taught to know him by that Name and his Stile at every Word was his Excellency The Duke was singularly Learned for one of that Eminency and Illustrious Blood Therefore it was thought meet to receive him in the Publick Schools with a disputation in Philosophy performed by the most expert Professors of it who were ready we were sure at the shortest warning I must do him Right to him that was the first Opponent that he charged the Repondent bravely with Arguments of the best Artillery It was Mr. Wrâ—n of Pembrooke-Hall now the Reverend and Afflicted Bishop of Ely whose Enemies God hath punisht with such hardness of Heart that he being never yet brought to Answer to the Objections of his Persecutors after Ejection out of all his Estate and after Twelve years of Imprisonment in the Tower he continues still in that cruel Durance But I look back to my own Matter Mr. Prectour Williams was the President or Moderator at this Learned Act who by discretion as well as other sufficiency outstript them all For as the Apostle of the Gentiles says He was made all things to all Men so the Proctor manag'd his part before this Prince alla Tudesea to Dutch-men he became a Dutch Philospher for all his Conceptions he confirm'd by Quotations out of Julius Pacius Gâ—â—lâ—â—ius Keckerman and others that had been Professors within the Districts of the Gorman Principalities which was so unexpressibly acceptable to the Duke of Wittenberg and his Retinue that they kept him in their Company so long as they stay'd in Cambridge and would never part with him and in fine carried him in their Caroaches to Nowmarket and acquainted the King what Credit he had done to their Country Philosophers 28. The next Passage is of another frame and tried his Judgment not his Learning The Earl of Salisbury that famous Lord-Treasurer had Govern'd our University as Chancellor from the Year 1600 with good liking to all Uxit dum vixit bene He lest this World May 24. 1612. In the Election of a Successor the Regent-House in whom the Choice was were improvidently divided The greater Number gave their Voices for Henry Earl of Northampton Lord Privy-Seal sometimes a Gremial of our Body superlatively Learned a Writer of Books in Queen Elizabeth's days that especially against Judicial Astrology is of as elegant Contexture as any that are written in more Sunny Climates Beside he was very Rich and a Batchelor a Founder already of a charitable and handsom Pile of Building at Greenwich Therefore such as devised all good ways to attract the Benevolence of Liberal and Wealthy Men unto us hoped he would be very beneficial to Cambridge his Mother which now cast her self into the Arms of his Governance and Patronage So far the adverse Part could not dislike him One and the only thing to them of ill digestion was that Vox populi not the Jealousie but the Clamour of Court and Country was that he was no better then a Church-Papist That certainly his Heart was more with the Consistory of Rome then of Cambridge These with whom this Objection stuck were close Students plain and honest Men the least of all others acquainted with the World abroad Therefore they run blindfold upon a desperate way and to discountenance or discourage the Lord Privy-Seal they put one far better then himself in balance against him the King 's second Son Charles Duke of York his Highness though then but in the 12th Year of his Age. The Lord Privy-Seal had far more Votes in the Scrutiny for his Election and so it was in all Post-haste signified unto him But he took on with all Impatience to be so Abus'd to be made Competitor with the King's Son and to prevail in the Election And the King was more Wroth with the Simplicity or rather Presumption of those silly Clerks that durst Nominate his Dear and Tender Son the Duke to any Place or Office before they had beg'd Leave in all Humility for the Royal Assent A few of these received a great Check for it at the Council-Table and were a while under the Custody of Pursuivants For their Error the whole University was under as black a Cloud of Displeasure as ever I knew it in all my time and floated like a Ship in a great Storm that knew not where to Anchor The King exclaimed at them for Heady Inconsiderate swayed by Puritanical Factions The Lord Privy-Seal the Elect Chancellor shrunk up his Shoulders and made an Answer of fine Words and well set together ' That he was not worthy to have the Primacy or Pilotship ' over the Argonauts of such an Argosie But in Rude English it was no better then that He scorn'd their Proffer The Lords of the Council told them plainly They deserv'd no Chancellor among the Peerage who had so spitefully confronted an Earl of that Eminency The Vice-Chancellor Dr. Gouch with the Sophies of the Consistory Resolved That this was not a Sore that would heal with delay therefore they dispatch Proctor Williams with their Letters to offer himself before the King though the Storm blew stiff against him So he came to the Court at Greenwich and casting himself upon his Knees before the King with his Letters in his hand the King with no pleased Countenance ask'd him what he would have Sir says he my self and they who sent me crave Justice of Your Majesty in the behalf of Your University of Cambridge which suffers under Your Displeasure in that sort as I believe never any of Your Subjects did before that nineteen Parts of a great Incorporation should be Condomn'd for the Frowardness and that unpreventable by all the Power we had of the twentieth Part and they the meanest of us all We beseech You Gratiâ—us Sovereign to Name a Chancellor to preside over us or suffer us to come to Your Majesty upon all Occasions as unto our Chancellor not made so by the suffrage of poor Scholars You are far above that but in the sublime Title of Your Kingly Office by which You are obliged to Protect all Your People that are Unprotected This confident Speech was enough to hint to so wise a King that this was not the Style of Guiltiness so Justice being even the Girdle of his Loins and Mercy dropping easily from his Lips like an Honey-comb without streining he gave the Petitioner his Hand to kiss and bad him bid those that sent him to take Courage in looking well to their Charge in the University All Errors lately committed were struck off They should have Power to choose their Chancellor for he would not take their Right of Free Election from them His further Pleasure should be declared in his Letters which would be at Cambridge before him if he made not haste home And indeed the Proctor and the Letters came thither both in a day which being opened signified to the Vice-Chancellor and the Heads assisting That they should forthwith call a Congregation and resume an Election for a
more fully in the point of Conscience His Majesty turning to me whom he said he had made for this time his Counsellor and Confessor affirmed his Conscience to stand as he had said before but that he was willing to hear any thing that might move him to alter the same To the which as far as I can remember I spake in this manner SIR 151. IT is not for me upon a sudden to offer my Reasons unto your Majesty to alter a Conclusion of Conscience once Resolved on by your Majesty considering how Guilty I am both of mine own Greenness and Interruptions in these Studies and of your Majesties deep Learning in that part of Divinity especially But because I do conceive that your Majesties doubting in this kind is an absolute Condemnation of the Prince who hath already Subscribed and Presented these Oaths in their Perfection and Formalities to be taken by your Majesty and yet continueth my Soul for his as Zealous a Protestant as any Lives in the World which his Majesty by a short Interruption did with Tears acknowledge I would presume to say somewhat in defence of his Highness in this Case tho I dare not be so bold as to apply or refer it to your Majesty Two things appear unto me considerable in this Case the advancing of the True Religion and the suppressing of the Adverse within this Kingdom The former is a matter directly of Conscience and your Majesty is bound in Conscience to take care of the same to the uttermost of your Power And if your Son had suffered as he hath not one Syllable to be inserted into the Oaths or Articles derogating from the Religion Established he was worthily therein to be deserted and God to be by your Majesty preferred before him The suppressing of the Adverse within this Kingdom is to be consider'd in two degrees First Ita ut non praesit Secondly Ita ut non sit For the first I think his Highness doth make it a matter of Religion and Conscience that Popery do not praeesse prove so predominant in your Kingdoms as that the Religion Establish'd be thereby disgraced or dejected For certain he makes it a Conscience not to Erect Altare contra altare For as for the Leave he promiseth for Strangers to be present at Divine Offices with the Family of the Infanta it is per conniventiam and as his Highness shall approve thereof For the second Degree Ita ut non sit that the Popish Religion should be quite extirpated or the Penal Statutes for the suppressing the same be strictly Executed His Highness dares not make this a matter of Conscience and Religion but a matter of State only If the Prince should make this a matter of Conscience he should not only conclude the French King to be a false Catholic for not suppressing the Protestants and the Estates of the Low-Countries to be false Protestants for not suppressing the Papists at Amsterdam Rotterdam and Utricht especially but should conclude your Sacred Majesty to have often offended against your Conscience an horrible thought from such a Son to such a Father because your Papists are not suppressed and your Penal Statutes have been so often intended and remitted These things you may well do this Point continuing but a matter of State but you may not do it without committing a vash Sin if now you should strein it up to a matter of Conscience and Religion against the Opinion of all moderate Divines and the Practice of most States in Christiandom I conclude therefore that his Highness having admitted nothing in these Oaths or Articles either to the prejudice of the true or the Equalizing or Authorizing of the other Religion but contained himself wholly within the Limits of Penal Statutes and connivences wherein the Estate hath ever Challenged and Usurped a directing Power hath Subscribed no one Paper of all these against his own nor I profess it openly against the Dictamen of my Conscience As soon as I had ended the King spake Largely and Chearfully That in Conscience he was satisfied To which the Lords likewise as generally gave their Applause So the rest of the Counsel were Summon'd against the next Sunday the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Marquess Hamilton the Earl of Worcester the Bishop of Winton Viscount Grandison the Lord Cary the Lord Belfast with others whom I may have forgot And all was dispatch'd before the Embassadors as I need not to relate because Sir Fr. Cottington can best do it And if this Service may conduce to bring your Highness with Speed and Safety to all faithful ones that desire it with their earnest Prayers I shall be the Happiest among Your Highness's Most Humble Servants c. 152. So powerful and perspicuous was the Lord Keeper's Theology that all the Worthies of David his Majesties Secret Counsel concurr'd in the Confirmation Among whom was Bishop Andrews the Torturer of the best Roman Champion with his mighty Learning Another was Archbishop Abbots about whom Mr. Sanderson is most negligently mistaken to write thus Pag. 550. That he was then suspended from his Function and from coming to the Council-Table He sat that Day with the Lords and was the first that subscribed in the Catalogue as himself observes It may be Mr. Sanderson could not reconcile nor I neither how he should sign to the Ratification and undertake a long Letter to King James to disprove it with many Flourishes Cab. p. 13. The same Fountain cannot send forth salt Water and fresh Jam. 3.12 Therefore I deny the Letter I believe justly to have been written by him Such Frauds are committed daily to set Credit to spurious Writings under a borrowed Name A. Gell. picks out a fit Merchant for such Ware Sertorius a brave Commander but a great Impostor Literas Compositas pro veris legebat Lib. 15. Cap. 22. But I will prove my Conjecture strongly First So wise a Man would not shame himself with Inconstancy Act one thing to Day with his Sovereign Lord and pluck it down to Morrow Secondly The Letter crept out of Darkness Thirty Years after the Prince came out of Spain and Twenty Years after the supposed Authors Death A large time to hatch a Fable Thirdly The Lord Keeper vide supra certified the Prince that before the Lords came together to consult about the ease of the Oaths two Speeches were in many Hands rise in London The one for the Negative under the Archbishop's Name The other for the Affirmative under the Lord Keepers Name when no Colloquy had been begun about it Was it not as easie for the same Author or such another to forge a Letter as well as a Speech Fourthly The Archbishop was so stout in the Pulpit at Whitehal as to deplore the Prince's absence and his departure out of the Kingdom The ill relish of that passage I know it by the Papers under my Hand was sent abroad as far as Spain by Sir Edw. Villiers And I dare say the Tydings of that
All-Saints and the Fifth of November at White-Hall being wont to shew his Presence at those Solemnities Against Christmas he drew towards the City and no sooner Some better Offers were expected from Spain by that time or more certain Discoveries be found out of Carriage on both sides for hitherto all was received upon second hand Faith Therefore his Majesty was no sooner at White-Hall but he commissioned a Select Council to consider two things Whither the King of Spain had not been real to the last to satisfie the Desire of the Prince about the Marriage and whither in the Treaty for the Restitution of the Palatinate he had violated the League between the two Kingdoms as to deserve an open War to be proclaimed against him The Lord Keeper was one of the Junto but so far against his Mind that he wished before a Friend or two in private that a Fever in his Sick Bed might excuse him The Duke of Buckingham was mortally Anti-Spanish and his Anger was headed with Steel He assayed the Lord Keeper to hale him to his Judgment as an Eddy doth a small Boat and would have used him to the King to incline his Majesty to renounce Amity with that Nation but he found him as inflexible as a dried Bough He vowed to his Grace as he should have God to be his Protector that he would suffer all the Obliquy of the World before he would be drawn to the least Ingratitude against his Lordship Cab. P. 89. But when the King asked his Judgment he must be true and faithful Which was to say to do the Duke a Pleasure he cared not to deserve ill of himself but he would not deserve ill of the King which gave no Satisfaction Oh! How better is a poor Man's Liberty than the golden Servitude of a great Officer Must I lose my Patron unless I lose my Judgment Can there not be a true Heart where there is not Sameness of Opinion What a Structure is Advancement which hangs in the Air and consists upon no solid Foundation That great Lord desied the Keeper to his Face and in the hearing of many threatned to sink him because he could not board him And as Fulbertus said of Queen Constantia Cui satis creditur dum mala promittit Baron Annal. 12 28. com 12. If he promised an ill turn he would be sure to pay it if he could Once upon a time he could have done as much as that came to with half a Word to the King Now as his Lordship conceived his Strength lay among the Anakims and the self-will'd man plotted to sacrifice his old Friend to the Parliament the Intelligence came from the Venetian Embassador to appease the Dislike of Immunities which were none at all exercised towards the Roman Catholicks Yet there his Lordship faired and found it as hard to suppress him as to drown a Swan There is an Electuary which Physicians give to comfort the Heart called Pasta rogia the Lord Keeper was fed Lusty with this Royal Paste The King had wrought him so apt to his own Plight that the Power of a mighty Favorite could not wrest him from the Sanctuary of his Love Ye still his Danger was that the Duke thought out of Disdain more than Envy that he wore too many Copies of his Majesty's Favour He took nothing more Scornsully than what the King spake to the Earl of Carlisle in a Fit of Melancholly That if he had sent Williams into Spain with his Son he had kept Hearts-ease and Honour both which he lack'd at that time So it was thought to be next to an Affront that the first time the Lord Keeper came into the King's Presence after his Highness's Return into England which was a little before Christmas his Majesty looking intently upon him said thus to the Prince Charles There 's the Man that makes us keep a merry Christmas His Highness looking as if he understood not his Father Why 't is he says the King that laboured more dextrously than all my Servants beside to bring you safe hither to keep Christmas with me and I hope you are sensible of it Another Act of the King's Goodness drew a greater Frown upon him That in those Holy-days his Majesty of his own Accord no Solicitation preceding caused an Act of Council to be entred into the Book of that Honorable Table that an Arch-Bishoprick and he named York should be conserred upon him in the next Vacancy For which the Lord Keeper most humbly thanked his Majesty that he was pleased to think of him when his Majesty knew best that he thought not of himself Yet my Lord Duke resented it ill as if he climbed without his Hand to lift him up Arch-Bishop Mathew understanding how his Place was designed took occasion to be pleasant upon it It was a Felicity which Nature had given him to make old Age comfortable with a light Heart Non ille rigoris Ingratas laudes nec nubem srontis amabat Sil. lib. 8. But that much beloved Prelate sending his Proxy to the Lord Keeper against the following Parliament wrote to this Purpose That he was not a little troubled in former times to hear that the Bishop of London Doctor Mountain a decay'd Man and certainly near to the Grave should look to be his Successor For either himself must die before three years expired or that Bishop's Hopes would be all amort who must come suddenly to the See or not at all But it pleased and revived him that his Lordship was most likely to take his Place after him for he was young and healthful and might stay the Term of twenty Years and take his Turn time enough at the end of that Stage Then he shuts up his Letter As the Psalmist begins so I end Dixi Custodiam I love you Lordship well but I will keep you out of this Seat as long as I can 175. Now let the Collections of the last Antecedency be observed and there is not to be found in them why the Lord Keeper should forfeit a Dram in the Benevolence of his great Friend They are the Party-coloured Coat with which Jacob appareâ—â—ed him and which himself put not out to making But in the Select Council which met to resolve the two foregoing Questions he was active as any man If he come not off well in that let him be condemned To the first matter in proposal the Lords agreed that the Prince came Home with great and happy Renown because he had resisted so many and so strong Temptations to pervert him in Religion and that the Lord of Buckingham's Assistance was praise worthy in excess who held him steady and counter-work'd all Underminers They conceived that the Proceeding of the Spaniards to the most were generous in some things rather subtle than ingenuous as there is no Pomegranate but hath some rotten Kernels and that in all they were so tedious that it was able to provoke the Meekness of Moses though he had not a Drachm of
in that kind to press an Injury against any Man but might come about to be Scann'd Little did a greater Man than the Duke the Emperor Ludovicus called the Holy Dream That he should be Persecuted so far by his Son Lotharius and Edo Bishop of Rhemes to set under his Hand an Acknowledgment of his Errors in forcing Judges to do unjustly Yet it was so as it is in Baron An. 833. Com. 17. Inter Ludovici crimina quae publicè agnouit Quod Judicantes ad falsum Judicium induxit Of two Evils the less was to be chosen by the Keeper rather to provoke one Man then all Men nay rather to provoke Man than GOD That some will be provok'd it cannot be avoided It is best to instance in a whole Nation to give no Offence Aristides in one of his Orations Censures the Old Romans and the Modern are no better They held all that were under them for Slaves and all that would be Freemen and not Slaves for Enemies The King heard the noise of these Crashes and was so pleas'd that he Thank'd God before many Witnesses that he had put the Keeper into that Place For says he He that will not wrest Justice for Buckingham 's Sake whom I know he Loves will never be corrupted with Money which he never Lov'd His Majesty would have a Judge to be such a one as Justinian aimed at Novel 17. Vir optimus purus his contentus quae à fisco dantur A good Man that took nothing of the People but was contented with such Wages as the King gave him He had found the Man And because the Lord Keeper had Husbanded that Stock Three years and half and lived fairly upon it and was not the Richer by the Sale of one Cursitors Place in all that time His Majesty Granted him a Suit by the Name of a New-Years-Gift after the size of the Liberality of that good Master which was enough to keep a Bountiful Christmas twice over The Giver did not repent him but thought himself repaid with a Conceit that this most useful Counsellor produc'd at that Season about the Children of the Prince Elector The Spanish Treaties were laid aside and new Ones from France rose up in their Room which being Examin'd it could not appear that they did portend any Comfort to the Recuperation of the Palatinate His Majesty bewailed that his Grand-Children then Young and Tender would be very Chargeable to England when they grew to be Men. It was their Sole Refuge They might Seek their Fortune in another place and come home by Spills-Bury Sir says the Lord Keeper Will you be pleased to listen to me taking in the Prince his Consent of which I make no doubt and I will shew how you shall furnish the Second and Third Brothers with Preferments sufficient to maintain them that shall cost you nothing Breed them up for Scholars in Academial Discipline keep them strictly to their Books with such Tutors as will Teach them not to abuse themselves with vain Hopes upon the Greatness of their Birth For it is a Folly to gape after the Fruit hanging upon a high Tree and not to know how to Climb it If they fall to their Studies design them to the Bishopricks of Durham and Winchester when they become void If that happen in their Nonnage which is probable appoint Commendatories to discharge the Duty for them for a laudable Allowance but gathering the Fruits for the support of your Grand-Children till they come to Virility to be Consecrated George Duke of Anhault having Ministerial Gifts was Ordain'd into that Holy Calling at Magdeburg and yet put to no Shifts as Melancthon is my Author and many more The Priestly Office was esteem'd from the beginning fittest for the best Gentlemen for the First-Born among them that serv'd the Truo God And the Romans who serv'd them that were no Gods learn'd it at Athens from Theseus Plut. in vità 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Citizens of the Noblest Blood should be train'd up in knowledge of Sacred Things and be made the Administrators of Divine Mysteries And I am at another Benefit wherein I praise God that I am assured Your Majesty will concur with me That the Office of a Bishop imprudently by many Mâ—lign'd I might charge them with a worse Crime will be the more Inviâ—lable when the Branches of Your Royal Stock have so great an Interest in it And such Provision is Needful against Schismatical Attempts both for Religious Sake and the Publick Weal For if such great Superstructions should fall all would come to Ruin that is round about them I will yet go further If Your Majesty think a Bishoprick though of the best kind too little for either of them you may please to annex to each of them one of your principal Offices of State as You find them Trusty and Discreet When he had ended As I Live says the King I will fellow this Direction I thank you heartily for it and I attend it that it will save me more then the worth of a Subsidy Thus far these Matters were well Chewed But because they were not followed when others bore the sway they never came to a second Concâ—ction 215. The Peaceable Period of King James's Reign drew on when the times were active about a Marriage between our Prince and a Daughter of France the youngest of Henry the Great 's Posterity for she was a Posthuma a Princess eminently adorn'd with many Rays of Honour celebrated far and wide for Beauty Wit and sweet Disclosures of Behaviour The Lord Keeper was not us'd in Counsel about it till after many sendings to and fro Yet what fell out at last for his part to the better Understanding of Conditions of Agreement is worthy to hang upon the File of Honourable Registry Viscount Kersâ—ngâ—â—â— Created of Holland in the pursuance of that Service was sent into France almost a Twelve-Month before to discover what Approbation was like to follow if this Match were offer'd The Earl had an Amorous Tongue and a Wise Head could Court it Smoothly as any Man with the French Ladies and made so Fortunate an account into England after Three Months of his Introductions that he saw no fear of denial in the Suit nor of Spinosity in the Articles But because he was 〈◊〉 put in Trust by the Lord Duke and our King would scarce acknowledge that he had given him Authority for all that he had done He sent the Earl of Carlile after him His Majesty much affying in that Lords Fidelity and put them both into the same Commission They were Peers of the best Lustre in our Court Elegant in their Persons Habit and Language and by their nearness to King 〈◊〉 apt Scholars to learn the Principles of Wisdom and the sitter to improve their Instructions to Honour and Safety While these Things went on the 〈◊〉 made it is Thought and Study what to do befitting a Counsellor and 〈…〉 upon the prospect of the
new Chancellor and that His Majesty would constrain him to hold it whosoever it were that the Congregation agreed upon The Heads were yet in a Quandary and knew not well what to do because the King was not more Particular and seemed to be ill pleased with the Proctor that he had dived no further into His Majesties Meaning For they feared to fall upon a new Rock because His Majesty had pointed at no Person nor disclosed His Meaning by any Decipher or Intimation Nay says the Proctor I shall help this Mistake before you stir from hence Certainly there is one Clause in the Royal Letters which sets up the White at which all our Votes should aim For none hath declared a flat Refusal of this vacant Place but the Earl of Northampton therefore none else can be meant in this Passage That whomsoever we Choose the King will constrain him to hold It were not proper to think that any Grandee in the Realm beside that Lord should need to be constrained by the High Power and Prerogative of our Sovereign to be our Patron The Riddle being so luckily Unfolded by this Oedipus the Business was concordiously dispatch'd and then the King confess'd that they had hit upon the Interpretation of his secret Meaning Which abounded to the Praise of Mr. Williams's Solertiousness and indeed in an hundred Instances more he was as dextrous as in this to hunt upon a Fault and to recover upon a Loss But as Cicero says Orat. pro Cecinnâ cujus prudentiam pop Romanus in cavendo nunquam in decipiendo perspexit The Lord Privy-Seal soon after took his Oath with due Solemnity to be our Chancellor and gave civil Entreaty when the Esquire-Beadles or other Ministers of our Body came to him And we can boast of no more that came from him who went out of the World before his Sickness was suspected Jun. 15.16 14. The Golden Mountains we hoped for and promis'd to our selves from his Liberality came to nothing and the University was not the better for him by the worth of a Barly-Corn 29. There remains one Passage more justly devolved to be last and lowest for it had more of Success then of good Success in it in my judgment Dr. Clayton the Master of St. John's College died a good old Man about the beginning of June His Breath no sooner expired but the Fellows who have all Right of Election first began to Confer and then to Canvas for a Successor It was soon discovered that the swaying Men and that were fit for the bandy of such a Business meant to set up Mr. Owen Gwin one of the Senior Fellows Others look'd out for one that was Simplicitor optimus and they hit him It was the Darling of Divines Dr. Morton then Dean of Winton now Lord Bishop of Durham the Polycarpus of our Smyrna the Church of England whose Piety and Humility are Incomparable his Learning most Admirable and his long Age most Venerable Almost all the true Children of the Muses bless'd their Endeavours that acted for such a Man saying with the Psalmist We wish you good luck in the name of the Lord. But this Patriarch as I may call him was not like to carry the day by the Consent of the most Too few stood up for him too few by one especially and that one was Proctor Williams O how could one of his deep Reach and passing great Love to his Society prefer an obscure one scarce to be named before the Man that had all good Men's Applause Dr. Morton If there be any thing to be said to make it look fair on his part on one side it is this Mr. Gwin had been his Tutor A high Spirit of which he was guilty will rather Trespass then not repay the least Benefit it had receiv'd Nay a wise Man dare not incur such a Folly as to be Ingrateful Says Comines lib. 2. Mihi absurdum quiddam esse videtur hominem prudent em ingratum esse posse For great Ones before they will collate a Favour to make a Man and raise him up will desire to be satisfied how he hath carried himself to other Obligations What Fidelity hath he shewn to former Benefactors Ecclus. 3.34 He that requiteth good turns is mindful of that which may come hereafter The relation of Pupilship prick'd on Mr. Williams to do any thing that was in his power for him that had so much Interest in his Breeding But while he was struggling and wooing his Friends to advance that Choice he solicited Mr. Sen. house a very rare Preacher as Floury as the Spring-Garden afterward Bishop of Carlile who bespake him fairly again Sir if you desire my Voice to confer the Mâ—stership upon your self I will not deny you I know you though a young Man right worthy of it but your Tutor shall never have my Suffrage while I can say No. After he had prevailed to set Mr. Gwin over that great Society his Fortunes carried him away but he heard so much that he quickly dislik'd his own Work For there was another in that College whose Name is best conceal'd that was a robustious driver of Canvasses who took the whole Rule from Mr. Gwin a soft Man and given altogether to Ease into his own hand and was like the Major Domo by whom all Suits pass'd and every Student stoop'd to him for his Preferment To compare great Things with smaller such another as Victor says Mutianus proved after he had advanced Vespasian to the Empire by his Cohorts Fiduciâ meruorum factus insolens sawcy to meddle with all because he had deserv'd so much and nothing would content him unless nothing were denied him Mr. Williams heard of these Passages too late when he could not help the harm he had done But because he endured much compunction of Mind for it I will only commit him for this Fault to the castigation of the wise Poet Horace Qualem commendas etiam atque etiam aspice ne mox Incutiant aliena tibi peccata pudorem Horat. Lib. 1. Ep. 12. 30. It was time for him after the Settlement of these great Places upon others to look to his own Place in the ensuing Commencement which was even approaching The Inceptor-Masters by Prescription have the Right to choose out of the two Proctors whom they please to be the Father of the Act as we Cantabrigians call it It is a strange Aenigma that the Sons should beget their Father It lights commonly as if it were Postulatum Mathematicum upon the Senior But because he that now was the Elder if ever he had Polite Learning fit for such a Performance had out-grown it therefore because he was no Elder that could Rule well the Inceptors gave the Younger the double Honour This Commencement was as Gay and full of Pomp by the great Concourse of Nobles and Gentlemen as ever I saw The Acquaintance and Fame of the Proctor drew the most The Welch Gentry were enough to fill the Scaffolds Beside such as repair'd
satisfaction who will judge of good Works by Visions and not by Dreams I will cast up in a true Audite other Deeds of no small reckoning conducing greatly to the Welfare of that College Church and Liberty wherein Piety and Beneficence were Relucent in despight of Jealousies First that God might be praised with a chearful Noise in his Sanctuary he procured the sweetest Music both for the Organ and for the Voices of all Parts 〈◊〉 was heard in an English Quire In those days that Abby and Jerusalem-Chamber where he gave Entertainment to his Friends were the Volaries of the choicest Singers that the Land had bred The greatest Masters of that delightful Faculty frequented him above all others and were never nice to serve him And some of the most Famous yet living will confess he was never nice to reward them a Lover could not court his Mistress with more prodigal effusion of Gifts With the same Generosity and strong propension of mind to enlarge the Boundaries of Learning he converted a wast Room scituate in the East side of the Cloysters into Plato's Portico into a goodly Librarary model'd it into decent Shape furnished it with Desks and Chains accoutred it with all Utensils and slored it with a vast Number of Learned Volumes For which use he lighted most fortunately upon the Study of that Learned Gentleman Mr. Baker of Highgate who in a long and industrious Life had Collected into his own possession the best Authors in all Sciences in their best Editions which being bought at 500 l. a cheap Peny worth for such precious War were removed into this Store-House When he received Thanks from all the professors of Learning in and about London far beyond his expectation because they had free admirtance to such Hony from the Flowers of such a Garden as they wanted before it compell'd him to unlock his Cabinet of Jewels and bring forth his choicest Manuscripts A Right Noble Gift in all the Books he gave to this Serapaeum but especially the Parchments Some good Authors were confer'd by other Benefactors but the richest Fruit was shaken from the Boughs of this one Tree which will keep Green in an unfading Memory in despite of the Tempest of Iniquity As Pliny the younger wrote in an Epistle upon the Death of his Son quatenus nobis denegatur diu vivere relinquamus aliquid quo nos vixisse testemur so this Work will bear Witness to Posterity that he liv'd and that he liv'd beneficently I borrow that assurance from honour'd Mr. Selden in his Epistle before the History of Eadmerus Dedicated to the Founder of this Library to whom he writes in these Words Egregius peritissimusque literarum censor fautor indulgentissimus audis verè es Quippe qui Doctrinam suo merito indies cupientissimus honestas Et sumptuosam in struendis publico usui Bibliothecis operam impendis Praemium ita studiosis armarium etiam sine exemplo solicitus parandi Yet what an ill requital did these unthankful times make him when they removed that worthy Scholar the Bibliothecary whom he had placed Mr. Richard Gouland whom he pick'd out above all men for that Office being inferiour to none in the knowledg of good Authors Superiour to any for Fidelity and Diligence of so mortified a Life that he could scandalize none but with Innocency and Piety nor offend any but by Meekness and Inoffensiveness Such times such Fruits for as Antoninus the Emperor says lib. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is mad that looks for Figgs upon the Tree in Winter I cannot end with the Erection of this Library I have but almost done For this Dean gratified the College with many other Benefits When he came to look into the State of the House he found it in a Debt of 300 l. by the Hospitality of the Table It had then a Brotherhood of most worthy Prebendaries Moumford Sutton Laud Caesar Robinson Dorrel Fox King Newel and the rest but ancient frugal Diet was laid aside in all places and the prizes of Provisions in less than fifteen years were doubled in all Markets By which enhancements the Debt was contracted and by him discharg'd Not long after to the Number of the forty Scholars the Alumni of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation anno 1560. he added four more distinguish'd from the rest in their Habit of Violet Colour'd Gowns for whose maintenance he purchased Lands These were Adopted Children and in this divers from the Natural Children that the place to which they are removed when they deserve it by their Learning is St. John's College in Cambridge of whom more hereafter And in those days when good Turns were received with the Right Hand Cabal pag. 69. it was Esteemed among the praises of a Stout and Vigilant Dean that whereas a great Limb of the Liberties of the City was threatned to be cut off by the Encroachments of the higher Power of the Lord Steward of the Kings Houshold and the Knight Marshal with his Tip-Staves he stood up against them with a wife and a confident Spirit and would take no composition to let them share in those Priviledges which by right they never had but preserv'd the Charter of his place in its entire Jurisdiction and laudable Immunities 57 As the place was most Fortunate in him so it come now to be shewn that he was most Fortunate in that place That which was the Lodging of a Dean became in the current of one year the House of the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and the 〈…〉 lace of the Bishop of Lincoln Ab eo Magistratu alium post alium sibi peperit semperque in potestatibus eo modo agitabat ut amplioris quà m gerebat dignns haberetur Words as fit for this Man as Salust made them for C. Marius The Occasion of his sudden Rising was wondred at because known to few And they that were busie in the search did not find it albeit it had done him Credit that received the Honour Works that deserve well deserve the better when they are wrapt up in Silence till Prudence chooseth the best time to disclose them When the Apostles had seen the Glory of our Lord Transfigur'd in the Mount they were commanded Secrecy to Tell the Vision to no Man till the Son of Man was Risen from the Dead Math. 17.9 Let discretion then be my Warrant to give some State-Occurrencies liberty to go abroad which were confined upon good Reason to the Kings Cabinet in their Minority Nam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ille tempus est ipsum temporis Jul. Seal On Jan. 30. 1620. the King met with the Lords and Commons in the High Court of Parliament The like Assembly convened anno 1613. had given unkindness to the King so that Parliaments had been disused for seven years The unkindness so deeply taken was chiefly from hence that the greatest part of the House of Commons gave willing Audience to those Zealots who would admit no business into Treaty
Vows on them and their Posterity These were the Deans Instructions which the Lord Marquess received with as much Thankfulness as he could express and requited his Adviser with this Complement that he would use no other Counsellor hereafter to pluck him out of his plunges for he had delivered him from Fear and Folly and had Restor'd him both to a light Heart and a safe Conscience To the King they go together forthwith with these Notes of honest Settlement whom they found accompanied in his Chamber with the Prince and in serious Discourse together upon the same perplexities Buckingham craves leave That the Dean might be heard upon those particulars which he had brought in Writing which the King Mark'd with Patience and Pleasure And whatsoever seem'd contentious or doubtful to the King 's piercing Wit the Dean improved it to the greater liking by the Solidity of his Answers Whereupon the King resolv'd to keep close to every Syllable of those Directions Sir Edward Villiars was sent abroad and return'd not till September following Michel and Mompesson received their censure with a Salvo that Mompesson's Lady not guilty of his Crimes should be preserv'd in her Honour And before the Month of March expir'd Thirty seven Monopolies with other sharking Prouleries were decry'd in one Proclamation which return'd a Thousand praises and Ten Thousand good prayers upon the Sovereign Out of this Bud the Deans Advancement very shortly spread out into a blown Flower For the King upon this Tryal of his Wisdom either call'd him to him or call'd for his Judgment in Writing in all that he deliberated to Act or permit in this Session of Parliament in his most private and closest consultations The more he founded his Judgment the deeper it appear'd so that his Worth was Valued at no less than to be taken nearer to be a Counsellor upon all Occasions The Parliament wearied with long sittings and great pains was content against the Feast of Easter to take Relaxation and was Prorogued from the 27 of March to the 18 of April The Marquess had an Eye in it upon the Lord Chancellor to try if time would mitigate the displeasure which in both Houses was strong against him But the leisure of three Weeks multiplied a pile of New Suggestions against him and nothing was presaged more certain than his downfal which came to Ripeness on the third of May. On that day the Patent of his Office with the Great Seal was taken from him which Seal was deliver'd to Four Commissioners the Lord Treasurer Mountagu Duke of Lenox Lord Steward of the King's Houshold William Earl of Pembroke Lord Chamberlain to the King and Thomas Earl of Arundel and Surry with whom it rested till the 10th of July following In the mean time Sir James Leigh Lord Chief Justice of the King's-Bench was Commissioned to be Speaker in the Upper House and Sir Julius Caesar Master of the Rolls was Authorized with certain Judges in equal power with him to hear dispatch and decree all Causes in the Court of Chancery 62 The Competitors for the Office of the Great Seal were many Sir James Leigh before mention'd a Widower and upon Marriage with a Lady of the Buckingham Family Sir Henry Hobart Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas Chancellor to the Prince a Step to the Higher Chancellorship and as fit as any man for his Learning and Integrity which of these it was uncertain but one of these was expected And verily a fitter Choice could not be made than out of the pre-eminent Professors of the Common Laws but that all Kings affect to do somewhat which is extraordinary to shew the liberty of their power The Earl of Arundel was thought upon a Master of Reason and of a great Fortune For it was remembred upon the Death of Lord Chancellor Bromly anno 1587 That Queen Elizabeth designed a Peer of the Realm for his Successor Edward Earl of Rutland whose Merit for such a place is favour'd by Mr. Cambden because he was Juris scientiâ omni politiori literaturâ ornatissimus and if his Death much bewailed had not prevented the Great Seal had been born before him But the likeliest to get up and I may say he had his Foot in the Stirrup was Sir Lionel Cranfield Married in the kindred that brought Dignity to their Husbands a man of no vulgar head-piece yet scarce sprinkled with the Latin Tongue He was then Master of the Court of Wards and did speak to the Causes that were brought before him quaintly and evenly There seemed to be no Let to put him in Possession of the great vacant Office but that the Lord Marquess set on by the King was upon enquiry how profitable in a just way it might be to the Dignitary and whether certain Branches of Emolument were natural to it which by the endeavour of no small ones were near to Lopping Sir Lionel besought the Marquess to be sudden and to Advise upon those things with the Dean of Westminster a found man and a ready who did not wont to clap the Shackles of delay upon a business He being spoken to to draw up in Writing what he thought of those Cases return'd an Answer speedily on the Tenth of May with the best advantage he could foresee to the promotion of the Master of the Wards Yet it fell out cross unto him that the Dean woing for another utterly beyond expectation sped for himself The Paper which he sent to the Marquess hath his own Words as they follow My most Noble Lord ALthó the more I Examine my self the more unable I am made to my own Judgment to wade through any part of that great Employment which your Honour vouchsafed to confer with me about yet because I was bred under the place and that I am credibly inform'd my True and Noble Friend the Master of the Wards is willing to accept it and if it be so I hope your Lordship will incline that way I do crave leave to acquaint your Honour by way of prevention with secret underminings which will utterly overthrow all that Office and make it beggerly and contemptible The lawful Revenue of that Office stands thus or not much above at any time In Fines certain 1300 l. per annum or thereabout In Fines Casual 1250 l. or thereabout In greater Writs 140 l. for impost of Wine 100 l. in all 2790. and these are all the true means of that great Office Now I am credibly inform'd that the Lord Treasurer begins to Entitle the King to to the casual Fines and the greater Writs which is a full Moiety of the profits of the place not so much to Enrich the King as to draw Grist to his own Mill and to wind from the Chancellor the donation of the Cursitors places The preventing the Lord Treasurers in these Cases made Queen Elizabeth ever Resolve suddenly upon the disposing of the Great Seal Likewise they are very busie in the House of Commons and I saw a Bill which
