so be his forces at this present be otherwise so imployed as that they cannot give us that assistance which we here desire and as we think we have deserved yet at the least he will permit us a free and friendly passage through his Territories and Dominions for such forces as we shall send and imploy into Germany for this service of all which disjunctively if you receive not of the King of Spain within ten days at the furthest after your audience and proposition made a direct assurance under his hand and seal without delay or putting us off to further Treaties and Conferences that is to say of such restitution cessation of Arms and proceeding to a generall treaty as is before mentioned or else of assistance and joyning his forces with ours against the Emperour or at least permission of passage for our forces through his said Dominions that then you take your leave and return unto our Presence without further stay otherwise to proceed in the negotiation of the marriage of our Son according to the instruction we have given you Given c. at Hampton Court Octob. 3. 1622. Earl of Bristol to King James Octob. 21. 1622. MAy it please your most excellent Majesty I received your Majesties Letter of the 9. of Septemb the 23. of the same moneth by them understand that your Majesty hath received much satisfaction by what I had formerly written unto your Majesty both concerning the restitution of the Prince Palatine as likewise of this Kings resolution to proceed to the conclusion of the Match but that your Majesty findeth the effects very unsuitable both by the proceeding at Bruxels in the Palatinate as also by what you understand from Rome by Mr. Gage of the Popes demands I hope by the arrival of Mr. Cottington your Majesty will have received satisfaction in some measure at least that there hath been no diligence or time omitted either for the redressing of any thing that hath been amiss or for the advancing of yâ—ur Majesties affairs The very day I received your Letters I sent a Gentleman post unto the King who was gone into the Escurial to demand audience which he presently granted me and I repaired thither unto him upon the third of October the Conde de Gondomar being likewise commanded to wait upon the King I was there well received and presently upon my arrival the Conde de Olivarez came to me to the lodgings which were appointed for me to rest in To him I delivered fully in the presence of Sir Walter Ashton and the Conde de Gondomar what I had to negotiate with the King both in the business of the Match and of the Palatinate In the Match I represented how much it imported your Majesty that a speedy resolution might be taken therein both in regard of the Prince being your Majesties onely son now arrived to the age of 22 years and for the setling of your affairs in England I repeated unto him all the passages in this Treaty how many years had been already spent in it that after so long an expectation the diligences used in Rome for the obtaining of the Dispensation had wrought but small effect since the Pope had lately made such demands as were altogether impossible for your Majesty to condescend unto and therefore your Majesty seeing the business still delayed held it fit that some such course might be taken that both your Majesties might speedily know what you were to trust unto and therfore had comanded me to signifie unto this King your uttermost resolution how far you would condescend in point of Religion towards what the Pope had demanded if herewith this King could be satisfied your Maj. desire that we might proceed to a final and speedy conclusion otherwise that this King would likewise cleerly declare himself that your Majesty might lose no more time in the disposing of the Prince your son Hereunto the Conde de Olivarez answer'd with some length the substance I shall only presume to set down briefly to your Majesty He proposed a sincere intention and resolution in the King to make the Match and that there should not be one day lost for the speedy dispatch thereof imported them as much as your Majesty and to the end that no time may be lost this King had the next day after for Don Balthazar de Zuniga appointed Don Ferdinando de Giron in his place in the Commission That for the going of Mr. Gage from Rome and the Popes demands they were absolutely ignorant of them That the King had done all that I my self desired for the redress of this error That I might assure your Majesty that you shall find all sincerity and cleer proceeding without any houres delay more then of necessity the nature of the business required As for the business of the Palatinate I presented at large the merits of your Majesties proceeding the many promises made from hence yet notwithstanding the whilst your Majesty was treating at Bruxels Heidelberg one of the three places which were only left and where your Majesty had Garrisons was besieged by the Archduke Leopold and Monsieur Tilly that this King had withdrawn his Forces and so exposed the Palatinate absolutely to the Emperor and the Duke of Bavaria The Conde de Olivarez answered me by acknowledging how much your Majesties proceedings had deserved at the Emperor and this Kings hands That whatsoever your Majesty could expect or had been at any time promised should by this King be really performed That the Prince Palatines own courses hitherto had been the only hinderance of the effecting of it That he referred it unto your Majesties own just judgment whether the calling of this Kings forces out of the Palatinate were with any ill intention or meerly for the defence of Flanders which otherwise had been put in great hazard by Count Mansfield as your Majesty saw by what had really passed That the siege of Heidelbergh was no way by the consent or knowledge of this King or any of his Ministers but was generally disapproved by them all I told them I conceived that was not enough for that your Majesty had engaged your self to this King that in case your Son-in-law would not conform himself you would not only forsake him but would declare your self against him and give the Emperor assistance for the reducing of him to reason and that your Majesty could not but expect a like reciprocal proceeding from the King He answered your Majesty should see the Kings sincerity by the effects and that if Heidelbergh should be taken and the Emperor refuse to restore it or to condescend to such accommodation as should be held reasonable this King would infallibly assist your Majesty with his Forces And this he spake with great assurance and wished me to desire your Majesty to be confident you would find nothing but real and sinc ere proceedings from hence I was â—hen presently called for to the King to whom I spake first in the
of this Crown hath taken the godly against the contrary part And at this time the French men have taken part with the Hollanders against your Majesty your piety hath been such that you have sent your Arms against the Rebels of that Crown leaving all the great considerations of State only because those men are enemies of the faith and the Church It wil oblige your Majesty and good occasion to those of the League to make use of the King of France and other Catholique Princes ill affected to this Crown for it will be a thing necessary for them to do so and those even against their own Religion will foment and assist the Heretiques for hatred to us without doubt they will follow the contrary part onely to leave your Majesty with that blemish that never hath befaln any King of these Dominions By the second the King of England will remain offended and disobliged seeing that neither interesses nor hopes do follow the Allyance with this Crown as likewise the pretext of particular resentment for having suffered his daughter and grand-children to be ruined for respect of the said Allyance The Emperour though he be well-affected and obliged to us in making the translation at this time as businesses now stand the Duke of Bavaria being now possessed of all the Dominions although he would dispose all according to our conveniences yet it will not be in his power to do it as you and every body may see And the memoriall that the Emperours Ambassador gave your Majesty yesterday makes it certain since in the List of the Souldiers that every on of the League is to pay he shews your Majesty that Bavier for himself alone will pay more then all the rest joyned together the which doth shew his power and his intention which is not to accommodate matters but to keep to himself the superiority of all in this broken time The Emperour is now in the Dyet and the translation is to be made in it The opposition in this estate is by conserving the means for conference which your Majesties Ministers will do with their capacities zeal and wisdom and it is certain they wil all have enough to do for the difficulty consists to find a way to make the present estate of affairs straight again which with lingring as it is said both the power and time will be lost I suppose that the Emperour as your Majesty knows by his Ambassador desires to marry his daughter with the King of Englands son I doubt not but he will be likewise glad to marry his second daughter with the Palatines son Then I propound that these two marriages be made and that they be set on foot presently giving the King of England full satisfaction in all his propositions for the more strict union and correspondency that he may agree to it I hold for certain that all the conveniences that would have followed the allyance with us wil be as full in this it doth accommodate the matter of the Palatinate and the succession of his grand-children with his honor without drawing a sword or wasting treasure After I would reduce the Prince Elector that was an enemy to the obedience of the Church by breeding his sons in the Emperours Court with Catholique Doctrine The business is great the difficulty greater then perchance have been in any other case I have found my self obliged to represent to your Majesty and to shew if you please to command me what I think fit for the disposing of the things and of the great Ministers that your Majesty hath I hope with the particular notice of these things and all being helped with the good zeal of the Conde de Gondemer it may be that God wil open a way to it a thing so much for his and your Majesties service King James to the Earl of Bristol Octob. 