is a Virtue among Gentlemen And will they make a Virtue Criminal But where lies the Offence Perhaps that his Highness shewed no disrelish in his Answer to the PopesMotion Neither did he shew Encouragement so far the Terms are even Fair Language in that Case would cost the Prince nothing it would save him much For the more Hurt the Pope could do the less he was to be displeas'd with Provocation To go further He that will Censure an Action must not Judge upon it Naked but with all its Copartments Many Things that were well done if you will peel away the Bark of their Circumstances will seem Reproachfull The Behaviours of Abraham and Isaac Gen. 20.26 in the Courts of the Kings of the Philistins with the excuse of Fear are fall of Prudence without that Plea they are full of Frailty No Deed was ever rigidly expended into which a Man was thrust by Necessity unless it wanted a Wise Historian to scan it The Phocensians when their Chief Men were in no better Condition in Asia then if they had been Hostages did appear for the Persian Monarch when he led an Army to Invade Greece but says Herodotus 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they did Medize or Temporize with the Persians not with a good will but out of a Compulsion And Tully with me one of the Wisest of the Heathen Orat pro Quintio Omnes quâ—rum in alterius manu vita â—sica est saepiùs cogitant quid possit is cujus in potestate ac ditione sum quà m quid debont sacere He that is fallen into the Power of others and is demanded not a wicked thing which must not be yielded but an inconvenient considers not what is absolutely expedient but what is expedient in that Case And a sharp witted Christian it is Grotius writes upon that Passage Deut. 22.25 If a Man sind a Betrothed Damosel in the Field and the Man force her and lie with her then the Man only that lay with her shall Die but unto the Damosel that shalt do nothing Thus he says Docet hoc exemplo Lex parcendam iis qui vi ad cli aliquid peceaverint He means they are not to be perisht who are compelled to suffer a Sin and are forc'd into it Therefore if the Prince being at Madrid not at London wrote things honest to the Pope but as Meekly and Pleasingly as Paul spake before Festus and Agrippa when he was in Bonds Who can accuse him For by Law of Nature no Man must deliver himself up to a danger which he can innocently avoid The harmlesâ— Dove is not bound to forget the Wisdom of the Serpent But the strongest hold which his Highness's Justification will maintain for ever against all Assaults is That the whole Contents of his Letter were unblameable and yet very unpleasing to the High Priest to whom he wrote Take the express Words and only Controverted The Exploits of my Noble Predecessors have not been more than the Care which I have that the Peace of the Church might be bounded in true Concord and as the Glory of God requires our Endeavours to unite it I do not Esteem it greater Honour to be Descended from such Princes than to imitate them in true Zeal of Piety In which it assures me much to have known the Mind and Will of our thrice Honour'd Lord and Father to give concurrence to so laudable a Design For it doth not grieve him a little to see that great evil grows from Division of Christian Princes whose peaceable Settlement if this Marriage between the Infanta of Spain and my self may procure I shall the rather conclude my Happiness therein For as I have been far from encouraging Novelties or to be a Partisan in any Factions against the Catholick Religion so shall I seek occasion to take away Suspicions that I desire but one Religian and one Faith seeing we all believe in one Jesus Christ having resolved in my self to spare nothing that I have in the World my Estate and Life for a thing so pleasing unto God whom I implore to give your Holiness Health and Happiness A Synod or an Assembly of Divines Togati vel Palliati could not have handled the Pope with greater Wit and Dexterity Who is pincht to the quick in the Letter and yet could not justly complain of Uncivility or Exasperation The Prince promiseth to follow the Footsteps of his Father as Spartianus said of Geta Son to Emperor Severus Paternarum sententiarum memor he could not dress himself better than by his Fathers Glass And how doth he promise to follow him in that which he had begun To accord the Variances of all Christian Churches that their Peace might be bounded in true Concord Which is as much as to bring the Pope to be Sub-Canonical to Conform him to the Decrees of a free Council called by Christian Monarchs This was the Helena for which King James contended And this was the Europia or new sound Paradise in the Phansie of Arch-Bishop Spalato as is handled before for which Revenge was taken by Fire upon his Dead Carkass I believe this Letter fretted his Crazy Holiness and did his Hectick no good of which he died not long after I am sure after his Nuncio had gotten a Copy of it he could never endure the Prince more From hence the Embraces of Truth may see how staringly false and daringly impudent that Report is That the Prince had not come out of Spain but that he lest his Faith as well as his Proxy behind him and got thence with the very same Trick that Sir Francis Mitchel said he got out of the Inquisition at Rome which is a Weldenism p. 162. a familiar Trope in the Rhetorick of the blatant Beast 141. Proceeding now to the Proceedings of June There were many suspitions here how the Capitulations went ill in Spain because Letters Arrived not till after Five Weeks silence as the Lord Keeper observes the exact time in the next he Wrote The most furmised things were at a standing Water and did neither Ebb nor How whereas indeed they were come to the High-Water Mark but the Wind and Tide went as contrary as could be imagined Carina Vim geminam sentit paretque incerta dâ—obus Nothing was dispatch'd for every Oar-man struck unevenly to the rest that sate in the Transomes of the Galley All the Agents were Ruin'd together for they complain'd both of the Resisting Council and of the assisting Council by their own part How far they are to be believed in Angry Reports they made of each other and very unfriendly Relations I cannot decide Therefore I pre-monish Though I am not in a Labyrinth yet it is not such a â—n way that all way-faring Mâ—n though no Fâ—ols shall not err in it Isa 35.8 The Humors which bred the Distemper were the Popes Dispensation Con. Olivarez Insolent and Inconstant struggling The Duke of Buckingham disliking all things and dislik'd of all The Earl of Bristow favour'd too much
Ecclesiam Romano-Catholicam Parliaments naturally begat Entities and the want of Parliaments produceth Nullities Surely God and the King are must averse to such Parliaments Mark Gods Parliament the first Parliament in the World wherein the Three Persons in Trinity are consulting together Faciamus Hominem and you shall find it was to beget Entities Therefore God is scarce present in that Consultation that brings forth Nullities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher begins his Ethicks Every Consultation is for some Good some End some Entitie and most opposite to an Abortion or Nullity And therefore you may applaud those former Laws of Learning Piety Grace and Bounty which you handled before In my Opinion Mr. Speaker you have kept the good Wine and the best Law of them all till now which is Solon's Law Lex Oblivionis A Law of Forgetfulness That by His Majesties Grace and Favour freely offer'd unto us the last day all the Memory of these Unfortunate Abortions may be Buried in the River Lethe and never be had in any further Remembrance I will put you in Mind of a Story which Tully relates out of Thucydides and leave the Application to this Honourable Auditory When the Thebans having gâ—t the better of the Lacedaemonians Erected a Brazen Trophy for that Victory they were complain'd of apud Amphictyonas that is before the common Council of Greece Eo quod aeternum inimicitiarum Monumentum Graecos de Graecis Statuere non oportuit Because it was most unfit that between Greek and Greek there should remain any Record of perpetual Enmity Fifthly For the Common Law of England if we regard the Meridian for which it is Erected it is a Law as was said of those of Lycurgus Disciplinae Convenientissimae of a most apt and convenient