glad of it In the mean time I could not but know though not perhaps prove as then that Sir Robert Howard laboured and contrived this conveyance And thereupon in the next sitting of the High-Commission Ordered him to be close Prisoner till he brought the Lady forth So he continued close Prisoner about some two or three Months For this the Fine above mentioned was imposed upon me as being a most Unjust and Illegal Imprisonment Whereas the Parliament to the great Honour of their Justice be it spoken have kept me in Prison now full thirteen Months and upward and have not so much as brought up a particular Charge against me and how much longer they will keep me God knows Now say that all Forms of Law were not observed by me yet somewhat was to be indulged in regard I did it to vindicate such a crying Impiety But yet I do here solemnly protest I observed the Order of the Court in which I sat and that Court setled by an Act of Parliament 1. Eliz. And I did not knowingly err in any particular More I could say in these my sufferings but I will blast no Family of Honour for one Man's fault On Thursday Januar. 21. 1640. A Parliament-Man of Good Note in the House of Commons and well interessed in divers Lords gave me to understand that some Lords were very well pleased with my patient and moderate carriage since my Commitment And that four Earls of great power in the House should say that the Lords were not now so sharp against me as they were at first and that now they were resolved only to Sequester me from the King's Counsels and to put me from my Arch-Bishoprick I was glad to hear of any favour considering the Times but considering my Innocency I could not hold this for favour And I could not but observe to my self what Justice I was to expect since here was a Resolution taken among the Leading Men of the House what Censure should be laid upon me before any Charge so much as in general was brought up against me CAP. VI. UPon Friday Feb. 26. I had been full ten weeks in restraint at Mr. Maxwell's House And this day being St. Augustine's day my Charge in general Articles was brought up from the House of Commons to the Lords by Sir Hen. Vane the Younger It consisted of Fourteen Articles These Generals they craved time to prove in Particular and that I in the mean time might be kept safe Upon this I was presently sent for to the House and the Articles were Read to me at the Bar. When the Clark of the Parliament had done Reading I humbly craved leave of the Lords to speak a few words which were to this effect My Lords This is a great and a heavy Charge and I must be unworthy to live if it can be made good against me For it makes me against God in point of Religion Against the King in point of Allegiance And against the Publick in point of Safety under the Justice and Protection of Law And though the King be little if at all mentioned yet I am bold to Name him because I have ever been of Opinion that the King and his People are so joyned together in one Civil and Politick Body as that it is not possible for any Man to be true to the King as King that shall be found Treacherous to the State Established by Law and work to the Subversion of the People Though perhaps every one that is so is not able to see thorough all the Consequences by which one depends upon the other So my Charge my Lords is exceeding heavy in it self though I as yet do not altogether feel the weight of it For 't is yet as your Lordships see but in Generals And Generals make a great noise but no Proof Whereas 't is Proof upon Particulars that makes the weight of a Charge sit close upon any Man Now my Lords 't is an old and a true Rule Errare contingit descendendo Error doth most often happen and best appear when Men descend to Particulars And with them when I shall be Charged I hope my Innocence will furnish me with a sufficient Answer to any Error of mine that shall be thought Criminal or any way worthy the Cognizance of this High and Honourable Court. As for Humane Frailties as I cannot acquit my self of them so I presume your Lordships will be favourable Judges of them Since in the Transaction of so many businesses as passed my Hands Men far abler than ever I can be have been subject to them and perhaps to as many and as great But for Corruption in the least degree I humbly praise God for it I fear no Accuser that will speak Truth But my Lords that which goes nearest unto me among these Articles is that I should be thought foul and false in the profession of my Religion As if I should profess with the Church of England and have my Heart at Rome and labour by all cunning ways to bring Romish Superstition in upon the Kingdom This my Lords I confess troubles me exceedingly and if I should forget my self and fall into passion upon it I should but be in that case which St. Jerome confessed he was in when he knew not how to be patient when Falshood in Religion was charged upon him And yet that was nothing so high a Charge as this which is laid against me Which is not only to be basely false my self but withal to labour to spread the same Falshood over the whole Kingdom And here I humbly besought their Lordships that I might a little inlarge my self and I did so But because I purpose here to set down the general Articles that were brought up against me and that one of them comes home to this point of Religion I shall put it off till I come to that Article and there set it down at large what I now said And this I do to avoid an useless and a tedious Repetition Here then follow the Articles themselves as they were that day Charged upon me with my general Answer to each of them And more I cannot give till Particulars shall be put up against me CAP. VII ARticles of the Commons assembled in Parliament in maintenance of their Accusation against William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury whereby he stands Charged with High Treason and other High Crimes and Misdemeanours 1. That he hath Trayterously endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws and Government of the Kingdom And instead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government against Law And to that end hath wickedly and Trayterously advised His Majesty that he might at his own Will and Pleasure Levy and take Money of his Subjects without their consent in Parliament And this he affirmed was warrantable by the Law of God I did never endeavour to subvert the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom of England nor to introduce an Arbitrary or
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
from thence where he had made his Party He says farther that some few of the Citizens of Gloucester were called into the High-Commission for an Annuity of Twenty Pound a Year allowed Mr. Workman out of the Town-Stock For the thing it self it was a Gross Abuse and Scorn put upon that Court that when they had Censured a Schismatical Lecturer for such he was there proved the Towns-Men should make him an allowance of Twenty Pound a Year A thing as I humbly conceive not fit to be indured in any settled Government And whereas Clamour is made that some few of the Citizens were called to an account for it that 's as strange on the other side For where there are many Offenders the Noise would be too great to call all And yet here 's Noise enough made for calling a few Here it was replyed by Mr. Maynard That this was done by that Corporation and yet a few singled out to Answer and that therefore I might be singled out to Answer for things done in the High-Commission But under Favour this Learned and Worthy Gentleman is mistaken For here the Mayor and Magistrates of Gloucester did that which was no way warrantable by their Charter in which Case they may be accountable all or some But in the High-Commission we medled with no Cause not Cognoscible there or if by Misinformation we did we were sure of a Prohibition to stop us And medling with nothing but things proper to them I conceive still no one Man can be singled out to suffer for that which was done by all And this may serve to Answer Mr. Brown also who in his last Reply upon me when I might not Answer made use of it 2. The Second Witness was Mr. Purye of 〈◊〉 He says that Mr. Brewster and Mr. Guies the Town-Clark were called to the Council-Table about this Annuity and that I 〈◊〉 it might be 〈◊〉 Examined at the High-Commission If this were true I know no Offence in it to desire that such an Affront to Government might be more thoroughly Examined than the Lords had leisure to do But the Witness doth not give this in Evidence For he says no more than that he heard so from Mr. Brewster And his Hear-say is no Conviction He says farther that the High-Commission called upon this Business of the Annuity as informed that the Twenty Pound given to Mr. Workman was taken out of the Moneys for the Poor And this I must still think was a good and a sufficient ground justly to call them in question He says also That these Men were Fined because that which they did was against Authority So by their own Witness it appears that they were not Fined simply for allowing Means to Mr. Workman but for doing it in opposition to Authority Lastly he says they were Fined Ten Pound apiece and that presently taken off again So here was no such great Persecution as is made in the Cause And for the Cancelling of this Deed of the Annuity it was done by themselves as Mr. Langlye Witnesses After these two Witnesses heard the Sentence of the High-Commission-Court was read which I could not have come at had not they produced it And by that it appeared evidently that Mr Workman was Censured as well for other things as for his Sermon about Images in Churches As first he said so many Paces in Dancing were so many to Hell This was hard if he meant the Measures in the Inns of Court at Christmas and he excepted none Then he said and was no way able to prove it that Drunkards so they were Conformable were preferred Which was a great and a notorious Slander upon the Governours of the Church and upon Orderly and Conformable Men. Then he said that Election of Ministers was in the People And this is directly against the Laws of England in the Right of all Patrons Then constantly in his Prayer before his Sermon he Prayed for the States and the King of Sweden before his Majesty which was the Garb of that time among that Party of Men. Then that one of his common Themes of Preaching to the People was against the Government of the Church And then that Images in Churches were 〈◊〉 better than Stews in the Commonwealth which at the best is a very unsavoury Comparison But here it was replyed That Images were Idols and so called in the Homilies and that therefore the Comparison might hold Yea but in the second Homily against the Peril of Idolatry Images or Pictures in Glass or Hangings are expresly and truly said not to be Idols till they be Worshipped And therefore Mr. Workman should not have compared their setting up to Stews till he could have proved them Worshipped And in all this were the Act good or bad in the Censuring of him it was the Act of the High-Commission not mine After this followed the Fifth Charge which was Mr Sherfeild's Case his Sentence in the Star-Chamber for defacing of a Church-Window in or near Salisbury The Witnesses produced were Two The First was Mr Carill He said that Mr Sherfeild defaced this Window because there was an Image in it conceived to be the Picture of God the Father But first this comes not home For many a Picture may be conceived to be of God the Father which yet is not nor was ever made for it And then suppose it were so yet Mr Sherfeild in a setled Government of a State ought not to have done it but by Command of Authority He says that in my Speech there in the Court I justified the having of the Picture of God the Father as he remembers out of Dan. 7. 22. This as he remembers came well in For I never justified the making or having that Picture For Calvin's Rule that we may picture that which may be seen is grounded upon the Negative that no Picture may be made of that which was never never can be seen And to ground this Negative is the Command given by Moses Deut. 4. Take good heed to your selves For what That you make not to your selves this Picture Why For that you saw no manner of similitude in the day that the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire Out of the midst of the fire and yet he still reserved himself in thick darkness Exod. 20. So no Picture of him because no similitude ever seen And this Rule having ever possessed me wholly I could not justifie the having of it I said indeed that some Men in later Superstitious Times were so foolish as to Picture God the Father by occasion of that place in Daniel but for my self I ever rejected it Nor can that place bear any shew of it For Daniel says there that the Ancient of days came But in what shape or similitude he came no Man Living can tell And he is called the Ancient of days from his Eternity not as if he appeared like an Old Man The Text hath no Warrant at all
Original now in my Hands will not only supply the defect of what the Arch-Bishop intended in the words before related but never effected but will also undeniably assert his Innocence from those greater Accusations 〈◊〉 brought against him and will farther clear 〈◊〉 from many later Aspersions of lesser moment I will name but one which is to be found in the Life of Arch-Bishop Williams wrote by Bishop Hacket and lately Published Therein pag. 63 64. Dr. Laud is taxed of high Ingratitude against Williams who is there in a long Relation represented as his great Benefactor and who particularly gained of King James the Bishoprick of St. Davids for him by his great and restless importunity when the King had determined not to Promote him as unworthy of his Favour for Reasons there expressed I question not Bishop Hacket's Veracity or that Arch-Bishop Williams did indeed relate this to him But then Williams will be found strongly to have prevaricated when he pretended that Laud owed that Preferment to his Kindness and thereupon taxed him of Ingratitude For from what is related in the following Diary at June 29 1621. it appears indeed that Williams stickled hard to gain the Bishoprick of St. Davids for Laud not out of any Kindness to him but for his own ends that so himself might retain the Deanry of Westminster with the Bishoprick of Lincoln to which he was then Nominated which otherwise had slipped from him the King having designed to give it to Dr. Laud upon the avoidance of it by the Promotion of Dr. Williams to the See of Lincoln But whatever may be in this Matter alledged against Dr. Laud I am sure no Art or Colour can defend that bitter Revenge of Arch-Bishop Williams related in this History which prompted him to move earnestly in the House of Lords that the Jurisdiction of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury then a Prisoner in the Tower might be Sequestred and put into the Hands of his Inferiour Officers which by his importunity he obtained to the great Prejudice of the Church and no small Infamy of himself I do not pretend to justifie the whole Proceeding of Arch-Bishop Laud during the whole course of his Power and Government against Arch-Bishop Williams I do rather lament it as the great Misfortune both of themselves and the Church at that time that two such Eminent Prelates equally endued with extraordinary Learning Wisdom and Greatness of Mind should be engaged in constant Opposition and Enmity to each other at first raised by mutual Distrust and Emulation and ever after kept up and fomented by reciprocal Injuries and false Representations on each side But that the blame of this Misfortune should be cast wholly on the one side that unworthy Reflections should be made and Published in prejudice of Arch-Bishop Laud that he should be accused of base Ingratitude of impotent Malice of insatiable Revenge while the other is represented as the most Calm most Innocent and most Heroical Person imaginable I cannot without some Indignation observe in the before mentioned Historian otherwise of Eminent Worth and Character who to approve his Gratitude to his Patron and Promoter hath grosly neglected the Laws of History and cared not how injuriously he treated the Memory of Arch-Bishop Laud that he might justifie the Quarrel and heighten the Encomium of Arch-Bishop Williams Vpon this Account and with this design Williams is pretended to have been the great Patron and Benefactor of Laud to have procured him his first Rotchet c. that so the latter might appear guilty of the highest Ingratitude against the other Hence these Reflections are frequently repeated Of all Men Bishop Laud was the Man whose Enmity was most tedious and most spightful against his great Benefactor Williams This dealing of Laud is past Excuse and can bear no Apology And the Cause of his Bishop Williams's incessant molestations for Twelve Years was his known Enemy Bishop Laud. Could he so soon forget him that first made him a Bishop c. The undoing of his Brother was so much in his Mind that it was never out of his Dreams In other places Laud is represented as utterly implacable and irreconcilable in his Malice against Williams is accused of impotent Malevolence and his implacable spight against a Bishop his Raiser and now by being a Prisoner in the Tower become a spectacle of pity said to be unpardonable Again he is Traduced to have been possessed with a Revengeful Mind Whereas to the other this lofty Encomiam is beslowed that There did not Live that Christian that hated Revenge more than he or that would forgive an Injury sooner These and many like Passages are as far remote from Truth and Justice as they are from that Sincerity and Impartiality which become an Historian I had intended to have said no more upon this Head But I cannot prevail with my self to pass by an heinous Accusation formerly brought against Arch-Bishop Laud concerning his having altered the Oath Administred to King Charles I at his Coronation in favour of the Crown and prejudice of the People Which Accusation it hath pleased an Honourable Reverend and Learned Person very lately to renew in a Publick Speech in these words The striking out of that part of the Ancient Oath in King Charles his time at his Coronation by Arch-Bishop Laud that the King should consent to such Laws as the People should choose and instead of that another very unusual one inserted Saving the King's Prerogative Royal. And I could tell you of somewhat more of that kind done since in the time of the late King James at the time of his Coronation there was much more struck out of the Coronation Oath which might well be worth the enquiring how it came about I must not presume to oppose any thing delivered by an Oracle of the Law in a Court of Judicature to a great Auditory upon a Solemn Occasion However I beg leave to acquaint the Reader that a full and undeniable justification of Arch-Bishop Laud from this Charge may be found in this History cap. 33. I may farther presume that the Author of this Speech is too Just and Honourable to intend by the latter Clause any 〈◊〉 upon another Arch-Bishop who Administred the Coronation Oath to King James II. Or if any Reader should be so ill informed as to mis-conceive his Lordship herein I hope it will be no offence to say that it would be no difficult matter to justifie in this Case the Proceeding of the one Arch-Bishop as clearly as this History doth the other I might farther add that the entire Publication of this Diary contributes very much to Illustrate the History of those Times and that both it and the following History discover many Secrets before unknown in Matters of Church and State and correct many Errours commonly taken up and received in Relation to either To give one particular instance I know a certain 〈◊〉 who would fain be esteemed and is generally accounted by these of his Party
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
how such a Carriage as this through the whole Course of my Life in private and publick can stand with an Intention nay a Practice to overthrow the Law and to introduce an Arbitrary Government which my Soul hath always hated I cannot yet see And 't is now many Years since I learned of my great Master In humanis Aristotle Periculosum esse that it is a very dangerous thing to trust to the Will of the Judge rather than the written Law And all Kingdoms and Commonwealths have followed his Judgment ever since and the School-Disputes have not dissented from it Nay more I have ever been of Opinion that Humane Laws bind the Conscience and have accordingly made Conscience of observing them And this Doctrine I have constantly Preached as occasion hath been offered me And how is it possible I should seek to overthrow those Laws which I held my self bound in Conscience to keep and observe Especially since an endeavour to overthrow Law is a far greater Crime than to break or disobey any particular Law whatsoever all Particulars being swept away in that General And my Lords that this is my Judgment both of Parliaments and Laws I beseech your Lordships that I may read a short Passage in my Book against Fisher the Jesuit which was Printed and Published to the World before these Troubles fell on me and before I could so much as suspect this Charge could come against me and therefore could not be purposely written to serve any Turn I had leave and did read it but for Brevities sake refer the Reader to the Book it self As for Religion I was born and bred up in and under the Church of England as it yet stands Established by Law I have by God's Blessing and the Favour of my Prince grown up in it to the Years which are now upon me and to the Place of Preferment which I yet bear And in this Church by the Grace and Goodness of God I resolve to Dye I have ever since I understood ought in Divinity kept one constant Tenor in this my Profession without variation or shifting from one Opinion to another for any worldly Ends And if my Conscience would have suffered me to shift Tenets in Religion with Time and Occasion I could easily have slid through all the difficulties which have pressed upon me in this kind But of all Diseases I have ever hated a Palsie in Religion well knowing that too often a Dead-Palsie ends that Difease in the fearful forgetfulness of God and his Judgments Ever since I came in Place I laboured nothing more than that the External Publick Worship of God too much slighted in most parts of this Kingdom might be preserved and that with as much Decency and Uniformity as might be being still of Opinion that Vnity cannot long continue in the Church where Vniformity is shut out at the Church-Door And I evidently saw that the Publick neglect of God's Service in the outward Face of it and the nasty lying of many Places Dedicated to that Service had almost cast a Damp upon the true and inward Worship of God which while we live in the Body needs External helps and all little enough to keep it in any vigour And this I did to the uttermost of my Knowledge according both to Law and Canon and with the consent and liking of the People Nor did any Command Issue out from me against the one or without the other that I know of Farther my Lords give me leave I beseech you to tell you this also That I have as little Acquaintance with Recusants of any sort as I believe any Man of Place in England hath And for my Kindred no one of them was ever a Recusant but Sir William Webb Grandchild to my Uncle Sir William Webb sometimes Lord Mayor of London and him with some of his Children I reduced back again to the Church of England as is well known and I as able to prove One thing more I humbly desire may be thought on 't is this I I am fallen into a great deal of Obloquy in Matter of Religion and that so far as that 't is charged in the Articles That I have endeavoured to advance and bring in Popery Perhaps my Lords I am not ignorant what Party of Men have raised this Scandal upon me nor for what End nor perhaps by whom set on But howsoever I would fain have a good Reason given me if my Conscience lead me that way and that with my Conscience I could Subscribe to the Church of Rome what should have kept me here before my Imprisonment to indure the Libels and the Slanders and the base usage in all kinds which have been put upon me and these to end in this Question for my Life I say I would fain know a good Reason of this For first My Lords Is it because of any Pledges I have in the World to sway me against my Conscience No sure For I have nor Wife nor Children to cry out upon me to stay with them and if I had I hope the Call of my Conscience should be heard above them Or Secondly Is it because I was loth to leave the Honour and the Profit of the Place I was risen unto Surely no For I desire your Lordships and all the World else should know I do much scorn Honour and Profit both the one and the other in comparison of my Conscience Besides it cannot be imagined by any Reasonable Man but that if I could have complyed with Rome I should not have wanted either Honour or Profit And suppose I could not have so much of either as here I had yet sure would my Conscience have served me that way less of either with my Conscience would have prevailed with me more than greater against my Conscience Or Thirdly Is it because I lived here at ease and was loth to venture the loss of that Not so neither For whatsoever the World may be pleased to think of me I have 〈◊〉 very painful Life and such as I could have been very well content to change had I well known how And had my Conscience led me that way I am sure I might have lived at far more ease and either have avoided the barbarous Libellings and other bitter and grievous Scorns which I have here indured or at the least been out of the hearing of them Nay my Lords I am as Innocent in this business of Religion as free from all Practice or so much as thought of Practice for any alteration to Popery or any way blemishing the True Protestant Religion Established in the Church of England as I was when my Mother first bare me into the World And let nothing be spoken against me but Truth and I do here Challenge whatsoever is between Heaven and Hell to say their worst against me in point of my Religion In which by God's Grace I have ever hated Dissimulation and had I not
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
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
expected And I humbly besought that Honourable House if it were a Matter of so great Expectation it might be of as great Attention too while I should follow that Worthy Gentleman step after step and Answer as I went 1. And First he went about to prove out of my Diary that this Addition of the King's Prerogative to the Oath was made by me Thus he says that Decemb. 31. 1625. I went to Hampton-Court That 's true He says that there Januar. 1. I understood I was Named with other Bishops to meet and consider of the Ceremonies about the Coronation and that Januar. 4. we did meet at White-Hall accordingly and that Januar. 6. we gave his Majesty an Answer Not I as 't was Charged but We gave his Majesty Answer So if the Oath had been changed by me it must have been known to the Committee and broken forth to my Ruin long since Then he says that Januar 16. I was appointed to serve at the Coronation in the room of the Dean of Westminster That 's no Crime and 't is added in the Diary that this Charge was delivered unto me by my Predecessor So he knew that this Service to Attend at the Coronation was imposed upon me He says next that Januar. 18. the Duke of Buckingham had me to the King to shew his Majesty the Notes we had agreed on if nothing offended him These were only Notes of the Ceremonies And the other Bishops sent me being Puny to give the Account Then he says Januar. 23. It is in my Diary Librum habui paratum I had a Book ready And it was time after such meetings and the Coronation being to follow Feb. 2. and I designed to assist and attend that Service that I should have a Book ready The Ceremonies were too long and various to carry them in Memory And whereas 't is urged that I prepared and altered this Book the words in my Diary are only Paratum habui I had the Book ready for my own use in that Service Nor can Paratum habui signifie preparing or altering the Book And Thirdly 't is added there That the Book which I had ready in my Hands did agree per omnia cum Libro Regali And if it did agree in all things with the King 's Recorded Book then brought out of the Exchequer where then is the Alteration so laboriously sought to be fastned on me I humbly beseech you to mark this Yet out of these Premises put together Mr. Brown's Inference was that I made this Alteration of the Oath But surely these Premises neither single nor together can produce any such Conclusion but rather the contrary Beside Inference upon Evidence is not Evidence unless it be absolutely necessary which all Men see that here it is not But I pray observe Why was such a sudden stay made at Januar. 23. whereas it appears in my Diary at Januar. 31. that the Bishops were not alone trusted with this Coronation Business Sed alii Proceres but other Great and Noble Men also And they did meet that Januar. 31. and sate in Council about it So the Bishops Meetings were but Preparatory to ease the Lords most of the Ceremonies being in the Church-way And then can any Man think that these great Lords when they came to review all that was done would let the Oath be altered by me or any other so materially and not check at it 'T is impossible 2. Secondly this Gentleman went on to charge this Addition upon me Thus There were found in my Study at Lambeth two Books of King James his Coronation one of them had this Clause or Addition in it and the other had it not and we cannot tell by which he was Crowned therefore it must needs be some wilful Error in me to make choice of that Book which had this Addition in it or some great mistake First if it were a mistake only then it is no Crime And wilful Error it could not be For being Named one of them that were to consider of the Ceremonies I went to my Predecessor and desired a Book to see by it what was formerly done He delivered me this now in question I knew not whether he had more or no nor did I know that any one of them differed from other Therefore no wilful Error For I had no choice to make of this Book which had the Addition before that which had it not but thankfully took that which he gave me But Secondly If one Book of King James his Coronation in which I could have no Hand had this Addition in it as is confessed then was not this a new Addition of my making And Thirdly it may easily be seen that King James was Crowned by the Book which hath this Addition in it this being in a fair Carnation Sattin Cover the other in Paper without a Cover and unfit for a King's Hand especially in such a great and publick Solemnity 3. In the Third place he said There were in this Book twenty Alterations more and all or most in my Hand Be it so for I was never suffered to have the Book to consider of they are confessed not to be material The Truth is when we met in the Committee we were fain to mend many slips of the Pen to make Sense in some places and good English in other And the Book being trusted with me I had Reason to do it with my own Hand but openly at the Committee all Yet two Things as Matters of some moment Mr. Brown checked at 1. The one was that Confirm is changed into Perform If it be so Perform is the greater and more advantagious to the Subject because it includes Execution which the other word doth not Nor doth this word hinder but that the Laws and Liberties are the Peoples already For though they be their own yet the King by his place may and ought to perform the keeping and maintaining of them I say if it be so for I was never suffered to have this Book in my Hands thoroughly to peruse Nor under favour do I believe this Alteration is so made as 't is urged In the Book which I have by me and was Transcribed from the other it is Confirm 2. The other is that the King is said to Answer I will for I do But when will he Why all the days of his Life which is much more than I do for the present So if this change be made 't is still for the Peoples advantage And there also 't is I do grant And yet again I say if for the Reason before given Besides in all the Latin Copies there is a latitude left for them that are trusted to add to those Interrogatories which are then put to the King any other that is just In these Words Adijciantur praedictis Interrogationibus quae justa fuerint And such are these two mentioned if they were made 4. Mr. Brown's Fourth and last Objection was that I made this Alteration of the Oath because it