8. 1623. WE have received yours brought us by Gresly and the Copy of yours to our dear Son and we cannot forbear to let you know how well we esteem your dutifull discreet and judicious relation and humble advise to our self and our Son whereupon having ripely deliberated with our self and communicated with our dear Son we have resolved with the great liking of our Son to rest upon that security in point of doubt of the Infanta's taking a Religious house which you in your judgment shall think meet We have further thought meet to give you knowledge that it is our special desire that the betrothing of the Infanta with words de praesenti should be upon one of the dayes in Christmass new stile that holy and joyfull time best fitting so notable and blessed an action But first we will that you repair presently to that King and give him knowledge of the safe arrival of our dear Son to our Court so satisfied and taken with the great entertainments personal kindness favour and respect he hath received from that King and Court as he seems not able to magnifie it sufficiently which makes us not know how sufficiently to give thanks but we will that by all means you endeavour to express our thankfulness to that King and the rest to whom it belongs in the best and most ample manner you can And hereupon you may take occasion to let that King know that according to our constant affection to make a firm and indissoluble amity between our Families Nations and Crowns and not seem to abandon our honour nor at the same time we give joy to our onely Son to give our onely Daughter her portion in tears By the advice of that Kings Ambassadors we have entred a Treaty concerning the restitution of the Palatinate as will more particularly appear to you by the copies herewith sent Now we must remember you that we ever understood and expected that upon the marriage of our son with the Infanta we should have a clear restitution of the Palatinate Electoral dignity to our son-in-law to be really procured by that King according to the obligation of our honor as you have wel expressed in your reasons why the person of our Son-in-law should not be left out of the Treaty but that the Emperor should findout a great title or by increasing the number of Electorate stiles wherewith to satisfie the Duke of Bavaria We now therfore require you that presently in your first audience you procure from that King a punctual answer what course that King will take for the restitution of the Palatinate and Electorate to our Son-in-law and in case that either the Emperor or the Duke of Bavaria oppose any part of the expected restitution what course that King will take to give us assurance for our content in that point whereof we require your present answer and that you so press expedition herein that we may all together receive the full joy of both in Christmass resting our self upon that faithfull diligence of yours we have approved in all your service Though almost with the latest we must remember to
but must doe businesse where it findes none It crosses the Sea and passes over the Alpes without my consent and because there is nothing to doe at France it goes to seeke some at Constantinople at Madrid at Lâ—ndon and at Montauban Now to the end you may not thinke me a lyer and that under an honest pretext I would palliate a reproveable idlenesse I am going to write you the adventures of my yesterdaies walk and speak to you in the same stile and the same sort as I rave While the King is busied to make warre the King of Spaine passeth his time with Ladies and into places that may not honestly be named I will give no judgment upon the different inclination of these two Princes but I very well know that so long as they live in that fashion the King of Spaine shal take no Townes nor the King of France the Pox. You have surely heard it reported that the Polanders have defeated the Turks Army which was composed of two hundred thousand Combatants the halfe whereof lay dead upon the place It must necessarily be granted that but he only after such a losse could make such a second and that he hath a source of men that cannot be drawn dry either by warres by plagues or by any other ill disposition of the aire seeing that in the abundance of all things that his Empire produces there is nothing at so low a price as the lives of souldiers When I dream that the Duke of Bouillon is shut up in Sedan from whence he cannot come forth to goe and make his partie I imagine to my selfe a poore mother standing upon the brink of a River seeing her sonne slaine on the other side neither being able to help him or bid him farewel never was man so assaulted with such diversity of thoughts nor opprest with unprofitable cares one while it vexes him that sufficient resistance was not made at St. Jehan de Angeli and again I find that they made not use of the advantage which they might have taken At one and the same time I would have been at Montauban to defend and in England to get succour for it But why dwels so great a spirit in a body that hath no more heate in it then a feaver gives it and which is never removed but by Amber-Greece and Phisick It s known that the better part of it dwels in the history of troubles and that in this world it holds but the place of another In the mean time the affaires of the Rebels grow to ruine and if they make any small attempts it is not that their hopes increase nor their courage strengthens but it is Gods will that they shall not have either victory or peace The Duke of Bouillon sees all this not being able to remedy and if sometimes to divert his spirit from so vexing an object he thinks to seek some comfort out of the kingdome and amongst strangers affaires of one side he discovers a puissant Army under the conduct of Spinola which threatens all Germany and of the other side he sees his Nephew whom from having been Count Palatine and King of Bohemia is become pensioner to the Hollanders and a Gentleman of the Prince of Orange his traine as the beasts in time past were wont to be crowned which ought to be sacrificed so fortune presented a Kingdome to this poor man to the end he should lose his life but not to lie he hath shewed himselfe craftier then she and fled so we he could never be overtaken Notwithstanding to speak home the gaine which he got by not dying at the battaile of Prague is not so great as the reproach which shall be cast upon him for living by his owne fault and for having witnessed to all the people of the world that the end of his desires was only to attaine to be old and without doubt as it is a great advantage to be the Grand-child of an usurper so there is not a more miserable condition then to have been a King and now to be no more but the subject or tragedy to playes Let men then as much as they please praise the designes of this man and his good intention I for my part find nothing so easie as to fly and lose and posterity shall put him rather in the number of theeves that have been punished then of conquerours which have triumphed upon the earth Since it is true that the persecution ceases in England and that the King wearieth himself with giving us Martyrs it may be that within a short time he will altogether set soules at liberty that stil makes one step to his mother Church As for my part I despaire not of this great conversion that all honest men will with salt tears desire this from heaven knowing to the contrary that he hath a reasonable spirit and may be perswaded upon a thing that he determined on I assure my selfe that he studies every day the truth of the instructions the great Cardinall Peron left him See King James his Remonstrance against Cardi Peron and that that will be the strongest in his Kingdomes assoon as his Conscience authority better reestablished then his His predecessors knew not how to reigne in regard of him no not she that plaid with so many heads and who was more happy then needful for the Christian Common-wealth It is certain that heretofore England believed in God but this day it only believes in its Prince and Religion makes but a part of the obedience yeilded unto him in so much that if he would but set in the place of all the points of Faith all the fables of Poesie he should find in his subjects complying enough to bring them to his will and perswade himself that he may make all things just that he does and all things culpaple that he condemns his Authority came not so far at the first stroake and there must be time to make men lose * The way for Romish Conversion reason but at this time when all spâ—rits are vanquished and that the great beliefe that he hath given of his judgment takes away the liberty of theirs they can imagine nothing above the wisdome of thâ— King and without medling with any thing that passes between God and him they believe that if he command them to tread under foot all the Holy things and to violate all the Lawes all that was but for the safety of their Consciences But it is to be believed that this Divine providence which conducts things to their ends by means which in apparance are contrary will use the bloodinesse of this people to procure their salvation and cause them to come again into the Church by the same doore they went out of it And since the hearts of Kings are in the hands of God there wants nothing but a good motion sent unto him to build againe the Altars which he hath beaten downe and at one clap to turne to the true Religion the