Frame and His Majesty hath ever so approved of it Nay He is so precisely affected and disposed in this kind that as Paterculus writes of Cato Id solum ei visum est rationem habere quod haberet Justitiam He could never allow of any Devise or Project how plausible soever that was not justifiable at the Common Law 183. Sixthly For the Supply of Princes in this Kingdom His Majesty makes no Question but that by Parliament and Subsidy is the most Comfortable to the King and most Favorable to the Subject It Comforts the King as issuing from the Heart and it Easeth the Subject as brought by the Hands not of one or two but of all the People That which you call Benevolence or Good Will brings unto His Majesty neither so much Good nor so much Will as the other support And therefore the Kings of this Land though it hath been accepted by most of them have made of Benevolence but Anchoram Sacram a help at a dead lift when Parliaments being great Bodies and of slow Motions could not soon be Assembled nor Subsidies issuing from the Purses of Particulars be so suddenly Collected And it is very well known with what Reluctancy His Majesty was drawn to shoot out this Anchor never Assenting thereunto until he was in a manner forced by those intolerable Provocations from without and those general Invitations from whithin the Kingdom Remember therefore that good Lady in whose Defence the Money was spent that inimitable Pattern once of Majesty but now of Patience to the Christian World and you will say no Man can be found of that Malevolence as to find fault with this one Benevolence Seventhly His Majesty Returns you most hearty Thanks for your Care and Zeal of the True Religion And is much Rejoyced to hear That this Lower House as it is now Compos'd is such another Place as Tully describes the Town of Enna Non Domus sed fanum ubi quot Cives tot Sacerdotes It is no vulgar House but as Originally a Sacred Chappel wherein are Assembled in regard of their Zeal and Devotion look how many Men so many Church-Men And his Majesty gives you full assurance that he nothing so much Regards the Airy State or Glory of this Life as he doth that inestimable Jewel of our Religion which is to remain his only Ornament after this Life If there be any Scandals to the contrary not given but taken for want of due Information his Majesty wisheth as Aphonso the Wise King of Aragon did Omnes populares suos reges fuisse That every one of his People had been a King for then they might soon understand and be as soon satisfied with the Reasons of Estate His Majesty hath never spared the Execution of any Law but for the Execution of a greater Law to wit Salus Reip. the Good the Peace and Safety of the Church and Common Wealth And you know that is the ultimus finis all the rest are but fines sub fine For as the Orator well Observes Nemo Leges legum causâ salvas esse vult sed Reipublicae We do not desire the Observing of our Laws for the written Laws but for the Common-Wealths sake And for those Statutes made for the preservation of Religion they are all as you heard last day from that Oracle of Truth and Knowledg in full force and in Free Execution Nor were ever intended to be connived with in the least Syllable but for the further propagation of the same Religion What knowest thou O Man if thou shalt save thy Wife was a Text that gave no Offence in St. Paul'stime Remember the King's Simile which indeed is God's Simile Zach. 6. Kingdoms are like to Horses Kings resemble the Riders the Laws the Spurs and the Reins by which Horsemanship is managed A good Rider carries always a sure but not always a Stiff Hand But if Agar grow insolent by those Favours then in Gods Name out with the Bond-woman and her Sons For his Majesty is fully Resolv'd That as long as Life remains in his Body and the Crown upon his Head the Sons of the Bond-woman shall never be Heirs in this Island with the Sons of the Free-woman And our Royal Master gives us his Chaplains free leave to put him in mind of that of Synesius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is still careful of the Good of Kings and Kings cannot be too careful of the Good and Service of God In the Eighth place his Majesty exceedingly comforted with the just Feeling and Resentment you express against the Usurpation of that invading Enemy who hath expell'd our most sweet Princess from her Jointure and her Olive Branches from their Rightful Inheritance Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor Surely if the Rule be true Attollit vires in milite causa That a good Cause makes good Souldiers it is no such impossibility to regain the Palatinate You say Sir Cato was positively of Opinion Carthaginem evertendam That whatever became of other designs Carthage must be overthrown And you are of Opinion and so are all good Men besides Palatinatum reglutinandum That the Palatinate must be Glued again to the Right Owner and pluck'd out of
angry at the least Slackness of his Ministers and was us'd to say They might provoke him with Negligence but never molest him with double Diligence for he could read as much in an Hour as they would write to him in a Week Mr. W. Boswel his Secretary and Custos of his Spirituality and chief Servant under him in this Work was all in all sufficient for it eximious in Religion Wisdom Integrity Learning as the Netherlands know where he was long time Agent and Embassador for King Charles Through Mr. Boswell's Collection and narrow Search the Diocesan of so large a Precinct together with the Names of every Parson and Vicar was able to speak of their Abilities and manner of Life which I think no Memory could carry away but that it is credible he had some Notes affixed to every one of their Persons For he could decipher the Learning of each Incumbent his Attendance on his Cure his Conformity his Behaviour as well as most men knew them in their respective Proximities I do not say he had a passive Infallibility but that he might be abused with untrue Relations But for the most part a good Head-piece will discover a counterfeit Suggestion and crush the Truth out of Circumstances The Sum is He did as much as a Bishop could do while for the space of four Years and a half Necessity would not suffer him to reside with his Clergy whom they knew not that they mist him till he removed from London to live among them and made a large Amends for his Absence when he setled at Bugden In the mean time his Apocrisarii they to whom he had committed his Trust and Authority were among them to hear their Complaints and to Judge Right Now it is a good Rule in St. Cyprian to a laudable Purpose though the Father applies it for once to a Bad Epist 61. Non potest videri certasse qui vicarios substituit qui pro se uno plures succidaneos suggerit He that fills his Office with a good Co-adjutor his Absence may be dispenc'd with for a time upon reasonable Cause For a good Substitute is not a Shadow but a Substance Howsoever whether his Abode were within his Diocess or without it he knew that the Calling of a Bishop went along with him in every Place And whatsoever the standing Weight of his Business was that lay upon him he remembred to stir up the Gift of God that was in him by the Putting on of Hands He Preached constantly in the Abby of Westminster at the great Festivals of our Saviour's Nativity Resurrection and Whit-Sunday On which high Days he sung the Common Prayers Consecrated and Administred the Sacrament the Great Seal of the Righteousness of Faith besides the Sermon which he Preach'd every Lent in the King 's Royal Chappel Which was Work indeed being so learnedly performed For when he put his Hand to that Plough no man cut up a deeper Furrow that came into the Pulpit 99. Such Examples of Preaching were necessary for this time but very ill follow'd For there were Divines more Satyrical than Gospel-spirited chiefly some among the Lecturers in populous Auditories that were much overseen Banding their Discourses either under the Line or above the Line against the quiet Settlement of present Government Some carried their Fire in Dark-Lanthorns and deplor'd the Dangers that hung over us Some rail'd out-right and carried the Brands end openly in their Mouth to kindle Combustion Both did marvellously precipitate slippery Dispositions into Discontents and Murmurings The Treatise about the Spanish