which had been brought in behalf of the Queen So that the strugling on both sides much confirmed the Power which they endeavoured to destroy the Power of that Commission being better fortified both by Law and Argument than it had been formerly For by the over-ruling of Cawdrey's Case in confirmation of the Sentence which was past against him and the great pains which Parsons took to so little purpose the Power of that Commission was so well established in the Courts of Judicature that it was afterwards never troubled with the like Disputes The Guides of the Faction therefore are resolved on another course To strike directly at the Root to question the Episcopal Power and the Queen's Authority the Jurisdiction of their Courts the exacting of the Oath called the Oath Ex Officio and their other proceedings in the same And to this purpose it was published in Print by some of their Lawyers or by their directions at the least That men were heavily oppressed in the Ecclesiastical Courts against the Laws of the Realm That the Queen could neither delegate that Authority which was vested in it nor the Commissioners to exercise the same by her delegation That the said Courts could not compel the taking of the Oath called the Oath Ex Officio since no man could be bound in Reason to accuse himself That the said Oath did either draw men into wilful Perjury to the destruction of their souls or to be guilty in a manner of their own condemnation to the loss both of their Fame and Fortunes And finally That the ordinary Episcopal Courts were not to meddle in any Causes whatsoever but only Testamentary and Matrimonial by consequence not in matter of Tythes all Mis-behaviours in the Church or punishing of Incontinency or Fornication Adultery Incest or any the like grievous or enormous Crimes but on the contrary it was affirmed by the Professors of the Civil Laws That to impugn the Authority which had been vested in the Queen by Act of Parliament was nothing in effect but a plain Invasion of the Royal Prerogative the opening of a way to the violation of the Oath of Allegiance and consequently to undermine the whole Frame of the present Government It was proved also That the ordinary Episcopal Courts had kept themselves within their bounds that they might lawfully deal in all such Causes as were then handled in those Courts that their proceedings in the same by the Oath Ex Officio was neither against Conscience Reason nor the Laws of the Land and therefore that the Clamours on the other side were unjust and scandalous In which as many both Divines and Civilians deserved exceeding well both of the Queen and the Church so none more eminently than Dr. Richard Cosins Dean of the Arches in a Learned and Laborious Treatise by him writ and published called An Apology for Proceedings in Courts Ecclesiastical c. Printed in the year 1593. 22. But notwithstanding the Legality of these Proceedings the punishing of some Ring-leaders of the Puritan Faction and the Imprisonment of others a Book comes out under the name of A Petition to Her Majesty The scope and drift whereof was this That the Ecclesiastical Government of the Church of England was to be changed That the Eldership or Presbyterial Discipline was to be established as being the Government which was used in the Primitive Church and commanded to be used in all Ages That the Disciplinarian Faction hath not offended against the Statute 23 Eliz. cap. 2. And That Iohn Vdal was unjustly condemned upon it That the Consistorial Patrons are unjustly slandered with desire of Innovation and their Doctrine with Disorder and Disloyalty And this being said the Author of the Pamphlet makes it his chief business by certain Questions and Articles therein propounded to bring the whole Ecclesiastical State into envy and hatred This gave the Queen a full assurance of the restless Spirit wherewith the Faction was possessed and that no quiet was to be expected from them till they were utterly supprest To which end She gives Order for a Parliament to begin in February for the Enacting of some Laws to restrain those Insolencies with which the Patience of the State had been so long exercised The Puritans on the other side are not out of hope to make some good use of it for themselves presuming more upon the strength of their Party by reason of the Pragmaticalness of some Lawyers in the House of Commons than they had any just ground for as it after proved To which end they prepared some Bills sufficiently destructive of the Royal Interest the Jurisdiction of the Bishops and the whole Form of their Proceedings in their several Courts With which the Queen being made acquainted before their meeting or otherwise suspecting by their former practises what they meant to do She thought it best to strangle those Conceptions in the very Womb. And to that purpose She gave Order for the signification of Her Pleasure to the Lords and Commons at the very first opening of the Parliament That they should not pass beyond their bounds That they should keep themselves to the redressing of such Popular Grievances as were complained of to them in their several Countreys but that they should leave all Matters of State to Her self and the Council and all Matters which concerned the Church unto Her and Her Bishops 23. Which Declaration notwithstanding the Factors for the Puritans are resolved to try their Fortune and to encroach upon the Queen and the Church at once The Queen was always sensible of the Inconveniences which might arise upon the nominating of the next Successor and knew particularly how much the Needle of the Puritans Compass pointed toward the North Which made Her more tender in that Point than She had been formerly But Mr. Peter Wentworth whom before we spake of a great Zealot in behalf of the Holy Discipline had brought one Bromley to his lure and they together deliver a Petition to the Lord Keeper Puckering desiring that the Lords would joyn with them of the Lower-House and become Suppliants to the Queen for entailing of the Succession of the Crown according to a Bill which they had prepared At this the Queen was much displeased as being directly contrary to her strict Command and charged the Lords of the Council to call the said Gentlemen before them and to proceed against them for their disobedience Upon which signification of Her Majesty's Pleasure Sir Thomas Hennage then Vice-Chamberlain and one of the Lords of the Privy-Council convents the Parties reprehends them for their Misdemeanor commands them to forbear the Parliament and not to go out of their several Lodgings until further Order Being afterwards called before the Lord Treasurer Burleigh the Lord Buckhurst and the said Sir Thomas Wentworth is sent unto the Tower Bromley committed unto the Fleet and with him Welsh and Stevens two other Members of that House were committed also as being privy to the Projects of
Realm of France What was taught afterwards in pursuance of Calvins Doctrines by Hottaman and him that calls himself Eusebius Philadelphos amongst the French by Vrsine and Pareus in the Palatine Churches by Buchanan and Knox amongst the Scots and by some principal Disciplinarians amongst the English we shall hereafter see in their proper places And we shall then see also what was done in point of practice first by the Princes on the House of Bourbon and afterwards by some great Lords of the Hugonot party against Francis the Second Charles the Ninth Henry the Third and Lewis the Thirteenth Kings of France by William Prince of Orange and other of the Belgick Lords in the final abdication of King Philip the Second by the Hungarians and Bohemians in their revolting from the Princes of the House of Austria by the Rebellious Scots in deposing imprisoning and expelling of their rightful Queen and finally by the Genevian Faction in the Realm of England in their imbroylments of the Nation under Queen Elizabeth and that calamitious War but more calamitous in the issue and conclusion of it against Charles the First All which are built upon no other ground then this Doctrine of Calvin accommodated and applyed to their several purposes as appears plainly by the Answer of the Scots to Queen Elizabeth who justified the deposing of their natural and lawful Queen on those words of Calvin which they relyed on for the sole ground of that horrible Treason and their Indemnity therein of which more hereafter 26. In the mean time I shall content my self with the following passage faithfully gathered out of the Common Places of William Bucan Divinity-Reader in the small University of Lawsanna sâ—ituate on the Lake Lemane in the Canton of Berne and consequently a neer Neighbour to the Town of Geneva who treating in his forty one Chapter of the Duty of Magistrates propounds this question toward the close viz. What a good Christian ought to do if by a cruel Prince he be distressed by some grievous and open injury To which he thus returns his Answer That though Princes and Subjects have relation unto one another yet Subjects in the course of nature were before their Princes and therefore that such Princes if they usurp not a plain Tyranny in their several Kingdoms are not Superiour to the rest by nature in the right of Father hood but are setled by the suffrages and consent of the people on such conditions as originally were agreed between them and that it follows thereupon according unto Buchanans Doctrine that Subjects are not born for the good of their Kings but that all Kings were made to serve for the good of the people that it is lawful to defend Religion by force of Arms not onely against the assaults of such Forreign Nations as have no jurisdiction over us but also against any part of the same Common-wealth the common consent of the Estates being first obtained which doth indeavour to subvert it that no violence is to be offered to the person of the Supreme Magistrate though he play the Tyrant by any private man whatsover except he be warranted thereunto by some extraordinary and express command from the Lord himself but the oppression rather to be born with patience then that God should be offended by such rash attempts that the Protection of the Supreme Magistrate was to be required against the unjust oppressions of inferiour Officers and that in a free Common-wealth the Supreme Magistrate is rather to be questioned in a course of Law then by open Force that Subjects may lawfully take up Arms in defence of their Wives and Children if the Chief Magistrate make any violent assault upon them as Lyons and other brute Creatures sight to defend their young ones this last exemplified by that of Trajan giving the Sword to the Captain of his Guard with these following words Hoc ense pro me justa faciente injusta facienâ—e contra me utaris that is to say That he should use the Sword against him in defence of himself and for the protection of all those who in regard of his Office were subject to him that therefore it was well done by the Switzers to free themselves of their subjection to the House of Austria when the Princes of the House had exercised more then ordinary cruelty in most parts of the Country that David might lawfully have killed Saul because he gave his Wife to another man expelled him from his native Country murdered the Priests for doing some good Offices to him and pursued him from one place to another with his flying Army but that he did forbear to do it lest he should give an Example to the people of Israel of killing their Kings which other men prompted by ambition might be like enough to imitate 27. Such is the Commentary of Buchanus upon Calvins Text by which all Christian Kings are made accountable even in Civil Matters to the three Estates or any other ordinary Officers of their own appointing Which Doctrines being once by him delivered and inforced by others what else could follow thereupon but first an undervaluing of their transcendent Authority afterwards a contempt of their persons and finally a reviling of them with reproachful Language From hence it was that Calvin calls Mary Queen of England by the name of Proserpine assuring us that all the Devils in Hell were not half so mischievous and that Knox could not finde for her any better titles then that of Iezabel mischievous Mary of the Spaniards blood the professed enemy of God From hence it was that Beza calls Mary Queen of Scots by the names of Medea and Athaliah of which the one was no less infamous in the Sacred then the other was in the Heathen story that the English Puritans compared Queen Elizabeth to an idle slut who swept the middle of the room but left all the dust and filth thereof behind the doors that Didoclavius calls King Iames the greatest and most deadly enemy of the holy Gospel and positively affirms of all Kings in general that they are naturally enemies to the Kingdom of Christ. And finally from hence it was that the seditious Author of the base and unworthy Dialogue entituled Eusebius Philadelphus hath so bespattered the great Princes of the House of France that he hath made them the most ugly Monsters in their lusts and cruelty which ere Nature produced and could devise no fitter names for Queen Mary of Scotland then those of Medea Clytemnestra Proserpine with that of monstrum Exitiale in the close of all And that the late most mighty Monarch of Great Britain was handled by his Subjects of this Faction with no less scurrility then if he had been raised on high for no other purpose then to be made the mark against which they were to shoot their Arrows even most bitter words the object of all false tongues and calumnious Pens Thus do they deal with Kings and Princes as Pilate in the
