired into their Factions by which means every incitement breathing a Magnetical attractive power to the Popish Party was ineffectual with him for nothing was so dear unto him that might incline him to wickedness Hereupon being made odious to the Patrons of the Conspiracy he was endangered to be discharged from his Office it was laboured for three Years space and at last obtained Yet notwithstanding there remained on the King's part a knot hard to be untied for the Lord Arch-Bishop by his constancy interposed himself as a most hard Rock When Cuneus had understood from the Lord Arch-Bishop's part that he had laboured in vain his Malice and the whole Societies waxed boyling hot Soon after Ambushes began to be prepared wherewith the Lord Arch-Bishop together with the King should be taken Likewise a Sentence is passed against the King for whose sake all this business is disposed because nothing is hoped from him which might seem to promote the Popish Religion but especially when he had opened his Mind that he was of this Opinion that every one might be saved in his own Religion so as he be an honest and pious Man 8. To perpetrate the Treason undertaken the Criminal execution at Westminster caused by some Writings of Puritans gave occasion of the first Fire Which thing was so much exasperated and exaggerated by the Papists to the Puritans that if it remained unrevenged it would be thought a blemish to their Religion the Flames of which Fire the subsequent book of Prayers increases 9. In this heat a certain Scottish-Earl called Maxfield if I mistake not was expedited to the Scots by the Popish party with whom two other Scottish Earls Papists held correspondency He ought to stir up the People
to Commotion and rub over the injury afresh that he might inflame their Minds precipitate them to Arms by which the hurtful Disturber of the Scottish Liberty might be slain 10. There by one Labour Snares are prepared for the King for this purpose the present business was so ordered that very many of the English should adhere to the Scots That the King should remain inferiour in Arms who thereupon should be compelled to crave assistance from the Papists which yet he should not obtain unless he would descend into Conditions by which he should permit †Universal liberty of the exercise of the Popish Religion for so the affairs of the Papists would succeed according to their desire To which consent if he should shew himself more difficult there should be a present remedy at hand For the King's Son growing now very fast to his youthful age who is educated from his tender age that he might accustom himself to the Popish Party the King is to be dispatched For an Indian Nut stuffed with most sharp Poyson is kept in the Society which Cuneus at that time shewed often to me in a boasting manner wherein a Poyson was prepared for the King after the Example of his Father 11. In this Scottish Commotion the Marquess of Hamelton often dispatched to the Scots in the name of the King to interpose the Royal Authority whereby the heat of minds might be mitigated returned notwithstanding as often without Fruit and without ending the business His Chaplain at that time repaired to us who communicated some things secretly with Cuneus Being demanded of me in Jest Whether also the Jews agreed with the Samaritans Cuneus thereunto answered Would to God all Ministers were such as he What you will may be hence conjectured 12. Things standing thus there arrived at London from Cardinal Richelieu Mr. Thomas Chamberlain his Chaplain and Almoner a Scot by Nation who ought to assist the College of the Confederated Society and seriously to set forward the business to leave nothing unattempted whereby the first heat might be exasperated For which service he was promised the Reward of a Bishoprick He cohabited with the Society four Months space neither was it lawful for him first to depart until things succeeding according to his wish he might be able to return back again with good News 13. Sir Toby Matthew a Jesuited Priest of the Order of Politicians a most vigilant Man of the chief Heads to whom a Bed was never so dear that he would rest his Head thereon refreshing his Body with Sleep in a Chair for an Hour or two neither Day nor Night spared his Machinations a Man principally noxious and himself the Plague of the King and Kingdom of England a most impudent Man who flies to all Banquets and Feasts called or not called never quiet always in action and perpetual motion thrusting himself into all Conversations of Superiours he urgeth Conferences familiarly that he may fish out the Minds of Men whatever he observeth thence which may bring any Commodity or Discommodity to the Part of the Conspirators he communicates to the Pope's Legat the more secret things he himself writes to the Pope or to Cardinal Barbarino In sum he adjoins himself