implore your assistance having once laid down their weapons which the oppression of their enemies made so necessary because they knew such was your desire to take them up again so soon as they heard that your Majesty did oblige them thereunto by your Counsel and Promises they have upon this only assurance continued all dangers surmounted all oppositions accounted their estates as nothing and are still ready to spend their bloud till the very last drop they esteem your love and favour more precious then their own lives and whatsoever promises or threatnings have been used to shake their constant resolution they could never be brought to make any breach in that they had tyed themselves to never to hear of any Treaty without your consent This great zeal for the preservation of all the Churches of this Kingdome which is naturally knit to the preservation of these few we have left and that fidelity with our example are worthy and glorious subjects to exercise your Charity and Power You are Sir Defender of that Faith whereof they make profession suffer it not to be so unjustly oppressed you have stirred up their affection in this defence by your royal promises and those Sacred words that your Majesty would imploy all the power in your Dominions to warrant and protect all our Churches from the ruine that threatned them have been after Gods favour the onely foundation of all their hope so the Churches should thinke no greater a Crime could be committed by them then doubt of your Royal performance thereof if their miseries and Calamities have at the beginning moved your Compassion This wofull subject hath increased with such violence that nothing but your succor can prevent their utter undoing for at this day the greatest offence our Enemies lay to our Charge and proclaim nothing can expiate but our blood is to have implored your aid and hope for it for this cause our Lands and Possessions are taken away and destroyed our houses made desolate and reduced to ashes our heads exposed to sale to murtherers our families banished and wheresoever the cruelty of them that hate us can extend men and women are dragged and beaten to Mass with Bastinadoes To be short the horrour of the persecution we suffer is so great that our words are too weak to express it Moreover we see great and mighty Armies at our Gates that waite their onely fit time to fall with impetuosity upon the places of retreat that remain and after that to expel and banish the exercise of Religion and massacre all the faithfull ones throughout the whole kingdomes These things considered Sir I do beseech your Majesty not to forsake us I should feare by such words to offend so great so potent and so faithfull a king But because of urgent necessity that presseth us I have presumed importunately to intreat the hastening of your assistance to keep us from falling under the heavy burthen of our Enemies endeavors Your Majesty need not to draw but out of the source of your own profound wisedom for the fit meanes how to make your succor dreadfull and powerfull to those that contemne it and salutiferous to so many people that wait and long for it Your Majesty shall by this meanes acquire the greatest glory that can be desired pluck out from the fire and sword three hundred thousand families that continually pray to God for your prosperity preserve a people whom God hath purchased with his most pretious blood and which hath even in the middest of most eminent dangers and cruellest torments kept intire a sound and an upright faith both towards God and man you shall settle the fidelity of your word the reputation of your kingdomes and Armes to a pitch worthy of your grandeur and in repressing of the audaciousness of those that go about every day to blemish the same through their vile and unworthy reproches you shal add to your titles that of the Restorer of a people the most innocent and most barbarously persecuted that ever was In that which concerns me Sir I will not make mention to your Majesty of my owne Interest though I might doe it having as it seems the honor to be unto you what I am but I have so long since consecrated all things with my selfe to the publicke good that I shall esteeme my self happie enough so that the Church were not miserably distressed and that I may have this advantage that through my actions which your Majestie will not disavow I may make it known that I am Your Majesties most humble and most obedient servant Henry de Rohan Pope Gregory the 15 to the Inquisitor-General of Spain April 19. 1623. Venerable Brother THe protection of the Orthodox Religion in the most spacious Kingdoms of Spain we think to be happily committed to your Fraternity for we know with what watchful vigilancie in this renowned station you are careful that Monsters of wicked doctrine steal not into the bounds of the Church and Vine But at this time occasion from heaven is offered you by which you may extend the benefits of your piety beyond the bounds of those Kingdoms and extend them also to forraign Countries We understand that the Prince of Wales the King of Great Britains son is lately arrived there carried with a hope of Catholike Marriage Our desire is that he should not stay in vain in the Courts of those Kings to whom the defence of the Popes authority and care of advancing Religion hath procured the renowned name of Catholique Wherefore by Apostolike Lettets we exhort his Catholike Majestie that he would gently endeavour sweetly to reduce that Prince to the obedience of the Romane Church to which the ancient Kings of Great Britain have with heavens approbation submitted their Crowns and Scepters Now to the attaining of this victory which to the conquered promiseth triumphs and principalities of heavenly felicity we need not exhaust the Kings treasure nor levie Armies of furious souldiers but we must fetch from heaven the armour of Light whose divine splendor may allure that Princes eye and gently expel all errours from his minde Now in the managing of these businesses what power and art you have we have well known long ago wherefore we wish you to go like a religious Counsellor to the Catholike King and to try all ways which by this present occasion may benefit the Kingdoms of Britain and the Church of Rome The matter is of great weight and moment and therefore not to be amplified with words Whosoever shall enflame the minde of this Royal youth with the love of the Catholike Religion and breed a hate in him of Heretical impiety shall begin to open the Kingdom of heaven to the Prince of Britain and to gain the Kingdoms of Britain to the Apostolike See into the possession of so great glory I make no doubt but that your Fraternity armed with the sword of Verity will be desirous to come About which matter our venerable brother Innocent Bishop of
redresse thereof if need be of all which points we shall expect to have your Reports with what diligence and expedition you may Dated at Theobalds Octob. 3d. 1621. The Archbishop of York to King James May it please your Majestie I Have been too long silent and am afraid that by silence I have neglected the duty of the place it hath pleased God to call me unto and your Majestie to place me in But now I humbly beseech that I may discharge my Conscience towards God and my dutie towards your Majestie And therefore I beseech you Sir to give me leave freely to deliver my self and then let it please your Majestie to do with me as you please Your Majestie hath propounded a Toleration of Religion I beseech you to take into your Consideration what your Act is and what the Consequence may be By your act you labour to set up that most damnable and heretical doctrine of the Church of Rome the Whore of Babylon How hateful will it be to God and grievous to your Subjects the true professours of the Gospel that your Majestie who hath often defended and learnedly written against those wicked heresies should now shew your self a Patron of those doctrines which your Pen hath told the world and your Conscience tells your self are superstitious idolatrous and detestable Also what you have done in sending the Prince without Consent of your Councel and the privitie and approbation of your People For although Sir you have a large interest in the Prince as the Son of your flesh yet have your People a greater as the Son of the Kingdom upon whom next after your Majestie are their eyes fixed and their Welfare defends And so slenderly is his going apprehended that believe Sir how ever his return may be safe yet the drawers of him unto that action so dangerous to himself so desperate to the Kingdome will not passe away unquestioned and unpunished Besides this Tolleration you endeavour to set up by your Proclamation it cannot be done without a Parliament unlesse your Majestie will let your Subjects see that you now take unto your self a libertie to throw down the Lawes of the Land at your pleasure What dreadful Consequence these things may draw after I beseech your Majestie to Consider And above all lest by this Tolleration and discountenance of the true profession of the Gospel wherewith God hath blessed us and under which this Kingdome hath flourished these many years your Majestie doth draw upon the Kingdom in general and your self in particular Gods heavy wrath and indignation Thus in discharge of my dutie to your Majestie and the place of my Calling I have taken the humble boldnesse to deliver my Conscience And now Sir Do with me what you please Next of all in order follow the Letters that passed between the King and his Agents about the Spanish Transactions The first Letter written per anonymum brings newes of the Princes arrival The Copy of a Letter sent from Spain concerning the Princes arrival there c. I Presume his Highnesse being now returned you may by Conference have such choice and free relations of his proceedings in Spain that I may well hold my Pen it being not priviledged with that freedom that the tongue is yet to comply with that constant obligation I purpose still to owe you I will write something and point at some passages where others perhaps may not so punctually inform you The Prince's coming hither seemed not so strange as acceptable and pleasing unto all The Common sort expressed it by extraordinary shouts and acclamations of joy