but that to wait at her Chamber-door or elsewhere and then to have no further liberty then to whisper in her ear what he had to say or to tell her what others did speak of her was neither agreeable to his vocation nor could stand with his Conscience 38. At Midsummer they held a general Assembly and there agreed upon the Form of a Petition to be presented to the Queen in the name of the Kirk the substance of it was for abolishing the Mass and other superstitious Rites of the Romish Religion for inflicting some punishment against Blasphemie Adultery contempt of the Word the Profanation of Sacraments and other like vices condemned by the Word of God whereof the Laws of the Realm did not take any hold for referring all actions of Divorce to the Churches judgement or at the least to men of good knowledge and conversation for excluding all Popish Church-men from holding any place in Council or Session and finally for the increase and more assured payment of the Ministers Stipends but more particularly for appropriating the Glebes and Houses unto them alone This was the sum of their desires but couched in such irreverent coarse and bitter expressions and those expressions justified with such animosities that Lethington had much ado to prevail upon them for putting it into a more dutiful and civil Language All which the Queen knew well enough and therefore would afford them no better answer but that she would do nothing to the prejudice of that Religion which she then professed and that she hoped to have Mass restored before the end of the year in all parts of the Kingdom Which being so said or so reported gave Knox occasion in his preachings to the Gentry of Kyle and Galloway to which he was commissioned by the said Assembly to forewarn some of them of the dangers which would shortly follow and thereupon earnestly to exhort them to take such order that they might be obedient unto Authority and yet not suffer the Enemies of Gods 〈◊〉 to have the upper-hand And they who understood his meaning at half a word assembled themselves together on the 4 of September at the Town of Air where they entred into a common Bond subscribed by the Earl of Glencarne the Lords Boyd and Vâ—hiliry with one hundred and thirty more of Note and Quality besides the Provost and Burgesses of the Town of Air which made forty more The tenour of which Bond was this that followeth 39. We whose names are under written do promise in the presence of God and in the presence of his Son our Lord Iesus Christ that we and every one of us shall and will maintain the Preaching of his holy Evangel now of his mercy offered and granted to this Realm and also will maintain the Ministers of the same against all persons Power and Authority that will oppose themselves to the Doctrine proposed and by us received And further with the same solemnity we protest and promise that every one of us shall assist another yea and the while Body of the Protestants within this Realm in all lawful and just occasions against all persons so that whosoever shall hurt 〈◊〉 or trouble any of our bodies shall be reputed enemies to the whole except that the offender will be content to submit himself to the Government of the Church now established amongst us And this we do as we desire to be accepted and favoured of the Lord Iesus and accepted worthy of credit and honesty in the presence of the Godly 40. And in pursuance of this Bond they seize upon some Priests and give notice to others that they would not trouble themselves of complaining to the Queen of Council but would execute the punishment appointed to Idolaters in the Law of God as they saw occasion whensoever they should be apprehended At which the Queen was much offended but there was no remedy All she could do was once again to send for Knox and to desire him so to deal with the Barons and other Gentlemen of the West that they would not punish any man for the cause of Religion as they had resolved To which he answered with as little reverence as at other times That if her Majesty would punish Malefactors according to the Laws he durst assure her that she should finde peace and quietness at the hand of those who professed the Lord Iesus in that Kingdom That if she thought or had a purpose to illude the Laws there were some who would not fail to let the Papists understand that they should not be suffered without punishment to offend their God Which said he went about to prove in a long discourse that others were by God intrusted with the Sword of Justice besides Kings and Princes which Kings and Princes if they failed in the right use of it and drew it not against Offenders they must not look to finde obedience from the rest of the Subjects 41. It is not to be doubted but that every understanding Reader will be able to collect out of all the premises both of what Judgement Knox and his Brethren were touching the Soveraignty of Kings or rather the Supreme Power invested naturally in the people of a State or Nation as also from what Fountain they derived their Doctrine and to whose sentence onely they resolved to submit the same But we must make a clearer demonstration of it before we can proceed to the rest of our History that so it may appear upon what ground and under the pretence of what Authority so many Tumults and Discords were acted on the Stage of Scotland by the Knoxian Brethren It pleased the Queen to hold a Conference with this man in the pursuit whereof they fell upon the point of resisting Princes by the Sword the lawfulness whereof was denyed by her but maintained by him The Queen demands whether Subjects having power may resist their Princes Yea Madam answered Knox if Princes do exceed their bounds and do against that wherefore they should be obeyed there is no doubt but that they may be resisted even by power For said he there is neither greater honour nor greater obedience to be given to Kings and Princes then God hath commanded to be given unto our Fathers and Mothers and yet it may so happen that the Father may be stricken with a Phrensie and in some fit attempt the slaying of his Children In which case if the Children joyn themselves together apprehend their Father take the Sword out of his hand and keep him in Prison till his Phrensie be over-past it is not to be thought that God will be offended with them for their actings in it And thereupon he doth infer that so it is with such Princes also as out of a blind Zeal would murther the Children of God which are subject to them And therefore to take the Sword from them to binde their hands and to cast them into Prison till that they may be brought to a more sober minde is not
together in the Temple-Church there to have Preaching and to joyn together in Prayer with Humiliation and Fasting for the assistance of Gods Spirit in all their consultations during this Parliament and for the preservation of the Queens Majesty and her Realms And though they were so cautious in the choice of their Preachers to refer the naming of them to the Lords of the Council which were then Members of the House in hope to gain them also to avow the action yet neither could this satisfie the Queen or affect their Lordships For some of them having made the Queen acquainted with their purpose in it she sends a Message to them by Sir Christopher Hatton who was then Vice-Chamberlain by which he lets them know That her Majesty did much admire at so great a rashness in that House as to put in execution such an Innovation without her privity and pleasure first made known unto them Which Message being so delivered he moved the House to make humble submission to her Majesty acknowledging the said offence and contempt craving the remission of the same with a full purpose to forbear the committing of the like hereafter Which motion being hearkned to as there was good reason Mr. Vice-Chamberlain is desired to present their submission to the Queen and obtain her pardon which he accordingly performed 20. This practice gave the Queen so fair a Prospect into the counsels of the Faction that she perceived it was high time to look about her and to provide for the preserving of her power and Prerogative-Royal but more for the security of her Realm and Person To which end she procured a Statute to be made in that very Parliament by which it was Enacted That if any person or persons forty days after the end of that Session should advisâ—dly devise or write or print or set forth any manner of Book Rhyme Ballad Letter or Writing containing any false seditious or slanderous matter to the Defamation of the Queens Majestie or to the encouraging stirring or moving of any Insurrection or Rebellion within this Realm or any of the Dominions to the same belonging Or if any person after the time aforesaid as well within the Queens Dominions as in any other place without the same should procure such Book Rhyme Ballad c. to be written printed published or set forth c. the said offence not being within the compass of Treason by vertue of any former Statute that then the said Offenders upon sufficient proof thereof by two lawful witnesses should suffer death and loss of goods as in case of Felony And that the Queen may be as safe from the Machinations of the Papists as she was secured by this Act from the plots of the Puritans a Law was past To make it Treason for any Priest or Iesuit to seduce any of the Queens Subjects to the Romish Religion and for the Subjects to be reconciled to the Church of Rome This Act intituled An Act for retaining the Queens Subjects in their due obedience the other For the punishing seditious words against the Queen 23 Eliz. cap. 1 2. Which Statutes were contrived of purpose to restrain the Insolency of both Factions and by which many of them were adjudged to death in times ensuing Some of them as in case of Treason and others as the Authors or the Publishers of Seditious Pamphlets But the last Statute being made with Limitation to the life of the Queen it expired with her And had it been revived as it never was by either of the two last Kings it might possibly have prevented those dreadful mischiefs which their posterity for so long a time have been involved in 21. Together with this Parliament was held a Convocation as the Custom is In the beginning whereof an Instrument was produced under the Seal of Archbishop Grindal for substituting Dr. Iohn Elmore then Bishop of London a Prelate of great parts and spirit but of a contrary humour to the said Archbishop to preside therein which in the incapacity of the other he might have challenged as of right belonging to him Nothing else memorable in this Convocation but the admitting of Dr. William Day then Dean of Windsor to be Prolocutor of the Clergie the passing of a Bill for the grant of Subsidies and a motion made unto the Prelates in the name of the Clergie for putting the late Book of Articles in execution Nothing else done within those walls though much was agitated and resolved on by those of Grindals party in their private Meetings Some of the hotter heads amongst them had proposed in publick That the Clergie should decline all business even the grant of Subsidies till the Archbishop were restored to his place and suffrage But this could find no entertainment amongst wiser men Others advised That a Petition should be drawn in the name of both Houses by which Her Majestie might be moved to that restitution And though I find nothing to this purpose in the Publick Registers which may sufficiently evince that it never passed as an Act of the Convocation yet I find that such a Petition was agreed upon and drawn into form by Dr. Tobie Matthews then Dean of Christ-Church and by some Friends presented to Her Majesties sight Matthews was master of an elegant and fluent stile and most pathetically had bemoaned those sad misfortunes which had befallen that Prelate and the Church in â—im by suffering under the displeasure of a gratious Sovereign The mitigation whereof was the rather hoped for in regard he had offended more out of the tenderness of his Conscience then from the obstinacy of his will But no such answer being given unto this Petition as by his Friends might be expected Grindal continued under his Suspension till the time of his death Once it was moved to have a Co-adjutor imposed upon him who should not onely exercise the Iurisdiction but receive all the Rents and profits which belonged to his Bishoprick And so far they proceeded in it that Dr. Iohn Whitgift who had been preferred to the See of Worcester 1576. was nominated for the man as one sufficiently furnished with abilities to discharge the trust But he most worthily declined it and would not suffer the poor man to be stript of his clothes though for the apparelling of his own body with the greater honour till death had laid him in the bed of Eternal rest 22. But the troubles of this year were not ended thus For neither those good Laws before remembred nor the Executions done upon them could prevail so far as to preserve the Church from falling into those distractions which both the Papists and the Presbyterians had projected in it The Jesuits had hitherto been content to be lookers on aâ—d suffered the Seminary Priests to try their Fortunes in the reduction of this Kingdom to the See of Rome But finding how little had been done by them in twenty years so little that it came almost to less then nothing they are resolved to take
