Esau said in his heart The days of mourning for my father are at band then will I slay my brother Jacob. The event of which his bloudy resolution was that Jacob was â—ain to relinquish all that he had and flie unto his Uncle This last part of the story expresseth very much of the present estate of the French Church The Papists hated the Protestants to see them thrive and increase so much amongst them This hatred moved them to a war by which they hoped to root them out altogether and this war compelled the Protestants to abandon their good Towns their strong holds and all their possessions and to flie to their friends wheresoever they could finde them And indeed the present estate of the Protestants is not much better then that of Jacob in Mesopotâ—â—ia nor much different The blessing which they expect lyeth more in the seed then the harvest For their strength it consisteth principally in their prayers to God and secondly in their obedience to their Kings Within these two fortresses if they can keep themselves they need fear none ill because they shall deserve none The only outward strengths they have left them are the two Towns of Montaban and Rochell the one deemed invincible the other threatned a speedy destruction The Duke of Espernon at my being there lay round about it and it was said that the Town was in very bad terms all the neighbouring Towns to whose opposition they much trusted having yeelded at the first fight of the Canon Rochell it is thought cannot be forced by assault nor compelled by a famine Some Protestants are glad of and hope to see the French Church restored to its former powerfulnesse by the resistance of that Town meerly I rather think that the perverse and stubborn condition of it will at last drive the young King into a fury and incite him to revenge their contradiction on their innocent friends now disarmed and disabled Then will they see at last the issue of their own peremptory resolutions and begin to believe that the Heathen Historian was of the two the better Christian when he gave us this note Non turpe est ab eo vinci quem vincere esset nefas neque 〈…〉 lli â—inhoneste etiam submitti quem fortuna super omnes exâ—ulisset This weaknesse and misery which hath now befallen the Protestants was anâ— effect I confesse of the ill-will which the other party bare them but that they bare them ill will was a fruit of their own graffing In this circumstance they were nothing like Jacob who in the hatred which his brother Esau had to him was simply passive they being active also in the birth of it And indeed that lamentable and bloudy war which sell upon them they not only endevoured not to avoid but invited during the reign of Henry IV. who would not see it and the troublesome minority of Lewis XIII who could not molest them they had made themselves masters of 99. Towns well fortifyed and enabled for a 〈◊〉 a strength too great for any one faction to keep together under a King which desires to be himself and rule his people In the opinion of this their potency they call Assemblies Parliaments as it were when and as often as they pleased There they consulted of the common affairs of Religion made new Laws of government removed and rechanged their generall officers the Kings leave all this while never so much as formally demanded Had they only been guilty of too much power that crime alone had been sufficient to have raised a war against them it not standing with the safety and honour of a King not to be the absolute commander of his own Subjects But in this their licentious calling of Assemblies they abused their power into a neglect and not dissolving them at his Majesties commandment they increased their neglect into into a disobedience The Assembly which principally occasioned the war and their ruine was that of Rochell called by the Protestants presently upon the Kings journey into Bearn This generall meeting the King prohibited by his especiall Edicts declaring all them to be guilty of treason which notwithstanding they would not â—earken to but very undutifully went on in their purposes It was said by a Gentleman of their party and one that had been imployed in many of their affairs That the fiery zeal of some who had the guiding of their consciences had thrust them into those desperate courses and I believe him Tantum relligio potuit suâ—dere malorum Being assembled they sent the King a Remonstrance of their grievances to which the Duke Lesdiguiers in a Letter to them written gave them a very fair and plausible answer wherein also he intreateth them to obey the Kings Edict and break up the Assembly Upon the receipt of this Letter those of the Assembly published a Declaration wherein they verified their meeting to be lawfull and their purpose not to dismisse themselves till their desires were granted This affront done to the King made him gather together his Forces yet at the Duke of Lesdiguiers request he allowed them 24 dayes of respite before his Armies should march towards them he offered them also very fair and reasonable conditions such also as their Deputies had solicited but far better then those which they were glad to accept when all their Towns were taken from them Profecto ineluct abilis fatorum vis cujus fortunam mutare constituit ejus corrumpit consilia It held very rightly in this people who turned a deaf eare to all good advice and were resolved it seemeth Not to hear the voice of the Charmer charmed he never so sweetly In their Assemblie therefore they make Lawes and Orders to regulate their disobedience as That no peace should be made without the consent of the generall Convocation about paying of Souldiers wages for the detaining of the Revenues of the King and Clergy and the like They also there divided France into seven circles or parts assigning over every circle severall Generals and Lieutenants and prescribed Orders how those Generals should proceed in the wars Thus we see the Kings Army leavied upon no slight ground his Regall authority was neglected his especiall Edicts violated his gracious profers slighted and his Revenues forbidden him and his 〈…〉 m divided before his face and allotted unto officers not of his own election Had the prosecution of his action been as fair as the cause was just and legall the Protestants had only deserved the infamy but hinc illae lachrymae The King so behaved himself in it that he suffered the sword to walk at randome as if his main design had been not to correct his people but to ruine them I will instance onely in that tyrannicall slaughter which he permitted at the taking of Nigrepâ—â—isse a Town of Quereu wherein indeed the Souldiers shewed the very rigour of severity which either a barbarous victor could inflict or a vanquished people suffer Nec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 genus