into a Jewish Superstition while we seek to shun Profaneness This Calvin hath in the mean time assured me That those Men who stand so strictly upon the Morality of the Sabbath do by a gross and carnal Sabbatization three times out-go the Superstition of the Jew Here it was inferred that there was a Combination for the doing of this in other Dioceses But no proof at all was offer'd Then Bishop Mountague's Articles and Bishop Wrenn's were Read to shew that Inquiry was made about the Reading of this Book And the Bishop of London's Articles Named but not Read But if I were in this Combination why were not my Articles Read Because no such thing appears in them and because my Articles gave so good content that while the Convocation was sitting Dr. Brownrigg and Dr. Holdsworth came to me and desired me to have my Book confirmed in Convocation to be general for all Bishops in future it was so moderate and according to Law But why then say they were other Articles thought on and a Clause that none should pass without the Approbation of the Arch-Bishop Why other were thought on because I could not in Modesty press the Confirmation of my own though solicited to it And that Clause was added till a standing Book for all Dioceses might be perfected that no Quaere in the Interim might be put to any but such as were according to Law The Sixth Charge was about Reversing of a Decree in Chancery as 't is said about Houses in Dr Walton's Parish given as was said to Superstitious Vses 1. The First Witness was Serjeant Turner He says He had a Rule in the King's Bench for a Prohibition in this Cause But by Reason of some defect what is not mentioned he confesses he could not get his Prohibition Here 's nothing that reflects upon me And if a Prohibition were moved for that could not be personally to me but to my Judge in some Spiritual 〈◊〉 where it seems this Cause depended and to which the Decree in Chancery was directed And indeed this Act which they call a Reversing was the Act and Seal of Sir Nath. Brent my Vicar General And if he violated the Lord Keeper's Decree he must Answer it But the Instrument being then produced it appeared concurrent in all things with the Decree The Words are Juxta scopum Decreti hac in parte in Curiâ 〈◊〉 factum c. 2. The Second Witness was Mr. Edwards And wherein 〈◊〉 concurs with Serjeant Turner I give him the same Answer For that which he adds that Dr. Walton did let Leases of these Houses at an undervalue and called none of the Parishioners to it If he did in this any thing contrary to Justice or the Will of the Donor or the Decree he is Living to Answer for himself me it concerns not For his Exception taken to my Grant of Confirmation I think he means and to the Words therein Omnis Omnimoda c. 'T is the Ancient Stile of such Grants for I know not how many Hundred Years no Syllable innovated or altered by me Then followed the Charge of Mr. Burton and Mr. Pryn about their Answer and their not being suffer'd to put it into the Star-Chamber Which though Mr. Pryn pressed at large before yet here it must come again to help fill the World with Clamour Yet to that which shall but seem new I shall Answer Two things are said 1. The one That they were not suffered to put in their defence Modo Forma as it was laid There was an Order made openly in Court to the Judges to Expunge Scandalous Matter And the two Chief Justices did Order the Expunging of all that which was Expunged be it more or less As appears in the Acts of that Court. 2. The other is that I procured this Expunging The Proofs that I procured it were these 1. First because Mr. Cockshot gave me an Account of the business from Mr. Attorney I had Reason to look after the business the whole Church of England being scandalized in that Bill as well as my self But this is no Proof that I either gave direction or used any solicitation to the Reverend Judges to whom it was referred 2. Secondly because I gave the Lords thanks for it It was openly in Court It was after the Expunging was agreed unto And what could I do less in such a Cause of the Church though I had not been personally concerned in it 3. Thirdly because I had a Copy of their Answer found in my Study I conceive it was not only fit but necessary for me to have one the Nature of the Cause considered But who interlined any passages in it with black Lead I know not For I ever used Ink and no black Lead all my Life These be strange Proofs that I procured any thing Then Mr. Pryn added That the Justice and Favour which was afforded Dr. Leighton was denyed unto him As far as I remember it was for the putting in of his Answer under his own Hand This if so was done by Order of the Court it was not my Act. The last Charge followed And that was taken out of the Preface to my Speech in Star-Chamber The Words are That one way of Government is not always either fit or safe when the Humors of the People are in a continual Change c. From whence they inferred I laboured to reduce all to an Arbitrary Government But I do humbly conceive no construction can force these Words against me for an Arbitrary Government For the meaning is and can be no other for sometimes a stricter and sometimes a remisser holding and ordering the Reins of Government yet both according to the same Laws by a different use and application of Mercy and Justice to Offenders And so I Answer'd to Mr. Brown who charged this against me as one of my ill Counsels to his Majesty But my Answer given is Truth For it is not said That there should not be One Law for Government but not One way in the Ordering and Execution of that Law And the Observator upon my Speech an English Author and well enough known though he pretend 't is a Translation out of Dutch though he spares nothing that may be but carped at yet to this passage he says 't is a good Maxim and wishes the King would follow it And truly for my part I Learned it of a very wise and an able Governour and he a King of England too it was of Hen. 7. of whom the Story says that in the difficulties of his Time and Cause he used both ways of Government Severity and Clemency yet both these were still within the compass of the Law He far too Wise and I never yet such a Fool as to imbrace Arbitrary Government CAP. XXXVI THis day I received a Note from the Committee that they intended to proceed next upon the remainder of the Seventh and upon the Eighth and Ninth Original
all the Proof here made mentions him only by whom the Kings Pleasure is signified not him that procures the Preferment So the Docket in this Case no Proof at all The Fifth Charge was a Paper Intituled Considerations for the Church Three Exceptions against them The Observation of the King's Declaration Art 3. The Lecturers Art 5. And the High-Commission and Prohibitions Art 10 11. The Paper I desired might be all Read Nothing in them against either Law or Religion And for Lecturers a better care taken and with more Ease to the People and more Peace to the Church by a Combination of Conformable Neighbouring Ministers in their turns and not by some one Humorous Man who too often mis-leads the People Secondly my Copy of Considerations came from Arch-Bishop Harsnet in which was some sour Expression concerning Emanuel and Sidney Colleges in Cambridge which the King in his Wisdom thought fit to leave out The King's Instructions upon these Considerations are under Mr. Baker's Hand who was Secretary to my Predecessor And they were sent to me to make Exceptions to them if I knew any in regard of the Ministers of London whereof I was then Bishop And by this that they were thus sent unto me by my Predecessor 't is manifest that this account from the several Dioceses to the Arch-Bishop and from him to his Majesty once a Year was begun before my time Howsoever if it had not I should have been glad of the Honour of it had it begun in mine For I humbly conceive there cannot be a better or a safer way to preserve Truth and Peace in the Church than that once a Year every Bishop should give an account of all greater Occurrences in the Church to his Metropolitan and he to the King Without which the King who is the Supream is like to be a great Stranger to all Church Proceedings The Sixth Charge was about Dr Sibthorp's Sermon that my Predecessor opposed the Printing of it and that I opposed him to Affront the Parliament Nothing so my Lords Nothing done by me to oppose or affront the One or the Other This Sermon came forth when the Loan was not yet settled in Parliament The Lords and the Judges and the Bishops were some for some against it And if my Judgment were Erroneous in that Point it was mis-led by Lords of great Honour and Experience and by Judges of great knowledge in the Law But I did nothing to affront any 'T is said that I inserted into the Sermon that the People may not refuse any Tax that is not unjustly laid I conceive nothing is justly laid in that kind but according to Law Gods and Mans. And I dare not say the People may refuse any thing so laid For Jus Regis the Right of a King which is urged against me too I never went farther than the Scriptures lead me Nor did I ever think that Jus Regis mentioned 1 Sam 8 is meant of the Ordinary and just Right of Kings but of that Power which such as Saul would be would assume unto themselves and make it right by Power Then they say I expunged some things out of it As first The Sabbath and put instead of it the Lords Day What 's my Offence Sabbath is the Jews Word and the Lords-Day the Christians Secondly about Evil Counseilors to be used as Haman The Passage as there Expressed was very Scandalous and without just Cause upon the Lords of the Council And they might justly have thought I had wanted Discretion should I have left it in Thirdly that I expunged this that Popery is against the first and the second Commandment If I did it it was because it is much doubted by Learned Men whether any thing in Popery is against the first Commandment or denies the Unity of the God-head And Mr. Perkins who Charges very home against Popery lays not the Breach of the first Commandment upon them And when I gave Mr. Brown this Answer In his last Reply he asked why I left out both Why I did it because its being against the second is common and obvious and I did not think it worthy the standing in such a Sermon when it could not be made good against the first But they demanded why I should make any Animadversions at all upon the Sermon It was thus The Sermon being presented to his Majesty and the Argument not common he committed the Care of Printing it to Bishop Mountain the Bishop of London and four other of which I was one And this was the Reason of the Animadversions now called mine As also of the Answer to my Predecessors Exceptions now Charged also and called mine But it was the Joint Answer of the Committee And so is that other Particular also In which the whole Business is left to the Learned in the Laws For though the Animadversions be in my Hand yet they were done at and by the Committee only I being puny Bishop was put to write them in my Hand The Seventh Charge was Dr Manwaring's Business and Preferment It was handled before only resumed here to make a Noise and so passed it over The Eighth Charge was concerning some Alterations in the Prayers made for the Fifth of November and in the Book for the Fast which was Published An 1636. And the Prayers on Coronation Day 1. First for the Fast-Book The Prayer mentioned was altered as is Expressed but it was by him that had the Ordering of that Book to the Press not by me Yet I cannot but approve the Reason given for it and that without any the least approbation of Merit For the Abuse of Fasting by thinking it Meritorious is the thing left out whereas in this Age and Kingdom when and where set Fastings of the Church are cryed down there can be little fear of that Erroneous Opinion of placing any Merit in Fasting 2 Secondly for the Prayers Published for the Fifth of November and Coronation Day The Alterations were made either by the King himself or some about him when I was not in Court And the Books sent me with a Command for the Printing as there altered I made stay till I might wait upon his Majesty I found him resolved upon the alterations nor in my judgment could I justly except against them His Majesty then gave Warrant to the Books themselves with the alterations in them and so by his Warrant I commanded the Printing And I then shewed both the Books to the Lords who Viewed them and acknowledged his Ma jesty ' Hand with which not his Name only but the whole Warrant was written And here I humbly desired three things might be observed and I still desire it First with what Conscience this passage out of my Speech in the Star Chamber was urged against me for so it was and fiercely by Mr. Nicolas to prove that I had altered the Oath at the King's Coronation because the Prayers appointed for the Anniversary of the Coronation were
and by the Council-Table the Courts of Star-Chamber and High-Commission and in Convocation and because many more things so done are to come in the next Head concerning the Law I humbly crave leave for avoiding tedious Repetition to say it once for all That no act done by any of these either by full Consent or major Part which involves the rest ought to be charged singly against me And that for these Reasons following 1. First because this is not Peccare cum Multis For they meet not there in a Relation as Multi but as Vnum Aggregatum as Bodies made one by Law And therefore the Acts done by them are Acts of those Bodies not of any one Man sitting in them And in this Sense a Parliament is one Body consisting of many and the Acts done by it are Acts of Parliament For which should any of them prove amiss no one Man is answerable though many times one Man brings in the Bill 2. Secondly because I could sway no Man's Vote in any of those Places though this hath been often urged against me as an Over Potent Member for my Vote was either last or last save one in all these Places So I could not lead Nor is there any so much as shew of Proof offered that I moved or prepared any Man to a Sentence one way or other in any one of these Courts or Places 3. Thirdly because in those Courts of Judicature there was the Assistance of able Judges Lawyers and Divines for direction And how can that be a Treason in me which is not made so much as a Misdemeanour in any of the rest 4. Fourthly because the Act of this present Parliament which hath taken away the Star-Chamber and the High-Commission and bounded the Council-Table looks forward only and punishes no Man for any Act past much less doth it make any Man's Actions done in them to be Treason And I am no way excluded from the Benefit of that Act. 5. Lastly because in all my Proceedings both in the High-Commission and elsewhere I kept strictly to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England Established by Law against both Papist and other Sectaries And under this Government and Doctrine of this Church it hath pleased God now for above Fourscore Years together to Bless this Kingdom and People above other Nations And I pray God if we forsake the one it prove not a Cause to deprive us of the other And now Mr. Speaker I shall follow this worthy Gentleman as he went on to the Second General Head the Subversion of the Laws And here when he had caused the 1 2 3 5 and 14. Original Articles to be read as also the 2 9 and 10. Additionals He then said that I had laboured this Subversion by my Counsels and by my Actions 1. By my Counsels First Of which he gave Three Instances 1. The Vote of the Council-Table to Assist the King in Extraordinary ways if the Parliament should prove peevish and refuse And this out of my Diary at Decemb. 5. 1639. 2. The Passage in the Epistle before my Speech in Star-Chamber Not one Way of Government since the Humours of the People were in continual Change 3. A Speech at Council-Table That now the King might use his own Power c. Witnessed only by Sir Henry Vane the Elder 2. From my Counsels proceed was made to my Actions Where the Particulars were 1. That I attempted to set Proclamations above the Law 2. That I was for all Illegal Projects at the Council-Table Instanced in Inclosures in the Ship-Money and Sir John Corbett's Commitment 3. The taking down of the Houses about St. Paul's with the large Commission for the Repair of the West-End 4. The stopping of Two Brewers in their Trade being in Westminster and pretended to annoy the Court. 5. Things done by me as Referee Instanced in a Case between Rich and Pool and another of one Symmes 6. Obstructing the Course of Law by sending to Judges Instanced in the Parishioners of Beckington in the Case of Ferdinando Adams in Sir Henry Martyn's Case about an Attorney at Law Judge Richardson's Words in Mr. Huntley's Case and Baron Trevers Words in Grafton's Case 7. The punishing Men that came in a Legal Way Instanced in the Case of New-comin and Burrowes that I said in the High-Commission I hoped to see the Clergy exempt again the next hundred Years the two Church-wardens of Chesham with Words concerning Sir Thomas Dacres 8. The Case of Prohibitions and Mr. Wheeler's Note out of a Sermon of mine concerning them 9. That no Pope ever claimed so much Jurisdiction not from the King 10. The Canons and I the main Man the over-grown Member again 11. The Statutes of Oxford enforced a second time Nevill's Case of Merton-College instanced in 12. Books Printed that are against the Law Instanced in Cowell's Interpreter and Dr. Manwaring's Sermons 13. The Alteration of the King's Oath at his Coronation 14. My Enmity to Parliaments To all which as I then gave sufficient Answers so I hope the Courteous Reader hath found them at large in their several Places And for this last concerning Parliaments I humbly and heartily desire that this may be taken notice of and remembred That there is not in any one of these Paper-Proofs produced against me any one thing that offers to take away any Rights of Parliaments rightly understood much less any that offers to take away Parliaments themselves Which is a continued Mistake all along this particular Charge And if any rash or unweighed Words have fallen from me yet these cannot be extended to the disannulling of Parliaments or their Priviledges in any kind which I defended in Print long since before I could foresee any of this Danger threatning me It is in my Book against Fisher. It was read in the Lords House and I humbly desire I may read it here And it was read After this it was inferred by this worthy Gentleman what a great Offender I was and greater than Cardinal Woolsey Mr. Speaker I have seen the Articles against the Cardinal and sure some body is mistaken for some of them are far greater than any thing that is proved against me In which I thank Christ for it my Conscience is at peace whereas the Cardinal confessed himself guilty of them all and yet no thought of Treason committed And a Premunire was all that was laid upon him Then he gave a touch That in Edward III.'s time there was a Complaint That too much of the Civil Government was in the hands of the Bishops and that in the 45th Year of his Reign they were put out and Lay-men put in But first this concerns not me Secondly the late Act of this Parliament hath taken sufficient Order with that Calling for medling in Civil Affairs Thirdly the time is memorable when this was done It was in the Forty and fifth Year of Edward III. That 's enough Mr. Speaker I shall draw towards an end
in their Cause and medled in decernendo in determining and that before-hand what the Prelats should do and sometimes in Commanding the Orthodox Prelats to Communicate with the Arrians This they refused to do as being against the Canons of the Council of Nice And then his Answer was Yea but that which I will shall go for Canon But then we must know withal that Athanasius reckn'd him for this as that Antichrist which Daniel Prophesied of Hosius also the Famous Confessor of those Times condemned in him that kind of medling in and with Religion And so doth St. Hilary of Poictiers Valentinian also the Younger took upon him to judge of Religion at the like presuasion of Auxentius the Arrian but he likewise was sharply reproved for it by St. Ambrose In like manner Maximus the Tyrant took upon him to judge in Matters of Religion as in the Case of Priscillian and his Associates But this also was checkt by St. Martin Bishop of Tours Where it is again to be observed that though these Emperours were too busie in venturing upon the determination of Points of Faith yet no one of them went so far as to take Power from the Synods and give it to the Senate And the Orthodox and Understanding Emperours did neither the one nor the other For Valentinian the Elder left this great Church-work to be done by Church-Men And though the Power to call Councils was in the Emperour And though the Emperours were sometimes personally present in the Councils and sometimes by their Deputies both to see Order kept and to inform themselves yet the decisive Voices were in the Clergy only And this will plainly appear in the Instructions given by the Emperor Theodosius to Condidianus whom he sent to supply his place in the Council of Ephesus which were That he should not meddle with Matters of Faith if any came to be debated And gives this Reason for it Because it is unlawful for any but Bishops to mingle himself with them in those Consultations And Basilius the Emperour long after this in the Eighth General Council held at Constantinople 〈◊〉 870. affirms it of the Laity in general That it is no way lawful for them to meddle with these things But that it is proper for the Patriarchs Bishops and Priests which have the Office of Government in the Church to enquire into these Things And more of this Argument might easily be added were that needful or I among my Books and my Thoughts at liberty And yet this crosses not the Supremacy which the King of England hath in Causes Ecclesiastical as it is acknowledged both by the Church and Law For that reaches not to the giving of him Power to determine Points of Faith either in Parliament or out or to the acknowledgment of any such Power residing in him or to give him Power to make Liturgies and publick Forms of Prayer or to Preach or Administer Sacraments or to do any thing which is meerly Spiritual But in all things which are of a mixed Cognizance such as are all those which are properly called Ecclesiastical and belong to the Bishops External Jurisdiction the Supremacy there and in all things of like Nature is the Kings And if at any time the Emperour or his Deputy sit Judge in a Point of Faith it is not because he hath any right to judge it or that the Church hath not Right but meerly in case of Contumacy where the Heretick is wilful and will not submit to the Church's Power And this the Hereticks sometimes did and then the Bishops were forced to Appeal thither also but not for any Resolution in the point of Faith but for Aid and Assistance to the just Power of the Church I cannot but remember a very Prudent Speech utter'd in the beginning of the late preceding Parliament and by that Lord who now made this The occasion was A Lord offer'd to deliver a Message from the King before he was formally brought into the House and his Patent shew'd This Lord who thinks Church-Ceremonies may so easily be alter'd stood up and said He would not be against the delivery of the Message he knew not how urgent it might be but desired withal that it might be enter'd that this was yielded unto by Special leave of the House For that saith he though this be but a Ceremony yet the Honour and Safety of the Priviledges of this Great House is preserved by nothing more than by keeping the Ancient Rights and Ceremonies thereof intire And this I think was very wisely spoken and with great Judgment And could my Lord see this in the Parliament and can he not see it in the Church Are Ancient Ceremonies the chief Props of Parliamentary Rights and have they no use in Religion to keep up her Dignity yea perhaps and Truth too The House of Parliament is I confess a Great and Honourable House But the whole Church of Christ is greater And it will not well beseem a Parliament to maintain their own Ceremonies and to kick down the Ceremonies of the National Church which under God made all their Members Christians Most sure I am they cannot do it without ossence both to State and Church and making both a Scorn to Neighbouring Nations Now in the close of all my Lord tells his Fellow Peers and all others in them That if they shall thus wound the Consciences of their Brethren the Separatists they will certainly offend and sin against Christ. Soft and fair But what shall these Lords do if to Humour the Consciences of those Brethren some weak and many wilful and the cunning misleading the simple they shall disgrace and weaken and perhaps overthrow the Religion they profess Shall they not then both wound their own Consciences and most certainly sin against Christ Yes out of all doubt they shall do both Now where it comes to the wounding of Consciences no question can be made but that every Man ought first to look to his own to his Brethrens after A Man must not do that which shall justly wound his Brother's Conscience though he be his Brother in a Separation and stand never so much a-loof from him But he must not wound his own to preserve his Brother from a wound especially such a one as happily may cure him and by a timely pinch make him sensible of the ill Condition in which he is As for these Men God of his Mercy give them that Light of his Truth which they want and forgive them the boasting of that Light which they presume they have And give them true Repentance and in that Sense a wounded Conscience for their breaking the Peace of this Church And forgive them all their Sins by which they still go on with more and more violence to distract this Church And God of his Infinite Goodness preserve this Church at all times and especially at this time while the Waves of this Sea of Separation
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
made them Traytors Septemb. 1. Thursday Bishops Voted down and Deans and Chapters in the Lower House That Night Bonfires and Ringing all over the City Ordered cunningly by Pennington the new Lord Mayor About this time ante ult Aug. the Cathedral of Canterbury grosly Profaned Septemb. 9. Friday An Order from the House about the giving of Alhallows-Bread-street The Earl of Essex set forward towards the King Septemb. 10. Voted down in the upper House Dubitatur Octob. 15. Saturday Resolved upon the question that the Fines Rents and Profits of Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans and Chapters and of such notorious Delinquents who have taken up Arms against the Parliament or have been active in the Commission of Array shall be sequestred for the use and service of the Common-wealth Octob. 23. Sunday Keinton Field Octob. 24. Munday An Order from the House to keep but Two Servants speak with no Prisoner or other Person but in the presence of my Warder this common to other Prisoners Octob. 26. Wednesday Mr. Cook 's Relation to me of some Resolutions taken in the City c. Octob. 27. The Order of Octob. 24. not shewn me till Octob. 26. and I sent a Petition to the House for a Cook and a Butler Thursday October 28. This Order revoked Friday And this granted me Novemb. 2. Wednesday Night I Dreamed the Parliament was removed to Oxford the Church undone Some old Courtiers came in to see me and jeared I went to St. John's and there I found the Roof off from some parts of the Colledge and the Walls cleft and ready to fall down God be Merciful Novemb. 8. Seventy Eight Pounds of my Rents taken from my Controuler by Mr. Holland and Mr. Ashurst which they said was for Maintenance of the King's Children Novemb. 9. Wednesday Morning Five of the Clock Captain Brown and his Company entred my House at Lambeth to keep it for Publick Service and they made of it The Lords upon my Petition to them deny'd they knew of any such Order and so did the Committee yet such an Order there was and divers Lords hands to it but upon my Petition they made an Order that my Books should be secured and my Goods Novemb. 10. Some Lords went to the King about an Accommodation Novemb. 12. Saturday A Fight about Brainford Many slain of the Parliaments Forces and some taken Prisoners Such as would not serve the King were sent back with an Oath given them The Fight is said to begin casually about billotting Since this Voted in the House for no Accommodation but to go on and take all advantages Novemb. 16. Wednesday An Order to barr all Prisoners Men from speaking one with another or any other but in presence of the Warder nor go out without the Lieutenants leave And to barr them the Liberty of the Tower Novemb. 22. Tuesday Ordered That any one of them may go out to buy Provision Novemb. 24. Thursday The Souldiers at Lambeth House brake open the Chappel door and offered violence to the Organ but before much hurt was done the Captains heard of it and stayed them Decemb. 2. Friday Some of the King's Forces taken at Farnham About an hundred of them brought in Carts to London Ten Carts full their Legs bound They were sufficiently railed upon in the Streets Decemb. 19. Munday My Petition for Mr Coniers to have the Vicaridge of Horsham Before it came to be delivered the House had made an Order against him upon complaint from Horsham of his disorderly Life So Decemb. 21. St. Thomas's day I petitioned for my Chaplain Mr. William Brackstone Refused yet no Exception taken That day in the Morning my young dun 〈◊〉 were taken away by Warrant under the Hands of Sir John Evelyn Mr. Pim and Mr Martin Decemb. 23. Thursday Dr. Layton came with a Warrant from the House of Commons for the Keys of my House to be delivered to him and more Prisoners to be brought thither c. January 5. A final Order from both Houses for setling of Lambeth Prison c. Thursday All my Wood and Coals spent or to be spent there not reserving in the Order that I shall have any for my own use nor would that Motion be hearkned to January 6. Friday Epiphany Earl of Manchester's Letter from the House to give All-Hallowes-Bredstreet to Mr. Seaman January 26. Thursday The Bill passed the Lords House for Abolishing Episcopacy c. Feb. 3. Friday Dr. Heath came to perswade me to give Chartham to Mr. Corbet c. Febr. 14. Tuesday I received a Letter from his Majesty dated January 17. to give Chartham to Mr Reddinge or lapse it to him That Afternoon the Earl of Warwick came to me and brought me an Order of the House to give it to one Mr Culmer This Order bare date Febr 4 Febr. 25 Saturday Mr Culmer came to me about it I told him I had given my Lord my Answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thursday St Cedd's day The Lord Brooke shot in the left Eye and killed in the place at Lichfeild going to give the Onset upon the Close of the Church he having ever been fierce against Bishops and Cathedrals His Bever up and armed to the Knees so that a Musket at that distance could have done him but little harm Thus was his Eye put out who about two Years since said he hoped to live to see at St Pauls not one Stone left upon another March 10. Friday This Night preceeding I dreamed a Warrant was come to free me and that I spake with the Lieutenant that my Warder might keep the Keys of my Lodging till I had got some place for my self and my Stuff since I could not go to Lambeth I waked and slept again and had the very same Dream a second time March 20. Munday The Lord of Northumberland Mr Pierpoint Sir John Holland Sir William Ermin and Mr Whitlock went from both Houses to Treat of Peace with his Majesty God of his Mercy bless it and us March 24. Friday One Mr Foord told me he is a Suffolk Man that there was a Plot to send me and Bishop Wrenn as Delinquents to new-New-England within fourteen days And that Wells a Minister that came thence offered wagers of it The Meeting was at Mr Barks a Merchant's House in Friday-street being this Foord's son-in-Son-in-Law I never saw Mr Foord before Anno 1643. March 28. Tuesday Another Order from the Lords to give Chartham to one Mr Edward Hudson My Answer as before April 11. Tuesday Another Order for the same and very peremptory This came to me April 12. whereupon I petitioned the House Thursday April 13. My former Answer being wilfully mistaken by Hudson That present day another Order very quick which was brought to me Friday April 14. I Petitioned the House again the same day with great submission but could not disobey the King April 12. Another peremptory Order to Collate Chartham on Mr Edw Corbet brought to me Saturday April 22. April 24. Munday I gave my Answer as before but in