to any Man's Company no Word can be spoken that he will not lay hold on and accommodate to his Party In the mean time whatever he hath sished out he reduceth into a Catalogue and every Summer carrieth it to the General Consistory of the Jesuits Politicks which secretly meets together in the Province of Wales where he is an acceptable Guest There Councils are secretly hammer'd which are most meet for the Convulsion of the Ecclesiastick and Politick Estate of both Kingdoms 14. Captain Read a Scot dwelling in Longacre-street near the Angel-Tavern a Secular Jesuit who for his detestable Office performed whereby he had perverted a certain Minister of the Church with secret Incitements to the Popish Religion with all his Family taking his Daughter to Wife for a Recompence obtained a Rent or Impost upon Butter which the Country People are bound to render to him procured for him from the King by some chief Men of the Society who never want a Spur whereby he may be constantly detained in his Office In his House the Business of the whole Plot is concluded where the Society which hath conspired against the King the Lord Archbishop and both Kingdoms meet together for the most part every Day But on the Day of the Carriers or Posts dispatch which is ordinarily Friday they meet in greater numbers for then all the Intilligencers assemble and confer in common what things every of them hath fished out that Week who that they may be without suspicion send their Secrets by Toby Matthew or Read himself to the Pope's Legat he transmits the compacted Pacquet which he hath purchased from the Intelligencers to Rome With the same Read the Letters brought from Rome are deposited under feigned Titles and Names who by him are delivered to all to whom they appertain for all and every of their Names are known to him Vpon the very same occasion Letters also are brought hither under the covert of Father Philip he notwithstanding being ignorant of things from whom they are distributed to the Conspirators There is in that very House a publick Chapel wherein an ordinary Jesuit consecrates and dwells there In the said Chapel Masses are daily celebrated by the Jesuits and it serves for the Baptizing of the Children of the House and of some of the Conspirators Those who assemble in the forenamed House come frequently in Coaches or on Horse-back in Lay-mens Habit and with a great Train wherewith they are disguised that they may not be known yet they are Jesuits and conjured Members of the Society 15. All the Papists of England contribute to this Assembly lest any thing should be wanting to promote the undertaken Design Vpon whose Treasury one Widow owner of the Houses wherein Secretary Windebank now dwelleth dead above three Years since bestowed four hundred thousand English Pounds so likewise others contribute above their Abilities so as the Business may be promoted unto its desired End 16. Besides the foresaid Houses there are Conventicles also kept in other more secret places of which verily they confide not even among themseves for fear lest they should be discovered First every of them are called to certain Inns one not knowing of the other hence they are severally led by Spies to the place where they ought to meet otherwise ignorant where they ought to assemble le st peradventure they should be surprised at unawares 17. The Countess of Arundel a strenuous She-Champion of the Popish Religion bends all her Nerves to the universal Reformation whatsoever she hears at the Kings Court that is done secretly or openly in Words or Deeds she presently imparts to the Popes Legat with
whom she meets thrice a Day sometimes in Arundel-House now at the Court or at Tarthal He scarce sucks such things by the Claw The Earl himself called now about three Years since this Year ought to go to Rome without doubt to consult there of serious things concerning the Design With gifts and Speeches the Jesuits watch diligently to their Masses At Greenwich at the Earl's costs a Feminine School is maintained which otherwise is a Monastery of Nuns for the young Girls therein are sent forth hither and thither into foreign Monasteries beyond the Seas 18. Mr. Porter of the King's Bed-Chamber most addicted to the Popish Religion is a bitter Enemy of the King he reveals all his greatest Secrets to the Popes Legat although he very rarely meets with him yet his Wife meets him so much the oftner who being informed by her Husband conveighs secrets to the Legat. In all his Actions he is nothing inferiour to Toby Matthew it cannot be uttered how diligently he watcheth on the Business His Sons are secretly instructed in the Popish Religion openly they profess the Reformed The Eldest is now to receive his Father's Office under the King which shall be A Cardinals Hat is provided for the other if the Design shall succeed well Above three Years past