examined and acquitted them of and such as the whole Kingdome knows Cromwell and Ireton to be apparently guilty of as Trucking with the King c. One chief Article insisted upon in the Charge was That by their power in the House they caused the Ordinance for Disbanding this Army to passe Here you see where the shooe wrings them This Charge was not subscribed by any Informer that ingaged to make it good or else to suffer punishment and make the House and the Parties accused reparations as by the Stat. 25 Edw. 3. c. 4. 27 Ed. 3. c. 18. 38 Ed. 3. c. 9. 17 R. 2. c. 6. 15 H. 6. c. 4. but especially by 31 H. 6. c. 1. concerning Jack Cade which comes nearest this case ought to be And they professed in the 2 3 4. Article of their Charge That they were disobliged and discouraged from any farther engagement in the Parliaments service or Irelands preservation and demanded the House should forthwith suspend the impeached Members from any longer sitting and acting Whereupon the House after full debate in a full and free Parliament Resolved June 25. 1647. That by the Lawes of the Land no Judgement could be given for their suspension upon that generall Charge before particulars produced and proofes made 17 17. Threates to march up to London 18 18. London solicited to sit Newters Yet the Army which had now learned onely to acquiesce in their owne prudence and justice insolently threatned to march up to Westminster against the Parliament in case the said 11. Members were not suspended and courted the City of London to sit newters and let them work their will with the Parliament The 11. Impeached Members therefore modestly withdrew to free the House from such danger as they might incur by protecting them as in Justice and Honour they were bound to doe After this the Army sent in their particular Charge and Libellously published it in Print by their own Authority To which the 11 Members sent in and published their Answer Upon which there had been no Prosecution because they pretend first to settle the Kingdome but if they stay till these fellowes have either authority will or skill to settle the Kingdome they shall not need to make ready for their Tryall till Doomes day Here you have a whole Army for Accusers and the chief Officers of the Army being Members of the House not onely accusers but parties witnesses and Judges and carrying the rules of Court and Lawes by which they judge in their Scaberds And the Charge or Impeachment such as all men know mutatis mutandis are more sutable to Cromwells and Iretons Actions then the Accused parties If the proceedings in the Kings name against the five Members mentioned in The exact Collection pag. 38. were Voted a Traiterous designe against King and Parliament and the arresting any of them upon the Kings Warrant an Act of publick enmity against the Common-wealth How much more Treasonable were these proceedings and the Armies March towards London to enforce them and their arresting Anthony Nicholls having the Speakers Passe and leave of the House Colonell Burch being upon service of the Parliament going for Ireland and Sir Samuel Luke resting quiet in his owne House 19 19. The first occasion of quarrell against the City 20 20. Courting and cheating the Country and all other interests to lull tâ—em asleep till the Grandees had wrought their will upon City Houses 21 21 Petitions to the Army and for the Army Whilst these things were acting Cromwell finding he could not have his will upon the Parliament but that he must make the City of London who had denyed the newtrality his Enemies cast about how to cheat the Country people of their affections for to have both City and Country his Enemies in the posture his Army was then in was dangerous he therefore by many Printed books and papers spread all England over by his Agitators and by some journey-men Priests who 's Pulpits are the best Juglers Boxes to deceive the simple Absolon-like wooeth them to make loud complaints of the pressures and grievances of the People to neglect the King and the Parliament and make Addresses to the Army as their only Saviours the Arbitrators of Peace restorers of our Laws Liberties and Properties setlers of Religion preservers of all just interests pretending to settle the King in his just Rights and Prerogatives to uphold the Priviledges of Parliament establish Religion to reforme and bring to accompt all Committees Sequestrators and all others that had defiled their fingers with publique money or goods To free the people from that all-devouring Excise and other Taxes To redresse undue elections of Members To relieve Ireland Things impossible to be performed by an Army and now totally forgotten so that they have only accepted of their own private demands as Souldiers That the Parliament should own them for their Army Establish pay for them put the whole Militia of this Kingdome and Ireland both by Sea and Land into their Hands and Vote against all opposite forces But they are now become the only protectors of all corrupt Committee-men Sequestrators Accomptants to the State and all other facinorous persons who comply with them to keep up this Army for their own security against publick Justice Having thus courted and cheated all the publike and just Interests of the Kingdome they deceived the people so far as to make them Issachar-like patiently to bear the burden of free quarter and to make addresses to the Army for themselves