Match was the Breize that bit them and made them wild That was such a Bugbear that at the Motion of it some that were conscientious and some that seem'd so thought that the true Worship of God was a Ship-board and Sailing out of the Realm True Religion is the Soul of our Soul and ought to be more tender to us than the Apple of our Eye But we all know what will grow out of that Religion when it is marked with Charity It is not easily provok'd thinketh no evil beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things 1 Cor. 13. It is not distrustful of it own fastness as if so good a Fortress could be push'd down with a bruised Reed It will not raise Tumults and Tragedies from Misapprehensions that float upon the idle Lake of Suspicion That the Orthodox Church of England should totter upon this Occasion God be thanked it was not in proof nor could be made evident Sometimes Jealousie is too watchful sometimes it is fast asleep When the French Marriage was in Treaty when it was concluded when the Navy was under Sail to Land the Royal Bride the Preachers were modest and made no stir not one Zealot complain'd of for jerking at it with unadvis'd passion And yet the Daughter of France was a Daughter of the Roman Chair no less then Donna Maria. She never had Commerce nor ever like to have with the Hugonots The Swarms of her own Train all Papists by Profession were ready to abound in our Land far more than from the Spanish Coast Because of the short and easie passage from Calis to Dover their Shavelings would fly over as thick as Wasps about a Honey-Pot This was mightily dreaded when the Mariage was in some forwardness between Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjoy and opposed strongly by some that were hot in the Mouth to their cost But now no Leprosie was suspected but from Spanish Popery Which was aggravated with such Insolencies by some Ecclesiastical Fencers against the King's Honor and the Sincerity of his Oath which he had taken to maintain true Religion that they were at the height of Rage to profess Come and let us smite him with the Tongue Jerem. 18. Vers 18. So that his Majesty rouzed up like a Lyon silenc'd some of the Offenders imprison'd some threatned to arraign some for their Lives Yet after he was come to more Serenity of Passion the Lord Keeper who thought as hardly of their Indiscretion as the King himself did was Advocate for them all undertook to settle their Brains and procur'd them their Liberty and their Livings Among the rest he invented a merry Contrivance in the behalf of a very learned and misguided Scholar a Prisoner upon that score He told the King that he had heard that some idle Gossips complain'd of him grievously and did not stick to curse him Why What Evil have I done to them says the King Sir says the Lord-Keeper Such a Man's Wife upon Tidings of her Husband's Imprisonment fell presently in Labour and the Midwifes can do her no good to deliver her but say it will not be effected till she be comforted to see her Husband again For which the Women that assist her revile you that her Pains should stick at such a Difficulty Now Weal away says the King send a Warrant presently to release him lest the Woman perish There was none that was worse to be tamed
foolish in their several Extreams of Years I prostrate at the Feet of your Princely Clemency Which was granted as soon as the Paradox was unridled to pitch upon them Another Gust that blew from the same Cape I mean from the Pulpit began to be so boisterous that it came very cross to his Majesty's Content Our Unity among our selves was troubled in Point of Doctrine which was not wont The Synod of Dort in the Netherlands having lately determined some great Controversies awakned the Opposition of divers Scholars in our Kingdom who lay still before Learned and Unlearned did begin to conflict every Sunday about God's Eternal Election Efficacy of Grace in our Conversion and Perseverance in it with much Noise and little Profit to the People The King who lov'd not to have these Dogmatizers at Variance us'd all speed to take up the Quarrel early that our Variances might not reproach us to them that were without For there was that in him which Pope Leo applauded in Marcian the Emperor Ep. 70. In Christianissimo Principe sacerdotalis affectus He was a mixt Person indeed a King in Civil Power a Bishop in Ecclesiastical Affections After he had struggled with the Contentious Parties a while and interposed like Moses Sirs ye are Brethren Acts 7.26 and that this rebated not the keen Edge of Discord he commanded Silence to both Sides or such a Moderation as was next to Silence First Because of the Sublimity of the Points The most of Men and Women are but Children in Knowledge and strong Meat belongs to them only that are of full Age Hebr. 5.14 St. Austin subscribed to that Prudence Lib. 2. de porsev c. 16. Unile est ut taceatur aliquod verum propter incapaces Secondly Because the ticklish Doctrine of Predestination is frequently marr'd in the handling either by such as press the naked Decree of Election standing alone by it self and do not couple the Means unto it without which Salvation can never be attained or by those that hold out God's peremptory Decrees concerning those whom especially he hath given to Christ and do not as much or more enforce the Truth of Evangelical Promises made to all and to every Man that whosoever believeth in the Son of God shall not be confounded Now let the Reader consider all the Premises and he shall find how the Instructions that follow depend upon them Which in Form and Stile were the Lord Keepers in the Matter his Majesty's Command and were called Directions concerning Preachers 101. Forasmuch as the Abuses and Extravagancies of Preachers in the Pulpit have been in all Ages repressed in this Realm by some Act of Council or State with the Advice and Resolution of Grave and Learned Prelates insomuch as the very Licencing of Preachers had his Beginning by an Order of the Star-Chamber 〈◊〉 July 〈◊〉 Hen. 8. And that at this present young Students by Reading of late Writers and ungrounded Divines do broach Doctrines many times unprofitable unfound Seditious and Dangerous to the Scandal of this Church and Disquieting of the State and present Government His Majesty hath been humbly entreated to settle for the present either by Proclamation Act of Council or Command the several Diocesans of the Kingdom these Limitations and Cautions following untill by a general Convocation or otherwise some more mature Injunctions might be prepared and enacted in that behalf First That no Preacher under the Degree and Calling of a Bishop or Dean of a Cathedral or Collegiate Church do take occasion by the Expounding of any Text of Scripture whatsoever to fall into any Discourse or common Place otherwise than by opening the Coherence and Division of his Text which shall not be comprehended and warranted in Essence Substance Effect or natural Inference within some one of the Articles of Religion set forth 1562 or in some one of the Homilies set forth by Authority in the Church of England not only for a Help to the Non-preaching but withal for a Pattern and a Boundary as it were for the Preaching Ministers And for their further Instruction for the Performance hereof that they forthwith read over and peruse diligently the said Book of Articles and the two Books of Homilies Secondly That no Parson Vicar Curate or Lecturer shall Preach any Sermon or Collation upon Sundays and Holy Days hereafter in the Afternoon in any Cathedral or Parish Church throughout the Kingdom but upon some Part of the Catechism or some Text taken out of the Ten Commandments or the Lords Prayer Funeral Sermons only excepted And that those Preachers be most encouraged and approved of who spend this Afternoon's Exercise in the Examining of the Children in their Catechisms and in the Expounding the several Heads and Substance of the same which is the most ancient and laudable Custom of Teaching in the Church of England Thirdly That no Preacher of what Title soever under the Degree of a Batchelor of Divinity at the least do henceforth presume to Preach in any Popular Auditory the deep Points of Predestination Election Reprobation or of the Universality Efficacy Resistibility or Irresistibility of Gods Grace but leave those Themes to be