the said Mr. Porter was to be sent away by the King to Morocco But he was prohibited by the Society lest the Business should suffer delay thereby He is a Patron of the Jesuits for whom for the exercise of Religion he provides Chappels both at home and abroad 19. Secretary Windebank a most sierce Papist is the most unfaithful to the King of all Men who not only betrays and reveals even the King 's greatest Secrets but likewise communicates Counsels by which the Design may be best advanced He at least thrice every Week converseth with the Legat in Nocturnal Conventicles and reveals those things which he thinks fit to be known for which end he hired a House near to the Legat's House whom he often resorts to through the Garden-door for by this vicinity the Meeting is facilitated The said Secretary is bribed with Gifts to the Party of that conjured Society by whom he is sustained that he may the more seriously execute his Office He sent his 〈◊〉 expresly to Rome who ought to insinuate himself into the Roman Pontif. 20. Sir Digby Sir Winter Mr. Mountague the younger who hath been at Rome my Lord Sterling a Cousin of the Earl of Arundel's a Knight the Countess of Neuport the Dutchess of Buckingham and many others who have sworn into this Conspiracy are all most vigilant in the Design Some of these are inticed with the hope of Court others of Political Offices others attend to the sixteen Cardinals Caps that are vacant which are therefore detained idle for some years that they may impose a vain hope on those who expect them 21. The President of the aforesaid Society was my Lord Gage a Jesuit Priest dead above three years since He had a Palace adorned with lascivious Pictures which counterfeited Prophaneness in the House but with them was palliated a Monastery wherein forty Nuns were maintained hid in so great a Palace It is situated in Queen-street which the Statue of a golden Queen adorns The Secular Jesuits have bought all this Street and have reduced it into a Quadrangle where a Jesuitical College is tacitly built with this hope that it might be openly finished as soon as the universal Reformation was begun The Pope's Legat useth a threefold Character or Cypher one wherewith he communicates with all Nuncios another other with Cardinal Barbarino only a third wherewith he covers some great Secrets to be communicated Whatever things he either receiveth from the Society or other Spies those he packs up together in one Bundle dedicated under this Inscription To Monsieur Stravio Arch-Deacon of Cambray from whom at last they are promoted to Rome These things being thus ordered if every thing be laid to the balance it will satisfie in special all the Articles propounded WHEREIN 1. THe Conspiracy against the King and Lord Arch-Bishop is detected and the means whereby ruin is threatned to both demonstrated 2. The imminent Dangers to both Kingdoms are rehearsed 3. The rise and progress of that Scottish Fire is related 4. Means whereby the Scottish Troubles may be appeased are suggested for after the Scots shall know by whom and to what end their Minds are incensed they will speedily look to themselves neither will they suffer the Forces of both Parts to be subdued lest a middle Party interpose which seeks the ruin of both 5. With what Sword the King's Throat is assaulted even when these Stirs shall be ended Cuneus his Confession and a visible Demonstration sheweth 6. The Place of the Assembly in the House of Captain Read is nominated 7. The day of the eight days dispatch by Read and the Legat is prescribed 8. How the Names of the Conspirators may be known 9. Where this whole Congregation may be circumvented 10. Some of the principal unfaithful ones of the King's Party are notified by name many of whose Names occur not yet their Habitations are known their Names may be easily extorted from Read If these things be warily proceeded in the strength of the whole Business will be brought to light so the Arrow being foreseen the Danger shall be avoided which that it may prosperously succeed the Omnipotent Creator grant The Arch-Bishop's Indorsement with his own Hand Rece Octob. 14. 1640. The Narration of the great Treason concerning which he promised to Sir William Boswell to discover against the King and State Illustrissime ac Reverendissime Domine ACcepta suae Regiae Majestati simulac Reverentiae Tuae fuisse offerta nostra lubentes ex animo percepimus Adesse vobis benignitatem Numinis hoc unicum nobis Index est quo stimulus datur ut tantò alacrius liberaliusque illa quibus vitae discrimen utriusque statusque Regni Angliae tum Scotiae eximiae Majestatis sede deturbatio intendatur effundamus detegamus Ne autem ambagibus superfluis dilatetur Oratio nonnulla quae tantum ad rem necessaria praemittemus Sciant primò bonum istum virum per quem sequentia deteguntur in pulvere isto Pontificio esse natum educatum qui in dignitatibus Ecclesiasticis aetates consumpsit Tandem praesentis Negotii expeditioni par inventus Consilio Mandato Domini Cardinalis Barbarini ad auxilium Domino Cuneo adjunctus est penes quem in officio ita diligens ac sedulus inventus ut spes magnae promotionis ipsi data fuerit Ipse verò boni Spiritus ductus instinctu ut dulcia promissa contempsit agnitisque Religionis Pontificiae vanitatibus quarum alias defensor fuerat severissimus malitia etiam sub vexillo Papali militantium notata gravari Conscientiam suam senserat quod Onus ut deponeret ad Orthodoxam