that his admission unto the said office should together with the Ministers of this our Island consider of such Canons and Constitutions as might be fitly accomodated to the circumstances of time and place and persons whom they concern and that the same should be put in good order and intimated by the Governour Bailiffe and Jurates of that our Island that they might offer to us and our Councell such acceptions and give such reformations touching the same as they should think good And whereas the said Dean and Ministers did conceive certain Canons and presented the same unto us on the one part and on the other part the said Bailiffe and Jurates excepting against the same did send and depute Sir Philip de Carteret Knight Jeshuah de Carteret and Philip de Carteret Esquires three of the Jurates and Justices of our said Isle all which parties appeared before our right trusty and well beloved Counsellers the most reverend father in God the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury the Right reverend father in God the Lord Bishop of Lincolne Lord Keeper of the Geat Seal of England and the Right reverend father in God the said Lord Bishop of Winton to whom we granted commission to examine the same who have have accordingly heard the said parties at large read and examined corrected and amended the said Canons and have now made report unto us under their hands that by a mutuall consent of the said Deputies and Dean of our Island they have reduced the said Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiasticall into such order as in their judgements may well stand with the estate of that Island Know ye therefore that we out of our Princely care of the quiet and peaceable government of all our Dominions especialy affecting the peace of the Church and the establishment of true Religion and Ecclesiasticall discipline in one uniforme order and course throughout all our Realms and Dominions so happily united under us as their Supreme Governor on earth in all causes as well Ecclesiasticall as Civill Having taken consideration of the said Canons and Constitutions thus drawn as aforesaid do by these deputies ratifie confirme and approve thereof And farther we out of our Princely power and regall authority do by these Patents signed and sealed with our royall Signet for us our heirs and successors will with our royall hand and command that these Canons and Constitutions hereafter following shall from henceforth in all points be duly observed in our said Isle for the perpetuall government of the said Isle in causes Ecclesiasticall unlesse the same or some part or parts thereof upon further experience and tryall thereof by the mutuall consent of the Lord Bishop of Winton for the time being the Governour Bailiffs and Jurates of the said Isle and of the Dean and Ministers and other our Officers in the said Isle for the time being representing the body of our said Isle and by the royall authority of us our heirs and successors shall receive any additions or alterations as time and occasion shall justly require And therefore we do farther will and command the said Right reverend father in God Lancelot now Lord Bishop of Winton that he do forthwith by his Commission under his Episcopall seal as Ordinary of the place give authority unto the said now Dean to exercise Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction in our said Isle according to the said Canons and Constitutions thus made and established as followeth Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiasticall treated agreed on and established for the Isle of Jarsey CHAP. I. Of the Kings Supremacy and of the Church Article I. 1. AS our duty to the Kings most excellent Majesty requireth it is first ordained That the Dean and Ministers having care of souls shall to the utmost of their power knowledge and learning purely and sincerely without any backwardnesse or dissimulation teach publish and declare as often as they may and as occasion shall present it self that all strange usurped and forain power for as much as it hath no gound by the law of God is wholly as for just and good causes taken away and abolished and that therefore no manner of obedience or subjection within any of his Majesties Realms and Dominions is due unto any such forain power but that the Kings power within his Realms of England Scotland and Ireland and all other his Dominions and Countries is the highest power under God to whom all men as well inhabitants as born within the same do by Gods Law owe most loyalty and obedience afore and above all other power and Potentates in the earth II. 2. Whosoever shall affirme and maintain that the Kings Majesty hath not the same authority in causes Ecclesiasticall that the godly Princes had amongst the Jews and the Christian Emperours in the Church primitive or shall impeach in any manner the said Supremacy in the said causes III. IV. 3. Also whosoever shall affirme that the Church of England as it is established under the Kings Majesty is not a true and Apostolicall Church purely teaching the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles 4. Or shall impugne the Government of the said Church by Archbishops Bishops and Deans affirming it to be Antichristian shall be ipso facto Excommunicated and not restored but by the Dean sitting in his Court after his repentance and publick recantation of his errour CHAP. II. Of Divine Service Article I. 1. IT is injoyned unto all sorts of people that they submit themselves to the Divine service contained in the book of Common prayers of the Church of England And for as much as concerns the Ministers that they observe with uniformity the said Liturgie without addition or alteration and that they fuâ—ler not any Conventicle or Congregation to make a sect apart by themselves or to distract the Government Ecclesiasticall established in the Church II. 2. The Lords day shall be sanctified by the exercises of publick prayer and the hearing of Gods word Every one also shall be bounden to meet together at an hour convenient and to observe the order and decency in that case requisite being attentive to the reading or preaching of the Word kneeling on their knees during the Prayers and standing up at the Belief and shall also 〈◊〉 their consent in saying Amen And further during any part of Divine service the Church-wardens shall not suffer any interruption or impeachment to be made by the insolence and practice of any person either in the Church or Church-yard III. 3. There shall be publick exercise in every Parish on Wednesdays and Fridays in the morning by reading the Common prayers IV. 4. When any urgent occasion shall require an extraordinary Fast the Dean with the advice of his Ministers shall give notice of it to the Governour and Civill Magistrate to the end that by their authority and consent it may be generally observed for the appeasing of the wrath and indignation of the Lord by true and serious repentance CHAP. III. Of Baptism THe Sacrament of Baptism shall be