by Petitions to which they gave plausible answers That this and This was the sense of the Army as if the sense of the Army had been the supream Law of the Land and to make addresses to the Parliament for the Army not to be disbanded for which purpose their Agitators carried Petitions ready penn'd to be subscribed in most Counties The people being thus lulled asleep 22 22 A quarrell against the City invented they now cast about how to make benefit of a joynt quarrell both against the Parliament and City since they could not separate them or at least against the Presbyterian party in both They had withdrawn their quarters in a seeming obedience to Parliaments commands 30 miles from London of which they often brag in their Papers and presumed the suspension of the 11 Members had strook such an awfulnesse into the Houses that most of the Presbyterian Members would either absent themselves as too many indeed did or turn renegadoes from their own principles to them but found themselves notwithstanding opposed and their desires retarded beyond their expectation by the remainder of that Party They must therefore finde out a quarrell to march against the City and give the Houses another Purge stronger then the former The Army being principled 23 23 The Army demand the City Militia to be changed into other hands and put into a posture sutable to Cromwells desire and the Country charmed
and an Office before they would trust him with them were sent Mr. Hearle and Mr. Marshall Marshall when he saw Independency prevaile 78 78. M. Marshall had secretly turned his coat the wrong side outward and joyned interest with Mr. Nye But before he declared himself he was to do some service for his new party Wherefore when the Army looked with a threatning posture upon the Parliament and City before they marched through London the common Souldiers being in such discontent for want of pay that they were ready to mutiny and disband and their Officers scarce daring to governe them the first fruits of Marshall's service to his new friends was to perswade the City to lend the Parliament 50000l to pacifie the Souldiers assuring them by Letters that the Army had nothing but good thoughts towards the City onely the common Souldiers was troubled for want of pay after the City had laid down the said 50000l his next labour was to perswade the Citizens to let the Army march through the City without opposition for avoiding of bloudshed and firing and to let them possesse the Tower and Line of Communication After these services the Grandees of the Parliament and Army finding him sutable to them received him into an avowed favour and then four Independents and four Presbyterian Divines conjoyning their interests were sent to season the Army and new tune them according to the more moderne designe Marshall was one where after he had preached according to the Dictates of the Grandees of the two Houses and Army for divers weeks Marshall was thought fit to attend the Commissioners into Scotland He and Mr. Nye had been sent to Carisbrooke Castle formerly with those Commissioners that carried the four Bills to the King and had 500l a piece given them for their journey Scotland a longer journey promised a larger reward it is good being a postilion of the Gospel at such rates The Sunday before he went he preached at Margarets Westminster and as much cried up Presbytery and the Covenant there as he had before slighted them in the Army This was a preparation Sermon to make him acceptable to the Scots that he might cajole them the easier Before he went he sent his Agents from house to house at Westminster to beg mens good wills towards his journey He was willing upon this pretence to get what he could from St. Margarets Parish where he found the people to grow cold in their affections and contributions to him Wherefore having made his bargain before he went to leave S. Margarets and officiate in the Abby where he is to have 300l per annum certain allowance he would rob the Aegyptians at S. Margarets for a parting blow This Priest married his owne Daughter with the Book of Common-prayer and a Ring and gave for reason That the Statute establishing that Liturgy was not yet repealed and he was loath to have his Daughter whored and turned back upon him for want of a Legall Mariage yet he can declare against all use of it by others He hath so long cursed Meroz and neutrality that he hath brought Gods curse upon the land and hath put Church and Common-wealth into a flame but himself and his Brats have warmed their fingers at it as monies are decried or enhaunced by the Kings authority so is every mans Religion cried up or down by Marshall's authority and stamp About the 24. 