After they had continued at York till Octob. 28. the King and the Lords returned and the Parliament sate down Novemb. 3. Great Heats appear'd in the very beginning On Wednesday Novemb. 10. Tho. L. 〈◊〉 Earl of Strafford was accused by the House of Commons of High Treason and Committed by the Lords to Mr. James Maxwell the Officer of the House And upon general Articles sent up He was upon Wednesday Novemb. 25. committed to the Tower It is thought and upon good Grounds that the Earl of Strafford had got Knowledge of the Treason of some Men and that he was preparing to accuse them And this Fear both hastned and heated the proceedings against him And upon Dec. 4. being Friday his Majesty at the great Importunity of some Lords of his Council gave way that his Council should be examined upon Oath in the Earl of Strafford's Case and I with others was examined that very Day There were great Thoughts of Heart upon this Business and somewhat vapoured out at Mens Tongues but the thing was done Now at and after the breaking up of the late Parliament Sir Hen. Vane at the private Committee concerning the Scotch Affairs before mentioned instead of setting down the Heads of the several Businesses then Treated of Writ down what every Man said at the Committee though it were but Matter of deliberation and debate Afterwards by a cunning conveyance between his Son who had been Governour in New-England and himself this Paper or a Copy of it was delivered to some Members of the House of Commons and in all probability was the Ground of that which was after done against the Lord Strafford my self and others and the Cause why the King was so hard pressed to have the Lords and others of his Council examined was that so Sir Henry Vane might upon Oath avow the Paper which his Son had seen and shewed and others be brought to witness as much had Truth and their Memories been able to say as much as his Paper After the examination of me and others concerning these Particulars there arose great and violent Debates in the House of Commons against the Bishops and particularly their Votes in Parliament After that Decemb. 16. 1640. they Voted against the late Canons as containing in them many Matters contrary to the fundamental Laws and Statutes of the Realm to the Rights of Parliaments to the Property and Liberty of the Subject and matters tending to Sedition and of dangerous Consequences I was made the Author of all and presently a Committee put upon me to inquire into my Actions and prepare a Charge The same Morning in the Upper-House I was Named as an Incendiary in an Accusation put in by the Scottish Commissioners For now by this Time they were come to that Article of the Treaty which reflected upon me And this was done with great noise to bring me yet further into Hatred with the People especially the Londoners who approved too well the Proceedings of their Brethren the Scots and debased the Bishops and the Church Government in England The Articles which the Scots put into the Upper House by the Hands of their Lords Commissioners against me Decemb. 15. were read there Decemb. 16. I took out a true Copy as it follows here And though I was to make no answer then till the House of Commons had digested them and taken as much out of them as as they pleased to fill my intended Charge withall yet because I after found that the House of Commons insisted upon very few of these particulars if any I thought my self bound to vindicate my Innocency even in these Particulars which shall now appear in their full strength against me if they have any in Wise and Learned Mens Judgments CAP. III THe Novations in Religion which are universally acknowledged to be the main Cause of Commotions in Kingdoms and States and are known to be the true Cause of our present Troubles were many and great besides the Books of Ordination and Homilies First some particular alterations in matters of Religion pressed upon us without Order and against Law contrary to the Form established in our Kirk Secondly a new Book of Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical Thirdly a Liturgy or Book of Common-Prayer which did also carry with them many dangerous Errours in matters of Doctrine Of all these we challenge the Prelate of Canterbury as the prime Cause on Earth I shall easily grant that Novations in Religion are a main Cause of Distempers in Commonwealths And I hope it will be as easily granted to me I am sure it should that when great Distempers fall into Kingdoms and Common-wealths the only way to ingage at home and get Credit abroad is to pretend Religion which in all Ages hath been a Cloak large enough to cover at least from the Eyes of the Many even Treasons themselves And For the present Troubles in Scotland Novations in Religion are so far from being known to be the true Cause as that it is manifest to any Man that will look upon it with a single Eye that Temporal Discontents and several Ambitions of the great Men which had been long a working were the true cause of these Troubles And that Religion was call'd in upon the bye to gain the Clergy and by them the Multitude For besides that which was openly spoken by the right Honourable James then Earl of Carlile that somewhat was a brewing in Scotland among some discontented there which wou'd break out to the Trouble of this Kingdom 't is most apparent there were many discontents among them Some whereof had no relation at all to Religion and were far antienter than the Troubles now began and were all Legally proved against the Lord Balmerino who was condemned of high Treason before any of these Stirs began For there were Grievances as they said propounded in the Convention Anno 1628. about Coyning and their black Money which they say were slighted again in the Parliament held 1633. Murmuring also there was as if the Articles and Parliament were not free Great Clamour likewise was there against the Bishops Power in choosing the Lords of the Articles though that Power belonged unto them by the fundamental Laws of that Kingdom As much against the Act of Revocation and the Taxations which yet were voluntarily offer'd and miscalled on purpose to edge the People As also for Applying as they said these Taxations to wrong uses With all which and more Religion had nothing to do Nay this discontented Party grew so High and so Bold that a very Base and Dishonourable Libel was made and spread against the King Anno 1633. by these and the like Pretences to alienate the Hearts of the People from him Of this Libel if one Hagg were the Authour Balmerino was the Divulger and so prov'd And though it be true that then also some things were to be done against the Church-government yet their
Majesty's Subjects And hath as much as in him lyeth indeavoured to corrupt other Courts of Justice by advising and procuring his Majesty to sell places of Judicature and other Offices and procuring the Sale of them contrary to the Laws and Statutes in that behalf I did least of all expect this Charge For I have not corruptly sold Justice either as Arch-Bishop High-Commissioner Referree or otherwise Nor have I taken any unlawful Gift or Bribe of any his Majesty's Subjects And though in this Article there is no particular mentioned more than in the rest yet I am not ignorant that I have been Charged in the House of Commons for taking two Pipes of Sack from one Mr. Tho. Stone as a Bribe for the abarement of a Fine imposed upon some Men of Chester by the High-Commission at York Which power of Abatement was in me by vertue of a Broad-Seal granted me to that purpose bearing Date ..... Now because there is no Particular known to me but this belonging to this or any other Article and because I know not what course the Parliament will hold with me namely whether they will produce Particulars or proceed by Bill of Attainder I will take opportunity here to unfold all that is true in this odious Accusation of Stone And the Case is thus Mr. Stone knowing that these Fines with other were given by his Majesty towards the repair of St. Pauls in London and that the Trust of that Business with Power to abate any Fine was committed to me under the Broad Seal of England became a very earnest Suiter to me in the behalf of these Chester-Men fined at York And he set divers of his Friends and mine upon me for abatement of this Fine And among others his own son-in-Son-in-Law Mr. William Wheat Barrister at Law who had been bred under me in St. John's Colledge in Oxford and Mr. Wheat 's Brother Doctor Baylie then Dean of Salisbury In this Suit Stone pretended and protested too that these Men ought him two or three Thousand Pound I well remember not whether and that he should lose it all if these Mens Fines were not abated For they would hide their Heads and never appear again During this Suit he came twice if not thrice to my Steward and told him he had at present excellent Sack and that he would send in two Pipes for me My Steward at each time refused his motion and acquainted me with it as my Command ever was he should do in Cases of receiving any thing into my House I at every of these times commanded it should not be received Mr. Stone then protested to my Steward that he did not offer this as any Bribe or Gratuity for the business of the Chester-Men but meerly as a Token of his Thankfulness for many and great Kindnesses done by me to himself his Son-in-Law and his Friend Doctor Baylie Notwithstanding this I gave absolute Command the Sack should not be received When Mr. Stone saw this he found a time to send in the Sack when my Steward was not in the House and told my Under-Servants that my Steward was acquainted with it The next time Mr. Stone came to the House which as far as I remember was the very next day My Steward told him he would send back the Sack and was about to do it as he after assured me Then Mr. Stone was very earnest with him that he would save his Credit and not send the Wine back to his disgrace renewing his former deep Protestations that he had in this no relation at all to the Chester-Mens business Upon this my Steward being acquainted with him and his fore-named Friends trusted him and let the Wine stay contrary to my former Commands After all this this unworthy Man put the price of this Wine upon the Chester-Mens Account as if for that Gift I had abated their Fine and so gave them an occasion to complain of me to the Parliament Whereas both the Chester-Men and Mr. Stone himself had before acknowledged I had used them kindly in the Composition for their Fine and wished they had been referred to me for the whole Cause And for my whole carriage in this business I dare refer my self to the Testimony of Mr. Stone 's own Son-in-Law and Doctor Baylie who were the chief Men whom Mr. Stone imployed to me Besides after all this cunning it will appear by my Servants their Accounts that the Wine was not brought into my House in the cunning manner before mentioned till divers days after I had compounded with the Chester-Men for their Fine so a Bribe for doing a business it could not be And upon the whole matter I am verily perswaded considering Stone 's Profession in Religion for he is a Brownist or next Neighbour to him that he did this of set purpose to see if he could insnare me in this way Lastly I desire the Lords and all Men that have had any thing to do with me to look upon me in the whole course of my Life wherein they shall find me untainted with so much as the value of Six-pence in this base way And it is not unknown to the World that for many Years together I had opportunities enough to inrich my self by such a way had I been minded to take that course Whereas now it is well known my Estate is the meanest of any Arch-Bishop's of Canterbury that hath sate for many Years And having carried it thus along for all my Life I presume no Man can be so injurious to me as to think I would now in mine Old Age being Sixty Eight when this was Charged upon me sell either my Conscience or my Honour for a Morsel of Bread or a Cup of Wine And for the other part of this Article I did never advise his Majesty to sell Places of Judicature or other Offices or procure the Sale of them contrary to Law 5. He hath Traiterousty 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 presumptuous Power in himself and his Successors Many of the which Canons by the practice of the said Arch-Bishop were surreptitiously passed in the last Convocation without due Consideration and Debate others by fear and 〈◊〉 were Subscribed to by the Prelates and Clerks there 〈◊〉 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 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
a great deal of Thanks in the Name of that Nation Nor did I labour to introduce into the Kingdom of Scotland any Innovations in Religion or Government Neither do all or the most part or indeed any of those pretended Innovations tend to Popery or Superstition as hath before been sufficiently proved Neither did I upon their refusal to submit to these Advise his Majesty to Subdue them by force of Arms but the Counsels which I gave were open either at the Committee or the Council-Table Neither did I by my own Power and Authority contrary to Law procure any of his Majesty's Subjects or inforce the Clergy of England to contribute to the maintenance of that War But the Subsidies which were given to his Majesty at that time were given freely and in open Convocation and without any practice of my self or any other as appears by what I have formerly laid down But because so much noise hath been made against me both in the Scottish Charge before answered and in this Article about Popish Innovations in that Service-Book and that I laboured the introducing both of it and them I think it fit if not necessary to set down briefly the Story what was done and what I did and by what Command in all that Business And it follows Dr. John Maxwel the late Bishop of Ross came to me from his Majesty it was during the time of a great and dangerous Fever under which I then laboured It was in the Year 1629. in August or September which come that time is Thirteen Years since The Cause of his coming was to speak with me about a Liturgy for Scotland At his coming I was so extream Ill that I saw him not And had Death which I then expected daily as did my Friends and Physicians also seized on me I had not seen this heavy time After this when I was able to sit up he came to me again and told me it was his Majesty's Pleasure that I should receive Instructions from some Bishops of Scotland concerning a Liturgy for that Church and that he was imployed from my Lord the Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews and other Prelates there about it I told him I was clear of Opinion that if his Majesty would have a Liturgy setled there it were best to take the English Liturgy without any variation that so the same Service-Book might be established in all his Majesty's Dominions Which I did then and do still think would have been a great Happiness to this State and a great Honour and Safety to Religion To this he replyed that he was of a contrary Opinion and that not he only but the Bishops of that Kingdom thought their Country-men would be much better satisfied it a Liturgy were framed by their own Clergy than to have the English Liturgy put upon them yet he added that it might be according to the Form of our English Service-Book I answered to this that if this were the Resolution of my Brethren the Bishops of Scotland I would not entertain so much as Thoughts about it till I might by God's Blessing have Health and Opportunity to wait upon his Majesty and receive his farther directions from himself When I was able to go abroad I came to his Majesty and represented all that had passed His Majesty avowed the sending of Dr. Maxwell to me and the Message sent by him But then he inclined to my Opinion to have the English Service without any alteration to be established there And in this Condition I held that Business for two if not three Years at least Afterwards the Scottish Bishops still pressing his Majesty that a Liturgy Framed by themselves and in some few things different from ours would relish better with their Countrymen They at last prevailed with his Majesty to have it so and carried it against me notwithstanding all I could say or do to the contrary Then his Majesty Commanded me to give the Bishops of Scotland my best Assistance in this Way and Work I delayed as much as I could with my Obedience and when nothing would serve but it must go on I confess I was then very serious and gave them the best help I could But wheresoever I had any doubt I did not only acquaint his Majesty with it but Writ down most of the Amendments or Alterations in his Majesty's Presence And I do verily believe there is no one thing in that Book which may not stand with the Conscience of a right Good Protestant Sure I am his Majesty approved them all and I have his Warrant under his Royal Hand for all that I did about that Book And to the end the Book may be extant and come to the view of the Christian World and their Judgment of it be known I have caused it to be exactly Translated into Latin and if right be done it shall be Printed with this History This was that which I did concerning the Matter and Substance of this Service-Book As for the way of Introducing it I ever advised the Bishops both in his Majesty's Presence and at other times both by Word and by Writing that they would look carefully to it and be sure to do nothing about it but what should be agreeable to the Laws of that Kingdom And that they should at all times be sure to take the Advice of the Lords of his Majesty's Council in that Kingdom and govern themselves and their Proceedings accordingly Which Course if they have not followed that can no way reflect upon me who have both in this and all things else been as careful of their Laws as any Man who is a Stranger to them could be And in a Letter of mine after my last coming out of Scotland thus I wrote to the late Reverend Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews Septemb. 30. 1633. concerning the Liturgy That whether that of England or another were resolved on yet 〈◊〉 should proceed Circumspectly Because his Majesty had no intendment to do any thing but that which was according to Honour and Justice and the Laws of that Kingdom And a Copy of this Letter I have yet by me to shew And for the truth of this Narration I know His Majesty and my Lord of Ross himself will avow it And here I take leave to acquaint the Reader That this was no new Conceit of His Majesty to have a Liturgy framed and Canons made for the Church of Scotland For he followed his Royal Father King James his Example and Care therein who took Order for both at the Assembly of Perth An. 1618. And now to return again to the Article There is one Charge more in it and that 's concerning the Pacification made the 〈◊〉 Year The Article says I did Censure it as Dishonourable and Advise for a new War But I did neither That which I spake was openly at the Council-Table and in His Majesty's presence And it was this There arose a debate at the Table about these Affairs and the Pacification and I
two Years since from the Lord Herbert's House in Lambeth upon some Discourse of St. Paul's Church then in their Eye upon the Water said to some young Lords that were with him that he hoped to live to see that one Stone of that Building should not be left upon another But that Church stands yet and that Eye is put out that hoped to see the Ruins of it Many heavy Accidents have already fallen out in these unnatural Wars and God alone knows how many more shall before they end But I intend no History but of my own sad Misfortunes nor would I have mentioned this but that it relates to the Church which for my Calling sake I take as a part and a near one of my self On Friday March 24. one Mr. Ford came to me to the Tower and told me there was a Plot to send me and my Lord of Ely Bishop Wren as Delinquents to New England within fourteen days And that Mr. Wells a Minister that came thence offer'd Wagers of it The Meeting where he heard this was he said at Mr. Barnes a Mercers House in Friday-Street a Son in Law of Mr. Fords This Gentleman told me he was a Suffolk man but I never saw him before and was doubtful of the Truth of his Relation Partly because I knew no motive he had to take such care of me being a Stranger to him And partly because it could not sink into me that the Honourable Houses after so long Imprisonment would send me into such a Banishment without hearing me or my Cause Yet he protested the truth of it very deeply and wished me to endeavour to prevent it That I knew not how to do For to Petition against it upon such a private Information might rather call it on than keep it off seeing what an edge there was against me Therefore I referred my self to God my constant Anchor and so rested my Thoughts as well as I could It was now known in the House to the Lord General 's Friends that I had a resolution not to give Chartham to Mr. Corbet And it may be it was thought also that I did but pretend the Kings Letters about it and that if some other Man were named against whom I had no Exception it might be that I would give it And if I did give it then they should discover that either I had no Letters from the King Or that I could make bold to dispence with them so Mr. Corbet were not the Man And if they could have gained this upon me that notwithstanding his Majesties Letters I would have given that Benefice to another man they would then have recalled their Order from him and commanded me for Mr. Corbet That this my Conjecture hath Truth in it seems evident to me by all the future carriage of this Business For one Mr. Hudson came and Preached at the Tower and gave all men very good content And on Tuesday March 28. he brought me an Order from the Lords requiring me to give Chartham to him And this Order was known in the Tower For some Prisoners of Note said I might do well to give it him being so good a Preacher My answer to him was fair yet I told him truly that the King had written to me for another That I had promised to give it or lapse it as his Majesty required me That the King never asked any of me till now That I hoped the Parliament would not take it ill that I gave this one at the Kings requisition since I had already given as many Benefices upon their Orders as came to above Eight hundred Pounds a year passing by my own Friends and Chaplains honest and able men And for his particular I might live to pleasure him with another so I were not over-pressed concerning this Hudson either mistook my Answer or wilfully misreported it and me to the House and thereupon came another Order to me of April 11. to give him Chartham I was not willing to be mistaken again and therefore desired Mr. Lieutenant to deliver me a Petition to the House on Thursday Apr. 13. in which I set forth my true Answer as is above expressed and in all Humility desired their Favour That very day another quick Order was made for Hudson and brought to me the next day April 14. I Petitioned the House again the same day with all submission yet professed that I could not disobey the King in so fair a Command When all this would not serve the Mask was pulled off and a peremptory Order bearing date April 21. was brought to me on Saturday April 22. to Collate Chartham upon Mr. Edw. Corbet And upon Monday April 24. I humbly gave my Answer as before but in the softest Terms I could express it and in a Petition Monday May 1. the Windows of my Chappel at Lambeth were defaced and the Steps to the Communion-Table torn up And on Tuesday May 2. the Cross in Cheapside was taken down to cleanse that great Street of Superstition The same day in prosecution of the former Plot March 24. it was moved in the House of Commons to send me to New England but it was rejected The Plot was laid by Peters Wells and others of that Crew that so they might insult over me Then followed an Exemplary piece of Justice and another of Mercy Of Justice For my Goods in Lambeth-House and my Books were seized upon and my Goods set to Sale by Captain Guest Dickins and Layton And my Goods were sold and scarce at a third part of their worth all save what Layton took to himself who usually said all was his House Land Goods and all This was on Tuesday May 9. And all this before any Proceedings had against me And of Mercy For the same day there came out an Order for my farther Restraint that I might not go out of my Lodging without my Keeper so much as to take Air. Much about this time I received another Letter from his Majesty in which he requires me as he had formerly done for Chartham in particular that as oft as any Benefice or other Spiritual Promotion whatsoever should fall void in my Gift I should dispose it only to such as his Majesty should name unto me Or if any Command lay otherwise upon me from either or both Houses of Parliament I should then let them fall into Lapse that he might dispose of them to Men of worth Upon Tuesday May 16. there came out an Ordinance of both Houses for now the Order was grown up into an Ordinance requiring me to give no Benefice or Spiritual Promotion now void or to be void at any time before my Trial but with leave and Order of both Houses of Parliament This Ordinance was delivered unto me the next day And upon the reading of it I foresaw a Cloud rising over me about this Business of Chartham for which I did assure my self the Ordinance was made And soon
of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury be hereby Sequestred by and unto the Parliament And William Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Suspended ab Officio Beneficio omni omnimodâ Jurisdictione Archiepiscopali until he be either Convicted or Acquitted of High Treason for which he stands now Accused and whatsoever Livings Dignities or Ecclesiastical Promotions in the said Arch-Bishop's Gift or Collation are or hereafter shall be void shall henceforth be Instituted and Inducted unto by the Arch-Bishop's Vicar General or any other having Authority in this behalf upon the Nomination and Recommendation of both Houses of Parliament during the time of the Suspension and Seque stration aforesaid And upon this Ordinance it is Ordered and be it so Ordained by the Lords and Commons in Parliament that the said Ed. Corbet be and is hereby Nominated and Recommended forthwith upon sight hereof to be Admitted Instituted and Inducted by the Vicar General aforesaid or any other having Authority in this behalf into the said Rectory of Chartham Ratione suspensionis Domini Gulielmi Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis Temporalium Archiepiscopatûs in Manibus Supremae Curiae Parliamenti jam existentium the same belonging unto their Gift And it is hereby farther Ordained by the Lords and Commons in Parliament that during the Suspension and Sequestration aforesaid the Jurisdiction of the said Arch-Bishop shall be Executed and Exercised by his Vicar General and other his inferiour Judges and Officers as formerly the same hath been This Ordinance was laid as a great Punishment upon me But I humbly thank both Houses for it as for the greatest Benefit they have bestowed on me since my Troubles especially since the Sequestration of my Jurisdiction Novemb. 2. 1641. For it appears before in this History how ever since that time I have been troubled for every Benefice which hath fallen in my Gift disinabled to prefer any Friend or Chaplain of my own were he never so worthy And which is worse by much forced to admit such Men how unworthy so-ever as were by them Nominated to me or else fall under a Contempt of their Ordinances and such Arbitrary Punishment as they shall thereupon load me with Whereas now I am freed both from the Trouble and the Sin of admitting unworthy Persons into the Church-Service and leave them to the Business and the Account for it On Sunday Junij 11. One came and Preached at the Tower his Name I could not learn In his Sermon after he had liberally railed on me he told the Auditory that Mr. Pryn had found a Book in my Pocket which would discover great things This to inflame the People against me Et si non satis insanirent suâ sponte instigare This is Zealous Preaching God forgive their Malice An Ordinance passed on Munday Junij 12. that the Synod of Divines formerly Named by both Houses not chosen by the Clergy should begin to sit on the first of July following And they did begin to sit that day Dr. Twiss in the Chair and he made the Latin Sermon The Names of these Synodical Men are to be seen in the Ordinance Printed Junij 12. Where any Man that will may see a great if not the greater part of them Brownists or Independents or New-England-Ministers if not worse or at the best refractory Persons to the Doctrine or Discipline or both of the Church of England Established by Law and now brought together to Reform it An excellent Conclave But I pray God that befal not them which Tully observes fell upon Epicurus Si quae corrigere voluit deteriora fecit He made every thing worse that he went about to mend I shall for my part never deny but that the Liturgy of the Church of England may be made better but I am sure withal it may easily be made worse And howsoever it would become this Synod well to remember that there is a Convocation of the English Prelates and Clergy lawfully Chosen and Summoned and by no Supream or Legal Authority as yet dissolved And can there be two National Synods at one time but that one must be irregular Belike we shall fall to it in the Donatists way They set up Altare contra Altare in Africk and these will set up Synodum contra Synodum in England And this without God's Infinite Mercy will bring forth a Schism fierce enough to rent and tear Religion out of this Kingdom Which God for the Merits and Mercies of Christ forbid A Committee of the House of Commons sent Mr. Dobson my Controwler to me to the Tower to require me to send them word under my Hand what Originals I had of the Articles of Religion Established 1562 1571. This was on Wednesday July 12. And I returned by him the same day this Answer in Writing with my Name to it The Original Articles of 1571. I could never find in my Paper-Study at Lambeth or any where else And whether any Copy of them were ever left there I cannot tell The Original Articles of 1562. with many Hands to them I did see and peruse there But whether the Bishops Hands were to them or not I cannot remember This Answer satisfied them but what their Aim was I cannot tell unless they meant to make a search about the two first Lines in the twentieth Article concerning the Power of the Church in these words The Church hath Power to decree Rites or Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith Which words are left out in divers printed Copies of the Articles and are not in the one and twentieth Article of Edw. 6. nor in the Latin Copy of the Articles 1571. But in the Original Articles of 1562. the words are plain and manifest without any Interlining at all If this were their Aim 't is probable we shall see somewhat by what their Synod shall do concerning that Article On Tuesday August 3. my Servant Mr. Edw. Lenthrop came to me and told me that the day before he met with Sir K. Digbye who had the leave to go out of Prison by the Suit of the French Queen and to Travel into France But before he took his Journey he was to come before a Committee and there he said he had been It seems it was some Committee about my Business for he told Mr. Lenthrop and wished him to tell it me that the Committee took special notice of his Acquaintance with me and Examined him strictly concerning me and my Religion whether he did not know that I was offer'd to be made a Cardinal and many other such like things That he Answer'd them That he knew nothing of any Cardinal-ship offer'd me And for my Religion he had Reason to think I was truly and really as I professed my self for I had laboured with him against his return to the Church of Rome Which is true and I have some of my Papers yet to shew But he farther sent me word that their Malice was great against me though he