a hearty and a loving Nation not to one another only but to strangers and especially to us of England Only I would wish that in their speech and complement they would not use the Latine tongue or else speak it more congruously You shall hardly finde a man amongst them which cannot make a shift to expresse himself in that language nor one amongst a hundred that can do it Latinly Galleriam Compagniam Gardinum and the like are as usuall in their common discourse as to drink at three of the clock and as familiar as their sleep Had they bent their studies that way I perswade my self they would have been excellent good at the Common Lawes their tongues so naturally falling upon those words which are necessary to a Declaration But amongst the rest I took notice of one Mr. Gebour a man of that various mixture of words that you would have thought his tongue to have been a very Amsterdam of languages Cras main 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nous irons ad magnam Galleriam was one of his most remarkable speeches when we were at Paris but here at Orleans we had them of him thick and threefold If ever he should chance to die in a strange place where his Countrey could not be known but by his tongue it could not possible be but that more Nations would strive for him then ever did for Homer I had before read of the confusion of Babel in him I came acquainted with it yet this use might be made of him and his hotch-pot of languages that a good Chymicall Physician would make an excellent medicine of it against the stone In a word to go no more upon the particular I never knew a people that spake more words and lesse Latine Of thesee ingredients is the University of Orleans compounded if at the least it be lawfull to call it an University as I think it be not The name of Academie would beseem it better and God grant as Sanco Panco said of his wife it be able to discharge that calling I know that those names are indifferently used but not properly For an Academie the name is derived from a place neer Athens called Academia where Plato first taught Philosophy in its strict and proper sense is such a study where some one or two Arts are professed as Law at Orleans and Bononia and Physick at Montpelier and Padua an University is so called Quod Universae ibi traduntur disciplinae as the name importeth where learning is professed in the generality and in the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it the first the Germans call Schola illustris the latter Generale studium very opposite titles and in which there is little of a German CHAP. IV. Orleans not an University till the coming of the Jesuites Their Colledge there by whom built The Jesuites no singers Their laudable and exact method of teaching Their policies in it Received not without great difficulty into Paris Their houses in that University Their strictness unto the rules of their order Much maliced by the other Priests and Fryers Why not sent into England with the Queen and of what order they were that came with her Our returne to Paris THe difference between an University and an Academie standing thus Those which lived in our Fathers dayes could hardly have called Orleans an University a School of Law being the name most fit for it At this time since the coming of the Jesuites that appellation may not misbecome it they having brought with them those parts of learning which before were wanting in it but this hath not been of any long standing their Colledge being not yet fully finished By an inscription over the gate it seemeth to be the work of Mr. Gagliery one of the Advocates in the Parliament of Paris a man of large practise and by consequence of great possessions and who having no childe but this Colledge is said to intend the fastning of his estate upon it In this house do those of this order apply themselves to the study of good Letters in the pursuit whereof as the rest of this fracernity are they are good proficients and much exceed all other sorts of Fryers as having better teachers and more leasure to learn That time which the other spent at high Masses and at their Canonicall hours these men bestowed upon their books they being exempted from these duties by their order Upon this ground they trouble not their heads with the crotchets of Musick nor spend their moneths upon the chanting out of their services They have other matters to imploy their brains upon such as are the ruin of Kingdoms and desolation of Countries It was the saying of Themistocles being requested to play a lesson on the Lute That he could not fidle but he could tell how to make a little Town a great City The like we may say of the Jesuites They are no great singers but are well skilled in making little Cities great and great ones little And certain it is that they are so far from any ability or desire this way that upon any of their solemn Festivals when their Statutes require musick they are faine to hire the singing men of the next Cathedrall As here upon the feast of their Patron St. Ignatius being the 21 of July they were compelled to make use of the voyces of the Church of St. Croix To this advantage of leasure is added the exact method of their teaching which is indeed so excellent that the Protestants themselves in some places send their sons to their Schools upon desire to have them prove exquisite in those arts they teach To them resort the children of the rich as well as of the poor and that in such abundance that wheresoever they settle other houses become in a manner desolate or frequented only by those of the more heavie and phlegmatick constitutions Into their Schooles when they have received them they place them in that forum or Classis into which they are best fitted to enter Of these Classes the lowest is for Grammar the second for Composition or the making of Theames as we call it the third for Poetry the fourth for Oratory the fifth for Greek Grammar and compositions the sixt for the Poesie and Rhetorick of that language the seventh for Logick and the eight and last for Philosophy In each of these Schooles there is a severall Reader or Institutor who only mindeth that art and the perfection of it which for that year he teacheth That year ended he removeth both himself and Scholars with him into the Classis or Schooles next beyond him till he hath brought them through the whole studies of humanity In this last forme which is that of Philosophy he continueth two years which once expired his Scholars are made perfect in the University of learning and themselves manumitted from their labours and permitted their private studies Nor do they only teach their Scholars an exactnesse in those several parts of Learning which