handled by Learned Men and that moderately and modestly by way of Use and Application rather than by way of positive Docttine as being Points fitter for the Schools and Universitles than for simple Auditories Fourthly That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever under the Degree and Calling of a Bishop shall presume from henceforth in any Auditory within this Kingdom to Declare Limit or bound out by way of positive Doctrine in any Sermon or Lecture the Power Prerogative Jurisdiction Authority or Duty of Sovereign Princes or to meddle with Matters of State and the References between Princes and the People otherwise than as they are Instructed and Precedented in the Homily of Obedience and in the rest of the Homilies and Articles of Religion set forth as before is mentioned by Publick Authority but rather confine themselves wholly to those two Heads of Faith and good Life which are all the Subject of the ancient Sermons and Homilies Fifthly That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever shall causelesly and without any Invitation from the Text fall into any bitter Invectives and undecent raising Speeches or Scoslings against the Persons of either Papists or Puritans but modestly and gravely when they are occasion'd thereunto by the Texts of Scripture free both the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England from the Aspersions of either Adversary especially where the Auditory is suspected to be tainted with the one or the other Infection Lastly That the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of the Kingdom whom his Majesty hath just Cause to blame for former Remisness be more wary and choice in Licensing of Preachers and revoke all Grants made to any Chancellor Official or Commissary to pass Licenses in this kind And that all the Lecturers throughout the Kingdom a new Body severed from the ancient
his Majesty Not take off his Hand id est He will employ without intermission his best Offices to procure Satisfaction to his Majesty And concerning Offices and Treatises we have had too many of them already Non tali auxilio c. But together with this written Letter I must acquaint your Lordships with an unwritten Tradition Which was delivered to the Earl of Bristol together with the Project of the Letter by Secretary Cirica but ill conceal'd by his Lordship in that Dispatch and sent afterward probably by Mr. Clâ—rke to my Lord Duke's Grace That whereas the King of Spain did find his Errour in going on with the Treaty of the Marriage before he had cleared the Treaty of the Palatinate he is now resolv'd to change his Method and to perfect this Treaty of the Restitution of the Palatinate before he will proceed any further in the accomplishing of the Marriage So that these Treatises as they are carried in Spain shall be quit one with another As formerly the Treaty of the Marriage did justle out the Treaty of the Palatinate so now the Treaty of the Palatinate hath quite excluded the Treaty of the Marriage And indeed in stead of Wedding Garments that King as you heard hath made a hasty Winter Journey to Andaluzia to provide his Navy But how they are to be employ'd we shall hear shortly if we will still be credulous by Padre Maestro who is on his way for this Kingdom My Lords to conclude As the Heathen say that the Golden Chain of Laws is tyed to the Chair of Jupiter so the future Proceedings upon all this long Narration is tyed to your Consultation Things past are exactly made known to you that things to come may be more wisely considered An Historian says Curtius Male humanis ingeniis Natura consuluit quod plaerumquè non futura sed transacta perpendimus Nature hath not well provided for Humane Wisdom that commonly we discuss upon things already done rather than what may be done for the future But my Lords you are not put to that streit But your Lordships speedy Advice is requir'd for that which is to follow specially concerning this last Dispatch that implieth the Education of the Prince Palatine's Son in the Emperor's Court and that the King of Spain will promise no Assistance to draw off the Emperor's Army from his Country much less Assistance by Arms to recover it This is it which his Majesty expects from your Lordships mature Advice Whether this being the Product of all the Trouble which I have opened to your Lordships it be sufficient for his Majesty to rest upon both for the Marriage of his only Son and the relieving of his only Daughter This Report it was so grateful for the Theme so gracefully handled for the manner so Clear so Elaborate so Judiciously manag'd that the Author had never more Praise in his Life for one days Work of that kind So acceptable it was even to the Duke though turn'd a Cold Friend That he said He knew not how to Thank him enough for it Yet this was but as the White of an Egg which gets some Tast with a little Salt of Eloquence but nothing in Comparison of the Yolk of his Worth But as Nazianzen said of St. Basil Quae ab illo velm obiter siâ—bant praestantiora crant quà m ea in quibus alii Elaborant Such an Orator was sure to have the Custom of the Parliament upon all the like Occasions Therefore when he had scarce taken Breath after the former Service he was Commanded to add the Supplement as it follows in another Conference Gentlemen THat are the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons I am directed by my Lords to open this Conference with acquainting the House of Commons with whom their Lordships desire to hold all fair and sincere Correspondence with a double Preface First with a Supplement to that Narration made by his Highness and my Lord the Duke of Buckingham his Grace to both the Houses and then with an Opinion of their Lordships super totam Materiam upon the whole Proceed of the great business Now because in this Consultation the Supplement did co-operate with the Narration for the producing of their Lordships Opinion I hold it the best Method to begin with that The Supplement is of a Threefold Nature The First Concerns the Treaty of the Marriage The Second the Restitution of the Palatinate The Third a most Heroical Act and Resolution of the Princes Highness which their Lordships held necessary to be imparted first to you the Universality and Body Representative and then by you to all the Kingdom That Supplement which concerns the Treaty of the Marriage is no more but this That by a Letter of the Earl of Bristols writen Nine Years ago 3 Novem. 1614. it appeared plainly unto their Lordships that this Treaty of the Marriage had the first beginning by a Motion from Spain and not from England even from the Duke of Lerma who promised all sincerity in the Match and as little pressing as might be in matters of Religion Yet though the Proposal began so soon and was follow'd so earnestly it is now like an untimely Birth for which the Mother endureth a painful Travail and it enjoyeth not the Fruit of Life That Supplement which Concerns the Restitution of the Palatinate is this That whereas in that Treaty a demand is pressed by his Majesty upon the King of Spain to promise us assistance by Arms in case Mediation should not prevail it hath appeared to their Lordships by the Papers of the Earl of Bristol preserved in the Councel-Chamber that the King of Spain hath formerly promised Assistance by Arms upon such a supposition which notwithstanding he now utterly refuseth and offers but bare Mediation But as Symmachus says in an Ep. to Ausonius Pa. vis nutriment is quanquam à morte defendimur nihil tamen ad Robustam valetudinem promovemur We may keep Life and scarce that with a poor Diet but we shall never grow strong with such a pittance If the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of that Honourable House desire a Sight of these Dispatches they shall be Read unto them Thirdly That Supplement which tends so much to the Honour of his Highness is this Sometime in July last when his Highness was in Spain a Rumor was scatter'd that his Highness had provided to steal away secretly insomuch that some of the King of Spain's Ministers were appointed as a Watch to detein him openly and avowedly as a Prisoner Hereupon my Lord's Grace was sent to the whole Committee with this Heroical Remonstrance that though he stole thither out of Love he scorn'd to steal away out of Fear neither was his Heart guilty of taking so poor and unworthy a Course A brave and magnanimous Resolution yet short of that which followeth For the Prince made a dispatch to his Father at that instant and sent this Message unto him by Mr. Grimes