79 79. The Answer to the Scots Declaration Feb. the Answer to the Scots Declaration began to be debated in parts in which Debate the Covenant was much undervalued and called an Almanack out of Date Nath Fiennes argued against it That that clause in the Covenant To defend the Kings Person Crown and Dignity c. was inconsistent with their four Votes for making no Addresses to the King To which was answered by some That then they would relinquish the foure Votes and adhere to the Covenant About the beginning of March 80 80. Mony shared amongst godly Members was given to Col. Sydenham and Col. Bingham 1000l apiece as part of their Arrears their Accounts not yet stated To the Lord of Broghill 2000l To Master Fenwicke 500l for losses To Mr. Millington 2000l for losses To Col. Ven 4000l notwithstanding it was moved he might first account for Contribution-money the Plunder of the Country about Windsor and the Kings Houshold-stuffe Hangings Linnen and Bedding Mr. Pury the Petty-bag Office besides 1000l formerly given him To Pury's Son the Clerke of the Peers place and 100l a yeare all Independents The 7. of March 81 81. Cromwell an Ordinance passed the Commons to settle 2500l a year land out of the Marquesse of Worcester's Estate upon Lieutenant Generall Oliver Cromwell I have heard some Gentlemen that know the Mannor of Chepstow and the rest of the Lands setled upon him affirm That in the particulars the said Lands are so favourably rated that they are worth 5000l or 6000l a year It is farther said those Lands are bravely wooded You see though they have not made King Charles a glorious King 82 82. A Message from the Lords desiring the Commons concurrence to the engagement of the Members with the Army as they promised yet they have setled a crowne Revenue upon Oliver and have made him as great and glorious a king as ever John of Leyden was Wonder not that they conspire to keep up this Army as well to make good these Largesses as to keep their guilty Heads upon their shoulders Thursday 9. March the Lords sent a Message to the House of Commons To desire their concurrence to the Engagement of those Members that fled to the Army The engagement approved by Threats to live and die with the Army It was Debated all day untill seven of the clock at night and at last the question put That this House doth approve the subscription of the said Members to the said Ingagement The House divided upon the question yeas 100. noes 91. Observe 1. that Mr. Solicitor Hasterig and many more when they perceived difficulty in passing it began to skirmish with their long sword againe And many told them they must give content without dores meaning to the Army as well at within or else all would go naught 2. 44 Of those Members that engaged with the Army sate in the House and voted in their owne case many of them carrying themselves very high and insolently in their gestures and expressions 3. Many Presbyterians left the House because it was late and some as it is thought not daring to vote in the negative 4. This engagement about six Months agoe had been sent to the Commons by the Lords once or twice and was rejected yet now was obtruded upon them again by the Lords who would not acquiesce contrary to the Priviledges of the House of Commons 5. This approbation thus surreptitiously gotten is equall to a Pardon sued forth before conviction which in law amounteth to a confession of the crime
7. The Grandees of the Parliament and Army have brought the Kingdome to so miserable a condition that they have left no Authority in England able to settle peace the King is a close Prisoner to the Army therefore all he shall doe will be clearly void in law by reason of Dures The Parliament is in Wardship to them who keep armed Guards upon them Garrisons round about them and by illegall Accusations Blancke Impeachments threatning Remonstrances and Declarations c. fright away many Members and compell the rest to Vote and un-Vote what they please whereby all the Parliament doth is void and null in Law ab initio it being no free Parliament but a Sub-committee to the Army and living as the Aegyptians did under vassalage to their own Mamaluchi or Mercenaries The people therefore must resolve either to have no Army or no Peace 8. They have put out the eyes of the Kingdome 8 8. The two Vniversities destroyed the two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and have brought the whole Land to make sport before them knowing that Learning and Religion as well as Laws and Liberties are enemies to their barbarous irrationall and Russian way of Government 9. Many honest men took part with this Parliament 9 9. Many honest men seduced by faire pretences took part with them never intending to leave their first principles and enslave King and Kingdome seduced by those fair pretences of defending Religion Laws and Liberties which they first held forth to the people and being unwilling to have a Parliament conquered by the Sword not thinking it possible that a prevailing Faction in Parliament should so far prevaricate as to conspire to enslave King Parliament and Kingdome to subvert the Laws Liberties and fundamentall Government of the Land under which they and their Posterity were and were likely to be so happily governed and betray Religion unto Hereticks and Schismaticks and share the spoiles of the Common-wealth between them and think of enriching themselves with them in foraine lands yet many at the beginning much disliked that Religion should be used as an ingredient to the carrying on of a Civill War and that Schismaticks should have so great a stroak in managing the businesse yet were pacified with this consideration that we must refuse no helps in our defence if a man be assaulted by Thieves on the high way he will not refuse to joyne with Schismaticks or Turks in a common defence the same authority that then countenanced those Schismaticks it was hoped would be able to discountenance them again when the work was done But the Grandees of the Houses having other designes had so often purged the Houses that they left few honest moderate men in them to oppose their projects