of Nevers by whom he had no children To his second wife he took the Lady Katherine of Tremoville sister to the Duke of Thovars anno 1586. Two years after his marriage he dyed of an old grief took from a poisoned cup which was given him anno 1552. and partly with a blow given him with a Lance at the battail of Contras anno 1587. In the 11 moneth after his decease his young Princesse was brought to bed with a young Son which is the now Prince of Conde Charles Count of Soissons in the reign of Henry IV. began to question the Princes Legitimation whereupon the King dealt with the Parliament of Paris to declare the place of the first Prince of the Bloud to belong to the Prince of Conde And for the clearer and more evident proof of the title 24 Physitians of good faith and skill made an open protestation upon oath in the Court that it was not only possible but common for women to be delivered in the 11 moneth On this it was awarded to the Prince This Decree of Parliament notwithstanding if ever the King and his Brother should die issuelesse it is said that the young Count of Soissons his father died anno 1614 will not so give over his title He is Steward of the Kings house as his Father also was before a place of good credit and in which he hath demeaned himself very plausibly In case it should come to a tryall quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which God prohibit he is like to make a great party both within the Realm and without it Without it by means of the house of Savoy having matched his eldest Sister unto Don Thomazâ— the second son of that Dukedome now living a brave man of armes and indeed the fairest fruit that ever grew on that tree next heir of his father after the death of Don i Amadeo yet childlesse Within the Realm the Lords have already declared themselves which hapned on this occasion In the year 1620 the month of March the King being to wash the Prince of Conde laid hold of the towell challenging that honour as first Prince of the bloud and on the other side the Count of Soissons seized on it as appertaining to his office of See ward and Prince of the bloud also The King to decide the controversie for the present commanded it to be given Monseiur his Brother yet did not this satisfie for on the morning the friends of both Princes came to offer their service in the cause To the Count came in generall all the opposites of the Prince of Conde and of the Duke of Luynes and Guâ—â—â— in particular the Duke of Maien the Duke of Vendosme the Dukes of Longueville Espernon Nemours the Grand Prior the Dukes of Thovars Retz and Rohan the Viscount of Aubeterre c. who all withdrew themselves from the Court made themselves masters of the best places in their governments and were united presently to an open saction of which the Queen Mother declared herself head As for the Commons without whom the Nobility may quarrel but never fight they are more zealous in behalf of the Count as being brought up alwayes a Papist and born of a Catholick kindred whereas the Prince though at this instant a Catholick yet non fuit sic ab initio he was born they say and brought up an Hugonot and perhaps the alteration is but dissembled Concerning the Prince of Conde he hath a sentence of Parliament on his side and a verdict of Physitians both weak helpes to a Soverainty unlesse well backed by the sword And for the verdict of the Physitians thus the case is stated by the Doctors of that faculty Laurentius a professour of Montpellier in Languedoc in his excellent Treatise of Anatomie maketh three terms of a womans delivery primus intermedius and ultimus The first is the seventh moneth after conception in each of which the childe is vitall and may live if it be borne To this also consenteth the Doctor of their chaire Hippocrates saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that a child born in the seventh moneth if it be well looked to may live We read also how in Spain the women are oftentimes lightned in the end of the seventh moneth and commonly in the end of the eight And further that Sempronius and Corbulo both Roman Consuls were born in the seventh moneth Pliny in his Naturall History reporteth it as a truth though perchance the women which told him either misreckoned their time or else dissembled it to conceal their honesties The middle time terminus intermedius is in the ninth and tenth moneths at which time children do seldome miscarry In the former two moneths they had gathered life in these latter they only consummate strength so said the Physitians generally Non enim in duobus sequentibus mensibus they speak it of the intermedii additur aliquod ad perfectionum partium sed perfectionem roboris The last time terminus ultimus in the common account of this profession is the eleaventh moneth which some of them hold neither unlikely nor rare Massurius recordeth Papirius a Roman Praetor to have recovered his inheritance in open Court though his Mother confessed him to be borne in the thirteeenth moneth And Avicen a Moore of Corduba relateth as he is cited in Laurentius that he had seen a a childe born after the fourteenth But these are but the impostures of women and yet indeed the modern Doctors are more charitable and refer it to supernaturall causes Et extraordinariam artis considerationem On the other side Hippocrates giveth it out definitively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in ten moneths at the â—urthest understand ten moneths compleat the childe is borne And Ulpian the great Civilian of his times in the title of the Digests de Testamentis is of opinion that a childe born after the tenth moneth compleat is not to be admitted to the inheritance of his pretended father As for the Common Law of England as I remember I have read it in a book written of Wils and Testaments it taketh a middle course between the charity of nature and the severity of the Law leaving it meerly to the conscience and circumstance of the Judge But all this must be conceived as it was afterwards alleaged by the party of the Earl of Soissons taking it in the most favourable construction of the time after the conception of the mother and by no means after the death of the Father and so no way to advantage the Prince of Conde His Father had been extremely sick no small time before his death for the particular and supposed since his poison taken anno 1552. to be little prone to women in the generall They therefore who would have him set besides the Cushion have cunningly but malicionsly caused it to be whisppered abroad that he was one of the by-blowes of King Henry IV. and to make the matter more suspiciously probable they have cast out these conjectures