offering and marrying the Infanta as it were presently by publique voice as having wonne and truly deserved her by so brave an adventure The King and State studied how to do him all the honour that might be The first decree that the Councel of State made was that at all occasions of meetings he should have the precedencie of the King That he should make entrie into the Palace in the form of State as the Kings of Spain do in the first day of their Coronation That he should have one of the chief Quarters of the Kings House for his lodgings one hundred of the Guard to attend him all the Councel to obey him as the Kings own person All prisoners were released the new Proclamation against excesse in apparel revoked and sundry other arguments of joy But a wonder lasteth not but for nine daies This universal joy was grounded upon hopes that the Prince came not onely to fetch a wife but also to make himself a Catholique Say you so The Pope incited him hereunto by Letters which his Nuntio delivered He sent a charge to the inquisitor general to use all possible diligence herein Many processions and shewes were made to stirre him But they soon saw how improbable it was to win him For which God be thanked how amongst all his servants there was not one Catholique about him what slight esteem they made of the Churches and Religion here some committing irreverent and scandalous actions in the Kings own Chappel so that they began to behold the English with an ill aspect to inveigh against the Conde de Gundomar that he should inform the King and State that the Prince had a disposition easie to be wrought upon to be made a Catholique Adde hereunto the ill offices that the Irish do who to preserve themselves in the Spanish pension did prejudice the businesse by casting aspersions upon the English the mis-information of the persecution in their Country and in England notwithstanding being here and the abuse of the Ambassadours servants in London When the Prince came there wanted nothing for the final consummation of all things but the dispensation which came two moneths after And whereas it was expected to come absolute and full it came infringed with Cautions and limitations viz. That the Infanta should not be married till matters in England were in perfect execution that in case the King of England could not give sufficient security the King of Spain himself should swear and undertake the oath for him Hereupon a Junto of Divines was appointed to determine hereof Whether the King might do this with a safe Conscience or no. These Divines went gravely and tediously to work which put the Prince upon that impatiency that he was upon point of departure When at last the businesse came to a resolution and so the Match was publiquely declared The Prince had then often though publiquely accesse to the Infanta the King being still himself present and in hearing After this a Ratification was sent for from Rome but the Pope dying in the interim and the new Pope falling suddenly sick it could not be speedily procured For want of this Ratification there was no Contract made and the Prince himself seemed not to desire it A little before his departure the King and the Councel of State with the Patriarch of the Indies the Prince-Prelate after the Bishop of
is most necessary here for home-affairs for your absence hath caused too great insolencie in the Court by such as bear themselves very loftily and insuâ— very much over yours especially your poore servant Mewtis is much threatned as being yours and must suffer till you come back Some other things likewise are otherwise carried in your absence then would be in your presence therefore for Gods sake return but with the Prince and count delayes denyals And the longer you stay there the stronger you make them and your selves the weaker My Lord of Bristol hath a great and more powerful party in Court then you imagine in so much that I am confident were the King a newter he would prevail and I do not much marvail at it for you trust upon the honour and justification of all your actions desirous to make no friends because you need none but he deales with a great deal of cautelous wisedom and as he hath wrought into the Kings opinion by reason of some pleasing services so hath he into all those who are about the King or powerful that they may better his good services and smother his bad Besides the man who is suspitious as he must needs be hath far greater care of after-reckonings how to make fair glosses then he who doth all things with the avowment of all honour and the only intent of service to his King and Country It grieves me I am not thought worthie to hear from you any word by these last messengers especially being promised the imployment from which I was put Farewell dear Lord and the Almightes protection be upon our unmatchable Prince upon whose worth and brave atchievements all eyes are fixed and the same protection light upon you his right hand and give you the good fortune to make as brave a return as you did voyage thither to the eternal praise of your future memories And upon these hopes I rest happie to think my self Yours H. R. Sir George Carie to the Marquesse of Buckingham 8. December 1619. Your Lordship VVIll be satisfied before this of mine will have the happinesse to kisse your noble hands that the great Mysterie of iniquity in the Star-chamber is now revealed and as many as could be discerned to have the mark of the beast upon them have undergone their censure Some I must confesse and great fishes too have broken out of the nett But that escape must be objected to the errours of some of the pursuers whose courses in some things were not enough direct to warrant what otherwise might have been done And your Lordship who is a good Woodman well knowes unlesse the Wind-lace be well carried the Bowes which stand up can never shoot Notwithstanding all the defaults of the meaner Agents the Court maintaining the honour of their own uprightnesse and integritie hath with moderation too yet such as leaves subject to his Majesties mercy to work upon some particulars raised in Fine some 130000 l. or thereabouts If no errours had been committed whereupon those Defendants which escaped took advantage to be safe by this which is done you may imagine what it would have amounted to For my part I rejoyce to conceive how with the shortest of the daies we are at the worst of our estate hoping by this means with the return of the Sun to see some such return of the money the riches of his Majesties Treasurie and bloud of the Common-Wealth as that the Exchequer may flow and the Veins of the State may fill again and both with the Spring renew their strength lustre and complexion I have now stayed here so long attending this businesse that I hold it too late to wait upon you at Newmarket That gives me cause to crave your pardon for this presuming imperfect Accompt of this daies action and withal to desire the assurance that I live in your estimation the same I will ever be Your Lordships Most sincerely honest and humble servent G. Cary. To King James ab ignoto Your Majestie BOth in the eminencie of your regal dignitie and in the excellencie of your judgment doth truly represent the common sense whose part it is to judge and discern of all things whereas the other senses do but report their particular objects And in that manner do I humbly offer to your Majesties Consideration in this importune Chrisis of the affairs of Christendom so much as I have observed in France that may now concern your service in which place I have been heretofore imployed in your affaires And first considering the present estate of things in France and weighing against it the seizure made of the Valtoline by the King of Spain the late invasion of the Palatinate and now this new defeat arrived in Bohemia I do put this for an infallible ground that either the King of France will resolve out of jealousie of the progressions of the house of Austria effectually to succour the Palatinate or else abandoning the affairs of Germany to their own successe and neglecting the increase of the house of Austria on that side he will think more then to recompence himself by taking this opportunity to extinguish the body of those of the Religion in France And as undoubtedly he will resolve on one of those two points so on both of them for sundry reasons he cannot To move him to the succour of the Palatinate the main motive will be the jealousie between those two Monarchies which can never die so long as they do both subsist in no greater a disproportion of strength and power As also that France shall by their usurpation of the Palatinate be on all sides Circled by the house of Austria and particularly on that part where France hath before usurped on the Empire in which regard his interest of estate is greater then your Majesties in the Conservation of the Palatinate though your personal interest be incomparable with his Then he cannot but think of the losse of his Correspondencies and breach of his Confederacies in Germany which have been very ancient and very particular with the house of the Palatine And if the reason of mutual gratitude and vindication of injuries may move Frenchmen there are plentiful arguments on both kinds to move them to defend the House of the Palatine against that of Austria But now on the other side to move him against those of the Religion at home first doth present it self his successeful beginning against them in the businesse of Bearn then which nothing could be more unjust both in regard of the matter it self and of his own faith and promise and of the desert of those of the Religion towards him in these late troubles nor could any thing be more suddenly or violently I do not say cruelly executed then that was And again the present tearms wherein that King and those of the Religion do stand will push him on Then there will not want to this purpose the powerful perswasions of the Pope and his adherents both by propounding