it that the Impulsive of it was the supposed Irregularity which was then reviv'd but because he would not Licence a Sermon of Dr. Sibthorp's which the King sent to him by Mr. W. Murry of the Bed-chamber for his Hand to the Printing which he denied saying There was some Doctrine in the Sermon which was contrary to his Judgment I write I confess by hear-say but I heard it from his own mouth and have it in a Manuscript under his own Hand It had been a wild thing to rake up the Irregularity again out of the Embers since in the interim he had Consecrated many Prelates nay since he had Consecrated the Elements of Christ's Supper at the King's Coronation and set the Crown upon His Majesties Head And not long after he returned from Foord to a Parliament Summon'd to begin March 17. 1627. he Consecrated that Learned Divine Mr. Richard Montagu Promoted to the See of Chichester at Croydon Aug. 24. 1628. Yet that great Scholar had Presented his studied Papers for the Irregularity to the Lord-Keeper more then any man But now he was satisfied to be Consecrated by the whilom Irregular supposed And at the same time Dr. Laud then Bishop of London was Assistant with the Arch-Bishop to impose Hands Such Changes there are in Human Judgments 80. Perhaps I may be thought Irregular my self that I have knit the Election and Consecration of the Bishop of Lincoln to the long Series and Discussion of this famous Case I crave Pardon if I want one Now I step back to the Lord-Keeper who before the end of June was a Keeper of more then he desired the Earl of Southampton one of his dearest Friends on Earth being committed a Prisoner to his Custody A worthy Lord and of a gallant Freedom yet such as less then Kings do not like In the Session of Parliament which was then newly ended he was interpreted to exceed in some words against the Royal Prerogative a Stone of Offence that lay in many men's ways Beside he had Rebuk'd the Lord Marquess of Buckingham with some Passion and Acrimony for speaking often to the same thing in the House and out of Order Therefore he was Confined but with as much Gentleness as could be devised rather to a Nurse then a Jaylor But the Lord-Keeper though he lik'd his Guest yet he preferred his Liberty before that Liking and never gave over till he had got his Enlargement discharged him from the Attendance of Sir William Parkhust who as a Spy was sent to wait upon him at Tichfield that he might be lest only to the Custody of his own good Angel as he writes Cabal p. 59. Likewise in Tenderness to the Earl's Wealth and Honour he kept him from an Information in Star-chamber which was threatned and buoy'd him up at last to the King's Favour so as he might rather expect new Additions then suspect the least Diminution from his Gracious Majesty Though all this came purely from his Love and Industry yet of all that was obtained he would take nothing to himself but directed the Earl to cast his Eye upon my Lord of Buckingham Of whose extraordinary Goodness says he your Lordship and my self are remarkabe Reflections the one of his Sweetness in forgetting Wrongs the other of his Forwardness in conserring Court sies These Passages occur in the Printed Bundle But there is a Letter the Publisher of the former did not meet with it dated two days before Jul. 19. written to the Lord Marquess in behalf of that Honourable Earl and likewise of Mr. J. Selden my great Friend while he lived who was clap'd up at the same time because being a Member of the House of Commons in that Parliament he had preferred the danger of telling Truth before the safety of Silence Thus for them both together he Solicites My most Noble Lord WHat true Applause and Admiration the King and your Honour have gained for that gracious and most Christian-like Remorse shewed the E. of Southampton a Delinquent by his own Confession I refer to the Relation of others lest I might be suspected to amplifie any thing which my self had propounded The Earl if he be a Christian or a moral honest Man will endeavour to regain His Majesty's further Favour by more observance and to requite your unexpressible Goodness towards him by all true and hearty Friendship both which he deeply Vows and Protests Now poor Mr. Selden flies to the same Altar of Mercy and humbly Petitioneth your Lordship's Mediation and Furtherance He and the World take knowledge of that Favour your Lordship hath ever offorded my motions and my self without the motion of any and so draweth me along to Entreat for him The which I do the more boldly because by his Letter inclosed he hath utterly denied that ever he gave the least Approbation of that Power of Judicature lately usurped by the House of Commons My Lord The man hath excellent Parts which may be diverted from an Affectation of Applause of idle People to do some good and useful Service to His Majesty He is but young and this is the first Offence that ever he committed against the King I presume therefore to leave him to your Lordship's Mercy and Charity These soft words mollified Anger and Mr. Selden was Released by the next Pacquet that came from the Court in progress If the Stoics had been wise men truly the Lord-Keeper had been none for they pronounced with their Master Zeno in Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That wise Men are not Pitiful But insooth there was never a greater Stickler then he to bring Afflicted Ones out of Durance and Misery when he could effect it by Power and Favour none that lent their hand more readily to raise up those that were cast down But if a Gentleman of Mr. Selden's merit were under the peril of Vindicative Justice he would stretch his whole Interest and cast his own Robe as it were to save him When he had brought him to Liberty he stay'd not there He perceived his Fortune in those days was not equal to his Learning therefore he conferred the Registership of the College of Westminster upon him not meaning to hinder his Growth with a Garment that was too little for him but he procured a Chapman that gave him 400 l. for his Right in the Place A Courtesie which Mr. Selden did never expect from the Giver and was repaid with more Duty and Love then the Giver could ever have expected from Mr. Selden And although that singular good Scholar Mr. Montagu did never agree with Mr. Selden as their Adverse and Polemical Writings about the Right of Tithes do evidence yet the Lord-Keeper made them both agree in his Favour and Patronage Which Mr. Montagu hath proclaimed abroad in his Treatise of Invocation of Saints Licensed for the Press with his Lordship 's own Hand in Right as he was his Visitor in the Colleges of Windsor and Eaton His Words may be found in the Epistle Dedicatory
to that Treatise as follow Let the World take notice if it may concern any your Honour is be unto whom next unto His most Sacred Majesty my most Gracious Sovereign and Master I owe more then to all the World beside Professing unseignedly in the word of a Priest Fâ—cisti ut vivam moriar ingratus 81. The Lord-Keeper being so great a Dealer in the Golden Trade of Mercy and so successful he followed his Fortune and tried the King and the Lord Marquess further in the behalf of some whom their dear Friends had given over in Despair to the Destiny of Restraint And those were of the Nobles For he carried a great regard to their Birth and Honour and knew it was good for his own safety to deserve well of those high-born Families The East of Nerthumberland had been a Prisoner in the Tewer above 15 years His Confidents had not Considence and a good Heart I say not to Petition but to dispute with the King how ripe the Earl was for Clemency and Liberty 〈◊〉 Majesty was very merciful but must be rubb'd with a Fomentation of hi◠〈◊〉 Oyl to make him more supple This dextrous Statesman infuseth into 〈…〉 how to compass the Design with what Insinuations and Argum◠〈…〉 were improved with the Earl's demulcing and well-languag'd Phrases And when it came to strong Debate the Lord-Keeper got the better of the King in Reason So the Physic wrought as well as could be wish'd and on the 18th of July the Earl of Northumberland came out of the Tower the Great Ordnance going off to give him a joyful Valediction Who turned his Thoughts to consider the Work of God that a Stranger had wrought 〈◊〉 Comfort for him in his old Age whose Face he had ne 〈…〉 never purchased by any Benefit nor courted so much as by the meâ—age of a Salutation Which his Lordship compared to St. Peter's Deliverance by the Angel of God Acts 12. when Peter knew not who it was that came to help him Though not in order of Time yet in likeness of Condition the Earl of Oxford's Case is to be ranked in the same File It was in April in the year following that he was sent to the Tower betrayed by a false Brother for rash Words which heat of Wine cast up at a merry meeting His Lordship's Enemies were great and many whom he had provoked yet after he had acquainted the Lord-Keeper with the long Sadness of his Restraint in a large Letter which is preserved he wrought the Earl's Peace and Releasment conducted him to the King's Chamber to spend an hour in Conference with His Majesty from whence a good Liking was begot on both sides Whom thereupon that Earl took for his trusty and wisest Friend using his Counsel principally how to Husband his Estate and how to employ his Person in some Honourable Service at Sea that the Dissoluteness of his Hangers-on in the City might not sink him at Land The Lord-Keeper did as much for the Earl of Somerset in Christmas-time before bringing him by his mediation out of the House of Sorrow wherein he had continued above five years that he might take fresh Air and enjoy the comfort of a free Life which was affected by him to gratisie the splendid and spreading Family of the Howards And they were all well pleased with him as were the greatest part of the Grandees except the Earl of Arundel for a Distast taken of which the Lord-Keeper need not be ashamed 82. Within Six Weeks after he was settled in that Office the Earls Secretary brought two Patents to be Sealed the one to bestow a Pension of 2000 l. per annum upon his Lord out of the Exchequer which was low mow'n and not sit to bear such a Crop beside the Parliament which was to meet again in the Winter could not choose but take Notice what over-bountiful Issues were made out of the Royal Revenue to a Lord that was the best Landed of all his Peers Yet the Seal was put to with a dry assent because there was no stopping of a Free River With this Patent came another to confer the Honour of the Great Marshal of England upon the same Noble Personage The Contents of it had scarce any Limits of Power much exceeding the streit Boundaries of Law and Custom The Lord Keeper searching into the Precedents of former Patents when the same Honour was conser'd found a great inequality and doubted for good Cause that this was a device to lay his unfitness for his great place Naked to the World if he swallowed this Pill But nothing tended more to the praise of his great Judgment with His Majesty He writes to my Lord of Buckingham to acquaint the King that he thought His Majesty intended to give to greater Power than the Lords Commissioners had who dispatch'd Affairs belonging to that Office joyntly before him and that all Patents refer to the Copy of the immediate Predecessors who were the Earls of Essex Shrewsbury and Duke of Somerset but my Lord leap'd them over and claim'd as much as the Howards and Mowbries Dukes of Norfolk did hold which will enlarge his Authority beyond the former by many Dimensions There is much more than this in the Cabal of Letters p. 63. And much more than I meet there in his own private Papers The King was much satisfied with the Prudence and Courage of the Man that he had rather display these Errors than commit them for fear of a mighty Frown so the Earls Counsel were appointed to attend the Lord Keeper who joyning their hands together examin'd the Obliquities of the Patent and alter'd them What would have follow'd if it had pass'd entire in the first Draught For being so much corrected and Castrated yet the proceedings of the Court of Honour were a Grievance to the People not to be supported The Decrees of it were most uncertain most Arbitrary most Imperious Nor was there any Seat of Judgment in the Land wherein Justice was brought a bed with such hard Labour Now I invite the Reader if he please to turn to the 139 pag. of Sir An. Wel. Pamphlet and let him score a Mark for his Remembrance at these Lines That Williams was brought in for this Design to clap the Great Seal through his Ignorance in the Laws to such things that none that understood the danger by knowing the Laws would venter upon This Knight when he is in a Course of Malice is never out of his Way but like an egregious Bugiard here he is quite out of the Truth For the New Lord Keeper walk'd so Circumspectly that he seem'd to fear an Ambush from every Grant that was to pass for the use of encroaching Courtiers if any thing were Ambiguous or Dangerous he was not asham'd to call for Counsel If any thing were prest against Rule he was inexorable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. He kept constant to Justice in its Flat Square I could be Luxuriant in instances nothing is
the Letter for upon the Death of the late King of Spain being sent from his Master our Soveraign to the King of Spain that now is to understand his Mind upon the Treaty of Marriage he receiv'd this Chearful Answer That he was sorry he had not the Honour to begin it but now he would pursue it with all Alacrity The Earl of Bristol is another Witness Cab. p. 27. I insisted that Two Millions for the Portion were by the last King settled and agreed with me That this King had undertaken to pursue the Business as it was left by his Father and to make Good whatsoever he had promised Thereupon I desired that the Original Papers and Consultoes of the last King might be seen which very honestly by the Secretary Cirica were produced and appeared to be such that I dare say there was not any Man that saw them that doubteth of the last Kings real Intention of making the Match So I leave these Contradictions to blush at the sight of one another But to me Olivarez his Fidelity is the Leg that halts For as Tully said of Roscius the Comoedians Adversary Quod sibi probare non possit id persuadere alteri conatur he could never persuade that vigorously to another which he disbelieved himself It is a tedious thing to be tied to Treat with one that cares not for his own Honour nor regards his Modesty with whom he Treats I mean that same Person that Bashaw of King Philip the Conde Duke who entramel'd as many Devices as his Pate could bring together to raise a Dust and made Demands meerly to satisfie his own Pride that he might boast he had ask'd them though his discretion taught him that he could never obtain them When Sir Fr. Cottington return'd to Madrid with the great Article procur'd to suspend the Penal Statutes of England in favour of Recusants he presented it to the Conde and expected as the Casttlian Phrase is Las Albricias a reward for bringing of good News the Conde stoop'd not so low as to give Thanks but having perused the Paper told Sir Francis it would be expected the Prince should Negotiate a plain Toleration for the Protestants that endured that which was in his Hand would patiently endure more Sir Francis Answered him with the Old Simile That his Lordship was no good Musician for he would peg the Minikin so high till it crack'd Concerning his Attemptings upon the Prince my supply is out of private Letters that came from Friend to Friend The Conde had Oblig'd his Honour to his Highness when he came First to the Court of Spain never to meddle with him about his Religion He kept not his promise but solicited his Highness that as he lov'd his Soul he would return to England a Catholic in his Sense Well my Lord says the Prince You have broken your Word with me but I will not break my Faith with God Another time he besought his Highness to afford his Company at a Solemn Mass No Sir says the Prince I will do no ill nor the suspicion of it Once more this Idern told his Highness that he would accomplish all that he could desire from the Crown of Spain if he would profess himself a Son of the Roman Church he should not only carry home the bravest Lady for Beauty Birth and Vertue that was but be made as great a King in Riches and Power as was in Europe But as the Prophet says Isa 63.5 Excandiscentia mea fulcivit me my Fury it upheld me so the Prince was heated at the Offer and gave this provocation to him that had provok'd him that it was such a another Rhadomontade as the Devil made to Christ All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and Worship me Next to matters of Religion the stiffest thing that was tugg'd for in this Month was about the Restitution of the Palatinate The Secretary of the Elector came to Madrid with Letters to the Duke about it which were not first imparted to the King his Father-in-Law But all that shall be drawn up into one Process in the Transactions of August 155. But in all Disputes for Sacred or secular Matters the Ministers of our King were the more Naked and Unarm'd when they came to the push of the Spanish Subtleties because they kept not the correspondence with themselves If my Lord of Buckingham could have fashion'd his mind to draw the same yoke with the Earl of Bristol who was most conversant upon the place and best knew the Arts of that Nation success had been more Fortunate But those Civil Discords were the Cause of many disorders and incivilities Therefore the King imposed on the Lord Keeper to use his Pen once more to reconcile them which he did not fail to do the very next day which was his Majesties Remove to begin the Western Progress July 22. May it please your Grace I would not be troublesom with this Second Letter but chiefly to let your Grace know that you never stood in your Life more uprightly in his Majesties Favour then at this instant and that I shall need to pour out no other Prayers unto God but for the continuation of the same For Gods sake Write to my Lord Hamilton and acquaint his Lordship with some Passages of your Affairs For my self I shall be content to Rove and guess at them And I hope your Grace will be pleased to pardon this Excursion that is my running this second or third time into business which I am told but cannot by any means believe it hath already drawn your Grace's Offence against me It is a most Humble Zealous and earnest Petition to your Grace to Seal up and really confirm that agreement and reconciliation which to the great Contentment of all your Friends but the Regret of some among us you have made with the Earl of Bristol What I wrote formerly might be ill placed and offend your Grace but all proceeded from as true and sincere a Heart unto your Grace as you left behind you in all this Kingdom But the renewing of it now again hath a Root from a higher Power who hath observ'd your Grace his Favour so abounding towards me and my acknowledgments so far as my poor ability permitteth so returned to your Grace that he was pleased to say unto me this Morning upon this Theme That he knew you would regard any Representation that I should recommend unto you In good Faith his Majesty is more then Zealous not only of fair Terms of Friendship but of a near Alliance formerly spoken of between your Grace and that Earl Of whose Sufficiencies and Abilities I perceive His Majesty to retein an extraordinary good Opinion which in all Humility I thus leave to your Lordships Wisdom and Consideration The Earl of Bristol had heard how the Lord Keeper had ventur'd to make this Pacification and writes to him Cab. p. 20. That the Friendship of the Duke was a thing he did
infinitely desire that he did much Esteem the good Offices his Lordship bad done therein but that he conceived that any motion he had made in that kind had been despis'd rather then received with Thankfulness 156. He might have said more then despised for they were received with that sad Interpretation that upon it the Duke removed his Affections from the Lord Keeper for ever quite contrary to Solon's Rule neither to choose a Friend suddenly nor to loose him suddenly But after all the Lord Keepers Faithfulness and that he watch'd the good of the Dukes Affairs in his absence with as much tenderness as a Nurse doth a sucking Child at her Breast his Grace resolv'd to pluck down the highest Roof of his Dignity as soon as he could Nor was he the surer to escape that Anger for fair Words Tacitae magis occultae inimicitiae timendae sunt quà m indictae apertae Cic. 7. Verrin Yet the threatning broke out by one man who was glad to cherish it For Sir John Michel did not hide it that my Lord Mandevile Lord President of the Councel shew'd him a Letter from Spain assuring that the first Action the Duke would Embark himself in when he came home should be to remove him out of his Place Cab. p. 89. With which the threatned party was not much daunted knowing what a Master he served that King whose Speech utter'd at Sterling at fourteen years of Age hath Wisdom becoming one of fourty Spotwoods p. 288. I will study to be indifferent and to bestow my Favours impartially and never repose my self upon any one so much as to deny others the regard that is due unto them The Duke was a generous and incorrupt Patron an exactor of great Duty from those he prefer'd or a great Enemy Let him allow himself what he could ask for all his Favours this Man was ready to pay him If he would be deceiv'd by crafty Underminers into the distrust of his truest Friend when he could not serve him in unfit ways the fault is in the want of his Grace's insight or inconstancy But as I find it in the Posthumous Meditation of the most Noble Lord Capel p. 21. Favour is a fine Thred which will scarce hold one tug of a crafty Tale-bearer The Observator on H. L. lights upon this Quarrel I do not pursue the Lord Keepers Enemies But if I meet them I will not shun them Thus He being Drunk with Wormwood Lam. 3.15 That he had done many ill Offices to the Duke when he was in Spain p. 36. Many and yet Name none If he will pick his Ears clean from the filth of Hatred I will tell him what my Lord Duke took to be ill Offices The First Displeasure and never laid down was That the knowledge came to the King by his means who those Gentlemen were that importun'd his Grace by their Expresses sent into Spain to rend the Treaty of the Match in sunder or to Act against it with all Wit and Power The accused Lord protested upon his Salvation he was not the Discoverer The acclearment is fair and the Proof nothing who is able to make Answer to Jealousie that grows out of the Mud of a man's Brain like a Bull-rush I will Relate what the Earl of Rutland the Duke's Father-in-Law return'd again when he had gone between them often to dismount this Objection that the Duke said Whensoever I Disagree with him he will prove himself to be in the Right and though I could never detect him hitherto to be Dishonest I am afraid of his Wit The Second Offence taken was That he would have perswaded the Duke into a good Opinion of the Earl of Bristol and Reason for it because he would have kept his Lordship in a good Opinion with the King To which all his Allies all that Studied him all that Honour'd him did not contribute so much nor had the King's Ear so much as he had to effect it To sit Heraclides his Adagy to him Nemo benè merito bovem immolavit praeter Phariam He was another Pharias that offered the best Sacrifice to that Lord that had deserved the best of him When I find the King had his part in that which was so ill taken anent the Earl of Bristol I can find no blame in it But if it had been an Error it was a sanctified one to labour to convert Enmities unto Love unfeigned And should a Talent of Anger be weighed against a Grain of Offence There was no Error there was no Offence but that Infelicity which the Wise Man Bias observ'd to be in such Cases That it is better to be Judg in a Cause between two Enemies then two Friends for of two Friends I shall make one mine Enemy but of two Enemies it is likely I shall make one my Friend Laert in vità The Third Scandal was That he set forward the Treaty of the Marriage with Oars and Sails of Ingeny and Industry A new Crime Caius Caesar and never heard before He was a Servant in it He was Conjur'd unto the Care of it by the King and he was as Trusty to it as the Soul of his Majesty could wish The best Head-piece of our Councel in Spain look'd upon him as the chief Adjutant Cab. p. 23. Thus the Earl of Bristol If there should be any doubt I am sure that your Lordship would put to a helping hand to keep the business from being overthrown since you have done so much for the overcoming of former difficulties and the bringing it to the pass it is now in The Duke was fallen by the wyliness of others and by his own wilfulness into a contrary Motion when the Lord Keeper saw the Councils of his greatest Friend esloigned from those of his dread Sovereign he had been a Beast if he had not given the Right Hand to Loyalty Patrem primum postea Patronum proximum nomen habere says Cato in A. Gel. lib. 5. A King is a common Father Observance is due to thy Father first and afterward to thy Patron 157. Yet why should things subordinate be at odds as if they were contraries The lesser Circle is not opposite but within the greater Moses and his Minister Josuah the King and his Choicest Servants are not Represented as two but as one person to Allegiance The Lord Keeper held fast to them both that both might hold fast to themselves nor would he leave the Duke to his own â—â—king as far as the King dislik'd him but persisted to displease him into the good Opinion of his Majesty Vera amicitia est idem velle idem nolle says â—â—elius If this young unforeseeing Lord should persist to hate that which the King lov'd his vigilant Counsellor knew that the King would use him no longer a Friend but would remove him from that privacy wherein he had bred him This and much more was prosecuted in August Sancta Patres Augusta vocant Ovid. Fast lib. 1. In the Language of
Old Latium August and Sacred signified the same 'T were good if it would prove so now But it began with discontent on every side and never mended Our Wise King no longer smother'd his Passion but confess'd at sundry times a great fault in himself that he had been so improvident to send the Duke on this Errand with the Prince whose bearing in Spain was ill Reported by all that were not partial He put the bafful so affectedly upon the Earl of Bristol at every turn that those Propositions which his Majesty had long before approved with deep Wisdom and setled with the Word of Honour were struck out by my Lord of Buckingham only because Bristol had presented them Nay if the Prince began to qualifie the unreasonableness he would take the Tale out of his Highness's Mouth and over-rule it and with such youthful and capricious Gestures as became not the lowly Subjection due to so great a Person but least of all before Strangers It was an Eye-sore to the Spaniards above any people who speak not to their King and the Royal Stems of the Crown without the Complement of Reverence nor approach unto them without a kind of Adoration The more the Prince endur'd it the more was their judgment against it For every Mouth was fill'd with his Highness's Praise and nothing thought wanting in him to be absolutely good and Noble but to know his own Birth and Majesty better and to keep more distance from a Subject So the Earl of Bristol Writes Cab. p. 20. I protest as a Christian I never heard in all the time of his being here nor since any one Exception against him unless it were for being supposed to be too much guided by my Lord of Buckingham which was no Venial Sin in their censure For how much their gall Super-abounded against that Lord the same Earl could not hold to write it to the Lord Keeper bearing Date August 20. I know not how things may be Reconciled here before my Lord Duke's departure but at present they are in all Extremity ill betwixt this King his Ministers and the Duke And they stick not to profess that they will rather put the Infanta head-long into a Well then into his Hands One thing that fill'd up the Character of my Lord Duke before in this Work was that he had much of the brave Alcibiades in him In this they differ that Plutarch's Alcibiades suited himself so well to the Manners and Customs of all Courts where he came that he gave satisfaction to all Princes and they were best pleased with him that most enjoy'd him The great Lord Villiers was not so Fortunate for he thrived not in the Air of Madrid and he brook'd the Air of Paris as ill about two years after upon the like Occasion And no marvel For as Catulus said of Pompey in Paterculus Praeclarus vir Cn. Pompeius sed reipub liberae nimius So this Lord was a worthy Gentleman but too big to be one in a Free Treaty with other Ministers The Lord Keeper who was the Socrates to this Alcibiades had Noted his Lordships Errors and unbeseeming Pranks before For which he look'd for no better then he that rubs a Horse that is gaul'd Yet he resolv'd to shoot another Arrow the same way that the former went though the Duke had threatned to break his Bow as soon as he came Home But he was too prudent to be scared from doing Duty to so great a Friend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Aristotle He is neither Wise nor Faithful but a Flatterer that denies his Spirit ingenious Freedom And it is a Speech worthy of Sir Ph. Sidney which the Lord Brooke ascribes to him Pag. 42. of his Life That he never found Wisdom where he found not Courage Therefore the Lord Keeper writes to the Duke Aug. 3. of which this is the Moral to him that reads it intelligently That no Man living can keep Favour who keeps not Conditions that merit to perpetuate Favour May it please your Grace I Have no more to trouble your Grace at this time withal than the Expression of that Service and those Prayers which as I do truly owe so shall I ever as faithfully perform to your Grace New Comers may make more large and ample Promises but will in the end be found to fall short of your old Servants in Reality and Performances If your Grace hath by this time thought that I have been too bold and too near your Secrets in those Counsels I presumed upon in my last Letters I beseech you to remember how easie it was for me to have held my Peace how little Thanks I am like to receive from any other beside your Grace for the same how far I am in these Courses from any end of mine own beside your Prosperity and Security If your Grace would give me leave to deliver my Opinion upon the main though no Hunter after Court-News it is this Your Grace stands this Day in as great Favour with his Majesty as your Heart can desire And if I have any Judgment in far more Security of Continuance than ever you did if you remain as for ought I can perceive you do in the same State with the Prince in the same Terms as your Pains have deserved with the Princess and out of Quarrels and Recriminations which will but weaken both Parties and make way for a third with the rest of his Majesties Agents in this Negotiation I cannot but presume once more to put your Grace in mind that the nearer you are drawn to his Highness in Title the more you are with all Care and Observance to humble your self unto him in Speech Gesture Behaviour and all other Circumstances yea although his Highness should seem to require the Contrary This cannot be any way offensive to your own and is expected to the utmost Punto by that other Nation I do presume of Pardon for all my Follies in this kind and that whatsoever is wanting in my Discretion your Grace will be pleased to make up out of my Sincerity and Affection However your Grace and the Earl of Bristol shall conclude I hope your Grace will pardon my Zeal though peradventure not according to Knowledge aiming only at your Grace's Service the Amplitude and Continuance of your Greatness For whatsoever your Grace shall determine and conclude I do and shall implicitly yield unto the same Yet am still of Opinion the way of Peace to be the broad way to enlarge and perpetuate your Grace's Greatness and Favour with his Majesty c. This was bold but faithful and ingenious Dealing The Duke's last Messenger whom he sent into England before he arrived Sir J. Hipsley gave him a touch of the same Cab. P. 316. For God's-sake carry the Business with Patience betwixt my Lord of Bristol and you And again in the same For God's-sake make what hast you may Home for fear of the worst For the King's Face began to gather Clouds upon the
any prudent Man oblige himself to all those Errours which may be committed And if the Count Palatine had followed the Counsel of the most Excellent King of Great Britain many of those things which have succeeded had been prevented and the Grace of the Emperor had been better disposed than now it is Beside that much hath been spent and that they have seen him so obstinate stirring up against the Emperor both the Turk and Bethlem Gabor and as many others as he hath been able I say not this to the end that we should forbear to do whatsoever in this World we should be able to accommodate the Palatine and to do in this behalf that which the King of Great Britain doth shew that he desireth But to say that which is certain his Majesty of Great Britain doth by no means find himself in this Business any other ways engaged than he shall find that Engagement to be justifiable God keep you as I desire From Madrid 31 Octob. 1623. Postscript If my Lord the King did not mean to bring this Business to a final Conclusion with much Gust to the King of Great Britain we might sufficiently with that which my Lords the Ambassadors desire by offering and really interposing our Intercession with his Cesareal Majesty And we might also have excused the Writing of this long Letter which is full of Good will and of this I can assure you 163. This long riddling non-concluding Letter such another as Tiberius the Emperor wrote from Capree to the Senate for the Tryal of Sejanus is not endorsed I conceive it was sent to Mr. Edward Clerke who was sent from the Prince on Shipboard to the Earl of Bristol to stop the Powers he had for the dispatch of the expected Desposories this was put into his Hand against he return'd for England But what is it worth if it were to be sold Scarce two of their Maravedies and we requited them with that which came to as little as one of our Farthings We had look'd after the Re-possession of the Palatinate till our Eyes aked and to feed them with a taste of their own Provender a long-breath'd Delay we made their Ambassadors in London tarry for the Indulgences which their Clients in Religion hoped for till their Hearts aked It is opened sufficiently before that his Majesties End in subscribing to the Articles in favour of the Papists his Subjects was to second his Son in that which he had begun in Spain to bring him out of the Briars from thence The Ambassadors plied the Concession of the Articles very diligently that their Party might enjoy the sweetness of the Benefit For better is the sight of the Eyes than the wandring of the Desire Eccles 6.9 It fell out well that the King never intermitting a Summers Progress was out of the way So the Management of the Business fell upon the Lord Keeper not by Usurpation but by Merit and by Necessity too For whatsoever his Majesty pretended he gave the Keeper a secret Rule to go no faster than needs and to do no more prejudice than was unavoidable A Regiment of Plots would hardly be enough to be drawn up together to win that Enterprise though a good Sconce overcame all Propertius Mens bona si qua Dea es tua me in sacraria dona says a Heathen As all costly Oyntments have Oyl mixed with them so Wisdom persumes all Undertakings as this under the File will demonstrate The Ambassador used their Counsel Learned in our Laws to draw up the effect of that they had obtained as near as could be to his Majesties Mind Which was brought to the Lord Keeper who told them The Papers were unsatisfactory they had proceeded indeed by the Articles signed in the private Lodgings at Whitehal but the private Articles shew only the extent of his Majesties Grace and Favour in the substance not at all the Manner and Form how they shall be conveyed which must be chalked out by a new and immediate Warrant from his Majesty This held dispute till the 10th of August his Majesty being at Salisbury where Directions past to liquidate the Doubts how the Kings Grants should be applied call'd from that place the Articles of Salisbury For which the Agents of the Ambassadors were to resort to the Earl of Carlile and Mr. Secretary Conway attending in the Progress and the Patents to be filled up with them by the Discretion of the Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer Mr. Secretary Calvert Sir Richard Weston Chancellor of the Exchequer Mr. Atturney-General Sir Th. Coventry attending who were to sit at Whitehal for the more easie Expedition Time is given to draw up Copies of new Draughts Interea aliquid fiet spero says the Comick In these Intervals who could tell but somewhat might fall out to cross all On the 18th of August the Lord Keeper sends the Form of the Pardon drawn up to the King at Beawlie to save the Recusants from all Advantages the Laws might take for the time past and a Dispensation to keep them indemnified from the same for the time to come But an Item was given to bring the Dispensation lame back that his Majesty should signifie his Royal Will That the Pardon should go under the Great Seal the Dispensation under the Privy Seal This from Beawlie Aug. 21. And there was a Colour for it out of the Agreements of Salisbury subtilly drawn up For the second Article says That a Legal Authentical Pardon shall be past under the Great Seal And in the seventh Article There shall be a present Suspension of his Majesties Laws under his Seal The word Great was wilfully omitted to puzzle the Transaction But after the Spanish part had debated with the Lord Keeper in Reason he writes to Secretary Conway at Tichburn Aug. 25. That he confest a Dispensation from the Poenal Statutes could not be pleaded but under the Great Seal The Business got off in that Point but it hung upon another Tentar He writes again to Mr. Secretary then at Broad-lands Aug. 27. That it troubled him much he was enforced to such often Replies but the Weight of the Business would excuse it He says He was not instructed from the Articles of Salisbury from what Day the Dispensation was to begin and how far it was to be limited in time to come from what time those are to be excluded that do not lay hold of it To which answer was given but always the Dial stood Once again he demurr'd upon the Dispensation which says That the Papists Convict shall not pay their Forfeiture for not coming to Church nor be Indicted for not taking the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance whether it was not fit to divide these in several Styles and Expressions It was return'd and dictated from the Kings Lips The first Breach of the Laws should be signified to be absolutely pardoned The latter should go in another Form that it should not be questioned and Mr. Atturney to provide accordingly