which I hold under Her Majesty the defence of the Religion and the Rites of the Church of England to appease the Schisms and Sects therein to reduce all the Ministers thereof to Uniformity and to due Obedience and not to waver with every wind which also my Place my Person the Laws Her Majesty and the goodness of the Cause do require of me and wherein the Lords of Her Highness Privy Council all things considered ought in duty to assist and countenance me But How is it possible that I should perform what I have undertaken after so long Liberty and lack of Discipline if a few persons so meanly qualified as most of these Factious Sectaries are should be countenanced against the whole state of the Clergy of greatest account both for Learning Years Stayedness Wisdom Religion and Honesty and open Breakers and Impugners of the Law young in Years proud in Conceit contentious in Disposition should be maintained against their Governours seeking to reduce them to Order and Obedience Haec sunt initia Haereticorum ortus atque conatus Schismaticorum male cogitantium ut sibi placeant ut praepositum superbo tumore contemnant sic de Ecclesiâ— receditur sic altare profanum foris collocatur sic contra Pacem Christi Ordinationem atque Veritatem Dei Rebellatur The first Fruits of Hereticks and the first Births and Endeavours of Schismaticks are To admire themselves and in their swelling-pride to contemn any that are set over them Thus do men fall from the Church of God thus is a Forreign Unhallowed Altar erected and thus is Christ's Peace and God's Ordination and Unity rebelled against 20. For my own part I neither have done nor do any thing in these matters which I do not think my self in Conscience and Duty bound to do and which Her Majesty hath not with earnest Charge committed unto me and which I am not well able to justifie to be most requisite for this Church and State whereof next to Her Majesty though most unworthy if not most unhappy the chief Care is committed to me which I will not by the Grace of God neglect whatsoever come upon me there-for Neither may I endure their notorious Contempts unless I will become Aesop's Block and undo all that which hitherto hath been done It is certain that if way be given unto them upon their unjust Surmises and Clamours it will be the cause of that confusion which hereafter the State will be sorry for I neither care for the honour of this Place I hold which is onus unto me nor the largeness of the Revenue neither any Worldly thing I thank God in respect of doing my duty neither do I fear the displeasure of man nor the evil Tongue of the uncharitable who call me Tyrant Pope Knave and lay to my charge things that I never did or thought Scio enim hoc esse opus Diaboli ut servos Dei mendaciis laceret opinionibus falsis gloriosum nomen infamet ut qui Conscientiae suae luce clarescunt alienis Rumoribus sordidentur For I know that this is the work of that Accuser the Devil that he may tear in pieces the Servants of God with Lyes that he may dishonour their glorious Name with false surmises that they who through the clearness of their own Consciences are shining bright may have the filth of other men's slanders cast upon them So was Cyprian himself used and other godly Bishops to whom I am not comparable But that which most of all grieveth me and is to be wondered at and lamented is That some of those who give countenance to these men and cry out for a Learned Ministry should watch their opportunity and be Instruments and Means to place most unlearned men in the chiefest Places and Livings of the Ministry thereby to make the state of the Bishops and Clergy contemptible and I fear salable This Hypocrisie and Dissembling with God and Man in pretending one thing and doing another goeth to my heart and maketh me think that God's Judgments are not far off The day will come when all mens hearts shall be opened In the mean time I will depend upon Him who never faileth those that put their trust in Him 21. It may be gathered from this Abstract what a hard Game that Reverend Prelate had to play when such great Masters in the Art held the Cards against him For at that time the Earls of Huntington and Leicester Walsingham Secretary of Estate and Knolls Comptroller of the Houshold a professed Genevian were his open Adversaries Burleigh a Neutral at the best and none but Hatton then Vicechamberlain and afterwards Lord Chancellor firmly for him And him he gained but lately neither but gained him at the last by the means of Dr. Richard Bancroft his Domestick Chaplain of whom we shall have cause to speak more hereafter By his procurement he was called to the Council-Table at such time as the Earl of Leicester was in Holland which put him into a capacity of going more confidently on without checks or crosses as before in the Church's Cause A thing which Leicester very much stomacked at his coming back but knowing it was the Queen's pleasure he disguised his trouble and appeared fair to him in the publick though otherwise he continued his former Favours to the Puritan Faction Sure of whose countenance upon the perfecting and publishing of the Book of Discipline they resolved to put the same in practise in most parts of the Realm as they did accordingly But it was no where better welcome than it was in London the Wealth and Pride of which City was never wanting to cherish and support those men which most apparently opposed themselves to the present Authority or practised the introducing of Innovations both in Church and State The several Churches or Conventicles rather which they had in that City they reduced into one great and general Classis of which Cartwright Egerton or Traverse were for the most part Moderators and whatsoever was there ordered was esteemed for current from thence the Brethren of other places did fetch their light and as doubts did arise thither they were sent to be resolved the Classical and Synodical Decrees of other places not being Authentical indeed till they were ratified in this which they held the Supreme Consistory and chief Tribunal of the Nation But in the Countrey none appeared more forward than they did in Northampton-shire which they divide into three Classes that is to say the Classis of Northampton Daventry and Kettring and the device forthwith is taken up in most parts of England but especially in Warwick-shire Suffolk Norfolk Essex c. In these Classes they determined in points of Doctrine interpreted hard places of Scripture delivered their Resolution in such Cases of Conscience as were brought before them decided Doubts and Difficulties touching Contracts of Marriage And whatsoever was concluded by such as were present but still with reference to the better judgment of the
remembrances if the Honour of the Church of England were not some way vindicated as well by the one as by the other Thus as before we brought the Presbyterians in Scotland to their greatest height in seeing their Discipline established by Laws and confirmed by Leagues so have we brought the English Puritans to their lowest fall by divers sharp Laws made against them some severe Executions done upon them for their transgressing of those Laws their principal Leaders humbled or cut off by the Sword of Justice and the whole Mackina of their Devices brought to utter ruine not the less active for all this to advance the Cause though after a more peaceful and more cunning way so much the more dangerous to this Church because less suspected but not so closely carried as to scape discovery And the first practise which they fell upon was this that followeth 36. It hath been an ancient Custom in the City of London to have three solemn Sermons preached on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday in the Easter-week at the place commonly called the Spittle being a dissolved Hospital not far from Bishops-Gate at which the Lord Mayor and Aldermen used to be present in their Robes besides a great concourse of Divines Gentlemen and other Citizens For the performance of which Work a decent Pulpit was erected in an open place which had been part of the Church-yard the ordinary Hearers sitting upon Forms before the Pulpit the Lord Mayor Aldermen and their Wives with other Persons of Quality in two handsome Galleries to which was added in the year 1594 a fair large House for the reception of the Governours and Children of the Hospital founded in the Grey-Fryers who from thenceforth were tyed to attend those Sermons At what time also the old Pulpit was taken down and a new set up with the Preachers face turned toward the South which had before been towards the West for so in former times the Pulpits were generally placed in all Churches of England to the end that the peoples faces in all acts of Worship might look toward the East according to the Custom of the Primitive times Which alteration seemed to be made upon design that without noise or any notice taken of it they might by little and little change the posture of Adoration from the East to the West or any other point of the Compass as their humour served In which first they were showed the way by Sir Walter Mildmay in his Foundation of the Chappel of Emmanuel Colledg 1585. Who being a great favourer of the Puritan Faction gave order for this Chappel to stand North and South and thereby gave example unto others to affect the like Which brings into my mind a Project of Tiberius Gracchus one of the most Seditious of the Roman Tribunes for transferring the Supreme Power of the Commonwealth from the Lords of the Senate to the People For whereas formerly all Orators in the Publick Assemblies used to address their Speeches to the Lords of the Senate as the Supreme Magistrates this Gracchus turned his face to the common people and by that Artifice saith Plutarch transferred unto them the Supreme Majesty of the Roman Empire without Noise or Tumult 37. But it is now time to look back towards Scotland where we left them at their highest and the poor King so fettered or intangled by his own Concessions that he was not able to act any thing in the Kirk and very little in the State He had not very well digested their Refusal to subscribe to His Articles mentioned in the close of the former Book when he held an Assembly at Dundee in the end of April 1593 at what time the King being well informed of the low condition of the English Puritans sent Sir Iames Melvin to them with these two Articles amongst many others In the first of which it was declared That He would not suffer the Priviledg and Honour of his Crown to be diminished and Assemblies to be made when and where they pleased therefore willed them before the dissolution of the present Assembly to send two or three of their number by whom they should know His mind touching the time and place of the next Meeting And in the second it was required That an Act should be made inhibiting Ministers to declaim in the Pulpit against the proceedings of His Majesty and the Lords of His Council which He conceived He had good reason to desire in regard that His Majesty's good intentions were well known to themselves for maintaining Religion and Justice and of the easie access that divers of the Ministry had unto Him by whom they might signifie their Complaints and Grievances To the first of which two Articles they returned this Answer That in their Meetings they would follow the Act of Parliament made by Him in the year preceding And to the second they replyed That they had made an Act prohibiting all Ministers to utter in the Pulpit any rash or irreverent speeches against His Majesty or His Council but to give their Admonitions upon just and necessary Causes in fear love and reverence Which seeming to the King to serve then rather for a colour to excuse their Factiousness than to lay any just restraint upon it He turned a deaf Ear to their Petitions as well concerning his proceeding with the Popish Lords as against the erecting of Tythes into Temporall Lordships In this Assembly also they passed an Act prohibiting all such as professed Religion to traffick in any part of the Dominions of the King of Spain where the Inquisition was in force And this to be observed under the pain of Excommunication till His Majesty could obtain a free Trade for them without fear of any danger to their Goods or Consciences Which being complained of to the King and by Him looked upon as an Intrenchment upon the Royal Prerogative the Merchants were encouraged to proceed as formerly In opposition whereunto the Ministers fulminate their Censures till the Merchants generally made offer to forbear that Trade as soon as their Accounts were made and that their Creditors in those parts had discharged their Debts They pass'd another Order also in the said Assembly for putting down the Monday's Market in the City of Edenborough under pretence that the Sabbath was thereby prophaned Which so displeased the Shoo-makers and other Artificers that they came tumultuously to the Ministers Houses and threatned to turn them out of the City without more ado if ever that Act were put into execution For fear whereof that Project was dashed for ever after and thereby an occasion given unto the Court to affirm this of them That Rascals and Sowters could obtain that at the Ministers hands which the King was not able to do in matters far more just and reasonable To such audaciousness were they grown upon the filly confidence of their own establishment as to put limits upon Trade dispose of Markets and prostitute both King and Council to the lust of their Preachers