been lately made Secondly That to effect this Trayterous Design they have not only secretly erected some Monasteries of Monks Nuns in and about London but sent over hither whole Regiments of most active subtile Jesuits incorporated into a particular new Society whereof the Pope himself is Head and Cardinal Barbarino his Vicar which Society was first discovered and some of them apprehended in their private College at Clerkenwel together with their Books of Account Reliques and Massing Trinkets about the beginning of the Second Parliament of this King yet such Power Favour Friends they had then acquired that their Persons were speedily and most indirectly released out of Newgate without any Prosecution to prevent the Parliament's Proceedings against them Since which this conjured Society increasing in Strength and Number secretly replanted themselves in Queenstreet and Long-Acre and their Purses are now so strong their Hopes so elevated their Designs so ripened as they have there purchased and founded a new magnificent College of their own for their Habitation near the fairest Buildings of Nobles Knights and Gentlemen the more commodiously to seduce them Thirdly That these Jesuits and Conspirators hold weekly constant uninterrupted Intelligence with the Pope and Romish Cardinals and have many Spies or Intelligencers of all sorts about the King Court City Noblemen Ladies Gentlemen and in all Quarters of the Kingdom to promote this their Damnable Plot. Fourthly That the Pope for divers late Years hath had a known avowed Legat Con by Name openly residing even in London near the Court of purpose to reduce the King and his Kingdoms to the Obedience of the Church of Rome and the Queen at least another Leger at Rome trading with the Pope to facilitate the Design to wit one Hamilton a Scot who receives a large Pension out of the Exchequer granted to another Protestant of that Name who payeth it over unto him to palliate the business from the People's knowledge by which means there hath been a constant allowed Negotiation held between Rome and England without any open interruption Fifthly That the Pope's Legat came over into England to effect this Project and kept his Residence here in London for the better Prosecution thereof by the King 's own Privity and Consent And whereas by the ancient Law and Custom of the Realm yet in force even in Times of Popery no Legat whatsoever coming from Rome ought to cross the Seas or land in England or any the King's Dominions without the King's Petition Calling and Request and before he had taken a Solemn Oath or Protestation to bring and attempt nothing in Word or Deed to the Prejudice of the Rights Priviledges Laws and Customs of the King and Realm This Legat for ought appears was here admitted without any such cautionary Oath which would have crossed the chief End of his Legation to prejudice all of them and our Religion too Yea whereas by the Statutes of the Realm it is made no less than High Treason for any Priests Jesuits or others receiving Orders or Authority from the Pope of Rome to set footing in England or any the King's Dominions to seduce any of his Subjects to Popery And no Popish Recusant much less then Priests Jesuits and Legats ought to remain within Ten Miles of the City of London nor come into the King's or Prince's Courts the better to avoid such traiterous and most dangerous Conspiracies Treasons and Attempts as are daily devised and practised by them against the King and Commonweal Yet notwithstanding this Pope's Legat and his Confederates have not only kept Residence for divers Years in or near London and the Court and enjoyed free Liberty without Disturbance or any Prosecution of the Laws against them to seduce his Majesty's Nobles Courtiers Servants Subjects every where to their Grief and Prejudice but likewise have had familiar Access to and Conference with the King himself under the very Name and Authority of the Pope's Legat by all Arts Policies and Arguments to pervert and draw him with his three Kingdoms into a new Subjection to the See of Rome as Cardinal 〈◊〉 the last Pope's Legat extant in England before this in Queen Mary's Reign reconciled her and the Realm to Rome to their intolerable Prejudice An Act so inconsistent with the Laws of the Realm with