accompanied with Angels most piously reverenced the Lord of Lords and the Prince of the Apostles in his Chair Their works and examples are mouthes wherewith God speaks and warneth you that you should imitate their customes in whose Kingdomes you succeed Can you suffer that they be called Heretiques and condemned for wicked men when the faith of the Church testifieth that they reign with Christ in Heaven and are exalted above all the Princes of the Earth and that they at this time reached you their hands from that most blessed Country and brought you safely to the Court of the Catholique King and desire to turn you to the womb of the Romane Church wherein praying most humbly with most unspeakable groans to the God of mercy for your salvation to reach you the arms of Apostolical charity to imbrace most lovingly your children so often desired and to poynt out as it were with a finger the blessed hopes of Heaven And truly you could do no act of greater comfort to all Nations of Christendom then to return the possession of those most Noble Isles to the Prince of the Apostles whose authority for so many ages was held in England for the defence of the Kingdom and divine Oracle which will not be uneasie to do if you open your breast upon which depends the prosperity of those Kingdoms to God who is knocking And we have so great desire of the honour and exaltation of your Royal Name that we wish that you should be called through thee whole world together with your most Serene Father the Freer of Great Britain and restorer of her antient Religion Whereof we will not lose all hopes putting them in mind in whose hands the hearts of Kings lie and he that rules all nations of the world by whose Grace we will with all possible diligence labour to effect it And you cannot choose but acknowledge in these Letters the care of our Apostolical charity to procure your happinesse which it will never repent us to have written if the reading thereof shall at leastwise stir some sparks of Catholique religion in the heart of so Great a Prince who we desire may injoy Eternal comfors and flourish with the Glorie of all virtues Given in Rome in the Palace of St. Peter the 20. of April 1623. In the third of our Pontificado The Princes answer to the Popes Nuntio that brought him this Letter I Kisse his Holinesse Feet for the favour and honour he doth me so much the more esteemed by how much the lesse deserved of me hitherto And his Holinesse shall see what I do hereafter and I think my Father will do the like So that his Holinesse shall not repent him of what he hath done The Prince of Wales his Reply to the Popes Letter Most Holy Father I Received the Dispatch from your Holinesse with great content and with that respect which the pietie and care wherewith your Holinesse writes doth require It was an unspeakable pleasure to me to read the generous exploits of the Kings my predecessours in whose memorie posterity hath not given those praises and Elogies of honour as were due to them I do believe that your Holinesse hath set their examples before my eyes to the end I might imitate them shall my actions for in truth they have often exposed their estates and lives for the exaltation of the holy Chair and the courage with which they have assaulted the enemies of the Crosse of Jesus Christ hath not been lesse then the care and thought which I have to the end that the peace and intelligence which hath hitherto been wanting in Christendom might be bound with a true and strong concord for as the common enemy of the peace watcheth alwaies to put hatred and dissention amongst Christian Princes so I believe that the glory of God requires that we should endeavour to unite them And I do not esteem it a greater honour to be descended from so great Princes then to imitate them in the zeal of their piety In which it helps me very much to have known the mind and will of our thrice honoured Lord and Father and the holy intentions of his Catholique Majestie to give a happy concurrence to so laudable a design for it grieves him exceedingly to see the great evils that grow from the division of Christian Princes which the wisdom of your Holinesse foresaw when it judged the marriage which you pleased to design between the Infanta of Spain and my self to be necessary to procure so great a good for 't is very certain that I shall never be so extreamly affectionate to any thing in the world as to endeavour alliance with a Prince that hath the same apprehension of the true Religion with my self Therefore I intreat your Holinesse to believe that I have been alwaies very far from Novelties or to be a partisan of any faction against the Catholick Apostolick Roman Religion But on the contrary I have sought all occasions to take away the suspition that might rest upon me and that I will imploy my self for the time to come to have but one Religion and one Faith seeing that we all believe in one Jesus Christ Having resolved in my self to spare nothing that I have in the world and to suffer all manner of discommodities even to the hazarding of my estate and life for a thing so pleasing unto God It rests onely that I thank your Holinesse for the permission you have been pleased to afford me and I pray God to give you a blessed health and his glory after so much pains which your Holinesse takes in his Church Signed Charles Steward The Pope to the Duke of Buckingham Gregorie P. P. XV. Nobleman health and the light of Divine Grace THe authority wherein we have understood your Noblenesse to flourish in the Brittish Court is accounted not onely the reward of your merits but also the patronage of virtue certainly an excellent renown and every way so worthy that the people desire a diuturnity to be annexed unto it But it is almost ineffable what an increase of glory thoroughout the world would be annexed unto it if by Gods favour it should become the defence of Catholique Religion Certainly you have gained an opportunity by which you may insert your self into the Councels of those Princes who obtaining an immortal name have attained the Celestial Kingdom Suffer not then O Nobleman this occasion presented to you from God and commended by the Bishop of Rome to slip out of your hands You that are privie to their royal Councels cannot choose but know in what estate the affaires of Brittain at this time stand and with what voyces of the Holy Ghost speaking in them they daily sound in the ears of your Princes What Glorie would redound unto your Name if by your exhortation and perswasion the English Kings should again recover their Celestial inheritance of that Glorie left unto them by their Ancestours in those Kingdomes in abundant manner by providing for
King of Spain touching the affaires of Holland the secresie whereof neverthelesse your Majestie had so recommended that besides the King and the Conde of Olivares no man in Spain knew of it If the Duke do not appear guilty of all these things let him be still your Majesties most faithful servant and let your Majestie yet confer upon him greater Honours if you can For I would have these things conceived to be spoken for the securitie of your Majestie not for the hurt of him to whom I wish prosperitie if by him the Christian world might be in prosperitie It onely remaineth that your Majestie will be pleased to take in good part this my service and obedience shewed to your Commandements To the King ab ignoto Best and most excellent King YOu will wonder that he who at first protesteth to be neither Papist nor Puritan Spaniard nor Hollander or yet in any delirium fit should presume in this Libel-like way to lay down to your Majestie the strong zeal he beareth to the safetie of your Majestie and his Countrie by shewing in this dark Tablet drawn by the worst Painter the common opinion of all those which are not possessed as above They say the businesse of greatest consequence that ever your Majestie handled is now at point to go well or ill The marriage or none and as it is carried a present War or a continued Peace The match of your son they wish you may perfect in your own time and think that for the quiet of your self and Kingdomes the shortest time the best And that this already traced will far sooner piece then any new one have beginning and accomplishment They fear this suspension carried by Killegrew was brought by Buckingham not for what he pretends and plainly say It was not onely to prevent his Highnesse marriage there but any where Whereby 1. His particular greatnesse may still stand absolute 2. His Wife and Tribe still present the Princesse person 3. And your Majestie be and remain their Pupil The Parliament so much urged they say is to be a marrying his Mightinesse unto the Common Weal that as your Majestie is his good Father It may be his Mother and so he stand not only by the King but by the People and popular humour that he hath lately so earnestly courted and especially from those who are noted to be of the most troubled humour How your Majestie should gain upon a Parliament they cannot imagine seeing all are resolved to sell your Courtesies at the dearest rate both by ill words and for double as much again the humour of it being so inconstant that twenty to one but those very tongues which in the last did cry War War War will now curse him that urgeth for one poor Subsidie to raise a War And miserable is he that is to make a War or to defend against it with money that is to be given and gathered from them They say our Great Duke hath certainly a brave desire to War but in that also he hath some great end of enriching himself which he too well loveth being carried away with that sweet sound how Nottingham gained yearly during that sicknesse 40000 l. by his Admirals place but what his Majestie gained they find not in the Exchequer or Kingdome Somewhat also they fear this his Graces precipitate humour and change of humour hath of pride to shew his power as great here as is Olivares his there as also of revenge against him in particular For were it love to his now much beloved Countrie they say there was as much reason for breach both of the Match