Majesty Commanded the Keeper to draw up the Discourse lately past between the French Embassador and him and to bring it with him which he finish'd carefully but with Enlargements in some Places as he can remember that turn'd his Books and assisted the Expedition In some things more in some things less was spoken at first but thus goes the Draught which the King received My Lord Embassador Villoclare gave me a Breviate of the Instrument of Grace which he agitated to pass in the Behalf of the Romish Recusants When he supposed I had read it almost to the End he spake thus to the Matter That it would be a great Token of Assurance that their Lady and Mistress should be received into this Realm with the Love of the King the Prince and all good English People if the distressed Catholicks combined with her Highness's Obedience to the same Church might obtain for her Sake Indemnity from our grievous Laws live in security of Conscience for hence forth from continual Persecution and call this Year the Jubilee of the long afflicted and the end of their Oppression I told him to this that I should reply to him in stanumering and ill pronounced French but with clear English Satisfaction Our Laws said I against 〈◊〉 whose Clientele you undertake have been disputed both by Church-men and States 〈◊〉 the Books are well known And by Debate of Arguments we have justified the Wisdom and Moderation of our Parliament to all that can correct prejudice by Reason What Law is rigid which impendent Danger extorts for the Safety of the People The Storms lookt black over our Heads in those times when such Statutes past so offensive to your Lordship and were enacted not out of Revenge for Wrongs sustained but out of Forecast against Harms to be prevented not out of Spleen towards Adversaries but out of Charity to our selves So much and without Pause or Faultring I am compelled to say for our Laws because I am a principal Judge by the Favour of the King my Master and sworn to the Maintainance of the Law This Answer though neither tart nor umbragious yet it set my Lord Ambassador's Teeth on edge and he rose up to these high Words at one pitch That he could not imagine how our Laws could have been sharpned with more Cruelty against the Catholicks For it would look like Mercy to take away their Lives or rather than to cut them so low with the Sickle of Penal Statutes that they had scarce Stubble to maintain their Bodies and their Souls were utterly starved for want of Priests to instruct them none of them daring to adventure to hold out Breasts of Apostolick Doctrine to feed them with sincere Milk but that resolved to be ript up and quartered for their Holy Duty Yet he goes on I bewail not so much those Excellent Servants of God executed upon your Gibbets they are recompensed with the Crown of Martyrdom But you murder the Souls of the Lay-Catholicks and if you pity them not to the Good of their Salvation all other pretended Favours light upon them like Mildews which are not a fruitful but a fatal Moisture You know my meaning Sir you are Learned in Cases of Divinity and need not to be told that the Use and Fruition of the Sacraments are the vital Part of Christian Religion in our Catholick Apprehension Who shall celebrate them Who shall impart them to this People robbed of Christ Who shall satiate their Souls with those Comforts if the Priests the Dispensers of those Mysteries be utterly kept from them You commonly say you have done well for the Generality of Catholicks that they have Liberty of Conscience I say your Gift is useless if you permit them not Teachers that are set over their Conscience We are more clement to the Churches of Hugonots and allow them their Ministers Without that Favour a Rush for all the rest Should I send Cloth and Food enough to a Fraternity of Religious Men What Good shall they reap from that Charity if none shall be suffered to make them Garments with that Cloth None permitted to dress the Meat that is sent them Or let me spread before you your Unmerciful Dealing in this Similitude you have not made a Law to pull out their Eyes but you have past a Law that they shall have no Light to see by My Lord Why should I make it a Labour to contest with you to have no such Statutes in Force Methinks it is enough to prompt you that such Incongruities of very bad Fame Abroad should be supervised and corrected upon so demulcing an Occasion as this Marriage Thus far my Lord Secretary To whom I said in this Manner 221. Provident Men and the Learnedest in all Faculties voted those Laws to be in Power and at some times to be put in ure which your Lordship condemns with a very stinging Invective At which I less marvail because you are a Stranger here and not acquainted with the Reasons and Motions that produced them And since you know not how they rose you are no competent Judge when they should fall In Fifty Years after they were first ordained they that have succeeded in Power and Authority have not repented of them but all to whome the Care of the Kingdom 's Welfare is committed have continu'd them Being nevertheless as pitiful as any that have soft Hearts and Christian Principles For though the Terror of the Laws is great yet the Execution hath been gentle Such as are convict of Recusancy who are no great Number in this Land they alone pay Pecuniary Mulcts but upon such easie Compositions that they have both the Crust and the Crumb of their Estates to themselves and the King hath scarce the Chippings The Disbursments of the Crown are great and the more under a most Munificent King so that the Exchequer sometimes expects the Aid of a plentiful Tribute Yet these your Lordship's Clients never contributed the Fifth Part of that which might have been called for least they should say We have made Abraham rich But my Lord most Men live as if they lived to this World only and therefore never think they have enough of Wealth I am willing to refer it to this Disease which is common to most in corrupted Nature that they that put on this Complaint fill your Lordship's Ears with Whining that their Purses are no fuller If they say they are become indigent or Bankrupts by the Issues of slender and mitigated Payments the Lye is written in their Fore-heads We live with them we know their Possessions Their Seats are well repaired and bravely furnished their Credit is good with our Marchants They give Portions in Marriages with their Daughters as great as the best of the King's Subjects considered to have equal Estates of Wealth Their Gallantry their Feasting their Revelling and Gaming are seen in the broad Day-light They bear their Heads as high as their Equals in all Expences These then are no Symptoms of Poverty
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. in vit Grach Opus vaecordiae Templum concordiae facit So if such a Monument had been Raised by this King the Temple of Peace and Unity had been with the Malicious the Temple of Sloth and Vanity 'T is a Buff Coat Objection that his Majesty consum'd as much in Embassies to settle differences by accord and did no good as would have maintain'd a Noble War and made him sure of his Demands Nay hold Sirs assurance is only in the Power of God And the Die of VVar says the Proverb casts an uncertain Chance Howsoever was it not more Christian to buy a Childs Portion with Mony then with Blood Gallantry hath made Embassages very chargeable but they devour not like War I shall make some Smile to tell them that Aeschines accus'd Demosthenes for putting the Common-Wealth to the Expence of two Servants to carry his Sumpter when he went Embassador And in the time of C. Gracchus lately spoken of the Romans says Plutarch allowed Nine Obols or Fifteen Pence a day to him that was sent Abroad upon a publick Treaty A Parsimony as bad as our Prodigality But attend to the Opinion of our King Harry the Eighth as I take it from Lord Cherbury's History Pag. 171. The Maintaining of a sure Peace at Home was almost as costly as to make War Abroad Yet he had rather spend his own Treasure that way than to expose his People to Slaughter and to Miseries that are worse than Slaughter 