his Majesty's many ancient and late Remonstrances Oaths Protestations to maintain the Protestant Religion without giving way to any back-sliding to Popery in such sort as it was maintained and professed in the purest Times of Queen Elizabeth c. as may well amaze the World which ever looks more at real Actions than verbal Protestations Sixthly That the Popish Party and Conspirators have lately usurped a Sovereign Power not only above the Laws and Magistrates of the Realm which take no hold of Papists but by the Parliament's late Care against them here but even over the King himself who either cannot or dares not for fear perchance of Poysoning or other Assassination oppose or banish these horrid Conspirators from his Dominions and Court but hath a long time permitted them to prosecute this Plot without any publick Opposition or Dislike by whose Powerful Authority and Mediation all may easily divine Alas What will become of the poor Sheep when the Shepherd himself not only neglects to chase and keep out these Romish Wolves but permits them free Access into and Harbour in the Sheepfold to assault if not devour not only his Flock but Person too Either St. John was much mistaken in the Character of a good Shepherd and in prescribing this Injunction against such Seducers If there come any unto you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not into your House neither bid him God speed for he that biddeth him God speed is Partaker of his evil Deeds And the Fathers and Canonists deceived in this Maxim Qui non prohibet malum quod potest jubet Or else the Premises cannot be tolerated or defended by any who profess themselves Enemies or Opposites to the Pope Priests or Church of Rome Seventhly That these Conspirators are so potent as to remove from Court and Publick Offices all such as dare strenuously oppose their Plots as the Example of Secretary Cook with other Officers lately removed in Ireland evidence and plant others of their own Party and Confederacy both in his Majesty's Court Privy Council Closet Bed-chamber if not Bed and about the Prince to corrupt them And how those who are thus environed with so many industrious potent Seducers of all sorts who have so many Snares to entrap so many Enticements to withdraw them both in their Beds Bed-Chambers Closets Councils Courts where-ever they go or come should possibly continue long untainted unseduced without an omnipotent Protection of which none can be assured who permits or connives at such dangerous Temptations is a thing scarce credible in Divine or Humane Reason if Adam's Solomon's and others Apostacies by such means be duly pondered
Ear-witness of his Destiny from the Legat's own Vaunt will inform his Majesty and all his Protestant Subjects who will tremble at the very apprehension of it that they have an Indian poisoned Nut reserved for him amongst this Jesuitical Society or if it be lost a poisoned Knife perchance or some other Instrument to dispatch him out of the World and to get the possession and protection of the Prince whom they will educate in their Antichristian Religion which how possible how probable it is for them considering their present Power and Endeavours to effect it their poisoning of the Emperour Henry the Seventh in the sacred Host of King John in the Chalice their stabbing of Henry the Third of France with a Knife in the Belly of Henry the Fourth his Successor first in the Mouth next in the Heart-strings though all of their own Religion because they would not humour the Pope in every unreasonable Demand though Henry the Fourth turned an Apostate from the Protestant Religion wherein he was bred restored the Jesuits formerly banished out of France rased the Pillar erected in Paris as a standing Monument of their Treasons against their Sovereigns and built them a stately College to secure his Life from their Assassination which yet would not save him from their Butchery Together with their pistolling of the Prince of Orange and poisoning of King James himself as the Legat boasted may inform his Majesty and all his faithful Protestant Subjects especially such as by their confederating with them in these their Wars have done nought but executed their fore-named Designs whom it concerns now very nearly to prevent if possible such a sad Catastrophe of that bloody Tragedy which hath been acted over-long in Ireland and England by these Conspirators fore-plotted Treasons The execrable Horrridness and Reality whereof made the very Discoverer of the Plot out of remorse of Conscience to desert the Conspirators Conspiracy and that bloody Religion which begot it and therefore should much more incite all such in his Majesty's Army who are cordially faithful to their Sovereign Religion Country Posterity and have hitherto ignorantly acted these Conspirators Treasonable Designs under colour of serving the King to