the Bar there was Alderman Hoyle of York and some other which I knew not very Angry and saying it was a very strange Conversion that I was like to make of them with other Terms of Scorn I went patiently into the little Committee-Chamber at the entring into the House Thither Mr. Peters followed me in great haste and began to give me ill Language and told me that he and other Ministers were able to name Thousands that they had Converted I knew him not as having never seen him to my remembrance in my Life though I had heard enough of him And as I was going to answer him one of my Councel Mr. Hearn seeing how violently he began stepped between us and told him of his uncivil Carriage towards me in my Affliction And indeed he came as if he would have struck me By this time some occasion brought the Earl of Essex into that Room and Mr. Hearn complained to him of Mr. Peters his usage of me who very Honourably checked him for it and sent him forth Not long after Mr. Hearn was set upon by Alderman Hoyle and used as coursly as Peters had used me and as far as I remember only for being of Councel with such a one as I though he was assigned to that Office by the Lords What put them into this Choler I know not unless they were Angry to hear me say so much in my own Defence especially for the Conversion of so many which I think they little expected For the next day a great Lord met a Friend of mine and grew very Angry with him about me not forbearing to ask what I meant to Name the Particulars which I had mentioned in the end of my Speech saying many Godly Ministers had done more And not long after this the day I now remember not Mr. Peters came and Preached at Lambeth and there told them in the Pulpit that a great Prelat their Neighbour or in words to that effect had bragged in the Parliament-House that he had Converted Two and Twenty but that he had Wisdom enough not to tell how many Thousands he had Perverted with much more abuse God of his Mercy relieve me from these Reproaches and lay not these Mens causeless Malice to their Charge After a little stay I received my Dismission for that time and a Command to appear again the next day at Nine in the Morning Which was my usual Hour to attend though I was seldom called into the House in two Hours after CAP. XXIII The Second Day of my Hearing I Came as commanded But here before the Charge begins I shall set down the Articles upon which according to the Order of March 9. they which were intrusted with the Evidence meant this Day to proceed They were the First and Second Original Articles and the Second Additional Article which follow in these words 1. That he hath Traiterously endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws and Government of the Kingdom of England and instead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government against Law and to that end hath wickedly and traiterously advised his Majesty that he might at his own Will and Pleasure Levy and take Money of his Subjects without their Consent in Parliament and this he affirmed was Warrantable by the Law of God 2. He hath for the better accomplishment of that his traiterous Design advised and procured divers Sermons and other 〈◊〉 to be Preached Printed and Published in which the Authority of Parliaments and the Force of the Laws of the Kingdom are denyed and an Absolute and Unlimited Power over the Persons and Estates of his Majesty's Subjects is maintained and defended not only in the King but also in himself and other Bishops above and against the Law and he hath been a great Protector Favourer and Promoter of the Publishers of such false and Pernicious Opinions Second Additional Article 2. That within the space of Ten Years last past the said Arch-Bishop hath Treacherously endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws of this Realm and to that end hath in like manner endeavoured to advance the Power of the Council-Table the Canons of the Church and the King's Prerogative above the Laws and Statutes of the Realm And for manifestation thereof about Six Years last past being then a Privy Counsellor to his Majesty and sitting at the Council-Table he said That as long as he sate there they should know that an Order of that Board should be of equal Force with a Law or Act of Parliament And at another Time used these Words That he hoped e're long that the Canons of the Church and the King's Prerogative should be of as great Power as an Act of Parliament And at another Time said That those which would not yield to the King's Power he would crush them to pieces These three Articles they begun with and the first Man appointed to begin was Mr. Maynard And after some general things against me as if I were the most violent Man for all illegal Ways The First Particular charged against me was out of my Diary The Words these The King Declared his Resolution for a Parliament in Case of the Scottish Rebellion The First Movers of it were my Lord Deputy of Ireland the Lord Marquess Hamilton and my self And a Resolution voted at the Board to Assist the King in Extraordinary Ways if the Parliament should prove peevish and refuse c. The Time was Decemb. 5. 1639. That which was inforced from these Words was First that I bestowed the Epithete Peevish upon the Parliament And the Second that this Voting to Assist the King in Extraordinary Ways in Case the Parliament refused proceeded from my Counsel 1. To this I replyed And first I humbly desired once for all that all things concerning Law may be saved entire unto me and my Councel to be heard in every such Particular 2. Secondly that the Epithete Peevish was a very Peevish Word if written by me I say If For I know into whose Hands my Book is fallen but what hath been done with it I know not This is to be seen some Passages in that Book are half burnt out whether Purposely or by Chance God knows And some other Papers taken by the same Hand from me are now wanting Is it not possible therefore some Art may be used in this Besides if I did use the Word Peevish it was in my Private Pocket Book which I well hoped should never be made Publick and then no Disgrace thereby affixed to the Parliament And I hope should a Man forget himself in such an Expression of some Passage in some one Parliament and this was no more it is far short of any thing that can be called Treason And yet farther most manifest it is in the very Words themselves that I do not bestow the Title upon that Parliament in that Case but say only If it should prove Peevish which is possible doubtless that in some particulars a Parliament may Though
he is a Juror And according to this I gave Mr. Browne my Answer And howsoever the Attachment goes of Course out from the Commission and not from me The second Charge of this Day was about the Censure which fell on the Inhabitants of Beckington in Sommersetshire about their refusing to remove the Communion-Table according to the Order of their Diocesan About which were produced three Witnesses to whose Evidence I shall Answer in order 1. The first was William Longe who says he was Foreman of the Jury when these Men were Indicted for a Riot and that as he conceives the Parson spake with the Judge about it which caused a sudden Verdict The Parson of the Place spake with the Judge and he conceives that produced a sudden Verdict First he doth but conceive so and that can make no Proof If it did make Proof 't is only against the Parson not against me And if the Parson speaking of it did say as Mr. Longe affirms he did That this Riot was like a Waldensian or Swisserland Commotion He must answer for his own Distempered Language me it cannot concern 2. The second Witness was George Longe He says The Bishop of Bath Commanded the Communion-Table to be removed and set at the upper end of the Chancel that the Church-Wardens refusing were Excommunicated But he says withal that they Appealed to the Arches and had remedy Then he adds farther that the Bishop proceeded again but the Church-Wardens would not remove it saying it was an Innovation and against Law But my Lords 't is neither And therefore these Church-Wardens were in a great Contempt against their Bishop to the ill Example of all that Country And that it is no Innovation against Law appears by the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth where it is Commanded Expresly to be set there The Words are The Holy Table in every Church not Cathedrals only shall be decently made and set in the place where the Altar stood Now all Men know that with us in England the Altar stood North and South at the upper end of the Chancel And to set it East and West had been cross the place where the Altar stood and not in it And this being Law in the beginning of the Reformation cannot now be an Innovation When they came to me again as they say they did if I then told them they deserved to be laid by the Heels for the Contempt of their Bishop under Favour my Lords I spake Truth And give me leave I beseech you to tell you this It began to be a General Complaint not of the Bishop of Bath only but of other Bishops also that they could do little or no Service in their several Countries by reason of the Inhibitions which issued out of my Courts to stay their Proceedings And I wanted no good Friends in Court to tell the King as much when any thing was complained of By this I was brought into great straights Deny Appeals I might not Frequent granting in my Courts destroyed in a manner the Bishops Jurisdictions In this difficulty seeing the wilfulness of these Men and knowing they had received full benefit by their Appeal once already in the same Case I did refuse to hear any more of it unless there were new Matter but yet left them free to Appeal to the Delegats For Mr. Hughes the Parson there if he gave ill Words or laid violent Hands on any of his Neighbours it concerns not me Let him answer for what he hath said or done 'T is farther said That Mr. Hughes was with me at Windsor and had Letters from me to the Lord Chief Justice Finch But this Witness delivers not this upon his own knowledge I sent no Letter by him nor did he see me send by any other So this is meerly a Report and he doth not so much as tell from whom Yea but then he says that Mr. Morgan a Man inward with the Judge told him that the Judge told him that the little Man had put a spoke in their Cart and thereupon as he conceives the Petty-Jury was Changed Here are if your Lordships mark them two great Proofs The one is the Witnesses Report of Mr. Morgan's Report that the Judge had said so of me But why is not Mr. Morgan produced to clear this The other is not the Knowledge but the Conceit only of the Witness He conceives which I am Confident cannot sway with your Lordships for a Proof Besides were Mr. Morgan never so inward with that Judge yet it follows not that he must know all And if that Judge did mean me for Name me he did not he did me the more wrong For I never desired any thing of any Judge him or other but what was according to Law Nay I so expressed my self as that if by mistake or misinformation I had desired any thing which was not according to Law I humbly desired my Motion might be as if it had never been made 3. The third Witness is Mr. Jo. Ash. That which this Gentleman says is That Sir John Lambe told that the Man which came about that Business could have no Appeal admitted without me and that if he would be so troublesome he should be laid by the Heels I have given your Lordships an Account why he could not have an Appeal without me He had had the benefit of an Appeal before in the same Cause And for this Witness he delivers no knowledge of his own but only he says the Man imployed related it to him So 't is a Relation no Proof He says the Penance was injoyned them in three Churches And truly my Lords their Disobedience to their Bishop was great but if the Penance injoyned were too heavy it was the Act of their own Bishop not mine Then he says that the Lord Finch told him another powerful Hand was upon him intimating me First this is no knowledge of the Witness but a Speech of the Lord Finch Secondly if the Lord Finch did say so of a powerful Hand he wronged me much but himself more to confess he could be drawn awry in Judgment Thirdly this Witness says not that he named me but that he Intimated me I pray your Lordships Judgment what a forward Witness this Man is that can upon Oath deliver what is Intimated and of whom He says farther That upon Petition to Sir William Portman for some Assistance the Bishop of Bath laid all upon me and that when himself came to me at the Tower since my Restraint I told him the Bishop of Bath did like an Obedient Bishop to his Metropolitan For this my Lords here is no Proof that the Bishop laid this Business upon me but Sir William Portman's Report Sir William is a worthy Gentleman why is not he produced Why is not the Bishop that is said to lay all upon me brought into the Court that he may clear himself and me if he said it not or that I may make him ashamed if he said it For 't is
just Grievances is not the least Cause of my present Condition In which my Case though not my Abilities is somewhat like Cicero's For having now for many Years defended the Publick State of the Church and the Private of many Church-Men as he had done many Citizens when he by prevailing Factions came into danger himself ejus Salutem defendit nemo no Man took care to defend him that had defended so many which yet I speak not to impute any thing to Men of my own Calling who I presume would have lent me their just Defence to their Power had not the same Storm which drove against my Life driven them into Corners to preserve themselves The First Instance was in Mr. Shervil's Case in which Mr. John Steevens tells what I said to the Councel Pleading in the Star-Chamber which was that they should take care not to cause the Laws of the Church and the Kingdom to clash one against another I see my Lords nothing that I spake was let fall nor can I remember every Speech that passed from me he may be happy that can But if I did speak these Words I know no Crime in them It was a good Caveat to the Councel for ought I know For surely the Laws of Church and State in England would agree well enough together if some did not set them at Odds. And if I did farther say to the then Lord Keeper as 't is Charged that some Clergy-Men had sat as high as he and might again which I do not believe I said yet if I did 't is a known Truth For the Lord Coventry then Lord Keeper did immediately succeed the Lord Bishop of Lincoln in that Office But though I dare say I said not thus to the Lord Keeper whose Moderation gave me no Cause to be so round with him yet to the Councel at the Bar I remember well upon just occasion given that I spake to this Effect That they would forbear too much depressing of the Clergy either in their Reputation or Maintenance in regard it was not impossible that their Profession now as high as ours once was may fall to be as low as ours now is If the Professors set themselves against the Church as some of late are known to have done And that the sinking of the Church would be found the ready way to it The Second Instance was about calling some Justices of the Peace into the High-Commission about a Sessions kept at 〈◊〉 1. The First Witness for this for Three were produced was Mr. Jo. Steevens He says That the Isle where the Sessions were kept was joyned to the Church If it were not now a part of the Chuch yet doubtless being within the Church-Yard it was Consecrated Ground He says That Sessions were kept there heretofore And I say the more often the worse He says That I procured the calling of them into the High-Commission But he proves no one of these Things but by the Report of Sir Rob Cook of Gloucestershire a Party in this Cause He says again that They had the Bishop's License to keep Sessions there But the Proof of this also is no more than that Sir Rob. Cook told him so So all this hitherto is Hearsay Then he says the 88. Canon of the Church of England was urged in the Commission Court which seems to give leave in the close of the Canon that Temporal Courts or Leets may be kept in Church or Church-Yard First that Clause in the end of the Canon is referred to the Ringing of Bells not to the Profanations mentioned in the former part of that Canon Nor is it probable the Minister and Church-Wardens should have Power to give such leave when no Canon gives such Power to the Bishop himself And were it so here 's no Proof offered that the Minister and Church-Wardens did give leave And suppose some Temporal Courts might upon urgent Occasion be kept in the Church with leave yet that is no Warrant for Sessions where there may be Tryal for Blood He says farther That the Civilians quoted an Old Canon of the Pope's and that that prevailed against the Canon of Our Church and Sentence given against them All those Canons which the Civilians urged are Law in England where nothing is contrary to the Law of God or the Law of the Land or the King's Prerogative Royal And to keep off Profanation from Churches is none of these Besides were all this true which is urged the Act was the High-Commissions not mine Nor is there any thing in it that looks toward Treason 2. The Second Witness is Mr. Edward Steevens He confesses that the Sentence was given by the High-Commission and that I had but my single Vote in it And for the Place it self he says The Place where the Sessions were kept was separated from the Isle of the Church by a Wall Breast-high which is an evident Proof that it was formerly a Part of that Church and continued yet under the same Roof 3. The Third Witness is Mr. Talboyes who it seems will not be out of any thing which may seem to hurt me He says The Parish held it no part of the Church Why are not some of them examined but this Man's Report from them admitted They thought no harm he says and got a License But why did they get a License if their own Conscience did not prompt them that something was Irregular in that Business He says he was informed the Sessions had been twice kept there before And I say under your Lordships Favour the oftner the worse But why is not his Informer produced that there might be Proof and not Hearsay Upon this I said so he concludes That I would make a President against keeping it any more If I did say so the Cause deserved it Men in this Age growing so Bold with Churches as if Profanation of them were no Fault at all The Third Instance concerned Sir Tho. Dacres a Justice of Peace in Middlesex and his Warrant for Punishing some disorderly Drinking The Witnesses the two Church Wardens Colliar and Wilson two plain Men but of great Memories For this Business was when I was Bishop of London and yet they agree in every Circumstance in every Word though so many Years since Well what say they It seems Dr. Duck then my Chancellor had Cited these Church-Wardens into my Court Therefore either there was or at least to his Judgment there seemed to be somwhat done in that business against the Jurisdiction of the Church They say then That the Court ended Dr. Duck brought them to me And what then Here is a Cause by their own confession depending in the Ecclesiastical Court Dr. Duck in the King's Quarters where I cannot fetch him to Testifie no means left me to know what the Proceedings were and I have good cause to think that were all the Merits of the Cause open before your Lordships you would say Sir Tho. Dacres did not all according to
think my Lord Arch-Bishop hath done no Good Work in all his Life but these Men will object it as a Crime against him before they have done With this Charge about the Statutes it was let fall and I well know why It was to heat a Noble Person then present That I procured my self to be chosen Chancellour of that Vniversity If I had so done it might have been a great Ambition in me but surely no Treason But my Lords I have Proof great store might I be enabled to fetch it from Oxford that I was so far from endeavouring to procure this Honour to my self as that I laboured by my Letters for another And 't is well known that when they had chosen me I went instantly to his Majesty so soon as ever I heard it and humbly besought him that I might refuse it as well foreseeing the Envy that would follow me for it and it did plentifully every way But this for some Reasons his Majesty would not suffer me to do Then were objected against me divers Particulars contained in those Statutes As First the making of new Oaths The Charters of the Vniversity are not new and they gave Power to make Statutes for themselves and they have ever been upon Oath The next Illegality is That Men are tied to obey the Proctors in Singing the Litany This is Ancient and in use long before ever I came to the Vniversity and it is according to the Liturgy of the Church of England established by Law Thirdly The Statute of Bannition from the Vniversity But there is nothing more ancient in the Vniversity Statutes than this Fourthly That nothing should be propased in Convocation but what was consented unto among the Heads of Colleges first which was said to be against the Liberty of the Students The young Masters of Arts void of Experience were grown so tumultuous that no Peace could be kept in the Vniversity till my worthy Predecessor the Right Honourable William Earl of Pembroke setled this Order among them As he did also upon the same Grounds settle the present way of the choice of their Proctors In both which I did but follow and confirm for so much as lay in me the Good and Peaceable Grounds which he had laid in those two Businesses And Mr. Brown who in the summing up of my Charge urged this against me mainly mistook in two things The one was that he said this Inhibition of Proposals was in Congregations Whereas it was only in Convocations where more weighty Businesses are handled The other was that this stay of Proposals was made till I might be first acquainted with them No it was but till the Heads of Colleges had met and considered of them for avoiding of tumultuary Proceedings And when my Honourable Predecessor made that Order it was highly commended every where and is it now degenerated into a Crime because it is made up into a Statute Fifthly That some things are referred to Arbitrary Penalties And that some things are so referred is usual in that Vniversity and many Colleges have a particular Statute for it Nor is this any more Power than Ordinary School-Masters have which have not a Statute-Law for every Punishment they use in Schools And in divers things the old known Statute is that the Vice-Chancellour shall proceed Grosso Modo that is without the regular Forms of Law for the more speedy ending of Differences among the Scholars Sixthly That the Statute made by me against Conventicles is very strict But for these that Statute is express De Illicitis Conventiculis and I hope such as are unlawful may be both forbid and punished Besides it is according to the Charter of Richard the Second to that Vniversity The Seventh was the Power of Discommoning But this also hath ever been in Power and in Usage in that Vniversity as is commonly known to all Oxford-Men And no longer since than King James his time Bishop King then Vice-Chancellor Discommuned Three or Four Towns-Men together Next That Students were bound to go to Prison upon the Vice-Chancellors or Proctors Command This also was Ancient and long before my coming to the Vniversity And your Lordships may be sure the Delegacy appointed by themselves would not have admitted it had it not been Ancient and Usual Lastly about the stay of granting Graces unless there were Testimony from the Bishop of the Diocess This was for no Graces but of such as Live not Resident in the Vniversity and so they could not judge of their Manners and Conversation And for their Conformity to the Church of England none as I conceive can be a fitter Witness than the Bishop of the Diocess in which they resided And my Lords for all these thus drawn up by some of their own Body I obtained of his Majesty his Broad Seal for Confirmation And therefore no one thing in them is by any Assumption of Papal Power as 't is urged but by the King's Power only Then followed the Seventh Charge about the Statutes of some Cathedral Churches First my Lords for this I did it by Letters-Patents from the King bearing Date Mar. 31. Decimo Caroli and is extant upon Record And all that was done was Per Juris Remedia and so nothing intended against Law nor done that I know They had extream need of Statutes for all lay loose for want of confirmation and Men did what they listed And I could not but observe it for I was Dean of Gloucester where I found it so In seeking to remedy this I had nothing but my Labour for my Pains and now this Accusation to Boot The Particulars urged are That I had Ordered that nothing should be done in these Statutes Me inconsulto And I had great Reason for it For since I was principally trusted in that work by his Majesty the King if any Complaint were made would expect the account from me And how could I give it if other Men might do all and I not be so much as consulted before they passed 2. That I made a Statute against letting Leases into three Lives But first my Lords the Statute which makes it lawful to let Leases for One and Twenty Years or three Lives hath this limitation in it that they shall not let for any more Years than are limited by the said Colleges or Churches Now in Winchester Church and some other the old local Statute is most plain that they shall let no Lease into Lives Let the Dean and Prebendaries Answer their own Acts and their Consciences as they can And in those Statutes which I did not find pregnant to that purpose I did not make the Statute absolute but left them free to renew all such Leases as were Anciently in Lives before And this give me leave to say to your Lordships without offence If but a few more Leases be granted into Lives no Bishop nor Cathedral Church shall be able to subsist And this is
Articles Which follow in haec Verba The Eighth Article 8. That for the better advancing of his Trayterous Purpose and Design 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 other his Majesty's Subjects whereby he did procure to himself the Nomination of sundry Persons to Ecclesiastical Dignities Promotions and Benefices belonging to his Majesty and divers of the Nobility Clergy and others and hath taken upon him the commendation of Chaplains to the King by which means he hath preferred to his Majesty's Service and to other great Promotions in the Church such as have been Popishly affected or otherwise Vnsound and Corrupt both in Doctrine and Manners The Ninth Article 9. He hath for the same Trayterous and Wicked intent chosen and imployed such Men to be his Chaplains whom he knew to be Notoriously disaffected to the Reformed Religion grosty addicted to Popish Superstition and Erroneous and Vnsound both in Judgment and Practice and to them or some of them he hath committed the Licensing of Books to be Printed by which means divers False and Superstitious Books have been Published to the great Scandal of Religion and to the 〈◊〉 of many of his Majesty's Subjects The Fourteenth Day of my Hearing At the ending of the former days Charge I was put off to this day which held The First Charge was concerning Mr. Damport's leaving his Benefice in London and going into Holland 1. The First Witness for this was Quaterman a bitter Enemy of mine God forgive him He speaks as if he had fled from his Ministry here for fear of me But the Second Witness Mr. Dukeswell says that he went away upon a Warrant that came to Summon him into the High Commission The Truth is my Lords and 't is well known and to some of his best Friends that I preserved him once before and my Lord Veer came and gave me Thanks for it If after this he fell into danger again Majus Peccatum habet I cannot preserve Men that will continue in dangerous courses He says farther and in this the other Witness agrees with him That when I heard he was gone into New-England I should say my Arm should reach him there The Words I remember not But for the thing I cannot think it fit that any Plantation should secure any Offender against the Church of England And therefore if I did say my Arm should reach him or them so offending I know no Crime in it so long as my Arm reached no Man but by the Law 2. The Second Witness Mr. Dukeswell adds nothing to this but that he says Sir Maurice Abbot kept him in before For which Testimony I thank him For by this it appears that Mr. Damport was a dangerous Factious Man and so accounted in my Predecessor's Time and it seems Prosecuted then too that his Brother Sir Maurice Abbot was fain being then a Parishioner of his to labour hard to keep him in The Second Charge was concerning Nathaniel Wickens a Servant of Mr. Pryns 1. The First Witness in this Cause was William Wickens Father to Nathaniel He says his Son was Nine Weeks in divers Prisons and for no Cause but for that he was Mr. Pryn's Servant But it appears apud Acta that there were many Articles of great Misdemeanour against him And afterwards himself adds That he knew no Cause but his refusing to take the Oath Ex Officio Why but if he knew that then he knew another Cause beside his being Mr. Pryn's Servant Unless he will say all Mr. Pryn's Servants refuse that Oath and all that refuse that Oath are Mr. Pryn's Servants As for the Sentence which was laid upon him and the Imprisonment that was the Act of the High-Commission not mine Then he says That my Hand was first in the Warrant for his Commitment And so it was to be of course 2. The Second Witness was Sarah Wayman She says that he refused to take the Oath Therefore he was not committed for being Mr. Pryn's Servant She says that for refusing the Oath he was threatned he should be taken pro Confesso And that when one of the Doctors replyed that could not be done by the Order of the Court I should say I would have an Order by the next Court Day 'T is manifest in the Course of that Court that any Man may be taken pro Confesso that will not take the Oath and answer Yet seeing how that party of Men prevailed and that one Doctors doubting might breed more Difference to the great Scandal and Weakning of that Court I publickly acquainted his Majesty and the Lords with it Who were all of Opinion that if such Refusers might not be taken pro Confesso the whole Power of the Court was shaken And hereupon his Majesty sent his Letter under his Signet to command us to uphold the Power of the Court and to proceed She says farther that he desired the sight of his Articles which was denyed him It was the constant and known Course of that Court that he might not see the Articles till he had taken the Oath which he refused to do 3. The Third Witness was one Flower He agrees about the business of taking him pro Confesso But that 's answerd He adds that there was nothing laid to his Charge and yet confesses that Wickens desired to see the Articles that were against him This is a pretty Oath There were Articles against him which he desired to see and yet there was nothing laid to his Charge 4. Then was produced his Majesty's Letter sent unto us And herein the King requires us by his Supream Power Ecclesiastical to proceed c. We had been in a fine case had we disobeyed this Command Besides my Lords I pray mark it we are enjoyned to proceed by the King 's Supream Power Ecclesiastical and yet it is here urged against me that this was done to bring in Popery An Excellent new way of bringing in Popery by the King's Supremacy Yea but they say I should not have procured this Letter Why I hope I may by all Lawful ways preserve the Honour and just Power of the Court in which I sat And 't is expressed in the Letter that no 〈◊〉 was done than was agreeable to the Laws and Customs of the Realm And 't is known that both an Oath and a taking pro Confesso in point of refusal are used both in the Star-Chamber and in the Chancery 5. The last Witness was Mr. Pryn who says That his Man was not suffered to come to him during his Soarness when his ears were Cropped This Favour should have been asked of the Court of Star-Chamber not of me And yet here is no Proof that I denyed him this but the bare Report of him whom he says he employed Nor do I remember any Man's coming to me about it The Third Charge followed it was concerning stopping of Book