gave notice to the several Ministers of the present Dangers and advised them to excite their Flocks to be in readiness to the end they might oppose these Resolutions of the King and Council as far as lawfully they might A day was also set apart for Humiliation and Order given to the Presbyteries to excommunicate all such as either harboured any of the Popish Lords or kept company with them and this Excommunication to be passed summarily on the first Citation because the safety of the Church seemed to be in danger which was the mischief by the King suspected under that Reserve They appointed also that sixteen of their Company should remain at Edenborough according to the number of the Tribunes at Paris who together with some of the Presbytery of that City should be called The Council of the Kirk That four or five of the said sixteen should attend Monthly on the Service in their turns and courses and that they should convene every day with some of that Presbytery to receive such Advertisements as should be sent from other places and thereupon take counsel of the best Expedients that could be offered in the case And for the first Essay of their new Authority the Lord Seaton President of the Sessions appears before them transmitted unto their Tribunal by the Synod of Lothian for keeping intelligence with the Earl of Huntley From which with many affectations having purged himself he was most graciously dismist Which though the King beheld as an Example of most dangerous consequence yet being willing to hold fair with the Kirk he connived at it till he perceived them to be fixed on so high a pin so cross to his Commands and Purposes that it was time to take them down He therefore signifies to them once for all That there could be no hope of any right understanding to be had between them during the keeping up of two Jurisdictions neither depending on the otherâ— That in their Preachings they did censure the Affairs of the State and Council convocate several Assemblies without his Licenses and there conclude what they thought good without his Allowance and Approbation That in their Synods Presbyteries and particular Sessions they embraced all manner of business under colour of scandal and that without redress of these Misdemeanors there either was no hope of a good Agreement or that the said Agreement when made could be long kept by either Party 21. The Ministers on the other side had their Grievances also that is to say The Favours extended by his Majesty to the Popish Lords the inviting of the Lady Huntley to the Baptism of the Princess Elizabeth being then at hand the committing of the Princess to the Custody of the Lady Levingston and the â—estrangement of his Countenance from themselves And though the King gave very satisfactory Answers to all these Complaints yet could not the suspitions of the Kirk be thereby removed every day bringing forth some great cry or other That the Papists were favoured in the Court The Miâ—â—â—ters troubled for the free rebuke of sin and the Scepter of Christ's Kingdom sought to be overthrown In the mean time it hapned that one David Blake one of the Ministers of St. Andrews had in a Sermon uttered divers Seditioâ—s Speeches of the King and Queen as also against the Council and the Lords of the Session but more particularly that as all Kings were the Devils Barns so the heart of K. IAMES was full of Treachery That the Queen was not to be prayed for but for fashion-sake because they knew that she would never do them good That the Lords of the Council were corrupt and takers of Bribes and that the Queen of England was an Atheist one of no Religion Notice whereof being given to the English Ambassador he complains of it to the King and Blake is cited to appear before the Lords of the Council Melvin makes this a common Cause and gives it out That this was only done upon design against the Ministers to bring their Doctrine under the censure and controlment of the King and Council or at the least a meer device to divert the Ministers from prosecuting their just Suit against the coming and reception of the Popish Lords and that if Blake or any other should submit their Doctrines to the tryal of the King and Council the Liberties of the Kirk would be quite subverted By which means he prevailed so far on the rest of the Council I mean the Council of the Kirk that they sent certain of their number to intercede in the business and to declare how ill it might be taken with all sorts of people if the Ministers should now be called in question for such trifling matters when the Enemies of the Truth were both spared and countenanced But not being able by this means to delay the Censure it was advised that Blake should make his Declinatour renounce the King and Council as incompetent Judges and wholly put himself upon tryal of his own Presbytery Which though it seemed a dangerous course by most sober men yet was it carryed by the major part of the Voices as the Cause of God 22. Encouraged by this general Vote and enflamed by Melvin he presents his Declinatour with great confidence at his next appearance And when he was interrogated amongst other things Whether the King might not as well judg in matters of Treason as the Kirk of Heresie He answered That supposing he had spoken Treason yet could he not be first judged by the King and Council till the Kirk had taken cognizance of it In maintenance of which proceeding the Commissioners of the Kirk direct their Letters to all the Presbyteries of the kingdom requiring them to subscribe the said Declinatour to recommend the Cause in their Prayers to God and to stir up their several Flocks in defence thereof This puts the King to the necessity of publishing his Proclamation of the Month of November In which he first lays down the great and manifold encroachments of this new Tribunal to the overthrow of his Authority The sending of the Declinatour to be subscribed generally by all the Ministers The convocating of the Subjects to assist their proceedings as if they had no Lord or Superior over them and in the mean time that the Ministers forsake their Flocks to wait on these Commissioners and attend their service which being said he doth thereby charge the said Commissioners from acting any thing according to that deputation commanding them to leave Edenborough to repair to their several Flocks and to return no more for keeping such unlawful Meetings under pain of Rebellion He published another Proclamation at the same time also by which all Barons Gentlemen and other Subjects were commanded not to joyn with any of the Ministry either in their Presbyteries Synods or other Ecclesiastical Assemblies without his License Which notwithstanding he was willing to revoke those Edicts and remit his Action against Blake if the Church would either
wave the Declinatour or if they would declare at the least That it was not a general but a particular Declinatour used in the case of Mr. Blake as being in a case of Slander and therefore appertaining to the Church's Cognizance But these proud men either upon some confidence of another Bothwell or else presuming that the King was not of a Spirit to hold out against them or otherwise infatuated to their own destruction resolved That both their Pulpits and their Preachers too should be exempted totally from the King's Authority In which brave humour they return this Answer to his Proposition That they resolved to stand to their Declinatour unless the King would pass from the Summons and remitting the pursuit to the Ecclesiastical Judg That no Minister should be charged for his Preaching at least before the meeting of the next general Assembly which should be in their Power to call as they saw occasion Which Answer so displeased the King that he charged the Commissioners of the Kirk to depart the Town and by a new Summons citeth Blake to appear on the last of November This fills the Pulpit with Invectives against the King and that too on the day of the Princess's Christning at what time many Noble men were called to Edenborough to attend that Solemnity With whose consent it was declared at Blake's next appearance That the Crimes and Accusations charged in the Bill were Treasonable and Seditious and that his Majesty his Council and all other Judges substitute by his Authority were competent Judges in all matters either Criminal or Civil as well to Ministers as to other Subjects Yet still the King was willing to give over the Chase makes them another gracious Offer treats privately with some Chiefs amongst them and seems contented to revoke his two Proclamations if Blake would only come before the Lords of the Council and there acknowledg his offence against the Queen But when this would not be accepted the Court proceeds unto the Examination of Witnesses And upon proof of all the Articles objected Sentence was given against him to this effect That he should be confined beyond the North water enter into Ward within six days and there remain till his Majesty's pleasure should be further signified Some Overtures were made after this for an Accommodation But the King not being able to gain any reason from them sends their Commissioners out of the Town and presently commands That Twenty four of the most Seditious persons in Edenborough should forsake the City hoping to find the rest more cool and tractable when these Incendiaries were dismissed 23. The Preachers of the City notwithstanding take fire up on it and the next day excite the Noble-men assembled at the Sermon upon Sunday the fifteenth of December to joyn with them in a Petition to the King To preserve Religion Which being presented in a rude and disorderly manner the King demands by what Authoririty they durst convene together without his leave We dare do more than this said the Lord of Lindsey and will not suffer our Religion to be overthrown Which said he returns unto the Church stirrs up the people to a tumult and makes himself the Head of a Factious Rabble who crying out The Sword of the Lord and Gideon thronged in great numbers to the place in which the King had locked himself for his greater safety the doors whereof they questionless had forced open and done some out-rage to his Person if a few honest men had not stopt their Fury The Lord-Provost of the City notwithstanding he was then sick and kept his Bed applied his best endeavours to appease the Tumult and with some difficulty brought the people to lay down their Arms which gave the King an opportunity to retire to his Palace where with great fear he passed over all the rest of that day The next morning he removes with his Court and Council to the Town of Lintithgoe and from thence publisheth a Proclamation to this effect viz. That the Lords of the Session the Sheriffs Commissioners and Justices with their several Members and Deputies should remove themselves forth of the Town of Edenborough and be in readiness to go to any such place as should be appointed and that all Noble-men and Barons should return unto their Houses and not presume to convene in that or in any other place without License under pain of his Majesty's Displeasure The Preachers on the contrary are resolved to keep up the Cause to call their Friends together and unite their Party and were upon the point of Excommunicating certain Lords of the Council if some more sober than the rest had not held their hands 24. In which confusion of Affairs they indict a Fast For a preparatory whereunto a Sermon is preached by one Welch in the chief Church of that City Who taking for his Theam the Epistle sent to the Angel oâ— the Church of Ephesus did pitifully rail against the King saying That he was possessed with a Devil and that one Devil being put out seven worse were entred in the place and that the Subjects might lawfully rise and take the Sword out of his hands Which last he confirmed by the Example of a Father that falling into a Phrensie might be taken by the Children and Servants of the Family and tyed hand and foot from doing violence Which brings into my mind an usual saying of that King to this effect viz. That for the twelve last years of his living in Scotland he used to pray upon his knees before every Sermon That he might hear nothing from the Preacher which might justly grieve him and that the case was so well altered when he was in England that he was used to pray that he might profit by what he heard But all exorbitancy of Power is of short continuance especially if abused to Pride and Arrogance The madness of the Presbyterians was now come to the height and therefore in the course of Nature was to have a fall and this the King resolves to give them or to lose his Crown He had before been so afflicted with continual Baffles that he was many times upon the point of leaving Scotland putting himself into the Seignury of Venice and living there in the capacity of a Gentleman so they call the Patricians of that Noble City And questionless he had put that purpose in execution if the hopes of coming one day to the Crown of England had not been some temptation to him to ride out the storm But now a Sword is put into his hands by the Preachers themselves wherewith he is enabled to cut the Gordian-knot of their Plots and Practises which he was not able to untye For not contented to have raised the former Tumults they keep the Noble-men together invite the people to their aid and write their Letters to the Lord of Hamilton to repair unto them and make himself the Head of their Association A Copy of which Letter being showed unto the King by that