Madrid Novemb. 12. says Sir Wal. Aston whom I believe though others say later The tenth day after the Dispensation made known in the Church let the Betrothing be Solemnized and the tenth day after it the Marriage Then the Prince may take his own Time to return when he will but the Lady could not make ready for the Seas considering her Train that must attend her till March. The Prince did not like the Arithmetick of this Counting-Table More time than the first Week of September he was resolved not to spend in that Land The Coming of the Dispensation he would not await which might be failing thither upon the idle Lake in the Fary Queen â—oth slow and swift alike did serve their turn To stay and Consummate the Marriage in his own Person he knew was unfit in two Respects He must take a Blessing from one of their Bishops in the Face of their Church and submit to their Trinckets and Ceremonies which he had rather hear than see Then if the Infanta had Conceived they would keep her it is likely till she was delivered The Child must stay till it was strong to endure the Seas so it might come to pass to be bred up and Naturalized a Spaniard in Religion and Affection When the Clock would not go right with those Plummets the Junto cast the i me out ino another Figure that his Highness would out of Courtship wherein he excelled and out of great Love to his Mistress which he professed perfect the Desponsation in his own Person and trust no other with it the Marriage and the Lady should follow after that is upon the Certificate of their Embassador out of England that Conditions were performed there to which the King of Great Briâ— ain had engaged To this his Highness was short That he would linger no longer and play at Cards in King Philip's Palace till the Messenger with the Port-mantick came from Rome Neither would he depend upon Embassadors and their Reports when the Illustrious Damosel should begin her Journey towards England Embassadors might certifie what they pleased and inform no more than their great Master's Counsel inspired them At last his Highness took upon him to deside the Wrangling and cast out the sacred Anchor from the Stern to keep their Counsels from further Floating that he would be burdensom to the K. of Spain no longer the magnetick Vertue of his own Country drew him to it Yet to confirm that he lest his Heart behind with his Beauteous and high born Mistress he would Sign a Proxy and Assign it to K. Philip or his Brother Don Carlo or either of them which should remain in the Custody of the Earl of Bristol that the Espousals between him and the Infanta might be ratified within ten days after the dispensation unstopt the way unto them and he would leave it to the Princessa to shew her Cordial and Amorcuolous Affections how soon she would prepare to follow after him 168. Which stood for a Decree agreed and obey'd The King of Spain would have been glad if the Prince might be perswaded to stay longer in his Court But since after Six Months continuance there his Highness defir'd to breath again in his Native Air King Philip caused preparation to be made for it for freedom is the Noblest part of Hospitality and was dismiss'd with as much Honour and Magnificence as he was Receiv'd The Earl of Briâ—ol who certainly knew the day when he took his Leave writes to the Lord Keeper Cab. p. 21. That he would begin his Journey for England the 9th of Sept. others set it three days back and adds the day before I Conceive the contract will be which is false Printed it should be That the Day before he would Sign and Seal his Procuration for the Contract which Intelligence is Authentick being so Corrected Now looking upon those that were the Magnificoes of Spain when the Prince took his farewel of them and how dear they held him how they Voiced him beyond the Skies for the most express Image they had seen of Vertue and Generosity methinks his Highness should have behold it with his Eyes open and have inferred out of it that he could not be more happy then to marry with that Blood and to keep Friendship with that Nation He was most Gracious in the Eyes of all Great and under Great Never Prince parted with such Universal Love of all Cab. p. 16. and Bristol to the Lord Keeper p. 21. The Love which is here born generally to the Prince is such as cannot be believ'd by those that daily hear not what passeth from the King and his chief Ministers The most concern'd was the rare Infanta of whom says one out of the Spanish Reports Sander p 552. That she seem'd to deliver up her own Heart at parting in as high Expressions as that Language and her Learning could with her Honour set out Let not this Essay of her sweetness be forgotten that when the Prince told her His Heart would never be out of Anxiety till she had pass'd the intended Voyage and were safe on British Land She Answered with a modest Blush That if she were in danger upon the Ocean or discompos'd in Health with the rowling brackish Waves she would chear up herself and remember all the way to whom she was going For which she deserves to be Honour'd with Theogena the Wife of Agathocles for that saying Se nubendo ci non prosperae tantùm sed omnis fortunae iniisse Societatem Just lib. 20. When it came to the King her Brothers turn to Act his part of Royal Civility he carried the Prince with him to his most gorgeous and spacious Structure of the Escurial There he began That his Highness had done him favour beyond all compass of requital that he had Trusted the safe-guard of his Person with him and given him such an occasion in it to shew his Honour and Justice to part with him with as much Fidelity as his Highness desir'd or expected that there he was ready to perfect the Alliance so long in Treaty that he might call him Brother whom above all in the World he loved as a Friend The Prince Answered He had a better Heart to conceive then a Tongue to signifie how much he owed to his Majesty He hop'd the incomparable Infanta would thank him for the unparallel'd Courtesie shewn to him And because a drop of true meaning was better then a River of Words his Highness being encircled with the Noblest Witnesses of that Kingdom produced and Read his Proxy interpreted by the Earl of Bristol and committed to his Charge but first Attested to by the Hand of Secretary Cirica as a Notary of the greatest Place That this much pass'd it is certain Much more is Reported but it is contentious This Obligation intending to the Contract was thus dispatch'd in the Escurial of which let me say hereupon as Valerius of the Senate House of Rome lib. 6. Illam Curiam
Choler in his Complexion Yet that it could not appear but that the Marriage on King Philip's part was very sincerely meant in all the Treaty most clearly when his Highness took his Farewell most openly since his Departure Wherein the Earl of Bristol had much wronged that great Monarch giving him a Bastle insupportable For when the Power of Revocation or rather Repression of the Proxy was peremptorily in his Lordship's hand he did not acquaint the King of Spain to stop him from erecting a Gallery turned by the Earl's Negligence into a Gullery in the open Streets covered with the richest Tapestry and set forth with all other Circumstances of Wealth and State to conduct the Infanta in open View and with most magnificent Solemnity to the Deposorios when by the Instruments and Commissions the Earl had lately received he knew these augustious Preparations would be ridiculously disappointed which was a Despight that a Gentleman not to say an Embassador should have prevented For the Disgrace was so far blown abroad with Derision that it was the News of Gazette's over all Europe The Intention of that Nation to give the Infanta in Marriage to the Prince being not controverted Yet his Highness protesting on his part that he was free unless the Palatinate were surrendred they were all satisfy'd with it his Word was Justice to them and that which was in his own Breast must alone direct him how to use his Freedom This Question dispatched was upon a blown Rose the next was upon a Bramble The Lord Duke was so zealous say it was for the Palsgrave's Sake that he voted the King of Spain to be desied with open War till amends were made to the illustrious Prince Elector for the Wrongs he sustained The Lords appointed for the Conference that apprehended it otherwise were the Keeper Treasurer Duke of Richmond Marquess Hamilton Earl of Arundâ—l Lord Carow Lord Belfast who could not say that the King of Spain had done the part of a Friend for the Recovery of the Palatinate as he had profess'd nor yet could they find that he had acted the Part of an Enemy declaredly as was objected Their Judgment was the Girts of Peace were slack but not broken This is couched in the Admonitions of an Ignote unto King James Cab. p. 278. The Conference or Treaty about the Palatinate was taken from the Council of State a Society of most prudent Men only for this Cause that almost every one of them had with one Consent approved the Propositions of the most Catholick King and did not find in it any Cause of dissolving the Treaty And a little beneath The Duke fled from the Council of State and disclaimed it for a Parliament by way of an Appeal Most true that scarce any in all the Consulto did vote to my Lord Duke's Satissaction which made him rise up and chase against them from Room to Room as a Hen that hath lost her Brood and clucks up and down when she hath none to follow her The next time he saw the Lord Belfast he asked him with Disdain Are you turned too and so flung from him Cab. p. 243. To which the Lord Belfast answered honestly in a short Letter That he would conform himself in all things to the Will and good Pleasure of the King his Master The greatest Grudge was against the Lord Keeper who seldom spake but all Opinions ran into his one as they did at this time and the Duke presumed that his Sentence should never vary from his own Mind An hard Injunction and all the Favour on Earth is too dear to be bought at such a Price But he declared that he saw no Expediency for War upon the Grounds communicated For upon whom should we fall says he either upon the Emperor or the King of Spain The Emperor had in a fort offered our King his Son-in-Law's Country again for a great Sum in Recompence of Disbursments but where was the Money to be had Yet it might be cheaper bought than conquered before a War were ended For the King of Spain he saw no Cause to assault him with Arms He had held us indeed in a long Treaty to our Loss but he held nothing from us and was more likely to continue the State of things in a possibility of Accommodation because he disliked the Duke of Bavaria's Ambition and had rather stop the Enlargement of his Territories The King was glad that some maintained his Judgment and would not consent wantonly to raise him from the Down Bed of his long admired Peace Neither did he refrain to speak very hardly of that Servant whom he loved best that agitated to compel him to draw the Sword one of the great Plagues of God His Censure upon him was bitter Cab. P. 92. but fit to be cast over-board in silence 176. A King of Peace is not only sittest to build Temples but is the Temple of God Such a one doth foresee how long how far how dangerously the Fire of War will burn before he put a Torch to kindle it And as every Bishop ought to have a care of the Universal Church so every King ought to have a care of all Humane Society It is not such a thing to raise War in these Days as it was in Abraham's Muster his Servants in one Day and rescue Lot from his Enemies the next Nor such as it was with the old Romans make a Summers Laâ—rt in Vit. before he laid down his Office The Charge in our Age which usually for many Years doth oppress the People will hardly countervail if GOD should send it the Gladness of a Victory Nor is all fear over when a War is ended But as Solon says Lacrt. in Vit. Great Commanders when they have done their Work abroad and are return'd with Honour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do more Mischief by their Factions to their Country than they did against their Enemies And whosever scape well the poor Church is like to suffer two ways First as Camden says Eliz. Ann. 1583. Schismatica pravitas semper bello ardente maxime luxuriat Schismatical Pravity will grow up under the Licentiousness of War Some profane Buff-Coats will Authorize such Incendiaries Secondly For some Hundreds of Years by-past in Christendom I cannot find but where Wars have been protracted the Churchman's Revenue hath been in danger to pay the Soldiers If this affect not those that will not think that there is such a Sin as Sacrilege yet all acknowledge that there is such a Virtue as Humane Compassion Then they that would awake drouzy Peace as they call it with the Noise of the Drum and the prancing of Horses in the Street let them before they design their War describe before their Consciences the heaps of slaughter'd Carkasses which will come after That the Land which is before tâ—en shaâ—I look like the Garden of the Lord and that which is behind them like Burning and Brimstone For all this will they tempt God and be the Foes of
have seen a Manuscript of Arch-Bishop Abbots stating the Reason of his own Relegation to Ford in Kent the Papers were written with his own Hand to my knowledge wherein he paints the Fickleness of the great Duke to set up and pluck down with these Lines First He wanted not Suggestors to make the worst of all Mens Actions whom they could misreport Secondly He loved not that any Man should stick too long in a Place of Greatness He hit the Nail in that For this Keeper continued the longest in a great Office of any that he had lifted up and did live to use them Which proceeded not from his Grace's Constancy but from the good-liking of the old King But as Symmachus said of Polemio Lib. 2. Ep. 14. Sic amicis utitur quasi sloribus tam diu gratis quà m diu recentibus So my young Lord chang'd his Friends as Men do Flowers he lik'd a Scent no longer than it was fresh Indeed he lookt from his Vassals for more than they could do and hurried to make tryal of those that would do more Thirdly says the Arch-bishop again He stood upon such fickle Terms that he feared his own Shadow and desperately adventur'd upon many things for his own Preservation Too true for by this time he had lost the People in whose good Opinion he thought he stood for the space of Nine Months Alas he had a slight fastning in them for he never got their Love further than his Hatred to Spain procur'd it And that was spent out upon an exacter Information of his bearing at Madrid This was the Jealousie which gave the Lord-Keeper the deadly Stoccada who would not abuse his own Knowledge so far to extol my Lord for his Spanish Transactions which broke the Peace the Credit the Heart of his King and his Patron never to be requited Therefore that he was fallen in less than a Year from the abundance of a great Esteem he thought he might thank the Keeper whose down-right Honesty gave the Example More may be said but once more shall suffice the Duke had attempted with King James that which he threatned now but his Majesty that then was did not allow of it and charged them both to unite and to work friendly together for his Service But that mighty Lord waited the opportunity to root up the Tree which he had gone about to unfasten For commonly the offended Person is an Eye-fore to him that did offend him And such as have done great wrongs are afraid of those whom they have provok'd and can never after affie in them So it was among the Rules of Michael Hospitalius the best of the Chancellors of France and yet in a Pet cashiered from keeping the Great-Seal as Thuanus remembers it Anno. 1568. Principum documentum esse ut iis nunquam serio reconcilientur quos temerè offenderint This as it is related was our Duke's Temper And the Keeper understood that no Peace was to be had from an Adversary seeded with such Qualities All that he could do to help himself was not by preventing but by retarding a Mischief For though with the Stoick's Fate was inevitable Yet Servius says in 8. Lib. Aen. that his great Poet thought it might be deferr'd though not avoided Two things stuck to the Keeper like Sorrows and gave him all the unrest that he had First He wish'd that his deposing might have come from any hand but his Patrons that raised him before whom he would fall rather than wrestle with him as an Enemy Secondly He had read much to teach him and seen the Proof of it that when Princes call back their Honours more Misery ensues But as yet he stood his ground and did become his Place as well as ever 4. He never made use so much of his whole stock of Worth and Wisdom as in matter of Religion which appears before in the Mazes wherein he led the Spanish Embassador with whom he shisted so cunningly that they could obtain nothing for the Toleration of Popish Recusants but Delays and Expectations from time to time Neither could the Monsieurs squeeze any more out of him against the Ratification of the French Marriage as appears in a bare Fortnight before K. James died witness the Letter written to the Duke March 13. 1624. Cabal p. 105. If your Grace shall hear the Embassador complain of the Judges in their Charges of their receiving Indictments your Grace may answer that those Charges are but Orations of course opening all the Penal Laws And the Indictments being presented by the Country cannot be refused by the Judges But the Judges are ordered to execute nothing actually against the Recusants nor will they do it during the Negotiation And your Grace may put him in mind that the Lord-Keeper doth every day when his the Embassadors Secretary calls upon him grant forth Writs to remove all the Persons Indicted in the Country into the Kings-Bench out of the Power and Reaches of the Justices of Peace And that being there the King may and doth release them at his Pleasure In all this there is no bar against the common Course of Law but Mercy reserv'd to the Royal Pleasure Now what cause had my Lord Duke to defie him by his Secretary Cab. p. 87. That his Courses were dangerous to his Country and prejudicial to the Cause of true Religion Forsooth because he proffer'd a Gap to be opened to the Immunities of the Papists in a desperate Plunge to bring the Prince home safe out of Spain where he stuck fast for want of such a Favour to be shewn to those Complainants Which was a liberal Concession in Promise but no Date set nor observ'd for the Expedition of it And so all that Indulgence which hung in nubibus and never dropt down is frankly granted now and he is commanded by this Warrant that follows to signifie to all Officers to suspend the Laws which are grievous to the Romish Profession dated 1 Car. May the first Charles Rex RIght Reverend and Right Trusty c. Whereas we have been moved in Contemplation of our Marriage with the Lady Mary Sister of our dear Brother the most Christian King to grant unto our Subjects Roman Catholicks a Cessation of all and singular Pains and Penalties as well Corporal as Pecuniary whereunto they be subject or any way may be liable by any Laws Statutes Ordinances or any thing whatsoever for or by reason of their Recusancy or Religion and every matter or thing concerning the same Our Will and Pleasure is and we do by these presents Authorize and Require you That immediately upon the receipt hereof you do give Warrant Order and Directions as well unto all our Commissioners Judges and Justices of the Peace as unto all others our Officers and Ministers as well Spiritual as Temporal respectively to whom it may appertain that they and every of them do forbear all and all manner and cause to be sorborn all and all manner of Proceedings against our said
into the bottom of the Sea and fetch up Sponges so The Righteous shall hold on his way and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger Job 17.9 68. Neither did it deject the Bishop to be made a Gazing-stock by Disparagements The King's Coronation and his second Parliament began together at Candlemas and he was warned by Letter to serve at neither A Coronation being usually accompanied with a General Pardon should have cast a Frown upon none Yet his Place was not granted him to do his Homage among the Spiritual Lords nor to assist the Archbishop at the Sacred Parts of that high Solemnity as Dean of Westminster It is arbitrary and at the King's Pleasure to range that Royal Ceremony as he likes best to follow former Presidents or wave them to intrust what Ministers he likes in the Management except some Tenure or old Charter give admittance to some persons without exception Otherwise in the very principal performance says venerable Saravia De Christ Obed. p. 139. Ab Episcopo traditur corona quod potest furi à proceribus But the Dean of the Collegiate Church of Westminster did attend as a specal Officer at the Coronation of K. James after the manner of Deacon to the Archbishop of Canterbury it was Dr. Andrews which could not be granted him by Prescription for there was no Dean nor any such Dignity in the Church at the Coronation of Q. Elizabeth But upon the new Foundation Anno 3. of that Queen the Dean was intrusted with the Custody of K. Edward's Crown and the other Regalia and Decorum was kept thereupon to give him a great Employment of Assistance on that day Yet the Regalia were kept in a strong place of that Church long before For I find in Baron anno 1060. par II. That Pope Nicholas the Second gave a Charter to that Abby Ut sit repositorium regalium insignium What a busie Fisher was this that would have an Oar or a Net rather in every Boat Could not the Kings of England without him appoint the fittest place for the Custody of the Ornaments of their Imperial Majesties He that was so kind to dispose who should keep the Crown did mean That the King should not wear it without his Leave and Courtesie And let it be his Fault to be impertinent and to meddle with the keeping of Royal Treasure that did not concern him What is their Crime that have carried them quite away both Crown and Scepter and Robes from their ancient Sacrary I would that had been all This was wont to be the Mark of him that opposeth and exalts himself above all that is called GOD Dixi Dii est is 2 Thess 2.4 But what 's the matter that I have almost lost my self in this Loss I was about to tell that Bishop Williams must not wait in the Honourable Place of the Dean at the Coronation but in a Complement he was sent to Name one of the Twelve Prebendaries to serve in his room This was devised to fret him and to catch a Wasp in a Water-trap Bishop Laud was a Prebendary at this time and the Substitute intended at Court to act in the Coronation If Lincoln should Name him he had been laugh'd at for preferring the man that thrust himself by And if he did not Name him and no other he had been check'd for inscribing one of a lesser Order in the Church before a Bishop to so great a Service But his Wit saved him from either Inconvenience He sent the Names of his Twelve Brethren to the King resigning it up to His Majesty to elect whom he pleased A Submission which Climacus would call Sepulchrum voluntatis a dead Obedience without a sensible Concurrence And he stirred no more either by Challenge or Petition to do that eminent Office of the Deanery in his own Person but says in his Letter to the King That he submitted to that Sequestration for so he calls it It is wise to sit down when a man can trouble no Body but himself if he moves Especially I affect the Lesson which Erasmus gives in an Epistle p. 222. Pulchrius est aliquando modestia quam cansâ superare It is handsomer sometimes to excel in Modesty than to win a Cause 69. Other Reasons sway'd this circumspect man to carry it with no such Indifferency that he was not called to the Parliament But to do Honour to the King and to save his own Right nay the common Right of Peers he took a middle way between Crouching and Contumacy He call'd it His Majesty's Gracious Pleasure and was in earnest that he esteem'd it so to spare his Presence at the Parliament but he expostulated to have a Writ of Summons denied to no Prisoners no nor condemned Peers in the late Reign of his blessed Father Cab. p. 118. that accordingly he might make a Proxy which he could not do the Writ not receiv'd And he struggled till he had it in his own way and entrusted it with the Lord Andrews Bishop of Winchester it being the last Parliament wherein that famous Servant of God sate and the last year of his Life But the Mr. W. Sanders tells us p. 143. of his Annals of King Charles That Lincoln at this time continued not a Peer but a Prelate in Parliament Res memoranda novis Annalibus atque recenti historiâ Juven Sat. 2. This is a pitiful matter for what Bishop of Lincoln could be a Prelate in those days and not a Peer Is it his meaning that he did not sit among the Peers Nor did he sit among the Prelates in Convocation but by Proxy he sate in both places as Peer and Prelate A Letter sent from him to the King and dated March 12. will clear this matter and greater things or else it had not been publish'd 'T is large and confident searing the Duke's Greatness no more than the Statuary Work of a vast Colossus But as Portius Latro says in Sallust Gravissimi sunt morsus irritatae necessitat is 'T is no marvel if Necessity break good Manners which will break through Stone Walls says the Proverb And much Provocations attends not much whom it displeaseth The Letter follows Most Mighty and Dread Soveraign IT becometh me of all the rest of your Subjects having been so infinitely obliged to Your Majesty to cast my self down at your Feet and oppose no Interpretation Your Majesty shall be pleased to make of any of my Actions whatsoever Howbeit before the receipt of my Lord Keeper's Letter that I had carried my absence from the Parliament with as much Humility and Respect to Your Majesty as ever Subject of England did towards his Soveraign The delivery of my Proxy to the first Bishop Your Majesty named I excused mannerly to Your Majesty but with a private Reason to my Lord Keeper not to be replied against The second Lord Bishop is directly uncapable of that part of my Proxy which concerneth the House of Convocation These two Lords now named
to worry him who had as much relation to the place as himself where these good Deeds were done But there is a Writer and not one year scapes him but that he publisheth somewhat to bespatter the Bishop of Lincoln's good Name Odimus accipitrem quia semper vivit in armis Ovid. Art Amand. he it is that would cover all the Monuments of his Bounty with one Blot if he could find Readers such as he wish't that would take all that he vents without examination Mr. Fuller in his Church History of Britain after he had given some unhandsome Scratches to this Bishop parts with him thus Envy it self could not deny but that whit hersoever he went he might be traced by the foot-steps of his Benefaction That he expended much in the repair of the Abby-Church of Westminster and that the Library was the effect of his Bounty This is truth and praise-worthy in the Historian and yet I say not the Bishop is beholding to him for it because it is truth That 's Politian's judgment in an Epistle to Baptista p. 197. Pro vâ—ris laudibus hoc est pro suis nemo cuiquam debet Quis enim pro suo debeat But what says one of the Swallows to it that built under the roof of the Abby Just like a Swallow carried all the filth he could pick up to his Nest But worse then a miry Swallow he resembles those obscene Birds that use to flutter about the Sepulchres of the Dead and insults extreamly over the Grave of the Deceased in his Animadversions upon the Church History p. 273. That Lincoln received so much out of the Rents of the Colledge in the time when he was Lord Keeper four years and more that the Surplusage of all that he paid out in several sums respectively amounted to more then he laid out upon the Church and Library 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Demost orat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the end The very Enemies of the dead cease to hate them when they are dead But as Anabaptists and Quakers say they are above Ordinances so it seems the Conscience of some Divines is above moral Niceties As to the Calumny squeeze it and in round Russian Language you shall wring out a great lye First before the Dean was Lord Keeper or dreamt of that honour that is before the Chapter had committed the Rents to his management he had repaired the great Ruins of the south side of the Church abutting upon the stately Chappel of Henry the Seventh If the Animadverter knew this why did he not separate it from that which was expended in those four years wherein he lays his Challengeâ— If he did not know it for it was done ten years before he was hatcht into a Prebend then when blind men throw stones whose head is not like to be broken For that which was laid out by the Lord Keeper to strengthen and beautifie the north side of the Abby to the end that the right Pay-master may be known and the mouth of all Detraction stopt the Chapter shall testifie in their Act as followeth Whereas there hath lately been divulged as we have heard an unjust report that the Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God the Lord-Bishop of Lincoln our Dean should have repair'd and new-built our Church on the north side of the same and south side of the Chappels belonging to it out of the Diet and Bellies of the Prebendaries and Revenues of our said Church and not out of his own Revenues We therefore the Prebendaries of the same with one consent do affirm That we verily believe the same to be a false and injurious Report And for our selves we do testifie every man under his own Protestation that we are neither the Authors nor Abettors of any such injurious Report untruly uttered by any mean man with intention to reflect upon his Lordship And this we do voluntarily record and witness by our Chapter Act dated this present Chapter Decemb. 8. 1628. Theo. Price Sub-Deacon Christopher Sutton George Darrel Gabriel Grant Jo. King Rob. Newell John Hâ—lt Gr. Williams Whether will we believe eight men in their right minds or one in his rage To slight the Bishops erecting such a beautiful Pile the Library of St. John's Colledge and put that of Westminster with it he is as froward as a Child that hath worms in his Stomach and tells us that it possibly cost him more Wit than Money many Books being daily sent unto him Vis dicam tibi veriora veris Martial It was not only possible but very true For what Library no not the Bodleian the choicest of England but grew up and doth grow by contributory Oblations as Athenaeus says Lib. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Symbols or Portions that many Friends bring in to furnish a publick work have good influence into it but the Founder is the Lord of the Ascendant A great deal of the like the Author hath crowded into a few Leaves I do not accuse it for want of Salt it is a whole Hogshead of Brine Wisely and mildly Melanchthou was wont to say Answer not Slanders but let them vanish Et si quid adhuc in hujus saeculi levitate quasi innat at brevi interiturum est cum autorum nominibus Camer p. 79. The worthy Works of the Bishop's excessive cost at Westminster and in both Universities will stand when Pamphlets shall be consum'd with moths The liberal deviseth liberal things and by liberal things he shall stand Isai 32.8 A fair Walnut-tree the more it bears the more it is beaten as it complains in the Greek Epigram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But such as yield the fruits of good works in this world shall become Trees of Life hereafter as I have read it from some good Pen He is well that is the better for others but he shall be happy for whom others are the better 91. Method hath digested the troubles about the Deanry altogether which is the reason why this Paragraph recoils five years back that is to 1630 to make a transition into the next disturbance A Commission was directed this year to very honourable and knowing persons the Lord Privy Seal Earl of Arundel Vicount Wimbleton Lord Wentworth Sir Hugh Middleton Sir W. Slingsby Sir Hen. Spelman Ed. Ascough Th. Brett Th. Bridgman to question the oppression of exacted Fees in all Courts and Offices Civil and Ecclesiastical throughout all England A noble Examination and full of Justice if due and convenient Fees thereupon had been straitned and appointed which was frustrated two ways First by indigent and craving Courtiers who enquired after such as were suspected for Delinquency and of great Wealth with whom they compounded to get them Indempnity though not a Doit of a Fee were abated Secondly By vexatious Prosecutions of abundance that were Innocent before Sub-committees where Promoters got a great livelyhood to themselves to redeem them from chargeable Attendance which deserves such a Complaint as Budaeus
and out of those their Treatises wherein especially they handled the Cause for which he Appealed unto them And Thirdly When he had fixed what was prime and principal Truth in any Debate with great Meekness and Sweetness he gave copious Latitude to his Auditors how far they might dissent keeping the Foundation sure without breach of Charity These were the Constellations whose fortunate Aspect did shine upon this Neophytus in the Orb of Cambridge and being under the Influence of such Luminaries a judicious Academian might Prognostic how much he would prosper without a judicious Astrologer But for all that he posted so speedily through the broad Way of the best Tracts of Knowledge yet he found a little leisure to call in as he went at the attaining of some Skill in Musick Instrumental and Vocal not as a Siren to catch him but as a Delight to solace him Nay though he set his Face to the end of a great Journey yet in transiâ—â— he took Acquaintance of the French Tongue to make himself able to read the choice Pieces of that acute Nation which flow'd in easily and apace into him having the Pipes of the Latin Tongue ready cast to convey it What shall we say to him that took in hand such a long Sorites of Sciences and Tongues together But that such Blood and Spirits did boil in his Veins as Tully felt when he spake so high Mihi satis est si omnia consequi possim Nothing was enough till he got all 14. The Gamester was the freer to throw at all because he was like to draw a good Stake Preferment already holding its Hand half open For â—fâ—câ—bi 2º his Patron and tenderly-loving Kinsman Dr. Vaughan was Removed from the Bishoprick of Chester to the See of London The young Eaglets are quickly taken up upon the Wings of the old one But the good Bishop within three Years after he had ascended to that Dignity ended his days greatly lamented of all and lived not till his young Cousin was adult for Promotion This only was much to his Benefit that every Year the Bishop sent for him to spend a few Weeks in his Palace of London a great help to his Breeding to let him see the course of Church-Government managed by the Piety and Wisdom of so grave a Prelate who had much of a Gentleman much of a Scholar and most of a Christian During his abode in the Reverend Bishop's Palace he had the opportunity to tender his Duty to that noble-minded and ancient Baron John Lord Lumley who received him with equal Courtesie and Bounty as his Kinsman That Lord having given his Sister in Marriage to Mr. Humfry Llyd of Nor. h. Wales a most industrious Antiquary as appears in Ortelius and Adjutant to Mr. Cambden in his great Work This Lord Lumley did pursue Recondite Learning as much as any of his Honourable Rank in those Times and was owner of a most precious Library the Search and Collection of Mr. Humsry Llyd Out of this Magazine that great Peer bestowed many excellent Pieces printed and Manuscript upon Mr. Williams for Alliance sake a Treasure above all Presents most welcom to him Yet the noble-hearted Lord a free Mccaenas gave with both hands and never sent his young Kinsman away from him without a Donative of ten Pieces The first Gift of Books he kept better then Gold for the Gold went from him again as magnificently as if he had been no less then the Lord Lumley himself But that he had received those noble Favours I heard him remember with great and grateful Expressions in the Chancel of the Parish-Church of Cheam near to Nâ—nâ—â—câ— in Surrey whereof my self have been Rector now above 30 Years coming on a day to view the Burial-place of the Lord Lumley where his Body lies under a comely Monument 15. It fell out luckily to Mr. Williams to keep him from incurring great Debts that he had such an Ophir or Golden Trade to drive with the Lord Lumley's Puâ—se who supplied him with a Bounty that grudg'd him nothing till the Year 1â—â—9 for then that aged Baron died Four Years before the loss of that dear Friend An. 1605 he took his Degree of Master of Arts and he Feasted his Friends at the Commencement as if it had been his Wedding having more in Cash at command by the full Presents of many Benefactors then is usual with such young Graduates His Merits being known brought him in a great Revenue long before he had a certain Livelihood A Master of Arts is a Title of honest Provocation rightly considered Nomina insignia onerosa sunt says the Emperor Alexander Mammaens But they are scarce so many as a few that are warm'd with the remembrance of that Honour which the Regent-House conferr'd upon them worthy to be taxed in parodie with that Increpation Heb. 5.12 Cum deberetis Magistri esse propter tempus rursum indigetis ut vos doceamini When for the time ye eught to be Masters you have need one teach you again Whose Reproach hath this and no other use that they are a pitiful Foil to their Betters I am sure I explain a Man who added as much Grace to the Name as any his Ancestors of those that came after he that was the best was but second in the Order Every day borrowing much of the Night advanced his Knowledge He hired himself to labour under all Arts and sorts of Learning The more he toil'd the more he perceiv'd that nothing in this Earth had such Amplitude as the extent of Sciences He saw it was a Prospect which had no Horizon a Man can never say he sees the utmost bound of the Coast Therefore he was continually drawing his Bow because he was sure he could never shoot home No Man fishes to get all the Fish in the Sea yet since the Sea contains so much he is slothful that labours but for a little Our Student began now to fall close to the deep and spacious Studies of Divinity I deliver from his own mouth what he would relate sometimes in his riper Years That he began to read all the Scriptures with the choicest and most literal and as he found it fit with the briefest Commentators so that all his Superstructure might knit close to that Foundation He compared the common places of P. Martyr Chemnitius and Musculus Calvin and Zanchie being in at all with the Sacred Text and found that Harmony in them all with the Oracles of God's Word that he perceived he might with a good Conscience as he would answer it to Christ Jesus defend the Integrity of the Reformed Religion taking it not upon Trust but upon Judgment and Examination But an Artist knoweth not what he hath got by all his Diligence till he useth it neither can a Scholar understand what Tast is in the Waters of his own 〈◊〉 till he draws some quantity out Therefore he disclosed himself both in his own Terms and for his Friends in common Places and
shall observe many Things as I can overtake them in fitness of Time this comes to me now under 〈…〉 that Fulgâ—â—io cannot deny that Father Paul was Libel'd for a stupid 〈◊〉 Man 〈◊〉 careless of Religion because when two perhaps were divided which was the Truth he made a good Construction of them both To put this into the Trial of an Instance it is as recent to me as if it had been 〈◊〉 done what befel this prudent Man I write of for looking upon 〈…〉 of two vehement Factions and yet laying a Bet on neither 〈◊〉 He had a mighty Insight into the seventh Volume of St. Austin's Works wherein that holy Bishop hath so divinely contended for the Efficacy of Grace against 〈◊〉 and Semipclagians For his own part St. Austin had possess'd him and he was over entirely his Adherent in those Controversies Many others of exquisite Learning were not convinced with St. Austin's Judgment The Schools had many that ventilated those impenetrable Conceptions pro con at first with sharpness of Learning at last with more sharpness of Enmity The Netherlanders unluckily invented several Names for these Scholastical Skirmishes Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants Ate and the Furies of Contention came among us out of Belgia with these Names Reproaches and all sorts of unkind Discriminations succeeded But he whose Praise is under my Pen held his Augustinian Conclusions but never disparaged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never condemned the Judgment of them that opponed but commended both Tribes with this Pâ—acidness that himself and those of his Mind went upon this Ground to be circumspect to ascribe all Good unto God and that the adverse part were very cautious to state their Cause so as to ascribe no Evil to God If the most Learned in the World could not decide how to joyn both these together without some jarring Consequences let us meet together in Peace till God had decided it Was not this sweet and candid Yet it was call'd in him and in others of that Moderation Sluggishness Craftiness Neutrality and the like as if in points unfundamental and unresolv'd every man must be a Guelph or a Gibelline Whereas by deep inspection it will appear that many such Opinions are of as even choice as two Shillings thogh not of the same Stamp yet of the same weight it is all one which you Receive in Pay 23. Such a Scheme as I have drawn forth at large of his profounder Studies was expedient to be put whole together to avoid the trouble of broken Interruptions With the weight of those Plummets his Wheels began to turn about at the 25 year of his Age And with the same Plummets the Clock went even Hour from Hour from Month to Month to the expiration of his Life He never chang'd his fashion Now let me invite such as may peruse these Papers to go back with me and to look upon him again in the Spring of his Mastership of Arts. For who hath despised the day of small things as the Prophet says Zachar. 4.10 And because he made his first and most advantagious Sallies into the World about this time being employ'd for his College in Civil or Litigious Causes call them as you will I will bring him upon that Stage before I go further Dr. Clayton the Head of St. Johns College at that time was a careful and prudent Governour at home Thrifty for the publick Stock Meek and quiet as any of that Dignity Yet it is not possible that so numerous a Society should be so fortunate to dispatch all their business among themselves what by Suits of Law which burst in upon them by bad Tenants what by frivolous complaints often Raised by their own Members but by these and other sudden Claps against which there is no prevention the Governour being very Aged and wisely contented to dispatch others to struggle in such contestations he sent forth divers that were Trusty and Judicious to be employ'd in such designs But if it were a knot to be cleaved by a strong Wedg he did always entreat Mr. Williams either alone or with collegues to manage such an Enterprize As the Greeks Adagy goes Nil sine Theseo Theseus made one in every Master-piece of Chivalry Such was our Theseus to the Athens where he lived And he was considerately lookt upon for such service for he well understood any thing he went about he had a fineness to be Gracious with them to whom he was sent and no man could deliver a Tale more smoothly or wrinkle it less with digressions or Parentheses To say much in brief he had the Policy and Gravity of a Statesman before he had a Hair upon his Chin. The Messages of greatest Trust committed to him from the College were to these Eminent persons that follow To the Earl of Salisbury Chancellour of the University By the way I can Witness that he much lamented that he knew that most Wise Lord Cecil no longer or upon no greater occasions whom he extolled above all Wits spying him through the Tryal of such petty matters as were brought before his Lordship in his Presence For as if the Chancellour had a Spirit of Divination he would instantly discover whether the Suit made to him were fit for his serious care or whether it were but Faction and Envy the Diseases of Scholars within their own Walls that made a Clamour for Justice Upon such like Errands for his Society he was admitted sometimes to Speak and Argue before the true Pillar of the Church Arch-Bishop Bancroft And upon this Reverend Father he gained so far by his neat Wit and decent behaviour that the Arch-Bishop sent for him two years before he was Batchelour of Divinity and ex mero motu gave him the Advouzon of an Arch-Deaconry in Wales Cordigan if I forget not which came to the Metropolitan by his customary Prerogative I am not certain when it fell void and came to Mr. Williams's possession This I am sure of that he sate in Convocation in the Title of this Arch-Deaconry the year 1613. expiring when Dr. Lake Holy and Learned Dr. Lake was Prolocutor Sometimes also he Petitioned Lord Chancellour Egerton for the same Foundation And in a Lucky hour For the Lord Chancellour in those Addresses quickly found him out that he was a Jewel fit for his own wearing which broke forth in due time as shall be comprized in the sequel And to rise up one step more upon the degrees of God's Providence the Master and Fellows aforesaid deputed him for their Agent to the Court to Petition the King for a Mort-main thereby to bring some increment to their maintenance It is no New thing to say he sped in the Suitâ— for when did he miscarry You have him right in that Elogy which Aurelius gives to Septimius Severus acer erat ingenio ad omnia quae intenderat in finem perseverans His Wit was sharp and drew success after it as the Needle doth the Thred and his Industry was restless