to that which should be his Quiet the Grave 7. The Seventh was Arch-Bishop Neile a Man well known to be as true to and as stout for the Church of England established by Law as any Man that came to Preferment in it Nor could his great Enemy Mr. Smart say any thing now against him but a Hearsay from one Dr. Moor of Winchester And I cannot but profess it grieves me much to hear so many Honest and Worthy Men so used when the Grave hath shut up their Mouths from answering for themselves 8. The next was Dr Cosin to be Dean of Peterborough I named Four of his Majesty's Chaplains to him as he had Commanded me And the King pitched upon Dr. Cosens in regard all the Means he then had lay in and about Duresm and was then in the Scots Hands so that he had nothing but Forty Pound a Year by his Headship in Peter-House to maintain himself his Wife and Children 9. The Ninth was Dr. Potter a known Arminian to the Deanery of Worcester What Proof of this Nothing but the Docket And what of the Crime Nothing but Dr. Featly's Testimony who says no more but this That Dr. Potter was at first against Arminianism that 's Absolute But afterwards he defended it as he hath heard there 's a Hearsay 10. The Tenth was Dr Baker 11. The Eleventh Dr Weeks Both very Honest and Able Men but Preferred by their own Lord the Lord Bishop of London 12. The Twelfth was Dr Bray He had been my Chaplain above Ten Years in my House I found him a very Able and an Honest Man and had reason to Prefer him to be able to Live well and I did so Here is nothing objected against him but his Expungings and not Expungings of some Books which if he were Living I well hope he would be able to give good Account for 13. The Thirteenth Dr Heylin He is known to be a Learned and an Able Man but for his Preferment both to be his Majesty's Chaplain and for that which he got in that Service he owes it under God to the Memory of the Earl of Danby who took care of him in the University 14. After these they named some whom they said I preferred to be the King's Chaplains The Witness here Mr. Oldsworth the Lord Chamberlain's Secretary He says the Power and Practice of naming Chaplains was in the Lord Chamberlain for these 25. Years And I say 't is so still for ought I know He says that in all things concerning which the Lord Chamberlain's Warrant went in this Form These are to will and require you c. that there his Lordship did it without consulting the King and that the Warrant for Chaplains run all in this Form First this is more than I know or ever heard of till now Secondly be it so yet 't is hard to deny the King to hear Men Preach before they be sworn his Chaplains if his Majesty desire it since it argues a great care in the King especially in such a Factious time as began to overlay this Church Thirdly he confesses that he knows not who put the King upon this way but believes that I did it He is single and his belief only is no Evidence And whosoever gave the King that Advice deserved very well both of his Majesty and the Church of England That none might be put about him in that Service but such as himself should approve of But that which troubled this Witness was another thing He had not Money for every one that was made Chaplain nor Money to get them a Month to wait in nor Money to change their Month if it were inconvenient for their other Occasions nor Money for sparing their Attendance when they pleased In which and other things I would he had been as careful of his Lord's Honour as I have been in all things For 't is well known in Court I observed his Lordship as much as any Man The Men which are instanced in are Dr Heylin But he was preferred to that Service by my Lord the Earl of Danby Then Dr. Potter But the Lord Keeper Coventry was his means Dr. Cosens was preferred by Bishop Neile whose Chaplain he had been many Years and he moved the Lord Chamberlain for it Dr Lawrence was my Lord Chamberlain's own Chaplain and preferred by himself and in all likelyhood by Mr. Oldsworth's means For he was Fellow of Magdalen College in Oxford as Mr. Oldsworth himself was and he once to my Knowledge had a great Opinion of him Dr. Haywood indeed was my Chaplain but I preferred him not to his Majesty till he had Preached divers times in Court with great Approbation nor then but with my Lord Chamberlain's Love and Liking As for Dr. Pocklington I know not who recommended him nor is there any Proof offered that I did it 15. Then they proceeded to my own Chaplains They name Four of them First Dr. Weeks But he was never in my House never medled with the Licensing of any Books till he was gone from me to the Bishop of London So he is charged with no Fault so long as he was mine The Second Dr Haywood But he is charged with nothing but Sales which was a most desperate Plot against him as is before shewed The Third was Dr. Martin Against him came Mr. Pryn for his Arminian Sermon at S. Pauls Cross. But that 's answered before And Mr. Walker who said he proposed Arminian Questions to divers Ministers Belike such as were to be examined by him But he adds as these Ministers told him So 't is but a Hear-say And say he did propose such Questions may it not be fit enough to try how able they were to answer them The Fourth was Dr. Bray Against him Dr. Featly was again produced for that which he had expunged out of his Sermons But when I saw this so often inculcated to make a noise I humbly desired of the Lords that I might ask Dr. Featly one Question Upon leave granted I asked him Whether nothing were of late expunged out of a Book of his written against a Priest and desired him to speak upon the Oath he had taken He answered roundly that divers passages against the Anabaptists and some in defence of the Liturgy of the Church of England were expunged I asked by whom He said by Mr. Rouse and the Committee or by Mr. Rouse or the Committee Be it which it will I observed to the Lords that Mr. Rouse and the Committee might expunge Passages against the Anabaptists nay for the Liturgy established by Law but my Chaplains may not expunge any thing against the Papists though perhaps mistaken From thence they fell upon Men whom they said I had preferred to Benefices They named but Two Dr Heylin was one again whom I preferred not The other was Dr Jackson the late President of Corpus Christi College in Oxford Dr Featly being produced said Dr Jackson was a known Arminian If so to him 't is well The Man
own Innocency I would desert my Defence before I would indure such Language in such an Honourable Presence Hereupon some Lords shewed their dislike and wished him to leave and pursue the Evidence Mr. Brown in summing up the Charge made this a great matter The denial of the Pope to be Antichrist But I did not deny it nor declare any Opinion of my own And many Protestants and those very Learned are of Opinion that he is not 'T is true I did not I cannot approve foul Language in Controversies Nor do I think that the calling of the Pope Antichrist did ever yet Convert an Understanding Papist And sure I am Gabriel Powel's Peremptoriness to say no worse in this Point did the Church of England no Good no Honour in Foreign parts For there he affirms That he is as certain that the Pope is Antichrist as that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Redeemer of the World As for the thing it self I left it free to all Men to think as their Judgment guided them As appears by the Licensing of Dr. Featly's Sermons where he proves the Pope in his Opinion to be Antichrist Where he calls him also the Whore of Babylon Which surely I should never have suffer'd to be Printed had I been her Pander And for Bishop Hall I only told him what King James had said and left him to make what use he pleased of it The Third Charge was out of a Paper which Bishop Hall about the time when he wrote his Book in defence of Episcopacy sent unto me containing divers Propositions concerning Episcopal Government In which either he or I or both say for that Circumstance I remember not That Church-Government by Bishops is not alterable by Humane Law To this I answer'd that Bishops might be regulated and limited by Human Laws in those things which are but Incidents to their Calling But their Calling so far as it is Jure Divino by Divine Right cannot be taken away They charge farther that I say this is the Doctrine of the Church of England And so I think it is For Bishop Bilson set out a Book in the Queen's time Intituled The Perpetual Government And if the Government by Bishops be Perpetual as he there very Learnedly proves thorough the whole Book it will be hard for any Christian Nation to out it Nor is this his Judgment alone but of the whole Church of England For in the Preface to the Book of Ordination are these words From the Apostles time there have been three Orders of Ministers in the Church of Christ Bishops Priests and Deacons Where 't is evident that in the Judgment of the Church of England Episcopacy is a different not Degree only but Order from Priesthood and so hath been reputed from the Apostles times And this was then Read to the Lords And the Law of England is as full for it as the Church For the Statute in the eighth of the Queen absolutely confirms all and every part of this Book of Ordination Where also the Law calls it The high Estate of Prelacy And Calvin if my old Memory do not fail me upon those words of St. John As my Father sent me so send I you c. says thus upon that place Eandem illis imponit Personam ac idem Juris assignat And if our Saviour Christ put the same Person upon the Apostles and assigned to them the same Right which his Father gave him it will prove a sour work to throw their Successors the Bishops out of the Church after Sixteen Hundred Years continuance And in the mean time cry out against Innovation For either Christ gave this Power to his Apostles only and that will make the Gospel a Thing Temporary and confined to the Apostles Times Or else he gave the same Power though not with such Eminent Gifts to their Successors also to propagate the same Gospel to the end of the World as St. Paul tells us he did Ephes. 4. Now all the Primitive Church all along gives Bishops to be the Apostles Successors and then it would be well thought on what Right any Christian State hath be their Absolute Power what it will to turn Bishops out of that Right in the Church which Christ hath given them The Fourth Charge was an Alteration made in a Brief for a third Collection for the distressed Ministers and others in the Palatinat The Queen of Bohemia was pleased to do me the Honour to write to me about this and because two Collections had been before her Majesty desired that this third might be only in London and some few Shires about it I out of my desire to relieve those distressed Protestants and to express my Duty to the Queen became an humble Suitor to his Majesty that this Collection also might go thorough England as the rest had done And 't is acknowledged by all that this I did Now the Witnesses which Accuse me for some Circumstances in this business are two 1. The First is Mr. Wakerly He says that Mr. Ruly who was employed by the Queen of Bohemia about this Collection was roughly used by me upon occasion of this Clause put into the Brief and which he says I caused to be altered This first is a bold Oath for Mr. Wakerly was not present but Swears upon Hearsay Secondly what kindness I shewed him and the Business is mentioned before and if for this kindness he had been practising with Mr. Wakerly about the Brief as I had probable Reason to suspect I cannot much be blamed if I altered my Countenance towards him and my Speech too which yet these Witnesses for the other agrees in this have no Reason to call rough Carriage only upon Mr. Ruly's unthankful Report He says That these words the Antichristian Yoak were 〈◊〉 out First this is more than I remember and the Briefs I had not to compare nor is there any necessity that two Briefs coming for the same thing with some Years distance between should agree in every Phrase or Circumstance Secondly if I did except against this passage it was partly because of the fore-recited Judgment of King James of which I thought his Son King Charles ought to be tender And partly because it could move nothing but Scorn in the common Adversary that we should offer to determine such a Controversie by a Broad Seal I remember well since I had the Honour to sit in this House the naming of Tithes to be due Jure Divino cast out the Bill A Prudent Lord asking the Peers whether they meant to determine that question by an Act of Parliament The other part of the Clause which they say was altered was the Religion which we with them profess Whence they infer because with them was left out that I would not acknowledge them of the same Religion which follows not For we may be and are of the same Religion and yet agree not with them in those Opinions in
promised to take all into Consideration And so I was dismissed Sine Die But here I may not go off from this Dream so since Mr. Pryn hath Printed it at the end of my Diary Where he shamelesly says This Dream was Attested from my own Mouth at my Tryal in the Lords House For I have set down all that pass'd exactly Nor did I then give any Attestation to it only before I could gather up my self to Answer the Earl of Pembroke in a fitting manner and not to hurt my self Mr. Nicolas fell upon me with that Unchristian bitterness as diverted me from the Earl to Answer him But once for all and to satisfie any Man that desires it That is all true which I have here set down concerning this Dream and upon my Christianity and hope of future Salvation I never had this Dream nor any like it nor did I ever tell it this Lord or any other any other way than in Relation to Badger and Pryn as is before related And surely if I had had such a Dream I should not have had so little Discretion as to tell it any Man least of all to pour it into that Sieve the Earl of Pembroke For that which follows and wherein his Charity and Words are almost the same with those of Mr. Nicolas I give him the same Answer and forgiving him all his most Unchristian and Insatiable Malice against me leave my self in the Hands of God not in his I Received an Order from the Lords that if I had a mind to make a Recapitulation as I had formerly desired of my long and various Charge I should provide my self for it against Munday next this Order came upon Friday and that I should give in my Answer the next Morning what I meant to do The next day in Obedience to this Order I gave in my Answer which was Humble Thanks that I might have liberty to make it referring the day to their Honourable Consideration with this that Munday next was a very short time for such a Collection Upon this Answer an Order was presently made that I should provide to make my Recapitulation upon Munday September the Second And about this time the certain day I know not it was Resolved in the House of Commons that according to my Plea I should enjoy the benefit of the Act of Oblivion and not be put to Answer the Thirteenth Original Article concerning the Scottish Business And truly I bless God for it I did not desire the benefit of that Act for any Sense of Guiltiness which I had in my self but in Consideration of the Times and the Malice of the now Potent Faction which being implacable towards me I could not think it Wisdom to lay by any such Power as might help to secure me Yet in the former part of this History when I had good Reason to think I should not be called to Answer such General Articles I have set down my Answer to each of them as much as Generals can be Answer'd And thereby I hope my Innocency will appear to this Thirteenth Article also Then came Munday Sept. 2. and according to the Order of the Lords I made the Recapitulation of my whole Cause in matters of greatest Moment in this form following But so soon as I came to the Bar I saw every Lord present with a New Thin Book in Folio in a blue Coat I heard that Morning that Mr. Pryn had Printed my Diary and Published it to the World to disgrace me Some Notes of his own are made upon it The first and the last are two desperate Untruths beside some others This was the Book then in the Lords Hands and I assure my self that time picked for it that the sight of it might damp me and disinable me to speak I confess I was a little troubled at it But after I had gathered up my self and looked up to God I went on to the Business of the Day and thus I spake CAP. XLIII My Recapitulation Mr. Lords my Hearing began March 12. 1643 4. and continued to the end of July In this time I was heard before your Lordships with much Honour and Patience Twenty Days and sent back without Hearing by reason of your Lordships greater Employments Twelve Days The rest were taken up with providing the Charge against me And now my Lords being come near an end I am by your Grace and Favour and the leave of these Gentlemen of the Honourable House of Commons to represent to your Lordships and your Memories a brief Summ of my Answers to this long and various Charge In which I shall not only endeavour but perform also all possible Brevity And as with much Thankfulness I acknowledge my self bound to your Lordships for your Patience So I cannot doubt but that I shall be as much obliged for your Justice in what I am innocent from Crime and for your Clemency in what the common Frailty of Mankind hath made me Err. And I Humbly desire your Lordships to look upon the whole Business with Honourable Care of my Calling of my Age of my long Imprisonment of my Sufferings in my Estate and of my Patience in and through this whole Affliction The Sequestration having been upon my Estate above Two Years In which notwithstanding I may not omit to give Thanks for the Relief which my Petitions found for my present necessities in this time of my Hearing at your Honourable Hands 1. First then I humbly desire your Lordships to remember the generality and by occasion of that the incertainty of almost every Article charged upon me which hath cast me into great streights all along in making my Defence 2. Next That your Lordships will be pleased to consider what a short space upon each Days Hearing hath been allowed me to make my Answer to the many Charges in each several Day laid against me Indeed some Days scarce time enough to peruse the Evidence much less to make and then to review and weigh my Answers Especially considering to my greatest Grief that such a Charge should be brought up against me from so Great and Honourable a Body as the Commons of England In regard of which and all other sad Occasions I at first did and do still in all Humility desire that in all Particulars concerning Law my Councel may be heard before your Lordships proceed to Sentence and that a Day may be assigned for my Councel accordingly 3. Thirdly I heartily pray also that it may be taken into your Honourable Consideration how I have all manner of ways been sifted to the very Bran for that what e're it amounts to which stands in Charge against me 1 The Key and use of my Study at Lambeth Books and Papers taken from me 2 A Search upon me at the Tower made by Mr. Pryn and One and Twenty Bundles of Papers prepared for my Defence taken from me and not Three Bundles restored to me again This Search made before any Particular Articles
a Monster in Nature in Morality and in Law and if it be nourished will devour all the Safety of the Subject of England which now stands so well fenced by the known Law of the Land And therefore I humbly desire your Lordships not for mine but for the Publick's sake to weigh this Business well before this Gap be made so wide as there will hardly be Power left again to shut it 2. My Second Reason is joined to the Answer of an Objection For when this Result was spoken of it was added That the Particulars charged against me are of the same kind and do all tend to the Subversion of Law and Religion and so become Treason But first suppose that all the Particulars charged do tend to the subversion of Law yet that cannot make them to be all of one kind For all Crimes tend more or less to the Overthrow of Vertue yet no Man can say that all Crimes are of the same kind Secondly be they of the same or different kinds yet neither all nor any of these charged against me do tend to the subversion of the Law For 't is one thing to break dislike or speak against some particular Laws and quite another to labour the Subversion of the whole Body of the Law and the Frame of Government And that I have done this by Conspiracy or Force or any overt Action is not so much as offered in proof And for the breach of any particular Law if I be guilty I am to be punished by the Sanction of that Law which I have broken 3. Thirdly Whereas it hath been said That many Actions of the same kind make a Habit. That 's true But what then For first the Actions urged against me are not of the same kind but exceeding different Secondly if the Habit be Treasonable then all those particular Actions which bred that Habit must be several Treasons as well as the Result or Habit it self whereas it hath been granted all along that my particular Actions are not Treasons And thirdly a Habit in it self neither is nor can be Treason for all Treason is either Thought Word or Overt Act but no Habit is either of these Therefore not Treason For a Habit is that in the Soul which enclines the Powers of it and makes a Man apt and ready to think speak or do that to which he is habituated So an ill Habit against Soveraign Power may make a Man apt and forward to fall into Treason but Treason it is not 4. Fourthly Nor can this Result be Treason at the Common Law by which alone I conceive there is no Treason at all at this day in England For the main end of that excellent Statute of 25 Edw. 3. was for the Safety of the Subject against the manifold Treasons which variously fell upon them by the Common Law and bounded all Treasons and limited them to the things expressed to be Treason in and by that Statute And in all times of difficulty since recourse hath still been had to that Statute And to that Statute I refer my self with this That this Result must be something within this Statute or some other known Statute or else it cannot be Treason And no Proof at all hath been so much as offered that this Result is Treason by any Law My Lords I do with all humble submission desire That when the Reply is made to this matter of Fact a Day may be assigned for my Councel to be heard in matter of Law in all and every Particular which they shall find necessary for my just Defence And now my Lords I do in all Humility lay my self low at God's Mercy-seat to do with me as he pleases and under God I shall rely upon your Lordships Justice Honour and Clemency of which I cannot doubt And without being farther tedious to your Lordships who have with very Honourable Patience heard me through this long and tedious Tryal I shall conclude with that which St. Augustine said to Romanianus a Man that had tryed both Fortunes as well as I If the Providence of God reaches down to us as most certain it doth Sic tecum agi oportet sicut agitur It must so be done with thee and so with me also as it is done And under that Providence which will I doubt not work to the best to my Soul that loves God I repose my self Here ended my Recapitulation and with it the Work of that Day And I was ordered to appear again the Saturday following to hear Mr Brown Sum up the whole Charge against me But upon Tuesday Septemb 3 this was put off to give Mr Brown more time to Wednesday Septemb 11. On Wednesday Septemb 4. as I was washing my Face my Nose bled and something plentifully which it had not done to my remembrance in forty Years before save only once and that was just the same Day and Hour when my most Honourable Friend the Lord Duke of Buckingham was killed at Portsmouth my self being then at Westminster And upon Friday as I was washing after Dinner my Nose bled again I thank God I make no superstitious Observation of this or any thing else yet I have ever used to mark what and how any thing of note falls to me And here I after came to know that upon both these Days in which I bled there was great agitation in the House of Commons to have me Sentenced by Ordinance but both times put off in regard very few of that House had heard either my Charge or Defence CAP. XLIV ON Wednesday September 11. Mr. Brown made in the Lords House a Summ or Brief of the Charge which was brought against me and touched by the way at some things in my Recapitulation But in regard I might not Answer him I took no perfect Notes but stood still and possessed my Soul in Patience yet wondring at the bold free frequent and most false Swearing that had been against me When Mr. Brown had ended I humbly desired again that my Councel might be heard in Point of Law And they were hereupon Ordered to deliver in Writing under their Hands what Points of Law they would insist upon and that by Saturday September 14. This day my Councel according as they were Ordered delivered into the Lords House these two Points following by way of Question First Whether in all or any the Articles charged against me there be contained any Treason by the Established Laws of this Kingdom Secondly Whether the Charge of the said Impeachment and Articles did contain such Certainty and Particularity as is required by Law in a Case where Treason is charged This day I Petitioned the Lords that my Councel might have access to and take Copies of all such Records as they thought necessary for my Defence which was Granted and Order'd accordingly My Councel's Quaeries having been formerly sent down to the House of Commons they were there referred to a Committee of Lawyers to