means he is within two or three years brought again to equall poverty with the rest A strange course and much different from that of England where the Gentry take a delight in having their Tenants thrive under them and hold it no crime in any that hold of them to be wealthy On the other side those of France can abide no body to gain or grow rich upon their farmes and therefore thus upon occasions rack their poor Tenants In which they are like the Tyrant Procrustes who laying hands upon all he met cast them upon his bed if they were shorter then it he racked their joynts till he had made them even to it if they were longer he cut as much of their bodies from them as did hang over so keeping all that fell into his power in an equality All the French Lords are like that Tyrant How much this course doth depresse the military power of this Kingdome is apparent by the true principles of war and the examples of other Countries For it hath been held by the generall opinion of the best judgements in matters of war that the main Buttresse and Pillar of an Army is the foot or as the Martialists term it the Infantery Now to make a good Infantery it requireth that men be brought up not in a slavish and needy fashion of life but in some free and liberall manner Therefore it is well observed by the Vicounâ— St. Albans in his History of Henry VII that if a State run most to Nobles and Gentry and that the Husbandmen be but as their meer drudges or else simply Cottagers that that State may have a good Cavallery but never good stable bands of foot Like to Coppice woods in which if you let them grow too thick in the stadles they run to bushes or bryers and have little clean under-wood Neither is this in France only but in Italy also and some other parts abroad in so much that they are enforced to imploy mercenary Souldiers for their battalions of foot whereby it cometh to passe that in those Countries they have much people and few men On this consideration King Henry VII one of the wisest of our Princes took a course so cunning and wholesome for the increase of the military power of his Realm that though it be much lesse in territory yet it should have infinitely more Souldiers of its native forces then its neighbour Nations For in the fourth year of his Reign there passed an Act of Parliament pretensively against the depopulation of Villages and decay of tillage but purposedly to inable his subjects for the wars The Act was That all houses of husbandry which had been used with twenty acres of ground and upwards should be maintained and kept up for together with a competent proportion of Land to be used and occupied with them c. By this means the houses being kept up did of necessity enforce a dweller and that dweller because of the proportion of Land not to be a begger but a man of some substance able to keep Hinds and Servants and to set the plough a going An order which did wonderfully concerne the might and manhood of the Kingdome these Farmes being sufficient to maintaine an able body out of penury and by consequence to prepare them for service and encourage them to higher honours for Haud facile emergent quorum virtutibus obstat Res angusta domi As the Poet hath it But this Ordinance is not thought of such use in France where all the hopes of their Armies consist in the Cavallery or the horse which perhaps is the cause why our Ancestors have won so many battailes upon them As for the French foot they are quite out of all reputation and are accounted to be the basest and unworthyest company in the world Besides should the French people be enfranchised as it were from the tyranny of their Lords and estated in freeholds and other tenures after the manner of England it would much trouble the Councell of France to find out a new way of raising his revenues which are now meerly sucked out of the bloud and sweat of the Subject Antiently the Kings of France had rich and plentifull demeans such as was sufficient to maintain their greatnesse and Majesty without being burdensome unto the Countrey Pride in matters of sumptuousnesse and the tedious Civill wars which have lasted in this Countrey almost ever since the death of Henry II. have been the occasion that most of the Crown lands have been sold and morgaged in so much that the people are now become the Demaine and the Subject only is the Revenue of the Crown By the sweat of their browes is the Court sed and the Souldier paid and by their labours are the Princes maintained in idlenesse What impositions soever it pleaseth the King to put upon them it is almost a point of treason not only to deny but to question Apud illos vere regnatur nefasque quantum regi liceat dubitare as one of them The Kings hand lyeth hard upon them and hath almost thrust them into an Egyptian bondage the poor Paisant being constrained to make up dayly his full tale of bricks and yet have no straw allowed them Upon a sight of the miseries and poverties of this people Sir John Fortescue Chancellour of England in his book intituled De Laudibus legum Angliae concludeth them to be unfit men for Jurors or Judges should the custome of the Countrey admit of such tryals For having proved there unto the Prince he was son to Henry VI. that the manner of tryall according to the Common Law by 12 Jurates was more commendable then the practise of the Civill or Emperiall Lawes by the deposition only of two witnesses or the forced confession of the persons arrained the Prince seemed to marvell Cur ed lex Angliae quae tam fiugi optabilis est non sit toti mundo communis To this he maketh answer by shewing the â—ree condition of the English Subjects who alone are used at these indictments men of a fair and large estate such as dwell nigh the place of the deed committed men that are of ingenuous education such as scorn to be suborned or corrupted and afraid of infamie Then he sheweth how in other places all things are contrary the Husbandman an absolute begger easie to be bribed by reason of his poverty the Gentlemen living far asunder and so taking no notice of the fact the Paisant also neither fearing infamie nor the losse of goods if he be found faulty because he hath them not In the end he concludeth thus Ne mireris igitur princeps si lex per quam in Anglia veritas inquiritur alias non pervagetur nationes ipsae namque ut Anglia nequerunt facere sufficientes consimilesque Juratas The last part of the latine savoureth somewhat of the Lawyer the word Juratas being put there to signifie a Jury To go over all those impositions which this miserable people