what he perform'd in St. Maries in Cambridg rather than in a sorry Vicarage I can tell them among others that were present that he publisht himself a most rare Preacher in a Sermon made before the University anno 1610. upon this Text Luc. 16.22 It came to pass That the Beggar died and was carried by the Angels into Abrahams Bosom He handled the points of the Souls Immortality of the present Blessed â—ss of them that dye in Gods Mercy of their Reception into Heaven of the Ministry of Angels whether particularly Guardian or rather in general to all Christians there he discours'd with that depth of Learning yet liquidating that depth with such facility of opening it beside with that Energy and Vigour of Voice and Sides that his Auditory granted him to be a loud Cymbal and a well-Tuned Cymbal About Eight Mouths after being Listed into the Combination of the choicest Preachers He was call'd to do that Duty before K. James and Prince Henry at Royston whereupon the King spake much good of him but the Prince taking great notice of him as an Honour to Wales was not satisfied to give him encouragement of praise but gave him his Princely Word that He would Reward him after the weight of his Worth But the Father bestowed that preferment on him which the Prince taken away by early Death for our Sins intended I heard of this Sermon Six Weeks after and by a merry Token for having occasion to come to that hunting Court at Royston I received Hospitality at a Table full of good Company where I was askt over and over especially by the old Brittains what Place and Dignity Mr. Williams had in Cambridge every one of them could tell me he made a most Excellent Sermon before the King but for their parts they had been such attentive Hearers that among them all I could not Learn the Text. The Fame of our accomplisht Preacher who had taken the University and the Court so far with his Merits as none more spread far And he wanted not Friends in the Lord Chancellour Egertons Family to acquaint his Lordship with it who instantly preferr'd him before all Competitors and said no more but Send for him and let me have him This was at Midsummer anno 16â—1 That Lord Chancellour was a great Patron to Divines but then they must be of many degrees above Mediocrity and those whom he pickt out for the Service of his House were of the first and as it were Seraphical Order And such indeed were Dr. Richard Feild Dr. King Bishop of London Dr. Carew Bp. of Exon and as one of that stamp he was pleased to entertain Mr. Williams But when he came to London to be Approved for that Service after great and humble acknowledgment of his Thankfulness he prayed the Lord Chancellour he might continue a year or the greatest part of it at Cambridg before he came to wait constantly in his Lordships Honourable Family because at Michaelmass following he was to enter upon the Proctor-ship of his University a place of Credit and some Emolument And may you not fulfil that place by a Deputy says the Chancellor My Lord says the Chaplain I must take an Oath upon my admission into that Office to oversee the Government entrusted to me not in general Terms only of Faith and Diligence but for the due Provision of many particular Branches of the Statutes and I dare not trust my Oath with another mans Conscience To so fair a Plea he got a gentle concession where I must shew him in his Honour of Proctorship before he return again to my Lord Egerton I have more to say than to tell the World he was Junior Proctor of Cambridge So have many been who did nothing but that which deserves to be forgotten like Consuls that acted nothing and were useful for nothing but to have the Fasti known by their Names His was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a a procuration indeed so it is Translated out of Xenophon which he filled up with as much real Worth and Value with as much Profit and Dignity to the University as could be dispatcht in the Orb of that Government The first place wherein Epaminondas appear'd publickly among the Citizens of Thebes was the Surveyorship of the High-ways and no better Et muneri Dignitatem addidit says Valerius lib. 3. c. 4. He gave Lustre by his management to that petty Function It holds as right as possibly an Example can match a thing in this instance It is well known our Proctor came into this Magistracy burthened with great expectation which measure he filled up and exceeded it He rose with great Light and set with more Brightness than he rose Happy were those times that heard his Plinian Orations for his Style had that Savour that heard his Aristotelian disputations that enjoyed the Fruit to hear him moderate at the Morning Exercises between a Master and a Batchelor Methinks yet I do hear him inveighing as I did once against the Sloth of the Batchelors for degenerating from themselves and the Ancient Customs of the Schools as of a fearful Metamorphâ—is with those Words Nam vos mutastis illas He was an assiduous Overseer and Interlocutor at the Afternoon Disputations of the Under Graduates Some of the most hopeful he enflamed with his Praise Not a few Tasted of his Bounty and in no meaner Mettle than Gold I know a man whom he took Notice of at those Acts who is the better for his good liking to this day It was greatly commendable in him that he disdain'd not to be President himself at these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but attended at them and acted in them vivâ voce and did not put off the Work to Journey-men The Night-watches indeed he committed sometimes to Deputies as the manner is to compel the Looser sort from their Haunts of Inns and Taverns and Houses of ill Fame But when he held the Staff in his own hand he perceiv'd he prevail'd most And it was sensible to the Eye That he reclaimed many from disorder not that in all the year he damnified any one by censure that I could hear of Neither did he use to make a crackling Noise with contumelies and Threatnings But won Regard to his Place by Sweetness by Affableness by Perswasions as dealing with Scholars not with Peasants with Freemen and not with Servants This I am sure of by his Prudence and Vigilancy Scandals of corrupted behaviour abated but increased not And what any of his Successors of the sowrest Rigor could do more I know not 27. In this Procuratorian year it is as due as any thing to be Remembred how he behaved himself in three weighty occurrencies Soon after Christmass the Kings Majesty Commanded the Heads of the University to give entertainment such as might be prepared of a sudden to a German Prince and his Train It was the Duke of Wittenberg I cannot err in that I suppose for we of the younger fort were
for it is a State-Rule Raro eminentes viri non magnis adjutoribus ad gubernandam fortunam suam usi sunt Yet this latter Favour the Nature of the Lord Chancellor considered was greater then the former For though he was as good a Master to his Followers as ever was serv'd yet he was of an austere Gravity and rather Bountiful then Affable Now though it be as clear as any Ocular Demonstration that the Chaplains full and absolute Parts did introduct him to this Love and Likeing yet I will not say but that which brought it to this Growth and Excess was a sympathy of Souls which is a knitting of Souls by secret Ligaments that transcend Reason Our Genetlâ—iacal Writers perhaps would call it Synastrta which is a wrong Word for a right Meaning 36. By this opportunity he interceded that divers Benefices which fell to the Lord Chancellor's Presentation should be devolved upon deserving Scholars and quickly became a great Patron before he was a Bishop They were Godly Men whom he oblig'd and such as had waited long in the Universities and fit to be called forth to use their Talents If he displeased any in the use of this Power they wey were such as presumed upon ancient Acquaintance more then upon their Merit Pity and Power meeting equally in him swarms of Scholars flock'd about him Those whose Backs were bowed down with tedious and chargeable Suits he was the Sanctuary to which they sled and he refused none This diffused Humanity to so many that stood in need of help is that which Marc. Antonius the Emperor calls Natural Duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It suits with the Nature of a Man to take all Men into their Compassion and Care I have heard some of those distressed ones that were Strangers to him before with whom he had never chang'd a word when they return'd back to Cambridge with Peace and quiet Possession of their own speak of his Goodness to Admiration that he would teach them either the validity or weakness of their Cause commend them to faithful Attorneys and able Counsel work the Officers and Clerks of the Courts to abatement of Fees thrust Money into their hands that wanted it the Nerves of Law as well as of War Especially if the Cause concern'd the Title of their Living or the Right of their Tithes he would sweat and bestir him for his poor Brethren and never forsake them till Sacrilege and Oppression were charm'd with the golden Meet wand of Justice The way that some use in the manner of their doing a thing makes them to be rumour'd for their Courtesie above many others though they do not affect it So the Chaplain's readiness and Felicity in assisting the Clergy was in a little while â—lked among Church-men in all places so that not a few of the Bishops and Chapters of Cathedral Churches who were encumbred about their Leases and Priviledges In foro Litigioso thought it their best way to send their Messengers and to shew their Condition to him who was easily entreated to be their Servant and Solicitor and he was like one that lay Lieger at London for their Dispatches But being of a most tender and dutiful Regard to such Reverend Persons he did always acquaint his Lord and Master with a Breviate of their Grievances and humbly besought his Judgment for Support and Remedy and steering by that Oraculous Wisdom he never put forth into the troubled Waters for those Dignities and Foundations but they came merrily to the Haven with Bon-adventure 37. His own Share follows For by coming to that pitch of Interest with so great and good a Lord as he befriended many so in the space of about 5 years that he lived with him he compass'd a plentiful Fortune to himself from that Bounty which denied him nothing and commonly prevented him before he ask'd Methinks it was that sweet Patron 's Speech which Pliny makes the fruitful Earth to speak to us all Lib. 23. in Prooem Ex me parata omnia sese porrigentia ultro si pigeat attingere etiam cadentia I have provided all things for us I offer them to you voluntarily if you will not gather them they shall fall down at your Feet of their own accord To be particular he confer'd the Parsonage of Walgrave in Northamptonshire upon him and no other Cure of Souls by direct Presentation For the Lord Chancellor had declar'd in the Conference at Hampton-Court before King James pag. 58. That he did not dislike the Liberty of our Church in granting two Benefices to one Man But out of his own private Purpose and Practise he disposed such Livings as he gave that some might have single Coats that wanted them before others had Doublets But by his furtherance the Chaplain had likewise the Rectory of Grafton-Underwood in the same County lying in a very small distance from Walgrave gratifying the Patron with as good or better in some other Shire Divers Cathedral Churches offered their Preferments to him because they needed such a Collegue and some to make amends for his former Civilities In the Church of Lincoln he was a Prebendary and Resident with the Chantorship of the same He had a Choral Place in the Minster of Peterborough and in the Churches of Hereford and St. David's Neither the Canons of our Church nor the Statutes of our Realm have provided an Incapacity for holding Plurality of Prebends I find indeed among the Decretals of the Popes a Constitution of Urban the Second an 1087. running thus Licet Episcopi dispositione unus diversis praeesse possit Ecclesiis Canonicus tamen Praebendarius nisi unius Ecclesiae in quà conscriptus est esse non debet An Order which they keep till any Man that hath occasion to transgress it brings enough in his hand to pay for a Dispensation These Stalls therefore he possess'd in Cathedral Foundations for which the Lord Chancellor was well pleased by exchange of some of his own Preferments to make amends to those who had confer'd their Kindness upon his faithful Servant Nay yet further Mantissae loco he gave him a Donative called Sine curâ in Wales which was equal in Profit to any Endowment that he held Here was a glut of Preferment indeed will some say Be it so it was the Liberality of a large and a loving-hearted Master that would let him do no less and it is as true that the Chaplain desired no less Aristotle lived in the most flourishing times of Greece and perceiving that the valiantest Heroes that attended Alexander grew very rich he framed this Axiom Lib. 3. ad Nicom That great Spirits are willing to be wealthy to reward and gratifie others Doubtless such as are of an high-flown Animosity affect Fortunas Laciniosas as one calls it a Fortune that sits not strait and close to the Body but like a loose and a flowing Garment They would spend to be belov'd and to oblige as far as they can and that cannot be
then himself For why should he render himself as an Hostage to Fortune when he needed not Or what could mend his present Condition but a contented Mind Pol si est animus aequus tibi satis habes qui vitam colas Plaut Aul. He that hath much and wants nothing hath yet as little as comes to nothing if he wants Equanimity It was generously spoken of Esau Gen. 33.9 I have enough my Brother And they that lose a good Portion which they had before because their Appetite did over-drive them let them look upon Children playing at a petty Game they will not stand but ask for another Card which puts them out Though these things were so maturely considered an Occasion came about which did lead him quite aside yet it was in the King's High-way He was at Royston in Attendance on the King and in the Marquess his Absence The King abruptly without dependance upon the Discourse on foot asked him When he was with Buckingham Sir says the Doctor I have had no business to resort to his Lordship But wheresoe'er he is you must presently go to him upon my Message says the King So he did that Errand and was welcom'd with the Countenance and Compliments of the Marquess and invited with all sweetness to come freely to him upon his own Addresses Who mark'd rather from whom he came then to whom he was sent And gather'd from the King's Dispatch That His Majesty intended that he should seek the Marquess and deserve him with Observance From henceforth he resolved it yet not to contaminate his Lordship with Bribery or base Obsequiousness but to shew himself in some Act of Trust and Moment that he was as sufficient to bring his Lordship's good Ends to pass as any whom he employed both with readiness to do and with judgment to do well Which thus succeeded to his great Commendation My Lord Marquess was a Batchelor and ripe for a gallant Wedlock His Youth his comely Person his Fortunes plentiful and encreasing his Favour he held with the King being as much or more then the Cardinal-Nephews in the Pope's Conclave What Graces could be sweeter in the Girdle of Venus that the Poets speak of Cestum de Veneris sinu calentem Martial He could not seek long to be entertained who was so furnished for a Suitor The Lady with whom he desired to match was Lady Katherine Manners Daughter and only Child surviving to Francis Earl of Rutland Hereby he should marry with a Person of Honour her Family being very anciently Noble and draw to his Line an access of Wealth and Revenue as the like not to be expected from the Daughter of any Subject in this Realm The Motion was set on foot in the beginning of the Year 1520 which stuck at two Objections The Earl of Rutland was slow or rather fullen in giving way to this lusty Woer who came on the faster directed it seems by Proverbial Wisdom That faint Heart never won fair Lady Certain it is that he kept not such distance in his Visits as was required Which put the Earl into so strong a Passion that he could not be mitigated though great Ones had attempted the Pacification In this distraction Dr. Williams took the opportunity to go between the great Men and to Umpire the Controversie He had often in former times made Journeys from Lincoln to visit the Earl at his Castle of Belvoir who was Lord-Lieutenant of the County of Lincoln and held some Leases of that Church whereof the Doctor was a Residentiary and Precentor The Earl had found him so true and fortunate in many Offices of Service which he had manag'd for his Lordship's sake that he prefer'd him before all his Neighbours for Wisdom and Fidelity Therefore he gave him very patient Hearing to his Propositions about the Lord Marquess his Amours and took down the heat of Inflammation with cool Advice All youthful Dalliances were clear'd from sinister Jealousie and had Allowance to be inoffensively continued To speak all together The Doctor brought the Earl about so dextrously with his Art and pleasant Wit that his Lordship put it into his hands to draw up all Contracts and Conditions for Portion and Joynture which he did to the fair satisfaction of both sides the noble Earl being so glad of a good Understanding between him and the Lord Marquess that the Counsellor at his Elbow induced him to settle more upon the Marriage then the Marquess and his Mother had demanded The first Door that was shut against the young Lord in Cupid's Court was thus opened to him Nothing is so good to soften that which is hard as the Language of a discreet Man Therefore the old Gauls did carve the God of Eloquence not after the shape of Mercury but of Hercules says Lucian carrying his Club in one hand his Bow and Shafts in the other But innumerous small Rings were drawn through his Tongue to which a multitude of Chains were fasten'd that reach'd to the Ears of Men and Women to which they were tied meaning by this Picture that he performed all his hard Labours by his Tongue and not by his Club 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that which the Doctor brought to pass in the preceding Matter is fit for the Application of the Apologue Of whose Performance the Mother-Countess her Noble Son with the Ladies of the Kindred gave the best Account to the King that Thankfulness could make 51. The King commended it and was right glad that they were well out of the Mire where they all stuck before And now the Progress of the Suit seemed so easie as if a pair of Doves might draw the Chariot of Love when His Majesty put a strong Spoke into the Wheel which I may call The Second Obstruction For the Lady Katherine though she and her Family were not rigid forbearers of our Church yet she was bred a Papist This was no Straw at which the King stumbled For he knew it would sad the Spirit of some good People most tender of the Religion established when they should hear that the Noble-man in whom His Majesty did most delight was wedded to a Lady of that disaffected Superstition Therefore he liked not that the Marquess should proceed in that Marriage till the Lady were tried with sweet Perswasions to serve God together with her Husband constantly and without Hypocrisie after the Confession of the Reformed Church of England So His Majesty called for Dr. Williams and laid his strict and highest Commands upon him to use his best Skill upon the Conscience of that tender Lady misled by Education to make her a true Proselyte Before that was done He would be loth to give his Blessing to the Nuptials This He required of him before all his other Chaplains as well because he had the Ear of the Family more then any Man of his Coat whereof Proof was made in his late Actions as because he knew he had the Gift of Wisdom mixed with Learning to cure
a Corruption in Opinion Sir says the Doctor I obey Your Commands with all my heart and with belief of some Success But in case upon the first or second Conference I bring the young Madam to some Access towards the Church of England without a total Recess from the Church of Rome will Your Majeshy discomsit a good Beginning and stay the Marriage whose Consummation is every day desired because the Party is not brought to the perfection of an absolute Convert To which the King answered I know that commonly Grace proceeds by degrees in conception and building up its Features as well as Nature but though you walk slow walk sure I cannot abide to be cozen'd with a Church-Papist So the Doctor received his Commission chearfully from His Majesty the rather because though he cunningly concealed how far he had entred yet he had assayed before to bring the Lady Katherine into a good liking of our Church with many strong and plausible Arguments and found her Tractable and Attentive She easily perceived that Conjugal Love would be firmest and sweetest when Man and Wife served God with one Heart and in one way and were like the two Trumpets of Silver made of an whole Piece Num. 10.12 And quickly she was confirmed by divers and solid Representations to confess that our Cathechism was a plain Model of Saving Truth and the Form of Matrimony in our Liturgy pleased her abundantly being as pious and forcible as any Church could make to bind up a sanctified and indissoluble Union And after some Prayers made to God for his secret Breathings into her such easie Demonstrations were spread before her that she confess'd our Ministers were fit Dispensers of the Ordinances of God and all Gospel-Blessings from Christ Jesus So the second Obstruction was master'd by the good Spirit of God and this Doctor 's Industry The Remotion of two such Impediments is not commonly accompass'd by one Head-piece Sometimes it is seen as Macrobius says yet very seldom Ut idem pectus agendi disputandi facultate sublime sit Lib. 2. de Som-Scrip c. 17. Now all things being made smooth for Love and Concord on the 16th day of May 1620. the Nuptials were celebrated between the Lord Marquess and his Bride the Lady Katherine Manners at Lumly-House on Tower-Hill where the Earl of Rutland lay Dr. Williams joyned them together with the Office of our Liturgy all Things being transacted more like to Privacy then Solemnity to avoid the Envy of Pomp and Magnificence I have been no larger then there was cause in this Report for the Negotiation in this Marriage said the Negotiator often unto me was the last Key-Stone that made the Arch in his Preferment 52. It behoved him therefore to spare no Pains nor Study to season the new Marchioness with such a measure of Knowledge as might keep her found in the Integrity of Truth He needed not a Remembrancer to keep his Diligence waking Yet the King was so intent that the Lady should become an upright and sincere Protestant that he proposed to his Chaplain now her Ghostly Father to draw up a pretty Manual of the Elements of the Orthodox Religion with which she might every day consult in her Closet-Retirements for her better confirmation A Book was Compiled accordingly but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put forth and not put forth Twenty Copies were printed and no more and without the Author's Name in a Notion common to many By an old Prebendary of the Church of Lincoln The Copies were sent to the Lord Marquess and being no more are no more to be found for I have searched for one but with lost Labour I can truly say I have seen one and read it about 30 Years since which being in a negligent Custody is miscarried It contents me better that I have a written Copy out of which it was printed by which the Author could set it in order for the Press surer then I can now If I should miss to digest the Expunctions Interlinings and Marginal References as they were intended I should make the Work differ from it self though quite against my will But because it is a Golden Medal and sit to be worn like an Amulet against Seducers when this Web is spun and woven which I have in hand I will try my best Skill though a weak Aristarchus to fashion it into Native Contexture And if I can truly affirm it to be the very Mantle which fell from Elijah it shall be forth-coming in a Wardrode in the end of the Book If I fail in that I do not despair let this Letter sent with the 20 Copies to the Lord Marquess discover what sappy Kernels were in that Pomegranate My most Noble Lord MY most humble Duty and all due Respects remembred I have at the last according to His Majesties Intimation and your Lordship's made up for my Ladies private Use a little Stock as it were in Divinity and divided the same into three small Treatises The first to furnish her how to speak unto God by Invocation The second how to speak unto her self by Meditation And the third how to speak unto those Romanists that shall oppose her by way of Answer and Satisfaction Prayers are the most necessary for the obtaining Principles for the augmenting and Resolutions in these days for the defending of her Faith and Profession I held these three in some sort and more I held not to have been necessary The Prayers I have Translated from ancient Writers that her Ladyship may see we have not coyned a new Worship or Service of God Of the rest I received my best Grounds from His Majesty and such as I protest faithfully I never could read the like in any Author for mine own satisfaction If I be out in my Descant upon them I hope your Lordship will the rather pardon it because the Book is but private whereof 20 Copies only are imprinted and as many of them to be suppressed as your Honour shall not command and use I make bold to send these Books to your Lordship because I hope they will be more welcom and acceptable to both the great Ladies coming immediately from your Honour I humbly thank your Honour for affording me this occasion to do your Lordship any little Service who am in all affectionate Prayers and best Devotion Your Honour 's true Creature and Beadsman JOHN WILLIAMS From Your College at Westminster this 28th of November 1620. 53. I perceive by the Date of this Letter that the Book was printed six months after it was bespoken which could not be help'd because the Author was taken up almost all that Summer in making a progress to survey the Lands of the College of Westminster whereof he was become Dean by the Lord Marquess's Favour and Installed July 12. 1620. Dr. Tolson who preceded a man of singular Piety Eloquence and Humility in the March before had the Approbation of the King and the Congratulation of good Men for the Bishoprick
of Salisbury The Deanery to be vacated had many that longed for it a fortunate Seat and near the Court Like the Office over the King of Persia's Garden at Babylon which was stored with his most delicious Fruits Hortus ille nunquam nisi dominantis in Aulâ fuit says Pliny lib. 1◠c. 4. He that was trusted with that Garden was the Lord of the Palace This Preferment had ever been confer'd by the nomination of him that was Steward of the College and City of Westminster The Lord Treasurer Burleigh the Earl of Salisbury his Son the Earl of Somerset and the Lord Marquess bearing the Office at the present had been the constant Patrons of it Therefore it was requisite it being now to be confer'd to take it from his Lordship's hand Whom the Doctor solicited with no more then this short Letter Dated March 12. 1619. My most Noble Lord I Am an humble Suitor first to be acknowledged your Servant and then that I may be nearer and better able to perform my Desires to be by your happy Hand transplanted from Salisbury to Westminster if that Deanery shall prove vacant I trouble not your Honour for Profit but only for Conveniency for being Unmarried and inclining so to continue I do find that Westminster is fitter by much for that disposition And mine own nothing inferior in value will be at His Majesties Collation If your Honour be not bent upon an ancienter Servant I beseech you think upon me I am true and so reputed by my former and by the grace of God will prove no otherwise to my second Master God in Heaven bless you as he hath began He prays it who is Your Honour 's poor Beadsman already ever bound J. W. I observe out of these Lines a Precedent for Suitors and Candidates of Ecclesiastical Promotions that he neither extorted his Place by Importunity nor invaded it by Impudency nor lick'd it out of the Dust by Flattery nor bargain'd for it by Simony or the mollifying Term of Gratuity in a word he did not dishonest himself for it with any Indignity He carried it as he wish'd not being griple of Profit as he confessed but fond of Convenience He was Vir palmavius And Pliny says of the Palm-Trees Gaudent mutatione sedis they take Liking to be removed from Soil to Soil The Righteous carry branches of Palm before the Lamb Rev. 7.9 And their good Works do follow them Rev. 14.13 I trust and do verily believe that he is among those Palmers now in the Church Triumphant who did so many worthy Things for that Religious Foundation precious in the Eyes of the Lord. For my own part I take no little Joy to recount that this College was so happy in such a Man and the Liberty of that City in such a Governor It was the Soil of my Birth and my Breeding There I serv'd this good Master when I came out of the University first into the World there he paid me my Wages my Livelihood which with God's Blessing I owe to him alone A lucky spot of Ground to me I crave leave to set up this little Pillar in the place where God appeared so Gracious to me and to pour Oyl of Benediction on the top of it as Jacob did at Rethel Gen. 28.18 I do not aim at all to crowd in a Legend of my self as Phidias did insert his own Picture in the Shield which he made for the Statue of Minerva But I will speak of him whose Memory deserves to be refresh'd for the imprints of his Goodness in all sorts and for the Braveries of his Mind which he left behind him in that Orb. 54. His Predecessors whose Names and Actions are not forgotten were Men of good Report Two above all because none were comparable to them he cast in his Head to imitate Abbat Islip and Dr. Andrews Dr. Andrews for advancing Learning in the School Abbat Islip for his Cost expended upon the Fabric of the Minster and the Dean's place I dispose it so to mention first what a Foster-Father he was to the Scholars because himself proceeded to greater Designments by that Order He had heard much what Pains Dr. Andrews did take both day and night to train up the Youth bred in the public School chiefly the Alumni of the College so called For more certain Information he called me from Cambridge in the May before he was Installed to the House of his dear Cousin Mr. Elwis Winn in Chancery-Lane a Clerk of the Petty-Bag a Man of the most general and gracious Acquaintance with all the great Ones of the Land that ever I knew There he moved his Questions to me about the Discipline of Dr. Andrews I told him how strict that excellent Man was to charge our Masters that they should give us Lessons out of none but the most Classical Authors that he did often supply the Place both of Head School-master and Usher for the space of an whole week together and gave us not an hour of Loitering time from morning to night How he caused our Exercises in Prose and Verse to be brought to him to examine our Style and Proficiency That he never walk'd to Cheswick for his Recreation without a brace of this young Fry and in that way-faring Leisure had a singular dexterity to fill those narrow Vessels with a Funnel And which was the greatest burden of his Toil sometimes thrice in a week sometimes oftner he sent for the uppermost Scholars to his Lodgings at night and kept them with him from eight till eleven unfolding to them the best Rudiments of the Greek Tongue and the Elements of the Hebrew Grammar and all this he did to Boys without any compulsion of Correction nay I never heard him utter so much as a word of Austerity among us Alas this is but an Ivy-Leaf crept into the Laurel of his Immortal Garland This is that Andrews the Ointment of whose Name is sweeter then all Spices Cam. 4.10 This is that celebrated Bishop of Winton whose Learning King James admired above all his Chaplains and that King being of most excellent Parts himself could the better discover what was Eminent in another Indeed he was the most Apostolical and Primitive-like Divine in my Opinion that wore a Rochet in his Age of a most venerable Gravity and yet most sweet in all Commerce the most Devout that ever I saw when he appeared before God of such a Growth in all kind of Learning that very able Clerks were of a low Stature to him Colossus inter icunculas full of Alms and Charity of which none knew but his Father in secret A certain Patron to Scholars of Fame and Ability and chiefly to those that never expected it In the Pulpit an Homer among Preachers and may fitly be set forth in Quintilian's Judgment of Homer Nonne humani ingenii modum excessit Ut magni sit viri virtutes ejus non aemulaticne quod fieri non potest sed intellectu sequi I am
Liturgy and Canons of this â—â—tion but I sent him back again with the frivâ—lous Draught he had drawn It seems I remembred St. Austin ' s Rule better then he Ipsa mutatio consuetudinis ctiam quae adjuvat utilitate novitate perturbat Ep. 118. For all this he feared not mine Anger but assaulted me again with another illfangled Platform to make that slubborn Kirk stoop more to the English Pattern But I durst not play fast and loose with my Word He knows not the Stomach of that People but I ken the Story of my Grandmother the Queen Regent That after she was inveigled to break her Promise made to some Mutineers at a Perth Meeting she never saw good day but 〈◊〉 thence being much beloved before was despised of all the People And now your 〈◊〉 hath compel'd me to shrive my self thus unto you I think you are at your furthest and have no more to say for your Client May it please you Sir says the Lord-Keeper I will speak but this once You have indeed convicted your Chaplain of an Attempt very Audacious and very Unbeseeming my Judgment goes quite against his C. Gracâ—â—hus mended nothing but lost himself in his Tribuneship Qui nihil 〈◊〉 nihil tranquillum nihil quietum nihil denique in côdom staturelinquebat I am assured he that makes new work in a Church begets new Quarrels for Scriblers and new Jealousies in tender Consciences Yet I submit this to Your Sacred Judgment That Dr Laud is of a great and a tractable Wit He did not well see how he came into this Error but he will presently see the way how to come out of it Some Diseases which are very acute are quickly cured And is there no whee but you musl carry it says the King Then take him to you but on my Soul you will repent it And so went away in Anger using other fierce and ominous Words which were divulged in the Court and are too tart to be repeated So the Lord-Keeper procured to Dr. Laud his first Rochet and retained him in his Prebend of 〈◊〉 a Kindness which then he mightily valued and gave him about a year after a Living of about 120 l. per annum in the Diocese of St. David's to help his Revenue Which being unsought and brought to him at Durham-House by Mr. William Winn his Expression was Mr. Winn my Life will be too short to require your Lord's Goodness But how those Scores were paid is known at home and abroad Which he that will excuse hath no way but to shift it upon an Adagie Unum arbustum nen capit erithecos duos He that would be Great alone cares not whom he depresseth that would be as Great as himself 76. More cannot be required to shew how great the Lord-Keeper's Credit was with the King then that four Bishopricks were bestowed at once to three others with himself for which he interposed All three did then observe him with Congratulation as their Raiser Salisbury and Exeter were Men of faithful Acknowledgment in all their Life Est tanti ut gratum invenias experiri vel ingratos says Seneca He that finds two faithful Men among three is well requited Our Saviour found but one among Ten Luke 17.15 This Quaternion making ready for their Consecration a Calamity fell out which put them all to their Studies that they knew not which way to turn The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury making a Summer Journey into Hampshire was welcom'd by the Lord Zeâ—nch and invited to some Hunting-Sports in Bramshill-Park about St. James-tide The Arch-Bishop pretending to be a Wood-man took a Cross-bow to make a shot at a Buck. One of the Keepers did his Office to wind-less up the Deer to his stand who too suddenly shot at a fair-headed Buck in the Herd But his Arrow meeting with a small Bought in the way was cast a little from the mark and by an unhappy Glance wounded the Keeper in the Arm. It was but a Flesh-wound and a slight one yet being under the Cure of an heedless Surgeon the Fellow died of it the next day The like had never happen'd in our Church nor in any other in the Person of a Bishop and a Metropolitan which made work for Learned Men to turn over their Books Councils and Canon-Laws and Proviso's of Casuists were ransack'd whose Resolutions were unfavourable and greatly to the prejudice of the Fact It was clear in our Common-Law that his Personal Estate was forfeited to the King though it were Homicidium involuntarium But he was quickly comforted that he should not Suffer in that For upon the first Tidings His Majesty who had the Bowels of a Lamb censured the Mischance with these words of melting Clemency That an Angel might have miscarried in that sort The Arch-Bishop was an happy man in this Unhappiness that many Hearts condoled with him and many precious Stones were in the Breast-Plate which he wore that Pleaded for him He was Painful Stout Severe against bad Manners of a Grave and a Voluble Eloquence very Hospital Fervent against the Roman Church and no less against the Arminians which in those days was very Popular he had built and endowed a beautiful Eleemosynary Mansion at Guilford where he was born he sent all the Succors he could spare to the Queen of Bohemia the King 's only Daughter was a most stirring Counsellor for the Defence of the Palatinate was very acceptable to the Nobility and to the People both of this Realm and of Scotland where he had preach'd often 14 years before when he was in the Train of the Earl of Dunbar All those Flowers in his Garland were considered severally and mixtly when this gloomy day of Misfortune bedarken'd him And you may be sure our Sovereign Lord thought it the more Pardonable because it was an Hunting Casualty and was very Humane to those Harms beyond prevention which fell out in that Sport wherein he greatly delighted Therefore His Majesty Resolved and gave it him in a Consolatory Letter under his Hand That He would not add Affliction to his Sorrow nor take one Farthing from his Chattels and Moveables which were Confiscated by our Civil Penalties 77. But it cost more Labour to get out of the Ecclesiastical Brias for many of our best advised Churchmen took it sore to heart and lamented for it not without bitter Tears for the Scandal which was fallen upon our Church in his Person who in the Eye of General Councils and Canon-Laws was wonderfully Tainted and made Uncapable to all Sacred Functions performing Therefore to come home to the case they said God forbid those Hands should Consecrate Biships and Ordain Priests or Administer the Sacraments of Christ which God out of his secret Judgments had thus permitted to be embrued in Human Blood And some of the Prelacy profess'd If they had fallen into the like mischance they would never have despaired of God's Mercy for the other Life but from this World they would have retired and besoughts