and Peace when the Parliament urged it as there is now They say There is a rumour of his Graces a match for his Mary with the young Palatine It is no Gorgon and will concern his Highnesse if they that are now our best friends the Hollanders should change their Copie In this his Highnesse coming off from Spain they say He hath advised him to no worse then he did himself for how many did he deflour abuse and cousen with marriage by his grace in Court and power with your Majestie In short your Subjects that have sence of your estate do most earnestly beseech your Majestie to have more especial care of your own preservation then ordinarily you have both in respect of the desperate staggering which their Priests now stand in and of your own Phaeton himself who in truth wanteth nothing of man enough but a good nature and being in custome to carry all with a high hand must be desperate if he fail in any Punto of his violent will We know your Majestie according to the sweetnesse and virtue of your Nature agreeing with Gods blessed Will hath long preserved your people in all peace and plentie And all good and sensible people pray you even for Gods sake not to be cousened of your own life and liberty Oh be not mislead to trouble your own Kingdoms quiet but that after many and many a happie year you may die happily in peace To his Sacred Majestie ab ignoto May it please his most excellent Majestie to consider THat this great opposition against the Duke of Buckingham is stirred up and maintained by such who either malitiously or ignorantly and concurrently seek the debasing of this free Monarchie which because they find not yet ripe to attempt against the King himself they endeavour it through the Dukes side These men though agreeing in one mischief yet are of divers sorts and humours viz. 1. Medling and busie persons who took their first hint at the beginning of King James when the union was treated of in Parliament That learned King gave too much way to those popular speeches by the frequent proof he had of his great abilities in that kind Since the time of H. 6. these Parliamentary discoursings were never suffered as being the certain symptomes of subsequent rebellions civil Wars and the dethroning of our Kings But these last 20 years most of the Parliament men seek to improve the reputation of their wisdomes by these Declamations and no honest Patriot dare oppose them lest he incur the reputation of a Fool or a Coward in his Countries Cause 2. Covetous Landlords Inclosers Depopulators and Justices of the Peace who have got a habit of Omniregencie and an hope to extend the same against the King in Parliament as they do on his Subjects in the Countrey Hereby the King loseth 24000 l. in every whole Subsidie for Anno 1600. it was 80000 l. and now it is but 56000 l. which cometh by the decay of the yeomandry who were three and four pound men And these Gentlemen most of them of the Parliament do ease themselves to afflict those who are the true Commons and yet perswade them that the grievances are caused by the Duke and the ill government of the King 3. Recusants and Church Papists whose hatred is irreconcileable against the Duke for the breach of the Spanish Match The
and Subscriptions when they descended into that vile and base means of defacing the Government of the Church by ridiculous Pasquils when they began to make many Subjects in doubt to take an Oath which is one of the fundamental points of Justice in this Land and in all places when they began both to vaunt of their strength and number of their partizans and followers and to use the communications that their Cause would prevail though with uprore and violence then it appeared to be no more zeal no more conscience but meer faction and division And therefore though the State were compelled to hold somwhat a harder hand to restrain them then before yet it was with as great moderation as the peace of the Church and State could permit And therefore to conclude consider uprightly of these matters and you shall see her Majesty is no Temporizer in Religion It is not the success abroad nor the change of servants here at home can alter her only as the things themselves alter so she applied her religious wisdom to correspond unto them still retaining the two rules before mentioned in dealing tenderly with consciences and yet in discovering Faction from Conscience Farewell Your loving Friend Francis Walsingham Sir Francis Bacon to the Earl of Essex when Sir Robert Cecil was in France My singular good Lord I Do write because I have not yet had time fully to express my conceit nor now to attend you touching Irish matters considering them as they may concern the State that it is one of the aptest particulars that hath come or can come upon the stage for your Lordship to purchase honour upon I am moved to think for three reasons Because it is ingenerate in your House in respect of my Lord your Fathers noble attempts because of all the accidents of State at this time the labour resteth most upon that and because the world will make a kind of comparison between those that set it out of frame and those that shall bring it into frame which kind of honour giveth the quickest kind of reflection The transferring this honour upon your self consisteth in two points The one if the principal persons imployed come in by you and depend upon you the other if your Lordship declare your self to undertake a care of that matter For the persons it falleth out well that your Lordship hath had no interest in the persons of imputation For neither Sir William Fitz-Williams nor Sir John Norris was yours Sir William Russel was conceived yours but was curbed Sir Coniers Clifford as I conceive it dependeth upon you who is said to do well and if my Lord of Ormond in this interim do accommodate well I take it he hath always had good understanding with your Lordship So as all things are not only whole and entire but of favourable aspect towards your Lordship if you now chuse well wherein in your wisdom you will remember there is a great difference in choice of the persons as you shall think the affairs to incline to composition or to war For your care-taking popular conceit hath been that Irish causes have been much neglected whereby the very reputation of better care will be a strength And I am sure her Majesty and my Lords of the Councel do not think their care dissolved when they have chosen whom to imploy but that they will proceed in a spirit of State and not leave the main point to discretion Then if a Resolution be taken a Consultation must proceed and the Consultation must be governed upon Information to be had from such as know the place and matters in fact And in taking of information I have always noted there is a skill and a wisdom For I cannot tell what accompt or inquiry hath been taken of Sir William Russel of Sir Ralph Bingham of the Earl of Tomond of Mr. Wilbraham but I am of opinion much more would be had of them if your Lordship shall be pleased severally to confer not obiter but expresly upon some Caveat given them to think of it before for bene docet qui prudenter interrogat For the points of opposing them I am too much a stranger to the business to deduce them but in a Topique methinks the pertinent interrogations must be either of the possibility and means of Accord or of the nature of the War or of the reformation of the particular abuses or of the joyning of practice with force in the disunion of the Rebels If your Lordship doubt to put your sickle in others mens harvests yet consider you have these advantages First Time being fit to you in Mr. Secretaries absence Next Vis unita fortior Thirdly â—he business being mixt with matters of war it is fittest for you Lastly I know your Lordship will carry it with that modesty and respect towards aged Dignity and that good correspondencie towards my dear Ally and your good friend now abroad as no inconveniencie may grow that way Thus have I plaid the ignorant Statesman which I do to no body but your Lordship except I do it to the Queen sometimes when she trains me on But your Lordship will accept my duty and good meaning and secure me touching the privateness of that I write Your Lordships to be commanded FR. BACON Sir Francis Bacon to the Earl of Essex concerning the Earl of Tyrone THose advertisements which your Lordship imparted to me and the like I hold to be no more certain to make judgment upon then a Patients water to a Physitian Therefore for me upon one water to make a judgment were indeed like a foolish bold Mountebank or Doctor Birket Yet for willing duties sake I will set down to your Lordship what opinion sprung in my mind upon that I read The Letter from the Councel there leaning to distrust I do not much rely upon for three causes First because it is always both the grace and the safety from blame of such a Councel to erre in caution whereunto add that it may be they or some of them are not without envy towards the person who is used in treating the Accord Next because the time of this Treaty hath no shew of dissimulation for that Tyrone is now in no straits but like a Gamester that will give over because he is a winner not because he hath no more mony in his purse Lastly I do not see but those Articles whereupon they ground their suspition may as well proceed out of fear as out of falshood for the reteining of the dependance of the protracting the admission of a Sheriffe the refusing to give his son for hostage the holding from present repair to Dublin the refusing to go presently to accord without including O Donell and others his associates may very well come of a guilty reservation in case he should receive hard measure and not out of treachery so as if the great person be faithfull and that you have not here some present intelligence of present succours from Spain