administred in the Church with fair water according to the institution of Jesus Christ and without the limitation of any dayes No man shall delay the bringing of his child to Baptism longer then the next Sunday or publick Assembly if it may conveniently be done No person shall be admitted to be a Godfather unlesse he hath received the Lords Supper nor shall women alone viz. without the presence of a man among them be admitted to be Godmothers CHAP. IV. Of the Lords Supper Article I. 1. THe Lords Supper shall be administred in every Church four times a year whereof one to be at Easter and the other at Christmas and every Minister in the administration of it shall receive the Sacrament himself and after give the Bread and wine to each of the Communicants using the words of the institution of it II. 2. The Masters and Mistresses of Families shall be admonished and enjoyned to cause their children and Servants to be instructed in the knowledge of their salvation and to this end shall take care to send them to the ordinary Catechizing CHAP. V. Of Marriage Article I. 1. NO man shall marry contrary to the degrees prohibited in the word of God according as they are expressed in a table made for that purpose in the Church of England on pain of nullity and censure II. 2. The Banes of the parties shall be asked three Sundays successively in the Churches of both parties and they of the Parish where the Marriage is not celebrated shall bring an attestation of the bidding of their Banes in their own Parish Neverthelesse in lawfull cases there may be a Licence or dispensation of the said Banes granted by the authority of the Dean and that upon good caution taken that the parties are at liberty III. 3. No separation shall be made a thoro mensa unlesse in case of Adultery cruelty and danger of life duly proved and this at the sole instance of the parties As for the maintenance of the woman during her divorce he shall have recourse to the Secular power CHAP. VI. Of Ministers Article I. 1. NO man that is unfit to teach or not able to preach the word of God shall be admitted to any Benefice within the Isle or which hath not received imposition of hands and been ordained according to the forme used in the Church of England II. 2. None of them either Dean or Minister shall at the same time hold two Benefices unlesse it be in time of vacancy and only the Natives of the Isle shall be advanced to these preferments III. 3. The Ministers every Sunday after morning prayer shall expound some place of holy Scripture and in the afternoon shall handle some of the points of Christian Religion contained in the Catechism in the Book of Common-prayers IV. 4 In their Prayers they shall observe the titles due unto the King acknowledging him the Supreme governour under Christ in all causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiasticall as Civill recommending unto God the prosperity of his person and royall posterity V. 5. Every Minister shall carefully regard that modesty and gravity of apparell which belongs unto his function and may preserve the honour due unto his person and shall be also circumspect in the whole carriage of their lives to keep themselves from such company actions and haunts which may bring unto them any blame or blemish Nor shall they dishonour their calling by Gaming Alehouses Usuries guilds or occupations not convenient for their function but shall endevor to excell all others in purity of life in gravity and virtue VI. 6. They shall keep carefully a Register of Christnings Marriages and Burials and shall duely publish upon the day appointed to them the Ordinances of the Courts such as are sent unto them signed by the Dean and have been delivered to them fifteen dayes before the publication VII 7. The Ministers shall have notice in convenient time of such Funerals as shall be in their Parishes at which they shall assist and shall observe the forme prescribed in the book of Common-prayers No man shall be interred within the Church without the leave of the Minister who shall have regard unto the quality and condition of the persons as also unto those which are benefactours unto the Church CHAP. VII Of the Dean Article I. 1. THe Dean shall be a Minister of the word being a Master of the Arts or Graduate at the least in the Civill Lawes having ability to exercise that office of good life and conversation as also well affected to Religion and the service of God II. 2. The Dean in all causes handled at the Court shall demand the advice and opinion of the Ministers which shall then be present III. 3. There shall appertain unto him the cognisance of all matters which concern the service of God the preaching of the Word the administration of the Sacraments Matrimoniall causes the examination and censure of all Papists Recusants Hereticks Idolaters and Schismaticks persons perjured in causes Ecclesiasticall Blasphemers those which have recourse to Wizards incestuous persons Adulterers Fornicators ordinary drunkards and publick profaners of the Lords day as also the profanation of the Churches and Church-yards misprisions and offences committed in the Court or against any officers thereof in the execution of the mandats of the Court and also of Divorces and separations a thoro mensa together with a power to censure and punish them according unto the Lawes Ecclesiasticall without any hindrance to the power of the Civill Magistrate in regard of temporall correction for the said crimes IV. 4. The Dean accompanied with two or three of the Ministers once in two years shall visite every Parish in his own person and shall take order that there be a Sermon every visitation day either by himself or some other by hi 〈…〉 appointed Which Visitation shall be made for the ordering of all things appertaining to the Churches in the service of God and the administration of the Sacraments as also that they be provided of Church-wardens that the Church and Church-yards and dwellings of the Ministers be kept in reparations And farther he shall then receive information of the said Church-wardens or in their default of the Ministers of all offences and abuses which need to be reformed whether in the Minister the officers of the Church or any other of the Parish And the said Dean in liâ—â— of the said visitation shall receive 4 s. pay out of the Treasures of the Church for every time V. 5. In the vacancy of any Benefice either by death or otherwise the Dean shall give present order that the profits of it be sequestred to the end that out of the revenue of it the Cure may be supplyed as also that the widow and children of the deceased may be satisfied according to the time of his service and the custome of the Isle excepting such necessary deductions as must be made for dilapidations in case any be He shall also give