least that Enormities might be redressed as namely That Excommunication might not come forth under the name of Lay-persons Chancellors Officials c. That men be not excommunicated for Trifles and Twelve-penny matters That none be excommunicated without consent of his Pastors That the Officers be not suffered to extort unreasonable Fees That none having Jurisdiction or a Register's Place put the same to Farm That divers Popish Canons as for restraint of Marriage at certain times be reversed That the length of Suits in Ecclesiastical Courts which hung sometimes two three four five six seven years may be restrained That the Oath Ex Officio whereby men are forced to accuse themselves be more sparingly used That Licenses for Marriages without being Asked may be more sparingly granted 4. And here it is to be observed that though there was not one word in this Petition either against Episcopal Government or Set-forms of Prayer yet the design thereof was against them both For if so many of the Branches had been lopped at once the Body of the Tree must needs have rotted and consumed in a short time after The two Universities on the contrary were no less zealous for keeping up the Discipline and Liturgy of the Church then by Law established And to that end it was proposed and passed at Cambridg on the ninth of Iune That whosoever should oppose by word or writing either the Doctrine or the Discipline of the Church of England or any part thereof whatsoever within the Verge and Limits of the same University otherwise than in the way of Disputation he should be actually suspended from all Degrees already taken and utterly disabled for taking any in the time to come They resolved also to return an Answer to the said Petition but understanding that the University of Oxon was in hand therewith and had made a good progress in the same they laid by that purpose congratulating with their Sister-University for her forwardness in it as appears plainly by their Letter of the 7 th of October All this was known unto the King but he resolved to answer them in another way and to that end designed a Conference between the Parties A Conference much desired by those of the Puritan Faction in Queen Elizabeth's time who could not be induced to grant it knowing full well how much it tended to the ruin of all publick Government that matters once established in due form of Law should be made subject to Disputes But K. IAMES either out of a desire of his own satisfaction or to shew his great Abilities in Judgment Oratory and Discourse resolved upon it and accordingly gave Order for it To which end certain Delegates of each Party were appointed to attend upon Him at His Royal Palace of Hampton-Court on the 14 th of Ianuary then next following there to debate the Heads of the said Petition and to abide his Majesty's Pleasure and Determination At what time there attended on behalf of the Church the Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Lord Bishop of London the Bishops of Durham Winchester Worcester St. Davids Chichester Carlisle and Peterborough The Dean of the Chappel Westminster Christ-Church Pauls Worcester Salisbury Chester and Windsor together with Dr. King Arch-Deacon of Nottingham and Dr. Feild who afterwards was Dean of Glocester Apparelled all of them in their Robes and Habits peculiar to their several Orders 5. There appeared also in the behalf of the Millenaries Dr. Iohn Reynolds and Dr. Thomas Spark of Oxford Mr. Chatterton and Mr. Knewstubs of Cambridg Apparelld neither in Priest's Gowns or Canonical Coats but in such Gowns as were then commonly worn in reference to the form and fashion of them by the Turkey Merchants as if they had subscribed to the Opinion of old T. C. That we ought rather to conform in all outward Ceremonies to the Turks than the Papists Great hopes they gave themselves for setling the Calvinian Doctrines in the Church of England and altering so much in the Polity and Forms of Worship as might bring it nearer by some steps to the Church of Geneva In reference to the first it was much prest by Dr. Reynolds in the name of the rest That the Nine Articles of Lambeth which he entituled by the name of Orthodoxal Assertions might be received amongst the Articles of the Church But this Request upon a true account of the state of that business was by that prudent King rejected with as great a constancy as formerly the Articles themselves had been suppressed under Queen ELIZABETH It was moved also That these words neither totally nor finally might be inserted in the Sixteenth Article of the publick Confession to the intent that the Article so explained might speak in favour of the Zuinglian or Calvinian Doctrine concerning the impossibility of falling from the state of Grace and Justification Which Proposition gave a just occasion to Bishop Bancroft to speak his sense of the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination which he called in plain terms a desperate Doctrine Upon whose interposings in that particular and a short Declaration made by the Dean of St. Pauls touching some Heats which had been raised in Cambridg in pursuit thereof this second Motion proved as fruitless as the first had done 6. Nor sped they better in relation to the Forms of Worship than they had done in reference unto points of Doctrine some pains they took in crying down the Surplice and the Cross in Baptism the Ring in Marriage and the Interrogatories proposed to Infants And somewhat also was observed touching some Errors in the old Translation of the English Psalter as also in the Gospels and Epistles as they stood in the Liturgy But their Objections were so stale and so often answered that the Bishops and Conformable Party went away with an easie Victory not only the King's Majesty but the Lords of his Council being abundantly well satisfied in such former scruples as had been raised against the Church and the Orders of it The sum and substance of which Conference collected by the hand of Dr. Barlow then Dean of Chester can hardly be abbreviated to a lesser compass without great injury to the King and the Conferrees Let it suffice that this great Mountain which had raised so much expectation was delivered only of a Mouse The Millenary Plaintifs have gained nothing by their fruitless travel but the expounding of the word Absolution by Remission of sins the qualifying of the Rubrick about private Baptism the adding of some Thanksgivings at the end of the Letany and of some Questions and Answers in the close of the Catechism But on the other side the Brethren lost so much in their Reputation that the King was very well satisfied in the weakness of their Objections and the Injustice of their Cavils insomuch that turning his head towards some of the Lords If this be all quoth he which they have to say I will either make them conform themselves or hurry them out of the Land or
do somewhat which is worse p. 85. Which notwithstanding they gave out That all was theirs and that they had obtained an absolute Victory but more particularly that the King gratified Dr. Reynolds in every thing which he proposed and that Dr. Reynolds obtained and prevailed in every thing they did desire That if any man report the contrary he doth lye and that they could give him the lye from Dr. Reynolds his mouth that these things now obtained by the Reformers were but the beginning of Reformation the greater matters being yet to come That my Lord of Winton stood mute and said little or nothing That my Lord of London called Dr. Reynolds Schismatick he thanks him for it but otherwise said little to the purpose That the King's Majesty used the Bishops with very hard words but embraced Dr. Reynolds and used most kind speeches to him That my Lord of Canterbury and my Lord of London falling on their knees besought his Majesty to take their Cause into his own Hands and to make some good end of it such as might stand with their Credit 7. All this and more they scattered up and down in their scurrilous Papers to keep up the spirits of their Party two of which coming to the hands of Dr. Barlow before-mentioned he caused them to be published at the end of the Conference The Truth and Honesty of whose Collections having been universally approved above fifty years hath been impugned of late by some sorry Scriblers of the Puritan Faction and a report raised of some Retractation which he is fabled to have made at the time of his death of the great wrong which he had done to Dr. Reynolds and the rest of the Millenaries The silliness of which Fiction hath been elsewhere canvased and therefore not to be repeated in this time and place But for the clearing of that Reverend person from so soul a Calumny we shall not make use of any other Argument than the words of K. IAMES who tells us in his Proclamation of the fifth of March that he could not conceal That the success of that Conferrence was such as hapneth to many other things which moving great expectations before they be entred into in their issue produce small effects That he found mighty and vehement Informations supported with so weak and slender Proofs as it appeared unto him and his Council that there was no cause why any change should be in that which was most impugned namely the Book of Common-Prayer containing the publick Service of God here established nor in the Doctrine which appeared to be sincere nor in the Forms and Rites which were justified out of the practise of the primitive Churrh And finally that though with the consent of the Bishops and other Learned men then and there assembled some passages therein were rather explained than altered yet that the same might very well have been born amongst such men who would have made a reasonable construction of them Which I conceive to be sufficient for the vindication of that Learned Prelate for clearing him from doing any injury to Dr. Reynolds in the repeating of his words as is suggested by some Puritan Scriblers of these present times 8. But to proceed this Conference was followed with the Proclamation of the fifth of March in which his Majesty having first declared the occasion and success thereof in the words formerly laid down proceeds to signifie the present course which he had taken for causing the Book of Common-Prayer to be so explained and being so explained to be forthwith Printed not doubting but that all his Subjects both Ministers and others would receive the same with due reverence and conform themselves to it Which notwithstanding he conceived it necessary to make known his Authorizing of the same by his Proclamation and by that Proclamation to require and enjoyn all men as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal to conform themselves thereunto as to the only publick Form of serving God established and allowed in this Realm Which said he lays a strict Command on all Arch-bishops and Bishops and all other publick Ministers as well Ecclesiastical as Civil for causing the same to be observed and punishing all Offenders to the contrary according to the Laws of the Realm made in that behalf Finally He admonisheth all his Subjects of what sort soever not to expect hereafter any Alteration in the publick Form of God's Service from that which he had then established And this he signified as afterward it followeth in the said Proclamation because that he neither would give way to any to presume that his Judgment having determined in a matter of such weight should be swayed to any Alteration by the Frivolous Suggestions of any leight head nor could be ignorant of the inconveniencies that do arise in Government by admitting Innovation in things once setled by mature deliberation and how necessary it was to use constancy in the publick Determinations of all States for that saith he such is the unquietness and unsteadfastness of some dispositions affecting every year new Forms of things as if they should be followed in their unconstancy would make all Actions of State ridiculous and contemptible whereas the steadfast maintaining of things by good Advice established is the Preservative and Weal of all publick Governments 9. The main Concernments of the Church being thus secured his Majesty proceeds to his first Parliament accompanied as the custom is with a Convocation which took beginning on the twentieth day of March then next ensuing In the Parliament there passed some Acts which concerned the Church as namely one for making void all Grants and Leases which should be made of any of the Lands of Arch-bishops and Bishops to the King's Majesty or any of his Heirs and Successors for more than One and twenty years or Three Lives Which Act was seasonably procured by Bishop Bancroft to prevent the begging of the Scots who otherwise would have picked the Church to the very bone There also past an Act for the repealing of a Statute in the Reign of Queen Mary by means whereof the Statute of King Edward the sixth touching the Lawfulness of Ministers Marriages were revived again as in the Millenary Petition was before desired And either by the Practise of some Puritan Zealots who had their Agents in all corners or by the carelesness and connivence of his Majesty's Council learned in the Laws of this Realm who should have had an eye upon them that Statute of K. EDWARD was revived also by which it was enacted That all Processes Citations Judgments c. in any of the Ecclesiastical Courts should be issued in the King's Name and under the King's Seal of Arms which afterwards gave some colour to the Puritan Faction for creating trouble to the Bishops in their Jurisdiction The Convocation was more active some days before the sitting whereof the most Reverend Arch-bishop Whitgift departs this life and leaves it to the managing of Dr. Richard Bancroft Bishop of London