easier then to observe two which are in Print already But Twelve days after he was sworn Lord Keeper Mr. Secretary Calvert wrote to him and used the King's Name and to make all the stronger the Spanish Ambassadors Mediation was not wanting to deliver one Rockweed a Papist out of the Fleet. Not a jot the sooner for all this but he excuseth his Rigor to the Lord Marquess Cabal p. 62. That he would not insame himself in the beginning to break his Rules so foully which he was Resolv'd to keep straight against ah Men whatsoever Another of the same Stamp pag. 65. One Beeston had been committed from the Power of the High Court of Chancery loathing this Captivity he besought this New Officer to be Releas'd and was denied he Cries out for Mercy to the King Roars out that the Parliament might hear him follows the Lord Bucking with his Clamors who advised the Keeper to consider upon it It is a Maxim indeed in Old Colwnella lib. 6. c. 2. pervicax contumacia plerumque saevientem fatigat c. Boisterous Importunity thinks to fare better then modest Innocency but he gave the Lord Marquess this Answer My Noble Lord. Decrees once made must be put in Execution Else I will confess this Court to be the greatest Imposture and Grievance in the Kingdom The Damned in Hell do never cease repining at the Justice of God Nor the Prisoners in the Fleet at the Decrees in Chancery In the which Hell of Prisoners this one for Amiquity and Obstinacy may pass for a Lucifer I neither know him nor his Cause but as long as he stands in Contempt he is not like to have any more Liberty A Lion may be judg'd by these two Claws of his Pounce 83. And now I have past over these exordial Marks of his Demeanour and sufficiency before the Term began Upon the first day of it when he was to take his Place in Court he declined the Attendance of his great Friends who offered as the manner was to bring him to his first settling with the Pomp of an nauguration But he set out Early in the Morning with the Company of the Judges and some few more and passing through the Cloysters into the Abby he carried them with him into the Chappel of Henry the Seventh where he Prayed on his Knees silently but very Devoutly as might be seen by his Gesture almost a quarter of an hour then Rising up chearfully he was Conducted with no other Train to a Mighty Confluence that expected him in the Hall whom from the Bench of the Court of Chancery he Greeted with this Speech MY Lords and Gentlemen all I would to God my former Course of life had so qualified me for this Great Place wherein by the Will of God and the special Favour of the King I am for a time to bestow my self that I might have fallen to my Business without any farther Preface or Salutation Especially considering that as the Orator observes Id ipsum dicere nunquam sit non ineptum nisi cum est necessarium This kind of Orationing hath ever a Tincture of levity if it be not occasion'd by some urgent Necessity For my own part I am as far from Affecting this Speech as I was from the Ambition of this Place But having found by private Experience that sudden and unexpected Eruptions put all the World into a Gaze and Wonderment I thought it most convenient to break the Ice with this short Deliberation which I will limit to these two Heads my Calling and my Carriage in this Place of Judicature 84. For my Calling unto this Office it was as most here present cannot but know not the Cause but the Effect of a Resolution in the State to Change or Reduce the Governour of this Court from a Professor of our municipal Laws to some one of the Nobility Gentry or Clergy of this Kingdom Of such a Conclusion of State quae aliquando incognita semper justa as I dare not take upon me to discover the Cause so I hope I shall not endure the Envy Peradventure the managing of this Court of Equity doth Recipere magis minus and is as soon diverted with too much as too little Law Surely those Worthy Lords which to their Eternal Fame for the most part of an hundred years Govern'd and Honour'd this Noble Court as they Equall'd many of their own Profession in the knowledge of the Laws so did they excel the most of all other Professions in Learning Wisdom Gravity and mature Experience In such a Case it were but Poor Philosophy to restrain those Effects to the former which were produced and brought forth by those latter Endowments Examine them all and you shall find them in their several Ages to have the Commendation of the Compleatest Men but not of the deepest Lawyers I except only that mirror of our Age and Glory of his Profession my Reverend Master who was as Eminent in the Universal as any other one of them all in his choicest particular Sparguntur in omnes Uno hoc mista fluunt quae divisa beatos efficiunt conjuncta tenet Again it may be the continual Practise of the strict Law without a special mixture of other knowledge makes a Man unapt and undisposed for a Court of Equity Juris Consultus ipse per se nihil nisi leguleius quidam cautus acutus as M. Crassus was wont to define him They are and that cannot be otherwise of the same Profession with the Rhetories at Rome as much used to defend the Wrong as to Protect and Maintain the most upright Cause And if any of them should prove corrupt he carries about him armatam nequitiam that skill and Cunning to palliate the same that that mis-sentence which pronounced by a plain and understanding Man would appear most Gross and Palpable by their Colours Quotations and Wrenches of the Law would be made to pass for Current and Specious Some will add hereunto the Boldness and Confidence which their former Clients will take upon them when as St. Austin speaks in another Case They find That Man to be their Judg who but the other day was their hired Advocate Marie that depraedandi Memoria as St. Jerom calls it That promness to take Mony as accustom'd to Fees is but a Base and Scandalous Aspersion and as incident to the Divine if he want the Fear of God as to the common Lawyer or most Sordid Artizan But that that former Breeding and Education in the strictness of Law might without good Care and Integrity somewhat indispose a Practiser thereof for the Rule and Government of a Court of Equity I Learned long ago from Plinius Secundus a most Excellent Lawyer in his time and a Man of singular Rank in the Roman Estate for in his 2 3 and 6 Epist Making Comparison between the Scholastici as he calls them which were Gentlemen of the better sort bred up privately in feigned pleadings and Schools of Eloquence for the
and Decrees of my Predecessors I would be loth to succeed any man as Metellus did Caius Verres Cuius omnia erant ejusmodi ut totam Verris Praeturam retexere videretur Whose Carriage saith Tully was a meer Penclopes Web and untwisting of all the Acts of Verres ' s Pretorship Upon New matter I cannot avoid the re-viewing of a Cause but I will ever expect the forbearing of Persons so as the Ashes of the Dead may be hereafter spared and the Dust of the Living no further Raked Fourthly I will be as cautelous as I can in referring of Causes which I hold of the same Nature of a By-way Motion For one Reference that Spurs on a Cause there are ten that bridle it in and hold it from hearing This is that which Bias calls the backward forwarding of a Cause for as the Historian speaks Quod procedere non potest recedit Fifthly I profess before hand this Court shall be no Sanctuary for Undiscreet and Desperate Sureties It is a Ground of the Common Law That a man shall make no Advantage of his own Follies and Laches When the Mony is to be borrowed the Surety is the first in the Intention and therefore if it be not paid let him a God's Name be the first in Execution Lastly I will follow the Rules of this Court in all Circumstances as near as I can And considering that as Pliny speaks Stultissimum est adimitandum non optima quaeque proponere It were a great Folly to make Choice of any other then the very best for Imitation I will propound my Old Master for my Pattern and Precedent in all things Beseeching Almighty God so to direct me That while I hold this place I may follow him by a True and Constant imitation And if I prove Unfit and Unable for the same That I may not play the Mountebank so in this Place as to Abuse the King and the State but follow the same most Worthy Lord in his Chearful and Voluntary Resignation Sic mihi contingat vivere sicque mori 88. This he deliver'd thus much and I took Councel with my self not to Abbreviate it For it is so Compact and Pithy That he that likes a little must like it all Plutarch gives a Rule for Sanity to him that Eats a Tortoise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eat it up all or not a whit for a Modicum will Gripe the Belly He that fills himself with a great deal shall procure a Cleansing Evacuation So the Speech of a Great Orator is Instructive when it is entire Pinch it in with an Epitome you mangle the meaning and avile the Eloquence From Words he fell to Practise Industry I think was his Recreation for certain he had not a drop of Lazy Blood in his Veins He fill'd up every hour of the Day and a good part of the Night with the dispatch of some public and necessary business And though as a Counsellor of State and both as a Peer and Speaker in Parliament he had many diversions yet none of the work in Chancery was diminish'd which Attendance grew so light and familiar to him that in a little while it seem'd to be no more a burthen to him then the Water is to the Fishes under which they Swim He would not excuse himself a day for any the most lawful pretence he would not impart himself to the Star-Chamber or Parliament when it sate before he had spent two hours or more among the Pleaders Two or three Afternoons he Allotted every Week to hear Peremptories By which unequall'd diligence commonly he dispatch'd five or six Causes in a morning according to the quality or measure of the Points that came to be debated He did not only labour Six Days but as it follows in the Commandment He did all that he had to do For of all the Causes that were usually set down for hearing he never left any of them unheard at the End of the Term which was both an especial Ease and Comfort to the Subject and a full Testimony of his labour and ability to expedite so many Knotty and Spacious Causes that came before him in as little time as the Clients could expect The Survey of an whole year will give better satisfaction then every Term a part by it self Whereupon he Writes thus to the Lord Marquess July 10. 1622. In this Place I have now serv'd His Majesty one whole Year diligently and honestly But to my Hearts Grief by Reason of my Rawness and Inexperience very unprofitably Yet if his Majesty will Examine the Regâ—ers there will be found more Causes finally Ended this one Year then in all the Seven Years preceding How well ended I confess ingeniously I know not His Majesty and your Lordship who no doubt have Received some Complaints though in your Love 〈…〉 from me are in that the most competent Judges A Testimony of Great Labour and not more Copious then Clear For the Registry could not I ye Thus Joseph in his faithful Service under King Pharaoh gather'd in as much in one Year as was wont to be Reap'd in Seven And truly it becomes him that he was not confident but mistrustful of himself least some Waspish and Vexatious men had attempted to lay open some Errors to his Superiors which should escape him in fixing so many Planetary Causes But there was I had almost said none Yet then I had forgotten Sir John Bourcher who complain'd to both Houses of Parliament that his matters in debate were for ever shut up in a Decree before his Counsel was ready having some Allegations which expected more time to be Ripen'd still more time The business of this Knight was Arbitrated with consent by the Chief Baron Jac. 7. That Arbitration he would not stand to It was Decreed in full hearing by the Lord Elsmore Jac. 10. This did not please him Yet it was Order'd to the same Effect by the Lord Bacon Jac. 17. And after this the same Decree was confirm'd by the Lord William's Jac. 19. Having the consent of Justice Hutton Justice Chamberlain and the Master of the Rolls with an hundred Pounds advantage more then was given him before And was not this Suit come to Adultage for Tryal after Seventeen Years Vexation in it first and last If a Suitor shall have Power to define when his Cause is sufficiently heard a Fidler would not undertake the Office of a Judge Sir John durst not have presum'd to this Boldness but that he was encourag'd by his Father-in-Law the Lord Sheffeild who was a Scholar a Judicious Lord and of great Experience that knew well enough the Futility of this Appeal for it was discharg'd with a general Rebuke But the Spirits usually beat with an un even Pulse when they stirr too much in pity to our own Relations 89. Some others there were I yet remember it of the coarsest Retainers to Court who liv'd by picking up Crumbs that fell from Stale Bread these Whisper'd their Discontents that Causes
Clergy of England as being neither Parsons Vicars nor Curates be Licenced henceforward in the Court of Faculties only with a Fiat from the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and a Confirmation under the Great Seal of England And that such as transgress any one of these Directions be suspended by the Lord Bishop of the Diocess or in his Default by the Lord Arch-Bishop of the Province Ab officio beneficio for a Year and a Day untill his Majesty by the Advice of the next Convocation shall prescribe some further Punishment 102. These Orders were well brought fourth but Success was the Step-Mother Destinata salubriter omni ratione potentior fortuna discussit Curtius lib. 5o. Crossness and Sturdiness took best with the Vulgar and he was counted but a Cockney that stood in awe of his Rulers No marvel if some were brought to no State of Health or toward any Temper of Convalesence with these Mandates Nothing is so hardly bridled as the Tongue saith St. James especially of a mis-guided Conscience when their Bladder if full of Wind the least Prick of a Thorn will give it eruption A Fool traveleth with a Word as a Woman in Labour of a Child Ecclus. 19.11 Restraint is not a Medicine to cure epidemical Diseases for Sin becomes more sinful by the Occasion of the Law Diliguntur immodice sola quae non licent says one of the Exteriors Quintil. decl 1a. The less we should the more we would Curb Cholerical Humours and you press out Bitterness as it is incident to those that are strait-lac'd to have sower Breaths The Scottish Brethren were acquainted by common Intercourse with these Directions that had netled the aggrieved Pulpitarians And they says Reverend Spotswood P. 543. accuse them to be a Discharge of Preaching at least a Confining of Preachers to certain Points of Doctrine which they call Limiting of the Spirit of God But the Wiser Sort judged them both necessary and profitable considering the Indiscretion of divers of that sort who to make Ostentation of their Learning or to gain the Applause of the Popular would be medling with Controversies they scarce understood and with Matters exceeding the Capacity of the People But what a Pudder does some make for not stinting the Spirit or Liberty of Prophecying as others call it They know not what they ask Such an indefinite Licence is like the Philosopher's Materia Prima a monstrous Passive Subject without Form A Quid libet which is next to nothing Indeed it is a large Charter to pluck down and never to build up Every Man may sling a Stone where he will and let it light as Luck carries it But how can the House of God be built unless the Builders be appointed to set up the Frame with Order and Agreement among themselves according to the Pattern which was shewn in the Mount Try it first in Humane Affairs and see how it will sadge with them before we proceed to Heavenly Dissolve the publick Mint let every Man Coin what Money he will and observe if ever we can make a Marchandable Payment Their Confusion is as like to this as a Cherry to a Cherry Give their Spirit as much Scope as they ask Let them Coin what Doctrine they will with the Minting-Irons of their own Brain They may pay themselves with their own Money but will it pass with others for Starling Will it go for current Divinity To meet them home Suppose this Priviledge were allow'd yet every good Spirit will limit it self to lawful Subjection Yet these would not Then what Remedy in earnest none was try'd It is the height of Infelicity to be incurable As Pliny in his Natural History said of Laws made against Luxury in Rome which would not be kept down therefore the Senators left to make Laws against it Frustra interdicta quae vetucrant cernentes nullas potiùs quam irritas esse Leges maluerunt 103. Neither were uncharitable Suspicions like to mend For the Unsatisfied that sung so far out of Tune had another Ditty for their Prick-Song The King's Letters were directed to the Lord Keeper to be Copy'd out and sent forth to the Judges and Justices to afford some Relaxation of our Penal Laws to some but not all Popish Recusants Which made sundry Ministers interpose very harshly and in the Prophet Malachy's Stile Chap. 2. Ver. 13. To cover the Altar of God with Tears and Weeping and Crying but the Lord regarded not the Offering neither received it with Good-will at their Hands What could this mean as they conjectured but the highest Umbrage to the Reformed Religion and â—at Toerâ—ion of Popery Leave it at that cross way that they knew not whither this Project will turn Nay Should they not hope for the best Event of the Meaning A King is like to have an ill Audit when every one that walks in the Streets will reckon upon his Councels with their own casting Counters It is fit in sundry Occurrences for a Prince to disguise his Actions and not to discover the way in which he treads But many times the Wisdom of our Rulers betrays them to more Hatred than their Follies because Idiots presume that their own Follies are Wisdom Plaurus displays these impertinent Inquisitors very well in Trinummo Quod quisque habet in animo aut habiturus est sciunt Quod in aurem Rex Reginae dixerit sciunt Quae neque futura neque facta sunt illi sciunt Yet these Fault-sinders were not jear'd out of their Melancholly though they deserv'd no better but were gravely admonished by his Majesty Vivâ voce in these Words I understand that I am blamed for not executing the Laws made against the Papists But ye should know that a King and his Laws are not unfuly compared to a Rider and his Horse The Spur is sometime to be used but not always The Bridle is sometime to be held in at other times to be let loose as the Rider finds Cause Just so a King is not at all times to put in Execution the Rigor of his Laws but he must for a time and upon just Grounds dispense with the same As I protest to have done in the present Case and to have conniv'd only for a time upon just Cause howbeit not known to 〈◊〉 If a Man for the Favour shew'd to a Priest or Papist will judge me to be inclining that way he wrongs me exceedingly My Words and Writings and Actions have sufficiently 〈◊〉 what my Resolution is in all Matters of Religion That Cause not known to 〈…〉 in part unfolded by that grave Father Spotswood where I quoted him 〈◊〉 Says he The Better and Wiser Sort of his Country-men who considered 〈…〉 Estate of things gave a far other Judgment thereof than the Discontented 〈…〉 then our King was treating with the French King for Peace to the Protestants of France and with the King of Spain for withdrawing his Forces from the Palatinate At which time it was no way fitting that
he had dazled the World with that false Light he never pleas'd his Judges that had secretly tried the Constitution of his Conscience Sir Edward Sackvile who shortly succeeded his Brother Richard in the Earldom of Dorset was at Rome Ann. 1624. and had Welcom given him with much Civility in the English College so far that he presum'd to ask rather out of Curiosity than Love to see this Prisoner de Dominis Mr. T. Fitz-herbert the Rector did him the Observance to go with him to the Jayl He found him shut up in a Ground-Chamber narrow and dark for it look'd upon a great Wall which was as near unto it as the breadth of three spaces Some slight forms being pass'd over which use to be in all Visits says Sir Edward My Lord of Spalato you have a dark Lodging It was not so with you in England There you had at Windsor as good a Prospect by Land as was in all the Country And at the Savoy you had the best Prospect upon the Water that was in all the City I have forgot those things says the Bishop here I can best Contemplate the Kingdom of Heav'n Sir Edward taking Mr. Fitz-Herbert aside into the next Room Sir says he tell me honestly Do you think this Man is employ'd in the Contemplation of Heav'n Says the Father Rector I think nothing less for he was a Male-content Knave when he fled from us a Railing Knave while he liv'd with you and a Motley parti-colour'd Knave now he is come again This is the Relation which that Honourable Person made Ann. 1625. which I heard him utter in the hearing of no mean Ones 113. But by this time Spalat was dead either by his fair Death or by private strangling Gallo-Belgicus that first sent the News abroad knew not whither But he knew what became of his Body that it was burnt at the same place in Rome where Hereticks do end their Pain It is a Process of Justice which is usual with their Inquisition to shew such abhorrence to Hereticks that were so in their sense to call them to account though they be dead and rotten First They are so Histrionical in their Ceremonies as if they made a Sport of Barbarousness that they cite the dead Men three several Days to appear or any that will answer for them but happy they if they do not appear then their Carkasses or Bones are brought forth and burnt in the common Market with a Ban of Execration The latest that were used so among us were Reverend Bucer and Fagius at Cambridge Anno 1556. And Dr. Scot Bishop of Chester one of Cardinal Pole's Visitors defended it before the University Haud mirum videri debeat si in mortem quoque ista inquisitis extendatur Bucer Scrip. Angl. p. 925. Sic postulare sacros Canones p. 923. This is their Soverity from which the Dead are not free Now by the Blaze of that Bonfire in which De Dominis his Trunk was consum'd we may read an Heretick in Fiery Characters I mean as he was entred into the black Book of the Roman Slaughter-House He lived and died with General Councils in his Pate with Wind-Mills of Union to concord Rome and England England and Rome Germany with them both and all other Sister-Churches with the rest without asking leave of the Tridentine Council This was his Piaculary Heresie For as Aâ—orius writes Tom. 1. Moral Lib. 8. Cap. 9. Not only he that denies an Article of the Roman Creed but he that doubts of any such Article is an Heretick and so to be presented to Criminal Judgment Si quem in foro exteriori l gitime allegata proâ—ata probaverint in rebus Fidci scienter voluntarie dubitasse arbitrer cum ut v re propriè haeretiâ—um puniendum Therefore if Spalat had return'd a Penitent in their Construction and imbodied himself into that Church as only true and Apostolical he could not have suffered in his Offals and Carkass as an Heretick So the same Azorius confesseth Lib. 8. Cap. 14. And Alphonsus à Castro is angry with Bernard of Lutzenburg for holding the contrary Lib. 1. Cap. 9. Quis unquam docuit eum esse dicendum haereticum qui errorem sic tenuit ut monitus conviclus non crubuerit palinodiam cantare This was the success of the variable Behaviour of M. Antonius de Dominis De Domims in the plural says Dr. Crakanthorp for he could serve two Masters or twenty if they would all pay him Wages He had an Hearing as it is mention'd before in our High Commission To countenance the Audience of so great a Cause the Lord Keeper gave attendance at it I began at that end of his Troubles and having footed all the Maze am come out at the other 114. Johosaphat distinguisheth between the Lord's Matters and the King's Affairs 2 Chron. 19.12 So do I in the Subject before me I have given some Says of his Church-Wisdom in the former Paragraph I go on to set the Sublimity of his State-Wisdom in the latter I must look back to a small Service which he did perform in Michaelmas-Term 1621. for as much as the Conjunction of some things which rais'd a Dust in the Year following are sit to go together Upon the solemn Day when the Lord Cranfield then Master of the Wards and immediately created Earl of Middlesex took his Place as Lord Treasurer in the Exchequer-Chamber the Lord Keeper gave him his Oath and saluted his Admission with a short Speech following My Lord You are called to serve his Majesty in the Place of a Lord Treasurer by the most Honourable and most Ancient Call in this Realm the delivery of a Staff to let you know that you are now become one of the surest Staffs or Stays that our great Master relies upon in all this Kingdom And these Staffs Princes must lean upon being such Gods as die like Mon and such Masters as are neither omni-sufficient nor independent For St. Austin writing upon that place of the Psalm I have said unto the Lord Thou art my God my Goâ—ds are nothing unto thee observes that God only is the Master that needs no reference to his Servant All other Masters and Servants are proper Relatives and have a mutual Reciprocation and Dependence Eges tu Domino tuo ut det panem Eget te Dominus tuus ut adjuves labore As the Servant wants a Master to maintain him so the Master wants a Servant to assist him For the present supplying of this want in his Majesty I will say as the Historian did of the Election of Tiberius Non quaerendus quem eligeret sed eligendus qui emineret The King was not now to think of one whom he should choose but to choose one who was most eminent For as Claudian said of Ruffinus Taciti suffragia vulgi Vel jam contulerant quicquid mox addidit Aula You were stated in this Place by the Votes of the People before you understood the Pleasure
up the greatest part of the Time in speaking to the Redress of petty Grievances like Spaniels that rett after Larks and Sparrows in the Field and pass over the best Game Therefore his Majesty to loose no time drew up a Proclamation with his own Pen Feb. 20 to this end that certain of the Lords of the Privy Council should have Power and special Commission to receive the Complaints of all the good People of this Land which should be brought before them concerning any Exorbitances Vexations Oppressions and Illegalities and either by their own Authority if it would reach to it to see them corrected or to give Orders to cut them off by the keenest Edge of the Laws That Complainants should be encouraged to present their Grievances as well by the Invitement of the Proclamation as by the Signification of the Judges to the Country and Grand Juries in their respective Circuits The Draught of this the Features of his Majesty's own Brain came by Post to pass the Great Seal Yet for all that Hast the Lord Keeper took time to scan it and sent it back with Advice that the Project would be sweeter if it were double refined presuming therefore that his Majesty would not be unwilling to stop a little at the Bar of good Counsel he wrote this ensuing Letter to the Court Feb. 22. May it please Your most Excellent Majesty 120. I Do humbly crave Your Majesties Pardon that I forbear for two or three days to seal Your Proclamation for Grievances until I have presented to Your Majesty this little Remonstrance which would come too late after the Sealing and Divulging the Proclamation First As it is now coming forth it is generally misconstrued and a little sadly look'd upon by all men as somewhat restreining rather than enlarging Your Majesties former Care and Providence over Your Subjects For whereas before they had a standing Committee of all the Council-Table to repair unto they are now streitned to four or five only Most of which number are not likely to have any leisure to attend the Service Secondly I did conceive Your Majesty upon Your first Royal Expression of Your Grace in this kind in a Resolution to have mingled with some few Lords of Your Privy-Council some other Barons of Your Kingdom Homines as Pliny said of Virginius Rufus innoxiè Populares Whose Ears had been so opened to the like Grievances in the time of Parliament as their Tongues notwithstanding kept themselves within the compass of Duty and due Respect to Your Majesty as the Earls of Dorset and Warwick the Lord Houghton Dr. Morton the Lord Dennie the Lord Russel the Lord North. And among the Lords Spiritual the Bishops of Lichfield Rochester and Ely and especially unless Tour Majesty in Your deep Wisdom have some Reasons of the Omission Dr. Buckeridge the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury This mixture would produce the these Effects ensuing First An Intimation of Your Majesties Sincerity and Reality in this Proclamation Dr. Felton Secondly A more free and general Intimation to Parties Aggrieved who will repair soonear to these private Peers then to the great Lords of Your Majesties Council Thirdly The making of these Lords and the like Witnesses of Your Majesties Justice and good Government against the next ensuing Parliament and the stopping of their Ears against such supposed Grievances at that time as shall never be heard of in their Sitting upon this Commission Fourthly and Lastly The gaining of these Temporal Lords to side with the State being formerly much wrought upon by the Factious and Discontented If Your Majesty shall approve of these Reasons it is but to Command Your Secretary to interline these or some of these Names in the Commission which in all other respects is already wisely and exceeding well penn'd with two short Clauses only First That these Lords shall attend very carefully and constantly in Term-time when they are occasion'd to be at London Secondly That they be instructed to receive all Complaints with much Civility and Encouragement giving them full Content and Redress according to the merit of their Grievances For nothing will sooner break the Heart of a People or make them lose their Patience than when hopes of Justice are frustrated after the Royal Word is engaged But if Your Majesty in Your high Wisdom will overpass these Particulars which I have dutifully presented upon the return of the Proclamation as it is it shall be sealed and divulged with all expedition But these Reasons were not overpass'd Both the Proclamation and private Orders to the Lords Commissioners were reformed by the Contents of that weighty Letter His Majesty greatly inclining to the Lord-Keeper's Readiness and espying Judgment in all Consultations For as Laertius in Zeno's Life said of a famous Musician 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Ismenias could play well upon all Instruments So this was another Ismenias who had the Felicity to make all Deliberations pleasing and tuneable especially he had that way above all that I knew to make sweet Descant upon any plain Song that was prick'd before him It will be to the Profit of the Reader if I rub his memory with one Passage of the Letter for it is but one though it come in twice which presseth the King to Sincerity and Reality to fix his Word like the Center of Justice that cannot be moved Righteous Lips are the delight of Kings Prov. 16.23 And a King of Righteous Lips is most delightful Since the coercitive part of the Law doth not reach him upon what Nail shall those Millions that stand before his Throne hang their Hopes if his Word do not bind him A People that cannot give Faith to their Sovereign will never pay him Love It seems that the ancient Latin Kings did profess to use Crookedness and Windings of Dissimulation in their Polity therefore their Scepter was called Lituus because it bent in toward the upper end But the Scepter of thy Kingdom says David of GOD is a right Scepter A right one indeed For Contracts and Promises bind God to Man much more must they oblige the King to his People An Author of our own Dr. Duck in his very Learned Treatise De usu Juris Civilis p. 44. hath well delivered this Morality Princeps ad contractum tenetur uti privatus nec potest contractum suum rescindere ex plenitudine potestatis cum maximè in eo requiratur bena sides Falshood is Shop-keepers Language or worse but 't is beneath Majesty 121. A Parliament being not far of either in the King's Purpose or in Prospect of Likelihood Serj Crooke Cvew Finch Damport Bramston Bridgman Crawly Headly Thin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Authurst Blng. Dâ—y the Lord Keeper was provident that the Worthies of the Law should be well entreated Their Learning being most comprehensive of Civil Causes and Affairs they had ever a great Stroke in that Honorable Council Therefore he wrought with his Majesty to sign a Writ for the Advancement of some
World your incapability of that Passion But to give Your Highness to understand that I hope if you discover any â—ndment to detein your Princely Person under any fair Colour or Pretence whatsoever You will endeavour by all means possible to make your departure as secret as your Arrival was I pray God this may prove but my Folly and Jealousie And I thank God heartily that you have in Your Company the Earl of Bristow who for Advice and Counsel upon the Place is in my poor Opinion inferior to none in His Majesties Dominions Here is no Course omitted to still the Noise and to take away the Affrightments caused by your sudden departure I am a little afraid that the person of the Earl of Carâ— whom His Majesty hath posted after you will not prove so acceptable in the Spanish Court which I wish might have no Provocation at all while your person is there If it prove so he is a most willing Lord to please Your Highness and you may 〈◊〉 so of â—im the sooner back again I have endeavour'd to smooth and sweeten all things at home in the best accommodation that lay in me I have stayed a Collection which went on for the Grisons though I bear them good will least the King of Spain might take Offence thereat I have restored the Priests and Jesuits that were restrained in the New Prison to their former Liberty I have given special Order to the Judges for Sweetness and Doulcure to the English Catholicks I have twice Visited the the Spanish Ambassador and do now deny him no Suit he makes And all this with a Reflection upon that inestimable Pearl of curs which God hath now put into their Hands On the other side if things prosper according to your Highness's desire you will not fail to write to some person that will Publish it that nothing hath been represented to you there adverse or contrary to your Profession and Religion And that you were much Offended when you heard of those Surmises of this people that you took this Journey out of an Yielding and Recklesness in the Constancy and Sincerity of the same This Course will quiet the sond Jealousies at home Your Highness will now give me leave to Remember mine own Calling and to call upon you to do that which you have never failed to do to call upon God Morning and Evening for his Gracious Assistance and continual Protection to whose preventing accompanying and pursuing Grace I do most humbly and Devoutly now upon my bended Knees recommend your Highness Dominus Custodiat introitum tuum exitum tuum ex Lòc nunc usque in seculum Ps 121.8 A Letter to the L. Buckingham My most Noble Lord 129 ALthough the Service I can now only perform to your Lordship is praying and not writing yet my Affection will not suffer me to conceal my Folly in this kind I have no time to recollect my Thoughts this Gentleman who steals away after you is in such haste I have utter'd most of my Dreams unto his Highness who I know will impart them to your Lordship unless they shall prove so wide as out of respect to my Credit he shall be pleas'd to burn them If things prove so ill which God forbid as that his Princely Person should under Colour of Friendship larger Treaty or any Device be then detained longer then his liking be you my sweet Lord drawn by no Means Counsel or Importunity to leave his Person and to return without him If you should do so as I know you will not beside the disgrace thereof it would prove your certain Ruin If things prove well you need no Counsel your Adventure will be Applauded and great Note cast upon your Wisdom and Resolution But if the Health Entertainment and the principal business of His Highness nay if any one of the Three should miscarry You cannot in your Wisdom and great Experience in this Court but certainly knew that the blame will be laid upon you And therefore for Gods sake prepare your self accordingly by Mature Deliberation to Encounter it My Lord for fear others will not I will tell you the Truth If I Offend you with my Trusty Care I am sure your good Nature will blow it over before we meet again But in sooth all the Court and the Rabble of people lay this Voyage upon your Lordship The King would seem sometimes as I hear to take it to himself and we have Advis'd him so to do by Proclamation yet he sticks at it and many times casts it upon you both Thus Sir J. Epsley told me within this hour whom I sent to the Court of purpose to learn it Nay Faces are more sowred and Rumors of Dangers more Encreased because you have defeated some great Lords who expected to be imployed for the Conduct of the Infant a hither And though things speed never so well this Quarrel will remain But I would that might prove the greatest Danger If Your Lordship will Command me what to do in Your Absence I hope you believe you have a faithful Servant and wise enough to follow Directions I will be as Vigilant in your Affairs as my distance from the Court will give me Leave Your Lady is well but unapproachable and invisible Your little Daughter is very Pleasant and as it seems bids us hope the best in her Infantile Presagements My Lady Your Mother is well and chides me that I could not Divine and Prophesie of your Journey I will make bold to remember me to your Host as we conceive it the Earl of Bristow and his good Lady my loving Country-woman My Noble Lord my Humble Suit unto you and my best Advice is that as all the Lords in England sought your Lordship with all Observance in this Court so you will seek and gain the great Lords of Spain with as much Observance in the Court of Spain I ended His Highness Letter with a Text of Scripture and I have another for your Lordship Genes 24. ver 48 49. And I bowed my Head and Worshipped the Lord and Blessed the Lord God of my Master Abraham who hath led me in the Right-way to take my Masters Brothers Daughter to his Son And now if you will deal kindly and truly with my Master tell me that I may turn to the Right Hand or to the Left I Leave your Lordship in this Meditation and in Gods Gracious Protection for ever 130. These in the Levitical Phrase were but the Green Ears of the First Fruits The Sheaves of his Wisdom will follow after For more is to be look'd for how he proceeded then how he began All things went well and unanimously on the part of our English Counsellors in those Foreign Juntoes from hence and so forth at least to the beginning of May. Thus far 't was easie to please them all But there is one skill requir'd in a Calm at Sea another in a Tempest Though the Pilots good Will and Fidelity be constantly the
dissipatur Especially a contumely cleaves the faster when he that is clean from the Defamation in one Person hath deserv'd it in others for as Octa. Minutius says Oftentimes there is some likelihood in a Lye and not unseldom some unlikelihood in a Truth 143. Other Errors and many were charg'd upon the Duke and a broad back will not bear them all Yet casting not an Eye upon the Earl of Bristol's Papers which he produced in Parliament a Lap full of them and no less Their chief purpose was to cast an Odium upon him that he heightned the Spaniards at first to ask worse Conditions in Religion then were formerly Treated on These were Recriminations wherein no man no not the Wise Earl of Bristol is like to keep a Charitable Moderation Because his Miscarriages had been ript up by the Duke before what followed but that wawardness which St Austin confess'd to be sometime in himself Si deprehensus Arguerer saevire magis quà m caedere libebat Cofess lib. 1. c. ult But such as were no parties in Contestation with my Lord of Buckingham blame him that he was very rash in managing business turning about Councils in all haste upon the Wheel of Fancy but keeping no Motion of Order or Measure which none could endure worse then that Nation with whom he Treated who are the most Superstitious under Heaven to keep that Politick Rule Bona Consilia morâ valescere Tacit. Hist l. 4. They said also That he was Offensive to the Crown of Spain in taunting Comparisons and an open derider of their Magniloquent Phrases and Garb of stateliness which must be an intended provocation for he was as well studied in blandishments and the Art of Behaviour as any Courtier in Europe They repined that he thrust himself into such a Room at their Masks and Interludes as were proper to their King our Prince and the Train Royal and was not contented with that Honour which was given to the Major Domo or prime Subject of Spain as if he were not satisfied to be Received as a less Star but as a Parelius with his Highness And whatsoever the grudge was they vented it craftily in that Quarrel that he did many things against the Honour and Reverence due to the Prince as one hath pick'd up and offered it to King James Cab. p. 221. That he was over Familiar in Talk and in Terms with his Highness Yet David so near the Crown call'd himself a dead Dog or a Flea in respect of Saul Nor is it omitted that he was sometime cover'd when the Prince was bare sometime sitting when the Prince stood capering a lost in sudden Fits and Chirping the Ends of Sonnets which was not Unmannerliness he was better bred but inconsiderateness which will creep upon him who was too much dandled upon the Lap of Fortune Or as Budaeus better Expresseth it Sap. Pand. p. 331. Mirablandimenta genuit Aulici victus ratio quibus praestantissima virtus saepè consopita connivere visa est And truly his Breeding in Budaeus his own Country did him some prejudice in that kind For the French Mode is bold Light and Airy That which we call rudeness with them is freedom good Metal brave assurance And that which we and the Castilians call Gravity or Modesty with them is reputed Sneaking want of Spirit Sheepishness But between frets of Spight and Fits of Levity the Duke put the Treaty so far out of Tune that the Lovers were disappointed of their expected Epithalamium So that the Spaniards made it one of their Refranes or Proverbs If the Prince had come alone without the Duke he had never return'd alone without the brave Castilian Virgin they might say so freely for I heard himself say no less in the Banqueting House at a Conference with the Lords and Commons anno 1624. When he endear'd himself to the Hearers That the Stout and Resolute way wherein he went had overturn'd the Marriage and did Arrogate the Thanks of all things to himself that were acceptable and popular So be it yet that which Canoniz'd him with the people then was afterward made an Evidence against him Cab. p. 227. To lay a Dram of Excuse against a Pound of Error this is to be Alledged that Olivares and Count Montes-claros were ill Advis'd to spurn a young Lion as if he had been a Puppy-Whelp For as soon as they saw the Duke soare so high in his Opinions and when Bristol spake to mitigate him disaccount of him contemptibly as if he had nothing to do this Brace of Grandees call'd it in Question what Creature could have more Power in that Action then an Embassador that laid the first Stone of it that had ample Letters of Credence under the King's Broad-Seal with the Confirmation of the Privy-Council of England which was more then my Lord of Buckingham brought with him The Headship of the Treaty was in the Prince and they bended to it Extolling his Wisdom as Capitolinus doth Gordianus the Elder Moribus it a moderatus ut nihil possis dicere quod nimiè fecit The next place they deemed to the Earl of Bristol upon the Reason premised though he declin'd it And should Buckingham be degraded to be the third in Place who held the Highest Place in Honour and the Supremacy both in the King 's and the Princes Favour Ausonius in Paneg. ad Gratian. tells a Story That Alexander the Great Reading those Verses in Homer that Agamemnon was Nam'd by the Common Souldiers to Fight the Duel with Hector after Aiax and Diomedes clapt out an Oath saying Occiderem eum qui me tertium nominasset I would have cut his Throat that should have Named two before me Truly Buckingham had so much Bravery in him that he would take the third Place in as great Dudgeon as Alexander 144. The grave Earl of Bristol was passive in this Quarrel and sunk it in Silence with his best Dexterity So he did allay all other Heats which the Duke's Passion raised against him if his Letter to the Lord Keeper be of Canonical Faith Cab. P. 21. knowing how undecent and scandalous a thing it is for the Ministers of Princes to run different ways in a strange Court But the Envy of all Miscarriages was cast upon his Lordship by that mighty Adversary and by a greater than he That he was wholly Spaniolized which could not be unless he were a Pensioner to that State That he sided with Olivarez in all Consults That he professed a Neutrality and more in all Propositions for the Advancement of the Popish Religion That he never Pleaded for the Restitution of the Palatinate but only pitied it with the Spanish Shrug That he did not so timely unmask the Spanish Councils to the Kings Advantage as he might and ought to have done That he entangled the Prince in Delays to keep him from returning Home For these and other the like which will follow in the great Report made in the next Parliament a Noise was made