begin with Jarsey first as unto which he was to send a new Governour not yet ingaged unto a party and pliable to his instructions Whereas Sir Tho. Leighton still continued in his charge at Guernzey who having had so main a hand in the introduction of the Plat-forme could not be brought with any stomach to intend an alteration of his own counsels But not to lose my self in the search of Princes counsels which commonly are too far removed from vulgar eyes let us content our selves with knowing the event which was that by his means the Isle of Jarsey was reduced unto a Discipline conformable to that of England and thereby an easie way for the reforming also that in Guernzey For the accomplishment of which designe may it please your Lordship to take notice of these reasons following by which it is within my hopes your Lordship possibly may be perswaded to deal in it A Jove principium And here as in a Christian duty I am bound I propose unto your Lordship in the first place the honour which will redound unto the Lord in this particular by the restoring of a Discipline unto the smallest Oratory of his Church which you assure your self to be most answerable to his holy word and to the practice of those blessed spirits the Apostles For why may not I say unto your Lordship as Mardochaus once to Hester though the case be somewhat different Who knoweth whether you be come unto these dignities for such a time as this And why may it not be said of you even in the application unto this particular designment That unto whom so much is given of him also shall much be required Private exployts and undertakings are expected even from private persons But God hath raised up you to publick honours and therefore looks that you should honour him in the advancement and undertaking of such counsels as may concern his Church in publick And certainly if as I verily perswade my self your counsels tend unto the peace and glory of the Chureh the Church I mean whereof you are so principall a member You shall not easily encounter with an object whereon your counsels may be better busied So strangely do these men disgrace your blessed Mother and lay her glory in the dust Two instances hereof I shall present unto your Lordship to set the better edge on your proceedings though otherwise I had forborne to meddle with particulars It pleased his Majesty for the assurance of these Islands to send into each of them two Companies of Souldiers which were equally distributed But such was the peevish obstinacy of one of the Ministers of this Guernzey that he would not allow their Minister to read prayers unto them in his Church at such times when himself and people did not use it At last on much entreaty he was contented to permit it but with expresse condition that he should not either read the Litany or administer the Communion Since when as often as they purpose to receive the Sacrament they have been compelled to ferry over to the Castle and in the great hall there celebrate the holy Supper As little is our Church beholding to them in her Festivals as in her Liturgie For whereas at the Town of St. Peters on the Sea they have a Lecture every Thursday upon which day the Feast of Christs Nativity was solemnized with us in England anno 1623. the same party chose rather to put off the Sermon for that time then that any the smal lest honour might reflect upon the day O curvae in terris animae coelestium inanes An opposition far more superstitious then any ceremony observation of a day though meerly Jewish Next to the honour due to God and to his Church is that which all of us are obliged to tender to our Princes as being Gods by office and nursing fathers of that Church whereof they are Therefore I represent in the next rank unto your Lordship a consideration of the honour which you shall here in do unto your Kings To the one your late Master of happy memory who gave you first his hand to guide you unto greatnesse in the pursuit of his intendments So glorious were the purposes of that Heroick Prince for the secure and flourishing tranquillity of Gods holy Church that certainly it were impiety if any of them be permitted to miscarry To the other our now gratious Soveraign who hath doubled the promotions conferred upon you by his father in being an author to him of those thoughts which may so much redound unto his glory the rather because in case his Majesty should find a time convenient to go forward in his Fathers project of reducing all the Churches Protestant unto one Discipline and Liturgie there might not an objection thwart him drawn from home Otherwise it may perhaps be unto him by some of those which do not fanâ—â— the proposall as Demades once to Philip 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That first he might do well to compose the differences in his own dominions b 〈…〉 re he motion a consormity to others At the least he may be sure to look for this reply from Scotland when ever he proposeth to them the same businesse The Ministers of Jarsey a before I have shown your Lordship denyed admission to the book of Common-prayer as not imposed upon the Scots 〈◊〉 better reason may the Scots refuse to entertain it as not imposed on those of Guâ—â—zey Besides the honour due to God the Church and to the King there is an honour next in order to the calling of the Priest A calling as much stomached in generall by all that party so most especially reviled by those amongst our selves for Antichristian tyrannous a divelish ordinance a bastardly government and the like Nor do I think that those of Guernzey are better affected to it though more moderate in professing their dislike for did they but approve the hierarchy of Bishops they would not then proceed so unwarrantably as now they do in the ordination of their Ministers I cal it unwarrantable proceeding because the lawful and ordinary door of entrance unto the Ministery was never shut unto this people and therefore their preposterous entry upon this sacred calling either by the back-door or by the window the more unanswerable Whereas it may be pleaded in the behalf of those in some parts beyond the seas that they could not meet with any Bishops which would give them ordination unlesse they would abjure the Gospell as they then profest it and therefore that necessity compelled them to the private way of imposing hands on one another In which particular the case of some reformed Churches may not unfitly be resembled unto that of Scipio as it is related to us in the third book of Valerius Max. cap. 7. upon some want of money for the furtherance of the necessary affaires of state he demanded a supply from the common treasury But when the Questor pretending that it was against the