v. 28. The second was Dr. Buckeridg then Master of St. Iohn's Colledg in Oxon and afterwards preferred to the See of Rochester who no less learnedly evinced the King's Supremacy in all Concernments of the Church selecting for his Text the words of same Apostle Rom. 13. v. 1. Next followed Dr. Andrews then Bishop of Chichester who taking for his Text those words of Moses viz. Make thee two Trumpets of silver c. Numb 10. v. 2. convincingly demonstrated out of all Antiquity That the calling of all General and National Councils had appertained unto the Supreme Christian Magistrate Dr. King then Dean of Christ-Church brings up the Rear and taking for his Text those words of the Canticles Cap. 8. v. 11. disproved the calling of Lay-Elders as men that had no Power in governing the Church of Christ nor were so much as heard of in the Primitive times But neither the Learned Discourses of these Four Prelates nor the Arguments of the Scottish Bishops nor the Authority and Elocution of the King could gain at all on these deaf Adders who came resolved not to hear the voice of those Charmers charmed they never so wisely Thus have we seen them in their Crimes and now we are to look upon them in their several Punishments And first the Ministers which had been summoned into England were there commanded to remain until further The six which were condemned for Treason were sentenced by the King to perpetual banishment and never to return to their Native Countrey upon pain of death And as for those which had acknowledged their offence and submitted to mercy they were confined unto the Isles and out-parts of the Kingdom where they may possibly work some good but could do no harm After which Andrew Melvin having made a Seditious Libel against the Altar and the Furniture thereof in His Majesty's Chappel was brought into the Starr-Chamber by an Ore tenus where he behaved himself so malepertly toward all the Lords and more particularly towards the Arch-bishop of Canterbury that he was sentenced to imprisonment in the Tower of London and there remained till he was begged by the Duke of Bouillon and by him made Professor of Divinity in the School of Sedan 21. During the time that all men's Eyes were fastned on the issue of this great Dispute the King thought fit to call a Parliament in Scotland which he managed by Sir George Hume his right trusty Servant not long before created Earl of Dunbar and made Lord Treasurer of that Kingdom His chief Work was to settle the Authority of the King and the Calling of Bishops that they might mutually support each other in the Government of the Church and Stateâ—punc It was supposed that no small opposition would be made against him by some Puritan Ministers who repaired in great numbers to the Town as on their parts it was resolved on But he applyed himself unto them with such Art and Prudence that having taken off their edg the Acts passed easily enough with the Lords and Commons By the first Act the King's Prerogative was confirmed over all Persons and in all Causes whatsoever Which made Him much more Absolute in all Affairs which had relation to the Church than he had been formerly And by the next entituled An Act for Restitution of the Estate of Bishops the Name of Bishops was conferred upon such of the Ministers as by the King were nominated unto any of the Bishop-Sees and thereby authorized to have place in Parliament A course was also taken by it to repossess the Bishops of the Lands of their several Churches as well as their Titles and Degree not that a Plenary re-possession of their Lands was then given unto them but that by a Repeal of the late Act of Annexation the King was put into a capacity of restoring so much of the Rents as remained in the Crown and otherwise providing for them out of his Revenues And that the like distraction might not be made of their Estates for the time to come an Act was passed for restraining such Dilapidations as had impoverish'd all the Bishopricks since the Reformation After which and the dooming of the greater Zealots to their several Punishments he indicts a general Assembly at Linlithgow in December following at which convened One hundred thirty six Ministers and about Thirty three of the Nobility and principal Gentry In this Assembly it was offered in behalf of his Majesty That all Presbyteries should have their constant Moderators for whose encouragement his Majesty would assign to each of them a yearly stipend amounting to One hundred pounds or Two hundred Marks in the Scots account That the Bishops should be Moderators of all Presbyteries in the Towns and Cities where they made their residence as also in Provincial and Diocesan Synods and that the Bishops should assume upon themselves the charge of prosecuting Papists till they returned to their obedience to the King and the Church In the obtaining of which Acts there was no small difficulty but he obtained them at the last though not without some limitations and restrictions super-added to them under pretence of keeping the Commissioners hereafter to be called Bishops within their bounds 22. The Presbyterians notwithstanding were not willing to forgo their Power but strugling like half-dying men betwixt life and death laid hold on all advantages which were offered to them in opposition to the Acts before agreed on Gladstanes Arch-bishop of St. Andrews taking upon him to preside as Moderator in the Synod of Fife being within his proper Diocese and Jurisdiction was for a while opposed by some of the Ministers who would have gone to an Election as at other times The Presbyteries also in some places refused to admit the Bishops for their Moderators according to the Acts and Constitutions of the said Assembly Which though it put the Church into some disorder yet the Bishops carried it at the last the stoutest of the Ministers suâ—mitting in the end unto that Authority which they were not able to contend with In which conjuncture the King gives order for a Parliament to be held in Iune in which He passed some severe Laws against the Papists prohibiting the sending of their Children to be educated beyond the Seas and giving order for the choice of Pedagogues or Tutors to instruct them there as also against Jesuits and the Sayers and Hearers of Mass. The cognizance of several Causes which anciently belonged to the Bishops Courts had of late times been setled in the Sessions or Colledg of Justice But by an Act of this Parliament they are severed from it and the Episcopal Jurisdiction restored as formerly the Lords of the Session being in lieu thereof rewarded with Ten thousand pounds yearly which must be understood according to the Scottish account out of the Customs of that Kingdom It was enacted also That the King from thenceforth might appoint such Habit as to him seemed best to Judges Magistrates and Church-men Which
in the Liturgy should be expunged and others altered to the worse That Decency and Reverence in officiating God's publick Service should be brought within the compass of Innovations That Doctrinal Calvinism should be entertained in all parts of the Church and all their Sabbath-Speculations though contrary to Calvin's Judgment super-added to it But before any thing could be concluded in those weighty matters the Commons set their Bill on foot against Root and Branch for putting down all Bishops and Cathedral Churches which put a period to that Meeting without doing any thing And though the Bill upon a full debate thereon amongst the Peers was cast out of that House and was not by the course of Parliaments to be offered again yet contrary to all former Custom it was prest from one time to another till in the end they gained the point which they so much aimed at Hereupon followed some Petitions from the Universities in favour of Cathedral and Collegiate Churches without which Learning must be destitute of its chief encouragements and some Petitions from whole Counties in behalf of Episcopacy without which there was like to be no preservative against Sects and Heresies But nothing was more memorable than the inter-pleadings in the House of Commons between Dr. Iohn Hâ—cket one of the Prebendaries of St. Pauls and Arch-Deacon of Bedford and Dr. Cornelius Burges a right doubty Disputant but better skilled in drawing down his Myrmidons than in mustering Arguments the issue of whose Plea was this That though Cathedrals were unnecessary and the Quire-men scandalous yet that their Lands could not be alienated unto private persons without guilt of Sacriledg 9. But little did this edifie with the Leading-part in the House of Commons who were resolved to practise on the Church by little and little and at the last to play at sweep-stake and take all together First therefore they began with taking down the Starr-Chamber and the High Commission without which Courts the Subjects could not easily be kept in order nor the Church from Faction And in the Act for taking down the Court of the High Commission a clause is cunningly inserted which plainly took away all Coercive Power which had been vested in the Bishops and their Under-Officers disabling them from imposing any pain or penalty and consequently from inflicting all Church-Censures on notorious sinners Their Jurisdiction being thus gone it was not likely that their Lands should stay long behind though in good manners it was thought convenient to strip them first from having any place or suffrage in the House of Peers And when they once were rendred useless to the Church and State the Lands would follow of themselves without any great trouble And that they might attain the end which they so much aimed at Burges draws down his Myrmidons to the Doors of he Parliament and teacheth them to cry No Bishops No Bishops with their wonted violence By which confused Rabble some indignities and affronts are very frequently put upon them either in keeping them off from landing if they came by water or offer violence to their persons if they came by Land Which multiplied Injuries gave such just cause of fear and trouble that they withdrew themselves from the House of Peers but sent withall a Protestation to preserve their Rights In which it was declared That all Acts made or to be made in the time of their absence considering their absenâ—e was inforced not voluntary should be reputed void and null to all intents and purposes in the Law whatsoever This Protestation being tendred in the House of Peers communicated to the House of Commons and the supposed offence extreamly aggravated by the Lord Keeper Littleton the Bishops are impeached of Treason nine of them sent Prisoners to the Tower and two committed to the custody of the Gentleman-Usher 10. And there we leave them for a while to look into the Fortunes of the publick Liturgy not like to stand when both the Scots and English Presbyterians did conspire against it The Fame whereof had either caused it totally to be laid aside or performed by halfs in all the Counties where the Scots were of strength and power and not much better executed in some Churches of London wherein that Faction did as much predominate as if it had been under the protection of a Scottish Army But the first great interruption which was made at the officiating of the publick Liturgy was made upon a Day of Humiliation when all the Members of the House of Commons were assembled together at St. Margaret's in Westminster At what time as the Priest began the second Service at the Holy Table some of the Puritans or Presbyterians began a Psalm and were therein followed by the rest in so loud a Tune that the Minister was thereby forced to desist from his duty and leave the Preacher to perform the rest of that day's Solemnity This gave encouragement enough to the rest of that Party to set as little by the Liturgy in the Countrey as they did in the City especially in all such usages and rights thereof as they were pleased to bring within the compass of Innovations But they were more encouraged to it by an Order of the Lower-House bearing date on the 8 th of September Anno 1641. By which all Church-Wardens were required in their several Parishes to remove the Holy Table from the East-end of the Chancel to any other part of the Church to take away the Ralis before it and not to suffer any Tapers Candlesticks or Basons to be placed upon it It was required also by the same That there should be no bowing at the Name of Jesus nor adoration toward the East nor any reverence used in men's approaches to the Holy Table And by the same all Dancing and other lawful Recreations were prohibited on their Lord's-day-Sabbath after the duties of the Day and Catechising turned into After-noon-Sermons directly contrary to His Majesty's Declarations and Instructions given in that behalf And though the Lords refused to join with them in that Vote and sent them back unto an Order of the 16 th of Ianuary by which they had confirmed and enjoined the use of the Liturgy yet Pym commands the Order to be put in execution by a Warrant under his own hand only and that too during the Recess when almost all the Lords and Commons had retired themselves to their several dwellings 11. Hereupon followed such an alteration in all Churches and Chappels that the Church-Wardens pulled down more in a Week or two than all the Bishops and Clergy had been able to raise in two Weeks of years And hereupon there followed such irreverences ni God's publick Service and such a discontinuance of it in too many places that His Majesty was compelled to give new life to it by His Proclamation of the tenth of December and taking order in the same for punishing all the wilful Contemners and Disburbers of it But this Proclamation being published in that point