Opinion with his Highness and now a very fair and favourable Aspect from my Royal Master May I never enjoy the one or the other any longer than I shall return them both to their first Orignal and employ them to the last Drap in your Grace's Service Having not yet spoken with Sir Francis Cottington I shall not deliver my Opinion of the State of your Negotiation but go on with my Baeds and pray still unto God to bless and prosper it Only we have here many odd Relations of the same agreeing in this That the grand Business is much short of the Forwardness we expected and at this time in part dis-joynted First Some Distasts between your Lordship and Count d'Olivarez are reported to be of late in some sort skinned over rather than healed 2. Your casting of the Earl of Bristol from all Employment before suspected only is now freely discoursed 3. That Porter drew on your Grace and that your Grace drew on the Prince and pressed the King's Assent unto this secret Voyage and all upon a Foundation either imagined or mis-apprehended by Porter the first Mover Upon these Suspitions and five Weeks Silence taking a little Advice with my Lord Hamilton whom I observed most faithfully constant unto your Grace I touched upon his Majesty this Day Seven-night to feel how his Majesty stood affected in case you should return without your Errand And taking occasion to recommend that vigorous and active Course your Lordship was reported to run in pressing and forcing some speedy Resolution and averring that however it sped it was the only true Service an Agent could now do unto his Majesty His Majesty replied instantly That he did so interpret it and that none bat Fools or Knaves could otherwise censure it Which I profess before God I was glad at the Heart to hear fall from his Majesty And your Grace may do well to keep this Intelligence by you If I have offended in being thus bold I crave your Pardon it was the fervency of my Love and Affection And if I offend in the other Extream which is in omitting to say or do what I ought to do in your Service impute it to your own Silence and Reservedness your Grace being defective to your self and injurious to my Lord Hamilton and me if you shall not impart unto us freely and timely any ill Success which Good keep off that shall befall in this Negotiation For the good News I am content to take it upon Retail from Pauls but the worst I shall expect to hear at the first from your Grace I beseech your Lordship to take some Occasion to salute in a Letter to my Lord President the Lords of the Council who have ever been very observant in publick of you and yours and are much dejected with notice of some Letters wherein your Grace should intimate the contrary In good Faith your Grace hath found all Respect with the Body of the Council in all this time of your Absence And I hambly beseech you to take heed what Words you let fall concerning the Lord Treasurer All that are about you stand in need of his Favour as the World now goeth And in good Faith I never observ'd him since his coming to this Office more respectful to your Lordship and your Friends than he is at this Instant c. Truly no Proceeding could be more genteel to win the Hearts of all the Great Ones to his Grace and to keep them sure unto him than to perswade him that he had no Enemy 146. The Latter of the two Letters is come abroad in Cab. P. 78. whose Date should be June 28 whereof because it is in many Hands some Jaggs will suffice to be recited MY Love makes me sometimes write and many times fear fondly and foolishly for the which I hope your Grace will pardon me I have been srighted more three Weeks since about Quarrels and Jars which now Dick Greyham hath related in part to the King than at this present I am For God's-sake be not offended with me if I exhort you to do that which I know you do to observe his Highness with all Lowliness Humility and dutiful Obedience and to piece up the least Seam rent which Heat and Earnestness may peradventure seem to produce If the great Negotiation be well concluded let all private Disagreements be wrapped up in the same and never accompany your Lordship into England I beseech you in your Letter to the Marquess Hamilton intimate unto him your Considence and Reliance upon his Watchfulness and Fidelity in all Turns which may concern your Grace I have often said unto his Lordship that your Grace hath in many of my Letters expressed as much and so have pacified him for the time I have had an hours Discourse with his Majesty yesterday Morning and do find so disposed to yourdship as my Heart desireth yet hath been informed of the Discontentments both with the Conde d'Olivarez and the Earl of Bristol c. 'T is confest that these Advertisements so dutifully presented were sullenly taken It offended that the Lord Keeper look'd through his Grace's Infirmities with a quick Eye though with a noble Sadness He might have wrote somewhat else if he had been less Wise or less Honest Yet still he wrote for the Valuation of the Duke's Goodness to him was so great that the Sowerness of present Unkindness must be dipt in the sweet Sawce of former Benefits It is intoninus the Emp. Similitude cast Dirt into a pure Fountain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it will purge it out and supply clear and wholesome Water Immemiately before that is while the former of these Letters was upon the Way the Duke entrusted the Prince's greatest Secret and his own to the Lord Keeper with a Charge to carry it with him to the King being cautious that no Foot-step of it should remain under his own Hand or any other Therefore thus he salutes the Lord Keeper June 17. My Dear Lord THIS inclosed is a Letter from his Highness to His Majesty I pray you deliver it with your own Hands and read it likewise to him but when you are alone with him If you show him this Letter he will I am sure give you leave When it is read the Prince bids you either burn it or keep it for him I beseech you excuse me for not writing oftner I shall now every day be so busie that I shall have less Leisure than before Yet I pray you let me hear sometimes from you and how his Majesty uses you in my Absence for I am sure he knows you my Friend which I shall strive while I live to continue c. That which was sit to be kept in tenebris for that time may now come to light without Injury by his Gloss upon it who the King excepted only knew it Our Prince either was weary or was perswaded to be so with Articles upon Articles and Additions upon Additions in that Spanish Junto Therefore
had signified his further pleasure and that when the Princessa had been Six Months in England this Favour should be confirmed to her further Content The like was not yielded in the business Agitated with the Duke of Anjoy but a strict Exception was put in Ut nulla Occasio Anglis ad leges constitut as violandas praeberetur It was an ill time for the Embassadors to ask such things when not only seditious Spirits but the best of Protestants who had nothing in them of the peevish and refractory were sick of an ill Digestion of Jealousies It was a hard seeming work to overcome for the Ravens Croak'd and the Doves mourned at it Yet it was a worse time to deny them when the Pledge of our Future Happiness stuck fast in a Foreign Kingdom and nothing could Conduct him home with such Celerity and Safety as some drops of Grace Distilling from the Prerogative Royal to stay the longing of the Pontifician Faction They are beguiled that think Marquess Inoihosa or 〈◊〉 Carlos de Colonna pluck'd us over our Line to get a Wife for the Prince it was to get him home Jam non de Gloriâ sed de Salate pugnandum est Curt. lib. 4. Let his Highness look to it in Spain to come home with a Glorious Bride but all Loyal Hearts look earnestly for him whether single or double was not the Chief Point And the Anxiety of his Majesty was What shall I do for my Son 1 Sam. 10.2 This was the Compass that guided the Lords of the Councel in their condescension to bring their young Master out of Peril though it were with the Ransom of too much Mercy to them who were not the best that deserv'd it But who it was that set the Edge of the Razor upon the Hoane who it was that surpass'd himself in this Negotiation that cut off difficulties smoothly leaving no Raggedness to be seen in the Clest of his distinctions will appear in the ensuing dispatch of the Lord Keepers to the Prince whose goodness will satisfie for the Prolixity May it please your Highness 150. IF I shall touch upon any Service which I may seem to have performed towards Your Higness I humbly beseech your Highness to conceive I do it not to pick Thanks and much less to put any acknowledgment upon your Highness but only to discharge my self of that part of Duty which all the World knoweth I do above all Men in the World owe unto your Highness Before I did imagine that his Majesty would take any Opinion of mine in the Signing and Swearing of this Treaty Sir Fr. Cottington your most worthy Servant had acquainted me with all the dispatch and permitted me to Read the Papers over Upon Saturday last the 12 of July the Council formerly warned to attend his Majesty the next day at Wansted were discharged and some hour after my self commanded to attend Suspecting thereupon I might be questioned to that Effect I sent for your Highness Secretary and heard from him it would be so indeed and that His Majesty was much troubled and perplex'd about his Oaths Presently Town-Reports were Raised of great Opposition among the Lords against this Swearing In so much as the shameless people had made two Orations the one to be of mine for the Oaths and the other of my Lord of Canterbury's against the same which they supposed prevailed with the King and the whole Councel when neither of us had heard or spoken one word in that Theme I spent in a manner all that Night in debating with my self the Streights that your Highness was unto and at the last fell upon this Resolution contained in this Letter which I deliver'd upon Sunday Morning in private to his Majesty with an excuse for my Boldness therein His Majesty accepted thereof very well and Read it over three or four times that day and seemed to me at that time to approve thereof in all Points and put off further Discourse till the Afternoon I was so far emboldned therewith that after Dinner because I found some whispring among the Lords present I stept again to His Majesty and deliver'd him an Opinion that for the Oath of the Lords his Majesty should not leave it to their Disputation but command them to take 〈◊〉 there being no matter of scruple or moment in the same as indeed there is not This his Majesty well approved of and put in practise afterward with good success The Council being met whereof some were there by Reason of their Attendance as my Lord Chamberlain Earl of Carlisle Lord Fenton and Mr. Treasurer others warned as the Duke Lord Treasurer Lord Marshal my self Sir R. Weston and the two Secretaries his Majesty made a Speech unto us full of perplexity because of your Highness's Streits and his own Remorse of Conscience Chiefly he insisted it would be frivolous to be put upon it to move the next Parliament to abrogate the Laws already Establish'd against Recusants which would not be Heard much less Granted and that in point of Conscience and Religion he could not promise that no Laws hereafter should be made against them This his Majesty having utter'd with much Passion and earnestness left us to hear all the Papers Read and having Commanded us very passionately to give him our best Advice retired into his Chamber and left us together for two hours After the End of the Reading many odd and extravagant Propositions were made of Advice to be given to his Majesty how to get your Person home again wherein I durst not say one word finding none of my Opinion unless it were Secretary Calvert nor my self to concur with any of theirs At the last pressed thereunto I said that I conceiv'd upon the Discourse of his Majesty we could not deliver any Advice or Opinion at all For if his Majesty made a Conscience of taking the Oaths and had already Framed unto himself this Conclusion the immoveable Rule in this Case is Quod dubitas ne feceris nor there was no more in Policy or Divinity to be said therein On the other side if His Majesty would otherwise declare himself that he was not moved in Conscience or Religion but only in Honour and Safety to Refuse those Oaths I did hope no Lord in this Company would Advise his Majesty to desert his only Son and to desert him in this manner in the Face of all Christiandom For to pretend an excuse to fetch him home to bâ—lpâ—his Majesty to facilitate these Affairs would never repair his Credit who had subscribed that which his Father would not make good nor was he himself any way able to accomplish Beside that I made it a Question Whether the King of Spain after all this wooing would so easily be deceived in Licensing him to depart At the last his Majesty Returning and calling upon us for our Advice all the Lords Assented to this last Opinion and told his Majesty they durst not Advise him any thing until he express'd himself
quis mortalium concilium ac non fidei Templum dixerit It was become from the King 's best Palace the Temple of Faith After this the Chase of a Stag that was breath'd well and fell luckily brought his Highness on his way to the Sea-side But he stopt a little while at a Magnificent Repast provided in a Wood where the Table was Canopied with green Boughs when King Philip and the Prince had rose up from this Collation and had walk'd a little further a Marble Pillar was Erected a Monument of Alliance and Friendship between the two Kingdoms As when Laban said to Jacob Come thou let us make a Covenant I and Thou and let it be for a Witness between me and thee And Jacob took a Stone and set it up for a Pillar Gen. 31.45 There the two Potentates laying their Hands first upon this Pillar and then enfolding each other in Embraces took Congee and Divided Yet the Ceremony continued with the principal of the Nobles and others of the Spanish Cavalry who waited on his Highness to his Ship and Don Mendoza de Alcarness was appointed to go aboard with him for England to Congratulate before King James his Adventure to Spain and his Happy Return to his Majesty Upon the whole Carriage King Philip might say with his Honour as Abimelech did to Isaac We have done unto thee nothing but good and have sent thee away in Peace Thou art now the blessed of the Lord Gen. 26.29 169. Thus far the view of the Design was marvellously serene not a Cloud to be seen about the Horizon It smiled a little longer for the Earl of Bristol Writes to the Lord Keeper Cab. p. 21. Since the departure of his Highness there have every day passed Letters of extraordinary Affection between the King and the Prince this is Sept. 24. The Grandees also and others of the Castilian Bravery that conducted the Prince to the Seas were Feasted in our Admiral at a true English Table Free Pleasant Luxuriously bountiful with that Store which few Countries but this Fortunate Island could afford A Health was Superstitiously began to the Glorious Princessa and Proclaim'd to the Shore by the Thunder of the Great Ordnance success fell short of the Premises The fault may be laid upon the Spaniards with some partiality who suffered the Duke of Buckingham to part with a sore grudge against the Conde Duke and did not take the best Course to heal it They doubted that Buckingham would do all he could to cross the Match says Bristol in the same Letter yet they were so Stately that they would not seek to a suspected Enemy Belike they thought they had made all fast and that one man's Rash Defiance was inconsiderable But it behoves Wise Men says Isocrat Orat. de Pace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Repose the hopes of well doing upon their own Strength and Judgment not upon the Adversaries Weakness The Duke Olivares was never the nearer that Buckingham told him at their farewel That for his part he had so disoblig'd him that he would make no profession of Friendship to him at all but he would be an everlasting Servant to the King of Spain the Queen and the Infanta and would do the best Offices he could for the concluding the business and strengthning Amity between the two Kingdoms Olivares was not certain of him upon these Words since he was not certain at that time what himself would have For when our Passions are out of Order it is a hard thing for a Man to speak Truth to himself As soon as the Duke had the Prince at shrift as it were in his Cabinet Mr. Edward Clerk under Colour to Attend the Spanish Nobles to Madrid was sent with Letters to the Earl of Bristol to suspend the Procuration for the Contract till further Order was given One Scruple which must first be cleared was That a Monastery might not Rob the Prince of his Wife For a Headless Fable unless Olivares his Salt Tongue had given occasion to it was in many Mouths that after the Desponsories the Lady would enter into the strict Order of the Descalcas or bare Foot Nuns A Rumour that was Laugh'd out of countenance for she was a spriteful Virgin and had nothing of Monastical Austerity in her Complexion Neither did she dissemble but carried her Affections undisguised that she was stricken in Love with the Prince Yet to prevent the worst the Earl of Bristol was serious in Refuting that Folly as it is extant in his to the Prince Cab. p. 24. I have set down to your Highness all sorts of security that may be taken before the betrothing for preventing a Woman Post vatum Matrimonium non consummatum to betake her self into a Religious Life The King of Spain the Infanta all the Ministers would refuse no kind of security that in Reason could be demanded in that behalf This was a slight pretence and soon over There was another thing of greater Consequence Weaved into the mistrust I find it upon the Point wherein the Duke Expostulated with Sir W. Aston Cab. p. 35. You might have observed the Explanation the Prince made of himself to you by his Letters from St. Andreas and have seen his Care and Resolution not to engage himself into the Marriage without good Conditions for the Palatinate and Conservation of his Honour every way More light is opened to this in a Letter that an Ignote Wrote to K. James Cab. p. 219. The same day that Buckingham Received Letters from the Illustrious P. Palatine he caused the Procuration to be Revoked There needs no study upon it how the Structure of the Marriage so far advanc'd was overthrown in an hour An quae per totam res est notissima Lesbon Nunc ignota tibi est Metamor 1.2 The Rude people of Madrid cried it about the Streets says Mr. Clerk Piden el Palatinato Cab. p. 307. All the hope of that Alliance and the comfort from it was drowned in the Rhine 170. God is Love and delights in all the Bonds of Love Marriage is the first of Humane and the strictest It is common with the Great ones that Rule the Earth to Treat together to make such Links with their Children Nay with their Infants They confirm them with Embassies with Articles it may be with their Oaths and Holy Ceremonies Yet when all this is done if a greater Benesit to the State spring up by a New Offer a Curtain is drawn before Conscience The former Interest must give place to the later and that shall be excluded upon the like occasion for a fresh Emolument One Reason I believe tho' I write it fearfully That often times they are but little blest in their Progenies For can the most High forget it Cui vincla jugalia curae Virg. They that uncover Stories of Realms and Common Wealths let them apply it I go on to mine At the Escurial of St. Lorenzo this was the last Speech and accord about the
in their Houses of Convocation And this shall be your Warrant so to do Dated at our Palace of Whitehal in Westminster this 28 Decem. 1623. The Tenth of February was first appointed being Tuesday the day of the Week which K. James observ'd to auspicate his great Affairs but proving to be Shrove-Tuesday wherein the Younkers of the City us'd to exceed in horrid Liberty that day was scratcht out of the Writ and Thursday the Twelfth was chosen in the Room But God scratcht out the Twelfth day when the day was come Nay when the King and his Train were putting on their Robes so far in readiness to begin their Solemnity For the King look'd about him and miss'd the L. Steward Duke of Richmond and Lenox He was absent indeed absent from the Body and present with God 2 Cor. 5.8 He had Supp'd chearfully the Night before complain'd of nothing when he went to Bed slept soundly Et iter confecit dormiendo he finish'd this last Journey in his sleep His Servant was commanded to waken him and hasten him to attend the King but found that he had breathed out his Spirit about an Hour before said the Sons of Art because his Corps was but inclining to be Cold. What a do was made to no purpose to suspect some foul means to rock him into this Everlasting Sleep which would never have been question'd in a meaner Man And cannot God prepare a Worm to smite the Gourd of our Body that it shall wither in a moment He was deplor'd generally I am in with them for he deserv'd it French he was born and bred You might have seen the Gallican Decency in his manners of good Aspect and well shap'd Affable Humble Inoffensive contented with so much Favour as was never Repin'd One that never Wrestled with the King's Privado's and was never near a fall One whose Wit and Honesty kept him great and much belov'd of all which rarely meet One that deserves the Elogy which Lampridias gives to Quintilius Marcellus Counsellor to Alexander Severus Qs. Meliorem ne Historiae quidem continent More was spoken to his never-dying Honour by the Graceful Eloquence of the Lord Keeper upon a fit Text taken out of the 1 King cap. 4. verse 5. Zabud the Son of Nathan was principal Officer and the King's Friend This was perform'd at his Funerals in Westminster Abby April 27. Which were the most costly and set out with the most Princely Pomp for a Subject that ever I saw His Dutchess thinking nothing too sumptuous in his Obsequies to do him the greatest Renown that could be Which Love in her survived towards him to her last hour But good Lady what a penurious House-Wife and scorn to the World hath Ar. Wilson made her p. 259. That her Tables in her Hall were spread as if there had been Meat and Men to furnish them but before Eating time the House being voided the Linnen Return'd into their Folds again and all her people Grased on some few Dishes Out of what Rascal Fame he scrapt up this I know not The Author liv'd not one day after he had Publish'd his Work to Answer it But there are yet as many Living that know this to be maliciously false as there are Pages in his Book For my own part I knew the Order the Comliness the Bounty of her House-keeping in Holborn and at Exeter-House whether I came often on Message from a Lady of a great understanding and a great will the Lady Elizabeth Hatton to streiten an Account of 8000 l. between them I have been kept upon my business until Meal-times very often Noon and Night and have staid with her Worthy Steward Mr. William Bolton at his Table which I could not Civilly Refuse I never saw but that every Board in the Hall was bountifully serv'd the Stewards Table chiefly so costly in well Cook'd-Meats so Rich in the Plate wherein it was serv'd so well observ'd by the Attendants as I preferr'd it before the like in any Noble Family that ever I was present at in the Kingdom I am bound I take it to defend the Hospitality in Truth where I have been a Guest Neither doth it belong only to Knight Errands in Wildwitted that is no Witted Romances to defend a Ladies Honour but it is due from every man that professeth Justice and Ingenuity Principally as Aristotle Writes Prob. 9. Sect. 30 Defunctis opitulari magis Justum est quam vivis hominibus The Exequies of the Dead are call'd Justa and it is more Just to defend the Dead then the Living Let me Weave into the Fringe of this Paragraph a touch at as Wise and Faithful a Letter as ever the Lord Keeper wrote to the Duke of Buckingham He that Reads it all as it is Cab. p. 101. Shall find it no loss of time mending the Fault of the Date a mistake very common in that Rhapsody of Letters it should bear the Style of Feb 13. 1623. instead of Mart. 2. 1624. The Office of the Lord Steward of the King's House was become void by the Death of the Duke of Richmond The next Morning he writes to my Lord of Buckingham That it was a place sit to be accepted of by his Lordship What more Places but peruse the Letter and the Scope of it all along will appear to instruct him upon the Assumption of this to part with another place the Admiralty more beneficial to his Followers then to himself who therefore kept him from discarding But how far had his Lordship been more Fortunate if he had follow'd better Counsel First he had made himself a less Object of their Malice who look'd with Meager Countenance upon him for holding so many Places of Publick Trust Mastership of the Horse Admiralty Wardenship of the Cinque Ports Justice in Eyer over all Chaces and Forrests on this side Trent Whereas the Lord Steward serves the King only in his Houshold Therefore the Lord Keeper omits not to remember him there Your Grace may leave any Office you please to avoid Envy The plurality of the Dukes Offices were one and the first of the Grievances heard and Prosecuted in the Houses of the Lords and Commons throughout all his troubles while his Life lasted Secondly but for the Name of Lord Admiral he had never withdrawn himself from Court to head a Navy at the Sea where never any Commander of the English Fleet made so improsperous a Voyage As Renowned Camden anno 1601. Eliz. says of Robert Earl of Essex That he was a Brave Warrier but Fortune did much forsake him and he would not say with Astrologers That Mars being Lord of his Nativity ' in the Eleventh Station Afflictissimus nascenti affulserat So this Lord Admiral was Valiant and feared not his Foes but Mars was not a propitious Ascendant at his Nativity He that feared it and knew him to be both wilful and unskilful advis'd him to take a White Staff instead of an Anchor but the Duke return'd him no Gra-mercy
their Clutches that by Arms or cunning Treaties do Usurp it But the way and Manner in Discovering the Couchant Enemy in preserving that handful of our Friends in laying down some Course of Diversion and the like you do most wisely and modestly refer to the proper Oracle His Majesties Wisdom and Deep Counsel Yea but I must tell you Mr. Speaker Vinci in amore turpissimum the King cannot endure to be outvyed by his People in Love and Courtesies What you in Duty do refer to him his Majesty in Confidence of your Wisdom and Loving Assections returns upon You. You say you would have the King betake him to sound Counsel You are his Counsel Consilium magnum his Main and Principal Counsel It is very true That since the begining of Harry the 8th the Kings of England have reserved those Matters to their own Conisance and Resolution But it is as true that from Harry the First until that Harry the Last our Kings have in every one of those Questions Repaired to and received Advice of their Parliaments Id verum quod primum Our Master means to follow the former Precedents His Majesty Commands me to yield unto you Hearty Thanks for your just Resentments of his Sufferings in this Cause and to tell you withall that because the main of the Expedition is to be born by the Persons and Purses of the People whom you do represent He is pleased to accept of the Advice of the House of Commons concerning the finding out of this secret Enemy the re-inforcing of our remaining Friends and by what kind of Diversion we shall begin the Enterprize And God the Holy Ghost be present with you in all your Consultations 184. In the Ninth Place That Well of Wood our Navy Royal wherewith you well observed this whole Island to be most strongly fortified we must all attribute the well Rigging and good Condition of it to the great Cost Care and Providence of his Sacred Majesty Hic tot sustinuit hic tanta negotia solus And yet as that Carver that beautified the Temple of Diana although he wrought upon other Mens Charges was suffered notwithstanding to engrave his own Name in some eminent Places of the Building So surely can it be denied by Envy it self but that most Noble Lord who is now a compleat Master in his Art and hath spent his seven years Studies in the Beautifying of the Navy should have a glorious Name enstamped thereupon though in a sitting Distance from his Lord and Master whose Princely Majesty A longe sequitur vestigia semper adorans Lastly For the Reformation of Ireland this I am bidden to deliver Pliny commending the Emperor Trajan to the utmost reach of Eloquence says That the most laudable and most remarkable Point in all his happy Government was That his Care was not consined to Italy alone but Instar solis like the Beams and Influence of the Sun it shed it self to many other Countries Surely his Majesty's Providence is of a large Extent for where the Sun scarce darteth his Beams his Majesty hath shined most gloriously by the Execution of wholsome Laws engrafting Civility and Planting true Religion And let this be our Soveraign's Comfort that though this poor Kingdom though never so reformed shall add very little to his Crown of Temporal Majesty here on Earth it will be an Occasion of an immense Access to his Crown of Glory hereafter in Heaven And now for your four Petitions Mr. Speaker his Majesty grants them all in one Word What Priviledge Liberty Access or fair Interpretation was ever yielded to the Members of that House his Majesty grants them to the Knights and Burgesses now assembled fully and freely without the least Jealousie Qualification or Suspicion I will only add a Memorandum out of Valerius Maximus to cut an even Thred between King and People Quid Cato sine Libertate Quid libertas sine Catone What is Wisdom without Liberty to shew it And what is Liberty without Wisdom to use it 185. Hitherto the King spake to the People by the Lord Keeper's Mouth and then the House rose All rejoyced that such gracious Concessions were returned to Mr. Speaker's Motions which were the Beam that held up the insequent Counsels till the Roof was covered with Agreement And it took the more that it was inlaid with such Mosaick Work not to the Eye but to the Ear by a perfect Orator It was the greatest and the knowingest Auditory that this Kingdom or perhaps the World afforded whose general Applause he carried away to as much as Modesty could desire Isocrates extolling the famous Acts of Evagoras before the full Celebrity of the Athenians exulted that Evagoras was approved by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose good Opinion was more honorable to him than all the Earths beside It was a happy sight at that time to see the Patriots of both Houses depart with Hands held up to God and with Smiles in their Looks that you might think they said one to another as the Princes of the Congregation and the Heads of the Thousands of Israel said to the Children of Reuben and Gad c. This day we perceive that the Lord is among us Jos 22.31 The Lord Keeper was summoned in three days after to a fresh Business and a larger Task than the former So fine a Tongue was sure not to want Work The Lords and Commons were brought into the Banqueting-House at White-Hall Feb. 24. where the Duke of Buckingham spake unto them leading them into the Maeanders of the Spanish Treatise and lead them out of them by the Clew of his own Diligence as he spared not to give himself the Honour of it For this time he was the Alcibiades that pleased the Common-wealth His Zeal and unremovable Pertinacy not to cope with the Spaniard in any Proposition unless the Prince Elector might be brought into his own Land again with an honorable Post liminium did enter inwardly and into the Marrow of all pitiful Affections But when he unfolded how strong the Prince was to the Principles of the right Faith and how attendant and dutious himself was to see that no Emissaries should poyson his Highness's Heart the general Suffrage was that the Prince had march'd valiantly like a Captain of Holy Truth and that the Duke deserved a great Name as a Lieutenant that maintained the Cause of God under him For it was ever easie to strike the good People of England half blind with the Dazling of Religion So much did the Parliament thirst for the Report of this Narration that it was imposed on the Lord Keeper to make it the next day All that might be done was that he took him to his Memory and to his Pen and drew up three Sheets of Paper upon it in a fast and scarce legible Hand He must proceed by the Pattern My Lord Duke's Oration was the only part of Speech he must follow and like a wise Man whatsoever he thought he must make
Honour and Safety could not approve 187. After this says the Reporter my Lord Duke hath informed you of the Dispensation the Whirly-Gig of the Dispensation which run round from Pope to Pope and never could be said to settle And though an orbicular Motion is fittest for the Spheres of Heaven yet a circular Motion which is ever beginning and never ending is stark naught for dispatch of Affairs on Earth Both the Dispensation and the Labour of the Junto of Divines upon it and their Fumbling Fingers were never fit to tye a Love-Knot Nay the Conde Duke brake out into such a Chase against their Theologues that he said the Devil put it into his Head to commit the Matter to their Learning So that it seems the Resolution of the Divines came quite contrary to the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost The next thing says he reported out of his Grace's Digestions was the Loathing that the Prince did take at the Length of the Treaty as well as the Matter but chiefly at that In the Matter that he was offered the present Conducting of the Lady into England so he would sell his Soul for the Favour and be a Client to Saints and Images to beg a Blessing of them upon his Marriage And whereas his Highness had travelled into so far a Country as well to relieve a Sister and her Posterity as to fetch a Wife he was at such a loss about the Loss of his Sister's Inheritance that the Spanish Council would fasten upon nothing to content him Hereupon his Highness declared himself plainly to the Conde in these Words Look to it Sir for without this you must not conclude of either Marriage or Friendship For I must go to my Father and acquaint him with your Resolution Here the Lord Keeper grew warm and besought their Lordships to observe how constant his Highness remained to the principal Ground of all the Restitution of the Palatinate which was the Hinge upon which all his subsequent Actions did move Look to it for neither Marriage nor Friendship can be made without the Restitution of that Dominion Which Protestation effecting little good his Highness look'd homeward But his Purposes and Preparations for his Return were often slackned But because the King of Spain expected a Betrothing with his Sister before his going away the Conde Duke revived the Treaty for the Restitution of the Paltz And after Conference with the Emperors Ambassadors there was projected a Restitution of the Country to the Son upon a Condition of a Marriage with the Emperors second Daughter which the Prince entertained But then the stabbing Condition comes after That for his Religion he must first be bred in the Emperors Court at which his Highness stopt his Ears But for the Electorate it was a thing in Nubibus out of their Power and it seems out of their Affections for they would not be drawn to meddle in it And whereas they had once made a chearful Proffer To assist us with the Arms if the Emperor did not keep his Word to put the Prince Palatine into his own again Now they slew back and confest the Emperor had been inconstant and did not deal well with them but if he would beat and buffet them they would not promise to employ a Leavy of Forces against the House of Austria 188. Now says the Voice of the Reporter since his Highness could prevail for nothing to come on well his wisest Project was to take care that himself might come off well For which there is not one of your Lordships I presume but would have given much and done much And it cost you nothing but the Perturbation of some Suspicions and Fears I say Fear was the worst you susser'd For Religion God be thanked suffer'd not at all though it was greatly mistrusted There the Lord Keeper delighted their Expectations in that which they listned after how the Kings Ministers and himself principally for he shrunk not in his Head did proceed from time to time in the last Summer about the Pardon and Dispensation about which the Spanish Ambassadors struggled for the Recusants sake In Contemplation whereof the Prince had a free and friendly Dismission yet not a Joint of Religion sprained nor a Law actually dislocated But as a Wound that is cured by a Weapon Salve sine contactu so the Law was never touch'd only the Point and Edge of the Weapon a little anointed and by the Operation of it our Noble Prince past the Pikes of Danger and is come Home to his Fathers House from a far Land without a Pater peccavi GOD be thanked he neither sinned against Heaven nor against his Father nor against you nor against the Laws or Religion for which we have cause to offer up a great Thanksgiving to GOD because there is not a spot in the Sacrifice He goes on then as the Tract of my Lord the Duke did lead him and enters into a large Field to rip up that which had been told them before how near the Prince and the Infanta were drawn together where the Marriage staid and upon what Conditions they parted Which though it had been many Years in Destination as we were credulous and do not yet lay down our Faith yet if Conde Olivarez may be trusted until they had seen the Gallantry of the Prince and his Deservings being daily now in their Eyes they held us with fair Words before but Performance till then was never meant Which he made good at least to his own Opinion by two Letters the first bears date Nov. 5. 1622. it was the late King of Spain's as the Conde said read over six times by his Highness and Sir Walter Aston and presently out of their Memories for they were not permitted to excribe it set down in Writing and I hope says the Lord Keeper when you consider the Notary you will hold it authentical The second Letter is written with Olivarez his own Hand Novemb. 8. 1623. Translated by the Prince himself very neatly and exactly Let the Clerk read them both These declare the Resolution of the Spanish Court at least in my Opinion that the great Conde's Heart was not with us till the Prince lodg'd in their Palace and sate in Council with them himself the last Summer But by that opportunity their Eyes were opened and they perceiv'd that their Lady whom they magnifie so much could never make a more happy Wife than with so brave a Husband So that no doubt the Desposorios and perhaps the Nuptials had been past by this time with mutual liking if the scandal of invading the Palatinate had been removed out of the way This the Duke's Grace says the Lord Reporter hath impartially spread out holding a just Balance in his Hand And most prudently knowing that he spake in the hearing of the wisest in the Kingdom and most faithfully for as Valerian said of Posthumius in the History of Pollio if Posthumius deceive us Sciatis nusquam gentium reperiri qui
his Majesty Not take off his Hand id est He will employ without intermission his best Offices to procure Satisfaction to his Majesty And concerning Offices and Treatises we have had too many of them already Non tali auxilio c. But together with this written Letter I must acquaint your Lordships with an unwritten Tradition Which was delivered to the Earl of Bristol together with the Project of the Letter by Secretary Cirica but ill conceal'd by his Lordship in that Dispatch and sent afterward probably by Mr. Clâ—rke to my Lord Duke's Grace That whereas the King of Spain did find his Errour in going on with the Treaty of the Marriage before he had cleared the Treaty of the Palatinate he is now resolv'd to change his Method and to perfect this Treaty of the Restitution of the Palatinate before he will proceed any further in the accomplishing of the Marriage So that these Treatises as they are carried in Spain shall be quit one with another As formerly the Treaty of the Marriage did justle out the Treaty of the Palatinate so now the Treaty of the Palatinate hath quite excluded the Treaty of the Marriage And indeed in stead of Wedding Garments that King as you heard hath made a hasty Winter Journey to Andaluzia to provide his Navy But how they are to be employ'd we shall hear shortly if we will still be credulous by Padre Maestro who is on his way for this Kingdom My Lords to conclude As the Heathen say that the Golden Chain of Laws is tyed to the Chair of Jupiter so the future Proceedings upon all this long Narration is tyed to your Consultation Things past are exactly made known to you that things to come may be more wisely considered An Historian says Curtius Male humanis ingeniis Natura consuluit quod plaerumquè non futura sed transacta perpendimus Nature hath not well provided for Humane Wisdom that commonly we discuss upon things already done rather than what may be done for the future But my Lords you are not put to that streit But your Lordships speedy Advice is requir'd for that which is to follow specially concerning this last Dispatch that implieth the Education of the Prince Palatine's Son in the Emperor's Court and that the King of Spain will promise no Assistance to draw off the Emperor's Army from his Country much less Assistance by Arms to recover it This is it which his Majesty expects from your Lordships mature Advice Whether this being the Product of all the Trouble which I have opened to your Lordships it be sufficient for his Majesty to rest upon both for the Marriage of his only Son and the relieving of his only Daughter This Report it was so grateful for the Theme so gracefully handled for the manner so Clear so Elaborate so Judiciously manag'd that the Author had never more Praise in his Life for one days Work of that kind So acceptable it was even to the Duke though turn'd a Cold Friend That he said He knew not how to Thank him enough for it Yet this was but as the White of an Egg which gets some Tast with a little Salt of Eloquence but nothing in Comparison of the Yolk of his Worth But as Nazianzen said of St. Basil Quae ab illo velm obiter siâ—bant praestantiora crant quà m ea in quibus alii Elaborant Such an Orator was sure to have the Custom of the Parliament upon all the like Occasions Therefore when he had scarce taken Breath after the former Service he was Commanded to add the Supplement as it follows in another Conference Gentlemen THat are the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons I am directed by my Lords to open this Conference with acquainting the House of Commons with whom their Lordships desire to hold all fair and sincere Correspondence with a double Preface First with a Supplement to that Narration made by his Highness and my Lord the Duke of Buckingham his Grace to both the Houses and then with an Opinion of their Lordships super totam Materiam upon the whole Proceed of the great business Now because in this Consultation the Supplement did co-operate with the Narration for the producing of their Lordships Opinion I hold it the best Method to begin with that The Supplement is of a Threefold Nature The First Concerns the Treaty of the Marriage The Second the Restitution of the Palatinate The Third a most Heroical Act and Resolution of the Princes Highness which their Lordships held necessary to be imparted first to you the Universality and Body Representative and then by you to all the Kingdom That Supplement which concerns the Treaty of the Marriage is no more but this That by a Letter of the Earl of Bristols writen Nine Years ago 3 Novem. 1614. it appeared plainly unto their Lordships that this Treaty of the Marriage had the first beginning by a Motion from Spain and not from England even from the Duke of Lerma who promised all sincerity in the Match and as little pressing as might be in matters of Religion Yet though the Proposal began so soon and was follow'd so earnestly it is now like an untimely Birth for which the Mother endureth a painful Travail and it enjoyeth not the Fruit of Life That Supplement which Concerns the Restitution of the Palatinate is this That whereas in that Treaty a demand is pressed by his Majesty upon the King of Spain to promise us assistance by Arms in case Mediation should not prevail it hath appeared to their Lordships by the Papers of the Earl of Bristol preserved in the Councel-Chamber that the King of Spain hath formerly promised Assistance by Arms upon such a supposition which notwithstanding he now utterly refuseth and offers but bare Mediation But as Symmachus says in an Ep. to Ausonius Pa. vis nutriment is quanquam à morte defendimur nihil tamen ad Robustam valetudinem promovemur We may keep Life and scarce that with a poor Diet but we shall never grow strong with such a pittance If the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of that Honourable House desire a Sight of these Dispatches they shall be Read unto them Thirdly That Supplement which tends so much to the Honour of his Highness is this Sometime in July last when his Highness was in Spain a Rumor was scatter'd that his Highness had provided to steal away secretly insomuch that some of the King of Spain's Ministers were appointed as a Watch to detein him openly and avowedly as a Prisoner Hereupon my Lord's Grace was sent to the whole Committee with this Heroical Remonstrance that though he stole thither out of Love he scorn'd to steal away out of Fear neither was his Heart guilty of taking so poor and unworthy a Course A brave and magnanimous Resolution yet short of that which followeth For the Prince made a dispatch to his Father at that instant and sent this Message unto him by Mr. Grimes