consider of and on September 27. Friday they were earnestly called upon to hasten their Report And on Friday Octob. 4. Mr. Nicolas made a great noise about me in the House and would have had me presently Censured in the House and no less would serve his turn but that I must be Hanged and was at Sus. per Coll. till upon the Reasons before given that if they went on this way they must Condemn me unheard this violent Clamour ceased for that time And a Message was sent up to the Lords for my Councel to be heard as touching the first Question concerning Treason but not concerning any Exception that they shall take against the Articles in point of certainty This Message the Lords took into present Consideration and Order'd it accordingly And appointed the Friday following being Octob. 11. for my Councel to be Heard and my Self to be present This day according to this Order of the Lords I and my Councel attended My Councel were Mr. Hern and Mr. Hales of Lincolns-Inn and Mr. Gerrard of Grays-Inn When we were called into the House and the Lords setled in their places Mr. John Hern who was the Man that spake what all had resolved on delivered his Argument very freely and stoutly proving that nothing which I have either said or done according to this Charge is Treason by any known Established Law of this Kingdom The Argument follows in these words according to the Copy which Mr. Hern himself delivered me My Lords THE Work of this Day we humbly conceive is in many respects of very great and high Concernment 1. In that it concerns Matter of Life a Thing of the highest Consequence 2. The Life of an Arch-Bishop a Person who had attained the highest Dignity conferred in the Church of England 3. Those Happy Laws many Years since Enacted and Confirmed by several Parliaments to be the Boundaries what was Treason a Crime before so various as it had no Bounds and so Odious that the punishment of it was an Infamous Death a total Confiscation with a Brand of Infamy to all Posterity 4. In that the Charge against him moves from no less a Body than the whole Commons of England which presents him now a Prisoner at this Bar before your Lordships in the High and Supream Court of Judicature in Parliament And if any thing shall fall from us subject to any doubtful Construction we shall humbly crave your Lordships Pardon and Leave to make our Explication For as there is upon us a Duty to be wary not to offer any thing which may minister just Offence so neither may we be unfaithful to omit what may justly tend to our Client's Defence The Charge against him we find to be made up of two several parcels of Articles Exhibited by the Honourable House of Commons 1. The First in Maintenance of their Accusation whereby he stands charged with High Treason 2. The latter Intituled farther Articles of Impeachment of High Treason and divers high Crimes and Misdemeanours for all which Matters and Things they have Impeached him of High Treason and other high Crimes and Misdemeanours tending to the Subversion of Religion Laws and Liberties and to the utter Ruine of this Church and Common-wealth Concerning this Charge and the Arch-Bishop's Defence he hitherto made before your Lordships we by your Lordships Command Assigned his Councel neither have nor could by Reason of the mixt Charge without distinguishing what was thereby intended to be a Charge of Treason and what of Misdemeanour only be farther useful to him than to Advise the Form of his Plea and Answer which we received from him as to all the Matters of Fact to be a Not Guilty We have not in all or any the Facts Charged or Evidenced against him in any sort intermedled But the same how proved and how appliable to the Charges without mention of any of them shall wholly leave to your Lordships Notes and Memories What Defence he hath offered hitherto hath been wholly his own He without us in that and we without consulting him in the work of this day Wherein having received your Lordships Commands we did present in writing the Points in Law we then humbly conceived fit for us to insist upon I. Whether in all or any the Articles charged against him there was contained any Treason by the Established Laws of this Kingdom II. Whether the Charge of the said Impeachment and Articles did contain such certainty and particularity as is required by Law in a Case where Treason is charged But being enjoyned by your Honourable Order to speak only to the former We shall as in Duty becomes conform thereunto For our Method herein shall follow the course holden in the Reply made upon the whole Articles whereby we conceived the Charges contained in them were reduced to these three Generals 1. A Trayterous Endeavour to Subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Realm and instead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government against Law contained in the first Original and first Additional Articles 2. Secondly A Trayterous Endeavour to Subvert God's True Religion by Law Established and instead thereof to set up Popish Superstition and Idolatry this contained in the seventh Original and seventh Additional Articles 3. Thirdly That he 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 And this contained in the fourteenth Original and tenth Additional Articles All other the Articles we humbly conceive to be but Instances conducing and applied to some of those Generals Concerning those three General Heads of the Charge we shall crave leave to propose two Questions to be debated 1. Whether there be at this day any other Treason than what is Declared by the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. Cap. 2. or Enacted by some subsequent particular Statute which we humbly conceive and shall endeavour to satisfie your Lordships there is not any 2. Whether any the Matters in any of the Articles charged contain any of the Treasons declared by that Law or Enacted by any subsequent Law which we likewise conceive they do not And for the clearing of both these shall humbly insist That 1. An endeavour to Subvert the Laws An endeavour to Subvert Religion A labouring to Subvert the Rights of Parliaments Are not Treasons either within the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. or by any other particular Statute 2. That not any of the Particulars instanced in any other the Articles is a Treason within the Statute 25 Ed. 3. or any other Statute And to make good our Tenet upon our first Question shall humbly offer That before this Statute of 25 Ed. 3. Treasons at the Common Law were so general and uncertain that almost any Crime by Inferences and Constructions might be and was often extended to be a Treason in so much as we find in 22o. of the
was my Complaint general that my Papers were Seized but that the Papers prepared for my Defence were taken from me and not restored when I needed them and Petitioned for them He said my Third Complaint was That many of the Witnesses produced against me were Separatists I did indeed complain of this and I had abundant Cause so to do For there was scarce an active Separatist in England but some way or other his Influence was into this Business against me And whereas the Gentleman said the Witnesses were some Aldermen and some Gentlemen and Men of Quality That 's nothing for both Gentlemen and Aldermen and Men of all Conditions the more 's the pity as the Times now go are Separatists from the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England Established by Law And I would to God some of my Judges were not My Fourth Complaint he said was of the excessive Number of the Witnesses And he added that if I would not have so many Witnesses I should not have given occasion for it by Committing so many Crimes But First whether I have committed so many Crimes as are urged against me is yet in Question And Secondly 't is one thing to give Cause and another thing to give Occasion For an Occasion may be taken when 't is pretended as given And so I hope it will be found in my Case But the thing here mistaken is That these are all said to be Legal Witnesses whereas almost all of them have at some time or other been before me as their Judge either at Star-Chamber or Council-Table or High-Commission or as Referee And then I humbly desire it may be considered First how impossible it is for a Judge to please all Men. Secondly how improbable it is that Witnesses displeased should be indifferent in their Testimony And Thirdly how hard it is to convince a Man by such interessed Witnesses now upon the matter becoming Judges of him that Judged them And as S. Augustin speaks Quomodo potest how is it possible for one that is Contentious and Evil to speak well of his Judge From these Generals the Gentleman passed to the Particulars of the Charge and he caused the 7 8 9 10 11. Original Articles and the 7. Additional to be read That done he divided the Charge into two main Heads The one an Endeavour in me to subvert the Laws of the Kingdom And the other a like Endeavour to alter the true Protestant Religion into Popery The Evidence given in the Lords House began at the Laws and ended in Religion but this Gentleman in his Summ both there and here began with Religion and ended with the Laws The Charge concerning Religion he said would bear two Parts the Ceremonial and the Substantial part of Religion 1 And he professed he would begin at the Ceremonial where having First charged in general the Statute of the 3 and 4 of Ed. 6. 6. 10. for the destruction of Images he gave these particular Instances following to shew my Intention to alter Religion 1. The setting up of Coloured Glass with Pictures in the Windows of my Chappel the Communion-Table Altar-wise Candlesticks thereon with Reverence and Bowings 2. A Bible in my Study with the Five Wounds of Christ wrought upon the Cover in Needle-Work 3. Three Pictures in my Gallery The Ecce Homo the Four Latin Fathers and the History S John 10. of the True Shepherd entring in by the Door and the Thief by the Window 4. The Crucifix hung up in the Chappel at White-Hall on Good-Friday And what happened there upon Dr Brown's coming in and doing Reverence 5. The Copes and Bowings used in Cathedral Churches since my time 6. The Ceremonies used at his Majesty's Coronation 7. The Abuses in the Universities especially Oxford 1. The Titles given me from thence 2. Divers Particulars in the new Statutes 3. Images countenanced there by me in divers Chappels 4. The Picture of the Virgin Mary at S Mary's Church-Door 5. Nothing to be done without me in Congregations 8. The Ceremonies in some Parish-Churches and some punished for neglect of them Instances in some of Beckinton some of Lewis and in Mr Chancy of Ware 9. That I preferred no Men but such as were active for the Ceremonies 10. Passages expunged out of Books if contrary to these Courses as that in Dr. Featly's Sermons concerning Images 11. Bibles with Pictures in them 12. The severe Punishment of Mr. Workman of Gloucester only for a Sermon against Images 13. Words spoken to take Bishop Jewell's Works and the Book of Martyrs out of some Parish-Churches 14. The Consecration of Cree-Church and S. Giles in the Fields In all which as I humbly conceive here 's nothing especially my Answers being taken to them that can co-operate to any alteration of Religion Nor is there any Treason were all that is urged true 2 From hence Mr. Speaker this worthy Gentleman passed over from the Ceremonies to those things which he said concerned the Substance of Religion In which the Particulars which he Charged were these 1. A doubtfulness if not a denyal of the Pope's being Antichrist 2. Dislike of the Name the Idol of Rome 3. The alteration of some passages in the Publick Prayers appointed for Novemb. 5. and the Coronation Day 4. The Antichristian Yoak left out of the Brief for the Palatinat with an expression as if we and those Reformed Churches were not of the same Religion 5. That Men were punished for Praying for the Queen and the Prince 6. That the Church of Rome is a true Church 7. That the Communion-Table or Altar is the Chief Place For there 's Hoc est Corpus meum 8. Restraint of all Books against Popery Instances in a Book of Bishop Carleton's One tendred by Sir Edward Hungerford Dr. Clarke's Sermons Dr. Jones None called in but Sales That I my self did expunge some Passages out of a Sermon of Dr. Sibthorp's Popish Books seized re-delivered to the Owners That for these I must answer for my Chaplains since John Arch-Bishop of York was fined for his Commissary's Act against the Bishop of Durham who having a Patent could not so easily be put out of his Place as I might change my Chaplains 9. Three Ministers in my Diocess suspended for not reading the Book of Recreations on the Lord's Day 10. The Feoffment for buying in of Impropriations overthrown to the hindrance of Preaching and Scandal to Religion 11. Incroachment upon the Lord Chamberlain for naming of Chaplains to the King and upon the Master of the Wards for giving of Benefices 12 Familiarity with Priests and Jesuits S. Clara and Monsieur S. Giles 13. The Testimonies of Mr. Challonor Sir Henry Mildmay and his Brother Mr. Anthony what Opinion was held of me beyond the Seas for my cunning introducing of Popery 14. That an Offer was made unto me to be a Cardinal And thus far this Gentleman proceeded in points of Religion But because there hath passed divers things done at
with that which they most feared And I pray God this Clamour of venient Romani of which I have given no cause help not to bring them in For the Pope never had such an Harvest in England since the Reformation as he hath now upon the Sects and Divisions that are amongst us In the mean time by Honour and Dishonour by good Report and evil Report as Deceivers and yet true am I passing through this World 2 Cor. 6. 8. Some Particulars also I think it not amiss to speak of And First this I shall be bold to speak of the King our Gracious Soveraign He hath been much traduced also for bringing in of Popery but in my Conscience of which I shall give God a very present Account I know him to be as free from this Charge as any Man living and I hold him to be as sound a Protestant according to the Religion by Law Established as any Man in this Kingdom and that he will venture his Life as far and as freely for it And I think I do or should know both his Affection to Religion and his Grounds for it as fully as any Man in England The Second Particular is concerning this great and Populous City which God bless Here hath been of late a Fashion taken up to gather Hands and then go to the great Court of this Kingdom the Parliament and Clamour for Justice as if that Great and Wise Court before whom the Causes come which are unknown to many could not or would not do Justice but at their appointment A way which may endanger many an Innocent Man and pluck his Blood upon their own Heads and perhaps upon the City 's also and this hath been lately practised against my self the Magistrates standing still and suffering them openly to proceed from Parish to Parish without any Check God forgive the Setters of this with all my Heart I beg it but many well-meaning People are caught by it In St. Stephen's Case when nothing else would serve they stirred up the People against him And Herod went the same way when he had killed St. James Yet he would not venture on St. Peter till he found how the other Pleased the People But take heed of having your Hands full of Blood for there is a time best known to himself when God above other Sins makes Inquisition for Blood and when that Inquisition is on foot the Psalmist tells us that God remembers that 's not all he remembers and forgets not the Complaint of the Poor That is whose Blood is shed by Oppression ver 9. Take heed of this It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God but then especially when he is making Inquisition for Blood And with my Prayers to avert it I do heartily desire this City to remember the Prophesie that is expressed Jer. 26. 15. The Third Particular is the Poor Church of England It hath Flourished and been a shelter to other Neighbouring Churches when Storms have Driven upon them But alas now it is in a Storm it self and God only knows whether or how it shall get out And which is worse than the Storm from without it is become like an Oak cleft to Shivers with Wedges made out of it 's own Body and at every Cleft Profaneness and Irreligion is entring in while as Prosper speaks in his Second Book de Contemptu Vitae cap. 4. Men that introduce Profaneness are Cloaked over with the Name Religionis imaginariae of Imaginary Religion For we have lost the Substance and dwell too much in Opinion And that Church which all the Jesuites Machinations could not Ruine is fallen into Danger by her own The last Particular for I am not willing to be too long is my self I was Born and Baptized in the Bosom of the Church of England Established by Law in that profession I have ever since lived and in that I come now to Die This is no time to dissemble with God least of all in matters of Religion And therefore I desire it may be remembred I have always lived in the Protestant Religion established in England and in that I come now to Die What Clamours and Slanders I have endured for labouring to keep an Uniformity in the external Service of God according to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church all Men know and I have abundantly felt Now at last I am Accused of High-Treason in Parliament a Crime which my Soul ever abhorred This Treason was Charged to consist of two Parts An Endeavour to subvert the Laws of the Land and a like Endeavour to overthrow the true Protestant Religion Established by Law Besides my Answers to the several Charges I protested my Innocency in both Houses It was said Prisoners Protestations at the Bar must not be taken I can bring no Witness of my Heart and the Intentions thereof therefore I must come to my Protestation not at the Bar but my Protestation at this Hour and Instant of my Death in which I hope all Men will be such Charitable Christians as not to think I would Die and Dissemble being Instantly to give God an Account for the Truth of it I do therefore here in the Presence of God and his Holy Angels take it upon my Death that I never Endeavoured the subversion of Law or Religion And I desire you all to remember this Protest of mine for my Innocency in this and from all Treasons whatsoever I have been Accused likewise as an Enemy to Parliaments No I understand them and the Benefit that comes by them too well to be so But I did mislike the Misgovernments of some Parliaments many ways and I had good Reason for it For Corruptio Optimi est Pessima there is no Corruption in the World so bad as that which is of the Best Thing within it self for the better the thing is in Nature the worse it is Corrupted And that being the Highest Court over which no other hath Jurisdiction when it is misinformed or misgoverned the Subject is left without all Remedy But I have done I forgive all the World all and every of those Bitter Enemies which have persecuted me and humbly desire to be forgiven of God First and then of every Man whether I have offended him or not if he do but conceive that I have Lord do thou forgive me and I beg forgiveness of him And so I heartily desire you to joyn in Prayer with me Which said with a distinct and audible Voice he Prayed as followeth O Eternal God and Merciful Father look down upon me in Mercy in the Riches and fulness of all thy Mercies look down upon me But not till thou hast nailed my Sins to the Cross of Christ not till thou hast bathed me in the Blood of Christ not till I have hid my self in the Wounds of Christ that so the Punishment due unto my Sins may pass over me And since thou art pleased to try me to the utmost
share therein as he could desire his Body being accompanied to the Earth with great Multitudes of People whom Love or Curiosity or remorse of Conscience had drawn together purposely to perform that Office and decently Interred in the Church of Alhallow Barking a Church of his own Patronage and Jurisdiction according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England In which it may be noted as a thing remarkable That being whilst he Lived the greatest Champion of the Common-Prayer-Book here by Law Established he had the Honour being Dead to be Buried by the Form therein prescribed after it had been long disused and almost reprobated in most Churches of London Hitherto Dr. Heylin The same day that the House of Lords passed the Ordinance of Attainder against the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury viz. Jan. 4. they likewise passed an Ordinance that the Book of Common-Prayer should be laid aside and for Establishing the Directory for Publick Worship which had been framed by the Assembly of Divines Rushworth par 3. vol. 2. pag. 839. H. W. On the Arch-Bishop's Coffin was nailed a little Brass-Plate with his Arms and this Inscription Engraven thereon In hac Cistuli conduntur Exuviae Gulielmi Laud Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis qui Securi percussus Immortalitatem adiit Die X. Januarij AEtatis suae LXXII Archiepiscopatûs XII In the Year 1663 his Body was removed from All-Hallows Church in London and being carried to Oxford was there Solemnly deposited July 24. in a little brick Vault near to the Altar of the Chappel in St. John Baptist's College The Arch-Bishop's Last Will and Testament In Dei Nomine Amen I William Laud by God's great Mercy and Goodness Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury being in perfect Health tho' at this time a Prisoner in the Tower of London God knows for what in due and serious Consideration of Humane Frailty do hereby Make Ordain and Declare this my Last Will and Testament in Manner and Form following And First in all Humility and Devotion of a contrite Heart I 〈◊〉 beg of God Pardon and Remission of all my Sins for and through the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ my alone Saviour And though I have been a most Prodigal Son yet my hope is in Christ that for his sake God my most merciful Creator will not cast off the Bowels of Compassion of a Father Amen Lord Jesus In this Hope and Confidence I render up my Soul with Comfort into the Mercies of God the Father through the Merits of God the Son in the Love of God the Holy Ghost And I humbly pray that most Blessed and Glorious Trinity One God to prepare me in that Hour of Dissolution and to make me wait every Moment when my Changing shall come and in my Change to receive me to that Rest which he prepared for all them that Love and Fear his Name So Amen Lord Jesu Amen Whomsoever I have in the least degree Offended I heartily ask God and him Forgiveness And whosoever hath Offended me I pray God forgive them and I do And I hope and pray that God will forgive me my many Great and Grievous Transgressions against him Amen For my Faith I Die as I have Lived in the True Orthodox Profession of the Catholick Faith of Christ foreshewed by the Prophets and Preached to the World by Christ himself his Blessed Apostles and their Successors and a True Member of his Catholick Church within the Communion of a Living part thereof the present Church of England as it stands Established by Law Secondly I leave my Body to the Earth whence it was taken in full assurance of the Resurrection of it from the Grave at the last day This Resurrection I constantly believe my Dear Saviour Jesus Christ will make happy unto me his poor and weary Servant And for my Burial tho' I stand not much upon the place yet if it conveniently may be I desire to be Buried in the Chappel of St. John Baptist's College in Oxford underneath the Altar or Communion-Table there And should I be so unhappy as to die a Prisoner yet my earnest desire is I may not be buried in the Tower But wheresoever my Burial shall be I will have it private that it may not waste any of the poor Means which I leave behind me to better Uses Thirdly For my Worldly Estate I Will that my Debts be presently paid which at this time I praise God are very small Then for St Paul's Church it grieves me to see it at such a stand And tho' I have besides my pains given largely towards it and the Repairs thereof yet I leave it a Blessing of 800 l. which will be truly paid in for that Work if ever it go on while the Party trusted with it lives But my Executors are not charged with this 't is in safe but other Hands Item I take the boldness to give to my Dread and Dear Soveraign King Charles whom God bless 1000 l. and I do forgive him the Debt which he owes me being 2000 l. and require that the Tallies for it be delivered up Item I give to St John's College in Oxford where I was bred all my Chappel-Plate gilt or party-gilt All my Chappel-Furniture all such Books as I have in my Study at the time of my Death which they have not in their Library and 500 l. in Money to be laid out upon Lands And I Will that the Rent of it shall be equally divided to every Fellow and Scholar alike upon the 17th day of October every fourth Year Something else I have done for them already according to my Ability And God's everlasting Blessing be upon that Place and that Society for ever I give to the Right Honourable George Lord Duke of Buckingham his Grace my Chalice and Patin of Gold and these I desire the young Duke to accept and use in his Chappel as the Memorial of him who had a Faithful Heart to love and the Honour to be beloved of his Father So God bless him with wise and good Counsels and a Heart to follow them By Father and Mother I never had Brother nor Sister but by my Mother many They were all Ancient to me and are Dead but I give to their Children as followeth Legacies To his Brother Dr Robinson's Children Scil Henry and John and Lucie and Elizabeth Wife to Dr Baily To Dr Cotsford Son of his Sister Amie To Dr Edward Layfield Son of his Sister Bridget To Eliz Holt Daughter of his Sister Bennet To William Bole Son of his Sister Elizabeth To his Sister Briget's Daughter Wife to Mr Snow To his Chaplains Rings rich or Watches To the Poor of several places he had reference to 5 l. each To Canterbury Lambeth and Croydon 10 l. each To the University of Oxford where I was Bred and to the Town of Reading where I was Born I have already in perpetuity as God hath made me able Item I give to so many of my Servants as did continue my Servants
till the time that the Storm fell on me as followeth Among the rest to Mr Cobb my Organ that is at Croydon my Harp my Chest of Viols and the Harpsichon that is at Lambeth The remainder of my Estate above that which is given or shall be added to this my Will I charge my Executor as he will Answer me at the Bar of Christ that he lay out upon Land as far as it will go and then settle it by some sure course in Law to such Uses and under the same Conditions as I have setled my Land at Bray upon the Town of Reading Of which 50 l. per Annum to be setled on the Town of Ockingham 50 l. on Henly upon Thames 50 l. on Wallingford and 50 l. on Windsor to the Uses aforesaid for ever If it rise to less that there be an even abatement to all these places But if it purchase more as says he it needs must if I be well dealt with all above 200 l. per Annum he gives to Dr Baily and his Son William after him and his Heirs for ever He held a Lease of Barton-Farm near Winchester of the Cathedral Church of Winchester taken in his Servant Richard Cobb's Name Rent 370 l. per Annum of which he gives during the Lease 50 l. per Annum to the City of Winchester for the binding out of Apprentices the rest to several Nephews and Servants And if says he the Cathedral Church of Winchester be suffered to enjoy its Lands I leave the power of renewing this Lease to Dr Richard Baily he paying Mr Rich. Cobb 100 l. for his pains taken for me in this Purchase c. Item I give to my Successor if the present Troubles in the State leave me any my Organ in the Chappel at Lambeth Provided that he leave it to the See for ever Likewise I give him my Barge and Furniture to it As for the Pictures in the Gallery at Lambeth I leave them to Succession as well those that I found there as those which I have added But in case the Arch-Bishoprick be dissolved as 't is threatned then I Will that my Executor add the Organ the Barge and such Pictures as are mine to my Estate that is if they escape Plundering Item I give to my Servant Mr R C besides what already 50 l. if he deal truly with my Estate By this Will I do revoke all former Wills and do charge my Executor as he will Answer me before Christ that he perform my Will punctually in all Particulars which the Rapine of the Time shall not have Plundered from him or the Violence of the Time over-ruled him Item I do lay upon Dr Baily above Named the charge of all my Papers and Paper-Books if they can escape the Violence of the Time And I give him an English Bible in 4to cover'd with Murry-leather in which are some brief Notes upon the Liturgy and a Note-Book in Folio in which is my Catalogue of Books in relation to my course of Study and my Directory to almost all my other Papers and Books All which Papers and Paper-Books I give him also But with this Proviso that he burn all that he thinks not fit to use himself that my Weakness whatever it be be not any Man's Scorn and my Diligence I am sure cannot Then he makes Dr Baily his sole Executor and gives him 200 l. for his pains But adds If he shall not be Living at the time of my Death or shall die before he make due Probat of this my Will then Mr John Robinson of London Merchant And if he die then Mr Edward Layfeild And if he die then Dr Tho Walker Master of Vniversity College And my express Will is that whatsoever my Estate amounts unto my Executor shall have no more of it than is particularly and by Name given him in this my Will And I do heartily pray my Executor to take care that my Book written against Mr Fisher the Jesuit may be Translated into Latin and sent abroad that the Christian World may know see and judge of my Religion And I give unto him that Translates it 100 l. He makes the Bishops Juxon Curle Wren and Duppa Overseers of his Will and gives them for their pains 10 l. apiece Thus I forgive all the World and heartily desire forgiveness of God and the World And so again commend and commit my Soul into the Hands of God the Father who gave it in the Merits and Mercies of my Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ who Redeemed it and in the Peace and Comfort of the Holy Ghost who Blessed it and in the Truth and Unity of his Holy Catholick Church and in the Communion of the Church of England as it yet stands Established by Law I most willingly leave the World being weary at the very Heart of the Vanities of it and of my own Sins many and great and of the grievous Distractions of the Church of Christ almost in all parts of Christendom Which Distractions God in his good time make up who well knows upon what many of them are grounded For the Mony to bear the Charge of those Legacies expressed in my Will and other Intendments I have for fear of the present Storm committed it to honest and I trust in God safe Hands And I doubt not but they will deliver the Mony in their several Custodies to my Executor for the Uses expressed But I forbear to Name them lest the same Storm should fall on them which hath driven me out of all I have considerable in my own Possession c. Jan 13 Anno 1643. Probat 8 Jan 1661. by Dr Baily Several Passages of Arch-Bishop Laud's Conference with Fisher the Jesuit 〈◊〉 Londin 1639. Fol. referred to in the preceding History I. Pag. 211. IN some Kingdoms there are divers Businesses of greatest Consequence which cannot be finally and bindingly ordered but in and by Parliament And particularly the Statute-Laws which must bind all the Subjects cannot be made and ratified but there And again as the Supreme Magistrate in the State Civil may not abrogate the Laws made in Parliament though he may dispense with the Sanction or Penalty of the Law quoad hic nunc as the Lawyers speak II. Pag. 171. John Capgrave one of your own and Learned for those Times and long before him William of Malmesbury tells us that Pope Vrban the Second at the Council held at Bari in Apulia accounted my worthy Predecessor S. Anselm as his own Compeer and said he was as the Apostolick and Patriarch of the other World So he then termed this Island Now the Britains having a Primate of their own which is greater than a Metropolitan yea a Patriarch if you will he could not be appealed from to Rome by S. Gregory's own Doctrine III. Pag. 278. The Doctrine it self is so full of Danger that it works strongly both upon the Learned and Unlearned to the Scandal of Religion and the Perverting of Truth For the unlearned