That all the Lords of his Majesty's Council all the great Officers both of Court and State the two Chief Iustices and the Chief Barons of the Exchequer should be from thenceforth nominated and approved by both Houses of Parliament That all the great Affairs of the Kingdom should be managed by them even unto the naming of a Governour for his Majesty's Children and for disposing them in Marriage at the will of the Houses That no Popisâ— Lord as long as he continued such should vote in Parliament And amongst many other things of like importance That he would give consent to such a Reformation of Church-Government and Liturgy as both the Houses should advise But he knew well enough that to grant all this was plainly to divest himself of all Regal-Power which God had put into his hands And therefore he returned such an Answer to them as the necessity of his Affairs coâ—pared with those impudent Demands did suggest unto him But as for their Demand about Reformation he had answered it in part before they made it by ordering a Collection of sundry Petitions presented to himself and both Houses of Parliament in behalf of Episcopacy and for the preservation of the Liturgy to be printed and published By which Petitions it appeared that there was no such general disaffection in the Subjects unto either of them whether they were within the power of the Houses or beyond their reach as by the Faction was pretended the total number of Subscribers unto seven of them only the rest not being calculated in the said Collection amounting to Four hundred eighty two Lords and Knights One thousand seven hundred and forty Esquires and Gentlemen of note Six hundred thirty one Doctors and Divines and no fewer than Forty four thousand five hundred fifty nine Free-holders of good name and note 18. And now the Warr begins to open The Gentlemen of Yorkshire being sensible of that great affront which had been offered to his Majesty at the Gates of Hull and no less sensible of those dangers which were threatned to him by so ill a Neighbourhood offered themselves to be a Guard unto his person The Houses of Parliament upon the apprehension of some fears and jealousies had took a Guard unto themselves in December last but they conceived the King had so much innocence that he needed none and therefore his accepting of this Guard of Gentlemen is voted for a levying of Warr against the Parliament and Forces must be raised in defence thereof It hapned also that some Members of the House of Commons many of his Domestick Servants and not a few of the Nobility and great men of the Realm repaired from several places to the King at York so far from being willing to involve themselves in other mens sins that they declared the constancy of their adhaesion to his Majesty's service These men they branded first by the Name of Malignants and after looked upon them in the notion of evil Councellors for whose removing from the King they pretend to arm but now the stale device must be taken up as well as in their own defence Towards the raising of which Army the Presbyterian Preachers so bestir themselves that the wealthy Citizens send in their Plate the zealous Sisters rob'd themselves of their Bodkins and Thimbles and some poor Wives cast in their Wedding-Rings like the Widow's Mite to advance the Service Besides which they set forth Instructions dispersed into all parts of the Realm for bringing in of Horses Arms Plate Money Jewels to be repayed agâ—in on the Publick Faith appoint their Treasurers for the Warr and nominate the Earl of Essex for their chief Commander whom some Disgraces from the Court had made wholly theirs Him they commissionate to bring the King from his Evil Councellors with power to kill and slay all such as opposed them in it And that he might perform the Service with a better Conscience they laid fast hold on an Advantage which the King had given them who in his Declaration of the 16 th of Iune either by some incogitancy or the slip of his Pen had put himself into the number of the Three Estates for thereupon it was inferred That the Two Houses were co-ordinate with him in the Publick Government and being co-ordinate might act any thing without his consent especially in case of his refusal to co-operate with them or to conform to their desires Upon which ground both to encrease their Party and abuse the people who still had held the Name of King in some veneration the Warr is managed in the Name of King and Parliament as if both equally concerned in the Fortunes of it It was also Preached and Printed by the Presbyterians to the same effect as Buchanan and Knox Calvin and some others of the Sect had before delivered That all Power was originally in the people of a State or Nation in Kings no otherwise than by Delegation or by way of Trust which Trust might be recalled when the People pleased That when the underived Majesty as they loved to phrase it of the Common People was by their voluntary act transferred on the Supreme Magistrate it rested on that Magistrate no otherwise than cumulativè but privativè by no means in reference unto them that gave it That though the King was Major singulis yet he was Minor universis Superior only unto any one but far inferior to the whole Body of the People That the King had no particular property in his Lands Rents Ships Arms Towers or Castles which being of a publike nature belonged as much to the people as they did to him That it was lawful for the Subjects to resist their Princes even by force of Arms and to raise Armies also if need required for the preservation of Religion and the common Liberties And finally for what else can follow such dangerous premises That Kings being only the sworn Officers of the Commonwealth they might be called to an account and punished in case of Male-administration even to Imprisonment Deposition and to Death it self if lawfully convicted of it But that which served their turns best was a new distinction which they had coined between the Personal and Political capacity of the Supreme Magistrate alledging that the King was present with the Houses of Parliament in his Political capacity though in his Personal at York That they might fight against the King in his Personal capacity though not in his Politick and consequently might destroy CHARLES STVART without hurting the King This was good Presbyterian Doctrine but not so edifying at York as it was at Westminster For his Majesty finding a necessity to defend CHARLES STVART if he desired to save the King began to entertain such Forces as repaired unto him and put himself into a posture of defence against all his Adversaries 19. In York-shire he was countermined and prevailed but little not having above Two thousand men when he left that County At Nottingham he sets up his Standard
placed before or about the same should be taken away and the ground levelled with the rest which had been raised for the standing of any such Table within the space of twenty years then last past That all Tapers Candlesticks and Basons which had of late been used on any of the said Tables should also be removed and taken away neither the same nor any such like to be from thenceforth used in God's Publick Service That all Crucifixes Crosses and all Images and Pictures of any one or more Persons of the Trinity or of the Virgin Mary and all other Images and Pictures of Saints should be also demolished and defaced whether they stood in any of the said Churches or Chappels or in any Church-yard or other open place whatsoever never to be erected or renewed again With a Proviso notwithstanding for preserving all Images Pictures and Coats of Arms belonging to any of their Ancestors or any of the Kings of this Realm or any other deceased persons which were not generally considered and beheld as Saints 38. But yet to make sure work of it this Ordinance was re-inforced and enlarged by another of the 9th of May in the year next following wherein besides the particulars before recited they descend to the taking away of all Coaps Surplices and other Superstitious Vestments as they pleased to call them as also to the taking away of all Organs and the Cases in which they stood and the defacing of the same requiring the same course to be also taken in the removing and defacing of Roods Rood-Lofts and Holy-water-water-Fonts as if any such things had been of late erected or permitted in the Church of England as indeed there were not whereupon followed the defacing of all Glass Windows and the demolishing of all Organs within the compass of their power the transposing of the holy Table from the place of the Altar into some other part of the Church or Chancel the tearing and defacing of all Coaps and Surplices or otherwise employing them to domestick uses and finally the breaking down and removing of the Sacred Fonts anciently used for the Ministration of holy Baptism the name of Holy-water-fonts being extended made use of to comprise them also hereupon followed also the defacing and demolishing of many Crosses erected as the Monuments of Christianity in Cities Towns and most of our Country-Villages none being spared which came within the compass of those Enemies of the Cross of Christ. Amongst which Crosses none more eminent for Cost and Workmanship than those of Cheapside in London and Abington in the County of Berks both of them famous for the excellencies of the Statua's which were placed in them more for the richness of the trimming which was used about them But the Divine Vengeance fell on some of the Executioners for a terror to others one of them being killed in pulling down the Cross of Cheapside and another hanged at Stow on the Wold within short time after he had pulled down the first Image of the Cross in Abington And because no Order had been made for the executing of this Order in His Majesty's Chappels as there was in all Cathedral and Parish-Churches a private Warrant was obtained by Harlow a Knight of Herefordshire for making the said Chappels equal to all the rest by depriving them of all such Ornaments of State and Beauty with which they had been constantly adorned in all times since the Reformation And all this done or at the least pretended to be done as the Ordinance tell us as being pleasing unto God and visibly conducing to the blessed Reformation so much desired but desired only as it seems by those Lords and Commons who had a hand in the Design 39. So far they went to show their hatred unto Superstition their dislike of Popery but then they must do somewhat also for expressing their great zeal to the glory of God by some Acts of Piety And nothing seemed more pious or more popular rather than to enjoin the more strict keeping of their Lords-day-Sabbath by some publick Ordinance With this they had begun already on the fifth of May on which it was ordered by no worse men than the Commons in Parliament the Lords being either not consulted or not concurring That His Majesty's Book for tolerating sports on the Lord's Day should be forthwith burned by the hands of the common Hangman in Cheapside and other usual places and that the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex should see the same put in execution which was done accordingly Than which an Act of a greater scorn an Act of greater Insolency and disloyal impudence was never offered to a Soveraign and Annointed Prince So as it was no marvel if the Lords joined with them in the Ordinance of the sixth of April 1644 for to expose all Books to the like disgrace which had been writ or should be writ hereafter by any person or persons against the Morality of the Sabbath By which Ordinance it was also signified That no manner of person whatsoever should publickly cry shew forth and expose to sale any Wares Merchandises Fruits Herbs or other Goods upon that day on pain of forfeiting the same or travel carry burthens or do any act of Labour on it on pain of forfeiting Ten shillings for the said offence That no person from thenceforth on the said day should use exercise keep maintain or be present at any wrestling shooting bowling ringing of Bells for pleasure or pastime Mask Wake otherwise called Feasts Church-Ale Games Dancing Sport or other pastimes whatsoever under the several penalties therein contained And that we may perceive with what weighty cares the heads of these good men were troubled when the whole Nation was involved in Blood and Ruin a Clause was added for the taking down of May-poles also with a Command unto all Constables and Tything-men to see it done under the penalty of forfeiting five shillings weekly till the said May-poles which they looked upon as an Heathenish Vanity should be quite removed Which Nail was driven so far at last that it was made unlawful for any Taylor to carry home a new Suit of Clothes or any Barber to trim the man that was to wear them for any Water-man to Ferry a passenger cross the Thames and finally to any person whatsoever though neither new trimmed or new apparelled to sit at his own door or to walk the streets or take a mouth-full of fresh air in the open Fields Most Rabinical Dotages 40. The day of publick Worship being thus new-molded they must have new Priests also and new Forms of Prayer a new Confession of the Faith new Catechisms and new Forms of Government Towards the first an Ordinance comes out from the Lords and Commons in October following Advice being first had with the Assembly of Divines by which a power was given to some chief men of the Assembly and certain Ministers of London or to any seven or more of them to impose hands upon such persons