else the Treasurer had been rescued by the Power and Justice of his Royal Master His Majesty perceived that the Actions of this unfortunate Man rack'd with the strictest Enquiries were not Sins going over the Head scarce reaching to the Ankles and why should he suffer him to sink under the Waves of Envy Therefore he sent for the Lord Keeper to Greenwich and gave him his Sense That he would not make his Treasurer a publick Sacrifice Sir says the Lord Keeper I have attempted among my surest Friends to bring him off fairly All shrink and refuse me only the stout and prudent Lord Hollis adventured upon the Frowns of the Prince and Duke and gave his Reasons why Middlesex to him appeared an Innocent I were mad if for my part I should not wish him to escape this Tempest and be safe under the Harbor of Your Majesty's Clemency Suam quisque fortunam in consilio habet quando de alienâ deliberat Curt. lib. 5. When I deliberate upon him I think of my self 'T is his Fortune to day 't is mine to morrow The Arrow that hits him is within an Handful of me Yet Sir I must deal faithfully Your Son the Prince is the main Champion that encounters the Treasurer whom if you save you foil your Son For though Matters are carried by the whole Vote of Parliament and are driven on by the Duke yet they that walk in Westminster-Hall call this the Prince's Undertaking whom you will blast in his Bud to the Opinion of all your Subjects if you suffer not your old and perhaps innocent Servant to be pluck'd from the Sanctuary of Your Mercy Necessity must excuse you from Inconstancy or Cruelty In the Close of this Speech the Kings Reason was convinced that he must use this Counsel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iliad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Treasurer suffered the Dishonour or rather the Calamity of a Censure Himself was so comforted to his dying Hour as the engraved Posie spake his Thoughts in his great Chamber at Copt-Hall in Essex Quae venit immeritò paena dolenda venit And I spake with few when it was recent that were contented with it except the Members of the House who would not dislike their own Action 196. Popular Favor continued a while with the Duke and now he was St. George on Horseback let the Dragon take heed that stood in his Way The Earl of Middlesex was removed and he that presided over the great Accounts did now stand for a Cipher The Lord Keeper perceived his turn was next although he wanted not fair Words and fair Semblance from the Contriver But an Ambush is more dangerous than a pitch'd Battel because it is hid unless the Leader look about him in his March and search every Hedge by Vant-curriers as he did A vigilant Man will not sleep with both Eyes when he suspects Danger Cauto circumspectu vita quae variis casibus subjacet est munienda Apul. instam lib. 11. The Keeper knew he had deserved no ill yet he trusted not to that for he knew likewise how a Judge that hears many Causes must condemn many and offend many And if Justice should shrink in to decline Offences what were it so like unto as to one in the Fable that would feed upon nothing but Spoon-meat because he would not wear out his Teeth He was not ignorant of the laudable or at least the durable Custom of the Commons to countenance all Prosecutors and to file the Medly of all Complaints Therefore this Prometheus kept a careful Watch to repulse Embroilments as much as he could for though he had a sound Bark yet none but a phrantick Pilate would be willing to be toss'd in a Storm And he had been an ill Keeper if he had not been wary to keep himself to which I may fitly apply the Orators Words Philip 12. Qui mulâ—â—rum Custodem se profitetur eum sapientes sui primum capitis aiunt Custodem esse oportere He had made the Prince his fast Friend before who was so ingenious that when he had promised Fidelity there was no fear that he would start chiefly because he sought to lay hold on his Highness upon no other Conditions than to mortifie those spiteful accusations if any such hapned with his Frown that durst not stand the Breath of Truth Concerning the Duke he was not so silly to look any longer upon himself as growing on the former Root of his Favour yet he was not so rude to expostulate with him according to the Merit of his Unkindness and provoke him further but as it occurs Cab. P. 80. He tells his Lordship That Suspicions of his Displeasure transported him not a Jot further than to look about him how to defend himself that he begg'd Assurance of his Grace's former Love yet not in the least desire to crave the Patronage of any corrupt or unjust act of his that should be objected against him in Parliament nor to take Refuge to him in any Cause or Clamor otherwise than according to Justice and fair Proceeding A sufficient Number of other Friends were made already to him by his Wisdom and Deservings whom he never requested as he had no need of it to make a Side for him but to be intentive to disclose such Winding Insinuations which are apt to twine about some weak Understandings This Forecast made him stand unmoveable and unaffrighted when Petitions and Remonstrances of Perdue-Causes were entred against him They came about him like Bees and were extinct like Fire among the Thorns And what were they that made a Noise with their Grievances Itane nihil fortunam puduit si minus accusatae innocentiae at accusantium wilitatis Boeth de consol 'T is a shame that Innocency should be accused but what Remedy shall it have against base and beggerly Accusers against the very Kennel of the Fleet and other Goals against such whose Suits would admit of no good Order and their Forwardness of no bad I knew a Plaintif and Desendant Morgan and Bouglar that complained one as much as the other of the same Decree to the Parliament and at the Hearing of the Cause one of the Counsel protested that Two hundred and twelve Commissions References and Orders had past upon it After a while a Bundle of those frivolous Objections being read and examined were cast out of Doors and the House in the Afternoon being put into a general Committee Seven and thirty of those Paper-Kites slew away that same day and were never heard of more Some of the Members would have repaired the Lord Keeper and asked him what he would have done to his Adversaries Nothing says he for by this time they have all fretted themselves into Patience and some of them perhaps into Repentance Which proved even so For many of them came privily to be admitted to his Favour condemned their own scandalous Petitions and laid it upon a great Name that they were encouraged to bring them in whom he
sit and apt Clerk to be preferred to the same Hence it plainly appears by the said Covenant and Proviso that the said Committees as to the Advouson of the Church of Sutton belonging to the said Ward are but Lessees in Trust to present such a Clerk to the same as the King or the Master and Council of the Court of Wards for the King shall Name or Appoint Then it is Pregnant That the Clerk being refused whom the Lady offered to the Rectory without the Kings Consent c. no Injustice is offered 199. He rejoyns to the Second That the said Church being become Void the Lord Keeper by Virtue of his Place as time out of mind hath been used presented Dr. Grant the Kings Chaplain in his Majesties Name The Master of the Wards presented likewise Dr. Wilson in the Kings Name to the same Church But Dr. Grant was first presented admitted and Dr. Wilson gave way After both these the Committees present their Clerk in their own Name and pray a Quare Impedu to remove the Kings Clerk and to have their own Clerk admitted in his room This Quare Impedit by the Kings Commandment to the Lord Keeper was denied them For which much is alledged Lands in Question in Chancery were Decreed by the Lord Ellsmore to Peacock in Equity against Revell who had a good Title in Law Revell would have had an Original Writ of Assise against Peacock to have recover'd the Lands from him by Law The Writ was denied him by the Lord Ellsmore If Revell would have made a Lease or a Feoffment to any Friend in trust which Friend would have sued for an Original Writ to have recover'd the Land the Writ might as well be denied to him as to Revell himself So the Master of the Wards presented a Clerk to the Church of Sutton in the Kings Name before the Lord Darcy presented If that Clerk would have sued for a Quare Impedit in the Kings Name the Lord Keeper by the Kings Appointment might have denied the Writ And by the same Reason may he in like manner deny the Writ to the Lady Darcy who as to the Advouson is but a Lessee in trust to present such a Clerk as the Master of the Wards for the King shall name As by the Covenant and Proviso in the Lease doth appear If Lands in Question in the Chancery be by Order of the Court by both Parties conveyed to one of the Six Clerks in trust that he shall convey the same as the Court shall Order upon the hearing of the Cause who refuseth to convey the Land according to the trust and prayeth a Writ of Assise to recover the Land from him to whom the Court hath order'd the same for the trust appears as plainly to the Court as in the Case of a Decree This Writ may be denied So the Lady Darcy being a Lessee of the Advouson in trust to present such a Clerk as the King or the Court of Wards shall name or allow of if she will present a Clerk of her own contrary to the trust reposed in her and sue for a Quare Impedit to remove the Clerk presented by the King and to put in her own choice this Writ by the Kings Appointment may be denied her for the trust appears of Record So if Bonds be taken of a Defendant in Chancery in the Name of a Master of the Chancery with Condition to perform the Order or Decree of the Court The Court Decrees Money to be paid by the Defendant to the Plaintiff at a Day who pays the same the next Day after which the Plaintiff accepts and the Court allows of If the Master of Chancery will pray an Original Writ of Debt upon this Bond to recover the Money to his own use this Writ may be denied him The Lord Ellsmore presented a Clerk in the Kings Name Ratione Minoris AEtatis The Lady Mordant pretended Title to present and having four Feoffees in trust of the Mannor or Lands to which the Advouson did belong as she pretended would have had four Writs of Quare Impedit against the Kings Clerk in the Names of her four Feoffees severally The Lord Ellsmore denied them all There are many more Precedents to be shewed in like Cases where Original Writs have been denied 200. Yet since it is to be done with great Tenderness and Discretion and seldom or never but when it appears that one Injury must be prevented necessarily with another he declares Thirdly That the Lady Darcy's Proceedings thrust in so dangerously between two great Courts that ordinary Justice could not but be denied her for fear an extraordinary Difference should be raised between the said Courts being thus laid open When the Lord Ellsmore was Lord Chancellor and Robert Earl of Salisbury Master of the Wards there fell out a Contestation between these two Potent Lords whose Right it was to present to the Wards Livings which were under Value of 20 l. in the First-Fruit-Office And the Contention grew so insoluble that King James with all his Pacificous Wisdom could not readily light upon a way to reconcile it Yet at the last it was compounded thus That which soever of those two Officers should first present to such a Benefice his Presentation should be Valid for the Possession of the Living If both Presentations should come together to the Bishop which perhaps would not happen in an Age then there was Casus pro amico on the Bishop's behalf as the Canonists speak This Agreement had continued amicably to that very Day and was then in danger to be infring'd For if a Suit had commenced as the Lady desired the Lord Keeper could not avoid to charge the Court of Wards with Fraudulency in passing away the Donations of Livings in the Compositions for Wards which was a pre-occupating or rather plain deluding of the Patronage which was in the Lord Keeper by the Agreement Wherefore he waves the strong and full defence he had made upon the stopping of an Original Writ and deprecates all offence by that Maxim of the Law which admits of a mischief rather than an inconvenience Which was as much as to say That he thought it a far less Evil to do the Lady the probability of an Injury in her own sense than to suffer those two Courts to clash together again and fall into a new Dispute about their Jurisdiction which might have produc'd a publick inconvenience which is most carefully to be avoided This Plea satisfied the House and cleared him in the general Opinion or as some Interpreted excus'd him rather for his other good Parts then absolutely cleared in this intricate Point as Livie li. 1. says Horatius escaped Sentence by the Voice of the people because they loved his Person rather then lik'd the Fact upon which he was question'd Absolveruntque admiratione magis virtutis quam jure Causae Yet it goes strongly to justifie the Lord Keeper in the Fact that all the Lawyers in the House did unanimously
dare Swear it was he that bolted the Flower and made it up into this Paist Sir says the Prince I was precluded by my Promise not to Reveal him but I never promis'd to tell a Lye for him Your Majesty hath hit the Man And God do him good for it says the King I need not tell you both what you owe him for this Service and he hath done himself this Right with me that I discern his sufficiency more and more All this the Prince Related at his next Meeting to the Lord Keeper This passage so memorable hath pluck'd on a Prolix Narration for divers Reasons It was a secret manag'd between few persons though the greatest and likely to be buried for ever unless it rise from the Dust where it was smother'd upon this occasion It will expound to inquisitive Men why after this time the old King never retrieved the Spanish Match as if suddenly it were sunk and set beneath the Horizon of his Thoughts it demonstrates why in a year after being the First of King Charles there was such Willingness in the young King and such Readiness in the Duke to Rigg a great Navy and to send it with Defiance of Hostility to Cales for though the Grandee Inoiosa received a sharp Rebuke here to vex his Gorge and suddenly pack'd up his portable Gods and went to his own Country in a Fume yet he received no Disfavour or Frown upon it from the Court of Spain Nihil nefas est malitiae It tells you what a Stone of Offence was laid before the King able to make him to Dissolve the Parliament just upon the Expectation of a happy Winding up if the Lord Keeper had not removed the Jealousie away which is one of the best Offices of a Christian for it is God's own Attribute in the Prophets to be a Repairer of Breaches Lastly His Wit was in Conjunction with the Safety of his great Friend the Duke Et vincente Odenato triumphavit Gallienus says Pollio The Keeper had Content enough that the Duke triumphed over those Foes whom he had vanquished for him 206. Soon as those Hobgoblins which haunted the King to fright him were frighted away themselves and the Magicians which conjured them up were rendered odious his Majesty was never in a better Mood to please his Subjects and the Subjects in Parliament never from that day to this in so dutiful a Frame to please their Soveraign Fatebimur regem talibus ministris illos tanto rege fuisse dignissimos Curt. l. 4. As Alexander deserved such brave Commanders under him so they deserved to be commanded by so brave a Prince as Alexander Their long Counsels which had been weather bound came to a quiet Road and their Vessel was lighted of those Statutes which are of immortal Memory The wise Men of those times ask'd for good Laws with Moderation for Moderation had not yet out-liv'd the Peoples Palate and they were brought forth with Joy and Gladness And that which was gotten with Peace and Joy will out-last that were it ten times more which is extorted in a Hurly-burly There were no Rents no Divisions among the Members much less did the Stronger Part spurn out the Weaker The Voices went all one way as a Field of Wheat is bended that 's blown with a gentle Gale One and all And God did not let a general Concurrence pass without a general Blessing Sic viritim laboraverunt quasi summa res singulorum manibus teneretur Nazar Paneg. The Laws devised were confirmed in Clusters by the Royal Authority And though one of them about the strict Keeping of the Sabbath was then stop'd the Name of Sabbath being unsatisfactory to the King's Mind yet Amends were made that the Kingdom had a Sabbath granted it from many Suits and Unquietnesses That which Crowned all was the Pardon the most general that ever was granted which was the sooner got because the Pillars of the Common-wealth had discharged their publick Trust without Offence The next Session of this Parliament was appointed in April following and this Session shut up with the End of June The Lord Keeper was not a little joy'd with the sweet Close of it for which he had gained a noble Report Praeter laudem nullius avarus Horat. Ar. Poet. And after three years Experience having now spent so much time in the High Court of Chancery his Sufficiency was not only competent but as great as might be required in a compleat Judge He was one of them in whom Knowledge grew faster upon him than his Years As Tully praised Octavius Cesar Ex quo judicari potest virtutis esse quà m aetatis cursum celeriorem Philip 8. In eminent Persons Virtue runs on swifter than Age. And it is a Slander whereof late Writers are very rank in all Kinds which one hath publish'd that this Man's Successor the Lord Coventry reversed many of his Decrees and corrected his Errors I do not blame Lawyers if they would have us believe that none is fit for the Office of Chancellor but one of their own Profession But let them plead their own Learning and able Parts without traducing the Gifts of them that are excellently seen in Theological Cases of Conscience and singularly rare in natural Solertiousness Lord Coventry was a renowned Magistrate and his Honour was the Honour of the Times wherein he liv'd the vast Compass of that Knowledge wherein he was always bred and his strong Judgment in searching into those Causes did transcend his Predecessor yet not to obscure him as if he were wanting in that which was required to his Place A good Carpenter knows how to frame a House as well as the Geometer that surveyed the Escurial Let me quote a couple of Witnesses what they asserted herein and they are rightly produced as God the great Witness of all things knows The Duke of Buckingham in the beginning of the next Term at Michaelmas perswaded the Lord Chief Justice Hobart either to deliver it to the King with his own Mouth or to set it under his Hand that Lord Williams was not sit for the Keeper's Place because of his Inabilities and Ignorance and that he would undertake thereupon to cast the Complained out and himself should succeed him My Lord says Reverend Hobart somewhat might have been said at the first but he should do the Lord Keeper great Wrong that said so now After this Grave and Learned Lord I bring forth Mr. G Evelin one of the Six Clerks and in his time the best Head-piece of the Office who delighted to divulge it as many yet living know that Lord Keeper Williams had the most towring sublime Wit that he ever heard speak magnified his Decrees as hitting the White in all Causes and never missing That Lord Coventry did seldom after any thing he had setled before him but upon new Presumptions and spake of him always in Court with due Praise and Justification of his Transactions He that hath insinuated the contrary aiming to
Wherein the Lord Keeper interceded with the Duke to the incurring a mighty Anger as may be seen by the Letters of Decem. 24. and Jan. 4. Cab. p. 99. If Threatings had been mortal Shot he had Perisht for he never had such a Chiding before but he kept his Ground because he held the fairer side of the Quarrel Dr. Meriton the Dean of York was lately Dead and much Deplor'd For he was an Ornament to the Church My Lord Duke entreated by great ones named a Successor that had no Seasoning or Tast of Matter in him one Dr. Scot But a Doctor Inter Doctores Bullatos for he never stood in the Commencement to approve himself beside too many Faults to be ript up I have known a Scholar in Cambridge so bad a Rider that no Man for Love or Price would furnish him with a Horse I would have thought no Man would have furnisht such a Scholar as this with a Deanery chiefly of York It came about strangely Scot was a Prodigal Gamster and had lost upon the Ticket to a Noble Person far more then he was worth Which Debt his Creditor knew not how to recover but by Thrusting him aided with my Lord Dukes Power into this Rich Preferment The Casuists among all the Species of Simony never Dream'd of this which may be called Simonia Aleatoria when a Gamester is Installed into a goodly Dignity to make him capable to pay the Scores of that which he had lost with a bad Hand And yet the Man Died in the Kings-Bench and was not Solvent The Lord Keeper intending to put of Dr. Scot from this place besought for the remove of those most worthy Divines Dr. White or Dr. Hall or to Collate it upon Dr. Warner the most Charitable and very Prudent Bishop of Rochester But he was so terrified for giving this good Counsel that he writes now he knew his Graces Resolution he would alter his Opinion and would be careful in giving the least Cause of Jealousie in that kind again Yet it is a received Maxime Defuturos eos qui suaderent si suasisse sit periculum Curt. l. 3. Certainly with others this might work to his Esteem but nothing to his Prejudice And I dare confidently avouch what I knowingly speak that I may use the Words of my industrious Friend Mr. T. F. in his Church History That the Solicitation for Dr. Theodore Price about Two Months after was not the first motive of a Breach between the Keeper and the Duke the day-light clears that without dusky conjectures no nor any Process to more unkindness then was before which was indeed grown too high The Case is quickly Unfolded Dr. Price was Country Man Kinsman and great Acquaintance of the Lord Keepers By whose procurement he was sent a Commissioner into Ireland two years before with Mr. Justice Jones Sir T. Crew Sir James Perrot and others to rectifie Grievances in Church and Civil State that were complain'd In Executing which Commission he came of with Praise and with Encouragement from His Majesty that he should not fail of Recompence for his Well-doing Much about the time that the Prince return'd out of Spain the Bishoprick of Asaph soll void the County of Merioneth where Dr. Price was Born being in the Diocess The Lord Keeper attempted to get that Bishoprick for Dr. Price But the Prince since the time that by his Patent he was styled Prince of Wales had Claimed the Bishopricks of that Principality for his own Chaplains So Dr. Melburn and Dr. Carlton were preferr'd to St. Davids and Landaff And Asaph was now Conferr'd upon Dr. Hanmer his Highness's Chaplain that well deserv'd it A little before King James's Death Dr. Hampton Primate of Armach as stout a Prelate and as good a Governor as the See had ever enjoy'd Died in a good old Age. Whereupon the Keeper interposed for Dr. Price to Succeed him But the Eminent Learning of Dr. Usher for who could match him all in all in Europe carried it from his Rival Dr. Price was very Rational and a Divine among those of the first Note according to the small skill of my Perceivance And his Hearers did testifie as much that were present at his Latin Sermon and his Lectures pro gradu in Oxford But because he had never Preach'd so much as one Sermon before the King and had left to do his calling in the Pulpit for many years it would not be admitted that he should Ascend to the Primacy of Armach no nor so much as succeed Dr. Usher in the Bishoprick of Meth. To which Objection his Kinsman that stickled for his Preferment could give no good Answer and drew of with so much ease upon it that the Reverend Dr. Usher had no cause to Regret at the Lord Keeper for an Adversary Neither did Dr. Price ever shew him Love after that day and the Church of England then or sooner lost the Doctors Heart 214. It is certain that all Grants at the Court went with the Current of my Lord Dukes Favour None had Power to oppose it nor the King the Will For he Rul'd all his Majesties Designs I may not say his Affections Yet the L. Keeper declin'd him sometimes in the Dispatches of his Office upon great and just Cause Whereupon the King would say in his pleasant Manners That he was a stout Man that durst do more than himself For since his Highness's return out of Spain if any Offices were procur'd in State of Reversion or any Advouzons of Church Dignities he interpos'd and stopt the Patents as Injurious to the Prince to whose Donation they ought to belong in just time and preserv'd them for him that all such Rewards might come entire and undefloured to his Patronage Wherein his Highness maintain'd his Stiffness for that foresight did procure that his own Beneficence should be unprevented And he carried that Respect to the Dukes Honour nay to his Safety for notice was taken of it that he would not admit his Messages in the Hearing of Causes no not when his chief Servants attended openly in Court to Countenance those Messages to carry him a-wry and to oppress the Poorest and whose Faces he had never seen with the least wrong Judicii tenax suit neque aliis potiùs quà m sibi credidit as Capitolinus makes it a good Note of Maximus He would believe his own Judgment and his own Ears what they heard out of Depositions and not the Representation of his best Friends that came from partial Suggestions Such Demands as are too heavy to ascend let them fall down in pieces or they will break him at the last that gives them his Hand to lift them up In this only he would not stoop to his Grace but pleas'd himself that he did displease him And being threatned his best Mitigation was That perhaps it was not safe for him to deny so great a Lord yet it was safest for his Lordship to be Denied It was well return'd For no Arrand was so privily conveyed
Subjects Roman Catholicks and every of them as well by Information Presentment Indictment Conviction Process Seisure Distress or Imprisonment as also by any other ways or means whatsoever whereby they may be molested for the Causes aforesaid And further also That from time to time you take notice of and speedily redress all Causes of Complaints for or by reason of any thing done contrary to this our will And this shall be unto you and to all to whom you shall give such Warrant Order and Direction a sufficient Warrant and Discharge in that behalf There was no scrupling of this Order but it must be dispatch'd For though as a great Counsellor the Keeper was to be watchful over the Voices and Affections of the People and that he knew this was not the Course to keep the Subject in terms of Contentment yet he had no power to stop the Tide as in former days My Lord of Buckin would not stay to hear the Arguments of his Wisdom Altissimo orbe praecipuâ potentiâ stella Saturni fortur Tacit. 1 list lib. 5. The Planet of Saturn was in the highest Orb and ruled all the Influence of the Court Where was now the Cavil against the Spanish Match that in the Treaty for it it encroach'd too far upon Religion Indeed my Lord of Kensington writes from Paris Cab. p. 275. The French will not strain us to any unreasonableness in Conditions for the Catholicks And as much again p. 284. Their Pulse in matter of Religion beats temperately So he told us in another Pacquet p. 292. That the French will never abandon us in the Action for the recovering the Palatinate Which of these Engagements were broken last a more solid Question than to ask Which of their Promises were kept first They kept none Some chop out Promises as Nurses tell Tales to Children to lull them asleep As it is in the neat Phrase of Arnobius Somno occupari ut possint leves audiendoe sunt naenioe The Histories of Spain and the Netherlands as well as of England do not spare to touch that Noble Nation that none have taken greater liberty to play fast and loose with Articles and Covenants And as the French were inconstant to us so new Symptoms and new Apprehensions made us variable and inconstant to our selves Now a Letter must be sent to all Magistrates Spiritual and Temporal to cause them to suspend the Execution of all Laws against the Papists At the Term at Reading in November following Divulgation is made in all Courts under the Broad-Seal that all Officers and Judges should proceed against them according to Law After the Second Parliament of King Charles was broken up that is in the Summer that followed the Term at Reading by the Mediation of the French Embassador Marshal Bassampere new Letters come from the King to redintegrate Favours to the Recusants and that all Pursevants must be restrained and their Warrants to search the Houses of Papists taken from them And this continued but till Winter It was safe and just to return quickly again into the High-way of the Law for the shortest Errors are the best Especially in God's Cause Which Vincen. Lirin well adviseth Nos religionem non quo volumus ducere sed quò illa nos ducit sequi debemus We must take up the Train of Religion and come after it and not lead it after us in a String of Policy 5. Private Men may better keep this Rule than such as are publickly employed in the State But though the Keeper had no remedy but the preceding Warrant must be obeyed Yet he tryed his Majesty how his Service would be taken in stopping a Warrant upon another occasion bearing date May 23. Because the sumptuous Entertainment of the Queen and her magnificient Convoy being ready to land would be very chargeable he thrust in his Judgment to advise the King against disorderly Liberality And though he knew the Secretary Conway for no other than a Friend yet he lik'd not his Encroachment upon the Royal Bounty but signifies it in this manner Most dread Sovereign and my most gracious Master I Received this Morning a Warrant from your most Excellent Majesty to pass a Grant under the Great-Seal of England of the Sum of Two thousand Pounds out of the Court of Wards to my Lord Conway for Twenty One Years to come The which I durst not for fear of infringing my Duty to your Majesty and drawing some danger upon my self pass under the Great-Seal before I had made unto your most Excellent Majesty this most humble Representation First The issuing of so great a Lease of such a vast Sum of Money is under your Majesty's Favour and Correction disadvantageous to your Majesty's Service in regard of the time being in the face of that Parliament from which your Majesty is to expect a main Supply Secondly It is I believe without Prsident or Example that Pensions have been granted in Contemplation of Services for Years But for the Party's Life only My Lord of Middlesex his Lease of the Sugars is the only President in that kind which hath hapned during the time of my Service in this Place Thirdly The Assigning of this Pension upon the Court of Wards or any other Place than the Receipt of the Exchequer is directly against the Rules and Orders taken upon mature deliberation by your Father of Blessed Memory Fourthly This great Lord for so be is indeed is in the Eye and the Envy of many Men as your Majesty I fear it will hear e're long As having received more great Favours within these two Years than any Three Subjects within this Kingdom Although I do believe looking up to the hands that conferred them he may well deserve them all Most gracious Sovereign I am not ignorant of the danger I incur in making this Representation But I have put on an irremoveable Resolution that as long as you are pleased to continue me in your Service I will never from this time forth out of Contemplation of mine own Safety or any other carnal Respect neglect voluntarily any part of my Duty to my God or my King Which I suppose I had greatly forgotten without presenting your most Excellent Majesty with this Remonstrance And having perform'd this part of my Duty I shall most punctually obey your Majesty's Direction in this particular For this good Service it was well he had no check yet he had no gra-mercy to seem wiser than those that had prepared the business And though the Patent for that Pension was a flat Violation of good Order yet the Plea was it would be unkind to revoke it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch in the Life of Agis observes it in some Mens Humours Though a thing be ill undertaken it is held a shame to go back This Lord Secretary was the Keeper's cold Friend upon it but he lived not long and quitted his Office before he ceased to live Only some deckings of empty Titles were given him
Moriar ego sed me mortuo vigeat ecclesia Let me retire to my little Zoar but let your Gracious Majesty be pleas'd to recommend â—â—â—o my most able and deserving Successor an especial Care of your Church and Church-men To call upon the Judges who God's Name be prais'd are ready enough to hear such Motions to relieve the poor sort of Church-men publickly affronted in their Persons by factious and insolent Justices or judicially wrong'd in their Causes by wilful and partial Jurors Likewise to entertain and countenance their just Plaints in that great Court of Chancery the which of all the rest in Westminster-Hall as not proceeding upon the Verdicts of Lay and Country Juries hath been ever by those of my Coat held most equal and indifferent Also to mingle always some few of the Clergy of best Means and Discretion in the Commission of the Peace who with their very Presence and sitting in that place are a great Countenance to their poor Brethren And withal to keep and preserve poor Ministers from the Oppressions of malicious Informers in that great and chargeable Court of the Star-Chamber Lastly to afford all the Clergy of England that Solace and Relief which his Lordship knoweth well they will expect from your Majesty such a Son of such a Father So may God make your Majesty more victorious than David more wise than Solomon and every way as good a King as your Majesty's blessed Father It shall be the continual Prayer of Your Majesty's poor Subject and Chaplain JO. LINCOLN Foxly Octob 25. This is the Dirge with which that Swan expir'd Being careful of nothing but that his poor Brethren might not be trampled upon over his back especially those that served in Country Cures among bad Pay-masters and narrow-hearted contentious Chuffs So I have done with the ex-authorized Lord-Keeper not fall'n in his worth or in himself though fall'n from a great Place Be it justly ascrib'd to him which Pliny doth to M. Cato lib. 29. c. 1. Cujus autoritati triumphus atque censura minimum conferunt tanto plus in ipso est There was enough in him still to keep him as great as King James had made him 31. The Subject which is now under the Quill is the Bishop of Lincoln A few late Writers who want the Polishing of Humanity and the Meekness of Christianity have done him high reproach in some Occurencies They shall answer for it to God I will only put this little Syrup into the Reader 's Mouth to take away the ill relish of those Defamations that the Fire of Envy would have gone out by this time but that there is a Pile of Vertue left behind to keep it burning Yet even those Men have scarce given him a little scratch or no more anent his Episcopal Administration of his Diocess He made that Office a good Work 1 Tim. 3.1 Neither did he hold any Preheminence of Place without an eminence of Worth and Prudence For four Years after his Consecration he was not in Condition through the great Burthen of other Imployments to appear among his Clergy But it is well known to them that lived under his Charge in those days that both Ministry and Laity were greatly satisfied with his Government For his Encouragements to the Best-deserving were very kind his Dispatches were never intermitted and his Directions strictly look'd after to be observ'd by those that were under him in any part of his Jurisdiction Yet to reach no further than Truth from this time forward his Presence wrought more than his Substitutes in his absence his Light shin'd clearer and the Influence of it was stronger when he was six'd and resident in his own Orb. As Columella commends it wittily to an Owner to live upon his own Ground if he would thrive says he Fimus optimus in agro est Domini vestigium So the Vineyard of Christ in every part of it will prosper best when the Vine-dresser himself doth walk about the Field Or to go higher as Moses said of the promised Land Deut. 11.12 It is a Land which the Lord thy God cares for the Eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it from the beginning of the Year to the end So it runs like a Verse set to the same Tune to say that the Eye of God is all the Year long upon that Portion of his Church where the Diocesan is not a Stranger but a Co-habitant or if you will a Companion with his Brethren And the Bishop having now no more to do with civil Distractions bethought him instantly of the Duty of his Pastoral Staff made Provision for an Houshold which attended him in a great Retinue and removed from Barkshire without touching at London to Bugden in Hunting donshire His Privacy at Foxly conceal'd his Double-diligence to make haste to be gone lest more Anger should shower upon him if he tarried Wherein I espy into Salmasius his Note upon Solinus p. 327. That a Lion never runs away fast from his Enemies but when he hath got into a shady Wood and cannot be seen Ubi virgulta sylvasque penetravit acerrimo cursu fertur velut abscondente turpitudinem loco Beside he that felt the Frowns or rather the Despight of the Court by being near to it knew it was wholsome to change Air to be rid of that Disease as well as Hippocrates prescribes it for the worst Symptoms of the Body Aphor. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To go to a new Soil is good to mitigate an old Sickness No question but being lodg'd now in his Episcopal Palace his most proper Watch-Tower he found it best for the best Health that of a quiet Mind and a good Conscience He was in the way to know himself better when he was more alone to himself than in late Years He was at rest to make use of the Verse of a judicious Heathen Tacitum sylvas inter reptare salubres Horat. Curantem quicquid dignum sapiente bonoque est He might now do as well as know the meaning what the Scriptures intend when they say that Rulers go in and out before the People For how can they go out unto them that are never in among them Else they may be out but never in Here this History hath found him and shall recount things most memorable that there concern'd him speaking after the rate of enough and not a jot beyond it This many both Friends and Strangers to him have desired often from the Author of this Piece to be informed in And it is a quaint Rule which fell from Pliny Lib. 35. c. 2. N. H. Nullum majus est felicitatis specimen quà m omnes scire cupere qualis fucrit aliquis He is happy that hath lived so that many desire to know how he lived Into which every one that looks will like this Order to proceed by to rank things praise-worthy on the right-hand as it were by themselves and all things on the other hand which fell upon him by