Lawes refused to open it himself a private person seised the Keyes Patefacto aerario legem utilitati cedere coegit and over-ruled the Law by the advancement of the Weal publick In like manner which is I think the most and best that can be said in this behalf to promote the reformation of Religion many good men made suit to be supplyed out of the common treasury to be admitted to the preaching of the word according to the ordinary course of ordination which when it was denied them by the Questors or Prelates of those dayes they chose rather to receive it at the hands of private and inferior Priests then that the Church should be unfurnished This may be said for them which in excuse of those of Guernzey can never be alleadged whose continuall recourse unto these private keyes is done upon no other reason then a dislike of that high calling to which your Lordship is advanced which therefore you are bound if not to punish in them yet to rectifie Two other reasons yet there are which may invite your Lordship to this undertaking though not so weighty or of that importance as the former The one that the remainders of that party here at home may not be hardned in their obstinacy the other that those of Jarsey be not discouraged in their submission and conformity I have already shewn unto your Lordship that the brethren here in England never made head against the Church till the permission of plat-forme in these Islands After which with what violence they did assaile the hierarchy what clamorus they continually raised against the Prelates what superstitions and impieties they imputed to our Liturgy notius est quam ut stylo egeat is too wel known to be related If so then questionless it cannot but confirme them in their new devices to see them still permitted to this Isle Nor can they think themselves but wronged that still they are contrould and censured for the maintenance of that discipline which is by Soveraign authority allowed and licensed though in other places yet in the same dominions And on the other side your Lordship may conceive how just a cause of discontent and of repining it may be to those of Jarsey when they shall dayly hear it thundred from the Coasts of France that faintly they have sold themselves to bondage whereas the faithfull zelots in the Isle of Guernzey doe still preserve themselves in liberty Vel neâ—trum flammis ure velure duos as the Lover in Ausonius From my first rank of motives here presented to your Lordship which I may most properly call motives necessary and in respect unto the cause I come next to those of an other quality which I call motives of conveniency and in relation to the time For questionlesse the time is at this present more convenient for the accomplishment of this work then ever we may hope to see hereafter whether we consider it in reference unto our Kingdome or to the Discipline it self or to the Governour or to the people of both sorts the Clergy and the Magistrates For first there is at this instant an established peace between it and France concluded on while we were in these Islands and published immediately on our coming home which Realm only carryeth a covetous and watchfull eye upon those Islands Were it between us as it lately was nothing but wars and depredations â—he alteration then perhaps might be unsafe it being alwayes dangerous to discontent or charge that Nation upon whose loyalty we must rely Nor can I tell unto what desperate and undutifull practises the furious heat of some few Preachers may possibly excite a multitude when come the worst that can there is an enemy at hand that will subscribe to any articles But now t is peace and how long peace will hold is not easie to determine depending as it doth upon the will and pleasure of another If in the second place we look upon the Discipline it self we shall find it well prepared and ready for a change For whereas it is ordered in their Canons if I so may call them that the errours of the Consistory shall be corrected by the Colloquie those of the Colloquie by the Synod by the departure of Jarsey from them they have no way of further Synods and therefore no redresse of grivances So then either the sentence of the Colloquie must be unalterable which is expresly contrary to the platforme or else there must be granted some other jurisdiction to have power above them whereby their censures may be moderated The first of these would estate their Colloquies in a tyranny more prevalent and binding then the chair of Rome so much complained of The other openeth a way for the entrance of Episcopall authority for the admission of Appeals for the directions of their proceedings Add hereunto that at this time they have a noble Governour no friend I am assured to any of that party and such a one which gladly would resign those rights of old belonging to the Deanry when ever it shall please his Majesty to restore that dignity unto the Island A Peer so perfectly known unto your Lordship and to all the Kingdom that I need not say more of him then that which once Velleius did of Junius Blaesus Vir nescias an utilior Castris vel melior toga It were a matter of no ordinary study to determine whether he be more able in the Campe or Senate But in alterations such as these the fancy and affection of the people is principally to be attended as those whom such mutations most properly concern wherein I find all things made ready to your Lordships hand if you vouchsafe to set it forwards The Magistrates and more understanding people of the Isle offended with the severe and unsociable carriage of the Consistories especially of late since the unlimited Empire of the Colloquie hath made that government unsufferable Before they had enough to keep themselves from censure and their houses from the diligence of Consistoriall spies when yet there was an higher Court wherein there was some hope of remedy But there being none to appeal from in the Consistory but those which wil condemn them in the Colloquie they undergo the yoak with much clamour but with more stomach A stomach which estsoones they spare not to disgorge upon them as often viz. as they come within the compasse of their Courts either in way of punishment or censure On the other side the Ministers exclaime against the Magistrates as presuming too far above their latchet pretending that by them their Discipline hath been infringed their priviledges violated and their Ministery interrupted Matters that have not been repined at only in a corner but publickly presented as on the Theater and complained of to their Governours For at my Lord of Danbies being there they articled against the Magistrates for invading the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction as viz. that they take upon them to dissolve contracts made in the presence