joyneth with him therein in it self though performed in a negligent and so in a sinful manner by the Minister But if that manner be enjoyned the Service it self is to be refused This is my Lord's First Instance from the Services under the Law And I must needs say he hath made it clear what he would have But then he must give me leave to say too that this Instance differs so mainly from the thing in question that it helps my Lord and his Cause in nothing Perhaps it makes it worse than it was The difference is God in the Law did not only prescribe all the Sacrifices and Offerings which he would have and for what But also when and how he would have them And the Poor man which had not Ability to bring the greater Sacrifice might by the express Letter of the Law bring Turtles or Pigeons Levit. 5. But if a Rich Man had brought them his Service would have been rejected and himself punished So says my Lord But the Law says not so He that brought it should have born his Sin and the Priest could have made no Attonement for him which was punishment enough But that he should any other way be punished I find not in the Text of the Law And this Lord which will admit of nothing but Text should not presume to add any thing to it The Rabbins indeed reckon up Six and Thirty kinds of Offenders which for their Sins are threatned to be cut off from their People and some are mentioned Levit. 7. 17. But none of these mentioned in Leviticus or by the Rabbins is the Rich Man's offering Turtles or Pigeons instead of a Bullock or a Ram. Well this was the strict prescription of Sacrifices and Offerings in the Law But in the Gospel though Christ setled his Doctrin and Sacraments yet when and how with other Ceremonial Things were left at large to the Ordering of the Apostles and the Church after them always providing for 〈◊〉 and Order And this Liberty was left as much if not more in Preaching and Publick Prayer than in the Sacraments And therefore my Lord's Instance in this way will not follow from the Law to the Gospel To give instance in his own Words In the Law The poor Man which had nor Bullock nor Lamb might by the express Warrant of the Law bring Turtles or Pigeons but they were to be his own which he bought and the Priest was to make his Attonement accordingly But in the Gospel Men do not bring to the Priest or Minister their own Doctrins or their Prayers but he offers in publick the Sermon to them and the Prayers for them So here the Instance comes not home neither As for my Lord's Aggravation How much more would the Service have been abomination if Men should have taken Authority to themselves and have enjoyned all to bring nothing but Turtles or Pigeons Indeed it would have been full of Abomination because in this Injunction they would have gone quite contrary to God's own Command And let my Lord shew in the Gospel any Precept that commands Men to use Extemporary or Conceived Prayers in the Publick Service or Worship of God or that forbids the use of a Set Form of Prayer and then I will grant the Church's Injunction of such Forms to be in the highest degree unlawful But these cannot be shewed Besides there is a great deal of Pride in this Instance For my Lord all along the Instance makes the Set Forms of the Church Turtles and Pigeons the poor Man's Sacrifice and the Conceived Prayers of his Party to be the Rich and able Men's Sacrifice the Ram and the Bullock the Calf I doubt it is So a very little before his Lordship tells us of a Negligence in those his Men of Gifts which might offer better if they will As if it were a most easie thing for those Men to offer up far better Prayers to God than the Set Liturgy of the Church Whereas my Lord must give me leave to doubt that even of the best of them And so again a little after his Lordship tells us That God will be worshipped with the Fat and the best of the Inwards which he Interprets with the best of Mens Gifts and Abilities and of this there is no doubt Nor doth the enjoning of a Set Form of Publick Prayer hinder any Man from worshipping God with the best Gifts and Abilities which he hath And who should be served with the best if not he that gave them all But here 's the Pride of the Instance again Their conceived tedious and oft-times senseless Prayers must be the Fat and the Inwards with which God is pleased and the Set Forms of the Church Lean Carrion and not fit for the Altar O my Lord that you would in time lay your Hand on your Heart and consider from what and into what you are fallen My Lord concludes this Instance with this That if it be left free to him that Officiates 't is his personal Sin if he be negligent but it may be lawful for another that joins with him in that Service But if that manner be enjoined the Service it self is to be refused And after this great Pride in or of this Opinion my Lord ends with a Fallacy For the Question is not Whether a negligent Set Form of Prayer or a Good Form of Set Prayer negligently and without Devotion offer'd up to God as too often they are God help us be better than other Prayers carefully composed and devoutly uttered But simply Whether a good Set Form of Prayer such as the Liturgy of England is be made so evil only by the enjoyning of it as that therefore the Service it self ought to be refused Now this my Lord may say as boldly as he will but neither he nor any man else shall ever be able to prove it And in this very close I cannot but observe that which in me or another Man would have been great Pride But what it is in this Lord let the Reader judge For he doth not conclude that this Form being enjoyned is the Cause why he refuses to come to our Prayers But absolutely as if all Men were bound to do as he doth He says peremptorily that in this Case of Injunction of a set Form the Service it self ought to be refused So that by this Doctrine he is a Sinner that refuses not the Prayers of the Church of England My Lord in the beginning askt leave to speak a few Words concerning himself but I believe these will be found to concern some body else Well 't is time to consider of my Lord's second Instance and so I will Now in the time of the Gospel God hath appointed the foolishness of Preaching for so the World accounts it to be the Means by which he will save those that Believe I conceive where there are not Gifts enabling Men to Preach there might be a lawful and profitable use of Reading of Printed
Times as well as now may be true enough And yet in those Ancient Times none thought Schism or Separation from the Church howsoever charged to be but a Theological Scare-crow But caused it to be examined to the bottom as 't is fit nay necessary that it should For else the most dangerous Separation that can be may go away free with this That it is but a trick of the prevalent Party to fright other Men into their Opinions by charging them with Separation Now the most dangerous Separation in a Church is where the Church it self hath little or no Power to punish Separatists And where they of the Separation are by the great Misfortune of the State become the potent and prevalent Party And whether this be not or at least were not the condition of the State and Church of England when my Lord Printed this Speech of his I leave to the indifferent Reader to judge My Lord hath Printed no more than this and therefore I will take notice of no more But yet Iam told by a very good Hand that his Lordship upon this quotation of Mr. Hales his Manuscript was pleased openly in that Honourable House of Parliament where he spake it to lend Mr. Hales one Wipe and me another But since my Lord is pleased to pass it over at the Press I shall do so too Yet with this that if my Lord did give that Gird I will make it plainly appear whenever he shall publish it that there is no shew of Truth in it But now that my Lord hath done with Mr. Hales he proceeds and tells us his own Judgment Secondly I say that there is a two-fold Separation one from the Vniversal or Catholick Church which can no otherwise be made but by denying the Faith for Faith and Love are the Requisites to that Communion And I say so too that there is a two-fold Separation and that one of them is from the Vniversal or Catholick Church But that this Separation can no otherwise be made but by denying the Faith I doubt comes short of Truth First because there is a great difference between Schism and Apostacy And every Apostacy is a Separation but every Separation is not Apostacy For a Man is not an Apostate properly till he fall away by denying the whole Faith But a Man may be in Heresie Schism and Separation upon the denyal of any one Article of the Faith received by the Catholick Church Secondly because should a Man agree in all and every Article of the Faith with the Catholick-Church yet he may maintain some false Opinion and incongruous both to the Verity and the Practice of Religion and Judgment of the Universal Church And be so in Love with these as that for these Opinions sake he will Separate from the whole Body Therefore Denyal of the Faith is not the only Cause of Separation from the Catholick Church since this Separation can be otherways made And my Lord within the space of Three Lines crosses himself For First he says that this Separation can no otherwise be made but by denying the Faith And in the very next Words he tells us that Faith and Love are the Requisites to that Communion Two Requisites to that Communion with the Universal Church therefore two Causes of Separation from it Therefore by my Lord 's own Confession he that is so out of Charity with the Universal Church for some Opinions or Practices which he dislikes as that he will not Communicate with it is in Separation though he do not deny the Faith The other my Lord tells us is a Separation from this or that particular Church or Congregation And that not in respect of difference with them in matter of Faith or Love But in dislike only of such Corruptions in their external Worship and Liturgies as they do admit of and would enjoyn upon others In this other Particular Separation I shall meddle with neither Congregation nor Conventicle Meeting allowed or disallowed by Church or State but that Separation which is or is not made by my Lord and his Followers from the National Church of England as it stands Setled and Established by Law Not as her Service may be mangled or otherwise abused in any particular Parish or Congregation whatsoever And if this Lord dislike any the Service as 't is used in some one Parish or other and yet will come to the Service as it is Established by Law in other either Cathedral or Parochial Churches my Lord hath had great Wrong to be accounted a Separatist But if my Lord will not come to the Prayers of the Church of England by Law Established let his Pretence be what it will a Separatist he is But my Lord says that this Particular Separation is not in respect of difference with them in matter of Faith or Love Where First you may observe on the by that in my Lord's Judgment Publick Breach in Charity as well as in Faith may be Cause of this Separation too as well as of that from the Vniversal or Catholick Church before mentioned Next that this particular Separation if it be not in respect of Difference in Faith or Love in what respect is it then Why if we may herein believe my Lord 't is only in dislike of such Corruptions in their external Worship and Liturgies as they do admit of and would injoyn others Well First I 'll pray for my Lord that there be no difference in Faith and Charity but I do very much doubt there is Next either there are such Corruptions in the External Worship and Liturgies as his Lordship hath just Cause to dislike or there are not If there be not why doth he Separate from them If there be or probably seem to be why doth he not complain to the King and the Church that these Corruptions may be considered on and amended if Cause appear And this he ought to do before he Separate For I hope Christianity is not yet come to that pass though it draw on apace that a Powerful Lay-Man or two shall say there are Corruptions in the set Service of God and then be Judges of such Corruptions themselves Nor doth the Church of England admit of Corruptions in her Liturgy or labour to injoyn them upon others Now my Lord tells us farther That This is a Separation not from their Persons as they are Christians But from their Corruptions in matter of Worship as they are therewith defiled And this Separation every Man that will keep himself Pure from other Mens Sins and not Sin against his own Conscience must make This will not yet help my Lord For say this be not a Separation from their Persons as they are Christians which yet it too often proves to be And I believe if this Lord would impartially examine himself he would find to be true in himself and his Comportment But that it is from their Corruptions in matter of Worship as they are therewith defiled First these Corruptions are
not proved so 't is Petitio Principii the begging of that to be granted which is the thing in question Secondly if there be Corruptions yet it is not proved they are in the Matter but of the two rather in the Manner of Worship Thirdly were both these granted yet it will remain a Question still whether these Corruptions be such as that the Worshippers are defiled therewith And another Question whether so deeply defiled as that other good Christians shall be defiled by coming to Common-Prayer with them For I am not yet persuaded nor shall be till I be convinced That every Man that will keep himself pure from other Mens Sins and not Sin against his Conscience is bound to make this Separation For I conceive many Corruptions may be tolerated nay ought to be before a Separation be made And that a private Conscience is to be both informed and reformed before it be attempted Nor can I think that he which comes to the publick Service of any Church that is not Idolatrous or peccant in the Fundamentals of Religion doth partake with other Mens Sins that frequent the same Common-Prayer or Service with him or he with them And yet my Lord is so peremptory as that without any distinction or Degrees of Corruption he delivers it positively with a great deal more Boldness than Knowledge That every Man that will keep himself pure from other Mens Sins must make this Separation Every Man and must make And it is not to be conceived but that what every Man must do my Lord who seems to be so careful to keep himself pure from other Mens Sins hath done already That is hath made this Separation from the Church And my Lord for ought I see is ready to confess as much For he adds And I will ingenuously confess that there are many things in many Churches or Congregations in England practised and injoyned upon all to be practised and suffered which I cannot practise nor admit of except I should Sin against the Light of my Conscience until I may out of the Word of God be convinced of the Lawfulness of them which hitherto I could never see sufficient ground for I told you my Lord was very near confessing as much as I have said For he says ingenuously there are many things in many Churches in England practised First I told my Lord before that this Business of Separation was not to be judged by what is practised in one or more Parochial Congregations but by what ought to be practised in all the Churches of England And if my Lord dislike any thing in one Congregation he may go to another so he will endure the whole Liturgy as it is setled by Law and no Man if he will do this ought to account him a Separatist And I find by my Lord's Words that his Exception is to many Churches and I would willingly hope if his Carriage would let me that he excepts not against all Besides he tells us that many things are so practised but he is not pleased to tell us what they are And then it is not possible for me or any Man else either to know whether his Lordship's Exception be just against them or to give him satisfaction in them And it is no great sign that my Lord bears any good Mind to the Church that he is so ready to charge many things against the Church and to name none My Lord goes farther and says plainly that these many things thus practised or enjoyned also and that upon all to be practised or suffered which he cannot practise nor admit of except he should Sin against the Light of his Conscience You have heard already how much my Lord is troubled with this Enjoyning and to that I refer you In the mean time since I am the Man so particularly shot at by my Lord I shall answer for my self according to Truth and with Truth I can legally prove if need be I have not Commanded or injoyned any one thing Ceremonial or other upon any Parochial Congregation in England much less upon all to be either practised or suffered but that which is directly commanded by Law And if any Inferiour 〈◊〉 in the Kingdom or any of my own Officers have given any such Command 't is either without my Knowledge or against my Direction And 't is well known I have sharply chid some for this very particular and if my Lord would have acquainted me with any such troubled thought of his I would have given him so far as had been in my Power either Satisfaction or Remedy if any thing had been against the Light of his Conscience Though in these things I must needs tell my Lord that there is now adays in many Men which have shaken off all Church Obedience great pretensions to Light in their Vnderstandings and Consciences when to Men which see indeed 't is little less than Palpable Darkness But how it is with my Lord and his Conscience I will not take upon me to Judge but leave him to stand or fall to his own Master Rom 14. For it seems my Lord stands not simply upon the Light of his Conscience but only until he may be convinced out of the Word of God of the Lawfulness of these things which hitherto he could never see sufficient ground for And this is the Common-Plea which all of them have resort to till they be convinced which as I have had experience of many they are resolved not to be And they will be convinced in every particular out of the Word of God to the very taking up of a Rush or Straw as their grave Master T. C. taught them As if God took care of Straws or their taking of them up As if every particular thing of Order or Decency were expresly set down in the Word of God Surely if this were so St. Paul should have had nothing to set in order when he came to Corinth 1 Cor 11. And if this be so the Church hath no Power left in any thing not so much as to Command a Bell shall Tole to call the people to publick Prayers because 't is no where commanded in the Word of God So that upon this Ground if any Man shall say he hath Light enough in his Conscience to see the unlawfulness of such Humane Devices he may Separate from the Church rather than Sin against this Light So there shall be no Publick Service of God but some Ignis Fatuus or other under the Name of Light in the Conscience shall except against it and Separate from it Which is directly to set up the Light in each private Spirit against that Light which God hath placed in his Church shine it never so clearly Yet his Lordship is confident and says But my Lords this is so far from making me the greatest Separatist in England that it cannot argue me to be any at all For my Lords the Bishops do know that those whom they usually
apply this term unto are the Brownists as they call them by another Name and they know their Tenents The truth is they differ with us in no Fundamental Point of Doctrine or saving Truth I know Here then my Lord is 〈◊〉 to say that all that he hath hitherto said is so far from making him the greatest Separatist in England that it cannot argue him to be any at all For my part I would to God it were so But let 's examine whether it be so or not First then this I humbly conceive is certain That he whoever he be that will not Communicate in Publick Prayers with a National Church which serves God as she ought is a Separatist But the Church of England as it stands established by Law serves God as she ought Therefore my Lord by his general absenting himself from her Communion in Prayers is a Separatist And this is by his own confession For he says a little before and that expresly that this is a Separation which every Man must make that will keep himself pure from other Mens Sins And I cannot doubt but his Lordship hath made that which he says he must make All that can be said for my Lord herein is this First That my Lord Charges the Church of England with Corruptions in the Worship of God and such Corruptions as he must Separate from her But is it sufficient for a Separation for a particular Man barely to say there are such Corruptions in the Liturgy when he doth neither prove them to be such nor so much as name them what they are Surely no. And I think these Gnats which his Lordship strains at may be swallowed without any Offence to God or Man So far are they from being a just Cause of Separation Therefore for all this my Lord is a Separatist Yea but my Lord charges upon the Church of England that she injoyns her Liturgy upon all Men by a certain Number of Men usurping Authority to themselves and imposing this Injunction under the name of the Church I have made answer already to this Power of the Church to compose a set Form for publick Service and I hope made it manifest that this Authority is not usurped And then that can be no just Cause of a Separation Nay I must doubt whether if such Authority were usurped by some Church-Men in any National Church the injoyning of the Service after it is made supposing always that it contain no Idolatry or Fundamental Error be for the Injunction alone a sufficient Warrant to my Lord or any other to Separate Therefore my Lord 's forsaking the publick Service of the Church upon no better Grounds than these makes him a Separatist by his own Confession without any Man calling him so As for his Lordship's being the greatest Separatist in England I have at the beginning of this Tract clearly related to the uttermost of my Memory what and upon what occasion I spake of his Lordship in this kind But whether I said it or not my Lord for ought I see will hardly escape being so For he is the greatest Separatist from the Church that absents himself with most will and least cause And this if I mistake not is my Lord's Case for he separates with most will that says Men must and ought to Separate And upon least Cause because as yet he hath Named none at all but Corruptions in general which any Man may say and the Injunction of a set Form which is no cause Therefore for ought I yet see it may truly be said of his Lordship that he is the greatest Separatist in England Especially if you add to this how busie and active his Lordship is and for many Years hath been to promote this Cause of Separation And I have some very good grounds to think that his Lordship hath been and is the great Cause and enlarger of all the Separation that now is in Church Affairs And of all the Disobedience thereby bred or cherished against Soveraign Power Next my Lord appeals to my Lords the Bishops and tells them that they know that they whom they usually apply this Name Separatist unto are the Brownists as they call them by another Name I know not all things which the rest of my Learned Brethren the Bishops know Yet I think both they and I know this that the Name Separatist is a common Name to all Hereticks or Schismaticks that separate for their Opinions sakes either from the Catholick or from any particular Orthodox Church And if my Lord himself who it seems is well acquainted with them or any of my Lords the Bishops do know that this Name is usually applyed to the Brownists be it so That I am sure is not material unless it be for that which my Lord closes this passage withal Namely that my Lords the Bishops know the Tenents of the Brownists and that the truth is they differ from us in no Fundamental Point of Doctrine or Saving Truth that his Lordship knows I doubt not but my Lords the Bishops know the Tenents of the Brownists so far forth at least as they be Tenents and not varied from and so far as they are their General Tenents to which all or most of them agree And so far as they are plain and univocal Tenents and not such as shall equivocate with the very Faith it self But such Tenents of the Brownists as these are it may be all my Lords the Bishops know not Now if the Truth be as my Lord says it is for ought he knows that the Brownists differ from us in no Fundamental Point of Doctrine or saving Truth Then out of all doubt Majus peccatum habent their Sin and my Lord 's too is the greater that they will so Uncharitably and with so great Heat and setled Violence and to the great scandal of Religion first separate themselves from and now labour utterly to overthrow that Church which by my Lord 's own Confession here differs not from them in any Fundamental Point of Doctrine or saving Truth For sure if they differ not from us we differ not from them But this is only Argumentum ad Hominem and is sufficient to convince this Lord I think in his own way But I doubt the Truth is quite another thing Namely that the Church of England is very Orthodox and that the Brownists or Separatists call them as you will do Separate upon false and unchristian Opinions And that besides Matters of Opinion and breach of Charity they do differ from us in some Fundamental Points of Doctrine and saving Truth My Lord a little before tells us of Corruptions in the Liturgy of the Church but names none And should I charge the Brownists with difference from the Church in Fundamental Points of Doctrine and yet name none I should run into the same fault for which I there taxed my Lord I shall therefore give some Instances of some of their Opinions and then leave the indifferent Reader to judge whether
which my Lord calls so That if these Corruptions be fundamental they may be such too as may keep these Churches which he speaks of from being true Churches and the Ministry from being a true Ministry But if these Corruptions be of a very light Allay as I verily believe they are if there be any then his Lordship ought not to separate but to joyn in Communion with them for all these either Yokes or Corruptions The Apostle indeed tells us of a Church without Wrinkle Ephes. 5. But that is a Triumphant Church in Heaven not a Militant upon Earth And for the Yokes which my Lord speaks of they are not Yokes of Bondage as he pleases to call them but Yokes of Obedience which whenever they shall be broken the wild Asses of the Wilderness will over-run all My Lord goes farther and says That in these true Churches this true Ministry does yield unto and admit of these Yokes and these Corruptions contrary as he thinks to their Duty But it seems they think not so or if they do think so why do they not remonstrate their Grievance Sure if their Conscience tell them they do against their Duty they ought to inform their Conscience or forbear the Work To inform their Conscience I am sure is fit for them if they need it Though it seems my Lord would rather have them forbear the Duty the doing whereof he calls their yielding unto and their admitting these things which he calls Yokes and Corruptions As for that which follows and which my Lord says he is sure of that no Separatist in England that deserves that Name holds that which his Lordship says here he doth believe In that also I conceive his Lordship is utterly mistaken For I believe there is no Separatist in England Brownist or other deserving that Name but he holds and will say as much as my Lord believes namely that there are in England many true Churches that is Assemblies or Congregations of their own Brotherhood And a true Ministry To wit those which themselves have made And that they do hear them that is such as these Yea and that they could joyn in Communion with some other Churches were those Yokes of Bondage which are layd upon them taken off and those Corruptions removed That is upon the matter if they would become as themselves are then they would joyn with them And this 〈◊〉 of all doubt they think they ought to do and neither yield unto such Yoeks nor admit of such Corruptions So that my Lord may see every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in England even they which most deserve that Name hold that which his Lordship believes And therefore no question can be made but that my Lord deserves that Name as much as any of them even while he says he is sure no Separatist in England that deserves that Name holds as he doth But to come to the quick The Brownists and Separatists deal plainly with God and the World and say expresly that the whole Church of England as it stands established by Law is peccant both in the Doctrine Liturgy and Discipline of it and in such a degree as that they neither will nor can joyn in Communion with it And therefore separate from it and betake themselves to their own private Opinions and Congregations But my Lord he Equivocates both with God and Man And tells us he believes there are true Churches in England and a true Ministry which he hears And this no Separatist that understands himself but will say as fast as he But let his Lordship come home to the Business directly and plainly Let him say that the Church of England is a true Church That the Ministry of it is a true Ministry That the Doctrine Liturgy and Discipline of it as it stands established now by Law are free from any such Corruptions as give just cause for a Separation And when he hath said this let him joyn in Communion with it as he ought to do and then he shall wrong my Lord very deeply that says he is a Separatist But for all this which he hath yet said for himself 't is manifest that a Separatist he is And I doubt hath hereby proved himself whether I will or no the greatest Separatist in England And therefore he hath little cause to hope as he says he doth that he shall stand right in their Lordships Opinions or any other Man's that is not possest with the same Humour Yet my Lord hath two Requests to make I will now end with two Requests The one that your Lordships will please to pardon me for troubling you with so long a Discourse concerning my self I have not used it heretofore and I am not like to offend again in the same kind It is but once and your Lordships will consider the occasion In this Suit were there need I would joyn with my Lord. For though I have a great deal of hard Measure put upon me in this Speech yet I have the more reason to be content with it because this whole Discourse of my Lord's well weighed is more against himself than me And such Trouble of his Lordship's I hope all Men well affected to the present Church of England will easily Pardon And this I doubt not but their Lordships and all Men else will the rather do when they consider the Occasion Which certainly I gave not personally in the House But a Guilty Conscience it seems would needs be meant The Second Request is to entreat of you that where you know there is one and the same God worshipped one and the same Faith embraced one and the same Spirit working Love and causing an unblamable Conversation without any offence to the State in your Brethren who in all these concur with you you will not suffer them for Ceremonies and Things indifferent to you but not to them but Burthens which without offence to the State or prejudice to the Churches you may take off if you will to be thrust out of the Land and cut off from their Native Country For if you thus shall wound the Consciences of your Brethren you will certainly offend and sin against Christ. In this second Request I can easily agree with my Lord in some things but must differ in other And First I agree with all my Heart that I would have no pressure at all much less cutting off from their Native Country put upon them who are known to worship the same God to embrace one and the same Faith and one and the same Spirit working Love But in this I must disagree that the Separatists for they are the Men of whom this Lord speaks thus and says they are your Brethren and concur with you in all these are not known to be such For though he be one and the same God whom they worship yet the Worship is not one and the same For my Lord says plainly that our set Forms are Superstition And that he cannot joyn in Communion with us till our