231. But our King James did not weigh which was cheapest or dearest Peace or War but which was more answerable to times of Grace and the Aeconomy of the Gospel For Thrist and Saving he could never be brought to think of them I have heard that he never loved a Servant till he had given him enough for a Livelihood and suspected those that were modest and did not ask as if they loved not him It might rightly be said of his Exchequer what Salmasius notes upon Lampridius Diadumenns Praefectus aerarii comes largitionum vocatur quasi ad nullam aliam rem princeps aerarium haberet quà m ad largiendum The chief Treasurer was called the Count of Largess as if the Prince's Revenue served only for Bounty and Largess But as wise Spotswood says upon Malcolm the Second Necessity is the Companion of immoderate Largition and forceth to unlawful Shifts Therefore it is better for a Prince to proportion Gists to his own Revenews than to the Expectation of publick Supplies Thus far King James may be magnified he spent to please his Mind in gratifying and obliging many not to please his Body His Cloaths were thristy and of better Example than his Courtiers would follow He was temperate in his Diet says Sir An. W. and to be believed because in every thing almost he is an affected Defamer but this he knew well for he was Clerk of the Kitchin and waited at the Table Where as an eye Witness he adds that he was temperate also in his Drinking drinking often but very often not above one or two Spoonfuls at once which Strangers observing and not knowing the small quantity he sip'd carried away an Error with them which grew into a false Fame But I never spake with that Man that saw him overtaken Take him for a Scholar and he had gathered Knowledge to astonishment and was so expert to use it that had he been born in a private Fortune he might have deserved to be a Bishop of the highest Promotion Let the Learnedest of the Nobility the Lord Bacon speak for the Learnedest of Monarchs There hath not been since Christ's Time any King which hath been so Learned in all Literature and Erudition Divine and Humane And let him win and wear that in Auson Paneg. which cannot be denied him Quid aliud es quà m ex omni bonarum artium ingenio collecta perfectio Piety is the Basis of all Vertue and the Basis of Piety in corrupted Nature is rather Repentance than Innocency When this King called to mind in his Retiring-Chamber or in his Bed that he had been that Day overtaken with Passion As he that offends not in Word the same is a per-Man Jam. 3.2 he used to send for Bishop Montague the only Prelate that ever was sworn of his Bed-Chamber or for Dr. Young the Dean of Winton whom he would exhort to Pray with him for the Forgiveness of his Sins He was infinitely given to Prayer says Sir Ant. W. but more out of Fear than Conscience That 's Satan's Gloss upon a good Text. What Fear should move him to Prayer but that which is the beginning of Wisdom Few dye Saints that live Libertines God would not have impowered him to express such good Effects of Religion at his parting out of this Life if he had not been his faithful Servant in his Life before To trumpet these and many more Triumphs of Praise Fame will wake for him now he is faln asleep And the more Ages to come that will study him the more they will renown him I have read it quoted out of Galen that the Surentine Wine is never mellow for the Taste till it be seventy years old and because few will keep it so long the Goodness is little known So the longer the World keeps this King's Memory it will be the sweeter Perhaps it is yet harsh to some malevolous and unthankful 232. It is the Virulency of wrathful Writers that the Dead that should be spared are most traduced by them They cannot bite again when they are bitten as Budaeus said of Portius Lib. 5. de Asse Fol. 169. That Portius would not write against him while he was living Placabiliùs homo peritus actum iri meis cum manibus a sese quà m mecum intelligebar And the miserable Condition of Kings deceased is above others especially if their Posterity be not in a Condition to do them right they are most like to be wounded in their Honour by all those who must be many that have been offended in their own Persons and Suits or in the Injuries as they interpret them of their Friends and Relations Especially it is to be deplored and defied that some are so touchy upon the nicest Points of Religion that they will not spare the Good Name no not of the Lord 's Anointed if he have distasted them with Opposition of Opinions if he not dogmatize with them in all abstruse and intricate Problems of almost unsearchable Truths For which they that sue their Adversaries hotly and as it were go to Law for every Quirk and knotty Point are no better than common Barretters in Divinity This was King James's hard Fortune to be blotted with the Inks of Parsons Schioppius Scribanius furious Papists and as many more of them as would sill Justice-Hall in New-gate by the Precise that were alienated from the Ceremonies and Discipline of the well framed Protestant Church as Wdden Wilson Payton and a Sanhedrim of Scots that contended against the Articles of Perth
true Religion Et pater Aeneas avunculus excitat Hector Lastly for his great delivery by Sea and Land which so filled our Mouths with Laughter and our Tongues with Joy it shew'd him betimes a Child of King James and withal a Child of God and being so Nolite tangere no Evil might touch him As God was with Moses so he was and will be with him non deseret aut derelinquet he will never fail him nor forsake him To the which Prayer all we his representative Kingdom will never fail to say Amen 12. What you said of the true Religion is most apparently true that it hath been very piously charged upon our King and hitherto full of Blessings upon our Kingdom For the first his Majesty well remembers what I ill forgot in another occasion that the last Blessing of all his Father gave him and I think upon a Motion of mine was with a Recommendation of his Religion and of his People to his special Care Love and Protection And I nothing doubt but that Blessing shall so bless him that he shall see Jerusalem in Prosperity all his Life long And for the effect of our Religion it hath hitherto produced in this Kingdom a very Kingdom of Heaven not only after this Life but even in this Life for the space of sixty Seven Years wherein it hath been most constantly professed All that time Peace hath been within our Walls and plenteousness within our Palaces Non fecit sic omni nationi God hath not dealt so with many nor with any Nation in Europe that I know or read of Sixthly what you recommended to the King concerning the Laws of the Land the King hath already in private and doth now in publick recommend to his Judges and by them to the Professors and Students of the Laws to wit that they would spend their time as their Fore-fathers did in the ancient Common-Laws of the Kingdom and not altogether as the Complaint hath been of late in Statutes new Cases and modern Abridgments In the former Studies you meet with Reason created by God in the latter with Opinion only invented by Men. Here you find peradventure some strong Conclusions but upon weak Grounds and Premises there you learn strong Premises that can never produce a weak Conclusion In a word to borrow the Simile of St. Basil there like Ulysses you Court Penelope herself here like the foolish Wooers but her Hand-maids only Seventhly that just Resentment you express of the Dishonour of our Nation in that hostile Acquisition and Detension of the Palatinate you cannot imagine Mr. Speaker how much it contents his most Excellent Majesty Now he finds indeed his People to be lively Members of this Politick Body because they sympathize so seelingly with the grievous Pains and Troubles of their Head And surely he is no true Part but an Excrescency or dead Flesh upon the outside of the State that is not sensible of his Majesty's Sufferings in those Affairs God forbid against all these Professions this Kingdom should prove to a People so allied either a Meroz as you term it for Inhumanity or an Aegypt for Infidelity or a whit inferior to Caesar himself to aid and relieve them You heard the full Measure of the King's Resolution the last day Ire oportet vivere non oportet He doth not desire to live