which they had fancied to themselves and shall be better husbanded to the use of their Adversaries though it succeeded worse to his Majesty's person than possibly it might have done if they had suffered him to remain at Holdenby where the Houses fixt him 59. This great turn hapned on the fourth of Iune Anno 1647 before he had remained but four Months in the Power of the Houses Who having brought the Warr to the end desired possest themselves of the King's Person and dismissed the Scots resolved upon disbanding a great part of the Army that they might thereby ease the people of some part of their burthens But some great Officers of the Army had their Projects and Designs apart and did not think it consonant to common prudence that they should either spend their blood or consume their strength in raising others to that Power which being acquired by themselves might far more easily be retained than it had been gotten Upon these grounds they are resolved against disbanding stand on their Guards and draw together towards London contrary to the Will and express Commandment of their former Masters by whom they were required to keep at a greater distance The Officers thereupon impeach some Members of the Lower House and knowing of what great Consequence it might be unto them to get the King into their Power a Plot is laid to bring him into their Head-Quarters without noise and trouble which was accordingly effected as before is said Thus have the Presbyterians of both Nations embroiled the Kingdom first in Tumults and afterwards in a calamitous and destructive Warr. In which the Sword was suffered to range at liberty without distinction of Age Sex or Quality More goodly Houses plundered and burnt down to the ground more Churches sacrilegiously prophaned and spoiled more Blood poured out like Water within four years space than had been done in the long course of Civil-Warrs between York and Lancaster With all which Spoil and publick Ruin they purchased nothing to themselves but shame and infamy as may be shown by taking a brief view of their true condition before and after they put the State into these Confusions 60. And first the Scots not long before their breaking out against their King had in the Court two Lords High Stewards and two Grooms of the Stool successively one after another And at their taking up of Arms they had a Master of the Horse a Captain of the Guard a Keeper of the Privy Purse seven Grooms of eight in his Majesty's Bed-Chamber and an equal number at the least of Gentlemen-Ushers Quarter-waiters Cup-bearers Carvers Sewers and other Officers attending daily at the Table I speak not here of those who had places in the Stables or below the Stairs or of the Servants of those Lords and Gentlemen who either lived about the Court or had Offices in it All which together make up so considerable a number that the Cour might well be called an Academy of the Scots Nation in which so many of all sorts had their Breeding Maintenance and Preferment Abroad they had a Lieutenant of the Tower a Fortress of most consequence in all the Kingdom and a Master-Gunner of the Navy an Office of as great a Trust as the other and more of those Monopolies Suits and Patents which were conceived to be most grievous to the Subjects than all the English of the Court. In the Church they had two Deanries divers Prebendaries and so many Ecclesiastical Benefices as equalled all the Revenues of the Kirk of Scotland All which they had lost like Aesop's Dog catching after a shadow And yet by catching at that shadow they lost all those Advantages which before they had both in Court and Countrey and that not only for the present but in all probability for the time to come Such losers were the Scots by this brutish bargain but whether out of pure zeal to the Holy Discipline or their great love to filthy lucre or the perversness of their nature or the rebellious humour of the Nation or of all together let them judg that can 61. If then the Scots became such losers by the bargain as most sure they did as sure it is that their dear Brethren in the Cause of Presbytery the Puritans or Presbyterians in the Realm of England got as little by it The English Puritans laid their heads and hands together to embroil the Realm out of a confidence that having alienated the greatest part of the Tribes from the House of David they might advance the Golden Calves of their Presbyteries in Dan and Bethel and all other places whatsoever within the Land And for the maintenance thereof they had devoured in conceit all Chapter-Lands and parcelled them amongst themselves into Augmentations But no sooner had they driven this Bargain but a Vote passed for selling those Lands towards the payment of the Debts of the Commonwealth Nor have they lived to see their dear Presbytery setled or their Lay-Elders entertained in any one Parish of the Kingdom For the advancement whereof the Scots were first incouraged to begin at home and afterwards to pursue their Work by invading in England Nor fared it better with those great Achitophels of the popular Party who laboured in the raising of a new Common-wealth out of the Ruins of a Glorious and Ancient Monarchy To which end they employed the Presbyterians as the fittest Instruments for drawing the people to their side and preaching up the piety of their Intentions Which Plot they had been carrying on from the first coming of this King to the Crown of England till they had got His Sacred Person into their possession Which made them a fit parallel to those Husband-men in St. Matthew's Gospel Matt. 21.38 who said amongst themselves This is the Heir come let us kill him and let us seize on his Inheritance A Commonwealth which they had founded and so modelled in their brains that neither Sir Thomas Moor's Vtopia nor the Lord Verulam's new Atlantis nor Plato's Platform nor any of the old Idea's were equal to it The Honours and Offices whereof they had distributed amongst themselves and their own dependance But having brought the King though as it chanced by other hands to the End they aimed and being intent on nothing more than the dividing of that rich Prey amongst themselves gratifying one another with huge sums of Money and growing fat on the Revenues of the Crown and the Lands of the Church and guarded as they thought by invincible Armies they were upon a sudden scattered like the dust before the wind turned out of all and pulickly exposed to contempt and scorn All which was done so easily with so little noise that the loss of that exorbitant Power did not cost so much as a broken Head or a bloody Nose in purchasing whereof they had wasted so many Millions of Treasure and more than One hundred thousand Lives Thus have we seen the dangerous Doctrines and Positions the secret Plots and open
further Order And it was then resolved also That if any person whatsoever should offer to arrest or detain the person of any Member of their House without first acquainting the House therewith and receiving further Order from the House that then it should be lawful for such Member or any person to resist him and to stand upon his or their guard of defence and to make resistance according to the Protestation taken to defend the Liberties of Parliament This brings the King on Tuesday morning to the Commons House attended only by His Guard and some few Gentlemen no otherwise weaponed than with Swords where having placed Himself in the Speaker's Chair He required them to deliver the Impeached Members to the hands of Justice But they had notice of His Purpose and had retired into London as their safest Sanctuary to which the whole House is adjourned also and sits in the Guild-Hall as a Grand Committee The next day brings the King to the City also where in a Speech to the Lord Mayor and Common-Council He signified the Reasons of His going to the House of Commons That He had no intent of proceeding otherwise against the Members than in a way of Legal Tryal and thereupon desired That they might not be harboured and protected in despite of Law For answer whereunto He is encountred with an insolent and sawcy Speech made by one Fowk a Member of the Common-Council concerning the Impeached Members and the King's proceedings and followed in the Streets by the Rascal-Rabble by some of which a Virulent and Seditious Pamphlet entituled Every man to his Tents O Israel is cast into His Coach and nothing sounded in His Ears but Priviledges of Parliament Priviledges of Parliament with most horrible out-cries The same night puts them into Arms with great fear and tumult upon a rumour that the King and the Cavaliers for so they called such Officers of the late Army as attended on him for their Pay had a design to sack the City who were then sleeping in their beds and little dreamed of any such Seditious practises as were then on foot for the enflaming of the people 15. And now comes Calvin's Doctrine for restraining the Power of Kings to be put in practise His Majesty's going to the House of Commons on the fourth of Ianuary is voted for so high a breach of their Rights and Priviledges as was not to be salved by any Retractation or Disclaimer or any thing by Him alledged in excuse thereof The Members are brought down in triumph both by Land and Water guarded with Pikes and Protestations to their several Houses and the forsaken King necessitated to retire to Windsor that he might not be an eye-witness of his own disgraces The Lord Digby goes to Kingston in a Coach with six Horses to bestow a visit upon Collonel Lundsford and some other Gentlemen each Horse is reckoned for a Troop and these Troops said to have appeared in a warlike manner Which was enough to cause the prevailing-party of the Lords and Commons to declare against it and by their Order of the 13 th of Ianuary to give command That all the Sheriffs of the Kingdom assisted by the Iustices and Trained-Bands of the Countrey should take care to suppress all unlawful Assemblies and to secure the Magazines of their several Counties The King's Attorney must be called in question examined and endangered for doing his duty in the impeachment of their Members that no man might hereafter dare to obey the King And though His Majesty had sent them a most Gracious Message of the twentieth of Ianuary in which He promised them to equal or exceed all Acts of Favour which any of His Predecessors had extended to the People of England yet nothing could secure them from their fears and jealousies unless the Trained-bands and the Royal Navy the Tower of London and the rest of the Forts and Castles were put into such hands as they might confide in On this the King demurrs a while but having shipped the Queen for Holland with the Princess Mary and got the Prince into his power he denies it utterly And this denial is reputed a sufficient reason to take the Militia to themselves and execute the Powers thereof without His consent 16. But leaving them to their own Councils he removes to York assembleth the Gentry of that County acquaints them with the reasons of His coming thither and desires them not to be seduced by such false reports as had been raised to the dishonour of His Person and disgrace of His Government By their Advice he makes a journey unto Hull in which he had laid up a considerable Magazine of Cannon Arms and Ammunition intended first against the Scots and afterwards designed for the Warr of Ireland but now to be made use of in his own defence And possibly He might have got it into His possession if He had kept His own Counsel and had not let some words fall from Him in a Declaration which betrayed His purpose For hereupon Hotham a Member of their House and one of the two Knights for the County of York is sent to Garrison the Town who most audaciously refused to give him entrance though he was then accompanied with no more than his private Guards and for so doing is applauded and indempnified by the rest of the Members This sends him back again to York and there he meets as great a Baffle as he did at Hull For there he is encountred with a new Committee from the House of Commons consisting of Ferdinand Lord Fairfax Sir Henry Cholmnly Sir Hugh Cholmnly and Sir Philip Stapleton sent thither on purpose to serve as Spies upon his actions to undermine all his proceedings and to insinuate into the people that all their hopes of peace and happiness depended on their adhering to the present Parliament And they applied themselves to their Instructions with such open Confidence that the King had not more meetings with the Gentry of that County in his Palace called the Mannor-house than they had with the Yeomanry and Free-holders in the great Hall of the Deanry All which the King suffered very strangely and thereby robbed himself of the opportunity of raising an Army in that County with which he might have marched to London took the Hen sitting on her Nest before she had hatched and possibly prevented all those Calamities which after followed 17. But to proceed during these counter-workings betwixt them and the King the Lords and Commons plied him with continual Messages for his return unto the Houses and did as frequently endeavour to possess the people with their Remonstrances and Declarations to his disadvantage To each of which his Majesty returned a significant Answer so handsomely apparelled and comprehending in them such a strength of Reason as gave great satisfaction to all equal and unbyassed men None of these Messages more remarkable than that which brought the Nineteen Propositions to his Majesty's hands In which it was desired