profitable order Secondly that every Bishop ordain in his Diocess that every Lecturer do read Divine Service according to the Liturgy printed by authority in his Surplice and Hood before the Lecture Thirdly That where a Lecture is set up in a Market Town it may be read by a company of grave and Orthodox Divines neer adjoyning and in the same Diocess and that they preach in Gowns not in Cloaks as too many use to do Fourthly That if a Corporation do maintain a single Lecturer he be not suffered to preach till he professe his willingnesse to take upon him a living with cure of souls within that Incorporation and that he actually take such Benefice or Cure so soon as it shall be fairly procured for him Fifthly That the Bishops do countenance and encourage the grave Orthodox Divines of their Clergy and that they use means by some of the Clergy or others that they may have knowledge how both Lecturers and Preachers within their Diocess do behave themselves in their Sermons that so they may take order for any abuse accordingly Sixthly That the Bishops suffer none under Noblemen or men qualified by Law to have any private Chaplain in his house Seventhly That they take speciall care that Divine Service be diligently frequented as well for Prayers and Catechismes as for Sermons and take particular note of all such as absent themselves as Recusants or others Eighthly That every Bishop that by our grace and favour and good opinion of his service shall be nominated by us to another Bishoprick shall from that day of nomination not presume to make any Lease for three lives or one and twenty years or concurrent Lease or any way renew any estate or cut any Wood or Timber but meerly receive his Rents due and to quit the place For we think it an hatefull thing that any man leaving the Bishoprick should almost undo his Successor And if any man shall presume to break this Order We will refuse him Our Royall assent and keep him at the place he hath so abused Ninthly and lastly We command you to give us an account every year the second of January of the performance of these our commands Subscribed at Dorchester I. R. Bishop of Winchester to his Archdeacon to the same effect SAlutem iu Christo I have received Letters from the most Reverend Father in God the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury the tenor whereof foloweth Right reverend Father in God my very good Lord and brother I have received from the Kings most excellent Majesty a Letter the tenor whereof here ensueth Most reverend Father in God right trusty and right entirely beloved Councellor we greet you well For as much as the abuses and extravagancies of Preachers in the Pulpit have been c. According to the tenor of these Letters you are to see that these limitations and cautions herewith sent unto you be duly and strictly from henceforth observed and put in practice and that several Copies of those Directions be speedily communicated to every one of those whom they shall concern and that you may imploy your uttermost endeavors in the performance of so important a business considering that his Majesty will have a special eye over you and me and expect a strict accompt at both our hands whereof praying you to have all possible care I commend your endeavours therein to the blessing of God Your very loving friend Lan. Winton From Farnham Aug. 15. 1622. The Bishop of Lincoln L. Keeper to the Bishop of London concerning Preaching and Catechising My very good Lord I Doubt not before this time you have received from me the directions of his most excellent Majesty concerning Preaching and Preachers which are so graciously set down that no godly or discreet man can otherwise then acknowledge that they do much tend to edification if he take them not up upon report but do punctually consider the tenor of the words as they lie and doth not give an ill construction to that which may receive a fair interpretation Notwithstanding because some few Church-men and many of the people have sinisterly conceived as we here find that those Instructions do tend to the restraint of the exercise of Preaching and do in some sort abate the number of Sermons and so consequently by degrees do make a breach to ignorance and superstition his Majesty in his Princely wisdom hath thought fit that I should advertise your Lordship of the grave and weighty reasons which induced his Highness to prescribe that which was done You are therefore to know that his Majesty being much troubled and grieved at the heart to hear every day of so many defections from our Religion both to Popery and Anabaptism or other points of Separation in some parts of this Kingdom and considering with much admiration what might be the cause thereof especially in the reign of such a King who doth so constantly profess himself an open adversary to the superstition of the one and madness of the other his Princely wisdom could fall upon no one greater probability then the lightness affectedness and unprofitableness of that kind of Preaching which hath been of late years too much taken up in Court University City and Country The usuall scope of very many Preachers is noted to be soaring up in points of Divinity too deep for the capacity of the people or mustering up of so much reading or a displaying of their own wit or an ignorant medling with Civill matters as well in the private severall Parishes and Corporations as in the publique of the Kingdom or a venting of their own distastes or a smoothing up those idle fancies which when the Text shall occasion the same is not onely approved but much commended by his Royall Majesty both against the persons of Papists and Puritans Now the people bred up with this kind of teaching and never instructed in the Catechism and fundamentall grounds of Religion are for all this airy nourishment no better then a brass Tabret new Table-books to be filled up either with Manuals and Catechismes of the Popish Priests or the papers and pamphlets of Anabaptists Brownists and Puritans His Majesty therefore calling to mind the saying of Tertullian Id verum quod primum and remembring with what doctrine the Church of England in her first and most happy Reformation did drive out the one and keep out the other from poysoning and infecting the people of this Kingdom doth find that the whole scope of this doctrine is contained in the Articles of Religion the two books of Homilies the lesser and the greater Catechism which his Majesty doth therefore recommend again in these Directions as the theams and proper subjects of all sound and edifying preaching And so far are these Directions from abridging that his Majesty doth expect at our hands that it should increase the number of Sermons by renewing every Sunday in the afternoon in all parish-Parish-Churches throughout the Kingdom that primitive and most profitable exposition of the
French Lady though as zealous a Catholique doth not please him for they were tyed to Spain by their hopes of a change of Religion that way All the Priests are sent from the Spanish Dominions and the sons and daughters of the Papists remain as hostages of their fidelities in the Colledges and Nunneries of the King of Spain And though the Papists have no place in the house of Commons yet privately they aggravate all scandals against the Duke to kindle a separation between the King and his people and avert them from enabling the King to resist or be avenged of our great enemy Remember the course held by these men in the Parliament of undertakers also Dr. Eglesham and all the Priests daily practice libelling against all great men about the King 4. Needy and indebted persons in both Houses who endeavour by these Parliamentary stirres not so much the Dukes overthrow as a rebellion which they hope will follow if it be not done This is much to be suspected as well by their Calumniations against his Majestie as for their own wants many of them being outlawed and not able to shew their heads but in Parliament time by priviledge thereof and they know that there are enough to follow them in the same mischief 5. Puritans and all other Sectaries who though scarce two of them agree in what they would have yet they all in general are haters of Government They begun in Parliament about Anno 23. Eliz. and spit their venom not only against the Bishops but also against the Lord Chancellour Hatton and others the Queens favourites and Councellours as they do now against the Clergie and the Duke But their main discontentment is against the Kings Government which they would have extinguished in matters Ecclesiastical and limited in Temporal This is a fearful and important Consideration because it pretends Conscience and Religion and they now more deadly hate the Duke because he sheweth himself to be no Puritan as they hoped he would at his return from Spain 6. Malecontents censured or decourted for their deserts as the kindred and dependants of the Earl of Suffolk and of Sir Henry Yelverton Coke Lake Middlesex though all of them the last excepted were dejected by King James without any Concurrencie of the Duke Others because they are not preferred as they do imagine that they deserve as the Lord Say Earl of Clare Sir John Eliot Selden and Glanvile Sir Dudley Diggs and the Bishops of Norwich and Lincoln These and many others according to the nature of envy look upon every one with an evil eye especially upon the Duke who either hath or doth not prefer them to those places or retain them in them which their ambition expecteth 7. Lawyers in general for that as Sir Edward Cook could not but often expresse our Kings have upholden the power of their Prerogatives and the rights of the Clergie whereby their comings in have been abated And therefore the Lawyers are fit ever in Parliaments to second any Complaint against both Church and King and all his servants with their Cases Antiquities Records Statutes Presidents and Stories But they cannot or will not call to mind that never any Nobleman in favour with his Soveraign was questioned in Parliament except by the King himself in case of Treason or unlesse it were in the nonage and tumultuous times of Rich. 2. Hen. 6. or Edw. 6. which happened to the destruction both of the King and Kingdom And that not to exceed our own and Fathers