otherwise than in Glory and Reputation And so he cannot live you know it well enough till somewhat be vigorously effected in that great business of the Palatinate Eightly for the abandoning of those Sons of Bichri the Priest and Jesuits his Majesty returns you this Answer As he doth approve your Zeal and Devotion herein and acknowledgeth that of St. Ambrose to be true Quod in religionem committitur in omnium vertitur injuriam that the meanest Subject in this Kingdom hath a great right and Interest in the Religion so being appointed by and under God Custos utriusque tabulae the Guardian and Keeper of both the Tables he desires you to trust him whose Zeal was never yet questioned or suspected with the ways and means to propagate the same Yet in this Petition of yours his most Excellent Majesty doth absolutely grant the Effect and the Matter that is to be most careful of our Religion or which you more desire to improve and better the Form and Manner But as St. Austin saith of God himself Non tribuit aliquando quod volumus ut quod malimus attribuat Lastly for your four ordinary Petitions for Immunity of Persons liberty of Speech readiness of Access benign Interpretation his most Excellent Majesty grants them all and will have them limited by no other bounds than your own Wisdom Modesty and good Discrietion So his Majesty bids God Speed the Plow 13. I look upon him that spake so well for the King two days together as Antiquarius did upon the L. Picus Mirandula Ratio oratio cum ipso ex côdem utero natae videantur Ep. 279. Here 's strong Mettle and a keen Edge able to cleave the hardest Knot Here 's Reason to convince Judgment with store of Eloquence to delight the Affections Which could not be past over without this censure for it is an ill thrift to be parsimonious in the praise of that which is very good The King reposed much upon the Success of this Meeting because his Mind was so well deliver'd and so strongly put on The Cause of the War was made the Kingdoms The Counsel that began it was the Parliaments and were they not bound to find the Succours As our Poet Mr. Johnson says upon Prince Henry's Barriers He doth but scourge himself his Sword that draws Without a Purse a Counsel and a Cause But the Registers of all Ages I believe will not shew a Man in whom Vertue was more perpetually unfortunate than in this King The Influence of those ill Stars that reigned over all his Reign began thus soon The Parliament was told as if a Dictator had been nominated for this War that all must be consulted and executed together that the present Sacrifice must be eaten in haste like the Lord's first Passover for in that juncture slow help was no help Yet in five Weeks so long they sat at Westminster there was not an Arrow to any purpose shot towards that Mark. These were they that thrust his Majesty upon a War to the mortifying of his Father's part and now his Enemies were awak'd with the Alarum they let him shift for himself Being told enough that there must be Gold as well as Iron to play this Game and that a good Purse made a good Army they gave him such discouragement that they dropt no more than two Mites into the Corban An incredible disproportion between what was found and what was lookt for and suitable to a Passage in an Italian Comedy where a Guest complains of his ill Entertainment at a Miser's Table that there was not enough to make a good Supper nor scarce
Governour Put him then into that Scale and weigh him and begin from his own Family Wherein very effectual and imprinting Passages are not wanting A Bishop should be blameless and of good Report Good Reason then for a Batchelor to walk very strictly to shun the Defamation of his Chastity Therefore this Man would suffer no Woman-kind to do any Service within his Gates Tho' they are siner-handed than Men for Cleanliness yet better to endure a little Dust in the Rooms than that a single Man should have their Company This was his Order more for his Follower's sake than for himself Who was priviledged from his Childhood from suspicion of Incontinency and needed no Compurgation but such as Methodius had says Baroni Anno. 843. c. 3. Methodius de fornicatione accusatus prodidit seipsum eviratum esse This will stop the Mouth of Slander unless his Credit came before such as had rather hear the worst of Men than the Truth Fame is too hard for Innocency If it get abroad it will never stand still till Age have made it weary For whose prevention the Heathen knew no other way but to set up an Altar to it that it might befriend them So Aschines in his Oration against Timarchus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their Forefathers did those divine Honours to same as to the mighty Goddess that carried all before her Not insisting to a Word more in the Negative what they were whom a discreet Governour could well want in his House In the Affirmative it was taken up to be the School or Academy of young Nobles Such was the Fatherly respect that our ancient Prelates had to the Sons of our greatest Peers that their Palaces were the Nurseries of their Children where they were bred to serve God and the King and to shun the Stains of Honour Vice and Ignorance The two and only Male Branches of Charles Duke of Suffolk were brought up with Dr. Holbech in this Mansion of Bugden and died there both in one day of the Sweating-sickness greatly lamented as it is engraven upon their Tomb in the Chancel of the Church adjoyning So Pope Adrian the Sixth says Onuphrius carried the Sons of some great Princes of Germany to Rome when he was elected to the Papacy and kept them under his own Eyes till the Italians guilty of their own Filthiness made Pasquins of the Pope who meant well alla Todesea and never dream'd of the odious Lust of that Nation Which good Custom was revived among us by this honourable Person who lived in manner and order of the good Bishops as Mr. W. S. confesseth and made an Academy of his House receiving into it many hopeful Branches of Honour the Sons of Marquis Hartford of the Earls of Pembroke Salisbury and Leicester with many others of the Gentry of the same tender Age to bear them company whereof some were of his own Blood and Country These had Preceptors who accounted often to the Bishop how their Charges were season'd with Piety and prosper'd in Learning To such as grew ripe to be removed to the Universities he read himself a brief System of Logick and sent them from him beside the Verbal Art of Grammar tinctur'd with the Syllogisms of Reason His own Servants resorted to the Exercises of this Education as they were capable 39. Chiefly his Care was Great and Godly to ground them throughly in the Principles of Religion Whom he committed not to a Chaplain to oversee them in a point of that Consequence which concern'd the Life of their Souls but proved them one by one himself from the most honourable to the meanest in the Kitchin and Stables what Answers they could make to the Fundamental Questions of the Catechism A most Christian Exercise for young and old but the sweetest Milk that Youth can suck in Sic lacte relicto Virtutem gens tota bibit as Sidonius hath it in his Panegyrick Good things that are soonest learnt are longest remembred As the Figure will continue which the Seal imprints upon soft Wax And it was thought of old that the Catechist waving this Offering of first Fruits before the Lord did derive as much Benefit to himself as to his Disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that of Clemens is very elegant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 1. If he be a sound and sincere Man he doth best learn the Doctrine of his own Questions and is the best Hearer of his own Exhortations The opportunity which this Bishop did observe constantly to instruct his Domesticks in their Catechism was Lent He that is a Lover of Antiquity will the better love Piety Look back Fifteen Hundred Years which within one Century is at the top of the Primitive Church and we find that the best Practicers of Mortification that liv'd in those blessed Times made a more solemn use of Lent than of any part of the Year for Austerity of Temperance and Repentance for Catechising and Preparation to keep the great Feast of Easter with the unleavened Bread of Sincerity Whom should we imitate or if you will whom should we emulate rather than those