make a Governour But as our Cambridge term is he was staid with Nescio's He was not known in Court nor City for he had not shewn himself in a Pulpit in 20 years He that says no credit is to be given to the Information that he died a Papist I would he had proved it for as Cortesius writes to Politian p. 242. Plus de invento vero gaudeo quà m de victoriâ I had rather it were true than get the Victory But Wishes will not bring it about Nemo facit optando ut verum sit quod verum non est says St. Austin Ep. 28. By what colour or appearance can he be vindicated to dye a Protestant May we not as soon light a Candle by a Glow-worm In what did he seem to be a Son of our Reformed Church I do not mean as an Ape is like to a Man but as a Child is like to his Mother Hypocrisie dwells next door to Orthodox Doctrine but it never comes in to her Neighbour So the Upshot will bear it that the Bishop of Lincoln did justly discover his Kinsinan and Friend's Apostacy though his own blame did depend upon it Which will leave him the Praise that Erasmus gives to a L. Montjoy Ep. p. 162. Haec est tua n obilit as ut mentiri nescias si velis nec velis si scias 95. There would be no end to repeat with how many Quarrels this unfortunate Bishop was provok'd yet his Adversaries did but dry-ditch their matters and digged in vain though they still cast up Earth who were no better than the Arrians of whom Athanasius writes Lib. ad Sol. Vit. Agen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They fretted if they had spent a day wherein they could not do a Mischief And it will do the Sufferer no right to tell how he threw all day and cast not one good Chance but was worsted in all his just Appeals Quis enim suâ praelia victus Commemorare velit Metam l. 9. Yet I will insist in that noble Contest he had with the Archbishop of Canterbury about his metropolitical Visitation that hereafter when God shall send the like occasion as I trust he will the Diocesans of Lincoln may know what their stout Predecessor did alledge for their exemption This may come to pass But as the unknown Oratour said to Constantine in his Panegyrick p. 246. Ista felicitas viderit utrum adhuc meae aetati debeatur Archbishop Land enterprizing to visit his whole Province found opposition only from the Universities from Cambridge I am sure and from the Bishop of Lincoln whom next to the substance of the Cause one circumstance displeased that Sir John Lamb was commissioned to be the metropolitan Vicar to visit his Diocess Sir John had been very officious about him for many years I let it go with that of Tully to Atticus Pompeius Scauro studet sed utrum fronte an mente dubitatur And the Bishop had done as much for Sir John as he could have done for the Worthiest of all his Profession 'T is amplified enough before and makes another instance That so wise a man was not always circumspect in his Patronage Lamb was crafty and of much experience but in the running of some years he was hated of all men and much complained of that he was ravenous in taking Fees Like as one says of the Pope's drawing in Moneys from all Parties That he was a Participle that took from Clergy and Laity When he perceived these things distasted Bishop Williams and that he had not Encouragement from him as before and dreaming of Golden Mountains from another hand he turn'd the falsest man and the greatest Enemy to him in the World Archbishop Laud he 'd worm him quite from adhering to Lincoln and much good do him with him Whereupon I remember what Plutarch tells merrily of a goutish man that had his Slippers stolen from him says the man full of Pain I wish the Thief no more harm but that my Slippers were fit for him Well the Visitation being design'd and to be carried on by Lieutenant Lamb our Bishop wrote to my Lord of Canterbury as followeth 96. Most Reverend c. UPon the Message which I received from Mr. Sherman of your Graces intention to visit my Diocess this year being the year of mine own Triennial Visitation and the certain News I heard of Sir J. Lamb's collecting of Presidents to induce your Officers to stir up your Grace thereunto I have both by my self and others made some enquiry into the Records and several Registries of the Diocess and do find clearly that in Grosthead's time anno 1235. this Diocess had never been metropolitically visited and that ever since that time until now no Archbishop of Canterbury did visit this Diocess otherwise than in vacancy of the See but by the vertue and power of some particular Bull procured from the Pope or Letter of Assistance from the King's Majesty since the Supremacy was reassumed in this Realm And I find the several Bishops in these several Ages to have assented to these Visitations as they were Papal and Regal only not forbearing notwithstanding to exercise all manner of Act or Acts belonging to their Jurisdiction Episcopal not only in the times but in and on the very days of these Archiepiscopal Visitations and refusing to pay any Procurations or other Fees by vertue of a special exemption granted unto this See and some others by Pope Innocent the Fourth by the procurement of Bishop Grosthead deposited in this Registry and never waved by the Bishops of this See however some other of your Graces Suffragans have omitted peradventure as having not the custody thereof to implead the same Yet do I differ may it please your Grace in this particular from all my Predecessors in this See that I do believe your Grace may visit even by your own metropolitical Power all this Diocess unless this great Prescription of an hundred years may debarr the same but truly I do under Favour conceive that your Grace ought not to inhibit my ordinary Jurisdiction nor do any acts to impeach the same Nor can I find any word sounding that way in any one of all the Visitations kept as before is rehearsed by your Grace's Predecessors excepting only in Archbishop Cranmer's the last Archbishop who above one hundred years since visited this Diocess and yet Longland then Bishop of Lincoln did not only execute all parts of his Jurisdiction pendente visitatione metropoliticâ but the Dean of the Arches Archbishop Cranmers and the King 's chief Commissioner for that Service did freely and voluntarily of himself set all the Bishop's Officers at full liberty to exercise all their Jurisdictions after the first day of his Visitation reserving his Detections only to his own cognizance Now since this Visitation of Archbishop Cranmer which was more Regal than Metropolitical as appears by the Instructions given to the Commissioners at that time no Archbishop of Canterbury hath ever offer'd
to visit this Diocess as well for the Reasons premised as because all the means of Livelihood belonging to this See being taken away by the Duke of Somerset 2 Ed. 61. and a new airy and phantastical Corps being framed for the miserable Bishoprick consisting in great part of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction if your Grace should inhibit the exercise thereof and divert the Profits assigned therefrom for the Bishop's Maintenance he should not be able to eat or drink much less to pay unto his Majesty First-fruits Tenths and Subsidies charged upon this Bishoprick with relation to this last Endowment In the which last Difference this Bishoprick is for ought I know miserably distinguish'd from all others Thus I conceive the case to stand my gracious Lord and I hope unless your Grace will be pleased to permit me to go on with my Visitation for this year and take further time to consider thereof by our Lady-Eve to procure all those several pieces which confirm these Premisses to be transcribed out of our Records and Registries and sent by my Officers to attend your Grace's further Good-will and Pleasure c. How reasonable the Propositions of this Letter are I know not I know they did not prevail Sed ne querelae tum quidem gratae fuere cum forsitan erant necessariae says Livy in his Preface His Complaints were not well taken though they were necessary and good to stand upon Record to shew what was alledg'd for the benefit of his own See and the emolument of smaller Bishopricks In the end our Bishop let it go on the Archbishop's side without more contradiction having not forgotten that Philosophy in Seneca Acerbissimam partem servitutis effugit qui imperium libens excipit 97. All this and so many Quarrels piled one upon another were too little to bow the straightness of his Spirit yet there was enough to make his Foes audacious because a heavy Charge in Star chamber depended Seven years against him prosecuted for the King by the Attorny-General concurrent all along with the rehearsed Troubles Omne tulit secum Caesaris ira malum Ov. 3. Trist el. 12. God complains of the Rigour of the Heathen against Jerusalem I was but a little displeased and they helped forward the affliction Zech. 1.15 Beware to help Affliction forward Revenge is fierce when Misery cannot mitigate it It may be a Court-lesson it is not a Christian to thrust him down that is a falling Mark Reader that the Actors herein came into the hands of a Power or rather of a Tyranny that had no compassion of any Optima vindex insolentiae variet as humanae conditionis Valer. lib. 4. c. 7. The Wheel of Vicissitude turning many Sticklers that were at the top to the bottom is the Act and Motion of Providence to be the Scourge of Insolency Among all Devices to thrust him under Water that was sinking already none was hatcht of more Despight and Indignity than a Book publish'd by a Bluster-master ann 1636. call'd A Coal from the Altar to defame a Letter sent nine years before by the Bishop to some Divines of the Neighbourhood of Grantham in Lincolnshire to resolve a Doubt upon the Site of the Communion-Table or Altar as the Vicar of Grantham call'd it from whose Indiscretion the Contention began If ever any had a Wolf by the Ear the Bishop was in that quandary upon this provocation Gladly he would have made his Peace with the King to which he came near twice or thrice but at last utterly lost the sight of it It behoved him for his Safety not to make them his Enemies who were like to be his Judges chiefly not to trespass against the Likings of Archbishop Laud who could draw the King with one Hand farther than all the Lords in the Court with their whole Arm. From anno 1627 when the Letter was written in the Case of the Vicar of Grantham to anno 1636 there had been much done in Preaching and Practice to introduce some comelinesses in the Worship of God as they were stiled which had not been before The Archbishop set his Mind upon it which a late Writer calls his Pregnancy to revive ancient Ceremonies and another Book Antid Lincol. p. 85. No Metropolitan of this Church that more seriously endeavour'd to promote the Uniformity of Publick Order than his Grace now being The Clamours raised upon him are an Evidence of it The Compliance of many to curry Favour did out-run the Archbishop's Intentions if my Opinion deceive me not and made the Clamour the greater which meeting with other Discontents might have warned Wisdom to stop or go on slowly So well it is known to be dangerous to run against the Stream and Unwillingness of the People and no good Physician will try Experiments upon an accrased Pody An honest Mind is not enough to patronize that which is much condemâ—â—â— I would have none to suspect the Archbishop that he meant any Change in the Doctrine of our Church I would have none to tax his Reformation for Superstition but I will say as Polybius did in defence of the nice Observations of the old Roman Religion that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Excess of Piety Yet be not too bold against causeless Jealousies Grant it but I do not give it that the Clamours did rise from weak Judgments and pass over that Rule That the strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our solves Rom. 15.1 Policy ought to listen abroad to the Talk of the Streets and the Market-places for secular Policy is no prophane thing well used in the Service of God and not to despise Rumours when they are sharpened against the innovating of any Discipline These things appeared but Straws to stumble at to a resolved Stomach and a Champion comes out in print to gagg all popular murmuring against the placing of the Holy Table Altar-wise Ambustum Torrâ—m Corinaeus ab arâ corripit Aen. 12. one that would vent more I believe than the Masters of the Game would have done that put him into the Lists Athletâ—e suts ineitatoribus fortiores sunt says St. Hicrom in an Epistle to Julianus Yet the common Vogue was that this Author though learned was not the fittest to defend the Cause being not fortunate in the good opinion of the Times It was remembred that the Spartans would not pass that into a Decree which was good in it self which a scandalous Fellow oster'd to their Council but turned him by and set up a plain honest man to prefer it Sic bona sententia mansit turpis autor mutatus est Gel. lib. 18. c. 3. But if the Press must be set awork as the Pulpits Schools and Consistories had been to maintain this matter of no great moment God wot why must this Bishop and his Letter be the Block to fashion their Wit upon He was one that would carry no Coals they knew it A judicious Reply from him would make the Shadow return
a Justice of Peace and say he takes the Arch-bishop to be meant by Vermin Urchin Hocas Pocas since the Writer did swear the contrary he had evidently made himself the Author of a libellous Exposition But the Bishop pleads he never received such Letters to his remembrance and to make it likely Osbolston swears he never had an Answer of them Powel will not swear but says he found them in a Band-box in the Bishop's Chamber They were like the Cup in Benjamin's Sack no body but Joseph and the Steward that plotted it could tell how it came there Dr. Walker believes but dares not swear that his Lordship receiv'd them yet adds he could not be assured that he understood them for upon his knowledge the Bishop was often to seek to understand Mr. Osbalston 's gibrish and was fain to send to him for his Cypher which in this matter he did not That which the King's Counsel urged was from the Papers that Dr. Walker brought in under his Lords hand which tuned somewhat like to a Replication to the two Letters The Secretary was pelted with many hard words that day from divers Lords for doing that ill Oâ—lice to his Master I have heard Dr. Walker protest deeply so have many besides That he would not have done it for all the world but that he knew it was a main witness of his Lord's Innocency and enough to clear him howsoever the Court did strangely misunderstand it I am bountiful to him if I think he did it for that good end and I will think so because I never saw any immorality or vice in the course of his life And he was right that the Paper is very candid and did deserve from the Archbishop that he should have cast away at least some unprofitable courtesies upon the Bishop for it And the proof was clear even ex parte Reg is in the Court that he refused to consent or agree to make one in a quarrel against the Archbishop but he holds close to his main Plea That the Letters excepted at did never come to his hands If the matter of them be worthy of a censure let it light upon his Steward and his Secretary who confess to have seen those Papers some years before and to know the ironical meaning and did conceal them He appeals also to the Laws of the Land that if such Letters had come to him like Merlin's Rhimes and Rosicrusian bumbast that no Law or Practice directs the Subject to bring such Gryphes and Oracles but plain litteral grammatical Notions of Libels to a Justice of Peace against a known and clearly decipher'd Magistrate That nothing were more ridiculous than to prefer a Complaint for canting and unintelligible Expressions It cannot be but so many wise Lords as sat in Judgment understood this Well might the Bishop say that all flesh had corrupted their way The Court in those days was rolled about with fear and were steered by imperious directions As Syncsius said of Athens in his days Ep. 235. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There was nothing but the Hide left to shew what a fair Creature it was in times of Yore Let it not be thought rash to write thus of so noble a Senate How did a Commission of Lords use Queen Ann of Bullen and a greater Commission than that use Mary Queen of Scotland But Mr. Osbalston is sentenc'd out of all his Freehold was doom'd to an opprobrious branding who escap't it by concealing himself from the cruelty of the Tyger only the Earl of Holland voted that he saw no proof to bear a Sentence but cleared both Osbolston and the Bishop so did not the Lord Finch and Sir Fr. Windebank who listed up the Bishop's Fine to Ten thousand pounds Such as these made that Honourable Court insupportable to the Subject odious to the Parliament For whose sake I will change a word in a passage of Tullies Philip. 13. I st is locus si in hâc Curiâ fuerit ipsi Curiae non erit locus Sir J. Brampston Lord Chief Justice led the most Voices for 8000 l. Fine and Damages for receiving Libellous Letters Yet was so judicious not to call the Script sent privately to Dr. Walker a divulging of them as some others did nor did he tax him for not blaming the Indiscretions of Osbolston yet those were the Heads to which the most did refer the Contents of their dislike For all this the Bishop rested in peace of mind and piously wish't his Judges Mercy from God which Prayer I hope was heard for their persons but God was offended at the Court which over-drip't so many with its too far spreading Branches of Arbitrary and Irregular Power If the Excrescencies had been pruned away the rest might have serv'd for wholsome use When the Romans found the Carriage of their Censors to be insolent Mucronem sensorium mustis remediis retuderant Alexâ—ab Alex. lib. 3. c. 23. They blunted the Edge but still kept the Sword in the Magistrates hand But God spared not to dig up this burdensome Tree by the root as Auson in Paneg. Quae mala adimis prospicis ne esse possint rediviva yet it may be the Stump is in the Earth though fetter'd to be kept under with a band of Iron and Brass Dan. 4.15 and may spring again in due season But this guilt among a hundred more upon it is that this Bishop being mulcted in eight thousand pounds for a pretence thinner than a Vapour a Trespass to mean for one Christian to ask forgiveness of it from another and never clap't upon him by the Evidence of any Proof yet not a doit was remitted of that vast Sum. And yet I look upon our Bishop as one that had a better hold in present comfort hope hereafter and glory for ever For it is better by far to suffer than to do an Injury Miserior est qui suscepit in se scelus quà m qui alterius facinus subire cogitur Cic. Philip. 11. 126. Lucilius a Centurion in Tacitus Annal. lib. 1. had a scornful name given him by the Military Dicacity of his own Company Cedo alteram Quta fractâ vite in terga militis alteram rursus alteram poscebat when he had broken a Bastonada of a tough Vine upon a Souldiers shouldiers he call'd for another and another after that Such an indeâ—inent Cruelty was exercised upon the person of this suffering Bishop when one Bill was heard and censur'd Cedo alteram rursus alteram was all the pity that he sound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiod lib. 5. Fortune is not content with some mens miseries unless they be all over miserable A new Information is brought on with as much fury as if Jehu had march't with it and that the Desendant might be utterly ignorant of a Conspiracy that was hatching abroad he was shut up close upon colour that he was obstinate and had not answer'd to some Interrogatories as was expected They were Eighty in all To which
Parliament and in that Parliament to which he appealed he sits a Member and Peer and sees all Papers of Record against him torn and burnt to Ashes Ut advertas feliciter faclum reum quem sic videas absolutum Sym. Ep. 87. Be the Conclusion those words of Ezek. c. 17. v. 24. All the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree have exalted the low true have dried up the green tree and have made the dry tree to flourish Which the great Poet had rather ascribe to a blind Goddess in his Poetical License Aen. 12. Multos alterna revisens Lusit in solidum rursus fortuna locavit 131. A Prisoner whose Liberty I much long'd for is released but out of Limbo into Hell Can the worst word be had enough for those fatal days Now being come with him as far as the Door of the Parliament into which he entred upon the Call of the Lords I turned away for no little time and interrupted my self for above two years from writing any more not out of Sloth but Disdain To part with him till his last day was against my purpose and to keep him company in those boisterous times wherein a Senate of rigid men was dangerous I was at such a stay as Alexander in the dry Country of the Susitans Pigebat consistere progredi Curt. lib. 7. It was contrary to the Project of my Work to stop and as contrary to my Mind to go forward in the Hurricane of an intemperate Rebellion But it is resolved to look over somewhat of one of the most bloody Tragedies that ever was performed on the Earth rather than omit his part who was so loyal in his Actings and so magnanimous in his Sufferings And this may be done with the less unwillingness from one Passage that will recreate the Writer and the Reader that the chief Engineers that wrought the Thunderbolts at the Forge and laid the foundation of all ensuing Mischief lived to see themselves thrust out of their Den by a Brewers Drayman with his tatter'd Regiment a Passage to be kept for ever upon the Engravings of Memory and would not be pleasant but burdensome to know it and not to publish it As Archytas of Tarentum said If a man were lifted up among the Stars to know their order and motion the knowledge of it so admirable would be ingrate unto him unless he met with some to whom he might relate it So I am full of this to tell it to Posterity That the pittiful handful of Lords Temporal and now Temporary that adhered not to the King and cashiered the Lords Spiritual out of their Society for their immovable Fidelity were dismounted for ever from their own Privilege and Honour and might pawn their Parliament-Robes if they pleased And the remainder of the Commons after Pride's Purge was so despicable that every Tongue was so audacious to give them the nick-name of the Posteriors of a Beast and they put it up lest angry Wits should paste a greater Scorn upon them As Cas Severus satisfied himself with the Downfal of his Adversary Vivo quo vivere libeat Asprenatem reum video Quintil. lib. II. So this one Scene hath a good Catastrophe in the cruel Interlude That the small but most spightful part of this continuing Parliament held up their Tail though not their Hand at the Bar and went out it self in such a stink in the Snuff that all cry sie at it that have their Nostrils opened So my Mind is collected again and my Heart at some Peace in it self to see the Honour of Heavenly Justice settled so far 132. And to Preface no more and no less could be said A Parliament was sitting when our Bishop had his Liberty which held in its Fragments twelve years and six months Nay when the stub of the Members were baffled and spurn'd out of the House by the Russian Cromwell these Bankrupts opened their Shop once again and by a post limintum recover'd their places so that we reckon nineteen years from their first Call to their last Suppression Umbra serotina A shadow is longest at Evening when the Sun is ready to set And our Sun went down quickly when this shadow was so far extended But there is a better similitude for it in Pliny Nat. Hist lib. 2. cap. 14. A Serpent was taken at the River Bagrada of 120 foot long and the skin says he was hung up in the Capitol as long as such stuff could endure Mark this a Serpent the longest that ever was heard of the skin kept when it was mortified and preserved in the Senate-house Who can miss to apply it A Serpentine brood of Men none ever lasting so long in that High Court withered away to a skin or Skeleton all were right if they had been hung up in the Capitol This Serpent was young and the worst it could do was to hiss when Lincoln was brought in to sit with his fellow Bishops He had not been many hours there when he was amazed to see divers composed of new and strong Passions instigated to boldness by Scotch Confederacy heightned up by the Petitions and Mutinies of City and Country and preach't into disorder by Presbyterian Divines For a muffled Zeal for Religion hath a finger in all Combustions And as one says Multitudo vana superstitione capta meliùs vatibus quà m ducibus suis paret Curt. lib. 3. Church-men are the most dangerous Instruments to turn Male-contents into Sword-men who being prepossest with an ill opinion of the Times will quickly humble their Judgment under the Conscience of their Ministers But what Credit can it be to our Bishop for such Peers to take him into their number by their peremptory Vote None if he had answer'd their expectation Yet his chief Friends were as faithful and noble-hearted as ever sate upon the Benches of the House And it is no good thrist to cast out Gold-filings with the dust as if all were dust These must be sever'd from the rest to their immortal praise It is as true that he was sought for by some of the rest who had only an eye to the North-Star of their own Anti-monarchical Interest For he that was ordinarily read in man might know this able Prelate was to be left out that had so general an insight into all Affairs and Motions of State As Zeno prais'd Ismenias his Musick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he could play well upon all Instruments But when the disloyal Part hoped that a Man of a great Spirit and so much injur'd would revenge himself upon the Causes of his Troubles and Pipe after their Tune they were overshot to imagine it Though he is bound to be most true that is most trusted yet no man was bound to be true to them whom his Majesty as appears by his Writ trusted with his most concerning and weighty Counsels and were false to him that gave them Capacity to treat upon them
Bishops Dispensations only but Mandates also And those Bishops have been fined at the Kings Bench and elsewhere that absented themselves from Councils in Parliament without the King 's special leave and licence first obtained Thirdly When they are forbidden interesse to be present the meaning is not in the very Canons themselves that they should go out of the room but only that they should not be present to add Authority Help and Advice to any Sentence pronounced against a particular or individual Person in cause of Blood or mutilation If he be present auctorizando consilium opem vel operam dando then he contracts an irregularity and no otherwise saith our Linwood out of Innocentius And the Canon reacheth no further than to him that shall pronounce Sentence of Death or Mutilation upon a particular Person For Prelates that are of Counsel with the King in Parliament or otherwise being demanded the Law in such and such a Case without naming any individuum may answer generaliter loquendo That Treason is to be punisht with Death and a Counterseiter of the King's Coin Hostien lib. 2. eap de fals monet allowed by John Montague de Collatione Parliamentorum In Tracta Doctor Vol. 10. p. 121. Fourthly These Canons are not in force in England to bind the King's Subjects for several Reasons First Because they are against his Majesty's Prerogative as you may see it clearly in the Articles of Clarendon and the Writ of Summons and therefore abolished 25 H. 8. c. 8. It is his Majesty's Prerogative declar'd at Clarendon that all such Ecclesiastical Peers as hold of him by Barony should assist in the King's Judicatures until the very actual pronouncing of a Sentence of Blood And this holds from Henry the First down to the latter end of Queen Elizabeth who imployed Archbishop Whitgist as a Commissioner upon the Life of the Earl of Essex to keep him in Custody and to examine him after that Commotion in London And to say that this Canon is confirm'd by Common Law is a merry Tale there being nothing in the Common Law that tends that way Secondly It hath been voted in the House of Commons in this very Session of Parliament That no Canons since the Conquest either introduced from Rome by Legatine Power or made in our Synods had in any Age nor yet have at this present any power to bind the Subjects of this Realm unless they be confirmed by Act of Parliament Now these Canons which inhibit the Presence of Church-men in Cause that concerns Life and Member were never confirm'd by any but seem to be impeach't by divers and sundry Acts of Parliament Thirdly The whole House of Peers have this very Session despised and set aside this Canon Law which some of the young Lords cry up again in the same Session and in the very same Cause to take away the Votes of the Bishops in the Case of the Earl of Strafford For by the same Canon Law that forbids Clergy-men to Sentence they of that Coat are more strictly inhibited to give no Testimony in Causes of Blood Nee ettam potest esse test is vel tabellio in causâ Sanguinis Linw. part 2. sol 146. For no Man co-operates more in a Sentence of Death than the Witnesses upon whose Attestation the Sentence is chiefly past Lopez pract crim c. 98. distl 21. and yet have the Lords admitted as Witnesses produced by the House of Commons against the Earl of Strafford the Archbishops of Canterbury and Armagh with the Bishop of London which Lords command now all Bishops to withdraw in the agitation of the self same Case Bishops it seems may be Witnesses to kill ont-right but may not sit in the Discussion of the Cause to help in case of Innocency a distressed Nobleman Whereas the very Gothish Bishops who first invented this Exclusion of Prelates from such Judicatures allow them to Vote as long as there is any hope left of clearing the Party or gaining of Pardon 4. Conc. Tol. Can. 31. And by the beginning of that Canon observe the use in Spain in that Age Anno 633. as touching this Doctrine Saepe principes contra quoslibet majestatis obnoxios Sacerdotibus negotia sua committunt Binnius 4. Tom. Can. Edit ult p. 592. Lastly In the Case of Archbishop Abbot all the great Civilians and Judges of the Land as Dr. Steward Sir H. Martin the Lord Chief Justice Hobart and Judge Doderidge which two last were very well versed in the Canon Law delivered positively when my self at first opposed them That all Irregularities introduced by Canons upon Ecclesiastical Persons concerning matters of Blood were taken away by the Reformation of the Church of England and were repugnant to the Statute 25 II. 8. as restraining the King 's most just Prerogative to imploy his own Subjects in such Functions and Offices as his Predecessors had done and to allow them those Priviledges and Recreations as by the Laws and Customs of this Realm they had formerly enjoy'd notwithstanding the Decree de Clerico venatore or the Constitution nae Clerici Saeculare c. or any other in that kind 150. The only Objection which appears upon any Learning or Record against the Clergies Voting in this Kingdom in Causes of Blood are two or three Protestations entred by the Bishops among the Records of the upper House of Parliament and some few Passages in the Law-Books relating thereunto The Protestation the Lords now principally stand upon is that of William Courtney Archbishop of Canterbury 11 Rich. 2. inserted in the Book of Priviledges which Mr. Selden collected for the Lords of the upper House In the Margin whereof that passage out of R. Hovenden about which we spake before about Clergy-mens agitation of Judgments of Blood is unluckily inserted and for want of due consideration and some suspicion of partial carriage in the Bishops in the case of the Earl of Strafford hath been eagerly pressed upon the Bishops by some of the Lords in such an unusual and unaccustomed manner that if I my self offering to speak to this Objection had not voluntarily withdrawn the rest of the Bishops and I had been without hearing voted out of the House in the agitation of a Splinter of that Cause of the Earl of Strafford's which came not near any matter of Blood An act never done before in that honourable House and ready to be executed suddenly without the least consideration of the merit of the Cause The only words insisted upon in the Protestation of Courtney's are these Because in this present Parliament certain matters are agitated whereat it is not lawsul for us according to the Prescript of holy Canons to be present And by and by after they say These matters are such in the which Nec possumus nec debemus interesse This is the Protestation most stood upon That of Archbishop Arundel 21 Rich. 2. is not so full and ample as this of Courtney's For the Bishops going forth left their Proxies with the
Lay-Lords and consequently continued present in Judicature in the eye and construction of the Law Therefore I apply my Answers to Courtney's Protestation principally which are divers and fit to be weighed and ponder'd First I do observe that Bishops did never protest or withdraw in Causes of Blood but only under the unsteddy Reign of Richard the Second Never before nor after the time of that unfortunate King to this present Parliament for ought appears in Record or History And that one Swallow should make us such a Spring and one Omission should create a Law or Custom against so many Actions of the English Prelates under so many Kings before so many Kings and Queens after that young Prince seems to me a strange Doctrine especially when I consider that by the Rules of the Civil and Common Law a Protestation dies with the death of him that makes it or is regularly vacated and disannulled Per contrarium actum subsequentem protestationem by any one subsequent act varying from the tenour of the said Protestation Regul Juris Bap. Nicol. part 2. Now that you may know how the Prelates carried themselves in this point and actually voted in Causes of Treason and sometimes to Blood before Richard the Second I refer me to what I cited before out of Mr. Selden and he out of Stephanides concerning Becket condemned by his Peers Ecclesiastical and Temporal 15 H. 2. Archbishop Stratford acquitted of High Treason in Parliament by four Prelates four Earls and four Barons under Edward the Third Antiq. Britan. p. 223. There was 4 Ed. 3. Roger de Mortimer Berisford Travers and others adjudged Traitors by Bishops as well as other Peers 16 Ed. 3. Thomas de Berkely was acquitted of Treason in pleno Parliamento And especially I refer my self to Roll 21 Rich. 2. Num. 10. which averrs That Judgments and Ordinances in the time of that King's Progenitors had been avoided by the absence of the Clergy which makes the Commons there to pray that the Prelates would make a Procurator by whom they might in all Judgments of Blood be at the least legally if they durst not be bodily present in such Judicatures And for the practice since the Reign of Rich. II. be it observed that in the fifth of Hen IV. the Commons thank the Lords Spiritual and Temporal for their good and rightful Judgment in freeing the Earl of Northumberland from Treason 3 Hen. 5. The Commons pray a Confirmation of the Judgment given upon the E. of Cambridge by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal 5 H. 5. Sir J. Oldcastle is attainted of Treason and Heresie by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal 28 H. 6. The Duke of Suffolk is charged with Treason before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal 31 H. 6. The Earl of Devon in like sort and so down to the Earl of Bristol's Case 22 Maii 1626. ten Bishops are joyned with ten Earls and ten Barons in the disquisition and agitation of that supposed Treason I leave it therefore to any indifferent Judgment Whether these Protestations made all under one Kings Reign dying with the Parties that made them can void a Right and Custom grounded on a continual Practice to the contrary in all other Tryals that have been since the Conquest to this present Parliament 151. Secondly It is fitting we know the nature of a Protestation which some may mistake Protestatio est animi nostri declaratio juris acquirendi vel conservandi vel damnum depellendi causâ facta saith Spiegle Calvin and all the Civilians No Protestation is made by any man in his Wits to destroy his own Right and much less another mans but to acquire or preserve some Right or to avoid and put off some Wrong that was like to happen to the Party or Parties that make the Protestation As here in Courtney's Protestation the Prelates in the first place conceive a Right and Power they had voluntarily to absent themselves while some matters were treated of at that time in the House of Lords which by the Canon-Law the Breach whereof the Popes of Rome did vindicate in those times with far more Severity than they did the Transgressions of the Law of God they were not suffer'd to be present at not for want of Right to be there in all Causes but for fear of Papal Censures In the next place they did preserve their former Right as Peers which they still had though voluntarily absenting themselves More solito interessendi considerandi tyactandi ordinandi definiendi all things without exception acted and executed in that Parliament And in the last place they protest against any loss of right of being or voting in Parliament that could befall them for this voluntary absenting of themselves at this time And where in all this Protestation is there one word to prejudice their Successors or to authorize any Peer to command his fellow-Peer called thither by the same Writ of Summons that himself is and by more ancient Prescription to withdraw and go out from this Common-Council of the Kingdom Thirdly We do not certainly know what these matters were whereat Archbishop Courtney conceived the Prelates neither could nor ought to be present These matters are left in loose and general words in that Protestation Some conceive indeed it was at the Condemnation of Tressilian Brambre L. Beauchamp and others Ant. Brit. p. 286. But the Notes of Privileges belonging to the Lords collected by Mr. Selden do with more reason a great deal assign this going forth of the Prelates to be occasion'd by certain Appeals of Treason preferred in that Parliament by the Duke of Gloucester against Alexander Archbishop of York whom the Popish Canons of those Times as you know exempted as a sacred person from the cognizance of King or Parliament and therefore the rest of the Bishops as the Squares went then neither could nor ought to be present and Parties to break the Exemptions Immunities and Privileges of that great Prelate But the Earl of Strafford is not the Archbishop but the President of York and to challenge any such Exemptions and Immunities at this time from the cognizance of King and Parliament amounts to little less than Treason Therefore this Protestation is very unseasonably urged to thrust out any Protestant Prelate from voting in Parliament Lastly In the Civil and Canon-Law for the Law of this Land knoweth it not a Protestation is but a Testation or witnessing before-hand of a man 's own Mind or Opinion whereby they that protest provide to save and presorve their own Right for the time to come It concludes no more bende themselves no Stranger to the Act no Successor but if it be admitted sticks as inherent in the singular and individual person until either the Party dyes or the Protestation be drawn and revoked Therefore what is a Protestation made by Will. Courtney to Will. Laud Or by Tho. Arundel to bind Tho. Morton And what one Rule in the Common-Law of the Land in the Journaâ—-Books or
refuse to concurr with the Parliament nay if he took more time to deliberate upon it it would be worse for the Earl and he would come to a more unhappy Death for an Hellish Contrivance was resolved upon just as in St. Paul's case Acts 23.15 the Zealots that had vowed Paul's death laid the Plot with the Priests and Elders to signisie to the Captain to bring him down to enquire somewhat more perfectly concerning him and ere ever he came near they would fall upon him The condemn'd Earl when he heard of this was no longer fond of Lise but sent word to the King that he was well prepared for his End and would not his gracious Majest y should disquiet himself to save a ruin'd Vessel that must sink A valiant Message and sit for so great a Spirit Loginus notes acutely that when Ajax was to combat with Hector he begg'd some things of such Gods as he call'd upon but to escape with life was not in his Prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was beneath a Graecian Heroe to desire Life It being therefore to no purpose to dispute what was the best Remedy to save this Lord when there was none at all the House of Lords nominate four Prelates to go to His Majesty to propound how the Tenderness of his Conscience might safely wade through this insuperable dissiculty these were L. Primate Usher with the Bishops Morton Williams Potter There was none of those four but would have gone through Fire and Water as we say to save the Party which being now a thing beyond Wit and Power they state the Question thus to the King sure I am of the Truth because I had it from the three former Whether as His Majesty refers his own Judgment to his Judges in whose Person they act in Court of Oyer Kings-bench Assize and in Cause of Life and Death and it lies on them if an innocent man suffer so why may not His Majesty satisfie his Conscience in the present matter that since competent Judges in Law had awarded that they found Guilt of Treason in the Earl that he may susser that Judgment to stand though in his private mind he was not satisfied that the Lord Strafford was criminous for that juggling and corrupt dealing which he suspected in the Proofs at the Tryal and let the Blame lye upon them who sate upon the Tribunal of Life and Death The four Bishops were all for the ashrmative and the Earl took it so little in ill part that Reverend Armagh pray'd with him preach'd to him gave him his last Viaticum and was with him on the Scassoid as a Ghostly Father till his Head was severed from his Body 154. Indeed His Majesty in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth seem to represent it as if he did not approve what he received from the four Bishops at that Consultation And I will leave such good men to his Censure rather than contradict any thing in that most pious most ravishing Book which deserves as much as Tully said of Crassus in his Brutus Ipsum melius potuisse scribere alium ut arbitror neminem Perhaps the King could have wrote better but I think no man else in the three Kingdoms What a venomous Spirit is in that Serpent Milton that black-mouth'd Zoilus that blows his Vipers Breath upon those immortal Devotions from the beginning to the end This is he that wrote with all Irreverence against the Fathers of our Church and shew'd as little Duty to his Father that begat him The same that wrote for the Pharisees That it was lawful for a man to put away his Wife for every cause and against Christ for not allowing Divorces The same O horrid that desended the lawfulness of the greatest Crime that ever was committed to put our thrice-excellent King to death A petty School-boy Scribler that durst graple in such a Cause with the Prince of the learned men of his Age Salmasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eunapius says of Ammonius Plutarch's Scholar in Aegypt the Delight the Musick of all Knowledge who would have scorn'd to drop a Pen-full of Ink against so base an Adversary but to maintain the Honour of so good a King whose Merit he adorns with this Praise p. 237. Con. Milt De quo si quis dixerit omnia bona vix pro suis meritis satis illum ornaret Get thee behind me Milton thou savourest not the things that be of Truth and Loyalty but of Pride Bitterness and Falshood There will be a time though such a Shimei a dead Dog in Abishai's Phrase escape for a while yet he and the Enemies of my Lord the King will fall into the Hands of the Avenger of Blood And that Book the Picture of King Charles's innocent Soul which he hath blemish'd with vile Reproaches will be the Vade Mecum of godly persons and be always about them like a Guardian Angel It is no marvel if this Canker-worm Milton is more lavish in his Writings than any man to justifie the beheading of Strafford whom good men pray'd for alive and pitied him dead So did the four Bishops that I may digress no longer who pour'd the best Oyl they could into the King's Conscience to give him Peace within himself when the main Cause was desperate and common Fury would compel him in the end to sacrifice this Earl to the Parliament Things will give better Counsel to men than men to things But a Collector of Notes W. Sa. hath a sling at the Bishop of Lincoln his quill hits him but hurts him no more than if it were a Shuttle-cock with four Feathers Forsooth when those four Bishops were parting from the King he put a Paper into His Majesty's Hand and that could be nothing else but an Inflammatory of Reasons more than were heard in publick left the King should cool and not set his Hand to the fatal Warrant This Author was once in the right p. 154. of his own Book That it becomes an Historian in dubious Relations to admit the most Christian and Charitable Pessumè it is optimè herclè dicitis Plaut in Pen. But this Case needs no Favour The Paper which that Bishop put into the King's Hands as he told me the next morning was an humble Advice to His Majesty why he should not give the Parliament an indesinite time to sit till both Houses consented to their own dissolution Was not this faithful Counsel For what could the King see in them who had been so outragious already to stand out the trial of their wavering Faith Trust should make men true Says Livy lib. 22. Vult sibi quisque credi habita fides ipsam plerumque fidem obligat But a number of these men cared not for moral Principles they were all for the Scriptures and they read them by new Lights The King had too much Faith and they had no Good Works What magnanimous Prince would bow so low to give the Keys of Government to so many Male-contents