consider with remorse of Conscience whose Instruments they have thus long been whose Treasons they have ripened what Protestant Blood they have shed how much they have weakened impoverished betrayed their own Protestant Party who have really stood for God Religion King Country Parliament against these Romish Conspirators and what Hopes what Advantages they have given these Confederates both in England and Ireland to over-top suppress and ere long utterly to extirpate the Protestant Religion themselves and all others who cordially profess it as they have done many thousands of them already And then upon all these sad most serious Considerations the very Thoughts whereof should cause their Souls to bleed and tremble speedily to desert these traiterous Papists ere they get all into their Power and unite all their Heads Hearts Hands Forces to the Parliament's Party who had so good cause to take up defensive Arms to prevent the imminent ruin which otherwise is like to befal both King Kingdom Religion Parliament Liberty Property Posterity ere we be aware especially since the most cowardly unworthy yielding up of Bristol a fit Inlet for the Irish Rebels who have conspired to come over hither with all expedition and Welsh Papists to cut all our Throats Eleventhly That those Protestants who now side with Popish Conspirators when they have accomplished their Designs whatsoever they may now fancy to themselves shall find no more Mercy or Favour from them than the greatest Roundheads if they comply not with them in all things and even in Popery it self For if they will not spare the King 's own Person and Life after so many Favours Graces extended to them as they will not if we believe this Relation or the late Story of King Henry the Fourth of France yet fresh in memory what inferiour Person can think to be secure to fare better than the King himself And if Con the Legat to insinuate himself into the King's and Palatine's Favours at the first when he had no interest in them would not so much as advise the Legat of Cologne to mediate for the Palsgrave lest peradventure the King of Spain should report that the Pope had Patroniz'd an Heretical Prince as the Relation attests though he promised the King effectually to do it How can Prince Rupert Maurice or any other Commanders in the King's Army when they have fully accomplished the Pope's and these his Instruments Designs under whose Banner they ignorantly yet really militate and promote his Cause instead of the King 's and Kingdoms to whom they and others have been so much engaged hope to receive the least Dram of Favour Pity much less any Recompence from the Pope and Popish Party if they continue Hereticks still notwithstanding all their present goodly Promises Will they part with any other Inheritances to them then who will not so much as now mediate for them to regain their own Will these who have butchered so many thousands of innocent Protestants in Ireland in England even before they were sure of the Day without any provocation given spare any Mother's Son of them alive if they once erect their Trophies over them Certainly the Experience of all former Ages compared with the present may fully resolve all That the very tender Mercies of these wicked ones will be nought but extream Cruelty and if they prevail we all must perish without distinction sooner or later unless we will turn Apostates and lose our Religion God Heaven Souls to save our transitory Lives Finally Therefore let the serious Consideration of all the Premises instruct us to learn Wisdom from these our Adversaries let their indefatigable Industry subtil Policy sincere Fidelity chearful Constancy bountiful Liberality fraternal Unanimity undaunted Magnanimity indissolvable Confederacy and uninterrupted Pertinacy in prosecuting establishing propagating their Antichristian Religions Treasons Designs excite all Protestants according to their several late Covenants and Protestations much forgotten to equalize if not transcend them in all these in defending securing propagating our true Christian Religion protecting our King Kingdoms Parliament Laws Liberties Posterities all we yet have or hereafter hope for from that imminent ruin which these Popish Conspirators threaten to them Fore-warn'd fore-arm'd If now we perish through our own private Dissentions Folly Cowardise Covetousness Treachery or Security or monstrous Credulity that these Conspirators and Papists now in Arms fight only for the King and establishment of the Protestant Religion as it was in Queen Elizabeth's days against whom they plotted so many Treasons even for her very Religion and the Powder-Plot since against King James and the whole Parliament our Blood shall rest upon our own Heads who would not take timely notice of our incumbent Dangers nor suddenly prevent them whiles we might THE EXAMINATION OF HENRY