whom Basil calls and he was one of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the live Images of holy Profession Which way do we walk if we shun their Footsteps Were not Men of the best times best to set out the choicest times for Devotion and remembrance of Christ's mighty Works Suppose we did not appeal to those Examples yet our modern Turn-abouts cannot evince us but that we feel we are best affected when the great Mysteries of Christ are celebrated upon Anniversary Festivals He that will make no use of their Practice that were famous above all that liv'd in a most sanctified Generation is very proud But he that will check Experience and will not trust to the Testimony which millions of good Christians will protest that they feel in the inward Sense of their Hearts is refractory I must speak roughly is impudently contumacious Whom I will encounter with the Words of Paraeus in 14 Cap. ad Roman p. 372. Utile est praecipuas Dei patefactiones beneficia in ecclesiam collata stato tempore publicè repetere populo inculcare Ut sint notissima in perpetuâ memoriâ Magis enim movent haerent in memorià juventutis populi quae solenniter anniversarie simul ab omnibus uno consensu fiunt quà m quae alias ab aliis fiunt dicuntur See more there But see and say what you will Novelists had rather be talk'd of that they began a Fashion and set a Copy for others than to keep within the Imitation of most excellent Presidents 40. I have not done with the Governance of this Family Which was the worse thought of by some strict Censurers because the Bishop admitted in his publick Hall a Comedy once or twice to be presented before him exhibited by his own Servants for an Evening Recreation Some that liv'd in nothing but Pleasure in the Court objected that such Pleasure
to Practice and Use in our own Country Why it was in use in this Island before the Romans entred the same when the Druids gave all the Sentences in Causes of Blood Si coedes facâ—e pâ—as constituunt Caesar Bel. Gai. li. 6. And see Mr. Selden's Epinomis c. 2. Nor is it like that the Romans when they were our Masters should forbid it in Priests whose Pontifical College after they had entertain'd the twelve Tables meddled in all matters of this kind Strabo Geogr. lib. 4. And it is as unlike that the Christian Religion excluded Bishops in this Island from Secular Judicatures since King Lucius is directed to take out his Laws for the regulating of his Kingdom by the Advice of his Council ex utráque pagina the Old and New Testament which could not be done in that Age without the help of his Bishops See Sir H. Spelman's Councils p. 34. Ann. Dom. 185. And how the great Prelates among the ancient Britains were wholly employ'd in these kind of secular agitations you may see in the Ecclesiastical Laws of Howel Dha set forth by Sir H. Spelman pag. 408. anno 940. And a little before this Howel Dha lived K. Aetheljtan in the second Chapter of whose Ecclesiastical Laws we have it peremptorily set down Hinc debent Episcopi cum Saeculi Judicibus interesse judiciis and particularly in all Judgments of the Ordeals which no man that understands the word can make any doubt to have been extended to Mutilation and Death Sir H. S. Counc p. 405. ann 928. And that the Bishops joyned alwaies with the secular Lords in all Judicatory Laws and Acts under the whole reign of the Saxons and Danes in this Island we may see by those Saxon-Danish Laws or rather Capitularies which among the French and Germans do signifie a mixture of Laws made by the Prince the Bishops and the Barons to rule both Church and Common-wealth set forth by Mr. Lambert anno 1568. See particularly the ninth Chapter of St. Edward's Laws De his qui ad judicium sorri vel aquae judicati sunt fol. 128. And thus it continued in this Kingdom long after the Conquest to wit in Henry Beu-clerk's time after whose Reign it began to be a little limited and restrained for at Clarendon anno 1164 8 Calend. Febr. 11 Henr. 21 a general Record is agreed upon by that King 's Special Command of all the Customs and Liberties of this Kingdom ever since Hen. the First the King's Grandfather as you may see in Matth. Paris p. 96 of the first Edition where among other Customs agreed upon this is one Archbishops and Bishops and all other persons of this Kingdom which hold of the King in capite are to enjoy their Possessions of the King as a Barony and by reason thereof are to answer before the Judges and Officers of the King and to observe and perform all the King's Customs And just as the rest of the Barons ought for it was a Duty required of them as the King now by his Summons doth from us to be present in the Judgments of the King's Courts together with the rest of the Barons until such time as they shall there proceed to the mangling of Members or Sentence of Death 147. Observe that there is a diversity of reading in the last words for Matth. Paris a young Monk that lived long after reads this Custom thus Quousque perveniatur ad diminutionem membrorum vel ad mortem Which may be wrested to the first agitation of any Charge tending that way but Quadrilogus a Book written in that very Age and the original Copy of the Articles of Clarendon which Becket sent to Rome extant at this day in the Vatican Library and out of which Baronius in his Annals anno 1164 transcribes it reads the Custom thus Usque perveniatur in judicio ad diminutionem membrorum c. which leaves the Bishops to sit there until the Judgment come to be pronounced amounting to Death or Mutilation of Members And as this was agreed to be the Custom so was it the Practice also after that 11th year to wit in the 15th year of Henry the Second at what time the Lay-Peers are so far from requiring the Bishops to withdraw that they endeavour to force them alone to hear and determine a matter of Treason in the person of Becket Stephanides is my Author for this who was a Chaplain and Follower of that Archbishop The Barons say saith that Author You Bishops ought to pronounce Sentence upon your selves we are Laicks you are Church-men as Becket is you are his fellow-Priests and fellow-Bishops To whom some one of the Bishops replied This belongs to you my Lords rather than to us for this is no ecclesiastical but a secular Judicature We sit not here as Bishops but as Barons Nos Barones vos Barones hic Pares sumus And in vain it is that you should labour to find any difference at all in our Order or Calling See this Manuscript cited by Mr. Selden Titles of Honour 2 Edit p. 705. And thus the Custom continued till the 21st year of the same King Henry II. at what time that Provincial Synod was kept at Westminster by the Archbishop of Canterbury and some few of his Suffragans which Roger Hoveden mentions in his History p. 543. And it seems Gervasius Dorobernensis which is a Manuscript I have not seen The quoting of this Monk in the Margin of that Collection of Privileges which Mr. Selden by command had made for the Upper House of Parliament is the only ground of stirring up this Question against the Bishops at this present intended by Mr. Selden for a Privilege to the Bishops not for a Privilege to the Lay Peers to be pressed against the Bishops The Canon runs thus It is not lawful for such as are constituted in Holy Orders Judicium sanguinis agitare to put in execution Judgment of Blood and therefore we forbid that they shall either in their own persons execute any such mutilation of Members or sentence them to be so acted by others And if any such person shall do any such thing he shall be deprived of the Office and Place of his Order and Function We do likewise sorbid under the peril of Excommunication that no Priest be a secular Sheriff or Provost Now this is no Canon made in England much less confirmed by Common Law or assented to by all the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury or by any one of the Province of York but transcribed as appears by Hovenden's Margin out of a Council of Toledo which in the time that Council is supposed to be held was the least Kingdom in Spain and not so big as York-shire and consequently improper to regulate all the World and especially this remote Kingdom of England Beside as this poor Monk sets it down it doth inhibit Church-men from being Hang-men rather than from being Judges to condemn men to be thus mutilated and mangled in their