still bringing in Schismaticks and men of their owne interests by enforced undue Elections into their rooms and so by insensible degrees new modelled the House sutable to their owne corrupt desires and new modelled this Army accordingly so that the people who had no intention to be intrusted so far were step by step so far engaged before they were aware that they could not draw their feet back and do now find to their grief that the Bit is in their mouths the saddle fast girt on their galled backs and these Rank riders mounted who will spur them not only out of their Estates Lawes and Liberties but into Hell with renewed Treasons new Oaths Covenants and Engagements if they take not the more heed and be not the more resolute they have changed their old honest principles and their old friends who bore the first brunt of the businesse and have taken new principles and friends in their roome sutable to their present desperate designes and now that they have squeezed what they can out of the Kings party they think of sequestring their old friends because they adhere to their old principles 10 10. Who are the King 's bitterest enemies 10. Amongst those that are most bitter against the King his own Servants especially the Judasses of the Committee of the Revenue that carry his purse and have fingered more of his mony and goods then they can or dare give an account for are the greatest Zealots those that take upon them imployments about his Revenue and share what allowances to themselves they please for their pains those that buy in for trifles old sleeping pensions that have not been payed nor allowed this thirty years and pay themselves all arrears those that rent parcells of the Kings Revenue for the eighth or tenth part of the worth as Cor Holland who renteth for 200l per annum as much of his Estate as is worth 1600l or 1800l per annum Thus you see the Lion Lord of the forrest growing sick and weak become a prey and is goared by the Oxe bitten by the Dog yea and kicked by the Asse Look upon this president you Kings and Princes and call to mind examples of old that of Nebuchadnezzar others lest by exalting your selves too high you provoke God to cast you too low The Epilogue I Am not Ignorant that there is a naturall purging a naturall phlebotomy belonging to politicke as well as to naturall bodies and that some good humours are alwaies evacuated with the bad yet I cannot but deplore what I have observed That the honestest and justest men of both sides such as if they have done evill did it because they thought it good such as were carried aside with specious pretences and many of them seduced by pulpit-Devils who transformed themselves into Angels of light have alwaies fared worse then other men as if this difference between the King Parliament were but a syncretismus or illusion against honest men nay I do farther foresee that in the period and closing up of this Tragedy they will fare worst of all because they have not taken a liberty to enrich themselves with publick spoyles and fat themselves by eating out the bowels of their mother but are grown lean and poor by their integrity whereby being disabled to buy friendship in the daies of trouble they will be put upon it to pay other mens reckonings When Verres was Praetor of Sicily he had with wonderful corruptions pillaged that Province and at the same time the Praetor of Sardinia being sentenced for depeculating and robbing that Province Timarchides Verres correspondent at Rome writ a very anxious Letter to him giving him warning of it But Verres in a jolly humour answered him that the Praetor of Sardinia was a foole and had extorted no more from the Sardinians then would serve his own turn but himself had gathered up such rich Booties amongst the Sicilians that the very overplus thereof would dazle the eyes of the Senate and blind them so that they should not see his faults such I foresee will be the lot of the more just and modest men who shall be guilty because they were fools as the other sort shall be innocent because they
THE HISTORY OF INDEPENDENCY WITH The Rise Growth and Practices of that powerfull and restlesse FACTION D us AMBROSIUS Nec nobis ignominiosum est pati quod passus est Christus nec vobis gloriosum est facere quod fecit Judas TACIT Scelera sceleribus tuenda VIRGILIUS sua cuique Deus fit dira libido 1 St. JOHN C. 2. V. 16. Quicquid est in mundo est concupiscentia oculorum concupiscentia carnis aut superbia vitae Printed in the yeare 1648. Reader GEntle or ungentle I write to all knowing that all have now got almost an equall share and interest in this Gallymaufry or Hotchpot which our Grandee Pseudo-politicians with their negative and demolishing Councells have made both of Church and Common-wealth and therefore I write in a mixed stile in which I dare say there are some things fit to hold the judgments of the Gravest some things fit to catch the fancies of the lightest and some things of a middle nature applying my self to all capacities as far as truth will permit because I fore-see the Catastrophe of this Tragedy is more likely to be consummated by maltitude of hands then wisdome of heads I have been a curious observer and a diligent inquirer after not only the actions but the Councels of these times and I here present the result of my endevours to thee In a time of mis-apprehensions it is good to avoid mistakings and therefore I advise thee not to