memories in King Hen. 8. time Wolsies exorbitant power and pride and Cromwels contempt of the Nobility and the Lawes were not yet permitted to be discussed in Parliament though they were most odious and grievous to all the Kingdom And that Leicester's undeserved favour and faults Hatton's insufficiency and Rawleigh's insolence far exceeded what yet hath been though most falsly objected against the Duke yet no Lawyer durst abet nor any man else begin any Invectives against them in Parliament 8. The Merchants and Citizens of London convinced not by the Duke but by Cranfield and Ingram to have deceived the King of Imposts and Customs and deservedly fearing to be called to accompt for undoing all the other Cities and good Towns and the poor Colonie of Virginia as also for transporting of our silver into the East-Indies these vent their malice upon the Duke in the Exchange Pauls Westminster-Hall with their suggestions and therein they wound both to Subjects and strangers the honour of his Majestie and his proceedings 9. Innovators Plebicolae and King-haters At the latter end of Queen Elizabeth it was a phrase to speak yea to pray for the Queen and State This word State was learned by our neighbourhood and Commerce with the Low-Countries as if we were or affected to be governed by States This the Queen saw and hated And the old Earl of Oxford his Propositions at her death they awakened King James to prevent this humour and to oppose the conditions and limitations presented unto him by the Parliaments The Lawyers Citizens and Western men who are most hot infected with Puritanisme stood strong against him under a colour of Parliaments and Parliamentary priviledges His Majestie therefore strengthened himself ever with some Favourite as whom he might better trust then many of the Nobility tainted with this desire of Oligarchie It behoveth without doubt his Majestie to uphold the Duke against them who if he be but decourted it will be the Corner stone on which the demolishing of his Monarchie will be builded For if they prevail with this they have hatched a thousand other demands to pull the feathers of the Royalty they will appoint him Councellours Servants Alliances Limits of his expences Accompts of his Revenue chiefly if they can as they mainly desire they will now dazle him in the beginning of his reign 10. King James and King Charles lastly are the Dukes Accusers my meaning is with all humble reverence to their Honours and Memories and to speak in the sence of the House of Commons both their Majesties are Conjuncta Persona in all the aspersions that are laid upon the Duke For instance The Parliaments money destined for the Wars spent in the Treaties Messages Embassadours and Entertainments of the Kings marriage and the burial of his Father and the War in the name of the Count Palatine the Breach of both the Treaties which then Canonized the Duke but now is made evidence against him the Honours and Offices conferred upon him by King James That his Majestie might with his own Councels direct their managing the setting forth of the Navy though to the Duke 's great charge by both their Commandments the Match with France and generally whatsoever hath not been successeful to mens expectations All these though the Acts of the Kings are imputed to the Duke who if he suffer for obeying his Soveraigns the next attempt will be to call the King to accompt for any thing he undertakes which doth not
Catechism wherewith the people yea very children may be timely seasoned and instructed in all the heads of Christian Religion The which kind of exposition to our amendment be it spoken is more diligently observed in all the Reformed Churches of Europe then of late it hath been here in England I find his Majesty much moved with this neglect and resolved if we that are Bishops do not see a reformation thereof which I trust we shall to recommend to the care of the Civil Magistrate so far is his Highness from giving the least discouragement to solid preaching or discreet and religious Preachers To all these I am to add That it is his Majesties Princely pleasure that both the former Directions and those reasons of the same be fairly written in every Registers Office to the end that every Preacher of what denomination soever may if he be so pleased take out Copies of either of them with his own hand gratis passing nothing in the name of fee or expedition But if he do use the pains of the Register or the Clerk then to pay some moderate Fee to be pronounced in open Court by the Chancellor and Commissaries of the place taking the direction and approbation of my Lords the Bishops Lastly That from henceforward a course may be taken that every Parson Vicar Curate or Lecturer do make and exhibit an account for the performance of these his Majesties directions and the reasons for the same at the ensuing Visitation of the Bishops and Archdeacons paying to the Register 6 d. for the exhibiting And so wishing but withall in his Majesties name requiring your Lordship to have a special and extraordinary care of the premisses I leave you to the Almighty Your very loving friend J. Lincoln C.S. Septemb. 3. 1622. Instructions for the Ministers and Church-Wardens of London Jan. 28. 1622. 1. THat his Majesties declaration published Anno Dom. 1628. before the Articles of Religion for settling all questions in difference be strictly observed 2. That speciall care be had concerning Lectures in every Parish 3. That the Minister and Church wardens in every parish or one of them do by writing under his or their owne hands certifie unto the Arch-Deacon of London or his official at or before the 28 of this present January and afterwards at or before every visitation the Christian and Sirnames of every Lecturer in their parishes and the place where he preacheth whether exempt or not exempt together with his quality or degree 4. That they doe in like manner certifie the names of such men as being not qualified by Law do keep Chaplains in their houses 5. That they do further certifie the names of all such as absent themselves from or are negligent in coming to divine service as wel Prayers as Catechising and Sermons 6. That the Minister and Church-Wardens of every Parish successively doe keep a severall Copy of those Instructions by them whereby they may be the better informed of their duty and that the said Copies be shewed at every visitation when they shall present all such persons as have disobeyed these instructions that according to his Majesties pleasure such as do conforme may be encouraged and such as are refractory may be punished Subscribed Tho. Paske Arch-Deacon of London Monsieur Bevayr Chancellour of France discharged to the French King LO Sir I willingly resign into your hands the charge with which you were pleased to honour me and with the same Countenance that I received it without seeking for it I leave it without grieving for it the Law had sufficiently taught me to obey your Majesty so that I needed not to have been sent for by a Captain of the Guard and twenty Archers violence should only be used against those that resist and not against me that know how to obey and that have ever esteemed this honour a heavy burden rather then a dignity which yet I had accepted for the good of your service because every able man owes his cares and his years to the publick good and because it had been a shame for me to refuse to die with the stern in my hand being able to binder or at the least delay the shipwrack that threatens us God grant Sir that I be the greatest loser in this disfavour and that you and your state be the least touched in it This accident hath not taken me on the suddaine having ever well foreseen that as I followed as much as I could the integrity and vertues of Monsieur de Villeroy and the President Janin so I ought to expect the like fortune to theirs your commandment in this agrees with the choice my self had made if I had been at full liberty for I love a great deal better to be companion in their disgraces if I ought so to stile the being disburthened of affaires then to be imployed in the managing the State with them that there remaine since I might in time have taken an ill day by the Company of such people to whom I no whit envy the increase of authority which is given them at my cost for I have not used to give accompt of my actions every morning by stealth neither will I be prescribed what I ought to doe if the States good and reason doe not counsell me unto it This is much more honourable for me then to have betrayed your Majesty in sealing a discharge to an accomptant of 80000 pound in the great poverty of the Treasury and that to further the good of a man that blushes not besides this to demand the Dutchy of Alanson by way of mortgage which is the portion of the Kings Sons and to pretend to the office of Constable which the late Kings will expresly was should be suppressed after the death of the late Lord Monmorency Think not Sir that in not giving my consent to this I desired to oppose my self against your Authority I know well that that hath no bounds but those of your wil but yet are you bound to rule your self according to reason and to follow the Counsel of those which have entred into the managing of the State by the choice which the late King had made of them as being more able to give it you then certain new comers drawn out of the dregs of businesse and of the people This exchange which is made of us for them is the trick of the Wolves to the Sheepe when they tooke their dogs from them doth not your Majesty perceive it or dare you not redresse it for fear of disobedience Sir you owe obedience by nature to those that preach it to you but they themselves owe it you both by divine and humane right and though you should yeild them lesse they have given you but too many examples so to doe Remember if it please you that you are past fifteen years old and Kings are of age at fourteen Isaac followed Abraham his Father to be sacrificed because he was not old enough to fear any thing I believe