yokes of Bondage and our other gross Corruptions be removed And I must doubt they embrace not the same Faith till they admit the whole Creed and will use the Lord's Prayer which few of them will As for the Spirit that works by Love I much fear he is a great stranger to many of these Men. For I have many ways found their Malice to be fierce and yet endless And therefore I wonder my Lord should have the Boldness to tell my Lords in Parliament that they know all these things of these Men and that they are their Brethren and concur with them in all these forenamed things whom in the mean time their Lordships do and cannot but know different from them nay separating from them in the very Worship of God Next I agree with my Lord again that I would have no pressure put upon those Men in whom the Spirit of Love causes an unblamable Conversation without any offence to the State But in this I must disagree that the Separatists from the Church of England are such manner of Men. For the private Conversation of very many of them whom I could name were it fit is far from being unblamable And the Publick Conversation of all or most of them is full of offence to the State Unless my Lord think the State is or ought to be of their Humour For how can their Conversation be without great offence very great to this or any State Christian who shall have and maintain private Conventicles and Meetings in a different way of Religion from that which is Established by the State Nay which shall not only differ from but openly and slanderously oppose that which is so Established Besides no well governed State will allow of private Meetings especially under pretence of Religion which carry far without their privity and allowance For if this be permitted there lies a way open to all Conspiracies against the State whatsoever and they shall all be satisfied under the pretence of Religion The third thing in which I agree with my Lord is that I would not that for Ceremonies and Things indifferent these Men should be thrust out of the Land and cut off from their Native Country No God forbid if any thing will reclaim them But then I must disagree with my Lord in this That these Men whether such as my Lord describes them or no are thrust out of the Land or cut off from their Native Country for Ceremonies or Things indifferent For First they are not all Ceremonies for which they separate from the Church For they pretend certain gross Corruptions in the very Worship of God as my Lord a little before delivers Secondly be the Cause what it will none of them have been banished or thrust out of the Land or cut from their Native Country as is here spoken to move Hatred against the Government But 't is true they have thrust themselves out and cut themselves off and run a Madding to New England scar'd away as they say by certain gross Corruptions not to be endured in this Church Nor after they have gone a Madding enough is their return denyed to any And I know some that went out like Fools and are come back so like that you cannot know the one from the other In this Passage 't is said by my Lord that these Ceremonies and Things indifferent unto you speaking to the Lords in Parliament are not so to them but Burthens In this Passage I can agree with my Lord in nothing For First my Lord but a very little before tells of Yokes of Bondage and gross Corruptions And are they so soon become but Ceremonies and Things indifferent If they be more than Ceremonies and Things indifferent then my Lord delivers not the whole Truth And if they be but Ceremonies and Things indifferent then his Lordship and all other Separatists ought rather to yield to the Church in such things than for such things to separate from it And certainly so they would if the Spirit that worketh by Love did work in them Yea but my Lord says they are such things as though they be indifferent to others yet to them they are not but burthens And it may be they make them so for in their own Nature they are nothing less And of great use they are to preserve the Substance and the Body of Religion But this I find let any thing in the World be enjoyned by the Church Authority and it is a Burthen presently And so you see all along this Speech how earnest my Lord is in behalf of himself and these Separatists against all Injunctions of set Forms and Yokes of Bondage This is an excellent way of Religion to settle Temporal Obedience And I can as little agree with that which follows Namely that the Lords may without any Offence to the State or prejudice to the Churches take away if they will these Things indifferent to them but Burthens to these Brethren For First suppose them to be but 〈◊〉 and Things indifferent yet can they not be taken away without offence to the State or prejudic to the Churches who to please a few unruly Separatists must make an Alteration in that part of Religion which hath continued with great Happiness to this Church ever since the Reformation Secondly I will not dispute it here what Power a Lay Assembly and such a Parliament is hath to determine Matters of Religion Primely and Originally by and of themselves before the Church hath first agreed upon them Then indeed they may confirm or refuse And this course was held in the Reformation But Originally to take this Power over Religion into Lay Hands is that which hath not been thus assumed since Christ to these unhappy days And I pray God this Chair of Religion do not prove Cathedra Pestilentiae as the vulgar reads it Psal. 1. 1. to the infecting of this whole Nation with Schism and Heresie and in the end bring all to confusion I meddle not here with the King's Power For he may be present in Convocation when he pleases and take or leave any Canons as he pleases which are for the Peace and well Ordering of the Church as well as in Parliament take or leave any Laws made ready for him for the good and quiet of his People But if it come to be Matter of Faith though in his Absolute Power he may do what he will and Answer God for it after Yet he cannot commit the ordering of that to any Lay Assembly Parliament or other for them to determine that which God hath intrusted into the Hands of his Priests Though if he will do this the Clergy must do their Duty to inform him and help that dangerous Error if they can But if they cannot they must suffer an unjust Violence how far soever it proceed but they may not break the Duty of their Allegiance 'T is true Constantius the Emperour a great Patron of the Arrians was by them interested
his Province to the King for the Year 1637. In Dei Nomine Amen May it please Your most Gracious Majesty ACcording to your Commands in your Instructions Published for the good of the Clergy and my bounden Duty I here present my Annual Account for the Province of Canterbury for the Year last past 1637. And First to begin with mine own Diocess I must give your Majesty to understand that at and about Ashford in Kent the Separatists continue to hold their Conventicles notwithstanding the Excommunication of so many of them as have been discovered They are all of the poorer sort and very simple so that I am utterly to seek what to do with them Two or three of their principal Ringleaders Brewer Fenner and Turner have long been in Prison and it was once thought fit to proceed against them by the Statute for Abjuration But I do much doubt they are so ignorantly wilful that they will return into the Kingdom and do a great deal more hurt before they will again be taken And not long since Brewer slipt out of Prison and went to Rochester and other parts of Kent and held Conventicles and put a great many simple People especially Women into great Distempers against the Church He is taken again and was called before the High Commission where he stood silent but in such a jeering scornful manner as I scarce ever saw the like So in Prison he remains In the Churchyard of the same Town a Butcher's Slaughter-House opened to the great Annoyance of that place which I have commanded should be remedied and the Door shut up At Biddenden I have Suspended Richard Warren the School-Master for refusing the Oath of Allegiance of Canonical Obedience and to Subscribe to the Articles Besides this precise Man will read nothing but Divinity to his Scholars No not so much as the Grammar Rules unless Mars Bacchus Apollo and Pol AEdepol may be blotted out The Strangers in Canterbury do not so much resort to their Parish-Churches as formerly they did at my first giving of my Injunctions But Visiting this Year I have given a publick and strict Charge that the Delinquents be presented and punished if they do not their Duty in that behalf There is one dwelling in Addisham a Married Man called by the Name of Thomas Jordan He was formerly called Thomas Mounton because he was found in the Church Porch of Mounton in Swadling Clothes left there in all likelyhood by his Mother who was some Beggar or Strumpet It is believed he was never Christned I have therefore given Order that he shall be Christned with that Caution which is prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer where the Baptism is doubtful About Sittingborn there are more Recusants than in any other part of my Diocess And the Lady Roper Dowager is thought to be a great means of the increase of them But I have given strict charge that they be carefully presented according to Law There is still a remainder of Schismaticks in Egerton and the Parishes adjacent But they are as mean People as those about Ashford and I am as much to seek what to do with them My Lord Treasurer complains that he hath little assistance of his Archdeacons and I believe it to be true and shall therefore if your Majesty think fit cause Letters to be written to them to awake them to their Duties His Lordship likewise complains of some inconformable Men which his Chancellor hath met with in this his last Visitation but they have received such Censure as their Faults deserved or else submitted themselves Only Mr. John Knolles a Lecturer at Colchester had forborn to receive the Holy Communion for two Years since he came to be Lecturer And being enjoyned to perform that Duty within a Month he was so zealous as that he forsook Lecture and Town and all rather than he would receive the Communion I find likewise in this Account 28 Ministers Convented before the Chancellor for some Inconformities And five for excess in Drinking But there is as good Order taken with them as could be The Lectures in this Diocess continue many But there is great care taken to keep them in order I find in the Diocess of Winchester divers Recusants newly pretended But whether they be newly perverted doth not appear by my Lord the Bishops Account to me There are some five complained of for not Catechising which I shall require of the Bishop to see remedied Here my Lord the Bishop Certifies that he is very careful and sees all things done according to your Majesty's Instructions My Lord the Bishop of this Diocess dyed before the time came that he was to give up his Accounts so that I can relate nothing upon certainty but shall give the succeeding Bishop Charge to be very careful because his Predecessor lay languishing and was able to look to little for three whole Years before his Death The Account from hence is very brief But my Lord is confident that his Diocess is clean through in good Order and I will hope it is so My Lord of Peterburgh hath taken a great deal of pains and brought his Diocess into very good order Only he saith there are three Lecturers in the same one at Northampton but that is read by the Vicar of the place one at Rowel which hath Maintenance allowed and a third at Daventree maintained by the Contribution of the Town And this last I think the Bishop had need take care of This Diocess appears by my Lord's Certificate to be in marvelous good order for all things and a great Reformation hath been wrought there by his Care and Industry For Popish Recusants the number of them is there much decreased neither are any newly presented for Recusancy My Lord the Bishop of Lincoln is not as your Majesty knows in case to make any Return for his Diocess And since the Jurisdiction thereof came by his Suspension into my Hands I have neither had time nor leisure to make any great Inquiry how conformable in Doctrine or Discipline Men in those parts are Yet this I find that both in Buckinghamshire and in Bedfordshire there are many too refractory to all good Order And there are a great number of very poor and miserable Vicarages and Curatships in many parts of this large Diocess and which are almost past all cure and hope of help unless by your Majesties Grace and Favour some may be had My Lord of Norwich hath been very careful of all your Majesty's Instructions And upon the 24th of September last being then in his Diocess and giving Orders he refused to admit five well Learned and well Mannered Men because they wanted a sufficient Title according to the Canon of the Church I find that there are in this Diocess six Lectures namely at Wimondham North-walsham East-Earling Norwich Linn and Bungay But they are all performed by Conformable and Neighbouring Divines and under
Answer and assures me that by his care and vigilancy they shall all be rectified and that out of hand My Lord informs me that in his Predecessor Bishop Whites absence he living most commonly at London being your Majesty's Almoner there was cut down and wasted above a Thousand Loads of Wood. For all other businesses they are in good condition within that Diocess saving that my Lord the Bishop humbly craves leave hereby to represent a great grievance to your Majesty which concerns the Bishoprick the Dean and Chapter and all other Clergy Men or indeed rather all your Majesty's Liege People inhabiting within the Isle of Ely In this Diocess the Bishop found out one Jeffryes who commonly Administred the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist being either not in Holy Orders at all or at least not a Priest So soon as he was discovered he slipt out of the Diocess and the Bishop thinks that he now serves in a Peculiar under the Dean and Chapter of Wells I will send thither to know the certainty and see the abuse punished if I can light upon the Person The Bishop further Certifies me that there are very many within that small Diocess who stand Excommunicate and divers of them only for not payment of Fees And again that many of these are not able to pay them I think it were not amiss that once every Year in Lent the Chancellor were commanded to take an Account of all the Excommunicats in the Diocess and to cause all to be Absolved that shall be fit for Absolution and particularly to see that no Man be suffered to continue Excommunicated where nothing but Poverty hinders the payment of Duties or other Fees The Bishop likewise informs me that Monuments even of obscure and mean Persons are grown very common in those Parts and prejudicial both to the Walls and Pillars and Liberty of Churches which the Bishop opposes as much and as fairly as he can But all is too little There were in this Diocess the last year but two Refractory Ministers known to the Bishop Mr. Wroth and Mr Erbury The former hath submitted but the other would neither submit nor satisfie his Parishioners to whom he had given publick offence so he resigned his Vicarage and hath left thereby the Diocess in peace For this Diocess the Bishop humbly craves your Majesty's Pardon for his longer stay in London than ordinary and professes his Excuse formerly made to your Majesty to be most true viz. That he was forced to it by extremity of Sickness falling upon him in those parts and forcing his change of Air. That Diocess hath been a little out of quiet this year by some Mens medling with those nice Questions which your Majesty hath forbidden should be commonly preached in the Pulpit But the Relation being somewhat imperfect I shall inform my self farther and then give your Majesty such Account as I receive In this Diocess the Bishop Certifies me two considerable things and both of them are of difficult Cure The one concerns his Bishoprick where every thing is let for Lives by his Predecessors to the very Mill that Grinds his Corn. The other concerns the Diocess in general where by Reason of the Poverty of the Place all Clergy-Men of Hope and Worth seek Preferment elsewhere And he tells me plainly some weak Scholars must be Ordained or else some Cures must be left altogether unsupplied My Lord of Glocester confesseth he hath been absent from his Diocess a good part of this Year being kept from his Dwelling-Houses by the Infection at Glocester which just Cause of Absence he humbly submits to your most gracious Majesty Concerning that Diocess the Bishop speaks not much more But the Arch-Deacon at his Visitation finding the Clergy conformable gave them this grave and fitting Admonition viz. That no Man should presume his conformity should excuse him if in the mean time his Life were Scandalous Which was very necessary for that Place and these Times And the Arch-Deacon certifies farther that there are divers which as far as they dare oppose Catechising and but for fear of losing the Livings would almost go as far as Burton and Bastwick did which is his own expression under his Hand My Lord the Bishop there complains much of the Decay of his Houses and the impoverishing of that Bishoprick by some of his Predecessors And this partly by letting of long Leases before the Statute restrained it and partly by a coarse exchange of some Lands in former times This latter cannot now be helped but for the decay of his Houses if he pursue that faculty which I granted to his immediate Predecessor he may help a great part of that decay without much charge And this God willing I shall put him in mind to do and give him the best assistance that I can by Law For the Churches in that Diocess which are very many my Lord acknowledges that they are in very decent and good order generally The only thing which he saith troubles his Diocess is that the People have been required to come up and receive at the Rail which is set before the Communion-Table and that heretofore many have been Excommunicated or Suspended for not doing so For the thing it self it is certainly the most decent and orderly way and is practised by your Majesty and by the Lords in your own Chappel and now almost every where else And upon my knowledge hath been long used in St Giles his Church without Cripplegate London with marvellous Decency and Ease and yet in that Parish there are not so few as Two Thousand Communicants more than within any Parish in Norwich Diocess And when your Majesty had the Hearing of this Business in the now Bishop of Ely's Time you highly approved it And therefore I presume you will be pleased to command that the present Bishop continue it and look carefully to it And whereas they plead that many stood suspended for it the Bishop of Ely in whose Time it was doth assure me that in above One Thousand Three Hundred Parishes there were not Thirteen either Excommunicated or Suspended for refusing of this In this Diocess the Bishop gives a fair Account to all your Majesty's Instructions so that I have cause to hope that that Diocess is in reasonable good Order Only he complains that his Predecessors have Leased out part of his House at Lichfield which puts him to very great Annoyance But he is entring into a Legal way for redress of his Abuse in which I presume your Majesty will give him all fair and just Assistance if he shall be forc'd to crave the same My Lord the Bishop came but lately to this See and hath not as yet found much amiss The Bishop of that Diocess is Dead and no other yet setled so I can have no Account from thence this Year These Four Bishops Certifie that all things are orderly and well
within their several Diocesses And so with my Prayers for your Majesty's long Life and happy Reign I humbly submit this my Account for the Year last past being 1638. January 2d 〈◊〉 W. Cant. The Arch-Bishop's Account of his Province to the King for the Year 1639. In Dei Nomine Amen May it Please your most Sacred Majesty ACcording to your Royal Commands expressed in your Instructions for the good of the Church I here most humbly Present this my Account for the Year finished now at Christmas 1639. And First to begin with my own Diocess The great thing which is amiss there and beyond my Power to remedy is the stiffness of divers Anabaptists and Separatists from the Church of England especially in and about the Parts near Ashford And I do not find either by my own Experience or by any Advice from my Officers that this is like to be remedied unless the Statute concerning Abjuration of your Kingdom or some other way by the Power of the Temporal Law or State be thought upon But how fit that may be to be done for the present especially in these broken Times I humbly submit to your Majesty's Wisdom having often complained of this before Many that were brought to good Order for receiving of the Holy Communion where the Rails stand before the Table are now of late fallen off and refuse to come up thither to receive But this God willing I shall take care of and order as well as I can and with as much speed And the same is now commonly fallen out in divers other Diocesses There was about half a Year since one that pretended himself a Minister who got many Followers in Sandwich and some Neighbouring Parishes but at last was found to have gone under three Names Enoch Swann and Grey and in as several Habits of a Minister an ordinary Lay-Man and a Royster. And this being discovered he fled the Country before any of my Officers could lay hold on him Upon this occasion I have commanded my Commissary and Arch-Deacon to give Charge in my Name to all Parsons and Vicars of my Diocess that they suffer no Man to preach in their Cures but such as for whom they will Answer as well otherwise as for the point of Conformity which I hope will prevent the like abuse hereafter In this Diocess the last Year there was some heat struck by opposite Preaching in the Pulpit between one Mr Goodwin Vicar of St Stevens in Coleman-street and some other Ministers in the City concerning the Act of Believing and the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in the Justification of a Sinner And the Peoples Minds were much perplexed hereabouts This business was quieted by my Lord the Bishop and his Chancellour and a Promise of Forbearance made Yet now lately Mr Goodwin hath preached again in the same way and the same Perplexity is like to be caused again thereby in the City Yet my Lord the Bishop is in hopes to settle this also quietly wherein he shall have the best Assistance I can give him The Arch-Deacons in this Diocess and others are too negligent in giving their Bishops due Information of such things as are committed to their Charge Mr Joseph Simonds Rector of St Martin's Ironmonger-lane is utterly fallen from the Church of England and hath abandoned his Benefice and gone beyond the Seas and so was deprived in September last past Mr Daniel Votyer Rector of St Peter's in Westcheap hath been likewise convented for divers Inconformities and promised Reformation as Mr Simonds also did but being now called into the High Commission Order is taken for the Officiating of his Cure till it shall appear whether he will desert it or no for he also is gone beyond the Seas Mr George Seaton Rector of Bushy in the County of Hertford is charged with continual Non-residency and other Misdemeanours little beseeming a Clergy-man But of this neither my Lord nor my self can say more to your Majesty till we see what will rise in Proof against him My Lord the Bishop of this Diocess gives me a very fair Account of all things regular therein saving that the Popish Recusants which he saith are many in that Diocess do yearly increase there and that this may appear by the Bills of Presentment in his Annual Inquisitions My Lord the Bishop informs me that he hath been very careful in point of Ordination as being a Bishop near the University and to whom many resort for Holy Orders at times appointed by the Church But he complains that having refused to give Orders to Twenty or Thirty at an Ordination most of them have addressed themselves to other Bishops and of them received Orders not only without Letters Dimissory but without such Qualification as the Canon requires In this Case I would humbly advise your Majesty That my Lord the Bishop may enquire and certifie by what Bishops these Parties so refused by him were Admitted into Holy Orders that so they may be admonished to be more careful for the future and that this Abuse may not find Encouragement and increase For Popish Recusants they have been proceeded against in this Diocess according to Law saving only such of them as have pleaded and shewed your Majesty's Exemption under your Great Seal from being question'd in any Ecclesisiastical Court for matters concerning their Religion I find by the Bishop's Certificate that he hath constantly resided upon his Episcopal Houses but saith that he cannot have his Health at Eccleshall and hath therefore since resided in his Palace at Lichfield but with very little Comfort by reason of Inmates left as his Lordship saith upon the Church's Possession His Lordship adds That he hath an ancient Palace at Coventry in Lease but with reservation of the Use thereof in case the Bishop shall at any time come to live there Here he means to reside for a time if it stand with your Majesty's good liking For Popish Recusants his Lordship saith they are presented and prosecuted according to the Law This Diocess my Lord the Bishop assures me is as quiet uniform and conformable as any in the Kingdom if not more And doth avow it that all which stood out in Suffolk as well as Norfolk at his coming to that See are come in and have now legally subscribed and professed all Conformity and for ought he can learn observe it accordingly Yet his Lordship confesseth that some of the Vulgar sort in Suffolk are not conformable enough especially in coming up to Receive at the Steps of the Chancel where the Rails are set But he hopes by fair means he shall be able to work upon them in time His Lordship adds That some have Indicted a Minister because he would not come down from the Communion Table to give them the Sacrament in their Seats But this your Majesty hath been formerly acquainted with by the Minister's Petition which you were graciously pleased to command me to underwrite
He who sails in the midst of dangerous Rocks may justly fear and expect a Wrack Eighthly That the late Scottish Trouble and Wars were both plotted and raised by these Jesuitical Conspirators of purpose to force the King to resort to them and their Popish Party for Aid of Men and Money against the Scots and by Colour thereof to raise an Army of their own to gain the King into their Power and then to win or force him to what Conditions they pleased who must at least-wise promise them an universal Toleration of their Religion throughout his Dominions e're they will yield to assist him And in case they conquer or prevail he must then come fully over to their Party or else be sent packing by them with a poysoned Fig to another World as his Father they say was it 's likely by their Instruments or Procurement they are so conusant of it and then the Prince yet young and well enclined to them already by his Education being got into their Hands by this wicked Policy shall soon be made an Obedient Son of the Church of Rome Thus the Relator a chief Actor in this pre-plotted Treason discovers And if his single Testimony though out of a wounded Conscience will not be believed alone the ensuing Circumstances will abundantly manifest the Scottish Wars to be plotted and directed by them For Con the Pope's Legat Hamilton the Queen's Agent most of the Jesuits then about London Captain Read their Host the Lord Sterling with other chief Actors in the Plot being all Scots and employing Maxfield and he two other Popish Scots in raising these Tumults the Earl of Arundel another principal Member of this Conspiracy being by their procurement made General of the first Army against the Scots and most of his Commanders Papists the Papists in all Counties of England upon the Queen's Letters directed to them contributing large Sums of Money besides Men Arms and Horses to maintain this War Sir Toby Matthew the most Industrious Conspirator in the Pack making a Voyage with the Lord Deputy into Ireland to stir up the Papists there to contribute Men Arms Moneys to subdue the Scottish Covenanters yea Marquess Hamilton's own Chaplain employed as the King's Commissioner to appease these Scots holding Correspondency with Con and resorting to him in private to impart the Secrets of that business to him the general Discontent of the Papists and Conspirators upon the first Pacification of those Troubles which they soon after infringed and by new Contributions raised a second Army against the Scots when the English Parliament refused to grant Subsidies to maintain the War All these concurring Circumstances compared with the Relation will ratifie it past Dispute that this War first sprung from these Conspirators Ninthly That the subsequent present Rebellion in Ireland and Wars in England originally issued from and were plotted by the same Conspirators For the Scottish War producing this setled Parliament beyond their expectation which they foresaw would prove fatal to this their long-agitated Conspiracy if it continued undissolved thereupon some Popish Irish Commissioners coming over into England and confederating with the Dutchess of Buckingham Captain Read and other of these Conspirators who afterwards departed secretly into Ireland they plotted an universal Rebellion Surprisal and Massacre of all the Protestants in that Kingdom which though in part prevented by a timely discovery securing Dublin and some few Places else yet it took general Effect in all other Parts to the loss of about an Hundred and Forty Thousand Protestants Lives there massacred by them And finding themselves likely to be overcome there by the Parliament's Forces sent hence and from Scotland to relieve the Protestant Party thereupon to work a Diversion they raised a Civil Bloody War against the Parliament here in England procuring the King after Endymion Porter a principal Conspirator in the Plot had gained the Custody of the Great Seal of England to issue out divers Proclamations under the great Seal proclaiming the Parliament themselves Traytors and Rebels to grant Commissions to Irish and English Papists contrary to his former Proclamations to raise Popish Forces both at Home and in Foreign parts for his Defence as his trustiest and most loyal Subjects to send Letters and Commissions of Favour to the Irish Rebels and hinder all Supplies from hence to the Protestant Party And withal they procured the Queen by the Earl of Antrim and Dutchess of Buckingham's Mediation to send Ammunition to the Irish Rebels and to attempt to raise an Insurrection in Scotland too as the Declaration of the Rise and Progress of the Rebellion in Ireland more largely discovers Seeing then all may clearly discern the exact Prosecution of this Plot carried on in all these Wars by the Conspirators therein particularly nominated by the Queen and Popish Party in all Three Kingdoms and in Foreign Parts too who have largely contributed Men Money Arms Ammunition to accomplish this Grand Design through the Instigation of those Conspirators in this Plot who are gone beyond the Seas and have lately caused publick Proclamations to be made in Bruges and other parts of Flanders in July last as appears by the Examination of Henry Mayo since seconded by others That all People who will now give ANY MONEY TO MAINTAIN THE RO-MAN CATHOLICKS IN ENGLAND should have it repaid them again in a Years time with many Thanks the whole World must now of Necessity both see and acknowledge unless they will renounce their own Eyes and Reason that this Conspiracy and Plot is no feigned Imposture but a most real perspicuous agitated Treachery now driven on almost to its Perfection the full Accomplishment whereof unless Heaven prevent it the Catholicks of England expect within the Circuit of one Year as the forenamed Proclamations intimate Tenthly That no setled Peace was ever formerly intended nor can now be futurely expected in England or Ireland without an universal publick Toleration at the least of Popery and a Repeal and Suspension of all Laws against it this being the very Condition in the Plot which the King must condescend to e're the Papists would engage themselves to assist him in these Wars thus raised by them for this end And that none may doubt this Verity the late most insolent bold Demands of the Irish Rebels in the Treaty with them the present Suspension of all Laws against Priests and Recusants in all Counties under his Majesty's Power the uncontrolled multitudes of Masses in his Armies Quarters Wales the North and elsewhere the open Boasts of Papists every where most really proclaim it And if the King after all their many Years restless Labour Plot Costs Pains and pretended Fidelity to his Cause against the Parliament should deny these Merit-mongers such a diminutive Reward as this is the very least they will expect now they have him the Prince and Duke within their Custody Bristol Chester Ireland all his Forccs in their Power this Discoverer an Eye and