apply what I say to the Parliament or Army in generall if any phrase that hath dropped from my pen in haste for this is a work of haste seem to look asquint upon them no it is the Grandees the Junto-men the Hocas-pocasses the State-Mountebanks with their Zanyes and Jack-puddings Committee-men Sequestrators Treasurers and Agitators under them that are here historified were the Parliament the major part whereof is in bondage to the minor part and their Janisaries and the Army freed from these usurping and engaged Grandees who betrayed the honour and Priviledges of Parliament and Army to their own lusts both would stand right and be serviceable to the setling of a firme lasting peace under the King upon our first principles Religion Laws and Liberties which are now so far laid by that whosoever will not joyne with the Grandees in subvetting them is tearmed a Malignant as heretofore he that would not adhere to the Parliament in supporting them was accounted so that the definition of a Malignant is turned the wrong side outward The body of the Parliament and Army in the midst of these distempers is yet healthy sound serviceable my endeavour is therefore to play the part of a friendly Phisician and preserve the body by purging peccant humours were the Army under Commanders and Officers of better principles who had not defiled their fingers with publick monies their consciences by complying with and cheating all Interests King Parliament People City and Scots for their owne private ends I should think that they carried the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon but clean contrary to the Image presented to Nebuchadnezzar in a dream the head and upper parts of this aggregate body are part of clay part of iron the lower parts of better mettle I cannot reform I can but admonish God must be both the Aesculapius and Prometheus and amend all and though we receive never so many denialls never so many repulses from him let us take heed how we vote even in the private corners of our hearts no Addresses no Applications to him Let us take heed of multiplying sins against God lest he permit our schismaticall Grandees to multiply Armies and forces upon us to war against Heaven as well as against our Religion Laws Liberties Properties upon Earth and keep us our Estates under the perpetual bondage of the Sword which hath been severall waies attempted in the Houses these two last weeks both for the raising and keeping of a new Army of 30000. or 40000. men in the seven Northern Associate Counties upon established pay besides this Army in the South and also for the raising of men in each County of England and all to be engrossed into the hands of his Excellency and such Commanders and Officers as he shall set over them and this work may chance be carried on by the Grandees of Derby-house and the Army if not prevented for the Generall notwithstanding this power was denied him in the House of Commons hath sent Warrants into most Counties to raise Horse and Foot yea to that basenesse of slavery hath our Generall and Army with their under-Tyrants the Grandees brought us that although themselves did heretofore set the rascallity of the Kingdome on worke especially the schismaticall party to clamour upon the Parliament with scandalous Petitions and make peremptory demands to the Houses destructive to the Religion Laws Liberties and Properties of the Land and the very foundation of Parliaments to which they extorted what Answers they pleased and got a generall Vote That it was the undoubted right of the Subject to petition and afterwards to acquiesce in the wisdome and justice of the two Houses Yet when upon 16. of May 1648. the whole County of Surrey in effect came in so civill a posture to deliver a Petition to the Houses that they were armed for the most part but with sticks in which Petition there is nothing contained which the Parliament is not bound to make good by their many Declarations and Remonstrances to the people or by the Oaths of Allegiance Supremacy or Nationall Covenant or by the known Lawes of this Land Yet were they 1. Abused by the Souldiers of White-Hall as they passed by where some of them were pulled in and beaten 2. When those Gentlemen of quality that carried the Petition came to Westminster-Hall they found a Guard of Souldiers at the dore uncivilly opposing their entrance to make their addresse to the House 3. When they pressed into the Hall and got up to the Commons dore they were there reviled by the Guard 4. The multitude which stood in the new Palace because some of them did but whoop as others did who were purposely set on work as is conceived to mix with them and disorder them were suddenly surrounded with a strong party of Horse from the Mewes It is reported by some that Sir H. Mildmay Col. Purefoy and the Speaker doubting the House would give too good an Answer to their Petition sent for these Horse Foot and some more Companies of Foot from White-Hall who by the appointment of the Committee of Schismaticks at Derby-house were ready prepared for this designe and catched them as it were in a Toyle and with barbarous and schismaticall rage fell upon these naked un-armed Petitioners flew and wounded many without distinction telling them They were appointed to give an Answer to their Petition and they should have no other as indeed they had not though the Lieutenant Colonel that did all the mischief was called